Yo! I’m still alive. Sorted through the “stuff” I mentioned in the last post (family health crisis, everyone’s fine now). The only problem is I’m exhausted and don’t feel like playing anything. I’ve tried to start a couple of games. I’m okay until they start introducing instructions. Press B to do this, press R1 to bring up such and such. It’s work. Too much work. I don’t want to think so much right now, so I end up dropping everything after 5 minutes.
What’s the plan, then? Give up gaming? Hell no. My next attempt will be an otome game. That won’t have any controls, right? Just read and read and occasionally pick some stuff. But visual novels are really boring. Boring stuff is work. So an otome game with gameplay, of which I have about 100 to choose from. Except console games are work too, so it has to be handheld or PC. That narrows things down a bit. I’ll pick something and start…. maybe… if it’s not too much work. Or chances are good I might take the whole May off from gaming and resume normal activities in June.
Anyway this was just a quick message to say I’m alive and well. See you all again soon!
It happens, everyone gets burned out on a hobby they so frequently put time into. Taking a break is always the best. I usually find a good getting back point when I feel like playing something maybe again (unless it is wanting to play a specific game of course) to ease in with simpler and/or shorter stuff. Nothing very commitmental. Harvest Moon or somesuch.
Yeah, I can already feel my interest coming back from the long break. And your point about easing back in with something simple is a good one. I’m thinking of starting a new Anno 1404 file this weekend: something really pretty with really easy controls.
So here’s a plot twist – looks like ImageEpoch’s CEO has resurfaced with a new company and is now into Mobage development.
http://www.4gamer.net/games/406/G040698/20180113003/
Mystery solved, I guess.
Unless he disappears a second time.
Whoa, he’s gotta lotta nerve showing up again after the disappearing act. I should be happy he’s not dead in a ditch somewhere, but he looks so smug and greasy… and coming back with such a trashy looking game… Thanks for the link to the interesting article. At least we know what happened in Imageepoch’s final days.
I had a phase like that in late 2016, where I was simply too drained by real-life issues to invest energy into gaming. And funnily enough, I also found myself drawn to otome games and visual novels at that time, just because those were the less demanding games I could think of.
Anyway, just take all the time you need to recover and regain your gaming mojo. ^^
Thanks. I’m feeling perkier already.
http://www.siliconera.com/2018/06/12/atelier-series-star-game-nelke-legendary-alchemists-announced-ps4-ps-vita/
Huh, I guess they’re making Tristia through means of an Atelier crossover game.
Well if Kogado Studio won’t make any more then they can’t complain if someone else does. I love this idea. And it’s coming to the VITA too. Me wanty!
The only thing… I wanted them to make it a new series/IP instead of a spinoff game with characters I’m already tired of. I have buy about 10 copies so they make more 😉
Out of curiosity I checked Kogado’s website just now. They seem to be doing pretty well for themselves as a graphic design/educational material design company. For games they’ve only released a few mobile apps in the past couple of years. Including one called “Nanoca’s Earthworm Udon Studio.” Yup, the series is definitely done.
It’s a bit more complex, actually.
They recently released 2 of their VNs on Steam – Nurse Love Addiction and Symphonic Rain, the latter of which was a HD remake that actually had to have new graphical assets done for it. I have the impression they both bombed though (back when Steamspy was still working, the number of owners was like 5k or so, which is pretty tragic) so it’s a shame they didn’t choose Tristia, but maybe I’m wrong and they’re planning to do it anyway.
I have an acquaintance who always visits the Kogado booth during events like Comiket – he likes to be really vague but apparently they do mostly merch from Falcom’s Trails series but they also produce at least one new Tristia merch item per year. Apparently they always seem to imply they’re going to actually do something but the Tristia goods are the same ones they keep bringing back year after year because they don’t really sell out and I can’t say that’s not surprising because the company didn’t really attempt any sort of publicity for like a decade now – at least Sakura Wars managed to get themselves into a whole bunch of Collabs so that people remember the characters to be confident enough to launch a new game.
So I honestly have the impression that there’s probably some group of people there who can’t convince the actual moneyholders to approve them going back to game dev.
Nurse Love and Symphonic Rain are both old games, I’m talking about brand new stuff. That said, if they’re going to try to profit off their old titles, it should at least be interesting stuff like Tristia. With a quality translation and some good promotion, those games would blow people’s minds. I mean they were too slow for me as alchemy games, but as visual novels they were surprisingly well-written with some fiendishly good world-building.
Still, it seems Kogado is in a good place with their other ventures. And even if the Tristia goods don’t sell out, they must be making a comfortable enough profit to keep them coming back every year. As long as the company is still alive, there’s always hope.