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Gaming Diary – Why didn’t anyone tell me Odin Sphere Leifthrasir was a love story?

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Odin Sphere Leifthrasir

The first week of summer after school is always a bit rough, because summer camps haven’t started and the little one’s daycare closes for the summer. We had a week to kill without any set plans and I still had to get some work done. Since I couldn’t leave the two of them unsupervised without fighting, I did a lot on my laptop and decided it was time to pick up my Vita again. I thought about going through a LEGO game, since I need something mindless for two reasons:

  • gotta keep at least one eye on the kids, and
  • I need a break from heavy, hardcore open-world games.

I love what I have played of Horizon: Zero Dawn thus far, but it’s too much to get into right after playing Mass Effect Andromeda. Right now, I need something light, something that won’t take a billion hours to do everything, and something mindless.

As such, I purchased LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the Vita (gotta get them double-Platinums!). And then the game took forever to download. While waiting, I decided to give Odin Sphere Leifthrasir another go. I played it a wee bit back when it released, liked what I played, but moved on to something else. I bet it was another game review.

Regardless, I’m playing it now AND HOLY COW I CAN’T PUT IT DOWN. I loved Dragon’s Crown, also done by Vanillaware, so I knew I’d at least like the combat. They’ve vastly improved the formula, but more importantly, the story is absolutely amazing. If someone had told me way back when that this was a love story, I would have played this long ago. I stayed up well past 1 a.m. last night because I had to see if Gwendolyn and Oswald got a happy ending. I had to. I couldn’t go to bed until I defeated the final boss of Gwendolyn’s story.

Now I’m on to the next story, and I’m delighted that it’s another love story. I could see me replaying these chapters several times just for the stories. Who knows when I’ll get to LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens now.

Gaming Diary: When the Stack of Shame Becomes Shameful

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PS4 stack of shameI really did enjoy my job when I reviewed video games, but it was rough on my stack of shame. Either the deadlines I had didn’t allow me enough time to finish a game I wanted to, or I had to stop a game in order to review this new one. I am going through my stack bit by bit now that I am out of the reviewing biz, starting with the games I have strategy guides for. I wrapped up Mass Effect Andromeda recently, and now I’m carving out time to play Horizon: Zero Dawn. That’s the last strategy guide I currently have from 2017 that needs to get done. Yes, I have a ton from 2016, but baby steps, people. Baby. Steps.

The problem is, if I start to think about what I should tackle next after HZD, I start to realize how ridiculous my stack has become. A good friend has threatened to spoil everything in Dragon Age Inquisition if I don’t finish that, so I need to put that higher in the stack. But I never did finish Tales of Berseria, and that game was really good. Then I think of Dragon Quest Builders, Dragon Quest Heroes, and World of Final Fantasy, which then leads me to Final Fantasy XV. Holy crap, I really want to finish that game! Oh wait, I never did start The Witcher 3. OMG I NEVER OPENED NIER AUTOMATA OR THE LAST GUARDIAN. What about Fallout 4? Aw crap, I never did finish The Division, and I loved that game! Shit…there’s also that thing called Breath of the Wild…

That’s usually when I turn to tea or wine, and then text a friend asking if they want to still play Gears of War 4 together. Procrastination, my old friend, you’re always there when I need you.

At the very least, I don’t have any games to review to make this hole even deeper. I also don’t have any future games on my radar until the fall, and so far, it’s only one—the next Assassin’s Creed game. That should help, right? (Humor me, please.)

The Corner of Randomness: RPG Limit Break

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Last Sunday I was bumming around Twitch.TV looking for something new to watch. I happened to stumble on a channel called RPG Limit Break. The name of the channel is what intrigued me and drew me in to check it out. Then I heard the commentator chatting about what was going on, and I instantly recognized them as one of the folks that commentates for the GDQ events. I decided to stick around and check this new channel out.

Well, it turns out that RPG Limit Break is not much different from a GDQ event. This is an almost week long (Sunday – Friday) donation event. Instead of donations going to the Prevent Cancer Foundation, they are instead sent to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Players also speedrun games, but they are restricted to RPGs. I’ve also noticed that they tend not to glitch a 40-hour game into a 10-minute run. Instead, there is a lot more RNG manipulation and using game mechanics to beat the game quickly. Quick is also a relative term as games could run as long as six and a half hours long.

I’ve spent the past week checking out various runs. I couldn’t actually sit and watch a longer run the whole way through as I’m busy getting my home remodeled so I can sell it and move…again. However, what I have been able to catch has been highly enjoyable. Most of the folks on the couch share a ton of information on what is going on. How the runner is manipulating game/system memory, fudging RNG, or avoiding various encounters all in a hope to knock just a few seconds off their total time. It’s been extremely enjoyable.

Yet, timing is a bitch. On Thursday, news broke out that Chris Cornell had passed away. Later that day, it was released that he had hung himself. Now, I’m not one that really gets all emotional over a celebrity/artist death. We don’t know one another. It’s not like I was calling Cornell to ask how his weekend went. However his death has weighed heavy on me.

When I was at one of my lowest points, I would listen to a lot of Soundgarden. I won’t say it’s what pulled me from the dark abyss that almost ended my life, but it was a very significant part of my life then. In later years, Audioslave would play another role in helping me deal with life as well. The fact that Cornell hung himself is a bitter pill. While we didn’t know one another in any significant form, his music helped pull me through some very dark patches in my life.

Like I said, timing is a bitch. Here I’ve been watching a stream all week where gamers are now raising money ($86,207 at the time of this writing) to help fund mental illness awareness. Almost at the very end of this event, a musician commits suicide. You bet your ass that I sent in a donation. It wasn’t much, but I know that anything can help.

Today is the last day of RPG Limit Break. You can easily check their VODs for games you might be interested in. I’d also encourage you to check out NAMI.

You know, gamers get a lot of shit for being toxic on the internet. We are often stereotyped as basement dwellers. Yet, we can pull together and do amazing things. Events like this, the GDQs, Child’s Play, and so many more show just how much we truly do care for our fellow humans.

Gaming Diary: Do I Replay or Not?

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Mass Effect Andromeda

Finished my guide-review playthrough of Mass Effect Andromeda over the weekend. I did enjoy this experience more than the review playthrough for a few reasons:

  • No rush, so I could actually get through every single side quest;
  • I was able to romance a character; and
  • I wasn’t crammed full of the main story because I could do every side quest.

Was the ending any better? Oh hell no it wasn’t. In fact, after playing the rest of the side quests, I’d have to say that it’s almost worse. So many questions are never wrapped up, and a few huge side quests are never resolved. At least I knew none of that the first time I played. This time, I’m really irked that the main story was Mass Effect: Halo AND major side quests weren’t wrapped up. That’s not a good recipe for an epic game, BioWare. You know how to make some good side quests, I’ll give you that, but your storytelling needs major work.

Now that I am finished with it, obviously, Horizon: Zero Dawn is next on my plate. However, I’m torn about playing MEA a second time. Part of me wants to explore different conversations with different dialogue choices, different main story choices (maybe this time I’ll let Sloane Kelly die…), and different romance options. Another part of me doesn’t want to go through the boring story again. Also not sure how much I really want to run all over creation again completing side quests.

Considering how many backlogged games I have to finish, including Dragon Age Inquisition, I shouldn’t consider a second playthrough of MEA at all. Somehow, I can’t help myself. It’s a Mass Effect game; I’m supposed to play it until every option is exhausted.

The Corner of Randomness: When Should DLC Arrive

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DLC, for better or worse, is here to stay. It used to be a pretty dirty word, but after some time it seems most companies have figured out how to make DLC attractive to gamers. Then again, we now have season passes that usually allow us to have access to DLC as well as a small discount on it. There is also always just waiting around for the Game of the Year version to arrive as those almost always include all the DLC. Yeah, I’m looking at you Borderlands: The Handsome Collection.

The other day some friends were chatting about when is it appropriate to release DLC. I agree that day-one DLC is rubbish. I get that the game has to be sent off for pressing, and development can continue on new content. Yet, day-one DLC feels more like it should be a patch than anything else. Let’s face it, we are all pretty used to day-one patches now.

Now if you wait for months to release DLC, most gamers have moved on to other game. Well, unless it’s a shooter, MOBA, fighting game, or MMO of some sort. For single-player games, there is certainly a window to keep gamers engaged with the game. For example, I loved Horizon Zero Dawn. I really wanted more content for that game as there really isn’t a lot of replayability there. DLC right now would be great as my interest in the game still exists. Yet, if new content isn’t released for a few more months, I’ll have moved on to something new and the new content might interest me, but it won’t be a day one purchase. Then again, I might never buy the new content as the game just isn’t on my interest list anymore.

So where is the sweet spot when it comes to releasing DLC? I’d argue that it depends on the game. Games with heavy multiplayer components can generally go a few months before releasing more content. The same applies to fighting games. A single-player game really can’t go that long. Maybe two or three months tops. Anything after that and most people have moved on to some form of new hotness.

DLC is a great thing when executed well. It adds more content, keeps gamers engaged with the title, and often closes out various aspects of the story. However, if that content doesn’t arrive at an appropriate time, it either comes across as a cash grab or too little too late.

We gamers are certainly a finicky bunch.

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