Backlog 2022

[cinnamon_yuki]

Happy Holidays everyone!

Spending the holidays with DDV right now. Unlocked Stitch and he's a bundle of chaos as always. I'm still in the gaming slump today and I'm just planning my 2023 gaming budget (aka gaming resolution for next year). So far, I'm trying to space out my gaming spending because the majority of my favorite titles are coming in the 1st Quarter and not being able to play them at the same time:

Here's the titles that I am planning to buy next year:
1. The Fernweh Saga Release Date: January 5th Cost: $3.99 to $4.99 (One-week duration Release Discount)
2. Persona 3 Portable Release Date: January 19th Cost: $19.99
3. Fire Emblem Engage Release Date: January 20th Cost: $59.99+DLC
4. Fallen Hero Retribution Release Date: February 2nd Cost: $4.99 to $ 5.99 (One-week duration Release Discount)
4. Hogwarts Legacy Release Date: February 10th Cost: $69.99 (Digital Deluxe)
5. Wayhaven Chronicles Book 3 Release Date: April 4th Cost: $4.99 to $ 5.99 (One-week duration Release Discount)
6. SoS A Wonderful Life Release Date: June to August Cost: $19.99 to $29.99 probably?

I didn't include Errant Kingdom (Full Release: last week of Feb) and Baldur's Gate 3 (Out of EA on August 2023) because I already bought them.

I will definitely get items 1,4 and 5. These games have mobile versions that I can read during my commute and during lunch break and are easy on the pocket. I would definitely want to play Hogwarts Legacy on release day. Based on my track record, I tend to spend 100 hours or more on RPG so I could easily spend two to three months on it. For Fire Emblem Engage, I am still unsure. I admit the biggest draw from the franchise was that aside from the story and characters, is romancing someone. I know it's petty but yea, since there's no S-support confirmation yet, I'm currently unsure if I will get it next year. As for Persona 3 Portable, I have played it before and since it's a turn-based JRPG, I will spend more or less 50 or more hours so I'm unsure if I could finish it on time for Hogwarts Legacy.

Probably I just wait for a sale before getting P3P and finishing RF 5 PC which I am supposed to do or DA2? I probably need to finish DA 2 because I am on Act 3. >_< Anyway, that's just want to type this down to let out my inner thoughts before I start the new year. XD

[Kikki]

FFXIV has this funny little habit of changing the spelling of something or rearranging syllables or etc, of a word that already exists, to 'fantasy-ify' it for their game, lol. Eikons instead of icons, for example. Lahabrea instead of Alhambra. Some guy named Ritalin with extra Hs in. I encounter words like that in this game REALLY frequently. Though it at least successfully gives the words a feeling of realism while allowing them to remain fantasy. A lot of games try to do that, and fail in an embarrassingly obvious way. (Ys, lol. The Romun Empire. The coast of Afroca. Etc. Oh, Falcom...)

At least with this game, the words just end up feeling familiar, which gives them a sort of vague authenticity...though for me, it makes me think...isn't that a real thing? Lahambra? No Lahabrea...ah, I got it! My brain is going through letter and sound juggling all the time in this game.

Well, Dragoon Dax has his level 50 coffer and is now equipped well enough that I should be able to ignore his clothes for ten levels. (So is Bard Dax, of course.) They are also wearing glamours over their ugly Lvl 50 coffer items. The dragoon outfit looks less draconic and more like some kind of spiky electrically-charged metal insect, imo.

I'm only about 5 quests away from the end of the first group of ARR MSQ...around 165 quests in all. So, soon I'll be into the patch content of ARR...another 80 quests. Even with two characters to spread the EXP out over, both versions of Dax are gonna hit level cap before I even get to Heavensward, I'm pretty sure. But it was SO tedious to make another class once I passed level 36...I don't think I want to make a third. (I probably should have gone with Gladiator instead of Lancer. Paladins are always good solo classes! Plus I absolutely loved the role of Paladin in the first game that ever let me find my own class, back in the 90s. You could only gain access to the Paladin category if you had extremely high honor stats, and it was just fun. Especially for a natural goody-two-shoes like me.)

Well, we'll see. I suppose I might start a third class but...ugh, no, I don't think I can do it again. I'd rather start a new character than try to level up a third class on Dax, solo. (It'd go way faster if I was willing to MP, but I'm not.)

Oh! I finally figured out how to hide headgear in this game! The hats all ruin poor Dax's lovely locks (they clip through!) and steely gaze, ha ha. I knew there had to be a way. Most games like this have that as a standard feature. You spend an hour customizing your character...you don't want to hide his head under a big tin can or stupid floppy brim!

Story still doesn't feel like it has hit its stride in terms of a strong central theme...there are a bunch of threads that seem to be floating loose of what's happening in the MSQ at the moment...but it is headed in a particular direction, now, which makes it more fun for me than when it felt like it was ambling all over the place.

EDIT: And the excruciatingly long end credits for ARR have rolled! Now just 80 more quests to get to Heavensward, lol. But I think I'll put FFXIV aside for a bit and play other things for a while. You get burned out after a while! Since it's still the free trial, I can just go back to it later, during a gap.

[Bluie]

Just a hint for next time: you can skip the long looooong credits in FFXIV and it won't skip any of the after credits scenes. The only one I can remember that had something worth waiting through all the names for is Endwalker.

Got to get a few hours of Genshin in before Christmas craziness kicked in. Was a relaxing way to start the day and I managed to get Wanderer to level 90 and start getting him some better artifacts. Now the march to New Years starts, but I thankfully have Tuesday off so I can catch my breath for a little bit before jumping back in.

I got no games for Christmas this year which honestly greatly pleased me. I got a sick NieR artbook covering all the art from the main concept artist from all three games and a super pink PS5 controller, but that was it 'game'-wise. I did however buy myself Astria Ascending on sale because sure, why not, I'll get around to it eventually.

On a completely different but slightly related note; the Legend of Mana anime is over and it really « Cow Poopoo » the bed in the last ep. While it wasn't the prettiest show and it had some issues throughout, it was good enough until the last ep. It was more of a slideshow than an anime and they really « Snuggly Bunny » up the big emotional climax. As someone who really adores the game, I'm very salty right now. Apparently they're going to re-release the last ep as a Directors Cut sometime in 2023, which gives me a tiny bit of hope, but I'm still mad rn lmao. I'm still buying the Shiloh Nendoroid though, because I'm still coping and it comes with Lil Cactus.

Now I'm nervous for the NieR Automata anime...

[Kikki]

Just a hint for next time: you can skip the long looooong credits in FFXIV and it won't skip any of the after credits scenes. The only one I can remember that had something worth waiting through all the names for is Endwalker.

I did hit the button to speed them up, but failed to notice the skip button. Will look more closely next time!

I did VERY BADLY on the final boss. I failed so many times I almost ran the timer out and failed via timeout as well...but succeeded with just a few minute to spare. The problem was relatively simple. I understood the pattern more or less. He'd do these stripes of damage, and quadrants of damage, and this one where you have to run to the corners between almost field-wide damage, and that was all fine, but...I can't multitask!

I can easily avoid the damage, OR I can easily do my rotation of buttons when they light up, but I can't watch my teammates and the field AND fight all at the same time. I still don't know what caused two or three of the wipeouts...they took me entirely by surprise as I didn't notice any attacks charging up at all. I'd be doing my attacks diligently and not have realized that my NPC buddy that used to be a bit off to the side of me had disappeared...I usually just watch them and follow them, because they react to attacks about a second before the attack actually shows up on the field. And that stupid Ultima or Ultimate whatever thing was doing huge attacks almost constantly, it was befuddling when I was trying to hurry up to chip away his health as fast as I could.

Seriously...I have no ability at all to multitask, and this is why I know I cannot inflict myself upon multiplayer. It'd be fine with family because they know all that about me very well. They make jokes about me just randomly falling over for no apparent reason, or dropping things spastically IRL (I legitimately do both of those things fairly frequently) things like that...they KNOW full well all the damage I've got, lol, and that it transfers to gaming as well. Very low reaction speed and no ability to multitask!

That sucks that they ruined the anime at the last show like that! You don't see that too often. I can only think of something similar when shows get unexpectedly cancelled and they just throw something almost random together for a final show. I don't know if that's what happened with Lois and Clark, but in the last season when they were finally together and discussing family type stuff and difficulties they would have due to Clark not actually being human, it ended with a baby being left on their doorstep that had an anonymous note on it that read: "Lois and Clark, this baby is for you." Black screen, show over.

I made my lad VERY TALL when I used my fantasia on Dax. I figured I might as well make use of his species trait (elezen are all very tall, minimum six foot, up to about seven feet tall) but now he's HUGE. I took a screenshot of him standing next to Minfilia, and it looked like her poor neck would require chiropracty after talking to him at close quarters for ten minutes. I am not even sure how I did it, but I managed to make him look slightly less severe facially, though. Less like his face would shatter into a million pieces if he smiled. He still looks very serious, but that's okay...I prefer the quiet and reserved type to the openly friendly types! I just didn't want him to look like a smile would kill him, lol.

I actually really enjoy silent protagonists...they feel very kindred to me. Though it's clear the FFXIV protag actually talks a fair bit...they just aren't voiced beyond grunts/etc...like Link or like XCXs protag.

EDIT: Btw, everybody. I did up drafts of the Backlog 2023 and GotY 2022 threads (I will put them up on Dec 30th unless Kirie stops by to reclaim the GotY before then) and in so doing, noticed that when we finish off this thread, we will have completed 5 years of Backlog talk.

[greensara]

Five years of backlog threads? Wow. That actually got me curious about how long I myself have been on Fogu as a user and not a lurker period. It's actually been a while longer than that, I can hardly believe it, but I didn't post hardly at all in the beginning. Based on what my profile says, it would have been the summer I was pregnant with my second daughter. I was having a rough time and bought a Wii and Animal Parade to help me cope. (Great investment btw, lol!) She's six now, crazy. Anyway, I've really enjoyed the backlog threads. They kind of help me keep my game thoughts/goals organized more, and it's a good way to learn more about games I am curious about or have never heard of. Cheers to next year's thread!

Almost thought I would be on track to actually finishing the story mode of Hyrule Warriors yesterday as it seemed to be leading up to the climax, but no, not yet. Seems I unlocked some villain storylines I have to go through first, but I was not having good luck with them, even on easy, so I suppose that will be one to try to count next year. On an adorable side note, my son was was really getting into it. He went and grabbed the noisy Fisher-Price controller he got for Christmas and sat down right next to me, saying, "I play Momma, my turn!" Lol! He was mashing buttons like me and saying things like, "Oh no, what we do?" when I kept getting defeat screens. I actually liked Age of Calamity better myself, but have enjoyed this entry just from the ongoing toddler commentary alone, lol!

[Kikki]

Five years of backlog threads? Wow. That actually got me curious about how long I myself have been on Fogu as a user and not a lurker period. It's actually been a while longer than that, I can hardly believe it, but I didn't post hardly at all in the beginning. Based on what my profile says, it would have been the summer I was pregnant with my second daughter. I was having a rough time and bought a Wii and Animal Parade to help me cope. (Great investment btw, lol!) She's six now, crazy. Anyway, I've really enjoyed the backlog threads. They kind of help me keep my game thoughts/goals organized more, and it's a good way to learn more about games I am curious about or have never heard of. Cheers to next year's thread!

That's pretty cute about your son

It's really nice that we've got Fogu! Even now that I'm at a place where I probably can't consider myself a Bokumono fan any more due to the new direction they've taken the most recent 3 games (including the remakes) I have no intention of leaving this place; it's the best gaming forum on the internet, imo. Probably more because it's small and old...so many regulars who've been here for 5, 10, 15, even 20+ years. New folks refresh and enliven things, and older ones keep it stable. Everywhere else I've seen has so much more...I guess the word people would use now is toxicity. Works well enough.

The GotY thread going up will be the 9th Annual one, too. So a 6th annual Backlog thread and the 9th Annual Year-in-Review thread.

~

It's hard to get in the mood to play after experiencing (even part of) a big-story game. When I start to get interested in characters/world/circumstances, I just want more. If I can't get it of THAT world/story, then at least of another. And I don't really have any new story-driven stuff to play.

Of my wishlist, at the top of my list would be Crisis Core (remake) and Harvestella, and I believe they both qualify as story-driven. Not sure I want to jump into either one right now, though. Harvestella is on sale at 20% off for...I'm not sure, but two more days, I think? I don't feel like I need a new game right now, but I have to decide if I'll be content to wait several more months for Harvestella to go on sale again. P4G is up on Switch in January, Trails to Azure in March and Tears of the Kingdom in May. Not sure if I'll want to fit another game in between those (not sure if I'll get P4G right away, though. The other two are definite.)

I a little bit feel like returning to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 to do the quests I skipped in Chapter 6 (almost all of them) and the extra content that has been added in DLC. More will be added before May, though. I probably might as well wait? I want to clear it all before the new story is added at the end of 2023, but I probably have nearly an entire year to do that. Given that it's supposed to clue us in to what's next for the series now that they're done with this world, I really want it right away, but it's probably nearly a whole game itself, like Torna; they probably needed more time to get it done. XC3 was a great game, but...now that I'm a few months after finishing it, I can't say I got personally all that attached, unlike with 1 or X. Moreso than with 2, though!

I can always go back to Egglia but it remains uncompelling, lol. It's too kiddy, I guess, though I love the cute cartoon-fairytale graphics.

Honestly, I should probably stop playing as my main pastime for now and return to writing for a while. I think it'd sharpen my brain up better.

[Harvest Moon kawaii]

4. Hogwarts Legacy Release Date: February 10th Cost: $69.99 (Digital Deluxe)
6. SoS A Wonderful Life Release Date: June to August Cost: $19.99 to $29.99 probably?

Hey, Cinnamon_Yuki. Thought I'd ask which version of Hogwarts Legacy you'd be getting? The Nintendo Switch version, specifically, was pushed back to July 25, 2023. (on Gamestop's Website)

Also, for Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, the prices were confirmed to be $50 (US) for the Standard editionand $60 (US) for the premium edition (for the Nintendo Switch). (XSEED Games' store/website)

[Mikodesu]

I did NOT like that dungeon...but it's over now. And I am so glad.

Spoiler:

The decision to force you to wake up a FEAR to get it away from a door so you can leave was not great the first time, THIS time it was absurd. WORST combat related decision so far. Afaik you HAVE to kill the trash mob that gets summoned before the doors open (I read on Reddit people saying if you wait long enough the door will open--it did not.) But as soon as the last trash was dead the door opened. Just not before I ran around the column in the middle of the room for long enough to exhaust my food supply, and have the FEAR attack me THROUGH the column in the middle of the room like three times. Got down to like...200 health once.

Bad devs. Bad.

HECK of a story day. I did do it again, got myself caught up in a story section that took way too long, even though this time the game gave me an out and I just chose not to take it.

Chapter 8/9 spoilers

Spoiler:

I think the devs are trying to make their own Nier Automata. I got both of the 'bad endings' before I figured out how to move the story along, because I wasn't sure if the game was going to make me or not, and gratefully it didn't. I just had to figure out how to say 'I don't wanna' enough.

The section after the boss battle was nice, though. Points for the devs bringing the diary back. I actually looked in my inventory for it before we had to look for it, which made me laugh.

Got the next connective tissue section of the story to look forward to when next I play. TLDR story still good. Story also entirely dependent on a satisfying ending, though. So we shall see how that turns out. I've ALMOST maxed out my second job. Feels good to have overpowered jobs to throw at harder sections, while I'm working on unlocking the rest of the other jobs. I think most of them are sitting around...1/2 through.

And I'm at 60 hours, barely into Spring, Year 2. STILL have not broken the economy.

OH! I almost forgot. There's something that came up in Chapter 4 that I still have no resolve for. If it's story related I do not want to know, but if it's not and somebody knows/sees this...

Spoiler:

You get that potion from Cres before you run after Aria and Geist to get your butt kicked, and I have NO idea where to get a recipe for more. I'm sure they're rare no matter what, but 50% HP compared to... an average of 800. Having one of those in a back pocket would be super nice.

[Kikki]

Woo, Farm Together got more DLC! Even though I've played it to bits and there's nothing left to unlock or level up...I know I'll end up occasionally going back to it anyway. I already had 2 parts of the (4-part) DLC but even so...the 2022 bundle was $7.55 CAD and if I bought the two parts I was missing individually, they'd have been $10.

It was nice that the eshop warned me that I'd already purchased some of the contents, though, before letting me go ahead with the purchase.

Harvestella says it still has 2 days left in the 20%-off sale. I don't think I want it enough right now and can afford to just let this sale slip by to wait for the next one, which'll probably pop up in spring and be better than this sale anyway.

Normally I hoard them for the most necessary times only, once or twice a week, but I had to take a cyclobenzaprine last night to chill the clenching and spasms so I am so very dopey, this morning. Though it's a very chill kind of dopey that makes naps feel very cozy. Funny thing: I was lying on my back at some point, and I heard this odd scritching, like someone writing a letter with a pencil.

It was my neck, lol. It was the sound the tremors in my head/neck were making in the fabric of my pillow. I should go for a walk, but I feel like if I managed to make the effort to get out into the -12C (10F) temps, a hundred feet down from my house I'd just curl up in a snowbank and sleep. It DID make the clenching stop, though. (It doesn't appear to relieve the tremors, but those don't hurt, so who cares?)

I also got Pure Mahjong on a big sale; I've been waiting on that! Mahjong is my painkiller game, along with Match-3. I have gotten SO many games on sale or even free, this year. I've bought more than ever but spent less than previous years, as I got about 8 to 12 of the games totally free between gifts and promotions, etc.

Well, it feels like almost too much effort to lift my arm to use the touchscreen on my laptop, so I think I'll just sleep for a bit more...I was supposed to be busy today but it turns out that I'm not needed after all. I think the day rolls over in FFXIV at 10AM, since I was doing some tribal quests yesterday and all of a sudden my allowances were back up to 12 even though I'd used several of them. Which means my allowances won't have renewed yet anyway so I can't do any more Tribal quests for the moment.

I could do some Twin Adder stuff...I haven't hunted any of the bounty and I'm told I need to, to get promotions later. I also need to earn more seals. I've gotten two promotions but I'm still stuck as a 'private' and I want to get rid of that rank...so I'll need at least one more promotion to hit Sergeant. Since I'm way behind in the hunting log (haven't paid any attention to it, yet) I might as well get that done and earn more seals at the same time.

But later, when I'm less dopey. I really want to go check out any new crops/trees/animals that the DLC brought into Farm Together, but it'll have to wait.

[Bluie]

snip

It's funny, the Ultima Weapon used to be so freaking easy you could fall asleep while fighting it and still survive (AND I DID ONCE LOL, I WARNED THEM IN THE UNSKIPABLE SUTSCENES I WAS NODDING OFF AND WOKE UP TO MY PARTY GONE CALLING ME SLEEPY PEEPY AND GIVING ME HEADPATS IN THE CHAT LMAOOOOOOO). They only recently reworked the entire castrum and praetorium to be more challenging (translation: less braindead) and work with NPC companions. It used to be this long, looooong gauntlet of 1st boss, then Nero, then Gaius, then the Ultima Weapon, the Ultima Weapon again, then finally Lahabrea all back to back in one instance and it took minimum 40 minutes to clear because of all the unskipable cutscenes. It was all very much 'tank and spank' as all the mechanics were outdated and anyone, even the healers, could take them to the face and be unphased. It was also a bigger party too, like eight I think? Anyways, it's more difficult now and any time I get the Ultima Weapon in roulettes I always forget it's new mechanics because the old version is so ingrained into my brain lmao.

Here's a tip for next time; add a marker to one of your party members. Generally, at least one of them is programmed to be near perfect, so if you stay on their « Mr.Gourmet's hat », you'll be gold. There is one NPC companion in Shadowbringers/Endwalker that the devs admitted they made to be perfect and encouraged players to stay with them if they were having difficulties. With all that goes on in the boss battles, having a HUGE glowy shape above a party member helps, especially if you're getting lost with all the aoe barf and extra mechanics. I feel like you were probably taking the raid wide too directly and then eating a laser right after, because that's the most common death in the current Ultima Weapon.

And lol, congrats on making your long boi even longer. I find it hilarious how TALL all the elezen are in FFXIV, even the teenaged characters. I remember when I replayed Heavensward as hrothgar, and even as big cat man (albeit with the height slider allll the way at the bottom), they all TOWER over me.

[simside]

Boring Christmas stuff! The weather got me down.

Spoiler:

Neither I nor my partner wound up going on the long drives to visit our families due to the weather and subzero temps on the holiday. We made this decision after the temps dropped to ridiculous levels, so we didn't get groceries and wound up eating canned soup on Christmas, and not having presents or anything held back to exchange. -_-; My car is very elderly (and, if I'm honest, probably not safe to drive for the 8+ hours it takes to get here, especially in subzero temps with limited holiday service), but the drive yesterday was fine. Other than the fact that the IN tollway leaves wrecked cars on the side of the road, and I counted 58 on my way through the state. I don't think they were from yesterday, but it made me on edge the rest of the day.

And while it worked out, and I got to see my parents late, I was really depressed about missing Christmas. Without going into a lot of details, this year was horrible! Maybe my worst.

My partner got me The Banner Saga Trilogy and Neo Atlas 1458. The latter sounds a lot like a GBA game he got me several years ago, where you have a maritime trading economy thing going. I'd never heard of it, I'm pretty excited. I'm not totally sure about all three Banner Saga games, but I'm looking forward to the first for sure. My parents got me Harvestella at my request, as I figured it'd be an easy game to find in the store. I felt kinda bad when I checked a few big-box stores near me and realized no one was carrying it. Turns out they went all over the state to find a copy, and finally unearthed a stack at a Gamestop where they asked, were told they didn't have them, and they had to point out a stack on the counter behind the person. ^_^;

I'm still trying to finish Persona 5 Royal, which I'm still really enjoying. I'm in August, and at about 80 hours. I... think we're finally getting into the plot of the game? That's encouraging.

I also finished Moonlighter!!!!! A good taste, but not my flavor. I immediately started playing even if Tempest, and remembered more about why Voltage games rubbed me the wrong way. They usually have more than a whiff of misogyny to them, and the guys are « Duck Quackers ». Even if Tempest quickly made this up to me by having an insane plot, which is indeed very dark (I also could never get into the plots in other Voltage games, so this is great). I'm on... the Crius? route, and it also seems to have gotten over its misogyny once the MC became a knight, which is a relief. Crius is maybe the nicest guy in the game, but still makes weird « Duck Quacker » decisions sometimes. I also have to admit that Voltage leaned into the bad dude thing with the villain in the common route. He's so evil he's ridiculous, and I'm really into the revenge plot.

I'm also still finishing up Nazarick Picross, though the last third has the hardest puzzles. The game is split up by character, so I have wolf-maid, twins, and demon maid left to do. I still don't know anything about Overlord.

---

My... game plan(?) is currently finishing P5R->finishing Portia->DoraemonSOS2->Harvestella, since my parents hunted that down for me. Though it's in 3D, and I've done my time in 3D purgatory lately. ;_; I have maybe 20-30hrs left on Portia. « Harvest Goddess » knows how much I have left on P5, probably at least 50 hours.

I'll probably play TemTem with my partner next, since I bought the cartridge and don't want the servers to go down before I play it. We will probably play Ys IX before mid-year as well. Temtem has to wait until I finish P5R, but I can play Portia in small sections while balancing that game.

I also want to clear out some shorter games from my backlog, the kind of thing I would usually play before bed. I want to finish the second Taiko no Tatsujin RPG for sure, but maybe some platformers as well. Either Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX or Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. Narrative games in backlog... uhh... probably not CxM anytime soon since Tempest is scratching that itch, but maybe To the Moon or Mozart Requiem.

And, at some point, Digimon Cyber Sleuth, which is emphatically not short, but I need to play it. I also have to factor in whether I'll be able to resist Diablo 3 this January, which... seems unlikely, with the D4 hype. ^_^;

[Kikki]

They only recently reworked the entire castrum and praetorium to be more challenging (translation: less braindead) and work with NPC companions.

(slicing snip!)

Here's a tip for next time; add a marker to one of your party members.

They're all perfect, as far as I could tell...they never get hit by AOEs. I normally follow the guy who appears to be tanking, as he's literally the largest and the easiest to keep track of (though the tall one who shoots off green light is good, too, but his attacks confuse me by creating light on the field in my side vision and making me wonder if the enemy is doing something...the teeny lalafell character is too small to keep track of! They're like...the size of Dax's BOOT.)

Next time I go into a dungeon, I'll practise how to put a marker on one of the others.

Funny thing is, at FIRST when I loaded my game, I didn't even notice that Dax was any bigger (I initially made him as short as possible, about six feet tall) because everyone around me looked the same. The huge blue people, this very tall Skaetswys (Skate Swiss? WHY?) woman who is Roegadyn. I was so surprised I didn't seem to look any bigger that I went to Waking Sands to characters I was familiar with, and went to stand beside Minfilia, and then I had my 'holy « Puppy Doodoo »' moment, lol. He may be looking Roegadyn and fellow elves in the eye or even the forehead, but Hyur and Mi'quote look TIIIIIIIINY beside Dax, now. (We'll just put Lalafell aside, as they look tiny next to everybody.) I feel I should have made him precisely medium height. I have this personal theory about the FFXIV player character that I expect to come to nothing, but it makes me feel that Dax should be essentially the perfect stereotype of an elezen, physically, with just touches of intensity to make him stand out a little. (Which is why I changed his hair highlights from black to bright yellow...but they don't actually show up. Oh well, he still looks good! And the white hair seems to be very typical...fits right in with all the white-haired Scions.)

[Bluie]

Neo Atlas 1458.

Ayyyy, I loved this game! It's basically a VN x Economy Sim with really pleasant artwork and fun characters. It's very chill and it's a lot of fun deciding if you should be historically accurate as possible or let your sailor's tall tales shape the world different. I hope you enjoy it!

snip

Just another quick tip; don't stick too close to your tank as you might get hit by Tank Busters (big attacks meant only for the tank and to give healers something to do) and you will most definitely die. Tank busters are usually choregraphed via markers set on them (they're usually red and swirly), but on occasion they're gigantic cones that can hit the whole party if the tank isn't facing the right way. There's an infamous trial in Shadowbringers with a cone tank buster that is known for killing many parties. It literally made my husband quit tanking with how frustrating it could be (he would be returning the boss to the party after having to seperate for a mechanic, and then cone everyone to death - it happens a lot in this fight, there's even memes about it lol). I'd suggest marking the healer instead.

Also, just a fyi in case you haven't unlocked it, there's a hairdresser in Limsa with a questline. Once you have him unlocked, you can change your hairstyle for a small fee instead of relying on Fantasia.

[Kikki]

Just another quick tip; don't stick too close to your tank as you might get hit by Tank Busters (big attacks meant only for the tank and to give healers something to do) and you will most definitely die.

(snip)

Also, just a fyi in case you haven't unlocked it, there's a hairdresser in Limsa with a questline. Once you have him unlocked, you can change your hairstyle for a small fee instead of relying on Fantasia.

Thanks

Ah yeah, I got that quest...the flamboyant pink-haired fella gave me a ticket. Jandelaine or something like that. I never went looking for him after that, though. I love Dax's hairstyle, it's perfect...but I can't seem to get the type of highlight I'd want. Maybe I should reverse the colours...make his hair brilliant yellow with white highlights instead of white with yellow highlights. Maybe that'd give the right glowing-golden-edge look that I want. I doubt it, though...but can't hurt to try if I can change my hair any time!

Actually...from the beginning I'd been avoiding being near the tank. I wasn't sure if it worked that way, but I know the enemy targets the tank, so I was avoiding being near him in case attacks centred on him could hit anyone near him, as well. In the Ultima battle I did see that 'tank buster' kept going off, and it seemed to be doing about 900+ points of damage. The NPC healer is awesome, though. If you don't get completely wiped out by one attack, they seem able to keep up with the healing (though I occasionally heal myself or take a potion, if the healing isn't coming quite fast enough.) I think it's the thaumaturge that is the healer in the NPC group, though I'm not totally certain. Honestly, my NPC buddies are awesome...they seem to do everything right in terms of keeping attention off of me and keeping everybody alive.

Though they don't seem to do much damage. If I'm not keeping up the damage, the enemy barely seems to get hit at all.

However, this last battle, I found it so hard to continue my attacks while also avoiding the enemy's big AoEs that I did stick closer to the tank, since I found him the easiest to keep track, and less distracting than the thaumaturge (possibly? I'm not sure if I have the roles right) with his continual light shows.

It's good to have confirmation that my sneaking suspicion was correct and that I do have to stay away from the tank. Phooey, he's the easiest to follow! But I'll see about marking the tall guy. I didn't even know you could put markers on your party members while actually targeting the enemy.

I think it would have been easier to do the Ultima battle as a Bard instead of a Dragoon, though it would have taken slightly longer since the Bard does less damage. Plus you're further away and see more. If I did it again as a Dragoon, I'd make sure to pull the camera back as far as possible, I think. It's harder to see individuals that way but easier to see the flow of battle as a whole.

[ryume]

OH! I almost forgot. There's something that came up in Chapter 4 that I still have no resolve for. If it's story related I do not want to know, but if it's not and somebody knows/sees this...

Spoiler:

You get that potion from Cres before you run after Aria and Geist to get your butt kicked, and I have NO idea where to get a recipe for more. I'm sure they're rare no matter what, but 50% HP compared to... an average of 800. Having one of those in a back pocket would be super nice.

It says it right in the item's description, but as it sounds like you likely used it, it's made from

Spoiler:

putting Wise Man's Root in the fermenter