The Ott Spot

Streaming music through services like Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music offers many benefits to the user. Listening to an album as soon as it releases at midnight, easily sharing playlists with friends, as well as their little "collected user data from the past year presented with a pretty little bow on top". Oh, sorry. I mean "Spotify Wrapped", "Apple Music Replay", and "YouTube Music Recap".

Though, there's also some downsides to using the services. One of them is the pricing. Spotify Premium is currently $12 a month at the time of this writing, with YouTube Music and Apple Music being priced just a dollar lower. There's also different features spread between all the different services. Spotify has its Daily Mixes, podcasts, and audio books, Apple Music and Tidal have their high quality Dolby Atmos streaming, and YouTube Music has… switching between the music video and audio. It's too much sometimes and things can be pretty bloated, especially when all you want to do is listen to music. Nothing else.

The biggest thing to me, however, is the fact that you don't own the music you stream. Once that subscription runs out, it's off to YouTube for you. And you can't even listen to music with the screen off or in picture-in-picture without a Premium subscription. Now, you can always "arrrgh matey" this shit and truly be a rebel against the system, in which case I won't stop you. Do whatever you want. The rest of this doesn't really concern you. But to those who prefer doing things more legally, then I'm about to tell you about how I started this whole journey, and how I'm going to keep going on it for as long as I want to.

How I Got Here

This first started when I got my Blu-ray drive in the mail. I just have this for DVDs and Blu-rays (and I even have a modified firmware to play 4K Blu-rays), but realized soon after getting it that there was another optical media I could take advantage of: CDs. I have a CD player already, and I could just listen to the songs on my large speakers, but this was my chance to back up and preserve what I own. Disc rot is very much a thing with CDs, and while it hasn't taken my discs yet, I don't want to risk anything. Plus, my Spotify Student plan was going to run out after I graduate. So, I did some research and tinkering to find out how to rip the songs from my CDs and listen to the music backed up on my hard drive. What I found is that a program I already used for listening to music I ripped from video games, foobar2000, was great at handling all of this. So, for the past few months I've been working to back up my collection and ultimately ditch Spotify to use it as my main music listening app. It even has an iPhone app as well! Though, in replacing Spotify, this means I've also been working to get the songs I love on CD, by whatever means possible. Discogs has been a big help with this journey, as it led me to discover different variants of albums that I had no idea existed. Did you know that while P!nk's version of "Whataya Want From Me" is readily available on streaming and digital stores, it's only on the German and Australian versions of that "Greatest Hits...So Far!!!" album? I didn't. It's one of my favorite songs from her, and now that's a release I'm looking to get my hands on soon.

This is unfortunately going to be more and more of a common practice for me as time goes on. Importing. A lot of deluxe editions of albums release only for a limited time on CD, only on vinyl, or just don't have a physical release at all... in the US, anyway. Japan has a lot of CDs of deluxe editions readily available to import from sites like CDJapan or sellers on eBay. I happen to have three examples of those (though, I only needed to import two). Midnights by Taylor Swift is a complicated mess when it comes to owning the complete experience physically, and it shouldn't have to be. The "Lavender" CD at Target is the only physical release with "Hits Different" and two remixes, while the "Late Night Edition" is the only release with any of the "3am Edition" songs, "You're Losing Me", and two different remixes, this time of "Snow on the Beach" and "Karma". The first problem with the "Late Night Edition" is that it doesn't even have all of the songs from the "3am Edition". It has 5 of the 7 bonus songs from it, omitting "Paris" and "Glitch". Now, I'm unsure if this was a storage issue with all of the songs, but they very easily could have just made it a second disc instead of trying to cram everything onto just one, and cutting songs in the process. But even then, you'll need the "Lavender" CD to have the other songs for the (almost) complete experience.

The second problem with this edition is that it was only ever sold in the US during the 2023 shows of The Eras Tour, starting in late May with East Rutherford. It wasn't even brought back for the 2024 US leg. It had small drops on Taylor's website during the 2023 holiday season and was available as a digital download for one day only, but outside of that, there is no other way to buy it in the US. It never even got a release in Europe, Australia, Mexico, Brazil... literally any other country stop on her tour. This has led to the CD rising in price ever since then, and even bootlegs being made to trick people. These are usually pretty cheap and ship from China, sporting darker colors for the front cover and inserts, as well as having an incorrect sticker on the front. People might have to (understandably) settle for these just to own the songs physically. Thankfully, there is another option, but time might be running out until their prices go up as well. Japan thankfully has a wide-release of the "Late Night Edition" that is more readily available. It comes in a 7-inch vinyl-like sleeve with a larger poster, a lyric booklet, and some even include a guitar pick. The disc contents are also completely identical to the US release. You can buy it from UMG Japan's store as well as YesAsia. eBay also has copies but for a bit more money.

The second and third examples are the deluxe editions of Olivia Rodrigo's GUTS and Sabrina Carpenter's emails i can't send. GUTS (spilled) has a vinyl release worldwide, but emails i can't send fwd: does not have a physical release at all. Of course, both have CD releases in Japan. They, like the "Late Night Edition" of Midnights, were released to commemorate their respective artist's tour stops in Japan. Unlike that release however, they boast that they're "Japan-only" special editions. This means that there's probably no chance of the CD ever coming out anywhere else.

The good news is that they're not at risk of selling out anywhere. You can even go to my regular site CDJapan to purchase them.

But yes, that's my long and convoluted way of telling you that if you're wanting your favorite songs physically, you're going to have to shell out a bit more money to import. Like me. There's another way to obtain the files of the songs you like, though. Sites like Qobuz let you buy the high-quality FLAC files legally, so you can download them and have them with the rest of your songs. I recommended this way if your song doesn't have a physical release at ALL (or is only on vinyl) or if you don't want to spend more money to import the CD.

Now that we're all caught up with how I got obsessed with all this, it's time to get to the juicy bits. If you want to do any of this yourself, I'm going to go in depth with what tools I use and how I do certain things so that you can have an ideal listening experience.

Ripping Discs + Playing Music

When it comes to actually ripping the discs, I'm gonna be honest. Any cheap CD USB drive is going to work (I assume), and what I have is very much overkill for this sort of task. For a disc drive, I have an ASUS BW-16D1HT internal Blu-ray burner drive, paired with a Vantec NexStar DX2 enclosure so I can use it externally. As mentioned before, the software that I use for playing and ripping my music is foobar2000. It's a completely free program that has a lot of customizability and versatility when it comes to its design and layout, as well as having plugin support for anyone who happens to make any. You can even install one that adds a Discord Rich Presence - and it looks just like Spotify!

When you load a CD into your computer for the first time, naturally you're given options as to what to do with it. You're going to want to set it so that foobar2000 opens when you put a CD in the drive. From here, your music will play and everything should work just fine. Sometimes the metadata for the album, like the artist and track names, or release year might show up immediately. Other times, it does not. If this doesn't bother you, then you can leave it alone. For me, though, I prefer having the details there so I know that I'm listening to.

So, here's how you fill that metadata out. Right-click on a track (or album) in the program and select "Properties".

You'll be able to change all kinds of data here. This is an example of a track that I filled out some of the data for. Once you've done this, you can click "Apply" or "OK". It'll do the same thing.

You can also see that you can change the artwork, but this can't be done with the tracks on the discs themselves. You're going to have to rip the tracks to your computer, and edit those files. Something I'm going to teach you how to do as well!

Edit (February 11, 2025): This method is for if you are SURE you want to use foobar2000 with ripping your CDs! I have another method that I use now that's documented after this. Just look for the next edit, like this one. When you right click on a track, you will also see a "Convert" option.

There are a couple of options here, but what you want to do is to go into the "..." menu.

This lets you choose what to convert the file to, where it goes, and any other processing.

In "Output format", there's a number of options. I personally use FLAC at compression level 5 for all of my music. The difference between level 0 and 5 is incredibly minimal, only a hundred or so kilobits that an extreme audiophile with crazy headphones might notice. True lossless would be converting the CD tracks to WAV files, but that almost doubles how much storage your music takes. Only go this route if you care about a 1:1 CD rip and have the storage.

Edit (February 11, 2025): Well, um... somehow this is already dated. I use Exact Audio Copy to rip my CDs now. It's a pretty simple program once you figure it out. If your CD is pretty scratched up, it can try to fix it up so that the ripped files sound good as new. Plus, it can apply metadata and cover art to the ripped files automatically!

Edit (Continued): Be sure to follow this guide to get the program set up. I recommend choosing MusicBrainz as the metadata provider, though. Follow this guide next to actually rip the songs to FLAC. You can also just convert them to MP3s. There's multiple settings for MP3 encoding, so you can have high quality files while still saving on tons of space. Just right click on the option and "Edit".

Note that you will need to have the LAME MP3 encoder executable somewhere on your device in order to be able to do so. You can obtain an already-assembled version of it here. Just place it anywhere on your computer and define the path in foobar2000, and you should be good to go.

Edit (February 11, 2025): You can also rip tracks from the CD compressed to MP3 immediately with Exact Audio Copy, though you will have to do some configuration in the settings. I haven't done this before, but I assume you'll still need the LAME encode executable. Once you convert the files, it's up to you how you have them stored. I personally make folders for all my albums and set the icons of the folders as the album art. That's just a matter of converting the image to a .ico file and setting that as the icon in the customize tab in "Properties" in Windows Explorer.

This makes everything easy to visualize and nice to look at. I even have this Music folder pinned to my Quick Access so I can easily get to it. Of course, now you're going to need to have foobar2000 actually see where this all is. If you go to "File" -> "Preferences" (or just hit Ctrl+P) you'll bring up your settings. Click on "Media Library".

Here, you're going to want to define where your music is located. Click "Add" and navigate the Explorer window to where your music or folders of music are located. Select the folder, hit "Apply", then close out of the window. The albums and songs should now show up wherever your album list is located, which is usually on the left side. Now all you have to do is scroll through it, click on the drop-down menu of the album, and play a song!

Extra foobar2000 Tips and Features

I have foobar2000 set up with a few more features and settings that make everything easier to handle, just so I spend less time in Explorer. This way, you won't have to do what I used to and drag the whole album into the program every time you wanna listen to it. The first thing I want to go over is the layout. You can edit your layout in "View" -> "Layout" -> "Quick setup".

This is what "Album list + Properties + Visualisations" looks like, and is my recommended layout if you don't want to mess with anything. Of course, this isn't what mine looks like. Same colors, but a bit of a different look.

I've removed the properties and shrank the visualization portion, while adding the album art in the bottom left. This is through the layout editing mode, in the same dropdown menu as "Quick setup". I recommend you play around with it and see what you like. If this is a bit too complicated for you, I also recommend searching for foobar2000 skins. I don't have experience with installing them, so I recommend using this video here. Earlier, I also mentioned a Discord Rich Presence add-on you can install. That's found right here! Download the file from the "releases" section (I'd use foo_discord_rich-x64.fb2k-component if you're on a modern system), double click it, and it should install right away. If you want something that looks like this though, there's a few more steps to follow.

Under the "Preferences" menu, "Discord Rich Presence Integration" should be a new selection under "Tools".

These are my settings for the plugin. You can see in the first image that you can have the plugin try to find the album cover from the internet. But what if the cover isn't the right one? Or what if you want a custom one? This is where the "Art cache" window in the advanced settings comes in. Select "Open containing folder..." and you'll find a lone .json file. It looks something like this.

The program takes the linked images and displays them in the plugin. If your album doesn't show up here, just copy the formatting and replace it with the artist and album name, and a link to the image of the album cover. You can get it by searching for the album cover, right clicking, and selecting "Copy image address". From here, go to "File" -> "Save", close the document, and go back to foobar2000. Select "Reload from disk" and play the song again. If you check Discord, it should show the album art you linked. If you want a custom album cover you made yourself, try something like Imgur. Make an account and upload the image as a hidden image (it defaults to this anyway). Copy the image address from that and put it in the .json file alongside the artist and album name, just like before. I also wanted to mention that if you're buying a file from Qobuz, the metadata of the files you ripped from the CD and the file you bought might not match up, if you plan on having them as the same album anyway. You can easily go back to the songs you ripped and select the metadata in the "Properties" menu, copy it, then go back to the "Properties" of the purchased file and paste it over. Make sure to apply the changes before closing the window. If everything worked, you should see that they're under the same album in your album list. Double-check the track numbers and edit them if needed. The album covers might not match, too. This is easy to fix, though. It's all in the "Artwork" tab of "Properties".

Just right click on the art, export it to a file, then go back to the file you wanna replace the artwork on, remove the artwork, then import it. It's best to remove it first so the file doesn't have multiple artworks assigned to it.

Closing Thoughts

I'm not gonna go much longer with this, so I just wanted to close with a few things.

Get the mobile app. You'll be able to transfer your music over through an FTP connection. For those who don't know, it's through the internet. I don't wanna explain all that right now, but I can recommend FileZilla as a program to use.

This is going to cost quite a lot of money initially. Buying a whole bunch of CDs and/or files at once to replace what you have on Spotify is going to be hefty. But in the end, you won't be paying a monthly subscription. Unless you buy an album a month, then I guess that's your monthly subscription.

Discogs is your friend. And mine. I mentioned the site before, but it's an amazing tool for finding what album variants have which songs, and it's even a marketplace like eBay. I've bought from the site before and I can recommend it for that purpose as well.

The Essential Collection

The first collection of Metal Gear Solid games to be released was Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection for PlayStation 2. This is a repackaging of the original Metal Gear Solid for the first PlayStation, as well as the second and third games. This collection is one of many compilations on PlayStation 2 that came in a big cardboard sleeve, like the Devil May Cry: 5th Anniversary Collection and Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy.

This collection was released in North America on March 18, 2008, just a couple months before Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. It was released for people waiting for the game as a way to catch up, or for new players to experience the trilogy before the release. While this is marketed for PlayStation 2, at the time this would be perfectly playable on all PlayStation 3 systems due to its compatibility with the previous two systems.

Each game is packaged in a PlayStation 2-style case, including the first game, and has brand-new cover art. The second and third games don't have any subtitles unlike their previous releases, which makes everything a tad more streamlined. Both are also based on their expanded re-releases in the years prior, although only the first disc is contained with them, so no bonus content is included. Sorry to any fans of Snake vs. Monkey or the original two Metal Gear MSX games.

While this collection is missing some content, overall it was not a bad deal. It retailed for just $30, and compared to how much the games were when they released, it was a major discount.

HD Collection

The next collection to be released was Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. They hit store shelves in North America on November 8, 2011 and include HD remasters of Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The remasters were done by Bluepoint Games, who are known for their outstanding remasters and ports.

An interesting thing to note is that the Xbox 360 version of the collection has Peace Walker on its own disc, while the PlayStation 3 version has everything on the same disc. This could be because of the limitations of the DVD format that the Xbox 360 uses.

While this collection does not contain the first game, the versions of 2 and 3 here are overall much better than the Essential Collection versions. Both games are based on their re-releases on PS2 with updated features, now in 1080p with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 60 fps target. While 2 is missing its skateboarding mode, 3 has the first two Metal Gear MSX games returning.

Later, on June 12, 2012, the collection would release on the PlayStation Vita. This does not contain Peace Walker, and targets 30fps instead.

This collection was released for $40. Despite having one less game on the Vita, that version was the exact same price. A couple years later, the Xbox 360 version of the collection was made backwards compatible in 2018. Peace Walker was first, on March 13, while the second and third games got added on October 9. The games remain backwards compatible on Xbox Series X|S to this day.

The Legacy Collection

Now, this collection doesn't really have much to it. It's like The Essential Collection but... newer? I guess?

The Legacy Collection is a compilation of most of the Metal Gear Solid games released at the time, exclusively for the PlayStation 3. It released in North America on July 9th, 2013, just seven months before the next entry in the series, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.

This collection contains a download code for the first game and its VR Missions companion, Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, as well as the motion comic adaptations of IDW's Metal Gear Solid comic books (consisting of the story of the first two games). The latter is included on the HD Collection disc.

Even if this is just a repackaging of a bunch of games that already came out, this is a substantial release. It released at $50, just $10 more than the previous HD Collection! Having the first and fourth games added, as well as the motion comics, for just that price is a steal.

Reflecting

There's... quite a few of these out there. And it's not going to stop. Oh god, help me.

Naaah, I'm kidding. It's nice that all these collections are being made. More and more people are being exposed to the different stories that Hideo Kojima has made, and these collections are a great way to experience them.

Objectively, I have to say that The Legacy Collection is definitely the superior collection out of all of these for sheer content and value alone. It's the already great HD Collection with more games and content, nothing much else to it.

But will Volume 1 of the Master Collection stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these releases? Will it be even better? Or will it be riddled with so many issues that it'll tarnish Konami's image once again? Time will only tell, and so will my next post.

I got more and more excited for the show as the (almost) 8 months were flying by. I told everyone I knew that I was going, even people I didn't know! As the day got closer and closer, I was still in disbelief. I was in the car and I was in disbelief. That we were actually going to see Taylor in person.

The gates for parking were expected to open around 2:30 PM, so we left around 10 AM to make sure we had a good spot in the waiting line. Thankfully, we did! There weren't a lot of other cars when we got there, and while we waited we made a few acquaintances too. We got out of the car and walked around a little and talked to others who were going to this show. There were some people from Pennsylvania that were making bracelets, and another two that attended the Speak Now and Red tours- this would be their third time seeing her.

Parking passes started getting scanned just before 2, and probably 10-15 minutes later, we were all on our way to parking lot G. We found our spots and RUSHED to the merch booth. Thankfully we were one of the first there, so there wasn't a long wait at all. I got the tour-exclusive Midnights: Late Night Edition CD and a cream tour shirt, my sister got a medium blue crewneck, and my mom got a quarter-zip and water bottle. And from there, the waiting game began.

Gates opened at 4:30 but my sister and I decided to get in line at 5. It wasn't that long of a wait to get in at all, as the lines were moving quickly. We got our tickets scanned and I let out an excited "we made it!!" once we stepped through the gate. We then got our light bracelets and made our way to our seats. And let me tell you- once I stepped through and saw everything... it took my breath away.

We left after a bit to get popcorn and Sprite (unfortunately missing most of Gracie Abrams and my sister's favorite from her- 21), but when we got back, MUNA was a few minutes from taking the stage. Their opening set was very enjoyable, and they even brought Gracie back on for their last song.

But then, just 30 minutes later... it was time. A clock appears on the screen and counts down to zero. And then finally- Taylor appears on stage, starting her Lover era set off with 'Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince'. I was yelling and incredibly excited- as was the rest of this sold-out show. 'Cruel Summer' followed, and yes, my sister and I YELLED THAT BRIDGE.

From there, she would go from era to era. Following Lover was Fearless, and everyone sang their hearts out. evermore was next, and I loved waving my flashlight to 'marjorie' and yelling the bridge to 'champagne problems'.

After that, my FAVORITE era ever- reputation. It was the era that I had the most video of. I got a good chunk of each song, but recorded the most at '...Ready for It?' and the 'Don't Blame Me/Look What You Made Me Do' mashup. I yelled so much, I have no idea how my throat isn't sore as of writing this.

Once the snakes slithered off (literally, there was a big snake on screen, not real thankfully), it was time for the small Speak Now segment. 'Enchanted' was a beautiful performance with amazing dresses and dancers. But little did I know that the addition from the night before would be carried over to this show- 'Long Live' was added to our setlist. Taylor and the band all got in a line for the song, and it was definitely something I'll remember all the time. I remember looking up at the stars as I heard the song... this one means so much to me and it made me just a little emotional.

Next was Red! This was an incredibly fun set with all the singles we know, and a full-production performance of the 10-minute version of 'All Too Well'. This was all I wanted out of a live performance of the song, and experiencing it made me so so happy. I've always wanted something more than an acoustic production for a live performance of it, so the full production made everything much more special.

folklore was next. The album that released while I was on vacation... I will always remember it as that. Just like evermore, this set was so so beautiful, matching the aesthetics of the album perfectly. The spoken interlude with the lyrics of 'seven' was so poetic and relaxing. The new pop-rock style production for some of the songs was incredible too, especially for 'august' and 'my tears ricochet'.

The folklore cabin would then be outlined with white lights, more white lines and lights appeared on the screen, and then- 'Style' played. We were in the 1989 era. All of her hits from this album were played. 'Blank Space', 'Shake It Off', 'Wildest Dreams', and of course, 'Bad Blood'.

With 'Bad Blood', the house graphic that was shown all throughout the concert was burnt down. There was a fire... quite literally! Pyrotechnics were used and I could feel the fire that shot up from the sky from my seat. It caught me off-guard, but I loved it so much.

After this was arguably the most exciting part of the tour- the surprise songs. To add a bit of background, each show has two surprise songs- one that's played on guitar and another on piano. Taylor could seemingly play anything during this set, and it's always fun finding out what she'll play.

To add even more background, during the Speak Now tour there was a song that she played on a special koi fish-decorated guitar. That song was 'Last Kiss'. It also has a lyric about the date July 9th. This naturally led me to believe, correctly, that...

Yes. She brought the guitar out. She said that the next day was July 9th. She played 'Last Kiss'. I fucking yelled. Volume warning for the video below.

If you somehow have trouble hearing me, I'm the one going "It's the red dress!" and "THE KOI- NO! NO! OH MY GOD!". Hope that helps!

Not only did she play it... but she had to start the song over twice. The first time she messed the lyrics up. The second time, she got them right and THOUGHT she messed them up again. I don't think there's a song that's been messed up twice, especially like 'Last Kiss', from what I know.

The next song was another fan-favorite, 'dorothea'. This was another song that I really liked from evermore, and I remember seeing people's online reactions afterwards. It seemed like they were devastated by this combo. While I do feel a bit bad... I feel very happy and honored that I got a special duo.

Then... Taylor dove into the stage. A trap door opened and she took a dive into it, like diving into water. On-stage effects showed her swimming up, while backstage she was getting ready for the final era of the tour. Midnights.

She played the hits 'Lavender Haze' and 'Anti-Hero', but my favorite performances from the era were definitely 'Vigilante Shit' and 'Karma'. The latter was the final song of the show, and it was a wonderful performance. It was colorful, full of energy, and even had fireworks! I remember staying as she showed off the band and dancers, putting my phone down on the ground and doing the hands-heart to her. The night was over.

My sister and I left just as the fireworks and show were ending, and after a few look-backs, we rushed back out to the car to get on the road. Surprisingly, we didn't have to wait in traffic for over an hour, and we all got home at almost 2 AM. My throat was dry, I was a little hungry, but even then... I felt amazing. I had just gotten home from one of the best experiences of my life.

Thinking back on it all now as I write this, I can't help but to wish I could experience it again and again. I know that would be a ridiculous amount of money, but even then... this is something that I want to see so many more times. Hopefully a movie version can come out at some point... but I know that will never match the feeling of being there in person.

I'm incredibly happy that I had the opportunity to go to the show, and I feel so lucky that I could snag those tickets back in November. The wait was worth it, for absolutely everything. I guess you could say that it's been a long time coming.

Secrets, Launch, and Community

To set everything straight, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is everything I could have ever hoped for with a sequel to the 2017 game. I had no idea what I was going into, but that was 100% okay with me. I went in blind aside from all the trailers from Nintendo and the 10 minutes of gameplay they showed, and I had no idea what to expect.

Which... I'm unsure if that's entirely on me. It seems like Nintendo was incredibly secretive with this game, from choosing not to reveal the title until 8 months before the release, to not even showing a part of the world in any sort of gameplay showcase pre-launch. It seemed like that worked out anyway, as I saw many people on Twitter and Twitch surprised by everything that wasn't revealed before launch.

Speaking of launch, I'm so happy that I can enjoy a Zelda game on release day with so many other people once again. It's like an event whenever a new one is out- people get it, start playing it, the people playing it hang out with each other and share tips (but are also VERY mindful of spoilers because they're nice)... I love the community that forms with things like this.

But of course, for the majority of the game I was either alone or had guides online helping me. I had friends that were also playing to chat with, but we couldn't really talk about a lot of things due to not wanting to spoil each other.

Starting Out

When I booted up my game that Thursday evening, I was already blown away with the introduction. I was brought back to the world I loved in the previous game, but it was all new and had brand new elements I could play around with. One of my fondest memories already with this game is making a huge wooden ramp and carrying it with me throughout the opening area to get to places easier. Or sometimes, it ended up being the harder way when there was a simpler solution all along.

Once I left that area and returned to the surface of Hyrule, I was overjoyed once more, as these were the same grassy fields and sprawling hills that I ran around on six years ago. They have grown and so have I. It made me feel a bit emotional, remembering back then...

Soon enough, I got my bearings and figured out what I had to do. On my journey to see why Hyrule was weird now, I ran into old and new friends, lots of enemies, and our good old pals- the Koroks. Yes, I did make a cross and put one on it. It was fun, and I giggled a lot. And also yes, I will do it again with no hesitation whenever I get the chance.

Mechanics

If you'll allow me to go into non-spoiler specifics for one moment, I wanted to talk about that brand-spanking new arm that Link got. You'll find out why he has it when you play for yourself, but I have got to say that the abilities here are way more useful than the abilities from the first game, in my opinion.

Firstly, there's the Ultrahand. It's basically Magnesis but for pretty much any object. Plus, you can stick things together with it! You couldn't do that with Magnesis before. Booooo.

Then there's Fuse. It's pretty straightforward- you can attach a variety of objects to your weapons to improve their attack power, defense, durability, you name it. Hell, even an acorn. For some reason. Fuse is also used to attach things to your arrows. So while there are no element-specific arrows this time around, you can make your own with all different kinds of items in the world, like Chuchu jellies or different ores. And don't worry about running out of arrows, they can be found just about anywhere.

Recall is a pretty neat ability, in which you can select an object and push it back in time in order to solve puzzles, grab items, things like that. If you know what you're doing, you can use this to cheese a bunch of different areas. You can even kill enemies with it if you're smart with it!

Finally, there's Ascend, which is a simple one as well. It lets you go through ceilings and other pieces of land that might be above you. This makes traveling and going through shrines way faster.

Speaking of...

Shrines are Back

Shrines are back, and they're pretty much the same as they were in the previous game. Use your abilities to solve the puzzle, get a reward (and if you get four of em, your can upgrade your health or stamina), repeat repeat repeat. They're only really different in what the reward is called, and the abilities used. The shrines here at least feel different enough from Breath of the Wild's shrines so I don't feel like I'm just repeating all the ones I did in that game. It

They're great warp points too, and with them being scattered throughout the world, you'll be able to get to where you need to go quickly. Speaking of going places...

Travel

There are many, many, maaaaaany different ways of getting around in this game. The basic, probably slowest, and simplest way is walking and running. You can do it, but it'll take a while, and you're almost guaranteed to run into enemies if you don't know what you're doing. One other way that's similar is to use the lookout towers to get launched in the air and glide to your destination. It's better, but you still have stamina to worry about.

There's also the horses, who have (obviously) returned from Breath of the Wild. You can find them in the grassy fields pretty easily, and after a bit of soothing the horse, it’s all yours. Better yet- if you have save data from the previous game, all your horses are carried over! You can even summon Epona if you have the Twilight Princess or Super Smash Bros. Link amiibo.

What I and many others have resorted to using is making different contraptions with the Ultrahand ability and other devices in the game. You can make cars, controllable gliders, and even full on war tanks (or similar vehicles) to destroy enemies in your way. Seriously.

The abilities and the things you can make add a whole new layer of creativity and possibility to the game that Breath of the Wild could never achieve before, and that makes me incredibly giddy. Players are given the freedom to do whatever they want and make whatever they want to make. While some might disagree with this notion and say that this eliminates a lot of what makes a Zelda game a Zelda game, I think this is a good evolution of the formula, a good step forward from the promise they already made with Breath of the Wild. I would personally prefer if all Zelda games weren't like this from now on, but I'd love a sub-series of open world games similar to this one. Just so there can still be some classic Zelda.

What Do I Think?

With all these elements of the game, with how much there is to do, I obviously have my own thoughts about it all. I may have alluded to it in the beginning and through some parts of this post, but I adore this game. It takes me back to when I played Breath of the Wild, it shows not only how the world has changed, but in reflection, how I have as well.

I played this game for a week straight just because I was happy to be in this world again, how I wanted to explore and help the people in it. I should have probably savored my time with the game instead of beating it in such a short amount of time, but I just could not stop playing. I loved it, and I still plan on playing it more. Whether it's for updates and DLC, getting all the gear, finishing the side-quests, or running around and building... I'll continue to play this for years to come, just like the game before it. It's truly an 11/10.

Thanks again for reading, everyone. This game has been a joy from start to finish, and beyond. I can't wait to keep playing this.

My initial predictions for Sonic Origins Plus consisted of the following: • A physical release akin to Sonic Mania Plus • New playable characters: Amy, Metal Sonic, Mighty, Ray • Emulated versions of other games (Knuckles' Chaotix, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic R)

I was surprised to find that some of this was... actually correct. What ended up being revealed was a physical edition with an artbook and reversible cover (exactly like Mania Plus), Knuckles being playable in Sonic CD FINALLY, Amy being added as an all new playable character in every game, and emulated versions of other games... 12 Game Gear games.

It's pretty much a staple to include Game Gear games in some capacity with a lot of Sonic collections like this one. It happened with Mega Collection, it happened with various PC releases, and now it's happening again. They're a nice little novelty, but quite a few of these have Master System editions with a larger field of view, thanks to not being on a small screen like the Game Gear. Those versions won't be brought over though, which is weird. It's not like I'll play much of them anyways.

I'm happy to see Amy be added as a playable character! She was a big focus in the animated cutscenes, so having her as someone to actually play as is really nice. It's cool that Knuckles is finally playable in Sonic CD, too. That was something I felt was missing from the base game for no real reason.

I'm not really disappointed with anything in here, and I didn't really expect anything more, so I'm kinda fine with this. I'll be picking the upgrade up on Steam, and I'll eventually get the physical edition for Switch. The physical and upgrade editions both launch on June 23, and I can't wait to play.

Thanks again for reading! A short post today, but the next one will be the one that I promised to write next originally.

I think it's best that we just jump straight into this, with the first game I would like to talk about: Persona 3 Portable.

A modern, playable version of Persona 3 has been speculated about and rumored for years. Some thought it would be a port of Persona 3 FES, the enhanced version on PlayStation 2. Others thought (and still think) it will be completely remade in Persona 5's engine. But what happened in reality is that the PlayStation Portable version, released in 2009/10, was the version ported to modern consoles and PC.

This is a very competent version of Persona 3, mind you... for the PSP. What baffles me is that this is the version Atlus chose, when they have shown that they're already capable of remastering PlayStation 2 games like Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. It may have a female main character and controllable party members in battle, but the game itself has been simplified to all hell to fit on the PSP. There's no FMV cutscenes or fully-explorable world, and all the cutscenes just play like a normal visual novel.

But something like this should be easy to port over, right? Well, they screwed a PSP game up, somehow. The audio is compressed incredibly hard, and backgrounds and character portraits look TERRIBLE. The latter in particular is especially unacceptable. It's like they put everything in an AI upscaler and called it a day.

This is a screenshot taken of one of the "explorable areas" in the game. You can see the poor job Atlus did at making the assets HD.

It's "playable" in a sense, but this should have been handled much better. A mod team is already working on remaking the assets in a true HD format, so I would definitely pick the game up once they are finished.

Next is a game I'm not as familiar with: Tales of Symphonia.

This game released for the GameCube in 2003 in Japan, and over the years has gotten ported over to the PlayStation 2 and 3, PC, and most recently- the Nintendo Switch, Xbox series, and PS4. There have been a few issues that popped up in the subsequent ports to newer systems, more notably the PS3 version. It seems that a lot of the bugs in this version carried over to the latest remaster.

It's currently rife with UI bugs, long loading times, jaggy character portraits, and skipping music. The remaster is even stuck at 30fps throughout the game, when the GameCube version had 60fps battles in comparison. Thankfully the remaster team has apologized for how poor the remaster has been, and promises to release patches in the future.

Something that our next game has done time and time again- and still ends up with a poor experience.

Life is Strange is a 2015 episodic story-driven game made by Dontnod that released for PC, Mac, PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, along with mobile releases. It focuses on Max Caulfield as she tries to solve mysteries about a missing girl with her childhood best friend- and her new ability to rewind time. Its 2017 prequel, "Before the Storm", launched on all the platforms listed already, minus the PS3 and Xbox 360.

So when Deck Nine, who handled the prequel, decided to remaster the two games for those same exact platforms (minus Mac and adding the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series systems with the Switch coming later), this... confused me. It's not uncommon to see this kind of thing happen, of course. The Last Of Us Part I is available on a system that can already play the original PS4 remaster. But that's a remake with some enhanced controls, new options, retooled enemy AI, and an uncapped frame rate setting. These are quite literally the exact same games but just made buggier, on systems that can play the games in their original form just fine.

The remastered collection is full of animation bugs, freezing, missing subtitles, buggy audio, blurry visuals at certain points, file names being in place of subtitles, flickering textures, scenes that are way darker than the original game, and LOTS OF LOADING. ESPECIALLY on the Nintendo Switch.

Patches have been released many times ever since the launch of the PC, PlayStation and Xbox releases on February 1st, 2022- with the latest patch releasing today as of this writing: March 6th, 2023! It has been over a year since this collection released and it is still getting patches to try and fix this broken mess.

My question is- where in the world has the effort gone? What happened to developers taking their time with developing these remasters of beloved games, and not having their player base be their QA team? Atlus especially has had more than enough time to make their remaster good, and they just slapped everything in an upscaler and called it a day.

This isn't to just slander these poor jobs, this is a call to action- a call for developers and publishers to stop rushing things like this out the door for a quick buck. Don't promise to fix it later, have it already fixed by the time it releases! It disappoints the customer and does not give them hope for any future remasters being released.

I hope that part of the gaming industry will soon realize that, and put time into making sure that their products are in tip-top shape. A happy customer means more business yada yada yada capitalism bullcrap and whatever. We're all slaves to it. Go read a book or whatever.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I have hope that remasters will be good once more, but for now it seems not at all likely. Well, except for Metroid Prime. Good on Nintendo for that one.

My story with Metroid Prime goes on quite a few years, and it all started when I was living in my old neighborhood as a kid. The Metroid Prime Trilogy game was always that one strange Wii game my neighbors had. Whenever I saw it, it stuck out amongst the other white cases, notably because it had a Steelbook case. I had played Echoes' multiplayer mode with friends while sleeping over, but that was really it. That is, until I was able to get the game. The neighbors' father had given it to me after they got rid of their Wii system. My mom insisted on paying, but he was kind enough to let me keep it for free.

Alas... as much as I liked the game, I never got too invested. I would always play a couple of hours of the first game, get lost, then stop. I would pick it back up some months later but I wouldn't be able to figure out where I was and where I had to go. It was a shame, as I really liked the controls on the Wii, and I was still interested in the series. I even tried the GameCube version when I got my copy of that, but that didn't help at all, especially with those controls.

Fast forward to these modern times though, and I now own the first game once again on my Switch. I chose to get it digitally, as I didn't want to wait to get the physical copy. And let me tell you... I already had high hopes from what I read about this remaster before, but this still blew me away.

This is a complete graphical overhaul of that original 2002 game, with incredible lighting and textures that I haven't even seen before on a Switch game. And it achieves this without even dipping to 720p or below. It's easily the best-looking Switch game I've ever played. It even feels great to play, too.

For those unaware, Metroid Prime is a first-person shooter/exploration game similar to the other 2D-style games in the franchise. You search a world for suit upgrades while fighting enemies, and each upgrade can allow you to explore a new area. And if you're a bit stuck, just backtrack- there's surely somewhere new you can go to with all those new upgrades. Never think you're done with one area just because you moved on to the next. Scanning enemies for their weaknesses is also a big key factor in this game, and necessary for 100% completion.

There are several ways to play this game now, controls-wise. There are options to go for the classic GameCube-style controls and Wii pointer controls, but now for the first time- you can officially play Metroid Prime in true dual-stick first person shooter fashion. Playing that way with the lock-on ability is a bit broken, but it's the most comfortable way for me to play this game. It was the one thing holding me back from continuing on the Wii (well, that and I just keep forgetting), and now that problem just isn't there.

Metroid Prime Remastered has a few new features and options that I wasn't entirely expecting, either. In the main menu, you're able to view models of enemies and suits and listen to songs from the game, how much is depending on how far you've gotten in it. Something I had no idea would be included at all was the European and Japanese-exclusive narration for certain scenes. These were entirely new to me, and I completely forgot they existed until now. Upon starting my playthrough, I decided to opt for the European narration. From my understanding, it's only in the beginning and end of the game, but from what I heard when I started, it's that perfect early-2000s action movie narration. Cheesy, but very cool.

One thing I did notice, as many others have, is that the bonuses from linking Metroid Fusion have been removed. In the GameCube original, if you linked your copy of Fusion with a Game Boy Advance/GameCube link cable, you could unlock the Fusion Suit (if you beat Prime) and a playable version of the original Metroid (if you beat Fusion). The latter being taken out makes sense, it's literally on the NES Switch Online app, but the Fusion suit would have been a nice inclusion still. Oh well, maybe when Fusion gets added to the GBA app or something.

At the end of the day though, Fusion suit or not, this is still one incredible game. This will definitely hold fans over until Metroid Prime 4 releases. Here's hoping that a remaster of 2 and 3 are in the works- and will be as good as this one.

Thanks again for reading! Been putting this off for a bit, but I'm glad I finished it now.

Games being "leaked" this way aren't that uncommon. In December a trademark was filed in the UK for a remaster of "We Love Katamari", and that turned out to be true, with its reveal in this month's Nintendo Direct. With things like this, it's only a matter of waiting until it's officially revealed to learn more about it.

So in the meantime, let's all put on our tinfoil hats and pray that we have playable Amy and Metal Sonic, and completely remastered versions of Knuckles' Chaotix, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R.

...Naaaah, I'm just messing with you. Those are obviously a bit outlandish, especially with the other games. It takes time to remaster Sonic games like how they've been doing it, especially with something like 3D Blast and R. Let's actually get into some of my predictions.

Firstly, the subtitle of "Plus" leads me to believe that Sonic Origins will be receiving a physical release like Sonic Mania Plus, and eventually having reprints that remove the downloadable content... for some reason. A physical release of this collection is something that fans have been asking for, and hopefully this means there will actually be one.

Like with most DLC these days, there will be an update to add compatibility with the content once it's been purchased. I assume this update will include lots more bug fixes, mainly in Sonic 3's Marble Garden Zone where debris keeps falling down even after the rumbling has stopped. I expect them to add in extra filter modes like Sonic Mania's as well, like a clear no-blur filter and the different CRT screen styles. I also hope for clearer music in Sonic 3 as well, or even the restoration of the original remastered music in Sonic 1 and 2's mobile versions.

As for the DLC itself, I'm not entirely sure of what it will contain. Sonic Mania's Encore DLC had the new Encore Mode, Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel (from the SegaSonic The Hedgehog arcade game) as new playable characters in said mode, difficulty tweaks, a new special stage, and a new competition mode. I could see new characters like Amy and Metal Sonic happening, and of course Mighty and Ray wouldn't be hard to implement at all, but anything else, I'm not entirely sure of.

One thing that I've seen tossed around is having emulated versions of other games included, like some of the ones I mentioned earlier. I could see this as a possibility, as it's significantly easier to emulate games like Sonic R, 3D Blast, and Knuckles' Chaotix, although it's important that they get someone who is an expert with emulation to get it all working right. A company like M2 would be perfect for the job, as they have experience with emulating many of Sega's titles on other platforms, and also did great work with the Sega Ages series on the PlayStation 2. I can also see some criticism coming from this. Some people would probably like to have those games in their own collection and not have Origins as a required game to play them.

Hell, maybe it'll have some sort of 3D menu system like Sonic Jam. That would be fun to play around in, I'm sure.

In the end, though, I have no clue what this new DLC will bring us. More than anything, I just hope it has the necessary bug fixes to make this the definitive way to play these classic Sonic games. And more of them too, if Sega is feeling generous.

Thanks for reading once again! Writing about this specific game is strangely fun for me, and it's nice to revisit.

My days with the Nintendo 3DS system unfortunately did not begin on launch day, March 27, 2011. I was so excited for it to get it that I made one out of paper! I asked for it as a present on Easter, for my birthday, but... nothing. Then again, I can see why my parents did not want to fork over $250 for just another DS, even if it was more than that to me at the time. But not even half a year later in July, the price was cut almost in half- to $170. All owners of systems from launch got special NES and Game Boy Advance games as an apology for the quick price cut.

However, that meant that others like me that got it after the price cut never got those games. A shame, but it was never really a big deal in the end. I got my system Christmas of 2011- a Flame Red colored system that came with a physical copy of Super Mario 3D Land. I couldn't find a lot on this bundle over a decade later, but Google results of a defunct Best Buy listing led me to believe that this was only $180, just $10 more than the system alone! Definitely a bargain.

This took quite a while to find, no archives of any webpages or anything... I honestly thought I wouldn't find any price at all.

Not only this, but I also got copies of Mario Kart 7 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D as well (as mentioned before, haha). My 3DS games collection was already off to a great start.

One downside that I soon discovered was that my internet was not new enough to be compatible with the 3DS system. I was unable to connect online on it for over 2 years in my own home!! That meant that I took the thing everywhere I went for that sweet free Wi-Fi goodness. Which brings me to one of the features I LOVED about the system!

StreetPass was something brand new and exclusive to the 3DS. It used a local wireless communication feature to trade certain information with other 3DS systems in the area. This could be user information, weapons, Mii characters, or anything else depending on the game! I always had my system with me and got excited whenever that green light came on. The SpotPass feature was a bit similar, but nowhere near as fun. It allowed you to receive similar things like StreetPass, but also downloaded the latest notifications from Nintendo.

It could also download videos onto the Nintendo Video app. This application had four slots for videos and refreshed weekly. You could view a 3D Kirby video, music videos, Dinosaur Office (rooooar!!), and select Channel Frederator videos (where I watched Bee and Puppycat for the first time). These videos differed between regions I believe, so that's what I experienced here in the United States.

Later in 2012, the Nintendo 3DS XL launched alongside New Super Mario Bros. 2, but I was still here with the original model. I wasn't complaining, though. I never felt like I needed a bigger model, so I just stuck with the one I had. I did happen to get that new Mario game when it came out, though. My mom told me she'd buy it for me if I didn't ever stop running during a 5K race, and I stuck to that. Guess it was a great motivator.

As the years went on, I got more and more games that I continue to love to this day. Kid Icarus Uprising, Pokémon X, Star Fox 64 3D, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Tomodachi Life, The Legend Of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Majora's Mask 3D. But there's one that I definitely won't forget- Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

This was a pre-order present for my birthday. It launched October 3, 2014 while my birthday was one day earlier on the 2nd. We were also all going to be traveling on the 3rd too. So, after school I RAN to my dad's classroom (he was a high school teacher at the time), we left to pick up the game, we got home, and then left for our trip!! And then I unlocked all the fighters that night. It was amazing.

Not much else happened until Christmas of 2015, when I got the New Nintendo 3DS XL. It was a beefed up version of the system I knew, with an extra analog nub, bigger screens, more buttons, and amiibo functionality in the touch screen. I ended up getting two actually- the one in 2015 was a black one, and on Christmas of 2016 I got a family friend's golden Majora's Mask edition of the system. It was the first system I got multiple versions of in the same line.

Afterwards I just kept on playing games on my 3DS, not much else. But then the Nintendo Switch came along in March of 2017, and I was playing the system less and less, until I just played it only a few times a month- and not even that long too. Even after homebrewing the system it's not something I played much.

But of course, as you all know, I bought one more game for the system in late 2022, Fire Emblem Awakening, and I adored it. Then I got to playing a few more of my older games and was surprised with how well they all still played. It was like I was twelve years old again, almost.

It's honestly been really fun replaying some of the games of my younger years. I had really good taste, especially with Kid Icarus Uprising. Man, that was a great game. It saddens me that a lot of these games won't be brought back for the Switch, because I think they deserve another shot on it.

Even so, I enjoy playing on my 3DS whenever I can, and I absolutely think that it holds up today. Find one used, get some games (however you want), and have some fun with it!

Thanks for reading!! Loved revisiting this handheld, and I loved talking about the memories I shared with it.

In the age of the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and the Nintendo Switch, many consumers would be baffled at the idea of buying games for older systems, like the Nintendo 3DS. Some people in this case would often ask, "why not emulate or pirate?" There are advantages to doing that of course, especially considering that Nintendo doesn't even make money off of second-hand physical copies, and they soon won't be able to make money off of even the digital versions, with the company closing down the Nintendo eShop of the 3DS and Wii U systems in less than three months as of writing this!

The thing is, even in a time where we can just get games and DLC for these older games without spending a cent, I still wanted to experience getting a game officially one last time. And that's what I did late November of 2022, where I bought... Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice. Yeeeah, I thought the Zelda "Oracle" series games on the Virtual Console would be my last digital purchase, but I saw those two on sale and they were the only ones I was missing on 3DS, so... I bit the bullet. And those were my, as of now, final Nintendo eShop purchases on the 3DS system.

But just one month later, I woke up and thought about one game in particular. A game that I believed I should get not in a digital form, but a physical copy. Indeed, it was the one I stated before and the main subject of this post, Fire Emblem Awakening. I drove to my local retro game store that morning and I picked the game up.

The inside cover had some pretty nasty water damage, but I plan on getting a new case entirely at some point, so it's okay.

I booted the game up, and discovered that there was a save file already there! Thanks to my modded 3DS system, I backed it up before erasing it. That way I can go back to it and see how they played.

After making a new save of my own, I chipped away at the game bit-by-bit until I finished it on January 3rd. I would have finished it already by now but I had other plans in my life, as well as a few other games to play a little bit of as well. But regardless, I did beat the game! And let me tell you... I adored it.

Now, this wasn't exactly my first experience with Fire Emblem. I had played Warriors on the Switch a while back, and I played a hacked version of Fates (only the Birthright path) and they were alright experiences. But Awakening was on another level entirely to me. The story, without giving too much away, had lots of tension, pain, and moments where I genuinely gasped out of fear. The other games I had played never made me feel that way about the story before.

The gameplay is a favorite of mine, too. I really like tactical RPGs like this, even if I haven't played a lot of them. I appreciate games giving me some time to plan out my moves and selecting which units to have fight the enemy, or stay back so they don't die. In that way I really felt like a tactician, just like the main character.

Speaking of, all the characters in this game were very lovable. Their writing was phenomenal and I loved their little voice lines. Lissa is definitely a favorite, and was always one ever since I played the demo back when it first came out. And that's the thing! Even early on in the game I learned to love and care about these characters. That's how good I feel the writing is.

Overall, I feel that this game deserves the reputation that it has right now. After 16 and a half hours of playtime, that couldn't be more obvious to me, and it's easily one of my favorite Nintendo 3DS games now. While it's great to see new games in the series release due to the success of this one, I don't believe there will be another game that will match just how great this entry is. So yes, once again, I bought an almost ten-year-old Nintendo 3DS game and I loved it. And I think you should buy it too, because it's 100 percent worth the money.

Thanks again for reading! I hope this will push me to experience some older Fire Emblem games someday, and hey- it might get me to try Three Houses or Engage too.

So, yes, this review has taken a while to get to for me. Work and college has gotten in the way, but I've also just been slacking and talking to friends every night instead. But now I'm gonna do this!! Finally!!

Don't worry, as the title shows, this is going to be a spoiler-free review. Only minor mentions of the story will be included, this will mostly focus on the combat and other mechanics of the game. And with that, let's actually begin.

And don't worry, I won't make any dumb 'slay' jokes.

Bayonetta 3 starts off like any other game in the series, with the titular witch doing her thing, when all of a sudden a supernatural enemy ruins her day! She has to fight them, shoot them, stomp them, all of that. After all the fighting and shooting, she meets up with her good friends and a new character, Umbra witch-in-training Viola, to learn that her universe is being threatened with extinction by an other-worldly entity. It's up to her and Viola to stop it.

Throughout the game you go to different universes in different locations, like Tokyo or China. From there you will be fighting enemies in all different kinds of ways, with weapons you obtain as you play through the chapters.

I do have to give praise to the environment design throughout the different worlds. Each one was stunning to look at, even if I had such a short time in them!! It's something you can only experience when playing, I don't think screenshots can do it all justice.

Something else I should give praise to is the combat. This is just as snappy as the previous two games, with more features than ever before. You are now able to control demons with the new Demon Slave feature, and unleash a powerful attack with the Demon Masquerade ability. There are more weapons than ever, with new ways to upgrade them to get better attacks.

Another thing that was in the previous two games is the shop, the Gates of Hell. This is where you can purchase healing and power-up items, as well as bonus items like costume colors and decorations for the chapter menu. It can be accessed in certain areas of chapters, with a floating gramophone. You can also go there any time when not in a chapter, allowing access to a practice arena to try out some combos.

But with all that out of the way, do I think Bayonetta 3 a good game? Was it worth the wait ever since that announcement in 2017? Well, despite all the talk online, I think so!

First off, it was another Bayonetta game. Another high-octane action game from PlatinumGames that I loved. I love replaying Bayonetta 1 and 2, and it's great to replay something new now. I also love the new quality of life improvements in this entry, like being able to replay sections of a chapter and being able to save your best scores, instead of overwriting every score regardless if it's better or not.

The variety of the weapons was also great too, and I had fun trying them out. The story gives you sections in some chapters to try the new weapons out, just as a way to see if you'll want to play with it again. I appreciated that a lot.

Some story decisions made me very confused, and I also did not like playing as Viola all that much (mostly because her method of Witch Time activation SUCKS). There are also times where you play as the big demons and it feels like the game speed metaphorically comes to a crawl. Speaking of speed, though, the performance was a bit iffy in a number of areas as well.

Those were my only complaints with the game, though. This was another Bayonetta game and that's all I was wanting all these years. Even if this wasn't the best story-wise and had some slowdown in more ways than one, I can confidently say that this is what I was waiting for. I'm happy with the game and the money I spent on it. Should you spend money on it, though?

I suppose that depends. If you played the other Bayonetta games, I think you should give this a shot. It would probably be a tad jarring going straight from 2 to 3, with all the differences and additions in the gameplay, but its core is pretty much identical. If you haven't played the other games, then... please just go play the first game before anything else, it's $5 on PC sometimes LMAO

But... yeah! That's all my thoughts on Bayonetta 3 finally. I'm glad I could play a game in this series again, and I hope that there will be more games in the series. As long as I don't play as Viola.

Thanks for reading!!

Bayonetta was revealed as the final downloadable fighter for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U on December 15, 2015. She was also revealed alongside Corrin from Fire Emblem Fates. But It was her that caught my eye. Which is honestly surprising, since I'm only attracted to men.

It wasn't her body that I saw, though. It was the high-octane action and combos in her moves, her sassy nature, and just the fact that she was from a series I had never played before. I knew that I had to play the games before she released as a fighter that February. So, I looked further into the series.

Bayonetta 2 was announced for a reprint after her fighter announcement, but this reprint would not include the disc with the first game. I knew that original version was the one I had to get. I saw it go up in price on eBay shortly after that, going for even more than the standard $60 price. Eventually, I would find what I was looking for. In January, I found that a GameStop near me had a pre-owned copy of the original version of Bayonetta 2 with the first game for around $30. I pleaded my parents to get it, and they thankfully did.

My dad opted to get a copy of Ryse: Son of Rome for the Xbox One as well. He didn't like the game.

I went home that night and started the first game. About a day and a half later, I finished it and started the second one. Same amount of time passed, and I finished that too. In just a few days, I had beaten both Bayonetta games. There was still lots more to do, though, so I kept playing them. February then rolled around and Bayonetta was released as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Because I had been familiar with her games, I was able to fight as her with ease, and she's still my main character to this day in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

But that's not what you came here for, is it?

Well, I would not get another copy of Bayonetta for a while. I knew of the Xbox 360 version's existence, but I was unable to play it because my 360 did not work. But almost a year after that purchase of my Wii U copy, the Xbox 360 version of the game became backwards-compatible on Xbox One. I looked into this and read about the performance, how it was supposedly better than even the Wii U version. Later on, my dad and I went to a used game store and picked the game up. I played it on my Xbox One when I got home, and the differences were very noticeable. Areas of slowdown on the Wii U version were almost nonexistent now. This was by far the better way for me to play. It was interesting getting used to playing it on an Xbox controller instead of the bulky Wii U GamePad, though. The game would also become a free Games with Gold title that August, so I would end up getting my third copy of the game as well.

Just a month later in September, there were rumors that the game would be coming to PS4 and Xbox One natively, bundled with Vanquish. That didn't end up happening at the time, though. I went ahead and disregarded that as just another rumor.

My next copy of not only Bayonetta 1, but Bayonetta 2 as well, would be the Nintendo Switch ports. They both released in February 2018, but I wouldn't get it until my birthday in October. This would be my fourth copy of the first game, and my second digital copy. While other territories at the time got a physical version of the first game in special editions, the standard edition of Bayonetta 2 in most regions of the world received the first game only as a download code. This wasn't much of a complaint for me, as I was getting Bayonetta on my Switch regardless.

The next copy wouldn't be for another while. I think at this point I had my goal of "getting every US copy of Bayonetta" in mind, as I was determined to get every one even if I wouldn't be able to play them. In late 2019, that original rumor of a PS4/Xbox One bundle of Bayonetta and Vanquish ended up coming to fruition, releasing the following February. I held off on getting it though, as I wasn't in a rush. My next copy wouldn't be until September 2021 when I bought the Steam version for $4 on GameBillet. It was cheap, so I figured "why not".

My most recent copies of the game would arrive this month, though. A physical copy of Bayonetta 1 on Switch released late September this year, and I got it earlier this month as a late birthday present. This was released mostly because the special edition of Bayonetta 3 has alternate covers for the physical versions of all three games, and it would be weird if Bayonetta 1 didn't have one.

My next copies arrived shortly after. The PS4 copy of the Bayonetta and Vanquish bundle, and... the ill-fated PS3 copy of the game. This version is notorious for bad frame-rates, reduced image quality, and looooong load times. Even so, it was still a copy of Bayonetta. I had an eBay coupon so I only got it for around $6. With all this... I basically had every US copy of Bayonetta 1.

Though, if we were to get technical, I would still need the digital Wii U version, the digital PS3 version (which, I don't know if that even exists), the digital PS4 version, and the physical and digital versions of the Xbox One bundle with Vanquish. Though, the first three are just digital versions of copies I already have, and the Xbox One bundle is exactly the same as the PS4 version. So essentially... yeah. My goal is kind of complete now.

Is that to say I'll stop collecting copies of Bayonetta? Oh, definitely not. I already have my eyes on the Japanese Wii U bundle with both games, and the UK first-print edition of Bayonetta 2. After that, other systems in those same regions, maybe? Who knows. I might be a little insane for doing this, but I really like the series. I think it's cool to collect all the copies of one game. Even if one of them happens to be the very worst version playable. It's an enjoyable experience and I like seeing my little collection grow.

Could you please introduce yourself to everyone? Name (real or online, whatever you prefer), pronouns, role on the Echo Project, current and/or past occupation, etc.

L: Hi there! My name is Lilly, my pronouns are she/they as well! I'm a musician for the Echo Project and I work full time as a barista outside of the online world.

A: Hello! I am Abyuse/Salem/Cervines. My pronouns are he/him. I worked on the soundtrack for Echo, made a few songs for A Role To Play, and beyond that I don’t do a whole lot.

How did you come to learn about the Echo visual novel?

L: One of my friends had recommended Adastra to me at first, so I played it and then checked out Echo and like, instantly fell in love with it.

A: Back in high school I happened upon Blackgate by chance. I followed it for a bit and was enamored with the idea of a visual novel (which was new to me). Echo was one of the side projects advertised on the Blackgate Patreon, so after a while, I checked it out and the rest is history.

Did the team give you any specific keywords or directions while making the tracks? You can be as specific as you would like.

L: Not exactly, because I had made both of my songs for Echo before I was even a part of the team haha. When I posted my WIP song called echo (Carl's route's ending) McSkinny then reached out to me asking to use it in game, to which I completely obliged!

A: When I was first approached with the idea of working on some music for Echo, the main descriptor that was given to me was something like “Southwestern gothic”. I know the use of guitars was emphasized as being quintessential, so I made sure to incorporate that. My first attempt at making something in that vein is the last bonus track on the Echo soundtrack. It was sort of a feeler for that kind of sound, because it wasn’t something I had done before.

For Backstage I and II, the image painted to me was essentially that of The Smoke Room before I knew what The Smoke Room was, that being a sleazy club with a perpetual haze of dust in the air, slightly sultry but muffled music playing the background, an old CRT up in the corner of the room. Also something about wood walls, I think? Maybe not. I may have added that myself.

And then for the main theme remix, it was like “hey the main theme, but make it evil.” Which was actually a bit harder than I thought it would be, it took about three full iterations before I found one I liked.

Honestly though, stuff like when your arms were around me v2, Theme for a Lonely Wolf, Shiver, and Good Morning were all things I made not because of a request, but because of personal interest. A lot of my music tends to be darker in nature, so as I grew as an artist, I ended up making things that fit Echo pretty well.

With the team's directions (if any), how were you able to get that perfect 'feel' for the music? Did you have your own inspirations and other resources to draw from?

L: I didn't exactly get any input from the team when making my tracks, but I tried to capture the atmosphere of the game the best that I could. My song blurry was pretty much written from Leo's point of view and that was the idea I had going into the track, so I guess it just worked out decently.

A: I was such a big fan of Echo that I felt that I knew, more or less, what would and would not fit the VN in terms of sound. That’s not to say I didn’t have inspiration, because my entire catalogue is heavily inspired. When it comes to sounds that fit the Echo aesthetic, I listened to a lot of music that I thought would fit. I’ll list a few but I couldn’t recount everything that inspired me if I tried.

Something I always tried to keep in mind when I made music for it was that it was not meant to be the main attraction, but serve as an effective backdrop for the writing and help to immerse the reader more into what was going on in the VN.

Could you go more in-depth to how your songs were made? This could be anything from the writing/making-of process, software and equipment used, whatever you interpret the question as.

L: So for blurry it was the first time I was using my new microphone I had just gotten, so the vocals on the song weren't exactly the most well made, but in a sense I feel like that worked even better for the song. It makes the song feel sort of jumbled, like it's a window into an afterthought into Leo's head, of him just wishing for something that could never really come in the end. echo was honestly more of an experiment than anything because it was my first time trying to figure out the DAW Ableton. I've been using FL Studio my whole career, but I liked the end result, so on a whim I just sort of posted the track in the Echo fan art channel (in the Discord).

A: It is no secret that I use FL Studio for everything, but something that is a definite secret (until now) is that I know next to nothing about the intricacies of music theory or instrumental work. I took piano lessons for the duration of my junior high and high school years, but none of that stuck with me. I have a 49 key MIDI keyboard, but it is collecting dust across the room for me. 

Pretty much every single melody I make is drag and drop, which means it probably takes longer for me to write music than others, but it has never bothered me to the point of wanting to learn (that and I'm extremely stubborn). 

As for my writing process, it’s different for everything. I make a bunch of different stuff so with different styles of music, comes different processes for creation. For the Echo type stuff (when your arms were around me and Leo’s theme in particular), I focus in on one aspect or sound I really like, and then build outwards from that. A lot of times I start in the main section, but that turns into the intro and I rewrite the main section. I usually make a skeleton of a melody or whatever, then do all the drum and percussion work, then go back to the melodies, then tune the drums again. Mixing and mastering is a scam (read: I'm lazy) so I avoid doing that as much as I can. Then I listen to the song about 50 times and I either revise or export it and listen to it another 50 times. 

If you are able to, do you have any rejected/unpublished drafts or demos of the songs that you would like to share? 

L: Yeah sure! I can try to dig up some old drafts of blurry and such, I provided an instrumental version of it to someone who wished to cover it, so that version is probably floating around out there somewhere.

A: There are a few! I have an alternate version of Good Morning, a track for ambience that was cave-like (made with the mine in mind), Salem’s theme (which ended up not being used), and a sort of chase theme (not Chase the character but chase as a verb). HOWEVER. These are pretty much all slated to come out on my next project already (more on that later).

https://soundcloud.com/abyuse/mysterious_1-salems-theme/s-cQir4lugvFO - This is what Salem's theme was going to be. Now, I may have the timeline for this messed up, but I believe a theme for him was requested before his final placement in the story was decided, so when the decision was made to kill my precious little innocent boar, this song no longer had a place. 

This article will be updated as these are received.

Update (9/8/2024) - Unfortunately, Salem's theme has been removed from SoundCloud.

A bit more of a specific question here. There's a song that you have released officially [echo for lillybug | Main Theme (Dark) for abyuse] that uses the royalty-free music from the novel [Look Forwards for lillybug | Pepper's Theme for abyuse]. How does that work? Do you have to go through any legal things in order to publish the music with the royalty-free sections? Go through the company to make sure it's good to be put online?

L: Honestly, I didn't really go through anything or ask the company/producer, which is a pretty big oversight now that I think about it. I mean the song isn't really big enough where I feel it will cause problems? But if some do arise from it I'll surely deal with it. My best guess is that it shouldn't be a huge deal because the song was royalty free, and I believe it falls under fair use because I changed it and put a different spin on it.

A: My lawyer has advised me to refrain from answering this question.

Have you read the visual novel yet? If so, when was the last time you did so? It could be while it was still in development, or after it was completed last year.

L: I definitely have! I've gone through it many times with friends, and more recently with my girlfriend Chaia! Not exactly sure when I played it last, I believe it was after the game was completed.

A: Yes… kind of. I followed the visual novel from update to update up until the end of Leo’s route. Then, school got in the way of things and now reading anything absolutely beats my ass and I can’t focus enough to consume literature in any form. I think, in total, I have read around half of Flynn’s route, none of Jenna’s, and then all of Leo’s, Carl’s, and TJ’s (which was the most recent, for me). 

If you have read it, do you have a favorite character? Favorite moment from any route? Favorite ending?

L: It's sad to admit, but I definitely have a soft spot for Leo. I like how complex of a character he is. I think one of my favorite moments in the game was at the end of TJ's route when they're hugging by the lake and pretty much it all gets revealed, that moment packed a punch and a half.

A: Cop out answer time, I like all characters in the VN that I have encountered (except Leo) for different reasons, but I think they’re all well written. If a gun were pointed to my head, though… I think that Kudzu, Brian, and Jenna are my favorites, in descending order.

I think my favorite moment in the VN was, and it’s been a while so you’ll have to forgive my inaccuracies, was the later part in Carl’s route where it took place on a spooky college campus. I just remember liking the vibe of that section a whole lot.

My favorite ending of those that I have read is definitely TJ’s. 

If you have read it, when you got to a part where your music was used, what was your first reaction like?

L: It was so crazy! When I first played the game through I sort of imagined having a track or something in the game, so seeing it come to fruition was definitely surreal.

A: It was surreal. There’s no other way to describe it. There are still moments where it doesn’t feel like it actually happened, it's hard to believe that so many people have heard my music, whether they know it or not. 

I had always dreamt of making music for something or someone other than myself, and Echo was the first time that really happened. It felt like I was driven by something other than personal enjoyment for once, and it made making music feel a lot more rewarding, and a lot less masturbatory.

Do you have any favorite memory with a fan of Echo talking to you about your music that you would like to share?

L: Not a specific one, but it always really warms my heart to see people talking about it fondly. Sometimes I'll get a ping from the Echo Project Discord about someone asking who made blurry, and it's just really sweet to see that people enjoy the song and others I've made as well. always brings a smile to my face.

A: I try to avoid extended conversations when possible so I don’t think I've really allowed myself to talk to pretty much anyone about my music. I did talk to shyno about my production but my answers were so immediately off the rails that I think that only reaffirmed that I don’t like talking. I like it when people enjoy my music though, it makes me smile.

Do you have any favorite memory while making your tracks? Discussions with the rest of the team, some 'lightbulb moment', anything that comes to mind.

L: I'd definitely have to say getting a message from McSkinny about putting echo, and blurry later on, in the game. It was such a sort of surreal moment to me, because I had sort of imagined it happening before, and then it really did happen!

A: Leo’s theme. It’s a bit of an interesting story. when your arms were around me is a pain point for me, I hate that song and I hate hearing it (it's not to say I wish it didn’t exist or whatever, I'm glad people like it. My producer ears just cannot stand it anymore). So, Theme for a Lonely Wolf was made because I was so frustrated with that song existing that I wanted to make something in the same vein, but better. I was not prompted to make this by McSkinny, nor was it made with any intention to be Leo’s theme. I just made it out of spite, and the end product ended up being one of the songs I am most proud of, out of everything I made for Echo. I sent it to McSkinny, he said he wanted to use it, I made a reprise because I wanted to try that out, and then next thing I know, it’s Leo’s theme. I don’t think I could have picked a better choice in terms of usage. As much as I personally dislike Leo, he’s one of the most prominent and polarizing characters of the visual novel, and since I was so proud of that song, I am happy it was given to such a figurehead.

Another one is a track that wasn’t actually in the VN (I think), Circles. That song is not only an emotional response to the entire TJ ending, but a personal illustration of how the ending sounded. It still isn’t finished in the state it’s in, but I put so much time into it that I feel like it wasn’t fair to leave it rotting away on my hard drive.

Is there anything else related to the project that you would like to share?

L: blurry wasn't originally going to be added to the game, McSkinny talked to me about adding echo first, and then listened to blurry and wanted that in the game on a whim too.

A: I don’t think there’s much else that I know or want to share that hasn’t been shared already.

A question for Lillybug - Your track blurry is a part of your EP i'm dreaming, and not a standalone track like echo is. Was blurry originally made for Echo? Or was it a track that was already made and just picked up for the novel?

L: Sort of both? It was written about Echo from Leo's perspective (and Chase's in the outro) but it wasn't made to go in the game, McSkinny just wanted to pick it up for the game. And since the source material was written about the game, I decided to say it was written for the game, rather than sourced outwards.

A question for Abyuse - You revealed on the Bandcamp page for your Echo tracks that you had originally lost the project files to the music. Is there more insight you would like to give with that situation? Any warning to musicians to prevent it from happening to others?

A: A few years ago I wanted to upgrade my PC because it was started to get dated. I bought a really nice prebuilt that I still use to this day, but I made the fatal error of not moving any of my music making files over because I was both at a point where I wasn’t making music (Destiny 2 had me by the neck) and I thought I could just get it later. Eventually, I decided I wanted those files back, but when I dug the computer out and plugged it in, the SSD the operating system was on was nuked, somehow. I gave up for about a year, thinking that I had just lost everything. I eventually decided to try and just install Windows from a USB onto a new SSD, and that ended up working. I still lost a lot of personal stuff but I got all my music files back. All that to say, don’t be an idiot like I was and back your work up onto an external hard drive.

Final question: is there anything you'd like to say in general? To any fans of the music, or anything you want to promote, the floor is all yours.

L: I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your kind words! It all means so much to me. I've also got an album coming out soon, so stay tuned!

A: I don’t say this enough, but a massive thank you to not only everyone who has listened to my music, but supported me through Bandcamp. It is absolutely not necessary to do so, but I appreciate it immensely. Making music has always been nothing more than a passionate hobby of mine, and I honestly don’t want it to be anything more than that for the moment. Although I have slowed down quite a bit, I promise I am still making music. My latest album is all heavily inspired by games and media that have shaped me, and it currently sits at 29 tracks, with more that I'm working on right now. 

Thank you again to McSkinny and Howly for everything, working on Echo has been not only an extremely valuable experience artistically, but has helped me build confidence in my music tenfold. Appreciate that forever.

Thank you as well for this opportunity! It is a bit stressful to answer all this stuff accurately but I feel like after re-writing every answer five times I got what I wanted to say across.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Thanks so much to Lillybug and Abyuse once again for participating, and thank you for reading. It was so fun to learn something new about Echo, and I hope you enjoyed it too!

You can find Lillybug on Spotify and Soundcloud.

You can find Abyuse on Bandcamp and Soundcloud. You can also download his tracks for Echo here!

Now, video game updates are definitely not a new thing in the industry. In fact, they’re probably almost as old as video games themselves! Sometimes a cartridge game would get a sneaky re-release pushed out into stores to have some bugs fixed or typos corrected. Other times it was a bit more obvious, with label or disc changes noting the re-release as a “Greatest Hits” version of a game.

As the Internet became a more prevalent thing in the world though, and as more game consoles became Internet-compatible, these updates and fixes would not be released through expensive re-releases, but as patches that you can download onto your existing copy of a game. This was obviously the way to go as it was much cheaper than reprinting a disc or issuing a recall. 

In the early days, bug and typo fixes were the most common of these, but there would also be larger patches that would add extra content. One notable example was Minecraft. I remember playing on my Xbox 360 and waiting for every new title update to see what would be added, and would sit there watching the progress bar go from left to right.

This would become more commonplace as the years went on, with paid DLC and everything. That wouldn’t stop companies from being generous and launching the content for free, however. But at some point it becomes a little obvious that these updates... aren’t exactly made because the developers are being nice.

Crunch culture has become a huge problem in the games industry recently, with bosses of big-named companies pushing their employees to work late hours and under severe conditions just to get a game out on time. You can read more about it and its negative effects here at “The Pitt News”.

In some cases, after hours and hours of crushing work, the game gets released on time. Other times, the game has to be delayed a few months. But there’s a few where the game gets out and it’s clearly lacking features and modes that the developers are still painstakingly working to get out as soon as possible. And that hasn’t been more obvious lately than with Nintendo.

While Nintendo’s been putting out great games recently on their Switch system, a lot of them have promised “free updates” after launch. One example of this is Nintendo Switch Sports. This is a successor to the widely popular Wii Sports line of games that released throughout the Wii and Wii U’s life. The game includes sports like Soccer, Bowling, Swordplay, and a few more.

During its reveal presentation, several of these modes were shown off... while the game’s Golf mode was announced to be coming at a later time. As of writing this, on July 19th, the Golf mode has not been released. It’s been almost three months since the game originally released as well. As some of you may know, the Golf mode was included in the original Wii Sports game day-one, with no patch needed.

This shouldn’t be viewed as “why is it taking so long to add a simple Golf mode?”, instead “why rush a game out the door so early before everything in it is done?”. Not only is it having developers work more on a game that should have already been done, but it ends up disappointing customers as well, as the game launches in this incomplete state.

Another example is something that was revealed today, actually. Mario Strikers: Battle League is another summer Switch title that happened to launch incomplete. Characters like Daisy and Shy Guy were pushed to be released post-launch (when they’ve been staples in the first two games), and on top of that Nintendo promised more updates to release this year.

Hiding an incomplete game under “promises” of “new, free content made just for the game” is a disguise that not a lot of people are falling for these days. As more and more people speak out within the games industry, things like this become way more apparent, and it’s not a fun party costume.

Hell, online services for these systems aren’t going to last forever. What if someone comes across a Switch in say, 20 years, when the online services are down, and happens to get one of these games with one? They won’t even be able to experience the full version of the game unless the system already has its updates. Nintendo themselves are already making this happen with the closure of the 3DS and Wii U eShops in March of 2023. Why do they keep doing this??

This kind of thing should not be normalized within the gaming industry, but it’s becoming clearer every day that some companies just want to rush their games out the door to make quick cash, and not take time and effort into actually completing it. It’s unfortunate and not fair, but hopefully enough people can voice their opinions on this for some change to happen.

If you aren’t in the loop, Bayonetta 3 is the latest in PlatinumGames’ high-octane climax-action series. The first game originally released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 back in 2009, while the second game released exclusively on Nintendo’s unfortunate little system, the Wii U, back in 2014. Since then, the first game has released on a number of different platforms, and the second one has always stuck to Nintendo. What I’m saying is, both can be played on the Nintendo Switch system.

Back in December of 2017, not only were those Switch ports of both games announced, but a third game was announced as well! And that’s all anybody got for a number of years. Sure, Hideki Kamiya of Platinum would speak about the game every so often, but it would only little hints, saying that the game was “doing well”. 

It wouldn’t be until September of 2021 that we would finally get a new trailer showing off the game. And what we saw was glorious. A new Bayonetta, new enemies, and a new setting. The witch was fighting some green aliens in a Tokyo-like area, which was very different from the previous two games. Nevertheless, it was more of what we wanted, and it was confirmed to be coming in 2022 as well!

As the months went by though, fans (especially myself) were nervous. The only real Nintendo Direct of the year so far was in February, and there wasn’t a trailer like most had hoped for. Documents from Nintendo showed that the game was still due out in 2022 though, so there was still hope. And one July 13th, we were BLESSED. THE HEAVENS SHINED DOWN UPON US AND-

...Uh... I mean, we got another trailer for the game!

This trailer gave us more story details and some context to the previous trailer, and is the main focus of this piece!

We start off with Bayonetta in the middle of fighting the aforementioned green alien guys with her new purple guns, “Colour My World”. Our favorite bartender and weapons supplier Rodin reveals that the enemies aren’t angels or demons... but humans instead. He also reveals that someone is erasing other universes to gain enough power to destroy all of reality itself. 

Another scene shows yet another Bayonetta in a completely different attire than our protagonist here. From Rodin’s talk before, we can assume that this one is from another universe. Kind of gets me excited, considering I’ve been gobbling up Marvel’s different movies and shows focused on the multiverse, like Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and Loki.

A new sword-wielding character named Viola shows up. She reveals the names of the human-alien things Bayonetta has been fighting, the Homunculi. Man-made bioweapons that threaten the very existence of reality. Viola talks of a scientist named Sigurd that might help with the fight against these enemies. Elsewhere, our friend Jeanne finds him. He then speaks of a way to get to the “Alphaverse”. 

All throughout the trailer, various gameplay and action sequences play out, showing more of the gameplay and hints about the story and locations. At the end, a mysterious voice speaks to Bayonetta. Our witch is holding a bloody, beating heart while various things are being destroyed around her.

We’re then given the release date - October 28th, 2022. Only days before Halloween, funnily enough! 

Along with all that, some other information came out. A Bayonetta 3 “Trinity Masquerade Edition” was revealed. Retailing for $89.99 USD, it includes the game, a 200-page artbook, and three alternate covers for Bayonetta 1, 2, and 3 that form a panoramic picture. This brings up an interesting case with the first game, though.

If you’re aware of Bayonetta 2′s release on Switch some years ago, you will remember that Bayonetta 1 only released as a download code that came with the second game, and as a digital release on the Nintendo eShop. If you were lucky enough to live in Europe and Japan however, you could get an Infinite Climax bundle that came with physical editions for both games. Otherwise, you could only get the first game digitally.

However, Nintendo also announced that a new physical version of the first game would be releasing September 30th. This is the first time North America is getting any physical version of the game on Switch, and the first time the game will be released outside of the Infinite Climax bundles in Europe and Japan.

All of this news is so nice to me. I’m not the BIGGEST Bayonetta fan, but I’ve kept up with the series ever since 2016, so I’m pretty invested. I really can’t wait til October comes around. I already have the game pre-ordered, so you know I’ll be playing the game the day it’s out.