Backlog 2021

[Bluie]

The two things I remember Ys VIII are the true ending and this one scene;

Kid character: That monster kinda looks yummy

Everyone else in the party: Don't

I also look up several of the OST when the music pops into my head. Sunshine Coastline and Iclucian Dance are *chef's kiss*. I still can't believe there's a chunk of the fandom that haaates Ys VIII's composer and complains that they're 'ruining the feel' of the series. Ima' roll my eyes into space, lol.

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Welp, I was talking about buying one of those games and 'Giraffe and Annika' is on sale starting today on PS4/5 via the yearly 'Big in Japan' sale. There's a lot of good games on sale, but I've already played them or I'd rather watch them. I'm a liiiiiittle bit bummed the Toukiden duology isn't on sale, because I've been really wanting to play through them both again (I own them on Vita, but I no longer have one and afaik, they weren't crossbuy). Ah well, I'll get them another time. Katana Kami is on sale though, and it's tempting. I haven't had a fun samurai game since Ghost of Tsushima last year, and if I can't have Toukiden yet, I may go for whatever else is available.

[Kikki]

Things like that are reasons why I never, ever sell my games, just like I never sell my books. Unless I hated the game, I'm going to want to play it again, eventually, to remind myself of everything that happened. (I can't stand watching gameplay videos, so refreshing my memory that was is a very unappealing thought.) Playing Lacrimosa of Dana again has been pretty close to playing a new game, because I've forgotten so much. (Replaying BotW has NOT been like that. There's so little story to it, and I spent so much time in that world, it doesn't feel fresh at all, unfortunately.)

Ys has always been known for its soundtracks, though truthfully, I've never liked them. I find them discordant, cacophonous, and full of static noise from the electric guitar or whatever the heck that is that make that awful fuzzed or excessively-vibrating sound. I do really like the 'Christmas' version of Iclucian Dance, though, it's very clean. I like the sound of Sunshine Coastline but all the extra reverberation going on makes it sound messy, to me...I find it hard to describe.

The Dawn of Ys has some great music, but honestly, I find that Falcom tends to ruin their music for me with too freaking much electric guitar. I hate the messy, vibrating sound of electric guitar, and Ys always uses it copiously. I tend to like the underlying music...in fact I think it's absolutely beautiful...but only if you shave out all that electric fuzz. It's like a gorgeously sculpted face underneath a massive, unkempt woolly beard...to me it's going to waste.

I don't know what they're talking about, though, with ruining the feel of Ys with the current stuff. Ys soundtracks all sound pretty consistent, to me.

I'm in Chapter 6 now and need 13 more reputation points to get the True ending, so I'm running around finishing a few more things up before proceeding with the story. I got the Normal ending the first time and didn't feel like grinding through to get the True ending at the time, so this'll be the first time seeing it, for me. (I never looked it up.)

[Daikon boy]

For some reason I'm in the mood to play an atelier game, despite never actually playing an atelier game before. I get a certain feel from them when people talk about them, and I'm in the mood for the feel of game I guess. It's weird. And very much not happening. I'll try one whenever I get a psn subscription and play it a certain amount to see if I even like those games. I got poor sleep so not much else feels good to play atm. I'm dealing with insomnia and leg pain that says a very big storm is coming up, but my medicine kicked in so at least the leg is feeling better. But insomnia means some games just feel too much to play right now.

Still playing all my games, but not today. Probably will be able to move to another month (chapter? I think both are accurate?) next time I pick up fire emblem as long as I give myself enough time, and I'm trying to play through one whole part in ace attorney dual destinies each day I choose to pick it up. I'm not sure how much longer I have left in this part, but I'm tired enough I'll probably save the next one for tomorrow when I'm more awake. I'll be too tired by the time I finish to do a second one. I can complete this part okay though unless I leave it off too long.

Also still not sure what I'll be doing with mystery dungeon. I probably won't be starting it over again for a little bit even if I do decide to, so it'll be soon, but not soon.

[Harvest Moon kawaii]

Yesterday I didn't get to play the Steam Prison demo more because I watched a movie instead.

Spoiler:

(It was Peninsula, the sequel to Train to Busan, a South Korean zombie horror film. It was really good. The endings of both movies almost made me cry.)

I played more of the Steam Prison demo today, and might play even more later.

Spoiler:

I'm on Eltcreed's route now

Yesterday, I played more of Half-Past Fate. I'm on Chapter 6 now. Looking at the achievements list, I saw this game has at least 12 Chapters, meaning I'm only halfway through.

I was able to get my Pokemon Home subscription renewed this morning with no problems and all my Pokemon were still there. I'm really happy.

I'm so excited to pick up Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury for the Switch tomorrow. It's really cold here, and getting colder, so I hope we can go to GameStop tomorrow.

[greensara]

So I seriously had a gut-laughing moment with My Time at Portia last night. Anybody who's played it, especially on console knows they never got all the bugs out, which is not really a game breaker for me unless it gets in a crashing mood, which it actually hasn't done at all for this playthrough. (Fingers crossed) Anyway you know how Dr. Xu is always running around the town like a crazy? One evening I'm just walking out of the Abandoned Ruins#2 and I see something in the air. I move the camera up to see Dr. Xu in the sky, running frantically and getting higher and higher as he went! Lol! I was like, "Man, I knew you had too much energy Doctor, so this is what you get up to at night!" Oh man, that was even funnier than when a character gets stuck in the wall. I tried to get a picture of it but that was when he righted himself and appeared back on the ground running.

[Harvest Moon kawaii]

Sorry for the update so soon, but I bought more games ahead of buying Super Mario 3D World plus Bowser's Fury tomorrow, because they have a really good sale going on at the Switch's Nintendo e-shop.

I bought:

The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters (sequel to a Korean horror game).
Spiritfarer (heard really good things about this one)
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (Always wanted to try a "Tales Of..." game)
Kuukiyomi: Consider It

...Holy....2 of the games I bought will take up 19.1+ GB of space left in my second micro SD card. It's a good thing I bought a third micro SD card not too long ago.

Edit: 12:17 PM:

There's a Steam Lunar New Year's sale going on right now, too.

[Daikon boy]

Purchased trails in the sky sc, trails in the sky the third, 13 sentinels aegis rim, afterparty, and feeding frenzy 2 from the sales. I wanted to get grandia too but had to skip out on it again.

I'll be keeping track of purchases from now on (sort of maybe) just for the fun of it. Now I just gotta wait for preorders and golden week and play some of my games.

[Kikki]

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

The bad and normal endings are appropriately unsatisfying conclusions to the tale of the Lacrimosa of Dana, but the true ending is so darned bittersweet. Why are all the best JRPGs like this? Tales, Xenoblade, Trails...I dunno. Maybe it's not the events of the game itself are sad, but that the game is over and you can't do anything to change or influence the character's lives any more, so the player themselves is kind of losing something. Can't figure out how to express it.

Got every approval event and can now watch them all from the main menu, if I want to see them again.

Of course, this does definitely ratchet up my desire to have Ys IX when it's sitting there, waiting on the Playstation Store...but I have to make sure I can set the camera to something that doesn't make me sick, which may take a while, because it was pretty bad. I think slowing the camera down will work better...it was blisteringly fast when you move your perspective around. Of 10 speed settings for VIII, I have the camera motion set to a 3, which worked quite well. Will fiddle around with the demo soon, maybe tomorrow.

Knowing the type of life Adol leads makes looking into each of his adventures just a little bit uncomfortable, for me, because I know I'll never be able to see him do what I would want him to do. It'd be okay if he was an immortal...then it'd be neat...but he's not. Adol feels very human. Which is cool and also upsetting, lol.

[Mikodesu]

@greensara: Too bad you couldn't get a picture of that...the mental picture alone made me laugh. It's probably a little sad how much finding visual glitches in Portia enhanced the game for me. Most of it was clipping or minor floating - never saw anyone fly THAT high. (And, strange enough, I don't think I remember any enemies or NPCs t-posing?)


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The tower defense game in Genshin looked fun...it is VERY fun. I admit having Jean would be great right now...take all the negative multipliers you can and just yeet everything into the abyss. :D Took a few rounds to get the hang of but I'm really enjoying it! Didn't get into it yesterday because the quest to get to it took so long and I noticed myself starting to rush, wanting to get to the tower defense stuff. It's kinda nice to just take a break from the regular grind. Best event so far, by a mile.

I will say...to those of you who have Xiao, big congrats! I hadn't even tried him in the trial thing before the quest and he is FUN to play. But I still think I'm skipping this one.

Whee~ looking forward to more tomorrow.

[greensara]

Lol, yes I regret not being fast enough in my reaction time. It took me a minute to figure out it was him, followed by laughter and the thought I needed a picture. Oh well, maybe I'll come across him flying high another night. My most common glitch seems to be dead floating enemies, like slurpees in the air above the character's head level. I did get some pics of Scraps following me through the sewage plant after giving him dogfood for a mission. I fed him before going in to save a trip. Not sure if that was a glitch or just not thought about, but it was humorous to me. I'll probably post them next time I feel like messing with Twitter.

Stardew Valley's latest update became available yesterday, so I'm looking forward to checking out all the new stuff that's been added. My girls are especially looking forward to seeing how the couch co-op is going to work, though I doubt they'll be super helpful farmhands, it will be fun to play together.

[Bluie]

I bought Giraffe and Annika like I said I would and finished it yesterday in one sitting. Because one of the trophies is for speedrunning the game, it lets you know your playtime after the credits are done rolling. I finished it in a little over 6 hours.

It was all very fine and nothing overly mind-blowing. Honestly, I think they could've left the game in the oven for a little bit longer and I would've enjoyed it more. Here's a simple breakdown;

Spoiler:

*The Good:

- Character models and animations were very pretty and well done, especially when they were dancing
- The art during conversations and comic sections was absolutely adorable
- Having other artist's pieces be collectables in the game (all themed after cats) was real cute
- There's a good gameplay variety (Open world exploration, rhythm game, and on the rails shooter)
- There's an option on the menu to just play the rhythm game, which is a nice touch

*The 'eh':

- The game could've benefitted greatly from a full voice acting cast. Only Annika grunts on occasion and it felt kinda weird not having the other characters at least do that as well.
- Annika's tail modeling could've been worked on more. I had several times where it bugged out and took over my entire screen.
- The music is ok to borderline irritating. The overworld theme is cute and relaxing, but the ocean dungeon made me was to run through it asap
- Story was very boring and could have used a lot more time. It was also very cliched. A kid might like it though.

*The Bad:
- The controls suuuuuck! Annika is too floaty and slippery, like I'm playing in a ice world. I I died so many times due to her slipping off a platform because I moved the control stick slightly and she careened down a cliff. This is especially bad when she's jumping or dashing.
- The rhythm game mechanics can also be really shoddy. I've been playing Project Diva for the past couple days and I KNOW I hit those notes, but this game says otherwise.
- The last two dungeons can go suck an egg, they were so overly irritating. They're full of instant death mechanics and have FIFTEEN SECOND loading screens each time you die. I just about dropped the game in the 2nd last one especially, because you have to dodge all these mechanics while doing an escort mission.
- One of the characters is a realistic turtle with clip art as his portrait. This isn't anything major, but did it ever kill my emersion and make me yell "Is that just a real « Mr.Gourmet's hat » turtle??? From the Unity asset store??????"

Overall, it reminded me of how much I really dislike the platforming genre, especially when it's badly made. For example, if I fall in a game and it's due to me not doing the necessary prep for the jump or miscalculating it, that's on me. But if I'm continually dying due to an unexplained mechanic or due to slippery controls that should be tight, your game needs to be fixed. I'm not going to be too harsh as the modeling and programming was all done by one dude, and that's impressive in it's own right, but a little more time and effort would've been appreciated. Anyways, it's done. I'm going to pick up another indie today but I haven't decided on which one yet. Spiritfarer is on sale on the Switch, so maybe that.

Edit: Actually probably not Spiritfarer as it's getting 3 major updates this year, so I'll most likely wait on it til it's done. Märchen Forest or Haven are more likely now.

[Harvest Moon kawaii]

So, got to play just over an hour of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. On the Super Mario 3D World side (base game) I completed World 1. I got a perfect flag on every level, all stamps (6), all stars (21)...with Peach. I'll play Bowser's Fury after beating the main game. I think that's how it's supposed to be played.

I didn't get a chance to play more of the Steam Prison demo, but my playtime finally exceeded 10 days, and it said I played 5 hours or more. It's probably more than 5, but I thought it would say 10 hours or more with so much happening in-game. Also, strangely, my Nintendo news letter said that my most-played game of February was the Steam Prison demo, but that I played 42 hours overall on the Switch.


Also, didn't get a chance to play more of Half-Past Fate today either. So, still on chapter 6.

I bought some games during the Lunar New Year's sale on Steam. I bought Flower shop: Winter in Fairbrook (already have the first one), Kanji Training Game, and The Metamorphosis.

Currently playing:

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Switch)
Steam Prison demo (Switch)
Half-Past Fate (Switch)

[Daikon boy]

Finished up one part of ace attorney. I'm on case four of maybe five? Probably not many parts left for the case. I should be finished with the whole game soon maybe. I also completed three prologues of 13 sentinels.

[Bluie]

I ended up buying Omori. I reallllllllly didn't want to pay full price on the other games I mentioned as they'll inevitably go on sale and some of them are kinda pricy imo. I usually don't pay for than $20 for an indie as they can be very mixed bags and only last for one sitting (obviously there's exceptions to this like Hollow Knight and Stardew Valley). I DID want to wait for Omori's Switch release, but who knows how long that'll be and Steam had it on sale for $16, so, sold. I have yet to try out my controller on my PC, so it should be an interesting change that'll take some getting used to.

Other than that, my world (Exodus) in FFXIV finished the Firmament a day or so ago and there was lots of quests to do to further enrich the setting and letting us see old favorites from Heavensward! It's so nice to see my favorite expansion/city is still getting story and content. I've honestly been really tempted to play New Game+ on my main character, just so I can fully relive my favorite parts. It might actually be a good idea to replay the story before Endwalker releases later this year, hmmm. I might do it!

Unfortunately I don't think I'll have a lot of time for games for a few days. A cold front is coming in that's threatening to shut the entire city down and my workplace is gone kinda crazy. Valentines + Cold weather front in southern Texas = crazies out in full force. I haven't played Genshin in two days and I am sooooo behind on the festivities. Oh well, I'll get to them before the event it over, hopefully!

[Simply Unknown]

I started playing Genshin less than a month ago and I'm having a blast. But today is probably one of the luckiest days I'll ever have. I reached World Level 4 and had enough on hand to ascend two of my main damage dealers so I'm not having the problems I expected. That gave me two Acquaint Fates which I used on the permanent banner because why not. I was at 34 wishes then so I wasn't expecting much. But I ended up with a 4 star weapon, which is decent, and a 5-star Diluc! I only bought the Welkin so I have only one other 5 star from saving up for Xiao and I wasn't expecting Diluc since I was nowhere near pity!

I definitely don't have enough to get him to playable level yet, but I'm almost done with the story for Genshin that's out right now so I'll have plenty of time to grind for books and items to level and ascend him! Today is a really good day!

I haven't played Genshin in two days and I am sooooo behind on the festivities. Oh well, I'll get to them before the event it over, hopefully!

I really hope you get to play soon; the festival is a lot of fun and the Tower defense is surprisingly engaging!