My Dual Sense (PS5 controller) got drift again, so no Monster Hunter this week.
- Half-way through Soda Jungle in New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (one good thing about Super Mario Wonder, is it’s smaller name)
- Didn’t play much Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, want to fix that this week.
- Not much to say about Dragon Quest XI, it’s trudging along.
- Started Deathloop as it’s leaving PS+ Extra, but couldn’t get into it, so dropped it.
- After Deathloop, I wanted to play some kind of shooting game, so stared Remnant: From the Ashes. Loving the game, it’s not as hard souls-like, but it’s still a tough game, I guess more of a souls-lite. Loving the game, and that’s taking most of my time now.
What about you guys? What have you been playing?
Finished Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury!
Needed a break from story-focused games so I decided to pick this one.
Considering it’s originally a WiiU game it’s surprising how well 3D World fits in the Switch - the ~5min levels are very friendly to short playing sessions, so you can just pick it up and get a couple stars whenever you stop for a coffee break. I only played it casually until I finished the main story with ~210 stars, but will probably to back go it from time to time to get the remaining stars and the work on the post-game content.
Also had a ton of fun with Bowser’s Fury, which I think has more in common with Odyssey than 3D World due to its more open-world nature. It’s fairly short and not as polished as the usual Mario games, in particular when talking about the camera work, but definitely worth playing.
Started Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg!
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this on Lemmy before, but I’m a huge fan of the Atelier games, having finished all that were released in the west. For those unfamiliar with the series, it’s a long-running JRPG franchise centered around slice-of-life stories, with a huge focus on crafting - I’ve spend countless hours in these games just playing in the workshop trying to get the perfect bomb, or optimizing iron ingots to make stronger gear.
This one is a remake of the very first game in the series, from 1997. It’s a fairly simple game compared to the recent entries, but has the same relaxing feel, and the remade visuals are adorable, looks like they tried to keep the same “chibi” look as the original PS1 version.
Like most of the older games in the series, this one features a time limit - you have 5 years to complete assignments, explore the world and make friends, at which point you get an ending based on your achievements. Exploring, crafting and battling constantly move the clock forward, making “time” one of the resources you have to manage. This mechanic was always divisive and has been largely abandoned in recent entries of the series, but it’s never really bothered me.
The main thing preventing me from recommending this game is the price tag - at its core it’s a 25-year-old game, and while the improved graphics and QOL changes are quite good, it’s fairly short (I expect to finish it in 10h or so), and it’s too simple in both story and mechanics to justify the $50 they are asking on the eShop. That being said, if there’s a good sale it might be a fun game to pick up.
I have come to realise I like 3D Mario games much more than 2D ones. If they want to make different style of Mario games, I would choose 3D game and then instead of 2D Mario I would go with 3D world style games. Though, there are chances Wonder will change my mind.
I have been following Atelier games for quite a while now, but haven’t played any yet. Though Atelier Ryza is on very top of my wishlist.
I was also interested in playing the Marie Remake, but I didn’t know it has time limits. How forgiving are these limits? And what do you suggest I play first Marie Remake or Ryza?
On Marie they are very, very forgiving. I have more than one year left with Marie at almost max level, max knowledge and reputation, only one item left to craft (the Philosopher’s stone, which requires an item that I can only get in one specific day later this year), already killed two special bosses, already made an Elixir to cure Schea… I haven’t checked the ending requirements but I’m pretty sure I already fulfill some of them.
Generally speaking from my experience with Atelier the time limits are only a problem in two situations:
Time limits in Totori are rough, the only game I had to reload an earlier save because I ran out of time and could not get at least a “good” ending. It’s still one of my favorite games in the series though.
Worth mentioning that Marie also does have an “unlimited” mode you can choose at the beginning, but given how forvinging the limit is it’s probably not necessary.
Between those two, Ryza.
Marie is cute and fun game, but it’s lacking in depth compared to other entries in the series. If it was $20 it could be an interesting entry point to the series, but for $10 more than what they’re asking for that game you can get a far more complete experience by going with one of the recent games like Ryza or Sophie 2.
Thanks for your feedback! May start it once I am done with DQ XI.