The Gaming Diary: Chapter 3

[Mr_Stubbes]

Just start Link's Awakening on the Switch.  Man, that is a great game.

In a lot of cases I feel that remasters are just quickly done just to cash in on nostalgia. However, with Link’s Awakening you can tell that there was so much time and care put into it. Graphically it’s a pretty game but it’s the music that really elevates it. Since it’s release I play it every year.

Currently I’m playing Sackboy: A Big Adventure I think I’m about half way through it at this point, but I’m not really enjoying it. There’s nothing functionality wrong with the game, it looks, sounds and most importantly plays well, it just doesn’t do anything for me personally. It’s just going to be one of those games that you get through because you’ve already invested some time and might as well make it to the credits. Hopefully my thoughts will change.

[shaggy]

Just start Link's Awakening on the Switch.  Man, that is a great game.

In a lot of cases I feel that remasters are just quickly done just to cash in on nostalgia. However, with Link’s Awakening you can tell that there was so much time and care put into it. Graphically it’s a pretty game but it’s the music that really elevates it. Since it’s release I play it every year.

I totally agree with you.  Remakes are just pretty much cash cows but this one is great.  Also, the length of time before the original and when the remake is made makes a difference.

I currently have 5 out of 8 instruments.

[shaggy]

Beat Link's Awakening!

[Link41]

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (N64) - Played this yesterday for May the 4th!!

[shaggy]

Tried Tarraria on the Wii U but quit.  Those controls suck.  I've hooked the N64 back up and plan on starting Paper Mario.

[shaggy]

I've gotten the third Star Spirit.  I'm really enjoying this game.

[Disposed Hero]

Resident Evil Village - Obviously I was going to jump right into a new RE game. Parts of the game felt kind of disjointed and the end really goes off the rails, but I really enjoyed it overall. Not as good as 7 in my opinion, but people seem to be pretty mixed on which is better. Still a really solid game though.

Bravely Default II - I finally finished this with a very positive lasting impression overall. I thought the early parts of the game were a bit too formulaic which is an issue I tend to have with many of these retro-throwback RPGs, but they did a good job of breaking out of that mold later on. Great game!

Demon's Souls - I played the original DS back on PS3 when it was new, but I don't remember much about it and was kind of lukewarm on it at the time. After having played and enjoyed Dark Souls and Bloodborne, I've been interested in going back to this game and have finally done so with the PS5 remake. I'm really enjoying it for the most part, although there are some really frustrating sections that feel pretty poorly designed. I think they improved on many of these aspects with the sequels/successors. Despite any frustrations though, I still find it to be very addicting.

Returnal - I got this at the same time as DS thanks to a renewed GameFly subscription, so I haven't really put any time into this yet. I started the game just to get a feel for it, and it seems interesting so far. The gameplay feels good, and the world/map design is what I would imagine a darker or more realistic version of Metroid Prime would look like. Probably not going to put much time into this until I finish DS, but I'm looking forward to diving into it.

Breath of Fire III - I rented this game a couple of times as a kid and always remembered it fondly, but I've never gone back and given it a proper playthrough. I was itching to play through a PS1 RPG and this one was really calling out to me. I've got several hours into and am really enjoying it. I always remember as a kid that I really enjoyed the opening sections but would always lose interest later on for some reason, but now I'm having the opposite reaction. I felt like the beginning parts were kind of dull and have been more engaged with the later parts. There's some hidden depth to the game that I probably wasn't aware of before, like being able to learn enemy abilities and set party formations. I'm really glad to finally get around to this game after all this time.

[Link41]

Game & Watch Gallery 2 (GBC) - Set a high score for Vermin and also ended up playing Donkey Kong as well.

[Link41]

Mario Kart 64 (N64) - Been playing this today with the kids, but may drift over to Wheel of Fortune soon enough.

[Mr_Stubbes]

I’ve been on a real Resident Evil kick lately. I played through Resident Evil: Village a couple weeks ago and just had such a great time that I started picking up the other newer games/remakes. I beat Resident Evil 2 playing through Leon’s 1st run and then playing Claire’s 2nd run to get the true ending of the game. Now I’m playing Resident Evil 3 and am having such a great time. I feel kinda bad that I never really dove into this series, except for playing parts of Resident Evil 4 many years ago. I have some other games from the series that I want to start playing and I’m definitely going to pick up some more games.

[shaggy]

Beat Paper Mario!

[Link41]

Shantae (GBC) - Had to run some errands today, so I took this new arrival from Limited Run Games out with me.

[Link41]

Guitar Hero (PS2) - Introduced my kids to this today and had a blast playing GH for the first time in years.

[shaggy]

Playing some Zombie Land Double Tap on the PS4.  It's fun mindless fun.  Just shooting some zombies.

[bombatomba]

Playing Arc the Lad, which I picked up in the most recent PS3/Vita/PSP store closing scare, redact, and subsequent delisting of games anyway.

Despite only with about five hours on the clock (four hours of gameplay with about an hour of grinding) I think I am close to the end of the game.  Overall this game is highly anachronistic.  You are more of less railroaded through the story; all non-battle movement is through a map where you pick destinations and sudden appear there; in the extremely limited area where you can move (that is outside of a battle) there is zero interaction with the environment; and outside of battles there is no way to check any character stats or items.  Despite all of that I am enjoying myself, perhaps because I know it is a short experience, or perhaps because it is primitive.

I really don't think that grinding is super necessary in this game unless you plan on doing a character transfer to Arc 2.  As it stands during some of the major battles only the main character and maybe one other would survive, which wouldn't deter most gamers who just want to see the story (all lost energy, bad stats, and deaths are reversed after each battle).  But since I doubt the save data thing works when playing digitally on my Vita I am only grinding for the sake of it.