Happy New Year 2024! No resolutions this year either!… or wait a minute…

Come to think of it, I should just stop writing (non-)resolution posts altogether and stick to wishing everyone a happy new year. Happy New Year! And a belated Merry Christmas as well. In 2023 I put gaming in the back seat while I focused on getting my financial house in order, so to speak, but I still played a lot of gacha games. I even managed to finish Shin Megami Tensei V on December 31st, more on that in the near future. Please remind me if I forget.

There were plenty of ups and downs in 2023, but in the end I did manage to get some financial ducks in a row. More or less. At the very least I identified some leaks and plugged some holes – and incidentally realized that gaming makes up a miniscule amount of my total spending every year. This makes it totally okay to buy more games so I did get a few things over the holidays (mostly puzzle games). But really I have so many already that it doesn’t make sense to waste money on titles I probably won’t play this year.

So what WILL I play this year? On reflection, apart from my usual gacha fare, I do have a few games I want to either finish or delete for good in 2024.

– Romancing Saga 2: I started it earlier this year and found it really boring, but after playing Romancing Saga Re;Universe a little longer, I got curious about the origins of some of my best characts like Noel, Rocbouquet and Gerard, so I got back into it after finishing SMT V. It’s growing on me…ish.

– Undernauts: I played it for a while and got annoyed by the direction the story was taking, but now I can’t even remember what the problem was, so it should be safe to go back now.

– Final Fantasy XIII: I’ve been struggling to play it for too long. It’s time to put up or shut up. If I don’t manage to successfully play it, or if I can’t even bring myself to try it by December 2024, I’m going to uninstall and delete it and never look back.

– Tokyo Xanadu eX+: Similar situation to FFXIII except I started playing it some years ago and made it quite far before dropping it. But I really like the battle system, so I started a fresh game. And dropped that too. If it’s not finished by December 2024, into the “was nice knowing ya” bin it goes.

– Atelier Lydie & Scumbag: I get a bit irritated every time I see the icon on my desktop. Also it’s been a while since I played an Atelier game, so I might as well. I’ve lost some of my passion for the series, but I still like crafting games, so I should be able to enjoy this as long as I don’t take it too seriously.

Checking last year’s resolutions, it seems I achieved 50% of what I’d said I would do gaming-wise: I beat Episode 4 10-10 of Epic Seven, but I didn’t touch Xenoblade Chronicles 3 all year. I’m not even adding to my “play or delete” list because I don’t want to do either. Apparently the $29.99 DLC extension is good, but bluntly speaking, I can’t see how that would possibly be the case. I loved exploring the various areas of XC3, but everything else… Anyway, we can talk about it in more detail if I ever finish it.

But back to my real New Year’s resolutions, i.e. the non-gaming stuff. Having focused on finances in 2023, in 2024 I want to think about my health. First off, I must stop my waistline from expanding further!! The four cakes and two tubs of ice cream in December did not help, but, I mean, it was Christmas, yeah? But Christmas is over, and it’s time to return to common sense. And just generally try to be more physically active in 2024. All of my hobbies like music, reading, gaming etc. are very sedentary, and now that I’m <a certain age>, I’m starting to feel the effects of too much sitting and lying around.

In practical terms, things shouldn’t change too much except I’ll try to stand/stretch/walk for a while after every hour of sitting or lying down, which will interrupt many a gaming session but them’s the breaks. In theory, gacha games on the mobile phone should be quite conducive to standing up and stretching, doing a few squats or jogging in place while waiting for something to finish… not that I would know because I’ve never tried. Also I play most of my gacha on emulator now anyway… this isn’t looking good ^^; But I’ll give it my best shot!

Okay, that’s enough posting for one day. Time for a stretch break and then I have some characters to gear in Epic Seven. The grind never ends! Happy New Year!

Shin Megami Tensei V – 42 hours in, roaming Tokyo till the end of day

I’m quite enjoying Shin Megami Tensei V now, even though I just spent the past 10 hours wandering around Tokyo trying to shut down Ishtar’s devices (doesn’t really spoil anything). The maps are horrendous because you can only climb in very specific spots, so a device might be right there in front of you, but you have to go all the way round and double back and pass over this narrow bridge just to get to it. C’mon, with my jumping skills, I should be able to make it up there by jumping on rubble. Or I can get a rope. Or I can create a make-shift ladder. Anything but constantly roaming around getting lost trying to get to particular spots on the map.

The story is also junk. So far, at least. I said I was going to pick the Chaos path this time, but the demons are so dumb and whiny. I’d be lowering myself if I sided with them. The game is pushing the “Anything but Law” narrative so harshly that I want to side with the angels instead, but that would mean being on the same side as that dorky Dazai guy. Ughh. I’ll just pick whatever answers I want to pick and take my inevitable Law ending like a champ.

More importantly, I should be about 60-70% of the way through the game now, if SMT IV is anything to go by. That was about 60 hours long for me, though I didn’t get lost quite as badly there. Nahobino is pushing level 57, Demon Compendium is about 58% full, but I rarely make it to 100% or level 99 in these games so I’m estimating it will be over by around level 90-95-ish.

Ideally I would love to show screenshots my build and my current batch of demons because they’re all doing great. I’m going for a magic nuker build and putting almost everything into Magic except for a few points in other stats very early on. It helps that the game gives you stat points on leveling up so it’s not fully dependent on your choice like in some dungeon crawlers I’ve played. Right now I have 40s in every stat except Magic which just hit 70 IIRC. Wasn’t really feeling the damage until I got a certain demon’s magic that goes beyond “-dyne” magic, AND I invested a few glory points in improving my magic skills. Now we’re cooking with gas!

Really wanted to take those screenshots, but when I took the first one, the game froze on me, then it gave me a “Corrupted Data” error! 😱😱😱 The Switch automatically tried to fix the corrupted data but it didn’t work, so it deleted my game! I had to redownload and reinstall, I was pissing myself (figurately speaking! figurately speaking, okay?!) thinking I had lost everything and would have to start all over again. Luckily, phew, all my save files were intact, and I picked up where I’d left off.

That was about 20 hours ago, and I have way more to lose now, so I’m definitely not touching that screenshot button any more! According to Google, this tends to happen when your SD card is on the fritz. Mine is definitely very old. I used to use it in the 3DS IIRC? Yeah, it’s ancient. I should get a newer one this Christmas, preferably a bigger one so it can hold all those humongous RPGs at once. I still have Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Persona 5, Romancing Saga 2 and 3, and Dragon Quest XI (maybe?) to play.

Maybe he’s born with it.

Back to Shin Megami Tensei V, what am I liking so much about it? I’d say it’s 90% just the Pokemon-ness of it all. Wooing and collecting demons, raising them, fusing them to create more demons, going back to collect some more to use as fusion fodder, and on and on the cycle goes. That’s most of the fun of an SMT/Persona game for me.

The other 10% is actually using the demons in battle. I’ve always liked the Press Turn system where you get extra turns for hitting enemy weaknesses and so on and so forth. SMT V has made things even easier with a cheap Spyglass item that lets you check almost all enemy weaknesses at the start of battle. Not only that, but the SMT series tends to carry weaknesses over, so I knew even without checking that Feng Huang was weak to ice, for example. Or that Girimekhala repels physical attacks. No more guesswork is both a little sad and a huge relief.

In general it’s just fun getting stronger, recruiting stronger allies and moving to new areas so I can get new demons for fusion. It’s just unfortunate that there’s no slavish adulation for the main character like there was in SMT V. It’s nice having people standing around saying “Kyaaa, you’re so sugoi~” sometimes, y’know? Nahobino is just being bossed around and insulted by all kinds of people all day, no wonder he wants to destroy everything. …oh wait, that’s me. Welp, better get back to it!

Shin Megami Tensei V – Finally picking up after 12 hours (early story spoilers)

I’ve heard of slow starts, but Shin Megami Tensei V was ridiculous. 10+ hours wandering in a boring wasteland with a bad map before you’re finally given some semblance of a story is just too much. The setting is that you’re an ordinary (you’re never ordinary but let’s not go there) high school student in a Tokyo where weird things are happening. One day you wander into a tunnel which collapses, and then you find yourself in another world. You merge with a strange creature being attacked by demons (or was it you being attacked, and was it angels or demons, I forget) and gain new powers to fight against your foes.

…And that’s all the story you get for the next 10 hours while you trudge to the Tokyo Diet Building, ostensibly to save a kidnapped acquaintance but more for lack of anything better to do. Eventually, after much tedium and some tribulation, you arrive, fight a boss you could totally have beaten but the game won’t let you, and then you FINALLY, FINALLY make it back to Tokyo.

And lose your sexy combat suit, alas.

Once you do, it is only then that someone pops out of the woodwork to deign to explain things to you. Apparently our “Tokyo” is not the real Tokyo. Rather the Netherworld we just came from is. Ours is a replacement created by “the god of law” after Netherworld Tokyo was destroyed in a war 18 years ago. And now demons want to takeover the simulated Tokyo as well but never fear, Bethel Japan (the organization I’m going to end up rebelling against before long) is here to save the day. And the main character is ready to fight too. All right! Time to get into action! Our first course of order is… going back to school?!

…Wait, what?

After all I’ve gone through, the battles I’ve fought, the experiences I’ve (not really) had, and the things you’ve told me, you want me to go back to a classroom?! But they were serious, so back to school I went. Hmm, do I have any parents at all in this scenario? Any family members or friends? Who pays my school fees? 🤔 I think that’s what the main character was thinking as he stared blankly into space on his first day back in school.

Luckily, these days of tedium were not to last. All hell happily broke loose the next day, and I’m totally here for it. In most of the Shin Megami Tensei games I’ve played, there’s a formula where there are three routes called Law (represented by angels), Chaos (demons), and Neutral (human). The angels are usually presented as pompous, bullying jerks while the demons are stubborn and senseless brutes. Usually the human route is presented as the most sensible one, and also the most difficult one to get.

And so, being a sensible person, I would normally go through all kinds of hoops and check various FAQs to make sure I was on the right track to getting the Neutral end. Not this time, though. This time I want to see everything burn. The world is already mostly destroyed, humanity is overrated, and I feel zero attachment to my classmates and so-called “friends” with their whiny stories and shady agendas. Destroy it all! Burn it all to the ground! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!

So yeah, if you don’t hear from me for a while, I’m busy destroying the planet one wrong decision at a time. Catch ya later!

Genshin Impact patch 4.2 – Furina at last!

Furina Focalors from Genshin Impact… I’m writing this post on November 12th. I don’t have Furina yet, but I’m determined to make her mine. 50/50 gave me Qiqi, another 60 rolls gave me nothing, but I had tons of undone archon quests, world quests, and hangouts to fill up that primogem count. Not to mention sooooo many unexplored areas in that huge Fontaine map. If they release any more areas after this, I won’t know what to do with myself!

Anyway, leaving this post here while I do the story quests (Fortress of Meropide, worst quest ever) and farm up materials and artifacts for Furina. Will update when I have her. Wait, you want to know why I want her? Because she’s an archon. I’m happy with the characters I currently have and don’t plan to pull for more in the short-term, but archons are almost always top-tier characters (Nahida numbah wan!) and I kinda like Furina, so why not?

Right, back to the grindstone!

Update (19th November) – Furina GET! For real this time. Along the way I finished all of the archon quests to date as well as Lyney’s and Furina’s character quests. I started out not liking Furina and Lyney (moar liek Lie-ney amirite) and I still don’t like the latter, but Furina kind of grew on me in the end. More than “like” it’s more like I pity her tremendously, and I’m sort of happy sort of sad for her in the end.

Fontaine’s story once all the twists and turns come out was easier to understand than Sumeru’s, but boy was it dark. When Sumeru’s story was over I was like “Yay, all’s well that ends well, time to explore!” With Fontaine I’m like “Wahh, mommy, can you come get me?” It doesn’t feel good at all even once everything is over and done with.

And because of that lingering dread and discomfort, I don’t want to do any more quests. What other horrible tragedies and unpleasant crimes await my discovery? :-< Can we just go to Natlan now?

Back to Furina… I don’t actually have a use for her. I don’t even know what she’s good at. Have I even read her skill descriptions? Not sure… Until further notice, I’ll be running and refining my usual Zhongli-Xingqiu-Nahida-Fischl team while building my Nilou bloom team on the side. And despite what I said above, I’ll be doing the less annoying Fontaine quests for the primogems so I can pull Kazuha. He’s the only character I can feel that my account is really “missing.” Everyone after this I would just be pulling for the heck of it, including the archons of Natlan and Snezhnaya.

Nothing else to report. Got Furina, don’t plan to use. Finished Fontaine story, feels bad man. In other gaming news, I’m finally starting to (somewhat) enjoy SMTV so I’ll probably write something about it next time. Oh yeah, and I finished all the puzzles in Picross 3D Second Round and I’m really really really sad there aren’t any more in the series, so I might talk about that as well. Until then, happy gaming!

Shio to Ayakashi no Mori – A bit tedious, but not bad.

Shio to Ayakashi no Mori (Shio and the Mysterious Forest) is a dungeon exploration game from my favorite indie developers, Inu to Neko. Normally I portion out their Ishwald games here and there instead of playing them back to back, but shortly after I posted about Rakunou Princess, a power outage destroyed my save progress in that game. I was so close to 100% completion too, aaaaargghh. The pain and anguish sent me running for comfort, and I landed square at the feet of Shio to Ayakashi no Mori. Take responsibility for me, Inu to Neko!

Unfortunately, Inu to Neko’s strengths lie in crafting and simulation games, not in dungeon crawling, so my foray was doomed from the start. When I played Dungeon Shoujo a while ago, I said that I actually want to crawl dungeons and battle enemies in my dungeon crawling games. So to its credit, Shio to Ayakashi no Mori does offer a slightly more traditional experience. Not fully traditional i.e. battles play out automatically and there is no map, but you do get to choose where to go, what the rewards will be, when to fight bosses, you have to manage a limited resource pack and forage for items to craft better stuff, and so on, and so forth.

Pick where you want to go and who you want to fight.

The story (even though dungeon crawlers don’t need stories!) is that monsters are running wild in a previously peaceful forest, so adventurer Shio takes it upon herself to find out why. Eventually she sort of finds out why (rampaging dragon) and solves the problem, roll credits, the end. Simple and short, my kind of story. The game keeps going after that, which makes sense because we don’t know why the dragon was rampaging. in other Inu to Neko games I would keep playing for much longer to try and get the true ending of the game, but with Shio to Ayakashi no Mori, I’m kinda done.

The reason is because normally the Ishwald games squeeze in some crafting and shopkeeping no matter the genre, and that keeps things interesting for me. That same system is present here, but you have to forage for almost everything you have instead of being able to buy it/trade for it/unlock it after selling enough. It’s like Etrian Odyssey or similar games, if you’ve played those. And for me, having to find strawberries and jars and syrup every time I want to make a little strawberry jam got real old, real quick. A little automation would have gone a long way to improving the experience.

To make money, I resorted to selling raw materials most of the time and only occasionally making stuff to sell. Crafting just wasn’t worth the hassle, IMO. Especially since item that hasn’t sold after you come back from the dungeon three times is destroyed forever. Even if it’s stuff like stones and jewels, ridiculous.

To solve that, you might be tempted to just ignore crafting and selling, except to make a few items for personal use. However, without selling stuff, it’s hard to make enough money to unlock new recipes and upgrades. Yes, you have to pay good money to do almost everything in this game, from better weapons to more HP, a bigger inventory, cold resistance, friend abilities, you name it, you gotta pay for it.

Too poor to pay? Then scram!

Not only do you have to pay for it, but you also need materials which may or may not drop when you go exploring. E.g. even if a place is supposed to drop coins, it might not give you the yellow coins you need for an upgrade, or a herb place might not give the Ako fruit you need, etc. It’s a royal PITA trying to get everything together, especially since you don’t feel all that much stronger from most of the upgrades. Collect as many guild tickets and coins as you can and be very careful before selling them, that’s my advice.

All that hassle is bearable in small doses, but it doesn’t encourage me to keep playing once I’ve ostensibly solved the main problem of the game. Still, it’s not all bad. It kept me busy for about 20 hours, and I appreciated both the quick resolution of the story and the lightning speed of exploration (and combat, if you choose). I’m playing SMT V right now and it is SO sluggish, I just wanna cry. For all of its flaws and frustrations, Shio to Ayakashi no Mori is a fast-moving game, with each exploration session taking only a minute or two.

Overall, it was a nice little experience. I wasn’t as addicted as I was with other Inu to Neko games, but I still found myself returning to it repeatedly and never feeling compelled to play. I’m not in the habit of giving number ratings, but this would be a solid 6.5 to 7.0 IMO: respectable, but nothing special. I’m glad I played it, now I’m ready to get back to my regularly scheduled games.

Update: I played about 20 more hours after I said I was done. Haha. It got better after the false end, actually. Harder too, because the weather changes get more extreme, the traps get deadlier and more frequent, and the enemies get harder so you need to keep good weapons and watch your HP. Crafting is still an afterthought, but you can make good money just by selling the better raw materials you get from later dungeons, so that’s good.

IIRC the story was that the dragon we fought went mad… can’t remember why… so the King of Dragons Alicia was going to exterminate him, but Shio got there before he did. As thanks, he offers to train her by letting her fight him. I made my way over and beat him, and he said “That doesn’t count! Now I’m going to get serious!” and retreated even further into the forest. He’s the last boss I have to beat now, and I was getting my ducks in a row in terms of weaponry, support items, etc. when I started playing Romancing Saga Re;Universe and Shining Nikki again and lost interest. Ooops.

I thought I was out of the gacha woods after uninstalling Epic Seven (for now), but you know how nature abhors a vacuum. And regular RPGs like SMT V just aren’t doing it for me. They’re so BORING. Actually the main thing I’m doing right now is replaying Picross 3D Second Round, so even gacha games aren’t holding my attention that strongly. Ahh, Picross. What would I do without you? Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some stats to grind in RS.