Mini Haul // Gaming!

Hey guys!

As you probably already know, I love Nintendo games an awful lot – so, when loads of game franchises I love announced new things happening this year, I was really happy, but also sad at the fact my bank balance would suffer! Almost everything seemed to be released around the same kind of time, too, so it was both a blessing & a curse!

I thought you might be interested in seeing a mini haul of what I’ve got – I know I’d find it interesting anyway – so here goes nothing! 

First off – I’ve already blogged about this game recently & shared my first impressions of it, but I managed to grab the special edition version of Fire Emblem Fates! It included a double sided poster, steelbook, artbook, double sided coin & all 3 routes of the game – I also picked up the Fates coverplates for my New 3DS. If you’re planning on getting this game too, I’d recommend starting with Birthright, then playing Conquest & Revelation – this is the way the developers would recommend for you to play them & it’s how I’m doing it too! 

Next up – Kirby Planet Robobot! Again, I was lucky enough to grab the special edition bundle, which included a Kirby amiibo, the game, a notebook, a pin badge & some stickers! I also got the other 3 Planet Robobot amiibos – King Dedede, Meta Knight & Waddle Dee.

I love this game so much – it’s as lighthearted & charming as previous Kirby games, with the added bonus of being able to use a massive robot suit occasionally to deal even more damage to enemies & get through the levels. There’s also a few new copy abilities that were added to this game – including poison/toxic Kirby - & if you have an NFC reader or a New 3DS, you can scan in amiibos to give Kirby an ability! The new ones are Parasol (with a  Waddle Dee colour scheme), Sword (with a Meta Knight colour scheme), Hammer (with a King Dedede colour scheme) & UFO (which is special & can only be unlocked with the Kirby Planet Robobot amiibo). 

I’ve been collecting the Animal Crossing amiibo cards since series 1 – there’s 4 series in all – so when the 4^th & final album was announced, I got it, along with 5 packs of cards! I was lucky enough to not get any duplicate cards, too – now I just have to work on getting all the cards I’m missing (which is an awful lot, actually…)

Finally – they literally only arrived yesterday & I already think they’re some of my favourite amiibos to date! I’m a little bit obsessed with playing Splatoon online when I’m at my dads (we don’t have broadband at home & the internet we do have isn’t good enough for online gaming) so when they announced they were bringing out Callie & Marie (aka the squid sisters, who announce the stages for online play & read the news) amiibos, I knew I wanted them! I can’t actually choose a favourite between the two – I love them both – but they’re so beautifully made & there’s glitter in their dresses & everything! I’ve included a couple of close up pictures in this post too, so you can hopefully see the details a bit better!

 

So, there we have it – my mini gaming haul! There’s still some more games & other stuff I want to get eventually, but I’m very happy with this haul – especially Fates, I’d been so impatient for that since it first got announced!

Do you have any of the things I bought, or are you planning on getting any of them? Let me know!

A Secret Garden...

Hey guys!

So, today I wanted to do something a little bit different & show you some pictures I took when I was out & about the other day! Me & my mum were out, I was sipping on a cool lime refresha from Starbucks (my all time favourite summer drink) & we didn’t want to head home, so we decided to head for a place we know well – where my parents used to take me & my brother when I was little, in fact, so we all know & love this place!

It’s called York House Gardens & it’s right next to the river Thames. It’s changed a bit since I was little, but overall it still has the same appeal as it’s always held for me. It’s like a gorgeous little secret garden that’s tucked away.

I’m not going to go into too much detail – this blog post is going to include a load of pictures I took of various things – but we basically just wandered around for a while, taking some pictures & chatting. The day started off sunny & bright, but then it started raining after a while before stopping again, so some of the pictures will have different lighting/a different sky, but they were all taken on the same day! 

There’s a beautiful fountain there, which is one of my favourite things to see when I’m visiting. 

There’s also a beautiful pond area, which used to be a bit bigger, but it’s changed a lot since I was little – I once slipped when I was little & ended up accidentally pushing my brother into the pond (sorry again). There were some really tame squirrels, so we decided to go & buy some food for them – we ended up with popcorn! By the time we got back to the pond & squirrels, it was raining, so we sat under a tree & fed the squirrels popcorn until the rain stopped – at one point, we were feeding 4 of them! They slowly got braver & started venturing closer to us to get the popcorn, they were so cute! 

By the time the rain stopped, it was getting late, so we decided to head back home, but it was lovely to take a few hours out of our day to just forget about things & have a wander. 

If you’re local to Twickenham or the surrounding areas, I’d definitely recommend checking it out for yourself! If you’ve been before, what’s your favourite thing there?

FIRST IMPRESSIONS // Fire Emblem Fates & Limited Edition Bundle

Hey guys!

So, again, it's been a while since I last posted a blog, especially a gaming post!

Last year, Nintendo announced that they would be releasing a new Fire Emblem game, Fates (IF in Japan), which would have 3 different paths you could choose from - or you could choose all 3 by purchasing all 3 paths.. I really loved Awakening, the previous game in the series, and I've played most of the older games in the series that have been released over here, so needless to say I was mega excited! They also announced that they were going to release a limited edition bundle, which I really wanted from the second I saw it on a trailer.

Unfortunately for me, however, the UK/Europe release date wasn't until May 20th - a couple of days ago!

So, there's three different paths you can take in the game. Basically, you were born in the kingdom of Hoshido, but were stolen by the king of Nohr & raised there. The first few chapters show a little bit of life in both kingdoms, before you're asked to pick a side in chapter 6. There's Birthright - where you side with your birth family in Hoshido, Conquest - where you side with the family who raised you in Nohr or Revelation (which isn't out until next month) - where you don't pick either side. Whichever side you choose has different consequences, and each side is basically a whole different gaming experience. 

In Birthright, the kingdom of Hoshido is heavily Japanese influence - the buildings are based on traditional Japanese ones, they chose a lot of red & white in the colour scheme & the music is also Japanese influenced. Nintendo recommend that you choose this path first if it is your first Fire Emblem game, or you like to take it slow - it's a lot easier to get gold & level people up with side quests on this version, so it's a good way to ease yourself in.

In Conquest, the kingdom of Nohr is dark & based on vampires - the kingdom is in darkness & quite gloomy, and the main colour scheme is black & purples. They recommend this version for more experienced Fire Emblem players, as there aren't as many resources in this one - you have to spend your money wisely, as you can't just go on a ton of side missions to get money & experience.

I was browsing Twitter around a month or so ago, and I saw that GAME had tweeted about the limited edition bundle going up for preorder on their site, so I immediately went to preorder mine - especially as they'd put EXCLUSIVELY AT GAME, so I was wondering if Nintendo were going to sell a bundle at all. I was successful, so I was really excited that I'd managed to get the bundle - it included all 3 paths of the game on one cartridge, an artbook, a steelbook case & a double sided poster.

A few days later, I received an email from Nintendo - as I'd previously registered to be notified when the game wet up for preorder from them - & I saw they were selling a similar bundle, but theirs had a double sided commerorative coin & a free theme for the Nintendo 3DS, plus they had the matching New 3DS coverplates! So, I had a quick discussion with my brother & he said I should get the Nintendo one, as it was the same price as GAME but had a couple more things included, so I preordered their bundle & the coverplates. I then cancelled my GAME preorder, as I didn't need two bundles.

I was so excited for it to arrive, I've been avoiding watching videos or looking at anything about it online so that I don't see anything that'll spoil it for me, as it's been out for longer in Japan & the USA. Finally, however, it came on Thursday (a day early!) & I was so excited to unpack it & get playing! I really like everything in the bundle, I have the Awakening artbook too so they'll look nice together, plus I have a few other steelbook cases to display with the Fates one! The symbols on the coin are the symbols for Hoshido & Nohr, which I like a lot! 

 The coverplates!

The Nohr/Conquest side!

The Birthright/Hoshido side!

For my first playthrough, I decided I wanted to go with Hoshido & take the Birthright route - I want to play them all eventually, of course, but I thought I'd do what Nintendo recommend & take this route first. As I'm writing this blog post, I think I'm on chapter 12, so I thought I'd give a quick first impression while I'm here.

As in Awakening, you get to customise your character - in Awakening, it was Robin (although you can rename them), in Fates it's Corrin. There's a few more options to customise Corrin with, which I thought was a nice touch! 

 This is how I customised my Corrin/avatar!

I don't want to go into the story too much, as I don't want to spoil it for anyone who wants to play, but I'm really enjoying the story of Birthright so far! I like how most of the chapters have such beautiful Japanese music & scenery, it's nice that the majority of characters on this path have Japanese names too. There's quite a few different side quests you can spend some gold on, so you can level grind if you need to & I'm finding it fairly easy to level up & raise the support between characters even without grinding! They kept the same art style as Awakening - there's sprites for much of gameplay (and they've added feet, as many people complained about the lack of character feet on Awakening) which I like a lot. The story is really gripping, and I feel like I'll be onto Conquest in no time, if it keeps sucking me in like this!

So, there we have it - the limited edition bundle & my first impressions of Birthright! Are you planning on getting the game at all? Which path will you choose if you do? 

Happy playing!

xo