Blog: Games of September 2019

September wasn't too exciting. I'm continuing my march through Three Houses, (2 endings down, 2 endings left) and I've started playing a little Dragon Quest XI. Other than that I'm trying to find a good balance between productivity, gaming for relaxation and gaming for excitement.

My top five games (by play time) for September were:

1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - It keeps going and going ... *Pink Rabbit Rolls Through Banging Drum*. This game could have turned into a total slog, but the actual game play has been fun enough that I've always been pretty happy to fire it up. Additionally the different stories for the three houses has made it really interesting to keep going. I'm planning one more play through now to finish the last ending. I'm also thinking of another play through to do some kind of 'perfect play through'.
   
   

   

   I think this is her problem summed up really.

   
   For my third play through I moved the difficulty back down so that I could play a little faster. I'm also playing the Black Eagles now, and I'm trying not to recruit any PCs from other houses (I did pick up a few, but just to ensure I have enough bodies on the field for the bigger missions). I really appreciate how different the Black Eagle story and missions are. I was a little disappointed with the similarities between the Golden Deer and the Blue Lions.
   


2. Dragon Quest XI - I'm really enjoying Dragon Question XI. It brings back a lot of the things I've enjoyed about other DQs and it's refreshing. I think Tim Roger's review sums it up best for me. This is a game you can play at an easy pace, and just drift into it. There's enough game to keep me engaged, but not so much that it requires my full attention.
   
   

   

   And I've never been happier.

   
   It has some nice quality of life improvements over previous games. The ability to run quickly is nice (as is the collection of speedy mounts you can pick up. I've ended up adjusting the combat back to pretty standard for Dragon Quest, but I appreciate their attempt to spice up the combat and further the fact that I *could* switch it back. I'm looking forward to this as a nice long story with some funny accents and swords and magic.
   


3. Super Mario Maker 2 - I haven't really gotten into SMM 2 the way I did to the first one. I'm not quite sure what I'm missing because they've made a lot of nice additions to the game. I think it may just be that my creative energy is pointed elsewhere right now. I also feel like the increase in quality of levels and the increase in styles/tools has resulted the levels feeling a little more standardized. I'm still enjoying it, but it hasn't been a must play.
   
   

   

   Fight!



4. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - Our weekend standard continues. We're thinking we'll substitute in New Horizons some of the time when it comes out, but Amiibo Fest has been an important part of our quite time.
   
   

   

   Checking out the scores.



5. Super Mario World (SNES on Switch) - This is the *weirdest* Super Mario Maker game. I think of the 2D Mario's this my favourite, but playing it again with the SNES online service, I'm struck but just how weird it is in comparison to all the other games. I've maybe played more of this game then any other (It's the very first game I bought for myself) and I've enjoyed picking it up again. In light of Super Mario Maker and a lot of common 'rules' for level development it feels very different, sometimes it feels unfair or weird, but generally I think it's fun. It's also a hefty dose of nostalgia.
   
   

   

   I'm amazed at how it feels like this game comes right out of the screen.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for September:

And here's a chart of how much I've played over the month:

Blog: Books Read in 2019

Inexorable.

I'm on Good Reads

Blog: Books Read in 2019

Passivity.

I'm on Good Reads

Blog: Games of August 2019

We could just call this post Game of August 2019, because I've played a lot of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I got sick, and it turns out that the switch is a great game platform to bring to bed, play until the battery runs out then sleep until the battery charges up again. Also Three Houses is really good.


My top five games (by play time) for August were:

1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - So yeah. I played 30 hours in a couple of days last month. This month I played more than a hundred hours. I've started on a third play through now. My first Golden Deer play-though was around 70 hours and my second Blue Lion's play-through was around 80 hours (there's a little discrepancy between my recorded time and what the save-game things I have recorded). The game play is compelling. My first play through was on normal, which was a little easy for a Fire Emblem game, especially when playing without permadeath. For my second play-though I moved the difficulty up to hard, which was a better feel overall, although some of the difficulty was in limiting repair of weapons rather than the actual tactical gameplay. The story is also very good and the different facets you see depending on which house you play and which support stories you build gives you a lot of reason to keep playing to understand more.
   
   

   

   To Battle!

   
   


2. Europa Universalis IV - It's been a little while, but I fired this up again needing a little break from Three Houses and I'm having a lot of fun. As usual (pretty much) I'm playing the Ottomans again, but the new mission structure is illuminating interesting things to do while playing.
   
   

   

   Decisions decisions.

   
   


3. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - Honestly should have played this more. August is the best in game month.
   
   

   

   Sisters...

   
   


4. Opus Magnum - The game is still very approachable, but the late story missions are a little more work than I feel like putting in right now. The missions from the Steam Workshop have been a nice follow up.
   
   

   

   Be fancy. Make potions.

   
   


5. Pokemon Go - Didn't play that much what with not wanting to leave the house. I'm hoping to see the number for September be a lot higher.
   
   

   

   The summer.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for August:

And here's a chart of how much I've played over the month: