NekoJonez’s December 2017 Update

It’s almost the end of the year, so it’s almost time to wrap up 2017 here in my blog. Quite an eventful year it has been, from getting a price for best gaming blog of 2017 to the Zelda project. Those are just two of the big things that happened to my blog. But, in today’s article, I want to let you know what’s going to happen for the rest of December and what I’m planning for 2018. So, it’s update time! 

Quick reflection on 2017

This past year was an eventful year for me. 2016 was an amazing year for me personally, a year that won’t be easily topped. But 2017 brought only more interesting things to my life and my blog, I can say that this was quite a successful year.

Thanks to the retrospective Zelda project and winning the prize for best gaming blog of 2017, according to MarketInspector; I can even prove the claim I made in my latest sentence.

Besides those two things, I wonder, what do you guys think were my best moments in 2017? I loved the collaborations I did with other bloggers and the games that the devs asked me to play. I’m not going to write a reflection post on 2017, apart from one article I’ll talk about later. Since I think that the picks for “my best moments of 2017” aren’t always what the people think what “my best moments of 2017” are. So, I’m asking you guys. What did you like the most about me and my blog in 2017? I’m curious about the answers already.

I got, even more, traffic to my blog this year when I compare it to 2016. But, I’m inching closer to beating my biggest traffic record so far. I got 13,000 views in 2015. This year, so far, I got 12,000 views. So, what am I planning to get the previous record broken; well, here are my plans for the remainder of 2017.

What can you expect from me?

If you aren’t following me on Twitter, @NekoJonez, then this is going to be news for you. If you are following me, some of these things might be familiar to you.

First of all, I’m going to write an article about my favorite 10 games I played in 2017. Remember, these are the games I played in 2017 and not perse the games that were released in 2017. The only big rule I have on my list is that I have to start playing the game in 2017. If I started to play the game in 2016, the game isn’t going to get on my list.

Unlike the previous times, I wrote this article, I’m currently thinking about making them one article instead of a two-parter. Believe me, I had a difficult time putting this list together. Since I played so many great games, I honestly lost count.

Apart from that, I have 6 requests planned for December 2017. What do I mean by this? Well, as some of you know, I do take requests from developers to test out their game and write an article about it.

There are also a few games I wanted to talk about before the year ends. Those are another 6 on my list.

In addition to the usual two articles at the end of the year, I think I can say that if everything goes right, I might be able to publish an article each and every day. Apart from when there are delays.

But wait, there is more! I’m doing a collaboration with LaterLevels for Christmas. In this collab, I will also publish an article daily starting from the 19th of December.

Yes, this means that you will get a double article each and every day of December apart from the 25th and the 26th where it will be only one article. Thank the lord that I have two weeks off from work otherwise I might not be able to pull this off.

If anything changes or when I get too busy in my personal life, I’ll post a tweet for sure. So, if you don’t see the articles appear on a day, check my twitter, I’ll say why I wasn’t able too.

That said, December will be quite busy and get a lot of content on my blog. But, what will have 2018 in store? Let me tell you.

Looking forward to 2018

In 2018, I’ll start a project where I “clean up my blog”. And what I do mean with this? First of all, from time to time, I’ll clean up broken images & links from my articles. In addition to that, I’ll take out typo’s in older articles too.

Secondly, I’m planning to merge a few of my categories and archiving categories I’m not going to use anymore. Like articles, I don’t enjoy writing anymore. This means that my overview pages will get an overhaul as well.

This will happen during my usual weekly article schedule. Speaking about that, it’s possible that I publish more press kits in 2018. Articles that I haven’t written myself have the word publishing in the title. I’ll try and do my best that these articles will never replace the article I write at the end of every week.

Besides that, I’m planning to do more collabs in 2018. I’ll always tweet out when a collab on another blog happens, so that will be another reason why you should follow me on Twitter. In addition to that, I’ll be working on an overview page where all content is displayed I wrote on other blogs.

I have a few special things planned for my blog and my personal life in 2018; so I can’t wait to talk about them. Buuuuut; I don’t want to reveal too much, so stay tuned for my update articles and my Twitter for that.

It’s possible that I take a week or two off from writing in the first week(s) of January since December is going to be so hectic.

Wrapping up

Thank you so much for visiting my blog in 2017. I hope you had a great time here and I can’t thank you and my other blogger friends enough for the support and experiences you all gave me in 2017.

I know it’s quite cliché to talk about this, but the recent growth I got and all the interaction with you guys is the reason why I keep doing this and I enjoy it an awful lot. If you ever have an idea/suggestion for my blog, just talk to me. I open to suggestions.

This article is going on for long enough. Thank you so much for reading and I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog. Have a great rest of your day and until then, take care!

(Oh, and before I forget; HAPPY HOLIDAYS!)

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First Impression: Golden Sun – Dark Dawn (DS) ~Sunny Weather

Wikipedia entry

It’s time that I talk about a Golden Sun game. I have been putting this off for way too long. After I listed it in my favorite DS games ever made, I never talked about it. Apart from some music tracks here and there. It’s time to correct that. This week we are going to take a look at a game, I honestly thought I talked about before. In any case, the title and the box art here already gave it away.  It’s the 3rd game in the series, Golden Sun Dark Dawn. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on this game and/or the content of this article. 

(Note: to make this article more readable and understandable for everybody, I didn’t to use the lore of this game and used a generic term.)

Special powers

The story of this game takes place a few years after the original two games. The story starts out simple with two children getting into some trouble with a sort of magical hang glider. But rather quickly, this story changes into your typical “save the world from doom” story.

While the story is your typical RPG story, it’s the journey and the writing that makes it memorable in my eyes. Each main character and side character has his or her own personality.

But what I really like about the story is how all the lore is explained in a non-intrusive way.  As you may have guessed, this game is a JRPG and because it’s the 3rd game in the series, there is a lot of lore.

But instead of the characters explaining the lore in some dialogue or some boring exposition dump, it gets underlined. When you tap that word, you get an explanation on the top screen to get you up to speed. Also, all those words go in your encyclopedia so you read them at your own pace. This is something that all other RPG’s should do! That way, there can be more focus on the story instead of explaining everything so newcomers can enjoy the game. This mechanic can also serve as a nice reminder for hardcore fans when he or she has forgotten the meaning of a word.

Fighting like on the GBA

The gameplay, in general, hasn’t changed a lot compared to the GBA games. But in this game, some mechanics are tweaked for the newer hardware.

First of all, I want to talk about the exploration part of the game. The world this game takes place in is huge. I love exploring in this world. Since each town has it’s own unique feel to it.

The puzzles in this game are amazing in my opinion. The puzzles use the special powers you have in creative ways. I had to think outside of the box sometimes. And when you are stuck, one character gets a special power which allows you to see what objects you can interact with and which powers you should use.

Secondly, the battles are quite interesting as well. Since you have three possible attacks. You can fight with your weapons, use your magic and/or Djinn. Djinns are special creatures you find all over the world.

The mechanic of Djinn is one of the most interesting things in this game. I love trying to find them in towns, dungeons and in the overworld. But after you found them, a rather tricky meta-game starts. Depending to who you equip which Djinn, you can make a character even stronger or even weaker. Not only that, which magic powers they can use will also change. This makes for an interesting balancing exercise to make sure you have the perfect build to advance the plot.

When you use Djinn, they go into, what I like to call, the summing pool. When you have enough Djinn of a certain type, you can summon a more powerful creature. But beware, when a Djinn is in the summoning pool, the character it’s attached too, will lose its perks.

If this sounds interesting to you, this page on the Golden Sun wiki will explain it in more depth.

This world is golden

The presentation and design of this game are top notch. While some animations take a little bit too long, I have no other complaint.

The world looks colorful and really pops out. The visual presentation in this game is one of the best I have seen on the system.

There is one issue I have with the design. And that’s that the menu system can sometimes be very annoying. It’s difficult to explain, but I felt that could have been done a lot better with more traditional menus. An example is the inventory system. It’s quite messy in my opinion. When you are looking for example for some herbs and you forgot to which character you have given them too. But it’s something I got used to.

The music and sound design of this game are excellent. The sound design gives this game the right charm it deserves. And the music, well, I have the soundtrack in my music library and I play a track here and there. It’s a very nice soundtrack.

The controls are great as well. Since you can use both buttons and the stylus. So you can choose and use the playstyle you prefer.

This game isn’t easy but isn’t difficult. But, I will give my final verdict on that when I finish the game. Since I know that there is another DS game that is rather easy but the final boss is extremely hard.

Something that could have been improved in this game is the frame rate. In some parts of the game, I saw some great frame rate drops. It mostly happens when there is way too much happening on screen at once. But it doesn’t happen very often thankfully.

Something I have to mention is that I had this game crash on me twice at the same spot. In the first cave you visit, I had this game crash on me. It was a great lesson in saving this game often. Also, thumbs up for having three save slots. Really helps!

In any case, I think I said everything I wanted to say about this game for now. When I beat this game, I might write a review. I hope you enjoyed reading this first impression as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to welcome you at another article on my blog, have a great rest of your day and until then: take care and game on!