Post by Rune Lai on Jan 3, 2023 4:30:18 GMT -5
My 2022 in Review
This was a year of buying way too much (even more than usual), playing a lot of indies, ignoring my playlists, and leaving unfinished otome in my wake. The latter is especially unusual since I tend to play them straight through, but for whatever reason Cupid Parasite was hard for me to get back into and Piofiore just got derailed by AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative, which ended up taking most of the second half of the year for me to complete.
My most played title by a mile was Civilization VI due to being my friends' weekly game night title for most of the year and because I played several rounds of it on my own. But I struggled to complete longer, single playthrough titles, only managing Variable Barricade and AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative, the latter just barely before the end of the year.
On the buying end of things, I don't even want to count up the number of new titles I picked up, but I think there's a part of me that stopped giving a rat's butt after the 3DS eshop closure was announced. In the first half of the year it looked really hopeful that I might actually finish a lot of games given my progression during the first half of the year, so overbuying wouldn't be a problem, but the second half was highly distracted so that undid any attempts to keep up with my new game intake due to lots of sale and a greater desire to support niche titles.
I also largely blame getting involved with Bloodline: Heroes of Lithas which is not on here, because it is a live service game with no ending. I'm still enjoying it, but if you want to play optimally it can be a significant timesink despite being a mobile game. Ironically it was very casual friendly when it launched, but it's not anymore since they've added a number of additional game modes and it all takes time whether you're a free player or a paying one. I'm hoping they'll introduce some changes soon to streamline the time investment part, otherwise I'll probably start gradually checking out. I do like that it's light on the phone battery though, so I can play in the waiting room of the doctor's office without worrying about draining my phone too much.
There's even more otome coming out in 2023. As the genre continues to grow in popularity, my backlog gets deeper, so I think my first run acquisitions for 2023 are going to be very targeted; Jack Jeanne for the pre-order artbook, Radiant Tale since it's another game by some of the creative staff from Code:Realize, and Norn9: Last Era since it's supposed to be the game that fixes the hot mess that was Norn9: Var Commons and actually makes it good. But Virche Evermore and Tengoku Struggle will probably be $30 titles just because I see no reason to buy them at full price. (And even Norn9: Last Era might be a sit and wait if it doesn't have a soundtrack add-on.)
I'm not entirely sure why I ignored my backlog lists in 2022, barring the two games I actually started, but I suppose with so many purchases it was inevitable I'd chase after the new and shiny. There's also something a bit fun in checking off a bunch of indies even though they often feel like a case of "tastes great less filling" for me when it's over and there's nothing more to do. Sometimes though there's no need for the game itself to be longer for its own sake, it's just too short for my preference.
I'll try to be a bit better next year.
This was a year of buying way too much (even more than usual), playing a lot of indies, ignoring my playlists, and leaving unfinished otome in my wake. The latter is especially unusual since I tend to play them straight through, but for whatever reason Cupid Parasite was hard for me to get back into and Piofiore just got derailed by AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative, which ended up taking most of the second half of the year for me to complete.
My most played title by a mile was Civilization VI due to being my friends' weekly game night title for most of the year and because I played several rounds of it on my own. But I struggled to complete longer, single playthrough titles, only managing Variable Barricade and AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative, the latter just barely before the end of the year.
On the buying end of things, I don't even want to count up the number of new titles I picked up, but I think there's a part of me that stopped giving a rat's butt after the 3DS eshop closure was announced. In the first half of the year it looked really hopeful that I might actually finish a lot of games given my progression during the first half of the year, so overbuying wouldn't be a problem, but the second half was highly distracted so that undid any attempts to keep up with my new game intake due to lots of sale and a greater desire to support niche titles.
I also largely blame getting involved with Bloodline: Heroes of Lithas which is not on here, because it is a live service game with no ending. I'm still enjoying it, but if you want to play optimally it can be a significant timesink despite being a mobile game. Ironically it was very casual friendly when it launched, but it's not anymore since they've added a number of additional game modes and it all takes time whether you're a free player or a paying one. I'm hoping they'll introduce some changes soon to streamline the time investment part, otherwise I'll probably start gradually checking out. I do like that it's light on the phone battery though, so I can play in the waiting room of the doctor's office without worrying about draining my phone too much.
There's even more otome coming out in 2023. As the genre continues to grow in popularity, my backlog gets deeper, so I think my first run acquisitions for 2023 are going to be very targeted; Jack Jeanne for the pre-order artbook, Radiant Tale since it's another game by some of the creative staff from Code:Realize, and Norn9: Last Era since it's supposed to be the game that fixes the hot mess that was Norn9: Var Commons and actually makes it good. But Virche Evermore and Tengoku Struggle will probably be $30 titles just because I see no reason to buy them at full price. (And even Norn9: Last Era might be a sit and wait if it doesn't have a soundtrack add-on.)
I'm not entirely sure why I ignored my backlog lists in 2022, barring the two games I actually started, but I suppose with so many purchases it was inevitable I'd chase after the new and shiny. There's also something a bit fun in checking off a bunch of indies even though they often feel like a case of "tastes great less filling" for me when it's over and there's nothing more to do. Sometimes though there's no need for the game itself to be longer for its own sake, it's just too short for my preference.
I'll try to be a bit better next year.