Ace Attorney – Tales From The Backlog

I kicked off the new year with a refreshed mindset and focused goals. 2019 saw me at my lowest point mentally and it affected my habits greatly. But, with the help of this blog and reducing unnecessary work and stress off of me, I feel like my goals are more realistic.

I was very surprised with how much I was able to accomplish this month. As usual, I kept my tradition alive by finishing a game on the first of January to kick off the new year. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel easily became one of my new favorite games and introduced me to a whole new series that I’m interested in playing through. You can read my full thoughts about the game in my review I wrote. On top of that, I finished not one, but two other games this month! That may not sound impressing, but for me that is something I have not been able to do in over a year. I hope that this is a sign a good things to come!

Along with Trails of Cold Steel, I finished Dissidia: Final Fantasy NT, a questionable, yet understanding direction for the fighting series, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney; a game that blew my mind with each twist and turn. I plan on writing reviews for each game, but they probably won’t be finished by the time this post goes out. If you are reading this from the future (hello from the past!), links to both reviews will be here (Dissidia) and here (Apollo Justice).

New Additions

I really wasn’t planning on purchasing many games this month. Now that my focus is focusing more on finishing games on my backlog, my desire to buy games I find in stores or online sales have been less enticing. Did that stop me from buying anything though? No.

I decided to try out Puyo Puyo Champions since I enjoyed playing Puyo Puyo Tetris. In my opinion Puyo Tetris is the better game, but if you want to learn how to play Puyo Puyo and keep Tetris out of it, this is an enjoyable game. It normally goes for about $10 USD online, but I got it one sale for $5 USD. While browsing the store to spend some Christmas money, I found a copy of Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight. I normally would not be interested in a game like this, but I watched my wife obtain the platinum trophy for Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight in two days and I want to one up her by platinum P3: DM in just one day. One day when I have a few days off I will attempt it.

Other than that, I purchased some games to assist me with the blog and complete some collections. I picked up Tony Hawk’s Underground to capture some images for a future story that I want to talk about. Along with that, I picked up Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 since it was only $9 USD and I have no self control. Both are really good games, so I have no regret purchasing them.

Uno for the Switch I picked up on a whim. I was watching videos of people playing it and it was on sale for $5 USD. I have won several games, but I don’t count it as a game I worked to finish since (in my books) just winning one game counts as beating the game.

The last two pickups were Final Fantasy Tactics and Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology. I own Tactics on the PSP, but for some reason it never captivated me like everyone else. I want to go back to it, but picked up the original PS version to add to my collection. Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology is the only escort Tales game that was released in the west. Adding it to my collection means I can finally say that (kinda) own every Tales game released in the states.

Plans For Next Month

I don’t have an idea what my plans are for February are yet. There are no new releases that I am looking forward to new month, so I can concentrate on my backlog more. I want to continue playing Nier: Automata and I think I can finish it by then. My Monster Hunter burnout is over, so I want to go back and finish Generations Ultimate at my leisure. Other than that, I will keep hammering away at Trails of Cold Steel II since I am also currently hooked on that as well. I’ve also been watching my wife recently trying to platinum Kingdom Hearts 3, and it makes me want to do some achievement hunting. Next update I will include the number of achievements that I earned during the month.

Numbers and Charts

And here are the numbers:

January 2020
Games Finished: 4
Games Added: 7
Finish Total: 190/672

Favorite Game Played: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
Most Played Console: A toss up between Switch and PS4

Current Games in Process:
The Legend of Heroes: Trials of Cold Steel II
Nier: Automata
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood
Fire Emblem: Three Houses