Hey, Gamers! Long time, no… write? University engulfed me in a massive research bubble so I didn’t really have time to do anything other than reading and writing my assignments. So, I didn’t do April but so little happened in April and May (because of the research bubble) that I think it would be okay to fit it in one post. I did not keep track, nor did I keep up with my bullet journal so this post is the most I’ve had to rely on my memory since January. And Josh’s memory, obviously (so there’s some hope for us, at least).
Elden Ring! Josh finished Elden Ring in April, and by finish I mean he got the Platinum trophy. He used his trial for PlayStation plus to upload his save file (he does have PS+ on his other account, but he plays on a different account). He says 10/10 wouldn’t do it again because it was ‘way too stressful’ but honestly, he probably would do it again. He has since mainly been doing PVP with his brothers. I believe they enjoy ‘ganking’ people.
As for me, I decided to start Elden Ring again. I’m going to do a separate post about it but basically, I’ve replaced Yen with Ciri because Ciri has a sword. I haven’t played much because I haven’t had time, but I remember having a significant amount of issues in comparison to my original character. But hopefully, over the next month or so, I’ll be able to focus more on it.
The special game for April was Beyond Two Souls and I actually completed it. I really enjoyed it. It’s not too surprising considering how much I enjoyed Detroit: Become Human but I’m glad I got to play it because I don’t think I would’ve played it if it wasn’t my randomly picked special game. In the end, I chose life and I went to live with the group that Jodie was with when she was homeless. I do plan on playing it more and maybe even getting the Platinum trophy, but I’m satisfied with my one playthrough for now and the Platinum for Detroit: Become Human is something I’m already after but the games are similar enough that I wouldn’t want to try for both of the trophies at the same time.
Since we’re on the topic of special games, I might as well talk about May. It was, unfortunately, Spider-Man (PS4). I say unfortunately because I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to enjoy this game. But at the very end of the month, I did. I spent some time getting used to the controls, understanding the map and I am really enjoying it. This is one that I didn’t finish because I didn’t have the full month on, but I 100% plan on continuing to play. I’m not sure I’ll do the DLC’s but I want to at least finish the game. It might take me a couple of months, but I am enjoying it which is a different story from when I first tried playing this game.
Speaking of finishing games: I finally finished Yakuza 3. In the space between the last update post and this update post, I finished it and I cannot give you a more precise time. I’m going to do a post on it because I adored the story and I think it’s one of the best that I have played so far. One thing, though, is oh my gosh I wish Kiryu would let Haruka have a childhood instead of giving her all these responsibilities and dragging her to Tokyo because he thinks he’s going to die. Like, let the girl live. I know she’s responsible and mature for her age but she’s still a child. That is all, thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please let children have their childhoods. (Editing note: I will write a post about the big death in this game… I need some more time to process it first, though).
Since we’re on the Yakuza front, Josh finished the Kaito files in April. This was one of the things I did actually write down so what I write next will be directly from the interview I did when he finished the DLC: “it was fun. A bit short which y’know Kaito is one of the better characters in the Yakuza/Judgement franchise, so it’s sad that there isn’t more of him… #kaitofornextprotag. I think the story was pretty straightforward which I felt was a breath of fresh air because the stories in these games try to one up themselves in terms of twists but this one felt more down to earth. I think the story was quite compelling, like, it was good at making you feel a reason for actually carrying on which for how much these games drag on it can be hard to find the will to carry on sometimes. Kaito’s fighting styles were okay but they weren’t as fun as I thought they could’ve been because it’s only a DLC he only had two whereas Yagami had 2 with a 4th one added as DLC. His fighting styles were very clearly reused Kiryu Yakuza 0 fighting styles but they were different enough to be their own distinct thing. Kaito’s tank style had a unique thing that if you did a guard at the right time it would completely negate the damage and his brawler style would knock people back at the right time which was good but they were tricky to trigger. It didn’t have enough Hagashi in my opinion. All the characters you want to survive in the end survive, which is a nice change.” And then two days later, he talked about the difficulty being too easy and that he made the last boss more difficult by not using healing items. He said some stuff about colouring books, but I’m a bit confused about that so I won’t write it.
Another game that took up a lot of Joshua’s time was Cyberpunk 2077. Remember when he played Persona 5 and I hated it but he told me I would like it and then it became my favourite thing? Well, uh, we basically did a UNO reverse of that. We got Cyberpunk because I wanted it, I played it and all I could think of was ‘Josh is going to love this’ but then… he tried it and didn’t like it. He then tried it again and absolutely loved it. I think he has 85 hours, and that was (I think) just April because he did get burnt out because of it. He seemed to have a lot of fun. He loved Johnny. He got the ending where they joined the nomads and Judy went with them because Judy was his girlfriend (technically her girlfriend because he used female V for once) and Mitch survived but Saul died. I think it’s going to be a game he goes back to quite frequently, but he needs some time away from it to get over the burnout.
Josh also started Slay the Spire in April. He played it for a bit but got bored. It’s a fun game but not something he’s willing to dedicate a bunch of hours to. I am yet to play it but it’s definitely on my list. Josh also played Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom but got bored pretty quickly. He also tried Table Top Racing: World Tour, but he didn’t like it. Josh started Mafia 2 on the last day of May (he has rage quit that game more times than I’ve rage quit Dark Souls sooo).
Something else that Josh has been playing a lot is the Uncharted series. He finished the first and second ones, and he started the third but I think he’s a bit burnt out from it. Something else he finished (finally) is Dishonoured. He did the DLCs and started Dishonoured 2 but picked Corvo over Emily and then stopped playing it because it wasn’t what he imagined (even though this whole time, he said he was going to pick Emily but changed last second, so really what did he expect?).
Pokémon time? Pokémon time.
I feel like Pokémon will forever be this thing that’s just a big chunk of each post. I have so much love for this series, and I can feel it growing each month.
First, let’s talk about Pokémon Emerald. I got to the second gym. I beat it… and then forgot to save and my laptop ran out. I have since tried this gym three times and none of the times were successful. I went back to the mainland to grind, then tried the gym one more time before rage quitting and uh, I’ve not been on it since. To be completely honest, I was not enjoying it as much as I enjoyed the newer Pokémon games. However, since playing another older game quite a lot, I think I’m going to restart Emerald in June/July (probably July, I have like 4 Pokémon games going right now). I just want to give myself the best experience.
Speaking of the best experience, I finished Pokémon Sword! I loved this game so much. Like, oh my gosh my heart. We also got the DLCs for it; I’ve only started the Isle of Armour. I beat Leon, obviously, because I’ve finished the game. I am going to go into more detail about my team in another post (comparing all of my league teams), but I do remember finding Raihan’s gym harder than the league match. I found Pierce’s gym to be the hardest; I won with a fraction of health on my last Pokémon. I really, really enjoyed Pokémon Sword and I’m looking forward to Gen 9 even more now!
In BDSP, I finally, finally, finally caught Heatran. I also caught Darkrai, which made me happy because we had just watched the Darkrai movie a couple of weeks before the event. Josh has been doing a lot of shiny hunting. The release of Pokémon Home compatibility really got him back into it and he’s been playing it a ton more recently, which is nice. We’re both still yet to find any shiny Pokémon, though.
Lastly, Pokémon White! Yes, this is the old game I was talking about. Josh and I have been playing Pokémon Black/White together. We battle after each gym and it’s really fun (even though I lose a lot). It’s like playing Pokémon with my own real-life rival! I struggled with levelling up my Pokémon at first, but I think I’ve got hang of it now… sometimes it’s still a drag, but I finally have the EXP share item so it’s so much easier. I have to say that while I get that some people liked the difficulty aspect of it, I like that I don’t have to spend 10 hours grinding my Pokémon in between each gym.
I think that that’s all I have to say about Pokémon right now. I’ve still not started Legends Arceus but I am hoping that I will in the next month. I do regret saying that I want Violet over Scarlet… because the professor in Scarlet is cuter than the one in Violet. I do prefer the box art legendary of Violet, though. I also kind of regret it because Scarlet is going to be more past based and I studied history but at the end of the day, I am constantly trying to heal from my past and I’m constantly hoping for a better future so maybe Violet is the right one for me. Yes, I am overthinking which Pokémon version I get because, if you haven’t noticed by now, I overthink everything.
Lastly, we both started playing Stardew Valley again. I’m going to put my thoughts on that in a separate post because it was really emotional for me. If you want to know why then check out the post linked at the end. Josh has been watching a lot of Stardew Valley content on YouTube, so he got super invested… and then didn’t really play it much. He didn’t even make it out of Spring.
So, that’s all for this post, Gamers! I know this post is super late but I hope you guys enjoyed it. I have changed several things around my blog. I will now be posting every Monday and Thursday, and I have a cool new logo! If you want to check out our Twitch, it’s linked on my homepage (it’s 2nerds_1game). Check out my socials to stay updated (I am trying my best). I am actually going to be starting something new on my Instagram this week called ‘Fiction Fridays’ where I update you all on all the fiction writing I’ve been doing. Just thought it might be nice since my account there is more focused on writing rather than just gaming content. See you next post, Gamers!
Eleanor Rees Gaming 