Backlog 2021

Kikki · Post Posted: Feb 13, 2021 12:32 pm

When I was still playing Genshin Impact, I really wanted Diluc...I loved playing him in the one quest they gave him to us for; he was so powerful. But trying to get him was what made me realize that the game was too much like playing a slot machine for my tastes. I really hate gacha elements in a game.

~

Playing BotW makes me melancholy. It's so echoingly lonely in that world, and there's so little meat to the story, the handful of memories you cobble together and a basic framework and nothing else. It's a beautiful, amazing game, but it feels so stark, at times. I can't take it, in certain moods. Even the few towns that exist feel lonely, somehow...Rito Village, the Zora Domain, etc. Goron City is about the only place that feels lively. I have all the towers, now, and I do want to get to the Akkala Tech Lab again, but I don't seem to feel like it, today, even though it's such a pretty world to wander around in. I think I want something more chipper and rainbow-coloured, or something.

I could play some more post-game DQB2 since I was having fun creating whole new villages on the Buildertopias, but... (Maybe I should build a rainbow village with ridiculously bright buildings and pathways and only the most colourful of crops.)

And of course, I'm done my replay of Ys VIII, which was great. I could tootle around with Farm Together; that has some appeal, for some reason. Even though I already had most of the crops unlocked and it has no social aspect.

It's February and COLD, irl, but I'm worried about the coming of April now, since I'll be taking part of the grandma-care on then, and I'm really not equipped for it. I wonder if there is ANY way I could interest my grandmother in Animal Crossing. My parents think gaming is stupid and pointless and would as soon imagine shooting themselves in the foot as playing a game. They don't object at all to their kids doing it, but for them, no way. Can't imagine my grandma would be any more receptive. Too bad, that'd give me something to do when I went over to keep an eye on her.

Spoiler:

I feel bad even saying I have to keep an eye on a fully grown woman who is 47 years my senior...sounds disrespectful...but she can't remember anything, any more. She doesn't remember who is alive and who has already died, or that she already salted her food (she salts it over and over until you'd think it'd be inedible, and sulks if you take the salt away after reminding her that she's already salted it three times, and doesn't believe you that she's already done it. Just TASTE IT, grandma, and you'd know it has to be true! It's a wad of salt, now!) She doesn't remember how she came to live with my parents, or when (it was about half a year ago). And she keeps doing dangerous things with the dogs, and the stove, and she's just going to get herself in a very bad situation if she isn't watched nearly 24/7, so I need to do my part, too. She's still sensible to talk to, even if she says the same things over and over because she doesn't remember that she already said them just a minute ago. I'm not really bothered by that kind of thing.

The greenhouse is going to be pure insanity. People are already buying stupid amounts of houseplants and some seeds (too soon, in this area...too freaking soon, guys! The plants can't go out for another three and a half months, at minimum.) I still really want spring, but at the same time, rather dreading it. Maybe games seem silly to play right now? I sure do wish I thought grandma could be interested in Animal Crossing, though...or even watching me or my cousin play BotW or DQB2. She's a farm wife, but I bet I can't interest her in Farm Together, either. She's just of a generation, in a rural world, that doesn't see the point in video games. They're like an alien language or something. She likes a few shows, and she'll watch the same one over and over because she has no recollection of watching it before, but she still wants to be up and doing stuff non-stop, and it sounds ridiculous, but her constant chore-doing is actually making more work for my parents in a lot of ways, and they're already overloaded with work. They're going to need help from me for April-May-June at the very least. This is not even adding in that my dad has stage 4 cancer and the chemo he's been taking for two freaking years isn't really working, but there are no better options. Not helping them out is NOT an option.

In other words...kinda stressy to think about this spring. Maybe between that and winter, it's drawing out my inability to commit to anything.

Yep, went totally off topic, there, except that I started out by wishing my grandma liked video games, lol. Well, behind a cut it goes, to minimize the off-topic junk.

EDIT: Just thought of it, but...RING FIT! I'm not sure, but I could possibly interest my grandma in at least watching me or my sisters or cousin 'play' Ring Fit, and my parents would very happily buy themselves a Switch if it gave my grandmother something safe to focus on. Could try it, at least. And Ring Fit is the one 'game' my dad actually expressed an interest in trying himself. There's also Fitness Boxing and Just Dance, though that would be hilarious. I have the most uncoordinated family in the world. Not a single one of us has anything any better than 'barely average' eye-hand coordination, as far as I can tell. My dad's side of the family also appears to be tone deaf. Yeah, I don't think Just Dance would be anything but an exercise in self-humiliation. Though I'd still grab it if I thought it'd be useful!

Pachi · Post Posted: Feb 13, 2021 7:42 pm

I finished Virtue's Last Reward. Thoughts under spoiler cut!

Spoiler:

I'm curious what happens in Zero Time Dilemma, but I think I'll take a short break from the ZE series first and work on Ni No Kuni (needing that wholesomeness to recover hahah). I'm currently in Golden Grove.

I'm also adding a game to my backlog because I bought Danganronpa 1 in Steam's Lunar Year sale. A discord friend said she likes them better than ZE series, so I'm curious haha

Backlog status

Spoiler:

Mikodesu · Post Posted: Feb 13, 2021 7:49 pm

@Simply Unknown: Congrats on the Diluc snag! :D He and Jean seem to be fairly common when you don't want them, but being halfway to pity that's incredible! He seems like he's pretty fun to build since he's so easy to make powerful, so you're probably at the perfect stage of the game to get him!

@Kikki: Ring Fit sounds like a good idea! So long as it's not too tiring, anyway. I'm not sure how your grandma's memory troubles would factor in but (just from my own experience) I feel like she's more likely to enjoy watching you DO something than watch you play something. I've yet to find somebody my parents' age or older who genuinely enjoy watching video games be played. Can't be impossible though, since there are grandma Let's Players!

--
I wish I felt up to playing more! Biggest event in Genshin's lifetime and I end up with a sinus infection that leaves me in an eye patch. I tried playing a little earlier, got a few of the little fetch quests knocked out and had to quit because my eye started barking.

At least this will be going on for a while. And so far Mihoyo has been very fair about letting you get to events when you get to them. (Except the food delivery one, for some reason.)

Kikki · Post Posted: Feb 14, 2021 4:23 am

I always find it strange, that suggesting my parents try a game is like suggesting they wear their underpants on TOP of their regular pants. It's like the idea doesn't even compute. It's like I suddenly started speaking in tongues.

With BotW, I would only have hoped for grandma to watch, as gaming is not an easy thing to learn for the first time at 89 and you need some speed in your reactions, and she has very arthritic hands. BotW is also the only game I can think of that is really fun to watch someone else play IRL...even after playing myself, I've spent a few hours watching my sister play, telling her to watch out for that blue bokoblin or that she missed noticing a sparkly ore deposit. But with Animal Crossing, I would have actually had HER play, if I could at all have interested her in it. There's no need to do anything quickly, no need for coordination.

With Ring Fit it'd be back again to just watching, for her, though she'd be watching the person not the game, of course.

Well, we won't bother.

Spoiler:

~

Well, *I* sure like games, though. (And my dad is actually the one who brought them into the house for the first time, along with our first home computer, a Tandy 1000 in 1986. Our school was still equipped solely with Commodore 64's, at that time, from an era when floppy discs were literally floppy.)

Didn't do any gaming yesterday until well after supper, and then played BotW surprisingly late last night...until 1AM! What was I even doing? Oh yeah, beating up guardians for their gudgeons, and doing a maze. Gotta go snowball bowling today to make a big chunk of money to get the other two pieces of guardian armor with. I have enough parts to get them, now. Gotta upgrade a few more pieces of armor, too. I like to get really kitted out and then go stomp all the enemies that made things difficult, like that Major Test of Strength that keeps my beloved climbing gear held hostage! Chaas Qeta Guardian Scout IV, once I have that guardian armor, you are soooooo dead, you three-armed, slicey-dicey jerk. And Imma take all three of your weapons, too. Be a pal and drop a core for me when you pop your cork, okay?

Still need quite a few more hearts before I can get the master sword, though. I'll probably go get Revali's Gale, first.

EDIT: Just did the calculations. If you want to own every piece of armor (getting every piece for free that you can via quests and stuff) and have the house and every fairy fountain opened for upgrading, you'll need 34,250 rupees.

Thank goodness for snowball bowling! Copious amounts of meat falling from amiibos, including AC cards, is also helpful.

Bluie · Post Posted: Feb 14, 2021 6:16 am

My parents also have this aversion to video games that frustrated me a lot growing up, but I just accept they're stuck in their ways. They had this attitude that video games were a toy I'd grow out of at a certain age (to be fair, I doubt they thought games would become what they are today when they bought my siblings and I a N64 in the 90s), but it became one of mine and my brother's main hobbies. They were very disinterested in anything my brother and I had to share to the point of getting frustrated and telling us to leave them alone. Years pass and they wonder 'why do my kids hardly want to spend time with me???' and they kinda tried, but whenever I'd tell my father the synopsis of the game I was playing, he'd say "That sounds dumb/boring/demonic(Christians)" while my Mom would soon get tired of the conversation and move it back towards her interests. Today, my Father kinds video games as a profession very interesting, but overall doesn't get it while my Mom has very bad vertigo and can hardly watch a video game without feeling woozy. Getting either of them to play a game would be challenging due to their aversion, medical issue, and the fact that they can hardly deal with the chromebook they use. I feel like my father would benefit from a bit more brain activity as all he does is sit and watch TV all day (and then complain about TV and how much he hates the shows of today), but he probably couldn't deal with all the buttons on a controller. I will say that they really appreciated keeping my late Grandma amused while she had dementia. She really liked watching me play Breath of the Wild and couldn't get over how it wasn't a TV show. Lol bless her!

ANYWAYS, looks like me and my fellow workers are boycotting work today because it's extremely dangerous to go in, and we don't want to risk our lives over produce. So, I guess I can get caught up on my video games today! Here I come Genshin! My FC in FFXIV is also having a costume contest soon and I need to coordinate with my contest partner over outfits. Guess my day is set, buuuut I may get into Omori too. I really want to play itttt.

Simply Unknown · Post Posted: Feb 14, 2021 11:45 am

I'm the only real gamer in my family as well, outside of some cousins at least. My sister used to play more with me as a kid, but those were mainly 2 player games or the Nancy Drew games so I'm not sure those count. My parents don't play outside of online card games like Solitaire and the occasional Wii Sports or Mario Kart, which is always hilarious to see since they have no idea how the controls work.

I think they sort of expected me to get into gaming as most of the games I enjoy playing have a strong story base to follow and I'm a pretty avid reader as well. It helps that most of the games I play around them are visual novels since those are easier to immediately pause if we're about to do something else. They never really expressed any desire to get into gaming so I never really pushed for it.

Anyways, I finished the story that's out for Genshin so far about half an hour ago. Now to enjoy the lantern festival and just focus on fighting bosses. That last boss was...interesting to fight to say the least. I get a few of the jokes I've seen online about him now. At least he'll be fun to rematch in the future! ...I hope.

Ronin19 · Post Posted: Feb 14, 2021 3:49 pm

So on Friday I picked up both Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (though may return the latter, not 100% sure on it yet). I just beat both modes of 3D World and I still love it a lot. Now I just need to try out Mario Bros U Deluxe and see what's really different about it and the Wii U version if any; I don't remember there being a whole lot of a difference aside from Toadette.

Mikodesu · Post Posted: Feb 14, 2021 9:24 pm

Good to see I'm not the only one who grew up without adults interested in video games. Honestly it wasn't just my parents/grandparents either, NO one I knew had parents who played games. My mom was the cool mom for playing ONE GAME - and she only played Mario Kart because she likes Go Karts. (To be fair...my mom actually did play some early NES games when they came out, but...raising kids took priority as a single parent.)

--
I exercised with the eye patch, because Ring Fit is blindingly white. It's actually pretty good for visual impairment! Not for total blindness, since there's no way to have the game read out instructions to you, but if you can get close to the screen to see what you need to, it works quite well. (Eyepatch + glasses + movement is a big no-no.)

Having so much fun with the Genshin event. Finally cleared out the first page of tower defense goals...they're surprisingly doable (for someone who doesn't play tower defense games). And, the 5 star crit book I got from the permanent banner, I think I've finally got a decent Ninguang kit. She's not to ascension 4 yet, and she's doing 3k charge attacks.

There's not a chance IN HELL I could clear the whole thing but I think I'm about ready to go back to Spiral Abyss. The primos are calling...

Ronin19 · Post Posted: Feb 15, 2021 1:27 pm

My mom and dad both played games, mostly because my dad hurt his back and he wanted to do something while he rested whenever his back went out. They got an NES and SNES before I was born and got an N64 at some point after I was born. I was hooked on games since I was 3. According to my parents, I begged my dad to play Zelda on the NES at 3AM one night.

Yep, definitely trading back in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe U; it's pretty much the same game, but with Toadette included. It's a good game, but, unlike 3D World, I was dumb buying it again when I didn't have as much fun as I should have.

In the meantime, I'm gonna be playing FF8 (or try to) while I wait for Littlewood to come to Switch in 10 days!

Kikki · Post Posted: Feb 15, 2021 2:20 pm

I was part of the first generation to be into gaming as a child. All the generations before me, it gets rarer and rarer for them to have gamers among them, and the further back you go, the rarer it seems to be. It's one of those things, I guess, like music and other entertainment, but a bit worse, maybe because it's a little more technological.

*shrug* Grandma MIGHT end up watching me play games briefly once in a while, but I doubt it'll ever be something I can really use to fill time, with her. She'd probably me more interested in watching me cross-stitch, lol. Rather, I'll mostly cook when I'm over there, since my parents will need lunch made for them on the days I'm there anyway, and I'll probably do extra to fill more time, perhaps largely in canning/preserving. There's this small-batch vanilla canteloupe jam I've been wanting to try, and grandma's main thing is to wash and peel and chop fruit and veggies, or wash counters and other kitchen chores. She's just always at it.

~

Um. Does anyone else have this really stupid habit? No, not habit. It's something I want to do, but my brain kicks in before I actually do it. Games I love, particularly if I see them on sale (like the Cold Steel games are on sale right now)...even though I own them and have played them many times, when I see them up for sale, I want to buy them again. It's really stupid, it's not like purchasing them anew will allow me to play them for the first time again, lol, but...I dunno, I get that feeling when I see them for sale.

~

Been watching a little of streamer/youtuber Dee Bee Geek get into Xenoblade for the first time. (Also: I can't believe he had never played a Zelda game before about half a year ago. He really must not be a Nintendo guy AT ALL.) I don't like watching gameplay stuff, but he's big on the reactions, which gives you back a little of that playing-for-the-first-time feeling. He was so upset over a certain event that for a few minutes I was afraid he might just quit, not wanting to take any more emotional damage from that vicious game. Luckily, that was not the case. He was horrified, but he loved it, I guess?

~

Got my house in Hateno completely built and opened a third fairy fountain, and got the final piece of Ancient armor, so got some expensive stuff completed in BotW. Not really pegging away all that hard at it, though...I'm playing rather idly. Took a while in ACNH, today, though, as it took me FOREVER to get all the lamps and balloons I wanted from Pave, even settling for only one of each colour. I had to quit and use my other player characters, because that horrible bird kept wanting more rainbow feathers to give me another of those hideous peacock floats. I already had two and I refused to give up any more rainbow feathers to get yet another gross piece of ick. So gaudy!

The red ones feel like they don't fit with the others, though. Rainbow, purple, blue and green all look good together, but the red pieces look weird with everything but the green pieces, imo. Though as a set on their own, the red look the most elegant, almost Asian-themed rather than 'Festivale'. That horrible bird really wanted to shove stages, confetti machines and stalls down my throat. The three things I didn't want at all! I think I got five of each, bleck. I only ever got one each of my two favourite items from him...had to go on as my other characters to get more. Oh well, the stalls at least might come in handy, some day.

Pachi · Post Posted: Feb 15, 2021 4:47 pm

When I was a kid, my dad was into computer games for a while like Plants vs Zombies, Bookworm, Scrabble (those kinds xD). My mom doesn't play at all, but I guess I was lucky enough as a kid that they'd buy me GBA games and don't bother me when I'm on the computer playing Sims or whatever too lol. I never told them I was getting a switch; I've had it for more than a year and not once did they ask what the gadget was, despite seeing me on it a lot. Sometimes my mom would ask what I was playing (out of small talk I guess); I'd answer with the title and that's it lmao.

--
I don't really have any backlog update except that I progressed a tiny bit on Ni No Kuni-- I fixed Rashaad and Esther and now we're in the Temple of Trials. I'm struggling a bit with battles; I deplete MP quick if I use magic spells, and my HP gets drained if I use melee (these desert monsters hit hard T_T)

Bluie · Post Posted: Feb 16, 2021 8:30 am

I just realized the post I had written here yesterday never made it due to a blackout. ;w;

Ah well, it was probs too long winded anyways! The gist was that Omori gives me a headache because of it's colors, so I'm going to have to take it in very small bursts. I also purchased Summer Pockets because it's the only piece of media from KEY that I know nothing about, and I've never disliked anything they've put out. Unfortunately, winter wonderland southern Texas is making it difficult to play anything that's reliant on wifi or needs to be plugged into the wall. I have very few games right now that qualify (Project Diva and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 on Switch + Monster Hunter Stories on mobile) for being able to be played freely, and even then, they gotta be charged eventually! Weh, hard times lmao. We actually hooked up a generator yesterday to keep out heat going and turn the TV (plus charge our phones) so we didn't go insane. The family watched me play Project Diva for several hours because it's legit entertaining + we all had nothing else to do! >w>;

Anywho, there's some games I wanna replay this year due to them either getting sequels or spinoffs, so I'm gonna count them towards my overall backlog. I've mentioned them before, but I want to replay Monster Hunter Stories and NieR Automata - the former before it's sequel releases and the latter after I play the prequel remake. However, Blue Reflection is becoming relevant again with an anime airing this year, and I am so extremely hyped for that. Any excuse to replay that game is OK in my book and I've been looking for an excuse to for awhile. I'll do the same for Breath of the Wild once it's sequel has a solid date too. So, yeah, current Backlog:

Spoiler:

However, I'm in a very anime mood (I just wanna snuggle under a blanket with one of the dogs and watch stuff), so I'll be distracted with that for a little while. JoJo gets really good in season 4, who knew?

Code_Name_Geek · Post Posted: Feb 16, 2021 9:20 pm

It was my goal to beat Persona 3 Portable before the release of Persona 5 Strikers next week, and a few days ago I accomplished it! It feels good to have that one done so I can finally stop avoiding spoilers (I read a lot of Persona fanfiction so that's relevant for me lol). I definitely shed some tears when all was said and done, though I've come to expect that from Persona. I have the first three games in the series to play as well, but I'll probably save those for a later date since it's about to get crazy with new releases for me.

I had a bit of a hard time moving on after P3P, since I'm reluctant to pick up anything too involved before the release of Strikers. Maybe it's time to finally knock some of those short indies off my list... or possibly start my history essay, that might be a good idea.

I did pick up Parkasaurus recently, since I had a craving for a Zoo Tycoon-like game and it happened to be on sale (dinosaurs are a bonus too). It's very cute and I like it so far, but my laptop runs quite hot while playing it so I'm trying to keep my play sessions on the shorter side.

Daikon boy · Post Posted: Feb 16, 2021 10:19 pm

Keeping my ps4 unplugged atm just in case the power goes out (I'm not in a position where it's as likely right now but I've been in snowstorms where you don't have power for a week and you gotta eat whipped cream and cereal and cold soup, and I don't want to take the risk of a power outage even brief happening especially when I'm sleeping when my ps4 is still plugged in so. I can live without playing my ps4 games for a few days. I can't handle it being damaged.)
I really need to plug my gameboy in and charge that up though. Every time i go to play it I remember it's out of battery and never plug it in so I haven't used it in awhile. I'm not willing to get out of bed to plug it in though so.

I've got my ds and my switch to play in the meantime. I'm probably going to try to finish the case I was working on in ace attorney before persona strikers arrives and maybe beat darkside detectives and get in some trails in the sky playtime too before I get sucked in to just the one game. If I get really focused on it I might be able to beat ace attorney before the game comes but I think I'll probably be leaving that one for later.

Ronin19 · Post Posted: Feb 17, 2021 11:49 am

So I haven't been in a mood to work on my backlog. I blame myself for wanting to play games that aren't out yet but are coming in a few short months like Story of Seasons and Mass Effect. I do have a craving to replay the Dragon Age series, so I might just do that; it's been a while since I touched any of the three games and with Dragon Age 4 hopefully coming in the next year or two, I wouldn't mind reminding myself what happened. I want to finish Dragon Age Origins before February 25th, which is when Littlewood should be out for Switch.