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I've just finished Luigi's Mansion 3, which I liked far less than I'd expected. It looked and sounded good with inventive areas and bosses, but I found the controls frustrating, and the game overly long and repetitive.

I'm now playing Nobody Saves the World, which has been really fun so far.

@versionfiv You're replying to a comment from 7 years ago. Quite the price drop!

I'm finishing up Please, Touch the Artwork. I really enjoyed The Style; the rest, not so much.

I'll then move on to Luigi's Mansion 3.

Super Switch is by far my favourite name choice.

I selected Super Nintendo Switch, but I think you should've had Nintendo Super Switch as an option. The Nintendo in the middle feels weird despite following the NES -> SNES naming.

@GOmar @zombie-paper Yup, this and Rilakkuma & Kaoru are both made by Dwarf Studio. Rilakkuma & Kaoru is great and I'm looking forward to this.

I haven't played anything since I finished The Messenger last weekend. I'll probably start Fire Emblem: Three Houses tomorrow. It's only my second Fire Emblem game and it'll be the first I (hopefully) complete. The first was Awakening, which I gave up on as I struggled with the small text on my 3DS screen.

I'm still working my way through my backlog. This weekend is The Messenger, which I started last weekend after finishing the excellent Ape Out.

I'm not particularly enjoying it for some reason. The first part was decent, but the second part feels really repetitive and irritating. I typically love Metroidvanias, so I'm not sure what's different. The backtracking is tedious and having to repeat several easy rooms when I die in a hard room adds to that tedium. The graphics, writing, and music also don't do much for me. On the other hand, the controls are tight (although the tap jump again to glide thing is annoying) and there have been a bunch of satisfying moments.

Oh well. I might try playing a bit of another Metroidvania to see if I'm just not in the mood or if something's missing (e.g. I think the linear route through each area, as opposed to Metroid's circular areas, might contribute to the repetitiveness).

Ape Out.

I 100%d Kirby and the Forgotten Land during the week, which was fairly challenging, and decided I wanted something small to play.

Ape Out is visually and aurally stunning and does a great job at getting my pulse racing. It's pretty tough, so I worry it'll become frustrating towards the end, but so far the die-retry-survive cycle is satisfying. I don't think I'd have paid full price, but it was a steal at the last sale price.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

I've just beaten the final boss (not the one I presume I'll find in the post game), which was a serious jump in difficulty compared to the rest of the game. After beating it I looked at a guide, which mentioned a second life bar and Life Ups. Maybe players are expected to use them? Or maybe they just messed up the difficulty curve? It was a fun fight and the bit afterwards was bananas.

I've now got the post game and a few missed Waddle Dees (mostly no damage boss ones).

It became really fun after about the halfway point when the difficulty became slight-to-occasionally-moderate rather than non-existent. Recommended.

I finally finished Tears of the Kingdom last weekend. I'd intended to finish the weekend before, but didn't want to leave Hyrule and spent my time alternating between grinding for a few materials (Lizalfos tails were the worst) and defeating Lynel and Gleeok. It was super fun to get to the point where I could take out a King Gleeok in under a minute. My armour's now all at level three except Fierce Deity and the special armour, which are at four. I hope we get some DLC soonish so I can return.

I had a rubbish week, so for this weekend something relaxing and simple felt sensible. My brother lent me Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which is a bit too easy to be distracting so far, but is still pretty good. I'm hoping it gets a bit harder.

@RetroGames I disagree with your opinion, but good to know. I'm a bit jaded when it comes to people who complain about things they deride as “woke”. People don't need to have seen something to comment on it as plenty of news sources, etc. can form their opinions. (In both directions, of course.) Glad yours are firsthand. I'm sorry for being sceptical.

Been on my wishlist for months. The issues with the controls are concerning. Fortunately it'll be a while before my backlog is empty and I buy it, so perhaps there'll be an update to improve things. Looking forward to it.

@RetroGames @NorthwestEagle Have either of you seen the Barbie movie?

@TenEighty I'm pretty happy with the graphics of e.g. TotK, but I'd love better draw distances, less pop-in, less haze, faster loading, and no frame rate hiccups.

And I really do hope it's called the Super Switch.

Well, that was spectacular.

TotK, for perhaps the final weekend. Probably endgame today and messing around tomorrow.

I found the last two pieces of surface armour in the last two caves I discovered. What a pain. The Armour of Awakening was well worth the effort though 😂. I don’t think I’ll be tracking down the Depths armour after all.

I also finally completed every side quest. Finding the wells was faster than I expected since they’re mostly near roads. Taking out a King Gleeok was much easier than when I first encountered one thanks to fully upgraded Fierce Deity armour and Savage Lynel Bows.

I’ve upgraded half of my armour to level 3 and the rest to 2. The items I need to upgrade the rest to 3 are irritating (Lizalfos tails, large Zonaite, Frox bits, and Hinox guts) so I don’t think I’ll bother. Beedle saved me from hunting for insects thankfully. And rupees aren’t a problem once you know what to safely sell. A bit worse than BotW, but not egregious. Needing to hoard items for upgrading made me use fusion rarely, which is a pity since it's really cool.

I still have to complete the compendium, help Addison, collect monster medals, find 6 Sage's Wills, and collect 833 Korok seeds. I don’t think I’ll bother with any of that.

As with BotW remembering to take photos and buy insects as I go would avoid a bit of late-game tedium. I should've also kept a log of things such as where I'd found Old Maps, Sage's Wills, and Addison to let me easily mop up with a guide.

There're still so many little QoL things I'd like added to the next game whether or not it's the same type of game.

I wonder what I'll play next.

(That became a bit long, sorry.)

TotK. I thought I'd be done this weekend, but collecting the remaining armour is taking longer than expected since it involves visiting every cave. (Unless there are hints about it that I haven't found? The fashionable people have pointed me towards some of it.)

I also need to find a few more pieces in the Depths including one particularly difficult piece: an old map led me there and what's waiting for me looks rather scary.

I promised myself I wouldn't buy any more games until my backlog is empty, so Pikmin 4 will have to wait for another year.

@shgamer They're just back down to the level they were before TotK, aren't they?

This is fantastic. Thank you.

It seems to focus on the accessibility features that a game provides rather than failings. I'd like to see it expanded to include text size and adjustability, text contrast (e.g. if a solid background can be put behind subtitles), and whether text auto-advances. Zelda isn't great at the first two.

There are also some minor things I'd like such as whether QT events indicate the correct button spatially or just with the button symbol. This was a problem for me in Xenoblade Chronicles 2's fishing game.

I've only had a quick browse, so if I've missed that this sort of info is already included, please let me know.

TotK, for possibly the last weekend.

I spent the week finding the last few shrines, which was easy using the lightroots and Satoris. I couldn't find the very last lightroot (and shrine) despite spending ages looking over the Depths map for incomplete spots. Thankfully, I found it quickly with a guide since the shrine involved a shrine quest. It was Nipahsom Lightroot for the curious.

I'll spend a bit of time finding the remaining armour and finishing a few quests before heading for the end.

@ralphdibny I also forced my way through the clouds really early on, but I didn't do anything with the thing there in order to avoid doing things too out of order. Did you have the fifth sage throughout the phenomena or were they gated? Did the characters just say “oh, you've done that already” when you got to those quests?

@Yalloo Super Metroid is far better.

Metroid Zero Mission is a remake of the original Metroid and I'd recommend playing that if possible. Samus Returns is a remake of Metroid II and I'd again recommend that over the original. The remakes add lots of quality of life improvements as well as better feeling controls, graphics, etc.

TotK.

I've finally completed the quest related to the mask I discovered on Dragon Head Island just after I completed the first regional phenomenon over 100 hours ago. I wonder whether it's possible to unlock the fifth sage first?

I've now completed every main adventure except the last and almost every side adventure. I think I have a lot of side quests to go.

The last five or so hours have been spent completing the 50 shrines I'd unlocked but left unfinished. Lots of Lights of Blessing to convert to hearts. Should double my health!

I can't for the life of me find the final Lightroot... I've scoured the map looking for incomplete bits, but nothing.

The next couple of weeks will be spent finding the remaining shrines, finishing any side quests I find on the way and then going after Ganondorf. I won't be collecting all the seeds or Bubbul gems, finding the wells or signs, or completing the compendium.

Had a great time.

The enormous sales numbers Nintendo achieves really throws my ability to decide whether or not other things are selling well... FFXVI may well help me recalibrate.

@Simon97 PS5 version was in the charts for several weeks and PS4 version for a couple, I think. Couple of hundred thousand sales, istr, so depends what “well” means.

Oh, I didn't realise the price had been announced. I've got it on SNES and (I've just discovered) SNES Classic Mini, so I won't be getting at that price it unless it adds something new. Glad it'll be easier for others to play though.

A fantastic game. If it's cheap (ha) I may buy it to avoid needing to get my SNES and original copy out of storage...

@Waluigi451 I've completed ~60, but activated and ignored another ~50 🙈 I'll get to them, of course, but I just prefer exploring Hyrule.

@Quirky Ooh, I'll give that a try tomorrow, thanks! I'm constantly forgetting about Ascend and Recall.

Was ZL explained? That sounds super handy.

TotK again. 10 hearts. 3 stamina wheels. 50 shrines (and 30 others found, but incomplete). Two regional phenomena.

I’ve been exploring the Depths and had an interesting time in the south-east where I found a Blue-White Frox, which killed me instantly, and the Spirit Temple, which seems to be locked for now. I suspect it’s related to the Guidance quest I started rather early (by going through the super thick clouds to get to Dragon Head Island) and have avoided progressing further.

I’ll probably do a few side quests and then move to phenomena three this week.

@-wc- You could use CSS. Use an extension that lets you add custom CSS (e.g. StopTheMadness) and then use something like

li:has(a.title[href*="item-duplication"]),li:has(a.accent[href*="item-duplication"]),p:has(a.title[href*="item-duplication"]):not(li p) {display: none;pointer-events: none;}

Edit: newlines don't seem to work in code blocks

@RubyCarbuncle Yeah, that was poorly phrased on my part. I meant that fully upgrading everything is unnecessary. I've got everything I currently own to level 2 without grinding. From what I remember of BotW, grinding was only necessary for level 4 upgrades (although maybe some rarer armour needed it for earlier upgrades).

Still on 1.1.0 since I haven't closed TotK since launch day. I haven't used the glitch, but I also haven't done any grinding for materials. Since it's not essential to upgrade my equipment, why would I?

TotK. 10 hearts. 2⅕ stamina wheels. 50 shrines. 78 Korok seeds. I've decided to complete the second Phenomenon before continuing to wander. I've done a lot of exploring including two Lomei Labyrinths, a few Death Stars, and spent a long time getting to the island in the far south-west only to find I had no arrows for its occupant 😡

I'm playing exclusively on my TV so the tiny text hasn't been an issue, but I'm visually impaired and struggle frequently with the glowing text shown during cutscenes and at the start and end of Zonai quests and shrines.

The glow makes it all blend together and sometimes the background against which it's displayed makes it pretty much impossible for me to read. It's made worse by auto-advancing, which is somewhat understandable when it's accompanied by a voiceover, but problematic.

It's especially annoying because there's been some consideration of this elsewhere: the general conversation text is manually advanced, has a log and can have an opaque background.

Transparency is the worst. Let me put an opaque black box behind all the text even if it ruins the aesthetic.

I'm at around 40 hours. I played a lot for the first few days, but I'm trying to let it last now. I've explored a good amount of the overworld and the sky. but barely touched the depths. It's really hard to judge how long TotK will take since it's so non-linear.

I completed (almost?) everything in Breath of the Wild except the Korok seeds in about 105 hours (with a little help finding a few shrines).

I was expecting to give it 11/10, but so far I'd give it 10. I have plenty of nitpicks and it sometimes feels like megaDLC, but overall the game is as magical as BotW.

Zelda, of course.

Current progress:

@Debbiee @ATHFjman18 It's only been a few years (3?) since the previous game. Check the Hateno lab for info about Purah.

How can I do spoilers..?

“Nearly”, you say?

picks up controller

I already have a backlog of over a year of gaming, so I'm in no rush for the Super Switch

Just finished Yakuza 0 after 8 or so weeks (super fun, great story and characters, lots of interesting substories and minigames, but also overstuffed resulting in some serious tedium)

I was planning to start Life is Strange, but I noticed Yakuza Kiwami was on sale and immediately broke my decision not to buy anything until I'd cleared my backlog. I'm not sure whether I'll play that or LiS first.

I'll get back to my Switch after those (or maybe after some more Yakuza games...)

I'm struggling to remember. My first console was an N64, so I didn't play the NES/SNES ones until I got those consoles years later. My brother had a PS2, so I think X was possibly my first, but I played IX at around the same time... Those, FFTA and VI (III) are the only ones I've completed, despite having played most of them.

Fourth weekend, I think, playing Yakuza 0. I'm maybe halfway through the story, which has become very exciting, but rather than continuing I've spent a load of time doing Kiryu's side missions whilst completing the real estate business. The Media King is the first fight that I just couldn't manage without healing items. The side stuff is pretty good, but I'm looking forward to getting back to the main plot now.

Sea of Stars, The Plucky Squire, Bō, Tiny Thor and Snufkin most immediately appeal to me, but a bunch look intriguing. Trailers without gameplay make it hard to judge.

The style of battles in She Dreams Elsewhere remind me of Earthbound. I'll keep an eye on it, but tend to avoid thematically heavy games.

@MarioBrickLayer Several I've had for ages and a few that I bought in a moment of weakness during the most recent eShop sale. Some are pretty short, but I don't game a lot so they'll probably last me well into 2024 after I add TotK.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Triangle Strategy, Okami, ElecHead, HADES, Ape Out, The Messenger, Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling, Nobody Saves the World, XCOM 2, Please, Touch the Artwork and Grim Fandango.

To be honest, I'll probably break my rule again for at least Silksong.

@deecas I went a few years ago and it was great recognising places I'd seen in games. Bits from Nioh, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #fe and Persona 5 were especially cool. I had no idea I'd be visiting one of the places from Nioh and it was really weird realising why I recognised the place. Enjoy your trip.

I've decided not to buy any new games (except TotK) until I've finished my backlog: 13 games on Switch and two on PS4. (My Steam library doesn't count and is rarely played anyway.)

I finished Death's Door last weekend (recommended) and have now started on Yakuza 0, which is completely ridiculous and great fun so far.

When they first announced Pokémon Sleep, I assumed a major part of it would be ambient noises and Pokémon purring, etc. to help with falling to sleep. A bit disappointed.

I'm nearing the end of Death's Door, but I've noticed a bunch of secret areas and I can't find a way to access them, so I'm guessing I'll have post-game content to keep me going for a while longer. It's been excellent, albeit mechanically uninventive. Zelda-esque, but with more of a challenge.