Games of July 2022

Time is funny. When I play Eastward, it bends all of my expectation of time and I'm perpetually surprised at how little I played it. When I play Loop Hero it seems to go the other way and I feel like I played for a few minutes when an hour has passed.

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

1. Loop Hero - Loop Hero is pretty good. I'm not sure I'd have started playing it, but a few people online swore by it and it wandered past me when I was buying stuff on the Nintendo eShop. (I still need to fix my PC). It's a mix of RPG and Rogue-like and NES throwback nostalgia bait, but at it's heart it has a lot of interesting ideas and the game play is really compelling.

   

   I'm reminded of a short story Navigators by Mike Meginnis, which I listened to LeVar Burton read on his podcast. The stories aren't exactly similar, but there's something about the stories that we wove into games on the NES or Atari where we filled in a certain dark richness. Loop Hero puts that up front and I guess follows a trend for gothic themes right now. (Still waiting on Nona the Ninth.)
   
   



2. Hollow Knight - I really love the feeling of getting better as I keep playing Hollow Knight. I also really enjoy the depth of the story told in the game and shape of it in general.
   
   
   



3. Eastward - Eastward is a very good game. I pushed through to complete it and I'm really glad I did. As I've said I'm fascinated by how dense it is. I feel like I played significantly more Eastward than I did Loop Hero or Hollow Knight, but as you can see I didn't play that much. The story is good, if a little convoluted, but the characters really stand out. If you like the idea of a slightly dark adventure with good people in the style of earthbound, then I think you'll like this game.

   

   The combat feels like it's just on the verge of being really interesting. Even though it felt good to play, I found it to be a little limited, but I think there where quite a few things I didn't really understand how to use properly. When I finished the game, I wanted to play it again right away to really get good at the combat.

   
   
   


4. Triangle Strategy - I'm very slowly trying to work my way through to the "Good Ending". I'm disappointed that the game is so slow and the story ends up being rather frustrating (or maybe dull). The actual tactical game play is fantastic and I think the voting mechanic is really interesting. It's another really good game, but it's hard to play and doesn't pay off as well as some others.
   
   
   


5. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I don't know why this is on the list again, but here it is. I guess I'll say it's possibly the easiest game to pick up and play.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for July:

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

Video Games of June 2022

I like that in the chart of how much I've played, you can see the exact moment my brain released it's clamp on Dragon Quest Builders 2. Now that I can look around again I'm trying to get back to playing more games.

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

1. Dragon Quest Builders 2 - Playing in free-mode, after the story's finished hasn't been as compelling as the story mode, even though I found the story mode kept getting in the way of playing the game. I think this will settle in to be something I play every once in a while, but I also don't think I have the patience to build anything like the things I see in pictures from other players.
   
   


2. Mario Strikers: Battle League - I've always had a complicated relationship with the Mario sports games, aside from golf, and I've also found that the Switch Mario sports games have been just a little shy of the personality and interesting game play that I'd like them to have. Battle League feels like it's sitting right at the cross of these two problems, it's pretty hard and not that interesting. Playing with other people might help with that, but the league structure doesn't feel like it's working and I got my ass seriously kicked in the one online game I played.
   
   


3. Hollow Knight - It's been nice to pick Hollow Knight up again and I'm surprised how much better I am at it than I was when I first started. I've been enjoying the feeling of motion and freedom.
   
   


4. Mario Golf: Super Rush - As always, Super Rush tends to be my lunch break game when working from home. I'm enjoying that it seems to still have interesting things for me to get better at, even if it still feels a touch bland just like the other Switch Mario Sports games.
   


5. Eastward - If you asked me, without looking it up, I'd say I played almost as much Eastward as I have DQB2. It's a very dense and intense game and it feels like every moment you play is important and interesting.
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for June:

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

Video Games of May 2022

"I want to play lots of different games this year," he said.

"Oh look, the some Dragon Quest games I haven't played are on sale," he said.

"Hmm, people have said Dragon Quest Builders 2 is pretty good," he said.

"What happened to May?" he said.

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

1. Dragon Quest Builders 2 - So I had figured this would be the kind of game I might dip into here and there. I may yet do that, but I hadn't realized that the game is actually (or at least to start) a 60 hour Action-RPG. It's a game with a lot of flaws, in terms of controls, gameplay and story, but as you can see, I struggled to put it down. If you'd like to spend some time building things in a Dragon Quest world, this is the game.
   
   
   


2. Eastward - I stalled out a bit on Eastward, mostly due to Dragon Quest Builders 2, but also Eastward is a bit weird about progress in the story in the same way Earthbound is. When we were suddenly making movies with monkeys, I felt a little less compeled to pick this up.
   
   
   


3. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe - The theme for everything else this month is, I decided to play Dragon Quest Builders 2 instead.
   
   
   


4. Triangle Strategy - Dragon Quest Builders 2.
   
   
   


5. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Dragon Quest Builders 2.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for May:

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

Video Games of April 2022

April was a pretty quiet month. I don't have too much new or interesting to talk about. I am finding I miss my PC so it's probably about time to go and get that fixed.

The only even remotly interesting thing to talk about is that I've decided that I want to try to play at least 50 unique games this year. Currently I'm at 22. It's a very unimportant goal, but I feel like seeing more things sounds like fun.

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

1. Triangle Strategy - I finished my first play through. As I've said the last few months, the game play is outstanding. I think the construction of the story and the implementation of choices and the voting system are a little unweildly and not quite as fun as the might be. It's still worth playing if you like that kind of grid-based tactics game.
   
   
   
   
   I looked ahead to a second playthrough and decided that trying to get all four endings wasn't going to be worth the work. It looks like the "golden ending" is the only ending that's worth the time, so I've decided to do a second playthough with a guide.
   
   In new game plus, they introduced several new and interesting levels outside of the story and those have been excellent. Most of my playtime this month has been on those levels.
   


2. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe - This has been a great game, especially when my brain isn't up to something more story heavy. Beyond playing for it's own sake, I got interested in which courses are the most popular in the online multi-player so I've been doodling a new program to calculate power rankings. (I haven't written about it yet, but may do a little later). So in addition to the intrensic joy of playing, I've enjoyed the extrensic happiness that comes from "I got more data."
   
   
   


3. Eastward - As far as I've played, Eastward is an artistic tour-de-force. The game feels very intentionally and carefully built, and the world feels very intricate and lived in. The story leaves me feeling slightly uncomfortable, in the way that is very remenisent of Earthbound and Mother 3, but more grown up .
   
   
   


4. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Lunch golf is good. Maybe not the best use of lunch every day, but 20 minutes of Mario Golf still makes me happy.
   
   
   


5. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - This was a month where the top five has some pretty low numbers on it, so I played less than an hour of Breath of the Wild. Still, as always, I apprecate how after all these years, there are things I've never seen and that are great.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for April:

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

Video Games of February 2022

 

February was a weird. I mean, there was a lot weird in February, but particularly I lost that happiness and flexibility about playing that I was feeling in January. So I mostly played comfort games and at least I managed to be a little productive in the other areas of my life. I'm still not feeling right, but hopefully I'll get a little spark back before too long.

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

1. Ogre Battle 64 - It's been a little bit since the last time I played, but on Axe of the Blood God they've been talking lots of strategy games lately and I jumped back in. Also it snowed. Are you surprised?
   
   
   
   
   I tend to feel a little defensive about Ogre Battle, and it still has a lot of features that aren't as polished as they could be. This play through I'm trying to play a style that's a little different than what I usually do and seeing the game from that different perspective has showed me quite a few elements that are pretty cool. Also I kicked off the vampire story line by accident, so that was fun.
   
   


2. Hollow Knight - This game is pretty great. The more I play the more impressed I am and the better I get. 
   
   
   


3. Eastward - I've continued to play Eastward, and enjoyed it a lot. The dark Earthbound / Mother 3 vibes are strong and that leaves me feeling hesitant to invest in the characters or the world. I'm also finding that there's a bit of padding in the section in the 3rd town I'm in now, which makes me want to play a little less, but I'm sure I'll pick it back up.
   
   
   


4. Triangle Strategy - I'm sure part of the reason they're talking about strategy games on Axe of the Blood God is the forthcoming release of Triangle Strategy. Along with Ogre Battle, I loved Final Fantasy Tactics (made by some of the same people). It's a broken game with a lot of weird jankiness, but there's just something that is deeply satisfying about moving pixel characters across an isometric grid and getting to watch attack each other with cool animations.
   
   
   
   
   The little bit they give you to play in the demo for Triangle Strategy felt like it honoured a lot of that history, but have some good modern design. The demo does seem to have some technical flaws, but overall I'm pretty excited to play the full game later this week.
   
   Stephen Georg put out a tweet, transposing the name to "Strangle Tragedy" and that has stuck with me hard. Also it feels like it may be a synopsis of the plot to come...
   
   


5. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I wanted to find something simple but fulfilling to play and I couldn't figure out what I wanted. Out of a bit of desperation I put Breath of the Wild in, spent a few minutes feeling like it wasn't as good as the remake of Skyward Sword, but after that, I was back in and I still think this is my favourite game. 
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for February:

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

Games of January 2022

Recently, I've been too worried about finishing games and trying to focus on what I play. I'm trying now to play as much and as broadly as I can. I've played 14 games in January and I feel really good about it. Honestly, this month has felt like one of the months I've been happiest and excited about the games I play. It's been great to pick up whatever game feels like it best fits the moment. I've found a new space in my heart for Mario Golf, space for Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 and a bunch of other games too.

I wanted to talk a bit Super Mario Party, even though it isn't in my top five below. My partner and I played a game one Saturday night and we really enjoyed ourselves. I originally picked up Super Mario Party to defend against the threat of niblings who might wonder why Uncle TJ has so many video games that they can't play, and then it's basically sat on the shelf ever since. We often end up playing single player games beside each other and I thought it might be fun to actually do something together. Super Mario Party filled that gap for us pretty well (and really it's the first video game we've played together since we gave up on Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival). I see why people have enjoyed Mario Party All Stars more, I'm really glad we played.

I played a little bit of Legend of Mana on the Switch, which I'm still not sure how I feel about exactly. I'll play more, but I'm reminded of how disappointed I was when I first played this. It has a very "unstory" story and the combat feels very odd - although now having played the intermediary step of Trials of Mana it makes more sense. It looks beautiful, but I'm a little unsure about the decision to upres the backgrounds, but leave the character sprites original.

Another game I wanted to talk about was Actraiser: Renaissance. I didn't get in to the original Actraiser on SNES - despite loving Quintet's other games - because as far as I could see it wasn't a great city builder and I didn't like the idea of the platforming parts. Unfortunately, Renaissance seems to also not be a good city builder and I thought the platforming was awful. I picked it up because I watched ProtonJon play a chunk of it, since he thought it had too much city building in it, it might appeal. It didn't. Also, unlike Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 - which we'll discuss momentarily, this game makes incredibly loquacious NPCs an absolute frustration and nightmare. 

Or perhaps I mean, "Oh, dearest, most venerable Lord, the people of this land which you so lovingly watch over, love you and and are so pleased to venerate you at this alter which you placed in a most advantageous position in our settlement and while so venerating, beg your assistance, oh Lord, to dispatch the vile monsters which do so plague our settlement, which you so lovingly..." *cough, cough, cough* I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me there. I'm glad I picked this up in the hopes that it brings Illusion of Gaia and the Turbo trilogy to light, but I can't say it's "good".

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

1. Hollow Knight - Dan Floyd from Playframe, loves this game and came to love this game over the course of his Let's Play. I'd been thinking I should at least try it out and honestly it's been a great part of my new play to play more games. It's been a bit of a struggle, but I went back and restarted after hitting a bit of a wall and I'm really impressed with how much better I am than when I first started. This is an outstanding Metroidvania and I am really enjoying it.
   
   
   


2. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - So, Skyward Sword was the very first game I really wrote about on the this blog. I was feeling silly having bought it again for the switch, since my Wii U is *right there*, but honestly I'm glad I picked it up again. It's a lot of fun and it's pretty and relaxing. (Hollow knight has been pretty in its own way, but in no way has it been relaxing.) I've always liked Skyward Sword - in fact it was my favourite Zelda when it came out - and honestly the HD remake has felt great. It has a few flaws, and the motion controls are not ... seamless, but it's a good time.
   
   
   


3. Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 - I'm pretty good at Tetris. I'm terrible at Puyo Puyo. I'm in love with this game. The original idea seemed a little dumb to me and I'd been avoiding this and the original Puyo Puyo Tetris since I don't really engage with multiplayer games that much. That was dumb and I am so happy I bought this game. There's way more than enough single player content for me here and the game actually does a reasonable job of teaching you, if for some reason you're only good at one of Tetris or Puyo Puyo.
   
   
   
   
   But the game play isn't what I'm here to talk about. This game has a dumb story. It's a game with 3 - 5 minutes of cut scene dialog before and after each level. The characters talk *a lot*. I'm here for it. I don't know why, but between the writing team and the localization team I'm grinning from ear to ear between levels because it's all so profoundly dumb. Nothing makes sense, no one makes sense and I am damned well here for it.
   
   


4. Mario Golf: Super Rush - I wasn't too happy with this game when I wrote up my end of the year thoughts. Pretty good, but lacking content and soul. I was wrong.
   
   
   
   
   I was wrong about the content anyway, they've introduced a lot of new courses and a few new modes and honestly there's a lot to really enjoy about this game. They also fixed their online mode so that it's not misserable to play - although the netcode is still a little bit janky. I've really enjoyed Mario Golf this month and it's been the perfect thing to pick up for 20 minutes. It's *still* a little short on soul, but honestly I don't mind any more.
   
   


5. Eastward - I've played about four and a half hours of Easward. I *feel* like I've played 20. I don't really know how to describe Eastward. It's an action RPG set in the post apocalypse (I think). It's an homage to 90s games and a pastiche of Earthbound. It's very upbeat while leaving my heart clenched that terrible things are going to happen. It's beautiful pixel art of an ugly world. I'm excited to keep playing and I'm really glad my current outlook on games makes it easier to digest each bit as I play.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for January:

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