Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

I’m running my very first D&D campaign with a small group of friends. I’m following the adventure from the Essentials Kit, and tomorrow is officially session 1 (session 0 was last week).

Having the kit as a base is very helpful, but being the game master is still like having homework! The book gives very little in terms of detail, so I’m busy getting things in order, and adding a few extra events and opportunities to get loot… to make their first official mission feel more like a complete adventure.

It’s gonna be our first time engaging in actual combat and all that. Wish me luck 😅

@Pastellioli I think it's definitely true that Rare's troubles began before the Microsoft buyout. The Stamper brothers' dictatorial style and insistence on long, grueling hours was taking a toll, and certain teams had already left (the Goldeneye team for example). Their relationship with Nintendo had begun to fray as well, due to Rare's output slowing down significantly in the N64 era and then really slowing down in the Gamecube era, and also I suspect due to Conker's Bad Fur Day being the type of game Nintendo didn't wish to publish. Mr. Yamauchi and the board were only too happy to sell Nintendo's shares to Microsoft at an inflated price.

Gregg Mayles is still at Rare and he'll tell you that Microsoft is a dream to work for, but other staff have said that while MS was initially hands-off, they gradually instituted more corporate control, leading many longtime staff to depart. And the Stampers themselves left pretty shortly into the MS era, driving off into the sunset in their luxury cars with their hundreds of millions of pounds, lol. Rare today shares very little DNA with classic Rare, but that doesn't mean it's a bad developer. They just have different priorities and are targeting a different market than before.

@BougieBeetle I have also heard some others mentioning that they were struggling way before the buyout, but a lot of people believe that the scenario where Rare got worse after being bought by Microsoft is the one that is true. I do agree with you that the troubles likely started a few years after the buyout, cuz I can recall reading that former Rare staff mentioned that near the N64's lifespan, Nintendo stopped giving them an almost unlimited budget that let them make whatever games they wanted without worrying about how much money they spent making the games. It did seem with later releases like Bad Fur Day that they were completely on their own when making the games with little to no involvement or assistance from Nintendo since Rare had to publish that game themselves and had to get THQ to publish it in Europe since Nintendo's European branch refused to be the game's publisher, which would have probably gotten them into hot water. That, paired with old staff leaving the company, really changed the studio significantly. In retrospective, a lot wished Nintendo bought Rare, but some argue that Nintendo wouldn't have fixed or changed their state at the time and say that if it weren't for Microsoft coming in to buy them, Rare could have closed down decades ago from how much they were struggling from Nintendo not providing them large game budgets and sales on their newer games not reaching the same heights as most of their N64 lineup.

Rare of course, isn't bad just because they have changed, they just want to make new and different games than their output in the 90s-00s and seemingly are targeting newer gamers rather than older gamers. I remember someone who remained at Rare (can't remember his name) said a quote that went like "Rare hasn't gone away, we just make different games" and that is very true. I am glad that Microsoft does let Rare make any kind of games and gives them freedom, but I think Microsoft not managing the studio well or not stepping in to give some sort of assistance is why their newer game, Everwild, is taking so long to release, cuz it sounded like management is why the game is taking a bit long.

Microsoft did seem to kind of adopt a sort of corporate stance a bit during the 360 era toward Rare. They still appeared to be hands-off, but some people think that the way they handled some games Rare was developing was from higher-ups. The two examples I can think of are sequels to Bad Fur Day and Perfect Dark that got canceled before they were finished.

For the former, Rare was developing ideas for a sequel despite how badly the first game did commercially, and when they presented it to Microsoft higher-ups, they didn't outright tell them to cancel it, but said they didn't have any interest in it, and I think Microsoft's lack of interest in it was a factor in why the game got canceled, but the director said he lost interest in making a sequel after the long development time of Bad Fur Day on the N64, and I remember watching a video where he was quoted as having thought the cancellation was more on him. The Perfect Dark sequels were more so from a meeting between Rare and Microsoft, where they explained that having another sci-fi FPS series was unnecessary since they already had Halo. So while Microsoft didn't force them to cancel any of their game projects, the feelings and opinions of the higher-ups are believed to have played a role in why some of their projects never saw the light of day, but Rare also did not have a genuine interest in making a couple of their games.

@Pastellioli I agree with all the points you made!

Rare seems to have had a lot of trouble bringing games to fruition and releasing them on time during the N64 era, and even before. Banjo-Kazooie notoriously underwent many, many changes and restarts during its long development. I think another issue was DK64 requiring the Expansion Pak to be bundled in, which Nintendo surely wasn't happy about. Giving all those problems plaguing development, it's no wonder Nintendo lost confidence in the studio and was no longer willing to give them their full support.

The Stampers appear to have been somewhat difficult people to deal with, but they did create a unique culture at Rare where everyone worked extremely hard and had a strong team mentality. After MS took over, I think the biggest change was cultural. There was more oversight, more documentation, more corporate alignment, etc., but they also relaxed certain restrictions, like how the Stampers forbid teams from discussing their projects with other teams, or how they banned internet use at work. Nevertheless, without the brothers at the helm, Rare did seem to sort of flounder creatively and commercially until being put on Kinect Sports. I'm happy that Sea of Thieves has been successful for them, even though it's not my jam. As for Everwild, I can only assume it's vaporware at this point, and I would be very surprised if it ever sees release. But I'd love to be wrong!

@BougieBeetle Rare had a lot of ambitious ideas back then and did seem to have a really hard time getting them to work or making them a reality, notably that Stop 'n' Swop feature they were planning to implement with their N64 games and weren't able to do because of Nintendo's fears that it would damage their consoles. I do think stuff like that could have been a factor in why Nintendo started to give them less and less big budgets for their games and didn't bother buying them despite purchasing half of their shares. There was of course some other stuff with Nintendo, like how Rare turned Dinosaur Planet into Star Fox Adventures because of how Miyamoto thought the protagonist looked like Fox. I can imagine there was way more stuff going on behind the scenes and disagreements about changing it from an original IP to a pre-existing IP, mostly stemming from the fact that some people who worked on the game said they were disappointed over the change and their work being scrapped and changed significantly.

Rare for sure did have a different culture back then that has significantly changed over time. I read that Rare was extremely secretive and didn't like sharing game info with the public, but the staff changes over the decades is probably why they have lightened up and become more open to their fans.

Gonna be gaming and staying up late and feeling happy after getting a bit tired and annoyed today. There's this feeling that staying up late playing games exudes that I can't exactly describe...I think it feels so nice being able to have some time to yourself and unwind and get comfy and stop when you feel like it. Its even better when you play video games on your bed all snuggled up in a blanket!

I'm replaying Yokai Watch 2 on the 3DS and am gonna have some fun replaying it all night, but I can't tell you how mad and sad I am that they stopped localizing the games at 3. It makes me sad replaying the game and then remembering how short-lived it was in America from how no one cared about it after the first game, especially since I found the concepts so cool and the humor was absurd and stupidly hilarious. Gosh, I am still so upset they were going to localize the fourth game on the Switch and the rest of the animes and movies then were stopped from doing so from financial issues and had the series stay Japan-exclusive after localizing the third game. At least the upcoming game they recently showed off is likely coming to America, but I feel so sad that the fourth game is never getting localized at this point from how no one cares about it anymore.

@CaleBoi25 I have a similar problem with shirts fitting. I'm 5'11". Large shirts are usually too baggy on me, and it looks ridiculous. While if I put on a medium shirt, it's usually bordering on too snug, and my shoulders don't fit. I guess my shoulders are wider than most off the rack fits. Sometimes, the medium fits me best, but then I don't have room for any shrinkage, so I always have to hang dry. It's a real pain in the ass to find clothes that fit me, especially since retail stores & places to try on clothes have closed.

@Pastellioli Yeah, I remember seeing some of these in GameStop well before the word amiibo even existed. Never did have a chance to try the game, I got amiibos for various Wii U games, and even used some of them on Switch.

Never played Subway Surfers, always been happy with Minion Rush. I haven't beaten Sonic CD on mobile yet, but from the sounds of it, it's similar to the old Steam version of Sonic CD, I have beaten that one and remember unlocking Tails.

Indeed, I can say there's been plenty of games I've liked that are no longer playable. I use to play Dawn of the Breakers on Switch, I can't play it anymore. I use to play Need for Speed World on PC, and it's no longer playable. The funny thing is some of these games could easily be played offline against CPU. I don't think Dawn of the Breakers even had online multiplayer, it was a beat 'em up with RPG elements. I think

I remember seeing Dragalia Lost advertised on Nintendo's website at one point, never looked into it. I was a really late adopter to smartphones, getting my first in 2020. I stuck with a flip phone because I felt I didn't need one. Being someone who's autistic and can't drive, I should have adopted it sooner. Using Lyft actually helps me get around for the few times I need to go out on my own. It feels good not having to always rely on family or friends to go somewhere.

Yup, it also didn't help that the other games Conker was in, Conker's Pocket Tales and Diddy Kong Racing, were rated E and KA (Kid to Adult, it was the early E rating) respectively. Conker wasn't even in the Diddy Kong Racing remake on DS either.

Indeed, they just have a whole treasure chest of little info and bits that were removed. My personal favorite has always been the prototypes of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Genesis. It even got shown to the public in an old TV show, Nick Arcade, and showed some differences to the final game others have played, like using Sonic 1 music for example.

@Tyranexx That's really cool. I kind of wish I could see an actual drive-in. Maybe one day knowing there's still one in my state, it is tied to that old indoor theater too.

Bored

Also Bored... :/

Brief point about me: It can sometimes take me awhile to get back to replies on the forums depending on my schedule. Things have been somewhat crazy IRL lately, so I respond when I'm best able. And not always consistently at that.

@Pastellioli I think I recall reading an article somewhere about Rare's poor management at the time. Hence why a lot of classic recognizable names did depart. The company is definitely different today vs. back in the 90s and early 2000s. As I posted before, I don't have a horse in the Rare race, so I can't really comment on their current status lol. I'm Switzerland. Neutral.

I've heard Sea of Thieves is pretty good, though I think I have the pirate angle filled in my backlog for now with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Maybe someday. I haven't played Yooka-Laylee either, but I've heard feedback for that series that ranges from okay to decent. Now that I know about Everwild I may keep an ear out for it to see if any news surfaces. Its troubled development isn't exactly promising unfortunately.

I see you're playing Yo-Kai Watch 2: Fleshy Souls. I have a copy and think it's a pretty fun game. I just wish I'd known the third game would have a limited distribution, otherwise I would have preordered it. The prices are insane even used.

@Sunsy Drive-in theaters can be pretty cool depending on the setup. I do hope you can make it to one at some point! Hope you've been healthy and well, same with your family.

@Tyranexx Yeah, I do think I have heard of Rare's management being the point of discussion for a long time, and the quality of the management too.

I have also heard of how good Sea of Thieves is, but I sadly don't have much of an interest in it or an interest in Yooka-Laylee too, mostly from the reviews saying its ok, but what struck out to me the most was I watched a video on it and there was a game show segment that repeated a total of 3 TIMES, and although I love Banjo, I hate the game show segments they put in at the end, and a game having it repeat more than once sounds like torture lol, but I did hear that they are working on a remake or rework for Yooka that may be interesting, sounds like they are going to iron out some issues with it, but I wonder if there will be attempts to make the game feel less repetitive and outdated gameplay-wise. Hopefully, they do so, but realistically, I would expect updates and fixes to a few small issues.

Yep, been playing Yokai Watch for a few days, and I've been enjoying it. I was a pretty huge fan back when they first localized it in 2015, and I've been in a pretty big Yokai Watch mood as of late since they showed a concept trailer on a new entry called Holy Horror Mansion, and I did find that one interesting since they seem to be replacing a lot of concepts and elements from the previous games with new ideas, plus they are using a new protagonist but I genuinely hope they don't use AI art in the final product since the game has kind of started controversy on that aspect and discussion on AI being used in game development.

My siblings liked Yokai Watch like me and we watched the dubbed anime, and I remember the catchy as heck theme song for it too. I have completed Fleshy Souls, but I made a new save file to replay it, cuz I revisited my completed file and I have no idea what to do since it has been maybe 2 or 4 years since I beat it lol. As I replay it, I am getting good memories of playing it for the first time back in 2016 and being obsessed with Yokai Watch a ton. I made the same mistake of not buying Yokai Watch 3, and I now deeply regret not buying it since I only found out recently that physical copies are expensive, and with the eShop closed, I have no way to play it.

I think why I didn't buy 3 when they released it was probably because I didn't have an interest in Yokai Watch anymore at the time it came out in America since 3 was released in 2019 and it had been three years ever since they released the second game at that point, and I had been playing the Switch instead of my 3DS, but I did have occasional play sessions with my 3DS. When they announced the eShop was closing, I initially didn't care since I was occupied with my Xbox (which was new at the time) and while I did feel a bit sad when the eShop closed, I thought I was fine with having not bought anything before it shut down, but now I don't feel happy that I didn't purchase it before it closed, cuz there were so many good games on there that have never seen updated ports on current-gen consoles and handhelds and now can't be played anymore.

I think why Yokai Watch did poorly in America was how long it took to localize them and the somewhat long waits between entries, by the time the third game came to America, the 3DS was nearing the end of its lifespan and the Switch was super popular. Although a lot of people dismissed Yokai Watch as being a Pokemon rip-off, I think it was a pretty creative and great series of role-playing games, and I love its absurd and comedic themes a ton cuz I don't see a lot of RPG games act super silly. On top of that, me being someone who loves art and drawing animals, I enjoy the character designs and artwork of the yokai a lot, with Jibanyan and Usapyon probably being my favorites right now in terms of design. I am sad the series isn't as popular as it was back when it started a decade ago (time flies) and the fact they never localized the fourth entry or the series' many spin-offs, but with how Level-5 did eventually come back to international markets despite the closure of their North American division, I am hoping they do get around to localizing Yokai Watch 4 (even if its just English text and not a full English dub) but I am a bit doubtful they will, given that game did the worst out of the four mainline entries in Japan and they probably wouldn't want to repeat the same result in America. But, there was a Yokai Watch-related hashtag that actually got on the trending boards on Twitter/X a few years ago, which does make me happy knowing that it has some popularity in America and fans still want to see English localizations, but I don't think that it's enough to convince Level-5 to bring older entires to America.

@Sunsy Subway Surfers was so fun when I used to play it, it's everywhere nowadays, mostly in memes I come across online. I did play a lot of random mobile games back then alongside a few of the most iconic ones, but I can't remember the names of those...I know I used to play Minion Rush, Subway Surfers, a ton of Talking Tom and Friends games and another one called Pou. I loved Sonic CD a lot. Nowadays, I really just play a Vocaloid rhythm game on my phone and maybe some Fire Emblem Heroes.

Hm, I don't think there are any games I have liked and played that have become unplayable, maybe there are, but I'm just not thinking enough. I could say the first Splatoon game on the Wii U since the servers have been shut down and you can only play the offline modes now, but I have played the two bigger and better sequels on Switch, but I feel bad for the people who only had the first game and the Wii U since they can't play it anymore at this point.

I remember getting ads for Dragalia Lost a ton of times on some other apps I used, but I didn't know much about it besides the fact that the characters transformed into dragons, there were collaborations with Persona and Mega Man, and the main character going on a quest to save his sister I believe. I did think the art style and overall look of it looked nice, I can recognize the guy who drew the art for it since I have come across some of his YouTube videos on drawing. I think it could have been fun if I had tried it, but it's too late now. It seems like Nintendo is slowing down a bit on releasing and making mobile games since a lot of them have closed down and it is been a bit since they last released a new game.

I have also watched some "iceberg" videos on people documenting and finding canceled or lost media of early versions of games and it's interesting. Still on the topic of Conker, I have seen some footage of the original version of Bad Fur Day when it was still known as Twelve Tales and some of the iceberg videos have mentioned this and how some people are actively looking for a playable version of it but haven't had any luck so far. But, I remember just last year one of Rare's founders showed a picture and a one-minute video online showing off the logo sequence of Twelve Tales. People believe that it's a fully playable prototype, but he did not specify whether or not that was the case. Despite that, I still found it interesting that he had a still functioning cartridge showing an early version of the game after all these years and how it was implied from old Rare employees that the tech and computers they used to do work on Twelve Tales were completely wiped and gone after it was turned into Bad Fur Day. I don't know, just hearing about early versions of games and getting to see it is so interesting, and it's fun imagining how some games could have been different in the final product.

@Tyranexx
Yokai Watch 3 is having way more contents than Yokai Watch 2, from new locations, new Merican Yokai, Forbidden fruit item for 100% chance getting other Yokai, more bigger number chance of Gatcha machine, Blaster T mode, etc.
I personally after once played Yokai Watch 3, I became less engaged with previous Yokai Watch games. You still able to get the Wicked Yokai creatures from Yokai Watch 2 Psychic Specters in Yokai Watch 3.

My Yokai Watch obsession is taking hold! Time for a new avatar now lol, anyway, how is everyone doing?

I made a couple of fanarts that I plan on sharing tomorrow, pretty excited, I got a lot of art done thanks to drawing on smaller paper! Drawing on bigger paper is super time consuming, but the best part of drawing small is being able to draw faster. Trying to fill up a sketchbook I bought back in March and trying not to get the urge to rip pages out. Usually, I don’t finish sketchbooks and tend to rip pages out when I don’t like how they look. The sketchbook I have is missing a few pages, but I plan on keeping the majority of them inside. I love all the drawings, but one of them has such an eyesore of a background lol but I think that was my intention. I was inspired by some art project I came across online when I was searching pose references and thought I’d copy it, but eh, I don’t think it looks amazing.

On the gaming side, I haven’t touched Yokai Watch in a few days, but I plan on going back to it. I downloaded a big update for my rhythm game, and the new visuals and UI are so clean and nice, and they introduced a new note type in newer songs. I played a few matches online with people; however, some of the people on there have a huge issue with disbanding and causing everyone to disconnect when a game is found, so I only got three online games in. Playing rhythm games online is pretty stressful, especially since you need to pay close attention to what is happening on screen, but luckily, I did pretty well with them, so I’m satisfied with that. going to play more of it later, though, I only played for a few minutes.

EDIT: Ok, about the fanart thing, I’m now looking at reference images for one of the characters I drew and wow, I got a bit of things really wrong with the design lol. Gotta draw something up real quick to make up for it!

They finally did it!!

Yeeesh, I thought GameStop would come in and save me but it didn’t! I saw the two other Yo-Kai Watch games priced reasonably, but they literally have a copy of Yo-Kai Watch 3 at nearly $100 dollars! I’ll never be able to play the game now…Why do the people selling this game hate happiness (´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`)

Like Tyranexx, things have also been a bit crazy on my end, lol. Haven't been posting too much as a result. Been working on a passion project and learning how to make cute art thanks to a book I got. As someone who's been struggling with depression, it's been helping me out quite a lot mentally! Also been playing Echoes of Wisdom. I love a good Zelda game and this one is fantastic for sure. I did see that F-Zero 99 got five more courses that originated from Nintendo's Satellaview service, which is really cool... but I'm too busy with Zelda at the moment, lol.

@Pastellioli Oh gotcha that's understandable, those are easy to go back to. Similarly, I've been playing quite a bit of Splatoon 3 in the past since it's a game I can always go back to. Though now, I've been a bit burnt out from all that ink shooting, and the next Zelda game is out now, so I'm playing that currently. Cuphead is intensely challenging for sure. I've been thinking about getting its DLC sometime, though I kinda wanna finish the base game first. That might take a while though, lol.

Yeah a lot of folks here on Nintendo Life are kind for sure. Yeah... I've seen how people are on Twitter, it's basically why I deleted my account there. I do have an Instagram account, though I really only use that to post pics and stuff. I haven't been using that super often.

Yeah anytime, and thank you as well! I think so too, it's why I like having characters like Mario and my Animal Crossing villager as my profile picture. I didn't think I would like Splatoon as much as I do when the first game was out, but then I tried out its story mode and multiplayer, I liked it right away. Gotcha on the GIF picture, yeah I think that would need to be compressed somehow. That's cool, though I don't think I saw that Viva Pinata pic you had.

@Sunsy Just saw you had a cold, sorry to hear you caught it. Glad to see you're getting better though. I've been a bit slow with replies too, which I went into detail in the beginning of this post of mine.

Sounds like a lot of fun, glad you got to spend some time with your friend! Yeah I'm glad I shared that reference with you, that's one of the things that Mary Poppins says in that movie.

Yep I think you're right, Puyo Puyo is the original. It got a Kirby reskin as well, in the form of Kirby's Avalanche on the SNES. I think I played that on NSO for a little bit. I've played Pac-Attack many years ago, played it on Namco Museum and on Pac-Man World 2 (it's an unlockable arcade game in that). Didn't know it was a reskin of Cosmo Gang The Puzzle, maybe I'll try that out.

All righty I'll keep that in mind. I do like cutesy stuff actually so I'm sure I'll like the Trolls movies. Been a while since I played F-Zero: GP Legend, I still have my original GBA copy but haven't played it in so long. I do remember it being... pretty easy for an F-Zero game. I'll see what I think when it comes to NSO's expansion pack tier.

In terms of shooters and M-rated games, I played a bit of the Half-Life games as well, though that was a long time ago. Been wanting to get more into Doom and Halo sometime. Same with Persona 5... though I would have to commit to that since it's a massively long RPG, lol. Good to hear you saw a therapist, I've been feeling a bit better about it as time went on. Since I know if those people from school simply don't like that I enjoy stuff like Nintendo games (as well as Sonic and Mega Man), that's their problem, not mine.

Gotcha, yeah I think it'd be fun to play Mario Party with you sometime. Really excited for Jamboree to come out.

@Tyranexx Indeed lol, that choice paralysis got the better of me. Right now I'm taking a break from Splatoon 3 since the Grand Festival has ended. Been playing a certain new Zelda game, lol. As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I'm really liking it. I do wanna play Mario & Luigi: Brothership when that comes out as well.

Yeah sure I'll let you know if I do try out a coaster once more... I do know you like going on them. Hopefully the next one I go on is good to me. Ah, Silver Dollar City, I remember now. I've heard of Six Flags, but I've never been to one. Since... you know... lol

That's cool. Never had any reptiles as pets, just had more experience with cats and dogs mainly. Yeah, I generally like going for the extras in the Mario platformers. It'd be over way too quickly if I just finish the game and that's it, lol. And yes... some of those special levels are incredibly difficult. I used to have a lot of trouble with the Tubular level from Super Mario World when I was a kid. World 8-3 from Lost Levels also drove me mad back then, that one is quite memorable for me as well.

Yeah anytime! It does look perfect for the fall. My brother likes Boos as well, he also mains Boo in the Mario Party games. It's funny you mentioned sweet potatoes, my mom loves them as well. Thanks! I love Mario's victory poses myself... I feel it also does a good job with representing my love for the Mario series in general.

@MarioVillager92 I hope you are enjoying Zelda, it’s been a while since I last played a Zelda game, the only ones I can remember playing in recent times was Breath of the Wild and that Tri-Force Heroes spin-off on the 3DS, but I returned that one years ago. I find that smaller games fit more into my schedule. Just yesterday I downloaded a big update for my rhythm game and got the chance to play online with people again. The game sometimes has these events where you can vote for one of two groups, and then you play with four other people that chose your group and fight against the opposing team when playing a song. All you really need to do to win is get a higher score than the other side. It’s kind of like Splatfests in Splatoon, except you duke it out by hitting notes and timing your taps to the beat!

It’s really fun, but a lot of people kept disconnecting and disbanding game rooms I was in just before the song started. Sometimes they disconnect when a song they don’t like is selected, or if it’s ridiculously hard. I don’t disconnect at all since it be a bad move, but I remember once that after they chose a song I really liked in a room I was in once, I accidentally swiped the tab of my phone down and it disconnected me, so they had one less player because of a mistake I made.

Everyone is so nice here, I wanna interact with them all I have never had any bad interactions with people online, but I have seen how rude they can sometimes act with others.

Still love changing avatar pictures, I just changed mine to an anime screenshot of a character from an RPG video game series called Yo-kai Watch. I am pretty obsessed with it right now and I am replaying the second game on my 3DS. A bunch of people in America dismissed it as a Pokémon rip-off, but I was really into Yo-kai Watch alongside Splatoon back then. I eventually lost interest in the former, but I got back into it and I really remember what I liked about it, mostly from how it’s a modern twist on Japanese folklore and mythology mixed with some absurd and lighthearted humor and situations. I watched the anime based on it (which coincidentally, was animated by the same studio that does the Pokémon anime) but I only saw the dubbed first season and the first anime film. Netflix never streamed the other anime films or the remaining two seasons for the series, so I didn’t get onto the season where they introduced the little bunny guy in my profile picture. I have been wanting to watch the anime again, but Netflix no longer has it and it’s on more than one streaming service, so I don’t know if I will go back to watching it.

Still on topic of avatar pictures, I set the Viva Piñata one on my Xbox account, but I am already thinking of changing it to another Yo-Kai Watch character. I don’t know, I really love the way a lot of the yokai in that series look.

I went to a concert earlier this week and am still dealing with the fallout from being gone for that (finally made up time at work) as well as doing a ton of cleaning and yard work around my place. It's been some time since my kitchen cabinets were deep cleaned and...it was starting to show. I am still exhausted from my "day off" Wednesday. Which was a sleep-in day that also turned into a chore/adulting day. I haven't had much time to game this week.

@Pastellioli I might grab a Yooka-Laylee remake, heck I've even considered buying the regular version when it goes on major discount just to see what the fuss is. But at the end of the day, I'm not too big into 3D collect-a-thon platformers and think I'd rather spend my time and money elsewhere for now. It's a shame as the characters do look endearing.

I spy USApyon. I got into Yo-Kai Watch after reading about it online and trying the first game's demo. I also watched the anime dubbed, then subbed when those were no longer available. Never quite finished watching it though since the YT channels I used to watch it stopped uploading or got hit with takedown notices. I've played/finished both the first game and Yo-Kai Watch 2: Fleshy Souls. Holy Horror Mansion has also renewed my interest, though likewise I hope the AI generated stuff is just for proof of concept.

The only reason I didn't buy Yo-Kai Watch 3 at launch was I assumed it would be as widely available as the previous games. If I'd poked around more and saw this was NOT the case in EU territories - since it released there first - I would have put in a preorder. I think Level,-5's abysmal localization speed and the sunset 3DS also played a part. Also, while Yo-Kai aren't ghosts - the concept comes from traditional Japanese yokai folklore with a fun twist - the concept is akin to that of ghosts for many in the West and has less cultural impact.

As a huge Pokemon fan, it irks me when some think almost literally every other monster catching/befriending/engineering game is trying to rip off Pokemon. Yo-Kai Watch has its own identity and world. I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of the turn wheel battle system - though I've read 3's combat is better - but I liked the visuals, characters, humor, side quests, literally most of the world building. While I'd like Yo-Kai Watch 4 to still be localized, I think this happening is less likely as time passes.

@Anti-Matter Oh I'd LOVE a shot at playing Yo-Kai Watch 3 and even considered importing the game at one point since the Japanese version is much cheaper than the North American version. Unfortunately, the 3DS is also region-locked. It's a hard sell for me to invest in a Japanese unit just for one game.

I should have bought the game digital before the eShop closed. It was mainly due to a lack of space and not wanting to upgrade my micro SD card this late in the system's lifespan. I kind of wish I'd done so now. It's bad enough I'm considering emulating it in the future should my backlog ever shrink more. This is from someone who much prefers playing games on the hardware they were intended for.

@MarioVillager92 I'm glad you're enjoying Echoes of Wisdom and have been spending time with a passion project too. Conversely, I unfortunately haven't touched the game since Monday since I've had a lot going on... especially this week. I've knocked out two dungeons and a mini dungeon. I was on my way to the third last I recall.

I do hope you get on a coaster at some point before long, but please do it of your own volition. Not because I said so lol. Listen to your gut on this one. It does help if you haven't had much to eat for awhile. I have a strong stomach and have yet to toss my cookies on a ride, but a spinning one nearly caused that when I was a kid. It was my fault for eating a huge turkey legs beforehand.

I grew up on a farm, so there were plenty of cats and a dog around. Slobbering calves and cows too. I like doing extras in Mario titles as well, though I have hit my limit more than once. I doubt I could ever fully 100% Super Mario Galaxy since I'd have to go through the whole game again as Luigi...and the Cosmic Luigi levels are crazy challenging.

Boos are fun pranksters. Shy and unassuming until you turn your back to them. XD I love sweet potatoes. They're cheaper than regular potatoes and makes great side. I sometimes add a bit of cheese or cinnamon. Rarely some brown sugar; this is a common staple for them, but IMO they're sweet enough as is. I prefer savory in their case. Mustachioed plumbers can be quite amazing, huh?