With the grip that Minecraft had on my mind being forcefully removed, my intention was to spend the rest of the month finishing some games that have been on my to do list forever.
Unfortunately that didn’t happen. The only game I managed to finish was Y’s Origin, with the Hugo route. That leaves only the third route left to play to be completely done with the game (unless I get insane and try to go for some achievements). But for now this game goes back to the proverbial virtual shelf.
What I did end up doing instead was to start some new games… Because of course my mind would want to do that! /sigh
Splatoon 2
No, that is not a typo. And yes, I know it is not a new game to me. This was another attempt to finish a game, or rather the single-player campaign of it.
Yes, Splatoon 2 does have a single player campaign. It is pretty fun and you can learn quite a few tricks playing it.
Anyhoo, I wanted to finish it before I moved on to Splatoon 3. In my mind all I had left to do was complete some Sector 5 levels and then give a try to the Octoling DLC. Unfortunately my memory was wrong (to the surprise of no one) and when I last played the game I had barely started on Sector 4!
Despite my best intentions my advancement through it got stalled as I got distracted by other games. I will try to finish it and Sector 5 this month though. But I wouldn’t hold my breath about it.
Legend of Mana
This is a game I had been planning to buy and play for a while. I was just waiting for the right opportunity to do so. Well, the anime adaptation hastened that decision and that moment became October!
I actually played this game back during its original release but like many games of that time I never finished it leaving me with regrets. So you can imagine how happy I was when I heard not only that the game would get a remaster but be available in a platform I could play now.
There are some differences between my memories and the actual game though (again to the surprise of no one). For instance in my memories the different areas were a lot longer and the action combat was a lot more fast paced. The reality is actually pretty different but I don’t feel like it is a bad thing. It is still an extremely fun game plus the short areas make it perfect to just launch it, get a few events done (how they call quests in this game) and then go do something else.
I am still pretty early in the game though. There is a long way to go before I am caught back up to where I stopped all those years ago.
The House in Fata Morgana
Another game that I had my eye on for a while. Since October is the month for Halloween I wanted to get into the spirit of it by playing an horror game. The House in Fata Morgana was my choice. I mean, it is not like I have a bunch of other horror games waiting for me already! /sarcasm
Speaking seriously though, do you know how people say there are books to be read and books to be devoured? Well, this game is the visual novel equivalent of it.
Everything from the music, the story to the art are excellent by themselves and combined they make the game into a perfect work of art.
Having said that, I am not sure if this is really an horror game or a series of very tragic tales. Well, with the exception of chapter 2. That one was uncomfortable for a lot of reasons.
Granted, I am still far from finishing the game so it is possible the rest of the stories will be horrifying.
Right now I am at chapter 3, near the end of it I think. I already have a hunch on what direction a part of the overall story is going for but there are still a lot of unknowns that I am curious to discover the answers for.
Warhammer: Vermintide
Recently there was a humble bundle for Warhammer: Vermintide 1 and 2. A friend of mine bought it to get the DLCs for Vermintide 2 for cheap and since she knew I was on the fence about it, she gifted me the keys for Vermintide 1 and the base game of Vermintide 2.
The Warhammer universe is one that I’ve been curious about for a long time but never really delved into it. However since this is primarily a multiplayer game I never bought it.
Well, turns out you can play it with bots which suits me just fine. Even better I am finding it a good game to launch when I need something brainless to do (and I’ve been needing it a lot!), kill some skaven and then quit the game. I also love the banter between the characters, it is just perfect. Kudos to the people who wrote it and the voice actors who brought those lines to life!
Blue Archive
Despite all the time I spent playing Fate Grand Order, I do have an aversion to gacha games. For a genre that is supposed to be casual they can end up taking up too much time for too little enjoyment. And don’t even get me started on their predatory business practices!
Even with all of that, I decided on a whim to watch a stream about Blue Archive. It was entertaining enough that I decided to give it a try. Turns out if you make a game with cute girls and a good sense of humor I am an easy target for it. :p
Right now I am enjoying the silly stories. The gameplay isn’t too bad either. However it is still a gacha game so if I never talk about it ever again you will know why.
Fate Grand Order
Instead of the usual Halloween event, Fate Grand Order got the Great Void Sea Battle – Imaginary Scramble event. I suppose in a way it is horror-like considering it is centered around Foreigner servants.
For those who do not play the game, the Foreigner class are composed of servants whose source of powers are from the Outer Gods. Although the servants aren’t necessarily evil, those Outer Gods definitely are and they don’t want anything good for mankind. They some times also influence the Foreigner servants’ minds.
Anyway, the gimmick of this event was a kind of battleship mini-game, where we have to uncover tiles to progress through the story and uncover enemies to defeat.
My annoyance with it is that there are three different types of sonar, that get unlocked through the story. Each of them uncovers areas in a different shape. So there is one that will uncover in a square area, another in a kind of cross area and another in a X area. All three have different materials requirements too which is obtained through the free battle nodes from the event.
The end result was that it was annoying to progress as there was no perfect strategy to uncover the whole board. There was always some lone tiles that felt just a waste to use any sonar on it but you still had to do it if you wanted to uncover the whole thing.
This also led to some grind, although in retrospect it hasn’t been nearly as bad as other previous events.
My last nitpick with it is that the last bosses of the story have some mechanics that felt like those of Challenge Quests. That made them really annoying to fight, specially because it is required if you want to finish the story. Although if you do have a good option of Alter Egos (which I do not) then I suppose they are not that bad.
The first one I tried to defeat mainly with my servants and I had to use my Command Spells to win the fight. The second one I also tried to rely mostly on my own roster, got close but couldn’t defeat it. Then I decided to borrow an Alter Ego from the Friend List to be my main DPS. I almost lost but was able to finish the fight this time.
For the third boss I again borrowed the same Alter Ego from the Friend List and that went a lot easier. I still have the fourth boss to defeat in order to finish the story but will try it later tonight. After that I will have to decide if I want to give a try to the Challenge Quest or not.
As you might have guessed by all that rambling this hasn’t been an event I’ve been enjoying much. The story has been okay-ish though.
Honorable Mention: Minecraft