I played another short indie game from itchio. Yurei Station (by Atelier Sento). Horror themed, about half an hour long.

Legend of Mana (XSX Game Pass)

This is the first Mana game I've ever played. I had a choice of two of the series on Xbox Game Pass, Legend or the remake of Trials. Both are highly rated; I went with Legend first because it is the more traditional old-school game of the two options.

It's a really good game, I may even say that this could be my favorite Japanese action RPG- as opposed to turn based ones. Too many action JRPG's end up with frantic button mashing DMC style combat- like the modern Tales games and others. Legend of Mana is way slower and more deliberate...it actually reminds me more of Streets of Rage than anything- right down to be able to move around in the Y axis and only able to strike sideways in line with the enemies. I came to really like it- the only problem being that the first play through is rather easy if you are doing all the side quests and levelling up. The game has no difficulty levels until you get to NG+.

The game also looks really good. It is a soft remaster from a PS1 game. The painted backgrounds are reproduced to widescreen and the music is rearranged (you can select the original style as well). The remaster also has some quality-of-life improvements like saving anytime rather than only at the save statues.

Of course it can't all be rosy. The game is sometimes criticized for the story being disjointed and very nonlinear. It's a bit like the Octopath Traveler in the way that the main story threads revolve around side characters. The game was originally developed by Square's SaGa team and the multiple character story paths is their style. I actually liked the nonlinear style, but story is not a high priority to me anyway. What I did not like was some of the quests themselves...it was often very hard to know where you are meant to be going and who you're looking for- made worse by the maze-like maps. Often, I just progressed by stumbling randomly upon someone and realizing that's who I was looking for. The vast majority of quests are optional, as long as you find your way through the three main quest chains then you're good.

If the rest of the Mana series is near as good as this one, then I look forward to them. Trials of Mana remake is on Game Pass, so I should get to it soon. Another thing worth mentioning, is that I completed 76 out of Legend's 78 quests and the game took me 31 hours, apparently the series is mostly around that length instead of the usual JRPG 60-100 hour length.

The overworld map is made by the player. You get artifacts from completing quests and then plant the artifacts on the map to "grow" the dungeons and towns that you then go to for more quests. So, if you play the game and do the same quests as me you will end up with the exact same locations on your map, but you could plant them in all different parts of the map. I read somewhere, that the distance you plant the dungeons from your home, the more difficult the enemies for that dungeon- of course the longer the game goes the further from home the dungeons get as you run out of locations close to home. The game is still pretty easy anyway.

Limbo (Steam)

This is the third time I've finished it. First time was on Xbox 360. Then it was a free giveaway on Xbox One. At some point I bought a physical boxed version from EB for a couple of dollars on a clearance sale. The physical disc version has no DRM (doesn't even need the disc after install), but it also came with a Steam key as well as physical extras- like 3D glasses. To enable stereoscopic 3D in Limbo type shift+3+d

Playing this again after all these years makes me wonder how I beat this with no walkthrough on the 360 originally. It does get hard. It's trial and error, but the game never sets you back far after failing, so it's right back into to it to work out what you did wrong.