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Gaming and game design are my hobbies. I've spent the most time with VX Ace and 2k3 (prior to Steam release), but the only thing I've ever finished anything with is 2k.
Psychology was my first degree, but being responsible for depressed kids was too stressful. So I got a Masters in Healthcare Management and now I'm responsible for depressed adults!
Psychology was my first degree, but being responsible for depressed kids was too stressful. So I got a Masters in Healthcare Management and now I'm responsible for depressed adults!
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2023 Gaming Diary
Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster (iOS)
SMT: Soul Hackers 2
Much better than the FFIII remaster which felt nerfed so far beyond the original game that it wasn't really fun. FFV remaster removes some of the ways you could cheese the boss battles, so it's slightly more challenging than previous remasters and remakes in that regard. It lacks the bonus content from the GBA version though.
SMT: Soul Hackers 2
This game was better than the lackluster and middling reviews made it out to be, but you can definitely feel how much Persona 5 is creeping into the other SMT spin-off games with the social ranks and the way they have you feel like you're building relationships with certain shopkeepers and NPCs. The visuals within the main hub were good, but the dungeons are some of the ugliest uninspired hallways I've ever seen in a modern JRPG; even Yakuza: Like A Dragon had better dungeons and that game was also a series of hallways outside of the main hubs (and the main hubs were just a series of alleyways, but at least they were attractive alleyways). The music was one of the game's stronger points, and the character designs were decent if at times over-designed. The design for the final boss was also pretty good, with the rest of the game being mostly your standard SMT demons that you know by heart. My biggest issues with the game was that it's pretty short for an SMT game, with my final playtime being under 30 hours after defeating the final boss. The game tries to pad this by locking some of the achievements/trophies behind a New Game +, as you need 200 social points to reach the deepest levels of each character's personal dungeon (and the associated side quests), and each playthrough serves as a multiplier for the amount you gain. You can't gain enough in the first run to get through the final checkpoints of those dungeons.
Sum up the worst game you ever played in a single line.
Mimana Iyar Chronicle
Press the attack button and listen to your useless harem push the limits of what qualifies as voice "acting".
Press the attack button and listen to your useless harem push the limits of what qualifies as voice "acting".
2023 Gaming Diary
Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster (iOS)
Bought and finished Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster last week. Less than 10 hours from start to finish; the game felt so much longer on the NES and DS versions. Bosses were much weaker than in the old 3D remake, and the faster game speed over all of the older versions (excluding I think the PSP port of the DS game which had a fast-forward option or something?). I liked FFIII with the older ports but the pixel remaster was disappointing with the removal of defined characters, reduction of difficulty, and astonishingly short playtime for the price. I never felt the need to play around with the classes and all bosses were a first-attempt victory with some going down in two turns compared to the older versions where it would take at least a few. I want to grab FFV since I liked that one as well when I beat it on GBA but I'm worried they nerfed that one too. The iOS versions lack the QoL improvements that they added for the Switch/PS4 releases, so I can only imagine how easy the games become when you can mess with the encounter rate.
Bought and finished Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster last week. Less than 10 hours from start to finish; the game felt so much longer on the NES and DS versions. Bosses were much weaker than in the old 3D remake, and the faster game speed over all of the older versions (excluding I think the PSP port of the DS game which had a fast-forward option or something?). I liked FFIII with the older ports but the pixel remaster was disappointing with the removal of defined characters, reduction of difficulty, and astonishingly short playtime for the price. I never felt the need to play around with the classes and all bosses were a first-attempt victory with some going down in two turns compared to the older versions where it would take at least a few. I want to grab FFV since I liked that one as well when I beat it on GBA but I'm worried they nerfed that one too. The iOS versions lack the QoL improvements that they added for the Switch/PS4 releases, so I can only imagine how easy the games become when you can mess with the encounter rate.
Censorship in Video Games
I like when developers add a censorship toggle to allow players to adjust certain things, like the amount of gore when killing an enemy. Sometimes the filters are enough to make an M-rated (or whatever your regional equivalent is) "safe" enough for a teenager to play. Call of Duty, for example, practically reverts to being a T-rated series like it started out as once you remove the blood, gore, and the more intense profanity.
Some games like Cyberpunk 2077 have bizarre censorship that makes no sense to me. In the character creation and inventory screens, there is full-frontal nudity. You can even customize your pubes and certain aspects of your genitalia. In game, if you look down, suddenly you're wearing purple shorts. It makes no sense to me as the full nudity is already in the game; it's not like this was done in a way like Paradox did with Crusader Kings III for the console versions where they removed ALL nudity to make it easier to release in all regions and reduce the game to a T rating. Initially some people thought it was a bug put CDPR confirmed on their website in response to support posts that this was intended.
Then you have Nintendo where they have been flip-flopping on censorship for decades. Some games get censorship only in certain regions, others are censored worldwide. The global censorship seems to apply more for remakes and remasters, while the West gets regionally censored versions of new games.
Some games like Cyberpunk 2077 have bizarre censorship that makes no sense to me. In the character creation and inventory screens, there is full-frontal nudity. You can even customize your pubes and certain aspects of your genitalia. In game, if you look down, suddenly you're wearing purple shorts. It makes no sense to me as the full nudity is already in the game; it's not like this was done in a way like Paradox did with Crusader Kings III for the console versions where they removed ALL nudity to make it easier to release in all regions and reduce the game to a T rating. Initially some people thought it was a bug put CDPR confirmed on their website in response to support posts that this was intended.
Then you have Nintendo where they have been flip-flopping on censorship for decades. Some games get censorship only in certain regions, others are censored worldwide. The global censorship seems to apply more for remakes and remasters, while the West gets regionally censored versions of new games.
Guess the RPG from Only 3 Tiles
Canonical Respawns
Project Zomboid, where you can start over in the same world but your previous character is now a zombie that you have to kill to get your stuff back. You're essentially a different survivor but you can choose to stick with the same appearance and build. The YouTube series Let's Game It Out decided to see how many zombified characters you can have with hilarious results.
2023 Gaming Diary
Octopath Traveler
This was arguably the best Final Fantasy game to come out in years despite not being a Final Fantasy game. The developers say they got inspiration from Final Fantasy VI, and I can see that with the multiple characters and party swapping, but gameplay-wise it feels more like Final Fantasy V with the multiple-job system. That being said, the game starts off tough, but if you happen to kill a Carbuncle or whatever they are calling the weird cat-creatures this time around, you jump several levels and steamroll the next few character chapters.
I unintentionally started with Tressa, a mixed-attacker with multiple weapon types, magic, and multiple abilities to grind gold faster and buy items from NPCs; she also happens to be the easiest way to obtain the speed-run and solo-run achievements, and can do it simultaneously. Combined with above-mentioned high-exp random cat creature encounter, I was around level 21 before I even met a second character. I was able to obtain all 8 characters fairly quickly and completely steamroll the first boss of each first chapter. The game didn't get tough again until the third chapter for each character, and that difficulty only lasted until I finished a few of them and could again brute force the remaining ones. Rinse and repeat for the fourth and final chapters of each character; the first one or two are tough, then you're cruising through the rest or taking advantage of Reflect + Boost from one or two clerics to block every magic-based final boss.
There is a true final boss if certain conditions are met following the completion of all 8 character stories. However, outside of the two challenge achievements, the game doesn't really warrant a second play-through. There are no alternate endings to the character stories, every boss has a best way to defeat them, and you get all characters no matter who you start with.
I unintentionally started with Tressa, a mixed-attacker with multiple weapon types, magic, and multiple abilities to grind gold faster and buy items from NPCs; she also happens to be the easiest way to obtain the speed-run and solo-run achievements, and can do it simultaneously. Combined with above-mentioned high-exp random cat creature encounter, I was around level 21 before I even met a second character. I was able to obtain all 8 characters fairly quickly and completely steamroll the first boss of each first chapter. The game didn't get tough again until the third chapter for each character, and that difficulty only lasted until I finished a few of them and could again brute force the remaining ones. Rinse and repeat for the fourth and final chapters of each character; the first one or two are tough, then you're cruising through the rest or taking advantage of Reflect + Boost from one or two clerics to block every magic-based final boss.
There is a true final boss if certain conditions are met following the completion of all 8 character stories. However, outside of the two challenge achievements, the game doesn't really warrant a second play-through. There are no alternate endings to the character stories, every boss has a best way to defeat them, and you get all characters no matter who you start with.
Game Hardware Ideas
The problem with gaming is that as the hardware improves, they screw us over with the software. Everything requires a subscription now, even if you buy the full game. Then you have subscriptions within the subscriptions, like the various tiers of Switch Online, PS Plus, and Xbox Gold/GamePass. When Nintendo finally figured out good hardware after the Wii U debacle, they eliminated backwards compatibility for both their consoles and handhelds, then are gradually reintroducing it as a tiered subscription with no option to purchase a dedicated digital license.
What I want is an external disc drive or card reader with a few additional components as necessary that piggybacks off of existing consoles to allow me to run old games. One limitation Xbox ran into was that the hardware of newer consoles couldn't accurately emulate some older games due to framerate issues, as well as licensing issues. An external disc drive attachment that also handles that aspect while borrowing a newer console's processing power for upscaling and emulation would solve that. Imagine being able to play your DS games through your Switch via a card reader adapter, or your PS3 games (the oldest console Sony has that uses the Blu-ray disc format) on your PS5 through an external disc drive.
It obviously wouldn't be cheap since the external device would have to be a dedicated emulation device that borrows power from the main console (except for with the Xbox where the emulators already exist but would just need some adjustments), but I'd pay $200 to not have to dig out an old Nintendo DS and hope the battery still charges and to have the better form factor of the Switch, and to not have to re-purchase my existing games like on the Wii or Wii U. It might not be economically viable for use with things like GameBoy games due to their age, but for the DS/3DS it would make sense, especially since 3DS consoles and games are still sold in parts of Japan. For Xbox it would probably make the most financial sense since they've pushed so hard for backwards compatibility for every one of their consoles that a lot of people still have their old discs lying around, and five minutes on Reddit in an Xbox sub is all it takes to find people asking "Is game X backwards compatible?" and for the answer to be No.
What I want is an external disc drive or card reader with a few additional components as necessary that piggybacks off of existing consoles to allow me to run old games. One limitation Xbox ran into was that the hardware of newer consoles couldn't accurately emulate some older games due to framerate issues, as well as licensing issues. An external disc drive attachment that also handles that aspect while borrowing a newer console's processing power for upscaling and emulation would solve that. Imagine being able to play your DS games through your Switch via a card reader adapter, or your PS3 games (the oldest console Sony has that uses the Blu-ray disc format) on your PS5 through an external disc drive.
It obviously wouldn't be cheap since the external device would have to be a dedicated emulation device that borrows power from the main console (except for with the Xbox where the emulators already exist but would just need some adjustments), but I'd pay $200 to not have to dig out an old Nintendo DS and hope the battery still charges and to have the better form factor of the Switch, and to not have to re-purchase my existing games like on the Wii or Wii U. It might not be economically viable for use with things like GameBoy games due to their age, but for the DS/3DS it would make sense, especially since 3DS consoles and games are still sold in parts of Japan. For Xbox it would probably make the most financial sense since they've pushed so hard for backwards compatibility for every one of their consoles that a lot of people still have their old discs lying around, and five minutes on Reddit in an Xbox sub is all it takes to find people asking "Is game X backwards compatible?" and for the answer to be No.
That thing you want but never get.
An expensive gamer chair and a VR headset. I could buy them, but I don't want to have to offset the cost elsewhere in my budget.
Also, a Lincoln Navigator.
Also, a Lincoln Navigator.
Games - Tester
Games - Other
