Goetia (Switch)

 

COME BACK!!!

Finally finished Goetia. I got it when it was released on a whim. Think it was the spooky atmosphere I was promised that made me go for it. Why did it take so long? Well, I played a couple of hours, got stuck and took forever to get back. It's about this wandering spirit Abigail who has to search her old family home to find out what happened with her sister and trying to release the six demons that have been trapped within it. It's a puzzle game and it gives me 7th Guest vibes. It draws you in with the mystery of what happened and then you uncover demon worshippers, souls trapped and ghost towns.

Graphics and music are good, although I wished I could adjust the lightning somehow in game since I can't see everything in the dark. It's fairly long. Total time would be somewhere around 10 hours, but then again, after hour 4 I made sure I had a walkthrough besides me since some of the puzzles are just weird to me. Also the larger areas where you travel back and forth with items makes it harder and harder to solve by my own thinking. 

Finally, I got the good ending... but I though I actually screwed it up. To get the ending you need to gather 4 items belonging to your sisters sons and to get the good ending find the 4 items that completes the items. I had trouble with a picture album behind a safe. I got it... but I couldn't get the album. So I thought I had to get the bad ending first to get it to spawn, I get the ending, resume game after credits and go back and still no picture album. I wonder if it glitched out and finally finding a walkthrough with pictures and such and guess what, it automatically transported to the pillar room. This why I needed more light in the game. Also, I'm not opposed reading a lot in games, but for good sake, the font of the handwriting in many of the notes makes it really hard to understand what happens. Also, the system in where notes are stored are a bit hard to go through for the mansion, since there is so many of them. Don't know how many times I had to start over from the top since I overshot the last page. 

Interesting for one playthrough... and do it at once instead of separating for a couple of years.

Galaga (NES Classic Mini) & Galalga '88 (PC Engine Mini)

 

Man the stations, incoming aliens!

Played a bit of Galaga mostly because I really don't feel like starting up a 100 hours JRPG and Diddy Kong Racing DS has some infuriating moments, but I at least got it to work. So I spent 2-3 days of my vacation to check how many games I have and also to find how many copies there is and how many I've finished. Probably shouldn't have done that since it gave me some horrendous back pains so I hardly could get out of bed the next day and was forced to do stretching excercises for a couple of days after that. 

But now I know that I have two versions of this game, this one on the NES Classic Mini and the other on PC Engine. Played the NES one first and made it to stage 8 after a couple of tries, but no further than that. I don't expect more than that either really. Basic colours  and not a lot of them. Galaga '88 on the other hand, a real step up in graphics with more colours and a background beyond the blackness of space. Even your spaceship has more than just black and white. On the other hand it makes it harder since a planet or space-station happens to make the spacecraft you pilot blend in the background together with the enemies bullets. So maybe it wasn't that strange that I only reached level 5 on that... or just that I'm bad at it. 

Doom (1993) (Switch)

 

Warmer Than Hell!

Was gonna play some Diddy Kong Racing for the DS, but the cartridge I got isn't working. Probably just dirty, but I need some cleaning solvent first, so instead of a cute racing game with cartoon animals I played through the original Doom (1993) for the first time instead (well, I might have played it on some computer as a kid back in the 90's, but I can't recall it). Bought it on Switch together with the sequel and Doom 64. It was rather fun. Mind you, I played it on the easiest setting. Basically you are a marine stationed on Mars that have to clean up a demon invasion after a failed experiment by some military force. You travel through different maps looking for weapons, ammunitions and healing items. Takes pretty much 10 to 30 minutes. Of course, you can do it around a couple of minutes if you know what you do and where to go. After battling a Hell Baron you get ambushed by a horde of demons awakening on another moon around mars that disappeared a couple of years ago. Battling through more hoards of infernal kind makes you confront the Cyberdemon. I was rather lucky in that fight since, he was caught in a room where I could pummel him with the Plasma Gun before he was able to get out and then continue with the rocket launcher. 

Do you get back to earth now? No, time to fight the demons in hell itself, ending with the confrontation of the Spider Mastermind. Got the BFG so was able to fight him off and finally return to earth. And then supposed to play through the 4th episode. I think we are reaching the point where my abilities don't match the task at hand. I got to the second chapter and after that is stuck. Read up on it and apparently a very hard episode overall so I won't probably be able to overcome it without training and I don't really feel like it. Still, all you get is an end screen with the doom marine vowing vengeance on the demons for invading earth and killing his pet bunny.

Still, it was fun and enjoyable. The music is classic and the graphics are rather good. Somehow the smooth movement of the hand and weapons as you run is almost hypnotising. As much as its seen as an FPS, it's also a bit of puzzle and platforming. What is a bit irritating is how they put floor hazards in several rooms, give you a suit to walk over it, but this one map wants you to explore a maze and if you (like say, a newbie) takes all suits and still not find the key you are supposed to find. Still, overall find it rather fun. Also noticed there's a documentary on the game on the Swedish Public Channel so might check that out, although it seemed to focus on the ultra violence aspect of the game. Which, granted, are a lot, but you fight the legions of hell, isn't that something good? (As I write this I'm watching the 4th season of Seven Deadly Sins that pretty much put some grey morality of good and evil so maybe not).

Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)

 

Fold Them!

Latest entry in the Paper Mario-series and first time on Switch. I got every game in series besides Paper Jam, the crossover with the Mario & Luigi-game series. Story is that as the Mushroom kingdom prepares an Origami festival all toads and Bowser's Minions are folded into figures, trapped in walls etc. by King Olly, the titular Origami King. Together with Olivia, Olly's sister Mario sets out on an adventure to unfold all trapped paper characters and find the 5 streamers that puts out a protective "shield" around Princess Peach's castle that was taken to the top of a volcano. 

The story is fun and even dramatic at places. I mean, how often do I feel sorry for a bob-bomb that explodes, sacrificing itself just so that he at least made an impact? Kamek is always a joy to listen to about his troubles in fighting Mario on Bowser's orders. It's really well written and the graphics looks fantastic and it is all followed by a fantastic soundtrack. Now, the gameplay... and for the most part it works fine. The gimmick of this game is that you are supposed to solve puzzles in aligning enemies in formations to either take out with the hammer or jump on them. With the main enemies it can be fun and addictive with the puzzle solving. But then we have the bosses. Instead of standing in the middle you stand on the side and creates a path with arrows to gather treasure, activate switches to unleash attack, either standard attacks or summons. And I hate it. The stress of the timed puzzles with the fact I clearly ain't that bright when it comes to seeing patterns here. Mostly because the bastards cheats and upset the game board so i can't figure out how to move. Worst were the Vellumental bosses and guess what? The final boss is using all of them, but you gotta hurry, since he also heals if you ain't quick enough. Thanks, makes me really appreciating the Ice Vellumental since it apparently could be much more frustrating.

So bosses really frustrating. But boss characters where fun. The disco dancing Hole Punch that taken over the Tomb of the Shroom where the DJ plays some funky tunes, the Rubber Band boss that enacts several plays in Shogun Theater and a mobster Tape roll. Really fun. There is a section when you travel the sea and I wonder if they just did a simplified Wind Waker and as you fly one of Bowser's airships you bomb paper airplanes out of the sky as they dive bomb against you. I liked collecting trophies and treasures, finding all the toad and hidden blocks (thanks to the developers giving you all the tools you needed). So, as most Paper Mario games, there are moments that you just have to experience, but sadly the boss fights  ain't one of them. Maybe a second playthrough in the future when I don't get blindsided by each boss gimmick. Or maybe just finish off the last 4 trophies to get 100 % and never play the game again. Sill got a large back catalog of  games, but the summer vacation is on its last leg so we shall see if if I can get one game in before that (I know it's December when this goes up, but that makes it just more fun).

One thing that bothers me in the story is Olly's motivation. He hates toads because his creator scribbled on him so he wants to eradicate all toads. Now, we ain't discussing that he went the whole game without reading it and took it for nonsense, but the story proves him right. The toads are bastards. Early thing we encounter is that toads cut down the great tree of the woods... and are sentient. Later on we rescue the toad responsible and he intends to cut down the tree again so he can build a veranda. The toads in the Spa area is slave drivers and what do we make of the house of ninjas which is in itself a death trap? Maybe they actually deserve whats coming to them?

Astral Chain (Switch)

Demon Cop

Finally, a game that isn't a remake. And made by Platinum so high octane action is on the menu. It's about twins that joined the police force Neuron like their adoptive father. Neuron is a special division that targets attacks from Chimeras, demons from the astral plane that spreads corruption and started attacking humanity when a meteor hit the earth. The chimeras travels through these red gates and occasionally kidnaps people so you gotta save the people on the Ark. The Ark is a constructed island in the pacific that was created to gather people to save them from the corruption.  The Ark is run by the UNION that set up Neuron with the new technology of the Legions that was constructed by their commander Yoseph Calvert. With it the officers of Neuron have caught chimeras and turned them into fighting abilities by the astral chain. Theirs five legions, sword, arrow, arm, beast and axe. 

During one mission into the astral plane all legions are corrupted, but you take your back. As you escape the astral plane your father stays behind and presumably dies. Meanwhile a missing scientist, Jena Anderson appears after 20 years and with her hightened gate activity. You also meet the hacker Hal that works for Neuron that helps you uncover some information. Basically the government is evil and keeping the people in fear  (and it hints that they are behind the pandemic that hit the earth earlier). While confronting Jena your sibling is skewered and taken to the Ark Research Institute (ARI). And as you look for information from the hacker group Hermit in the forbidden zone you are attacked by a chimera controlled by Jena. Your sibling arrives in a new suit and with a new legion. Due to trespassing you get put in jail, but an emergency causes you to be released to save the people. The ruckus ends with Jena attacking Yoseph head on, but during the battle the player dies, and is awakened by merging with the legion, going on a rampage. When you almost kills your sibling, Jena steps in and is killed. And then Yoseph orders the Raven unit that taken over from Neuron and is led by your sibling to kill you, and pretty much reenacts the garage scene in Robocop after Robocop learns about directive 4. You are saved by Hal that went into hiding together with Olive, the communicator expert. You try to rescue Brenda, the Neuron medic that hides in the sewers, but are confronted by your sibling, but before anything happens the Raven unit arrives, and it turns out that they are all clones of your sibling. They kill your sibling to activate the legion merging. You learn to activate your own again and escapes. You regroup and head to ARI to confront Yoseph at the top of the tower. At the top the plot is revealed... I think. Seems that Yoseph tried to merge with the legions in order to make Noah (get it... Noah's ark?). He kills all the clones and your sibling. After a battle you beat him, your sibling stops him and then the legion kills him.

The game plot lost me at the end. Maybe if I can beat the post-game mission it would be clearer since there is three files with password protection, but I got beat up at the ARI and quit pretty much. Also, one clone of your sibling survived the destruction so status quo uphold. Now, the game was fun. Though, the action is standard for Platinum and it works. The more fun part was the detective side of the game. Go around the site, getting clues to deduce what happened or use as way to get information. Spy with your legions or help people in their everyday lives. Sadly, that is the smallest part of the game. You can save cats, take pictures of people, places and enemies. Find all toilets in game to get paper to a toilet fairy... this game is weird at times. Get costumes and dress up. Learning from my mistake with Wonderful 101 I played it on Casual and it took me some 25 hours. I encountered two bugs as well. First was where you find the ghost picture mission. I went away and intended to get back later, but I couldn't go back in the tunnel. Something stopped my character from getting in. Another was leaving Hal's secret hideout and I fell out of bounds. First I thought it was part of the story as I fell and restarted since Hal is a hacker, but when nothing happened I load my save and went out without problem.  Lucky nothing was lost there.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Switch)

He was a Magic Man!

Played Ni No Kuni once again and that was 6 years ago. Same story, nothing added. Although I know I've complained that the end-game didn't have an ending for Oliver and his mother, but the game technically ended with the fall of Shadar and there it is. His mother saying good-bye and replaying it I can see that it was the perfect ending point. And the reason why it is like that is probably due to it first being a DS game that got ported and enhanced for the PS3 where they pretty much added all the White Witch stuff. So the title of the game didn't originally exist... or so I gather. 

This gonna be more critical than when I played it the first time. The reason being, I found the game more frustrating now. First off, it tends to crash at certain intervals, and worst, often when I try to save the game. Then, the kid voice acting is not good. Oliver's voice really grates on me, and he can't act. And none of the actors can say the name Cassiopeia correct. It's a damn constellation tied to the Perseus myth. Don't you have a classical education? And thirdly, the gameplay. I despise the familiar combat. Why force the player to choose three familiars, that you randomly can catch, that you gotta equip with different weapons and armours (if they even can have weapons or armours) and all those variables is somehow gonna help you in battle? When it usually enough to mash A and attack with the first familiar. And add the time limit forces you to switch them out, but at the end game you pretty much just need Oliver (and it's frankly much better with the choices of spells you can use). And don't get me started on the attacks that constantly cancels out my attacks or giving items to my companions. And some of those attacks are from said companions. That's just frustrating!

Small nitpicks is, why do I have spells that have no use? Like shrink or transform? Did they got a use in the DS version? The sequel released a year or two back? And some only have one use that one time and is never mentioned again, and the main mechanic of take and give heart isn't that well used in the later part of the game. And technically, what difference is love from kindness or enthusiasm from ambition? They are described pretty much the same in the game or is it a translation and/or cultural problem? Also, I really would like a physical version of the wizard companion since it would make the game easier (and was the intended play on the DS since they couldn't get it on the cartridge). Take the wooden encampments that you gotta look up in the book and then try to find on the world map. And you can't access it while traveling on the dragon so you gotta land to look it up. And it clearly gives an advantage in finding the secret treasures on the world map before you get the locate treasure spell. 

So with all that, is it still worth playing? It's still a good story and the animations and designs from Studio Ghibli pops out. Although the creature design is not always that interesting, I would blame the eyes since most of them have big dopey eyes. The spider enemies look so goofy. And I get it that it's a game targeting kids and you gotta catch the enemies and such, but still. First time playing, go ahead, second time around... maybe six years in between is rather good. 

Speaking of story... isn't the intro going a bit fast? Oliver just awakens Mr. Drippy and he pretty much bullies this poor sad kid into taking on the other worlds dangerous wizard who ruled the land for a 1 000 years. And pretty much berates him across the whole game? If I'm gonna be dark, it looks like this is just Oliver trying to cope with the fact he feels responsible for his mother's death so he goes into this other world which mirrors the real world, but clearly is just in his mind. And his neighbours do squat when he dress up in this cape and runs around waiving a branch and pretending to heal people. Where is the social services? And is he really 13 years old (per the PS3 manual)? He acts and sound like 8!

The Wonderful 101 Remastered (Switch)

Go Go Team, Demolish Those Fiends!

Another remaster, another game I played before. As a write up for the last hurrah of the Wii U I even called it the best game on the Wii U. And now we got it remastered for different consoles and I of course bought it... again... for the switch. It's technically the third time I got it. First I got it as a free bonus download when getting Mario Kart 8 for the Wii  U since they tried to get more people buying the Wii U. And then I bought the physical version just because I liked it so much. And now again. And this time I went for physical from the beginning. Of course needed to wait a couple of weeks extra, but I got games to play in the meantime. 

So after not playing it for what? 5-6 years? Does it still holds up? I made one mistake playing it this time around, encouraged by the smoothness of Tokyo Mirage Session on Hard Mode I went in in Normal Mode for this and you know what, at times the game was a bit unplayable with the frustration at being pummeled by enemies again and again. The game is a bit too happy to send 2 or more well armoured enemies that each need 100 % focus to tackle and avoid damage, but since they get off screen when you focus on one, they will hit you with a critical attack messing up your flow. Although it is probably due to the game not giving you the right tools until you gathered more W-100's and bought the right skills and all that, since there was parts of the end game where I could stun-lock them with the time bomb and then wallop them into submission. And at those times the game felt really satisfying. So it's probably a "get good" mentality you need.

Even though you get times where the games is just a pain (the Vorkken fights comes to mind), the game still manages to make you feel awesome at the ends of certain chapters making it all worth it. The music pumps you up and pulling off the right unite morph is really gratifying. The humour, the dialog, I love it all. Now, what does the remaster do differently from the Wii U? Well, to fix the problem with only one screen you can press (-) and get the gamepad screen on the big screen. A bit like how you could move the different screens around on the Wii U. And that's seems to be it. Graphical upgrade, but I hardly see the difference. So there is nothing, no ability to watch the characters intro sequences beyond Wonder-Red and Blue (which is the only thing I would like to see since they are amusing, but I might not want to play through the game on a new save every time... but at least youtube caught up with the clips compared to back in 2014). Overall, I still love it, might prefer to play it lower difficulty, but the game is amazing.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore (Switch)

Go Go Power Rangers!

Been a summer of remakes and remasters (as of writing, when this goes up we are in November) so the time came for this one I haven't played since 2016. I decided to play it on hard this time since why not? And after roughly 50 hours I wonder, am I actually good at this game? I finished it in less than 70 hours that I played the original game on Normal, where I also used the DLC to level grind since I couldn't bother with playing as intended at that time. The achievement trophies are also a lot more filled out. I presume maybe the level grinding made it possible to avoid all battles, but instead this time I got more performa and got more skills that enabled stronger characters, but lower levels? It could also be due to me much faster just read the text and skip the spoken words, which I can't understand and fasten the session attacks. Or the improved quality of life upgrades maybe did something for me, if I noticed it at all. The big one was that they actually made a movie menu where I can watch the music movies instead of replaying the game. Still, the game is really lacking a quest log to keep track on requests and such, side stories they have in Topic, but requests you gotta remember what to do or whom to talk too. It would have been easier if the maps showed all request locations on such, but it only works if you are in that area.

The biggest change is that, since you don't have the Wii U gamepad they moved all the Topic and maps and such to the start button. It's also better since I recall I often had stop the game to look at the gamepad in order to go through Topic every 5 seconds. More costumes added and they also added an "arena" where you can go through in order to get more costumes and session attacks from non-main characters plus some extra story bits about Itsuki, Kiria and Tsubasa. Mostly the same story bits as the main game if you ask me.

Overall, the story is the same as I wrote the last time and still holds up for what it is. The social commentary is still relevant and all that. Still the censored version, but I don't mind that. What I noticed though this time around is... whatever happened to the CEO of Daiba that were hinted as a probably main antagonist that just disappears just after he is introduced? Where that some cut content to get it finished the first time or was it as intended? Also, is it really that smart to make Itsuki the President of Fortuna Entertainment (... Fortuna Entertainment, FE... Fire Emblem... never got that the first time) when pretty much every female employe of that company wants him? I can see potential #Metoo-moments here... and it might be the employees that harass the employer.

Lastly, the main character Itsuki, I resonate more with him now than I did back in 2016. Mostly because I now acknowledge that I have some things in common with him (not the thing about every female coworker jumping after me, let's not be unrealistic here). More that, just like him, I just follow what happens, I haven't had some real ambition in life to where I wanted to go and just followed the tide and just like him I feel I've ended up at a good place. That feels rather nice.

Ys Book I and II (PC Engine Core Grafx mini)

So played this game again as the news of Ys IX coming to the west so getting a bit of a reminder of the series. It's also been 6 years so thought it was a good amount of time in between. I recall liking it and reading about it confirms that I did. Although, replaying it showed some strange things. How did I finish it last time? It's hard at times and I easily got lost in the different mazes strewn around the game. The ending area I don't wanna talk about. Would have been nice with a map other than from the internet. It has been remade a couple of times, even for the DS, but sadly ain't that easy to get a hold off. 

Still great music and graphics. Sound effects were interesting since the getting item sounds a bit like the same sound from Metroid. Also, the audio mixing is not the best, but this time I actually cranked up the sound for the final battle so I at least heard what he said. Speaking of the final battle... who the hell thought that putting the necessary level to beat the final boss was the maximun 62? I was level 60 and got trounced every time, but level grinding for a couple of hours made it a cake walk. That's one of the most frustrating parts about the games. Sure, you can use certain items and strategies for some, but mostly there is a hidden level cap that is recommended to have to get past it. People talked about the end of Book 1, but that was never a problem.

And another thing... it's noticeable that there is 2 games stuck together since the mechanics change after entering the next one. Rings went to the inventory instead of the equipment which is a shame since you gotta equip the Goddess ring in the end, making you unable you to use any healing item at the final battle (hadn't I used the golden drop during the battle of Dalles it might not have been that much of a problem). And I hate the fact you can't change items or equipment during boss battles. 

Now, it sounds like I'm bashing the game, and I do. but there is still moments in the game that makes it a joy to play. I like the story. The gameplay is fun and the exploration is great, still sad about several point of no returns. 

Alien Crush (PC Engine Core Grafx mini)

Hello there.

Well, gotta play through all these games, cause what is otherwise the point getting them? Besides looking good as dust-collectors on my shelfs that is? Earliest released game on the console apparently

and it's a... pin-ball game. And not like the Sonic one on the Sega Mega Drive that appears to be story-based and such, no, you got one board with the choice of slow or fast ball and which background music you want out of two. So, try to the beat the high score I guess. It's greatest strenght is the design since it's obviously inspired by H.R. Geiger and especially the movie Alien. I can see the face-huggers. 

Fun for a couple of minutes and it looks good. The lunar song is great, but I wouldn't say it's something I would get out of my way to get. The space cadet pin-ball that came on Windows XP would be as fun, especially since I have more nostalgia for that one since me and my best friends spent one math lesson in school playing that game and taking turns to get the highest score. Still, it's Halloween week as the release of this so great game to write about it. And just maybe be another filler game to space out all the RPG:s.

Sunsetriders (Switch)

Ride em Cowboy!

As mentioned a couple of time I watched every video from the Clan of the Gray Wolf and their 16-bit gems. One of them being Sunsetriders for the SNES and Mega Drive. The music caught my ear and I really wanted to try it out, now 9 years later the arcade version is released on the Switch. A shoot'em'up with cowboys fighting their way through the wild west in search of wanted criminals. Now, it only takes 30 minutes to play through it if you are really easy on the continues... which I am. Great visuals and music and good gameplay. What would elevate this is the multiplayer option where you can be up to four people shooting it out. Now, I don't have that option. I tried to get my sisters to play it home during midsummer, but it never came to be. So I played it on my own. 

Fun game, but it probably is best played with others since the chaos of several shoots fired and someone stealing upgrades or money is always fun. Plus you all will laugh at the last one dying. Still, can at least enjoy the music on my own.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch)

The Bloody Rage of the Titans!

Xenoblade Chronicles is back on Switch with the first game... and I played it through again... another 120 hours. I've already mentioned the story so we can cut that, but it's still a great game. The music is fantastic and the graphical update is good. I recall starting the game back in 2014 and noticing that the eyes on the characters where a bit dim or almost hazy. Not so much anymore. They also improved the item limits so I didn't get the same sell all at a time. And the best thing they did was making the questing easier with the option to let the map show you where the items or persons are together with a dotted line on the map how to get there. No more guessing which enemy carries what item. Love it, might explain why the main game only took 106 hours this time around. Of course, the Colony 6 side quest is still a guess on some of the things, but you got the visions for that. Games move a bit slower with the change of the menu layout. I started up the 3DS version and when you pushed X you got to choose the menu while walking around. Here the games stops and bring it up. Probably due to using a bit more shortcuts on the d-pad. And I think they made certain parts easier, like the battle with Loretha... cause isn't the pools of ether gone?

Some more new thing was a battle arena where you can take on challanges, either however you want or limited to a pre-set party and level. Finish it with a special rank and you get items and equipments. I pretty much forgot it after getting Melia. Now, the big meat of the definitive edition is an epilogue chapter starring Melia and Shulk one year after the original game ended. They travel on the Junk (a machina ship) to the Bionis Shoulder to get to Alcamoth which I guess disappeared after the battle with Zansa. They get shot down by some beam from the city and crashes in a lake. Two of Rikki's children have been stowing away and you rescue them from some Volffs. Kino and Nena. There they find an army encampment of High Entia that point them to a camp of civilians with a lot of different races... did Alcamoth disappear after Zansa's battle? Cause, why is there Machina here? Anyway, they have fled the capital since it was taken over by the fog king, a monster of fog that came out of a rift in the sky. Where does the rift comes from? No answer.  You get there and saves a High Entia kid you met in the first game that is doing research in order to turn the Tellethia back into High Entia. He works together with Tyrea, Melia's step-sister that tried to kill her in the first game. Meanwhile you also look all around the Bionis Shoulder to find the Nopon archeology team that got lost there and is your stand-in for the team attack. Probably the best side quest in the game. I want a whole game with the Nopons after this. Didn't think I would ever say that, but replaying the game just shows that you have merchants, mercenaries, archeologies, inventors and cold bloodied drug smugglers... yes, Bana makes an appearance. It ends with you uniting the military and civilians to give you time to fight the Fog King with a special built Monado and you defeat it and return to Colony 9 with the survivors and then restores the capital and have a coronation for Melia.

It's a bit of fun. Apparently it was an area they took away for time constraints. We got some new battle music and I really liked it. The story is interesting in the beginning and seeing some of the characters from the first game and seeing what they are up to are fun and Melia and Tyrea setting their differences aside are great. The Fog King though... is a bit of a disappointment. I thought we were gonna see the other side of the rift, like connecting the game further with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 or even Xenoblade Chronicles X. 15 hours, a bit grinding in the end until I realised you could always put in casual Mode since I was rather done with the game. I got to level 76 (started at 60) and there was only one quest left, a battle with a level 80 dragon or a mini-boss level 77 lizard that insta-kills me instantly before I took the easy path.

Overall, still likes the game. Maybe prefer XCX over it with more mystery and exploration. In X you could look at a mountain and climb it, a bit of the same feeling like in Breath of the Wild, but here it is more like corridors. Still, great game. Playing it again also makes one think about certain aspects, for example how the Bionis soul is represented by a man and the Mechonis is a woman. Not only is the man the titan of life, what we usually attributed to female gods like Gaia, Venus, Freya and so on, he's also emotional and irrational which we used to (well, at least some used to, many still does) describe woman overall and kept them out of power. Meyneth is rational, a machine and is the good god in comparison giving life a chance. It's a bit subversion off clichés. Its anti-god message is hammered in at the end and really lifts free will as the greatest thing of all living. Also, the games main quest for the first 1/2 is a revenge plot where the heroes goes out to exterminate a whole race. And really, is Shulk really the leader in the beginning? Reyn is the more cliched hero from older games and is pushing the plot (although he is stupid and hotheaded like Garet in Golden Sun and Garet was clearly not a leader), and Dunban when he joins is the natural leader that shows the way. But the longer the game goes on Shulk grows to the leader that they look too. Probably helps that he can see the future so what he says is probably the right thing anyway. Also, Dickson is really fun observing how he affects the story and where it goes, and his 70's hippie outfit is amazing.

I bet he ha the metal soundtrack on some mp3-player in the satchel.

PC Engine Core Grafx Mini

It has finally arrived!

Finally got it, supposed to get out back in march, but thanks to the global pandemic it was obviously postponed. As a bonus it came right before I went on summer vacation. I've mostly seen people talking about the American release (since most Youtubers I watch are Americans), the TurboGrafx-16 mini, and I gotta be honest, it looks bad. I get why they changed the colours from the original PC Engine, but how could they make it so big and bulky? At least Europe got the Amazon black and blue. Funny enough the smallest of the mini consoles I have, but the most games on it... technically. It sports 57 games on the back-cover, but the thing is that some of them are the same game, but both a japanese and an english version. And some of the Japanese-only games are with japanese text and sound... meaning that I can't actually play them. The two games most effected are Snatcher and a game called Necromancer. Both very text heavy so that makes it rather impossible to play them. The german voice for Castlevania: Rondo of Blood isn't a problem since I know enough and it's just the intro.

Now, some information that I tried to find was how many controllers are there in the package? Just one, you were supposed to buy at least one more to get the most out of the console. And if you wanted to go all in you could get the multitap and buy three more so that five people could play games like Bomberman and Dungeon Explorer. Now, the pandemic shut down that idea as well so I have just the one. Although I thought that it's basically a NES-controller with some added turbo-configuration I though I would try some of the other controllers I had laying around. Now, I only got the Sega Mega Drive Mini controllers with USB-connections and they didn't work. So when the logistics of Konami is solved I will probably pay for 4 more controllers and a multitap. Gotta need some spare at least. The d-pad is a bit harder than the NES mini, but overall works like normal. Greath lenght on the cable so no need for extensions.

Like the Sega Mega Drive mini you can get to the game menu from the games, but this time holding both the Select and Start button... or Select and Run button. Save stats goes a long way and you can choose different backgrounds. They also decided to divide up the games for the PC Engine and the TurboGrafx-16 (I assume the European releases were rather insignificant or that the PAL format really messes with the games) so you gotta switch them around to get to the games. Interesting choice and since they have doubles I get why they did that. They also play little animations while starting up the games, reflecting if it was a huecard (the cartridge the first games come on) or a CD-ROM game. 

Speaking of the games, I've got a couple of them before on Wii and Wii U (and the Switch arcade archives). As mentioned, some games that are completely in Japanese I can't play if I wouldn't do something drastically like putting in some translation patch (which I won't do since I'm not that technical). Other games don't need it, Castlevania or some of the shooter games since the words don't affect how you play the game. I started up snatcher and the visuals and music are fantastic but a lot of text and words in Japanese and as the game starts... you gotta chose words to progress and I can't read it. And it is pretty much a visual novel I gather? Might just youtube someone playing the Sega CD version. You got a lot of shooters like Salamander (the arcade original of Life Force, which I gotten 7 times... and some times twice on the same console). With this I might finally finish Neutopia and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, but since it's the Summer (as of writing) I might play Ys 1 & 2 again, especially since I just learnt that Ys IX is coming next year.

Playing some of the games and looking at it... probably had I not gotten the games on Wii and Wii U it would probably be the best way to experience these games for someone who haven't played the games. It was a bit more pricey, but I think it's worth it. This is at the moment also the last mini console I will get unless they release a Nintendo 64 mini (I'm not touching the Playstation mini). 

Mega Man X (Mega Man X Legacy Collection) (Switch)

Gotta continue with Mega Man X, hold as the best Mega Man-game for the SNES. Never played it as a kid. Bought this five times now. First time clearing it. A bit miffed that the rewind function from the Mega Man Legacy Collection isn't here. Story is that Dr. Cain, an archeologist discovers a hidden robot facility where Dr. Light have hidden X, a robot that have free will and was put to sleep in order to go through a diagnostic for 30 years that ensured he had a moral compass and such. Pretty much overslept for 70 years. With this Dr. Cain is able to create the reploids, free thinking robots. Some of them goes rouge, and are called Mavericks that have to be hunted down by... the Hunters. 

Dr. Cain then builds another robot to lead the Hunters, Sigma... that becomes a Maverick himself and brings with him a lot of Hunters to Mavericks and Cain sends the Hunter Zero and the awakened X to stop Sigma. Good going Cain. So X is on a highway fighting of a Maverick attack until Vile, a mercenary Maverick appears and Zero saves X. Zero tries to find Sigma and X stops the Maverick hunters. During the game you find upgrades left by Dr. Light that enhance X and with it you beat Chill Penguin, Launch Octopus, Storm Eagle, Armored Armadillo, Flame Mammoth, Sting Chameleon, Spark Mandrill and Boomer Kuwanger. Fun thing is that defeating the bosses effects other stages. Zero finds Sigma and both battle through Sigmas stages until Vile almost kills X, but Zero sacrifices himself so that X can fight off Sigma. 

Since I haven't played it as a kid I'm a bit meh about it. It was hard at times, and without looking it up, certain parts is pretty much impossible to find since they demand you know how to play it very well. One upgrade demands you have the hard hat and perform a perfect jump so that you can climb and destroy it, but you only got that one chance since if you break the lowest blocks without getting to the top, you have to restart the stage since you can't reach it again. And the non-maverick bosses... f***ing cheats. Eyes and noes that you have to hang to the wall with a death trap right below you? God damn. 

It's a bit overhyped for me. I don't actually get it really. Graphics nice and music is probably the best since Mega Man 3. But more than that? It's fun fully upgraded, but heres the thing, I think I played on some sort of easy mode for this version, playing it normally would probably have driven me mad with anger on the frustrating part. Really wished for some rewind.

Mega Man Legacy Collection (Switch)

Super Fighting Robot - Mega Man

Though we would go through the whole package of the legacy collection since there is a couple of things that doesn't show up when I write about the separate games. No, it isn't because I need to fill out the weeks since my backlog of 100 hours JRPG:s is getting out of hand (well, maybe). Back to the collection you get the rewind function for the games, a database library for every character in the games. Things like box arts from the three main regions, the japanese instruction manual and posters from Japan and the USA. Small fun things. What caught my interest for a couple of minutes was the music library with the music from the games. Some sketches and such. Sadly no summary of what happens in the games and such, gotta play the game... and read the wikipedia article on what happens.

The other big thing that might have caught peoples interests are the challenges. Clear certain portions of stages, either in a single game or over a couple of games. Boss rushes or 1 single boss (take that Yellow Devil). I am obviously not that good since I was just able to unlock 15 challenges. It also showed my over-reliance on rewind in the normal games since they take it away from the challenges and platform challenges really trips me up when I, a couple of times I might add, just jumps down a hole. Yeah, I'm not that good.

Overall, I would recommend the package, unless you already bought them 5-6 times (with the NES and Sega Mega Drive Mini I got Mega Man 2 six times at this point). 

Mega Man 6 (Mega Man Legacy Collection) (Switch)

Sir-Not-Appearing-In-Europe

The 6th and final Mega Man game on the NES and as that the most polished in graphical and gameplay ways. The story is that the first annual robot tournament have concluded and the organiser, a certain Mr. X takes the 8 robot masters and reprogram them to conquer the world. And as stated in the beginning of the game, apparently is the one behind Dr. Wily. So Mega Man is called in once again to save the world from the robots Flame Man, Knight Man, Blizzard Man, Plant Man, Tomahawk Man, Yamato Man, Centaur Man and Wind Man. This game was not released on the NES in Europe, which is a bit strange since it's the first (and I think only) game where western people could participate in a design competition of the robot masters so Knight and Blizzard Man are non-japanese. 

Rush have been overhauled so there is no rush coil and instead been turned to adapters that enhance Mega Man in certain ways. The power adapter gives you a punch that open up different pathways to finish the stages or beat up enemies that the normal mega buster can't handle. The other adapter is the Jet adapter that gives you a small flight ability. Both are important to reach the alternative boss chamber on certain stages to get letters that spell out Beat and gives you access to him. Didn't have a use for him this time so didn't use him. The great thing about it is that there is no need to refill the power meters, the jet recharge automatically when not in use and the power adapter you have to charge up to use the better abilities. No more fear of running out of rush coils or jet powers so that you are stranded and either have to grind for refills or restart the stage. 

So Mega Man defeats the robot masters and goes after Mr. X and beta him up, and it turns out it was Dr. Wily... shocking! Do the Wily stages and refight the robot masters, yuo corner Dr. Wily and now tie him up and take him in to custody ending on... to be continue? So 5 that ended with him escaping didn't have a to be continue, but this one has? Bold move Capcom, bold move. The adapters are a welcome addition, but there is something amiss when you don't have the coil. Overall, better than 4, maybe equal to 5.

Mega Man 5 (Mega Man Legacy Collection) (Switch)

Revenge of Proto Man

Continued with the 5th game and the cutscenes gets better and better. And now the stages begins to show use of other mechanics. Water was used from the second game on, but now they added a gravity stage and to break up the water stage you get a short water bike section. Interesting stuff. Story is that Proto Man have kidnapped Dr. Light and tries to take over the world with 8 robot masters. Mega Man once again is tasked with saving the world and battle Star Man, Gravity Man, Gyro Man, Crystal Man, Napalm Man, Stone Man, Charge Man and Wave Man. 

Battling through Proto Man's base you encounter the villain, and as you are unable to fight against your own brother, you are taken down to 1 sliver of health, when the familiar whistle sounds and another Proto Man shows up, blast the fake showing the Dark Man robot behind the exterior face of Proto Man. Mega Man finish it off and Dr. Wily reveals that he is the one behind it all and have Dr. Light at his base. Shocking... I know! You defeat Wily and rescue Dr. Light, but as you try to apprehend Wily, the roof collapses and as Mega Man saves Dr. Light from being crushed Dr. Wily escapes, but Proto Man intervenes and saves them so that they can escape. Game ends. 

Bosses was much easier this time around and there weren't that hard reaching them either. The Proto Man stages also had some decent music, but I can't help to feel I've heard it before. Might be that I've played it before on all the other virtual consoles I've have on these games. Added to this game is the star arrow... which I never used and knows what it does special. Also, getting all letters from the stages that spells out Mega Man you get access to Beat, a new robot friend that is a bird. Rush still here, but the mariner is gone. Feel it's better than 4 at least.

Mega Man 4 (Mega Man Legacy Collection) (Switch)

Mega Man... 4

The fourth game in the series and it seems that they upped the graphics a bit with moveable cutscenes. They also added the charge buster to the growing starter arsenal of Mega Man and it it makes certain enemies a bit easier to deal with since you can prepare a shot in advance. Story is that suddenly the Russian Dr. Cossack attacks and tries to conquer the world with his 8 robot masters. Dr. Light sends out Mega Man to fight off Pharaoh Man, Ring Man, Dust Man, Skull Man, Dive Man, Drill Man, Toad Man and Bright Man. Defeating them all you take the fight to Dr. Cossack's Kremlin-like base and upon beating Dr. Cossack Proto Man teleports in with Kalinka, Dr. Cossack's daughter that have been kidnapped by Dr. Wily to force her father to build the robot masters and fight Mega Man. With this knowledge Mega Man take the fight to Dr. Wily.

And I gotta say, this Dr. Wily is hard as hell. Not only is the Wily Machine almost impossible to hit in its second form, then they expect you to fight him in the darkness. Cheating bastard. I had to use all my energy tanks on the rematch with the robot masters and the Wily machines so I was really afraid in the end, but I persevered... and the rewind button worked out rather well. Overall, not as good as 3. The mega buster is a good addition that stayed for the rest of the series. I found it harder than the earlier games, and the proposed "easy" order of the bosses was hard as nails. Pharaoh Man don't screw around so the first energy tank was used to stay alive since I didn't get the pattern down. And while the graphics improves, I can't say the same about the music. Nothing really catches my ears as they did in 3 (and 1 and 2 had some good tracks as well). Don't know if the nostalgia plays in more in this category.

RiME (Switch)

Go all the way to the tower!

Find all the secrets behind!

I've had my eyes on RiME back in 2017 when it was released, but a lot of games together with a bit of negative reviews on the games, especially the switch version, kept me from it. Until now when it was relatively cheap. What caught my eye was that it gave me some Mysterious Cities of Gold vibes, and maybe the clothes of the boy since it looked like Estabans clothes. It took me 5 hours to play through it once, and I gotta say. I really enjoyed it. It's basically an adventure with platforming elements. Story is that this boy have washed up on some island with ruins of a lost civilisation with some technological marvels together with some mystical magic around the island. There is no dialog so what you see and observe with your own senses is what you get out the story. First of you awaken some kind of magical fox that was trapped in some statue and leads you across the adventure. You will see a man in a red cloak similar to your own scrap of cape, meeting some kind of machine eyes on bipedal legs that will help you on your journey. Beyond these friendly characters you have some shadow creatures that seems afraid of you in one chapter, then attacks you and tries to drain your life and then ends just looking at you. And then we have the monstrous pterodactyl that hunts you if you go out in the open until you fry it with summoning a cloud of lightning from several windmills scattered across a plain. 

So you gotta solve puzzles like moving boxes into place to reach higher places, align shadows to touch or not touch light sensitive buttons to open doors, and all you gotta get with context cues. It's nice to feel smart some times, didn't use a guide (like that would be an achievement am I right?). So if it's this good, why wasn't it recieved better? Well, the switch port was apparently at launch a disaster since the frame-rate was horrendous, the game would chug at crucial times and apparently felt unplayable. They fixed a lot of those, but when I notice, at the very first screen part of the background blinks in and out, then I can see some people finding it really bad. Still chugs at times and I got stuck on a branch in the first 15 minutes of the game so I needed to restart to the nearest check-point. But I liked it.

Spoilers for those who cares about that, or want to experience it for themselves. In between what I would classify as chapters you get some flashbacks it turns out. First you are on a ship that looks stranded in snow, but as you follow your red cloth to it and as you climb the ship it disappears and your are on the open sea and storm clouds comes upon you. The next vision is you looking through the ship at sea. Next vision is doing it again, but this time trying to reach the man clad in the red mantle you've seen across the island as the storm rocks the boat and he falls of and while the boy tries to drag him up you will see that it's just a shadow with the mantle draped over him. The mantle rips and leaves the boy with his scarf or whatever you would call it. And then the final vision hits. The roles are switched, it's the man trying to reach the boy as he falls off in his raincoat, and the raincoat rips as the boy disappear in the ocean. The game gets really surreal at this point. Right before the vision it went from bright to darkness with constant rain. The machines you resurrected sacrificed themselves one by one to open the doors so you could reach a statue with a crying child that looks like the boy where the fox disappears, and the boy is turned to some sand statue, and after breaking free is also a shadow with white glowing eyes as he climbs a lighthouse and lights it. He ends up in a room, walks through a corridor and sees the man from the boat, sitting as a sand statue and touching destroys it, transporting the child to a whirlpool that the shadows jumps into, and then he follows. Which changes the story to the man, as he looks through his sons toys and seeing a vision of his dead son.

Fantastic. Apparently the games chapters is based on the five stages of grief and the twist over who was going through the stages are fantastic. Also that I empathised so much with the machines that helped you and then died was also rather heavy on the heart. Would I compare the game it probably has taken inspiration from Ico (which I've never played, I got stuck on Shadow of the Colossus while playing through the Ico Collection on PS3). As said, it took me 5 hours, but I wasn't that thorough since I missed a lot of collectibles, like the keyholes that I assume tells the story of the boys family. I checked if there was an alternate ending and there is. If you find 4 white shades you get a bit more, I found one. Being 5 hours it's not impossible that I run through it again. I can understand locking progress between chapters, but making it impossible to walk back through a door or jumping down from a plateau  in the same chapter feels rather irritating. Still, well worth a play, but maybe not the switch version due to the still lingering graphics hiccups. 

Mega Man 3 (Mega Man Legacy Collection) (Switch)

Loved the box art

The best game in the series... as far as I know since I haven't played 7, 8, 9, 10 or 11 (or any of the X-series). Probably something we shall see when I get there. Borrowed it from my neighbour as a kid and pretty much my only Mega Man experience until I got the games on the Wii virtual console so my glasses might be tinted a bit out of nostalgia. Did beat it a couple of times as a kid... by using a password I got from a Nintendo Magazine I had. So not really.

Story is that Dr. Wily have reformed and together with Dr. Light tries to build the peacekeeping robot Gamma. They send out the 8 robot masters Top Man, Shadow Man, Spark Man, Magnet Man, Hard Man, Snake Man, Gemini Man and Needle Man to mine for crystals to power Gamma, but they go rouge. During the battles he faces of against Beak Man and afterwards have to fight the doc robots that contains the attack moves off the robot masters from Mega Man 2. After this Dr. Wily steals the crystals the robot masters where mining and takes Gamma with him. Battling through Mega Man defeats Gamma and Dr. Wily, but the lair collapses over them, but Beak Man shows up and rescue Mega Man. Turns out Beak Man is Proto Man, Mega Man's brother. Well, at least according to the wikipedia article that summarises the plot. The game itself is rather bad in explaining why you do that you do. 

But since when was story important for Mega Man? Here gameplay reigns supreme. And they definitely upgraded how you play Mega Man, first off you get the slide enabling the player to avoid damage and get past certain allowing different routes. Then, Rush is introduced that first only allows reaching higher ground from the get go and then can turn into a submarine and lastly a jet. Pretty much replacing the item's from the 2nd game. You get some cutscenes in game and the music is overall better. Sure, 2 had the Wily theme and the start up theme, 3 has Top Man Stage, Hard Man stage, the Intro theme, Spark Man, Snake Man... I mean most songs are killers. And I think the people behind the collection does as well since several tracks appear all over the menus and such. A sad part is that the best tracks are on the stages that doesn't get revisited while fighting the doc robots. Still find the game enjoyable and replayable... although it has a Yellow Devil so just the robot stages are enough, especially with that soundtrack.

Mega Man 2 (Mega Man Legacy Collection) (Switch)

Mega Mega Mega Man

So finished the second game, plot excuse is just one year later Dr. Wily builds his own 8 robot masters to fight Mega Man, Metal Man, Wood Man, Air Man, Bubble Man, Heat Man, Crash Man, Flash Man and Quick Man. Mega Man sets out and during the fight Dr. Light will send you sone upgrades, Item-1. Item-2 and Item-3... clever naming there. Praised as maybe the best Mega Man game. It has better graphics, not as hard and you can choose difficulty so that's nice. Music is definitely better and memorable. They also improved the fact that you can use the robot masters weapon to aid you during the stages and not just killing monsters easily. Well, technically Guts mans weapon and Ice Mans weapon had secondary functions... so I don't where my mind went since it just Crash Man and Flash Man that have secondary functions here. Of course, the item's are better since it's just not find it on a stage with the right weapon, but they are given out after certain stages. 

Overall more fun to play through since I believe they tweaked the item drops since it doesn't take almost a minute to farm energy and life if you find a decent spot. And they also looks like they do in the rest of the series so this is definitely a finer tuned game than the first game... and no damn Yellow Devil.

Mega Man (Mega Man Legacy Collection) (Switch)

Still find the European Box Art rather fantastic.

As my Micro Sd Card of 400 GB is being completely full I decided to migrate all Capcom games to secondary memory card since it's pretty obvious they take the most space, looking at you Resident Evil games that doesn't get a physical release at launch and when they do it's only one out of 2 or 3 games and always the smallest one on the cartridge while the others need to be downloaded. So using the internal storage of the Switch I moved most games, except Resident Evil Revelations 2 that on around 23 GB was too big so I had to download it again, which take ca 4 hours for some reason. So I'm stuck with my Capcom memory card, time for some Mega Man.

Played it before on Wii (didn't finish), Wii U and 3DS (which I finished) and I even got it on my Sega Mega Drive Mini (which I haven't played). Never played it as a kid. As you might see, I only finished it on consoles where you could potentially save scum and such and that's the case, without it I wouldn't get very far cause this game is punishing at certain points. Not the main 6 areas with the robot masters, but the damn Wily stages. Story is that in the year 200X Dr. Wily takes control of the robots created by Dr. Light in a bid to take over the world, Dr. Light takes a household robot and turns it into Mega Man, the last hope of humanity.

So Mega Man jumps and shoots his way through 6 stages to fight of the 6 robot masters, Ice Man, Fire Man, Bomb Man, Guts Man , Cut Man and Elec Man. Pretty straight forward levels where the goal is pretty much survive to reach the boss room, get killed, start from there and just win against the master and get his weapon to use on another robot. Elec Man is recommended to take sometime after Guts Man since you also get a secret weapon called the Magnet Beam that you need to get past certain platform areas. The Wily stages you need to get through on limited resources in what is pretty much 3 stages fighting the bosses all again with some new ones. Lucky Elec Man's weapon have the pause glitch where you press the pause button again and again and the hit registers several times. For bosses like the Yellow Devil there is no other option if you don't learn the pattern that is very specific. I hate that, I'm not a kid with unlimited time anymore. Also, the platforming is rather suspicious since Mega Man feels very slippery and not always as responsive when I try to jump so many times I've fallen to my death for something that feels like me slipping past a platform or the jump not register so I just walk of the platform.

So how do the Legacy Collection add to the game? You can save state like before, but you also got a rewind option by holding down L you can try to avoid mistakes and such. Don't know if there is some max time, but at the boss rush with Bomb, Fire, Ice and Guts Man I stopped going back in time and it could be that I was waiting there a long time and didn't bother rewinding long enough or that I reached a max time it is able to do that. You also get a database with the enemies and what weapons to use and an ability to fight the bosses to try them. There is also some challenges for the collections, but I might not be that inclined to 100 % them. 

Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS replay)

Guess there have been 7 years since I played this game the last time. The game grumps replaying it made me get a craving to play it myself so I run through it again. And I gotta say, it's still really good. I notice though that it takes time getting adjusted to the wall merging idea since more often than not I could walk towards a gap and wonder how I was gonna cross it... and realise that all I needed to do was merge with the wall and go round it. Alas, I didn't get all all heart pieces since I couldn't bother with things like the octobaseball minigame.

Also, is it a remake or an actual sequel? The layouts of the overworld maps are the same, certain dungeons have the same layout, even though they changed parts to make sure the merge doesn't break the game. Similar story structure. The most notable difference being that they moved turtle rock to lake hylia and ice palace to death mountain... which make sense in certain ways. Also the fairy fountain in lake hylia in the light world is gone and replaced with a new dungeon that take the place of the desert dungeon that now merged with misery mire. The item system where you rent it and if you don't die, you can have it forever until you pay to keep it, and then upgrade it. If you go the intended path from the original, no problem.

Still fun, but I don't get the kick like playing through Link to the Past, might be due to knowing Link to the Past inside and out and never stumble upon what to do and knowing how to get all heart pieces. Might need to play it ofter than once every 7th year.

Resident Evil Zero (Switch)

ALL ABOARD THE CRAZY TRAIN!

Played through Resident Evil Zero again (or 0), but this time on the Switch and without using a guide. Same story, still found it alright. Played through the first game now and been introduced to Rebecca in that game I wonder if her portrayal is coherent. In this game she is though and focused on her mission, not flinching in taking Billy Coen into custody even though she think he killed his guards and 23 other people, in the original... she hides in rooms, almost getting killed by a hunter and starts crying (of course the stress of being in constant danger for 2 days and Richard getting killed could probably make her break down, but hunter shouldn't be a problem). 

At least the achievements are fun. I think one is even a reference to Batman the Animated Series sine its titled "On Leather Wings" which is the name of the first episode of that series. Nice. Played through the Wesker mode until Rebecca was killed by the first boss and I hadn't saved. Looks a bit fun to use Wesker with his special abilities, but it's just a reskin in the game itself. Movies it's still Billy and his voice and acting is still Billy. Shouldn't have been trying to get Rebecca's achievement for killing all the bosses. Should have used Wesker. Also, don't remember this from the Wii version, but the loading time is noticeable between rooms. And compared to RE1 that I played before I don't get why it would differ? Maybe that you can drop any item anywhere which forces the game to remember or that RE1 is stored on the system memory and the others on the MicroSD-card? Anyway, now I played through all Resident Evil-games I own. And it was all during the Corona-epidemic.

And I started to think about a fun bit about all these games: The Resident Evil Guide to survive an epidemic!

First off, Resident Evil 1... don't buy a mansion in the middle of the woods from a pharmaceutical company.

Resident Evil 0.... don't go on a train.

Resident Evil 4.... don't go to Spain.

Resident Evil 5... don't visit any African country.

Resident Evil 6... the C-virus is created in a laboratory in China... and don't take the plane.

Resident Evil Revelations... don't go on a cruise ship.

Resident Evil Revelations 2... don't go to the company party.

See, Capcom teaching social distancing and avoid public transportations since 1996.

Resident Evil HD (Switch) part 2

The one and only Chris Redfield

So, quickly replayed it as Chris Redfield and there are some changes to the story as well as adding other characters. First off, it's Chris, Jill and Wesker that arrives at the mansion. Barry is completely gone from the game, so where he fixed doors and left supplies, that role is now Wesker that done it. Giving the betrayal part even more punch really. Secondly, you meet Rebecca Chambers that starred in RE0 and she has to do things that Jill could do, but not Chris, like playing the piano... or rather that's pretty much the only thing she need doing. Overall Chris side is much more focused on action... but Jill still got the better weapons like the grenade launcher. The only thing Chris got was a flamethrower that he only could use against the spider boss. And flash grenades to shove into the mouth of zombies that grabbed him, killing them for good. 

Also, one puzzle is completely omitted, and that is the weed killer concoction to kill Plant 42. You just gotta brute force it with the shotgun. Also, Chris starts without a gun, just a knife... what kinda action path is this? And then we have the thing about inventory. Jill have 8 slots and Chris 6. Jill is more fun to play since she doesn't need to swap in and out items all the time and Barry is more useful than Rebecca. And the acting overall in this game... 4, 5 and 6 could be corny, but they were at least partially good acted, not so much in this version, and a pity they don't used the voice actor for the later games, but that might have been taking out the charm for many people about the game. It was kinda ridiculas when Richard, who survived the battle of the snake in this version thanks to Rebecca (he died shoving Jill out of the way in her part of the story) he instead got eaten by a shark shoving Chris out of the way... poor Richard. Still, this version of the game has Rebecca in a cowgirl costume on replays... gotta give me something to replay it.

Resident Evil HD (Switch)

Welcome inside!

So I finally played through the first game in the series and it was for the Switch. I also have it for the Wii when they released the Resident Evil Archives. I bought that version on a whim after playing through RE4, but never finished it... or played more than maybe 10 minutes of it. It's one of the first survival horror games and was originally released on the PS1 back in the 90's. Then they remade it for the Gamecube back in the early 2000's. I saw it advertised a lot and had the intro cutscene on a DVD from Super Play, a Swedish gaming magazine. It begins with S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team searching for Bravo Team that was lost after searching for unknown assilants that had eaten some people around Raccoon City. Discovering the wreck of their helicopter Alpha Team heads out. Jill Valentine, Barry Burton, Chris Redfield, Joseph Frost and captain Albert Wesker. Joseph gets attacked and killed by zombie dogs and the others escape into an old mansion belonging to the Spencer family. And then you gotta chose if you play as Jill or Chris. Only experienced Jill playthroughs and seen her start of the game I went with that. She also had two more slots for items than Chris and a lock-pick. The drawback having less health. 

So Jill, Barry and Wesker enters the mansion and Chris have gotten lost. Barry and Jill goes and check the dining hall, but instead finds a zombie eating on Bravo Teams Kenneth. From here Jill is left alone trying to find out what went down, find any survivors and get out of the mansion. The plot is that the Spencer mansion is on top of a secret laboratory built by the Umbrella Corporation where a viral outbreak have taken place and caused the people being infected and turned to zombies. Also Albert Wesker was planted by Umbrella to keep S.T.A.R.S. away from the truth as they have been dealing in a virus to create illegal bioweapons. Barry was forced to work for Wesker with a threat against his family, but couldn't betray Jill so they ended taking down Wesker that woke a Tyrant in a tube. And I still don't get what you really are gonna get for using B.O.W.s since they have never been able to control them enough for regular battles so it basically the drawback chemical warfare had back in the first world war when it could affect your own troops as much as the enemies. Still, Weskers supposedly dead and the tyrant lies dead on the floor. As you leave the self-destruct is activated so you make a break for it to get Chris out of prison. All three escape to the helipad where you set off a charge to get Brad to land. Before that the Tyrant appears again, knock out Chris leaving Barry and Jill to deal with it. After firing some grenades at him Brad drops a rocket luncher which Jill uses to blow the tyrant to bits, Brad picks everyone up and as they fly away as the mansion explodes.

I liked it. Playing through for the first time, even on very easy, felt tense with the music, the claustrophobic inducing corridors and the constant shaking up of rooms and corridors with enemies that can walk between areas. Just that you can walk into a boss room and if you are unlucky not being fully prepared to deal with it. I was of the impression that it was unknown what caused the zombies, but very early it's established it's a viral outbreak. They hint at cult members as explanation to the killings that causes S.T.A.R.S. to intervene. It's more of a puzzle game and inventory/resource management than action. Find keys, or items to open doors and either avoid fighting or kill the monsters you encounter. At least in the easier levels, I gather the resources aren't enough to coast through to the end if you blast everything, but on the other hand, I probably could have finished with only handgun and shotgun, but the final confrontation was at least easy with bringing the magnum and grenade launcher. Still, there is another story to be told as well, from Chris's side...

Earth Atlantis (Switch)

Under the sea!

Released in the early years off the Switch I bought it when I was in a shoot'em'up phase. It looked interesting with the graphics being like old paper. It takes place in a near future when global warming has caused 90 % of the worlds surface being drowned in water and machines have been adopting traits from animals and you as a hunter must keep the sea safe. Your mission is to protect the West Sea where a lot of hunters have disappeared. The west sea I assume is the Atlantic since there is a statue of liberty in the waters as well as greek styles of ruins (which might be Atlantis?), but there is also some areas with moai heads from easter island? Doesn't really matter. You go into your sub and blasts enemies.

At first I got Empire of Steel vibes and the same as that game inspirations from Jules Verne (which I gotta read some time, I got the collection right at my sleeping table). The problem is, that instead of 6 stages there is just one stage, that you circle around and around again defeating 25 bosses. The bosses have a problem in that many are just recycled but beefed up somewhat. And in the end, it just tedious circling around the bosses avoid being hit and just hold the fire button for 1-2 minutes before they are destroyed, or it just rams right into you and pretty much insta-kills you. 

Took me 4 and a half hour to play through. And the last two hours was just a slog. Being defeated meant roaming around to power up the sub and finding sub-weapon boosters. I found the missile the best since it packed a huge punch compared to the other like homing missiles, electricity or balls. You can also unlock other subs with different stats and in the end I had 3 out of 4. The final boss though was interesting since you could see it in the background and I guessed it would be a boss and was right. The ending is a bit anticlimactic though, beat the boss and you just got a screen that the west sea is saved, but you got a distress signal that the east sea and your home base is under attack. Was it because I played it on easy or is it sequel bait? Overall, it has a novelty value and its stylised graphics is worth looking at, but its not much there. I would have loved to see it on the 3DS  with the 3D-effects since that would probably look even more fantastic. Beside the main quest mode you got hunter mode where you hunt 27 bosses on a time limit... forget it.

Elliot's Quest (Switch)

Two white clad archer games?

Picked this up a while ago and thought it was interesting with something similar to Zelda 2. And that is pretty much what you get. You are Elliot who is on a quest to gather the powers of the four guardians in order to defeat the Satar since he has chosen you to be his vessel. Meanwhile Elliot's wife Cara is missing. All this you get by conquering one of the four temples as a bit of flashback to what happened. Being chosen apparently means you can't die with explains why you respawns instantly loosing all life or falling into a pit. So dying isn't that much of a problem. The problem is that the game is mostly running around trying to get what to do. Not much trouble until after the second temple. In comparison Zelda 2 never forced you to do a stage over and over again to use a new ability to get to a secret room or get a hidden treasure, but this game does. And it don't tell you what your abilities can do so you gotta try. I got stuck trying to climb the mountain to get to the stone temple because I first of all didn't have the right abilities that where hidden in places on the world map and one ability I did have, I didn't get could be used to set wooden boxes on fire all at once.

So I was a bit frustrated with the game. It also incorporated a moral system in where your actions affects what ending you get, good, evil or neutral. Now, I played it like a normal Zelda game so I saved every kid and gave back treasures to the people that asked for it, but I opened treasure chests at people's house. I assume that was enough to pidgenholed me into the neutral type and nothing with that, but I think something was odd with the ending. Mostly because ended without me hitting the last boss. I wonder if that is due to not having found all 11 crystals across the map, missing 2 of them. It just ends with Elliot using the guardians powers destroying Satar and with it the island. Everyone escapes on a boat and the credits roll. I must have missed something?

Will I play it again? No not really, I don't feel like. I might, and having played through it might make the second run more fun. It biggest flaws it was to cryptic, the map needed more detailed like how each room is connected, and mark out locked doors, and power-ups and treasures not grabbed so I don't have to check each area again and again. Like Metroid. Most fun actually was being stuck with this walkthrough I found. Problem is that the mountain slope area isn't described much in detail except the save stone with the floating cloud platform. But I couldn't get there. So I looked on youtube and grabbed the first playthrough I could find and skipped to the area I was at... and he couldn't get it either, but he then started saying "what save stone and cloud platform? This is why you need pictures!" and I believe he used the same walkthrough as I. I figured the puzzle out after looking some more, but in another area and that showed that wooden boxes burns allthogheter if standing besides each other.