How's your backlog?

[Kikki]

I'm still chipping away at Tides of Destiny, but it does take a lot of time and various types of grinding. Friendship levels are okay...in Fall Year 1 and everyone is pretty much at level 2 or close, and a few are at 3, so that's...okay. Right now I'm about to tackle the Fire Shrine boss, but first I need to make the wind rod (I have the skill to be able to, but I need to go kill some of those floating fire spirit creatures to get magic dust before I can actually make it). I'll be level 20 by the time I tackle him, so not too bad level-wise. Hopefully. As long as I take a stack of healing items with me.

I'd also like to make the heart pendant but I need to go get some insect jaw and gain 3 more levels of skill first. Hmm. Might not be worth it. Maybe I'll just make a food with a good effect instead.

I really like ToD but certain types of grinding are irritating. I hate having to kill a million monsters in different locations just to find the ingredients. Let me buy them outright, dang it.

EDIT: Beat Fire Shrine boss 1st try. Wind rod worked great, whee! Now I get to further the story...best part.

[Ehppy]

Eww caught a cold this last week. Despite what you might think, this did not lead me to make progress in my backlog, lol. Instead I picked up a favorite of mine to mess around with again, hahah. (Tomodachi Life, which I think I have almost 300 hours of playtime in already, oi. It's such a comfort game to me though, and perfect for when I'm under the weather.)
Sorry, I'm responding to posts directed at me but I think it's been almost a week (oof, my bad) so if people want to just skip over this that's completely fine, lmao. I'll put it in spoilers at least to keep things tidy and avoid confusion?

Spoiler:

Don't neglect to come gush about your favourite 2018 games once Kirie puts up her thread sometime in December It'll be nice to have the year boiled down to everyone's favourites...this thread is so long that some games have gotten buried within it. But once we get to report our favourites, we'll see which games shone brightest of all...

Though this may lead to extra games added to our backlogs, lol. Spyro does look cute, though after seeing videos I'm still not entire clear on this. It's a platformer? Some of what I've seen didn't look that way, so I'm not sure.

Spoiler:

I'll definitely do that! In fact I think said board is up now, lol. Spyro is definitely going on there as one of, if not my top favorite!
Spyro is a 3D Platformer, yes! With an emphasis on exploration and collecting. The second game, and especially the third game, added a lot of mini-games and side-quest type stuff that deviates from the gameplay formula a bit, however,. Things like, mini hockey games against enemies, skateboarding races, puzzles, stuff like that.

I can't say if I would be interested in Spyro today if I'd never played it when I was younger; Platformers are really not my style, but it was one of my favorite franchises when I was small, and it still holds the same charm for me today. Plus it's freaking gorgeous, both for back then and now IMO.
Anyways, sorry for a small ramble! lol if I'm remembering right, you're not into platformers in general either.

Also best of luck with Tides of Destiny!
It is funny isn't it, when you return to a game that once seemed impossible and you find it's much more manageable than you remember?
I really loved Tides of Destiny. I can understand why a lot of RF fans don't, as it is quite different particularly in the farming side of things, but something about the game just felt like candy to me. I could just keep going and going forever. I agree that fishing up islands is super fun and satisfying!

Spoiler:

The controls feel great. Sneaking is handled by the ZL button while Attack/Pounce is ZR. You can scroll through your items with R instead of going into the menu. All menus can be navigated via buttons or touch screen(if you're playing handheld). It's a very good port.

Spoiler:

Ah, that sounds perfect! Thanks so much, and thanks for sharing your impressions throughout the thread! PC games can be so tricky to port, controls-wise, so I'm glad to hear they nailed it. I'm thiiiis close to picking it up on Switch, I think it's only a matter of time, especially after hearing you talk about it. It does have a fair amount of replayability I think, so there's plenty left for me to do.

[Kikki]

Ehppy:

Spoiler:

I can't say if I would be interested in Spyro today if I'd never played it when I was younger; Platformers are really not my style, but it was one of my favorite franchises when I was small, and it still holds the same charm for me today. Plus it's freaking gorgeous, both for back then and now IMO. Anyways, sorry for a small ramble! lol if I'm remembering right, you're not into platformers in general either.

Also best of luck with Tides of Destiny! It is funny isn't it, when you return to a game that once seemed impossible and you find it's much more manageable than you remember? I really loved Tides of Destiny. I can understand why a lot of RF fans don't, as it is quite different particularly in the farming side of things, but something about the game just felt like candy to me. I could just keep going and going forever. I agree that fishing up islands is super fun and satisfying!

Correct; I'm very much not into platformers. You don't get to build, or customize, and they are never story-driven (They HAVE stories, usually, but they're always gameplay driven, imo...it's literally about the running and jumping and timing and the story is just there as a framework to answer 'Why am I doing this?') and they require good timing, which I have never had. My entire family is not well-coordinated, and I'm the worst of this inferior lot.

My first game in my entire life was adventure, and I pretty much only played adventure/story from eight years of age on, with the exception of Commander Keen (does anyone remember anything that ran on DOS?) which was, indeed, a platformer, and I guess because I played it as a child, that's the one platformer I can still play and think it's interesting. Even nostalgia you didn't know you had seems like a powerful thing. Spyro looks cute and charming the way Commander Keen felt, too...very much a childhood favourite sort of feeling.

I really like Tides of Destiny! I liked it the first time, too...don't remember why I set it down. There are some irritations...not putting your inventory away, Aden jumping when you press X instead of talking to them, and the weird random farming where you don't get to choose your own crops and you MUST have monsters or you won't get *anything*. But to me those things all feel small. They're irritating for a second here and a second over there, but I still like the characters. The world is pretty, I like doing requests, and the story is decently interesting...and I'm afraid of large bodies of water, so I like the feeling that I'm defeating the ocean :D I like ToD quite a bit more than I dislike it, anyway.

(I'm not afraid of water in a paralyzed phobia way...I can and will go into lakes and even oceans if I have reason to. And I can swim. But it's like...when other people see a huge body of water, they think it's pretty scenery. To me, I'm looking at a monster. A huge puddle of death, itself a monster, and full of other monsters, too. A place where I can't breathe or move properly that will kill me if I don't struggle to get away from it. I don't even like swimming in pools, let alone beaches. So it feels great to walk around on this mountain-sized dude, pulling lost islands up out of the ocean. It's like a win for land and a loss for water, making it spit those islands back out!)

[Katgirl]

I'll probably get Cattstails at some point but rn I have a bunch of other games to play through and I bought 2 (technically 3) games on sale recently. I got Fire Emblem: Warriors on sale for Black Friday and the the new Hakuoki remakes during a flash sale.

@Ehppy/Kikki/anyone else thinking about gets Cattstails the devs recently teased an update coming soon here's a little trailer. Some people think it's to make every cat marriageable but other point out that some folks payed big money to make their cat marriageable ($600 instead of the $300 just to make a npc) and they might feel a little pissed if they went psych now you can marry anyone!

As for my backlog, I've mostly been playing Valkyria Chronicles 2 and Divinity Original Sin 2. For VC2... Let's just say I can kinda see why it didn't sell well. It's not a bad game, in fact I actually sort of like combat being split between multiple smaller maps instead of one big map. It makes switching between units faster and more critical. But the game is so dang loooooong. And a lot of it is blatant grinding to stretch time. Like you can upgrade units along different upgrade paths (cool!) but those upgrades take credits that you get from missions that are randomly assigned to different characters that participated. So there are times you get the right credit on the wrong character and have to do the mission all over again. And again. And again. (I think repeating a mission 3 times was the longest it's taken me)

Then as you go you got more and more key missions you have to complete before you can do the main mission of that chapter. Which only unlock maybe a cutscenes and some daily life scenes.

I really like that the unit characters actually develop through a chain of events that unlock a personal mission that either unlockes a good potential (they're like skills) or replaces a bad one. You unlock these events the more you use a character (it just cares about CP use not how you use them). Plus the game is waaaaay easier than the first one (which could be a pro or con) expect for bosses and a certain type of enemy that can take most of your units out in one hit.


For Divinity I love the characters and story. I'm in act 2, on the coast about half way through I think. Ifan is growing on me a lot more than I was expecting lol. I was expecting him to be a dark brooding lone wolf with a chip on his shoulder but he's more... Fun than that. He's like a big dog more than a brooding wolf!

I'm not in love with the fact that in Act 2 it seems like every time I have a choice to go to 2 different areas I choose the wrong one and end up getting stomped on by characters 3 levels stronger than me :/ and of course it always happens when I've already started the quest there so now I have to leave those hanging while I go do the level appropriate area :/

[Bluie]

OH COME ON, I JUST DIVORCED ALISA TO MARRY MANGO, AND THEY'RE GONNA UPDATE IT SO I CAN MARRY KRAMPY?! DON'T DO THIS TO ME, CATTAILS!

In other news...(lol) I played an unhealthy amount of Dungeon Village last night. I'm still getting the hang of what buildings are profitable and what aren't (I went on a demolition spree with everything that was in the red), but it's a very addicting time waster.

[Harvest Moon kawaii]

Recently beat:

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu (Switch)

Backlog:

(3DS, Nintendo Switch, and PC) = A lot (over 50 games)

Currently playing:

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu (Switch)
Death Mark (Switch)

Games I have pre-ordered:

New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe (January 11th 2019)
Yo-Kai Watch 3 (February 8th 2019)
Steins;Gate Elite (February 16th, 2019)
Yoshi's Crafted World (Spring 2019)
Luigi's Mansion 3 (2019)
Animal Crossing Switch (2019)

Games I'm thinking about pre-ordering:

Song of Memories (It seems both the PS4 and Switch versions were pushed back to 2019.)

Games I want:

Kirby Star Allies
Luigi's Mansion (3DS)
Town of Light Deluxe Edition
Little Dragons Cafe
Katamari Damacy Reroll (releases 12/07/2018 in North America)

I just beat Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu for the Nintendo Switch. Now, I have time for Death Mark and the Lego Harry Potter Collection.

I'm interested in getting Nightshade for my Nintendo Switch (An otome game priced at $50 on the Switch but as $35 on Steam, so maybe it comes bundled with all the DLC in the Switch version?). Also, I'm tired of buying otome games with bad translations, and most mobile or PC to system ports seem to be direct ports, so if anyone has Nightshade for Steam/PC, how's the translation? If anyone's interested, Nightshade comes out December 20, 2018 on the Nintendo Switch. Just in case, if anyone replies to this after December 20,2018 and has Nightshade for the Nintendo Switch, how is it? Is the translation good?

Also, for anyone that has Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, what's a good strategy to defeat Mewtwo? My Pikachu is in the early level 70s and the rest of my team is in the late to early level 60s. Mewtwo is at level 70 in the wild.

[Bluie]

Also, for anyone that has Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, what's a good strategy to defeat Mewtwo? My Pikachu is in the early level 70s and the rest of my team is in the late to early level 60s. Mewtwo is at level 70 in the wild.

Toxic is hilariously broken. I used it to catch all the legendaries.


Alright, i'm making some headway in Ys8. I made myself delete Dungeon Village and Cattails off my Switch because they were distracting me. I'll go back to them eventually, but they're 'done' for now. I just reached chapter 3, and I gotta say, I was pretty impressed by the ending of chapter 2. Big spoilers below.

Spoiler:

So, I had the Captain's death spoiled for me (and some future plot points as well) so I've been kinda numb to all the reveals thus far. However, the subtle lead up to identifying his murderer was fantastically done. I always felt 'off' about the doctor, he just rubbed me the wrong way. Then he suddenly is on top of the raids when it's usually the captain or Dogi and then the note was pinned up in his area after the first death. It wasn't a blatant 'HEY LOOK THIS IS THE KILLER' and I appreciated it. I'm actually hooked on the game now so i'm really looking forward to playing more!

[ryume]

Bluie, it's awesome you're getting hooked. I thought Ys VIII was such an incredible game!

Lessee... +3 to the backlog, but since it's P3/5 Dancing and Smash, I don't really count those lol. To anyone interested in the Persona Dancing games - if you've never played ANY, the PS4 bundle of all 3 is the way to go, as it ends up costing $33 and change per game, and is worth it.

Time to plug in Smash and start the senseless clobbering

[Ehppy]

@ Kikki

Spoiler:

Yeah I'd say that's a fair assessment. Spyro's story amounts to, "dragons are in trouble, you somehow aren't, so go save 'em all, lil buddy!" I have similar leanings in that I prefer story-driven games, customization is always a bonus, and good characters are maybe most important of all. So in general, platformers don't click with me.
And I'm definitely not the most coordinated either, but fortunately, Spyro is a pretty easy trilogy.

Ohh I've heard of Commander Keen, but I've never played it. I looked it up, and aww, it's got such a nostalgic feeling to it, even though I'd never seen it before. I love the sound effects. It kinda reminds me of Jazz Jackrabbit, which I used to play but could never get past the first level, hahah.
Man, with graphics getting as advanced as they are now, sometimes I feel like a lot of modern games aren't really interested in being charming or visualy creative, like so many of my playstation 1 favorites. I know that's not 100% true, but even so.


Yeah there are a few issues with ToD but I think on the whole it's a great game!
I really like the character designs. And I remember being ecstatic that you could play as a girl (although also frustrating that it takes forever to unlock and also there are only four bachelors? Oi. Glad RF4 came along and let me start as a girl.)
Funny story, my little sister accidentaly erased my almost-finished file at one point, and she felt so bad... I finally got back to where I was, but then I accidentaly saved over HER file and then I felt horrible lmao

Ahh that's a cool way to look at it! I love when I can conquer or disregard a fear of mine in a video game. I love games that let me climb up high and fly or jump to the ground below. I'm scared of heights in real life, but in video games, heights are one of my favorite things to explore, lol.

Go out there and reclaim the land!

@Katgirl
Ohh, thanks for the heads up! I had no idea about the update, that's awesome. Now I kinda want to hold off on picking it up, and wait for the update... Hnnng but I want to play it.

[Kikki]

Too tired for gaming for a few days, but I have to get back to Tides of Destiny today (it's like a job sometimes, lol.) I have pretty good gear, so I suspect I'm just really underlevelled at 31. I'd probably be better at about level 50.

I've made it past the boss of the water shrine, though, now, and have risen my last farm island, and I completed one of two trial islands that will lead me to the final shrine. Once I finish this huge one I got last time, that should lead me to the quest for the last area. Mind you, I think the last part has extra bosses or an extra portion before the whole post game part where you can actually get married and all would begin. James is already at 6 hearts, though, so at least that's all lined up.

So now I've just got to level, level, level...and drag all my marriage candidates up to 6 hearts so that I'll have the best chances of getting through the endgame easily. I like easy. I don't think I have ever played a game wishing that the battle were more challenging...I'm just not looking to have my button-mashing, stick-pushing skills challenged. Cuz they're too weak to hold up.

Ehppy:

Spoiler:

I wonder how children now feel about the games they start out with. I still feel that Nintendo platformers are adorable, so they've got that. But what games are kids starting on now? What kind of gaming experience are you building if your first game ever is something like XC2, I wonder. If I play a really great game, I tend to be spoiled for lesser games (in the same genre) afterwards. Improvements in gaming are no longer happening at the monstrous pace they did when I was a kid, when home computers were only just beginning to be a thing and very few households even had gaming consoles. I wonder if gaming felt more like magic back then, or if that's just nostalgia and kids now think it's just as incredible as we did 30+ years ago, even though technology and beautiful images are old hat and taken for granted since they've been around since they were born.

[Blue Rose]

Im almost finished with D:OS2 but im stuck on this one stupid fight which REALLY shouldn't be that hard...but it is. Bleh.

[Kikki]

Got to the last element shrine, so I can start on getting through that, now, and after its done I think a final story arc or boss comes up.

I just got the level 6 with Mikoto, though, and I'm confused. Is this supposed to be some kind of SECRET? Spoiler tagged because looking around on the internet has led me to believe that this is actually supposed to be a surprise, even though, er, well... (spoilers on Mikoto)

Spoiler:

I was supposed to think that Mikoto was male? That's what I was supposed to believe from the start? Because I never thought that for a second! I assumed Mikoto was a girl as much as I assumed Odette and Lily were, so...er...well if that was supposed to be a surprise, it was a big failure. At least for me.

Gotta grind up forging skill to get that last staff I want, get a few better accessories, then level like heck as I go through the last shrine. It'll be tedious but being under-levelled means a longer, riskier end fight. Most of my candidate characters are near 5/6 now so I'm doing fine there. Just got into Year 2, and kind of ignoring the farming at this point. You can make a mint just by making plain old wastebaskets and selling them.

I THINK I can be done by mid December. I'm actually not in the mood to play, which is why I'm not sure, lol. I'm pegging away by will-power right now. I'm just in the mood for a different type of game atm, I think. I don't think I'll try to do any more backlog games in 2018 after ToD is done.

[ryume]

Stuck in a gaming rut. The new Persona Dance games were unsatisfactory (I unlocked all the tracks, but fail to actually enjoy them), I've been chipping away at unlocking all the characters in Smash (which is fun, but I can only play in short bursts), and also chipping away at « Harvest Goddess » of War.

I feel like lately as in the last decade, really good, epic JRPG releases, at least to MY tastes, are becoming further and further apart. For instance, I had Octopath, then DQXI. And now I'm just sitting, waiting for the next one. Ever since ports became popular, I feel like I keep letting myself get suckered into buying the same titles over and over again, but anything actually new and polished is requiring longer waiting times. At least some otome games are trickling their way in to fill up some of my waiting time, but I feel like even those are going the way of mobile platforms mightily, and end up being insanely expensive like Mystic Messenger. The more I think on it, 2018 was kind of barren in terms of games for me.

Anyway, « Harvest Goddess » of War really is a meticulously crafted game that I DO like. I am just easily distracted lately, I guess.

[Kikki]

I feel like lately as in the last decade, really good, epic JRPG releases, at least to MY tastes, are becoming further and further apart.

I think it may have to do with having played so many, too, because from what I tell, you feel that way, I feel that way, Bluie feels that way (or at least has mentioned really wanting to play more of that type)...if I'm remembering right, a lot of people have complained of really craving more epic RPGs this year.

My backlog account is slightly off this year since I gave myself a bit of a kick by including any purchases from Black Friday 2017 on into 2018, so Persona 5 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are on my 2018 list. But other than that, there's been Ni No Kuni II (which was quite fun, but honestly didn't feel all that epic) and Ys VIII as well. Both really fun, in my books, and Ys VIII had the right feel. Tokyo Xanadu eX+ was okay but not good, and both Trails in the Sky FC and SC were very good but are from years ago so don't count, either. Though they are all games in my 2018 backlog.

So back on my first thought...I think the more really great RPGs you play, the higher your standards get, and the easier you are disappointed by ideas you've already seen because they make the story predictable, which reduces its impact. Those are my thoughts, anyway. So in my case, as a 40-year-old story-oriented gamer who goes primarily for various types of RPG... the pickings have gotten very slim. But I'm not sure there are actually less good ones out there so much as that my standards keep going up for what I'll call 'really good'.

Vesperia is only a month away, now. Having not been spoiled on the story at all, it'll be totally fresh and new for me and I'm hoping it lives up to all the praise. Cuz I have a very unsatisfied epic-moving-RPG craving, too.

[Bluie]

Yeah, I kinda eat JRPGs for breakfast, and I have just not been satisfied this year. I just keep wanting more. This year I had Xenoblade 2(that rolled over in from last year + Torna DLC), Lost Sphear, Lydie&Suelle, Shining Resonance Refrain, Octopath, Final Fantasy XV: Pocket - all of which that I finished and enjoyed, but now I'm just trying to keep myself satiated with the ones I skipped. Which is why i'm playing Ys8 now (And I have my eye on Labyrinth of Refrain for the next lull).

Speaking of~

I juuuuust reached chapter 4 in Ys8. I've been told this is a really long chapter. I'm really just playing a bit in the morning when I first wake up (2-3 hours usually) as i'm trying to make it last for most of December if I can. I've got a few days off though, so I might play a bit more (because I want to lol). My favourite character so far is Sahad and I really enjoy Ricotta's play style.

I'm gonna have such a hankering for more Falcom games once I finish this. I'd love to play Trails of Cold Steel for a third time. I wonder what the chances are of them be ported to Switch? Probably low as they're getting PS4 ports.