What are you playing on your 3DS/DS right now?

I've been playing Bit.Trip Saga - specifically, Runner. It's a weird one - I remember NGamer's review causing a bit of fuss because it boiled down to it being frustrating and not fun, with other reviews like Eurogamer's taking the stance that "it's good but it'll leave you rocking in the corner". Yeah, it's frustrating, but my problem with it is more that once you get over the frustration it's often not especially interesting. I think it's often the case with games that are "old-school difficult" - you're meant to feel a sense of reward when you finally complete a tricky bit, but in my case I'm more inclined to give up because I want to do something that's not so aggravating and really, meaningless.

You inch further and further through the level to a bit you haven't reached before and - oh! - that unexpected orange pixel shoots out of the sky, and do I jump over the orange pixels or is that the purple pixels? - these hazards don't appear enough for your response to be instinctive, and oh, balls, guess I was meant to jump over it, back to the beginning of the level. Quite often the background is too busy and you don't notice the hazard in the first place.

I have that problem a lot: - Runner is a lot more complicated than the other Bit.Trip games and when you get to a frantic bit it's inevitable that you'll make a mistake because you don't have the time to think and back to the start you go. Which is arguably the point, because it's "old-school" and remember when all games used to be hard?!, but having to go back to the beginning and do it again is boring.

But then I do want to give the next level a go, and it usually doesn't take me many attempts to get through it, and before I know it I'm at the boss. But I've just reached the boss of zone 2, and man alive, he's just genuinely tedious, so I quit. I'm conflicted. It's addictive, and I do have fun with it; but I don't know if I'd recommend it, or how good I think it actually is.

I felt a similar way about Runner when I bought Bit.Trip Saga a couple of years back. It was actually quite well done...it's just that the basic idea of it is quite dull in the 2010s. That said, even if Runner is a, say, 5/10, I consider it to be miles better than the rest of the Saga games.

The second Runner game makes up for most of the frustrations I had with the first one - checkpoints mid way through the levels, it's more forgiving, AND Charles Martinet narrates it.

Yeah, I tried the 360 demo of Runner 2 and quite enjoyed it. I might buy it if I ever beat Runner.

I do quite enjoy the Bit.Trip games, but what gets me is that they're sometimes incredibly unpredictable. Like in Bit.Trip Beat, you're expected to pick up on how the different beats behave, but it's really not that easy to pick up; Core is a total mindfuck and there is far too much to keep track of. Void is more predictable but just old-fashioned tough.

I do like Fate, though. Fate's a good one.

Professor Layton And The Azran Legacy, with the Dual Destinies DLC case from time to time. PLATAL must be beaten before Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney comes out!

When is that coming out, actually?

Oh, and I had another shot at Dream Team Bros. yesterday.  Even the fact that I was starting just before a boss fight didn't enthral me; the thought of taking on that drill machine in the desert as my next task certainly didn't. I still think that the faux-Italian babble is quite charming, though.

Other than that, I've just been digging deeper.

More jrpg awesomeness in the form of Etrian Odyssey 4, I'm still only in the first world and labyrinth but so far it's proving to be a blast and a perfect step on from bravely default.  From old school final fantasy type gameplay to old school first person rpg.  One of the things I particularly love about the game is the sense of danger it has, every time I enter a new area I feel like I need to keep my guard up, and every time I see a new FOE I usually run for my life.  And there's a distinct sense of accomplishment as progress is made, it's small and slow but taking out a couple of FOEs that I used to flee for my life from was extremely satisfying.


Also the game has killer kangaroos!  How can you not love a game with killer kangaroos!?   

Mii Maker. I had a single Mii on my 3DS, and then Tomodachi Life was announced for Europe. First up: dictators.

Oh, and how do I QR Code?

Professor Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, with a little Pokémon Link: Battle! thrown in when I fancy being beaten horribly (7-2 is open for business - now to get to the final monster with even a little bit of energy...).

(looks smug)

Bike Rider DX, having downloaded it on Cappa and ZJ's advice. Inoffensive enough, and that's all it really needs to be for £1.99.

Did I mention I'd moved on to Oracle of Ages? I forget.

Only to the people who read the whole of Admintendo.

So, only to the people who matter, then.

Oh yeah, so I did.

I've gone back to Bravely Default after leaving it alone for a month or two. I think my approach to it is comparable to Balla's on Animal Crossing: it draws you in but after a while you think "is this actually fun?" and then you stop. While I admire it for doing many things well (alterable encounter rates, skippable cutscenes, achievement-oriented tutorials) it often feels a little too by-the-numbers (go to this place, kill the thing, go to next place, kill the thing).

I'm determined to finish it, though it may take me some time. At the moment I'm a puny 35 hours into it, I think nearing the end of Chapter 4.

I can see why you'd think that, but I found the jobs actually fun. Then again, I love JRPGs' passion for numbers, so...

Yeah, the jobs are probably one of the best things about it, although it's faintly annoying that you can level up a bit fairly easily and then there's a massive jump in the number of job points you need to advance. I think there are only a couple more jobs for me to get and then I can experiment with combinations to my heart's content... although I'll probably stick to the few that I've managed to level up to level 10 or 11 already.

Whilst I flit between Pokémon X and Professor Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright in the cart slot, it's a mixture of Pokémon Link: Battle! and Nintendo Pocket Football Club from my eShop folder. I'm now on 7-4 of PL:B! 

beemoh wrote:

Did I mention I'd moved on to Oracle of Ages? I forget.

Oh wow, I did too! I'll race you *Jimbob finishes last*

I'm flitting between NPFC and the StreetPass games at the moment. Aside from collecting the puzzle pieces, I'm finding the latter a bit of a chore at the moment.

Currently playing Kamen Rider Travellers Senki and One Piece Unlimited World R and doing a bit of Kirby so I can finish it and SPOIL EVERYTHING!!

Stu_the_great wrote:

I'm flitting between NPFC and the StreetPass games at the moment. Aside from collecting the puzzle pieces, I'm finding the latter a bit of a chore at the moment.

I'm the complete opposite, I love the StreetPass games, Mansion is brilliant and I'm starting to like Squad again now I've started aiming for the achievements, heck even Mr Mendel doesn't annoy me all that much anymore.

The only Streetpass game that's a chore to me is Squad, I ignore it nowadays. Battle and Mansion have both been great to play in the long term.

Etrian Odyssey Untold. What a fantastic game, the Story mode's actually really damn good and it's the old-school gameplay once more that everyone likes. Highly recommended if you're into that!

Not sure I do.  Any chance you (or one of our other JRPG nuts) could go into a bit more detail about EOU's story mode?  Does it feel like there's a purpose to your dungeon-crawling?  Are the characters likeable, or are they anime tropes that'll make Tiz fro Bravely Default seem like the height of great characterisation?

As much as I'd love to be able to post impressions about untold I haven't even got it yet, and I'm still on 4 to boot.