Topic: What Game(s) are You Currently Playing?

I think I'm about halfway through Danganronpa 2, maybe a little farther. I'm not sure what to make of this game, and I probably won't be sure until it's over. Sometimes the story is great and the twists are amazing. Sometimes the story just drags and the new things it tries to do don't go over as well I don't think. I thought my favorite new character was about to die, too, but a twist I did not see coming appears to be taking place and it will be someone else, which is good as I do not like most of the new characters and really didn't want the one I do like to be killed.

FE:3Houses and FE:Engage.

Pokemon Violet.
I have obtained 1 badge gym from beating Katy.
Ironically I played this game despite I already knew the graphic was really terrible and unacceptable.

After finishing Kirby: Planet Robobot, I'm gonna try to find the time to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3. And I'll also be playing Splatoon 3 next weekend since the next Splatfest will be happening then.

Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages.

I know a few reviews said it was heavily puzzle based, but I'm feeling like a true dum-dum stumbling around every dungeon.

And when it gets to be too much, I hop on over to the Louvre Guide. That game is fantastic!

I am saddened. My favorite new character in Danganronpa 2 survived when I thought they were going to die, but then they died the very next chapter. Guess I should just quit now (just kidding). The characters are getting kind of strange now (those who are left). We shall see where this is going.

Paper Mario: Origami King
This game gets a lot of hate, but I am actually thoroughly enjoying my time with it. People seem to focus on what the game isn't (a traditional RPG) instead of what it is (an adventure game with puzzle combat). The story is interesting enough and the writing is absolutely fantastic. I am really happy I decided to check this out and form my own opinion of it.

Undertale.

Doing a neutral route at the moment.

If you haven't played it already, please, please do.

Pokemon Violet.
Currently have obtained 6 Gym leader badges, 3 team Star badges, 3rd upgrade from Legend Path.

Started up the original Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga today through GBA NSO (have made it up to the point where you cure Queen Bean) and I'm having an absolutely wonderful time. SS' remake was the game that actually got me into Mario & Luigi so being able to finally play the original some 5-6 years later was massively vindicating and boy has it not let me down so far. The battles are still infectiously engaging, the Beanbean Kingdom is an immensely fun region to explore and the spritework and music on display is absolutely fantastic. My only slight gripes so far is that it feels a lot harder to perform Bros. Attacks compared to the remake, having to constantly hit the START and L/R buttons to swap around jumps/hammers is pretty annoying at points (especially in tight spaces like Chucklehuck Woods) and the beginning is pretty slow. But that's literally it so far and when everything else is so memorably charming and whimsical? I can easily look past those little nitpicks. Played for 4 hours+ so far and I can't wait to carry on tomorrow

Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past (3DS) - Just started this one yesterday (Had the day off work) and have already sunk about eight hours into the game. Which I know is barely scratching the surface. XD Very slow start, but the plot is interesting and I'm quite enjoying the characters and proceedings. So far the gameplay is classic Dragon Quest, though I know a job/vocation system will unlock at some point. Quite a beautiful 3D environment too; it's for games like this that I've stuck with 3D-capable units. The game is starting to exhibit a certain gameplay loop as I continue (currently working my way through Burnmont in the past), but that isn't a bad thing; in fact, this may work quite well with the system's pick-up-and-play nature.

Super Mario 64 (Switch via Super Mario 3D All-Stars) - This is currently my side game. I actually played this 2-3 years ago on the Wii U, so I'm mostly doing the bare minimum. I'm favoring the worlds I do like and barely touching the others. This is still an enjoyable game despite its age, though the camera controls and slippery physics have never sat quite right with me.

I'll be playing the SM3DAS games in release order. After SM64, I'll move on to Super Mario Sunshine. THAT should be an interesting one since I've heard a lot about it but have never played the game.

Playing Splatoon 3 for the weekend's Splatfest. Unfortunately, I'm losing a lot.

Pokemon Violet.
Just two more last missions: Beat Cassiopeia and Miraidon.

I just beat Turnabout Academy in Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies. I have been thoroughly enjoying my time with this game so far, and I thought that case was excellent. There was a moment with Athena that came out of NOWHERE and left me pretty surprised for a while. She just turned into quite an interesting character to me after that.

The game overall feels just really good to play. The pacing so far hasn't really dragged, investigations feel very streamlined, and the new mechanics in the courtroom feel great and really shake things up. Blackquill is also a fantastic prosecutor, whose backstory I am very interested to learn about. I'm pretty surprised that people tend to consider this one as one of the weaker games in the series because so far it's been a blast to go through. But who knows, I've still got two cases to go. Perhaps it drops the ball later on. I think so far my only issue with the game has been the confusing timeline of events. I cannot keep the chronology of these cases straight, and Turnabout Academy just made it even worse. Initially, I thought it was a flashback case to when Athena just got her attorney’s badge, but then Juniper Woods showed up and they acted like they hadn’t seen each other in forever… I dunno, it’s confusing. But it’s a small issue in what is otherwise an excellent game so far.

Pokemon Let's Go Eevee - Nintendo Switch
Doraemon Nobita's Brain Exercise Adventure - Nintendo Switch
Pikachin Kit - Nintendo Switch

Happy Gaming! (^_^)

Continuing on with M&L Superstar Saga (nearly 8 hours in and am currently in Little Fungitown) and an interesting quirk I've discovered with the game is that, whenever you're walking up stairs, the game lags like CRAZY until you stop. This isn't an issue when going down by the way, it's SPECIFICALLY going up that causes it.

I'm not sure if it's just a quirk of the emulator or something with the original (and it's certainly not a dealbreaker by any stretch of the imagination), it's just something that I've noticed lately that I find very amusing XD

I've been playing this obscure game no one's heard of called Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. :V

No its funny that I'm such a Nintendo guy that despite having first played a Castlevania when I was like 9 and having played all 6 of the handheld Igavanias that only in 2023 did I get around to playing the most iconic(?) game in the series. Because its not been on a Nintendo.

This is another game where at times, despite I doubt anyone thinking about this for this specific game, you can kinda tell its their first major attempt at this type of Castlevania. Just weird quirks that come up (its way easier to get lost on what to do next than the others, I'm certain about that at this point). But because it has the power of being a 2d game on a PS1 and they just knew how to do this stuff, it still holds up perfectly. I literally just played Circle of the Moon a few months ago, and yet this feels more modern somehow (and not just because of the extra tech behind it). Though it is weird that I don't think any of the DS games had full of voice acting the way they do in this.

also, obligatory video post:

After finishing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX I've moved on to Fire Emblem Engage and some Klonoa on the sidelines. I've been moving through those games farely fast too and I'm enjoying both of them quite a lot. Engage also is my first time playing through a Fire Emblem game.

@Fizza It's been like that in the original GBA version, where you'd go slow when you're going upstairs. I've been forming a habit of jumping before going upstairs to make things a bit faster, lol. And I'm not even into speedrunning.

After suddenly having a lot more free time after my next planned game of 2023 (Super Mario Galaxy 2) hit a....bump in the road let's say, I decided to finally fire up a game I've had on the backlog for about 2 months at this point: Murder by Numbers!

Ever since I beat the entirety of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles back in July 2022, I've been wanting to scratch the narrative-driven puzzle game itch left behind by it all those months ago and I'm very pleased to say that MbN is very much scratching said itch for me right now.

For as brilliant as the idea of combining Ace Attorney and Picross together is, you'd be forgiven for thinking it'd feel very clunky constantly switching from both styles one after the other. However, they managed to make an incredible concept flow seamlessly together by having each one feed into the other: story beats tie directly into solving puzzles which then net you evidence in order to continue the story. It's a very intelligently designed system that appeases both the side of me that loves murder mysteries and the other that can't get enough of Picross puzzles, it's honestly fantastic.

Another thing going for the game as of now are it's visuals: good lord this is one of the most stylish games I've ever played. The character portraits are incredibly detailed in both the neutral poses and the expressions they take on at a moment's notice, giving it an extremely memorable style the moment you see it. This is also helped out tremendously by the MUSIC. I was fully expecting bangers going into this when Masakazu Sugimori (the composer for the original AA) was confirmed to be on-board but GOD: Detective Cross' Theme and basically every Picross level's music especially are incredible.

Other than that, there's not too much to say. I wouldn't say the characters are as endearing as something like AA as of now but they're still really fun to see interact with one another (with highlights being Honor, SCOUT and ESPECIALLY K.C.), everything has a great sense of flow to it and Chapter 1 ended with a great cliffhanger.

Overall, I'm having a great time as of now and I can't wait to continue on with Chapter 2 later on!