JasmineDragon

I mean, that's a turkey drumstick. They have them at pretty much every country fair in America.

Yes, I'm fun at parties.

Sooner or later I'll probably buy it, but not immediately. I've bought way too many games in the last year, and I've already got two must-buys this month. Generic Name is just going to have to wait.

@Nontendo_4DS Prince was a freaking monster on guitar, even if his hit songs rarely showed that side of him. Somebody once asked Eric Clapton who he thought was the greatest living guitar player, his answer was Prince.

Nine tracks? Battle Passes? Locking the one Final Fantasy character that everyone knows behind a paywall?

I'll say this much for Squeenix, they can always put a smile on my face.

I'm smiling as I walk to the register to buy somebody else's game, but I'm smiling.

As a kaijumaniac, I have to have Dawn of the Monsters, and I preordered Rune Factory 5 a while ago because of course I did. And Mario Kart DLC will definitely see some play in my family. That's it for me. Kirby and Generic Strategy both look good, but I'll wait, because I already own way more Switch games than I'll ever finish.

SKREEEEEEONK

Yeah, I'm in.

It looks great, and I will be buying. I'd like for Square to keep doing actual Switch ports, not cloud versions, even if the ports don't look quite as good as the next-gen versions.

I might feel differently if the game looked horrible on the Switch, but it looks fine to me.

I was waiting for LIS Remastered, but it seems like it's okay to start with this one seeing as how Remastered apparently won't be out on the Switch for a while.

@Joeynator3000 Not true, I had a Joy-Con repaired in 2020 and no problems whatsoever since.

This is good stuff. I've only played the introduction so far, as I'm still playing Ryza 2, but the Ryza games are really easy as far as combat goes, so added difficulty levels are welcome.

And new outfits are always a plus. You would think a series like Atelier would be loaded with wardrobe choices, but Gust like to make the alt costumes paid DLC.

Taito being Taito again, they always seem to release collections in two tiers. They have the collection that skips a few major releases (often the ones that should be the stars) but has enough other things to just about justify the cost, and there's the "kitchen sink" collection that has all the games you wanted and then some, higher production values and all the bells and whistles, but costs an arm and a leg - and that price might be justified, but is only worth it for the absolute diehard fans. (I'm calling the Egret II the top-tier "collection" in this case).

It's sad, because they really were a legendary company if you're any kind of retro gamer, but the way they package things leads to me hardly ever buying any of their collections.

Qix IS an amazing game, though. There are definitely dozens of us.

@Corum Definitely sounds like amongst other things they were measuring IOP. Which I have done to me every six months, and I do it to animal patients about once a week on average. It's an odd sensation but hardly torture - my patients would never sit still for it if it was!

Dilating the pupils is also a thing I have done at least once a year. It's a little weird, and definitely makes you light-sensitive for a few hours, but again, it's a very normal diagnostic.

With Atelier Sophie 2 winging its way towards me, I'm trying to finish Atelier Ryza 2. I'm probably not going to finish it today, but we'll see.

If I need a break from alchemical pursuits, I'll probably play a little G-Darius HD.

I like it, but I'm not 100% sold yet. After decades of wild Batmobiles it's a little hard to adjust to one that looks to me like a slightly modified Mustang. (I know nothing about cars, please don't come for me).

I'm sure a lot of people are ecstatic about having a "grounded" and "realistic" Batmobile (and Batman himself) for a change. But I don't want my superheroes, or their toys, to be realistic. I want them to be super.

Still optimistic about the movie, but I really hope they let Batman actually be a superhero.

I'm waiting for Amazon to deliver my copy, but I'm still trying to finish Ryza 2 before I start. Love these games, especially the alchemy itself.

100% would have played in Japanese even if there was an English option. I almost always do. I'm not a "purist" or anything, it's just that English VA on mid-budget games is usually distractingly bad.

On the boycott list they go.

What is this Tempest 2K you kids keep chattering about, Original Tempest or get out! Well, I guess I am "of a certain age" after all.

For real though, this looks fun, and the OG Tempest is one of the all-time greats. I'm not sold on the music for this so far, but the visuals are spot on.

Cautiously interested, depending on price.

I'm sorry if anyone takes it personally, but that figure looks absolutely awful. $120 for this is about $109 too much.

@NinjaWaddleDee Same. I refuse to buy this after hearing about the Cloud BS - I mean, BP!

It's just bad business. Don't pee on your customers and tell them it's raining. I would have gone for this game, too. It looks good, and while I'm not the biggest FF fan around I do have some attachment to some of the characters (and needless to say, Cloud is one of those 😥). But I won't support companies that do business like this.

Wow, this comment section is extra spicy. What happened there?

Game is probably not for me, I've never played a Souls game because I basically suck at boss battles, but what reason is there for anyone to be salty about a game getting widespread acclaim?

The console wars are the most idiotic thing in the gaming world. Just enjoy your games on whatever devices you've bought, and let everyone else do the same.

@PhhhCough "Funny too, as much praise as BoTW gets in THIS comment section, elsewhere it's a "bland, empty, boring game, with no dungeons""

You mean the game that still has a Metascore of 97 five years after its release, or a different Breath of the Wild?

@ElRoberico Agree, it's the cult of the new. That score will go down soon even if the game truly is a masterpiece. I'm sure the score will stay high, but not 97 high.

I'm not super into fighting games, but somehow I'm still tempted by this, mostly so I can officially retire my Super Puzzle Fighter GBA cartridge. I don't even have a working GBA anymore but I still occasionally give it go on the DS, and that game is fire. I've also never played any Darkstalkers games.
Probably not worth it for me in the end, though.

If Amazon plays nice I'll be getting mine on Friday, but I'm not quite done with Ryza 2 yet. That will probably take another week or so.

So my shock and horror kind of depend on what these are made of and whether they were machine knit or made by hand. As a knitter, I know that people who don't knit chronically underestimate the time, focus and money it takes to knit a sweater, especially if you're doing colorwork like this.

Realistically, if you were to commission that dress from a master knitter and have it made from natural fibers (as opposed to plain old acrylic yarn), a fair price would be at least several hundred dollars and most likely closer to $1000. If these are handknit, this is a staggering amount of work. It's not like the "ugly Christmas sweaters" you see online, which are made from acrylic yarn, have the faux colorwork printed on instead of knit into the sweater, and are made in industrial quantities on computerized knitting machines. That dress is dozens of hours of painstaking labor IF these are handknit.

However, I can't see the product itself, so they just might be overpriced trash with a designer name attached to it.

Maybe now I can retire my Puzzle Fighter GBA cartridge. Depends what the collection comes out to - I'm interested in Darkstalkers as well as Puzzle Fighters, but already have SF2 on the Switch and am not super into fighting games.

@CANOEberry A fair rebuttal, and if there are games you feel like you need to play I'm not saying you should just wait to see if/when they come back. Buying now will obviously always be the safest bet.

BUT please note the first part of my comment! Namely, you can't play all the games. You just can't. There are too many games worth playing, and video games are a medium that inherently takes a long time to explore. It's inevitable that you're going to miss out on some good games, and it's better to accept that and carry on with your life than to bankrupt yourself and miss out on life itself trying to keep up with all the good games.

No man ever laid in his deathbed, looked up at his loving family and said "if I regret one thing in life, it's not playing R-Type III on the original hardware when I had the chance".

I'm not trying to tell anyone not to buy video games. I love games, too. I just bought Raiden IV out of FOMO, and I'm getting Atelier Sophie 2 on release day next week, whether I've finished Ryza 2 or not. But at the same time, there are rock-solid Switch games from two years ago that I haven't bought yet and may never play. And that's okay.

EDIT TO ADD: also, this: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/11/rumour-the-original-final-fantasy-tactics-might-be-getting-a-remaster

In the ongoing debate over coverage of the eshops closure, allow me to offer one more perspective that I learned over decades of gaming, from the very first days of video game arcades:

DON'T PANIC.

You physically cannot play all the good games, at least not if you want to have any time left over for things like a career, family or really just living a life. And all the games worth playing will come back in some form eventually. This is NOT your last chance to play Harvest Moon (or whatever franchise you are currently worried about missing).

The last few years have seen remakes, re-releases and collected editions of Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac-Man and Dragon's Lair (a game that was only ever noteworthy from a technical angle), not to mention things like the Famicom Detective Club and Advance Wars on the Nintendo end. Closer to home for this article, we also had the Friends of Mineral Town remake.

All of this has happened before, and all of it shall happen again.

I'll be continuing Atelier Ryza 2, which I'm about 60 hours into.

Going to try to get some Ring Fit Adventure time in, first time since I hurt my back so we'll see how that goes.

I'll probably have a go at R-Type Final 2. I just saw the credits roll the other day, but with 3 continues and playing on Kids difficulty, so there is plenty of room for improvement.

Might dip into Raiden IV Mikado Remix which I just bought.

Horgihugh sounds like a classic shmup setup, so... is it good? I'm always down for new shmups, but I need to know more, and not about the story. The story hardly matters.

These are all things I'd read more about, but no autobuys for me.

@korosanbo Same here, it's what kept me going with RFA for a long time. I'm not just doing reps, I'm running and paddling and flying through a goofy fantasy world and slaying monsters with the power of my hip shakes. I'd much rather do that than just work out with a virtual trainer.

RFA also really accomodates you with the custom mode, which I've used to add a 15-minute "yoga" session to my Adventure workout. There are days when I really really don't have the energy for the full workout, but custom mode is there for me.

Technically I'm still "playing" it, but I've had such frequent injuries and illnesses in the last year that my routine is shot to hell. Like now for instance, I had a back injury a few weeks ago and I'm just now feeling like it's safe to work out again. Hopefully tomorrow is the day.

Am I the only one here who thinks that cars and buses are not the same thing?

I'm not buying this in this state, it's clearly unfinished. Square just isn't what it used to be.

Throw in some NFTs and a gacha mechanic, and make the entire second half of the game be part of a Limited Time Early Bird Platinum Level Battle Pass, and you got a real Square Enix game.

@GerBearNy I was just about to say I haven't played it since it was brand new on PC and I've forgotten almost everything about it, so it's time to double dip!

I like the idea of this game more and more. I love when video games contain other video games. Love just about everything about that trailer. And the time period makes this super relatable to me as I'm pretty sure I was born within a year or two of the MC.

Headline overshadowed by ATLA tagline. 10/10, would fannishly comment again.

All hail Queen Toph.

I had doubts about this from the beginning, but I kind of hoped they would surprise me. Doesn't sound like they did.

This started life as an April Fool's gag, and maybe it should have stayed there.

I can't wait for this. But I have to finish Ryza 2 first. I think I can do it by the 26th, but it might come right down to the wire. In any case, I'm preordering this for sure.

Part of me wants to buy the Mysterious Trilogy DX, because out of those three I've only played Lydie and Suelle. But I have too many other games I want to play, so I'll just start fresh with Sophie 2.

@Ralizah If I can't have Bernadetta lay waste to entire legions of mooks this game is dead to me.

I actually thought this amiibo already came and went, so this is good news for me. I love Min-Min, and she's a good choice to represent ARMS. I hardly buy Amiibo - my collection is six or seven of them - but I'll be watching for her.

And I hope ARMS gets another chance sometime. It was a great game. Unfortunately it's best as a local multiplayer game, and I guess not a lot of people played it that way.

@romanista To be honest I have some doubts about the accuracy of those numbers, but when you come down to it the scale of the difference is so massive those numbers could be off by a billion and there woukd still be a huge majority for cricket. Same goes for soccer.

And yes, there is a college football scene. But apparently it isn't the kind of thing that translates into video games or video game sales.

Still, I'm just speculating.

I'll admit I wasn't really paying this much attention, but I might have to check it out. These guys sound fun, and I spent many, many hours playing these games back in the day.

@MontyCircus I think it's largely due to the fact that Madden is the only game franchise that can use actual NFL players, and NFL is the only league anyone cares about. With soccer there is a tradition of worshipping Everyman type players, following teams in foreign countries and actually playing in amateur leagues. People all over the world follow teams like Man U and Real Madrid intently. The World Cup is a major pop culture event from Beijing to Mexico City.

Even other largely American sports have traditions of amateur leagues and stunt teams, so a lot of people are open to playing fantasy leagues.

With American football, it's pretty much NFL or nothing, and when one franchise owns the NFL there's not a lot of money for other companies to go for.

This is all conjecture, but I'm genuinely trying to think of an explanation. Because you're right, the NA market is massive and it would be strange for gaming companies to ignore a potentially profitable subgenre.

@BulbasaurusRex Dude, you need to stop. Baseball has about 500 million fans. Cricket has FIVE TIMES that number. These are facts. Arguing against them is pointless.

I haven't played a game all week. When I do it will probably be Atelier Ryza 2, which I want to finish soon, or Civilization 6 which I haven't played in months.

OT, I do like the accents in Xenoblade and Dragon Quest and I love that they are regional. I hate how everybody sounds the same in 90% of the video games today, especially when it's literally the same actors in so many games. Most of the time I play in Japanese when there's an option, but with Xenoblade it never crossed my mind. I'm just, I'm really feeling it. If you know, you know.

@NEStalgia I did that too. It was weird because I could see the comment applying to the original Phoenicians, and I was like that's really cool but who in the Xenoblade games is Phoenician and how does that work?

It took me a while to figure the headline out. I thought the game went back and forth between the Nineties and the Roaring Twenties, for whatever reason. Eventually it dawned on me that we are in the Twenties now.

This is pretty crass, so yeah, it's exactly what I expect from Squeenix. I was moderately hyped for the game, but I won't support this. There are more than enough games to play, and with the number one kart racer getting a massive update soon I'll be happy to skip this one.

I'd be more interested in a Nendoroid Samus.

I'm questioning your ethics, Debbie.