The State of the Gamer: 10/3/17

/ The Shameful Narcissist

<–The State of the Gamer: 9/26/17         The State of the Gamer: 10/10/17–>

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: 2

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 – All the leveling

One more person to level up to 99!  It’s been over a month by now I know, but once I finish Machina, I’ll be able to continue the game and pwn anybody who gets in my way >:D

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: Karnak Castle

I wrote up the Karnak instructions; now I just need to implement them.

Ongoing Games: 2

Title: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Series: Mario Kart
Genre: Racing/Driving
Developer: Nintendo
Platform(s): Wii U, Nintendo Switch
Release Dates: April 28, 2017 (Switch), May 29, 2014 (Wii U)
Date Purchased: August 21, 2017
Date Started: August 26 2017

Progress: 200cc

Haven’t even touched my Switch in weeks.  Poor Switch.  I’m sorry I’m neglecting you 😦

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 32

So I lied about my progress as a Rank 33; I’m still at 32.  It had been a while since I played, so I’ll have to be forgiven for forgetting.

The game did a major update, which of course caused major problems.  I couldn’t even play all last weekend, and the carousel of options at the bottom was greyed out except for World, though selecting that would make the game crash.  That’s my biggest complaint for FFBE; it’s very unstable.  There was a mission a while ago that I couldn’t even do because it would crash and burn while you were in the midst, and unlike other scenarios, when you went back in, it didn’t start you were you were.

There’s this Daily Quest thing now that I spent a few hours on.  They have these Rookie Quests, which mostly consist of simple tasks you’ve probably already completed if you’ve played the game for any length of time like defeating Ifrit/Shiva, completing some dungeon, or even just equipping a weapon or armor. Thankfully, you can redo it and still collect the reward, which is pretty hefty like 100 Sacred Crystals, though what I really (still) need is some Litrock.

I wasn’t too fond of the current Vortex mission for the Autumn Harvest or something like that.  It’s a maze that you have to complete in three minutes including defeating the mermaid boss.  I already have a timed mission in FFV thank you very much, so I’m not sure if I’m going to re-attempt this.

Finished Watching: 1

Title: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Series: N/A
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle – Mystery
Developers: Capcom, Rare Ltd. & Silent Software
Platforms: Game Boy, NES
Original Release Date: September 30, 1989
Let’s Player: Trash Talkin’
Total Number of Videos: 1
Date Started: September 30, 2017
Date Finished: October 2, 2017
Watching Duration: 3 days

Is this a good game?  No, it is not. Did it bring back some nostalgic feels?  Yes, it did.  I remember renting this game quite a few times, because the mystery of it was intriguing, and we always wanted to know how to beat it and what the ending was like.  Well, the ending is disappointing.  It’s one of those “Congratulations!” that is the biggest cop out, and the overarching gameplay itself leaves much to be desired.  You play as Eddie Valiant with Roger Rabbit in tow.  Roger doesn’t do anything except act as a hostage for the weasels when they catch up to you, prompting Eddie to try responding with the correct punchline to a given joke in order to make them laugh hard enough to release him.  Sometimes, the “crazy” weasel will show up when you attempt to enter a building, and Eddie has to punch him enough times hard enough to knock him away.  Yeah…your main weapon is your fists, and Eddie can “wind up,” which looks like this ridiculous jig back and forth.

The game mostly consists of you guiding Eddie from building to building looking for items that can help you with your ultimate quest to find the pieces of Marvin Acme’s will.  You can ask passersby for help, and they’ll either tell you they can’t help you (which is useless information), that the building you’re at is empty, or that you should search it.  The items you find come in various degrees of usefulness.  There’s an exploding cigar, which can be used as a weapon; cheese, fish bone, and meat, which can mollify rats, cats, and dogs respectively; a whistle, which can call Benny the Cab whom you eventually have access to; a portable hole, whose use I don’t remember since the LPer didn’t use it; a password, which is used to get into the Ink and Paint Club; a rose, which you use to talk to Jessica in the Ink and Paint Club; a rattle, which you use to pacify snakes; spring shoes, which you use to jump; a wallet, which you use to buy things; and a baseball, which you use to distract the weasel guarding Judge Doom’s lair.  There might be more, but I can’t remember.

There are three separate areas: the regular city, the outskirts/country, and Toon Town.  Pieces of the will are located in all three locales with four in total. Exploring the areas on foot is crucial, since the Benny can only drive on the road.  Throughout the game, you’re being chased by the weasels who’ll either pursue you in their big, black car or on foot, holding Roger hostage as stated above.

While I’m glad I finally saw the game in its entirety, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? falls into the typical pitfall of games made from movies.  It really doesn’t stay true to the script with either characters absent, not even remotely fulfilling their roles, or Eddie not doing much of anything similar to the film.  There are some beat points (like his visit to the Ink and Paint Club, Benny the Cab, though he has no lines whatsoever), but nothing cohesive.  It’s essentially an hour long fetch quest where you look for the pieces of the will and fight Doom, which really have nothing to do with the other, nor was there any mention of the Red Car aspect.  The whole reason Doom was able to sacrifice Toon Town for his freeway scheme was because Acme’s will was missing, leaving the fate of the land up in the air.

At the end of the game, it’s sadly hilarious how Roger goes from bumbling along beside you to be tied up with Jessica in front of the dip cannon. I understand it’s an 8-bit game from the NES era, but at the very least you could have it that at a certain point you go to the club to find that Jessica is missing (and Roger is kidnapped/disappears).  All she does anyway is give you hints about where to find the will, so I guess she’s useful?

The only really good thing about the game is the music.  The City Theme has a jazzy, ragtime sound to it that’s easy to listen to while you’re on your most futile searches, and the two tunes in Toon Town are extremely catchy.

I can’t say the game is a total waste.  If you like puzzle/clue adventures with some action fighting, it’s only about an hour to beat, though I could see it becoming tedious with how many buildings and caves you’d have to search, because it’s always the same thing.

I’d give it 2.5 stars and I hope you liked my mini-review!

Currently Watching: 1

Title: BioShock
Series: BioShock
Genre: First Person Shooter – Sci-Fi, Dystopian
Developers: Irrational Games & 2K Australia
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, iOS
Original Release Date: August 21, 2007
Let’s Player: Christopher Odd
Total Number of Videos: 33
Date Started: August 28, 2017

Progress: 88%

Would you kindly?  WOULD YOU KINDLY??!!!  Holy shit…that’s all I can really say.  I’m sure more surprises are to come.

Games Added to Backlog: 4

  1. Thimbleweed Park – Thanks for Cheap Boss Attack again for this recommendation!  I cut my gaming teeth on point and click (King’s Quest anyone?), and I’m glad devs are still making such games.  There’s a niche market for everything (yes even turn-based RPGs, which is way more than a niche market despite what some IRL friends my profess), and to quote a movie that shows my age, “If you build it, they will come.”
  2. RIME – I’d never even heard of this game until reading a review by the Goddess of Wisdom herself Athena of AmbiGaming.  That…was actually a major point of her review: the fact that this game seems to be relatively unheard of, but it looks like an awesome little puzzle game that should definitely get more laud.
  3. Night in the Woods – New recommender (recommendant?  My spell-checker doesn’t like either.  Oh well) Robo♥beat on a status update post.  It has a slim paragraph at the very end, but I was entranced by a narrative game in a town populated by woodland creatures.
  4. The Journey Down: Chapter One – Another CBA recommendation, an episodic point-and-click adventure with an Afro-Caribbean mien.  I’m glad there’s been a resurgence of this genre, since (as fore mentioned) I cut my gaming teeth on it as well as ColecoVision and Atari, and you should well know by now I’m all for anything that shows representation.

Total Games in Backlog: 147
Change from Last Week: +4

Games Added to Watch List: 0

Total Games on Watch List: 39
Change from Last Week: 0

Games Purchased This Week: 0

Miscellaneous

Nothing to report.  At least nothing I can think of…or talk about 😉

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: 9/26/17         The State of the Gamer: 10/10/17–>

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29 thoughts on “The State of the Gamer: 10/3/17”

  1. Pingback: The State of the Gamer: 9/26/17 | The Shameful Narcissist Speaks

  2. I am honestly a little obsessed with Harvest Moon 64 right now. I haven’t been able to find much time to play it since going through Harvest Moon Week two weeks ago, but I’m so excited to finish it over the next few weeks.

    I have the Who Framed Roger Rabbit game and I haven’t tried it out yet. I’m a little afraid based on what I’ve heard about it. Maybe some day! Glad to hear you’re making progress in your gaming!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I’d play it! Looking back and I think I was harsher in my mini-review than I meant to be. No, the game doesn’t reflect the movie, and yeah, it’s a bit haphazard in what you have to do, but it’s not a terrible game. I remember enjoying it greatly as a child, even though neither me nor my brother could figure out what the hell to do lol. There’s a major nostalgia factor with the game at least, and I’ve heard the Game Boy version is a bit better so I’m going to give that a watch.

      Harvest Moon is a farming type game isn’t it?

      Liked by 1 person

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      • Harvest Moon is farming and a bunch of other things like falling in love, getting married, making friends, building and expanding your home, raising animals, etc. It’s so much fun! I can’t seem to get enough of it.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  3. That BioShock twist hits SO HARD, doesn’t it? I never saw it coming and it still stands out as one of the most WTF moments in gaming’s history. Early congrats on maxing out Machina (i.e., the worst person in the game).

    I just picked up a new (to me) horror point-and-click adventure called Fran Bow, which is on sale for $4.50 on Steam. Neat art style, lots of gore, and a sweet little girl with a cat named Mr. Midnight. I’m in. I also installed Layers of Fear on PS4, which has been on my backlog for a year now. It’s a short first-person horror game about an artist whose mental state is quickly going downhill. Really weird stuff, I hear.

    I finished the campaign in Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online and I’m trying to mop up the post-game content to get my review up by the 10th (the day the game releases on PS4). Other than that, I’m still chipping away at chapter 2 in The Journey Down, which feels twice as long (and twice as good).

    Liked by 1 person

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    • I KNEW something huge was coming, and I’d suspected something about Atlas especially since you see those “Who Is Atlas?” signs all around Rapture, but nowhere did I ever suspect he was really Frank Fontaine pulling your strings. I’m happy that Chris choose to rescue the Little Sisters as opposed to just harvesting them, though I am a bit curious about what that looks like and how it would affect the story after that part when you find yourself in the orphanage. I’m assuming Tenenbaum has some far less nice words for you, and you don’t get those sweet, teddy bear prices.

      Bahahaha Machina is? I found the girl who plays the flute pretty useless, but then again I might just not have been using her right. Deuce maybe? Or Eight? I can’t remember which one. Machina is, er, kind of cute haha, not that that’s a reason I’d use him (it IS), and King is hella tall omg. I guess that’s why they call him “King.” I’m reign in my fangirling.

      Hm, I might have to check that point-and-click out. That would be fun to play for Halloween. I should attempt to do something gamerish for the season. I’m notoriously bad at that.

      I just added the “first” Neptunia or at least the one that says its the first after I clicked on Neptunia Victory. I’ve heard you talk about it enough, and I love well done parody. It seems like a lot of fun. Ah the self-imposed deadlines…I suck at them so much. I’m shocked I actually made the one for FFVII on 9/7.

      I’m glad there are prior games that were released episodically. I can throw that in the face of people who are bitching about the FFVII Remake being one of them, though I *was* one of those people and bitched about a lot more. I mean I know Squeenix is using that to continue milking the cash cow, but hell if it’s going to remake my favorite game of all time in the best way possible,, I’ll throw ridiculous amount of money at them.

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      • I really liked most of T0’s cast. I just wish the game were longer so they could have gotten fleshed out more.

        The original Neptunia games were redone as Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth mk.1, mk.2, and, mk.3 on Vita and PC. Megadimension Neptunia VII (V-2, not the number 7) is on ps4, though.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        • I’m hearing that it’s a pretty short game, which has its good and bad points. Good because I can hopefully finish it soon, but bad for the reasons you just pointed out. It does seem like it has too many characters than the plot/story can handle. The more characters you have, the more plot you need to connect with that. That’s how FFVI managed to work with its 14 main characters even though two weren’t mandatory, and that was my main issue with Chrono Cross. There were like 30 characters!

          I wound up adding the first Hyperdimension one 🙂

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  4. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was definitely a game made before Rare hit their stride. It’s hard to believe that a mere six years later, they’d create Donkey Kong Country 2, one of the best 2D platforming games out there.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • It really does show that a company can turn it around! I mean, well, the Squaresoft/Square Enix story hehe, but RR does have the nostalgia factor going for it at least. It held the attention of 10 year old (or so) me and my five year older brother enough to have our dad rent it more than once.

      Liked by 1 person

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  5. The NES version of Roger Rabbit looks terrible, but I remember liking the Gameboy game. In it you actually control Roger and the game is a bit like Zelda.

    Well down on maxing out the levels of virtually all the Final Fantasy team. I don’t think I would have your dedication to do that.

    Right now I am playing Danganronpa V3. I would recommend buying the earlier games now that you own a Vita. You could just watch a let’s play though, as it’s mostly reading.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Now I’m curious about the Game Boy version! Let me see if I can find an LP of that one…found one. There’s an Amiga playthrough, too that looks different from the NES version.

      Yeah I’m pretty out there with that lol. I figured I might as well just max them all out It game me time to catch up on my YouTube videos and podcasts since I’ll just put something I can listen on while grinding or pharming.

      Ace Attorney meets rhythm games?? Oh hell yes I’ll play this! Just added Trigger Happy Havoc to the old backlog.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  7. I just finished Rime…. Wow. Definitely play it, and don’t look anything up about it before you do. I cried at the end. Other than during a certain drell’s death scene, I never cry during video games. It’s amazing. Would you kindly let me know what you think of it once you finish playing it?

    … 😀

    Now I’m playing Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and that’s certainly turning into quite the experience….. And poor FF13 is still getting chipped away at haha

    It’s too bad about Roget Rabbit, because I loved (still love? I haven’t seen it in a while haha) that movie a lot… And would you kindly

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Hm, it’s for the Switch? Ack, it’s on the PS4 and Xbone, too, but is so much more expensive on the Switch 😦 I cried during that particular drell’s death and the funeral scene, but me crying doing pointed and poignant scenes is nothing new hehe.

      Ah you’re playing Hellblade, too! LightningEllen said the same thing in another comment.

      I loved the movie and still do! It was a marvel of cinema that still holds up pretty well. I wish the game had been more reflective of the movie, but in all honesty looking back, I really have nothing but fond memories of it, so while objectively, it’s not a good game, the nostalgia factor will hold up for anyone that played it back in the early 90s.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  8. My poor Switch has been neglected as well 😦 So many games, so little time.
    I’m still playing Dragon Age Origins but I started Hellblade last Sunday anyway. It’s disturbing and fascinating at the same time. I’m off work next week so I plan to make great progress on both these games 😀

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Whatever you do, do NOT search for “demo” in the Nintendo store. A coworker told me about it, and my Switch isn’t close at hand so I can’t fall into the trap. Apparently, there’s a demo for Disgaea 5, and I don’t want to fall in love with that and buy it. I just don’t have the time and/or money 😀

      It’s Thanksgiving for you next week isn’t it? Ah, I had to give up both of the days off I took to make up for *other* time I need to take, but I might see if I can at least work from home so at least I don’t have to get out of my pajamas. What’s Hellblade about?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Good advice! I have no time for demoing 😦

        Yep! It’s Canadian turkey day weekend. I’m visiting my folks for the weekend, then enjoying the rest of my week gaming & stuff at home 😀 One of the retailers here had a “Black Frid’eh” sale. It made me laugh…

        Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a game by a small studio with very high-tech motion capture software used for the facial animations. It has a badass female lead who is suffering from psychosis. I have no idea what’s going on, but it’s very freaky and intriguing. There’s lots of Norse mythology themes, the voices never stop, disturbing things occur, and they actually consulted with mental health professionals to make sure they portrayed the disorder accurately. I’m dying to hear the Goddess of Wisdom’s opinion on it, haha. 😀

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

  9. What is the grind you are doing to level up your characters in Type-0? I bounced off of it very quickly but I think if I could grind boost my levels, I might try to play it to just see the story at least.

    Liked by 1 person

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  10. Pingback: The State of the Gamer: 10/10/17 | The Shameful Narcissist Speaks

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