Backlog 2022

[Kikki]

Thanks, Mikodesu Yeah, One World is bags of fun even though the landscape graphics look so cheap. It makes me curious about what their next game will be like since they changed their format quite a bit this time. It's so fun that I don't want to ruin it with any pressure and am just gonna save the rest of the story for weekends at home. After the story is done and I have no requirements to remember and am just going around to fill in my crops and maybe get married, maybe then I'll feel like I can play it here at my parents' place...not sure about that.

My Nookling store is updated, now, and tomorrow Lucky will agree to move Wodewyrd. Lucky clearly needs to live in a spooky forest, so looking at where my houses are, he has to go in where skye lives, as it has lots of room around it to install a forest. I need that decayed tree recipe!

I am almost done the second case of Murder by Numbers, though I'm getting tired of picross puzzles now, and still not particularly interested in the story. The mom and the ex-husband are so annoying that I want them to be the victims of case 3 and 4, please. Not annoying in a good way, though, that makes you want to keep reading to see what happens, but in a bad way, that makes you want to just stop reading so you never have to see them again.

[Mikodesu]

I'm oddly proud of Natsume for One World. It feels like a real effort. The environments also make me sad, but at least they're distinct enough. I enjoyed Skytree Village, but this still feels like a step up. (Can't entirely explain WHY, though.) And it has me very excited for the next entry!

Congrats Miko! I'm still doing bleed as well, it's super fun. I recently unlocked the ability to respec, but I'm pretty satisfied with where I am now. There's some enemies that can't be bled at all that are kind of a pain to fight, but they're not all that common and fighting something that's weak to bleed is just too satisfying.

I'm 3 demigods in on Elden Ring now. I don't know how far I am, but the cutscene/NPC dialogue after the last one I fought are making it seem like I'm getting near the end of the story, though I'm certain there's quite a few more major fights left for me. I still have a big chunk of the map left to explore, too. Also, let me just say, the main Caelid boss was probably the first time in this game that I was just straight up not having a good time. I ended up cheesing it and it still took me like, 10+ more tries once I learned the strategy that I used because most of it's moves were oneshotting me. There's always That One Boss and I hope that was it, because oof.

:D Thank ya! I think I got a little stuck because big scary fog door, but it was a fun fight. Easier than Margit, for me anyway. And big congrats on already knocking out 3 demigods, that's awesome!! I've heard unlocking the system to respec your character is really tough, too. Also heard some of the demigod fights are a bit « Cow Poopoo », but I guess that's where cheesing comes in. If the game is willing to cheat, I am all in for cheating!

Still a little mind boggling how big this game is. People are talking about the idea of DLC, which I would be all in for, even though I'm maybe...10% through all the dungeons/bosses. It's hard to imagine DLC for this game, but afaik its already sold 10 million copies just on PC, so maybe they'll consider it.

My only complaint with the story is the naming scheme... I appreciate the reverence for Martin but please, stop. It is SO confusing. There have even been people in chats I've been in that couldn't keep Godwyn and Godrick straight. Gah!

[Bluie]

I finished both End of the Golden Witch and Triangle Strategy. I've been busy with some RL stuff on the side, but I picked away at both of them when time allowed. End of the Golden Witch was probably the hardest part to get through yet. The new villain was highly obnoxious and having the mystery taken out of my murder mystery VN caused my eyes to glaze over more than once. I will applaud the climax because it was highly cathartic and has kept my intrigue. Still though, Erika sucks.

With Triangle Strategy I managed to get to the 3 path split and pretty much given a choice on which one I wanted to pursue. So, no golden route unlocked, therefore I went with Frederica. She had become such a great character and her cause was the most selfless of the three, so my choice was obvious. Roland's path seemed like pure idiocy while I can't stand Benedict. Benedict made the most asinine suggestions through my whole playthrough and he proved to be scum married to his ideals by the end of the game. How in my right mind would I waste my time getting endings for characters I don't care about? Frederica's path and ending were both bittersweet and truly felt right for all of the characters involved. I'm sure the true ending solves everything somehow, but I find myself not caring. I like this ending the best and I am biased, so eh. Calling this one done.

Now my backlog consists of the rest of Umineko, Persona 5 Royal, and Elden Ring. With the latter two, my husband has also gotten bit by the Elden Ring bug, so I don't have access to our PS5 all the time. I have nothing left to really play on the Switch besides Mario Kart and Monster Hunter (which are not really backlogable) so I'll mostly likely finish Umineko first? Maybe? I 100% want Persona 5 Royal and Umineko DONE before my vacation is over, preferably before Kirby and Rune Factory come out later this month. Just gonna have to see how it goes I guess.

[Kikki]

Purchased a new laptop! It took me about two years to save up enough for the laptop and the steamdeck (which my sister wanted to go in half on so she'd have equal rights to it, which is acceptable, and good on a financial basis, for sure.) But I'm only about $100 shy of having all of it paid off, though they are yet to arrive. The steamdeck won't be here for quite a long time since I'm in the same boat as thousands of others at 'after Q2' for my date. The laptop should arrive next week. It's the same as my current laptop, though, in that it's really just an office laptop with an integrated graphics card that isn't adequate for any but the lowest-spec games. But my current laptop keyboard has many malfunctioning keys (s key still completely broken, I've been using CTRL + V for about two years already!) and from the very beginning, the power cord jack was a little too big...the cord fits loosely inside it so the power is frequently flickering. It struggles to run at times, overall, so...new one needed. Already moved all my files to a thumb drive, so I'm ready for the new one when it gets here!

I may check to see if any of my steam wishlist will run on it, though, just in case it's a little bit better than this current laptop. I think it is. But in general, I'll wait until I get my steamdeck.

That was very vaguely game related, I guess? But more properly gamey: I completed the second case in Murder by Numbers and I'm still rooting for Mom and Ex-Husband to be the victims of one of the remaining cases. Though it's not looking good for me so far! I don't want all characters I find annoying to just die, y'know. The girl, Becky...she's annoying. But I don't want her to die. I find it interesting how they portray her as shallow and absurdly self-involved, yet a truly great actress, and otherwise talented, too. Honor's mom and ex, though...a permanent end to them: yes, please. They're more infuriating than annoying. CJ and the police guy are okay...I'd like to know where CJ got that hair butterfly. (I need to stop lusting after hair accessories when I have such extremely short hair, and after a good 8 inches of pandemic growth, I know I never want long hair again! Why can't I stop loving hair accessories so much, though?)

Oh, but...I have a bone to pick with that game. Normal is pretty darned difficult at times, particularly the timed bit, and I get tired of puzzles pretty quickly anyway, but the 'easy' mode is stupidly easy. You literally can't make a mistake! If you fill in an incorrect square, it automatically undoes it and puts an X in place instead, to make sure you know you got it wrong. I wanted it a LITTLE easier, not 'no thinking required' level of easy.

I also finally moved the last bits I most wanted from Gardenia to Wodewyrd, including some wheat...but I forgot to bring the carrots. And I can't mail them, because when I erased Windfall from my main switch, it did NOT erase Alizee from people's friends lists, and now Illusion can't befriend anyone she was already friends with before. Or so I think: I'll try talking to Orville tomorrow and see if I can't get him to mention that app to unlock it. Hopefully if he does, it'll work?

One World tomorrow evening, I hope! If things go well, I should be home by about 6PM. I plan to play through a month (waiting for my blacknose sheep to mature) as quickly as I can while raising and selling as much as I can grow. I guess I could complete a few requests, too...I've mostly been ignoring any that aren't from Doc Jr. or that have a reward I really need.)

Pretty sure I will finish One World and Murder by Numbers within March, then RF5 within April. Well, no. I'm not sure about RF5, cuz I don't think I'll be able to play it here, much. But I could easily complete Moon Hunters in one or two play sessions, I think, and that would give me 6 games completed, even without RF5, if it proves too lengthy and/or engrossing to be played outside the 'weekends'. When I hit 6, I'm going to give serious consideration to Pokemon Arceus.

[Shan O 123]

Your current AC character has to visit us again for us to mail you things. And we can’t delete any old players either I tried.





——

Dear Nintendo. Why does your reward system requires me to play the Monster Hunter Rise trial or buy the full game which I don’t have money for? I don’t even like Monster hunter which is a waste of 100 platinum points…. :/
The trial even doesn’t work anyway I don’t understand how much I’d need to play to actually get my points.

[Kikki]

The problem was that I had already visited from my other town a couple of times, but my friend app wasn't unlocking, and Cricket couldn't friend Illusion, either, even though both have Nintendo Online and Cricket's friend app is unlocked. After looking around a while, I found out that you have to be using network play (not local, it seems...and I had been using exclusively local) and tell Orville to open the gate to 'all my friends!'. Only when you tell him that will he say 'oh hey, we've got a nifty app for you!' and the you get your friend app. Until then, you can't friend anyone, and they can't friend you.

~

I'll definitely be done Murder by Numbers in March, as I have finished the third (of four) cases. One more to go and the game is over, as I don't plan to do any of the extra puzzles. It's not bad, but unless something extraordinary happens in this final case, I'm probably going to forget I ever played this game within the year. Though I may always remember how much I can't stand that ex-husband of Honor's.

~

I've been using green tea to get me past the 1-3 pm pit of exhaustion, and at this point I'm so, so tired that I'm afraid I'm going to sleep tomorrow and Monday away. Which would be good for the body, probably, but bad for my mental and emotional state, which are probably more important. Hard to decide which matters more. But I need to be awake to do relaxing, fun stuff, to shake the frizzled cobwebs and endless, meaningless conversations about salt and $6 worth of quarters out of my head. I had a mild nightmare two or three nights ago, of grandma's face, HUGE, floating inexorably up the stairs toward me, scowling, ready to take me to task for being where I'm not supposed to be, and maybe stealing things while I'm at it. We get along pretty well most of the time, but you have to manage her surroundings very carefully to minimize anxiety and paranoia, which lead to delusions and wild accusations. Mom and dad argue with her about almost everything, then she gets angry and rather rude, and that dad starts yelling at her... so she's out-of-sorts all evening.

Plus I WANT to play lots of One World! I really want to get the story done (or at least salmiakki wrapped up, if the goddess shrine section is lengthy) before I'm back here on Tuesday morning. But I'm doing pretty well anyway; there should be no problem with getting 6 games completed before May, and then I can decide on a new game since I have nothing else with a release date or even a firm release window, until XC3 in september. NOT looking forward to XC3 because I do really want to play it, but I have NO desire to see the end of summer. I don't even want to THINK about spring and summer ending and the drift into winter starting all over again, so...yeah, can't honestly look forward to XC3 without thinking about that, lol. However you look at it, though, I have almost no games scheduled in 2022, so I can feel free to dip into my wishlist of games passed by in the past months.

[Shan O 123]

Ah yes. I always play online on both of my switches.

[Mikodesu]

I think I like bundles. Or at least I find charity bundles hard to resist. Itch is the best about this stuff. The actual best is all the devs who throw their hard work into these things. It's kind of mind boggling. They're still running the "Bundle for Ukraine" for a few more days (https://itch.io/b/1316/bundle-for-ukraine). Minimum 10 USD for hundreds of dollars of some very well known, very good indies. Scrolling through right now... Skate Bird, CrossCode, Wandersong, Superhot, Sundered, Baba is You, A Short Hike, Moon Hunters, Celeste, Minit, Summer in Mara. There's quite a few more, just picked out some I thought might sound familiar.

Aside from Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which I will PROBABLY get at release, I think my year is set now.

--
Only a couple little Elden Ring notes. I REALLY wish I'd kept track of the number of bosses I've fought... Only a few major ones, but there's SO MANY. Overworld, dungeon, story. For good and bad it's a VERY interesting open world structure. Yes the first area is generally the easiest, but there are still things here that will kick your « Cow Poopoo » in, and you have to remember where they were, so that when you get stronger you can come back and return the favor. Most likely to take their weapon. :D

Every "level" seems to be like that, too. Level 2 may be generally harder than Level 1, but there are still some things that are easier than the base level and harder than the base level.

On a side note... the Crowpocalypse has returned... I can see their shadows out my window, hear their maddening, incessant barking. And look. Crows are fine, I just like ravens better. They're all smart birds, but ravens can memorize a lot more than 'caw'.

[Kikki]

Oh, hey...thanks for the link, Mikodesu. I remember you posted one of these before and I got that one, too. These bundles always worry me because I can't figure out how these tiny devs can afford to give away their game to more than three hundred thousand people. In my case, I would have to buy the individual games again anyway, if I wanted them, because I can't actually play on PC. This is just a very handy way to contribute to rather good charities that have been pre-vetted.

I love hearing crows. It's just my extreme love of everything NOT winter showing there, though. They sound awful, but they're silent most of the winter, so I'm always very happy to hear them again Around here those things are the size of dogs. And I'm not talking about little dogs barely larger than cats, either. I don't know how to tell crows and ravens apart, mind you, so maybe it's not even crows that I'm hearing every spring.

I got lucky and grandma openly wanted to sleep this afternoon, so my being literally stupidly drowsy (I did a lot of stupid things around lunch today...dropping stuff and mixing up my words and all that) is fine, this time And I go home in 1.5 hours! While grandma's asleep I will move my laundry basket of stuff out to sister's car. I'm hopeful that I'll have enough energy to get into One World as soon as I've had some supper. I really, really want to finish that game and then see how I feel about pursuing marriage/family/mutations after that. I'm pretty sure I won't receive RF5 until a good week after release, so I'm not thinking about it much, yet.

[Mikodesu]

Aw, that's very sweet, Kikki. I agree on having something more carefully vetted. Helps with the decision paralysis. I like knowing they're smaller charities, too, that can at least get money where it needs to go a little faster than say, the Red Cross.

As for the games, I'll be playing some on my laptop, and I'll post which seem to play well! My laptop is powerful enough, but it was not designed well and does not stay cool as it should. So it should be fairly comparable. Games from Itch MAY play a little better than Steam, since there's no DRM on them. We'll see!

And crows! The crows around here can be cute... they like to sit on my chimney and talk to themselves, which is always silly. Though I'm sure in winter any sign of wildlife is a boon.

--
I think I'm almost through Raya Lucaria. You know you're over leveled for the area when you get through the first boss on the first try. Honestly for whatever reason, the regular enemies in this area were a LOT more difficult for me than the boss. Crowd control! I am bad at it. All hail pecking at enemies from ledges, because there are some ANNOYING enemies in this game. Also all hail crafting. Forget to bring arrows? Just make some!

I haven't used that technique before today, but I will again in the future. :D I GUARANTEE that will not be the last magical shithead I have to put down in the future.

[Daikon boy]

wondering if anybody who's played monster crown on the switch can tell me if the crashing and freezing are still an issue or not. Trying to figure out if I should buy that or something else and I can't find anything about it.


I'm almost 15 hours into xenosaga, but I've only got about a week or two to finish it before I won't be able to play it for awhile...I really like the game and I play a little each day so I can maybe finish it in time, but I'm not counting on it. Really don't want to stop playing it so I hope I can.

[simside]

Oh, hey...thanks for the link, Mikodesu. I remember you posted one of these before and I got that one, too. These bundles always worry me because I can't figure out how these tiny devs can afford to give away their game to more than three hundred thousand people.

My partner develops games that occasionally go in bundles like this! Nothing new enough for the Ukraine bundle, but I think he had one in one of the large COVID Itch.io bundles. A lot of really tiny (like 1-3 folks) devs love these bundles. It's a really nice communal way to contribute to a good cause, and they can find other like-minded really tiny devs. Really tiny devs may only sell a couple thousand copies of their games, so giving one away on this scale reaches a lot more folks, too.

---
Pokemon BD hooked me hard! I worked through most of the game this week, am currently on Victory Road with a fairly large Sinnoh dex. The only entries I'm lacking (other than starters, version/trade exclusives, some of the egg stuff, etc) are mostly those that I can't bear to grind to evolve again. I wish the mix had been a bit different, but I also like that the regional dex is fairly doable. Also, I am weirdly addicted to the Underground. I had to stop doing that during the week, it's a huge time sink.

My final party isn't thrilling. I forced myself not to use the same pokemon I always use, and I wound up not liking most of the alternatives I tried. I'm hurting for a water, psychic, and fighting type. I will probably add a Medicham, which is fine, and the Gastrodon which felt okay, but I'm sad I didn't find more along the way.

Portia is my weekend game, but I played Pokemon for so long today I didn't wind up switching. ;_; I'll probably try to beat BD tomorrow, then play more Portia to make up for it. I'm just about to go to Year 2, and am starting on the South Block. Still in the middle of triggering a Metric Ton of quests.

[Kikki]

Oh cool, simside... so if the dev is really tiny, they wouldn't get the sales anyway and can afford to give the game away and maybe even get a lot of extra exposure to people who wouldn't have tried their game otherwise? I did see one that looked like an actual comic rather than a game, which I'd never buy just by seeing it because I don't know what to expect from it, but if my computer can run it, I'd be interested in seeing what it's like.

~

I finished salmiakii last night, and almost all of the goddess shrine, too! I only have the last task to do. Unfortunately, the game crashed on me as I was doing my final task, so I have to redo my watering and animal care for that day, but I save every game night when I go to bed, so that was all that's lost. One game morning. The game freezes enough to make me wary, particularly when booting up or when entering a cutscene, but if you save every night when prompted, at least one day is all you can ever lose. Oh, I got Jamil's first cutscene, too. It was cute, but I can never get into characters whose main schtick is that they loooooooove animals If their events are all or mostly animal-based, that's a veto from me, right there. Just like I'd help a person if they needed it, even though I'm not a people-person and don't easily develop feelings for anyone, I'd also help an animal if it needed it, even though I have no more feelings for random animals than I do for random humans. I simply can't stand seeing suffering in front of me, it creates a sort of phantom pain. But I don't have any feelings for them at all. Cuteness doesn't seem to trigger anything, for me. Doesn't make me want to own it or have it around. I also think I'm a bit of an oddball when I try to explain it, though!

Anyway, long way of saying that any character who is all about loving animals alienates me completely. I feel like I can't connect to them, because I can't even imagine those feelings. Yes, animals are cute and/or beautiful, but no, I don't want anything to do with them. I'd rather glimpse them from afar and get a smile out of it and then be able to move on.

Oh, but speaking of that...the animals in One World are monstrously cute, much cuter than Bokumono animals, for some reason. Even the adults are well-done. Even the horses, and that's rare! I even like the cow; it's cute without being a terrifying bobblehead coming to eat me and my whole family and the house, too. My baby blacknose grew up and I was a bit sad cuz it was so cute, but y'know, it's still pretty cute even grown up. I like how it only goes to slightly less fuzzy when you shear it, rather than looking shaved totally bald.

I might have finished One World last night if it hadn't crashed; I didn't want to go to bed with only ONE task left, even though it was late and the time shift was going to take an hour of sleep, too. But the crash made me go to bed, lol. I'll be done the story within half an hour once I boot it back up! I'll definitely keep playing a bit more to do anything fun with more mutations and getting married and all that (almost definitely to Sami, though I've yet to go to Wagashi to meet Shogen, and by looks, at least, he's an option. Though so was Jamil, until I found that everything he said was about animals. Even if it weren't animals, I don't like when they make a character so one-note; they feel so shallow and uninteresting when that one thing is what all of their events revolve around. If every event were about surfing, or stamp collecting, or pineapples...I'd be turned of by that, too.)

I think you can see more than one event with each person before marriage? Maybe Jamil's next event won't be animal-based. I'll give it a try, anyway.

Checking my list, maybe I can wrap up Murder By Numbers this weekend, too? It's not great to play when I'm with grandma unless she's sleeping since it's hard to do puzzles if you're constantly being distracted from them, so I don't have a reason to save it. If I do, I'd have six weeks to compete just one more game to make my self-imposed quota. I'm a bit eager to know if I'll be able to play RF5 at my parents' place, or if I'll only be able to tackle it on weekends. Well, if so, the shorter story might even be a benefit to me this time?

[Bluie]

wondering if anybody who's played monster crown on the switch can tell me if the crashing and freezing are still an issue or not. Trying to figure out if I should buy that or something else and I can't find anything about it.

*Poof* I have been summoned. I played the game during launch last year through all the glitches. I even had to put it down for awhile because one of the characters that function like Gym Leaders had a glitched out mon that caused the battle to either go on forever or crash the game. The dev was very apologetic about it when I contacted him and he got a patch out really quick to address that issue and many more. It's been months since then, but I was able to finish the game with zero issues since that patch. I'd say go for it or wait for a sale.

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Holy. « Puppy Doodoo ». I beat a savage raid yesterday in FFXIV. Savage are some of the most difficult content in the game, even unsynced when you can cheese more damage. My husband said he and thrown together group were going to Alphascape 4.0 Savage for the mount and glamor pieces. I JOKED that if they have an empty spot I'd be willing to join. Turns out they needed a healer after theirs dropped out so cue me speed watching the mechanics video and joining a voice chat of (mostly) strangers. I knew the person doing callouts (who was actually the only one who'd completed this raid before) and he was extremely patient as I bumbled around. We came close to killing Omega three times before we finally took him down. It was a wild ride I'm not sure I'd do again, but it was fun! Maybe getting that staff I want from the Oracle of Darkness will be doable (eventually) after all!

I spent the entire day two days ago playing Persona 5 Royal. I completely forgot about the third target in their entirety, like their existence proofed from my brain. I remember every other dungeon and villain from my vanilla playthrough, but somehow this one deleted itself from my memory. I have no idea how or why. Oh well!

[Kikki]

Good for you, Bluie! Nice to find you have more skill than you thought you did. That may have further endeared Xenoblade to me, I think, lol...when I realized, eventually, that I actually understood and was pretty good at the game's systems. (Though it takes no button-mashing wizardry...I don't think I'll EVER be good at anything that requires you to remember exact button combinations and execute them at exactly the right time and pace. My timing is perma-bad.)

~

I got the Goddess spring done except the final offering. Gotta wait for the necessary crop to crow and then I'm good! Oh wait...uh...now I have to check what recipes I have, lol. I've only been making coconut milk, coffee, and cafe latte and nothing else, so I don't actually know what other recipes are in there. I also need to go get a Jersey cow, though I can't remember why, lol.

I've also gone to Wagashi now, as I want more barley seeds. Turns out Shogen is kinda cringy...a buffoon who is overly concerned with dignity he doesn't actually possess, so far. Sami is looking better than ever! Was already liking him pretty well so this just cements it. Ah, now I remember why I need the Jersey, I think! For Sami's preferred dish? (I wish his name wasn't sami, though. I went to school with a Sami and he was...well, not a friend, anyway.) I have to do all the cuisine quests to get the regional recipe sets, and I think the Jersey milk is in there. Not a part of the main story, anyway. I only need that one crop to mature and find that recipe, and then the story will be done.

~

EDIT: Story done! *crosses HM: OW off the backlog* Now to get MbN done, and then tootle around with other goals in OW, and figure out if Moon Hunters is worth competing. I tried it a bit, but I don't have a feel for it.

~

EDIT 2: Okay, the game is stressing me, lol...little break from it, now. Once the story was done my goals actually felt more urgent. I'm currently trying to 1) Get a heat protection cloak so I never have to worry about cooking again except if I'm going deep mining and 2) Get all the regional specialty recipes from Holokai, since Sami's fav is in there. For those two goals I need to wait a couple weeks for my Jersey cow and cashmere goat to mature, and I need to find (and grow) onions, and get a bunch more giant clams and mussels, too, for better bait recipes, but that's a bit of an aside, not a main goal. Onions are the only thing I can actively work on. I'll have to run to Pastilla next game morning after doing basic farm chores, go straight up to the NE corner, then run around to the centre of the western side, then a little further west, and that should net me 9 onion seeds, IF all the wisps are around that day.

Well, at least I have a plan But now for some mind-numbing, totally veggable, grandma-unsafe TV! I'll let OW sit aside for a bit and see about Moon Hunters and MbN tonight or tomorrow.