I saw your most recent update and suddenly remember that one of the main reasons I was hesitant to try the Horizon games is that I know a few people who were driven halfway nuts by the endless chatter and complete lack of faith in the player being able to figure anything out. I take it that it was never fixed in any sort of patch.

Also I've completely lost track which of several LttP tourneys you are in but I hope they go well and that you can keep them straight better than I can

EDIT: With the site redesign coming... at some point I found out that any PSN games not explicitly tied to a specific "original system" will end up getting shuffled somewhere else when the change comes (I believe the support email said most likely PS4), so since you seem to have a similar listing set-up as me you may want to go through and fix those beforehand. Fortunately you just have 10 or so while I have... 121

EDIT #2: So I spent three months playing through a ton of PS+ catalog games for less than $15 extra bucks, apparently beat 13 of them and tried over a dozen other ones, very last day of the sub Sony announces that they are raising the cost of all tiers of PS+ by 33%. I feel like this is somewhat my fault...

Anyways I did this because of a suggestion you made a year or so back so thanks for that, it ended up working out rather well, especially since I'm likely never gonna be using this service again at that cost >_>

PROJECT EDIT: I have talked with Sci about doing a simultaneous playthrough of a big puzzle game during the fall sometime, but that's about it. There's a couple classic PC games I really should get to finally but that's sort of an ongoing idea I never fully commit to.

RETRO EDIT: Oooh, redemption project, neat. If you save Castlevania III until after I finish Pikmin 3 I may be able to join you on that one (sounds like a good october/Halloween game to me IMO).

I fell behind on all my random PC games due to the summer of PS+, so they need some run.

BTW you sure seem to love facing off against #1 seeds in LttP, I've only gotten to tune in very briefly during this most recent run of tourney games but I assume you've been shocking the world regularly :P

EDIT #5-ish: Nah, just keep plugging away at CV III then, worst case I'll just get to it next month and we can compare notes then.

EDIT 6: I will read that in probably a few weeks, but one quick question in case it wasn't mentioned: US or Japanese version? I'm likely going with the latter.

So I don't know that it'll be added to my backloggery page but I started Final Fantasy VII Remake to check it out to see if it is worth revisiting down the road. I am unsure if I grasp how the combat system works all that well and Cloud's voice actor has some very "you are hearing me talk" line reads, but it is very pretty and seems okay enough. That is my summer day or two of JRPGs

EDIT: Based on what I can piece together Hollow Knight is a 20-25 hour-ish game that would take 45ish if I wanted to unlock the true ending. I will not be trying to latter as I feel like I'd either have to go full-walkthrough for it or spend a long time wandering around until I stumbled upon necessary things.

What I have figured out is that I somehow missed the blacksmith/weapons person, whoever handles the various collectibles you pick up as a vendor, the pass that operates the train system, and the ability that bypasses one of the specific "lock & key" set-ups the game has in place (the last is apparently only for post-game stuff though). I think at least the first one is partly due to how the in-game map system works... but yeah I sure did walk past a lot of stuff.

TBF I don't think I was struggling that much given that I never upgraded my weapon, a couple bosses were hard (I struggle with multiple bosses at once battles) but I never got super stuck, I was just a bit worried by more poor damage output which I got around a bit by leaning all the way on magic attacks.

Anyways it's a very good game, not gonna bother with all the extra stuff but it is among the best metroidvania worlds I've seen, and mechanically is very solid. You've probably played enough Super Metroid by now to handle it

EDIT #2: So I tried out Returnal as part of my summer of PS+ since you talked it up. Suspended it overnight and my PS5 download and installed a system update that functionally killed me, in a game that basically has permadeath. I tried it again and it took an hour to catch back up and basically reach the first boss (which I stopped just short of previously). Died and realized I could get back to said boss quickly, but with an awful weapon. Died again, deleted it, I ain't here for these 7 hour games stretched out to 25-30 hours via permadeath/randomization. At least I know now, but god turning it on today to see the system update really soured things on top of everything else.

EDIT #3: To clarify, you talked it up as the perfect type of PS+ catalog game to try out, so I did

I thought of you rather early on in my time with ALBW as while the overworld is mostly the same the... pathing(?) through the world is notably altered in spots. It was enough to really throw me a bit off early on and I could only imagine you with all the original routes hardwired into your brain getting crossed up even more. It is odd, it feels notably smaller than the original and I can't tell if it is due to familiarity with the map, more of the map being closed off initially or the view being slightly different. Still pretty neat so far until the eye strain sets in.

EDIT: BTW perhaps you just didn't update but was your LTTP tourney schedule really something like 4 matches in 5 days, then two weeks of nothing? From the outside that would seem a bit odd.

EDIT #2: The silver lining is that even if you had gone straight to the Ice Palace boss instead of randomly leaving halfway through said dungeon you were already probably too far behind for it to matter much? Anyways hope the next race goes better, I won't be around to catch it so hopefully I'm just a jinx.

Also I took your advice from a year or so back and upgraded my PS+ plan for the last 3 months of my sub to check out what its catalog offers. Got a list up on my page if you are at all curious what my to do list looks like, feel free to praise/criticize any of my choices

19 SECOND EDIT: I only got back in time to catch the very end of your race, the time you won by three or so seconds was much more dramatic >_>

VIII EDIT: I don't think I will ever play FF8 and I only picked up random bits of info on it here and there (I recall like a time compressed orphanage or something, which may not be in any way accurate). Feel free to post or PM any of your ramblings, just be forewarned that I only have 2 PM spots left open in my inbox. I will take this time to say that I'm impressed it got 2 stars from you, I was preparing for the worst

BROKEN EDIT: I feel like I should point out that like... every other FF game through 8 was probably mechanically broken to some degree. 2 had various nuttiness, I recall beating the final boss in 6 in a single turn (and I didn't abuse vanish/doom), I don't think avoiding stuff like this was a priority until maybe the PS2 gen. Story sounds like a mess but I played and enjoyed 13 and 15 so clearly story ain't that important to me

Glad to see that your LttP qualifying has seemingly gone well so far, it's been a minute since I noticed you in the thick of on of those tourneys so glad that you aren't rusty (ignoring all the likely non-tourney races you've run since then, if they aren't posted they don't exist :P)

BTW I killed my PC (am on a backup one I borrowed from my sis ATM) so once I get it officially replaced I may be able to play some of those so-called modern PC games as opposed to whatever still happened to run on my 13 year old rig. Off chance you may actually recognize one of the PC games I play in the future in the midst of all those other random ones I go through

CC/XG edit: In case you didn't know that much feared X game started life off as a sequel to Chrono Trigger that sort of spun off in its own direction so it isn't a huge surprise that the guy behind it also got to write for the actual follow-up. The fact that neither of them seem to have all that much to do with CT for most of their runtimes (there is a bit in XG where one can see where it could tie up with CT if it wanted to) seems to have been a repeatedly intentional choice which still strikes me as funny, but I'm also a relatively low voter on CT.

AVERAGE EDIT: So if you finished a 5 star and 1 star game at the same time... overall it must have been a 3 star experience. That's not so bad

(I believe I rented Chrono Cross near release and was so baffled by it that I returned it before it was even due, I guess I didn't miss much.)

RE4 is the only RE game I ever beat/liked really (the bit of 2 I played seemed fine, the original is impossible to beat and everyone who says it can be is lying) so glad to hear that the remake didn't screw it up.

PM EDIT: ...so basically what you are saying is that the 1/3 year of jrpgs is going well At the very least you've now established a floor, that's my silver lining take.

(FWIW Kato wrote the script of XG but isn't responsible for its story, that was all the main Xeno guy Takahashi's creation that Kato had to get down into words, although he did add a few things here and there. Basically he only deserves idk... 60-70% of the scorn you direct his way )

LTTP TOURNEY EDIT: My only thought reading your update:

[Link]

>_>

Does the PC port of Chrono Cross run as poorly as I've been led to believe?

It sounds like an ambitious project for sure! I'm sure it will be nice to finally finish up some of those games you never finished. Chrono Cross is one I plan on going through eventually. I would love to hear your opinion on it once you finish it up. And I don't blame you for playing the remastered versions of those older games too as I would do the exact same thing! Haha.

Thanks! Nice to make your acquaintance too. Best with your RPG journey!

It's cool to see someone else doing a year of RPGs! I have ignored turn-based RPGs for my entire life (or if I did play them I rarely finished them) but I am hoping to play through a couple this year. Currently have Dragon Quest V and XI on the go and plan on hopefully getting through Final Fantasy VI and VII at some point. Just curious, what are some of the RPGs you're planning on going through in 2023?

So I was thinking "Man, Hydra sure must have already played through most of the Yakuza games to be getting around to playing Judgement" and apparently you only played one of them that you seemingly hated. You are a man full of surprises and questionable decisions

...Yes I started up another Steins;Gate game, I don't see what that has to do with anything

HAIR EDIT: Hilariously it was pointed out to me that in the anime she is a redhead (I have never watched any of said anime) so I guess if the people tasked with making an actual licensed adaption can make the same mistake then I guess I shouldn't feel too bad?

Also in Steins;Gate 0 there's like two to three different characters who could conceivably be her (don't ask) so if it turns out they have slightly different shades of hair color I may cry.

DRAGOON EDIT: Recently on the GFAQs classic gaming board there was a topic "Is Legend of Dragoon THAT great?" and whenever I saw it I looked at your updates and went to myself "apparently not!" At least it is finished now and you'll have a new old Resident Evil game to play through instead shortly.

FWIW Steins;Gate 0 is markedly less annoying than the original if still way too padded out (again not as severely as the original). That said I now have to go back to earlier chapters and make different choices, so that'll either be quick or irksome.

QoRPGs EDIT: It's probably best not to force something if you're just not feeling it, although I am tempted to say that maybe more than a rpg problem that you have a FF VIII one. Anyways if some time down the road you wanted to give some other non-8 rpgs a shot you could always go back to them. Until then, I assume it is lttp and Re4Make time coming up soon~

JSR = Jet Set Radio. If perhaps a screenshot would help...

[Link]

Cel-shaded, inline skating, graffiti heavy, Dreamcast-looking games basically.

EDIT: Yep I got a few new games to get lost in my backlog for a bit. I also got a Steam gift card so I gotta pick out some things from my wishlist before the winter sale ends. To go with five $10 games or like twenty-five $2 ones...

RPG EDIT: Man I don't come up with a yearly gaming project for once and like half my multitap decides to pick up the slack

I will say that if you wanted to find something to terrify me more than the year of (resident) evil the year of rpgs would definitely qualify. I'm still traumatized by the legions of random battles from my earlier days but I wish you luck on your quest and hope that it brings you peace of mind. Plus reading between the lines I think this means you are gonna move on to the Xenosaga trilogy which I'm sure will only bring you joy

RPG II EDIT: I am waiting with baited breath to see if Final Fantasy II's absurd leveling system screws you over in the late game.

RPG II: DoS EDIT: I believe in FF II one should be fine if they don't abuse the leveling up system early on (I believe you can attack your own party members in such a way as to gain extra levels?) as if one does do so improperly it can basically make the game unwinnable. They were still figuring stuff out back then.

Congrats on getting that first rpg down, I hope you enjoy the rest of this rpg (xeno)saga you are on

Astro's playroom does seem pretty neat, although I hope there aren't many more ball rolling sections as I am not great at those at all.

FINAL EDIT: "also the final boss would have been a lot more challenging without the vaguely cheaty sword that drains up to 1/4 of his *maximum* health every round."

I mean, if you aren't taking advantage of some overpowered bit of equipment or exploiting some arcane mechanic are you even really playing a Final Fantasy game? Me and my economizers say no.

Congrats on the year of RPGs starting off well

I used in-game AI summons when they were available as they were generally placed in a thematically and narratively appropriate way, but I never had to use a human ally to get by a boss. Well that is only half-true, I summoned once when making an attempt on Malenia but that person was terrible and I never tried to do so again. Against Malenia I did use the Mimic Tear which was almost game-breakingly useful, but that battle was absurdly tilted against the player so making it a true "fine, anything goes" mudfight seemed fair. That was the only boss I did so against as it would have likely sucked the fun out of other boss fights.

Elden Ring is a tremendous game, 5 stars and all that, but man it took me a week short of 3 months and 145 in-game hours to beat and... well let's just say I'd be happy if the next From game is more in line with the length of prior Souls games.

EDIT: So remember when you put forward Spy Hunter as the PS2 game I should get to as part of my "play one game from every console I've owned in '22" project, but I said I had another game in mind? Well it turns out Stuntman emulates very roughly (4th mission is impossible in PCSX2) and despite my best efforts it just wasn't working out (at anything other than 80% speed tops) so I should have just listened to you from the start and saved myself 3 1/2 hours of annoyance.

Anyways so far Spy Hunter is okay!

EDIT #2: Well FF XIII killing my phat PS3 meant I was down to my old backup PS2 that's been buried in my closet; said PS2 when I hooked it up yesterday was running but not sending a signal so I think the back port went bad. PCSX2 worked well the one time I used it prior (Shinobi) so figured it'd work well again and Stuntman is seemingly a rough game for it. I don't have a lot of must-play PS2 games left so it's more of a minor annoyance but yeah, not the best scenario atm.

From all reports I was well overleveled in Elden Ring from exploring a ton and rarely losing runes (think I finished at level 178 or something) and built my character smart, so that likely made a significant difference.

SH EDIT: Thanks! Yeah the "get enough optional objectives done to unlock future stages" curve is rather harsh, I believe you can miss 4 all game and still be able to unlock the final stage. The game is a fine enough example of a type of game that doesn't really exist any more, so was worth trying out. Also emulates very well

BTW I hope newest GoW is going well, I thought a lot of the prior game.