Game-key Cards are great when they replace code-in-the-box, but otherwise they are a downgrade in every situation. Hope there is enough of a backlash that they revert it, but I highly doubt it.

Main reason my Switch 2 purchase is “on hold” - there’s no point when most games I want are getting Switch 1 releases and I’d rather get those as they are “real” physical games.

So, is Stella a good Kinetic VN to start with?

I’d say so. Of the Kinetic VNs I’ve played I’d rank the Top 3 as:

1. Stella of the End
2. Lunaria: Virtualized Moonchild
3. Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet

Stella is the most consistent one of the three - excellent production, story kept me hooked from the beginning, decent length (took me ~10h or so) and a satisfying ending.

Why do people have started to make difficult metroidvanias? Just because Hollow Knight was one, doesn’t mean all metroidvanias have to follow that step. Still, going to give it a try someday.

It’s probably still influence from HK, it was the biggest hit in this genre in a long time.

You can even see this in other mechanics, Bo also uses that same life system where you can only take a small amount of hits before dying but have a “potion” you can use to refill it mid-battle if you find the right opportunity.

World of Tanks Blitz?

Finished Stella of the End!

Probably the best among the kinetic VNs produced by Key. Art is beautiful, the characters and world are interesting, and while it has the usual “if you played enough Key VNs you can probably guess the ending” problem it was still an excellent journey.

Philia’s growth over the story was fantastic, and Jude was a really solid protagonist. I loved the epilogue as well.

Finished Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus!

The platforming sections in this game are hard - there’s been a couple spots where I was forced to take a break because I was getting hand cramps. 😄 Bosses are challenging but nowhere near as bad, with the only issue being that they can take a long time - the final boss has 6 stages and even after getting a lot of practice it still took me more than 10min to beat it.

Overall a great game, but one that I can only recommend if you don’t get frustrated by dying a lot. Oh, and make sure you play with a good and confortable controller, you’re going to need it.

Playing ATRI: My Dear Moments!

From one story about a robot girl in world where society is collapsing to another. 😄

But this one is quite different, a slice-of-life story in a world where oceans are rising and reducing livable land. It’s an unusual combination of themes, and having a disabled MC is another interesting take - Natsuki lost his leg in an accident and has to rely on an old, poorly fitting prosthetic while dealing with trauma and phantom pain. Atri is also great, a fun and smug gremlin who is a disaster at all types of housework but also a ball of positive energy that slowly helps the MC deal with his trauma.

This is another VN with great visuals - the backgrounds are particularly impressive, with a very detailed photo-like style. One curious thing about this game is that it has English language support but it’s not available on the western eShops, so if you want to play it you’ll have to buy from the japanese store.

Playing We Love Katamari Reroll+Royal Reverie!

The announcement of a new game in the series after more than a decade reminded me I had never played the second game, so I decided to pick up the remastered version.

This second game is “more of the same”, but it’s still good fun. Since these games are usually short and I got a day off today I’ll probably finish it before the end of the weekend.

I’d consider the digit key cards as a physical cartridge requiring a huge first-day patch (as large as a full game).

People overrate how relevant this is. doesitplay.org tracks how games play “out of the box” and ~80% of Switch 1 games and ~70% of PS5 games they tested don’t require any downloads/patches/internet to be finished.

If the same 20-30% of the games were being release as GCKs we wouldn’t see as many complains. The problem is that this number right now is 80%+ of the 3rd party games.

Okay, I guess some of the anger comes from the limited storage of console and the high price of fast SD card

This an interesting fact most people don’t realize - GKCs are a “hidden” price increase since they push the storage cost to the buyer.

It’s a reasonable replacement/alternative for “code in a box” games.

The problem is that it’s effectively replacing physical games on the Switch 2 - so far we have 80%+ of 3rd Party releases are using this model, and it’s a significant downgrade for “true” physical - forces the customer to pay the “storage cost”, requires internet access to install the game (not great from a handheld that should work everywhere), is bad for preservation since the game is not on cart.

Also, despite this being a low-cost alternative to carts some publishers are being extra-scummy and INCREASING the price - the Switch 2 version of Trails Beyond the Horizon is a good example, being $10 more than PS4/PS5/Switch 1 despite being effectively an “empty” cart.

Little Kitty, Big City Free DLC is nice, that game was fun.

Other than that the only one that really got my attention was Well Dweller, though I’m hearing a lot of good things about UFO 50.

Also no branches means no need to replay

Most (sadly not all) VNs do a good job minimizing repetition when replaying for alternative routes/endings. Fast-skipping text already read, highlighting choices you already took, or even having a flowchart so you can skip to branching points.

my recommendation will be Silver Case 2425.

Silver Case 2425 looks really interesting! It’s a pair of old VNs from Suda 51.

But I think I’ll go for Atri first, mainly because it’s the shortest of the three.

Will wait for your complete review of Stella of the End, sounds like a good first VN.

The only caveat is that this is a “kinetic novel” (no branches/choices). I generally recommend more interactive VNs for first-timers, but if you don’t mind the concept it’s definitely a good story to read.

Now that you have finished both Captain Toad and Atelier Plachta, what are you starting next?

Plan is to focus on Stella of the End this weekend, then go for another VN/side-game pair… but haven’t decided yet which ones.

For VN I’m leaning towards one of Atri, Witch on the Holy Night or Silver Case 2425, while for side-game I’m leaning towards either Gal Guardians or Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus.

I don’t understand why I have to play Tetris in order to craft something.

I love that particular feature. 😄 I think it adds a lot of interessting puzzle solving when crafting most complex items, since you have to think the optimal placement of pieces to build combos and so on. I also like that it’s complex yet it’s not as time-consuming as crafting in Ryza or Yumia can be.

But Lulua is a good option if you don’t like this style of crafting.

Finished Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker!!

Cleared the main game (Episodes 1-3) and some of the Bonus stages. Might come back later to do the rest but not sure.

I liked the game but it has some annoying issues. I mentioned last week how it forces you to replay the same stage multiple times and kills the pacing, but there’s also inconsistency in the quality of the stages - I think the slower-paced, more puzzle-focused ones are great, but the more action-focused ones can get very frustrating.

The compact nature of the stages make the camera get “in your way” very often, which can be a major pain when you’re rushing to escape enemies or raising lava. Also, these action-focused stages often give you a single chance to get Gems or Pixel Toads, forcing you to restart on small mistakes and adding to the repetition problem I mentioned above.

Finished Atelier Plachta (DLC for Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream)!

I’ve been wanting to replay Atelier Sophie 2 but my backlog doesn’t allow me, so I decided to compromise and get this DLC that was sitting in my wishlist.

It’s a prologue to the main story, showing Plachta’s arrival in Erde Wiege, her first adventure in that world alongside Ramizel and Diebolt, and how she got her Atelier. It also gives small bits of backstory for Plachta and Ramizel (mainly about their relationship with alchemy) that I don’t recall being in the main game.

Gameplay-wise you just go around the Atelier, main city, and one (fairly large) area with a boss at the end. Clearing this unlocks this area in the main game and a couple of extra recipes.

Overall it’s too short for its cost, but it was a reminder of how good Atelier Sophie 2 is - alchemy and combat are top-tier, the fantastic and colorful world is fun to explore, and it has a great balance of chill/slice-of-life and story moments.

Playing Stella of the End!

Good progress this week, reached Chapter 12 of 21.

This game gives me very strong TLOU vibes - it focuses on a growing parent/daughter relationship between the two leads as they travel through a ravaged land. However, this one goes for a more sci-fi approach - the father figure is Jude, a courier tasked with escorting a “newborn” android called Philia through forests and ruins of the collapsed human civilization.

The worldbuild is pretty damn good here. There’s a lot of details in how humans survive in this post-apocalyptic age, including its dangers like leftover war machines or tribes of humans who have gone feral. But you also get some glimpses at the past - one of my favorite chapters has the duo going through the remains of megalopolis while they figure out the conflicts that caused the collapse of its society.

There’s a post in the NSCollectors reddit front page joking that they “love GKCs”… because it’s ending all FOMO for collecting and making them save money.

The GCK situation is really sad. :/

I collect physical games so in my case they’re the worst parts of physical and digital combined and I’d rather consider them “digital only” releases… and since I only buy digital games heavily discounted any game announced in this model has a 1+ year delay for me.

It’s the main reason I’m not buying a S2 anytime soon… not worth it for the small number of physical exclusives I can play right now.

Definitely getting Katamari, though it looks like it’s digital-only so I’ll probably wait for a sale. Adventures of Elliot also looks really interesting! It’s Switch 2 only so I won’t be able to try the demo, but I’ll keep my eye on this one.

Absolute shame on Sega/Atlus for not including the DLC on the P3R release. (Edit: Looks like it’ll be a full price release, GKC and doesn’t include the DLC… Sega/Atlus absolutely trying to milk Switch 2 suckers players).

Yup, I was very dissapointed when I saw it was only 3rd Party titles because I’m not expecting a lot of new games.

Agree, though a system update forcing a game update before you can play an offline game that was working before is very unusual and I can understand some confusion around it.

I wonder if these games with “mandatory” updates do it immediately when you go online even if you haven’t played them in a while? Because the Switch 1 only updated games if they were in the front screen or you manually forced an update.

If they don’t this gets significantly worse - there’s no good way (AFAIK) to track which games on have been updated on the Switch, so keeping your games updated is a massive PITA if you have a big collection as you’re effectively forced to go “Check for updates” one by one from time to time. But at least for the previous console you could always play them without updating so there was no major harm in having your games on an old version.

Thanks for the compliment!

but there are some comical dialogues or descriptions

Date’s silliness was one of my favorite parts of the game, I laughed really hard at some parts. And as you said it makes an interesting contrast to the darker storyline.

His banter/dynamic with Aiba is also great.

Playing Stella of the End!

Was not in a good mindset for story-focused games, so minimal progress this week, only completed one more chapter.

Playing Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker!!

Completed Episodes 1 and 2, and I’m now halfway through Episode 3. Getting all Gems/Challenges/Pixel Toads before moving to a new stege.

I’m enjoying the game, but I really wish it respected your time better. There’s no reason to hide the Challenge before you complete the stage once, nor to force to enter again to find the Pixel Toad - all of these should be available on the first run. Having to repeat stages for these also hurts the pacing of the game.

I cleared the first world of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Looks like there’s three, with the last one being shorter longer than the other two. (Edit: Reached Episode 3 and it’s clearly much longer than the others).

Though I don’t think it’s a pure VN, more of an adventure game

Definitely more of an adventure game.

Playing Stella of the End!

Been almost an year since I last played a Studio Key Kinetic Novel, and I’ve heard a lot of praise for this entry.

And damn, this is one of the best-looking VNs I’ve seen - there’s a lot of CGs and the artstyle is beautiful (check the screenshots on Nintendo’s page for some samples). I think only Witch on the Holy Night impressed me more in this aspect (which is a game I should resume… maybe after this one?).

Didn’t get very far yet, only finished the first 3 chapters (of 20 or so total looking at the in-game list).

Playing Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker!!

Current side-game. I completed the first “Episode” and I’m around 30% into the second. So far I have managed to 100% each stage before moving to the next.