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 August 2021

Time feels like it's absolutely blowing by right now. Looking back at August I can't even remember what all happened, but I did play some good games.

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

1. Trials of Mana (Remake) - I picked up Trials of Mana at a point where I really wasn't sure what I wanted to play while sitting down on the couch. As it turns out I'm really glad I did. The game is fun. The combat doesn't have a ton of depth, but has enough that every fight is interesting enough. The story isn't great, but the story wasn't great in the original either. The game looks pretty good overall. I don't like some of the models they've chosen, but even those are fairly faithful to the '95 original. I don't know that I can totally recommend it, but I've had a lot of fun.
   
   
   
   


2. Battle Brothers - This game has just the right amount of challenge and decision making to give it some really nice flow. Sometimes it flows in a bad direction, but usually when I finish playing, however long I play I'm pretty happy. I don't quite know how to describe or encapsulate how that flow works, but I think it revolves around keeping the stakes of any decision low enough that a bad choice doesn't cripple you.
   
   
   
   


3. Mario Golf: Super Rush - If Nintendo had a bullet proof network infrastructure, their new online play mode would have me pretty hooked. Since they don't it leaves me kinda interested. The online mode also illustrates how much their focus was on the running-around-the-golf-course mode compared to the traditional golf mode. Competitive matches tend to resolve into two or more people just waiting for everyone else to go. Unfortunately, the running-around-the-golf-course-mode stutters and chugs when played online.
   
   
   
   


4. Civilization VI - As always, I want to love this game the way I love Battle Brothers. I read Sid Meier's Memoir, and it left me wanting to play Civ, but perpetually the image of Civ I have in my head is more fun than the one I actually play.
   
   
   
   


5. Celeste - I started rewatching Carrie play Celeste on PlayFrame, as an exercise in seeing how someone who doesn't play much can take on a really hard game. I don't usually play those hard games, but I felt inspired. I'm having fun with it, although my hands do hurt.
   
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for August:

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

Blog Post: Video Games of July 2021

July was a much quieter month than the last few. I'm still working on finding my happy point for balance between getting stuff done and getting stuff played, but generally I was pretty happy. I found myself struggling a little bit with finding a game to play to relax with, but with a little bit of energy Trials of Mana has turn out to be a delight.

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

1. Mario Golf: Super Rush - This has turned out to be a good game to play when I need something to pick up at lunch (as with World Tour before it) and it's been something good to play quickly. It's not great and definitely has a noticeable lack of depth, but the moment to moment play is fun.
   
   
   


2. Battle Brothers - Other than the bit where my PC seems to be having some issues, especially while playing Battle Brothers, this continues to be a great game the play. I'm continuing to learn more and more and the depth required to play well has been really compelling.
   
   
   


3. Trials of Mana (3D Remake) - I've stalled out playing Seiken Densetsu 3 a few times. It kinda lacks the drive of early Secret of Mana and also suffers (for me) from not *being* Secret of Mana, so it results in a lot of huh, that's good but different. The combat in is also, not terribly easy to read. The 3D remake is pretty good, I've enjoyed the combat and I think they've made some reasonable chances, streamlining some of the rough places in the original.
   
   
   


4. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - This took a little longer to finish than I'd hoped. From my perspective it provides a list of all the quality of life features that were eventually implemented in later games. On the other hand I *like* the story and the characters and compared to the games before it's much more dynamic and interesting. I think it was worth playing through, especially just after playing Path of Radiance, but I'm in a good spot to wait a little bit 
   
   
   


5. Peggle - I've ended up playing Peggle and Zuma when I've needed to get a break without getting up from the desk. (And really I *should* just be getting up from the desk.) Peggle takes a little bit longer to play than Zuma, so it ended up just ahead of it in the list.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time for July:

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

Blog: Games of June 2021

June was quite a busy month and a little unsettled, so I didn't play all that much. Honestly, there's just not that much to say about the month in terms of games. Still I did have some thoughts about the games themselves.

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

1. Battle Brothers - The game is great, but it's also very quick to pick up which is how it managed to get as much play as it did this month. I've probably spent too much time looking at how the very 'expert' players play, which sometimes feels like it's too much optimization. Still haven't had a 'successful' run, but it's been fun to play around in the world.
   
   
   
   


2. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - I'm feeling frustrated with how hard it is to keep everyone alive in the later missions and that's driving down how much time I play. I'm certainly glad they made later games easier to play, even if I think this one has my preferred story.
   
   
   
   


3. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour is my favourite golf game. Super Rush hasn't managed to replace it, although it certainly is pretty and has a well designed video game golf mechanic. Weirdly the big thing I'm missing is the chance to play in tournaments. I'd love a mode where you can just play on tour after you finish the story mode (I haven't finished the story mode, so maybe this will have it, but I'm not optimistic). I do like the speed golf mode, I haven't tried the battle golf yet.
   
   
   
   


4. Peggle Deluxe - I was recently reminded of Peggle and threw it and Zuma on my Steam Wishlist. They went on sale for $1 each so I picked them up. (Not that I don't have other versions ... somewhere, but who knows). I've played a lot of Peggle over my life, and I'm pretty happy to have picked it up again. I'm still working through the "tutorial" which limits it a little, but hopefully it'll pick up speed before too long.
   
   
   
   


5. Zuma's Revenge - I've played quite a bit of the Facebook version of Zuma back when that was a thing. The full version is quite good and I've really enjoyed it. It's a nice counterpoint to Battle Brothers. I do really miss the old Popcap games though.
   
   
   
   

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 March 2021

March was a bit of a weird month. I think I played the fewest games in a month this month than every before (at least in a long while). This was a combination of getting into Battle Brothers (maybe a little too deeply) and trying to be a little more mindful about my time.

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

1. Battle Brothers - I'm really enjoying how much I've been able to learn. I've done around 20 runs at this point and I usually find a dumb way to die (spiders - ugh), but I'm enjoying that each time I go back in I'm a little better and I'm able to get a little farther. I've been following the game's reddit, so I feel like there's a bit of a limit to the possibilities for high level play, but I'm enjoying my low level wandering around.
   
   
   I do think the game is a little bit limited by it's random world generation. My most recent play through ended up trailing off a bit because the world seemed to be missing some of the things I needed and where it had them they were in awkward places to get to. Still this has been a ton of fun and since it's pretty easy to boot up, it's been my go to a lot of the time.
   


2. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Playing Path of Radiance has been really enjoyable. It may be the nostalgia, but among Fire Emblem games it feels like it has a good balance or like it illustrates things I'm going to enjoy about other games later on. The story is pretty good and the game play is pretty good and overall, even if it's a bit slow, it's felt like a good place to put my time.
   
   


3. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury - I've been playing Bowser's Fury more than 3D World. The open world where you can jump into interesting platforming challenges is a lot of fun. I've just finished up Bowser's Fury and I feel like the 100 Cat Shines was a nice challenge without sticking around for too long. 3D world is also a total joy to play and amoung all of the Mario games Nintendo rereleased this year, it's the best to go back to.
   
   


4. Mario 35 - Well, they've wrapped it up. I found I did play Mario 35 more than I might have because there was the looming deadline of them turning the game off. It's been a lot of fun and it made me play the original Super Mario Bros. way more than I would have. I'm sad it's done, but I'm glad it was here.
   
   
   I will say, I hope we see it again for a season next year and I also hope that Nintendo has thought of a follow up in the form of Zelda 35, or possibly something even more unique and interesting. I had hoped they'd announce something by now, but they haven't.
   
   


5. Valais IV - An unusual aspect of this month is that the games I very briefly try out actually showed up in the games of the month list. So Valais IV came out for the Nintendo Online service (I think) and I tried it out. It wasn't really my thing. I'd like to get into some of those SNES style combat platformers (Castlevania stuff), but Valais really didn't really grab me.
   
   
6. Kirby's Dream Course - Another quick test. I don't get this game. I've watched a couple Let's Plays and I think it looks fun. On the other hand, I just have no intuition for what the game want's me to do. Still I might
   
   
7. Animal Crossing: New Horizon - Oooof. I feel bad, but I just couldn't pick this game up this month. The couple of minutes I played were to go to one my the villager's birthday. I felt badly about missing a digital creation's birthday, but generally feel like the game doesn't really reward an emotional investment.
   
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for March:

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

Blog: Games of February 2021

February felt like a very busy month. I had my head down trying to get a lot of stuff done, but I also tried to pretty intentional in what I played. I happened to hit a mix of new(ish) and old and a mix of strategy and platformer / action that really made me feel good.

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

1. Battle Brothers - I head about this game years ago on Three Moves Ahead and thought it sounded like fun, but maybe a little hard and gory. I saw it go past on a good sale on Steam and picked it up a while ago and finally just started playing. I really like it. It's hard to put down, thanks to a Civ style one-more-turn and really well paced learning and difficulty turns. It's "hard" and has a bit of Dwarf Fortress "fun" in it, but honestly every time I've been wiped out or screwed something up I've been happy to start again with my next band of brothers. It *is* a little gory, but since everyone is a shown as a bust moving around the field it's not to bad (although I'm not thrilled when "brains" end up in the trophy bag).
   
   


2. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - I'm trying to set aside some time each Sunday to really get into an RPG or something big. I wanted to go back through Path of Radiance and more so Radiant Dawn (the sequel). The game's a little rough compared to newer entries (Three Houses especially) but the story is pretty good and I've enjoyed playing it. (Much as I desperately want zones of control from Battle Brothers.)

   

   From GameFaqs user Shogain

   
   
   


3. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury - I played 3D World at a happy point in my life, so I have a lot of nostalgia for it. Additionally, while it has some problems, it is a really good game and I appreciate how focused it is, even if that results in levels that feel a little constrained. Bowser's Fury is a a fascinating hybrid of 3D World and Odyssey, it's a lot of fun and a little frustrating. The mechanic that Giga Bowser shows up to make your life harder is really interesting, but sometimes I find the levels were just hard enough already so it tends to throw me off sometimes when I want to be focused. On the other hand I think the game would probably be a little boring if there wasn't a giant fire breathing monster on a timer.
   
   


4. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - I think musou games will never be for me, but I really enjoyed this. I finished up mid-month and haven't been back, but I thought it was pretty fun. It was also interesting to look at some people who are really into the genre and see what they liked and didn't like. In short I probably never really "got" the game, but I certainly had fun and the story was interesting.
   
   


5. Mario 35 - It's almost over! (Supposedly). Still fun to dip into and I think it's definitely set me to think about playing Mario games more. I had more fun with 3D World, but a few minutes of Mario 35 was always good.
   
   

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 January 2021

January was a transitional month for me, so I had a different month playing games. My days are a little more structured and I'm much more able to take an evening or a day on the weekend to play. I've also been trying to play more intentionally, and focus on a couple of games.

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

1. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - The more I play Age of Calamity, the more interesting I find it. I do find that the musou style of game play doesn't really appeal to me, but with practice I do feel like I'm doing epic things now. The story and especially the cutscenes are really well done and have made it worth playing.
   
   


2. Dicey Dungeons - I needed to find something to enjoy during lunch. Now given that I work, take lunch, play PC games and do my hobbies all at the same desk, maybe I *don't* need something to enjoy during lunch, but I'm still looking. Dicey Dungeons has more-or-less been a good fit for that, but I am finding I'm hitting a bit of a wall as I get to its harder difficulties. It's fun and has a lot of good mechanics, but the pacing is a bit harsh.
   
   


3. Hades - Still totally awesome, but I've been playing a bit less just due to focusing on other things. The one thing I find frustrating is that if I don't play for a few days, my next few runs are really rough.
   
   


4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Uh, I'm sliding out of this. They have announced several updates and events for February, but I'm finding it harder and harder to stay interested. I'd still love to love this, but they're just not really finishing development. I don't know if it was caught in the pandemic, it was just successful enough that Nintendo decided to put resources else where, or this was their original idea of the game, but as anything beyond a doll house it's hollow.
   
   


5. Mario 35 - I suppose Nintendo's gambit that putting a time limit on how long you can play the game worked because I keep choosing to play this over other games because it's going away in March. It's good game and the battle-royal is interesting. 
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for January:

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

Blog: 2020 in Games

It's time to take a quick look at my yearly gaming wrap up for 2020, wrapping up what I played the most (and least) and what I enjoyed the most. 

Top Games by Time Played

I don't think it's too much of a surprise that my most played game of 2020 was Animal Crossing: New Horizons at 205 hours. Animal Crossing was exactly the right fit for a year where we avoided contact with other people and mostly stayed home. In a lot of my recent monthly tracking posts, I've mentioned that this particular Animal Crossing feels a little hollow compared to some of the ones that come before (I'm a relatively recent convert, but Tama Hero has a video on what changed). I'm not sure as things stand AC:NH will be that high on my 2021 list, but it was certainly a pleasant way to spend the year.

Following up AC:NH, we have Europa Universalis 4 at 84 hours and Dragon Quest XI S at 83 hours. EU4 filled a lot of my time in the first half of the year. It's enjoyable and has the right amount of challenge that I'm engaged without being too frustrated. I'm not exactly good at it, but it's also not a game you really need to be good at, it's just interesting to see slightly different ahistorical version of Europe turn out.

Dragon Quest XI was also a lot of fun. It is Dragon Quest, so if you're not interested in straight ahead JRPGs you're apt to not enjoy it too much, but it's a nice addition to the series. I found it a little bit longer than I'd really have enjoyed but the late game had the right level of challenge and fun.

My two least played games of the year were Bloons and Space Hulk Tactics at roughly 6 minutes each. Bloons is (was) a free flash game so that's no great loss. Space Hulk Tactics was pretty wildly disappointing and I wish it had the Warhammer 40K name on it because I probably wouldn't have tried it.

For the record the "middlest" game I played was Risk II. This was a version of Risk (the board game) produced in the early 2000s published by Hasbro/Mircroprose. It's abandonware and my PC did not enjoy trying to play it (even with windows XP compatibility turned on). It's an ok version of classic risk, but it has a fun construction of "Same Time Risk" where you put in your orders and then the game reveals everyone's orders at once, so you can have armies clashing over boarders if two players decide to attack each other. It's unbalanced and honestly has some problems, but it's a game that has really stuck with me. It also has the mechanic that bigger armies get bigger dice so if you do it right you can role a d20 against your enemies d4 (that's not quite how it's implemented but that's the idea). Kinda odd for a thing I didn't download until after Christmas (and can't switch away from once it's started).

In total I played 799 hours of games in 2020. This is a bit up from previous years, but given the nature of 2020 I don't think that's a surprise.

For fun, I also keep track of how often games appeared in the games of the month. So in case you were curious here's how often each game appeared in the lists:

Top Games by My Rating

My favourite games that I played this year are (in alphabetical order):

• Chrono Trigger
• Hades
• Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Super Mario Odyssey
• XCOM: Chimera Squad

I never look back at previous rankings, so this is my subjective list from late 2020. I think it's a solid list of games. Chrono Trigger is a classic and Breath of the Wild will be too. Hades is seriously one of the best games I've ever played. After feeling ambivalent about most of the XCOM reboot, Chimera Squad is a breath of fresh air and a total blast to play. Odyssey is maybe the game that's most on the bubble in this list, but it's an absolute tour de force in how to put fun movement mechanics into a game that easy to pick up an play for a minute or an hour.

Thoughts on Games in 2020

I'm pretty happy with a lot of what I played in 2020. Ending the year with Hades was a delight and it topped off a year with a lot of other things that I was pretty glad to play. I was pretty intentional with what I played (especially considering there was a pandemic on) and generally I didn't feel like I was supposed to be doing something else for a lot of my play time.

Beyond Hades, I also really enjoyed starting the year with Chrono Trigger and then Dragon Quest XI. I also really enjoyed XCOM Chimera Squad, Golf Story, Mario 35 and ending the year off replaying Illusion of Gaia. 

I did end up feeling uncomfortable towards the end of the year. I wasn't as good as I should have been about being intentional and additionally I found myself very tired, so I was doing less and playing more. I'd like in 2021 to be a little better about getting things done outside of playing games. In particular I'd like to actually *make* some games, so that's a thing I'm going to try to focus on.

The other thing I found towards the end of the year is that it was hard to really get engrossed in a game. That's a thing that's hard to control, but I think it's worth it to try to push myself through a couple of games that I haven't stuck with so that I can see them and feel done about them.

I also want to find some quick-fun games that I can play in 5-15 minute chunks when I need a break from getting stuff done.