Fabulously Olivier

FF7R was one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played, despite me not being a FF fan to that point. I sure hope FF7Re will be even better.

Look, uh, honestly, I don't hate it. I grew up with MMBN3 (don't remember if I had blue or white), but MMBN1 is fine, and toggling on Buster Max from time to time lets me bypass the worst parts of the game. It's definitely rough, but it basically created a whole new subgenre, and did an alright job of it. Maybe that comes across weird after I savaged Diablo 2 Resurrected, but I'm having a 5/10 or better experience with MMBN, and I had a 2/10 experience with that overrated guff. I guess since I'm responding anyway, I'll update with the rest of my month. 17. Halo 4 18. Triangle Strategy - Utility Route 19. Halo 5 20. Megaman Battle Network I've put a few hours into Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth and it is so stupidly good. It stands a real chance of becoming the latest of my small handful of 10/10 ratings. Shame I'll be putting it down for a few months while Persona 3 Reload and Eiyuden Chronicles dominate my limited Xbox time. I'm about 1/3rd done with Octopath 2. Amazing game.

Low brow is an unkind way of putting "intentionally entry level," but yes. I'm of course only calling it as I think Sony sees it. Though the notion that The Last of Us and Ghost of Tsushima are somehow more high brow and culturally significant than Zelda, FE, and Persona is absurd nonsense to me.

I'm gonna go with "much less likely than the February Direct, but not impossible." If it does, it's mainline DW or SW. And I think we can entirely rule out the possibility of a Sony IP musou (God of Warriors, cough) for the forseeable future, because Sony views their titles as prestige games above that.

Before I start, here was my entire 2023, favorites bolded. Now onto this year. 2024 is intended to be my landmark backlog year AFTER this month. This month was the last of my PS Plus subscription, so I got what value I could out of it. 1. Shadow of the Colossus 2. Jedi Survivor 3. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir 4. Alan Wake Remastered 5. Batman: Arkham Knight 6. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin 7. Evil West 8, 8a, 8b, 8c. Final Fantasy 15 (including DLC episodes) 9. Celeste 10. Gigabash 11. LittleBigPlanet 3 12. A Plague Tale Innocence 13. Halo: Combat Evolved 14. Soulcalibur VI 15. Halo Reach 16. Halo 3 ODST I've put about 20 hours into Baldur's Gate 3 and it is mindblowingly good. But with Persona 3 Reload dropping on Gamepass, it's going on ice for a while. I tried to get into Resident Evil with RE2 Remake and I just couldn't. Survival horror isn't for me. I put a little time into Sackboy's Big Adventure, and while it's reasonably good, I put it on ice until I renew my subscription in the future. It's the sort of game I'd play for a few minutes once and a while, not for hours. I also picked up the Megaman Battle Network Legacy Collection, and started playing MMBN1. On the New Year's Resolution, I haven't progressed much. I've cleared the shortest game on the list (SotC), while also clearing 3/4 of my 3rd Triangle Strategy Run. I am playing Octopath Traveler 2 now, so that's another one.

Smartest - Claude, Yuri Dumbest - Celica, Shez, Rowan

My observation is that this correlation tends to happen because the best games are the ones likely to draw in new people, whether that be through impressive footage or positive word of mouth. No one sees something, and says "that looks like shit, I'mma try it."

2nd Story R has a demo

I guess that's subjective and I can see why one would reasonably think that. Personally, I think NieR Automata is overrated. It's fine. It's not one of the best games ever like people say it is. It's Platinum's best game by a significant margin, but (hot take) that isn't saying much. NieR Replicant is, again, a sleep aid. It literally put me to sleep.

I question this. NieR Automata doesn't actually take time to get good. It just is what it is from the start and you peal off more layers. If you don't love it at the end of 2B's story, you're not going to love it in 9S's story. Now, NieR Replicant is actually just bad. Where I agree with you is that generally, if a game takes many hours to get good, it isn't actually a good game. Pacing matters. I don't agree that Warframe actually takes time to get good. It gets better, but it's ALWAYS good. The shooting is always good. The parkour is always good. The content is .... always good as long as you're sticking with the linear missions the game was actually designed for, and not say, Archwing or the open world guff.

You know, I actually liked Octopath 1's characters, and don't think they needed improving on, other than their lack of conversation/involvement with eachother. I loved Cyrus, and Alfin and Tressa were really endearing as well. The dancer being a vengeful assassin was also an excellent twist that made her the standout of the cast. I'll probably go with Osvald as my starter in this one, just like Cyrus was in the first. Not because mages are my favorite or anything, but because my other choice was Partitio and all indications from my research lean towards hin being the worst starter and Osvald being one of the better ones. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It'll be pretty high on the backlog. "Just an RPG" is a weird statement. RPGs are the most ambitious game genre other than MAYBE grand/4X strategy. "Just a ..." sounds like something one would say about a rail shooter or some other hopelessly outdated genre like that.

Nah. Some games actually don't gain enough mechanics or stop tutorializing until so many hours in. Xenoblade 2 legitimately does not get even decent until after a certain character death, because that's when they start rolling in the big elemental combos. The combat system is too shallow without them.

So, I haven't actually played enough 2023 games to judge. Fire Emblem Engage is everything I want from Fire Emblem gameplay, and nothing of what I want from any other aspect of Fire Emblem. I've played Hi Fi Rush and it was amazing. I've played Sea of Stars and it was also great. Fuga Melodies of Steel 2 was an even better JRPG than Sea of Stars. Hogwarts Legacy started great, but it gets bland and bloated. Just finished Jedi Survivor and it is great, but less so than Fallen Order. I've put about 10 hours into Baldur's Gate 3 and it's mindblowing. Just not far enough in to know where it stands in my lifetime rankings. I got TotK and Octopath 2 for Christmas but haven't played them yet. I got dad FF16 and also haven't played it yet.

Guild Wars, Yakuza, Persona, Mass Effect, The Witcher, Trails, Ys, and Warriors. There's also franchises like Xenoblade, Final Fantasy, God of War, and Shin Megami Tensei that I could grow really attached to if they keep up the quality/direction of their most recent entries.

Not really. It certainly holds true for my favorite Fire Emblem, but I was actually able to go back and re-examine it now to confirm it was in fact the best. It does not, for example, hold true for my favorite Pokemon (gen 3), favorite Uncharted (3), Devil May Cry (5), Assassin's Creeds (2 and Syndicate), favorite musous (FEW, FEW3H, OPPW3), Xenoblade (3), Trails (Sky 2) or Final Fantasy (which never really clicked until 7 Remake). None of these were my first.

Ah fair. I guess I just took the writing and art criticisms as a larger part of the review than they actually were. I do have some high hopes for Dark Deity 2, but I honestly have enough SRPGS in my backlog that I can afford to "patient-gamers" it. Of course there's more Triangle Strategy, but I've also gotta play Disgaea 5 and Utawarerumono. And force myself to eventually finish Valkyria Chronicles. Probably gonna get dad Disgaea 7 at some point as well so that'll be another big one for the backlog.

Dark Deity 2 surprises me honestly given how hard you savaged the first. I've got: Metaphor Re Fantazio Persona 3 Reload Eiyuden Chronicle Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Unicorn Overlord Dragon's Dogma 2 Path of Exile 2 Titan Quest 2 Trails Through Daybreak Ys X Nordics Visions of Mana Helldivers 2 Exodus Avowed

There is so, so much I'm looking forward to next year. So much more than my gaming budget. I mean, I have 15 games on my most anticipated list right now, and almost all of them are premium JRPGs.

Uh, Gray and Triton are a lot older than 20. And it's really just a difference in art quality. Xenoblade 2 represents the eclectic and transparently pandering art design of a gacha game, and IIRC blades are designed by a bunch of different artists with no cohesive art style. If it was an intentional parody or critique of gacha trash, I'd almost respect it. Almost. But that's giving it way too much credit and it's pretty much just the thing it's mimicking without a paywall. They couldn't even be bothered to iron out the mechanical annoyances of bad gacha pulls. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 heroes are really meant as full extra party members, and most of them really knock it out of the park.

So before I start on 2024, here were my 2023 gaming resolutions. So now, onto 2024. I'm not focused on quantity this year, so I'll keep the same easily achievable 20 minimum threshold. I'll probably blow past it again by intention or not. I want to clear an additional route of Triangle Strategy. Any other routes of multi-route games are desirable, but extra. Due to how many excellent (and in some cases extremely long) games I'm tackling, I'm only going to set a goal of one Warriors story mode or postgame completion, and there's a lot of really good options I haven't finished. Like Hyrule Warriors DE, the excellent postgame of Pirate Warriors 3, and Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate. Mostly, I'm focused on clearing many of the huge landmark games I've never beaten or in some cases never even played. These include: The Witcher 3 Mass Effect Legendary Edition Shadow of the Colossus Breath of the Wild Tears of the Kingdom God of War 3 Spiderman Miles Morales Final Fantasy 16 Octopath Traveler 2 Dragon's Dogma Path of Exile (Baldur's Gate 3 was absolutely going to be on there, but I can't guarantee a finish. I'll be playing it gradually on the Xbox, and it'll be competing with Persona 3 Reload and Eiyuden Chronicles on Gamepass.)

Her fruits do indeed hang low, yes. If we're being totally real, Fire Emblem's fanservice is tame by JRPG standards, especially compared to that.

What I will say is that Xenoblade 1 is only impressive in context. It has a strong narrative by JRPG standards, but it gets as much respect as it does because it was basically a fully fledged single player MMO... on the Wii of all consoles. Viewing even the remaster from a modern lens, the combat is pretty bad, and the quest design is every bit as bland and dull as your average MMO. The same can be said of X. It's only impressive because it was basically trying to be a full MMO on the Wii U. A stupid, brave goal that it is only partially successful at. I respect the ambition. 2 is a cringe factory. 3 is actually so impressive that it dethroned Three Hopes as my GOTY 2022. It takes a lot to overcome that kind of positive bias.

So, December was a month that was heavy on plays, light on clears. And that's by design. The OCD part of my brain wants to end the year on a nice milestone number, and it's hard to have a better one than 90. I don't think I, for example, have it in me to do 95. Especially because I lost a few days to a bad flu in there. But I have plenty near-completion that will give me a nice little first month boost in 2024. 86. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (12/03) 9/10 87. Uncharted Lost Legacy (12/04) 7/10 88. Dragon Age 2 (12/09) 7/10 89. Control (12/10) 8/10 90. Kirby Star Allies 7/10 I am also playing Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Final Fantasy Origin: Stranger of Paradise, Batman Arkham Knight, Alan Wake, A Plague Tale Innocence, Shining Force, Odin Sphere, and Dragon's Crown. And I've put a little time into Warframe and Diablo 3, which are my preferred long term time wasters. I am SO glad to have cross saves now. My Warframe account has been trapped on my 8+ year old computer for a long time now. And that's 2023 wrapped up.

I for one think Xenoblade 3 is an S-tier JRPG, but I get why someone might think the franchise isn't great. Xenoblade 2 is absolutely mediocre. A significantly below average JRPG even. Now on the topic of JRPG franchises that aren't that great... Kingdom Hearts. Even at its best, it's B tier, and at its worst, it's just dreadful.

Not especially. I mean, they're good enough games, but I'm not exactly jumping to grab more than the few I've played. They just seem harmless, frankly. Edit: To clarify, I think there's a great deal of difference between liking something and being a fan of it. I like *most* games. I like, say, Darksiders, and Zelda, and Uncharted. I'm not exactly hyped when a new one is announced. I'm not following them. I'm a fan of Fire Emblem and Yakuza. One of them gets announced and I'm screaming.