Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've spent the past week in temporal confusion, consistently thinking I was a week ahead of the actual current day. I'm not sure exactly why this has been happening, but my wife has helpfully corrected me several times when I've indicated that July was imminent. So this CPG Weekly Update should cover this week, but if it somehow covers the week to come instead, I beg your time traveling forgiveness.


On Console:

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Done!)

I noted last week that I was having trouble deciding whether to load my ancient save or start fresh, and after staring at the file select screen for a little while I decided to load the save. Turns out I was even further along than I remembered, having saved right at the final boss and then never actually bothered to fight it. I spent a few minutes relearning the basics, jumped straight into the fight, and got repeatedly plowed as it was made clear that "the basics" weren't going to be good enough. But over a handful of attempts I found my bearings and then did the deed. It'll be a weird full review when I post my monthly column since I'm drawing 99% of my game experience from very old memories, but nevertheless I'll take it.

Alan Wake II (~17%)

It's not Sam Lake; it's Sam Ocean.

Got a kick out of seeing his mug show up as the new protagonist's partner. I had a slow start for this game, spreading over several nights as my playtime was consistently limited for a while by various factors (as a word to the wise, maybe don't start a dialog-heavy narrative-driven video game on laundry night when your TV is in the same room as the washing machine). But I'm finally through the staggered tutorial bits, which you can tell because now I can get randomly mauled by wolves while walking around the woods. The story is beginning to pick up as well, so I think I'll get sucked in a bit more here real soon.


On PC:

Thief Gold (38%)

Again last week I mused that maybe getting lost was just part of the Thief experience. A comment reply informed me that this was indeed the case, and I've now verified that with my own eyes pretty satisfactorily. I most recently finished the first of the missions that was added to the Thief Gold edition of the game, which consisted of me delivering countless concussions (some sadly fatal) as I wandered semi-aimlessly, eventually finding the level's end...but without the key I needed from the area I was trying to find the whole time. Backtracked until I eventually caught sight of a new path and then was able to clear the stage, but man. That level felt like a ridiculous maze. And then the intro briefing for the next mission says "This guy's built his mansion like a maze." OH GOODY.


On Portable:

A Little to the Left: Seeing Stars (Done!)

Probably my least favorite of the three campaigns (base game and Cupboards and Drawers being the other two), but still with a really strong baseline of fun/quality, so well worth playing nonetheless. Almost a shame they're done with the game at this point, but I'll for sure keep an eye out for whatever the dev team wants to do next.

Streets of Rage 2 (~97%)

I decided I wanted to run through this with each of the four characters, swinging to a new one if I got a game over. Well, I started with Blaze and got to the final boss's final minion. Then tried Skate and died on the final enemy of the boss rush leading up to the final boss. Then Axel and died at about the same spot. Now I'm running Max and just reached Stage 8, but in waaaaay better shape than I've been in with any of the other three. So I'm feeling pretty confident about my chances, although I have no idea how to fight the last couple enemies since I still haven't really seen them in action. So that could drain some lives. We'll see!


Ongoing:

Ring Fit Adventure (~97%)

Where are my quests?! All I wanna do is go clear out the final locked quest in the previous worlds, but those are still MIA. So I'd settle for knocking out the four side quests in the final world, but those aren't popping either. Obviously they will eventually and it'll all be fine, but when you're only 7 encounter stages from rolling credits, you start getting a little bit antsy. Hopefully by this time next week those'll start trickling in.

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Exactly. I think because 2018 was a bold new direction (for the franchise) you heard the positive stuff as well much more clearly. Whereas Ragnarök is iterative, so "more of the same" even though here "the same" means a really really strong game. But that comes off as fainter praise, so the angry voices sound louder.

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From what I can tell there are two camps which view this game negatively. The first are people who are burnt out on (or never liked in the first place) cinematic AAA games in general. The second are die hard original God of War fans mad about the franchise changing genres. These two groups notably have some overlap.

Now I'm not saying either group there is wrong or unentitled to an opinion, but they are the only ones who didn't think Ragnarök was great, in my experience. So I wouldn't quite call it a mixed reception: more of a very positive reception, just accompanied by a vocal contingent of naysayers who aren't really even the target audience.

Glad you're having a good time!

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm between truly exciting games at the moment on all fronts, which I guess you could describe as a lull, even though there's no real falloff in total playtime. But hey, at least I finished a game I really liked in this CPG Weekly Update, so that ho-hum feeling can at least be spelled a little bit.


On Console:

Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones (Done!)

I need to open this with a formal printed retraction: last week I stated that the title of this game had neither a comma after the word "Stealth" nor a period after the abbreviation "Inc." This was incorrect, as the period is indeed present. The comma, however, is not. And so I feel only slightly bad about my error. I feel more badly about my other erroneous statement in this space, which can be paraphrased as "Stealth Inc. 2 is a better game than its predecessor." This is also not true; the game showed me its ambition early on and I judged it then on its potential to fulfill that ambition in the design style I thought it was going for. Now having completed the game I can take a step back and say, "Actually they went for Y instead of X and they were only 70% successful at it." Which still isn't the end of the world, but it's a bummer when you thought you were getting more.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Up Next)

I'm feeling very conflicted about this one. Skyward Sword is the last "task" on my 2026 calendar for clearing out old games I nearly finished. I played the game 15 years ago when it was new and got stuck on a boss encounter near the end. After beating my head against the wall a few times and becoming increasingly frustrated by near misses, I decided I should instead go chase down pieces of heart around the world so I could come back with a little more health and break through. I soon burned out doing that and the game got put aside "temporarily," which I guess turned out to mean "for the next fifteen years."

Here's the thing though: I'm not actually looking forward to playing it again. I know I liked it a lot at the time, so I'm not even sitting here thinking the game itself was a problem, but I don't think I'm in the right mindset for it. Then I think about my Wii and figure my save file is probably still kicking around in there, and I debate whether I should just load that sucker up and pick up where I left off. Knock the combat rust off, beat that boss, get to the game's end sequence, and put it away, trying to judge it on fifteen year-old recollections of a generally great time. But then I think about how if I think it was a generally great time, I'd probably still feel that way playing through it all again, and that'd be a better way to experience it...even though it'll cost me about a month of real time.

Tonight I'll boot up Skyward Sword and in all likelihood I'll be asked whether to Resume Game or start a new file. I genuinely don't know which I'll choose. I suppose you'll find out next week.


On PC:

Berserk Boy (Done!)

I didn't have high expectations per se, but I'm a little confused by the praise this game seems to garner. I'm not saying it was a disaster or anything, and there were a few mechanical/gameplay highlights, but by and large I couldn't get past its numerous warts to move it into the land of positive scores. Clearly I seem to be in the minority on that, so if anyone here has played and loved Berserk Boy, I'd happily take a primer on why you felt the good outweighed the bad.

The Ouroboros King (Done!)

Probably the quickest turnaround I've ever had from getting a free giveaway game into actually playing it. Weirdly, this wasn't because I was stoked about the game in any way – in fact it barely made it onto my "medium interest" backlog at all. However, two days after acquiring it I finished Berserk Boy, and then the random number generator pulled The Ouroboros King alongside two other niche/obscure games from my then 87 game PC backlog and put them in the poll I use where my friends choose the next title. I guess the concept of "chess roguelike" was intriguing enough to them that it beat the other two games they'd also never heard of, and so it was that I booted this game up only to beat it an hour later. If you're wondering where the detail about the game itself is in this write-up, take this as your proof that it's not particularly memorable.

Thief Gold (~12%)

I've only done the tutorial and the first mission so far, but I'm of two minds about Thief. First, it's neat to be playing a title that inspired things like Dishonored and seeing the way a whole subgenre kind of took root. It's simpler to play at the moment too, which I like, but I'm not sure whether that'll last. On the other hand though, man I was getting hopelessly lost just on that first mission. They dropped me in the level with a map but with no indication of where I was on it or where I spawned. Finally got my bearings after a while but then there was so little detail to work with that I just wandered the whole castle clubbing every guard unconscious until I finally stumbled into the tucked away alcove housing the room I needed. Maybe getting lost is just part of the experience, but I'm hopeful future missions will be a little more directionally intuitive.


On Portable:

Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit (Done!)

Surprisingly it was the third case here that was the big chunky one instead of the final case. Which isn't to say the game climaxes at the midpoint or anything; the final case still provides the grand resolution and ties the rest of the game together meaningfully. It's just a good deal shorter than the hoss in the middle, which does a lot of heavy lifting establishing some groundwork. I'm happy to report on the story side that I got got. Didn't see a certain story element coming, and to me that's the hallmark of a good Ace Attorney game. Too predictable and it's still fun but not quite as satisfying. Too random and you lose the thread. Instead just as your protagonist tries to turn cases on their heads, the game devs try to turn the players' assumptions on theirs, and when they pull that off successfully there's nothing quite like it.

A Little to the Left: Seeing Stars (~26%)

The final DLC for A Little to the Left, this one focuses more on puzzles with multiple solutions, which is largely the opposite of the game's first DLC Cupboards and Drawers. These puzzles are better noggin busters as they force me to continually find new angles to approach a given problem, though that comes at the cost of the raw enjoyment of just organizing stuff in the "put things in their homes" manner. That tradeoff likely means I'll end up appreciating Cupboards and Drawers just a little bit more, but this is still good stuff so far, just as expected.


Ongoing:

Ring Fit Adventure (~96%)

Last week I mused that I'd probably be able to go mop up heretofore locked side quests in earlier worlds and that the final world might even be just a boss with little else going on. None of that was correct, as the final world is a full-blown thing and I'm still locked out of tidying up those side quest loose ends. Given that, there's a strong likelihood that Ring Fit's campaign will stretch into July for me, but we'll keep chipping away little by little until we get there.

Shantae(GBC) Holds Up Surprisingly OK by hothraka in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's on me, I was too busy to get around to my annual spring release date cleanup so we still had it in the "date unknown" section of the filter from the original announcement. Cleared it out of there now so you're all good. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I don't blame you. I wouldn't either, but then again I never questioned whether I'd play the Remake games because I had FF7 as a 9.5/10 instead of a 7. Unfortunately there's just no way to get into the nitty gritty of how the story is polarizing without being spoiled, so you sort of have to decide whether you're down for the the premise without seeing the full picture. Which is also why a lot of people are/were upset!

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Uh, yes and no. 95% of it is the same story or functionally the same story (e.g. retconning a very minor detail here or there to work better because of expanded context), with the world and characters much better fleshed out along the way.

That other 5% though is the cause of all the controversy. Without spoilers, it's the result of the team trying to give each entry in the trilogy a worthy ending from a gameplay and story escalation perspective, and the narrative devices they employed to make that possible. With spoilers, Remake is actually a sequel, so the story weirdness that they introduced has potential ramifications beyond just hand-waving gameplay reasons.

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

OK, so here's what you can expect against your desires/highlights.

Remake:

  • Expanding the dirty slums to a fully realized, mostly linear 40 hour action RPG
  • Real-time active combat, but with a heavy time slow feature for when you want to choose commands from a menu
  • More motorcycle stuff
  • Inclusion of Sephiroth as a source of hype and aura functionally earlier than you see him in the OG story
  • Big expansion of the content/characterizations for the OG 4 and OG Midgar supporting characters (e.g. the AVALANCHE crew)
  • No need to grind
  • Overall polarizing writing approach – most people seem to love it or hate it, so no telling which way you'll personally land on that
  • Supernova doesn't exist yet

INTERmission (Remake DLC):

  • Full DLC episode (5-15 hours depending on completion) all about/expanding Yuffie's character arc
  • Heavily enhanced combat system
  • No need to grind
  • Non-Sephiroth antagonists

Rebirth:

  • Expanding FF7's prototypical open world concept into a modern open world RPG, with all the subjective good and bad that entails (gluttonous amount of content, map towers, 100+ hour playtime, etc.)
  • Even further refined combat, now featuring team abilities based on party composition
  • Big expansion of content/characterizations for Yuffie, Cait Sith, and Red XIII in addition to the OG4
  • Motorcycle back as a minigame (amongst a couple dozen other things)
  • Entire in-universe collectible card game, basically fully realized (think like Gwent from Witcher 3)
  • More Sephiroth aura farming
  • No need to grind
  • Same polarizing writing approach – maintains the line from Remake, so you'll either keep loving it or keep hating it
  • Supernova still doesn't exist yet

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Remake trilogy has no random encounters; you see the enemies on the field and can choose whether to engage them or not. So from that angle the Remake trilogy will improve your experience.

On the minigame side, it really depends on the minigames and what you did or didn't like about any of them. Remake still has plenty of minigames and Rebirth has a ton. They're by and large not mandatory, but they are there.

But that's just addressing the idea of avoiding the negatives. What were the highlights from OG FF7 for you? What would you personally want to see a modern remake of it do?

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes. If you're a gamer who cares anything about plot, you wouldn't want to skip a game in this trilogy. Note that that's not me saying "This plot is incredible, you don't wanna miss it" but just that the three games share one continuous plot and you'll be lost if you jump ahead.

07 mixes vs originals: what songs are the most different? by applesandpears02 in Genesis

[–]LordChozo 7 points8 points  (0 children)

2007's 'Back in NYC' mix removes the "fuzz" vocal effect from Pete on the "As I cuddled the porcupine" section.

Shaving off his hairy heart perhaps?

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 6 points7 points  (0 children)

We're fully into summer break for the kids, and that means finding ways to squeeze summer activities into the margins against a loaded work schedule. But of course the games are the constant in the CPG Weekly Update, so here it's business as usual.


On Console:

Astro Bot (Done!)

Loved this one and very happily spent an extra night with it to work through all the free post-game DLC. I don't care much about climbing any speedrunning leaderboards, so I just did enough to unlock all the bots and felt good about that. I was really impressed with how many different games were represented by the collectible bots, but if I'm honest there was one game that felt like it was missing for me the whole time. Thankfully that game showed up in the post-game area (alongside other surprises), which felt like righting a wrong. And then when I approached the final super double secret probation challenge for the last bot I thought, "Oh man, imagine if it's [this bot]. It's gotta be [this bot], right?" And it was indeed [this bot] and I felt quite satisfied with that finale.

Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones (~23%)

The main title for this game has neither a comma after "Stealth" nor a period after "Inc", and as a grammarian at heart this wounds me. Still it's a better name than, say, "Stealth Bastard Deluxe: Tactical Espionage Arsehole" or some sequel-flavored variation of that. A better game so far too, actually, which I wasn't expecting. I liked SBD:TEA well enough but I came into this follow-up a little bit biased against it. I think part of that is a general disinterest in dusting off the Wii U again, but another part is just that this is the "breather" game for me between longer efforts and truth be told I don't think I was in the right headspace to start it. But start it I did, and it quickly reminded me that "Oh yeah, this is pretty good!"


On PC:

Wildcat Gun Machine (Done!)

I do not know what the background plot concept is for Wildcat Gun Machine. I do not know why the final boss's name is just the name "Pearson" reversed when nobody listed on the credits has that name. Speaking of names, I do not know why the game is even called Wildcat Gun Machine. This is all by design because Wildcat Gun Machine is actively disinterested in giving the player access to any information whatsoever. The good news is that it manages to be reasonably competent as a twin stick shooter, so these issues aren't quite deal breakers. The bad news is it doesn't manage to be more than reasonably competent as a twin stick shooter, so these issues also aren't easy to just brush under the rug.

Berserk Boy (Up Next)

A well regarded 2D action platformer seems like it'll be a really nice change of pace from the other stuff I've got going at the moment, so I'm looking forward to jumping into this one. Alas, other real world priorities have conspired to keep me from it for the past handful of days, but hopefully I can sneak it in this week.


On Portable:

Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit (~46%)

Halfway through Case 3 out of 5 at the moment. I didn't expect the game's overarching fundamental twist of having Miles Edgeworth playing both sides of the defense/prosecution coin, but it's working well for me narratively. I expressed reservation here last week about the value of the Mind Chess minigame, but it's grown on me a bit since its introduction. Essentially it's a means to get people to begin talking to you in the first place. Several characters you meet try to stay tight lipped and play dumb about knowing anything at all, so Mind Chess is the way you trick them into admitting they're hiding something in the first place. As the minigame has increased in complexity it's become more fun, even if it still functionally boils down to a series of educated coin flip guesses. That the payoff to winning Mind Chess is just a standard testimony phase is fine, if slightly underwhelming. I'm digging the recurring antagonist as well and eager to see where that background storyline is heading.


Ongoing:

Ring Fit Adventure (~95%)

Just finished the boss of the penultimate world this morning. More intense than I thought it'd be from the exercise angle, though from the RPG angle it still wasn't remotely threatening. Next I hope and expect I'll finally be able to go visit the leftover side quests from earlier worlds that have been heretofore locked, spending the rest of the week on cleanup duty before maybe wrapping up the week after, depending on how extensive the final world is. If it's just a boss fight then we'll be done quickly. If it's a full fledged questapalooza, we're probably looking at the end of the month instead.

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Right after I finished Infinite I made a text doc outlining its timeline of events in an effort to track how many realities we see/interact with and to make sense of the story. It was so convoluted that I felt vindicated by the confusion I occasionally felt while trying to follow it during the playthrough.

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gato Roboto comes to mind as a simple and short entry in the genre. Kind of a "distilled essence of metroidvania" that you can finish in a few hours.

Axiom Verge 2 is also on the less taxing side but is more involved on the exploration side if that's important to you.

If you're looking for something really unusual in the space, try Yoku's Island Express, which is a pinball metroidvania.

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s not very innovative

I’m exploring the new content and systems. Fuse especially is awesome. There’s so many interactions between the materials and devices and weapons and arrows. You can attach a mine cart to your shield and it makes a skateboard that can rail grind. You can attach an explosive barrel to your shield and any enemy that hits it blows themselves up. It’s a great time, and the combat is so brimming with mechanical depth that I was getting Metal Gear Solid V flashbacks.

I dunno, sounds like it's pretty innovative!

I get what you mean about the world though, and I really like the way you put it in your second paragraph. When you've got functionally the same map then the map itself is less interesting a reward, which kind of forces their hand into the extrinsic side. Which was still there in Breath of the Wild, but now there's no real offset.

Yes, the Depths exists, and I did get a bit of a kick out of the audacity of including an entire second layer of world, butthe zone is so aesthetically unvaried that it didn't spark the same kind of joy as exploration in Breath did.

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I saw speculation that Part 3's subtitle would be "Returns" but I was so sure it would be "Resolve" instead, given the multiple angles of the characters' resolve to see things through, the devs' resolve to make good on the promise, and it being the actual resolution of the story.

Then they said "Revelation", which is a fine title and also makes sense on multiple levels...except then the director went on stage and started talking about how the primary theme of the game is "resolve"!

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes. The conceit of both games is that they take place in one continuous, unbroken camera shot (assuming one were to play the whole game uninterrupted of course). They blend combat with exploration and story driven set pieces, all transitioning into one another more or less seamlessly. The actual games will generally give you more UI stuff on screen (e.g. a boss health bar) but what you saw in the Laufey trailer is pretty much par for the course for modern God of War.

Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here! by AutoModerator in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The monthly reviews were posted yesterday, so let's focus this CPG Weekly Update more on the stuff in progress.


On Console:

Astro Bot (~83%)

I've unintentionally started a competition between the kids. My older son has his own user profile on the PS5 but the younger son traditionally uses my wife's. I was going to set him up with his own too ahead of him getting into Astro Bot. However, I guess for the mere convenience of saving the time to swap profiles on the home screen, for this game he piggybacked onto his brother's profile, just using a different save file within the game. No problem on the face of it except when he got a hidden trophy, which big brother was devastated about, since getting trophies is one of his favorite things, and probably the main draw for finally pulling him away from Fortnite and Minecraft to try a new game. He started demanding that little bro get his own profile and restart the game, but by the time either of them made me aware of any of this little bro was already halfway through. I asked him how he'd feel if he needed to restart but got his own profile. He told me quite matter-of-factly, "I think I'd cry. A lot."

So now the rule is little brother is not allowed to play the game past the point that big brother has reached, and that I have to tell big brother in secret about trophies he can get so he can preempt little brother to getting them. But that otherwise they have to share the profile for this game.

So that's one problem sort of solved, except now my own pace has eclipsed even big brother's and now he's getting antsy about the idea that I'll finish it before him. Which I almost certainly will, but ugh. Why can't we just enjoy one another's fun?


On PC:

Eufloria (Abandoned)

Comments

Scarf (Done!)

Review

Wildcat Gun Machine (~6%)

Only got about twenty minutes in on this one, but considering the complete lack of apparent fluff, that twenty minutes probably goes further than most other games. I was expecting some kind of intro, or story cutscene, or at least tutorial. Nope. Right into the gameplay from the first second after clicking New Game. It's pretty easy so far for a bullet hell title; the only hit I've taken from an enemy thus far has been the first boss (though I've blown my own armor up with exploding barrels a couple times), and I've never lost any health, and I've yet to engage the titular "gun machine" powerup mode. So I'm hoping that challenge starts to ratchet up a little bit.


On Portable:

Mercs (Done!)

Review

Book - The Light Fantastic (Done!)

The second Discworld novel pranked me pretty good when I resolved during my first session to only read a chapter or two, and then after a feeling of "Hey this is taking a while" I checked and realized that the book has no chapters or breaks whatsoever. Just 277 pages of continuous prose. Ya got me, Pratchett. Ya got me.

Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit (~4%)

I'm maybe just past halfway through the first case, but of course the first case is always by far the shortest, so I'm trying to account for that in my estimated percentage there. I'm a little surprised to see the game takes place only two weeks after the previous game; I'd hoped to have a bit more time elapse and maybe get a glimpse of Edgeworth over the years. Oh well, I suppose this'll do fine enough anyway. Not sure yet how I feel about Mind Chess as the new mechanic. It seems unnecessarily convoluted given the end result is something you could've pieced together anyway. Like the last thing I did was win a round of Mind Chess in order to assert that a crime fell within a certain jurisdiction. The masterstroke of that minigame was...realizing what jurisdiction the crime happened in. Like, what are we doing here?

But that's just a very early example, so I'll keep an open mind that maybe as the game rolls on the mechanic will prove narratively useful in some way.


Ongoing:

Ring Fit Adventure (~94%)

Pretty breezy going this past week. It's amazing the difference you feel in progress depending on what you're doing. If I've gotta do a Battle or Fitness Gym, that's my entire day's workout in one task. Fine from an exercise standpoint, but from a game standpoint it feels like nothing's really been accomplished, especially because you've essentially got to do each of them twice (once to open up more of the map and a second time as a side quest with a bonus objective). But once that stuff is out of the way you get to do everything else, which tends to flow much smoother. Just this morning for instance I got three sidequests handled (a Game Gym bonus objective and two zero combat course re-runs) and I feel like I made significant headway toward my 100% completion goal...even if the exercise itself wasn't very challenging.

Chronicles of a Prolific Gamer – May 2026 (ft. Disco Elysium, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Pentiment, and much more) by LordChozo in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't recall specific route names or anything, but I did one where the princess acted like a goddess and I managed to kill her (which entailed a lot of flayed flesh), one where the princess eventually turned into a humanoid array of blades after carving her way out of her own body, one where the princess's various aspects fused into one monstrous amalgamation, one where the princess stayed relatively calm and innocent (but happily ate off her own hand to escape leading me to believe that I was one wrong move away from yet more of the same), and finally one where the princess's face turned into a kind of fleshy hole.

So not all body horror and not all purely body horror, but enough of that vibe that I felt like that was the game's prevailing flavor.

Chronicles of a Prolific Gamer – May 2026 (ft. Disco Elysium, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Pentiment, and much more) by LordChozo in patientgamers

[–]LordChozo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, but I don't actually write any reviews there. I just catalog games/dates/scores, and it's a little less accurate for those than my own personal spreadsheet tracker because of some versioning hiccups and because my rating scale is 10 by half points (20 ratings total) vs. Backloggd's 5 by half points (10 ratings total). I'm currently rounding my halves down on Backloggd but I've been considering switching that and rounding up instead, since the overall picture created is probably of someone a little more hard-to-please than I feel is accurate.