Writing about my gaming journey (game acquisitions, completions, reviews, etc) and anything else that strikes my fancy. Don't worry, my backlog is always growing so there will never be a shortage of things to talk about.
11 months down, only one to go. I still can’t believe I’ve
managed to maintain a weekly and monthly blog all year. It’s been quite the
endeavor. The Game Pass subscription is still going strong with Clair Obscur:
Expedition 33 completed and Metaphor: ReFantazio ongoing. All the games I’ve
been playing lately have a colon in the title I just noticed. What’s up with
that? Anyway, November was another productive month on the gaming front. More
details in the recap, but for now, let’s look at my acquisitions.
Game Acquisitions
Uh oh, looks
like my spending is creeping up again. Still not to an egregious amount like
some other hobbies but a decent amount, nonetheless. The emulation testing is
officially on hold while I work through the Game Pass catalog, so these are all
PC games that were either given away or purchased by me or a Steam family
member. No AAA games here and quite a few itch.io horror freebies I picked up
at the beginning of the month. It’s hard to pick a standout here, but
Danganronpa, Dream Tactics, Gordian Quest, Mouthwashing, Noctuary, and Reignbreaker
all look pretty good. I’m sure there’s quite a few others that reviewed well
and I’m looking forward to trying everything out.
# of Games: 60
Total Money Spent: $50.88
Price/Game: $0.85
Game Recaps
I just barely squeezed in my most played
month of the year, narrowly surpassing October by less than an hour. Only three
games played last month, but two of them are long RPGs so I have an excuse
besides “too busy to play anything” 😜 You can
read my full review for Expedition 33 here but long
story short: it was the best game I’ve played in years. I also got a decent way
into Metaphor: ReFantazio and am enjoying that as well. This is my first Atlus
experience and I gotta say, solid first impression. A Persona series
playthrough is in my backlog, as well as a few other niche games from them. No
SMT plans though, I hear those games are tough as nails which is not what I
play games for. Lastly, I got one medium-length game of Monster Prom 2: Monster
Camp in with my co-op partner. It’s an OK party game with some funny and crude
writing. Not exactly a deep experience but I can see myself playing a couple
more sessions of it. Here’s playlists of the three games mentioned if you want
to check out my let’s plays of them:
TV/Movie Recaps
Here is everything I watched last month:
·Berserk 1997 Season 1 Episodes 3-25 (complete)
·Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition
Season 1 Episodes 1-13 (complete)
·Berserk 2016 Season 1 Episode 1-Season 2 Episode
12 (complete)
·Barbarian
·Demolition Man
·Ballerina
·Nobody 2
·The Accountant
I really dove deep in the Berserk anime last month, and I
just finished it! This is probably the most adult anime I’ve watched, and
definitely one of the darkest. I’m debating reading the manga to get a more
complete story, but that’s a big time commitment. I’ll have to think about it
some more. I had a solid selection of movies I watched too. Barbarian was my
friend’s Halloween choice as I’m not usually into horror and as such, it was
the weakest of the bunch for me. I think my favorite movie of the month goes to
Demolition Man, although Ballerina and The Accountant are close with cool
action scenes and such. Demolition Man was just surprisingly funny which I
didn’t expect, and Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes played their roles
perfectly, with Sandra Bullock as the naïve sidekick. More cheesy 90s movies
please!
Conclusion/Upcoming
November was quite a packed month; I got a ton of game time
in! Expedition 33 was an incredible experience, and Metaphor: ReFantazio is
shaping up to be a hit as well. Monster Prom 2 is also here 😅
I know I can’t expect a party game to have the same depth as a JRPG, but
I did get a bit of whiplash with the genre shift if I’m being honest. Enough
about that though, what have I got coming up for December? For TV shows, I’m
planning on watching Star Wars Visions Season 3, Blue Submarine No. 6, and
Record of Lodoss War. I have a couple ongoing shows airing in December with
Stranger Things Season 5 and One Punch Man Season 3, but they won’t be done in
December so I’m not sure what I’ll watch until then. Maybe The Sandman and its
spinoff Dead Boy Detectives? I’ll play it by ear; I can’t plan everything out!
For gaming, I’m likely just going to stick with Metaphor: ReFantazio for the
rest of the year for single-player stuff. I do want to get some more Monster
Prom 2 in, but I don’t know if that will take the rest of the month or not.
I’ll be playing that by ear also. That’s all for now, thanks for sticking with
me on this blogging journey this year, it’s been an experience for sure. I’ll
catch you next week for my first December weekly update, thanks for reading!
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving that celebrates, or
just a good week in general otherwise. My family didn’t get together this year,
so I had a friendsgiving which is just as good. No co-op gaming as I expected due
to the holiday, but I did get some more Metaphor: ReFantazio time in! I’ll talk
about it after going through my acquisitions for the week.
Game Acquisitions
I fell victim to two more Fanatical bundles, this time
the Build your own Bento Bundle (Winter 2025) and the Build your own Equinox Bundle.
The bento bundles used to be among my favorite bundles on the site, but I feel
they haven’t had a good one in a while. This one was almost a miss as well, but
Noctuary is new to bundle and hasn’t been below $17.99 so it’s a good deal for
that alone. Evil Tonight also looks very fun, and I added The Devil Within to
get a third which looks like a competent metroidvania. The Equinox bundle
joined their lowest pricing tier at 5/$3 which is cheap enough to take a gamble
on some games that might not be the best. Beyond a Steel Sky is the standout in
that bundle and is a sequel to Beneath a Steel Sky from the 90s that’s also in
my backlog. I also picked up Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Gerda: A Flame
in Winter for crazy cheap in the Steam Black Friday sales using my wallet
funds. Gunslugs was an Amazon freebie to round out the week.
# of Games: 11
Total Money Spent: $13.10
Price/Game: $1.19
Game Recaps
Wow, I basically spent an entire day in
the past week playing Metaphor: ReFantazio. I accidentally told a fib in my
last post. I thought I had completed the Grand Cathedral dungeon but it turns out I only finished what was basically the prologue version of it. NOW I can say I’ve actually completed the whole thing. Man, it was long, and I had to leave at one point and rest because I was completely out of MP recovery items. I’ve never had to do that in a game before, this is tough. I’ve resorted to changing Strohl’s Archetype to Brawler just so I can get someone who can use abilities that take health instead of mana. I even had to change the main character’s Archetype from Healer to Merchant and start attacking with my money for the next to last boss fight. This is a weird game. I probably should’ve started with Persona which is supposed to be easier but whatever. I’m still enjoying my time with it. I also completed Kriegante Castle and any currently available bounties. I’m going to take on the mausoleum under Grand Trad next and then head to the next city. Check out my latest posted video below along with the playlist to see the whole thing so far. I’ll also post part two of three for my co-op Monster Prom 2 medium-length game and the latest Expedition 33 video.
TV/Movie Recaps
Here is everything I watched last week:
·Berserk 2016 Season 1 Episode 5-Season 2 Episode
8 (still watching, show ended)
·The Accountant
It’s nice to be able to see what happens after the original
Berserk anime, even if the show itself is grim. Only four episodes left which I
may finish the day this post goes up. I didn’t like it at first, but it grew on
me eventually. The Accountant was a rewatch from a few years ago to refresh
myself for the sequel which should be watched next week. It was better than I
remember and got me hyped to watch the next one. There is not much else to say
about these, it was another lighter week for TV.
Conclusion/Upcoming
It was a solid week last week. Thanksgiving week is always chill,
especially when you aren’t hosting! For this week, I’m going to finish up the
last of the Berserk anime and start on Star Wars Visions Season 3. I’m late to
that one, it aired back in October. I’m also planning on watching the niche
anime Blue Submarine No. 6. Both shows are short so I may get through all of
that and start on Record of Lodoss War which is a little longer. On the gaming
front, I’ll likely be on Metaphor: ReFantazio for the rest of the year, it’s a
long game. I may get another co-op session of Monster Prom 2 in, but I don’t
know for sure. That’s all for now, my next post will be my November monthly
which will be out tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
Moving straight from one (J)RPG to the next, what could
possibly go wrong? In all seriousness though, I’m enjoying Metaphor so far,
although I understand I’m still pretty early. I also got back to my purchasing
shenanigans, so let’s start with that first.
Game Acquisitions
I ended up
making a few unexpected purchases last week due to some Steam pricing errors. The
first was a bundle that included both Lost in Random: The Eternal Die and Reignbreaker. The
publisher said it was supposed to be 25% but it was marked as 85% off so I
snagged it. I own the first Lost in Random already and missed out on
Reignbreaker from previous Fanatical bundles that I didn’t think were quite
good enough to snag. Both games came out to $5.67 which isn’t bad at all since
they both came out this year. The second price error was a bundle that includes both SteamWorld Heist
games for 90% off. I already own the first one (as well as Dig 1 and 2 and
Quest) so the second one was discounted to $3.24 after tax. The game just came
out last year and the same publisher confirmed a price mistake here too as it
was changed to only 15% off. Hooray pricing errors! Both of these purchases
were made with Steam wallet credit, so they aren’t reflected in the money
spent. What is reflected though is Fanatical’s Build your own Tabletop and Deckbuilder Games Bundle. I may have gone overboard and went
for the full seven games this time around. I’m chasing the high that was Hand
of Fate and Slay the Spire (which had me hooked after just a few minutes of
testing), don’t judge me! The others were Epic, Steam, and Amazon freebies.
# of Games: 15
Total Money Spent: $20.11
Price/Game: $1.34
Game Recaps
I know it’s crazy to say that 12 hours is
considered still early, but that’s RPGs for you. The major thing I did was complete
the first three dungeons (that being Nord Mines, the Grand Cathedral, and Belega Corridor). Besides that, it was mostly helping people around town and learning about the world of the game. I also started my next co-op game Monster Prom 2. We completed one full medium-length game which I split into three parts for my YouTube channel. It’s set up way more like a party game than I expected. I want to do at least one full game which will probably take us like four hours, then maybe some short games to find new endings if we aren’t feeling burnt out by then. The game said it would take one hour for a medium game, but it took us like two and a half 😂 Voicing dialogue really does extend playtime, doesn’t it? There’s not really a cohesive story in this game so there’s nothing specific I can recap. The general premise is you’re a monster at a camp with other monsters with the goal of asking someone on a date to see a meteor shower at the end. You can compete with other players for the affection of one monster or go after your own love interest like we did. Spoiler alert: we both succeeded in wooing our dates Damien and Joy which unlocked two of 16 secret endings. Check out the latest video of each game, as well as the playlist where you can watch the whole playthrough so far. I’ll also throw in my latest Expedition 33 video as well since that series is still coming out. Looks like the latest video at time of posting is the Sirène axon fight. That’s a good one!
TV/Movie Recaps
Here is everything I watched last week:
·Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition
Season 1 Episodes 4-13 (complete)
·Berserk 2016 Season 1 Episodes 1-4 (still watching,
show ended)
·Nobody 2
I finished up the remake of the first Berserk anime. It was
weird watching all the same story beats I just watched with little changes. The
ending was more satisfying though as it showed how Guts and Casca escaped hell and set up the next arc. There was still a very disturbing scene in the last episode depicting rape so viewer discretion is
advised. I hear the 2016 Berserk anime is the worst of the bunch, but I’m still
curious to see a later part of the story adapted. I haven’t yet decided if I
want to go down the rabbit hole of reading the whole manga, we’ll see. Nobody 2
was another dumb, fun action movie. I didn’t like it as much as the first one,
and Christopher Lloyd’s role was noticeably scaled back, but it was still
enjoyable. I don’t know how many more movies he has left in him; he’s 87 years
old ☹
Conclusion/Upcoming
Another productive week in the books! I started two new
games and finished the (admittedly short) anime I was watching. Monster Prom 2
was funny, but maybe not something I expect to stick with in the long-term.
Metaphor is very fun so far, and the world is interesting. I’m not digging it
as much as Expedition 33, but that’s an extremely high bar to clear and I’m
sure it will be great on its own merits. This week is Thanksgiving so I’m not
sure if that will lead to more or less gaming. I’ll be focused on the 2016
Berserk anime for the remainder of the month, and The Accountant movies are
next on my list. I’ve seen the first one, but it’s been a while, so it’ll be
cool to revisit before watching the sequel. On the gaming side, it’s probably
gonna be Metaphor for the rest of the year if I’m being honest. It’s a very
long game from what I can tell. I don’t know if my friend and I are hanging out
for more Monster Prom this week or not but if not, it’s just gonna be more
Metaphor. That’s all for now, happy Thanksgiving for those who celebrate.
Thanks for reading!
After just over a month and almost 100 hours later, I’ve
completed Expedition 33. I’m actually shocked I put that much time in in such a
short timeframe. If I could consistently play 100 hours per month, I might
actually have a chance of reducing my backlog 😅 In any case, this game
was absolutely incredible. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself; the
full review is below.
Game Acquisitions
Compared to
previous weeks, it was finally a light week for acquisitions. There were some
bundles offered, including a new site from ex-Humble Bundle employees, but
nothing that really caught my eye. As such, the only games acquired last week
were a Steam family purchase with Winter Burrow and an Epic freebie with Song
of Silence. I love these smaller weeks, although getting a lot of cool-looking
games for dirt cheap in bundles is cool too. Gotta strike a balance!
# of Games: 2
Total Money Spent: $0
Price/Game: $0
Game Recaps
Most of the time in Expedition 33 was
spent grinding all my party members to level 99 and getting Lumina so I can
take on the superboss Simon. I’m happy
to say I finally managed to do it, and it felt like a satisfying conclusion to
the game. Afterwards, I started a new game just to pick up the last achievement
I was missing which only took a few minutes. That means I was able to get the
100%! I don’t often go for completionist runs in my games so whenever I do
that, you know I had a good time (or it was ridiculously easy to do, which was
definitely not the case here). As always, I’ll post a link to the latest public
video as well as the playlist if you want to catch up on the whole journey so
far. Looks like the latest video is still before the first Axon fight so it’s
got quite a bit of catching up to do. I really thought I’d get to both Monster
Prom 2 and Metaphor: ReFantazio last week and ended up getting to neither. My
co-op partner had a last-minute plumbing issue come up, then I had various life
things that prevented me from starting my next single-player game. Maybe this
week? I definitely won’t have any co-op gaming next week due to Thanksgiving,
so this’ll be our last chance before December!
Game Reviews
Clair Obscur:
Expedition 33
This game is a
turn-based RPG with real-time shooting, dodging, and parrying elements by
French developer Sandfall Interactive. I point out that the developer is French
for two reasons. One, I wanted to call the game a JRPG because it shares a lot
of the same tropes as other games of the genre. However, since it wasn’t developed
by a Japanese studio, some might say that automatically disqualifies it. I
don’t really care about labels that much and won’t go into my thoughts on whether
it qualifies. The second and much more important reason is because the game is
heavily influenced by French culture. The opening city of Lumière is based off
Paris, you fight mimes, you can unlock silly outfits with baguettes and berets,
and people occasionally throw out French words in otherwise English
conversations. It’s all very delightful, and not something I’ve seen in a lot
of games.
The premise for the
world is that every year, there’s a giant lady way off in the distance known as
the Paintress who paints a number on a monolith. The number goes down by one
every year and when the new number is painted, everyone older than that number
dies (known as the Gommage, which is French for erased). There is a festival at
this time to say goodbye to loved ones gommaging and set out the next day on
expeditions. The goal of these expeditions is to make it to the Paintress and
kill her to stop the Gommage from happening ever again. You see, there was an
event called the Fracture that happened 67 years before the start of the game
that broke Lumière off from the rest of the Continent, made physics go all
wonky, introduced monsters known as nevrons, and started the Gommage in the
first place starting at year 100.
The game starts with
a very sad scene showing the number 33 being painted on the monolith and the
subsequent gommage of the ex-girlfriend of one of the party members Gustave.
They broke up sometime before the events of the game but clearly still have feelings
for each other that Gustave finally expresses moments before she dies. This
sets the tone for most of the game which is just emotional gut punch after gut
punch. There are humorous moments, but for the most part, the game is a
tragedy. After the Gommage, Gustave’s sister gives a rousing speech about how
important the expeditions are and even if you don’t make it back, you’ll blaze
a trail “for those who come after” and so on and so forth. Then the titular
Expedition 33 sets sail for the Continent to finally take down the Paintress
once and for all!
Here's the thing
though. No expedition has ever made it back, and the Gommage is still happening
every year. Deep down, everyone knows it’s a suicide mission. Some people
decide they want to go anyway, either out of perseverance, misplaced
confidence, curiosity, dedication, or just because they feel there’s nothing
left for them in Lumière. They’d rather explore the world than wait around to
die. That’s the case for Gustave’s adopted sister Maelle, who decides she wants
to go with her brother on the expedition despite being way younger than the
other expeditions and thus having many good years left. She insists, and he
begrudgingly allows her to go. This might prove to be a mistake since as soon
as they land on the Continent, they’re greeted by an old man who somehow
survived the Gommage who just starts massacring them. Gustave is knocked
unconscious during the battle and comes to the next day where he sets off to
the planned rendezvous point only to be met with a massive pile of bodies from
past expeditioners. Overcome with loss and hopelessness, he sits down against
the pile of bodies to kill himself, only to be talked out of it by fellow
expeditioner Lune with the oft-quoted phrase “when one falls, we continue.”
This all happens
within the first hour or two of the game! I won’t go into the story anymore for
risk of spoilers, but it is very well-written, told, and presented. Speaking of
presentation, the graphics are some of the best I’ve ever seen. It runs on
Unreal Engine 5, and before you raise your pitchforks, it seems Sandfall utilized
the engine well. I didn’t experience any shader compilation, stuttering, or
poor performance that seems to be prevalent in other games using the engine. I
do admittedly have a high-end PC so I’m not the best judge for performance, but
it ran well for me. The music is another standout, and you can listen to the
whole OST on YouTube!
Finally, on to the
gameplay itself. As I mentioned at the beginning, it’s a turn-based RPG with
real-time elements. You can pick three out of a possible five total party
members to go into battle with, with the other two serving as backup if the
first team goes down. There is a turn order on the top-left of the screen that
determines who goes and when. When it is one of your party member’s turns, you
can choose one of six skills to use out of the 20-30 available for each
character depending on what you want to accomplish and how many action points
or AP you have. It could be something simple like a lightning damage skill
against an enemy weak to that element or something more complicated like firing
some free-aim shots to mark an enemy, then using a skill to apply the
defenseless status effect so the next character will do a lot more damage on
their turn. Each party member plays completely differently and has their own
mechanics to learn which makes combat more exciting and opens the door to some
amazing party synergies. Each character can also equip three pictos which
provide one ability such as dealing more damage to burning enemies as well as one
or two passive stat increases like 500 more health or 30% higher critical hit
rate. When you’ve won four battles with a pictos equipped, you can spend lumina
points to have any character benefit from the ability it offers without the
stat increase that goes with it. You can also use one of three items in combat
to heal, revive, or replenish AP or use one of three levels of gradient attacks
which are basically unique supers that each character has that don’t use up
your turn. You build up gradient charges primarily by doing damage but also by
parrying attacks. Speaking of, on the enemy turn, you can learn enemy attack
patterns to time button presses to dodge or parry their hits. Doing either one
negates damage, but they each have an advantage and disadvantage. Dodging has a
bigger timing window so it’s easier to execute. On the other hand, parrying
every attack on an enemy turn provokes a counterattack that allows you to do
massive damage. All these systems mesh together along with the enemy variety to
keep combat fresh and engaging throughout the entire playtime.
When outside of
combat, you can explore out in the overworld and in designated zones to find
collectibles, talk to NPCs, buy new pictos and equipment, fight monsters,
complete side quests, or further the main story. Anytime in the overworld, you
can set up camp to talk to party members to advance relationships with them and
unlock new abilities. There is also a merchant at camp to upgrade items and
equipment as well as increase the number of lumina points available for each
character. You’ll spend a decent amount of time at camp as the game likes sending
you back there at many major story beats. The camp looks exactly the same no
matter where you set it up, which could be a bit of a bummer for some, but at
least it allows you to learn where everything is to get in and out relatively
quickly.
I’ve been praising
this game heavily this whole time, but it wouldn’t be a review if I didn’t
point out the flaws I came across. Some are minor, some are subjective, and
there’s at least one that could potentially be a major issue. One minor issue
that comes up a lot is that there are invisible walls EVERYWHERE when you’re
exploring in the different areas. This usually bothers me more in other games
and takes me out of the experience, but it becomes easier to spot where you can
and can’t go to stick to the paths. Some people will find the optional
platforming sections frustrating and out of place, but I didn’t really have an
issue with them. Some areas can also be a real maze to navigate, and there’s no
map outside of the overworld which can make the navigation confusing. There’s a
story moment that comes up at the end of Act II that recontextualizes the whole
game, and as a result, Act III can feel more open-ended and directionless. If
someone wasn’t totally enamored with the game up to that point like I was, I
can see them rushing to the final boss shortly after Act III starts just to get
it over and done with. I would obviously advise against that as there’s tons of
stuff to do, but the central plot device up to that point is no longer a
motivating factor which can cause some people to fall off. It’s very hard to
avoid spoilers here, I’m trying the best I can! The one major issue I ran into,
and this is impossible for me to ignore, is that I experienced regular game
crashes starting in Act II. The crashes would come almost like clockwork after
2-3 hours of play. There are frequent saves, so I never lost any meaningful
progress from them, but it was annoying and I found myself anxiously looking at
the time every time I had sessions longer than two hours just bracing for the
inevitable. It could just be a problem with my PC setup, but it made some
longer boss fights or cutscenes more nerve-wracking than they should’ve been.
Your mileage may vary on that, and console players probably don’t have anything
to worry about.
So that’s my rundown
of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. This is by far the longest review I’ve written
to date, but I had a lot to say about this title. I loved it to bits, and I
would wholeheartedly recommend it to all RPG fans out there. The fact that this
was the debut title for an indie studio is mind-blowing to me. I sincerely hope
that other studios are taking notes to improve their future games. The story,
music, graphics, characters, and gameplay are all top-notch. No game is
perfect, nor do I think perfection is possible. I pointed out the issues I had
in the last paragraph. But a game doesn’t have to be perfect to be a
masterpiece, and this game absolutely deserves the title. I await with bated
breath for Sandfall’s next title, they knocked it out of the park here.
Time to beat
(Completionist) - 95h:45m Rating – 10/10
TV/Movie Recaps
Here is everything I watched last week:
·Berserk Season 1 Episodes 19-25 (complete)
·Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition
Season 1 Episodes 1-3 (still watching, show ended)
·Ballerina
Wow, that second Berserk show has quite a lengthy title.
That’s gonna be annoying to type for the next couple updates. *Ahem* Anyway, I
finished up the first Berserk anime and started the Memorial Edition. Turns out
ME is just a remake of the first one so I guess I’m just rewatching the same
show but with better graphics and sped up 😆 The first show was good
despite the stiff animation and questionable voice acting, but it took a huge
turn in the last two episodes that I don’t know if I like. It wasn’t a
satisfying conclusion; it just ended on a terrible note in the middle of a
climactic moment. I did some research, and a lot of people say the anime is
really just an ad for the manga as it plucked the story from there. This is
fairly common in anime I feel like, but at least it usually has a complete story
arc with a conclusion. Not the case here unfortunately. I want to see more of
the story, but the manga is up to 42 volumes now spanning decades of work and I
don’t know if I’ll be able to get to it. Maybe the 2016 anime will continue the
story. On another note, the John Wick spinoff Ballerina was good. It was cool
seeing Keanu Reeves back, even as a secondary character. I’ve enjoyed every John
Wick showing (even The Continental, if only just) so I hope they continue with
it.
Conclusion/Upcoming
I know I keep saying this, but it feels so surreal beating
another game, and another long RPG at that. Putting in nearly 100 hours in just
over a month is quite a feat, and I was able to get it all recorded and
uploaded too! Maybe I will be able to keep up with the whole YouTube thing
after all. Now if only someone would actually watch the videos…
My plan for this week is to continue watching Berserk. The
Memorial Edition is only 13 episodes so it should be quick, then I’ll move on
to 2016. I just moved up Nobody 2 for my next movie night. I was surprised at
how much I enjoyed the first one a couple of years ago. Probably because
Christopher Lloyd was in it cursing up a storm and shooting people. On the
gaming front, I’ll finally get into Metaphor: ReFantazio in earnest. I really
thought that I’d get more time last week, but real life got in the way. Anyway,
that’s all for now. Thank you so much for reading, see you next week!
Backlog total: 3,718 (-1)OH MY GOD! This is
the first time my backlog total has gone down. It only took until November for
it to happen. I just need to do that a few thousand more times and I can clear
the backlog! 😅
Had a bit of a busy week last week and took a few days off
from Expedition 33. Still making good progress though. Also had another high
game acquisition week as I alluded to in my last post. Read below for details!
Game Acquisitions
Purchased
another three bundles last week which is ridiculous, although the horror one I
split with my co-op partner. I snagged the Indie Fears bundle from Humble Bundle as well as the Build your own RPG and Fantasy Bundle (Fall 2025) and Build your own Pixel Power Bundle (Fall 2025) from Fanatical. On top of all these
purchases, there were a couple Steam family purchases in the form of visual
novels. They’ve been on a visual novel kick lately apparently, not that I’m
complaining. The first round of Amazon freebies for November came out as well
to make for a very packed acquisition week. If only the November Choice was any
good…
# of Games: 24
Total Money Spent: $17.67
Price/Game: $0.74
Game Recaps
Most of this took place over the weekend
as I was busy during the week. I finished
up the Endless Tower, fought some duels against Golgra, found a great potential grinding spot in Dark Shores, finally took on Sprong, defeated Clea in the Flying Manor, solved the mystery of the Painting Workshop, completed all the Nevron quests, and found all the lost gestrals. As you can see, I’m basically doing all the achievement cleanup. I also technically rolled credits, but I’m not done with the game yet. I’m hoping to get the 100% completion, but there is a very difficult superboss that might stop me so we’ll see. I’m still loving every minute of it though. Check out the latest public video of my playthrough, as well as the playlist where you can catch up on the whole series. Still no co-op last week, but I’m slightly more confident that we’ll finally start our next game since I have a day off for the holiday.
TV/Movie Recaps
Here is everything I watched last week:
·Berserk Season 1 Episodes 5-18 (still watching,
show ended)
·Barbarian
·Demolition Man
Looks like a lighter week for show watching. Only got a few
episodes of Berserk in but I’m warming up to it. I’ve heard it’s touted as one
of the greatest anime ever made but I don’t quite agree. Still, it’s enjoyable
enough and I’m curious to see where it goes. Barbarian was a weird horror
movie. There were a couple scary moments but for the most part it was just
bizarre. At least I finally got a horror movie in close-ish to Halloween.
Demolition Man was a very enjoyable 90s sci-fi/action movie with Sylvester Stallone
and Wesley Snipes. I didn’t expect it to be so funny while also delivering some
cool shootouts. I may need to rewatch it before playing the game on the 3DO of
all platforms.
Conclusion/Upcoming
And there you have it, another week in the books. The end of
the year is still fast approaching and Christmas will be here before you know
it. I’ve gotta start thinking about my top 10 post. Thankfully I started
writing reviews and ranking every game as I beat it at the beginning of the
year which will help tremendously. It’s also my lowest completion year since I
signed up for HLTB at the end of 2019 which isn’t great. I don’t know when that
will pick up since my next game is also super long, but maybe I’ll have a stint
of short games next year.
Speaking of, my plans for this week are once again to keep
watching Berserk and play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Berserk kind of has four
seasons (or three separate shows depending on how you look at it) so I’ve still
got a ways to go. The next movie on my list is Ballerina, the John Wick
spinoff. I recently watched the John Wick series and enjoyed them so I’m
curious how Ballerina stands up to it. On the gaming front, I’ll probably
finish Expedition 33. It’s taken me much longer than the completionist time
which I should have expected. I wonder when that free DLC they announced is
coming out. Hopefully soon, then I can stay in this world just that much
longer. If I do beat it, I’ll move on to my next game which is Metaphor:
ReFantazio. That’s gonna be it for me this week. Thank you all for sticking
around, and I’ll see you next time!
Hot off the heels of my October update comes weekly update
#44! I can’t believe I’ve been able to keep up with it for this long. As you
can see from the title, I’m still deep into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I don’t
want it to end so I’m just going through all the optional stuff I can find and
leveling my characters. Before I get too far into that, let’s look at my larger
than usual game acquisitions.
Game Acquisitions
A ton of games
acquired this week with a healthy mix of freebies and purchases. I ended up buying
Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners 2 super cheap as well as Fanatical’s Build Your Own Shooter (Fall 2025) bundle. Slay the Princess was a Steam family purchase and I’m very excited to
play that one. I was thinking of getting it myself so I’m glad they picked it
up for me (just like Hades a couple weeks back!). The rest were the many
(mostly spooky for Halloween) freebies from Amazon, Epic, and itch.io. There
are more bundles I’m looking into getting this week too. So many good bundles
lately. Sorry wallet!
# of Games: 33
Total Money Spent: $14.20
Price/Game: $0.43
Game Recaps
Only half the time as
last week, but still way more than in the weeks before October. As I said in
the intro, I’m nearing the end of Expedition 33 and just checking out all the optional
areas before taking on the final boss. Right now I’m deep into the Endless Tower currently working on Stage 11 of 11. It’s essentially a boss rush with tougher versions of all the enemies in the game. Hopefully I’ll have the skills to get through it before moving on to the next area. I’ve once again linked to the latest public video in my playthrough as well as the playlist if you want to check out the whole thing. The finale of Tales of Phantasia is coming November 5th so I’ll post the finale and playlist for that in my next post.
TV/Movie Recaps
Here is everything I watched last week:
·Gen V Season 2 Episodes 5-8 (all caught up, show
ongoing?)
·Berserk Season 1 Episodes 1-4 (still watching,
show ended)
·28 Years Later
Gen V had another good season. It was probably better than season
4 of The Boys which means it’s definitely a good spinoff. It hasn’t been
renewed for season 3 yet, but it hasn’t been canceled either. I’m too early in
Berserk to form an opinion yet, but it definitely feels like an old anime. 4:3
aspect ratio, stiff animation, hit or miss voice acting, you name it. That’s
not necessarily a bad thing, just something I felt the need to point out if you’re
looking for a new anime to watch. 28 Years Later was mostly a standard zombie
flick and wasn’t really that scary. The scene with Spike, his mom, and the doctor was surprisingly touching though. Definitely
a standout moment there. I’m curious how the sequel Bone Totem will fare when
it comes out next year.
Conclusion/Upcoming
Another week down and we’re officially into November. The end
of the year will be here before we know it. My plan for this week on the TV
front is just watching the Berserk anime. I’ve only just gotten started there.
I also plan to watch two movies with Barbarian and Demolition Man. On the gaming
front, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 probably won’t be completed this week so
that will be my focus. Hopefully I’ll get into my next co-op game with Monster
Prom 2 this week as well. That’s all for now, thanks for reading!
After several months of just emulation testing and the
occasional Tales of Phantasia session, I finally redeemed Game Pass and got
back into proper gaming. What better game to start with than 2025 indie darling
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? And wow, what a game it’s been so far. Before I
get into that, I also stepped up my game purchases to fill the void left by not
adding emulated games. That’s not actually why I bought games; there were just
a lot of really good deals last month. Let’s get into it!
Game Acquisitions
Wow, that’s a
lot of games! There are a lot of horror games among them which makes sense given
the spooky season. Most of them were from Humble Choice, giveaways, or Steam
family purchases as usual, but I bought a considerable amount of them myself as
well. Fanatical had a lot of good bundles this month, and there are a couple
more I’m considering buying this week too after the November Humble Choice is
revealed. I even bought a couple individual games that were on my wishlist
which I almost never do. These include the Castlevania Advance Collection and
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners - Chapter 2: Retribution (wow that’s a
mouthful). You might think I plopped down hundreds of dollars to get all these
games but nope, less than $50. Not bad if I do say so myself. There are way too
many games here to pick a highlight, there are so many good ones. I’m excited
to play them!
# of Games: 64
Total Money Spent: $46.23
Price/Game: $0.72
Game Recaps
This graph feels a little lopsided doesn’t
it 😅? Monster Prom 2
was just setting up the game, browsing the shop, and looking through the
collectibles and achievements. I haven’t officially started playing it yet. The
reason it’s on here at all though is because my friend and I finally finished
Tales of Phantasia! Six months in the making, and now my friend can officially
say he’s beaten a JRPG. It’s one of my favorite genres and I’m glad he agreed
to be along for the ride through the Tales series. The rest of the time was
spent on my new GOTY, Expedition 33. I put a lot of time into this game, and I’m
glad I did because it is phenomenal. My characters are level 80+ and I’m deep
into discovering all of the areas in Act III. I suspect I am nearing the end, but I don’t want it to end which is why I’m exploring everything I can. That’s how you know it’s a good game. I’ll save the rest of my thoughts for the review which will likely be in a weekly post in a couple weeks. This more than doubles my highest month in terms of playtime which is insane. Check out the playlists for my playthroughs!
TV/Movie Recaps
Here is everything I watched last month:
·Marvel Zombies Season 1 Episode 4 (all caught
up, show ended?)
·Alien: Earth Season 1 Episodes 1-8 (all caught
up, show ongoing)
·Futurama Season 10 Episodes 1-10 (all caught up,
show ongoing)
·Splinter Cell: Deathwatch Season 1 Episodes 1-8 (all
caught up, show ongoing)
·Gen V Season 2 Episodes 1-8 (all caught, show ended?)
·Tales of Phantasia: The Animation Season 1
Episodes 1-4 (all caught up, show ended)
·Berserk Season 1 Episodes 1-2 (still watching,
show ended)
·Happy Gilmore 2
·Pitch Black
·The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury
·The Chronicles of Riddick
·Riddick
·28 Years Later
A lot was watched last month it looks like! Including a few
shows that haven’t been either renewed nor canceled so I have no idea if they’re
still going or not. I was surprised to learn that Tales of Phantasia got its
own anime adaptation in the form of an OVA that’s less than two hours long, so
I convinced my co-op partner to sit through that with me. It changed A LOT from
the game, which makes sense given the short runtime. It was still cool seeing scenes
and characters from the game from a different perspective and with English
voices. Other than that, Alien: Earth and Gen V were standouts last month, I
enjoyed both of those shows. On the other hand, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch and
Happy Gilmore 2 were not the best. I didn’t hate anything on this list, so it
was still a good month.
Conclusion/Upcoming
I think this is a pretty exciting update! Tales of Phantasia
is finally done and I’m playing single-player games again. I’m so happy to be
getting back into games again instead of just testing them. Clair Obscur: Expedition
33 has its hooks in me DEEP and I can’t stop thinking about it. I’ll be sad to
see it end, but the backlog never sleeps!
For next month, I’ll likely be watching the Berserk anime
for most of it. I initially wanted to wait to watch it until just before
starting the Dreamcast and PS2 games, but that’s years away and I already
downloaded them on my PC so I figured I might as well watch them now. It’s
probably not super important to experience them so close together anyway. If I
get through those three shows, I’m planning on watching Star Wars: Visions
Season 3. I’m excited that they’re going back to the anime styles from season 1
instead of the Clone Wars/Rebels/Bad Batch style of season 2. Not that I don’t
enjoy that style, but it felt like throwing away everything that made season 1
good. I don’t have much in the way of movie series going on right now. For
November, I’m planning to watch Demolition Man, Ballerina (from John Wick), The
Accountant 1 and 2, and Barbarian. I was planning to watch Barbarian with my
friend before Halloween, but things got busy, and we unfortunately didn’t get
around to it. That’s OK, we can be spooked in November too!
On the gaming front, I’m going to be finishing Clair Obscur:
Expedition 33. I almost wanted to say unfortunately here, but I’ve enjoyed my
time with it immensely and all good things must come to an end. The next game
on my list will be another long RPG with Metaphor: ReFantazio. This game is
even longer than Expedition 33 and will definitely take me through the rest of
the year and likely into February to complete. I’ve never played an Atlus game
before so I can’t compare it to Persona which is also in my backlog. I’ve heard
great things though and I know a lot of people felt it was snubbed for GOTY
last year. I don’t expect it to be as good as Expedition 33 but I’m excited to
find out regardless. For co-op games, I assume my friend and I will be focused
on smaller, more obscure games for a while. We’re going to try out Monster Prom
2 as our first game after Tales of Phantasia. If we beat that or decide we didn’t
have a lot of fun, we’ll move on to a sort of hidden object game with Halloween
Stories: Horror Movie. You might notice that was one of the games added to the
backlog this month from an Amazon giveaway. I’m not really into this genre, but
everything is more fun with friends so maybe it will be more tolerable that
way. Not exactly a ringing endorsement but what can you do 😅? Anyway, I think that’s enough for now. Look out for my normal weekly
post which will hopefully be out tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
Backlog total: 3,684 (+72) <- A few emulated games
still snuck in here at the beginning of the month
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