Haven’t found much time to play recently, but I beat the Deku area in Echoes of Wisdom today. This was probably my favorite area, mostly because we haven’t seen Deku sprouts as a serious race since Majora’s Mask. I find them a lot more interesting than the Korok, so I really hope they return in a major role again sometime.

At this point, I’m pretty sure I’m about to beat the game, so it’s time to finish off all the side content. I already finished the Dream Dojo including the advanced time requirements, which wasn’t that hard except for a select few challenges. Though even those wouldn’t have been so bad if there was a way to just restart without quitting out entirely! That’s a major oversight a game of today really can’t get away with anymore.

And one more thing I’ve been meaning to say for weeks but always forget… how is the lock-on so bad? Why does it seem like it prioritizes my own summons over the enemies? 99.9% of the time I do NOT want to lock on to the rock I placed somewhere! I’m actually unhappy that when Tri levels up, some summons become cheaper because the last thing I want is more entities to lock on to!

Why contain it? Let it spill over to the schools and churches, let the bodies pile up in the streets. In the end, they’ll beg us to save them.

• Bob Page, 2052

I haven’t played any Zelda this week, that slot has been all Lightning Returns. The Wildlands have just really gotten to me, though I think I have taken it too far. There is this interesting mechanic that only works because the game runs on a time limit: You can fight monsters to extinction. Fight enough monsters of a kind and a beefed up version called the Last One appears, literally the last survivor of its species. And then that monster type is gone from the game! I may have kept time frozen for too long, the Wildlands aren’t very wild anymore which leaves me with fewer means to freeze time later when I might need it.

I finished off Snowboard Kids 2 and have picked up good old Deus Ex again. Parts of it don’t quite hit the same anymore. Conspiracy theories used to be more fun in the early 2000s. Knowing that a lot of people today believe much dumber stuff really dulls that experience.

I’m starting to get back in the groove after early November has put me in absolutely no mood to be playing anything.

In Echoes of Wisdom, I’ve beaten the Lava and Ice dungeons. There have been a lot of puzzles lately I feel like I’m solving with jank more than anything. If it works it works, but it doesn’t feel as satisfying as BotW/TotK in that regard. There are just too many puzzle pieces in my repertoire. I did learn to hold enemies in place while my summons beat them up. I regularly forget to use Tri at all, let alone offensively!

Today, I explored the Wildlands in Lightning Returns a bit. The size of the area intimidated me at first, but the enemies in the forest give enough EP to let me keep time frozen for as long as I’m there, making this the most relaxed I’ve ever been in this game.

I have beaten Snowboard Kids and have moved on to Snowboard Kids 2. I’ve never played the sequel before and while some aspects feel wrong, it’s still pretty good. It’s a lot easier though, I’ve already made it to the final race after beating everything before usually first try, sometimes second. The endgame of the first game looked a lot different in that regard! The final one seems to be the one to stump me though, Damien is fast as hell! I’ve only tried once so far, but I think this one will take a while.

I reached the second half of Echoes of Wisdom. I didn’t expect it, but for some reason it feels like the game has actually begun now. Maybe I’m imagining it. Haven’t played much since then though, but will continue tomorrow.

I finished the second main quest in Lightning Returns. The fight against

was a lot more fun than the fight against

It’s kinda fitting that I found such a good time to pause on both games, because it’s time for the monthly game of Civ 5! I’m going down the list to play every civilization and the Huns are up this time. I’m not a fan of domination victories, so I keep the map smaller. Usually, I out-tech my opponents at some point on the normal difficulty, but something went really wrong and we’re actually all on equal footing. We’re down to three players and just as my warmonger penalty has worn off and I’m starting to be on good terms with everyone, both of my opponents declared war on me at the same time! They were at each other’s throats for a long time themselves. I fended them off, but I got some rebuilding to do now…

I also dug out Snowboard Kids for the N64 again. Quicksand Valley is really walling me right now.

And a special shoutout to the Beta of Monster Hunter Wilds that dropped all of a sudden. I had no idea! I just wanted to see if my PC can handle the game but ended up playing for three hours. I haven’t played World, so it’s my first time in this more realistic art direction. I miss the colors Rise had, but I’ll get used to it. I wanted to try out a new weapon for this game, but I think I’m too old to learn new tricks. I went back to my trusty Switch Axe within minutes. Everything feels a bit more sluggish, but I’m not so rusty that I couldn’t beat all the monsters in the beta by myself. The Magnamalo from the Rise demo way back when did not leave me with such confidence…

I have everything for Civ V. Old Civs tend to go on sale for 90% and less, so there was no reason to pick and choose.

I finished the desert dungeon in Echoes of Wisdom. I liked it! I thought the water dungeon was kinda boring, so I was a little worried. The list of echoes is getting a little full though. I wish I could blacklist some of them so they don’t clog up the list.

Most of my time was spent starting Lightning Returns. It says a lot about Final Fantasy XIII’s lack of popularity that I haven’t even heard about the third game in the trilogy being very reminiscent of Majora’s Mask of all games! I really should have heard about that…

The biggest difference is that you don’t live through a 3-day cycle multiple times but a 13-day cycle ONCE. You get one chance and if you fail, you lose. I have read that you don’t need nearly that much time for the main quest, but I’m a completionist at heart, so I’m still constantly on edge. They tell you very early on that you can’t save everyone, but so far I like the game enough to plan for a New Game Plus with a 100% guide to make the game eat those words! With some side quests being very specific about their time, this will probably be a lot like that time I used a guide for Final Fantasy 9 to race to the final dungeon in under 12 hours to get Excalibur II while staying on level 1 and getting all missables to create the perfect starting point for a 100% completion (which admittedly ended as soon as I got to that point because that was the most interesting part of it).

I also like that the combat is its own beast and not a rehash of the past, like XIII-2 was. It still feels very challenging though. Unless an enemy is exceptionally weak, you really have to pay attention.

I’m also very close to finishing Wild Arms. I know now why that nostalgia is not the reason why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I remember. The game expects you to explore. Nobody really tells you where to go and what to do and when I play a game for the first time, that’s perfectly fine. I don’t explore a game the second time around, though. At that point, I prefer having a brief guide nearby to make sure I don’t miss anything and so I came into this game with false expectations, mostly because I really didn’t remember nearly as much about it as I thought.

The desire to start a new game of Civ V haunts me every day. I said once a month! Just one more week of patience…

Played more Echoes of Wisdom. I haven’t done much, though. My motivation took a nosedive when I explored around the southwestern parts of Hyrule Field. The open world aspect really doesn’t work for me in 2D, the area just felt too big and empty.

I’m putting the brakes on Civ 5, not because I want to, but because I have to. I finished another game today and I’m henceforth limiting myself to one game per month. I’m really just trying to win one match per civilization for now, so I’ll be done with that in a few years at this rate.

So in its place, it’s finally time to tackle Lightning Returns, the third game in the Final Fantasy 13 trilogy. I’m not sure what to expect. Though most points of criticism are absolutely valid, I thought the first game was much better than people say. The second one is exactly as bad as people say, though. It had some good ideas, but it just didn’t feel right.

I can imagine him being tough if you’re going in blind, but Link does the exact same thing in his game. The ‘Cane of Somaria’ is literally a magic staff that creates blocks, so that boss was a perfect fit for this game.

I dropped Baten Kaitos Origins. I hate to do it, but as I tweaked my deck more, combat just got more boring. I was curious, so I did some research: Apparently, the fanbase is split right down the middle. You’ll either say the combat is better than the first game’s in every single way or you’ll hate it. I cannot say anything good about it…

It also doesn’t help that the game quadrupled down on Quest Magnus, my least favorite part of the original game. Just lugging random things around that you think you might need when you can only carry a very limited amount of them annoyed me, but at least you mostly needed them for side quests. In the prequel, you also upgrade other cards with them, mix them together to get new ones and they affect your stats? Stop, I’m already dead!

I’ve been wanting to play this game for almost 20 years…

So I started Echoes of Wisdom instead. I didn’t think I’d play it so close to release, I wasn’t too hyped for it. But I quickly remembered that I absolutely love making enemies fight each other in any video game, so that’s a part I enjoy! I’m slightly disappointed at how much it’s taking from the modern Open World formula, I was hoping the 2D side of the franchise would keep things traditional.

I’m not too far in yet, but I have come across my favorite boss from Oracle of Ages! What a deep cut, I did NOT expect to see him ever again! But it makes sense, with a basic block your wand essentially becomes the Staff of Somaria.

I’m still playing Civ 5. I understand now why the game is still being played today. I had no problems playing Civ 1 a few years ago, I would have problems now. It’s simple balancing decisions like large empires having both up- and downsides that impress me. The Civ I know was all about settling like mad.

I may have made a huge mistake.

I started playing Civ 5. I bought it a long time ago when the whole package was 90% off and finally decided to play it. And that’s all I did. I knew this wasn’t going to be a casual experience. I played Civ 3 when it was the most recent game in the series my old Laptop was able to play and the SNES version of Civ 1 a couple of years later (because apparently, I only play the odd-numbered ones). I knew the risks.

But I also have a bunch of vacation days to use up, so I took a week off from work to just let this happen. Get it out of my system and hopefully move on from there. Don’t bother holding my beer, it’ll be stale by the time I come back out of this rabbit hole.

That’s the thing though, I know it’s not required because I’ve done it. And it took less than 24 hours after beating the game for my anxiety to become nostalgia.

I’m looking forward to the expanded story, I’m not looking forward to subjecting myself to the anxiety again. If I didn’t know what this game was, I’d probably just play it on Normal difficulty, thinking that’s the intended experience and be none the wiser. But I reject the lower difficulty levels! I’ve beaten the remaster of the original and I will not settle for less. My pride won’t allow it and I hate it. Stupid pride…

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.

I’m about halfway through Paper Mario at this point. I remember the 10HP run being a bit more difficult, I don’t even find myself using Sweet Treat on the occasional free turn anymore. And I only use items once in a blue moon, too.

What I like most about the remake so far is the battle music getting a different remix for every area.

Played a lot more Yakuza Kiwami 2. Had some issues with the game crashing, but a fresh install fixed that. Unlocked the Majima Construction game, which I’m not a huge fan of. I’d like it more if it was turn based or if you could pause and look around the field. Or just a way to zoom out at least, I tend to lose sight of my units. But yo, I had no idea Keiji Muto and Masahiro Chono were the main villains of that story! I freaked out when they first walked into the scene (and kudos to the people who modeled the faces, I recognized Muto immediately!). And then other New Japan Wrestlers join my side as well? I know they appear in a later Yakuza title, but I had no idea they got recycled into this one.

I also have yet to see anything on the Completion List that stops me from completing it. The previous games always had something that was just stupidly tedious.

Here’s a game I loved and hated at the same time. I was a big fan of Jango Fett and it was fun to play the game in theory, but good luck being in a room with dozens of enemies and trying to scan them to find the one guy with the bounty and isolate him to take him alive when they’re all coming after you. I don’t think you actually need to do much bounty hunting, but I forget if it’s completely optional. I remember the game definitely being more action than stealth though.

If they completely reimagined this game and made it more like the Hitman games though…

Not at all. But now that Hunters is more directly tied into the story and not just a spinoff it would be nice to have the full context.

I hope we get a surprise Metroid Prime Hunters Remaster before this because I have no idea who the villain is.