Backlog 2024

[Harvest Moon kawaii]

Currently Playing:

1) Virche Evermore: Error Salvation (Nintendo Switch) (Major Content warnings and Trigger Warnings for this) (also its Fandisc/Sequel game is coming West this Fall)

2) Pokemon Violet DLC (second part) (The Indigo Disk)

Finished:

1) Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons (Nintendo Switch)

I've played 5 more hours of Virche Evermore: Error Salvation (it's now at 85+ hours)

Spoiler:

Lots of games I'm interested in have come out already or, are going to come out soon in June and beyond (for 2024 onwards).

I bought Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on the Nintendo Switch the day it was released last Thursday. I haven't played it yet because I still have to play Paper Mario on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription service, and I think I'm close to, or relatively close to, finishing a few games. (hopefully)

I didn't have much time to play video games or read any books or manga I brought with me on my trip I had over the long weekend. (It's Memorial Day here in the US.) I overshot how much free time I'd have alone (my brother's family is loud) and how'd tired I'd be overall. It's 4 hours there by vehicle and 4 hours back home. So, I didn't have much time at all.

I forget if I've asked this before, but is Shepard's Crossing for the Nintendo Switch any good? I've had the game for a while, but haven't played it yet.

Also, if anyone's played Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin for the Nintendo Switch, is it fun? I started it before, but I stopped right before the actual farming. I'm thinking of playing that one since an anime adaptation of it will be released soon.

[simside]

I forget if I've asked this before, but is Shepard's Crossing for the Nintendo Switch any good? I've had the game for a while, but haven't played it yet.

Unfortunately, I wound up not enjoying it. I still think it's a very unique game with a lot of great ideas, but I wish they'd put a smidge more work instead of a straight port - really basic QoL like item stack or the fences snapping together would have been a huge improvement. It was mostly the glitches that did it for me though. Things like animals and items disappearing, where it's not clear if it was a glitch or something game-related. The big one was that seeds kept disappearing from the ground until the game became unplayable, and restarting over and over again made me realize not using the Brammys solved the issue. The hunting quests may also be glitched/broken - later ones froze the game and were not able to be completed.

[Kikki]

I don't own Shepherd's Crossing, but from the overall opinions I've gathered (not a lot since not many people seem to have gotten it) it's not overly popular with those who did play. It's a peculiar sort of gameplay and doesn't seem to have aged very well, and it wasn't enhanced/improved in any way that I remember hearing about.

~

I'm hankering for a story-driven game again. I could go back into XCX, of course. But I think I want to replay FFVII Remake. I can't play Rebirth, so Remake will have to do! Besides, I only ever played it once, and I'd like to test my laptop on a relatively high-spec game. Though I can't play for long on laptop. My muscles seize up.

I stopped playing Fabledom. I really like it, but I stopped at a bad point, against my own advice. I stopped at a difficult task. I did NEED to stop, but I should have stopped earlier, before I got to the third romance task. Of course, I didn't know I was about to reach it. It was sprung on me. Well...I can probably build a few more dancing stages around town and t hat might do the trick. I think I have one other building whose only purpose is villager happiness, so I could try it, too. It probably won't be that hard, but having to maintain it for 90 days in a row with NO dipping below, ever, for even a second...that's tricky! Plus the quest deliberately put a curse on you that means your happiness will always have a -10 debuff on it, so it's actually asking you to maintain a higher happiness level than it initially appears.

Makes me not want to go back into the game. Though it's fun and I want to finish it. Will have to buckle down, at some point.

ACNH is going fine. I have Peggy, Shari, Weber and Blanche moved in, now. I love Peggy. I want to move Elmer in, but I already have a Horse (Colton) in town, so I'm not sure. I wish Elmer was a donkey, but AC doesn't have donkeys. I think. I'm also considering Olaf and I think I'll bring Walt back. I could let Colton go (though I like him surprisingly well since I normally hate the smug villagers) and bring in another peppy, such as Twiggy. He was my cranky guy for a year or two, and I just realized he fits my theme, now, and I could bring him back. I don't know why he's SO unpopular, I think he's the perfect cranky. He really seems like a grumpy old man, unlike the ones who have cuter designs.

Having 'unpopular' villagers is fun, for me. I like that I don't have ones that not e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y else has. I would have liked to have Fauna and Maple because they fit my theme, but they're both very popular, so...no. June is surprisingly low in popularity, so I'm gonna keep her. Wonder why...she's very cute. Maybe 'normals' are a less popular personality type?

Having a hard time keeping my mind off my back, right now. Physio's going very well, though. I think. I haven't missed any, not even on bad days, and my strength is steadily increasing, even if my balance improves at a much slower rate.

[midnighttherabbit]

I've not had much time for gaming recently with how hard it's been juggling work and school, I've mostly been starting and abandoning games after a few hours.

I did finally manage to get BG3 working on my horrible laptop, though. It runs at 25 fps and takes 5 seconds for a conversation to start after I click on someone but the game really is so good that I don't mind. I thought I was going to be a bit of a hater about it because I didn't like Larian's other big CRPG (the gameplay was fun but the writing was meh) and didn't think it could live up to the originals. While I still think BG2 is better, I can see myself putting a lot of time into this one.

[Bluie]

Work has been kicking my « Mr.Gourmet's hat » lately. From the added summer workload to trying to get the newbies up to speed, my exhaustion hasn't been allowing too much gaming outside little bits here and there.

On Switch I reached the Sunbreak content in Monster Hunter Rise and I got to Lavender Town in Let's Go Pikachu. On PS5 it's just been more Genshin and Star Rail stuff. With Genshin I got a few more namecards and a Wanderer constellation(hard pity). With Star Rail I got Boothill in 60 pulls and have him 90% built. That's really it lol.

That being said, I bought Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles today (It was on sale). I intended to buy it when it released last year, but either funds didn't allow or I was just too busy at the time. I love the first game and have always wanted to play the sequels, so I will 100% play these to completion, I just don't know when. Maybe tomorrow, maybe months from now lol.

Right now I really, REALLY want to play Dawntrail and ZZZ - and they're releasing within days of one another lol. My hype is so high and I have my vacation time booked! July, hurry up and get here already!

[Kikki]

Got Twiggy! Just three more villagers to go. I'm getting tired of ACNH again, though. Especially since I have so few DIYs and yet even with getting the one off the beach, the one off a crafting/cooking villager, and one from a camper, I often don't get ANY new ones in a day. Statistically it makes no sense. I've also been looking for a stegosaur skull for months, if you include before the long break. It should be my last fossil!

I have NO new story-driven games. It has become much harder to find new story-driven games (aka: JRPGs) I want to play than new farming or life sims. I feel like RPGs of any kind are starting to get less common. I suppose they are a LOT of effort for a dev team, though. But replaying FFVII Remake does feel like a pretty decent option for now. Haven't started yet.

I could BUY a new story-driven game, but I don't think there are currently any I want that I can get (cuz I can't get Rebirth until/unless it comes to PC.) There don't seem to be any on the near horizon, either. Though the first Trails through Daybreak is coming on July 5. And Ys X: Nordics is 'fall 2024'. I don't know if I want Daybreak, because Trails has become too formulaic for me, buuuut...with so few JRPGs, I can't be too fussy! It is the first game in a new subseries, so...maybe it's worthwhile. Van doesn't appeal to me, though. I still love Rean.

Spoiler:

I get why many don't like him, but I find him incredibly lovable. He hates himself so very much, of course he's a ridiculous overachiever with painful levels of modesty, and of course all of his friends love him so very hard. They all chain together. Poor dolly. And like real humans, Rean's greatest weakness is never 'fixed' or even improved by all that much. He keeps making the same mistakes, just like we do. Perhaps that's part of what annoys people? I don't care. I love him forever. And I find his harem funny, except when the devs get pervy with their 'fanservice'.

Didn't go back into Fabledom, either. I don't want to do that happiness quest! But I don't think I have much left to do in the game, as I have already reached the 'small kingdom' population stage and I don't think there are any more left, so I have as big a 'town' as I can get already? I mean I can continue to move more people in, but I don't think there's anything left to unlock, and 'story'-wise, perhaps this current quest is the last one?

Tomorrow noon is when the next event starts in Farm Together. It'll be the Cog Festival. I do want to get the Lily flower crop, but...I don't want to farm 4000 brass flytraps to get it! Ehh...it's only 8 harvests, though.

[Mikodesu]

Not a whole lot to report, even after 5 days. ACNH is slow. Still haven't gotten my third villager yet, though I am getting loads of furniture from balloon drops. Half of it ends up getting dumped around the island. The museum is finally open--I still have to clear out the storage beach. It's more tedious than I thought... Kinda in the tedious death spiral of island hopping at this point. Haven't bought anything fun with nook points, just tickets. The grind is making enough points to keep buying tickets...

Switch is doing OKAY. The fan always kicks on, sometimes the blades sound like they're grinding together, sometimes it just sounds like a fan. All told...no clue what's going on.

Not much to report in the gacha realm. I am very likely skipping Boothill. DEFINITELY skipping for my second story replay account, since he doesn't seem good for new accounts. Shame. I did have some good luck with the recent Pure Fiction refresh, though. 11/12 stars first try. First time since the first Pure Fiction, sadly. My Kafka/Black Swan are pretty well built, and together they wreck « Cow Poopoo ». That last one is gonna be a bit of a pain, though, since I'd need good runs on both sides... Not sure it's worth the time.

Haven't touched Genshin since last weekend, but I'm looking forward to going back! I unlocked the new area, and once again we have a far more interesting story than the Fontaine MSQ. Predicting the fairy tale quest will take second place and main story a very, very distant third by the end. Gotta decide where I want to put my primos before banners roll over, since I don't have enough starglitter for June... (Forgot to mention I did actually manage Abyss on mouse/keyboard. Pretty easily, at that. Nahida spin to win is WILD.)

Edit: I caved and took Maggie... I wanted all new villagers, but I want off the treadmill more. And Maggie is cute. So she wins. Onwards...to fun!

[Kikki]

Fabledom: Okay, I believe I've confirmed it: 300 villagers unlocks your highest level of kingdom and there have been no higher levels added. I think they MAY add more, since right now the highest level is "Small kingdom". Why call it SMALL kingdom if there is no medium or large kingdom? You'd just call it 'Kingdom', in that case! But anyway, I already have more than 300, so I was right; I do already have the biggest kingdom you can have and all buildings unlocked. I can continue to grow the town and add more people, but there is nothing left to unlock by doing so.
~
Farm Together: The Cog Festival begins today at noon. I just need to do 8 harvests of brass flytraps and I'll have the flower crop, which is the only reward I actually care about from this festival. Too bad it's not one of the lower-level rewards!
~
ACNH: I am going to work on bringing Walt back to town in Wodewyrd (Why can I never remember for certain if it is Wyrdwode or Wodewyrd? I think it's Wodewyrd!) first. Then Olaf and then Elmer, I think. And then I'm done, I believe! The villagers' side of the island is pretty much done. I do need to decorate some for individual yards, but no one has a big yard, so there's not that much to do. It's meant to represent suburbia, I suppose, where everyone has a postage-stamp yard with a couple token items and maybe a few manicured shrubs and a single tree in it, and otherwise is just lawn.

I don't know what I'm doing with 'my' side of the island, yet. It's not meant to have a specific theme, except there'll be lots of trees and flowers and water in a natural configuration rather than looking manmade.
~
TLoH: Trails of Cold Steel II: After yakking about wanting to play a story-driven game, I remembered I am supposed to complete EVERY Cold Steel game to platinum this year. I was already part way in, but I completed the entirety of Act II AND the Intermission in a couple of hours! Of course, I've played many times, so basically all I need to do is finish the game again on Nightmare to get platinum. So I can just CHARGE through the main story. Boy is it a lot faster than doing all the quests and trying to collect all the things! But I already have all the other trophies so I don't need to do any of that stuff. It's weird to get such bad grades at the end of every chapter, though. Feels bad. But I refuse to let the game guilt me into trying for ANOTHER painfully tedious perfect run!
~
Life:

Spoiler:

New physio routine today. Much harder! And my head just will NOT wake up, even after caffeine AND exercise. My muscles are all lax. :p Oh well, better than all knotted up, though just as useless. I surprised myself with how big my to-do list is, today. It's getting done, though, bit by bit! The secret for me is in breaking tasks down and writing down even really dumb tiny stuff like 'unload dishwasher' and 'open greenhouse by 9AM'. Because I have so much brain fog that I forget even those tiny simple things if I don't make note of them.

Physical bullet journaling takes too much time and effort (and money, since I LOVE the supplies). It requires intense levels of planning that very nearly needs you to be prescient to do neatly, since otherwise how would you know how much space to leave yourself for journaling, or scheduling, or a to-do list? It's SO pretty and appealing, but doing digital task/habit tracking and journaling is WAY more efficient. Using my phone a lot more now, too, to schedule and keep appointments. I'm forgetting very little, these days. I doubt this helps my memory get better, but it does at least keep me from not getting anything done cuz I can't remember and am too tired/sleepy (not the same thing!) to wrack my messy brain for info. My anxiety is lower, now. Perhaps from relieving the constant feeling of everything being out of control.

I have No Gaming May (Well, No Gaming May 1-17) to thank for getting me into this more efficient way of doing things, though. If I had had this system in place BEFORE starting NGM, I probably would have been able to go the whole month. Well, I can try it again if things start to devolve. One thing I learned is that gaming is actually a very important hobby for me to keep on hand. It keeps me out of trouble!

EDIT: Also, just cuz it's cute...Google keeps throwing me balloons and confetti, sprinkling them across my user icon in the top right of the browser. I was confused at first, but when I clicked it to see, it wished me happy birthday. That's right, I am 46 today, hooray. My family doesn't celebrate birthdays, so I tend to forget. It's cute, though.

NEXT-DAY EDIT:

Spoiler:

ACNH: I got three new DIYs. That always makes my day. Especially when none of them are recipes. I didn't get anything I especially wanted, but still...new! (Document stack from Julian via bottle on the beach...funnily I just got rid of Julian from this town about two weeks ago...Carp on a cutting board from Weber in his house, and Iron hanger stand from Walt in the camper tent.) Some days you check those three spots and get not a single new recipe, even though my remade character has about 25% of possible recipes, at best. That shouldn't even be possible, imo. Obviously some DIYs are much more common than others.

Speaking of ACNH campers...it's a little sad that they come to your island and spend all their time cooped up in a ugly little tent! I think they should get out and walk around a small space around the tent, at least. Maybe toss themselves down onto the ground or a hammock and nap, or fish, or bounce a ball up and down, or just read or something.

Farm Together: The cog festival could be completed in one day, if you were willing to spend the entire day on Farm Together. I'm NOT willing to do that, barely remembering to check once a day to harvest and plant some of those brass things. But it's a long festival (two weeks) so it's pretty easy to get everything without worrying much about being on all the time.

Cold Steel II: Haven't gone back into CSII yet as I have a bit of energy today and should use most of it up on physical tasks (without overdoing it! I think I'm actually starting to get sort-of reasonable about this. My lists are helping me by clearing the brain fog and reminding me of what actually needs done versus what I've already done.) But I think later on when this little waft of energy passes, I'll go back into the game and maybe even get through Act 3. It's SO much faster to breeze through without questing, that seems doable. Though I have to do a huge load of flying around in this chapter.

Really should just go back into Fabledom and do that annoying quest and complete the game, cuz I think that's the only thing I have left before the 'story' is complete. Not feeling like it, though.

[Kikki]

I stuffed two days into my last post. Not gonna stuff a third one in there!

I bought a game. It was -45% because I happen to already own Dinkum, and they give you the full bonus when you buy a game in a sale bundle with a game you already own. So I got I Am Future for $10.76 CAD, yay! It's in early access, so I may not try playing it, yet. But it looks like it's already pretty good. It's just my style. I'm not into post-apocalyptic, normally, but you're salvaging what you can of a flooded world and making a rooftop garden and using solar energy and things like that. I love that kind of thing, so at that price, and with me being WAY under my tiny budget...I grabbed it.

Walt will be acquired as of today, though I haven't played anything yet, today. I'm going to continue to cog festival as well. But each thing should take only half an hour. I haven't been playing much. MEANT to continue CSII last night, but was too tired. Today my energy is pretty decent. I stupidly did 2.5 hours of gardening though, lol...it's June 1, so those plants were going out no matter what. Not sure I'll have the energy to do CSII today, either, but we'll see. I seem to not be thinking of Fabledom, lol. The game is done, except I have one unpleasant quest left. Gotta finish that before I can add it to my 'completed' list. Darn it.

Next Day EDIT: I've developed such a bad habit. I leave my games running so long! I run off to grocery shop, or spend the morning in the garden, or whatever...and leave the games running for hours without me even in the room. Or maybe not on the property at all! Really shouldn't do that. I'm extra prone to it with games like ACNH and Farm Together. Not so much with JRPGs. I guess it's because casual games aren't gripping. They're gentle and will let you drift off. To sleep, to go for a walk, to have a meal and forget the game...things like that. Whereas if you're playing Xenoblade, it demands your attention. No drifting off for you!

[simside]

Played some more Hollow Knight today. Really ought to be playing this one during the week, because I have a hard time remembering the controls with my current weekend schedule, and I didn't even play yesterday. But playing through the week is hard, as I'm currently on 12-hour days. ;_; It's scratching my action game itch for sure. Today I played through a sewer area and a bit more of a cathedral-city area... beat Dung Defender, picked up a handful of badges... I'm still not sure how to quantify progress here. 15 hours? I met the woman I fought as the first boss again?

Long work shift is also making progress through SoSAWL tough, but I'm hoping to get to Winter 1 tonight. Wanted to see all the heart/rival events, so I started trying to trigger those (turns out I never leave my house in the middle of the day, a bunch were hiding there, lol). One of the TV programs is a detective pursuing Coupon III, which cracked me up. XD I watched the live-action Jigen Daisuke movie again in celebration.

Weirdly, now that I have access to good horses, I'm more interested in Pocket Card Jockey. Also mostly sticking to daily workout in Fitness Boxing: FotNS, though I'm gonna try to make it more of a habit in June.

I don't mention it because it isn't much of a game, but Pokemon Sleep had the Entei event the past two weeks, and I finally hit Master 15 level! Whoo-hoo! I did actually build an optimized party this week, and have decent Fire types to do it for the event. Did catch a very good Entei last week (part of why my score is so high), but I'm trying to get the 2* form for my dex - couldn't get Raikou to trigger it in the early event, and you need to be over Master 12, so there's only a couple days a week where it may appear.

They haven't started hyping another event, but the dex is so weird. There's a smattering of mons available from mostly gen 1-2, but not a full dex from anything. They introduce 1-2 new mons every 6 weeks, but it'll be weird stuff - the newest set was Vulpix/Ninetales, which was an odd omission. Some types are super under-represented - the only bugs you can play are Caterpie evolution, Pinsir, and Heracross. The only steel is Magnemite evolution and Steelix (which I've never seen, it's extremely rare and high level in an area that's a pain to farm). Not looking forward to the Suicune event, because they haven't actually used any fish pokemon, so your team has to be the Squirtle/Totodile lines, Slowpoke & Psyduck (which aren't very good), Vaporeon, and... that's it. I have a decent Slowking and Slowbro, and a usable Vaporeon, but all low level.

[Code_Name_Geek]

I started a new farm in Stardew Valley! I'm on Summer 15 already, and making good progress overall (even got a new achievement that was added!). The only think I've been slacking on is gifting villagers, so I should really take a look at those universal gift lists.

In Animal Crossing news, I finally got my ugliest villager moved off the island (Hippeaux - an auto-fill from the early game). I got Fauna in my campsite and was able to use her to kick him off, and she's cute so I'll probably hang on to her for now. I'm slowing down overall though, now that I've paid off my loan and my family isn't playing much anymore. I think I'm going to keep doing dailies until I get my last fossil at least and then maybe take a break for a bit.

[Mikodesu]

I wonder how unpopular hippo villagers are in general... I don't think I like any of them aesthetically. Which is odd...the elephants and rhinos got off better. Maybe in the next game.


Played quite a bit of Genshin over the weekend, and I'm REALLY enjoying the new area/story. It feels quality wise like being back to Sumeru. Puzzles are same as they always were, but that's not the worst thing in the world. The castle is gorgeous, I cannot believe the amount of effort put into a cat petting mini game. Cat people made this thing, between being able to please the cat and screw with them. I swear Osse hates his back feet being touched more than front..... which is so cat.

Also interesting in a particular way, forcing the utility of geo units by way of stone statue enemies. I am one of the four people left who still like Zhongli, but he's generally useless so I never drag him out.


In Animal Crossing news, not minding the grind since I don't have to island hop for now. Got the last of my starter villagers moved in and tomorrow the tailor's opens. If I can't have the DIY recipes I want, I can at least have the clothes.

[Kikki]

Hippos are quite unpopular, for sure. If you'd like to see villager popularity, Mikodesu, the site I use is the Villager Popularity Tier List. The reason I use this site and none of the other popularity ranking sites is because this one receives quite a lot of traffic even now, in 2024, and is still getting lots of votes to reflect continually changing popularity. Most villagers vary a fair bit. The Top 20 tends to stay mostly the same, and the bottom 50-100 also tends to stay mostly the same, but everything in between moves a lot. Hamlet bounces around hugely, for some reason, from near the top to near the bottom. (I love Hamlet as I almost always get him as my starter jock and because he's the ONLY villager with my RL birthdate. Tom Nook is the only other character who is a May 30 baby, and he doesn't count as a villager.)

Fun fact (er, no, not really, but pretend it's fun, okay?): almost nothing ever happens on May 30th. The number of celebrities born on May 30 is low, and none of them are the big, splashy, popular ones...and the number of historical events is low, too. May 30th is a strong contender for the most boring day of the year. If we be nice, we can call it 'very stable'. I wonder if this is why I am boring (stable!), even while being aware, intellectually, that your birthdate has no scientific evidence of having ANYTHING to do with your personality. I vehemently reject astrology even though I'm a pretty classic Gemini. Astrological signs, like fortune cookies, are too generic anyway. Several zodiac signs have profiles that suit me.

ANYWAY... (goodness why do I blather so much?)

I love Hamlet. He feels like he's 'my' villager, more than any other, though Tangy is the one I find the most interesting/amusing. I was aiming for non-descript to unpopular villagers, and Bud is routinely on the low end while Hamlet bounces around like crazy, but I think I'm going to swap Bud out for Hamlet anyway, in a few weeks.

But the most popular hippo villager in the game right now appears to be Biff, at 102. Not a great showing for hippos!

Well I wasn't even supposed to write this. I'm supposed to be doing things! I must go back to the things I am supposed to be doing, now...

[K8sMum]

The villagers I detest are the frogs. I like frogs in real life but they are just so fugly imo. In the old days I was constantly smacking them with the net to get them to hate me back so they'd leave.

[Mikodesu]

I tend to like frog villagers that have more natural color schemes, even ones that are more unusual natural color schemes like Drift (dart frog) and Lily (white's tree frog). I wouldn't mind seeing some more unusual but natural designs... I feel like Animal Crossing has gone a little left field with their designs rather than digging into what's really out there.


Good to know about Animal Crossing Portal! I've done some 'out of curiosity' popularity googling and wasn't sure what could be trusted. Though really...can you trust any list that puts Pietro in the top 50?

There's definitely rhyme/reason to most of the lowest tier at least... With a few exceptions. (Why hate for Butch? He's just a dog. Anti-Rottweiler bias?)