That’s a massive improvement in some games for those who play handheld. Probably should’ve been there from the start, but it’s good that Nintendo finally implemented it.

So, this is now in top five of the series?

I’d say it’s a contender for the #5 spot, but I’ll need to think about it a bit more. There’s a lot of competition for that slot. 🙂

Super Robot Wars Y is also done? No more DLCs?

Nothing announced but datamining from the PC version indicates we might get more DLCs later this year.

Finished Trails Beyond the Horizon!

That was one hell of an ending.

So good that it makes me move this game to the top tier of this series - but it also brings a big question of “will Falcom be able to put a worthy follow-up to this ending?”.

This game also adds a ton to the worldbuilding of the series, and I’m impressed that they managed to create a twist that not only solves some of my long-standing complaints but even turns them into clever foreshadowing.

I’m now desperately wanting the next game on the series. There’s so, so many possibilities and questions going through my mind right now.

Finally, I’m very happy we’re getting more of Risette’s backstory. She’s been one of my favorites since the first Daybreak game, so seeing her role grow in importance is fantastic.

Finished DLC 2 for Super Robot Wars Y!

Definitely not as good as the first DLC. It lacks the strong storyline combining the new series that made the previous batch shine, and doesn’t bring enough to the table to make up for that. At least while the new units are interesting individually.

One big highlight were the Koutetsu Jeeg animations, easily the best among new DLC units.

Playing Witch on the Holy Night!

With the two above done we go back to our regular programming.

From what I gather, this is Ys: Memories of Celceta. Originally released before Ys VIII, but the story follows right after Ys X. This version was released in Japan last year, now coming to the west.

It’s a remake of Ys IV, and this particular version was originally released for the PS Vita.

The Ys games are mostly self-contained, each telling one of the adventures of Adol Christin, based on a list of diaries/books he left behind.

There is a timeline but it doesn’t follow the game release order - X is a good example since it’s one of the earliest games in the chronology, taking place right after I and II.

I’m still thinking the finale chapter is the best Trails chapter to date, wire-to-wire. It was so good.

Finished this game yesterday and I agree, that was one hell of an ending. Really looking forward to the next game (whenever it comes).

Going to post a more complete review at the Nintendo community’s weekly discussion thread this friday.

Yes, Kevin first appears in Sky SC and is the protagonist of Sky 3rd.

Then he kinda disappeared, only showing up as a minor NPC in some games (like Azure) until he finally returned as a playable character in Horizon.

Thinking about picking this one up, since I didn’t play the OG version.

Combat in the OG was a bit too much “button mashing” (gets better if you swap to characters other than Velvet), but was otherwise a fantastic game.

Velvet is a great protagonist and the whole cast works really well together. One of the best “band of misfits” teams in JRPGs.

Playing Trails Beyond the Horizon!

Finished Rean Route 3 and Kevin Route 3, and now going through Van Route 6. Looks like these are the last parts of their individual routes and after that we go for the final chapter.

I’m quite disappointed by how short Kevin’s route was. I was hyped to have him as a playable character again after all these years, but he has the shortest route by far (his last chapter is just two short maps and a two boss battles, doesn’t even have a second city to explore like Rean’s), and he struggles with the weakest of the three teams as well (Swin really needs a buff).

At least his story beats were good. He and the Picnicking Front have a good dynamic, and it also includes some major reveals that I’ll discuss in a spoiler section after I finish the game. Though I’m curious where they’re going with his character building, he seems to have somewhat “regressed” to how he was before Sky 3 - and even his party members are constantly calling him out on that.

Rean’s route was also on the short side, but that didn’t bother me as much since we had so many games to play with him already. It was damn good though, with some long-awaited encounters and also interesting reveals related to what we saw in Kevin’s route.

I’ll leave my final comments on Van’s route for after I finish the game, but so far it’s the weakest of the three, it feels too much like “filler” - despite being longer than the other two combined it don’t contain as many interesting story moments.

With this current pace I’ll probably finish the game this weekend, which is faster than I expected. If that happens I’ll go back to Super Robot Wars Y to play DLC2.

Fully focused on Horizon so no progress on other games.

Yeah, it’s incredibly weird.

There’s a way to “empty” your stash of monsters without battling but it requires you to teleport to a certain place, pay a fee, then teleport back which is very awkward and requires you to be at a checkpoint.

Late-game the encounter rate gets so high that you fill your “stash” of enemies incredibly fast.

And since the game also goes incredibly “anti-girinding” in the second half you’re not only fighting tons of enemies but often also getting almost zero XP out of it. That made the game feel like a huge slog to me.

The difficulty spike is different matter though. That’s mostly about the bosses.

Hoping to finish Trails Beyond the Horizon in another week or two, then go back to Super Robot Wars Y to play the second DLC batch.

After that, not sure. Maybe finally playing Atelier Resleriana? There’s also Fantasian, @Tamlyn@lemmy.zip’s comment above made me remember I haven’t finished and I might give that game another shot.

I burned out in the later half of Fantasian due to the encounter rate and difficulty spikes, but might pick it up again and see if I can finish it, I wasn’t that far from the end.

At least I had a ton of fun with the first half of the game.

Playing Trails Beyond the Horizon!

Finished Van Routes 4 and 5, Kevin Route 2, and I’m now progressing through Rean Route 3. Probably in the last third of the game, but with my current schedule I think it’ll still take me a couple weeks to get to the ending.

Fully focused on Horizon so no progress on other games.

For beginners I’d recommend Drainus among traditional ("non bullet hell¨) shmups and Danmaku Unlimited 3 on the easiest settings for bullet hell.

And if you enjoy Danmaku Unlimited 3 I’d go for Crimzon Clover next, it’s one of the best games in the genre. It’s significantly harder even on Novice, but still beatable with some pratice.

A bit early to tell. There’s a lot of things being set up in all three routes, so the payoff will say how this game will end up in my ranking.

But I will say it’s looking very promising so far.

Playing Trails Beyond the Horizon!

Currently on Act 3, Van Route 4. The end of the previous act was a very interesting surprise and a great character moment.

Fully focused on Horizon so no progress on other games.

why not just upgrade to Switch 2

I will pick one up eventually, but right now it’s being held back by the combo of “only Bananza as an exclusive I care about”, “high console price”, “high SD Express price” and “game key carts”.

Besides Bananza the only Switch 2 games I have in my wishlist are “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave” (no release date yet) and “The Adventures of Elliot” (June). All recently announced ports fall into “if I cared about those I’d already own a PS5”.

$450 for the Switch 2 is pricy, adding another $200 if I simply want to have the same 1TB I have on the Switch 1 makes it sting a lot more. Simply letting me use my current SD card for my existing Switch 1 library would’ve been a huge deal.

Game keys make everything much worse - I refuse to buy those as a game collector, so for a lot of games I’d end up picking up the Switch 1 version anyway (this includes Trails Beyond the Horizon) or wait for a heavily discounted digital (meaning I wouldn’t be playing them for 1-2 years). And it also adds to the storage problem too.

Playing Trails Beyond the Horizon!

Quite a bit of progress, I’m on the latter half of Act 2 having just finished the second part of the Rean route.

Seems like the route splits aren’t quite like Reverie, with Van’s side taking most of the playtime (I’d say his team gets 50-60% of the game), but despite their reduced playtime the other two routes have been far more interesting. The end of latest Rean section brought a major reveal that has me extremely interested in direction the story is going alongside a long-waited battle where they nailed both custscenes and challenge.

One thing I haven’t commented before is the quality of the Switch 1 version, which has some really odd problems - it keeps going back and forth between “this looks pretty good” and “extremely low-res and blurry” very abruptly and all the time. It’s very distracting, and given how much worse it looks than Daybreak 1/2 (which AFAIK runs on the same engine) I think something is wrong in this port.

Fully focused on Horizon so no progress on other games.

My wishlist is kinda empty for “major” releases right now.

If I get a Switch 2 I’m interested in the new Fire Emblem (plus Bananza which is already out), and maybe Adventures of Elliot depending on the reviews. Other than that I only have the two games from Falcom (Kyoto Xanadu and Trails in the Sky 2) and the new Professor Layton game.

Of all of these I think only Adventures of Elliot has a release date and it’s only in June!

Mario Tennis is not my cup of tea.

I’ve tried DQ games before but I almost never liked them enough to finish, 5 being the main exception. So while I might give 7 a shot it’s probably a “pick it up with a big discount” situation.