After a few weeks of lazing around I’m finally starting my cleanup duty following the fall of Bato and MangaPark. I’ve been slowly migrating some of the series I followed on those sites though, like with every migration, not all of them are available or up to date in other places. I should really start downloading chapters for unread titles again.

Here is the direct link to the official upload, no English subtitles unfortunately. It’s funny and kinda sweet.

I got my fill of Tokkyuu Shirei - Solbrain for now so I’m back to jumping between multiple other titles on my Deck at the moment.

The main focus is the return of my Ridge Racer fixation. I’m back to playing Ridge Racer 2 (PSP one) but I also tried Ridge Racer Type 4 and Ridge Racer 7. RRT4 still holds up rather well, it feels good to play and the presentation is top notch (especially its fantastic intro). Can’t say I like it more than RR2 (PSP) however a big part of that is the fact that the latter is simply a more complete package due to its content.
Can’t say much about RR7 as I only tried 2 races so far to see how it’ll run emulated. It runs but I’ve got some issues with RPCS3 not using all the power on my desktop which affects the performance. I’ll have to play it on my Steam Deck instead, I guess.

The second series I’m playing right now is The Legend of Linkle: Breath of the Wild (BotW, just modded). I played it about a year or so ago but didn’t really feel it at the time and dropped it for other stuff. I now decided to start from scratch and with refreshed attitude instead. I’m having a bit more fun and feel less pressure to progress this time so there’s a chance I’ll be able to finish it - we’ll see how it goes. At the very least, I’d love a proper Zelda game with Linkle as a protagonist. Heck, I’d settle for a decent knockoff honestly.

I’m a bit biased towards Colin McRae Rally 04 but man, 2 still looks and feels pretty great. That era of rally games in general was awesome, I’m glad most of them seem to be working well on linux.

I’m glad they’re following the proper data security procedures on this. Well, that and the law, at least partially (I might be wrong but shouldn’t they contact affected users ASAP according to GDPR?). Still, I’m glad we got this much.

That said, writing “The data impacted relates only to basic account details (i.e. metadata, contact details, username, date of birth, and name).” when this stuff can be used for quite a lot of shenanigans (phishing, social engineering) is not great. Yes, it could be worse but let’s not downplay the issue.

Hopefully this won’t lead to any unpleasantness for any of the players down the line.

Jumping between Ridge Racer 2 (PSP one) and The Legend of Linkle: Breath of the Wild (BotW, just modded).

With RR2 I pretty much stick to random tours at this point as I really don’t want to deal with playing the final duels of the pro tour (I cleared one, tried another and decided it’s just not fun). I’ve been on a bit of a binge of RR related media (videos, listening to the soundtracks) so I come back to this game regularly. I also decided to try out Ridge Racer Type 4 but I’m doing it on my PC due to laziness. Didn’t play enough to have an opinion on that one yet.

With BotW I came back after a year or so long break and decided to start from scratch with refreshed attitude instead of continuing my previous save. I’m having a bit more fun and less pressure to progress this time so there’s a chance I’ll be able to finish it (I got about half-way on my first attempt). We’ll see how it goes.
At the very least, I’d love a proper Zelda game with Linkle as a protagonist. Heck, I’d settle for a decent knockoff.

It’s just 2 panels, 30 chapters ago - pretty easy to miss/forget. Let’s hope we won’t have to wait this long for another appearance.

These two aren’t actually new, they appeared in chapter 26! Without names but there was a wrestling move in play so I’d say it evens out. I agree though, I want more of them.

It’s more likely that both systems will release as Tier 0 (i.e. super basic versions) and work will continue to bring them to their intended visions in the future - remember, scheduled work doesn’t mean things are done right after, only that there’s no more tasks planned at the moment.

4.7 testing is still at the Evocati stage. While I don’t really follow leaks from them, it’s entirely possible patch will drop closer to the end of the month. Probably not on 29th (it’s Sunday) but it might be close enough.

Last week was rather busy so I didn’t have time to play much. I did however found a game I’ve been looking for for years now. A title, I pretty much gave up on ever finding again. This game is Tokkyuu Shirei: Solbrain for NES (some people might be more familiar with the version released in the west called Shatterhand).

So what is it? It’s a 2D action game, part platformer part beat 'em up, set in the future where you run through linear levels and beat bad guys. You can pick up Alpha/Beta icons to get a flying robot buddy whose attack patterns depend on the the combination of icons you got (you need 3 icons to spawn the robot). These buddies serve as your range attacks and allow you to fly up (it’s mostly useful for secrets and easier platforming, I believe).
All in all, gameplay here is kind of like a slower Mega Man focused on fist-fighting.

Simple but fun game with pretty great art and music. I really lost any hope I’d find it again - looks like my good fortune finally decided to show up for once!

Hm, sounds good but not necessarily like a must-have for someone who enjoys the series more casually/from the sidelines rather than being an active part of the fandom. I’ll keep that in mind for the future, thanks.

Are there any projects you could suggest as worth checking out? I love mods but I never really thought about using them with FF7 - it’s just not a game that comes to mind when I think about doing a modded playthrough. Anything transformative enough to make it more than just FF7 but with QoL or nicer graphics?

Hmm, seems like sticking with emulating my copy might be good enough for now. I might jump into the other entries instead since I neither have nor played them. Thanks for the reply!

I have the PS1 version but this does look enticing for convenience’s sake. How does the modern PC release compare to the original one (besides the quality of life additions mentioned on the store page)?

Last week was rather busy so I only managed to read through Travel Gal! A Cross-Japan Bike Travelog and doing so only made me more sad about the cancellation. I really enjoyed the story and I got to learn some things I didn’t know about “proper” biking travel so that in itself made it worth it. Too bad I won’t get to see the whole trip through, it was fun.

Was it the best thing ever? No. But it was well made and enjoyable adventure from start to (early) finish.

Yeah, I’m holding back on the final judgement until part 2, it’s just something that’s been constantly popping up in my head as I was reading the event nodes. I don’t care about this being the case in side events, it’s whatever, but for a long running main plot making every mook disposable doesn’t really help with building the stakes or making them feel serious. I’m hoping things will start to change now that we’ve reached the “it’s finally getting good” stage, as the people seem to talk about Corposant.

I’m with you on Lentine - she started similar to everyone but she at least got a chance to change after her defeats. Should make for an interesting opponent if MICA allows her to develop properly. I also expect Chiloveig to be a possible mid-long term nuisance if my guess about her is correct and she survives this event. Guess we’ll see.

I’m seeing a pattern and I’m not sure I like it. It’s getting a bit tiring at the very least.

• Darture - overconfident with “above it all” attitude. Defeated twice by “mediocre” gen 2 dolls with partially working remolding pattern devices. Three times if we count her fighting in a prototype body and giving up.
• Sextant - overconfident with “above it all” attitude. Thrown away like trash (despite being super high-tech and extremely expensive) and defeated by “mediocre” gen 2 dolls with partially working remolding pattern devices
• Lentine - overconfident with “above it all” attitude (until she gets wrecked). Defeated by surprise reinforcements, twice.
• Bluesphere - overconfident with “above it all” attitude. Defeated by a few exhausted dudes with third-rate gear, highly damaged 404 squad (with no remolding pattern devices) and a jeep.
• Rurik - overconfident with “above it all” attitude (until he crashes out for an understandable reason). Shot to death by his own side.
• Cocoon - overconfident with “above it all” attitude. Fate to be determined.
• Zimmermann - overconfident with “above it all” attitude. Fate to be determined.
• Chiloveig - overconfident with “above it all” attitude. Fate to be determined.
• Igla - overconfident with “above it all” attitude. Fate to be determined.

Not only it’s a pretty one note cast of villains, it honestly feels like a full-on “monster of the week” approach which doesn’t do much to make them feel like an actual threat. I dunno, hopefully part 2 of Corposant does something, ANYTHING with these new characters but for now it just feels like the same song and dance we’ve been through multiple times already.

At least my gacha luck was pretty good this time.

What do you mean? You can clearly see the ninja isn’t budging (yet).

The second half of the game is a bit divisive but if you end up enjoying the game despite that I can wholeheartedly recommend the standalone expansion, Crysis Warhead, as well. It fixed some of the issues from the base game while keeping the tactical options and semi-open world.

Both gameplay and story are a little bit more “action movie”-like, but even then, it doesn’t compromise the original experience. It’s pretty fun.

I recently found out that after 5 or so years of nothing someone finally picked up Travel Gal! A Cross-Japan Bike Travelog again. Not only that, they posted translated chapters of the whole thing already. I’m super happy right now, even if it’s a bittersweet kind of happiness.

As the title suggest, it’s a story about a gyaru who, after learning about her best friend getting married, decides to travel through all of Japan on a bike. Why bike? She gets motion sick real fast in any other mode of transportation. So she has no money, the bike isn’t hers and she knows nothing about such endeavours but she goes for it anyway cause “it should only take 3-4 days”. It’s a pretty fun story filled with trivia and actual useful travelling tips. It’s also a bit horny (though it’s not the main focus) so watch out for that if it matters.

It was unfortunately cancelled (by the author, I think?) after only 27 chapters, which is a huge shame as I like it quite a bit. At least I’ll get to finish what’s there. Finally.