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Cake day: March 2nd, 2024

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  • I completed Yakuza Kiwami 2 today. When I was done with all the side content, I realized there weren’t any awful achievements to stop me from completing it, so I ran through a New Game Plus on the highest difficulty with the overpowered infinite ammo gun from postgame. Turns out, skipping all optional content and cutscenes, you can beat the game in a couple of hours. I don’t understand why the gun makes enemies ragdoll as much as it does, but that was part of the fun for sure. Not truly completing the previous two games was a bummer because I really liked them, but it was just too much.

    And all respect to anyone who can beat Jo Amon legitimately. I was never that great at Yakuza combat to begin with, but that guy does way too much damage! He’s the reason I learned about that gun to begin with.

    The next game I am replacing this with… is a game I’m not going to talk about much. It’s the kind of game you can’t even begin to talk about without spoiler tags, so I just won’t even mention it until it’s done. And briefly at that.

    Played a little more of Paper Mario, I took a peek at the Prince Mush fight. I didn’t expect to win, but I also didn’t expect to run from the fight after his first attack. I tossed out the protect shell just to scout what he would even do and let’s just say I’ll have to do some preparations to make this work in a 10HP run. Let’s see what badges I end up with at the end of the game, I won’t try this again a second earlier!



  • Beat chapter 5 in Paper Mario. One of the new bosses added in the remake has opened up and I’ll just try it soon. I probably won’t win yet, but I’m curious.

    Finished the main story of Yakuza Kiwami 2. The final battle ends with a quick time event that, if you lose, kills you. I wish I hadn’t found out about that, but XBox controller inputs always take an extra second to process in my brain because they’re so backwards. At least the fight is fun, so it wasn’t too bad doing it twice. The hardest fight was the pen-pen-penultimate boss, some nameless guy who had no right being that tough. Now to clean up some leftover side content, which isn’t too daunting. This should be the first time I finish the Completion List, the previous games both had something to make it stupid, but this one is very realistic.

    I also dug out Wild Arms again for a third playthrough. It’s been over a decade since I last played it. That’s a series that could do with an HD Collection.


  • For what it’s worth, being stuck in Kakariko is the reason I bought the player’s guide in 1998. I knew what I was looking for and where it’s supposed to be, I just didn’t understand what to do. 😅 But I was also twelve

    I’ve mostly played more Yakuza Kiwami 2. I thought the whole Korean Mafia bit was just a side story at first, but it’s been the main focus for a while and completely pushed the main antagonist out of the picture. But that whole thing has concluded now and I think I’m nearing the climax soon.




  • The key to a 10HP run is honestly not to waste your turns. When you can end combat in one attack and have both Mario and his partner’s turn, use the extra turn to top off your HP/FP with Sweet Treat or Appeal to get the Star Power back. Also, know your Stylish Moves for extra Star Power. It fills up so fast that you can regularly toss out the quite OP Earth Tremor whenever you’re full on everything. No need to run around with full resources. I also like the Badges that randomly regenerate you and the defense increases are also very important.

    Muto and Chono are retired wrestlers from Japan (the former being more famous in the West as The Great Muta). An in-game they also use their real names. Yakuza tends to have real people make cameo apperances, but most of them wouldn’t be well known outside of Japan. Some characters appearing in side quest feel like they would be based on real people based on the way they talk about being famous, but I wouldn’t know.


  • I’m about halfway through Paper Mario at this point. I remember the 10HP run being a bit more difficult, I don’t even find myself using Sweet Treat on the occasional free turn anymore. And I only use items once in a blue moon, too.

    What I like most about the remake so far is the battle music getting a different remix for every area.

    Played a lot more Yakuza Kiwami 2. Had some issues with the game crashing, but a fresh install fixed that. Unlocked the Majima Construction game, which I’m not a huge fan of. I’d like it more if it was turn based or if you could pause and look around the field. Or just a way to zoom out at least, I tend to lose sight of my units. But yo, I had no idea Keiji Muto and Masahiro Chono were the main villains of that story! I freaked out when they first walked into the scene (and kudos to the people who modeled the faces, I recognized Muto immediately!). And then other New Japan Wrestlers join my side as well? I know they appear in a later Yakuza title, but I had no idea they got recycled into this one.

    I also have yet to see anything on the Completion List that stops me from completing it. The previous games always had something that was just stupidly tedious.


  • Here’s a game I loved and hated at the same time. I was a big fan of Jango Fett and it was fun to play the game in theory, but good luck being in a room with dozens of enemies and trying to scan them to find the one guy with the bounty and isolate him to take him alive when they’re all coming after you. I don’t think you actually need to do much bounty hunting, but I forget if it’s completely optional. I remember the game definitely being more action than stealth though.

    If they completely reimagined this game and made it more like the Hitman games though…






  • The Last Spark Hunter DLC has finally managed to throw a wrench into the team setup I used for 98% of the main game. Luckily, it was just a miniboss, but I have a feeling I’ll see him again.

    I finished off Azrael in Arkham Knight and finally understood that my least favorite Predator map is actually kind of broken in the player’s favor. I was always so intimidated by how big and full of enemies it is, but they really don’t like leaving their assigned floor. Now I treat it as four seperate maps stacked on top of each other and it’s so much easier! Next up, I’ll have to replay Batgirl’s extra story for some achievements that were hidden for some reason and then take her through these challenges. She’s not actually the next character in the list, but I’m saving that one character for last. I just have a feeling she will be the most difficult one to use…

    I picked up my Infinite Fusion Nuzlocke again. I had to fill up some empty spaces that the Elite 4 so rudely blasted into my team, but I’m off to conquer Johto next!


  • There are still 3 more characters after Azrael. Arkham Knight really upped the ante here. City had 4 playable characters total, Knight has 8! If I wasn’t such a big fan of Predator Maps, I would say it’s too many. After the challenges, I’m technically done, though there’s one more achievement in the main mode I’ve been too lazy to get, so I’m saving it for last. Nothing difficult, just something that never occurred naturally.

    And to make sense of Antichamber, you need to drop your expectations of things making sense. This is the type of game where jumping over a pit makes you fall and walking into it lets you cross. Where the upstairs is next door. Just let the currents carry you and don’t try to understand why the water is dry.


  • Oh boy, have fun with Octopath! The main criticism is absolutely valid, but to me it and the sequel are the New Age Retro JRPGs that actually nail that old school feeling.

    So I’ve played and beaten the first DLC for Sparks of Hope, Tower of Doom. It’s a roguelike mode, which is a genre I generally don’t enjoy too much, so reaching the end of the story once is all I need. It’s 33% completion, but that just denotes the characters and Sparks you’ve gotten at least one and individual enemies encountered, so true completion is nothing but grinding until you fill out that list. Not thanks! I don’t know how random the first playthrough is, but I essentially got my main game setup on a silver platter within the first few floors, so I’m not complaining!

    Then I started the second DLC, The Last Spark Hunter. I haven’t played much yet, but It’s essentially just one more world of main game, but it looks really nice. I haven’t really been a fan of most overworld environments, but this one is really dense and nice to look at. Also, you basically start at level 30 and get to grow from there, so that’s one of my previous gripes adressed, even if it’s a little late.

    In Arkham Knight, I finished off the Catwoman challenges. A lot of repressed memories from Arkham City came back… I really hate playing her. You can stand under a vantage point, looking straight at it, and not get a prompt to whip up there. Now I’m doing Azrael and he’s basically Batman with a few gadgets missing, so it’s a nice breather. He can even glide! I don’t think his cape-strips should allow him to do that though… That’s where my suspension of disbelief gets shaky.

    And I finished Antichamber. It was kinda funny, in my first plathrough years ago I was stuck in a dead-end, looking at progress through a window for a long time. This time, even though I really didn’t remember much about the puzzles, I made that progress quite naturally and I found myself unable to find my way into that dead-end!