Backlog 2020

[Pachi]

Good job, Pachi! The Blue Lions route is objectively the best story out of the three imo, though I still personally prefer Golden Deer. Have you done the Black Eagle Routes yet?

Thanks Bluie!

Spoiler:

I agree, but not by a lot though! I thought BL would have the superior story, since it took me to all three territories (and just being a dramatic route in general), whereas GD was kinda linear and focused mainly on taking Adrestria, but they didn't touch on the lore (crests, relics, Byleth's real identity, etc) at all. Though maybe it was also due to the direction GD was going, but I was super curious about the lore the first time I played. If I did BL first, I think I would've felt a bit unsatisfied, haha.

I personally like Golden Deer better too! I haven't played BE yet, but I plan to do so sometime; I'd like to know what's going on with Edel. And I'd like to try using Hubert, Ferdie, and Petra as main units as well.

[Kikki]

I have finally increased Ring Fit to difficulty level 15! It has 30 levels, so I'm happy to no longer be below the half-way point. But man, even going up a couple of levels adds a lot of reps to every exercise. Level 15 is double the reps of level 10, somehow.

~

I have about 2 game left on my backlog that are on the 3DS. *scoots off to Grouvee* Yep...7th Dragon and RF2. I think I might tackle them, now. I also sadly still have four Wii/Wii U games on my backlog, though I'll almost definitely abandon Animal Parade because I just found raising friendship so painfully tedious in that game, even with the 'rubbing' cheat/exploit, that I couldn't deal with it. I'll give it one more go, though. (I do hate playing anything with the wiimote, now, though.) I also have Still, the 3DS games feel more manageable, so I'd rather tackle them. (Plus RF2 is already about 1/3 complete, I think.)

I also have 4 Switch games, 1 Vita game, and 1 PS4 game (12 games in all left!) Maybe I'll tackle them by console rather than by length or inclination. I already eliminated 2 Switch games this month (Torchlight II and Wandersong) but I wasn't choosing by console...that was just a coincidence. I'm really not looking forward to tackling my last Vita game, though. Exist Archive is, for some reason, 55+ hours long. It doesn't even seem story driven, so what the heck?

[Ronin19]

Well, I didn't finish Wandersong (I got to Act 5) before I got Tokyo Mirage Sessions. I'm getting nostalgic for the music, the characters, and the combat. I love it so much.

[Night Owl]

Well I did it. I finished all 4 routes in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Now I'll just wait until the DLC comes out before I start it back up again. I do feel rather empty upon completing it, but at least I'm not in the middle of a route when the DLC comes out. I want to start over with the Blue Lions after I beat the DLC side-story. As for my final thoughts...

Spoiler:

Azure Moon/Blue Lions was probably the best route in the game. Silver Snow and Verdant Wind are essentially the same route, just with minor differences. And then Crimson Flower was probably one of my worst experiences with a game that I've had in recent memory because it just... Broke all of the preexisting story with zero explanation. When 3 out of 4 routes say the exact same thing more or less, the one route that isn't internally consistent with the others just stands out more. Granted, you do need a lot of context from other routes to fully understand Azure Moon and why things end the way they do, but once that context comes into play, it's really funny. You just... Stop a thousand-year conspiracy because you kill their leader without knowing it and well... The evil dudes didn't come up with a backup/contingency plan, so they just... Die. It's honestly pretty funny. The Lions deserve an unintentional win after everything that happened to them.

As for what's next for me... Well, I think I finally feel recharged enough to play more Trails of Cold Steel II. But I'll be getting Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore sometime this week, so I'm not sure if I want to play Trails when I'm just gonna switch games again. I may as well, honestly. I'll try to get through the next segment.

[Kikki]

Act 5 of Wandersong is very long. About three times the length of any previous chapter.

I wasted my game time, today. I mean, I enjoyed it, but...I was really curious about DQB2's 'Jumbo Demo'...the expanded demo they added not too long ago. The original demo was quite short, but DQB1's demo was REALLY long. Like...maybe 25% of the entire game? So I wanted to know where it ended.

It's not quite the entire first 'chapter'. It ends right before the final battle. (Oddly, it lets you fight the first round of the final battle. Kind of strange, but I guess it does cut off in such a place as to make you say 'hey!' Which is...good? For sales, I mean.) Though you can continue the demo as long as you want even after the cut-off...you just won't be able to progress in the story any more. But if you still have building you wanna do, you can do that forever.

[Code_Name_Geek]

I haven't been playing any new games lately with school having started up again. I've nearly completed the Pokédex in Pokémon Sword, but that's about it. I might start something new after that, or maybe I'll just work on Pokémon breeding if I'm not feeling up to anything else. It's hard to play anything that needs a lot of time investment when school's happening... I already can't wait for this semester to be over.

[greensara]

Submerged is finally cleared and off my backlog, not that it was a long game, it just kind of got forgotten on the all games menu of the Switch after playing it maybe once or twice. It was very.. different, but not in a bad way. Very chill exploring and storytelling, but rather linear like a book. Maybe I should have expected that?

I decided hate Lumo so much I am taking it off my backlog and selling it when I have the opportunity. I like the puzzle aspects, was nostalgic about the look of the game (reminded me of all the time my older brother and I spent on SNES games like Super Mario RPG), but I DO NOT like the platforming flavor parts of the game has. If I had trouble getting Mario and Sonic to not fall down the holes back in the day, I have trouble today getting the little person to not only get across poison water on swinging chains but moving platforms! I don't like wasting my time being frustrated.

On a lighter note I finished the first section of Little Dragons Cafe and am very pleased with the expanded ability to explore for ingredients. However, I wish there was a map or something so I could tell where I was, had been, etc, because I keep getting lost now. (A common problem for me in games and real life, love maps!)

I also started in on Moonbrooke in DQB2 after putting it off as long as I could. I upgraded the bench first this time, which is a big help. For kicks and giggles this time I made a pool at the castle for the polar bear swimmers, lol.

[Kikki]

I've finished the main campaign of Minesweeper Genius. (It's a puzzle game that's like a cross between minesweeper and sudoku.) The main part has 130 levels, and when you finish them, the game thanks you for playing and urges you to go on to the advanced levels. I got 3 stars on everything, so the advanced levels also unlocked. There are 55 advanced levels, and I've only done 5 of them, but I think finishing the main part is good enough. I can always go back and complete a level or two whenever I want, if I feel like it, but for backlog purposes, I'm gonna call that complete.

That's 3 games finished in January so far. No purchases. Not sure if I can complete another, but I'm aiming for 7th Dragon. I'm just not into playing most of my stuff right now, though...I mostly just want to replay DQB2 endlessly. Still, I do want to clear up these last bits of backlog, so that I can say I have NO backlog at the end of this year...that'd be awesome.

Not looking forward to tackling my remaining Wii U games. For one, three of them require the wiimote because they're actually Wii games, and I don't wanna use the wiimote ever again. For the other, all four games I have left on Wii U are 50-80 hour games. (-_-)

[Bluie]

Welp, what I didn't want to happen happened. I don't want to stop playing Final Fantasy XIV. I tried to go back to Ni No Kuni II and I just can't. I've been sucked into this world and the hook into Heavensward is so good that I just don't want to force myself through my backlog before coming back to it.

So, I give up I guess. I wanna play what I wanna play and that puts everything in limbo until I finish my time with FFXIV. I have been dabbling in Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Grisaia, but only for an hour or so before my PS4 beckons me back to Eorzea.

Still planning on getting Animal Crossing in March, but until I've reach the end of Shadow Bringers, I don't plan on buying any other games. I feel kinda bad about the whole plan I had going out the window, but eh. I'm having a blast and I'm really happy to be enjoying gaming this much again.

[Kikki]

7th Dragon III Code: VFD is a weird game. Not weird in a bad way...though I'm not ready to say it's weird in a good way, either. The map of Nodens (basically a huge corporation that is your base of operations) is very confusing. For example, I most recently needed to go to the 'war room'. But that isn't listed anywhere on the map. It turns out it is on 3F, which is listed as the 'Conference Floor'. You have to walk into the room before it'll tell you what it's called.

And you can expand it. A lot of it, you build yourself, with something you earn from hunting dragons. I have so far built a dormitory, a reference room, and a sky lounge...and I upgraded 'item development' to level 2, which brings new weapons, gear and items to the main shop. It's not money you expand with...money is called Az in this game...but some other kind of currency, called Dz. (Dragon Zeni. I guess something dragons drop?)

You can also date everyone in this game, sort of. It's not like Bokumono or anything, but if you go to a social area, like the Skylounge, you can choose to talk to anyone you've formed at least a basic connection with (which will first be your primary teammates, and secondary teammates after that.) This game is like Etrian Odyssey in a lot of ways...you create your own player character and party members, from several different types, each with different colour swaps so you don't end up with anyone looking too samey. And yet, you can socialize with them, which always seems to have a romantic (often VERY flirty) air about it. You can also do this with NPCs, I think, though I'm not close enough to any of them yet. Gender doesn't matter...everyone is fair game, afaik. Forget gender...I think you may be able to flirt with/date robots, clones, and sentient stuffed toys. Heck, maybe I'm going to end up finding I can chat up a thousand-year dead monarch or one of the True Dragons.

I'm not sure how to say it, but story-wise, you're playing in three different timelines, or layers of time. I THINK the MC's native time period is around 2100. Maybe, lol. (I picked this back up after a year without replaying the beginning.) You were scouted through a game called '7th Encount', which hopes to take the best players and turn them into dragon-slayers, since dragons cause calamity and dragon-sickness, which people with weaker health are already succumbing to. I'm not all that clear on the story, tbh. You also get side-quests in the same way as Etrian Odyssey...by picking them up from a receptionist-type person. I don't know what to make of the game as a whole. I think I like it?

I finished chapter 2 today, so I think I'm about 20% done.

[Night Owl]

I finally finished Act 1 and the Intermission of Trails of Cold Steel 2. It helps that I actually haven't gotten out to get Tokyo Mirage Sessions, but hopefully that happens tomorrow. But even then, I think I'll want to finish Cold Steel 2 first while I'm still on the kick. Some of the bonus AP requirements are kinda mean for early-game though. Granted, I just missed one bonus AP opportunity, so I think I should be okay. Still, I made it to Act 2! I've been doing really long sessions of ToCS2 to even make a dent in things though. I might burn out if I don't take it easy... But so far, things have been fun. I really like how things are a bit more open ended now.

[Harvest Moon kawaii]

Spoiler:

Recently beat:

Pokemon Shield
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX Demo (Switch)

Backlog:

(3DS, Nintendo Switch, and PC) = A lot (over 134 games)

Currently playing:

Ring Fit Adventure (Switch)
Steins;Gate Elite (Switch)
Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)
Night in the Woods (Switch)

Games I have pre-ordered:

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (March 20, 2020)
Digimon Survive (2020)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX (Switch; March 6, 2020)

Games I want:

Luigi's Mansion (3DS)
Rune Factory 4 Special (digital-only in the US) (2020) (Switch)
Rune Factory 5 (Switch; 2020)
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou (Switch) (Japanese only)
My Time At Portia (Switch)
Snack Wold The Dungeon Crawl Gold (February 14, 2020)
YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World (Switch)
Detective Pikachu 2 (Switch; release date unknown)
Story of Seasons: Reunion of Mineral Town (Switch) (West: 2020)
Robotics; Notes Elite (Switch) (Coming 2020 in the West)
Robotics; Notes Dash (confirmed for the West)
Yo-kai Watch 4 (Switch; confirmed for the West)
Summer Pockets (Confirmed English-language version for PC coming in 2020)
Rewrite+ (PC)
Code Realize: Guardian of Rebirth (February 6, 2020)

Games beat in 2020: 0

Games bought in 2020: At least 4 ( of those with confirmed release dates)

I completed the Pokedex in Pokemon Shield. So, now I can play my other games. I'm going to finish Night in the Woods and play Luigi's Mansion 3.

[Kikki]

Spent this morning at emerg with my sis (who has no family doctor and has no choice for anywhere else to go when something comes up), so I had extra time with nothing to do but fight a whole lot of dragons. So, I finished chapter 3 of 7th Dragon. Maybe I can finish this within the month, after all? I'll give it a go! I don't love turn-based combat, but the game stays interesting by being quirky. And even if they do go nuts with the status effects, at least it's still pretty easy. And it's cool that none (or very few) of the side quests are fetch-quests. I rarely ever have to go back to a dungeon once I've fully completed it, which is nice.

[cinnamon_yuki]

Hi guys!

It's official:Pokemon Shield is the first Pokémon game that I finished. I'm not sure if I plan to master the Battle Tower (I experienced it to unlocked the IV checker but it is difficult to say the least). I do plan to do a 100% PokeDex completion while I wait for the FE 3H DLC to drop.

Currently Playing:
Pokémon Shield - Doing 100% PokeDex completion.

Finished
1.Pokemon Shield

My to-play list for 2020
1.Fire Emblem Three Houses Replay with Wave 4 of the DLC
2.Astral Chain
3.Assassin Creed Odyssey
4.Code Vein
5.Evertree Inn and Sordwin
6.Zelda Breath of the Wild

My to-buy list for 2020:
Pokemon Sw and Sh Expansion Pass
Link's Awakening
Rune Factory 4 Special
The Shadow Society Book 1
Cyberpunk 2077
The Soul Stone War
Wayhaven Chronicles Book 2
Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town

[Samansu]

Woohoo! Another game down! I'm sitting at a net -1 for my Backlog Blitz, but I have beaten 3 games so far this month! \o.o/

I finished Breath of Death VII and overall it was kinda meh. I give it a 3/5. It has great and funny writing, but really simple basic mechanics of old rpgs and ended quite abruptly. Between that and an insanely unbalanced difficulty spike at one point it had to drop a bit in my rating. It was the devs first game though, so I'm hoping their second game, Cthulhu Saves the World, is better!

I wanted to replace BoD7 with Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, but the [b]Very Bad Thing™[/b] I found to allow me to play it on my stream is... not good or stable. It's a shame because I love the game and wanted to stream it, but ah well. I will just have to play it on my own time rather than stream it. FYI I own a physical copy of the game, so the [b]Very Bad Thing™[/b] was just to be able to stream it as I don't have a capture card in my 3DS...

I ended up starting Zelda II: The Adventure of Link instead using the NES Switch Online channel. It is fun, but definitely hard and not obvious what to do lol. I got lucky and a veteran of the game stumbled on my stream and helped guide me. Thank goodness for them and the handy rewind features!

I also played the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX Demo. It was insanely cute and I'm definitely going to grab it when it comes out. The test determined I was a Chikorita and I chose a boy Mudkip for my partner!

Spoiler:

Backlog Blitz

-1


Currently Playing
(In order of priority/playtime dedicated atm)

~ Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!
~ Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
~ Unravel
~ Harvest Moon 2
~ Pokémon Picross


Games Beaten: 3

~ Home
~ Ittle Dew
~ Breath of Death VII: The Beginning

Games Purchased: 4

~ The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince
~ Ittle Dew 2+
~ Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!
~ Unravel