Backlog 2024

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
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BerryBea
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Happy 2024 all!

Current Backlog
Dragon Age II
Dragon Age Inquistion
FFVII Crisis Core
FFVII Remake Intergrade
Oxenfree II
Rune Factory 3
We Love Katamari
We Were Here Together
Wildmender

My goal this year is to play all of the above games, until I complete them or retire them. I want to prioritize the Dragon Age games because I've owned them for several years longer than any of the other games. I also really want to finally finish the DLC for Assassin's Creed Odyssey. I had a great time with that game and played it soon after it released. A bunch of DLC released afterwards and I'm still making my way through it all. Overall, I'd like to get down to around 3 games and try to stay there. Getting down to 0 would be fine, but I don't mind having a few new games ready to go.

I will probably be picking up some new games this year, but I don't have any kind of solid list. I have about 35 unreleased games on my steam wishlist, but that's really just to keep track of everything that looks potentially interesting. I definitely won't be buying all or even most of them. I do have about 10 early access games that I already own. Once (If?) they hit full release, they get added to the backlog. I really want to stop getting early access games, because I rarely play them before full release, but it seems like it's becoming more common to have cheaper EA prices and then raise them for the full release, so I have more than I'd really like. These are all waiting in the wings as of now:
Spoiler:
Early Access
Coral Island - I know it's technically out, but it shouldn't be, so it's waiting until more content is added.
Cornucopia
Little Witch in the Woods
Orange Season
Phasmophobia
Research Story
Secrets of Grindia
Slime Rancher 2
Witch of Fern Island
Wolfquest
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I've already finished a game that I picked up during the winter sales, so I'll write about it briefly. I played through Dolphin Spirit: Ocean Mission. I wanted to play it because it reminded me a lot of Alba, which I adored. Dolphin Spirit definitely has some similarities, but it's not as good or as polished and it's definitely more juvenile. It's cute though. It's basically a game about cleaning up the environment, saving animals, and taking pictures of all of the species find. (I really love games that let me restore the environment.) The big draw is the diving, so a lot of your time is spent in the ocean. (I have major ocean fears, so I confirmed that nothing in the water can harm you before I played.) You have a dolphin buddy in the ocean and a dog buddy on land. You do take pictures and clean up on the island, too. As you continue the game you get several different powers that let you unlock new areas underwater. There's also a lot of factual information provided, about specific species, environmental concepts, and dangers to wildlife. (This was not new information to me, but it could be a good game for a kid if you want to illustrate some of those concepts.) One drawback was that while you had a book to keep track of the species you spotted, you just had blank spots for undiscovered ones. At the end of the game, I was missing a single fish. All that I knew was that it could be found somewhere in both of the largest two diving maps. I didn't know what it was called, what it looked like, which area in those maps I could find it, etc. I was also missing two tiny grottos or pathways with trash that hadn't been cleaned up, but I had no way to narrow down where those were apart from which large overall map they were part of. I finished in 7 hours and didn't feel like it was worth it to continue to find those last missing bits, although the game does allow you to do this. Ok, that wasn't so brief after all. It's a cute game, but it has some issues and is geared towards a younger audience. If you liked Alba, it's something to consider, but maybe wait for a decent sale.

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Kikki wrote: Jan 02, 2024 7:41 am Garden Stories...the huge frog says "Sorry, but I've been going through some stuff and I didn't even know it was you or Lady..."

Rock says, "You swallowed me and my wife."

Apple says, "Yay we solved a problem! Let's all live together in this garden!"

Rock says, "Well that's a nice offer, it is a nice garden, hmm we'll think about it."

Apple says "Yay more problems solved!!"

This is not exact, but it's legitimately close to the actual text in this game after Bufford and Rocky arrive.

How is this reasonable dialogue?
I tried to play this last year, because I got it super cheap in a bundle and I wasn't able to make it through, even though I think it's supposed to be just an hour or two long. I agree that the dialogue is super painful. I also had a bug where it would just freeze up for several minutes after some of the activities. I didn't have the patience to keep restarting the game with that kind of content, so I quit. I wish you luck though haha. I hope it (somehow?) improves by the end if you play the rest!
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Kikki
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BerryBea wrote: Jan 02, 2024 5:05 pmI tried to play this last year, because I got it super cheap in a bundle and I wasn't able to make it through, even though I think it's supposed to be just an hour or two long. I agree that the dialogue is super painful. I also had a bug where it would just freeze up for several minutes after some of the activities. I didn't have the patience to keep restarting the game with that kind of content, so I quit. I wish you luck though haha. I hope it (somehow?) improves by the end if you play the rest!
It doesn't improve. I finished it, and it never gets better...the dialogue is cracked. Not in a funny way, just in a way that makes it complete nonsense, imo.

On the other hand, the game is trying to do something nice. It's got breathing exercises and positive affirmations and the characters all tell the player that they love you and the devs tell you you're wonderful and etc. That's nice. It's CRINGY, but nice. Nice in a cringy way. In a way that makes it feel like they expected their players to be mostly preschoolers. It's nice to be nice, but Garden Buddies makes it uncomfortable, ime.

~

Aaaaanyway...

I finished Garden Buddies. One completion for 2024! And I completed the Pikmin 4 demo, too, both after I finished making two dozen photo cards. Felt quite awful today but got some things done anyway. Tidied a bit, got tomorrow's errand list made, took my mom a present. Also looked up how Arcanists work and I know how to arrange my, uh...my class taskbar? Hotbar? Anyway I'll better know how to use my character, next time I decide to go into FFXIV. Probably. :)

It'd be awesome if I could finish Lego Bricktales tomorrow, and maybe the Silent Hope demo? Or maybe the Star Ocean Second Story R demo. Though I think what I have left of Bricktales is longer than I can do in a day. Not sure. I thought it'd be fun, but the building doesn't follow any logical system so it's not fun at all. Pooh. Still, I can finish it. No problem finishing it and three more demos this week, I think, and if I do that, I'll have a total of three completions under my belt in the first week of the year. (I've been planning to call 4 demo completions the equivalent of one game completion. It's all gaming hours, after all!)

Pikmin 4 is super cute, and so far not very stressful, though I still dislike being on a time limit. At least it barely applies to when you go into 'dungeons'. Time essentially freezes in there. I like it a fair bit, but if I have tiny hints of stress now, I figure it'll get worse later, like it did with Pikmin 3. Not sure if I want it. I'll have to be very sure if I'm to spend AAA prices on it when I only have enough budgeted for 6 of those across the entire year. (Though I do have one freebie because of the voucher I still have to claim.)
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Bluie
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Did my first backlog-y thing this year despite it not being on my backlog. I finished the Blueberry Pokedex in Pokemon Violet. Getting some of Scarlet exclusives was annoying. While I do have Scarlet also, I didn't want to bother going through all the hullabaloo of the story again so I just sacrificed some of my shiny Pokemon to get what I needed.

I also did some some point grinding with online randos because it is a draaaag by yourself, takes forever. I still don't have enough to get everything I need, but I'll do it again later.
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Kikki
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I give up!

Lego Bricktales was a complete waste of money. (Thankfully I at least got it on a major sale.) For future reference...not a single part of it has been fun. The characters are...well, what characters, really? The story is rudimentary and flat, not compelling. (It's more a framework of large goals than a story.) The gameplay is clunky, the graphics are clunky, and the building doesn't make any sense and is NOT optimized for Switch...it's clearly designed for a mouse, not a control stick.

So, it's abandoned, because we hates it forever. Another game off the backlog! Just...not in a good way. I think I'll go reorganize my hotbar in FFXIV and see if I'm using the rotation properly to get bigger chunks of damage. Though I've only fought piddly enemies so far...no wonder I haven't been able to go through the cycle of gemstone thingies for the ghost of the arcanist's rabbit kitsune pet thing. The low-level mobs die too fast to do a full rotation of anything.

I'm worse today than yesterday so...gonna get the heck off these breaking feet and go imitate a transitioning caterpillar as soon as I can. I needed more than five hours of sleep last night, but I forgot to take my pills before bed so I woke up extra-early because I was too uncomfortable. Dumbo. At least I made it to the chiro first and managed to make the three batches of hummus. But really, who needs 10-12 cups of hummus all at once? Even if they are different types.
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greensara
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The nice thing about Pikmin 4 that I guess wasn't a feature in previous games is being able to rewind chunks of time, even back to the beginning of the day in many cases (which I have done to correct some stuff, and it cheers up my kids when their Pikmin get chomped or drown).

Finished Miitopia just in time before the big girls had to go back to school. So yay! +1 cleared in 2024!
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iLoveSprites75
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My main goals for my backlog are the Spyro trilogy, Fantasy Life since the remake is arriving this year, and finishing Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX. I don't know when I'll start (trying to rest my wrists), and I'm not sure which I'll go to first, but I better hurry up with Fantasy Life lol.
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:!: Switch Friend Code: 3568-7972-6584 :!:

View my backlog here

Currently playing: SoS: FoMT (courting Gray; Autumn year 1); Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Next backlog goal(s): not holding myself to anything currently.
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Kikki
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greensara wrote: Jan 03, 2024 12:51 pm The nice thing about Pikmin 4 that I guess wasn't a feature in previous games is being able to rewind chunks of time, even back to the beginning of the day in many cases (which I have done to correct some stuff, and it cheers up my kids when their Pikmin get chomped or drown).
I saw that in the menu but didn't try it. The time I remember feeling stressed, rewinding time wouldn't have helped. Time barely moves when you're in a 'dungeon', but it does still move. I went into two two-floor ones in a row on one day, and it used up almost all my time, and then I had to RUSH to get all my pikmin back to the ship so they wouldn't be left behind to die. (I can't stand it when that happens.) I have a fair bit of anxiety in the background all the time, and the game seems to make it a bit worse, so I just don't think it's for me even with the extra features. It was quite fun, and definitely cute, and Pikmin needs more support, but thinking about playing it again makes me feel anxious, lol, so with so little to spend on games this year, I don't think Pikmin 4 is my best bet. I don't think I can be part of the Pikmin fandom.

~

I got a thing! I wasn't expecting to get a thing, but I did. It is a bird dressed in a supposed 'dragon' costume. I think it looks like a stuffie of a baby ostrich-raptor, if raptors were blue. It's a minion in FFXIV. It's cute. Not sure what point it has. I think minions are purely cosmetic. They pretend to fight but I don't think they actually do anything, and I'm so preoccupied during battle that I never notice them there anyway.

It is cute, though. It didn't take long to get, either. Some New Year bonus? I also happened to get a coeurl or whatever the baby leopards are called, and a puppy, all one after the other...three minions in a row on my new Limsa Lominsa Duskwight Arcanist fellow. I've got Arcanist figured out well enough for now, since it basically just changes to Summoner at 30 anyway. I'll have to reorganize my bar around then since it's already full.

Gotta say, seeing my put on a steely-eyed glare for the enemy and then whip out a book is rather humorous. Not digging the Arcanist's style for an action guy. I'd like it more if he were a healer. But I guess he's a magic DPS not a physical one. *shrug*
Last edited by Kikki on Jan 03, 2024 5:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Oops. Was trying to edit the quote code and somehow replied to myself.
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Mikodesu
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Just a little Sandrock ramble, I had a lot of fun tonight. My one little quibble is how quests are handled sometimes. I'm fine with you being able to fail quests and needing to prioritize things, but this particular quest didn't have a time limit. :/ And I was prioritizing an all day festival, and get a 'whoops you failed' notification just after it was over... Sad.
Spoiler:
Showdown at High Noon... iirc Portia had a VERY similar festival, though iirc it was 1v1 rather than teams. Teams is SO much more fun, even just watching matches. Watching Cooper and Krystal and Yan do combat was just, hilarious. I beat Krystal and Pen in straight sets, but it was...surprisingly nerve wracking? Definitely pairing up with Pen is the cheat code to winning the festival, every match of his I watched, his ultimate does half the opponent's health.

I cannot say how much I love that the whole thing stops (I assume if you haven't challenged him to a duel) after you beat him for his speech. And that for every round you beat him he GAINS friendship. Easily one of my favorite characters now, can't believe how much he's grown on me. The writing is like...Groose without the « Chicken Hugging » pest aspect of his character. Though Pen also...lives up to the hype? He's like a chuni, but a chuni who possesses their super powers. Groose was just a self-obsessed teenager who needed and got an attitude check...

That's two more low percent achievements in the book, too. 9% for beating Pen, and iirc 2 or 3% for Showdown fest. Probably a combo of the number of people who've made it this far in the story and the number of them who have the dexterity to win an action game fight.

Man, I love this game.
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I loved Pen the minute I met him. He started talking, and within a couple of lines, my reaction was already at I LOVE YOU. There was only ONE time talking to him that I didn't love him. (He got grumpy when you greet him after recently winning the builder of the year award, or whatever it's called. He accuses you of being too braggy, which: lol...but SO hypocritical that you want to cave his head in. But I think Pen can't connect with anyone except via physical strength/ability so talk of their accomplishments in any other area just does him in.)

I didn't bother trying to defeat Pen (I didn't participate in the Showdown at all) in my first but I'll have to try it on a second play since I still have 18 (of 60) achievements to mop up, including some goofy ones I had no idea were achievements, like picking up bits of pointless trash that eat your stamina to give you junk, so I only did it a few times before deciding it wasn't worth my stamina points. So I have some easy ones to mop up, and some tricky ones, mostly relating to festivals I didn't take part in (like the sandrunning and showdown ones.)

Not gonna replay SOON, but I can definitely feel a second play in the cards. I have plans for Pen on my second play.

~

My (new) Duskwight lad finally got some good-looking clothes. I've heard a lot of people don't like elves in this game, and that Duskwights are especially neglected. Hmph. They say the elves are too misshapen...so tall (and slim) that they just look lumpen in their clothes (they look pretty fantastic if you look at the base character model!) It's not true, though. They look great, as long as you don't put them in anything baggy or bulky. They are freakishly tall...I think they must be 7 feet tall, the tallest of them maybe more like 7.5 feet. (I make my character as tall as possible. Not gonna apologize for all these inches!) But those thick blueish grey guys are just as tall, y'know. I meet characters as tall as mine all the time...just not among humans or the cat-ear humans. They look absolutely teeny next to Shade. Or that mouse or gerbil-like human race, of course, but they look tiny next to everyone.

This past month sure has been a doozy.
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Mikodesu
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I dunno, there's something about self-absorbed people that always, always rubs me the wrong way. But he's written and voice acted in a way that I can't take it completely seriously. Over the course of 70 hours, he wore me down.

I haven't done any duels so far (testosterone fueled competition has no draw for me :lol:) but the Showdown festival was very fun. (Honestly, MOST of the festivals have been, even if I haven't entirely understood the rules.)
Spoiler:
I participated with Mi-An out of loyalty. She's kinda your bro up to this point? (If I can put it that way lol) And it worked out that she does range combat and I use the big stick to clobber everyone. Very fun festival. In the likelihood that the game takes another year, I look forward to another day of watching goofy NPC battles.

I'm always impressed by games that characterize their NPCs mechanically (like Pen gaining friendship when you beat him), so I'm probably a bit biased.
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Bluie
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Me @ Kiki getting back into FFXIV: :)

To answer your question about Minions, yes, they're purely cosmetic, but a good amount of them have special interactions. The puppy and kitten you have will pretend to fight with you, for example. Another example is that all Moogle type minions will dance with one another (and on occasion you might run into a big Moogle dance party/ring in a town). Company Mammets will salute eachother, rams will lock horns, the cheerleader will cheer you as you fight, and then certain combos of 'Wind-Up's will fight each other of have special interactions, but most of them are kinda spoiler-y so I'll refrain. Another not fully known thing about minions is that most bird minions will perch on your shoulder if you do the/beckon emote, but there are a few others that will do the same despite not being birds. Also, almost all animal minions will eat out of your hand it you do the /handover emote. If you get enough of the 'Wind-Up' types of minions you will eventually get a title known as Mammeteer which, when equipped, turns all 'obedient' minions (as in all they do is follow you and wait for you to move again) into 'independent' behavior patterns, bacially making them more alive and will walk around you as you idle. Most minions will also do their unique animation if you /poke them! ...Can you tell I collect minions in this game? Loooool....

As for my gaming stuff, I have unfortunately (or fortunately?) been bit by the writing bug HARD. I'm in the middle of resurrecting an old abandoned/deleted Owlboy fic from 3 years ago, I'm planning extra chapters to my FFXIV and Pokemon Violet fics, and after much prodding from a friend, I watched ALL of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and it's getting a fic, I can't stop my brain. I don't feel particularly bad about not hitting my backlog with a boom right away because writing is productive and fulfilling. I'm honestly looking forward to waking up early tomorrow and writing from dawn til dusk. Hobbies are so much fun when that motivation hits you just right!
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Code_Name_Geek
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I started and finished a new game already, which is a great start to the year for me! The game I chose was Unpacking, which a friend gifted to me this holiday season so it gave a bit of an extra push to start it. I really enjoyed it! The gameplay is fun but the atmospheric storytelling and sound design is where it really shines, and I discovered a few little easter eggs while searching for all the achievements that were really neat as well. I think I may continue trying to blast through shorter games like that in and around the longer games I have on the go, so that they don't pile up as quickly as they have been.
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Kikki
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Stupid FFXIV.

I knew it did this, though. It eats your life. The problem is that MMORPGs have always been exactly what I like. Huge 'living' worlds to explore, with loads of little quests, each area with its own story. And MMO-style combat really suits me (Xenoblade 1 combat is basically MMO combat, and I cottoned on to XC1's system way better than any other game's.)

At the very least, it tends to eat up ALL of your gaming time. I look at my backlog and am not very interested in playing any of it, if I could play FFXIV instead. It helps that I remember almost NOTHING of the MSQ, lol. (A few bits. I remember the stuff in Coerthas, for some reason.)

I was thinking about it. You know from the first instant that your character is special, but then...that's the premise of EVERY game (almost) because who wants to play a common grunt? Everybody wants to be a big shining hero, I getcha. But I can't figure out if the player character KNOWS who/what he is. And if he does know...did he know from the start, or is it something that gradually comes back to him? He didn't react with any surprise when talking to Cid. Characters around him all think he reminds them of these Light people, or the Crystal people, or whatever they actually are. (I never got out of ARR content. I stopped in the early part of the transition quests between ARR and Heavensward, as soon as I ran into 8-man trials that you couldn't do with your trusty team of NPCs, so I don't know very much!) I'm less bothered by ME not knowing what's going on than I am by not knowing if my character knows what's going on or not. Why on earth would they go around handing out swim goggles, anyway? Or did I just misunderstand what I saw? At least give him safety goggles, not swim goggles, lol.

They tend to leave main characters in the dark about things so that they represent the player more, imo...since WE aren't supposed to know what's going on, the character representing you also tend to be surprised by events. But the game keeps giving me hints that my guy does know who he is, but then in a later spot it feels like he doesn't, so I dunno what's in his little head. For some reason, that's what picks at me. Not knowing if he knows or not. I don't need to know what's going on since I know I'll find out eventually, but I wanna know if HE knows, lol. Oh well, guess that may be part of the reveal.

This also made me think about Animal Crossing.

Doesn't sound right. But the knowing and not-knowing thing. It made me think of game developers, and whether THEY know, firsthand, if their games are fun or not. It made me think of game developers I know play their own games, like Stardew, versus ones that do not, like Animal Crossing.

I feel that games that are made by passionate players are the best games of all, the ones that make you say 'wow, these guys thought of everything!' Games like ACNH and so on, they all lack features and QoL that shows that the dev team don't play the game, because if they did, those features would be in. The best games aren't those made by the ones with the most coding experience, but by the ones who play the most. (And then hire people with lots of coding experience to give them a hand, if necessary.)

Kind of a weird thought train I got on, but get on it I did.

I really should get back to my backlog now, but I don't wanna. Meh, this was SUPPOSED to actually be the year I just have fun with my games, regardless of backlog or completions or anything. And FFXIV is at least a real budget-stretcher, since you can make it your only game for probably about half a year without running out of content. And that's just in the free portion of the game.

The problem is not letting it eat your actual life rather than just your gaming time, lol.
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infel
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I just can't decide what game to play. I don't know what's wrong with me. Either I'm just too tired to play anything right now, or just don't want to play really any video games. Honestly, I can't narrow the reason down. At most, I've been playing some Story of Seasons A wonderful Life, but it's not engaging enough for me. I've taken a small break from Shin Megami Tensei 5 just because it has burnt me out a little, but I'm hoping to finish it by the end of the month.

I have sort of narrowed things down to what I may play over the next few weeks. My choices are of a different genre or sub genre since I'm not sure I can stick with just one game. For now, I'll try play test the games I've chosen and see if they click with me.

Anyway, I've chosen to play the dual pack of Final Fantasy 7 and 8. Not sure which one I will stick with, but will see which one of these two games will stick with me. For an action combat game, I'm going with Tales of Symphonia. I'm not a huge action combat fan, but I am willing to try it. Also, I'm sticking with Shin Megami Tensei 5, since I know it's fun and have gotten very far in it. Only thing is I need to take a break from the game because I played a lot of it in December. It burnt me out a bit.