Intro
As fellow gamers, the Selective Hearing team has been immersed in various games this month. As we near the end of summer, are we still confined indoors, or have we touched grass and gotten some Vitamin D from natural light?
Allen
What Have You Been Playing in August?
- Donkey Kong Bananza
- Ninja Gaiden Ragebound
- Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Demo
- Resident Evil 4 (2023)
What Are Your Thoughts?
SPOILERS AHEAD
Donkey Kong Bananza was a pleasure to play this year. As I was wrapping up the post-game content, which was a lot beefier than I thought it would be, I kept hoping there would be more. The challenges were actually becoming quite difficult, and I really had to put in a little more effort to complete some of the stages. Even then, it wasn’t mind-meltingly grueling, and I always felt like I had been within reach of finishing.
There really wasn’t a completion checklist or anything, but there were some milestones I hit, like fully leveling up the skill tree, getting all the song discs, buying all the outfits, and 1000 bananas. A few of my friends and I made it a small competition about who had the most bananas at certain points as we played.
It was also very interesting to see where others struggled on certain levels. Often, when we discussed certain stages, I would think some were easy while others thought they were difficult, and vice versa. A lot of texts were exchanged mainly around the thought of “If you thought that part was hard, you will hate this next one…”
Donkey Kong Bananza was such an enjoyable time, I’m sad that it’s over. What a complete package of a game on all fronts. I will most likely make it into my top three by the end of the year. Hopefully, we will get a Donkey Kong Country-style game in the next few years.
I felt like I wanted to up the difficulty in my next game, so Ninja Gaiden Ragebound was next up. I was super excited about this one, as it looked great and had the pixel-style art that I enjoy. I did like the old Ninja Gaiden theme that plays when you enter new areas. Made me smile, but also brought back memories of the old NES versions of the game and how challenging those games were.
As I progressed through the first few stages, I had fun mastering the mechanics and gradually acquiring new abilities. I really like bouncing off not only enemies but also certain obstacles in stages. When in doubt, bounce. The grades at the end of each level had me trying to complete the challenges and finish stages as quickly as possible. I was kind of breezing through the game. To ramp up the difficulty, I chose the Scarcity and Unworthy talismans to handicap my runs, but I ended up with two grade increases. I was able to collect the various powers and weapons due to this handicap.
Boss fights had the right amount of difficulty. Of course, you encounter different phases and eventual deaths with each new phase. They showed their cards and you played them out, but of course, you had to get that far for them to be revealed. I felt like every death was able to be surmounted, even if I died twenty-plus times and spent an hour on some bosses. Additionally, the speed platforming sections with Kumori were probably the most challenging for me; however, they quickly put you back into the flow of things after you fail. This is great because you can continually improve upon your previous mistakes and eventually succeed.
As I was collecting the remaining trophies, there is a playthrough that needs to be done on Hard Mode. I tried it once and quickly decided it wasn’t for me. I ended up enabling several options in Assist Mode, a great addition by the developers, to complete my run and earn the platinum trophy. Excellent short game at a great price. I can see a lot of people speedrunning Ninja Gaiden Ragebound in the future.
As a huge JRPG fan, I’ve always been curious about the Trails games. There are so many games in the series, and it felt like I couldn’t really jump in. I almost did around the Cold Steel era, but I just never did. I was more of a Ys player, but the last one I played was Ys VIII, and I thought that one was good. After hearing that there was going to be a remake of the first Trails game, I just had to check it out.
I have been very impressed with the demo so far, the game runs very well as I was mostly at 4K 60FPS. I did switch it up to 120FPS for a bit on my PS5 Pro, and it was also good. No drops or hiccups, even during battle. Also, like the English VO, there are some dubbing veterans, and they really bring the energy to their respective characters. They did kind of drop a lot of the mechanics right away. I felt there were a lot of tutorials to go through. Just when I think I’ve learned one thing, here’s something else to learn right away. Once I took the time to learn about them all, I seemed to have found my groove.
There is a lot of sauce with the battle system. Transitioning from the action-based battle to a more turn-based combat system was nice to see. I think it is done a lot better here than in something like Metaphor Refantazio. I also enjoy the turn system and seeing who goes next, with possible delays depending on what arts you choose. Even choosing the arts and where they will be applied adds to the strategy of battle. I made sure to always try to hit multiple targets while staying out of range from any retaliation.
m glad I played the demo. I let out an audible “NOOO” once I got the notification that the demo was over. They caught me off guard with the combat system and left on a good cliffhanger for the story. Trails in the Sky: 1st Chapter really might be the next RPG series I jump into next.
One game in my backlog has been Resident Evil 4 Remake. I borrowed a copy from a friend about a month ago, but I had just been sitting on the game because of the previous games that came out. I think I’ve finally found a good window of time to give it a shot.
I love the Resident Evil series, but I’ve never been good at them, even going back to the PlayStation days. I had always been playing copilot with my brother or a friend for most of the time. I decided to just go through the story on Assisted Mode so I wouldn’t have a super frustrating time. I had to get acclimated to the game and its parrying mechanics. I almost felt like the circle button had conditioned me to roll whenever a zombie tried to take a swing, and of course, it wouldn’t work. My strategy was to shoot the legs and use melee.
The graphics in this game are mind-blowing. I loved how detailed the homes and the different corridors are now; they exude a creepy, decaying vibe. Once you get into the main castle, the walls are lined with such detail, and the lighting isn’t just bright for bright sakes. They are correctly lit and still offer a dark vibe throughout. Leon, Ashley, and Ada, all the humans, look so detailed that they almost feel like new characters to me. The enemies look gruesome and uglier than ever. I love it.
I’m not sure how many playthroughs I will do; I might just be content with completing the story. Hopefully, I can jump into the other remakes soon before Resident Evil 9 comes out.
What Are You Looking Forward to in September?
September will be filled with many titles I want to play. With the announcement of Sliksong finally arriving, that will probably be first on the list. I played Hollow Knight back in 2020, and it was a great experience; however, I don’t have many fond memories of the game. After that, what will take priority will be Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter.
Greg
What Have You Been Playing in August?
- No Games This Month
What Are Your Thoughts?
My entry this month is pretty much blank, my August was very busy and too packed to play any games seriously.
What Are You Looking Forward to in September?
Not anything in particular, but I will be using September to save up for Ghost of Yotei when it comes out on October 3rd.
BigFreaky
What Have You Been Playing in August?
- Pokémon GO
- Pokémon Home
What Are Your Thoughts?
During August, I collected my 200th Zygarde Cell, allowing me to change it to its final form, as shown above.
I’m still collecting more cells to the limit. Currently set at 300. I’m not sure why, perhaps we’ll get the shiny version in-game sooner or later.
The Pokémon GO Fest 2025 Max Finale came, and we got to battle Eternatus. A weekend full of Max Battles with local friends was a good time. We battled enough to power up Eternatus, making it a great addition to Max Battles.
Additionally, in August, I attended a Chicago White Sox vs. Detroit Tigers game in Chicago for a special Pokémon GO theme night. There were Pikachu raids that offered Pika with a Rate Field background. I even caught a shiny!!
I didn’t quite get back Home to sort everything out, but I did do some work. Still working on it.
- Pokémon TCG Pocket – Nothing particular to report back. Opening packs and wonder picking.
- Pokémon Friends is… not a game for me. I log on occasionally, but I don’t think there is gonna be a big hook for me.
- I worked quite a bit this month, so aside from POGO, I didn’t do much else.
- I still haven’t played Pokémon White.
What Are You Looking Forward to in September?
September is going to be a quiet month, I think. I’m going to try to set aside some time to play Pokémon White, since I asked my friend to also play Black so we could complete the Pokédex, and I’ve played it for about zero. LOL
Pokémon GO is forever constant. Hopefully, we get some exciting new things. We are going into a heavily Mega-Pokémon season with Pokémon Legends Z-A on the horizon.
September is just a buffer month until the massive month of gaming that is October!!!
Ghost of Yotei and Pokémon Legends Z-A!!! I’m counting the days!
