Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade - INTERmission (Switch 2)

 

The most irritating thief in all of Final Fantasy.

Well, there was a DLC released for the original game that centered on Yuffie as she appears in Midgar right as Cloud fall down and meet Aerith. She has come to help Avalanche, or the proper group that Barret splintered from, and steal as much materia as possible from Shinra. You also got to meet a stick wielder named Shinnon, also from Wutai that helps you. You go around Sector 7 meeting more Jesse and Wedge and hearing how Tifa got the idea to go to Don Corneo or about the plate coming down. You can also play Fort Condor a board game simulating the real mini game of Fort Condor in the original game, but this one was much more fun really. Easier to grasp and is shorter at least. 

It's only two chapters, the first being as mentioned Sector 7 and then infiltrating Shinra to get some materia Shinra is working on. There Yuffie trades blows with Scarlett actually make her somewhat more of a character in this series than the original game. And then they throw in an unknown boss, Noah, at the end that looks deranged and have steel wings attached to himself and killing Shrina soldiers left and right. I have no clue what he was supposed to be beyond being a one-winged angel wannabe that players will look at and say "there it is!".  Beating it Yuffie and Shinnon tries to escape, but Shinnon sacrifices himself to protect Yuffie that escapes and witness the fall of the plate above Sector 7. She leaves Midgar and a short scene of Cloud and the gang getting a ride in a car, teasing us about Rebirth.

Overall much more enjoyable, and that has to do with playing it on easy. No frustration and such. Yeah, I'm probably burned on the action parts of the game.

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade (Switch 2)

 

Back again!

So I've played through the first part of the Remake trilogy of Final Fantasy VII (spoilers for the whole story).  It contains the Midgar part of the story. and graphically and musically it's good. Voice acting is great and some of the expanded stuff are rather great, I really like more from Avalanche crew, Biggs, Wedge and Jessie. What I don't particulary like is the combat gameplay, I struggled with it up to the very end. I did it on normal and when Rebirth comes out I think I will play on easy cause I was just frustrated when for example I'm fighting Rufus and I don't know what to do (apparently recommended to use a certain materia, but it was on Tifa so no can do), and then followed another boss fight without being able to change equipment meaning you have to go back several bosses if you die so you just gotta tough it out, and that is a pain.

So it's a bit of a mixed bag and I don't know if I really like it. The original feels better (it's also a complete story) and maybe because I like old stuff, but I think it holds up. Especially the Switch version where you can speed up the gameplay. But it was fun doing side quest and get to know the other people in Sector 7, but in the end I just wanted it over. I didn't clear Jules pull-up challenge (apparently people said it was better to take away the voices and sounds since they just distract you) or the Shinra VR battle simulator, they beat me up on the solo run so I just quit that after a couple of tries, getting the EXP materia. The game is very well paced though, you fight monsters pretty much enough to always have a challenge but still doable if you know what you are doing (which I'm bad at).

Then, the last point of discussion regarding the game itself, the changes to the story, a multiverse theory... god I hate that. On one hand, yes, it would be nice if Zack survived... or the other of Avalanche (still don't know if Wedge and Jessie made it or died). But the Whispers as enemies and obstacles just feel obnoxious and maybe if it have a pay-off in the third game, but I have my doubts. And finally, yes I got this game as a Game Key Card... and it made me get more... so that genie is out of the bottle. And later this year (as of writing) Rebirth comes out for the Switch 2. I gotta get it and then we shall see when the third game appears.

Hello, Mario! (Switch)

 

Hey Mario!

So here's a short review. Nintendo just released this... application I think to entertain kids with. It's basically the Super Mario 64 startup sequence where you could pull his ears and mustasch and so on. There it was a showing of the 3D capabilities of the Nintendo 64, here it's a kids entertainment. Now, I admit I've played around with the 64 thing from time to time, it was cool at the time.

This version can only be played in handheld mode and he is a bit more free roaming this time around... which is kinda interesting since he's actually more 2D in this version. You can push him around the screen, add things like mushrooms and certain enemies. I also found a mini-game where you must make him pop 100 bubbles. All in all a short little free application to play around with... I mostly played it because I'm waiting for Final Fantasy VII remake to download so I can start that. 

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined (Switch)

Let's continue!

Finished up most of the things for the whole game, clocking in around 85 hours of game time so it was quicker than my 3DS save which I see ended about 98 hours. Only around level 50 while I climbed above level 70 here and most of the jobs mastered. So what did they change in the overall game? Well, as said monsters roam free and I discovered embarrassingly late that if you are high enough level you can insta-kill the roaming monsters by pressing A before making contact. The drawback is that you only get EXP and gold for that monster and only 1 job point, but since it saves on resources and are immensely quicker it was much more fun to grind that way. What blocks me at the moment from 100% is that I need to defeat the almighty one at least once to get the final gold tablet fragment to open the last world, but he trounced me pretty much when I faced of against him. I could probably grind out all the jobs running around the Cathedral of Evil and put on some super-combo with experimentation, but it's getting late and I got Final Fantasy VII Remake to play as well.

Other things, I can't really say I missed the cut islands. The only one I missed for story reason was the second island with the priest that was turned into a monster and killed by his peers. Not only was it a story that was a bit gut wrenching, but it also was one of the few that tied more islands together than solitary chapters. I went back to my old save and apparently one island was "Gröndal" and I have no memory of it, since it have a tree I assume it has something to do with Yggdrasil. The one thing I will say is that the streamlining maybe have an adverse effect of getting into the role-playing of the characters. I mean, you kinda applaud them for making a game where you don't fight a monster for the first 2 hours of the game. Other things is that Regenstain, the island with the grey rain went by so fast that the mystery of it doesn't really hit. I can get by it from my memories of my first play through, but newcomers might not get that into it, and that goes for most things as everything goes by so fast. Things I noticed they added was a different ending to the Volograd region, that's where the priest is turned into a monster. In the future the mayor destroys a plaque you uncovered with the truth of the villagers shameful act, but you now have the option to take it back in time instead and give it to the old mayor that ensures that the truth comes out. And they added so that an older version of Kiefer is with you destroying the Demon King, making his journey complete. The one thing I dislike about it is that he leaves before saying goodbye to his father and sister. I wanted an emotional scene dammit!

So of the two version I've played, would I play it on 3DS ever again? No, I just checked my old save and good god, everything was so slow, the graphics oh god, no, I'm retiring the 3DS version to the box of games I probably won't play again (and no, I don't have a hoarding problem... I just don't like getting rid of my stuff). On the other hand, if I could play the original version from the Playstation 1, I might give it a shot... if I got the time that is. I can't really throw 100 hours on games like that, but at least I know it's well spent when it comes to Dragon Quest. One sad thing is that they got rid of the job costumes (and gave you legacy costumes instead) and that the casino is replaced with a lucky panel minigame. I think it has to do with the rating system that puts gambling to an 18+ without question and I can see it, saves me a couple of hours where I don't need to get the best things by getting tokens.

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation (14) - The Wardrobe, the monodrone and the hag.

 

Mike Wazowski

The adventure continues. Our heroes reaches the last gear where they can see five wardrobes and a portculis with an metal plate above it with 5 red crystals formed like blood drops. They study the wardrobes and decide to open the one with a clock in it. They peak inside and see gears and wheels turning, out falls a monodrone that tries to get up and return to the wardrobe but is hindered to do it. They adopt him and call him Mike Wazowski. They are supposed to kill him, but don't and then they can't open any more wardrobes. They go south to another room with a golden mastodon with a star indentation behind it's back. Freya heads over to Destinova to get the lever and returns with it and pulls it in. The statue starts to move and the floor erupts in flame. And different devils from the nine hells appear every turn.

At the start they are able to keep up, but the more devils that appear and more nasty attacks they get our heroes health diminish as fire envelops them. Mike Wazowski is killed by one of the devils. The final devil to appear offers them the chance to get rid of them for the exchange of a soul. Freya negotiate for the soul of the flying skull comedian hanging after them. After a good roll the skull is dragged to hell screaming by the devil and the other devils disappear. A man appears from the lingering smoke offering them a chalice and disappears. Exhausted they rest and then start searching the room, stripping it of every valuable they can get their hands on.

They return to the previous room and notice that one of the blood drops have ignited. They open another door with a hag on and two insectoid creatures appear that they kill rather fast. Then they open one with orcs in battle and several orcs appear. They kill them and we reach level 11. Finally. The session ends here.

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Demo (Switch 1)

 

Here we go again!

Well, they are (or have as of release) remaking Dragon Quest VII, this time for modern console, including Switch and Switch 2. I've only played the first remake for the 3DS (Damn, almost 10 years ago... I'm getting old) and I recall that being a great time, although a bit long, but I've heard everyone else speaking about finish some of the early games like in 25 hours where I spend 100 hours so I might just be really slow. There's some buzz about changes like the casino being gone since that would net it an immediate 18 rating and that they changed how the class system works. 

The demo then, it starts from the beginning and ends before you can get to the second island, which feels like a logical end point. You get to try out some of the combat, how the story progression works and still leaves you with the mystery of why the world is what it is and leaves you on a cliff hanger. Pretty wise move. I don't recall how the 3DS version began, but I suspect that they threw in a battle a bit earlier with some spirits just so that people would get faster to a fight cause that is both a praise and complaint I've heard about the game, taking to long to get to the meat of the game with something like running around on fetch quest for 2 hours while other finds it interesting. I can find it rather ballsy.

Nothing much else to say. Beside the set up I provided for the 3DS version the first island's story is about a village of cowardly men where all women have been kidnapped and you try to figure it out. You met the warrior woman Maeve that was the younger sister of the town hero that was left to die hoping the townspeople would come and save him as he led the charge alone against the monsters of the island, but they didn't due to cowardice. And in turn Maeve turned into a vengeful spirit, but pretty much turns around when she helps this little kid that tried to protect his father. I guess feeling sympathy for him since he did pretty much what she did. And as the party storm the enemy the kid rallies the townspeople so that they actually show up for the final confrontation. It's short, it's sweet, it's a tear jerker... a great short story with tragedy. And that is what I recall from playing it all those years ago. As of writing it should arrive in four days. Can't wait.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Switch 2)

 

SAMUS! SAMUS! SAMUS!

Finally, a new Switch 2 game that I got on card for the console. Otherwise it has only been Switch 1 copies, and that's kinda interesting for a console where I prefer getting the older games. Apparently Nintendo as of writing in december 2025 is making some other game cards so that other companies actually put the f***ing game on the card to save on damn space. Hell I've ordered a Mario Kart physical copy just save in on 20 GB! Anyway, new Metroid Prime game. The remasters of 2 and 3 never appeared so wonder what happened to them. It clearly was a troubled production on this game so I wonder if they put all them to get this game out instead of giving us the other games on one console (or they thought it was better to use them on the GameCube Online thing in the future, who knows). Anyway again, back to the game.

Samus is sent to a research station that is under attack from the pirate leader Sylux that you encountered in Metroid Prime Hunters for the DS. They apparently found an ancient artifact and during the scuffle it activates teleporting Samus, some of the federation soldiers and equipment to an unknown planet, Viewrose. Traveling around you first rescue Mac, an engineer that helps you during the adventure with technical stuff. You also discovered that the planet used to hold an intelligent race of people that are no more due to the Great Tragedy, but they reward you with psychic powers to help you on your adventure.

During the adventure you meet more Federation soldiers, Sarge and Armstrong, the sniper Tokabi and a combat robot named V. They pretty much help you on each area and then they all come together for the final area where they seem to be lost until you finish up and it turns out they all survived. Your goal on the planet is to get 5 keys in order to open the central tower in the desert to get to a teleporter and get out. You also finds a motorbike to ride around in the desert collecting green crystals, finding upgrades and fight the same kind of enemies that roams the desert. After getting a mech for the robot to shatter the shield around the tower you head in and get attacked by Sylux... and here I got blasted away. I played it on normal until this fight, but I got blasted several times over... and it's not really me that get blasted. The Federation Troopers? They join you for this fight, but with that comes the fact that if they die, you lose.

And worst part is? Sylax have attacks that cover most of the arena at once, nuking them. You can heal them, but when 4 of the team is down and you can only heal one at a time and he nukes them again, you die. So I lowered difficulty to just get it over with. Of course that made me miss out on getting the hard mode, but I have a suspicion that I won't be playing that any time soon. Overall, it was a decent challenge up until the end. The only time I looked something up was where to find the final piece of the mech in the jungle and the treasure bots that makes the map show where upgrades are. Best new thing for the prime games ever. And I don't get why it took them this long since the 2D games with maps have had markers on it since the SNES. 

Apparently it's a bit of online chatter about this game, but I found it enjoyable enough.