Of demos and hauls that never were

I just took a break from the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 grinding by playing the Project Octopath Traveler demo, which delighted and annoyed me in equal parts. I love the atmosphere, the soundtrack, the mix of 3D elements and pixel art and the many playable characters à la Seiken Densetsu 3; on the other hand, I hate how dark and blurry the graphics are, and I despise the lack of instant save. Come on Squeenix, which year do you think it is? Save points are simply unacceptable in 2018, even for nostalgia's sake. Having said that, I'm probably going to buy the game anyway, if only because it oozes some genuine retro charm. Games that try to capitalize on nostalgia by boasting pixel art and old-school gameplay mechanics are a dime a dozen these days, but most of them don't feel like genuine 16-bit offerings; POT, on the other hand, does feel like it's been lifted straight from the '90s. After the (huge) disappointment of seeing the Western 3DS release of DQXI cancelled, I'm expecting a lot from Squeenix on this one, and I sure hope they will fix the demo's issues as promised.

Still on the demo front, I gave another chance to the World of Final Fantasy demo and found myself really liking it, to my utter surprise. I lapped up the game's grindiness and straightforward fighting system, and all the issues that bothered me during my first try went unnoticed this time around. Weird, really. At any rate, this means one more entry on my To-Get-My-Paws-On List, and one more opportunity for Squeenix to redeem itself in my jaded eyes.

But enough of Squeenix for now, dear fellow gamers. It so happened that I took a small European holiday, which led me to cross paths with a brick and mortar game store. That store boasted a crap ton of Switch games, amongst which several offerings coveted by yours truly — Lost Sphear, Disgaea 5 Complete, Nights of Azure 2, The Longest 5 Minutes, Atelier Lydie and Suelle, you name them. I was about to go for a shopping rampage and snatch all of them; but then the price tags stopped me dead in my tracks. Those darn games boasted prices ranging between 50 and 65 euros, and that just obliterated my purchasing drive on the spot. Brand-new Vita and 3DS games cost between 30 and 40 euros, and I had no problems purchasing five or six at once; but I find much harder to indulge in such purchasing sprees with Switch games that are nearly twice as expensive. This may lead me to ponder my future Switch acquisitions much more carefully, and to invest in Switch games only if I'm 100% sure I'll like them. That would sure be a massive change from the not-so-distant time when I used to purchase any game that looked even remotely like an RPG.

But what about 3DS and Vita games, you may ask? Well, I already owned all the 3DS games available in that store; as for Vita games, there were simply none. The Vita display was gone: no more games, no more accessories, as though the console never existed. This was eerie, let me tell you that. The Vita was always a niche console, and we all know it's headed towards retirement: but the complete and total absence of any Vita-related product in a game store really drove the point home.

With that, dear fellow gamers, I'm going back to my Switch and to XC2 — which is still my one and only Switch game, grumble grumble. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!