Today’s game is Pokemon Emerald. I’ll give Metal Gear Delta just a little bit longer as I’m making really quick progress on this, plus it’s easy to do in bite size pieces. I have a geology exam coming up so being able to just pick up for like 5 minutes is really appreciated.

I’ve been going around exploring trying to find niche stuff to do after getting stuck on the twin’s gym battle. I found this guy who wanted me to teach him something to make his daughter laugh. I made him say Liam, which is a personal reference too in my friend group (one of my friend’s cracked up at something unrelated when one of us said the name, it’s been a joke ever since).

I also met this guy who wanted me to teach him a new phrase. I taught him the phrase “Damp Swallow”. I hope one day to see this phrase take off.

I’ve reorganized my party a little bit too.

Why am I sharing this screenshot cropped? Well. It’s the only one I have that makes reference to Kenneth the Blaziken and I had to fish it from Discord. Kenneth was the named I picked because I had the R.E.M. song stuck in my head.

There’s also Iyu, the Gardevoir I caught at the start. The name was suggested by a friend from a show they were watching.

The final thing I wanted to mention was the humor of older Pokemon games. I feel like a lot of the older games nail implied humor. I seem to have lost the screenshot I was going to use as reference, but there’s a house with a man who mentions thinking you need a bunch of birds to fly instead of the Move. Okay, weird guess but not that weird. You go in his house though and there’s a fuckton of birds all over the place. There’s no line directly stating it. It’s great. It got a laugh out of me I feel like I haven’t felt in a while. Conversely, while I’ve enjoyed my time with all the newer Pokemon, as I think they’re mechanically fine. Their presentation leaves a lot to be desired, including Humor.

Tomorrow I plan to try and beat the E4, and then work on filling out the Dex. Hopefully with the Battle Frontier and an EXP share it should be easy. Then I’ll start prepping my 3DS for the save move.

The aim is to get a bunch of people to play, March 6th at 6PM EST, so we actually get full lobbies to play in. Join in if you're interested!

Today’s game is Pokemon Emerald. I’ve been kind of wanting to play through this ever since I saw FRLG were getting released. I have nostalgia for this one because it was my first Pokemon game. I didn’t grow up with it being my generations Pokemon, but I remember loading it onto an emulator on my old phone, and having to speed run it under a week in Middleschool. I had an iPhone then, and if I didn’t speed through then the “certificate” would expire and id be stuck without and my save gone.

Anyways, because of that I’ve played this game so many times. It’s one of my favorite of the old generation of games, and setting it up under an emulator helped breathe some new life into it. I had wanted to pick up a GBA and a Flash Cart and play it that way, but I got a little impatient so this works too.

There’s not much to show in games like this, so I’ll just say that I made it past the 3rd Gym. Younger me would be proud seeing this kind of progress in one day. But because of this lack of interesting stuff today will be a bit shorter with less pictures and more talking.

Now that I’m not on a timer, I want to fill out the Pokédex. It’s been a goal I’ve been working on in the background to fill out the National Dex in Pokemon Home with all the Native Pokemon from their respective regions. I’m doing this by using a modded 3DS to transfer it all up, hopefully before the Pokemon Bank servers shut down. So far I have Platinum, Black and White, and I had started XY (But gave up as something bothers me about them so I’ll come back later)

I also enabled Retro Achievements which makes this more fun. It’s like having a checklist to full 100% which is a fun experience. I just wish there was 3DS integration so I could play that way and make it truly portable. I’ll take what I can get though as this is fun. I ended off my night just by looking at the page to see what all so I can do.

The showcase kicks off at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm UK time, and will provide 15 minutes of news and updates on indie games coming to Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch.

It feels weird that Stardew Valley is 10 years old. At the same time it feels like it is "only 10 years old" and "wow already 10 years old".

Game has evolved so much even after first release. The game and the story from the developer is always so amazing and inspirational.

For starters: I look for the most obscure of the obscure. We're talking about English demos whose reviews are in the single digits. I've gotten better at finding the good stuff in a sea of crap, and I'll share some of my findings here. I will also mention the two games I've posted here a few days ago.

Action Adventure

SISTER LACE

This is a Westworld-esque game made by a Spanish speaker where a rich kid school brings in some waifubot helpers to help the students, but the waifubots go crazy and start attacking people. The demo continues up to the start of the revolt, and there's some decent worldbuilding and foreshadowing leading up to the big event.

The trailer doesn't really do the demo justice. The environments look basic, but the animations are actually pretty good. The voices ingame also have a lot more inflection than the crappy monotone voice in the trailer, and there's a basic dialog system with some of the NPCs you find to get some lore.

ARIE: Moonprayer

This is an exploration game. The Moon is going to crash into Earth in about 30-40 years, and no one can do anything about it. What's more, some of the dead are still attached to Earth and unwilling to leave, so the protagonist has to use his musical instrument to make the ghosts pass on.

A big theme of the game is about choosing to press on despite the impending destruction of Earth. Tides have ensured that the only walkable land left is a little island that used to be a mountain peak, and humanity is reduced to a tiny village by the coast. The game gives me some big Aniara vibes.

Visual Novels

Whispering Memories

This one is about a village that looks okay on the surface, but something feels off. It has a supernatural theme, and implies that some of the characters encountered aren't as decent as they seem to be. The mystery is neat, and the demo gives you a few hints about what's going on.

Rose Academy

On the surface, this looks like a typical dating sim. But this one has a twist: Some girl got bumped off in the changing rooms, and your character got called in to find the perp as a favor for the principal. From what I understand, the goal is to solve the case via the dating sim mechanics; the goal is NOT to use the dating sim mechanics to push a girl's affection up to max.

For example, there's one scene where your character can choose to get distracted by another character, or look around the room. Looking around gives you a clue. There's another instance where you get an opportunity to inspect a character closer, and doing so gets you another useful clue. Clues are stored in a notebook you can review at any time, though I haven't seen anything that would let me use said clues in the demo.

Honorable Mentions

These demos did not participate in Next Fest, but I feel they're worthy of mention.

Advent: Dawn

This is a spinoff of a previous game the dev made (The VII Enigma). It's set in the latter half of the 21st century. The player character is a specialist called in to investigate a specimen in a cave on a faraway island. However, bad things happen, and the guy ends up trapped in a collapsed cave. It gives me The Descent or Time Trap vibes.

Whispers of the Luminaries

This is another mystery visual novel, and is much closer to Ace Attorney than Rose Academy above. A member of an idol group goes missing, and then turns up dead. You get called in to figure things out. Later on in the demo, you get to use the evidence you collected to bolster your claims.

Amnea 28: Two Eternities

A bunch of college kids drive out to a secluded mansion owned by their professor, for extra credit. Eventually one of them goes berserk from the stress and starts attacking people. This visual novel is a remake, and now provides English.

The player character also has a cute notebook you can look at, which notes the various happenings of the day. It's a neat touch.

• Gaming continues to be the largest category of media with $200B in annual spend, larger than film + TV + music combined.
• Mobile is powering most of gaming’s growth.
• Despite market growth, venture funding is down a lot since post-COVID highs.
• The most impressive company in gaming continues to be Roblox, which is driving a huge portion of gaming’s growth; it now has 150M daily active users, its average engagement now tops Steam + PlayStation + Fortnite combined, and you can see here that the portion of users 13+ in age has been especially fast-growing.

(I don't plan on this becoming a series, but I'd love to talk about more indie titles that I liked in the past few years. and I hope you'll enjoy reading my thoughts on them!)

LumenTale is an upcoming monster collector with a planned Spring 2026 release date at the time of this writing. The story follows the protagonist, Trey, who wakes up deep in a forest without his memories and decides to become a "Lumen" (this world's equivalent of Pokémon trainers) to explore the region and learn more about his past.

Amnesia in 2026? A bit cliché, if you ask me.

The game promises to be a story-heavy RPG, and yes, there is a lot of text in the demo. Buyer beware. But where the game truly shines is when it lets the player breathe and explore at their own pace, meeting the colorful cast of critters on the way to their next quest marker. From the five starter monsters to the dwellers of the nearby forest, the monster design is the selling point of the game, and I honestly think it's the best in the genre - including some of the lastest generations from its multi-billionaire competitor.

If anything was to happen to Almyuna, I'd kill everyone in this room and then myself.

Animon - that's what these critters are called - are pure emotions coalesced into monster form: they may be born from happiness (Felicis), rage (Furor), sadness (Mestus), deceitfulness (Horrens) or serenity (Sereum). These emotions play an active role in battles, as they can be used to trigger the Animon's hidden quirk - for example, Felicis Animon can heal the party, while Furor ones can deal additional damage. I always come back to this, but the art direction is stunning, and I love how the artists incorporated those emotion into the monsters' design, reinforcing the idea that these creatures are literally born from feelings. I hope emotions will play an even bigger part in the gameplay as the story unfolds.
The developers have been tight-lipped and have only showed a bunch of Animon so far, but every one of them has became my favourite critter in videogame history. If you think I'm overselling them, take a look for yourself!

Try to pair the starters with their respective emotion!

The gameplay is standard monster collector fare: send your monsters onto the field (up to four at a time, which is unusually high) and engage in turn-based combat, using super-effective moves to deplete the enemy's health bar. I love turn-based games, but fielding four monsters at once makes for a chaotic environment where planning my strategy became a bit too difficult for my little brain - although, to be fair, I only played with the combat system for a few hours, certainly not enough to understand its intricacies. On the other hand, main boss battles are fought against a single strong Animon, which possesses additional health bars and can execute two moves per round. I think the game truly shines at times like these.

The epic music in the background really sells the urgency of the situation.

The environments shown in the demo are pretty standard RPG fare - a bucolic village, and forest stuck in perpetual autumn - but the game promises an interesting spin. You see, most RPGs are based on Western Medieval European culture, but this game's devs are Italian, and they're dying to let you know it. The game's world is, quite literally, fantasy Italy, called "Talea". When read in English, it sounds like the Italian pronounciation of their country (clever!). Talea is split into a technocratic north, Logos, and a religious conservative south, Mythos: two halves divided by a centuries-long war that ended not too long ago, but whose scars still plague the collective memory of its citizens. If you know Italian lore, it's not too far from the truth.
The devs have promised fantasy renditions of their most iconic locations, including Rome, Naples and Milan, but they really sold me on the idea when I watched the trailers and noticed that these locations haven't been tranported into the game 1:1, but mixed with other cultures as well. There are Japanese vibes in Mirasilva, for example, which seems the game's take on real-life Alberobello.

Weebs have conquered southern Italy, apparently.

The graphics are colorful, with vibrant palettes and unusually detailed environment design - I was surprised to discover that each interior was hand-made, and no two houses share the same shape or set of furniture. Despite the fact that not too many useful items or lore-heavy conversations can be found in these maps, I loved exploring them and getting a sense of each homeowner's personality through their décor.

Yes, I thought as much.

The game has a lot of additional content in addition to its cast of colorful critters: by visiting unique locations, the player is rewarded with a postcard of that location; they can also cook lore-accurate Italian recipes (including pizza), craft items, and buy collectible cards featuring the game's monsters. If you are addicted to the TCG craze of late, this is probably going to pique your interest. On top of all that, the player can buy furniture to customize their monster "boxes" (here called Anispace), in a way that's reminiscent of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire's secret bases. There are, of course, shiny variants of Animon too, which are called "Lost" in this game. The twist? They're not simple color-swaps, but unique redesigns of their respective monster. Cool! And the Lost variant is mirrored in the overworld, where your monsters follow you around while walking. I really love this feature.

Somebody in the game's Discord has already found a Lost starter.

All in all, the demo only covers two areas and a small portion of the game's story, but what's been shown so far looks promising. It's not a pick-up-and-play game like other monster collectors (there is a lot of text-heavy dialogue in here), which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's worth mentioning if it's not your cup of tea. But if you're looking for a unique entry in the genre, this title's worth keeping your eyes on. The demo is currently live, and it plays wonderfully on Steam Deck too, so give it a try! If you're still unsure, you can take a look at the game's trailer here.

Guys, we really need to bring the Danganronpa Online English server back.

I know most of the activity is on the Russian side right now, but that doesn’t mean the English community has to disappear. This game is actually so fun, especially if you’re into Danganronpa and roleplay. It has so much potential it just needs people to show up.

If more of us start getting active again, there’s a real chance we could grow it into something bigger. Imagine having a properly active English server, maybe even a dedicated private one where we can all play comfortably. That can’t happen if we just let it sit there, though.

If you have Garry’s Mod, hop on and give it a chance. Even a few players online can completely change how a server feels. And even if you don’t have GMod, just showing interest and support still matters. Numbers matter. Activity matters. When the devs see that people genuinely care about the English side, it can actually make a difference.

If you’ve ever enjoyed Danganronpa or you like roleplay games, now’s the time to step in. We can’t keep saying “it used to be fun” and then do nothing about it.

Let’s not let this die. Let’s actually bring it back together.

From, Byakuya Togami #Danganronpa 🍔🍗🕶️💸

SERVER LINK: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k3hgvoWEvjGIZF_8ugrD56Cr0IMkfrNZzNTAHu6g224/edit?tab=t.0

DISCORD LINK: https://discord.gg/PAU6Bb3m

Today’s game is Metal Gear Solid Delta. I’ve never played a Metal Gear Solid game (well. Actually. I’ve played maybe 10 minutes of the 3DS version of 3) but I saw the remake was on sale and had been wanting to try it. I hear 3 is a good point for getting into the franchise so I picked it up on sale. I hear Delta got kind of mixed opinions from die hard fans because of some cutscene changes, but nothing too morally compromising from what I know.

My first impressions? I’ve never played a stealth game like this. The best way I can describe it is like driving a manual transmission car compared to an automatic. There’s something about the way it controls that feels very hands on and manual, down to handling camo and food.

I’m struggling to get a hang of the controls but I’m learning. This log took me a hot second because I struggled with the crouch controls. Getting knocked down by enemies when they melee me is also a struggle, as I struggle to stand back up.

Looks wise? The game is gorgeous. I had some issue with the FSR being grainy, but I switched to TSR and ran it at Native and it looks a lot better. Not perfect. But better. The water is really pretty which I’m a fan of.

Finally, the story. I’m a fan of it. There’s 3 conflicts I love as time periods and that’s the Cold War and both World Wars. Both are important to learn about and provide a fascinating backdrop. So safe to say this has my attention.

I also like how Commander Ocelot gets his shit kicked in every time we see him. It’s my understanding he grows into a role seen in future games, but here there’s something funny about him being Snake’s punching bag even though he’s a competent fighter. After he was knocked out I spent a bit just dragging him around. No reason in particular but I did get a free Mousetrap out of him. Ironic since he’s named after a cat.

Overall though this game is a new experience and I’m excited to be playing it. I’ve always wanted to get into Metal Gear Solid and buying this gave me not only Metal Gear Solid 3, but the first MGS and the original Metal Gear for the NES so I’m excited to try those too.

Hiring a PI firm, SEGA coordinated with Fusion 85 and London City Police to raid the home of the reseller, seizing the devkits. In an email erroneously sent to GamersNexus by a waste removal contractor, though, we learn that it may not be theft at hand, but rather, corporate negligence by SEGA or the waste contractors.

Nothing like corporate collusion with law enforcement and getting everything wrong.

Today’s game is Alan Wake 2. I finished my playthrough of this once again. Every time I finish it I have this kind of empty feeling. Like I’m beating it for the first time.

I first played Alan Wake 1 back in 2016, it was on Game Pass and my dad had rented it from Game Fly when I was little. I loved it. It stuck in my mind. Then come 2023 and the sequel releases. It builds and complements the original in such a way I can’t even begin to describe.

And in a way I guess I feel like I too am trapped in a loop. I never really find myself able to let go of the game. Every once in a while I feel this longing to go back to Bright Falls, go back to Alan; too Return.

To avoid getting too deep and personal about the game though, I played with making a Postcard! I took this one and thought it was funny. Certainly it isn’t a post card I wouldn’t mind getting in the mail.

I also love that There’s also Saga’s Mind Place. I love this. The game takes it, sets it up as this safe space. Then at the very end it rips it away from you as a safe space. As if a metaphor for the way the Dark Place works its way into your head, it works its way into the players own safe space.

To avoid over explaining points I’ve probably already gone over though, I’ll cut today off a little early. I love this game. It’s as close to perfect I feel a game has ever come and it’s left me planning a playthrough of the original (and maybe the final draft again). With the recent news about Remedy being up in there, I at least can say I’m thankful to have gotten a chance to play this. It really is one of my favorite experiences in gaming.

Did you ever think to yourself “wow, I wish QWOP had some guns in it”? They Killed Your Cat is basically that premise. Some goons killed your cat ala John Wick, and now you are running down corridors murdering those responsible. You are controlling movement of each leg manually, you are reloading your weapons

A short but relentless first-person shooter featuring manual reloading, walking, and blinking, with settings that let you customize your experience. Every “normal” action has some kind of friction, for example, to reload your gun you need to pop out the magazine, insert a new clip, then slide back the safety before shooting. You need to reach a computer terminal and interact with it in order to save. And yeah, you need to take each step individually. This looks stupid, but in a fun way, and the reviews definitely seem to be saying exactly that.

This game has an interesting premise: The Moon's orbit with Earth started to decay about a century ago. Now, the tides are so high, the remnants of humanity are stranded on a mountain peak. The Moon is going to collide with the planet in a few more decades, and there's nothing that anyone can do to stop it.

The gameplay is this:

• Various hostile ghosts are attached to the planet. The player character's job is to help these ghosts pass on with his music. This is done through a QTE system where you press the right button at the right time.
• You get to upgrade the village near the starting area with various materials you find.
• There are a few environmental puzzles around to solve, where you move things around with music.
• Most of the game is based around exploration, and the explorable area changes with time of day.

There are also some control issues that may frustrate you. Maybe 20% of the time, the game thinks you're holding a button longer than you actually are, or it ignored a button you pressed. It's very noticeable, but it can be worked around.

If you play this, take note that I got stuck after the forest area when I interacted with an object up on a cliff I revealed with the Sense ability. I advise keeping to the main mission to avoid any softlock issues.

In early 2025, when Bluepoint again pitched the idea of Bloodborne remake, the studio was told that the numbers made sense but FromSoftware didn’t want it to happen, according to people familiar with the process.

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida shared a theory last year that this might be the case, saying in an interview with Kinda Funny Games that he thought FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki was interested in remaking the classic game but too busy to do it himself and “doesn’t want anyone else to touch it.” He added that he thought PlayStation would respect Miyazaki’s wishes despite owning the franchise.

So the latest in a growing amount of PSP articles I've written is up, this time with the lead dev from 'Barcode Studia' about their latest game. This is a small team whose passion is bringing Grand Theft Auto 'mods' (I use that term loosely because the work is SO amazing) to the Liberty City Stories engine.

Their latest work is Seen in Liberty City, which brings Grand Theft Auto III to PSP and PPSSPP (the fact a game is being brought to the original PSP hardware so long after release makes me so happy!)

My interview with 1826 covers everything from how their group came together, their games, what was involved in the huge effort of bringing GTA III to the PSP, legal issues that might arise and so on. I'm so happy I got to chat to them about this one, and I hope you enjoy the article!

https://gardinerbryant.com/rewriting-liberty-city-an-interview-with-barcode-studia-on-rebuilding-gta-iii-for-psp/

Here's an edited gameplay overview for Frostrail, the new wintry survival FPS from the creators of Barotrauma.

Amazing launch for the franchise.

cross-posted from: https://retrolemmy.com/post/34229712