missingno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5kbq7g7ZM

Same as last week.

Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - I'm back on my bullshit again. Uzuki arc was fun, but when it comes time for bracket I gotta lock in. And by lock in, I mean still play like a clown.

Splatoon 3 - Didn't have too much time to practice this week, but had one good session. Really trying to work on more actionable callouts, coordinating with our specials and planning a push together rather than merely announcing things after they happen.

Persona 4 Golden - Still just post-Kanji dungeon. At the rate I am going I will finish this game... someday.

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story - Man, forgot how annoying it was that you have to always go for weapon breaks against bosses or else you miss their blueprint forever. Also, RHDN shutdown has me wondering, if/when the third game's translation patch ever gets finished, where do I even look to find out about it?

Slay the Spire - I can quit any time I want, I swear.

Mahjong Soul/Riichi City/IRL mahjong - Came dangerously close to losing my Master 1 rank on Soul, but got a few wins so I'm safeish now. I know I'm too reckless and I'm trying to work on that. I did play one of the best games I've had at club this week, had the discipline to fold several tempting hands and it turned out to be correct every time. Sometimes protecting second place through smart play is more satisfying than lucking into first.

There's a reason why not a single arena fighter has managed to attract a playerbase dedicated enough to keep a competitive scene going. They focus on quantity over quality and it shows.

It's not like licensed games can't succeed, but something has gone deeply wrong with the arena formula. More people are still playing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, an arcade game from 1998, than any of these modern arena games.

There's no possible way this isn't bait.

Turn-based: Bravely Default. A stellar evolution of FF5 that gives you so many toys to play with, and the titular Brave/Default mechanic opens up a lot of cool ideas just by giving you flexibility in when to take your turn. Specifically BD1 and Second though, I felt like BD2 was a massive step back by trying to introduce a turn order system at the expense of no longer queueing everyone together at once.

Action: Tales. Hard to pick just one, and there are still a bunch I haven't played, but I think I'll go with Vesperia specifically for all the advanced tech it allowed for.

Honorable mention to CrossCode as well, but I know someone's gonna debate whether it counts as J or if it's just sparkling Secret of Mana.

I'm not even sure who owns the rights to the series anymore since Flight-Plan went out of business a long time ago. Don't know if it ever could get a rerelease.

Same as last week.

Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - I'm back on my bullshit again. Uzuki arc was fun, but when it comes time for bracket I gotta lock in. And by lock in, I mean still play like a clown.

Splatoon 3 - Didn't have too much time to practice this week, but had one good session. Really trying to work on more actionable callouts, coordinating with our specials and planning a push together rather than merely announcing things after they happen.

Persona 4 Golden - Still just post-Kanji dungeon. At the rate I am going I will finish this game... someday.

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story - Man, forgot how annoying it was that you have to always go for weapon breaks against bosses or else you miss their blueprint forever. Also, RHDN shutdown has me wondering, if/when the third game's translation patch ever gets finished, where do I even look to find out about it?

Slay the Spire - I can quit any time I want, I swear.

Mahjong Soul/Riichi City/IRL mahjong - Came dangerously close to losing my Master 1 rank on Soul, but got a few wins so I'm safeish now. I know I'm too reckless and I'm trying to work on that. I did play one of the best games I've had at club this week, had the discipline to fold several tempting hands and it turned out to be correct every time. Sometimes protecting second place through smart play is more satisfying than lucking into first.

I''m that guy who's been disgruntled for years about how Sega has been handling Puyo Puyo. After so many years of waiting, we finally got a new standalone game that isn't a crossover... but they made it exclusive to Apple Arcade.

The game was so dead on arrival that if you try to play online, you simply get matched with bots. Which means Sega knew the game would be dead on arrival and tried to cover it up, as opposed to, I dunno, not taking the damn exclusivity deal then.

For once, it doesn't sound like Nintendo had anything to do with this one. Seems to have been some kind of internal conflict within the community.

I primarily play competitive fighting games, so I'd just be looking for a steady stream of opponents to challenge myself against. That's something I can grind for five years.

Damn, no multiplayer hurts like hell.

Slay the Spire - I could grind Packmaster forever. And everything else on the Workshop. And vanilla.

Stepmania - You said I have access to all existing mods and content, so I've basically got a trillion charts to play. Maybe I'll even have time to actually get good at a rhythm game?

Crypt of the Necrodancer - Had to think long and hard about a third game. Been a long time since my Cadence speedrunning days, but I guess five years on a desert island might give me time to try and shoot for Coda.

I'm shy.