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.