I just finished Signalis and got the Memory ending. I actually beat it last year on the Switch. This year I double dipped and bought the PS4 physical and played it again. Love it! Probably my favorite horror game. It's like those older Resident Evil/Silent Hill games, but from a top-down perspective and tank controls... that you can turn off!

I think a point of contention for some people with this game will likely be the story. To summarize with very little context: it can be a little confusing and unsatisfying. But I feel like that's sort of the "horror charm" with the story, and that's kind of why I love it. It's not satisfying, there's still loose ends that aren't solved and will never be officially solved. The mystery is what makes replaying it still fun for me.

Game #261: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Platform: GameCube
Main + Extras: 36:03:28
Rating: 9/10
Date Completed: October 1, 2025

Games Synopsis: Play as Mario in a paper adventure. Peach has gone missing and left a map behind for Mario to locate the crystal stars. Find the secrets behind the stars and use them to find Peach

Blog: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is my 1,000th completion on HLTB. Yes, I did save this game to be 1,000 just because of "thousand" in the title.

I had never played Thousand-Year Door until now. Up until now I had only played Super Paper Mario on the Wii and Bug Fables on Switch, that last one being a successor to the original Paper Mario games. I had heard of the following behind the game of course, I even had a childhood friend who absolutely loved this game. So with me playing this game for the first time, it was time for me to see if this game was worth all the hype.

I would say TTYD is a game with a surprising amount of quality to it. I thought the story was really good for a Mario game. It had quite a lot of good writing in it. It's serious at times, it's funny at others. It's really good! The only nitpick I have is that the Bowser parts arguably didn't need to be here. I think if you just removed those parts, the story wouldn't be all that different.

The characters are also good. The characters aren't all just your standard toads, goombas, koopas, etc. They are these uniquely styled individuals. For example, Goombella, your first partner character, is quite obviously a goomba, but her design so clearly stands out from any other goomba design I've seen in the Mario series. As you play through the game you see more and more of all these great and unique characters, some being completely original species to TTYD. I don't think there was a character I disliked.

Then of course there's the combat. I do wish the combat was a bit more difficult. I didn't really struggle all too much until the end. However the combat is still really good. Being able to make attacks stronger by pressing buttons at the right time or doing certain actions felt very engaging. There's also the parry system where you can press A during the defense phase to recieve less damage, or if you're really good enough you can press B to counter their attack. It's a really good system, it's just a bit too easy.

Difficulty isn't the only problem I had though. In the game there are various amounts of quests. The quests themselves are fine for the most part, but what I don't particularly like is that there are certain quests just have you going everywhere throughout the world, and it's just a drag. Most of these are optional of course, but there's at least one time in the game where you are required to go to every single world within the game and it's so incredibly boring and not fun.

Despite my complaints, I think Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a great game. I absolutely understand the hype behind it, and I know now why fans are frustrated with the later Paper Mario games. If anyone is also looking for a similar game, I would recommend Bug Fables. I'd even go as far as to say that I like Bug Fables slightly more due to the difficulty. Both games are great though. TTYD was a great game to make my 1,000th HLTB completion.

TL:DR: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a great game. It has a great story for a Mario game, unique and interesting characters, and fun combat. I do think it's a little too easy, and I wish that certain quests didn't have you do a large amount of backtracking.

Up Next: Now that TTYD is finished, I can finally go back to doing the challenge once again. Please stay tuned for my next review which will finally be about Bloodborne... hopefully I won't take too long but I assume most of my time will be spent dying.

I'll nominate Signalis. A fantastic indie horror game.

Game #260: 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors

Platform: DS
Main Story: 7:02:52
Main + Extras: 19:31:43
Rating: 9/10
Date Completed: September 15, 2025

Games Synopsis: Play as Junpei, a young college student who is trapped on a ship with 8 other people. Help him solve puzzles to escape

Blog: I typically don't do "random" blog posts on the games I beat anymore. But this game marks a special commemoration for me. 999 is the 999th completion marked for me on HLTB. For months I have been saving 999 just for this occasion, and it finally got here. But was it worth all that waiting?

999 is a great mystery visual novel/escape room game. If you don't like visual novels, you probably still won't like this one too much, but the story is quite good. Due to it being a VN and my self-inflected rule of not talking about spoilers in reviews, I unfortunately won't be able to talk too much about the story except for some characters and the general story.

First of all, if you are someone who is hoping to playthrough once and experience the "whole story" you will be disappointed as that is impossible to do on a first playthrough. In fact even if you followed a guide, you would still have to do two playthroughs at minimum. And there's a reason for that, which I unfortunately can't explain. I understand some people might not like that, and that might be a skip for some people. It didn't really bother me though, I kind of went in expecting to play this multiple times to get that true ending. In fact, I played it a total of 5 times, getting 4 of the endings... and accidentally repeating one too. Aside from getting the repeat ending, I enjoyed going through and experiencing more of the story and the characters

There's an aspect that I did not like about the game and that's the lack of a skip button on repeat playthroughs. After you beat the game a first time, they do grant you a fastforward button that speeds through dialogue you've already seen, and even stops fastforwarding on dialogue you haven't seen before. But even with the fastforward button, there are times where I'm holding that button down for 10+ minutes until I get to a part where I have to make a choice or solve a puzzle. I wish we could just skip to those parts instead. That beginning section was so tiring to go through again and again.

That's really the only qol issue I had with the game, other than maybe some voice acting would be nice but that might be asking too much.

Character-wise the only one I didn't really care too much for was Junpei, the main character. Particularly when it comes to his feelings for June, for a college kid he acts like he's in middle school whenever he's around her. It's so odd and I'm not about it.

Other than those moments, the characters are great.

Puzzles are great too. I loved running into new rooms and getting a new puzzle. I think there was only one time where I had to look something up because I just wasn't sure what to do, but in most cases you can sort of just examine stuff and characters will give you hints. It's not too hard and not too easy. I think it's at the appropriate difficulty.

999 is a great game. I recommend it to anyone looking to get into visual novels, it's a great starting point. Funnily enough, 999 is a 9/10 for me.

TL:DR: A great visual novel with an escape room feel to it. Puzzles and story are great. I just wish cutscenes were skippable on replays, and that the main character wasn't so childish.

Up Next: I know, I know. I still have Bloodborne to get to, and I will. I have one more game to finish before I do that: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. That will be my 1000th completion. Stay tuned for that review in the near future!

Game #259: Jeanne d'Arc

Platform: PSP
Main + Extras: 42:17:35
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: September 9, 2025
Picked By: bohemu

Games Synopsis: Go through an alternative history of Joan of Arc where she has to battle English, demons, and English demons to protect France.

Blog: If you like when games about history are 100% accurate, you will not like Jeanne d'Arc. If you like games about history with a fun spin, you will like Jeanne d'Arc.

Jeanne d'Arc is a tactics game much like Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics. If you like those kinds of games, there's a really good chance you'll like Jeanne. As far as difficulty, it's not too hard, but it's not easy either. There were many times throughout the story where I was thrown for a loop because an event in the mission happens that drastically changed how I approached levels. A few times where I'd also have to grind to get some of my team into shape, particularly for any characters I wasn't actively using.

You might be thinking, "Oh, well I can just use only Jeanne or another character as a crutch," but there will be times in the story where you won't be able to use your best character for many missions, including the main protagonist herself.

I think what's also unique is that you're "timed" in each battle. You have a limited number of turns to beat the level, if you don't beat the level in time, then you lose. Most of the time the limit doesn't really pose too much of a challenge, but there were a few battles where it was pretty dang close.

I want to touch on the story briefly. I won't go into very heavy spoilers, but after I briefly read some of the history of Joan of Arc, and comparing it to the game, there's events that line up with the actual history. Obviously there's no magic involved in real life, and there's a certain point in the story where it very clearly separates itself from history, but it's pretty good if you're into history. For example the real Joan of Arc claimed to be following a divine guidance, in the game she obtains an armlet in which she does hear a heavenly voice that guides her through her journey. It's really fun to read into.

It's also fun to see some of the anime-ness to it. There's some anime cutscenes and Jeanne even gets her own magical girl transformation.

The game has some quality of life issues that rub me the wrong way. For example, I think the game is pretty slow in its gameplay. There's times where it will lag on my PSP, and enemies will take forever to get through their turn. It's especially bad when enemies have a passive self-healing ability, because it will go through every enemy you've damaged and give them a 5 second spotlight. You can't speed it up or skip it, you have to sit and watch each and every one. And then it will also go through your team and do the same thing with their passive self-healing.

Another qol thing is I wish the game would allow you to back out of battles while you're in the prep stage. I don't understand why it's not an option. You're able to leave during the shop section. It's literally the same screen.

Now, if these were my only issues, I would give Jeanne d'Arc a 9/10. But if you noticed, I gave this game an 8/10. That's because, I left out my least favorite part of the game: the final boss. (I won't go into spoiler details on the boss, except for some genral game mechanics revolving around the boss. So no worries on spoilers).

The Final Boss Rant: This fuck ass final boss is genuinely one of the worst bosses I've fought. It's probably the worst final boss I've fought, potentially giving Half Life 1 a run for its money on that criteria. It's the slowest, most boring battle in the entire game and it's quite ludicrous how unfair it is as well. The boss itself is fine. It was definitely annoying in that it would constantly teleport around making it really difficult to pin down at times.

The real assholes are the enemies that accompany the boss. With the boss are these four living towers. They hit hard, they charge up their mana to unleash these devastating gigantic AOE attacks that will nearly kill off your entire party, or they will decide to heal the boss or themselves instead, and they heal a lot of health as well as have a lot of health. Also, I swear every time they did anything there would be a 20 second animation for each enemy. It takes like over a minute to get through them! Very annoying. But they still aren't the main problem with the boss fight. It's the other enemies. The darkest demons.

The darkest demons are the most annoying pieces of shits to deal with. They won't show up right away, but they'll spawning starting on turn 3. There are two types of these guys: one is resistant against all magic, the other is resistant to all physical attacks except for a specific skill that only lances know. The ones resistant to magic weren't really as much of an issue. The main issue had to do with the physical resistant ones. For me, I unfortunately did not have the spear skill on my only spear user, which means for these guys in particular I had to rely on my two magic users to deal with them. Unfortunately, my magic usually wasn't enough unless my mages were fully focused on only one of the enemies, and these fuckers would keep spawning, and don't forget that I also had to deal with the four towers! And having the mages deal with healing themselves and others! To top it off, they not only have a passive self-healing, they also had healing magic! They would heal the towers or the bosses whenever they had the mana to do so. They also had another special ability where they have a chance to hit you twice in a single move, and perhaps I was just unlucky, but it seemed that almost every time they attacked, the ability would proc.

So just imagine... a teleporting boss accompanied by four enemies with heavy-hitting aoe attacks and great healing magic; and then about 5 or 6 more enemies that are almost invincible with self-healing passives, more healing magic, abilities to attack twice in a turn, lightning magic, and constantly respawning every other turn... I had to deal with all that while also having to sit there for 5 minutes for the enemies to do all their stuff. It was bad. It was atrocious. This boss single-handedly put it a point lower. Wow!

TL:DR: Jeanne d'Arc is a great tactics RPG, I really do recommend it for fans of the genre. It does need some qol changes though, including the removal of the worst final boss ever!

Up Next: After Jeanne d'Arc I don't think there's very many big games left. Other than maybe Bloodborne? Well let's see what the next game has in store for me.



Bloodborne! Picked by YassinB! I know I literally just mentioned in it the previous line, but I did not plan for it to show up so soon. Bloodborne seems to be around 40 or 50 hours, so it'll probably be a while until I post about it.

On top of that, I am actually very close to my 999th and 1000th completions for the site, and I would like to get to those games as well. Bloodborne will unfortunately be on the backburner for a bit, but I will get right on it once my 1000th completion is done and blogged. Please stay tuned!

I'll nominate Jeanne d'Arc since it's what I'm currently playing.

Game #258: Scorn

Platform: PS5
Main + Extras: 5:22:35
100% Completion: 5:34:47
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: August 16, 2025
Picked By: Cock

Games Synopsis: Solve puzzles as you explore a world of body horror.

Blog: Scorn is a strange game to talk about... mostly because it's kind of hard to describe without seeing it. It has a very unique aesthetic that I don't think I could compare to anything other than body horror. It doesn't really have a story either, there's no dialog or any words so you have to take it as it comes.

What I do understand about the game are the puzzles. I like the puzzles and Scorn has many for you to solve on your journey. It doesn't hold your hand or give you the solution, it allows you to figure them out all on your own. It's very satisfying and there's many different puzzles so it's never boring.

I really liked Scorn and loved its creativity. Unfortunately it's not all great. Scorn decided to throw combat into the mix, and it's some of the clunkiest I have ever seen in a game. It's not impossible to figure out, but it's such a hassle that I would rather there not be any combat.

Scorn really doesn't have any other problems though. I suppose perhaps the game is a bit open-ended narratively, so some people might not like that. Of course with it having a focus on body horror, some people will also not like that. I do recommend it if you're even the least interested though.

TL:DR: Scorn is a great puzzle game with a unique and memorable aesthetic, but the combat is not very good and could largely be done without it.

Up Next: It's time to pick the next game after Scorn. The next game will be...



Jeanne D'arc! Picked by boh! I... think it's a tactics game? Which is fine by me. I love games like Fire Emblem.

Game #257: Tomodachi Life

Platform: 3DS
Main + Extras: 45h 04m 23s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: July 28, 2025
Picked By: Finnedorb

Games Synopsis: Get your friends, family, and favorite characters all together on an island and have them interact in wacky scenarios.

Blog: For years I've been hearing about Tomodachi Life and how good it is. I've even heard of some people saying it's one of the best 3DS games. In my opinion, I think Tomodachi Life is just okay.

It's by no means a bad game, but I would say the novelty wears away pretty quickly depending on the type of person you are. I would make the comparison of Animal Crossing in where you may slowly lose interest over time, and in my opinion your interest will probably wane based on how creative you are.

Personally, I'm not very creative, I'm just a guy who wanted to marry Selena Gomez and did a bunch of stuff in between all that.

I just didn't really have all that much interesting stuff to do in Tomodachi Life. I didn't particularly care for making songs. I did that once and thought about doing some more but never really cared enough to do it again. Tomodachi Quest was kind of mediocre and a little dependent on luck with what Miis you randomly get. For me that only left dealing with Mii problems, trying to get Miis to hate each other, and trying to collect what all I could.

Tomodachi Life is not a bad game. A 6/10 is still a pretty good game, and I played it for 40+ hours so I had to have liked it of course. It was fun to see my friends and my favorite characters interact with each other. It was funny to see one of my friends end up marrying Shrek. It was funny watching my Mii confess his love to Kamala Harris, but then a friend coming in to steal her from me at the end. It's all so funny.

However I also think it's missing some things. I wish I could have Miis become enemies. I wish the Mii Maker was more creative on allowing you to make certain characters and stuff. I wish it didn't take as long to do certain things like Miis having a baby. I wish there was more to do. I hope for the upcoming sequel they add stuff like that.

I think Tomodachi Life is good, but I just feel like it holds back in a lot of areas that I wish to see it improve.

TL:DR: Tomodachi Life is just okay for me. Personally it feels like a novelty that wears off after a few play sessions and sort of becomes a daily chore. However, it does feel like fun in those first couple of weeks. I can't wait to see the sequel and hope it improves things.

Up Next: A pretty good life Sim, which took me many months to play through. Now I'm ready to move on to the next game which will be...

(Imgur is acting weird for me right now, so I don't have any images to share)

Scorn! Picked by Cock! I have no idea what kind of game this is other than it's supposed to be gross I think? It shall be an interesting ride.

I nominate Scorn

I'm nominating Tomodachi Life since I'm still playing it.

Here's my two:

The Dark Queen of Mortholme
https://qwertyprophecy.itch.io/mortholme

Divorce Chatroom
https://meiri.itch.io/divorce-chatroom

Here's my list, starting from the most recent:

GBA: Pinball - June 4, 2025
PS5: Undefeated - May 31, 2025
PS4: Mass Effect - May 30, 2025
Nintendo Switch: Classic Logic Bundle - May 18, 2025
PC: Rainbowcore Hypernova - March 25, 2025
Arcade: Marvel: Contest of Champions - Feb 22, 2025
Xbox One: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Jan 30, 2025
Wii U: Affordable Space Adventures - Jan 8, 2025
Xbox 360: Call of Duty: Black Ops - Jan 7, 2025
GameCube: Shrek Superslam - Jan 6, 2025
Playstation Vita: Gravity Rush - Jan 4, 2025
DS: Paper Plane - Dec 30, 2024
Mobile: Bricky Boy - Dec 23, 2024
Intellivision: Party Line: Hard Hat - Dec 20, 2024
3DS: Picross e6 - Nov 4, 2024
PS3: Journey - Sep 17, 2024
PSP: LocoRoco - Sep 2, 2024
Game.Com: Solitaire - Aug 28, 2024
Wii: Shrek's Carnival Craze - Aug 20, 2024
Saturn: Virtua Fighter 2 - Aug 5, 2024
Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - July 10, 2024
N-Gage: The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey - June 29, 2024
Playdate: The Keyper - April 18, 2024
Genesis: Golden Axe - July 18, 2023
Neo Geo Pocket: Puzzle Bobble Mini - Mar 23, 2022
Game Gear: Madden NFL '95 - Mar 20, 2022
WonderSwan: Gunpey - Mar 19, 2022
GBC: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages - Sep 29, 2021

I don't really have many games with overly negative reviews. I think I have more examples for games positively rated that I didn't enjoy.

But one game in particular I do like more than what people commonly rate it: The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey. Most of the flak towards it is moreso directed to the system it's exclusive to, the Nokia N-Gage. And while the game is not amazing by any means, I thought it was surprisingly good! A 7/10 for me, whereas most people have given it much lower scores.

I didn't make an April update since I only finished one eligible game, so I'm including it here.

April:

7. A remake or remaster of a game - Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition - A remaster of Xenoblade Chronicles X from the Wii U

May:

20. A cornerstone of gaming culture - Mass Effect - I feel like this is one of the cornerstones to Western RPGs.

23. A game that hasn't aged well - Multiversus - They killed it. What can age worse than that?

26. A sequel that's more famous than the original - Persona 3 Portable - Nobody talks about the original Persona nearly as much as 3/Portable

46. A fanmade/bootleg/rom hack game - Classic Logical Bundle - 1/4 of this game is a literal bootleg Minesweeper. No joke.

48. A game with a silent protagonist - Undefeated - A Unity asset flip with a protagonist that doesn't say anything at all.

Here's my collection:

https://howlongtobeat.com/user/R2D21999/lists/68594/R2D21999-2025-Challenge

January: 7 games
February: 4 games
March: 4 games
April: 1 game
May: 5 games

A lot of long games back-to-back. That's why there's no completions at the start of the month.

May 18 - Persona 3 Portable (Switch) - 8/10
May 18 - Ring Sculptors (Switch) - 1/10
May 18 - Classic Logical Bundle (Switch) - 3/10
May 30 - Mass Effect (PS4) - 7/10
May 31 - Multiversus (PS5) - 5/10
May 31 - Undefeated (PS5) - 4/10

Best: Persona 3 Portable
Worst: Ring Sculptors

Here's the stuff I bought in April and May.

Game #256: Mass Effect

Platform: PS4
Main + Extras: 31h 01m 16s
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: May 30, 2025
Picked By: Alpha

Games Synopsis: Take the role as Commander Shepard to stop the plans of an alien that could bring grave consequences to the galaxy.

Blog: Mass Effect? More like... M-"it's pretty good" Effect!

I don't play many western RPGs. The only ones I can think of are Outer Worlds and Elder Scrolls: Shadowkey. So it's kind of a special occasion when I do play one.

Mass Effect is definitely a special one. It's not perfect and it certainly has its problems that I'll expand on later. But it's definitely a good game.

I think the story and the world building are the best parts of this game. It's interesting to see the story continue, and seeing the various species interact and comment on the seemingly recent inclusion of the human race to their council of various species. It's interesting to see the politics going on within the galaxy and the different planets.

Combat is also very good. Four guns to use, which you can upgrade to have different effects. Various powers you and your crew can utilize to your advantage. I actually went about halfway through the game without really using the powers and I kind of wish I realized their potential and entertainment early on.

As much as I like the story, I wish there were more character moments. Other than the romanceable characters, you don't get much other than more world building and one interesting case in the story where a character makes an outburst.

Something I definitely didn't like was the exploration. Exploring space sounds incredibly interesting, but you end up just driving around barren wastelands looking at rocks, occasionally fighting enemies, and going to side quest destinations. It's incredibly boring.

Another issue I have are any environments that aren't part of the main story. A lot of them are copy-pasted, and I discovered this pretty quickly. Dock on a spaceship? It looks exactly like every other one. Go into a research facility? It's exactly like every other facility. Go into a base? Exactly like every other base. Go into a mine? Exactly like every other mine. And that's all of the environments too, those four locations all share the exact same layout. This coupled with the boring exploration put me to sleep half the time because it's not interesting.

The teammate AI seems to be bugged. There are occasions they get caught on corners or doors. There was one situation where it was totally bugged and my teammates were frozen in place with their backs to each other and teleporting to an area if there was a cutscene. It had to be fixed by me leaving the game. Such a weird situation.

Despite these problems, Mass Effect is a great game. If I ever play it again, I would probably skip the exploring and just go straight to the story and various side quests. I'm looking forward to the other games in the trilogy.

TL:DR: The first Mass Effect is a great game with a great story and combat. The side quests are awesome and the world building is expansive. The exploration and optional area layouts leave a lot to be desired, however.

Up Next: Another great RPG. Will the next game also be a great RPG? Time to find out.



Tomodachi Life! Picked by Finnedorb! Quite timely to play this one now with the sequel coming out next year. I'm looking forward to this one.

I will nominate the first Mass Effect game since I'm playing it right now.

Game #255: Persona 3 Portable

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Main + Extras: 74h 09m 26s
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: May 18, 2025
Picked By: Exi

Games Synopsis: Live your normal high school life while also battling monsters through the floors of Tartarus to learn more about its purpose as well as the Dark Hour to prevent disasters.

Blog: I was a big fan of Persona 5 Royal after playing it for the first time last year. But since that was the only Persona game I had played, I couldn't really ever call myself a fan of the Persona series. I think after my playthrough of Persona 3 Portable, I can say I at least have an appreciation for the series.

P3P is quite good. Does it reach some of the gameplay highs of Persona 5 Royal? Definitely not, but I would say that the story is often a bit better. There were more emotional impacts, it felt like most of the main cast had a good amount of focus outside of the social links.

Speaking of social links, I think these were also very good, for most characters anyway. There are some characters like Kenji, who has very questionable crushes, that aren't very good. But it has some other great ones. There's a particular one at the shrine that's probably my favorite in the series.

I won't lie though, not getting upgrades or having skills unlock after reaching certain social link ranks is quite a disappointing in comparison to Persona 5, but I understand the series just hadn't gotten to that point yet when Persona 3 Portable released. P5 spoiled me man!

While I wouldn't knock off any points for the lack of social link rewards, I would for other gameplay choices. In particular, a lot of my complaints have to do with Tartarus. I think one of the most frustrating parts of this game is that attacks just seem to miss quite consistently. It feels like every other attack just straight up misses, and I don't understand why. I've seen other people online also complain about this, so I don't think this is just a me thing. There were times where I have attacks miss three times in a row! At one point, I missed twice and then my whole party was killed by a one hit ko attack from the enemy, and there was literally nothing I could have done to prevent that. Situations like that are just so unfair.

Another thing that happens is while going through Tartarus, sometimes my characters will get caught on a corner or pillar and end up straggling behind because the AI is stupid. Often times, they can straggle so far behind that they end up excluded from a battle. It happens so quickly, I don't even notice they weren't with the group until the battle had already started. Better hope you weren't relying on them for a specific type weakness!

One thing I've seen mentioned before is how it's possible to reach a certain point in the game where you have nothing to do in the evenings, especially if you have already done both available social links and maxed out your social skills. I somewhat agree with this, but I kind of realized in the late game you can actually use that time for some easy stat increases for a persona. I especially found this helpful for the very long final boss battle as I would use spare time in the evenings to focus on one particular persona in preparation. But I understand some people may just not find that too interesting.

I enjoyed P3P quite a bit. I enjoyed the themes it explored. I liked the music although I still probably enjoyed Persona 5's music more. I didn't play as the girl character, but apparently there are quite a bit of story differences in that route and I'm interested in going back and playing that sometime, although it will be quite a while until I play it again

If you're remotely interested in P3P, I recommend it.

TL:DR: Persona 3 Portable is a good game that has very good story moments although some very frustrating moments when it comes to battling at night. However, it's still very enjoyanle.

Up Next: Persona 3 Portable was a great time, but I am ready to move on from RPGs. What's next? Time to find out.



Mass Effect. Picked by Alpha. Never played Mass Effect game, don't really know too much about them. Alpha keeps demanding I play this one over on Discord, so I guess he finally gets his wish.

R2D21999 - PS5 - R2D21999 on Discord

Fyi, this review is not part of my personal challenge, but I was requested by some to give my thoughts on the game as I was in the middle of playing it, so here it is. I am still doing the challenge, I swear.

Game #254: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Main + Extras: 147h 35m 23s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: April 27, 2025

Games Synopsis: The last of the human race is on the run after the destruction of Earth by the hands of aliens. Play as one of the last survivors as you and others of the human race have crash landed on a new planet.

Blog: Back in 2015/2016, I played the original Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U. It was the first Xenoblade game I played and was the one to kick start my love for the overall franchise.

That being said, I had my criticisms of X even way back when. The original had issues such as its mediocre story, affinity quests that you could be trapped in due to questionable game design, and collectibles being a pain to get.

Some of these issues Definitive Edition has either fixed, not touched, or in one major case... has been made worse.

What was improved: the collectibles! In the original you can accept quests where you will have to find a certain collectible, the collectibles being represented as blue crystals scattered throughout the world. The problem with these quests is that the specific collectibles you'll need are exclusive to specific areas in the specific regions with absolutely no guidance or hints about where they could be. And even if you know where they're located through online guides, certain collectibles are extremely rare. I recall in my first time playing the Wii U game I would run around the area collecting all of the blue crystals, not finding the item I need in any of them, reloading the area to spawn the crystals again, and then repeat it all until I found what I needed. This would often take me hours straight, especially if the quest is asking for more than one of them. When I replayed Xenoblade X a year ago, I actually skipped these quests entirely because no way was I going to deal with it.

Definitive Edition does some simple things to fix this: it puts an exclamation mark above the crystals that have the item needed for a quest, and it shows you where they are on the map. Sure you could argue this makes the quests unnecessary and redundant, but this was a godsend and took what was the equivalent of real life hours searching for the right items to less than 5 minutes. It was glorious and felt very vindicating coming from the Wii U.

What problem has Definitive Edition not fixed? The affinity missions. These are specific missions that either offer new characters you can play with in your party or even introducing new groups of characters that offer new minor storylines. The problem with these, however, if you choose to accept an affinity mission you can't accept any other affinity missions or even story missions until you finish the one you're on, and you can't cancel mid-affinity mission.

This becomes an issue if the mission you accepted turns out to be much harder than the recommended level. Because if you're stuck, then you're out of luck unless you load up a manual save from before the mission. The game also has some weird game design that can especially mess you up because often times the quest will be listed as level 30, but the level 30 enemy you have to kill is surrounded by level 40 enemies that will obliterate you!

I had this exact problem happen to me back in 2015 with the Blitzkrieg mission, I had to kill a level 30 enemy in a base surrounded by level 40 enemies that would instantly aggro on you and kill you in seconds. I had to grind myself up for hours to about 10 levels to even give myself the chance because my manual save was too far back to load up.

And this issue is still in the game! I didn't go into Blitzkrieg until I was at least level 50, so the level 40 enemies didn't bother me as I knowingly prepared for it. But this was still a level 30 recommended mission! And I just looked it up, people who never played the original are complaining about this exact mission, because of course they are! The issue still exists!!

Of course, at least the Definitive Edition didn't make that situation worse... unfortunately I can't say the same thing about the story. The story for Xenoblade X was never particularly bad. But it was rather lackluster despite there being some interesting mysteries around everything. Largely though, the game left a lot of those mysteries unanswered and even left the ending on a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger that was left unanswered for 10 years.

I will keep details extremely vague to avoid spoiling the game for those who wish to play it for themselves. But those mysteries and cliffhangers? They are left mostly unanswered, and in some cases, are hinted at to likely never be answered. This absolutely frustrated me, I waited 10 years for answers about stuff... and THAT was it? They literally abandon all of it. Even worse: the theming of the added epilogue goes against many themes that Xenoblade Chronicles X had gone over, and these weren't changed in the DE version either, so the inconsistencies really get in your face.

They also introduce a new character in the epilogue and I really wish they added some affinity missions in the middle of the main game to talk about this guy, because he just shows up almost completely unannounced and it's the strangest inclusion. I can't talk about that aspect much because he is unfortunately entirely spoiler territory. I will add, this character has a weird running gag and it is so incredibly annoying and comes up at such weird times. If you think the jokes about eating Tatsu were annoying, this gag felt worse than that.

Elma was also weirdly out of character. She's someone who for the most part is very calculating, cool-headed, and independent. But the epilogue has her reacting a little more... rash? This is especially so at the start of it all. It's very weird.

The conclusion of the story was so disappointing. I gave the original Xenoblade X an 8, and while the Definitive Edition definitely does some gameplay things better, the story was enough for me to give it a 7/10. The game does hint at the end that there could be a continuation so hopefully that could fix things, but I doubt it.

With all the negative I just said, I want to emphasize that Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition is still a great game as a whole. This has one of the best open worlds I've ever seen in a game, giving games even like Breath of the Wild a run for their money in that aspect. You can pretty go anywhere in this game, and exploration becomes even better when you get access to mechs. Yes, you heard that right, halfway through the game you can start piloting a mech and it's awesome! You can customize it to have different weapons and abilities during combat, you can go so much faster in the vehicle mode, and when you get the upgrade for it, you can even use it to fly. It's so much fun.

Side quests are also some of the best. No Xenoblade game even comes close to the side quests in this game. You can make decisions in this game that can have drastic consequences if you're not careful. You can easily get NPCs killed with the choices you make and it's a wild time. I always liked the side quests so much more than the story in any of the Xenoblade X versions.

I also want to add that the Definitive Edition makes the game look so much better. Characters look gorgeous, Elma especially had a major face lift and I prefer her look over the original.

And as much crap as I gave the epilogue, I liked that new area they added. It's definitely smaller than any other region in the game, but it was nice to have something that's more focused on using the mechs to fly around than anything else in the game.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is a great game... if you ignore the epilogue. The rest of the game is truly great.

TL:DR: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition turns a great game with a mediocre story, into a great game with an even worse story. Otherwise, this game has one of the best openworlds and sidequests of any other game out there. It's good, I promise.

I will nominate Persona 3. If I have to specify a version, the Persona 3 Portable one.

Here's the challenges I've completed in the last two months.

February:

11. A game from a genre you don’t normally play - A Way Out - I don't normally play co-op games... I-I promise I have friends.

29. A game with an interesting hook - Patrick's Parabox - A game with quite a lot of interesting hooks. I implore anyone to see the game for themselves to understand what I mean. It's hard to explain for someone like me who is not very smart!

30-1. A game with a great plot twist - Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - It's by the Ace Attorney people. So of course, this has plot twists. Multiple.

31-1. The definitive edition of a game (or GOTY edition, Ultimate Edition, Deluxe edition, etc.) - Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - Anniversary Edition - This is the Anniversary edition of the first Danganronpa game that was put on Switch

March:

14-2. A game with under 100 completions - Kra-Ken - Only two completions

14-3. A game with no recorded completion times - Drag Her! - A free unfinished drag queen fighting game had no completion times until I came along.

24. An indie game - Rainbowcore Hypernova - This is about as indie as indie gets.

47. A game that won or was a finalist for a Steam Award - Stardew Valley - Despite coming out in 2016, in 2017 it won the 'The World Is Grim Enough Let's Just All Get Along' award.

Here's my collection:

https://howlongtobeat.com/user/R2D21999/lists/68594/R2D21999-2025-Challenge

January: 7 games
February: 4 games
March: 4 games

Been playing Stardew and then Xenoblade X back-to-back. So not many completions.

Mar 18 - Stardew Valley (PC) - 10/10
Mar 19 - Drag Her! (PC) - 4/10
Mar 19 - Icons: Combat Arena (PC) - 5/10
Mar 24 - Kra-Ken (PC) - 3/10
Mar 25 - Rainbowcore Hypernova (PC) - 8/10

Best: Stardew Valley
Worst: Kra-Ken

I just saw some listings of the physical games and majority of them requires additional download. What is even the purpose of physical copies anymore?


I'm done with Nintendo, they became too greedy. It's just not worth it anymore, with the NSO subscription + $80 1st party titles. And why does the built-in game chat need a subscription? Even the virtual tech demo game is not free...

Yeah, I'll be sticking with my handheld pc and just emulate stuff.

I don't know what listings you're seeing, but only two out of the eight games on Walmart's preorders have that marker and they're both third-party. Seemingly, first party physicals are safe aside from any future patches or content updates.