Backlog 2023

[yzafre]

Spent the whole day on Fire Emblem Engage yesterday. It's really fun playing a new Fire Emblem again - I do love me some anime chess. It's tone is very 'Saturday morning shonen' in tone which is honestly fine with me. I do miss the school atmosphere of Three Houses, but I am still enjoying wandering around the Somniel post battles.

Aside from the tone, what's your opinion on the story and characters? Most of the reviews have been hesitant on that point, which is one of the things holding me back from purchasing the game.


I've got most of my landscaping done on ACNH. There will probably be some final tweaks as I work, but now it's time to really move on to placing the buildings in their final locations. I've also been trying to finish up the last bits of my museum. I've got quite a few diving creatures left (I think they were introduced around the time I stopped playing orignially), the bugs are done, and I've got on. last. fish. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear till June. Hm.

I've also re-downloaded the Spyro Reignited trilogy. Every couple years I play through those three games back-to-back - I think I still have the original PS1 disks laying around from before the remake came out. They're really familiar and almost comforting, at this point. I got the 120% on Spyro 1 over the course of about a week, and am now on Ripto's Rage.

[infel]

It seems I better at buying games then playing them lol. I've brought the 'new' Persona games, 3 and 4, for the Switch. Since I got Persona 5 Royal last year (haven't played yet), I thought I'd pick these two up as well. They are fair prices too, so it wasn't a difficult decision. I also brought some simulation games as well, so hopefully I can check them out over the next month and see if any of them click.

I've only been playing Disney Dreamlight Valley. I've got over 100 hours in now. Honestly, I think simulation games may be may favorite genre right now because of how they can relax me. Funny thing is though, I haven't made much progress in the game and am just focusing on the farming part. I do think the characters are decently interesting, but I find quests a bit dull. The things I've progressed a lot in is making money and upgrading everything I can, so that's good. I also am trying to up my friendship with the people in the village. I hope over the next week I can make a little more progress on the story with completing more questing, getting the characters from Moana and helping Minnie. Outside of that, i mainly just play this game in bed since it calms me and I really need that.

Outside of Dreamlight Valley, I sadly haven't made any progress with any other games. This month honestly has been a bit difficult for me due to back pain and me being really tired. For example, all this week I've been sleeping a lot. It's just that it's so hard to play a game when you're low on energy, not to mention doing other important things. Still, it's a new week and I'm hoping to do something today and into next week since I have some time off. Just hoping I don't get back pain again.

What I need for right now in gaming are games that have easy to understand combat and a not too dark story wise. I just haven't been feeling myself very much and picking a game has been difficult. I do want to try one of the Persona games, though I know they are rated M. Still, I want to play test one of them and see why people love this series so much. However, I think two games that are good for me right now is Dragon Quest XI and Trails in Sky FC/SC. Both are turn based combat, have beautiful towns, and tend to be on the lighter side. I also like how in Trails the npcs are very interesting. While these games tend to be on the long side, they fit what I'm needing right now. With Dragon Quest, I play tested it a long while back and really enjoyed it. For Trails in the Sky, I loved the art and towns. For Trails, if I do love the first two games, maybe I can go on and do the rest. Only time will tell. I do plan on doing the first two games though.

So yeah, I changed my goals again, but I really needed to. I haven't been at my best and am dealing with high anxiety, so I need to play games that may help me feel a bit better. I want to play and finish Dragon Quest XI and Trails in the Sky FC and SC. As for Persona, I'm just going to play test one of the games when I can and see how it goes. If i like it, maybe I can play after the other two. I also may sneak in some Xenoblade, but with it's confusing combat, I may wait. Anyway, I just hope i can stick to these new goals I have.

[Bluie]

Aside from the tone, what's your opinion on the story and characters? Most of the reviews have been hesitant on that point, which is one of the things holding me back from purchasing the game.

Still only 7 chapters in, so not incredibly deep yet, but I will say that most of the characterization is going to be via supports as many of the characters take a backseat once recruited. Kinda mimics classic FE in that sense. The MC + the main princes/princesses get the most screen time as the story mostly revolves around their bonds. Marth is really the only ring character who gets story screentime past his introduction so far because he's pretty much attached to Alear. Again, story is very shonen. Call to action has the MC gathering a bunch of macguffins and makes a bunch of friends along the way. It may get deeper/darker later, but I have no idea presently.

The gameplay so far has been amazing though. Anime chess has never looked/played this good.

[Kikki]

I haven't been getting out much. I only go out for appointments and necessities. I think tomorrow I'm going to go across town for stuff I actually want to shop for. A very rare kind of outing, these days!

Semi-connected; I have a $100 Nintendo GC from ma mummy. (Technically, it's a $99 GC. I can hear my sister correcting me in my head!) That'll stretch the gaming budget a bit! I don't know what I'll do with it yet, though. My only January game was P4G, which I've already decided not to get right away since I have no desire to play it immediately. I'll wait either until I do want to play it, or until it goes on sale (though the normal price is decent: $27 CAD.)

Having lots of pain (manageable with a thorough mixture of stretching, verrrrry gentle no-impact slow exercise, occasional use of a stretching foot/leg brace, nerve blockers, anti-inflammatories, relaxants and heating via pad or hot water. Plus extreme avoidance of any exercise/muscular exertion other than the aforementioned super gentle, no-impact, slo-mo stuff that's just meant to warm you up and increase circulation slightly.) Progressing on Berseria quite a bit. Turns out I remember a liiiiiitle more than I thought, I just hadn't realized it was Berseria I was remembering.

The Plains of Aldina remind me so much of the Nord Highlands (of LoH: Trails of Cold Steel.) I was mixing them up. Also I think I may have been mixing up a little bit of Tales of Zestiria with what actually comes from Berseria. Or possibly even with something from Vesperia, which I have also only ever played once and no longer really remember.

Bothersome thing about this game...I like goody-two-shoeses. Particularly the non-naive ones who are genuinely good rather than only good due to stupidity or ignorance. This game has almost no true goody-two-shoeses in it, though it does have the naive/sheltered types. The main cast are the proclaimed villains of the tale, and true they are manically selfish, but the supposed heroes are more evil than the villains, to my way of seeing things. That leaves me with no one to root for, except that I want the 'hero' to be smashed to a jammy consistency. It's not that I want the MC(s) to win, it's that I want the 'good guy' to lose. Preferably with great emotional distress.

This is the main reason why I prefer Zestiria to Berseria. Berseria might be the more coherent game, but I actually LIKE most of the characters in Zest, where as I am indifferent to most of the characters in Bers. Plus Sorey is a proper nice guy.

Okay, more stretching before I finish off this story section!

[Code_Name_Geek]

I finished up all the achievements in Lumines Remastered yesterday! Although it was a bit rough near the end - one of the achievements is to survive two laps of the endless challenge mode and I had one run where I nearly did that... and then I paused the game to think since the blocks were starting to pile up, and accidentally exited the game instead of continuing. I was kind of devastated, especially since two laps of that challenge take almost two hours to get through so I had invested so much time into that run! But I got the achievement on the next run, so all's well that end's well. The other achievement that was a challenge was beating all the CPs without retries, but I finally got that one as well.

I haven't made a ton of progress in Pokémon Violet, other than beating the last gym yesterday. I'm having a minor health issue that's making it a little uncomfortable to sit and play the Switch, so I've mostly been gaming on my laptop. I still want to try to finish up Pokémon fairly soon, but I might hold off on starting another game there until that improves. I've made a bit of progress in OlliOlli2 as well, but after Lumines I want to play something a little less reaction-based so I think I'm going to start a new game soon as well. (Maybe Slime Rancher? That's one of the top contenders atm.) I'm thinking of going back to some PC games I've already started as well, like Parkasaurus, but now that my goal is starting new games I'm feeling like it's hard to do that... which is not the point of this goal so I have to get over that!

[Mikodesu]

Planned on playing a bit of Harvestella this weekend, but I just...ran out of time. Ended up drawing instead. Did a little not-quite-polished Tighnari piece to test out how much faster I can draw Genshin characters by just...tracing all the little wonky details on their costumes. Kinda scary how much time I saved. Also, I love dusk birds and really just wanted to draw one. I like Tighnari, but he only got picked cause his color scheme matches the bird.


In actual game playing news, I did actually start the Lantern Rite quest, got through part one tonight. I very much appreciate how different this year's story has been to last year's. Last year felt very...light and friendly, but you can't have the same thing every year. That would get incredibly boring.

Did my Abyss tonight, too. TWO hyperbloom teams, now. (I wish I could have gotten a screenshot or clip, I've never had more numbers on the screen at once. Whole thing just...bleeding numbers.) I'm getting a little better at playing Alhaitham. My brain is still trained around charge attacks... recently I blame Ayato (he's too easy to play) and more long term, I mained Hutao for a looong time. My brain just...wants to mix in charge attacks with normals. Hard habit to break. If you CAN, Alhaitham is fun. Very, very different play style, for sure.

[Reyvin]

This year has been very odd, and not all that nice, so far.

Spoiler:

Early January, my gran passed away. Since then, I have been thrust into an onslaught of exams since my job training is gonna end in a few months. And I lost my phone and had to get a new one.

So yeah, I have only recently returned to playing a bit again, I needed some time to deal with real life and find motivation again.

Currently I am playing a few games: Fire Emblem 3 Hopes' third and final route, Scarlet Blaze. The first game in the Mass Effect Trilogy (Legendary Edition) which I got on the recent sale. And the second game in the Phoenix Wright trilogy, Justice for All. Since they're all fairly different, I can get back to whichever I feel like playing.

My general backlog is, as always, quite big and I have a lot lined up, but I decided to focus on these games for now. When I finish one of them, I'll swap in a new game, but for now I don't want to spread myself too thin. That's also why I'm passing on Fire Emblem Engage until I have finished 3 Hopes... I feel like I'm just stacking up games at this point. Didn't finish Rune Factory 5, neither any of the newer Pokémon games. I gotta settle down and get to it at some point, haha. Getting even more to play doesn't make sense right now.

I hope everyone else is having a good time.

[Bluie]

Planned on playing a bit of Harvestella this weekend, but I just...ran out of time. Ended up drawing instead. Did a little not-quite-polished Tighnari piece to test out how much faster I can draw Genshin characters by just...tracing all the little wonky details on their costumes. Kinda scary how much time I saved. Also, I love dusk birds and really just wanted to draw one. I like Tighnari, but he only got picked cause his color scheme matches the bird.


In actual game playing news, I did actually start the Lantern Rite quest, got through part one tonight. I very much appreciate how different this year's story has been to last year's. Last year felt very...light and friendly, but you can't have the same thing every year. That would get incredibly boring.

Did my Abyss tonight, too. TWO hyperbloom teams, now. (I wish I could have gotten a screenshot or clip, I've never had more numbers on the screen at once. Whole thing just...bleeding numbers.) I'm getting a little better at playing Alhaitham. My brain is still trained around charge attacks... recently I blame Ayato (he's too easy to play) and more long term, I mained Hutao for a looong time. My brain just...wants to mix in charge attacks with normals. Hard habit to break. If you CAN, Alhaitham is fun. Very, very different play style, for sure.

Honestly, fair on the drawing. I've yet to draw any Genshin fanart because of how nonsense their outfits are. They look beautiful in game, but as someone who's style is minimalist in nature, I get a headache looking at certain character's outfits. I adore Wanderer's outfit, it's details are fantastic to look at, but hell nah am I ever drawing that. I honestly only have one Genshin art piece in my backlog and it's literally going to be a character in a completely different outfit because my patience only goes so far. But while we're on this subject, may I see the Tighnari drawing? I don't remember if we ever shared our art socials before, but I'd love to see it!

I'm stuck on Abyss 11-3, again. It was my first time attempting past the initial set last week, and my teams were getting oneshot by something. Mirror Maiden bull, I think? The rotation hasn't changed so the fatui mob is still there and still killing me. I still have to work on my teams overall as I need to level a handful of artifacts, talents, and a few core members are still at level 80. I'm less of a 'big burst' player and more into continual chip damage, but certain characters have their moments (Nilou, Wanderer, Kazuha). Basically I place down AOEs and then 'random « Male Cow Poopoo » go' until things are dead (with proper elemental reactions, of course). Once I get Baizhu I'll give Nilou the nuke team she deserves, and my main focus right now is triple crowning Wanderer, but it's slow going due to mat drops from his boss. Regardless, I'll get there eventually. I'm really slow at getting accomplishing things in the game outside of general exploration and story content. And honestly, I only want to clear Abyss 12 because it's my final trophy on the PS5 version of the game for the plat, and I wants it.

And while this isn't part of our conversation, I have general Genshin updates as my 'backlog' post. I managed to get 4 Yaoyaos last night after dumping in all the freemos (plus the one free unit from the event). She is very fun to play as, but I'm not a fan that her bunnies in her burst disappear if she leaves the field. Normal skill is fine though, love dropping the bun then doing my rotation as it constantly applies dendro and/or heals me. She is going to be FUN with Nilou. I also got a random Candace which is pretty cool, but I'll probably never use her? I did take a photo of her and send it to my coworker who spent OVER 700 BUCKS FOR HER TO COME HOME, GEEZ, because making fun of each other over our rolls has become a thing we do lol. I said "Why does my Yaoyao look so weird" and they replied "I can't believe this" lmaoooo. Now I'm only missing Layla and the upcoming Mika when it comes to 4* characters.

Oh, I also finally advanced to AR 55! I've been dragging my feet on it for awhile because a part of me really enjoyed absolutely shredding everything in seconds. However, I want more/better rewards, so I finally pulled the pin on that grenade. Things take a little bit longer to kill now, but it's not impossible by any means. Swirl and Burgeon, my loves, you never let me down.

[BerryBea]

This year has been very odd, and not all that nice, so far.

I'm sorry for your loss, Reyvin, and that the rest of your year isn't off to a great start either. I do hope things improve for you soon!
_______

I tried out Re:Legend with a friend and one play session was enough for us. The game is pretty rough around the edges as it is, but co-op mode is even rougher, and we had a lot of disconnects. It's a neat idea, but not something we enjoyed enough to fight through the issues. So that one is off the backlog.

I got a bit further in Kena: Bridge of Spirits. I'm somewhere in the range of one third to halfway done (It's only a 10-20 hour game, depending on how much side content you do). Holy moly is this game beautiful! I find the combat kind of tough (even on Story mode haha), but it's manageable and well worth putting up with just to run around and explore this gorgeous world. I absolutely love that the main theme of the game is healing the forest and bringing spirits to rest to cleanse the area. Every time one of the red, diseased areas turns lush and green is so nice. The story also had me teary eyed a bit (I tend to like games that impact me enough to make me emotional). I'm very torn between wanting to hurry along and see the next lovely area and taking my time to explore every nook and cranny in the areas I've already found. I've been playing this one on the Steam Deck and it's running very well there.

I also started Mass Effect: Andromeda. I realized that I had four bigger (40-100 hour) games on my backlog, so I decided to try to tackle one each quarter of the year. I'm starting with ME:A because I finished the Mass Effect trilogy not too long ago and ME:A is the only backlog game that's on EA/Origin rather than Steam. (I tend to forget I have games over there, since I spend most of my time on Steam.) I'm playing on the Narrative (super easy) setting, because I don't really have any interest in the shooting part of the game. It's a bit odd being back in the ME universe with totally new characters. I do like that I can scan things though! I love scanning new plants and creatures to add to scientific knowledge. So, just playing through the story and running around and scanning everything while exploring will probably keep me entertained. I don't think I'll get too much farther into this until I finish Kena, but since that one is relatively short, I should be focusing on this one soon.

Well, unless I get sucked back into Stardew. Stardew Valley is my favorite game and I'm getting tempted to start another run. During my last game, since I've played so many times, I tried to play with two of the big content expansion mods at once (Stardew Valley Expanded and Ridgeside Village). I finished the community center, but I didn't get anywhere even close to finishing all of the extra content. It was a bit overwhelming playing both of them at once. So, I think I'll play them one at a time. (I'll probably add the Stardew Aquarium mod to at least one of them though, since that one doesn't add a ton that you have to do, other than donate your fish to the aquarium.) I will want to play this on the Steam Deck though, and getting all of the mods set up on there was kind of tedious last time, so having to do it again will probably keep me from starting immediately.

[Kikki]

Sorry to hear about your gran, Reyvin

~

I'm heading to the last battle area of Berseria...so one last dungeon and then the final battle. Not sure if I'll do any post-game stuff. What this game has REALLY made me want is to replay Zestiria. I'm fuzzy on some details of it, now, too, but iirc, the story of Zestiria isn't quite as good as Berseria. Not as focused or as deep. However, with Berseria being so painfully lacking in loveable characters, it was just way easier for me to get invested in Zestiria. I've never played Zest after Bers, so having these prequel bits fresh in my head while playing Zestiria will probably be pretty cool.

JRPGs are all the same with final dungeons, I find. They always do something WEIRD with them, thereby making them all feel the same. Basically they make green skies and monsters with heads in their bellies and staircases that are upside down. Surreal, otherworldly magic always seems to be the theme of final dungeons. It gets tiresome, and is anything but unique.

I may have done a new thing in this NG+ play. I was about level 57 or 58 and fighting this little carrot dude who was startlingly difficult to put down. His HP was only barely being whittled away. After a finger-cramping good time, chipping away at him...we won. And then leveled up 5-10 times. Then I realized I had to check the enemy's level, and turns out he was an 80. No wonder it was a longer-than-usual battle! All those extra levels all of a sudden were nice, though, but now my fingers hurt. My whole forearm, actually. Stupid body, stop overreacting with all the muscle tension, wouldja?

Not gonna buy any level DLC for Berseria. I considered it, but if I'm gonna do it, I'd rather put more effort into Zestiria.

[Mikodesu]

Snip

Even the simpler looking characters in Genshin are shockingly tedious to draw. I've picked fanart contests to enter thinking, oh! Their costume is a little simpler, that won't be too bad, but NOPE!

And for sure on the Tighnari drawing! I think we've shared a little art here and there over the years but never art socials. I don't even have one at the moment...I dropped Insta when I learned that the algorithm doesn't even distribute your work to all your followers unless you're spending a lot of time on the platform. For now I've just been posting on Hoyolab... https://www.hoyolab.com/article/15247932

It compresses things to hell, though... which I dunno what to do about, so I threw it up on Imgur.

Spoiler:

Big congrats on getting so far through the Abyss! Ime once you get to floors 11 and 12 it's time to break out the guides. (Mostly for team comps, but they'll usually tell you which enemies to focus down first to get through things faster.) Nilou is actually supposed to work really well with Yaoyao though because she's a good healer and so dendro damage resistent, maybe once you build her a bit you can try them together? Right now it's with Nahida, Yaoyao and Xingqiu, but Baizhu will probably slot in Nahida's place whenever Mihoyo releases him from character jail.

And WL8 too! It won't be too bad once you get used to it. Some of the bosses have way too much health but compared to waiting another week for extra mats, it's worth it.

[Bluie]

Snip

That drawing is fantastic. Love Tighnari's expression and I can practically hear dusk bird lol. I really need to get around to doing that world quest and stop accidentally turning them into food. /guilty

I hear you on the no art socials thing. Besides my Etsy and Redbubble, which are storefronts first and foremost, any art I don't monetize goes on my Kofi. That's it, that's all I got. I'm part of a Discord full of artists that have just kind of gathered over the years and I post everything there, but it's in a sense a group of friends so not really a social media either, kinda. I used to use Tumblr, Twitter, Pillowfort, Deviantart, ect, but it was all so exhausting so I just deleted them all. Some of my old art still shows up via tumblr because people reblogged it, but eh, nbd, it's nothing I overly care about. Anyways, I'll be sure to share that piece once I get around to finishing it. My new laptop is apparently finally ready to be picked up today (after being stolen by the driver weeks ago looooll....) so I can finally get back to more than sketches (current laptop CHUGS when I'm doing art, and I aint about that life). Hrm, maybe I should finally get into Hoyolab once I finish it...

And thanks for the encouragement! I'll get there eventually! Right now my focus has become Sumeru exploration because I juuuust got the treasure compass and I need general mats for stuff. I'd like to get all the forest area done first then just go all in on the desert later on. Still haven't finished Enkanomiya either, but eh, I'll get there. We've got the majority of the year to catch up before Fontaine so I'm not going to rush it.

Actual backlog stuff: I did the last chapter of NieR Reincarnation, and in typical NieR fashion, I'm going to have to do the final battle again to get the true ending. It's honestly a shame this is a phone game and not a full console game. So many Yoko Taro fans are missing out on some amazing stories and references. I plan to get back into Fire Emblem Engage after picking up my laptop, but it's also reset day in FFXIV, so we'll see lol.

[midnighttherabbit]

Already going back on my New Year resolution of not playing tons of games at once... I want to play something on my Switch in bed since I can feel a rough week or so coming on. I think I'm going to give RF5 another go - I've never gotten past the first Spring but I think I just need a good run up at it so I can get into the meat of the game.

[Roinda]

Been a long and slightly fraught day so far, and it’s not over yet. But I’ve got some time at home so am taking it easy and playing some 3oT before I have dinner and then go out again.

Absolutely knackered. Got home just over a couple of hours ago and been alternating between 3oT and AC:NH. Day off tomorrow though. Haven’t touched Harvestella yet, so planning on spending time doing so.

[Reyvin]

@BerryBea and @Kikki: Thank you both, that's very sweet.

I'm continuing Mass Effect Legendary Edition - can't believe that I never tried it before, I so far really enjoy the worldbuilding and the characters. It just feels very alive, everything... the world, the characters. I love how they integrated so many different species into it without it feeling in any way forced or odd. It just fits. I got to say, I'm only on my 2nd story mission (Noveria), but I already really appreciate Garrus, I always take him along everywhere and listen to his comments on everything. It's kind of comforting.

@BerryBea: Is ME:Andromeda similar to the trilogy or does it feel like a different thing, storywise? I'm intrigued by it for the time after I finish the trilogy, but not sure how much it'd be connected to the other games.