Backlog 2021

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
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greensara
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After doing some trades at my local GameStop, I have officially pre-ordered Pokemon Shining Pearl and went ahead and picked up Ys 8 on the eShop while it was still on sale. Random factoid about trades: GameStop will totally buy your beyond drifty joy cons (which I reiterated were awful) but they seem to subtract a refurbishing fee from your credit for them. Like they say apiece they are worth $15 but you just get $10 each. I didn't care as I was so done with that pair, but I really hope they actually fix them before selling them again.

Ys 8 is pretty interesting so far. I just finished the prologue and chapter 1. I especially like the fast and furious "arcade" style of combat, though in the two "boss" battles I've encountered, Adol gets himself killed off while Laxia finishes the job with nary a scratch, lol. I've got a feeling Sahad is going to be like the human Daruk. :)

I also heard some blurbs about the free game Sky coming to Switch, so I decided to try it. It reminded me a lot of both Yonder and RiME. It's one of those chill, wandering around games with a sort of minimalist art style. It was okay, but after I got to the rainy forest area I got pretty lost trying to follow the spirits as all the stuff looked the same to me. (I have a terrible time with getting lost in real life. Even with having smartphones, I still keep a map book in my car.) I decided Sky probably wasn't for me but the art reminded me a lot of RiME, which I never finished, so I fired that up for the first time I think since last year? I had stopped because at the time I was too jumpy for a particular section. I got through it fine today and ended up playing through to finish it. Wow. It really is a beautiful game, but a lot different than I expected.
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Bluie
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Decided to spend yesterday and today after work binging that Persona 5 Strikers 'movie'. Reallllly glad I didn't have to suffer through all the HP sponge boss fights and long dungeons, but it was overall a nice sequel to Persona 5 story/character wise. Spoiler thoughts below:

On the new characters:
Spoiler:
Alright, so I love Zenkichi/Wolf for both his existence and fun dynamic he brings to the group. Like, holy « Puppy Doodoo », ITS BEEN SINCE PERSONA 2 SINCE WE'VE HAD AN ACTUAL OLDER ADULT PERSONA USER. I remember watching the Trinity Soul anime a few years back, seeing my main boi Akihiko there all grown, only for him to do nothing of note because 'dur hur we lose our persona powers as we get older' bull « Puppy Doodoo ». I'm pretty sure the fighting game retconned that, BUT STILL, no one is in their 40s there, or a dad, and it's just honestly so great that they expanded the cast past teenagers again. He's also just such a good character??? I love when younger casts rope in an older character into their shenanigans in JRPGs, making them the team's parent or just overall treating them like a part of the team. They make Zenkichi out to be such a hardass in the opening, but he's really just a huge dork who sorta stumbles into getting a persona due to the situation. Spend time with the Phantom Thieves long enough and you'll become one, basically, lol. His motivation was valid regardless and he was a joy to watch.

Sophia/Sophie on the other hand was pretty much Aigis 2.0 and ...*snore*. I've seen it all before and I saw all her big character moments coming from a mile away. She was pretty generic and an overplayed record for basically every robot/AI story out there. I did like her Phantom Thief attire though, very sleek and cute.

All of the villains were sorta 'eh'. Nobody super stood out and the 'big twist' villain at the end was so freaking predictable I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes.
On the story:
Spoiler:
It's basically more Persona 5 with some minor rule changes. I'd say it's slightly blander(?) for lack of a better word? I think it's mostly due to the fact that it's already an established cast of characters with only two new additions. Persona 5 takes it's time introducing the next party member, their situation, the next boss+their dungeon, and everything else in between, but Strikers introduces the next boss and yeets the cast into fixing what's wrong. There was really only one situation (involving Zenkichi's daughter) that felt really similar to how the first game handled the plot, but everything else was pretty much 'We found the bad guy within 5 min of stopping at our next destination! Welp, time to beat the « Puppy Doodoo » out of their shadow!'. So, it's not bad or anything, but just more of the same without all the extra buildup.
Anyways, now that I'm free from that title, I can play something now! Don't have to go into work until later in the morning tomorrow + it's a short shift soooo, I can actually just relax for a little bit! I have the weekend off, so I'm really looking forward to vegetating on the couch playing whatever I feel like!

The current backlog:

Monster Hunter Stories 2 (waiting for release)
Legend of Mana Remastered (started)
Story of Seasons Pioneers of Olive Town (waiting for all DLC to drop before playing)
Sky: Children of the Light (currently playing)

Probs gonna start Saturday off with Genshin's new content, then play Sky or LoM for most of the day, and then get onto FFXIV once I know my friends are gonna be on. Got a week until Monster Hunter Stories 2 releases, so time to chill for a little bit!
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Kikki
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I've reached the final chapter of Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. It's a great game; just what I needed. I'd say it easily takes the Game of the Year crown for me, so far...and games I love are so few and far between now that I don't think I can expect to find another within 2021. Anyway, Ys IX Proved I *can* still completely enjoy a game, to the point of marathoning it whenever possible. I don't like the story as much as Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, which was, imo, more touching, but this is very good, too. One I got about two-thirds in, I started to feel like they'd almost copied TOO much of the gameplay features from VIII, but they're all good. It's just that I always feel a little bothered by a lack of imagination in these things...too much copying is no fun. It's like they took elements out of VIII and asked themselves 'how can we reuse this in the next game'? They mixed everything up to make it look different, but the gameplay elements are all the same. Which is both good and bad, for me.

So, I'm almost done. So far I have:
  • Maxed all the relationships and saw all bonding events
  • Enhanced all Ritual Relics to MAX
  • Found every treasure in town (and maybe out of it, too; I still have to check to make sure I got every one in each area)
  • Found all graffiti
  • Got all sacramental...thingies. I think I got all the slot and skill books, too.
  • Got all recipes and all formulae
  • Got all azure petals
Basically, I've done everything except the few bits left in the final chapter. And I'm not going to bother trying to platinum the game, because there are SO many tedious battle trophies that I just have no interest in.

I don't know what I'll be doing next. The very next thing is to play the first five games I've picked out for my cousin, tomorrow. Trying to find her at least one more game she loves that she can sink some decent time into feels like more of a priority. I still have some very nice games on the back burner, even if they're not loved-level stuff. Plus I'm not a 16-year-old with no hobbies and no friends they can currently visit.
Daikon boy
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Ending up downloading octopath traveler off of gamepass and trying it out. I like it so far, but I only played a very very small amount (small to the point of not even having fought any battles yet) so I'm going to have to wait and see if I still like it. I'll probably play that, and maybe disgaea tomorrow, and maybe agarest war if I get in the mood and cold steel or ace attorney if I want to play on my ps4/ds.

I also tried the learn japanese to survive, katakana game. Whatever the actual title is. It's not a game I bought to be good, or have a good story so it's okay but man the people talking about how they DON'T SPEAK JAPANESE is so annoying. I kind of just want them all to shut up right now. Hoping that doesn't persist and their dialogue gets...less, annoying.

Need to clean out my cats bowls and shower tomorrow actually, so I might not make it to play as much as I'm hoping tomorrow...I really really want to eat enchiladas tomorrow (And the past few days. I'm starved and enchiladas sound amazing. I've been suffering from allergies lately and I realized they're a comfort food for me I guess, not to mention very filling and you get a lot of food out of the recipe. I don't have tortillas though or some of the other ingredients I have to buy fresh, plus cooking with everything else I have to do...
I've also kind of mostly been eating soup for the past few days for lack of anything else to eat so that doesn't really help me not starve. I could eat half a pizza now and be hungry two hours later. Soup is NOT enough food for me.)
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Harvest Moon kawaii
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Currently playing:

Game Builder Garage (Switch)

Up next:

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy (Switch) ((Currently on the first game out of the three included))
???

Guys, I did it!! I beat Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir!! It was 11 total chapters, so, it was a bit longer than I thought. But, I did it. :) I loved it.

I haven't made any more progress in Game Builder Garage, because I was trying to beat Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir.

Now, I have several options for my next game. I could focus on Game Builder Garage and the Phoenix Wright Trilogy (on Switch). Or, instead of the Phoenix Wright Trilogy, I could jump straight into Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind. Or, one of my other Switch games I just bought. I could also play games on Steam.

But, the new The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles *is* releasing on July 27th here in the US, so maybe I should just stick with Game Builder Garage and the Phoenix Wright trilogy?
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greensara
Carrots... yum
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Congrats on finishing, Harvest Moon Kawaii! I'm glad you liked it. I'm not big on visual novels personally, but the mystery aspect is intriguing.

I am still in Chapter 2 of Ys 8, but I am officially committed to seeing the game through now. I'm a little surprised by how much I have liked it so far. The funniest thing is the more I see of Sahad, the more I am reminded of my own father. He is to a T what Dad would be like if he were a video game character, lol.
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Kikki
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Ys VIII just gets better and better, too.

~

Had my cousin over today and we went through 5 games. My grasp on her taste was pretty decent already, but it was a touch depressing to me that she doesn't like to read and doesn't like to have much story at all, even if it's voice-acted. (She's much better with it if it's voice-acted, but she'd still rather have story-lite games.) But I've made note of everything. Honestly, she'd be best as a PC gamer, which I told her, so she's going to look into games on Steam since she happens to have access to a decent gaming computer at home. Which I do not, so I can't help much.

Honestly, I think I'm best off showing her action platformers and maybe dungeon crawlers. I'm going to ditch a bunch of the ones I previously meant to have her try. She likes action combat and exploring. I'll probably try Sakuna on her next time, and Hollow Knight, Torchlight II, Pikmin 3, RF4, and maybe Miitopia. Ys VIII happened to be the game she liked most of today's stuff, and I'll still have her try Xenoblade Chronicles DE because the fighting and exploring would probably be both her thing, and it's story heavy but all voice-acted in cutscenes, so...we'll see. (XCX would really be much more her thing, but it's not an option since it's Wii U only.)

She's tough, anyway. Her taste is so narrow it makes mine look vast, and I've always been quite limited in the stuff I enjoy.

Couldn't play anything of my own, today; spent half the day with grandma and the other half with my cousin, helping her play through the first hour or whatever of those games. I'm very close to the final dungeon of Ys IX, though! I've cleaned up all the bonding events and quests. (I think I have one left but it might be the main story quest...I can't tell yet.)
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Bluie
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Gahh, Kiki, you're making the game sound real tempting! But no, it's it my skip pile for now. Gotta focus on other stuff!

~

I both got Venti to level 80 and finished the current Genshin story content. Seems like we're literally a few patch updates away from getting the next area at this point. More waiting for me until then! Honestly can't wait to get into Inazuma.

Started playing Sky again but with a mild headache that only got worse the more I played. Felt woozy too. It's defs a mix of poor food choices today + lack or sleep + staring at screens. I played it for several hours last night with no issues so I don't think the actual game caused my state, but I had to turn it off despite my willingness to keep playing. I've currently taken some medicine, am drinking water, and I'm going to see what kinda fruit we have around to get something nutritious in my body. If the game makes me feel like this again though without any other factors in play, I may have to shelve it. There's a lot of games I can't play due to vertigo, and while it sucks, I know my limits.

On a different note, I actually spent several hours after work today drawing a comic strip for a friend of mine. We had such a fun little conversation earlier in the day that it stayed with me at work allll the way home. Been quite awhile since I drew so much at once, honestly exhausting. Kinda wanna draw another (only two panel) meme comic with my FFXIV main character, but I'll have to see how much motivation I have tomorrow lol.

Welp, meds kicked in around starting the 3rd paragraph. Not going to push my luck too much and lie down for awhile. I feel like tomorrow may be a Legend of Mana day, but then again, I do miss raiding in FFXIV...
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Kikki
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If anyone likes Ys VIII, they will probably love IX. I'd say it's overall the better game, though I personally have a preference for the specific exploration in VIII, and also for the VIII story. It's not that it's a better story, exactly, but it feels more personal, whereas IX's feels, I dunno...historic. Less personal and more far-reaching? I like more personal stories. Stories that touch on how the protagonist feels about the people immediately beside them and their own lives, more than the state of the world. Not that Dana's story isn't also vast, but Monstrum's just feels less personal, to me. But yeah, overall with the mechanics and the incredibly tightly-packed gameplay, I'd say IX is actually the better game.

I was waiting on IX to help me figure out if Ys is now on my 'favourite series' list. I can't put a series on based on only ONE game, y'see. (I have played a bit of SEVEN, but I didn't get that far.) So anyway, it's official now. Ys is one of my favourite game series. :) Ys X, confirmed in early development (but no other news than that), will be a day-one purchase for me, whenever it comes around.

~

Had a nice 6AM-type exercise today that I don't think will come back to bite me later (*crosses fingers and toes and braids hair for good measure*) so my head is clearer than usual. I don't know if I'll go back to Ys IX today, even though I pretty much only have the final dungeon left to do. It's my GotY and it'll suck me back in...and I think I need to be free of it, for today. At least for the moment, I do.

I actually need to revive old hobbies. I've dropped just about everything in my life other than housework (endless!), family stuff, and gaming. And very minimal gardening. I need to start reading (stuff OTHER than manga, I mean) and writing again. And DIY stuff and paper art and jewellery. I'm living in a very tiny, quiet, dusty dim little world right now...gotta branch back out like the proper tree that I am. I also need to soak up every last ray of sunshine available in July and August. Last winter was very, very bad.

I'd also love to find an art style. I can't draw. I am the most ridiculous draw-er. It's not even funny. Well, in fact, it IS funny...to someone else, I'm sure. Everything I draw, whether human, avian, equine, inorganic, etc, can be summed up as 'some kind of blobby thing? Like maybe...a bean? Or a puddle? Maybe a cloud?' So, I don't think traditional drawing is ever going to be my thing. But it'd be weird for anyone to be unable to find any possible way to draw or paint or scribble something attractive. I have a goal (scary, goals are scary, I don't like them) to find some way to draw-ish something expressive. Loosely worded so as to hopefully not limit what I'll try.

So no games today that will completely suck all my attention up! I want to think about other stuff. It's okay to play some stuff to check out for my cousin, but nothing that'll distract me from considering more important things. I AM going to finish IX quite soon but in general I think I should actually spend less time gaming half-heartedly and more time reviving any kind of interest in anything or everything I used to love.

I suppose this means that other than just trying to find my cousin a new game or two...which I am still working on...I should also try to involve her in a few other things. People need more than one option for what to do with their time.
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Mikodesu
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Art really 'clicked' for me when I went back and studied construction, rather than realism. Construction being the way things are put together, like how you see artists breaking everything down into big boxes. Realism is useful, but imo it's not necessary. The important thing is being able to see and understand the world by the shapes that things are made up of. When you can do that, styling your art how you want gets way easier.

It's kinda boring to practice, but it saves time in the long run to learn. Speaking as someone who spent a good...six, seven years beating their head against a wall of anime without learning much. :lol: Fun is still the most important thing, though.

--
Got the Monster Hunter Stories 2 demo ready to play this weekend. The weather is « Cow Poopoo » and it's going to stay « Cow Poopoo », so...I'm more likely to Switch than PC. I know I'll enjoy it, it's just a question of how much. And when I get it...I think it's all gonna depend on Genshin. I'll wait it out the extra week for word on the next big Genshin update. If we get Inazuma, Stories is on the back burner. If not...I'll probably skip a Genshin update for Stories!

In Genshin news...I'm still really brooding about pulling for Kazuha. :| Support characters never go out of style, and he's so far the only character who can use their ability to gain altitude in mid-air. Which is...awesome. And if I lose the 50-50 NBD, that sets me up for somebody I can't stand missing out on.
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Bluie
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Kikki wrote:If anyone likes Ys VIII, they will probably love IX.
Yeah, I figured. Ys VIII was a sale at EB for $20 I think? My previous experience with Ys was the Vita game that I also got for cheap ($10 iirc). Both of them are fun games, lots of map exploration and dungeon crawling with snappy combat. I will most likely get IX once it hits a super sale OR someone buys it for me. I don't deny that I'd really enjoy it, it's just that I can't devote myself to JRPGs like I used to, even if I want to.

~

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to drop Sky. I love it, it's a lot of fun, but I am now getting vertigo each time I'm trying to play it. I'd rather not tempt fate and keep playing. Guess it's Legend of Mana time today after all.

~

On art; It used to be a hard subject for me to talk about. I wanted a lot out of my art, but it took me forever to be comfortable with it. It wasn't until I let it go for several years and finally came back that I found my style. I still have my struggles, but in finding what I know I'm good at, I'm able to reach goals that are more realistic. Now I have a sticker shop that I'm constantly adding new designs to. Not everything sells, but I'm happy it exists after all my struggles.
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Mikodesu
Huggy Chickens
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I'm happy for you, Bluie. :) It may have been hard fought, but getting to any sort of happy place with your art is a win.

I have NEVER seen anything over mild success with mine, but honestly, that's most of us. My high point was some years ago, I had a comic going that at its height had hundreds of readers a week. And the only reason for that was it was (loosely) a fan comic. My original work had half the readers for twice the work promoting it.

I have finally learned that in 'today's world' if you want to see any success you have no choice but to work with the algorithm. Skill is part of it, but there's plenty of skilled people who get zero attention.

--
I'll stop on the off topic stuff. Storm is kicking up again so...off to gaming! Or, losing an hour to a character creator. :D Whichever.
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Kikki
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On the topic of games, I wish they'd do an Art Academy for Switch. It's not that I think it's a way to learn to be an artist, really, but it was fun. :)

~
Spoiler:
Though for my own art or whatever...I've given up on drawing...I'll avoid thinking about art as 'drawing' from now on, as much as I can. I need a different way. I've realized I don't want to draw or paint reality anyway. I don't want to draw a tree or even a flower, let alone a person or an animal. I want the colours in my head to find a way out, in a form that can actually be seen. I've no idea how to say it, but...I don't want to portray any kind of realism. And honestly, I don't think I can do that, either, but there is a thing I like. I love all paper art, but simple geometric stuff looks great to me, and combining quilling and forms related to quilling, would be awesome. I thought of a really simple thing that probably even I can do. Pretty sure a child could do what I'm thinking of. I guess if anyone can do it, it won't be very special, but...whatever. I just want to make something I love to look at. I have okay physical skills in crafting, since I made jewellery for years. I'm probably better trying to make what I want that way, rather than trying to draw or paint.
~

I've tried Sakuna now. I don't really like it, but I want to get a decent way in to be able to show it to my cousin properly. It is pretty looking, and it's fighty, and it's voice acted. All things that would draw her in. I wonder if she'd like Subnautica. She likes a loose story that she doesn't have to follow very closely, she doesn't like to read anything, she likes to explore, and she likes to fight craftily when she can. Not with skill, but with tricks, I think. She's difficult, dagnabbit! She loves to create her town in ACNH, but she doesn't like DQB/2 because it's not the right type of building. I still feel that she'd find her largest pool of games on PC.

~

Ah, sorry, Bluie! I wasn't trying to sell you on Ys IX; I saw that you said you have it in your skip pile for now, and I wouldn't try to tempt you to go against your decision. :) I meant to give a general report on it due to all the people in this thread who have said they have played or are going to play VIII, since very few so far have mentioned playing IX.

Oh, and that's cool that you have a sticker store, didn't know that :) I had an online jewellery store once, too, and one with photography cards. They both did okayish, particularly the hairsticks...funny how whichever ones you like best yourself are the ones that sell worst...but then came 2008.
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Harvest Moon kawaii
Tubular Turnip Farmer
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Currently playing:

Game Builder Garage (Switch)
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy (Switch)

Up next:

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Switch)
???

I started playing the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy on my Switch again from where I left off. I finished Episode 2 (Turnabout Sisters) of the first game. And, I'm now on the next episode/case (episode 3; Turnabout Samurai). I'm well on my way to finishing the first game in the trilogy.

I intend to finish all 3 games in the trilogy collection before starting The Great Ace Attorney, which releases in the West on July 27, 2021 (at the end of this month).
Daikon boy
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I played a bit of my computer games today, and I played some cold steel the other day, though I need to continue playing and I've still got some time left to finish the chapter I'm on. I'm having a hard time focusing on my games so I've been watching tv more instead.

I really really want to get the second darkside detective game but I don't think I'll be able to. I've been wanting to get the game since it released but. I'm very likely still going to have to wait on it. And monster hunter is so close, but still so far away...

I need to drink some vitamin waters/Gatorades I think. I'm really really really thirsty because I ran out of them a bit ago, I'm not entirely convinced it's related but it's possible that's making it harder to focus...

Edit: I got « Harvest Goddess » wars, omega quintet and operation abyss as a gift. Had a really good dinner, and a soda, so I had a pretty good day. I played a little bit of omega quintet to make sure it works on my computer, and am trying out « Harvest Goddess » wars now. I was having an issue with the audio and visuals not syncing properly earlier, but I restarted my computer and it was fine, so it had nothing to do with any of games. I'll probably play this for a little bit and then maybe test operation abyss, and play some cold steel later.
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