Playing "Trails through Daybreak 2", and have two more in my wishlist for this month: "Atelier Yumia" and "Xenoblade X DE".
I wasn't planning to post here... was just checking the formatting and accidentally posted it instead. :D
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
It's almost universally considered one of the best in the series, and one my favorites to this day. Hope you enjoy it!
Alan Wake Remastered
Played this back in when it was released for the 360 and loved it. Like you said is less horror and more of a thriller, clearly inspired by shows in the vein of The Twilight Zone.
Playing Rabi-Ribi post-game!
... and it's absolutely crazy.
It starts with you going through a huge area where old bosses show up as regular enemies (at least you are not required to fight them), folllowed by a puzzle-like boss who mimics your equipments so you have to figure out what is worth equipping and what buffs the boss too much, continuing with a 19 boss rush without saves (thankfully they are scaled down and there's a few checkpoints in the middle), and finally a boss who not only is fairly hard but also has 5 life bars. And that's only Chapter 6!
But honestly? It was quite fun. Really challenging and made me sweat a lot, but never felt insurmountable.
Chapter 7 was relatively tame compared to the previous one, just a big area with a ton of plataforming challenges. And now I reached Chapter 8 which finally lets me go to the Library area... let's see what awaits me there.
Playing Trails Through Daybreak II!
Finished the Prologue and Overture chapters and the plot throws has some interesting early-game twists.
Prologue spoilers
Looks like the main gimmick this time will be time travelling and alternate timelines? It was a cool to see the heroes initially lose in the prologue and having to redo the timeline to succeed.
Loved that we get Elaine right on the prologue (hoping she sticks around as a regular party member this time) and that also see the return of two members of the "Imperial Picnicking Front" from Reverie.
On the negative side, the visual quality on the Switch version is a much worse than recent Falcom games and it's bad enough to become distracting at times. A shame considering both Daybreak 1 and Ys X looked and ran reasonably well on the platform.
Can I ask what’s the deal with Persona 3 or 5 having multiple titles (Royal, Strikers, Tactica) under the same number (P5)? Are those relating stories, while the new numbering means a separate story / world?
Atlus has a habit of releasing "upgraded/improved" versions of their games:
The "upgraded" version effectively obsoletes the original version as they include expanded storylines, improved QOL and so on.
Other games like P5 Strikers or P5 Tactica use the same cast but with a different gameplay style. They're usually meant to be played after the original game and should be treated as as spin-offs or sequels.
Glad you liked my recommendations!
Feel free to ping me for more suggestions, I'm a massive JRPG fan and have played a ridiculous amount of games in this genre.
Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Royal both are available on Switch
Reload is not available on the Switch. 🙁 But since it's available on the XSX OP can still get it.
I'm seconding most of your recommendations, except I'd recommend Atelier Sophie 2 instead of Ryza mainly because it's a more traditional turn-based battle system instead of the action/turn-based hybrid Ryza uses.
Please, if you know other awesome JRPGs or other turn-based games, tell me about it. :)
Oh boy, I could spend hours talking about these. So instead let me give some recommendations on different styles of JRPGs.
Fairly easy, there's a plenty of fast-travel spots around the map and some upgrades like the double jump and slide unlock a lot of shortcuts.
I wanted to spend my last weekend of vacations playing Trails Through Daybreak II but my copy is stuck in Customs. 🙁
Finished Rabi-Ribi!
Cutest metroidvania I've ever played, and it's quite a good game too! Extremely non-linear and open, I finished the "main quest" with only 50% map completion! Between that and some post-game content there's still plenty for me to do here. Oh, and it also has a ridiculously catchy OST that will definitely get stuck in your head.
Had a ton of fun with this one. Easy recommendation to metroidvania fans, and I even added Tevi from the same developer to my wishlist.
Playing Fantasian Neo Dimension!
Slow progress but still following my plan of doing short sessions completing a quest or two. Getting brickwalled by some of the optional bosses though, got my entire party one-shot from full life a couple times already which is never fun. 🙁
Double-posting since I forgot to add this to my initial post, but I replayed Metroid Prime when the Switch port was released and I was quite impressed. Yeah, it has some outdated aspects like the map, but it's kinda crazy how well it plays considering it's more than 20 years old. The port is also really impressive, one of the best looking games on the console while also running smoothly at 60FPS.
But my favorite thing about the game is the atmosphere. It nails perfectly the feeling of a lonely explorer in a wild, dangerous planet.
What were your Top 3 most played games this year? Here's mine:
Harvestella was a really good surprise for me this year. It felt really unimpressive to me at first, but kept growing on me as I played and I ended up with a quite positive opinion of the game at the end.
Daybreak main cast is definitely a mixed bad. I liked the side characters like Rene, Elaine and Dingo a lot more.