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Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara (Switch): COMPLETED!

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There’s a whole series of games set in the “Mara” universe, by Chibig, most of which I’ve played and completed and enjoyed. They’re not the same, although most are of the “chop chop, dig dig” genre. A couple of years ago I played Summer in Mara, which was that and also a boating, exploration game with missions and stuff. This game, takes Koa – the main character from Summer in Mara – and puts her in the same world but now it’s a platformer. And a sequel. Sort of.

There’s a plot about pirates setting you challenges, but ultimately it’s a pretty standard 3D jump and run game with a nice setting, some silly characters, and slightly clunky physics in that way that nobody who isn’t Nintendo can make a platformer that feels great like a Nintendo platformer. It doesn’t do anything new or adventurous with the genre, and isn’t outstanding in any way, but that’s OK – it’s all happy fun stuff to the end.

SteamWorld Build (Switch): COMPLETED!

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I do love the SteamWorld series of games. And the world they’re all set in. Of course I was going to get this, although my interest was slightly tempered by the fact it’s the first SteamWorld game not made by the core staff of the previous ones. Would that be OK?

I’m pleased to reveal, that yes. The style, humour and world have all come out unscathed. The references to other events in the series – particularly SteamWorld Dig 2 which this is a sort of side-story to – fit in and you wouldn’t actually know it wasn’t the same team unless you’d been told. Like I just did there.

Build is a two part game. Initially, it’s a city builder. You make houses and shops and facilities, and Steambots move in and populate the place. It’s very much SimCity 2000 only with robots and fewer things to take care of. Soon, you have to get into the second bit of the game, which is mining. Under the city are three layers of mine, each more dangerous than the last, where you send miners, engineers and guards to strip the area of resources and stop the evil creatures that lurk from destroying your robots and machinery.

The mining is further split into two sorts of game. There’s the expansion 4X-lite stuff, digging out more mine and developing new machines to gather different resources (as well as devices to shuttle those back to the surface more efficiently), but then there’s also a number of “hives”, which frequently spew out a stream of baddies and these bits are almost Tower Defence in nature. You have to make sure you’ve plenty of weapons set up to target them, and some engineers to repair the turrets (and your guard bots) if they get a bit eaten.

There’s a lot to juggle, nipping back and forth between the surface (to expand your population and unlock and develop new tools and buildings) and the mine, as well as keeping an eye on the needs of the residents and ensuring your factories don’t run out of the resources they need in order to make such mission-critical things as burgers and casinos.

The aim of the game is to build a spaceship then fill it with fuel. Parts for the ship are buried in the mine, digging them up triggers a wave of attacking baddiebots, and fuel – once you have enough scientists and the right buildings – can be refined from a resource. Complete this, and the ending of Dig 2 happens as you all escape into space.

It’s bloody great. So great, that I immediately started what is essentially New Game +, where I was rewarded with a buff from completing the game on one of the starter maps to use on another playthrough. Which I then also completed. And then, started a New Game ++. Yes, it’s that good.

December 2023 Update

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Playing NOW

Persona 5 Tactica (XSX)

It's got mixed reviews but I'm enjoying it. I've not played a turn based xcom like game for a while (last was in 2021 Mutant Year Zero).

Forza Motorsport (XSX)

I've played the tutorial section and first cup but have not been back to it since Persona 5 Tactica was released. I expect I'll be playing this very slowly over 2024 in small bouts.

 

 

 

Playing NEXT

Assassin's Creed Mirage (PS5)

I managed to pick this up cheap £15 on facebook. I've not touched the PS5 since I purchased the XSX late August this year. I know I'm going to miss the XSX quick resume feature already.

 

Playing FUTURE

Starfield (XSX)

I think this needs a little bit longer to cook, reports of memory leaks/crashes, I'm going to a wait a while longer.

Spiderman 2 (PS5)

Not purchased it yet, will wait now until I've completed Assassin's Creed Mirage.

Baldur's Gate 3 (PS5)

Again not purchased, with the physical version being released in 2024 I'll wait for now, also you never know Microsoft may splash the cash and make it available on gamepass

Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth (XSX)

Probably the only game I'm going to buy on day one in 2024.

Cyberpunk 2077 (XSX)

With the complete edition releasing soon will definitely be playing this in 2024!

Star Wars Jedi Survivor (XSX)

The XSX is now my preferred console for multiplatform releases because of quick resume. I was hoping for a decent Black Friday deal but will wait for the inevitable gamepass release.

Other titles on my wishlist are

Midnight Suns

Metal Gear Solid Collection 1

Shadow Gambit - Cursed Crew

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

 

Playing Backlog

In no particular order I own the following I still want to play.

Judgment

Life is Strange

Sackboy

Persona 5 Strikers

Lost Judgment

Outer Wilds

Shadow Tactics

Disco Elysium

Empire of Sin

Bioshock Collection

Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen

Like A Dragon Ishin 

December 2023 Update

Posted on Written by

Playing NOW

Persona 5 Tactica (XSX)

It's got mixed reviews but I'm enjoying it. I've not played a turn based xcom like game for a while (last was in 2021 Mutant Year Zero).

Forza Motorsport (XSX)

I've played the tutorial section and first cup but have not been back to it since Persona 5 Tactica was released. I expect I'll be playing this very slowly over 2024 in small bouts.

 

 

 

Playing NEXT

Assassin's Creed Mirage (PS5)

I managed to pick this up cheap £15 on facebook. I've not touched the PS5 since I purchased the XSX late August this year. I know I'm going to miss the XSX quick resume feature already.

 

Playing FUTURE

Starfield (XSX)

I think this needs a little bit longer to cook, reports of memory leaks/crashes, I'm going to a wait a while longer.

Spiderman 2 (PS5)

Not purchased it yet, will wait now until I've completed Assassin's Creed Mirage.

Baldur's Gate 3 (PS5)

Again not purchased, with the physical version being released in 2024 I'll wait for now, also you never know Microsoft may splash the cash and make it available on gamepass

Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth (XSX)

Probably the only game I'm going to buy on day one in 2024.

Cyberpunk 2077 (XSX)

With the complete edition releasing soon will definitely be playing this in 2024!

Star Wars Jedi Survivor (XSX)

The XSX is now my preferred console for multiplatform releases because of quick resume. I was hoping for a decent Black Friday deal but will wait for the inevitable gamepass release.

Other titles on my wishlist are

Midnight Suns

Metal Gear Solid Collection 1

Shadow Gambit - Cursed Crew

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

 

Playing Backlog

In no particular order I own the following I still want to play.

Judgment

Life is Strange

Sackboy

Persona 5 Strikers

Lost Judgment

Outer Wilds

Shadow Tactics

Disco Elysium

Empire of Sin

Bioshock Collection

Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen

Like A Dragon Ishin 

Tokyo Xanadu eX+ (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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Persona! There we go. I was going to try not to mention it at all but I realised that would be impossible so thought I’d just come straight out with it. Yes indeed: Tokyo Xanadu is very Persona. Perhaps that is why I enjoyed it so much.

So, stop me when you’ve heard this one before. Some school children who ordinarily wouldn’t mix with each other because one is really shy and one is perceived to be a bully and one is overly peppy and one is a nerd and one is fierce and unapproachable and one is secretly some sort of ninja, are all thrown together when another, evil, world starts to bleed into their own and they go through portals which only they can see to defeat them. All while still trying to live normal lives and go to school and have relationships and do part time jobs and one of them is a famous idol so there’s that going on too. Persona, right?

And I’m perfectly fine with that. It isn’t exactly Persona, with less emphasis on building bonds between characters (although the game does touch on that a bit) and the combat is all real-time and not turn-based, but the format and the feel of the game is just the same. The combat is fast and controls well in terms of pulling off combos and special moves, swapping characters for different elemental attacks. There’s loads of customisation you can delve into for the weapons too, with each having a number of slots to which you can apply effects and upgrade those effects. I didn’t get too deep into that but I’d imagine it’s essential on the harder difficulty settings.

One downside is that the bits of platforming in some of the “dungeons” is clunky in that way that Japanese games which aren’t platformers but have platforming sections tend to be. Imprecise and wonky. Thankfully, there’s not a lot of it although one of the final dungeons uses it a lot. You don’t die by falling off, but you do waste so much time doing it over and over.

Speaking of final dungeons, Tokyo Xanado eX+ (perhaps specifically the eX+ release, as it has more content) has multiple endings, just like Persona. There’s the normal ending, but there’s the true ending after that, and then the real_true_final_ending_(2)_FINAL_use this one.docx ending. The road to the proper real good final one actually adds about 5-6 hours to the story, which was a sizable 65-70 hours already. It’s a big game! Like Persona.

Is it as good as Persona (4 Golden specifically), though? Well, in some ways. It’s faster paced, and has better graphics. It doesn’t have the incredibly stylish UI though, and the characters in Persona 4, perhaps because you get to know them more intimately, are mostly much more memorable. There’s less of a fear that by doing the wrong thing or by missing some conversation that you’re going to lock off the best ending in Tokyo Xanadu, although I suspect that’s possible, it just seems harder to miss if you just follow everything rather than try to do specific things at specific times like in Persona.

No, that didn’t answer the question, did it. I enjoyed both games a lot. I’ll bung Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE into the mix as well, as that was my first Persona (even though it wasn’t really Persona but sort of was a spin off of a different branch of the same series as Persona). They’re all great, and they’re all similar, but the differences don’t make any one notably better than the others. Buy them all, eh? Why not.