Played Castlevania (from the Anniversary bundle).

I was afraid the game will be highly difficult, but it felt okay, at least in the start. Anniversary bundle didn't add rewind feature or multiple save states, it only has option for a single save state that is overwritten next time you save. Which I think is a good thing, otherwise with the number of deaths I faced I would probably have used those features to cheese through. As it is, I would save at the start of the stage then reload that when I die, giving me unlimited lives.

I cheated this rule in 3 places. 1st is stage 15, the run before the boss is very difficult died many, many time there. So saved the game on last screen instead of stage start. Secondly on stage 17, just before reaching the last stage there are ton of enemies falling down and jumping around and they kept destroying me. So in an effort to reach the final boss with full health I saved there and reloaded multiple times to cross that without taking any damage. The last was on the final boss. One of the two bosses where I died a lot.

I also had to use a guide to finally complete the game. On my first playthrough I reached the stage 15 (there are 18 total) and got stuck at the boss. Even after uncountable deaths I couldn't figure out how to kill it. After looking up online the guide recommend a strategy that makes it super easy to beat the boss, but that required a different secondary weapon which I couldn't get in that stage, so restarted the game.

So, other than those 3 difficult places, as long as there are unlimited lives, the game isn't super difficult. I know it sound a bit contradictory, but unlimited lives has become a normal feature these days so I am just counting it as a quality of life improvement, rather than an inherent game mechanic. But since the game doesn't have unlimited lives, and those places do exist in the game, it is a very difficult game.

Still, recommended for any one who doesn't mind such old games and want to play one of the classics.

Started Pikmin 1.

Other than the demo for Pikmin 3 I haven't played any Pikmin game, but thanks to the demo I had the general idea of what the game is about.

This first game is time based, you have 30 in-game days to complete the game, and each day doesn't last too long, so you have to manage your time well. These kind of time limits always gives me anxiety, so I am following an guide which mentions what I should pick each day, so that game ends in 21 days, leaving 9 days for margin of error. I am not exactly aligned with it, but trying to stick as close to it as possible. For instance, I missed an item on a particular day, but then I got an extra item on another day, so kind of balancing it out.

I have just finished day 7 and have picked up 11 items (out of 30), but I lost over 100 pikmin killing an enemy and recovering a piece of ship in the last day. Hopefully it won't effect me too badly otherwise will have to spend a day just farming more Pikmin.

It's a really fun game, but I wish there were no time limits, I could just take my pikmin and explore the whole map collecting everything. I have heard the later games don't have such limits, or atleast they are much more relaxed, so looking forward to playing those.

That's all for this week, as I wasn't in mood to play any of the existing games. I switched to these ones.

I would like to add one thing about Monster Hunter Wilds though, which I didn't mention last week. The game has amazing cut scenes. The story is okay, I don't think people play these games for the story, but the story cut scenes are really good.

The game has it's share of issues though, for instance it has such a convoluted way to play co-op. You do missions separately, and only get the invitation to join other when the fight starts, and once the fight is over everyone is back to wherever they were, waiting for the next fight. There are also apparently different type of parties, including one that allow you to roam the open-world together, but I think that doesn't allow you to join each other's missions. There are also some lobbies and squads. Each does something that other things don't do. Pretty confusing overall.

Game is good though. So worth playing even with all these issues.

What about all of you? What have you been playing and/or plan to play?