Post by Rune Lai on Oct 3, 2023 0:19:31 GMT -5
I had a think last night about the incoming end of the year (I know it's only October, but it's the start of the last quarter of the year) and how I'm behind on my target of completing 12 games for the year. Radiant Tale put me at 8 games at the start of October, so I'm behind by one (since I should have finished my ninth by end of September).
November will likely be clogged by NaNoWriMo and I have this upcoming vacation with the family this month, so I started going through my backlog for short games that I could probably knock out by the end of the year.
I only "need" four of them, but it's nice to have some options.
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf and Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town are other end of the year possibilities, but I haven't decided whether I'm going to start over with Lone Wolf or finish the current playthrough, and SotS:FoMT doesn't have a predetermined end point so much as I decided I'm going to call it done when my character marries her trophy husband and the credits roll (since I'm going for one of the guys that requires extra work to get and has a hidden heart meter so you don't get a visual indication of how much he likes you). Because of this I'm not sure exactly how much time these two are going to need to finish. Lone Wolf is also terrible trip material since it's only autosave with no manual save and you can autosave yourself into a bad spot.
November will likely be clogged by NaNoWriMo and I have this upcoming vacation with the family this month, so I started going through my backlog for short games that I could probably knock out by the end of the year.
- Attack of the Friday Monsters - This was part of the 3DS eShop binge I had last year when I found out it was closing. It's a short game (about 5 hours to 100%) from game studio Level 5 where they cut some of their devs loose and let them make series of passion projects, of which this was the most memorable. I picked it up because it looked the most interesting out of all the 3DS exclusives that was eShop only.
- Sega Ages Phantasy Star - I originally planned to play this during my cancer convalescence, but the sale period didn't line up with my recovery period (and other games did), but I still picked it up later when it was on sale. How Long to Beat places this at 21 hours for completionists, but I've heard this is really just the original PS1 with an HD makeover and quality of life options, so all the dungeons and game progression are the same as the original. I spent so much time with Phantasy Star in my childhood that I probably won't need a walkthrough to finish it if the nuts and bolts are the same, especially now that there's an automapper. (I take that back. I'm not sure I could easily find the hidden door to the last boss from memory, but everything else sure.)
- even if Tempest - This could be my last otome visual novel for the year. Voltage's first console original release and apparently successful enough that they already have a fandisk lined up for this month (yeah, I'm late to the party). This is much shorter than the average Otomate title, clocking in around 24 hours to 100%.
- Ghost Trick - My pre-order arrived and this nugget is supposed to be about 15 hours long. I miiiiiight try to finish this one before my trip. I like mystery games, but being stuck in a mystery game while on an airplane without wifi could be frustrating when I'm trying to kill time.
- Be My Princess - I bought five of the prince routes the last time Voltage did a promotion for the title on Love 365 and let you read the first seven chapters free. It was a bit weird only playing seven chapters of a route, dropping it, and then speeding through the first seven chapters of another guy, but I wanted to know which ones interested me enough to buy and save for later. Since they're short, they're good when traveling, but since Love365 refuses to work without wifi I unfortunately won't be able to play on the plane. This would also fulfill my one more otome quota. There's no How Long to Beat for this, but my personal estimate places this at about 20 hours for the whole lot.
- Etrian Odyssey III - I suspect this would take me about another 30 hours to finish. This would not be for the plane flight, because when I play Etrian Odyssey it's with 2-3 browser tabs open, one of which is my character build spreadsheet so I know where to put my points when I level up, but it would be the completion of at least one RPG for the year if I don't get around to Phantasy Star. I suspect all I really need is to get past the current floor boss and then my progression will speed up a lot. It's just these Etrian bosses can be really nasty if your team comp is sub-optimal.
I only "need" four of them, but it's nice to have some options.
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf and Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town are other end of the year possibilities, but I haven't decided whether I'm going to start over with Lone Wolf or finish the current playthrough, and SotS:FoMT doesn't have a predetermined end point so much as I decided I'm going to call it done when my character marries her trophy husband and the credits roll (since I'm going for one of the guys that requires extra work to get and has a hidden heart meter so you don't get a visual indication of how much he likes you). Because of this I'm not sure exactly how much time these two are going to need to finish. Lone Wolf is also terrible trip material since it's only autosave with no manual save and you can autosave yourself into a bad spot.