Golden Sun: The Lost Age (Wii U)

 

Where's my continuation?

Finished off the second game again and the feeling of melancholy have appeared for finishing it up. Played it very slow compared to the last time. Last time I only put in 28 hours, 41 levels and missed 2 djinn and didn't get the last summons. Don't know why, but fixed it this time. Played it on Hard as well, mostly larger HP on the enemies I gathered. No problem until the end when I fought Dullahahn, which beat me every time so I had probably to grind for another 10 levels to be able to survive his attacks while dealing with the 200 regeneration he has. A bit easier on the old cart where I see that I had level 87 and played for 136 hours. Have I said this is my favourite game series? It has to be when a 30 hours game is played for 136 hours. Not as long as Tears of the Kingdom, but I only played that once. 

Played the game using the class items you get and while the first game actually gave me an enhanced experience since it made it easier with growth and such, here changing away from the basic classes actually was a hindrance where I constantly had to turn of the items and djinn to get Frost or Whirlwind, not until the second team showed up did it improve (and that was often due to their psynergy items that permanently gave you douse and Frost), but the final classes was awesome. At that point grinding for items worked really fine when I had all attack djinn put on the main party and diversified over all four meaning I could constantly hit them. And with Petra and Ground you could crowd control most encounters. And most late end bosses was really easy with a combo of those two and summon rush. Dullahan the only one that could handle it. Also went out of my way (which may explain some of the extra hours) to go to Air's Rock before Yampi Desert. Maybe would try to get the angry Kraden scene if I play again where you said no to everything and wanting to skip Lemuria gets Kraden so mad.

So, in a hypothetical remake, what would I want to see? Get rid of the RNG-blacksmith mechanic or let more enemies drop materials for Sunshine. I also realised again it was strange that people from the first game didn't have portraits there, but gained them here, so sync that up. A mini-map would be nice since the guide wasn't all that helpful at times since they didn't have a room in Ankhol ruins which put me on a loop which I couldn't get past. More funny is that I noticed they had missed a vial in Air's Rock as well. 

Still love the game. It has the emotional pay-off for a 60 hour game (both games combined) and cliffhanger in the end that really interesting. Sadly they didn't explain it in the 3rd game. Also, there was a lot of things they could have explored in a future game, the fighting between Hisperia and Atteka, Alhafra's greedy mayor and what happened to Prox after the Golden Sun event? Still, nice seeing it on the big screen, can't say the same for the next game, Dark Dawn since they never released it on the Virtual Console. A travesty I say!

Golden Sun: The Broken Seal (Wii U)

 

Finally!

Difficulties at work made me crave some nostalgic feelings and maybe it was time to replay the game I once called the best game ever. Especially since it was 6 years since last as of writing. So no story or such since I already covered that in depth. I think I played it on the Wii U last time, but since I didn't have a decent TV I think I used the Wii U gamepad and I gotta say, playing on a big screen with a Wii U Pro Controller felt rather well. Only problem with it I would liked to have utilised more of the buttons, but that is due to the Game Boy Advance controllers. 

So what did I do to spice it up? I decided to change my classes beyond the mono-elemental one I usually do. In the first game it doesn't work that well until you get 6 djinn of each element to gain some interesting combos. So I picked up my Prima Guide and had it beside me during the whole game. Then I began noticing certain things. For example giving Ivan Flint in the beginning and defeating the three thieves makes the game give you back Flint so that you won't miss him... even if it only is really a few minutes. It actually made it easier in most parts since I didn't have to think about growth psynergy or such since I already had it.

Then it was the artefact weapons and armor. Most of them in the early game is kinda worthless. The bandit sword is already out paced by the normal weapons you can buy before getting it. What's the point? And that keeps up until something like Altin. I read somewhere someone complaining that they didn't have money so maybe that, but I just played it normally and sold off all Water of Life and other consumables meaning I had enough money for pretty much anything. No problem. Maybe they didn't explore enough.

I also decided to do the game really out of order in my usual style. For example I headed for Imil and Mercury Lighthouse before Kolima Woods. Got my ass beat my Saturnos, so I headed back to Kolima and did that before returning with more djinn and levels. Went a lot easier. I forgot that I should have skipped the Force Orb for that special cutscene in the Altin Mines, have to wait for the next playthrough in 2030. Defeated the Cyclone monster in the desert before finishing Colosso, saw another text with Sheba before she left Tolbi which I haven't seen before. Read also that you could see the colors of the stones in Altmiller Cave with Reveal which was a cool tidbit. Never knew that since I wrote down what Babi said so I wasn't lost. Speaking about Altmiller Cave I found out that the Prima Guide has an error. The guide says that the Dragon Shield is in the cave, but it is in Altin Mine. Think it was a vial there, but they probably confused the vial with the Mystic Draught. Went through the Babi Lighthouse section and headed out so I could finish off Crossbone Island. I actually went back there as quickly I had the appropriate psynergy. Still, Carry is the final one and that is in Venus Lighthouse. After that I killed Dreadbeard at level 28, started up my old save that was for level grinding so I had 42 and grinded to 44 so that Ivan had the Tornado psynergy and then I beat the game and is prepared for the next game.

Overall I fell in love with the game again. The Music, the graphics and the story just makes me happy. So since there is probably no reason for them to release Golden Sun 4 at the moment the best I can hope for is probably some kinda remake. Best option would be the first 2 games remade into one. Would I change somethings? I would prefer if running was the default, more buttons to use and maybe some tweaks so that early weapons actually is useful. The main characters don't default to defend if the target dies before a strike. A bestiary and maybe some added content. If both games are combines I would gladly take a New Game+ where the levels just continues so that you can grind to lvl 99 and max all stats. Another thing is maybe add a store or such that actually sells something like Oil Drops or Weasel Claws so that you can use different play styles. They can also put in a growth psynergy to Isaac like they did for Matthew. And more inventory space. There's like 5 open spaces when you are decked out with weapons, armor, accessories and psynergy items. I would enjoy that, but question if I still would bitch about the game straying from the pure original.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Wii U)

 

"I'm a captain of a ship

My ship is charmed, and called Plutonia."

After Ocarina of Time I got a bit tasty for another one, but which one to play? I just bought the Wii U virtual console versions of the DS Zelda games since the eshop was shutting down so I gotta play it? Released originally on the DS back in 2007 I got it first day and played through it twice if I recall and nothing after that. I have very few memories of this game, mostly about sailing and collecting ship parts. Nothing about the dungeons or bosses besides the final boss and the Temple of the Ocean King... helps a bit that you constantly travels to it. 

Story is a direct sequel to Wind Waker where Link and Tetra and her pirate crew are sailing across the sea in search of the Pirate Ship that terrorise the ocean. They find it, Tetra jumps on it, disappears, screams and Link follows after but ends falling into the water. He dreams about Tetra being captured and wakes up on an island where a fairy named Ceilia takes him to her grandpa that tells Link how to fight the evil of the ghost ship to rescue Tetra. Collect three fairies corresponding to the triforce, Courage, Wisdom and Strength. 

After that you enter the Ghost Ship and finds Tetra, but she is now petrified into a stone statue, so you learn that grandpa is actually the mythical Ocean King that was sealed away by Bellum, the evil that controls the ghosts ship. To defeat it you need the Phantom Sword... which doesn't exist so you gotta get three ores that you then create the sword from. You get the sword, get to the bottom of the Temple of The Ocean King, defeats Bellum, Tetra awakens, Bellum merges with the ghost ship, you blast it open, Bellum possess Linebeck (the owner of the ship you have been using during the adventure), you stab him in the back and the games over, the end.

It was fun replaying it since it's probably 15 years since I played it so it feels like a completely new game. Problem was getting used to the controls again, but once I got a hang of it, it was kinda enjoyable. Interesting knowing that every gimmick the DS could hold was used for this game, you gotta use the microphone to talk to people, fight some monster (just like the original Legend of Zelda on the Famicom), the game is completely controlled with the stylus and the original at one point you had to close the lid on the DS to print a map onto your map, which they fixed by pushing the home-button on the Wii U. I played the screens separated for most of the time, except on the damn archery mini-game. Which I also used the save-function to get past it. Don't think I cleared the mini-game back in the day.

It might not have the amount of dungeons or such like the other Zelda's (just 7 dungeons, that's like Zelda II numbers), but it has a lot to do if you have time to spend. Collecting ship parts, salvage treasures, fishing, archery mini-game, cannon mini-game... mostly to get ship parts, but it can be fun to build your own ship, a bit disappointed to learn that the numbers of hearts only correlates to the numbers of parts from the same set. I also checked my old save and saw that I missed a heart and a couple of gems for the different fairies, but I had every single treasure collected through the game without selling it... cash bonanza!

Overall, a fun game. Is it in the bottom of the Zelda games? Maybe, the graphics are a bit rough and the music is pretty much just Wind Waker music recycled so it doesn't stand out in anyway. A bit small as mentioned with very few dungeons and such. But I like Linebeck so that is a plus. Was a bit worried when I realised that all items you had to change in real time against enemies, but since I just brute forced my way through the Temple of the Ocean King and defeated him even though badly hurt by the phantoms and such you can take some hits and being slow. So I should be able to play it again when I turn 50.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Wii U)

 

LINK! He Came to Town!

He came to save the Princess Zelda!

As of writing it has just been Halloween and I have my yearly autumn semester to recharge the batteries after been working for 3 months straight (besides the one sick day due to Covid I got after the Swedish election). I intended to play Bayonetta 3, but my copy didn't show on time, and maybe that was good enough so that the controversies around it got known (and solved as far as I know). So I went on to my other choice of game that was Ocarina of Time which I haven't played in ages and that was for the 3DS. So I played it on the Wii U version since I have it on the TV (gotta use those 65 '' for something). 

So it begins with Link being woken by a fairy and a summon to the Great Deku Tree. The Tree have been cursed by a man from the desert so Link enters the tree to fight Gohma which is a throwback to one of the bosses of the first game (and I assume the entering the tree is also a reference to the first dungeon of the first game). Leaving you get the Kokirik Emerald and the quest to seek Princess Zelda in Hyrule Castle before the Deku Tree dies. Link leaves and find Zelda that send him to find the other spiritual stones, one is the Goron Ruby that you get from Darunia after saving the Gorons from the Dodonga infestation in their food cave where it was sealed by Ganondorf from the Gerudo desert... I think we found the one responsible for the death of the Deku Tree. The third stone is in Zora Domain, the Zora Sapphire that you get from Ruto after rescuing her from Lord Jabu-Jabu's Belly after she got lost there. Returning with the stones to Hyrule Castle Link is almost run over by a fleeing Zelda and Impa (her nursemaid) that are being chased by Ganondorf, leaving you with the titular Ocarina of Time that you need to open the Gate of Time with the Song of Time in the Temple of Time to reach the Sacred Realm. But as you open the gate and find the Master Sword you are transported into the Sacred Realm and put to sleep for 7 years as Ganondorf followed you and take the Triforce and rules the land.

As you awake you are greeted by Rauru, the Light Sage and one of the Seven Sages who gives you the light medallion and sends you back to the Temple of Time, where you meet Shiek that instructs you to awaken the other 5 sages. You gotta travel to the Forest Temple to rescue Saria, your childhood friend of the kokiri, the fire temple where the Gorons have been abducted by Ganondorf to be feed to an ancient dragon if you and Darunia can't stop them. The Zoras meanwhile have been frozen in ice so you and Ruto gonna get to the Water Temple and restore Lake Hylia. After that you get back to Kakariko village that is under attack from the Shadow Demon Bongo Bongo that Impa sealed in the well, but now have escaped to the Shadow Temple. The last is the spirit temple that is beyond the Gerudo desert where you have to travel back and forth through time in order to save Naboro of the Gerudo from Twinrowa, the gerudo sisters that raised Ganondorf. After awakening all sages Shiek revels his true form as Zelda and the seventh sage. She gives you the light arrows and is immediately kidnapped by Ganondorf and taken to his castle. The sages creates a rainbow bridge that allows Link to enter where he once again destroy the six seals that allows the sages to destroy the barrier of darkness and allows Link to climb the tower where he face of against Ganondorf and rescues Zelda. After the battle the castle is collapsing so both of them flee and then Link has to face Ganondorf again, but this time as Ganon. In the end Ganon gets the Master Sword square into the head and Ganondorf is then sealed into the Sacred Realm by the sages. Everyone celebrates, Zelda sends Link back in time to live out the 7 years that was sacrificed so that he would defeat evil. The end!

Now the Children don't play!

But they will when Link saves the day!

HALLELUJAH!

It isn't as majestic as playing it for the first time back in 1998. I recall that dad got a call from the video game store that they had a copy left since it hadn't been claimed and I assume we weren't one of those that had a sure way preorder. He of course went and got it and he started up the game and played the first part in getting the sword and shield. It took us weeks to get through the first dungeon. I recall I was the first one getting to Gohma, but my arachnophobia got the better of me (plus I didn't get how to use the slingshot so I couldn't stun lock him fast enough). My sister got in second and defeated him so that we finally could leaves Kokiri forest. Dad was able to get Dodonga Caverns and we got to Jabu-Jabu, but I couldn't stomach (haha) the weird claustrophobic feeling inside with the jellyfish and tentacle monsters. I think we got the guide after that and it still took a long time, but I was able to get through the dungeon with a lot of coaching. So we probably already had the game for half a year at this point. With a guide. Then dad beat the Forest temple and I was able to get through the Fire Temple and after a lot of time got through the Water Temple, and then I stopped since we got to the Well and Shadow Temple, the scared little child I was couldn't handle that. Took me what, 4-5 years to get through the game and that was going on a restart and reading the guide from cover to cover (which took away some surprises like Sheik being Zelda, but since it took me 5 years it might have been excused). I recall finishing it in the summer when I was home after getting some chemical pollution at my summer work that made me sick. 

I wish I had it on a N64 mini console with the right controller, cause even though modern controllers are a bit more comfortable the fact that the game is rigged with the c-stick instead of c-buttons make certain aspects of the game harder. It's a bit flimsy with using the c-weapons if you happened to stray only a little (so I changed everything to c-> since it appeared to be the least messing up). Why not activate the d-pad for the c-stick as well so I at least could play the ocarina a little bit better? I had to change every button for the frog mini game since it didn't work with the stick. It at least forced me to learn how to close the tablet since I wanted to use my pro-controller. Especially since the battery is 80 hours compared to the 3-6 hours for the tablet, plus since my charge died a couple of years ago I had to use a usb-charger with separated cord, but sadly the charger gets a bit fried if it is on at the same time. So now I ordered a new charger that can handle the voltage. 

Game still decent, got 100 %..., well, I did't do the race to get the cow, but it was nothing you really needed anyway. Graphics are a bit dated, but I'm used to them and I find them rather charming. Music is amazing. Nothing beats entering the Temple of Time and hear the song of Time by that chanting choir. The dungeon themes on the other hand are all really eery and haunting. I would like them to get the 3DS version on Switch so that we can get the graphical update as well as better control schemes (getting iron boots on the c-buttons is a godsend in the water temple), maybe in a Zelda 3D All-Star Collection with Majora's Mask, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess? 

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U)

Happy Together!

So not only have I've been dusting off my old reliable Wii U, I also went through reading this old blog and realised that when I wrote about Smash Bros for 3DS I wrote that I would play the Wii U version, but I never wrote about it, mostly because as noted, I was a bit burned out by the series, and it has actually not been helped with Ultimate. So why didn't I play that instead? Well, I mostly played the Wii U version because it was the last game in the series as of yet to have trophies. And you couldn't transfer data between the version, what a huge hassle.

Cause what is there otherwise to talk about? It's a fighting game and works as much every other Smash game. Didn't help the Wii U that much, but introduced DLC where we finally got Roy back in the fold. As well as Mewtwo that you could get for free if you bought both games and registered it on some Club Nintendo site or such, unfortunately I bought the 3DS version in a Swedish shop meaning it didn't have the code so I had to buy it on the side. Well everything is bought online today so no problem with that anymore.

So I played through Classic Mode with every character, and some on All-Star Mode, but with this many characters it's a real pain getting through it. Also, All-Star mode is fine since it's pretty much the same as it always been, but Classic mode, what a downgrade from the original (now this might be just me playing it on easy since I want to get through it) but I recall Classic mode have different phases with metal Mario, large and small versions and such spicing up the gameplay, here it's just move around the board and choose a group of enemies. And why isn't there any Adventure mode like in Melee or Brawl? At least the 3DS had the great cave offensive or whatever it was called. So nothing special about, works like everyone else and if you have a couple of friends it's a great time, maybe not so much playing alone.

So why is trophies so important? Because it introduced me to a much larger world of games. In Melee you could get trophies from games that wasn't out yet and games that never was released in Europe or the US. The stickers in Ultimate doesn't tell me anything about the games they come from. I learned about Earthbound from the trophies, got me interested in Metal Gear before the Twin Snakes come out and something called the Famicom Detective Club... wait, that came out on the Switch some time ago. And I got it, might be a fun playthrough.

Duck Hunt (Wii U)

 

Duck Season!

Summer vacation and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time isn't going well in the heat, so let get off some steam by shooting some ducks. That's right, a couple of rounds of Duck Hunt, a classic game from the original NES that introduced most people to the Zapper, the Nintendo light gun. 

Weapon of choice for Captain N!

Didn't have it as a kid, but played it at my neighbours place. Didn't get any far since the zapper were kinda unreliable... and my aiming suck probably. So this version is perfect for someone like me, you use your wiimote and it has a pointer on screen so I can see what I'm shooting. So on the first game I could get up to round 12 and on the clay pigeons I got up to round 16. Two ducks on the other hand didn't get me further than round 4, but it was the last game I tried so my arm might have been a bit tired as well. 

Well, that was pretty much it. Nothing else to say, fun distraction and with another player the competition between who can go most rounds and highest score might be of interest, but beyond that there's hardly nothing special. 

Mario's Super Picross (Wii U)

 

I'M MELTING! I'M MELTING!

So, 2023 Nintendo is gonna close the Wii U and 3DS eshops, so now with disposable income and a years knowledge in advance, I had to go through and buy games I was on the fence on to get my hand on the games. Especially since I don't want a repeat of Super Adventure Island 2 where I missed to get it on the Wii virtual console, forcing me to pay 100 $ or € instead of... I don't know, was there 15 €/$ for SNES games on the Wii? Doesn't matter, I will get the most out of my Wii U and 3DS. 

So, basically this is a puzzle game. I think I saw the Game Boy version back in the 90's when looking for Game Boy-games. What I didn't get was that it was completely in Japanese. So I guess it was released on one of those festival releases where we could get some really interesting games, like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy and other games. Well, I don't speak Japanese, but does it stop me? No, the gameplay is pretty much like the puzzle portion of Murder by Numbers and fidgeting around in the choice at the start of Mario levels I get that it gives you hints in payment with lowered time. Should explain that there is two modes, either Mario levels or Wario levels. Mario gives you a 30 minute timer while Wario gives you endless time (as far as I know), which should make Mario harder, but I get that it is easier puzzles than Wario that gets you to guess at times and doesn't tell you if it's right or wrong.

There's cutscenes between certain levels, but I don't know what they said. I found out that there was 300 different puzzles. I think it overstayed i's welcome a bit since I wanted to get out of the game after 250 puzzles or something like that. I guess you at least got a rather long puzzle game, I had to play it over 4 weeks (might have been a bit faster if I hadn't to be social). Still, it was fun to play for a while, especially when I got things like Orion or the big dipper before the picture was finished. Well, guess there will be more of these reviews of odd games I pick up.

Donkey Kong 64 (Wii U)

 

Here, here, here we go!

So I'm finally here, writing for you, if you know the words you can join in to. Put your hands together as if you want to clap as I take you through this monkey post... what do you expect, I'm not a lyricist. Donkey Kong 64 came out in 1999 and it gotta have been close to Christmas since me and my sisters got to share it as a Christmas present. It was also the first present we were allowed to open on Christmas eve together with N64 controllers for the sisters that hadn't gotten a controller yet. So we sat most of Christmas eve playing the battle mode of this game so our parents could prepare the Christmas dinner or whatever they did. Of course, the battle mode didn't get fun until we unlocked Krusha with his explosive projectiles that blew everyone away. Either everyone played as Krusha or no one played as Krusha. Again, that was probably a couple of months after Christmas.

Basically the story is that king K. Rool has built a new super weapon and is about to blow Kong Island out of the water. And stolen the Kongs banana hoard as well, and trapped most of the members of the Kong family. So it's up to Donkey Kong to rescue his relatives and destroys K. Rools plan. Nothing more to the story really. We never finished the games as kids due to the facts we couldn't get hold of all collectibles to unlock the way to the final boss. And this I heard was a major complaint against the game, too much stuff to collect and all the time switch back and forth between the Kongs since most things are bound to a certain Kong. And that gets annoying at times. Especially in places like Creepy Castle where enemies can throw you off the ledge and force you to restart from the beginning of the stage and you gotta trek all over the place. So playing it now, rereleased on the Virtual Console on Wii U, I at least can alleviate some headache with the trusty quick save alternative. 

You gotta get golden bananas to open new worlds, you also gotta collect 100 coloured bananas with each kong in every world to open the door to the boss that you gotta defeat to get a key to unlock the cage of this giant Kremling so that he can open yet another world for you. You also gotta get coloured coins so that you can pay for upgrades to your weapon, your musical instrument and your moves. The weapon and instruments have their own unique ammo counters, you got explosive oranges and then there is crystal coconuts that power special abilities and attacks. Also, in each world there is this special enemy coloured after the different Kongs that carry blueprints that you exchange for a golden banana, but also gives you time on the final level to finish it before K. Rool fires his secret weapon. And banana fairies you need to catch with a camera you restock with film (which is how you unlock secrets like Krusha), battle crowns won from battle tournament stages and two special coins hidden in to classic games, the original Donkey Kong and JetPac. The Nintendo coin from the Donkey Kong game was the thing that was missing as a child. We weren't that good at that game. And as mentioned, you gotta run around each level with 5 different Kongs. 

That's a lot of things to keep track of, Mario 64 just had stars, sure you could get coins, but they still gave you a star collecting it (addendum since I've played through Mario 64 again, I forgot the keys you get after fighting Bowser, but those are just 2). And the special coins and battle crowns isn't mentioned until the final stage, and the Nintendo coin you just gotta guess I think since I don't think they mentioned it anywhere? And if that wasn't frustrating enough you got the boss fights that gives me heart attacks on some real bullshit they pull. At least K Rool gave each Kong full life for each stage of the final battle. As you might read between the lines, I'm not loving this game 100 %. It has it's moments and I got huge nostalgia googles for it with the Christmas present and the co-op with my sisters, but playing it again... I won't miss several of the bonus stages or extra frustrating bosses. Also, just navigating the levels are troublesome since I would love a map so I know where to go. Also, yes, thanks for keeping track on every collectible, but couldn't you have named them so I know which golden banana I'm missing? Also, I miss the N64 controller. Since the left stick acts as the c-buttons more often than not you pull of the wrong move, the buttons were much more precise. So this game is probably good enough for die-hards and nostalgia seekers. Would I play it again? Well, me and my sisters thought on getting together and play the multiplayer some time, and if they release a N64 Classic Mini, maybe, but 101 % it? No, never, unless they would remake it and fix certain things, it's really slow at times, especially opening the boss doors or getting the bananas for the blue prints since they gotta play out the animations, and they take time. Total time playing through the main adventure was around 24 hours so maybe just a way to extend play time.

Dr. Mario (Wii U)

The Doctor is in the house!

Got a bit of urge to play some puzzle game and started up my Wii U again and found Dr. Mario. And the search function at the blog states that I haven't written on it before so, new game finished after 30 minutes!

We got it the first time for the NES back in the 90's and the most fun thing about it is its multiplayer action that me and my sister had going trying to beat it first or at least not die first since we were hardly any experts on it. Playing it on its own... I prefer Tetris actually. I will give it that the music is good and it is satisfying in defeating the viruses as they plop and then the big ones in the magnifying glass wriggles in pain until each of the colours are gone and they just... poff out of existence. Now, I can't recall if there ever was any story beyond that you have to destroy the viruses, but in one of the Nintendo Magazines we had I could read about this comic advertising the game:

Wish I had all of the comics since it's just campy fun.

Exile's End

Finally, an old guy as the protagonist

Got this game when it come out for the Wii U and apparently it was released on PS4 and Steam as well. The reason I got it was its metroidvania style gameplay. You play as Jameson, a grizzled mercenary... I think. Together with another group of soldiers have been sent put by this mining company to find the son of the CEO that has gone missing on this mining planet. But as you approach the planet interference causes the ship to crash and everyone running for the "lifeboats". Of course Jameson is the only one that survives so he find himself on this alien planet with a malfunctioning suit and in the beginning without weapons. Even jumping can kill you since you take fall damage until you upgrade your suit. So don't jump too platforms below you, just walk off the cliff and land on the closest platform.

Nice doggy!

So most things kill you, too long in the water you drown, there's areas contaminated by radiation that kills you and the wildlife ain't nice. You find a gun and can finally fight back and you even locate your target. But since the electromagnetic storm is still raging you can't escape so you need to go to the ancient temple the planets inhabitants looked away since apparently there is something there that controls it. Then it turns to Metroid Prime. No really, this ancient civilisation locked away this evil under the temple and you have to stop it together with the last ancient one that is still alive? The story got a bit unclear, but it mostly is due to me taking a year or so long break (I really have a bad habit of doing that) before coming back.

Maybe not so nice doggy!

The break is probably due to not being able to progress further after finding the mine. And that is one of the more irritating parts of the game. The map isn't as useful as it should be... or more like Metroids map is. First of, the map doesn't indicate that an opening/door leads to another area which can be frustrating since you can't tell if you already been there and couldn't progress or if it connects to another area of the planet. Also, I couldn't find a good description on the weapons and items I picked up making me run in circles I just out of desperation used a wrench on a red wheel and that lowered the water to let me progress to the next area. The worst example being after fighting a hard boss in the Cathedral and I'm rewarded with a new gun. I remember that there was a laser beam door blocking my access to another part of that area so I went there and fired the gun... nothing happens. I run around for a bit, but gets so frustrated I searched the web for an answer and lo and behold, I was on the right path, but you needed to charge the gun... apparently twice when I tried it. I didn't know it could do that and it wasn't even mentioned. Another puzzle like that was how you needed to blow up a pot with water to get rid of a locked gate. I had to look it up to realise that your explosives could be used for that purpose. Another thing that irritates me is apparently you can't get 100 % on the map. For example there is spiked floors that are way too far dawn to map out the whole are and if you die the map resets to before you entered the room and certain areas are blocked off by the ground, walls or ceilings. That feels rather weird to not be able to fill it all out. Does any other metroidvania game do that?

Other than that it was a really interesting game and story. The music is catchy at times and the 2d pixel art is mostly better. It also has some cutscenes, although maybe not as fluently. But I guess I didn't get the real ending since I was able to get to the warrior tomb and either me or the alien had to sacrifice themselves in order to active the ritual to re-seal the darkness lurking. Which is rather anti-climatic I must say. And from the things I gather you need to find some hidden messages that will turn the story around I presume. Some other time when there is a walkthrough to follow I might go for it, but right now there ain't one and I have other games in my back-catalouge to finish.

Wii U: Eulogy

Of course I got the black one

So the Switch have come so it's time to remember the former main Nintendo home console. Released in 2012 I didn't get mine until early spring 2014. The 32 GB Black version. It was a console that rekindled my gaming interest into the home console since I actually could play most games whenever I wanted without even bothering with a TV or who would use it. A bit late maybe, but since I was short on cash before that, but maybe it was a great thing since I noticed everyone else bothered by the small amount of new games during long stretch of draughts. Me on the other hand had a back-log from the start with games like Pikmin 3, Resident Evil: Revelation, New Super Mario Bros U + Luigi U, Nintendoland and Donkey Kong Freeze (which I still haven't finished). And of course the Virtual Console with games like Earthbound, Golden Sun and so on (can't exactly remember which other games I got). 

And during these 3 years I've had it still got a great amount of games. Bayonetta 1 and 2, Paper Mario, Super Mario 3d World, Twilight Princess, Hyrule Warriors, Smash Bros, Rodea the Sky Soldier, Wind Waker, Star Fox, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, Xenoblade Chronicles X, The Wonderful 101, Captain Toad, Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon... I think that is all the physical releases I got. That would be 20 games and then we have all the digital ones. I'm not gonna list all of those since it's... I don't know and I can't really check at the moment.

It was overlooked by many, it was underpowered and it didn't have the necessary 3rd party support it needed and sadly things I wished would have come to this console for old time sakes like Tales of Symphonia remaster and so on, games that had a former Nintendo history, but left out or had sequels that should have appeared on the Wii U like Resident Evil 5-6 and Revelations 2. Or games that didn't make it over like Dragon Quest X (which I wonder if I would have got anyway due to its online focus). It didn't get to monopolise a brand new Zelda (since Breath of the Wild had a simultaneous release on Switch), no new Metroid, but the games we got for it was good and out of those 21 physical I would say my worst was Nintendoland... since I had no one to play with and even so not the right amount of controller of the right kind when I would have liked. And it was a wide variety of games as well. The only thing I missed was an actually fantasy JRPG (there was download games to solve that, but none was a full blown physical release since it either was Virtual Console, western developed or a port of a mobile game, should have had a Golden Sun game).

The Virtual Console was an improvement with the save state (even if it only was 1 available) enabling me to actually force myself to finish games... by save scumming. Yes, I'm not that good at games and doesn't have the patience to learn or relearn every single detail of a game to win it. The bad things was that there weren't any Neo Geo, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master System or TG-16 (well, at least not until the end) games. Most could have been helped with a Sega collection (like the one I got for my PS3) or why not the ones for the 3DS? Still, I could get most of these from the Wii mode, but it was a bit of a hassle. Also, the wait for many games to be accessible was really tedious, but there was some new games out there like Donkey Kong 64.

So how many unnecessary accessories did I get for this console? Well, one. The gamecube controller adapter which wasn't bought for playing smash, but rather a small fools hope to get gamecube game to play on it. If it's one console I would mod to get everything this would be it. Got the pro controller that worked really good and at some games like Tokyo Mirage Sessions was the preferred controller so I could put the tablet on the table for map and "SMS"-device. Other than that it was the external hard-drive I got for 1 or 2 Terrabite... which looking at the amount of data at the moment around 185 GB was definitly overkill which explain why 126 GB will suffice long enough until the microSD-cards are cheap enough to go for 200 GB and up.

Overall, to me it was a wonderful system. Best game was Wonderful 101 just for its awesomeness. Wished I gotten it earlier, but what you gonna do. Hope the Switch will be a worthy successor

Xenoblade Chronicles X

More than meets the eye

The awaited sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles (which I loved when I got into it) and I was gonna skip this game due to not feeling it. Giant mech-suits? Earth humans on a foreign planet and no sign of the Monado or any other Xenoblade connection than the nopon? But then I fell in the Bayonetta trap of thinking, is the game gonna be hard as hell to get in the future? Maybe and since it's a JRPG why not give it a chance? 150+ hours later after the main story is over I can say it was a really fun and interesting game. And I still have much to do before I might say I'm oversaturated with this game, but since I write this the week before the newest Zelda and Nintendo console is upon us I might just have one week left until my focus is shifted away from this and I'm glad I finished the main game at least. Although it isn't that reassuring when the game ends with "this game never truly ends!".

Somethings evil watching over you, coming down from the sky above, and there's nothing you can do!

Game starts in space as the White Whale, a ship sent from earth is fighting for its survival as one of the last remnants of earth that was destroyed by the Ganglions, an alien race/crime syndicate (?). Mechs fly across the space as they fight the enemy, but still the ship comes crashing down splintering across several parts of the planet Mira and the main hull makes an emergency landing and from that wreckage New LA is formed, populated by the crew of the white whale and other survivors the rescue teams can find. That was 3 months earlier. The real game starts when colonel Elma rescues you from a stasis pod that was thrown out during the emergency landing and contains your customised body  (male or female and don't worry, you can change later after the right side quests). You suffers of course from amnesia and are brought back to the city and pretty much enlisted into one of the 8 different divisions of BLADE, the main military force/engineer corps/resource scavenger that enables the city to exist. So you join Team Elma and pretty much take in Lin Lee Koo, a mechanic/engineer specialist at 16 years old to round up the power trio of the game with pretty much a rotating fourth member. So out and explore, avoid the dangerous wild life and explore this foreign planet. Main mission is to find the Lifehold core which contains 20 millions humans in stasis and through that resurrect the human race.

You got the touch! You got the power!

During the course you will find other aliens that are friendly like the nopon and Ma-Nons or dangerous like the Ganglions that still hunts you. You will also help alien races under the thumb of the ganglions like the Prone (the main fighter alien), Z... I can't write out their names, but they are pretty much sanitising the world around them, Wrothians the cat-aliens and the Orphes, some bug like Vulcan like race. You have five main continents to explore and it's huge especially in the beginning as you run around and if you are skilled enough can find a completely new area by scaling a mountain way before you are supposed to and pretty much die by running right into the first enemy you didn't see. And death is pretty much a slap on the wrist. Just back to the last landmark, exp intact together with everything else. As the original Xenoblade, it push for exploration and maybe even just run past enemies to reach a new landmark to get even further. As I praised the old game for this growth in levels I see it happily back here. And speaking of, one of my complaints was item management that forced me to constantly sell stuff to get new stuff. Haven't had this problem here. Weapons, armours, skell-armor, skell-weapons and different types of items are divided with 999 slots for each. Thank god! Another problem I had was the damn item rewards spawned from monsters that you needed to progress Colony 6 and they solved a similar issues here... by being able to use reward tickets to buy the items directly. Reward tickets you get by doing squad missions that appear randomly and is connected to the online functions of this game. So you get them as long as someone is doing them and everyone can help finishing the missions. It's really nice and is a good way to handle it... but when the online functionality disappears or when no one is playing it's just back to grinding.

Metroplex looks a bit different from Earth 2005.

So the story pretty much starts when you are sent to rescue Nelson and his team, a character never mentioned before that's gone missing and you have to find them. Turns out they have been killed by the Prone that shows no mercy and just wants to fight. After the battle you find the nopon Tatsu that will be the comic relief in the game as he is constantly being threatened to be turned to lunch for the humans... now, while they are funny, I wonder why humans would like to eat a talking person? And don't say it is a joke, I saw how Lin put him in a stew and put spices on him. Still, after that you get to Oblivia where you try to save the Ma-Non from the Prone, but during the final fight against the Prone skells (skells are pretty much these giant mechs that can fly and turn to cars... transformers basically) Tatsu ends up in the line of fire, your avatar runs up and pushes him out of the way and gets hit by the blast sending him/her of. And the first twist of the game is shown. The humans aren't humans, but mimeosomes, a robot avatar that is controlled from the stasis pods of the humans in the lifehold. We know this now since my arm was blasted of gushing with robotic fluids as my character screams in shock until Lin sedates you and brings you back to NLA. They hand wave it as my character having amnesia, which is a fair assumption and you can explain the cycle of death and rebirth as well as jumping and running over across a whole mountain. And another plot point is announced since the lifehold gets a new meaning. Everyone that dies in the game can be reborn by awaken the body in the lifehold. And the core is running out of power and if it dies everyone dies, all of humanity. And they display it on the tower in the middle of the city. Talking about a doomsday clock.

Need a hand?

Next episodes are a bit here and there. One mission is to retrieve an ancient skell that the Ganglions tries to get, the next to defend the city from an invasion by the ganglions that wants to take it back. During these missions you start to suspect there is a traitor in your ranks. You blow up a warship, break up the Ganglions hold on the wrothians and your suspicions are correct when Lao, another BLADE that helped you and even joined you at times, steals the prototype skell and takes it to the ganglions together with the data on where the core is hidden. After tracking him to the stronghold of the ganglions on the furthest continent you defeat Lao and forces him to surrender and give back the data. His reason is the way the 20 million people were selected for the colonisation project. He was forced to leave wife and child behind while the rich and well-connected got a free pass. Only the crew was handpicked for their skills, you know, like every sci-fi escape from earth story ever. Anyway, with the coordinates for the core you head out to sea with a squadron of skells piloted by the different playable characters and Team Elma acts as the strike team together with... I believe the original characters since I think the other characters were originally dlc characters for the japanese... but I'm not sure (looking it up it was the DLC characters to give them some extra lines for the finale). Entering the core forces the leader of the ganglions, Lexxar to use the ancient skell, the vita, and strike through the shield and fight agains your characters. And here I had to restart and grind first for levels to reach 59, 56, 56, 55 on the team I had and then to get credits to get lvl 50 skells. Took me a whole day, but then the battle could start. first phase no skell destroyed, second phase one skell lost and another plot twist is revealed. There is no cryochamber for the bodies since everything been digitalised into the cores super computer. The plan was to create new bodies with the genetic material in the core that can instagrowth and transfer over the conscious from the computers into the bodies. But Lexxar isn't finished and starts to hit the computer with some green lightning bolts which activates the defence mechanisms. It begins to create chimeras. And you got to fight 10 of them. And yet another skell bites the dust. Meanwhile Lexxar is skewered by Lao that have arrived at the scene and they fall into the genetic fluid all around them, which binds Lao and Lexxars DNA together and forms a giant demonic looking chimera. And now my skell gets busted. And the thing is I was a class lvl 1 at the time on the bottom ladder with a raygun and knife as the weapons I had. And the knife was the better weapon. So too recap, I'm running around fighting the end boss with a knife... and I F***ING BEAT HIM!!! WITH A KNIFE!!! BEST GAME EVER!!!

I'm getting Resident Evil Revelations flashbacks

It dies and the system restarts saving the human race. And another plot twist is unfolded and that it was one person actually put in stasis in the ship, which I half-guessed as a clichéd sic-fi plot. I thought it was the leader of NLA, but it turns out it was Elma... that also was an alien explaining some comments from the Ganglions about the technological leap mankind had done. Celebration and end credits showing civilian life for the BLADES in service after their victory in NLA and then a post-credit scene. Elma and Yelv (one of the playable characters) together with some other BLADES are looking through the Lifehold in search of the main data centre... which I thought was in the computer we fought the end boss in, but apparently I was wrong. And it turns out that the room is flooded and been so since the White Whale crashed on Mira, meaning the mimeosomes should be dead  already. The leaders of NLA wonders what this means and cut to a shore where Lao in a new mimeosome body is approached by a shadow and then wakes up. Now I gotta find the super-secret real ending that continues the story.

I really like this game when you get past the tutorial. And the growth of your character is amazing although that the amnesia is never addressed or that we even can't find the original body is kinda disappointing, but it is Elma's story in reality as she is the one pushing the plot forward. Great music. It looks fantastic and it has interesting themes. The mimeosomes gives a really interesting religious view on this, since it feels like they go for the day of judgement when the dead shall awaken. That means that death really has no consequences. And they address this in game with different cults and suicidal people appearing that can't grasp this very idea. In the end we have a small snippet of the clone dilemma if saving the 20 million by cloning and transferring the digital conscious, is it the same person? As standard we have xenophobia, revenge and so on. Getting the skell and then later the flight module is amazing as you soar through the air to a cheesy love song or rides past the enemies in your morphed car. Maybe there is to many playable characters to keep track on, but the biggest problem is that I don't always know where they are cause I need to see them at their physical place and the map doesn't have an indicator where that is (why couldn't there face have been there instead of the golden shield like every other area?) or even yet, in the menu active members actually list every playable character and switch them in and out instead for me having to hunt them down in the wrong time slot where they are out wandering NLA and sometimes that is a permanent functions until I find them. And I should probably mention that you can't new game + it either, sadly. Especially since actions can have consequences on people dying and so on. But the scope of the game makes it so I won't replay it that much (maybe if they rerelease it in the future on another Nintendo consoles). All in all a good game.

Update: So I checked up on the ending to see if there was something else beyond this and... nothing. Just do quest and grind for things to enhance your equipments for the skell. And my interest fell to zero, especially when Zelda: Breath of the Wild happened. And now I'm really curious for Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

So is it a sequel to 1 or X?

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Christmas game of 2016

4th game in the series and after 1 day I finished it. Even though I haven't played any of the games since the last game come out I can feel the reflexes still kick in while playing. And I gotta say, after the high-note of the last game which... basically threw out everything that was a Shantae game (transformations and magic) it felt rather nice and double fun to see old transformations like harpy, mermaid and the monkey return. And at least they got rid of remembering the combo to activate the transformation. Story is that Shantae's uncle once again have unearthed a blue print for a machine and... as usual Risky Boots is there to steal it. Stop her and begin constructing the machine that will protect Sequine land forever with the energy boost.

And your off, visiting 5 main levels until you can defeat Risky once again. In between finding the next map you have to travel back and forth between the areas to gather certain items to unlock the next part of the story and doing so get's you more money to upgrade your equipment or find extra hearts or gallery keys. And if you are good enough you can find an item long before it's needed which will spare you a trip and the headache to remember where it was. They also brought back the map overview of watching the different maps and see what they have left to find skipping the irritating wander all over the maps like the first games. What they did get rid of was the world maps... and I find it rather irritating. Usually you could look at the map and learn where you haven't gone. Often that it wasn't fully explored due to missing some ability and with a new move set you think "maybe I can get past with this?". I would assume the reason they got rid of it is due to the stages being rather short. 7 hours total gameplay and then the first playthrough was over, unlocking the hero mode which I haven't started yet since as of writing it's the day before christmas and my sisters are home causing all trouble so I can't play (except finishing the game right as they arrived home for the holidays).

Overall the best traditional Shantae with magic and such of the four existing. And I feel they get easier, but with some of the platforming required I would like to think my platforming skills have been improved by playing. As I jump from platform to platform and instantly switches to the right transformation to continue. Feels like... a Sonic game with the speed. I recall the Pirate's Curse final level to the boss and I feel that it trained me very well for platformers. Overall a good game, now only I could kick out my sisters so that I can finish Hero mode and unlock what I suspect is either Risky's mode or Shantae in Risky's equipment like in Pirate's Curse. Lucky I got a long holiday this year since I was forced to use up all my vacation days I had left.

Steamworld Dig: A Fistful of Dirt

Dig dig dig in our mine all day long!

With the new Nintendo reward system I, for some reason, have accumulated a bunch of gold and silver coins and there is nearly nothing I want to use it on. So for the heck of it I started to check games that was recommended and so on and grab one that was on sale. So I got Steamworld Heist, but since I wanted to play the first game in the series I got Steamworld Dig as well... not on sale and finished it in just around 5 hours. It was a fun little game. You play as Rusty, a steambot that has arrived to Tumbleton to meet Uncle Joe. But instead he falls into a cave where he locate Uncle Joe dead and another Steamboat that takes you back to the town. And so the adventure begins.

It's basically dig your way down the mine, get minerals to sell to get money in order to buy upgrades, equipments and items and go even further down the mine. Also some upgrades needs orbs so get them to. The mine is divided in three areas. You look at it from a 2D perspective so it feels like a Metroid game. The difference is that the player decides the environment and how you want to dig the tunnels. You need to dig them good enough so you can jump up and down before the lantern goes out and at the same time make it cross the whole map to find the mineral deposits. Until the end of course when you can run and double jump as well having a way to detect deposits on the map.

And at the end, as per usual you get to fight a boss... which for some reason absorbed Uncle Joe (which is what I guess killed him) and speaks about preparing Rusty to be absorbed as well as the heart of the machine and then launch an attack to take over the world. The battle is destroying the generators powering it... and it is randomised how they appear on the screen each time you enter. So the first time I was killed rather fast (could also been due to not fully upgrade everything). Second attempt was a much better time. You defeat him and then it goes to one month later when the people of the town has built a monument over Rusty that didn't come back... but then again, the town people were afraid to search for him except the girl steamboat you met at the beginning of the game and bought all the minerals you brought in. So that was 5 hours, one sitting. Wonder what Steamworld Heist looks like.

Trine: Enchanted Edition

I wonder what the unenchanted edition looks like?

This game I heard from my sister and my other sisters husband was a fun game and then a co-worker talked me into getting it during the 2016 Halloween. Played it until the end and found it rather enjoyable for a puzzle/action-plattformer. Story is that after the old king died the kingdom have been thrown into chaos and now the undead have appeared. During the commotion the  female thief... Thief sees her oppurtunity to lighten the coffers of the magical academy. She enters the place and find a peculiar artefact and as she touches it she is stuck to it. Meanwhile a magician called... Wizard, who is more of a lady's man tries to learn the fireball spell, but something beckons him into the academy where he find Thief and tries some of his pick-up lines, but the artefacts draws him in and he also is stuck with it. Finally a knight called... Knight (not the most original names I gotta say) is wandering the academy in search for food and ale. But seeing Thief in action his sense of justice takes over and he tries to apprehend her, but he also get caught in the artefact and suddenly they are all united and have to switch between each other to traverse the land in search of the other two artefacts to undo the power the artefact Trine... ROLL CREDITS!

Our heroes!

The set up reminds me a lot of a certain character in a book series I read as a kid, "A Man of his word". Basically 5 people that was part of a thief group was cursed so that only one of them was present at the time, while away they were locked in time, but knew what the others had done. There it was a scholar, thief, musician, warrior and more or less a murderer. Basically the same here. The thief can use grappling hook to climb higher places and use arrows to shoot at a distance or get items in harder places. The wizard can summon boxes, planks and a stepping stone that when upgraded even the thief can grapple on. The knight on the other hand can use his shield to block attacks, attack with his sword or a hammer later on. Basically the primary fighter against most enemies.

It was a decent fantasy series as I recall

So as you clear stage after stage you arrive at the Evil Tower that have appeared out of know where and as you climb it you are attacked by an undead wraith of some kind and then... it just ended. It felt rather abrupt and supposedly should I have guessed that the wraith was the former king? Did I miss a chapter or two? Well, honestly I thought it would be a neat idea just before the end if it was the former king, but still, it felt like something was missing before the end credits. Also the last couple of chapters was amazing when I stopped exploring and just followed the flow of the game. Especially with Thief as she is agile and also can attack. Wizard is probably the best character though since every platform puzzle get stupid easy when you place out boxes you can climb on and then place planks across gaps or just put them over spiked areas and then I walk over it. As stated the only time Knight shines is when you have a barrage of fireballs or arrows coming at you and then of course when you start getting overwhelmed by skeletons or about to face a boss... and sometimes not even that is needed. One time I was going down some trap doors and I noticed an ogre portrait and looked away, fell into a bottomless pit, but he followed me, but I just re-spawned with another character and could just walk by the room. I guess playing on a higher difficulty and some other settings might make the game more challenging and you really need to learn the different strengths and weaknesses to win, but I'm a lazy bastard, so I'm done. Wonder when I will get time to play the second game that also on the Wii U. All in all a fun game.

Axiom Verge

Metroid V

When this one finally hit the E-shop in Europe on the Wii U I got it immediately after watching SomecallmeJohnny's review after it and really have that Metroidvania itch. And I wasn't disappointed. The graphics are dark and mysterious, feeling closer to Metroid in a long way with both an environment that feel alive together with spread out technological areas. The music is techno-awesome with each area has it's unique theme. The gameplay, meanwhile, is working tremendously well. The controls are perfect and I never felt it worked against me. Only once did the game freeze on me and that was right after starting it up, go into an out zooming boss room and turn back right away since I went the wrong way, and maybe that caused it to freeze itself. Of course if you see glitches that might just be the intention of the game. Then again, it was made by just one person so working this well with all that is in the game feels like an impressive feat.

Look, not all the game is inside a cave

The story is that during a laboratory experiment the main character Trace is sent to another world where he greeted by the masked machine at the top of the post here. You are here to save these machines by starting up the necessary equipments so that they can help you explain the situation. And what I gather is that hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago one person entered this dimension, he went away and came back and started a war with this worlds inhabitants. You are there last hope to stop him. Get's a lot more complicated as it turns out that the person you are fighting is really you... or maybe an alternative dimension version of you... or are Trace a clone of the madman? I didn't get any answers, basically I came to the end, the other Trace confessed to being behind the massgenocide of those living machines in order to gain the knowledge of the universe and a few killings wouldn't stop him. I destroy his machines and the one that brought me here kills him and Trace is sent back to after the explosion. Trace still looks for a way back since he needs answers, the end.

It might be the look, but I have a nagging suspicion that they aren't as friendly as they seem

I suspect there is another ending. For example I didn't destroy a boss right before the ending since it was hard as hell and I assume I will get something that will either enable me to climb walls or translate a lot of the papers I collected that I can't currently read. One of the last notes I found that I could read mentioned items hidden in "Breach"-areas (areas corrupted and out of sight of the map) and I only found one with two power-ups. Also it bothers me that I found 4 of those living machines, but one decided to side with the other Trace and was shut down by the other three. I even found her head and I suspect there is a more sinister story behind this. Although it was great fun to play it. Only a few problems I felt, first is that you really got to experiment with the new items you got and try to do everything you can think of to really know the mechanic. Worst was when I got stuck, I didn't know where to go and I run across the map 2-3 times until I figured out that the little mechanical spider you have you can unleash in mid-air and from there steer it into high above places. That was how I uncovered the area I needed to enter. Another problem was the boss you see down below, Gir-Tab. It's a giant scorpion that fires constantly. When I first encountered it I noticed it registered some hits so there got to be a weak point there. It's the eye, but he closes it right away. So while I tried to find the weak point I was killed over and over and since he didn't open his eyes again there had to be another weak spot. And after a couple of tries I caved in and looked it up, you got to shot him in the back with a special gun that explodes remotely and have an area effect to reach it. After that information I didn't take a hit even though it took a long time to defeat him.

I REALLY hate him!

A really fun game, especially if you like the exploration parts of Metroid or just the atmosphere. It is a bit more dialogue heavy, but since I like that, no problem for me. Really need to get my hands on a soundtrack for this... or maybe even try getting the possible real ending... if it exist.

Update: Apparently there is one, but it is 100 % or finish before 4 hours, but more akin to a mind-screw since back on earth the other-Trace appears, older and such and shoots you. So the machines are good to go... my idea was much better... although it feels more like a twist from the Castlevania games.

Asdivine Hearts

Now we are talking JRPG:s dime of dozen

Got this game for the Wii U since it was one of the few fantasy JRPG:s to the system and after the modern Tokyo Mirage I wanted the old good vs evil gods, shadow vs light and the paragon of light hero standing up for the right cause and so and on. And it's really nothing special. The story is one of the more basic ones, but it satisfied me through it. It start one year after some mysterious light across the heavens and the world have become more dangerous as monsters have increased in numbers. You play as Zack who together with the obvious love interest Stella are heading out in the forest to release the wild-cat Felix that they took care at the orphanage they grew up in. While in the forest a mysterious light appears and try to hijack Stella's body, but Zack intervenes causing the light to enter the cat. The light is the light deity that have been pushed out of the heavens by the shadow deity (which caused the light in the sky one year prior). So you guessed it, it's out saving the world with your obvious girlfriend and the pet cat.

During the journey through Asdivine you will encounter the mysterious Uriel who follows Zack after he somehow saved her when her village was destroyed by monsters, but he can't recall the event and the oracle Celine who works for the Queen of Gutemburg Castle. And all girls have a crush on Zack... even the cat... who was the light deity who of course is female. Why not. There's actually a mechanic in that if you get a certain heart rating you get together with that girl in the end of the game. I maxed all up since... why not, but it still went for the ending with Stella, which was nice. Although I thought one could get all the girls, since Zack was such a charmer, but apparently it didn't work... maybe the fact that I changed difficulty from Hard to Easy to speed up the battle sequences and get to the end affected that, but since it only took less than 30 hours to play through the game it was rather nice just cruising through a game for a change.

You travel the world and enters Phantasma to confront the Shadow Deity. You find him, beat him and suddenly find yourself in another world, Revierie. I kinda guessed it since Uriel didn't know anything about the world which hinted on that she couldn't have come form Asdivine (also a prince from Gutenberg have been gone for a year and haven't been seen which also points toward that). You also meet this worlds Zack and Stella, some con-artist and thieves making a nice contrast to the hero of Zack and Stella. You travel this world and enters the final dungeon, climbing the Tower of Sephirot (is it a reference to Final Fantasy 7 or does the name have some important meaning in Japanese?) and learns the truth. Due to people stopped believing in the Deitys (especially the Shadow Deity) they are on their way to disappear. Lumiere the Light Deity didn't understand the threat and was the reason she was cast down. You now have to return to Asdivine where the Shadow Deity have taken over the Queen so you have to exorcise him from the Queen and finding the two servant legions of the Deity. As they commit suicide in helping Lumiere and breaking their vow to the Shadow Deity they summon Phantasmo, yet another otherworldly dimension. Getting through that and we are on the ending showdown with Noctademus and fight of his two forms. During the ending portion it is also revealed that Zack is somehow the light progeny, some kind of manifestation of light as a human... so like Jesus. So when you defeat Noctademus you also get it that light and shadow need to balance each other and since Zack is proficient with light he assumes the role of the new Light Deity as Lumiere take on the role as the new Shadow Deity with her experience as a Deity. And with enough points with Stella you show up to her after a couple of years since you had to stay in the heavens to master your powers.

Is it the end? No, by starting the save again you can fight Noctademus again and not use a certain item in the battle which makes him survive and occupy Stella's body (since she apparently is the Shadow Progeny) and another Deity shows up, the creator Deity... which was probably guessed as well since I think I saw it in the sequence that Lumiere was thrown out of the heavens and the game has 3 different magic teaching, normal, light and shadow. This one isn't as nice since it finds human evil problematic and want to take away their emotions to stop this to happening. Our heroes aren't happy so you traverse the two worlds and find yet another dimension. And damn, it's the worst cause they placed a mini-secret-boss that you have to fight to reach the end where I had to grind for 6 levels before beating, the damn cheater. Not only did he do two attacks in a row (some attacks damaging all party members for over 6000+ damage) but he was so fast he almost attacked after one of my characters could react. But I beat him and pushed to the end. Beat the boss that was a sprite swap of Noctademus final form and he concedes that humans heart maybe should be allowed to continue to feel emotions in that they even can challenge a god. He leaves and the game ends with order back to normal and beliefs in the deitys back as both Lumiere and Noctademus have regained their places. Stella and Zack hooked up. The End!

It really feels like the ending was a bit rushed or maybe not planed since the creator deithy almost comes out of nowhere... I say almost since there was one discussion about it, but out of nowhere Stella is pushed as a Shadow Progeny and nothing really comes out of that. Also, the ending enemies are atrocious since they take forever to kill and when the damn dragons appear, expect 10 minutes of just attacking to take away all the damn health. It still has its moments. I really like the interaction, especially between Zack and Felix although I don't know if I should see it as animal abuse. All in all nothing special. I also think it has some problems, for example, it didn't always register my direction input on the controller and that could be due to the game originally being an IOS title. If you like fantasy RPG:s and want something short, go for it, but as stated it's nothing special. One thing I found irritating is that there is no map over the dungeons, just for the overworked. Nice to know where I'm supposed to go, but finding my way around the final multi-level dungeons can be irritating as I sometimes forget if I was walking up or down and sometimes have a hard time remembering where to go to get out. Found it really irritating in the end.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

The game that really pushes the J in JRPG

This game... a game I wasn't gonna get, but as the release date came and went I looked at some reviews and after watching one trailer that had some really amazing music I couldn't resist so I got it. And immediately starting playing I wondered if I've made a terrible mistake. I knew getting in that it was a JRPG set in modern Tokyo so no problem there, although I prefer the more traditional fantasy setting, and as follows the kids are 18 year old high-school students... that are getting in the Japanese idol business. I assume my sister would find this game more enticing than me. But it is colourful and the music is really amazing. And as I play I realise that this is one of the best social commentaries of our modern world I've ever seen. It's even subtle. So basically the story starts as Itsuki (the main character) is hanging out on some kind of department store and waiting for his best friend Touma. Suddenly he is caught in a stream of kids all ages that are gonna try out some singing contest and there he spots Tsubasa, a childhood friend of his. He follows, she sings and suddenly the announcer is possessed by some ghost and kidnaps Tsubasa and take her into what we later learn is an idolashpere. Some kind of shadow place of the area we are in. Being the hero Itsuki jumps in afterwards. The idolasphere is dark, even creepy, filled with cloaked shadowy creatures roaming the corridors. He is attacked by one of them and... for some reason are able to infuse some strange light into the shadow and it appears it's Chrom from Fire Emblem: Awakening. They form a pact and rescue Tsubasa by infusing yet another shadow that turns out to be Shiida from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (the remake of the first game in the Fire Emblem-series). Touma appears to save them and it's revealed he had infused himself with Cain, the red knight from Shadow Dragon. They escape and Touma brings them to the attention of the president of Fortuna Entertainment, an agency for singers, actors and models.

... nice to meet you, miss President!

Itsuki and Tsubasa get hired and we launch Tsubasa's singing career while Itsuki does... support I guess. Really, it never fells like Itsuki is the main character of the game. It's mostly Tsubasa in the beginning with her search for her sister that disappeared 5 years ago  (that we rescue not long after) and her budding idol-carreer. Then it switch over to the last character to join the group, Yashiro. Yashiro is a male superstar that after some confrontations during missions joins their agency as he sees the best option to find out about his father that disappeared 5 years ago as well and his vengaence on the mirages who did this. The shadowy cloaked figures are mirages and are from another world. Images of the former heroes Fire Emblem, so besides those already mention there is Virion and Tharja from Awakening and Draug and Navarre from Shadow Dragon. As you can see, most characters are from Shadow Dragon and Awakening, but there are other references to the series. For example the waitress of the cafe in Shibuya is Illiyana from the Radiance-duology, the jeweller-sales woman gotta be Aime from the same game and both sales woman at the Ho He Mart is Anne that appears in several games in the series. Real satisfying when I realised that. Several of the games weapons are referenced and many villains of the series makes a return here. This is the setup, so what's the story? Gharnef, the evil sorcerer of Shadow Dragon has bonded with a human on earth and are about bringing forth the Shadow Dragon (from Shadow Dragon and Awakening) by stealing the performa (I would say something like talent and inspiration) of the humans and use it to resurrect Medeus. He failed 5 years ago due to Tiki's interference (the manakete from mentioned games) and are now doing it again. So you gotta stop him from stealing "performa". And here the subtleness of the game appears. It might be a sleazy contest holder that is corrupted, or a model photographer, or a TV/Movie director. People that some people put their trust in that can sometimes abuse that. The photographer example the easiest to remember due to that it originally was supposed to play up the "girls in bikini"-angle which they toned down in the west due to censoring over sexualization, of course taking away the message that you shouldn't always trust those that promises easy ways to stardom. Anyway, after figuring out who it is you decide that the only way to stop Gharnef is using the Opera of Light: Fire Emblem to counter the Opera of Shadow. You head in to a idolasphere of Tiki's memories and receive the powers of the ancient heroes that defeated Medeus before. Except the soul of Marth that Gharnef combines with his own in summoning the dragon. All seems lost, but Itsuki won't get down with a fight. They climb the final idolasphere and prepares to do the Opera of Light in hope that the stolen soul of Marth still would be triggered. And then...

WHOA!!! Did not see that coming!

If you can't see it's the reveal of Medeus and the first thing he does is fire a laser at Itsuki that kills him. We didn't even get to start the fight. Of courses friends mourn him and the soul of the other heroes emerges and attacks the dragon, releasing Marth's soul, turning Itsuki into Marth as they defeat the dragon and saves the world. Everyone become a giant star within their field and Itsuki takes over as president of Fortuna Enterprise since miss Maiko returns to her life as a model... well, she sure looks the part. It took me 70 hours to play through this game. And it's really mixed if I like it or not, I like the gameplay, fast and satisfying in battles, the music goes from awesome to so cheesy I can't help but like it, especially the songs they put in. And don't think I didn't notice the Splatoon reference in the game. Both songs and visuals. And as noted I liked the nods and references to the Fire Emblem-games, but the story. I liked the social commentary, and it's standard good vs evil, but the personal problem of the idols are boring as hell. It's about understanding "cute", "sexy", "how to be a hero", one has to learn about eating. Really, Yashiro don't get the concept of eating in regular intervals since that was what is assistant took care of. All I can say is that these character at least get character development from aliens and robots to somewhat functional humans. The only one that hardly get any is Itsuki. He's always the good guy or I at least I played him that way... with maybe a bit of flirtatious behaviour. Then again, he's constantly sexual harassed by Maiko so I don't know, maybe I played him with a bit of bad taste. Speaking of bad taste:

Goddamit Barry!

The most embarrassing character of the whole game. On one hand we have this death metal guitarist, former mirage master and the coach for everyone in Fortuna Entertainment. And the other hand... it's Barry Goodman. I don't mind his obsession with an animated kids show, hell, I've obsessed about nostalgic shows for me, but somehow Barry even grates on me. Then we have the love interest. It's obviously Tsubasa x Itsuki. But they don't get it, but everyone else see it. Doesn't stop every other girl for crushing on Itsuki. And the worst part? It actually feels like a better choice in some of them. Take Eleonoras side quest which is she needs help playing a young high-school girl that falls in love so she need Itsuki to go on a date with her so she can method act the role. The final side-quest is you doing those things again, but she quizzes you if you remember what you did. As to see if Itsuki actually played attention to her. And that is really sweet. I actually started to feel they belonged more together than Tsubasa and Itsuki. Sure, Eleonora was irritating at first with her "Hollywood" talk and boasting about her superior knowledge of the movie industry. But I still grew to like her and it really felt bitter-sweet that her dream become realised, she will go to Hollywood, but she will leave Itsuki behind.

Could be due to her being the most normal sized girl of them all around... the chest area

So the characters is hit or miss and their relationship between each other is mixed as well. Otherwise it's fun to play, and I really like the animated music videos (and most of the music ain't bad). Is it for everyone? No, I have a hard time myself with the modern world and the focus of the idol industry and frankly the idolaspheres mostly are dark and moody. They don't get better until the end when we finally have some forest and ruins that doesn't go in the colours black and purple. Still, would have preferred a more fantasy setting since there ain't no RPG for the Wii U in the west... can't wait for the Dragon Quest VII release.