Happy Tuesday

Hope you all are doing awesome today! It’s been busy in my life as of late, but I’ve been catching up on some anime lately that I missed seeing. They’ve been pretty good shows, and I wanted to share some thoughts on them here today!

At the end, I’ll also be chatting a bit about the next main game I plan on getting into!

Let’s jump in!

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What’s Been Going on in My World?

In my off time, I’ve been catching up on some anime!

I’ve been gradually building up some shows that I’ve been wanting to check out. A lot of recommendations I’ve seen have come from the Good Game Lobby Discord server by the incredible and others (definitely check that server out if you’re interested in an awesome community). The main ones I’ve watched or am in the process of watching are Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Delicious in Dungeon, and Spy x Family!

I’m fairly casual when it comes to anime over the years, but when I start watching some, I’ll end up getting super into it for a while. I think a lot of it started when I finished up Dragon Quest XI recently! Likewise, I just finished up both The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein on Amazon Prime, which I think propelled a desire to watch something new—especially anything fantasy related. I’m definitely open for any recommendations, so feel free to drop a comment below if you have any you think I might like—I’d appreciate it!

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Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Frieren has been a very fascinating show!

I finished up season one, and I loved so much about it. There’s been very few anime I’ve seen in the past that have brought out such a range of emotions while watching it.

To me, the most unique aspect about this show is the vast range of time it’s set in. I love how it explores Frieren’s perspective with her old party that defeated the Demon King through the memories she’ll flash back to. While some people might enjoy the idea of living for thousands of years like the Elves in this universe can, this story really puts a spotlight on a more somber side through exploring the emptiness that Frieren experiences from those she’s lost over time—especially Himmel the Hero. To me, it’s not so much the fear of death, but the fear of losing oneself to severe levels of loneliness or grief that this show highlights in its own unique ways.

Once Fern and Stark join, it feels as though Frieren has a new breath of life! I enjoy the character dynamics, though I do find Stark to be a bit annoying at times. His character just feels too awkward, though I can only assume that his arc will transform quite a lot in the future. Some of the side characters have been unique and I’ll be interested to see what happens to them down the road, such as Übel and Denken if they show up again.

I’ll be looking forward to continuing this series. I plan on getting back into it soon to finish up season 2!

Delicious in Dungeon

Delicious in Dungeon has been my favorite out of the three I’ve listed here!

I had no idea what to expect when I watched it, other than hearing a good recommendation about it from Sey, as well as others saying positive things about it. I went into it spoiler-free, and was so happy I did!

First off, the overall design and characters were the first thing to stand out to me. Even in the first couple of episodes, it was so easy to see how all of the characters stood out from one another. The humor between the characters was so fun, especially between Laios and Marcille! Marcille’s reactions and expressions were probably my favorite part of the show’s humor! The english voice acting was also really good, and I was surprised when I heard Emily Rudd (actress of Nami from Netflix’s One Piece) as the voice of Marcille. The visual design of the characters (and monsters!) were spectacular and super creative, all while feeling extremely unique with all of its world-building compared to other fantasy worlds.

I flipped through the digital version of the Delicious in Dungeon World Guide, and that has been super amazing. The creator seemed to really go into a lot of detail with the world, monsters, characters, and so much more! I’d definitely recommend checking that out.

The openings were incredible, and I really enjoyed the second one the best!

What I loved most about this specific series’ story is how much it caught me off guard through the season. I don’t want to go over any spoilers in case you haven’t watched it, but it was amazing how it could change from a mostly lighthearted show and switch over to intense horror-filled moments in a matter of minutes. It really made you feel for the characters, who were caught in this seemingly impossible mission as they work together throughout the show.

It was all amazing, and is a show I would definitely recommend! I enjoyed it so much that I’ve also just started up the manga too. I’m trying to figure out though if I start up in the manga where season 1 of the anime left off, or just restart it all. Regardless, I’m looking forward to reading more of it!

Spy x Family

I’m just about finished with season 1 of Spy x Family, and it has been a nice step back from the fantasy shows! I remember seeing this one get so much good feedback, and the awesome wrote about it last year in a monthly Nutshell write-up that really made me want to watch it!

Obviously, the humor stands out in this show. I love the way that Anya can read the thoughts of Loid and Yor to drive the plot forward, all while trying to help in her own way! The humor of both Loid and Yor hiding their own secret lives is often hilarious, especially with Yor when she tries to quickly come up with excuses for how powerful she is, or Loid when he has to figure out how to balance work with his new family.

The storyline itself is also very fun and engaging. I’ve never been interested in spy characters or plots too much in the past, but I love the lighthearted take on the genre this show has. It feels a bit slow at times in the first season, but that may just be from the setup is has. Henderson is a hilarious character to me, especially with the English dub when he demands Elegance!

It’s been a relaxing, fun watch that I’ve enjoyed! I’ll likely take a break after season 1 to look at another series to start on, but then come back to it!

Games I’ve Been Playing & What’s Next

Honestly, I’ve taken a bit of a break from gaming for the past week or so for the most part!

After finishing up Dragon Quest XI, I’ve been a bit burned out from playing too much. I did go back into that game to finish leveling up my characters to level 99 as I described in the last post I made on it, but I’ve completely finished it and have put it back on the shelf! In the future, I’ll be taking a look at the next Dragon Quest game to play, which will most likely be Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake!

For my next main game, there’s a title that I’ll be attempting to try again that revolves around a famous father and son that I’ve never been able to truly get into before: God of War (2018). I loved the old PS2 games in this series, but was never able to bring myself to like the new ones as much as I ever would’ve expected. A fellow Substacker and friend wrote up an amazing article in response to me questioning it, and I feel like it’s about time I give this game another shot!

If all goes well, I’ll be sure to give some thoughts on it in the future for its own write-up!

Besides that, I also need to finish up some of the Shantae games that I’m still gradually working through. One of the games I’ve put back on the shelf for now without finishing is Sea of Stars. It was a beautiful title with its graphics and design, but I just couldn’t get too much into the story. I might try again soon, but it’ll definitely be a bit!

Otherwise, I look forward to working on my next article that will be coming out on Thursday, the 23rd!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to chatting again soon!

See you all next time,
Joe

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Winding Back Time

Last time in Act 2 of Dragon Quest XI, the Hero and his party were split up across the world of Erdrea in an epic, explosive beginning of Mordegon’s rule over darkness! Not only had Mordegon stolen the powerful Sword of Light and corrupted it, but he destroyed the World Tree, Yggdrasil — the source of life and the representation of living things throughout the world — plunging the world into darkness that he reigned over as the Lord of Shadows!

Once the group was reunited through a series of personal growths, they sought to claim victory over Mordegon and restore the power of the World Tree. They had help along the way, including aid from the Mermaid Queen Marina in the underwater world of Nautica, a familiar knightly face that joined the party, old friends in the Hero’s childhood town, and the Calamus flute the Hero gained in Arboria — which summoned the huge, flying whale Cetacea!

However, the cost was high. You learn that the loud-mouthed Veronica sacrificed her life to save the party and many cities were left in ruin. Though the Hero’s party eventually destroyed Mordegon in the Fortress of Fear, they find that the scars of his horrific reign across the world were obvious. Entire cities destroyed and razed to the ground, towns turned into make-shift militia outposts, and lava-covered boulders covered the world.

Upon finding a glimmering object in some unique-looking ruins near Octagonia, the Hero took the flying whale to the skies and found The Tower of Lost Time — a tall structure that was home to the ethereal Timekeeper. She gave the Hero a choice to smash the Sword of Light against the Time’s Sphere, and take a risk of traveling back in time to stop Mordegon before he caused all the destruction, while possibly even save Veronica.

The Hero made the choice to do this, leaving his friends, companions, and grandfather behind.

When he woke up, the Hero was back in the mountainous town of Arboria, where he quickly reunited with Veronica and the others — destined to stop Mordegon from ever getting his hands on the Sword of Light in the first place!

For today, I’ll be picking up at the start of Act 3 of Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age as I conclude my series on this wonderful game! While I did enjoy Act 3, I also had a few thoughts on my experiences that I’ll chat about. I’ll also have some overall thoughts as well at the bottom of this article surrounding the whole game.

My hope is that you’ll be interested to also pick up and play this game, or to relive some amazing memories through this article if you’ve played it before!

Of course, this mini-series will undoubtedly have spoilers for this game — so keep that in mind if you’ve never played it before and plan to 🙌

Let’s get started!

Welcome to The Saved Game

First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome and send my thanks to you for the privilege and honor of your time!

My name is Joe, and The Saved Game is my gaming hub that is a space about video game nostalgia, new and old favorites, and finding ways to rekindle your love for why you played video games in the first place! Read more here about my Substack page and content!

If you would like to support my work and creative content, then take a look at my Ko-fi page using the button below! Thanks!

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A Forgotten Reunion

As soon as the I traveled back in time at the start of Act 3, I found that the Hero landed himself in the easy-going town of Arboria — just outside The World Tree. I was essentially back to the end of Act 1!

Inside the main cathedral building, I came across Veronica, who was alive and well! The rest of the party soon joined, though they had visible expressions of confusion at the looks they were getting from the Hero who was happy to see everyone back together again. The Hero also noticed he now has a greatsword in his possession, the Sword of Shadows.

The next step — similar to the ending of Act 1 — was to climb up the World Tree and retrieve the Sword of Light.

With the knowledge of what was to come from Mordegon — who had possessed the body of King Carnelian along with Knight Jasper as his minion — the Hero was able to thwart off an attack and defeat Jasper! The still-possessed King was shocked, and could only watch on and wait as the Hero claimed the Sword of Light. In an attempt to throw off suspicion, the King announced a banquet and celebration back at the Castle of Heliodor!

The Hero and his party were given a warm welcome in Heliodor, and were rightly claimed as heroes for adverting a disaster — even though the Mordegon was still presently in the same room disguised as King Carnelian!

When Mordegon finally revealed himself when he tried to steal the Sword of Light, an epic battle ensued. It took everything in the party’s power, along with the help from Knight Hendrick, to defeat Mordegon before he got his hands on the sword.

A Disastrous Turn of Events

While this second defeat of Mordegon was a huge positive on the world of Erdrea, the peace was short-lived.

When everyone was celebrating, as well as Jade reuniting with her father — King Carnelian who was in his right mind again — a terrible darkness overtook the skies. Guards came running into the throne room, stammering about a dark star falling in the distance!

The giant glowing star, known as Erdwin’s Lantern, fell above the desert city of Gallopolis! It was the same one that appeared in Act 2!

However, the main difference now is that my party had just defeated Mordegon in the throne room. Going back to Act 2, we can remember that the star was fully destroyed by a mysterious figure that turned out to be Mordegon. So now, without the Lord of Shadows to intervene, this massive star smashed into the sandy environment and revealed a huge, otherworldly figure.

Upon getting closer to it, the party was met by the mysterious Seer, who beckoned them to use the Calamus flute to summon the flying whale Cetacea, and fly off to see the Watchers — the ethereal beings on floating islands in the sky. Once again, Hendrick joined in to help the Luminary in his quest to destroy evil.

I talked to the some of the Watchers, who explained that the Dark One who returned is known as Calasmos, who had brought forth a miasma of evil and destruction a long time ago. Now that Mordegon was dead, Calasmos was seemingly free to reign terror down on Erdrea without competition. The Watchers then prompt you to look at the path of the former Luminary, named Erdwin, and the Elder mentioned the Seedlings of Yggdrasil. It was a bit cryptic, but I soon set off on top of the whale.

This time though in Act 3, it felt like the world was truly open. As such, I decided to take off from here and start working on quests throughout the world of Erdrea that would help pave the path towards defeating the final boss: Calasmos!

Revisiting “Old” Friends

It was fascinating to see and explore the world in Act 3. It felt as though I had the freedom to explore in any direction I wanted to, without having a linear path to follow. The monsters were tougher, and were mostly of a malicious variant.

My journey took me to the ruins of the Hero’s village in Cobblestone first. Instead of it being turned into an outpost like we saw in Act 2, it’s back to the Act 1 setting after Jasper and his soldiers destroyed it. It was in ruins, but both the Hero’s stepmother and Gemma were there — along with the other original residents, so that they could all help restore it. To do so, Gemma literally made you a list of tasks to help with!

This was hilarious to me, because while I’m out trying to save the world from an unthinkable level of destruction due to Calasmos, Gemma is handing out tasks left and right to you so you can help rebuild Cobblestone!

However, some of those tasks and quests ended up helping me along my journey anyway, and it was well worth seeing Cobblestone returned to its early game glory!

In my travels around Erdrea, I ended up running into many familiar faces and situations that I had already completed in Act 2, but because of the time travel, they became available again. It was pretty overwhelming to see just how many quests there were to do in Act 3, with many of them not even being official quests, but rather smaller ones that were spread out all over.

Above the snowy city of Sniflheim, I ran into Erik’s sister again, Mia, who was a solid gold statue. Using the power of the Luminary, the Hero was able to revive her and complete Erik’s goal of saving his sister.

Back in the ruins of Dundrasil, I was able to save the Hero’s spirited father again after the locals in the nearby inn were having nightmares. Hendrick was given the opportunity to battle it out with Jasper’s spirit once more to get some really good armor. Somehow, Michelle the Mermaid was alive from Act 1 — where both her and Kai were on The Strand — being attacked by Mermen that I helped to defeat.

I will admit, it didn’t make sense to me as to why Michelle was still alive. She had turned into sea foam in the middle of Act 1, so even with going back in time, I ended up getting confused as to how she was alive. I even thought at first that she was a different mermaid, but I figured this was either an oversight or just how it was meant to be.

The party was also able to help Priestess Chief Miko in the mountainous village of Hotto, where she was able to save her son this time — instead of him being cursed forever in his dragon form — to the rejoicing of the village when they returned! I was also able to visit Angri-La and Grand Master Pang to train and work on the Wheel of Harma trials. Those trails were pretty tough, but I was able to get through all the main ones.

All of the quests in Act 3 were an emotional return back to the world of Erdrea that had not yet been scarred by the destruction of an evil power. However, Calasmos still remained, and I needed to figure out how to defeat him! But, I was blocked from defeating him. While he was up in the sky, I could not take the whale Cetacea to him due to a magical barrier protecting him.

Seedlings and a Fully Equipped Whale

The ethereal Watchers told me to go around the world to find some seedlings.

By interacting with them, you and the party could see some of the past with Erdwin and his group, including Serenica, the sage; Drustan, the warrior; and Morcant, the mage. These visions helped to explain quite a bit from the past, and how Erdwin planned to defeat Calasmos.

The mysterious Seer then showed up to reveal a greater memory using the power of both Veronica and Serena!

This expanded vision from the Seer showed how some of the actions the characters in the past took led to the current world. Morcant the mage was revealed to have succumbed to the power of darkness right before Calasmos was defeated, ended up stabbing Erdwin in the back, and became the evil Mordegon!

Serenica and Drustan were then unable to kill Calasmos without the help of Erdwin, so they and the Watchers banished the weakened Calasmos up into the heavens, held within the glowing star, Erdwin’s Lantern. Then, it was revealed that Serenica took the Sword of Light to the World Tree, but was left heartbroken about losing Erdwin. She attempted to turn back time, but lacked the strength to do so, leaving her to be transformed into the ethereal Timekeeper by the tockles, standing at the height of The Tower of Lost Time for many years to come.

After the vision, the Seer revealed himself to be the good part of Morcant the mage, the light that held out against the darkness! As he faded off due to Mordegon being destroyed, he prompted the Hero and his party to head back to the Tower of Lost Time and talk to Serenica.

Once there, now knowing that Serenica is actually the Timekeeper, we were able to perform a melody using the flute that ended up overpowering the great whale above in the skies with some more oomph!

With all of that done, I was directed to finally open a once-locked door under the ruins of Zwaardsrust, which would be a set of trials to strengthen the Hero and his party!

Getting Jacked and Taking on Calasmos

One reason I love the Dragon Quest games (at least the ones I’ve played so far) is that I’ve never felt the need to grind for experience.

Drustan’s Trials were a challenge though that I really enjoyed. It gave me the chance to revisit some familiar areas, as well as obtaining a lot of good items, experience points, and equipment.

It was fascinating to work through these trials, and I gained quite a bit of experience and some extras through it all.

Afterwards, I decided to level up my characters some more. After finding out about the Pep Powers that allow for greater XP gains (Haulellujah) and one that had the chance to spawn in metal slimes (Electro Light), I knew I was set! By the time I took on the final boss, I was around level 85 – 90 with my characters!

It was around this time that I went back to create a new Supreme Sword of Light. One of the Watchers in during the Drustan’s Trials had told me to get it, and I figured it would be worth it for the final battle.

Finally, after about 95 hours in-game, I defeated Calasmos!

His boss fight was pretty easy! My final line-up was the Hero using a sword, Hendrick with a greatsword, Rab using a heavy wand, and Sylvando with knives. My backup team was Serena with a wand, Veronica with a heavy wand, Erik using a boomerang, and Jade with her spear.

Right after the fight, the party returned to The Tower of Lost Time. The Timekeeper, who we now know is Serenica the sage, was shown to have been granted the ability to return back in time using the power from the Luminary — in her original form — and was reunited with Erdwin in a distant past!

Afterwards, the Hero returned to a peaceful and bright Erdrea in the beautifully restored Cobblestone. Everyone was so thankful for the Hero’s help in saving the world, and both Serena and Veronica were there to accompany him back to the World Tree to return the Sword of Light.

I’ll be completely honest though, I did not fully understand all of the final cutscenes after I returned the sword. Once the Sword of Light was replaced, the Yggdragon appeared and bestowed the title of Erdrick to the Hero, and she explained that though the darkness may appear again, another hero will surely arise to face the challenge. However, my confusion had to do with the scenes after this, where it appeared as if this story was being read as a book by a kid’s mother, who was then hinted at being the Hero for another game in the series. From what I’ve gathered, that game is Dragon Quest III.

So, it looks like I’ll likely be heading there next!

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, I ended up loving this game!

Once I finished up the final fight with Calasmos, I went back in to finish up a few things. I collected more of the outfits I missed, got some more mini medals, and also leveled up all my characters to level 99 using pep powers and a bit of time.

The world itself was massive with so much to explore and do. Everyone in my party had their own unique personalities that stood out, with a great balance of humor and serious moments. Rab and Jade were probably my favorite characters. Rab was awesome, just with his sense of humor and the way he reminded me of my own grandfather at times. Of course, the music and overall design was incredible too! I also really enjoyed using The Fun-Sized Forge over time, and finding the right materials and equipment was fun to collect! Pep Powers were interesting, and I got used to using them more and more throughout the game.

As I discussed in the second article, the main thing that slightly annoyed me was the concept of time travel between Act 2 and Act 3. It just felt a bit too convenient, and the sacrifices that were made seemed almost worthless if I could just go back in time. Likewise, it left me feeling pretty bad if the other Act 2 characters were left in some sort of alternate reality — which felt like it was implied. I had the feeling that I was just redoing a lot of various quests in Act 3 that I had already done, even if they were a bit different and even if they were part of the “good ending.”

The overall story was good, and I enjoyed it. The ending cutscenes to Act 3 were a bit confusing, but I suspect that it made a lot of other people enjoy it even more to see that type of ending, especially if it pointed back to the older games.

After completing the main story and finishing off anything else I wanted to, I felt that I was done with my adventure. In total, it took me about 105 hours.

Now, I’ve got my eyes set on the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake as my next game in this wonderful series to work on in the future!

As I walked around Cobblestone one last time, I couldn’t help but feel a bit emotional as I thought back to the long journey I took in Erdrea! It first started around last August, but I picked it back up within the past couple of months. There were significantly more highs than lows, and the time it took to uncover the breathtaking world and amazing characters made it all worth it.

To me, it was a wonderful experience that I won’t forget any time soon!

Thank you for the honor and privilege of your time! It means a lot that you’re here, and I appreciate your readership!

If this article meant something to you and you enjoyed it, then please drop some love on it down below, share it with some friends or foes, and let me know your thoughts! I always appreciate the feedback 🙌

See you next time,
Joe

Check Out the Full Mini-Series

This is a full series on Dragon Quest XI! Check out the other articles down below!

Act 1 | The Start of an Epic Quest

Act 2 | The Calamity of Erdrea

What are Your Thoughts

I want to hear from you in the comments below 👇

Have you ever played Dragon Quest XI, or any of the Dragon Quest games? How do you feel about them?

How do you feel about the story and adventures in Dragon Quest XI? Is there anything you liked or disliked about the second Act in this game?

Leave a comment

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A Devastating Turn of Events

Last time in Act 1 of Dragon Quest XI, Mordegon had used the Luminary’s power to bring forth an era of darkness to the land of Erdrea. In doing so, he destroyed Yggdrasil — the World Tree — and caused widespread destruction across the world!

Act 1 had this shocking finish, and it was one I was not fully expecting.

This game did a great job at reeling you in to believe everything would turn out fine, but with the sudden reveal that King Cornelian of Heliodor had been possessed by Mordegon, as well as seeing that Jasper the Knight aided Mordegon in his nefarious ways, you quickly realized that everything was far from fine!

Now, with the World Tree destroyed and monsters running rampant with Mordegon seated in the Fortress of Fear as the Lord of Shadows, the Hero and his party must come back together to take Mordegon on directly!

Upon waking up for the first time after the beginning of the darkness, I found myself in the shoes of the Hero’s faithful companions!

For today, I’ll be taking a look at Act 2 of Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age as I continue this mini-series on this wonderful game! It’s been an incredible experience, and one that I know I’ll look fondly back on for years to come!

My hope is that you’ll be interested to also pick up and play this game, or to relive some amazing memories through this article if you’ve played it before!

Of course, this mini-series will undoubtedly have spoilers for this game — so keep that in mind if you’ve never played it before and plan to 🙌

Let’s get started!

Welcome to The Saved Game

First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome and send my thanks to you for the privilege and honor of your time!

My name is Joe, and The Saved Game is my gaming hub that is a space about video game nostalgia, new and old favorites, and finding ways to rekindle your love for why you played video games in the first place! Read more here about my Substack page and content!

If you would like to support my work and creative content, then take a look at my Ko-fi page using the button below! Thanks!

Want More? Join Other Subscribers Now 🔥

View My Ko-fi

A New Perspective

Once the first Act closed of Dragon Quest XI, I woke up in the shoes of none other than Sylvando — and eventually as the Hero’s other companions, such as Jade, Erik, and Rab!

The first several hours were a fascinating experience as I saw the world from these other character’s perspectives. It really helped to cement their place in the world, and the struggles they also dealt with. One thing they had in common though was their desire to reunite with the Hero and to defeat Mordegon!

Some of the characters, such as Sylvando and Jade, were fascinating to see from their eyes. Sylvando gathered up his senses and refused to go down without a fight, where he placed a heavy focus on spreading happiness wherever he went in the world. Jade as well had a similar fighter’s spirit, where she got thrown into a new and terrifying reality in Octagonia with the monsters that had taken over, and fought hard in an attempt to overcome the challenges!

Rab and Erik also had interesting perspectives for their parts at the beginning of Act 2. It was quite emotional to see Rab experiencing the life he once had back in the Kingdom of Dundrasil, where he has to make the effort snap back to reality — though that may not be what it seems when he faces his old teacher, Grand Master Pang, in a sort of dream-like reality.

Erik was always a fascinating character to me, and he really grew with his background throughout Act 2. At the start though — when he realized he was in a dungeon of sorts and with the help of a friendly Healslime — Erik made his way to freedom. However, after being cornered by powerful monsters, a mysterious figure called the Seer grants Erik powers if he gave up his memories, thus resulting in an amnesia after escaping!

Notably though, I never had one of these side missions from the perspective of either Serena or Veronica, which struck me as a bit odd.

After several hours of experiencing a post-Mordegon life from the perspectives of the Hero’s companions, the Hero finally awakens…

…as a fish!

It quickly became apparent that Queen Marina in the underwater world of Nautica had transformed the Hero into a fish to shield and save him from Mordegon’s power. Shortly after this, the Queen had a protective shield around Nautica that was failing from a giant sea monster, and she ushered the Hero up to the surface. She then pressed him to save the world from Mordegon — thankfully with the Hero turning back into a human shortly after resurfacing!

The Changed Landscape

After Mordegon destroyed the World Tree and set darkness on the world of Erdrea, the landscape was scorched and partially destroyed.

Erdrea was recognizable, but deeply scarred. Much like the lands and cities, the people in the world were existing, but dealt a severe blow after the fall of Yggdrasil.

Once I took control over the Hero on dry land, I found a new and surprising ally in a familiar place.

The Hero’s home village of Cobblestone had been rebuilt as a base of rebellion against the dark forces, with a much friendlier King Carnelian and Knight Hendrik in charge. I also had a reunion with both the Hero’s stepmother, as well as his childhood friend, Gemma! They both were thankfully safe after Jasper had attacked the village earlier back in Act 1, and were helping the effort against the monsters that had taken over the world.

The most surprising ally though came in the form of Hendrik, who swore his sword and shield to protecting the Luminary, and would help him bring about the end of Mordegon! He started off as an enemy in Act 1, but became a powerful companion to the Hero now!

Upon leaving Cobblestone, I found that the first step in my journey was to reunite with my lost companions. I visited new places, such as Angri-La — a settlement built into a snowy mountain that’s meant as a training ground — to find the Hero’s grandfather, Rab. I also travelled back to past locations, where I came across Sylvando near the city of Phnom Nonh in the western continent, with him rejoining the party. I also found Jade in Octagonia, where I helped undo the spell she was placed under from Booga and his army of monsters.

Walking throughout the world of Erdrea in Act 2 had a profound impact on me. Everything changed when Mordegon ushered in darkness and destroyed Yggdrasil, with the partially destroyed landscape showing the evidence of his ruinous reign of destruction over the world.

A magnificent moment came about near the desert city of Gallopolis. While the city was a familiar sight, there was a dark, red star known as Erdwin’s Lantern that was hovering in the sky just north of it! Upon a quick investigation with Rab helping to translate some words on the star, all you come away with are the words:

CALASMOS

Shortly afterwards, an unknown being destroys the star — with a small, dark Tockle (a small ethereal-type entity), that seemed to be horribly dismayed at the destruction of it. This was the same type of Tockle found in the intro of the game, which had me thinking more about the significance of it, and the others I came across elsewhere.

The world of Erdrea felt dark. Everything was a stark contrast to the first Act which felt so bright and hopeful. Throughout my journey in Act 2, I was reminded of the destruction that Mordegon caused, and there were plenty of moments during this time that were very emotional compared to the first part of the game.

Sacrifices and Emotions

There were many emotional moments that happened during the course of Act 2. Many of these moments seemed pretty indicative of the current world after the destruction of the World Tree.

One example was the emotional reunion with Erik’s sister, Mia, who the party helped save in the snowy continent, just north-west of Sniflheim. She was given a magical amulet by Erik before the story took place, which allowed her to turn anything to gold — like the Midas touch. However, she ended up turning to gold herself, but was broken free of the curse after Mordegon rose to power, with her then using the evil power of greed against the people of Sniflheim. After defeating the monster surrounding her, she was broken from the grip of Mordegon, and was happily reunited with Erik!

Another gripping moment that stood out was in the mountainous village of Hotto, right before I forged the Sword of Light. The Priestess Chief Miko was put into a terrible spot. It’s found out that her son, Ryu, had transformed into a nearby dragon named Tatsunaga that was terrorizing the village, and that Miko was willing to sacrifice villagers to the dragon so that she could find ways to get her son back. However, it came to a head when she — as well as the magic mirror item she had that could transform Ryu back — were consumed by the dragon. The Hero and party tracked down and took out Tatsunaga. Though the village was saved, the cost of losing Miko was high.

One emotional but more upbeat moment came in the form of reuniting with the Hero’s father, the former King Irwin of Dundrasil! It was a nice, heart-warming segment where you and the party were able to free him from his curse, and allow him to pass on in peace!

Once I completed many side quests, I made my way past Sniflheim in the snowy continent. From there, I was faced down by a once-frozen dragon that was shockingly powerful!

Fortunately, Serena stepped in and helped!

This was the first sighting of Serena in many hours, ever since the separation from the end of Act 1. Though, her sister Veronica was nowhere to be seen.

Once we got to Arboria, the truth came out about what happened when I looked back at past memories. Veronica, in an effort to save the Luminary and the rest of the party, sacrificed herself and shielded the others from death when Mordegon destroyed the World Tree at the end of Act 1!

Veronica had died!

Evil Defeated… or Not?

With the loss of Veronica filling the emotions of the Hero and his companions, I used the Calamus flute I received in Arboria, which summoned the great, flying whale Cetacea!

After a bit of leveling up and finishing off a few more side quests, I made my way to the Fortress of Fear to take on the Lord of Shadows: Mordegon, as well as any of the imps or monsters beneath him, such as Jasper!

The two stages of Mordegon’s boss battle were fairly easy, with my characters being around level 55 or so.

I felt a wave of relief after Mordegon was defeated. The World Tree was restored to life, and it honestly felt like a lot of Erdrea was returning to the way it was from Act 1. There was still a lot of destruction around the world, and the loss of Veronica was still hanging in the air. However, even with everything that had happened, it felt like a good closing to the story of the Luminary and his party of companions.

But… a glimmer in some ruins near Octagonia pointed to an ancient tome that described a way for someone that is lost to eternity being able to get restored to life. I figured there might be a way to bring back Veronica, even though I wasn’t sure what the cost would be!

It also made me realize that, while Mordegon was defeated, there was still the issue of that dark star — Erdwin’s Lantern — mysteriously appearing and being destroyed earlier on that really needed to be explained.

With some new knowledge from the tome, I flew on Cetacea to a tower in the northern part of Erdrea, where I would find out what I should do next!

The Cost of Turning Back Time

Once I was at the tower, called The Tower of Lost Time, I was given the choice by the ethereal Timekeeper at the top to harness the power of the Time’s Sphere by shattering it with the Sword of Light, thus allowing me to go back in time.

By doing this, I found that I could go back and possibly save Veronica!

The Timekeeper described the terrible consequences that could fall upon the Hero for seeking the path towards saving Veronica, or even going back to the time before Mordegon destroyed the World tree. Only the Luminary could use the Sword of Light to return. Nothing else could go back with me except for my items. The world, the reality, nor my companions would go back with me. The Timekeeper continues by saying that the life of the Hero may be lost as well, with it being impossible to foresee what may or may not happen.

To be honest, I’m not wholly sure I would’ve chosen to actually go back given the consequences!

This is a part of this game that I was a bit bummed out about. I didn’t see any spoilers about it at all, so it was shocking when I was hit with the reality that I would be leaving everyone to return all the way back to essentially the ending of Act 1. All the progress I made, all the character growth, all the hours invested in the world I knew, and everyone we helped save would just be… reset?

It also presented some moral challenges. Is it worth altering the reality of time in order to save the life of one companion? Is it right to leave behind the people who helped save the world with you and sacrificed so much in their lives for you? Would everyone else just be… left behind to live in that post-Mordegon timeline of reality without the Hero and Veronica? Left to deal with the consequences of you leaving?

I do wish that the story had weaved together the moral dilemmas better, so that the risk of going back in time and shattering the Time’s Sphere would make a bit more sense. Maybe if it had shown more widespread destruction, or more of the party had died, or a more desperate need to go back in time existed, then it might’ve made the risk seem more worth it.

It all just felt like a huge hazard to undertake for what I thought was an otherwise good ending. Not only that, but once I shattered the Time’s Sphere with the Sword of Light, the scene faded with my old companions seemingly left behind in that reality’s timeline — looking out towards the Hero being transported back in time — with Rab reaching out at the last moment to his only grandchild and imploring him to wait, though it was too late at that point... It just felt cold to leave them all behind after everything that we fought and sacrificed over — even though they eventually urged me towards going back.

Once I shattered it though, I was back in a brighter Arboria. There was no more destruction in the city, there was no sign that Mordegon had destroyed the World Tree yet, and Veronica was alive!

What I did love about Act 2 was the amount of character development. Erik really had a lot that he went through with losing his memories, and then he stepped up and helped to save his sister. Sylvando and Jade had to fight for others and themselves, with Rab choosing to not give up. Serena remained strong, despite the loss of her sister, and made the decision to continue helping the Luminary.

Mordegon’s defeat felt like a satisfying end to a hard-fought journey for all of the characters. It was an ending that honestly felt like the true ending to the game — or at least the most realistic ending.

But, it all just felt a bit hollow after I travelled back in time at the end.

Questions still lingered in the air though: Why were those dark Tockles trying to usher down that star in Gallopolis? What exactly was the star to begin with? Could the Hero — now with a full party again with Veronica — defeat Mordegon before the destruction of the World Tree?

In the next part, I’ll go over my experiences with Act 3 of this amazing game!

Thank you for the honor and privilege of your time! It means a lot that you’re here, and I appreciate your readership!

If this article meant something to you and you enjoyed it, then please drop some love on it down below, share it with some friends or foes, and let me know your thoughts! I always appreciate the feedback 🙌

See you again,
Joe

What are Your Thoughts

I want to hear from you in the comments below 👇

Have you ever played Dragon Quest XI, or any of the Dragon Quest games? How do you feel about them?

How do you feel about the story and adventures in Dragon Quest XI? Is there anything you liked or disliked about the second Act in this game?

Leave a comment

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Happy Monday

Hope you all are doing well!

Today will be a bit of a change from my typical blogs! Since I visited the National Video Game Museum (NVM) in North Texas recently to view the Sony MSF-1 Prototype (as I talked about in my last Game Save article), I decided to share more about this museum here as a blog post!

It was a fun experience, and I learned a whole lot about video game history, the importance of gaming in the world over the past 50 or so years, and I had a lot of nostalgic moments too!

This blog will be a bit different since it will feature a lot more photos than I normally post. I took quite a few from my phone, so today’s blog will host a lot of pictures!

I hope you enjoy, and let’s jump in!

As a reminder, if you did not receive this post in your inbox but would like to get these blogs sent to your email, then you can do so by following this quick guide to opt-in! Thanks 🙌

What’s Been Going on in My World?

Since today’s blog will go over so much of my National Video Game Museum visit, I won’t spend too much time talking about the games I’m currently playing like I normally do at the end of my blogs. I’m also deep into Dragon Quest XI right now as my main game, so I don’t have too many new things to talk about with it!

I’ll be sure to have more on that game later on though once I finish it!

Let’s jump into the recap from my time at the National Video Game Museum!

Visit to the National Video Game Museum

As soon as you first walk in, you’re greeted by an awesome statue of Booker and Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite! Once you turn around, there’s a huge collection of TVs and consoles hooked up to form an art piece that is uniquely built. All of them are playing something that has to do with video games, like old footage or older gaming news from the past.

Right past this is the counter to get tickets, where you then enter into the main portion of the museum! Once inside, you see a statue featuring some famous characters, including Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man, and more in front of a large wall of video game consoles!

Right behind this statue, they had an awesome collection of consoles up on the wall from all points of video game history. This is also where they had the Sony MSF-1 on display!

Behind this wall of consoles were a lot of shelves with various video game pieces and collections. Some examples included unique PlayStation 2 consoles, a Panasonic Q GameCube, a Nintendo 64DD collection, and copies of Metal Gear.

Into the next section was a fun setup that mimicked a living room space back many years ago. I loved the wood siding on the walls, and you were able to sit down and play the game too!

Right before the arcade, they had a section with older demo display consoles! This was a throwback for me, because I remember seeing stuff like this (but with a GameCube and N64) in dental offices, stores, and similar settings as a kid!

After this, I circled back around to go up some of the main aisles. One of the larger sections was a big setup they have on Pokémon! As someone that never played Pokémon too much, it was very interesting to read up on the history of the game and look at all the collectibles they had on display!

Right behind the Pokémon collection was a nice setup they had on virtual reality. This was pretty neat to see some of the collections available, including a Nintendo Virtual Boy, a unique Power Glove, a VFX-1 Headgear, and an Atari Mindlink!

The next section was all on the TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine. This was interesting to learn more about since — at least for me — it’s a console that’s sort of faded into the background. I’ve never seen or heard of anyone I know of having one, and it came out quite a bit before my time!

Along the back wall was a large section that had a ton of old computers. These included a Commodore Amiga, Atari 800, a TI-99/4A, older Apple computers, a Famicom Family BASIC from Japan, an Atari 7800 Keyboard, and a whole lot more!

In a little nook off to one of the corners after the computer section was an awesome section on handheld consoles! This was super cool to see, just because I recognized the ones I’ve had over time. Seeing the Game Boy Micro in-person makes me realize how tiny that thing is, though I still want to pick one up at some point!

Once I finished up the handheld section, I backtracked a bit to see a few things I missed. Along a large side of the museum were a few setups that showed some information about the early days of video games, a history of controllers, a Dragon’s Lair collection, and more! A fun exhibit you can play is for The Typing of the Dead on the Sega Dreamcast, where you test your typing skills on a keyboard in a rail-shooter battle against the undead! They also had an awesome pair of statues from Castlevania and Halo!

After all of the museum portion, I went into their incredible arcade. They had about 30 – 40 arcade units by my count, and that was a ton of fun! There’s some old 1980s rock playing, all the lights were dimmed, and it felt like stepping back in time! The tokens were $.25 each, and there were plenty of machines to test out!

The National Video Game Museum was a fun visit! I’ve been before, but they had a few new additions I wanted to check out, and of course the Sony MSF-1 that they just acquired!

It takes about one to two hours to walk through it and costs $12 for a ticket (which includes some arcade tokens), and it’s definitely worth it if you’re ever in the North Texas area!

Be sure to check out the NVM’s website and socials that I linked down below:

Website for The National Video Game Museum | Twitter/X | Instagram

Games I’ve Been Playing

As mentioned near the intro, I’ve been continuing my playthrough of Dragon Quest XI!

I recently finished up Act 2, and it’s been a wild ride so far. I’m about 5 hours or so into Act 3, and without spoiling anything, I can say that there’s been A LOT of developments that have happened!

I’ll write more about it in the future, but one thing that I wish this game had is a pause button — especially for cutscenes. I think I’ve become spoiled by the pause mechanic in recent years, but I would’ve figured most games would’ve had it within the past 10 years or so. I also feel at times that I’m redoing quite a bit now in Act 3 (without getting into spoilers), even though the game is pretty huge.

With how much fun I’ve been having though in this game, I definitely give it a pass on some of the small nitpicks I might have.

I’ll have a lot more on this amazing game in the future, and I’m hoping to finish it up pretty soon!

Everything else is going good though. Don’t forget about the schedule change here on The Saved Game, where I’ve started to post up new articles every other week now with new blogs coming out on the off week. Check out my Schedule page for more information!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to chatting again soon!

See you all next time,
Joe

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Welcome

Welcome to this Game Save!

It’s been busy lately, but I’m glad to be back and writing these articles after the collaborative write-up from a couple of weeks ago!

Likewise, there’s a lot going on in the world of gaming news as of late. Every time I check, it seems like something new is going on all the time!

For today, I want to take a look at some news on two topics. We’ll be seeing the new home for one of the unique Nintendo/Sony Play Station developer unit prototypes, and the surprising news about dynamic pricing with Sony. The prototype was a bit special to me, as I got to see it in-person, and I was sure to include some photos here in this write-up from my experience!

I also have two spotlights for some amazing creators that really stood out to me over the past few weeks!

Lastly, I want to wrap up with a few updates for this publication!

Let’s dive in!

Welcome to The Saved Game

First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome!

My name is Joe, and Game Save articles go over some of the latest gaming news you may have missed along with some thoughts I have on them, reviews of games or accessories, as well as a Community Spotlight for articles that I loved! Read more here about my Substack page and content!

🐉 Take a look at my recent main article on Dragon Quest XI
💾 Check out my previous Game Save write-up
☕️ Read my latest Cup of Joe blog post

If you would like to support my work and creative content, then please take a look at my Ko-fi page using the button below! Thanks!

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My Thoughts from Recent Gaming News

Many things have been going on lately, but I want to focus in on two topics for today that are both related to Sony. These popped up over the past couple of weeks, and I’ve been reading up on them and became very interested in sharing more about them. Plus, I was able to get some up-close experience with one of the topics today!

The Nintendo… Play Station Developer Unit!?

In a bit of surprising news to see, it was announced that the National Video Game Museum (NVM) in North Texas would acquire a Nintendo/Sony Play Station prototype system as part of their collection — specifically the Sony MSF-1 — possibly one of the rarest pieces of gaming hardware.

The National Video Game Museum made this announcement in a post on Twitter/X.

If you’re like me, you know that Sony and Nintendo worked together back in the 1980s and early 1990s before the Sony PlayStation existed — but not much more than that. It was a partnership that seemed to be a good fit at the time, until Nintendo ultimately partnered with a different brand. We’ll get to more on that in a bit!

Since this museum and gaming relic are in North Texas, I decided to take a road trip there to see this fascinating piece of gaming history with my own eyes!

It was a breathtakingly simple piece of hardware. It was an amazing feeling to look at and observe, wondering in my mind about what all this prototype was used for or where all it had been. Nothing about it made me associate it with Nintendo or Sony to be honest, though the opening for a cartridge in the back reminded me of a dual partnership that could’ve been, but never was. It only has a few buttons, an on/off power switch, and a port on the side with a CD drive and a couple of lights on the front of it.

According to the sign in its display, the Sony MSF-1 was used by a subsidiary of Sony called ImageSoft, and is the oldest known development system of its kind to exist. It states that the estimated age of it is from 1992, and that it served as the development unit for what was supposed to be Sony’s Super Nintendo CD peripheral, elsewhere called the Play Station, with the unit being able to plug into a Super Nintendo system.

Of course, as history unfolded, we all know that Sony went another direction.

Polygon had a wonderful article on the early history of the PlayStation. Back in the 1980s, this write-up described how one of Sony’s engineers — then turned CEO — named Ken Kutaragi had a vision. He watched his daughter play on a Nintendo Famicom, and saw a future where video games would be widely popular. Kutaragi would then be involved with a deal for Sony to make the Super Nintendo’s sound chip. At the time, everything about it seemed like a successful collaboration, despite Kutaragi making that deal happen without consulting with his superiors at Sony. Kutaragi and Sony then started work on a CD-based peripheral device for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System called the Play Station.

However, trouble was brewing on the horizon, and Nintendo decided to suddenly partner with Phillips — cutting out Sony and seemingly all the progress they made in the process.

…Kutaragi went to work creating a prototype for the disc-based add-on, at the time called the “Play Station.” And then, in a famous-though-often-misreported story, Nintendo went back on its deal, terminating the partnership with Sony and announcing it had struck a deal Phillips instead.

— Polygon, The History of PlayStation was Almost Very Different (2019)

The Play Station CD device was never officially released for the SNES, with Sony and Nintendo parting ways when Nintendo surprisingly announced a partnership with Phillips at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in 1991. Based on an interesting article from Wired, the issue seemed to stem from Nintendo finding it unacceptable that Sony would control so much in regard to the CD-ROM games the device would use.

Sony had reportedly made other polished prototypes of the Play Station that they had brought to CES in 1991 and even continued working on the unit until the summer of 1992, according to the Video Game Chronicle. Likely, it was one of these systems that was sold for more than $300,000 back in 2020, as Polygon reported a few years ago.

Only a few years later after CES and the split in 1991, the Sony PlayStation would be released as its own console in 1994 to critical acclaim — setting up the Sony PlayStation brand of consoles to sell well over half a billion units throughout the next 30+ years based on Sony’s data.

According to the sign inside the museum, it said that this unit was used by ImageSoft.

ImageSoft — a subsidiary of Sony back in the late 1980s and early 1990s — was a developer and publisher for various Nintendo games. Mentioned by Sega Retro, it would then go on to create some games for Sega systems, until it became Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA) in the late 1990s, switching back entirely to being dedicated to the new PlayStation console by Sony. According to The Game Scholar — who has an impressive article on the Sony MSF-1 — little is known about the games that would’ve come out for the Play Station unit other than some reported educational titles.

It’s wild to think about the history of this piece of hardware, and the “what-ifs” that might’ve taken place had contracts been different, or if Nintendo made other choices, or if Ken Kutaragi never had the vision he did. It was a wonderful experience to see this MSF-1 prototype in-person, where I could wonder about those “what-ifs” while actually looking at the unit that played a role in it all.

If you’re ever in North Texas, I would highly recommend checking out this museum. Beyond this relic of the past, they also have many more pieces of video game history, a large arcade you can play at, and a lot more!

Dynamic Pricing on the PlayStation Store

PSPrices is a website I use all the time, and have recommended before on this publication.

They have an easy way to search up a game, and you can quickly see if it’s on sale or not. You can also check the pricing history on a game, as well as track a game’s price with email notifications set up. It’s a great website, and one I use all the time to monitor sales for games.

They came out with a recent report that claims Sony is testing out dynamic pricing on the PlayStation Store.

But, what is dynamic pricing? And should this be a cause for concern?

According to Stripe, the major online payment processor, dynamic pricing can be used as a tool to help businesses react to a variety of market conditions.

Dynamic pricing is a strategy where prices adjust in real time based on shifting market conditions. Instead of setting a fixed price that holds steady regardless of context, a business charges whatever the market will accept at any given moment.

— Stripe, Dynamic Pricing Explained (2025)

Shopify listed out some of the advantages and opportunities that a business can have from dynamic pricing.

While market conditions can shift quickly, when businesses charge a single, static price for their product, they’re missing out on two opportunities: to serve customers who would only pay less, and to charge more to the customers who are willing to pay more.

— Shopify, What is Dynamic Pricing (2025)

From other sources though, such as the New York Times video opinion down below (which is worth a watch), dynamic pricing in our current day-and-age is used primarily to take advantage of customers and their spending habits — especially when everything is being controlled or overseen more and more by algorithms and/or AI.

Based on the report by PSPrices, I can’t help but see that this is moving into an anti-consumer direction by Sony.

As shown in that report, PSPrices started noticing A/B price tests in the PlayStation Store since November of 2025, and it has greatly expanded since then to more regions, including the US.

Some PlayStation Store users see experimental prices that are significantly lower than the standard retail price. This is a controlled A/B test by Sony to study the price elasticity of demand. Users are randomly placed in control or test groups — and see different prices for the same games.

— PSPrices, Sony is Testing Dynamic Pricing (2026)

Some of the prices that were discounted include major Sony titles such as God of War Ragnarök, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Stellar Blade, and The Last of Us Part II. Discounts for these and other digital games ranged from 10%, all the way up to near 30% in the US storefront.

To me though, one of the more concerning aspects of dynamic pricing has to do with personalized pricing/sales. A Reuters’ report looked at a FTC research summary back in 2025 of eight dynamic pricing vendors that seemed to focus around the use of personalized data from people, noting that it “…found these companies' AI-driven pricing tools relied on consumer data such as location, browsing history, and purchase patterns to set individualized prices, adjust prices in real-time, and manipulate product rankings…”

In the PSPrices report, they took note of personalized sales.

Personalized sales

During the February PlayStation Store sales we found that experiment participants received a different discount percentage than regular users. For example, HELLDIVERS 2 was sold to regular users at -25%, while experiment participants saw -56%.

This means that Sony is not only testing base prices but also experimenting with discount sizes during sales.

— PSPrices, Sony is Testing Dynamic Pricing (2026)

Is that where Sony is heading with the PlayStation Store? Will discounts in the future be set based on personal information they have on people? Will we be fully dependent on these always-fluctuating prices in the future if physical media no longer exists?

Or, is all of this just simple A/B testing that Sony is doing to see what people in various regions are willing to pay for games?

It also worries me too that there’s essentially only one place to purchase digital games for the PlayStation (and the same is true for other consoles as well). There’s no other online store I can log into on my console to purchase digital games from. Everything comes from the PlayStation Store, and Sony is the one controlling what the prices are. If I can’t go to a separate place to purchase titles from, then Sony can charge as much as they can in order to continue making the most in profit — which dynamic pricing would likely make easier for them to do.

An additional annoyance for me would be that discounts might not be the same for everyone in the future if this does fall into dynamic pricing. If I see that a game I highly recommend goes on a 40% off sale, how do I know it’s going to be on the same sale for other people? Likewise, I would wonder how a site like PSPrices would even be useful in the future if discounts are personalized.

Unfortunately, we’ll have to see how this all turns out. I can’t imagine that Sony will back down from testing with dynamic pricing, if that’s what this is. The benefits to a business seem to possibly be worth the backlash, and the consumers will be the ones paying for it one way or another.

What Are Your Thoughts on These Topics?

• What do you think about the Nintendo/Sony MSF-1 prototype? Do you think about the “what-ifs” that could’ve happened had Nintendo and Sony stayed as partners in the 1990s?

• How do you feel about the news of the dynamic pricing that Sony seemed to be testing with? Do you feel like it necessary in our current, technologically driven age? Or could it just be a way to maximize profits from consumers?

Leave a comment

Community Spotlight

For today, I want to do a special spotlight for Alex Antra, who has done so much for me and for other game writers in the community! Likewise, there’s an amazing article from Calvin Barrett I loved about an absolutely wacky game that I hope you’ll check out!

The Hero Behind Connecting Game Writers

It’s about time I spotlight Alex Antra and the incredible work they do!

has created and released their newsletters on a weekly basis long before I joined Substack, and they provide a wonderful way to find many other game writers!

What I love about each Reconnect Recap article is that they highlight a wide range of gaming write-ups and writers that I never would’ve heard of before. Even beyond Substack, there’s a lot of articles and writers that Alex finds and provides a platform for that I’m now subscribed to! Plus, I love the short, blog-type content that Alex includes too at the top of each of their articles!

On a more personal level, I greatly appreciate all the times The Saved Game has been featured and recommended by Alex on Reconnect Recap! It’s given me a boost in confidence for my publication, in my writing, and in how I connect with others! Thank you, Alex!

If you have somehow not heard of Alex Antra and Reconnect Recap, then I encourage you to subscribe to them and check out their incredible work — both here on Substack, as well as on their Reconnect website!

Reconnect Recap

Reconnect Recap - w/e 8th March

Kia Ora folks…

Read more

a month ago · 15 likes · 5 comments · Alex Antra

A Vibrant Train-Skating Game

with wrote a very insightful and amazing article on a demo for a wacky title called Denshattack, a game where you take control of a gravity-defying train to skate through a vibrant Japanese dystopia!

What I loved about this write-up was the witty style that Calvin used that matches the fantastic energy of this game. Likewise, there were a lot of amazing insights that Calvin was able to draw from based on their experience in Japan. This was a high-spirited and animated article for a vibrant game that I never would’ve heard about, but I’m extremely glad I did!

This write-up made me look up this game as soon as I could once I finished it. And for the first time in my life, I thought to myself:

Do I want to skate…a train?

Hell yeah, I do now!

I implore you to take a look at this article and read it for yourself! I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll have the same reaction I did!

Thank you, Calvin, for an awesome read!

Retro Journal

Retro Journal March 9, 2026: Denshattack let me kickflip a train

Welcome to Retro Journal, where I run free and write about anything on my mind from my recent video game experiences. After moving to Japan from the United States, I’ve found myself with much more free time on my hands, so I’ll write brief recaps, capture memories, and share whatever’s been going on between my ears recently…

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a month ago · 5 likes · Calvin Barrett

Updates & Closing

Thank you all for reading, I appreciate it!

After I have thought about it a bit more, I have decided to switch up my schedule a bit for The Saved Game.

As I wrote about in my last blog, I’ve been a bit stressed for time lately and am needing to find a better balance for my writing on The Saved Game. A lot of things are going on in life, and I want to make sure I create articles here that I’m proud of, and not in a rushed manner where I start getting burned out.

Because of that, I’ve decided that I’ll be switching over to releasing articles every other week. My plan is to rotate a main gaming article and then a Game Save write-up, and then I’ll post a blog in the off week.

In the near future, I may turn on a paid option with extra articles and content that come out as well.

My hope is to give my readers the best experience possible, while also maintaining a schedule for myself that prevents burnout.

Thank you for understanding, and I’ll see how this new schedule works out. If anything comes up, then I’ll make any adjustments as needed!

If this article meant something to you and you enjoyed it, then please drop some love on it down below, share it with some friends or foes, and let me know your thoughts! I always appreciate the feedback 🙌

See you all next time,
Joe

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Happy Monday

Hope you all are doing well!

Today will be a bit of a short blog post. I have had something on my mind for the past few weeks, and it has to do with balancing time in life and how best to use the extra time I have. I’ve especially been thinking more about it after a reminder from someone’s Substack Note this past week, and wanted to write more thoughts on it here.

Let’s jump in!

As a reminder, if you did not receive this post in your inbox but would like to get these blogs sent to your email, then you can do so by following this quick guide to opt-in! Thanks 🙌

What’s Been Going on in My World?

Finding a balance of time in life has always been a bit of a challenge for me.

My mind is always in a million places, and I tend to focus on one thing quite a bit until I’m satisfied, and then move onto something else. Sometimes though, I focus way too much on something and start missing out on other things in life.

wrote a Substack Note this past week that made me think about this all a bit deeper — or at least reminded me of some thoughts I’ve been having.

Specifically, the opening sentence really became something I thought about from that Note.

It definitely stuck with me a bit, and I wrote a brief follow-up Note real quick on a few thoughts I had, but I wanted to dive into some additional ideas on this topic here in this blog.

Does Balance Exist?

When I started on Substack last summer, I did so because I love writing and Substack seemed like the ideal place to put my thoughts out there.

The community on here has been a wonderful bonus, as well as the growth of new subscribers!

As always, I thank you all for that!

I wanted to start writing longer-form content to build up my skills, learn new trends, get some practice with copywriting and a bit of marketing, and hold myself accountable to posting about once per week. Likewise, I’ve been using my Substack as a portfolio of sorts to promote my work here.

Writing about video games is natural to me, and I do enjoy it. But, I have also noticed for the past 6 – 8 months that I’ve been focused a bit too much on writing about games instead of having fun playing them — similar to that Note Chris posted. And, there’s other things in life that I want/need to do, but have often brushed aside so that I can write more here on The Saved Game.

While I love writing about games, I also have other projects I need to get started on too. My worry though is that I’ll spend so much time writing here, that I’ll forget about other things I want to do in my life.

Should it be like this though?

Is there anything I could do about it?

Am I just going to burn myself out?

I think there is a balance, and I’m trying to work on finding it.

What are the Options?

Releasing an article roughly each week has been a challenge, just with all of the extras that can go into it. Whether that’s taking and editing screenshots from the game or photos I take, making designs, engaging with others, creating social media posts, etc. From the viewpoint though of a reader, I know that I would want to subscribe to someone that posts on a regular/scheduled basis. I also know that I have to stick with a schedule for myself, or else I’ll just procrastinate posting at all.

One option I’ve thought about is switching to a bi-weekly posting schedule, where I rotate main articles/Game Save articles every two weeks, and then do the shorter blogs on the open week.

Another option is to have the same weekly schedule I have now, but drastically shorten the length of articles — keeping them all at 1,500 words at most, as well as cutting out some of the additional content. But, for the naturally longer articles I have like the Game Saves or ones I want to spend more time on, I’m not sure how that would work.

Or, another option is to just post at random when I can. I feel like this option would kill any growth I’ve had though, or at least halt it. Likewise, from the perspective of a reader, not knowing when something is going to come out from a writer I follow is a bit of a bummer because I tend to forget about them.

Lastly, the thought of turning on paid subs has crossed my mind, where I would have a bit of a financial incentive to spend more time on weekly posts — and maybe make some of them paid-only. But, I always wanted to keep my writing open for others to enjoy, so I’ve leaned away from this by just having the Ko-fi link available if people would like to pitch in.

More to Come

If you write on Substack, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what works best for you in the comments!

I know that posting on a weekly schedule likely isn’t going to be feasible down the road as I get busy on other parts in life. As much as I enjoy writing, I need to find a balance with other things in life, so I don’t get burnt out.

Likely, I’ll have more on this in the near future when I figure out what I end up doing. I’ll still be here on Substack, but I just need to make sure I can put out quality content that I’m satisfied with while also not getting stressed over it.

Of course, I’ll let you all know of any changes that do happen!

Games I’ve Been Playing

For the past couple of weeks, it has been all about Dragon Quest XI for me!

I’ve gotten a good ways through Act 2, and am about 65 hours into this game so far. It is such a fun title with so much to do and a lot to explore. The characters are still incredible, and I love the story so far.

All of the quests have been fun, though at times, some of them feel a bit like fetch-quests. With how amazing the rest of the game is though, I easily look past that and just take care of any side quest that pops up.

The first impressions still impress me in this game. Like in the screenshot I attached, walking into new locations is an awe-inspiring experience, and you really get the overall vibe from a location within just a few seconds of being there.

I’ll have a lot more to talk about with this game in the future when I finish up my mini-series on it. But so far, it’s shaping up to be one of my favorite games of all time. I’ll also be looking into the next Dragon Quest game I need to play next. I’ve heard the new remakes are good, and I did play the demo for Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, so I might pick that one up to finish!

I’ve also spent some time looking back into the lore of this series, and it’s amazing to learn more about it. I would highly recommend taking a look at Happy Console Gamer’s videos on it if you want to learn more about the series as a whole from someone who’s super excited to talk about it!

Otherwise, I also need to jump back into some other games that I need to finish up soon too. But, my focus is definitely on wrapping up Dragon Quest XI!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to chatting again soon!

See you all next time,
Joe

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A New Series

Back in 2024, I stepped into the world of Dragon Quest for the first time!

I spent a good chunk of that summer playing Dragon Quest VIII: The Journey of the Cursed King on the PlayStation 2. It was a blast, and it quickly became one of my favorite games on that console, and even one of my top games of all time too!

The characters were hilarious and heartwarming, the story was engaging, the massive open world was incredible for the PS2, the music from Koichi Sugiyama was rich and upbeat, the classic designs from Akira Toriyama were classic and fitting, and I could go on. It was a fun and soul-filling game, and I loved the time I spent in its world! I wrote about my experience with this game if you want to read more about my thoughts on it!

I was already looking at another Dragon Quest game to play next as soon as I finished it!

Fortunately, there’s a lot to choose from — especially as of late with all of the remakes of Dragon Quest 1 – 3, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, and even some of the older games that came out for the Nintendo 3DS in the past 15 or so years.

The most obvious choice to me though was Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age! I picked up the Definitive Edition, and loaded it up on my PlayStation 4!

But, I had to take a bit of a hiatus last year with a lot that was going on until I could really get going. However, over the past month or so, I finally had time to really sit down with it…

…and it has been amazing so far!

Since I’ve been playing through this game for the first time, I wanted to share my thoughts on this incredible title while I play it, and make it a short series here on The Saved Game. As of now, I’m planning on this being a three-part series. I want to go over the ups and down, the highs and lows, and everything in between as I chronicle my adventures. In doing so, I hope to help you rediscover your love for this game while I take you along for the ride!

Of course, this mini-series will undoubtedly have some spoilers for this game — so keep that in mind if you’ve never played it before and plan to 🙌

Let’s get started!

Welcome to The Saved Game

First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome and send my thanks to you for the privilege and honor of your time!

My name is Joe, and The Saved Game is my gaming hub that is a space about video game nostalgia, new and old favorites, and finding ways to rekindle your love for why you played video games in the first place! Read more here about my Substack page and content!

If you would like to support my work and creative content, then take a look at my Ko-fi page using the button below! Thanks!

Want More? Join Other Subscribers Now 🔥

View My Ko-fi

The Call to Adventure

Dragon Quest XI started off right outside of the quaint, small village of Cobblestone.

I loved the townspeople that I ran into. Everyone was just so full of life and happiness, and the vibrant village was a breath of fresh air. It was all surrounded by large cliffs, with beautiful green grass everywhere, the sound of a nearby babbling stream, and the bustle of friendly and peaceful inhabitants.

The first task was a ceremonial journey up the Cobblestone Tor, a nearby mountain, with the Hero’s friend, who is named Gemma. This was a nice and short tutorial, and helped to set up a revelation and hidden power that the Hero has in his hand. It was there that I found out a bit more about the unique background of the Hero when a mark on his hand activates at the last minute when he needed to save Gemma!

After getting back down, I had the chance to explore around Cobblestone some more, collect some items, and then the Hero’s mom filled me in on more of his history. Once she heard about what happened on top of the Tor, she mentioned that the character’s grandfather wanted him to know that he was the reincarnation of the Luminary — with a special destiny in mind, and to show the King of Heliodor an amulet, which she hands over to him!

This background information was nice and short. I loved how the game gave me just enough information to get my mind interested without revealing anything that could hint at something darker going on. Even though it sounded like a quick quest to visit the nearby busy city of Heliodor, I knew that it would be an adventure to get there with all of the monsters on the way!

One thing I have noticed, especially when I saw Heliodor off in the distance — but as well as a lot of other major locations — is that the first impressions are really amazing and even awe-inspiring in this game. Often, I’ve found myself walking over the crest of a hill, or entering a new area, and have found that those first impressions are outstanding! Usually, I’ll just stand looking around for a few moments to take in all of the sights!

Once I was in the castle at Heliodor, I knew that something was off. Something felt wrong, even though everyone seemed to be cheering my arrival — especially when I noted the very stern looking Knights nearby, Jasper and Hendrik. I had very little expectation for what was about to happen next when King Carnelian accused the Hero of being the “harbinger of calamity” that will act as the herald for The Dark One, and being called the Darkspawn by those around him!

After a daring escape from jail with the blue-haired and quick-witted Erik, both he and the Hero literally jumped out of Heliodor, and found that Cobblestone was razed to the ground by Jasper, which was a horrifying sight to see when I realized what happened. After that, the Hero leaves to find his true purpose and destiny as the Luminary!

The gameplay has been incredibly fun so far! At first the Pep Powers were a bit odd in combat, but I’ve been able to use them pretty effectively. The battle system is also really fast-paced, which I greatly appreciate compared to Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2! All of the skills made sense, with them all fitting the character’s unique traits. I also loved that I could see monsters when out exploring, instead of battles being random encounters.

The world of Erdrea itself has been beautiful to explore! The vibrant designs of the unique cities and the magnificent sights from the scenery are unreal in the best way possible. As soon as I saw the world map, I felt a sense of joy and excitement, knowing that I’ll be exploring it all soon! The music is so rich too, and I thoroughly like the fact that I can switch the type of music that is playing, as I prefer the symphonic version. Of course, the designs for the characters and monsters from Akira Toriyama are nothing short of wonderful!

I think my favorite quest so far was right outside of the town of Phnom Nonh in the Champs Sauvage region. This quest had to do with the famous mural on a wall that seemed innocent enough on the outside, but had a darker secret once the Hero and team started to investigate. It got a bit spooky after we got trapped inside the mural and faced Dora in Grey! This quest was super fun and creative, and I really enjoyed it!

My time so far, about 40 hours, has had me hooked on this game! My journey has been about the quest to get to the giant World Tree in the northern part of the world, exploring and completing side quests, and of course, building my team!

Uncovering the Story with the Team

As with Dragon Quest VIII, I knew that I would need a party of adventurers to help on my quest!

Throughout the first act, I ran into the members of the team that joined along for the journey!

What I love about the Dragon Quest games I’ve played so far is the wide range of characters that end up on your team. They’re not ones that you get to know in a super in-depth way like in other games, but you learn much more about them as the story unfolds. This variety of personalities was very evident in Dragon Quest XI so far! I’ve enjoyed seeing the progression of everyone’s background when I’ve gotten to know them.

As I got further along, I started to get all the pieces of the puzzle put together. Some of the characters early on really helped with this, such as Erik, Serena, and Veronica. Their unique personalities balanced each other well for being those first, foundational characters, with the cool and mysterious attitude of Erik, and the often-hilarious contrast between Serena and Veronica.

The humor that is mixed in has been hilarious too! Of course, Sylvando was amazing when he showed up, and the interactions within the group have all been great so far!

Rab and Jade were especially a surprise to find in the city of Octagonia during the Masked Martial Arts Tournament, because it made so much more sense when I went back to watch the prologue movie. Once I heard their stories, and saw the Dundrasil Ruins, it all really echoed back to that opening movie, and helped me understand how both Rab and Jade fit into the events that took place!

Seeing Rab was a bit emotional too from what I experienced. I lost my grandfather fairly recently, and he was someone I always looked up to as a leader and a strong figure that was always there as an anchor in life. So, seeing Rab show up was a reunion that definitely tugged at my heartstrings a bit, especially when he started talking about how good it was to see that his grandson, the Hero, is alive and well and how much he missed his family!

I learned from Rab and Jade about the mysterious and legendary evil, named Mordegon, and found out more of the Hero’s background. This all helped piece together more of the storyline, and I really got more invested in the story once everything became more and more connected at this point.

The storyline has been super engaging overall. I feel as though I am uncovering more than I would’ve thought through my time spent with the characters, completing new quests, and advancing the main story!

I knew though that when I got up to the World Tree, Yggdrasil, from the nearby town of Arboria, that something major was about to go down. Like before with the castle in Heliodor, something in the air felt off despite the happy vibes, and I knew that everything seemed to be going a bit too smoothly!

A Destructive End to the First Act

My journey on the end of the first Act ended with an absolute blast — literally!

When I got up to the top of the World Tree using the Hero’s power as the Luminary to retrieve the Sword of Light, which was nestled in the Heart of Yggdrasil, I was surprised to find that Jasper followed along right behind me! Then, Hendrik followed suit, as well as… the King of Heliodor — King Carnelian!? When the king seemingly stabbed Hendrik in the back, I was shocked, and even more so when the king was revealed to have been possessed by Mordegon! It looked like both Jasper and Mordegon were in on it together!

I loved all of the reactions from the characters in this scene so much! The shock they had matched my own! Likewise, I knew that Jasper would be too strong when I faced him, and he struck the team down after only a few moves.

When Mordegon used the Hero’s power to get to the heart of the World Tree, and the Sword of Light within it, I could only watch as he corrupted it and seemingly took the once-bright power of Yggdrasil — destroying the tree and causing a massive explosion all over!

Once the World Tree decayed, everything went dark.

A short time later, I woke up from Sylvando’s point of view, with him having a renewed purpose, and he set sail for Gondolia!

This game has been a blast so far! When I wrapped up this first Act with the destruction of the World Tree, I felt like immediately jumping right back in. The storyline has been extremely engaging, the creativity is off the charts, and the characters have a wonderful mix of humorous wit, captivating dialogue, and charming personalities.

Out of everything so far, I think that the power of the characters has really drawn me into this world, and I’ve felt truly immersed in it because of them. The writing for the characters has been pretty incredible with loads of heartfelt emotions. My journey at this point has reminded me to relax a bit and take my time, listen to those in my team, and learn all about the world around me. For me, it’s not a race to speed through it all, as I’m much more focused on making my time spent in Erdrea worth it!

Now, as I begin from Gondolia as Sylvando’s character, I feel like my journey is far from over…

…and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Thank you for the honor and privilege of your time! It means a lot that you’re here, and I appreciate your readership!

If this article meant something to you and you enjoyed it, then please drop some love on it down below, share it with some friends or foes, and let me know your thoughts! I always appreciate the feedback 🙌

See you again,
Joe

What are Your Thoughts

I want to hear from you in the comments below 👇

Have you ever played Dragon Quest XI, or any of the Dragon Quest games? How do you feel about them?

How do you feel about the story and adventures in Dragon Quest XI? Is there anything you liked or disliked about the first Act in this game?

Leave a comment

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Would you like to keep seeing my content and creative work?

I put time and effort into the writing, designs, and creation of these write-ups, and I would love to keep doing them! If you would like to support my work, then view my Ko-fi page using the button below! Thanks!

Sign Up for New Content 📥

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Share

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The Powerful Inspiration of Gaming

Welcome to the first collaborative article on The Saved Game!

I sent out a question to subscribers a few weeks ago in a Substack Note, and asked for their contributions that are included in this article!

For the question, I wanted to know what the most nostalgic parts of their video gaming life consisted of, and how it inspired the person they became today!

It was a pretty open-ended question by design, as I wanted to hear the wide range of opinions and thoughts that people had. I loved how the stories that people shared inspired me, and gave me a deeper look at their source of inspiration. There’s a lot of personalities here, and I loved the responses I received back — which I am sure you will too!

For each of the contributions, I have included the name and publication for each writer, as well as the bio they wrote for their publications! This way, once you’re wrapped up here, you can go check out their other incredible work and follow/subscribe to them if you haven’t already!

Grab a cup of coffee or a drink, relax back, and read on for some of the amazing stories from the wonderful game writers on Substack that sent in their responses!

Welcome to The Saved Game

First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome and send my thanks to you for the privilege and honor of your time!

My name is Joe, and The Saved Game is my gaming hub that is a space about video game nostalgia, new and old favorites, and finding ways to rekindle your love for why you played video games in the first place! Read more here about my Substack page and content!

Do you want to support my work, get updated on new posts, or take part in future collaborative articles? Then join over 150+ other readers now by subscribing!

Thanks!

Want More? Join Other Subscribers Now 🔥

ROP

by

A father, gamer, and geek sharing thoughtful takes on games, tech, collectibles, and the joy of passing it all on.

Nostalgia is often seen as something we look back on, but as a Gamer Dad, I’ve discovered it can also be something you use… and not only as a lens to remember old games by, or a way to relive their memories, but also as a tool to build bridges. Not literal bridges, but personal ones: connections between friends, loved ones and, in my case, between Father and Son.

Nostalgia can be a way to take the things that once shaped you and gently place them into the hands of your child—not as relics, but as living experiences. When I introduce Junior to an old game I loved, I’m not trying to recreate my childhood or my memories… but I’m inviting him into them, letting him explore with fresh eyes, new reactions, and his own sense of wonder. And every time he laughs at a moment I remember, or struggles in the exact place I once did, nostalgia stops being memory. It becomes a bridge… a connection between Junior and me, a connection between the memories of old and the newly created ones.

It’s a tool that helps us sit together, play together and thus, make something new out of something old. The transmutation lies not in him playing my games, but in them becoming ours through the shared experience. In that space, between past and present, we’re building new memories that will one day become his nostalgia.

Mark’s Occult (Tech & Gaming)

Publication by

Quirky consumer technology, paranormal gadgetry, horror gaming, and all things that lie beyond the veil -- all in one convenient space.

To understand the importance of my “nostalgia game,” I have to rewind the clock. Growing up, I was never the brave kid. If anything remotely scary was on the TV, I made myself scarce. I was terrified of the My Buddy doll. The pond scene from Jaws left me traumatized. When my father watched old zombie movies, I knew nightmares of bony fingers scratching at the window would follow. Even into my preteens, I avoided haunted attractions. I was, for lack of a better word, a wuss.

Then came my 13th birthday.

Against my mother’s wishes, I’m sure, my brother gifted me Resident Evil: Director’s Cut. This was before the internet, so I didn’t know much about it. The game and horror were rather foreign to me. So, I was a little surprised when I was immediately hooked. The campy acting. That first zombie scene. The iconic Cerberus jump scare. Not to get corny, but it awakened something in me that shaped who I am today.

After playing through Resident Evil, taking on Hunters and giant spiders with joy, I was drawn to zombie media. Suddenly, all those movies my father watched that frightened me so were films I rented from Blockbuster and watched while my parents were out on the town.

I can confidently say that, had my brother not taken a chance and introduced me to Resident Evil, I wouldn’t have an office littered with Resident Evil, The Thing, and Alien memorabilia. I wouldn’t have Ghostbusters tattoos or be so enamored with the macabre that I write for a ghost tour company.

I somehow still remember that first playthrough, too, and will often return to the original title to recall being a kid in the basement, discovering what would blossom into a formative love for horror.

Peter Monks

publication by

Someone who loves playing, thinking, understanding and reminiscing about video games. And my other loves in life, like animation and films. Completely off-trend and never a hot topic.

The very first time I played video games that I owned was not on a console. Going back to the dark ages of 8-bit microcomputers in the 1980’s, Britain had a particular love with the ZX Spectrum, a dinky computer that could be plugged into any television. They were not as powerful as personal computers, but the Spectrum was very cheap and simple in comparison, so a good way to become a hobbyist. In theory it was now possible and accessible to automate your home life, though we can all guess what children wanted it for.

Video games were primitive, varying wildly in quality. There were some good games available - the developers of the legendary Donkey Kong Country cut their teeth on the Spectrum first. Even so, I don’t have any particular fondness for the games I played. Games were easy and cheap to distribute on cassette tapes; loading the games took an eternity though - up to 5 minutes or more! Typically I would then discover after 30 seconds of play that the game was actually terrible, and would try a different one. Why we subjected ourselves to this, I cannot fully explain.

Better still, the Spectrum came with a built in BASIC interpreter, a simple computer language that anyone could pick up. The manual explained how you could write your own programs, and magazines would offer print outs of submitted programs to share, which you would re-type line by line to reproduce. It taught me that computers are not magic; they are just machines that follow your instructions, you just need to understand what those instructions are. Which has led me to a lifelong career as a software engineer, building all kinds of interconnected systems used on a daily basis. And I all owe it to the tiny little game machine that could.

Calvin Barrett

publication by

Calvin is a writer, editor, and Mario Kart savant from the USA, now living in Japan. He's a Nintendo Switch owner who got off to a slow start and sentenced himself to a lifelong quest to climb out of his ever-growing backlog.

I used to spend countless hours on Mario Kart time trials. Carving corners, attempting gut-check shortcuts on once-in-a-lifetime runs, and fighting for each narrow time shave in an endless effort to improve at a game I loved. Unfortunately, being a child who knew nothing of Funky Kong or racing lines, I could never beat all 32 staff ghosts to unlock Mii Outfit B -- the only thing missing from my nearly-perfect profile. Though I’d never admit so at the time, that minor failure ate at me whenever I saw the partially-incomplete character roster.

When I picked up a copy of Mario Kart Wii on my thrifted Wii console over a decade later, I braved the gauntlet once again, with the knowledge to utilize the best character, kart combination, and a drive to finish what I started so many years ago. But something felt very, very different this time around. As the countdown reached zero, and I boosted ahead into each track, I felt a warm sense of peace. A calmness that came not only from familiarity, but also a recognition of all the changes I had experience in my own personality since childhood. I felt forgiving of slip-ups, patient on restarts, and a steady hand that felt capable of accomplishing this once insurmountable challenge.

My nostalgia allowed me to be introspective, and I was filled with an unfamiliar, but completely welcome sense of peace, accomplishment, and progression.

Yukisia

Yukisia publication by

I'm terrified "the zone" will swallow me whole. Join me, maybe?

Playing Pokémon EVERYWHERE. I don’t know what they were feeding us back in the day, but I could play for hours -even in a moving car- without feeling weak or dizzy.

The world philosophy of Pokémon shaped me, my ambitions, my courage and my love for new beginnings. Accepting defeat and training for what you love is only one side of the coin. The other side filled my little heart with awe: being a kid, travelling the country on your own, in a world full of potential friends, lessons, and victories. Having a team that supports you and accepts you.

Of course, I have to mention the music. This is highly biased, but I think the soundtracks for Pallet Town and Littleroot Town are among the best game soundtracks ever made. They are the soundtracks of letting go, simple and innocent as they should be.

Speaking of the music, just a couple of weeks ago I had a moment of deep, complete, undeniable calm. I was at work and for no apparent reason, all the weight of life was lifted off my shoulders. Nothing mattered. My brain just stopped processing everything.

I was looking out the window, over the northern suburbs of Athens, and Littleroot’s theme song was playing in my head. The trees looked greener, the concrete houses brighter, and Japan’s flag was flying proudly by the embassy’s building.

At that moment, life started again. And it was all thanks to a little cartridge and whatever they fed us back then that helped us play for hours.

Christena Maurer

publication by

A weekly look into the video game soundtracks and movie scores that make up my writing playlist, along with periodic interruptions for thoughts on writing, gaming, and storytelling.

As a child of the 90s, I’ve had several series of games that have sort of “grown up with me”, but the Legend of Zelda games have always had the top spot.

If we had A Link to the Past, I’m guessing I only watched my brother play, but the games that followed, we got as Christmas or birthday gifts, and learned patience and backseat-gaming-basics as we helped each other through Ocarina of Time’s puzzles. I still remember the feeling of independence that came with saving up my own money to buy my own copy of Oracle of Seasons (and making mom or dad drive me to Toys R Us to get it). Then realizing that independence also meant figuring out the puzzles on my own.

Side note…I still have not beaten Seasons...oops.

Even as an adult, Breath of the Wild was the reason the Switch was the first new console my husband and I purchased together. And more recently, I’ve been able to introduce a new console generation’s version of Link’s Awakening to a new generation of gamers by playing it with our son.

So why did Zelda stick with me in ways other great gaming IP didn’t? I think that comes out more in the fiction I write now.

I love building worlds and characters that inspire curiosity, and that hold up when that curiosity inspires a closer look. The same way every rock and pot and sprig of grass in Hyrule might contain something valuable, and every NPC might have a side-quest. I also love telling stories where there is great darkness, but (unlike recent grimdark trends) there is always a throughline of hope and heroism, and an emphasis on wisdom and courage pushing against powerful evil. Suffice it to say, if you’re ever reading the stories I write and don’t see echoes of a Hero of Legend in a green tunic, we might both be overdue for a trip back to Hyrule.

Harrison Polites

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Video game industry analysis and reviews from an Australian perspective.

I love Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong’s Quest—it’s one of my favourite games. As a 10-year-old, I managed to beat it to 102% completion, which means finding every hidden coin, doing every bonus, and beating the hidden world at the end of the game. It took what felt like a lifetime as a child, and was tough too. This was before internet guides, the era of the Nintendo Hotline. Some of those secrets were pretty hard to find; other sections of the game were even harder to beat. Shoutout to that one level where you have to navigate a windy bramble maze that pushes you into the thorny walls—Animal Antics. What an ordeal!

So I beat it, and had this perfect game save sitting there on my cartridge. I don’t remember how it happened, but a family friend booted up the game and overrode it, deleting my save file in the process. I was genuinely shattered and angry. This was my life’s work (as a 10-year-old) gone.

Eventually, when the emotions cooled, I replayed the game. And I beat it a second time, in a fraction of the time too. I’ve done this as an adult as well, many times in fact. I can get through most of the game in around 5 to 10 hours. But the whole experience taught me a few things: First of all, you can always rebuild. There’s few things in life that are absolute and final. Secondly: Don’t sweat the small stuff. One thing age gives you is perspective. While a missing save file will always annoy me, it won’t end me. The same goes for missing bits of work, or accidents. Things happen. You can’t control them. And for someone who is a classic Type-A stress-head personality, it really is a good lesson to learn.

Laura B

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Games, writing, and everything in between

I’m a nostalgic person by nature and tend to hold onto the past with a vice-like grip. Gen Z’s interest in all things 90’s/early 2000’s and the current state of the world have lately caused me to be even more wistful for a time when things seemed easier, freer, and there was less pressure.

The most nostalgic parts of my video gaming life are around the comfort and connection I experienced during that time. As a teen, I have fond memories of sleepovers, playing Mario Kart and Goldeneye well into the night. It really instilled a love of playing games with other people in the physical sense rather than online. I love passing the controller back and forth with another person, even if it’s not a multi-player game. I’ve played a few solo games with my partner this way and didn’t realise how much it mirrored those former experiences until writing this. It’s something I always make time for and it reminds me so much of those cosy sleepovers.

Milly Gaming

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Cozy gaming, video game collecting, with a touch of nostalgia and analogue hobbies.

I never used to see myself as a collector. I grew up playing games on DOS, SNES, N64, and GameBoy. My siblings and I didn’t have every console growing up, but what we did get, we cherished and shared amongst ourselves. My excitement for games continued most of my teenage years, with a slight lull as I approached my college years.

Once I was an adult, I got the chance to buy my very own console, the Wii. Over the course of its lifespan, I acquired games here and there until I had a small but decent library of Wii games. Even then, I didn’t consider myself a collector, just a Wii owner.

Then came the Switch, and at some point, my ability to buy games skyrocketed. Soon, I had a huge library of games. But something was missing. I still craved those retro experiences I had as a child, and even the ones I missed.

And this, my friends, is when I became a collector. It started with a simple Nintendo DSI and has turned into the collection it is today.

My collection is the most nostalgic part of my video game life. It’s given me a chance to find joy and reconnect with my childhood. And it inspired me to start my content creation journey 5 years ago. A journey that propelled me into my first social media marketing job.

I quite literally wouldn’t be where I am today without rekindling my love for my childhood games.

Dusty Gamer

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Dusty Gamer is more than just a video game directory – it's a revival of that warm, fuzzy feeling we get when we discover a truly great game!

For me, nostalgia isn’t a single overriding memory but a cumulative frequency of memories. When I consider everything, I feel that gaming has been an escape, a place in time to step away from the noise and quietly solve my problems and center my emotions. It’s the “mental reset” I found in games like the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy, Half-Life, Max Payne, Deus Ex, and Need for Speed, all of which helped transform gaming from a hobby into a window for exploration.

The experience of immersion for me may have begun with Half-Life or GTA III, but it was Vice City and San Andreas that truly anchored my feelings of nostalgia. I can still vividly recall speeding along the Vice City coast in a speedboat while Hall & Oates’ “Out of Touch” blared through the radio. In that brief moment, I was entirely lost and free in my mind. Even now, hearing that song acts as a psychological anchor, instantly pulling me back to that digital shoreline. Similarly, San Andreas had its rich characters, their stories, and betrayals that had me laughing and crying.

Beyond the rich stories and immersive atmosphere, these games sparked my curiosity about the technology powering them. I initially set out to be a game developer, not only to understand that magic but to contribute back to gaming. While my chosen career path was blocked (Thank you, Math), I eventually pivoted toward studying humanities and business, it was no surprise I ended up working in the broader technology space. That original spark of wanting to know “how the world works” remains the engine of my professional life even to this day.

While the GTA series provided the sandbox, titles like Deus Ex and Max Payne provided depth through rich story narratives. They subtly introduced me to complex political, social, and personal philosophies. These weren’t just games; they were my first seminars in ethics, politics, societal structures, and a wide range of historical subjects that would eventually comprise the bulk of my university majors.

Gaming allowed me to escape the confines of my own being and experiment with different life choices. Today, I look back at those “nostalgic moments” not as distractions but as the foundation of my career in tech and my perspective on the world.

Brian Schneider

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Recording the Alternate Worlds podcast now, about game makers, creators and Magic: the Gathering legends.

For me, gaming really starts with my dad. He’s a sporting fellow and traveled the US as a chess master in the 60’s & 70’s, and when the Atari came out he was all about it. He’d beat games for us & then we got a Nintendo -- and we’d all play together, and then eventually we all began to take on our own gaming journeys. But it’s quite clear where the origin point stems from. :)

Joe | The Saved Game

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This gaming-centered publication is all about nostalgia for new and old favorites, thoughtful opinions on gaming news, community spotlights for others, and helping readers find ways to discover or rekindle their love for video games!

My early days of gaming included a lot of Nintendo, a few PC games, and a select number of titles on the original PlayStation!

The clunky CRT TVs taking up space in the TV cabinet, the wired controllers that made a mess all over the floor, the video game cartridges or CDs that never found their way back in each box, the late nights with friends over — it all ended up being a very quintessential childhood for me with games!

The one thing that every game had in common was the imagination they inspired in me…

…and none did it better than Super Mario 64!

The open world this game had gave me an early realization about what future games might look like. Even as a kid, it really expanded my mind about the type of creativity that can be injected into games. I wasn’t around when Mario first came out, but I quickly accepted that jumping around levels as a plumber in overalls to save a princess from a giant, fire-breathing, turtle-like creature named Bowser made perfect sense!

The gameplay mechanics, the quirky designs, and the joy of exploring the castle all gave me so much to do as a kid. For me, the gameplay was endless, and the creativity inspired me from the moment I first jumped into a painting!

Throughout my life, I often think back to Super Mario 64 with the endless creativity it had. Whether on the Nintendo 64 or the DS, it made me look outside of the box when brainstorming issues and I think it has given me a more creative mindset that I use all the time.

Nowadays, I’ll sometimes pop the DS cartridge of Super Mario 64 into my 3DS and jump around for a bit, explore the castle I grew up with, and defeat Bowser one more time. It will often lift my spirit and give me a warm dose of nostalgia as I fly around the levels, stomping on Goombas, and saving the Princess!

More often than not though, it will simply remind me about how far I’ve come in my own creative journey, and the gaming inspirations that have influenced me along the way!

Thank You

Thank you all for reading, I appreciate it!

A huge THANK YOU as well to everyone who contributed to this article! Thank you , , , , , , , , , , and !

All of the responses I got back were amazing, and they all really highlighted how people’s past with gaming can inspire the unique person they became today!

I definitely plan on doing similar collaboration articles throughout the year, so be sure to stay tuned and subscribed for more!

If this collaborative article meant something to you and you enjoyed it, then please drop some love on it down below in the comments, share it with some friends or foes, and let me know your thoughts! I always appreciate the feedback 🙌

See you all next time,
Joe

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Happy Monday

Hope you all are doing well!

There’s been a few things on my mind as of late that I wanted to chat about!

The first thing has to do with Substack itself, and the changes lately from their side of things. It’s got me thinking about the future of this platform, and thoughts about the direction they’ve seemingly been going with it. I also want to show off some cooking, take a look at a few games I’ve been playing lately, as well as keeping you all in the loop about a quick update for these blogs!

Let’s jump into it!

As a reminder, if you did not receive this post in your inbox but would like to get these blogs sent to your email, then you can do so by following this quick guide to opt-in! Thanks 🙌

What’s Been Going on in My World?

Substack has been on my mind lately. I’ve enjoyed my time here since I joined last summer, but there’s been a few thoughts I’ve had!

I also want to jump into some of the games I’ve been playing lately, recent cooking I did, as well as a quick update about these blogs towards the end of this write-up!

Let’s Talk About Substack

A few weeks ago, Substack shared their latest feature: a TV app. It definitely spread all over from what I saw, and generated a lot of pushback, as well as some positivity surrounding it. You can read that article for yourself here.

I was a bit surprised when I read it!

I left a comment on that write-up, as did hundreds of other creators, about the purpose or reason for something like this on a platform that seemingly was focused more on writers. Here is a part of the comment I left:

…Are videos that popular on here? I always thought of Substack only for long-form writing for the most part.

All the while, gaming writers here have been asking for and would love a publication category!

I just wanted to voice my thoughts with the direction this platform has seemingly taken. I’m not a long-time pro at Substack, nor am I brand new either, but seeing something like this does make me wonder what the long-term goals are for this platform — especially based off of that post. It also makes me realize that videos/podcasting are major avenues that Substack seems eager to explore — or possibly needs to explore given the landscape of social media nowadays. Though, I personally wish that they would just focus deeper on written forms of content and making improvements for writers.

With that said, I also see some people successfully using various video or podcasting features here on Substack in a positive way that helps build up their brand/publication. I have nothing against that at all, and I think it’s great for people to utilize what they can so that they can stand out.

Shortly after this, my page kept messing up with the thumbnails for all of my posts. Something was going on that kept switching my thumbnails to a wider aspect ratio, which completely reformatted a lot of the designs I’ve made in a negative way. After a while, it finally reverted back to what it used to be.

Just to self-promote real quick, I have a tutorial that goes over designing a thumbnail and the dimensions that seem to work best on Substack — assuming they don’t change anything again. You can find it here on my old publication.

Last week though was a bit of positive reversal when Substack released some new features to help creators with their pages. This included the ability to resize the Wordmark at the top of your page, a cleaner page editor, and a footer that you can now add.

So… my thoughts have been all over for the past few weeks about the future of this platform.

What Does the Future Look Like?

When I think of the future for Substack and The Saved Game, I keep thinking of various aspects that I like about being here and other parts that make me wonder what the outlook is down the road.

One of the main must-haves for me is a clear pathway for growth. Substack seems to have this, and I’ve been here long enough to see quite a few people, including myself, get real readers/subscribers that love the writer’s work and will happily follow for more. Substack has been really awesome for this, and the Notes feature has been a fantastic way to join or build community!

A lot of other similar options (Ghost, Beehiiv, etc.) would not have that level of community-building. I would have to do a lot more to find readers and subscribers — such as being more active on other social media platforms, making short-form videos, etc.

But, I also worry about the unannounced changes that Substack pushes. I’m glad the thumbnails seem to be fixed now. But if they didn’t get fixed, that would’ve caused me a lot of work to go back and redo most/all of them. The TV app is something I’m not overly thrilled with, mostly because it makes me question what the overall goals are for this platform and if the support for writers will be present in the months/years to come. Or more simply, what if something else unannounced changes in the near future?

One thought I’ve had lately is to branch out to my own site at some point. I’ve seen others do this, with it seeming like a good way to maintain branding and to serve as a backup — while keeping everything in one place. I feel like it would also be nice to have the ability to customize my own site more to my liking, and not have to worry about changes that I have no control over.

I’ve looked at various options, such as Wordpress or other choices. As of now though, I’m just in the process of thinking about it and researching what others are doing.

I want to continue writing about stuff I love, and I still plan to do that here on Substack. But, if anyone has created a separate site before or has any thoughts, I’d love to hear about your experiences down in the comments!

Beautiful Weather for Grilling

This winter has been very warm in North Texas.

We did have a small ice/sleet storm that blew through a couple of weeks ago, but other than that, the temperatures have been well above normal. If I remember right, Christmas Day was 80°F (26°C)!

I prefer the warmer temps, so I’m completely good with it. During the spring and summer, I also enjoy getting out and doing some grilling!

Since it was warmer this past week, I had time to fire up the grill and cook a couple pans of chicken. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I’ve been working on eating healthier and exercising. Baked or grilled chicken has definitely been a part of a leaner diet for me, so I’ve been focused on finding new ways to make it a bit tastier!

This version was marinated with fresh pico de gallo (finely diced onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and jalapeños) alongside a variety of spices and minced garlic, and then mixed with some olive oil and honey. After it marinated, I grilled it around 400° for about 4 – 6 minutes per side.

It turned out pretty good! I loved the grilled crust on the outside and the vibrancy of the spices, and most of the pieces were very tender and juicy on inside.

All of the experience was nice, and I thoroughly enjoyed being outside in the sun instead of sitting in front of the computer screen!

Games I’ve Been Playing

I honestly have not had a lot of time for games over the past couple of weeks!

Whenever I work on my articles, I tend to play some of that specific game I’m writing about. So, I ended up playing a few hours of Fallout 4 after the article I wrote on the horror locations a week or so ago.

I have fun using the remote play feature on it with my PS Vita too. It’s amazing how good that works, especially for tech from the 2010s!

I also jumped into Dispatch on the Switch to play more of that game. I think I finished up chapter 2 of it, and I’m still wondering if I just wait to resume my playthrough until AdHoc releases a possible update for it to address any of the censorship or not.

There were a few issues I’ve been having with my Slim PlayStation 2 lately, especially when reading discs. But, I think it’s all working again at this point. The main thing was just cleaning off the laser lens, and I think it’s reading discs correctly now. I was wanting to play some Odin Sphere, and I did a bit. That game looks really good for being on the PS2, and the component cables I have make it look all the better!

Lastly, I got back into Dragon Quest XI on the PlayStation 4. Around the late summer of last year, I put around 15 hours into it after picking it up for the first time, and really enjoyed a lot about it! I got sidetracked by a bunch of other stuff going on during that time and never got back into it, so I ended up taking a break. But, once I started it back up yesterday, I spent a couple of hours just reacquainting myself with the mechanics and where the storyline is at. Currently, I sailed into the Zwaardsrust Region and am talking to some of the NPCs about the a tournament!

The one game I think I’m going to put down for now is Code Vein. I figured I would enjoy it, but it just didn’t click for me as I talked about it my last blog. The gameplay was fun, but I had very little interest in the world or story. I also didn’t have time for Sea of Stars either over the past couple of weeks.

There are also the Shantae games I picked up a few months ago that I need to finish as well!

Lots to do, and my backlog grows. I’m finding myself with a dwindling amount of time, but I hope that I’ll be able to balance the games I want to finish, such as Dragon Quest XI and Sea of Stars, with some of the other ones I’m just casually playing!

A Cup of Joe Blog Update & Closing

To end things on, I’m thinking that I will be changing these blogs to be on a more varied schedule. I was originally doing them weekly, but I think that’s a bit too much currently, so I’ll be cutting them back some!

I may still put them out every week sometimes, but I don’t want to force myself to make them either if I don’t have time.

But, we’ll see how it goes in the future! Everything with this publication has always been a work-in-progress, so this is just one of the adjustments that I’m testing around with to see what works best!

I’ll also have the Collaboration Article coming out on Thursday, so be on the lookout for that! I got a LOT more responses than I was expecting, so I look forward to getting it published!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to chatting again soon!

See you all next time,
Joe

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Let’s Jump In

Welcome to this Game Save!

I hope that you all are having a fantastic week so far!

For today’s Game Save article, I want to take a look at the latest on the release of Dispatch for the Switch. I pre-ordered this game, and have felt like it’s been all over the place for the past couple of weeks. So, I wanted to write out the latest with the censorship, some details about CERO, and what all happened with its release that I know of so far.

Afterwards, I have a controller that’s been on my mind to review! It’s the 8BitDo SN30 Pro+ controller, and I’ve got some thoughts on it — especially when I compare it to my other 8BitDo controller, and seeing if it’s still worth buying nowadays.

Lastly, there’s some fantastic write-ups from the community I want to give a special spotlight to over the past couple of weeks! These have been awesome, and they’re ones you should absolutely check out!

Let’s dive into it!

Welcome to The Saved Game

First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome!

My name is Joe, and Game Save articles go over some of the latest gaming news you may have missed along with some thoughts I have on them, reviews of games or accessories, as well as a Community Spotlight for articles that I loved! Read more here about my Substack page and content!

☢️ Take a look at my recent main article on horror locations in Fallout 4
💾 Check out my previous Game Save write-up
☕️ Read my latest Cup of Joe blog post

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My Thoughts from Recent Gaming News

The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy with gaming news!

The latest season of Fallout has ended on Amazon Prime Video, Nintendo has been having their Directs to convince everyone to buy a Switch 2, Highguard came out and has seemingly faded back out of the spotlight, Riot Games made unfortunate reductions in their team due to lackluster support for 2XKO, and Sony is having their latest State of Play that starts later today!

For today though, I want to dive into just one topic that I hope will catch up people on all that’s happened with it: Dispatch’s release on the Nintendo Switch!

Let’s get started!

Dispatch on the Nintendo Switch

I’ve been a fan of AdHoc Studio, the developers behind the hit game Dispatch, ever since it came out late last year!

As I mentioned in a previous article, I loved the TellTale games — especially The Walking Dead. So, when I heard about Dispatch, and more so the good reviews for it, I knew it was a game I wanted to pick up at some point. Since it’s been reported that this title was coming out for the Nintendo Switch platforms back in December of 2025, I figured it would be a great way to play it! I loved The Walking Dead on my PlayStation Vita years ago, so I looked forward to playing Dispatch on a handheld. Likewise, I kept myself from seeing or reading about any spoilers for months now.

For the first time in over a decade, I also pre-ordered it. The last game I pre-ordered was Dark Souls II for the PlayStation 3 many years ago, but I figured that Dispatch would be fine to order ahead of time because of the great reviews, the 10% off discount, and the positive feedback that AdHoc has received since last year.

The Reports Ahead of Time

Before Dispatch came out, there were reports of censorship already taking place.

I wrote about this in a previous Game Save article, but the quick recap is that the art cover for the Dispatch Art and Comics Pack on the Nintendo eShop had some changes made compared to the PlayStation 5 or PC releases. From what Nintendo Life shared in their reporting (which includes the examples), it didn’t look like much and I personally didn’t think a lot about it. The odd thing was that AdHoc Studio seemed purposefully quiet about it. Before the game came out, AdHoc said that they could not comment when asked about possible censorship in the actual game itself, based on an interview from a publication called GoNintendo.

A report from EuroGamer showed that AdHoc also released a statement, apparently just prior to release, that mentioned the censorship. But, that statement encouraged future players, saying: “…the core narrative and gameplay experience remains identical to the original release.”

Likewise, I do not remember seeing anything in the description on the eShop about there being any changes compared to the other versions. Once I started playing the game though, I quickly found that it was not limited to the extra art and comics pack.

Censorship Upon Release

When I downloaded and played the Switch version of Dispatch on the 28th of January, all of the censorship moments in the gameplay itself were laughably bad. The large censor blocks they used to hide content took up a lot of screen space in some cases, and on the face of it, it just seemed like a very odd attempt to create a cleaner version of this game. I honestly thought it was pretty hilarious with how it looked, but I could understand why people might not be too happy. Come to find out, the toggle available to PS5 and PC gamers to turn on/off the visual censorship apparently did not exist on the Switch release.

More so though, as far as I am aware, there was no major disclosure about this on the eShop or from AdHoc prior to the day it was released for those that pre-ordered.

So, where does that leave us? And why exactly did AdHoc do this?

The Immediate Fallout and CERO Ratings

It seemed that I was not the only one that felt a bit misled by the pre-order for Dispatch on the Switch.

Right after the game released, many reports, comments, and articles flooded my feeds about people’s complaints regarding the censorship, as well as the description on the eShop not being clear enough about what was changed or if there would be any censorship at all. I also read various posts about people just getting their pre-orders refunded from Nintendo, as described in this GameSpot article. Likewise, people were quick to point out that other games on the Switch platforms (in North America) have explicit content without being censored, such as Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and others — but there’s a bit of an asterisk next to that, that we’ll jump into next.

There were a lot of rumors about AdHoc seemingly making just one global version of Dispatch that aligned with the Japanese CERO rating system compared to others.

Let’s chat about CERO for a moment, especially because I only became more aware of it after all of this came out.

CERO (Computer Entertainment Rating Organization) is the non-profit rating organization in Japan — similar to the ESRB in North America or PEGI in most European countries. For a quick example, the ratings look something like this compared to the ESRB rating system:

However, there have been numerous reports that CERO is a lot stricter when it comes to certain content, often requiring the developer to make changes to their games. GameRant covered changes the developers made to The Last of Us Part 2, where a scene with explicit content was cut in the Japanese release, despite the game getting a CERO Z (18+ only) rating. Likewise, Kotaku wrote about some of the differences that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt had in the Japanese release, again with the game receiving a CERO Z rating. PC Gamer had an article that went over some of the changes that Cyberpunk 2077 had to make in its Japanese release with a CERO Z rating. The Callisto Protocol was also never released in Japan due to the developers announcing that the game had been refused classification by the CERO rating system, resulting in them refusing to change its content, as reported by Push Square back in 2022.

A Japanese website that publishes video game-related content called AUTOMATON had an article back in 2024 that piqued my interest on this topic. In this article, they wrote about some of the financial burdens and the various fees that are placed on developers to release a game in Japan with a CERO age rating.

With all of this, it makes sense as to why people would wonder if Dispatch made just one version of the game for the Switch platforms — one that would allow it to be released without issue in Japan while having a CERO D rating.

The Statements and Current Status

At first, there was silence from AdHoc Studio and Nintendo. However, in response, Nintendo came out with a statement on the 30th of January in a GoNintendo report and tried to clear it up from their side.

Nintendo requires all games on its platforms to receive ratings from independent organizations and to meet our established content and platform guidelines. While we inform partners when their titles don’t meet our guidelines, Nintendo does not make changes to partner content. We also do not discuss specific content or the criteria used in making these determinations.

— Nintendo Statement, GoNintendo (January 30th 2026)

Shortly afterwards, it seemed that all eyes were on AdHoc, who released their own statements and other information since then.

According to EuroGamer on the 31st of January, AdHoc seemed to want to wait a few days before addressing anything. Their statement though seemed to throw the majority of the weight back over to Nintendo, but also taking ownership over the placement of the disclaimer.

We initially assumed, like some of you, that because games like Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk are on the platform with similar types of uncensored mature content, Dispatch would be allowed to do the same. During the porting process it became clear that was not the case.

…

It was our intent to go out of our way to tell people looking to buy the game that the content was censored. Wires got crossed and we put the disclaimer in the field literally titled 'Disclaimer', instead of the 'About The Game' section. We didn't catch this until after the launch when we saw people saying we should have called out the changes on the store page, and we went to go make sure it was there. It technically has been the entire time, just in the absolute worst spot that makes it look like we were trying to hide it.

This is 100 percent our mistake and it was fixed in the Americas store pages a few hours after launch to give more visibility.

— Excerpt from the AdHoc Studio Statement, EuroGamer (January 31st 2026)

Likewise, and more importantly to me, AdHoc mentioned at the end of their statement that while they "can't make any specific promises just yet", they are looking at ways in the future to push an update to address some of the censored content — though it may take some time.

A few days after this though, the fallout continued when AdHoc commented to GoNintendo on February 2nd about a physical release and the rumors spreading that they had released just one version of Dispatch. In regard to a physical copy that could feature uncut content, they said there was: “…no possibility for a physical version to be released without the adjusted content.” When asked about the version of Dispatch that came out, and if it had to do with the different regional SKUs, they were told that: “AdHoc is legally unable to provide further comment on why separate SKUs were not possible for different regions.”

Why AdHoc was unable to answer that last question is a bit of a mystery to me, and I haven’t found any more information after this. Again, AdHoc’s statements before and after the release of Dispatch on the Switch have just been a bit odd. Why they weren’t able to release both a Japanese Switch version that complied with the CERO rating and another other version for different regions also leaves a question mark over this all as well.

My Thoughts on this Version of Dispatch

As I mentioned, I’ve been wanting to jump into this game ever since it came out, so I was excited when it arrived on the Switch. If AdHoc Studio needed to censor Dispatch to be compliant on the Switch or if they just wanted to make one universal version for whatever reason, then that’s their choice to do so. I truly want to root for AdHoc to do good into the future, so that they’d be able to continue this genre with future games down the road.

But, my concern with all of this was the apparent lack of transparency and terrible communication from the start with AdHoc. All of the statements before the game came out, even when asked directly about it (such as the GoNintendo article on it prior to release), made it seem like they were avoiding this topic and hoping people would somehow not notice any changes. But, their statement from EuroGamer made it sound like they apparently went out of their way to make sure people knew about the changes, but I do not remembering seeing anything about that before the game came out. I wish they had clearly put in the description on the eShop that it would be a censored edition, and I would have preferred that they publicly posted about any changes like this for the Switch platforms — especially for pre-orders.

My hope is that there will be some sort of update that comes out in the next few weeks as AdHoc suggested. At this point, I’m just waiting to continue with my playthrough after we hear if there will be an update in the near future. Besides the censorship and lack of clarity, I have had fun so far, and really enjoyed the characters, story, and gameplay. So, I plan to continue it soon and see what’s next.

Would I recommend that you pick it up for the Switch if you are still on the fence? Probably not yet, at least not until there’s either an update or something more concrete from AdHoc. But, it’s up to you if you care more about the censorship being present or if you would rather just focus on the story.

I also plan to pick up a PlayStation 5 this year. So, I’ll likely just grab a copy of it on that platform so I can play the original version in the future…

…all while being wary of pre-ordering again!

What are Your Thoughts on This Topic?

• Do you think AdHoc Studio should have been more transparent upfront with how they handled the censorship on the Switch platforms?

• Does any of this news change your feelings toward AdHoc or Nintendo?

• If you’ve played Dispatch, do you think it’s worth playing even if it’s censored?

Leave a comment

Retrospective Review of the 8BitDo SN30 Pro+

It’s been a bit since I’ve had this controller from 8BitDo, several years in fact, but I figured it was worth sharing some thoughts on it! It’s one I’ve used quite a bit for my Nintendo Switch, and some of them can be found for a pretty inexpensive price nowadays!

First off, the price on this controller can be pretty good nowadays if you find one in used condition, especially if you are looking for something that is reminiscent of the old SNES/Nintendo-style of controller. I’ve seen them under $30, and for a controller that’s been out for a while, that’s the most I would want to pay for this one.

I’m a sucker for the color design and overall shape of this controller. I used to have an old SNES, and it reminded me of that! The buttons feel good, the analog sticks work great, and the USB-C charging port is accessible with a battery that has lasted for years now. My biggest gripe about the overall functionality is the L2 and R2 triggers, just because they don’t offer a lot of resistance, and I do not like the way they feel when pressing down on them.

The build on it, similar to other 8BitDo controllers, feels really nice. The hard casing on it is solid, and it feels pretty good in the hands. It is a bit wider than I normally like, but that could be a plus for some people. Everyone else that has used it for Mario Kart 8 or other games have really enjoyed it, and have had nothing but good things to say about it!

Does this controller hold up to the 8BitDo Ultimate 2C, or even the Nintendo Pro Controller? Probably not, in my experience with it. In 2026, this would be a controller to grab if you find it for under $30 and really like the aesthetics of it, or would like a backup/share controller. The triggers on it are a bit of an issue for me and the overall shape of it is a little too wide of my personal preference, but that’s also more of a subjective issue.

Anything over $30 though would be the time to look at something like the Ultimate 2C controller or something else!

Community Spotlight

There was a lot of awesome articles that have come out in the past few weeks that have meant a lot! One of the ones I wanted to spotlight today is a fantastic resource with a lot of work put into it for the gaming community here on Substack, and the other article was an incredible retrospective of a game I’m dying to get now!

Let’s jump in!

Fantastic Resource for All-Things Gaming

created what is likely the best single resource here on Substack for all-things gaming:

The Substack Gaming Yellow Pages!

This is a fantastic resource/directory on Brian’s publication, , that goes over the many people that are associated with the gaming world on Substack! It was a wonderful idea, and it’s already been a great way to find new publications that I’m interested in.

What I really love and appreciate is that Brian has gone out of the way to make sure so many people are included. Likewise, Brian has been incredibly welcoming, and it’s amazing to see the different categories that are represented here, including Tabletop & TCG & TTRPG, Chess, Video Games (with multiple language publications), Games Industry & Analysis, and Game Music! I also think that the descriptions/blurbs for each of the people are a great idea, and it’s easy to see who everyone is and what it is that they write about! , a masterful writer/researcher for RPG gaming that I’ve followed for many months, has also been contributing, adding, and improving it as well!

If you have somehow missed this on Substack, then I implore you to take a look for yourself and check it out! A huge thank-you as well to both Brian and Magnvs for your work on this!

Alternate Worlds

Substack Gaming Yellow Pages

I wanted a central place where creators who focus on games can more easily find each other. If you’re into video games, tabletop games, TCGs, the games industry or etc., you’ll find creators related to your interests below…

Read more

2 months ago · 101 likes · 118 comments · Brian Schneider and Magnvs

A Deeper Look at Dusk

wrote up a fascinating article on a game I’ve briefly heard about, but am now very much interested in playing: Dusk!

In this article on their publication, , Chris talked about the history of “boomer shooters”, (fast-paced FPS games inspired by classics such as Doom or Quake). More so, Chris really went all in to review a unique game in this genre that came out in 2018 called Dusk! I’ve heard about this game in the past, but brushed it off for the most part. While I’ve played Doom and similar games before, they were never something I deeply cared for. In this retrospective look on Dusk though, Chris did such an incredible job at explaining what this game was about and why the reader should care for it!

Chris hit on all the notes I’d be wanting from an article like this. But, they went beyond and really sold me on this game with their masterful way of describing this game! As soon as I finished reading it, I had a new tab opened up to see where I could buy this title from. Chris really highlighted the experience someone would get from playing Dusk — whether it was the detail of the droning hissing noises, the visuals of mind-bending landscapes and horror elements, or just the way the gameplay moves along — it was all wonderfully written!

Chris swayed me to keep an eye out for Dusk, and I plan on picking it up soon. Once you read Chris’ article on this modern-classic game, and I highly encourage you to do so, then I’m certain that you’ll feel the same!

Game Sense

Dusk Retrospective

The indie gaming scene has no shortage of “boomer shooter” revivals - games inspired by Doom, Quake, and the like emphasizing high action, quick movement, and quicker reflexes. It’s not hard to understand why; for a while in the 2000s, boomer shooters fell by the wayside as developers and audiences were more interested in narratives like…

Read more

2 months ago · 4 likes · 3 comments · Chris Mumola

What's Next & Closing

Thanks all for reading, I appreciate it!

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY to submit a contribution for my upcoming Collaboration Article!

My question for you with this collaborative write-up is this:

What is one of the most nostalgic parts of your video gaming life, and how did it inspire the person you became today?

I’ve received quite a few responses so far, and it’s been amazing to read them! I do have a few more slots open up though, so if you are interested and are a subscriber, then please take a look at this Note below for all the information/guidelines and submit a response to me before the end of the day tomorrow! Thanks!

Beyond that, I plan to take a week off later this month to catch up on some stuff and take care of some admin tasks, but I will be back with a new article shortly afterwards!

Unless something pops up, the finalized Collaboration Article will be coming out next week on Thursday the 19th, and I can’t wait for you all to see it!

If this article meant something to you and you enjoyed it, then please drop some love on it down below, share it with some friends or foes, and let me know your thoughts! I always appreciate the feedback 🙌

See you all next time,
Joe

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Immersive Locations

For me, Fallout 4 has always been about the thrilling adventures you can have between the main story.

This could just be wandering through the Commonwealth, discovering random encounters I’ve never seen before, or talking with NPCs that are new to me.

One of the best parts for me is finding new locations — especially areas that have horror elements, whether it was intentional or not!

I’ve talked about it before, but I love the immersion in Bethesda games. Ever since I first played The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion years ago, I can still find myself getting heavily immersed in the fantastical worlds from their titles. Fallout 3 was my first real taste of the Fallout franchise, and I was blown away by the quests and lore of this universe. It’s a topic for another day, but I played Fallout 3 so much that I ended up overheating and bricking my PlayStation 3 a long time ago! I just couldn’t get enough of what that game had to offer!

The locations in the Capital Wasteland were very unique to me, because I had no idea what I would run into! I could be diving into a town infested by Deathclaws, finding a simple raider base that needed clearing out, or uncovering a Vault that had a dark history of disturbing experiments. I especially fell in love with the locations that had deeper meanings, as well as the ones that made my skin crawl from how terrifying they were!

That same sense of intense wonder and desire for those horror elements transferred over to my experiences in Fallout 4, and I loved the adventures I had while out exploring and finding new locations in the Commonwealth!

For today, I want to jump into the top three locations from my time in Fallout 4 — with a heavy focus on the horror elements! There’re so many different spots to uncover, but I want to look back at the ones that really immersed me in this world that gave me chills. These will be locations that made me sit up in my chair a bit more, or areas that prompted me to turn up the volume so I could pay attention better to the environment. The places here may or may not surprise you, but they were ones that made my time in the Commonwealth worth it and extra memorable!

Let’s dive in!

Welcome to The Saved Game

First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome and send my thanks to you for the privilege and honor of your time!

My name is Joe, and The Saved Game is my gaming hub that is a space about video game nostalgia, new and old favorites, and finding ways to rekindle your love for why you played video games in the first place! Read more here about my Substack page and content!

If you would like to support my work and creative content, then take a look at my Ko-fi page using the button below! Thanks!

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The Museum of Witchcraft

When I first stumbled upon the Museum of Witchcraft, I couldn’t help but sense that the air was a bit heavier surrounding the decrepit building I was looking at. Beyond the name of the location, I was able to guess that this place was going to be an interesting spot to explore. I remember wandering around the nearby region when I came across this structure during my first playthrough years ago, and I was shocked at the horrifying experiences that followed me into the museum!

What I love about locations like the Museum of Witchcraft is that it subconsciously guides you to explore more of it. The main door in the front was chained, but in my mind, I wanted to learn more and figure out how I could get inside — no matter if it was tied to a quest or not. This prompted me to start searching around the outside, and I figured that there had to be a way to get in!

That’s when I practically tripped over the mangled body of a Gunner, named Private Hart!

Listening to Hart’s Holotape is grim, and you quickly come to realize that something deadly is inside the museum based on the lingering evidence that you listen to. The hatch to get into the basement of the museum is nearby the body, and as bad of an idea as it sounds, you know that you have to investigate — due to morbid curiosity if for nothing else!

Inside the museum is utterly creepy and horrifying. The malign atmosphere does wonders for setting the terrifying tone as you sneak your way through the lower level. Dust is slowly falling from the ceiling, with rotted skeletons and lit candles lining your path. Besides the in-game music that keeps your mind tense, you could practically hear a pin drop due to how quiet it is at first. However, as you move forward, the rumbling thumps and the snarls of a creature coming from the floor above you are enough to make you lean forward in your chair!

The main floor was a disaster of bloody body parts, emotionless mannequins, and a giant Deathclaw! Fallout plays with mannequins really well to fit creepy themes, and they absolutely did not hold back in the Museum of Witchcraft. All of them were positioned in a way that makes your skin crawl, and might cause you to take shots at one or two of them if you have trigger-happy reflexes.

Of course, the Deathclaw itself was a wonderful addition to really sell the horror of the Museum of Witchcraft. The way it slowly lumbers on top of the severed limbs and bodies from its victims painted such a grotesque picture. Having to take out a Deathclaw early on in the game, in close quarters, can also be an intense challenge!

This location was a reminder that nowhere in the Commonwealth was safe, and that some places might be best to leave alone to the new laws of nature that have taken over.

Dunwich Borers

The Dunwich Building in Fallout 3 stands as one of my favorite locations from a game of all time! I loved how it worked so well in the Fallout universe, and the unsettling atmosphere was perfect. As soon as you set foot inside, everything felt wrong in the best way possible. Your sense of direction was off, and the little details were disturbingly perfect. It was incredible to explore, and the Lovecraftian themes of cosmic horror inspired a lot of love I have for that genre and horror in general!

Going into Fallout 4, I was not surprised when I came upon the Dunwich Borers, a marble quarry that seemed innocent enough from the outside. As soon as I saw the name of the location, a slight chill ran up my spine and my excitement to explore it was beyond palatable.

Much like the Dunwich Building from the previous Fallout entry, the Dunwich Borers also had that similar eerie sense of… wrongness, or a feeling that you’re disturbing something that should’ve been left alone. There’s a heaviness in the air, as if a malevolent force was stirring behind your back, and that something more sinister could be around every corner. The lighting was intense, and was designed amazingly well to distract or mask out the truth below the dirt.

I loved how the location itself started off fairly normal, with it looking just like a typical raider camp inside the quarry that could be cleared out. Darker hints are left throughout the caves though, including some of the holotape logs, as well as on the terminals that direct your attention to something else going on in the depths below.

The atmosphere was wonderfully creepy and viscerally terrifying in Dunwich Borers! You are greeted by shocking flashbacks when you first visit, and you learn more about what happened from the original pre-War company and management team that worked there. The rumblings from the inner caves helped to audibly inform you that something wasn’t quite right. Flickering lights and electrical sparks in the dark emphasized that you were getting closer to uncovering something that was supposed to remain unseen. The deeper you went, the faster you realize that something is dreadfully wrong when the raiders are no longer the enemies, but rather, the feral ghouls are that start emerging — especially at the site of the ancient ritual chamber!

To me, Dunwich Borers goes deeper than just the supernatural, with heavy hints of sacrifices, the existence of an inexplicable god-like being, and a despair that still chills my bones. The flashback at the end of the quarry shines a light as to what likely happened to the old management team, now gruesomely transformed into feral ghouls that will attack you as soon as they notice any disturbances.

Dunwich Borers, and the whole rabbit hole of Dunwich in general, takes you on a horror-filled trip that makes you question reality. It also, to me, left a lot open to interpretation for why all of this was included down in the depths of this quarry. Does all of it truly exist in the lore of Fallout? Or was it all just a simple nod to H.P. Lovecraft?

Sometimes, the best of horror isn’t the ghost in the closet, but the forsaken existence of something that you wish you never found out about!

The Glowing Sea

The entire location of the Glowing Sea was a favorite of mine, and it really set a sort of in-game marker from the start of the game when you see a glowing, green haze off in the far distance at night!

Beyond the quests that guide you towards the Glowing Sea, I loved the exploration of it and how haunting it all was! Again, with the immersiveness in this game, I always imagined gearing up with the most powerful protection one could find against radiation, and heading out to find relics of the past or hidden locations within the green-tinted smog and intense radstorms!

The Glowing Sea was the type of location that would be terrifying to actually explore or venture into in a more survivalist setting. In the game itself, it’s easy to not take it too seriously when your character can stockpile a hundred RadAway and Rad-X in your inventory, but my recommendation is to try a playthrough in Survival mode to see how vastly different it is! It makes expeditions a matter of life and death, and sets up its atmosphere to be way more haunting when you see a distant silhouette of a Deathclaw, the sudden surprise of a Radscorpion, or when you come across a pack of feral ghouls!

The atmosphere and overall environment are what truly makes this location a haunting experience. Beyond the dangers, it’s humbling to stumble on places or things from a forgotten past within the smog. The Skylanes Flight 1665 airplane was a poignant reminder about the impacts from the bombs, especially when the mayday call can be heard on your radio from the pilots — hundreds of years beforehand as they described the plane going down! The thought of being in those pilot’s shoes when they realized what was happening would’ve been horrifying!

Likewise, it could be as simple as finding an old suitcase, or the scattered remains of someone from many years before, that really makes you realize how bad the devastation was from the bombs. When focused on the immersiveness and tragedy of what happened, you can really home in on how frightening this entire location really is!

The Glowing Sea is a vast landscape of radioactive storms and a green, hazy sky. But, underneath the rubble and dust are the remnants from the horror that took place over two hundred years before!

Many More Locations to Discover

In Fallout 4, there are a lot of other places to explore and discover!

Wandering and searching around throughout the Commonwealth is one of my favorite things to do in this game — even after as many hours as I have put into it. I love the atmosphere, and just how incredibly immersive a lot of the locations are in this game! The horror-filled places are ones I especially love, but there are so many more areas to uncover too!

When you launch up Fallout 4 next time, I implore you to take your time when out exploring. Put yourself in the shoes of your character, and treat it as if you’re really a part of this world. Grab some good-quality headphones too, because they’ll help for sure! It’s also worth checking out some immersion mods too (even on consoles), which can really help to create an atmosphere that’s a bit more akin to a dreadful apocalypse compared to the vanilla game. You might be surprised at how differently you view this expansive world, and how you interact with the locations within it!

Thank you for the honor and privilege of your time! It means a lot that you’re here, and I appreciate your readership!

If this article meant something to you and you enjoyed it, then please drop some love on it down below, share it with some friends or foes, and let me know your thoughts! I always appreciate the feedback 🙌

See you again,
Joe

Check Out the Previous Entries

My Fallout 4 articles are a series! Check out my previous entries down below!

What are Your Thoughts

I want to hear from you!

What is your experience with Fallout 4? Have you played it?

What are your favorite locations in this game? Or, do you wish that there was something else different with the locations from Fallout 4? What do you think is the most terrifying location in Fallout 4 with horror elements?

Leave a comment

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Happy Monday

Hope you all are doing well!

For today, I wanted to jump into some organizational thoughts! I can’t believe it’s already February, and there’s been some neat tools I’ve been messing around with to stay on top of things!

Afterwards, I have a few games (including Dispatch on the Nintendo Switch 😬) that I’ve been playing lately! I’ll have some thoughts on those at the end!

Let’s jump into it!

As a reminder, if you did not receive this post in your inbox but would like to get these blogs sent to your email, then you can do so by following this quick guide to opt-in! Thanks 🙌

What’s Been Going on in My World?

The main thing I’ve been dealing with lately is keeping up with tasks!

I’ve been playing a few games, and we’ll jump into that in a bit. But first, I just wanted to go over some tools I’ve been using for getting better organized and the thoughts I have on them!

There’s also been a chunk of games I’ve played too over the past few weeks, and I’ll jump into that at the end!

Keeping up with Tasks

So, the first app that I’ve started using this year is Todoist!

It’s been awesome to be able to organize any thoughts or ideas I have, and immediately type them out on this app. It then will sync on the web version, so I can organize them based on category or urgency. Credit and a huge thanks to for recommending it to me earlier in January!

Previously, I had used both Trello and ClickUp for task management — eventually settling on Trello. However, both of these apps seemed to have too much that I didn’t need, and they were both terribly slow on the web. Todoist is nice because of how simple it is, and because it works extremely well with how fast it is. I didn’t have to go in and set up a whole bunch of stuff or learn too much, aside from just a few basic projects I created.

With the mobile app, I can easily use its widget and type out something that pops in my mind, and reference it later — which takes about 5 – 10 seconds. It will initially put my thought or idea in my inbox, and then I can organize it later into a project. This is great because I can clear up my mind when an idea pops up, and then worry about it later. Each day, I’ll go through my tasks and organize them into their projects and give them a date I need to take care of them, so that I can tackle them as needed. Jeff Su had some good videos on some simple productivity methods that are worth checking out:

The free version of Todoist has been great so far for my needs. The paid version does let you use unlimited voice inputs (called Rambles) for the mobile app, which works shockingly well. It’s able to effectively organize your verbal notes by date too, which was pretty neat. Their pricing is a bit high ($60 per year), and I wish they had just a slightly cheaper plan — mostly for that voice feature.

Overall, it’s definitely worth looking into if you need a simple mobile/web app that can help you track tasks!

Keeping up with Ideas

Just recently, I’ve been giving Obsidian a go!

It’s free, so I figured it was worth giving a shot. There’s so much that can be done with this app, and I can see so many applications for it.

The main thing I was needing was an additional app for longer notes that I could better organize. Before, I was using either Apple Notes or even Google Docs to jot down notes I have, but they failed when it came to organization.

Obsidian has been really good so far at this in terms of organizing notes. I had to watch a few videos on getting it set up, but I also just started playing around with it too. A big thanks to and for their recommendations and for their advice! The one video by Odysseas that Inna shared has been very helpful, and I was able to get everything up and going pretty easily — though I made a few changes to my template note and some of the structure.

There are still a few things I’m getting acquainted with, but I love having my notes linked to others that allow me to form some insights that I may not have thought of before. More importantly to me though, I can now actually organize my notes into folders and am able to visually see them using the graph view, which is pretty neat and very useful!

For being a free program, I am more than happy to keep using Obsidian. It’s already been working out a lot better than either Apple Notes or Google Docs!

Keeping up with Time Management

Lastly, the main thing I’ve been slowly working on is finding ways to better manage and organize my time.

The main thing I’ve done with this is… literally deleting apps!

I’ve spent a ton of time on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, and more. Besides what I use for The Saved Game to help with marketing, I’ve been deleting apps from my phone and cancelling plans as I need to. I’ve been on the YouTube Lite plan for a long time, but I spend so much time on it. Cancelling it has helped prevent me from using YouTube so much in the past, just because of how many ads there are on the free plan.

Twitter/X has especially been a thorn in my side for a long time as far as endless scrolling is concerned, and I knew that I wanted to delete it. The only thing I really wanted to keep it around for was any breaking news. But even then, I figure that it’s about as good to just Google something nowadays.

I’ve already noticed that I’m spending less time on my phone endlessly scrolling. Likewise, I’m glad to not be bombarded with breaking news or just nonsense from random accounts I never had any interest in. It was really starting to wear on me mentally, so I’m glad that it’s helping to save time and also to clear up my mind a bit too.

There’s still more I should do better with time management, but I feel like I’ve taken some steps in the right direction.

Recent Games

The top game I played this past month was Katamari Damacy: REROLL on the PlayStation 4!

Of course, I played this mostly for my article I wrote a couple of weeks ago, but I just kept playing and wrapped up a playthrough of it! It was super fun, and I loved how hilariously quirky the gameplay and design of this game was. For more of my thoughts on it and experiences I had with it on the PS2 way back, definitely check out my article on this game!

Aside from that, I was dealt a bit of a blow when I pre-ordered Dispatch on the Nintendo Switch. I almost NEVER pre-order games, with the last pre-order I did being for Dark Souls II, which was close to 13 or so years ago. I figured that Dispatch would be good though because of the high praise the game got when it came out a few months ago, and I’ve been really looking forward to playing it. I knew that there were some edits to the artwork DLC from the Nintendo eShop, but I really thought that was going to be the extent of any changes.

However, the censorship on the Switch was a lot in the 2-ish hours I’ve played, so I’ve put it down for now to see if AdHoc Studios is going to release an update at some point to loosen it up. It was almost at the point of me laughing at it because of how in-your-face the censorship was, especially given the mature themes in the original game. At the very least, I feel like a lot of the humor has been stripped away in this version due to how much is censored, and it makes me wonder if anything else was changed. As reported by Nintendo Life, AdHoc did mention that they are seemingly working on a possible update in the near future to address it, so we’ll see what happens.

Throughout January, I’ve also made good progress in Sea of Stars on the Switch, and have been enjoying that game! It’s such a clean, easy-going title, and I’ve been loving it so far. The graphics are beautiful, and I love the characters. Garl is the type of friend I wish everyone could have in their life 😆

I put a good chunk of hours into Persona 5 Royal on the Switch. It’s been great so far, and I love it! As I mentioned before, I played the original edition back on the PS4, but I wanted to see how the Royal version was, and I got it for a great price on the Switch. The only thing holding me back from putting too much more time into it is just how long I know that game is going to take… My last playthrough of it on the PS4 took about 100 or so hours, and I just don’t know if I want to invest that much time into a game I’ve already played before instead of something new!

Lastly, I have been playing a bit of Code Vein on the PS4 over the past couple of weeks to see how I like that game. It’s been interesting so far, and I’ve gotten the hang of the combat and game mechanics. I’m honestly not really that invested in the story or characters at all though so far, and the world feels a bit boring to me. I still want to continue some more to see if my mind changes, and I’ll provide any updates later on!

Wrapping Up

Thanks for reading!

I hope something in today’s blog might’ve got you thinking a bit about organizing tasks, notes, or time! It’s been going good for me in January, and I hope to continue it through February as well and beyond!

I’ll be having a main article coming out on Thursday for a continuation on my Fallout 4 series, and I look forward to sharing that! I’m not planning on it being a huge write-up like my last one was for Piper, but it’s one that’s been on my mind lately!

Thanks again, and I look forward to chatting again soon.

See you all next time,
Joe

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Let’s Jump In

Welcome to this Game Save!

There’s been so much going on lately that has happened in the world of gaming news, and I’ll have a few topics that have been on my mind to go over today!

First up, I want to share some thoughts I have on the recent reveals from the latest Mario movie trailer, as well as the Nintendo Direct for the new Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream game! I’ll also be taking a look at the recent Developer_Direct from Xbox, as well as the continued decline of the Xbox console. Lastly, I had some things I wanted to share about the state of VR gaming and affordability, especially after the layoffs at Meta within their VR department!

After that, there are two fantastic creators who’ve written some insane articles over the past couple of weeks that I wanted to highlight for their awesome work!

Lastly, I’ll go over a few updates for The Saved Game and check out what’s coming up for February — including my collaboration article!

Let’s dive into it!

Welcome to The Saved Game

First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome!

My name is Joe, and Game Save articles go over some of the latest gaming news you may have missed along with some thoughts I have on them, reviews of games or accessories, as well as a Community Spotlight for articles that I loved! Read more here about my Substack page and content!

👑 Take a look at my recent main article on Katamari Damacy
💾 Check out my previous Game Save write-up
☕️ Read my latest Cup of Joe blog post

If you would like to support my work and creative content, then please take a look at my Ko-fi page using the button below! Thanks!

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My Thoughts from Recent Gaming News

As mentioned, there’s been a lot of stuff floating around with news in gaming!

The newly released PvP raid shooter Highguard has seemingly had the weirdest marketing ever since the Game Awards, and it’ll be fascinating to see how it works for them. Xbox had their Developer_Direct for some upcoming titles, with a beautiful-looking Forza game among others. Likewise, there’s just been so much talk I’ve seen online about the latest Mario movie trailer, as well as the news from this morning about the upcoming Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream game!

Let’s start there with some quick thoughts I have on Nintendo!

Nintendo Updates for Tomodachi Life

One of the biggest things from the past couple of weeks was the trailer for the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy movie! It’ll be releasing on April 1st of this year, and I’m looking forward to it. The first one was amazing, and I thought they did a great job with it.

In this latest trailer, they introduced Yoshi and Birdo, two classic characters that looked great!

Afterwards, Nintendo announced a new Nintendo Direct with a focus on the upcoming Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream game that happened today! In it, they talked a lot about this upcoming game that will be coming out soon, April 16th to be exact!

I had the first (in the US) Tomodachi Life for the 3DS, and it was fun! It wasn’t the type of game I wanted to play all the time, but I had some good memories with it! More so, I honestly think this new game looks fantastic based on the trailers from last year and from this recent update!

This Direct went over a demonstration for Living the Dream, all while following along the funny storyline for some of the Mii characters they created — especially Angie trying to find love! There were a wide range of customization options you can add to your Mii residents when creating them. They demonstrated how you can add in custom topics for your characters too, which looks like it could be a wacky and fun conversational way for your characters to get along! The Mii News Network and other shops looked amazing, and a lot of the visuals were as humorous as I remember from the 3DS version!

They also showed the Quik Build mechanic, which allows you to build out your island to your liking. You can add landscaping and decorative items, move shops and other buildings around, and even expand areas of land to customize your island! Compared to the 3DS version, it looks a lot more expansive than ever before!

The Mii characters also have Little Quirks, which are fun personality traits each of them has that you can discover and gift throughout the game. The animations for these were funny, and really showed the personalities that your residents can have! A neat thing too was having a lot of characters, up to eight, living together in the same house on your island — undoubtedly creating some hilarious moments!

You can also create specialized items using the Palette House, which lets you make and customize a variety of items your Mii residents will interact with, your house’s exterior, and even designs on the ground you can create!

Overall, a lot of the quirkiness from the 3DS version looks to be in this game, such as the hilariously text-to-speech voices, dialogue options, imaginative style of gameplay, and more! It looks like they took the 3DS version, tossed in some more Nintendo charm, and really expanded it out while maintaining the wacky style this series is known for!

At the end, they announced that Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream will be coming out on April 16th, 2026 for the Nintendo Switch and will be compatible with the Switch 2!

The Ongoing Death of Xbox

I was keen to watch the Developer_Direct that was released by Xbox last week. They showed off a lot of awesome-looking games, including a new Forza game as well as the much-anticipated Fable title that will be coming out this year!

I had heard the rumors at this point about Fable possibly making the jump over to other platforms. It’s not that surprising to me to have seen this given the trajectory that Xbox has taken for the past few years with other Xbox titles coming to the PlayStation. But, my anticipation was high when the Fable part came up in the stream!

When Fable was being discussed, I couldn’t help but fall in love with a lot about this game based on what they showed! The British style of humor really stands out to me, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to what Richard Ayoade is going to bring for his role. I also really loved the open-world RPG aspect, and how beautiful it all looked. Everything with this game just looked fantastic! Then at the end, they announced with a confirmation that it will also be coming to PlayStation as well when it’s released later this year!

I know that much has been talked about with Xbox and what has happened over time with them, but I want to dive a bit more with some thoughts I had about their decline since 2013, and what I worry about with the PlayStation possibly being the only choice for console gamers in the future. I can’t help but feel like their decisions to put some of their most well-known franchises (Halo, Gear of War, Flight Simulator, etc.) onto their competitor’s console is a bit odd.

I think competition is a good thing to help stoke fresh ideas and content, especially for consumers. To me, it’s a way for those with the purchasing power to tell a company what they like or don’t like as far as their direction goes — as well as to have some influence by how much time consumers are willing to spend on a game.

I couldn’t help but see this as clearly as possible when the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were announced at E3 back in 2013. Sony quickly took over with the PS4 when they announced its lower price tag. Then, they practically ridiculed the Xbox brand about the issue of DRM and used games, and how they seemingly made it clear that Sony cared more about gamers than Microsoft did by keeping the focus on the games, instead of other all-in-one features the Xbox One was being marketed for. I still remember watching Sony’s video about sharing used games when it first came out, and couldn’t believe how much they kept sticking it to Xbox!

All the while, Microsoft seemed to be the ones responsible for how badly the Xbox One was received back then. As reported by Business Insider in 2022, Sony ended up selling over twice as many PS4 consoles than Xbox did for the eighth-generation of consoles. Fast-forward to the mid-2020s, and I can’t help but feel like Xbox is continually making these decisions that are just driving gamers to other platforms.

I wish we lived in a world where Xbox focused their hardware on the gamers, and demonstrated that they could innovate beyond what they’ve been doing for the past several years. It feels to me that their choice of innovating lately is by becoming a publisher for other platforms. The Xbox ROG Ally seemed to be an interesting choice to compete with the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch consoles, but I can’t help but feel like this was another step in a weird direction. This past holiday season was telling when the relatively unknown, motion-controlled Nex Playground ironically outsold Xbox hardware, as reported by GameSpot.

My worry is the thought of PlayStation becoming the go-to for a general console, and becoming so large that it stifles any competition in the console space. Even though the PS5 seems to be an excellent console right now and I’ve been playing on Sony consoles my whole life, it makes me wonder if them having less competition in the future might reduce their creative output? Would they be able to force prices higher? Will future Sony consoles be the only choice for a standard console experience?

Time will tell. However, my hope is that Xbox is able to revive some form of devotion that people once held for their brand. I’d love to live in a future where I can have a selection to choose from, and not be forced to only purchase between a Sony console or what Nintendo decides to make in the future.

The Disappearing Metaverse?

One of the bigger stories that came out over the past few weeks that I wanted to share some thoughts on has to do with the layoffs at Meta in their VR department.

I actually think the idea of a virtual world using a VR headset is pretty cool. It has always fascinated me to think of a world where Ready Player One or Sword Art Online could actually take place. But from the limited time I’ve spent playing with VR technology, I realized that the sci-fi future in my mind is either not here or locked away due to affordability.

This past month, Meta announced layoffs in their VR department. As reported by CNBC, about 1,000 people were let go from Meta’s “VR-related initiatives”. These also included people who were working on Horizon Worlds, a VR game from Meta Platforms, as well those working on Quest VR headsets. In an earlier report by CNBC, smaller gaming studios impacted by these layoffs include Armature Studio, Twisted Pixel, and Sanzaru. Likewise, the Horizon Workrooms VR application for remote teams/workers will also be shutting down in February, according to Business Insider.

In the first CNBC article, they looked at market research firm IDC, and what Research Manager Jitesh Ubrani said regarding the current state of VR headsets. Ubrani focused on the exclusivity of VR, and “characterized the VR headset market as niche and appealing to only a small segment of video gamers”.

The market has spoken … there are certain niche audiences that will continue to use these headsets, but it’s not going to be broadly appealing.

— Jitesh Ubrani, CNBC (2026)

But why exactly is VR not “broadly appealing”? To me, it’s less about the idea of wearing a headset all day, and more about the affordability and use cases of VR headsets and VR worlds.

While the Meta Quest 3S is somewhat affordable compared to where VR headsets were several years ago, now priced around $300, I can’t help but feel like the actual selling points for VR headsets were never made clear — especially from Meta. Are they simply novelties? Or meant more for video games? What exactly is the vision of the Metaverse and why do I need it? And is the $300 starting point already too much to find out if it would even work for me?

A report from Pew Research, titled The Metaverse in 2040, had some fascinating insights from experts. One that stood out to me was from Jason Hong, a professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute. He expressed skepticism for the use cases of VR in everyday life, as well as the practicality.

VR has been around for ages and works pretty well for some gaming situations, but what other use cases? Or, put more simply, will AR/VR offer enough value over existing smartphone + web, at a low enough ‘cost’ (price, usability, social acceptability, battery life) that it will take off? How many scenarios are there where AR/VR works better than a person whipping out their smartphone to get the same information? Sure, smartphone + web is not as dazzling or awe-inspiring, but it’s cheaper to make, easier to program and it gets you probably 80%-90% of the way there.

— Jason Hong, Pew Research (2022)

To me, the idea of people just shrugging and using their phones instead of another device, as Hong suggested, might be one of the largest factors as to why people are not investing into VR as companies would’ve hoped.

Why get something else for several hundred dollars (or significantly more) when your current device already works?

The appeal of a VR headset to me has just been for the novelty of it. As I said at the start, I love the idea of an immersive virtual world using a VR headset, and something I could use for working on stuff, but I never understood the purpose of current generation VR headsets. I would love a future where someone creates or further develops a better product that is not only cheaper to invest in upfront, but also one that has a clear vision for my needs and succinctly explains why I would need it.

Hopefully, the future will have some new developments in the VR headset environment. I also hope that those impacted by these layoffs will find more work soon, so that they can continue to ideate for the future of VR. I look forward to seeing what might happen, and hope that a better, more affordable, and better-marketed product will be on the horizon.

What are your thoughts on these topics?

• How did you like the trailer for the new Mario movie coming out? Did you have any thoughts on the new Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream game?

• What are your opinions on the trajectory Xbox has taken for the past several years? Do you have any idea as to what their goals will be in the future?

• Have you ever used Meta’s Metaverse? Do you plan to? What are your feelings for the impact their recent layoffs will have for VR gaming?

Leave a comment

Community Spotlight

For today, I have two fantastic articles to spotlight from the past few weeks that made a huge impact on me! The authors really captured some of the emotional aspects of video games, and they did so brilliantly!

The first one by Amanda really hooked me in with her story about the emotional impact that Nintendo had throughout her life’s journey. The second series of articles by Mindful Gamer spoke to the detail of games that really breathe life into them, though they often go unnoticed.

Let’s jump in!

An Emotional Journey with Nintendo

wrote a beautiful article called A love letter to Nintendo and the games that made me, and I absolutely loved the emotional story that Amanda took the reader on!

In this article, Amanda wrote about the entire journey with Nintendo that inspired the person she became! Throughout it all, I resonated with so many of the memories that were shared. More so, I loved the overall theme about the impact that video games can have on someone’s life, and how they can positively influence people — even with the direction of their careers or through hard times!

Nintendo and their games have stayed with me for a long time, ever since my Game Boy Advance I got as a kid (along with one of my favorites, Mario Kart: Super Circuit)! I’m still holding onto that handheld, as well as many other consoles and games I have from Nintendo too, just because of the important memories that I connect with them. The rich worlds that Nintendo created in their games over the years makes me so nostalgic, and Amanda brilliantly wrote about so many of them in her write-up that made me reminisce of my own childhood! Her way with words was fantastic, and I loved the heartfelt journey she told with the wonderful descriptions and emotions that were eloquently portrayed so clearly in her writing!

If you have not read this article, then I implore you to take about ten or fifteen minutes out of your day to read through it! I promise that you’ll come away with a wonderful experience from the journey and emotions that Amanda wrote about, and you will see how much Nintendo can make an impact in someone’s life!

All Things Games with Amanda Lynn

A love letter to Nintendo and the games that made me

This is not the first time I’ve shared this story, nor will it be the last…

Read more

3 months ago · 5 likes · Amanda Lynn

The Unseen Details Behind the Scenes

created two amazing articles titled The Quiet Hands Behind the Worlds We Play (Part 1 & Part 2) that are well-worth taking a look at!

There will be moments where I’ll sit back and think a bit deeper on the moving parts in life that keep the world moving. Perhaps it’s when I’m on a plane up in the air, or driving through a massively constructed highway overpass, or just shopping at the mall — there’s just so much that goes on in the background from the hands who made it all possible that can be easy to ignore. Mindful Gamer’s articles really touched on this aspect when it comes to video games! I loved the way they wrote about the small things that really add to the immersion in video games. There are so many things I have never put too much thought into, like the audio needing to be perfected, or the way lighting needs to be tweaked just right, or a multitude of other parts that make up a successful game, but they are things that truly make a huge difference.

In a way, I’ve often given more notice to the bad parts of game design, since they stand out so much. But these articles by Mindful Gamer reminded me that taking the time to pause and reflect on the quieter moments are worth it — even when everything is working fine! These moments may not seem like much, or they may leave a yearning for more, but it’s a wonderful reminder that it took a lot of love, dedication, and work to make those quiet moments matter for your experience!

These articles are absolutely worth checking out, and I would highly recommend doing so! They serve as wonderful reflections, and I think they’ll give you a lot to think about too!

Mindful Gamer

The Quiet Hands Behind the Worlds We Play

You Weren’t Supposed to Notice…

Read more

3 months ago · 7 likes · Mindful Gamer

What's Next & Closing

Thanks all for reading, I appreciate it!

The main update I have is for my upcoming Collaboration Article! Unless if something major happens, it will be coming out on Thursday, the 19th of February! I am accepting submissions from subscribers for it until the 13th! I’ve already received a good number of wonderful entries for it, and would love some more! If you have the time, please take a look at this Note I posted and feel free to DM me a response:

I will also be posting my upcoming Main Article next Thursday on February 5th! I’m looking forward to this one, because I will be continuing my Fallout 4 series! More details will be shared soon!

Until then, I thank you for the honor and privilege of your time in reading today’s Game Save! It means a lot that you’re here, and I appreciate your support!

If this article meant something to you and you enjoyed it, then please drop some love on it down below, share it with some friends or foes, and let me know your thoughts! I always appreciate the feedback 🙌

See you all next time,
Joe

Support and Connecting

Would you like to keep seeing my content and creative work?

I put time and effort into the writing, designs, and creation of these write-ups, and I would love to keep doing them! If you would like to support my work, then view my Ko-fi page using the button below! Thanks!

Sign Up for New Content 📥

View My Ko-fi

Share

Follow me on Instagram or Bluesky for post updates, nostalgic thoughts, and more!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesavedgame/
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The Start of a Creative Adventure

I was greeted by a brief flash and a high-pitched hum that emitted from my 13” Panasonic CRT/VCR combo television. This massive tube TV took up valuable space on my desk, but I was completely fine with it on this day. I sat up a bit more in my old office chair, and fumbled around a PlayStation 2 game case in my hands out of pure excitement while trying to get the disc out!

I finally clicked the disc into place in my Slim PlayStation 2, and turned it on after closing the lid. The usual PS2 startup sound played from the tiny speaker on my TV, a familiar tone I was well-acquainted with at that point, and I waited for a pretty unique-looking game to load for the first time.

It was shortly after Christmas Day in the mid-2000s, and I was with family and friends when launching up that game, Katamari Damacy, on my PS2 for the very first time. It was a copy that a family member had, and I was thrilled when I got my hands on it. I had seen some gameplay of it at that point, and I couldn’t wait to play it!

When the opening animation played, I was both enthralled and enticed by the use of color and from the quirky music that started right up. The visuals from this game were shocking, but in the best way possible!

I didn’t realize it at the time, but as I was sitting in my room in front of that old TV, it never clicked in my head that this game would stick in my heart and mind for years to come!

Looking back on it, Katamari Damacy has left a creative mark in video game history. While not initially being a huge success sales-wise, it’s gone on to be hosted in the New York Museum of Modern Art, praised by critics and gamers for its unique design and creativity, and even had its core gameplay mechanic patented!

For today, I want to jump into those factors, but I also want to take a look at this uniquely hilarious game by sharing some of my own nostalgic memories with it that you might resonate with! More importantly, we’ll be seeing what made it such a fantastic game, and why it’s worth your time to play it nowadays!

Let’s get rolling!

Welcome to The Saved Game

First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome and send my thanks to you for the privilege and honor of your time!

My name is Joe, and The Saved Game is my gaming hub that is a space about video game nostalgia, new and old favorites, and finding ways to rekindle your love for why you played video games in the first place! Read more here about my Substack page and content!

If you would like to support my work and creative content, then take a look at my Ko-fi page using the button below! Thanks!

Want More? Join Other Subscribers Now 🔥

View My Ko-fi

Make Something Fun

When I settled back into my squeaky office chair in front of my tube TV back then, I was visually blasted from the vibrant colors and whimsical designs that displayed across the screen from Katamari Damacy!

That old CRT television I had was tiny, well… the screen that is! The massive size of the actual tube section stood out in my old room like sore thumb, and it felt like a workout just to move it! Still, it lasted me for years when I played my PS2, and was something that added to the whole experience. I have fond memories of the classic design from that TV, and I have so many warm memories with it!

At the time, I had never experienced anything like Katamari Damacy before. The tutorial for it was short, but told me everything I needed to know, with the manual having plenty of fantastic references too if I needed it. The shock at first was just how vibrant the world was. Back then, as much as I loved my PS2, I had never played anything else like it — it was totally new to me!

Keita Takahashi, the creator of Katamari Damacy, seemed to be the type that wanted to try something new. As reported in a Gamasutra (now Game Developer) article from 2005, Takahashi talked about the goal of wanting his work to be exciting, fun, and positive in a world that has many problems. He wanted to make people happy!

In terms of design though, Takahashi really just wanted to create something new that would be easily understood, something funny, and something that could only be done in videogames. Choices for gameplay style seems very narrow these days … that the game industry is in a period of stagnation. As a result, videogames have also become narrow as a form of expression also.

He wasn’t out to create a game into which a player could escape, nor a device for relieving/venting frustration. He just wanted to make something fun, that would make people smile.

— Brandon Sheffield, Gamasutra (2005)

The characters were incredibly fascinating with their designs. The King of all Cosmos, being one of the first characters I got sight of when I launched it from the opening animation, was hilarious to me with his style! Nothing made much sense, but I was okay with that. It quickly became normal to not be surprised by anything, and to just soak it all in!

As soon as I started up the actual game, I fell in love with the overloaded sights I would see whenever I turned the Prince around to see something new. My mind would be busily processing all the new things I saw whenever I looked in any direction!

It was a weird game, there was no doubt about that, especially in my mind back then when everything else I knew about gaming was very different. Nothing quite prepared me for the visual style that Katamari Damacy possessed. But, all of the surreal designs worked so well. Looking back on it, this game would’ve been much stranger if it wasn’t as creatively designed as it was.

Rainbows were coming out everywhere, animals were singing, the music was vibrant and bright, and the overall tone was nothing like I would ever imagine seeing!

If there’s one main reason to play this game, it’s because of how joyful it is with all of the bright and fun designs — as well as its ability to just put a smile on your face while playing it. It wonderfully immerses you in this odd world, and doesn’t hold back. It lets you know from the start that this is going to be a creatively wacky experience, overflowing with vibrant designs, and containing shockingly addictive gameplay!

The Addictive Style of Gameplay

As the years went by, I was never surprised that I would come back to this game.

Something about the gameplay of Katamari Damacy was shockingly addictive, and I loved how fun it was. It is the type of gaming experience that you can come back to years later, without even thinking of it. To me at least, it was a game that I just associated with the PS2!

Let’s talk about the controls. At first, back in the mid-2000s, I just about quit playing because of how odd they were to me! The way you used both of the analog sticks was bizarre to me, but at the same time, isn’t that the overall vibe of this game — to be different and push the creative boundaries a bit? It was easy for me to get invested into it after playing for a few hours, and honestly, I got used to the controls! Charging up and launching yourself towards a direction was fun, and I loved the chaos that often followed when objects were knocked off of your katamari or if the camera angle went haywire!

The story is very unique, and it was the aspect I never paid too much attention to. The story was pretty surreal, which complemented how wild the gameplay was. The whole idea of rolling up random objects, foods, animals, and even people was hilarious to me! But, it gave me an early glimpse into the style of games that were coming out of Japan that I had never experienced before. It was not the type of game I ever played for the story, but rather for the humorous and fun gameplay!

The challenges were fun. Even though the gameplay itself could be a bit repetitive, I loved the time limits and the challenges to roll up a large enough katamari or to collect enough objects of a certain type. The levels themselves were fun, in that they were very reactive to your katamari and character. I loved how some of the entities (cats, sheep, angry people with shopping carts, etc.) would either chase after you if your katamari was small, or end up running away in a humorous fear if your now-huge katamari was barreling towards them!

Nothing really prepared me for the music when I first played, which was something that supported the gameplay in a near-perfect way. The tunes were upbeat, and I loved the rhythmic style that it gave the overall experience. Lonely Rolling Star was the type of song that just sticks with you, even years down the road. I know it has for me, where I’ll randomly just start humming it. I could be rolling up some dough for bread in the kitchen, and that song will pop in my head!

The gameplay was so unique to Katamari Damacy that the element of rolling up objects was actually patented by Namco. GameSpot reported on this in a write-up, and went into details on how the patent actually works.

…Namco's patent [from Katamari Damacy] also covers the nitty-gritty of how objects are stuck to the ball to ensure the overall shape remains sphere-like, from the way the angle at which acquired stuff sticks out of the ball to the way objects alter the rolling characteristics and calculation of total mass.

— Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot (2012)

Admittedly, it makes me a bit sad that this gameplay element is locked away from others trying out new things with it! Katamari Damacy did an amazing job with its quirky gameplay, and I hope they continue to iterate on it, since they’re the only ones that would be able to!

The gameplay from Katamari Damacy was hilarious, it was strangely addictive, and it has held my attention for close to two decades now — a lasting legacy that sets this game apart!

The Legacy of Katamari Damacy

Over the years, that old CRT television I had got older. It collected dust, the built-in VHS player would no longer read tapes, the remote got lost at some point (or was stolen by a thieving, but hopefully well-meaning family member), and it just got phased out when I picked up my first HDTV in the early 2010s — a beautiful 22” Polaroid HDTV!

The thing that has still stayed with me over all these years was my PS2, and I will often start it back up to play a lot of games, as I talked about in a previous article I dedicated to that system! Nowadays, I’ll often launch it up to relive some of the memories I have from the games I loved. The one that always comes back to mind is Katamari Damacy because of how much it impacted me. When it first launched though, I’m not sure anyone knew what type of legacy it would leave behind!

The sales for Katamari Damacy were mostly unimpressive after a strong first week, but gradually rose upwards over time. Initial sales in Japan fell short of expected goals after it first released. Namco had targeted over half a million units sold in Japan, as reported by IGN back in 2004, but only surpassed those numbers about two years later in 2006, according to GameSpot. However, it was received extremely well by critics and others through steady growth over time and an almost cult-like following.

The majority of reviewers praised Katamari Damacy, with it gathering high marks from IGN, EuroGamer, and plenty more. The Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization handed it the Good Design Award for its excellent design, a first for video games since the organization’s existence that started from the 1950s, as described by 1Up. Years later, it would be named among lists for being one of the best games, such as in USgamer and The Guardian. Personally, I have never met anyone that’s played it that has said anything negative about this game — with most praising its creativity!

In 2012, the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) had an exhibition called Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000. This art exhibit included “…school architecture, clothing, playgrounds, toys and games, children’s hospitals and safety equipment, nurseries, furniture, and books.” Out of all of the various works they displayed, one of them was Katamari Damacy (seen here on the back wall)!

For its page on the MoMA website, now in an archived format, they described Katamari Damacy as being a game where “…players of all ages can interact in a creative, surreal way with ordinary object and built environments.” Carlson Choi, then Vice President of Marketing for Namco Bandai Games America, said through an article by VentureBeat in 2012 that “Namco Bandai Games’ Katamari Damacy has touched countless people, from children to adults, and is truly a modern video game classic.”

Should You Play Katamari Damacy Now?

The wonderful thing about Katamari Damacy is that you can find it on the eighth-generation of consoles nowadays, including the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, marketed and sold as Katamari Damacy REROLL!

If you’ve played it before, then I think you’re well acquainted with the quirkiness that is offered in this game. If you haven’t had the chance to experience it though, then I would highly recommend picking it up! It’s absolutely the type of game that someone needs to play at least once in their lifetime, and is one that I’m sure you’ll be able to make many happy memories with!

Katamari Damacy is not only a fun game that should be in every gamer’s collection, but it’s one that deserves to be played!

Thank you for the honor and privilege of your time! It means a lot that you’re here, and I appreciate your readership!

If this article meant something to you and you enjoyed it, then please drop some love on it down below, share it with some friends or foes, and let me know your thoughts! I always appreciate the feedback 🙌

See you again,
Joe

What are Your Thoughts

I want to hear from you in the comments below 👇

Have you ever played Katamari Damacy, or any of the Katamari games? What are your favorite memories with it?

What are your thoughts about this game being fondly remembered with its legacy? Even for it being included in an exhibit by the New York Museum of Modern Art or having its rolling mechanic patented?

Leave a comment

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Happy Monday

Today’s blog will be a bit different!

I want to go over some of my thoughts on healthy eating and exercising!

Yeah, not the most glamorous topic for a Monday 😆

But, it’s a topic that I’ve had a back-and-forth relationship with for years. I’ve had seasons where I’ve done really well health-wise, and my aim is to get back into a habit of living a much healthier lifestyle in 2026. My hope is that by writing all of this out and reminding myself of what I know, I can motivate myself a bit — and perhaps you too 😉

Down below, you’ll find some of my ideas and resources for how I’ve lost weight and lived healthily in the past, tips for making exercise a regular part of your life, and recipes that are super easy!

It’s been in my mind lately to write out some ideas and resources, so that others could find some usefulness for the methods that have worked well for me in the past.

Let’s jump into it!

As a reminder, if you did not receive this post in your inbox but would like to get these blogs sent to your email, then you can do so by following this quick guide to opt-in! Thanks 🙌

What’s Been Going on in My World?

I normally do not make resolutions for the new year. Now that we’re a few weeks into 2026 though, I feel like it’s time to get back on track with a healthier lifestyle, with a hope I have of getting in better shape throughout the year, dropping a few pounds, and getting back into a regular habit of exercising!

I’ve done this before with good success, so I’ve accumulated some resources and thoughts over time.

Fixing the Pantry

One of the best things I’ve done in the past is getting rid of junk foods that are high in calories or with added sugars. Drinks that contain sugar or have excess calories are the first thing to look at switching out, as they have a lot of “empty calories” that just add up over time.

Fast foods should be thought of as a “Last Resort” type of meal, mostly because of the processed ingredients they contain and how demotivating they can make you feel. I’ve been there in the past, well… maybe just a few weeks ago… where I’ll feel like trash after a McDonald’s run, and my ability to function throughout the rest of the day is almost non-existent, all while wishing I fueled myself with better foods.

I’ll be honest too, and I don’t think that this is an unpopular opinion anymore, but fast food also sucks nowadays with how expensive it is!

There are so many whole or healthier foods to keep on hand in the pantry and fridge:

• Fruits are amazing

• Greek yogurt is super flexible

• Popcorn (not the loaded, buttery type 😅) is a fast snack

• Nuts are great in moderation

• Lean meats can be grilled with vibrant seasonings

• Frozen fruits/veggies can save a ton of time

• …and more!

Water is awesome with a squeeze of lemon, and teas (hot or iced) can be perfect throughout the year! I’m still iffy about diet sodas, but I’ve kept them in moderation and have done fine with them.

Keeping track of calories and macros can take time, but it’s a good method to see what your CICO (calories in, calories out) is. If you’re new to tracking, then keep it simple. Maybe, don’t even worry about counting fruits and veggies at first, but keep the focus on foods that are denser in calories, such as nuts, oils, etc.

I use a Google Sheet, where I input the macros for the foods/drinks I have, which then adds up the total macros in a separate column. After that, I just need to copy and paste it if I eat the same thing again! There are plenty of templates out there, as well as a lot of apps that can help with this!

YouTube has been a lifesaver when it comes to finding quality recipes that are healthy!

One of my favorite channels, for literally years now, has been The Protein Chef! He has some amazing recipes that I’ve made many times.

Seriously, check out one or two of his videos I’ve linked below, and you’ll be shocked at how easy, filling, and nutritious his recipes are 💪

He also adds up the macros/calories at the end of each video, which is helpful. I love his positive personality and attitude, as it makes his videos fun to watch!

Here are some of my favorite recipes, along with one or two of my own:

Cottage Cheese Mac and Cheese

I love this recipe, since I’m a lover of all thing mac and cheese! In the video, he uses a blender/food processor for the cottage cheese, but I’ve made it without doing that and it turns out fine — all while saving a lot of time!

When I’ve made it with protein pasta, I can easily get about 20g of protein per serving, and about 300 calories each. It’s very filling, and one that can easily go with some chicken, ground beef, or tuna for more protein!

Protein Brownies (That Taste Shockingly Good!)

This recipe is a breeze to make, and is one I’ve made so many times with a lot of different variations!

I love this version as it doesn’t use eggs or flour, so cleanup is fast. I’ve also added roasted pecans, chunks of dark chocolate, and other toppings before to add to the taste! I will normally bake it in a 9x13 inch pan, and have plenty of leftovers to keep in the fridge or to freeze!

Easy Protein Bars

These protein bars do not require baking, and are super simple!

They are a bit higher in fat, so I don’t make them often, but they are a nice treat I’ve made every now and then! Sometimes I’ll add in chopped nuts, Chex cereal, or even popcorn! Once I cut them up into little squares, they essentially turn into healthy versions of Reese’s Peanut Butter bars!

Overnight Protein Oats

I’ve made my own overnight protein oats for a while, as they are super quick to eat in the morning, are packed with protein, and taste really good!

• 17g (or about 1/2 scoop) Protein Powder

• 120ml 2% Milk

• 16g Sugar free SunButter, or a typical peanut butter

• 40g Rolled Oats

Mix all of those ingredients together in a bowl, wrap it with some plastic wrap, and leave it in the fridge overnight! You can easily add in some frozen fruits, or even a bit of dark chocolate to add some sweetness!

The macros were always pretty good and balanced. For the above example, I would get about 350 calories, 30g of protein, 15g of fat, and about 35g of carbs.

Meal Preps

For my style of cooking, I’ll focus on a main protein such as chicken breast or a lower fat ground beef, and cook up a week’s worth at a time. I don’t follow a strict recipe, because I tend to just throw in various spices or mix it up some with rice and veggies! I’ll often bake up some chopped sweet potatoes, or other veggies to serve as a side.

On occasion, I’ll throw together a recipe for tacos, or orange chicken, or more of a mixed bowl that can be easily stored. Jack Ovens on YouTube has some pretty good recipes for meal prep foods!

One thing I love to do with the ground beef is to build out easy casseroles with corn shells and shredded cheese in a 9x13 inch pan, so that I can easily spilt out sections of it for meals. With a little Pico de gallo, it can turn a beef casserole into a vibrant, protein-rich dish with eight or so servings and fresh ingredients!

Exercise Mindset and Ideas

Sadly, exercise is often put down for being devoid of positivity — with it often seen as a chore or annoyance rather than a gift, or an opportunity.

If you’re able to exercise and get outdoors to run, or if you can lift weights in a gym, or ride a bike on a trail, or a lot more that can get you physically moving, then perhaps it’s possible to think of that as a blessing or a way to count yourself lucky? I imagine there’s quite a lot of people that would love to be able to move around more freely for physical activity, but literally can’t for one reason or another.

Don’t you owe it to yourself to make sure that you use that gift to the best of your ability, or at least to work on it if you’re able to?

One of the main things I always try to do is make something positive out of a workout. Whether that’s lifting weights, running, or walking outside, it’s always good to make it mean something more than just checking it off of a list.

Maybe you can make exercising your time, where it’s only you and your thoughts that are set aside for your workout period. Perhaps you can listen to some new music, a popular podcast, or an audiobook that you’ve been looking forward to. Getting out in a group with others might also be a great way to make a workout fun. Just keeping track of exercising and losing weight can be a huge motivator as well, especially when the results show up in the mirror or from clothes fitting better!

Likewise, if you’re more structured, you could try to gamify the process by telling yourself that you have to exercise once per day or a few times per week before doing something you like — maybe even before playing a new game or making a new purchase!

Once you get in the habit of showing up over the course of a few weeks, no matter the type of exercise, it’s super easy to keep going with it and getting the work done! It almost becomes a sort of circulating form of a self-fulfilling prophecy that you’ll find yourself believing in. As your consistency continues to build from the work you put in, so does your motivation. The more you work on it and as you build it into a habit, the more you’ll want to keep up with it, and then you’ll gradually start seeing the results — which just prompts you to keep showing up and building momentum on that cycle!

For me, music has always been important when working out. I make the time I’m exercising a strictly me time. I turn my phone on silent, wear noise-cancelling headphones, and focus on my thoughts during my workout! I typically listen to workout-focused music that helps me tune out a bit and increase reps, and have been listening lately to Rob Bailey (link to 30 minute YouTube mix):

Lastly, my mindset has always been the fact that because time inevitably keeps moving, you’re going to end up as a version of yourself a year from now, and five years from now, and longer past that.

THAT version of you in the future is going be thankful for the time you invested in the gift of exercising, and grateful for the positive effects from those workouts that you’ve gained for your body!

Mental Health and Wellbeing

It’s often overlooked, but how we deal with stress can definitely be a huge factor for managing a healthy lifestyle, at least it has been in my life.

This article from Harvard put it in a way that should make people pay extra close attention to their own stress levels:

“Stress can manifest as recurring everyday health issues including headaches, stomachaches, chest pains, nausea, and indigestion. People under stress can also experience emotional problems such as irritability, difficulty concentrating, and withdrawal from friends and family.”

Everyone is different, but it’s a great idea to find things in your life that can help you unwind and destress.

Making time for friends, reading books, spending time in the morning sunshine, unplugging from the internet and social media for a bit can all help out in my opinion. Social media especially seems to be getting worse and worse with the amount of rage-bait and slop content out there, and the news in general is just so much to take in. I often wonder how much of a negative impact the constant flood of worldwide news is having on our minds nowadays compared to the pre-internet, or even pre-smartphone times.

When paired with healthy eating and regular exercise, whatever that might look like for you, you can absolutely help yourself with managing a healthy mindset in my opinion. I know in my life, I’ve felt the best when I’m seeing positive results from a healthy lifestyle, and that always eases my stress levels! Stretching after workouts for a bit always helps me relax too, and is a fantastic way in my mind to help relieve stress. Again, YouTube is your friend here to find stretching exercises that might help!

At the end of the day, it’s important to find what works best for you and to reassess what’s making an impact in your life — both good and bad!

Wrapping Up

Thanks for reading, and I hope that something in this post might’ve helped give you some ideas or impacted you in a positive way!

Switching to a healthy lifestyle can be a rewarding part of life. There’s so much out there on the internet or in products that promises to make things easier, but making small, manageable adjustments might be all it takes to get the ball rolling in the right direction!

It can take time, but the question I leave you (and myself) with is this:

What version of yourself do you want to be at this point next year, or five years from, or even longer past that?

If you’ve been living a healthy lifestyle, then that is awesome! Seriously, keep it up, and your body and mind will thank you for it! If not though, then today would be a fantastic day to start making those small, manageable choices with healthier foods and exercises that could help you towards living your best life!

Thanks again, and I look forward to chatting again soon.

See you all next time,
Joe

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Let’s Jump In

Welcome to this Game Save!

This is my first article after the holiday break, and it’s good to be back 👊

There’s been so much to talk about over the past month in terms of gaming news, as well as a lot of other things I want to go over today.

To kick things off, we’ll be taking a look at some recent news I’ve been wanting to talk about with Dispatch coming out on the Nintendo Switch (and wondering why it might’ve taken a bit longer), as well as a possible Fallout announcement dropping very soon based on a new countdown timer. Afterwards, I want to dive into my review for the demo of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, and why I think it’s worth your time to play it!

Lastly, we’ll be going over two amazing creators here in the gaming sphere of Substack and their recent work as part of today’s Community Spotlight, as well as a quick look at what’s coming up for The Saved Game!

Let’s dive into it!

Welcome to The Saved Game

First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome!

My name is Joe, and Game Save articles go over some of the latest gaming news you may have missed along with some thoughts I have on them, reviews of games or accessories, as well as a Community Spotlight for articles that I loved! Read more here about my Substack page and content!

🎢 Take a look at my recent main article on RollerCoaster Tycoon
💾 Check out my previous Game Save write-up
☕️ Read my latest Cup of Joe blog post

If you would like to support my work and creative content, then please take a look at my Ko-fi page using the button below! Thanks!

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My Thoughts from Recent Gaming News

There’s a lot of gaming news that came out over the past month while I’ve been on break!

Once again, there’s been plenty of rumors surrounding Grand Theft Auto: VI and the questions about it even getting released this year, news on the upcoming Fable game that will be getting some extended love at Xbox’s Developer_Direct broadcast, and the headlines about Sony seemingly patenting an AI assistant to help you while gaming. All the while, Razer unveiled their AI companion — a physical device named Project Ava that sits on your desk and “…provides real-time hype, celebrates your wins, and offers supportive encouragement after tough losses”, according to their website.

Yeah, we’ll see how that all goes 😅

For today though, I want to take a look at two topics I have an interest in. We’ll look at the updates about Dispatch coming to the Switch consoles, and some slight concerns I have as someone who has been looking forward to it. Then, I want to share some thoughts on the rumors for a new Fallout game with a recent countdown timer that was discovered, and what past timers have meant for the Fallout series!

Dispatch on the Nintendo Switch

I am super happy to see that Dispatch will be coming out on the Nintendo Switch in the next few weeks. I was hoping it would, and I look forward to being able to jump into it!

I first saw it on Twitter/X right before the Christmas holiday, where AdHoc Studio announced it will be releasing for the popular Nintendo consoles on January 28th, along with a 10% off pre-order discount.

According to Nintendo Everything, the free update for the Switch 2’s performance for this game will run at 60 frames per second at 1440p compared to the original Switch that will run that game at 30 frames at 720p.

Almost immediately though, I kept seeing some posts about changes and/or censorship with parts of it, especially regarding the art cover for the Dispatch Art and Comics Pack. Likewise, from what I have seen and from what Nintendo Life shared in their reporting (which includes the examples), it only appears that the US version appears to be changed. As far as what I’ve looked into, Nintendo has not commented on this, but AdHoc Studio did as seen further below.

I am mostly indifferent to this, though I definitely lean towards being against unnecessary censorship, and I wonder what the point was for a game like this. My gut feeling is that Nintendo could have placed some sort of requirement for this, or it could just be AdHoc Studio wanting to make a cleaner first impression on the eShop — despite the M for Mature rating. The main part that makes me pause is the thought of other possible changes that could’ve been made in the Switch version of the game, and I wonder if that’s why it took longer for it to come out for the Nintendo lineup? As someone who has not played it yet, it makes me wonder if I will get the same gaming experience as those who’ve played it on PlayStation or Steam?

Just within the past couple of days, a publication called GoNintendo had an interview with Natalie Herman, the lead producer for Dispatch, that also piqued my interest on this topic. In the interview, the answers by Natalie seemed very optimistic about the game overall and the port to the Switch consoles, and even hinted at a possible physical release for the Switch consoles. Regarding the censorship or possible changes to the game itself, there was a note at the very bottom in small print that mentioned they did ask about this, but were simply told this from AdHoc Studio:

…unfortunately, the studio cannot comment on the topic at this time.

— AdHoc Studio Statement, GoNintendo (2026)

It would be awesome if AdHoc Studio came out and reassured players if this was a one-and-done change or if there are more changes throughout the game. I talked in my last Game Save write-up about how popular this game became, and I hope that nothing takes away from the successes it’s had.

In any case, we’ll find out if they do make another announcement, or until the 28th of January in a couple of weeks when it releases!

Fallout 5? A Fallout Remake? And… Haven’t We Seen This Before?

With the popularity of the new Fallout TV series on Amazon Prime, there was a recent countdown timer that piqued my interest! I came across this in one of my social feeds, and I thank for commenting about it in one of my Notes last week!

If you head on over to this website, you can find an interactive map that seemingly guides you through some behind-the-scenes details about the TV series.

By dragging the map to the top, you can find a locked section…

…with a countdown timer! The date it counts down to seems to be the last day of the TV series ending.

But, is that all there is to it?

Let’s rewind back to over a decade ago, because countdown timers are not new for the Fallout franchise — for better or for worse.

PC Gamer reported on a popular countdown timer (The Survivor 2299 website) back in late 2013 that turned out to be a hoax/troll. However, I remember a lot of chatter back then about this being an official countdown that I was excited about, especially since it seemed to correlate with a supposed trademark being licensed for Fallout 4 around that time, as seen in this video by IGN.

Once it turned out to be fake, a lot of people were quite skeptical afterwards. Until, that is, in early June of 2015, when another countdown timer appeared. This one though was from Bethesda on their website that they officially tweeted out about, with a countdown that expired when the announcement trailer actually came out on June 3rd! IGN had a good video that covered the look of that countdown timer back then, and you can find it below:

So, I look at this latest countdown timer with both skepticism as well as hope. I would love to see a remake/remaster of one of the old games being announced, but I have my doubts that we’ll be seeing anything concrete about Fallout 5. However, in a recent BBC interview with Todd Howard, (Studio Head and Creative Director of Bethesda), he also very directly stated:

Fallout 5 will be existing in a world where the stories and events of the [Amazon] show happened or are happening.

— Todd Howard, BBC Interview (2025)

That makes me think there might be something in the future where Fallout 5 gets its own announcement alongside the show or close to it — I just have my doubts they would announce something this soon for it, given the backlash from how early the teaser was for The Elder Scrolls: VI back in 2018.

We’ll have to see what happens when this new countdown timer goes off. I’m fairly certain though, and hope, that it will be something of an announcement, either with a remake/remaster, or at least something to do with the show — and I look forward to finding out!

What are your thoughts on these topics?

• What are your thoughts on Dispatch coming out for the Nintendo Switch consoles? Do you think it’s an issue that some of the artwork appears to be switched or censored? Will you plan on playing it if you haven’t already?

• How do you feel about this latest Fallout countdown timer? Do you think it might be for something fairly non-consequential? Or, do you think it might be for a remake of Fallout 3/New Vegas, or even something new?

Leave a comment

TSG Review: Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Demo

What a blast this demo was!

Imagine being stuck on an island with nothing but never-ending water surrounding you for your whole life. But with the nudging from an adventure-starved friend named Kiefer as well as being joined eventually by the reluctant Maribel, you discover some ancient stone fragments that are the key for exploring beyond the waters — and possibly more!

It was announced a little over a week ago from Square Enix that Dragon Quest VII Reimagined would be getting a free demo that came out on January 7th, available for the Switch consoles, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam. As soon as I could, I downloaded it and started playing!

This was my first time I’ve played this specific Dragon Quest game, and I’ve only played Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2 and Dragon Quest XI on the PS4 previously. However, I’ve been a fan of these remakes for the past couple of years, as they seem to be getting a lot of things right and not drastically changing up things — with a focus more on improvements regarding the overall gameplay and visuals. It was fun to see this world reimagined in an updated way, and the environment came to life as I explored around, with the incredible music greatly enhancing my journey!

As a first time player, I quickly noticed how interesting the character designs looked in the animated sections compared to the other Dragon Quest games I’ve played. I could easily tell the designs were distinctly from Akira Toriyama, but they had a bit of a 3D animated Pixar-look to them as well. I wasn’t sure how I liked it from the opening movie or trailers, but I quickly came to love the designs as I played through it!

The storyline for this demo was fast-paced, and the writing was fantastic for what I played! It took me about 3 – 4 hours in total, but I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent talking to NPCs, as well as any of the main characters I came across. The characters were unique, funny, and memorable — with Kiefer being my favorite so far! There was never a moment that I felt lost, with the story and writing greatly enhancing the gameplay. I wholeheartedly look forward to picking up the full game soon to continue where I left off!

My only heads-up to you would be my recommendation to avoid looking up anything about this game if you plan on playing it, especially if you’re new to it. I say this so that you can avoid any spoilers. Since it was originally a PlayStation game from the early 2000s, as well as a 3DS version that later came out, it would be expected that there are a lot of spoilers already out there!

Regardless of the few spoilers I’ve unfortunately seen, I still plan on picking it up in the future. Of course, there’s my hope that Dragon Quest VIII gets the same remake treatment soon as well, as I would love to see how that would look on modern consoles!

If you’re a fan of Dragon Quest, JRPGs, or just a wholesomely fun game overall, then I would absolutely recommend taking a look at this demo and giving it a try! The few hours I put into it were worth it, and my anticipation to continue my journey is as high as it can be!

It is available now on the PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch Consoles, Xbox Series X/S, and on Steam!

Community Spotlight

For today’s spotlight, I have two incredible creators here on Substack I want to highlight. They consistently create amazing content and have done great things for the gaming community here, and one of the articles had me rolling on the floor laughing that you’ll definitely want to check out!

My Go-to for Gaming News and Leaks | GameDev Relay

has been my go-to for catching up on need-to-know news in the gaming world on his Substack, GameDev Relay! He has consistently posted up some absolutely fantastic, no-BS write-ups twice per week that make it easy to stay updated on news, leaks, and anything else I should be aware of as a gamer! This year started off strong with a list of his most exciting games for 2026! It was an awesome read, and I love his insights from his professional background in the gaming industry!

Gamedev Relay

🎮 The Most Exciting Upcoming Games of 2026 p.1

Read more

3 months ago · 22 likes · 14 comments · Alex Stasenko

Beyond that, Alex puts in a lot of time and effort to create true tributes to other creators and those in the gaming industry! I’ve been able to connect with a lot of them, and have gotten so many wonderful recommendations from his tributes! I also greatly appreciate the times that Alex has hosted some of my work as well! For the new year, he has also started up a YouTube channel that has been amazing!

I’ve loved the videos that Alex has done so far, and he has done an awesome job to bring his unique, professional experience to his video creations! I look forward to seeing his future and growth on that platform, as well as here on Substack! If you haven’t subscribed yet to either platform, then now is a great time so you can stay up to date on the latest gaming news that you need to know about!

A Wonderfully Weird Isometric Hospital Game

Never in my life would I have known about this wacky, business-simulation hospital game other than reading Chris’ recent article covering it!

wrote another fantastic piece, with this one focused on his memories of the game Theme Hospital, from the original PlayStation! While I share many of the familiar and nostalgic memories with Chris as he described the slightly confusing Christmas Day morning, or the brilliant details of the “Family PC”, or even the fuzzy experience of playing a console game that had to make sacrifices from its PC counterpart, I definitely did not share the memories with this game as I have never played it before — must less heard about it! However, I loved reading about Chris’ unique experiences with it!

This article on Theme Hospital was described so well with well-written wit and humor by Chris that had me smiling and laughing the whole way through while reading it! It was one of those write-ups where, once I finished, I immediately opened up a new tab to watch some YouTube videos of it, as well as listened to the soundtrack from this wild game — which was catchy indeed! All the while, with the awesome screenshots and images that Chris always provides, I fully understood what this type of game was just by his article alone!

If you want to relive some hilarious memories about Theme Hospital, or discover some new ones vicariously through Chris’ words, then I highly recommend you check out his article on this game and subscribe to him for more amazing content from the early years of the PlayStation consoles or other nostalgic hits!

94 'til Infinity

Why I Loved the Clunky, Chaos-Filled PlayStation Port of Theme Hospital

“Doctor, attend in psychiatry please…

Read more

3 months ago · 15 likes · 7 comments · Chris

What's Next & Closing

As I mentioned in my Thank You post at the end of 2025, I want to work on a collaboration write-up here on Substack in the near future, so keep an eye out on the Notes and in my Chat for that! I also plan to start up paid subscriptions as well here, and phase out my Ko-fi page. This will help as I keep writing, and I look forward to seeing what type of content I can create that will be worth subscribing for!

My next main article will come out next Thursday on the 22nd, and it will be on a PlayStation 2 game that literally makes me smile whenever I think about it! It’s fabulously bright, incessantly cheerful, and one that always makes me roll up my negative emotions and replace them with something a bit brighter!

Until then, I thank you for the honor and privilege of your time in reading today’s Game Save! It means a lot that you’re here, and I appreciate your support!

If this article meant something to you and you enjoyed it, then please drop some love on it down below, share it with some friends or foes, and let me know your thoughts! I always appreciate the feedback 🙌

See you all next time,
Joe

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It’s Good to be Back

How’re you all doing?

I’m happy to have gotten a good start on my writing and content creation last week, and it’s good to be back into the swing of things after the holidays!

There’s been a lot on my mind as of late. Today, we’re going to jump into a few things that have been going on lately in my life. I wanted to share a bit about a visit to an outdoor mall that made me reflect some on life, which might be a bit heavier of a topic than I normally do.

Afterwards, we’ll dive into some incredible baked goods I finally had the time to make from the Fallout cookbook, an amazing collection of books I was gifted that I love, and a new game pickup from the past week!

Let’s jump into it!

As a reminder, if you did not receive this post in your inbox but would like to get these blogs sent to your email, then you can do so by following this quick guide to opt-in! Thanks 🙌

What’s Been Going on in My World?

The time after the holidays is always hectic in my life. I love structure and organization, so the holiday season tends to throw things off with all the extra time off and having to plan around others. It’s nice now that things have calmed down (as I write this on a Sunday), and I can listen to my favorite OST playlist from Skyrim while getting some writing done!

Over the past couple of weeks, I ended up at an outdoor mall in the North Texas area that made me reflect a bit on life, and it’s something I wanted to write some thoughts on. I also have some recent pickups I made, both with some books as well as a new game. Lastly, I finally made something from my new Fallout cookbook that I wanted to share!

Visiting the Allen Premium Outlets

After the holidays wrapped up, there was some shopping I did for post-Christmas sales. One of the malls I went to was the Allen Premium Outlets, which is north of the Dallas area. It’s an outdoor mall I normally don’t go to, but there was a store there I ended up at with someone else. But, for some time now, I haven’t gone to this mall.

On a busy Saturday back in 2023, a mass shooter opened fire, killing eight people at this mall and injuring others, until he was shot and killed by a local police officer.

The officer happened to be there on unrelated business, and was casually chatting with a mom and her kids about seatbelt safety. When he heard the first few gunshots ring out, he grabbed his rifle and was able to take down the shooter within minutes while calling for backup. Undoubtedly, he saved many lives by being there and running towards the gunfire. Shortly afterwards, the department released the video footage from the officer’s perspective, showing the courage he took as he processed the situation and ran towards danger.

This was the first time I had been back in many years, and I had a bit of a hard time staying focused while shopping when the memories of news footage and the familiar structures crossed my mind as I walked and saw the same locations.

However, I noticed that they had created and designed a really nice memorial, as seen from the photos I took. It was created with hand-painted stainless steel along with eight wind chimes for the eight people that were killed, and bears a bronze memorial on each side as a remembrance of that day. Seeing the memorial and the location was a reminder to me about how important life is, and a remembrance for those that were lost. I feel so bad for those that lost their lives, especially knowing that they were just there on what was supposed to be a normal day of shopping or working.

But, I was also reminded about the community that came together afterwards. As reported in the Local Profile back in 2024, there were grants provided to help those impacted, including support for those in the local businesses. Likewise, there were millions raised for the families of the victims through donation sites, such as GoFundMe. Beyond that, there were a lot of memorials set up and people that came together for each other afterwards.

Stories of healing happened afterwards, such as one described in this NBC story, telling of a man that was shot who says he knows ”…he is a walking miracle” despite the many hardships he’s faced since that day. More recently too, the police officer who stopped the shooter received the Shield of Valor Award as well as a standing ovation from hundreds for his heroics, as reported by CBS News.

When I was at the outlet mall a couple of weeks ago, I finished up with the shopping I was there for and headed out. My heart was pretty heavy, but my hope is that people will not forget about the victims, and that these tragedies become a thing of the past.

Stories of healing and courage should be lifted up, and visions of peace should be sought after. It all made me thankful for the life and health I have as well, and made me reflect back on how precious life itself really is.

Fallout Cookbook Cookies

In one of my previous blog posts, I mentioned a Fallout cookbook, and I had some time to finally make something from it! You can find yourself a copy of this cookbook here! I got mine for about $14, and they’re normally around that price.

These cookies were very easy to make, and I loved the taste of them! I ended up baking two batches, as the first ones were just a bit dry from baking them too long.

People loved them, and the look of them were amazing. They had a wonderful, crispy appearance to them on the outside, with a lot of chocolate-y flavor from the white chocolate chips and cocoa! The center of them were soft and had an incredible, melt-in-your-mouth texture that others thoroughly enjoyed! They went great with both coffee and milk!

I will definitely be making these again, and would recommend giving them a try yourself! The only thing I would suggest is to watch the time with them, as my first batch went a bit over and got a little too dry. I also HIGHLY recommend shaping them into cookies first before cooling them in the fridge, so that you won’t have to shape out cold-hardened lumps of cookie dough!

Next on my list to make from this cookbook are the Fancy Lad Snack Cakes! They look way more complicated, but I’ve been wanting to give them a shot ever since I read ’s article on them and the other tasty recipes Savvy showed! Hopefully they’ll turn out when I get the chance to make them, and I’ll be sure to write about the results — whether they turn out good or bad 😅

A Wonderful Gift for Christmas

One gift I received from a family member on Christmas was a nice boxset of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings from J.R.R. Tolkien!

These aren’t some overly fancy set of books, but they are exactly what I was look for! They have a nice, faux leather, with a sturdy box to hold them in! I’ve been wanting a set like this, so that I can easily throw one of these books in my bag or even pocket when I’m out throughout the day to read from!

They are pocket-sized books, with a decent font size. To me, all of the words are perfectly legible, and I can read them fine. The quality of the covers are nice for being faux leather, and the pages are thick enough to easily flip through. Throughout each of the books, there are also illustrations that complement the writing really nicely!

Overall, for about $30, these are a really nice set of books and I’d recommend them so far! If you’re interested, you can find them here!

Recent Game Pickups & What I’m Playing

I definitely made a bit of an impulse purchase last week 😅

I’ve played and finished Persona 5 in the past, but have not played the Royal edition. I had a decent coupon for Best Buy, and I saw they had this version on sale already for the Nintendo Switch. Without thinking, I went ahead and picked it up for a total of about $15!

One of the reasons I wanted it on the Switch was because of the portability. I LOVED Persona 4 Golden on my PS Vita, and I knew that I wanted to play Persona 5 Royal on the Switch at some point, so that I can take it with me or just relax back on the couch to play.

It’s been super fun so far! I know it’s a LONG game, and my previous playthrough took about 90 or so hours. But, I loved the design, the story, the characters, and just about everything else in this gaming experience! The length of it might be my only gripe about it, but I also feel like it needed that much time overall to fully tell its story.

I plan on playing it some more throughout the next few months. I have so many other games I need to play as well, so I plan on stretching it out a bit.

Aside from Persona 5 Royal, I’m also still playing Sea of Stars on the Switch, and have been slowly getting into Code Vein.

I also played and finished the demo for Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, and that was amazing! I’m actually dedicating a section of my upcoming Game Save article to it, and will chat more about my thoughts on it there later this week — so stay tuned for that!

What’s Coming Next & Wrapping Up

As mentioned, I will be having a new Game Save article coming up on Thursday, so stay tuned for that!

I’ll be writing about some thoughts on recent gaming news from the past month that has stood out to me, my review on the demo for Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, as well as a special Community Spotlight!

I’ve wrapped up a lot of the designs for this upcoming write-up, and will be proofreading it some more before I release it on Thursday, the 15th of this week!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to chatting again soon. I know one of the topics today was a bit heavier, but it all just flooded my memories from the news after visiting that mall. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts and emotions on everything!

See you all next time,
Joe

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Thank You

First off, let me put this out there to my readers and those who have supported me for the past several months…

THANK YOU!

Seriously, Substack has a wonderful gaming community, and I’m very happy to be here! I wasn’t sure how this was all going to work, but it’s been awesome to contribute and get support from this community!

Thank you to everyone that has read my work, left a comment, restacked my write-ups, or liked one of my articles! It means a lot to check my subscriber list and see how high the engagement is, and I appreciate you all that regularly check out The Saved Game!

To me, Substack isn’t all about amassing a huge following for the sake of numbers, but rather it’s about finding a tight-knit community of passionate people that you find something in common with!

I’ve only been on Substack since late May, and I wasn’t sure what my vision would be. I started off with my now-defunct publication called Hey, I’m Joe. I had plans to make it more of an all-around newsletter about tech in general. But, after searching around some more, I knew I wanted to focus on something that I actually wanted to write about, which was:

Video games! Specifically, how I can relate my own experiences with gaming to help others rediscover or find their love for games!

Thus, after brainstorming names and trying to find what my main goals would be, I started up The Saved Game and have seen it evolve over the course of these past 6 months!

This post today was inspired by and , and I send my thanks to them for their incredible work and for the influence! In this article, I wanted to recap some of my favorite reads and the folks that wrote them from when I first joined Substack, take a look back at my own top three articles, and see what’s ahead for The Saved Game in 2026!

My Top 3 Articles from the Community

As part of my Game Save series, I go over a community spotlight for articles that I loved and want to highlight, so that others can check them out! These are write-ups that I read from start to finish, and ones that meant a lot to me.

Writing is a wonderful thing, where words can shift someone’s mindset and can help form a range of opinions. The amazing writers here did such an awesome job using their gift of crafting words together by telling compelling stories, sharing their unique backgrounds and opinions, injecting their personalities into their work, and creating something uniquely their own!

I wish I could include everyone that I’ve loved reading from over the past 6 months, but these are the top 3 write-ups that really spoke to me in a way that carried a lot of meaning in my life!

Remembering the Enigma Expedition

ROP’s Passions

How One Wish, Gathered Many Wings: Remembering the Enigma Expedition

Not long ago, I wrote about a deeply personal journey through the stars of Elite Dangerous—The Signal at the Edge of SOL—and this article reminded me of just how much this game has meant to me over the years. So I could not resist the pull to dip back in. Not for long—but long enough to feel it's wonder again…

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8 months ago · 15 likes · 4 comments · ROP

might honestly be the first one that introduced me to the gaming side of Substack back when he left a comment on my first publication when I first joined! He’s been a wonderful supporter of The Saved Game and my work, and he’s an amazing content creator himself — both on Substack and elsewhere!

ROP’s write-up on the Enigma Expedition was one of my favorite reads from any gaming creator this year! So much about it was perfect, but I loved how it nailed the emotional impact that gaming can have. He told us about the journey a commander (CMDR) took to fulfill what could have been a final wish. This commander, named Brandon Keith, had been battling cancer, and he wished to travel through the stars to reach the remote star system: Colonia! It was a story that was full of twists, and I loved the ending to it!

It was emotional, heartwarming, and a beautiful piece of writing! ROP should be proud to be the author of this article and for sharing his perspective using his own vast knowledge of Elite Dangerous!

Deadlines and Dragon Quest

The Video Game Storyteller

A Day of Deadlines and Dragon Quest

The assignment was due on Friday…

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7 months ago · 14 likes · 6 comments · The Video Game Storyteller

had an article that literally came out at the right time that hit me with a heavy dose of relatable laughter when I needed it most!

His article on picking up Dragon Quest XI when a university assignment’s due date was looming made me laugh a lot! There was so much humor, hilariously written wit, and relatable moments that made me love this article. As I mentioned in a Note recently during Game-mas, I was going through some rough times with a death in the family, but this article literally dropped right at the perfect moment that absolutely lifted my spirits and gave me something else to think about!

One of the reasons I love the community here and content like this, is that an article about a college assignment and Dragon Quest might not mean much to one person, but it meant a ton to me with my love for that game series and the humor in The Video Game Storyteller’s words when I really needed something to distract my mind with!

The Golden Years of Rare

Late to the LAN Party

The Golden Years of Rare - Part 1

A quick preamble before we start. I had completely forgotten that this year is the 40th anniversary of Rare, a games studio who I absolutely loved during my teenage years. I say forgotten because, sadly, the anniversary was a pretty big non-event. The reasons for which, I feel, were perfectly captured in this post by…

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7 months ago · 15 likes · 8 comments · Peter Monks

wrote up one of my favorite series here on the gaming side of Substack this year!

Rare is the type of gaming studio that has lived in the back of my mind for years now, but I’ve never stopped to ask myself: But…who exactly is Rare?

Fortunately, Peter dedicated this series to cover the history of this gaming studio to answer that question — taking a deep dive into its amazing golden years, as well as the “not as” golden years! There was so much that I learned about this company, and some things were fun flashbacks to a time in the not-so-distant past. I loved Part 3, where Peter talked about his own memories with Rare’s website back in the mid-1990s, as well as some insights behind Mr. Pants, which is a character I never knew I needed to know about!

I loved Peter’s way of words and wit, and his obvious enthusiasm for Rare, or Rare’s past, were expressed so clearly in his words and from his memories! The passionate research and independent writing from a series like this are just a couple of reasons I’ve loved my time here on Substack!

To the Many More, I Send My Thanks

There were many, many more amazing articles and write-ups that I loved from this past year! Likewise, there are a ton of wonderful people that helped steer me in the right direction too that I greatly appreciate, including , , , , , , , , and many more! Thank you all so much for your awesome content, your help, and your support here on Substack in 2025!

My Own Top 3 Articles from 2025

These articles were so fun to write, and I loved the reaction to them from the community! This is a short recap of the top 3 most-liked write-ups I had from 2025, and a few behind-the-scenes thoughts I had on them!

Reflecting on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I was honestly a bit surprised at how well this article did, since it was a bit of an impromptu write-up on my part to get it published!

I wanted to write this article on Skyrim in honor of its 14th Anniversary, and to go over some reflections I had of it over the years! Skyrim is an amazing game, and is one that I could write about all day if I had to.

It was fun to write, and I really loved reading all of your comments from your own experiences on it! All of your feedback really showed how much this game means to the community, and how much of an impact Skyrim has had on people’s lives!

Finding Redemption in The Outer Worlds

The Outer Worlds is a game I’ve played a couple of times, and I really loved my latest playthrough with it. I described that playthrough in this article, and I enjoyed seeing how it resonated with others!

What I enjoyed most about this write-up was the memories I have of my very first playthrough where it was definitely more of a “run-n-gun” style compared to anything else! It was such a fun game, and I really liked the options it would give you for playing how you want to — even if it permanently altered a lot of quests!

I had fun writing this article too right before the sequel came out! My hope was to hype up people for the new game once it released!

Dragon’s Crown | An Unforgettable Autumn Adventure on the PlayStation Vita

Ahh, Dragon’s Crown…

This was such a fun game I enjoyed on my PlayStation Vita, and I wrote this article on my experiences with it during a long road trip in 2014!

I really loved this game for what it was. It had a lot of fun missions, addictive combat, and visual side-scrolling designs that looked amazing! For having nothing to do in the very backseat of the car on a long, multi-state road trip, it was a blast!

It was a fun article to write too, as I reminisced back 11 years or so ago to 2014! This time in my life was all over the place for me, but the enjoyable memories help to keep me thinking of the fun I had, and the wonderful times I spent with games — even if it was in the dreaded third-row seat of the family car for a long road trip!

What’s Coming Next for The Saved Game

Now, as far as what’s to come for The Saved Game in 2026…

Largely, a lot will stay the same! But, there will be some exciting updates that I want to share. I hope will improve your reading experience and connection with my publication!

Community Collaboration Projects

In January, I plan to start up a community collab project! This will be similar to what others have done, and I have some fun ideas that I would love to get your input on! I also never did anything to celebrate 100 subscribers because of how busy everything got, so I want to do that too! Going into the future, my hope is to have these community-involved posts a few times throughout the year!

Keep an eye out in the Substack Notes on Substack and in my Chat for more info soon!

Expanded Writing Topics

I will be working on my main articles this upcoming year that will still revolve around gaming of course, but I plan to expand a bit from being focused solely on nostalgia — which is what a lot of my main articles are about. I love nostalgia, and will still write some passionate pieces on games from my past that I want to share, but I do want to diversify my writing just a bit more. Because of that, I will be expanding to some new gaming topics that I am excited about!

I already have a lot of ideas that I’ve been taking note of during the holidays, so stay tuned for all of that throughout the next few months for my main articles!

Paid Articles Coming Soon

Starting in January, I plan to begin Paid Subscriptions through Substack! I’ve been wanting to wind down my Ko-fi membership page for simplicity’s sake, so that everything is just within Substack. My hope is to keep this as a way for readers to support my work if they would like to while keeping most everything free, all while keeping it easier for me to keep track of things on my side.

However, in the near future, I have plans to start up something like a bimonthly article, perhaps something more in-depth and research-heavy, that will be for paid subscribers. I also hope to attach something to my paid subscriptions that would be useful to subscribers, and I will have more information on that all in the future!

Wrapping Up

I just want to say THANK YOU again for reading over the past 6 months! I greatly appreciate your thoughts, content, comments, and support!

It’s exciting to look into 2026, and I’m glad to have you along for the ride!

My hope is that my work over the past 6 months helped you rediscover fun memories or influenced you to find something new to love about video games, or just had a positive impact on your day that made your world a bit brighter!

My goal for next year is to do more of the same, and to be responsible for reigniting even more people’s love for gaming!

And who knows, maybe and the will finally create an official gaming category for us in 2026 😉

I hope you all enjoy the New Year’s celebrations, and I’ll see you all next time,
Joe

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Christmas Week

I hope everyone had an awesome week for the holidays!

There was a lot going on in my world, and I had a good break from everything. It was refreshing to take some time off, and focus on family, good food, and time spent outside!

It was super hot (for this time of year) in the Dallas, Texas area. It felt more like typical April weather, with temperatures in the 80s Fahrenheit (around 26C), along with a bit of mugginess from the humidity.

But, that didn’t stop anyone from enjoying the holiday and still celebrating a fun time!

In today’s blog, I want to relive some of that with you!

We’ll be taking a look at a trip I took to Galleria Mall in North Dallas, a journey to the Dallas Arboretum, some game pickups, and more!

Let’s jump into it!

As a reminder, if you did not receive this post in your inbox but would like to get these blogs sent to your email, then you can do so by following this quick guide to opt-in! Thanks 🙌

What’s Been Going on in My World?

First up, let’s jump into the visit I took to do some sightseeing at the Galleria Mall in North Dallas! This mall boasts a beautiful holiday spirit, and there’s a massive tree they install every Christmas! After that, we’ll take a look at the Dallas Arboretum I went to, as well as some game pickups from the holidays!

The Galleria Mall in Dallas

Built back in the 1980s, the Galleria Mall is a massive indoor mall constructed in North Dallas!

It boasts a massive ice rink, as well as 4 stories when you add it all up! As of writing this, the Christmas tree they have is the tallest one in the United States at 95-feet tall (about 30 meters)! It’s really fun and relaxing to just watch during the holiday season as skaters circle around the tree and shoppers search around for the perfect gift in all the stores!

What I loved too is how open it all is. Despite the amount of people that can show up, it never seems crowded. The halls are very wide and open, and there’s plenty of retail space to check things out. There were a TON of advertisements for the Netflix House, which is like an interactive experience for popular Netflix titles, along with some unique foods, arcades, as well as merch from the movies and TV shows on Netflix. It was super chilled out while strolling around, with people in the holiday spirit and everyone seemingly having a good time!

If you ever find yourself in the Dallas area, the Galleria Mall is definitely worth checking out during the holidays!

A Post-Autumn Arboretum

On the east-side of Dallas, across from the great White Rock Lake, is the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.

It’s beautiful in the spring, as well as the fall seasons. Sadly, while I had gone with friends and family, we had just missed out on the autumn leaves and foliage! They had some Christmas decorations out, but a lot of their preparations were for the upcoming spring season.

During the Christmas season, they have various structures up that pays homage to The Twelve Days of Christmas carol, but some of them were not working, which was unfortunate! The weather was a bit muggy and warm out too, so it wasn’t too ideal. However, it was all fine and I got some good walking in for about two hours, and some of the sights were worth the visit!

Holiday Game Pickups

I did pick up a few gifts for Christmas, and they were ones that I’ve been looking at for a while now!

The first one that I’ve been eying for quite some time was Sea of Stars! I picked this one up on the Nintendo Switch, and I honestly love it mostly for the art and design! It’s immediately eye-opening, and I’ve wanted to sit down and play it since it came out. had a write-up a couple of months ago that I loved, and he described Sea of Stars in a way that made me want to jump right into it and it definitely renewed my interest in this game!

I played the demo a short time ago on the PS4, and I loved it. I’m not a huge JRPG player, but I enjoyed the combat in this one and the design is what really won me over to pick up a physical copy of it. I also wanted it on the Switch so that I could play it in handheld mode, and it’s been fun so far — I love my Satisfye grip I have for it! I hope to finish it up soon so I can write some thoughts on it in the future!

The other game I picked up was Code Vein on the PS4!

Code Vein is an interesting game from the demo I played. As I’ve mentioned before, I love the SoulsBorne games, and I kept seeing Code Vein popping up as a recommended game to try. The demo had some neat gameplay mechanics, and I enjoyed the time I spent with it!

The only bummer is that I don’t think I can transfer over my character from the demo to continue, so I’ll probably have to go back in and create a new character for a fresh start. The character creation was shockingly good though, so it’s not a big deal!

I wanted to pick up the physical copy of it, and I hope to get some time in it soon!

Otherwise, the only other games I have been feeling like launching back up is Dragon Quest XI some more, since I have been wanting to finish it up soon! I also have been feeling the itch to work through a playthrough of Persona 5 Royal over the upcoming year, as I have never played the Royal version before!

What’s Coming Next & Wrapping Up

Tomorrow, on Tuesday the 30th, I will be dropping a special recap article!

Even though I’ve only been on Substack for 6 months, I figured that I still wanted to quickly recap where The Saved Game is at, send out my thanks to you all, as well as going over some exciting updates for the upcoming year!

I’ll be going over my gratitude to my readers and checking out the top 3 articles that I LOVED reading from other Substackers over the past 6 months, as well as my own top 3 articles I wrote and some behind-the-scenes thoughts on them. I’ll finish off with some updates I have for my publication. Some of the updates are for my own needs with time management and other responsibilities in my life, but I hope that they will also help my readers as well!

Stay tuned for that tomorrow, and I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to chatting again soon!

See you all next time,
Joe

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A Festive Week

What a week!

I hope you all are doing great! Everything is going good on my side, and I’ve been busy!

For today, I wanted to jump in on some things going on in my world with the holidays coming up, as well as touching a bit of The Game Awards and some final thoughts I had on Detroit: Become Human! This will be a lot shorter than last week’s post that I did on AI, so let’s get into it ☕️

As a reminder, if you did not receive this post in your inbox but would like to get these blogs sent to your email, then you can do so by following this quick guide to opt-in! Thanks 🙌

What’s Been Going on in My World?

With Christmas coming up, I wanted to do some gift shopping!

I was able to pick up some good gifts, and I ended up at a fun Scandinavian store that had some fascinating stuff! I also opted for some Amazon gifts too in the form of Akira Toriyama illustration books, and picked up one of them for myself as well 😏

Scandinavian Store Shopping

While searching for some unique gifts, I ended up at The Wooden Spoon, a popular Scandinavian store located in Plano, Texas!

This is a fascinating little store, and it sits in one of the oldest houses in the city, built over 150 years ago! It’s in good condition though, and is a fun place to visit with items they have for sale from the Scandinavian region!

I couldn’t help but think back to my recent playthrough of Bramble: The Mountain King from a few months ago when I was looking around at some of the items they had for sale, including those trolls that were down on the ground from the above photo!

This store went semi-viral a year or so back because of their selection of Swedish candies! Videos, like the one below and others posted to TikTok, helped to draw a large number of crowds to this store. Often, their entire candy supply would be gone until they were able to get more shipments in!

It’s definitely a fun place to visit, and I left with one or two things, as well as some of their amazing candy!

Toriyama Gift Shopping & Ideas

I also wanted to get some gifts that needed to be a bit on the nerdier side, so I went searching online!

I came across some books that were about the work of Akira Toriyama! These were perfect, and I ended up getting one called Dragon Ball: A Visual History, and it is a beautiful hardback book with illustrations from the work of Toriyama on Dragon Ball! The pages are thick with a nice cover on it, and the illustrations inside were amazing! I wish it was just a bit cheaper pricewise, but the person I got this for is a huge fan of the late Toriyama and his works, so it looked really good.

The other one I picked up for myself is a similar book that showed the works of Toriyama from the Dragon Quest series! This was also really amazing, and I loved looking through it to see all of the designs and illustrations. The price for this one was a lot better at only $20 or so, and it has a wonderful quality to it as well! It wasn’t quite as descriptive or thick as the Dragon Ball book, but it is still really awesome and I love it!

Seriously, if you need a holiday gift that will make you a gift-giving hero for someone that likes art, gaming, anime or manga, and/or Akira Toriyama, then I would definitely recommend taking a look at either of these books. They both have wonderful reviews, and I can attest to their amazing quality!

If you’re interested, here are these books from Amazon:

Dragon Ball: A Visual History [Amazon Link]
Dragon Quest Illustrations: 30th Anniversary Edition [Amazon Link]

The Game Awards

I did get the chance to watch The Game Awards live! It was fun, and there were a lot of various games that looked pretty good! I’ve never been too interested in this show in the past, just because all of the performances seemed a bit vain, but I enjoyed most of this show.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

I am curious as to why there seems to be a lot of hate online for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, since I thought that Sandfall Interactive had a great underdog story from everything I’ve seen. Regardless, I look forward to playing it in the future and giving it a go to see if it holds up to the hype!

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic

Unfortunately, I have never played the old Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, but the reveal for Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic was exciting! Seeing that it’s being directed by Casey Hudson is pretty neat considering his work on the Mass Effect trilogy, and I’m most excited to see what this game ends up looking like in the future! I may also be looking to try out the old KOTOR games on the Switch at some point in the near future to see what I missed!

Divinity

That was intense! The reveal for Larian’s Divinity was fascinating, to say the least — all while helping to answer the question about the mysterious statue that was being teased before the show! It’s probably not my type of game, but I loved the build-up with all the performances in front of the stage! The reveal itself made me think it was either Fable at first, or Diablo, but it looked pretty neat, and the cinematics were incredible!

Other Highlights

Ace Combat 8 looked insane, Star Wars: Galactic Racer looked awesome, and that moment from the trailer of Bradley the Badger was the closest to Bloodborne 2 I’ve seen, so I’m good with that 😂

Ending the reveals off with Highguard definitely seemed like an interesting decision 😅 I couldn’t help but think back to Concord when they showed that, and it felt like there could’ve been a lot of other good reveals to end things off on. Likewise, I can’t help but think that people’s reaction to a hero shooter being the finale might backfire if it falls short when it comes out, but we’ll see what happens!

The ending orchestra was my favorite part though! I loved how good of a job they did, and the flute guy’s performance (Pedro Eustache) was amazing, as was the ending song from Donkey Kong Bananza by Jenny Kidd! It all sounded so good, and worked super well! It definitely gave me one of those “proud-to-be-a-gamer” feelings!

Detroit: Become Human | Final Thoughts for Now

As I mentioned last week, I finished up my first playthrough of Detroit: Become Human, and it was amazing! I loved so much about this game, from the immersive gameplay, the beautifully crafted music for each of the characters, and the story itself was so good! Since I ran out of time last week after talking about the AI topic, I just wanted to share a few thoughts I had of this game!

First off, the relationships between the characters were amazing. I really loved the dynamics that everyone had, especially Hank and Connor, who were my favorite! The moments between the two of them ranged from humorous segments, emotional sequences about Hank’s past, and intense times with the evolution of their relationship. All of the characters felt like they needed each other, and they complemented one another so well.

Everything in this game also felt real. I loved how they didn’t push the designs to be too futuristic, but rather, it seemed like they put in a lot of thought for how our current world might exist in the late 2030s.

The city and environment itself had areas that were clean and pristine, but also a lot of places that had the grittiness and instability of a world that’s been turned upside down by all these androids entering society. I loved all the immersive moments that showed parts of this, especially when walking around and noticing the small things. Some of it started to remind me of real life a bit and the growing unease around AI.

I spoke about the music and why I loved it in a Note a week or so ago, so I won’t go over that all again, but it was all wonderful and added an amazing depth to this game that elevated it so much, especially since it was three composers that created the music for each of the main characters!

The atmospheric and cinematic details in this game were really what sold it for me. It felt like I was playing a movie that I had control over with the choices! Some of the cinematic shots told their own story, with an incredible amount of detail put into the environment and characters! I loved the main menu too with Chloe and the comments she makes throughout the game! Games that tastefully break the fourth wall like this and add in that extra layer of immersion quickly become games I will not soon forget!

My only downside with it had to be the controls were sometimes wonky. If I was controlling a character and walking or running around, they would often get hung up on something or reverse direction when the camera angle changed. This was especially annoying during any chase sequences, but it was rare enough that it didn’t detract from my otherwise positive experience with this game!

All-in-all, this was an amazing experience! I’ve already jumped back in it a bit for another playthrough, and I look forward to trying out some other choices with the characters!

What’s Coming Next & Wrapping Up

My plans right now are to start up the holiday break!

During the break, I plan on playing some games and working on writing.

As of now, I have plans to shadow-drop an article during the next few weeks during the holidays, but will be taking a break from the Game Save articles and Saturday write-ups until the first of the year. I should be able to keep up with the weekly blogs, but those will be TBD!

I have some plans for more community involvement at the start of the year, and am thinking about changing up my normal schedule so that all of my articles release during the week. I’ve noticed a substantial drop of engagement between my Saturday articles and anything I release during the week, so I may look into switching that up at the start of the year! I’ll be sure to update everyone in my Subscriber Chat though before any changes happen!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to chatting again soon!

See you all next time,
Joe

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