Week of 19 Nov 2023
“The Sonic Punk is here!”
Achievements Earned In:
- Maquette
- Eastward
- NeoGeo Battle Coliseum
I only popped into Maquette quickly on Sunday because I really needed an achievement for my streak and was struggling as I came down with some stomach bug or something. I had completed my previous buffer game last week, so this is probably the easiest game left on my ‘tag currently. Took less than five minutes to get an achievement. I’ll get back to this once I’m able; the subject matter is just… too sensitive right now.
Achievements unlocked: 6 (+1) | Completion: 27%
Before I got sick, I had heard that Eastward was leaving Game Pass. It had tickled my fancy when I tested it on my alternate account, and it sat on my brain since. With news it was leaving, I knew I had to get on it. The completion didn’t seem too hard, so easy peasy! …But then I came down with a severe stomach illness and struggled to stay awake, much less work my way through a nicely-sized RPG. Making it harder on myself, I wanted to get the whole playthrough on stream, unbroken and with little interruption. This isn’t exactly facilitated by a constant need to run to the bathroom, but I think I managed pretty well! As for the game, it’s a pretty lovely time. The entire design and look to it gives me strong Earthbound vibes, which is probably one of my cornerstone gaming experiences. The combat, on the other hand, is more akin to something like the Seiken Densetsu/Mana series, all action-y and such. I’d say, overall, the game definitely leans more on the easy side and I only died twice.
Now, to the completion. When I started, I went in with the information that none of the achievements are missable, so I didn’t really concern myself with following any guides. I knew I needed to collect every ingredient in the game and discover every recipe, so I had a guide for that up, but otherwise I just went through the game naturally. It wasn’t until near the end of Chapter 1 I learned I also needed to be on the lookout for hidden chests, so I soon pulled up a guide for that, too, and went about my merry way. There’s a New Game+ function after you beat the game, allowing you to reload chapters from various checkpoints and play from there while carrying over data. The problem is twofold. First, apparently doing so kind of makes the chest-collection data all wonky: picking up the chest I’d missed prior didn’t unlock the achievement, and further examination found other chests I have footage of opening being unopened. One whole chest, open or not, has just vanished! Second issue is the pixballs you need to collect, because apparently the variants aren’t saved to your collection when you load the data through chapter select. Kinda defeats the whole purpose! For the latter, what I did was load up Chapter 7B and went about collecting all the pixballs right there and then from the capsule machine. Took maybe less than 20 minutes, and I had plenty of tokens, and plenty of salt to buy more. I of course did this after I easily cleared the game-within-a-game, Earth Born, so I had all of the pixballs available to unlock. The treasure chests issue was more of a challenge, and I wasted a lot of time on Saturday putzing around the various chapters trying to find the one I’d missed. It soon became apparent that whatever mechanism records the progress for the achievement was broken, so instead of continuing to waste time by essentially replaying the entire game looking for the missing chest(s), I’d just actually start the game over and follow a guide the entire time. What a massive pain, which is a shame since the game was so neat. Will likely sadly color my feelings in the end. Especially if that freaking achievement doesn’t unlock…
Achievements unlocked: 28 (+28) | Completion: 93%
Careful, or your face will get stuck like that, Sammie.
Jumped into NeoGeo Battle Coliseum for the same reason I played Maquette this week, just to extend my streak during a tough day. This time it was on Wednesday, and boy was I exhausting and nauseous and in pain from the stomach bug I was suffering with. Even better, I had gone to work that day, so I was exhausted. With the added emotional exhaustion from the upcoming holiday, I just wanted an achievement quick and was in bed before 7PM.
Achievements unlocked: 4 (+1) | Completion: 33%
