A small thoughts thread: what are you playing and how is it going?

[Fero McPigletron]

Well, I found the birthplace. I actually went to the area before but didn't walk over the exact spot because there were platforms! Also I might now have the right Charm with me then, ugh.

I know how to get the good ending now but the fight seems very Megaman X8 final boss to me, where you have to fight Sigma THEN fight Lumine in his heavenly area form. So it's annoying that I always have to fight the Hollow Knight first before fighting the final boss, ugh. I'm OK to put down the game for the while cuz I just looked up the ending.

Except there were the two dlc campaigns that I didn't see. I thought I had to download it but noooooooo! The trigger was finding them in breakable walls which were there from the get-go. And I missed them!

Grim Troupe, I'm not completing cuz there's two mutually unique endings. Godmaster is tough boss fights. Yeeeeeah, I'll beat the good ending boss first.

I'm secretly terrified of Silksong now. Hollow Knight is tough as heck but I saw it through. I'm afraid Silksong will be harder.

Anybody play Silksong?

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Oh, just for completeness sake, I did beat the final boss and got the good ending.

Fighting the boss beforehand actually became fun. Unbreakable Strength, Mark of Pride, Quick Slash just had me slapping him around with no regard for my health, since it refills up again with the final boss.

Final boss also sorta became fun. Beat him a second time because I thought the first time was a fluke, haha.

Anyway, done with Hollow Knight.
---

Played King of Cards, the King Knight campaign of Shovel Knight, from Treasure Trove. Am already in the final stage but I need to get the other sub weapons.

I sorta hate his mechanic but when I check reviews online about it, people rate it high? Weird.

Anyway, once I beat it, I'll do the versus game with my fave character Baz. Then on to Mina the Hollower.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Finished King of Cards. Platforming is so tough and I really had to readjust from playing Hollow Knight, haha.

I actually beat it once, played Shovel Knight Showdown, then beat the final boss again, just to tell myself that it wasn't a fluke. I HATE fighting over bottomless pits, haha

Review on best story for me,
Specter of Torment - loved the tragic twist
Plague of Shadows - cute love story
Shovel of Hope - also a love story of sorts but Shovel guy had no personality in the game compared to Plague Knight so Plague is higher
King of Cards - he's a funny jerk. The ending with him alone was kinda sad tho.

Showdown is harder than just thought. And where are the controls or movesets? There wasn't any in game I could find (is there?) And there's not list in gamefaqs. I missed doing most of the special attacks.

Baz wasn't unlocked so I did Polar Knight. I spammed his rolling snowball.

Didn't check how to unlock Baz so played Specter Knight. He's cool except still short hops. Unlocked Phantom Striker.

Finally looked up how to get Baz. I need to finish the game with no continues! Reize's storyline is related to Baz and unlocking him is linked to Phantom so finished the game again with him. Nice big jump. Didn't know how to do his lightning stuff. Unlocked Dark Reize.

Dark Reize jumped high and moved fast, pretty cool! Great boomerang stuff too since very long distance. Finally beat the haunted mirror without continuing so finally got Baz! Also got regular Reize.

Finished game with Baz. Big jump, ok whip length if slow ish. Funky ball roll. He stole his costume from Mr Hat so worked in the store to pay for it. Unlocked Mr Hat.

Played Reize for the Baz interaction. Reize, dumb naive kid that he is, thought Baz was cool and wanted him as a teacher, haha. Funny but a meaningful interaction on Baz's side. Also, high jump with double jump flip! Great boomerang too. I guess Reize and Dark Reize are my faves, for speed, jumping and projectiles.

Anyway, done with Showdown and the Treasure Trove in general.

Playing Ace Attorney and Sonic Frontiers next. Whew.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Still on the elite grind. I do enjoy just... flying. Cruising through solar systems, even the occasional planet landings. I just stepped up from an adder to a cobra mark 3, cost me a million to just get some "slightly better than the factory default" components in. But it already has deeper fuel tanks, twice the storage, more weapons... I'm a ways off having a better hyperjump distance... but it's literally just money to get there. Might even save my pennies and get one of the newfangled SCO cruise drives, just to see what the fuss is about.

I'm also starting to do salvage missions. Black boxes mostly, cause there's no planetfalls involved, but I also invested in a scarab to make those easier too. I'm not looking forward to damaging my new ships paint job by taking it into combat... but it's a thing that will happen and bounties pay well.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Just a follow up to say, yeeeeah, I pressed pause while playing Shovel Knight Showdown and, yeeeeeah, the move list was there, haha.

---
Finished the first case of Apollo Justice, the Turnabout Tr-mp. Ugh, it took me forever to realize that the second controller let's you turn the evidence item around. Cuz it wasn't in the listed instructions! Haha

Anyway, Ace Attorney is pretty great. I'm annoyed that the game makes me think it's a dating sim or something, haha.

---
Anybody here playing Mina the Hollower? I was soooooo mad a while ago because it doesn't appear in the PS5 store in the location I'm in. Whaaaaaat?!?! Doesn't Yacht Club want my money?

Friend is using his account and will try playing it live tomorrow. I was so p-ssed off cuz I wanted to play it today! Played Apollo Justice instead, haha

 

[MEDdMI]

I love the Ace Attorney series, played all of the officially translated ones, even the Miles spinoff. Though I'm not including the fighting games, I think Phoenix was just an assist anyway.

 

[Cyberstrike]

I'm playing Starfield on my XBX and Baldur's Gate 3 on my PS5.

 

[wonko the sane?]

I'm still plugging away at elite. Just spent 1.5 mil upgrading my power plant, distributor, and shift drive. I went a little nuts (which happens sometimes when the bank account has seven digits part the decimal.) and splurged on one of those new overcharged shift drive.

And holy jive, they are fun. They greatly reduce the in system transit time... if you don't mind having your ride skittering all over.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Alright, so normally I don't do this daily, but it was a long walkabout, so I figured I would share.

I decided it was time to see more of the universe, so I grabbed a hauling contract worth 850K. It was for 225 light years. A total of 51 jumps (I need to reconfigure my nav computer.) and honking the whole way. I hit the destination system, get an update that there are two freaks out to kill me cause I'm on a humanitarian mission. They interdict me one at a time: I submit to both, and school both without even scratching my paint job. The bounty is worth 219K together.

The only downside: the station I'm at isn't plugged into the universal cartographics network: so I can't cash in my scan data which will probably total out to another 2 mil. I'm out in empire space now, so I'm gonna go see if I can find a dodec station and maybe get myself into a new ship.

 

[The Predaking]

What game are you playing Wonko?

 

[wonko the sane?]

Elite Dangerous. Hands down best space flight sim you could ask for.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

This biiiiites! I'm stuck on the missing noodles panty hit and run second case in Apollo Justice! I examined everything. Talked to everyone. Showed evidence to everyone (switching from slippers to side mirror). I must be missing something obvious but I don't want to look at hints!

 

[wonko the sane?]

In an absolute "Duh" moment: using the super boosted supercruise absolutely chews through the fuel.

I was cruising to a mission spot about 15 thousand light seconds away, and was feathering the supercruise boost (toggle it on then off when I get the heat warning. About 3 seconds.) and did it three times when I got a warning I have not seen since my very first time playing when I was rescued by the fuel rats: "Warning: fuel at 25%".

The boosted cruise is fun though: It turned a 15 minute run into a 4 minute run. And there was no combat out at the mission spot (boo! I wanted bounties!) so I was able to scoop up the target canisters and then just warp back to the original system, where I hung out in the star letting my fuel scoop do it's job. Which is why I bought the fuel scoop in the first, to never run out of fuel.

I then proceeded to spend half a hour trying to find a high-tech system with an actual dodec station so I could hit up a ship vendor. I got 9 mil banked and I want a new ship.

 

[Stepwise]

My DM was reading up on the connections between Pathfinder and Starfinder, and we were talking about how Starfinder basically takes things from the other game and adds spaceships and laser cannons.

When he said he could transplant our Pathfinder characters into that far-future setting, I said he could "Captain America us into He-Man," and somehow that sentence made sense.

 

[Ceir]

I discovered I have a really ancient version of Kerbal Space Program in my archives. Pre-alpha, and so pre-alpha that you have maybe two dozen parts; Jeb, Bill, and Bob; exactly the VAB and launch pad; and exactly Kerbin and the Mun to work with. So of course I got to work, using nothing but the in-game tutorials.

Spudnik I was the tutorial "stick a capsule on a stub SRB" firework. It didn't explode.

Spudnik II was a liquid-fuelled suborbital shot terminated early because of the embarrassing failure to install SAS. While the vehicle did not undergo RUD, it veered significantly off course. Crash-test dummies in the likenesses of the crew were recovered from the impact site.

Spudnik IIb rectified the lack of SAS control. While the design is somewhat overengineered and likely possesses the dV to make orbit, the profile for this mission is simple: Up.

Gentlebeings, we are go.

Ignition and liftoff!

Bingo fuel, MECO! OECO, really (Only Engine Cut Off). Jeb is of course thrilled, Bill and Bob are having a brown trousers moment.

Apoapsis and booster sep. Maximum altitude nearly 300 kilometers. The lads are enjoying themselves.

Clean and uneventful descent (also this version predates reentry flames, so no dramatic shots of that). And oh look, a Mun.

Remember where we parked, guys!

 

[Caldwin]

I keep getting dragged away from Pragmata. I really want to finish that. Now that Cosmic Exploration in Final Fantasy XIV has been finished for Faerie (we win...ha ha!), and everything for Pokopia is done until the DLC hits, now I'm getting sucked into Wind Waker of all things thanks to my new Gamecube Controller for Switch 2.

TL/DR
Wind Waker...still trying to get through Pragmata.