What was the last game you finished?

Finished up Ace Combat 7. Still really enjoyed this one, with some great connections to Ace Combat 4, 5, and 0.

Finished up Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on the Castlevania Advance Collection for the Switch.

This was the first follow up in the Symphony of the Night style, and even though later portable entries would improve on it in many ways, it still remains a fun one.

I have played it since the original release on the old unlit GBA, but I would say playing on the OLED Switch is about as far away I could get from the original experience. Nice and bright to enjoy this portable entry.

Finished up Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance on the Castlevania Advance Collection on the Switch while I was on vacation. Got all three endings.

I...don't actually remember if I had played this one before. A friend owned it, and played a lot at my house on the Gameboy Player on my GameCube years ago, so I think I played some. I remembered the beginning and the endings, but a lot of the stuff in between felt new.

This definitely seems like the low mark among the three GBA Castlevania entries for reasons that have been covered in other people's reviews elsewhere. Gamesack's relatively recent look at the Metroidvania-style Castlevania titles is a good one.

It is still an enjoyable game, but I don't think it lived up to Iga's boasts at the time for improving on Circle of the Moon.

Aside from a few tracks, the music is very much sub-par for the series. Juste Belmont's movement feels even more baseline sluggish than Nathan's movement in the last game. He can dash forwards and backwards with the L and R buttons from the beginning, but the momentum feels a bit awkward, as it doesn't carry over into jumps.

It was designed for the limitations of the non-backlit GBA, so ironically ages worse in the remake in some ways that the darker palette of Circle of the Moon. A lot of the backgrounds are bright and garish in a way that almost reminds me of the NES Castlevania titles, and is often unpleasant in my opinion. Juste, and many enemies also have a bright blue outline to make them stand out on a dark GBA screen.

Just has a (usually blue) after-image as well, similar to Alucard's after-image in Symphony of the night and...I find it visually unappealing and distracting. There's also not really a story-reason for it. Alucard is at least a half-vampire, so some mystical stuff like that makes sense, where it doesn't for Juste. For reference, the recent 'Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth' is a recent example of that effect done well on modern hardware, and I still turned it off after a short while

I wish they'd cleaned some of that up for the re-release, rather than just do a straight port. Funnily enough, there is a patch available for the Harmony of Dissonance ROM, so that may be the better way to play on a modern screen. Even if they wanted to leave these visual effects in place for an accurate port, I would have appreciated the option to manually turn them off.

Juste himself is an odd character design. Iga was clearly going for a Symphony of the Night feel on a portable, as re-uses some gimmicks such as two versions of the Castle. However, Juste looks more like Alucard than he does any of the Belmonts, and it seems odd to my eye. I realize Ayami Kojima is the character designer, not Iga himself, but it seems like this was a choice by the design team to reference Alucard's looks.

This next statement applies to Circle of the Moon as well, but looking at this with a modern eye, I sure do miss unobtained items being displayed on the map. Lots of places where the room shows as explored, but there's no easy indicator that there's an item you couldn't yet reach. I'm pretty sure even SotN was missing this, but even back in Super Metroid, it was easy enough for them too indicate by dots and circles on the map whether an item had been obtained or not.

For all this griping though, it is still a very fun game, and worth completing.

That said, for all my complaint

Finished up Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow on the Castlevania Advance Collection for the Switch.

As many others might tell you, this is the strongest entry among the GBA Castlevania entries.

Backgrounds are not as garish as the last entry, though brighter than Circle of the Moon. As a later GBA entry, many visual tricks are on display, and enemies are large and detailed with many moving parts.

The music is excellent, befitting the Castlevania reputation.

Soma's sprite is smaller than Juste, and he feels more 'peppy' to control despite lacking a dash ability.

Lots of fun playing this entry.

Finished up on the main story for Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.

Pretty enjoyable, as I never finished the original. I was almost halfway through the game before I felt really invested in the story and the world, but I liked the experience overall.

It earns its reputation as an 'offline MMO' with its gameplay style. Lots of cool vistas, and a very nice visual update.

On to the new "Future Connected" epilogue story next.

I absolutely loved it.  The only think I was upset about was how short it was; I didn't want it to end!  (Hearing "Unfinished Battle" during a pivotal moment gave me one heck of a rush!)  I loved Jenna Coleman returning to voice Melia so much, because her voice has deepened and aged.  Melia sounds so much wiser in the way of the world due to the 10 year voice change.  I only wish that the Fog King's interdimensional portal had something to do with XBC 2 and XBCX.  I feel like it may have something to do with the overarching theme of the Conduit (The Zohar?), but it wasn't explored much. 


I'm glad you enjoyed it!