Relkin

Close to finishing a couple of RPGs I've been meaning to beat for...way too long now.

Witcher 3 - Finished the main story and Heart of Stone; really great game, but fuck me it's too long. I've made some serious changes to my backlog after playing this; if this is indicative of where open world games went from 2015-on, I don't think I have the time for them. The wedding sequence and the heist were a ton of fun in HoS, I'm very much looking forward to Blood and Wine, and (hopefully) finishing Geralt's arc altogether.

Pillars of Eternity - Started playing this in December of 2019, got sidetracked by holidays, and struggled to come back to a save file 42 hours deep. Made the effort (especially this last weekend), got through all the White Marches stuff and every bit of optional endgame stuff there was. The dragon fights, the Endless Path, the lich Concelhaut (hate him), all of it. All I have left to do is venture past the point of no return and presumably curb-stomp Thaos into chunks, considering my party is max level. This is easily one of my favorite CRPGs ever; It's such a wonderful love letter and successor to the Infinity Engine games of old; maintaining the parts that worked, and improving those that didn't. What an experience!

Also played through ABZU over the weekend. Not long, or deep (mechanically, that is), but those were an absolutely lovely two hours I spent with it. A few tracks aside, most of that game's soundtrack greatly reminds me of some of Don Bluth's animated movies.

...annnnnnd I think I'm going to take a break from mahjong for a week or two. Man alive, just one hand after another. What a shitshow.

4 is definitely a weird place to jump into that series; it's effectively them just backpedaling after 3. They dumped basically everything that 3 brought to the series, from returning to 2's tactics strategy sequences, dumping the broken skill system, going back to something closer to the franchises normal combat system as opposed to the weird pairing thing from 3, and even went so far as to put as much in world time from the events of 3 as they could. Luckily for you, two of the three remaining games in that series you haven't played are phenomenal, and the first is totally alright (and short, like less than twenty hours short), so you've got some good games ahead of you. But...what if...

What if you just started playing Xillia again? what if you just started playing xillia again what if you just started playing xillia againWHAT IF YOU JUST STARTED PLAYING XILLIA AGAIN

As much as I want like to like a JRPG character who attacks by playing a saxophone, Makoto is just the worst.

Oh, okay. I thought maybe it was the number of tiles used or something, but it's just that you can't have multiple suits. Good to know!

And that sucks about the emotes; some of those were gold. What's even the point in making that stuff if they're gone in the space of a few weeks?

Hadn't been playing for a bit, came back in for the new event. Doesn't really seem that interesting, but maybe it's a good opportunity for me to learn how some of these actually work? Like Half Flush; I don't think I've ever really understood why I've gotten or not gotten a half flush, but it sure seems useful.

Also, did the emotes from the last event go away?

I'm not sure there is an emote that can properly display how crushed I have been in some of these games. Got my first Double Riichi, only to have someone else Ron me after 50 turns of anxiety.

No, and I never really have. Growing up, most of my friends were more into sports, so I mainly gamed by myself, and with one other friend I made when I was a bit older.

During the pandemic, I've made a few friends that I play with from time to time, but not regularly enough to call a crew.

I'd like to change that, but between finding a time and a game that works for everyone (like others have said), it's difficult.

That was a fun playthrough, quality of the game aside. That list of games for the wheel has me interested, and while I really don't think some of the stuff on that list is dubious at all, I guess that's for you to find out.

I'm really curious about the combat in Tales of Zestiria. Tales of Xillia (the game before it) was such a significant step forward for the franchise in terms of both the second to second combat and companion AI, and has made returning to anything released before it a struggle to play. If nothing else, I do hope they keep the Linking System (overhaul to companion AI).

I would looooooove a new Tokyo Mirage Sessions; best combat in the entire SMT franchise, as far as I'm concerned. Give that team a way bigger budget and see what happens, I say. Also, doesn't necessarily need to be connected to Fire Emblem. Any other property would do, really.

I would also be partial to another Sly Cooper game; that fourth one was surprisingly good.