Backlog 2025

[Bluie]

'Finished' Fantasy Life i yesterday, as in; finished the story. As addicting as this game is, I'm putting it to the side until further notice as I have other games to play. When I'm in a grindy mood, I'll come back to it, but right now I'm ready to move on. Furthermore, I hate most of the crafting minigames in this game. The 'spin' mechanic is way too sensitive and I despise having to button mash to get a better score. It makes me dread crafting anything and I wasn't entirely pleased that you're FORCED to have every (non combat) life under your belt in order to complete the game. I like it in the original game where you could do the entire game as any class with little to no restrictions. Railroading me into all the crafting classes was... annoying. Yes, I know it wasn't particularly hard to level them enough to get what I needed, but the fact that I had to do it really soured me towards completion in general. It's like the illusion of choice - sure, I get to start out as whatever I want, but lol, it doesn't matter because you need to craft/gather because the plot says so! It's a good thing I leveled fisher and miner on the side (because I wanted to) or else the ending requirements grind would have been even more annoying. I NEVER even found a fisher strangeling! Ugh, anyways. It's a good game, I just don't like the new restrictions they added to pad the plot out.

Anyways, Guardians of Azuma. It's good. It has its quirks, but it's still good. I think my only complaints with it currently are thus;

1. Traversal is wonky, especially when jumping and EXTRA especially with the parasol. This isn't Rune Factory's first foray into a jump button, but I feel like they could have ironed this out a little bit more.

2. Having 4 villages to juggle can get a little annoying, especially when the RNG will not roll good villagers. I need more carpenters and chemists, NOT BIG EATERS.

3. This is not a new thing, but locking romance behind plot progression is just a little irk of mine. My chosen bachelor is already maxed out and I can't even date him yet because the plot says so. "Well, just advance the plot then!" - And I will, once I'm done managing everybody else's problems because I don't earn money if I don't. I can't just drop everything to do plot when I need to figure out why crops aren't getting harvested and my villagers are unhappy.

I am legit looking forward to a Rune Factory 5 replay after this game because while I am enjoying it, I want my tried and true formula back, please. The streamlined gathering and farming is a good step forwards while everything else is ehhhh. Some days you can't even give gifts to villagers because the interactions didn't roll the option. But the characters are good, the models are nice (though portraits are better!), and combat is simple but fun. I really like having Sakuna from her game here as a cameo. She farms, she fights, and she's fully voiced!

I will probably get back to XCX once I finish this one, but I'm in no rush either. Besides a little Mario Kart World on the side, this game has my full attention. I might dabble back into Splatoon 3, especially since I never finished the DLC, but it just had a Switch 2 update + a spinoff announced. I just really hate what 'meta' did to the game + all the 'seasons' just made FOMO really annoying. I miss Splatoon 2 so much...

[Kikki]

Guardians of Azuma is absolutely fantastic, I love it. I basically have no complaints, other than jumping being woobly. I can't tell where I am in the plot, because I suspect that this unlocking villages bit is just the first act, since I heard the story actually gets fairly deep. I'm not done opening the last village and I my first village is Level 7. (Second one is 6, third is 4.) Nothing I have available to me yet gives the HUGE bonus that the building I saw them place in the (PAX?) demo gave the streamers who were invited to try the game back then, so there must still be a lot of placements to unlock.

I love the village building. I feel bad when the game gives me too many blacksmiths and carpenters and stuff, though, and I don't have positions for them, lol...so they have to be farmers. (I just jam anyone who can't go into their 'real' profession into farmer, since farmer makes da munnies.) People move in so fast that I evict anyone who has bad traits, so I usually have lots to choose from. Two of my villages are at 100% happiness already. The happiness goes up super easy for some reason. (I evict 'slacker', 'worrywart', and if I'm juggling a lot, then 'big eater' can go, too, though I don't find the tiny increase in cost particularly matters. I evict those who are slackers AND big eaters at the same time with great glee, piggy lazy garbage that they are! If I have to keep a slacker for a while, I force them to be shopkeepers, since they'll be ramrodded into the shop during opening hours, they can't slack off, unlike if you put them to farmer, logger, etc.)

I don't even hate the fishing, as all it is, is one button to get out your rod, aim your bobber cast, then press the same button again to reel the fish in. Just once! And so far, it's not even fussy...you can be a little slow and you'll still catch the fish.

Two fantastic games in a row! This game really does feel like Rune Factory to me, barely a spin-off at all, except that you manage a village and can put your villagers to work for you instead of putting that time on farming. I love the social interaction system, and they took care to give everyone loads of personality. I even like getting a FP penalty for making a wrong choice of interaction with someone.

I hope RF6 is this good. I don't think it's made by the same team of people, just another group under Marv...

[Kikki]

YEEEK.

Decided to check my email again today, as I've done most days, and in fact did yesterday (I know because I receive my work schedule every Thursday and I already checked it yesterday.) NO EMAILS FROM NINTENDO, not in main or in promotion or in Spam or in Trash.

Then I looked at it again...and I had an email saying it was my time to buy Switch 2. And what's more, the email claimed to be from June 10, and I only had THREE HOURS LEFT TO PURCHASE.

What the heck? Not only did that email NOT exist in my email anywhere on June 10, nor did it on June 11, or even June 12. Three hours left of 72!

Well, I did, anyway. In theory, I now have a Switch 2, though I won't be sure until I get a shipping notification, and not REALLY sure until it actually arrives and is inside my house. A credit card confirmation has already arrived, the card has been charged, so...SHOULD be a done deal. Yeah, in theory. Things can always go wrong.

~

Well, other than that...I've been too tired to keep playing. I LOVE Guardians of Azuma, and yet, my entire body aches after about an hour and I have to go lie down. (Not specific to Azuma, mind you...that game isn't causing this, lol.) The game plays perfectly on Steam Deck. I mean, the jumping is woobly, yeah, but I think that's a problem with the GAME, not the system it's on. I think it'd be the same on full-blown desktop PC, or PS5, or anything else. Woobly jump.

It's great, anyway. Got my villages at, uh...7, 6, 6 and 5, I believe. They go up like gangbusters up to 5, and then it slows down since the requirements get...you know, more. I've gotten almost every available frog and all the onigiri you can before the very last one. Basically I've been combing every region over thoroughly and getting all the exploration done. Still another chunk to unlock in the story, plus I think some village chunks to unlock with development. I'm going kinda slow through the story because I'm doing tons else along the way, but that is the fun part, and I don't really want to be done the story, even though most of the marriage candidates romance progressions are locked to late or even end story. I JUST got into Summer 1 when I had to save and quit because I'm too tired to stay holding the controller.

Don't I sound like I'm already 120 years old? Jeepers. I had only been playing an hour. Only been AWAKE for three hours, at that point. No work today but looks like I'm gonna need to sleep for a big chunk of it, since I've got a long day tomorrow. Boo.

I hope I can at least scrape up the energy to colour for a while, and make some beefed-up Spanish rice for supper (I turn it into a full one pot meal instead of a side dish...side dishes are a waste of time and energy, imo. I beef it up with, um...beef. And beans. It's really more Mexican rice than Spanish when I finish with it, tbh.)

Well, loving this game and secured my Switch 2. (Y'know. Probably.) Good stuff. Now to just find a mote of energy somewhere. I think I need to go outside for fresh air and sunshine, maybe then I'll wake up more? Maybe go on a teeny ride and see if the circulation does anything nice.

[Bluie]

Hurray, Kiki! I hope that Switch 2 is in your hands soon!

---

So I went back to Splatoon 3 for a few hours. The Switch 2 update is noticeable on start up, but I quickly got used to it. Wow, a lot has happened since I dropped it. There's daily challenges now and not ONCE in my umpteen matches did I hear any recognizable music tracks. Getting back into the groove of things was... a little rough. I snatched up a few of the new Brellas, but alas, they are still garbage in Splatoon 3 no matter what kit is on them. Yes, it is probably a 'skill issue' as well, but I went from having an absolute blast with them in Splatoon 2, to constantly dying in before I can even attempt to fight back. So I went back to ol' reliable; the .52 Gal. I immediately started having a better time with a better win/loss ratio. AND THEN THE JAPANESE PLAYERS GOT ON. Surprisingly, still a good time, put you do tend to get extra targeted when you're the only English name on the field. Regardless, I played until I got all my skill slots filled and ready to re-roll. I will probably play more later? I'll definitely go back to the DLC as I did always intend to. ...You know, sometimes I wish I was only into the arcade-like games genre-wise. JRPGs are so time consuming while games like Mario Kart, Splatoon, ect only really demand a little bit of your time on your terms. I like the change of pace sometimes, but alas, my first full game was Pokemon Blue, and I was forever changed lol.

P.S. - I feel like I was coming off as overly negative with Rune Factory and Fantasy Life. I do really enjoy them, I'm just crotchety about it too.

[Kikki]

Thank you! And you can be negative if you want. I mean, if you need to vent complaints, why not? Though...which console are you playing Fantasy Life on? I'm wondering because I'm playing it on original Switch and the spin mechanic isn't sensitive at all, works perfect. Maybe a more refined console actually makes it more fiddly?

I've never liked arcade games, not even as a kid. I was terrible at them (since they tend to require you to act fast, which I've never been able to do.) I remember playing Bubble Ghost, a puzzle type where your ghost has to blow a big bubble through a maze of obstacles without popping it. Do puzzle games count as arcade types? I was 'okay' at Bubble Ghost, but it didn't require quick thinking/moving. I'm terrible even at games like Tetris. I remember even further back, being 3 or 4 years old and sitting in front of a hand-me-down Atari 2600, playing Breakout. The bleeps and bloops still echo in my mind. So it's not like I didn't start young enough! I was...okay for a toddler, I guess. Not good, though. Just never really got into the arcade scene, I guess! Simply don't possess the reflexes for it.

I've got to have a story. That's why it sucks when they lock all the candidates to post-game in games like Azuma...I lose interest in playing once the story is over! WHY do they do this? I get that the character events in Azuma reveal story spoilers, but...

[midnighttherabbit]

I finished BG3 a few days ago; funny I owned the game and tried so hard to get into it for almost a year and then did an entire run playing obsessively in like three weeks. I liked it! I don't actually think it's my favourite CRPG and the last 10-15 hours were a slog but I'll probably go back and replay as a different character at some point.

And now I'm back to trying to 100% PoOT - I'm SO close now I can almost taste it, I only need to make three more dishes for Lovett, max out the orcharding skill and communication (both of these are a massive grind, I'm not sure exactly how communication is counted but gifting and speaking to everyone in a day barely shifts the bar at all), and I need to grind out the final treasure for the museum, which means leveling up the friendship of the journey sprite.
It'll probably take 5-10 hours for the whole thing. I think doing this has definitely made me enjoy the game more because I've never really played past the first year and never got further than marriage (this was the goal when I decided to go for 100%), but I'll be glad when I'm done and can move on to something else. Since the Steam sale is coming up I might try 100%ing SoS:FoMT or SoS:AWL. Then again I DO have all the Natsume HMs and am a year into LoH so maybe I should go back to that.

Also I'm getting FOMO over RF:GoA but I'm glad I didn't pay full price. It looks cute and I'm sure I'll enjoy it when it goes on sale in a few years but I don't want to pay £60 for a game I know isn't really to my tastes.

[Kikki]

It has to be said. Nintendo is ridiculous.

The shipping confirmation they sent me. It's going via Purolator. And the shipping date listed on it: 1969-12-31.

Not joking. Apparently Nintendo feels so bad about claiming to have sent my email on time even though it nearly arrived too late for me to make the purchase, that to make it up to me, they've invented a time machine and are going to travel 54.5 years into the past to mail my Switch 2.

That or Purolator's services are so bad that they need that much time to get the parcel to me by the expected date (June 24 of 2025...in other words, a week from now.)

~

Well, anyway. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I got What Remains of Edith Finch on a major discount, and for some reason, I played it tonight. I wanted to keep playing Azuma, but was too tired to do it justice. So I figured a visual novel was a better route. It helped me stay awake until bedtime so that I wouldn't ruin my sleep cycle.

It's very cool, and yet...I'm sick of VNs that give you stories that you're supposed to decide the ending of. I don't want to decide what the ending means. I want a well-crafted story INCLUDING a well-crafted ending. I do enough of my own thinking. I want them to tell me their whole story, on their own, without making me interpret the ending myself.

I suppose the meaning was that, no matter how unfortunate you are, or how creepy and tragic your life has been for generations, you were extremely lucky to have gotten to exist in the first place?

Not a moral I find inspiring. If that's even what they wanted to convey. Well, it WAS very cool, but...yeah, it could have had a stronger ending. Mind you, the entire story was like that. You can't take any of the deaths literally...you have to decide for yourself what actually happened based on the story that is told and the hints in the house that Edith sees as she explores.

But I got it for something like $3. It lasted less than 3 hours (though I only got 3 of 9 achievements) but at $3, just the novelty probably made it worthwhile.

Sleep time.

[Milo]

The shipping confirmation they sent me. It's going via Purolator. And the shipping date listed on it: 1969-12-31.

That sounds like Unix epoch time (nowadays widely used in computing in general, not just Unix systems), adjusted downward for a time zone west of GMT.

Basically, someone forgot to properly fill in the field and left it at "zero", and that's what an internal time value of "zero" gets represented as when turned into a human-readable date.

You'll see that particular date come up a lot anytime computer systems are on the fritz.

[Bluie]

Thank you! And you can be negative if you want. I mean, if you need to vent complaints, why not? Though...which console are you playing Fantasy Life on? I'm wondering because I'm playing it on original Switch and the spin mechanic isn't sensitive at all, works perfect. Maybe a more refined console actually makes it more fiddly?

I played it on PS5, and 9/10 when there's a 'spin the stick' mechanic on a crafter, it's so sensitive that halfway through the spin, my character jolts back over to the other mechanic and I lose time / get the 'buzz - you did it wrong' sound. It was infuriating. I'm not sure if it was my controller, how I was spinning it, or just a sensitivity issue, but I have zero desire to go back to the specifc classes because of it. My PS5 controller doesn't drag or stick towards any direction in any other game I play (and I play FFXIV and ZZZ often, which require dodging) so I truly don't know. I haven't personally seen any complaints about my specifc issue, but the overall consensus is that most also hate the spin/button mash games and they're worried the constant motion is going to damage their controllers.

But anyways, actual backlog stuff; I've made really good progress in Guardians of Azuma... I think? I believe I may be approaching the story's finale with all the drama and dungeons I've gone through. STILL can't consistently do Murasame's events. I FINALLY pass the 'continue the story' threshold, get his story arc more or less done, only to be hit with ANOTHER 'continue the story' barrier. I'm just gonna say it; it's WILDLY unfair that with the three romance candidates available from the get-go in Spring village, only the male's romance is locked behind late game progression. And I get why, I see where is story is going / where it's going to end, but come on. It's legit pissing me off.

[Kikki]

I've put a lot of time into Azuma but I'm not that close to the story end, I don't think. I'm putting a LOAD of time into managing the village (not decorating it, that much, just managing quests and farming and selling off any low-level seeds and trying to level up existing ones, though...the crops seem to cap at level 7 and don't go any higher?) Into exploration, too, getting every shrine and frog and etc. I'm well past the middle, though, I think, since I believe I've now unlocked every male candidate and only have one female one left to unlock. I think. Unless they are two together; I'm a bit confused about that.

I think I'm already at about 60 hours. I kind of hate Mauro, lol. I was completely convinced that Cuilang was a candidate and I really like him so was considering him...but it looks like he's NOT one? I thought Pilika was one, too, she has that aura. Well, since they aren't, I'm really only into Kurama and Ikaruga. With those eyes and that mask, Kai looks like a pig demon, so no one else is to my taste. (I don't like boisterous or rowdy types anyway.) Possibly Subaru, guess we'll see, but his design isn't quite working for me. I don't have anyone to max bond, though Murasame is nearly there since I had him in my party from the start. I'm not into Murasame as a romance option, though I do like him as a character in the story/that world.

I've finished Kurama's bonding route up to the point that he can be confessed to, but I need to get Ikaruga to the same point before I can decide. I could date both but I should save one of them for another playthrough, since I know I will want to play it again.

I thought about What Remains of Edith Finch for a whole day after finishing it...but it slipped back out of my thoughts again after that, so I can't say it made a BIG impact. It drives me a little nuts that you don't REALLY know what happened to any character (except one, whose fate seems quite unambiguous) even though the game is about learning how each person in the Finch family lived and died. The stories are all presented in a weird way, like some kind of hallucination/dream that you can't take at face value. Not that each one is done in the same way, but yeah. I'm done thinking about it, now. Not because I'm sure of what happened to each of them, but because I can't be bothered to continue to care. None of them hold any personal meaning for ME, so...I move on.

[Bluie]

I was completely convinced that Cuilang was a candidate and I really like him so was considering him...but it looks like he's NOT one? I thought Pilika was one, too, she has that aura.

They're DLC candidates... for some reason. They released on the same day as the game, so I have no idea why they're delegated to DLC when features like extra candidates usually come out months later. I do like Pilika design-wise and MAYBE I'll want to marry her when I eventually do my second play through as Subaru, but I have zero interest as of this moment. She is cute though, A+ design.

I FINALLY married Murasame. He is an absolute sweetie pie once dating/married. Dude is so devoted to you and absolutely adores everything about you. I honestly can't wait to see him with his own children, but I must finish the plot first. I'm just about there? I think??? Regardless, the MurasamaXKaguya fans are starving with 0 fics on AO3, and I'm more than willing to provide. Just gonna be a fluffy oneshot, but hell, I want it just as much lol. He's super unpopular compared to all the ikemen (though Mauro is the least popular overall LOL) to the point that he might fall into 'rarepair' category. S'all good, I've written for rarer pairs, so this'll be a fun little side project.

[Kikki]

That's not cool. That could be used as a textbook example of content held hostage, imo. I mean, they're so obviously candidates, built that way from the beginning...and Marvelous cut the ability to romance them out and put it behind a paywall. That's pretty different from a game being popular and them putting more resources into building some extra content for the game. They already do it with Bokumono, of course, but at least there it feels less obviously pre-meditated. You can see from everything those two characters do and say that they're meant to have their own bonding stories, since they have more backstory than other non-romanceable NPCs.

Other characters LOOK good enough to be candidates, like Yachiyo or whatever the cat lady's name is, but she doesn't have the dialogue or backstory to support it. She doesn't give the feeling of already being a candidate that, for some reason, you just can't trigger any events for, even though you can use romantic hangouts with them, like sharing an umbrella. (Pilika is a TERRIBLE name, though. Sounds way too much like a feminized version of pillock, to me.)

I can tell Cuilang has a good backstory, and I want his bonding events, darn it, even if I weren't to choose him.

I've been too tired to play Azuma today, though I had time. I played for about 15 minutes and then gave up. I want to play, but I'm too tired to concentrate on it. It's not the kind of game you can play mindlessly. Or I can't, anyway. I spend so much time maintaining the farming alone, continually hurrying to harvest ready crops before the stupid villagers can pluck them, ruining my chance to increase their level with the sword dance. Sometimes I'm tempted to take every villager off of farming until I have every crop maxed, so that they can't sabotage me any more. I also don't like having to look up how to win contests. I had to have a really high score to win the harvest festival. It seems random, whether the competition will be stiff or nonexistent...you might have to make a really good showing, or maybe you'll be able to sleep right through it and still win. And next time I play, I have to do a fishing contest. That's putting me off.

I need to make a list of all the games I have that I mean to go BACK to, because it's getting longer and longer and I'm at risk of forgetting them all, which would pick at me.

[Kikki]

I'm still playing Azuma, but opening a comment to start my list...

Games I have already finished in about the last year (as in, the main story is complete...or this is/was a replay) but still want/need to go back to or do an NG+ run of:

• FFVII Rebirth
• FFVII Remake
• Trails into Reverie (I think I left a few things unfinished)
• Trails Through Daybreak
• My Time at Sandrock (I wanted to get all the achievements)
• Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
• Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos
• Sun Haven? (I don't know if I had anything left to do)
• Coral Island (not sure if I want to bother, though)
• Xenoblade Chronicles X (Haven't played the Definitive to the end, but I'm dreading the added-on ending, Monosoft always screws up expanded stories.)
• Ys X: Nordics (got to the last chapter and never finished)
• Crisis Core (didn't want to do the necessary grinding to complete the final battle)
• Fantasy Life i (post game stuff like opening all rooms in dungeons not done, lives not maxed out)

None of this really NEEDS done, but it's almost all stuff I think I want to do. XCX and Ys really do need finished. Dunno if I want to bother doing Crisis Core because I do want to see the ending but I don't want to grind the missions I'd need to, to be equipped enough for the last battle.

But hey, now I have a list. Progress, of a sort.

[Kikki]

Ooh! My Switch 2 arrived a day early. They just left it unceremoniously (not even a knock!) on the front door. If they were gonna abandon it without notice, they should have left it at the SIDE door, where it's concealed. But whatever; this is a stupidly placid neighbourhood. I once left my purse on the hood of my car for two days a few summers ago, and it wasn't touched.

I made space for it immediately and unpacked it. It has a very scratchable surface so I'm ready to order a screen protector, but it's staying docked for now anyway, so it's probably fine for a little while. I did the system transfer, which I heard some say took forEVer, but those people must either have something wrong with their connection, or have an absolutely obscene amount of games, because all of mine transferred in 20 minutes. (It's only transferring what's on the system memory...so just your save data, most likely, since I think the Switch's internal memory is only...what, 32GB? Not very much, anyway!)

My home screen has all the same games on it that my OG Switch does, they're just not downloaded, yet.

Naturally after that, if you want to play, you'll have to download the game you want. But you'll already be signed into your account and can do so instantly, not even a password (I was surprised by that)...I guess signing in to transfer my account over still has my password active?

My OG Switch pro controller is connected and worked instantly.

The home screen is gloriously crisp. Fantasy Life i is downloading as we speak, because I was actually playing it most recently, and it has a very inexpensive upgrade, something like $3 for me, I think. I don't know what I'll do next, but I should check and see if XCX actually has an upgrade, because I haven't heard that it did. I saw it featured on the Switch 2 page, but...that may have just been what was featured in the eshop at the time. Be weird if they didn't have one, though.

Not sure what I'll download next...there are SO MANY GAMES that I have and still play on Switch. It'd be so awesome if DQB2 had an upgrade pack, but that's a pipe dream.

I will probably go with BotW or TotK. Like most people, I bet, since it should really show the difference.

[Bluie]

It'd be so awesome if DQB2 had an upgrade pack, but that's a pipe dream.

While it probably never will get an upgrade pack, it might still look/play better than it did on OG Switch. Games like Rune Factory 5 now run as they were supposed to while XCX runs quicker. I feel like it's the luck of the draw or it varies. Yokai Watch 4 didn't look/run much better in handheld mode, but is 100% better while docked on Switch 2. Regardless, experiment!

---

Finished Guardians of Azuma, including the post game which requires marriage + family. Despite my earlier gripes, I like it a lot and I plan to do my patented second playthrough at a later date (I always replay Rune Factory games twice, sometimes more depending). It took almost 50 hours to get where I got (I didn't max any of the villages, but they were pulling in 70k a day) and nothing changes after post game outside a few dialog lines from villagers. I think this game needed a little more time in the oven, but it's also perfectly serviceable as is. I got used to the awkward pacing about halfway through and I'm not overly titled that family interactions are few and far in between. Anyways, about halfway done that fic now and I think my next game up is XCX. I've put it off for long enough and I think I'm ready for some MMO combat over pure action after Guardians of Azuma. I hope I can remember how the game plays lol. I remember stopping just after getting the Nopon NPC in my base, so I'm not too far iirc.