New in: POP UP PARADE Bernadetta von Varley

Today, my first POP UP PARADE figurine arrived. Bernadetta von Varley is one of my favorite characters from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which is not only my favorite Fire Emblem game, but my second favorite game of all-time (right after Persona 5).

POP UP PARADE is Good Smile Company’s brand of affordable figures. This one in particular has a list price of 49,90 €. Since I reserved it and redeemed it early on, I got a discount of 5 €. Despite the low price, POP UP PARADE figures still have very high quality and are a good option for low budget collections, in my opinion.

I got this figurine from Figuya instead of Good Smile directly. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I am going to buy from Figuya almost exclusively going forward. Receiving orders from a trusted reseller like them who is based in the same country as me is much easier and I won’t have to bother with international shipping and customs fees anymore.

This actually wouldn’t have been my first Fire Emblem figure. I recently had a problem receiving my Byleth figurine from Good Smile as there were problems with the shipping. The figurine actually ended up being sent back to Japan, which means I will have to contact Good Smile’s support to see what they can do about it. I was really looking forward to receiving that figurine and posting about it, because it looks really cool. If it gets here, I will of course post an update.

New in: Fire Emblem Engage, Corrin Amiibo (Female), Sephiroth Amiibo

I actually picked these up in January but forgot to post about it, lol

I bought Fire Emblem Engage at the store a day after release. Originally, I wanted to pick it up on release day but that day didn’t quite work out for me. If I’m honest, I haven’t really played much of it yet…

The Corrin amiibo was a very lucky pick-up for me. This has notoriously been one of the hardest amiibo to pick up and may easily cost you upwards of 100€. Luckily, I found an online store that had stocked up on some of the older Fire Emblem amiibo for the release of Fire Emblem Engage and I ordered it immediately for a very good price.

The Sephiroth Amiibo was pre-ordered and got to me on release day, as well.

New in: NieR: Automata, Final Fantasy XIII, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster and Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz! (DE)

I’ve had most of these lying around for a few weeks now. NieR: Automata was a birthday gift at the end of October and I got Xenoblade 3 a little bit before that.

Final Fantasy XIII was an eBay purchase, as this copy which looks like it’s new and contains the manual only cost me 6 euros. I know most people don’t like this game, but still, that really surprised me. I got Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster from Amazon on the same day.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz was an impulse purchase today. I went to the store to get Persona 5 Royal on Nintendo Switch originally, but then I saw this on the shelf and it was the last copy. I haven’t finished watching 2wei Herz yet, which is the second cour of the second season, so this was a good reminder for me to do that.

New in: Splatoon 3, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes and Metroid Other M

Fire Emblem was an impulse buy this week, since I have wanted to get it since it was announced. So was Metroid, actually. I have been wanting to add it to my Wii collection for a while and found a good price on eBay.

Splatoon, however, was pre-ordered for a while. I’ve been looking forward to this game for a long time. Recently, I took part in the Splatfest World Premiere for Team Rock and had a blast. I’m glad to finally be able to hold this game in my hands.

I pre-ordered Splatoon 3 online, hoping to be lucky and get the game a day earlier, like a lot of other people. The package was dropped off today (release day) at around 2:30 PM. Actually the tracking suggested it may even be delayed by one day. Next time, I will just go to the store and pick the game up myself.

The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Delay

Nintendo just announced a delay for the launch window of The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The game is now expected to release in Spring of 2023 after previously being announced to release in 2022.

I am not at all surprised by this to be honest. Back at E3 2021 when the release window of 2022 was announced I confidently said that I believe there will be a delay. Nintendo’s 2022 is already pretty packed and we still know next to nothing about this game so it was hard for me to believe they would really make a 2022 release date.

Regardless I am still excited for the game. It is very rare for me to complain about a delay since I will always prefer a polished experience over a rushed game.

I will never accept digital video games

So the 3DS and Wii U Nintendo eShops are shutting down and of course I’m mad about it, and not just because I only bought a Wii U last year.

I was sort-of ok with the Wii Shop Channel shutting down in 2019 because most of the big titles of interest were available on other platforms, especially the Wii U Nintendo eShop. A lot of WiiWare titles are pretty much lost now which really stinks, though.

The Wii U and 3DS are pretty much the prime method for playing classic Nintendo games. I have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription but only because I want to play games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate online, not because of the NES games on the service. Plus, I will never cave and buy the Expansion Pack for N64 games, but that’s a different story. I prefer buying the game I want and just having it over the monthly or annual subscription. On top of that, NSO is missing a huge number of games which are more accessible on Wii U and 3DS so they really are the platform you want to go with for older titles.

There’s also digital-only content which will soon be lost. Just today I remembered Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation which was the digital-only DLC/third route for Fire Emblem Fates on Nintendo 3DS. That’s something else that will soon be gone. In 2020 I was considering picking up the Fire Emblem Fates Special Edition on eBay for around 150 euros and I kind of regret not doing it now. (If you don’t know: There was a Special Edition released for Fire Emblem Fates which had all the routes on one cartridge and I assume it is going to absolutely explode in price very soon.)

It seems like every time Nintendo does something right they have to ruin it for me. We got an absolute amazing Nintendo Direct earlier this month with a ton of big JRPG announcements and now they’re killing the 3DS and Wii U eShops way too early. Is it because maintenance cost is not profitable or is it because they’re trying to push NSO? I don’t know. What I do know is that the number of hacked 3DS and Wii U units out there is probably rising right now.

I hope Nintendo ports Xenoblade Chronicles X, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD to Nintendo Switch this year since these are the only major titles not on Nintendo Switch. Either way this situation is kind of forcing me to go through the eShop and pick up anything I might want before I can never get it again. Maybe this was also part of the reason Nintendo did it? Scaring people into buying your products might not be the best business practice …

This entire situation once again confirms to me that digital-only games are not a replacement to physical games and, at least to me, they never will be. I am ok with having a few games digitally but around 90% of my collection will always be physical.