Just finished Mina the Hollower, right now I have it over RE Requiem as my GotY (but that can be recency bias, let's see in a couple of months). Made me actually love my Switch 2, one year in (I played mostly handheld). It is definitely not without its frustrations, but I never wanted to stop playing (& exploring).

I also downloaded the Denshattack demo and it seems like a potentially fun game, but I struggled a bit with getting the trick controls to work.

Finished all the X-Men legends games and Adventures of Elliot. Now trying this game on PCSX2. I also got the sealed physical in the mail (super cheap) and it still has a circuit city sticker on it lol. They have not existed for 17 years. Anyway this game was almost a Deus Ex game but became it's own thing. You can def tell the Deus Ex roots tho.

Started the DQ VII remake

It's better than the original, yet the boredom of the story and combat persists. Taking 12–13 hours to reach your first reclass really stinks, given how milquetoast the base class kits are. The whole game screams, "JRPG for people who have never played a game in their lives." DQ combat has always been more about dungeon crawling and resource management than any real tactical planning, but even the resource management aspect seems to have been completely removed here

I'm curious to see how grindy it gets in the late game compared to the DQ III remake. III was less boring than VII (I especially liked that it didn't hold your hand and could be punishing if you didn't respect your enemies). The issue with III is that it rewards tedious, repetitive grinding instead of meaningful character building, since the job system takes ages to let you learn the more interesting spells and skills and you NEED to keep infinitely grind for stats if you want to do late game side stuff

So far here, I think the job system does is better for supporting character builds, which should reduce some of the grinding tedium. However, even in III, the problems with excessive grinding didn't really become apparent until the late game, so maybe it's just too early to tell whether VII eventually becomes excruciatingly grindy as well

Also, I finally got around to playing Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes!

It's so good to be back in Fódlan. The game does a great job of expanding the setting and centering the narrative around the war. Koei Tecmo is the GOAT when it comes to writing, characterization, and world-building

The gameplay is a mixed bag. The core gameplay loop is slightly less boring than I expected when I first started, and the side objectives help spice up the maps and add a few layers of tactical decision-making. My main issues with the gameplay are:

a) The harder difficulty settings aren't actually harder: they're just more tedious because they turn enemies into HP sponges
b) Going for S-rank rewards isn't fun at all, since it sometimes requires you to go on an endless killing spree instead of ending the mission as quickly as possible. It makes maps unnecessarily long without making them any more enjoyable

There are also some game design issues. The weapon triangle makes certain characters obviously superior depending on the route you're playing. Lance users get the short end of the stick in Dimitri's route because Dimitri is simply the best lance user, period. Likewise, Claude is the definitive bow user in Golden Wildfire, Edelgard is the best axe user in Scarlet Blaze, and, of course, Shez is the best sword user while also being mandatory in every main mission

Since you can only directly control four units per mission, Shez and your lord already occupy two of those slots, leaving very little incentive to use most of your roster. On top of that, the way experience is distributed heavily rewards juggernauting, which completely undermines the idea of a game centered around building a large, diverse army. There's rarely any mechanical reason to recruit characters beyond simply liking them

To make matters worse, some routes feature an overwhelming number of specific enemy types. Claude's route, for example, throws so many wyvern riders at you that it becomes borderline impractical to field lance users

Overall, it's a fun game, but I'd only recommend it if you're really into Three Houses. Otherwise, the story can feel rather hollow, since it assumes you're already familiar with the characters and the setting

DDC's Marvel Ultimate Aliance like game. Came out same week as MUA. There are similarities but also differences. You don't choose your heroes. Each level changes them out for different 2 heroes. Sometimes levels play on the strengths and weaknesses of each hero. It's solid so far.

Playing a little game I got with the 2 euro I had in my bank account after bills and food and it's not at all bad, in fact it's pretty good. I'm often choosing it over Hades or Robocop DLC cause it's really quite fun.

Added to my wishlist but doubtful I'll buy it anytime soon with games like Ninesols in my back log.

YES! Cleared Elysium in Hades and with a shit build too. Now the game is starting to make me nervous to play.

Edit: Bugger. Got what I'm assuming is the last boss down to a quarter. Got too nervous, i should have put the game down after Elysium. 

Ya know Gen 6 might have had my favourite console of all time with the original Xbox but Gen 7 is my favourite generation overall. With Sony on a death spiral this gen I decided all my replays going forward (minus Elden Ring…someday lol) will be 2 generations back. Picked up a 160GB PS3 Slim in great condition for £70 and a great condition DualShock 3. Whilst I’m 100% digital on modern systems I started building a small physical collection on retro, started with Resistance 3 one of my favourite FPS ever, The Orange Box for my favourite game HL2 and Alice Madness Returns which is a criminally underrated game. Good times. 

Just finished Silksong. Metroidvania genre has a new King, masterpiece.

This week I started Elden Ring