Time for another update of this thread because I do such a good job remembering to post here I have 5 months worth of gaming to recall but here we go!

The next game I beat after I last posted was Miitopia which was a game I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy when I started playing it at the same time as my wife but I really ended up enjoying the game and it's quirky humor.

Next up was Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX which I finally decided to buy to try and get more into the series after playing Explorers of Sky and enjoying it a while back but then getting distracted by 100 different games and I once again enjoyed this game but I haven't made any attempt to play any of the other games in the series since really so maybe it's just something I pick up for a bit then put down for a long time.

I then decided to play Persona 4 Dancing All Night a game I thought was pretty fun but my main memory from the game was how annoying it was that Rise's voice actor was changed for this game and how much it threw me off. If you're ever gonna give a Persona dancing game a shot for some reason definitely try this one.

I then decided to finish up a game I started at some point last year that being Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition a game I wanted to play since it came out way back on the Wii U but took me forever to finally own and even longer to finish but I really enjoyed a lot of it wish I would of got on playing it a lot sooner and honestly it might of sold me on getting the new one later this year but we'll see.

Over the next few weeks I dedicated some time to trying games I've always been curious about but never gave a shot and the one that finally ended up winning my attention long enough to at least sorta beat was Castlevania Symphony of the Night and I didn't get the true ending but I got a ending and by the time I did I was getting sick of the game feeling rather cryptic so I dropped it after I got an ending and felt satisfied finally seeing what the hype all these years with the game was about had a great time would love to go back someday and play the rest if I was bored.

Next up on my list is I finally finished my 30 year dynasty on College Football 25 and I love the game still I've seen a lot of people trying to say it wasn't great or something but man I hate madden and never have fun on it while this I had a blast more often than not and I'm excited to play CFB26 but as for the ending of my dynasty I won around 20 National Championships so 2/3 times I won it all but still loving the game I started up a new one and have been slowly working my way up in the world just got hired by Alabama today while I was playing but unfortunately with CFB26's release date right around the corner I doubt I finish my first season with the Crimson Tide.

Over the next few days I beat a trilogy of games I had been meaning to play pretty much forever that being the first 3 Crash Bandicoot games through the Nsane Trilogy so to give some quick thoughts on each game I understood that one review saying it was the dark souls of platformers after the first game, the 2nd one was just alright but a lot better than the first and the 3rd one was pretty great.

Around this time I also finished up playing Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition a game I've wanted to play since I got into the series a few years back and I even spent like $60 to get the game on Wii U like a year ago but I gave up playing it on the Wii U once this version was announced and I gotta say playing it was great but it's really made it hard to decide for me which Xenoblade game I like the best I like them all for different things which I guess is okay but I don't know where I'd recommend someone to start.

About a year ago I had a coworker who really liked Yakuza and told me oh yeah start with Like a Dragon and I finally listened and bought it and played it and I hate all the people who hyped this game up this is the worst turn based RPG gameplay wise I've played in years where so many things feel so outdated for the year this game released it really broke me several times throughout playing this game but I finally beat it was it worth it? Probably not to be honest but I pushed through and finished it.

So at the same time of me playing Like a Dragon my wife had started playing Yakuza 0 and had been playing through the series so I had been getting context for things and such from her playing on stuff I didn't get, but instead of going backwards and playing an older game I decided to play The Man Who Erased His Name, and to my surprise I loved it and thought the combat was so fun and really confused me why they went turn based in the first place I've tried 0 in the past and didn't think the combat was great but I loved it in Man Who Erased His Name I did almost all the side content before finishing it cause I was having so much fun.


I then started Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth and I haven't finished it yet but I will say the game still irritates me more than I'd like it too but it without a doubt is miles ahead of Like a Dragon but I pretty much dropped it entirely once the Switch 2 released.

For the first time ever I got a console on launch day so for the past monthish I've been playing a ton of Mario Kart World and having a blast I love how it controls and feels compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and the open world while feeling a little lackluster in a way still is fun to drive around in and do missions in. We all know how much I love Double Dash so I have to give credit to the game for remixing every track theme in the game besides the Wario Coliseum/Waluigi Stadium track theme so music wise Double Dash has never had so much representation and I'm super happy to finally have a remix of Double Dash's Rainbow Road theme the only thing that would be better is that track finally returning.

Now for a really random one I one day was like oh yeah I never played Super Mario Land so I did it took like an hour it wasn't very good hopefully I like Land 2 more when I get around to it.


For another game I played with the wifey is Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. This was her first none Mario RPG Mario game and she had a great time playing it with me I played most of the game as Mario while she played as Peach and I had heard the lag was bad online back when it came out but really I didn't think it was that bad, we made it all the way to Champion's Road but we decided with the co op mechanics and the little bit of lag online it wasn't worth struggling through currently so instead we started up Bowser's Fury and with the Gameshare + Gamechat option I played as Bowser Jr online and was surprised how much help I was able to give by being Bowser Jr only took us a few hours to finish since it's not long but she enjoyed it more structure wise being all open so looking forward to playing Odyssey.


Finally I recently finished Mario Strikers Battle League with some help on the last cup from my cousin who was brand new to the game but was able to help me push past the toads and win the final cup finally after what felt like 100 attempts on my own previously.

Been over 3 months since my last update oops anyways, What have I been up to since July?

Well first off right around this time College Football 26 released and I was conflicted for a while but the last few updates has made me really enjoy how it feels again as it’s now faster like 25 was, I also played some games against bec which didn’t go very well for him.

Next game I gotta talk about is me and Ian finishing Persona 5 Royal on the Switch. This is the first time I have played the game on Merciless and I definitely think 90% of the time it was way easier than hard and honestly maybe even normal, I don’t imagine I’ll be playing P5R again anytime soon but I still had fun doing stuff I hadn’t done before this playthrough like for example doing all the retro games and fixing the laptop and using it. I think at this point I’ve done pretty much everything in Royal and such but I still love that game and to this day no game has ever passed it for me personally. This playthrough I think I struggled the most with the piggy bank and the waves of robots during that palace being vague to avoid spoilers, but the robots were awful as always it went even worse for Ian as he was playing it on hard and seeing how it went for him makes me question how I even won it last time I played the game while I had it on hard.

I guess I went out of order already but I also have to talk about Donkey Kong Bannaza which I’m very conflicted on one hand I think if you don’t have any thoughts on going for 100% it’s a great game with a lot of fun to be had but if your like me and wanna 100% 3D Platformers it’s hell to be honest and also there was enough layers I don’t like exploring to just kind of give up around the halfway mark for 100% but I got to see the post game story and such so that was fun. I also don’t think it’s right for the DLC to be DLC I mean Mushroom Kingdom was part of Super Mario Odyssey at launch I felt like DK Island should of been in DKB but nope $20 DLC.

Up next was King of Fighters XV which tbh I only played one day but I beat the story and it was okay? I’ve never played KOF before that random day but got it from PS+ so I was like why not.

Then I finally got around to playing Final Fantasy 6 Pixel Remaster which I got on sale probably over a year before actually playing, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it I don’t love RPGs all the time and even more so with old ones but I thought it was really good and enjoyed it a lot more than Final Fantasy 4 Pixel Remaster.

Next up is Super Mario World or to be exact Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World which I played with Furret and we had a really good time and for the first time I actually 100%ed it as I never got all the exits my first playthrough back on the wii and we also played as Luigi the whole time to make it more interesting while slipping all over the place. I still think Super Mario World is the best 2D Mario and a timeless game for the most part and also has an underrated final boss fight against Bowser.

Gotta go fast! Sonic Racing Crossworlds was the next game I played! I really enjoy playing Crossworlds I was a bit worried it wouldn’t be amazing compared to Mario Kart World but depending on what you want from a kart racer there’s definitely an argument for Crossworlds over World but I’m not here to make that argument since I’m not really sure which I like better I think both are super fun! As I did the beta test before the game came out I got matched up against multiple Sonic youtubers I recognized while playing which felt crazy lol. I also during the early access period hit the 2nd best time in the world on a time trial on my first try so then I tried to beat 1st for an hour and couldn’t but if I remember how I’ll add the picture to the thread later cause I was really proud of doing that. I’m looking forward to all the dlc updates that come throughout the next year!

One of the last games I’ve recently played has been Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth which I finally beat and was able to uninstall freeing up some more space on my PS5 and I talked about it earlier in the thread and I don’t have much to add but I will say the name of the trophy you get beating the game is one of the best trophy names of all time.

I guess I could mention Persona 5 The Phantom X a bit I’ve been playing the game pretty much everyday and it’s really annoying however I do love playing the band club mini game me and Ian have had several calls where we just kept trying different songs improving our scores and such.

Okay as for the last game I just started the other day Ghost of Yotei I’ve been loving it so far the exploration is so good when you just get into a flow of exploring finding something doing a quest getting ready to travel more just to find another activity and it just keeps going like that a lot of the time.

I've let it be over 6 months again oops... where do I even begin


The first game I finished since my last post was Pokemon Legends Z-A which I thought was great I loved the new combat I love a lot of the characters and I think the hate for only Lumiose is way overblown but I do wish more of Kalos would of been in it. Also the new Mega's are awesome.

Next up is Ghost of Yotei which was pretty fun I don't think I liked it as much as the first one but I still had a great time playing it, and would likely buy dlc for it if they make any.

I next replayed Kingdom Hearts 3 in preparation for having to redo all the super bosses in the DLC for a friend so she could experience them. It had been a while since I played 3 and I forgot how Critical on KH3 can be rather challenging and annoying but for the most part it wasn't too bad after all they're all fights I've done before so after a few days I had beaten the game. I then started my proper planning for the 14 super boss fights I knew I had to prepare for back in 2020 I had Hi Potions and such but I got destroyed for months on the fights especially the last secret one who I and I think everyone else considers the hardest boss in the series by a long shot. So this time I decided I must get the Ultima Weapon because it's all powerful and surely if I had it my enemy would not still stand! Doing the mini games for it for the first time honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be some of them were pretty annoying but it wasn't awful or anything. After having the all powerful Ultima Weapon I had a thought which was how many times I got stunned by the status effect hits in Limit Cut and had to just sit there and die so I began to look into equipment and tried to find if there was a stun block accessory and there was and to get it I only had to play a mini game 500 times till it randomly had the ability I wanted oh joy, so several hours later I had it and thought I was prepared. As my friend got closer to finishing 3 I had a thought do I have enough munny for elixirs the whole time? The answer was more than likely no so I decided to spend several hours grinding munny or at least what felt like several hours and had plenty. Within the last 2 weeks it finally was time for me to fight the super bosses that put me through hell in 2020 I told my friend repeatedly this will take months just as a heads up and the first time I played I beat 5 of them... several first try I was mind blown had I gotten better? Was my preparing that much of a difference maker? Am I a God? I think it's a combo of all of the above. Going into the next time I played I was fully confident now those other 8 were going down and down they went the last 2 you unlock did still give me a handful of attempts to actually beat this go around but that's still way better than I expected! I also tried fighting the final super boss and got destroyed so we stopped played some Xenoverse and I mentally prepared for another several months of fighting the same guy who tortured me by constantly asking if I thought I'd win every time he killed me. To my surprise though after about 40 minutes of attempts my next session I won and I popped off pretty hard considering it's a boss I've beat before but man that fight really pushes me to the limit every time the attempt before I won he opened with his desperation move and I got him down to only 2 bars left before I lost and that's how I knew I had him cause I never even try that hard when he opens the fight with it.

Next up Tales of Xillia which came out right before my wife's birthday just like how Pokemon Z-A came out right before mine so we both had a game we were really looking forward to for our bday and so I got the remaster as well to play through with her since I enjoyed it on the PS3 and I think replaying it made me realize I do really like the characters and such but man I really want Xillia 2 remaster as I think it's just the better game.

Next up is the Pokemon Legends Z-A DLC and I hated it for the most part as much as I like the base game I thought this DLC sucked it has it's moments that I really enjoyed here and there but 95% of my time with it I hated it. I'd recommend watching a video on it if your really curious if you liked Z-A I don't recommend the DLC at all unless it has some mythical you really want.

That brings us to around Christmas and around this time I decided it was time for me to finish a certain game all about time that being The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. My history with this game goes back to 2012 my younger brother got an N64 for Christmas and OoT well actually he got Majora's Mask but we had to trade that in cause we didn't have the add on for the N64 to play it and since he was too young to read he'd ask me to play it alot to the point I made my own save file for when he wanted to watch me play and through many sessions I finally got to the master sword and became adult link and was all excited to continue it and the next time I went to play my brother had deleted my save file cause once again he couldn't read. So for years I tried to get back into OoT but I just couldn't get myself to play those first 3 dungeons again regardless of what I tried and as I get older the harder I find it to play N64 games and PS1 games so I thought I was doomed to never finish it. That said I was aware of the PC port people had done and out of boredom I downloaded it a 2nd time got it all set up and was off on my journey to finally beat one of the most beloved games of all time. I ended up playing the heck out of it for like 3 or 4 days and beat it I did have lots of quality of life things turned on to make my life easier but I really did enjoy it.

Having finished OoT I was really in a Zelda mood so I decided to finally play a game I had for a year at this point The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom and I thought it was really fun not really challenging at all but I wasn't expecting it to be I just wanted to enjoy a fun little 2D Zelda game where you play as Zelda and that's what I got so no complaints here.

Next up is a game I got for Christmas from my mother cause she swears we still have to do Christmas but it's another Zelda game Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment. I hadn't played the previous BOTW Hyrule Warriors but I thought the Switch port of the first Hyrule Warriors was fun enough so I was like well maybe it'll be pretty good and pretty good is all I have to say about it tbh I mean it's a warriors game after all.

One more Zelda game in a row this time I get to talk about The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening which I bought cause I thought I was still in the mood for one more Zelda game and I always was interested in Link's Awakening so I got it and had a lot of fun with it not as clear as I probably would of liked it to be at points on where to go or what to do but it is a Gameboy game remade at the end of the day.

Next we return to Kingdom Hearts with Melody of Memory another game I got for Christmas although I watched the new scenes the day the game came out and never really planned on getting it but well it was a gift so I decided to give it a shot and I had a lot of fun with it actually it wasn’t anything crazy and is definitely not worth it for new story content or anything but it’s a fun little rhythm game.

For something that’s pretty different for me I would say to most of the other games I’ve talked about during this thread I next played The Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion Remastered I had started it a few times and fell off but this time I decided to play as a mage or maybe I continued a mage save I don’t remember exactly but I had a lot of fun going on random side quests, making my own spells, breaking the game, etc I also spent the time to play the DLC quests and I actually liked the less liked one the Knight one I forget what exactly it was called but I really enjoyed that quest line felt like some Indiana Jones stuff at points.

Well from here I then returned to the Yakuza series with Yakuza 0 Directors Cut I got it the day the Switch 2 released and had just sorta put it off but I finally decided to sit down and play it and it was really good story wise I know people also love the gameplay but uh I hate the heat meter in this game it drains so quick where I never wanted to use a heat action and with Kiryu I really struggled to build heat up at all. Majima on the other hand I could build heat pretty easily with so it’s chapters weren’t as bad I still really liked the game but not my favorite Yakuza.

Now to make Yakuza fans more mad the next game I played was Pirate Yakuza and I loved it I had so much fun doing all the sailing, hunting for the treasure, and enjoying the story. I didn’t like the ship combat but I liked everything else in the game enough that I went for the platinum and it’s a strong contender for my favorite game in the series I don’t know if I like it more than The Man Who Erased His Name.

After Pirate I decided I should play some more earlier Yakuza games so I played Kiwami and gameplay wise I would say it’s a better take on 0 but I still just don’t love the combat in whatever engine 0 and Kiwami runs on it just doesn’t feel as fun to me for whatever reason story wise I thought it was okay but blows my mind that it’s a remake of the first game in the series cause like why would anyone care about anything in the first game without 0 hard to wrap my head around ngl.

Next was Kiwami 2 and I enjoyed the gameplay a lot more and was more invested in the story I know my wife had told me she hated the story cause she didn’t like the love interest but I thought she was alright and enjoyed the dynamic at points but I really liked the bad guy and found him fun.

I had decided I had enough of Yakuza for the time being so the next thing I set my sights on was finishing off the Ace Attorney series with the Investigations games and I love Edgeworth so I was expecting to love it and I was kind of disappointing by the first one but the 2nd one lived up to my expectations and I really enjoyed most of the cases. I do wonder now that I’m caught up how long Ace Attorney fans will have to wait for another game.

Only 2 more games left to talk about next up at the start of this month I decided to replay Super Mario Galaxy 2 to see the new storybook stuff and I was having so much fun playing the game I ended up 100%ing for a 2nd time even though I know I’m eventually playing it again with Ian but I don’t really regret that cause I had so much fun and I’m excited to do it again if anything. I really enjoyed the new storybook content for Galaxy 2 but to my surprise yesterday they added another chapter so good thing I already did everything so I could see this final chapter which I also really enjoyed.

As of last night because of Minuano talking about how good it is I decided to start playing FF16 again and I was having fun last night playing it hopefully I stay with it to the end this time only complaint so far is what on earth was Yoshi P thinking with this control scheme.