Hey hey! It’s another Video Game Round-Up! You will notice that I played a lot of Switch games again this month, and that is because I could only play video games on the bus. We had a lot of writing to do, so it was writing time every time I was at home. Until about the end of April, anyway, when we finished the first draft of one of the things, and then I didn’t have to write all of the things all of the times.
But I still had to write lots of things.
Here we go!
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) - A new challenger approaches! The first paid DLC character is Joker, the main character of Persona 5 (PS4) (more information on him in a bit). Along with the fighter, however, came a bunch of new spirits and music which I had to go get because I am a mad completionist. Luckily for me, the music was automatically added, which was great, but I had to go fight a bunch of battles to unlock the spirits, which was less great. Since Persona 5 features a bunch of characters who have these demon familiar-type things (called Personas), every fight features one regular-sized character that often avoids combat and one giant-sized character that often protects the other one. Guess which one I had to beat to get the spirit? Most of them weren’t too difficult, but then you had to take on all of them at the same time, and that was hard. But anyway, let’s find out a bit more about the newest fighter!
Joker - The main character from Persona 5 who spends his days creating bonds with his schoolmates and his nights as the leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts who explore the Metaverse, a metaphysical realm consisting of the physical manifestation of humanity's subconscious desires, in order to remove malevolent spirits from people's hearts. It’s a whole thing. Just like in his home game, Joker can manifest his Persona Arsene in SSBU.
Cuphead (Switch) - This is just as hard as I assumed it would be, but I have completed 50% of the game at this point, which I’m quite proud of. But it is legit hard! I have been stuck on the same level in the second island for about two weeks now. But, I refuse to give up! Just like Celeste (Switch), Cuphead has a death count that I can go look at, but I haven’t yet because I want to finish the game first.
As I’m sure you already know, the art in this game is gorgeous. It’s designed like a cartoon from the 40s, from the art style and animation, to the sound effects and even the music. The presentation of this game is just completely fantastic. Highly recommended.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Switch) - The last case on the first Ace Attorney game featured new gameplay bits, including luminol spray to find blood in various locations, a fingerprint kit to dust for fingerprints in locations and on evidence, and the ability to discover new clues by manipulating the evidence in the Court Record. All excellent additions that shift the focus of the game to the investigation side of things instead of the courtroom side (though that is still important, obviously). My hope is that all these things are kept for the subsequent games.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All (Switch) - I started the second game in the series almost immediately after finishing the first one, but the only new gameplay thing I’ve seen in the first two cases (so far) is the ability to present character profiles as evidence. The excellent additions from the final case in the first game are nowhere to be seen so far, and that makes me sad (though I’m only halfway through the second case; my hope is they will show up sooner rather than later or not at all). It’s still a very fun and very smart game, and I’m happy to see secondary characters from the first game showing up in this one.
Katana Zero (Switch) - This thing surprised the heck out of me. It’s basically a 2D puzzle platformer in which you have to kill everyone in a section (or whatever other objective they give you, but usually it’s kill everyone) without dying yourself. Everything kills you in one shot, so the puzzle comes in how to traverse an area without getting hit while killing everything. Best of all, every time you die, you are immediately rewinded back to the beginning of the section so you can try again. It is super satisfying when you finally crack a section, and I never felt frustrated while playing because I could try it again right away after I failed.
The story in this game is also pretty good, and quite intriguing, but I don’t want to say anything about it except that it has a pretty cool time travel mechanic (but not in the way you think; this one actually makes sense) and it ends on a cliffhanger, so I’m hoping a follow-up is on its way very soon. Bonus: you can actually end the game at about the halfway point by making a specific decision that kills your character on the spot. Thankfully, you can reload from the previous save.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (PS4) - Hey, AC:O is back with new DLC! And what a weirdass DLC it is. Firstly, a new Lost Tales of Greece quest showed up which basically retold Homer’s Odyssey, but with a bunch of twists. It starts with a bunch of drugged out soldiers representing the Lotus-Eaters, and then you go on a mission to find your friend’s wife, who has been lost for 20 years (eh?! eh?!). You meet a Polyphemus, a Circe, and some sirens (but never how you expect them), and it ends with a battle against suitors. It’s a lot of fun.
The second new Lost Tales of Greece quest is a direct lead-in to the new DLC, and features a lot more time in the present with Layla Hassan, the ex-Abstergo archaeologist that was introduced in Assassin’s Creed Origins (PS4). You spend most of your time playing as her, exploring some tombs. Also, a friendly Isu person who has no interest in linear time helps both Kassandra and Layla at the same... time? Don’t ask me to explain. Time travel’s been annoying the hell out of me recently (not counting Katana Zero).
Once you finish that Lost Tales of Greece quest with Layla Hassan, you can then travel into Atlantis for a bit before heading into the Elysian Fields to smack around some gods! Unlike the main game, which only had a few mythical things here and there (beasts and monsters, mostly), the first episode of The Fate of Atlantis DLC embraced Greek mythology all the way. First and foremost, Kassandra’s in the Elysian Fields! There’s a bunch of dead people! And gods! You meet Hermes and Persephone, as well as Adonis (who isn’t a god, but a dead person). It’s a new map with a couple of new gameplay mechanics (like the Wings of Hermes teleportation pads), so you get to discover a whole new world, literally. The one drawback is that it’s a very vertical map. Kassandra can climb pretty much anything, and unlike Link in Breath of the Wild (Switch), she never runs out of stamina, but it just takes forever. And while those Wings of Hermes will teleport you up to the next pad, you have to get to one first. In this game, I prefer taking the most direct route possible, so it’s annoying when I can’t. But other than that, it was pretty fun, even if most of the gameplay is exactly the same as the main game.
And that’s all for this month! It’s likely I will be mostly playing Switch games again next month as I will be traveling for a week and a half, and I’ll be writing and reading a lot. But, Observation (PS4) is coming out in a couple of days, and there will be more AC:O DLC coming out in early June. And Yakuza 0 (PS4) isn’t going to finish itself.
Until next month, play more video games!
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