Ghost Trick: The Phantom Detective (Switch)

 

So Supernatural!

After three Etrian Odyssey games I needed something different so I picked up Ghost Trick that have been on my shelf for almost a year. It's a remake of an old DS game that was made by Capcom and the same team behind Ace Attorney. I remember reading about the original in some gaming magazine, but I never got it. Maybe since I hadn't played any Ace Attorney games at the time and I frankly just thought the main character looked super weird with his spiked hair. Glad I got another chance to rectify that mistake.

Story is that you awake as a ghost after you have been killed. A lamp possessed by another ghost tells you have to do your thing and then your of to find out who you are, why you where killed and try to maybe stop that. Your power's consist of manipulating things, travel through telephone lines and go back in time when interacting with dead bodies to 4 minutes before their death to change their fate.

During your investigation you have to save the police detective Lynne that constantly get herself killed so you babysit her most of the time, but during this you uncover a strange tale of an innocent death-row inmate and former police detective that is about to be executed and the machination of "the Manipulator" that forces people to act against their will. And in true Ace Attorney fashion the story just staggers and staggers. There's a collective of spies from a foreign country, which also consist of robots for some reason. The Manipulator turns out to be a dead man from 10 years ago that was killed by a falling meteor that lodged a piece into him, pretty much making him immortal. And who's face is your own. You also meet Missile, the dog from the first Ace Attorney game that helped you in the final episode with Von Karma. 

I got hooked rather fast and I just ran with it. The story kept me engaged to the end and the twist and turns makes it a great story. The graphics are really good and especially the animation of the characters. Well, mostly Inspector Cabanela and his dancing movements. And then the music is amazing. The puzzle was manageable most of the time. Wasn't until chapter 14 I began looking up when I sat 5-10 minutes trying to get how to get it. Took me around 12 hours, I didn't 100%, for that you needed to finish the chapters on a first try pretty much and then you had some extra sliding puzzles to finish with moving pictures. I did one and tried a harder difficulty and just couldn't get on. You get concept art and such to look at, but I got other games to play.

Etrian Odyssey III HD: The Drowned City (Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection) (Switch)

 

Ahoy Me Maties!

Well, here I thought I would have any easy time just use the perfect combination of classes I learnt in two games prior, and then the developers goes and change every class. Thanks! So instead of the Landsknecht protector front with an alchemist, survivalist and medic back I would have stomped my way through the game, I had a Gladiator, Hoplite and Buccaneer front and a Zodiac and Monk back. So that took me 30 minutes I had hoped to cut down, but no. And another thing before the game starts, no bonus for clearing the other games. No bracelets or so. Seems really strange that the original games coupled together I and II, but the remakes hinted at connections between II and III. Anyway, back to the story.

So you have arrived in this coastal town where a 100 years ago the ancient and technology advanced city sunk into the sea caused by a cataclysm, leaving only a Yggdrasil labyrinth to explore. From there it is as usual, with the exception that if you have some spare cash after outfitting your characters you can hire a boat and explore the seas around the city to reconnect with other cities, find islands with treasures and fight bosses to gain exp and materials. You can also fish, which pretty much the only thing you can do to bring in cash. And the ship master complains that people spend to much time fishing, well tough luck when that is the only way to keep the sailing operation going!

Anyway, into the labyrinth. I played most of the first two stratums on normal, but when I've reached 20 hours gameplay and my summer vacation is over for now I didn't feel like it anymore so I set it to picnic mode and went onward from there. There is something to play in normal. How you avoid the FOE:s and have to learn and use the environment. Especially the first stratum boss where I had to use tents between the two phases of the fight. But I beat him fair on Normal! I even survived the fish ambush on the second stratum by just booking it and be able to avoid them attacking me. After that I went to the floor below, faced of an alligator FOE I actually been able to subdue before, but now he wrecked me. So I set it to picnic. 

Still, you explore the stratums on behalf of the senate who looks for the Drowned City. You encounter this girl Olympia that helps you in the first stratum, but in the second she is the one that sets you up for the fish ambush. She belongs to the Drowned City that keeps humans away in order to fight there war against the Deep Ones, some lovecraftian fish horrors below the depths of the ocean. The Abyssal King, who has lived for over 100 years wants humans out of there since the Deep Ones feed on the emotions of humans while he leads his robot armies against the Deep Ones. The Senate is against this since behind them is Princess Getrun who is the Abyssal Kings sister and also have lived for over 100 years. By choosing to either protect the Abyssal Guardian or defeat it you change the ending of the game. Either protect it and keep the humans away or kill it and face the Abyssal king. I checked on it and someone mentioned it was easier to choose that way so I went with that. And then I defeated the Abyssal King and the game ended... that's all?

Apparently so. There's a post-game stratum (like always) where you are tasked by Yggdrasil to go even deeper and defeat the Deep Ones... even though the Elder One is in the third stratum locked away by the Abyssal King? I charted the first floor and so much of the second and third I could, but I got stumped and since it's a hassle to get back to the second floor since you have to take a certain path which is so irritating (maybe if I charted it with an automatic travel thing). It also has the new feature for this game where certain areas just doesn't register so you have to map it yourself (which is fine), but also makes it disorienting. 

Pushed through the floors and found the last level. Which ends at level 25, but I got the feeling that the other games had up to 30 levels? Anyway, found the boss, and got killed in three turns. Well, better grind the people back to 60-70 levels. Got to 60, found a tentacle as well as running around the floor and then I tried again. He already had a bit dropped of his HP so I began hitting him with everything I got and beating that bar there's suddenly a phase 2 and boy, it went bad. No MP left for the Zodiac and Monk so it's bad. Took a couple of turns, but he beat me. So then I checked up. Apparently there's 8 tentacles around the floor and I thought I might spend some time to take them out and might try again, but then I read they re-spawn within 3 days and it's just running around after them. I just called it quit there. I got more games to play.

Overall it works like the other game. I noticed also that this game at least give you EXP when you report a quest like they did in the Untold games so leveling is a bit better. The Sailing portion was a bit fun, but the cost is hard to justify in the early game and you really need to land on every square since who knows what lies in some random water square? So I get why maybe it doesn't need any extra like the others since it basically function like the Untold games, although sailing is optional. You can also add subclasses where you get the skills from those together with your main class. So a lot of choices, but only the Gladiator/Sovereign and Hoplite/Farmer was used for their skills, the others got subclasses because it also gave you extra skill points to dump in their ordinary skills. 

Now I only have IV, V and Nexus left... but those are on my 3DS and since I can't play them on the TV, they have to wait a while (I might also be a bit tired of the series as well after playing all three in a row). Don't know what I will play after this, but I got a lot in the backlog.  

Etrian Odyssey II HD: Heroes of Lagaard (Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection) (Switch)

 

To the Skies!

Continued with the sequel like I did the Untold stories. Mostly the same thing like the first game. The special area in the Untold version is gone, no story mode and the ideas of the Yggdrasil Cores aren't here. In this it's the Overlord that actually is the final boss, and he is just a scientist that uploaded his conscious in a machine or something like that in order to research immortality and create the Holy Grail. Which you come around, kills him and take to save the Duke of Lagaard. Who was the bad guy again? Cause really, what did he do? Well, I know that people that died in the labyrinth was picked up by the winged ones to the Flying Keep and he probably used them in his experiments, Schylla and the boss before the Overlord is stated as former explorers. Maybe there is more things in the Post-game in the Sky Islands, but I'm more interested in getting the 3rd game going since that is totally new for me.

The one thing these version actually have over the Untold games is that I can connect my guild from the first game to this getting one accessory that is rather good. It also creates some sort of cohesion that I missed in the Untold games. Wonder if they would have done it with Untold 3 since its basically stated that was the goal of the surviving adventurers in that game. Anyway, I wished they also had brought over the characters so I didn't have to spend the first 15 minutes recreate the team. Which I still changed, my main guy I changed into a Ronin since I watched to many Akira Kuruzawa samurai movies this summer so the thought of the wandering ronin that solve town troubles sounded interesting. Also changed the medic to a War Mage since I wanted to try different classes and then just used the other classes, Troubadour and Dark Hunter from the first game, Gunner that Ricky was in Untold. And instantly the game wanted me to use the other classes for quests so I brought back the others and used the Ronin as a Landsknecht and dubbed them the B-team. And that went well until I stumbled upon Salamox which beat me up so much that I went back to B-team, trained them to lvl 30 and beat the hell out of the monster. It wasn't until I reported the quest I remembered that I could just have skipped him... Oops, playing Picnic makes it maybe a bit too easy to just beat up all monsters. On the other hand, floors 21-25 would have driven me mad in normal mode.

From here I stayed with B-team except when I needed to do things with other classes. I gotta say it's a lot more inviting to use the different classes. One area exclusive for a single Troubadour and another for the new Beast class. You either grind them to high levels or use their special skills in order to control the FOE:s out there. I choose grinding since their skills was better used in other places. Another area you needed four different classes at the same time to traverse the area which made a couple of trips, but it was fun figuring out which class meat which. Still, the B-team was better overall with their skills and such so they continued be the better choice. So that will probably be the first choice for my next game.

Overall a fine game. Interesting changes from the first one. FOE:s doesn't give EXP so they are more of a hassle now since their only good thing is the materials they might drop. Early bosses as well, which is just mean. They also changed the skill tree actually forcing you to build skills in some lower spells for example before hitting the big hitters. The gathering skill was lowered to 5 (still prefer Untolds version where you pick the gathering points once a day instead of one at a time depending on how many points in those skills you had). 

Etrian Odyssey HD (Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection) (Switch)

 

Back at it again.

Well, I had to get the origins collection since it was the only way to play the 3rd game that I don't have. And I had to import it from Play Asia since otherwise I couldn't get a physical copy, need to save on the memory space, especially since I don't want to fork out on a 2 TB micro sd card so close to Switch 2. So, this is a HD remaster... remake... port (?) of the original DS game. Basically the same game as Etrian Odyssey Untold which I played earlier (only took me 8 years to get through) and this I did in 3 days and less than 30 hours. Believe I shaved most of the game time by letting the game fill in the borders for me automatically. That and I played on Picnic mode through most of the game since I just finished the game.

So what's different? Well, there is no Gunner or Highlander, which I feel is a bit sad. There is no story mode so there is no Ricky, Simon, Arthur or Raquna. It gives both advantages and disadvantages. A terrible disadvantage is that I liked the interaction between the characters in untold. There reactions to the story made it feel important and "real" so to speak. The whole separate area is gone as well so no M.I.K.E. as well so one more character gone. On the other hand, had I played this version first the twist of the final area would really have been something. Also, the Ronin and hexer you bump into during the whole game feels more important here since they are pretty much the only one you interact with (could also be due to forgetting them during the aforementioned 8 year playthrough while I played Untold). They also gave you there classes which was interesting. Gotta say, the genocide angle of the forest folk the chieftain tasks you with is interesting since I didn't get that vibe in Untold, but that could just be me.

I reached level 70, restarted the characters and got them to around level 50 before beating the game. Checking Untold I could have set it to fill in for me as well, so that's good to know when I start IV or later games after finishing this one. Things I miss from that version was the pub people you could speak to which told you hints for different quest or just information of the world. A free store was nice instead for paying 100 to store a single item. And also, while playing the game on a TV is awesome, the controls works really well for mapping the game as well after you get used to it and the HD pictures of the monsters is really clear, I actually like the Untold 3D monsters better, mostly since it allow them to have the FOE-monsters visible which is a bit more scary than a yellow, red or black orb hovering in front of you. Also noticed that the maps on certain floors was different. Neat.

I had a Landsknecht, Protector, Survivalist, Alchemist and Medic since it is a decent setup to tackle the problems, and the closest to what I could feel the original team was like. Also had a Ronin and Hexer to finish up some of the quests. I was gonna do it all, but one quest where you had to get petrified I never got to work, and the clean-up after finishing the main game ended in disaster. I got the knowledge about the Ice Dragon so I begin exploring the floors to find him. Had to go back, and recalled, the Fire Dragon was easier to get to so I just walked up to him. Got obliterated, didn't save and instantly realised that all the progress of the map I had done was gone. So that was that.

Overall, I gotta say that I think Untold actually is better in quality. The story, the extra area, and the fact that you have the bestiary and item codex with you instead of stuck in the Radha makes it a bit more convenient. Also, all the soundbites of every character makes it also more immersive since everyone had a voice. Of course, I won't be playing this game again for a long time since I got 5 more of these games in the backlog. Well, better back to it.

Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King (Switch)

 

Lily the Flower Knight

Another game I started and quit and then returned on. Played the first dungeon when I started it and then stopped for a time. Don't know why and I came back to it during midsummer 2024 and then finished it up during my vacation that same year. It's basically a Zelda game, get these things from these dungeons and get items to use to solve puzzles and such. 

Story is that grandpa is telling a story to his grandkids. One named Lily which is also the name of the protagonist. She's a new recruit of the Orchid Kingdom, but during the ceremony the king is put to sleep by a powerful spell from the king's evil brother, the Wizard Crocus. So you have to get out and find ingredients that are hidden in the three dungeons. After getting the three ingredients a small cutscene that is actually rather good. Crocus arrives and sends in his minions of orcs in order to kill the sleeping king. The guards try to stop them, but in the last minute Lily arrives and gives the ingredients to the helpers that awaken the king so that he can drive out the orcs. I think it works really well with the commentary from the children since it feels really important. 

After that Lily's sword gets upgraded and it's out to the Wastelands in order to fight Crocus in his fortress. After getting through the dungeon there is a final battle with Crocus which gets rather easy when you used the lightning spell or at least it felt easy with that. Lily returns to the castle, gets a ring and the story is over as the kids goes to bed. You can start the game again and finish up the last things you didn't do. Like finding all heart pieces or energy crystals. I guess the ring also works as an instant teleporter. 

It was alright, some of the puzzles like the singing stone went out a bit too much and the bosses feels a bit long like. Kinda fun when the children complain at times and change story, like the puzzle to get to a treasure chest or if there are a ninja or a pirate as a boss. There is a sequel, but I haven't gotten it as of writing. We'll see if I does. I got so many games to play through. Nice graphics, good music. 

Diablo II: Resurected (Switch)

 

To Hell with You!

Where interested in getting this when it first came out for the Switch, but I think it was at the same time as all the controversy came around Activision Blizzards then-CEO surfaced and I just couldn't do it. And now they are bought up by Microsoft and it was a decent sale for the game I thought it was maybe time to get it. I've mentioned before I played through the original game back in... 13 years ago? Damn, and why the hell do I talk about a commercial for a pension agency? It must have been on my mind then.

Story is that the warrior from the first game shoved Diablo's soulstone into his forehead in hope of containing the Lord of Terror. Didn't work that well. The Warrior become the Dark Wanderer and after unleashing demons in a tavern is joined by Marius, a drunkard who had survived the attacks on Tristram. They traveled to Tal Rasha's tomb where Baal, lord of Destruction was held captive by Tal Rasha himself. Finding Baal the Arch-Angel Tyreal stops Diablo from freeing him, but Marius is beconned to pull the soulstone out of the body of Tal Rasha. Tyrael tells Marius to go to where Mephisto is found and enter the gate to hell to destroy Baal's soulstone as Tyrael himself gets trapped in the tomb. Marius follows Baal and Diablo and see them opening a portal to hell and give Diablo his true form back.

This is all shown between chapters. The game is that you create a character based on the 7 different classes, Barbarian, Assassin, Druid, Necromancer, Amazon, Paladin and Sorceress. I chose the Sorceress since I recall liking the sorcerer class in the first game. And I could roleplay it as a beginning for Katrina Bargov from my DnD campaign back in Curse of Strahd. At the first chapter you end up a Rouge encampment where they have fled from a monastery being overrun by Andariel, one of the lesser evils. This is basically an homage to the first game. Yes, you have more walking around in the fields, but there is a monastery and caves which gives the same look as the original. You also fight the original rouge that have been corrupted and turned into an undead. And you go to Tristram to save Deckard Cain. And kill zombie Griswold and find the dead body of Wirt... damn! Everything in the first game turned to shit. At least I can live in denial and believe that all the other people survived since if I can't see them, then they aren't dead. After beating Andariel you head east to the desert where you have to find the tomb and parts of a staff to open it. And as you enter the tomb you get attacked by the lower evil Duriel that constantly killed me. I changed hire from the rouge you get in the first chapter. And then I recalled I could reskill, so I did, went from fire based to ice. Got trounced, thought I should try another skill set and then I realised that you only could do it once. I was screwed so I had to restart. Played it up until that moment again, but I learned that everything I had saved in the stash on page 2-4 came with me so luckily my jewels and gems followed. And I got a lot of better equipment that allowed my hire to actually be a bit tougher, and I checked out a guide for what skills to use. Learning that Static Field was the best for bosses. Great. He died this time. You save Tyrael and heads over the ocean, fights Mephisto, enter hell and kill Diablo.

Back too Marius he had run away at the sight of Diablo and been looked up and have told the story to who he thought was Tyrael, but turned out to be Baal in disguise that wanted back his soulstone. After taking it, killing Marius and burning down the prison or whatever he sets out and invade the northern barbarian lands in order to take control of the Worldstone. After beating Diablo Tyrael sent you after him to the last barbarian stronghold where you have to lift the siege upon their city, rescue captives and prove your worth for the ancients so that you can enter the Worldstone and fight off Baal. In the end Tyrael have to destroy the Worldstone since it has been corrupted. The End!

I've played it once before, or more or less watched as me and my best friend played it back 2000-2003. We played as a Paladin and used a hex configure or whatever to make the character level 99 and give him the best stuff there was. And then we just butchered our way through the whole game. Maybe that's why the cinematic stayed with me since I can't recall the gameplay or what happened as we played the game. So it was rather fun playing it legit this time around. Sorcerer was fun and blasting everyone with fireball is always satisfying. Playing it on console worked really well with the controls, sadly I only learnt about the easier way to use a teleportation scroll far too late in the game. Now, I only played solo offline since I don't have Nintendo Online or any friends to play it. And I don't see that I would play this again unless I got a real craving to see the story again, but there is other games to play. Cause all that is left is the higher difficulties to get better loot to max the character. Maybe a normal run through with a lvl 40 character because most enemies wouldn't stand a chance again.

Overall, I found it fun to play and I can see the addiction of the looter-system. It actually gave me more of a craving for replaying the first game, but it doesn't exist on modern consoles. The claustrophobic feeling of the catacombs and such is amazing, not the same feel here. There's always III, maybe I will get it some time. Or IV if it gets to Switch 2 or whatever the console will be called.

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!