Finished Ys X: Nordics!

Not as good as Ys 8, but a massive improvement over Ys 9. Karja is a fantastic character, probably my favorite Ys heroine alongside Dana, and her sibling-like relationship with Adol was great. I know the odds are low but I’m really hoping we’ll have her show up again in a future entry.

The new engine was a huge improvement for Switch players, unlike the previous game there was no point in this one where I considered performance a problem. But I do have a lot of criticism for the “ocean exploration” part of the game - not only there’s annoying gameplay issues with the speed and clunkiness of the boat, but it also looks very dated visually.

But overall this was a great game that I can definitely recommend despite some things that could have used a bit more polish.

Oh, and since @[email protected] asked about it: I got the “all sidequests” achivement by simply exploring the whole map and paying attention to the quest markers.

Playing If My Heart Had Wings!

Picked up this VN from my backlog as my next main game. It’s a slice-of-life story about a group of friends who decide to revive their school’s “Soaring Club” and try to build a glider and go flying.

Having a main heroine in a wheelchair is interesting, and I really like how the MC is trying to break some of the preconceptions other cast members have about her disability. Another small detail I like is the appearance of the city, a nice mix of old-school buildings like the dorm the MC lives with more modern, maybe even slightly futuristic buildings in the downtown parts.

Overall this was a good start and I’m interested in seeing where this one goes.

Playing Qualia: The Path of Promise!

I had this one in my wishlist for a while, but I was unsure if I wanted to pick it up or not. I’m a massive sci-fi fun and can enjoy almost anything with these themes, but most images you’ll find for this game is of a big-boobs maid android, which made me suspect the sci-fi parts would be just a thin background. But in the end a sale combined with some small but promising spoilers I read convinced me to give it a shot.

I don’t usually play two VNs in parallel, but this one is supposed to be a fairly short kinetic VN so I can probably make it work.

Playing Vampire Survivors!

Still playing this as a side-game, and still unlocking more weapons/stages/characters.

It’s a really fun and fast-paced battle system, and feels a lot closer to a traditional fighting game than most Tales games do. It rewards playing smart, like chaining attacks or dodging at the perfect timing instead just spamming your strongest skills.

Also, some characters have rather unique playstyles that are a blast to play with. Like Pascal who mixes longe-rarge attacks with a gun with close-range magic, with most of her spells being AOEs centered around her. She’s a complete glass cannon, but can dish crazy damage if played correctly.

Story is weak/generic, but the battle gameplay is fantastic, one of my favorites in the whole series.

I really like the cast as well, but opinions are more split on that.