I finished Bananza for good. The only things not 100% completed are the music disks, because that's just grinding, and the stats page because I'm not insane. And then they released the DLC an hour later! But like I said in the other thread, I'm not going to get it. The roguelike gameplay is just not something I'm interested in. But finally, huge shoutout to the Credits Theme! I cried when that part happened!
So today is finally the day I'll pull the trigger on Xenoblade X. I remember my final verdict on the game on the Wii U was something along the lines of "The first 50 hours were some of the best I've ever experienced in a video game, followed by 100 hours of chores". However, since Xenoblades 2 and 3 went into a direction I was less fond of, I think I'll be able to appreciate X more than before. I've been meaning to play it again for a few years, but I had faith in a Switch remaster and waited.
The Witness is longer than I expected. I'm probably almost done now but I've seen enough inaccessible passages to know there's more than meets the eye underground.
I 100% completed Bananza today! It's... it's complete... it was complete...
Jokes aside, I think I'll be skipping this one. Emerald Rush is the kind of roguelike gameplay I have no interest in, so I'd really only be getting one world. Maybe if it gets a discount one day.
I like that they moved away from the handmade style of Woolly/Crafted. Woolly was a great game, but I prefer this. It looks interesting, too. Kind of like the idea of Pokemon Snap turned into a platformer!
Though there were some parts in that trailer that looked like characters are intentionally moving rather choppily as part of that style. That bothered me quite a bit.
These absolute madmen are selling the Virtual Boy again. Reminds me of that time when Morbius got a second run in theaters. If you can play the games without the accessory it's fine, but that thing flopped for a reason!
Bananza's post game is very underwhelming. Aside from the main content, which is okay, each world has maybe one or two new bananas added. And none of them are interesting in any way. Makes me wonder why they bothered to begin with?
Yakuza 3 is kinda starting now. The game went through the motions of introducing the three main mid bosses, I assume, and we're off to deal with them. After another round of Mahjong maybe...
The Witness has two faces. The puzzles that have you figure out the symbols within, which I like, and the puzzles that require you to find the solution with nearby shadows, sounds and whatnot, which I'm not as fond of. The world itself is really nice though, it kinda feels like you're in a dream with all the hidden lines in the environment and other little secrets that just kinda appear when you find the correct angle to look at them.
I have finished Bananza! At least the main game, there's post game stuff to do now. It's a shame I had an important endgame element spoiled for me, but it was still pretty awesome. One thing I've been meaning to mention but always forgot is Cranky... why does he say the same thing in every world? What an absolute waste of an iconic character! But anyway, I need to talk about the end:
Anyway, with all that said, I do think Odyssey is the better game, but Bananza is definitely more important to me, personally!
I also played a little more of Yakuza 3. Apparently some side quests only give you one chance to do them. Failure is basically an alternate, disappointing ending to them. I came into this game expecting to like it less than the newer, previous games (which sounds so oxymoronic when you don't know the series), but my list of complaints just keeps growing. I don't see myself trying too hard to complete most things in this game.
I also started playing The Witness. It's interesting and very good at teaching you how to solve its puzzles without explaining anything, but I'm worried I'll start seeing line-puzzles in the real world soon. It seems like that kind of game...
I think I'm near the end of Bananza. There's a fossil museum at some point and there's not much space left in it, so it seems like a safe guess. And I will repeat what I said last week: The second half of the game is way better than the first!
I will also say that the Bananza mechanics isn't that great now that I'm this deep into the game. It's initially introduced as an upgrade to yourself, which makes sense with the energy gauge, but most of the forms you get seem to just be minor puzzle elements. It doesn't feel right to use up your gauge just because you need to run fast or jump high for a second. That combined with how fast the gauge recharges makes me wonder why it exists in the first place. There's a consumable item that refills your gauge, too, and quite frankly, I have no idea how to even use it because you just don't need it. The elephant is the only one I really use anymore because it does what I generally need the most: destroy.
And I found some time to play Yakuza 3 again. I've finally made it to Kamurocho and, naturally, there are immediately a ton of side quests. So who knows when the story continues.
Mostly played Bananza, cleared sublevel 1000 today. I will say the levels are not nearly as memorable as Odyssey's were. I only played that game once when it was released and still remember most levels better than whatever I did in this game last week. The first level was my favorite one for a long time, and then it was a long lull. It got better though, two out of three levels after the split path converges again were really cool!
I am also happy to report that, after 30 years, I have finally caught Carmen Sandiego in the 1994 CD-Rom version of her game. I can finally bury this grudge and move on!
I hope to find some time to pick Yakuza 3 back up. Luckily, I put the game on hiatus in a very convenient spot just before a location change and have enough experience with previous games to not have forgotten how to play.
Teil seiner Bewegung war die Verteidigung von Waffengewalt als Preis für "Freiheit". Das wird ein interessantes Thema...