Not at all. But now that Hunters is more directly tied into the story and not just a spinoff it would be nice to have the full context.

I hope we get a surprise Metroid Prime Hunters Remaster before this because I have no idea who the villain is.

Donkey Kong Country Returns Returns. How many extra levels did the 3DS version add? I doubt it’s enough to get me to buy the game again, unfortunately.

I like that they went with the Breath of the Wild approach of “Let’s just give the players everything and let them figure it out.” I hope that wand is just the cornerstone of gameplay though, I don’t think it can carry an entire game. I am a little worried that it’s all they showed, especially for combat.

That’s very cool, but I think they should have waited a bit, maybe even move it to the Switch 2. Three Mario RPGs in a year is a lot, maybe space them out a bit more to prevent fatigue, you know?

Honestly, 99% of what I know about Mahjong I learned from the ingame tutorials in Yakuza 0 and I went in with zero knowledge. I knew so little, I thought the tiles you threw out were your hand.

Been playing Paper Mario some more. Beat Chapter 2 and got the quest to go a few floors down the Pit of 100 Trials to save a Toad’s dad, which is always my cue to go way further down to level 50 and get the inventory upgrade, since I’m already there. It’s quite nerve-wracking to go down there with 10HP, but I made it and I was only caught by surprise and lost my Life Shroom once. Would have been easier if I hadn’t insisted on tattling every new enemy, but you just gotta! It was a nice preview, it’s not like I’ll have any more health at the end of the game when I go all the way.

Progressed further in Yakuza Kiwami 2 and unlocked the Mahjong Parlor. And I have finally done it, I’ve won a game with Thirteen Orphans, a hand I have been chasing for literal years! Not just in Yakuza games, but Mahjong games on the Super Nintendo as well. And while doing that, I have learned that you can steal tiles from a Kan. I thought it was all over when the last tile I needed was put to the side in a pile of 4, but I was allowed to call Ron! I guess I should return to the story now. I think someone important was bleeding out or something…

I was just making a joke that the entire main story of a Yakuza game is a side dish to Mahjong. I just always spend way too much time in the parlor ever since Yakuza 0 taught me how to play.

I had plans for what my next game on Switch was going to be, but I spontaneously decided to play Paper Mario instead. I didn’t expect to finish both of my games at once, so I’d rather have one of the replacements be something I don’t have to think about too much. I’ve beaten the original game half a dozen times, so this will be a rather chill playthrough. As chill as it can be without any HP upgrades, I guess. I want those badges, baby!

I had plans for what my next game on PC was going to be, but I spontaneously decided to play Yakuza Kiwami 2 instead. I wish I’d had the chance to get into the series earlier, I have so much catching up to do! I think there’s 10 games by now? I have yet to find the Mahjong parlor, gotta get through more of this silly side story involving Yakuza to get to the real game!

I’ll try not to make plans anymore.

I have started the final DLC of Sparks of Hope, the Rayman DLC. Now, I’ve not been particularly excited for this one since I’m not a Rayman-guy, but it’s disappointing he doesn’t get to meet the Mario characters at all. It’s just two of the Rabbids. Which, in a way, makes this the least cross-overy cross-over in the series. But on a plus-side, the battle rankings are back! It’s just a bit of ‘too little, too late’, considering you only have three characters, so it’s not like you can do much to ‘adapt’ to a map to improve your performance. You can adjust your sparks, but Rayman can’t use them, so even that part has limited customizability.

I’ve looked into the first game’s DLC again, and it’s about the same length as the two main DLCs of the sequel combined. And in a game like this, where you level up and customize your characters, I think one meaty DLC is better than two shorter ones. Let me actually invest time into the skill trees and grow my characters instead of rolling the credits as soon as I get something going. Sometimes, less is more.

In Arkham Knight, I finished off Red Hood in less than two hours. Unless a map required me to remain unseen, I’d just finish off the challenges and start shooting everyone else. It’s honestly crazy how easily you get away with this, but that’s not exactly why I’m doing these Predator challenges. The Red Hood Story had enemies with bullet-proof vests, but they didn’t use them at all for the maps. It’s a bit disappointing, they always remove enemy types that a character can’t deal with but don’t add the new ones that were made specifically for them!

Next up is the character I’ve saved for last: Harley Quinn. I just think this is going to be the hardest character to use because A, she’s the only character without a grapple, so there’s very little upward mobility (my primary way of escaping), and B, she has no silent takedowns. I believe her on-screen prompts even say ‘Loud Takedown’. She is going to drag me out of my comfort zone kicking and screaming and I am scared. At least her personalized version of Detective Mode is pretty fun. The scribbles on the walls, the giggling, what little remains of Harleen Quinzel trying to talk sense into herself.

In any case, it seems like I’ll be beating both of my games around the same time, and I believe I started them around the same time, too. That’s not how I usually do this and it’s weird that it’s happening again.

I’m almost done with The Last Spark Hunter, will probably finish this weekend. They haven’t introduced any new enemies since the first few battles, so it’s been getting a bit dull to be honest. All the ‘New’ was very front-loaded.

Finished off the Batgirl challenges in Arkham Knight. For the most part it was very straight-forward, though she has this strange quirk of not being able to do grate takedowns silently. It’s oddly specific, everything else works normally, but okay. One map asked for a specific takedown on a specific enemy that just refused to go anywhere near that place, so I had to manually pull him into position with the grapple. I don’t think that’s the intended way, but from my research a lot of people struggled with that one. Next up, Red Hood. He’s gonna be weird because he just… shoots people. With a gun. Dead. He doesn’t have much in the way of gadgets either, so I’m curious what they’re going to ask me to do.

I played the main game almost exclusively with Mario, Luigi and Rabbid Peach. The Bros’ reaction abilities, when fully upgraded, are insane. Being all alone without enemies on a Survival Map levels of insane.

The Last Spark Hunter DLC has finally managed to throw a wrench into the team setup I used for 98% of the main game. Luckily, it was just a miniboss, but I have a feeling I’ll see him again.

I finished off Azrael in Arkham Knight and finally understood that my least favorite Predator map is actually kind of broken in the player’s favor. I was always so intimidated by how big and full of enemies it is, but they really don’t like leaving their assigned floor. Now I treat it as four seperate maps stacked on top of each other and it’s so much easier! Next up, I’ll have to replay Batgirl’s extra story for some achievements that were hidden for some reason and then take her through these challenges. She’s not actually the next character in the list, but I’m saving that one character for last. I just have a feeling she will be the most difficult one to use…

I picked up my Infinite Fusion Nuzlocke again. I had to fill up some empty spaces that the Elite 4 so rudely blasted into my team, but I’m off to conquer Johto next!

There are still 3 more characters after Azrael. Arkham Knight really upped the ante here. City had 4 playable characters total, Knight has 8! If I wasn’t such a big fan of Predator Maps, I would say it’s too many. After the challenges, I’m technically done, though there’s one more achievement in the main mode I’ve been too lazy to get, so I’m saving it for last. Nothing difficult, just something that never occurred naturally.

And to make sense of Antichamber, you need to drop your expectations of things making sense. This is the type of game where jumping over a pit makes you fall and walking into it lets you cross. Where the upstairs is next door. Just let the currents carry you and don’t try to understand why the water is dry.

Oh boy, have fun with Octopath! The main criticism is absolutely valid, but to me it and the sequel are the New Age Retro JRPGs that actually nail that old school feeling.

So I’ve played and beaten the first DLC for Sparks of Hope, Tower of Doom. It’s a roguelike mode, which is a genre I generally don’t enjoy too much, so reaching the end of the story once is all I need. It’s 33% completion, but that just denotes the characters and Sparks you’ve gotten at least one and individual enemies encountered, so true completion is nothing but grinding until you fill out that list. Not thanks! I don’t know how random the first playthrough is, but I essentially got my main game setup on a silver platter within the first few floors, so I’m not complaining!

Then I started the second DLC, The Last Spark Hunter. I haven’t played much yet, but It’s essentially just one more world of main game, but it looks really nice. I haven’t really been a fan of most overworld environments, but this one is really dense and nice to look at. Also, you basically start at level 30 and get to grow from there, so that’s one of my previous gripes adressed, even if it’s a little late.

In Arkham Knight, I finished off the Catwoman challenges. A lot of repressed memories from Arkham City came back… I really hate playing her. You can stand under a vantage point, looking straight at it, and not get a prompt to whip up there. Now I’m doing Azrael and he’s basically Batman with a few gadgets missing, so it’s a nice breather. He can even glide! I don’t think his cape-strips should allow him to do that though… That’s where my suspension of disbelief gets shaky.

And I finished Antichamber. It was kinda funny, in my first plathrough years ago I was stuck in a dead-end, looking at progress through a window for a long time. This time, even though I really didn’t remember much about the puzzles, I made that progress quite naturally and I found myself unable to find my way into that dead-end!

Completed the main story of Sparks of Hope. It’s good on its own, but I still think the first game was better overall. The characters are way more distinct in the sequel, which is great, but I never really felt much of a need to switch the party around. In the first game, you had to beat a battle in a certain amount of turns to get the perfect ranking and you have nothing like that here. Once you find something that works, there’s no need to go beyond, and I found what works 90% of the tome very early on. I also felt a lot more control in the first game. Replacing the grid with an illusory free movement (the map still works on a grid) just takes the precision out of it, and in a tactics game that’s kind of important. But most importantly, the game didn’t feel right. The game takes itself too seriously and even tried to make the Rabbids actual characters. Rabbids say BWAH, they don’t hold conversations! It just wasn’t as funny, I miss the slapstick above all else. Now, let’s see what the DLC does.

Finished off all Nightwing challenges in Arkham Knight, now it’s Catwoman time. Apparently, every brute-type enemy has been removed from her combat challenges and replaced with a regular shield-enemy. It’s a bit odd. Got stuck on an early Predator map because of a finicky Remain Unseen requirement. I’ve done those before with other characters that seemed way more lenient. But in this case, I was sometimes seen even though nobody started attacking me. And they’re very quick with that trigger finger, so I don’t know what’s so different…

I’ve finally picked up Sparks of Hope again. I’m near the end of world 5 (and probably the game), but that second half of it has been quite a downer because I suddenly hit the level cap. I’m nowhere near completing the skill trees and the game says “No, you don’t get to be any stronger.” This is no Skyrim, where you use the tree to define your class, these are your base abilites! Why the cap? I didn’t even have the extra tree unlocked for everyone when I got to that point!

In Arkham Knight, I finished off all Robin challenges, so Nightwing is next. Predator maps are always so much harder when your character can’t glide and I think I’m already out of those. Why do we not have some kind of indicator to see where jumping from a high ledge lands you? This has been a problem for me since Arkham City. I just want to be behind an enemy, not on a ledge next to him, or hanging from it or, worst of all, on top of said enemy. I got a bit stumped by a challenge that involved not using your Grapnel. I failed that so many times because it’s just a button I instinctively press.

I also dug out Antichamber again. It’s been long enough since my first playthrough that the puzzles are almost new again to me. It’s strange that I don’t hear this game being brought up as much as games like The Witness when people talk about 1st person puzzle games.

I don’t think Genjuu Ryodan is really available in any form today. It was never even released as a cartridge, you had to download it onto a cartridge from a Nintendo Power machine yourself. The game also released a few years into the N64 era, so who knows how many people actually did that?

I promise to continue Sparks of Hope tomorrow. It’s been two weeks now and I just haven’t had time. And it doesn’t help that Arkham Knight is in that post-game challenge phase were you can just play short bursts, but end up getting trapped by “Just one more” Syndrome. I’m done with all Batman challenges, now it’s Robin’s turn. And it’s immediately obvious how much Batman’s “Disarm & Destroy” move turns all combat challenges into easy mode. Some Predator Maps get really big, too. I just spent 10 minutes clearing out more than a dozen enemies out of a four-story map without being allowed to use Detective Mode or Floor Grates, with barely any useful perches to hide on.

I usually don’t talk about what I do on YouTube, but I have to shine a spotlight on a game I’ve been playing for five months now. It’s a Japan-exclusive Super Nintendo game called Genjuu Ryodan and it’s basically Advance Wars in a fantasy setting. The only fan translation that exists only translates the two main menus you interact with, but there’s no characters or dialogue to worry about and the game is very good at slowly introducing new units. You don’t have to understand it to figure it out, and the variety in maps and units is tremendous! My only complaint is that there’s no way to get newly built units to the front quickly. The summoning circles around your starting area are all you’re going to get, so the late game usually becomes quite the slog on bigger maps. But if you like Advance Wars and don’t mind having to experiment a bit to climb over the knee-high language-barrier, this game is worth looking into!

Haven’t slept well all week, so I haven’t played much either. Zero progress on Sparks of Hope.

As for Arkham Knight, I’ll continue from here:

Yeah, that NG+ took you very little time. How many hours did it take, if they are recorded anywhere?

I haven’t kept track of time, but the ratio is probably along the lines of 45 hours for the main game and 15 hours for NG+, considering my total playtime is now about 70 hours and in post game. Great news about that: There are individual challenges for every character on every map, the menu is just kinda weird and it’s easy to miss. I’m currently getting the car-based challenges out of the way. You can do those with every individual car, too, but I don’t find that interesting. The race tracks based on the 1960s TV show are absolutely stunning though! They have Adam West, clips from the series, the theme song and Bat Shark Repellent! I didn’t even know I wanted a silly Arkham 60s spinoff until now!

I’m gonna continue finishing off the extra challenges as Batman and try to tick off some random achievements I didn’t get during normal play off the list.