Yep, it's the familiarity! My first DS playthrough…90 hours. My second, with all areas explored, bosses slain, DLC included… 35 or so. Similar drop on DS2. By the time I got to Bloodborne, I was just beating the game in a timely fashion on my first playthrough. The series does a great job teaching you how to play it!

I actually did encounter a small amount of extant facerubbing (and blowing to disperse steam from a hot bath) during my playthrough…

I adopted Ludwig's Holy Blade for my third playthrough of Bloodborne. Before that, I went Threaded Cane and then Hunter's Axe. You can't really vary your build much in that game, but at least the weapons are really distinctive!

Xenoblade Chronicles is legit neverending. Well, "legit" is the wrong word: it probably does end. But you can really drag it out if you take the time to explore and do sidequests and build affinity and all that! I never did finish it, and my plan for finishing the sequel (50 hours in!) is to return to it between games…

Creature Shop is such a perfect connection to make with Frampt and Kaathe's designs.

Could the Bravely Default time loop twist been better integrated into the story? Absolutely: they should have made the "break the loop" ending the "true" ending and the "slog it out" ending the "lesser" ending. But you can easily fix that problem by breaking the loop, watching the lesser ending, and then never playing…

I always tried to give substantive answers while doing the pre- and post-play Club Nintendo surveys. When they asked me what I was most looking forward to in NSMB2, I said something along the lines of "I'm excited for the unlockable challenge levels! Hope they're as creative as the ones in the Wii version!"

It was a long, awkward, not necessarily complete transition from raging misogyny to peace and love for our boy John.

I think, at the very least, that he's burning all the girl's furniture, but burning the room might be the more valid interpretation: at the start it's "she showed me her room, isn't it good, Norwegian wood?" and at the end "So I lit a fire, isn't it good, Norwegian wood?"

Yeah, like I said: you've got to be very liberal with the skipping! When you do find a real course in Super Expert, it's a treat! But there is an awful lot of trolling, and an awful lot of "to beat this level you must be holding right and Y when the level begins to catch the falling P switch that you must release…

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Super Mario Maker for me!

My fantasy game studio collaboration involves Nintendo doing one of their "hiring an outside studio" moves and getting From Software to work on a Zelda spin-off/sequel to The Adventure of Link.

Yeah, the keys/coins are going to blow things wide open! Poor skewers: a worthy feature, but how's anyone going to get excited about that when they got released alongside a paradigm shifting upgrade?

Definitely Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright. Maybe Xenoblade Chronicles X. Super Mario Maker if I can find the time in my schedule. Mostly, though, I'll be playing "scramble to get two courses that you've been teaching and simultaneously developing the curriculum for over the finish line as the end of the semester…

One that always stuck with me was a "The More You Know Bit."

We've been largely successful: won January, February, and April on our first attempts. But we lost hard both times in March. And both South America and the Middle East are a MESS, with level 3 rioting cities and even a couple of fallen ones!

New ones take forever! My pace has slowed considerably since Xenoblade and The Old Hunters came out and Mario Maker stopped being my primary game. That said, it's maintaining a spot in my regular rotation, thanks in no small part to the steady stream of updates. But I'm at the point now where a solid idea for a…

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Mario Maker for me! Also, continuing our Pandemic Legacy campaign tonight!

"Hidden Sun" from Maroon by Barenaked Ladies. Just a beautiful tear-jerker of a song, it's all about Kevin Hearn's experience of surviving cancer.

It's a huge benefit to the "Play" side of the game! Gives you a reason to dig in and really play a level a bunch.