"Nioh 2 Has Created Mind Gnomes | Castle Super Beast Clips"

[kane_magus]

Watch on YouTube

I listened to this whole thing, and I'm not really sure why, because for the entire 53 minute video (though I listened to it at 2x speed, so really only about 26 minutes for me), they're doing nothing but talking about the inane minutiae of games, primarily Nioh 2 but also some Monster Hunter, that I have never played and will almost assuredly never play, but there was just... something about that, and I don't know what it is, really... it was almost kind of soothing, in a weird way.

In my post here, I'm going to veer off on a bit of a tangent away from what they were mainly talking about in the video, though. The thing they said about people who, when a new game in a series comes out, want to go back and play/replay all the old games in the series before getting to the new thing, but then never actually get to the new thing... that's kind of me, honestly. A very good example of this as of a few weeks ago or so was that I said "Hey, I want to play Terranigma again. But... first, I'll play Soul Blazer and then I'll play Illusion of Gaia." I made it through Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia, but by the time I got to Terranigma, I was kind of burned out, and I only made it as far as GreCliff before just kind of stopping.

It's also like every time I've said "I want to give Mother 3 another try," I always start that process by replaying EarthBound Zero (it's actually called EarthBound Beginnings in English now, but that wasn't out yet the last time I did this, and the bootleg prototype ROM I was playing via emulation at the time was still called EarthBound Zero) and then EarthBound first, and then, by the time I actually get to Mother 3, I make it maybe halfway and then just stop. Last time I played Mother 3, I think I actually made it as far as New Pork City, with is basically the end of the game, but... just stopped. With Terranigma, at the very least, I've actually made it all the way through that (once, about 15 years ago). Not so with Mother 3.

And yeah, all of that is also why I've barely stepped even a pinky toe into long running series such as Tales (aside from a few singular, abortive playthroughs of Phantasia, Vesperia and Symphonia), or Atelier (as I've mentioned before), or Ys (though I actually own several of those on Steam now), or The Legend of Heroes including the offshoot Trials games (all of which is apparently part of yet another overarching series called Dragon Slayer, which also includes Xanadu/Faxanadu... kinda ridiculous), or many, many others. Even if in most of those cases each individual entry may be stand-alone. Doesn't matter.

But then, it all ties into my whole "play any new (or at least new to me) game really far, but then just drop it without actually finishing it" thing. E.g. Control and Hollow Knight, both of which are games I played really far into, recently, but have just kind of stopped playing, even more recently. I still have them installed on my computer, so there's still a chance I may get back into them, but the last time I played Hollow Knight was... *checks Steam* ...November 27, and the last time I played Control was actually before that, but I booted it up once and made it as far as the title screen on, Steam says, December 9, but I didn't actually play it any, at that time, so that doesn't count. Septerra Core is my current "I'll probably play really far into it but never actually finish it" game of the moment. ¬_¬ (In that, I'm currently to the Wind City area, having just gotten Corgan in the party.)

Also, on another issue, Woolie saying Persona starts at 3 and Castlevania starts at Symphony of the Night or whatever... yeah, that's pretty fucking asinine, truly.

Comments

[owsf2000]

The only Tales games I've gotten through myself are Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the World on PSP. I have a bunch of the others but have barely touched'em. I blame how they started getting riddled with DLC.

I've done the same with Ar Tonelico. I went back and played 1 and 2 before trying 3. And I ... keep losing interest in 3. Probably because it plays more like Tales of Ar Ciel than Ar Tonelico 3. (I hate the battle system. ^^)

Only really played through Persona 3 myself although I do have 4 somewhere... somewhere... Can't say I've seen it in ages though.

Also, on a totally unrelated note, looks like I'm completely missing out on the Steam sale this year. I only use prepaid steam cards for it as I ain't ever giving it a credit card number, and there doesn't appear to be any freaking steam cards available in the city.

[kane_magus]

I used to own Tales of Vesperia on... whatever console it was I owned it on that I can't recall now (hmm, Backloggery says it was the 360, so I'll defer to that...), and I played a fair ways into it before abandoning it. I have Tales of Symphonia on Steam and have played it for... *checks* ...4.5 hours. I also have Vesperia and Tales of Zestiria on Steam, but haven't touched them yet. The only reason I don't have Tales of Berseria on Steam is because it's infested with Denuvo. And I played maybe ten minutes of the DeJap fan translation of the Super Famicom version of Tales of Phantasia on an emulator, once, probably over two decades ago.

As for Ar tonelico, I never even finished the first game. I know I made it pretty far in, but... same as with far too many other games, I just never finished it. I owned 2 and 3 as well, but never even opened the boxes for those before I sold all my console shit.

I've played through all of Persona 1 (or Revelations: Persona as it was called) and the Playstation 1 version of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. I only played a little bit of the PSP re-release of Persona 2: Innocent Sin. I've also played all the way through Persona 3 FES, though I never finished The Answer or whatever the follow-up thing was called. And I finished Persona 4, original version, not Golden or whatever (and haven't cared to buy it on Steam because it's infected with Denuvo). Haven't touched Persona 5 at all yet, since I don't own a console on which to play it (and if it ever comes out on PC but is contaminated with Denuvo like P4G is, I won't be buying it there, either). Aside from that, the only other tangentially related game I've played is maybe halfway into a fan translation of the first Shin Megami Tensei game on a SNES emulator. Haven't touched any of the later SMT games or any of the Digital Devil whatever games. Yeah, that's another huge series with several other spin-off series that I've only barely touched, now that I think of it.

[kane_magus]

Oh, and there's also Tales of Arise on Steam, which apparently isn't defiled by Denuvo, which is nice, but I still won't be touching it, all the same. At least not until it hits a much, much steeper sale, anyway, given that the "Ultimate" version of that is currently $76.99 USD even on a 30% off sale ($109.99 USD normally), which is goddamn asinine.

But then, of course, every single fucking piece of fucking DLC for the game appears to be worse-than-useless fucking dogshit like costume packs and item packs and gold packs and level up packs and other such daft dumbfuckery that you and I both loathe, so in the highly unlikely event that I ever do buy the game at some point, I'd probably just get the normal version and be done with it... but even that is still $41.99 USD right now after a 30% off sale (normally $59.99), which as I've said multiple dozens of times by this point is simply too rich for my blood.

In any case, buying Arise would probably be dependent upon my ever actually playing and completing the other Tales games I already have, which doesn't seem like a thing that will be happening any time soon.