<–The State of the Gamer: 3/10/22           The State of the Gamer: 4/7/22–>

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 Demoed

• Edge of Eternity (Nintendo Switch) – I like this. The voice acting is excellent, and I’m already drawn into the story.  The demo does a great job getting you interested in the characters and making you care about them and their plight before ending. Their banter is really good and I’m cool with the battle system. It’s also an indie game and I always like supporting the smaller guys.
• Oninaki – Another Squeenix action RPG. The battle system is totally doable and there’s a casual setting. I’ll definitely pick this up at some point, though I can understand the critiques about the MC.  He’s a stone cold jackass.  I understand the psychology behind it, but I’m hearing he doesn’t get much better throughout, which is a shame if they miss out on character development.
• Yoku’s Island Express – This game is adorable.  I never thought you could make a game like this around the concept of pinball but then again why not?  Sonic the Hedgehog is pretty much that.  The music is bangin’, the graphics are adorable, and the gameplay is fun and intuitive.

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What I Purchased

• Palindrome Syndrome: Escape Room – $4.99 @ Nintendo eShop
• LOST Sphear – $19.99 @ Nintendo eShop
• Star Ocean First Departure R (Star Ocean) – $8.39 @ Nintendo eShop
• I Am Setsuna – $19.99 @ Nintendo eShop
• Final Fantasy X/Final Fantasy X-2 Remaster (Final Fantasy X/Final Fantasy) – $24.99 @ Nintendo eShop

Total: $78.35

Squeenix has all my fucking money! 😭

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What I Finished

Nothing this time.

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What I’m Playing

Title: Triangle Strategy
Series: HD-2D Series
System: Nintendo Switch

Date Started: March 20, 2022

Despite Cheap Boss Attack’s correct observation that the title sucks, this game is really solid, and this is coming from someone (me, not CBA) who has no experience so no nostalgia for Final Fantasy Tactics or War of the Lions.  It’s my first foray into a Squeenix strategy game, and I’m enjoying it immensely.  There’s definitely a sort of Game of Thrones vibe to it, but it’s not surprising since that’s in the zeitgeist despite how shit the ending was lol.  Not only that but political intrigue and betrayal is nothing new.  I know it’s going to happen because I played the demo, but I haven’t hit that part yet.

As usual I try to have my characters make decisions based on what I’d do in that situation, so Serenoa’s convictions are going to be as close to mine as possible.  I’ve had to take notes to keep track of who’s who because there’s a lot of familial connections including half-siblings and cousins.

One of the big reasons I started playing is because of my the let’s players I watch has started posting videos of his playthrough, and I want to watch them, but not before I play myself.  I always like to watch a game like this after I play it because it really helps in the narrative analysis.

Title: Etrian Odyssey Nexus
Series: Etrian Odyssey
System: Nintendo 3DS

Date Started: December 25, 2021

I’m solely focused on the 9th labyrinth now after finishing up the latest side one.  I’m almost done the last floor; there’s just one puzzle I need to figure out.

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What I Watched

• Olizandri
  • Pokémon Legends: Arceus – I haven’t watched as much of this in the past few weeks, but I’ll probably go back to it this weekend.  I think he’s in the post game.
  • Final Fantasy VI: Pixel Remaster – I can’t believe he’s 30 hours in and almost finished!  I think it took me at least 50 but then again Oliz isn’t grinding much.  It’s interesting watching how someone else plays a game you’re very familiar with.  He’s constantly changing espers based on what stat increase they give at level up. I never worried about that; I just kept the magicite on until the character learned all of the spells I wanted.  I also had everyone learn virtually everything, so all of my characters were at or near 9999 for HP and could easily do 9999 damage with their strongest spells.
  • Super Paper Mario – I wanted to give this a rewatch so I am.  Still a tearjerker at certain parts, and I’m right at the end.
  • Astral Chain – I just started watching this today.  No clue if I’m going to continue with it.  I’m curious about what’s going on, but it’s not my usual cup of tea.  I remember when he was streaming it on Twitch and I popped in momentarily to say hi lol.
  • Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC – Every now and then I remember this and watch a few videos.
  • Ys IX: Monstrum Nox – Not sure how much more of this I’m going to watch.  It’s okay, but doesn’t hold my attention as much as other things.
• CJUGames
  • Lethe – I liked the first video but have needed some lighter fare lately, so I haven’t been watching as many horror LPs.
  • Midnight Tales Vol. 1 – I like how the framing device of the girl working in the video rental store (it’s the 90’s lol) is becoming part of the horror tapes she’s watching.
  • The Smiling Man – There’s just something about old school graphics that makes certain things more horrifying.  I think it’s just easier to do uncanny valley/unsettling.
  • Narcosis – It was kind of giving me SOMA vibes, but I haven’t watched much more of it.

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So this is back dated because I feel asleep right after I logged off of work last night.  Exhausted AF.  This was almost pushed to Saturday, but I have stuff to do tomorrow and I didn’t want to leave it until then.  Anyway, I want to play some of the games I was talking about so ta.

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<–The State of the Gamer: 3/10/22           The State of the Gamer: 4/7/22–>