I’m recording my playthrough if Wild Arms 2, so it would have to have absolutely no redeeming qualities for me to drop it. And I want to play the whole Wild Arms franchise eventually and I’ve never played past the second game in the past, so I want to get the full picture.
Alright, here we go, let’s start the year off with the big one. I’ve beaten Metroid Prime 4 with 100% items and 99% Scans (because one boss has a scannable projectile, which is just great) and I have to say that it is my least favorite Metroid game (barring the NES and GB titles on account of their age). I’ll say this first: The visuals and atmosphere are brilliant. The boss fights are very good. Now onto everything else:
When I started playing I asked when the game opens up and unfortunately, the correct answer is never. I’ve never seen areas in a Metroid game feel more like ‘levels’ than here. But oh, if it was only that! Nothing crushed my soul more than finding an area map and finding a linear string of rooms that you would expect to find in Final Fantasy 13. If there’s ever an offshoot, it’s usually one room. TWO if you’re lucky! And when you’re done, you’re done. If you’re ever forced to come back for a new ability, it’s in a room near the beginning. You never unlock a whole new sub-area.
I didn’t even bother backtracking for items until I had all of my abilities because I’d just have to go through the linearity again. There’s no “Oh, I’ll take a little detour on my way to Area X to pick up items along the way!” because none of the areas are connected in any way! Prime 3 was similar, but it still had good level design and essentially replaced the classic elevators with fast travel. What did Prime 4 replace it with? SLOW TRAVEL! Cue the rant about the motorcycle and the desert…
What on earth were they thinking? I truly wonder if they created the desert first and added the motocycle to make it less painful, or if they added the desert as an excuse for the motorcycle. It’s so bland that if it didn’t exist at all, it wouldn’t feel like anything is missing. I don’t even know what else to say, there’s nothing interesting to talk about. I can’t even rant about the green crystals as a collectable resource, it’s plain stupid.
The whole ‘Psychic’ aspect of your abilities felt a bit forced to me. The Psycho Beam is fun and the ability to throw your Morph Bombs is neat, albeit not used very creatively, but they didn’t have to make EVERYTHING psychic. The Psychic Boots give you a double jump… and you can stand on purple Psycho platforms! …what? And the Psycho Power Bombs which are just Power Bombs that do nothing Psycho-related as far as I can tell.
The story is kinda weird, too. You start out in the prologue, Sylux is there and Metroid are fusing to things and suddenly it’s all about Green Energy, Green Energy, Green Energy. All the bosses still have Metroids fused to them but apparently, nobody cares at all! Nor does anyone acknowledge Sylux as a character until the very end of the game.
Now, for the other characters in the game: I kinda like them. They get annoying when they’re with you and comment on everything you do (the first guy in particular) but I have no problem with them existing in the game. What I hate is Samus’ general apathy towards them. No matter what happens, she just stares at them. I know developers are deathly afraid of making her talk at this point, but a word of affirmation every now and then would work wonders. I didn’t believe for a second that Samus cares at all about any of them false-sacrificing themselves in the Mines. Or for real at the end. If that even is the real ending, I feel like I got the bad ending for pushing the button, but I genuinely don’t care.
At the end of the day remains the question: So it’s a bad Metroid, but is it a bad game? I have no idea. Without the Metroid, it’s not a game I would be interested in playing in the first place, so I have no scope of reference.
I’ll be back in Xenoblade X for now. I’ve played it for the first time in 2 weeks and got my level 60 Skells made. Next stop, proper weapons!
i haven’t updated on this one regularly, but I’ve been playing more Wild Arms 2 on and off this whole time. It does some good things gameplay-wise, but I’m not really feeling the story anymore. The localisation doesn’t help, there are quite a few very awkwardly phrased lines.
Slow progress on Xenoblade X. But that’s fine, I still boot up the game to get my 300 material tickets per day to lessen the grind for the level 60 Skells. I didn’t think the jump from level 50 to 60 was going to be that great, but just looking at the raw defense of the default armor tells a different story. I’m level 59 right now, soon everything will die…
That being said, I’m past what was the ending of the Wii U version. I forgot exactly what it was, but I’m mad all over again that they thought it was a good idea to end the game there. You finally get some answers, but then they change the questions! Curious to see where this goes now.
Still playing Metroid Prime 4. I’ll withhold any comments until I’m done, just to be sure I’ve seen the whole picture. As it stands, it’s en route to become my least favorite Metroid game, barring the NES and GameBoy games on account of their age, and I don’t want to say that too lightly. Let’s see where else this goes first.
Title Update 4 for Monster Hunter Wilds is here and the Switch Axe got some unexpected buffs. Being able to dodge-cancel the charge of the Full Release Slash is huge! They added Gogmazios as the game’s first Elder Dragon. (Editor’s Note: Its definitely not the game’s first Elder Dragon) It starts out as a normal fight, has an interesting interlude and then goes to shit in its third phase. Packing away your weapon and repeatedly shooting it with what is basically a slingshot is just not fun, especially when the ground keeps exploding while you have to look up!
But I’m super motivated to play again regardless, because they added a way to boost lower rank armor to endgame levels. My set has been stagnant for more than half a year and now I can finally work on that again!
‘New path’ makes me think it’s a reboot and that’s why it’s not called Mega Man 12.
You’d think one look at the state of America would be enough to render their propaganda completely meaningless. You’d really think. You would really have those thoughts running through your head. But here comes reality with a steel chair to give you a concussion.
They don’t get BP if they haven’t joined the party yet. Mia had ~100 when she joined compared to the several thousand points the early characters have by now. But I’ve prepared for that for a while. I tried to save the BP reward for Cauldros survey completion, but you need 65% for the Mia quest to pop up in the first place.
I’m closing in on what was originally the end of Xenoblade X on the Wii U. I still have a bunch of side missions to do, but now that I have all but one character unlocked, I will probably rush to the new part of the story that gets me that last one so he can start collecting BP for his skills. I haven’t picked up any treasures in a while to save the BP for the final characters so it doesn’t become a stupid grind at the end. I need to play more though, I need to finish this so I can play Metroid Prime 4. I prefer to only play one Switch game at a time, because I really don’t like removing and inserting tiny cartridges with my gigantic hands.
…but I’ve started Metroid Prime 4 anyway. I couldn’t resist! I love hoe much you can configure your controls. I’ve spent quite a bit trying to recreate the controls of the Wii versions. I tried playing twinstick for the first Prime’s remaster, but it never felt right to me. I’ve never played the games on the GameCube, the Wii Trilogy version is all I know, so I need pointer controls! I can’t play for very long though, after about an hour my hand almost falls asleep and it’s probably because the JoyCons are so much smaller than a WiiMote. That’s fine though, Metroid is never a long game anyway, so this keeps it going for longer!
I have to say though, the game starts very, VERY slow. I thought the game would open up after the prologue, but there was more prologue with Lieutenant Tim Talksalot (who doesn’t stay with you all the time, thank GOD!). I thought the game would open up after that second prologue, but that’s when the game really wants you to get your motorcycle. That was about 2 hours of very linear gameplay that’s probably going to stop now, but I’m not going to count my Metroid babies before they hatch.
I have reached Disc 2 of Wild Arms 2. It genuinely feels like season 2 of an Anime, I did not remember every villain introduced on Disc 1 to be defeated by the end of it, leaving us with something completely different to do now. And the game finally upped the damage numbers by the end of Disc 1, it was about time I had to try a little harder!
Still playing Xenoblade X. Finally reached level 50 to upgrade to stronger Skells, the old ones started to feel weak. And at this point I can definitely confirm that I appreciate the game more than I did on the Wii U. I passed the 100 hour mark, which is usually where I start getting tired of a game, but it hasn’t happened yet. On the Wii U, I had a much worse time because I front-loaded all the exploration as soon as I got the flight module. Patience is the way to go!
I’m adequately deep into Wild Arms 2 now and I have to say that this game is surprisingly easy. It already has a very low encounter rate for this era of RPGs and you can ‘cancel’ them if you’re a higher level than the enemy. I do that 95% of the time and I’m still strong enough to one-shot enemies with magic they resist. Even the bosses barely pose a challenge, especially when they have an elemental weakness. I wonder if that’s ever going to change?
I also picked up Pokemon Lazarus after some idiots gave it unintended publicity and it’s pretty good. I like how it’s a Gen3 romhack using Gen2 visuals, that’s very different from anything I’ve seen before! But I’m also learning that I can’t play normal Pokemon games the intended way anymore. If I don’t nuzlocke them, I have to pre-select a team of six and get them as soon as possible, and with the built-in cheat codes I was at least able to do that. I tried to play the vanilla way until the second gym, but I just can’t do patchwork teams anymore. And as an Infinite Fusion player, not having access to over 200.000 Pokemon just doesn’t feel right anymore. I’ve been spoiled, I can’t help it!
Still working through Xenoblade X. Finally got the ability to fly! I remember when this happened on the Wii U, I was so excited I took the test robot you’re just supposed to fly out to a rock and back around the entire world instead. It’s one of the reasons why I love this game, how many big open world games allow you to fly freely like that? Though I definitely overdid it and made myself run out of world to explore back then, so I’m taking it slow this time. Just patched up the holes in my satellite system for now.
Wild Arms 2 is also progressing smoothly. It’s weird how many small things I remember, but important events feel completely new to me!
Monster Hunter Wilds introduced Arch Tempered Nu Udra recently and once again, it hits pretty damn hard! The Switch Axe’s most powerful attack gives you Super Armor and that’s actually causing problems here! One of his attacks will just flat-out kill me because it doesn’t knock me back and thus hits me multiple times! And if he winds up that attack after I’ve already started charging mine, I’m just stuck anticipating a death I know I can no longer avoid. Which means I need to exercise restraint, a word that doesn’t exist in the brain of a Switch Axe user!
This not-quite Lumiose City is home to newly discovered Mega-Evolved Pokémon and other Pokémon not usually found in Lumiose, some of which can exceed the normal limit of Lv. 100 with hyperspace levels.
The way they phrase it sounds like Planned Obsolescence to me. “Catch a new team of DLC Pokemon because your beloved old ones won’t be able to participate in the new feature!”
Mostly Xenoblade X this week. I forgot most alien races that come to your city, but I remembered every single one of them and what they were all about the second I saw them. I definitely forgot that pretty much all of them join at almost the same time. That was a veritable explosion of side quests!
Wild Arms 2 is progressing steadily, too. Contrary to Xenoblade X, I absolutely do not remember most of what is happening in this game. I remembered the duo of comic relief villains and their theme song, but some very important story beats feel like I’m seeing them for the first time.
Instead of lootboxes, you cut open journalists to get your prizes.
Xenoblade X is progressing steadily. I haven’t played a game this rigorously in a long time! I was right about one thing, I appreciate the game more than I did on the Wii U. It’s very funny how I remember bits and pieces of the world and get to piece them together again. But there are also some awkward things I forgot about. Like not being able to fight in water. That’s a modern Xenoblade convenience I miss, would it kill my party member not to swim out into the ocean and just stay on the shoreline to fight some fat floating fish? And I don’t understand why some missions make you run through a cave with enemies that are way higher level than the recommended level for the mission. It’s easy enough to outrun anything that aggros on you, but wouldn’t it be more fun if I got to… play the game?
I finished The Witness! I did the extra challenge underground and completed all six pillars. I finished with 517/523 puzzles, but that’s a part I don’t care about. Probably just some triangle puzzles in a bush somewhere.
I am also no longer playing Yakuza 3, because they announced a Kiwami remake for it. When the credible rumors about a remake started, I didn’t really know what that’ll mean for me, but since it’ll already release in January, I might as well swap. I’m really glad this is happening, because the original really had some flaws that bothered me. From permanently failable side stories to side stories that seemingly don’t work right to a hostess management game that makes very little sense to other minigames suffering from extremely finicky controls, it just wasn’t great. I didn’t expect much, I knew it was one of the, if not THE least liked game in the series, but I still felt disappointed. Which is why I didn’t expect the Kiwami treatment. Usually only popular, ‘good’ games get remade, even though ‘bad’ games have way more room to grow.
I’ve been wondering for a while where the point of diminishing returns is. Surely, at some point, ads become aggressive enough to have an adverse effect on advertisers?
Looks like I should dig this game out again, Free Roam is finally tracking your progress!
I spent most of my time with Xenoblade X and there’s a lot I want to say. I quickly realized why my memory of this game is so spotty, especially the actual gameplay. The Wii U era was a weird time where a lot of games had smaller text that was very hard to read on my old 4:3 TV. As a result, I didn’t really understand a lot of mechanics. I remember not knowing what TP are until almost the end of the game! I basically played combat like it was Xenoblade 1 and ignored all new mechanics because it was too hard to read the explanations! As such, I don’t even know what’s new in the Definitive Edition. Did the original have the fast Arts thing you use with Y? If it did, I probably never used it, lol.
I think there’s been some rebalancing that I like. I might remember this wrong, but I think the big camel-like enemies in the very beginning would absolutely destroy you despite being the proper level because you weren’t supposed to fight them without robots. The way you weren’t able to tell easily if an enemy’s level is scaled to ground combat or not really bothered me but it seems to make more sense now. And the new level cap is exciting, being restricted to level 60 was very awkward.
But the biggest thing I love is that the exploration is directly tied into the story. It’s almost the entire point and probably why the series didn’t sit well with me after this game. Exploring the world was my favorite part of the first game and X is the exciting next step. I didn’t feel that anymore in later games, especially 3, which lost the weird, alien landscapes that I loved so much. I remember being really excited when I first came to Sword Marsh only to quickly realize that little area before the sword is the only part of this area that looks like that.
There’s also a lot of little things that I don’t understand why they were removed from future games. Like being able to auto-attack while moving! Having to stand absolutely still is such a bummer (and Xenoblade 2 was the first game where I experienced Joy-Con drift, so that was fun!). Or the enemy icons that tell you how, if at all, they aggro on you. That’s valuable information! You can just walk past a lot of high-level enemies because they won’t bother you, but you need to know that they won’t! And of course the big one: the characters actually wearing the armor you put on them, especially with a Fashion Gear option! I’ll excuse Xenoblade 3 because I’m a big fan of the job system from Final Fantasy 5 and beyond and the costumes are just a part of that.
I’m also almost done with The Witness. I’ve beaten the game, but there’s a lot of stuff underground that you can’t access that easily. I’ve found four ways out, but no way in, so I looked it up. From the final tally of puzzles, 15% of the game is hidden down there, so that should be interesting.
You missed the song?! Well, the moment has passed, but you can get a fraction of what people experienced from here:
Star Force lives! I’ve only played the first and half of the second but always wanted more, just not on the DS.
I finished Bananza for good. The only things not 100% completed are the music disks, because that’s just grinding, and the stats page because I’m not insane. And then they released the DLC an hour later! But like I said in the other thread, I’m not going to get it. The roguelike gameplay is just not something I’m interested in. But finally, huge shoutout to the Credits Theme! I cried when that part happened!
So today is finally the day I’ll pull the trigger on Xenoblade X. I remember my final verdict on the game on the Wii U was something along the lines of “The first 50 hours were some of the best I’ve ever experienced in a video game, followed by 100 hours of chores”. However, since Xenoblades 2 and 3 went into a direction I was less fond of, I think I’ll be able to appreciate X more than before. I’ve been meaning to play it again for a few years, but I had faith in a Switch remaster and waited.
The Witness is longer than I expected. I’m probably almost done now but I’ve seen enough inaccessible passages to know there’s more than meets the eye underground.
And a little more of Yakuza 3. Just a bit.
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