PixlBit

Video games that is. A heaping bunch of stuff I touched on today, thanks to Xbox rewards quests, but I finally got back to my main game, Dragon Quest XI S. Here's the lot. 

Medieval Games (Wii): This is a colorful and good looking game in the style of a humorous cartoon. The story mode of the game is a four-player board game with lots of mini-games that you play when you land on different spots. I was playing solo, so I had three AI players along for the ride. The mini-games are of various sorts. There were archery shooting galleries, ax throwing shooting galleries, sword fighting, dancing, potion-making, horse riding with lances, siege battles with catapults, and many others, some of which I needed to unlock by playing more of the "campaign". There is a story worked into the board game mode which I didn't wholly understand. You earn coins in the game to do something that will enable the rather plain daughter of the king to marry a prince. I found the controls mostly fine but these AI players beat me most of the time. I'll play it again and try and unlock all the mini-games. Overall, not too bad. It'd be more fun with real people though. 

Mass Effect Andromeda: I played to kill 15 enemies for rewards points, but kept going a while longer because I liked it. I only played up until you get to the giant space station. I've played beyond that before, but this time I stopped there. I played with the premade female character. Was her name "Sally"? One of these days, I'll take on the entirety of it. 

Final Fantasy VIII: I didn't have to do anything but boot it to get the rewards points but I stayed with it a little while. You start off in a school, which is different, I think, from the previous FF games. I basically just read the tutorial for the card battle game and met a new student. I'll get deeper into it one of these days. 

Monster Hunter World: I did not get the reward for starting a quest for a large monster. I looked for user-created quests, but I wasn't high enough level to join them. So, I did some solo questing. I got into a battle with a large bird-like dinosaur that can throw rocks at you. I battled it for a long time and ended up just wounding it in several places which got me a beak and some other body parts. At times an even larger dinosaur would appear and fight with my target. Pretty cool stuff. I think, though, I don't know exactly what I'm doing. I fired arrows mostly, but I think I can bring out a sword, but I  couldn't find the controls for it. Also, I think there's a move you can do when the hunted is stunned. I'll need to start from the beginning again next time or replay a tutorial if I can find it in town. Very cool game, with great visuals and action. 

Pinball Arcade (Dr. Dude): I by complete chance watched a youtube video tutorial on the Dr. Dude table and then found that table within Pinball Arcade. I worked it just as I saw it done on the video and I did pretty well. Real players control the ball on every shot, so I tried that with some success. Learning how the trap the ball with the flipper is key. I managed to unlock all but one of the table goals described in Pinball Arcade. I was also glad to see the Williams tables I had bought still there even though they don't have the license anymore. There are still plenty of Gottlieb and Bally tables available. 

Farm Together: Moving right along. I took down one of my houses and replaced various animals and plants with quest related ones in my farmhand fields. I built a warehouse that increases storage. I'm also buying extra quests with the marketing agency. You get a maximum of seven plus the monthly quest that pops up regularly. This is a special quest that wins you unique items or harvestable things under a certain theme. There was a Christmas theme before the present one. Mostly it's cosmetic stuff, but sometimes you get a harvestable item that lets you make extra diamonds. I like those. 

Dragon Quest XI S: I got some good time with this today. I'm on the Luminary's solo story right now. The seven-player team is scattered across the land and you have to play as each of them in turn until they, likely, get reunited. This game is very long. It's always the case with Dragon Quest that just when you think you've beaten the final boss, there's a whole other story that begins. I'm level 35 and pretty much wrecking house. Playing using tactics instead of controlling every move in battle seems to make the game almost too easy. However, I'm enjoying watching the battles play out. It's interesting to see how the system handles battles. I think it tends to use healing way more than I would playing manually. I can't resist an offensive strike even if I'm low on health. 

Oh, that's a day. Perhaps another tomorrow.