Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@MarioLover92 You're welcome! Mario Day was fun. Aside from doing my dailies in World of Tanks Blitz and trying Chocobo GP, mostly played Super Mario Advance 4, Super Mario 3D World with a friend, and some online Mario Kart races. Also wore my Peach sweatshirt. Yeah Christmas wreath Peach, but it was chilly today for the short sleeve one.

Me too, I want to get it later this year. Nice surprise to have on today of all days too!

Yeah, I always found it amusing that older Nintendo Power issues even had ads for multi-platform games redone to advertise Nintendo platforms. I remember the Animal Crossing Guardian, and it felt like an in-universe newsletter, and I just remember getting a PSO poster from an issue that use to hang in my old bedroom. Never had the GameCube versions of Phantasy Star Online, but I have Ver. 2 on Dreamcast (albeit, I played offline).

Still sounds fun. SMB3 is always a fun time with a friend, I'm glad you got to play with someone.

Oh hey my kindle updated, and the interface looks different yet again. I actually quite like this new look.

@MarioLover92 I normally try to 100% most Zelda games, but BotW was one of the exceptions lol. I needed to keep some of my sanity intact. I hope Nintendo re-releases Metroid Prime Trilogy on the Switch before Metroid Prime 4 eventually rolls around, but I'm sure it'll still be a bit. I...actually didn't get to Partners In Time yesterday - my evening got away from me - but I hope to get to it this evening. I did fit in some WarioWare: Smooth Moves though.

Hey guys, just wanted to share this with you all. There's a PC game bundle called Bundle for Ukraine and there's a ton of games in it, including CrossCode, Celeste, Skatebird, and Toree 3D. Me and @tekoii got it, and I highly recommend getting it as well! All the cash will go to charity too.

Also, I finally got to play the Monster Hunter Rise trial. And yeah...I still can't get into it! Just like with the other ones I played, I have a hard time adjusting to the controls, and thus, hunting all those monsters. Kinda wish I got into the MH games a lot more, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe I'll come back to it at some point while the trial's active, but I don't know when.

@Sunsy That's cool, looks like we both spent Mario Day really well. Can't blame you, it's been chilly over here too...the day before Mario Day, there was heavy snow all over the place. And there's gonna be even more snow coming tomorrow, to the point where I may experience outages. That's gonna be fun to deal with, let me tell ya!

Yeah absolutely, that was perfect timing! I think that same day, there was an announcement for a Lego Mario set that's themed after Princess Peach - thought you'd like having it.

That's cool. I don't really remember seeing Animal Crossing Guardian, I guess it was while the first game was out? Since I started with New Leaf. I've heard of Phantasy Star Online, but never played it. Was thinking of giving the new one a shot, it's on PC last I knew.

I'm glad I got to play with someone too. My friend and I finally got to play Super Mario Party tonight, by the way. Though, playing it after so long kinda made me realize that it's not quite my favorite in the series - the boards could've been better and more plentiful, and I wasn't a fan of the ally mechanic. Some of the minigames weren't too bad however. We still had some good fun nonetheless, and I ended up winning the whole round!

@Tyranexx I don't think I ever 100%'d a Zelda game. I've 100%'d Super Metroid last year, though that was with a guide and it was after my previous playthrough. I hope they release Metroid Prime Trilogy on the Switch as well, and that's coming from someone who got it on Wii U. Ah, I see...it happens. I used to have Smooth Moves, but I don't now.

@MarioLover92 I mainly 100% Zelda games due to all the benefits of doing so, such as max hearts, energy, etc. depending on the game. Plus, before BotW it usually didn't take too long to grab everything. Super Metroid is a fun one to 100%! I sometimes will play Metroid titles to completion for the same reasons as Zelda. I love Smooth Moves; it has the WarioWare charm, and some aspects of it are absolutely bonkers lol. As for Rise, I enjoyed my time with it but think it's definitely more fun with others. It becomes very grindy outside of the main story bits IMO.

Heh, 100% for BotW would take awhile, @Tyranexx .... I certainly didn't get all the Korok seeds, for a start

@BruceCM I found just enough Korok seeds to get all the inventory space upgrades lol. But I certainly didn't find all 900+ of them!

Yeah, quite, @Tyranexx .... I liked the shrines enough to do about half of those, too!

@Tyranexx I always try to 100% the 2D Metroid games. I've 100%ed Super once, Dread twice, and Zero Mission once. There's just something super satisfying about becoming the most overpowered thing alive.

The 3D ones are a little tougher for me for some reason, but I still try to collect as much as possible.

@Tyranexx I typically just get as much items as I can without too much guidance. Both for Zelda and Metroid games. If I get everything in the game, great - if not, no sweat. Yeah, fully completing Super Metroid was quite the fun journey indeed. By the end, I was insanely powerful and I took down the final boss pretty easily. Yeah, I did hear MH's better with friends overall. I can see that if you play with others, you'd be able to take down the big monsters more easily.

@MarioLover92 Sounds like we did. Hope the day was alright. We got a dusting of snow, but it's now sunny and chilly.

I do, I'm very happy to see a Lego Peach.

Yeah, the Animal Crossing Guardian portion of Nintendo Power was after the first Animal Crossing came out. I find Phantasy Star Online 2 fun, and when Microsoft revealed it during E3 a few years ago, I got so excited having played one of the original games (Vers 2 is the original Dreamcast games with updates and newer content).

Still sounds like a good time, I'm glad you were able to play some Mario Party, even if it's the older game.

@Fizza Seeing your post in "Unpopular Gaming Opinions," making note about Pokemon TV. I use to watch the XY anime when it was on Netflix. Responding here because I'm sure it has nothing to do with unpopular opinions. Actually, chose to play as the girl character in Pokemon X as Serena and her Fennekin were my favorite parts of the anime, and I have a Fennekin plush.

Had this for years, I also have Dedenne. When I got back into Pokemon in 2016 and watched the original anime, I noticed XY so decided to see what the anime was like now, and loved what I watched.

BTW, will be looking forward to that song once I reach that town.

@Sunsy That plush is adorable! I only really have one Pokemon plush myself but I would argue it's probably the best one you could get: a retro Pikachu teddy my uncle and aunt gave me when I was younger. It's literally Fat Pikachu and I couldn't be happier (the amount of chonk on this individual is spectacular).

(this isn't my specific one but it's the same design)

@Fizza Thanks, oh wow, I haven't seen a retro Pikachu in years. I use to have one until my dog at the time chewed it up. Take good care of that, those Pikachu are really classic toys.

Still remember the night I got mine. My brother, mom and dad went to the mall, and I opted to stay home for some reason (dumb move in hindsight, since looking for character stuff while shopping is something I love to do nowadays). I was playing my brother's PlayStation that night, I think it was Tomb Raider, I vividly remember playing that game, and my mom came home with a Pikachu just like that. Thanks for the memory.

@Sunsy @Fizza Those are so cool!

Me and the soon-to-be-wife have those in our bed

We have one more Pikachu like that one but it is in the new place

I bought Sylveon for her because her name is Silvia(Sylvia)

I'm starting to get better at MHR now. Got used to a few weapons and finished the first few quests. I have a friend of mine who's playing it as well, hopefully we'll be able to play!

@Sunsy Thankfully we didn't have any outages! My internet was slow at times, but other than that and that huge blizzard, everything was ok. Hopefully you'll get that Peach set while it's out! I would like having it too.

The only Phantasy Star game I played was Phantasy Star IV, though that was just a little bit of it. I heard it's really good and rivals even the SNES's best RPGs.

Yeah indeed! I like the plushes you showed off, too. Also just wondering, do you have Mario Party Superstars? It'd be fun to play a round with you.

I have Luigi and Pikachu plushie dolls too.

Since we're now sharing plushies, some of the other gaming plush I have. Though I have an old Sonic and Tails plush from my childhood in my closet.

On the subject of plushies, my Trolls ones because I love these characters. I also have other characters I like.

Always loved collecting plushies based on cartoon and gaming characters I like.

@Zuljaras That's really an adorable gift. Pikachu looks so big.

@MarioLover92 That's good. I think the last blizzard we had was in late January. No power or net issues, spent a chunk of the day following the storm on YouTube, and playing World of Tanks Blitz. She looks really cool as a Lego set.

I never did play IV, I did play the first three Phantasy Star thanks to that old GBA collection. It's cool you got to try the fourth game in the series. I remember Phantasy Star III looked great, and the opening song is beautiful. Brings a tear to my eye.

Thanks, I'm noticing others are posting too, so posted some more. No, I don't have it. I do have Super Mario Party.

@Anti-Matter They both look cool.

I have a modern Pikachu plushie somewhere.

Boo to "Daylight Savings Time". More like "Most of the population will be moodier and sleep deprived over the next few days". Ugh.

(This time change wreaks havoc on those of us who hate mornings....)

Also, much luck to those dealing with the powdery white stuff. Didn't get any of that here other than a dusting a few days ago. That's probably it for the season.

@BruceCM I did manage to find and complete all the Shrines! A handful were doozies to locate.

@StarPoint Same, for the most part. Except possibly the first and second games, I've achieved 100% on items/upgrades on all 2D entries barring Dread (haven't played it yet). I'm pretty sure I also found everything in Other M, though I'm unsure if I can say the same for all three Metroid Prime entries. I'm fairly certain I found all the health upgrades anyway.

@MarioLover92 Yep, those two franchises confsin some of the few exceptions to my "Don't be a completionist" movement. It's a mindset I picked up back in the days when I had way more time and less games on my hands. It hasn't aged well. XD MH is quite fun with friends, though I'm so rusty bu this point that I'm sure I'd need to spend a bit of time training. Heck, I was just properly getting the hang of the switch axe when I stopped playing.

@Tyranexx First, profuse apologies for the delay. I've been very busy and finding time to sit down and belt out a reply good enough to pay back the effort you put into yours, has been rare lately. When I tried to commit time to put this to writing I got caught up in a paper I’m writing. It’s a research paper, and the topic’s open. Meaning I went and chose to write about how Final Fantasy games illustrate the human condition. Or storytelling. I’ll post some of the writing when it happens; it’s due next year after all.

But now that you're done and dusted with Xenoblade 2, it's time to begin absolutely nitpicking it. I love doing that with games I own, because I tend to get so absorbed in games (good ones at least) that for a time I'm pretty oblivious to faults and shortcomings of said game. An example of this would be Death Stranding; only after beating the game did I watch and read reviews complaining (deservedly in some cases) about stuff. Xenoblade 2 upon retrospect can be contrived and vague to the point of frustration, thinking about it more. It’ll make replaying the game a little more painful when I eventually get back to it when I begin the Xenoblade 3 hype.

KOS-MOS was one of the most lucky instances I’ve ever had in my life. All the grinding and meaningless time wasting, and somehow lucking into getting the rarest Rare Blade in the whole game. Which is exactly why I’m glad there’s another entry in the series, so I can gradually forget about the shortcomings of 2. Agreed that Xenoblade games are well balanced, as well as Monolith’s tendency to try new things. Torna-wise, the online feedback sounds spot-on, from a fairly objective point of view, the plot was honestly more investing than that of the main game. But I’ll say little more, since you can tell me eventually whether you agree or not.

Having played Final Fantasy XV a lot more, I can only recommend it more. I feel ashamed to say that the writing, world building and those little character moments were lost on me when I first played it, but since I committed to enjoying the whole thing I’ve only realised now just how detailed and complex the game is. I’ve put in over 20 hours so far, doing pretty much any sidequest I can get my hands on, and so far I’ve done about two thirds of the game’s story. From chapter 10 onwards it gets very linear, and you don’t get access to the open world anymore, but the story gets a bit better. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed your handheld titles, as well as Octopath! I’d love to hear how the latter turned out.

Yeah, Celeste is part of a breed of games that takes player enjoyment seriously. The game’s designed well enough that death is a simple learning opportunity, not a massive setback. I’m not hating on Souls games but this game is the perfect response to the crazy “git gud” cultists that truly believe there’s no way to truly enjoy a game if you’re not good enough to play it normally. I put on Assist Mode for a few screens here and there, especially in the later levels, but it didn’t change my enjoyment of the game. Other times I could have used the assist but I chose to persevere… and what do you know, my satisfaction increased.

No worried however. I love playing God in video games as much as the next person. As for The Batman, your points are spot-on. So glad I got around to seeing it in spite of the runtime, because it’s a film that doesn’t like to rush things. Come to think of it over the last two years or so, this has kinda been a recurring theme throughout filmmaking. How due to pandemic viewing, and less emphasis on actual cinemas.

I'm sure they were, @Tyranexx .....I liked most of the ones I did do but I just had enough of them after awhile