Star Fox Guard?

After 2 years of always seeing this post only after sign-ups already closed, I've joined for the first time!

Nominating Haven.

Astrobot's Playroom
Celeste
Halo 3

Also, Gang Beasts and Let's Sing Country, although there's not any conventional completion route in them. Just played them enough to feel like I'd gotten my fill.

I'm a huge physical guy. I love collecting video games, and even though I already get a lot of games digitally from stuff like Humble Choice or Steam sales, I never mind double-dipping for physicals of games I really enjoy. I am huge into videogame preservation and am not a fan of only storing part of a game on disc/cartridge, but I'll admit a huge part of why I prefer physicals is just to collect.

Additionally, it's usually easier to find physicals of older games for cheaper down the line. I don't think I'll ever buy a digital-only console if there's an alternative with a disc drive, since I'd hate to be limited to whatever sales are available on that digital storefront.

Also, I just love physicals of indie games.

What games require an accessory?

Games like Ring Fit Adventure (with the Ring-Con), or Guitar Hero. I guess the definition could be pretty loose as well, to include even Kinect games (would the Kinect count as an accessory?).

Played this one back in early 2018, and really enjoyed my time with it! I won't be able to add much to the discussion as it's been so long since I played it that I'm really only able to talk about the game in broad strokes (with the exception of a few memorable moments). I'm pretty packed with finals right now, but I'm going to try and use this as an opportunity to go back and play Gregg's route as I did Bea's the first time through.

It does contain spoilery details, but I don't think it necessarily spoils anything for anyone going into the game fresh. As someone who played the demo before the game, I chalked the tv/film studio stuff up to the developers joking around since I was taking it as a non-canon demo.

New Completion!
Tokyo Xanadu eX+ (PS4)
Main Story: 51h 38m
Main + Extra: 61h
Rating: 7/10



You know what, it kinda sucks being a Brit who enjoys Japanese video games. If a game isn't stranded in translation limbo, then it's having its physical releases denied for the PAL region. Between instances like the Megami Tensei series mostly being available only through digital means or critical darlings like Xenoblade Chronicles & Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance costing you an arm and a leg to own physical copies, it is honestly a miracle I manage to find obscure Eastern releases for a decent price. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I spy Falcom's Tokyo Xanadu eX+ for ten pounds sterling, a far cry from the swanky price for the collector's edition which was the last time I noticed it being sold; after recently dipping my toes into the Trails series with its debut entry, I was up for experimenting with one of Falcom's more modern works.

Xanadu's story takes place in an alternate reality of modern Tokyo where natural disasters are, in truth, spawned from a supernatural dimension called the Eclipse. When high-schooler Kou, our protagonist, happens upon Asuna from Sword Art Online oh come on they're even named similarly his classmate, Asuka, entering one of the gates to said Eclipse, he inadvertently gets pulled in alongside her and is attacked by Greeds which are spawned from negative emotions. After Asuka saves him using her Soul Device, a weapon capable of defeating Greeds, Kou volunteers to help her eliminate the rampant rifts suddenly appearing around their hometown and eventually solve the mystery of what the Eclipse really is.

As you can see, it's the typical "teenagers fight against evil outside the public eye" narrative commonly found in the genre, heck in fiction in general, and its first few chapters are easily its weakest. A good amount of the first half is dedicated to introducing the main cast like each chapter was its own episode of a serialised anime. There is a notable improvement in its latter half where there is a larger emphasis on mystery and world-building.

Unlike most Falcom games that made it overseas, this wasn't localised by XSeed or NIS America but rather Aksys Games. Let us just say the translation here is...interesting? Tutorials and most of the dialogue are perfectly fine but there were occasional quirks sprinkled throughout my 60-hour playtime that, without fail, incited some eyebrow-lifting. Understandably, Tokyo Xanadu takes place in 2015 so a random usage of internet lingo wouldn't be too much of a stretch and I'd be lying if there wasn't any charming writing to be found here. But..."Fukkleducks"? Really? It's not Ys 8 levels of head-scratching but it certainly detracts from the immersion when the story is eventually on full throttle.


This is during a dramatic story cutscene, by the way.

Gameplay is best summed up in two halves: One is the downtime of modern Persona games with a ton more leniency in terms of how much you can participate; the other a dungeon-crawler with real-time action reminiscent of a Ys title with an added score attack element. So, I’ll do just that to describe them.

Firstly, free time is granted towards the start of each chapter: you are free to talk with the locals, play minigames, attempt optional dungeons and develop party members and other important classmates through character episodes. If you’re inclined to experience as much as possible, it’s recommended to speak to NPCs every chapter in order to activate secret quests and earn extra perks; this alone drags out the lapse between story and combat. Side quests are luckily interesting, both for the characters and gameplay, and provide enjoyable scenarios with a few duds requiring revisits of previous dungeons.

Secondly, plunging into the Eclipse is arguably more engaging. Slaying Greeds with a mixture of charged attacks and special moves managed to stay satisfying throughout the whole game, despite it lacking in the challenge department, doubly so with Falcom's trademark guitars rocking out during boss fights. Seriously, if you have any experience with an Action RPG (which if you don’t then I don’t believe you), go for ‘Hard’ or higher as enemies are a notable threat if you aren’t careful with evading. Party members share the same move set but have altering properties and elements that differentiate their playstyles so none of them felt unbalanced.

Technically speaking, I should be calling Tokyo Xanadu a slightly above-average JRPG elevated by a solid soundtrack and an unorthodox setting...but I'm not. Feel free to call me crazy after considering its strengths and weaknesses but I believe it manages to be greater than the sum of its parts. Interacting with the residents of Morimiya and experiencing their own side stories, whilst time-consuming, grew more authentic with each story chapter to the point where I felt sentimental when it was finally time to say goodbye. If you're interested in what Falcom has to offer, I'd say Xanadu is a decent middle-ground between Ys and Trails, I wouldn't recommend making it the first game you play from their catalogue however.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to listen to "Seize the Day" for the 87th time. Hope you love this song as much as the game does.

The last thing I should be doing right now is thinking about jumping into another long JRPG, but it sounds super interesting. I haven't played a Falcom game yet and this one seems like a great jumping in point for me, especially considering its Persona-esque free time segments (even despite your recommendation to not make it the first Falcom game you play).

“Perfection has no age. Revenge is the prime ingredient in the Fountain of Youth. I’ve kept myself alive for hundreds of years with a steady diet of jealousy and hate…”
-Clockwerk, Sly Cooper

"THE NINETH LION ATE THE SUN"
-Virtue's Last Reward

I love me a good podcast game. I wouldn't consider them to be bad, since, in my opinion, a good podcast game is one that doesn't necessarily need something else playing in the background to hold my attention. The game is fine on its own, and listening to a podcast while playing just adds to it. As I listen to a ton of podcasts, I always like to be doing something while listening to them due to how long some of them can be.

For example, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a great podcast game IMO. All the tasks you do in it are simple enough to do while listening to something, and the game's relaxing tone means you won't have much trouble in focusing on both things at once. I can, and have, played New Horizons without anything playing in the background, and I still enjoyed my time with it. The game is a good game on its own, and it just also happens to be a good podcast game as well. I've played plenty of games that would've worked as good podcast games but were just bad games in their own right, so I don't really consider podcast games as a whole to be good or bad.

Of course, the common thread between all podcast games is that they have some sort of repetitive gameplay loop to it (checking icons off some map in an open-world, grinding, fishing in Animal Crossing, etc.), but again I don't think that's all inherently bad. If that core loop is fun, then it'll still be a good game.

The only one I have is this Mario 3DS XL, and that's only because it was the only 3DS for sale at the store when I bought it. I'm not really one for special edition consoles despite my love for browsing them online!

Oh wow, I never realized they ever did a Wii port of I Spy Spooky Mansion. And I'll have you know your 6/10 rating is in direct contradiction to my lovely 10/10 childhood memories I had with the game.

Jokes aside though, for whatever reason lately I've been feeling this weird impulse to pull out my old I Spy PC games... but I think your write-up was just the reminder I needed to fight that impulse.

I was about to purely because I didn't want to play Cyberpunk 2077 on my launch PS4 and I didn't trust my current graphics card to run it... and then I found a used Xbox One X for a good price so not anymore.

Oh and here's a webcomic about Pandora's Box you might enjoy...