Last month was a great month for gaming. Seriously. It was better than some years of gaming. I went on a buying spree I haven't been on since I was a young adult buying PS1 games.
So here's what I've been playing lately.
Link's Awakening (Switch): Nice to have this Game Boy classic as a console game. They gave it a sort of Mother/Earthbound look, but in many respects, other than a few QOL improvements like not having to equip items like the Power Bracelet or Pegasus Boots, as well as real life Wonder Catcher physics added to the Trendy Game, Link's Awakening's gameplay and world are pretty much a 1:1 re-creation of the source material, which you don't always see. Anyway a great way to relive this whimsical and somber Zelda classic.
Ni no Kuni (Switch): This console Pokemon-esque RPG from Studio Ghibli and Level-5 got re-released the same day as Link's Awakening. I could have gotten a HD remaster, but I chose to get it for Switch instead, since it looked pretty good to begin with. Ni no Kuni was not only my 2013 GOTY, it was my runner up Game of the Generation (behind Valkyria Chronicles) for the PSWii60 generation. Still just as fun as ever, but I also forgot how brutal the difficulty was in spots.
Dragon Quest XI S (Switch): This game, simply put, is amazing, in terms of graphics, gameplay, story, and yes, even music, since the Switch version got the orchestrated soundtrack instead of the MIDI soundtrack. This game might well dethrone Dragon Quest VIII, my previous DQ champ, and is one of two games in consideration for GOTY 2019, the other being Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
And as a bonus, ports of the first three Dragon Quest games were released on the eShop the same day as DQXI. I picked up all three. Dragon Quest III was my favorite third party NES game of all time, and my favorite RPG of that generation.
The Switch has become possibly the best RPG console of all time, and since that's my favorite genre, that means I'm in gaming heaven. Quite a turnaround from the N64 days, where you were keeping your fingers crossed that Nintendo wouldn't cancel Earthbound 64 (which it did, sadly) or Ogre Battle 64, which were among only four good RPGs for the console during its entire five-year run, along with Paper Mario and Harvest Moon 64. In terms of RPG quality, the Switch just beat an entire console in the space of two weeks. How cool is that?
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