How's your backlog?

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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Kikki
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I finished one more chapter of FE: Awakening. And I like the characters and the story and even the art, which should have me set...normally those three things together are basically guarantee, but...somehow I feel like I'm not involved. I know all you do in games is press buttons to make things happen, but with this game, that's what I FEEL like I'm doing...like I'm just pressing A to see what the characters will say next. I feel like a bystander. I think that's why I keep ending up setting it down and never finishing it.

I think I'm going to have a tough time finishing, even though each chapter only takes about fifteen minutes to complete even with fighting each battle available on the map.
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Katgirl
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@pachi
Aaaaah I'm so glad you enjoyed Bravely Second! It really is a great game (and I'd recommend it to anyone else reading this ;) )
Spoiler:
Yesssss the fourth wall break at the end were so good! And the celestial realm=the real/our world is such a nice and subtle break. I always love when the player becomes a character in the story ^^

Unfortunately it's been a while since I beat it so I can't remember the details of the ending rn but I think the Magnolia and Yew thing was that she decided to stay behind with him instead of heading back to the moon which I mean wasn't much of a choice since wasn't her commander the only other one left

And Tiz and Agnes were cute together in this game. Yeah In the first one they were pretty generic but this one was sweet. And the Edea/Ringabel/Alternis/Ringabel's Edea love...mess really got to my heart! Like Alternis loves you Edea and Ringabel's off with his Edea or on some interdimensional adventure! I just want them to form some happy family or something ;^;
My final team was...

Magnolia: Knight/Guardian (my tank)
Yew: Black Mage/summoner with spellcraft (my magic attacker)
Edea: Templar/Hawkeye (my physical attacker)
Tiz: White Mage/ Astrologian (my healer/buffer)

Barely anything could hurt Magnolia with physical attacks and Edea could stomp a lot of enemies into the ground. So I'd have Edea use up her braves then had Mag get possessed by her so their attack and defenses combined and they became a pretty impressive team. Plus with the knight abilities Mag took damage for other characters and built up her soul power for attacks. It's cool how so many strategies and class/skills combos makes everyone's team unique ^^

fyi I hear there's a glitch with new game ++ that if you import job class and levels but don't import items you lose the first summoner's summon since you get it when you get the job but since you've already got the job you don't get the item.

I'd love so much if they made a third game! Unfortunately I haven't heard anything on that although that doesn't mean it's not happening.
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Pachi
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@Kikki
Hmm is it because of the lack of an overworld that you feel like you're not involved? The first time I played a tactical rpg, it felt weird not having an overworld where I direct my avatar to enter towns/dungeons.

What drew me into FE:A was the story.
Spoiler:
The opening clip of you stabbing Chrom after defeating the bad guy? I MUST KNOW MORE. I guess that was my main motivation to complete it. Like I want to know at what point of the story does that happen and why. Even though it does feels like I'm a bystander, I think of it as like reading a novel, which I loved doing (I was a bookworm before college)

@Katgirl
Spoiler:
I'm just confused because it was clearly shown that Magnolia was in the rocket when it blasted off back to the moon huhu

I thought Ringabel's Edea died in his world? That's why he's always vowing to protect Edea. BS makes it clear that Edea loves Ringabel, but he's on an interdimensional adventure plus Alternis is present in their world, which makes it awkward. Huhu
I never really understood how Guardian/Possession works. By the time I got it, my team was already doing well with their roles. I checked the abilities as well and I can't think of how it will fit my team :<

Another one of my favorite strategies for bosses with magical attacks was for my astrologian to set up elemental reflect blast and for my patissiere to weaken the boss to that certain element. My team gets minimal damage, and the boss destroys themselves with their own attacks ohoho

Thank you for telling me regarding the NG+! I'll keep that in mind ^^

Aaah I hope we get something about the third game soon ><
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FINALLY. I finished Muv Luv Alternative. And by finish, I mean I finished the main story. There are still some individual character endings to get through, but I am considering this one DONE because getting through the main story took me about 50 hours. Probably closer to 40 because I finished it in about 4.5 days and definitely didn't play for 10 hours a day, but since the game doesn't tell you your playtime, I will never really know.

Rambles, thoughts and very minor, generalized spoilers below:
Spoiler:
Wow. It was certainly epic. I wouldn't have expected that level of writing from an EROGE game, but I also have no experience with them besides this trilogy. Are thy all like this? I was honestly shocked at how good the quality was. Sure, there are still a few typos here and there (all 3 game entries spelled "deja vu" "dj vu" for example), but overall I thought the writing was very decent. Alternative really got into the meat of the sci-fi aspect. There were so many long stretches of tactical discussion mixed in with scientific explanation (science for the game that is, not science as we know it), that at times it was definitely information overload, but in a good way. If you love that kind of detail, this game is definitely for you. It's one of the few times I've played a Japanese story and actually felt like nearly all the important things were properly resolved/explained by the end of the game.

So, I'm the type of person who doesn't really cry with games, movies, books, etc., but I DO tear up. Every time I read the last couple hundred pages of the 7th Harry Potter book for instance, I tear up because of how emotionally charged and intense the writing is during the final battle scenes. Alternative was no different. In a few spots the scenes were so intense that I teared up. I'm not a particularly emotional person, and while I like characters, I don't tend to actually mourn or get attached to fiction, so for me to tear up at all is a pretty big deal and speaks to how intense/emotional a game, book or movie is IMHO.

Also, I am the type of person that NEEDS to know all the original content, regardless of how terrible, stupid, pointless, disgusting or offensive it is. Therefore, I did take the time to find the CG's that are NOT included in the Vita versions (they are the all-ages versions and will never receive the adult content since it's the Vita we're talking about). It honestly took my a long time to find them via Google search for free. Guess I'm not very good at looking for hentai :lol: Anyway, I found them ALL. Again, IMO, they weren't even that bad. Pretty tame for the most part compared to what little I've been exposed to through friends and by accident. Even this ONE particular scene that will absolutely spoil you if you look it up wasn't half as raunchy as I was expecting it would be, given the genre they employed for those specific scenes. Some of the gore has been toned down also apparently, but as far as I can tell, that was only for another specific scene, and while the original drawing is definitely gross, it wasn't any worse than the gore we see in a movie like Sin City or Se7en.

Do you NEED to see the hentai and gore to appreciate this game? No. Not at all. The transitions over the hentai scenes in Extra were ever so slightly jarring, but in Unlimited and Alternative, you never even would have known anything was missing. Anyone sensitive to sexual content should know it's alluded to, but the way it was translated was not very graphic at all, and has the characters say things like "come together" and "joined as one". It was definitely very romantic, flowery sounding language that heavily implied what was happening without being direct or crass about it. Sometimes I wonder if some of the traumatic impact from the edited gore scene was lost, but that would be the ONLY spot I would say the editing made you lose any part of the experience, and again, sensitive players are better off not having to see it at all.
Best visual novel ever? I don't know that I would say that. I really liked Stein;s Gate, for instance, even though it hasn't been nearly as thorough as Muv Luv in tying up its own loose ends. But it was definitely VERY good. I do recommend to anyone interested in picking this up that if you want the full understanding of the story and emotional bonding with all the characters, you absolutely NEED to play Extra -> Unlimited -> Alternative. You could probably dive into Alternative and eventually piece together what's going on, but I think it would end up being a frustrating experience and much less impactful if you did. Also, if you DO take the plunge and start with Extra, know that your protagonist DOES grow, gain insight and evolve over the series. It's some of the best character development I've ever seen in these kinds of games for sure. Of course, if you absolutely hate them from the outset, I can't honestly say they change so much that it's like a completely different person you're dealing with either, so keep that in mind as well.

Whew. That was definitely a beast of a trilogy, but well-worth my time and money (paid slightly under $60 for all 3 games [Extra and Unlimited are contained in a single package] before Amazon jacked up the Vita pre-order prices, which was RIDICULOUS). Now my backlog is only Hollow Knight. Nothing else until LDC, and if I don't like how the reviews shape up, it will be returned without being opened. I ended up returning Shining Resonance, and since I don't find myself thinking about it other than for this post, it was definitely the right decision. I guess I should go back to getting my butt handed to me in Hollow Knight before moving onto the next thing!
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Ronin19
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I finished the first episode of Walking Dead Final Season. Probably one of their best openers for the series since season 1, and definitely their longest. I'm not a fan of some of the gameplay choices or how different their trophy system is. Spoilers just in case.
Spoiler:
Pretty much it feels like it's changed from a point-and-click game to an over-the-shoulder point-and-click game. Quick time events are still there, but you have to time it EXACTLY RIGHT OR ELSE YOU WILL DIE FROM BEING OVERRUN. Telltale's trophies are usually, "Finish this chapter," and it does this about 8 times. This time it has learned from Wolf Among Us and added in miscellaneous trophies that involve making certain choices, doing actions, and collecting collectibles. I like the story of The Walking Dead and all, but not enough to get all the trophies, especially since I'll have to go through the entire storyline again and I get scared too easily.
All in all, the story is solid and I love the new characters, but the gameplay changes I need warming up to, especially since I'm use to the same formula since season 1 of Walking Dead. It's definitely better than season 3 and slightly better than season 2.

Back to Okami!
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RopeMaidenKirie
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Oooh glad to hear that about TWD! I haven't played since the 2nd season, so maybe I'll get the newer episodes someday on sale. I really enjoyed season 1, but I had save transfer bugs and it was such a hassle.
~

Only 4 more stories in Octopath until I consider it done (tbh I'm just gonna watch the real ending or whatever on youtube because I'd like to move on to other stuff) while a good game, the repetitiveness of it is reaaaaally starting to wear me out. Should be done by tomorrow in any case!

I also bought a short point and click game last week called Unavowed (it's so good) and I'm already halfway done with that, so I should be able to finish that by Thursday/Friday. Which leaves me with 4 games left! Which aren't getting done by the time LDC comes out next week, so then I'll be back to 5. Still more than manageable though!

Decided to wait on DQXI (because Switch), Pathfinder (because cRPGs have too many bugs day one) and Assassin's Creed Odyssey (AC is known for bugs at launch and their titles always drop in price quickly). So for September for sure I have:
428 Shibuya Scramble
Spyro Reignited Trilogy
XC2: Torna

which is much cheaper, and lighter on my backlog and wallet lol.
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Ronin19
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RopeMaidenKirie wrote:Oooh glad to hear that about TWD! I haven't played since the 2nd season, so maybe I'll get the newer episodes someday on sale. I really enjoyed season 1, but I had save transfer bugs and it was such a hassle.
Sorry to hear about the transfer bug! So far season 3 fills like filler; it's hardly referenced in season 4. Heck, the first few minutes pretty much tell you what happens in season 1 and 2, but leave out a LOT of season 3 with only one real choice applying from season 3.
RopeMaidenKirie wrote:Only 4 more stories in Octopath until I consider it done (tbh I'm just gonna watch the real ending or whatever on youtube because I'd like to move on to other stuff) while a good game, the repetitiveness of it is reaaaaally starting to wear me out. Should be done by tomorrow in any case!
I so want to do the real ending myself, but the grinding is so repetitive and boring that I'm tempted to look it up myself even though I find the first part pretty easy; I just need to grind everyone else up to a respectable level.
RopeMaidenKirie wrote:Decided to wait on DQXI (because Switch), Pathfinder (because cRPGs have too many bugs day one) and Assassin's Creed Odyssey (AC is known for bugs at launch and their titles always drop in price quickly). So for September for sure I have:
428 Shibuya Scramble
Spyro Reignited Trilogy
XC2: Torna

which is much cheaper, and lighter on my backlog and wallet lol.
Still only have Life is Strange coming in September, and that's paid for already. Next game I'll have to buy after LDC is Mario Party. I did wind up preordering the Dancing Persona games for PS4. Can't wait for that, but I hate that Smash is 3 days after Persona comes out.

I'm now about 2/3 done with Okami! I can definitely finish this up before LDC. Afterward I'm going back to DA2 to try and finish up that file. I doubt I will, but it doesn't hurt to try.
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Kikki
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I'm starting Chapter 18 of Awakening;
Spoiler:
met a very odd character named Owain (is he also a chuuni? I seem to be getting chuunis in my games all over the place all of a sudden...did I just not notice them before?) I'm not progressing quickly because I keep getting distracted by anything else that comes up...Awakening just seems to be the last on my list of things to do, all the time. I'm probably not playing right...I don't pay any attention to weapon weaknesses, and I'm not using many of the second part of characters (and I failed to recruit one of them since I didn't even realize he was there) and just sticking with my high-ranking characters who already have top level affinity. Though boy Morgan is really adorable.
Also, my characters' weapons are breaking like crazy ever since I entered this latter half of the game...they only fight one or two battles with a brand new weapon and they seem to shatter. :/ I'm not finding the whole weapon thing fun at all...I'd rather they just had permanent weapons that I can upgrade than anything with durability. I guess I'm overall not fond of these fragile weapons that seem made of sugar.

I keep losing track of my backlog. Checking July's...I completed ANB and I THINK I will complete Awakening, and LDC is still anyone's guess, since with the simulator sickness issue, I may not be able to play it at all, and if I can pull enough tricks to deal with the motion issue, it's probably going to be slower going. So even if I can play it, I assume I won't be able to finish it within August. So my best case scenario for August is to end the year's running total at (+3). At least September looks like it'll end at (+4) or even (+5) and if that's the case, I might take a chance on one of the games I'm less sure of but still naggingly interested in, like DQXI or Jake Hunter. Not sure yet.

Depends on when Portia and Mysteria come out, and how long Torna: TGC actually is. If Portia is out in September or October, or if Torna is really long, I probably won't try to add on any extra games.

Another FE: Awakening bit on getting two more characters to 'S':
Spoiler:
Oh my goodness. Henry and Nowi get engaged in the most adorable way I've ever seen! Lol, I totally went pang over that one. It's the only one that got me that hard.
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Bluie
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Oh no, chapter 18 is my favourite in the game. I can't say anything for fear of spoiling, but you're about to meet my favourite character and Japan's least favourite (by vote).

Some supports in Awakening are really good and adorable. My personal favourites are Ricken/Panne, Libra/Olivia, M!Morgan/Nah, Lucina!Gerome, and (read this after you're done chapter 18)
Spoiler:
F!Robin/Yen'fay
Some of them are suuuuper bad though. Nowi/Kellam comes to mind and some of the Robinsexuals (only can marry Robin) feel kinda rushed or tacked on.

My backlog is starting to pile up. I'm 17 hours into Okami and I've reached the sunken ship. I've heard the game is around 30 hours, but I am taking my sweet time doing everything. IDK if i'm at least half way, but there's quite a few characters on the logo I haven't met yet!

After I finish Okami, I might actually play Light of Hope before Cosmic Star Heroine because I'm kinda feeling like I need something simple and relaxing between RPGS. Little Dragons cafe is 9 days away now, but i'm sure i'll be ready for another RPG once I finish it as well. Not sure if I should add MHGU to the backlog as it's kinda a 'i'll play this forever' game like Splatoon 2.

Anyways, to recap:

Okami - 17 hours in
HM:LoH - Next
Cosmic Star Heroine - Will get to
MHGU - Will pick away at
Little Dragons Cafe - Aug 24
« Harvest Goddess » Wars The Complete Legend - Sept 4
XC2 Torna - Sept 14

And I pretty much have all of September and October to finish all of these because my next game is Yomawari Long Night Collection which isn't until October 30th. *Cracks knuckles* I can do this! >:V

(Also, I looked at my activity log and i've almost played 30 hours of Dawn of the Breakers. Holy.)
Last edited by Bluie on Aug 15, 2018 2:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Kikki
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Spoiler:
Ahh...I failed a bunch of my fights (at least in that I didn't get to recruit characters. I redid the fight with Tiki until I got her since she's such a useful fighter right outta the box, but any other fight, if I won it but lost the character, I didn't redo. So I lost Yen'fay. And Donnel and Yarne.) I didn't see anything to dislike about Yen'fay, I'm surprised he's unpopular with such a popular motif attached to him...that thing where a sibling becomes the villain even to the sibling themselves in order to save that sibling. Lots of reasons to say 'sibling' in that sentence...

I had no particular plan with my pairings...I just grouped people together as was handy, and I've ended up with:
Chrom/Robin
Frederick/Lissa
Sully/Stahl
Panne/Vaike
Kellam/Mirielle (or Miriel or Mirabelle or whatever)
Henry/Nowi

And I think that's it. Henry/Nowi are the only ones I actually especially like as a pair of that lot, though, lol.
I'm about on Chapter 20 now...if I rush I could finish it on Friday and POSSIBLY break out Tales of Graces f, see where I was, and then read a walkthrough up to that point to remind me of what I've already done twice, lol, and then keep going from there...I don't want to start all over for the third time. (Possibly forth.) I'd have a week to work on it before LDC...doubt I could finish in that time, though.

It'd be awesome if I could actually do that. That extra + on my list would remove any major disgruntled feelings if it turns out that LDC twists my head up too much to play it. I'm determined to try it, though...I have two tricks to avoid/minimize simulator sickness that could work enough, though one of them would be a bit of a burden. (If you keep your eyes trained to one spot only...basically on the character's scarf...and don't look at any of the scenery moving around, the ill feeling doesn't seem to happen. But it takes a lot of concentration to do that, lol...and you'd have to stop moving any time you wanted to look around to see if there was anything you need to pick up, so it would slow your progress down a fair bit.) The other fix involves tying thin strings around the Switch, which would be really easy if it works (I even have clear elastic threads) but I'm dubious about how effective it will be. Works at least a little, but maybe not enough.
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Bluie
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Awakening Chapter 18 spoilers
Spoiler:
Here's the thing, you can't actually recruit him in that chapter. Once you reach the last chapter of the game, a bunch of spotpass paralogues will unlock that allow you to recruit a bunch of bosses and a few others. Yen'fay is one of them and there's a bit of a twist as to how he's alive, and it's very, very sad. I lovelovelove Yen'fay, not just because he's a samurai, but because of his character in general and how he treats those around him. For whatever reason, he's the least popular male character in Japan, but he has a small fandom still. I uh, wrote a fanfic for him and I consider it one of my best works. #Neeeeeeeeerd.
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Ronin19
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I just beat Okami! It's such a beautiful game and I'm glad I played and beat it finally. I'll probably start flipping between West of Loathing and Dragon Age 2 until Little Dragon's Cafe comes out. I'm so excited!
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Kikki
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I don't understand the difficulty on FE: Awakening. I had a hard time from chapters 16 on, and then for some reason, with no extra levelling up or better weapons, level 21 was super easy. Was it just a matter of luckily having the right type of troops or something? Also, my file says 'Normal'...I thought I was playing on Easy. I know my troops come back even if they die, at least. (Permadeath is an awful gaming invention. And how on earth could anyone finish this game if the characters permanently die? I have a character die in almost every chapter, lol...of course, I really don't pay any mind to weakness or upgrading weapons or anything.)

Anyway, I'm now on Chapter 22; gonna finish by tomorrow and am planning to do hours of cleaning then and will only check Graces f to see where I was and then read up to there to catch myself up before picking it back up on Saturday, if there's time. Maybe I can complete a chapter or two of it before LDC.

I reeeeeally wish LDC had a demo. It'd be great if I could test that nauseating camera out first hand (and see if changing the pan speed would help) without having to commit to a purchase first. Well, I'll try my best, anyway.
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Ronin19
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Kikki wrote:I reeeeeally wish LDC had a demo. It'd be great if I could test that nauseating camera out first hand (and see if changing the pan speed would help) without having to commit to a purchase first. Well, I'll try my best, anyway.
If you can wait a day or up to a week, you could always buy the game used to test it out. I'm not sure if you have GameStop or EB Games in your area, but at GameStop, you can buy a used game and, if you return it within a week, get a full refund from it. Pretty sure EB Games is the same way, but can't confirm.
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Kikki
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Thanks for the suggestion :) I checked them out, but the nearest EB games is 1.5 to 2 hours away from me, unfortunately. I live in a large town, but very much a country town...very little specialty shopping available around here, even gaming stores. I figure I may drop my game off there if I end up being unable to play it (unfortunately, both of my sisters get simulator sickness, too, so if I can't play it, they probably won't be able to, either. I'm just gonna have to risk it, because watching a video doesn't tell me if I'll be able to make it work or not, unfortunately.)

But in better news...finished Fire Emblem: Awakening! And honestly, the story is great...I would have LOVED this game if these characters and that story had been made into an APRG or JRPG rather than an SRPG. But since I don't enjoy this type of gameplay, it's probably never going to get a replay from me, even though I'm curious about the way things would go if I played differently. Getting through the battles is just too much like a chore and not enough like fun, for me.

But that's a +1! And I already cleaned the kitchen and can either clean the entry, or read up on Graces f to reacquaint myself with where I was and then pick it up again tomorrow to start working on another +. I don't feel too bad about risking a -1 with LDC if I'm doing okay on racking up the pluses on backlogged games. :)
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