Books Read in 2022

Grief

Books Read in 2022

Dumb-ass

Books Read in 2022

Connection

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: