<–The State of the Gamer: 8/1/17 The State of the Gamer: 8/15/17–>
A weekly post updated every Tuesday detailing my current gaming projects. I have quite a backlog of games to either play or watch, and I’m hoping a weekly article will assist with my progress as my other accountable posts have done with reading and writing. I have an account at Grouvee, which is a essentially Goodreads for gamers, so please feel free to friend me there!
Currently Playing: 4
Title: Final Fantasy Type-0
Series: Final Fantasy/Fabula Nova Crystallis
Genre: Action RPG – Fantasy
Developer: Square Enix
Platform: PlayStation 4
Release Date: October 27, 2011
Date Purchased: May 18, 2017
Date Started: June 18, 2017
Progress: Chapter 2 – Leaving on first official mission
I finally got some play time in this week. I explored the entirety of the school and figured out how to switch characters. I’m still not completely comfortable with the battle system, but since the very next thing I’m doing is fighting, I suppose I’ll get more practice in. I’m assuming after this first official mission, I’ll have access to the Coliseum where I can do CBA’s leveling trick.
Title: Final Fantasy V
Series: Final Fantasy
Genre: RPG – Fantasy
Developer: Square
Platform: PlayStation
Release Date: December 6, 1992
Date Purchased: Unknown
Date Started: June 17, 2017
Progress: Outside Walz Castle – Grinding
I did not play this at all last week, but I’ve decided I’m just going to move onto Walz Tower instead of trying to grind up enough levels to defeat Shiva. I’ll come back later.
Title: Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius
Series: Final Fantasy
Genre: RPG – Fantasy
Developer: Square Enix
Platform(s): iOS, Android
Release Date: June 29, 2016
Date Purchased: March 21, 2017
Date Started: March 27, 2017
Progress: Rank 30
I managed to barely defeat Diabolos with help from a much stronger 6th unit so now I have six espers. I haven’t done much else story wise now that I’ve reached Dirnado. I’m assuming Lid will join my party soon (since I met her in the city) so I can start doing some of the expeditions that require her.
Title: The Room Three
Genre: Puzzle, Mystery
Developer: Fireproof Games
Platform(s): iOS, Android
Release Date: 2015
Date Purchased: May 28, 2017
Date Started: May 28, 2017
Date Finished (1): July 4, 2017
Playing Duration: 37 days
I collected all of the necessary items to achieve the alternative endings, and with a little more help from the walkthrough “escaped” from the situation. The graphics are really impressive and suitably creepy. I attempted another ending, but the puzzle was a bit difficult, and I either require more time or some guidance.
Games Currently Watching: 3
Title: The Last of Us
Genre: Third-Person Shooter, Action-Adventure, Survival – Horror
Developer: Naughty Dog
Platforms: PlayStation 3 & 4
Release Date: June 14, 2013
Let’s Player: ChristopherOdd
Date Started: July 23, 2017
Progress: 47%
Joel and Ellie have made it to Pittsburgh, and Bill’s seemingly throwaway line about how it’s “normal people he doesn’t trust” reveals itself to be foreshadowing once the duo arrive there. Once again, this game shows itself to be frighteningly accurate for how such a situation would play out. There’s very little between our civilization and chaos. Even though there are no infected in Pittsburgh (so far), there’s more than one type of sickness that can infect the minds of men.
One of the more amusing exchanges was when Ellie saw on old advertisement with a type of model that’s common today, and she’s confused about how skinny she is because she thought in Joel’s time there was plenty of food. Joel confirms this, but says that not everyone ate it. Ellie sneers and retorts, “Why the hell not?” To which Joel explains about vanity, and Ellie exclaims, “That’s stupid.”
Even though the situation is comedic, the perspective is jarring. Joel was is his 20s/30s I’d guess when the infection started to spread, and I believe the story starts out in 2013. It’s been 20 years later, which puts him in his 40s/50s. Ellis is 14, so she was born six years after the infection took over the country (at the very least. No clue whether it decimated the entire world). This is all she’s ever known. That’s…heartbreaking, yet that’s just all she knows of life.
When they find the upscale hotel, she asks if Joel has ever stayed in a place like that, which he hasn’t (“It’s too rich for my blood.”), but they never even existed for her. It really puts things into perspective. I’m still holding to the immunity theory I talked about last week.
Title: Phantasy Star
Series: Phantasy Star
Genre: RPG – Fantasy/Science Fiction
Developer: Sega
Original Platforms: Sega Master System
Other Platforms: Sega Genesis, Wii Virtual Console
Original Release Date: December 20, 1987
Let’s Player: Hungry Goriya
Date Started: March 24, 2017
Progress: Ongoing
Another video just came out tonight so I need to watch!
Title: Mass Effect III
Series: Mass Effect
Genre: Action RPG – Sci-Fi
Developer: BioWare
Original Platform(s): Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3
Original Release Date: March 6, 2012
Let’s Player: Olizandri
Date Started: January 23, 2017
Date Finished: July 19, 2017
Watching Duration: 177 days
Progress: 90%
I didn’t watch any more DLCs this week. It’s been a bit hectic.
Games Added to Backlog: 3
- Shadow Hearts – This was a recommendation by a new friend, The Bromidic Introvert! New friends and blog followers are always welcome, and they’re especially welcome when they give (or remind me of) awesome game recommendations 🙂
- Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar – This was recommended, too, by Grouvee itself. I had no idea this game had been in Development Hell for nigh on 20 years, but I discovered that when I googled it to see what the hubbub was about.
- Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne – a JRPG with a dark theme? Most definitely. Another new blogger friend, Cantrip, recommended this one. It’s in the same series as the other Persona games I believe.
Total Games in Backlog: 137
Change from Last Week: +3
Games Added to Watch List: 0
Total Games on Watch List: 36
Change from Last Week: 0
Games Purchased This Week: 0
Miscellaneous
Organization – I desperately need to organize my backlog on both Grouvee and possibly on a spreadsheet. I’m thinking of making separate shelves for different genres, though as we’ve learned from The Well-Red Mage’s Elemental Challenge, that might be quite a task. Regardless, I must give it a try. I did start adding the systems for each game on my list. I’m basing that on either the systems I have or the system(s) I’m most likely to obtain in the near future. I might make a shelf for that, as well.
What are you currently playing and/or watching? Is it something new or old? Is it a first time run or a replay? What’s the genre? Would you recommend it? What’s on your radar to play next?
<–The State of the Gamer: 8/1/17 The State of the Gamer: 8/15/17–>
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
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The arena in FFT0HD opens up in chapter 2, I think? I haven’t played it since the week it launched, but it was pretty early on. The best part about the arena trick is that you can basically one-shot most enemies and make effortlessly short work of bosses with just about anyone at level 99. That’s mainly why I opted to max out King first — I literally mashed his standard attack for 90% of the game in combat. It’s great.
I’d suggest at least maxing out one ranged damage dealer that isn’t magic-based (King is great, Ace is fine but a little unpredictable), one melee, and one magic user if you are mainly interested in the story and just want to steamroll the battle segments/sortie quests.
Since I finished up FFXII HD I *finally* (much to Ellen’s enjoyment, I’m sure) started FFXIII… and… it’s quite… good? The linearity and desolation doesn’t bother me at all, which seemed to be a common complaint from others. I love the combat (aside from gaming over the instant your party leader dies in battle), the world design is insanely gorgeous, the characters are unique and interesting, and the story has been easy enough to follow (though far from boring). I’m only a dozen hours in, but after spending the last 50 hours in the open world of XII, the more confined focus (no pun inteded) of XIII is most welcome.
Shin Megami Tensei is an umbrella of games that Persona happens to fall under. Many of them have the same enemies and stuff, kind of like Final Fantasy, but there’s also a core series of Shin Megami Tensei games. Nocturne is SMT3, where SMT4 and SMT4 Apocalypse are both on 3DS. Nocturne FUCKING RULES, though. Like… a lot. It’s basically Pokemon for goth kids.
Also YAY CHRISTOPHER ODD! I need to start watching his new creepy sci-fi horror LP for Observer, which reminds me of SOMA from what little I saw. Very much intrigued by it. He also started LP’ing the new PS4 game Hellblade, which is a 6-7 hour dark action game about a woman with mental illness going a bit insane in the middle of the woods.
Enjoy the rest of your week! Hopefully you find more time for T0HD!
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I think it’ll open up after I finish this first mission then! I was honestly just going to max out everyone if that was possible. Why do things by halves lol.
People complained about the desolation?? I’m…confused. FFVII had desolation from the get-go and that’s a huge fan favorite. If that and the linear nature are what bugs people, then I don’t think I’ll have an issue with it at all. I don’t have a problem with linear. Most Final Fantasies are pretty linear especially at the start.
POKEMON FOR GOTH KIDS!!!! I will probably LOVE that game then. I never really got into Pokemon, but not because I have an issue with Pokemon; it’s one of those things I just haven’t really checked out yet.
I’ve seen his updates for Observer! I’ll have to check that one out, too. I’m almost in the middle of The Last of Us. Unlike SOMA I’m okay watching this one at night though I did have some wonky dreams one time when I did, but nothing that had me waking up in a panic. I’m curious about his Amnesia LP. I know it’s by the same people who do SOMA, so it has some similar themes, but from what I’m hearing SOMA is more existentially horrifying where Amnesia has some of that, but there’s even more Body Horror. I may just take the safe route and look it up on Wikipedia. I don’t know if can handle another horror game of that magnitude D:
Thanks and you, too! I’m going to try to play more this Saturday and at least start on the leveling trick 🙂
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Aside from the MMOs and XII, every FF feels linear. They just have the illusion of freedom with world maps and such that still lead you around in a linear fashion. XIII feels more confined, though, since every area is basically an expanded hallway in the same way X was. It just feels more desolate because your crew is on the run and never really look for towns or NPCs to chat with. It’s a very straight forward, fast-paced FF, and it feels kind of refreshing after XII’s single-player MMO feel.
Amnesia is a good watch. I think it’s his first LP ever, and the game is quite old by game standards, so it doesn’t have the level of atmosphere that SOMA did… but it’s still pretty damn creepy.
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“Freedom is life’s greatest lie.” Maybe that’s the reason XIII rubbed people the wrong way. It didn’t mince words with how linear it was whereas as you said other FFs gave that illusion even though they absolutely were. I just read a part in Incognito, this book about brain processes, that talked about there’s really no mechanism in your mind for free will and many of the experiments that try to determine if we have it turn up showing the opposite. Humans like to believe they have some measure of control, so it’s possible that XIII’s starkly linear nature gets to them on a primal level, and that is my completely unqualified opinion :p
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The best way I can describe XIII is that each chapter feels like watching a TV show — different party makeups and characters, a new area, boss fights, and then it jumps to other members and their stories, etc., until folks meet up at certain times. If… that makes sense.
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I…really like that! The more I hear about XIII, the more I wonder why it receives such hatred.
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It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea and it does lack certain things that were commonplace in the series. I’m loving it, though, and I hope you enjoy it too when you get around to it.
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I never finished Type 0 because the combat system didn’t click with me. One of the characters goes into battle playing a flute though, which is pretty cool. I like the Shadow Heart games a lot, especially the second one.
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I can definitely see that. I’m having some issues with it myself, but I’m hoping the leveling trick will make it a non-issue :p
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Hey, saw my name in the post 🙂
Another to lookout for, the Suikoden series.
And the the Atelier series… But Atelier is too much Japanese cutesy for my taste. Pretty much stopped playing the Atelier series after the ps2 era.
SMT:Nocturne is great too! I very much loved the rpg scene back on the ps2, so many great jrpgs to play back then. The number dwindled on the ps3. Hopefully, more jrpgs will be available in the ps4 era.
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I have them downloaded on my PS3! I have so many RPGs to play…I need to organize my order more lol.
Hm! I’m okay with Japanese cutesy (so long as it’s not TOO cutesy aka Tama from WOFF ughhh). What Atelier would you recommend for someone who hasn’t played them before? I was checking them out on Grouvee, but there are a bunch. Speaking of which, I just friended you there 🙂 If you wanted to recommend on there, that would be cool, too!
There seem to be a decent amount of them on the PS4 from what I can see. Granted, I’m waaaaay behind in my RPGs so it could just be that I have so many to play that I think that lol. RPGs are my favorite genre, but they’re quite time consuming like a good novel.
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Basically, atelier iris on the ps2 gameplay is the base, and from each sequel they build on that same system until the mana khemia series. Im not sure of the Atelier series fron there.
Story wise, each Atelier game falls into a series. And they last to 2-3 games. Ie. Atelier Iris 1-3, mana khemia 1-2 so on so on. So you can start a series, and play them in order.
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Awesome! And I looked it up to see it’s turn based, which is the type of battle system I prefer for my RPGs 🙂 Thanks for the recommendation!
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I still need to beat Horizon…..I need to quit my job so I can do fun things again.
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Ugh you and me both. Work has been so busy because my sort of supervisor is out until the end of August and my unit manager is leaving at the end of this week, sooo yours truly has been kind of running things, and we have this ginormous client coming on at the end of the month. At least the days go by fast, and I’m on vacation the first two weeks in September 😀
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I have a mini vacation coming the end of August (4 days) but I kind of doubt I’ll get to it even then. (Having a visitor 2 out of the 4 days.) I feel like I hardly get to read anymore, so I have to make up for that first. Except, there is an xpac coming out for Horizon soonish though.
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I hope you get some time in those days
I get super cranky if I don’t get some time to myself.
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I think I’ll be happy just because I’m not at work no matter what I’m doing. 😛
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Any day I get to sleep in and/or nap when I want is a good day. I’m about two weeks from my vacation. Work has been interesting, because I’ve kind of been pushed to an in charge position, which is…so weird lol. My sort of supervisor is on vacation until the 28th, the one manager for the other team is out on maternity leave, and my unit manager quit AND we have this gigantic client coming on at the end of August. Thing are never boring I’ll tell you o.O
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Oooh Shadow Hearts. That is a good one. And I recently re-purchased it for my collection.
While I was on vacation I played and finished Hey! Pikmin, it was quite a fun and relaxing play. I’m also making my way through Splatoon 2’s campaign mode having just reached Area 5 last night. On Monday, I played through Tacoma (it’s a really quick play at about two hours or so) and liked it a lot. I’ve also been playing Mega Man and I’ve reached Doctor Wiley’s stage but can’t seem to get past the first area’s boss (a deconstructing robot).
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I keep hearing about Pikmin, but I have no idea what the game is about or even the genre! Is Hey! Pikmin similar or different?
I just looked up Tacoma. By the same people who made Gone Home 🙂 I have that one my backlog.
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Pikmin is a puzzle/strategy game. Hey! Pikmin is a sidescrolling version of that. I don’t have a lot of experience with Pikmin (I played Pikmin 3 for a bit and that is it) but Hey! Pikmin was quite fun.
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Diabolos was such a pain but I got him too. Having high level friends really pays off in that game.
I’m still playing DA Origins! A dragon lady who sounds like Cpt. Janeway is giving me some issues, but I’m still having loads of fun 😀
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There are a few I save for special occasions! There’s a new Vortex mission, and I really want to try to do the Elite one, but I’ll need to bring in the heavy guns.
I didn’t know Captain Janeway did a voice in that! I used to watch Orange Is the New Black, and she plays this one prisoner Red who’s Russian, and it’s this amazing performance.
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