[Game Journal] gimmegaming

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 16
I didn't end up doing a lot this chapter (actually I included paralogues I did for it in last chapter heh), it was mostly just continuing prep for the battles ahead with stuff like choir practice, advanced drills and lectures. Got some really nice supports again. I'm trying to forget the marriage implications in the Dorothea and Hubert one though, because it's impossible not to become some measure of shipper while playing this game and I remember her supports with Ferdinand too well.

Combat continued to be really fun this time around and I was pleased with how well my team could tank attacks from the Titanuses. For this battle, the game starts you already divided into two teams, but I split off a third subdivision also. So I had Ferdinand, Dorothea and Lysithea sneaking in from the east to switch off one of the trap levers, Shamir and Bernie slipping in from the west and then my main force driving through the middle.

I don't know if it was programmed this way, but Rodrigue had clearly made attacking his son his mission because there was literally nowhere I could place Felix that didn't have Rodrigue going after him, even with other targets sitting ducks right in front of him. That ended up being his mistake though because Felix crit him in retaliation and killed him. I got the first lever deactivated at around the same time and split Hubert off to join with Ferdinand, Dorothea and Lysithea while Edelgard and Felix killed off the other general guy and Byleth, Mercedes and Petra dealt with the guards blocking the way.

From there, I had the two main groups start fighting the Titanuses at a distance to avoid the traps while Shamir and Bernie came in through the locked gate. Shamir killed Ingrid while Bernie cleared out her backup and then the two of them shut off the other lever so I could close the gap with the big robots. Hubert and Lysithea finished off one Titanus and started making their way through the map while the other group finished off theirs and reconvened with Shamir and Bernie. From there I just had to surround the last Titanus and destroy it before closing in on Cornelia and finishing the battle.

Sadly it seems we don't get to hold Arionrhod for long because it got magically nuked and now there's not much left to hold. Seems like Edelgard's dickhead uncle and Thales had something to do with that. Anyway, I seem to only have two chapters left, shit's getting hype. But also I'm not ready for this route to end haha.

Haven't quite got the rest to their final classes yet, but I'm closing in on those Master Certifications. Here's the current main team roster:

Byleth lv 39 Enlightened One
Edelgard lv 37 Emperor
Hubert lv 36 Warlock
Ferdinand lv 35 Paladin (hopefully a master class by the end of the new chapter)
Bernadetta lv 37 Sniper (soon Bow Knight)
Dorothea lv 35 Dancer
Petra lv 35 Assassin
Felix lv 36 Swordmaster (soon Mortal Savant if all goes well)
Mercedes lv 35 Gremory
Lysithea lv 36 Warlock (soon Gremory)
Shamir lv 36 Sniper (hopefully another Bow Knight soon)

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 17
There wasn't much story or support stuff in the leadup to the combat this time. Mostly the focus was on getting people into their master rank classes. That meant making it my mission to keep Lysithea, Felix, Bernie and Shamir's motivation up. I was en route to Holy Knight Ferdinand too, but it quickly became apparent to me that I didn't have time to get his Faith high enough. Basically, I did a lot of choir practice, eating lunch, giving flowers and advanced drills. The one support I did get in this time was Jeritza's C-rank which was very amusing. The other major story moment during prep was, of course, the visit to Jeralt's grave where you finally cannot deny that Fire Emblem is secretly a dating sim. I strongly considered picking nobody because the idea of shacking up with a former student is a little uncomfortable but I have been told that option is super depressing. I went with Bernie in the end cause if I'm picking someone it might as well be my favourite character.

The combat this round was pretty intense. My forces started off already split in two while enemies bombarded them from all sides. I sent the smaller group of Ferdinand, Shamir, Lysithea and Mercedes after Sylvain while the larger group went after the main forces only to find out Dedue had set a bunch of soldiers up with Crest stones and turned them into monsters. That was quite the hold up to that group.

While that was going on over there, Rhea (or rather Seiros) showed up near the smaller group and that was foreboding as hell. Sylvain charged Ferdinand, but he came off worse and his heath was lowered enough that Lysithea could take him out. Mercedes was dropping Physics all over the map and even the odd Fortify. Shamir offed one of Rhea's guards, but Rhea herself was upon the group soon after. She attacked Ferdinand, but he was able to escape the worst of it. From there, Shamir and Mercedes further thinned out the Church forces while Lysithea and Ferdinand defeated Rhea and forced her to withdraw with her soldiers. That left one pegasus knight in the area who attacked Lysithea and left her at one HP before Shamir could blow them out the sky next round.

The two teams regrouped from there to finish off the last of the demonic beasts... only for Dedue to turn himself into an even scarier one as the reinforcements kept coming. I had Petra and Bernie finish off the last general to stop that reinforcement bullshit then sent Bernie back to the others while Petra went around opening chests. The fight with Deduemonster ended up less impressive than you'd think because he was surrounded by basically my whole army being absolutely hammered with Gambits and Combat Arts. In the end, Hubert finished him off, which felt fitting.

Then there was only Dimitri left. The strike force surrounded him. Ferdinand, Byleth and Bernie whittled down his HP allowing Edegard to dash in and make the final strike. However, the fucker somehow survived that on 1hp resulting in the much less narratively satisfying ending of Felix actually dealing the finishing blow. After that we got a dramatic scene where we learned a bit of Dimitri's messed up history before Edelgard executed him.

Now we're gathering outside Ferdhiad where Rhea has set the city on fire and turned into her big fuck-off dragon form. That bodes poorly.

Final team:

Byleth lv 41 Enlightened One
Edelgard lv 38 Emperor
Hubert lv 38 Warlock
Bernie lv 39 Bow Knight
Petra lv 37 Assassin
Felix lv 38 Mortal Savant
Mercedes lv 36 Gremory
Shamir lv 38 Bow Knight
Lysithea lv 38 Gremory
Ferdinand lv 36 Paladin
Dorothea lv 35 Dancer
Caspar lv 33 Warrior (fucking rip)

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 18 (Black Eagle Route Complete)
Well, there was no lead up here, it was right in to the insanity of the final battle.

I started with a main team of Byleth, Edelgard, Hubert, Ferdinand, Felix, Bernadetta and Shamir and a side team of Petra, Caspar, Mercedes, Dorothea and Lysithea. This was not the ideal combination so while Team B started engaging the first of the saint-golems, I sent Hubert and Shamir their way to add even more firepower to my team consisting of support, glass cannons and an under levelled tank. Team A held the line there while Bernie just about single-handedly took out their own golem from afar.

The fire that bitchdragon set was rather irritating and it resulted in some close calls, but my two teams finished off the first set of golems and made quick work of the next. From there it was time to deal with two troublesome enemies in Gilbert and Catherine. Hubert and Petra whittled Catherine down, allowing Shamir to finish her off with her trusty Brave Bow. Felix, Edelgard and Ferdinand ran interference on the other side of things, allowing for a Bernie and Byleth tag team to take out Gilbert. From there, the groups reconvened and prepared to fight Rhea and Cyril (who, to my surprise, didn't die at Gareg Mach after all).

With some help from Lysithea's Warp, sent Petra to the other side of the map to fight Cyril while my main army launched an all-out assault on Rhea. I hammered her with Gambits and Combat Arts, but she just wouldn't die. On the other side of things, Petra and Cyril were both struggling to actually hit the other. The remaining enemies were starting to close in to support Rhea too, so it was looking dire. Still, I had managed to take a couple of Rhea's lives. With some headway being made, I warped Bernie over to Petra and moved Felix around Rhea's side. Between both of them, Petra and Bernie were able to defeat Cyril and then fend off any backup that came up to help Rhea with Felix (after he battered Rhea with one last Gambit).

With her backup being kept at bay, everyone else was free to go wild at Rhea - especially because thanks to a Mercedes/Dorothea combo, I was recovering as fast as she could hurt me on a lot of turns. I took her last extra life with Byleth and then had Edelgard break her barrier again allowing Ferdinand, Lysithea and Hubert to finish her off. That won me the combat, but it was pretty close. It was only a matter of time before Bernie, Petra and Felix got overrun by reinforcements and I only had one more Fortify left on Mercedes. With that out the way, I got to watch a beautifully animated fight cut scene that saw Edelgard and Byleth finish Rhea off for good. After that, it was a jump back to Gareg Mach for the happy ending, where Byleth proposed to Bernadetta in a suitably adorable scene.

The credits rolled revealing a lot of satisfying epilogues. I'll just go over some favourites because there was a lot. Edelgard fixed Fodlan's class issues. Petra returned to Brigid with Caspar at her side, they got married and restored the island's independence. Ferdinand and Dorothea also married and did great work for the empire all while maintaining a happy home. Mercedes got to live her dream of helping those in need by establishing an orphanage. Annette became a teacher. Shamir basically became robin hood.

The credits informed me that my top MVPs were
1. Byleth
2. Shamir
3. Edelgard/Bernie.

So, my thoughts on the game? I said it already and I said it again, I loved it. I went in expecting to enjoy it, but I never anticipated it would become one of my favourite games. From a writing perspective, on this route alone, the world was built magnificently. It was highly detailed, felt active and alive and had deep and interesting history and lore. The characters were incredible, whether I loved them from the start like Bernadetta, Caspar and Petra or whether they grew on me over time like Ferdinand, Dorothea and Mercedes. In the end, I felt very attached to every character I had on my side and I know that I would have felt the same about several of the ones I didn't get a chance to who I still liked very much. The route's overarching story was also very compelling and I very much enjoyed the moral complexity going on.

The gameplay itself was also really cool. The way that classes and interactions at the monastery were used to simultaneously get you to know the characters, improve stats and influence the story was brilliant. The strategic combat system was also really fun and, in classic mode, pairs superbly with the relationship-building side of the game to create an intense atmosphere with high stakes. Naturally, the voice acting was (mostly) incredible and the visuals and music were both fantastic too.

I'm left now with a strange mix of being on a high from finishing such an amazing game and a sense of loss because such a great experience is now over. Even before playing the other routes, Three Houses is easily up there with some of my all-time favourites like the Last of Us, FFX or FFVI. I'm looking forward to playing the other routes. I'm going to do either the Church-version of Edelgard's route or the Golden Deer next since I promised to leave the Blue Lions for last but, not gonna lie to you, all three of those other routes have a supremely tough act to follow. If you haven't played this game, go do it. Right now. Stop reading this, go buy it and play it.

Story: 10/10
Visuals: 9/10
Soundtrack: 8/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Total Score: 37/40

I realized that your team is almost identical to mine when I played my Black Eagles playthrough, except I used Jeritza and Linhardt instead of Mercedes and Shamir. Should've probably used her instead of Linhardt since yeah she does have Fortify lol.

Congrats on finishing your first route, though! I take it Edelgard is solo in your run? In my run she paired with Hubert haha. I think you'll enjoy the other routes!

Bay said:

I realized that your team is almost identical to mine when I played my Black Eagles playthrough, except I used Jeritza and Linhardt instead of Mercedes and Shamir. Should've probably used her instead of Linhardt since yeah she does have Fortify lol.

Congrats on finishing your first route, though! I take it Edelgard is solo in your run? In my run she paired with Hubert haha. I think you'll enjoy the other routes!

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To my surprise, she did end up solo as did Hubert. I honestly thought they'd end up together cause they had high support. Might have just missed that.

I never really figured out how exactly you pair up specific units for the endings in Three Houses except for Byleth. Was a lot easier in Awakening and Fates because every unit pair that could marry had an S-support convo, and you'd have to select that yourself to get them hitched.

I'd also really recommend not doing the Church route (Silver Snow) as your next one, or even at all. The scenarios and maps are nearly identical to Golden Deer/Verdant Wind except for the final one, and you just swap the Golden Deer kids with the Black Eagles ones, minus Edelgard and Hubert. You also get more new info out of VW than SS. The one bit of info exclusive to SS also is only given to you just right before the final battle, it's something that you can potentially figure out by then, and if not, I could just tell you what it is at this point too.

Nah said:

I never really figured out how exactly you pair up specific units for the endings in Three Houses except for Byleth. Was a lot easier in Awakening and Fates because every unit pair that could marry had an S-support convo, and you'd have to select that yourself to get them hitched.

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It primarily seems based around maxing out support between units.

I'd also really recommend not doing the Church route (Silver Snow) as your next one, or even at all. The scenarios and maps are nearly identical to Golden Deer/Verdant Wind except for the final one, and you just swap the Golden Deer kids with the Black Eagles ones, minus Edelgard and Hubert. You also get more new info out of VW than SS. The one bit of info exclusive to SS also is only given to you just right before the final battle, it's something that you can potentially figure out by then, and if not, I could just tell you what it is at this point too.

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I've figured out a lot imo, so I'll leave spoilers to your discretion I suppose. I think I will do Golden Deer next tbh.

Typoman - Prologue and Chapter One
There's not a lot to say about this game because it's a short puzzle platformer. This is really just more of an update to say "I'm doing the thing."

So far, I'm really liking the game conceptually - well I already did. Building creatures out of words and making the puzzles all word-based is a fun gimmick. The puzzles themselves haven't been very hard yet, but a couple have made me think a little which was nice. Surprisingly, there is actually a story unfolding and a history to the world that I'm slowly piecing together as I come across quotation marks - although as of yet I'm missing too may pieces to actually say anything about it. I'm curious to see how it will unfold though.

I'll probably finish it after my next 1-2 sessions I think. Fun game for anyone wanting something quick!

Typoman - Chapter Two
The story is still pretty vague, but the atmosphere definitely helps make up for it. Actually, given that it's entirely possible to miss the quotation marks that tell you the story elements, I think a lot of it is probably going to be left up to interpretation. It's like the story is supplemental to the game, not an integral part of the experience. Not usually my kinda thing, but it's proving fun regardless.

I think I'm going to take a little bit longer than I thought to finish this though. Not by any huge margin, but the platforming element is definitely increasing in difficulty compared to the first chapter. The end of chapter two is a mad dash through a mine that is rapidly going up in flames and it is so easy to die because you're a fraction too late on a swing or a jump - and one of the quotation marks is a detour through the middle of that. It was a lot of fun though. Something less fun is that every now and then you get fucked by the way the letter clump together and expand as you move/stop moving. The spread is always more than you expect and that can sometimes cause a string of bothersome deaths even though the puzzles themselves are generally not that difficult.

More and more though, I'm realising the visuals on this game are really aesthetically pleasing and the sound design is really good. At one point, I actually died during that fire dash I mentioned earlier because I stood around a bit too long listening to the music.

Typoman - Chapter Three
Never mind, I finished the game. The last chapter was a lot of fun with some puzzles that actually required thought and a creative boss fight at the end that stayed true to the thematics and mechanics of a game that otherwise had no combat.

The game has really cool visuals and audio that give it a cool, almost horror-esque aesthetic despite the gimmick of just about everything being made from letter or operated by words. It's hard to describe exactly what it's like stylistically, the closest I can think of is that it looks like Limbo, another puzzle platformer, but they're honestly very distinct so that's not quite true. I suppose the similarity comes from how the visuals and sound design create a very powerful atmosphere.

Mechanically the game was easy to get a grip of, even for me using keyboard instead of a controller as I usually prefer. The puzzles were generally not very hard, but there were definitely some that required actual thought, especially once you got to the point where you had to figure out the Lie mechanic. The platforming was also mostly very easy apart from one or two places that were much more challenging. Overall though, the game managed to sit in a comfortable zone of easy but not so easy it's boring which is nice sometimes.

I was a bit disappointed the story was left so vague through to the end, again though, it wasn't a core component in the game really. The thematics were always present at least, references to propaganda and an emphasis on the power of words and how the use of language can control a society. It was a fun game and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a quick game to go through.

Story: 5/10
Visuals: 8/10
Soundtrack: 7/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Total Score: 29/40

Interesting-looking game - I thoroughly enjoyed Limbo and this reminded of it a lot visually too, when I looked it up. If I'm ever in the mood for a platformer I might give this a try, especially since you said the platforming isn't challenging and I kinda suck at them. :p

Juno said:

Interesting-looking game - I thoroughly enjoyed Limbo and this reminded of it a lot visually too, when I looked it up. If I'm ever in the mood for a platformer I might give this a try, especially since you said the platforming isn't challenging and I kinda suck at them. :p

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There's one section where it's a bit trickier in honesty, but for the most part yeah it's not very hard at all. Definitely keep it in mind!

Dragonball Xenoverse 2 - Prologue and Chapter One
So, I've been feeling pretty unwell the past week-and-a-bit and decided I wanted to just play something dumb, easy and fun. So I'm playing through Xenoverse 2 again. Figured I might as well use it to add another game to my total too.

I decided to play as a human this time since I've never finished the game as a human before and went with the balanced fighting style, because it just seems to fit human lol. I then spent like 20 minutes customising my character's appearance and moves because I remembered that the world's most tedious unskippable tutorial segment was coming up and I was procrastinating. Thus our hero, Dishe, the world's most powerful human was born.

I didn't do a lot of gameplay really, just made my way through the first bout of tutorial bullshit (because this game sure loves obnoxious mandatory tutorials) and played through the Saiyan Saga chapter, which made me forget about the dumb tutorial for a while because the great ape boss fight is one of my favourites. Also took Tien as my teacher this time, because the strange three-eyed man needs some love I guess.

What'll happen now? Find out next time on - no never mind. I can't bring myself to make that joke. I just can't do it.

Xenoverse 2 - Chapter Two
Made a point of keeping up with all the training options and overworld fights to start things off, so it took me a little bit before I got back into the story missions. I'm up to the Namek missions now, but I had forgotten how much more story content this segment of the game/franchise had compared to other parts. I won't finish this chunk until the next time I play.

Anyway, until I get to the last boss fight of this segment, there's nothing particularly hard in the Namek stuff, there's just a lot. So I've managed to get through Turles round, Dodoria, Zarbon, Slug and the entirety of the Ginyu Force (bless those morons). That's a lot of free stat boosts which is nice given the nightmare that comes next. I've been experimenting a bit with skillset options here, trying to use a bunch of stuff that I normally don't. It's been pretty fun but there's definitely a reason I don't use a lot of them lol.

I also did the first to Saiyaman missions since those are mandatory as a human... and I really should have left it until a segment that didn't involve Ginyu already. There's only so much cheese I can handle and that was a lot of cheese.

Anyway, finished up this section by getting up to date on advancement tests and teacher options like I did at the start so next time I can jump right back into the story.

Xenoverse 2 - Chapter Three
Didn't really do much again, not as far as story goes. I just wrapped up the Namek stuff. To my surprise though, it only took me one attempt to do the Frieza + Cooler boss fight which usually takes me 2-3 tries. No idea why it was so much easier this time, but it honestly wasn't even close. Not once did it look bad for me. It's pretty much easy going from here on out, the only other remotely difficult fight is the very last one.

After that I just did the next advancement test and caught up on advancement tests really. I unlocked the human-specific awakened skill too which is both hilariously powerful for what it is and also really dumb. So basically, I'm never going to use it.

Oh right, I also upgraded my moveset and changed my appearance cause I was getting tired of the dorky cape I game him early on.

Xenoverse - Chapter 4
Well, I've now completed through the Cell saga, including the future timeline segment. This was always my favourite arc in the anime, but it's one of my least favourite segments in Xenoverse 2 because it's really rushed compared to previous content. Actually, this kind of marks the point in the game where the implementation of the story starts dropping off pretty consistently for some reason. It's like they expended all their energy and resources on the first two arcs and then remembered that the game is meant to cover the entirety of Z, the beginning of Super and its own overarching plotline. Which isn't to say that there's no content at all, there's shitloads of multi-player stuff, but the story content definitely isn't implemented as well from this point onwards. Which is unfortunate really since Dragon Ball is not exactly the pinnacle of great writing to begin with.

Anyway, after that was done I spent the remainder of the gameplay this morning on what I usually do between story segments: catching up on the lessons, doing the next advancement test and doing the overworld fights of which there were a lot around at this time. Most of those were really easy, but I had forgotten that there's this one 3 on 1 overworld that is nightmarishly hard because every time you start a hit combo or a super/ultimate move one of the assholes you're not currently targeting bombards you with blasts and then all three converge before you have time to recover. So you burn through stamina using your evasive skill frequently which then means you can't dodge as often as you need to. So yeah, I lost that and have to come back when I've boosted my stats too high for any of that to matter.

Might spend my next session of gameplay doing a bunch of parallel quests to do that because fuck those guys.

Xenoverse - Chapter 5
It's time for... ANOTHER MANDATORY TUTORIAL. WOOOOOOO. Note the sarcasm. This part of the game has always annoyed me. You cannot continue the story unless you complete this two-part tutorial. This would be slightly less annoying if this tutorial had any relevance at all to single player story gameplay. However, it does not. It is specifically for a multi-payer mission mode that you will never have to use unless you choose to. Why they felt the need to make this a mandatory part of a playthrough is beyond me.

Anyway, wrapping that up unlocked Slug, 16, 18 and Cell (but not 17, who for some reason is not available as an instructor) so I spent the majority of the rest of my playtime today going through and completing their challenges to gain their moves. I don't actually have to do this every time since you keep access to your skills from previous playthroughs, but it's a fun and quick way to level up and boost your attributes. Plus, it forces you to use different moves which is a good way to decide if you want to use them or not. For example, I'm using Perfect Shot and Hell Flash now after the last batch... granted I think this is the third character I've used Hell Flash on. I really like Hell Flash. I also made 16 my official instructor, replacing Tien.

After that, I started the next segment of story. I'll wrap that arc up tomorrow though since I only did the first mission.

Xenoverse 2 - Chapter 6
Went through and completed the Buu saga today. I wish I could say more about it, but it diutes the story even more than the Cell Saga part of the game did and... again... Dragon Ball isn't exactly know for its incredible story. I had forgotten that at the end of this segment it drops you into Beerus v Goku from Super out of nowhere though and that's one of the few fights that constitutes some semblance of a challenge. That was my favourite part of this segment honestly. Admittedly, that's in part because I like Beerus and Whis.

After that I completed the next Advancement Test and most of the next set of instructors sets. Just need to go back and start Whis' lessons but I was starting to get a bit bored. But before I could stop for the day, there was one more thing I had to do: I went back to that 3 v 1 overworld fight and kicked the crap out of those irritating bastards.

Xenovese 2 - Chapter 7
Closing in on the end now, just wrapped up the game's Super content. Honestly, this is probably the most boring part of the game. It's very short and there's not a lot of story there to appreciate. The best part of it is that Beerus and Whis are quite present, but the aren't strong enough characters to just carry a segment of the game on their own. Thankfully, I know that things do pick up a bit again in the final segment of the game, which is fast approaching.

After that I started catching up on the last few overworlds and instructors, but the game decided to crash and I took that as a sign to leave it for next time.

Xenoverse 2 - Chapter 8
That's the game completed! I wrapped up those missed overworlds and Whis' instruction from before, thankfully without the game crashing this time. From there, all that was the last segment of story content. I powered through it fairly quickly and didn't have to redo any fights again, so it didn't take long. It was fun though. This is definitely the easiest playthrough I've had for whatever reason, be it experience or just lucking out on the skills/boosts I chose but it wasn't so easy as to be dull thankfully.

The story in the game is... well it's Dragon Ball. It's almost entirely just rehashing the series apart from a few extra battles here and there and the final segment dealing with Mira and Towa. It doesn't add a lot new or do much to improve upon the existing narrative. It's fun, but it's not a game that's going to wrack up a lot of extra points based on the story mode. The visuals and audio are in a similar ballpark, not revolutionary or anything, but solid. Certainly not detractors.

The combat itself is the focus of the game, obviously, and it's plenty enjoyable. There's a fair amount of customisation available in how your character plays, although I do think a little more variety couldn't hurt either. The action itself is pretty dynamic and the game feels balanced, you rarely find yourself calling bullshit about things not going your way. The only element of the gameplay that I really dislike is the tutorials. There's a lot of tutorial to do and it is not very exciting. I would love to be able to skip through them after the first playthrough.

The game does drop off a bit in the middle segments, but, other than the tutorials, it's never tedious and it's still a fun time.

Story: 5/10
Visuals: 6/10
Soundtrack: 6/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Total Score: 24/40