Now seems like a great time to play CC again with the Radical Dreamers edition. I'm only a few hours in but it's amazing so far, oh how I miss oldschool PSOne RPG's. I'm sad I never owned this game growing up, my friend had it and told me about it but I should of borrowed it from him back then. Especially after the impact Chrono Trigger had on me at a young age.

Not stressing over the first ending is something that took me quite a while to learn. But it definitely comes in handy when you're trying things for the first time.

I've been staring longingly at Sophie 2 for a while now. Currently, I have ~4 other Atelier games I *could* finish, and I think I want to try those first and pray Sophie 2 gets a PS5 upgrade eventually. If it doesn't, oh well. I can live with the ps4-spec presentation if need be.

Anything else you're looking forward to this year?

Oh dude, do it. It's very simple to do, and there are multiple ways to do it depending on a few different variables.

I've played a bit of the translation of Marie&Elie on PS2. It's definitely worth checking out if older Atelier games catch your interest. Also never say never. The comment about Judie almost makes it sound like a challenge Either way, did you wind up getting your copy of Sophie 2 eventually? I hope so!

I know the feeling re: your ever-extending break. I'm feeling it a bit with Raiou 1 right now since I keep running into issues with streaming recently. Hoping to get back to it tonight.

I absolutely adored Sophie. It is only my second experience after finishing Rorona last year. Since then, I have picked up Ryza 1 and 2. I almost picked up Annie, but I thought the price was too steep ($120), so I slept on it and decided I wanted it. Went back to the store the next day and it wasn’t there anymore. Now it’s like $200 on eBay in box hahaha. Thank goodness I have an R4, or else I probably wouldn’t be able to try it for a long while.

In the meantime, I did pick up Sophie 2, and I can’t wait to play it. I’m kinda hoping that leaving it on the back burner for a bit will give KT some time to synthesize some proper PS5 support since going from 60 in Sophie to 30 in Sophie 2 is jarring to say the least.

Also dude, Raidou 1 is like MY GAME. Megaten, Taisho period, incredible ost, pre-rendered backgrounds…it’s just everything I love in a JRPG all rolled into one. I’ve heard 2 gets even better so I am INCREDIBLY stoked to try it out.

I don't normally do this sort of thing, but happy new year! (It's still the 31st here though lol)
I guess I can try to do a top 10 games I finished this year. No way I could do a list for 2021 games since it'd be a whopping three games long, and only one of them I've finished.

1. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd
2. The LEgend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki
3. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA
4. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
5. Super Robot Wars X

6. Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
7. Astral Chain
8. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
9. Yakuza 4
10. Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth

Whew... I'm bad at ranking things like this. I realized there were a lot of games I finished this year that I didn't have any particularly strong feelings about, or that I didn't like. Let's see what 2022 brings!

Haha yeah, that is precisely why I said that a thing like that cannot be locked behind a NG+ exclusive quest! It was such a mindblowing moment when I got there in CS2... (and no, replaying is definitely not worth it, I only did that because I read that somewhere before I started the game, so I looked for an NG+ save file)

Let me know your impressions on CS3! I'm still not in the mood to play that... or anything other than Deep Rock Galactic with my mate lately lol

Thanks! Same to you. How is Astral Chain? I've heard great things and I'm a big fan of Platinum games. Nice page you have!

It's easily my GotY. Shocker, I know. I'm waiting to get out of the honeymoon phase to decide whether or not it's my new favorite mainline game, but it's definitely up there either way. Feels like they took a lot of inspiration from DQ11 and Xenoblade Chronicles, which is a win in my book.

You too, huh?

Is it Tuesday for you, too?

Your reasoning for Cold Steel 3 definitely makes sense. I still am not in the right mood to get back into it. The Falcom burnout is still pretty strong ! I totally get your feelings for Azure, the ending is just spectacular all things considered and I really adored those last boss fights (the sound team made some real miracles regarding to the OST). My favourite is still the Sky FC/SC combo, in part for the "first time charm" and in part because those titles indulged a bit less in the series tropes I find annoying... or maybe I just didn't notice because they were my first Trails games !

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it! It will be definitely tough to top, especially because I felt it striked a really nice balance with the quantity of characters and the space to make them shine. Even for the climax of Cold Steel IV I feel it will be more difficult to hit that sweet spot, considering how gigantic the cast became with Erebonia.

Good luck on the final dungeon, to me it felt like it went on forever

Haha yeah, I definitely understood the reasons behind the hype and why many say it's the best Trails game. I don't fully agree with that, I still prefer Sky 1/2, but it's utter chaos later on!

Anyway, hope you enjoy said game! Was an absolute blast and - no pressure - Apocalypse is like, SMT IV turned up 150%, so look forward to that if you plan to do the full duology!

SMT V hype!

Yoooo. Heyo. I like how you do your status updates with SMT IV there, that's clever.

Ah interesting to hear. Perhaps only two games in I may not have noticed the writing issue you're talking about, plus I think I've played Ys 1 and that's all. After experiencing Trails FC/SC (now starting 3rd) my guess is that I may want to dive into Ys before starting CS. I think I have the majority of the games acquired on Steam already versus having none of the CS games at all. Binging a series that long from start to finish would actually be really fun, as long as it doesn't get too repetitive.

My biggest issue with FC/SC is that the battle system feels so outdated, and when the fight is difficult, kind of kills my vibe and enjoyment. Love old school turn based, but this feels... almost like RPG maker level of combat? So in that respect, a game series with the same attention to story but also a battle system that is fun would be great. Reading through some of your comments I'm willing to bet I may find that in the Ys games.

Thanks for the add back!
Yeah playing through these Trails games has been an eye opener for what an amazing series I've slept on for a long time! The writing is just so suburb and characters actually feel 100% real.
Sky SC has been nothing short of amazing thus far, that I know the moment I'm done I'm running right into the 3rd.
Hours well spent!

Happy to read your thoughts on Ys IX! I ended up never buying the game for one reason or the other I'd like to, but I'd prefer to finally start and finish Memories of Celceta before buying a new game in the series.

I think that I might suffer from Falcom burnout after playing Azure and so many Trails games basically within a single year. I'll think about it more seriously in the future

I read your comment about Duke 64: "That moment when the Title music is better than Duke 3D" and then immediately thought, "...but then you find there is no music in-game."

NISA announced a plethora of Trails games for the next years! It's incredibly cool that the Geofront localizations will become the de facto official western release of the Crossbell arc. The sad thing is how far the releases are. Zero in Autumn 2022, Azure in 2023 and Hajimari in 2023 as well... that's so far away! I guess that's it for a while after I'll get around and finish Cold Steel 3 and 4, one way or the other

And yeah, the song is that one. Just fantastic and works great in context.