Friday Favorites: Three Houses Students

Kris P. Friday Favorites, Home, Kristen, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch , , , , , , ,

Double Jump Kris MiiHappy Friday everyone!

The Golden Deer are my children. I will admit that I have yet to try out game files with the other houses since I am so invested in the Golden Deer and their stories. However, I love exploring the monastery during free days to talk to everyone, regardless of house. Excluding the house leaders — because Claude would probably win by a landslide, and I feel I cannot properly invest in Edelgard and Dimitri without playing their routes — here is a list of some of my favorite Three Houses students so far.

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Ashe

This kid is adorable. Despite him not starting off in my house, I got invested in his background and story due to one of the earlier chapters before the time-skip. He was the first student I invited to join me on a mission and the first I recruited into Golden Deer after figuring out the logistics of it. His gentle and amusing supports with other students, like Marianne and Caspar, were fun to read and listen to, and I’m enjoying his perseverance despite his background.

Caspar

I just laugh out loud from this kid. His zeal for justice is admirable but the fact that he’s willing to throw down with whoever is in his way or causing trouble amuses the hell out of me. I loved his second support conversation with Hilda, him trying to avoid a fight before deciding, “Nope,” and diving in. That, and he’s a pretty decent unit if you train him enough.

Lysithea

Admittedly, at first I was a touch annoyed at how her attitude was always on the defensive side with everyone “treating her like a child.” However, reading some of her supports with other characters opened her up in ways I was not expecting, and I admire her tenacity for bettering herself with whatever time she has left in the world. She’s also a beast with her magic in battles!

Ignatz

Archers have always been some of my favorite units (hence, Claude and one of the main reasons why I picked Golden Deer) and Ignatz was such a shy deer dear that he soon became one of my favorites. His hobby of art and his friendship with the others in Golden Deer make me feel warm and fuzzy, and I’m proud of how more confident he is after the time-skip. He’s also a kick-ass assassin in my army.

Who are some of your favorite students from Fire Emblem: Three Houses? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.

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Pokemon Rumble Rush [Mobile Game Review]

Rachel Game Reviews, Home, mobile games, Pokemon, Rachel , , , , ,

Rachel Mii | DoubleJump.comHappy Thursday!

Pokemon Rumble Rush is part of the Pokemon Rumble series. It came out for mobile in May 2019 and I was super excited for it – before promptly forgetting it existed… better late than never, right?

Mobile Game Review: Pokemon Rumble Rush | Mobile Games | Video Games | Pokemon | Pokemon Rumble Series | DoublexJump.com

I have played and enjoyed all the Pokemon Rumble games in the series. I’ve always wanted a new one to come out and Pokemon Rumble Rush didn’t disappoint. However, with it being a mobile game, the gameplay is limited. Sure, they’re toy Pokemon traveling the world so the gameplay was limited anyway, but this time around, all you have to do is tap the screen. Actually, after a certain point early on in the game, the Pokemon will go on auto so you don’t even have to do anything in the levels if you get distracted with something else.

The main point of the game is to collect research on Pokemon. In order to do that, you need to catch as many Pokemon as you can and explore new areas. Each area is short as your Pokemon massacres a bunch of other Pokemon – catching them if they drop randomly – and defeating the super boss at the end. The super boss is, of course, the boss of the level. He’s huge and his CP can be high making it difficult to defeat. This is why you need a Pokemon with a high CP and it helps to have the type advantage.

Super bosses will sometimes drop ores. There are three kinds of ores – ore, unusual, and rare. Each one takes time to refine, as it is a mobile game. You have to wait 30 minutes, 3 hours, or a whopping 10 hours. However, when it’s all done, you can get a tone of gear which upgrades your Pokemon’s CP level and more. You can’t really go through the game without utilizing these ores. The downside is that you can only hold six at a time. This can get annoying if you’re getting a lot of ore but you’re still waiting for the rare ore to refine in 10 hours.

There’s a decent amount to do in the game. Aside from exploring new areas with your guided feathers and catching Pokemon, defeating super bosses, you can click on hot air balloons which are other players. They’re partner Pokemon will join you for the level while you fight the super boss. In addition, there’s a coin rush challenge that you can try once a day. You have to defeat three super bosses in one minute and… it’s not as easy as it seems.

The game “resets,” if you will, every two weeks where you’re in a certain area with a long line of super bosses leading up the main Pokemon of the event. At the time of writing this review, it’s Jirachi. In other words, you have two weeks to catch Jirachi. If you don’t, it’s onto the next area when the two weeks are up.

Whenever you move onto a new place, you keep all the Pokemon you’ve caught, but you can’t use them. You’re given one Pokemon for the new area and you have to start from scratch to build your team again. However, you keep all the gears you’ve collected.

Needless to say, the game can get pretty repetitive, but I love collecting them all so I’ve been playing a lot. There is a shop where you can buy more refine space or diamonds (to speed the refine process up) but, of course, microtransactions are dumb. So, yeah. Not doing that.

Pokemon Rumble Rush gets a rating of…

PLAY IT | Download It | Delete It

Overall, Pokemon Rumble Rush is a fun game. It changes every two weeks, though the gameplay itself is the same and gets repetitive after a while. But it’s still Pokemon and I enjoy it. The music is the same as the original Pokemon Rumble game and the graphics are cute and charming. This is definitely one to try if you’re a Pokemon fan or if you’ve enjoyed other Pokemon Rumble games in the past.

Have you played Pokemon Rumble Rush yet? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below! If you like this post, please share it around.

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Main Menus In Games

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Main Menus In Games | Opening Sequences | Gaming | Video Games | DoublexJump.com

krismii
Who’s still playing Super Mario Maker 2? We are going back and forth with it, still enjoying everything the game has to offer. We’re particularly amused and impressed at the main menu screen turning into a level itself. It’s always fun to see if we’re able to complete the main menu level as a warm-up to whatever levels we’re going to try during the game session.

rachmii
We have actually spent a decent amount of time on the main menu of the game. We tend to try to beat the level just to see what would happen if we did. Of course, there was a time we purposefully made Mario die just to see what would happen as well. I enjoy the fact that, each time you turn on the game, the main menu is a new level to try out.

krismii
I’m curious if the main menu levels are actually levels that were created by other Super Mario Maker users or if they’re all extra Nintendo levels and, perhaps, will eventually start to recycle? It was definitely a unique way to usher in the main menu, when most games nowadays have movie trailers. Legend of Zelda’s Skyward Sword had plenty of game footage to go with the theme, and Fire Emblem’s Three Houses has a lyrical theme accompanying the cut scene montage.

rachmii
I assume they’re Nintendo levels. There would be no levels made by other users when people first turned on the game when it came out. I do agree though – I wonder how many levels will cycle through. I did always enjoy Skyward Sword’s main menu, or the beginning of it. The first time we turned on the game, we were amazed at how “movie trailer” it was.

krismii
I assume the same, but I wonder if they eventually would cycle in some of the more popular user-made levels into the main menu. I do remember how much we loved Skyward Sword’s main menu theme. It was a stark contrast to Breath of the Wild’s main menu… Which was gorgeous, but really just still pictures of Link in various poses and places. What kind of main menu do you prefer? A nice theme song? The interactive menus? Or maybe just getting right to the game?

Rachel Mii Double Jump
I like the main menus similar to Skyward Sword. I mean, the menu itself was bland, but the opening song and sequence really hyped you up to play the game. It made the game seem so much more than just a game. What about you, which would you prefer?

krismii
I agree with you. I adore full-out theme songs. Give me an orchestrated piece and I’ll be thrilled, haha! It’s one reason why I’ve been listening to a cover of Three Houses’s theme song often. I would love that soundtrack! Still, the interactive Super Mario Maker 2 level is pretty fun.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
The interactive menus are definitely a close second for me. It’s fun to get a taste of the game or just warm up with it for a few minutes. But the music and sequence amps me up to play. I listen to the Skyward Sword theme song in my car all the time.

What kind of main menus do you prefer for your video games? Let us know about them in the comments below! If you like this post, please share it around.

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Bananagrams [Game Review]

Kris P. Board Games, Home, Kris & Rachel , , , , ,

Bananagrams | Board Game | Gaming | Doublexjump.com

krismii
When we went on vacation with the family at the end of July, we knew board games were going to be a way to bond and pass the time with everyone else. At one point during the week, one of our cousins bought Bananagrams, a fun little game that has no board. Instead, it’s a little banana-shaped pouch filled with letter tiles reminiscent of Scrabble.

rachmii
We used to have this game though I think we got rid of it when we went through all our old board games a long time ago. We were at the bookstore and, for some reason, Bananagrams was on a shelf. Our cousin grabbed it and it was the main game of the week. Our go-to games have always been Monopoly, Code Names, and Headbanz, but Bananagrams was the family favorite this year.

krismii
If you haven’t played Bananagrams before, it’s a quick-thinking game where one needs to create words intertwined together like on a personal Scrabble board using all of their letter tiles. All of the letter tiles start face-down in a pile in the middle of all the players. Depending on the number of players, everyone would start off with 15 to 21 tiles, only flipping the tiles over to start creating words when the game begins when someone says, “Split!”

rachmii
If you can’t fit a letter into your board, you can exchange that one letter for three in the middle of the pile. If you manage to fit all the letters you can say, “peel” and everyone, including yourself, will have to take one letter from the pile. Once there aren’t enough letters left in the middle for everyone to “peel,” then you can say, “bananas” and claim your win.

krismii
I don’t know why everything is banana-themed — who decided bananas were the best theme for this word game? — but it was still a great time all around. We managed to get everyone in the household playing a couple of games at least, and I cannot decide whether it was easier to create words by starting out with more letters or fewer.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
Bananas is a fun word to say and the pouch is easy enough. Not to mention there’s also a game called Apples to Apples, so they couldn’t do that. I would love to try to play the game with double the letters. I believe there is a deluxe version, if you will, that doubles the letters so you can play with more people and have longer games. There was, at one point, when we split all the letters up. There were four of us playing and we each got 36 letters with none left over and we played like that without swapping tiles out at all. Whoever used all their letters first, won. Which is another nice thing about the game is that it’s your personal board so if there’s a letter that you need to fit and can’t, you can rearrange the other words to make it fit.

krismii
Having twice the letters would definitely be more interesting and chaotic. We were amazed at some of the words that the rest of our family came up with, too. Being the writers and bigger readers of the family, Rachel and I thought we would do pretty well conjuring up words, but some of the words that our cousins came up with — dandelion, homicide, bigger words than we usually came up with — were great to see.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
Oh, please. I played the game and instantly forgot words existed, tried to make up words, and forgot the concept of spelling. Most of my words – it, them, dog, happy – were short and sweet. I did come up with a couple of good words here and there, though every game was different. I’d love to play again and try to do themed words. Like words related to video games or something. That’d be difficult, but a lot of fun.

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Debate: Cool, Cool Mountain Vs. Big Boo’s Haunt

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Debate: Cool, Cool Mountain Vs. Big Boo's Haunt | Super Mario 64 Levels | Video Games | Gaming | Nintendo | DoublexJump.com

krismii
It’s been a little while since our last debate, and this topic came about when we were discussing our favorite levels from the classic Super Mario 64. We’re pitting our favorite levels against each other, with Rachel voting for Big Boo’s Haunt and me championing Cool, Cool Mountain.

rachmii
We both have our likes and dislikes when it comes to certain levels in Super Mario 64, but most of the levels are pretty well done. The game, as a whole, is a lot of fun. Though there are definitely some levels that are better than others.

krismii
Cool, Cool Mountain is one of my favorites, with the aesthetic being one of the reasons. I’ve always enjoyed ice levels, finding them to be pretty — you all are welcome for me restraining myself from making a “cool” pun — usually with the challenge of having your character slipping around everywhere. The level is bright with fun touches, like pine trees, ice slides, and snowmen.

rachmii
Cool, Cool Mountain is aesthetically pleasing, I’ll admit. Though I could say the same for Big Boo’s Haunt. Being a haunted house, it’s dark and mysterious and has creepy music to boot. The ghosts, during certain stars, will try to spook you throughout to get you to go away. It’s charming in its own right and there are puzzles within the level as well. You can’t get certain stars without getting the first few either.

krismii
While Big Boo’s Haunts needs to be dark for the theme, I suppose, I definitely prefer the brighter snow of Cool, Cool Mountain. The stars are mostly varied in the snow level — from ice slides to finding lost penguins to finding the snowman’s head to the wall jump challenge — while I feel the majority of Big Boo’s Haunts stars involve punching ghosts. Which, being ghosts, shouldn’t be a thing.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
The stars in Big Boo’s Haunt are repetitive, I agree. However, the level itself is a puzzle. You need to get a certain star to make the stairs appear in order to get up to the second floor. You need to use the vanishing cap a few times. There’s the bookcase that you need to hit the books in a certain order and more. There’s a lot to explore in the level too. While not all of it is used, you can go to the back of the mansion and just see how big and worldly it is.

krismii
Alright, so Big Boo’s Haunt is more like one giant puzzle, with some stars piggybacking off of others, which is interesting in itself. Cool, Cool Mountain, though, is one big playground, its world just as big — if not bigger — than Big Boo’s Haunt. Cool, Cool Mountain’s overworld, if you will, is more fun to explore while Big Boo’s Haunt just has the exterior of the mansion. Cool, Cool Mountain’s only subworld is the giant ice slide, but it ties in with the rest of the exterior very well, being a natural tether between the top of the mountain and the base with the penguins.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
True, true, but it’s also really easy to slip or dive off the edge and lose a life. Then you have to start all over. Big Boo’s Haunt has various areas – outside, the basement, the house itself, and the roof – and there’s no way of falling off the level… of course, unless you accidentally swan dive off the roof. Then Mario would be a pancake.

krismii
…Can Mario die from falling off the roof of Big Boo’s Haunt? I don’t think I’ve ever thought of that. With that said, that’s one of the challenges of Cool, Cool Mountain and goes right along with the ice and snow. Yes, there’s a danger to falling off of the edge, but it makes you play that much more carefully — or recklessly, whatever fits your style — in order to beat the world. The worst Big Boo’s Haunt has is that a ghost runs into you, but they tend to give you plenty of coins for your health in return to you punching them.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
I have no idea if Mario can die from falling off the roof, but he can lose quite a bit of health if he falls from high spaces. I don’t think it’s bad that the ghosts give you lots of coins. In fact, I think they were foreshadowing Luigi’s Mansion and I was able to live in those glory days of a beaten, run-down mansion all to myself… plus ghosts. Ghosts always win. End of debate.

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Friday Favorites: FE Three Houses Details

Kris P. Friday Favorites, Home, Kristen, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch , , , , , ,

Double Jump Kris MiiHappy Friday everyone!

While I feel I could have found a better word than “details,” I felt as if this encompassed everything that I enjoy so far about Three Houses that didn’t fit into one box, so to speak. This is just a random list of things that I wish to gush over. Please note that, at the timing of this post, I’m only around chapter 12 so please no spoilers in the comments!

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The Gatekeeper

This guy is adorable. He’s almost always enthusiastic, tells me there’s nothing to report, then promptly reports something, even if it’s just his thoughts on the current events. Considering that there is fanart and fanfiction of this guy, I’m not the only one who enjoys his presence! I don’t know if this guy has a name, but he should. I would love nothing more than for the game to start reaching the end and then we finally find out this gatekeeper’s name. This amount of characterization this NPC has astounds me. With that said, I adore how other random NPCs always have thoughts and reactions to the current events, even the ones that just show a speech bubble over their heads.

Voice Acting

Something that Shadows of Valentia did right was the voice acting and I’m pleased that Three Houses had full voice acting as well. Even random NPCs that had something to say had their dialogue completely recorded by actors. The tones and voices helped bring all of the characters to life in a way that simple quips and partial voice-acting couldn’t.

Exploration

Exploring the monastery was something that I admittedly had some reservations about. I had believed that it would be too similar to the dungeon crawling parts of Shadows of Valentia, sections that I didn’t care for due to their similarities to one another and tedious battles. To me, Fire Emblem was all about strategic battles that moved the story forward. The Exploration option in Three Houses, however, is one of my favorites. There is plenty to see, activities to do, and it helps promote support among the characters outside of battles. Giving gifts, finding lost items (seriously, these teenagers and knights lose everything), and little quests all keep me running around like a headless chicken, and I’m greatly enjoying it.

Student Friendships

Support conversations were always something I enjoyed about Fire Emblem, mainly so I could force the characters to be friends and spouses with one another and to also find out more about their backstories. In Three Houses, your character joins after everyone else is already there, the opposite of most Fire Emblem games. It makes sense that the students know one another, some closer in friendship to others, rivalries here and there, and I love these details. Even in the dining together activity, I was delighted when I had two characters simply talking and reacting to each other due to their history, like Claude and Lorenz or Caspar and Ashe.

What are some of your (spoiler-free) favorite details about Fire Emblem: Three Houses? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.

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New Galar Research Has Been Shared

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Rachel Mii | DoubleJump.comHappy Thursday!

New Pokemon have been discovered in the Galar region and… I have to say, after the Alola region, I’m not all that surprised at what they showed.

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I’m only going to talk about the new Pokemon and not the people they announced mostly because I care more about the Pokemon than I do the people. I have more opinions on the Pokemon anyway.

New Pokemon

Morpeko

This may be the Pikachu-look-a-like for this region. It’s known as the two-sided Pokemon (though it’s a mouse, let’s be real) and it has two forms: Full Belly and Hangry. When Morpeko uses it’s energy and becomes hungry, it changes it’s colors and type from yellow-electric to purple-dark.

I think this is pretty cool and it will really add to the strategy of Pokemon battles since you’re working with two types, though not necessarily together. It reminded me of Wishiwashi from the Alola region, except WishiWashi’s type didn’t change at all. I’ll be curious to try out Morpeko on my team.

Galarian Forms

Okay. They did this for Alola. It confused me then and it confuses me now. I understand that the same Pokemon who live in different regions will change and adapt to the living conditions, but I’d prefer to have all brand-new Pokemon.

Weezing

Our Kanto friend, Weezing, has a new form and it reminded me of Exeggutor’s Alolan form with the long neck. Now Weezing seems to have a chimney on top its head resembling a top hat and what seems to look at like a mustache made out of smoke. I’m assuming they did this because of the response Exeggutor got. I’m not dissing the design at all, though it’s not something I would have chosen.

Weezing is now Poison/Fairy, which I feel like it should be Poison/Dark… I don’t know, I look at Weezng and see “pollution.” Also, Koffing wasn’t shown. I assume, as the pre-evolution of Weezing, Koffing will have a similar Galarian form, but who knows?

Zigagoon & Linoone

Two normal Pokemon from the Hoenn region are in the Galar region and they’re not just normal, but they’re also dark and look like they’ve been to one too many rock concerts. Like Weezing, I don’t mind the design, but I’ve always had a certain image of these two Pokemon in my head. Seeing the fangs and tongues hanging out, makes me question all that. These two just don’t seem like the same Pokemon I fell in love with while in the Hoenn region. I’ll still give them a try though, of course. Same with Weezing.

New Evolutions

I’ve been hoping to see some new evolutions of some Pokemon – namely Eevee. They announced one new evolution for Linoone, which is cool, but it’s only for the Galarian form.

Obstagoon

This looks like a cool Pokemon. Being Dark/Normal like its pre-evolutions, I think Obstgoon will be a force to be reckoned with. I’d love to see Obstagoon as though it was originally from the Hoenn region, mostly because I’m curious to see how different it would look.

Though, I understand why. The Pokedex states that due to survival and living conditions, Zigagoon and Linoone are having a life crisis, hence Obstgoon being born. Which makes me a bit sad because they have harsh living conditions while Weezing looks polluted… the Galar region looked so nice when they first showed it off.

Needless to say, I’m intrigued now more than ever.

What do you think of the new Pokemon? Are you still excited for Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield? Let us know about them in the comments below! If you like this post, please share it around.

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