Hydro Thunder Hurricane: 100,000 Credits

 Finally made it, had to grind out the last 15,000.... But, hey, I got them! :)

Majin, my big fat friend...

I've got a few more achievements - 'Kill 100 enemies', 'Hit an enemy's shield 100 times' and another one where you have to become possessed 10 times. The game is still as fun. :)

Thunderrrrrrr! My big fat dumb buddy can now throw thunder onto people. Not bad ^^

The bit just after you obtain the thunder ability is really, really tedious and boring. It's not hard once you figure out what to do, and you feel like it's the same puzzle five times in a row... Boring. 

I have also beaten B'alam. It was a pretty good fight -albeit not as good as Caprakan's. Total GamerScore for the game is now 170G. :)

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, Day 1

Started it today, am 1h30 in. A few thoughts...

1. It looks pretty good. The soundtrack is good. The plot seems ok-ish so far.  Kinda funny how you can talk to animals.

2. It handles pretty well. You can set the camera up so it moves faster. That's great. Tepeu runs too slowly though... Things seem pretty tedious.

3. It's hard! Bloody hell. The puzzles are really hard. I've gotten stuck three or four times so far. The puzzles have complicated solutions, but the vast majority of them are based on the cooperation between Teotl and Tepeu.

Will try to play some more tonight.

[Edit 23:25]

I have now played a total of 2h45. The game is actually really good! So much fun once you understand how to work things. I finally figured out how best to kill enemies (sneak up behind them or hit them until you can do a critical attack) and how to work Teotl's abilities. Speaking of abilities, he's now able to blow wind onto things. Pretty useful :p And I've just beaten Caprakan, that fight was so much fun! Makes great use of the abilities and I like the cooperation between the two buddies. This game is really refreshing, really different to anything else I've seen lately! Loving it at the moment. Looking forward to tomorrow :)

Oh and I'm on 80G so far. Got 50G for progressing through the story and 30G for 3 retarded achievements like 'Have the Majin revive you three times', 'Talk to the Majin 100 times' and 'Give the Majin 500 orders'. The first one requires you to put the controller down and let yourself be killed then revived three times in a row, and the other two are basically button-mashing. Great.

NieR Replicant, Day 3

15:53

Gamed just under 2 hours so far today, and I've got the key from Facade and the one from The Aerie. I've done the first half of the Junk Heap (where you have to find a certain material, can't remember what it's called in the English version), that was a damn right pain. Second half now, then Shadowlord's Castle! Making good progress, thrilled :)

The feelings I felt last summer (when playing Gestalt) are starting to come back. Intense emotion, sorrow, pain, laughter, excitement.... Nier truly is a great game, one of the most meaningful and powerful plots I have ever seen. Cannot wait to get onto Ending B, where the shades can talk ... Even more moving.
Got the trophy for a 100-hit combo during the massive battle in The Aerie too.

16:22

Just got into Shadowlord's Castle. Looking forward to the final battle.

18:19

After a long tea-break, now about to go into the final battle. 

18:50

Beaten the bastard. 

18:55

Heartbeaking question... 

19:13

Done! And got the Lightspeed Fighter trophy too :)

NieR truly is a great game. Great characters, great plot, incredible soundtrack, pretty good graphics... What more could you want? :)
Replicant isn't that much better than Gestalt. To be honest, it's not better at all. I might even prefer Gestalt... More credible; for example, at the very end, when Nier and Yonah are reunited, the 'father-daughter hug' is FAR MORE believable and less awkward than the 'brother-sister hug'. In Replicant, Nier's anger against Shadowlord seems stupid; in Gestalt, we genuinely sympathized with him, 'look what he did to your daughter!'.
To sum things up quickly, they are both great games (If I had to rate them, they'd both get 18/20), but Gestalt is slightly better than Replicant.

NieR Replicant, Day 2

I'm now 8 hours in, just rescued Kainé. I've therefore got those story-related trophies:

4 down, 2 to go! :)

The game is getting more and more powerful. The young Nier does grow up in the way he behaves and thinks, and that makes Replicant feel more like Gestalt. Great news!

Might try to get another hour done tonight, and then I might be able to finish it tomorrow. :D

[Edit 21:40]
Yup, got another 45 minutes done (I could play some more I guess, but can't really be bothered - pretty tired as it is, I'd rather get up early-ish tomorrow than stay up late tonight). So yeah, these three quarters of an hour were pretty productive, got 2 of the 5 key fragments. :) I now reckon I'll definitely be able to wrap it up tomorrow, only about 3 hours to go now. :) [And if I game A LOT, I should be able to get Ending B done too]

Bought NieR Replicant!

Yep, I've finally managed to find it. I started it today, I'm now 5 hours in - just got Kainé. Incredible game, it feels great to go back to that great world. It's also really nice to listen to the OST again. 

Two things so far - 

1. The 'brother rescuing his sister' plot isn't as believable and powerful as the 'father rescuing his daughter' one; especially as the Nier from NieR Gestalt was a big lad and had a deep voice and everything. This Nier seems like a little too much of a child and that does make the game less powerful. Indeed, Nier doesn't feel as attached to Yonah and doesn't have the same relationship with her. That made the very strength of NieR Gestalt, and isn't there anymore in Replicant...

2. Slight disappointment - Kaine's swearing is bleeped out in speech and comes up as symbols in the transcript. Shame ^^