u/heartsongaming

I bought my Switch 2 a year ago and also got Age of Calamity with BotW at the same time. I started AoC to play with my friend a bit of local co-op. It lasted around 10 of the main missions. I already played through BotW and TotK, so I thought of coming back to AoC and seeing through the alternate storyline. Much like BotW, I delayed finishing the game for a while.

I like both the gameplay and story in AoC much more than BotW. The memories were sort of forgettable for me in BotW, and in comparison the quality cutscenes during the missions of AoC made it a much more narrstively engaging experience. Also, some of my favorite moments in BotW was liberating Lurelin Village and beating the 4 blight ganons. I do enjoy the open world exploration, but that wouldn't fit in AoC too well.

Overall enjoyed the game and especially the animations. I played through the game on Normal difficulty. And I do intend to go back for rebuilding Terrako. Having finished Trails of Cold Steel yesterday, feeling like I'm on a roll of beating good games.

Ignoring remarks that I should take a break after Azure, I have just finished Cold Steel 1 on PS5. I have tried starting Cold Steel 3 beforehand on Switch but after going through the recap presentation, I understood that I wasn't going to enjoy the game before playing the previous two games so I stopped and got the first two Cold Steel games on Playstation.

Cold Steel 1 has a particular format that reminded me a bit of Persona 5. You start the chapter completing side missions at Thors and Trista, get 3 points for interactions with classmates, go to the old schoolhouse and complete and dungeon, do a practical exam and then go to a field study at a new area. During the field study the class discovers something dangerous happening after two days of questing and gets involved with it, each time fighting a big boss at the end, usually related to the Imperial Liberation Front. This repeated for the main six chapters and I actually enjoyed. I only played during the weekends, and one chapter fit perfectly for a weekend session.

Overall I enjoyed the character interactions and bonding. I liked how links were used in the first time during combat. The orbment variety was high and offered multiple builds. I didn't really purchase the best weapons but did upgrade then sometimes.

The game feels like a giant prologue, much like Trails in the Sky FC, setting up the characters and the world for the next games in the arc. I enjoyed the finale a lot, and liked how the festival turned out. Reminded me of the intermission chapter in Azure. Definitely going to play Cold Steel 2 with the twist at the end.

I tried out the demo for Dragon Quest Reimagined and enjoyed it a lot. It felt like Adventures of Elliot, but turned based with a bit of Ys. I wanted more but want to try the original beforehand. So I started the 3DS version and finished the introduction (right before reaching the second island).

I noticed a lot of quality of life changes in Reimagined such as streamlining the story and adding fast travel. Overall, I enjoy the original as well, as it feels very high quality. Definitely different enough for a remake that makes it worth replaying in the future. So far itching to continue to play

I just beat the game on Switch 2. I enjoyed Zero a lot, but it only ramped up close to the end of the game with Joachim Gunter using Gnosis on the CGF and demonization. Azure starts out with a cultist demonising himself, so it didn't even stop from the beginning putting the gas to the pedal. I enjoyed how it varied with the line-up from the start with SSS including Wazy and Noel.

Each chapter has quality side requests that feel as detailed as the main missions and worth the time. Even completing monster requests leads to team S-Crafts so it was worth it. I also enjoyed the new Burst mechanic and Master orbments. It varies the gameplay a lot.

There is a lot of character development in this game. Maybe not for Lloyd as he is dense as ever, which Randy and Tio fully take advantage of. Even the intermission has you going on dates with most of the cast, so it was a lot of fun. This game goes full-on in the anime tropes - start out as an everyday cop, but then kill god at the end; while sexual interactions and Randy turn out to be comedy side-bits.

I enjoyed the story a lot. I was full-on interested in the international political conference between Erebonia, Crossbell, Liberl and Calvard, seeing how blatantly the Erebonian chancellor says he intends to invade. The finale is wild. It was way longer than I thought it would be. Each time I kept thinking this is the final boss, but there ended up being more. The actual final boss was as hype as FFXIV's Endwalker final fight against Endsinger, and it was pretty difficult as well (happy for the lower difficulty and retry even though I already was playing on normal).

Can't wait to continue on to Cold Steel 1, but wondering if I should take a break after all that epicness.