Backlog 2023

[greensara]

I decided to go ahead and give the first Dragon Quest Builders game another try after rage quitting last year. After thoroughly over preparing, I finally beat the chapter 1 boss and decided to give chapter 2 a chance. I was very pleasantly surprised. Instead of disliking it like I did for chapter 1, I quite liked it. It still wasn't DQB2, but it was enjoyable in it's own right. Now I think I am about in the middle of chapter 3.

I downloaded a couple demos hoping they would support English text, since the actual game did. I was curious about the older Atelier games (haven't played any Atelier games at all) but the demo I found seemed to just be Japanese. Maybe someday I will get Gamefly and try one, lol. I also found a demo for Kitaria Fables, which I have heard mixed things about, and it has English! So I am going to give that one a try. In the US eShop, it looks like the Dragon Quest Treasures Demo has indeed arrived.

[Mikodesu]

I think Harvestella reached its audience (on PC at least) since 20% of the player base has beaten the main story, and only 10% finished all the character quests and picked a life partner.

I really enjoyed all of the character quests up to the end, all except for...

Spoiler:

Shirka... Maybe it was the missionary plot. Didn't work for me.

I like the characters enough that I'm curious to go back and see all the proposal scenes on my own. I'm sure it's on Youtube, but after all the effort to go through everybody's quests, it doesn't have the same oomph seeing it without my character and their name. For a mild gameplay spoiler, I find it good news that

Spoiler:

you don't seem to be restricted on WHO you marry. I can't remember if Cres was on the list, but there were candidates across the board otherwise. (I played as a girl, as well.)

Bigger spoiler:

Spoiler:

Even Unicorn. If you want a house full of fairies.

For now I think I'm just playing more on the weekends. I'm enjoying quest cleanup, and there's one more major combat related thing that I want to get through before I put the game down for good. When I say "get through" I mean, try to get through. I've read it gets a little unfair toward the end, but I can try. So long as I don't lose a bunch of money I couldn't care less how often I wipe now.



And in Genshin news, more chest hunting. I'm even finding them by the side of the road in Liyue... NO idea how that happens. And I did learn that Kazuha can open the stone encased ones with a plunging attack. Best boy, for sure.

When the new update drops I'll go back to exploring Sumeru. Haven't touched the area that unlocks at the end of the aranara quest. But there's plenty of time. I bet we won't hear a peep about Fontaine for at LEAST one more update. But surely soon-ish. Still really curious how Mihoyo will balance its release against ToTK.

[Kikki]

I decided to go ahead and give the first Dragon Quest Builders game another try after rage quitting last year. After thoroughly over preparing, I finally beat the chapter 1 boss and decided to give chapter 2 a chance. I was very pleasantly surprised. Instead of disliking it like I did for chapter 1, I quite liked it. It still wasn't DQB2, but it was enjoyable in it's own right. Now I think I am about in the middle of chapter 3.

DQB is missing some great building features of 2, and it doesn't have Malroth, but the story was better overall, imo. I didn't like chapter 3 but liked all the rest, particularly 2 and 4. The final battle of Chapter 1 is bewildering the first time you try to tackle it, but feels quite simple once you've succeeded at it once.

I couldn't get into Kitaria Fables because I just can't bring myself to care about the stories of anthropomorphized characters. I liked the combat in it, though, and the colours and graphics were quite nice. I'm downloading a demo myself atm, though...for Voice of the Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars. For some reason, Steam tells me I'd love the game and it turns out there's a demo on Switch so...why not? Steam is often wrong about what I'd like, so I can't just take it at its word.

~

Harvestella is the top priority game on my wishlist, all of which are waiting on sales. I got Constructor Plus on 80% off today. I think my baby sister would really like it so I want it in my library (I might like it too, but I'm not sure.) Price was $3.79, so can't go too far wrong! That's my only purchase of 2023 so far.

I'm not going to get them, but there are a few games on my Switch wishlist on good sales right now and the sales end at midnight TODAY on the NA eshop...in case any of you have some of the same wishlist items, then:

Wytchwood -50%
ARK: Survival Evolved: -50%
Persona 5 Royal: -30%
Digimon Survive: -30%
(Next morning edit: Sale over now!)

EDIT:

Ah, my bad! He wanted you to get it to milk the cow (although you can use it to collect well water and honey as well). It's possible that he won't tell you to do that part until the next day though (I don't remember that exactly, just that I had a heck of time figuring out how to actually milk the cow when he asked me to, because I was trying to use the wooden bucket, not realizing that it was for poop.)

Thanks! I'll be sure to go back and get some milk from the cow. Not having continual goals to work toward makes this game harder for me to get into, so even knowing I have one thing to do makes it easier to go back to the game.

I’ve watched his videos on this. I’m in two minds about it. Part of me is actually interested, the other part doesn’t like some of the rules. Plus I don’t know any one who plays this game so the Sunday markets would be impossible.

Ah, yeah...I looked at the rules and shook my head over a few of them, too. I'd rather not play at all than have to play by a couple of those rules. Would take all the fun out. I think I'd rather create my own hard mode using that list as a place to start. Not that I intend to do so, though. I'm done with ACNH. It'd be nice if it was fun to play forever, but even restarting has no charm, now. I can't be bothered to collect any of the stuff over again, or catch all the bugs and fish again, or participate in the contests and holidays to get all the stuff, etc. It kept my attention well enough already, though, for a story gamer like me. A small cozy world full of cuteness can't keep me coming back like a huge gorgeous one with a sense of mystery/exploration can.

[simside]

My next big game will be me finishing Persona 5 Royal (on the Switch). I'm only 14 hours (approximately) in and still haven't beat the first boss.I think Persona 5 Royal is even longer than Pokemon Violet, like double or triple the time. (120 hours to 180 hours)!

Have fun with Persona 5 Royal! I'm near the end now (just reached the part that I think loops back to the prologue) and I'm at about 120 hours - I'm thinking I have 10-20 hours left for the cutscenes and the original endgame content, plus whatever the extra Royal content is. I didn't do much grinding in the dungeons, though I'm very particular about completing them/finding all the items. I'm still really enjoying it after so much story, especially now that I'm starting to see the ends of the Confidant storylines, but it is really long. ^_^;

---

I beat even if TEMPEST! It was very much my flavor of story, very dark and with a lot of twists. The ending was good at wrapping up all the storylines, but there wasn't anything too surprising in it.

Conversely, I compulsively started Diablo 3 when I had a few hours to kill last weekend. I wanted to play a Demon Hunter, as I haven't played one since the game launched. Every time I've started a new one I abandon it before level 10. I remembered why! They're terrible without their skills! I couldn't cause enough damage to Skeleton King in Darkening of Tristram to keep up with his health regen, and I couldn't kill his skeletons faster than he could spawn them. I didn't even have a backflip move to clear the skeleton mobs, so I died several times. I had to quit and mad-started story mode, then gave up after I spent too long kiting enemies around Fields of Misery. I mad-started it again last night and, uh, played until 2am (among other things, getting my revenge on Skeleton King). I'm not super-sure if I'm going to continue... I still can't turn the difficulty up, which is a huge bummer because it means leveling happens glacially, and I can't build a set. But I am weak for Diablo 3.

[Mikodesu]

More Harvestella tonight. Went through all the proposals I really wanted to see, and they were all very cute. Aaaah I wish the devs had more time/money/leeway to make a better romance system, because what's there is good.

Spoilers

Spoiler:

I think Istina and Emo were my favorites. They were just adorable and all in. Istina especially, in a way I didn't expect but I think...worked? I said 'aw' at least a few times.

I wanted a blushing face, but to be fair it probably wasn't worth the work. Ohh well.

If there was more to the 'life partner' system I think that could get a lot of people to play longer. It would me, for sure. I actually like a lot of the characters. So I ended up picking someone in a more...pragmatic way. Didn't think of this till later, but probably your best bet is to decide whose voice actor you like the best.

Sigh. Still a great chill game until I really feel like replacing it. And right now work is just too much so I don't want to.

Oh. Totally unimportant side note. 70+ hours with this game and it took repeating the same event sequence like 8 times to notice this... Even though it's RIGHT outside of the house. Lordy.

Spoiler for image.

Spoiler:

Super weird to have a Genshin update in 2 days. Doesn't feel like it's time yet, even with all the events wrapped up and whatnot. Dressed up Liyue Harbor ahoy!

[Kikki]

I beat even if TEMPEST! It was very much my flavor of story, very dark and with a lot of twists. The ending was good at wrapping up all the storylines, but there wasn't anything too surprising in it.

That's great that it was to your liking after all! Normally I wouldn't recommend anything by Voltage, as everything else I've looked into (and tried demos of) appears to be trash. But after looking into Tempest carefully, I could see it was different. There was some strong writing in there. The darkness was heavy in routes 1-3, imo, and especially in 3, but let up significantly in 4, in such a way as to make me think that there was never a strong reason for it to have ever been THAT dark, which was disappointing. I don't like dark stories overmuch, but I felt like the ending was disappointing compared to the build-up that led to it. I felt like the tension was lowered too much...3 raised the stakes so much, and then 4 felt too mellow in comparison, for me. The ending was less extraordinary than the rest of the story, sort of. Well, tastes vary so much, and I haven't heard much talk about Tempest, so I don't know what the prevailing opinions are on it.

EDIT: A season and a half just waiting for rain to occur on the right day to finally be able to trigger Yuzuki's second love event, and I've run out of patience. I'd still be having fun if not for that, but it's ruined it. Now I'm grumpy.

[BerryBea]

I finished Eventide 3, the hidden object game I'd been playing. These are all 3-4 hours, so they're very quick to get through. I tend to spread them out because of this, since I like to play them when I'm a bit stressed, so I don't want to go through them too quickly. (This is also why I don't mind them being on the backlog as much as other types of games.)

I retired Potion Craft. This is a game where you play as an alchemist running a potion shop. In this one, you use different ingredients, which move you around in various directions on a "potion map" to discover new potion recipes, and brew them for your customers. In the beginning, it gives you recipes for your first two potions and then you have to discover the rest. On the first non-tutorial day, I had a customer ask for a potion I didn't know how to make and I ended up using up so many ingredients moving around the map, trying to find the recipe for the potion they wanted. This very quickly moved the game from "interesting" to "stressful", so I decided not to spend more time on it. (I kind of thought this was going to be the case, but it was a gift, so I wanted to at least try it.) I do think it's a neat concept though, and it has a really cool graphical style based on medieval manuscripts. This could be a really neat game for the right person.

I was apparently just a couple hours from the end of Magical Diary: Wolf Hall, so I finished this one. It's a visual novel that is half romance and half magic school. You have to go to classes and learn spells to (try to) get through exams throughout the year. I'd played the first one (Horse Hall) and it went in directions that really surprised me, so I wanted to try this one, too. I enjoyed it, even though I'm usually pretty bad at VNs with a relationship focus haha. (True to form, I ended up with a friendship ending.) I also did pretty poorly on my exams... It was fun though. I don't usually go through and try to play all of the routes on these, so I won't be playing more anytime soon, but I may revisit it again eventually to try to get a better ending. For now, it's off the backlog. (Down to 32 games / 18 non-hidden object games!)

[simside]

That's great that it was to your liking after all! Normally I wouldn't recommend anything by Voltage, as everything else I've looked into (and tried demos of) appears to be trash. But after looking into Tempest carefully, I could see it was different. There was some strong writing in there. The darkness was heavy in routes 1-3, imo, and especially in 3, but let up significantly in 4, in such a way as to make me think that there was never a strong reason for it to have ever been THAT dark, which was disappointing. I don't like dark stories overmuch, but I felt like the ending was disappointing compared to the build-up that led to it. I felt like the tension was lowered too much...3 raised the stakes so much, and then 4 felt too mellow in comparison, for me. The ending was less extraordinary than the rest of the story, sort of. Well, tastes vary so much, and I haven't heard much talk about Tempest, so I don't know what the prevailing opinions are on it.

I'm with you on the Voltage games, I've played several and emphatically didn't enjoy them. I ignored this one until you mentioned it, I'm glad you did. I loved it. I'm with you on the ending though, it was a bit of a mismatch with the rest of the game. The twists in the third route were particularly evil, so I was disappointed it didn't escalate further. It felt like it solved the problem and followed through, which is... fine, it maybe would have been worse if they'd tried something too over the top... maybe? Sometimes that doesn't work? I did like that it went back and filled in all the details after it ended. I like dark stories, and this one delivered!

---

In Persona 5 Royal news, massive spoiler-

Spoiler:

I did not see the betrayal coming, I had forgotten that part of the prologue. But as soon as it happened, I was immensely disappointed to realize that the character is Light Yagami exactly. Like, completely gutted, I don't know if I'm more disappointed in the game for not even trying to blur that or myself for not noticing. Definitely Top Ten Anime Betrayals.

[Bluie]

It's Tuesday so that means it's reset day in FFXIV (in a few hours from this post). Can't wait to die after forgetting all the new raid mechanics again lol. I did play a little bit yesterday, but it was mostly just glamming and gearing. I did a whole long-« Mr.Gourmet's hat » Genshin session without using Diona once to see how I fared. Ran Wanderer-Tighnari-Xinyan-Albedo and it was fine, but man do I take a lot of damage over time without a healer. Ooo, I also fully ascended and refined the Sapwood Blade! I made it for Nilou for MAXIMIMUM NUKE once I get her full party going, but I may try it on Alhaitham IF I get him. I'm not specifically rolling for him, I want Yaoyao constellations, but it he happens to come home while I'm rolling, I won't complain! :>

3 more days until Fire Emblem Enagage. I wonder if I should make a thread about it this time? I'm not sure how many of us are going to be playing this one tbh. My vacation kicks in on the 22nd so I'll defs be focusing on it.

[HerbalTea]

Do you have any gaming goals this year?
Finally, finish every Rune Factory Title. I have beat 1, 3, 4, and 5 in terms of story. However, I have yet to beat 2, Frontier, and Tides of Destiny/Oceans.

What's in your backlog right now?

• My Time at Portia
• Sonic Frontiers

Which new releases are you looking forward to this year? What's your 2023 wishlist? Any planned purchases? Definite day-one buys?

• Rune Factory 3: Special
• Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life

These are currently the only games I will be buying on day one!

[Kikki]

This is your first post in the Backlog thread, right, HerbalTea? Welcome.

~

I've been wanting to test out an AAA game on Steamdeck but haven't decided what'd be best to go with as I want something cheap since it's more curiosity about performance than because I want whatever game qualifies for the experience test. I played Genshin for a few weeks upon release on PS4, and I even bought their release package, but was very bothered by the gacha system it runs on, and deleted it. I still really resent that system, so I don't want it, but the thing is...it's FREE, so it could be my test game. I wouldn't have to pay anything to see what it looks and feels like on Steam Deck.

I'm going to look around first, though, to make a list of AAA games I might actually WANT to try via Steam, since I've never played one that way before. Something I'm familiar with would be better for comparison. I could try Portia that way since I know it runs best there, but it's very much not an AAA game, and that's what I'm curious about, since there's a good chance I'll be playing any future Tales games on there, and eventually maybe Trails, too.

There are some demos I could try, too, though. Like Tales of Arise's demo. It's not very long or meaty, but it's something. I do want to have Tales games I like on PC since that'll be essentially permanently available to me even as systems upgrade, unlike anything on PS3/4. Wish they'd put Xillia 1/2 on there. Oh...I guess it might be an option to put FFXIV on there, just to look around, though I've given the game up for now, until it's truly solo-able, which will probably be a year at least. (I suppose they may never get around to making the 8-person Trials truly soloable, though.)

I think I need to write more than I play, though. Keeps my brain together better, maybe. (Though lots of types of gaming are actually quite good for brain health!)

[HerbalTea]

Yes, this is my first post in the backlog I've been around for years but never really posted anything.
-
I've been tempted to by a steam deck as well. The only thing that is preventing me is the price of it. It's so expensive!

[Kikki]

Yes, this is my first post in the backlog I've been around for years but never really posted anything.
-
I've been tempted to by a steam deck as well. The only thing that is preventing me is the price of it. It's so expensive!

I went half with my sister (whom I live with) so it was much more affordable that way. She never wants to play with it though, for some reason...she's stubborn about trying out different control systems and can't seem to be bothered to set it up in a way she'd like, even though we already have the necessary hub, extension cords and controllers to use it like a docked/home console, and even though there are PC games she'd want to try...so I basically have it to myself. Perhaps this summer, after tax season is over. (She's an accountant so is going to get really busy again, probably starting next week.)

Or maybe I just have to get it set up the way *I* like best and play it lots and then she'll want to as well. I hate playing on an actual PC...keyboards aren't fun controllers and I want my laptop continually available to me for the internet, not bogged down with games...but steam deck circumvents that, and if you put all the stuff I like aside, PC is the best console for longevity. Not sure if the Steam Deck itself will last any better than any other console, but I guess we'll see.

[midnighttherabbit]

Honestly if I had the money I'd definitely get one, handheld gaming is just way more comfortable than playing on a PC.


I'm still playing The Witcher 3, but I'm honestly finding it more fun to turn it on, do a single quest, then turn it off and play something else. I think I completed the first major quest the other day, which is good!
On the side, I've been playing Morrowind. It's old and clunky but honestly pretty addictive in the way all those games are. They're pretty good for insomnia nights and destressing - last year I'd spend entire nights just playing Skyrim so I wouldn't wake up by entire house pacing around lol.

I think maybe I'm just trying to get an open world game fix while I wait for BoTW2 (yes, I'm still calling it that) to come out...

[BerryBea]

I've been wanting to test out an AAA game on Steamdeck but haven't decided what'd be best to go with as I want something cheap since it's more curiosity about performance than because I want whatever game qualifies for the experience test. I played Genshin for a few weeks upon release on PS4, and I even bought their release package, but was very bothered by the gacha system it runs on, and deleted it. I still really resent that system, so I don't want it, but the thing is...it's FREE, so it could be my test game. I wouldn't have to pay anything to see what it looks and feels like on Steam Deck.

I don't play many AAA games, but I do play Assassin's Creed Odyssey on the Steamdeck and it's great on there. (I played most of it on PC when it came out, but I've still been cleaning up DLC since then.) I don't know whether this is one you might be interested in or not though. It's the only Assassin's Creed game I've played more than about an hour of, and even though it's a lot more combat-focused than I usually prefer, I love the ancient Greek setting and playing as Kassandra is a lot of fun. It's been around long enough that it gets really cheap in the sales. (It looks like it might have been $12 in the last sale, so it'll be that price again.)

I've been tempted to by a steam deck as well. The only thing that is preventing me is the price of it. It's so expensive!

I really love my Steamdeck. I did have to budget for it and save for a while though (and cut out all other "fun" spending to make it work). I've been very happy with how many games work on it though, and I love playing a handheld system rather than having to sit at the computer. (I had a Switch for a while before I gave it to my brother and his kids, and I loved the format, but I already had 100s of steam games, and in general, they were cheaper and had more variety than I was seeing on the Switch.) Anyway, I'm very happy with it, although it was absolutely a very big purchase.