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.