Also, I can't remember if I mentioned this previously, but I bought a secondhand 2DS a couple of months ago so I've finally got around to starting Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask. The DS Layton games were some of my favourites but because I never owned a 2DS/3DS, or a portable device that could emulate them well, I have held off on playing them until now. Layton games are best played in a cosy space, like in bed or an armchair with a rug, with headphones on and the weather has been colder and wetter here recently which is perfect for this type of game!

Other than that, I haven't had too much free time for gaming lately, and to be honest I haven't really had the drive for it either. I am approaching my mid-30s now and sometimes wonder if I'm going to "grow out of" gaming as a main hobby at some point in the near future.

I'll be interested to read your future updates about AI: The Somnium Files. I really like Kotaro Uchikoshi's work, he has written some of my favourite visual novels previously including Ever 17 and 999. I'll wait until you're further in before I talk about The Somnium Files (I don't want to spoil or influence anything for you).

My army of green leafed and flower crowned small dudes are taking siege of the underground caverns in search for celestial tourists lost on their interstellar voyage.

I’ve actually been on my 3DS a lot this week, I replayed Hamtaro: Ham Hams Unite! and a short homebrewed game jam GBA called World of Zoink, which was cute.

I also picked up Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door for the Switch at good prices last weekend so once I’m past my current retro obsession I’m excited to start on those!

BANANA!

It's been 100% Donkey Kong Bananza for me this week. I just got to SL 800. I've been having lots of fun! Not even close to getting 100% on each layer, but I spend a lot of time exploring, breaking stuff and getting bananas. So much fun!

Almost done with Star Ocean Second Story R, I'm literally right before the dungeon called 'Phynal'.

My initial love for the game didn't fully carry over into the second half. There's been a big change in scenery and ever since that, the writing got worse by quite abit. It's just one guy with little to no personality sending you from one fetch quest to the next. There are still good things in there, but it started off way better.

Next up, I think I'll go back to something turn based, which means either Octopath 2, SMTV:V or Baten Kaitos.

I need to play two more stages of Fire Emblem Engage to finish my flier only run. It's kind of a different game if map hazard are no concern for you or mountains, buildings and so on.

And i play Trails into Reverie. So far awesome

I also haven't had much time to play Bananza this week. I'm just past the first split in the road, where you get to choose which world to go to... as if I'm not going to go back and do them both. I hope the game gets a bit more interesting in the enemy department. So far, you really just punch them all to oblivion, even most bosses. And with my Bananza gauge seemingly never being empty whenever I even think about using it, it's even easier. Sometimes I activate Bananza mode just to hear the music, it's a bit broken.

And a big shoutout to YouTube for recommending a piece of the game's soundtrack that spoiled something pretty big that I really would have liked to experience on my own terms.

Today I dove back into Monster Hunter Wilds for the Arch-tempered Uth Duna event quest. He's usually more predictable, but somebody taught him how to roll and it's messing everything up!

but there are some comical dialogues or descriptions

Date's silliness was one of my favorite parts of the game, I laughed really hard at some parts. And as you said it makes an interesting contrast to the darker storyline.

His banter/dynamic with Aiba is also great.

Playing Stella of the End!

Was not in a good mindset for story-focused games, so minimal progress this week, only completed one more chapter.

Playing Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker!!

Completed Episodes 1 and 2, and I'm now halfway through Episode 3. Getting all Gems/Challenges/Pixel Toads before moving to a new stege.

I'm enjoying the game, but I really wish it respected your time better. There's no reason to hide the Challenge before you complete the stage once, nor to force to enter again to find the Pixel Toad - all of these should be available on the first run. Having to repeat stages for these also hurts the pacing of the game.

I’m back to Xenoblade Chronicles X, Chapter 13, Act 3. My desire to 100% stuff is working hard against my desire to get this game out of my Switch 2.

I’ve been playing more Golden Lap. I have the two best drivers now, so the races are less frantic and more anti-climactic. I’m looking forward to a restart, but also worried that restarting will kill my interest in the game.

I’ve been “playing” CivIdle now that it is out on MacOS. It helps scratch the itch of civilization since I can’t run Civ VII on my computer and won’t buy it for Switch 2.

And I have leveled up Cecil of FFIV fame to maximum in Octopath Traveler Champions of the Continent. He’s so cool it almost makes we want to clear more story content (but I doubt I will).

With my school year starting up in August, I’m trying to avoid buying anything new, but I am aware that I have a lot of podcasts to catch up on and I’ve nearly completed Picross S8. So maybe next weekend I’ll be telling y’all about another picross purchase.