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Post by Ambrienne on Aug 5, 2021 20:06:43 GMT -5
Count it as two. It is definitely two ::is currently playing GAA2:: I'm not going to say a word about it yet, though, until I'm completely through it myself.
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Post by Rune Lai on Aug 6, 2021 19:33:04 GMT -5
We're gonna need a GAA thread for sure. And yeah, I think I'll count it as two.
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Post by Solana on Aug 6, 2021 19:34:02 GMT -5
(Rubs hands together in gleeful anticipation.)
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Post by Rune Lai on Aug 29, 2021 22:25:46 GMT -5
Crossing off Great Ace Attorney: Adventures as one game, though splitting Chronicles in two just means this year is not going well for game buying. And I started so optimistic with only one Day 1 buy on my list! But good sales, unexpected new releases, and pre-order bonuses keep ruining me.
Pre-ordered Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani which I wasn't going to do, but Aksys is offering a "while quantities last" soundtrack add-on for an additional $10 for their next three otome titles and Dairoku didn't get a soundtrack release in Japan! So if I wanted it this was the only way to get it, and the music I heard in the YT promo videos was good. Worse case I could probably resell it later.
And I also bought Persona 5 Strikers since it finally dropped below $30, all the way down to $25!
My progress as it currently stands:
Should Play: Tales of Berseria Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town
Should Finish: Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Not Yet Bought: Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less Civilization VI Anthology - Wishlist until cheap "enough" because I got too many games Shin Megami Tensei V - Pre-ordered Cupid Parasite - Plan to pre-order once I know what's in the limited edition Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani - Pre-ordered to get the soundtrack
Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind
Steam Prison Sega Ages Phantasy Star Piofiore: Fated Memories 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (GAA: Adventures and GAA2: Resolve) Bustafellows Persona 5 Strikers - on sale for $25
Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always
Total games completed in 2021: 11
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Post by Rune Lai on Sept 19, 2021 19:24:39 GMT -5
Crossing off Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, which takes me up to 12 completed games far ahead of schedule, but mostly because I've been laid up most of the year. This is clearly not something that's going to happen on a regular basis. With three months left in the calendar, and already being overbought for games, I'd like to clear as much of my backlog as possible. Replays aren't looking likely at this point.
My progress as it currently stands:
Should Play: Tales of Berseria Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town
Should Finish: Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Not Yet Bought: Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less Civilization VI Anthology - Wishlist until cheap "enough" because I got too many games Shin Megami Tensei V - Pre-ordered Cupid Parasite - Plan to pre-order once I know what's in the limited edition Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani - Pre-ordered
Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind
Steam Prison Sega Ages Phantasy Star Piofiore: Fated Memories 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (GAA: Adventures and GAA2: Resolve) Bustafellows Persona 5 Strikers
Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always
Total games completed in 2021: 12
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Post by Rune Lai on Dec 31, 2021 14:54:56 GMT -5
Can you believe it's been three months since I was last in this thread?! Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse is done, taking me over twice as long as expected (in actual hours spent, not necessarily in weeks/months though that was longer too). *sigh* I probably shouldn't focus on leveling and compendiuming my demons so much. It wasn't on my Should Play list either (at least not this year), but it's backlog, so all good.
Back in late October I thought I would have had some time to play another game before my year end pre-orders started rolling in, but nope. Cupid Parasite, Shin Megami Tensei V, and Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani have all arrived, and then the really good sale of Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster that I was waiting for happened. I also binge bought all the season 1 main stories of Rose in the Embers for Love 365 due to their Black Friday sale.
Thank you NaNoWriMo for eating all my November gaming time (but I got half a book out of it, so it's not like it's bad) and pre-order bonuses and end of year sales for eating all my discretionary spending. Now I'm really overbought for the year and underplayed despite already finishing more than 12 games for the year. But I'm really close to finishing Rose, so I hope to get at least one more in today.
Minor note for personal tracking purposes: I was wondering how to handle the Voltage Love 365 titles since they're pay by route (or play for free by route) and finishing one route when there are generally at least four in a console otome doesn't really feel like playing a whole "game" as I'm used to defining it. So unless I paid for/played at least three main stories they will not go on a tracking list. I think that's enough that I'd feel comfortable considering it a full game experience.
My progress as it currently stands:
Should Play: Tales of Berseria Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town
Should Finish: Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Not Yet Bought: Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies Civilization VI Anthology - Wishlist until cheap "enough" because I got too many games Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less Olympia Soiree - Maybe, if it gets cheap enough Legend of Tianding - Wishlist until cheap "enough" because I got too many games
Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind
Steam Prison Sega Ages Phantasy Star Piofiore: Fated Memories 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (GAA: Adventures and GAA2: Resolve) Bustafellows Persona 5 Strikers Cupid Parasite - Pre-ordered Shin Megami Tensei V - Pre-ordered Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Black Friday sale Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani - Pre-ordered Rose in the Embers - Black Friday sale
Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always
Shin Megami Tensei IV:Apocalypse
Total games completed in 2021: 13
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Post by Rune Lai on Dec 31, 2021 22:31:01 GMT -5
Squeezed in my last game for the year with Rose in the Embers. To be honest, I was kinda hoping to get one more in beyond this, but SMT IV: Apocalypse's final boss fight took too long and squashed any dreams of maybe fitting in a quick indie today (because I was going to finish RitE last night after SMTIV:A).
I'll be doing my gaming year in review in my next post.
My progress as it stands at the end of the year:
Should Play: Tales of Berseria Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town
Should Finish: Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Not Yet Bought: Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies Civilization VI Anthology - Wishlist until cheap "enough" because I got too many games Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less Olympia Soiree - Maybe, if it gets cheap enough Legend of Tianding - Wishlist until cheap "enough" because I got too many games
Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind
Steam Prison Sega Ages Phantasy Star Piofiore: Fated Memories 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (GAA: Adventures and GAA2: Resolve) Bustafellows Persona 5 Strikers Cupid Parasite Shin Megami Tensei V Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani
Rose in the Embers
Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always
Shin Megami Tensei IV:Apocalypse
Total games completed in 2021: 14
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Post by Rune Lai on Dec 31, 2021 23:10:03 GMT -5
My 2021 in Review
I've come to realize that not once since I've started tracking (and intentionally tried to buy less) have I managed to get below 12 game purchases a year. I get close, it's maybe 13-14, but not 12, so the backlog never goes down or even stays the same. And this year was pretty freaking terrible. There's a part of me that's like "Seriously, how did I end up buying 18 games this year?" And then I look at what came out/went on sale, and I'm like "I know how I ended up buying 18 games." If it wasn't for the fact I finished 14 games this year so the actual number added to the backlog is four instead of six, I would be more annoyed with myself. (During the summer I was naive enough to think I'd actually get ahead this year, but then all the fall pre-orders and holiday sales happened.)
So what happened to make this year so out of control?
Well, in the early part of the year I bought what I consider my surgery games (Gnosia, Raging Loop, and the two Famicom Detective Club games). I might have waited on these or even skipped them if I was healthy, but I was severely limited in what I could play at the time and being mystery visual novels I could play them one-handed and without using a walkthrough on another device.
I finished all of them, so even though they were unexpected purchases and did nothing for my backlog situation, they were good ones.
Then, the second half of the year had what I consider the perfect storm of franchises and genres I like, only two of which had their release dates known to me before the start of the year. I pre-ordered 9 games this year (splitting the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles in two) which is a lot and 6 of them were released in the back half of the year. I don't normally pre-order this much, but there were a lot of limited editions being flung around and a conflux of things I liked all happened to be coming out this year (otome, mystery VNs, Story of Seasons, SMT).
2021 in particular was full of mystery visual novels. I bought six of them! Whereas previous years were 0-2 mystery games.
Given these (hopefully unusual) events, 2022 ought to be lighter. AI: The Somnium Files is the only series I like with a new installment, and high profile mystery VNs are still uncommon, so the likeliest source of unexpected purchase explosions will be otome, which I'll get to in a bit.
Because of being sick from cancer, and because of all the mystery/otome games released this year, 2021 ended up being a very visual novel heavy year for me. Even if I wasn't laid up for much of it I probably would have played a lot of them anyway. It's not a bad thing, but it shows what I tend to buy and play these days.
This year I only cleaned up my Should Play list a little bit with Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk, but I made good headway with Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town. Collar x Malice Unlimited fell oddly in a lurch where it just got pushed out by other games even though it had been high on my list of games to play last year (if I hadn't been distracted by health problems). I think if I hadn't bought Steam Prison I probably would have gotten to it, but that was a very long otome. And Tales of Berseria was a casualty of home repair since I had to pack away my PS4 when the floor got flooded and I haven't had the will to set it up again.
The Should Finish list was better though, with Caligula Effect: Overdose, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and My Vow to My Liege all wrapping up this year. I probably would have tried more Etrian Odyssey III except that I seem to have accidentally cracked the casing of my DS and a piece of it fell off, exposing the inside, which has made me really sad and also leery about leaving it in the open. I could move it to my 3DS, but I like playing on the original system when possible and my 3DS is having its own issues. Lone Wolf was a casualty of my neuropathy, which has gotten better, but not to the point I felt like button mashing for the game's quick time style combat.
Though not on either of the "Should" lists (this year), I also finished Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, which was another out of the backlog. I might not be shrinking my unplayed list of games, but at least I played a lot of them, and knocking out two RPGs in a year (and a sliver of a third since I was almost done with Caligula Effect) doesn't happen often.
Going forward into next year, I'm going to try to be more cognizant of how many games I could potentially end up with. I think I'm fairly good about this with RPGs these days, but I'm not at that point with visual novels. This is especially a problem because otome seems to be exploding and I used to buy everything that came out on console to support the genre.
For years the console otome market has been dominated by Aksys, but this year we had smaller Japanese publishers doing English language eshop releases with Steam Prison and Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi, Idea Factory came back to the genre with Cupid Parasite, PQube published their first otome Bustafellows, and Aksys rolled out Olympia Soiree and Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani as planned. We even had English indie title Crimson Spires. (And I'm not counting mobile ports or this would be a much bigger paragraph!)
The otome market is getting more crowded, which is great for the health of the genre, but it also means I need to become pickier about what I buy, just because I know I can only go through so many a year.
Aksys announced four titles for 2022 (or beyond), Idea Factory has at least two, PQube has indicated they may translate more if sales do well, and even Voltage is getting in on the action with a console original that isn't a mobile port. I already decided Lover Pretend is going to get punted (no fantasy/sci-fi/historical elements), but that leaves five known quantities, plus IF's unnamed mystery title, Olympia Soiree (2021 leftover I'm fence sitting on), and any 2022 surprises competing for what should be a possible 3-4 slots in my buying schedule. (I'm probably going to skip Kimi wa Yukima ni Koinegau too just because import reviews are so-so and it doesn't have a premise that tickles my fancy.)
I used to intentionally keep an otome backlog because some years would be slim and it was nice to have something to dig into whenever I needed a VN (and to have a selection at that), but with multiple established localization companies doing releases and the occasional JP-based publisher/English indie, buying every console otome in order to have something saved for a rainy day no longer seems necessary. I currently have six backlogged otome games as of this year, so even if nothing got released next year, I'd be good for a while.
Currently I have two Day 1 buys for 2022, Variable Barricade and AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative, and a handful of want to buys carrying over, but there will probably be more surprises since most of my Day 1 purchases for 2021 ended up being announced after the new year. To avoid a nasty surprise in the second half of 2022 I should plan on under-buying at the start of the year, so I have more slots for must-haves later in the year.
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