Games I’ve been playing – February 2021

This was one of those months where I got the urge to “PLAY ALL THE GAMES!!!!1!!!one!!!eleven!!!”. But as usual when I get that kind of feeling my ambitions end up being greater than what I can actually play.

It didn’t help that my sleep has been extra bad this month so there were some days where I didn’t have the energy or the desire to play anything. Instead I chose to just lay on the bed and watch something as it required less effort.

The other reason is that I spent a good chunk of time preparing to DM a D&D one-shot for some of my group. This I consider time well spent. We all had a blast and I gained some confidence in my abilities to DM a game… as long as I have a written adventure, that is. XD

I will still have to prove to myself that I can make a whole adventure from scratch but that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Anyway, this is what I’ve been up to in gameland:

Tales of Berseria

I got an itch to play a JRPG so I figured I might as well play this one as I loved what I played of it and really want to finish it.

Since I couldn’t remember how to play anymore, much less what my goal was the last time I played the game I decided to re-start from the beginning. Unfortunately I didn’t get too far, only escaped from prison before getting distracted by other games.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

This one I blame on Belghast and Naithin. They were both playing Dragon Age: Inquisition during February and that made me decide to jump on the bandwagon too. It is a game I never finished and I’ve been wanting to get some closure on the story for a while. Their posts just pushed me towards doing it.

Unlike with Tales of Berseria my plan was to just load my save from years ago, get to the end and call it a day. I thought the game had cloud saves back then but apparently it did not because once I re-installed the game there were no saves to be found, forcing me to start from zero. That might have been actually for the best as there were some mechanics I didn’t even remember existed anymore.

I just remade my character from my first attempt while also doing the exact same decisions he did. In retrospect I am not sure that was a good idea as other character options might have been more interesting. Oh, well, if I decide to go for further playthroughs I can play other characters then.

In terms of story, I didn’t get terribly far in this game either. I just got to Skyhold and was starting to investigate the disappearances of the Grey Wardens. Then I spent a lot of time just doing as much side content in the other regions I could.

I also intended to make a post about Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dragon Age: Origins in February but due to the above-mentioned reasons I could not. I might still do it this month if I feel like I still have something interesting to say about both games.

Dragon Age: Origins

This one I played more on a whim. I already played this game so many times that I know it almost as well as the back of my hand. This time though I am playing one of the two origins I never finished, the dwarf noble.

I just chose that origin because, besides never finishing a game with that, I am curious to see if at a certain point in the game there will be a third choice. It is very unlikely due to a lot of lore reasons but I am curious anyway to see what will happen. Even if all I get is to see my character’s “dear” brother reaction that should be satisfying enough. XD

Once more, I didn’t get very far as I just couldn’t get myself to play the game much. My party had just reached Lothering and I haven’t touched the game since.

Fate Grand Order

I don’t think I have been as bitter and salty about this game as I have been during February. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me first mention the “Valentine’s Event”.

The “Valentine’s Event” was okayish in terms of story, while the fights weren’t too hard to farm. In fact I think this event had the easiest “Challenge Quest” I ever saw in the game as I was able to finish it in two turns.

Then came the “SE.RA.PH.” re-run event. I was excited to go through it because the first time the event was available I couldn’t participate due to not meeting the requirements. I heard people like the story of it a lot and wanted to check it for myself.

The other reason I was excited is because it gives the welfare servant, B.B., one of the two Moon Cancer class servants currently available in the english version of Fate Grand Order.

After a few days playing the event though I realized it was bugged to me and I couldn’t continue through the story. I tried to google about it but only found two people who had the same problem, one of them having it on an alt-account. Neither of them had any solutions either.

I don’t know what caused the bug or even if Delight Works, the developer, knows about it. Whatever the case is, it means I can’t finish the event or get my own copy of B.B.

This made me disappointed, bitter and salty. The story looked to be above average for FGO’s events and this was a servant I have been looking for about two years.

Yes, I am aware that there aren’t many cases where a Moon Cancer class will make a large difference. Yes, I am aware that in two and a half years we might be able to buy B.B. copies with Rare Prisms. I am still frustrated and disappointed anyway.

I will have to see if this kind of problem doesn’t happen in future events. If it keeps happening then I will just quit the game since a lot of my time spent on it is playing through them.

Fate/Stay Night

I got the itch to play a Visual Novel and decided to try finishing the first route of Fate/Stay Night. Despite my problems with Fate Grand Order this month, I still love this franchise, with the original visual novel still being one of my top priorities to finish.

Despite knowing how the story goes, because of the anime adaptation, it still surprises me with all of its details. Yes, I know that an adaptation can’t, and shouldn’t, copy everything word by word but still there is a lot about Shirou and Saber that I am only discovering through this game.

I am just now discovering how much more messed up Saber’s life was than I thought. The circumstances on how she became a servant were also a surprise and all of that explains a lot about her determination to win the grail as well as some other details.

It is also nice to see how Saber over time becomes less “Terminator”-like and becomes more human-like as she interacts with Shirou, Rin and the rest of the cast.

I am very close to the end of the first route, Fate. The only reason I didn’t finish it was, again, because of the issues I mentioned at the beginning of this post. There were a couple evenings where I thought about forcing myself to try to finish it but I figured that if I did do that I wouldn’t be enjoying the game. That is not how I want to finish the first route of a game in a franchise that I love.

Honorable Mentions: Minecraft