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

Wait, are they saying its worse than vanilla S&M or just that its not sufficiently different? As I have a friend whose looking to buy a 2DS just to catch up on Pokémon and I may have given him some awful advice . . .

Both, from what I've read.

There's new stuff but not enough to make a marked improvement over the vanilla games and some of the new story stuff has apparently hurt the overall flow of the game.

I definitely prefer the originals over their Ultra counterparts - so far, at least. Your friend won't have my perspective, Drunka, but UM is definitely not different enough from S or M to be worth it. If you'd not played either, UM is a bit more sophisticated and a bit more streamlined, so they'll probably still have Big Fun with it... but I will be trading it in as soon as I've finished with it.

None of that opinion is anything to do with the fact that my Nuzlocke is over. I'm now doing what I'm calling a Coward's Nuzlocke, where I'm still catching only one 'mon per Route. I can revive them, though. I'm struggling to get the same feelings as I did during my Sun Nuzlocke.

I think it'll be fine for them coming in fresh, there seems to be a lot more Pokemon to catch which is always nice and I don't think I've noticed anything in the story that hurts it, just disappointing as a returning player, like Zero I was ready for more of Lillie's story.

Having seen off Pokémon Ultra Moon - and traded it in for Pokémon Ultra Sun for Jo - there were three big games left in my backlog: Dragon Quest VIII, Yo-Kai Watch and Fire Emblem Awakening. The call of the slime proved too much, so I'm back with the gang, worrying about the attire of Jessica, trying to make progress in my pursuit of Dhoulmagus. The vicious fiend.

Drunkalilly wrote:

vanilla S&M

Contradiction in terms, surely?

Anyway, while I'm not playing anything on my broken-down old 3DS, Jay's playing one of my fave games right now, and I'd love to know how he's getting on with it!

Yeah, I'm enjoying Xenoblade Chronicles quite a bit. It took a while to open up and it wasn't really until Gaur Plains that I really found myself marvelling at the scale of the game. It runs pretty well on the ol' 3DS, but I'd love to have played this on a TV.

I'm currently at Eryth Sea, although I've decided to tackle the mountains of sidequests thrown at me in Frontier Village. I'm not sure about Riki as a member of the party in regards to his battle abilities - seemed a little underwhelming. The rest of the gang are more than pulling their wait though!

'Give it until Gaur Plains before you judge it.'  That's what I'd say to anybody thinking of trying XC1.  (And equivalently for XC2.)  I can't help agreeing with you on the 3DS/telly thing, but at least you're enjoying it now!

Riki's a damage sponge who can steal items, that's essentially his job.  Must admit to not having used him much, but there are definitely players who get a heck of a lot out of him.  My team was basically Shulk/Dunban/Carla for most of the game, apart from wanting to get some usage out of everyone.

I've been cycling the team to try and build up affinity to see those heart-to-hearts which has resulted in some pretty strong trios and some considerably worse groups. My favourite so far has been Dunban/Melia/Sharla - Dunban takes the heat and dishes out damage, Melia buffs everyone and wrecks house herself and Sharla keeps Dunban nice and healthy. Sharla feels like a must for any group as Shulk's Light Heal doesn't do enough, nor does Riki's healing move.

I do wish they'd dialled back on the number of sidequests - the sheer number of them I've been plowing through in Frontier Village is starting to take the biscuit.

Fun fact: Sharla was named 'Carna' in the Japanese release. Somehow I managed to mix up the two. I played as her for most of the game! I always found Melia too fragile for my liking.

You wait until you get to Agniratha. I accepted I would never 100% the game, and just left some of them to die. Especially the 'collect 11 rare shinies' ones.

I'm getting to that stage myself but I've noticed that the enemies quickly start catching up in level after blitzing through some story content, so I almost feel like doing plenty of sidequests is a requirement. I might leave the more annoying ones, we'll see!

Sounds like you've gone well beyond the bit I'm stuck on, then! I'll have to see if I can't catch up.

Or at least, y'know, enter the race again...

I'm sure nobody does all the sidequests, but I found them a more rewarding way to grind levels than to literally just go out and kill stuff.

Got to do all the side-quests otherwise Jay will never complete the game.

Drunkalilly wrote:

I'm sure nobody does all the sidequests, but I found them a more rewarding way to grind levels than to literally just go out and kill stuff.

Same's true of the majority of JRPGs/open-world games, isn't it? Every now and then you get a belter, but most are fetch quests/kill this thing quests, and that's okay too. ('Find this thing that only appears if you kill a monster in a non-obvious way/once every three thousands years' quests are less okay.)

I've got to say, XCX had better side-quests than both XC1 and, so far, XC2. Not enough to make up for its utter doggerel of a main quest, mind.

masofdas wrote:

Got to do all the side-quests otherwise Jay will never complete the game.

Yep, that's the problem! I hate leaving things not checked off, so I suspect this game will be the death of me.

I've been playing Radiant Historia as much as I possible can. This game is fantastic! A neat battle system, a cool time travel element and a pretty engaging set of characters, I can easily see this being the best RPG I play this year.

If you're not too stubborn to pick up a 3DS game this is an absolute must play.

Stuff! Due to a combination of factors, I'm playing stuff on 3DS.

Because I'm often just walking outside and wandering off all day with as little stuff on me as possible, I found myself on trains or buses or toilets or drinking a coffee alone without my Switch, so I pulled out my 3DS and went back to Pokemon Blue. I'm gonna get as close to a full Pokedex as possible before I move onto Crystal. I'm enjoying it, and also working on a Secret Project (apparently mentioning this all the time will make me seem like an interesting and relevant games writer).

In a separate coincidence, I checked out that eShop sale and saw that Apollo Justice was on the cheap, which spurred me on to go back and finish replaying Trials and Tribulations. Man, the Ace Attorney games are good!

I forgot Apollo Justice made its way to 3DS! No excuses now if you've not played it before.

Been addicted to Trials and Tribulations all over again the past couple of days. Because it's been ten years or so since I last played it, most of the specific twists and turns of the story are brand new. I just did the penultimate, brief, flashback case and man that's a hell of a ride. Just the finale to go now, and then I'll probably be moving straight onto [i]Apollo Justice.[/]

Ooft, you lucky lucky devil.

Mind you, it does mean you had to be confronted by Jean Armstrong without being prepared.

Have you played the newer Ace Attorney games at all, Drunka? I know you've not played Spirit of Justice, but I can't remember if you've tackled the previous two either.

I think I got as far as the first case on both of them. Apollo Justice probably got traded in because I was skint, then by the time I was playing the 3DS ones I felt like I needed to go back and catch up before I could get into them.

Short answer: no, I haven't, the second trilogy will be brand new for me.

Balladeer wrote:

Mind you, it does mean you had to be confronted by Jean Armstrong without being prepared.

I actually wrote up my case review last night, and yeah . . . Jean was mentioned.

There is a lot of goodness to come, then - but you have to work hard for it, let’s say.