The games I played in 2017. Most likely, many of these games will be from last year as I bought a lot that I never had the time to play or finish. I'll usually write a small block of text at a time, separate paragraphs will usually indicate that I've come back to a game after a small break or have recently finished it.
I usually only mention a game if I spent more than a hour playing it. Really all depends.
I still haven't touched much of the single-player campaign, which is a shame as I've heard it's phenomenal. The multiplayer has such a hold on me - I don't think I've missed a Giant Bomb Happy Hour since I've started to play. I'm sure that'll change eventually, but I'm having such a blast that I don't see it happening soon.
I scored 168 points in a single Attrition game, so maybe I should just quit because I'm never gonna be that good ever again.
I started the campaign! Y'all, the campaign is good. Really good.
Still plugging along at the first Steins;Gate. The lab mems have just theorized the "time leap", which should lead to interesting shenanigans.
Oh god the interesting shenanigans were characters straight up dying, recursive loops where characters keep dying, and parallel/concurrent worlds where the characters keep dying. Great writing, though. Ended up with the Faris ending my first time through. Went back to get the Suzuha ending, followed by Lukako's ending. Lukako's ending hit me like a ton of bricks - the writing is just incredible.
I think I'm on the path for Mayuri's ending, after which I have to replay the entire game (thankfully there's a skip) to see Kurisu and the True Ending.
Finished up all of the endings of Steins;Gate and I loved every minute of it. I cried at the true ending.
I FINALLY GOT AN ELUSIVE TARGET. GotY, all year every year.
Basically more Human Revolution, which I absolutely adored. Adam Jensen is sort of a nothing character with a gravely voice and neckbeard, but how everyone else plays off of him and reacts to him is worthwhile. The new augments don't seem all that great to me, but I'll play around with them eventually.
Is it just me or does he *really* look like Jeff Goldblum trying to sell me on apartments.com in the thumbnail?
I'm currently lost in a sewer and accidentally solved the wrong sidequest. Whooooops.
Olly Olly.
I haven't gotten too far into Oxenfree, but so far I am in love with the dialogue system - though I wish there was a little more feedback on if Alex is going to say what you select immediately and interrupt, or if she's going to wait until the end of the next sentence. That minor issue aside, I'm really excited for what Oxenfree is laying out.
Does Clarissa ever get any better because she's kind of an asshat. (answer: sorta?)
I'm not sure if there's much I could say about Uncharted 4: A Theif's End without just gushing and gushing. It is absolutely gorgeous in every sense of the word. The vistas and views are breathtaking. I love the subtle facial animations that express real emotions and can carry scenes all on their own. It's hard to not just mention scenes that I was in love with, because honestly? It might just be the whole game. I will point out the scene at the hotel and the car ride with Elena later in the game as high points to me. The only minor complaint I have is that the gunplay is still a giant "whatever", but the addition of stealth makes it so much more bearable.
The ending of Uncharted 4 also makes me wonder what direction the series will go in. I would be all the way into a new Uncharted starring Cassie. Or maybe just let the Uncharted series lay low for a while, work on something else.
Basically a less bizarre Pocket Card Jockey. It mainly makes me want to play Pocket Card Jockey.
I should play more Pocket Card Jockey.
Shadow of the Colossus is and remains one of my favorite games of all time and I have been following the creation of The Last Guardian ever since it was announced. I love the game so far, but the controls and camera are pretty frustrating so far. Trico is so real and so fantastic, however, that it's a bit of a moot point. I just want to interact and play with Trico more. I know this game ends with either the boy dying or Trico dying, but I'm still pretty invested.
While I haven't been quite as frustrated by the process of actually playing a video game in some time, I enjoyed large parts of The Last Guardian. I'm glad I experienced it, but it's something I never want to go through again. I might have had nightmares about trying to get Trico to dive.
I fired up some TMS♯FE mainly because my PS4 controller ran out of battery and I wanted an excuse to turn on my WiiU. But now that I've gotten back in, I've remembered just how good TMS♯FE is. It's fantastic, really. I wish the game gave the Knight class more weapons to start out with, however. I'm also starting to get obsessed with upgrading and maxing out weapons/skills. +4 Ziodyne's? I don't know how much the pluses matter, but I must have them all.
I just found the upgrade that turns Shantae and the Pirate's Curse into Super Metroid and I'm. All. The. Way. In.
Final bosses that do half of your health with no invincibility frames are really annoying, just fyi!
One of the few "major" NES games I don't happen to own in any form (the other standouts from my childhood that I'm missing include Tecmo Super Bowl and a working copy of Super Mario Bros 3 (sidenote: why isn't Contra available on the virtual console?)), watching Vinny and Dan make it all the way through Contra inspired me to try myself.
I am not very good at Contra. Made it to Stage 4 before needing a continue. Going to try every so often to finish it without the 30 lives code.
I forgot how much I dig good Tales games. Hearts R is delightfully goofy, something I much appreciate after some of the heavier games I've played lately. I mean, yes, a girl loses all of her emotions, but there's a lot of levity surrounding it. The combat system and upgrades are great as well, allowing for tons of customization. Good all around.
This is a ridiculous Final Fantasy game, but the game is very much aware of that and leans on the fourth wall as much as possible. Combat is turn based (and so painfully slow sometimes), but you can "stack" characters on top of your head. It's silly in all the best ways, but if I have to hear Tama speak any more, I might just switch the language to Japanese because she is so infuriating.
When Fates came out, I thought I was all ready for some new Fire Emblem-ing, but I burned out so quickly by trying to min-max everyone like I did in Awakening. Now, almost a year later, I'm playing the game on a harder difficulty and going through at my own pace. I don't need all of the children characters, I'm not trying to maximize everyone's potential and I just use the units I like. I'm having a much more enjoyable time - I wonder if I'll make it through all three games this time.
Answer: No. For whatever reason, the Birthright route is just kinda boring. The story holds little appeal and it's annoying what Fire Emblem has become. Once I have a little more time I'll push through it and finish Conquest/Revelations, but for right now I'm just checked out of Fire Emblem.
God fucking dammit.
Aggravated my carpal tunnel which means it has to go. Thank god.
I thought about playing through Day of the Tentacle Remastered without a guide, got about halfway through, and then realized just how annoying old adventure games were without one.
I get that it's one of the seminal adventure games, but I just cannot get into it.
So this is a little different than usual, but I did want to mention it, because I thought it was cool. I went to an early event held in my city to play a bunch of Switch games: Super Bomberman R, Sonic Mania, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Sonic Mania, Ultra Street Fighter II, Snipperclips, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
A lot of it was really neat! However, I will say that a lot of the games fit into the category, "oh it's another one of THOSE". While reductive, it's true. Sonic Mania is more Sonic. Super Bomberman R is more Bomberman. The Zelda demo was good, but I did manage to die halfway through, because gravity. My wife seemed to like Snipperclips a lot and was into the smaller controllers. She intuitively understood how to use and control them. The controllers were a lot more comfortable sideways than the Wiimote.
I don't think I'll be picking up a Switch until Mario launches, though. There aren't nearly enough exclusive games or experiences I'm desperate for and the price point is just out of that "impulse buy" range for me. Still, I hope it does well. I've always been a huge Nintendo guy and would love to seem them succeed.
On sale for a decent price on PSN, I've already spent far more time in SotFS than I originally meant to. I wasn't nearly as into the base Dark Souls II as a lot of people - it was good, but not quite what I was looking for in a Dark Souls sequel. It seemed to double down on being "hardcore" at the expense of fantastic worldbuilding and level design. Many of the bosses were simplistic and easy to conquer. Not that every boss has to be this epic confrontation and pattern memorization machine, but a bit more strategy beyond "circle around the dude and whack him with a mace occasionally".
SotFS doesn't fix a few of the aforementioned problems, but I'm finding myself enjoying the remix. This may just be my memory playing with me, but the game seems to have a much more pronounced and gentle difficulty curve. The early parts and bosses haven't posed much trouble (defeating Pursuer on my second try, even without the ballista) and every time I've died it's been 100% my fault.
I don't think SotFS will beat out Bloodborne or DkS1 as my favorite Soulsian game, but it's still fun to play.
Probably around halfway through SotFS now, and still enjoying large swathes of the game. The major issues from Dark Souls II still remain - enemy hits track way too much, far too many bosses, and poor level design. I'm hoping to try out the DLC soon, as I've heard it's phenomenal.
I watched about twenty minutes of Beast in the East and right when Kiryu smashed a wooden katana into a dude's face was the moment I decided, "Okay yeah I need to buy Yakuza". This is my first experience with any Yakuza game, and I have to say, I am absolutely in love. The characters are fantastic and the story is really going some places that I'm definitely into. I have a huge fondness for the sheer volume of sidequests and substories, and I've spent far too much time on some of the minigames. Kiryu and Majima are great protagonists, both of whom I really want to root for.
I am a disco god, none shall conquer me. I am the most real estate.
I'm not sure if you know this, but Shovel Knight is a pretty great game still. I haven't even touched the new campaigns, just regular Shovel Knight is fantastic.
My wife is a Tetris predator and I am her prey. She will not rest until ever line is clear and my screen lays demolished and broken. She will conquer. She will consume. She is Tetris. All hail.
It took me a long time to get excited for Breath of the Wild. A really long time. I don't think I really registered the fact that a new, open-world Zelda was coming out until the day before release. Watching all of the pre-release footage convinced me that I needed to pick up Breath of the Wild, immediately. I'm incredibly happy about that decision, as I'm completely enthralled with Breath of the Wild so far.
There's a lot of wonderful things about BotW that I could mention: how it flips the entire series standards on their heads, how wonderful all the environmental puzzles are, just how expertly crafted each area is, and how charming each NPC is. I love wandering around the cities, talking to each person and trying to help their problems.
One instance sticks out in my mind from early on in the game, where you're running a special blue flame around a village to light up a generator. Each NPC I talked to had special, unique dialogue about it. This is probably such a minor little detail, but it made the world just come alive to me. OF COURSE everyone would say something about the blue fire, it's fire that's blue!
I love this game. I love all of the exploration. I love how, in the truest sense, if you see a mountain, you can go there. I'm gushing, I know, but I am just completely enamored with Breath of the Wild. I don't want my time to ever end with it.
I've tried to play Trials in the Sky several times over the years, always finding it interesting, but taking a while to grab me. This time around, however, it has sunk its fangs into me. The slowest of slow burns, LoH:TitS takes around 5-10 hours to really get going. Now that I'm about 20 hours in, the story has really started to grab me and I'm just in love with the characters. Well written characters will win me over just about any day of the week.
I played about an hour of the story mode (which was passable) before realizing I had no one to play with and the only is basically dead. A real shame, because I liked all of the characters. It also got me back into watching anime, which may or may not be a good thing.
It is the best time to be playing video games.
Persona 5 is a masterpiece. The style just pours out of the game nonstop and the gameplay is top-notch. The story stumbles every so often, but I'm so engrossed with Persona 5 that it made me put down Zelda for a while.
90 hours later, after finally finishing Persona 5, I have a lot of conflicting thoughts. The aesthetic is incredibly stylish and snazzy, with so much flair and pop. The in-battle gameplay is excellent and represents a new bar for upcoming JRPGs to surpass.
It's such a shame, then, that the characters, dialogue, and dungeon design are awful. None of the Phantom Thieves have anything resembling consistent characterization. Each and every piece of dialogue said by a character could easily be swapped with another without anyone noticing. I can vividly recall the difference between how Chie and Yukiko spoke in Persona 4, but I'm not sure I can tell Ann and Haru apart.
The dungeon design, especially in the latter half of the game, goes from "decent" to "mind-numbling slog". Few of the dungeons were actually fun to play, and towards the end I was actually starting to long for Tartarus from Persona 3 just to give me some short sections to play.
Throw into the mix some homophobic jokes, Morgana's creepy fascination with Ann, Morgana (in general), and Goro Akechi (in general) gives me a game that I just wish was better, overall.
I got a great deal on Bravely Second before remembering that I never actually beat Bravely Default. So I'm working on that now. I'm a sucker for a really good job system and since Bravely Default is a more modern Final Fantasy V, I'm satisfied.
After finishing Bravely Default, I'm still satisfied that I finished it, but those ending chapters are capital B, Bad. The final rematches against the bosses was great though.
I'm really bad at roguelikes, y'all. I did manage to complete the main quest once, and only once.
Hey I did the main quest twice!
Imagine that, changing a fundamental gameplay mechanic can make a sequel to one of my favorite games from 2015 even better. Now BoxBoy can make two boxes! It's fantastic.
I started playing on Hard mode and oh god I'm so bad at Picross what happened.
Fantastic, but most of the songs seem pretty short? There seem to be a ton of songs packed into Rhythm Heaven Megamix (which are then passed out four at a time - another aggravation), but none of them feel long enough to really extrapolate and twist the inputs like previous Rhythm Heaven games have.
For instance, the original Air Rally was around 2 minutes long and expanded quickly upon the basic instructions with timing changes and visual impairment. The Megamix Air Rally is 50 seconds long and is incredibly straightforward. Apparently, there are more challenges later on, such as a second Air Rally, that start to play with expectations more. However, for a long-time fan of Rhythm Heaven, this all feels like an unnecessary barrier.
I was more into the fairy section of Glittermitten Grove than anything that came after.
Most of the time I played TrackMania 2 was during free trials, so I thought that tossing Nadeo seven dollars was worthwhile. I'm never going to be a fantastic TrackMania 2 player, but I'm in the top 100 for the District of Columbia, which is something.
Victor Vran fits my need to use a controller with a Diablo-style game much better than Marvel Heroes Omega. Combat is fun with the weapons having actual differences. The shotguns have a nice punch and swinging around a hammer is fantastic. I'm also a big fan of the secrets littered around each map, encouraging exploration and replaying a section.
My only complaint is the voice actor for Victor is Doug Cockle, the voice actor for Geralt in the Witcher. He's doing the same exact voice!
A visual novel with some very, very light bartending. I stopped playing a few hours in as none of the characters were all that engaging to me. I might try to finish up at least one ending, eventually.
I played through the first Metro game and had an enjoyable time. Part of me wishes I had played on a higher difficulty (as both you and enemies do more damage), but I don't have enough time in my life to repeatedly play through sections of a game. Still, I had a decent time.
I've been hungering for a controller based Diablo clone since my copy of Diablo III is on 360 which I haven't turned on in a while. Marvel Heroes Omega is... alright. A lot of the microtransactions feel pretty scummy and none of the systems revolving around crafting are explained. After running through a few dungeons, I was nearly out of space in my inventory and Stash, where the game was almost cheerfully reminding me I could buy more space. Hard pass.
Aaaaaand it's already shut down. Jeez.
I put about ten hours into Dying Light, but I'm only about 15% of the way through the story? I enjoy a lot of Dying Light, but I'm not sure if the story is enough to keep me going as the gameplay is already starting to get a little repetitive.
One of the weirder launch titles for the 3DS, TCGR: Shadow Wars is a tactics game a la Advance Wars. To be reductive, it's Fire Emblem with guns. But in a strange way, I really dig it? I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would.
It's been about a year and a half since I finished Etrian Odyssey III, and with more life changes on the horizon, it's time to dive into Etrian Odyssey IV. I wrote last year that Etrian Odyssey somewhat represents the major changes in my life and that "I can only imagine what will happen when I start the fourth Etrian Odyssey game."
Well, as we're now expecting the birth of our first child sometime in the middle of 2018, I think I know what major life change I'll be playing Etrian Odyssey IV during.
Right now I'm still in the first area, running a Fortress/Nightseeker/Dancer//Runemaster/Medic party. The Nightseeker was a late addition, I had a Landsknecht originally, but didn't feel like trying to set up a Link party later in the game. My Medic will most likely lose relevancy later on, so I'll most likely retire them later on into an Arcanist.
So far, I love EOIV a lot more than EOIII. Sailing around on the airship is more freeing than anything EOIII did.
Between when I last wrote, I had just gotten my legs under me in EOIV, and now I've beaten the game, running a F/D N/A I/B // R/I A/M party. The Fortress blocked everything and danced out of the way of damage, the Nightseeker poisoned everything that moved, the Imperial would just slash things straight open, the Runemaster hits every enemies' weakness, and the Alchemist binds the enemies down. It's a pretty good party. Now I'm working my way through the postgame. I wonder if I'll move on to the fifth game by the time my first child is born.
As one of the approximately 20 people that played the original NieR, I have a lot of fondness for Yoko Taro. Even then, I only played until the first ending of NieR and read about the rest because the gameplay just wasn't up to snuff with Yoko Taro's visions. Not that it was bad, mostly just bland after some 20 hours.
NieR: Automata nearly fixes everything. The fighting is fast and snappy, 2B moves like a dream around the battlefield, and the weapons all have demonstrative weight. I could just go on and on about the ways I love 2B's movement and animations. It's gorgeous. Honestly, breathtakingly gorgeous. I'm so excited to see where the story of Automata goes.
I think the only minor gripe I have is that picking up items is still laborious and I've had a few minor bugs, along with one major crash. If you're going to boast about no autosaving, maybe make sure your game is stable enough to not crash on people!
After finishing the five main [E]ndings, I can safely say that I loved the vast majority of NieR: Automata. However, I feel like Automata is a much more easily accessible game than the original NieR. Automata still has a lot of grim shit going on, and more than a few gameplay changes to mix things up, but the original NieR was absolutely ridiculous in 2010. I did appreciate all the callbacks to the original and seeing the end of Emil's quest nearly made me cry.
I also didn't think Automata explained the nature of the relationship between 2B, 9S, and A2 as well as I would have hoped. I only truly understood what happened after reading a few different forum threads and TV Tropes articles.
Continuing my never ending love affair of rhythm games, I'm really into what Thumper is putting down. In many rhythm games, the player is responsible for creating the music, but in Thumper, the player is reacting to the music. The music is ancillary to the whole experience, which is an interesting change of pace.
If there's a curve immediately after a short curve, I'm almost definitely going to die.
Resident Evil 4 is one of my top 10 games of all time. There are fewer games that I've put more time into and have replayed more times than RE4.
I say that to say that I'm not sure how I feel about The Evil Within. It's... alright? I need to put more time into the Evil Within, and while the game makes a decent first impression, I almost feel like it's reveling in the gore and violence? Which is perfectly fine in a game like DOOM, but I always thought that in a game like Resident Evil, the gore was a punishment for failure. You didn't kill this man what holds chainsaw, so here he goes cutting off your head. This dog is now eating Jill's face, good job. When you messed up, the consequence was shocking. The Evil Within just has gore with impunity, over-saturating the screen and lessening the impact.
Nope, fuck this, I'm done. What an infuriating, anti-player game. I've never played a game that did not want players to enjoy it in such a long time. I hope the sequel is better, because The Evil Within 1 can go fuck itself to the moon and back.
I feel like the Old Blood is almost too difficult, so I have plans to put the difficulty on Easy and just blitz through the Nazis.
Transistor is a really wonderful hybrid strategy-action game with a completely incomprehensible story. Unlocking all of the bios of the various people you interact with and fuse into your sword is wonderful, but if what people say is true and that you only start getting a handle on the combat by the time the game is finished, then that is incredibly disappointing.
As part of the 1.5+2.5 ReMIX on PS4.
I love Kingdom Hearts. I always have and probably always will. My first experience with Kingdom Hearts was actually Chain of Memories, which was a fucking ride, especially since I never played the original. Kingdom Hearts 1 was what inspired me to get a PS2, way back in 2004 (the game came out in 2002, but being pretty poor, the thought of getting a PS2 didn't really cross my mind until a few years later). I remember returning that first game for a different copy because of the way the case smelled, because I wanted my experience to be perfect. The PS2 my mother bought on eBay never worked and I had to wait a few agonizing months until Christmas so we could buy a Slim PS2 from WalMart.
I tell you that to tell you that Kingdom Hearts as a whole is a very powerful memory for me. When playing through the ReMIX, I remembered so much of the dialogue. Memories of holding a PS2 controller, staying up late at night fighting Sephiroth, talking about the game with my first girlfriend came flooding back to me. Replaying through the game was a fantastic nostalgia trip.
So with a heavy heart, I have to talk about how poorly Kingdom Hearts 1 has aged. Y'all, it's rough. The combat isn't substandard, but it's damn close. Sora just doesn't move or attack as fluidly as he should. Kingdom Hearts 1 almost never tells the player where to go or what to do. In one visit to Traverse Town, the player has to explore the entire area, then talk to a random shopkeeper, with nothing to hint towards this. Deep Jungle, for instance, has you backtracking through the entire world no less than three times. Monstro is almost unnavigable. Neverland is tiny and confined, but also you can fly, which just further exacerbates the situation. The less said about Atlantica, the better.
The story is cutesy and trite throughout many of the cutscenes, with characters earnestly talking about their hearts and the power of friendship. It's hokey, but still endearing to me. KH1 isn't a perfect game, but it's a fun, nostalgic romp.
I think I hate Salt & Sanctuary? After putting about ten hours in, I think I've reached my limit. None of the artstyle, combat, or level design appeals to me. The combat of a 2-D Dark Souls with none of the charm or polish.
This snake is adorable and also this game is really tough!
Dragon Quest VI is at times my favorite and least favorite Dragon Quest game. I love how deep the class system is (and I'm a sucker for an in-depth class system), but I hate just how obfuscated everything is. What is the difference between a Mage and a Priest? Idk, they're magic. What class should the Protagonist be? who fucking knows, good luck. How do I unlock better classes? *shrug*.
I tend to play these games with a guide closely in hand, so that's been a bit mitigated, but it's always annoying to have to go outside of a game to get decent resources.
Also, and I say this as an experienced Dragon Quest-er, that Murdaw might be the hardest Dragon Quest boss I've ever faced in the entirety of the series. Casino abuse, item abuse, and just plain level-grinding was actually necessary because I was getting torn to shreds. Even then, I think the battle took two or three times as Murdaw would just kill a party member right out.
Bioshock 2 is my favorite Bioshock. I've never played much System Shock, but I think it's right up my alley.
Prey is a really good Bioshock 2 and I love it.
At least, until you have to fight any enemy. The combat is absolutely godawful, but trying to stealth by anyone is a nightmare as well. I have no idea why the combat needed to be so difficult. Factoring into that frustration is that all the enemies respawn! And then the game slaps you in the face with that ending. Prey dropped down my favorite games of 2017 list startingly quickly. It's my favorite first half of a game, until you reach G.U.T.S. where it just plummets.
What a weird, wonderful little X-Com-like. Reducing the percentages to 0, 50, and 100 takes away my main issue with X-Com and the randomness present in those games.
More Yakuza? Sign me up.
If ever a game needed a tutorial, it might be Golf Story? I love the dialogue and the golfing gameplay tees up some great puns, but good god it took about 20 minutes to figure out how to control the Discs for disc golf.
I finally broke down and bought a Switch after having played one at a Nintendo event earlier this year. I love it! It's such a neat little system that is snappy and responsive and so easy to pick up and play.
Super Mario Odyssey is, likewise, easy to pick up and play. The number of collectibles has skyrocketed to nearly a level that hasn't really been seen since Donkey Kong 64. Tripping over collectibles in Odyssey doesn't feel like the huge chore everything in DK64 was as the number of Moons required to progress is surprisingly low compared to the total number present in a level. And while a good number are just out and about for the player to discover, very few of the Moons feel like ticking arbitrary boxes which is definitely a plus. Another good idea with stuffing the world with rewards means that the Moons that actually require some effort or obtuse game logic are entirely tertiary to experiencing the game, which helps avoid many of the problems I had with some collect-a-thons, Banjo-Tooie, in particular.
It's such a fantastic game. Each Capture is unique and offers satisfying twists on traditional platforming challenges. There's a literal T-Rex, Chain-Chomps, Cheep-cheeps, and some that I don't want to spoil, but the very end of the game is absolutely crazy. I loved Odyssey
All open world games in this post-Breath of the Wild game landscape we're living in feel... bland, almost? I'm having a similar problem with Horizon that I did with Witcher, wherein almost all of the major quests involve triggering some kind of Batman vision and then following a trail. It's boring and trite. The combat is pretty fun, at least for now.
I don't think I'm deep enough into the story or Aloy's character arc to have an opinion on it just yet.
I am become farming God, destroyer of all free time.
send help.
Because I'm always the worst at buying new games as they come out, I decided to celebrate the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 by picking up where I left off in Xenoblade Chronicles X. I mainly want to get to the part where I can fly some giant robots, but I swear to god that XCX is one of the most haphazardily designed games in recent memory. Why is the story so godawful? Why are the giant robots present on the cover locked away for 20+ hours? Who decided to make the main character mute but also freeze the cutscenes whenever they answer a pointless question? Why are there about seven subsystems that don't seem to serve any purpose? Why is the quest design so heinously bad? Why are some story missions locked off until I complete random side quests that AREN'T MARKED ON THE FUCKING MAP, WHO DID THIS.
I just cannot, y'all. I just can't. I need to get into a giant robot just once, but the path to get there is killing me softly.
Once I get to the water area, all hell breaks loose.
Phoenix Wright games are a personal favorite (I absolutely adored Apollo Justice even!), but I fell off of Spirit of Justice back when it originally came out - I think I had a work trip that distracted me and I was playing through the DLC case which was average, at best. Still, it wasn't nearly as bad as Turnabout Big Top, but it is not nearly as strong as the other cases.
I feel like I need to spend more time with Fantasy Life because i just don't really *get* it. I'm not 100% sure what the main loop of gameplay is supposed to be.
Good dialogue, at least.
One of my self-care games (moreso than Round 2), since I feel like I truly understand the mechanics and can relax and focus on some puzzles.
I really enjoy the Zero Escape games. 999 remains one of my favorite DS games, and I have fond memories of Virtue's Last Reward. That said, I have no idea what the fuck is going on in Zero Time Dilemma. The storyline is a confusing mess that I think is supposed to represent what the characters are going through with the constant mind wiping and memory loss. I just miss the easy to use timeline from VLR.
I might have read a spoiler about the story that, if true, makes me want to punt this goddamn game into the sun.
I have no idea what it is, but I completely fell off of Pokemon Moon.
maybe playing 225 hours of Pokemon X and completing a Living Pokedex will do that, I dunno.
One of the games my wife and I play together. Definitely in my top three Switch games, really should have been the launch title/pack in for the Switch. It's incredible.
About once every two years I try to play through Xenogears. This year, I'm about 4 hours in and still enjoying it, though I'm really just here for the giant robots.
I usually love walking simulators, but I've seen the first hour or two of Firewatch played, which makes it more than a little difficult to push through it.
No one is nearly this snarky or quick witted in real life.
I played around 20 minutes of Bound and it didn't really grab me.
Recommended by Waypoint and someone on /r/Giantbomb as a "chill, magical girl JRPG", I really appreciate just how relaxed Blue Reflection is. Set in an all-girl high school where every character is just trying their best, Blue Reflection doesn't do much new, but it's definitely a relaxing game. The game takes a few cues from Persona, with a lot of events adding characterization to your friends and helper characters. Combat is sort of like Grandia, with an active time bar that counts down until whoever is next acts - friend or foe. A good mix of abilities which let you add more time to the enemy act counter or do more damage (and speed them up!) - it's a fun system.
My main point of contention is that the game is kinda pervy, but I can't tell if it's trying to be skeevy intentionally or not. None of the characters feel like they're there for the purpose of fanservice, but each character happens to have a rainy day model (where their clothes are partially see through) and the camera has a habit of lingering on character's legs. I could take it or leave it, to be honest.
I just like Kirby games. Kirby games, to me, are the B-tier Nintendo games. Not to say that they're bad, far from it, but I've always felt like Kirby was meant to fill in the gaps between Mario years. And Kirby always feels like Nintendo trying out some new things. One year, Kirby's messing around with a tilt sensor, another he's made of yarn. Hey, here he is in a robot. Intermixed with all of those are more traditional Kirby games that I always enjoy.
Kirby's just a good time.
One of my other self-care games. TFF:CC is as difficult as I want it to be, which almost endless content and tons of songs I adore.
A fun little 3DS Kingdom Hearts, but the camera is far too close to the player's backside to even see what is going on. I might end up selling this and buying the 2.8 PS4 version just to have it at 60 FPS instead of a small 3DS screen.
oh my god why is this game still giving me tutorials 25 hours in. why are so many of the challenges so completely dull. whyyyy.
Didn't grab me, kind of a bummer.
The complete Switch edition!
I like Disgaea, but I always forget how slow the beginning of any Disgaea game is. Takes a good 5-10 hours before I feel remotely prepared to take enemies on one-on-one.
