Trails in the Sky: 1st Chapter (Switch/Switch 2)

 

Wonder what skies have to do with anything since you walk most of the time.

I've heard about the Trails-series for a long time since I played Ys, being part of the Legend of Heroes-series that appears to be Falcoms biggest series beside Ys. The one thing everyone said was that it was a fantastic to get into, but there was 13 games in the series and where do you start on a game series that started out on the PSP? Well, you wait for a remake on the newest consoles of the first game of course. 

As usual I got it for the Switch since then you at least saved on the space on the console, and then just upgraded to the Switch 2. Apparently they are gonna update it to 1.05 any day forward, but I already cleared the game so some of the things I won't be seeing I guess. Story is that the country of Liberl was attacked by it's neighbor the Empire, but after 100 day was freed due to Colonel Cassius Bright who devised the plan to repel the invasion. He then joined the mercenary group the Bracers and trains his daughter Estelle. 5 years after the battle he finds a boy Joshua he brings home and adopts and 5 years after that the kids are doing their Bracer entrance exams and then starts doing jobs while Cassius leaves. An airliner is attacked by air pirates and the Bright kids gets involved since Cassius was on the liner.

From there they travel all around Liberl uncovering a conspiracy from within the Royal military of Liberl to seize power by brainwashing certain targets, for example the air pirates, a mayor here and several military commanders. You also meet several other Bracers that help you on your journey like Zin the Unmovable, Scharezard the whip-wielding drunkard, Agate the red-headed swordsman, Tita the genius, Olivier the imperial minstrel and Kloe the schoolgirl. You also meets people like the reporter and photographer of Liberl News that gives you hints on the overall story or Professor Alba getting in trouble all the time at the towers scattered across the land. 

It's a bit slow in the beginning since it took something like 10 hours leaving the first town, but when it gets going it gets going. The story always calls back with persons reappearing in a chapter after the one they introduced and you also gets some in between stories between chapters keeping the mystery pulling you along. Spoilers ahead, but nothing is what it seems and the bad guy is actually someone you can understand. His reasons for doing what he does is logical, and then in the credits pretty much it turns out someone was pulling his strings. Which I didn't see coming. The story is also interesting in that it has a female main character. Estelle is the main character and seems to be in the following two games as well and that is rather fun since she is a fun character to follow. Her goofiness and naive nature make sit fun to watch her collide with others or such things. Funny how no one talked about the woke agenda in this game with the other main character Joshua dresses up in a dress and maid outfit. One character even talks about bringing down the patriarchy. Damn posers in the gaming community.

Graphics are fine, but I noticed a flicker one time, but that was it. Music is alright and you have good voice actors like Matthew Mercer and the guy voicing Doggi and Doug. Interestingly enough the voice lines are kinda inconsistent. There are scenes when when side characters have a voiced line, but the main guys aren't voiced. Maybe it has to do with actions that affects the scene so they didn't voice them, but it feels kinda weird. The second game is on the way and I might have to get my hand on the other games in the series.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World (Switch 2)

 

It's Kirby... in 3D!

Well, the games don't really rain over the Switch 2 at the moment so I decided to get Kirby and the Forgotten Lands since I didn't get it for the original Switch and everyone was raving about this game when it came out. I also tried to play the NES games and such that I have for the Wii U, but I got stuck there and then the game come out. Kirby is minding his own business when a vortex appear above Popstar and drag him and the waddle-dees into it. He appears on a new world which looks a lot like our earth where he meet a flying critter called Elfilin that tags along on the adventure as the waddle-dees get kidnapped by some beasts.

Rescuing the waddle-dees allows them to gather in this town area where they set up a smith, shops and so on depending on how many you rescue. You fight through several different worlds collecting blue-prints to upgrade your copy-abilities that you collected from the enemies as well as gold and stars that you need for the upgrade. Each level have several objectives that gives you more waddle-dees and if you are thorough you can pretty much get them in one go. At the end of the levels there are bosses and they also have objectives, but they tend to be more of the variety use this ability to do this which means repalying the bosses a bunch of times. 

I'm not that thorough but I got something like 250 waddle-dees at the end out of 300 I guess. In the final stages Elfilin gets kidnapped by a brainwashed King Dedede and after Kirby beats him up ends up in a laboratory where a giant lionman have taken Elfilin in order to merge it with an dimensional hopping entity that the assumed humans captured and then experimented on to leave the planet. So the entity have controlled all the beasts and use waddle-dees to power the whole laboratory for some reason. Still, 4 or something bossfights later Kirby absorbs a truck and like Optimus Prime blasts right into this lovecraftian entity. F***ING AWESOME!

Dramatic Reenactment!

Credits roll and then you get the vision of the lionman trapped in some dimensional rift. You get back and then I finished up the new added stuff for the Switch 2 version, saving the starries to send out an evil space heart, but it fails and I fight the boss again much harder this time. This fight made me lower the difficulty to just be over it. The starries are on some of the levels that changes the level a bit with different plattforming. Anyway, credits roll and then I go and do the lionman quest. In yet another dimension you have to run through gauntles of all levels in each stage to gather the soul fragments of the lionman. Lucky enough Elfilin tells you if you get all the souls in each part so you can find them before going forward and lock you out of the stage so I did all that in one go. After gathering all souls you get a figure and then fight lionman again and the entity that possessed him again and then credits roll for a third time. 

It was a fun game. If I want I can 100 % it, but some of the challenges just feels to much to gather the waddle-dees (the starries I believe would be easier since there is no bosses to fight). There's also figurines to gather but I'm rather tired of those things after Minish Cap. Especially since I gathered most of the rewards is more figurines. That or I can probably gamble on the figurines machines. 

Dragonsbane: Betrayal (Drakar och Demoner: Sveket)

And now it's snakes, wonder what the third book cover will be.

Well, I had to read the continuation, only took me a year. I read the first two chapters and just had to stop since Tamea did the most stupid thing ever and I just couldn't handle it. Verven and Gizma have been doing some shady things to provoke fights to get money from people. This time it goes awry and they are set upon by the city guard and Tamea can't help herself by showing them Verven's gold coin, you know, the greedy corrupt guards that have no qualms taking from the people that we where shown earlier in the chapter? I just tapped out from reading it that time. I could also have been that I got some games worth playing that just took my interest as well, but it took some time getting back, and then I read the rest in two evenings.

The most interesting question on everyone's mind, how was the writing? Much better, there was only one instance in the whole book with an english word, "sorry". The rest perfect. So story after the early debacle is that they are helped out of the prison the guards threw them in by a duck crime lord that task Gizma with bringing her the head of Tamea's mother. She was last seen in the forest of Verven's elven clan. They go there and not to be killed they have to kill the elf-ear hunter in the tower out in sea. They get there and it turns out that the orc shaman living there isn't an ear hunter, but Verven's true father  which unravels all the lies his mother told him about his birth and such. His father seems to kill himself in realisation that his love he waited 18 years for wanted to kill him. They return to the elves and all hell breaks loose since it turns out Tamea's mother is still alive, but the Verven's mother tried to kill her son since the union of an orc and elf is the chosen one to begin the end of the world as he is destined to awaken the sleeping dragon and when that happens the demons will awake as well.

Well, they escape and the hunt is on. I really like the book. A lot happens in 200 pages and it goes by fast. Lucky the third book will be released in September 2025 (August 2025 as of writing). Kirby the Forgotten Land for Switch 2 will be out in a week so we will see if I'm in a reading mood or if that will have to wait until next year when the signs align and the window of opportunity for reading opens up again.

The Adventure of Elliot: The Millennium Tales Debut Demo (Switch 2)

Not another fairy game!

Watched the July 2025 Nintendo Partner Showcase direct and as most people it wasn't that much to write home about, but they at least announced a demo for a new game from SquareEnix in the 2D-HD engine. So I got it and since there wasn't any other games at the moment in the wait for the Kirby game. So I started playing it and it has some similarities to games like the Mana-series with different weapons... no co-op though. Story is that this kingdom is protected by a barrier from monsters and some new ruins have been discovered so the king ask the adventurer Elliot to investigate the ruins together with his fairy companion (which after playing Bravely Default sends out some different warnings than maybe the creators anticipated... or I don't know really). So you go out and fight monsters till you reach a dungeon where you fight a boss and suddenly you stand before the Door of Time.

Now, what is the Door of Time (besides being named after the door of Time in Ocarina of Time)? Don't know, the game didn't tell me about it before but the fairy wonders if this is the Door of Time and Elliot seems to know what that entails. And after entering the demo ends. I'm driven more by story than gameplay loops, so I can't say that this demo did it for me, since I don't know what I should care about in this game. No one has told me what the importance of the ruins is, or the Door of Time. In the wilds there was no one to talk to except the fairy and they never commented anything important.

We will see if I get it, but since it's SquareEnix I assume a Game Key Card from the get go and since the storage is limited it might be digital and a sale before getting it. It looks great though and I like 2D action adventure games. I didn't find the scythe so wonder if that will effect anything.

Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2)

 

The Journey to the Center of the Earth!

Well, it took the postal service a week to get it to my home. It arrived Friday the week after it was supposed to come out. Took me 2 weekends and two hours per day during the week, but now again I have a 100 % cleared games on the Switch 2 (no, don't look at my stack of unfinished or even played Switch 1 games). The game begins on Ingot Island where DK is mining for Golden Bananas until a meteor-looking thing crashes on the island dragging it into the depths of the earth. There he meets a talking crystal person that tries to escape from the Void Company CEO... Void Kong and his two henchmen. First time I've seen evil Kongs in a DK game, but since Metroid have already put in evil Chozos I'm already comfortable with the idea. The crystal person turns out to be Pauline that was kidnapped for her singing voice after you release her from the crystal. You meet different races on your way to the center of the earth in search of the Banandium Root for a way to get home and stop Void Kongs plans.

It's a rather fun game. You break most things and collect golden bananas in order to upgrade your abilities and then you collect gold to buy stuff and banadium chips to use to get more golden bananas or later musical discs. There are a couple of animal elders that allow you to use the Banaza that transform you into different animals, like snake, zebra, elephant, ostrich... and a gorilla. Gorilla form feels a bit weird since you already are a Kong, maybe I thought it would be a rhino as a callback to Rambi, but since there is a layer where you ride on Rambi they maybe thought it was enough. 

The final stretch of the games just ramps up the intensity. You have defeated Void Kong's henchmen and duke it out with the CEO himself, beat him and suddenly King K. Rool appears, beats up Void and get the Root for himself. That came by surprise. I gather that Cranky might imply him during the talks with him, but I didn't get it until he showed up. And now Kremlings appears and buzzaw bees so suddenly it feels like a Country game again. You corner K. Rool at the center of the earth and defeats him and your wish is about to get you back and credits roll, and it's the Kredits from Donkey Kong Country so you know the fight ain't over. K. Rool follows you with his barrel jet packs and you have to occupy him until you can reach the surface. You get to New Donk City where Pauline lives, K. Rool steals the root again and you have to platform to the boxing ring from Donkey Kong 64 and beat him again. Took me three tries, but I did it. Credits roll again and DK returns to Ingot Island while Pauline stays in NDC. 

After the credits you start at Ingot island again and reunite with Pauline that needs help finding a song she can sing. So you meet the elders again and do their rehearsal which is a gauntlet of platform challanges for each Bananza that forces you to use every power (and hopefully you upgraded every Bananza to the full). Zebra was the worst with the timed I thought, but then elephant wanted me to lure monsters into different areas to change shape and so on. After I remember to use the snake's time stop ability that one wasn't that hard. And after all that you have the Harmoneel. A true test of skills since you had to do it all in one go which I learned when I died on the very last stretch. After getting enough resources and changing outfits I went in again and cleared it. Rewarded with yet another credit scene, but I'm a bit disappointed since I thought I could get to New Donk City and just wander around, but no such luck. After that I cleared out the fossil to get every costume since you just could buy maps for those (and bananas as well, but those could be hard to get). 

So overall it was fun platformer. Some people complained that the ending was a bit to long, and if I had played it at the middle of the night before work and just wanna go to bed I might have felt the same, but instead I did it in the early afternoon so to me it was a great escalation. And here comes a reason why I prefer the Mario team to do these games, the bosses have pretty much a cycle of three which means that I can memorize the sequence within reason. Maybe the fact I played through 4 Donkey Kong Country games before I didn't have that hard of a time. Something I noticed though is that if this was Journey through the Center of the Earth and Mario Odyssey would be Around the World in 80 Days, I assume the devlopers at Nintendo seems to be on a Jules Verne binge. Gotta finish the collection of books I have at the night stand before Star Fox returns as a Captain Nemo rip-off... oh wait, that was Steel Diver for the 3DS. (And to be clear, this was written before the Star Fox game for Switch 2 was announced.)

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Switch)

 

And the monkey business returns.

Well, I still haven't gotten Banaza and it's been a week now. At least I had time to play through Donkey Kong Coutry Returns for the first time. I got it for the Wii, 3DS and Switch, but this is the first time I finish it. I think I played through the first two worlds on the Wii, but got stuck on the boss and then gave up. It wasn't that hard when I played it now, but that could be the Modern Mode cause I was ready to give up at some times.

Story is that one day the DK Island volcano explodes and unleashes the Tiki Tribe that begins hypnotize the animals and stealing Donkey's banans. Together with Diddy they set out to get them back and beat up the Tiki's. 8 worlds later you defeat the big boss of the Tiki and everything's great again, except it reveals the Golden Temple, yet another stage. I can't take it anymore and I really hope the new game comes tomorrow. 

I might sound irritated, but I spent 10 minutes on the final hit on the boss and I think levels like the barreljets and rickety rides just is infuriating. I used up something like 30-40 lives on two stages each trying to get through. Glad I got enough Banana coins to just buy more extra lives without problems. It was a struggle for me, and I can't see myself 100 % cause some of the feats to get some of the collectibles are beyond my abilities. I had a hard enough time getting how Rambi and the barreljets worked so I probably had more problem than necessary. Lucky I got the instruction manual from the Wii-version. Remember when games had physical manuals in the box? I do miss those.

Overall I can see the charm of it if you like 2D plattformers, which I do to a degree, but maybe not in 30 degrees Celsius on the first week back at my job after vacation. And a non-functioning postal service for the game I'm actually interested in playing. I find it interesting though that the game had really long load times, especially since I played it on Switch 2 since I thought the console would cut some of these, but maybe there needs to be an update for it first. Another thing I'be been thinking about it that compared to say Super Mario, Donkey Kong very often disrupts the flow in a level. Super Mario feels really great when you just enter the flow and can rush past stage after stage since it just clicks. Maybe I don't know the levels enough or the mechanics, but I just doesn't get that feeling over the game, since when it seems I'm on my way breaking the code, the game changes up and slows down the gameplay, either with the rickety rides or barreljets or something like the barrels that spin... or the bonus stages that constantly take you away from the main game. 

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (Wii U)

 

Shouldn't it be Tripple Trouble?

Well, had to continue and Bananza didn't come to me on the Monday after release so I had one more evening. Didn't feel it as much in this game. On one hand from start to finish it is very close to the second game, but there is a lot more stuff to do, getting items to trade to find your way to the Secret Area and such compared to the second game where you just needed the money to pay. But at the same time it was straightforward. 

Story is that Donkey and Diddy disappeared in this new area so Dixie sets of to find them. Funky Kong gives you vehicles to traverse the area and Dixie Kong's cousin Kiddy Kong joins her. He's a stand in for Donkey. I liked the gameplay in the second game better for some reason. Maybe due to the things they tried was a bit more obnoxious like the area where you constantly gets shoot at or an area where you swim in poison water where your controls are reversed. I also feels that the stages from Donkey Kong Land 3 is rather different which also maybe gives me a pushback (or maybe since I played that game legit on my Game Boy Pocket I replayed the stages so much that it felt like they where more stages).

Maybe I'm fatigued after playing the whole series during a weekend or maybe that review in Super Play was right, it's not that good of a series. Or the fact that temperatures are reaching 30 degrees C might effect my enjoyment of the game.