<–The State of the Gamer: 1/9/18            The State of the Gamer: 2/6/18–>

A weekly post updated every other Tuesday detailing my current gaming projects.  I have an account at Grouvee, which is a site you can use to keep track of your backlog, so please feel free to friend me there!

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What I Played

Nintendo 3DS

Title: Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth
Series: Etrian Odyssey
Genre: RPG/JRPG – Fantasy
Developer: Atlus
Release Date: August 4, 2016

I’m on the third stratum now, lovingly called the Fetid Necropolis.  As you can imagine there are a lot of undead enemies, including these Zombie Mutts with spinning heads that give you Confused Needles if you kill them while they’re panicked (otherwise known as confused).  There are also Skeleswords, which are more annoying than terrifying.  They follow you around unless they come across a patch of light where they disappear.  I’ve spent a lot of time beating them, because they give you Rusted Swords, which are useful for upgrading Fencer weapons.  They’re irritating though, because you’ll often find them in a line, and you can get mobbed by them.  EOV is the only turn-based games I’ve played where you can be attacked by another enemy while you’re in the midst of a fight.  I can usually clear out a floor fairly quickly, but I’ve been wandering around the 12th for a while now.  I should hopefully find the stairs up to the 13th soon and more enemies with conditional drops.

Nintendo Switch

Title: OPUS: The Day We Found Earth
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: April 22, 2016

This is an adorable little game about a robot named Emeth who is tasked with finding Earth.  Seriously, humanity fucked up so badly that we literally lost the planet.  There are two modes: story and…whatever the one that isn’t story is (I can’t remember), and story mode does more hand holding so that you can navigate your way through the sectors easier.  Speaking of which…so far they’re all been named after the Sephiroth: Gevurah, Netzach, and Yesod are the ones I’ve seen so far.  I’d expect earth to be in Malkuth, since that’s the Kingdom of Earth, but I don’t know if the devs were looking to make a stronger reference to the Tree of Life or if they picked these names because they sounded cool, obscure, and esoteric.  Hahaha!  They didn’t count on me, The Shameful Narcissist, who knows all (many) things related to Sephiroth.

Anyway, this game already has the setup for heartbreak.  OPUS is a hologram of Dr. Lisa, Emeth’s creator, since he’s been questioning her absence ever since he started scanning the sectors on his own.  There is (was) another character Mikoto who was kind of a dick.  I think he was supposed to serve as the pessimistic foil to Lisa’s optimism and the little robot’s innocence.

Title: Voez
Genre: Music/Rhythm
Developer: Rayark
Release Date: May 25, 2016

I love playing rhythm games; it’s like DDR for your hands.  I throw on my fingerless gloves and feel like a bad ass.  I’ve only gotten through the EFG songs so far.  There are a lot more than you could even see (but not play) in the sample.  It was well worth the $25.  This was what I was playing when my Cid (a cat) decided he wanted to play fetch.

Demos

• Embers of Mirren – I thought I wasn’t going to like it because it starts out with a chase (I hate chases), but once I got to the real gameplay, it grew on me.  You have to do some fancy controls once you have both the light and dark beasts, because they have to collaborate, and I’m currently stuck somewhere so I might have to google.  I’m still not sure if I’m going to buy it, but I like the concept.
• Dragon Quest Builders – Not my thing.  It reminds me a bit of Actraiser, but with less excitement.  I’m a little annoyed, because my character was soooo cute D:
• Max: The Curse of Brotherhood – Boy wishes his little brother will go away, and little brother gets sucked into another world.  It reminded me a bit of the darker, more adult game of the same theme (Another World).  Then gah, being chased!  The animation is reminiscent of Pixar, and I did like that when you die, you start off pretty much right where it happened.  I wasn’t overly fond of Max’s weapon, which was a marker blessed by a witch(?) who conveniently vanished right afterwards when her tree collapsed.  The controls for it are a bit wonky.  It’s a decent platformer, but I think I’m going to pass.

Android/Kindle

Title: Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius
Series: Final Fantasy
Genre: RPG/JRPG
Developer: Square Enix
Release Date: October 22, 2015

I collected all of my daily lapis so I haven’t been as diligent in firing it up on a daily basis.  Still no Sephiroth…I googled to see if there was any information, and it looks like he’s out on the Japanese version.  Hopefully, he’ll be on the American one soon.

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What I Watched

Title: Okami
Series: Okami
Let’s Player: Cryaotic

Please don’t hate me, but I didn’t finish this.  It has such a high rating and is one of those games that everyone loves and lauds, but I just couldn’t get into it.  It was definitely not the LPer, since I adore Cry, and I usually like this particular art style, which was like a painting, but I found it bothered me more than inspired me.  The biggest issue, though, was the “voices.”  Similar to Banjo Kazooie, the characters’ words appear in text, but they “speak” in noises.  Why did this bother me here and not there?  I don’t know.  It might have been a combination of that with me not really liking the art style, the latter of which i don’t get either, because when I look at stills it’s gorgeous.  Oh well.  It happens sometimes.

Title: Paper Mario: Color Splash
Series: Paper Mario
Let’s Player: Olizandri

I’m…actually…obsessed with watching this.  I know I know…I stop watching Okami for Color Splash.  Huh??!!  While I know many people had issues with the battle system (and I can definitely see why.  Why cards?  I understand paint, but why the cards?  It’s because they’re paper, isn’t it…), the story itself is quite charming, and Huey is such a character.  The Paper Marios have always been good for a rousing tale and *ahem* colorful characters, using mechanics surrounding paper and the qualities thereof in cute and interesting ways.  Olizandri’s upbeat manner also helps quite a bit.  I’m a little over halfway through, and watching the LP has made me want to play the game.  I hope they port it to the Switch at some point, because it’s really hard to find a Wii U under $700.

FYI – I had no idea Roshambo was a legitimate name for Rock, Paper, Scissors.  I thought the former was a South Park thing so I was initially quite shocked to see it mentioned in a family friendly Mario game (though some of the jokes definitely carry a Parental Bonus).

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What I Bought

• Nintendo Switch
  • Voez
  • Thimbleweed Park
  • OPUS: The Day We Found Earth
• Steam
  • Undertale
  • Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
  • Life is Strange – Episode 1

Hooray for Best Buy GCs!  I bought a Nintendo and Steam eShop card.  There was a brief adventure with the Steam one after I accidentally ripped the code, but Steam customer service seems to be top notch.  I was able to send them a picture of my card, and they sent me the code within a day.  10/10 would use again.

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What do you think of my new format?  It took me less than two hours to write this up, so I’m happy with it. 

What are you currently playing or watching?  Tried any good demos lately?  What’s been your go to system so far this year?  Mine has been the 3DS due to EOV and also the Switch, but I’ve spent a lot of time watching Color Splash.  I can’t get enough of that Let’s Play. 

Let’s discuss gaming stuff in the comments!

<–The State of the Gamer: 1/9/18            The State of the Gamer: 2/6/18–>