The OST really is great! But I’ve got to admit the battle voice lines did get jarring towards the end. Well, at least Amiguchi’s.

I’ve mostly relied on Gen 4 mechs during the story. Quad Leg Spike and whatever Yakushiji’s AoE skill is called did a lot of heavy lifting. Outside of Gen 4, Super Large Missile and Juro’s unique piercing skill were probably the most helpful ones for the final encounter.

After the gladiators were introduced, I pretty much stopped using Demolisher Blade, since Ceramic Armor just absorbs it (at least in the rebalanced Switch release). I think I’ll experiment some more with them in the postgame this week!

My partner was out of town, so I just finished 13 Sentinels this week.

In typical Vanillaware fashion, they ran out of budget and cut a lot of things. I’ve read something about up to 50%. At the very least, the game should have been 15 Sentinels. Despite that, the story is a wild ride and has a satisfying conclusion. Honestly, I’ve enjoyed it even more that Danganronpa previously. Some open questions remain and a few plot points seemingly get dropped, but in the end, I just like the entire cast and loved the structure. There’s always a mystery, a twist or a new perspective and in the end everything kinda just clicks together.

There’s one gaping hole in my understanding I couldn’t find an answer to, maybe someone who has played the game could answer this:

The RTS part of the game was also surprisingly engaging, although mostly on the easy side. But that’s to be expected, as I did almost all the story segments first and could fully upgrade a lot of stuff before even starting it properly. There is even an endgame with an absurd amount of stages to dig your teeth in, but I’ll probably only delve a little bit into them before starting the next game.

That probably won’t do it for me then. But I’ll keep an eye out for your future opinions on the fusion stuff. Might still be a good game inbetween more complex ones!

After you’ve played more MH Stories, what do you think about the battle system? I bounced hard off the demo, but I’m curious if I should give it another try. I remember it being just rock paper scissors.

More 13 Sentinels. I’ve done alle the story I could do without progressing the battles (~75%). By now, I have a good grasp on the story, I think, but I’m sure there a many more twists waiting in those last 25%.

At about ~45% completion for the battles and compendium. Doing the story first I had so much resources, I could may out my score boost for those sweet mystery points.

Not much more to write about the game. I recommend it, but it’s impossible to talk about it without spoiling stuff.

God Eater 3 was also more of the same. The story increasingly takes a back seat, which I prefer while doing the multiplayer. At the begining, you had to search and talk to several NPCs after each mission to progress - now it’s only one after every 2-3 missions.

I don’t think that’s true anymore. Going all digital, even on Nintendo’s eShop, most third party games are dirty cheap during sales which happen quite frequently. Most games I’ve looked at go on sale every other month. Of course, they are still stingy as fuck with their first party stuff.

Some more 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim.

I only focused on the story this week, but didn’t have much time anyway. Went from ~21% to ~44% completion.

With each new character I follow, the story just seems to get better. I’m excited to get the full picture eventually - but I also feel like I’ll need to play a good old linear RPG afterwards.

As for the weekend, I played a lot of God Eater 3. About halfway through the story, I think.

On paper, the gameplay has a few problems. Almost all enemies seem to have some badly telegraphed AOE attacks or chain some quick dashes across the area together. Getting hit is mostly unavoidable. At the same time, the game is quite easy. Missions rarely take longer than 5 minutes - some monsters yielding after just a minute. But despite this, the Monster Hunter formula is just inherently fun and there a many ways to customize your character. So even if you don’t care for the story, there’s always a motivation to jump into the next mission right away.

Unlike Monster Hunter, crafting is rather easy, and you can get most weapons/shields without replaying any missions. But you still can and will be rewarded for grinding, because some of your moves will gain EXP by using them. There are about 10-20 skills per weapon, and you can equip 3 at the same time.

More 13 Sentinels.

It has been a slow week in terms of gaming, I only did a bit of story. The story segments and the battle segments are mostly independent of each other, so you can do whichever for the most part.

Even though there are 13 characters, each with their own perspective and during different times within the overall story, the game does a great job to interest you in at least one of the other characters during any given perspective. You’re free to switch after each mini episode, but I tend to follow a single character until there’s a progression lock.

Currently, at 31% battle and 20% story completion.

Started God Eater 3.

Monster Hunter Wilds has been announced for Switch 2 and with the last direct being as great as it was, I’ll get one eventually. But until then, we wanted to play something similar to scratch the itch.

The game throws a lot of progression systems at you, which I like. The monsters are a lot less tightly designed, but still fun. Thus far, the game is quite easy.

I loved the gameplay, but I think they said a while ago that the next game will feature a different system. Since the trailer didn’t show any gameplay I’m somewhat anxious about that.

As an RPG guy, this was honestly one of if not the best Direct they ever produced. Guess it’s time to get a Switch 2 - well, maybe only once the revised one releases in Europe, but still.

I remember putting so much time into the GameCube version as a kid, but I don’t think I ever finished the game even once.

For the most part, I just enjoyed doing the police chases and dragging them out as long as possible. Think multiple hour long ones. Destroying police cars and creating as much property damage as humanly possible. Sadly, on the higher levels these became quickly frustrating as the police started deploying instant K.O. spike traps. Losing your run an hour in to one of these was the worst feeling.

The actual racing was fun, too, although I never liked drag races. Their control scheme was just awful. And I probably wasn’t any good at racing, given that I don’t remember ever finishing the game.

Still, I have a lot of nostalgia for the game and the soundtrack shaped my tastes in music to this day. I haven’t enjoyed another racing game since then, I should probably go back and finish it.

Did you miss Elon performing a nazi salute at an official event in front of millions of people?

If your platform is owned by a nazi who actively messes with its algorithm, nazi content gets more popular. Additionally, since that nazi guy bought it, other people have been leaving Twitter in waves - resulting in an increasing percentage of nazis.

Instead of learning skills individually, learn them as you go! Just pick an engine - I’d recommend Godot - and get to work.

Here’s a nice challange about building increasingly difficult games: The 20 games challange.

You start with Pong, which is super easy to get the hang of. You could even follow a tutorial for that one and then try to use less and less tutorials as you go down the list.

Just get going instead of watching endless how-to videos, which is an easy trap for beginners. Actually starting a project and finishing one are two of the most important skills. You’ll quickly learn which parts come naturally to you and which ones you need to focus on.

As for creativity, once you’re done with each game, try to think of a twist to spice it up and add it to the game. It can be a simple thing, like e.g. with Pong using multiple balls or maybe adding obstacles - just test what’s fun and what’s not!

Just noticed Octopath Traveler 0 is missing, I think it’s releasing today actually.

Although I still don’t know what to think of it, the first trailer gave heavy mobile energy and I never looked further.

I’ve seen this multiple times already, but I just noticed whatever the dude on the right is doing.

Yes! I’ve bought most things already, so I don’t really need the money anymore. However, it’s still fun to collect new cooking ingredients (new crops; or new ways to process them) and to finish the remaining fairy requests (grow x amount of y; unlock better skils etc.).

I didn’t even know there was a New Game option, I never play those and always start fresh instead. However, it does sound interesting in this case!

Had some slower weeks, I’m still on Harvestella. By now, I’ve done pretty much everything except playing the main story past the ‘tutorial phase’ of getting all fairies. I’ve finished most companion stories and really like them, but they aren’t as good as other people hyped them up to be. They often start in a generic way, but not all of them continue like that. There are some good twists and turns and one of them especially dropped a major hint about the upcoming story which got me pretty hyped!

Also played more Pokémon Legends: Arceus. I started the third area this week and still enjoy my journey. However, as so often in these write-ups, I went overboard at the beginning and now a lot of things are kinda trivial. I spent so much time in the first area, I left with a team around Lv 50, mostly filled with alpha Pokémon. The other areas are still fun, there is just no sense of danger anymore. In addition, I think there are too many shared Pokémon between the areas. Since I’ve fully researched them already the first time around, I find myself running past half the things in the newer areas, which is just less fun. But no point in catching a hundred more Starly or Bidoof.

To keep things a bit more fresh, I shelve my entire team each time I reach a new area - excluding my starter.

I love that game! Although I only did Frederica’s ending. It’s the morally correct one, I think, excluding the true ending, of course. I wish we had more games in that style, but there’s only this and Disgea - which dropped the ball with it’s 6 entry. Everything else on Switch is a remaster of some kind.

Anyway, hard more is weird. I’ve started on hard mode, but eventually turned it down. For some battles, you just retry them and collect EXP until you effectively play on a lower difficulty anyway. There just isn’t enough side content to do instead. Curious to see what you think if you decide on trying it.

It think it’s a lot of fun, although I tend to just focus on one thing and then is devolves into a check list. Like doing all side quests, then doing all companion quests, then all dungeons… etc. I just can’t bring myself to not do that when everything is available at once.

They finished ZA within less than a week of release, including the 1k trainer battle quest. I really mean it when I say they holed up and did nothing else for several days. Since then it’s shiny hunting.

Guess I’ll only go for the DLC if those classes/characters are really interesting, then. Or if it’s on sale when I get back to FE:TH.

On my side, more Harvestella.

I’ve automated my farm and started with some animals, which I ignored up till now. They are quite lenient. They cannot die, even if you stop feeding them. It just decreases their friendship, which reduces the quality of their stuff once you start feeding them again.

On top of that, I’ve progressed all companion stories. They are quite, but somewhat generic.

Also started Pokemon Legends Arceus just yesterday. We needed a break from Monster Hunter and it’s my partners favorite game.

Haven’t done much yet, basically just trying to do anything but what the tutorial asks of me. The usual.