36 Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros - The Very ANGRY Wiggler, Interfering Kameks, Finally Reaching Mount Brrr

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about having to deal with Kamek and Paper Kamek again on our way to Mount Brrr. Something unbelievable then happens to Wiggler... as ye'll soon see...

Kamek blocked the path on us with his magic barrier and we had to start a mission to defeat him with bomb buds before he could hit us three times. Hitting him with the first one was easy enough, just caught him at the right moment. He then put up a shield that went away after he warped, so that was the chance to hit him with the second one. After this, he made two fake copies of himself, so we had to throw the third one at the real Kamek.

Covered with three bandages, he flew off and his barrier spell dissipated. Up ahead, there's another Lakitu Info Centre and a heart block. Further on we met Wiggler, who was confronting Paper Kamek about the giant shapes he littered the forest with earlier. Paper Kamek then zapped Wiggler, sending him into a blind rage and attacked us!

Boss time! Wiggler started by increasing his POW. Paper Kamek just floated in the background. After taking our first turns, Wiggler did some shockwave and spit attacks, before chasing after Paper Mario on his hind legs. While being chased, Paper Mario had to use his hammer to knock enemies out of the way. Paper Kamek flew above menacingly too. Unfortunately, Paper Mario got KO'd! Wiggler then brought out Paper Spear Guys. I wasn't too concerned about these cohorts, as a good counter can wipe them out.

After a turn where we revived Paper Mario, Paper Kamek conjured up a papercraft ball and Wiggler chased after us on it! The new move "Boomerang Guard" came up then. With this, Paper Mario turns into a boomerang and we can use him to take turns throwing him at whatever's chasing us. We knocked that ball out from under Wiggler!

On the next turn, Wiggler chased after Mario. I wasn't fast enough and didn't escape Wiggler from landing on him.

After a turn of attacking him, Wiggler flopped down on the ground exhausted. Paper Kamek then came by and floated over him. It was him we were to attack now. He's Lv 16 here. He attacks by firing different coloured shapes at each one of us with his wand. It's easy to determine which to avoid at what moment.

With a few Bros. Attacks and one last move dealing with a paper enemy damaging battle card, we defeated him! It was well before he got a chance to do anything else like perhaps reviving Wiggler's anger! He dropped the POW Gloves for Paper Mario before fleeing limply.

"You haven't seen the last of me!" he said, before flying away. Wiggler thanked us for giving him the most delicious day of his life and said he was very tired. Just then, this sad music started playing and Mario and Luigi exclaimed:

"OH, NO!"

Just then, all these Paragoombas with bowed heads and closed eyes appeared from above in a light and carried Wiggler away! To heaven?

Everyone then started CRYING! Even Starlow! I'd never seen her cry before!

"Why are you so sad?" Wiggler then asked, before descending in his new butterfly form! Happy music then started playing as he offered us all a lift to Mount Brrr. We took him up on it and away we went!

Finally on Mount Brrr! That beautiful music I heard from before when the princesses arrived at the villa is the main theme for this area. Exploring this area is gonna be a treat :) Wiggler is staying here to give us a lift back anytime.

So... what was with that last scene huh? Leading us to believe someone died a sad and dramatic death in a Mario game! Wow!

35 Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros - The Very Hungry Wiggler's Second Zippy Zappy Fence, Fire Piranha Plants, Flower Rank

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about continuing through Gloomy Woods and running into the first Fire Piranha Plants.

Passed the Paper Spear Guy dodge challenge this time! Yeah! :)

On the next screen we came across a load of Fire Piranha Plants. They attack by shooting a pair of small fireballs at Mario and Luigi or a giant fireball at Paper Mario. They also try to use their vine bodies to sling their bulbous heads at one of us. They sometimes do a fakeout one of these as well. Just like the Paper Spear Guys! Trying to keep me from passing the dodge challenge! You'll know if it seems shorter than usual.

It took almost every encounter with these things, but I finally passed the dodge challenge for them too! They kept getting a hit when I was one shy of reaching it and it was annoying for ages!

Anyway I levelled Luigi up to Flower Rank. I gave him an extra gear slot. I did the same for Paper Mario when he levelled up to Flower Rank too.

I found the Filler Gloves but didn't equip them on anyone.

Wiggler was up ahead in front of ANOTHER electrified fence! To blow up the left generator, we had to carry the bomb bud through sticky black goop, like what we had to deal with when racing the Yellow Yoshi earlier.

When we blew up the fence, we tried to follow Wiggler, but then Magikoopa intervened and attacked! The mission to defeat him started.

He also said he was the real Kamek, so I guess I won't call him Magikoopa anymore!

1 Space Invaders Anniversary - J2ME Goodness!

Dear Readers,

Just thought I'd play some Space Invaders on my old mobile phone! I have a t-shirt that came out during the game's 30th anniversary. This is version 1.2.9 of the J2ME game, which came out on its... 27th anniversary. In two years time, it'll be the game's 40th anniversary.

You can choose to play the game with the Puzzle Bobble stage theme playing in the background, which I thought was a nice touch. There are other Taito game BGMs to choose from too.

I had a few goes with it and got a high score of 6,710 points. For a mobile keypad game, it mercifully only uses three buttons.

11 Final Fantasy Explorers - Facing Bahamut With Joe, Encasing Diabolos With Bix

Dear Readers,

Today, I'll talk about even more online adventures I went on with Joe and Bix.

Quest 1: "Sovereign of the Skies"

Defeat Bahamut. Mount Chaminil Summit. Along the Chaminil trail, I got a Crystal Surge to summon a Flan Princess. She wasn't giant like the other summons, but the notebook says she'll drop something rare if we're lucky. On reaching the summit, the weather was really foggy and blurry due to the snowstorm. However, I was able to do my Snow Banisher cataclysm here and things got much clearer! Bahamut was a tough but exciting battle and it was my first time facing him. Joe said he normally has trouble with him too. We won and headed back to town to meet up with Bix.

Bix changed job to Black Mage! At this stage they were EL 25. I was a bit ahead at EL 62 and Joe was even further ahead with EL 113.

Bix was running around us while I was trying to talk to Cid! He said I'm eligible for the final job aptitude exam. That'll be nice later.

Quest 2: "That Million-Gil Gaze"

Defeat 5 Ahrimans. Arha Marsh etc. This was quite fun. There was a good bit of slowdown as we faced the Ahrimans and Coeurls, so it was like bullet-time combat. I got the last one nicely with an Omnislash. How appropriate for Cloud to say "This ends here!" during it!

Quest 3: "One-Winged Angel"

Bix was pretty enthusiastic! Ran right ahead while Joe and I collected loads of stuff on the way to fight Shiva.

Quest 4: "Terrapin Treasury"

Quick and easy one. All 5 Gil Snappers were right there in Maxon Ravine when we started.

Quest 5: "Inspector from Home"
Quest 6: "The Joy of Collecting Items"

We collected our items quickly. I was able to do a Trance Surge kinda soon, but waited until we fought Shiva to do anything. It was a lot further in the quest but it was still fun!

Quest 7: "Immortal Firebird"
Quest 8: "Aptitude Exam: Geomancer, Alchemist"
Quest 9: "Gale-Force Lupine"

At the end of this quest, Bix was running around but their HP bar was completely empty! How were they not dead? Must've been a very close call! I tried encasing this eidolon but it didn't work.

I started using the fortune teller. It seems to be a good way to spend Play Coins if you have too many. You can get a chance to earn bonus money and crystal points too.

Quest 10: "A Moogle's Treasure"

Joe was getting ready for bed, so Bix and I just did the odd quick quest. We all talked a little bit about other RPGs. I hope Bravely Second is in good supply in the shops...

Quest 11: "Dark Despot"

I remember Diabolos being tough the first time I fought him and that was with three other people! It was just Bix and me this time, so it was quite tough indeed! We really missed Joe's healing powers. We did manage to defeat Diabolos though and I was able to encase him too!

Quest 12: "Wipe Out the Magitroops"

After this quest, Bix got the flashing red LED of danger so they had to charge their 3DS. As for me, I had to have mine charging the whole time we were playing, as it was low in battery when we started.

2 Bravely Second - Outside Al-Khampis Questing, First Enemies, Desert, Aimee, Meeting Fiore DeRosa

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about some more stuff do to on getting started with this game.

The lady by the inn gives us a quest titled "Apron A-missing!" where Master Ginji's legendary apron was stolen by a thief. The rumourmongering lady tells us "A Secret Paradise", where we can find an enemy that can help us train up jobs very quickly. The man in front of the Spire of Learning gives us a quest about learning how to use StreetPass. The man on the bridge tells us about registering friends and passing them. The man at the south gate tells us about updating StreetPass information. The man in the dormitory by the fireplace tells us about summoning StreetPassed users in battle. We head back to the man in front of the spire and he thanks us and gives us some potions as reward. He's able to play the game with his granddaughter now!

On leaving  Al-Khampis, we speak with Agnès and tell her we've met with our "guide". They introduce themselves to one another and Magnolia tells us about rebuilding her homeland.

Now then! The world map! The music is nice and adventuresome. Day and night passes as well. A tutorial about "Rebuilding the Moon" shows up and says that it uses people met via StreetPass to help rebuild Magnolia's homeland. Wow, it's a simulation kind of thing. Like Actraiser or something.

We jump into the first battle too! It's against Harpies. The battle music... isn't as cool as the one in Bravely Default but it isn't bad. It may grow on me!

South of the town, Echo Herbs can be found.

Hmm... when you win a battle, you can get an option to accept a new challenger. Neat idea... it seems like it would save one from walking back and forth in level grinding sessions! There's a bonus multiplier as well, so that's a nice thing to add to the gameplay.

Then we fight Sandhoppers. They like to jump in the air like Dragoons or something. We take care of them easily as well. I like that the bestiary updates without having to examine what the enemies are, though I'm not sure why I thought it wouldn't.

Now I'm going to try something else: turning off the encounter rate entirely! It warns that it'll make it more difficult to gain levels but I'll just experiment for now.

We find the apron and the "Sandswept" chat comes up. Nikolai isn't used to the sandy winds but Yew and Janne are. Magnolia seems to be having trouble too and takes Yew's handkerchief, rather than borrow it. No sign of the apron thief anywhere.

Exploring the desert, there are a few places of interest, but I don't enter them yet. There's also this big sand tornado that seems to have something inside.

Back in Al-Khampis, this cut scene happens. A woman with a gun named Aimee is scolding her two soldiers for losing the apron they stole. So that's who it was!

We bring the apron back to the lady and she gives us an Ether for a reward and says that Master Ginji would make a meal as thanks.

In the dormitory, the one in the pointy yellow hat gives us another quest. "Collect Monster Bones" in a cave northwest of the oasis.

The rumour lady has another one, "The Rumored Adjunct Professor". It's a guy who can be found at the oasis.

The man on the bridge gives us a quest too, to beat up some Goblins that have been attacking crops. It's titled "Goblin Busters".

On leaving town again, we get a tutorial for "Brave & Default".

At night, Al-Khampis has no music but nice atmospheric wind blowing. Very pretty with the lights too. Inside the dormitory, there's no sound at all except for our own footsteps.

Leaving town once more, we get another scene where we ask Magnolia for directions to a cave, but she seems unsure of herself. Is she busted? It would appear so, until Agnès comes in and shows not suspicion, but sympathy! She thinks Magnolia is having trouble with directions, because it's an issue that's dear to her own heart! Nice save for Magnolia there!

We head to the oasis and meet this adjunct professor. He's here and he's introduced as Red Mage Fiore DeRosa. He likes the ladies. He seems to give us a choice to fight him. I wasn't expecting this. I decline to fight him for now. Maybe I should reconsider having the encounter rate turned off?

10 Final Fantasy Explorers - Continuing Adventures With Joseph and Bix

Dear Readers

Today I'll talk about some more adventures I went on with my American friends. Joseph and I started and Bix came on a little later. He had his Helldiver with him most of the time. It looks a bit like the Pokémon Fearow.

Quest 1: "The Immortal Firebird Returns"

Defeat Phoenix. Dell'antoni Bluffs. This time I managed to get an Omnislash in on it! I wasn't able to get a Magicite Surge on it in the last session we had.

Quest 2: "Secret of the Underwater Caves"

Defeat Leviathan. Travi Cove. New area for me! This battle was pretty silly and fun. Leviathan did these waves that kept wiping us out and sent us all the way up the beach again and again. Joe's monsters carried on the battle though as they seemed unaffected. Next time we face him I'll have to see if I can take cover. That move is like Surf in Pokémon Stadium.

When we got back to Libertas, Bix joined us. They were a little behind, so we continued doing their newest quests.

Quest 3: "Flame Djinn"
Quest 4: "Ice Queen"
Quest 5: "Thunder Sage"
Quest 6: "Aptitude Exam: Thief & Time Mage"
Quest 7: "Twisted Sister's Garden"

Did a nice victory lap around the tree after defeating Dryad here :)

Quest 8: "Magicite Permit Exam"

I think we went for Ifrit here but I'm not sure.

Quest 9: "Explore North Amostra"

The nice long trekking quest. I got a little nervous on this one, as my 3DS battery LED was starting to flash red with danger. Plugged it in right away after completing the quest.

Quest 10: "A Chocobo's Treasure"
Quest 11: "A Moogle's Treasure"

Cloud Magicite came in very handy against Ramuh here. The 1,000 needle Crystal Surge too!

Quest 12: "One-Winged Angel"

On the start of this quest, we had to wait for Bix while they had to do something, so we did some beachcombing! I also did the Sea Sunder cataclysm just for fun and to impress any ladies around with my Moses powers! Joe made an unintentional pun about Shiva looking really cool. Nice zinger there :)

Quest 13: "Accursed Serpent Eye"

After defeating the 5 lamias, we talked about Zelda memories, as it was the 30th anniversary of the first Zelda game's release.

Imagine a "Hunter" style of Zelda game? The Tingle game that came out here is close enough to being a hunter style of game, as there is lots of scavenging to do in it. You can hire a bodyguard in it as well, which is a lot like being a Beastmaster I'd imagine.

5 Splatoon - Pokémon Blue Wins the Splatfest! Blue is Beautiful! Blue is Best! We're Blue, We're Beautiful, We're Best!

Dear Readers,

Callie and Marie gave us the results and had a little bit of trainer banter!

Pokémon Red won in the polls with 64% to 36% in votes.

However, they lost to Pokémon Blue with 43% to 57% in game victories!

The final score is Pokémon Red's 322 to Pokémon Blue's 378. BLUE WINS!

Marie cheered for Blastoise and friends! Callie asked her about the traded Vulpix and how to change the nickname from BLUEISBEST, but Marie ignored her. She's the only one who can change the name! :)

I got the highest title for the Splatfest as Pokémon Blue King, so I won 24 Super Sea Snails. Woohoo!

4 Splatoon - Pokémon Red vs. Blue Splatfest. My battles! (Part 2)

Dear Readers,

Today I'll share some more highlights of my battles in the Splatfest. Go Pokémon Blue!

Again, the following stages were in the rotation:

Blackbelly Skatepark
Camp Triggerfish
Hammerhead Bridge

Match 1:

Hammerhead Bridge. Lost 37.7 to 52.6. Inkstrikes galore! They were pretty powerful, but we didn't lose too badly against them.

Match 2:

Hammerhead Bridge. Lost 37.3 to 50.4. Killer Wails galore! Like, one right after the other! Didn't lose too badly here either, but they were darn powerful.

After this I levelled up to "Pokémon Blue Champion".

Match 3:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Lost 39.7 to 54.4. These guys were pretty fast and knew their stuff.

Match 4:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 46.0 to 41.6. This place is too narrow to escape Killer Wails!

Match 5:

Hammerhead Bridge. Lost 16.1 to 63.2. That was a brutal offensive... All four of them covered the place and fenced us in.

Match 6:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 54.7 to 35.3. My Dear Pokémon Red supporters! When you splat us, you shouldn't immediately try to do an Inkstrike while standing next to our spawn point! It's a bit silly!

Match 7:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 52.8 to 38.1. I'm much more competent against these opponents than the ones a few matches ago. I'm just glad I'm not getting my butt handed to me!

Match 8:

Camp Triggerfish. Won 44.5 to 42.9. Didn't see a lot of them... They must've been busy on the other side of the map. Got a couple of nice splats around a corner though!.

Match 9:

Camp Triggerfish. Won 54.8 to 35.8. Pretty quiet at the floodgates area after the siren. Was able to reclaim turf without incident!

Match 10:

Blackbelly Skatepark. We got destroyed at 6.1 to 83.2. Two of our guys disconnected. I know this because there were only two of us locked in the spawn by Pokémon Red's icky pink goop shooters.

Match 11:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 54.2 to 41.6. We nearly destroyed them but they came back in a big way that made me end up doubting we were going to win!

Match 12:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 63.8 to 30.6. Dynamo Rollers are slow but are extra scary when you see one raised in front of your own face... I gave all of my team the Bubbler in the last few seconds while we were winning. It must've been pretty demoralising to the other team!

Match 13:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 87.2 to 7.0. WOW! This time they got destroyed! I got all 4 splatted in the last few seconds too!

Match 14:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 64.0 to 25.3. I love to tease novice snipers by dancing around. :)

Match 15:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 74.6 to 16.7. I saw one of their players disappear in a disconnect cloud early on, so I kind of knew we had this.

Match 16:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 58.9 to 33.1. They were getting a bit better but we still hammered their heads in! :)

After this, my Splatfest Tee rolled an Ink Saver (Sub). I didn't use them all that much during the weekend though.

Match 17:

Camp Triggerfish. Won 53.3 to 35.8. Kept a Kraken at bay with the sheer force of my firepower, before splatting the user when they turned back! Pretty pleased at that :)

Match 18:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Lost 42.8 to 53.8. Pesky distracting wall sprinkler. They knew what they were doing here.

Match 19:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 57.1 to 33.5. A roller decided to drop in on two of us while we were Bubbled. Not a smart move!

Match 20:

Hammerhead Bridge. Lost 40.3 to 54.1. I can't afford to be stupid against Aerospray users...

Match 21:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 59.2 to 36.2. Good Mix of our colours in the arena! They had competent Rollers too.

Match 22:

Camp Triggerfish. Won 53.8 to 33.0. When I got splatted, I saw one of my teammates avenge me before the screen went back to spawn. Thanks buddy :)

Match 23:

Hammerhead Bridge. Lost 35.2 to 53.1. Good mix of colours here. I was confused at how the match was really going to end up.

Match 24:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 74.4 to 16.4. Kept them fenced in to their spawn with a powerful team!

Match 25:

Camp Triggerfish. Won 50.0 to 37.2. A pair of them were hiding around our floodgates doing nothing... Kinda strange.

Match 26:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 69.6 to 20.1. Teased them a good bit by jumping in and out of corners. They tried but couldn't regain much turf.

Match 27:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 68.4 to 23.7. They sure liked trying to do Inkstrikes while standing out in the open!

Match 28:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 52.7 to 38.7. Whoa, my super jump went into an Inkstrike. I couldn't manage timing like that if I tried!

Match 29:

Camp Triggerfish. Won 69.9 to 18.1. Kind of quiet here. Bubbled at the same time as an enemy, so I just shrugged and walked away.

Match 30:

Camp Triggerfish. Won 65.4 to 25.0. Quiet on the paths I took here too! Maybe I'm super stealthy and don't know it! Or maybe I'm being ignored...

Somewhere over the past 5 matches I levelled up to the maximum "Pokémon Blue King"! Woo!

3 Splatoon - Pokémon Red vs. Blue Splatfest. My battles! (Part 1)

Dear Readers,

It's Splatfest weekend! Pokémon Red vs. Blue! I'm a Pokémon Blue Fanboy :) As I type this, I'm whistling to Callie and Marie's concert in the Plaza. I love their singing! Here's how my matches went.

The stages were:

Blackbelly Skatepark
Camp Triggerfish
Hammerhead Bridge

Match 1:

Blackbelly Skatepark. We got hammered 13.4 to 73.4. They pretty much fenced us in to our spawn point and had a skilled Inkzooka user.

Match 2:

Camp Triggerfish. We got on much better this time! We won 53.5 to 30.7. They tried their best to get some area back at the end, but they couldn't manage it.

Match 3:

Blackbelly Skatepark. We lost 28.6 to 62.6. I forgot how intimidating the Kraken move is!

Match 4:

Camp Triggerfish. Lost 26.0 to 53.4. They really put their Killer Wail to good use here.

After this I levelled up to "Pokémon Blue Fiend".

Match 5:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Lost 33.3 to 57.8. They kept us at our base again. Near the end we managed to break through and cover more ground but it wasn't enough.

After this, my Splatfest Tee gained the Damage Up ability. It had the Special Saver as the main one. I haven't been paying any attention to the abilities actually. Maybe I should sometime.

Match 6:

Hammerhead Bridge. Lost 40.6 to 47.2. Quite a close match! I didn't meet our opponents that often. The others must've been keeping them busy.

Match 7:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 51.1 to 29.9. They were quite brave and did a lot of bulldozing, but were quite reckless. I got them from behind a good few times.

Match 8:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 63.1 to 28.5. This began a long winning streak with some luckily drawn teammates!

Match 9:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 55.9 to 34.0. Didn't have to do a whole lot of defending. They didn't get too much of a chance to break through to us.

Match 10:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 56.8 to 32.9. I don't know how I avoided this avalanche of Seekers coming after me, but they all missed!

After this match I levelled up to "Pokémon Blue Defender".

Match 11:

Hammerhead Bridge. Lost 42.7 to 46.5. It was pretty close, but they edged out ahead of us.

Match 12:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 45.3 to 39.6. It's kind of hard to see the stage in the dark during the Splatfest. The bright blue path I make ahead often helps me to find my way around!

Match 13:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 44.4 to 37.8. They had a strong Slosher that splatted me a few times.

Match 14:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 59.9 to 30.9. Felt evenly matched and challenged here. Nice to get the win considering this!

After this match I rolled an Ink Recovery Up for my Splatfest Tee.

Match 15:

Camp Triggerfish. Won 58.1 to 25.1. I had fun chasing after a sneaky Roller! Splatted them right after they tried to hide on top of a fence post!

Match 16:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 54.2 to 31.9. This time I got splatted by a seeker brigade!

Match 17:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Won 70.1 to 20.7. I came up against someone who seemed to be flustered with their aiming. Maybe they were new to right analogue stick usage.

Match 18:

Hammerhead Bridge. Won 52.2 to 35.9. Wow! Someone really wanted to get me with a seeker! Every one of them missed me though!

Match 19:

Camp Triggerfish. Won 50.8 to 34.8. They covered a lot of ground early on, but we caught up and surpassed them. I met another Bubbler user on the other team who activated when I did. I think I met my match!

Match 20:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Lost 33.9 to 59.1. Repeatedly splatted by a Tentatek Splattershot user. Almost fenced in too. Yikes!

Match 21:

Blackbelly Skatepark. Destroyed 31.1 to 57.0. Fenced in again. I think my winning streak ended! Decided to take a break here.

After this, I spoke to Judd and cashed in on my "On Fire!" vibe. Got a bonus of 1,400 coins. I don't think I ever got this vibe before!

2 Splatoon - Preparing for Pokémon Red vs. Blue Splatfest, What I chose

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about Callie and Marie's announcement of the Pokémon Red vs Blue splatfest this weekend and reveal what I chose!

It's funny how Callie spent many wasted years trying to find a Vulpix and how she and Marie argued over which version was better! They even went all Team Rocket on us! Callie said "I hope we can protect the stages from devastation!" and Marie said "Or maybe it'll unite all squids within our nation?". Maybe Judd should've jumped in here and said "That's right!". Some other squid kid could've pretended to be Wobbuffet!

I've been ambiguous on many of the splatfests and I kind of would be on this one too, since I bought both Pokémon Red and Blue on the day they came out. I focused on playing Blue though, so that's what I chose for the splatfest! Got a nice blue tee for it and all!

I practised a little after voting. I've never played on the Ancho-V Games stage before and lost a match there. Maybe it's not so good to stop playing the game for long periods of time! Kind of a cool stage with arcade game cabinets in some corners.

9 Final Fantasy Explorers - Online With More American Friends! Amaterasu and Surama, Cataclysms, Giant Summons

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about more of our friends from overseas joining us on our explorations. Up until now I had mostly been playing with Joseph. The more the merrier!

Joe changed jobs from White Mage to Beastmaster. He swapped the white and red-triangled cloak for a cool looking get up with horns as headgear, kind of like Ico. With this job, he can bring monsters along to fight on our team. He's at EL 99 at this stage and still way ahead of me.

I activated StreetPass on the game recently and got a couple of hits. I haven't really done anything with it yet though. I should at some stage.

Joe wanted to catch the rarer Black and White Chocobos, so we went to Mount Hibat.

Quest 1: "Black or White"

Defeat Phoenix. Mount Hibat Summit. The description for this quest tells of rare Chocobos and selecting it is a guaranteed way to find them. With Joe's help, we retrieved the atmaliths for both Black and White Chocobos in no time at all. When we fought the Phoenix, I was able to activate my Magicite twice, but couldn't manage to do the Crystal Surge at all. We defeated it anyway.

Just before we went on the next quest, our friend GDG(EL 36 Knight) came online! He was wearing Sephiroth's Attire. He was slightly behind, so we did some 3 star quests together.

Quest 2: "Wipe Out the Magitroops"

Defeat 5 Centaurions and 5 Black Knights. Fosta Forest. Joe had a Centaurion as one of his trained beasts. It was a bit surreal seeing it fight alongside us! This quest was good for me to do actually, because the last time we played it, it was with random players and they had defeated the Black Knights before I even saw any.

After some mingling, GDG got another quest.

Quest 3: "Guardian of the Sacred Tree"

Defeat Alexander and obtain a Woll droplet. GDG headed the wrong way and Joe went to help him come back. Meanwhile, I stayed in the marsh and waited for them in the rain!

We got to Alexander eventually and defeated him. I didn't manage to encase him this time. It's pretty fun to run around on the roots of that big tree for some reason!

Quest 4: "Aptitude Exam: Ninja & Bard"

Defeat 1 Yellow Dragon. Maxon Ravine. This one went very quickly! The Yellow Dragon was right there when we started and didn't take long to defeat at all.

Quest 5: "It's Gonna Blow!"

Defeat 1 Mom Bomb. Hibat Foothills. The Mom Bomb took a little longer to defeat and it was great fun.

After this, GDG had to leave. A random player(EL98 Ninja) appeared and then disappeared.

Joe and I went on to do more quests.

Quest 6: "Bolt of Surging Fury"

Defeat Ramuh and use 3 Crystal Surges. Dell'antoni Bluffs. Did the Crystal Surges but that battle was tough enough! I had to do 4 clock revivals before we defeated him!

Quest 7: "Guidance from Above"

Defeat Amaterasu. Wreck of the Donnyglen. It's not Okami! That's a different game :) A new area opened up in Hibat Caverns for me and lots of Tonberries are along this path. This was great because I'd been looking for Magic Sources! While fighting them, this unusual Crystal Surge popped up in my list called "Summon T. King". This could've had something to do with Elvis for all I knew. When I activated it, this enormous Tonberry with a crown appeared! It was a fun battle with him!

When we arrived at the Donnyglen, we met Surama and she revealed herself to be Amaterasu! Dun dun duuuun! The fight with her wasn't the easiest, but manageable. She spoke more about the crystals and the protective eidolons while we fought.

After defeating her, Cid told me that Claire was overjoyed to get the Lillium Scepter back and that other explorers got super powerful. They were able to trigger cataclysmic events with their Crystal Surges. I'm able to do these now too.

After speaking with Cid, I took my Magic Sources to the Workshop and forged Cloud's Attire for myself! It looks a bit like the clothes Piccolo gave Gohan in Dragon Ball Z and made my long black-haired character look a bit like him. My character's a bit like a DBZ character, because he can do the Aura Cannon, which looks a bit like the Special Beam Cannon. There's also the Vacuum Wave, which warps me a short distance before doing a punch. A lot of DBZ characters dodge like this during fights.

Soltis gave me some subquests to demonstrate cataclysmic events. He wanted to see them in action!

Joe recommended doing one in the desert or on the beach. I picked the next quest for the desert, because it seemed kinda fun!

Quest 8: "Sirocco Succulent"

Defeat 15 Cactuars. Mirah Dunes, etc. Another very fun mission! It was a laugh running around the desert, hunting these little cactus thingies. It got even more fun when the Crystal Surge "Summon Gigantuar" appeared in my list and made a gigantic cactus thingy appear!

After we beat it, I did my first cataclysm, which came up in the Surge list as "CC: Yielding Sands". This made a tornado of sand appear. Joe beckoned me in. We found some bonus enemies to take on in here, including another Yellow Dragon.

When we came back to Libertas, we took a short break for snacks, going to the bathroom and plugging in my 3DS charger. Refreshed, we took on the next mission.

Quest 9: "Monarch of Hell"

Defeat 1 Devil. Hibat Caverns. Very quick and easy mission for us! Devils are like another variation of those gargoyle-like Demon enemies and a bit bigger.

I got to see a variety of Joe's monsters in action during this session. His Centaurion and Coeurl were pretty cool, as were the others!

Quest 10: "Invitation from a Twisted Sister"

Defeat Dryad and any 1 botanid. Fosta Gardens. Dryad's status effects aren't usually fun, but it was cool to end this battle with Cloud's Omnislash!

Back in town, Grauser told me about an eidolon on Mount Chaminil that attacked his army. It's Bahamut and Joe said he's pretty tough.

We'll take on Bahamut in a future session. For now, another one of our friends joined us! Bix (Knight EL 2). They were just starting out, so Joe and I joined them on their first few quests.

Bix was learning about the game, so they had a lot of fun spamming the preset chat messages and running around like they only just discovered they had legs. It was fun playing with the chatty Bix! :)

They were the earliest missions, so Joe put his monster buddies away, as we didn't need them.

Quest 11: "Defeat the Goblin Gang!"

Defeat 5 Goblins. Leggi Steppe etc. I tried not to kill the enemies too quickly so I could let Bix get a feel for the game.

Quest 12: "Help the Shopgirl!"

Defeat 5 Toads. Leggi Plains. Bix was horrified to see us killing Chocobos. I told them that Amostran Chocobos were jerks, as they'll kick you in the face and not think twice about it.

Quest 13: "Keep Getting Items"

Scavenge and obtain 20 items. Very quick quest due to the fact that there were three of us, so three times the pickups!

Quest 14: "Red Dragon Run Amok"

Defeat 1 Red Dragon. Hibat Foothills. Bix's first biggie but it was no biggie for our team.

Quest 15: "Call It Market Research"

Defeat any 20 monsters and use 1 Crystal Surge. We wound up on Tinze Shores during our monster kill spree. Bix didn't know how to do a Crystal Surge so Joe and I did some. He did the Sea Sunder cataclysm and made that path come out of the water. Bix wondered how it happened. When I started, I thought that defeating monsters or something made it happen!

Quest 16: "The Legendary Ore"

Defeat 1 Adamantoise. Tinze Shores. How approprite that we were talking about pizza and Ninja Turtles at the time! Anyway, we showed this mutant turtle some pizza time! (Though it's technically some kind of tortoise. Otherwise, it would be called "Adamanturtle" or something.)

Quest 17: "Airship Permit Exam"

Defeat 1 Cockatrice. Lake Filouz. Bix thought that a bird monster on the beach was the Cockatrice. Of course it wasn't though, because there was no boss theme accompanying it. The real one was a bigger version of it up ahead at the lake. We took care of it. Cloud's Omnislash came in handy again :)

Joe left the game at this stage. Things were winding down to the end of our session. Bix and I continued for a little bit longer.

Quest 18: "Requiem for the Departed"

Defeat 5 Skeletons. Debbis Trail, etc. We ran all the way from Libertas towards Debbis Trail in order to take on the skellies. I forgot that Bix could use the airship now! It was a long trek, so I didn't forget for the next one!

Quest 19: "Monster Lab Permit Exam"

Collect a Lizard's atmalith. Leggi Steppe etc. Again, I tried not to defeat the enemies too quickly and just did a very gentle saunter while Bix ran around. They were like a new puppy!

Quest 20: "What's With All These Monsters!?"

Defeat 5 Ghosts and 5 Mandragoras. Debbis Heights, Lake Filouz etc. I convinced Bix to take the airship this time! We defeated the monsters handily. This was a nice little trek in itself, even with the airship short cut.

Quest 21: "Insidious Blue Dragon"

Defeat 1 Blue Dragon. Debbis Heights. Blue biggie. Between the two of us, it wasn't so much of a biggie after.

We called it quits for the evening then. 21 Quests! Very long and fun session we all had! :)

34 Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros - The Very Hungry Wiggler & The Zippy Zappy Gate, Retrieving Bomb Derby From Nabbit

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about using bomb buds to blast open the way and about Bomb Derby, which is different to the way it works Dream Team Bros.

Got 8050 points in the Trio Racquet Attackathon in the Lakitu Arcade. Nice tasty S rank! Just an A rank in the Petey Piranha Battle Ring though. They're nice quick challenges to do.

Picked up a Silver Statue on the next screen but I don't equip it on anyone. We meet Wiggler before an electrified gate. He can't get past it because it's all "zippy zappy". Cute :)

We explore a path to the left, where we find Origami Boots for Paper Mario. I don't think I've equipped any other boots on him yet, so it's a big jump in attack power.

There's a bomb bud nearby. I guess they're like the Goron bomb flowers from Zelda, only they have Bob-omb faces on them. There's also a sign here that warns minions about the generator. Just need to reach the bud so we can blow up the generator then! We can't reach it though, so we use the Trio Hammer to knock one of the bridges down to make a crossing over the river.

Just then, we meet Nabbit! We give chase, but he hops on a rock in the water. The rock looks kinda cracked, so we pluck the bomb bud and throw it over there. The blast shatters the rock and Nabbit falls into the water. He then jumps out and runs off, dropping the Bomb Derby Bros. Attack. Luigi finds it!

After this, we walk across the newly created stepping stones, pluck another bomb bud and throw it at the generator. "You unzappified the gate! Yay!", Wiggler chirps before dashing off to clean up the rest of the forest. I guess those berries paid off after all. He turned out to be a lot more grateful in the end!

Now for Bomb Derby. This is similar to the move in Dream Team Bros., but the rhythm is completely different. It's not asynchronous anymore, so it works out much easier. It's just getting used to it after doing it the other way for so long!

Mario levels up to Flower Rank! I give him an extra gear slot.

I also tried to pass the Paper Spear Guy dodge challenge, but they kept surprising me with their attacks! Gah! I'll pass it at some stage!

8 Final Fantasy Explorers - Some 4 Star Quests Online, The Truth Behind Crystals

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about a short online session I had with my American friend, where we did some 4 star quests. We didn't have any random players joining us this time. Just a private session with the two of us wandering and exploring Amostra. There's also a bit of exposition on the state of the crystals and the world that I learn while mingling in Libertas.

Quest 1: "Requiem for the Seeker"

Defeat 5 Spectres. Jailune Sandsea cave. I quite like this cave. I see Tonberries in here sometimes. I like the way the ceiling is really dark and the ground is really bright. For some reason I feel like I'm inside a giant sea creature while I'm in here. Anyway, we got our 5 Spectres and left.

Quest 2: "Drive Out the Unclean!"

Defeat 5 Belials. Makvo Current. Belials and other creatures of its kind are these intimidating gargoyle looking creatures, but they seem quite content to let you run past them without interfering. Their cohorts, the Alraune Mandragoras are much smaller and cuter, but aren't as placid. Like before, we went at our own gentle pace, defeated our 5 and left.

Quest 3: "The Ice Queen's Waterfall Waltz"

Defeat Shiva. Maxon Cataract. She's much more powerful this time and she KO'd me more than once. My friend was trying to keep up between reviving me and attacking Shiva at the same time. I was able to see the Tifa Magicite in action! I want that Magicite! Makes sense, seeing how I'm a Monk and all! We managed to defeat her anyway and it was great fun!

After this, my friend had to turn in for the night, so I thought I'd go around town and mingle. Claire told me about the Donnyglen airship and how its wreckage was found. She asked me if I would retrieve the Lillium Sceptre from within. Then, when I talked to Surama, she told me that the eidolon Amaterasu is guarding that area. She then told me about the whole situation, on why the eidolons are getting stronger. She said the planet summons eidolons to look after the crystals. Humans are using crystals to advance civilisation and it's causing a strain, which in turn causes the eidolons to attack. She then said that if humans didn't use the crystals to advance civilisation, they would just be in their natural animal state. After this, she left me to deal with this situation, whatever it is my choice will be. It's interesting how she discussed all the sides in this conflicted situation.

7 Final Fantasy Explorers - 10 Magic Sources Subquest, Some Game Hooks And Economics

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this one star subquest that wasn't that easy at all to do and how this game hooked me enough for day to turn into night.

I had the cap of 300 Play Coins again. I wanted to spend the daily allowance of 10, so I could replenish them the next day by walking 1000 steps in real life. If I didn't do this, I'd still have the 300 maximum, but I'd lose out on circulating 10 Play Coins and putting them to good use. I decided to spend them on Mogroe's Teleport Stones. They cost 2 Play Coins, and you can only buy one every time he appears in Libertas. Thing is, Mogroe appears only sometimes in town and you must go in and out of town on quests or roaming for the chance to make him appear again. On top of that, he's not even guaranteed to have Teleport Stones when you see him. There's about a 5 second loading time to go outside and a 5 second loading time, plus a 5 second saving time to come back in. So I thought, "Hey, might as well do a subquest!". I have to make at least 5 of these trips, so I might as well make them interesting.

There was this outstanding one star subquest about collecting Magic Sources. I read up and saw that they can be obtained from Tonberries, who can be found on Mount Hibat. The airship only goes as far as the Hibat Foothills and I have to climb all the way up the mountain from there. I have to do this on every trip.

Along the way, there are enemies like Bombs or Goblins so I thought "Might as well try to pass the Crystal Surge trigger subquests while I'm passing through!". So then I take on every single one of them, try to get the Resonance above 100 and wait on the luck of the draw for the desired Crystal Surges to appear. This takes more time.

On arriving on the Mount Hibat path, of which there are a few screens, Tonberries are scarce. Often, they don't appear at all and it could be a few screens up the mountain. This takes more time and multiple trips.

So when I get near the end of the path and not enough Tonberries with Magic Sources, I see that I can either go back, or take on the eidolon Phoenix again. It would take a trek like this to take on the Phoenix anyway and here it is right in front of me conveniently, so I think "Hey, might as well take on the Phoenix again!". This takes more time.

Before I knew it, my play session turned day into night. This originally started with wanting to spend 10 Play Coins, but then I started working on a subquest and then I started thinking about doing other subquests while doing this subquest. I killed the Phoenix twice. It comes back to life after every trip because hey, it's the Phoenix.

This is just one example of how games can hook you into them. When planning on doing one thing, you can get stuck on doing more things.

1 Mario's Game Gallery - Go Fish

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about trying this game out in my browser on archive.org. While watching Game Grumps, they were talking about the Go Fish card game on this. I thought I'd try it out!

It's as solid as you can expect a game of Go Fish to be, which is the most important thing, but I did come here for the voices. The "Mario, Go Fish!" line is here. What really stands out here is Mario's voice acting by Charles Martinet. This is one of the earliest instances of his work as Mario and I have to say it's just lovely. I can't help but smile when he says "Here fishy fishy!" but he also says how much he's enjoying playing this game with me. It just makes for a really lovely time!

I really should come back to this and try out the other games in the gallery too. Playing it on archive.org is so painless and quick for a PC game it's amazing.

1 Bravely Second - Demo Start, Exploring Al-Khampis, Meeting Magnolia

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about the demo version of this game. This diary is becoming quite a lot about RPGs!

On starting the game, the Square Enix logo appears on the top screen and Silicon Studio's logo appears on the bottom screen at the same time and you can press a button to skip it. Thanks for doing this :)

Then, this thing about AR cards comes up. I can skip it if I want, but instead I head to the website indicated. This is the UK site, which says nothing about AR cards, so I head to the American website. It says that I can download the provided PDF file with the AR card images, or use the cards included with the packaged game. But hang on, this is from the prequel, Bravely Default. In that game's package, there is an AR Card printed on one side of the Quickstart guide.

So uh... ?

Let's move on. The title screen has a nice, heroic sounding theme. On starting, I can choose between Casual, Normal or Hard difficulty. I choose Casual. There's a nice autosave option too that saves on entering and exiting cities and dungeons and moving between dungeon floors among other things.

The game gives me a 3 potion bonus, a "Cavalier-in-Training Set".

Yew Geneolgia shows up with two other guys in a town called Al-Khampis and they have voiced dialogue. That's us! We are The Three Cavaliers of the Crystalguard. Yew seems like the earnest young heroic type; Nikolai Nikolanikov is a bigger older guy with a beard and a nice deep voice; Janne Angard seems the same age as Yew but he has a bit more of an attitude. They're possibly friendly rivals. The music here is a nice and twee first town theme. We're talking to Pope Agnès Oblige through a pendant. She appears on the other screen. She tells us about strange things happening around the Temple of Wind and that we're to investigate and meet a guide.

We can talk to her anytime through this pendant like some kind of codec call for guidance. She appears on the touch screen when I go into the pause menu. Her head turns to wherever you tap! That's cute :)

Anyway, it's time for mingling in Al-Khampis! The guy next to us with the pointy hat tells us about the two ways in and out of this town. His way goes to the coast and his brother's way leads to the desert. Another pointy hat wearer tells us about this town, the land of learning. It's very pretty here actually and looks like a pop-up book. The person in red here gives us the option to save our game. I turn on the StreetPass settings here and save the game. I go into the inn, which shows up as a menu rather than a building to explore. It has a nice and upbeat jazzy tune playing! The lady outside tells us about the dormitories nearby. She recognises Yew and Janne. They must've lived here before. We continue into the dormitory.

The pig here prompts us with an "Oink? Oink?", giving a choice of Yes or No. This pig is a tutorial pig! We can access various tutorials here, including the Bravely Second battle mechanic. I'll learn about this later. The dorm mother here recognises us from when Yew and Janne were here before they graduated. The man by the fire tells us about scrolls and magic. They can be bought at shops and we only need one for our party to learn spells. The next room upstairs has someone in yellow. They say that we look like freelancers and that we'll have to wait for the full version of the game to see the various outfits of the other jobs. At the top of the stairs on the balcony I find the Silver Glasses.

Back outside, we check the item shop. It has the same music as the inn. The lady outside loves rumours and wants us to tell her any. The man nearby tells us about play bonuses. He has an unusual accent. Seems Scottish from the look of the dialogue. There's a weapon and armour shop here. There's also the man standing by the north gate, whose brother we met at the start. On the bridge there's a bearded man admiring the view. He says it's the best spot in town for doing so. On the other side there's a magic shop. Further along is the Spire of Learning. The man outside says it's closed during the Summer. He feels bad for turning us away, so he gives us a Phoenix Down.

After this, the Party Chat option pops up. Pressing Y, the characters heads appear and they talk amongst themselves. Yew and Janne talk about their memories of studying here. Janne tells Nikolai about the time Yew climbed to the top of the spire despite his fear of heights and got stuck up there. Janne had to save him. They talk about the amazing view of all the desert they had from up there. I guess we'll explore that soon enough! We head back to the centre of town to wait for our guide.

She appears and introduces herself! Her name is Magnolia Arch. She uses French words in her dialogue. She has long pretty white hair with bangs and red eyes. Fetching get up too which has hearts flutter out of it when she appears onscreen with a wink. We all have our backs to her! Janne says not to make eye contact and she protests "excusez-moi!". Yew and Janne have trouble believing she is our guide, but Nikolai says there must be some truth in it, since she knows who we are. We all introduce ourselves and she says "Enchantée".

She suggests more mingling and so, off we go. After a few weird seconds of no one onscreen, the real guide shows up! A girl with a pointy hat and glasses introduces herself, but there's no one here now! The poor girl overslept and missed out!

A tutorial for job changing appears. I'll do this later.

Party Chat: "Al-Khampis is a mess"

We ask about any problems going on here. Magnolia tells us about some overly spicy kebab she had recently. She wasn't able to pay and had to wash dishes for ages. While washing dishes though, she heard about a curious sandstorm in the desert that spins in one place and never moves. Nikolai says it's worth asking people in town about it. Magnolia says she wants to find information on getting a discount on kebabs, but Janne disagrees.

I'm with him on this one... I've never been fond of donor kebab meat...

6 Final Fantasy Explorers - Meeting Random Players Online, 3 Star Quests

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about another online session I had with my American friend, where we took on 3 star quests and came across random people online who wanted to join our session. I didn't really know until now that random people could just show up online like that! Of course, you have the option to make the session private if you want and lock it with a password to share among friends.

My friend had acquired some cool traditional White Mage clothing since! You know, the white cloak with the red triangles on it. Old-School Final Fantasy :)

Quest 1: "Accursed Serpent Eye"

Defeat 5 Lamias. On the way to Debbis Cave, we met a big version of those Bombs. This one doesn't explode thankfully, it's just very scary looking. We beat it and the Lamias pretty quickly. My friend got a lot of new moves! Completing this unlocked the Blue Mage job for me. Still haven't switched yet though!

I spent some Play Coins on the Migrant Moogle's stuff. Got lots of them to spend. My friend said that Teleport Stones and Phoenix Pinions are pretty useful. There weren't any to buy during this session, but I bought a Teleport Stone from him since.

The first 2 Random Players then joined us. Random1 (EL 107 Dark Knight) stuck around for the next quest but Random2 left straight away again.

Quest 2: "That Million-Gil Gaze"

Defeat 5 Ahrimans. We headed to the Arha Marsh with its poisonous purple waters and with Random1's help, we completed the quest pretty quickly.

Quest 3: "Terrapin Treasury"

Defeat 5 Gil Snappers. We headed to Maxon Ravine to take care of them. Had a disconnection here! Had to take care of the rest of it myself, but it wasn't too difficult.

On returning to town, I found that Random3 (EL 75 Ranger) had now joined us.

Quest 4: "Inspector from Home"

Defeat any 10 monsters. I chose to go to Tinze Shores because I was close to finishing the 20 Aquians subquest. Between the four of us battling together, things got a bit laggy and slow. No biggie, as things don't happen too quick to notice I suppose. Also, this cool structure emerged from the sea! It reminded me of the water temple from Majora's Mask. I'm not sure what triggered it, but it was pretty cool! I wasn't strong enough to go there yet and neither was my friend, who's still way more advanced than I am at the game.

After this I unlocked Buster Sword and Cloud's Attire schematics. I did some mingling around town and Sophia told me about the Phoenix, Soltis told me about an eidolon in Ruisqo Cave and Beatrice told me about a big wolf eidolon. That Beatrice has a saucy voice...

Random1 posted a quest while I was mingling, but I'm not advanced enough to join! My friend and Random3 headed out and did the quest, while I waited around and hung out with the saucy Beatrice. This was Quest 5: "Wipe Out the Magitroops"

When they all returned, I quickly picked the next quest!

Quest 6: "The Joy of Collecting Items"

Use a Trance Surge & Obtain 20 items. I still had that Aquian subquest to finish, so I chose the beach again. The Randoms tore through everything and poured into the Tinze Caverns towards Shiva. They didn't hang around! I managed to do all this and finished the quest before we had a chance to defeat her again though.

Random4 joined us then. Not sure when they left.

Quest 7: "Immortal Firebird"

Defeat Phoenix. It's difficult to punch it while it hovers above me in the air. I managed to do some good damage to it though and helped finish it off nicely with Lightning's Gestalt Drive.

Afterwards, Random3 asked me to add them to my friend list and I did. It's quite easy to do this in-game.

Cid told me about another job aptitude exam, but I did it later. The Moogle Merchant gave me Cloud.

Random5 (EL71 Monk) then joined us. A fellow Monk!

Quest 8: "Dark Despot"

Defeat Diabolos. We headed to Ciej Cavern to take it on. Random5 got confused for a while and went the wrong way, but they quickly caught up with us again. Wow, the boss was pretty unpleasant. It could make everything dark so we couldn't see and it had this black hole attack thingy that sucked us away from attacking it. I tried to get it with Lightning twice but didn't manage to do any Gestalt Drive! My White Mage friend helped a lot here!

After this, Random5 left. After defeating 10 eidolons, I got Yuna, Yuna's attire and the Tiny Bee schematic from the Moogles.

Quest 9: "Gale-Force Lupine"

Defeat Fenrir. We headed to Maxon Cataract to take it on. This one was harsh enough! It was able to duplicate itself and it KO'd me too! Luckily, my friend revived me :) I did manage to get a couple of Gestalt Drives on them while fighting. I ran out of AP as well so had to use Ether. Together, we all beat it!

Random6(EL87 Black Mage) then joined. They immediately demanded a friend request. I didn't accept.

Quest 10: "Aptitude Exam: Geomancer, Alchemist"

Defeat 1 iron giant. Tinze Shores. Thanks to my helpers, it died really quickly! Unlocked Alchemist and Geomancer jobs as a result.

Colonel Grauser showed up in town and he gave me more quests. Biggs and Wedge are the names of his cohorts! Nice reference to the other Final Fantasy games!

Quest 11: "A Legendary Knight"

Defeat any 10 dragons. My friend said this one is kinda hard. I don't blame him! On arriving at the beach, we saw loads of these huge dragons all there in a row! They looked pretty intimidating. Thanks to our helpers, we took care of them handily!

At this point, I had to plug in my 3DS charger. My friend and I turned down the SFX, because some of those attacks had a lot of the same battle cries accompanying them. Here I was, thinking the music might have gotten repetitive! It's not so far, it's still nice.

Quest 12: "Wipe Out the Magitroops"

Defeat 5 Centuarions and 5 Black Knights in Fosta Forest. I was able to qualify for this one this time! This one was practically done for us, as our two random teammates rushed ahead and defeated most of the enemies. I don't think I even saw a Black Knight during this quest.

Back in town, Grauser said that the mission was just a test and he's giving me more stuff to do for the empire. Surama told me where the Sacred Tree is, but I have to fight the eidolon Alexander to get the Woll Droplet from there. That's the next quest.

Quest 13: "Guardian of the Sacred Tree"

Defeat Alexander & Obtain a Woll droplet. Sacred Tree Woll. I barely got a chance to touch the guy! The randoms got there before me and beat it before I got the chance. Random6 encased it I think. Running around the roots of that tree was confusing. Didn't know what was a wall and what was traversible, so I had to look at the map to see the collision layout. I grabbed my own share of the Woll droplet after my friend pointed it out.

Cid gave me another exam to do.

Quest 14: "Aptitude Exam: Ninja & Bard"

Defeat 1 yellow dragon. Maxon Ravine. This reminded my friend of the game title "Ninjabread Man". Let's not talk about that game right now! Thanks to our helpers, this went by in a flash as well. Then I pressed START too soon and skipped out on collecting spoils! Nooo!

Unlocked Ninja & Bard jobs now. Random3 left the game. I didn't switch jobs yet. Gonna stick with Monk for a while. I tend to do that in RPGs.

The very impatient Random7 appeared in town and demanded several times to start the next mission. Within moments they got bored and left.

Random8 appeared and almost immediately disappeared.

Quest 15: "Red-Hot Garden of Drifting Sparks"

Defeat Ifrit in Fosta Gardens. My friend and I explored the nooks and crannies of the areas along the way thoroughly. We both like doing this! The randoms we met were different though — they just wanted to go straight to the target. So anyway, Ifrit had his back to me the whole time and focused on my friend. That's ok, I suppose! Made things easier for me to attack him from behind!

Random9(EL98 Thief) appeared and joined us.

Quest 16: "Explore East Amostra"

Reach the Hibat Caverns, defeat any 20 monsters and obtain 10 items. My friend disconnected during this, so I started the quest again. Random9 disappeared. This quest had me completely confused at the time but now I know where I went wrong. I was trying to go to Hibat Caverns through the Hibat Foothills. The problem was, there was a big purple barrier there for me. My friend had done this already, so there was no barrier for him. What I should have done was start at Maxon Ravine, like the quest description said! (I should have read it!) There's a path from there that goes through a cave and a big desert and leads to Hibat Caverns from the other side. Completing this makes that other barrier between the foothills and caverns vanish.

On returning to town, Cid gave me some 4 star quests to do! This will be for another session I think!

I did some more mingling to finish off. Shion revealed himself to be a Querasua inspector doing recon and gave me some monster slaying subquests.

There were other random players online, but they mostly just showed up and left. I'm unsure of the exact comings and goings of everyone.

33 Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros - Yellow Yoshi Race, Very Hungry Wiggler Eats Melon

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about racing the Yellow Yoshi for his melon and feeding it to Wiggler.

The Toad Village in Gloomy Woods looks a little different now... it's like a racetrack. We meet the Yellow Yoshi and ask him for his melon. He doesn't want to give it away, as it took him ages to find it. He offers to have a race for it though and just then, Lakitu appears and offers to teach us about racing! Yoshi wonders where he came from.

When we say yes to his racing lesson, the Super Mario Bros. 1-1 reprise plays and he shows us around the racetrack.

The race is a nice little jaunt. We have to use the dash as the Yellow Yoshi is quite fast. We lose by a tiny bit on our first attempt but beat him on the second. He cries about it but concedes his melon to us like a true sportsdragon. He then says that he has a friend in the mountains who's much faster than he is and that we should challenge him to a race. I guess we'll meet him later!

Back to Wiggler with him munching on the melon we won. I feel bad, taking all this stuff away from the Yellow Yoshi and the Paratroopa earlier, just to feed this greedy jerk who won't get out of the way otherwise! On the other hand, he DID help us with those obstacles that Paper Magikoopa landed on us.

Wiggler finishes his meal by nearly shooting us dead with the giant melon seeds. "A full belly is a full heart!" he says, before finally moving and says how he'll never run out of energy again. He goes to the next screen though and sees more papercraft obstacles! "My forest is no trash can!" he says, turning red with rage again before smashing through them.

I wonder if he'll run out of energy again? We'll have to catch up with him later.

32 Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros - The Very Hungry Wiggler and his Berries; Ninji and Paper Spear Guys

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about meeting a very hungry Wiggler who asks us to collect berries for him. I'll also talk about meeting Ninji and Paper Ninji(probably the coolest enemies in the game yet) and some Paper Spear Guys.

"You just don't give up, do you?".

Paper Magikoopa comes up to us when we enter the Gloomy Woods. He says he's too busy to deal with us right now. He then insults us and summons massive papercraft versions of his magic beam shot - giant triangles, circles and squares. "This should keep you busy!" he jeers as he flies off.

We gotta go the other way then I suppose! Along this way, we meet a big, sad-looking and hungry Wiggler, whose tummy rumbles and he asks us if we have something to eat. Nearby, there's a berry hanging from a tree, so we give that to him. He chirps happily, sounding a bit like Minnie Mouse! Wasn't expecting that out of him! We show him the blocked path and he goes on a rampage, turning red and breaking down the papercraft obstacles.

Just when we think we're making progress, he shows his hungry face and rumbly tummy again, blocking the path. He asks for 10 more berries to summon the energy to move out of the way! We all respond with ellipsis word balloons! Oh well! Might as well find some more berries!

There's a shrub nearby that has the first berry. We do a Trio Grab to collect it. To the south, there's a little grove that has the Koopa Troopa Wear. I don't give it to anyone. Heading back to where we first met Wiggler, we knock the second, third and fourth berries down with a Trio Hammer. We each catch one at the same time. The fifth berry we grab by knocking a stump out of the way and using it as a platform to reach the berry. We see another held by a Paratroopa but we can't reach it from here. On the next screen, we find the sixth berry by reaching across the river.

Here we meet Ninji and Paper Ninji. On the field, they do clever camouflage tricks. They attack with fake copies of themselves. They also fold themselves into shurikens! Very nice idea! :) They're pretty cool enemies actually. They can adapt their defensive moves, depending on our attacks. When we use too much of jumping or hammering, they can adapt and block it completely by turning into a block of wood! Very clever! I stall on the first battle with them and pass the dodge challenge for the regular Ninji. In the next battle, I pass the one for the Paper Ninji too.

On the wall in this area, there's what looks like a strange soil path running along it. I bet we learn something that'll help us use this later!

Then we meet some Paper Spear Guys. We can't jump on them, so we have to use hammers. They attack by aiming their spears in a line towards their target.

I grab the seventh berry south of here. The Paratroopa we saw earlier tries to keep the eighth berry he has away from us, because he wants to give it to Bowser and earn a promotion. He says he's tired of being a grunt. When we grab it from him, he's bummed out and has to go find something else. He wonders what to get for the dictator who has everything and flies off. I feel kinda bad for this guy...

I find the ninth berry under a waterfall and the tenth on top of a stone block nearby.

We head back to Wiggler and give him the rest of the berries. He still won't move though and wants some dessert! Just then, a Yellow Yoshi runs by, happy with himself that he found a huge melon. He runs off and looks for a quiet place to enjoy it. Wiggler says that melon is his favourite food and tells us to get him that melon or else he won't move. We follow the Yellow Yoshi back to the Toad Village.

31 Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros - Paper Petey Piranha, Mingling in Gloomy Woods Toad Village

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about taking on Paper Petey Piranha and mingling with the locals in the Gloomy Woods Toad Village. I also take on another quiz.

We make our way to the entrance of Gloomy Woods, where the yappy Green Toad is having trouble with Paper Petey Piranha! He tells us not to fast forward while he explains things, but the instruction for fast forwarding shows up anyway! Nice touch :)

He over-narrates and everyone gets so tired of him that Paper Petey Piranha just throws him away! Starlow then thanks him before he engages us in battle!

Hmm... this point about narrating every single little thing... is it something I'm in danger of doing? Er... let's just move on from that point, before I think too much about it.

Petey Piranha begins the battle by doing something terrifying. He sucks up the copy block and makes copies of himself! Some of his patterns are tricky, but we manage to defeat him with all our battle cards and Trio/Bros moves. When I beat him I get the Collector Wear for Paper Mario.

The yappy Green Toad is nowhere to be seen... The aftermath is uneventful, so we just head on into Gloomy Woods.

The next screen is the local Toad Village. The Toads there are trying to make sense of all the weird goings on and give us their support.

The Toad at the entrance welcomes us to their humble village. It's a nice shaded area and you can see the tree shadow patterns on the ground. The music is a calming melody.

Time for mingling!

The Green Yoshi is thinking about forest fruits and berries. The Yellow Toad by the paper tree stumps wonders who's putting all this stuff here. The Toad on the west side says that part of the woods is said to be haunted, but doesn't want to find out for sure. The Green Toad by the item shop doesn't sound too pleased that we're dealing with two Bowsers now. The Green Toad inside the item shop says now's our chance to prepare. The Blue Toad by the gear shop says he's a bit jealous of the Paper Toads because they can just fold up and go anywhere. He says he'd fold up and take a nap on the job if he had the chance. The Green Toad inside the gear shop weighs up the choice between attack power or defence power while on a budget. The Yellow Yoshi came here all the way from the islands to try out the forest fruit, but hasn't found any yet. The Yellow Toad nearby wonders what Bowser's minions are doing, while they patrol around the forest; if they go birdwatching or something. The Green Toad outside the battle card shop says it's amazing how we have two Marios now. He says it would be ridiculous if we had two Luigis. Another meanie to Luigi! At least he apologises for it though. The Toad inside the battle card shop asks if we've been using them much and to think of them as powerful weapons. Outside, another Toad asks us what we think of Gloomy Woods. He likes that there are so many places to take a nice nap and he's thinking about his next one. Inside the know-it-all Toad's house, the regular Toad says this house has two storeys and that getting to the second one is a secret. The Blue Toad says that although the other Toad likes to talk about this house having two storeys, the entrance to the second storey is in a super inconvenient place and they don't go there that often because of it. The Yellow Toad here is one of the scholar know-it-all Toads! We take on his quiz.

He asks and we answer:

1. Who of the following doesn't wear a crown? Bowser. (This answer kind of threw me a little! Because one of the images I have of him is in the old cartoon, where he did have a crown!)

2. How many fangs does Bowser Jr. Have? One. (This is a little confusing too. Does he have one on either side of his mouth, but only shows one at a time? This answer is correct anyway)

3. Which raises your DEF when eaten? Grey bean.

4. What baddie is this? Hammer Bro.

5. What kingdom does Princess Peach rule? The Mushroom Kingdom.

We get them all right and he gives us 3 Speed Beans.

He says there are two more of his kind, ready to quiz us. We met one of them at Twinsy Tropics, but he didn't feel like quizzing us yet. I guess we have to head there again at some point in the story!

When we head outside, we can see that there's some kind of board between this house and the battle card house. No one in there says anything about a second storey though... Hmm... Will have to come back later...

The Blue Toad in the east part of the village tells us there are lots of hills and terraces around here, so walking around can give you a good workout. He also says he's pretty sure he has the strongest quads in the village from walking on them so often.

Going into the Lakitu Info Centre, we can take on a harder version of the quiz. They give us a battle card for doing so well on these missions so far.

We do a harder version of the "Pop Quiz with Know-It-All Toad". I get it wrong the first time, because I couldn't figure out that a silhouette of Peach was kissing. I get all 8 on the second attempt though and I get interesting questions like what hairstyle does Toadette have. I also see that there are Fire Bros. and Boomerang Bros. as options, so maybe we'll meet them as enemies later. There's a funny wrong answer about the Refreshing Herb restoring the "forest's ecosystem" too.

There are no other missions right now because we have to explore further into Gloomy Woods and up Mount Brrr.

30 Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros - Sandmaargh Dodge Challenge, Revisiting Doop Doop Dunes

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about revisiting other places I've been and about the painful experience of trying to pass the Sandmaargh Dodge challenge!

I head to Toad Village in Sunbeam Plains. They have some new dialogue. The Toad at the entrance wishes this village sold battle cards. The Toad in front of the Lakitu Info Centre is writing a rhyme about all three of us! The Toad in front of the gear shop wonders if a Paper Toad would become a regular Toad if you gave him an endless supply of cake. The Toad in front of the pen contemplates the outside world and how there's so much to explore.

After this, we head to Doop Doop Dunes to see if there's anything we missed. I find a Guard Wear but I don't give it to anyone. We can one-shot the spinies here and that feels really good :) They gave us a bit of trouble on our first time here!

It's kind of strange but I'm finding more ? blocks here, as if we overlooked them. Maybe it's because there are papercraft platforms here that weren't here before?

We make our way to the point where we got knocked out and captured before. The cannon ball is still here, half-buried in the sand and the bridge to Bowser's Castle is broken.

The Toad Village in this region doesn't have any new dialogue. The quiet Toad at the battle card shop is willing to sell cards this time though.

I'm spending a good bit of time trying to pass the Sandmaargh dodge challenge. At one point, I make one of them drop Stache Gloves. I give them to Mario.

Anyway, I've sussed one of its patterns: I jump just before its shadow goes near one of us. Very tricky to get the timing right though. I much prefer when he inhales and tries to eat us. It's easier to do the dodge then.

It's also annoying when he has a Paper Bob-omb cohort, because they end the battle with their explosions before we have the chance to dodge anything.

The best way to get them on their own is to redo the "Desert Rescue Party" mission at the Lakitu Info Centre. I try it a few times. When I pass the challenge and quit the mission, I painfully discover that I have to finish the mission on top of that, or else it reverts to before I started. Gah!

Failing to pass the challenge time and time again, the game asks if I feel like taking a quick break, so I do! Gladly!

After my break, I do the "Quicksand Rescue" mission, simply because it's fun. Need to unwind with something!

Then I manage to complete the challenge and the rest of the "Desert Rescue Party" mission again. Whew! Finally! I'm glad I have that done!

The only one left for now is the Paper Hammer Bros. dodge challenge. Not sure when I'll do that. I'll make some story progress next time!

5 Final Fantasy Explorers - Trance Basics, Mutation and Crystal Surge Subquests

Dear Readers,

I was going to have another online session with my American friend yesterday, but this thing called Superbowl 50 was on. I don't get it. I mean, owls are cool and all, but I'm not sure if I would call them "superb". (just kidding!)

So yeah, I had another offline session. I decided to do a tutorial quest, "Trance Basics".

All you need to do is fill the guage curving around the bottom of the Resonance meter and activate Magicite by tapping the icon on the touch screen when it becomes active. I have the Lightning one chosen, so I turn into her for a while when I tap it.

To build up the guage, I just went around hitting baddies for a while. I can take care of the weaker ones now with fewer hits, so that's kinda nice.

I spent a lot of time doing subquests as well. Just simple ones like activating certain Crystal Surges and defeating 20 of a type of enemy.

Learning abilities and mutations were a bit confusing, like learning Fire with Fire. To complete them, I have to go to the crystal in the town to learn the abilities after mutating them while outside in battle. This unlocks them. It took a while to cop that.

2 Gradius (NES) - Second Level Strategy

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about developing a strategy for the second level.

Generally I like to prioritise the force field here too. It comes in handy at the end where all these little thingies come flying at you out of nowhere.

If I die along here, I'm usually able to get a shield out of the six red gun turrets making a pyramid just before the end. I shoot out the bottom two first and then the middle two and finally the top two. I grab the power ups while climbing up the left side and down the right side. There's that handy 1up in the centre of the last obstacle before the boss too, where you back into it.

4 Final Fantasy Explorers - Migrant Moogle Shopping Spree, Godhand Materials

Dear Readers,

Today, I'll talk about trying to get the Migrant Moogle Merchant to appear in Libertas. and about collecting materials for the Godhands, the next weapon I can forge. I'm playing offline for now.

So here's the deal: I've maxed out my Play Coins at 300 and I've nothing to spend them on. I've 100% all the free games in the StreetPass Mii Plaza, so I'll buy as much of the Migrant Moogle Merchant's stuff as I can. The only problem is, he isn't in the town right now. They say he randomly appears when I come back from quests, so I might as well go out and explore for some materials I need for my next weapon.

For the Godhands, I am short 7 Cloudless Prisms and 2 Iron Ores. From the Notebook, I learn that I can get Iron Ores from rock scavenging points and Cloudless Prisms from crystal scavenging points, wherever they are. I just have to go out and explore around I suppose.

I go out roaming. I find the location of both items in the Hibat Foothills and in the caves on the way to the Ifrit's lair. After a couple of trips I get enough materials, so I make my way back to Libertas and make the Godhands!

I head out roaming again, fulfilling several affinity subquests while testing out the Godhands. They're a good bit more powerful alright :) After spending a good while out there beating random enemies and fulfilling subquests, I unlock the Dark Knight and Machinist jobs and the ability to turn into Lightning and Squall. May come in handy in future.

I get the Migrant Moogle Merchant to appear too! I'm full of Play Coins, so I buy a load of stuff from him, including the following:

Potion - 1 Play Coin
Hi-Potion - 2 Play Coins
Ether - 1 Play Coin
Turbo Ether - 3 Play Coins
Phoenix Down - 5 Play Coins
Stamina Drink - 7 Play Coins
Mana Drink - 7 Play Coins
Smoke Bomb - 2 Play Coins
Hermes Sandals - 3 Play Coins

1 Gradius (NES) - Button Holding Strategy, First Level

Dear Readers,

I am obsessed with Konami's Gradius! I beat the NES version before, but used a joystick with a turbo fire option on the Wii U Virtual Console. I often get the urge to play the Virtual Console version on 3DS, but there's no turbo fire option and I hate pressing buttons rapidly! I'm trying to come up with a button holding strategy. You keep firing shots when you hold the button, but they don't come out as quickly.

I've come up with a strategy for the first level at least. I got somewhat used to whatever enemy patterns are happening, so I don't bother with any speed ups. Speaking of power ups, I've resolved to learn them off by heart and count in my head to what power up is highlighted, so I don't have to look at the bottom of the screen and away from the action.

SPEED UP
MISSILE
DOUBLE
LASER
OPTION
SHIELD

This I'm trying to keep in my head for this game! I like to start off with a shield, then the two options, then laser. If I die somewhere along the way, I still prioritise the shield.

At the moment, I think the best spot to deal with the volcanoes at the end is to the bottom right of the screen and just hang out there with a shield and maybe some options. That way, I don't crash into any mountains when the screen starts scrolling again.

3 Final Fantasy Explorers - Using Airship; Unlocking Monster Lab and Magicite; Eidolons Ifrit, Dryak, Shiva & Ramuh; Progress To North Amostra

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about doing more quests in online play, unlocking the monster lab, finishing subquests and forging equipment.

I connected with my friend online over in the U.S. and did some more quests together. I learn that although you can only chat with preset messages, you can edit those messages. It's a nice thing.

The first was "Requiem for the Departed". Here we had to defeat 5 Skeletons in the Debbis Trail. They're easy enough to take care of, especially with the good help I had. Taking the airship there was very handy!

The second was "Monster Lab Permit Exam". This came about after Cid told me I was ready for it. We took the airship, but Leggi Steppe is only just outside! Ah well. Why not. After a Crystal Surge, my friend was able to one shot the Lizards and eventually we got their atmalith for the task.

I can use the Monster Lab now but I haven't done anything with it yet.

The third quest was "What's with All These Monsters!?". At Lake Filouz, we defeat the Mandragoras without any hassle. When we got to Debbis Heights, my friend had connection problems. It looked like he was running continually into an obstacle before he disappeared offline. I had to take on the 5 Ghosts myself. It took a good bit longer but I pulled it off :)

Debbis Heights is a new area for me. It has nice music and cool rock formations. They look like giant harbour bollards. Cactuars are here too, so that's a nice thing to see.

My friend continued to have connection problems, so while he was offline, I did some errands around town. I saw that I could forge the Spiked Knuckles, but I needed some materials to do it. I had everything but 2 Spellcast Iron. I was able to look them up in the Notebook and see that I could obtain them from defeating bombs. Then I could look up Bombs in the Bestiary section and see where its habitat is. Pretty handy when planning out your next trip!

I headed out to their habitat in Hibat Foothills. I searched high and low but could not find any Bombs. I sometimes see them in Leggi Steppe, so I checked there too to no avail. They just weren't around. I end the roaming quest and restart it. This time they were all over the place! I'm not sure what determines this, but it seems I'll have to revisit a place a different time if there's something I cannot find.

Eventually, I obtained the Spellcast Iron I needed and forged some brand new Spiked Knuckles for myself! Now I can defeat things slightly faster! I had a little trouble with Bombs exploding and not dropping anything, but it wasn't too much of a hassle.

My friend was able to come online again and we continued questing.

I think the fourth quest we did was "Insidious Blue Dragon", but I'm not 100% sure. We took care of it easily enough :) The new weapons are good weapons!

After this, there were no more quests left. I had to go mingle with the people in the town. A man named Ardo tells me about Ifrit. My first eidolon quest!

"Flame Djinn" is the name of the fifth one. It took a little while but we defeated it. Someone my friend knew tried to join our session, but didn't make it this time.

On defeating Ifrit, I unlocked quest options. They're extra difficulty settings. I didn't bother setting any for now.

We face Ifrit again on the sixth quest, "A Chocobo's Treasure". My friend's friend Edo joined us and the three of us took on Ifrit together. The mayhem between all of us was quite fun! :) After this, Edo left.

I had to go mingle again and unlock more quests. Fierty tells me about Dryad, an eidolon in the Fosta Gardens. This seventh quest is titled "Twisted Sister's Garden". She was tough enough! She can disappear underground and reappear on another side of the area. We manage to defeat her though!

After this, my 3DS battery LED was flashing red with danger, so I had to run and grab my charger to continue playing. Managed to connect it in time! My friend wasn't having any more connection problems either, so things were going quite smoothly now :)

Cid told me about our eighth quest: "Aptitude Exam: Thief and Time Mage". For this we had to defeat a Behemoth. We beat it easily enough and unlock the new jobs for me. I don't switch from a Monk though. I tend to stick to a job in RPGs. I might change someday.

After some more mingling, Shion told me about Shiva. This ninth quest is titled "Ice Queen" and it takes place at Lake Tinze. It was tough-ish, due to her freezing me a lot. My healer came in very handy here!

We went on to our tenth quest, where we fight Shiva again. It's called "One-Winged Angel". After taking care of her again, I had to do more mingling.

Claire gave me more subquests and Surama told me about Ramuh up in Dell'antoni Bluffs. This eleventh quest is titled "Thunder Sage". The winding path up the mountain to where he lurks has a nice atmosphere. He's an interesting boss/eidolon. He makes these yellow crystal-like thingies appear around the area. I think they enable him to warp around or give him extra protection against our attacks, but I'm not sure. I think my earth affinity surge made him dizzy and easier to battle.

The twelfth mission we did is "A Moogle's Treasure", where we took on Ramuh again. This time I got KO'd! My healer revived me though and I was back up on my feet and punching away again!

Cid then told me about our thirteenth mission, "Magicite Permit Exam". For this, we have to encase an eidolon in Magicite. I decide on Dryad. It was a tough battle! She inflicts loads of status effects, including confuse, where the directional controls are reversed. She can also make the ground burst up and rise in a wide area, which is a pretty big attack.

On defeating her, I got some tutorials about Magicites and Trances. I'll use them in time. All I know is that the Dryad one made me glow for a while when I tapped that icon on the touchscreen.

I had a chat with the Moogle in town and he gave me a Godhands schematic. It's a more powerful weapon for me that I can forge! I need materials though. I'm short 7 Cloudless Prisms and 2 Iron Ores. I'll collect them later.

Cid gave me our fourteenth and final mission for this session, "Explore North Amostra". It's a really fun mission where we had to cover new ground and defeat any 20 monsters along the way. Exploring at it's purest! :)

These windy maze areas are densely detailed and can be a bit confusing, unless you look at the map as well to see where your in-game characters collide. They're quite nice to explore and hunt for stuff all the same! Of course, the big wide areas are lovely to look at too.

Afterwards, we discuss what our favourite things are about the game. I just find the experience really nice and smooth. Our White Mage and Monk team work very well together. I'm still at a much lower level, so what usually happens when we face a monster is that the spells almost one-shot them; then it's my Explosive Fist that finishes off the tiny bit of health they have left. I also love the pickup sound! Can't get enough of it!

29 Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros - Peaches Talk Fashion on Mount Brrr, Sunbeam Plains Exploration

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about the next part of the story, where the Peaches got taken to Mount Brrr. I'll also talk a little about exploring places we didn't have access to before.

On arriving at Peach's Castle, we're greeted by the Toads. The first is too distraught to speak, so the green one takes over and says to listen carefully and not to fast-forward! I'll do that if I want to, bucko! He tells us he saw Bowser Jr. and Paper Bowser Jr. with the princesses on Mount Brrr.

It then cuts to them in Bowser's villa on Mount Brrr. The music here is pretty nice! It has that sleepy snowy wonderland feel and at the same time it's a mountain wilderness. It has pan flutes and a slow, broad drum beat playing.

Bowser Jr. and Paper Bowser Jr. are marvelling at the view. They then head downstairs to see a papercraft that looks just like them. Peach and Paper Peach chat for a while, shivering with the cold and talking about Mario.

Then they talk about their hair and their dresses. They talk about the urge to cut their amazing hair off! Their beautiful, full, blonde locks! They even mention dying it purple! What the heck?! Who wrote this stuff? Now, I know the point is probably to have them bond, but still. The Hammer Bros. and Goombas on guard have hearts fluttering around their heads. I would be horrified if I was one of them! The music playing here is a gentle harp plucking melody that accompanies this scene of friendship. It's nice, apart from the big changes they talk about. Oog.

Back at the castle, the Green Toad is describing his impression of the scenario very dramatically. He talks on a bit, so when he turns his back, everyone's already gone outside.

The Yellow Toad gives us directions to Mount Brrr, which is through the north part of Gloomy Woods, an area we have yet to see. Toadette says she'll work on another papercraft for us. The Green Toad runs out past us, still all dramatic. He's going up the mountain too?

There's new stuff in the shop but I don't buy anything.

It looks like this is the way of the game, heading to one destination but then being diverted to another destination. At the start, it was just Sunbeam Plains and Doop Doop Dunes between here and Bowser's Castle! It would've been a very short game if that was it! It's a common trope in games, but it doesn't stop them from being fun :)

Before heading to our new destination, I decide to explore Sunbeam Plains a bit more with our new abilities. I find the Fighter Wear, but didn't give it to anyone.

I just learned too that the shiny Bob-omb from before didn't have a new attack pattern, it just had very high stats or something. The pattern seemed new because I don't usually see them attack, due to their revenge move when I attack them.

I can instantly defeat Goombas and other weaker enemies now by just landing on them! Battle still happens but they all fall immediately when we land on them! Love when this happens in RPGs!

There's a shiny Paper Paratroopa here as well. Are there only one of each or are they just rare or something? We'll see in time.

I'll cover more familiar ground before heading to Gloomy Woods.

28 Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros - Boat Back To Sunbeam Plains, Lakitu Arcade Open

Dear Readers,

Today, I'll talk about our journey back to Peach's Castle and checking out the newly opened Lakitu Arcade along the way.

We head back to the Twinsy Tropics Toad Village and meet the Paper Toads at the dock. They've already finished the nice looking papercraft boat. They choose to travel with Lakitu instead of with us.

Luigi calls the escapee Toads and they board with us cheerfully. Paper Mario gets on top of the mast and turns into a sail! We all head back to Sunbeam Plains. Things look a little different with the extra landscape features made out of papercraft, so we go investigate while the Toads rest here for a while. We have to head back to Peach's Castle too.

Across the river, we meet Monty Moles. They sneak attack by burying underground and throwing rocks at us. While trying to do their dodge challenge, they come up with a golden egg at one point! I wonder what that will get us? Might come across it again later...

We're taking a different path through this area that runs south of the area we were in before. I find the Knockout Boots and give them to Luigi. We come across another Lakitu Info Centre. The Lakitu outside tells us that the warp pipe that was closed off before is now open and it leads to an arcade!

The arcade is high up in cloud heaven. The Lakitu near the pipe explains the three different types of games: Battle Ring, where we can fight previously defeated bosses, papercraft bosses and the Attackathon, where we can try for high scores using Bros. and Trio Attacks. There are some expert challenges to achieve with these games too. The three arcade cabinets look like New 3DSes.

There are some Lakitu relaxing here, sitting at tables using their clouds as seats. The one at the yellow table advertises the Attackathon. One of them at the red table talks about Lakitea and says it's perfection without cream or sugar; the other is taking a break from playing the Battle Ring, trying to figure out what to do about one of Petey Piranha's attacks. At the blue table, a Lakitu talks about the importance of kicking back after doing work; the other is so relaxed, he might take a nap. The Lakitu at the counter is selling Lakitea, which is supposed to refresh body and mind. I don't bother buying any.

At a glance, the bosses have a recommended level for us to fight them at, so they must be stronger than they were before.

I give the Attackathon a go. The only available one is Trio Racquet at the moment. There are three different medals for getting points: S, which looks like platinum; a golden A and a silver B. Is the platinum one a reference to Platinum Games perhaps? :)

This game is quite nice! It's like an endurance version of Bros. and Trio attacks with arcade scoring. With this one, we all take turns hitting the ball at different enemies depicted on the wall. They crumble away and harder ones appear as we progress. Pretty cool! For my first turn I get a bronze C medal with a score of 540. After a few sessions I get a golden A medal with a score of 2430. After every session, it saves, even if you don't get the best score. The only gripe with this is that you really start to notice the saving delay after a few goes in a row.

I'll come back to the arcade later. Continuing on, we come across a shiny Paper Bob-omb, that really throws us with its own attack pattern and it deals a lot of damage! Had to use a few 1-up Mushrooms!

I find a Filler Brooch but don't give it to anyone right now.

Further along the path, we meet a Toad in a panic, who's about to tell us what happened to the princesses, but then says to just follow him to the castle quickly.

2 Final Fantasy Explorers - Cross Region Online Play, First Online Session, Red Dragon, Adamantoise, Cockatrice

Dear Readers,

I'm finally able to confirm that I can play this game online with players from other regions! In this session, I played with a friend over in the U.S. The game was released a bit sooner over there so they're a lot more advanced than I am. Today, I'll talk about more of the first few quests and what multi-player is like.

It's very easy to connect with other players and I found the action gameplay quite smooth in this session. We did have one disconnect and that meant I had to quit the quest and start and try again. You have to pay gil in order to take on quests too, so you risk losing money. Another mistake I made was to leave the town before they were ready, meaning I had to quit the quest again and pay another fee to take it on. So hey, it's not without some teething issues for me!

I just have to make sure in future that the message "Finished quest preparations" from my partners comes up before I embark.

There's in-game chat, but it's preset messages.

Before I started any more quests, I decided to actually equip something. The last quest took forever without having any weapon. I'm a Monk, so I buy and equip some Metal Knuckles.

We do the "Help the Shopgirl!" quest. The task is to defeat 5 toads. It's in the Leggi Plains, a narrow area off to the west. It still takes me a while to defeat enemies, but my partner is so far ahead they can beat them in one hit. It doesn't take long at all. At least I can do more damage now anyway.

Next is the "Keep Getting Items" quest, where we have to obtain 20 items. My partner's collecting of items counts towards the total as well. On top of that, we each get the same share of spoils when we defeat enemies, so this is achieved twice as fast.

After this, there aren't any quests left, so I have to mingle with people in the town. I meet a lady named Claire Thule from the Lillium Kingdom. She tells me about a red dragon that's been causing trouble and the quest becomes available.

We start the "Red Dragon Run Amok" quest. For this, we head east through a cave towards the Hibat Foothills to take on the red dragon. My partner helps me make short work of this big boss creature as well and does lots of stat boosting stuff I'm not used to understanding yet.

On completing this, Cid gives me more quests and subquests become unlocked. A travelling Moogle merchant appears in the town for a time, so I go visit him. I buy a phoenix down from him for 5 Play Coins. I really like that I can use these in the game to buy stuff!

The Moogles have a cute voice sample that goes "Kupo!" when you talk to them. I didn't always like Moogles in this series, but I do now. I'll have to tell that story sometime.

Subquest time! They're different from normal ones. I can take on loads of them at once. I also learn that I can't go out with other players unless I take on a main quest as well. When I select "Deliver Iron Scraps" and "Deliver Potions", I find that they're complete already since I have enough potions and scraps. I cash in and pick a few more, "Reach 100 Resonance" and "Deliver Hardened Bones".

The next quest is "Call It Market Research". We have to defeat any 20 monsters and use 1 Crystal Surge. For this I decided to learn a new ability, as my only ability, "Boost" doesn't increase Resonance fast enough. I need over 100 to gain access to Crystal Surges. I go to the crystal in the centre of town and learn "Explosive Fist". We head out, defeating random enemies in Leggi Steppe and Leggi Plains. I can defeat enemies quicker now, but I still can't one shot them like my partner can! I use a couple of Crystal Surges, not fully understanding all the extra moves I can do, but I will in time.

Our next quest is "The Legendary Ore", where we have to defeat an adamantoise. I remember these turtle-like creatures from Final Fantasy III. My partner has the ability to turn into Squall from Final Fantasy VIII. For this, we head to the beach and take it on. It doesn't take too long, thanks to the help I have!

I like the beach by the way. There's also some mysterious looking structure out towards sea. It'll be explored later I suppose. :)

After this, I have to mingle again for one last quest. I get one from Rosaria, the girl next to the airship. She has kind of a grumpy tone, but she works well with us.

The quest we take on is "Airship Permit Exam", where we have to defeat a cockatrice at Lake Filouz. I don't know where this place is, so I let my partner lead the way. There's a general red spot flashing on the map, but my partner has it explored and mapped, so I let them take the lead. We go through a shady wooded area and arrive at this secluded area. It's peaceful, apart from the creature we have to fight. We don't have too much trouble with this boss either. It petrifies us into rocks at one point, but we pull through and defeat it.

On completing this quest, I'm now able to use the airship! I'll have a look at it another time. For now though, this was a good session!