Games of December 2021

December was a bit weird, but I feel like trying to expect anything from a month during the pandemic is kinda useless. I ended up mostly focused on Chrono Cross, which was find, but next year I really want to play more and more kinds of games.

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

1. Chrono Cross - Chrono Cross is fine. I decided to play along with the Axe of the Blood God game club and found I enjoyed the minute to minute play, but was pretty underwhelmed by the story telling and most of the mechanics. As a sequel to one of my favourite games, Chrono Trigger, it feels deeply up its own ass in story telling. Chrono Trigger is able to get by, by not spending a lot of time integrating the plot or the time travel, Chrono Cross spends so much talking about time travel that I was just hoping to find a portal to the end of the game.
   
   
   
   The combat system is also underwhelming, partly because they tried to make it so complicated. At the end of the day most of the really fancy things they implemented didn't really work. I think if they'd leaned into the puzzle colour grid and made that a much more intentional system, rather than frustrated by the random AI. I think if they'd mixed this with Final Fantasy X's combat system, it would have worked a lot better.
   I love how colourful Chrono Cross is and I love the island aesthetic. It would have been nice to really get to enjoy the world a little bit more with less of the story sitting on top. A lot of the time it feels like they made a game and only later tried to tie it to Chrono Trigger, and I'd love to play that version that's a little more laid back and embracing the weirdness.
   


2. Secret of Mana (Collection of Mana) - Had a little bit of Secret of Mana left, so started the month by finishing that up. I ended up running out of steam fighting the final boss and ended up with 1 MP left, so had to sit there and wait for the game to knock me out. I ended up doing my old fashioned magic grinding to end the game off. Stupid as it seems standing in an inn and casting magic on myself for a few hours is still kinda fun.
   
   
   
   


3. Super Mario Odyssey - Really didn't pick this up much, but played some Balloon World and really enjoyed it. Odyssey just has a great feeling for movement.
   
   
   
   


4. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Went back into this a bit, but mostly I'm planning to spend more time in 2022 learning the game and getting good at it.
   
   
   
   


5. Celeste - Played a few minutes just to get the feeling.
   
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for December:

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

Blog: Games of November 2021

I don't think I've had a month before, where I haven't played five games. I was pretty busy this month, and my PC is borked, so I guess I got to be focused for November. I'm looking forward to playing a bit more over December. I'm just about finished Secret of Mana and I'm trying to decide what to play next. I've been thinking about playing Legend of Mana, but also Final Fantasy 9 and 12, and maybe Eastward, and the Skyward Sword remake. The Axe of the Blood God is also doing a pantheon/game club playthrough of Chrono Cross, which I was thinking of playing sometime soon as well. So I have no idea what I'm going to do next, but at least I have options.

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

1. Secret of Mana (Collection of Mana) - I think I've played Secret of Mana more than any other game. It's certainly one of the two games I first fell in love with as a kid (along with Illusion of Gaia). I played a bit when the Collection of Mana first came out, but decided when I finished Trials of Mana that it would be interesting to go back to where I started and play again. It's been fun, sometimes frusterating (I've tried to do a more-or-less low level run), and a little weird. There are several things I'd forgotten and a few I don't think I'd ever seen before.
   
   
   
   


2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Continuing to try to "git good". I had a fair bit of fun, although honestly playing ALTTP makes me want to play Illusion of Gaia more often than not. They have very similar game play and IoG is beautiful (and I love it). I started to do a second play through to keep building towards "gitting good" but trailed off as the month got busy.
   
   
   
   


3. Trials of Mana (Collection of Mana) - Playing the original after the remake has been interesting. I've tried and bounced off this game quite a few times in the past. I'm thinking I'll write a combined "things" post about both the original and the remake - and Secret of Mana as well. Overall, I'm glad I played it certainly has a lot of interesting elements. I'm not sure how I would have felt if I played it back when it was originally released, and it does have some flaws by modern game standards, but it's really pretty and fairly fun.
   
   
   
   


4. Super Mario Odyssey - I barely play this, but I finished the "main game" and started on the post game bit and the flow and joy in running around this game has been great.
   
   
   
   


Here's my total play time chart for November:






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

Blog: Games of October 2021

October was a busy month and I was more focused on doing things than playing things. At the same time my PC has started acting up so any chance I had to play anything on there was a bit of a crap shoot.

I'm at a point where I'd love to find a few games to play on the Switch for short bursts, 15 - 20 minutes. Celeste and -- weirdly -- A Link to the Past have been filling that niche, but I'd love to find something new and maybe something which would have a bit of longevity. 

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

1. Trials of Mana (Collection of Mana) - Trials has been an interesting game. I still think everything in the remake was better but it's been interesting. I think it's not the greatest SNES (a)rpg, but it has some cool features. I think if I'd had it back when it was originally coming out I'd probably have loved it. As it stands, I'd like it to be faster and smoother, and the level grinding is not very much fun. On the plus side, the sprite work is beautiful (if a little hard to read sometimes) and the backgrounds are lovely. I think, especially if the game were a little faster, the variety of classes would be really cool to explore.
   
   
   
   


2. Battle Brothers - If only this didn't make my video card vomit colourful patterns all over my monitor. A little tempted to find the switch version.
   
   


3. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Reaching to ProtonJon playing randomizers, I wanted to actually "git good" at ALTTP. It's been fun to pick up and to my surprise, each chunk of the game only takes me about 15 minutes. I'm certainly enjoying this a lot more than the last time I played through.
   
   
   
   


4. Super Mario Odyssey - I didn't play much, but Odyssey is always a delight. It hasn't *quite* been that short burst game I'm looking for.
   
   
   
   


5. Ogre Battle 64 - It snowed. I played Ogre Battle. I'm assuming if you've read any of these before you'll know the tune.
   
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for October:

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

Blog: Games of September 2021

I'm discovering that trying to create an overall description of a month is kinda hard. In short, I played a lot of fun stuff in September. I finished off the Trials of Mana remake and quite liked it, enough that I wanted to start playing the original in the Collection of Mana. I guess the biggest thing for me was playing through Celeste and really working on developing the skills to get through a hard game. (Thanks PlayFrame!)

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

1. Celeste - I'm not sure the last time I felt really proud of myself for finishing a game, but finishing Celeste, I feel really proud. It took a fair bit of work and a lot of time doing the same thing over and over until I got better at it. I think there are some lessons there in how to practice. There are maybe also some lessons for someone in their late 30s who doesn't move enough, as this is the first game (in a long time) to put me in physical pain.
   
   
   
   I like when games give you a deep knowledge and bond with the spaces in the game and Celeste does a really good job of of linking you with the mountain in the game. There are screens I remember clearly and I think if you showed me any screen in the game know I'd know (more or less) exactly what was going on there. I'm playing through now to find all the strawberries and B-sides, but I've also taken the game up on its very open challenge to speed run it as well.
   


2. Battle Brothers - The brothers roll on. The only thing that's really holding me back is the bit where something seems to be cracking in my PC and Battle Brothers sets it off worse than anything else ... or maybe it's just that Battle Brothers is the game I'm playing.
   
   


3. Trials of Mana (Remake) - This game is pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. I enjoyed playing, and the combat was fun if not a really complex system. I think with the option of six protagonists that all played very differently they were limited in how complex they could make the game, especially on a low-to-mid-tier budget. I've started playing the original in the Collection of Mana and I'm impressed at how well they honoured the core feeling of the game in the remake while polishing up the rough edges.
   
   


4. Super Mario Odyssey - I needed something I could play without the strain of Celeste or the headspace needed for Trials of Mana so I found myself picking up Odyssey again. It's still good. In fact, the more I play the more interesting things I find.
   
   


5. Mini Motorways - I had a few days where Mini Motorways really captured me. After a while, though, the bit where it's a randomized puzzle game and not a city builder really started to drive me nuts. It is beautiful and if you're there for hooking up elements in a puzzle you might love this game (especially if you loved Mini Metro).
   
   
6. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Super Rush was pretty good, but the shine has come off for me a little bit. Considering how much I still go back to Toadstool Tour over the years, there's just something that keeps ringing hollow with Super Rush. The new courses they just released are okay and the new golfers they've added are okay, but the whole thing is just missing some life.
   
   
   The online has been a real bust for me. I guess I'll do enough to grab the monthly prize, but it's just not that much fun to play against people, when the only correct move is to wait as long as possible for everyone else to take their shots. The alternative "Timed Golf" mode is too unreliable to play, so the whole thing is just poorly designed.
   

Here's my total play time chart for September:

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

Blog: Games of May 2021

May was a pretty good month over all. I definitely had some ups and downs, but I feel like I'm settling into my new job and finding that balance between all the things I want to do in my life. I still want to do far, *far* more things than I have time for, but I think I'm doing ok and more or less, I'm playing games that are really satisfying.

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

1. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - I'm still not sure whether or not I ever finished this game. The "third act" definitely has all our armies finally pointed in the same direction. The game does feel a little disorganized still and there are still a lot of things they took and did better in following games. One the plus side our hero being asked "Do you mind if I call you 'Dark Bag of Organs'?" is a real Fire Emblem high point.
   
   
   
   


2. Battle Brothers - This continues to be a really great strategy game. The more I play the more I wish there was a bit more variety of things to do at the strategic level, but the actual main game play loop of taking contracts and fighting bad guys is really rewarding. It's also the first game where I feel like the speed of the game really works with the idea of things falling apart "fun". If you fail there's no real penalty to starting again and finding something else new and interesting. I think it's along the lines of the Super Meat Boy approach to 2D platforming, but in turn based strategy.
   
   
   
   


3. New Pokémon Snap - I think I'm playing the game wrong. I seems to have stalled in a way people talking on Twitter don't seem to have experienced. Still it's very rewarding and a nice short game play loop.
   
   
   
   


4. Super Mario Odyssey - All of the other games I played this month are a bit slow in their play style and it's been nice to having something to fire up and feel kinesthetically free and skilled in. Having also finished Bowser's Fury not that long ago, I think Odyssey still feels like the best "Mario" experience of moving and exploration.
   
   
   
   


5. Kirby's Dream Course - I was a little mad that I couldn't figure out what to do, but I'm learning. For a game I didn't play (or maybe rented once) this really triggers my SNES nostalgia and it's been fun to play. That being said, I'm completely ready for Mario Golf: Super Rush.
   
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for May:

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

Blog: Games of May 2020

Later stage quarantine, not actually employed, it was an interesting month for games.



My top five games (by play time) for May 2020 were:

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - I don't really know what to say about this one. It's a great refinement of the last main series Animal Crossing and it's very hip. It's easy to pick up, always has something interesting to see and is exactly the right game to have on hand when you have a moment. Definitely a happy place game.
   
   


2. Europa Universalis 4 - Remember in history class when the House of FitzGerald won the war of the roses? I think that's the part of EU4 I like the best when you're able to play with different events in history and look at interesting `ways things could be'. I played my first ever game to completion and did okay. I manage to sprawl The Ottomans across the middle east but got hung up on late game great powers. I ended up pincered between Russia and Venice and couldn't really overcome them. Still lots of fun and I'm looking forward to the next expansion.
   
   


3. XCOM: Chimera Squad - I wasn't particularly sure what to think when they announced this. My memory of XCOM 2 is being perpetually frustrated by turn limits and not quite as drawn into the story (both written and emergent). Chimera Squad seems to fix a lot of that by making the game a series quick and interesting battles. I think the game skews a little bit simple, but I also like that when I do make a mistake it's not a huge reset. I'm having quite a good time with this overall. The game does seem to have some technical problems which they'll hopefully patch up at some point.
   
   


4. Super Mario Odyssey - I love how easy it is to pick this game up and jump into something interesting. I'd love more to do and home there's some Super Mario Odyssey 2 floating around in someone's mind somewhere.
   
   


5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Given that my preference is usually to play games on my own, it's a bit weird to pick this up. But I wanted something a little different than my usual set of RPGs and tactics. I'm enjoying, trying to undo my half-remembered muscle memory from Melee and actually git a little good.
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for May:

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

Blog: Games of February 2020

February was another quiet month. I'm trying to get through Dragon Quest XI before ... things ... happen in March, and I've been feeling in that winter strategy mode which has left me playing quite a bit of EU4.


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

1. Europa Universalis 4 - Several hundred hours in, I think I'm starting to get a feel for this game. One what is about by 11th attempt at an Ottomans game, I've figured out how to manage money and growth appropriately and I'm starting to get a feel for which wars I should fight when (and how many levels of tech I should have). I'm extremely proud of taking on a giant Austria (they ate Venice and Hungary) and forcing them to give up a lot of territory and money.
   
   

   

   This is fine.

   
   


2. Dragon Quest XI S - I think the post-game is where this game actually shines. I'm having more fun now than I was for big parts of the main game. Having the correct difficulty is really important. I am a little disappointed that some of the personal growth the team goes through in the main game is undone in the post-game,
   
   

   

   This never happened.

   
   


3. Cursed Treasure 2 - This continues to be my procrastination game, or hopefully the game I play for short bursts between getting work to be done. I ended up downloading Kongregate's Kartridge program so that I could keep playing it after Chrome stops allowing Flash to play. Not sure what I'm going to do about some of the other important flash games out there.
   
   


4. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - That rainbow colour, it's Festival!
   
   

   

   This quiet moment.

   
   


5. Super Mario Odyssey - Super Mario Odyssey continues to be a real delight to pick up and play.
   
   

   

   This is fun.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for February:

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

Blog: Games of December 2019

2019 was a long year (long decade?). So it was really nice to be able to chill at the end of the month and the end of the year.

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

1. Chrono Trigger - I was a little bit inspired by Chuggaconroy playing this during the year, but also there's just something about the December break that calls for SNES games for me. I'm pretty fascinated at the number of things I've learned about Chrono Trigger, having played the game pretty consistently over the last two and a half decades.
   
   

   

   An adventure awaits.



2. Dragon Quest XI - Continuing along, I enjoyed playing, but the game does feel a bit slow.
   
   

   

   Fight! 



3. Cursed Treasure 2 - I love tower defence and out of all the free tower defence games available to play while avoiding marking this is the very best. I think I'm going to try to make my own TD game this year.
   
   

   

   In trouble, but happy.



4. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - The tradition continues.
   
   

   

   Last concert of the year.



5. Super Mario Odyssey - Out of all the games I played this year (more on that soon) this one is the one that calls to me the most to pick it up again. The game play and flow are enticing and it just always a joy to play.
   
   

   

   A game with a view.

Here's my total play time chart for December:

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

Blog: Games of July 2019

July was the first month in a long, loong time where I was able to just relax. I spent a lot of it with old childhood favourites and sprinting around being Mario. It was a nice month. Then I got hit by what might be the best Fire Emblem ever and I'm not quite sure what's happens to all the time since.

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

1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Oh wow. So I picked this up on July 26. I played 30 hours. It's pretty great. I have a few nitpicks on pacing and story, but both the actual Fire Emblem grid-based combat and the interstitial Professorial team-building phase are really fun. Played the first pass on normal, casual difficulty (party because I'm tired of how hard Awakening would kick my butt) and I've found it a touch easy. Overall this game has taken over my life a bit and it's pretty glorious being able to revel in it for a while. That being said, my students may be a little confused come September when I try to teaching them by fishing a bunch.
   
   

   

   Ah. What a lovely place for a nap.

   
   


2. Super Mario Odyssey - The more I play of this the more I love it. There's so much diversity in things to do and the motion and control is a lot of fun. I think it could have a little more to it, and I'm sad there wasn't any DLC, but I've loved my time with Super Mario Odyssey.
   
   

   

   There is more in this game than has been dreamed of in any 8-bit philosophy.

   
   


3. Opus Magnum - Zachtronics gets me. I loved SpaceChem and Opus Magnum is the new, fancy, more accessible version of SpaceChem. The missions feel a lot more achievable than some of the early Zachtronics games, and once you've achieved a working result, it's extremely satisfying to go back in an optimize those results. I think having spent a lot of time thinking about algorithmic problem solving for novice computer scientists really put me in the right frame of my to enjoy this game.
   
   

   

   It's not efficient but it is pretty, which this game lets you do quite happily. 



4. Secret of Mana (Collection of Mana) - I think this my be my game-of-my-lifetime. I bought the Collection of Mana mostly for the other two games, but I've spent more time on Secret of Mana and been extremely happy playing it again. I love the way the story flows, I love the big bright sprites, I love the controls and the combat. Of course it has its flaws, but it still makes me so happy to play. Incidentally I noticed a few things this time around. One is that the UK version has different controls and a different translation to the US version. The second is just how well the game prepares you for things. Most locations are mentioned several steps ahead of the story from the time they actually become important and I find it helps the game hang together really well.
   
   

   

   Take that, Wasp!



5. Trials of Mana (Collection of Mana) - I've started to play Seiken Densetsu 3 several times of the years and I've always played the first few hours and then trailed off. Mostly because I wanted to recapture my joy of Secret of Mana and play properly sitting on the couch. Trials of Mana is letting me do that and I have to confess I'm a little disappointed. I think the story is great and well constructed, but the flow and combat from SoM is missing and the game feels a little detached from my input (the way Legend of Mana on the Playstation feels). I'm wondering if the game didn't get brought across back in the SNES area because they knew it wasn't quite up to the standard of SoM. I think as a kid I would have been pretty disappointed with it (although my capacity to play through crappy games was pretty high back then).
   
   

   

   What a time to be alive.

Here's my total play time chart for July:

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

Blog: Games of June 2019

My June was mostly dedicated to playing on the Switch. I'm really enjoying the ease of picking up the controller (or the console) and being into a game within second.

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

1. Super Mario Odyssey - Thanks to this game I can now pretty regularly spell Odyssey. The more I've played the more I've gotten into it. I keep thinking I must be running out of fun (or at least Power Moons), but so far it just keeps showing more and more depth.
   
   

   

   In context, this doesn't make any sense either.



2. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Fest - This usually doesn't land so far up the list, but my play time was pretty spread out this month. As always this is a nice way to wake up on weekend mornings with my partner and even though we basically know all the events by heart by now, it's still a charming thing to play.
   

   

   Sunday Morning Business meeting.

   
   


3. Xenonauts - Less charming, but no less fun. I am surprised by how long it took me to get into this game, but I have been pretty thoroughly enjoying it. The only real complaint I have at the moment is that I'm readier to end this campaign than the game seems to be. I think there's a little bit of pacing trouble between the missions you play and the research the game does for you that actually advances the plot. Otherwise, I'm enjoying the combat and I feel like they've arrived at a spot where "failure is fun". (But that might just also be my brain relaxing from the PhD).
   
   

   

   Oh sure, deal with my shotgunners by building all your ships like tubes...



4. Cadence of Hyrule - This game is pretty awesome. I was really bad the first hour or so, but then found my groove (so to speak) and got the idea of the game. Since then I've really enjoyed it, although I find it needs a particular mindset to really appreciate (and because it's rhythm based, you can't drink and play well). I wouldn't mind if it had a little more meat on it, but I'm only about halfway through right now, so there may be more to come. I'm interested to see how it replays (it feels short) and I think I might also take a look at Crypt of the Necrodancer for the purer Rogue-Beat genre.
   
   

   

   **Guitar Riff**



5. Secret of Mana (Collection of Mana) - I was not spoiled on this, so when Nintendo announced the Collection of Mana in its E3 direct I pretty much fell out of my chair. Seeing Seiken Densetsu 3 released in English in North America is fantastic and so I bought it as soon as it was released (which was that night as I recall). I haven't played too much of either SD3 or SD (Final Fantasy Adventure) yet, but having Secret of Mana to hand has been a total blast. Also I discovered that the UK localization is very slightly different (and better?) than the US one.
   
   

   

   **British Whale Sounds** 

   
   
6. Pokémon Go - I really haven't spend that much time sitting down to play PoGo the last little while, but trying to keep streaks up, I've played a few minutes each day. That's been enough to get it into the top list for the month.
   
   

   

   Good catch ... 

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for June:

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

Blog: Games of May 2019

My May was fairly busy, but it was also the first month I owned a Switch. Generally I've been pretty happy with the Switch so far. I think I haven't enjoyed the "gimmick" of the Switch so much, but the joy-con are pretty good controllers. I generally don't like the hand-held consoles, so I've mostly used it docked, but the couple of times I've taken it "on the road" (all the way to the back yard) it's been fun.

In addition to Super Mario Odyssey and Mario Tennis Aces, I also played Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. All in all it didn't quite grab me the way Odyssey did and I found it a touch ... sloggier ... than I'd hoped. I also picked up Celeste, but actually only played it on the one day in April I owned the switch. And finally I downloaded the Demo for Katamari Damacy Reroll, and I owe Dan a real apology for all the shouting I did watching his let's play. (But seriously, how do you TUUUURN?)

Also really enjoying having a console with a working screen-shot facility again. If you want to see what I'm up to you can follow @gamesTJPlays on Twitter.

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

1. Super Mario Odyssey - This is a really good game. I enjoy the bite-sized nature of the moon hunts in the "after" game. I also generally like the "main" game play following bowser, even if the "story" is possibly the worst ever in a Mario game. There's no question that between the this and Breath of the Wild (as the two big games in the first year of the Switch), I love Breath of the Wild significantly more, but I have fully enjoyed my play time in Odyssey. (Even if I've been slow learning to spell odyssey.)
   
   

   

   Looks like a nice place to adventure.

   
   


2. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Back in with my no-fast-travel play through. It's been fun and caused me to be a little more thoughtful about how I play. I've enjoyed the planning and side tracking such as, I need more storage for swords, now I have to go all the way to the Deku tree to get my inventory expanded, maybe I should stop in on Kakariko on the way. Also I'm still mad at the Bokoblins who exploded my horse.
   
   

   

   It feels like we've been here before, but it's good to be back. (Still need to fix the Wii U internet connection)

   
   


3. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Fest - I have news. Your Amiibo top out at Level 6. We are not amused. (There are like 40 different emotions!)
   
   

   

   True Love.

   
   


4. Pokémon Go  - I haven't really deeply settled in to a routine playing, but I'm still doing the mostly daily.
   
   

   

   Adventuring.

   
   


5. Mario Tennis Aces - This game has a single player and I basically can't finish the first 4 levels. I assume I'm just not getting the idea of the game, but my history of not really hitting it off with the Mario Tennis games is long. However, I figure the best way to point out that I'd really like a new Mario Golf or Mario Strikers (in that order please) was to pick up Mario Tennis.
   
   

   

   Even the start menu is kinda hard to learn.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for May:

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