Happy New Year! This was the quietest New Year’s Eve I’d ever spent in my life, thousands of miles away from friends and family. I didn’t even notice when the clock struck twelve because I was too busy reading morbid articles about pythons swallowing people. Don’t ask.
Still, yay, 2012! There’s something nice and round about that number that makes it seem like it’ll be a good year, right? So happy new year to everyone!
Now, back to the important stuff. For the past couple of days I’ve been playing Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light, which like Tactics Ogre: LUCT, is not quite bad enough to quit playing over. I’ll write something about it when I either finish it or give up, whichever one comes first.
Since I don’t plan to buy a 3DS, Vita, 360 or PS3 any time soon, the games I plan to play this year are mostly games from my massive backlog dating back at least 10 years. Twelve games should be reasonable enough.
1. Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSP) – I started it last year and didn’t get far. I’ll try and finish it once and for all in 2012. No news of an Eternal Punishment remake so far, so I might jump straight into the PSX version of that when I’m done.
2. Summon Night 3 (PS2) – First PS2 troubles then TV-unavailability problems kept me from playing this last year, but this time I’ll try to make it happen. I’d like to play SN4 too, but first things first.
3. Dragon Quest VI (NDS) – On Feb 14th it’ll have been exactly one year since I finished Dragon Quest V, making it as good a time as any to move on to the next one. I’ll probably be desperate for a good, old-school RPG by that point anyway.
4. Tales of Innocence (NDS) – I played this very briefly after finishing Tales of the Tempest. To be honest I thought it was even worse, all the flaws of ToTT but with some reincarnation bullshit thrown in on top. But I only played an hour, so I’m going to restart and give it a proper chance later this year.
5. Wild Arms 2 (PSX) – I haven’t touched my PSOne in years. I think it’s still working, but I’m not going to risk it, so I’ll just play this on an emulator. I played WA1 almost 10 years ago and liked it. Now I’ll get to see if the rest of the series is worth bothering with.
6. Suikoden 2 (PSX) – Same deal as with Wild Arms 2, except I skipped S2 and played S3 and it was really kinda bad. Still, Suikoden 2 is one of those legendary “OMG you have to play this, I can’t believe you haven’t played it yet” games. It should be playable, at the very least.
7. Atelier Elie (PSX) – Also to be emulated. It’s the only “main” Atelier game I have yet to play, apart from Lilie, which I dropped after a few hours because it was frustrating. Atelier Marie was my favorite one of the “real” Atelier games, and Elie is supposed to be a much-improved sequel, so this should be good.
8. Disgaea (PS2) – I’ve had this game for years. I’ve tried to play it several times, but I always quit before too long. Too much stuff to think about, not enough excitement. This year I’m going to give it the mother of all college tries to find out once and for all whether the game is just not for me or whether it’s really as bad as I’ve felt it to be so far.
9. 7th Dragon (NDS) – My love/hate affair with ImageEpoch continues. Luminous Arc 3 was amazing, Criminal Girls was fantastic, Sands of Destruction was so-so, Final Promise Story made me want to nuke Tokyo. What will 7th Dragon be like? I’m quite excited about this game, tbh. There’s a PSP sequel, so if I like this I’ll order that as well.
10. Ni no Kuni: Shikkoku no Madoushi (NDS) – I’ve been waiting and waiting for this to come out in the West. That’s obviously not going to happen any more so I’ll have to import it. And when it’s time to import something, I always ask myself, “Okay, do I really want this game that badly?” Thus far the answer’s been “No” but I think this is the year I’ll finally take the plunge. Maybe.
11. Shining Hearts (PSP) – It looks nice. The heart-collection system sounds…different, I guess? And I haven’t played anything Shining since Shining Force Feather in 2008, so I might as well.
12. Phantasy Star Portable (PSP) – Phantasy Star, this, Phantasy Star, that. I’ve been hearing about you for years. Bring it on, let’s see what you’ve got.
Aaand that’s it. Of course I’m being super-optimistic and just taking it for granted that I’ll have the life, health, time and resources to play all these, but if you can’t be over-optimistic on the first day of the year, when can you be? As for life resolutions, I only have three. One, go to church more often (I only went twice in 2011, for shame), Two, buy more and pirate less, and Three, spend less time playing video games! One hour less a month still counts as less, right? ;-D
Wow, so many games! I wish I’d speak japanese so I could play Summon Night, too (I’ve played a little the DS and GBA spin-offs), but what really caught my interest was Black Matrix.
I haven’t played most of those games (only Persona 2 and Disgaea). Oh BTW, I really like Disgaea *because* of those many things to do, although visiting the Item World so frequently can be tiring. P2… Well, I love it, much more than latter Personas.
Happy new year!
Happy New Year! Black Matrix 00 and Cross are on my imaginary to-play list as well, just way further down than Summon Nights 3 and 4. It seems Disgaea is made for people who like micromanagement, and for a long time I’ve tried to play like that, but this time I’m going to see if I can just plow through it like a regular SRPG or whether it’s a lost cause.
Have you played Saiyuki Journey West?, it’slike the bastard child of Final Fantasy Tactics, but much more simple and accesible both in story and party management. And the party members are very likeable not like FFT were your party are only mindless drones.
I’d never even heard of it till today. Just finished watching some trailers on Youtube and it looks great! I love those old-school PSX graphics. Okay, this is going on my To Play list as well. Got any more suggestions?
Very few games hold my interest until the end, this is one of them.
I’m trying to remember another good one, but SRPG, from the top of my head, this is the only one. Try it! you won’t be dissapointed.
Roger, will give it a shot. Based on the videos I saw I think I’m going to like it.
Will be looking forward to your reviews like always and happy new years!
I just saw this video on youtube of some guy talking about trying to get PS3 games onto the PC and how consoles are becoming obsolete, what do you think?
I’d have to watch the video myself to decide, but I don’t think consoles are going anywhere for a long time. Not as long as they cost far less than the kind of PC you would need to emulate those games, at any rate. The number of people who play (or would play) their console games on the PC is probably pretty small.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUXw86Vn8ko
Around 1:37 the guy starts talking about why he thinks the PC is going to be dominant. Mind you, even though it’s supposed to be talking about why he thinks Dark Souls should be on the PC, he’s generalizing it enough that it sounds like he’s comparing all consoles to the PC.
Not sure if the speaker is just an avid PC fanboy, but I’m not too fond of the idea of the PC monopolizing the entire gaming industry.
Well he’s really just talking about bringing Dark Souls to the PC, not about bring everything to the PC. Most of his argument is directed at the factors that make Dark Souls perfect for PC (difficulty, graphics, multiplayer, it’s an RPG), but those don’t apply to most games currently out on consoles, so I don’t think you have anything to worry about.
He talks about “PC gamers with the kind of computer which has the specs to run a game like Dark Souls” and “who are willing to spend between $500 and $4,000” on a rig, and just how many such gamers are there? Not enough to bring consoles down, I would wager. Those are hardcore gamers, and I would actually say if the console makers do focus on pleasing that audience, that will lead to their demise, and not the other way round. Trying too hard to please such demanding, high-spec gamers will lead to alienation of the rest of the gamer market that doesn’t care as much about or even hates difficulty, graphics and multiplayer. Plus it’ll make development and marketing costs even higher than they already are, and I think the makers know that.
tl;dr Let’s put it this way: when my favorite developers start developing exclusive for the PC (like Square-Enix has been doing for the iPhone lately), then I’ll start worrying.
I admit that I got a little paranoid when he predicted that consoles will die out. I like your analysis of this and obviously you know a lot more about the way the industry works than I do. Thanks for the peace of mind 🙂
Gotta be honest and say I’m just an ordinary gamer that knows very little about how development works. I just think consoles are doing well for themselves right now and that for every gamer like the one who posted that video, there are 10 more who are satisfied with their console purchases just the way they are.