Play
I've been playing with fire recently, on a bit of a JRPG kick—hopefully not burning myself out on turn-based combat ahead of Dragon Quest VII coming out.
Something possessed me to start Lost Odyssey again, over fifteen years since I got stuck on Disc 3 and abandoned it. I'm almost back at that point now, so we'll see if I've learned anything in the intervening decade-and-a-half.
And after finally taking delivery of a GDEMU, my Dreamcast has been back in rotation with Skies of Arcadia leading the charge. I've got the US version loaded which… seems easier than I remember the EU one? The more important thing is that it's VGA-compatible (the PAL version wasn't), so my HDMI adaptor is happy. Next up, I'm thinking about replacing the fan…
For a bit of a change of pace, having realised I can get the DLC as part of the Nintendo Online subscription, I've been tinkering away at the Paradise Planning expansion for Animal Crossing, to unlock more options for decorating the hotel rooms in the latest update.
Want
Very much looking forward to Dragon Quest VII. I've opted for the Switch 2 version so I can keep playing it while the TV is in use, though from the demo I don't think the battery life is going to be fantastic…
Bin
My bedtime revenge procrastination is getting out of hand.
Star Wars Outlaws … [Kay] is really bland I feel
Aw, I really liked Kay's whole flying-by-the-seat-of-her-pants, "I'm-bluffing-and-even-I-don't-quite-believe-me" personality. Not enough video game characters have false bravado.
The problem I have with her characterization is that, at very beginning, it's implied that she's been doing this for a while. She shouldn't be so completely out of her depth all the time if she's been running scams since she was a child.
I find the whole thing a bit underwhelming all 'round, though. The structure and the dialogue are so breakneck from one thing to the next, except when it suddenly forgets to give you any direction whatsoever. I've been kinda dumped on a planet with no particular reason to do anything for any one of the several shades of criminality I've been introduced to, except that the game expects me to. Having Kay leave her home planet immediately, robbing her of any investment in the factions and locations, seems like a severe misstep; there should have been more on Canto working for (and against) the different gangs before you're punted off-world.
Also whoever decided "interact" should be on a stick click needs to be fucking fired.
I've started another run at Control, after someone on Discord mentioned its accessibility options—so now, with one-shot kills and snap auto-aim enabled, Jesse is stomping around The Oldest House, cooking fools like a paranormal John Wick.
I'm still not convinced I'll see it all the way through, though. I would appreciate the weirdness more if the game wasn't so terrified of leaving things unexplained. I've gotten turned around by or lost in the environments more here than I ever did in Expedition 33. And, perhaps most offputting, I'm getting the sense from the achievements I've still not unlocked that it's a much, much longer game than I anticipated…
Downloaded the Switch 2 demo of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined yesterday and reached the end of the demo at lunchtime, so that's gone right on the Want pile. I'm a little wary that I can already see the full outline of the structure, but part of me wants to believe that it's got something up its sleeve.
It still bothers me how much Keifer looks like a Team America puppet, but I think I can get past that.
I keep thinking of going back to Hitman but I know that I'd struggle to get into the mindset required to stalk around and re-learn everything (not to mention finding the time). Might redownload it anyway, see if the icon on the dashboard guilts me into that over Arkham City or Sleeping Dogs.
aniki