

I’m in the last third of Kena. Nothing really changed, it’s still a simple, beautiful game. Some of the optional trials are brutal, but I think I’ve completed them all. Now I have the main hub to clean up and then the game should be nearing its end!
Played more of Mario Kart World. The Knockout Races are a neat idea, but since you mostly race on the roads between the actual tracks, you’re spending most of your time driving a straight line. It’s not as interesting as it could be.
And with all of that 3-starred in 50CC to get a feel for the game, I finally started the Free Roam portion of the game. It’s a lot of fun, but it desperately needs a map! You have an overview that shows you where the tracks are, but its missing every detail you could want. And on top of that, it only properly tracks one of the three tasks you are chasing in this mode. I can already see myself going through a list of rewards to reverse-engineer the last few coins/switches I missed somewhere!
I finished Kena, the total playtime was just under 17 hours. I would have liked one more area that’s visually distinct from the rest of the game. As nice as it looks, it’s lacking in variety. I completed most collectables. The game did unlock another set of trials in the five-second span between beating the final boss and rolling the credits but I wasn’t willing to go back at this point. I hadn’t mentioned this yet, but the music is really good, too.
And now would have been the time to start Xenoblade X, but I’ve decided to wait until after Bananza. So I’ve started playing Mahjong 3, uh, I mean, Yakuza 3 instead. Despite the remastering, I knew it was going to be the most difficult game in the series to get into, considering the step backwards it is from the Kiwami remakes of the first two. I have heard that enemies in this game block a lot and for the bosses I’ve fought so far that is absolutely true. Boss fights boil down to throws, which is not the most fun way to play. There doesn’t seem to be too much incentive to complete anything either, unlike the previous games. I love Okinawa as a location though, it’s very different from anything I’ve seen in the series so far (and probably will until the day Majima becomes a pirate).