Backlog 2025

[Shan O 123]

I appreciate a easy combat system so yay


I heard the game opens up after the main story. I can see why you only get 8 crops, you’re rebuilding your base and need room for everything.


If you hate cooking make sure you have a chef party member they do it for you. And you’ll still level up.

[Kikki]

I appreciate a easy combat system so yay

I heard the game opens up after the main story. I can see why you only get 8 crops, you’re rebuilding your base and need room for everything.

If you hate cooking make sure you have a chef party member they do it for you. And you’ll still level up.

It's definitely easy.

~

I doubt more opens up after the main story? I mean, home base could expand to give you more room, but I don't think a lot more unlocks, post-game, I think you just keep going with leveling up all your lives and developing your base and getting everything done in Ginormosia including increasing the levels and difficulty there, and also doing lots of Treasure Groves. As far as I know, no new areas unlock post game, or anything like that. I believe there are characters and rooms you can only unlock post-game except a few small 'sealed' spots, and legendary crafts you can only do after the story is done, but I don't think it's actually all that much additional content.

Basically, this game is BotW, ACNH and Fantasy Life, all rolled into one. You can keep exploring tons after the story is done, and keep collecting and etc...but there's nothing much additional that unlocks. ACNH is done (story-wise) when you hit 3 stars, but you can keep going to 5 stars, and this game is the same in that way. But it's not like additional content opens up, it's just that the content you started with keeps going.

The farming is doggy doo doo, imo. It doesn't NEED to take up so much space, but they only allow you to farm specific crops in each field, so you're forced to have 8 fields (3 x 3 each) if you want to grow all kinds of crops. That was a weird and inefficient way of doing things.

~

I don't hate cooking. I just have no use for it. The combat is so easy that no special effects are ever needed. Maybe in post game when you've increased the difficulty, but I don't care about that kind of thing, so I don't think I'm ever going to care about the Cook Life.

~

EDIT: I strongly suspect that they ARE going to add paid DLC similar to Origin Island, because the ranks end at Hero, as far as I can tell, like the first game did...and then Origin Island added more ranks. I think 3 more, making all Lives longer and adding a bunch more high-end crafts and tools and etc, plus new regions. So...yeah. I think they're gonna do something like that again.

[Guest]

There apparently will be a fantasy life i dlc and it’ll be free. Don’t know how extensive it’ll be but apparently is for late/post game content.

https://www.siliconera.com/level-5-will ... world-dlc/

[Kikki]

Yep. And on top of that (sort of), what do you call those people who peek into the code? Well, whatever they're called, they found evidence of two additional regions/islands, so as I thought...looks like more DLC down the road, ala Origin Island. I suspect that will not be free, though. Not that I mind, this game is HUMONGOUS, and getting 100% in it would probably take 150+ hours, imo, if we're talking getting and crafting EVERY recipe, getting all mounts, getting all customization options (such as extra hair/eye/etc stuff) and finding every material, getting every leafy in Ginormosia, every Strangeling, every etcetcetcetcetc. It's worth every penny and then some, so yeah. Gimme paid DLC, I'll bite! Especially if it urges further content and more games like this in the future.

Seriously, it's huge. And I think it's great on Switch, though it doesn't feel as good docked as it does in handheld, which is a bit odd, but I guess it just doesn't have good resolution on a larger screen.

If you don't care about Easy Anti-Cheat on your Steam Deck, I'd get it there rather than Switch, if you want a handheld option. If anyone doesn't care about a handheld option, then I'd be going for PS5 or Steam via PC. Or waiting to find out when an upgrade pack will be available for FLi on Switch 2.

For me, though, I don't even care if I ever get an upgrade pack. The game is great on Switch already. I don't know about for people who are sensitive to frame drops and stuff like that, but I'm not one of those people. I have a few complaints, as I mentioned, but the bad stuff is absolutely dwarfed by the good. The constant rewards of exploration (including dungeon crawling as well as overworld exploration) and of crafting and grinding is terribly addictive.

[greensara]

I just got the shipping confirmation from PNP today, yay! My copy of Fantasy Life i should be coming in a few days, depending on how long it takes for it to travel down from North Dakota. I didn't end up with extra fees either, but I did preorder before all the drama. Anyway, super excited, so far very pleased with the service vs when I imported with Playasia. Playasia wasn't bad, it just took forever and their site was wonky. I would rather import through PNP again.

I have gotten through Chapter 8 in Xenoblade Chronicles X. I have so many questions about the lore this time, but I am super scared of being spoiled, avoiding it like the plague. I am having a lot of fun with the exploring and mapping, and the quests are less tiring imo compared to the first game. I still think the world of the first game is prettier though, but that's me. Without spoilers, about how far am I into the story Kikki? I was curious how many chapters there are, but am afraid to Google it and accidentally get spoiled on stuff later in the game.

[Kikki]

I have gotten through Chapter 8 in Xenoblade Chronicles X. I have so many questions about the lore this time, but I am super scared of being spoiled, avoiding it like the plague. I am having a lot of fun with the exploring and mapping, and the quests are less tiring imo compared to the first game. I still think the world of the first game is prettier though, but that's me. Without spoilers, about how far am I into the story Kikki? I was curious how many chapters there are, but am afraid to Google it and accidentally get spoiled on stuff later in the game.

XCX has 12 chapters. Well...13, now that they added a new one. (I haven't played the new chapter, yet.)

[greensara]

Oh wow, so over halfway? One thing I disliked at first was not having a glider like BOTW, but I guess the Skells make up for that. They've actually grown on me; I thought they were clunky at first.

[Bluie]

I did a replay of Deltarune chapters 1&2 the last few days, because chapters 3&4 are just around the corner now! It's funny, I remembered basically everything from Chapter 1, while I remembered almost nothing from Chapter 2 outside some of Queen's shenanigans. I think this was my 3rd or 4th playthrough of the first chapter, so that's that, but I definitely have only played the second chapter once before this replay. I'm just surprised at how much from Chapter 2 didn't stick the first time around, because it's genuinely hilarious. I had several laugh out loud moments from Queen's dialog alone. Also, the cast is so adorably... teenager-y? IDK, they're just very charming and fun to watch.

It took about 7 hours to play through both of them, though had I not skipped the secret bosses, it'd be higher. I did actually unlock Jevil and battled him once, but I know I don't have the patience to actually beat him. I didn't even bother with Spamton Neo. Though, one has to wonder if getting all their items (that they drop on defeat) will eventually lead to some super secret ending or something. It's whatever though, I'll just look it up on YT when the time comes. I couldn't get past Undyne in Undertale's genocide route, so I know where my skill level is at lol.

[midnighttherabbit]

So, as predicted I got tired of LoH before finishing it. I have been dipping in and out but generally I'm tired of it - I expect to go back and finish up my encyclopaedia at some point (it will be the first game I turn to when I get the farm sim urge) but for now it's shelved. I'm also not sure I'm going to buy GoA when it launches now; I WANT it, but I can't really justify buying a game full priced game I know I probably won't play until completion when I have a million other games in my backlog.

Anyway. I've finally, FINALLY managed to click with Baldur's Gate 3. I've been waiting for this to happen because I feel bad about buying a full price game and not finishing it for ages, but usually I get midway through act 1 then get distracted by something else. Right now I'm in act 3 and having a lot of fun - there are a lot of minor annoyances but I'm invested in my character and really want to see how it ends. Despite being in lot of gaming circles where people play the game I've managed to avoid a lot of late game spoilers and have no idea what my choices are going to lead to. I feel very conflicted about what I'm doing and feel like I'm making difficult decisions which is always a good sign! Right now I think I'm headed towards a horrible tragic ending which I'm excited about because that's right up my alley.

[greensara]

My physical copy of Fantasy Life i came!! The cover is of course Japanese, but it has really cute artwork inside and outside. It also came with a couple paper inserts in the box: one was a code for a "new adventurer" bonus for early purchase, the other I think is an ad for a customer survey with perks, perhaps like the one mentioned on the title screen. It loads and plays in full English, probably since that is what's in my profile, but I did get the option to confirm it at the beginning. It seems to run as well as most switch games for me, with no real issues other than some long loading between areas. I am currently working to activate all the initial jobs before continuing the storyline, then I may work on leveling. BTW, my kids really like the option for a player 2 controlling Trip, more than I thought they would.

[Kikki]

If anyone doesn't know the gift codes for FLi, here they are:

T2GC6EQL
A56LCE87
A5C9X7VR
E47LWJGP
X95SB4UD

They are ALL worth grabbing. Most are health and SP potions, life cures, power ups, and other potions. Some are currency items (treasure) only good for selling in stores to get larger amounts of Dosh than most items will get. There's a few accessories for your characters to wear as gear. Anything you don't want, you can just sell.

~

As for me, I'm in the final chapter and just waiting on pursuing the various goals that'll take me right to end game. I'm working on leveling up various lives. Looks like one of the lives I couldn't be bothered with will be necessary for it. :/

Though I want to get Paladin, Miner, Woodcutter, Blacksmith and Carpenter up to max. Alchemy and Farmer shot up almost on their own so they're in the same league, somehow. Farmer life really sucks...a very bad farming system. It NEEDS a hit box to tell you what you're actually aiming at and not constantly swap between planting and watering and sowing (when you don't want to!). Seriously, very bad. And it treats your crops like monsters. You ASSAULT them until they lose all HP and pop out for you. It's not fun farming at all. I guess they had to make it work like a gathering life since there's really only two ways to do things in this game...mini-game or combat. (Gathering is sort of like a cross between a mini game and combat, imo...attacking the item you want in its weak spot until it loses all HP and drops the goods in final defeat.)

Oops, farming rant popped up again. Well, whatever. It doesn't feel like farming, but it...sort of works. Not well, but yeah.

I only have Woodcutter at Master level, but all the other ones I mentioned are very close to Master. It's a lot harder to get to Master than it is to level up through any other rank, because you must finish EVERY quest you've ever had in that Life to do so. You can't leave out one that isn't very accessible to you right then...you'll need every single bit of XP from every Life quest to rank up. And some of them rely on RNG for increasingly rare drops. For me, Woodcutter was the easiest.

Very fun game, but I definitely have a few criticisms. A bit too busy to go through them right now, though...and who cares, anyway? I'm going to continue like this for a while, because I may lose motivation when I completely finish the story. It doesn't look like all that much will open in post-game that isn't already available. Looks like those sealed areas are about it, at this point...high level gathering spots, mainly, inside dungeons and the like, behind those big purple seals. Everything else seems to be available to do before post-game, as far as I can see. It's possible that big central thing in Ginormosia (yes, being vague, though I'm confused why anyone has any trouble saying the name Ginormosia, btw. It's just 'ginormous'...that silly made-up word that's a cross between giant or gigantic and enormous...with an 'ia' on the end.) may have more content in it, but I really don't know. It doesn't look like my island is going to expand, and I'm STUNNED that we can only build SIX HOUSES. I already have my island at 5 stars and Level 8 on that...community board thing. There's almost nothing left to do in terms of built-in goals.

Weidest of all is what I mentioned...only SIX CHARACTERS ON YOUR ISLAND CAN HAVE A HOME. The vast majority just wander around homeless! (I have all but two of the strangelings, and there are many times more than six of them. Many more.) And only the people with houses every make requests of you, so you have to put whoever you most need to raise friendship with into them (it's easily changeable). Seriously, why would they make it this limited?

Well, if anything additional does open up in post-game, I sure hope it's more island-building options. The terraforming works very well, better than ACNH because it's more seamless...you can go straight from waterscaping to landscaping with just one tab, no tedious change in animation or notice bubbles or anything slowing you up. But there's very little you can actually build, beyond little silly decorative bits and bobs. I want more HOUSES, please. Or at least an inn! Do you make these poor people just sleep on the ground?

So yeah. Dunno what unlocks post-game, yet, but I'm thinking it won't be all that much. Guess we'll see. I'm certain they're going to add DLC anyway. Beyond the free update that's still coming, that is.

[Kikki]

I want Guardians of Azuma on Steam Deck.

But...I still am not finished whatchamajigger. Fantasy Life i. Of course, you could play this game for about 120-150 hours before you got EVERYTHING done, including getting every Life up to Hero. I've only played 70 hours.

I've already got almost every strangeling (just missing TWO, and I know where to get them, but you have to have one particular Life up to about level 50 before you can do it). I have a 5 star island (max) with a 2-star shop and Level 8....uh, development? The community board. That's at Level 8, of 10. I could fairly easily max my board. It'd take a while to max the shop's content because it asks for increasingly difficult material donations.

I have one Life at Master and half a dozen at Expert, not far from Master...and everything else in varying states. I have every tower in Ginormosia, and I've finished every shrine. (I have not found every Leafe.)

I am in the final Chapter with I think the final set of goals in my To-Do list. I'm could finish any time, I think, except I might HAVE to rank one specific Life up more since I had been ignoring it until now and I think I have to be decent at it to do one of the final quests.

But yeah, pretty close to done. I'm so tired, FLi grinding doesn't sound that fun, right now. I think I'd rather play something else for a bit. But maybe I'll be refreshed tomorrow and change my mind. And Guardians of Azuma is full price...$80 CAD. I guess that's okay, but I will be buying the Switch 2 soon (in theory!) so should I really be spending anything else?

Also, Farm Together 2 has been released out of early access, and they say it'll hit Switch soonish...probably July. I LOOOOOVED Farm Together (original) and played the bejeebus out of it.

So darned many games. And Grand Bazaar is still coming, too. There's so much to spend money on. I don't know if I should get Azuma, yet.

[Bluie]

Welp.

I had zero intention of getting a Switch 2 on launch day. I saw all the online queues and surrounding drama and just decided to get one whenever - hopefully before Pokemon ZA came out, but I wasn't betting on it in the long run. ...Turns out, after all that desperate clamoring and a ton of people's preorders getting canceled, you could just walk into Walmart and buy one. Eyup. I saw a Reddit thread yesterday while at work with tons of people claiming they went to Walmart/Target/Costco/insert-retail-chain-here and picked up one with no trouble at all. Curious, I informed the hubbo and he was conveniently off from work, so he volunteered to go see if it was true.

...I now own a Switch 2. There was more than 10 consoles available and hubs grabbed a Mario Kart bundle plus a copy Guardians of Azama (which I was planning on playing on PS5 after the leak, but ah well lol). The transfer process was quick and painless, and I am genuinely impressed by how crisp this thing is. The OS is faster, the Eshop is snappy and organized, and it's just overall better put together. So far I only have tried two games; Yokai Watch 4++, and Pokemon Scarlet. With YW4, I wanted to see how it ran, because it is a REALLY rough game. Well, it loads faster and exploration doesn't drop to unstable FPS any more, so cool, but the game itself is still muddy and choppy (It's an early 3rd party Switch game, so eh). Meanwhile Pokemon Scarlet looks AMAZING. I am wholly convinced S&V were supposed to be Switch 2 launch titles but were pushed up to turn a profit faster. I cannot get over how well it runs, feels, and looks compared to its Switch counterpart. I ended up not playing all the DLC on Scarlet because the game's chugging was so bad (I stomached it for Violet because I wanted to play it all firsthand and not get spoiled). I am legit excited to keep playing now that all is as it should be and it makes me REALLY excited for Pokemon Z-A later this year. Legit my most anticipated game now.

I guess I should put myself down for a copy of Grand Bazaar too as I may as well lol. And I'll have to decide if I want Silksong on Switch 2 or PS5 now too. I'm defs in my 'new toy' phase atm, so I'll probably be prioritizing my Switch 2 for a while. I redownloaded XCX:DE as well and of course Mario Kart World too. With Guardians of Azama tugging at my attention too, I'll be set for some time.

In actual backlog progress; I played and finished Deltarune Chapters 3&4. They were very good and it's really cool that we don't have to wait FOUR YEARS for the next installment (final credits said 2026 for chapter 5). I'd say the final boss for chapter 4 was a little bit... much. As in it was really difficult for 'normal' players. Undertale, if you were playing a non violent route, never had any bosses that felt unfair (with one exception, but it was a meta mechanics fight, so whatever), so it felt kinda weird that Deltarune amped up the difficulty. I thankfully got it on the third try, but I feel bad for people who aren't good at the combat (which is me, lol, but I used to play Touhou, so I have a little bit more experience under my belt). Anyways, it was still good. Chapter three made me laugh out loud a lot and chapter four was genuinely intriguing. Can't wait for more!

[Kikki]

I finished FLi. And I was right, more or less...nothing major opens post-game. You'll be better able to harvest and explore endgame areas, and there's the sealed bits you encounter throughout the game, but that's it. There's no reason to hurry to end game if you think it's because it's locking something you need away from you: it is not. And you don't have to worry about grinding lives up, either, if there are final chapter tasks you need undeveloped Lives for. I had to do a supposedly Level 50 task with a Life I only had at Level 17. It was EASY. So they designed the main story stuff to be easily accomplished even if you haven't gotten into the Life paths they ask for. Don't worry about grinding up the Lives you don't care about! Just unlocking them for use is probably enough.

The big central bit I mentioned last time seems to have a few post-game things to unlock, though I haven't actually gotten to them yet. And I saw further evidence of DLC, this time with a major clue about what it will be like. But really, everything in this game...almost every single thing...you can do without finishing the story. So take it at your own pace without worrying about the story! Finish it if you want, or just keep leaving it. It'll work out

~

I've seen so many people say that 'end game is where the real game starts', but this is NOT TRUE. Flat out not true. That suggests that finishing the story unlocks something you need to do the bulk of the content, but...NOPE. You can leave finishing to the end, or you can go ahead and do it...you'll be able to do about 99% of the exploration and every other goal even if you haven't yet made the (unskippable) credits roll.

There are lots of people who, when the main story ends, lose interest in the game. I'm often one of them. If you want to leave the main story unfinished until you are ready to be 'done' with the game, go ahead and do so! Don't believe that things only open up when the game ends...you do not need the ending for that. What the ending unlocks is pretty minor, as far as I've seen. If you follow the main story until you are able to get into the central area of Ginormosia, you'll have unlocked every possible fighting and gathering region, except only the 'sealed' areas. You can leave the very last few battles and stuff in the main story alone until you're ready to see the ending, and you'll be able to work on your island, on completing exploration in Ginormosia, on completing community boards for each region...everything. You can finish up all of that and leave the final bits of story to the very end, if you want to. You're not keeping yourself locked out of any content you need to be able to get your Lives up to at least Master (maybe even Hero, I haven't tried getting a life up to Hero yet) or developing your Island or any of that.

I'm just saying: don't rush the ending if it being over will make you lose motivation. It's unnecessary.

~

Without any more updates, post-game is about grinding up all your lives to max, really, and doing better exploration in high-level areas and fights against higher level monsters. I already have all region community boards maxed except for a single goal on Swolean or whatever that place was called, and I only have to do ONE more fight to complete that. I have very little left to do on my island unless I want to do the last two shop levels and the gallery. Very little in Ginormosia, too, or with Strangelings, unless I want to grind up the levels of the resources, which I currently have no reason to do.

So for me right now it's mostly about driving up Buddy FP to get the max benefits out of party members so I can do the best crafting.

The island is the worst part of the game, imo...deeply underwhelming. The menus are pretty bad, too, especially when you need to do a lot of crafting. Super fun game but yeah, I find there to be a bunch of things I'd like them to improve.

What's next? Not sure. Could go back to XCX. Still haven't played the new bits, after all. Or maybe I'll do something other than gaming. Probably should!

A few big mood swings today; I was very irritable this morning, content in the afternoon, and somewhat morose and negative this evening. Lovely mélange...

[Kikki]

Got 7 (of 14?) Lives up to Master, and one of them's half way to Hero already, but I don't remember which one. Maybe two of them are. Hard to keep track of that many Lives.

I'm losing my taste for playing it by now, though. Exploring the third layer of the place I'm in is fun since I can now unlock all the barriers to get to the good stuff, which means I'm on the verge of being able to make Legendary-level items. My skill level is almost high enough for that, too.

But I'm a little tired of the grind. So, my Steam Deck is getting Guardians of Azuma.