Backlog 2022

[Mikodesu]

I love it here. Ya'll are the best. I can't tell you how many times I've been told off for using walkthroughs. I guess maybe that's why places where walkthroughs/guides are, or where people can ask questions about games are safe.

My only sticking point with taking help for puzzles is that the act of solving the puzzle is all there is. With action games if you need help you still have to follow through on something, some skill is generally required. So I'm gonna take it easy with help (one step at a time, I guess), but try not to feel bad about it when I need it.


Only had time enough for something short today, so Genshin won out. I'm aaaalmost done with this piece of art I'm working on, and once I am I'll get back to my usual game schedule. Art is sucking up all my free time right now. I have a particular problem with making more complicated art successive piece and struggling to manage foreground/background, lighting, details, etc etc. I just want it to be done. And I'm far too close to quit.

I dunno if puzzles will be fun or terrible to get back to after that. We'll see, I guess.

[Kikki]

Aw, that's great, Mikodesu I'm not sure about other gaming help sites as I'm not familiar with any, but GameFAQs doesn't uphold that theory, as it's a site of guides and wakthroughs and a forum for questions/discussion and it's awful...full of judgmental shrieking baboons. But yeah, Fogu is a pretty awesome place. One way or another, it's filled with people who are comfortable to live and let live, and even our fishies tend to be pretty nice. (A lot of them are basically regulars as well, it seems...people who've never posted but lurked for years.) Admittedly we get a FEW trolls, but trolls are like rats or cockroaches. There's no way to keep them out completely anywhere.

I finished up the last chapter of DQB2 (again, lol) and the epic friendship of Malroth x Builder is so good that it makes me wonder if they can't make a DQB3 cuz they just can't live up to it. I know the DQB games are based on the original DQ games, so I guess DQB3 would be based on DQIII, which I know nothing about, but...it's hard to imagine that any DQB game could be as good without a Malroth in it.

No further gaming plans atm. I'm just floating along with whatever I feel like playing in the moment (if anything) and will continue to until/unless it starts to bug me. I have no Day 1 games coming up until Variable Barricade (Feb 24) but I barely cracked the lid on Garden Paws or slime Rancher, and Portia definitely needs a full replay now that it had that big update...but it requires too much passion for me atm so I'll need a run up at a replay like that.

[Bluie]

I think one of the reasons Ushi is so chill is the majority of the active users are sensible adults who genuinely gathered around a comfy game series for help/guides. I was a child when I first joined, but a lot of us have either grown up with Bokumono or discovered it later on and we're all here for more or less the same reason. Meanwhile places like Reddit and Gamefaqs are a gigantic amalgamation of everyone; age and tastes of games so extremely varied there's little common ground and a lot of mudslinging. While this thread (and sub board) are great examples of how all of our tastes are varied as well, we ALL came her originally for one series.

And honestly, imo (and I've said this before more or less) MY enjoyment of MY game is up to ME. I couldn't give less of a « Cow Poopoo » if someone screeches at me for looking up guides and picking easy modes. I also fully understand that not every title out there is meant for everyone, and while I think accessibility is a fantastic feature and concept, not every thing under the sun needs so be in everyone's hands. There's no shame in quitting a game you don't like and neither is there anything wrong with choosing a casual mode when it's offered. Our time is limited and valuable, after all.

Annnnnd on that note;

I gave Immortals Fenyx Rising a chance today, and I just can't get into it. It's honestly fine and I can see the appeal, but it just makes me want to play BotW2 even more. I find that my attraction to the open world genre greatly hinges on it being themed around a series or theme that I find interesting. A Zelda themed open world pulls me in and hooks me on nostalgia, same with Pokemon, Dragon Quest, ect. Even something like Ghost of Tsushima tapped into my extreme love of the Sengoku period and got me hook line and sinker. A BotW clone isn't going to do it for me anymore, especially when my interest in ancient Greece right now is Zero (especially when Hades is the current golden standard in my head). Anyways, Kakarot will be my next foray and I do hope I like it because I really do love Dragon Ball, I'm just not sure if it'll transition well enough into this genre to grab me.

Oh well, one game finished and two dropped so far this year and we aren't even in double digits yet.

[Simply Unknown]

I never understood the hate for people using walkthroughs. How does my using a walkthrough for my playthrough in any way affect you and your playthrough? Maybe I just don't want to be stuck on a puzzle that's preventing me from completing the game! Ugh, people suck sometimes.

Getting close to completing Cupid Parasite, with 4 routes down including the bad ending/harem ending! Raul was a lot of fun, but again, I felt like the good ending was better than the best ending! That's been a thing with me for everyone except for Ryuki...Not sure what that says about me.

Spoiler:

The bad endings for Raul were pretty insane! Like, one involved the apocalypse basically starting because Jupiter and Raul were fighting for so long, and then the one where he runs off to become a mayor who saves oysters?! « Harvest Goddess », this man! I did enjoy seeing Raul fall in love; he always felt the most innocent and sincere and I can understand his side considering how he's lived a relatively lonely life. He was also a lot younger than I was expecting; only 21. Really thought he was more 27/28.

Minerva's betrayal sort of confused me. Because does that mean she gets Raul in all the other routes? Except maybe Gill because Alan and the Golden Arrow fused with the car so...Guess that ended poorly. I hate it when they do that with routes; at least make it consistent across all other routes instead of confined to just one! Not to mention how did she get away with killing the last Cupid? Did no one stop to ask how a « Harvest Goddess »/goddess died? Ugh, that just makes me mad. But I still rank Raul's route over Gill's since the craziness in it oddly felt more believable. Maybe because it's Raul and his mythology obsession.

I've also been playing Genshin impact. I loved the latest Archon quest though I'm not sure if I'll be pulling for Shenhe; she just wasn't fun for me to play as. Currently in the middle of the newest quest which I feel is going to take some time. Definitely a cool place to explore though, so I'm not complaining.

[yzafre]

It turns out the level of Unpacking I left off on was that last one, so I finished that up in half an hour last night. Cute game, I liked the idea, though rather short. Now... I have no idea what's up next.

I already have very little motivation to start new things in the dark half of the year; add on top of that I'm house-hunting and there's very little energy left to make decisions on things like new games. I'll probably keep flipping through old games like I did all December.

[Chrysalis-Lyn]

Chiming in belatedly to voice my encouragement, Mikodesu! Walkthroughs have saved me & refreshed my interest in so many games. Plus, I have a nostalgic association with the old FAQs of the early internet, including the gaming communities that gathered around them.

Also find myself agreeing with Kikki & yzafre on BoTW. My brother left his copy when he visited for the holidays. I remember growing frustrated with it back in 2017, but I booted it up last night & just wandered through the gorgeous environments. I'm dazzled by the clear shimmering water & the soft, swaying blades of grass. How relaxing!

[Bluie]

*Sigh* Nope, Kakarot is a dud as well. I really tried to get into it, but it's structure is so odd I feel like I'm being led along on another DBZ retelling rather than being allowed to enjoy things at my own pace. I don't super mind reliving DBZ in Xenoverse 2 because it's a fun twist (your OC going into the timelines and fixing them) and the hub world structure works well. Whatever Kakarot is doing just feels really contrived. I'd rather just watch DBZ again rather than force myself to play this. At least I only paid around $10 for it.

I guess Ender Lilies is the only thing in my PS4 backlog that clicked. Welp, more time for Black Desert and FFXIV!

[greensara]

Played a little farther in Grow to see if anything different happens when the last district has harmony too, but no. There is still a bit of Withering on the tree's trunk when you look at the map, and there was no little growth video. I wonder if it would change visually if I grew up every single planter, but I kind of doubt it. It's probably just a set visual thing. On the plus side, I did get more events from the pair that comes after you build a temple, and that was pretty interesting. I don't know if I will try to get to the end of their events or not.

I also think I can count Staxel as cleared, though I will probably play a different file later.

Spoiler:

I think my original file is bugged somehow. I have many of the characters bobbleheads and was thinking of getting them all before picking a roomie, but Vorlen is stuck in a late game area and won't return, he takes an item instead of letting me spray him with it, bugging the quest. Also, new characters Rem and Tomti were supposed to come back to town (I got a letter) within days but a season later they have not. So I went ahead a picked Leif and it was rather uneventful. My recommendation is to maybe save trying to complete Leif's quest line to the end until after Morel's as the lated game stuff it unlocked really seemed to mess with things.

I also finally fired up Gurumin 3D and realized why it had been so cheap whenever it was that I got it. Not my cup of tea, dropping that one. So that makes 2 cleared and one dropped so far for 2022 I guess? Technically Grow and Staxel were already mostly done last year, though.

[Ronin19]

Hello everyone! I went through a bunch of stuff in December, so I couldn't be as active as I wanted to in the last month of 2021. My last game that I finished in 2021 was Shining Pearl. At the moment, I'm trying to complete the National Pokedex and I'm almost done; I'm only missing 100 Pokemon. I'm hoping to finish that, Moonglow Bay, Temtem, and Imposter Factory in 2022. They're either short games that I can finish in one day or I'm pretty close to finishing.

My first game of 2022 will be Pokemon Legends Arceus. The latest trailer and hearing that the team behind Crown Tundra from Sword and Shield has me pretty confident that it'll be a good game to play. I can't wait to go through Hisui with Rowlet!

[Kikki]

Welcome back, Ronin

In the past week, I've developed an overwhelming desire to replay all the Ace Attorney games again. I considered starting again at the beginning, but what I really want is to replay AA4, and AA6, as I only played AA6 once, when it first came out. And of course, I'll toss AA5 in the middle since I don't see any reason not to. I don't want to wait to play AA 1-3 over again before I can get to 4, so...yeah, even though it's already the one I've played the most, I'll start off replaying 4, cuz I already said I'd be following my whims in gaming in 2022. Minus purchasing. I'm still aiming to minimize new game purchases, this year, and only get the games I'm as close as possible to certain that I'll go on to complete within a week or three of purchase. The stuff I know will really grab me. (Which means I'm going to abandon the thought of getting DQXI for the foreseeable future. I'm retrying the demo, but I'm as indifferent to it now as I was the first time.)

It'd be great if they'd compile those three games into a second PW:AA collection for Switch! But I'll have to make do with my 3ds. At least it's nicer to play when cuddled into bed?

I'm not really all that into the shop-keeping aspect of Garden Paws, and I don't at all like playing as an animal character. Even as a child I never pretended to be a dog or a cat or a horse...I don't have the hankering for now, either. When I get an itch to play something new rather than a replay, I'll return to Slime Rancher instead, I think. I only played about two hours of it, but it was bright and cute fun. Though I'll probably get back to Garden Paws eventually. In spite of the animal MC and the shopkeeping, I didn't dislike it.

ACNH has nearly slid off my Switch Home screen. It's slipping into the obscure depths of my All Software section.

Gonna make me some vegan cheese tomorrow (because of dairy allergy). I am a bit leery of 'cheese' made almost entirely of cauliflower and potato, but I'm game to give it a shot.

[greensara]

Had some fun in Staxel with creative mode, which basically makes everything free. I was in the mood for building without a budget and I hadn't tried it before, so I decided to give it a try in my second file (with my cat boy). Not only does it make stores free, as I assumed, it also has a catalog of pretty much all the items you can instantly get (not overnight). Weirdly, it seems to have some kind of duplication glitch going on for some of the items you place so I had to periodically empty my inventory, but not necessarily a game breaker. Then, one of the many times I had to pause, my pro controller got knocked onto the floor. When I picked it up and looked at the screen, it was in third person!!! What!?! I couldn't figure out how it happened, but it is awesome! I tried to get my first file to get in third person too, and it does have some stuff that says third person in the general options, but it didn't seem to do anything. Maybe I need to drop my controller again? Lol. I also found out in creative mode you can keep inviting roomies as long as you have the bracelets, lol! No luck in fixing that quest even trying to use a replacement item though, oh well.

Edit: Figured out how to get it in third person: press the right joystick!

Also tried adding Vorlen to the harem but he still doesn't come home!

[Kikki]

I knew as soon as you said you'd finally made the discovery by dropping your controller, greensara, that it must be a control-stick press. That's happened to me before, too (Not with Staxel, though! I keep forgetting I even own Staxel. I need to bring it back up onto my Home screen. I played about 10 minutes of it and never opened the game again. I intend to, eventually, but man it's hard to get past those graphics!) I often forget 'R3' and 'L3' as input options.

Oh, btw, if anyone has been trying to sort out 2022's anticipated releases, Game Informer maintains a pretty decent list of everything coming up, sorted by date. A huuuuuge chunk of it is still under TBA as they have no actual window beyond '2022', and of course, a bunch of these are likely to eventually be delayed into 2023. But it's still a pretty good list if you're trying to remember everything you've heard about that's supposed to be coming out in 2022.

Replaying AA4 and remembering that this game is one of my biggest fan-fiction triggers. (Along with ANB, Naruto and Noblesse. Random much?)

[Shan O 123]

What’s up with redeem codes and not working like it should be? I got a digital game card code for a Pokémon Let’s go game the other day and it wasn’t working. At least not on my switch. The switch keyboard is so weird, I wonder if the code had a “O” in it and it was mistaken as a “0”….oh well I’ll never know as I don’t actually have the code sis does and she’s going to return it. Rip $60.

That’s another thing, why the eshop keyboard doesn’t have all of the letters? The redeem code should match the keyboard. So no “O”(s) please. If you’re going to have a character in a code at least match the keyboard. Someone of us doesn’t want to login to the my Nintendo website lol

[Kikki]

switch codes do not use the letter O, ever. If you see something that looks like an 'oh', it's actually a zero. I have seen cases where the retailer has written them down wrong, though, showing an O instead of an 0. All the greyed-out letters on the keyboard on the eshop are letters that CAN'T be in a switch code. If you ever find one of them in a code, it is a typo (or less likely: a fake code.)

[Shan O 123]

switch codes do not use the letter O, ever. If you see something that looks like an 'oh', it's actually a zero. I have seen cases where the retailer has written them down wrong, though, showing an O instead of an 0. All the greyed-out letters on the keyboard on the eshop are letters that CAN'T be in a switch code. If you ever find one of them in a code, it is a typo (or less likely: a fake code.)

That’s not 100% true. I had plenty of codes with a “O” in it and not a “0”. I’ve tried a “0” where a “O” should be and it was wrong. Logging into my Nintendo and redeeming the code with a “O” actually does work.