Author: DaNamesX

Backlog Report – April 2023

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Another month, another adventure.

In last month’s monthly report, I mentioned that I was potentially moving in the coming months. That plan has unfortunately come to a pause since renting or buying in the new area is freaking expensive. Our current mortgage is cheaper than most of the places available for rent in the area. The plan now is to wait and see if more affordable housing becomes available in the area, or I start looking for a new job that pays more. Either or, I like where we live currently, but we both wish there were more people our age around for us to make friends.

With the new roadmap ahead, my buying habits will be toned down exponentially. Unless it is something I really want to play on day one, my game purchases will have to wait until a good sale happens. I have already been doing this for a while now, but new restrictions on myself will limit me to deals that are too good to pass by. So far the only new releases that have my attention are Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy XVI, Street Fighter 6 (maybe), and The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie. Eventually I will acquire other games that I want, but this also means that more games on my backlog can start being completed.

Games Finished This Month

Metroid Prime Remastered

At one point I called this my favorite Metroid Prime out of the trilogy. After revisiting it, I’m not too sure. I do love the classic feeling of the Metroid game, but the constant backtracking wore me down after awhile. There were some abilities that I wish Samus had in this game like the Space Jump or Screw Attack just to make traversal move a bit faster. Overall though, I enjoyed my time revisiting this game in its shiny new coat. Hopefully this means that the other Prime games will release before the fourth game magically materializes.

New Additions

Diablo III: Eternal Collection (PS4)

I have never played a Diablo game before. This caused the game store attendee to die of shock and then resurrect themselves to tell me that I am not a real gamer since I have never played Diablo. So with that I started the game with some resentment to it, but gradually understood why people like these games. You go around and destroy waves of monsters to find sweet loot to get stronger to fight other strong monsters. It is a good mind-numbing experience, but would be better with other people I guess. Until I get over how annoying it was to talk to that annoying store clerk, the game will remain as “It’s okay” from me.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner – Soul Hackers (3DS)

I didn’t technically buy this game. I requested it from my older brother since he long abandoned it and was just sitting on his shelf. I asked if I could have it in order to complete my 3DS SMT collection. He agreed, and now I have a complete collection! Another score for not paying scalper prices!

The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure (PS4)

I completely missed the release window of this game. The fortunately/unfortunately was a panic buy since most places didn’t have a physical copy of this game in stock. Thankfully my reliable source had them in stock, so I bought to ensure that I had a copy. I still need to sit down and finish Trails from Zero first and then try to get this done before Reverie comes out (it’s not going to happen).

Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection (NS)

I never got around to playing the Battle Network games on the GBA. I played and beat Network Transmission on the GameCube, but for some reason I never sought out to play these games. At one point I was going to choose between finding them all or purchasing them off the Wii U eshop, but then Capcom decided to make them all available in one (kinda) collection. This saves me hundreds of dollars finding the GBA originals and one less headache hooking up my Wii U just to play these games.

Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp (NS)

I love the redesign of these games. Haters can hate, but nothing about this series needs to be gritty or war-like (Days of Ruin is pretty good though). I hope that this series can return in some format and that this rerelease helps rekindle interest.

Currently Playing

At the beginning of the month, I had planned to play through Atelier Ryza 1 and Diablo III. That all changed one day during my lunchbreak when I decided to try Romancing SaGa II again and got hooked. I was not expecting to have this game constantly on my mind. There is nothing special about this game much, but my imagination with building my own lore has made this one of my favorite “role playing” games in a while. I’ll talk more about it later.

My weekend Divinity II sessions has to go on hiatus for a few months. One of our players needs to take a break from gaming to focus on other things. I don’t blame them at all since life comes before pleasure. Kat and I still have our game going, but last time we played the connection kept dying on us and made us lose an hour’s worth of progress. Divinity will return at some point.

This month I also started one of my streaming challenges. The first challenge is to obtain the platinum trophy in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition. I thought this was going to be easy and something I could easily stream. I forgot however that the game moves incredibly slow at the beginning since you don’t have much to do. After a few streams I decided that I would haste through some of the boring stuff offstream and stream the game during more of the interesting parts. The streams will resume once I get to the end of Chapter 1 since nothing exciting happens before you get married and more options become available. I have more challenges that I want to do in the meantime, so those may occur while I work on this.

I haven’t stopped playing Theatrhythm, and you can’t stop me.

That is about all that I have for this month. If you are like me and think post on this blog have been dry then fear not! I have three post in the works with two of them practically done. These will be spaced out just so new content appears on the blog. In June I will have a fun post that will come out on my birthday. Other than that, I will try to stockpile more post that can be used throughout the year. Writing has become fun again!

Thanks for reading as always!

DaNamesX

All The Zelda Titles I Haven’t Finished

DaNamesX5 Comments

While looking through my draft folder, I came across this topic that I never did anything with. Seeing as Zelda is a hot topic these days I may as well take advantage of the analytics.

For some background context, I wouldn’t say that I am a major Legend of Zelda fan. I enjoy the 2D games over the 3D ones, and I find more enjoyment watching someone like my older brother play through them. Due to this, I don’t normally get excited when a new game is announced. I wait to see what the game is like and then give it a try if I am feeling it. I do enjoy the lore of the games.

First let me go ahead and list the games that I have never played. It would get pretty repetitive if the only things that I say about these games is that I have never played them before.

  • The Legend of Zelda
  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
  • The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
  • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
  • The CD-I games
  • Link’s Crossbow Training
  • Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past

Some would consider this to be the quintessential Zelda game to play. Well I have played it, but have yet to ever finish it. The reason? I guess just not committing myself to sit down and play it. I just said that I enjoy the 2D Zelda games over the 3D ones, so this one should high on my list to finish. The furthest I have gotten in the game may be around getting the third pendant I think. At least I am not my older brother who has flat out said that he does not like this game.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Time to really ruffle some feathers with this one if the last one didn’t. I am in an interesting position where I could tell you the ins and outs of this game without ever finishing the game. I have watched my brother and older cousins play this game to death that it feels like I know more about this game than most of the other games that I play. It may be for that reason why I never felt like I needed to finish this game. I know the plot, how to play, where to find certain items, and how to complete side quests just because I have watched many hours of this game. Sure I may do it one day, but as of now I don’t possess that burning desire to do so. When I did play this on my own, I got to about the Forest Temple.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

Roleplay with me for a moment here. You are eight years old when this game comes out. You and your nine year old brother are excited to play this game since you had a blast with Ocarina of Time. You get the game, watch the opening cinematic and see the moon for the first time. My eight year-old self was not prepared for that nightmare fuel. Continuing on, you watch the first cutscene where Link gets jumped in the forest by the scary masked kid and think he killed his horse. From there, the psychopath in the mask turns Link into a Deku Scrub where you then have three days to get your body back before the moon nukes the town. All of this while eerie music plays in the background and that smug laugh of the Happy Mask Salesman sinks in your soul.

So yeah. Childhood trauma prevented me from playing this one for a while. Kat and my older brother love this game and consider this as their favorite Zelda game of all time. I know exactly why they love it. I have about the same level of knowledge of this game like Ocarina since I watched him play this over and over again. The thing that prevents me from not playing this game is the 72 hour time limit. I don’t like to be rushed or have the panic feeling of racing against a clock. I have enough anxiety already that I don’t need a game where the time limit pretends to be a threat make me feel uncomfortable at all times. I think the furthers I have every gotten on my own was getting Link’s body back. If I am honest I don’t think I will ever finish this one unless I was forced to.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Wind Waker was the first 3D Zelda game that I was serious about finishing. I like the aesthetic of the game and the overall vibes felt comfortable for me. There was hardly a time where I felt like the game was overwhelming and daunting while I was playing. I actually like sailing the ocean to find treasure and pretend to be a pirate. By this time you probably have guessed why I never finished this game. Two words: Triforce Pieces. I burnt out right as I was tasked to find these stupid items and never went back since. I know I just have to power through it, but it is the worst part of the game. I do want to finish this game at some point though. I have the Wii U version, so I will play that version and get through the Triforce hunt quicker.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Most of my memory of this game is a blur. I do know that I don’t care for the control scheme and that is why I never got Spirit Tracks. I do know that I stopped right at the moment where you have to go through that stupid temple (Temple of the Ocean King) for the last time. The end of the game is right there, but my brother beat me to it so I watched the ending with him and never touched the game since then. Not the biggest fan of this, but I do remember liking the sailing controls.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Let’s talk about my older brother again. The guy who famously told me that he did not like A Link to the Past one day told me that this was one of his new favorite Zelda games. I don’t get it either, but I will agree that this is a pretty good game. I like games that take a concept that seems out of place when you read it on paper but makes total sense when you see it in action. Having Link merge onto walls is a gameplay mechanic that works so well that it feels stupid at times. The only thing that I’m upset about is that I haven’t gone back to finish this game proper. It is partially because it is on the 3DS and I got it at the time where I was playing my 3DS less and less (tragic). I don’t really remember how far I got in it since I was playing my brother’s copy at the time before getting my own. I do getting the wall merging mechanic and beating the first temple after you get it.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

This now brings us to the latest game in the series (at the time of writing this). Breath of the Wild looked like a game that I was ready to play. The big open world where anything was possible seemed like something I was ready for. It was the first game that I played when I got my Switch and the second time I was enjoying myself playing in a big open world. Somewhere along the line, I started to play this less and less. The reason? The world feels too big for me to decide what I want to do. A lot of people like having as much freedom as possible to create the adventure they want with little input from the game to tell you what to do. I have come to learn that I like to be given some guidance on how I should go about doing things. I turns out that ultimate freedom makes me waste time by wandering around aimlessly until I stumble upon a thing.

One thing that might have improved my time was if there were actual rewards for me exploring places. Sure the world is filled with weapons and items to find, but it doesn’t have the same appeal to me when I know that those items are only temporary if I chose to use them thanks to the weapon durability system. Finding a shrine is nice since it goes toward building up my health or stamina, but it doesn’t compare to finding like a new spell or item that you could permanently keep with you. I makes the journey of finding things kinda bland for me. Hopefully Tears of the Kingdom will give me a reason to explore it’s world.

I was making progress in the game for a while. I unlocked one divine beast and found my way through the Lost Woods to find the Master Sword. The last time I played, Link was staring down the path to Death Mountain. Will he ever get there? Who knows.

So those are all of the Zelda games that I have played but never finished. While I don’t have the itch to play any of them currently, I do want/have to get around to them at some point. This is where I open the discussion to all of you!

Which of these games should I finish first?

I may not motivate myself to finish these, but a push from peers will always get me in motion. Let me know in the comments which one of these games should I work on finishing a write my final thoughts about. You have my word that I will finish it to the end.

Thanks for reading!

Backlog Report – March 2023

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And just like that, the first quarter of the year has ended. 2023 has been one of the most up and down years that I’ve had in a while. One minute it can be nice and quiet, and then the next things seem to be falling apart. March was no different, but things are starting to get much better as our patience has started to bare fruit in some areas.

Kat has finally landed her dream job. After deciding to leave her job and worrying that she wouldn’t be able to find something rewarding, she was offered a job that is exactly what she was looking for. I’m happy for her since she will no longer be putting up with a job that she doesn’t enjoy (hopefully). This new life event is also setting other things in motion now that will hopefully improve the wellbeing of our lives.

In other news, I avoided injuring myself this month! I got hurt financially this month thanks to a really crappy dentist office, but other than that I escaped death this month! I wish I had more things to talk about my life, but it is plain and boring at the moment.

Games Finished This Month

Final Fantasy XV

Is Final Fantasy XV a good game? This is the questions I have been asking myself ever since I finished it. I have come to the conclusion that it is subjective. If you are the type of person who like a good story and narrative, you are in for a bad time. If you are someone who enjoys the themes of brotherhood and personal connections, then you might have a better time with it. I don’t regret the time that I spent with this game since there were moments where I was having genuine fun. I have no desire to play any of the story DLC, but I will do the extra grind just to get the last four achievements that I’m missing.

If you want to know more about my thoughts about this game, read my last post about it!

New Additions

Metroid Prime Remastered

Out of all of the early 2000s remasters that I was excited for, Metroid Prime was top of my list. This is a type of game that I wouldn’t have played back in the day, but something about it made me marathon all three games when Metroid Prime Trilogy came out on the Wii. I’m surprise with how much of this game my memory remembers since I am kinda flying through areas and bosses. I do find it weird using a normal controller and not a Wii Mote with this game. The motion control option works, but doesn’t feel as responsive that the Wii Motes were (which is an odd thing to say). Hopefully I will finish this game up in the near future.

3D Dot Game Heroes

I have heard about this game before, but have never come across it. I thought it was going to be super expensive to find a copy of this game, but I must have lucked out and find a relative cheap copy at the secondhand store. I am looking forward to playing through this game once I get the urge to re-hookup my PS3.

Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter’s Battle

Have you ever seen something in the wild that you don’t believe is real? I never knew that Koei made a Dynasty Warriors game for the OG DS and it is a mix between and action game and card collecting. It looks weird and bad. I wanted to ignore it, but the curious collector in me couldn’t ignore it. I’m prepared to either be validated in knowing that this was going to be a bad game, or pleasantly surprised if I enjoy it. Either way it is now in my collection waiting for me at anytime.

Collection of SaGa: Final Fantasy Legends

As I continue to dive into a series that no one cares about, it was time for me to acquire the games that started it all. I have no idea what these games are like outside the screenshots that I’ve seen. Hopefully I enjoy them the same as the later SaGa games.

Various Daylife

There are games that sometimes draws you for no reason. Ever since I heard about this game, I’ve been interested in it for some reason. It could be the Bravely Default art style or the idea of just grabbing random people to go out and fight monsters with. Whatever the reason, I have the game now so I should see if there is something behind my curiosity.

We Who Are About To Die

The Spring Steam Sale didn’t go by without me becoming a victim. Out of everything on my wishlist I decided to go with We Who Are About To Die. The game is described as a gladiator simulator with rougelike elements. You manage your gladiator in different events and scenarios in order to become the Grand Champion of the Ring. It is another one of those games that just peeked my interest and seemed like the type of game that I would play. Once I get around to it, I will report back to how it jives with me after a few runs.

Culdcept Revolt

The Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eshops were executed in Nintendo’s backyard on March 27, 2023. I though I was done purchasing things on it a long time ago, but I decided to give the ole shop one last viewing. I ended up making a few last minute purchases since I decided I wanted all of the GB Pokémon games on my device. After I did that I had funds for one more game. I decided to go with Culdcept Revolt since I heard some good things about it. The only thing I know about this game is that it is a hybrid between a card game and a board game. I like both of those and I’ve seen combinations like this work before. No idea when I will get around to it since it was me just spending the remaining funds I had for the eShop. Goodnight eShop Paperbag Boy or whatever you were.

Currently Playing

The two games of Divinity: Original Sin II are still going on. Kat and I have done what we need to do to move on to the third chapter of the game, but we are planning on beefing up our characters before leaving Reaper’s Coast. There are many quests that we having finished and we are still under leveled for some of them. Once we get a bit more comfortable we will eventually move on. The four player campaign that we are doing is still ongoing. We hadn’t been able to meet up the past two weeks, but should be back into the swing of things this month. We just got to Reaper’s Coast so I imagine we will be here for a while.

Over in my solo corner, I am back in the rut of deciding what to finish next. It’s time to take a break from Final Fantasy or Square in general since I feel like that is all I’ve been playing lately. Metroid Prime is moving along, but at the moment I can only play in short burst before I get tired. Yesterday, I started two games that are from franchises that I have never played before. The first is Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout. I played Mana Khemia: Student Alliance way back in the day, so I’m unsure if it is similar to it. So far I am enjoying it since I’m getting a mixed vibe of Dragon Quest and The Legend of Heroes from it. I can see myself sticking to this for a while.

The second game I’m casually playing through is Diablo III. I have never played a Diablo game before. I can see the appeal of it, but as of right now I am in the “It’s okay” camp. It reminds me of Gauntlet but more “randomly generated.” This is also the type of game that would be more interesting with friends, so I may ask one of my buddies if he is up for a new co-op session. So far it hasn’t made me a Diablo “fan” but time will tell.

Plans For Next Month

There is one other game that I’m to play before a remake of it comes out this summer. It is a game that I have never finished despite loving the ever-loving hell out of it. I don’t want to spoil the game just yet since I want to record myself playing through the entire game. That, and I will be playing through the sticky version that is a downgrade from the original. Why? Because I am going to achieve EVERYTHING in it. What game is it? Find out (hopefully) this month when I have the time and energy to stream and record through it all.

That is pretty much it. Some days I feel like I’m just swimming in my own space and not really colliding with anything else. During times like this I get a bit unmotivated to continue writing, but then I remember why I did this in the first place. I’m going to keep practicing my writing style and continue to write the things that I want to. This is just a look some of my inner struggles. Hope to have more things come out soon!

Off The Backlog – Final Fantasy XV’s Lack of Story, But Not Heart

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SPOILERS EVERYWHERE IN THIS POST! 

In all honesty, this was going to be a harsher post before things changed. I was convinced that nothing was going to stop the annoying anger that I had with Final Fantasy XV. That attitude changed a bit when I reached the end of the game. While I will still criticize my biggest issue with the game, things get a bit complex once the final scenes play out and credits roll. It is about time that I get this game off of my backlog since it has been here for the past six years. 

*Oh yeah. This counts as my #MaybeInMarch title since I actually finished the game and post in March!*

First things first, let’s open up the wound and pour hydrogen peroxide right on it. I find it insulting, scummy, and down right bonkers to release a game like this. Final Fantasy XV was released as an unfinished game, and in my world it was left unfinished. The developers clearly knew what the central theme to their story was, but forgot to add something critical to that; the story. If you were to ask me what the story of Final Fantasy XV was, I would sound like a madman who speaks in mad libs. 

Our princely king Noctis has to leave home to attend his royal wedding to the oracle Lunafreya. He is accompanied by his meaty shield Gladiolus, steward and chief Ignis, and photographer and definitely nothing wrong with him Prompto. Immediately after leaving the front gates, Noctis’ home Insomnia is attacked by the evil Niflheim empire and turning the current king into the former king. So now the story has shifted from attending a wedding to avoid being captured. That doesn’t last long since Noctis learns that he needs to travel his homeland to find the tombs of the old kings and receive their powers to defeat the empire. After finding three of them, the rest become optional when the focus then shifts to gaining the power of Final Fantasy summons to become the true king. 

This is when things just speed up. You meet up with Luna in Venice where she then gets killed by a man named Ardyn who reveals at this time that he was the main antagonist the whole time. He starts to troll Noctis into fighting him and then that becomes the main goal until the end. From there, we get on the literal trainwreck train to the end of the game where things are either left unanswered, explained on a random piece of paper found on the floor, or locked behind paid DLC (more on that later). You learn Ardyn wants to turn the lights off in the world and that Noctis has to sacrifice his life to pay the light bill. There is something there to make the story feel compelling, but the speed and cuts that the development took to get there feels haphazard. 

A lot of the story content is just missing from the main game. Things happen in the background and are never elaborated on in the main story. For some reason, Gladio leaves the group for a chapter and it is never explained why he left. After destroying Venice, Ignis loses his eyesight and it is never explained what happened to him. Prompto falls off a moving train and magically shows up locked up at the enemy stronghold and learns that he is a clone. Minus the group dealing with Ignis not being able to see, all of the other missing pieces to the story are just ignored. Prompto telling the group he was a result of humans playing God just turns into a “whatever” from his friends. This Ravus character looks interesting. I can’t wait to see what made him join the empire and get into conflict with his sister. Oh nevermind, I found him dead in a random place in the empire with no explanation on why or how he got here. There are just so many plot points that are missing to make anything matter.

Yes. There is a way to fill in all of the gaps. All you need to do is buy the episodic character episodes that fill in their gaps, watch a two hour movie, watch some videos on YouTube, and read a 384 page book to get the whole story of the game. That is a lot to ask someone to do if they found the base game mid. I find it very scummy that Square made people pay for missing story details that had distinct places for them in the base game. It was a bad call and Square knew it when they canceled the rest of the “story” and put it all instead into one book (which is pretty good from what I’ve heard).

It is safe to say that I was very disappointed with the story of FFXV. You would think that I would put it as one of my least favorite Final Fantasy games. While it may end up low on my list, something happened in the very last second right before I went into the final fight. I got emotional.

Emotions from this game? How? Just a moment ago I was bashing my head of how bad and complicated it was for me to follow anything that was going on in this game; and now suddenly I’m getting emotional! How? What the fuck happened between me fighting some of the hardest bosses in the game and preparing to go into one of the easiest fights in the game. 

Before the final fight, I had to reflect on the journey.

Some people say that it is never about the destination, but the journey you went on to get there. I hardly paid attention to my journey. At the beginning I was trying to do as many things as I could to experience what this world had in store. That ambition left real quick and then I started to focus on just finishing the main story. There were some things that I went out of my way to do; like obtaining all of the Royal Arms which was a pain in the neck to do. I did some things that I wasn’t keen on doing, but did it because I wanted the reward at the end. What I failed to realize at first was that even though my brain was half dead to remember any of the things that I did, someone was helping me retain all of that time. Prompto and his silly little camera was the plot device that I wasn’t ready for.

Throughout your journey, every time you rest at an inn or set camp you can view some of the photos that Prompto takes. These range from group shots, photos taken during combat scenes, and lots and lots of selfies. Some of the photos can turn out hilarious or the curse of nightmares. You are encouraged to save your favorite photos out of the bunch with only being able to save 200 photos. I normally used the screenshot option on the PS5, but there were some I was like “no you guys will remember this photo when the time comes.” My silly little joke of saving my funniest pictures would come back to haunt me at the end of the game.

Right before the fight, Noctis tells his bros that he has come to terms with what is about to happen next. He then asks Prompto if he can take a look at his camera and choose one photo to take with him into his final hours. This event turned into a walk down memory lane and unlocked some feelings that would not have come out if I had simply ignored this mechanic.

At the beginning of Chapter 13, the gang says goodbye to the best character in the game, their car the Regalia. I got super emotional at that point since the Regalia had been with us since the beginning and now we were leaving her in some random street. It didn’t help that I could relate to saying goodbye to a vehicle that you wished you could save. My first car was given to me by one of my family members. It was special since we made a lot of memories in that car. When it was given to me, I could tell it was getting old, and due to it not being serviced properly, it was a matter of time before something bad would happen. Due to circumstances with not being able to afford repairs and a landlord who wasn’t understanding, I made the difficult choice to have her towed away to the scrapyard. The guilt of being powerless stayed with me for a long time.

When looking at the photos, the guys came across a picture with the four of them in front of the Regalia. They all said it was fitting to have this since it was at the beginning of their journey and included all of them. That punched me right in the gut since it reminded me of the Regalia’s fate and how important it was to the gang; and even myself. I had decided that this photo was going to be the one that I was going to take, but I decided to see what else I had saved along the way.

This sweet, tender moment was quickly ruined by the other photos that I had saved. Here are a few:

Practicing victory poses
Disney’s live action Timon and Pumbaa
“Hey Noct, let’s go and moon those Imperial solders over there.”
Ignis embracing his Sonic persona
You tell me what’s going on in this picture.

Looks familiar
Hi
What did you do to his neck Prompto?
“Day 139 on the open road with my buds!”

I started to burst out laughing. Everything about this game, and this moment, and this entire story just felt like one big joke that I could elevate with one of the stupid photos that I took. I laughed so much that I finally made myself cry when I couldn’t when thinking about the sad car stuff. My absolute favorite is Crackhead Prompto. I was so tempted to take this photo with me instead and envision the last thing that Noctis sees is this goofy, drug addicted pic of his friend. 

For a moment, all the negative gunk that was festering in my heart suddenly vanished and I was able to take in what I just played. I sympathize with how Noctis must have felt to do what he had to do and finally grow up to get the job done. I felt silent with everyone when it flashed back to the final campfire scene. I cracked when the other characters finally broke down. I started to think about my own brothers (by blood and by bond) and what if we went on this difficulty yet spotty journey. The theming and ending of FFXV will not work for everyone, but for me it took a small hit to crack the surface before hitting me deep.

I will still not excuse the disaster of the story structure or Square’s “fix” to sell the missing pieces. If you are the type that enjoys road trips and family bonding, then you will find the most enjoyment out of this game. I thought I was going to hate Noctis, but I quickly learned that he is just a kid with a lot of weight on his shoulders and just wants to fish. Prompto, Gladio, and Ignis were great characters as well, but at this time I don’t have the urge to play through their episodes. I wish they were in the main game for me to enjoy then and there and not an afterthought after pulling myself to finish the game. I’m still debating if I want to get the last few achievements since I’m close, but then I think about the mindlessness of it and it dissuade me. 

I waited six years to finish this game. I thought that waiting for the story DLC would be worth it, but the unfocused nature of it just made me lose interest (especially when much better stories have been told from the same series). I’m happy that I finally got this off my backlog and another game done in the series.

….Final Fantasy XVI you better be worth the time I swear……. 

Backlog Report – February 2023

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Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com

In this month’s short and late report, I talk about what has been eating at me this month, my first real posts this year, the games that I’ve been playing, and the secret to a healthy lifestyle.

Life (The cereal is better)

February has been rough. I started the month by injuring my back around the same area where my shingles occurred. Luckily, the devil bumps did not return, but now I need to see a chiropractor to make sure I didn’t damage anything too bad. I’m afraid what the beginning of March will do to me since I have a feeling my body is conspiring to kill me.

My mental state has been taking a beating as well. I have come to terms that I need to find a new job. Long story short, administration going to admin. I am burnt out from the work that my coworkers and I busted our asses to make happen in a short period of time, only for our director to just give us a thumbs up. No thanks. No acknowledgement like the other directors did for their teams. No stipends. No appreciation whatsoever. I love this place and the community, but I refuse to continue working for someone who has zero interest and respect for the people who keep things running. I’m sorry if this is all very negative, but I need to vent and have my resolve documented.

With that said, the plan is to move over the summer. To where? It is a coin flip at the moment. Kat is leaving her job as well and is waiting to hear back about a possible job in her hometown. If she gets it, then we will move there. If not, there is another area that we talked about moving that we liked. It is very stressful to think of these things, but now is the time for us to reestablish ourselves in an area that we will call home for a long time. Plus it will be nice to not live in a town where there are things to do and people our age.

Blogging Side of Things

Despite being in a mental haze, I managed to write two blog posts this month! The first post was for Love Your Backlog this year. I always enjoy having a reason to check and see the status of my backlog. I weeded out a lot of items that are not technically my responsibility to finish, so that helped a lot. At this point, I am still trying to decide what I want to finish in March.

The other post that I wrote was my SaGa post. That post would have been longer if I didn’t cut out some of the things that I wanted to talk about. The SaGa series is something new to me that I have grown to appreciate. I hope my post will one day inspire someone else to give the series a try and help with giving the series some more notoriety.

Games Acquired and Finished This Month

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line

This is the one and only game that I bought this month. I had been waiting like crazy for this to come out. I love the music from the Final Fantasy series, and making a rhythm game based around the OSTs is great. If this is the last entry in this series, then Indiezero did a great job of making this last for a while. I say that since by the time every song becomes available the track list will be over 500!

I double dipped on this since I like having physical copies of games, but wanted the ability to pick the game up and play whenever. Kat and I agreed on the PS4 physical for an easy achievement run for us, and the digital version on Switch that we will attempt to 100% complete throughout the rest of our lives. I am done with the PS4 version, so I will slowly work on the Switch version whenever I get the urge to play.

Other Games That I Finished This Month

Romancing SaGa – Minstrel Song Remastered

I am somewhat proud of myself for playing this game on a hard difficulty without realizing it. I mentioned in the post that I unknowingly made this game difficult due to my starting character and not fully utilizing all of the game’s mechanics wisely. Now that I’ve started a second playthrough, I can see how challenging the game can be without proper knowledge. It is also nice playing as someone who has an actual story that I can follow. 

Currently Playing

I wrapped up Theatrhythm the other day, so now I am back in that limbo of not knowing what to play. I should work on either Fire Emblem Engage or my game for Maybe in March. There are also games that I started or acquired that I want to play like Metroid Prime Remastered, Final Fantasy XII, and Divinity: Original Sin (also playing the second one with Kat and two other friends). I’m sure I will find the next game that will hook me. It is only a matter of time for the motivation to kick in.

That is all that I really have for this month. Life is too short to spend time worrying about the “ifs” and “buts.” I promise that EXP Share is still being worked on.