sdcSpade

I have started my playthrough of Baten Kaitos Origins. I did lose my first three hours of gameplay because I had an apparently rare glitch that resets the card collection when you turn off the game and the only way to fix it is a specific save/load setup done on a brand new file. It's weird finally playing the sequel to a game I know so well for the first time. It almost feels like a Romhack since it looks almost identical.

The differences do come in fast and hard when it comes to combat though and I have to say I am not happy with it. What made combat in the first game so exciting was the split-second decision you had to make. Do you take the risk and chase that straight or do you play it safe and start forming pairs with the cards you already used? In the sequel, every card has a predetermined role in the one combo you are able to play and you do that over and over again. On top of that, it's not as strictly turn-based anymore. Combat keeps going while you're setting up your own turn and once I had a full party of three characters, I no longer see 90% of combat even happening. I sometimes notice one of my characters being poisoned and I don't even know which enemy did that. I'll give it to the game that combat gets fast paced a lot earlier than in the first game, where combat is honestly quite boring for the first 10 hours, but it's just such a mess. And it doesn't help that all three characters have to share the same deck!

Meanwhile, I'm about 90% done with Tomb Raider (2013). It's shorter than I thought, but it's nice to play something that doesn't drag its feet all the time. It's got all the doodad-collecting I need and you can get all of it in 20 hours, as opposed to other games where it takes 200 hours to realize you don't actually care about getting everything.

Overall, I like the game. It doesn't stand out (anymore?) but it also doesn't really do anything wrong. It does get unintentionally funny how Lara keeps taking the worst falls and horrific injuries and just walks them off. The percentage of voice acting that is just 'pained grunts' has to be unusually high! It's a shame the game has multiplayer achievements though. I like completing games, but when I can't get all achievements, I can't care about any of them.

Usually I have more time to get in the mood for a new game, now I'll have to actually look for something.

Maybe she just told him she was Melania and he can't tell anymore.

Finished Paper Mario TTYD. I've done pretty much everything except all recipes with my 10HP. For some reason Bonetail felt easier than Gloomtail and I couldn't tell you why or how that even makes sense. There was just a certain rhythm that worked out perfectly. Prince Mush turned out to be a really stupid fight, turning himself invincible in the second phase unless you perfect guard him. So much for preparations, I guess! I cheesed him with a huge stack of Charges to defeat him before he can switch to phase 2. If he cheats, I cheat!

So next, I'm finally going to start Baten Kaitos 2. Since the game was never released in Europe before, it'll be my first time playing it. I did my research, there's no need to leave the system running for two weeks, or any unreasonable amount of time in the sequel!

And, then... there's my mystery game. It's done and it was Danganronpa V3. I kept it a secret because I didn't want to risk anybody saying anything. It's the kind of game you don't want to hear anything about before playing. Until recently, my spoiler-free verdict was as follows:

The visuals are by far the best in the series, I especially like the overgrown look of the school. And even though it's neat that everything slowly changes overtime, it's a shame it changes to be much less interesting. Don't cut down all the greenery! But overall, I wasn't too fond of the game. A lot of the killings were very gimmicky and some elements were just left completely unused. Like that one murder motive nobody understood, nobody used and was ultimately taken away and never brought up again. I think the game's biggest handicap is essentially trying to tell the same story for the third time.

The above was my verdict... but then I beat the game. Oh, boy... that... was the worst ending I have ever seen in a game. I'm a "the journey is more important than the destination" kind of guy, so I never really understood how an ending can ruin someone's entire experience. I get it now. I understand why people get so upset because it truly feels bad. I have completed the first two games 100% because I just enjoyed them so much, but I didn't even look at the post game content because I did not want to spend another second with any of these characters. I hate them now. Them and everything that happened. In a messed up way, the ending explains some of my earlier complaints and I actually really liked that, but that doesn't change how stupid the ending is. The only thing more stupid is the fact that I lost sleep over this. Luckily, it was only that one immediate night.

And since I cut the game off here, I am once again in the situation of having finished both of my current games at the same time! How does this keep happening? I'll be filling this slot with the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider. The original series never really interested me, but the reboot has been on my radar for a very long time.

I'm in the final dungeon of Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door and I will probably beat it this weekend, after a quick backtrack to the bottom of the Pit of Trials. Gloomtail was almost a problem, but I had just enough defense badges to survive his best attack with 1HP. I'm a little worried about Bonetail now. I've done a 10HP run on the Gamecube and beaten him first try a long time ago, but I forgot exactly how I did that.

I'm also about 75% done with my mystery game that I'm not going to name until it's done. Right now, I'm rather disappointed with it.

Making steady progress in Wild Arms, too. Recently got access to the ship to explore the first part of the sea. I may have fallen victim to nostalgia; I still think it's a good game, but I remember it being better. Maybe I remember the later parts more.

I don't know what happened in the rest of the world, but MTV Germany started showing the kind of Anime that didn't fit the children's afternoon program of other stations in the early 2000s. That's how I got to know things like Ghost in the Shell.

I completed Yakuza Kiwami 2 today. When I was done with all the side content, I realized there weren't any awful achievements to stop me from completing it, so I ran through a New Game Plus on the highest difficulty with the overpowered infinite ammo gun from postgame. Turns out, skipping all optional content and cutscenes, you can beat the game in a couple of hours. I don't understand why the gun makes enemies ragdoll as much as it does, but that was part of the fun for sure. Not truly completing the previous two games was a bummer because I really liked them, but it was just too much.

And all respect to anyone who can beat Jo Amon legitimately. I was never that great at Yakuza combat to begin with, but that guy does way too much damage! He's the reason I learned about that gun to begin with.

The next game I am replacing this with... is a game I'm not going to talk about much. It's the kind of game you can't even begin to talk about without spoiler tags, so I just won't even mention it until it's done. And briefly at that.

Played a little more of Paper Mario, I took a peek at the Prince Mush fight. I didn't expect to win, but I also didn't expect to run from the fight after his first attack. I tossed out the protect shell just to scout what he would even do and let's just say I'll have to do some preparations to make this work in a 10HP run. Let's see what badges I end up with at the end of the game, I won't try this again a second earlier!

When I heard "CrowdStrike" took down operating systems everywhere, I thought it was the name of a virus or a group of hackers. I'm not the only one hearing an inherent villainy in that name, right?

Beat chapter 5 in Paper Mario. One of the new bosses added in the remake has opened up and I'll just try it soon. I probably won't win yet, but I'm curious.

Finished the main story of Yakuza Kiwami 2. The final battle ends with a quick time event that, if you lose, kills you. I wish I hadn't found out about that, but XBox controller inputs always take an extra second to process in my brain because they're so backwards. At least the fight is fun, so it wasn't too bad doing it twice. The hardest fight was the pen-pen-penultimate boss, some nameless guy who had no right being that tough. Now to clean up some leftover side content, which isn't too daunting. This should be the first time I finish the Completion List, the previous games both had something to make it stupid, but this one is very realistic.

I also dug out Wild Arms again for a third playthrough. It's been over a decade since I last played it. That's a series that could do with an HD Collection.

For what it's worth, being stuck in Kakariko is the reason I bought the player's guide in 1998. I knew what I was looking for and where it's supposed to be, I just didn't understand what to do. 😅 ~But~ ~I~ ~was~ ~also~ ~twelve~

I've mostly played more Yakuza Kiwami 2. I thought the whole Korean Mafia bit was just a side story at first, but it's been the main focus for a while and completely pushed the main antagonist out of the picture. But that whole thing has concluded now and I think I'm nearing the climax soon.

I always thought Nintendo had an internal team of translators, at least for their big titles.

I've gotten so used to looking at the details that I didn't even notice the blatant fire-in-the-tent.

The key to a 10HP run is honestly not to waste your turns. When you can end combat in one attack and have both Mario and his partner's turn, use the extra turn to top off your HP/FP with Sweet Treat or Appeal to get the Star Power back. Also, know your Stylish Moves for extra Star Power. It fills up so fast that you can regularly toss out the quite OP Earth Tremor whenever you're full on everything. No need to run around with full resources. I also like the Badges that randomly regenerate you and the defense increases are also very important.

Muto and Chono are retired wrestlers from Japan (the former being more famous in the West as The Great Muta). An in-game they also use their real names. Yakuza tends to have real people make cameo apperances, but most of them wouldn't be well known outside of Japan. Some characters appearing in side quest feel like they would be based on real people based on the way they talk about being famous, but I wouldn't know.