Backlog 2022

[Ronin19]

I finished up Imposter Factory last night. It was a little spooky in the beginning, but then came the sad, wonderful writing Free Bird is known for. Can't wait for the next installment.

Edit: Well, I didn't have much left of the main story in Temtem, so I guess I'm finished with it for now. I have one side quest left, but I have to train a bunch of fighting Temtem in order to finish it and I don't have the patience right now.

Now I guess I'll just be looking over my Steam list to see what game to play next. I really want to play Dragon Age, but I don't have an Xbox or PS4/5 anymore. I might get the games on Steam, but I'm not a fan of keyboard and mouse gameplay.

[Kikki]

The most annoying thing about the ps4 has been solved. Not by Playstation mind you...by my sister.

Spoiler:

I complain a bit about how if the power so much as has a tiny, tiiiiiiiiiiiny flicker, the ps4 freaks out and shuts down, then has a hissy fit when restarting, checking itself for trauma. I've never had any problems with that causing errors, but the ps4's drama-queen ways annoy me to no end.

Fixed, now. My sister got us a couple of battery pack power-strip extension cords. Instead of a simple strip to plug about 7 items into, it is about the size of a Kleenex (tissue) box, and that box is a battery that stores a couple of hours of energy to run whatever is plugged into it. Now, if you have 5 high-demand things plugged into it and were running them all at full power, it might run out of power in 8 minutes. (2 of the outlets aren't actually attached to the battery portion, just the surge protection.) But if can last up to 4 hours, depending. And even 8 minutes is plenty of time to save your game, quit, and shut the freaking drama queen down. (I never use all my outlets at once anyway.) And if you only have a power flicker, it'll carry you right past that. :D I don't know where she got them...it wasn't from Amazon... but they look like this one.

Just thought I'd share, if anyone else's playstation console annoys them as much as mine does. There is a solution!

Pretty sure I finally feel like playing something again today. Maybe? Our furnace is finally fixed so I am no longer huddled in ten blankets when I'm in front of my consoles. Maybe I was too cold to want to play, lol.

EDIT: Warg! I just caught myself thinking that I don't want to challenge myself, lol. I mean, that's fine! If you're stressed, say, challenging yourself might just add MORE stress...playing something easy and comforting is for the best if you're having a hard time, I think? But in general, I'm not so sure that'd be a good thing to be thinking. I've not been having as bad a time feeling trapped and exhausted this winter...I did a lot of prep...but I've also found myself with nothing to do when there are no tasks at hand. There's been very little snowfall this year so I can't use my new snowshoes or my snow-sculpting stuff, and there's nothing I want to read or watch, even, and considering playing a game (I have a lot of nice ones!) and finding it more appealing to just stare at the wall, in between short bouts of browsing the internet.

Okay, that does it, then. I have plenty of free time atm (which will last a couple days) and I don't want to keep doing this blank-staring thing. I WILL play either Slime Rancher (because it's new and it's always a little bit of a challenge to play a new game rather than and old one where you don't need to learn anything because you're already good at it) or get to that big-update-replay of My Time at Portia, because Portia's really very demanding. At least, it is if you're going to beat Higgins each season, and I just can't stand letting that evil little troll ever win anything. I won't continue on with a replay for today at least. This brain needs a shake-up. Probably somethign other than gaming woudl be even better...like maybe making more stationary or some jewellery for my sisters, or a puff quilt, or etc...but if it's hard to motivate myself to play a cute game with candy-looking blobs, it's hard to imagine I'd do more than waste time trying to boot up a new exercise or art/craft regimen.

Maybe winter's kicking my butt a little and I didn't notice cuz it's in a different way.

[greensara]

Wow, that battery power strip sounds great! Good for you and your sister! I may have to ask my husband what he thinks about getting one of those for using with a desktop since he's been working from home for over a year now.

Started working on Xenoblade again, just focusing on the story for now. Goodness, I think I have already said this, but the world in this game is just gorgeous and so detailed.

Spoiler:

I am in Chapter 9 in the sky city, and everyone is getting ready to go to prison island.

I'm probably going to kick myself for this but I honestly just want to put the story on hold again and go questing just to explore some more. It may be a good time for it too as the story seems to be coming to a climax and there are a lot of quests with timers by them, so something's going down soon. I took a peek to see how long the game is though and it looks like I'm only maybe halfway through as there's supposed to be 17 chapters? I am predicting a JRPG-esque plot twist for there to be that much game left, lol. (Yes, I am trying not to spoil it for myself, which is hard.) I do honestly hope the story gets better, as I have a really hard time getting behind a revenge storyline. Rescuing/protecting someone or something, out on a search for something, exploring for whatever reason, doing given quest to achieve given goal, and so on are common but more relatable themes I like investing in. I do like Riki looking out for his family, so there's that at least.

I tried Nexomon again a couple of days ago but got owned by a boss. Tried to look up a strategy and found out there is a ton of that game left too, and it just gets harder. I'm not ready to abandon it just yet because I really enjoy the parody writing, but I don't know if I am in the mood presently to invest in relearning the battle match ups (different than Pokemon even though it's a copycat), boosters, and grinding for experience. I cringe through every tamer battle. Putting it back on the back burner for now, especially with Arceus on the way, with much easier systems to deal with.

I may also try to play the Captain Toad trial later today too. If it seems okay I might see how far I can get before the trial is over.

[Kikki]

Yeah, my sis bought two...she has her operating centre in the living room hooked up to one, and I have MY operating centre (laptop, consoles) hooked up to the other in my room.

This spoiler doesn't contain any actual plot mentions at all, but I do tell you in here what chapter you have to reach before your quests will expire. Don't open the spoiler if you don't wanna know!

Spoiler:

Almost all Alcamoth quests will expire in Chapter 15, greensara, so you have some time, though I also like to get questing done in that region before continuing on much.

I always felt that more than revenge, what Shulk really wanted was to understand. True, he was very hurt and angry so he also wanted revenge, but revenge doesn't fit him as an epic motivator. He's a mild-mannered introvert...a thinker and a planner and a creator, not a fiery revenge-driven zealot who can be carried by anger. That never fit his personality, to me. He wanted to understand why that had happened, what he could have done, what he could do in the future to prevent anything like it from happening again...etc. But if he could also smash the tin can that [insert early plot here] while he was at it, then hey, that might feel pretty satisfying, too.

[Kross lover/fan]

I don’t….recall beating any games in 2021…
So they’ll be included in my list of 2022!

AC and Fortnite are never ending but I am still periodically playing those two.

Deathloop - haven’t gotten very far
Spider Man - getting used to the controls but am getting along pretty far.
Spider Man Morales far from home (or whatever it’s called) - haven’t even unwrapped the plastic from the case yet
Final Fantasy 7R - Technically I’ve beaten this a few times BUT I want to go back to the extension dlc content and finish in hard mode and collect all the remaining trophies. This will probably be my first ever game I’ll platinum (for the play station series)
Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart - love the game. I’d say I’m about half way done but a part of me wants to also try to 100% it. That’ll probably take a while :/
Crash Bandicoot 25 year anniversary - JUST bought this yesterday on 50% off sale. It has crash 1-5 games in it.

Pre-ordered: RF5
And will preorder soon: Pokemon legends arceus. (Side note: Amazon is selling the physical copy for $5 off right now)

[Kikki]

*throws self on floor and begins kicking and screaming*

Okay, there's my temper tantrum.

I was semi-enjoying Slime Rancher. Semi. Barely. I got a bunch done, got three areas unlocked, made me a pen of honey boom slimes (largos) and was about to quit, and all of a sudden, just while walking, my character froze. The whole game...frozen. Aaaaaand that's that. I don't know if it auto-saves, so I may have lost ALL of my progress. I already wondered why I was playing. It's just a money-making game, which is gameplay I'm not into. I think it's okay, the colours are nice and the slimes are sort of cute like gumdrops, and I like looking around and finding new things and expanding bits of the farm, but there's nothing interesting about keeping the slimes or vacuuming up their plorts and leaf-blowering them into a receptacle for money.

Guess I'm done with Slime Rancher! On, I think, to a MTaP replay to hopefully see improved operating and missing content. I'll go for Mint this time. I liked Gust but not enough to go for him twice. I hope I can persuade myself to open the game, lol. I think I could sooner motivate myself to start back up with the core-strengthening exercises that were working great but straining my wonky neck and giving me jaw pain. Well, that might be a good thing? I can't decide if it's a good trade-off, to have a stronger core but increased chiropractic issues. Better posture and overall daily function, but continual pain. Hmm: y/n?

Man, and it took such a run-up just to get me to play ANYTHING again for a bit. I really do feel more like just idly gazing at the walls these days. I feel a bit like going out for a walk but it's vicious cold today. (But the sun is gorgeous...may be worth layering up and going out in spite of the cutting cold. But being cold just feels so miserable. It's like it sucks all the happiness out!)

EDIT: Couldn't resist checking to see how much I lost, and it turns out...almost nothing? It does have an autosave. But it froze again, lol. The second time I lost about 15 minutes, so maybe they're not regular but triggered by certain things? Dunno. Made a bit more progress anyway as I realised how to do some things. Got rid of some gordos and got a key to get me into the Indigo...er? Grove? Grotto? Indigo something. I also messed up a few things but I have a bunch of upgrades, new areas, and some rad slimes. Gotta go back and grab me some Hunter plorts to make Rad Hunter largos. Better profit than the Honey Boom largos, which are better profit than the Phosphor Tabbies, which are better than the Pink Rock. I got some puddle slimes too but they can't be crossed and they're kind of annoying in all thier special circumstance.

Got tired of it, though, and for some reason, switched to the demo o DQXI. Got the auto battle working. I think? It doesn't start automatically when you run into an enemy...you have to choose fight first...but after that the actions are selected automatically. It's not too bothersome...I can ignore it. Right now I want to get enough for a sword upgrade and a leather hat. These enemies are pitiful though...I'll have to kill about 30-40 of them for that, ugh.

[greensara]

Well, I have reconfirmed that Captain Toad is not my cup of tea. I played several levels until I couldn't stand it anymore and deleted the trial. It's not a bad game per se, I just don't like it, which is weird as I do like puzzle games. It just doesn't excite me I guess. I actually had a better time with the demo.

I got a little bit farther in Xenoblade and yes, now the plot has thickened and seems to be getting better. I can see a bit more of what Kikki described as Shulk's normal nature kicking in.

Still debating where I want to purchase Arceus and RF5 from and if I really want to bother preordering or not. I probably will end up preordering RF5 since it's a harder to find niche game if I want a physical copy. Arceus will be a big name game, available everywhere, and not likely to be scarce anytime soon. I could get $5 off on Amazon, but have to wait a while. I could use my $5 coupon at GameStop if I pick it up on release day, but midday is a little inconvenient, and I'm not hoping for a repeat of when I tried to pick up Shining Pearl. I'm actually kind of leaning toward going to Walmart on the morning of release day, like I did for Shield, and hope it's one of the games that's in stock and $10 off. Then if they don't have it I could just go to GameStop later on, lol. We'll see, I guess.

[Kikki]

I loved the Xenoblade story from the very beginning, but then...I didn't have to deal with thinking of it as revenge-motivated. I never bought that. Even though the game itself tells you that it is, I couldn't ever think of Shulk as that kind of guy. He's too much of a thinker. He's an overthinker, really. A guy like Reyn might be able to maintain the level of GRAAAAAAAGH! needed to follow the desire for smackdown-style revenge all the way across the world, but Shulk couldn't. Imo!

~

Funnily...the boring turn-based combat of DQXI (demo) suits me right now. Never thought I'd say that, but...somehow it's working well with my current tendency to just zone out, eyes fixed, unfocused, on the wall ahead of me. I can zone out quite a lot with this on auto. Push the stick forward to walk toward your next goal, and press A once whenever you meet an enemy. Easy. Tune back in only when you level up and have enough points to unlock a new skill (reward time!) Normally this would make me very impatient, but I'm not at all invested in the story of DQXI...not yet, anyway. I don't feel in a hurry at all. Maybe that's why it works. (EDIT: Btw, the DQ people lost a great opportunity, calling these monsters 'sham hatwitches' They should have been ham shamwitches!)

~

I was wrong about saber slimes. I thought they only had a largo form and couldn't be combined...but they can. Now I'm not sure if I want to combine it with the hunter or go with rad + hunter, as I intended. I think I should stick to my original plan, because it looks like if I combine hunter + saber, I'd have to feet the resulting largos MEAT, which is too time-consuming to farm. Hmm, but I could combine the sabers with the rads and have rad saber largos (which would eat veggies) and find something else to combine with the hunter plorts.

I'll probably end up deciding based on looks, lol.

[Bluie]

Turns out Ender Lilies didn't scratch that Silksong itch after all. I played it for a few more hours and it's still certainly pretty and intriguing, but not enough to keep my attention. Not too much of a loss as I bought it on sale, and I know a certain someone who would really dig it, so I'll defs get it for them sometime this year as a gift.

Been falling back to Yokai Watch 3 a lot, it's very zen for me, though I think once I finish my FFXIV weeklies I'm going to try and tackle Black Desert Online again. My backlog is 3DS games, finishing the online quests in Monster Hunter Rise (before it's expansion releases), and BDO. My mood currently just wants to play whatever will help me relax after work, but that may change depending. Right now I just wanna sleep more than anything else.

[yzafre]

Captain Toad really is a Very Basic Puzzler, isn't it, greensara? I probably will finish it, just because it's so easy, but I doubt I'll bother to collect all the challenges. I can bust through 5 levels in half an hour, and when I looked it up there was only.... 32 levels?

I'm still playing Dragon Quest XI. I wasted a day letting the casino slots auto-play so I could buy some nice weapons/recipe books early. Just let it run while I was doing my chores... I'm almost to the end of Act 1! Since I already know the story this time around and am not just rushing ahead to find out what happens next, I'm making sure to remember and go into party chat in every new map, and after every new story beat. So many fun little lines. I just love these characters so much, ah!

[Chrysalis-Lyn]

Wow, so I've officially finished 3 games so far this year, though they were all rather short. Untitled Goose Game, Death's Door, and Abzu. I have to admit, Death's Door was frustratingly difficult, but the soundtrack is amazing + the art design is somberly beautiful & atmospheric. I'm not really a fan of soulslike combat. Even though I liked many aspects, it was just such a grind for me to beat the final boss. I wouldn't recommend it unless you enjoy punishing games - or if your reflexes are quick!

Abzu, on the other hand, was (mostly) serene & brief. Adored swimming through surreal seas with fish.

Now I'm just biding my time until Legends Arceus. Like greensara, I'm just trying to strategize how (or if) I'm going to get a physical copy.

[Kikki]

It's nice to have a couple more people in the Backlog thread

I remember when I first got to know you a little, Bluie...you liked almost every game you played, it seemed. Funny how we seem to gradually age out of that, huh? I mean, I was always fussy...can't blame my issues on age. But they've gotten worse, for sure. I think it's harder for games to impress us the longer we've been gaming. (A general 'we' being used, here, not specific.) We've seen and played it all...it's hard to surprise or impress us...and have gotten to know ourselves really well, doubt ourselves less, and are much less forgiving of our time being wasted, to boot. Games've gotta be just right, now. If fairytales made sense, Goldilocks should not have been a child. A child will throw themselves down and sleep blissfully any old where. A Goldilocks over thirty, now...she's got this sciatic issue, and a neck thing, and wants that mattress to be exactly this firmness and the pillow that thickness, or she might as well not sleep at all, because she'll wake up a mass of knots. It's kind of the same with gaming. Games have to be nearly perfect for us to scratch that itch properly...whatever the current itch.

~

I'm done the DQXI demo. Clocked in at almost exactly 12 hours, but I did a bunch of grinding. (I want to say that I 'ground', lol, but I don't think grammar rules are standard with this one.) I was in the mood! Which is ridiculous, but I think I mentioned yesterday that I'm in the mood to zone out. Having the music and bright colours and...when I actually focus my eyes and look properly...a pretty image in front of me is a bonus.

I appreciate that they didn't try to wring everyone of their money by ending the demo on a cliffhanger, but I also feel like it would have been the better business decision to end it somewhere more compelling. I feel pretty comfortable, stopping where I was. I wouldn't mind continuing to play, but I wasn't left dying to know what'll happen next at the point where I saved and quit.

While I'm in this 'zoned out' mood, DQXI is probably a good fit for me. I'd probably drop it like a hot potato if winter weren't sapping my lifeforce. However, it is not on sale atm. Does it go on sale much? Also...how does this game handle the level of your non-active party members? Do they get no experience and you have to grind to level them up if you decide later that you need to use one of them? I hate when they make that a feature...it can be a deal-breaker.

Lev was 14 when I quit...only one level ahead of the final party member. I guess that means I was about the level I'm supposed to be. The music definitely makes me want to pick DQB2 back up. Well, I left that game with the story finished, but the Isle of Awakening still with many features unfinished and at least two Explorer's Isles not completed. I'm at a fairly fun point if I want to slide back into the IoA and play some more. Or I could go back to Slime Rancher to grab those Hunter and Saber plorts. Thing about Slime Rancher, though, is that it's addictive. Once you start playing, it's one of those 'just that one last thing!' games where you've been MEANING to quit for an hour, but look, that pen has both types of plort collector completely full. And you could afford to unlock that region, now! And hey, you finally have enough meat to pop that gordo you saw a while ago, and there'll be treasure or a transporter underneath it.

Or I could nap. I can tell I need one, and most of my work for today is done already. Won't start on the rest until my sis clears out of the house so that I can do noisy things like vacuum and make cashew milk. Probably a nap is the best option for this time slot!

[greensara]

I have seen DQ 11 go on sale a few times, but it seems to go on sale more often and cheaper on the PS4 version than the Switch, though I'm not sure if it's usually the original version or the later version for PS4, as I think it has both now? You could always check a price tracking site like Deku Deals, or follow some of the trackers on Twitter, but the Twitter ones fill up your feed with a bunch of junk too. I like that Deku shows a price history too, so you can see what the lowest price was ever and how often some games tend to go on sale.

I probably should have figured this out sooner, but I just realized not only can you swap your party members, but you can swap Shulk out of the party for someone else! I guess I thought he had to stay in the party because of his sword's powers. Anyway now my man Dunban and the ladies are going exploring and questing, lol.

[yzafre]

Popping in to answer your question, Kikki: all members seem to get equal experience, regardless of if they're in the active party. I tend to not use Veronica much, for whatever reason, but she's still equal level with everyone else.

The story in DQXI... yeah, I can get that. The plot itself really picks up in Act 2, so Act 1 lives and dies on how much you like the characters and their interactions. Erik is my favorite, but my second favorite doesn't get introduced till the area right after the demo ends, so I could see how someone would be less enthused if the world itself wasn't doing it for them.

From my understanding, the sound-track in XI is a sort of "greatest hits" from the series - and the Builders games tend to follow a similar philosophy, so a lot of the songs are the same!

[Kikki]

Cut because I realized I was just talking to myself about when or if to buy.

Spoiler:

The switch version is my only option, because I'm not willing to play through the demo portion again, lol. Okay, so then: DQXI basically never goes on sale but for some reason, saw a permanent price drop from $80 to $65 around the end of 2020. The only time it's been on sale other than that was on Black Friday 2021 when it was 30% off on the eshops, if I'm reading right. Looks like there's not a lot of point in waiting for a sale then. There's a chance it'll go on for a big sale occasion when almost everything goes on, like golden week or Black Friday. Well, it's like the regular price is already $15 off. Not a big deal, if I decide to get it. I'll hold off for a bit, though.

I don't really have any feelings for any of the characters, tbh.. They're not bugging me, which is nice, but I don't have any special interest in any of them so far. I really didn't like Erik's English audio voice acting...you've heard of a lilting voice? Well, I felt like Erik's missed by a letter or two and is a lurching voice. It's something about his pauses or emphasis that just catches my ear wrong. I almost never use Japanese audio if English is available, but I did switch to it while playing the demo (nice of them to include the option even in the demo!) Repetitive battle phases are less notable when you don't understand what they're saying, too.

The world is fairly pretty...I love lush, sunny locations. Would be interested to see how different each region is, visually. I am trying to buy the minimum in 2022, though, so yeah...will hold off a while longer before deciding. I do think I should get it now, because I'm in a rare state where this type of turn-based is actually good for me, and I doubt that state will last much beyond March, when my brain comes out of hibernation. I won't debate too long, then.

Thanks, greensara and Yzafre