While I don’t support pirating products that are currently for sale, I do think it’s essential that emulators like Ryujinx are developed now in order to preserve titles for later. Some Switch software already has been delisted, and someday eventually all of it will be.
So, you’re looking for something like Tales, but not at all like Tales?
The only Tales-like that comes to mind is Summon Night Swordcraft Story, it’s a successor to the classic 2D Tales games, but I’m not actually sure if that’s what you’re looking for.
Chrono Trigger - Corridors of Time
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - wheeeee
Skullgirls - hehe
Splatoon 3 - I may have hurt some people today
Mahjong Soul/Riichi City/IRL mahjong - nice
Mega Knockdown - also nice
Unfortunately you’re not going to find opponents very easily on Steam, as I mentioned. Japan is pretty much entirely on Switch, and the game failed to really take off in the west so you gotta play where the Japanese players are.
My ultimate dream would be to someday get SteamOS running on a DS-sized form factor. Doesn’t need to be beefy, just needs to fit in my pocket and run my favorite 2D indie games.
I bought a Steam Deck just to support the most important thing that ever happened to Linux gaming, but mine has actually just been gathering dust. It’s far too big to really be a handheld, doesn’t fit in my pocket, and does not fill the role that Nintendo’s handhelds served for me. The main thing I do end up using it for is taking Deck + dock to FGC events for a portable setup.
Last year I bought a Miyoo Mini Plus, a little emulator handheld, as an impulse buy because it was on sale super cheap. I ended up putting far more time into it than I ever did with the Deck.
Maybe the best library of all time, my DS collection is massive.
The one thing that’s sad though is how many classics are unlikely to ever see a rerelease. Games that were designed around the hardware just won’t be the same on any other platform.
FWIW, all three Boktai games do have patches if you can’t play on original hardware.
There are two kinds of right-wing politicians. Grifters who will say and do anything for personal gain, and suckers who have come to believe it. Vance is just a grifter, make no mistake. And maybe at one point Trump built his empire through grift - he was a Republican in 1987, Independence Party in 1999, a Democrat in 2001, Republican again in 2009. But at this point Trump’s narcissism has led him to fall for his own grift, he does believe it.
You can actually tell with Trump that the one issue he doesn’t really care about at all but has to pander to his base with is abortion. And when you see how he flounders when asked about Roe v Wade, that gives you a baseline to compare to all the other shit that comes out of his mouth that he’s dead serious about.
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - Goofy clip of the week
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - Friend came to visit from out of town, played some casual 3S for a little while. Also managed to rope him into trying out Waku Waku 7 and Twinkle Star Sprites as I wanted to show off some fun hidden gems in my collection.
Mahjong Soul/Riichi City/IRL mahjong - Remember when I said I was done grinding this game mode and wouldn’t do another run?
Splatoon 3 - Haven’t touched Salmon Run since the last Big Run and I’m clearly rusty. Put up a 173, which is gold, but I know that gold target isn’t actually much, especially on this map. Still can’t kill a damn Triumvirate, which is what I really wanted.
There are some old English-language resources available on the wiki. But I’ve never quite liked the way we try to teach the game by just showing pictures of an idealized chain built in a frictionless vacuum, it’s a very “draw the rest of the owl” approach. Nor do I know what a better approach looks like for a game this abstract.
At one point I was working on a video where I’d build a chain step-by-step and overexplain my thought process on each piece. But that sits on a large mountain of unfinished projects and ideas. I’m retired from the game now because, well, I can’t continue justifying my competitive energy towards a game that just has no future as long as its publisher hates it, so it’s never going to get finished.
If you want functional online, the Switch version of Puyo Puyo Champions is the only title worth bothering with. Specifically Switch, other platforms are ghost towns.
If you want singleplayer content, 15th Anniversary, 20th Anniversary, and Chronicle are all peak. None of these games were released outside of Japan and they’re older titles you’ll have to emulate, hence all my salt about the state of things today, but at least they do have fantranslation patches.
I wrote that essay back in 2021, and three years later time proved all of it correct. This game straight up killed the series.
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - I WON A FIVE MAN BRACKET WOOOOO Also played some Skullgirls casuals for a little while after the bracket ended.
Mahjong Soul/Riichi City/IRL mahjong - Ever since Balatro blew up, people have been joking about when we’re gonna see the mahjong roguelike next. Then four different ones went into development. Then Mahjong Soul surprised dropped a fifth one as a limited time event, and it might be the most promising of all of them. Then I broke the hell out of it.
Splatoon 3 - Team practice. Don’t have any cool clips to share rn, maybe next week.
Don’t. There’s no reason to care about the anniversary of someone creating an account on a website. “Cake day” as a concept was one the most insufferable reddit-isms, and will remain so no matter what else you call it.
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - Made top 8 at locals. Then played a long casual set with the guy who eliminated me from bracket, came out of it feeling like I understand the Carmine matchup better now.
Kitsune Tails - Got to act 2 and I’m just replaying the same levels with a character who has a bunch of strong movement abilities. New levels designed for this character would’ve been great, but why am I replaying the same ones but now way easier?
Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers - My opinions on this game keep going back and forth. I’ve found the strats to win more consistently by just relying on disrupting the opponent’s deck, but doing so feels a little too linear. I saw there’s a big balance update in beta now, so I guess I’ll have to see how the changes feel.
Splatoon 3 - lol, lmao
Mahjong Soul/Riichi City/IRL mahjong - Came up with a new strategy at club this week where I just draw good tiles over and over.
Sounds like this was more of a bribe than any legal case against the emulator. In which case nothing is stopping anyone from putting a fork back up, and gdkchan gets to laugh all the way to the bank.