Author Topic: Deadline December 2021!  (Read 7398 times)

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Offline Khushrenada

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Deadline December 2021!
« on: December 05, 2021, 08:46:45 PM »
Much better than Indie-cember! It's Deadline December!  ;)

With the end of the year almost here, what games are you hoping or trying to complete and wrap-up before the end of this year? Combining the fun of having to get an assignment in on time along with the stress of the holidays, it's the best Community Gaming Event yet!

Sort of like Backlaugust, just list off what is you would like to wrap up on this side of 2021 and post in here how it's going through the month of December. Simple!
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2021, 09:26:52 PM »
For myself, I'd like to finish the following games:

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Stated playing this in November after wrapping up Metroid Dread. After playing quite a bit of it on the Wii U, I hadn't really bothered to do much with this game on Switch. In fact, I hardly did much with 200cc mode when that came out. However, coming back to this game now, I've come to appreciate just how good this package. A lot of really great courses. And I've ended up getting 3 Stars for all the Cups on all Modes including 200cc. I'm just trying to unlock the last gold kart pieces now. As such, I'm now going the 150cc Time Trials. Much nicer as well is that only 5,000 coins are required to unlock one of the parts unlike MK7 and its 10,000 coin requirement for one of the parts. I'm over 4300 currently just from racing and getting all those 3 Star Cups and Time Trials will surely get me much closer to that as well. Should have this wrapped up pretty soon.

Shantae GBC - Have this on the 3DS VC. Have also been playing it here and there. Am currently on the hunt for the 4th Labyrinth. Would like to get back to it this month and wrap it up.

Part Time UFO - Another game I've been playing off and on with MK8. I've beaten the game but there's still a bunch of other tasks to accomplish in it. I'd like to get those extra things done to put a bow on it and wrap it up.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Remember me talking about this back at the end of Backlaugust and into September? Guess what? I still haven't wrapped it up!  :-[ When I last left this game, I had gotten to the final stage of the last boss and proceeded to completely choke and play it poorly. I know I should be able to get it done but it's just the time it takes of having to get through all of that Phaaze planet and the Dark Samus / Aurora Unit fights that has kept me from loading this game up again for the past few months. However, I definitely want to finish 2021 with this finally done.

Hello Kitty Roller Rescue - Another leftover from Backlaugust. Beat the game but there were a few collectables/unlockables that I've meant to get so as to mark this game complete and wrapped up. Want to get that done also.

Luigi's Mansion GC - The first time I played Luigi's Mansion, I was about 5,000,000 short of getting the A rank mansion. Which isn't that much based on the game's currency. I was very close. I started doing the Hidden Mansion 2nd Quest but my interest petered out at some point and I never got around to finishing it. Then I did the Luigi's Mansion Mafia game and thought about getting back to it in order to give me some more inspiration for that game but the game started before that happened. I know it's a shorter game so I'd like to finally go back and replay it again after 4 years or so since first playing it and also get that final goal accomplished.

Pikmin GC - I've played this a game a lot because, for awhile, it was one of only five GC games I owned in the early GC days. But then, I got an income and suddenly it was easy to start getting all the games I wanted. Now, I've still got GameCube games to this day I have yet to play! What a time to be alive! About 10 years ago, I had some data on one of my GameCube memory cards get corrupted and I lost my Pikmin save data. I figured it be easy enough to pop this in at some point and beat it again. So easy that I've yet to do so. With my next Mafia game being Pikmin themed, I'd like to replay this now also and refresh my memory of the Pikmin franchise. Again, it's short enough that I think there's a good chance of squeezing it in when holiday time comes around at the end of the month.

Xenoblade Chronicles X - And now we come to the big one. The game that dominated my first half of 2021. This was pretty much all I was playing through the first 4 months of the year although there were also periods where I wasn't playing it because of having to move and other life tasks. I had gotten to the point of getting flight for my Skell and then my interest in the game crashed because there wasn't that many new and exciting things to see after getting flight and all it seemed to do was show me a bunch of high level creatures meaning I had more grinding ahead of me. I was not in the mood for more grinding after all the time I had spent up to that point. Yet, now enough time has passed that I'm ready to get back in that cycle. While I don't expect to fully complete XCX in December, I do think I can get through the rest of the story and at least beat the game for this month. We'll see how much more I stick at it afterwards. Having been such a large part of my 2021, I do think I should at least beat it before this year is up.

8 games. That's my December Deadline Mission.

Although maybe I can get to 10. I'd also like to finish Mario's Super Picross on the Switch SNES app and I suppose I should just look up a FAQ to figure out where the few bonuses are in some DKC levels that I've forgotten about and just cannot find to also wrap that game up.
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Offline TOPHATANT123

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2021, 07:54:28 AM »
If I can finish 3 more games I'll hit 52 completed games for the year. Mostly on account of not really playing many JRPGs this year and playing a lot more story games.

In December I'd like to finish with...

Horizon Zero Dawn - Been playing this on and off all year, about 70 hours in. I like the combat and the story is getting pretty cool, but I think the game has room for improvement with things like side quests and progression.

Robotics;Notes Elite - So far I'm enjoying this visual novel, having finished the first chapter. The writing is funny and cute, but like Stein's;Gate there is something mysterious lurking beneath the surface. They've already played with some clever twists on tropes and I'm interested to see where it goes next. It's also got some neat features I really appreciate like an in-game calendar and map, to help immerse you in the world.

Shin Megami Tensei 5 - Loving every moment with this. A master class in game design. For me it's always "one more boss battle" or "one more demon fusion". The game is so addictive and even on hard the level of challenge has been perfect.

Offline M.K.Ultra

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2021, 10:44:10 AM »
I have been in the middle of two big games for a while now and hope to have both finished by the end of the month/year.
Fallout 4 - I am about halfway through the main campaign but usually do a few side quests between each main mission. I think I have spent about 50 hours on it, maybe 50 to go. I am hoping to get this completed before I get a PS5 (which is taking forever).

Astral Chain - I played this when it first came out on casual. It was fun but I did not bother with getting collectibles, side quests, or S+ ranks. Well I am back replaying on the standard difficulty and doing all those things. Also about halfway done. It really is a great game with a lot of content. I want to finish this before starting SMT5.


Offline BeautifulShy

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #4 on: December 08, 2021, 02:14:09 PM »
Khushrenada with Metroid Prime 3 is it that you are trying to finish it on Hyper Mode like I was or is it the normal difficulty?

TopHatAnt123 with Horizon Zero Dawn what is your fave aspect of the game?

MKBungle Astrial Chain is so fun and I really need to finish it.
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Offline BeautifulShy

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #5 on: December 08, 2021, 02:40:29 PM »
As for myself I have so many games I need to complete. Sonic Mania and Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition are still in the shrink wrap.

I am also playing through Breath of the Wild.  It is just so expansive and I like to explore the world and I just get so in tuned with the world.   

I also have Smash Ultimate. I still need to complete World of Light and I play that from time to time.

Finally I have Astrial Chain I need to finish.  I think I am half way through it. I played it so much when i got it but got distracted by other things and haven't gone back to it.
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #6 on: December 08, 2021, 04:32:41 PM »
Khushrenada with Metroid Prime 3 is it that you are trying to finish it on Hyper Mode like I was or is it the normal difficulty?

Hypermode. I've done Normal a few times and did Veteran as well. Just need to finish Hypermode to get a couple of those Gold Medals to unlock a couple songs and I'll have finally completed everything in that game.
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Offline M.K.Ultra

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #7 on: December 08, 2021, 06:27:05 PM »
MKBungle Astrial Chain is so fun and I really need to finish it.
Totally agree. My first playthrough I was mostly digging the story and detective work, but the collectible hunting and combat is my bread and butter now. Now that I am trying to get S+ in each battle I forced myself to really learn how to "chain"  8) the sync attacks.

Offline BeautifulShy

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #8 on: December 08, 2021, 10:21:52 PM »
Khushrenada with Metroid Prime 3 is it that you are trying to finish it on Hyper Mode like I was or is it the normal difficulty?

Hypermode. I've done Normal a few times and did Veteran as well. Just need to finish Hypermode to get a couple of those Gold Medals to unlock a couple songs and I'll have finally completed everything in that game.
Hyper Mode took me forever as you might recall.  I did manage to beat it in the past 2 years.

MKBungle Astrial Chain is so fun and I really need to finish it.
Totally agree. My first playthrough I was mostly digging the story and detective work, but the collectible hunting and combat is my bread and butter now. Now that I am trying to get S+ in each battle I forced myself to really learn how to "chain"  8) the sync attacks.

I just love how the game flows to each new synch attack and how each new chain you get makes the combat more fun.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #9 on: December 08, 2021, 11:02:21 PM »
It seems like every time there's a thread like this I post goals and then never actually finish them, so I'll aim pretty low and just say I want to finish Metroid Dread. I'm getting close to the end I think, but recently I've been kind of screwing around going back for collectibles.

EDIT: I'll  be extra ambitious and add one more: I want to finish the bonus missions in Pikmin 3 Deluxe. I've been going back and playing them recently and just finished the first set of them, so I'd like to get the rest of them done.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2021, 03:27:04 AM by NWR_insanolord »
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #10 on: December 09, 2021, 10:37:09 AM »
It seems like every time there's a thread like this I post goals and then never actually finish them, so I'll aim pretty low and just say I want to finish Metroid Dread. I'm getting close to the end I think, but recently I've been kind of screwing around going back for collectibles.

EDIT: I'll  be extra ambitious and add one more: I want to finish the bonus missions in Pikmin 3 Deluxe. I've been going back and playing them recently and just finished the first set of them, so I'd like to get the rest of them done.

Yeah! You can do it! Have you gotten the power bombs in Dread? Because that's pretty much the last upgrade and means you are close to the final boss.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #11 on: December 09, 2021, 11:08:28 AM »
It seems like every time there's a thread like this I post goals and then never actually finish them, so I'll aim pretty low and just say I want to finish Metroid Dread. I'm getting close to the end I think, but recently I've been kind of screwing around going back for collectibles.

EDIT: I'll  be extra ambitious and add one more: I want to finish the bonus missions in Pikmin 3 Deluxe. I've been going back and playing them recently and just finished the first set of them, so I'd like to get the rest of them done.

Yeah! You can do it! Have you gotten the power bombs in Dread? Because that's pretty much the last upgrade and means you are close to the final boss.

No, I haven’t gotten those yet, which I know makes going back for upgrades at this point a bit premature. The last major update I got is the screw attack.
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #12 on: December 09, 2021, 02:39:58 PM »
Well, not to give too much spoilers but you're pretty close to getting them. Your call if you want to read the following but I also keep things pretty generic for what's ahead.

Screw Attack opens a path to an area and if you follow the direction the game leads you then it won't take long to get to the power bombs. Once I got them is when I went and started really exploring and collecting everything. Plus, by doing that, then the warp machines are no longer color coded and you can warp from one to any other you'd like allowing for a bit easier travelling and backtracking.
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Offline TOPHATANT123

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #13 on: December 09, 2021, 04:43:38 PM »
TopHatAnt123 with Horizon Zero Dawn what is your fave aspect of the game?
I've only ever heard this term used on the NWR's Talk Nintendo Podcast, but I really like the player package. Movement during fights involves running around dodging, slowing down time, sliding around on the ground. You've got a bunch of weapon types, elemental weaknesses, statuses you can inflict. It's important that you aim for weak points and use a variety of weapons, rather than shooting arrows blindly.

Astrial Chain is so fun and I really need to finish it.
I love Astral Chain. I can understand why some people think the combat has been simplified compared to something like Bayonetta which has fighting game inputs, but I love how the game controls.

Every button on the controller does something, learn what the button does and you've learnt the combat. There are some inputs, but they're easy and are introduced slowly throughout the game. Giving you time to learn and get used to what you have. It must be mesmerising to watch players who are good at this game.

Alright let's throw a question back at ya.
What's your favourite legion so far?

Offline BeautifulShy

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #14 on: December 09, 2021, 10:30:29 PM »
Quote
Alright let's throw a question back at ya.
What's your favourite legion so far?

I have to say I love the Arrow Legion the best so far.  I like how it plays in conjunction how I play and it can have different timing and I can synch the attacks with your own and it is a nice mix of far away attacks and up close.
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Offline Order.RSS

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #15 on: December 10, 2021, 06:07:55 AM »
It seems like every time there's a thread like this I post goals and then never actually finish them, so I'll aim pretty low and just say I want to finish Metroid Dread. I'm getting close to the end I think, but recently I've been kind of screwing around going back for collectibles.

Don't think this constitutes a spoiler at all since I won't mention any areas, bosses, upgrades, items etc. but I'll spoilertag it just in case, because a lot of folks went dark on this game for a while. So the structure of the game ensures you clearly know when you're about to hit the last area. This gives you a chance to do one last run through the map and mop up any leftover collectibles if you want. It's not necessary - I beat the game with ~50% of the items for e.g.

Offline M.K.Ultra

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #16 on: December 10, 2021, 11:33:14 AM »
TopHatAnt123 with Horizon Zero Dawn what is your fave aspect of the game?

I know this has been done in other games but I feel Horizon perfected it, and that is taking over enemies and making them allies. You can reprogram the enemy robots by hacking them and then they will fight with the other enemy robots and you can just stand back and watch. It's quite entertaining.


Astrial Chain is so fun and I really need to finish it.

What's your favourite legion so far?

The beast legion is my favorite. The others are all anthropomorphic so this one being a quadruped and basically a robotic animal companion makes it standout. I had the same afinity for the robot pooches in Recore. Also, using the left shoulder you can ride the beast and go super fast and the super moves you get when maxing out the combos are really cool for Beast.

Offline ThePerm

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #17 on: December 10, 2021, 06:35:37 PM »
I've been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 for the last few weeks. I still got the Uncharted: Lost Legacy, Shenmue 2 and 3, Cyberpunk, Resident Evil 7, and Fallout 4 to beat on Ps4. On Gamecube I never beat Beyond Good and Evil.
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Offline M.K.Ultra

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #18 on: December 11, 2021, 12:05:31 PM »
I did not mention it above but I am playing Fallout 4 on PS4.
and Fallout 4 to beat on Ps4.
How far into the game are you Perm?

Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #19 on: December 14, 2021, 11:16:23 AM »
Let's consult the big board....

Quote
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Part Time UFO
Mario's Super Picross (Switch)
Donkey Kong Country (Switch)
Shantae (3DS VC)
Hello Kitty Roller Rescue (GC)
Luigi's Mansion (GC)
Pikmin (GC)
Metroid Prime 3
Xenoblade Chronicles X



And we've got one down. Finished the 150cc time trials and unlocked the last kart part. I really thought I could blast through this game quickly and at times it felt like I was getting through it faster than MK7 even with the extra cups and modes. (Nothing like beating a staff ghost on your first try.  8) ) Yet, my playtime is over 40 according to the Switch. Not sure what it was when I started playing the game more seriously as I had some previous time in it but it likely took 30 hours to complete it like this. (And there's still 200cc Time Trials if I wanted to go the extra mile.)

Haven't been able to do much in the way of gaming over the past week as work has kept me busy with some overtime and then just trying to get more sleep and keep on life tasks. However, that last work hurdle of the year is done and things will start slowing down now so should be able to get back to this project. I've advanced things a bit in Part Time UFO. Now have all the medals which means all hard jobs are unlocked but still a lot of tasks to do in that. Getting closer to the end of Super Picross. At level 10 in Wario puzzles and Level 9 in Mario puzzles. Been doing some exploring and a lot of dying in Shantae although I feel I've been making some progress. Was hoping I'd have a couple more titles off my list by the 15th but it just hasn't worked out that way. Hopefully hosting Safe Words won't prove to be one game too many for this month.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #20 on: December 16, 2021, 05:44:20 PM »
I'll just put in for Sonic Adventure. I should be able to squeeze in what's left of that.

Offline M.K.Ultra

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #21 on: December 17, 2021, 03:57:01 PM »
I just remembered this post from Order.RSS:
A cursory Google search says they're planning to make a holiday themed game which got pushed from last December to early this year. If that indeed ever releases I'll buy it and report back next holiday lol.
I can't think of a better Deadline December game for Order.RSS than Seasonal Assistant available now on Wii U.

Offline Luigi Dude

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #22 on: December 19, 2021, 01:18:51 PM »
Earlier this week I finished Xenoblade 2 which was the oldest game in my Switch backlog.  I bought it back in March of 2018, but have kept putting it off since the previous Xenoblade game were so long.  Well I finally decided it was time last month and managed to beat it in around 77 hours, which is much quicker then the previous Xenoblades took me.  This time around I decided not to focus on doing every sidequest I could which made things go much quicker.  It also made the main game more enjoyable since I wasn't overleveled as **** and had to actually use real strategy to beat some of the bosses this time.

Of course it's rather annoying that the game didn't do a better job of explaining it's combat system.  The last boss of Chapter 5 kept killing me over and over until I realized my characters were taking damage from touching it and I was like WTF.  Then I go online and read that's called Spike damage and you need to equip to minimize that damage, but the game never once even told me this was a thing before this boss fight.  I guess if I would have done every side quest possible one of them might have told me about it, but come on, that was a rather dick move to do halfway through the game.

The elemental combo system also could have been explained better since the tutorial does a shitty job of explaining it as well.  I found an explanation online that explained it much better then the game did, and it really improved my enjoyment after I realized how it worked properly.

Plus some of the level design is rather questionable.  Some places make it way too easy to aggro a much stronger enemy if you attack some of the normal ones and it gets really annoying after a while.  I found it easier to just run to the boss of area then trying to engage the enemies on the way to the boss since quite a few area's love to cheap shot your ass with either higher leveled assholes suddenly showing up or a dozen regular ones come out of nowhere and attack your characters at once resulting in instant death as well.  I don't remember the first Xenoblade or X being anywhere as bad in this regard, of course that might just be because I was doing way more sidequest and might have just been overleveled in those games and didn't notice it.  :P

Oh well, other then those issues the rest of the game was a blast.  I'll eventually go back to play the Torna prequel DLC and maybe try more of the sidequest, but I'll stop for now to avoid getting burned out.
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Offline Order.RSS

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #23 on: December 19, 2021, 04:09:25 PM »
I can't think of a better Deadline December game for Order.RSS than Seasonal Assistant available now on Wii U.

Lol thanks for the reminder!
So, to keep true to my word, I downloaded this a few months ago and played it for maybe 45 minutes. Like other Ultra Dolphin Revolution games, it's a riff on an NES classic, in this case the first Legend of Zelda.

You have these single-screen environments with angry snowmen out to get you, and you gotta repel them by firing candy canes. Basically the same as the beam Link's sword can fire in Zelda 1. This gives the game a twin-stick shooter feeling, but if I'm not mistaken you can't move and aim in separate directions. (A one-stick shooter I guess?).

Environments are ice, igloes, you kinda skate around, and there's a very annoying MIDI cover of Jingle Bells playing. I never got very far, but once you go through a few screens you find a teleport which warps you elsewhere. So I wonder if there's a legit ending to work towards.

There's a very easy glitch you can trigger if there's more than two snowmen on a field: position yourself in a corner and they'll gang up on you. They don't ever stop moving, not even when they collide with you, so this breaks your standstill and moves you along with wherever they're going.
Basically the result is a train of snowmen bouncing around the screen, with you as a passenger. Imagine one of those DVD player screen savers where you hope they'll hit the corner exactly right. This state can go on for quite a while and you won't die if you don't move your guy.

Not my fave game by this indie dev, and something of a bummer after Spellcaster Assistant which was probably their best game I think. But it's amusing to trigger the snowmen train and annoy roommates with the Jingle Bell song.

Offline broodwars

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Re: Deadline December 2021!
« Reply #24 on: December 19, 2021, 04:28:40 PM »
Earlier this week I finished Xenoblade 2 which was the oldest game in my Switch backlog.  I bought it back in March of 2018, but have kept putting it off since the previous Xenoblade game were so long.  Well I finally decided it was time last month and managed to beat it in around 77 hours, which is much quicker then the previous Xenoblades took me.  This time around I decided not to focus on doing every sidequest I could which made things go much quicker.  It also made the main game more enjoyable since I wasn't overleveled as **** and had to actually use real strategy to beat some of the bosses this time.

Of course it's rather annoying that the game didn't do a better job of explaining it's combat system.  The last boss of Chapter 5 kept killing me over and over until I realized my characters were taking damage from touching it and I was like WTF.  Then I go online and read that's called Spike damage and you need to equip to minimize that damage, but the game never once even told me this was a thing before this boss fight.  I guess if I would have done every side quest possible one of them might have told me about it, but come on, that was a rather dick move to do halfway through the game.

The elemental combo system also could have been explained better since the tutorial does a shitty job of explaining it as well.  I found an explanation online that explained it much better then the game did, and it really improved my enjoyment after I realized how it worked properly.

Plus some of the level design is rather questionable.  Some places make it way too easy to aggro a much stronger enemy if you attack some of the normal ones and it gets really annoying after a while.  I found it easier to just run to the boss of area then trying to engage the enemies on the way to the boss since quite a few area's love to cheap shot your ass with either higher leveled assholes suddenly showing up or a dozen regular ones come out of nowhere and attack your characters at once resulting in instant death as well.  I don't remember the first Xenoblade or X being anywhere as bad in this regard, of course that might just be because I was doing way more sidequest and might have just been overleveled in those games and didn't notice it.  :P

Oh well, other then those issues the rest of the game was a blast.  I'll eventually go back to play the Torna prequel DLC and maybe try more of the sidequest, but I'll stop for now to avoid getting burned out.

I just recently attempted once again to get through this game, and I stopped playing at Chapter 4 because I Just reached a point where I kind of don't care anymore. I think the game's biggest problem is the Gacha nature of the Blade system. You pull so many Blades, and if you don't draw a rare Blade or at least one with rare passive abilities, you might as well trash it and try again. Then you have to level them all up through incredibly arbitrary ways. And you might not even pull a Blade that's suitable for the character that pulled it, so you have to use a limited resource to reassign them. And you're constantly needing to equip and unequip them whenever you run into skill checks in the world. It's just too much, and at this point I just don't care. It's not like the story is going anywhere fast, either.

I'll get back to it at some point, but so far Xenoblade 2 is proving to be somewhat of a disappointment.

As for my games, I started & completed Psychonauts 2 earlier this month, along with Chicory: A Colorful Tale. I also dug into my backlog and finally completed Concrete Genie. I'm currently playing the Annihilation Line DLC for the fantastic (and incredibly underappreciated) Terminator: Resistance. Before the end of the month, I'd like to start and finish Lost in Random as well, but I don't know if I'll get to that.
There was a Signature here. It's gone now.