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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: March 06, 2023, 01:51:16 PM »

Pokemon Scarlet

I completed the Pokedex yesterday.  I don't have online but my brother does and he has Violet so I was able to get the version specific Pokemon by linking with him locally.  The one tricky one was the third starter, but he got it from a co-worker and bred a new one for me.

This is the only Pokemon game I have ever filled the Pokedex in.  Now I don't play every game.  When I get a new Nintendo handheld I tend to get the first Pokemon that comes out since then and then generally lose interest and never get others until a new system.  So I've had Blue, Ruby, X and now Scarlet.

Lots of focus has been on Scarlet's bugs and general jank.  It's a shame because there's a reason this is by first complete Pokedex and it's because this feels like the Pokemon game I imagined as the logical progression of the series, when I assumed it would get a console release back on the Gamecube.  You explore the world and can see Pokemon out in the field doing their thing in their natural habitat.  This is what I always wanted.  It's what I hoped X would be as a proper 3D Pokemon and was disappointed to find that it wasn't.

Now regardless of that and the bugs, it still has some clear design issues:

• Tera Raid Battles do not provide experience so they're not that useful.  They do give you items and you can catch Pokemon using them but since you can't level up your Pokemon with them, I find I didn't do them often despite them being all over the map.  Grinding to fill my Pokedex was a chore at the end but if I could have used the Tera Raids to do it I think that would have been more fun.
• Area Zero has no map.  That makes it very difficult to find your bearings when you're in there.  That just seems unfinished to me.  Also when linked with my brother we could not see each other in Area Zero.  That's just an unacceptable bug and without a map it made it even more difficult to tell each other "hey, there's a rare Pokemon over here.  I'm, uh, near the big rock I guess."
• There is no way to mark anything on the map aside from one destination.  A few times I found something I knew to come back to later and I couldn't remember where it was.  Part of the game includes finding ominous stakes around the world.  There is no indication where they are, which I'm fine with because I want to look over the whole map to find them.  The problem is there is no indication of where they WERE.  So I need 8 but I've found 6 or 7 but that was weeks ago and I don't remember where I already found them.  So I see on the map areas where I think they likely would be and I find nothing.  Was there one already here and I should look somewhere else entirely?  Can't remember.  If I could have marked the areas where I already found one it would have made it so much easier to narrow down where else to look.
• I barely used the sandwich system which seems like something they focused on that isn't that useful.  The shops in the towns tend to focus a lot on this so the towns just aren't that interesting.  There are lots of buildings that you can't access and the shops are the same sandwich shops or item shops that you find everywhere.

Still it's a great game but one that seems half-baked and unfinished.  In that sense it shows how strong the Pokemon concept is that if you make a halfway decent open world game out of it, it's a lot of fun.  I can't help but think that a later game building off of this will be really amazing.  So if you're interested but don't intend on jumping in right this minute, it probably makes sense to see what the next Pokemon game has to see how it improves.

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TalkBack / Re: Square Enix To Hire New President At Next Board Meeting

« on: March 03, 2023, 12:11:03 PM »

Hate the NFT stuff but Square Enix has been very prolific on the Switch and I would hate to see that change with a new president.  Yes, they did do Kingdom Hearts as a cloud title and some of their remasters have some technical issues but the Dragon Quest and HD-2D stuff has been great.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Which Game Boy line of systems games would you like to see appear on NSO?

« on: March 02, 2023, 07:57:40 PM »

For the original Game Boy I would love to see a translated version of The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls which was a Japanese exclusive.  It is referenced in Link's Awakening as the character Prince Richard is a major character from this game.  Aside from it being in a Zelda game I know virtually nothing about it but after 30 years I want to get the references.

You said "regardless of how realistic it is" so there were are.  Not realistic but it would be really cool.

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TalkBack / Re: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective To Revive This Summer

« on: February 08, 2023, 07:39:08 PM »

The 3DS made me re-analyze the DS library and this was one of the games I "discovered" at that time.  I found it new at a retro games store in Bellingham, WA.  This was quite a few years ago now because the 3DS was still a current system and I paid a typical new game price for it.

This might be my favourite DS game.  It's the sort of opinion that could change depending on the day of the week but it's always going to be in the conversation.  It is the DS game I would recommend the most to others.  I hope it finds a new audience on the Switch because it really is something special and I think a lot of people would like it if it was easily accessible to them.  Now it made a lot of use of the touchscreen so I'm not 100% sure how it is going to translate but hopefully it turns out well.

With a digital market place it really makes no sense for games to be stuck on inactive platforms unless there are major licensing issues blocking it.  I'm strongly in favour of well regarded games being essentially "in print" at all times for newcomers to check out.

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TalkBack / Re: New Tears Of The Kingdom Footage Shown, Limited Edition And Amiibo Announced

« on: February 08, 2023, 06:35:34 PM »

Higher price point blows.  From an evil genius perspective they picked the right game to do it with.  I remember having a conversation with someone at the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo about the upcoming Breath of the Wild sequel, it wasn't at last year's event, and there were no events for two years because of Covid so you're looking at a game with 4 years of anticipation.  So I imagine few of us will hold firm on a price increase done at the eleventh hour.

I typically just watch Deku Deals and get games when they're on sale.  I don't typically need to play games on day 1 anymore and I have a backlog of stuff to play anyway.  But Zelda is the sort of game to jump the queue and be a day 1 purchase.  And my brother is also planning to get it at release and is being rather insistent that I get it at the same time.  Nintendo first party games don't go on sale often but there is the odd time where they'll at least knock off a few bucks around Black Friday or so which would presumably bring it back down to the old price point.

For future releases I can wait and pretty much never spend $90 CAD but Zelda is a big exception and, man, Nintendo totally knew that.

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TalkBack / Re: Theatrhythm Final Bar Line To Get Demo On February 1

« on: February 02, 2023, 12:31:11 PM »

Well I actually whipped through those 30 songs pretty fast!  Actually it probably took a few hours but it felt like it took no time.  Much like the 3DS game I pick it up and the "eh, one more song" effect takes over and suddenly it's past bed time.

I pretty much have to get this... but I have a large backlog and Square Enix games do get sales for physical releases so I can wait.

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General Chat / Re: ThePerm's Accounts 20th Birthday

« on: February 02, 2023, 12:27:17 PM »

Also to commemorate 20 years I've created a special ThePerm edition of Iansane's avatar. Because my powers have only grown since 2003.

 

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General Chat / Re: ThePerm's Accounts 20th Birthday

« on: February 01, 2023, 04:49:40 PM »

Perm's got me beat as I started following the site back in 2000.  Found it as I was trying to gather all info I could on the upcoming Gamecube which at the time I assumed would bring Nintendo back to prominence now that they were going to optical discs.  Such naivety.  I'm 41 so Perm's got me beat there too.

All of this actually coincides with my current job which I also started in 2000 and over the decades have gone from being the youngest employee for the first 7 or 8 years to being the longest tenured employee today.  And that makes sense because the job provided me with a regular income for the first time so buying videogames regularly was something I could now do.  One of the first things I purchased was an N64 and the GBA and Gamecube were the first systems (and actually only ones; I always wait and see now) that I bought at launch.

So happy 20 years, Perm!  Another 20 sounds crazy but then 20 years back then sounded crazy, so who knows what the future holds.

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TalkBack / Re: Theatrhythm Final Bar Line To Get Demo On February 1

« on: January 30, 2023, 08:04:32 PM »

30 songs?!  I played the Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory demo and it had like 5 songs, which I thought was totally reasonable.  So this is pretty generous.  Looking forward to it!

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Has anyone played....?

« on: January 26, 2023, 12:17:11 PM »

That said, your enjoyment of the game is going to depend on how much you can stomach the game's running commentary from Zeus and Prometheus, because there's a lot of it and it's kinda obnoxious.

When the game was on sale for a ridiculously low price last year I tried out the demo.  A game getting compared to Breath of the Wild?  Hell yeah, I'll try that out!  But that commentary turned me off almost immediately.  Like I still completed the demo and enjoyed it but the whole tone of the game was such that I didn't want to play the whole thing.  It's all self-referential wink-wink ****.  Like to me a BotW inspired game that uses Greek mythology as its theme seems like a winner being done completely straight, so why make it goofy?  The fact that the game is almost always on sale makes me wonder if it underperformed because of that design decision, but then it's a Ubisoft game and being in perpetually mark-down is their status quo.

I have Neo: The World Ends with You but I've only played the demo.  The game was at a very low price, like $25 CAD for a physical copy, and I figured if I enjoyed the demo it would be worth getting so I bought it.  But I've got a big backlog so I haven't gotten into it yet.  I figure I'll still get my money's worth even if I lose interest before beating it.

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General Gaming / Re: Games Beaten, Completed, or Played in 2022

« on: January 11, 2023, 09:45:58 PM »

I beat:

DS:
Trace Memory
Professor Layton and the, uh, whatever the second game is

I got my Switch early in the year so those DS games are fuzzy memories.  I certainly beat them and I got them for a Christmas of some sort and I think it was 2021 so I would have beat them in 2022.  Trace Memory is so short I could very well have received it for Christmas and beat before New Year.  I beat it in two sessions.

Switch:
Dragon Quest XI - this was my first Switch game and I put in 150 hours into it.  This is the first DQ game I actually completed.  There is some post-game stuff I could do but I got the ending credits and then the post-game ending credits so not quite 100% but I'm done.  This is a must play for RPG fans and the nice thing is that it has an incredibly generous demo that lasts about 10 hours and your save carries over.  So if it even remotely sounds interesting to you you might as well try it out and if you're make it to the end of the demo and are still wanting more then get the full game.  One of the first things I did when I got a Switch was look into what the best demos were and that led me to it.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - Got the physical release of the trilogy but so far have only completed the first game.  I've got a fair sized backlog of Switch RPGs I haven't played yet and I find that visual novels work well in between because they're not as long so I'm not going from giant RPG to giant RPG.  I've wanted to try this series for a while but it seemed to stick to Sony handhelds.  So far I like it and will hit up the second game once I've cleared what I'm currently playing which is...

Pokemon Scarlett and Shin Megami Tensei V.  My intention was to beat SMTV in time for Pokemon but it's a long game and a hard one so that didn't happen.  I'm trying to stick to one game at a time but Pokemon jumped the queue, partially because my brother got Violet and we wanted to trade with each other.  In Pokemon I've completed the three main quests and am on the part after that.  Once I'm done with Pokemon (which probably won't be catching 'em all, I'm not interested enough in the franchise for that) I'll go finish SMT which I think is in the final area.  It's my first SMT aside from Tokyo Mirage Sessions and I'm thinking I probably should have started with the Persona series.  But then I find I dread playing SMT after being away from it due to it's difficulty but enjoy it a lot once I start playing it again.

Now I have some other Switch games I play casually when I don't have hours to invest at a time:
Picross S1
Mr. Driller Drill Land
Namco Musem/Pac-Man combo
Capcom Fighting Collection
Pinball FX3 - this one has eaten up tons of time.  Back in the spring I got Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection for the PS2 for a few bucks and really liked it.  But Gottlieb's pinball tables are not that great and the ones I remember liking as a kid tended to be from Williams or Bally (which I then discovered was the same company during the 90s).  Well Pinball FX3 has digital recreations of real Williams' tables.  So I've been getting the various DLC packs for it when they go on sale and I actually just completed the entire Williams collection (not interested in the other tables in the game, which are new creations from the developer).  A cool side effect of this is that it's inspired me to look into pinball history and it's very similar to videogames and that's given me the same feeling as when I look into an old system or a genre that I'm not that familiar with.  My favourite table in the game is Medieval Madness which has a reputation of being one of the best pinball machines every and that reputation is justified.  Now I have to resist the urge to get a real table, which is apparently a maintenance nightmare, but the temptation remains!

Other stuff I've been into is the usual random retro games I find at stores and expos.  I finally got around to getting an Atari 2600 this year and landed some good bundles of games and have like 30 or so games for it, which I've played but not beaten because you can't really beat those types of games.

I've got a big backlog for 2023 as Deku Deals has kind of became a disease for me when physical releases I'm interested in get price drops.  And then Zelda is going to jump the queue like Pokemon did.  This is a dumb problem to complain about.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: 2022 NWR Forum Awards - Best Nintendo Game

« on: December 12, 2022, 04:47:26 PM »

This is my first year after getting a Switch so most of what I've played have only been new to me as I've created a backlog of older titles I could get cheap.  Pokemon Scarlet is the only 2022 title I have and I wouldn't feel right voting for it by default.  It's a weird situation since I'm having tons of fun with it but on a technical level it's a mess.  So it's a great game that needed more time to get polished and maybe it will get there eventually from patches but should I vote for 2022 Game of the Year to a game that probably shouldn't have been finished and released until 2023?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Top 10 3DS Games (According to MetaCritic)

« on: October 26, 2022, 12:43:05 PM »

This list really does not match my 3DS experience.  The only one I have checked off is A Link Between Worlds which I borrowed from my brother and played for like an hour.  It's been perpetually on my list of games I have to get back to for years.  Of course I played the other Zeldas on the N64.  And I played Gunstar Heroes and Streets of Rage II on the Genesis.  This is just such a weird list because it paints the 3DS as a port machine but that isn't really its legacy at all.

I'm surprised that Pokemon didn't make the top ten.  Pokemon X was my first game when I bought the 3DS and got a lot of play.  Another title I played a lot of was Bravely Default.  The 3DS really just got me into an RPG groove that I've been in for years.  The more deliberate pace seems to work better for me as I age.  Fantasy Life was another game I put a ton of time into.  And I played the 2nd and 3rd games in the Zero Escape series on the 3DS as well.

But the 3DS was also the system that gave me a second go at the DS which I wasn't that into the first time around.  As a result my physical 3DS system has gotten a lot of play time, easily the most of any handheld and probably the most of any system released since it came out.  Even now that I have a Switch I'm still playing a lot of 3DS.  Right before the eShop closure I downloaded Picross 3D: Vol 2 which is ate up a lot of pockets of time over the last several months as it's ideal for when I have a half hour or 15 minutes free and can't get into something that needs a longer commitment.

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General Gaming / Re: The morality of piracy and not buying games new

« on: October 25, 2022, 11:55:10 AM »

My brother provides a recent example of piracy that isn't really piracy.  He loves the Valkyria Chronicles series.  The third game has never been localized.  Years ago he bought a Japanese copy and had the intention of hacking his PSP to install a fan translation patch.  But this was kind of a hassle and he never got around to it until the fourth game came out for the Switch and he wanted to be caught up before playing it.  At that point he realized his PC was capable of decent PSP emulation so he just downloaded a ROM and the translation patch and just played it in an emulator and never did anything with his PSP.  So he owns a legit copy of a game that he purchased legally but has never played it and just pirated it instead.  Technically illegal since he didn't dump the ROM himself but what sane person could argue he did anything wrong?

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General Gaming / Re: The morality of piracy and not buying games new

« on: October 24, 2022, 12:35:28 PM »

I played pirated ROMs in high school, mostly NES, SNES and Genesis but also the GBC which was a current system at the time.  I remember my brother and I playing Pokemon Gold months before its American release.  But I was a teenager with no money at the time.  A few years later I had a job and bought a GBA and bought most of those GBC titles I was playing.  So the publishers weren't losing a purchase, it was just getting delayed.  I don't think it was right for me to pirate those games though as my motivation was strictly a kid wanting something and taking it when the opportunity presented itself and there was no risk of punishment.

Since then I will admit to having played some titles in MAME and translated ROMs of games that at the time had never been localized.  That's a bit of a grey area since usually I would like to buy something that just isn't available.  And it isn't like I'm hopping some guy's fence to take the apples off his tree that he refuses to sell me.  The company pays for no physical game production or marketing or maintenance and I'm not denying them a sale since they don't offer it at all.  Do I have a right to play your game anyway I can?  I guess not really but in that case it really isn't harming anyone.  Now I won't say that if such a game does later get a proper release that I'll go buy it to make up for my piracy from years earlier.  But I can say that playing a translated repro cart of Dragon Quest V did get me into the series and Square Enix has earned more money from me in the long run.

Regarding rentals or buying used games I have never for even a second had any moral dilemma with those.  I don't see it as any different than renting a pressure washer or borrowing a show shovel from my neighbour.  I've also lent games to friends and borrowed games from them.  The big difference between this and piracy is that with piracy you make a copy so everyone involved can still play the game at the same time.  If someone sells a copy they don't want anymore then they cannot still play it.  Besides if we didn't have used sales what would be the preference?  That videogames that people get sick of just pile up in landfills?  I consider it morally good for items that are still functional to find a new owner rather than being thrown away and resources being needlessly used to create a new one.

Also the used game market has absolutely turned me into a fan of existing series which has resulted in day-one new purchases over the long run.  My first Zelda game was a used copy of A Link to the Past which we bought from a friend after I had played it a bit at another friend's house.  How many Zelda games since then have I bought brand new at full price on release day?  Probably like 10.  Nintendo "lost" out on a new sale for one Zelda game (which at the time wasn't even available in stores anymore) but has gained 20 years of new Zelda purchases in the long run.  And to be frank my love of the Zelda series is partially responsible for the purchase of new Nintendo systems as well.  A few used purchases and rentals helped create a lifelong customer.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Top 10 DS Games (According to MetaCritic)

« on: October 20, 2022, 12:06:27 PM »

I only played three of those games: Mario Kart, Zelda and NSMB.  None of them really stuck with me.  I have played Chrono Trigger but not the DS version.

At the time I was very disappointed in the DS but later grew to love it when using the backwards compatibility of the 3DS.  Turns out I was playing the wrong games.  When the DS came out I was still a young man and my attitude towards videogames was to play all the top games across virtually all genres.  On the 3DS I was in my 30's and I was less adventurous and more interested in just playing the types of games I like best.  I also find that I don't do well with action games on a handheld because I tend to move the controller, and thus the screen I'm looking at, too much.  For handheld systems I like to stick to RPGs, visual novels and puzzle games and in general my gaming tastes have moved in that direction.

So that's more what I went with on the 3DS.  And then I started going backwards to the DS and played games I had missed the first time around like Ghost Trick, Etrian Odyssey, 999, the Picross and the Layton series.  Turns out there is a whole bunch of great stuff I was missing because I was sticking to Mario and Zelda games that didn't really click with me.  Now I tend to blur the DS and 3DS library together since I play it all on my 3DS but both systems have really impressive libraries.  The key thing, which the Switch also has, but Nintendo consoles typically didn't have when the third party support was weak, is variety.  There are lots of game across lots of genres and that's what makes a great library.  If you like videogames the DS has something for you.  Not necessarily the same thing I want or someone else wants but there is something for you.

For what console to do next with this Metacritic topic, it needs to be something from the 21st century because there isn't a significant amount of online reviews before that.  I vote for the 3DS since I just sung the praises of that system.

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TalkBack / Re: Role Of Bayonetta Recast For Bayonetta 3, Original Voice Actress Calling For Boycott

« on: October 17, 2022, 06:10:17 PM »

Jennifer Hale is one of the few voice actors that has some name value.  She almost certainly would command a higher wage than what Taylor claims to have been offered.  I wonder if they wanted to go with Hale and making a low ball offer to Taylor was their way to "fire" her in a way where there was still the appearance of trying to continue with the same actor and they can claim that negotiations didn't work out.  Perhaps they always wanted Hale for the part but when the Bayonetta IP was brand new they couldn't get the budget to go with a higher profile actor.  Now they're on the third game and probably have a higher budget to work with so they can get the more expensive actor.

Or perhaps in negotiations with Taylor it got to a price point where it's like "we can pay this much for Hellena Taylor but only this much more for Jennifer Hale."  Like Taylor's asking price was still lower but the gap between her and Hale was smaller than it was at the original $4000 offering so they figured it they were going to spend more money they might as well splurge.

This is a bummer for Taylor but a boycott for it seems ridiculous.  It's a gig style job.  No one has any obligation to hire the same actor for each new project.  What if they didn't even approach her for an offer and just went to a different actor?  Would she call for a boycott then?  And they went with a prominent voice actor so they didn't low ball Taylor and then use inexperienced family members of the devs to cheap out on the voices.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Top 10 GameCube Games (According to MetaCritic)

« on: October 12, 2022, 07:03:06 PM »

It's funny seeing those NFL games in the list. I do have NFL 2K5 on the Xbox because I heard it's the greatest football game ever made and it was like two bucks.  I haven't properly played it yet thought, just confirmed that the game runs.  Sports games is the genre where the people that love them move on to the latest release and the people that love videogame history don't give a damn about.  If those were in your Gamecube top ten you probably haven't played or thought about the Gamecube in 15 years.

I've played all the rest aside from Resident Evil 4, which is a rather large omission on my part.  Of the remaining list Metroid Prime is not a bad choice for number 1 but I have not played it since it was current.  Nor I have I really gone back and played any of these games again.  I haven't really played a lot of Gamecube since it was current.  I bought most of the best games for it when they were new and it's a system where the retro prices got high very quickly.  I felt Viewtiful Joe was overrated at the time and you don't really hear much about it anymore so I think history proved that assessment correct.  The Zeldas are great games but both lacked the magic of the N64 games.  Wind Waker's ocean was dull and I felt Twilight Princess was too conservative, like a Zelda fan game that followed the Ocarina of Time blueprint too closely.  At the time I probably had the most fun with Zelda: Four Swords Adventure and Minish Cap on the Game Boy Player.

I actually preferred Metroid Prime 2 to the first game but they were both great.  And some of my favourites that are not in the Metacritic top 10 are SSB Melee and the Pikmin games.  And Animal Crossing dictated my real life so strictly that I made a conscious decision to stop playing it and I've never bought a game in the series since.  So does that mean I liked it?

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General Chat / Re: Official NFL Discussion: If You Only Count The Legal Points, KC Wins

« on: September 13, 2022, 01:57:50 PM »

So last night was kind of my Superbowl.  With the Seahawks clearly in a rebuild mode I was fearing the worst and figured we would be "contending" for the number one pick.

And we probably still are but with the win last night the worst case scenarios have been averted!

1. We beat Russell Wilson in his first game as a Bronco, thus shutting up any talk about Wilson showing up his former team.  He didn't get to rub our face in it and we got a little bit of revenge for him wanting out.  This was the one Seahawks game that the general NFL viewer was interested in all season and we won!

2. Having had the first win of the season already under our belts, we can't go 0-17.  That's the ultimate fear when a team doesn't look like in can contend - the winless season.  Can't do it now.  Nice to have that off our back so soon rather than when you're 0-8 and thinking "will we win a game this year?"

Now the margin of victory was literally 1 point and frankly it took some extremely convenient goal line fumbles and some ridiculously incompetent decisions from the new Denver coach but a win is a win.  I don't think we're making the playoffs but they gave me good moment at the start of the season.

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TalkBack / Re: Theatrhythm Returns On Switch In Multiplayer Final Bar Line February 16

« on: September 13, 2022, 11:14:13 AM »

Curtain Call probably got more hours out of me than any 3DS game.  I've debated getting the Kingdom Hearts rhythm game to try to fill that void but I don't know the series or its music so I haven't bit on it.  And I'm glad I didn't because now I can get this instead!  My backlog has now become hopeless because I will spend 90% of gaming time on this.

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TalkBack / Re: Sequel To Breath Of The Wild Titled Tears Of The Kingdom, Launches May 12

« on: September 13, 2022, 11:10:55 AM »

Do you know what I really like about this?  Obviously the game itself is something I want on day one but it also means that this is actually coming to the Switch.  I was worried as time went on that this would move to a Switch successor.  It could have been a dual-release like Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild but I figure by now they would have revealed the Switch successor if it's due by May.  And that I like because I'm not ready to move on from the Switch yet so I hope it sticks around for a bit longer.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2022: Round 3 so we can break our backlogs and be free.

« on: August 19, 2022, 12:00:35 PM »

On a random note, I had thought that the yellow thing on Zero's back was some kinda cape, but seeing him in 3D, it's actually long hair?! Wwwooooooaaaaahhhh

Because of the long hair, when Mega Man X came out my friends and I all thought Zero was a girl.  Keep in mind we first played it as a rental so there was no manual describing Zero as a "he".  Also Zero has those green orbs on his chest that tend to resemble a certain female characteristic.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2022: Round 3 so we can break our backlogs and be free.

« on: August 03, 2022, 05:46:11 PM »

I got a Switch earlier in the year and while I started off having completed 100% of my games, that fell by the wayside by the time I bought my third title.  And since I'm trying to stick with physical releases I've gathered a fair backlog quickly due to snapping up games when they get a big price cut or appear to be clearing out of stores.  I also tend to pretty much just play puzzle games, visual novels and RPGs these days and RPGs are of course typically long titles.  Currently playing Shin Megami Tensei V.  I have a week off work during August so I will probably spend that playing games and can hopefully make a bit of a dent into the Switch backlog.  I got the Danganronpa collection and I had beaten the first title prior to SMTV so my thinking is to do the second game afterwards and alternate between shorter games and RPGs.

But we're just talking Switch backlog here.  I shudder to think how long it would take to beat all the games I have from older systems.  I attended the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo recently and there was a $2 table that I grabbed a bunch of PS2/PS3/XB games from.  Used PS3 games got pretty cheap recently so I've bought several over the last few years for $2-5 and they're not necessarily short games.  I have a theory that if I moved to some remote location with electricity that I would have enough games to last me the rest of my natural life.  I could crunch the numbers and confirm that but that project would eat up too much time I could be spending on the backlog.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Of America Offering Second Opportunity To Preorder Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Editi

« on: June 30, 2022, 11:43:10 AM »

Yeah, limiting the orders makes no sense.  It feeds into scalping but Nintendo gets no additional cut from that, only the original purchase price, so there is no benefit for them to encourage it.

Maybe they figure having a limited edition will encourage day one sales but then it should still be an open pre-order.  Personally I have enough of a backlog that I'm not going to get this game day one, but I am interested in it.  A special edition could in theory encourage me to pre-order but only if I can ensure a copy and it's an easy process.  I'm not even going to try because of how things have gone before and if I did try and didn't get it that wouldn't necessarily mean I would buy the regular version on release day.  I would probably go back to it being a purchase at a later date.  But a special edition that's easy to obtain might rope me in.  That strategy has worked in the past.

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TalkBack / Re: Persona 3 Portable, 4 Golden, And 5 Royal Coming To Switch Starting In October

« on: June 28, 2022, 12:44:37 PM »

I bought SMT V on sale and am playing through it now and that's sucking me into the SMT franchise so Persona has been on my radar.  Really it has been since Tokyo Mirage Sessions but I feel like I crossed a line by trying out the "main" SMT series so really any spinoff should be fair game now.

I do have a PS2 and a PS3 so in theory all three of these Personas were playable to me without getting a Switch port.  But this will definitely be my platform for P5.  P3 sounds like the PS2 FES version is the way to go and P4 is up in the air because I hear such great things about Golden but this isn't a physical release.  But I also don't have a Vita so it's either PS2 for physical release or Switch for what's generally seen as the superior release.

But all of these will probably be things I keep my eye on for sales and such.  I don't think my backlog will be open enough to slot in another RPG in October.