It's been a while. Although I didn't update this site in February to include my finished games for the month, it wasn't because there were none -- it was because they are going on my "other site" that I have linked before in my other posts. Feel free to check them out if it sounds interesting, though the audience is very very different.
Anyway, the snow is FINALLY beginning to melt! Though in my opinion I wouldn't mind if it snowed all year.
Games completed in February
(See other site for details!)
Detective Pikachu Special Version: 名探偵ピカチュウ 〜新コンビ誕生〜
尊い命 (meme game on novelgame.jp)
あさき、ゆめみし
Games completed in March
Elysion -feeling of release-
Paper Mario and the Origami Crown
Yomawari
（ときメモGS4）
Final Fantasy III (DS version)
クロックゼロ ~Devote~
Games I need to finish (and are in progress)
Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon!!!
TMGS1
I'm super excited for the Hogwarts Legacy State of Play coming out tomorrow afternoon. More details after it drops. Edit to add that it blew me away out of the window and across the world...
Report | April 1
February was kind of a slow month where I spent more time playing mobile and portable games than home console games. I also figured out how to stream my Vita and 3DS to my PC screen. It's funny, because a few years ago I disdained my Vita TV and clamoured for every one of my games to go on a portable console because I wanted to play rolling around on my bed -- but this past year I've realized that I only want to play video games on a big screen now. So I never undock my Switch anymore, got a cheap TV on Black Friday last year, and even find my computer monitor kind of small and unappealing (it's 27 inches I think).
Recently I've been feeling the urge to upgrade my computer, since I built it like seven years ago and only upgraded the processor four years ago. But (fingers crossed) my 970 is still chugging along and my computer doesn't feel particularly slow... I guess I just want to play Elden Ring like all the cool kids. Probably need another 1+TB SSD too.
Anyway, February was a slow month where I got totally sunk in the TMGS swamp and played a lot of Japanese games. More on my "other site". I did finish the old eShop version of Detective Pikachu (Meitantei Pikachu) but it ends halfway through the story, and I haven't managed to dig out my version of the full game to beat yet. The old eShop version is only available in Japanese, and it's probably around 6 hours long and very linear. I'd say Ace Attorney but for babbies? I do really like the world and graphics, though, as well as the detective himself.
As for March, it was a LOT more fruitful gaming-wise. First, Elysion is a freeware story-heavy adventure/horror game built in Tyrano, but it's apparently getting a Switch release this year with some redone visuals and content. I didn't know until after I finished it though. The story of this game is quite interesting, but when travelling through the underground lab/maze, the first time you get jumpscared/insta-killed is freaking traumatizing man. I nearly flung my mouse through my monitor. It also has a shareware (paid) sequel that's a lot longer on DLSite, but I haven't played that one yet even though it looks very interesting.
Next was Paper Mario and the Origami Crown. Honestly, I was going to wait until I played through Sticker Star and Color Splash and maybe even the Mario & Luigi cross-over game before I touched the latest one, but a YouTuber I watch recently played it and I accidentally watched the first episode and... Man. I've never gotten the abject thirst for Paper Mario the way I did in March. It highly resembled withdrawal symptoms even though I haven't played a Paper Mario game in almost eight years.
So anyway I devoured Origami Crown and was seriously surprised at how much I absolutely loved the game, the characters, the office supply bosses. I think there's just something magical in Paper Mario games about exploration and discovery and the joy of the unfolding (literally) world that doesn't take itself seriously, I dunno. But even when playing through Thousand Year Door (in English) and Super Paper Mario (in English) I loved both and never felt compelled to search for another one. Yet after finishing Origami King I was empty inside and tried to find reasonably-priced copies of Color Splash for a straight week before giving up for now. (Ebay's auctioning is killer man.)
Origami King's world is so beautiful and amazing, and it's so colorful and full of life. The characters are hilarious but will make you sob, the percentage complete thing encourages you to keep going and complete each area, and it's just an overall wonderful FUN experience. I wish there was more of it even though it took me like fifty hours to complete it. I need another Paper Mario game yesterday. Maybe I should play Bug Fables.
Next was the PC version of Yomawari (got in on a Steam sale). Just kidding I played it on Vita because I'm stupid and have another copy. That opening tutorial traumatized me so much I almost gave up right there... But after playing the Liar Princess and the Blind Prince, I was interested in other games by the developer and pushed myself through it. Great game. I felt like I saw the story somewhere before but I couldn't remember when. It also wasn't very long.
Next are some games whose impressions will go on the other site, but I cried and laughed like a lunatic.
Lastly, I FINALLY finished Final Fantasy III!!!!!!!! I even wrote up a report on it that took up six pages in Word because it was so interesting to me. Doing analysis/theory-crafting on how III and I might be connected made me so happy dude. I don't know if the timelines are connected or not, but around the same time, Stranger of Paradise came out and I somehow convinced myself that all three are connected. I played the DS version in Japanese, which means that there is a lot more story added that is slightly different from the "original" (apparently). I found some slightly conflicting information so I had to look up some videos and wiki pages for a while to make sense of exactly what was going on, but I won't go into details 'cause spoilers. Did you know there's a wiki composed of 2ch summaries of game stories told by posters? It was fun to read through them.
Gotta say, so far the Final Fantasy series has continually improved in huge leaps and bounds from the first one. I'm really glad I'm playing in release order because I don't know if I could have ever finished I after finishing III. I's ending was great, but II took it and ran with the story (the system was weird), and III sort of combined both and showed you the wonder of breaking out of your little world and into a big one.
I will say there's still something about FFII that I really love -- maybe it's the Soul of Rebirth stuff from the PSP edition that stuck with me, or the relentlessness of the story? But III was super interesting in a different time-y way. Also III's music is freaking GOAT.
P.S. It took me like 30 extra hours post-game to level up everyone high enough to go underwater and beat the secret boss (while watching TMGS4 streams). Frick you secret boss. But thanks to that, I got a better understanding of all the job systems that I muddled my way through in II. I don't know what their English names are, but the freaking Ankoku Kishi is overpowered as heck. Some jobs will let you game the game too. Like the Tamanegi Kenshi (Onion Knight?). It takes forever to grind though...
That's about all for those two months. My goal for April is to finish Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon (or at least see the credits) and honestly play some FFIV. I have the FF fever, and it can't be cooled down, and I've already played the very opening of the DS version I have and I can already tell it's another huge leap past III. Ignoring the frankly gorgeous opening movie, the entire tone of the story has darkened a little. Plus the main character is not fourteen which helps.
By the way, I've also been playing a lot of Japanese ARPG Sin Chronicle (which released for mobile close to the end of March. 23rd or something?) I wonder if there's an English version, but the Japanese version is actually a lot of fun to play. More fun than Nier Reincarnation was (does that have an English version?). My gacha luck is seriously weird though. A popular voice actor has been doing streams of SinChro too but I haven't watched any of his streams yet. I will say that most of the female characters are great, but would be greater if they had more clothes on. Maybe I'm just not the target audience for the game...
Thanks for reading this far!
Storm
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