Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7985I got to that point where I hit a monster/boss that just wasn't that much fun, and then I got a bit lost in terms of where to continue making progress, and the backtracking started to get a bit tiresome...as I explored and searched for different paths. So, time to bail!Mon, 27 Apr 2026 22:04:52 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7985&iddiary=13505https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7993Can you believe that I capped out on character level? I hit level 24, with plenty of game to go (I checked a guide, though I had reached the last 20% or so) and that's it. No more levels. It was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, and I also started to tire of having to backtrack all over the place to talk to different characters and so on. It was fun, and surprising to me in many ways, it's an action RPG with real-time combat, but no real challenge or interest in the combat - limited items and gear, no significant shopping or upgrading...there's boss fights (which are much harder than the regular game), but there wasn't much there to continue to keep my interest. So, I've decided to bail. I did also spend some time on the Wikipedia page and it looks like the game has been re-released a million times across different formats, and rebundled with new content, and stuff touched up and more. I'm kind of surprised because I wasn't all that impressed to be fair. As in, the game was fun and I enjoyed it for a bit, but I'm not entirely sure that it merits THAT much attention in the re-releases? Maybe I'm missing something and this game really resonated strongly with lots of people?Mon, 27 Apr 2026 22:03:27 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7993&iddiary=13504https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7993I need to look up more info on this. I had assumed it was a bundle of the two first Ys games, but upon starting the first one (Book I), the 3D graphics make it seem like it's a newer game? So I'm really curious what the backstory here is... It started out pretty frustrating - because I wandered into a field outside of town and died immediately. I had to start over which was a drag - lots of text to skip past, and died again! Sigh. I eventually figured out how to save your game, which helped. So, I decided to then book it, dodge enemies and made it to a city! Here I bought a sword and some armor...and figured I wouldn't die again immediately but I did! It turns out I hadn't figured out how to equip the items and that solved EVERYTHING. I've been playing since, and the game's quite interesting in its camera perspective - it's a very unusual sort of 3D isometric view, but it's not at an angle, but rather it's sort of straight? (like vertical/top to bottom). It's a weird perspective because there's lots that gets occluded (if you walk down towards a wall, the wall blocks you from seeing what's close to it when you come from the top part of the scree). I mean, it makes sense spatially, but it's a weird perspective in a game - you also cannot rotate the camera AFAIK.Sun, 26 Apr 2026 10:06:39 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7993&iddiary=13503https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7919I'm still "playing" - I stopped going for the competitive ladder mostly because I was playing the same deck all the time, didn't have the cards for a new competitive deck and...well, it's gotten a bit boring. That being said, the collecting part is still fun and there's a new set coming out so we'll see how excited I get. I've been opening packs from older sets hoping to finish sets from which I'm still missing a bunch of cards. No real luck so far. Sigh.Sun, 26 Apr 2026 09:59:12 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7919&iddiary=13502https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7991I've since played some 15 runs or so, I seem to get farther than ever on every other one or so. There's some cool and interesting things here, but also the randomness of the rogue aspects both works and doesn't. I've decided to stop playing mostly because it's getting a bit tiresome when you have to go over the same things such that it starts to feel like busywork. For example, talking to the guy at the bar in the first area always nets you a rice ball (yay!), but it's a bit of a drag to have to go through all the conversation and such over, and over again. Perhaps the feature I've come to appreciate the most is a shack that has different "puzzle" levels for you to solve - you're supposed to do them one at a time (smart design choice, because you get a reward from each) and each time you do one you get reset to level 1 with no items, you also lose any progress you may have made (including items) inside each puzzle. But, you get a reward when you complete them successfully. The puzzle levels are smart because they act as a tutorial of sorts, but because you only really want to do them one at a time, it's a slow burn tutorial that shows you the diversity of items and what they can do. I've done 12 or so...with more than half left to go. Some might require using a certain staff, or require you move around diagonally. Stuff like that. So, I've had to use items I hadn't considered before (I tend to be a cheapskate when it comes to items, use only in emergencies!) and now I know how they work without having to "waste" them while adventuring. Once unlocked, companions might appear in later areas - and join your team! I made some progress with a 2nd one (I wonder if you can have more than one?) and I think it's neat how they operate semi-independently. They'll sometimes run off chasing a monster. I haven't quite grasped how their health works because they'll sometimes disappear (dead?) and I lose them for the rest of the adventure which is a bit of a shame. In all, it's been fun to explore and playthrough. Runs are longer than I'd like and how that I unlocked the special jar that lets you combine items...I REALLY get the feeling that the game wants you to meta-strategize to cheese. In other words, play lots of runs to boost items to then combine them, and do this over and over again until you feel confident you can go. Which is interesting, and risky. Finally, at this point I'm also missing out on a neat feature wherein other players can "rescue" you if/when you die. But it's a connectivity thing - other people need to play and you can help each other out that way. At this point, since the game is way old, it's like there's zero change of that working for me... which makes me a bit sad, right? I mean, playing this with some friends would be really neat in that context.Sun, 26 Apr 2026 09:51:07 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7991&iddiary=13501https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7991It seems strange to note how this game is pretty old, but it's a rogue-like, and it was old, and series, even before the semi-recent rise in popularity of rogue-like games. It's hard, and you have to start over, and you can't really be careless (I've died in the first area), but there are some systems in place that seem to work as a meta-progression of sorts? For example, there's a woman I ran into who made me blind! She did it again! (on a different run), and on a 3rd run she was in a town being accosted by some NPCs (angry because she's been blinding them). So, I stepped in, and she joined my party! I have no idea what'll happen next, because I got pretty far and then died - and when I came back she was gone! Do I need to get blinded three times again? Will she show up and join in the village later? I have no idea! It also seems like I should be "cheesing" some parts? So, there's a storage system where you can leave items behind. When you die you lose everything you were carrying, so it's a way to leave stuff for "future you" - but you can also run backwards! (to previous areas) Oh, and you can also - if you get the cash, upgrade items at a smithy! So, I could do a run, upgrade an item, then run back, drop it off for future me, do the same, upgrade, run back, etc. The thought makes me kind of tired to think about it, but doable? There's always the risk you'll die and lose everything of course! So far I'm having fun, but we'll see how long my patience lasts...Sun, 19 Apr 2026 15:10:00 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7991&iddiary=13500https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7989This was sort of what I was expecting, but also not. I mean, I knew this wasn't farmville style farming, but I wasn't expecting as much technical detail as I found. Different machines, different phases, needing the right equipment, etc. It's pretty interesting and I was most surprised that you can (and probably should) hire people (NPCs) to do a lot of the "menial" labor - here mostly driving your machine down the field to either harvest, plow, etc. You kind of need to do this to save time, because with, say, three fields to work on you need to be moving from one to the next. What I was most surprised by is that there's a whole town with locations you need to (slowly, AFAIK) travel between to deliver your crops (and buy stuff you need)! Driving my FIAT tractor at 25 mph down a lane, waiting for a train to pass, and trundling on, was not something I imagined would be important to this kind of game. To be fair, there's a lot MORE to it that I have not experienced (livestock) and I stopped playing before delivering my first harvest - and I'll blame the tutorial here because it absolutely fell apart. I think I figured out a bunch of things, but this is definitely the sort of game you need to be reading guides/the manual/etc. in order to get the most of it?Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:38:00 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7989&iddiary=13498https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7985I don't know why I had this one sitting on my shelf for so long...but, I guess it was a good a time as any to try it out. So here you're actually a vampire - but no powers (yet?), other than that it's a regular 2D Castlevania with items, and equipment, also levelling up, and backtracking and so on. I only recently unlocked the double jump, which helps - but overall I'm not super enthused by the game. I feel like the character takes too long to change direction, and that I get hit a lot in ways I felt weren't easy/possible to avoid. I don't mean when it's a boss and you're just learning what it's attacks are. According to the savefile I'm over 20% though, and I'm pretty tired of it already. I'm maybe 5 hours in or so? It's hard to tell because when you die...well, all that time prior doesn't count. The powers are pretty strange - so, sometimes, when you kill an enemy you get like a "spirit orb" or something that you can then equip as a power. They're all different - I like the ones that summon a monster-pal the best, but overall the system seems under-utilized? Maybe I just haven't been lucky enough to get any of the really cool monsters? Touch screen interaction seems minimal - occasionally you'll run into a sealed room that shows a design and sometimes, after beating the boss that's usually behind that room, you have to trace the design yourself. I did think it was funny that two NPCs set up "shop" in one of the early areas - so you can teleport back to their location (from special teleport rooms) to basically buy supplies and things. I should stock up on lots of health potions, but I'm probably not going to continue to play the game, so not seeing much point. I think I got the gist of it.Sat, 21 Mar 2026 18:27:14 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7985&iddiary=13495https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7984From the back of the box this game looks like a "western realistic" Trauma Team game - use the touchscreen to do medical stuff like bandage a patient's arm or give them an injection. And it is...sort of? Weirdly every single "case" (mission) I played began with (and sometimes also ended with) a driving section - an ambulance of course. Here you have to dodge other vehicles and obstacles to avoid damage as you travel to a location where something happened or back to the hospital. Roads are full of other vehicles that have no qualms with suddenly changing lanes in front of you and such. You can collect "energy" (not what it's called in the game, but I don't remember the name in the game), and when you have enough you can turn on the siren - and this causes other vehicles to get out of the way (sometimes not fast enough). It's kind of a bizarre gameplay addition - and it doesn't help that the controls are kind of wonky and, from my experience, it really out stayed it's welcome even as the background locations you're driving through change. I even unlocked a better ambulance (better driving stats)...and there's more to (eventually) choose from. I mean, the game's basic structure is pretty standard, there's cut-scenes with stories (everything so far seems to involve college kids of some sort). It makes me really wonder who the intended audience/age group for this game was. The name of the game would imply children (it's aspirational!) but the story seemed a bit more "grown up" - i.e. adolescent, but the gameplay was also quite simple..skewing younger again in my mind. The more games of this kind I play (not top-tier first-party DS games), the more I wonder about the conditions in which they were made. Was this a game that was knocked out by a small studio in 6 months?Fri, 06 Mar 2026 18:01:32 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7984&iddiary=13493https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7961Decided to quit suddenly because I realized I was just starting to grind for achievements and not actually having fun or enjoying the game. Which, in the grand scheme of things sounds like a bad thing other than I think that I quit in time BEFORE I got super tired and bored. So, leaving on a (little past) the high of the fun experience. I was grinding the Dream Doors - and apparently there's a nice monster at the end that can be a real challenge - but, I didn't have a sense of WHY I'd want to do that. Here I mean motivation within the game's story. I was hoping for a nice story payoff if anything? It seems like there isn't, it's just a grind for resources and stuff and so...time to bail!Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:08:07 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7961&iddiary=13492