Making slow progress in Splatoon Raiders. I only manage a 20 minute session or so at a time. Just upgraded up my base to level 2 and got a bunch of new upgrades to obtain. Wish the game opened up more missions though! The missions I have are exceeding my level meaning I have to replay some again, rather than pushing further in.

I’ve spent most of my time playing Terraria this week (on PC) though as I started a new playthrough. I started with an expert world before finding it too difficult and going back to normal.

I did also buy the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 upgrade pack on a whim. I’m in the middle of a new playthrough with that too but progress is going very slow. It’s getting the least of my playtime atm.

I need to finish Mina the Hollower - I'm at the final boss (I think), and I'm gradually whittling away the boss' health bar but I'm guessing there'll be multiple phases...

I've also been playing through Botany Manor. From what I can tell, I don't have much left of the game. But that's not a bad thing - it's been charming throughout and sometimes a short but sweet experience is exactly what you're after.

FFXII has been on my Steam wishlist for a while - I should give that a go sometime. The battle system sounds fascinating!

Still playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but I'm starting to slow down a bit. Replaying them, I think I prefer the first game, as I'm finding 2 a bit lacking.

I also restarted Tales of Arise (not on Switch tho as I already had it on PC) and I'm enjoying it quite bit. I remember trying it a couple of years ago and hating it, but returning to it now I'm realising I was completely misunderstanding how combat is supposed to work.

I finished Chapter 10 in Yoshi's Never-Ending Story, which brings us to the big question: Is there more? And the answer is...

...kinda. There are two more chapters but there's not really any new content (new enemies to research). Chapter 11 is basically about comparing several enemies in terms of size, speed and such. I haven't played Chapter 12 yet, but it's described as extra challenges. I don't know what that could possibly mean in a game where you can't die, but it's not been very interesting so far.

My big hope (when I was still clamoring for a single bonus level as a completion reward) was a final level that is basically Bowser Jr.'s room, so you can research him by basically playing with him. Oh, well, I got plenty to do instead!

In Fallout 3, Jimothy is back on track (and back on Earth) to continue the story. The finale of Mothership Zeta was kinda cool, but overall the novelty wore of fast.

And then I did what any reasonable person would do when they don't have as much gaming time as they would like: I started playing Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. I've been wanting to play this game for years, but there's always been another game in the franchise that was more important. But having finished Wilds and not being interested in the Expansion next year, now was the time to pull the trigger! And because recording Wilds messed up the rhythm I usually play Monster Hunter in, I decided to stream it live this time, which I have never done before. It gives me an excuse to just grind away as much as I want!

I've been using the Switch Axe for years, but I've known for a long time that I would try out the Charge Blade for this game because the Energy Blade skill is just so cool. It's been weird. When I looked up a tutorial video after my first session, I ended up with two pages of notes. There's just so much to this weapon that it felt like I was studying for an exam!

Going back to Old World Monster Hunter isn't easy, I need to get used to gathering spots being very random again. I can deal with the loss of many QoL changes but the equipment menus in particular are going to be the end of me! As an armor collector, not having the equipment pieces sorted by set is going to be just awful! I think I'll end up looking at armor mostly though my database app!

so maybe it’s just me who has changed.

Always possible, but a lot of friends of mine said similar things about RDR2.

Playing Octopath Traveler II!

Played a lot of this game and the main conclusion is that I absolutely love the exploration and combat, but don't care much about the story.

I spent most of the week going around the world, opening new paths, killing monsters, unlocking jobs and robbing people of their belongings. Only started moving with the plot again yesterday and I'm massively overleveled (30-40 when the current story quests are 15-18), which helps make these parts go fast.

Also did my first few "Crossed Paths" chapters, and they're quite good, but it's sad they only cover 4 "pairs" of characters. Would definitely enjoy seeing more combinations in future games.

I've already mentioned it in other comments, but I just played back through Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Sometimes you just gotta fire up an old favorite. Had a file already at Tower of Hera, so just picked it up from there. Thought I'd finish in two or three sessions, but decided to 100%, and took a couple more searching to cleanup the last few items. (My memory is rusty!)

I've normally just done dungeon by dungeon. But wanted go out of the way to do the sequence weird this time.

Mistakenly thought I could get around doing Dark Palace first. But after you get the hammer, the game's pretty open. Ended up going 1 > 4 > 6 > 3 > 5 > 2 > 7.

Finally figured out how to do the Ice Palace bomb jump, so it was fun to see that dungeon just become nothing. Next playthrough I'll try to learn the setup for the hammer bomb jump maybe. And I'd like to eventually try casual speedruns (maybe just up to Dark World at first.) And and and I kinda want to take randomizer for a spin at some point.

Other games to play and things to do, but that's what I had fun revisiting this week, anyway.

Three Kingdoms Total War, harder to time to game but I tend to be able to buy at a discount as I might play a game years after release.

Arco

I've restarted Pokémon Legends Z-A, which I haven't played since completing my shiny dex 6 months ago. I spent the first 8 hours looking for a shiny Pancham to be my starter (luckily it appears in an area that's really easy to cheese) and now I have a full Dark type team.

While I liked the character customisation the first time as a girl, it's a lot harder to scrape a good looking outfit together as a boy. Here I am with Gristle

I never use the same species more than once, at least not as part of a new team (I'll recreate old "characters" in each game to add to a roster to mix up the endgame), so since that takes about 200 species off the table that makes building them a fun challenge, especially for single-type or gimmick teams. This one's Pangoro, Krookodile, Sableye, Sharpedo, Malamar & eventually Yveltal.

I'm also replaying Batman Arkham Asylum, possibly for the first time since Knight came out. I was devastated to learn even that one's already over a decade old. These games are masterpieces. The plan is to get 100% in all 4 of them over the next year or so, and I might go for all achievements while I'm at it because I'm missing a bunch of the challenge room stuff.

Then I've recently gotten into games like Quarantine Zone (decent) and That's Not My Neighbor (fantastic), that are all about attention to detail and thoroughness. QZ you're checking for symptoms of infection to let people into an evacuation camp during a zombie apocalypse and TNMN you're making sure doppelgangers don't get into an apartment building.

After beating both of those 100% I was waiting for Security 51 which came out a couple of days ago but I've been working too much to play it. It's like Papers Please but you're guarding an alien lab. My girlfriend can't believe I come home from my job as a security guard just to play security guard games. Contraband Police is on sale so I picked that up today too, it's more of the same but it scratches an itch.