This Old Neon Forum

I unexpectedly hunkered down this evening and finally finished off the last of the prep-grind (maxed all Materia, just in case) and then trounced the final big optional super-boss. All that's left is to rocket through the game on hard mode, and I can skip everything along the way, so it should be a bit quicker than my first run all things considered. We'll see how much more difficult the difficulty is.

Platinum Progress:

Chapters 1–15 (all side-quests completed so far / all manuals collected except for one branching path—you have to complete chapter 9 on Hard Mode twice lol)
Chapters 16–18

I just played through the first Dragon Quest on my Kindle and had a blast. I promptly started the second one after finishing. Am looking for my first additional party member.

I’m also playing Suikoden II and, occasionally, Tales of Hearts R.

Main time-waster game: Animal Crossing
Main portable game: Langrisser M
Main upstairs game: Hades
Secondary upstairs game: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Switch
Main downstairs/stream game: Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster

I've settled into a different pattern the past few weeks. Now when I get home from work, I simmer on the couch for an hour or so and make a little chunk of progress in a few low-effort games:

Picross S6: solve 1 row of puzzles - I'll be beating this one soon.
Tetris 99: play one game
Dicey Dungeons: play one game - not sure where the ending/credits are in this one, but I'll get there eventually.
Grindstone: beat one stage - this game is immense! There are still so many stages to beat before I get to the end, I suppose because it was designed as a "play this forever" mobile subscription game.

I also attend to dailies in Animal Crossing (e.g. build a perfect snowperson for my stamp book).

When I actually have time and energy to pay attention to a game, I'll switch over to the PS5 to do one run of Hades and then sink some time into Yoku's Island Express. I doubt I'll beat the former anytime soon, since I am terrible, but the latter seems like it shouldn't be very long.

Kong Wen wrote: ↑26 Sep 2021 19:51 Main time-waster game: Animal Crossing
Main portable game: Langrisser M
Main upstairs game: Hades
Secondary upstairs game: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Switch
Main downstairs/stream game: Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster

I’m playing the PS4 remake of Crash Bandicoot, The Swapper, and Apotheon on my PS4. I haven’t been using my PS5 for much lately…its most played game would be AssCreed 37.294 Minnesota. But it’s just occasional.

I miss Persistence. But am doing good with these other games.

Oh man, killing it on the progress front today. Another row of Picross S6 mega puzzles (easy and routine), but then I also finished one of the hard achievements I was working towards in Tetris RNG (3x top-10 finishes with no hold queue, no tetris line clear, no t-spin), then finished another elimination round in Dicey Dungeons, then finished a couple stages and knocked off a challenge in Grindstone.

Besides my routine games, I also finished the 3-chapter demo of the upcoming Square strategy game, Triangle Strategy Game.

I'll probably have time to sit down to a couple more Hades escape attempts and maybe even some Yoku progress tonight, too!

Kong Wen wrote: ↑25 Jan 2022 19:33Picross S6: solve 1 row of puzzles - I'll be beating this one soon.
Tetris 99: play one game
Dicey Dungeons: play one game - not sure where the ending/credits are in this one, but I'll get there eventually.
Grindstone: beat one stage - this game is immense! There are still so many stages to beat before I get to the end, I suppose because it was designed as a "play this forever" mobile subscription game.

I’m still playing Swapper and Crash Bandicoot off and on. I’ve been playing the hell outta Dig Dug as well. With Apotheon knocked out I moved on to DQXI. I’m going to make it all the way through it this time

I've been playing Civ 6 lately when I got a stomach flu. It's the perfect way to fast-forward time and distract myself from pain/discomfort. Had lots of fun trying out the Norwegian viking civ Harald Hardrada.

Harald needs the total opposite of my usual playstyle. You're basically the bully of the seas, using viking longships to start wars and raid pretty much anyone with a decent coastline. His base yields are low, but repeated raids will have you swimming in science, culture and gold. I ended up hated by everyone. Although you need a suitable map and a slower game-speed for this to work.

Trying out different civs and their specific strategies/challenges makes it still feel impressively fresh, despite so many hours spent playing the Civ games throughout the years.

I’m mostly playing Tales of Vesperia. I haven’t yet caught up to where I’d gotten on my first attempt. Am also not sure I want to invest the well over 100 hours needed to platinum it or not.

On PS5, my son and I are playing Missile Command Recharged. I’m also playing Plague Tale Requiem but find myself playing a couple of much less recent games instead. Plague Tale is tough for me….have never been a huge fan of sneaking. I prefer to kill as I go. But I find myself playing Sonic Colors (no sneaking there!) and Dead Island Riptide. The latter is tougher than Dead Island, but maybe I’ve just also gotten good at it from completing the first one. I don’t get stuck or overwhelmed much despite being grossly outnumbered.

Great thread revival! A good time to take stock of what's going on. I usually break up my playing by console, so:

On Steam Deck, I had been playing through the HexCells puzzle series. I recently finished them all up on my trip, though, so the Deck is going to take a rest.

On PS5, I just started Tactics Ogre Reborn, and it's lovely so far. Bringing back fond memories and also reminding me of the days when tactical games were good.

On Analogue Pocket (handheld bedtime gaming ftw), I've just started up Pokémon Blue Version. I actually haven't beaten the original generation all the way through to the end—despite a couple attempts. Maybe this time I'll stick with it. Then I'll see how far from the end I was in the Pikachu/Eevee Switch remakes and maybe polish that off too.

Of course Final Fantasy XIV is still happening in the background. I think we're getting close to the end of Heavensward.