<–The State of the Gamer: 5/6/21           The State of the Gamer: 6/3/21–>

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 Purchased

• Knowledge Trainer: Trivia – $2.99 @ Nintendo eShop

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What I Finished

Title: Bravely Default II
Series: Bravely Default
System: Nintendo Switch

Date Started: February 28, 2021
Date Finished: May 13, 2021

This was worth the $60 I spent on it and then some.  I have over 200 hours put into the game (similar to WOFF), and while I could do a dollars to hours ratio (it’s $0.30 per hour), that obviously doesn’t encompass my enjoyment, though the fact I spent that long playing should say something.  All of the main characters are so likable, and I love how the side quests help expand their stories and relationships.  The voice acting is also stellar with lots of British VAs getting more play.  Like any Squeenix game, it has its regular motifs and archetypes, and it’s pretty much a rehashing of the very first Final Fantasy.  There are some weird pacing issues with some of the aspects like you can’t open up the A or S levels of the card game until much later in the game, and some of the easier side quests don’t open up until later either.  There are also things you know are going to be plot points way before they become plot points.  It doesn’t take away any enjoyment I don’t think.

I’m now curious about the original Bravely Default and Bravely Second.  I’m hoping there will be a fourth game at some point.

Title: GRIS
System: Nintendo Switch

Date Started: February 4, 2021
Date Finished: May 15, 2021

Little bit annoyed with myself for putting this on hold when I had literally less than an hour left of gameplay.  Two days after I finished Bravely Default II, I played this and there was the end.  I…don’t really feel like talking about what this game is about.  I had a feeling and I think I tricked myself into thinking it was something else even when it was pretty obvious, and a YouTube review/analysis confirmed it.  I didn’t watch it because reasons, but the game is very beautiful, and I’ve been pronouncing the name as “GREE” as if it were French.

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What I’m Playing

Title: Tangle Tower
System: Nintendo Switch

Date Started: May 17, 2021

I love when games let you pick up from where the demo leaves off, but I also probably should review what I saw in the demo since it’s been a while.  The voice acting in this game is so good my husband thought I was watching a show, which really shows to go how far games have come because this isn’t even a triple A (I literally don’t even know what the fuck that means lol) title.  It’s a point-and-click murder mystery with a whole host of kooky characters.  So far Poppy is my favorite with her “once pastel and now goth” self.

The premise is Detective Grimoire (who has other games on iOS and Android that I’ll have to check out) and his quirky and sarcastic assistant Sarah are investigating the murder of 19 year old Freya Fellow who die while painting the portrait of her cousin Flora (also) Fellow.  The Fellows and the Pointers share the mansion but live in separate towers.  There’s a whole bunch of family shenanigans and I believe only one member is actually both a Fellow and a Pointer.  I don’t recall whether or not it’s Freya (I need to recheck the family tree), but Fiona or Fifi is the current heir to the “kingdom” as it were, but she doesn’t seem altogether too happy about that.  Fifi, Freya, and Poppy are or were best friends, but Poppy and Fifi seem to have had a falling out, and, of course, Freya is now dead.  I’m really into this and so far it’s been worth the $10 I spent.

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What I Played

• Picross S6 – Fun to play while I’m watching LPs at night.
• AVICII Invector – Just been playing this sporadically when I feel like doing a particular song.  My favorites are “Lay Me Down” and “Waiting for Love.”

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What I Watched

• Bravely Default II (Olizandri) – I thought it was so funny/cute how Olizandri thought he was near the end of the game hehe.  Even though I have the benefit of hindsight, I figured there’d be more to it since even after defeating the supposed final boss, there was someone else pulling the strings, and even after THAT, there’s still something else, because this is Squeenix we’re talking about.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All (Olizandri) – The best thing about these games is they’re so complicated and convoluted that I don’t remember a lot of it so rewatching it is still enjoyable.
• Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout (Olizandri) – I am so glad I decided to watch this before buying it.  The trilogy is on sale for $89.99 at the Nintendo eShop, and if I’m going to buy one I’ll just buy them all, but I wanted an idea of the game before spending that much money.  Now that I’ve seen Oliz play it, I’m not sure if I’m going to buy it.  I think I need to watch more before I make a decision.

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I’m just going to listen to the sad piano version of “One Winged Angel” until it squeezes all of the serotonin (and tears) out of my body.  Do you even have songs that you do that with?  Listen to over and over again until you get sick of them?  I usually have a one that I surround with others and I listen to them all in a row over and over again, or I’ll listen to one or two different ones as a sort of auditory palette cleanser then go right back.  What happens then is I have to listen to the “it” song in the same sequence even after I’m out of that mode, because my ear is then trained for that.  Like I have to listen to the theme from “Gravity Falls” right after the theme from “The Mandalorian” because that’s the order they were in on my YouTube playlist.  I’m weird lol.  Also getting obsessed with one song makes me appreciate more music.  It’s like one song will set off a chain event for other songs.  Like I said, I’m weird.

So the hubs sent me a house that’s gorgeous and in our price range.  Our realtor says there are already 80 showings schedule and she can’t get us one for love or money.  It’ll probably be gone in a few days because someone will pay cash for it 😐

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<–The State of the Gamer: 5/6/21           The State of the Gamer: 6/3/21–>