Lunar: Silver Star Story (Lunar Remastered Collection) (Switch)

 

I mean, look at the helmet!

A remaster of the first game in the Lunar-series. Originally for the Sega CD (and was released on the Sega Mega Drive Mini II in Japan, but due to disagreement on payment it didn't follow with the western releases), later ported for Playstation 1 and Sega Saturn and then remade for the modern consoles. Fun with some old-school JRPG. Tells the story of Alex that wants to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Dyne the Dragonmaster. Together with Luna sets out on an adventure, first helping their friend Remus get a diamond from the White Dragon that lives in a cave near by and then taking it to the closest town to sell it. The story balloon from there where you meet Jessica, the daughter of the beastman hero Mel and her on and off boyfriend Kyle the bandit. You also meet Nash that takes you to Vane, the town of magicians. There you meet Mia and are set out to look into the fake Dragonmaster... and then it turns out that the magicians leader have been usurped by an imposter that have you arrested. Mia breaks you out and you unveils this conspiracy. Ghaleon, one of the four heroes joins you towards the white dragon to ask for help.

Well, turns out Ghaleon is the real mastermind behind it and captures the white dragon, kidnaps Luna (over the course of the game singers have been kidnapped so one would assume that's why they got Luna since her singing have magical effects). Alex is saved from the cave by Laike, a friend Alex and Luna met while leaving their town of Burg. Setting off with the other friends Alex looks to complete the trails set by the other dragons in order to become the Dragonmaster and stop Ghaleon. Turns out that Luna is the reincarnated goddess Althena who gave up her life to ensure that humans had free will and stood on their own legs and didn't depend on her. Ghaleon was a bit more cynical and believed humans needed a strong leader and if Althena wouldn't do it he was the one to carry the mantle. And Laike is Dyna and the world is probably our moon and the blue star they have as a moon is probably our earth they escaped from in ancient times when humans almost destroyed themselves. 

It's a standard JRPG, I think they modeled it after Final Fantasy IV since Alex turning into the Dragonmaster feels like Cecil becoming a paladin. Nash betrays you like Kain and Ghaleons armor looks  a bit like Gobbels. And their is 5 playable characters at the most! Well, it was fun. One town was the frontier town of Pao where people got sick as the evil songstress sang a song. I think that part is inspired by the Song of Hiawatha or one of the stories based on Hiawatha's life since after watching the feature on Disney's Pocahontas where they described how they tried to adopt it since Walt Disney's days (beside the kid Hiawatha short that spanned a lot of comics) and then ended with Pocahontas... would have preferred the supernatural Hiawatha than Pocahontas to be honest.

It was fun. Music was good and the remastered wide-screen graphics looks good. They have a lot of animated scenes introducing characters and pivotal moments in the story and they due their job, but at times the designs feel a bit generic... and the Dragonmaster armor looks kinda goofy. What is that helmet? It's just a cap! Voice acted and I get it's a new dub to avoid the problems the Sega Mega Drive Mini II had. The ending focused a lot on Alex and Luna's love for each other's and it's sappy, but I'm weak for this romantic moments. As Alex said, the human spirit will prevail. And for future me, remember that when you get into the thieves guild to return and get the locked chests since when I recalled it in this playthrough, two of them was locked out.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES Classic Edition)

Always loved this sword.

So I'm waiting on Dragon Quest III: 2D-HD Remake to be released in November 2024 so I prefer playing shorter easier games and the NES is perfect for it so played through Zelda II again on the NES Classic Edition. So long I got a save state function I can fix it meaning the last versions I have on the Wii Virtual Console and Zelda Game & Watch I probably won't be able to finish. I can probably get to the great palace, but since extra lives don't stack I've have a hard time both getting there as well as getting through the palace with the jumping chozo warriors they seem to populate the palace with. And the damn Thunderbird ain't no pushover either.

Up until that point it's a great game, the only other faults of the game would be finding the hidden town and realizing the flute open the way to the hidden palace. Otherwise everything works rather well. Went and got the magic jar and the first heart container as well as the jump spell without the candle, being the only sequence break I could do. It's a very linear game really since there's hardly any point going different palaces since you need the things in them up until the next palace, and going in there to snatch items and go to a different palace feels rather redundant.

I still find the game fun to play, but get a guide with maps for palace 4-6 and the great palace. I finished the game below 6 hours and with only 007 continues. Fun number, but I find the time interesting since I feel like as a kid I could spend 5 hours before even entering the first palace.

Tintin Reporter: Cigars of the Pharao (Switch)

 

First proper Tintin Adventure!

Saw the teaser for this game on a Nintendo Direct and just had to get it, you know how much I like Tintin. I preordered the Limited Edition and then just waited. Took forever for them to release it on the Switch, so much that the physical was delayed for me since it couldn't be shipped until a couple of days after it was supposed to arrive. And in the meantime I heard some not good news about it. Apparently a mobile game they spruced up and upon release on consoles before the Switch it didn't work properly all the time. So I had lowered expectation going in.

Putting it in the first thing I hear is the theme from the 90's animated series and I just have a big smile on my face. And then the game starts, and it's album accurate in that it begins on the cruise as Tintin chase after a papyrus that this Egyptologist lost. And they just threw you out there without explaining the controls for the Quick-Time Events. And they just went on and on. I was not happy. Bad impression. It gets better after you left the ship escaping the Duponts and all that. The tomb of Kih-Oskh was a real highlight with just great amount of puzzles. A bit many stealth sequences overall that can go on my nerves followed by chase scenes in the rest of the game. Story is that on a cruise toward Shanghai Tintin gets roped into looking for a lost tomb of the pharao Kih-Oskh which turns out to be the headquarters for an opium smuggling operation. Tintin follows the lead toward India and helps a Maharadja stop the smugglers from extorting his people. All the while Tintin is hunted by the Duponts since the smugglers have implicated him as an opium dealer.

Overall a mixed bag. I enjoy it since it Tintin, but if I didn't know anything about it, it would have made for a irritating game to play through, and I wonder if some of the things you were supposed to do only works by reading the comics first. At times though it feel better paced out story wise since I can see and get the hints of the different smugglers. Mostly since we have more time with them. Graphics wise, they look like what they should look like, but I can see that the game hardly can work at times, throwing in textures a bit to late, first scene with Snowy really didn't work. Also, Tintin looks rather worse than other characters, Rastapopoulos probably looks the best for some reason. The game also crashed on me once while playing and the last Snowy sequence was a nightmare in trying to find your way around a mountain getting the final stone to push. Maybe they will follow it up with Blue Lotus, but I can understand if there's no follow up on this series. 

Civilization VI (Switch) Revisit

 

And Atlas shrugged! (Don't know if it said in the book since I've never read it, Objectionist theories never really vibed with me)

Decided to revisit the game in the wait for the new Zelda game, Echoes of Wisdom. And I got all the DLC and such so it would be fun to try it out... and they just released the news that Civilization VII is on their way. So perfect time to try out to see what it is like if I would try the next game.

I tried starting the huge world map with fixed starting points and marathon mode. Slow as hell, each turn took a minute to load and such. Started as Japan and thought it would be rather easy as you where on an island. Worked fine until 2 barbarians galleys showed up and wrecked my fishing industries. So I restarted with the standard Earth without fixed starting points so suddenly the empire of Japan starts in the north of Italy.

Still a bit slow so I had to google up what one could do, so I limited the autosave and took away animations and such. Wished I could get still pictures of the other leaders, but hey, it worked a lot better, even if it's still a lesson in patience. So I began conquering most of Europe and from Spain bridged into Marocco and then Arabia lost control of one city that wanted to belong to me. And then I used my military might to conquer other cities that have rebelled so I had a bridge from Turkey to India. Meanwhile I sent settlers to Australia and from there taking every island I could get my hand of. I only lost one city which was Tokyo that I settled on Cuba, but they rebelled and went to Poland that had all of North America. 

In the end I was able to snag a diplomatic victory by paying 5000 gold to each civilisation that had an emergency which if you win grants you two points. I think the final point came from an olympic event after I put every city on getting champions. My enemies tried to negate it by voting for me to loose 2 point every Session of the World Governments, but they should have fixed their environmental problems and stop Global Warming... I guess this is the reason it's seen as "woke" by some groups on the internet. Still, I won on prince level without cheating... except when I reloaded a save before I declared war on Mongolia in protection of a city state and I got wrecked. Lesson learned, don't care about the smaller states unless you have a very big army.

Tried the huge world map with the fixed starting points so it worked a lot better. Sadly the volcano near Kyoto erupted 5 times within something like 10-15 turns so that was a very big problem for me. Overall it was fun getting into again. Took me a bit, but when I got into how to micromanage cities and such it became a very interesting game. But I might not feel like everything works fine, for example districts and that is mostly due to my inability to get rid of ones that doesn't work or is standing on precious resources. I had two damn oil fields being locked out as districts was on them. I mean, how was I supposed to know in the Middle Ages that my harbor in Scotland or Entertainment District in the Sahara would end up on oil fields in the modern era? Lucky two others was accessible, but that was on my new Australia colony. I think I lost another resource in the Ruhr Area, but I never understood what it was.

Overall, still fun all these years later. Will I be getting VII when it releases? Probably not, the Switch hardly can manage this game and no offence to the actress being the narrator, but I don't have the same relation to her as Leonard Nemoy or Sean Bean. Although Leonard Nemoy is still the better choice.  Lucky Zelda stopped me doing just one more turn.

Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club (Switch)

 

Do you wanna know how I got these scars?

Well, that went fast to get a new game in the series. And they are over 18 this time, boy I was on the money! Feeling less of the supernatural in this one, but it is a murder mystery at least. You're back in the Usagi Detective Agency. The MC, Ayumi and Usagi are investigating a recent murder with connects back to murders that happened 18 years back where school girls ended up strangled with a paper bag on their face with a smile on. The game is rather nice in just picking up my name from the saves from the older games so that saved me 1 minute in putting it in.

It gets creepy, it gets heavy. I enjoyed it. I've been just trying options at times to move forward, but I've played old point and click-games so it isn't something new for me. And at times the options gets a bit hard to understand what I'm doing. Talking to Junko Kuze, the officer put on the case it took me a hot minute in getting past her first question. Reading up there is interesting interaction and funny dialoge that one can get so there is a replayability aspect of it. And you're graded by a teacher character at the end for each chapter. Middle of the road for my evaluation. Not great, but not bad.

So to the story, spoilers beware. So a student is found strangled with some sort of cord at a pump station. He wears a paper bag with a scribbled smile on linking it toward three murders 18 years earlier. The Usagi Detective Agency is contacted, especially since Usagi himself was involved in the original case. The MC and Ayumi begin looking into it. Their are similarities with the earlier murders, like the bag is made of the same manufacturer as murder 2 and 3, but there are differences, like the victim is a boy this time with stumps our detectives. Ayumi meets up with an old friend that works as a teacher at the school. Don't like that guy, he gives me bad vibes, like always so close up and personal with everyone (no personal space there) and they point it out. Maybe bad feelings from the last game, but I suspected him a lot and I believe the game cheats on that since his smile sometimes seems to align with the smile on the paper bags (or that is my mind trying to frame him), or it could be that he seems to hit on Ayumi and that threatens the relationship with the MC... that is me.

He is involved, but not in the murder directly. A girl that knew the victim had fallen in love with the teacher and as he tried to steer her away, she had a fall out with the victim. And it's around here I start piece it together. Cause detective Kuze gets a visit from the Smiling Man and while in her apartment the MC find a tie that Ayumi then can confirm is the same as used in the school (thanks to the teacher I have to admit). With it was also a letter. MC doesn't look at the letter, but then it clicked, especially since I learned that Junko had a motorcycle and one was spotted near the crime scene. Her brother had also been gone for 18 years and after he disappeared no more Smiling Man killings. The boy was only 9 so he wasn't the murder, but I connected the dots. 

Obviously the male victim, wasn't murdered, but a suicide due to being crushed by falling grades and an unresponsive love. Junko Kuze found him by the road, but staged it as a Smiling man killing in order to provoke a response by Emio so that she could get closure on her brother. I figured all that out on my own! Of curse, that doesn't explain the Smiling man murders. No, that I followed with the game to the end, second-guessing my thoughts. I knew Junko's brother couldn't have been the murderer, but he seemed to still be alive, but with the name of a missing person that was of interest for the police 18 years ago, but I met a couple that knew that person back in the day and day swear on his sweet nature. So I was conflicted, but in the end is able to track the person to a lost village in the mountains, where I meet Junko Kuze that seemed to have followed the same lead as I and she tells me to quit the investigation. Here I was just gonna save the game, but I wondered over the command since it says "save/quit investigation" and for the one time in the game, it does that and the MC decides to leave. What kinda mind screw is that?

Well, two gunshots later MC returns and find Junko with blood on her standing above a dead body. As MC grabs his phone Junko pulls her revolver on him and spill the story (that I already figured out) and that her brother is still alive, having killed the Smiling man that threatened Junko and she now tries to protect him and the MC is the loose thread in this plan. But she can't do it and breaks down crying and then her brother shows up with a bloody machete ready to kill the MC, screen turns white and a gun shot is heard. And then you're back at the agency while Ayumi is back from the hospital where Junko's brother is after being shot by another detective that helped you in the investigation. Usagi returns from a trip uncovering the origins of the Smiling man legend and takes Ayumi out to lunch leaving me taking a phone call with the officer that saved me. No respect I say. Small scene revealing that Junko and the other detective got married and helps her brother regain himself. And then credits roll... wait, what happened with the Smiling man origin?

Well, turns out that Nintendo pushed that into an epilogue where you play through two scenes as Usagi questioning two villagers from where Emio came from, and then you watch a 30 minute animated movie about how it happened, how Emio grew up with his sister in an abusive family where they got beaten by their father, one day the sister drowns in a pond while trying to retrieve her things that the father threw in it which pushes Emio over the edge so he kills his father and is sent to juvenile detention. He gets released, moves to the city, meets a girl that also have an abusive father. After her father hit her one night, Emio cheers her up with a paper bag he cheered his sister with, and proceed to kill the girls father, which she isn't happy with either so he kills her as well, and then two other girls, a third girl escapes by laughing at him. Meanwhile he have given himself a permanent smile with some metal sheers (think the Joker in the Dark Knight). And then meeting Junko as a child and the scuffle with her brother that makes the brother get amnesia and triggering some sort of guilt feelings since the brother tried to protect Junko like Emio tried to protect his sister. And then he takes care of the boy for 18 years, no further murder until the game begins happening (well, he isn't able to kill anyone, not for lack of trying). That's really heavy, and I just saw season 3 of Young Justice where they have an episode about domestic abuse as well. Jesus!

It was an enjoyable game, it had tensions at times and it made me feel smarts so that is a plus. Not enough supernatural things sadly. The ending for the second game still the best ending just for the sheer WTF. The game is a lot more animated than the two remakes, shocker I know, and has several scenes that is just storytelling, Mostly Junko scenes. I hope they continue this series cause I like the main trio and it was fun playing as Ayumi as well.  And Usagi even if it was for two scenes in the epilogue.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age (Wii U)

 

Where's my continuation?

Finished off the second game again and the feeling of melancholy have appeared for finishing it up. Played it very slow compared to the last time. Last time I only put in 28 hours, 41 levels and missed 2 djinn and didn't get the last summons. Don't know why, but fixed it this time. Played it on Hard as well, mostly larger HP on the enemies I gathered. No problem until the end when I fought Dullahahn, which beat me every time so I had probably to grind for another 10 levels to be able to survive his attacks while dealing with the 200 regeneration he has. A bit easier on the old cart where I see that I had level 87 and played for 136 hours. Have I said this is my favourite game series? It has to be when a 30 hours game is played for 136 hours. Not as long as Tears of the Kingdom, but I only played that once. 

Played the game using the class items you get and while the first game actually gave me an enhanced experience since it made it easier with growth and such, here changing away from the basic classes actually was a hindrance where I constantly had to turn of the items and djinn to get Frost or Whirlwind, not until the second team showed up did it improve (and that was often due to their psynergy items that permanently gave you douse and Frost), but the final classes was awesome. At that point grinding for items worked really fine when I had all attack djinn put on the main party and diversified over all four meaning I could constantly hit them. And with Petra and Ground you could crowd control most encounters. And most late end bosses was really easy with a combo of those two and summon rush. Dullahan the only one that could handle it. Also went out of my way (which may explain some of the extra hours) to go to Air's Rock before Yampi Desert. Maybe would try to get the angry Kraden scene if I play again where you said no to everything and wanting to skip Lemuria gets Kraden so mad.

So, in a hypothetical remake, what would I want to see? Get rid of the RNG-blacksmith mechanic or let more enemies drop materials for Sunshine. I also realised again it was strange that people from the first game didn't have portraits there, but gained them here, so sync that up. A mini-map would be nice since the guide wasn't all that helpful at times since they didn't have a room in Ankhol ruins which put me on a loop which I couldn't get past. More funny is that I noticed they had missed a vial in Air's Rock as well. 

Still love the game. It has the emotional pay-off for a 60 hour game (both games combined) and cliffhanger in the end that really interesting. Sadly they didn't explain it in the 3rd game. Also, there was a lot of things they could have explored in a future game, the fighting between Hisperia and Atteka, Alhafra's greedy mayor and what happened to Prox after the Golden Sun event? Still, nice seeing it on the big screen, can't say the same for the next game, Dark Dawn since they never released it on the Virtual Console. A travesty I say!

Ocean's Heart (Switch)

 

Looks like the opening to Breath of the Wild

Midsummer 2024 have passed and right before I got this game on a sale. I saved it to my Wishlist thinking it was part of the Oceanhorn games, which wasn't the case. I mean, it had a blue clothed blond hero in a legend of Zelda template off a game with Ocean in the name? It wasn't, but it was a fine game. It start on an island where your character train to be a volounter navy soldier to protect the islands from pirates by her father. Pirates attack and kidnaps Hazel, an herb collector so your father follows so after a couple of months you set out yourself to find your father and Hazel.

So you travel the islands looking for pirates uncovering the story that Blackbeard the pirate is looking for the Ocean's Heart, a magical artefact belonging to Sea King who was destroyed using it since it could cause the destruction of the world. You follow clues until you find Hazel that helps you find the Sea King's Sword that can dispel curses and so on. Then you follow Blackbeard to the ancient palace where you defeat the guardian, get the heart, but Blackbeard steals it and you kill him, destroy the heart and reunites with your dad and Hazel back home.

Simple story, most gameplay is finding items and upgrades that allows you to explore more. Game looks a lot like A Link the Past. With more pirates. Only took a weekend to play through. Not that hard, but some parts of the game design irks me the wrong way. Mostly is that a lot of the dungeons forced me to go back and forth since a key opened an area here, but only brought me to another key that opened a door on the other side of the map. Take Zelda games, I feel the dungeons tend to flow so they brought you back to where you needed the item you get to continue forward. Also, the game gets some real slowdowns at times and when it goes away the main character speed up dramatically (or so it feels). 

Overall, nice enough game.

Golden Sun: The Broken Seal (Wii U)

 

Finally!

Difficulties at work made me crave some nostalgic feelings and maybe it was time to replay the game I once called the best game ever. Especially since it was 6 years since last as of writing. So no story or such since I already covered that in depth. I think I played it on the Wii U last time, but since I didn't have a decent TV I think I used the Wii U gamepad and I gotta say, playing on a big screen with a Wii U Pro Controller felt rather well. Only problem with it I would liked to have utilised more of the buttons, but that is due to the Game Boy Advance controllers. 

So what did I do to spice it up? I decided to change my classes beyond the mono-elemental one I usually do. In the first game it doesn't work that well until you get 6 djinn of each element to gain some interesting combos. So I picked up my Prima Guide and had it beside me during the whole game. Then I began noticing certain things. For example giving Ivan Flint in the beginning and defeating the three thieves makes the game give you back Flint so that you won't miss him... even if it only is really a few minutes. It actually made it easier in most parts since I didn't have to think about growth psynergy or such since I already had it.

Then it was the artefact weapons and armor. Most of them in the early game is kinda worthless. The bandit sword is already out paced by the normal weapons you can buy before getting it. What's the point? And that keeps up until something like Altin. I read somewhere someone complaining that they didn't have money so maybe that, but I just played it normally and sold off all Water of Life and other consumables meaning I had enough money for pretty much anything. No problem. Maybe they didn't explore enough.

I also decided to do the game really out of order in my usual style. For example I headed for Imil and Mercury Lighthouse before Kolima Woods. Got my ass beat my Saturnos, so I headed back to Kolima and did that before returning with more djinn and levels. Went a lot easier. I forgot that I should have skipped the Force Orb for that special cutscene in the Altin Mines, have to wait for the next playthrough in 2030. Defeated the Cyclone monster in the desert before finishing Colosso, saw another text with Sheba before she left Tolbi which I haven't seen before. Read also that you could see the colors of the stones in Altmiller Cave with Reveal which was a cool tidbit. Never knew that since I wrote down what Babi said so I wasn't lost. Speaking about Altmiller Cave I found out that the Prima Guide has an error. The guide says that the Dragon Shield is in the cave, but it is in Altin Mine. Think it was a vial there, but they probably confused the vial with the Mystic Draught. Went through the Babi Lighthouse section and headed out so I could finish off Crossbone Island. I actually went back there as quickly I had the appropriate psynergy. Still, Carry is the final one and that is in Venus Lighthouse. After that I killed Dreadbeard at level 28, started up my old save that was for level grinding so I had 42 and grinded to 44 so that Ivan had the Tornado psynergy and then I beat the game and is prepared for the next game.

Overall I fell in love with the game again. The Music, the graphics and the story just makes me happy. So since there is probably no reason for them to release Golden Sun 4 at the moment the best I can hope for is probably some kinda remake. Best option would be the first 2 games remade into one. Would I change somethings? I would prefer if running was the default, more buttons to use and maybe some tweaks so that early weapons actually is useful. The main characters don't default to defend if the target dies before a strike. A bestiary and maybe some added content. If both games are combines I would gladly take a New Game+ where the levels just continues so that you can grind to lvl 99 and max all stats. Another thing is maybe add a store or such that actually sells something like Oil Drops or Weasel Claws so that you can use different play styles. They can also put in a growth psynergy to Isaac like they did for Matthew. And more inventory space. There's like 5 open spaces when you are decked out with weapons, armor, accessories and psynergy items. I would enjoy that, but question if I still would bitch about the game straying from the pure original.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion (Switch)

To the promised land

So as of writing everyone else is playing and talking about Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth which made me get some cravings to return to that world, but since I don't have a Playstation 5 or a decent computer I had to go to the only option left without replaying the original game, and that is playing the remake of the PSP prequel that I have had on a shelf for 2 years. 

So that's what I did. It starts like the original Final Fantasy VII, on a train inbound to a Mako reactor and a soldier jumping of at the station fighting Shrinra soldiers. In this game you play as Zack Fair, the guy Cloud impersonated in the original game and Aeriths boyfriend to be. It's a simulation of a Wutai attack where they have taken uniforms from Shinra and you are supposed to stop them before they blow up the reactor. Here you meet your instructor Angeal. The training is cut short when Zack gets beaten up by Sephiroth. Then it's off to Wutai as the war is still going on and you encounter Yuffie before fighting the boss, but afterwards Angeal disappears. And then you are sent out to look into his hometown with the Turk leader Tseng that Sephiroth kills in the temple with the black materia. There it is revealed that Angeal and another of the super SOLDIERS Genesis came from the same village and that Genesis have, for some reason sprouted wings like Sephiroth in his final form.

After that it gets to stop several attacks by Genesis that works with a scientist called Hollander that wants revenge when Hojo took his promotion so to speak. It culminates with Zack killing Angeal and capturing Hollander, who is rescued by what it seems to be the director of SOLDIER that have been financing Hollander. For revenge it is stated, but revenge for what isn't really stated I get, unless I missed it by not playing through all missions (I stopped at around 50%). Meanwhile Zack met Aerith and Cloud and after giving Aerith the idea to sell flowers Cload and Zack heds for Nibelheim and pretty much reenacts that parts of the Final Fantasy VII story, but without Cloud being centre stage. Sephiroth goes insane, burns down the village and Cloud is the one that finally offs him from the reactor. Zack and Cloud gets captured by Hojo that experiments on them, Zack escapes and brings Cloud with them, They get help from one of Zacks friends in the Turks, a girl I haven't seen before. After a run around Zack faces of Genesis in the bombed out village Angeal and him came from so defeating him it pretty much returns to what I known before. They reach the outskirts of Midgar, but the Shinra army catches up with them. Zack makes a last stand killing them all, but dies from his wounds, giving the buster sword to Cloud. And it ends with Aerith selling her flowers and a train pulling up near the Mako reactor with Cloud atop it. The game bookending it self and straight up tells us that the story continues in Final Fantasy VII.

Gameplay wise it's more of an action RPG. You equip up to three accessories and six materia that gives you different attacks and enhances stats or effects. Like the original the materia levels up, but I assume it's random like the normal level ups. You have a three wheeled spinner that constantly spin and if you get 777 you get a level up, I think 444 is materia level up. At times you can get three characters and it will give you a special attack and might trigger a summon that also have to align on the wheel. Sceptical in the beginning, but as soon I learned that the level ups isn't completely random (the more monster you kills, the higher a hidden EXP value goes and the possibility for a guaranteed 777 goes up). Feels a lot better than a certain game that also talked about randomness in their level ups.

Overall, I found it enjoyable. The music when they hint at the original songs are great, it's fun seeing locals and people you recognise from the original game, but I quickly realised that people I didn't recognised would probably die. Imagine my surprise that the girl Turk seemed to survive. When I got used to the gameplay it was rather ok. Would have preferred more JRPG elements to be honest, and I expected at least one more materia slot. Never got the idea around materia combining so never bothered. Only took me something like 30 hours and the game ends on a new game+ save so I can replay it with levels and most equipment intact. I guess I have to redo all the missions, but since I was level 50 and with some mastered materia it would be a piece of cake to get back, if a bit tiresome at some enemies. Got craving to play the remakes of Final Fantasy VII, hopefully they release them for the Switch 2 or something (unless it's a freaking cloud version).

Update 2025-04-28: And my prayer's were answered, but the monkey's paw curled its finger with the invention of Game Key Cards. At least it isn't a cloud version, right?

Princess Peach: Showtime! (Switch)

 

All the worlds a stage!

Newest Princess Peach game and a short game at that. My niece got it as well when she turned 8 and seemed to like it. At that time I still hadn't picked up my copy which I did the day after. Got to play it a week after when I finished up the Dragon Quest Monster game.

So the story is that Peach wanted to go to the theater, but after arriving a body-less "sorceress" named Madam Grape and the Sour bunch seals of the the theater with Peach and a lot of locals called Sparklas (I think). So she has to go through each play to get 10 different costumes that allows her to master different vocations like some bakery chef, a kung fu master, swordsman (or woman in this case), ninja, detective, superhero like Iron Man, a cowgirl, master thief, figure skater and a mermaid... maybe not a vocation, but still?

There's three stages per costume, first you begin with Peach and something like half-way through you get the costume and learns the rope. The second stage you are dressed from the start and the third stage is rescuing the one that the costume was based on. There's 5 floors and a basement and 5 bosses to beat. In every stage there is Sparkle gems to collect and a costume for Peach and her friend for the adventure, Stella. After beating the game you can find hide and seek ninjas in every stage and refight the bosses and try getting sparkle gems from the bosses by clearing some conditions, like take no damage, use minimal of resources and such. Each floor also has a rehearsal stage that allows you to do certain costume segments to get a high score, like Swordsman and Kung Fu Master beating up enemies without taking damage, the master thief gliding and collect jewels during an obstacle course and the superhero rescuing civilians from aliens. 

I did most things and it took something like 24 hours. Only thing left is getting the sparkle gems from the bosses. Two cleared in full, one with one condition left and two where I got to get everything. The gems is then used to buy decorating stuff in the theater. Only one thing left. Final boss is interesting since you "get" a new costume called Radiant Peach which turns the battle into a shoot'em'up. I also get that the joke is that Peach is radiant like a star since she's the star of the game (and in universe the plays). 

You would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love her and despair!

Now, I found it rather enjoyable the time I played it. There where some issues like that the nature of the stages dragged a bit if you replayed them a lot to get everything. You can't skip in-game cutscenes so it drags a bit, the movie like scenes you can skip and you can watch them whenever you like. Wished you could jump around the stages a bit easier. The game also took a long time loading the stages for some reason. And the final nitpick is that the dress costumes you can buy and get. Most of them look the damn same, in that they are white and pink for the most of it. They have different designs, but more colors wouldn't be bad. Really, the most interesting dresses are the bosses since then you get a different color. And the detective costume since it alone is brown to suit the Sherlock Holmes look. 

I heard some people compare it to Balan Wonderworld that have the same costume idea, but I guess it's much less costumes here and it only affects the stages they are in. In Balan I got the impression you choose which costumes to use and that differentiated the game play. Of course I haven't played Balan and with the reviews I will probably never do it. I thought going in that this game would be get the costumes and choose what to use and such. 

Overall, fun game. Feels like it could be in the Paper Mario Universe with the stage feeling and such. Will I play it again? Maybe not, I'm not that interested in playing the bosses until I master the game and there is no reward what I could see for doing it. I wonder if they use this to test certain ideas for games. The super hero one gave me vibes of Wonderful 101 and I would have liked more Kung Fu Master, Master Thief and Detective. I can skip Mermaid and Skater.

The last thing I saw before playing this was that the director is actually the same director who made Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon for the Nintendo 64 and you know I like that game. The ninja stages made me think of that and still wait for the Mystical Ninja collection Konami has to be working on.

Dragon Quest Treasure (Switch)

 

We're gonna have a land of our own, Plutonia!

While writing this it's Monday after the news broke that Akira Toriyama had passed away so I obviously went into some kind of Dragon Quest mode. I thought of replaying XI again, but in 2D the whole way, but I didn't feel for putting in another 100 hours. I got Dragon Quest Monster for the Switch, but then I recalled I had Dragon Quest Treasure which I started when I got it back in 2022, but dropped off after something like 17 hours into the game. So 5 hours later I was finished with the main quest and could call it quits.

Story is a prequel to XI where Erik (the thief from XI) and his sister Mia as kids rescues some strange animals the pirate vikings captured, a flying pig and a flying cat. They show them an island where two daggers exist, the siblings take one dagger each and with it they can understand the creatures that wants the siblings help in order to find the 7 stones so that they can be un-cursed by the gods and return to heaven.

So you begin by finding an abandoned train station that you fix and with the train it take you to the railway headquarters in the middle between the floating islands. You name your island and I chose Plutonia like the song from Albert Bouchards album Imaginos II. Then it's off finding treasures, fight monster, recruit monsters, restore more train stations and find more islands to travel to in search of the seven treasures of the old dragons. There's gangs of treasure hunters fighting you at every turn, big monsters, deep dungeons and an evil pirate captain that stand in your ways. And the treasure you find is all connected to the history of Dragon Quest, either items from the games, characters from the game or things like playing cards from our world. 

It was a fun game really, more hack'n'slash than an rpg, but it works. Still, after getting 4 of the main treasures I just tuned out. The grind got to me. Going place to place wouldn't be so bad if you didn't constantly got a warning after a set amount of time about another rival gang that you either have to fight off or get back to the base so that you can dump your treasures into the vault. But that still isn't enough since then your base can be attacked so you have to fight off the invaders. I just want to explore the islands and take my time! So I probably got a bit burned out. So two years later I just went straight for the final quests to get the 3 remaining treasures and then fought off the pirate captain and watched the credits and then started up the post game and just saved before calling it quits.

It was kinda sad seeing the credits since not only had Toriyama passed away, but this was apparently the last game that the composer Koichi Sugiyama worked on as well. No in memory off in the credits if I didn't miss it. Maybe that is saved for Dragon Quest XII or the remake of Dragon Quest III. A fun distraction and only took me 22 hours as a whole to finish, not 100 %, but I can't be bothered with that. Other games to play.

Finding Paradise (Switch)

Flying high again!

So finally played the sequel to the game "To the Moon". I got more emotional responses out of this one, maybe due to the story resonating more with me than the first game. Same set up as the last one, Eve and Neil is on another mission for the Sigmund Foundation to fulfil a contract. This time it's a Colin Reeds, an aviator that seemed to live happily with wife and kid that you gotta improve his life right before death.

You enter his mind, but instead of linear backtracking you spiral from the most recent memories to the oldest and continuing to the middle of them. You see how his wife kinda is against the idea, but he still insist on getting this service and as you get the oldest memories you see the girl Faye he seems to be friends with. Or rather his only friend. They go to school, they practice instruments in the forrest and she pushes him to go and get flying lessons so he can become a pilot. Meanwhile, after a certain point she disappears. So it seems to open up for that she died or something, but the twist is actually that she is just a part of his imagination that disappeared some time after he meet his wife.

Now, Faye seems to take control of the simulation as she tries to get rid of the scientist in order to preserve herself as well as Colins memories. So after a large episode of fighting Faye in different events Neil, once again, actually comes up with the solution in letting Faye take control and just add a meeting with them again at the end of his life, everything else equal. 

Outside of this you get more about Neil's strange behaviour. It still flashes red at times, but it's explained he takes some pills for some strange reason. He also have tinkered with the mind reading machine and is actually causing some of the problems. He is also discovered by another technician and her and her companion joins him in the end as he work on some secret project that hints that he saved Faye inside the machine and is gonna use her for some reason.

Overall, the story is great. But there is bugs that irritates me to no end. I've had to restart at several times just to get out of soft-locked things and I even had to go into handheld mode in order to get out of certain areas for some reason. It got irritating, lucky the autosave and such allowed me to continue without losing any progress. Almost 5 hours of gameplay so perfect for a lazy Sunday. Apparently I learnt that there is two side stories to this, one is referenced here and the other something like a sequel. Both games isn't on console (and the referenced one came out back in 2024 so it might never be, especially how they say that some stories aren't mean to be told). 

Nier: Automata - The End of YoRHa Edition (Ending A) (Switch)

 

Does Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Picked up Nier: Automata at a sale at the beginning of 2024 and started to play through it. Only heard good things about it and it is made by Platinum Games that made Wonderful 101 and the Bayonetta-series and published by Square Enix. I gathered it's a sequel to a game that is a spinoff to another series, but I've never played any of them. Oh yeah and of course I know the main character 2B from all the p... you know what, maybe I've written too much?

Anyway, the game begins by telling us that mankind have been driven from earth by aliens that built robots attacking them. Mankind have settled on the moon and uses androids to fight their battles to reclaim the earth. The opening begin with our hero 2B on an inflight mission to fight a goliath with several other androids in shells (like in Xenoblade Chronicles X, still want a port and continuation of that game [this of course was written long before they announced the port to Switch]), but one by one they get offed by the robots. She is the only one that survives the raid and as she begins fighting the goliath she is supported by 9S, a scout android compared to her battle android. They defeat the goliath but three more appears so they use their black boxes to create an explosion that take them all out, including 9S and 2B. 

And here they show a bit about the gameplay. If you die, you are generated back into a new body (the same as the old one), and we're back in the bunker. So in story, the androids loses their self and return constantly missing information (technically only when the story demands is since I very much remember what happens until the death) and relearning their bonds with their peers. In this case 2B and 9S. Anyway, they are sent back to recon and help the resistance on earth. They explore and fights robots, in the desert they see a robot... orgy is probably the closest word I can use for what I saw as I lie here in a fetal position. There the robots create a robot that looks like an android that names himself Adam. You fight him, but has to retreat since he is too strong.

Then you fight a robot at an amusement park that looks like an opera singer that captured several YoRHa members. You defeat it and then are helped by a robot named Pascal that leads a village where robots have decoupled from the network that rule the robots. From here I got a feeling it was go here, do that until you are supposed to protect a missile convoy that allows you to again fly in shell, you fight it but has to use one of the cannons to destroy a Godzilla like monster, 9S disappears after the battle so you look for him and find a replica city where you confront Adam again (you already meet again while investigating an alien ship below ground that resurfaced where the aliens where dead, apparently killed by Adam and his brother Eve) that have kidnapped 9S and put him on a cross. You kill Adam and return 9S to the bunker. You are tasked by command to investigate strange behaviour from the robots and joins Pascal as she is on her way to colony of robots in the factory. There the robots seemed to have form a cult and you are taken to their leader that seems to have died so the robots begin killing themselves and tries to take you out as well. You escape with the help of 9S that hacked into the network from the bunker.

Back outside you head to the resistance camp where the robots have gone berserk and began eating the androids. Afterwards a huge boss appears outside the camp which you fight and 9S joins you by crashing a shell into it and then Eve appears from it completely deranged after the loss of his brother. You thwart an attack on Pascal's village and then take the fight to Eve where 9S hack into the network again to severe Eve's connection to the network. After he is killed 9S reveal that he is infected so 2B has to strangle him to stop the corruption from being uploaded to the Bunker. She is about to destroy every single robot, but all the heads of the robots begin activating, a giant robot comes up from the ground and it is 9S who was saved in the robot network. The end?

Well, the credits roll at least. The game afterwards shows a message from the PR team that this is one ending of several and recommended to continue playing. Don't know what to think about it really. I played it on normal and the difficulty was rather descent. The harder modes where you had no lock-in function and could only take one hit seemed a bit too hard for me. Although, I felt at times I was just pushing buttons and 2B dodged hits here and there and the pods did the most damage (which makes the loss of Lock-on targeting seem like a very bad thing to lose). The chip-upgrade function I never learned so used automatic for all three (balanced, attack and defence) and used mostly Attack and Defence depending if the extra health or attack was important. The game crashed on me once, 16 hours in and after stopping the attack on Pascal's village so I had to redo the Eve fight before that since I saved just before going out to that fight (thank god for that). I might think not closing the software for that amount might have been the thing that did me in.

That was the gameplay part. It's fun playing it, but I find the environments rather boring, abandoned factory and a desert being the first part and then pretty much city ruins. Not until the forest area we get some colours back. And then the game get to the end game with the missile convoy. Also, there is basically only 4-5 enemies types as well that just gets stronger. Music's fine and it is rather interesting themes like what makes one human. Sometimes the robots seems more human than the androids even though they are supposed to be made by the aliens. Cause there is some unanswered questions in ending A. You have A2, an android deserter from YoRHa that killed the forest king of the robots and just bailed which seems to have a history with the resistance leader. Also, are the androids really made by mankind? I mean, the robots like Emil sounds like they where humans first so maybe it's that the Aliens used humans for their robots, but that has to be another playthrough I guess. And the YoRHA motto of "Glory to Mankind"? Sounds awfully facist if you ask me, so what does this mean? Is there humans or are they as dead as the aliens? Are we gonna go for a Xenoblade Chronicles X twist that the androids are the actual humans? The more I think about it, the more I feel like they are similar in so many ways, that the differences are irritating, and then X is the winner in better gameplay. For example, if I see the mountain, I could climb it in X, I just needed to find the right angle. In Nier, it is hard to know if I can jump to that platform since I'm invisible walled off from reaching it. But sometimes I'm supposed to do so since it's of the map... I really like X alright!

Another Code: Journey Into Lost Memories (Another Code Recollection) (Switch)

 

The original cover

The Sequel came to the wii in 2009 and begins 2 years after the original game and Ashley is visiting her father on a camping trip near his workplace but as soon as she gets off the buss, Richard Robins doesn't show up and a boy steals her bag. And from there it spirals away with mysterious secret agents, holograms, another ghost and a damn another... Another Machine. People gets shoot at, mass hypnosis, a company bankrupted by an evil CEO and so on. This game's story gets bonkers and it actually have less ghosts than the original. 

The boy is Matthew that have run away from his uncle to look for clues about his dad that disappeared 5 years ago. He was the CEO of a resort company that tried to develop the area around the lake that they are staying at, but got blamed for polluting the lake. Turns out that that the company Richard works for had created an Another machine that stored memories in liquid form that was polluting the lake, but the CEO covered it up by infusing memories into the townspeople so that they turned on the resort company. And Matthew was constantly... or rather from the background a couple of times, followed by a ghost who turns out to be his younger sister that he failed to save as she fell from the clock tower near the lake. That scene broke me as he learns the truth and breaks down, and then his ghost sister shows up and forgive him and that started the tears leaking and then a bright light and there mother that died in sickness shortly after the incident appears and takes the girl away and the floodgates are open. God Dammit!

That's the emotional highpoint of the game, the following part is running up and down a lab in water opening doors and such... sounds like the first Resident Evil Revelation game. It's bonkers since one of the more mysterious people in the game Ryan is revealed to be pretty much a manifestation of a boy that died 15 years ago as he was tested on by his father, the CEO to try to take him out of the PTSD that happened when his mother saved him from a car accident, but she died from that and caused Ryan to shut himself out of the world. So it's really sad, but there is a bit of botched moments. For example that father CEO, really isn't described as caring so much for his son, I gather that's how that is, but he is described by the computer Ryan that he only cared for the machine. Maybe it's hinting on the computer not getting the emotional investment the father put into it to save his son, but there is no break down scene, and the one Ryan tries to resurrect is Ashley's mother by overwriting Ashley's memories and not his father.  There's a disconnect there.

9 hours to play through so it's a bit bigger, but it's a lot more drama since there is more people around and I don't jive with that. Probably due to not connecting as well as with Matthew's emotional story. There's some stories they could have milked more, like Charlotte and her missing daughter that ran away with the photographer... I don't think we had a picture of them until the end? Come on, make me cry more damn it, make me feel something! Prove that I'm human... *ahem* Where was I? Oh yeah, overall a good collection, 16 hours total for both games. Second game was a bit harder on finding the origami cranes so I missed two of them. You really need both of them since if you haven't played them the second game gets a bit strange with the one ghost. I thought it was supposed to be more ghosts in the game, but instead we got holograms pretty much.

Read through the plot of the original version, and that seems to change dramatically, since there Ryan seems to be a real person and all is just an inheritance dispute... again. Yeah, the hologram story seems better now. Also, someone mentioned that Matthews ending wasn't part of the original game, but supposed to be a spin-off game with him as a main character, but since the company behind the game went bankrupt after this it wasn't meant to be so they pushed it in here. And it worked for me!

Another Code: Two Memories (Another Code Recollection) (Switch)

Should've known that her crying on the cover would indicate what I was gonna experience!

Continuing with the puzzle games I picked up this remake of one DS and one Wii game from the middle of the 2000's. Never played them before, but as soon I saw the trailer for them I just got a feeling I needed this. So after a month I started playing. So it start off with Ashley Mizuki Robins that the day before her 14th birthday have been invited by her father which she thought where dead to meet him on Blood Edward Island... charming name. It's an old island with a mansion and an abandoned mine where you solve puzzles... haven't I already played this game?

Well, she's there with her aunt, the aunt goes missing so Ashley has to look after her. After a moment she meets the ghost boy D that hangs around the mansion for 60 years. Together they uncover everything from D's family the Edwards that lived on the island and what Ashley's dad (Richard Robins) have been doing all along as well as the reason for Ashley's mother's death. Apparently D died by an accident as he ran from his uncle Henry that had been forced to kill D's father Thomas that in desperation tried to steal the inheritance of the family. Ashley's father meanwhile was working on a machine together with Ashley's mother, a machine called Another that was supposed to be able to erase memories in order to be able to cure PTSD and other trauma's... what ever it does, it sounds really bad for what it can be used to, creating false memories and all that. Especially when we are talking AI deepfakes and such? Of course Richard's assistant Bob was prepared to steal the machine and collaborated with someone to do so. He even killed Ashley's mother 11 years earlier.

I liked this game, it was a fun puzzler and I finished it within 7 hours. Puzzles on the easy side since you can photo anything (even though a 10 photo limit, but you can really see what you are supposed to photo). The most observant thing you have to keep looking for are these origami cranes you need to scan to get some information about Richard Robins, which I got all of them. The ending is kinda sad, but I think I foresaw it pretty early and since D's death was an accident I really can't say I felt the emotional strings being plucked so to speak. All in all I got vibes from the Famicom Detective Club and like that, there is a sequel that follows directly in this collection.

Legend of Steel Empire (Switch)

 

Flying Through the Danger Zone!

The fourth outing of Steel Empire (or known by me as Empire of Steel), the steam punk shooter where you protect the Silver Head Republic against the evil Motorhead Empire and the evil Emperor Sauron... or Styron in this version. This is a port of the 3DS version I've written about here. Not much to add here, except there is no 3D effects and that might make the game worse in parts, especially when you have foregrounds like in the cave level. Another question is why they changed the name of the game?

Still enjoyable,  the re-playability lies in finishing the achievement picture and I recall that I only had 1 piece left on the 3DS (finishing the game without losing a life on very hard), might not do all that. Finished it on easy. The only negativity I might have on this version is that the translation seems a bit off to me this time around, especially in the story text, but also the achievement text due to me unlocking pieces which I shouldn't have (and pieces I should have gotten I didn't seem to get)? I thought I at least got over a million points, but I didn't get the piece.

Small nitpicking, still the best shooter I've ever played!

Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Switch)

 

A return to their roots.

As of writing it's the end of February and I haven't played any video games beside some levels of Super Mario Bros. Wonder when I was at my sisters place the weekend 13 days after Christmas, and before that nothing since early December. As usual I'm not too inclined to play games during this time, and usually I get over it with a puzzle game. The game for 2024 was apparently Mario vs. Donkey Kong for the Nintendo Switch.

It's a remake of a 2004 GBA-game (which make it the second GBA-remake I know of after Advance Wars Switch-game) which I have two versions of on 3DS and Wii U. Never finished though. I finds that being the best thing about remakes, improvements to ease off play that actually allows me to finish them. Yes, I played casual mode that took away the timer which is new for the remake. The mode also gives you five bubbles instead of using extra lives taking some stress out of getting hit (in most levels it doesn't even hinder you from getting a gold star compared to the original). It also seems that they've added 2 set off overworlds since looking at the original it just seems to be 6 overworlds compared to the remakes 8. Since I don't intend to play through the GBA version I won't know unless I'm stuck somewhere with my 3DS and can't muster anything else to do.

Story is that one day Donkey Kong is zapping through the TV-channels when he stumbles upon a commercial for a new toy called Mini-Mario, he rushes out to get one (as the commercials message of "gotta get them all" repeats in his mind, think it's a jab at the Pokemon tagline). The stores is sold out so he rushes to the Toy Factory and steals them from the Toad workers there and Mario just happens to be there so he follows the Kong in order to get them back. He jumps and platforms his way through a set of 6 levels collecting mini-Mario's so that he can use them to collect the letters T-O-Y so that they open a chest he can put them in to get 6 hits on a boss level with Donkey Kong. Both the music and gameplay evokes the Donkey Kong arcade game and the Nintendo 8-bit series. After that you get a new set of levels and continue that for 8 overworlds to fight the big boss and then you do that all over again for the plus levels so that you can fight the final boss, Donkey Kong in a giant Kong Suit. Credits roll.

Then there is 10 extra levels that you unlock by the amount of gold stars you have, in the end I had 112, missing the boss fights. So in total. 130 levels to complete everything, but I don't feel the need to overextend my enjoyment. Took me a weekend of on-and-off play to get through it and that felt enough. A couple of days and I'm ready for something else during my half-week vacation.

Dragonsbane: The Awakening (Drakar och Demoner: Uppvaknandet)

 

Why does it have to be spiders?

As noticed, I haven't been playing games lately, but reading books. Finished up reading the collection on H.P. Lovecraft after 5 years. Interesting concepts in his stories and such, but man, it was hard reading at times. So afterwards I read through this book that is part of the new release of Sweden's own Dungeons and Dragons game, Dragonbane or Drakar och Demoner (aka Dragons and Demons, most speculate that direct translation would have been to close to actual Dungeons and Dragons). I actually bought it since it had an adventure for the game in it and I actually wanted a book in Swedish since otherwise it's just english books like Dragonlance, Jules Verne or Tolkien I have laying around and Tolkien is the only one I have some Swedish versions of, but new translation with the worse names and such. 

Still, this book was written by E.P. Uggla and follows the adventure of Tamea, a 13 year old girl that one days awakens when her tattoo begins shining and causing pain on her. She believes it has something to do with her older brother that have the same tattoo, but it causes her father to decide on marrying her away so she leaves on her own.

Also on the adventure is Verven, an half-elf, half-orc that lives on stealing from passersby that gets caught in a swamp and the assassin mallard Gizma that are looking for revenge on Tamea's brother for killing her assassin clan. So basically, no one trust each other and there is snark to go around for this group. They have to fight elf-ear collectors, spiders and avoid Tamea's bodyguard that looks to bring her back home. I enjoyed it for what it was. Easy to read and a fun adventure with the right emotional payoff in the end. Worst offender for the book is that it pretty much ends on a cliffhanger and a couple unanswered questions so I guess I have to lookout for a continuation. 

Well, that's for the story, the real worst offender (and the reason I had to write about it and get it of my chest) is that the language they use at times is atroucious to my sensibilities. Probably hard to express in english, but take for example in the early chapters they talk about "tjejer", which means girls, no problem, the problem is that is a loanword from Scandi-Romani from the 20th Centuary. It's a fantasy setting, it breaks my immersion and they used it twice. And I know it's nitpicking but I can't stop thinking about it. Another example is that they peppered the text with english words as is. One instance Verven thinks about how stupid this is that he is walking to the Vale of Mists with the exact quote (except where I censured it, gotta think of the kids) "Dimmornas f***ing dal". What are you doing? They also throw in "Fine" and "Yes"! It's probably fine in a roleplaying game table, but I'm trying to get immersed in this world and english words that come out of nowhere is kinda bothersome! I know it's petty since there is only 5 times this happened in a 200-page book, but it bothers me! Not only me, I read a blog reviewer also mentioning it!

Doesn't help that I've been listening to Prancing Pony Podcast that talks about Tolkien's world in the Silmarillion and so on, and they stress that language came first and then the world. Language forms the world and therefore the world is so easy to get lost in since it's coherent. Here they break that immersion with the language. Adding insult to injury a long time ago I myself tried writing my own fantasy world and books around it and I got stuck at the language. I deduced that since I wanted different languages, but since I wasn't a linguist I made some choices. The Gods would have closer to latin since I equated them with Romans both in dominance and appearance while the elven kind was closer to ancient greek and philosophies and such. Names reflected that and names for places and such could have different names, but the same meaning depending on who said it and so on. It makes the world more alive, and this is just the cheapest way you do it. And they didn't bother here! Hell, I began looking for different names for elves since it wouldn't jive with the languages and therefore I made them different from the elves of Tolkien or Warcraft or whatever, the language creates the world. It's the same reason there's this discourse in social media (in February 2024) about the yellow paint in game design. In visual media the design creates the world and when someone paints the ledges yellow without reason it breaks immersion. I so have the pulse on the world 1 year after the discourse that will probably die away within a week! Better throw in a Cerveza Cristal reference while I'm at it!

What a strange time on social media

Now, I ended listening to an interview with the author on youtube and she explained that apparently she had very little time for writing the book, and maybe its just an effect of that, and I can understand that. Still, one might have thought that one of the biggest book publishers in Sweden might have someone proofread and actually question some choices, but I guess the cash needs to flow and we don't have time for that (or afford it). Who cares about quality, right? She also mentioned that the second book is on it's way in august 2024 and she had more time writing it this time. Maybe it gets fixed, but since it's part of the first book that's part of the world now I guess! Yeah, 3 paragraphs for 5 words in a 200-page book might be overkill for my part. Then again, reading about the Dragonlance books (which I'm reading at the moment) someone mentioned that the harshest critics seemed to have the thoughts of "I could have written that", and truly, it might just be jealousy.

Super Mario RPG (Switch)

 

Clash of the Gaming Titans!

Yet another remake, this time of a Super Nintendo game, the very first Mario RPG, made by Square (now Square Enix). Originally not released in Europe until it was one of the first special Wii Virtual Console releases during a certain Japanese holiday and cost a bit more than the usual releases. I got it there and then they released it for the SNES Mini as well. Never finished either version. Only tried it on the Wii Virtual Console, but I fell asleep somewhere after the bow boss. Should probably finish it some day to see the differences from this game.

Story is that Bowser have kidnapped Princess Peach, but as Mario beats Bowser in his castle a gian sword falls from the sky and throws Mario, Bowser and Peach in different directions. Apparently the sword was sent by Smithy from Weapons land as he intends to take over the world. So Mario begins the rescue of the whole world.

First he meets Mallow a cloud boy that says he is a frog. He had a run in with a pick-pocket so you help him and you go back to his father, the frog sage that tells him that he really is adopted since the sage found him in the river so he took care of him. You also meets up with a living doll called Geno that have been possessed by a star entity to find the seven stars to restore the star road (that was smashed by the sword crashing down) so that wishes can be granted again.

I played to much D&D when this is what I think of as star entities.

You also recruit Bowser and Peach in order to stop this existential threat to the Mushroom kingdom and all others. You fight underwater shark pirates, climb to the clouds and fight off a usurper to the throne that belongs to Mallow, you traverse Star hill, fight some dwarf in a tower that tries to marry Peach and so on until you fight off Smithy in his weapon factory. Beat him and you win, a parade is shown and everyone lives happily again. 

It was a fun adventure. The changes made the game go a lot faster. For one, if you time your attacks right you get an area of effect that damage all enemies and that greatly speed up the game. I think that was what broke me last time, that I had to fight every individual enemy in a fight. You also can gather energy to a super attack with all three players in your party either do some buff or healing effect or do decent damage. Otherwise it's seems to be just graphics and music that is changed. Also they added cutscenes that was a bit more cinematic than the in-game cutscenes from the original. Interesting choice not to have any voice acting. You are able to play some post-game stuff and finish up unfinished quests, like what's behind the locked door in Monstro Town... OH NO!!!

I haven't been fooled like this since Final Fantasy V and the damn treasure chest!

Overall, I found it most enjoyable. Finally finished it for the first time. Really looking forward to the Thousand Year Door remake in 2024. Why I mention this is that the Paper Mario was the sequels to this game Nintendo made themselves and you can feel that the first Paper Mario really took a lot of the story like the seven stars and star road and incorporated it into that game. Due to the first Paper Mario being on the Switch as N64-game I have a hard time seeing that being remade. All I'm saying I got a craving for more Paper Mario. (This was of course played well before the announcement of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remake)

Star Ocean 2: The Second Story R (Switch)

 

SPACE!

Got the sequel to the game Star Ocean I played something like 3-5 years ago. That one was a remaster of a PSP remake of a SNES game. This one is apparently a remake of a PS1 game. So first choice is choosing between Claude C. Kenny or Rena Lanford. I choose Claude first since he was a melee fighter. We begin in space as the space ship Calnus is investigating a planet where they found an energy signal, but the planet is abandoned. The landing party has the Admiral Ronyx J. Kenny (one of the heroes of the first game) and Claude C. Kenny. Claude gets too close to a machine that teleports him to another part of the galaxy where he lands in a forest and rescues a woman named Rena Lanford on the planet Expel. She mistakes him for the Hero of Light that with his sword of light is gonna rescue the world.

Apparently the world is having an increase in monsters and earthquakes the last 3 months since the Sorcery Globe landed on the continent of Ell. Rena was kidnapped by a suitor under the control of a stone that seems to be linked to the Globe so Claude rescue her and both of them set out to solve the mystery of the globe. On their travels they meet the wizard Selene, the unlucky warrior Ashton that is cursed with two dragon heads, the inventor Presis, the... student (?) Welch, the kid genius Leon and the zoologist Noel... I find it rather fun that the characters Leon and Noel is the names backwards.  

After travelling across two continents the gang arrive at Ell and finds a tower. Climbing it Claude finally is contacted by the Calnus that beams him up. He wants to go back, but an alarm sounds as the planet is drifting toward an energy wave that is about to pass by. Claude asks to say goodbye to his friends and back in the tower he drops his communicator and continues up the tower. There they meet the Ten Wise Men, ten individuals that seemed to be trapped in the globe and are using it now to enter the energy field in order to return to their home. Your team is dragged into the energy and find yourself on the planet Energy Nede after destroying Expel. Here you learn that the Wise Men was genetically engineered people to rule the galaxy, but defeated 100 million years ago they were trapped in space until this moment though. You get help in order to prepare against the battle and charges the Wise Men. In the confrontation they use a weapon to rule the galaxy that destroys the Calnus that hovers over the energy cloud, seemingly killing everyone aboard, including Ronyx.

Enraged Claude climbs this tower as well killing all the Wise Men, but the last one, Gabriel are preparing the Symbol of Annihilation in order to destroy the universe since he can't rule it for himself. But our heroes uses a symbol of their own that redirects the power toward Energy Nede and they are transported back to Expel as it is brought back together with its people. Endings dependent on your relationships status between characters, no hint if the Calnus was brought back as well (but I found a reference that the writer let it be up to the players to decide... so of course it came back, they didn't do anything wrong).

Overall, I liked it better than the first game. Didn't get destroyed in battles so either I'm better or I actually understood the level ups and stats progressions on the skills. 40 hours of gameplay and then it allows you to replay it again on a New Game+. Fun to start over with over 100 levels. The graphics are really nice, especially liked the water effects. And lastly, the music is made my Motoi Sakurabi, you know, the Golden Sun-composer! How can it be bad? But I start to hear the similarities between Tales of-games and this soundtrack, but you gotta love the prog synth in the dungeons.