Got all the moons a couple of days ago, and now I'm sad that the game's coming to an end. I've still got a few purple coins to get, but I've kind of been holding off on doing that. I think this is one of the bad things about having this open system instead of the Super Mario 64 style where you pick your mission at the beginning of the level, 'cause I find it harder to go in and try to redo the old stuff now. Harder in the sense that it's harder for me to find the same amount of motivation for it. I don't think it outweighs the good things about this open, Banjo-Kazooie type style, but it does change the feel of things a bit, I think.

That fucking finale. The music.

You could make a case for this being the best Mario game.

I only have about 12? 13? moons left and almost all of them are "hint photo" moons or "secret path to" moons with a couple of Toadette moons connected to those. The hint photo ones aren't too bad because I generally at least can tell which kingdom to check out, although a few that I have left I've been kind of staring at with no idea where to look. The secret path to ones though... seem like the type that you need to find your first time around. At this rate I really have no freaking clue where to look and I'm not interested in running throughout the whole game again just to find them. So I might cheat there.

PS. F the dark side throwing 10 freaking hint photo moons at you at once! Uggggggggggg.

I think 1 of the Toadette moons I still have left is related to shopping, and I might not have enough purple coins for that... ug.

I do have 2? moons left not related to any of the above. I've been using Hint Toad and the bird so I know where they are and what they are called but I still haven't been able to figure them out. Hmm.

And then of course the absolute final moon... which I plan to wait until the very end to get, but who knows, I might get annoyed by some of those other moons and just go for it.

Almost finished! It would be nice to be done by the time Xenoblade 2 releases (though I might not even get it right away, still deciding...)

@Zero No need to cheat! Or at least, not outright. If you'd like some hints, just post here what you need and I'd be happy to point you in the right direction.

That's still cheating though, just... slightly less cheaty.

I'm going to at least give them all the ol' college try myself first before cheating.

@Zero I guess, but doesn't it feel better when it's a part of a community rather than just looking up a cold, hard walkthrough? Plus, you don't risk seeing something you didn't want to see. Though I guess there's nothing left to spoil in this case, but in general...

Well, I may take you up on this. But I want to try myself first.

The weird thing is one of the "secret path to" moons I have left is in a spot I could have sworn I had already gotten to.

Reached the showstopper scene in New Donk. What can I say? Oh, yeah...

Nintendo Magic.

(That song has really grown on me, too!)

Ok I've found everything I can except stuff I'm beating my head against the wall over so time to ask for some hints for the ones that I have left. I'm going to spoiler tag a lot to not give much away.

Mushroom Kingdom - 25 - Light From the Ceiling - I just want to know, is this INSIDE the castle? Because it seems like it is based on the map, but I can't figure out what to do.

Sand Kingdom - 76 - On the Eastern Pillar - I just want to know, do I capture a bullet bill? Because it seems like this could theoretically work, but I can't really get over there in time with one.

Dark Side - 18 - Found With Dark Side Art 4 (the one that has like 8 circles in a circular pattern that kind of look like moons) - I feel like it is suggesting this is in the Moon Kingdom but I couldn't find it so... I just want to know if I should keep looking there, or somewhere else?

Secret Paths - For all of these I just want to know what kingdom to look in.
Wooded Kingdom - 49 - Secret Path to the Steam Gardens!
Seaside Kingdom - 49 - Secret Path to Bubblaine!
Bowser's Kingdom - 43 - Secret Path to Bowser's Castle!

That's it.

@Zero
For the first one, I assume it’s the one that replicates something from Mario 64. To be honest, it was the first thing I tried when I entered the castle.
For people who haven’t played Mario 64, it is a little obtuse.
That said, you should have gotten it easily, you Mario hater.

@ploot If you mean look up at the ceiling that's the first thing I tried too! And then tried it like 10 more times! But the ceiling doesn't have light coming down from it!?

/EDIT Oh wait, you have to switch to first person camera. I literally did not know that existed in this game because I never once used it, lololol. I tried all the face buttons before but didn't think to click.

Well, that one is done.

I sort of wonder if noobs who never played Mario 64 would ever think to do that? I only did it in that game because literally controlling a camera was a whole new experience for me so I was doing it all the time.

@Zero
For the Sand Kingdom one: Yes, use a Bullet Bill. Don't forget to shake in addition to holding Y to speed.

For the art one you mentioned, try looking in Cloud Kingdom.

For the Secret Paths:
Wooded Kingdom - This one will depend on which kingdom you chose to visit first, Wooded or Lake. It'll either be found in Metro Kingdom or Seaside Kingdom.
Seaside Kingdom - This one will depend on which kingdom you chose to visit first, Seaside or Snow. It's either going to be in Mushroom or Bowser Kingdom.
Bowser's Kingdom - This one is in Cascade Kingdom.

I totally forgot to shake lol. Small little details holding me up.

I now have everything now except the final moon.

Is it going to destroy me?

@Zero You got all that in four minutes?! Impressive.

I also forgot about it. It's funny how we totally ignore the on-screen prompts in front of us when they'd actually be helpful, hee hee.

Anddddddddddddddd that's a wrap. Slightly disappointed by the last run not being nearly as hard as some of the last runs in other recent 3D Mario games (it probably could have been but it gives you so much health back continually that almost the only way to die is to fall off) but I'm glad to finish up and be able to move on with my life!

Slightly tempted to collect a bunch of coins so I can buy other outfits but then another part of me is like... why would you do that?

My review will be posted soon.

@Mop it up I had already done most of them! The tip for the sand kingdom one helped though!

I totally forgot to do that with the Bullet Bill too, lol. I thought the final level's difficulty was perfect, though. Just hard enough to feel impossible at first without actually being impossible once you know what you're doing.

Zero said:

I sort of wonder if noobs who never played Mario 64 would ever think to do that? I only did it in that game because literally controlling a camera was a whole new experience for me so I was doing it all the time.

This is something I think about a lot with older more obtuse games. I never "traded secrets on the playground," so I'm really lost as to how I ever figured some of this stuff out. I almost wonder if the secrets weren't actually as amazing as I remember them--back in the day finding out that you could pop the top off the pyramid in Mario 64 was mindblowing, but I figure if I played that game for the first time now I'd find secrets like that pretty quickly due to playing these games more methodically.

I'm definitely more methodic now, plus we probably have a better idea of the language of games, so to speak, so we know what to look for. With that said I used Hint Toad a lot, there's just so much packed into these stages that without hints I feel like I'd have to sweep every kingdom like 10 or 20 times to find everything.

It's actually weird to me when I think of how I play games now because when I'm just casually thinking about it I'd say yeah, of course back in the days I had more time and played games more and got way deeper into them faster! But if I think about it harder it's like... no, I didn't? For instance I remember not even getting around to going through, for instance, world 7 in Super Mario Bros. 3 until months after I had the game. I was more ok with just "beating" a game (in that case, using warps) and not worrying about all of the extra content. Nowadays I play through every level in a 2D Mario game in a month or two, not to mention get all of the coins and unlock the bonus stuff blah blah blah. I must actually play games more now?

Which sort of makes sense when I think about it, because games were just one of my hobbies back then. I skateboarded a lot, did sports, played guitar (when I got older), actually had friends that I hung out with regularly, etc. Now if I'm not making games I'm probably playing them... or watching Netflix here and there.

I didn't know there was a first person mode either... I'm guessing you press the right stick?

Granted, I just figured out you can swing the camera behind by pressing a shoulder button.

@mrbiggsly

That first person mode, It's actually required for something in the game too. Later on. Not for the main story.