Nintendowife

I completed Crystar on PC a few days ago. I got the game recently for 90% off and found it a pleasant surprise. I ended up completing the game, doing 3 playthroughs for true ending and getting all the achievements.

The protagonist Rei Hatada finds herself in afterlife, Purgatory. Souls that end up there slowly descent to the deepest parts of the Purgatory where they will reach reincarnation. To her surprise Rei finds her little sister Mirai in the very same Purgatory.

Rei is offered a deal by demon twins: if she becomes an "Executor", her sister will be brought back to life. Rei is ordered to kill Revenants, souls that have broken the rules of Purgatory. Delivering seven "Ideas" from the Revenants is required for Mirai's revival. Rei accepts the deal to save her dear sister.

If Rei doesn't hurry and carry out her mission, Mirai will reach the deepest depths of Purgatory and get reincarnated - which means losing her memories along with her identity and being reborn in a new body.

What first caught my eye were the nice character designs and art direction. There's this magical girl vibe when Rei suits up for battle. The Japanese voice acting was good, as was the music. The opening theme is a banger!

Gameplay felt effortless and fun. You delve into the Purgatory where you traverse maps level by level. Combat is somewhat fast-paced hack and slash style with special skills you can activate in addition to regular button mashing. There's four playable characters each with their own fighting style and skills. You can swap characters during battle. Combat mechanics and game systems weren't too complicated so it was smooth sailing. I've seen complaints about too few enemy models but that didn't bother me.

There's some unusual game mechanics. Rei can basically grow stronger by crying. Inside Purgatory, crying fills up a power gauge that lets her unleash her Guardian that will help in fights. When returning home, crying will purify Torments, painful memories that latch onto Rei as she kills enemies in Purgatory. Upon purification Torments will transform into Sentiments, equipment that can be used to boost Rei's and her party members' offensive and defensive capabilities.

I enjoyed the game's nice quality of life features: auto-sprint after running for a few seconds, auto-use of healing items, toggle for translucent overlay map in place of minimap, etc. Sadly there was no way to skip cutscenes / dialogue which would have been a welcome feature when replaying some levels to get all collectibles.

The story went to interesting places and changed slightly on different playthroughs, slowly revealing the truth of the events. Three playthroughs are required for true ending. Subsequent playthroughs are shorter and can be made faster to clear by lowering difficulty. The second ending was my favorite and I have to applaud the writers. Unfortunately I found the first and true endings a bit too "vanilla" for my tastes.

The themes in the game may not be suitable for everyone (e.g. suicide references and psychological disorders). I personally liked how the game wasn't afraid to include sensitive themes. It was a nice window into human psyche and what some people are willing to do for one reason or another.

I've grown fond of the publisher Furyu's output as they aren't afraid of taking risks. They release entertaining games that aren't super polished but they often have this peculiar charm that appeals to me. Crystar is another shining example of this.

It took me 52 hours to finish three playthroughs and get all the achievements, which includes collecting all memoirs of the dead. Even though the true ending wasn't that much to my liking, I found the game enjoyable to play and I appreciate the experience it offered.

Your game was Coming Soon. Coming to consoles finally! Some will say you're graphically not good, but I don't mind. Won't change the way I feel watching your ending credits roll!

My picks for the Pokémon grid thing that's been doing the rounds here lately. Tough choices.

Favorite: Eelektross. Great and versatile Pokémon with nice design.

2nd favorite: Clefairy. So adorable and great support in double battles.

Least favorite: Cradily? I don't have a clear least favorite so went with something that popped into mind first.

Underrated: Cinccino. Just won the Master Ball rank Battle Tower with Cinccino in my double battle team. Surprisingly strong and nice coverage.

Overrated: Metagross. I remember times when online battles were filled with these. I slaughtered them with my Eelektross (unless the players rage quit first).

Best starter: Pikachu. Such an iconic cutie.

Best Dynamax: Alcremie. Cool design concept. Very good Pokémon in doubles.

Best Mega: Mega Houndoom. I haven't seen all the new megas but I like this one. Reminds me of my late dogs.

Best region variant: (Galarian) Cursola. So cute and cool concept. A monstrous sweeper in Trick Room team as well.

Best eeveelution: Vaporeon. Bulky, good move selection, pretty cute.

Would have as a pet: Alolan Meowth. I've always liked how it looks and I'd most likely go with a cat as a pet.

Best looking shiny: Dedenne. I recently got one and it's adorable with great color combo.

Idk why I like this, but I do: Shiny Trevenant. Well, I do know why I like it - nice colors and rather cool design. Shiny variant clearly differs from the regular too.

Has a personal story behind it: Ninetales. Perhaps my favorite back when I played the Gen 1 games. I recently returned to my roots and got a Ninetales for my doubles team.

More shinies in Pokémon Shield! I was in the process of breeding some critters for a double battle team to go with the shiny Dedenne I caught.

Funnily my husband asked me if I've ever managed to breed any shiny Pokémon. I replied that no, I hadn't managed to hatch any shinies from eggs in any game. Then suddenly the next day I got not one but two shinies! I only had Shiny Charm, no other boost for shiny odds.

Ah, yes. Just my luck. The moment I use a regular Poké Ball to catch something in Pokémon Shield Dynamax Adventures, the creature ends up being a shiny... You don't know if the caught Pokémon is shiny until at the end of the Dynamax Adventure run when checking the Pokémons' summaries and selecting the one you want to keep.

I caught a shiny Dedenne with a hidden ability. And of course Dedenne also happens to have a very nice looking shiny variation. Now I regret not using an Ultra Ball, Luxury Ball or Premier Ball that would have fit the aesthetics a lot better.

Here's a screenshot of a regular wild Dedenne and my chocolate brown shiny Dedenne for comparison.

I returned to Pokémon Shield on Nintendo Switch a few weeks ago. I had gotten the game at launch and finished the main story in 2020, but wasn't inspired to do much more back then. Now 6 years later I thought it would be nice to go back and try to fill the Pokédex.

When I returned to the game in March, my original save file had only 58 hours of play time and 218 Pokémon in Pokédex. So I had gone with pretty much the bare minimum to finish it. Now 3 weeks later my save file has over 213 hours clocked in and I managed to get all 400 Pokémon to complete my Pokédex! My husband helped me by trading version exclusive creatures from his copy of Pokémon Sword.

I've had my winter vacation week together with the Easter holidays, so I've had plenty of time to dedicate to catching 'em all.

The last Pokémon I needed for my Pokédex was Mimikyu and I joked to my husband that it will probably corrupt my save file, knowing its tendencies to put a curse on someone... Luckily my save file is still fine!

I bought the two expansions, The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra that added a good amount of new story content and other activities. So part of that 213 hours went to playing the new additional content. Very enjoyable stuff with fun gameplay, new characters and Pokémon!

I finished both expansions' main story but still have some content left to play in both. I'm about to finish upgrading the Isle of Armor Dojo fully - just 200 000 watts left to donate to unlock a powerful opponent to fight. I still have majority of the Dynamax Adventures game mode to finish in Crown Tundra so I'll be continuing with that too.

I spent a good chunk of time breeding a nice "competitive" double battle team with good IVs, natures, aesthetic Pokéballs, etc. I realized I had never had Alcremie before so wanted to get one. I specifically aimed for the Caramel Swirl + Ribbon Sweet variation. I managed to breed one with great IVs and I got the Gigantamax Factor for it too, so it can transform into a ginormous cake in battles.

I decided to go for a Trick Room team, so I bred a full team of Pokémon with "No good" in Speed IV and EV trained each of them. I'm especially fond of Runerigus and Cursola which work really nicely in the team. Runerigus has a cool concept with intriguing lore. Cursola is just very cute and has a monstrous Sp.Atk. Clefairy is the only Pokémon I've had in my team previously, all the others are new to me.

The names of my team members have a patisserie theme. Rum-flavored Runeberg torte is my favorite Finnish pastry. Bébé is a small pink pastry, an old Finnish classic I often ate when I was a kid.

Now that's my kind of appetite. Minus the cream and smokes.

I finished Wanted: Dead on PC a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed the different foods it catered. There were cute cats too. The gameplay was fun and I liked the protagonist, Hannah Stone. Linearity of the level design was pleasing, very nice soundtrack, cool minigames and the story had some interesting bits.

Starting and finishing Wanted: Dead was my second gaming goal for this year.

Surprisingly difficult game on Normal difficulty! The enemies were real damage sponges, hit hard, and the checkpoints were far apart. At some point I wished I could have dropped the difficulty to easy (Neko-chan, as the game calls it) and was despairing that I'd never finish the game. But I pulled through and made it! Took me 20 hours to clear the game.

I've seen complaints about the combat being clunky or whatever but I didn't find anything wrong with it. I think it's just another game where you need to get familiar with the mechanics, use them to your advantage and "git gud". Some of the enemies were more annoying than others but learning the ropes and perseverance is the key.

Recommended for action game aficionados.

"She works hard for the money so you better treat her right."

I finally finished Pokémon Legends: Arceus on Nintendo Switch a couple of weeks ago (it's been 3000 years...). I got the game at launch 4 years ago and started playing it pretty much right away but soon dropped it.

I had played it on three occasions for a couple of hours at a time and had fun but... then somehow didn't feel like returning to it. I was in the first area with tutorial type of content and I recall getting sidetracked with exploration and catching Pokémon instead of advancing the main story. I remember thinking the story was uninteresting and the game felt like aimless wandering without purpose. I was so used to the mainline Pokémon games with clearer structure and objectives. That may have been one factor why I had trouble returning to the game after putting it down after a play session.

I had set finishing Pokémon Legends: Arceus as one of my gaming goals for 2026. So I picked it up again in January to try and muster up the strength and finally see it through to the end.

I wrote some short play log entries as I advanced through the game, describing some of the frustrations I had with it but also some of the positive feels I experienced. Spoiler alert.

10.01.2026: I've acquired a mount for faster movement but I still have trouble progressing. So much to explore (I get sidetracked from main quest) and the terrain makes it difficult to get from point A to B. The tiny inventory limit forces extra detours back to camp or constant discarding of items, grrr.

22.01.2026: I've calmed down four … master Pokémon (forgot what they're called). Started playing handheld in bed and I've managed to advance the story! Got a bag expansion!

08.02.2026: End credits rolled in 58 h, 196 pkmn in Pokédex. What a sudden and dumb ending. I didn't even have to fight Palkia using my team, only throw the bag thingies at it and catching it into an "Origin ball" was a cut scene. Then suddenly skies cleared up and people had a festival. Like.. ok? Where was Arceus that the whole game was named after? I wanted to fight Palkia with my tiny Clefairy. Wasn't even able to screenshot the ending illustration. Now my end-game task would be to fill the Pokédex.

21.02.2026: Wow, I had no idea a Pokémon like this existed! I was introduced to Enamorus, a similar being to Tornadus/Thundurus/Landorus. I caught it. Very cool design and the turtle-like Therian form is a very nice and sympathetic creature.

24.02.2026: Finally completed the Pokédex! And met/fought/obtained Arceus. I already thought the game had glitched after catching Enamorus and Space Time Distortions didn't spawn anymore. The final two Pokémon I needed (Magnemite and Magneton) only appear in the distortions.

My final team for the main story was: Gliscor Hisuian Sneasel Hisuian Samurott Dialga Clefairy Lopunny

For post-credits content my team was: Gliscor Hisuian Sneasel Hisuian Samurott Wormadam (Trash form) Clefairy Lopunny

I picked Wormadam to my team because it was such a peculiar and funny looking creature and I had never used it before. Trash form Wormadam ended up being a pretty good tank! I usually name the Pokémon in my team but for some reason in this game I didn't - maybe because I regularly swapped Pokémon to get some research data about them and to evolve them. I couldn't get any good screenshots of my team because the game lacks a photo mode but here's one attempt below.

There were so many annoying things in the game - unclear quest objectives, constant inventory management, having to go back to the camp/village when I just wanted to finish stuff I set out to do, no way to quick travel from one area to another without going to the village first, etc.

An astoundingly aggravating design choice was locking some Pokémon behind a quest where you have to find over 100 collectibles. Some Pokémon appear only during special space-time distortions which I thought had glitched out and stopped after I had finished a certain side quest - I wasted so many hours of my life with the RNG just to get the two Pokémon I was missing from Pokédex completion.

It wasn't all bad though. The crafting system was pretty handy, making it more affordable and convenient to get more Pokéballs and other supplies. Music was very good throughout the game and I enjoyed the various references to other games in the series. There was a good amount of charm in the setting. And I enjoyed the scenery at times. It was soothing to look at the sky change color and the clouds move.

I finally achieved a double watermelon in Suika Game Planet! It took me 20+ hours and 97 tries.

Husbando bought the game for us on Valentine's day and I've been playing it on Nintendo Switch in the evenings. The gameplay concept of combining matching fruits to evolve them into a larger fruit looks simple and easy but is surprisingly difficult. Two cherries become a strawberry, two strawberries become a grape, two grapes become some kind of a yellow fruit (dekopon?) and so on. The objective is to go through a chain of evolutions to create a watermelon and rack up a high score.

What makes the game challenging is the physics and limited space. Your playable character (flying an UFO) orbits around a bubble and drops fruits into the bubble. The bubble has its own gravitational field and the fruits get pulled towards the center, but the weight and velocity of fruits affect the others on impact.

Once lots of fruits are dropped, they start pushing out of the bubble. If they get pushed partially outside of the bubble's edges for too many seconds, it's game over. You need to carefully consider where you drop which fruits and from what angle to use the physics to your advantage.