Today it’s the day that we celebrate our freedom in the Netherlands. Freedom after World War II, on this day my entire country was free from Nazi oppression. Somehow this year it sounds even more meaningful. On a whole different level, it also means that April is over, and that it’s time to choose my Game of the Month.
It was an ‘in-between’ month as far as games where concerned. Nothing new was released that caught my interest. A lot of my fellow gamers are still heavily into Breath of the Wild, and I haven’t even been able to score a Switch! I did order one though, made a down payment too. Now there’s nothing left to do but wait for my console to arrive. Whenever that may be! I did read however that Nintendo decides to fly the new stock over, instead of shipping it like they normally do.
Game of the Month: Atelier Firis and the Mysterious Journey
No doubt about it, that is my game of the month. I got the game around the same time as Story of Seasons. Although I played both games at the beginning I was knocked out of this one pretty soon. You see, Atelier Firis is quite different from Atelier Sofie. Most people will say Firis is better, but at the beginning I hit a snag.
The adventure is ‘open world’ which means that the game isn’t as linear as the other Atelier games were. Which is fine, nothing better then a vast canvas to paint on. But the thing is, you have to meet the challenge to really become a full-fledged alchemist before the year is over. And there’s no help for you should you fail, then it’s game over.
In the past few weeks I braved it though, after other players assured me that the pressure wasn’t very real, enough time to do all the challenges. And I am very glad I did, what a great game this is! Look forward to my review soon.
Mobile gaming fun
Aside from making progress in Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns and Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, I did some mobile gaming this month. I revisited Dragon Vale and found time had stood still in the years since I last checked into the game. They’ve added nice new features, and as my daughter is playing too it’s always more fun. Wrote an article too about how mobile games can be real time capsules.
I played the first chapter of Star Billions, which is available for free on mobile to see if the space adventure was a good one. Fun game to play, with a real cliff hanger at the end. Never before have I played a game that doesn’t need your constant attention. I wrote about the game here.
That’s it for this month.
Looking back in time, these are the April Games that I chose in the past years:
2015: Story of Seasons. The first Harvest Moon game that got another name. You can read more of my thoughts on that game here.
2016: Hyperdimension Neptunia re: Birth 2, Sisters Generation. A strange game, at the time I chose it because the other games I played in April 2016 had already featured as game of the month.
So tell me, what was your preferred game this month? Still enjoying Zelda: Breath of the Wild, like many other gamers? Did you pick up the Switch version of Mario Kart 8? Or are you playing a different game altogether?
This month, I have been playing a bit of Deemo again, as it got an update! I’m planning on getting the update soon.
Ah, a rhythm game, nice! I’d never heard of this Vita title before. Not strange considering my relationship with rhythm games, lol.
Ooh, I’m definitely interested in Atelier Firis, now that I’m familiar with the series thanks to Sophie. Firis looks better, being open-world. I’m not so sure about the time limit, but I’ve heard it was okay too. Look forward to your review! And yes, I’m playing Mario Kart 8 and Puyo Puyo Tetris, both for Switch! 🙂
The open world I see quite nice. And the challenge I should alright, I’m feeling confident that I’ll make it easily now.
Puyo Puyo, that’s a title I already know from Japanese 3DS games!
Yes! Puyo Puyo was one of my first puzzle games after Tetris, when I played Kirby’s Avalanche on the Super Nintendo!
I want to play Puyo Puyo Tetris. Sadly none of my local stores have it in stock and you can’t buy it digitally on PS4 🙁
Glad to hear that Atelier Firis won you over in the end. It would be nice if future games gave players the option to disable the date deadline. Just like Fire Emblem and perma-death, I get the feeling that many players who would otherwise like Atelier avoid the series due to the time management.
Your comments that the deadline was very do-able was one that won me over! I’m currently in Flussheim trying to sort out all the assignments there!