I make decisions and then unmake them. It's fine.

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Super Turbo HD Remix was on sale today. Sure, let's throw another onto the backlog. That's a "more the merrier" thing right?

Dragon Quest XI Scompleted

Okay, so the draconian change is significant and does make combat more interesting than the prior faceroll. I did the Royal Library dungeon, apparently out of sequence, and it was tough. I basically ran on empty MP wise, I had a fight with a mimic too that REALLY put the hurt on me.

I'm not sure I'll end up keeping it though just because it takes so much longer and it does actively make me kind of want to play it less. Like I had the option for it, or Castlevania earlier and I was just like uhhh, Castlevania, I don't want to slog through it more. And again, it is more interesting, but I think it might be something like 50% more interesting for 100% more slog. Not a good trade off.

DQXIS doesn't have to be a challenging game to be good though. It can just be kind of warm and fun and welcoming, like a good Pokemon game. Another thing I do like about it is that I don't feel the need to really do everything. The Tickington stuff just...didn't really resonate with me and I don't feel compelled to do every side quest. This is something where I can comfortably just follow the critical path and be okay with it.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Nightcompleted

I don't know if this game is going to have the distance for me. I find it pretty frustrating. I don't love traveling around and it feels like it's just very willing to waste a lot of your time and there's just no hand holding here at all. I can see the bones of why it's so good and so influential but I don't know exactly what it is. It's just not captivating me in the way that Aria of Sorrow did. I would be interested to try Aria again and see if I can figure out what it is (although of course the comparison will always be different because of the nostalgia). I did just play it last year I think, but it's hard for me to tell what's different, a more fresh comparison could help. Speaking of...

Super Metroidcompleted

Okay, so I started THIS to contrast with Symphony of the Night, since I think these two are the two ur-classics of the genre and well, I kind of immediately found it more fun. So much more fun that I might just immediately retire SOTN. I think a HUGE thing is that you can actually get more health while you're adventuring in Super Metroid so it doesn't feel like a really awful, attrition-y experience.

Another benefit is that exploration feels more rewarding and I feel like I grok the design language better. For whatever reason I just understand both where things are likely to be hidden, but what is likely. With SOTN, sometimes you find things and you expect it to be this huge upgrade and then it's a sword that I have better versions of. You don't get that really with Metroid, and when you do find tiny things they're always useful. I'll take a missile pack upgrade.

Neither game is so long so I might power through SOTN anyways, a little more, but I'm not about really forcing the fun here.

Of note, I am playing the Project Base version of the game.