Ushi No Tane Forum

I got Persona 5 Royal early last week, whoo-hoo! Unfortunately, I worked so much that I only played a couple hours a night, then visited my in-laws this weekend, so I haven't gotten very far. Just got a 4th party member, feels like I am still in a tutorial dungeon. Which is very long. Loving it so far, but I'll love it more once it opens up. Hilariously, the SMT type weaknesses aren't part of the tutorial, though it seems like you have to know them to beat sections of it. It feels so good to play one of these again, makes me wanna do SMTV as well. But this will be long enough. ^_^;

Because of work and the 3-day trip, I also haven't gotten much more Portia in, though I'm itching to play that too.

I have maybe 10 minutes left on the main story of Death Mark, I could not stay awake long enough to finish the chapter last night. ;_; There's still a DLC chapter, but I've loved this game, it was a perfect spooky game for me. And short! I needed a short game. I need something else to play on my Lite, and I may go back for the second Taiko no Tatsujin RPG... though it is a wrist killer. That, or maybe Moonlighter, which is also short. I may go for another short action game to clear out my backlog a little more, then switch to a medium-ish VN or RPG after that.

I did buy two PC games, which I don't usually buy or backlog, since I don't play more than a couple a year. One was Chronicles of Tal Dun, which I'm planning to play for my partner's VN zine, and the other was Settlement Survival, because I'm dying for another Banished game. I had been keeping an eye on that one, and though it was in early access, it had been getting regular seasonal content updates and hadn't had any major issue in a few months. I was going to snag it anyway last week, but then it got a 1.0 release! Very exciting.

Hi guys, hope everyone is okay. I've been doing okay with my own backlog.

I've been playing a little bit of Animal Crossing New Horizons. I got a better town than before and I'm liking it more. The best part of my new town is that I have three different fruits. This is rare I believe and it's cool to have three different kinds. I hear it's not possible to get all five without going to other players' towns, but I'm not sure. Anyway, playing slowly again and not as much as I did before. I'm excited for the Halloween event coming up though and hope to eventually redo the Home Designer DLC.

I've gotten really far in Story of Seasons Mineral Town. I'm on my second year (Spring) and have 30 hours of playtime. I've had a lot of fun playing and have done a lot better than any of my previous files. The game has been really relaxing and I'm really loving Gray in it. I do miss his old design, but his new one is cute two. Also been befriending a lot of people and it's helped extend the games length. My only gripe with the game is getting additional hearts for the animals. It's a very annoying gameplay mechanic. I'll do as much as I can, but honestly when it comes to the cows, sheep, and alpacas, I can only get them up so much. Once I marry and have my child to their final stages, I'll consider the game complete. Still, I'm really enjoying playing and plan to keep going for a while longer.

Due to feeling a bit down, I decided to replay Blue Reflection 2. It's a pretty good game despite some problems with it and if one can look past these problems they'll find an interesting game. I've put in about 20 hours right now and just got on chapter 5. I'm hoping by the end of the week that I can get past chapter 7, but this game can sometimes be a burn out due to the many events. What I love about this game is the friendship elements, combat system, and story. I really dislike the stealth parts though and the fanservice is a bit much/annoying, though not as bad as the first game. One thing I like but have some problems with so far are the event scenes. There are many of them for each girl, and while overall good, they can burn a player out, especially if you watch one after another. I'll say when playing this game, it's good to take a break. Other than that, I'm having fun replaying it.

I've also been dabbling a bit with Pokemon Shinning Pearl. It's an okay game and I'll likely finish, but I'm not playing it too much. I'm not a huge fan of the Pokemon switch games, but I want try and finish them.

As for Xenoblade and Trails in the Sky FC, I still sadly haven't had time to play them. With replaying some things and needing to really do SheCodes, it's hard for me to get to these two games. However, I'm really hoping I can get back to them this week, even if for just an hour. Xenoblade I may restart though because sometimes it takes me redoing a game to do a better job. As for Trails, I'm a bit worried about it because I haven't played for two months, but I'm hoping to get back to it again. When/if I do, I won't restart it.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm not planning to get anything for the next month except maybe a certain visual novel and the new Pokemon Games. Right now, I want to finish Blue Reflection and Story of Seasons. Doing so will make it easier to do Xenoblade and Trails hopefully.

Ps-Still playing Digimon of course. Not much to say except I really love this game lol.

With some of the new information, new Pokemon, and some preview stuff released, I am feeling more optimistic about Scarlet and Violet, but I still think I am going to wait on it. I also kind of want to wait and see if they do a DLC again and possibly have that from the get go.

I have really been in the mood for a town builder, but not the "Sim City" type that's always been boring for me. I like the unique ones where you build or fix the town and recruit citizens (particularly ones that do something), but they seem to be few and far between, at least on Switch. Thought about finally getting Littlewood, or restarting "Grow", but decided to play Cattails again instead. Not quite scratching the itch, but it's different enough from the usual stuff it's a nice change.

It had been so long since I played I started a new file to refamiliarize myself with it. After playing for a while, I tried going back to my cleared file with Nil and four kittens to start the new colony, but didn't realize how hard that is to start when you are short on mews. So I went back to my new file and have been playing it a lot. I cleared the story again, married Slip and had two kittens, and saved up enough for a good custom colony start. I just started the colony by the abandoned cottage, and am going to theme it with a cottage look. It was kind of fun recoloring the cats there too. Also, my kittens are actually big enough now to come out of the den, so cute! It kind of makes me want to see what it would be like to wait for the kittens to grow before finishing the storyline.

When I wake up at 7AM, it's dark. (Baclofen makes me sleep late, for some reason. Might be for the best given the time shift coming up, though!) Then by 5:30PM, it's dark again. We also saw our last little heatwave (well, warmth-wave!) and it was great, but it's done. The trees are all naked. In a little less than two months, we'll have 1hr 41min LESS sunlight than we have now...sunrise at 7:47 and sunset at 4:26. Well, that's the pit of the year; at least it's all uphill from there!

I think the therapy exercises may be helping my leg gradually (???) and I piled up some stuff to do in the dead season (which fully hits once DST ends in 10 days) so...well, I'm having some other fascinating problems, the likes of which I've never experienced before in my 40+ years, but I do have some good stuff to do. Game-wise, in spite of having some really cool new games...I really just want to replay the 3DS Bokumono games. ALL of them. I was still in the tutorial month of ANB, in Winter of Year 1 in SoS1...and I haven't yet restarted Trio. Things are so weird in every way...I'm not gonna force myself to play anything I don't really WANT to play. I'll get back to Zero when I feel like it, and go back to ANB, then SoS1 to finally have a go at Kamil (he'll finally move into town soon in the replay I had underway months ago), then probably Trio as well. Yuzuki is the only one who holds my interest post-marriage, so it'll be him again, there. So far that seems to be my marker of best spouse...the one who keeps me interested even after marriage, which is Sanjay in ANB, Nadi in SoS1, and Yuzuki in Trio.

I've bypassed Persona 5 Royal for now, and The Divine Force (Star Ocean 6) was released today and I'm bypassing it as well. I may get it if it goes on a good sale (probably will, since it's Square Enix) but I tried the demo and wasn't really into it...the characters were really tropey, which made me feel like it'll be a game with few surprises for me. Besides, I wanna farm and life-sim, not fight. I *could* go back into RF5 if I really feel determined to add another notch to my Backlog. I think I'll also skip Harvestella, for now...again, wait for a sale (I do appreciate you and your great sales, Squeenix!) I have to redo the tutorial before I even consider getting it, though...I think I could make the game work more to my liking now that I know I have to rush the story if I want to see everything available in the limited demo time frame. I'll use my current demo save to see if the starter farm can be expanded in any way. On the map it has many levels, so clearly there's way more to it than initially presents itself.

By the time the end of the year rolls around I kind of forget how busy it is... and then it gets here, and it snows me without fail. So I STILL haven't started Piku Niku or Last Campfire. I should have more time over the weekend, so maybe then. Gonna have to spend some time over the weekend looking for any information on Harvestella for PC... If there's anything Square Enix is not known for, it is good PC ports. I am ASSUMING the Green Man Gaming "Fall15" code is still working (at least to the end of the month), which would be an okay enough preorder discount to sway me assuming it runs well enough.

I could wait, but there won't be a bigger sale than 20% off for a while, at least a few months by most metrics... And there's absolutely no other games I plan on picking up till the end of the year. I'd rather start in on a big game now, before we get a Zelda release date or a Silk Song release date... Those two are probably already going to be the bulk of 2023 for me.

I need to make time for other games, but the temptation of "farming fantasy" is really strong. I THINK what gets me with Harvestella is that I don't know for sure what I'm getting. (And I liked what I played--that helps.) Rune Factory 5 seems nice, entirely because it's comfortable. It's a sequel in all the usual ways. Which is great, for people who want that. I just don't right now. Seeing somebody else's take on the genre is much more interesting to me.

Got...uh, 4 more days until the next Genshin patch? I gave up on waiting for Mihoyo to post the materials to prefarm for Nahida and Googled it, and... even IGN is doing leak articles. For shame.

Mikodesu wrote: ↑Oct 27, 2022 9:09 pm I'd rather start in on a big game now, before we get a Zelda release date or a Silk Song release date...

Wait...what Zelda release date are we waiting on? Have I somehow missed a Zelda release entirely? The only one I know coming up is Tears of the Kingdom, which they announced for May 12th at the end of the last regular Direct (the one on September 13th...the one the entire internet is complaining about because it had 'tOo MAnY FaaaaaaaRMInG GAAAAAmeS!!!' Because they think ONE farming game in a Direct is too many, they don't want to see them in 'their' mainstream Directs which should be all RPGs, platformers and FPS, all the time. Not that I'm bitter about their complete lack of generosity to farming fans, who've had to put up with them getting their way every time before this, or anything...) Did they go and announce a remake of Wind Waker or something, without me even noticing?

EDIT: I was wrong about Aqua TV. It has 'silent' plus three music tracks to pick from. They're all really peculiar, 1 sounds like frequency healing music, 2 has weird pacing, and 3 is very out of place as an underwater tune, as it sounds vaguely like something you'd hear a minstrel playing at a Ren faire, but at least there's a choice. Not sure if it's only the sea setting or if the aquariums also have it...but I think they must, it'd be weird to limit the music choice that way.

The underwater setting is best if you're just going to let it run as a soothing screensaver, as the scene changes perspective regularly, which it apparently can't on the aquarium settings. Since this is a monitor, not a TV, I probably have to be aware of potential burn-in.

I'm assuming Mikodesu is referring to the leaks that said Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD we're coming to Switch. Said leak (if it's the same one I'm thinking of) has had around 75% accuracy with announced titles this year (so far) but of course a lot of them still aren't confirmed (the Final Fantasy IX remake, for example). I personally don't see why Nintendo wouldn't re-release the games eventually, almost all of the WiiU games have migrated at this point (We're missing 28, though not all of them are AAA titles). I feel like they're more of a next year thing though? Maybe? I don't know if they want to release three big Zeldas too close to one another, so they could spread them out over the months next year instead. I don't actually know though, just a thought.

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Not much to report backlog-wise. I've been checking Genshin daily for commission quest chains with no luck, did the variant dungeon once in FFXIV, and dabbled in Ryza 2 a little. Said dabble involved me finding out that due to the version of the game I bought, I'm allowed access to the previous game's areas to gather ingredients and fight monsters. I'm not overly fond of Ryza, I mean I had fun with it, but the wave of nostalgia that hit me when the music from the first game started playing as I explored was such a nice feeling! Atelier games always have stellar OST and I'm very easily move by music, so it was overall a really fun play session despite how short it was.

Speaking of Atelier, was on Reddit and someone asked the masses for JRPGs that don't involve the MC being 'chosen ones' or the story being more down to earth. I suggest Atelier and wrote a small novel on why, then recommended the Dusk trilogy for it's setting, story, mechanics, and OST. I got downvoted into oblivion. Bruh. 'Gamers' are such sensitive little asshats these days, lord. Did the strong female representation and bright colors scare you away? Barf. See if I ever go out of my way to try and help someone along again, on Reddit anyways.

I thought the Twilight Princess rumour at least was debunked? I watched videos that said the company who did the Wii U TP outright stated in an official press release or article this summer that they would really like to do it, but that they were not working on it/had not been contacted by Nintendo about it. (I don't think they outright said that about WW, though, just TP.)

I've noticed that people in the Atelier fandom seem to hate the Dusk Trilogy. No...maybe not the trilogy, but Escha and Logy specifically? I've never seen anyone clearly give a good reason for it (Mind you, I have no idea where to look for people who'd actually bother to explain their comments, so many comments sections are just pits of yuck and trolling) so I think it's because the fanboys are still enraged that GUST gave their waifu a canon male friend/partner/whatchamacallit. A more charitable theory would be that Ayesha was very loved, and any game that followed it would suffer in comparison even if it was actually very good overall...but either way, Dusk remains the only Atelier series I'm interested in playing, at least partly because of that, and because it's slightly more serious, less fluffy slice-of-life. I don't like overly light-hearted or fluffy/inconsequential-to-me main stories. I LIKE saving the world...I'm not motivated by becoming a great alchemist. However, that's kind of the point of most Atelier games...it should be just what they were asking for if they don't want a 'chosen one' protagonist.

Can't recommend Xenoblade or Trails for that, lol. Rean is the epitome of a Chosen One (I love it!) and so is Shulk, and somewhat even Rex, though he's mega-ordinary otherwise. The protag of XCX isn't a chosen one, but that's a very unique situation. It's kind of the point of XCX. You aren't playing one character's story...you're playing the story of all of humanity.

*cries* I'll never forgive Nintendo if they don't get XCX ported to whatever system follows the Switch. (I don't have any hope left that it'll come to Switch itself.)

Ehhh, the hate towards Dusk is in the small but loud corners of the fanbase. Atelier has never been a female MC exclusive. 1-5 are female protags, 6-10 are either male or have male as an option, 11-24 are all female with the exception of Logy in his respective game. Said small/loud part of the fanbase get irrationally angry whenever a male MC is in modern Atelier because 'but muh waifus!'

That's literally it. They can't stand having to play as male, even if they're a good character, they don't give a damn because they want panties, thighs, boobs, kawaii uguu VA, whatever. GUST's fanservice sells and also doesn't, Ie: Ryza and Blue Reflection 1 are great successes that feature fanservice while the Knights of Azure duology focus on fan service and are commercial failures. The past two games where they made a male MC (Escha&Logy and Ar Nosurge) had basement dweller weebs lose their damn minds, so I guess It's just better for them to focus on what they know more than to experiment.

I'm 90% sure that Keith in Ayesha was meant to be a protagonist at some point as he's an Alchemist and is important to every plot in the Dusk Trilogy, but no one wants a old man as a protag in their cute girl game, so he's a party member while Ayesha is the focus. They instead introduced Logy in the second game who's a young bishonen trope with a dark past, but he's hardly ever chosen over Escha for the majority of players. Gust got the message and it's been exclusively gals ever since. I don't overly mind, most of the Atelier protags are enjoyable as characters, it's nice to see good female protagonist in varying ways. Like, yes, they are specifically designed to draw in the waifu crowd, but they're not wank bait at the end of the day, they're strong women with goals and dreams.

I find more people like Dusk over the other trilogies lately due to their mechanics holding up better than Arland and Mysterious (barring Sophie 2) and the world of Dusk is infinitely more interesting than the others. Arland will always be the most popular as it was a big resurgence for the series. Ryza has brought the series into the eyes of the mainstream gamers + the games keep looking better and better with each entry. IDK what they're going to do after Ryza 3, but I hope its a 4th Dusk game.

Kikki wrote: ↑Oct 28, 2022 2:07 am

Mikodesu wrote: ↑Oct 27, 2022 9:09 pm I'd rather start in on a big game now, before we get a Zelda release date or a Silk Song release date...

Wait...what Zelda release date are we waiting on? Have I somehow missed a Zelda release entirely? The only one I know coming up is Tears of the Kingdom, which they announced for May 12th at the end of the last regular Direct (the one on September 13th...the one the entire internet is complaining about because it had 'tOo MAnY FaaaaaaaRMInG GAAAAAmeS!!!' Because they think ONE farming game in a Direct is too many, they don't want to see them in 'their' mainstream Directs which should be all RPGs, platformers and FPS, all the time. Not that I'm bitter about their complete lack of generosity to farming fans, who've had to put up with them getting their way every time before this, or anything...) Did they go and announce a remake of Wind Waker or something, without me even noticing?

Tears of the Kingdom...that's the one. Whoops? I guess that shows how excited I am, because I couldn't remember the name or the date (even that we had a date). It's weird. Zelda used to be one of my most preciously guarded game series. I'll definitely pick it up though! Even a bad Zelda game is never a bad game.

Will absolutely not be buying Twilight Princess or Wind Waker when/if they come to the Switch though. Nintendo can keep their scams.

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Just Genshin dailies this morning. Plus farming some Nahida books. I think I'm all but ready for her. Artifacts could be better, but...that's always the case. (Speaking of scams?)

Lmao, misunderstandings all around then.

I miiiiight buy the WiiU ports only because I have legit never played them. I've watched a multitude of other people play them, but never had the consoles myself to play them. My console life has been Atari 2600 > N64/PSOne > Gameboy > Gameboy Advance > DS/PSP > 3DS/Vita > Switch/PS4&5. Soooo, I missed out on a huge chunk of games. One of my parentals literally does nothing all day besides watch TV, and as there was only one TV in the house, they didn't want any more TV consoles after the N64/PSOne era because I would be taking up their precious TV time . I'd say the only one I actively want to play is Wind Waker as I quite like Toon Link as a whole (and Minish Cap is my favorite game + I really liked Phantom Hourglass). I skipped Skyward Sword because I've just never been too keen on it and it's jank.

Oh that's totally fair since you've never played them! I'm just mad knowing that since it's Nintendo, they'll just dump the games on a cartridge and charge full price for them. (Seeing how we don't even have a Virtual Console anymore.) And even for you, the freaking HD versions aren't even new anymore! You should be paying NO MORE than one full price game for a two pack. (Gr. )

Bare minimum Nintendo should go the Sony "upgrade path" route. At least then they would be acknowledging that you purchased software and have a right to the software you purchased. Maybe that would at least slow down the crowd saying that pirating Nintendo software is the "right thing to do".

I mean heck, at this point... Is there a reasonably priced, legal way to purchase any of the Capcom Zeldas or the DS Zeldas anymore? 3DS eshop + WiiU eshop were it afaik.

Skyward Sword I'd say you're not missing much. There's a core faction of the Zelda community who will defend it to the death (I couldn't so much as gently criticize it without them jumping down my throat), but... meh. It's honestly more fun to watch somebody else play, imo.

I had Wind Waker because the Wii U I got was in a package with it, so it was included as a digital download. I only played...I don't know how much, actually. Less than half, I think, because I got frustrated with the sailing mechanic...which is exactly what my friend loved so much that she kept urging me to play it, lol. I didn't realize it myself until the last five years or so, but I really don't like water. I dislike swimming, but I hate boating more because being bobbed around ON water feels even more obnoxious than being pushed around IN water...I feel more in control in just my own body in the water than in a wooden capsule on top of the water. Makes me feel imprisoned. And I dislike getting wet in general. I don't even like to get a drop of water even on just my hands, lol, unless it's HOT water.

It was a pretty cute game, though. Toon Link felt really different to me...not like the Link I know. He was kind of...what word do I want here? More bratty-brother than I'm used to, perhaps. Didn't know how to feel about that. I liked him as Toon Link, but not as LINK...if that makes any sense at all. (No, of course it doesn't, lol, but I can't figure out how to say it. I liked him as himself, but not as the hero of the Legend of Zelda?)

My Wii U has been kept in great shape yet has been a bit rickety from day one...it's already been sent in for repairs once thanks to a corrupted BotW save...the Wii U just couldn't think hard enough to run BotW that day, I guess. I don't know if I want TP on Switch...I didn't like the Wii U port...weird though it seems, I liked the way the game looked better on Wii than in the HD Wii U version. Something about the dreamy, misty quality it had was just so much prettier than the hard lines of the HD version. So...I loved that game! But I may only have loved the Wii version, not sure I need a port, especially not at full price, which Nintendo is bound to ask (they're pretty shameless that way.) Not sure if I'd get a Wind Waker port or not, I can't remember why I quit, except that it had something to do with a 'between' portion of the game while I was sailing around somewhere. I only remember the game well enough to have thought, when I first played BotW on the Great Plateau, that Link would be able to get under that huge barrel and walk around using it as a portable hiding place, which sure enough, he could. Not sure if that was supposed to be a Wind Waker reference or just a coincidence, but I think that's the only time you can get under a huge barrel in BotW.

The hardest thing to forgive in gaming is when your favourite series disappoints you, ime. Objectively, considering games as a whole, it may be an amazing game, but it because it wasn't what you expected (or wanted), you feel let down or betrayed. That's certainly what happened to me with XC2. I played it a second time to try to just focus on the story, and sure enough, it IS a good story, even a great one, if it's the first Xenoblade you played (not as impressive if it's the second, because the plot twists aren't particularly twisty, then, so it lacks the feeling of freshness/originality.) It's also why I'd rather they just did a straight port with XCX if they ever DO a port, because I think any change they make can only make it less good (unless it's pure QoL, like adding text size options for the UI or volume control for the dialogue vs the BGM. Plus they'd have no choice but to do something to make it function well with a single screen/no gamepad, though I loved using the gamepad with that game, it made it feel so much more real.) I don't think they can improve that game, so I want them to just make it playable on a current gen console so that more people can experience what I did on the Wii U.

Okay, hardware store, grocery store, some appliance moving, some icing, some minor construction, some cooking. Please stay awake, me. Falling asleep in the car isn't acceptable. Maybe some Bokumono when everything else is done.

Been prepping for the final Sword/Shield battle competition before everything moves on to Gen 9. Since you can do anything for this, I am going to go all mythical and probably going to get trounced by others doing the same thing. Makes me a little sad, since I started my Shield file day 1, kind of like when the 3ds games were left behind. The last couple of competitions there with the shiny Tapu participation prizes were pretty fun.

I also continued my long going hunt for a shiny Rookidee and it finally happened yesterday! Yay!

Wind Waker (and Toon Link in general) has always been fairly...controversial? It's gotten toned down over the years, but, it still gets a lot of hate. (At least I see it.)

I like Toon Link because he's expressive. Sort of like Nintendo's attempt to make Link into a character. (Iirc Toon Link is the only Link who says words? One actual, short line in English in Spirits Tracks, too.) So he's always been my favorite for that. As for the water...you are definitely not the first to be frustrated over it. I wish with the HD version Nintendo had just...downsized the map. A little. I IMAGINE for the original the water was a way to mask loading time... sort of like hallways and elevators in later games. Even less by a third wouldn't make people who enjoy it like me unhappy, and it would be easier on people who don't.

Your favorite game series disappointing you is a very...unique place to be. :/ It's like other media, but somehow I think the expectations get higher the longer a series maintains that 'beloved' status. Games are a reflection of the people who make them, so the best we can really say is that we mesh with a particular director's style.

I think for me, I've just realized that Aonuma does not have the same expectations of the series that I do. Skyward Sword swung the "Zelda formula" pendulum as far as it could go, and then BotW swung to the opposite end of the pendulum (throwing the Zelda formula out the window)... I guess at this point I just have no more expectations of Aonuma. There is still lingering disappointment, though. Knowing how much Zelda games impacted my childhood.

For Xenoblade... I think it's pretty agreed upon that we have BotW to blame for XC2. (Aside from the new art style, of course. Takahashi is apparently quoted as saying the anime aesthetic was picked to make characters more expressive?) It's a shame Xenoblade had to take a step back (or down) so that Zelda could shine. But from the sound of it, the series is back to form with 3, so it's sort of a redemption arc.