As per my previous post, I have continued writing a semi-regular series over at Ladies Gamers documenting my playthrough of games I already own but have yet to complete. Below is all the content I have created thus far, so it may be documented here on my own blog;
Update #1:
Howdy folks, a little while ago I posted about returning to some unfinished Switch games of mine. Well since, between work and my review of Black Paradox, I have made some headway with Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. Check out the stats below:
Shrine Quests: 19/42 >> 31/42 (+12)
Side Quests: 27/77 >> 31/77 (+4)
Shrines: 72/120 >> 85/120 (+13)
Korok Seeds: 88/900 >> 157/900 (+69)
Inventive ways to hid Korok Seeds
As you can see, my most significant improvement would be with Korok Seeds. Dotted all over the world, I have been using the main map to stop and scope points of interest so that I can drop in and find some more of the cheeky critters. It’s amazing just how many different ways and new spins they devised for uncovering them.
Shrines….talk to everyone
The majority of my new Shrines have been ones unlocked after a NPC-prompted errand. A good way of discovering them is to return to towns, stables and other significant landmarks and talk to everyone. The same goes for the mostly generic side-quests, though I still intend to clear them all. Considering I only have 9 mission related Shrines to find, I’m baffled on how I’m going to find the rest as my travels thus far have mostly eliminated the more obvious ones.
But that’s it for now, hopefully next post I will be finishing up and setting the goals for my next game. There’s still so much to find and discover, all before the DLC too! It’s been fun returning to Hyrule’s most impressive illustration yet!
Update #2:
Well, I finally did it. After an additional 40+ hours I have finally cleared every one of Zelda’s original Shrines and Side Quests. It became very addictive scouring the map using the Shrine radar and discovering areas I had missed the first time. It really illustrated how deep the game was designed and I highly recommend getting lost as there are so many neat details to discover. The characters too are charming and quite humorous in dishing out side quests which make clever use of the games deeper mechanisms.
So what’s next on my return road? Well, alongside my review commitments and possibly some other new games on my horizon, my original plan was to persevere with the Crash Bandicoot trilogy. When I last left the games, I was part way through the second one. I really enjoy Crash, a big difference in the rebuilds however is the modified physics. The originals tied its cartoony characters and settings with an equally wacky physics engine. The games were still tricky, but it was fun to play too. That’s not to say the remakes aren’t fun to play, but they are different.
The remakes are good, they are amazingly remade and true to their roots. Having Crash on a Nintendo console was previously unheard of so it’s a big deal. My key goal this time will simply be to finish the stories of 2 & 3. There are additional challenges in the form of collecting every box and beating the clock, but simply finishing is a challenge in itself so that’s my target. Until next time!
Update #3:
I can announce that has indeed happened and I have finished up the second games story! This involved playing each level through to the finish and defeating the final boss. There still remains the additional challenges such as destroying all boxes in each level and the time attack modes. But the difficulty of simply clearing the game has been enough for me until the future where I may return again. For now it’s time to move on to the third and final game in the trilogy.
Clearing the story mode in the third game
My memories of Crash Bandicoot 3 are hazy. I played the first game the most and almost none of the second as a kid. The third I played a little more, but my copy was misplaced so like the second it will mostly feel all new.
The original trilogy contains a consistently challenging experience that’s satisfying to overcome. Deaths are comical, and though lives and the dreaded Game Over screen exist, the game quickly allows you to return to each level until you succeed. My goal here again, is to simply clear through the story mode and defeat the final boss. I look forward to catching up here again upon completion where I will reveal my next step on my return road journey, wish me luck!
Update #4:
It’s time again for another walk down my Return Road. Since completing Crash Bandicoot 2, I was to finish the trilogy and move on again to another game from within my back catalogue. Since then, I have indeed finished Crash 3. While playing I also downloaded Dragon Ball Fighter Z and also chose to move onto Hyrule Warriors!
Finishing Crash
Like the first 2 games, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped is a challenging run across many levels and fights against bosses. It may just be my experience with the formula, but I found the third game the easiest of the bunch. Still tricky in places, but the challenge of collecting all the boxes, finding secret paths and gems was certainly simpler. Not that I’m complaining either as I managed to steadily breeze through the story before getting too frustrated which is what happened initially with the earlier titles.
Atop the more pleasing difficulty level, there are also the stages that require flying a plane or driving a motorbike which I thoroughly enjoyed. Though I still prefer the design choices and challenge of the original Crash, I’d say the third game is most certainly a close second. The value for money with the trilogy is well worth it, and even if you haven’t played Crash before there’s no better time to adopt the comical yet challenging platformers.
Revisiting Hyrule
Hyrule Warriors isn’t my first stop to Hyrule during this feature. For those unfamiliar, Hyrule Warriors borrows characters and settings from the Zelda series and wraps it around the well established Dynasty Warriors combat and gameplay formula. Originally released on Wii U and eventually 3DS, the Switch version contains all original and bonus DLC content in one place. I personally find this fast paced, action orientated game a huge breath of fresh air to the often slower Zelda gameplay.
My original goal at this stop was to simply complete the main story campaign. I was part way through the additional Wind Waker segment, so I wound up with only 3 campaigns to clear. Now that that’s done, I plan to stick around awhile to dabble with some of the other facets of the game. There is still Adventure Mode where you choose tiles from a map that mirrors the overworld from the original Zelda. Each tile is a campaign with its own rules and outline, upon completion of which you can earn weapons and materials which I believe are different than to those found in Story Mode.
There are LOADS of characters in the game as well who can level up and wield a variety of weapons which can also be improved. As well as Story and Adventure, there are even more modes that provide various other challenges. I’ll be happily plugging away at those until I’m ready to move on again to my next stop.
What Lies Beyond?
My next destination will be Super Mario Odyssey as I return to collect the rest of the Power Moons from my original save. I had collected a whole bunch, but there are still a few hidden in each stage and the particularly difficult challenges unlocked at the end of the game for me to still complete. Alongside this as well as Hyrule Warriors, I will be continuing to play Dragon Ball Fighter Z. I will most likely draft up a review for Dragon Ball at some point in the future for those of you, like me, who may wish to adopt it despite being released last year.
Thanks for catching up!
TheBenAlder 