<–The State of the Gamer: 12/25/18            The State of the Gamer: 1/22/19–>

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!

---

What I Bought

• Forgotton Anne – $19.99 @ Nintendo eShop
• Undertale – $14.99 @ Nintendo eShop
• Night in the Woods – $11.99 @ Nintendo eShop
• Broken Age – $4.49 @ Nintendo eShop – This one and all the ones above show me putting my gift card to good use.  Thanks again big bro!
• The First Tree – $9.99 @ Nintendo eShop: Thanks to The Off-Centered Earth Mage of TWRM’s collective for the review of this.  I bought the game pretty much right after I read it.  First buy of the New Year!
• To the Moon – $1.99 @ iPhone App Store

---

What I Played

Title: Octopath Traveler
System: Nintendo Switch

Date Started: August 11, 2018

Still haven’t gotten a chance to play this, but I did check the strat guide I’m following again to see what prep I have to do.

---

What I Demoed

• Katamari Damacy – This game is weird AF.  Why does the King of All Cosmos talk like the sound a DJ makes when he scratches a record?  Also the bulge in his pants is trying to compete with David Bowie’s in Labyrinth, and I don’t know how I feel about that.  Okay it took me two minutes to figure out what the hell to do.  You have to use both thumb pads to move, not a combination thumb and D pad.  So I failed to have a big enough katamari for the King the first time.  It’s cute but it’s not for me.  I am not good at spatial games or anything that involves knowing what direction to move in 3D (it’s why I failed at fLOw), but I’m glad I finally got to play it. Pass.

---

What I Watched

Title: Golden Sun
Series Title: Golden Sun
Let’s Player: Olizandri

Date Started: 12/4/18
Date Finished: 12/31/18

The next time someone complains about the FFVII Remake being episodic, I shall tell them about Golden Sun, which came out in 2001 and is broken into three parts.  Granted, I know Squeenix is milking the cash cow, but there’s at least a precedent for JRPGs to do it (also FFXIII so that settles that).  It was a kind of risky move for Camelot Software Planning, too.  I don’t know much of their history, but I don’t think they’re that much of a big name (or they weren’t much back then.  Correct me if I’m wrong!), so they put quite a lot of eggs into three baskets in the hopes that the trio would be sold.  I’m loving these games (already watching the second one, which I’ll talk about below).  I was expecting this to be similar to Final Fantasy where each game has its own internal story arc (I have a lot to say about the overarching themes and archetypes of FF, but that’s a hefty essay/essays), but Golden Sun appears to encompass one main plot split into three games.  I’m going to assume they did well since all three exist, and the games are excellent.  The ending is very much a cliffhanger, and I’m glad Oliz already has all of them completed.

---

What I’m Watching

Title: Golden Axe Warrior
Series Title: Golden Axe
Let’s Player: Hungry Goriya

Date Started: Unknown

I just saw the last episode go up today.  Time to take care of Dark Adder!

Title: Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Series Title: Golden Sun
Let’s Player: Olizandri

Date Started: 1/1/19

The first Golden Sun ends on a cliff as fore mentioned with the second picking up slightly before that with other characters.  You find out what happened to your friends (and some enemies) as the narrative follows them attempting to fulfill contentious tasks and make fantastic discoveries.  I was wondering how the game was going to wrap up all of the plot points it opened, and now I have my answer.

Jenna, Kraden, and Felix (who is now the silent protagonist) travel the world of Weyard, meeting all different types of people and cultures in their quest for Lemuria.  This game is significantly longer than the first one, taking over 80 videos to Golden Sun’s 40+.

---

Happy New Year!  You see I’ve already broken my game purchase cherry.

I didn’t get to play Mario Kart with Lightning these past two weeks.  I worked late the one Friday and I *think* she had to go somewhere the next.  It’s alright, there’s plenty of time for us to get our race on.  I really wish Nintendo would get their shit together and have a way for players to, you know, communicate with each other instead of having to use an outside service, but you know the Big N: they’re great at ideas, but not so stellar at execution.

How did you spend your New Year?  I stayed home because we had no plans, and the hubby was sick anyway.  Not that I need an excuse not to go anywhere.  I had a little champagne when midnight struck then went back to editing.  I’m old and boring *shrug*  

What are your gaming plans for the New Year?  Do you have a challenge you want to complete or a particular game you want to play/finish?  My goal is to finish FFVI, write my review of it and finish FFVII.  I don’t know if I’ll finish reviewing it by the end of the year (it took me almost six months to write the review of FFV yeesh…), but I can at least complete the game.  I also want to clear some of the smaller games off my backlog, so I’ll have to do some organizing and planing for that (mah favorite things!).  

I hope you all have a glorious New Year.  2019 is my year to chill and be unbothered.

<–The State of the Gamer: 12/25/18            The State of the Gamer: 1/22/19–>