Happy New Year! May 2013 be as quiet and uneventful for me as 2012 was! Everybody, love! And peace! And lots of video games!
This year I have two overall gaming resolutions:
1) I shall no longer force myself to continue games I’m not enjoying. I usually end up quitting later anyway and feeling terrible to boot.
2) Get out of gaming by the end of 2014. It’s a hobby I’ve been spending less and less time on and getting less and less enjoyment out of with every passing month. Nothing happened in 2012 to make me want a 3DS/Vita/WiiU/PS3/XBox360, either. 2013 will therefore be spent playing sequels and games I’ve “always meant to try” as a prelude to a more or less complete shutdown in 2014.
Unless, like, Sega releases, like, Phantasy Star Portable 3 or something, then I’ll be in a deep doo-doo (hint, hint).
And so on to the sequels and “always meant to try” games for this year. Last year I managed to get through 9 of my 12 resolutions.
1. Phantasy Star Portable 2 (PSP) – I can’t believe I’ve managed to hold myself back this long when every cell in my body has been longing to play this. It had better have been worth the wait. But I know it will be ‘cos it’s PSP2. 😀
2. Star Ocean Second Evolution (PSP) – The first SO was a highly pleasant surprise for me last year, and I’m told the second one is better in almost every way. Of course this could be false hype like with Suikodens I and II, but I’m going to trust in my own luck and try it anyway.
3. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP) – One of those “always meant to try” games. I’ve been avoiding it for years because I hear you need a FAQ to get any sort of good ending. I HATE games like that, but I’ll suck it up and try it anyway. I used to have VP2: Silmeria for the PS2, but only my brother liked it so I got rid of it.
4. Dragon Quest 7 (PSX) – Continuing my rampage through the DQ series. 6 was a disappointment and I hear 7 takes forever to get going. If I don’t like it, I’ll quit with no regrets. I used to have DQ8 for the PS2, but only my brothers liked it so I got rid of it… or so I thought but actually I still have it? Somebody’s gonna be really happy to hear that.
5. Breath of Fire 4 (PSX) – BoF was my favorite RPG series for the longest time before being overtaken by Grandia. I loved 2, 1 was okay, 3 was plenty good, but somehow I never got around to trying 4. I’ll make up for lost time this year. I used to have BoF: Dragon Quarter for the PS2, but I heard bad things about it so I got rid of it without even trying it.
6. Sakura Taisen 2 (PSP) – I played and liked 1 last year, so this is the natural followup. They need to beef up the battles a bit, put in a more satisfying story and flesh out the character plots a little more. That’s all it’ll take to make me really happy.
7. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP) – I’ve always wanted to try an MH game, so I bought this for cheap last year. The controls sound a bit clunky, but maybe I’ll love it once I get the hang of it.
8. Tales of Hearts (DS) – Continuing my (probably) doomed foray into the world of Tales games. If I have time this year I’ll also try Tales of Eternia. That will make it 4 Tales games I’ve played, more than enough to tell me whether this series is for me or not.
9. Saga Frontier (PSX) – Another of those ‘always meant to play’ games. I loved Saga Frontier 2, especially the art style and the soundtrack. It had so many cool, but completely wasted characters. Time to see what the original has to offer.
10. Black/Matrix Cross (PSX) – No list of mine is complete without a strategy RPG. Flight Plan was better known for the Summon Night series, but I’ve had my eye on Black/Matrix for a while.
11. The Last Story (Wii) – Mistwalker has really disappointed me so far. However I’m home, the family Wii is here and we have The Last Story courtesy of my brother with the weird tastes, so I might as well play it. I hear it’s fairly short and fairly good apart from a whack romance story, so it just might work out.
12. Lunar Silver Star Harmony (PSP) – A third ‘always meant to play’ game. I know I’ve played a little bit of some Lunar game or the other before, but I don’t remember which one. There was a dragon in a cave and we had to get a stone from it, and then my fat friend quit the party to become a shopkeeper and I quit the game because I was bored. I’m going to give the series (wait, is Lunar a series?) a proper try with Silver Star Harmony.
And that’s it. I’ll also play anything else that catches my fancy, but these should keep me on my toes this year.
Now for another day or two of forced socializing and then my time will be my own again. Happy New Year!
Seems like your brother likes a lot of games that you don’t. Do you really mean to give up gaming?
I don’t know if I’ll have the strength to go through with it, but I mean to try. I’m aiming to get to the point where I only play 3 or 4 games a year, but they’re REALLY good games. Even if I don’t try, the gaming industry will help the process along by failing to release anything I find remotely interesting.
My brothers and I enjoy pushing our tastes on others. They try to get me into Dragon Quest and Resident Evil and Advance Wars, and I try to get them into Persona and Harvest Moon and Atelier games. And we all fail spectacularly to interest the other, but we have fun doing it!
Have you tried Brave Story New Traveler? I find Xseed publications pretty fun.
I’ve tried a Brave Story game on the PS2, I forget the title. It involved running and jumping around in a forest, and I got bored pretty quickly.
I’ll be fine if you stop playing everything except simulations, since you’re about the only source on them in English I can find.
(That statement’s tongue in cheek)
Aha ^^;; I play them largely for my own amusement, but I get your point. I love simulation games, so they would be the hardest for me to give up anyway.
They don’t make video games with heart like they used to…
I like your list of games btw :p I’ve always wanted to try a Black Matrix game too. I’ve got a couple of them on my shelf but I never got around to trying them out…
I know that feel. You keep meaning to play A and B and in the meantime C and D come out and you want to play them as well… and before you know it you have a huge backlog.