Well, yeah, I've made quite a dent in my backlog, although it's not as much progress as I'd like.

I mark games with the status for various reasons. A lot of them are copies that I or on different platforms. Some are from compilations and I don't intend to play those games. The rest I shelved because they're not enjoyable to me.

Hope you have fun with Chinatown Wars! It's my favourite DS game.

Hey, I'm doing fine. How about you?

Likewise!

Soul Hackers 2 has been good so far, although I'm still in the beginning. I bought the DLC just to support Atlus, so I don't really have any opinion about it.

👋

I'm finally back after a month

I think I've heard that? I mean, I'm pretty sure I've had people tell me that the third generation was a lot better. I honestly have no idea, but it must be something like that by now; I don't even know how many generations in we are at this point. I do remember that the latest iteration cut a lot of creatures out, so it's not even possible to have them all in those.

It's such a weird thing: what drew me to Dragon Warrior/Quest was my love of Zelda, and Zelda sure as hell didn't have any problems selling copies over here. Nobody was interested, though. No idea how or why, but the original Final Fantasy sold like CRAZY over here, and became a completely mainstream thing that most people who had an NES will have memories of playing, but that was really the only one for a long time. But yeah, popular as Earthbound is now, it absolutely flopped over here, because almost nobody was playing RPGs; guess you never know which complete-in-box games are going to be worth a FORTUNE someday. India, huh? There's a gaming market I know next to nothing about. What's it like there? More console or PC? New consoles common, or is it back a generation or two? I have a friend in Iran, and he was telling me that they were usually a generation or 2 behind, so I'm wondering if it's like that, or if the push for a digital market has changed that.

Oh that? A lot of the RPGs you see here are things I've played a long time ago; back in the 5th Generation, everything was 3D, and the controls in 3D games usually sucked pretty bad, BUT that never mattered with RPGs, because they had menu-based combat, so you were never going to get killed by bad controls. Sure, the minigames could be infuriating, but I'd put up with them, because RPGs were about all I was playing at that point. That said, I do enjoy exploring, and unless a game is outright bad, I do just fine getting immersed in the world as my mind wanders. You also have to remember that Dragon Warrior was my first RPG; you get a taste for that sort of thing, and most everything looks vibrant and exciting by comparison.

Yo, hello there, fellow YTTD fan. I haven't been in the fandom very much, so neat to see someone else who enjoys it (my favorite character is Reko, though). You seem to enjoy a lot of those types of games in general, I took a look through your backlog and it's got some neat stuff! Definetly reminded me that I should still be playing the Pheonix Wright games sometime soon, at least. If you're interested in talking a bit more, I'd love to! Our choice of games seem a bit different from each other, should make for some interesting conversations.

It's weird: catching every single one of them is what made me love the first generation so much... and absolutely despise the second generation. In Pokémon [Super Famicom colors], it was so satisfying to cross this or that one off the list, even if there were a ton of useless, samey water creatures padding out the roster. With Gold/Silver, sometimes just the method of getting this or that creature was so off-the-wall that it was infuriating. If... was it tyrogue? evolves with one stat higher, you get hitmonlee; with another stat higher, it's hitmonchan; and if they're EXACTLY THE SAME, you get hitmontop, which is the only unique one, so that's the one you'll want. Espeon/umbreon evolve from eevee at a certain level at the exact moment a hidden stat hits a certain number, and based on whether it's day or night. Like what. Don't even get me started on breeding. I'm not sure how many people were even catching 'em all the further it went through the generations, but it became progressively more impossible, with more and more games being required. While we're at it, each generation having separate versions was already a pain.

The dungeons do get better after that first one, from what I remember. I hear that the kinstones get a little obnoxious, but I can't imagine they're much worse than the minigames that plague the 3D games. As for the gacha thing, I think I gave it a look because figurines were a thing in Wind Waker, too, but there, you're taking pictures of things that get turned into them. I don't remember, but I don't think there was any kind of reward locked behind that. Oh, yeah... I was one of the 5 people in the US playing RPGs on the NES, so I played through all 4 of them back in the day, and that got me very used to calling them Dragon Warrior; most of the rest of the world knows them as Dragon Quest now. The original Final Fantasy did very well, but aside from that, nobody over here cared about RPGs until later in the lifespan of the SNES; I'd say Chrono Trigger was probably the big crossover title for that, because people were already excited for Final Fantasy 6, and I can't remember anything doing all that well before that. It was mostly Squaresoft that had any kind of success with RPGs until Final Fantasy 7 BLEW UP, and everyone wanted more. At the time, I was one of those rare weirdos who was excited about 7 not because it was the new big thing, but because it was a Final Fantasy.

Same; I was running back to Vedim Space whenever I'd get any kind of low, usually triggering one last battle before I went in, just to maximize the distance I could go after filling up. I'm not sure I've used any healing items at all, aside from maybe one stretch where there were no other options. I enjoy hard games, but usually not because they're hard; I don't need to be punished for anything less than pixel perfection. I've played I Wanna be the Guy, so been there; done that; got nothing I need to prove. That said, I am still hell-bent on beating every Battletoads game except the new one, because I did manage to get through the NES game, and so far, that's the absolute worst one in terms of difficulty; guess I still have a little masochist left in me. I do tend to stay away from that with RPGs, though; I stress out about resource management too much. Now, if it's the bosses that are tough, and what's tough is that you need to tweak your party, I'm into that; I remember a certain boss from Rudra no Hihou wiping me out at least half a dozen times before I'd finally customized my spellbook just right, and that was a satisfying victory. That was also a boss fight; they're supposed to be tough.

1 star games I reserve for borderline rage quitting games. The rest of the series is amazing, but Super Mystery Dungeon is heavily unbalanced towards the enemies in the game. Usually with other games it takes enemies about 10 to 15 hits to KO you, but Super Mystery has it where 2 or 3 hits will KO you, no matter the type knocks you down. To add a bag of salt on the wound, some enemies can hit you clear across rooms unexpectedly, so you can lose just by casually going through rooms. Unfortunately, PMD games don't have checkpoints, so you could be 18 floors worth of progress then boom, an attack hits you, and you're done and 18 floors of progress is done for. Can't heal from a one hit KO move unfortunately. The last 5 dungeons or so had me screaming in agony.

Favorite genre? I'd say action and gun games like Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid, but I play a wide variety of genres. I think the only 3 I don't play are sports games, horror games, or racing games mainly.

Sacred Stones was my first FE game and still one of my favourites. It got some hate because they added repeatable dungeons in the game, which break the difficulty if used enough. While true, those dungeons are entirely optional and I beat it on hard without ever setting foot in them. I'm convinced they were added after they balanced the game without them.

I've seen you've started Sacred Stones, if you need any tips of the game, such as which units are recommended, or things that you may miss on chapters, feel free to ask me!

Thanks for the add. Returned the favor.

I gotcha. I'd like to play through Minish Cap someday, too; what I did play was REALLY good, but that stupid gacha machine really got on my nerves, so I jumped ship. It'd be fine if they didn't lock heart pieces and stuff behind it, but maybe I'll find some kind of work around. Iunno. Anyway, the dungeons did have some tricky stuff, so I can see it; moving around with that wind thing in the first dungeon could be a pain if everything wasn't properly lined up.

Right? Your favorite game in the world could be better, but it's still really good. It is good for critics to do what they do, because that keeps pushing things to be better or even just stay good, but that kind of life isn't for me. Oh, I can think of a few games I've hated over the years, but I've been playing since '87; you'll run into a few bombs in that amount of time. Grindy doesn't always bother me, because I'm old as dirt, so I cut my teeth on the original Dragon Warrior - the game is nothing but grinding - but for me, it's whether the pacing is consistent; if I've been coasting for a while, I'm not going to want to stop and grind for long periods of time. Mystic Ark had a pretty decent pace, for the most part; if you stop and grind at the very beginning to get the best stuff that the first shop has, you'll never have to grind again, if you're smart about party choices.

I do like that about it: I am a hoarder of all things consumable, but there are good, consistent ways to restore your MP, so I'm not as hesitant to unleash a big technique now and again. I'd forgotten all about the adjustable difficulty, but that's a good thing, too; I don't mind a challenge, and I do like my RPGs to push back a little (Rudra no Hihou was great for that), but I also don't want them to be like the last stretch of Legend of the Ghost Lion, where EVERY SINGLE FIGHT is an absolute knock-down, drag-out battle for your life; that gets exhausting after a while.

I used to say definitively that I'm all about gameplay, though I'm fine with that being just adequate when the story is really good. Lately, though, I'm starting to think I'm in it more for having an interesting world to explore. Still have some reflection to do on that one, but the more of those surreal, colorful Walking Simulators I play, the more I think that's the case. Of course, I can enjoy games for other things, even primarily so; I'm playing The Messenger right now, which is largely about gameplay for me, and I'm absolutely loving it. Maybe I'm just complicated. 🤷‍♀️ 100% with you there; one thing I don't like about online games is that they're on life support from the very beginning, so some day, you'll never be able to play it again. I'd rather just not get involved; can't miss what you've never known and all that. That said, I am also a solitary creature, and prefer single-player games for the most part. For me, they have to at least stand on their own; if there is also a multiplayer cooperative mode, I can sometimes get into that. My lady and I played through Secret of Mana together one summer, and I've never enjoyed it more, but it's still a blast playing by myself. Oh, I would love to dray, but I'm terrible at it, and don't have the patience for it; my lady is the artist between the two of us. I have a great deal of respect for the beauty that artists can create; I just have to stick with enhancing, like sound editing and that kind of stuff. If something's there, I can work it and improve it, but actual creation is hard for me, unless it's cooking or writing.

The only one I've ever tried is Pokémon Thunder Yellow, which, simply put, lets you catch 'em all. No trading with other versions, no getting stuck with stupid nicknames, and it even comes with a text file describing how to find and catch mew via glitches. I did play through Gold/Silver, and absolutely hated it; OCD dictates that I gotta catch 'em all, and 251 was just too damn many. Since it just kept getting bigger and bigger, I've never really even tried any of the other generations, or the remakes like FireRed/LeafGreen. I'm of the opinion that they should've just started over with a completely fresh batch in every entry, but I'd say my opinion doesn't matter much, because look how insanely successful they've been doing what they're doing. I did also try out a spoof hack called Bokémob years ago, but they got lazy with it, so it wasn't great.

Ah I see haha. You're welcome!

I'm not really sure. I've honestly only ever beaten three SMT games: SMT4 and Apocalypse on 3DS and Soul Hackers also on 3DS. Though I intend to play the Nocturne remaster on my PS5 eventually, and probably play SMT5 on Switch. Soul Hackers 2 on Xbox Series X as well. I'm not sure if I ever carried over my SMT SFC save data over from my old Pi to my SNES Classic, but I may just restart with the PS1 version that just got a translation on my PS1 Classic.

I'll replay Soul Hackers when the Saturn version eventually gets its translation. A big portion of my wishlist is probably either hacks or translations.

My SNES Classic, PS1 Classic, and Genesis Minis are all hacked, and I have an N64 everdrive. PS2, Saturn, and Dreamcast are all modded too.

Oh yes, though I my OCD used to be a lot worse with that than it is now. I think some of what helped with that was when a friend of mine got me into WRPGs, which I suppose you could 100%, but it's going to require multiple playthroughs, and they just weren't meant to be played that way. A little Fallout and a little Planescape: Torment, and I realized that it wasn't the end of the world if I didn't do ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, so I started to look at what constitutes for me a bit differently. Achievements were never part of the equation, but things I can't stand that have minimal rewards - Final Fantasy 9's the card game or those minigames that just give useless key items are good examples - are things I'm totally fine with skipping. That said, I'll at least try things out to see if I'll be willing to put up with them or not. As for story, I do enjoy a good story, but it's the topping on my video game sundae; I'm fine playing a game that has no story (Mega Man) or even a dumb story (Wild Arms), so long as it isn't needlessly convoluted, drama-ridden, or outright offensive. It also doesn't help that I'm a linguist and a writer (though I haven't written anything substantial in YEARS), so I find the writing in a lot of things to be not as deep or interesting as they're supposed to be, so I tend to focus on a game's other aspects, because I'd much rather enjoy the game than look down my nose at it with an undeserved sense of superiority. I appreciate critics for what they do, but to constantly look at everything through the lens of, "Well, this could and SHOULD be better by doing this or that," just isn't a way that I'd want to live; it's much better to find reasons to enjoy stuff than to find reasons not to.

I see that you've picked it up! I hope you're enjoying it so far! I only really sit down with it once a week while the laundry is going, but I am VERY pleased with where it's taken me thus far. It's so clearly inspired by Earthbound, but not in the way that most things inspired by Earthbound are inspired by Earthbound.