Something I didn’t think would be possible: a Flash Card for Switch. But it’s apparently true. No need to solder anything, and it should be able to play every XCI:
I don’t need one at the moment, but it’s an interesting development.
Category: Switch
I find that the best way for me to learn a board game is to play its videogame version for a bit. That way you feel that something guides you, doesn’t allow you to make completely stupid mistakes and you don’t need to bother with maths either.
This worked great with PC version of Wingspan for me. Then I tried to console version on Catan, which is tiny and hard to follow, but still helps.
And now I tried Root. The interesting bit about Root is that it’s completely asymmetric, unlike most board games. Every has different mechanics: one has fixed number of moves, another has number of moves increasing every turn, another has number of moves depending on the items. Starting positions are completely different: one faction controls all areas, but is spread very thin, while another controls just one area, but has a large force there. So while certainly not something I would play solely for my enjoyment, it’s interesting, and well executed.
While comparing Diablo 4 to Diablo 2 and Diablo 3, I noticed one detail that is very interesting. You start as a necromancer with no ability points. But you can still summon a skeleton to help you from the get go. That’s because you’re given a wand with +1 to Summon Skeleton skill. So you can be a necromancer from the get-go, basically.
Although I rarely go back to games I’ve completed, I do make an exception for Hades. My main goal I had still left was to give the “Arthur” sword a try.
What almost nobody explains is that in order to unlock the secret aspects, you need to invest 6 Titan Blood into the second or the third aspect of the weapon, not the first one. I wasted plenty of Titan Blood and runs until I learned that. So, I’ve got the Arthur sword, even finished a run with it. Guess it’s finally time to lay Hades to rest, then
PC:
- Ascent
- Descent
- Doom
- Doom 2
- Doom Eternal
- Iron Harvest
- Mega City Police
- Outlaws
Switch:
- Hades
Front Mission 2 Remake on Switch is actually quite a big deal. Although it was a no-brainer after Front Mission 1 Remake was released. They got the engine now, all you need to do is port the missions, basically.
Still, it’s the first time Front Mission 2 can be played in English. And I wasn’t sure if a fan translation even existed for this game.
Completed Hades.
I didn’t think I’d manage to beat it once. Now, what do I say when I escaped 10 times?
Had a good run with the Sword, using a hammer that halves your HP, but leeches life. Until I got to Hades. He just deals too much damage for that.
Then I escaped with “magnetic fists” without dying even once, I think mostly thanks to Athena’s Legendary boon.
This game really grew on me, I must admit. Although I usually dislike permadeath games, to the point I rarely touch them. But I like the art, despite it’s supposed to be very “woke”, I like the story and the very British writing. And after 50 attempts, I stopped minding dying that much 😅
The only bit that annoys me is that even after 50 attempts and 10 escapes, I opened just a single hidden aspect. That’s grindy as hell, I’d say.
6th escape. It’s time to agree that you don’t need the perfect combination of boons in order to escape sometimes. I was using the Chiron Bow, and lost a couple of lives to the first bosses, since I had the Extreme Measures on. But then I still managed to escape, partially due to Neptune’s Legendary that knocks back twice.
7th escape. That was easiest escape by far. I started with Ares Doom Special, and that was it, really. When fully empowered, it deals incredible damage.
8th escape. I had the Rail, but what did the trick was Duo of Neptune and Zeus, really.
Funny that I almost escaped with the “Magnetic” fists, and died when Hades had just a couple of hits to go, because I got overconfident.
Managed to beat Hades for the second time, with a combination of Zeus and Dionisius, including their duo-boon. And expended just a single life in the process!
The principle that I follow is that if there’s a fated choice, I always take the fated choice.
Unlocked the first hidden aspect, the Spear.
I wish I could say that my 3rd escape was with the Shield, but in fact it was 90% combination of Artemis’ cast, Artemis’ Exit Wounds and Hermes’ Epic Quick Reload.
4th escape: didn’t expect it would go well at all. But Chiron Bow, Zeus cast and Dead Defiance reload from Athena surprisingly did the job.
5th escape. Again, didn’t expect to make it. But I randomly traded for Rocket Bomb and Tripple Bomb, so I fired 3 rockets. Then I went for Demeter cast topped with Arctic Blast. I think in this run I also collected the most Duo boons ever, three of them, including Stubborn Roots that regenerates HP if you don’t have lives left. That carried me through the entire Labirynth.
Like Diablo 3, this is another example of a game that although originally released on PC, I would only play on Switch.
I’m surprised how much written dialogs are there in this game. And all of them are also brilliantly voice acted.
Managed to get up to Hades himself on my very next run. With full set of lives, no less. Used the tripple-hitting spear (Flurry Jab) with great success. Still got wiped out by his second phase, of course.
Then the most successful run I had was some 20 runs later, with a Rocket Bomb special. And by “most successful” I mean that I managed to beat Hades for the first time.
That’s not the end of the story, though. And I’m not sure if there is.
What I adore about that game is how you can go between “damn, that mission is impossible” and “well, I beat it with S rating” in half an hour.
The interesting bit in the last mission of the first game is that you can choose two other commanders to assist you. And unlike some previous missions, you can control them directly.
Now I see why the two games were bundled together. It’s not just the same game storywise. Black Hole units are introduced on the 23rd mission out of 24. So even in the original game, they created all those gorgeous sprites not for the sake of two final missions, but because they probably knew they’ll be working on a second game right after.
Speaking of Sturm, the only CO of Black Hole present in the first game.
His skills are different to all other COs except Drake, because they don’t rely on boosting your units. Instead, Sturm just drops a meteor on them. And while it can’t kill any unit, it drops all units to 1-2HP, which is basically the same. The only CO that can wreck you badly even while loosing.
I rarely write about my successes. But yesterday I managed to update Atmosphere to 1.5.3 and firmware to 16.0.3 without any issues.
Just had to copy the sigpatches again. Even saves are intact. I call it a success.
As much as I’m fan of Advance Wars, I never finished the first two on GBA. Fortunately, there’s a remake now for Switch. Delayed by a year due to war in Ukraine, but still.
Not sure if they just remade the graphics or also rewritten the dialogs, and it doesn’t matter much. The significance of dialogs and storyline in Advance Wars is equal to dialogs in porn or W40K. It’s just an excuse, and we all know that.
This game always reminds me of chess puzzles (not that I’m good at them). At least the missions where you can’t build additional units. Winning is not difficult. Getting an “S” score sometimes is. Although the score doesn’t impact anything except your ego, really.
One feature I don’t remember on GBA is the ability to rewind your last move. You can’t rewind enemie’s turn, but it’s still very useful, expecially if you misjudged artillery ranges.
PC:
– Blacksad: Under the Skin
– Darksiders 3
– Dusk
– Prodeus
– Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
– Rise of the Tomb Raider
Switch:
– Return of Obra Dinn
Completed Return of Obra Dinn.
I’m surprised how much I got into that game.
First part is gathering the clues, which is pretty standard for walking sims.
Second part, that starts with the storm, is much more involved, as it requires a lot of crossreferencing. Officers of same rank wear similar clothes. Each officer has a mate that is often seen with them. People of same origin tend to stick together. Things like that. The funny part is that I had the most trouble identifying four Chinese guys. Because, you know, they all look the same.
Stylish black&white walking sim. We play as insurance investigator from the 19th century, that is tasked with figuring out what happened to a vessel, now barren besides a few skeletons.
You have a magic clock, that given a corpses, shows how a person died. Now if in that memory someone else dies, magic clock will make their corpse reappear too. And you can do multiple time jumps that way.
The story broken into chapters, and each chapter has a page dedicated to each corpse. Some of the crew didn’t leave corpses behind, so you also need to figure out what happened to them (in the middle of the sea, dugh!). Each page is a 3D slice of a ship, sometimes spanning multiple decks. You can move around, trying to figure out who’s who.
There are about 40 different ways a person could die in this game. I didn’t expect anyone to be electrocuted. I was wrong.
Pretty quickly we discover that the ship was attacked by no less that a kraken. And before that, by a couple of murderous crab riding merman. And this is all a result of a curse. The game leans into the mystical heavier than what I expected. But there are also a couple good old murders to solve as well. A baton is a far deadlier weapon that one would assume.
Interestingly enough, they decided to remake Front Mission 1. Not just have a port from NDS, which was quite a direct port from SNES, but to actually remake it in 3D:
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/FRONT-MISSION-1st-Remake-2171006.html
I personally don’t see a reason to play it myself, as I completed the game some time ago on NDS. But it would be intersting if they release other Front Mission games for the Switch as well.
Although I dislike the theme of masked vigilantes, I must admit that the game is phenomenal.
We play as a teenager that tried to stop a rapist, but instead got sued by him and now on probation.
He’s bestowed with a magical app on his phone that allows him to visit Palaces: places that evil people build inside their minds. And if he’s able to steal their Treasure, it will cure them. Potentially also make them brain dead, but it’s one evil person less anyway.
The most annoying part is that they brought back the persona dialog system from Persona 2. To get a new persona you first need to crit it, then you need to persuade it to join by guessing a right answer to a very vague question.
Managed to install Persona 5 on my Switch.
I feel like I update firmware on it more than I play it.
At first, I was getting “failed to read NSP metadata”
Fixed that by installing the latest patches. The process is super-shady, as you just copy a bunch of random files you found on the Internet.
Then, had to figure out the Master Key password in Atmosphere:
up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, plus
That enables unsigned code installation, since the only NSP available at the moment is converted from XCI.
But it works. And the most surprising thing, it works on Firmware 12.1.0, while the latest is 15.0.0
I’m always afraid of upgrading firmwares on my Switch, as I almost bricked it once already, and lost all my saves in the process.
Looks like I completely missed the fact that Persona 5 is now also on PC.
And even better news, Persona 4 is planned for Switch in January as well. Dropped it on PS2, dropped it on PC, not I have a chance to drop it for the third time!