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HEY SO YOU KNOW I CAN PLAY OTHER GAMES? Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade Solid experience but I definitely see the quibbles of it being fan fiction, and bloated. With that said, the story is a synthesis of everything that came after the original so not being the same is to be expected. I guess I should also say it is very anime when it's presented this way. With the OG, you can contain a lot. You can also contain a lot of silliness to a kid (like kid me). Adult me can't help but go "wut". Gameplay is decent and about what I expected. I think the only true frustration was with grab attacks. It was a constant pain point. I also feel that some mechanics are poorly explained. Like, for the Yuffie part, I didn't know about synergy attacks with Sonon until their final boss! Ys VIII Lacrimosa of DANA Gameplay is far from being as tight as the OG games but it is decent. Some enemies or bosses can feel spongey but nothing a tornado sword can't fix. Raids are an annoyance to me since they break the flow of the story/exploration. It also doesn't quite make sense early on. Like, please help if you have time! You can for some reason teleport before being explicitly told you can do so, so it really was no big deal. I just have lots of qualms about party management, however, it is a improvement on Ys SEVEN when it comes to the final boss: you don't need to use everyone! You're not going to be casted down for being unable to level and/or play this or that character. I recalled I had issues in Ys SEVEN at the final boss because of it, so I dropped it for a bit, then wrecked the boss after I reoriented myself lol I guess I should mention this is like a very concerning amount of time that Falcom added a totally garbage optional dungeon. Story wise, this slaps. The titular Dana is a joy. This game really does try to expand and connect with the other games (though it should be said it can feel hamfisted since they are expanding on some simple concepts from like 30 years ago lmao). As for within the game itself, I felt like a few parts didn't needed to be there since they didn't quite add anything, however, I wouldn't mind if they allude to some greater thing. Music. Not as many banger tracks but the title screen music (and basically anything piece related to Dana) hits quite differently after you are done. The Sibylline Road (Dana!), Gens d'Armes (tided to the level and part of the game), Volitional Decision, Vanishing Trail (jazzy lol) slaps. --- I guess I had a lot more to say about a Ys game than a Final Fantasy game lmao

"Shouldn't do WW2 songs since it attracts the neo nazis and fascists. Let's do Crusades!" - Sabaton With that said, after watching the video, that part of their whole story was practically the only one Sabaton could do lmao

Bionic Bay is in the books! Limbo meets Super Meat Boy meets Tiny Wings meets The Swapper. Great platforming that'll make the hairs on your neck stand up that's elevated even higher by a truly memorable soundtrack and some very nice visuals make this something I wholeheartedly recommend for anyone who likes platformers with a bit of an atmosphere. Took me 11 hours (give or take) to get through the games campaign. It certainly gets a little demanding towards the end, but I never felt like giving up and only had to use a guide in one spot (which, as it turns out was because I wasn't looking at the screen well enough). 4/5 - Great

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 So far really loving this game. The active combat system is really cool, where it's turn based but you can dodge/parry enemy attacks or increase your own attacks with well-timed button presses. Think Paper Mario. It makes it a lot more engaging, and it feels so satisfying when you counter an enemy. Beyond that, it's an RPG with a great cast of characters and a compelling setting/story. Really enjoying it so far (about 8 hours in).

Since I've reached the end of current ZZZ content and am just doing dailies that are quick to plow through, I decided to try some of the other Hoyo games. Tried giving Genshin another shot but it really didn't age well. The graphics look hideous today and the grind is far worse than it is in ZZZ. I doubt I'll stick with it. However, Honkai Star Rail was a nice little surprise. It's a turn based RPG where the combat focuses on elemental weaknesses, which is nothing new, but they do a few things with it to give it a different flavor. Enemies have something called a toughness bar along with their HP, and if you attack them with the wrong element then they take very little damage. The best way to kill enemies is to break their toughness with elemental attacks which stuns them, does a big chunk of burst damage, and causes a status effect depending on which element it was. Because elements are so crucial every enemy is going to have at least two weaknesses, usually three or more. Each character in your party corresponds to a specific element so while they can only use one, the multiple weaknesses thing means you usually won't get caught without at least one appropriate party member. When you see enemies on the field you also see a list of their weaknesses attached to their name so you can switch party members if you have to, though I don't often need to do that. Getting in a preemptive strike with the right element gives you an early advantage though. Commands are very simple. Party members have a basic attack that recharges action points, skills that consume action points (shared among the party), and an ultimate that slowly charges as they give damage, receive damage, or use certain energy boosting abilities. Ultimates can be used outside of a character's turn so if your healer gets charged up right before the boss is about to take their turn you can interrupt them to protect your party. Skills aren't always just about doing damage either and some enemies are designed around them. For example, some enemies have an ability called lock on where they aim at a party member for a turn and then do a really strong attack in their next turn, but one of your default party members has a skill that not only shields characters but also counterattacks if anyone attacks the shielded character. Or you could have someone use a skill to remove the lock on debuff which causes the enemy to waste their next turn. For such a basic system they still made it so you can't just hit the basic attack button the whole time. There is an auto battle button and the AI usually makes smart decisions but it can't be used for bosses and you have to turn off letting them use ultimates freely or they'll just spam them as soon as they're charged. Negative points? Well, it's a gacha. You can get by just fine with the default party members for the story content, but obviously the limited party members are stronger. Even putting aside the gacha mechanics, it's pretty immersion breaking to go through a story while having a party member who has no reason to be there. The cutscenes will still use the appropriate characters but I pulled a nine tailed fox alien with a very Japanese, fire based theme who is currently fighting in battles with my party while the story has them stuck on a snow planet with not a single fox alien to be seen. Don't get me wrong, she's great in battle and I'm glad I have her but storywise I have no idea who she even is yet. I assume she shows up on a later planet but right now she's just there because I unpacked her like a Pokemon card (using free rolls mind you). But hey, I'm not gonna complain too hard when I love her design this much.

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge This was the improved version?! Looking at it, it does come from that era of Armored Core V, and Ace Combat Assault Horizon, and it follows them in that, more "western" style, more cutscenes, more story, QTEs, a darker grittier look, "cinematic" slow motion shots, "cinematic" climbing, "cinematic" everything! The problem is that none of that is Ninja Gaiden, the base gameplay isn't that bad all things considered, and is the greatest improvement over vanilla 3, though that is a pretty low bar to clear lol. The Steel on Bone mechanic is neat, and it does lead to some cool moments, but it also becomes the only way to clear certain fights since all enemies are now faster and more agile, evading, blocking or parrying most of your attacks. Some of the new animations are pretty cool, the Lunar Staff in particular, has a really cool one that is the perfect example of overkill. But then there's all the other stuff, the climbing mechanic was pretty annoying, there's a stealth ability that's only used in a couple of places, QTEs are everywhere and they make boss fights more frustrating than they need to be, the lack of healing items is pure madness and I have no idea who the hell thought that was a good idea, the obsession with having several enemies with rocket launchers led to some pretty cheap feeling deaths, the last boss is one of the worst last bosses I've seen, and a more personal pet peeve, upgrades now being in a generic menu instead of the Muramasa shop was disappointing. The story is also the worst of any of these games, yes, the story in the Ninja Gaiden series was never award worthy, but it did its job, it was silly and cheesy in all the best ways and was all about being a badass Ninja saving the world, the story in this one is pretty bad, the English voice of Ryu is also the worst of the series lol, IMO 2 had the best one, Josh Keaton >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Troy Baker, for this role. The Ayane chapters weren't that bad though, I def enjoyed her gameplay and how brutal some of her attacks are. \m/ \m/ Grade: D-

Got the Zenless Zone Zero platinum, which I think might be the first I've ever gotten for a free to play game if I'm not mistaken. Funnily enough, with all the grinding to max level and all the other things these games are known for to make these trophies take a long time, the last one I needed to get the platinum was the trophy for getting a cat to trust me.

Bionic Bay I think it's doing the game a bit of a disservice to say that it's Limbo meets Meat Boy but....kinda that? I'm playing it on my Steamdeck. It runs fantastically, it looks beautiful and it's got some really nice sound design and music. It's not overly difficult (as of yet), although there's definitely a level of challenge here that requires one to have a decent understanding of ones controller, and whilst it does have a few tricky puzzles along the way, the games very respectful of your time in allowing almost instantaneous restarts at the very frequent checkpoints. Really enjoying it so far, and it's a nice change of pace from Khazan which is still tormenting me.

Finally got my order confirmation from Best Buy, so looks like I should be good. I also got an invite to pre-order from Amazon this morning, so I got another order from them as a backup. Along with a few other things:

Was able to get an order in with Best Buy! Had to go through their queue system like 3 times but I finally managed. Hopefully it doesn't end up getting cancelled... Also those game prices are insane. According to Amazon CA, the Switch 2 editions of BotW and TotK are 100$ and 115$ respectively. Fuck that, I bought the Switch 1 versions and I'll get the free upgrades through NSO. Between the Mario Kart Bundle and getting the Switch 1 versions of both Zelda games, that's already 100$ saved on games.

I mean, do you really need a safety that you're only ever going to use once (to turn it off) and then never again?

Yeah, I was shocked too.

They make handguns without safeties?!

Yeah, that's a Sig Sauer P365. We picked it because we liked how the Sig grips and triggers felt, and that one in particular has a smaller magazine (10 rounds) so it's legal in every state, but it can also accept larger magazines. Also it's got a safety, which apparently most of them don't anymore. Might get a rifle and/or shotgun at some point, but wanted to start with this.

I've been debating about it too and I'm in California lol Like, I should at least have some to practice with when I'm home. And that where lies the problem: I can't say I have the gun(s) secured if I'm not home for 2-3 weeks at a time. I am thinking of a plain old Glock 19 (or similar) and some basic ass AR-15 (or the like). Honestly doesn't matter if I get screwed by CA regulations, I just need to be able to reliably hit what I want to hit and know how to handle a gun. fun times

I honestly think you probably made the right choice. I ended up playing BP for about 20 hours and I thought it was good-ish but nothing amazing throughout. I'm enjoying RoboCop about as much. It's not as good as the good parts of BP, but it's also never aggravating, so it evens out.

Not really, but I think it's possible. Plan for the worst, hope for the best and etc. Rather get one now while they're easy to get and never need it than for things to really hit the fan and not be able to.

Assassin's Creed Shadows It's been a while since I played one of these at launch. Overall, I really enjoyed it and I think it might be my favorite AC game so far (keep in mind, my only modern point of reference is AC Origins since that's the last and most recent one I played) but ultimately it's still Assassin's Creed. The setting is great, the visuals are gorgeous and the parkour is the most polished it's ever been but that AC jank still shows up every now and then. The "modern day" story is limited to text entries in the new AC launcher and a handful of glitchy sequences in the actual game. The actual story starts out really strong but then it sort of just goes away. After a brief intro with Yasuke, you play as Naoe only for the entirety of Act 1. That includes an opening sequence that features some Tarantino-ass musical choices. It's almost like Prey 2017 where the opening is so freaking awesome that the rest of the game struggles to reach the same height again. Basically it sets up Naoe's motivation and the group of enemies she'll be hunting down for the rest of the game. If you're like me and do a lot of side-content alongside the main story, it might take you close to 20 hours before you unlock Yasuke. When you do, you'll get a bunch of flashback missions giving you more of his backstory, including one that's basically a 30mins short film with the occasional interaction and that might actually be my favorite part of the entire story. Naoe's story is perfectly fine (and she also gets some flashback to flesh out what happened to her prior to the destruction of Iga at the beginning of the game) but Yasuke's story is just so freaking good. Once that's out of the way, though, you're mostly just going after your targets one by one. Which is fine, don't get me wrong. I'm all for the lack of padding. It was just weird to see the story almost taking a backseat after such a strong opening. After a while you go through your entire list of targets and then some more personal quests are introduced for Naoe and Yasuke that pick up where some of their respective side-quests left off. And then the game just sort of ends. Like, when the credits rolled I literally said "What the fuck?!" because it was so out of nowhere. I'd literally just finished a fairly pivotal boss fight/scene that seemed to be setting up the next bit of story and then it just... ends. I have to assume it's setup for the DLC because if not then I don't know what the hell that was. The story isn't the only thing that's uneven. Both Naoe and Yasuke are incredibly fun to play as. Naoe has all the cool parkour moves and tools to go stealthy and Yasuke is for when you just wanna cut down everything in your path and burst through big wooden gates like the Kool-Aid man. The problem is that stealth as Yasuke is treated like a joke. When he does a leap of faith, he immediately bounces out of hiding and the pile of hay is destroyed. When you do a "stealth kill" with him, he screams as he impales the enemy and lifts their corpse over his head. He's really fun in combat but since this is supposed to be a stealth game you end up favoring Naoe most of the time. The game is at its best during main story missions where you alternate between both of them in scripted missions: e.g. sneak in as Naoe to open the gate, Yasuke fights his way in to create a distraction, switch back to Naoe to use the commotion to get to the target and take them out. Having some agency over that kind of stuff to come up with your own strategies could've been great but as it is you can only swap between them either at pre-determined moments during story missions or from the menu when outside of combat/hostile areas. One thing I really liked is that there is no quest log like in AC Origins because, well, there are no boring quests like that game had. When you get a quest from an NPC, 90% of the time it'll just add a circle on your objective board and on that circle will be targets for you to take out. Imagine that, most of the gameplay (both main and side-content) has you just getting lists of targets to... assassinate. In an Assassin's Creed game! I'm surprised it only took them like a dozen games over almost 20 years to figure that one out! (I have no idea if Odyssey and Valhalla were also like this lol all I know is Origins sure as shit wasn't...) So yeah, overall I thought it was very enjoyable but if you don't like Assassin's Creed (or care for the Japanese setting) then YMMV. Oh and another thing I appreciate is that the achievements list doesn't require an insane amount of completion or grinding: I was able to get all the missing ones fairly quickly after finishing the main story. The only annoying thing was some stuff required specific time of day/seasons to be doable. If I'd known earlier I could've planned around it, but since I didn't I ended up having to sit around waiting for in-game time to pass because for some baffling reason they removed the option to "medidate" to fast-forward the day/night cycle. Even though there's literally a meditation mini-game for Naoe... There's technically a mechanic to skip ahead to the next season but it's kinda unintuitive and useless. Oh and another thing they removed for no reason whatsoever is the ability to sell more than one piece of gear at a time. This was a solved problem all the way back in AC Origins so idk what the fuck happened there. They patched it back in like a couple weeks ago but I guess it was buggy cause they already patched it out.

gosh, Do you really feel things could come to that. I can't imagine. though I also can't imagine things getting any better. It seems the people who want things to stay the same or get worse are so m uch more effective than the ones that want things to get better.

So I got a refund on Blue Prince, and then I used that refund to grab the following...

I've just hit another boss and once again I'm asking if it's worth it for me to continue on playing on 'normal'. Save yourself.

Also bought a safe for it.