July 2020 Gaming Report

Something…something..July. Something…something…gaming. Each month seems to begin and end quickly. Soon, work will start to pick up again, and my third to last semester will begin. My gaming routine will have to alter some, but I have noticed that it has been on a decline lately. I’ve been juggling titles less and have opted to focus on one or two games at a time. That’s not to say nothing has been keeping my attention.

Ghost of Tsushima looks really good and I want to play it so badly. The new Paper Mario game also looks excellent with people not being afraid to say that it is a good game. Not to mention next month, we will finally get the remastered version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles; one of my favorite games of all time. The only thing that is preventing me from getting all these new games are time and money. Due to being in lockdown for what feels like a majority of the year, I have saved a pretty penny as of late. This is good since my savings didn’t really have much in it. I would like to continue to build it up, and that will require me to sacrifice new experiences until a later date. The only exception will be when Crystal Chronicles comes out since I love that game so much.

Games Finished

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So what have I been doing this month? Well a lot of time went into just playing Soul Calibur VI. I already talked a lot about this game in a post I made last week. Without repeating myself too much, I was able to obtain the platinum trophy in this game and had an absolute good time doing so. It made me better at the game that now I enjoy just fighting random people online. If you are interested in the series, I would recommend it and it is still getting content to this day.


The only other game that I got around to finish was Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. I was able to beat the first one when it came out in 1 day, and I was surprised that I did the same for this one as well. Curse of the Moon 2 is definitely harder than the first, but it is manageable once you get the hang of it (or play in Casual mode like I did). I prefer Domonique, Robert, and Hachi over the original characters as their weapons and playstyle appeal to me more. The sheer variety that they can pull off is probably why the difficulty was cranked up. Currently I am in my second playthrough and taking my sweet time to the true final ending.

Currently Playing

My evenings after work consist of a routine. I play Animal Crossing for about an hour to work on projects around the island. Afterwards, I play a second game for the rest of the evening. Currently, I have been playing The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III. After finishing the second game in April, I decided to slowly work my way through the Sky Trilogy. Long story short, I got impatient and started playing Cold Steel III. I understand a lot of things may go over my head for not playing the other games, but the cloud of mystery is what I loved about these games. After finishing the first chapter, I already want to go back to Sky and see all of the development that has led to this moment.

New Additions

This month was very tamed when buying new games. Since I knew I would not have the time to play Ghost of Tsushima, I opted to wait until a sale to purchase it. That also goes for Paper Mario: The Origami King. I know that Paper Mario will most likely not go on sale anytime soon, but I will get it one day and add it to the backlog. 

There were four games that I bought this month. The first was Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. I knew that I could beat it quickly, so I made the justification and beat it the same day. The last two games that I bought were Overcooked 1 & 2 that came in one disk, and Injustice 2. My wife Kat and I just happened to notice a used copy of both and they were less than $15 USD. We have only played Overcooked 1 and have had a blast playing it. We have no idea what Overcooked 2 has in store, but I know we will get frustrated at each other while trying to accomplish each stage. 

We had talked about getting Injustice 2 ever since it came out. We never did though, and it remained on our wishlist ever since. Finding a copy for $15 was the convincing factor. 

The last game was Chocobo Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy! It was on sale and I adore Chocobos! I have never played a mystery dungeon game before, so I am looking forward to see if I enjoy it or not. I enjoy the characters since they are the same from Chocobo Tales.

Plans For This Month

My goal is to finish Trails of Cold Steel III before Crystal Chronicles comes out. I cannot express how excited I am for this game. I haven’t been this excited for a release in a long time. If I manage to finish Cold Steel with time to spare, I might do some more achievement hunting in a few games. I have also been doing a few more streams here and there. I am trying to build more confidence and learn all the tech work in the background especially with sound. I want to figure all of this out before making my official “debut.” If you see me live, don’t be afraid to stop by. I get extra nervous/talkative when I notice someone watching.

Numbers

July 2020
Games Finished: 2
Games Added: 4
Finish Total: 202
Total Collection: 677

Most Played Game: Soul Calibur VI
Most Played System: PS4

Achievements:
Steam:3
PlayStation: 51

Current Games in Progress:
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

Games Finished

DateTitleHours
7/6/2020Soul Calibur VI???
7/10/2020Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 22

New Additions

DateTitleSystem
7/15/2020Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2Switch
7/25/2020Chocobo Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy!Switch
7/28/2020Overcooked 1 + 2PS4
7/28/2020Injustice 2PS4

Soul Calibur Appreciation Post

I’ve done it! I was able to obtain my second platinum trophy! The honor goes to Soul Calibur VI. I wouldn’t expect myself to complete a game like this, but something clicked and it motivated me to get everything. While there is some clean up left to do, I think I can safely put this down now until the next challenger approaches.

I can safely say that Soul Calibur is one of my favorite fighting games. I started playing this game last March in 2019. After a few rounds, I got distracted by school and left it on my shelf for over a year; collecting dust and sharing stories of hope from the other games on my shelf (rip). I decided to pick it back up after a weekend with my friends. They would play Soul Calibur V back in our college days and would spend an unhealthy amount of time in Creation mode. There were a many of nights of neglecting parties and significant others just to hang with the guys and create dicks on people.

Creation mode is one of the best features in Soul Calibur. You can create your own OC with the options that the game gives you. There may not be a lot of options to choose from, but with a creative mind a lot of things are possible. With them by my side/computer screen, it rekindled my interest in the title to not only finish it, but obtain all of the achievements.

With that in mind, I wanted to personally thank all of the characters who helped me along this journey. Some of them may have played only a minor role, but their contribution was nevertheless important. 

Skelaboss

Skeleboss is one of the oldest OCs that I have created. This skeleman is all business on top, but is ready to party below. The lore that I gave him is that he was granted immortality at the cost of what he loved the most, his fiddle. What he didn’t know was that there were two downfalls to this. The first was that as he got older, his flesh and muscles would melt off his body and that he would become a walking skeleton. The second drawback was due to the laws of marriage, his wife, who he absolutely hates, is also immortal and is stuck with him. To get away from her, he picks up hobbies and will sometimes travel the world just so he can escape. It just so happened that in the 1500s, he was traveling around Europe and Asia during events of Soul Calibur. It soon came that he would become a legendary hero during this time. Later in life in the mid 2000s, he would go on to be a new legend in the art of skateboarding.

Darklord Kent

One of the edgiest guys one can make when the world already has Soul Edge. Kenith (Darklord Kent) was designed to be the edgiest person we could create. His hatred for weaklings led him down the path of being this world’s reaper. No one can match his level of edge and set off to prove that. He is so edgy, that he has not defeated anyone; as they cannot get close to him (mostly their choice). The socks and sandals were an extra bonus.

THOT Patrol

The hero that the internet needs. THOT Patrol is on a mission to slay each and every thot he comes across. Based on the “Begone THOT” meme, we decided to create this character after coming across A LOT of barely clothed characters online. We felt that there had to be a champion that could get past their seductive looks and defeat them one by one. He is not the hero that we wanted, but the one that we needed.

Mr. Society

We eventually knew we were going to create this. Based on the “We Live In A Society” meme, we had to create a Joker impersonator. The only regret we have is that we fought someone who was Batman and we were not using this character.

Florida Man

Definitely one of the strongest characters that we created. Florida Man is ready to get in complete high jinks (even though Florida was not a thing in the 1580s).Where did he come from? How did he get here? Who taught him in the ways of the nunchucks? Whatever the reason, Florida Man will always show up with a crazy headline. Currently, he has the highest online win percentage on my profile.

Karen

There are a lot of bad “Karens” out there, so we decided to make a good one (kinda). For a while, she was our undefeated champion of online play. We eventually gave her the backstory that she was fighting her way to get to the manager of online play. We found one person online who could match that description, and he proceeded to mop the floor with us.After that, Karen jumped back into her minivan and started her new quest of getting stronger to take out all of the managers (a very silly plot, but had us in tears).

Raphael 

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I dislike Raphael. I don’t like his moveset, he’s demeanor, or his stupid glasses. He did, however, help me obtain an achievement for getting a gold ranking in Arcade mode. For that, I will give him a small pat on the back.

Mitsurugi and Sophitia Style

Not necessarily the character, but the character’s style. I used both of these through my playthrough of Libra of Soul. After 20 hours, I’m still not the best with Mitsurugi’s style, but I was able to playthrough all of Libra of Soul in less than 2 hours using Sophitia’s style. I’ll let you guess which one I’m better with.

Thanos

Thanos randomly popped up during my first Libra of Souls run. I like to imagine that he used the Time Stone to wrap himself to this era. From here, he would have some complicated plan to use Soul Edge to conquer the universe or something. Along the way, he met Skelaboss and decided to team up with him for a while. He would then go to fight one battle and then got bored. Where did he go after the fight? No one knows. Rumors have it, he fled this realm once he heard both Geralt and Florida Man were here as well.

With this page in history closed, I turn to look and see what might be next. I have other games that I am close to completing, but I may wait until I’m motivated again. It can be hard to force yourself to play something for hours if you are not into it. In a short time, something will come along that will get the gears turning (like my wife Kat earning her 8th platinum trophy). With that in mind, if anyone wants to play Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 with me online so I can get that last achievement, you will be my best friend forever!

Thank you for reading,

DanamesX