Links Awakening (GB version). As a kid, I have memories of just wondering about talking to all the characters and not knowing what yo do to progress. As an adult, I can see why, and have had to consult an online guide to find out what to do. How did I ever manage it as a kid?

Breath of the wild (I know I’m late!) then moving to super Mario sunshine and then octopath traveler :)

Finishing off Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s post-game content before moving on to Future Redeemed. I’ve enjoyed the heck out of it, though I am basically ready to be done, so… that lined up pretty nicely, actually.

Finished Trails into Reverie.

Well, that took a while, more than 90h, but I went for full completion - main game, post game dungeon, trials, daydreams, minigames, everything done.

I love the Trails series, it’s one of my favorite JRPG series ever, but it has its fair share of problems - they use the same formula for most games so it’s easy to get burned out if you play many of them in sequence, there’s a lot of cast bloat due it being a series with all games interconnected, an annoying tendency to keep trying to redeem villains, and just being too verbose at times (often because they want to use all members of that huge cast).

Why I’m talking about this? Because while I had a lot of fun with the previous game (Cold Steel 4), it also did showcase all the problems above at full strength, but Reverie does something different and provides a much necessary “break” from the usual Trails experience.

The game is split in three routes, two for protagonists of previous games (Lloyd and Rean) and one for a mysterious new masked character (“C”). This breakdown is a good shift from the usual game dynamic, lessens the issues with cast bloat since they are all spread around, and "C"s route is focused on new cast members making it a much fresher experience.

Another major change is the Reverie Corridor. Most of games in the series are heavy into sidequests, but this time the “main” game barely contains any, only a few optional extra-challenging monsters. Instead, almost all optional content takes place in this dream-like world where time flows differently and memories from the real world as hazy. Here you have access to the full cast of the game (and even some extras!), a randomly generated dungeon you can use to grind freely, a ton of minigames including series classics like Pom and Vantage Masters, and a very nice section called “Daydreams” with a lot of mini-stories showing what’s going on around with both the main cast and some familiar NPCs - very similar to the Doors from Sky 3rd.

This keeps the main story very tight and focused while also having a lot of fun optional content, and gives you freedom to decide if and when to focus on each. I don’t expect this to become the norm for future games in the series, but I enjoyed this structure a lot and I hope they do use something like this time to time to avoid burnout from the usual formula.

Finally, on the story, this is an epilogue for both Zero+Azure and Cold Steel 1-4, so obviously not a game for someone starting the series. It does a much better job story-wise then CS4 IMO, in particular in the Crossbell section - it’s still the weakest of the three routes largely due to it just rethreading old plot lines, but it fixes a lot of the things that bothered in the last two games. Rean’s route is a nice epilogue that touches on the impact of the last game’s events in Erebonia, and "C"s route is just great fun with a cast of anti-heroes.

And now the wait for the next game begins. Really looking forward to see the Calvard arc.

Started Grisaia Phantom Trigger 5.5 to 08.

Phantom Trigger is the 4th game in the Grisaia series, with the three first games (Fruit, Labyrinth and Eden) being available as a bundle as well on the Switch. This last game was released as a bunch of 2-5h “Episodes”, and this is second half of the story.

The original Grisaia games have a very interesting structure. The “Common” route of Fruit is 70% of the story and it’s full slice-of-life comedy, but once it splits into the individual routes for each heroine it gets crazy dark as you learn their backstories. Labyrinth shifts into having the main story being dark (it’s the MC’s backstory) with “lighter” after-stories for each heroine. Finally Eden goes towards a more action-focused story, but I wasn’t a big fan of it, and one of the main reasons is that most of the cast was just regular girls, so having they become involved in a spy conspiracy didn’t really work for me, it was just too hard to believe.

Phantom Trigger is more action-focused, much like Eden, but it fixes the above problem by stating from the beginning that the cast is part of “school of assassin” of sorts. It takes place in the same universe as the earlier games, but so far has been a completely independent story with a brand-new cast.

The first five episodes were focused on introducing the cast.

• 01: Introduction of the initial cast (Shiori, Haruto, Rena, Tohka, Chris and Murasaki) and premise.
• 02: Rena’s backstory, adds Maki.
• 03: Tohka’s backstory, adds Gumi.
• 04: Chris’ backstory, adds Taiga.
• 05: Murasaki’s backstory, adds Yuuki.

I only had time to start 5.5 for now, but it seems to be centered on Shiori, the focus character of the first episode - a new “civilian” teacher that just joined this school. Looks like this chapter will be about how she is adapting to the her new school and students, but I’ll talk more about it next week.

As for my overall impression of the story, a redditor once described Phantom Trigger as “pretty cozy comfort food reading”, and I think that’s an accurate description. It doesn’t do anything special or amazing, but it’s been consistently fun and entertaining.

CrossCode! So excited, this game makes me feel like a little kid again, back when I would just sit and do nothing but game all day, totally lost in the experience.

I got a little burnt out on TotK so I decided on playing a little bit of Persona 5 as an in-between game and got completely hooked on that instead. Even though I usually don’t really enjoy turn-based combat. Super cool game, I can definitely recommend it

Pikmin 4. I grabbed a Japanese copy at the Tokyo store last week. I only played it on the flight home.

Been playing through a lot of Oracle of Seasons, I love 2D Zelda so I’ve been enjoying it a lot. The puzzles require a bit of thinking but are easy to complete. The season changing mechanic is also pretty cool. Currently on the 5th dungeon, Unicorn’s Cave. I think that places me around somewhere halfway through the game?

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is always fun to sit down and play for a bit. Love the series, ever since playing Double Dash as a kid.

Also have been thinking about restarting FE: Three Houses lately, loved what I played during my first playthrough, but life happened and eventually began playing less and never got around to completing the game. Honestly would rather start up a new playthrough instead of trying to remember everything that had happened leading up to where I last saved.

I’ve also begun an obsession with Pikmin. Up until the demo for Pikmin 4 released I had never played any of the games, but it’s got me absolutely hooked. Unfortunately can’t afford Nintendo’s usual $60 at the moment, so I’ve been making due with 4’s demo. Definitely going to be my first purchase once I get things in order.

Played Dragon Quest XI for a couple of hours

Yay!

Played a few levels of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

It’s still in my queue :-)

I’ll be playing more Dragon Quest XI, some raiding in Pokémon Violet and Scarlet, and maybe some Super Mario

I finished the PSP versions of Trails in the Sky 1 & 2, then watched a summary of 3rd recently. Now I’m playing Trails from Zero on Switch and I can’t put it down. I’ve already earmarked the money for Azure.

I’m currently playing through Super Mario World and having a blast - it’s been decades since I played it.
I’ve been fancying trying my hand at kaizo so thought it would be best to play through the base game first.

Civ 6 (long loading times) Tears of the Kingdom Splatoon 3 And soon Quake 2!

EDIT: I’m currently on vacation

I’ve spent most of my little free time lately doing the daily challenges on Fallout 76. But I recently finally fired up Wolfenstein New Order that I bought like 4 years ago. Lol. I’m really enjoying it. After that, I might finally start Elden Ring which I got for Christmas.

Edit: lol. Just noticed this was the Nintendo lemmy. Thought it was general gaming. For Nintendo, my kid was just saying she wanted to play Bowser’s Fury again and maybe some Animal Crossing. ☺ I do find AC very relaxing so I might have to lay on the couch with that one soon. Or if I don’t feel like relaxing, I’ll fire up Hades again. Lol

Pretty hooked on pikmin 4. The gameplay loop is so satisfying 👌

I’m working through my first playthrough of Stray. Last save I was just about to leave the Slums for what I understand to be the final time. Going for 100% and so far don’t think I’ve missed anything.

Not exactly video games, but I’ve also been doing puzzles lately - just completed my 4th in like a week. They were 300, 300, 1000, and 1000 pieces - but the last one only had 999 pieces present 🙁 Gonna try to make the missing piece myself before I return them to the library.

After Stray I might start on New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe too. Wanna get through it before Wonder comes out.

Edit: lol just realized this is the Nintendo community and not general gaming. Oh well, at least I fit NSMBUD in there