I am late this month. Blame it on the time of the year and blah blah blah. I am going to just jump into it, as I don’t have much to talk about November.
Blog Posts This Month
We Need A 3D Castlevania Collection. My Experience With The Early 3D Castlevania Games – The 3D Castlevania games are not bad if you have a means to fix some of there issues. October’s selection of Castlevania games had me playing four new games that I had never experienced and really showed me what elements make a good Castlevania game.
My Time With The Gameboy Advance – Every year around this time, I take a look at one of my gaming devices and talk about my history with it. This year’s feature was the Gameboy Advance; a device kept me playing games during a drought period for me. I am almost out of handheld devices, so who knows what I will pick next year.
Finished Games This Month
Pokémon Alpha Sapphire
The only game that I was able to finish this month was Pokémon Alpha Sapphire. If this game taught me anything it is how to make a great remake. The third generation of Pokémon may not be my favorite, but replaying something familiar but greatly improved on made the experience fun. My only critique that I have is the music. For some reason I find the original soundtrack to be better than the remake. Maybe because it doesn’t have enough trumpets. I still need to finish the endgame content and finish Episode Delta. I miss when Pokémon stories could be dark or mature.
New Additions
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
I have no idea what this game is about. It was made available on Steam for free for a limited of time, and one of my friends suggested it to me. From what I can tell, it looks like an interesting action RPG that can be played with friends. One day I may get around to it. If I don’t, blame him for making me get it.
Judgment & Lost Judgment
The Yakuza series is something I’ve been wanting to get into. With seven mainlines games already out with an eight on the way, it may take some time for me to properly get into the series. Until then, the Judgment spinoff only has two entries that speak my language. I picked both games up during the multiple sales going on this month, so I don’t feel too bad hanging on to them until I’m ready for them.
Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition
I am still salty that Square released this game right after I decided to pick up the original version. I am even more mad that you couldn’t transfer your data from the vanilla version to the definitive version. All of these factors kept me from getting the ultimate version of this game. I was waiting for a cheap opportunity to double dip back into this game, so here is my chance now. I purposely didn’t do any of the postgame content in the original version just so I didn’t have to do ever single thing again for the second time. Here’s hoping I don’t take forever to finish this again.
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet
Kat and I have been waiting all month to play these games. I was cautious at first since I wasn’t impressed with what I had seen so far, but as of now those troubles have gone away. The game is technically flawed at points. When it works, it is fun; and when it doesn’t, I deal with it. Strangely though, it never gets to the point where it ruins my enjoyment. I have enjoyed my time with this game so far and am close to finishing it in one or two more sessions. As of now, it doesn’t come close to my top three Pokemon games, and I believe Legends: Arceus was the better Pokemon game that came out this year. Future DLC for the game may affect my feelings towards this game later. I will probably talk about this game in a designated post one day.
Castlevania Anniversary Collection
I now have the original Castlevania games in one easy collection. When will I play them? My current plan is to save the OGs for last in my grand tour of castles. It has nothing to do with the fact that I don’t like the original games as much. I promise!
Vampire Survivors
It is such a simple concept, but it keeps me engaged and wanting more. Vampire Survivors was something is was not expecting to play, but one look at it (and cheap price tag) made me curious to try it out. Ten hours later and I’m almost have everything unlocked. At first I thought I was surviving a horde of monsters. It turns out in fact I was trying to survive a new addiction.
Currently Playing
Pokémon Scarlet will be done this weekend. I am hoping that the endgame will have more things for me to do besides finishing the Pokédex. There are some other games that I would like to try and get finished by the end of the year, but I know my mood and attitude will decide that. While we were waiting for the new Pokémon games to come out, Kat and I started playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 as a way to pass the time. I was not expecting Kat to be really into it, but she quickly got into it. Hopefully we can finish out first campaign and maybe start a new one. We are also playing it with two of my other friends on the weekend, and I don’t see that campaign ending any time soon.
Plans For Next Month
I have one final post planned for this year. I have been working on it slowly for the past few months. It is about all the games that I played this year. I’m hoping to squeeze a few more titles in before we reach the end.
Other than that, I am going to relax a bit this month. The semester long project that I’ve been working on at work is coming to an end, and I have to prepare myself for the clean up that will come after the holiday break. I’m not looking forward to it and I kinda wish some of these responsibilities weren’t my problem. When I start looking for something new, I will try my hardest to avoid a supervisory position.
That wasn’t about gaming or blogging! Sorry. Just things that I need to get off my chest somewhere. Speaking of talking to the void, I have no idea what I’m going to do about branching into new social media. It makes sense to branch my content out in new avenues, but jumping into new communities can be rough for me. What might happen is that I create a new account somewhere, but take my time to see what I like the most. If anything, I will just create an account just for the blog and just share my content through those networks. I’m old and can’t keep up with what is hip with the kids these days.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Tales From The Backlog 