I’m back! And I was going to write a lot about all kinds of things, but a photo speaks a thousand words:

That’s right folks, there’s gonna be some changes around here! But, uh, not till next week because that’s when I’ll buy a TV ^_^; Until then the PSTV will just have to look pretty in its box. I bought a Vita memory card too, but it’s so expensive my camera melts when I try to take a picture of it. Either that or I’m hallucinating due to sticker shock. What on earth was Sony thinking?

Top 5 discoveries of No-game November

• Every single game on my backlog has been cleared off. Yes, even the Atelier games. If Xenoblade Chronicles 2 fell from the sky in front of me I would play it, but that’s about it. The rest have all been made redundant and sent home to reapply for their positions. Having too many games on my “To Play” list was stressing me out, so I decided to start afresh. The successful candidates will probably show up on my New Year’s Resolutions list for 2018, assuming we all make it that far.
• I missed treasure chests! I missed action-packed combat! I missed colorful vistas! I missed otome games! I’m not sure how these things all go together, but it might provide some clues as to the kind of games I should be pursuing from now on.
• That said, I discovered I can live without games pretty well. They’re not an idol or an emotional crutch and I certainly won’t fall apart if I can’t push a few buttons every once in a while. It wasn’t totally easy though. The hardest point was mid-November, around the 14th-15th. That was when I had been gameless for 2 weeks and had another 2-week drought to look forward to. Even visual novels started to look good, haha. But I hung in there. Second-hardest point was the last few days of the month because I felt tempted to cheat. Especially on the 30th, it was like I’ve been so good, surely one little peek at Paradise Bay won’t hurt, will it? I guess knowing it was only a month-long fast was what made it bearable. I know for sure that I wouldn’t want to quit forever, at least not at this point in time.
• Gaming doesn’t really interfere with my daily life. I tend to play late at night when I wouldn’t be doing anything productive anyway. So you would expect that I went to bed much earlier in November, right? Nope! I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to fill the time with other worthless pursuits instead. I blame my smartphone. No-smartphone December? Ummmmmmm… <_>
• Gaming mainly at night explains why I’m so impatient with talkative games these days: I’m sleepy! All this world-building, immersion, character development stuff is like a lullaby. I don’t mind if the story comes along once I’ve been playing a while but the lengthy prologues drive me crazy. Blah blah, the evil demon king has done this and that and this… Relax ma’am, I’m a hero. I’ll take care of the demon king so let me play already!

And some other stuff I learned about myself and video games that would take too long to explain right now. The long and short of it is that the break has left me hungry for games and the PSTV is about to satisfy that hunger. I’m so spoiled for choice I don’t know what to play first (OreShika? Demon Gaze? OreShika???)

For the rest of the week I’ll just pick and try games at random. I started Black Rock Shooter for the PSP in late October, figuring that if anything could get me to change my mind it would be an Imageepoch game. The combat is like Last Ranker gone wrong, the world is bleak and the characters are colorless. But there were glimmers of hope in there. I’ll fast-track its application and give it another hour to wow me. After that it’s PSTV time!

Related posts:

Dream C Club Portable – Idiotic game Haretari Kumottari N – Not bad for a free game Summon Night 3 – Fine game, but a little too long No-Game November!