Whatcha playing? General Edition!

[JimTheborg]

Got back to playing Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. Definitely a must-have!

[TKrazyO]

Mainly playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses and occasionally Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 with my brother.

[Link, the Hero of Dreams]

Bought 2K20 Deluxe Edition. 

 

...Might end up selling it. Last year was better. I tried to pro and con it, but the cons were too much for 2K20. Last year had better roster, better gameplay, weirder controls, better modes, better graphics, and... my gosh. Sorry, but it's the truth. 

[Shadow118]

Undertale - been playing it here and there, and up to pre Mettaton boss fight

 

had to do some grinding for the Armor from Tem Shop, though... the defense boost is pretty nice

 

Pokémon Moon - played from Poni Canyon and now at the Elite 4 - though i think i might be good, might do some grinding first just to be safe

 

Smash Ultimate - did some more work a few days ago and cleared out the Dark World and Dracula’s Castle sub area - just need to clear out the Mystery Zone and that other Zelda inspired sub area - though im not in any rush

 

At least my character roster increased a slight amount since the previous time

 

And i think i cleared out the Light Realm and sub areas of all Spirits.. hard to tell considering how many there are

 

Dragalia Lost - started this awhile ago - pretty much played through the main story - not sure what im doing beyond that though

 

Digimon ReArise - played through the available chapters - not entirely sure what to do beyond grinding out chips for training and clash battles for evolution items

 

kinda slightly returning/bouncing between Valkyrie Connect,Epic Seven,Another Eden,Astral Chronicles and Destiny child - not sure what to say on those, though

Edited October 29, 2019 by Shadow118

[Ithrak Utopia]

 

I've been playing Pokemon Black a lot this year after getting into full odds shiny hunting. Since starting back in April, I've done four hunts and have gotten two targets: a Venipede for a Scolipede and the Watchog. The other two hunt targets were a Roggenrola, which I phased twice on for my Woobat and Swoobat, and then a swarm Pokemon, which I phased a Garbodor. My luckiest hunt is for my Watchog that ended in 1,944 REs via double grass on Route 1, and my longest is my Garbodor phase that ended in 33,965 REs on Route 9 single encountering. While a phase, Garbodor is probably my favorite Pokemon in Generation V right along with Cubchoo and Trubbish, so I'm really happy getting that shiny after so much time. 

 

 

 

Returning to put around 400 hours into Pokemon Black with these hunts, the random encounter (RE) system prior to Let's Go has become more appealing to me than the overworld encounters that now seem to be the future of the series. I like it specifically for the shiny hunting aspect as every encounter has anticipation and mystery. I haven't felt like I've had to encounter an undesired Pokemon as I do in Let's Go to cycle through the overworld spawns. There are certainly Pokemon in Generation V that I don't have too much interest in that are in the encounter pool for some of these hunts, but again, I don't actually know what I'm getting until the encounter has occurred. The wonder of hunting with the old encounter system has kept me invested much longer than my hunting in Let's Go and has made these handful of shinies that I now have very rewarding and satisfying to earn. 

 

Currently I'm 2,250 REs deep into a Cofagrigus hunt in a dune area far below the surface in Relic Castle.

 

 

Animal Crossing: Wild World has been another large time sink this year as I've been more into the game with New Horizons around the corner. There have been a handful of neighbor portraits I've gotten through the summer, and currently I'm wanting to get both Alli's and Ribbot's pictures as I go through the usual collecting and selling for Boondox donations and adding further to my bank accounts. This year is the first year since I got the game back for Christmas 2005 that I've put time into it outside of the spring and summer seasons. Beyond the hype surrounding the series right now with the new game, 2019 has brought some of the most unique neighbors I've seen to my town. This is the first year I've had elephants, an alligator, a fox and a freakin' robot frog. I also have a desire to get more golden items and have settled on getting the Golden Net and Watering Can. I only need to get the Mole Cricket to receive the Golden Net, and I'm planting flowers daily to try and help my environment status. I've seen a few hybrids and uncommon plants appear recently, but my town's environment status is still neutral. 

 

 

So much time put into playing and discussing Metroid Prime Hunters and yet I feel like I'm just getting into the game's physical combat. I want to define the Boost Ball, Dialanche's blades, Vhoscythe, Triskelion lunge and Halfturret slice as melee combat, but they may not technically fall into the category. If I were to lump these alt form attacks in with Other M's Overblast and Lethal Strike and Metroid: Samus Returns' Melee Counter as physical combat within the Metroid Series, I would say I've been experiencing the best over the last few weeks. Yesterday in particular over the 7 hours I played I made it more of a goal to finish off kills with these direct, physical attacks. To me, the Boost Ball and Vhoscythe aren't as satisfying as landing a finishing strike with the Dialanche, Triskelion and upper Halfturret. The "wow" moment for me in my sessions yesterday was dropping off of the ice bridge in the Ice Hive after pumping Magmaul rounds at a couple of hunters, going into Dialanche form and finishing the match with a double kill from the Dialanche's blades. That said, Weavel may just be the funnest playable character in the franchise. Rushing another hunter with well timed, consecutive Halfturret slices is very satisfying and is a great complement to the fun lobbing action of the visually satisfying affinity Battlehammer. 

 

[EH_STEVE]

Outer Worlds. Loving it so far.

[Shadow118]

For the past week I’ve played through and just finished the Jumbo Demo for Dragon Quest Builders 2

 

pretty much was pulled into it and actually like it... granted building and planning isn’t my strong suit... so my layout isn’t great looking

 

But $80 for the the Bundle is a bit pricey... could be awhile before i get it

 

Though part of me wonders if I should still get DQB1 first... not sure how much incentive is to do so, tbh

[Shadow118]

Recently cleared out the Mystery Dimension and the Sacred Realm and up to Darkon

 

Though I didn’t look at the Boss fight or anything after, though i knew who i was missing, i looked up a video for character locations on YouTube and saw in a comment that the last 4 are after that battle 

 

Considering how big both maps are, it could be plausibly easy for me to overlook something 

 

pretty sure ive cleared out all the spirits in all areas, but im not 100% sure

[Ithrak Utopia]

 

For the first time in years, I've been playing Wild World in the winter season. It's probably my third time since Christmas 2005 that I've put in a decent amount of play time during the season. Usually, I consider Animal Crossing a great seasonal game for the spring and summer with not just the decent variety of fish to catch, but bugs as well. Progress on the series of golden items: I did get both the golden net and the golden watering can before the close of 2019. My last bug was the mole cricket and what a weird one to end with. I thought I had unearthed an alien living underneath my town.  The golden watering can was more of a surprise. I knew I had to maintain the town status for 15 days, but I think I knew of the status later than it actually started. I figured I had a couple more days when I received the can. Winter season goals might be to begin progress towards a golden axe and to receive some themed furniture from the snowmen. I don't believe I've gotten any of that set. It's looking like Wild World will keep giving me an Animal Crossing fix up until New Horizons. 

 

 

Clubhouse Games was my favorite new game experience that I had in 2019, and it was one of my Christmas gifts (actually received  6 new Nintendo DS games  ). I had been looking to order and play Clubhouse Games for years. It just seemed like a very solid entry in the Touch Generations and it had my favorite board game among the selection: Checkers. Playing Checkers with my dad for many years has made it pretty easy even with this game's rule set of having to take all jumps and having a hard level computer. The surprises for me with Clubhouse games has come more in the action games category: I didn't know that billiards, darts and bowling were included. Billiards has been my favorite game to play with nearly 100 rounds already. The addicting part of that experience is planning out trick shots to avoid fouls and hopefully have them result in sinking a ball or two after hitting the target. Another favorite of mine that has surprised me is Solitaire. I have seen Solitaire being played, but I have never personally played Solitaire before Clubhouse Games. Giving up sucks; however, getting to and reaching a clear is very satisfying. 

 

 

This was the Nintendo DS game I got for Christmas that I believe started to choke me up when talking about the games with my family. Magical Starsign is a Nintendo DS game I've had an interest in and have probably wanted since first seeing the game within Nintendo Power. At the time, 2005-2006, there were plenty of games I wanted already for the Nintendo DS and I wasn't quite exploring for newer game experiences quite yet on the handheld. Besides the concepts that could come from a game called Magical Starsign, what I liked then and love now about this game and other Nintendo DS titles is the use of two screens to showcase a specific idea whether that be the scope of a setting, the size of an enemy/boss and/or the power of an attack/ability. That is all here in Magical Starsign. Magical Starsign is a lite and mostly casual RPG that can sometimes feel like an action adventure. It's appeal for me is more in the game's use of the Nintendo DS hardware and just the great fantasy within the adventure. Part of my party cast includes a talking salamander, rabbit and robot all capable of doing their own elemental magic that happens to get enhanced depending on planetary alignment. The game is definitely living up to itself. 

 

 

First game completion of 2020 goes to Metroid Prime Hunters! I started my last run before the new year, but ended up getting into grinding some tricks before completing the main run file. There are a lot of tricks that I love to do that I've learned towards the end of 2019. The biggest game changer for me has been learning and performing the glitches at Data Shrine 02 to get the Volt Driver in the first visit to the Celestial Archives. This recent run though had my focus on the Vesper Defense Outpost, and I ended up filling up my files with V.D.O. to practice. Since adding these glitches and techniques to my runs, I've improved my best time 3 times over and have dropped around 7 minutes overall. I'm currently sitting at 1h 12m as my best time and that may be near my plateau if I'm not more risky (at least ditch saving). I don't know if I want to keep going for personal bests or run through the game more casually with some of these techniques in the near future. I kind of want to get a Japanese version of the game before getting too serious about trying to go for better times. Regardless, these last few runs have been great and have got me sweating again playing a game I have 1,800+ hours in. 

[mikecamper]

Finally getting 'round to Breath of the Wild.   And so far it is amazing. 

[Shadow118]

During my trip up to and down from North Dakota for a couple day family visit i ended up:

 

Finishing up the last level (final boss) of Splatoon 2 with all weapons, finishing up the main story (especially since i have some new Joy-con)

 

Played through Cat Quest and think i beat the main story? Did unlock New Game + and something else... so not sure where i am on that one, though

 

Played through the DLC levels of LEGO DC Supervillains- will go back over them in Free Play at some point

 

Decided to start a bit of Spyro Reignited Trilogy and although I haven’t fully finished the first world, ive done a bit of the second world

 

Started playing Dauntless, or tried to during the ride, but was somewhat difficult with some areas having no type of connection and got cut out a few times, annoyingly

 

But ive been playing it a lot lately and enjoying it so far - trying to figure out the best way to go about for crafting/upgrading weapons/armor, though

 

Did a bit more after the last DLC was released and finished up the remaining Classic mode routes

 

Wasn’t sure what i had left, but ended up looking at a spirit list for what i was missing - only 61 left to go as of now

[Ithrak Utopia]

Back in December, I did a 100% run through Metroid Prime Hunters, first I've done in years. Afterwards, I had an idea to use the file to pursue hitting 5-digits on the Hunters and Guardians defeated counter. I've done a file up to 1,000 before, so 10,000 was that next step. This last Sunday, I hit the mark. I had been curious to see if the counter would roll over into the 5-digits, and it does. I guess the question now for me is do I want to pursue 6-digits soon, hit 100,000 on a single file, because I know for sure that the counter will reach 99,999. It'll be quite a grind. While I technically haven't beaten Hunters this year start to finish, it's way ahead as my most played game currently of 2022. 

 

 

My intention for reaching 10,000 was to do so by planet hopping in spite of that not being an efficient way to build up encounters. I wanted to experience variety rather than continually farming a specific location. Of the major settings, Arcterra seems to have the most scripted Guardian encounters as the mission plays out, between the Arcterra Gateway squad and the Subterranean ambush. After that second Octolith though, activity on the planet is the lowest I experienced during this run. If I do go to 100,000, I may not even bother going to Arcterra and just save the world for another file's story mode run or skirmishes in Battle. 

 

 

Vesper Defense Outpost also wasn't as helpful as I would have wanted. Both Stronghold Portals at the Compression Chamber and Stasis Bunker were very useful in building encounters whenever I did decide to fly over to break up the action at Alinos and the Celestial Archives. Aside from the Weapons Complex, at most I was getting one spawn at a time and doubling up with a portal reset. Even at the Weapons Complex, it was rare for me to get two Guardians in the area. Being able to spawn two Guardians in any area made V.D.O. much more productive than what I had to deal with on Arcterra though. 

 

 

Going from 4,000 to 4,500 defeated was the biggest hurdle going for 10,000: My motivation waned. Between 500 and 4,000 defeated, there was a gap of 52 days. Between 4,000 and 4,500, a gap of 41 days. Some of this probably was due to Pokemon Legends: Arceus, as I reached 4,000 on January 30th, and that game did end up bringing me back into other Pokemon games like Sword, Black and White 2 to continue working on active shiny hunts. Once I did hit 4,500, I started moving on encounters and began to favor efficiency rather than hopping around to another major setting every 15-30 kills. Alinos offered me some great breakdowns to keep my experience varied while still racking up decent encounters. First half of Alinos, Echo Hall, High Ground and Combat Hall, offered a great trio of spawn areas. Combat Hall, with its potential to produce three spawns a fair amount, was the star of Alinos. Second half of Alinos, Alinos Perch, Council Chamber and Processor Core, was not quite as good, but still better spawn opportunities than what I would get out of the entirety of Vesper and Arcterra. Something unique here is that Alinos Perch can produce a Guardian spawn that fires the Magmaul well after the scripted encounter with such Guardians. My final approach to Alinos was to do what I call an end to end run, where I go from the gunship to Processor Core, going over basically every area of Alinos. Not quite as efficient at just sticking to the first half locations, end to end runs were my favorite experience with Alinos in this grind. 

 

 

The gold mine on the way to 10,000 easily was the Celestial Archives, and the M.V.L., Most Valuable Location, goes to Incubation Vault 03. I believe once I hit 7,000, that location became my main home for the rest of the encounters. The last 3,000 encounters took me less than a week to reach once I had a rhythm at 03. The portal to Tetra Vista acted as my location reset point and I would say...95% of time I was guaranteed two Guardians each reset. The Guardians there, of all the Guardians I had fought elsewhere, could be shredded by bursts of the Power/Charge Beam. All other standard Guardians were more spongy to take down. I could've taken all of these down with an Imperialist headshot, but that seemed too boring to do with how many encounters I planned to go through. Weapons-wise, I made sure to mix up what I was doing on a regular basis. Initially during this experience, I didn't want to take any risk by going to the Incubation Vaults as I would have to cross a "bottomless pit", the vastness of space, to reach them. I didn't want to chance dying. 

 

 

Knowing that the counter didn't end at 9,999, I'm now a bit curious if it'll end at 99.999. Even at the best efficiency, that would be a big time investment to reach that number. During the journey to 10,000, my total enemies killed for the single player went well over the 150,000 milestone I had been under before. 200,000 total is definitely within reach right now, and a certainty if I decide to indulge my curiosity by seeing if there is a 100,000 roll over of the Hunters and Guardians defeated counter. Another part of this completion screen I wonder about is if the total game time rolls over 100 hours, because I've hit that once before in another Metroid game on a single file (Federation Force) and it stopped at 99 hours 59 minutes. I think it's possible and if it does...That's going to be another little aspect of this game I really love. Plenty of achievements lined up for me if I want to go for them with this file. 

 

 

Aside from Metroid Prime Hunters, Pokemon, Xenoblade and Mario Kart are going to be big focuses going forward. Animal Crossing: Wild World is now in its best seasons, Spring then Summer, so there will be plenty of that too. Already plucked the weeds out of my town this past weekend and began arranging flowers again. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has its DLC, and I've played a little of Super Circuit for the first time, done a few Grand Prix runs in Mario Kart 7 and VS racing in Mario Kart DS. I do have the urge to play some Mario Kart Wii and Double Dash soon. Overall, the DLC and what the future tracks could be has me excited for Deluxe and Mario Kart as a whole.

Edited April 7, 2022 by Ithrak Utopia

[Shadow118]

Spent some time browsing the app store on Iphone and came across Revived Witch and Alchemy Stars on the App store

 

been enjoying both of them so far - wish i knew about Alchemy Stars awhile ago - apparently there was a Persona 5 collaboration that was available that I missed out on

 

Hopefully that comes back around again in the future 

 

Downloaded Princess Connect R out of boredom and curiosity - it’s fine for a mobile game, though nothing too extraordinary so far

 

Apparently theres also a mobile OCTOPATH Traveler mobile game that i downloaded - haven’t started that yet so dunno if it’s good or not

 

Kind of been playing Fire Emblem Three Hopes Demo a few days ago - will buy that at some point

[Art_de_Cat]

Cowabunga Collection on Switch.  Turtle Power!!

[Shadow118]

Been trying to play Tower of Fantasy on Mobile on and off the past week

 

For some reason i keep getting “Disconnect from Server” every time i try to join a server…

 

that’s… annoying.

 

Update as typing this out: got around to downloading it to my laptop today, and seems like i can get in

 

Started playing it not long ago, and seems like it runs pretty well so far

 

____

 

Started playing Heroes of Crown 12 days ago on the S87 server - despite the misleading ads, the game itself isn’t too bad actually - the 100 free summons you can get over 10 days was pretty useful 
 

But I’ve been enjoying it

 

 

_____

 

Started playing Guardians of Cloudia (on the EST-269 server) about 8/9 days ago

 

Been enjoying it so far, though it’s pretty grindy

 

Getting a 6 star Pyrodragon Pet on your 7th login is a pretty cool freebie, though

 

_____
 

Though I haven’t done much, was fiddling around on Multiversus Tutorial 

 

Keyboard Controls aren’t too bad, though might be better if i had a controller- going to have to look into that

Edited September 5, 2022 by Shadow118

[Ithrak Utopia]

 

Yesterday, I made it halfway to 100,000 Hunters and Guardians Defeated on a single file. Since my last post, I now know that the file time does roll over and is limited to 7 characters. When it showed the time without the "m" for minutes, I was mind blown as I wasn't expecting the character to drop. The roll over made me more willing to go for 100,000, because for something like that I want to know the time I put in. Once I hit 100,000, which is still several months away at the minimum, that's it. I'm not going for 1,000,000. If it rolls to 100,000, I'm assuming all stats on the completion screen will keep going up and adjust according to the limits of 7 characters, i.e. 1,000,000 hours total game time would just show the number. 

[purple_beard]

Kind of digging elechead/switch.  Mix of box boy and mega man imo.

 

*****

 

Interesting puzzle design but some of the mechanics of how this game is set up feels kind of cheap and off.  But its not bad... still enjoying it.

Edited January 21 by purple_beard

[Laclipsey]

Mainly I've been playing Castlevania Portrait or Ruin. I quite enjoy the two-character combat, and I'm excited to find out what happens to Jonathan Morris and the Vampire Killer. I find all the neat little nods to the Genesis outing fun, like Eric Lecarde being in the game proper.

 

Aside from that, I am very slowly plugging away at Xenoblade Chronicles 3. It is so far my least favorite of the main trilogy, mostly because I'm finding Moebius less compelling as an antagonist than Zanza, Amalthus and Malos. I'm sure I'll have my mind blown in the second half. It doesn't help that I'm only now (at 45 hours in) starting to really understand some of the basic mechanics, like the rules of Chain Attacks. Others, like what skills can be inherited and used by other classes, still mystify me. That said, I'm very much looking forward to one more adventure with Shulk and Rex in Future Redeemed.

Edited May 15 by Laclipsey

[Doc Brown]

Scarlet has had me hooked. Been steadily working on an Elite 4 team and item gathering. The story line has some good twists and turns too. Looking forward to continuing my Violet playthrough as well.

[Shadow118]

Found some new Mobile games out of boredom:

Witch Arcana - didn’t realize right awayit was one of those strategy games with the resource management/overworld resource collecting and pvp

 

I’m not sure if there’s a specific term for those types of games - I’ve briefly played similar games in the past

 

Been working on a lot of building and research upgrades, and although I’m doing somewhat fine on money and food, my resources for wood is on the lower side so that’s an issue 

 

Think my Magic School is at level 6 - trying  to do as many upgrades/research as i can before the shield depletes

 

Going to move my Magic School to around the area where the rest of the club i joined is when my beginner shield depletes 

 

So just to have some extra security at least 

 

———

 

Magicabin - been enjoying this so far - bit slow paced and energy refills a bit slowly, but it’s one of those games you don’t need to do anything like puzzles or other things to progress thankfully 

 

So been working on that game slowly 

 

_____

 

Campfire Cafe is pretty good- pretty grindy with how expensive upgrades are

 

Mobile Legends - Adventure- started a day or two ago and made progress up to Chapter 5 or 6

 

Used a couple promo codes but dunno if i was misled or if I completely misunderstood something from what I’ve seen in an ad..

 

Getting a bit difficult though - really going to need to level up my heroes quite a lot

 

____

 

Haven’t started it yet, but i think Aether Gazer is available to play now?

 

Not a new game, but last week or so I finished off the 12th Chapter in Dislyte and been working on the chapters in Hard and Purgatory mode here and there
 

Need to do a lot of grinding though

 

_____
 

Been trying to do some Shiny hunting in Violet, but either have no luck or get completely distracted and forget 

 

I don’t exactly have enough to make most of the Herb Sandwiches yet

 

Haven’t had much luck with 6 Star Raids either - been trying to get some mons ready, but I’m not understanding a decent amount of the ev distribution mechanics 

 

I’ve been trying though…