I had that same small text problem with the Wii U. I’m glad you are having a good time with it. I’m hoping the best parts of that and X3 make it to whatever the next Monolith game is.
As for exploration, XbX definitely feels more like exploring instead of going to the next checkpoint. But I dig a world that has “funny shaped keys” that keep you in certain areas until the game is ready for you to be there.
I feel like full voice acting was implied by the talking flower. Or were they saying full sentences in the original?
This was such a surprise. My family and I kept guessing names: Pokécraft, Pokémon: New Horizons, Pokemon Crossing. Everything about this (except the name) looks great.
Even the name might grow on me.
I was so excited to see this! My wife commented that she’d never seen me play Fire Emblem before. And I probably never will, but my best friend loves this series, especially after 3 Houses. I hope there is a similar experience in this one so he can have that joy again.
I was so excited to see this. I never played the original, so I was guessing it was a Dragon Quest Builders spin-off called Dragon Quest Explorers or something.
There was a lot neat to read in there. I like the part where she says she fired herself. Thanks for posting, pic!
I might finish it if I force myself to get it done before Octopath Traveler Zero come out. Sometimes the battles are SO long!
My son reports he’s ten hours in. I don’t buy it; I feel like he’s been playing for twenty hours straight. I did just walk in on him doing homework, though.
My son is playing it nonstop!
It’s my birthday weekend, so there’s games planned, but no idea what’ll get played. I’ve already got my morning hour of Octopath Traveler Champions of the Continent in. I’ll edit later to add more!
I love my memories of Baten Kaitos, but I don’t miss the frustration you are describing. As a formerly compulsive 100%er, Baten Kaitos cured me; it was the first game where I saw there was a 100% long play and accepted watching that as satisfying my need to complete something.
I am back on the Balatro kick, playing at least a few runs a day now. I recently reached the final stake on the final deck, so I guess I’m one away from “completing” the game. That’s not really how that works.
I arrived at a new town in Octopath Traveler Champions of the Continent for the first time in what feels like years. Stalling on the main story for all of 2024 (and most of 2025) didn’t kill my love of the game luckily. And now I’m in a new chapter with new locations and it feels like the story is directly reflecting what Octopath Traveler 0 might be.
I can’t believe it, but I finally advanced the main storyline in Octopath Traveler Champions of the Continent! Two chapters left until the final final boss. The announced release of Octopath Traveler 0 with a retelling of COTC’s story kinda lit a fire under me. I took my squad that I’ve been powering up for two years and slowly wiped the floor with the chapter boss. I’ve been playing RPGs long enough that I wasn’t surprised when the boss stood up from the defeat, story-mode crushed my visiting party member, and got away. I was a little surprised at the interesting turn the story took from there. I’ve got a lot of grading to do for school, but I’m thinking I’ll spend a lot more time on the couch on my phone this weekend.
Thursday I attended a board game night at a local board game cafe. A teacher in the county where I live had messaged me on BoardGameGeek and invited me out. It was a blast! It’s so great to meet new gamers. We played Ethnos, FlIp 7, and Love Letter. I got home way too late, so next time, I’m starting earlier and ending earlier.
I bought the newest edition of The Crew, the cooperative card game I’ve talked about here before. It’s called the Crew: Family Adventure. Instead of having gameplay like Hearts or Spades, it has gameplay like Uno. Each mission tells the story of youth athletes who find themselves stranded on an island in the south seas. After an interminable tutorial via the Kosmos Helper App, my children and I played two hands. Already I can say I prefer the original, but it is fast-moving and fun, so I look forward to playing some more.
Minish Cap was the first Zelda game I gave up on. The idea that you have to make a choice for an item so you can’t 100% complete a game destroyed my desire to play it. However, I’m a master of giving up on games now. As my good friend once told me “life is too short to read bad sci-fi”. I apply that to almost all of my hobbies now.
After the first two cases, I felt the same way, but case three really drew me in, as I remember. I played the translation rom back in the day, but never finished the second game, so AAI collection is on my wishlist. With my birthday coming up, I’m banned from buying stuff right now, though.
Week two starts today. In Florida, I think the priority is getting our kids back in the air conditioning.
One of the things Florida has banned this year is a reading tracker app called Beanstack. The commissioner of education sent a letter to all superintendents of schools (at the county level) directing them to share it with all staff and parents.
Florida says Beanstack gives children access to inappropriate material. I’ve used it to track summer reading for myself and my family. All it does is record reading and completion for books you enter. If you scan a book Florida considers inappropriate, you already have the book.
It’s been a busy non-gaming weekend of Octopath Traveler Champions of the Continent while thinking of playing lots of things when I have more time in the coming weeks. I did open up Balatro for the first time in ages. But most of my gaming enjoyment has been reading through this thread’s comments. Thanks for sharing, y’all!
I’ve been playing Katamari since they started coming over to the US. I’m now sharing a long play with my youngest child as we brush our teeth. It’s only a little fun to watch. It’s greatly satisfying to play. I feel like I’m playing an incremental game when I’m rolling around picking stuff up. It’s a really slow build that turns into an exponential explosion in size that hits just right.
I just finished the Katamari Damacy book from Boss Fight Books. It talks about the creator’s view on games and design in general, and then notes that after the second game, he has no role in development. I love the games, but the first and the second one are the only ones I would call must play (more like must-experience). They are best in a room of four friends passing the controller around and backseat driving each other.
I expect the new game will be a more of the same experience that will still buy right away.
I missed posting last week! I mean, I missed writing; this little community is wonderful!
I wrapped up the Clip Picross section of Picross S9, so all that is left there is the Color Picross. Those games are definitely worth the money for me!
I ran Epyllion, a game that my youngest is calling D&D (Dragons and Dragons). It’s a game of young dragons running errands for the Dragon Council and growing up through friendship and hardship. It’s amazing how patient I can be listening to five ten-year-olds crosstalk patiently but when it’s twenty twelve-year-olds in my civics class, I have zero chill. Maybe because of standardized testing panic?
Tomorrow I’m going to play a trick-taking card game called Fishing where you want to win tricks, but you want to lose tricks to get better bait, too. I hope it’s worth it (but since I bought it after finding an Amazon credit that’s been sitting on my fifteen year unused Amazon account, it doesn’t have to be good at its price).
We also plan on playing Vantage. It seems like a 90s, Sierra-style adventure game where you are exploring a planet while on comms with the other players. They don’t get to see what you see, so you role-play to describe what is happening. I tried it once and I like it all except the theme (sci-fi isn’t for me!)
Oh, and too much Balatro.