Update Three Hundred and Forty-Six: 9 November 2019
Shadowrun: Dragonfall
3.5 hours playtime, 5 of 39 achievements
Did Not Finish/10
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
CRPGs is the game genre I like the least that I would actually play… until today.
Today, I think I’m going to move the goalposts once more and ice out CRPGs permanently. All it took was a game that was perfectly fine all on its own that was still a struggle to force myself to play. I don’t want another two-month gap, and even though the story beats were mildly interesting, the CRPG-ness of looking at tiny (ugly, hunched-over) little models scampering around busy backgrounds from 4,000 feet in the air is too much for me to enjoy. Too much of it is a chore - the combat, moving around, the imprecise nature of the clicks where I have to click four or five times on a character before the game registers I want to talk to them, not stand next to them -
My life has settled into a routine with a much smaller amount of time to game in it, so the time I have is precious. I can’t spend it on games I have to make myself like. I know I have this revelation once every ten months or so, but I really gotta mean it this time, guys! There’s already so many games I’m missing out on that I honestly DO want to play…
I’m gonna take some time today (continuing to unpack and) comb through my library and be really honest with myself about whether I actually WANT to play these games. My ‘won’t play’ section is going to grow much bigger today, and, well, CRPGs like Shadowrun: Hong Kong and Planescape: Torment will be among their ranks.
Next up:
See you soon!
I think CRPGs is one of the best genres of video games, but I get what you mean. How many games did you end up moving to the Wont Play category?
God, I WISH I liked them, because I’ve heard only good things about some of them, but I can’t! It feels like a five foot thick pane of glass is between me and what’s going on. Like, I remember some stuff that happened in, say, Pillars of Eternity and Shadowrun: Returns but I had almost zero emotional reaction bc I’m essentially looking at painted tictacs scampering around.
I think the ONE CRPG I’ll still play is Disco Elysium because there is zero combat and it’s 98% reading.
Actually not that many! It went from 5% of my backlog to 8%. I think I’m still being a little too soft-hearted in some cases, but we’ll deal with that when it comes up (like, if I notice I’m actively avoiding a game,’ I’ll probably move it over).
I know that you mean. I tried to play in some genres (jRPG, rogue-lite, sport games, city simulators etc) and they never clicked with me. After time of “what’s wrong with me, it’s a game, so I should enjoy it” I moved to “whatever, I don’t have enough time to play everything anyway”.
But for me Shadowrun series was more of VN than actual RPG… all those walls of text to read… I could barely beat first levels as start was so sluggish.
Still, I tried to play in Pillars of Eternity like 3 times (as it’s my SG win) and failed every single time.
I didn’t find it to be that text heavy - in fact, I wish it were MORE text heavy, rather than scampering around a busy-lookin’ little city and doing the tedious battles, etc.
I played through PoE completely and I’ll be fucked if I can tell you anything about that game except I liked your companions and I wished I actually had Any Emotional Connection To Anything Happening At All. Sometimes genres just Don’t Work for people - and your attitude is a smart one.
i’m generally a fan of cRPGs and even i had a hard time with Dragonfall. something about it just doesn’t work to keep the attention, i always crap out by hour fifteen and then have to start over in another two years to try again.
good on you for taking a look at your backlog and deciding what is worth your time, tho. it’s a sucky job, but if it makes you happier then it’s worth it.
That’s funny - you’re the first one I’ve heard say they had trouble with it. The fact you made it to hour 15 is still a testament.
Oh, definitely. I gotta let go of obligations that are ultimately meaningless. My time is too valuable! Expect a lot more didn’t finish/won’t play reviews… like the one I’m doing up right now!
Cool. Glad you’re not playing games I’m not interested in either.
…jk, it’s actually admirable that you’re resolved not to tie yourself down. It’s sad to think that Hakuoki became such PTSD material (since I like it a lot), but it’s also important to have fun… while you’re alive… ha… haha. Life can be miserable enough for us not to want to spend time on things we don’t like and we do it so often anyway, it’s crazy.
Hyuck!
Yeah - life is filled with so many obligations, I’m not gonna include that in a hobby I do for fun - achievement percentage be damned.
Down with mistreating yourself in the process of 100%ing a tough game! Down with completionism!
(except for the easy cases like VNs, PaCs and HOGs)Let’s get back our precious free time!