Progress Report #12 - January 2019 Wrap Up | 07/02/2019 (Click here to skip to the next post )
Preface:
I had a lot of free time this month and was able to play some lengthy games. I didn't manage to beat many titles though since a majority of my playtime was dedicated to platinuming DQXI. It took a hundred and a couple hours, but that has been the most fun I had in a while when platinuming a game.
Monthly breakdown
| Row Name | Played | Beaten | Completed | Abandoned | Hit List |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January Stats | 8 +8 | 1 +1 | 2 +2 | 0 0 | 2577 |
| Total changes | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Changes from last month:
Played: Catherine Classic, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Attack on Titan Wings of Freedom, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend, LET IT DIE, Dragon Quest Heroes, UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH EXE:Late, Rivals of Aether
Beaten: NieR:Automata™
Completed: Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons, DRAGON QUEST® XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age™
I actually started playing this at the tail end of 2018. But I think I only managed to reach ending B before 2019. In any case I got ending E in the first week of the year, making this my first game cleared in 2019. What a way to open a year, huh?
The game deserves all the hype it gets. Story was great and leaves things open to interpretation. And the soundtrack? It's nothing short of amazing. In fact I would even play the game just for it. As for the gameplay it was a nice blend between Devil May Cry, shmup and isometric shooters. While I prefer the weighty combat of the Souls series, I still enjoy NieR's combat for what it is. The only thing that I don't like about it is how imbalanced the game feels. The jump from each difficulty feels too high especially when you just started the game in my opinion. It could use nice bridging difficulties so people could get some decent challenge without getting too overwhelmed.
Things left to do:
- Collect all weapons and upgrade them to max level.
- Grind to level 99.
- Finish the ending collection.
- Play the DLC quests.
I haven't played any Dragon Quest game since the early 2010s. And I've also started to play less turn based JRPG with each passing year. Then this game came into my library and put me back on a JRPG mood. Simply put, this game managed to remind me of how much I adore DQ as well as rekindle my love for turn-based JRPGs.
One thing that surprised me the most about DQXI is how massive it is. There are multiple times when I had thought I am this close to finishing the game, only to find out it still goes on. Despite its size however the game managed to keep me hooked during my journey to platinum the game, a feat that few RPGs manage to do.
Some of you might find one aspect of this game to be comparable to the Trails series, namely the NPCs. In Dragon Quest the NPCs also change their dialogues on every major story point. While the the two long-running series seem similar at first glance, both execute this aspect differently. In Trails most NPCs tend to talk about a large event that revolve around multiple towns. Comparatively in Dragon Quest NPCs mostly react to events happening in their local town. Granted NPCs in Dragon Quest rarely ever offer deep dialogues, but I prefer it more simply because each one is lovingly crafted with vibrant personalities (and accents). Oh, did I mention you can also talk to your party members?
This was a nice chill RPG without any kinds of melodrama. It was simply relaxing from start to finish and I ended up craving for more conventional JRPGs to play.
Yuuup, this was a surprise release that nobody expected. Atlus has many great games but is notorious for being anti-PC. So I'm glad SEGA has a say in porting their games nowadays.
This one was actually quite interesting. I've known Atlus as a publisher who publishes quirky games; either quirky in terms of storytelling or in gameplay. Despite this, I still ended up getting surprised both by Catherine's overall presentation and gameplay depth. More than anyone, Atlus is able to prove a game can have both style and substance at the same time.
It's great that every level does not feel the same and requires different block pushing techniques. However I really suck at fast-paced puzzles and this game is no exception. I'll probably play this on and off instead of playing this in one go like I do for most games nowadays.
Non-Steam games
Bravely Default: Even back before I owned a 3DS, this was one of my most hyped title that I'm very excited to play. I finally got around to playing it several weeks ago and it felt somewhat... bland. It felt grindy, combat was unbalanced and the dialogue felt cheesy. I haven't discovered the hook that keeps me interested with this game yet. At this point I feel like I'm only forcing myself to plow through this game.
Unexpected Fun
Time Sink
DQXI had revived my JRPG mood. Due to how lengthy it is I figure taking a little break from the turn-based style woud be a good idea. So I started up FFXII The Zodiac Age. As always with all recent FF games I had to set my expectations low. And indeed it felt really different, way more different than your usual RPG in fact. In terms of gameplay it felt more closer to Xenoblade Chronicles or Dragon Age, but I'm enjoying it so far!
Damn didnt know catherine came out last month, how could i miss it, so glad I saw this and its many ends are really weird
Ain’t no one seen it coming, bud lol. Out of nowhere SEGA started to post some random sheep images on their games’ news page and bam, Catherine Classic on Steam. I’m definitely excited for other Atlus games on the platform it is ever gonna be ported.
its many ends are really weird
Yeah, could already tell by how absurd its premise is. That’s the main draw of the game to me and I would continue to play it even though I suck at the game.
Yeah i remember seeing it and it got me excited to have the game but then i just completely forgot about it until I saw this. I played it on my xbox 360 and almost 100% except from 2 achievements that were just challenge rounds.
How far are you in Bravely Default? I ask because, while the game is kinda repetitive overall, the game doesn’t get really repetitive until after you awaken the fourth crystal. I didn’t think the game ever forced you to grind, though, even on hard mode.
Admittedly I’m not that far into the game. I just began Chapter 2 myself and currently in the forest that was previously covered in miasma.
I began my playthrough in Hard Mode. At first it was manageable but then each time the game introduces a new area, my party would definitely get smashed in one or two hits. The obvious way out is grinding but I’m sure I just haven’t got the point of the game yet. I ended up cranking the difficulty down to Normal. Do you switch classes often in the early parts of the game? It seems during the beginning your party needs the stat boost of your job levels to actually survive.
I also wonder if I played Bravely Default like more conventional RPGs. I only made sure to update my equipments with those that town vendors sell and didn’t bother to grind that much for the expensive village stuffs.
My party at that time was two Knights and two White Mages IIRC. I originally switched to Knights so I’d get the stat boost for swords, but I quickly found out that Knights learn a move called “Stomp” early on that always hits and does way more damage than a standard attack, but with almost no downside (your defense drops for that turn, but on hard mode, it kinda doesn’t make much difference anyway). I never switched my Knights to a different class until near the end of the game when a certain boss uses a move that the class can’t actually learn, but it wasn’t so bad since I had their Knight class equipped on the secondary slot.
Long story short: I agree with your claim that the combat is unbalanced.
I could never beat FF12 because I always get sidetracked with hunting for rare monsters, or trying to push into places that are much higher level. I love that we can do it, though. I kind of stopped playing the Steam release because I wasn’t sure if I liked having to choose classes. I hope to pick it up again soon, but it’s FF7 that’s my first unfinished Steam game for the month’s theme.
I also started (but also kind of stopped) playing Dragon Quest. I have to admit that I have a hard time getting over world maps. I stopped right after getting the thing that lets you shoot the targets because I was thinking of going back to get the earlier ones.
Congrats on the progress in long games!
I do have to admit I am guilty of dropping many RPGs, especially the Final Fantasy series. I’ve picked up various entries multiple times only to drop it somewhere on the middle - the end of the game. I’m especially guilty of dropping FFIV, the entry that is said to be the easiest FF, in the final dungeon due to petrifying enemies I see every 5-10 steps. Years later I learned how the DS version that I played cranks the difficulty of the game up to 11 with its abysmal encounter rate. Welp lol.
FFXIII is pretty much the only mainline title apart from XIV that I played to completion. XII is looking to be packed with content so I have to make sure I don’t get burned out on it too. I don’t worry about how optimized my class compositions are though. Just picked up what I think will be balanced for my two sets of party comp.
Despite not having an open world map like the previous entries, DQXI areas are ridiculously massive in sze. I sometimes get overwhelmed by the sheer size of the overworld and the locales too. I made sure to clear every sidequests when I can but I skipped the crossbow stuffs until the post-game when I did an achievement clean-up. The final reward wasn’t that worth it and I was way too invested with the story to bother running around the map to find the targets lol. This game is a slow burn though so I’m very surprised I managed to complete it without getting sidetracked by other games.
Thanks! Hope you can clear those games as well.
Which did you like best, ending C or D?
Ending D due to a plot hole in the other one.
Ending C seems very abrupt. A2 defeating 9S in the battle does make more sense. But to me that ending is ruined by how A2 magically destroys the logic virus from 9S with little to no explanation. It’s unexplained how she could erase it when all 9S could do for 2B is temporarily stopping her logic virus from spreading.