What I played in July 2024

So as not to make super long posts, and for anyone who isn't interested in gaming, I'm doing my what I played gaming post separate to my what I read post. Hope you enjoy it! 

 

Constantly enjoying hoop of the week and the daily hoops in Stitch on Nintendo Switch

 

Getting a Disney fix from Disney Magical World on my Nintendo 3DS XL 

Enjoyed familiar favourite songs in Hatsune Miku Project Mirai on my Nintendo 3DS XL

 

Finished the cute find the cat in Hidden Cats in Paris on Nintendo Switch

Finished Fae Farm, whose DLC wasn't my fave aspect on Nintendo Switch

The black and white short game A Winding Path was a fun few hours that I finished in two sessions on Nintendo Switch. 

 

Started the time management cleaning game Hotel Hustle with raccoons as the protagonist on Nintendo Switch 

 Started a point and click adventure, First Time in Paris on Nintendo Switch. Visited Paris as a teen, didn't like it that much. The game is fun though.

 

 Started Mary Skelter 2, a first person dungeon crawler horror with cute graphics but scary premise. Played the other 2 games in the trilogy, this one is new and is being played before the 1st game as oddly that's how it's meant to be. All on Nintendo Switch, by a fave company Idea Factory

 

Finished a cute farming game, Story of Seasons Pioneers of Olive Town which had me zipping about on a bike the later part of the game on Nintendo Switch

 

 Continued the calmer farming DLC to Eastward: Octopia on Nintendo Switch (pic generic stock image not my personal farm)

 

 Since I finished one farming sim I started another, Story of Seasons Doraemon Friends of the Great Kingdom. In the very early stages of this Nintendo Switch game. 

Nayu's Gaming Time #30 Disney Magical World Part A Nintendo 3DS

 

 Quick apologies for lack of posts recently, I'm close to having my 4 month delayed ketamine infusion so I'm feeling very ropey. Been focusing on surviving and hopefully soon I will feel a lot better. 

Not my image, this is on the main street with Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Disney do have a not so new game on Nintendo Switch called Disney Dreamlight Valley which I've played over 120 hours on. However, I realised in the last event that I wasn't finding the game fun anymore. I was doing it to get the event items but that's the only time I played. So I dusted of my 3DS, and got back to Disney Magical World. It is...a magical world! There is like the main street and the castle, a cafe to run and so many quests to  perform and maybe 100 character cards to collect. I played the Japanese version of this nd the sequel, I got so far and started to get stuck so I began the play in English and, unsurprisingly, it's much easier to understand. 

Again not my image (would be a bit blurry) but it's inside the cafe with Daisy theme

 Diving back into it the other week I instantly began enjoying myself, unlike DDV.  Yes to et new clothes I will need to repeat some levels to get the items I need to buy them at Daisy's but I don't care. Replaying the RPG element levels is so much fun. Seeing all the characters I know well makes my heart happy. It will take a long time to complete every quest and collect all the character cards, but I know I'll be super happy doing it. Sure the sequel doesn't have Rapunzel like DDV does, but overall I see more point to playing DMW than DDV. And I want to play it, which makes a difference. 

Let me know if you've played both games, and if you enjoyed Disney Magical World!

Again not my image but getting character outfits is so fun for group photos!

 

GUNPIGS: Firepower for Hire by Flynns Arcade 8/10E, Shoot-'em-up, Nintendo Switch

Released December 2020, Shoot-‘em-up, £4.49, Flynns Arcade,

Have you ever played a shoot-‘em-up? Me neither, not until I was invited to try out GUNPIG Firepower for Hire by Flynns Arcade. I almost declined on the spot as my genres tend to be JRPG, RPG, simulation, adventure, rhythm games, puzzles. Shoot-‘em-ups have always looked far too complicated for me to keep pace with and actually enjoy instead of running all around the screen while screaming silently in my head because everything is trying to kill me. 

 

Confession: that’s exactly how I initially felt playing GUNPIG. It may have been the first level, but everyone was truly out to get me and it was scary. It was out of my comfort zone. The one thing that kept me going through those awful first moments were how cute the pig was. Just look at it! Who wouldn’t want to protect this little dude from harm and try to keep him alive. I failed at least once, but I somehow miraculously made it to the end of the first level without dying. The jubilation of completing that level was immense. I survived my first shoot-‘em-up level! Go me! I had saved the pig which in turn saved may other pigs!

It is a simple enough concept: destroy everything before being killed by the many hostile enemies. Moving around didn’t take long to figure out, what took longer was remembering to keep turning myself in the best direction to shoot – with a 360 degree attack range for both me and the enemies there was a lot of manoeuvring which accompanied me silently screaming ‘What on earth am I doing?’ ‘Noooo, I got hit AGAIN!’ While I am not a pro by any stretch of the imagination at least I can shoot in the direction I need to. Most of the time.

What do you think a gunpig would shoot? Mud? Worse substances? Both are incorrect (although would be fun to implement if updates are considered for the future). A gunpig shoots fruit! Not just any fruit either, oranges, apples, cherries and more all can be used by going onto the fruit changing spot. Each fruit has different properties including frequency they fire and range of attack, finding the one to fit my playstyle didn’t take too long: regardless of if it fit my combat style I frequently used cherries as I love both how they look and how they taste. Yes, I can be superficial in games and if it is a weak weapon I simply persevere until I’m stronger. I can be quite stubborn when it comes to what I can play with. There is a lot to shoot in a level, from the enemies, a variety of barriers, items that need collecting to help my fight etc. Whether this is how I’m supposed to play I go by a rule of shoot everything in sight (it is a shoot-‘em-up game). Later levels may mean I need to be selective in my targets, but for now that is working out for me.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the game – I do need to have enough mental energy to cope with how busy the screen gets with the entire world being against my mere presence, so this won’t be a constantly played game or one played a lot (less so in summer when I have tad more energy). However, in very short bursts I am enjoying GUNPIG immensely. I’m sad that I can’t change either the style of pig or the clothes it wears, but there are fun stickers to collect throughout the game – getting my first was a joyous moment. The stickers don’t do anything other than be an indicator of how well the game went. 

 

FYI yes I’m Muslim and avoid pork, but I have loved piglets since I was a child as they are ridiculously cute and one of God’s many creatures.

While shoot-‘em-ups will never  be a favourite genre because I need to focus so much to stay alive, GUNPIGS: Firepower for Hire has been a fun first dip into the new to me genre of games. I do suggest you try this genre out as you may like it more than you think. Plus who could resist wanting to keep this piggy alive? 

Cute piggy with attitude! Shown again because it's adorable.

 

Nayu's Gaming Time #26 Nintendo Switch Lite review + Hatsune Miku Project Diva Mega39s incoming!!!!!

Before people get mad at me saying it isn't the correct title, it is for the Japan version. I put the Western version title below the first sentence. It is 39s in Japan, Megamix in the West. So nyah!!!

There is just under a week until this absolutely awesome game is out! 

The English/Western version title

I predownloaded it yesterday - for some reason games on the Japanese Nintendo Switch eshop take forever to arrive for preorder. I was checking daily and the one day I didn't check it appeared. I only noticed because someone I follow tweeted about it. 

 I will be spending my Valentine's day with the best vocaloid in the universe!!!! 

Eevee as herself, Eevee! With 4 sounds of her calling her name ^u^

With my adorable still fairly new Miku triplets, last seen welcoming my very new Eevee Pokemon plushie to my home! 

And yes I now have a Nintendo Switch Lite! I got it on Tuesday - I was able to trade my old Switch and one game in for it in Game, meaning I got it for free! I wanted a lighter console because I game for hours daily, I have weak hands and I found the weight of my Vita/2DS XL easier than my original Switch. The Lite is incredible. 

I had to buy the cute Pokemon outfit!

The Nintendo Switch Lite is totally the right choice for me. It's signifcantly lighter in weight, I don't feel like it will fall apart in my hands as there are no joycons, the clarity does seem better on the slightly smaller screen which I have got used to straight away. I love it to pieces. I'd hoped for but that hope failed when I saw the edition was for the main Switch. I understand Nintendo's reasoning for this - more people like the Switch then the Lite - but I was still very disappointed. There's still hope of me getting a fun decorated Lite! I love my yellow one so much, it is perfect for handheld only gamers. When I am able to play on the TV I have my PS4 with a stack of games to enjoy. I never used the rumble feature on the Switch because my cat didn't like it and I do a lot to keep her happy. I can still play wirelessly with my Zelda controller (I think....). All in all a very good trade in! 

I'd love to hear if you have a Lite, or are considering one. And are you getting the new Miku game now in Japanese or waiting for the English version? I've played a lot of rhythm games, especially Project Diva so there is no point me waiting when I don't have to. Very little needs to be understood in rhythm games! I was worried it may not work on the Lite, as one feature of the game is playing with joycons off the console for the non-button way of playing, but I am a button only girl plus I've since seen the back of the box which shows it is suitable for the Lite! 

Nayu's Gaming Time #23 My Time At Portia Release date is announced!

This is an image I had on my laptop, it may be out of date

It's coming in 27 days!!!!! 

My Time At Portia is a simulation game with lots of crafting quests, I think some fighting, along the lines of Dragon Quest Builders 1 & 2 which are my favourite games of the genre, Animal Crossing which is coming for Switch this year, Harvest Moon: a series I'm only just getting into, and other games. I've known about since last summer all thanks to the Youtuber Miss Multi-Console, who did a let's play series based on the PC Steam alpha version of the game. I possibly had heard of it earlier, but it wasn't until seeing it after getting into the genre thanks to the Switch that I absolutely needed it in my life. 

It was due to be released last winter (2018), but they had to push it back, which while annoying I did understand because the publisher wanted it to be the best it could be. Then this year or maybe the end of last year they announced it was due in Spring. No date given, which was rather frustrating. I confess to checking the My Time At Portia Twitter account on a regular basis, sometimes daily - that's how much I want this game. It's one of the few games I'm buying this year, and I am blocking out time so I can spend all day playing it upon release. It is ready to preorder, which I did yesterday after frightening my family by cheering upon seeing the news on Nintendo Life, and it's downloaded onto my Switch, ready to be played on April 16th.

I did get an inexpensive copy of the alpha version for my laptop, unfortunately my laptop isn't in the mood for gaming, so it was too slow for me, but I did get to create a character with pink hair: I'm hoping to replicate her when I get it. I am not going back through my hundreds of photos on Twitter to find what I'm talking about - above is a picture of what a male and female character can look like. The range of customisation is so huge that I'm sure most people won't have a lookalike if they spend just a little time in that section at the start of the game.

You can expect a lot of  Tweets about the game when I get my hands on it, as well as a special count down on Twitter that I'll be adding to every single day - don't worry, I'll try to update you guys once a week or so here. I'm that excited guys! Having a release date means the world to me, and I want to share my joy of it with you! 

See more on the Pathea Games website.

Nayu's Gaming Time #23 Boomerang Gaming Rental Subscription

Check out their website

 I say this at the end of the post too, this is not a sponsored post! I simply love Boomerang!

Most of you should be aware by now that I game a lot. I love gaming! It's a super fun, mostly low-energy using from my body activity I can do even when I don't feel great, which is a lot of the time thanks to my chronic health issues. Newly published games for the latest systems have always been expensive, but that cost definitely has risen for the two major consoles I use, the PS4 and the Nintendo Switch. I get so much gaming time because I can't work, but that bonus comes with not that much money to actually by games with. 

I wholeheartedly recommend waiting for sales to buy any game, unless there are some you must simply get on launch day: for me upcoming games include 

Animal Crossing 2019 

One of my Animal Crossing New Leaf houses

My Time At Portia (allegedly Spring release but no date yet) 

Pokemon 2019 

I adored the Let's Go Eevee game!

Girls und Panzer Dream Tank Match Deluxe 

The Asian version with English subs which I've preordered with PlayAsia and should get by the end of March due to shipping options. I absolutely adore the anime! To be able to drive tanks in a game involving the characters will be out of this world!

I've picked a fair few games in random sales, although Black Friday is the main annual one for great deals. I now play more indie games, something I never did much before but have come to love them like Stardew Valley (kind of finished with it, onto other farming sims!) , Mahjong Refresh (can't quite remember the exact name), Farm Together (whose title may put some off because it can be multiplayer but the solo version is great too) and many others. Equally when you buy a bigger game on the Switch eShop you get points that you can save for discount on other games. 

However, even with sales I can't buy all the games I want to play, especially when some I only want to try rather than pay money for. My local library no longer provides games for rental, which is why I ended up discovering the wonders of Boomerang rentals. 

Pusheen has totally the right idea here!

With the cheapest subscription starting at £3.99 Boomerang a highly affordable way to try out loads of games. If you like them, and in my view if the price is cheaper than of other online retailers) you can buy most games that you rent from Boomerang. There are no deadlines that you need to return the games on, you can play them as long as you want, although in my view if you take forever to play a game it may work out cheaper just to buy it. I'm on a deal where I can have unlimited amount of games, I can have any from the newest systems including PS4 & Nintendo Switch (I don't have the latest Xbox), and I do get priority on newer games, although everyone does have a chance at playing them eventually.

Because I have so much free time, and because a fair amount of the games I'm trying with Boomerang are ones I don't expect to like, there's been a week or two in my 2 month subscription history that I've returned and received a few games in quick succession. Every game is sent in a cute prepaid envelope so you simply turn around the address when it's ready to send it back. Depending which games are on your list, and what setting you place on your rental list (select from any of the games, top 10/5/3/1) does mean you can sometimes wait a bit for a game. Most of my waits are now 6 days +, although  I tend to bump a game up if the waiting time is sooner just so I can have a game to play with. I don't mind waiting much because if you have to wait a bit of time you get extra reward points which can be used to pay for your subscription, rent an extra game, buy a game, and more. 

I've currently set my game rental for my top 10 because those are the ones I do really want to play, even if I have to wait a little. I have had one bonus game already, because there was a bit of a glitch on site where it was telling me I could choose between 2 Switch games to play for an extra game outside of my 2 game allowance, when in reality I didn't yet have the correct number of points to rent a Switch game (Boomerang explained once Switch games got more popular they changed the point requirement which was the problem on my account). I had messaged them to check out the bonus rental work, they noticed the error, but ever so kindly bumped up my allowance so I could experience the bonus game rental). 

Through Boomerang rentals I've learned a lot more about this cute guy!

I have had well over £200 worth of games to try out for the Nintendo Switch, 3DS, Vita, and PS4. Reviews will be coming soon but I got 75% through Ginger: Beyond the Crystal, I actually completed Yoshi's New Island, and am working my way happily through The Legend of Legacy which I've bought through Boomerang because their price was half that of the cheapest online price. It's been fun trying games I knew I wouldn't buy or really enjoy but simply wanted to try them. I hate Mario but I'm now planning on playing a fair amount of Mario games because you can play with other characters besides the annoying plumber. 

I'm planning on working through a lot of farming sims like Harvest Moon and Rune Factory. I'm playing the Yoshi games mostly in order. I'm enjoying JRPGs that I've wanted to play for ages. All for a price which most people pay for the mobile phone rental (I pay £5 for unlimited texts on Pay As You Go on a super old plan and I'm not changing any time soon!)

Gaming is fun and does help me get through winter which my body hates. I genuinely love Boomerang rental system. I can't stress enough how lovely and helpful the staff are. They are patient, answer all my questions, explain things until I fully understand them (brain fog is a real thing and not fun because it means I can't think straight), go that extra mile for me. When I joined I chatted with them on Twitter and they asked which game I wanted to play first. I couldn't seem to activate my account out of the free trial (you mostly can't play games for the most recent consoles during the free trial or on a lower priced subscription) and they sorted that out for me. I do mention them a lot on Twitter because I love what they do. I am not sponsored by them (I wouldn't mind this happening one day...) in any way or form. The quality of service is incredible. I don't deal with many companies in life, so maybe a lot do act as helpful as Boomerang, but I can't fault anything about their system. It really does work as they say it does. 

If you follow Boomerang on social media they often do competitions with great prizes including subscriptions to the major consoles' online services, games, and free rental subscriptions. You can change what type of membership you are on at any time without penalty. I won't be at my current subscription forever, but it's nice knowing I can change at any time, or take a break and not rent anything for a few months if I want to. Do go check them out, gaming rental doesn't have many options in the UK and from what I'm hearing in the USA either, Boomerang are mostly definitely my recommended choice here in England! Their website is here.

I play on my own but gaming with friends is fun too!

Nayu's Gaming Time #21 Child of Light 9/10E

It is on other consoles too. 

Made by Ubisoft, 2014 original release, I played for 15-20 hours according to my Switch log. 

 

I only heard about Child of Light in 2018 because it came out on the Switch, a console I now have and keep a close eye on games that come out. At first I dismissed the game because it looked quite dark and not my kind of graphic style. That still is a bit true, for the first few chapters of the game I played only in short bursts, with lots of cuter games inbetween. Something happened the other week and I felt like playing more - the story then hooked me in. 

This is the final puzzle that stumped me.

There are plenty of places which will tell you how the game play is (kind of cool!). I liked finding the treasure chests, and solving the mostly simple puzzles using a novel system of shadows and light to unlock locked doors. There's still a few doors that I haven't figured out how to unlock post game. Speaking of unlocking, I forgot until I finished it that Aurora had a variety of outfits to change into: they are absolutely gorgeous! I'm not putting them here, go discover them for yourself!

Child Aurora finding the sword (from my game play)

Teen Aurora looking gorgeous!

I liked how her little spirit Ignatius (sp?) could help heal her in battle. I loved when she was in child form, with an overbig crown and a sword she could barely lift. Small spoiler: events happen and she grows into a teen: she matures, becomes more graceful, although I didn't like how her skirt was no longer free flowing. I loved her in battle poses because they remind me so much of one of my favourite anime, Aikatsu, and one of my favourite character's special moves: 

Mizuki's Double Moon Jewel special appeal

Mizuki's moon appeal, can't remember the name.

I know a fair amount of people didn't like how she was 3D and the world was 2D. I loved the difference, it was fun to play at her flying around because she reminded me so much of Bloom from Winx Club that I'd play the game, humming the various theme songs like Bloomix (yes Bloom's power helps her friends out in a later season). 

Mess with Bloom at your peril! This is season 4 Believix form.

The song is so you know what I was humming. The game's soundtrack is good, a little too gloomy at times for me, but certainly atmospheric. 

Apart from Aurora, Ignatius, and Finn, I found quite a lot of the characters creepy looking. However I had to look past that because they cared in their own way (or hated Aurora, depending on who they were), and I used the blue jester a lot. Once I learned the spell to protect users from being interrupted when spell casting, I'd use that, followed by a shield and haste.

Ding, dong, the witch is dead! Me with protection spells around me. Sadly some enemies could produce them too!

  I mostly focused on Aurora as the main attacker. Any item I got that could boost stats I automatically gave to the princess. Those of you on Twitter know I posted quite a few tweets while playing the game. Including the fact that the last few puzzles were so hard I looked up how to do it online. I never would have guessed the correct order!  

As for the story - it's complicated! At it's simplest it's good versus evil. I was intrigued to play it because I'd heard it talks about depression. I've played Meh a game that handles depression with gorgeous illustrations, so it felt only natural I checked Aurora's tale out. I thought it might be a bit like Sleeping Beauty, given Aurora's name, but it wasn't that much. I was so confused by the end it took looking through screen shots of the start and end of the game, reading a few reviews and several posts on gaming forums to begin to get the whole story straight. I didn't like the end. I thought it would be happier. I was extremely disappointed by one sad part, so much so I pretend that the scenario was how I imagined it. 

This in game moment is funny, and shows what it looks like when the characters talk to each other. The woman isn't Aurora...

Will I play Child of Light again? Yes. Not for a while, as many other games are calling my name, but I did enjoy, I want to try and find all the item boxes, and I think I've a memory or two to collect (they are poems). I managed to complete all the quests, with only a tiny bit of internet help. I liked how the entire game was a huge poem with characters speaking in verse. It was quirky, and not annoying despite me not being fond of poetry. There isn't a game like it that I can recommend, it's definitely in a league of it's own for now.