It's going pretty good, trying to blast through Vesperia ahah

Yeah!

Anytime!! I love Repede's new titles. Especially Respeede

Hi, I do not have time to play just now that I'm coming back to play anyway (sorry for taking too long to answer)

Lucky you!

Man the nostalgia trip is something else though! I'd forgotten about the game over screen (I saw it quite a few times trying to beat Gattuso ) "...And They were Never Heard From Again"

Did you get the free DLC costumes? They should be on the eshop. (They were on PSN so idk if it's the same or not) I love them!

Absolutely the more Square/Acquire titles we get the better!

Did you have a favourite story in Octopath or just enjoy everyone’s? I always find it hard to pick a specific one when asked but possibly Olberic/H'aanits for the grand adventure or Tressas for just how fun it was.

Ye I was quite surprised that the Bravely games where missing from your list tbh. I think you’re really going to enjoy them, as we seem to have simmaler tastes in games and it’s similar to Octopath Traveler in many aspects. Here’s hoping it will make the same impact for your 3DS section

Octopath Traveler finally getting the recognition it deserves
It was a shame that it was such an overlooked game in terms of awards last year, especially in the Music and RPG categories, seeing it so highly rated on your list however has almost made up for that though

Best Plot: Tales of the Abyss

See, this is just objectively the best opinion.

It only took 8 months, but I've finally updated my "Top 10 Games Per System" and "Top 10 Franchises" Lists! I also added a new List - my "Top Games Per Year", similar to the list I posted about my favorite games of 2018! It goes back to my first year on the Backloggery (2009), since I can't really remember further back than that in terms of specifics, but the List includes every game I beat (or completed) in each year. Remakes and remasters are included, but only if I feel that the differences between them and their base games are substantial (for example, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD and Pokemon Ultra Moon are included, but Final Fantasy VII's PS4 port is not). Anyway, check out my sidebar for lots of pictures!

I wasn't expecting such a long response Yeah you definitely gave enough info

Yeah, i'm ok with hopping back being awkward. I've done that sort of thing before ( Pokemon Rumble Blast before I played Pokemon Rumble. Eventually going back to shantae on the GBC after beating pirate's Curse) I can get used to it

Thank you for the detailed response! (even if i wasn't expecting it.)

Hey, do you mind if I add you to my mutitap? felt like while I'm typing this I might as well ask.

I think it's really interesting and an exciting, well presented world to explore.
My only complaint would be the Pokemon themselves I suppose, many aren't very interesting.

Hey since you seem very familiar with the "Tales of" series I would like to ask. Is Tales of Vesperia a good game to get into the series with? I'm going to buy the definitive edition on switch soon and (just in case this affects what you say) I'm going to buy the game anyway, I just want to know what i'm getting into.

WHAT

I gotta wait until midnight

Oh thanks, I sortof forgot.

I also use the arena a bunch if I feel like it's necessary, even if it costs a lot of turns. That said, that's not really a concern since the tactics rating matters very little to me. I might be interested if stat gains are fixed but as the series is, there's nothing to gain from being as fast as possible except a ton of added risk.

On the difficulty, for Binding Blade I'll probably avoid Hard Mode in future replays simply because it invalidates a good number of units that would otherwise be fairly good. Some because they don't obtain needed stat bonuses from starting out as enemies on Hard Mode and others because the enemy stats simply outpace what they can achieve. I like a challenge for sure but when that challenge pretty much forces you to use mostly the top-tier units to avoid losing the battle by sheer stat disadvantage alone, it's too much for my liking. It's rather sad that Roy himself is a terrible fit for the increased difficulty, too.

YESSSS SUIKODEN.

I will have you know that I managed to play two whole chapters of Binding Blade today! Hard Mode is definitely showing its teeth, hope your wife is having a slightly less stressful time. Though from what I've read, even the regular difficulty is above FE07 and FE08. Not really surprising, given that it was a Japanese-only game.

Oddly enough, both of my starting cavaliers got blessed and cursed in opposite areas despite having very similar growths. Alen has somehow gained 8 Defense from 13 levels at a 25% growth but only 3 Strength at 45% growth. Meanwhile, Lance has ridiculous offensive stats having gained 10 Strength, 9 Skill/Speed in 14 levels but he's still stuck at only 8 Defense. Kinda interesting how units have to be used quite differently with the stats the RNG hands you. In this case it works out nicely since they are supposed to be used as a team and I can have Alen in front to safely lure them in and Lance ORKO most stuff afterwards. Not everything though, since enemies are quite bulky including generic cavaliers.

I hope you enjoy Suikoden. It's the series that got me started on gaming (well besides Pokémon...), so I'm happy whenever someone gives the series a try. The first game's also rather short (and aged pretty badly, admittedly) - definitely doable until ToV comes out.

I usually don't count trophies/achievements because so many of them always end up being multiplayer related. In this case there are achievements for speed running the game AND for beating it in hardcore, one death and it's game over, mode.

The DLC was also more or less just a free update to the game after it came out, added to the base game, complicating matters further.

Thanks for the input!

I simply prefer to do it right away because taking a break will make the take up more of my time in the long run, getting used to things again and refreshing my memory on what I still have to do. There are still a number of games I will never , like the whole Kingdom Hearts series. I try to decide that as early as possible too, so I don't thoroughly play through a game for only to give up over halfway through. I think I did that for 3D Dot Game Heroes, where I decided that there's no way I can be bothered with the hardest trophies after seeing what the game is like.

Haha, no way I'm doing the complete Pokédex in all of them. I'm crazy, but I'm not quite a lunatic. Not only is it a tedious and pointless affair to me, but I'm also screwed with the event legendaries anyway. Besides, Pokémon has always been primarily about battling for me and that's what that marathon is for. That is, providing me with different situations to handle compared to regular playthroughs. I won't delete my Black 2 save file where I obtained the complete Dex with a bit of your help, though! I want to keep the ability to give White 2 Challenge Mode, so I'll make an exception and simply play White 2 twice instead.

See, that's where our approaches to games differ. If I can avoid it, I'll never leave a for later if I plan to a game at all. I need that sense of closure and I rather dislike picking back up a half finished as I've forgotten most of my mental notes from my first playthrough. In the case of some older Tales of games, I'm also not sure if I want to play them ever again. They haven't aged well, I imagine. Even Symphonia is going to feel very rough to me.

I could play a NG+ right away for the more recent games, but the point of my marathon lies more in rediscovering the games as if I was playing them the first time so most Grade shop goodies won't do since they would alter the experience I want to have to document and write a mini review as I'm doing for Fire Emblem now.

Pokémon marathon would be only Yellow for Gen 1 and only Crystal for Gen 2 simply because I didn't grow up with those games (only the anime, cards etc. until Gen 3 for me as I didn't have a Gameboy until the GBA SP). Once is enough in that case. No Nuzlockes in them either, because wonky mechanics ESPECIALLY Yellow. Gen 3 onwards, it will be every single game so RSE, FRLG, DPP and so on. Each sequence of duos or trios will have 1 Nuzlocke and 1 Solo and/or 1 Monotype run.