Someone give you grief about disliking something again?
One thing that will never cease to amaze me is how defensive gamers tend to be about games they like. The slightest criticism of it is viewed by some as an personal affront...
Some real good stuff on this list! 2017 has been a lot of fun gaming wise.
@arbitrarywater: I think you already know my thoughts about Valentia but man do I love that game. I share your affliction about no casualties/ hard mode (XCOM is another one that gets me), and that Turnwheel is such an absolute quality of life improvement for me, too much Save Scumming just bums me out. I honestly don't know if i'll like future FE games if they don't have a feature like it.
Can't say I'm too surprised about Yooka-Laylee. I'm always leery of people pitching making pure throwback games. I don't know you but I'd like a 3d platformer in the mold of those old games that has adapted to modern conveniences and changes. I'd like the 3d platformer those guys would make today, not the game they think they need to recreate.
fwiw I don't consider the bombcast a good barometer for that kinda stuff tbh. If it's over 40 hours and it's a JRPG it's pretty much got no hope with them these days. I love the guys and enjoy listening to them, but they've got a strong bias against long games anymore probably due to lack of free time out of the office. It's been that way since 2012 or so. That's certainly ok and it's useful to have prominent contrarian opinions. But I wouldn't consider their opinion representative of general reception at all whenever it comes to RPGs (See their takes on Witcher 3 versus how many awards it won from other gaming sites).
That being said , I do think there has been complaints about the translation that seems valid to me but for the most part people seemed to really like the game. Not as well loved as 4, but pretty well loved. Probably didn't help 5 either that 4's success and the wait made expectations so much higher.
btw didn't you mention you mod an Overwatch discord? Would it be alright if I joined it if I just wanted to lurk on there? If so could you PM me a link to it? I've got a group of friends I play with, but I like to read discussions about the current meta etc to incorporate into our own casual play.
I think Shadows of Valentia is on track to be my personal number 2 after Path of Radiance as the map design doesn't bother me as people like yourself who probably more purely for the tactical element. Or maybe I'm just a wimp as I like Sacred Stones a lot too, haha.
but we'll see after I get deeper into (only chapter 3 atm).
Never played Thracia 776 or any of the non localized ones though...
@morecowbell24: ha, you're right. And what's odd is I really like that genre. Maybe a top 5 genre I enjoy playing for me personally
Thanks for the well wishes! I personally doubt I'll ever get to play the majority of these, but one never knows. I've knocked a ton off what this list would have been ten years ago thanks to the digital era.
@arbitrarywater:yeah Lightning is a PS3 girl in a drab PS2 world. For some reasons the textures are so dark and muddy unlike Xiii and Xiii-2 and those last gen (for last gen) NPCs.... bleh. Very drab palette
I think it might have been Hailinel who once mentioned to me that according to rumor LR:FF Xiii was originally a Valkryie Profile game re-purposed into the third Fabula Nova Crystallis game. If so that would make a lot of sense from the downscaled production values and some the quirks around it. But yeah that combat system is pretty fun if nothing else.
re: waypoint- Hunh I wouldn't have thought either would end up there. Well VGK isn't that surprising. He always a bit of an omnivore of eclectic material.
Yeah gotta say I respect what Waypoint's doing and the people behind it, but their content never clicked with me. From the look of the site to the written material, just not my bag and that's ok.
But even if it did, I barely have enough time in my life for GB. Only got room for one gaming community in my life. Maybe not even that at times!
@slag: The Infinity Engine has a learning curve for sure, especially if you don't have a ton of familiarity with the anachronisms and quirks of AD&D 2nd Edition rules. I recently bought one of those Player's Handbook reprints (partially for fun, partially as a threat to my D&D group) and finally found out what Speed Factor actually means (it's a modifier for your initiative roll ostensibly based around your weapon's weight.) That said, people revere those games for a reason, and I think they're all some variety of great. If you're ever in the mood and have a good 30-50 hours to kill... yeah. Give 'em a shot.
I can identify with both the "2017 has so much good new stuff and also backlogging requires concentration and effort" sentiments. My own lists on the subject are proof enough. If I'm going to be entirely honest, I'm probably only going to complete two or three games on that RPG list this year. I have a morbid desire to finish Lightning Returns if only so I can finally get all of Final Fantasy XIII out of my life, so that might take priority in the near future. If only Hailinel could see me now.
New (old) Fire Emblem is a lot of fun! I'm probably going to write something up about it when I finish it, but short answer is that I like that they kept all of Gaiden's weird ass mechanics, the script is a lot better than Fates, the map design is super boring and I'm just glad there are no Hyperbolic Time Babies.
Yeah I'm definitely not, never played a game proper D&D in my life tbh. Maybe I should read up on that ruleset you mentioned first. Might shorten the learning phase.
Part of my issue with big games like infinity games in general is two fold due to to some character flaws. I'm a very slow gamer, when HLTB says a game takes 40 hours, it usually takes me ~60 because I like to poke around and look at everything. Fwiw I've got maybe 130 hours in Zelda:BotW right, and while I've beaten Ganon, I've only cleared one Divine Beast because I've been systematically hunting Koroks like Crazy (I think I have 400 or so).
The other is I tend to get overwhelmed in games with a lot of choice because I want to see everything, which leads me to burnout on them sometimes. Since I'll replay scenarios over and over to see the different outcomes :)
So yeah I only have myself to blame for a lot of this procrastination. I've really got to have an open schedule and be in a good state of mind to play a game that has that much freedom.
Speaking of LR. I was replaying it a bit last fall and is it just me or did that game age terribly in the graphics compartment already? I feel like I'm looking at a 2009 game not a 2014 release.
yeah I miss Hailinel (and Yummylee and VGK among others), that guy was probably the biggest FF on the site even more so than me, well until ZombiePie found religion :).
Agree with all you've said Echoes. The maps are definitely simplistic, but in light of everything else I'm pretty happy to overlook that.
I really dig it, I hope that Echoes turns into a subseries of remakes of all the old games we never got here. Had no idea how badly I missed pre-Waifu FE style.
I've been playing games for a pretty long time and I've played a ton, but it's basically impossible to play everything. Looking at 2017's releases they are so stacked there's a good chance this list will grow 'cause I doubt I'll get to any of the PS4 exclusives (like Horizon or Nioh) this year since I don't own the console.
You are right about Super Metroid of course.
I'm glad you got some crossed off your list! I was pretty happy to get Megaman X off mine last year.
@viking_funeral: Yeah I know. I'm pretty confident I'll get to the platformers at some point. Those tend to age pretty well and are short enough they are easy to bang out on a whim. Mass Effect I'm working on. I've nearly finished 1.
and oh this isn't my backlog. This is just games I consider to be classics that I haven't played. Some of these I don't own. If were talking about how big my backlog is (counting mediocre games and humble bundle games etc).... You'd probably need to multiply this list by at least 10.
And that'd only be my unplayed games on Steam
If you add in GoG, Origin, Uplay, PS3, Vita, 3DS, DS, PS2 etc... there's probably another 200 or so...
Yeahhhhh....
Digital sales, humble bundles and used games are a weakness of mine.
Personally mento, I think you should do whatever you enjoy doing. So if this format is less stressful and more enjoyable for you, stick with it.
I just like reading what you write.
In your shoes I'd keep this new format, but would allow myself to play games from any time period. The May Madness stuff seems like it'd be really stressful, plus if it were me I'd really hate detaching from a game before I felt done with it.
Slag's comments