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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greensara
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Ooh! I just finished Tales of Symphonia around Christmas! I hope you have fun with it infel!

Well, I am about to say something that may be considered sacrilegious in some circles, but I feel safe saying it here. I hate Harvest Moon 64. I really, really wanted to love this supposed holy grail of a game, even renewing with the expansion pack in anticipation of it possibly being available, but I don't. I wanted to see the differences in the world, characters, story, and pick the alternate version of Popuri (who doesn't look like a child). I loved FOMT and the remake. Nope. QoL was a big part, but not totally since I still like the SNES one and the Gameboy ones. Just didn't push the fun button for me I guess. :( Still happy for everyone having fun with it though. I may try again later, but meh, more time for other games and Palia I guess, lol.

Played around with other 64 games like the original Mario party and Mario 64. Lol, it was funny to see the kids react to how some of the games worked and looked from that time.
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infel
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greensara wrote: Jan 06, 2024 3:55 pm Ooh! I just finished Tales of Symphonia around Christmas! I hope you have fun with it infel!

Well, I am about to say something that may be considered sacrilegious in some circles, but I feel safe saying it here. I hate Harvest Moon 64. I really, really wanted to love this supposed holy grail of a game, even renewing with the expansion pack in anticipation of it possibly being available, but I don't. I wanted to see the differences in the world, characters, story, and pick the alternate version of Popuri (who doesn't look like a child). I loved FOMT and the remake. Nope. QoL was a big part, but not totally since I still like the SNES one and the Gameboy ones. Just didn't push the fun button for me I guess. :( Still happy for everyone having fun with it though. I may try again later, but meh, more time for other games and Palia I guess, lol.

Played around with other 64 games like the original Mario party and Mario 64. Lol, it was funny to see the kids react to how some of the games worked and looked from that time.
Thank you so much. My sister played this when we were kids, and I've always wanted to play. I hear this game has a lot of quests and is a good place to start for Tales games and action combat. Hoping I can have fun.
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It just so happens that the monitor I was eyeing was currently on sale. I took the plunge and got one of the three upgrades that I have been planning for my 1440 p setup. Even with my 1660 Super, Baldur's Gate 3 was playable for me on 1440p Medium. The FPS was below 60 FPS but above 30 FPS which I don't mind but seeing Astarion and my Tav on 1440p was so nice! I just hope my GPU can manage when I reach the third act of the game though. ^^; I can't wait to save up and upgrade my GPU so I can set my setting to High!

As for My Time at Sandrock, it's less extensive on my PC and 1440p looks lovely on High with above 50FPS. I am currently progressing slowly and finding my rhythm with the game. I have to pace myself and not stress myself too much with this game so I am enjoying this game a lot more. I am more invested in the main story but most people say not to rush too much. :lol:
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Kikki
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Gathering roles are so quick to level up! Got Miner to 50 in a couple of hours, and Botanist is as fast. Haven't tried Fisher yet as it seems relatively useless. (I'll do it anyway, though. Eventually.) But MAN..do these gathering and crafting classes ever fill your inventory up fast! :? Your ridiculously limited inventory.

Stopped doing that for a bit as the inventory management is starting to stress me out. Arcanist/Summoner is a magical DPS role (and I've done ranged DPS and melee DPS on my other character already in the form of Archer/Bard and Lancer/Dragoon.) So I figure I'll go for a Tank and a Healer role as well to see what those are like. Am trying Marauder right now...no likey!

It's actually a more difficult class in terms of how much you have to coordinate and remember in battle, but the way your marauder teachers and compatriots talk to you, it just smacks of 'I think with my big hairy muscles', and the whole story set-up in the beginning is about vengeance. I loathe vengeance as a plot device, as I can't feel it. Revenge cannot motivate me. Also, an axe is just the most disgusting weapon, I'm really not grooving on this one. Oh well, it's fine. I do like how FAST all the attacks charge up, and how you just have to run up and stand really close...no wondering about distance. Just get right in their face. Unambiguous. I do like that part.

But I wonder if any of the other tank roles come across a bit more...intellectual. Gladiator might be better? I think that's the only other level 1 Tank class. I guess I should check.

Then I'll just switch back to Arcanist and see how Scholar works for a healer class, I guess. I do think that DPS is the simplest, though, and this big dope NEEDS simple. When it comes to battling, I'm the type who can't chew gum and walk at the same time.

Not having good luck climbing the ladder in the Grand company, and I can't even tell how many more levels until Sergeant. When you're on the free trial and doing everything solo, the best ways to level up aren't available to you, and doing the gear selling for seals doesn't unlock until you've already gotten quite a few promotions, and doing company leves for it in Moraby is painfully slow since I'm stuck at ones that give rewards of about 230 seals (that's including all the bonuses I can wrack up). And they're slow and tiresome, and you can do about 16 of them, but that'll take you an hour or two, and it's not fun. (Looked it up: I'll need 15,000 more seals to get where I want to be. And fill out my hunting log. UGH.) Maybe now that I have higher level gathering, I can get some good provision quests.

Great game with loads to do, but some very un-fun grindy bits to be had if you want to do anything other than follow the MSQ. But maybe that's what people want in a live service game...continual stuff to grind out bit by bit.

I really should get back to backlog items.
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Bluie
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Kiki, if you truly ever need me in FFXIV, I am more than willing to zip over to your side. I would suggest maybe playing Summoner and Scholar co-currently as they level up next to one another and you can switch over at any time. That way you have a DPS and healer handy whenever. While I absolutely loathe playing with Scholars (Shadowbringers Era raiding was full of braindead ones that never helped heal, making me do all the work, i'm bitter about it), I have played Summoner for awhile and it's very fun once you get the hang of things and start getting your actual summons. It has a fairly simple rotation (boils down to fill the bar, summon the thing, pewpewpew, rinse&repeat) and high damage PLUS it has a resurrection spell so you can help your team out if the healer is too busy. As for Tanks that are less burly, there's Gunbreaker but you'll need to have any class to 70 before you can unlock it (and iirc, it's locked to Shadowbringers). It's more of a DPS than a tank, but it's a tank nonetheless. As someone who plays Dark Knight, I do not recommend it, at all. It's the most fragile of the tanks and while it has a fantastic story quest, the gamplay of Dark Knight really needs a rework to keep up with its counterparts. I've been too stuborn to level another tank, but I really should so I can enjoy doing it again.

----

Just one more day until the epilogue releases for Pokemon! Really looking forward to playing it, though according to leaks it's short. I wasn't expecting another expansion sized experience, I'm just happy we get to hang out with the three from base game again. I need more Arven material to finish my fic lol.

FFXIV's last update until Dawntrail releases on the 16th of Jan and it's a whole 24 hour maintenance. Excited to play it, looking forward to seeing our first female Hrothgar in action. I'll probably use some of the long wait to finish some of the untouched content I keep avoiding in FFXIV because summer is a loooooong way away for Dawntrail. I need to rope some friends into helping me finish Eureka, I'm tired of soloing it. So freaking slow on your own. Blue Mage is something I can get my husband to help with, and other than that I have leveling other classes and doing all their associated questlines, which are ugly red markers on my map I want GONE. Bluie likes clean maps with no quest markers.

I've managed to push out two chapters into the TMNT fic I'm working on. I fully expect this one to tank, I'm not feeding the fandom with it but directly fulfilling my teenage wishes that I buried all those years ago. It's not killing my motivation though as I have a great hype woman beta reader + every kudos is a surprise. If five people are enjoying it, then hell, who am I to let them down? My fingers are feeling a little overworker though, so I might just give them a rest today and mostly play Star Rail. There's a handful of new modes I've been avoiding while I build my characters. Both Topaz and Huohuo are fully build outside of a few relics I need to replace while I'm currently actively working on Yanqing, Stelle, Welt, Dan Heng, and Xueyi. I need to also build Gepard, Bronya, Himeko, and Clara as it would be dumb of me not too, but one thing at a time. I also want to build Arlan because I genuinely like him and his character and I'd love to turn him into a beast. If I end up pulling Blade on his banner, he'll be added to the build queue as well lol.
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Kikki
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Bluie wrote: Jan 10, 2024 3:22 am Kiki, if you truly ever need me in FFXIV, I am more than willing to zip over to your side. I would suggest maybe playing Summoner and Scholar co-currently as they level up next to one another and you can switch over at any time. That way you have a DPS and healer handy whenever. While I absolutely loathe playing with Scholars (Shadowbringers Era raiding was full of braindead ones that never helped heal, making me do all the work, i'm bitter about it), I have played Summoner for awhile and it's very fun once you get the hang of things and start getting your actual summons. It has a fairly simple rotation (boils down to fill the bar, summon the thing, pewpewpew, rinse&repeat) and high damage PLUS it has a resurrection spell so you can help your team out if the healer is too busy. As for Tanks that are less burly, there's Gunbreaker but you'll need to have any class to 70 before you can unlock it (and iirc, it's locked to Shadowbringers). It's more of a DPS than a tank, but it's a tank nonetheless. As someone who plays Dark Knight, I do not recommend it, at all. It's the most fragile of the tanks and while it has a fantastic story quest, the gamplay of Dark Knight really needs a rework to keep up with its counterparts. I've been too stuborn to level another tank, but I really should so I can enjoy doing it again.
Thank you Bluie :) I really do appreciate it. Between last time and this time, I've put in a lot of FFXIV hours, but I'm still not sure I even know what I'm doing, lol. You don't have to read the spoiler content, it's really long, but I do like to write things out to try to fix them in my head. :)
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I'm going to say first that I do NOT know what I am talking about. I'm a big dope. BUT...to me it seems like DPS is the easy role. I'd say, from how I see it, that it goes DPS, Tank, Healer, in terms of easy to difficult. Or maybe 'stressful'? But that's if you're trying to play with others. I feel like other people would really NOTICE if you're not doing your job right as a tank or a healer, but not so much if you're DPS. I mean, if you're not pulling the aggro, very noticeable. Or if you're letting everyone die, also very noticeable.

Healers seem the most difficult of all to me because they have the most things to pay attention to. (And I can't multitask. I can barely 'task', let alone MULTItask.) They can sort of pay a little less attention to the enemy (except they also have to be aware of target areas and big attacks coming up) but they have to keep track of every one of their teammates, remembering whose role is what, since I'm pretty sure you need to prioritize some roles over others for healing (don't wanna lose the tank or everyone's suddenly getting squished!) since you can't always heal everything that needs healing all at once.

Not that I've played a healer! But that's just what I think it's gotta be like. However...I play solo, lol. So the party responsibilities of a tank and a healer don't really apply to me...except I guess they do, with the party of NPCs for any trial. (But you don't have to feel guilty toward bits of programming, so there's not a lot of pressure there.)

Anyway, I figure I'm playing the easiest role already. Summoner IS easy, though all I ever do (my guy is already level 55, why is there so much EXP in this game? I guess so you can level lots of classes, not just one?) is throw out Energy Drain to kick things off, charge my carbuncle, then Fester/Fester...then shoot off Ruin in any cracks when my carbuncle or other attacks are still unavailable. Then spam out yellow and green, and red IF I can afford to stay still a little longer, then cycle again. I absolutely love being able to RUN AROUND as I'm shooting off Fester or Emerald or Topaz. (Uhh...Garuda and Titan? I think.) Though in a party, I try to stay close to my AI conjurer, so that my slow noggin doesn't miss any 'quick hide in this spot!!' cues, or get too far away for healing.

I almost never use my AoEs because they are so weak, I feel like it works better to pick off one enemy entirely and then move on to the next, to reduce the amount of damage coming out of the enemy faster. My thought is this (I know I could be off base but this is what makes sense to me): 3 enemies. Each one takes 1 minute to defeat. If you try to beat them all at once, you're receiving 100% damage for three minutes. But if you pick them off one at a time, you're receiving 100% damage for only one of those minutes, then it goes down to 66, then to 33. I don't even know if that makes sense, but that's what I think, lol. So I've tried my AoE spells but I hate them. (Unless there's more like 5 enemies than 3. Then it might be worth it? Cuz the damage doesn't seem to reduce if you spread it out over more enemies. You get 300 damage to one enemy with a single-target Ruin and Fester, but 100 damage to each of the enemies within a certain space... don't know how big a space mind you...with Outburst and Painflare. I don't know if those numbers are right, I don't have the game open atm to check specifics.)

AoEs seem vital for tanks and healers, but more of a detriment for DPS. Maybe I've got it wrong, though.

So much to think about. But at least as a DPS, no one really notices if you're screwing up. As long as the Summoner is making lots of shinies shoot out, he looks like he's doing his job well enough. To me that seems lower stress. But I'm not sure about solo. I'm starting to think that for SOLO specifically...tank might be easiest. Not sure how a healer manages to not take forever to finish a battle, though, since they probably don't have all that many options for attacking. It'd feel like the safest solo...the least death of your own character...but it also seems like healer would be really tedious to play solo.

I can't believe how sturdy these tank buggers are! I like...hardly ever see my HP go down in the wild, lol, unless I've got 5+ mobs on me at once. He can't heal, which is a little stressy (but I'm training my chocobo as a healer...I was so happy the first time Huri actually healed me, lol!) but he takes the hits like they're nothing.

The marauder story is really crappy though...very uninspiring. (Your teacher is a little funny since he's an earnest honking big dumbo, but the chuckles are few and far between.) Maybe it becomes better when you shift to warrior, but the marauders just come across as brainless thugs, to me, if we're going by the teachers and the quest about revenge against an animal, of all things, that killed some boy's parents. I have a hard time getting into revenge stories even against fellow humans (or humanoid anythings), but the idea of getting revenge against a beast/monster is just...pathetic, to me. (I've no desire to read Moby « Sheep Squeezer », lol. Ahab needs to take a chill pill and get some perspective, imo!)

I already have my marauder at 27, so, soon to be a warrior. I haven't gone to be a Scholar yet because I assumed they shared the EXP pool with the same Arcanist base as Summoner, so there was nothing lost in waiting, though I do mean to go do that soon.

Anyway, I'm getting through things. Not with any style, but the story is progressing! I'm not sure I get much better as time goes on, though. I'm never sure I really understand how things are supposed to work. I'm sure if anyone was watching me, they'd be shaking their heads at the goofy amateur who just doesn't get it.
I only have ONE quest left and then I'm at the end of A Realm Reborn and will slip back into the between stuff before Heavensward. (Recently found out that some people think this is Heaven Sward. Isn't it Heavens-ward? Like...toward the heavens? Because what the fudge is a 'sward'? As far as I know, it's grass. Short grass. And I don't think the story is going to shift to being about divine lawns. This is some really good sod, y'all! ???)

I'm going to count each major story clump as its own game completion, as far as my backlog goes. Each one takes easily as much time as a big JRPG if you're also raising all the gathering and crafting classes and the different combat classes as well, and all the beast tribe stuff, so that seems fair.

I seem to recall that this last dungeon/trial of ARR that Raubahn sends you into had a doozy of a battle at the end with some massive black monstrosity, but I think it was mostly the party-wiping attacks with TINY areas of safety that I was unable to find the first few times. I think I sort of remember, so I hope I won't have to repeat it as many times as the first time I played a year or two ago. Ideally I'll get it in two, lol.

Thankfully the party of NPCs is very smart. They don't seem to make any mistakes! Perfect for me, who makes loads of them and gets flustered very easy. If in doubt, I just follow my conjurer around. :)
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Bluie
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The only way you're going to 'mess up' as a DPS is not doing enough damage thus making the fight go on longer that needed. This really only happens if you're either undergeared or not doing proper rotations. The norm is to do your single target stuff when there's a single enemy and then do your AOEs when there's a cloud of enemies. Do that sufficiently and your golden.

When the tank/healers mess up, it's more noticeable as if they're not doing their job, someone is dead or dying. I find healer braindead most of the time and it's easy money, but I really only play it in bigger settings (Raids and Trials) because you share responsibility. Healing in dungeons with randos can be a total drag because of trying to gauge how the tank wants to take things (but I guess this isn't too much of an issue for you who's doing the game as soloable as it can be). I don't like tanking outside of Alliance Raids (24 man raids) because I just don't jive with it's overall thing. I force myself to tank other things when leveling for role quests, but other than that I don't bother.

I will say that Warriors are the most self sustaining tank in the game atm. With their kit, they can heal themselves and hardly ever need a healer to top them up if played correctly. I recently accidently queued into a level 90 dungeon as healer (I meant to as DPS) and as I loaded in did I realize it. I started panicking (level 90 dungeons can be brutal on the healer if the tank pulls every enemy on them at once), but the moment I saw my tank was a Warrior I went 'lol, nevermind' and proceeded to almost never need to keep him alive. I wish EVERY tank I go into dungeons with was a Warrior lol.
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Kikki
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Bluie wrote: Jan 10, 2024 5:58 am The only way you're going to 'mess up' as a DPS is not doing enough damage thus making the fight go on longer that needed. This really only happens if you're either undergeared or not doing proper rotations. The norm is to do your single target stuff when there's a single enemy and then do your AOEs when there's a cloud of enemies. Do that sufficiently and your golden.
If I have 3 enemies, I stubbornly pick off one at a time to reduce the damage as fast as possible since my healing is underwhelming at this point. (Don't know if Summoner gets any better healing later or not, though.) If there's MORE than 3 enemies, I'll use AoE. Though I can't tell how big a space it effects. The damage is so minimal, it's hard to tell what's coming off each of them.

Item Level is a tough one. I assume in ARR, having an item level that matches your own level is acceptable, but that it becomes increasingly necessary to have a higher IL than your player level when you get into Heavensward and beyond. (I'm currently level 55 and have an IL of just 59.) My Hand/Land roles all have relatively low ILs atm. Gotta fix that.

I find it's the accessories that hold my item level down, so I'm grinding up a goldsmith. (My gatherers are all at 50 now, thankfully.) Got the goldsmith to level 45. But if you hit 50 with any of your crafting classes, the items suddenly want ingredients that aren't available in any area I can currently access. :? So I'm in a bit of a sticky stage right now. Still, I should be able to get my item level up more than this. Being able to use the market board when I buy the game will certainly be handy...lots of stuff I can't get otherwise, right now.

Well, at least if I suck, it's not affecting anyone but me :)

Disappointed to learn I can't change my chocobo's colour without owning a house. (ARGH.) Or being in a FC house I guess but that doesn't really apply to me. I thought I'd be able to do it at that Gridanian stable where they give me the Fiesty Chocobo quest, and I haven't been back yet to check firsthand, but the internet keeps telling me I have to have a house, an FC house, or at least an apartment, and use the stable attached to those to be able to feed my chocobo the requisite munchies. Oh well, not like it changes the game. And Huri looks cute as a yellow thing in this Warrior of Light barding or whatever it is called...the horn colour on his hat matches his feathers. :)

Whoa, I thought the Dawn thing wasn't coming until Summer!
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Bluie
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Kikki wrote: Jan 10, 2024 7:16 amWhoa, I thought the Dawn thing wasn't coming until Summer!
It is! Drawntrail is set for summer, I was just talking about the last update before then that's coming out on the 16th of this month.

I'm not 100% sure if you can own an apartment on a free trial (I forgot if you're still on this or not), but the easiest way to get one is to go to a housing district's apartment building and buy one for 500,000 gil, which sounds like a lot but you'll get that and more just playing the story. I have two of them, one in a FC house while the other is in Ishgard (the setting for Heavensward - and yes, it's Heavens WARD lol). Getting one in a FC house doesn't automatically guarantee you access to changing your Chocobo's color as the owner of the FC house has to set a stable out. Getting an apartment in the housing district allows you access to the stable as there's automatically one outside the building.

As for item level, you can get the best in expansion for normies (meaning people like you and me who don't do savage raiding) via Rowena who has assistants known as 'representatives' in every major city. You trade tomestones to them that you get from doing literally anything in game via the duty finder. The only other option is to buy from the market board as vendors really don't have the best stuff. Crafting is an option too, but as you said, they're highly reliant on having specifc areas open or having deep pockets. Regardless, I hope it works out with whatever you need. You really wont have any item level restrictions until end game, so as long as you're not dying from basic attacks or party wide attacks, you should be good.
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so i've clocked about 25 hours in aegis rim. so far, i've cleared the following character scenarios: takamiya, natsuno, shinonome, and amiguchi. i'm locked out of doing the 3rd area until i get to a certain event in juro kurabe's flowchart. i'm enjoying the game thus far, but i still have no clear picture of the plot and the out-of-order storytelling isn't doing me any favors. it is certainly a unique design choice, to say the least. it looks like if i want to get the full experience, i'd have to sit hours pondering on the event archive after clearing everyone's scenarios.

i'm slowly making progress with shin megami tensei: iv. i finally got past xi wangmu, and am currently left stranded on the barely navigable world map. i'm thinking of putting more focus on sidequesting as i want to attempt fighting chernobog before i get above level 33 for a fair fight. the issue here is that i don't remember half of the quest-givers locations bc as i said before the world map is absolutely atrocious. looks like i better pull up a guide...
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I've been rushing through Genshin and Star Rail to have more time for Sandrock these days. Pure Fiction is very fun, though. I love the idea of having a separate endgame that prioritizes different styles of teams. And I love that everybody is suddenly building Herta.


Sandrock has been a bit of a story bomb, the last few days. For spoiler free context of where I at...I have spoken to Logan. (Massive, spoiler filled wall of text beyond the cut...)
Spoiler:
Wrote out my initial impressions yesterday, and was so curious about what else I could trigger that I played through the whole segment again. (Didn't intend to, I just didn't have a separate save before the boss fights.) It worked out either way though, since I took it slow and cleared out the whole area following a guide to make sure I got everything.

Still have NO idea what the puzzle with the little bobomb guys where you jump through the three hoops is about, though. Guide said nothing about a chest there, but. ??? I assumed it was some sort of weird puzzle, couldn't figure it out, didn't want to spoil myself Googling it, gave up.

LOVE the way the plot reveal is unveiled, though. I took the time to explore the room after the Haru fight, found the insulated lunchbox, still did not catch on. Hoped instead that there would be some way to later hint at who she had been delivering food to.

(To that end: I checked today, and according to the Wiki the lunchbox quest is NOT timed, so in theory you could just hold onto it until that point in the story. I'd love to see if there's a flag for that, if the lunchboxes don't even show up in the hideout if you don't finish the quest. Plans for run 2! Whenever that happens!)

First time through for whatever reason the timer with Logan made me anxious so I just bursted him down and didn't take the time to bait out his attacks like I did with Haru. (I love the matryoshka doll bomb attack with him. Very cute.) I actually like a lot of the animations on Logan's attacks, but the between animations aren't great. They look unfinished, imo. I do like that he swaps between range and melee attacks based on whether you stay at range, though. On my second run I baited him and waited out the timer, and as I guessed, Grace intervenes. Makes me feel better about the whole 'I had my goat get you' plan. Slightly better.

On my second run through I decided to try out English voice lines to hear Haru and Logan, and...NOPE. Haru's VA sounded very 'who we have in the office' and Logan was okay, but I hate the choice to make him a cowpoke because he wears a cowboy hat. I prefer no cowpoke, and I prefer the context Mandarin Logan brings to his lines. I made the choice of the line "I've always wanted to be a bandit" in that first exchange both times and English Logan reads the line in a mildly annoyed way, whereas Mandarin Logan takes it as a joke--he laughs before the line read.

(On my second run I also tried and reloaded the flirting line... and I am deeply grateful that he shuts you down immediately.)

The Mandarin VA for Haru comes off as intelligent and soft spoken, which up to that point matches what you've been told about him. I like it.

I was hoping I missed something about how Grace and Logan met and...I don't THINK I did. I don't think they were entirely clear on that. Which, I'm not sure what I think about.

It would take a lot of reworking the plot to make this work, but I also don't like that the plot revolves around saving Sandrock as a potential military outpost? Because basically who « Snuggly Bunny » cares? The military wouldn't care at ALL if people are already there, the infrastructure for moving supplies and soldiers would be far more important. So if the plot revolved around the rail lines instead of the water, that would make more sense.

I do love all the foreshadowing, though. I'd love to see the full extent of it on a second playthrough. I've been curious about the 'Sandrock Storage' area since I found Grace loitering there at some point early on. I don't even remember what she said about it... I assumed it was another ruin. I've gone back there twice, trying to trigger something.

On the plot itself, I'm...wondering if I've missed further foreshadowing. The game is so long I honestly can't remember. My predictions are basically just wishful thinking at this point. To that end... I kinda hope Pen is working for the villain--at first. Because I think he could also easily be a double agent. And that would be fun. The dynamic between him and Logan is also guaranteed to be funny. (My first thought was Miguel being the villain because his lines have him bordering on comically evil, and it would be interesting to see how the game handles having a villain be someone you can marry. Not sure I could bring myself to do it, but. I'm curious!)

So long as it doesn't end up to be somebody with ZERO foreshadowing who then becomes comically evil... I'm good. (I'd also prefer if it was one of the main cast and not some random who gives a « Snuggly Bunny » like they did with Portia... But even that to a sudden personality shift.)
The worse parts of the writing are starting to grate on me, though. The sheer MASS of 90s/early 2000s memes and references is insane. Early game they would show up ever so often, I would chuckle and move on. Now sometimes there are two in a sentence. I think maybe they'd be cuter if there was some reference to them taking root in society BECAUSE that's the media period that was unearthed from the 'old world' and has taken root. But I don't think that's it... I think it's just...the age range of the writers, and that there aren't that many strong writers on the translation team. There are a few though, some of the comedy is on point and has zero referential humor as a crutch.

And...I'm starting to notice the game... breaking down is too strong, but there are FAR more bugs now that I'm 90 hours in than when I was 45 hours in. Chests, wriggling into the ground. NPCs frequently wigging out. There's one who's not even supposed to be in town because of the quest chain I'm involved in, and I can find them on their usual routine pathing! Acting like they're out of town! If it doesn't get worse than this/doesn't crash, it's fine. But I do worry a little... I'd be really upset if the game freaked out to the point that I couldn't finish MSQ.

I THINK I still have a while to go, based on what upgrades I do/don't have. 2/3 through, maybe...? Still haven't been forced into upgrading the workshop. At this point I don't even want to. I've had the same horse rented out for the whole game, max loyalty now, I just take it back before it expires, re-rent it, and I'm set! Doesn't even feel like a challenge run anymore.
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Kikki
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Mikodesu wrote: Jan 10, 2024 11:39 pmThe sheer MASS of 90s/early 2000s memes and references is insane. Early game they would show up ever so often, I would chuckle and move on. Now sometimes there are two in a sentence. I think maybe they'd be cuter if there was some reference to them taking root in society BECAUSE that's the media period that was unearthed from the 'old world' and has taken root. But I don't think that's it... I think it's just...the age range of the writers, and that there aren't that many strong writers on the translation team.
The English writing might not be a translation at all. Pathea did a sort of casting call for their writers. They weren't asking for translators, but for writers. I remember the call for them on Twitter, to send in their writing samples, and I saw loads of people going in for that. So we don't know how much of the original writing is in English. Pathea does a lot of research and marketing in English from very early on, so I suspect there's a fair bit of English-speaking within the team itself as well, or maybe they have a branch for that. English is supposedly the international language of the business world, for some reason.

The English writing is so filled with character that I kind of doubt it's a translation at all in many places. That or they were given a lot of leeway, say to achieve the same mood rather than the same meaning. But I didn't care about the references anyway. I would vaguely see they were there and just skip along without liking or disliking it. Plus I think a Chinese person could as easily put in various pop culture references as a native English speaker, since things like movies and music tend to be one's first introduction to another language/culture. So I'm not clear at all on who really wrote and/or translated what in Sandrock.

I thought the writing was fantastic overall, though, for video game writing. (Which imo is usually utilitarian at best.) The characters are really interesting. Even side ones are pretty interesting. I talked to them just because I wanted to, and that's really rare in games, for me. I'm having a hard time separating the character writing with the story writing, though. I think it's the characters that are really strong, more than the story, though I do love 'save the environment' stories. One could probably fairly call them my favourite/most motivating.
Bluie wrote: Jan 10, 2024 9:11 am As for item level, you can get the best in expansion for normies (meaning people like you and me who don't do savage raiding) via Rowena who has assistants known as 'representatives' in every major city. You trade tomestones to them that you get from doing literally anything in game via the duty finder.
Thank you :) This is the poetics thing? I know I got some of those allagan poetic tomestones, but I believe I got them from the tribes. Can't remember now, this game is SO BIG. I think the Duty finder is all multiplayer stuff, right? I did go into Halatali with an unrestricted party (aka: just me.) Not sure that counts. But I don't do any multiplayer stuff so if the Duty Finder is all that, it's not something I'm gonna be getting. I'll have to look into it some more.

I'm still on the Free Trial, though the game is on sale 50% off until January 18th, which is very tempting, since I then have to buy a subscription as well and my budget this year is tiny. Just 6 AAA games-worth. That'd take a huge amount of it! I'd probably snatch a 6 month subscription. I think you get one free month subscription when you buy the game, though I'm not sure about that. But between the subscription and the game price, that'd be 25% of my entire year's gaming budget. 42% if I decide to re-subscribe at the when the 6 months runs out.

I really do want to buy it now while it's on sale. (And while it's winter and I have much less to do IRL.) I don't want to run into the money cap of 300,000 Gil. And I want to be able to use the market board and get access to a stable. And I need retainers for the extra inventory space! But it's a pretty big decision. I'd prefer to play as much as I can on the free trial but I'm already over 200,000G and I haven't even finished ARR...will probably do the very last quest of it today or tomorrow. (Not including the ARR to Heavensward transition stuff.) The game will probably go on sale again in half a year, but I made this 200,000+ Gil in just a week or two, so...

Of course, my budget is arbitrary. I don't HAVE to stick to an average of no more than $40 per month. I can afford the same budget I had last year since I have no social life and so don't spend on anything else, lol. But I felt it would actually improve my game-buying choices and tame backlog growth in one fell swoop and it was downright easy to stay in budget of $80 per month in 2023, so I figured I had to up my game. Or down my game.

I'm debating it mightily.
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Yes, it's poetics stuff. You do get them from various means, but the quickest way to grind them is multiplayer stuff. I don't actually know if doing an unrestricted party prevents you from earning them. I want to say no, but I don't actually know. I'm usually capped out on them before I know it so I don't keep track of it. Maybe check your currency tab, do something unrestricted that rewards poetics otherwise, and then check again once you're done? I know you HAVE to do things in multiplayer for the Moogle Tomestone events, but I know of no restriction otherwise.

---

I'm going slowly mad trying to get the last achievement based but tied to daily commissions name card in Genshin. This stupid Geo Travel Diary, I need it ONE MORE TIME and it hasn't been around in MONTHS. I log onto Genshin, I check my daily comms, I get disappointed, I play a few TCG games and then log out. That's been my daily 'grind' since the newest story event was finished. I'm starting to miss fishing.

Star Rail is going better. I'm FINALLY done building Topaz, managed to get some good artifacts yesterday and I am satisfied. Working on Huohuo atm with kinda OK luck, but not exactly what I need. I am so, SO close to the plat now, I can taste it!

Now I think the Pokemon epilogue has dropped so ima go play that now.
Last edited by Bluie on Jan 11, 2024 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mikodesu
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Kikki wrote: Jan 11, 2024 6:01 am The English writing might not be a translation at all. Pathea did a sort of casting call for their writers. They weren't asking for translators, but for writers. I remember the call for them on Twitter, to send in their writing samples, and I saw loads of people going in for that. So we don't know how much of the original writing is in English. Pathea does a lot of research and marketing in English from very early on, so I suspect there's a fair bit of English-speaking within the team itself as well, or maybe they have a branch for that.
Aside from asking the devs, the only way to have any real idea is to know both English and Mandarin. And it doesn't really matter, translation is just as difficult a job as writing (if you aren't being a human Google Translate). If the humor isn't a translation issue in English, it would be in other languages. Some of the referential humor is global enough to translate (like the Simpsons references, honestly) but that's up to a translator to decide. Referential humor isn't a bad thing on the face of it (I watch livestreams, which is rarely anything but), but it IS lazy. It's very easy to parrot someone else's joke, coming up with your own is difficult. (Somewhere along the line, someone was lazy.)

I let the laziness go to now because it was obvious how large the script is. (I would guarantee even Trio pales in the wake of Sandrock.) But when you end up stacking one referential joke on top of another, the cracks start to show. Probably something I could have pointed out if I got in very, very early in the "Early Access" period, but I didn't, so. ¯ \_(ツ)_/¯

I still say some of the writing in Sandrock is quite strong! Not to the standard of something like Disco Elysium, but good! I think I would put Sandrock's best on the same level as Alan Wake 2 (which had a lot of well timed, intentional comedy). For the most part the best writers have been chosen for the more important moments, and that's what matters. I just...don't think having your post apocalyptic crafting sim dripping with "millennial humor" is exactly what fits best? Unless of course they lampshaded it with a line/conversation about unearthing a particular era of "Old World" media. That would make it an interesting topic to explore.
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Glamour seems very important in FFXIV. It's strange how much more fun it is to play when your character (and their mount or minion) looks good.

I...really don't like marauders. Or warriors (my fella is a lvl 46 warrior now since I wanted to clean up a bunch of the side-quests I left behind, which is most of them, but mostly thanks to wanting to level up my ostrich chicken. So I'm on the last of the hunting logs now...took the chickobo along for almost all of it and he's at Rank 7 now.) Aaaaaaanyway...

I just hit the 'suggested gear' button when dressing my hero, so he's as equipped as possible. The marauder/warrior gear is thick and clunky and looks terrible on my borderline willowy elezen. The warrior gear isn't even interesting. I mean, their storyline presents them as enthusiastic muscleheads, shouldn't their gear be less...stuffy and uptight-looking? Almost froo-froo, in a bulky way. So when I hit the recommend button...it changed his shirt. All of a sudden he was just wearing strips of fabric wound around his chest, over one shoulder, with nothing over his abdomen except a huge black tribal tattoo that got added to one side of him. Where did that tattoo come from??

THAT is what a 'marauder' should look like, imo! Not stuffy...rakish. This look actually suits my slim fella, unlike the boxy stuff. I had no idea I even owned something that looked like that. Apparently it is the 'manor shirt' that I got from Haukke. It looks great with the ridiculously huge pair of green iron flanchards, for some reason. Weird in a kind of artistic way. Too bad it's not dyeable, but y'know, the colour it's in looks very natural...sort of beigey, like bandages. (Kind of Japanese 'delinquent' style.)

I like being a warrior a lot more if I don't look like a lumbering furbag. (For some reason the lvl 50 gear set that is the warrior's first official set is furry. It looks absurdly out of place on an elezen model.)

I still need to acquire the warrior chest so I haven't applied a glamour yet, but you can bet I will as soon as I can. Goofy to care about this when I don't plan to play the warrior long term (though he's very effective at this point...kills enemies faster than my summoner!) Still, it's way more fun to play a character who looks the way you think they should than one you think looks ridiculous.

Gonna bite the bullet on purchasing before the 18th. I AM going to buy it, so it might as well be when I have lots of game time (winter) and when it's on sale. I'm so close to hitting the money cap, which I don't want to do, since I don't want that money to vanish into the ether. Barely played today, didn't even touch the main story, and yet got another 60,000 Gil.
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