I just beat __

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (100%)

Just beat this game (which, in this case, actually translates to 100% due to reasons I'll state in a bit). Funny thing about this game is that, like its predecessors Kirby 2 and Kirby 3, there's a false ending that they give you after beating the penultimate boss, preventing you from fighting the true final boss until you meet certain requirements. In this case, you had to collect every one of the 72 Crystal Shards (no, it's not 100 shards like nintendo.com erroneously states). I enjoyed collecting them, for the most part, but some shards were rather cheap and I got them via restore point abuse to save time. A lot of Adeleine's puzzles were fun, but tough, too.

The boss fights were great too. With two exceptions, they were all well designed, and moderately challenging, like a boss fight should be. Those two exceptions? The first was Whispy Woods, of course, but he's basically a sort of joke boss at this point. But the second? That blasted Miracle Matter fight. That fight was so dang cheap. I swear, I lost at least 60 lives in that fight. A fight where you're given a precious few openings to attack, combined with just how much of an HP sponge he is, just makes for a cheap and unenjoyable boss fight.

But outside a few tedious shards and that cheap Miracle Matter fight, it was a pretty enjoyable game. There's still a few optional objectives to complete, such as the Boss Endurance and the Catch Card collection, but I'll worry about those later.
 
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The Way Remastered (Switch)

Also available on: PC

This game was Kickstarted back in 2014 and released originally on PC on 2016, followed by a Switch version in 2018. I got this game a few months ago when it was only $0.93, and I must say what a bargain that was, because I quite enjoyed the game's story structure and puzzle, not to mention the colourful pixel art and occasional music score. The resolution looks a bit squashed on handheld mode, probably because this game is made for a higher display that is best enjoyed docked. To give you a picture on how this game looks, here's a screenshot:

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The story is basically this: the main character Tom had lost his wife, but he remembered an expedition (where his soon-to-be-wife was there too) to a foreign planet and learned of the planet's secret of eternal life. As such, he dug his dead wife out of the grave and put her in a frozen state, and embark on a journey to the planet he's been to in order to revive his wife. Not to spoil too much, but the game also presented the main character in different phases of his life, where he looked different due to aging, because his journey happened for about half his lifespan. In his journey he also had a loyal animal-monster companion (that orange and blue thing with four eyes) that he adopted due to unfortunate circumstances for his companion, and this companion would become very important in helping the main character achieve his goal.

This game is basically a narrative platformer, which puts the player in the shoes of the hero as they navigate the environments filled with dangers at every turn, similar to classic games like Another World and Flashback. Much like those games, the main character is very vulnerable to death, as any enemy or hazard in the game is a threat to the hero, not to mention the fact that long falls also equal death. It's a good thing that there are invisible checkpoints so the story could go on in short order. Fortunately for the hero, he has ways to combat the situation, such as his younger self's access to a rechargeable gun. The platforming is a bit tricky but not too bad since there are some safety measures, namely auto-grabbing the ledge if he comes in contact with it. The puzzles are quite serviceable too, as they have a modest challenge to them.

It's an overall enjoyable game that I am glad to play through.

Thank you for reading.
 
Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Miles Edgeworth - Prosecutor's Path

wooow what a game man
it's an ace attorney game so it almost goes without saying that its good but wow this game is something special even within the series. every case is pretty good, with a great cast of characters both old and new, but i think the highlight of the game is really how interconnected it all is. everything that happens is connected, and gives the feeling that, even though you've solved the case, there's a much bigger mystery that looms over your head. as a result of this, i don't think any cases feel like they're filler and thats pretty neat.
it all makes it such a shame that this had to be released just before AA's big resurgence in the west, because it means so many people here just won't have a chance to play it. but i'm grateful that theres at least a dedicated group of fan translators that put a lot of work in so that at least some people could experience this amazing game
 
I beat High Midgardsormr in Dragalia Lost for the first time, I'm pretty happy at how well it went. I wasn't the dead weight I thought I would be, although I've found out that the DPS guys and I all do the baiting so there's less pressure on me to hug the boss constantly. I guess now I just pray for good pubs while I build someone up for High Brunhilda.

It's convenient timing that I beat the (previously) hardest content at the 6 month mark.
 
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

Wow. That was one epic final battle. And an epic plot twist right before it. Elder Princess Shroob was a final boss done right, and that final battle music might be on the level of those of Inside Story and Dream Team. Even though I didn't die due to the nature of the battle system, I got incredibly close several times. I'm not sure I would have lasted much longer if I was playing version 1.0, which, according to the wiki bestiary, makes the fights towards the end of the game drag out much longer. Thank goodness for version 1.1!

In terms of sidequests, well, there's bean collecting, which I've done a significant amount of, despite the game not tracking which beans I got and where. There's also one more boss, Shrowser, that I personally consider an extra postgame challenge, but as you can't see the credits without beating him, you could call him the final boss...if you really want to.

While I will admit that this is my least favorite game in the series due to its flawed battle system, and that it would benefit more from a remake than either Superstar Saga or Bowser's Inside Story did, I still loved every minute of it and it's a solid 8/10 in my book.

The only one in the series I have yet to play now is Bowser's Inside Story, and while I know that VC injects exist and with a little bit of work I could play it on Wii U, I'd rather just wait until I can buy a new 3DS to play the remake my brother got not too long ago. I hear it makes heavy use of the DS capabilities and that there's a reason it was never officially released on the Wii U VC. So until then, I'll probably check out Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario.
 
Super Mario 64 DS

Finally got 80 stars and rescued Peach. It was a fun game. I liked playing with the different character abilities, even though most of the time I just used Mario. I liked how much variety there was in the game, and what's more, there are still six levels I haven't even touched yet! From what I've played, my favorite level in this game is probably Big Boo's Haunt. I also have to constantly remind myself that I only have half the stars in the game, which only testifies to just how big the game is. Great remake of a great game, would highly recommend.
 
Super Mario Sunshine

Beat the game, having done every major episode except Pianta Village Episode 8 (as the Delfino Plaza flood triggered before I could play it). I also got quite a few Blue Coins, but I'm not sure exactly how many I got because I'm too lazy to check right now. I did also complain a few mini-levels in Delfino Plaza, including the infamous Pachinko Game, although I still have yet to beat the even more infamous Lily Pad Ride. As with Super Mario 64, the final boss was tough on my first few attempts, but became much easier after a little while. As much as people like to bash on Sunshine's voice acting, you gotta admit it's better than 64's voicing of Peach and Bowser (that evil laughing at every death in Mario 64 is a prime example of hilariously bad voice acting). I finished the game with 80 total Shines.
 
Fate/Extella Link

Was not expecting the final boss to have three phases. This was a huge improvement over Fate/Extella in the gameplay department, this one is actually a game that can be recommended to people.

Story wise it was pretty simple, basically just a side story to Fate/Extella focusing almost completely on Charlemagne but Charlie is a pretty lovable character so it worked fine. Even the original game didn't have much of a good story outside of the Altera arc, and that was also because she is a lovable character. Altera's face is on the gold trophy, clearly whoever decided which face goes on which trophy had impeccable taste.

It unlocked the Very Hard difficulty and 30 new side missions so I've got a lot to do if I want to 100% the game. I'll probably just use Young Altera and her normal form to do all of it, I'll fit Scathach in there somewhere. Maybe Iskandar since he was super fun to use. Might leave it for another time, I waited a year or so before doing the same thing in Extella.
 
Super Mario Galaxy

Beat this game, completing my 3D Mario marathon now that I can say I've beaten every 3D Mario. I feel that my enjoyment of this game has been hindered by the fact that I played its infinitely better sequel first, which had much more challenge, more variety, more stars, and better level design. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed my run through Galaxy 1, and it's as great as all the other 3D Mario games. As with Sunshine, I appreciated this game's spin on the traditional Mario story, and something about that final cutscene was just so emotional, which is admittedly a rare sight for me when I play games.

In fact, seeing that every 3D Mario game is that great, it's going to be really hard to rank them. But hey, now that I've beaten them all, I might as well try.

Galaxy 2 > Sunshine > 64 > 3D World > Odyssey > Galaxy > 3D Land
 
Fate/Extra CCC

It's really a god damn shame this game didn't get a proper english translation. If it had one I could easily call this one of the most enjoyable experiences but having to follow an out of game so-so translation and using a translate app for character-specific things left me feeling like this game really got given the shaft. Maybe one day there will be a proper attempt to make an english fan-patch.

I finished Extra feeling like I didn't need to ever play the game again and I finished CCC feeling like I would really like to play it again one day (ideally in english). Overall it was far more polished, almost like the original game was just a prototype (gameplay-wise and story-wise) for CCC to build off of. I chose Caster in both games, she was much more balanced and playable in CCC. She was cute in both games though.

It's interesting for a game to take on love as its main theme, it definitely stretched that one idea throughout the entire 25 hours but it's surprising how they never really retraced their steps the further the game went on. I guess it helped that having AI characters that are born with no understanding of love let them explore the more extreme corners of the theme without it seeming out of place. Not that they don't get weird with it. Secret Gardens are weird as fuck. But it's consistent with the rest of the game. It definitely does get very heavy and depressing around the mid-point, uncomfortably so.

I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone as it is right now though, it's a bit too much of a commitment (play Extra first lol, use a wordpress translation lol) even if it's a great game. I'll miss hearing Tamamo's stupid voice.
 
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Nemesis is a 1990 shmup on the Game Boy that’s part of the Gradius series. Typical of Game Boy games of its time, it features 5 stages that take around 25 minutes to clear and music largely lifted from the earlier games, although the level and bosses are brand new.

I think it’s pretty cool! The play mechanics are solid as ever and though it’s simple and not particularly ambitious, it’s not creatively bankrupt either: the organic stage is quite different from other uses of that theme in the series and the bosses (beside the first, who’s just a retread of Big Core) look and fight quite unlike anything else before or after. I also think it’s the first game in the series to try to change up the subsequent loops by tweaking enemy spawns (albeilt only lightly) instead of just adding suicide bullets and making everything faster and tougher.

Difficulty-wise, it’s pretty relaxed by Gradius standards: I was able to clear the first loop in one life and also beat the second on my first credit before getting bored. This is mostly thanks to the abundance of power-ups: it never feels like you can’t recover from death, which is something I can’t really say about most other gradius games.

The GB-ified classic tunes are competently arranged and the graphics are very nicely detailled, with the bosses in particular looking good. This does come at a heavy cost however: the game runs at 30 FPS and though you get used to it, it's pretty disorienting at first and not ideal. Also the sound for the Laser is horribly annoying but laser is useless anyways

But yeah, Nemesis is a pretty good shmup on its own merits and does the series proud. Recommended.
 
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

I've got a Gold Trophy on every cup (besides the All-Cup tour in 50cc and 100cc), meaning I've unlocked everything.

The spiral around the pipe in Rainbow Road is one of the scariest things I've ever experienced in Mario Kart.
 
World of Light
My final 3 fighters were my Mii Brawler of myself, my Mii Gunner as my OC Kayla/KK, and Pichu.

I do wish there was a guide for all of Master Hand's controls on the internet. The only result I got was from a GCN purist on the GameFaqs forum, and they didn't translate into my preferred Joy Cons.
 
Bubsy 3D

Never in my life had I played a game that has frustrated me, pissed me off, and annoyed the living shit out of me! I’m not just jumping on the hate train for this game, this game is a frustrating, mind numbingly broken pile of elephant shit with awful level design, random platforms, underwater levels that had no reason to be
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underwater levels, some of the worst enemy placements, and some of the worst controls I ever experienced! Don’t give me that bullshit of it being tank controls! Tomb Raider on PS1 has tank controls!
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Tank controls you can adapt to once you get the hang of it, and it had a reason to use that mechanic! This game has no idea what the fuck kind of game it wants to be! Does it want to be a collect a thon like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie?! Or does it want to be a platformer to just get to the end goal to reach the next level?!

The enemy placements...Jesus...H...SANTA CHRIST!!! The worst areas you could EVER place an enemy is either a checkpoint or at the beginning of a level! BAAAAAAAD!!That is BAAAAAAD enemy placement! When you’re at a checkpoint or the start of a level, you’re supposed to have moments to BREATHE!! But no! This game doesn’t give you...ANY moment to breathe or take your mind time! You simply won’t have any time to react!

And what’s my reward for having to go through all this pain, misery and torture?! An ending that tells you that everything you went through is all for NOTHING!! ......NOTHING!! Because Bubsy gets stranded to a different timeline and the Woolies are like “WOO HOO!! The Earth is ours!” Uhhh two things:

1. Would it have made a difference considering the amount of times I’ve died throughout this game?!

2. What kind of bullshit slap in the face ending is that?! The goal to this game is supposedly made like any platformer, reach to the final level, beat the boss and you feel victorious! How the fuck am I supposed to feel when in the end...I lose anyway?! I’m all for going a different direction with an ending, but if it means to tell me (the player) that I wasted hours of my life adapting to your shitty controls and unforgiving enemy placements?! Accolade you can just kiss my ass!!

I cannot believe I beat this shitfest...in one sitting...just to get an ending that laughs in my fucking face!

FUCK BUBSY 3D!! Worst PS1 game! Worst 3D platformer! WORST. FUCKING. ENDING!!!
 
DBFZ...

The story mode sucked, but the gameplay is fantastic. Definite must buy for people missing the whole MvC feel fighters.
 
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Puzzler World 2 (PC)

Also available on: DS, iOS

The sequel to Puzzler World, this game contains another batch of puzzles, but it has a higher quantity of them compared to the first game: not only are there 560 main puzzles plus another 560 bonus puzzles, there are Master Mode where the main puzzles are more difficult than the Challenge Mode puzzles. This is in contrast to how the first game's bonus puzzles are far easier than the Challenge puzzles, which makes this game a lot more challenging.

The puzzle distribution is a bit better than the first game, which I felt has a bad balance such as having too many of Wordfinder puzzles (the distribution is 4 out of 16). The game's distribution is a bit better thanks to having a few new types of puzzles, and the dialing back of Wordfinder puzzles (3:16 ratio), though I still felt that there are too many Sudoku puzzles (3:16 ratio), plus it cut out Codeword, which is disappointing because I liked that one. It wouldn't be until the 2013 version where there are 16 unique main puzzles, evening out any distribution issues that both World games have. Sadly it's not on Steam despite being on the PC, since the game can only be purchased from a different website.

The game also has a revamped reward system, where instead of choosing from one of three presents for either 5 coins, 10 coins or a Puzzler letter, there is a spinning wheel which you can control. Because of its manual control, a savvy player could land on wedges that grants either a Puzzler letter or a lot of coins (25, 50 or 75) instead of 10 coins, which takes up half of the wedges interspersed between the letter wedges (which there are 4 of) and the larger numbers. The only drawback is that the game only rewards them after the bonus puzzle instead of both main and bonus. Not only is the player rewarded through bonus rounds, they can also be rewarded if they solve enough puzzles, which actually makes it far easier to max out the coins, so I had to spend them on hints. That is fine by me, because hints, in many cases, reduce the time to solve the puzzle, especially in Sudoku since its pricing is pretty generous compared to a lot of puzzles (for your info: 20 coins fills a box of numbers). Silhouette is even more generous with what you get, but it's also super easy to solve (for 20 coins, 3/4 of the dotted areas are filled).

I have to admit that this game felt like a slog to go through, especially the Link-A-Pix puzzles which involve connecting the numbers to their respective colours, since its hint system is a bit stingy on that one. The worst part is that the game cannot truly be complete, because the Master Mode puzzles are bugged: in the puzzles where the puzzle selection can be scrolled, extra puzzles are invisible to the player, and solving them doesn't count for completion so I just solved all the main puzzles and consider it complete.

Thank you for reading.
 
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Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (Wii U)

Beat this game, and loved every second of it. Or at least I would say that, if I had done the whole thing in single player. However, I did a lot of it in multiplayer, and while that definitely had some upsides, there are downsides too. For example, special minibosses called Grab Hands will show up at certain points in the game during multiplayer. Kirby can't attack them at all, so you have to rely on your Waddle Dee buddies to help you out. And if they decide to be incompetent fools and just let them take you away while they make some humongous grins...you'll naturally grow a passion for hating Grab Hands. Also, certain levels such as Wonder Space (7-3) are clearly not designed around multiplayer, and are a total nightmare when you have three Waddle Dees playing with you...which I did at that point. But it's still multiplayer, and it's pretty well designed for the most part, so I still had a fun time.

Anyway, some other things I liked about this game. The story is pretty dang great; while it's not super dark like most Kirby games nowadays, it's still unique and sometimes even gets a little emotional. I'll put a summary in a spoiler tag, just in case there's someone else who happens to be playing a 2015 Wii U game in 2019 (or perhaps in case of the unlikely event that they port the game to Switch).

Basically, there are two best friends, Claycia and Elline, who govern the lands of Seventopia. They work as a team, with Claycia sculpting the basic outline of the critter being created, and then Elline painting the sculpture to life. One day, Claycia picks up a pair of shades, and starts acting a lot differently. Claycia starts using her master crafting abilities for nefarious purposes, and plans to use Elline's painting powers to achieve her goal. However, her plans are foiled when Elline, frightened of Claycia's new personality, flees to Planet Popstar.

After her attempts to nab Elline back failed, Claycia shifted her focus to Planet Popstar, and stole all the colors of said planet in order to replace Elline and further her goals. Meanwhile, after arriving on Planet Popstar, Elline paints back Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee just as two Grab Hands show up to try and nab her again. Kirby knocks Elline out of the Grab Hands' paths, and Bandana Waddle Dee finishes them off with a spear attack. Elline pleads for help, and Bandana Waddle Dee agrees. But Kirby, rather unlike himself, would rather mourn the loss of his newfound apple than help Elline; only after she explains that he won't be able to eat the apple until the colors are restored does he agree. So the threesome then set off across each of the seven worlds of Seventopia: Green Valley, Yellow Dunes, Indigo Ocean, Blue Sky Palace, Orange Woodlands, Red Volcano, and Purple Fortress.

Typical for platformers, there is very little progression in the story throughout most of the game, so I'll just fast-forward to the end. After their long journey, the trio encounters Claycia in the Purple Fortress. Elline pleads to Claycia to become her normal self again, but Claycia just slaps her away. After a long battle with Claycia, her shades fall off and she regains her regular personality. The four then start to celebrate, but the celebration is short-lived, as an evil spirit named Dark Crafter soon emerges from the shades. As it turns out, Dark Crafter was using Claycia and the stolen colors to attempt to take over Seventopia. Elline then transforms Kirby into the Kirby Rocket to fight Dark Crafter before he can flee away.

After Dark Crafter is defeated, the four celebrate, and then return to Planet Popstar. The stolen colors are returned, and Elline paints thousands of apples for Kirby, much to his delight.

Another strong point of the game was the collectibles. Most stages have five treasure chests (although some stages only have four, while boss stages have none). Each treasure chest contains either a collectible figurine or a music track. The figurines are a lot like Smash trophies being 3D models with a full 3D camera and flavor text. The music tracks are legacy remixes from past Kirby games, and interestingly, one of the tracks is even a remix of another Rainbow Curse track. There's one other collectible, the pages of Elline's Secret Diary, and these are my favorite by far. Rather than obtaining them from treasure chests, the diary pages are obtained at the Goal Game at the end of every stage. Every normal stage has its own diary page to collect, so if you miss it in the Goal Game roulette, you'll have to start the stage over to receive its diary page. But it's definitely worth it; Elline's diary is just the prettiest thing to look at, due in part to the fact that everything on the page, even the text, animates. Looking at a picture of one of the pages on the Internet really isn't the same experience. Trust me, filling up the diary is well worth the effort.

The soundtrack may very well be my favorite part of the game. Remember how I said that this game has some collectible legacy remixes? That's just the icing on the cake. The game itself has a soundtrack that holds its own; it not only has the best soundtrack of any Kirby game by far, but it has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard from a game, period! The final boss theme in particular is absolutely amazing, and is sure to give Zero-Two and Void Termina a run for their money. But really, listen to literally any track in the game, and you'll have a pretty good idea of just how great the soundtrack is as a whole. Man, HAL has got to hire these composers to work on other Kirby games!

And who would I be if I didn't mention the gameplay? The gameplay might be the most unique thing about the game. If you've ever played Canvas Curse, the gameplay here is pretty similar. You draw lines on the screen for Kirby to roll on, and you tap him to make him perform a Dash attack. When you collect 100 stars, Kirby will charge up a very powerful Star Dash, which you can execute by holding down Kirby with the stylus. As mentioned before, there's multiplayer too; players 2, 3, and 4 can play as differently-colored Bandana Waddle Dees. Bandana Waddle Dee's controls are much more traditional than Kirby's; D-Pad to move, 1 to attack, and 2 to jump. They can jump multiple times (but not infinitely), walk on the rainbow ropes created by player 1, and can pick up and throw Kirby. There are also multiplayer-exclusive minibosses called Grab Hands, and I've already explained before how awful they are if you're player 1. But my siblings seem to really enjoy them because I'm completely useless when fighting them, so there's that too, I guess.

That about sums up everything I have to say about this game (the clay-themed aesthetics are also absolutely beautiful, but I'll let you judge that for yourself). Probably my favorite Kirby spinoff there is, and easily cements itself as one of my favorite games of all time.
 
latest


Ok... Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword...

This game man... I have just concluded my very first playthrough... how about... I reminisce the great memories I made by talking about every member of my team...

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Eliwood... those who played Smash may not recognize him, but... he is actually Roy's father. Yes, this game takes place 20 years before Roy's game, to clarify. Eliwood may have kinda been the worst fighter on my team, and that's because I was even worse at training him. But even then, he ended up pretty decent for me and had his moments. And I just relaly like him in general because I tend to have a thing for generic nice boy characters. But yeah, Eliwood also goes into emotional moments that kinda make him easy to relate to, even when what happens to him doesn't happen to you.

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Ah, Hector. The one guy who will go dramatic lengths to protect ya. I like this dude. Really good unit, great personality, great design, and personally has one of the best looking weapons in the series, Armads, which, by the way... I used to kill the Final Boss. Hector's just that guy who may scare you with his rashness but you're always happy to have around.

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I'm sure everyone here knows Lyn. Because of Smash... but... well... here's the thing. During Lyn's Tale at the beginning of the game, everything she goes through, the journey she has, and the fact that she directly interacts with you throughout, that really makes her grow on you. Stat wise she was, weirdly enough, the best lord. Access to both swords and bows, very fast... yeah... Lyn was designed for me. She's also pretty good looking with nice animations in battle.

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Now for the first character you may not know about. Kent is a loyal knight of Caelin tasked to find Lyn and bring her to her grandfather, alongside his companion and fellow knight, Sain. Kent is serious and stern, but when he gets attached to someone, a weak side starts to show up. More specifically, he experiences that when he first sees Lyn. Which is why I shipped the two together in this playthrough. As a unit, Kent went from average to the best cavalier I have, very fast, so doubles many things, and deals good damage on each hit as well. He was also fairly bulky. He excelled at no stats, but they were very well rounded which in the end, offered no weaknesses.

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Florina... now this girl started out as the shyest in the world. She was scared, out there, helpless... and could easily die to anything. As you build her more supports however, you can see a stronger side of her personality, and even as a unit, she become dangeroud. By the end of the game I was so confident in her skills that you could really put her in the middle of all the enemies and none could even hit her. That's how amazing she is. I knew investing in her would heavily pay off. She's also so adorable, so yeah.

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Oh Wil... everyone seems to say that he's the worst archer in the game, and one of the worst units overall. But when I compared his stats to another archer that I had... well... RNG decided I'd be taking him on the journey. And I was not disappointed. Archers are already one of my favorite classes in the series, and Wil delivers on that front. He knows how to deal big damage from the backlines. I even grew to like him as a character... he's just that super sociable guy who talks to people all the time, even when they don't want to, and he's so overly enthusiastic. And even then, he seems just so painfully normal a guy. One of my best characters too.

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I really can't look at Serra and take her all that seriously. Yes... she might look like a horrible person at first... she might have been heavily Magic screwed, relying on Mend staves to fully heal people (and when you got less magic than RENAULT, you know you have a problem)... yeah... but... she's still... Serra. Serra really made me laugh every time she was on screen. Guess I really am into that kind of humor. And well, she was my main healer to the end. In some of her supports, also, she does end up actually starting to think about others, and she has some kindness in her. I also really like her supports with a certain character that I happen to call my favorite.

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What a pretty boy...

Everyone, meet... Erk! My favorite character! Not only was he already an entertaining character when he was around Serra, and a relatable one to me outside of that, but he was also, quite possibly, the one unit I have found to be the most useful in the team. He might have not ended up the best overall, but for all he's done, he gets all the brownies. Erk is a very powerful mage in Lyn's tale, and can really save your ass from enemies foolish enough to threaten the others. Unlike Wil at that point, he is fast enough to double many things, AND can attack from range. As well as counter close range. Yes. Erk is quite possibly my savior here, even allowing my other units safety while they were planning on who gets to kill the boss. And yes. I like his supports with Serra, so I got them together and actually managed to max it before the end of the game. Now they're happy, quite honestly my favorite pairing that can actually be canon.

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I'm so sorry Matthew... I couldn't promote you! I missed the chapter where you get the thing that promotes him to Assassin... even then, he was useful till the very end, grabbing chests, stealing things, and most importantly, farsight in fog of war. He also has a mini story arc for himself, and I really like that. I also gotta say I find it interesting how he's a sort of little mentor for Hector, and yet he is still very young. You just don't see young mentors very often. I mean he ain't Hector's main mentor, but still.

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No, that's not a girl. Here's Lucius. The other mage in Lyn's tale. Not as powerful as Erk, since he has light magic and not regular magic, but he is faster. The mentally unstable monk who is however so calm and severe you can't notice the torment in his heart was also one of those who contributed in taking down the final boss, because yes, by the end of the game, he ended up with more magic and speed than Erk, making him a better unit. Love this guy.

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Now some of you may have actually seen Raven since he is one of few characters who has a spirit in Ultimate. And I can see why. Since the moment he joins, he has respectable combat potential, and continues to be awesome throughout the game. And then there's the fact that his tragic backstory actually pictures Hector's family as tyrants. Of course, it turns out to be fake rumors if you get him to support with Lucius, but still, for what Raven has done, it just feels right to honor him here, although there's another character from the same class as him who I like infinitely better.

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Dark magic is my favorite kind of magic. Hits hard, attacks from range, and the hitrates are not that shaky. And it has some great weapons too, like Luna, or Nosferatu... Canas is the ONLY dark magic user you get until the final chapter, so he is essential to your party! I haven't looked into his personality much yet, but... from what I've seen he's a nice guy. And I have read some supports that I found funny with him, so yeah.

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Dart is a character I never expected to be using so much. Like, I knew he was good, but he was actually so much of a tremendous help. Especially as a berserker. Dart is that pirate who's all fierce and all that, but he has big dreams, big ambitions, and a big heart. As a unit, he's one of the best axe users in there if not the best and his class gives him a crit bonus. I have seen that axe spinning animations lotsa times.

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Guy... that's his name. It was probably meant to be pronounced like the french name, but I like to pronounce it like you would the word Guy. Guy is a myrmidon, a very fast unit who exclusively uses swords. Swords may be the worst weapon type from a practical standpoint, but Guy's efficiency in battle makes them look like the best weapons. He swings them like they were nothing and can double attack many things. And thanks to that he is prone to kill easily in the early game. Not so much afterward, but he is still reliable, and worth it to have in your team. This... guy who's actually very talkative for a boy from Sacae and it fairly modest about things, but still is solely dedicated to training has just been an important part of my adventure.

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Oswin! The main mentor for Hector! He was the first unit I promoted properly and he was an absolute mad lad! One shotting anyone stupid enough to attack him... just felt so satisfying... and he had very pleasant speed for a General, made him double many things even in a class that's meant to be slow! And even when I think an enemy might survive his might, he spins that lance and lands a critical hit! Absolute unit! A somewhat sarcastic man as well.

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...

As deep as her backstory is, and as big as her importance to the story is... I only loved Ninian for the sheer kindness and selflessness of her dialogue... and her theme. Her theme is a piece of music as beautiful as herself, nicely representing her calm behavior and caring heart. Her interactions with Eliwood are also so endearing and adorable, and she grew on me so much that at a certain cutscene where something tragic happens, while I was doing the impression of a sad Eliwood, I was actually internally sad myself. Also, yeah. She and Eliwood make a great couple, which is why I also paired them together, so yeah, in my file, she's basically Roy's mom.

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WELL WELL WELL IF IT ISN'T HEATH MY BOY! Heath was seriously the most fun to train character in this game, which is hard for me to say since he starts off so awfully slow! But here I am... here he is... joins in chapter 21 at level 7, reaches level 20 and promotes a few chapters later only! And... his speed at the end of the game turned out to be... 21! Yes! His speed went from very slow to one of the fastest in the entire game! And Heath himself is a very honorable person who thinks lowly of himself and although he's a traitor to his home country, he would like redemption. Also special thanks to Isadora, without her help, Heath wouldn't get the spear that allowed him to become this OP.

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And Harken. Remember when I said there was a unit the same class as Raven but who I liked way better? Here's Harken. For people who know my story with Harken, I think it's obvious why I used him. In fact, I actually used him in every single chapter after his join time except the final chapter! How much Harken feels like a failure really baffles me here, because he really is my second favorite character and probably unit as well. Such a goddamn beast!

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And Athos was also a huge help in beating the game, even if he is just playable for the final chapter. Thumbs up to ya, bud! You and that 30 damage Luna!

This game's cast just feels like such nice people and a lot of them you can easily relate to, and everyone was just so endearing to me. Of course, the characters are not the only thing that makes this game what it is.

This game just fully feels like a grand adventure, traveling through the entire world of Elibe at the pursuit of Nergal, the main villains. As you progress, your team becomes stronger and stronger, and more and more allies join your cause. In the end, everyone is promoted, and everyone is ready to advance against the enemy, and you can just laugh as you unleash hell upon the bad guy mooks. Such a feeling, to just look down upon these people you trained, you made them this powerful, and thanks to you, they have become heroes, and saved the world. Tearing through hordes of enemies like they were weapon food... why it's just so satisfying, especially considering how Florina, that one girl you had to protect from all harm, is now a killing machine. The maps were a blast to play through, and figuring out how arrange everyone to secure victory was just such a blast for some reason. I really love strategy RPGs now.

Even then, the game also had heartfelt moments. Moments that really made you stop and think. One moment you look for Eliwood's father, and one moment you realize you're just not fighting to save him anymore. Suddenly it becomes something bigger.

I really loved this game to the end. Now, off to Sacred Stones, and let's see if it somehow manages to deliver as well as this, or maybe even more.

Seems like Fire Emblem is not all about swords, after all.
 
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Wuppo (PC)

Also available on: PS4, XB1

I first read about this game because the person who played it likened this game to Super Paper Mario, which is an outlier even for Mario standards, which from what I understand, is due to the how it's based around a world that has a unique sort of world building.

Unfortunately, I cannot perform a comparison between the two games because I have never played Super Paper Mario in its entirety before, but there are some surface similarities that I can identify: like how it has a very abstract artstyle with equally-abstract characters, the game taking place in a 2D sidescrolling world, personality-based writing, the non-player characters who have their own quirks, and the unique and cleverly designed bosses. I personally think it's a very good game with a lot of charm, but it's not my duty to convince those who love Super Paper Mario (for its merits) to get it, especially because it's not available on the Switch. I do think it's a great fit for the Switch due to its cartoonish nature, and it would no doubt catch more people's attention if it were to be available there. In fact, since the Nintendo Switch supports GameMaker (as Undertale proves), I believe it should happen.

Anyway, let's get to the game. Of note is that the characters do not have a defined gender, so I will refer to them as "it" despite a lot of the names being male-oriented (ex: Carlo, Bram, Willy). The game starts out with the main character, who is a Wum and is a silent protagonist except with dialogue prompts (but still has the personable touch), being thrown out of its apartment (aka Wumhouse) for making a mess. From there, the main character went on a journey where it meets new friends, going out on its own, solving some crises, and eventually leads to it saving the world from doom. One such friend that you meet is a bird that looks like a toucan named Denksnavel, who basically make notes on what to do and can help you out, and does exposition (though unlike Paper Mario, he doesn't do the talking to NPCs for you, since the player character has dialogue prompts).

The game basically has world built into it, where there are a few species: The Wums are the majority species, and they are round and has four legs; the Blussers are very cheerful and spiritual, and they are oval with six legs; the Splenkhakkers are the one that look grumpy but they somehow has a theme park named after them; the Fnakkers have arms, but they have a generally unsavoury attitude (in the game they throw stones at other species) and they were even condemned into a sinkhole based on the lore. Perhaps the video gives a good glimpse on the game's world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w239XQqF-6Q

Continuing on the world building point, there are several locations in-game that abides by a schedule. For one, the game cycles between day and night, and certain NPCs behave differently based on the day, such as how some of them sleeps at night. The game also has trains that follow an in-game time. Plus, while the NPCs are usually static, there are a good number that displays movement that makes the world feel alive, such as how in the theme park there are lines waiting for the ride with more coming to line up, but you cannot cut the queue. Some of the NPCs have even little bits of personality and history behind them that make them more personable.

In terms of lore, the game has plenty. Within the game, there are filmstrips which can be submitted to specific NPCs to watch them, where they explain the world within the game. An example would be the stoplight in the theme park, where it's explained that it's used to managed the lines going into the park, but it has an flaw in its behaviour.

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Fun fact: this stoplight is one of the optional bosses. Another fun fact: the idea of this boss is submitted by a credited contributor.

The game does have combat, which takes the form of a gumgumgun (a gun that fires coloured shots) and optionally a bazooka that fires a charged shot. Although the game is not jam-packed with enemies to fire the gun on, there are a decent number of bosses that puts the weapon to use. The bosses are quite unique that they are a delight to go through, although not all of them are strictly bosses (a few of them are enemy rushes). They are not the easiest to beat though, I must admit, and I can't imagine how difficult they are on a controller since you have to aim the gun in addition to moving around (I played with keyboard and mouse). Going back to the stoplight boss, this boss will punish the player if they move during a red light, but it will be open for fire if the player got too close to it.

Music is another thing that is quite a delight. It has a very jovial vibe and non-serious vibe (with the various sound within the music) to it that is common among comical games such as the Banjo games and yes, Paper Mario too. I think I like the shop theme (different shops have a variation of it), although the bosses' music are pretty good too. Pardon me while I link one theme as a sample, if you so want to check it out some music (this is a boss theme):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfgqRE2-h88

Overall I do enjoy this game and I recommend it to those who likes Paper Mario's approach to dialogue and world-building (outside the paper aesthetic) because of its charm and generally enjoyable quirky presentation. It certainly got me to complete this game in a pretty short time due to how engaging it is, though I didn't 100% my Normal mode file.

Thank you for reading.
 
Kirby Super Star

I was honestly really impressed with this game. It plays like the four mainline Kirby games we've gotten since 2011, but it was released all the way back in 1996. While I do think that its four post-2011 successors did it better, this was a great start and pretty dang impressive for an SNES game. Here's my thoughts on each game:

Spring Breeze - Hey, it's a remake of Kirby's Dream Land! With Copy Abilities! Yes, this version is significantly easier and shorter than the already-easy-and-super-short original, but it introduced Dedede's current theme, so who am I to complain?

Gourmet Race - Plays more like a sub-game than the other main games, tbh. But that doesn't make it any less fun. It's like a footrace against Dedede, but you also have the alternative goal to eat as much food as possible, as that will factor into your final score as well. And this goes without saying, but the music for the final round is top-notch.

Dyna Blade - The most traditional Kirby experience you'll get out of this game. There's an SMB3-style world map, goal games, and secret areas. It's also a bit longer than Spring Breeze. The titular character here is a humongous bird who stole all of the crops from the people of Dream Land, later revealed to merely be trying to find food to feed her chick.

The Great Cave Offensive - Kirby falls into a cave, and you have to escape while finding treasures in the process. It's very exploration-focused. I will say that I didn't really like this game as much as the others (dragged on a bit longer than I would have liked), but that doesn't make it bad. There are four different areas to explore, but one of them can be skipped entirely. There are 60 treasures total, of which I collected 21.

Revenge of Meta Knight - Meta Knight attempts to take over Dream Land and end the lazy lifestyle of its residents. This is probably one of Meta Knight's most prominent appearances, as in addition to Meta Knight serving as the main antagonist, this game also introduced Captain Vul, the Meta-Knights, Sailor Waddle Dee, and (perhaps most importantly) the Battleship Halberd. Unlike the other games, all stages here are timed, and you can often see Meta Knight converse with his crew. The latter is probably the main reason why this is my favorite of the bunch, as that dialogue can be pretty dang entertaining.

Milky Way Wishes - The plot here is pretty similar to that of Kirby's Return to Dream Land. The sun and moon are fighting, and suddenly a friendly-looking creature named Marx shows up. He asks you to summon the Galactic NOVA, which can grant any wish made upon it. At the end, it's revealed that he was merely using you to make his own wish upon NOVA and control Planet Popstar, so you fight him before he has much chance to do harm. Unlike the other games, Kirby cannot copy abilities from enemies. Rather, he must find Copy Essences Deluxe to permanently add the ability to his inventory. It's pretty interesting, and I'd love to see this style of play return in an extra mode of a future Kirby game. This is the final game in the main story, and beating it cues the true credits.

The Arena - Haven't played this yet, but from what I've heard, it seems to be the only decent pre-2011 Boss Endurance in existence.

There's also two sub-games, Megaton Punch and Samurai Kirby. The former is a timing minigame, while the latter is a quick-reaction game much like the Quick Draw minigame from Kirby's Adventure.

So yeah, that about sums up all the games. There's also an enhanced remake on DS, Kirby Super Star Ultra, with even more games, and I do hope to be able to play that soon.
 
Meta Knight said:
Dedede's theme actually debuted in the original Kirby's Dream Land.

Nice review though
Click to expand...
Thanks! Yeah, I knew about Dedede's original theme from DL1, but I believe Super Star was the one that added the second part of his theme. Hence why Super Star is commonly cited for introducing his modern theme rather than DL1.
 
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