Truth (Day 16)

I figured I'd take some time to briefly talk about what games I'm playing and which I plan to play soon. My plans very often change, of course, so none of this is set in stone. A few months ago I planned to play through a lot of the Tales series in marathon fashion and that didn't even come close to happening, despite finishing the PSX version of Tales of Phantasia (which was quite good). On the other hand, I made plans to play through the entire classic Mega Man series and followed through pretty admirably, stumbling only on the tough-as-nails Rockman & Forte. My attention span is a very fickle thing.

Of course, right now I'm playing Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and recently finished its predecessor Baldur's Gate, even making sure to finish all of the content exclusive to its expansion, Tales of the Sword Coast. I'm being very completionist about this particular playthrough (and will continue to do so into BGII: Throne of Bhaal) so I expect to write a lot more about it in the future, hopefully leading up to a full-fledged review once I've completed it. It's an important game to me and deserves coverage on this blog.

I also just started a downloadable PC game called Katawa Shojo, a "visual novel" with one of the strangest premises I've encountered. I think the only other game I've ever played in the genre was Radical Dreamers, which I barely remember since I only played it very briefly. I might even be wrong in classifying it as a visual novel--but regardless, Katawa Shojo seems pretty interesting so far. After doing my research, it seems to be held in high esteem by a relatively broad spectrum of gamers. I was worried initially that it was some kind of fetishistic porn game, but that certainly doesn't seem to be the case thus far. Despite the questionable title (it translates literally to "Cripple Girls"), it seems to treat the disabled people in the story with a lot of respect--something that is important since the focus of the game is on the protagonist Hisao's relationships with these girls.

I'm also playing Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time. I loved the first game and happily paid $20 for it when it was released. PVZ2 has very similar gameplay with a series of improvements that you would expect from a sequel--except that it is an iPhone exclusive (for now) and it's free. I would have not hesitated in paying full price for the game, and I almost wish they'd gone that route instead since the other option we're left with is microtransactions. There are optional plants (towers) and upgrades that can only be purchased with real money. Admittedly, the game is completely playable and has an acceptable level of difficulty without purchasing a single thing, but the very fact that these microtransactions are there is disconcerting to me. I'd much rather pay a flat fee and have access to all of the game's content right away. Only time will tell if I decide to pursue any of the game's downloadable content. For now I'm going to try to play through it with only the plants and upgrades unlocked through normal gameplay.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike is still listed in my Now Playing on Backloggery but truthfully I haven't touched it since I downloaded PVZ2. I'm not going to forget about it, though; I've put off resuming it for way too long already. I really enjoy the series but I'm not particularly good at them. Some missions are extraordinarily tough and time-consuming for me. I can't tell you how long it took me to finish the first two. Still, I'll definitely finish Dual Strike (probably months for now) and then go on to Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, which I've owned for years without playing.

At a certain point in my life, I bought new games constantly with every intention of playing them soon. I'd pick them up and play them for an hour or two and then put them down, not touching them again for months or even years. This is why I own so many PS2 games and why so many of them lay on my shelf, unfinished. Many of them deserve to be played and finished (and written about!) but with my PS2 currently in a state of disrepair, who knows when I'll get to them. For now, I'm periodically hacking away at my Nintendo DS backlog, which I honestly have a pretty good completion rate with. After I finish those two Advance Wars games, I'd like to finish up Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (in preparation for Dream Team) and The World Ends With You. They're both good games, and I have no good reason for not finishing either!

As far as non-portable plans go, I still plan on soldiering on through the Infinity Engine games. I'm so engrossed in Baldur's Gate II at this point that there's no way I'm not finishing that. I've completed Shadows of Amn countless times, but for some reason I never made it all the way through Throne of Bhaal. After I've done that, I'll have to decide where I want to play Icewind Dale or Planescape: Torment. The latter is definitely the more important game--it is repeatedly cited as an example of excellent plot and characters. I've tried to play it a few times but lacked focus in every case. It will be played, but there's at least a reasonable chance that I'll prefer to play the more combat-heavy Icewind Dale first. Playing BGII has put ideas in my head for experimenting with the huge variety of classes that AD&D had to offer.

I even have distant plans of playing both Neverwinter Nights games and giving Dragon Age: Origins another chance. Sometimes I wish there were more hours in the day--but then I suppose a better wish would be for more focus, since I tend to easily lose interest even when the game I'm playing is excellent.