Backlog 2025

[greensara]

Congrats on the house and truck Bluie!

Just a couple more days until Christmas break! (One of the perks of working for a school district is getting the same time off as my kids. ) I have been covertly prepping the Switches in anticipation. Honestly I may be more excited than the kids this year, lol. The kids have also recently discovered the only 3ds I still have on hand. (I guess they didn't remember it from when they were little.) They were so surprised by the games I had on it, especially how many Pokémon games there were and that I used to have more before I sold them (sellers remorse). My second daughter started playing Ultra Moon for the first time and was shocked there could only be one profile, lol. Yep, Switch spoiled us.

I finally rolled the credits on FFXIV: ARR. That "last battle/ ending" was actually really good. Now I can get back to my crafting, lol. Steam says I played for over 300 hours! Granted, it took me a couple years to decide to finish the MSQ. Whew, and that was not even being a total completionist. Having two more expansions in the free trial is actually amazing.

[Kikki]

[SNIP]

So many people are like 'OH GOOD, ANOTHER GIRL FOR THE HAREM' -referring to the MC (mainly the male one) sarcastically, because most of the friends we (the MC) make are female, but my « Harvest Goddess », just shut up. If you want a dynamic MC with deep relationships with the entire cast; do not play a Chinese gacha game. You're just setting yourself up for disappointment if you're expecting the FTP game to NOT cater to the audience it's made for.

[SNIP]

P.S. - Kiki, we still doing the annual game thing this year? Do you need me to help?

First, in answer to the actual question...hmm. Well, I'm not feeling it this year, tbh. And I feel like others aren't, either, as participation even in that thread continues to decline notably. I don't think we even got past a single page the last time when the thread went dead. BUT...I guess I'll still do it. One more time. If the response is even less this time than last time, I think I'm giving it up.

Especially since I'm not keeping much backlog account any more, I don't have records on my gaming, so it's also harder for me to ANSWER the thread, which makes me less invested. But, one more time.

Other than that!

I kinda...don't agree with the male-players-getting-all-the-service-and-that's-expected-from-China-so-just-shut-up-and-go-away-if-you-don't-like-it thing. My reason: if people shut up, things will never change. It's making noise that'll eventually shift things. It'd be more helpful if it was the Chinese players who were doing it, and I'm sure at least a few ARE, but if the entire international market is howling, they're gonna hear SOMETHING, and they want our money, too, so...yeah. It's a HUGE trigger of mine when a game/series I like only caters to male players, and I believe that only speaking loud and often enough to be heard and remembered will ever get things to change.

And other than that other than that...congrats on having two very shiny new keys on your ring! I hope you've got a cute fob, or several cute ones

~

Grinding a bit of FLi stuff, which is tedious. Hero in every life but Merc, which I need to raise one more level. Got every encyclopedia entry except Shadow Tyrant, which I'm gonna have to grind for some more.

When back into SS and finally got through the first awful Ghirahim fight, which plays like a rather difficult tutorial for Skyward Swords control scheme. I found it possible, eventually, to win by STABBING Ghirahim repeatedly, rather than attempting to redirect the sword to the opposite site to hit him where he's not ready for it. Honestly, I don't understand how that works, because no matter how fast I shift, he always grabs the sword. Maybe I'm just too slow, or maybe I don't understand how to move the control stick. But once he gets a sword, a thrust will entirely stop him from charging, so that was a great discovery. It's always easy to do a stabby-stab! Just press down on R3, click! Takes a long time that way, but at least I got through it.

I find the controller easy enough to actually play with, but for the battles that rely on fast and precise use of the weird controls, whether motion or controller, it doesn't go so well for me.

[Bluie]

[SNIP]

So many people are like 'OH GOOD, ANOTHER GIRL FOR THE HAREM' -referring to the MC (mainly the male one) sarcastically, because most of the friends we (the MC) make are female, but my « Harvest Goddess », just shut up. If you want a dynamic MC with deep relationships with the entire cast; do not play a Chinese gacha game. You're just setting yourself up for disappointment if you're expecting the FTP game to NOT cater to the audience it's made for.

[SNIP]

P.S. - Kiki, we still doing the annual game thing this year? Do you need me to help?

First, in answer to the actual question...hmm. Well, I'm not feeling it this year, tbh. And I feel like others aren't, either, as participation even in that thread continues to decline notably. I don't think we even got past a single page the last time when the thread went dead. BUT...I guess I'll still do it. One more time. If the response is even less this time than last time, I think I'm giving it up.

Especially since I'm not keeping much backlog account any more, I don't have records on my gaming, so it's also harder for me to ANSWER the thread, which makes me less invested. But, one more time.

Other than that!

I kinda...don't agree with the male-players-getting-all-the-service-and-that's-expected-from-China-so-just-shut-up-and-go-away-if-you-don't-like-it thing. My reason: if people shut up, things will never change. It's making noise that'll eventually shift things. It'd be more helpful if it was the Chinese players who were doing it, and I'm sure at least a few ARE, but if the entire international market is howling, they're gonna hear SOMETHING, and they want our money, too, so...yeah. It's a HUGE trigger of mine when a game/series I like only caters to male players, and I believe that only speaking loud and often enough to be heard and remembered will ever get things to change.

And other than that other than that...congrats on having two very shiny new keys on your ring! I hope you've got a cute fob, or several cute ones

Fair on both fronts.

I think I just have more of my expectations grounded or, well, 6 feet under when it comes to Chinese games. Annnnd it's not like they're completely catering to the male audience any more. With games like Love and Deepspace, you have an ongoing otome game wherein all the males are constantly in top 10 'boys of the year' polls. And funnily enough, guess who's right there with them every time for multiple years in a row? Wanderer from Genshin Impact. So, in a vacuum there is catering to both audiences, but it is clearly skewed towards males, ...for now. Hoyo is starting to realize that males DO sell as their highest grossing banner in Star Rail this year was a male character (whom I have no knowledge of because that game is on my backburner until they release the character I want). I think I'm more just... tired of the knee-jerk reaction of when a woman is heavily involved in the story/befriends the MC and therefore becomes part of a harem that doesn't technically exist. Like, guys, we go through this EVERY YEAR. I don't think GENSHIN of all games is the place to plant your wishes for equality when what they're doing now clearly works, still works, and probably will keep working until EoS. It's a five year old game made by a Chinese company that constantly has their government breathing down their necks and ties their hands whenever they go 'too far' (see all the outfit censorship only in China, for example). Hell, Star Rail had to completely redo their upcoming expansion because they were planning on going to space Japan for the next year, but now the political climate between China and Japan is so bad that they're having start from scratch. Do they have to? Well, no, but if it rocks the boat, then no money.

Regardless, all I was trying to say is that Genshin and other Chinese games are not ones to pin your hopes on any time soon. They're fun and flashy and they can have really good stories and characters, but with how volatile their playerbases and government is, it's better to keep expectations low, or just not play them at all. I know what I'm getting into/signed up for, and the rest of the non-chinese playerbase needs to either accept that fact or vote with their wallet and just not play things that are going to upset them. The only time Chinese games get changed when making enough noise influences them is not from the player base outside of China. They -are- realizing that the female audience is as worthwhile, so, baby steps, but it's going to be a while before they actually start listening to the rest of their users. Logically, Hoyo could live off China's playerbase alone, so of course they don't give a rat's « Mr.Gourmet's hat » about us when it comes to discontent in story content outside their homeland. And this doesn't upset me, at all, because I can walk away at any time and move on. I did so during the year where Inazuma was the focus, and then again during the year where Natlan, because they were both really crappy storylines that I had zero interest in. If people are so addicted to this game that new characters (mainly the female ones) are friendly to the MC regardless of gender (there's barely any unique dialog) causes them legitimate anger, then that sounds like a personal problem. If I didn't like this storyline like the others, I would drop it again and not waste my time - which is what I think so many people should do instead of screeching about how Columbina should be some world wrecking entity, an idea they cooked up with nothing to back it, when she's is what she is. And it's also odd that every other woman introduced into this nation do not have their stories revolving around the MC and are all strong independent are glossed over, because how dare ONE woman become friendly with the MC and automatically 'get added' to the 'harem' - the 'harem' that doesn't exist because you barely interact with any of the characters again once leaving the old nations for the new. I'm so tired, that's why I want people to « I love You » about it. These characters are designed/written to print money for China, be a set piece for the story, and then rise repeat. That's all. Period.

...Sorry, went off on a tangent there. There are much better options out there, non-chinese ones, but I think people having spent money are experiencing sunk cost fallacy and keep further disappointing themselves. When Genshin is finally over (or launches into it's new version) then maybe I'll set myself up to be impressed, but for now, it'd be easier to see if they manage to break the mold with their upcoming titles.

-And I do have a fob now! It's not 'cute' persay, but I do like not having to fumble with my keys to get into my car! TECHNOLOGY!

[Kikki]

Finished the sky bits between the first foray into the Faron Region and the first foray into the Eldin region, got me about 20 gratitude crystals, all the wallet upgrades that are accessible now, and a few goddesschests. I saved at the start of the Eldin region (after activating one more chest that I'll go get later) and then had to quit because my neck/back are cramping up too much to keep going. Even typing with the left hand is a bit problematic right now, so gaming isn't a good thing to do.

Fortunately I already made banana muffins and the Asian-style chicken and broccoli (to be served over rice) is cooking away in the slow-cooker for dinner, and for work snacks the next few days. I have a lot of hours the next four days, during THE busiest week of the entire year...the final week's worth of days prior to the 25th. I do at least have Tuesday off, though. I'll probably sleep the whole day.

Unlikely to get a lot of gaming done. Well, maybe it'll help my neck/etc. Or maybe it'll make it worse; really not sure!

The grind in FLi is largely RNG now, and that is a huge turn-off, so I don't know if I want to do any more recipe collecting or keep trying to get the very last encyclopedia entry (Shadow Tyrant.)

I redownloaded Pikmin 4 since it wasn't on my Switch 2, yet. SoS: GrB, the final fight of Crisis Core, Skyward Sword and Pikmin4 are on the top of my 'to-finish' list, though honestly, I'm not in a rush to finish ANYTHING, since I like having a backlog, now. But those are the higher priority games. I need to spend an hour or two going through this thread to write down the games I completed this year so that I can actually take part in the YGotY thread this time. I know I played a ton of absolutely top-drawer games this year, including FFVII Rebirth, FLi, Guardians of Azuma, and even XCX De, and Ys X: Nordics, but there was more, and I've forgotten. Almost everything I played this year was in a very high tier of enjoyability.

[Bluie]

Congrats on the house and truck Bluie!

Just a couple more days until Christmas break! (One of the perks of working for a school district is getting the same time off as my kids. ) I have been covertly prepping the Switches in anticipation. Honestly I may be more excited than the kids this year, lol. The kids have also recently discovered the only 3ds I still have on hand. (I guess they didn't remember it from when they were little.) They were so surprised by the games I had on it, especially how many Pokémon games there were and that I used to have more before I sold them (sellers remorse). My second daughter started playing Ultra Moon for the first time and was shocked there could only be one profile, lol. Yep, Switch spoiled us.

I finally rolled the credits on FFXIV: ARR. That "last battle/ ending" was actually really good. Now I can get back to my crafting, lol. Steam says I played for over 300 hours! Granted, it took me a couple years to decide to finish the MSQ. Whew, and that was not even being a total completionist. Having two more expansions in the free trial is actually amazing.

Thank you! (sorry, just saw this).

I hope you keep enjoying your FFXIV journey. Heavensward is my favorite expansion for it's characters, narrative, and setting. I replay it every so often because I like it so much. Stormblood is also good, but has a bit of a different vibe that not everyone tends to like (it's still quality though). It actually wouldn't surprise me in the coming fanfests next year if they added Shadowbringers (which is arguably the best expansion, not my favorite, but still probably the best) onto the free trial after they announce the next expansion. I think what's been holding them back is the gatekept Hrothgar and Viera behind the purchase of that expansion, but now that both genders are fully released, I don't see the point anymore. Cross your fingers!

[Bluie]

Ah, boo, lost my 50/50 in Genshin to Mona, again. I went from not wanting Durrin to 'I can probably pull him', mainly because I wanted to have all the Mondstadt characters who got the Hex buffs (I had them all previously from my years of playing) and they gave us a skin from doing his character quest. I didn't go crazy grinding primo gems, but I was determined to hit pity before he got switched out with Varesa (who has THE UGLIEST design I have ever seen in a video game, period - holy « Puppy Doodoo » it's so bad). I ended up almost hitting hard pity (90 wishes) only to lose the 50/50 to Mona. I like Mona, I really should build her, but I wanted the little dragon boy. Oh well, maybe next time. I -might- try to go for Zibai on how gorgeous she is alone (white horse motifs), and I KNOW most of the fanbase is skipping her, because Columbina is right after her and (as of the current leaks) she's broken and on the top of the food chain meta wise. I also may be gravitating towards Zibai thanks to a certain horse girl game I've been obsessed with this year, hahahaha....

Anyways, away from all my ongoing ever updating games I'm forever shackled to. I actually the time to look through everything I play games on (not including my phone) and figured out my full backlog. And it's... a lot.

https://bsky.app/profile/chocobobubbles ... hbrzmzu223

34 games I've bought (minus the few free [b]Very Bad Thing™[/b] hacks and Undertale fangame) mostly on sale and just kept adding up. Considering there's so few releases next year I want to buy, this may be the year of finishing my backlog. 2024 had me focused on writing, 2025 had me focused on art. It's time to focus on GAMING! (still gonna be drawing and writing too, I have projects I want to finish).

[Kikki]

Okay so I'm about half way through chapter 8 of Skyward Sword. There being 18 chapters...depending on how you divide it?...that's not bad.

My neck is still pretty badly impacted from Ys X, lol. It's spreading into a lot of other problems. Bleh, I really could do without spending a hundred bucks to get this back to normal, but I probably won't have an option. My head hurts every day, now, and it's getting very hard to do even a short shift at work. And it is psychopathically busy at work right now. I mean, the customers are pretty sweet, overall, but the stream of them is constantly long and no one can do anything but serve customers. No tidying the messes made or the stuff left everywhere, no restocking.

Anyway, I feel bad and work is extra stiff. However, I somehow was freed of the extra shift I picked up. I have no idea how that ended up happening, but I confirmed that I don't need to show up tomorrow, and you can bet I'm grabbing that opportunity. What'll I do with it?

I'll sleep. Gotta be honest. I probably won't get much else done. Maybe a bit of gaming, maybe a bit of art (not drawing...I can't draw. I'm an appalling draw-er. I'm thinking jewellery, or paper art, or just coloring, which is art if you're really good at it, but I'm not, so for me coloring is just a 'mindful' relaxation pastime. But jewellery and paper art are proper art. Wish I could make images come out of my head like draw-ers do, though. I can't. That makes all kinds of art and craft harder to do well.)

Not likely much gaming, anyway. Maybe. Probably just more Skyward Sword, but tbh, I'm really craving DQB2 yet again, and it's SO comfortable and homey to me, it might be exactly what I want to cuddle in with.

[Kikki]

Progressed a bit with Skyward Sword, but now I have hit the WATER TEMPLE and I don't want to continue right now. What is it about water temples? Even in games where you're not forced to learn a different way to move (because you're swimming underwater) they are, for some reason, way harder than any other similarly themed temple. I don't remember if this one is or not, but I still don't wanna play it right now.

I don't know when SoS: GrB got an update, but it has indeed gotten another one. I haven't played it since before bingo cards were introduced (which was quite a while ago now) and it's had more updates since then, more cards and I think most recently some winter outfits. I really should go back into it.

And Fantasy Life i has finally gotten the BIG update they teased ages ago, with the...what were they calling it? The rogue-like open world? Basically like a roguelite version of Ginormosia, called uh, sleeposia or something like that. Sleepapalooza. Sleepyburg. I can't remember, something starting with Sleep. A dream world with an evil version of Don, the merchant. (THE Don?)

So I need to try both those games to see all the new stuff. And I suppose I need to continue Skyward Sword, lol, but until I get past this part, I probably won't really want to.

EDIT: The Rogue Sleepaland or whatever...it's SUUUUUPER fun. Though I think you can eat up all the content in not super long, I may have underestimated how long it'll take to gather points. But it's very fun, lots of a grab-bag nature in there that just...I don't know. It's like a lucky dip. Reach your hand in to see what prize you'll get, knowing there'll be SOMEthing, several somethings...and probably at least one of them will be great. It's fun. Not sure how it'll last, though.

Now I have to go back into SoS: GrB, to try out these Bingo cards, see if I enjoy them. I figure I will.

EDIT 2: Ha ha ha... *facepalm*

I have forgotten how to play SoS: GrB. I don't remember the characters. Which ones did I like? I don't remember my daily routine. Did I let the animals out first then water, or vice versa? Then I, what, went around and gathered ore? Or something else? Was I working on the current requests, or was I ignoring them? I don't see any progress there. I believe I sold ore to make money at this stage (200,000G into the 500,000G goal while being on...I think level 4, City Bazaar.)

I ran around for a day but couldn't get back into the groove. I guess I could try a new game and see if I can get the hang of it and then return to the original file. Or just continue with the new one. But I don't like this game so much that I want to restart. I mean, I drifted away from it because I found it more stressful than fun. I don't enjoy myself while taking my time in these games, but to play efficiently, you've really got to be on the ball, and I don't think I'm up to it.

Not sure what I'll do. I also don't understand the bingo cards. THe sprites showed up as soon as I went outside and introduced the mechanic and gave me a Happy card or something. The goals on it are rather fussy/grindy, like harvesting 100 mint (who wants to harvest a HUNDRED mint?) I also don't understand how you get new cards. Do you BUY cards from the sprite stall? With what? Hmm.

Well anyway. Not sure what I'll do about this game. It's a good game! I just don't seem to be vibing with it at this point in my life.

[Bluie]

I have been hitting Ghost of Yotei hard this past week or so. I'm slowing down on art, I have four more in the Bokumono collab until I've drawn one from every game. It's been really fun but it's time to go back to working on personal projects as soon as I'm done. I may draw a few more after my initial loop, but I have no desire to go all in on another. The desire to game is back and I genuinely want to clear out my backlog. I've been avoiding buying any new games on sale - and there are SO MANY on sale right now that are in my wishlists, but I shall resist! I decided to start with Ghost of Yotei as I already have decent progress in it and kinda want it off my PS5 ASAP, because it's chonky and I have Genshin and FFXIV fighting for dominance over what's left of my storage as is. Reaaaally need to look into getting a storage upgrade, especially when I want to get back into Warframe, ZZZ, Star Rail, and so on.

Ghost of Yotei continues to be fun, but it almost feels oversaturated with things to do sometimes. I can't gallop anywhere in a new area on my horse without finding something or someone. And I get it, it's a sandbox/open world, it's supposed to be like that, but I feel like most of my play sessions are just clearing the map instead of advancing the plot. Of course I could just rush the plot, but going in without upgrades would be dumb, even on easy mode. Bosses don't just sit and take it even on the easiest difficulty, I would have legit not made it through tons of encounters without the techniques I earned through exploration, so, better safe than sorry, I guess. And it's not as if I'm not enjoying all these little sidetracking side quests; the Spider Lily General one made me shed tears despite also making me « Puppy Doodoo » my pants at the sudden shift to a Silent Hill game, and I love hanging out with the Ainu, they're cool. But I had to stop yesterday because I found THREE secret shinobi camps IN A ROW, and by the third, I was spent. I probably wasn't meant to find them all at once, but I can only kill so many ninjas before I want to scream. I think I'm gonna play one of my VNs to cool down after this game lol.

[midnighttherabbit]

It's been a few months since I've posted here, I think? Like always, I did really well getting through games in the first half of the year and then fell into a pit of replays / dropping games after the first 10 hours lol. Thinking about my spending habits during this Steam sale has made me realise I need to stop buying games for the dopamine rush and get back to playing what I already own, though.

In the Autumn sale, I bought Hades and I have actually been playing that on and off the entire time. I had it on Switch but I like getting achievements and I like being able to use my dualshock controller. So far I've finished the "main" story (I think???) and am doing a lot of postgame stuff. Unfortunately I didn't realise that I was supposed to be gifting everyone with nectar the entire time so I'm just slogging through gifting a bunch of people now. I'm also struggling to unlock a lot of "deepening relationship" convos since there's just SO MUCH post-game dialogue lol.

I've been playing Stardew co-op with my family over the holidays. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it or to play it for an extended amount of time but we're in the second year now. I usually get bored of it after a few seasons but playing it as a social thing is really nice and gives me reason to push through the boring bits and see content I wouldn't usually. It's crazy how much has been added in updates since I last properly played it.

And ofc the real reason I'm posting is because I'm miserable with a cold. I usually play Fire Emblem when I'm sick but I was already pretty ill earlier this year and exhausted my FE tolerance for a few months. I've gone back to trying to 100% complete HM:LoH after being pretty close when I fell off it. Those last few mutations are really frustrating lol. I feel like OW is going to be less stressful with its mutations since it doesn't have the "great" variety of each crop that necessitates unlocking seeds for them all, but I guess it also has the losing stamina from running feature. And I only plan to move on to it when I finish LoH which is looking impossible right now.

[Kikki]

The store was very quiet on Boxing Day, hooray! I got to condense the seasonal aisle...I squished everything down by another, oh...maybe 40%? That's fun. I like making space! And I really like getting rid of Xmas. Gotta tell ya, even if you like it IRL (which I don't, since I don't celebrate it anyway), you wouldn't like it in retail.

And I have FINALLY completed the FLi island to level 10. It was taking me forever to do a top tier Treasure Grove, since you end up facing a level 100 monster or harvestable, and my maximum level was 82, as a miner. Well, managed to get a Fire Star Crystal boss, and as boss ores go, I think that's about the easiest one. So I made ONE miner buddy a pickaxe as good as my own, and added two crafting buddies for the continual SP support, and took some maxed-out gathering foods (um I think...perfect milkshake + or something, with 9 gathers at +200 gathering strength.) Your buddy still won't do anywhere near the damage YOU do, but they manage to about contain the boss ore's recovery, so you still have control over your EXCELLENT rating but otherwise don't have to worry as much. And thanks to the extra SP, I killicated that Lv 100 star crystal and finally got my top rating. (I had to switch out my party when in a monster area, though...I hate Snow, but she has amazing attacks. I love Colin, and he's got great paralyzation attacks, and Laura's a great Paladin, so they wonked the monsters quite well even if I ran off on them, usually.)

It didn't unlock much. Mostly just a few things in the...what is that golden fruit you get from finishing a treasure grove? Something like a goddess fruit? Anyway, it unlocked a few things for purchase in that category, but basically nothing else, which kinda sucked since it's the most annoying currency to get, even more annoying than the Lunaria flowers or whatever they're called. But at least I'm satisfied to be done that major milestone.

[Bluie]

WOAH. I got my first A ranked uma in Umamusume last night! I nearly fell out of my chair seeing the 'A' pop up after a run instead of my usual 'B' or 'B+'! And it was with the most random run of the night too (I did several to try some new mode). I saw that Grass Wonder was the only 'C' rank in my PVP team, so I figured I could at least bump her up to 'B' or fail trying lol. It a fantastic run with 0 losses, which was shocking because all my attempts with Grass Wonder in the past have been complete failure - and apparently she gives a lot of the community a hard time according to a quick google search. So, I did something kinda amazing by complete accident?! LOL. Especially since I'm mostly FTP.

I'm not even a big fan of Grass Wonder, she's cute, but nothing about her design/story tickles my happy brain chemicals. But now, with her being my first A rank, she's got my attention now lmao. Now if I could only get Rice Shower and Mayano Topgun to stop choking their last races... (maybe having Grass Wonder be their 'mom' will help?)

And in related news, I have been trying to hunt down literally any of the adorable Japanese race horse plushies that aren't hundreds of dollars or having shipping equal to the price (because imports are really expensive rn). All the most popular horses' plushies are very, very expensive (ones that won lots of races or have had a resurgence due to Umamusume's depiction of them) so I gave up finding a Gold Ship or Haru Urara (my husband and mine's favorites, respectively). NOT TO MENTION; 2026 is the year of the horse, so there's horse merch everywhere clogging up the search engines. Thankfully; I found one. Someone was selling a Ines Hujin on Surugaya, an online merchant I've used to buy a lot of obscure Asian media goods I can literally not find anywhere else. Ines Hujin is definitely not a favorite, but who cares! I finally got my hands on one without having to sell a kidney! Now I gotta figure out where to put her in the new house...

[Kikki]

I finally got back into Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. Doing well...I must be half or maybe even two-thirds of the way through level 5, Regional Bazaar. I have all the currently-available storage expansions and soil quality increases, and I got the second barn, and all crop area expansions. I still need the final upgrade for hives and logs but I have the rest. I have yet to unlock the dude who lets you trade medals because it just takes SO long to make the ultimate stone and lumber when you're also trying to upgrade all your tools AND Ivy. The demand for wood is nuts. And they don't give you NEARLY as much wood to collect each day as they do rock, when you don't need nearly as much rock. Jeepers. On top of that, you can BUY rock, if you want. But can you buy wood? Nooooo!

Well, anyway, it's going well. Fishing wastes too much time, though...it takes so long to catch a single fish, and one fish barely raises Finley's meter at all once you're past level 8 or so. Unless you manage to get a rare one. That means I also need a lot more garbage for trading. Have yet to trade Charles even one thing, though I have 18 pieces...I'm waiting to get 30 for the power berry. Or the other thing, that you need 50 for. Man, do NOT make me do that much fishing! It takes so much time away from making and finding stuff to make MONEY.

Very addictive game, if your headspace is clear enough for it.

~


EDIT (Saturday, January 3): I'm level 6 bazaar now, and half way through it. I'm pretty sure I won't have any trouble finishing level 6 and getting to the "final" level (7) by the end of the year...two more bazaars. I've discovered a very cheaty way to ensure that you make minimum 250,000G per bazaar, probably more like 300,000 with all the bonuses. And that's without doing ANYTHING else, even clearing out unnecessary things clogging up your inventory.

I also got a blizzard on Winter 2, Winter 11, and I'm getting one 'tomorrow', Winter 15. RIDICULOUS. But I actually want them right now, since they're the only way to get trash with the high-level rod I've got. Hopefully I can get a bunch in this next blizzard. I need 10 more and then I can claim the...I think it's the feather jewel, but I'm not sure. Either feather or wind. I already have the sky one from the coin prize place, and I can buy the one from...uh. I can't remember his name. Filipe or his brother or whatever, who sells wonders and I think a couple other things.

So maaaaaaybe I can get the best QoL feature in the game after the next bazaar. I really hope so. I want it! I don't have much else to unlock now, other than horse foraging, one mushroom upgrade, and several more storage size and maybe two more quality storage upgrades. They get really expensive, but you start making money even when you don't mean to. I always head to the bazaar, now, thinking I neglected to do anything to make items for money, but I always make over 200,000G without even having any plan, lol.

I like using teas, dango, and bouquets the most, for money, I think. That uses all three windmills (red for bouquets, yellow for teas, and blue for dango and honey.) Those are the most effortless ways for me. Such limited space and so much time needed for windmill processing are what keep me limited. I should figure out a few more recipes that don't need processed goods...or only super fast ones like what...that sell for a ton.

I'm doing well, anyway. Closing in on the end of the 'story', though I know something that may take even longer than the main story unlocks for postgame content. I don't know how it works, though. Looking forward to seeing.

My whole lower body is just...not on fire. Burning tingles and aches at the same time, hard to describe. Ache, ache, ache. And I didn't do anything to it. I get like this before punctuation. My poor lower back is just feeling very beaten. Perk up, you're not THAT old.

EDIT: Wow, I forgot all about the year-end thread. Better go do that.

EDIT AGAIN: I also forgot to close this thread and start a new one. Derp. Hurrying...! I will apply to have this thread shut, now.

HERE IS THE NEW BACKLOG THREAD FOR 2026.