<–The State of the Gamer: 9/10/20           The State of the Gamer: 10/8/20–>

A weekly post updated every other Thursday 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 Bought

• AVICII Invector – $19.99 @ Nintendo eShop
• Tales of Vesperia – $14.99 @ Nintendo eShop

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What I’m Playing

Title: Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight
Series: Etrian Odyssey
System: Nintendo 3DS

Date Started: 9/7/20

I’m on the third stratum now.  I forget what it’s exactly called, but it’s an ice one to the fiery stratum before.  I got my ass handed to me by the Fire Demon boss of the second.  Well…not so much the boss as the Fire Cubes it summons.  If they explode, they take out your entire party.  I’m already on the second floor of the frozen stratum, and I love how each floor has it’s own gimmick with the FOEs (stronger enemies you can see/avoid).  The 11th had these Ambush Wolves that changed direction every third step and that was the only time you could see them.  Now the 12th has these dragons that sleep during the day but are awake and moving at night.  You’d think “Aha!  I’ll just explore the labyrinth during the day!” but there’s a mission where you have to collect these flowers that only bloom at night.  You can find their locations during the day and mark them, which is what I’m doing.  There are also slippery floor puzzles to map and figure out, so my plan is to explore/map the floor as well as find the flowers when it’s safe then pick them up at night once I know where they are.

Title: World of Final Fantasy Maxima
Series: Final Fantasy
System: Nintendo Switch

Date Started: 8/30/20

Replaying this is interesting.  One, it’s yet another example of Final Fantasy using a looping narrative.  I’ve heard people complaining about this paradigm in the FFVII Remake like it’s this shocking new development, and I’m like…peeps, it’s all been done before #meta

I really need to break out my WOFF chart again.  I made one with all of the Mirages on it, and it made it so much easier to create my stacks when needed.  I might add to it actually and possibly share it on Google Docs so others can use it if wanted, hm…

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What I Played

• Picross 3 – I moved to this one to work on the megapuzzles here.
• AVICII Invector – I knew I was going to buy this after I demoed it.  I love rhythm games and this one is just beautiful and atmospheric.  It’s a tribute to Tim Bergling whose stage name was Avicii.  Even if you don’t recognize either name, I’m sure you’ve heard the songs “Wake Me Up” and “The Nights.”  I…did not know that Avicii committed suicide a few years, though oddly those two songs I linked mention “waking up” and death of course.  It’s really tragic ;_;  If I’m in the right kind of mood, this game is absolutely zen, but lately I’ve found it hard to play due to horrible intrusive thoughts.  When my mind is in that kind of trance state, it’s either a good time or a bad time.  I’m very open to the power of suggestion and the lyric “…one day you’ll leave this world behind/So live a life you will remember” throws me into a “Why do memories even matter if everyone dies anyway?  Eventually no one will be left to remember,” and it’s this Fault in Our Stars/“I’ll never be a memory” combination that is just such a buzzkill.

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What I Watched

• Super Mario Sunshine (Olizandri) – So Nintendo released a remaster of three Mario games.  The fore mentioned, Galaxy, and (I think) All Stars.  Oliz started playing Sunshine much to my surprised delight so I’ve been watching it.
• Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth (Pharaoh Fiasco) – You ever get annoyed with how someone else plays a game?  I like this guy, but he’s kind of sloppy with how he does things.  I know it’s different when you’re streaming/Let’s Playing, and he does finish up his maps off screen (I guess it would be kind of boring watching someone do it the way I do), but I don’t understand how he takes side missions.  Like he’ll pick and choose instead of just taking as many as possible.  You can complete them whenever you get to them, so if you happen to be out and about in the labyrinth and finish one while you’re doing your normal exploration well there you have it.  It’s actually caused him some problems with not having the right items to continue, and I know he’s played EO games before!  That’s what’s kind of confusing: it’s not his first rodeo.  It’s not enough to get me to stop watching, but it’s something I’ve noticed.

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Once I get myself together I’m going to attempt a test stream again.  It’s kind of funny.  The next Final Fantasy I need to play is VII.  I don’t know if that’s going to be my first streamed game or not, but I guess it would be appropriate and perfect time huh?

I actually already owned Tales of Vesperia for the PS4, but I much rather prefer to have games on my Switch so if they’re available on that, I’ll deal with a duplicate especially for such a low price.  I’ll probably play that after I finish WOFF since Etrian Odyssey is on the 3DS.

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<–The State of the Gamer: 9/10/20           The State of the Gamer: 10/8/20–>