If there's one thing I wish Pokopia did differently, it'd be to give the player some way to have more control over when they learn crafting recipes, or what they learn. There are a few types of decoration and building blocks I want to get more of, but I haven't learned how to make them yet and I don't want to rip out the ones that are already in the environment. You can find new food recipes by adding different things to the pot; I'm not sure why there isn't a similar discovery mechanism for other stuff.
I'm glad I got a Series X at launch—the back compatibility with my 360 library, plus options for stuff I missed on Xbone—but I'd struggle to recommend buying one at this stage of the generation, and I don't even have (or particularly want, for the same reasons Gar mentioned above) a PS5.
And while GamePass has been great from a consumer perspective (though I'm not quite willing to compare the cost of stuff I actually played vs. the total subscription cost), there's not much doubt in my mind that it's been a financial black hole for MS, and I'd be surprised to see it continue, in its current form at least, into the next generation.
Play
With DQ7R finished, I've kicked off a run at Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, though I don't expect I'm going to make it all the way through (see Want). There's a lot more going on in the plot than I remembered! I appreciate the Hidden Fortress/Star Wars approach to the "main" character more than I did originally, but everyone seems very eager to take alleged traitors at their word. There are a few concessions to the JRPG structure in that way, which are a bit jarring.
Want
Pokopia can't unlock soon enough. I'm trying to avoid details after the Treehouse preview video made multiple references to the game's "plot", but I'm very curious to see what kind of narrative structure it has. Fingers crossed it doesn't get in the way of doing things.
Bin
My inability to go to bed at a reasonable hour (he typed, at 12:30am).
Rolled credits on Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, just in time for Pokopia next week. There's still an unreasonable amount of bastard-hard post-game content in there, obviously, but I cannot be fucked with that after the last week of grinding out vocations and levels for the final boss. I did have a poke around, enough to complete the last two tablets and find/defeat the optional battle against God(!), but I'd be surprised if I ever boot the game up again.
It's not bad, but I definitely soured on its repetition by the end—and started, honestly, to feel a bit ripped off.
aniki