The storytelling in DQVII is really something special, isn't it? Have you done the modern portion of the automata island? It all kind of turns out in a weirdly sweet and reflective way that I was not expecting at all. The relationship of past and present is one of my favorite themes in fiction and reality (largely the…

My weekend is a one-day affair, unfortunately, as there's a major public event at my workplace that I'm involved in and excited about. With the little remaining time allotted on Sunday, I'll be playing Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and Dragon Quest VII. In the former, I'm nearing the end of the Glitzville arena…

Argh, what's wrong with people?!

Oh man, those side stories are the best part of Tokyo Mirage Sessions. And the rewards you get are great too!

It was kind of a bummer that this couldn't be translated to the Virtual Console release, though I'm happy I was aware of it ahead of time. Similarly, the mechanic of blowing out flames could have been an issue if a microphone hadn't been included on the Game Pad. As I speculated elsewhere within this thread, these…

I was shocked by how well Phantom Hourglass plays on the Wii U, though that may hinge on it only using the touchpad. Games with a hybrid control scheme may not play so well.

I don't know if I'd call it dawdling, and there's even a kind of time/resource limit keeping you from hanging out too long, but the recent No Man's Sky has something of the same character. The player has no real end goals or major fail states, and is pretty much just set out to wander around planets discovering new…

I wonder if it's just me, but even having finally acquired a smart phone, I still often sit and look around when in a circumstance where waiting patiently is required. This isn't universal - just the other day I made heavy use of my 3DS and smart phone while awaiting a tune-up at Jiffy Lube - but there's a weird joy…

Oh, that's really intriguing! I've never seen (or even thought of) that specific experience being captured in a game, so it's rather cool that someone thought to "document" it.

Your point about games' resource-heavy construction of realism, an aesthetic choice that could be taken for granted in other media formats, is one of the reasons why I've been pretty keen to avoid "realistic" games in recent years. It's still just a thought, and a personal one at that, but I suspect that a game with…

I agree wholeheartedly. I just watched Night and Dawn in the past year, and it's shocking how much better Night holds up than its sequel.

Alrighty, an update - I just now got the chance to watch some videos for Burnout Paradise and it looks faaaaaaantastic. Also a much cheaper alternative to Forza Horizon 3. Sadly, it looks like Burnout 3 (mentioned further down this thread) is not easily obtained on PC, and I'd rather have the more open-world aspect…

Classic Trump!

As ever, the AVClub comes through with the finest photos to go with their articles. Few things could top the entertaining freeze frames that accompany Reasonable Discussions, but "Bass-playing Lester Holt" is a serious contender.

The GBA and DS Castlevanias are my favorites, but I think it's partially (entirely?) down to them being my primary exposure to the series. I came upon Symphony of the Night long after the hype had died down, and while it remained a pinnacle of the Metroidvania format, it lacked some minor quality of life improvements…

I have not! Though now that you mention it, I've been hearing the name. What's that like? Maybe a Youtube search is in order.

This game looks outstanding, and the press sounds pretty good so far. I was a bit disappointed to find that the preceding iterations of the franchise have not been released on PC, as I thought it might be nice to pick up one of the older ones and wait for the cost of the new edition to be reduced.

I'm a little bit of an outsider on this, since I went from having an Xbox 360 and PS3 to having a Wii U and a PC in the current generation. With that said, I pay attention to the conversations here and have played some of the biggest new console titles on PC. Overall, I'd argue that the primary difference is a visual…

Good call. I have increasingly found this to be true on the Wii U, as Super Mario Maker sent me down a path of posting my stuff to MiiVerse and seeing what fun stuff (or beautifully composed images) others had posted to the service. Wii U is probably the first time I felt like a social aspect had been effectively…

WOOOO thanks for sharing this. I just picked up Catherine, as it's been sitting on my Amazon wishlist for 2 years, and earlier today grabbed Sunless Sea on the Humble Store for $9. These are some great deals!