Game Time - September 2019

Game: Borderlands 3
Developer: Gearbox
Platform: PS4

I felt myself in the minority when I didn't want Borderlands 3 to just be more Borderlands 2. Sadly, the game we got out of Gearbox almost 8 years later is essentially Borderlands 2 with a new coat of paint. The humor I found to be grating in 2 is somehow even worse in 3. I enjoyed my playthrough of it, but I don't know how much I will come back to it. The post game content isn't as plentiful as I would have liked, and I am not generally the type to come back months later when new content is added.

The main praise I can give Borderlands 3 is that the actual act of shooting is vastly improved from its predecessor. Guns feel like they have actual weight now and are actually fun to shoot. The addition of mantling over obstacles and sliding on the ground add some much needed mobility to the action as well.

Borderlands 3 is fun enough, but I still can't believe it didn't change up the formula more. People often say don't fix what isn't broken, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have been improved upon even more. The sluggish menus and small inventory make picking up new guns a chore, which shouldn't be the case in a game about looting guns. I'll check out the game again when the first piece of DLC releases. Hopefully it can do something to hook me back in.


Game: Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
Developer: Capcom
Platform: PS4

I have well documented my love for Monster Hunter on this page, so it's pretty clear that I was going to like Iceborne. Despite that I still wasn't ready to like this expansion as much as I do. Tons of monsters have been added with a few new ones and a ton of old favorites. My all time favorite sabre tooth tiger boy the Barioth has finally come back to me and I couldn't be happier.

I expected the new story content to be over withing 20-30 hours, but right now I'm 90 hours in and still going. Granted, I haven't been main lining the story and doing all the side missions, but I'm only 40 hours off from how much I played the base game. Nights have been completely melting away and I couldn't be happier about it.

The expansion introduces master rank, which is the equivalent of G rank from previous games. This means that all monsters from the base game have been updated with new moves as well. This gives new flavor to old content, which is awesome. The biggest change to the core gameplay is the clutch claw, which is essentially a grappling hook you can use to get up on monsters constantly. I could go on about how great this expansion is, but I'll cut it off here. Iceborne is great.


Game: Kind Words
Developer: Popcannibal
Platform: PC

The world has seemed a lot more awful in the past few years, so it's nice to see that there is a safe place for people to go and talk about their problems. Kind Words isn't necessarily a game, but it is sold on Steam. Upon launching the game a deer who also happens to be a mailman lets you know that they are new to the job and need your help writing letters.

Your entire job in Kind Words is to try and help other people with kind messages. You can start simple by writing a nice quote and sending it out into the world as a paper airplane for others to see. The meat of the experience comes from answering other people's requests. In case it isn't clear these are requests written by real people. Everyone has tough times, so people write up letters asking others for help and advice. You can look through recent requests and answer them. I try to stick with advice I know I am qualified to give, but I'm sure all responses are welcome.

I put up a few requests and have gotten an overwhelming amount of responses. I actually feel a lot better about the problems I was having. which is pretty cool. My problems aren't too serious, but many I have seen are. The game knows to take mental health issues seriously and often surfaces phone numbers people can call if they need immediate help. While it may not exactly be a game, I have found myself going back to a lot just to restore my faith in humanity.

Game Time - June 2019

Game: Outer Wilds
Developer: Mobius Digital
Platform: Xbox One

There's something about space exploration that draws me in, but I need some type of objective. The entire reason No Man's Sky didn't hit for me is because there was no real goal, and since everything was randomly generated the chances of happening upon a cool sight was very low. Outer Wilds is almost exactly what I had hoped No Man's Sky would be. Outer Wilds is a space adventure contained in a single hand crafted solar system. You play as the newest spacefarer from a species that recently started a space program.

At first there is no real goal other than to go to space, but it quickly becomes apparent that much more is going on. Your first space outing might be uneventful with nothing happening at all, or you could happen upon ancient writings speaking of a long lost race. Regardless of how it goes you'll either be killed by your own naivety on a new world, or twenty two minutes will pass and a comet will plunge into the sun ending all life. The good news is that your character can never truly die. In the beginning they communed with a statue that in essence saves your memories. Every time you die you start right back at the point before blasting off to space, but you remember everything that happened.

This time loop allows you to gather information and explore areas, but the twenty two minute clock is always ticking down. Objectives are never made explicitly clear, but you will gather rumors to investigate and things you learn about each one will be logged on the ship. Outer Wilds gave me a sense of mystery that most modern games just don't have anymore. Most games are developed with the idea that the player needs to see everything they can, so games end up being a guided tour filled with hand holding. Outer Wilds isn't afraid to leave things unexplained, which certainly won't be for everyone.


Game: Cadence of Hyrule
Developer: Brace Yourself Games
Platform: Switch

It's a well known fact that I like rhythm games, so it was a no brainer for me to pick up Cadence of Hyrule. Nintendo has been loosening their grip on their IP over the past few years and with the success of Mario and Rabbids hopefully the trend continues. This time the developers of Crypt of the Necrodancer got to take a shot at making a rhythm based Zelda game, and the result is quite entertaining.

I desperately wanted to like Crypt of the Necrodancer, but my lack of patience never let me get very far. Thankfully Cadence of Hyrule plays very similarly to Necrodancer, but is much more forgiving. Like classic Zelda games of yore the map is broken up into a grid and you travel across different screens. Each screen is filled with enemies, which you need to move to the beat to vanquish. When everything is clear you are free to move around as quickly as you want in that block. The cool thing is that enemies are repeated frequently, so you can easily learn their pattern. Unlike Necrodancer, Cadence of Hyrule isn't a rogue-lite. When you die you won't lose all of your progress, just a few items that are easily obtained again within seconds of re-spawning.

What makes Cadence so special is that it flawlessly blends the rhythmic gameplay of Necrodancer with the classic enemies, world, and music of the Zelda franchise. The level of quality seen here is that of a main line Zelda game, which is excellent to see.


Game: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Developer: ArtPlay
Platform: PS4

Most people consider Castlevania: Symphony of the Night to be one of the greatest video games of all time. When the mastermind behind the Castlevania games everyone holds so dear, Koji Igarashi left Konami he started a Kickstarter for a spiritual successor. In 2015 the campaign earned over 5 million dollars, and now over halfway through 2019 we finally received the finished product. For the past few years the quality of the game was a bit concerning. Trade show demos and backer previews suggested that the game was sluggish and looked awful graphically. Luckily the team at ArtPlay took the criticisms to heart and delayed the game a few times to make sure they got it right. What we ended up getting in the end is a high quality Symphony of the Night-like game.

Thankfully Bloodstained doesn't ape Symphony of the Night whole cloth and introduces some elements from the later games like Aria of Sorrow that Igarashi worked on. It's still the same old castle exploration with RPG elements you know and love, but now there is crafting and enemy power collection as well. It's chock full of content, and overall feels very good to play. There are over 100 spells to collect that are all upgradable, and there are over a dozen weapon types that all feel vastly different.

Despite all the praise I'm giving the game it is certainly not without issues. Patches have caused game breaking bugs and caused horrendous slowdown. It's odd because neither of those things existed in the base game. The team seems like they are working on fixes as well as a bunch of DLC, but it does take a bit of the wind out of the games sales for me. While it may not be the exact same Symphony of the Night experience everyone was longing for it definitely manages to capture a similar feeling and even expand on the formula in some ways. I'm looking forward to seeing the game improve with fixes and content over time and what the inevitable sequel will have to offer.

Game Time - May 2019

Game: Dauntless
Developer: Phoenix Labs
Platform: PC, PS4, and Xbox One

I would describe Dauntless as a more simple version of Monster Hunter. It is to Monster Hunter what Fornite is to Player Unknown's Battlegrounds. To further that metaphor Dauntless is free and shares a very similar art style to Fortnite. Dauntless launched a few weeks ago while I was away for Memorial Day Weekend. The queues were three or four hours long and people were digging it. After seeing that I decided to see what it was all about. My initial thoughts of it being a more simple version of Monster Hunter was spot on. While you hunt monsters in a large area there are much fewer weapons with less complex movesets. After killing a monster you get some of its pieces in order to craft more armor, but there are less kinds of monster parts.

It's a cool thing, because the fact that its free makes it available to a much wider audience. I also think that it will work as a springboard for people to eventually get into Monster Hunter. Since Dauntless is free it has a lot of free to play elements. There is a battlepass that levels up as you play, much like many first person shooters on the market. You can pay for better prizes and higher experience gain in the "Hunter's Pass" as well as buying consumable items and things of that nature. The few hours I played for I had a good time, but felt it was too simple as someone who plays Monster Hunter quite a bit. Some of my friends who played hit a wall, that made it so they would have to grind a ton to move on. This is something that happens in every game, but is often exacerbated in free to play games.

I don't know that I'll go back to Dauntless, but it is a really cool game. Everything you do leads to progress, so even if you're going back to fight weak monsters with friends you're still making progress. The absolute best part is that it has full crossplay. PC, PS4, and Xbox one users can all play together at the same time. In the future the game is coming to Switch and they'll be in the hopper as well. It's an awesome thing that gives me hope for crossplay in the future. The issue for me is that once I played real Monster Hunter everything trying to ape its style feels like a pale imitation to me.

Game: Cytus Alpha
Developer: Rayark
Platform: Switch

A few months ago I started playing a mobile rhythm game called Cytus 2. In addition to be a unique and interesting rhythm game it also had a very cool story. The original came to Switch with all the DLC and I just had to pick it up to see what led to the awesome game I had been playing. What I got was essentially the same gameplay (which is great), but with an interesting story portrayed in a boring way. While Cytus 2 has you leveling up characters, figuring out codes, and reading in world messages Cytus Alpha dumps text on you in paragraphs with no real context.

In the world of Cytus Alpha a disease has crippled humans and their plan to survive is to freeze everyone while robots rebuild the world. Things don't quite go as planned and some of the robots become sentient. It's interesting, but just reading large paragraphs of text between playing songs doesn't make it compelling. I never looked forward to completing 8 songs to read this story, whereas in Cytus 2 I constantly want to see the next story beat.

The good thing as that as a rhythm game it's great. For the Switch they added a button mode that is functional, but doesn't feel great. When playing handheld you can use the touch screen, which works surprisingly well on Switch. I prefer the touch control, because it's what the game was designed for and it feels cool to tap around the screen like a pianist. The way the game plays is a horizontal bar bounces up and down the screen. Circles will appear, and when the bar coincides with them you have to tap their center. It starts off simple, but with the addition of hold and slide notes things get hectic pretty fast. Cytus Alpha is a great collection of everything the original Cytus had to offer at a much cheaper price than buying all the DLC in the mobile game.

Game: Ace Attorney Investigations 2
Developer: Capcom
Platform: DS

In May the fan translation patch for the Great Ace Attorney finally finished. In a state of excitement I ordered the Japanese cartridge and learned that I would need to get custom firmware on my 3DS in order to tun the translation. I added custom firmware to my old 3DS, because if I messed it up it wouldn't matter too much. Thankfully all the tutorials online are almost foolproof and go into super in depth explanation about every aspect of the process. Being high on the success of getting custom firmware I then went on to add DS emulation to that 3DS. I've had a cartridge for Ace Attorney Investigations 2 for a while, but the translation for that game only runs on a dumped ROM in an emulator. Personally playing DS games in an emulator really bothers me, so I got the real thing running on my 3DS!

Much to my dismay I remembered that I had never beat the original Ace Attorney Investigations, so I started that over and ended up completing it over the course of a few weeks. It was an enjoyable experience, but man is the second game much better. The first case drew me right in, but then I fell off the game in the second case. It was so poorly paced that when I got to the third case I had to put the game down and take an extended break. I'll eventually get back to it and complete it and move on to the Great Ace Attorney.

Investigations differs from traditional Ace Attorney games because you play as a prosecutor. Everyone loves Miles Edgeworth, but now you get to play as him. Regular games in the franchise see you navigating areas through a series of menus, but with Investigations you move Edgeworth around manually to investigate crime scenes. The original Investigations introduced a mechanic called "logic" that sees you combining two pieces of information to come to a new conclusion. Investigations 2 layers another mechanic called "logic chess" on top of that. Edgeworth enters into 1 on 1 conversations with people. Throughout the conversation you look for tells (similar to newer games in the franchise) and attack statements that may be false in order to gain more information. It's an interesting mechanic that mixes things up further from the traditional Ace Attorney games.

Game Time - April 2019

I normally don't do intro paragraphs for these anymore, but since I haven't done one of these since December I feel like I have to. When I reformatted the text version of game time to be shorter and more concise I was and still am happy with it. The issue ended up being that now Matt and I do a bi-weekly podcast, so I felt far less motivated to write a monthly thing about the games I was playing. I had originally planned to retroactively go back and write something for all the months I had missed, but now I have come too far to do that.

I am going to try my best to get back into writing. This is becoming a bummer, because it's something I tend to say every year. "Oh yeah, next year I'll do all kinds of stuff on my blog. New features and just a ton more quality writing." It never ends up happening, but I would like it to. So here it goes, from this moment on I'm going to try my best and do more writing, which will start here with the April 2019 edition of Game Time. Ready, GO!


Game: Mortal Kombat 11
Developer: NetherReal Studios
Platform: PS4

Every time a new NetherRealm Studio game comes out I buy it in the hopes that I will enjoy it. Ever since Mortal Kombat 9 they have made quality fighting games that are filled to the brim with single player content for people who aren't looking to become professional players. What isn't so great is that I just don't enjoy playing their games. For me the stiff animations and dial-a-combos with an emphasis on long juggles just doesn't feel right. I can never really get into a groove with NetherRealm games and Mortal Kombat 11 is no different.

This isn't to say that I think the game is bad or anything, but it certainly isn't for me. As usual the story mode is an amazing feat that no other studio has been able to replicate in a fighting game. This time the god of time Kronika (of course with a K) is unhappy that Raiden is ruining her vision for a perfectly balanced world. In an attempt to erase him from existence she opens a bunch of time portals and brings old versions of characters to the future. It's a really dumb premise that works in the Mortal Kombat universe and lets everyone know that they can do literally anything with the plot now.

The customization options the studio developed for Injustice 2 are still in play, so expect to be collecting nine million cosmetic bobbles for every character. This is arguably my favorite aspect of the game, but they goofed up the currency you use to unlock everything. Originally it was giving out super low amounts, but supposedly that was rectified today with a patch. I think that Mortal Kombat is a cool game with tons of content for casual fans, but it just doesn't give me the tingly feelings it gives everyone else.


Game: Katana Zero
Developer: Akiisoft
Platform: PC

I first saw a Katana Zero trailer while watching a fighting game tournament and immediately knew it would be my jam. It is a 2D sidescroller where you play as a samurai with a katana. Recently I've been trying to avoid describing games by saying the names of other games, but it's basically Hotline Miami mixed with Super Hot. Each stage is approached like a puzzle where enemies die in one hit, but so do you. The only tools you have are objects in the environment you can throw, your katana, and a time slow down power.

Katana Zero is hyper stylish and makes you feel like a badass whenever you beat a level. Slowing down time allows you to deflect bullets easier and act out a series of actions with more precision. When you clear an entire screen the game lets you watch a replay of your actions without the slowdown just like Super Hot.

The plot drew me in far more than I thought it would, but sadly it ends on a cliffhanger. The studio has started work on free DLC, so hopefully it expands the story. I can't say a lot about it without spoiling things, but it is reminiscent of a Quentin Tarantino film. Even though it took me less than 5 hours to beat I had an absolute blast and would gladly play it all over again.


Game: SteamWorld Quest
Developer: Image & Form Games
Platform: Switch

Historically I do not really enjoy digital card games. The issue I run into is that I never end up wanting to change my deck, because the thought of remaking a large set of cards from scratch that need to have synergy overwhelms me. Despite my aversion to card based games, when I saw SteamWorld Quest it won me over and I picked it up day one.

Image & Form games have made several games of different genres. Personally I hadn't connected with any of them, but the charm of the characters in SteamWorld Quest combined with it being a turn based RPG I was immediately drawn in. What really drew me in to the game was the fact that you don't need to recreate huge decks. You take three characters into battle at a time who each only have a deck of 8 cards. With such a limited set of options it becomes very easy to swap things out and try different strategies.

The main thing that SteamWorld Quest does right is that it doesn't overwhelm you. It's a 10-15 hour experience that doles out new cards and upgrades at a steady pace. The story is a little thin, but the gameplay is definitely the main focus as you'll be card battling most of the time.

Game Time - December 2018

Game: Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight/ Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight
Developer: P-Studio
Platform: PS4

A few years ago a Persona 4 spinoff titled Persona 4: Dancing All Night came out exclusively for the Vita. It was a rhythm game featuring the characters of Persona 4 who would dance in the background of every song. It was an interesting concept that has now been copied almost exactly into dancing games for Persona 3 and Persona 5. The gameplay of these three games is exactly the same. Stars fly from the center of the screen and you need to push the corresponding button when the star overlaps it. It starts off simple, but obviously ramps up on higher difficulties.

The key difference between these two new games and the previous title is that they drop the visual novel-esque story mode and replace it with smaller bite size visual novel scenes. Now you don't need to sit through hours and hours of middling dialogue if you don't want to. It's entirely possible to stick to the actual rhythm gameplay, which I greatly appreciate.

Sadly there isn't a lot to these games. They each have around 30 songs in them from their respective games. I got the platinum trophy in Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight the first night I got the game in under 12 hours. I'm still working my way through Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, but the music and remixes are less appealing to me, and I need to complete the exact same challenges. While the games are fun enough on their own I don't know that they should have been split into two full priced games.


Game: Detroit: Become Human
Developer: Quantic Dream
Platform: PS4

David Cage games usually aren't my jam. I tried Indigo Prophecy and didn't really like it. In college I played through Heavy Rain, which I thought was okay aside from the totally unearned plot twist that came at the end. Something about the writing in these games never sat right with me and that feeling transitions over to the newest Quantic Dream game as well.

If you've seen a science fiction movie in the last few decades then you're familiar with the concept of androids developing emotions. Too many works to count have tackled this subject, but it's presented in Detroit as if it is some new and amazing. I'd give it a pass if it had any new ideas or amazing presentation, but it doesn't have either of those things. It's a story about racism, except it forgets that real racism exists.

At no point did I genuinely care for any of the characters in this game aside from a dog named Sumo. For the first two thirds of the game it feels like a random series of events revolving around the three playable characters rather than a cohesive story. Like previous Quantic Dream games Detroit is mostly a game about walking around and doing various quick time events for mundane actions. Previously I've been able to poke fun at the story of these games, but this time it was less comical. While it looked nice I don't know that it presented its ideas in the best way possible.


Game: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Developer: Bandai Namco/Sora Ltd.
Platform: Switch

Smash Bros. has been a part of my life since its inception. I have vivid memories of playing the original for the first time at a friends birthday party. It has always been a fun game to mess around with, but over the course of the past few years I had the fun of Super Smash Bros. sucked right out of me. A few of my friends got hyper competitive in it and somehow that drained all the fun out of the series for me. Instead of trying to improve for fun, I was trying to improve so I wouldn't be judged harshly for my lackluster play. That's no way to play a game that's supposed to act as a love letter to everything Nintendo.

I told myself that I would reclaim the fun of Smash Bros. with Ultimate and so far I have been very successful. I've played the game for over 80 hours now and have been having a blast. I was able to unlock all 73 characters during the first two days of its release. Since then I have played hundreds of matches and completed the single player mode.

This truly is the ultimate Smash Bros. game. It has an almost comical amount of content and caters to the casual player and people who want to play competitively. While it is largely the same as Smash 4 it brings meaningful mechanical changes to the gameplay. I won't get into all of them here, but I will say that the action has been sped up quite a bit, which is always a plus for me. It's more Smash Bros. and that's something I'm always down for.

Game Time - October 2018

Game: Super Mario Party
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Switch

I don't really like Mario Party and I never have. However, there's something special about getting together with friends and talking as much shit as possible. It ends up being fun for a few hours, but I never really want to go back and play more of it. I feel exactly the same about Super Mario Party.

The last few games diverged from the classic board game formula where each player rolls a die, moves some spaces, and collects coins to buy a star. They got rid of all that for everyone to move at the same time and collect star bits. Thankfully this game is a return to the classic Mario Party everyone used to love. The stages tend to be a bit smaller than in the past, but at least you get to see all of the board events in a single sitting. The mini-games are generally pretty strong. Some of them work as excellent showpieces for the HD rumble the Switch Joycons are known for.

For the most part it's another Mario Party game. The main difference is that each character can either roll a regular die, or a character specific die. These die have pros and cons, but they make choosing a specific character actually mean something outside of aesthetic pleasure. It's a cool addition that shakes things up a bit, but it's not quite enough to move the excitement needle for me. It's a solid Mario Party game, but that doesn't really mean a lot coming from me. It's fun to play with friends for a few hours, but beyond that it's not great.


Game: The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories
Developer: White Owls
Platform: Switch (and everything else)

I first became aware of Swery 65 when I stumbled upon a video series about his game Deadly Premonition. The gameplay was abysmal, but the quirky characters and story pulled me in. He followed it up with the Xbox one launch game D4 where he attempted to make an episodic adventure game using the Kinect. Sadly Microsoft cancelled it after two episodes, which left him floundering for a bit. Recently he found his footing and started his own studio called White Owls. They Kickstarted a game called the Good Life about a town where everyone turns into cats at night. While that was coming together and being funded the studio was working on their first game called The Missing.

The concept of the game is certainly strange. You play as J.J. Macfield, a girl who is on a camping trip with her friend Emily. During a stormy night Emily wanders away from camp and J.J. desperately tries to find her. Very quickly J.J. realizes that she can get hurt and regenerate her body. This is the central mechanic of the game. J.J's body will get mutilated in various ways to solve puzzles. You'll need to weigh down platforms with limbs, catch on fire, get concussions, and roll through tight corridors as just a head. If it sounds a bit disturbing it's because it really is. The whole vibe of the game is a bit creepy and it's trying to convey something through its mechanics.

My biggest issue with the game is that I couldn't stand the actual gameplay. J.J. moves too slow, and every animation goes on for way too long. The overall performance was pretty rough on Switch, and I heard from someone who played it on PS4 that it wasn't much better there. I pushed through my low level of enthusiasm, because I know that Swery can tell a great story. In the end the game definitely delivered. I think it is an important story, but I can't really say what it's about without completely spoiling it. If any of this sounded interesting to you I suggest you check it out.


Game: Forza Horizon 4
Developer: Turn 10
Platform: PC (also Xbox One)

I haven't played a racing game in a long time, so I decided to see if Forza Horizon 4 would run on my PC. It's starting to get outdated, but I didn't want to have to bust out my Xbox One. Luckily the free trial of Xbox Game Pass allowed me to test it out for free. I'm glad I did, because it worked flawlessly. Much more importantly though I ended up loving the game.

Outside of kart racing games the last racing game I played for any extensive amount of time was Burnout Paradise and that was a long time ago. Most of the games on the market now are too much of a simulation for me. Thankfully Forza Horizon bridges the gap and sits somewhere between the insane acrade nature of Burnout, but isn't quite up to the hardcore simulation level of a traditional Forza game. This time you're attending the mystical Horizon festival in the countryside of England. In this fantastical world the Horizon car festival lasts all year long. This means that over the course of the game you get to experience all four seasons. I would have expected them to be purely cosmetic, but handling and weather actually change for each.

At the end of the day Horizon is a driving game. You pick one of the 8 billion cars you may have unlocked and choose a race to enter. There are tons of event types, so if you don't like something you don't have to do it. There are so many events that sometimes it's frankly overwhelming. It plays well and looks stunning. Even though I beat the "story" I have been going back in every so often to bang out a race or two.

Game Time - September 2018

Game: Dragon Quest XI

Developer: Square-Enix

Platform: PS4 (Also on Steam)

Dragon Quest XI is the JRPG I've been craving. It's odd, because there isn't really anything new to it. It's a very classic turn based RPG with all the elements you would expect from a game of this type. This is normally the sort of thing that would bum me out, but it knows exactly what it is. It takes the formula that you know and love, and just does everything well. It has tons of charm, a compelling story, and all the content you can handle. I am currently 75 hours in and I have at least a few more dungeons to go. Personally I have been engaged the whole time, but I can see how a game of this length would burn some players out. 

Most Dragon Quest games have a very predictable plot with a few over the top twists. Dragon Quest XI is no exception. It has some wild twists that were shockingly not revealed in any pre-release marketing or reviews. There are wide swaths of the game that I can't even talk about without spoiling some very interesting things. It's an impressive feat that I didn't know the main twist of a game that had been out in Japan for a year before its release here. That didn't stop a co-worker from spoiling the entire ending for me this past weekend! 

The western release improves upon the Japanese release in a few ways. First of all it the voice acting. Every character has a strong European accent to the point where it's comical at times. However, for the most part it's very well done. The original Japanese release does not have any voice acting, which I find to be an odd choice. At TGS they announced a Switch version, which will be adding Japanese voice acting. The other brilliant addition to the western release is the ability to dash. Previously you had to walk around at a relatively brisk pace, but with the addition of the dash you can blaze trails around any enemy. At first it seems a little too fast, because enemies definitely can't catch you. Later in the game you come to appreciate its greatness though, because sometimes you just don't want to fight. 

I'm a handful of hours away from the conclusion of my journey and I'll be sad when it's over. This is the kind of JRPG experience that doesn't come along very often in the modern era of games, so I'm trying to savor it. 

Game: Marvel's Spider-Man

Developer: Insomniac

Platform: PS4

As soon as I heard that Sony had contracted Insomniac to make a Spider-Man game I knew it was going to be awesome. I wasn't wrong. For years people have been lamenting the slew of mediocre to terrible Spider-Man games that couldn't seem to recreate the amazing web slinging mechanics of Spider-Man 2 on the Gamecube and PS2. After waiting patiently since 2004 our long nightmare is finally over. Insomniac made a great Spider-Man game!

Insomniac saw what people liked about the traversal in Spider-Man 2 and made their own top notch web swinging system. It always feels cliche to say things like this, but you really feel like Spider-Man. The second the game opens you take control of a swinging Spider-Man as you're shown how to quickly zip around the city. The system is very intuitive and takes hardly any time at all to get used to. It's simple and very fast. I think the thing that makes the system feel complete is that you never really get stuck anywhere. If you mess up and end up climbing a building it's possible to run right up the side and then continue swinging from there, or even sip straight from point to point if needed. It's an easy to execute system, but you can get super fancy if you're up for it.

Outside of the great web swinging the combat feels really good as well, but a bit familiar. If you played the Batman Arkham games the combat will be all too familiar. The dodge and counter system that those games popularized is alive and well here, but with some web shooting thrown in. You clobber enemies and use gadgets until Spidey-Sense lets you know it's time to dodge and then go right back to pummeling thugs. 

The plot is standard fare for an outing in the Spider-Man world. You fight a bunch of interesting villains and stop a plot to wreak havoc on the city. The story is fine, but the gameplay mechanics are really what carries the game through its 30 or so hours. The one downside I can really think of is that the side missions aren't too great. However, that didn't stop me from getting the platinum trophy. Insomniac did an excellent job with this game. Its already the fastest selling PS4 exclusive, which is a crazy thing since God of War just came out a few months ago. 

Game Time - June 2018

Game: Yoku's Island Express
Developer: Villa Gorilla
Platform: Switch (Also out on Xbox, PS4, and PC)

Around the time Yoku's Island Express was released I began to hear a bunch of positive buzz. It was being described as a Metroid style exploration game, but with the odd addition of pinball. At first I didn't really understand how that could actually work, but after the first few minutes of play it becomes very apparent. It not only works, but works well in order to add a fresh gameplay style to a well tread type of game.

You start off as the dung beetle Yoku. He answered a call to replace a mysterious island's mail man. Naturally the old mail man was a pterodactyl, and he's fed up with his post (pun fully intended). You bump into him as you arrive on the island and are give the post master bag and told to be on your way to HQ where you can learn more about the job. At first it feels weird, because you can only move left or right while rolling a ball of dung. The pinball comes in by way of orange and blue flippers throughout the world. Pushing L will operate one color, while R does the other. You essentially just roll around until you see flippers, or fall into oddly contained pinball tables.

I'm nearing the end of the game, but it's not particularly long. It's not particularly challenging either. That's okay because it definitely requires some precision pinball shots and I am unbelievably bad at pinball even when it's virtual. Yoku's Island is an interesting mashup of gameplay styles, that is well complimented by its charming characters, world, and music. It's a really unique little product, and I'm glad stuff like this is coming out.


Game: Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition
Developer: Omega Force
Platform: Switch

There was a period of time where I tried to play it off like I ironically liked Dynasty Warriors games. I am willing to admit to you here, today, that I actually love Dynasty Warriors games with all my heart. I'm not ashamed anymore! Sometimes I just want to mash a button and cut down thousands of enemies with little to no effort as I zone out. There are the times where I want it to be Zelda themed. Initially I tried to hold off because I had already bought Hyrule Warriors on the Wii-U, but Fire Emblem Warriors was so disappointing that I just had to get something else to sate my desire for mindless action.

I didn't buy any of the DLC for the original release of the game, and then I refused to when they released a 3DS version with exclusive characters and content. Normally I wouldn't care that much except for the fact that the 3DS version ran like absolute garbage and I wasn't paying $40 for an inferior product. So now I'm over here with the Switch version and it has more content than I can possibly handle. The character roster has been increased exponentially and almost every character feels unique. The issue I had with Fire Emblem Warriors was that every character felt exactly the same. It was a man or woman with a sword, they just didn't do it for me. In this I can be all sorts of weird people. Tingle whacks people with a big bag of rupees and then smashes you with his butt. Skull kid poorly blows into the ocarina and flies around like a weirdo. They're all so unique, and I love it!

I'm going to be honest with you here though, there's never a whole lot to say. It's a Warriors game. You pick a character go into a battle, take over outposts, and collect loot. Most of this is done by mashing the light attack button while randomly throwing in strong attacks and supers. Hyrule Warriors doesn't really bring a whole lot of new gameplay to the table, it just has a ton of unique characters and an obscene amount of costumes, characters, and weapons to unlock. I would gladly recommend this to anyone with the caveat that it's just more Dynasty Warriors with a cool skin.


Game: Mario Tennis Aces
Developer: Camelot
Platform: Switch

I'm not the biggest sports fan, but something has always drawn me to the Mario sports games. I don't really consider go-karting to be a sport, so Mario Tennis on the N64 was the first one I remember playing. I never bought it, but I rented it a ton. It was simple enough to play, but difficult to master the elite level strategies. With each iteration they added more mechanics, and I ended up liking it less each time. So it's odd now that it's at it's most complex I'm more on board than I've ever been.

Aces adds a whole layer of complexity to Mario Tennis that I didn't even know I wanted. It's not just about returning the ball anymore. Now you have to worry about what type of shot you're using and what you're returning each shot with. There's actually a weapon triangle-like mechanic at play where certain shots beat certain shots and allow you to gain more meter. Yes, you heard correctly! This Mario Tennis game has meter just like a fighting game. With each hit you gain a bit of meter, and can use it to slow down time, hit powerful jump shots, or even use a super move. Slowing down time helps with returning difficult to reach shots, but also help you properly time the return of jump shots and super moves. Aces has added the possibility to win by KO. Shots that take meter to perform can cause damage to your racket, which will eventually make it shatter if you don't return them at the right time. When you run out of racket's it's game over for you!

Sounds like a lot to take in right? Well wait, there's more! The final addition that I cannot stand are trick shots. These are special long reach shots that you can perform by flicking the right stick in a direction towards a far away ball. If timed right your character will fly across the court and return almost anything. It makes volleys take forever. The issue I have is that there seems to be absolutely no risk to spamming trick shots like an idiot. You barely lose anything if you miss, and actually GAIN meter if you hit. Regardless, all of these mechanics have made it almost like a fighting game in terms of strategy. It's pretty cool, and I've been having a ton of fun playing with my friends. I have not really been having a ton of fun online though, because everyone trounces me. It's a bit of a bummer because once the short story mode is over the only thing you can really do is play people online. With that said though, I think that Aces is an excellent package that Nintendo seems like they will be supporting in a similar fashion as Splatoon 2. It's a ton of fun!

Game Time - May 2018

Game: Yakuza 6
Developer: Sega
Platform: PS4

I finished Yakuza 6 a few days ago and can't stop thinking about the ending. The seven game saga of Kazuma Kiryu is finally over, and I don't really know how to feel. Personally the conclusion didn't really do it for me, but with a few small tweaks it would have. I don't want to talk in vagaries about an ending you may not have seen, so I won't. I'll just say that the ending was not as impactful as it could have been. However, the game as a whole was excellent. The journey was interesting, but a bit plodding. That tends to be par for the course with Yakuza.

My playthrough clocked in at right around 26 hours, which I cannot believe. I felt like I was playing for at least 50. So either the clock is just wrong, or the pacing really got to me. That's one thing that always bugs me in Yakuza games is that the pacing is all over the place. It meanders along to try and add dramatic effect. Sometimes it works, but other times it prolongs already obvious plot twists and story developments. I still don't really know if this is a cultural thing or just actual pacing issues.

I'm glad that the story of Kiryu is done now. Now Sega can focus on the upcoming remasters and then move onto a new protagonist. While I absolutely love Kiryu, I think it was his time to give up the spotlight. I can't wait to see where the franchise goes next. Over the course of 7 games they built up a lot of interesting characters and relationships so it will be interesting to see what they follow it up with.


Game: Pixel Junk Monsters 2
Developer: Q-Games
Platform: PS4 (Also out on Switch)

As sad as it is to say, I bought the original Pixel Junk Monsters because it was one of the first PS3 games with trophies in it. At first I was all about the trophies, but I ended up falling in love with the little tiki man and his quest to protect his home with towers. Now, I've never been a huge tower defense fan, but something about Pixel Junk Monsters still feels different to me. Perhaps it's the more active nature. Instead of just placing a tower and waiting for waves of monsters to attack you take part in the action directly. The little tiki man acts as your cursor. If he stands over a tower he will begin to dance and the tower will upgrade over time. On top of that when enemies die they drop coins and gems which you will need to build more towers, so you need to always be on the move.

Pixel Junk Monsters 2 works largely the same as the original. The tiki man is back again, and he still dances all over the towers. However, this time you don't get to see the whole map. Instead everything is zoomed in just enough to obscure parts of the path. At first it's annoying, but it encourages even more movement and action so I'm okay with it. In addition just moving around to collect currency and upgrade towers the little guy can throw bombs and do sweet body slams now.

My favorite part has to be the visuals. I am obsessed with stop motion animation, and that's what the game looks like. Everything has a clay look to it, and the animation is fairly stilted. The default camera is the same as it's always been, but you can now push R2 to zoom in behind the tiki mans back, but gives a fresh perspective on everything. That's when you can really check out the awesome new art style. I fully expected this to be an easy rehash of the original, but it brings new art, and concepts to an already robust product. I haven't played a whole lot yet, but I'm looking forward to checking out more of it.


Game: Valkyria Chronicles Remastered
Developer: Sega/ Media Vision
Platform: PS4

Back in 2008 when Valkyria Chronicles was released on the PS3 I got it as a Christmas gift. It's the kind of semi-real time strategy game I'd be way into, but back then I had a lot going on and just didn't find the time to play it much. By the time I got around to it, I just kept finding excuses to play new games instead. I let one of my friends borrow it, and they ended up beating it fairly quickly. They absolutely loved it and kept trying to get me into it. I have a very hard time going back to old games once their time in the sun has passed, and normally try to stick with new stuff. However, now with the looming release of Valkyria Chronicles 4 I found my gaming schedule free after beating Yakuza 6 and decided I should finally give the game a shot.

I stopped by Gamestop and picked up the remastered version for PS4, and I've been having a blast so far. I've always been a sucker for strategy games, so I feel right at home playing Valkyria Chronicles. It essentially functions like turn based strategy games like Advance Wars and Fire Emblem, except with a little more direct input from the player. In battle you are given a set amount of medals, which allow you to move a character for each one you have. When you pick a character you are then put in direct control of them. They have a stamina bar, and can move until it is depleted. Like I said it's not too far off from most turn based strategy games, but the direct control of the moving and aiming adds a lot.

I've only done the first few missions, but I'm already farther than I got initially. The game is introducing new unit types and mechanics at a decent clip and I'm really digging it. So far the plot is relatively interesting, but I don't know if I'm fully invested yet. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts as I take the rest of June to try and finish it up.

Game Time - April 2018

Game: Ni No Kuni 2
Developer: Level-5
Platform: PS4

Ni No Kuni 2 is one of the first games in a long time that has made me feel like I'm crazy. It reviewed super positively, and pretty much everyone was singing its praises. I did beat it, but I didn't enjoy it very much. The combat never got much more exciting and it certainly never got any deeper. I was hoping that by the end of the game any of the characters would get worthwhile or meaningful development. That didn't come to pass either. It's weird, because on the surface it is a great game. It starts strong, and introduces tons of systems that seem interesting. However, like I said last month it's a jack of all trades, master of none scenario. There is a lot going on, but no one thing is focused on and almost all of it fell flat for me.

This isn't to say I think it's a bad game, I just don't understand the effusive praise and everyone treating it like it's the best thing to happen to JRPGs in a decade. It's fine. One of the things that I couldn't get over was just how easy it was. I saw all kinds of things online about people suggesting to use weaker characters, don't level, and pretty much don't use the tools available to you and it'll be a much more "fun" experience. I'm going to come right out and say that if your game is so easy that I have to actively try to handicap myself and not interact with all of its systems then it was poorly balanced. 

In the end Ni No Kuni 2 just didn't grab me like the original. To me it was noticeable that Studio Ghibli was no longer involved. The game borrowed the Ghibli style, but when it came to voice acting and animation it just didn't feel right to me. The original game built an interesting world that felt like there was a lot of thought put into it. This game flies through everything and TWO of the continents don't even have anything on them aside from monsters. I don't like being that guy that dunks on the thing everyone is happy about, but I just don't get the praise. It's fine.

Game: Yakuza 6

Developer: Sega

Platform: PS4

At this point I have played every Yakuza game except for Yakuza 2, and the non-canon Yakuza Dead Souls. So I know a thing or two about Kazuma Kiryu and his crazy antics. It's wild that all he ever wants to do is leave the Yakuza, but somehow he just gets roped back in over and over. Lucky for Kiryu, Yakuza 6 will bring his saga to a close. I have greatly enjoyed my time with it so far. 

Last year the excellent Yakuza 0 came out, which got a lot of people on board in the West. In my opinion this caused a few problems, mainly with the character of Goro Majima. He's essentially a different person in 0, but at the end they give context to how he acts for literally every other game in the franchise. I also feel like 0 does a poor job of making people like Kiryu, which is a shame because he is the protagonist of every other Yakuza game. However, the roughest part is that people will most likely have played Yazkua 0, and the remake of 1 and then jump right to 6. This sucks, because so far there have been a ton of callbacks and characters from the rest of the series. Hell, even some of the main characters from Yakuza 4 and 5 wouldn't even be known.

Yakuza 6 may also leave a bad first impression, because it's running on a different engine than every game prior to it. It's vastly improved, but as with all things moving over to a brand new engine it loses some of the complexity it had built over time. While Yakuza 0 and Kiwami introduced multiple fighting styles and a myriad of moves, Yakuza 6 only has one style and it plays more like a standard beat-em-up. There are a few moves to learn, but you can get away with mashing like an idiot. I really like Yakuza 6 so far, but I have a feeling that it may fall flat for people who weren't there for the rest of the series.

Game: God of War

Developer: SIE Santa Monica Studio

Platform: PS4

I borrowed the first God of War from a friend around the time it came out, and got about halfway through before dropping it. The gratuitous violence felt unnecessary and I didn't find Kratos to be an interesting character. I tried again with God of War 2 and similarly dropped it. God of War just wasn't for me, but when Sony showed they were releasing a new God of War based around Norse mythology it piqued my interest. Something about Norse mythology has always interested me. 

I didn't really know what to expect of this game going in, but I ended up absolutely loving it. The combat was more fun to me, the violence was toned down a bit, and Kratos was actually an interesting character. It's been interesting to see video games grow up as a medium. A lot of the people who were there at the beginning have kids now and that's been showing up more and more in recent releases. The crux of the new plot is that Kratos moved far to the north after he killed the Greek pantheon and ended up having a child. The game opens shortly after his new wife's death where Kratos and his son Atreus are setting off to scatter her ashes from the tallest mountain in all the realms. It's a simple enough premise that quickly turns into a much more daunting task than it seems.

As is to be expected you're going to come into contact with all sorts of creatures and gods. This time around though the plot is less about murdering everything and more about Kratos and his son bonding. It becomes clear early on that Kratos wasn't around much and his son resents him for that. There is a lot of conversation and most of it is very well done. The combat is much more my speed too. It's a little more deliberate than the older games. Kratos now wields a magical ice ax that he can throw and recall at will. At first blush the combat seems simple, but as you learn more moves it gets quite a bit deeper. In the end I had dozens of moves, but only was using a handful I liked. It offers a lot of depth for those who are looking to use it, but you can get by with the basics if you need to. I absolutely loved this game, and am excited to see where the take the franchise next. 

Game Time - March 2018

Note: I have been struggling to think of a new format for the monthly edition of game time, but I have finally settled on something. I'm tired of regurgitating story and gameplay descriptions. With that said the format won't change too much, but the text will be a lot more personal. I'm also going to try and do away with the intros and outros because I never knew what to say anyways. 


Game: DJMax Respect
Developer: Neowiz MUCA
Platform: PS4

The DJMax franchise has been around for quite a while, but only a handful have been released in the U.S. DJMax Respect is the first one to be released here since 2012 if you exclude mobile releases. What's cool about Respect is that it pays homage to all of the previous games in the franchise. The opening to the game is a spectacular animated scene that depicts all the previous DJMax games as grave stones that are being revived. Then to enter the game you need to press X to pay respect. It shows a love for the previous games in a way that I would never have expected.

This franchise can be notoriously difficult. Much to my dismay they even marketed it as "the Dark Souls of rhythm games." While I don't think it's impossibly hard it definitely has been giving me a hard time. Each song can be played with 4, 5, 6, or 8 buttons. As you'd imagine the songs get harder with more buttons, but I'm finding it fun to learn. I can do pretty well with 4 buttons, but 6 buttons is kicking my butt. Normally the repeated failures would make me frustrated, but I've persevered and am actually getting better. This game has given me skills that I can take over to other rhythm games too. I never really understood why people cranked up the speed of the notes in game, but it actually helps to space them out so you can see what's coming next. It's incredibly helpful, so now I try to play everything at 2X speed. At first it's really jarring, but now I can actually tell what buttons to push in super fast paced sections. 

It's really cool to see a developer make a product that shows a love for all the previous games in a franchise. At first I thought that Respect was just another one of their random subtitles like fever or Technica, but it's actually all about paying respect to the franchise. I am having an absolute blast with this game and will probably keep trying to get better at it. It's going to help when four DLC packs come out next Friday.

Videos: DJMax Respect - The Lowest Level Play
              DJMax Respect - Let's Get Good


Game: Ni No Kuni 2
Developer: Level-5
Platform: PS4

I absolutely loved the original Ni No Kuni. It came out at a time in my life when I could properly enjoy it because I was fresh out of college and didn't have a job. It left a lasting impression on me, so when the sequel was announced I got super excited. I'm currently playing through it right now and I think it's fun, but it's not blowing my mind like the original was.

Instead of the semi turn based combat of the original the sequel employs a much more action oriented system. It's more engaging in theory, but it ends up being too easy. I've seen people recommending to not use all of the tools at your disposal to make it more challenging, which is a ridiculous notion to me. I like being powerful, but at a certain point I'm just massacring enemies with reckless abandon. The part I'm digging the most is the kingdom building portion. The main character Evan was overthrown in the beginning so the entire crux of the story is that he's building a new kingdom called Evermore. You go around the game and recruit citizens to come and live with you. They have special abilities that take effect depending on what buildings you put them in. It's a cool system that gets a little bogged down by real time counters. Luckily the longest counter I've seen so far is 50 minutes, which flies by because there is so much to do.

What gets me about it so far is that I come to RPGs looking for an engaging story and well developed characters and so far Ni No Kuni 2 is not delivering that at all. So far it's moving at a lighting pace and none of the characters are really receiving any development. I love level-5 as a developer, but they have a real jack of all trades, master of none thing going on. They build huge games with tons of content, but no one thing stands out above the rest. They make such colorful and and fun games so it bums me out that they try to cram so many things into each one. I'm all for more content in games, but if it takes away from the quality of other content is it really worth it? Who knows, maybe I'll get to the end of this and feel differently, but right now I'm just having mindless fun.


Game: A Way Out
Developer: Hazelight Studios
Platform: PS4

The first game from Hazelight was Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons, which received critical acclaim. I never ended up playing it, but heard nothing but positive things about it. It was trying to tell an emotional story, which isn't always the easiest thing to do in video games. I first became aware of the studio's second game A Way Out at EA's E3 press conference this past year. However, I think most people became aware of it  during the game awards when the director Josef Fares got a little rowdy and started yelling "fuck the Oscars." I just finished A Way Out a few hours ago and it definitely wouldn't have won any Oscars.

I am still trying to fully process my feelings on this game. It's ambitious as hell, but it just doesn't work as intended. The entire game has to be played in co-op, so the game takes place entirely spit-screen. During certain scenes the screen real estate will change depending on which player has the more important thing going on. It's a cool effect, but it makes the actions of the other player seem meaningless. In fact, most of the actions feel kind of lifeless and meaningless. It starts out as a simple adventure game with the most basic button prompts, but by the end it's a poorly controller third person shooter.

It was a fun experience, but a lot of the game seemed to miss the mark. You can't have a super emotional game that's supposed to leave a lasting impact on the player with the quality of voice acting in the game. A lot of the line deliveries fall flat, and it's a huge bummer. It also doesn't help that it has a lot of goofy video game stuff in it. Janky looking walk animations are enough to take you right out of an "emotional" scene. It was around a six hour experience that I enjoyed while sitting next to a friend. I don't really know that it left a lasting impression, but I think that the kind of cinematic approach it was taking is admirable. It's cool, but don't playing it expecting some kind of life changing story.

Game Time - February 2018 - Monster Hunter World End Game

Note:In my attempt to think of a new format for the monthly edition of Game Time I completely forgot to write one up for February. One idea I had was to write something more in depth about my thoughts on a game as opposed to regurgitating what it is. So I'm going to try that now. Today I will be talking about the end game content of Monster Hunter World.

I want to preface this entire thing by saying that I absolutely love Monster Hunter World. Last time I checked I had put in 114 hours. That's a long time and sadly I think I'm about done until there are a bunch more content added to the game. So far Capcom has been doing a good job of cycling in event quests to help out with farming materials and occasionally adding new pieces of gear to the game. This past week the first major update came out, which finally added the Deviljho. It's a cool addition, because the Deviljho is a fan favorite, but it's just a single monster. I would much prefer huge content dumps to the few events and updates we are getting now.

The issue I'm facing is that there is no more reason for me to grind out materials and weapons. I personally have the best weapon I can be using, and the armor set I have is good enough for my play style. There are no more new monsters for me to see, so the only thing left for me to do is grind tempered monsters until the end of time. There really isn't a reason to though, because as I said there's nothing left to fight. In theory I think tempered monsters are cool. They're basically just more challenging versions of all the monsters in the game that drop special stones. These various types of stones can be used to augment weapons with special abilities. These range from having more defense to regaining health based on your damage. For a while I was content to grind these stones, but with no more real weapon or armor progression I quickly got bored.

Monsters are the main thing that kept me interested in the previous games. There just aren't enough Monsters for me in World. For example World has 30 monsters (31 with the Deviljho), while the game that got me into the series Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate had 51. 20 more Monsters might not seem like a lot, but it makes for a lot more variety. Personally I feel that World is lacking in monster variety in general. Recent games have added a ton of unique monsters, while a bunch of the monsters in World feel to similar for my taste. 

It's quite possible that I have been spoiled by the ultimate versions of these games in the past. I got used to having G rank difficulty monsters, so it feels weird that this game doesn't have them. The ultimate versions of these games had tons of monsters and content in general, but to be fair to World they were more like expansions. It's entirely possible that World will get a paid content update, or even an ultimate version of its own. G rank would add a new level of armor for each monster and the weapons would get even more added to their trees. It would bring back a reasonable sense of progression as opposed to the incremental progress that can be made now. 

What really bums me out is that the quality of life and engine improvements in World made it almost impossible for me to go back to the older games. World is an amazing base for the series going forward, and allowed for the franchise to take hold on a global level. I know there will be more games like this going forward and even new updates to World. While all of these things about the end game and lack of monster variety are bumming me out I understand why there isn't a ton more content. This is the first time in a very long time that the series has been on a home console and not the 3DS. They're remaking everything from the ground up, so it's going to take a bit of time for it to get to where I personally want it. 

Game Time - October 2017

Is it halfway through November? Yes, it is. I realize that this October edition is very late, but cut me some slack I went on vacation! I had an absolute blast getting away from home! I went to a Halloween party dressed as Steven Universe, played Super Mario Oddysey a ton, went bowling, saw New Found Glory in concert, and ended the whole stint with a 24 hour stream for Extra Life.

Leading up to Extra Life I did not get a lot of sleep, and posting the donation and stream link here on the blog slipped my mind. However, it was a success nonetheless! Once again we had a goal of $200, but we literally doubled it and ended with $400. I said it during the stream and after, but I can't express my appreciation enough. As someone who doesn't stream or make videos very often it's absolutely crazy to see so many people come out and show support by donating.

We're here to talk about the video games of October though. The Switch has finally become exactly what I wanted it to be. The amazing games are piling up, and I want to snuggle with the thing at night. However, I can't let the Switch bogart all the attention, so I'll throw a bone to Shadow of War on the PS4. We'll launch into the video game discussion with Fire Emblem Warriors, bring the hype down a bit with Shadow of War, and then let the hype build back up and explode with Super Mario Odyssey. It's game time!

Fire Emblem Warriors

Every time I choose to write about a Warriors game I don't know why. There isn't a lot to say, because they're mostly the same. You play as a character and mash the same button a whole bunch to beat down thousands of enemies. Fire Emblem Warriors is very much more of the same, but now there are Fire Emblem characters! I used to find these games a guilty pleasure, but now I have come to terms with the fact that I genuinely love them. There's something so relazing about turning my brain off and mashing the same button for hours on end. Sure it's not hard, but it sure feels good to strike down foes with little to no effort like you're some kind of all powerful warrior.

Blindly mash and get tons of kills!

What's cool about FE Warriors is that it actually incorporates a handful of gameplay elements from the franchise it's drawing from. In case you're unaware Fire Emblem is a turn based tactical strategy game. In FE Warriors you control not one, but four characters. You can freely switch between them, but it's more efficient to open your map and give the units you're not controlling orders. This way you can focus on going ham while your AI companions defend or take over what they need to. It also makes use of the classic FE weapon triangle, which is another reason for controlling multiple characters per mission. Yes, you can beat enemies who you're weak against , but it takes forever. So if you bring the right characters into battle you can cover all the weapon types and never really run into trouble.

It's odd to see elements from the Fire Emblem franchise blend so well into a Dynasty Warriors game, but I guess it makes sense. Near invincible soldiers are the bread and butter of a Warriors game.

Shadow of War

I loved Shadow of Mordor and its nemesis system. Fighting orcs and having the game create dynamic rivalries was fascinating, and I couldn't get enough of it. Now that the sequel Shadow of War is here I'm not quite as excited as I thought I would be. Once again you take control of Talion, who is being inhabited by the spirit of the elf who forged the one ring. I am well aware of his name, but don't have the patience to try and spell it. In classic video game fashion you lose all the cool powers you amassed over the previous game and need to earn them back. I didn't even play the game long enough to earn them all again, because I just didn't want to keep going.

The fact that I didn't get way into this game continues to baffle me. The game is much larger and added a whole slew of new mechanics and content. A lot of the changes are interesting, but for some reason I just can't get into it. Part of the reason is that encounters with orcs in the original game felt special, and now in Shadow of War you can't turn a corner without running into a new orc to face off against. It happens so often that the encounters lose their luster and that's just a huge bummer. What's even more of a bummer is that all of the story missions are an unending slog. I still feel like the Lord of the Rings license isn't even needed for this game, but it's still here. You get to hang out with Gollum and Shelob, which is kind of cool I guess. The part where it turns sour is that all the missions are super generic and not fun. Have you ever wanted to follow Gollum around for way too long? If so, then this is the game for you! It's just a huge drag, because the draw of the game is the nemesis system and it isn't well implemented into the story at all. It's way more fun to run around the world like a moron and see what trouble you can get into.

The nemesis system makes its triumphant return.

This is one of the few games that I want to try and get back to, but right now I just want some time away from it. After playing a handful of hours I had to put it down, which made me pretty sad. Shadow of Mordor was one of my favorite games the year it came out, but this one just isn't doing it for me at all.

Super Mario Odyssey

I'm kind of distracted right now, because I have the TV near me playing Super Mario Odyssey speedruns. I have been enjoying watching Trihex blow through the entire game, but a few moments ago he brought up a valid point. He's doing the any % run, which means he's just trying to beat the game as fast as possible, but he doesn't want to be. He wants to move up to other categories that have him playing the game for longer periods of time, because he likes it that much. He wants there to be more Mario in his life, and I totally get where he is coming from.

This image makes me so happy.

Odyssey feels like the culmination of what Nintendo has been working towards with Mario for years. It has so much content that it's bananas, and a lot of it is catered specifically to long time Mario Fans. I won't spoil any of what that stuff entails, because witnessing it for yourself is magical. I won't lie, it was magical for me. Part of why I enjoyed Odyssey so much is that it made me feel like a kid again. It's a feel good game, and I felt good while playing it. What makes it special is that it feels both old and new, but in a proper blend. Mario 64 had you collecting stars, while Odyssey has you collecting moons. You still need to complete objectives to get them, but there are way more objectives now. You'll get them for beating a boss, but you might also get one for kicking a can the right way. There are over 800 moons to collect, which is mind blowing. It might seem a bit like overkill to have so many, but I personally think they're fun to collect. They give you a reason to explore, and you definitely don't need to get them all.

What really sets Odyssey apart from its predecessors is the fact that Mario can possess enemies with his hat. It's been possessed by a being called Cappy, which allows him to literally become his enemies. Yes Mario has his platforming skills, but now you can literally become a freaking Goomba. When you throw your hat and enter an enemy they wear Mario's hat and grow a freaking mustache. Possessing enemies allows for all kinds of new experiences that add a lot of fun to the game. That's what Odyssey is to me. It's a fun video game. A lot of modern games are cool and have a lot going on, but aren't necessarily fun. Mario Odyssey is exactly that for me. It's an amazingly crafted game with a lot of love, but above all it's just freaking fun to play.

The Wind Down

2017 has been a hell of a year for video games, and it's finally starting to wind down. There are very few games left that I want to play this year, and that is kind of relieving. I still have a ton of stuff I want to try and finish, but know I won't. I've finished a lot of games this year, but I have also found myself putting a lot of them down. I no longer have the patience to play things I don't particularly enjoy. In the past I'd power through games I didn't like just to say I did, but I think those days are behind me and that is probably for the best.

I'm trying to play through the re-release of the .Hack//G.U. trilogy right now, but I'm having a bit of trouble getting into it. The Steven Universe game is the only thing I'm actively playing right now, and I am enjoying it quite a bit. I would have finished it already if I wasn't trying to stream the whole thing. The new Pokemon games come out in about a week as well, and I'm kind of exited to play those.

It's hard to continue to be excited after beating Odyssey. As I said this year has been bananas, and I might have gotten my fill of what it has to offer, but I must continue on! See you guys in a few short weeks.