Finished Afterimage!

I had good time with it, but it's a massively flawed game.

The Good: Colossal maps, with a lots and lots to stuff to find - if you're in the mood to chill and explore a huge world (while probably getting lost) you're going to love it. Combat is solid with a lof of diferent weapons. Map is very open with plenty of different paths.

The Bad: Story is borderline incomprehensible, likely due to a bad translation. There's some really cryptic stuff and you'll almost certainly need a guide if you're going for the true ending. Map and fast travel are serviceable, but not as good as they needed to be for the size of the game. Switch 1 performance is "playable" at best.

Playing MIO: Memories in Orbit!

This is a challenging game. You die easily, and healing is limited to a few specific locations in the map. Maps are full of "gotcha" moments with enemies dropping out of nowhere and not-very-obvious "touch this and you lose life damage" spots. Dying sends you back to one of the (very few) save points, even for bosses.

The end result is that you keep replaying the same location a lot, which is making this game really frustrating to play.

Which is a shame, because the rest of the game is really good. Cool powerups, decent combat, interesting customization options, great atmosphere.

Sudokuvania 2: Lineage of Logic - Finally finished after a solid two weeks of sleepless nights chipping away at this. Game of the Year 2026.

Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising - I'm reminded of why proximity normals are one of my least favorite fighting game mechanics. Hard to confirm off 5M when I don't know which 5M I'm getting and oops there's no far 5MM.

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 3 - Translation patch is finally out! I've literally been waiting two decades for this one, I own a physical copy that I picked up as a souvenir from a trip to Japan back when I was in high school. Ripped my old save off the cartridge to NG+ off of.

Keroro RPG: Kishi to Musha to Densetsu no Kaizoku - The handful of JP GBA games I own physical copies of are a bit above my reading level, I struggle with the pixel kanji fonts, and I'm too attached to them to be able to play them without being able to 100% comprehend them - I want to revisit them eventually, but I'm looking for some easier alternatives closer to my level right now. So sampling a bunch of DS ROMs, this turned out to be the perfect study material. Full furigana, and I'm more okay with skipping over parts that go over my head, as long as I can get a rough idea of what's happening and where to go. I've never seen Keroro so I'm really just playing this for the fact that it's a Tales game rather than for the story.

Mahjong Soul/Riichi City - mahjong causes great damage to the human spirit without a single benefit

I finished the Visored Arc in Bleach: Rebirth of Souls. The Visored got so shafted by this game, it's the first thing that really stands out as very negative to me. I knew only one of them was playable, but only 3 of them appear at all in cutscenes? That's going to make their appearance in the big battle near the end underwhelming!

I'm done visiting all remaining locations in Fallout 3, so I went to The Pitt DLC. It's been funny, you're supposed to infiltrate the place as a slave but I'm the savior of the wastelands with all skills maxed out, so I'm just killing all the bad guys I'm supposed to be careful around!

In Monster Hunter GU, I fought Daimyou Hermitaur, Lagombi and Royal Ludroth. The third one made me realize there might be a room in the Misty Peaks that lags the game a bit, as I've noticed my inputs being eaten a couple of times. It's my favorite area so far and I hope it gets remade for a modern Monster Hunter, but I was worried the tall grass aesthetic of that one room might cause problems.

There's not much left in 3-Star, so I will begrudgingly tackle Khezu next. He's annoying, but he unlocks himself for the Meownster Hunters so we can start grinding that Pale Extract he's hogging! After that, it's time for Gypceros.

So I've basically just been playing FE Fortune's Weave this week. Figured I might as well focus on it if it'll take time to get to the good stuff. Managed to beat the two arena games and am now at the second Lechner fight. I got all my peeps some better weaponry, everyone's got a class, Leda even got a specialty class she passed first try despite a pass chance of only 18% (Don't let XCom2 players hear this xD).
And I think I've softlocked myself. Fights haven't been hard, to the point I got thru most of them pretty mindlessly. But I can't compete against Lechner and his 5000 soldiers.
I've decided to ditch the game, it'll now have a permanent place in my very awesome looking game card holder.
Not only is it frustrating that I can't progress from here, but the road getting here was absolutely no fun at all. Yes the game did open up quite a lot, but I've realized the core combat mechanic (the only thing I honestly care about) is not fun for me. Move 3 spaces, punch a guy in the dick, rinse and repeat for a battlefield that has like 4 times as many enemies as you have units. I'm out.
Funnily enough this is yet another game on my pile of $70 games I did not enjoy; meaning that I still have never bought a $70 game I enjoyed.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: I've never played a Xeno game in my life, figured I'd start with this one since it was the cheapest to buy haha. Amazon delivered it earlier today even tho I set it to arrive tomorrow on Saturday, so I got a few minutes in.
And you know what, in those 15-20 minutes I've spent in XCX I've already had more fun than I ever had with Fire Emblem. Can't talk more about this game because 20 minutes isn't a lot but this one's gonna be my focus for the next week.

The Crew Motorfest: OK this one's a cheat. I don't own this game on Switch, but rather on PC. I bought it on release but haven't put much time into it. Seeing it release on Switch made me reinstall it and play again.

Hardware: Also I bought some controllers that came early. I already have a bunch of accessories that are all amazing but haven't pulled the trigger on another controller because of the extremely high price tag, even from third parties like 8bitdo. And seeing has how the joy cons do a good enough job for couch coop since I don't expect to play with 3 or more people anytime soon, dropping $70 on a controller doesn't seem like a good investment (especially when I bought the Steam Controller for $100 earlier this year).
But I found a very good offer on Amazon, $35 for a pair of 2 controllers. Now that's a bargain bin offer I can't refuse. And oh boy do they take me back to the good old days of buying cheap third party controllers for the PS1 & 2. They're... I wouldn't say bad, but also far removed from the quality of the joy cons. They're stiff as fuck. It takes proper force to push the buttons and the joysticks. I'd say they were worth it for the price considering it was a pack of 2. $35 for one of them and I'd complain louder. The only downside is that, despite claiming to be able to do so in the manual, they can't wake the switch up from standby mode. Arrgh and here I thought I could just dock the Switch without undoing the grip accessory and the joy cons first. They also come with a turbo function which just feels especially 2000s to me lol. Not sure why they label the bumper and trigger L1 and L2 tho, they are Switch controllers thru and thru but then L1 and L2 just hit you like a truck out of nowhere.

Future games: I've been eying Donkey Kong Banyanza and Splatoon Raiders for the longest time, but haven't pulled the trigger on either yet. Managed to play the 30 minute DK demo and I think it might be a fun game, but I prolly won't buy them this month.
Sport Fest: That sports game releasing on the 16th, yeah I'm buying that instantly when it comes out.
Rhythm Paradise Groove: I played the demo and it was good fun, I'm certain I'm gonna like it. But $40 for a collection of rhythm mini games seems a bit steep to me. Especially when this type of rhythm game is not the type I play (I'm more of a DJMax man myself).
Dragon's Dogma 2: Another Cheat. Bought it at release on PC. Haven't put a lot of time into it. Miiight reinstall it. Unsure.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment

Swore to myself to not touch another game until I finish it. Though it's getting kind of stale after a couple of missions :/

I am still waiting for Switch Sports Resorts and the Majoras Mask Remake!