Lunar’s Log

I plan to log short reviews of whatever games, books, tv shows, and movies I end up finishing, in an effort to be more mindful about the things I consume.

[lunarhades0]

Leaving Emulation Behind (Mostly)

February was a journey, it felt like a month went by in a flash. A lot happened, and I want to catch you up. The main thing that happened, as I am sure you can tell by the title, I decided to leave (software) emulation behind.

I understand that many people believe FPGA hardware is also emulation, and I can understand the argument, but to me, if I am playing a game cartridge on cycle accurate hardware, it's not emulation, and that is the assumption this post will take going forward.

To address the elephant in the room, I have sold the AYN Thor. I waited to write this post until I was a few weeks away from that decision to ensure I had no regrets, and thankfully I have no regrets. I bought the Thor knowing that it was everything I could ever ask for out of an emulation handheld, and despite that it still didn't feel as fulfilling as I would've liked to play games on it. Having every option imaginable just leads to me having too much decision anxiety, and I have accepted that emulation largely isn't for me. But that's okay! Emulation is incredible for many people, and I think the Thor is still the best one most people could buy. I just couldn't muster the desire to pick up a game via emulation.

I had a wonderful friend send me a DSi XL which I was very excited about, but it unfortunately (unbeknownst to him) had some issues that I was not able to fix. I passed that on to a mutual friend of ours to repair, and he was able to get it fixed, which makes me so happy for him. But, I bought a DSi XL (pictured at the start of this post) to play DS games, which expanded my handheld capabilities to one of the largest libraries. I was gifted a copy of Pokemon Platinum by a lovely friend, and have been enjoying playing it on original hardware significantly more than I had when I tried it on the Thor. I am excited to play more and more DS games on it.

I still have the Analogue Pocket, and it is still my favorite handheld I've ever owned, I do not believe anything can top how it makes me engrossed with the Gameboy Color library in particular. I have not finished any games on it recently, due to DNFing Dragonyhm (unfortunately) but I have been enjoying Dragon Warrior III as of late. And, my wife got me an excellent condition copy of Pokemon Crystal for my birthday, so that is my most desired game in the library finally within my grasp.

I also got my Playstation Vita out of storage, and was reminded of how much I love it. I was going to play Persona 4 Golden (and hopefully actually finish it for the first time) but I decided to go for another run through Persona 3 Portable first. The Vita is the only good way to play Vita, and in my opinion still the best way to play PSP games. I am aware it is technically emulating the PSP, but that is a compromise I am willing to make. I have a PSP in my basement that I could use if I so chose. I also enjoy playing the PSX library on it, and again I am aware that is emulation, but it still feels more real than the other emulators I have used. There's a reason the title of the post says (mostly.)

A big change in the past couple of weeks is I have gotten into home console collecting in addition to the handhelds, which I am surprised I've done. I know I will not have as much of a chance to use them as the handhelds, but I found a good CRT at an estate sale, and I still have my Dreamcast that I got in 2001, so I wanted to play it. And I was gifted a Playstation 2 Slim from another incredible friend, so I have two more gigantic libraries available to me now too. I don't plan on collecting as many of these games as I did the handheld games, due to having less time to attempt to play them, but I am enjoying collecting them none-the-less. And another amazing friend sent me a copy of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete for the Playstation 1, which made my heart soar. And another fantastic friend sent me Sly and Sly 2, which I have never played, and that is so exciting. I have felt so blessed to have so many amazing friends, and such an amazing wife.

Due to these loving and supportive friends, and my loving and supporting wife, I have more games and consoles than I can play, and I will be set for a long period of time. That, plus I still love my Steam Deck Oled, and I have been playing World of Warcraft: Midnight. I don't think I need to buy into anything new any time soon. But, do we always do what we need?

Moving forward, I am going to slow down on my game collection efforts, until I can play through a significant number of the games I still have on my plate. I will pick up an occasional good deal here or there, but I am set for quite a while. In terms of hardware, I found my Playstation 3 Slim, and my Wii, so I have access to plenty of libraries if I want to expand my collection. I would love to find a New 3DS for a decent price at some point, but it will not be a priority any time soon. My wife and I have considered finding a Wii U, simply to get Skylanders for the kids, but that is a bit out of budget at the moment.

Outside of the gaming sphere, I have been enjoying offline music listening, and just ordered an iPod. I will certainly be making a post about that experience once it is in my hands and I have time with it. For now I will be listening to music on my TrimUI Brick Hammer, running Rockbox.

I know this is a very long post, and I thank you for reading it all. The retro game journey takes all of us in different directions, but I like the direction I am headed in now. The game industry currently makes me quite sad, outside of the incredible indie games we've been getting that I can play on my Deck, so moving backwards seems inevitable. I am tired of battle passes and loot boxes and DLC. I just want a complete game, and that's what I am getting with retro games, for better or for worse. If there is anything I need to emulate, rom hacks, translations, games that are far too expensive to actually own, I will still have the Deck and the Brick Hammer to scratch those itches. But for now, my physical collection awaits, and I absolutely love it!

[lunarhades0]

A Month With the Analogue Pocket

One hazy night, while I was a guest in the hospital for reasons I dare not share, I found a Grape Analogue Pocket on Ebay that was far overpriced. I threw in a lowball offer, and had a fitful night of rest. When I awoke, I was surprised to find that the seller had accepted my offer. In a panic, I sent them a message trying to cancel it. After all, I didn't need a new device to play Gameboy Color games, and cartridges are expensive! Upsetting me at the time, the seller sent me a rude "No" to cancelling it, and shipped it off.

Despite that initial panic and regret, I eagerly awaited the package, and I found some cartridges to play. And I was blown away almost immediately, it felt great (as it should for the price) and the screen was just gorgeous. I didn't understand how authentic, and incredible, the screen would look in person. The Gameboy Color is my favorite console of all time, and this really feels like the optimal way to play those games.

The Analogue Pocket is an FPGA handheld console, which can play Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance cartridges. The display has a perfect 10x integer scale for Gameboy and Gameboy Color, and it is unlike anything else I have used. It can play a handful of other systems if you buy cartridge slot adapters, however I haven't dipped my toes into those experiences. And it has OpenFPGA, which I do not use, but I know is a big deal to many people who buy this device. I'm 100% cartridge right now, and for that experience it has been incredible.

While I was waiting for the arrival of my Analogue Pocket, I dug through my garage and found my original copies of Tetris and Pokemon Pinball, and stopped by a local shop to get a few others, mostly focusing on games I had never played before. Namely, the Pokemon: Trading Card Game, which I had been eyeing since I was a kid.

The first thing I did was play Tetris, with the green monotone filter to mimic the original Gameboy, and it was just incredible. Reviews and photos cannot do the screen's impressive visuals justice. It felt both like I was taken back to my childhood, but also enhanced and modern, in a perfect blend. I'm still just as bad at Tetris as I was back then, maybe even worse now, but I had a huge smile on my face as I did it.

The next thing I did was load up Pokemon Pinball, and I almost cried. My Pokédex completion from playing the game 25 years ago was still there. The rumble still worked, and the game looked perfect. I did not realize how much of this tactile experience I was missing out on with software emulation. Taking carts in and out of the device, blowing on them when there's some dust, it all feels so real and somehow fun.

Even getting into cart maintenance and repair has been fun. I learned how to solder to replace the battery on The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages since the copy I was gifted wouldn't save. Opening up cartridges to clean or repair them makes me feel like I'm preserving history.

The Gameboy Advance experience on the Pocket isn't as good as the Gameboy experience, but I still like it quite a bit. The games look nice, and being able to bind the L and R buttons to where X and Y would be is excellent. The L and R buttons on the Pocket are fairly uncomfortable, but that makes up for it. There is some letterboxing, but I am easily able to ignore that. I would like an Analogue Advance at some point, to make it a bit easier to enjoy GBA games, but they're still quite good on here.

Overall the Analogue Pocket has been incredible for my mental health, and my focus. I am able to grab a cartridge, and play it, and not worry about what else I could be playing, or have to wade through a huge menu of games to make a decision. It has helped me stay in the moment. The sleep mode also makes it easy to hop in and out to play in short bursts when I have the chance. I have beaten more games in the past month than I did the entirety of 2025.

Hunting for cartridges has also become an activity for my whole family. My wife has a DS Lite that she started collecting DS games for, my kids each got a 2DSXL for Christmas, and they've also enjoyed browsing and collecting child appropriate DS and 3DS games.

Unfortunately, here comes the part I have been dreading. As much as I love the Analogue Pocket, I cannot recommend hunting on Ebay and paying scalped prices, and that is the reality of buying one of these right now. Analogue hasn't has a restock in quite some time, and secondhand prices are going wild. If you want to hunt and hope for a good price, because you love the Gameboy Color like I do, absolutely do that. But if you just want to buy something new that works, I would suggest what I would've bought had I not gotten this lucky break, which is the Funny Playing Gameboy Color. That is a different FPGA Gameboy Color, which is probably more than good enough for most people, and I probably would've loved it almost as much as I love the Analogue Pocket.

At the end of the day, I do love the Analogue Pocket, it is going to be my companion for the foreseeable future. There are new Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance games coming out, and I have so much to explore and collect in that realm, in addition to all of the older cartridges I am also collecting. 2026 is the year of the Gameboy Color in my eyes, and I hope others enjoy it too, in any way they can!

[lunarhades0]

Talking About Coffee (Talk)

Recently I finally finished Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly, and I absolutely loved it. I was a big fan of Coffee Talk, and I took too long of a gap between playing them, but now I am done and wanted to share my thoughts.

I'll start with my feelings about Coffee Talk, I didn't want it to end. I was in the deep-end with these characters and this story and I wanted to see every line of dialogue, and every possible scene. I even used a guide to do all of that. It felt like spending more time with the friends I had grown to love. I've never played visual novel games before, and I am not sure if that is unique to this one. Being in a version of Seattle where fantasy people are real, and experience many of the same problems and discriminations that we all do was impactful. Making coffee and making friends, and listening the beautiful, chill, original lo-fi soundtrack just felt so right.

Coffee Talk convinced me that if I were to win the lottery, I would open up a late-night coffee shop. I would absolutely love that experience. I know it wouldn't be the same, but I don't know if I'd like anything else as much to fill my time with.

Coffee Talk Episode 2, at first, felt like more of the same. A lot of returning characters, a few new ones, and it didn't grip me. Until I realized that the game wasn't just re-telling stories from the first, it was expanding the world and lore. It was giving the characters more depth. And most of all, it was starting to angle towards a true conclusion for their stories. I realized that it wasn't truly a sequel, it was the second half of the game. I had only experienced the mid-point of their stories, and I needed to see how they ended.

Except this time, I didn't want to use guides. I didn't want to see every scene. I wanted to do my best to do right by my friends, and I wanted to see them get the endings I thought they deserved. And I think I did a good job, I got the best endings, except for one, where I got a neutral ending. Even the neutral ending felt natural and satisfying, and if I hadn't had a Steam popup telling me that it was the neutral ending, I wouldn't have blinked at seeing it.

The characters I love are done now, I don't think we'll be seeing them again in Coffee Talk: Tokyo; which I am excited to play when it releases. And I am fine with that. I don't need any more time with these characters I fell in love with, because they feel finished. And finished in such a satisfying fashion, to boot.

I would whole-heartedly recommend Coffee Talk to just about everyone I know, and have repeatedly. The world it presents is interesting, and deep. It mirrors our real world issues, but in a fantastical way that is probably easier for some to digest and understand.

The rainy, lo-fi, casual vibe was incredible. And I didn't even talk about the drink-making! You'll just have to experience that for yourself :)

[lunarhades0]

Snow-Day Thoughts

I am still trying to figure out how tumblr really works, but instead of slightly more formal writing, I figured I would take this snowy day at home to write something a bit more "stream of consciousness." Recently I've been playing a lot more games, but reading less books, but I think that might also change soon.

It's obvious that I've been pretty obsessed with the Gameboy and Gameboy Color libraries recently, and I haven't written up formal reviews, but I have completed two more Gameboy games! Kirby's Dreamland is a game I've played before, but I was happy to pick up a cart and play it front to back. Kirby's debut game is an enjoyable experience I can definitely go back to again and again.

For the first time, I played Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. After my experience with Wario Land 3, I was hesitant, however I picked up the cartridge anyway. And I quite enjoyed it! Objectively, Wario Land 3 is the better game, but I definitely had a more relaxed time with the first game. Rather than the puzzle game approach that Wario Land 3 took, the Wario Land is a bit more like Super Mario Land 2, except Wario is a little slower, and can charge, pick up enemies, butt-slam, and breathe fire, depending on the power up you have. Linear side scrolling platforming levels, but with some added challenge to find the hidden treasures, secret levels, and more coins. I didn't 100% it, but that is something I am interested in going back to in the future.

As for more modern gaming, I am continuing to play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. After having issues running it on my Steam Deck and laptop, I acquiesced and paid for Geforce Now, to play it, and my experience has been much improved. It looks great on my AYN Thor through Geforce Now, and there's no noticeable latency. As for story progress, I have finished Act 1, and I am sort of stunned. I am excited to continue, but it is draining to play, so I can't play it every day.

I did finish another modern game, Coffee Talk II: Hibiscus and Butterflies, however I do plan to go back to 100% it, and write something longer form where I compare it to the first Coffee Talk. I will say that I loved it, and it made me cry.

For reading goals, I wanted to finish Babel, by R.F. Kuang this month, but I barely made a dent. My book club is reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, so Babel will be on pause until I finish that. Ideally I'll have both books finished by the end of February though.

In terms of T.V., I've been watching a lot with my wife. So far this season of The Pitt is off to an incredible start. If you haven't seen The Pitt, I highly recommend it. Each season follows a single day in the ER, each hour-long episode covering an hour of the day. As far as medical dramas go, it feels incredibly human and realistic, and genuinely moving at the right times. The show is bloody, and heavy, so make sure you are in the right mindset if you decide to watch, but you are in for possibly the best medical fiction show ever created.

Season 2 of Fallout is also incredible thus far, it has kept running where season 1 left off, and hasn't lost momentum. The story continues to weave and intertwine in ways that make sense, and aren't entirely expected. I haven't played much of Fallout: New Vegas before, but this season is definitely putting me in the mood to do so. I can't wait to see how the season concludes.

Now, Traitors season 4. I have many thoughts about this season so far. I've never seen more micro-aggressions, and even macro-aggressions, happen between players in a reality game show. It has been an incredibly charged season. Michael Rappaport sucks, and I am mad he was cast at all, but I love Ron Funches so I wanted to watch. I don't want to spoil the season, but I am just unhappy with both how the cast are treating each other, and the direction the season is taking as a whole. The challenges seem a little boring, and the stakes just aren't there. The game truly needs to drop the challenges, or make them about something other than collecting money, the social aspect is far more interesting.

And that's been January so far! I hope my rambling has been enjoyable, I hope to have my Coffee Talk post finished in the next week or so!

[bloodofelves]

Happy Anniversary to Ghost in the Shell!  (November 18, 1995)

[terminalghost]

ᴀʟᴡᴀʏs ʀᴇʙʟᴏɢ GITS

[lunarhades0]

Wario Land 3: A Lesson in Humiliation (And I kind of liked it?)

            Growing up, Wario was such an unappealing character that I completely shied away from his games.  No Wario Land series, no WarioWare, until I got gifted a copy of WarioWare: Smooth Moves for the Wii.  And I thought it was okay.  I didn’t love it; it didn’t ingratiate me to the character of Wario.  But Wario Land 3 might have!  Not to say he isn’t a foul character, but I now have a fondness for how foul he is.  He’s genuinely funny, and I finally understand why he’s become a beloved character.

            Unfortunately, Wario Land 3 has not ingratiated me to the Wario Land series.  I am sure the other games aren’t exactly the same, I know that many people love Wario Land 4, but Wario Land 3 ultimately lands as a solid “meh” from me, but a “meh” that is so immensely charged with feelings.  I want to love Wario Land 3, but I didn’t feel like it loved me back.

            Wario Land 3 feels like an exercise in humiliation training, where you either submit to being humiliated, or quit.  When the puzzles were intuitive to me, it was one of the best games I’ve ever played, the game has plenty of highs, but the lows were some of the most infuriating things.  I don’t enjoy having to look up the solution to a puzzle, just to find out it’s essentially a 90’s adventure game “try X on Y” situation.  And I avoided looking up puzzles as long as I could, I’d try each one for 15-20 minutes before acquiescing.  At the start of the game, I had to look up very few puzzles.  By the end, I was looking up every third or fourth solution.

            The main issue I have is not that the puzzle solutions are even *that* esoteric or hard to figure out, it’s that the game wastes so much of your time between attempts at solving said puzzle.  Mess up one, and you’re running around on fire for 30 seconds, dropping back to the bottom of the level, and you must make the climb back once more.  The first time, fine.  The twentieth?  I couldn’t take it.  But the game expects you to.  It expects you to watch Wario run around on fire, or float to the top of the level in anaphylaxis, before trying again.  Wario continues to be humiliated, and by extension, so do I as a player.  If I could just get it right, I wouldn’t have my time wasted.

Back onto some positives, visually the game is stunning.  The Gameboy Color is already my favorite console, and the art is so expressive and engaging.  I am glad to have picked up a copy of Wario Land 3 to see it all in motion, if nothing else.  The music was also great (when I wasn’t listening to the ‘running around on fire theme’) and I don’t have anything negative to say about the game’s presentation as a whole.  The audiovisual experience is part of why I wanted to love Wario Land 3.

            The puzzles were also engaging, when I was able to understand them and execute effectively.  And I know a lot of these problems are due to my small brain and aging hands, but I genuinely feel like some of it is significantly too punishing to my time.  It’s not a “game over” animation and I start over, it’s watching a fish drag Wario slowly to a current, spitting him back out, and then watching Wario float down the river until I can control him again to try again.  The animation is cute, I understand the intent of Wario (basically) never dying, but my god it made anything I didn’t figure out immediately completely infuriating.

            I don’t want to sound too down on the game though, I love so many parts of it.  I just can’t bring myself to love it as a whole, and the parts I didn’t love weigh heavily on my soul.  I did kind of like the experience, and I think the game forced me to enjoy the humiliation by a point, or I would’ve stopped.  Wario Land 3 will always be memorable to me, and for that was worth the $35 I spent on the (very nicely maintained) cartridge.

            Thank you for reading, I hope that next review makes me significantly less frustrated!

P.S. Fuck that golf minigame, the game would be 30% better without it.

[lunarhades0]

The end of 2025 was such a mess, I forgot to finish writing anything! So, instead of flooding my page with 6 reviews that I have to fully flesh out, let me just summarize the end of my year (and the first few days of 2026) in a single post!

First up, I finished Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao. While I would have loved to write a full review, I think that the beauty and mystery of the second half of the book really need to speak for themselves. The ending chapters made me cry, repeatedly. I couldn't have asked for a better book to end 2025 on.

Well, that's a lie, because I did read another book after Water Moon. Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree was my real final read of 2025, and I don't have much to say about it, positively or negatively. I thought the concept was far more interesting than the execution, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't rooting for the characters by the end of it. It started too slow, and ended too quickly. The second book is on my list to read eventually, I hope Travis keeps the momentum he built up by the end of the first book, and truly executes in the second. By the end of Legends and Lattes, all I could think was "This is a Hallmark movie set in a fantasy world" for better or for worse. A comfortable read.

Rounding out 2025, I finished two videogames! The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap was first on my list. I really loved The Minish Cap, until I hit roughly the 75% point. My enjoyment really started to peter out by the time I got to the fifth dungeon, and by the sixth and final dungeon, I was just happy to have the game finished. I could say more about things like, Kinstones were novel but annoying, and the Roc's Cape is one of the least useful items in the franchise, but I will leave off with the fact that I still think the game was worth playing, I just wish it ended on a stronger note.

To talk about my final game of 2025, I need to talk about a purchase I made in delirium. Late one night I made an offer on an Analogue Pocket, which was probably a good deal, but was a silly decision. I have had so many retro emulator devices, why would I want the expensive one that I need cartridges to play? Well, apparently because it's the best way to play my favorite console of all time, the Gameboy Color. And after having it in my hands, I completely agree.

My final game of 2025 was Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite for the Gameboy Color, played on the original cartridge. I got it on January 31st, and played through the whole game while counting up to midnight with my wife. She loved the Hamtaro games, and was able to give me advice as I played. And I loved this experience. Ham-Hams Unite is a great looking Gameboy Color game, and playing through it front to back, in one ~4 hour sitting, on the Analogue Pocket's gorgeous screen, will forever be one of my favorite gaming memories. I really ended 2025 on a high note.

After that, it was the new year! I've been collecting Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance cartridges to play on my Analogue Pocket. I finished the Pokemon Trading Card Game for Gameboy Color, I started Wario Land 3, and I got a Gameboy Camera (which the photo from the top of this post is from.). I'll probably write more in depth about these later, but buying the Analogue Pocket really shifted the trajectory of 2026 for the time being. It's all Gameboy from here.

[lunarhades0]

Water Moon Halfway Thoughts

Water Moon by Samantha Soto Yambao has been a great read so far, so I will start with some short impressions before I start diving into spoilers and speculation.

I picked this book up for the cover, and I know that's an awful thing to do, but it entranced me. And the world within entranced me even further. The world is odd and thought provoking, but gets easier to understand the more time you spend in it.

Loosely, the book tells the story of Hana, the proprietor of a pawnshop in Tokyo, and how she meets Keishin, a scientist who has recently moved back to Japan. This pawnshop is not what it seems, however, and the two become embroiled in a roller-coaster of an adventure.

I have loved almost every moment of this book so far, and I am excited to see where it goes. With that out of the way, the spoilers and speculation will start in the next section, so be prepared.

First off, the world is wildly detailed in its strangeness, and I love it. I am not sure which parts are from Japanese culture, and which are straight out of the mind of the author, but the world created is compelling nonetheless. Horrifying monsters who collect regretful decisions, and use them to teach why having free will is dangerous? Impeccable.

Second, I am never sure where this story is going, but Hana and Keishin's relationship is one I am rooting for wherever it goes. They seem so cute together. And they're both fairly bold, only having known each other for a few days by the time I've gotten halfway through this novel, but they've kissed! And she's FATED TO ANOTHER? A great twist before moving into the second half of the book.

I do believe the book will end with Keishin choosing to stay in Hana's world, rather than getting her agree to leave it, but either way I do believe they will end up together. Or, they will find Hana's father, and find out her mother is living a normal life in Keishin's world, and they will all leave Hana's world, permanently.

I will write a full review when I finish reading, but for now I wanted to say my piece about what I've read so far. And what I've read so far is enthralling!

[lunarhades0]

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Prologue Check-In

Recently I decided to jump into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 after being hesitant to play it all year. I didn't expect this level of beauty, both in a graphical sense, and through the story, even in my limited time played so far. I am genuinely floored by this game, and excited to play more.

Without getting too far into spoilers, the game features heavy themes of impermanence and loss, and optimism in spite of it. Even the prologue alone was enough to make me think deeply, and really think about life. It is also dark, but the characters do their best to avoid succumbing to nihilism, despite the grim reality they live in.

Where these characters go next, I do not know, but I do know that I am hooked. I hope to finish the game by the end of the month.

[lunarhades0]

I Absolutely Adored Pokémon Lazarus

As a big Pokemon fan, but of the casual variety, I rarely feel like Pokemon hacks are for me. Many are too difficult, or restrictive, or simply jam far too much into a small space. But Lazarus felt different, immediately.

Entering the game, the art style was charming, mildly nostalgic, but wholly unique for a Pokemon game, landing somewhere between the aesthetics of the Gameboy Color games, and the potential of the Gameboy Advance. It fits right into a, sort of, transitional art space, where Nemo got to make every choice deliberately. Aside from the few graphical glitches I found in my journey (that I’m sure have been fixed or are being worked on) I found it to be incredibly polished and beautiful. It looked perfect on the top screen of my AYN Thor. And the music was great! Every track fit the situation, and I enjoyed it.

Gameplay wise, it felt perfect for me. I never had to grind to handle required battles, and even the more difficult battles just needed some thought. My biggest issue with most hacks is that they just feel too hard. All the time. I’m not a competitive player. I don’t know how to play around baton pass setups. And with Lazarus, I don’t need to, in order to enjoy the towns, the story, and the Pokemon. In addition, it seems to scale EXP back depending on the level of Pokemon and number of badges you have, so you’d have to intentionally grind a ton, if you wanted to completely overlevel the challenges.

The story instantly felt classic, modern styled rivals that have their own motivations, a professor asking you to catch ‘em all, and an 8 gym challenge. The Grecian inspired setting was a new one for the franchise, and it felt incredibly fleshed out. I loved traveling around and learning more about the region. I built up my team, caught Pokemon, got HMs, explored more, and the whole time I felt a strong motivation to continue. New sights to see, people to save, friends to meet. And an evil team that felt perfectly, cartoonishly, evil!

Pokémon Lazarus is an incredible game, and has captured my heart. I will certainly be replaying this one in the future, and this is the first time I’ve felt this way about a hack before. It could be a mainline game, except they’ve done it better than Gamefreak has any time in recent memory. Nemo, you’ve really killed it. Thank you for making this for free, for everyone.

Please enjoy the screenshot of my hall of fame team.

[lunarhades0]

Currently playing Demons’ Souls (2020)

I haven’t played through Demons’ Souls since it released in North America for the PlayStation 3, but since then I’ve been hooked on From Software games.

I’m still in 1-1 as a fresh Cleric, but it feels fantastic. I remember the original feeling a little jank at the time, but this seems incredibly polished. I am excited to progress through, and to see if my knowledge of further From games makes the challenges more attainable this time around