RevolverLink

Octopath Traveler II is a game I haven't really stopped thinking about in the 8 months since I finished it, it's just packed to the brim with memorable moments, characters and storylines, with some of the best turn-based combat in the business and one of my favorite game soundtracks in years. It's also absolutely gorgeous, the use of HD-2D is so much more sophisticated here than it was in the original Octopath. Probably my favorite RPG since Dragon Quest XI.

I really hope Octopath 2 ends up performing well enough for Acquire and Square-Enix to justify taking a third crack at it, because OT2 truly is stellar as both a RPG and a sequel.

I do wish the new pixel font was a bit thicker and didn't leave quite so much space in the menu/text boxes, but on the whole it's a much better and more fitting alternative to the "modern" font these versions initially had on PC/mobile.

I actually like FF5 a lot more than the reviewer did. FF6 is probably my favorite overall game of this set, but 5 is probably the one I have the most fun playing, its version of the Job/skill system might be my single favorite gameplay system in any Final Fantasy game. And while 5 is not as focused on narrative as either 4 or 6, there are still plenty of individual high points with its scenarios, characters and humor, and the soundtrack has some of the best music from this era of the series.

I've become so obsessed with Octopath Traveler II that I've started having dreams about using path actions and breaking enemy shields. And the soundtrack has been constantly playing in my head.

Worth mentioning that Dragon Quest Builders 2's current "Jumbo" demo lets you play until just before the end of the game's first major island/story arc, roughly the first 15-20 hours of the game. And like most of SE's demos on Switch, that progress carries over into the full game.

It's gonna be some mixture of Wario Land 3 on Game Boy NSO, trying to get through Rise's dungeon in one go in Persona 4 Golden and hoping my Switch doesn't continue its recent overheating trouble while I'm trying the Octopath Traveler II demo/playing the Grizzco weapon rotation in Splatoon 3's Salmon Run.

On my own list, WarioWare would be a clear and easy #1 out of these six games, but it's a decently strong little line-up regardless.

The original Katamari Damacy is still very close to my heart, and nothing in the series could ever match the kind of bolt from the blue impact it had in 2004, but We Love Katamari has always been my favorite entry in the series. I'm so glad that it's finally finding a post-PS2 home.

The thing with Ghost Trick is that it's one of the best games ever made, and Shu Takumi's masterpiece, but it can prove difficult for fans to sell it to potential new players (even putting aside the " was previously only on DS and mobile" issue) simply because none of us want to spoil a single thing about it.

Our main tool is a whole lot of, "Dude, just trust me."

Really hoping that they right past wrongs and include Ranger X this time around!

Chrono Cross, Majora's Mask and Final Fantasy IX all coming out within a few months of each other at that time in my life did so much to shape my gaming tastes from then on. Even now when I play a some new games, particularly RPGs, I admit there's a part of me that still chases the way those 3 games made me feel when I was 12.

Thanks for including that bit about inaction bonuses, I did not know about that at all! I'm definitely keeping that in mind for future battles.

The hours on my Switch's play activity and the Year in Review aren't quite matching up (I'm curious if time spent in sleep mode is affecting things there), but either way my 3 most played Switch games were definitely Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Bravely Default II and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.

My top 3 (Majora's Mask, Final Fantasy IX, Ace Attorney 3) are close to being set in stone, but there are like a dozen different games that could slot into the last 2 spots, depending on what mood I'm in on a given day.

So sometimes relatively recent games like Breath of the Wild or Dragon Quest XI S are in there sometimes, though Animal Crossing: New Leaf was probably the most recent game before them that felt like it had truly cracked my personal top 5.

Can't wait to start dreaming in Picross hints again.

Congratulations, NL, I wish your staff many more years of success! I haven't been a regular poster in many years, but I've been floating around since the early VC-Reviews days, crazy that it's been that long.

Octopath Traveler, Octopath Traveler and some more Octopath Traveler

I'll be burying myself in Octopath Traveler. With maybe a little Last Window: The Secret of Cape West just before bedtime.

Having just finished Breath of Fire IV (it was really good - definitely a bit of an underplayed PS1 classic), I'm now focused on Kyle Hyde's last adventure, Last Window: The Secret of Cape West.

That reminds me, I really need to get a new 3DS before Nintendo eventually stops making them. My original model has served me well, but after 6+ years, it's kind of falling apart.

Good for Jeremy Parish and Retronauts. They've always been huge proponents of games preservation and it must be incredibly gratifying to see their passion rewarded in this way.

Between the initial release of the remastered trilogy last year and the recent ports, I honestly had no idea that there was still this large a market out there for Crash Bandicoot, which to me seemed to be a character/series very much of its time. I'm not a big Crash fan at all, but it's still kinda cool to see older games like this find a place in 2017/2018.

Just inject Octopath Traveler directly into my veins.

Wow, that is some gorgeous spritework.

The real news here is that My Nintendo apparently has fans.

Oof, that was a tough call, I loved that doofy little purple lunchbox. The Cube may even be my favorite system of that era, which is saying something considering how much affection I still have for the PS2, GBA and Dreamcast.

Anyway, my favorite GCN game kinda rotates between a good dozen or so titles, but these were the five I was thinking of when I cast my votes:

-Pikmin 2
-The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
-Resident Evil 4
-Metroid Prime
-Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

As a big Dragon Quest fan, VII is the biggest piece missing from my series puzzle and, after years of waiting for this remake, I can't wait to finally dig into it over the weekend!

While I don't think the series will ever again reach quite the same highs as Trials & Tribulations did, I still get really excited whenever we get a new Ace Attorney. Like Dragon Quest, the series is something like gaming comfort food for me.

The SP was such a step up from the vanilla GBA in nearly every way, but Nintendo can't seem to resist having a goofy quirk in their hardware.

Sometimes we just want to play Fire Emblem or Metroid: Zero Mission (and listen to their soundtracks) without bothering the people around us, early-to-mid-2000s Nintendo!

I really hope we get a book covering the development of Mighty No. 9 someday, or at least a very thorough article from a place like USGamer. While the game itself is pretty "blah", I'm fascinated by how and why this project went so wrong, because there was so much promise and goodwill in the beginning.

Not that Stardew Valley's UI is difficult to use to begin, but I can definitely see the Wii U's gamepad improving item and menu management.

Also, it's just a special little game and I'm glad more people will have a chance to play it now.

I'm sure Super Mario 64 looks quaint to many people now that we've had 20 more years of 3D game development, but seeing and playing that game for the first time remains the most blown away I've ever been with a video game. Super Mario 64 is not a perfect game, but none of the new gameplay mechanics, compelling narratives and graphical wizardry that have been developed since then have been able to match what a monumental leap forward that game felt like, at least to me. Video games have gone in many interesting directions since 1996 and the medium is still growing and maturing (even if it sometimes feels like it happens in fits and starts), but at that specific moment in time, the possibilities felt truly limitless.

Well, if nothing else, I'm excited to finally see Dragon Quest VII 3DS in English and some real gameplay from Zelda U.

With my R shoulder button currently busted, I'm kinda tempted to get one of these myself.

@SMW I think they may be counting the Ace Attorney Trilogy, not the Professor Layton crossover.

I'm not huge on the handful of new Pokemon designs so far (except for Rowlet - I've never been more excited for a grass starter), but the bits we've seen of the game itself are looking very nice. I'm already loving the new region's Hawaii theme.

@Knuckles No, she's definitely in the game. I think she'll mostly serve as the assistant during the game's Apollo cases.

While I'm mostly just pleasantly baffled that my favorite Capcom series has somehow managed to survive during the company's on-going "Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Monster Hunter or bust" era, I can't deny that I'm a little disappointed, though hardly surprised, that Ace Attorney 6 is going to be digital-only as well. Still, it's great that we'll be getting it so soon.

I voted for Zero Time Dilemma, as I'm incredibly eager to see how the Zero Escape trilogy will be wrapped up (especially since Virtue's Last Reward ended on an enormous cliffhanger), but two other 3DS games I thought we'd never see, Dragon Quest VII and VIII, are right there with it.

Is there any of sort of zoom function, like in Picross DS? I just ran across my first 15x15 puzzle, and on the original model 3DS the squares just feel too small. I'm constantly marking the squares next to the ones I intend to.

While I'm a bit nervous about whether we'll get The Great Ace Attorney, I have really high hopes that we'll at least get Ace Attorney 6.

I'm not sure I've ever been this bummed out by a game reveal. Just ripped my heart out.

It's admittedly a bit unfair to Next Level Games, who have proven themselves to be a really good developer, and the game itself doesn't look bad. But as a Metroid fan, I have absolutely no interest in this.

The presentation itself was by far the best part of the event; it was light-hearted and fun, the puppets were fantastic and Nintendo has continued to embrace the fact that they're the Dad Joke of the modern games industry (which is great). Most of the games shown were things we knew about already, which was a little disappointing, but having fewer surprises at E3 is a price you have to pay when you have Nintendo Directs every 2-3 months (and that's a price I'm more than willing to pay, personally). I was actually pleasantly surprised at how strong a showing the 3DS had; Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Fire Emblem Fates, Yo-Kai Watch, Tri Force Heroes, Hyrule Warriors Legends and even Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer all look like a lot of fun.

That said, a little piece of my soul died with the revelation of Metroid Prime: Federation Force. Next Level Games are solid developers, but it's been a long time since I was this crushed by a new game reveal.

I always seem to forget that this game is a thing that happened. That might be for the best.

@Knuckles - After a solid month of trying and failing to find MGS: The Legacy Collection at a reasonable price, I managed to snag a brand new copy for $50 during the ~10 minutes Amazon actually had it in-stock last week. I couldn't believe my luck.

I'm not exaggerating that 10 minute timeframe, btw. I was on Amazon for the better part of that afternoon looking for games for my new PS3 and it really was there and then gone that fast.

(Though now that I check, Amazon currently does have it in-stock again for $50, so anyone else that's interested in it should pounce on that deal asap. It's almost comical how much the marketplace's prices spike up whenever Amazon runs out of copies.)

Very few games, even ones that fit wholly in the "horror" genres, have had me as on edge as the SA-X sections of Metroid Fusion. Fusion's terrific sound design (definitely a game that benefits from a quality pair of headphones) and Samus' utter helplessness against it - the best you could hope to do most of the time was to hide and hope SA-X just went away - seem like simple things, but they both go such long way toward establishing tension and dread throughout the experience.

I bought Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection earlier this week, so I'm planning to marathon my way through a solid chunk of the series this weekend. Or, at the very least, play Snake Eater again. Man, I love Snake Eater.

I don't know how much extra effort it would require on Nintendo/M2's part (though M2 are the unquestioned champions of going the extra mile when porting classics), but with the Wii U GamePad's built-in gyroscope, I'm really hoping we'll see a Virtual Console release of WarioWare Twisted! someday.

For me, it's neck-and-neck with the original WarioWare game for best entry in the series.

Tomodachi Life really wasn't on my gaming radar at all before it was announced for a NA release, but it rises higher and higher on my wishlist every time I see just how silly and surreal it is.