PixlBit

Yeah... it's been a while. Not really been gaming much, honestly. My computer is completely toast and I don't have the funds to buy a new one, especially with graphics cards costing what they do. That and I've just been a bit of a mess lately and not felt like talking to anyone. Which isn't great. We've been a bit hard up lately and moved in with two housemates. One is weirdly in denial about being a geek despite being super into Star Trek voyager and owning an Alienware laptop and a PS4 pro, and the other has a 2 year old kid.

 Ive played 4 games since I last posted though and have some thoughts about them.

Super Mario Odyssey

The housemate with the kid has a Switch, so I got to play Mario Odyssey. It was really quite a charming affair, and I enjoyed my time with it. The hat mechanic was really quite fun and intuitive and added a lot of variety to the title, even if it did make the game a touch on the easy side since enemies were rarely a threat and dying as one of the possessed monsters had very little consequence.

 I enjoyed the focus on exploration, but I do wish there was a bit more variety in the moons you collected. Getting to darker side of the moon became somewhat of a chore honestly, as a lot of the moons boiled down to doing inane busiwork. Also, there was no challenge curb. I'm not expecting dark souls here or anything, but it would be nice if the last level wasn't almost the same difficulty as the first.

 Last annoyance was that exploration really isn't encouraged heavily until you beat the level as you can finish a path where you know there's a moon but you can't get the moon because you have to finish the main path first. and even then most moons don't unlock until you beat bowser, so there is r a whole lot of point in exploration until you've properly finished the game, which seems vaguely counter intuitive. These worlds are awesomely designed and Id love to be able to just inhabit the world when I first get there and explore places on my way to the main quest, rather than coming back but maybe that's just me.

 I really did enjoy the game though. I haven't smiled this hard while playing a game since... Mario galaxy 2 maybe? I didn't like 3D World much honestly, but this was great. 

Ys Viii: Lacrimosa of Dana

I played through this on vita to completion, which took around 55-ish hours. I felt a little conflicted on this entry though. The exploration of the world is great, especially with its metroidvania-esque elements of finding castaways to remove obstacles on top of the usual ys abilities like double jump and breathing under water etc. However if you've played any Ys game since Seven, this is going to be an overly familiar experience. It's a little too long for the Ys format in my opinion, and I found the bosses a little lacking this time around, even on harder difficulties. There's a little too much fluff, the story isn't great (it never is in ys) but interrupts constantly, and there is very little depth or charm to a lot of the caharacters. 

The gameplay is still mostly a blast, or at least fun enough for me to play it to completion. Exploring the island you're trapped on is the best part honestly, but I find it weird that basic enemies are harder than boss battles this time around. The music is still amazing though, and the story eventually gets interesting if generic as fuck with an incredibly silly true ending that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But hey, jrpgs gonna jrpg.

Nier Automata

For whatever reason I never quite completed Nier automata despite enjoying my time with it, so I started again. While I enjoyed it, I do think in hindsight it is a little overrated. The story isn't really all that amazing despite hitting you hard in the feels, and it leans harder into pretentious than actually smart.  The last third especially feels weirdly rushed despite being where all the interesting stuff happens. Plus, once you get over the novelty of having to play through the game 3 times to get the full story, it becomes monotonous to traipse through the same 4 areas again and again. 

 Gameplay is also only serviceable since there isn't a lot of enemy variety, and certain pods very much break the game. The bullet hell sections take up way too much gameplay in the second play through despite not being all that refined and there aren't really any proper combos to speak of - which is disappointing as a platinum games fan - and different weapons didn't really make much difference until fully upgraded.

Also, joke endings are especially obnoxious if you accidentally trigger one after not having saved in a while - especiallt when the joke ending triggered because I realised I hadn't saved in a while and tried to go to a save point. Lost two hours at one point and had to do an especially tedious side quest again.

 Still, there's nothing quite like nier. Despite my misgivings I still want a sequel because it's weird, it's unique, and it made me think at times - even if it was a lot More shallow than it originally let on. I still recommend you try it - especially on sale - but it's not quite the experience a lot of game critics have made it out to be.

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Id talk more but typing out blogs on an iPad is a frustrating experienc.