¡Gabz!

for the past few months, I have been into this thing about buying physical copies of Nintendo Switch games, whether I already owned them digitally or not. So, if I had a significant backlog, it's gotten much worse.

So I am trying to get through them.

The first one on the list is,

Koumajou Remilia: Scarlet Symphony

Gensokyo faces sudden disturbance as "Scarlet Mist" spreads once again. To Reimu Hakurei, this peculiar phenomenon resembled something familiar.
'Is this that vampire's doing?', she thought to herself.
There was only one choice: head to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and find out the true cause of the disturbance.
......but this time, the way to the mansion was a little different from usual.  

This game to me is sort of an oddball, in some way. I am not even sure why I even got it, to be honest. That being said, I am glad I did, I think. Anyways, this is another Metroidvania-ish, and this one is the remastered version of its original release back in 2009. And you can very much tell that is heavily influenced by  Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Although this title is regarded as a Metroidvania, the stages are very much linear, there is no backtracking or secret rooms and such. You enter a mansion and you pretty much work your way from different sections and a boss fight at the end of each, no fuss no muss. By defeating these bosses, they join your party and you can use their abilities in a single assistance attack and that's about it.

It is Japanese with English subtitles, very anime-like, all the characters are females, and the music is pretty awesome. 

I believe I finished the game in a few hours of gameplay. 

Next up, is Moonscars.

This one is supposed to be a tough game. I am still trying to find my footing and figure out the battle system. I have died a few times already, there is no hacking and slashing my way through this one.

Tunic on the Nintendo Switch.

Explore a land filled with lost legends, ancient powers, and ferocious monsters in TUNIC, an isometric action game about a small fox on a big adventure. Stranded in a ruined land, and armed with only your own curiosity, you will confront colossal beasts, collect strange and powerful items, and unravel long-lost secrets.  

This game, wasn't even on my radar until someone mentioned it in a podcast back in March. I remember this because I was traversing my way through the dangerous city of Chicago. I was trying to get to the hotel where the convention I was attending was being held at. 

I added it to my PlayStation 5 wishlist, it wasn't even listed in the eShop, at the time. Fast forward to the end of the last month, the game is available on the eShop, and the switch being my preferred gaming console for these games, well, I got it on the system over the PS5. The game had been out I think six months prior on macOS, PC, and Xbox, but it wasn't until six months later that made it to the PlayStation and Switch.

Still, I had heard very little about this game. I heard it was a combination of a Zelda-like game and a Souls-like game. By this premise alone, I should have stayed away from this game, in theory. Why? Well, I suck at souls-like games, and yet I guess I'm a sucker for punishment because I buy them anyways, and I no longer have the patience for unguided exploring games like Zelda.

Tunic is an action-adventure game and right off the bat you can tell, it is very Zelda-like, especially the earlier ones. You are a fox and you wake up in this strange world with, gain, very little guidance on what you need to do. From what I have gathered so far, you battle your way through it, you must find and ring a number of bells and find some "gears" that should end up in a central place. Just like Souls games, there is very little or nonexistent back story presented, you must unravel the mystery as you go. Enemies can be a little unforgiving, or so I was told. If you die you respawn at your last save point, and you lose some currency and such, just as expected in a souls-like game.

You have stamina and mana, as well as your health. You can upgrade your stats, although that is not well explained in the game. There, is literally very, very little guidance and lots of explanation in this game, however, I can't stop playing it.

What is amazing about this game are the accessibility options, it has a No Fail Mode, No Stamina Restrictions, and Reduced Combat Difficultry. Well, guess what? I have all turned on! No shame, No ragrets! So to me, the combat isn't frustration, if any, it would be my own impatience. But it's fun to just turn on the Switch and just go to town exploring and see what things I can do, which paths I haven't explored, you know just fox around with my sword. And believe there are lots of secret paths and secrets in general in this game.

I have gotta say, even though I had no idea what is going on, no guidance whatsoever. I'm clueless about what I am supposed to do, and yet I am having a good time. The game is charming and beautiful, the music is great, and I even have the soundtrack on rotation because it is that nice.

Moonscars on the Nintendo Switch

Ugh! Another one.

Last night, like almost every night, I am browsing the newest releases section of the Nintendo eShop, it's almost like an addiction at this point and immediately saw the image above. And I went, "uh, what's that?", and that's all it took. I went in and looked at the images, and I was already hooked, then it dawned on me, "uh-oh, this is probably a souls-like". I watched the trailers and yup, definitely a souls-like.

"But it's so prettyyyyyyy!" (in a morbid way)

I am such a sucker for indie-souls-like games! Blasphemous, Eldest Souls, Morbid: The Seven Acolytes, ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights (which I actually played quite extensively) are a  few examples. Where three of them I barely played due to their difficulty, I may revisit in the future, who knows.

Why these games? Is it the darkness? Are their stories as vague as they may be? Perhaps, and most likely. There is also the pixel art style, the sprites, and the music. I am very attracted to these games, but I suck at them. Even for "AAA" games of the same genre, like Elden Ring, which I have purchased and I am so scared to play!

Again, I am a sucker and I will probably end up getting this game, and eventually, its physical copy if ever available.

Also, I understand that the game is currently somewhat broken, I believe is towards the end of the game, but the developers have identified the issues and there is a patch coming. That is good to know going in for sure.

Cult of the Lamb on the Nintendo Switch

> Start your own cult in a land of false prophets, venturing out into diverse and mysterious regions to build a loyal community of woodland worshippers and spread your Word to become the one true cult.

I don’t remember exactly when I became aware of this game, I want to say that it was in some Nintendo event where they announced a couple of indie games. What I do remember was being drawn to the game’s visuals, the art style, and obviously the gameplay. It looked both somewhat-creepy and adorable. I mean, you are a lamb, an innocent cute little lamb, and you lead an evil cult. So, I put its release date on my calendar and even pre-ordered a physical copy of it, that is supposed to arrive sometime in Q2 of 2023.

Now that is finally here, the gameplay is one part sim and one part action-roguelike, imagine if Hades and Stardew Valley had a baby. The premise of this game is you are being sacrificed by some cult by the Old Ones because a prophecy said that a lamb will be the vessel by which The One Who Waits will return. Obviously, you do get sacrificed and then return to life by The One Who Waits, for you to raise a cult in his name and to destroy the 4 Old Ones in order to break free, just like the prophecy says.

Again, the gameplay is divided between you taking care of your duties, tending to your followers and your efforts to fight your way through the forests of heretics, the rouge like part, and hunt down them Old Ones. Here is like your typical rouge like game, where you enter a dungeon, you pick a weapon, and you fight your way through different rooms. In some rooms, you will encounter some cult member that you can convert and at the end of the run, there will be a boss. These dungeons aren’t super-long, they might take about 10-15 mins to complete. Then you return to your commune with the spoils of your adventure!

In your Cult’s Commune is where you do your sim part of the game. Part of tending to your followers is to listen to them and resolve their issues, you farm, you harvest, you build things. You give sermons and teach doctrines, you can assign jobs and responsibilities to each of your cult members. You also need to do anything and everything to keep their faith from dropping, or they will turn on you. At this point, you can teach them again, throwing them into prison or my favorite, sacrifice them.

You do a zillion things, I won’t list because there’ll be too much, or I probably haven’t even got to do them.

This is definitely a completely unique rougelike kind of game, and I will say, half of it, to me, can be stressful. The action, rougelike part of the game isn’t that hard, granted, I’m playing on easy, and it is where I get a lot of fun out of. The sim aspect of it, well, that is the stressful part, for me. I always worried that I will not attend to every request, that my followers aren’t happy, that I am not building the necessary things, etc.

If you very much enjoy games like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing, you will love this aspect of the game. I do own both Stardew and Animal Crossing, and I had never been able to get into them, I lose interest quickly.

This is a beautiful, cute-looking game, and it is a lot of fun, except for the sim part, for me, but it is definitely with checking out.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 for the Nintendo Switch

> Live to fight. Fight to live. > > Join Noah and Mio, members of the two opposing nations of Keves and Agnus, on a heartfelt journey through a warring world with a dark secret. Traverse massive, fantastical landscapes and master seamless real-time RPG combat as you expose the true enemy pulling the strings.

I am calling anything with the Xeno on front of it, as part of the overall series, I am not sure (or remember) how accurate that is, but these have been around since the PlayStation One days. Starting with Xenogears in the late nineties, I still have my copy somewhere in the house. don’t remember much about it other than it was a great game.

In the early two thousand on PlayStation 2, Xenosaga (I, II, and III), I also have my copies in some box somewhere. Those were fun to play, and I remember the story being slightly complicated and open for discussion and interpretation.

Now here is where I got lost in the whole thing. I think then we had Xenoblade Chronicles X, on the Wii U, which I probably purchased but never really played it. I was never a Wii U player, to be honest. Then comes Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, and this one I think was originally released on the Wii U then the Nintendo 3DS and eventually we got this remastered version for the Nintendo Switch, which I do own and played only about an hour or two before dropping it. Next is Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on the Nintendo Switch and that one I did get excited about, and once again, played for like 4 hours before dropping it. Tried once or twice to get back into it but for whatever reason, I could not get into it or had the patience.

This brings us to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and when this game was announced I didn’t even bother to watch its announcement, trailers, or looked into it in any way. Actually, I was a little fed up with it because Nintendo was pushing this game very heavily on social media and that made me despise the game a bit. Until, release day, guess there was a little bit of FOMO.

So how is it going? Well, I am close to ten hours into it and I am not yet feeling bored or overwhelmed. In fact, I can’t seem to be able to put it down. In lieu of that, I felt like I needed a Xenoblade Universe crash course. Although I was always under the impression that these games aren’t directly connected, there seems to me some lore. Even though each game has its own set of characters and overall story, things do connect in some way. So I have spent quite the amount of time watching youtube videos to kind of get into the Xeno-lore.

I like how the game slowly but steadily introduces you to all the mechanics, the ins and outs of the battle system, crafting items, abilities trees, etc. It doesn’t just throw all the information in one single tutorial battle at you and then you figure it out. In fact, I’d say, the first ten hours, are the tutorial, or so it did feel like. I mean I just had my first “big” battle and hopefully, there is nothing else to introduce me to as far as something else to explain game-wise.

The battle system does get some used to, or at least to me, auto-battle it’s weird to me and I believe Chronicles 1 and 2 have a very similar battle system. So you have your regular auto attacks but your greatest damage, or heavy attacks, come from arts and these have a cool-down system. Each character has its own class and arts but these can be learned and shared among all the characters and leveled up, that’s a kind of nice system.

Graphics are great, and so is the voice acting. The world of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 seems huge and lots to explore without feeling like it’s a chore, so far. There is so much about this game and I already feel like I am rambling too much about it.

I am really having fun with this one. I read it is about eighty hours to finish the game. So far I feel as if I was reading (or listening) to one of those fantasy/sci-fi books. I am very intrigued by the story and the main characters so far. I am very curious about where this is going. What this game does that the other did not? I don’t know. Maybe the fact that I got into its lore and “backstory” that now I am intrigued?

Hm…

Final thoughts,

It’s a great game, you shall play it!

• Gabz

╰(˙ᗜ˙)੭━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

It has come to my attention that  Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, for the PlayStation 5 in my case,  it is up for pre-order. I remember watching the trailer or teaser for it and man did it look good.  I am looking into it and as I am reading the description, I read the following;

• The Masocore Dream Team - A joint creation by Team NINJA producers Fumihiko Yasuda (Nioh) and Masaaki Yamagiwa (Bloodborne).

With Team Ninja alone, I know this game will be, most likely, extremely difficult. Unless they take pity on us and make it more accessible. I mean, they did it for the Ninja Gaiden Collection. They added an easy mode of sorts that made the game more approachable and accessible.

At this point in my life, I am not up for challenges when it comes to video games. I want an enjoyable experience and a good story. I want to have fun, not episodes of rage.

HARDCORE MECHA on the Nintendo Switch

Mercenary Tarethur O’Connell, an ACE pilot of Hardcore Defense Corp, was drawn into a conspiracy rebellion during a mission. Facing continuous battles and overwhelming conflicts, Tarethur starts to re-think about what he is fighting for..  

This game was released on October 15, 2020, and I remember showing up, and immediately I was drawn to it. I mean, the word MECHA is in the title. And as you can see by the art, it looks very Anime-ish. I downloaded the Free Demo, and played a bit but, like many other titles, it fizzled away, and I never looked at it again, until recently. I have played at least six missions, and these are not very long. It usually requires you to eliminate all enemies in one area to move to the next and then there's a boss fight. Simple and sweet, not too complicated, easy play.

Hardcore Mecha is a mecha-themed action sidescroller you play as a mech pilot named, Tarethur (that's a catchy name) who works for this mercenary group, and you're hired to find a captive officer referred to as "A", who has gone missing on Mars.

Controls are simple, you have a main gun, a chest-mounted gun (rapid fire low damage), and melee attacks. The melee attacks use cooldowns so is not like can melee-away. You can dash, jump, and hold the jump button to move around in midair until your boost gauge runs out. 

The visuals are pretty sweet, it's got this chibi art style, which is kind of cool, and I very much enjoy it.  The mechs, enemies, and animations are highly detailed and they look good. A lot of the conversations are carried out in a visual novel style.

Overall this is a very simple and enjoyable game, one that you can pick up at any point and just play through it. I am playing on easy mode, I am not here for a challenge, I am here to have fun and enjoy.

Video Games

Recently, I have gotten an itch for buying indie games, that I already own digitally on the Nintendo Switch, physically. And these are the games that I really liked and enjoyed. Moreover, I kind of don’t trust Nintendo very much when it comes to safeguarding my purchase library, I don’t know, maybe I’m just paranoid.

I have purchased 4 games so far, one still on its way, and I’m sure there will be more to come. The thing I was not expecting, though, was the extras. Not only I got the physical copies of the games dearest to me, but they came with goodies that made the purchase even more valuable, to me.

First, I got Blasphemous

And this one came with stickers and a poster!

As well, with a code for the DLC, which I already owned anyway.

Then I got Death’s Gambit: Afterlife.

This one also came with a poster and stickers!

How cool is that, right?

Today, I received Huntdown.

If you haven’t played this game, do yourself a favor and play it. It is so much fun, the graphics, the music, it is so 80s.

This did not come with stickers, but pins or buttons.

On its way, I got ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights. This one a did blogged about a while ago, and I loved it so much I had to order the physical copy as well.

I have a few in mind I want to get, hopefully these three didn’t spoil me much that now I’ll be expecting cool stuff every time.

Today I was browsing the PlayStation Store, as you do, and noticed that the was a trial for OlliOlli World as part of the PlayStation Plus Premium Plus-Plus thingamajigger sub. It is a one-hour trial and I played about 30 minutes of it. That is basically the first 5 or six stages that serve as a tutorial for the game. 

>OlliOlli World is a bold new skateboarding action-platformer that’s bursting with personality. > >Traverse a delightful and weird world as you take on missions, and challenges and make new friends along the way. > >Experience the accessibility, depth, and player freedom as you dive into the signature flow state >gameplay of OlliOlli World. > >OlliOlli World marks the third entry in the critically-acclaimed OlliOlli series from Roll7, the BAFTA and multi-award-winning independent studio.  >

The art alone in this game is what got me, I have had this game on my Nintendo Switch's wishlist for a while, it had been on sale and still passed on it. Hence why I wanted to check it out. I mean, it is fun, and the character creation is fun, I kinda liked that there is no gender selection for the character, it all depends on how you dress the character up. 

The music is pretty awesome, and the stages look and feel amazing. Given the style, the music, and the vibes this game gives, it'd suggest an easy relaxing game. Well, I guess that depends, if you have played games like Alto's Odyssey, well there's a lot of that. I am always expecting the next obstacle to come so that, at least to me, is cause for some stress. I guess because of the control mechanics, I am not entirely used to it. then again, only 30 mins, I would assume it will become more natural as you go.

I might end up purchasing this game and definitely, it'll be on the Nintendo Switch. Now, the question is, do I wait until is up for sale again, or not?