Post 31 - September 3rd, 2024
Series Completion: The Elder Scrolls (mainline)

Alright, 4th day in a row of posting and thankfully the streak ends here. In seriousness though I do really enjoy writing these so I don't mind it.

As of writing this, the mainline Elder Scrolls Series consists of 5 games:
-The Elder Scrolls: Arena (PC, 1994)
-The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (PC, 1996)
-The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC & Xbox, 2002)
-The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, 2006)
-The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, 2011)

The first entry in the series, The Elder Scrolls: Arena, was relatively small in popularity but massive in scale and ambition. Size estimates are surprisingly unclear, but people guess that the map is 5-10 million kilometers squared covering the entirety of Tamriel, most of which is procedurally generated which is absolutely insane for a game that released in 1994. The RPG mechanics are also surprisingly deep and it offers a decent role-playing experience. That being said the game isn't very fun, the controls are horribly outdated, movement throughout the first person 3D landscape is entirely done with the mouse, and attacks are done by holding right click. The story is also very mediocre and basic, and the combat and balancing isn't particularly good as well. It hasn't been remade either so it has to be played through DOSbox which is pretty ancient (practically dinosaur era /s). And so I never actually completed Arena, I don't like skipping but it's just a little too unplayable for me. If that fan remake of it ever gets finished though I'll gladly play through it.

And then there was Daggerfall, which fun fact was one of the first projects at Bethesda that Todd Howard worked on. At first glance Daggerfall looks very similar to Arena, still using DOSbox and many reused assets, but that's just the surface. Thankfully there is a very high quality and faithful fan remake of Daggerfall which just released earlier this year, and is a part of the reason why I started playing through this series. Daggerfall is great, I can't say its amazing as it's pretty aged and full of bugs, but considering the time and platform it was released for it's a great game. The Daggerfall map is the size of England, all of which is procedurally generated in the year of 1996 which is insane, and all of it can be seamlessly traveled (if you're crazy). The story is also pretty good in Daggerfall, there are multiple different endings to it with multiple different branches, it's pretty interesting. I also love the setting of it, unlike later Elder Scrolls games Daggerfall takes place in the iliac bay along the coastlines of Hammerfell and High Rock (just west of Skyrim), and not just in a single province of Tamriel. I adore the cities of Daggerfall, Wayrest, and Sentinel. It's speculated that The Elder Scrolls VI will take place in Hammerfell and/or High Rock, which personally makes me really happy, I'd love to see these cities remade. But that's all the good I have to say about it, the dungeons are incredibly tedious and poorly designed, the main quest has a time limit on it, and the final few quests and dungeons of the game are particularly bad. But overall Daggerfall is a good game.

The game that took me the longest to complete was The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Not particularly because of the extremely slow player speed (though that did contribute), but because it caught me off guard how incredible it is. Morrowind contrary to the name does not take place over the entirety of Morrowind, only on the large island of Vvardenfell north of the mainland which honestly works out really well. Morrowind also dumps the massive scale that Daggerfall has, though the map still is quite large, and Bethesda decided to make the dungeons and quests more handcrafted instead of using procedural generation, which was clearly a good move as impressive as it was. My first 5-10 hours with Morrowind were horrible, I got stuck on the first fighter's guild quest because I kept on getting my ass beat by a horde of two low level rats. I spent a good 3 hours trying to figure out how to get over a massive mountain range because I didn't know you could get around it, all the while escorting an NPC who has horrible navigation. And now it is my 2nd favorite Elder Scrolls game. Morrowind is not fun unless you put a lot of effort into playing it, but when you do it is one of the best games you will ever play. Sure the real time DnD dice-rolling combat is pretty annoying, but with enemy leveling scaling being nonexistent it's pretty easy to overcome them with a little bit of looting and leveling. One of the biggest shocks starting Morrowind as well was having no map markers other than cities and large points of interest, navigating by NPC directions which half the time suck, and using road signs are pretty vital. While it took a little while to get used to and I ended up getting lost and confused a lot, I actually ended up loving it. Elder Scrolls games offer a lot of text to read in books and in dialogue, Morrowind gives a legitimate reason to read them. The world itself is also very alien, it's by far the most unique and exotic landscape in the series. The main story is extremely well written as well, I also found it very humorous as I was severely over-leveled for the main story by the time I got to it so it was a breeze for me, but it was still fantastic to play through. The Bloodmoon expansion is also pretty fun and interesting, and the Tribunal DLC exists. Tribunal is actually a really popular DLC in the community, but honestly other than the cool architecture and story I didn't really get the appeal. At the end of the day though the game is older and in turn very buggy and quirky so it's not perfect, but it is pretty damn close.

I've heard so many people discuss how The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a flawless masterpiece, and is one of the greatest games of all time. And with all due respect, meh. I am of course saying this in comparison to the other Elder Scrolls games, by all means Oblivion is a fantastic game, but coming out of Morrowind I was expecting a little bit of a better experience. Oblivion took the series away from DnD dice-rolling for every skill in the game, which would be great if the combat and leveling systems weren't complete garbage. I can respect Bethesda for mixing up leveling by adding perks every 25 levels most of which were actually pretty decent, but unfortunately the enemy level scaling is relentless. If you the player aren't leveling optimally you will quickly fall behind the power of every enemy in the game. Thankfully I understood the leveling system well and was able to use it efficiently, but that can't be said for casual gamers who don't have time to research how to level up optimally in a video game. High level enemies are also just annoying damage sponges who can completely stagger-lock you if they feel like it. The dungeons are also very poorly made, and the theming while pretty, is very generic fantasy theming. Now that my issues with it are out of the way I can praise it. I love how every line is voice acted in Oblivion, yeah sure the voice lines are a little cheesy and low quality, but it added so much to the immersion compared to Morrowind which had very little voice acting. The map is also huge, it is technically bigger than Skyrim (although a little more empty). The story is also fantastic, it is very well written and I really enjoying going through it. The role-playing elements are also great, the player can purchase houses and horses, it's pretty good. Despite being a little generic, the theming does work quite well and the landscape is very pretty and diverse. I also love the setting of Cyrodil, being in the very center of Tamriel surrounded by different provinces and cultures. Overall Oblivion is a great game, but it's by far the weakest modern entry in the series in my opinion, but being in a series of masterpieces it's obviously really easy to become hypercritical of it.

And of course there is my favorite, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Honestly speaking in technical terms I think that Morrowind is more perfect, but the immersion of Skyrim just blows me away. And despite Morrowind being really cool and alien looking, Skyrim gets an unfair advantage because the landscape reminds me of my home (it's also just extremely pretty). Skyrim is the first Elder Scrolls game to have a major combat gimmick, shouts. The shouts are extremely cool and I love how tied in they are to the main story. Being set in a dragon break as well it's extremely cool, massive soaring dragons combined with vertical jagged peaks is a really cool combo. Again the thing that draws me to Skyrim the most is the immersion. The high quality graphics and player animations, combined with the really well made NPC behaviors and voice acting make for a great role-playing experience. Add on top of it that you can also own and even build homes and own horses, as well as even do things like invest in businesses to increase merchant gold, as well as radiant or infinitely repeatable quests for some good cash as well. It also leaves something to do in cities that have all of their major quests completed. The combat is highly improved from Oblivion, dual wielding is extremely cool, I had a ton of fun playing a spellsword build. Though the combat is a little off, and it doesn't help that spell and shout animations break relatively frequently giving a pretty bad feeling to it overall. But really the combat is improved over previous games. You would think the combat in these games would be good, but it's kind of funny how bad it is in each game. And again the main story as well as many of the side stories in Skyrim deliver really well. Wrapping this part up, Skyrim is a fantastic game, despite being 13 years old it plays like a brand new game, highly recommend. I'm not going to get any deeper into a Skyrim review since my full review is literally the previous post.

Okay that was long, but so is the series so it's warranted. Just overall, the world of Tamriel and Nirn overall is fantastic. There's probably more lore written for the Elder Scrolls series than there is written real world history, and all of the lore and stories are incredibly interesting and well written. I had a blast getting into it and learning about all of it, so much so that I'm already getting addicted to the Elder Scrolls online despite having blasted through this entire series. One thing I will note about the Elder Scrolls community is that it's very hit or miss. It's nothing too serious, but many fans and particularly hardcore Morrowind fans don't understand subjectivity. Some of them will fight to the death to prove that [insert favorite Elder Scrolls game] is objectively the best game ever made and they have no respect for any of the other games which I don't really understand. I just find it odd how fans of a video game series can get so mad at each other because they all have a different favorite. But I guess that just shows how great all 3 of the modern games are so I guess it's chill. Anyway I'll finally finish this up here, this is approaching the length of my last English final.

Stats
These are personal stats based on my completion time and review scores.
Total games: 4 *Arena is not being counted for the stats since I never beat it
Completion: Main + extras
Average time to beat: 62 hours, 17 minutes
Total time to beat: 251 hours, 45 minutes
Total time from start to finish: 223 days
Average review score: 8.5/10
Series completed: 6

The Elder Scrolls is the furthest deviation from the 8/10 average series score, thankfully in the positive direction which is cool. The Elder Scrolls has the highest time-game count ratio of all of the series I've completed so far. Like yeah sure I spent 700 hours completing Zelda but that was around 20 different games, not 4. I do enjoy the longer game format though, it's nice being able to stick to one for a while, especially when it's a game I really enjoy.

What's Next?
A few things, first I'm planning on incorporating some games I'm playing on the side outside of series completion into this blog. I'm planning on them just being a little snippets within the posts I'm already doing regularly, I just think it'll make them a little more interesting, though obviously not for more focused series completion posts like this. I do plan on playing Fallout relatively soon, but there are going to be at least two buffer series between, which if you haven't seen will be Tomb Raider which I have already started via the I-III Remastered Collection. And then I plan on starting the Halo series at some point soon. I'm not sure how soon, I'm sort of planning around the release of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom so there's a good chance I won't start Halo until after I have finished that, in over 1 month. Thank you very much for reading this chonk of a post, and until next time!

Post 30 - September 2nd, 2024
Completion: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

So uhh, when I said I'd be done with Skyrim within a week I wasn't thinking I would beat it literally that same night. The main quest-line was significantly shorter than I thought it would be.

Coming straight from Oblivion and Morrowind, Skyrim feels significantly different to play. The player camera movement is much higher quality, and the combat is actually not half bad. The game leaves a great impression right off the bat with it's high quality movement and combat, as well as animations. The combat also works a little differently as each player hand counts as its own one-handed equipment slot, so you can dual wield weapons, wield 2 different spells, or even a weapon and a spell. Another thing that leaves a great first impression is the world-building and graphics, on top of the high quality animations that make Skyrim extremely immersive. And consider on top of that the fact that Skyrim is 13 years old now, it is extremely impressive how well this game is holding up. It is probably one of the most immersive games that I've ever played.

Getting deeper into the immersion aspect of Skyrim, again the high quality player animations, with the great graphics and world-building contribute to it. NPCs also contribute significantly to the immersion, almost each and every one has their own schedule with deviations on certain days. Most crimes don't actually get reported as soon as you commit them anymore, it's possible to take out all surrounding witnesses to get your bounty cleared. NPCs, particularly guards, speak to the player about recent world events (many of which the player is involved in) which makes it feel like the player is actually impacting things in Skyrim. Many NPCs also have their distinct views about politics within Skyrim, things like their standing on the Stormcloak rebellion and their alignment with the Thalmor. It also helps that the map is ginormous and extremely packed with content, leaving plenty of space for both terrain and cultural diversity within Skyrim. Point is, all of these things come together to make a very believable fantasy world that is extremely easy to get invested in.

The leveling system is pretty good as well. The lack of major and minor skills like previous games is a great change in my opinion, because it leaves the player's play-style almost completely open-ended. The only thing that slightly dictates what build the player should use is the perks. Perks are a new addition to the Elder Scrolls leveling system, with each level up the player gets 1 perk point to put into any skill offering unique bonuses within skills. The quality of the perk depends on their level in that skill as well as how many points the player has already put into it. This is a perfect way to dictate player class, and if the player decides to change what weapon they use or what armor type, or what magic class then they aren't missing out on leveling since every skill contributes to experience. But the player also can't unrealistically be the master of all skills with the perk system in the way (unless you get to level 251, which is ridiculously high by the way). The only issue with the leveling system is the lack of balancing, some of the perks are stupidly overpowered, for example stealth and archery are completely broken, and maces can get to the point where they completely ignore a large chunk of every enemies armor (and there's no longer an athletics skill, meaning player speed is capped sadly). But other than the balancing problems with perks, it is a great leveling system.

And then there is the combat system. The combat isn't technically amazing, but compared to previous Elder Scrolls games it is great. The dual wielding system is great especially with spells. Many people are disappointed at the lack of spell-making which was removed for this entry, but honestly with the dual wield system and large diversity of the Skyrim combat system spell-making could be severely abused and completely break the game. I personally ran a spell-sword build for my playthrough, wielding a short-sword in one hand and a spell in the other, and it was extremely fun. I tried to use destruction spells alongside my sword but I eventually moved to just using restoration which happened to be extremely handy with my light armor. Again the combat is a little unbalanced, some builds are just completely ridiculous. But overall the diversity of the combat system is really strong, there are a bunch of different schools of magic which can be dual wielding with different combinations, and it's the same deal with melee combat as well. I wouldn't mind doing an entire new playthrough just to try out a conjuration build or an archery build, each skill class is genuinely really interesting to use. And I haven't even mentioned shouting which is an extremely interesting addition to combat, I love the diversity of the shout effects which leaves a lot open for play-style. Many shouts are also learned in dungeons which actually gives great incentive to explore them.

The writing of most story lines in Skyrim is really good as well. Fun fact the first 4 Elder Scrolls games take place within 44 years of each other, Skyrim leaps ahead 200 years which is a very good decision for the story in my opinion. It wouldn't make sense to have 5 world ending cataclysmic events within 50 years of each other. It also leaves a very interesting narrative being set so long after the events of Oblivion. Putting all the large scale lore aside now, the main story is really interesting. Something about being the last dragonborn, and being connected to large figures like Tiber Septim adds a vast sense of scale to the story, especially with the threat that the player faces being a potentially world-ending event and being deeply related to the Elder Scrolls themselves (which is something the previous games can't say oddly enough). Many of the side quest lines are well written as well. A few were boring, like the companions and the College of Winterhold, but others were pretty interesting and grand in scale like the civil war, and the Dark Brotherhood. The civil war part of the game is particularly great, because it isn't just an interesting questline, it clearly affects the world of Skyrim even if you're not involved with the questline, it is extremely well written and told. I love how each side, the Imperials and the Stormcloaks are written as well. Both sides have major upsides and downsides, really neither seem that great and it leaves the decision on which side to take much more gray than black and white. The main questline is also very strong, the storytelling of it is really good especially since hardware limitations were less of a thing at the point this game was released. Playing through the end, reading an Elder Scroll to 'travel' back in time 5000 years to learn a shout, capturing a dragon, then traveling to Sovngard to Kill Alduin was an extremely cool experience.

There are also the DLC questlines, notably Solstheim and the Dawnguard. Solstheim is the first location to be in two modern Elder Scrolls games, Solstheim is also a DLC for the third entry, Morrowind. Solstheim is also technically owned to the province of Morrowind, so there are many very strong elements of Dunmer culture and architecture, but it's also mixed with Nord culture and architecture which makes for a really interesting place. The story of the Solstheim DLC is well written, but honestly isn't super well made in game. The island itself is the most interesting part of it. It's cool to see Raven Rock which the Neravarine built from scratch in The Elder Scrolls III, as well as the ruins fort Frostmoth, which even houses a very familiar character from the same game. Add on top of that the Morrowind soundtrack which plays on the island of Solstheim which is a fantastic addition, one of the cool mushroom looking towns that are also very prominent in Morrowind, as well as Bull and Betty Netches, and you get an extremely cool and nostalgic DLC. The Dawnguard DLC is extremely well written and made, I love how it's a side-taking DLC between being a Vampire, or a Vampire hunter. I personally took the Dawnguard side because I'm not into cannibalism, but both sides have really compelling stories. There is heavy involvement with Elder Scrolls themselves and even a monk which brings back Oblivion nostalgia. A few of the quests were pretty bad, but overall the story made up for it.

All of that being said, the game is not perfect. The combat is really bad sometimes, more often than they should spell and shouting animations just completely break. The level scaling while decent throughout most of the game is really bad at some points. There are some enemies that level at a rate of 1.5, which means that the player can literally not outlevel them which is ridiculous. I don't mind some enemy level scaling, but the scaling is too overdone in Skyrim, there needs to be a level cap for most enemies for it to feel more fair. The quests and dungeons also get a little repetitive, though honestly I'll take anything over Oblivion dungeons. And of course the game does have bugs, but not nearly at the same level as Morrowind and Oblivion so I'll let it slide. And Dragon fights can also get pretty tedious and annoying, they just aren't very well designed and fighting them gets really annoying, especially when it feels like they spawn every 30 minutes. But despite the flaws I can't help but have a blast with Skyrim, it is overall just an extremely well made game. I'm sure I haven't covered every point that I wanted to, but this review is so long now and I got the gist of most of what I wanted to say, so I'll leave it there.

I somehow have to cut down half of this to fit it into a HLTB review.

Rating: 9.5/10
Completion: Main + sides
Time: 60 hours exactly :)
Next game in the series: That's everything!
Series progress: 4/4

Other Notes
I managed to finish every Skyrim quest line in 25 days which is kind of dumb. I'm sort of locked into the Elder Scrolls formula at this point so I guess managed to do it much more efficiently for Skyrim. I'm going to try and have the series review up tomorrow, but I'll see how that goes as I'm sure it will be really long. I think I'm going to play a little bit of the Elder Scrolls Online just because I own it and it seems fun. It's not mainline though so I'm not playing it for the sake of series completion. I've done way too much review writing the past few days, and there is still more to do, so thank you very much for reading, and until next time!

Post 29 - September 1st, 2024
Series Completion: Kirby (mainline)

I'm still trying to figure out how to format these series completion posts, I don't know if they'll ever be consistent.

As of writing this, the mainline Kirby series consists of 13 games:
-Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy, 1992)
-Kirby's Adventure (NES, 1993)
-Kirby's Dream Land 2 (Game Boy, 1995)
-Kirby Super Star (SNES, 1996)
-Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES, 1997)
-Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (N64, 2000)
-Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (GBA, 2004)
-Kirby: Squeak Squad (DS, 2006)
-Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Wii, 2011)
-Kirby: Triple Deluxe (3DS, 2013)
-Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS, 2016)
-Kirby Star Allies (Switch, 2018)
-Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch, 2022)

The Series has a very humble beginning with Kirby's Dream Land, and as far as Game Boy games go it is a good game. In Kirby's Dream Land the copy abilities hadn't been introduced to the series yet, so Kirby only had the ability to inhale objects and shoot out stars at this point. It reminds me of Super Mario Land which is also on the Game Boy, because it is remarkably short, and despite the Game Boy jank is actually pretty fun. It helps that the game literally takes 45 minutes to beat as well, so it doesn't overstay its welcome. Next up was Kirby's Adventure which released very late in the NES lifetime, and it shows. Considering the hardware its on Kirby's Adventure is really impressive, many of the graphics look great, it's one of the prettiest NES games in my opinion. Unfortunately that comes at a cost, the game has horrendous performance issues, and there are constant artifacts on the edges of the screen, so I don't really understand why they didn't just make it for SNES. In terms of gameplay Kirby's Adventure is alright, it introduced copy abilities which is the staple of the series now. Then the last of the very aged Kirby games is Kirby's Dream Land 2, which essentially takes Kirby's Dream Land, adds a more comprehensive level system and the abilities from Kirby's Adventure, and a pet gimmick is stuck onto it. I think the pets are cute and pretty fun to use, but I honestly think they overshadow the base gameplay way too much as they are almost constantly with the player. But overall Dream Land 2 is a pretty impressive game for being on the Game Boy.

The Kirby series then made a big leap by getting a game on the SNES, and a very good one as well, Kirby Super Star. Super Star is to the Kirby series what Super Mario World is to the Mario series. Everything from the graphics, to the gameplay, and especially the soundtrack is extremely well done (though I did grow up with Super Star so I'm slightly biased). It may not be perfect with a few of the game modes and level design, but it set the standard for every Kirby game since. Next other Kirby game on SNES, Kirby's Dream Land 3, which honestly is just alright. The only thing I can say that I love about it is the style and graphics which remind me of Yoshi's Island, the gameplay just didn't do it for me. Then there is a bit of a unique entry, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards which has a copy ability combination gimmick. The ability combo gimmick is pretty interesting and fun, it would be fun to see it in another Kirby game at some point. In terms of gameplay and level design it's nothing too special, but I can respect it for being experimental.

Then Kirby made its way to the Game Boy Advance with Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, which is also a very unique and experimental entry into the series. Amazing Mirror is almost like a Metroidvania at least in terms of map design, and is semi-open world. I think it's pretty interesting, but that's all I can vouch for. I know Amazing Mirror is a pretty popular game but I honestly couldn't get into it, I just don't think the gameplay style with the open world works very well for the series, at least not at this point. Then the series went to the DS with Kirby: Squeak Squad, which uses pretty much the same engine as Amazing Mirror but they returned to the level format and did not make it open world, which in my opinion was a good move. Squeak Squad is a gem, the movement is nearly perfected, the abilities are really well designed (though a little unbalanced), and the levels are really interesting. Overall just a great game. And then the series moved to the Wii with Kirby's Return the Dream Land which is one of my personal favorites. At this point the series had moved away from pixel art, and it is a perfect modernization. The graphics look great and the gameplay is really well done.

Then there are the more modern Kirby games, starting with Kirby: Triple Deluxe on the 3DS which is very similar to Return to Dream Land. Triple Deluxe has a very strong start and it utilized the 3D gimmick pretty well, but the quality of the level design declined pretty hard near the end, so it's just an alright game. And then there's a fan favorite, Kirby: Planet Robobot. The mech suit gimmick in Planet Robobot is extremely fun, I love how well utilized it is, and the fact that it gets it's own version of copy abilities. Then there's the first Kirby game on Switch, Kirby Star Allies. This one's pretty controversial, I personally enjoyed it a decent amount but I can see the resentment for it. And finally, Kirby and the Forgotten Land which is considered by many to be the best Kirby game. 25 years after Mario and Zelda were introduced to 3D Kirby finally got a 3D entry, and it is extremely well made. I won't say it's a perfect game, but it is a near perfect transition into 3D for the series. The controls feel great, the funny inhale shape ability is perfect, and the ability evolution are amazing additions. I'm excited to see where the series is taken next.

Having only played 1 Kirby game before starting this series I had a lot of fun with it. It was interesting to see how the gameplay and style evolved over time, it's had pretty elegant transitions between generations and dimensions. It's funny to see how after experimenting with open world and ability combinations among other things, the modern games still stick to their roots pretty well.

Stats
These are personal stats based on my completion time and review scores.
Total games: 13
Completion: Main + extras
Average time to beat: 7 hours, 42 minutes
Total time to beat: 100 hours, 2 minutes
Total time from start to finish: 79 days
Average review score: 7.6/10
Series completed: 5

And so the trend of near 8/10 average review scores continues.

What's Next?
I'm not planning on starting any more series until I finish The Elder Scrolls, which should be really soon. I'm really not sure what my exact plan is for the coming month, I want to leave a gap for when Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom releases so that I can make plenty of time for it, so I might just play one series until I finish that. Thing is I was expecting to finish Kirby and The Elder Scrolls like 3 weeks later than they actually are being done so there's just a massive 3 week gap between finishing these series, and Echoes of Wisdom releasing. So I'll probably just start one series, I'm just a little unsure since I might want to start another. I also like this series completion post format so I'll probably stick to it somewhat for the future. Anyway, thanks for reading, expect a Skyrim completion post within the next week, and until next time!

A very productive month for me.

8/03 - Kirby: Triple Deluxe (3DS)
8/08 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)
8/11 - Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS)
8/15 - Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC (PC)
8/17 - Kirby Star Allies (Switch)
8/31 - Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)

Kirby: Triple Deluxe was fine, I can't say it was my favorite but it was overall pretty fun. Oblivion was great, but honestly isn't the 'perfect' game a lot of people make it out to be, but I overall had a ton of fun with it. Kirby Planet Robobot is an incredible game, but I was pretty burnt out having just finished Triple Deluxe which is a very similar game.

Oh boy, Shadow of the Erdtree. I can appreciate the sheer size of the DLC and I think it is absolutely gorgeous as well, but I didn't have a lot of fun with it. I'm pretty disappointed at the lack of new weapons for a few pre-existing classes such as mages. There are only a few bosses that I had a ton of fun with that I think are well designed, but other than those few I didn't like most of the bosses.

Kirby Star Allies I think is a little underrated, it's by no means an amazing game but I personally found it to be perfectly serviceable as a Kirby game. And finally Kirby and the Forgotten Land I just finished yesterday which I had a good amount of fun with. But if you can believe it I'm a little burnt out on Kirby games, so I actually struggled getting through it, but I can highly appreciate it for what it is.

I'm glad to read that you enjoyed the latest Kirby game on switch. I've been waiting to see what you thought since my 8 year old is wanting it and I didn't want to make the purchase until I had heard if it's truly a good game or not. Who would know better than someone who had just run through the entire series, eh?

Congrats on another series down and it sounds like yet another about to fall shortly!

...Stormcloak or Imperial?

Yeah I can recommend it. There's even a nice difficulty option, and it's completely packed with content with a bunch of post game stuff, and it seems like a great game for a younger audience as well. I'd say it's a good purchase, it's up there with the best switch games.

Funnily enough I'm playing through the imperial questline as I write this. My Morrowind character which I recreated in Oblivion and Skyrim is an Imperial, so there is a slight roleplaying aspect to it, and overall I think I just like the imperials slightly more. I can appreciate how well written the civil war questline is though, one side isn't clearly more morally correct than the other so it makes the decision between them tougher.

Post 28 - August 31st, 2024
Completion: Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo Switch)

I was expecting for this to take another week to complete, but after collecting all of the Waddle Dees and beating the main story I decided that I was kinda sick of collectathons, and so I skipped out on the post-game content.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the latest mainline entry in the Kirby series, and Hal finally decided that it was time for Kirby to take the plunge into 3D. That considered, Forgotten Land is really impressive, usually transitions of a series to 3D has growing pains, for example the controls of Mario 64 and horrible camera movement. But Forgotten Land feels like a near perfect transition into 3D for Kirby. I'm also glad that they played it somewhat safe by not allowing free camera movement and not going open world, it was kept relatively traditional which I think was a good move. Movement in the 3D space feels pretty nice, it controls just how you'd expect Kirby to control. The abilities also had a good transition to 3D, there is a more limited amount and a few of them had to be changed to work, but they overall work pretty well and are fun to use. The main gimmick which is the swallowing mechanic, in which Kirby can inhale and take the form of objects, is extremely goofy. The puzzles involving in special shape abilities were pretty well made and creative usually utilizing the ability very well.

The level designs are also pretty fun and creative, I think the theming was very well utilized, and the basic platforming and puzzles were pretty good. I think Kirby's floating was perfectly implemented as well, it felt useful while also having fair restrictions with height and time for obvious reasons. Not very many levels felt the same either, most of them seem pretty unique and least in terms of theming. The new collection system that was used for this game were the Waddle Dees, which were collecting by completing missions. Missions range from things like "eat x amount of x food", "find the secret area", and "don't take damage". While I do really like the concept of the missions, they are probably the weakest part of the game. First of all, the "eat this many kind of food" missions entailed that there is ONLY x amount of food in a level and you have to find every single one, no extras in case you miss one, and it's the same deal with the wanted posters. Another problem is that missions are completely hidden until you complete it/finish a part of it, or until you beat the level a single mission is revealed. This means that a good majority of levels have to be replayed at least once to get all the missions which could get extremely tedious, especially considering how easy it is to miss some of them. Miss a single tiny part of a mission? Too bad you need to replay the entire level from the beginning.

One thing that this game introduced to the series is ability upgrades, which I think is one of the best added gameplay mechanics. Evolving an ability was always really exciting, because they do improve the strength of them significantly. It adds great incentive to do the bonus levels and get extra star coins so that you can afford the upgrade. One of the collectible systems that went alongside the Waddle Dees were the figurines. While they are pretty fun and cute, they are honestly just pretty annoying. First of all you need all 256 of them to get a 100% save file (which I thankfully didn't go for), and not every figurine you get is guaranteed to be unique, you can get duplicates which is incredibly annoying. It basically ends up coming down to gambling at the figurine machine, or grinding the same level over and over until you get that single one that you're missing. And just a few more gripes I have with the game: there is still no backtracking in any of the levels which is really frustrating, there's no controls screen in the pause menu for abilities, there is not restart button in the pause menu so you have to leave a level and start it up again which is bad for doing a few particular missions. And just overall these problems come together to make at least the 100% main story completion really repetitive and a slog at times. I had a problem being able to play the game for more than 1 hour at a time for a lot of my playthrough.

But the truth is, most of the issues that are in the game are from doing 100% completion, if you just go for main story completion most of these issues don't exist, so I won't hold it against the game too much. That's actually why I decided to not do most of the post-game content. The big takeaway is that the base gameplay of Forgotten Land is fantastic, from the level design to the abilities it is a near perfect move into 3D for Kirby. The goofy inhalation abilities were also a big plus. The final boss and the story at the end of the game were pretty good as well, semi truck Kirby was really cool. The overall boss design is pretty good and enjoyable, and the theming and graphics are really good and the game is just overall really cute and fun. The only issues that the game has are related to 100% completion, and they are bad issues, but since that part of the game can be ignored I'm gonna give it two big thumbs up.

Rating: 9/10
Completion: Main + sides
Time: 15 hours, 36 minutes
Next game in the series: That's everything! At least for now.
Series progress: 13/13

Other Notes
Forgotten Land was rough for me. My enjoyment of it was honestly not a 9/10, but that's not because I don't think it's an incredible game, just a combination of burnout and school have put me in a little more of a sour mood. I also feel pretty good about giving up 100% completion because I wanted to experience Forgotten Land at it's best. Onto other things, I'm actually really close to finishing Skyrim. I've finished every major questline other than the Civil war and Main questline. I have a 3 day weekend as well so I'm probably going to blast through much of those in the coming days, I anticipate being done with it within a week (roughly). I'm going to write up a series completion post for Kirby later today or tomorrow. Thanks for reading, and until next time!

I'll give Kirby just one more shot, I nominate Kirby Super Star.

Went to a Megadeth concert yesterday and I've had this stuck in my head since.

You are a hot knife, and Kirby is butter. Congrats on the light at the end of the tunnel for two big series. I'm sure school will slow you down, but winter break will be here before you know it.

I know you mentioned Halo and Fallout as candidates for the next series. Halo is going to be not too extremely distant from what Doom was, and Fallout has some gameplay similarities with TES for sure (although, you should totally do both Halo and Fallout eventually, no question). Being a Nintendo gamer who is not afraid of big series, have you considered the Zelda games? Or are those well travelled territory for you already?

Thank you! I've actually decided that Tomb Raider is going to take the place of Kirby, and Halo will take the place of the Elder Scrolls. I figured I should separate the Elder Scrolls and Fallout a little bit. The Zelda series was actually the series that got me started doing these, it was the first series I ever completed. I happened to finish Zelda and Metroid before starting this blog. I'm for sure going to be making a post about Echoes of Wisdom after it releases, and maybe I owe both Zelda and Metroid a series review as well.

Post 27 - August 17th, 2024
Completion: Kirby Star Allies (Nintendo Switch)

This was a surprisingly short game.

Comparing to the previous 3 Kirby titles, Star Allies changes it up a bit. There's a different style, collectible system, and new mechanics all of which are pretty interesting. The major gimmick of this game is the ally/combo system. Instead of the set 4 companions of Return to Dreamland, companions can be any of the ability characters. And all 4 characters are available in single player in this game, being controlled by CPUs. While I do enjoy the strong theming of the game around friendship thing (which is less cheesy than you'd expect), it doesn't feel like it's super well made. The combo abilities while very fun to use, feel a little bit forced onto the player. And it gets especially frustrating with the controls of them, as well as the often crappy CPU navigation. I think Star Allies had an amazing base to work off of with the style and theming of it, but it wasn't executed in the best way.

One of the first places you encounter in the game is the dream palace, where you can get your choice of companion and even some very unique ones, like Magalor, King Dedede, Adeline + Ribbon, Susie, and many others from previous game. I personally love this part of the game, I think being able to get all of the special companions is extremely fun. The dream palace design itself it really stupid though, the companion picker is literally a roulette wheel, but it travels so slow that it may as well be just a picker, I really don't understand what the though process was for creating that. Another thing I did enjoy was being able to turn minor bosses into companions, some of them are really gimmicky and goofy, and some of them are just really good. There's also quite a few new abilities such as the broom witch, and many returning abilities notably from Kirby Super Star which were all really fun to use. Overall, despite the crappy navigation, having the CPU allies throughout the game was really fun, and while the ability combo system isn't the best it's a pretty interesting gimmick to use a lot of the time.

The level design is a lot different than any previous Kirby game as well, since there's a strong focus on multiplayer and combo abilities throughout it. It does seem a little bit dumbed down to me, the puzzles seem less frequent and more simple which I'm not the biggest fan of. One thing I do appreciate a lot is how the boss levels are actual full levels, instead of being just a boss. Star Allies seems a lot like a spiritual successor to Super Star for it's design choices such as that. The secret extra levels are pretty decent as well, in previous games they were mediocre at best, in Star Allies many of them are based on levels from the retro Kirby games, even with the music, which I really enjoyed. But overall the level design is nothing special, I enjoyed the train and friendship wheel sections a lot. But other than that it's just alright. The collectible system is just there, it doesn't really do anything except for building the puzzles pictures which are neat, but overall pretty boring.

The CPU navigation works great at times, and hardly functions at all at other times. Sometimes the CPUs have a great understanding and can see context for puzzles and sections that require combo abilities. And sometimes the CPUs will act completely blind to context, and do things like willingly jump into pits of fire. So it's very hit or miss. The boss designs are decent. The special boss fights in the final world are a fun twist on the original ones, although a little unfair or boring for many of them. The controls for a few of the abilities just feel really bad, especially the ice and water abilities are borderline unusable at times particularly with their floaty movement. Ultimately, the final boss was actually incredible. I usually don't care for the goofy fights with 20 phases, but all of the phases of the final boss felt fun and fair, especially with the 3D movement part of it, it was extremely unique and fun.

The extra game modes are pretty decent in this game. The guest star mode which is essentially a speedrun mode of a shortened version of the campaign, was pretty good especially compared to the Triple Deluxe version that I played before. The ending was a little anticlimactic which how easy and quick it was, but it was overall pretty fun. Star Slam Heroes and Chop Champs are pretty underwhelming, there isn't much of a skill ceiling so I was done with the hardest difficulty in no time at all, probably 10 minutes each. And then The Ultimate Choice is essentially just the arena, with the Ally/Combo twist applied to it. Again I don't care at all for boss rushes so I didn't complete this game mode, but for enjoyers of it, it seems pretty good. And there's one other game mode that I didn't bother playing, since for some reason it doesn't count towards completion percentage. Overall, Star Allies has an amazing base and concept, but not a great execution of it, and the mostly not interesting level design really drag it down.

Score: 8/10
Completion: Main + sides
Time: 9 hours, 55 minutes
Next game in the series: Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo Switch)
Series progress: 12/13

Other Notes
Pretty quick completion for me. Going in I was a little worried by the lower review score, but honestly it was pretty enjoyable. I only have 1 more Kirby game left now! It's always exciting when it ends off on a high note too, Forgotten Land is considered by many to be the best Kirby game. I'm not exactly sure where I'm at in my Skyrim playthrough right now, I have no idea how long all of the major questlines take to complete, so I'm guessing it could take me anywhere from 3 to 8 weeks. I probably won't be making another post for a while since both Forgotten Land and Skyrim are pretty long games, and college starts up next week for me as well. Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time!

Out of all the genres you listed, I also agree with RTS. I played Halo Wars a while back and that was supposed to be the genre for noobs but I was confused and had no idea what I was doing. So much of the RTS genre is waiting, waiting and more waiting. It's like stealth games but those games have more agency for the player by comparison.

RTS games are definitely an acquired taste. One of the reasons I like them is because 2 of the 3 games on my family PC growing up were Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth, and C&C Generals Zero Hour, so I spent a lot of time with them. And the genre just isn't for everyone either.

I found a good deal on Street Fighter 6 a few days ago, and I had been wanting to try out a fighting game. The world tour mode has been addicting for me. The game monetization is pretty bad sadly, but I'm having a ton of fun with the game itself.

I can't really think of a single series I haven't been able to get into, so I'll just note a few games. For me one of them is Hades. I like a good roguelike and I can appreciate Hades for what it is, and maybe I just haven't put enough time into it, but I always had a hard time getting way into it. I know it's a roguelike but it a got a little repetitive for me, maybe I'm just not a roguelike person. I also didn't enjoy Doom 2 or 3 much at all. I understand why people like Doom 2, it adds the super shotgun which is really cool, but the new enemies that are added are pretty poorly balanced and the map designs are complete garbage, so I don't see why people love it so much especially compared to a much more balanced game like Doom 1. And I won't even get started on Doom 3, I personally don't understand any appeal to it. But hey, at the end of the day it's all personal taste.

I haven't fine tuned my list other than the top 10, so this probably isn't 100% accurate.

15 - Elden Ring
14 - The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
13 - Risk of Rain 2
12 - Doom (2016)
11 - Doom Eternal

Post 26 - August 11th, 2024
Completion: Kirby: Planet Robobot (Nintendo 3DS)

Planet Robobot is pretty much tied with Return to Dream Land for my favorite Kirby game so far.

Kirby: Planet Robobot uses a very similar, if not the same engine as Kirby's Return to Dream Land as well as Triple Deluxe, but in a good way, for example the same well designed collectible system is used again. Despite the similarities, the artists and game designers got extremely creative with this title. The theming and art style are incredible, and the sound track is really high quality and fits the theme very well, the remixes of the retro music is great to listen to. Planet Robobot is unlike any previous Kirby game making it a very unique entry. The main gimmick of the game, the mech suit is perfectly well done. When I encountered the very first one I was excited, but then I realized that the mech suit can even get copy abilities which are all unique. There are quite a few abilities that hadn't been in a Kirby game since Super Star which were really fun to see and use, such as the Mirror and Wing abilities. And then there are even a few new abilities added such as the doctor, and even Kirby's smash bros. move set at least in secret areas.

The abilities for the mech suit are slightly limited, for example there are a few abilities that can't be copied and are just translated into another, but that honestly isn't even an issue since there is plenty of variety anyway. The mech suit is utilized extremely well too, a common use for it in levels is puzzles, most of which are fun and well designed. Working through different puzzles with the stone mech, and the electric mech were really fun. And then the wheelie and jet mechs are completely unique almost game modes. The jet mech puts you into essentially a side scrolling plane level which is extremely fun. And then the wheelie mech is essentially a car which is usually used in levels that are designed really well for it. Fighting bosses, especially the unique ones designed to fight against the mech are really fun. Essentially the mech suit gimmick, while not utilized in every level and usually not for the entirety of a level, is extremely well made and pretty much all sections that involve it are an absolute blast to play through.

One of my favorite changes in Planet Robobot is that many of the levels are shorter. There are a decent amount of longer levels, but there were many more short levels than both Return to Dream Land and Triple Deluxe, which is really good change in my opinion. I really like the shorter level format of the earlier Kirby games, it just feels like it fits the game style better and so I was really happy to see that a little more. I'm was also happy to see the same collectible system in place. The systematic placements of the collectibles or 'code cubes' makes them much more enjoyable to collect, and makes it so I don't have to replay too many levels. And it doesn't feel like they are too easy either, many of them do take a bit of brain power and skill for solving puzzles and spotting hidden areas. And the stickers are also new, and they actually have a use which is to stick them on the arms of the mech suit in game (which I ended up discovering pretty late in my playthrough). The stickers were overall really fun to collect. I was also really happy to see the level design quality stick all the way through the final 2 worlds, something that earlier games had struggled with.

The side game modes are also really fun. Kirby 3D rumble is actually the very first time Kirby had been in 3D, and it worked very well. Team Kirby clash is also very good, I found it really fun how there was a leveling system as well as a decent class system. And as always there's the Arena which I skipped out on since I don't particularly enjoy boss rushes. There's also Meta Nightmare Returns which I also skipped out on since I didn't enjoy the Dedede version in Triple Deluxe. But overall the game is not lacking in terms of side modes, there's a lot of fun to be had with them.

The game is not perfect though, the camera sometimes zooms out way to far for the little 3DS screen, there are a few disappointing game design choices such as the life counter resetting every game restart, and it's still impossible to backtrack very far in levels, which are very disappointing to see in a game that released in 2016. There's also the EX levels which are unlocked for getting 100% in a world, which are slightly improved from Triple Deluxe, but overall just drag on too much. But aside from the few issues, Kirby: Planet Robobot a great game. From the level design to the gameplay it is close to perfect, it is easily one of the most creative and interesting entries in the Kirby series.

Score: 9/10
Completion: Main + sides
Time: 10 hours, 25 minutes
Next game in the series: Kirby Star Allies (Nintendo Switch)
Series progress: 11/13

Other Notes
So I started Skyrim, and I have realized that I am not going to be able to complete it nearly as fast as I completed Oblivion. Not because I can't finish it fast, but because I'm having the time of my life with it. So I think I'm actually going to take my time with Skyrim because I'm having a blast playing through all the quests and the story lines. But Kirby should be done pretty soon, I'm pretty excited to play the final 2 games.

Post 25 - August 8th, 2024
Completion: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)

I managed to complete all of the faction questlines in just over 1 month, genuinely twice as fast than I was expecting.

The first thing that surprised me when starting my playthrough was how big the map is. Considering the age of the game at nearly 20 years old, the world is huge. Traveling from city to city actually feels like a journey. It also looks pretty decent, and the high render distance adds to the large feeling of it as well. One thing I noticed is how vertical the map is particularly in the Jerall mountains. You get an entire view over the map from some of the mountain tops, and from one of the DLC player homes Frostcrag Spire. While the map is big though, it's not the most interesting. There isn't much terrain diversity other than the mountains. The roads only feel like they exist as a way to get between cities and nothing else. It's especially pointless considering fast travel to cities is fully unlocked from the start of the game. The large world is cool, but the fast travel it too friendly, and it isn't the most diverse or interesting to just explore. The overall style of the game is pretty generic as well. As an RPG, Oblivion is really well made. All of the armor and weapons are pretty cool, finding enchanted gear is always really fun. The spells are also really fun to use, especially with spellcrafting. I decided to go for a half melee half mage build for this playthrough, since I missed out on the entire magic experience in my Morrowind playthrough. I think the removal of medium armor was a great choice, as it was just an awkward middle ground. I think the trade offs of light armor vs heavy armor were really well crafted, heavy armor makes the player slow but is tankier, and light armor makes the player move faster but isn't as tanky. All of that similar stuff with weapons were also pretty well balanced and allowed for a lot of different interesting play-styles.

The story of the game is also pretty interesting. I personally dove pretty deep into the Elder Scrolls lore, and hearing and learning about some of the larger figures was really interesting for me. The Daedric quests were pretty fun to do partly because of that. An unfortunate amount of the main quest just felt like fetch the item quests though, but overall it was pretty well written. Most of the guild quest-lines were pretty good as well. The Dark Brotherhood and Thieves guild stand out the most to me, both were extremely well made and written, and were genuinely really interesting to follow. All of the other questlines were at least decent, the only one I didn't really enjoy was the Fighter's guild, which has just a lot of generic quests and an annoying amount of escort quests. The voice acting also adds a lot to the game. Yeah sure the quality of the voice acting isn't the best, and it does limit dialogue options compared to a text based system like Morrowind. But having the dialogue voiced just really improved the immersion and I personally think it added a lot despite the quality of it. Though at some points I feel like the dialogue options were definitely too limiting, giving the player only 1 or 2 options that just seem very generic and a little boring.

The one thing I like about the leveling system is the perks. In Morrowind, leveling up skills simply improves the strength or chance of them. In Oblivion, there is that, but on top of it there are special perks that the player gets for hitting milestone, which are level 25, 50, 75, and 100. And a few of the perks were a little disappointing, especially for the schools of magic, but it was overall a cool change. And that is the extent of my liking of the leveling system, everything else about it honestly just sucks. The way that leveling up works is that you get to improve the level of 3 different attributes such as strength or intelliegence, and leveling up certain skills give you a +1 to a +4 bonus to attribute leveling. The problem is if you don't understand how that bonus system works, your build is completely screwed and will not be strong enough to take on the late game. Thankfully I understand that system so I was able to level up optimally, but for new and casual players the leveling system can completely screw you over. Not only that, but leveling optimally required a crap ton of grinding. There was a solid 15-20 hours where I was just spending time leveling up skills so I could get the proper bonuses. Then when I finally hit max level in all of them, I felt like I could finally enjoy the game without worrying about it.

Another weak aspect of the game is the combat. At its core, the combat system isn't too bad, in fact the magic system is great, but there were a lot of poor decisions that went into it that just make it a not very good experience. One of those choices is the staggering, which on a low level is fine, but getting constantly staggered and knocked down with an agility level of 100 is just ridiculous. Especially in higher levels where much stronger enemies would spawn, it's pretty much impossible to get into a combat encounter without getting staggered constantly. I personally went for a hand-to-hand/unarmed build which was really fun, and it's main gimmick is that is does good fatigue damage, and in turn staggers enemies quicker. Unfortunately, half of the enemies in the game aren't affected by this because they simply lack stun animations. And the thing that put the final nail in the coffin is that fact that high level enemies are just damage sponges. Getting frequently staggered while fighting a bunch of damage sponges is just not fun. The dungeons aren't good either unfortunately. Most puzzles in the dungeons just aren't interesting or fun, and most of them just feel exactly the same. Going through almost any dungeon just feels like a chore.

The game is also just bug-ridden. At many points I had to use the console to fix undoable quests, and it seems like half of the NPCs in the entire game have unintended behavior, which can sometimes cause big issues for quests. And it may have been the visual mod that I was using, but I had at least 1 crash every 2 hours, usually more. Occasionally corrupting the most recent save file as well forcing me to go back to an older one. And a few times I had to completely restart my PC because the game was just consuming my desktop after crashing. I would like to reiterate that my experience of the game was overall very positive, it is a good game, it just has a few major issues.

Again, overall Oblivion is an incredible game, it is completely groundbreaking and there aren't many other experiences like it. I just don't personally see it as the perfect game that everybody thinks it is. I had a lot of fun playing through the quest-lines and playing with a hand-to-hand build was extremely fun. I'm usually not one to get super invested in a game, but I found myself actually getting into the role of my character, and getting pretty immersed, it was extremely fun going into every quest and situation with the gung-ho attitude I assigned to my character. So despite the flaws, I still had a ton of fun with Oblivion, and I can see why people hold it so dearly.

I'm going to have a lot of fun stripping down this review to get it to fit in the review character limit.
Edit: I also completely forgot to cover the DLCs, namely the Shivering Isles. Overall, very good and high quality, some of the best the game has to offer.

Score: 8.5/10
Completion: Main + sides
Time: 76 hours, 48 minutes
Next game in the series: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)
Series progress: 3/4
*I would once again like to note that I skipped Arena, hence the 4 games.

Other Notes
Considering Skyrim is my favorite Elder Scrolls game, I'm surprised to say that I actually prefer Morrowind over Oblivion, which is odd because Oblivion is so much closer to Skyrim in terms of gameplay. I did expect to enjoy Oblivion more, which I did absolutely have fun with, but I'm not actually in love with it. My ridiculously fast pacing gives me hope to finish up Skyrim fast as well, even with school starting up for me soon. Skyrim is one of those games I've started 5 playthroughs with but never finished, so I'm excited to finally do a full playthrough of it. Kirby Planet Robobot is going well, I'm really enjoying it. Though playing 3 similar games in a row has had it's toll, so I'm moving at a snail's pace through the Kirby series at the moment. I'm just finding it tough to find motivation to play it in long sessions other than the fact that I just want to get through it. Well, it took me about 2 hours to write and proof read this so I'm pooped, thanks for reading, and until next time!

What series have you got lined up after Kirby and TES?

I admire the dedication to series and not just games. It's way harder than I thought, as I'm experiencing now with Dragon Age and Halo. Resisting the urge to chase after every standalone game that looks fun whilst you are plodding through a series is a real struggle lol.

The top series in my backlog right now are Tomb Raider, Halo, and Fallout, mostly since I already own them. That's one thing that's tough is trying to balance playing series with more casual standalone games. But I usually am playing at least a few other games on the side, the pace that I'm able to play those games is for sure slower though. I definitely can't completely recommend 2 simultaneous series for that reason, one thing I can say though is that you definitely get used to it after getting through a few series.

Post 24 - August 3rd, 2024
Completion: Kirby: Triple Deluxe (Nintendo 3DS)

I was planning on playing all of the side game modes in Triple Deluxe until Kirby: Planet Robobot gets delivered in a few days, but I feel like I got everything I wanted out of Triple Deluxe, plus it'll give me a day off from having to play anything. I'm starting to write a good amount of notes down for my game reviews now, so get comfortable.

Kirby Triple Deluxe reminds me of Return to Dream Land in many ways, it seems like it might even be using the same engine. But the game is stronger and improves on many areas of Return to Dreamland, but at the same time it gains a lot of weaknesses. One thing I love about Triple Deluxe is all of the game modes, it reminds me of Kirby Super Star in that way, and I think it fits Kirby games very well. What's funny is that most of the game modes like Kirby Fighters and Drum Dash ended up getting their own standalone games, Kirby Fighters even getting a 2nd entry. So in that regard, Kirby Triple Deluxe is an amazing game to just pick up and play with a good variety of gameplay to choose from.

The main campaign is pretty good. The first thing I noticed is that it utilizes the 3D gimmick of the 3DS pretty strongly, and I think it uses it pretty well, it makes for a lot of interesting secrets and it looks pretty nice too. The controls and physics feel very similar to Return to Dreamland which is a good thing, since it controls very well. The art style and graphics are also really good, especially with the 3D effect. The 3D effect is also utilized for enemies, who can sometimes attack at the player from the background layer which I think is pretty cool. The main big gimmick of the game, the Hypernova Ability which essentially gives Kirby super suction is extremely fun. It was mostly used for a lot of puzzles, but it ended up being pretty fun and interesting to use. The one thing I don't like about the Hypernova is the animations, it looks fine, but they are just too long and it sometimes feels unnatural. The level design is pretty good as well. The 3D gimmick makes for a lot of interesting gameplay. There are a decent amount of puzzles most of which are well designed and fun, especially ones that utilize the 3D. The sun stone collection system is pretty well designed, and most of them are placed well throughout levels with exception to a few. One of the gimmicks I thought was really cool was the mirror that shows up in a few levels, which sort of shows hidden enemies and blocks/pitfalls that aren't in the regular gameplay. One of the more annoying things about the level design is the lack of the ability to backtrack, the levels are pretty long and have miss-able collectibles, which can get incredibly annoying as you have to replay through the entirety of them sometimes. The secret EX levels are pretty bad too, unlocking and playing them feels like more of a punishment than a reward as they tend to be more challenging and ridiculously long, and only offer 1-2 sun stones, and have really bad bosses at the end of them.

My least favorite thing about the game is the bosses. A lot of the regular ones are fine other than a few bosses like the beetle boss who just spams grab attacks. The major bosses, as well as all versions of the DX or buffed bosses are absolutely miserable. First of all, most of the bosses, particularly the major bosses are damage sponges, and sometimes give little opportunity to hit them as they often camp in the background layer. One thing that makes it so much worse is the ridiculous number of boss rushes in the game. One would think that one boss rush level, plus the arena game mode would be plenty enough, but not for this game. I swear there are 4-5 boss rushes in the main campaign alone, and with their mediocre at best designs it is just absolutely miserable. The Dededetour gamemode, which is similar to a speedrun of the main campaign except with stronger DX bosses, and you play as King Dedede, is pretty fun. I like the open ended nature of it with the secret shortcuts you can unlock. Unfortunately though the final level of Dededetour is way too long and is just straight up not fun. The final DX boss + Revenge of Dark Meta Knight at the end of Dededetour is insufferable. The Kirby fighters game mode is pretty fun, I didn't end up playing a ton of it because it got pretty repetitive, but it showed real promise. Dedede's Drum Dash is alright, the skill ceiling is pretty high and it seems like a decent arcade mode, but I didn't personally love it.

While the 3D screen is used well in this game, for people who play on 2DS, as well as people like me who are very susceptible to headaches from the 3D screen it isn't that great. The game has an over-reliance on the 3D screen in the gameplay, as many bosses move freely between the foreground and background, and multiple puzzles rely on it as well. It makes the game harder to reasonably opt out of using the 3D screen. And the relatively frequent gyro control sections, combined with the crappy viewing angle sensitivity of the 3D screen was just a really bad combination. And this is a complaint more about the system rather than the game, at least on my console which is a 3DS XL, the circle pad is alright, but I prefer to use the D-Pad for more precise movements which this game does offer, unfortunately the D-Pad is not in a good place and I get horrible hand cramps trying to use it for any period of time. Overall the game has a lot of strengths and improves on earlier titles in many ways. The first 4 worlds of the campaign were extremely fun for me, but unfortunately the game has a lot of weaknesses and that level of quality isn't consistent.

Score: 7.5/10
Completion: Main + sides
Time: 11 hours, 25 minutes
Next game in the series: Kirby: Planet Robobot (Nintendo 3DS)
Series progress: 10/13

Other notes
These posts are starting to get very time consuming, but I do enjoy writing some longer reviews. I've heard great things about Planet Robobot so I'm pretty excited to start it. I get an incredible 1 week break between summer classes and fall semester coming up, so I'll try and dump in good number of hours during that period. Oblivion is going ridiculously quick for me right now, I'm only 60 hours in and I have completed most of the major questlines. I just need to do the thieves guild, fighters guild, possibly the Daedric questline, and then the main questline and I am finished. I was genuinely expecting it to take twice as long, but I can envision finishing it this month. Anyway, thank you for reading, until next time!

Hello! I'm a bit of a lifelong gamer myself too, though obviously younger as I grew up on the Xbox, DS, and Wii. That's quite the shift from Ghostrunner to a Chinese Room game. I've only played Dear Esther from them and I ended up really enjoying it, the strongly narrative focused games are pretty interesting, I view them almost closer to a piece of art. I'm the same way with trying to alternate between different kinds games to switch it up, though I usually play entire series which makes that tough, but I try to stick to that idea as much I as I can. Anyway, I'm looking forward to checking out more of your journey!

Another great month for me with 6 completions (including a really big one):

July 2nd: Kirby's Dream Land 3
July 3rd: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
July 8th: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
July 11th: Kirby & the Amazing Mirror
July 13th: Kirby: Squeak Squad
July 23rd: Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe

Many more Kirby games this month, but I only have 4 left! Morrowind was a very long completion for me as I went for a ton of side quests, it took me about 3 months. I enjoyed all of these completions to an extent, Dream Land 3 and Amazing Mirror were pretty mediocre, but all of the others were really enjoyable. Morrowind and Return to Dreamland are the 2 highlights for me, both fantastic games.

Post 23 - July 23rd, 2024
Completion: Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe (Nintendo Switch)

Completion of this game is somewhat open ended with there being a bunch of different game modes, so I ended off with 100% of the main campaign, a main story completion of the Magolor Epilogue, completing the Arena, and I did about half of the missions in Merry Magoland, totaling to 54% save file completion. I did not feel like doing the EX mode since I don't really like post games that are just the same game again, but harder. Diving into the review here now.

Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe is incredible, it seriously feels like the perfect modernization of the Kirby's Dream Land style. The controls feel great, the physics feel great, the gameplay and level design is extremely creative and fun, and the game feels extremely rich with content (at least in the deluxe version) with the extra game modes, and all of the great mini-games. Graphically the game is incredible as well, the art is fantastic. And as far as Kirby games go, the story is very well written and entertaining. First of all, the controls and physics feel great. The controls were a little bit of an adjustment coming from all of the earlier games for me, but it ended up being just fine. One of my few complaints about the game though is the collisions, they are good for the most part, but when it came to making really precise and sensitive jumps onto ledges they often failed due to slipping. Other than that though, the platforming and controls feel really good and I enjoyed it. The level design was overall great as well, no two levels seemed the same to me.

One of my favorite things about the base campaign is the collectibles, the energy spheres, they way they are implemented is fantastic. First of all almost all of them are fairly hidden and not cryptic, and second of all the general placement of them throughout the overall level is great. It's guaranteed that no 2 energy spheres reside in the same area, and they are almost never in the very first area. And the levels with the super abilities are guaranteed to have bonus areas, which themselves always contribute 2 energy spheres. It sounds a little convoluted just explaining it, but it made getting all of the collectibles in the main mode fair, though a little challenging at times, but the structure of the levels was crafted literally perfectly for them. All of the abilities in the game are really unique and fun to use. The controls between them are consistent, and surprisingly deep and complex for advanced players. One complaint I have about them though is the balancing, some attacks deal absolutely pathetic damage, and a few random abilities deal monstrous amounts of damage. For example the bomb dash attack is stupidly powerful, while the Kunai from the ninja ability are actually terrible even considering the attack speed of them. Overall though, the abilities are very well designed and really fun to use.

The Magalor Epilogue, which is the unique addition in the switch Deluxe version was extremely fun. I loved the idea of the player just becoming stronger throughout the story and upgrading abilities, it was a fun and unique twist from the main game. I personally think the Epilogue could have been a little shorter especially with the score system incentivizing the player to replay levels multiple times. Realistically it was pretty short, but for me it started to drag on a little. The final gripe I have with the game is the extra mode. I really wanted to 100% the game, I had an incredible time with it, it honestly breaks my top 10 of all time, but I just really don't like extra game modes that are just a copy paste of the main game mode with less health stapled onto it. I want to get around to it eventually, but I wanted to preserve the great time I had with the game and just not do it. The mini-games were extremely fun as well even playing them solo, I could see them being great party games for whenever I have family or friends over, and the missions gave me something to do and even more reason to try them all out, the Merry Magolore area was just delightful.

I know I just did a some complaining there, but I really love this game. The few things I dislike about it are very minor and had very little impact on my enjoyment of it. Kirby's Return to Dream Land is practically a masterpiece, and I enjoyed almost every moment of it from the level design, to the abilities, and the extra modes. Going into it I was aware it was very popular, but I was not expecting to fall in love with it as much as I did.

Score: 9.5/10
Completion: Main + sides
Time: 14 hours, 23 minutes
Next game in the series: Kirby: Triple Deluxe (3DS)
Series Progress: 9/13

Other Notes
I was not expecting to write that much. I noticed that since I've started writing reviews more recently, I've gotten really good of collecting my thoughts of a game while playing it, and in turn I just have a lot more to say about games now (I think that Scott the Woz binging has left an impression on me too). It's honestly pretty nice since I feel like I can appreciate certain aspects of games more now. In other news, Oblivion is going great, I'm having a good time with it. I am about 43 hours into it now and I foresee anywhere from 60-150 more hours to finish it depending on if I decide to go for 100% or not. Anyways, thanks for reading, and until next time!

I notice a truly devastating lack of Kirby games in the ongoing list, so I would like to nominate a game I've been having a blast with recently, Kirby's Return to Dreamland

I loved how you wrote in your Elder Scroll's 3 review how MR. Howard did not intend you to become leader of all six factions.

Thanks haha. I didn't actually do all of them because the fighters guild conflicts with the thieves guild, and I didn't feel like doing the tribunal temple faction at all, but doing just the 6 that I did was rough in a single playthrough. I am doing all of them in Oblivion right now though, so look forward to that when eventually finish it.

Post 22 - July 13th, 2024
Completion: Kirby: Squeak Squad

This has been my favorite entry in the series so far.

Kirby: Squeak Squad is incredibly underrated. Even I hadn't heard of this game before googling 'all mainline Kirby games' just last month. The graphics and gameplay is nearly identical to Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, which I didn't actually enjoy very much. But the gameplay is improved in almost every way. The level design is really fun and unique, most of the abilities are really fun to use, and the art style as well as the new inventory mechanic work extremely well. It definitely does have some glaring issues, but overall the game is an absolute blast.

First of all, the controls and physics feel near perfect in this game, at least compared to all of the older titles. The controls feel very tight and responsive, and the physics are intuitive and doesn't feel too floaty. The graphics, while not changed from Kirby and the Amazing Mirror still works really well, the game is still very visually pleasing, it's a style that works. The inventory system is very nice, especially for treasure collection that can sometimes require certain abilities to get. Speaking of, the part that was absolutely nailed in Squeak Squad was the collectibles. Not many of the treasures are overly cryptic or overly challenging to get, and getting them feels genuinely rewarding as you get different color palettes for Kirby, and scrolls which permanently enhance certain abilities, which makes them actually worth getting.

The difficulty of the game is okay, many of the levels, especially earlier ones feel pretty fair. There are a few enemies that are not particularly well designed and can be a huge nuisance at times. Easily the biggest issue with the game is the boss difficulty, the 'squeak squad' bosses that show up at the end of every level are very underpowered and are an absolute joke to fight. Meanwhile, a few of the bosses in the final levels of worlds are horribly difficult. The final boss is truly abysmal, all it does is spam projectiles which are way faster than they should be. Overall, the game is an underrated gem, it just has a few issues.

Score: 8.5/10
Completion: 100%
Time: 5 hours, 26 minutes
Next game in the series: Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe
Series progress: 8/13

Other notes
I am just blasting through the Kirby series right now. I'm going to be moving into the more modern titles with this next game. I was pretty worried about it, since I won't have Nintendo Switch Online to use for these newer titles, tallying it up the final 5 games are $200 which is just a lot for me. Fortunately eBay exists, and I also found a new copy of Forgotten Land on sale for $35 at Target. So thankfully I won't end up with any hitches with budget this time, but I am definitely choosing a series that I already own for my next series choice regardless. Anyway, enough of boring money stuff, I'm really excited for these last 5 games, they all seem great. Thanks for reading, and until next time!

Post 21 - July 11th, 2024
Completion: Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (GBA, emulated)

Pretty fast completion for me here, I decided to skip 100% completion since it's pretty insane in this game.

In terms of controls, physics, and art style, Kirby & the Amazing Mirror is better than all Kirby games before it. The main twist of the game is that it's open world technically, and it's multiplayer which wasn't relevant to me. Unfortunately the cell phone mechanic to call in help is not too helpful, because the fellow Kirby AIs kind of suck. The world is very similar to something you could see in Metroid, a bunch of interconnected areas with loot scattered about. It is very non-linear in that sense too. While I love the concept, it overall did not work for me too well. Also similar to Metroid, there are many overly cryptic areas and secrets necessary for progression, which I found to be frustrating.

Overall the game does play very nicely, and many enemy encounters feel pretty good. But most of the bosses in the game are pretty poorly designed, they move way too fast and there are an unusual amount of grab attacks between all the bosses. While the enemy designs are fine, the placements of them in the world is curated to be terrible, enemies are often placed in the most inconvenient possible places and it gets very annoying. Add on top of that the fact that enemies respawn if their spawn point is off the screen even for a moment, so a few of the rooms which involve backtracking are a massive pain. But aside from enemies, the overall level design or room designs are not too bad, it gets pretty interesting and creative at times.

The game is very ambitious which I like, the game is surprisingly big, and with treasures with good rewards in them it does feel worth exploring at times. At the end of the day though, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror takes a step in the wrong direction for the series with the Metroidvania style. But the feel of the game is incredible, it feels extremely snappy and better than any of the entries that came before it, the gameplay was just a big miss.

Score: 7/10
Completion: Main + sides
Time: 5 hours, 16 minutes
Next game in the series: Kirby: Squeak Squad (DS, emulated)
Series progress: 7/13

Other Notes
I finished this in 2 days, I was really bored tonight so I decided to blast through the rest of the game in 1 sitting. It has also been less than 1 month and I'm halfway through the series, I am really happy with my pacing so far. I think I'm starting to get more comfortable with skipping 100% completion on games, which is a good thing since that can get very unhealthy at times. My new plan going forward is that instead of trying to 100% every game that I play, I will only do it if it is reasonable, and/or I am actually enjoying the game. I wasn't aware going into the Kirby series, but apparently it is infamous for its 100% completion requirements. Thank you for reading, until next time!