2018 - 12 Month Pile Program

It depends on what, if anything, is added to the game for the Switch port, but my gut reaction is to say "no". I already have a game in progress on PS4, and most of my on-the-go gaming for the last eight months has been on my 3DS.

What has affected my plans are the perpetual rumors of Xenoblade X on the Switch. I would be far more inclined to play that one on the Switch, so even though I'm somewhat more interested in it than in TMS, and it's not a Megaten game, I don't want to make it a pile goal if a port gets announced.

Past couple days I've been reflecting a bit on this year. I have spent alot of the year stressing over the number of completed games per month, that resulted with unnecessary anxiety from the hobby that is supposed to reduce stress and anxiety. Sure the months that I finished a bunch of games made me feel great, but on the opposite the months that I didn't get much accomplished I felt a bit depressed about it.

Next year I plan to focus more on quality of gaming vs quanity, gaming should be about having fun and getting lost in the worlds, not about seeing the credits. That being said I think some general goals should be layed out, not as a rule but more of a reminder of the games I have and want to play instead of buying new stuff.

As we get a bit closer to end of the year, I plan to look over my library and see what games I want to play, revist or play any additional DLC. Along with new/past releases that are slated for next year that I would be interested in.

I think these pile threads are such an interesting and fascinating exercise. The first step is to realize you've developed a bad habit of buying more games than you could ever play. The potential second step is to realize you don't need to fill a monthly quota, which only happened during my hiatus this year. Perhaps these are just steps I'd have eventually reached on my own, but the pile threads acting as a sort of logbook certainly help you consider your habits more closely.

It's fun for me to keep track of what I played, but at the same time I think it's useful to just have a tool or habit that encourages you to remember that you don't need to play everything, and that what matters most is your enjoyment.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Planning ahead to next year, I've decided to pick one game from each platform I own to make my goal for next year. I don't have any kind of timeframe in mind for these other than "sometime in 2019". I tried to pick games that I'm reasonably confident that I'll enjoy with a preference for things that have gone unfinished in my collection for a long time.

I've kept thinking about this.

One of the things that I've been proud of this year has been how many "white whale" games I've returned to and finished. Of course, I'm using white whale in the literary sense: like Captain Ahab in pursuit of Moby Dick, my white whale games have been ones that I've tried and failed to finish over the years, for various reasons, but that I couldn't quite let go of, either.

This year so far, I've finished Xenoblade Chronicles, Fire Emblem Awakening, and Dragon Quest VIII, and I'm closing in on the endings for Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch and Etrian Odyssey Untold. I tried all of these before, but this was the year I finally buckled down and finished them.

If I look at my collection and try to think of five white whales, I get a bit of a different list than before.

Devil Survivor Overclocked was the second game I ever played on my 3DS, all the way back in August of 2011 when I first got my console. I've never finished it, but I've long wanted to. The length has scared me off a bit, as has the daunting complexity of the thing.

Persona 3 and I go way back. I got a PS2 so that I could play the FES version; I bought a PSP so that I could play the Portable release; when I got a Vita, it was the first game I installed. I've never finished it for many of the same reasons that I haven't finished Devil Survivor.

Xenoblade Chronicles X and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE are "the ones that got away" on the Wii U. There are other games on that platform that I would love to play, but if my console went toes up tomorrow, those two would be the ones I truly regretted not getting to. They're both long, and the Wii U is not the most user-friendly platform, so it's been easy to pass them by.

Finally, Final Fantasy IX. I've been in love with this game since I first played it back in 2001. I've stumped for it as the best single-player game in that franchise. I've played it almost to the end twice now, but I've never seen it through. I don't actually know how it ends, but I'd like to.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Finally, Final Fantasy IX. I've been in love with this game since I first played it back in 2001. I've stumped for it as the best single-player game in that franchise. I've played it almost to the end twice now, but I've never seen it through. I don't actually know how it ends, but I'd like to.

I was somehow never aware of this! Yet I'm also in some ways not surprised. I feel like Final Fantasy IX is one of the best entries for 3/4ths or more of the experience, when it has more of a fairy tale feel to it than a grandiose Lord of the Rings style epic. Then... it goes full-blown Final Fantasy but in the most absurd, tone-breaking fashion. For me, it was always then that I kind of checked out of the game, and perhaps why in high school I developed such a bad taste for it (not to mention I was already inclined to disliking anything Square was trying with the franchise, branding them "traitors" or some such).

I might try giving the game another go-round when it releases on Switch, partially just to play it again and partially because 2020 is it's 20th anniversary and wouldn't it be nice to have a video analysis of it for my channel. I dunno about any sort of game club thing, but if you plan to give the game another go on Switch lemme know. I'd love to exchange thoughts in the Fabulous Final Fantasy thread or something.


I considered jumping in here last night but I had already shut my laptop down. Having completed Octopath Traveler I decided to jump back into Battle Chasers, hoping to beat it by Christmas and see if it had a place in my Game of the Year rankings.

It does not, and therefore I have no problem lowering its priority. I don't know if I'll replace it with the Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion or will just continue working on the Smash Ultimate character unlocks, and I would still like to finish Battle Chasers. It's not a bad game, after all. But when it comes to my tastes and enjoyment, other games easily place above it. I like its combat system, but the loot-based nature of its gear with drastic shifts in stat adjustments... it makes the game difficult in a way that's a bit frustrating to me. I'll get back to it later and I'm still interested in seeing what Airship Syndicate does next. I think they've proven they can design some fascinating systems. It just so happens that the same issues I had with Darksiders 2 bled over to Battle Chasers.

So that's a load off my back, in a sense. Sadly, don't know how much time I'll have this weekend for gaming, so my hope of completing Monster Hunter World may be dashed. Ah well. Such as it is. I'm not buying the Destiny 2 annual pass at this point so I'll have plenty of time to dive back into MHW after Christmas. Simultaneously, I've decided after Christmas I'll be putting Vampyr and Mafia 3 up for trade. Both were games I bought due to some mild interest, but not true investment. They feel like actual obligations when I consider my pile rather than things I eagerly wish to play.

FFIX is certainly my favorite. But skipping the last part might be the best way to play it.

Got to the grindy end-game part of MHW now. Might be time to figure out what else I can finish before the month/year runs out.

ccesarano wrote:

I dunno about any sort of game club thing, but if you plan to give the game another go on Switch lemme know. I'd love to exchange thoughts in the Fabulous Final Fantasy thread or something.

I'm going to give FFIX another spin this year, I think, either on PSP or Switch, so I'll let you know.

I was just thinking, seems like it’s been a while since I saw m0nk3yboy post. Hope he’s okay. Anyone have any news?

Have spotted the M0nk3y post here and there, Yo-kai this last week pretty sure and pops up in PS4 thread.

Hi all!

Other than a few posts recently, I've been out of action since April.

Tore the cartilage in my right knee, it lodged in the meniscal tibial recess, then I had to wait until August for surgery. I'm still having physio now to rehabilitate the muscles in both legs.

Sounds like prime gaming time, but with the pain, and pressure to still try and work, I've been barely breaking even as a human being.

On the plus side, the physio is going really well, I've ditched the crappy night shift work (where I damaged my knee originally) and I'm now working with a childrens' charity organisation during the day.

I'm refocused on my kids, and their learning, and I'm starting to get back into a "normal" sleep pattern, so I can actually look at returning to playing games of an evening.

Yep, definitely looking forward to 2019...

Good to hear from you Boy of the Monkeys! Not so glad to hear about the injuries upon your person, but then brought back to glad to hear about the positive steps forward in your life!

And hopefully to have you back around more often in 2019! Are you going to need someone to make the 2019 pile thread for you?

I figured I could cobble together something in the next day or so

Probably not my place to stick my nose in, but I will anyway. Do we need most of the stuff in the OP? It's gotten a bit long and unwieldy, and I don't know that we need fresh links out to the different pile and club threads.

Your nose is always welcome Clock. I figured I'd keep it light and nimble this year, just based off the last few pages of posts, and seeing how people are working their piles.

Good to know you're on the mend and work sounds really positive M0nk3y!

Looking forward to the new thread, lot's of waffle to be dished out in 2019.

Cheers fella.

Great to hear from you, m0nk3yboy, though I wish the news was better.
For the new thread, may I be so bold as to ask for a quick mention of my GWJ Adventure Game Club?

Looking back at this year, I spent some time playing a few games just because they were short. After reflecting a bit about it, its not how I want to look at my hobby. I actually did hour count for every game I finished this year, (this may hurt a bit) for 52 games finished I spent 572 hours playing, that is roughly 11 hours a week and 1.5 hours a day. Now when I break it down like that its not that bad, since this is my only source of media entertainment. (That number realistically is a bit higher since that only counts games finished. There is probably a solid 150 hours extra in games that have no finish, but that still only really adds a half hour a day average) But that number gives me a rough idea how much I would be able to physically play next year.

Looking over the list it also showed that I barelly play during the summer months, and that makes sense, summer is prime motorcycle weather, lake trips with kids etc. What is also seems to missing is JRPGs, something I thought is my favorite type of games, I only finished one. This past month I finally managed to hop off the gacha mobile game train. So lots of positives there.

Looking foward to the next year, I know majority of the first few months will be taken up by Witcher 3 and its expansions, I realistically expect it to take up a solid 150+ hours of my game time. With the remainder of the time I would like to play some games on my under utilized devices. I will be very happy if I could finish a CRPG of sorts, I own a few of them already. I used to really enjoy them back in the day. I wouldn't mind getting some of my inprogress JRPS finished, they totally fell by the wayside this year, I have a fairly deep progresses in a few of them.

So to make a short list
Play and finish a CRPG, I may need suggestions on those later
Play and finish a SRPG
Finish some of my in JRPGs that I have in progress
Put some game time into my portable devices, 3ds, Vita and psp. I think I could do that by allowing half hour wind-down time before bed.
Some of the planned purchases for next year are God of War, Spiderman, RDR2, Assassin's Creed Odyssey (freebie in January hopefully) and Dragon Quest XI (I'm slightly hesitant on this since DQ7 didn't click)

Sorry for ranting, but this thread helps get my thoughts in order and clear my head.

This list of games:

Spoiler:

January
Wolfenstein 2
Mad Max
Dear Esther
Lost Sea
February
Song of the Deep
Warriors All-Stars
Submerged
Titanfall 2
Shadow of Colossus
Grid 2
March
Hob
Yonder Cloud Catcher Chronicles
Nex Machina
Wipeout 2048
Pyre
April
Ni No Kuni 2
Wipeout HD
Horizon Zero Dawn Frozen Wilds
Koi
Assassins's Creed Freedom Cry
May
South Park Stick of Truth
Saints Row 4: Gat out of Hell
Ratchet and Clank (ps4)
Monument Valley (mobile)
Wipeout HD Fury
Monument Valley Forgotten Shores
June
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
Grow Home
Monument Valley 2
July
Gravel
August
WRC 4
Mother Russia Bleeds
September
Adr1ft
Severed
SUPERHOT
Tacoma
Assassin's Creed Origins
Limbo
Civilization Rev 2 * (vita)
Donut County
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
Forward to the Sky
October
Dirt Showdown
Tomb Raider Definative Edition.
Uncharted Lost Legacy
November
Burly Men at Sea
Unravel 2
Witcher Enhanced Ed.
December
Crew 2
Witcher 2 Enhanced Ed.
Wreckfest
Bulletstorm

I saw you are thinking about DQ 11 but are hesitant based on DQ 7. Just out of curiosity, what did you like and not like about DQ 7, and have you ever played another DQ game?

I have briefly played DQ8 on ps2 waaaay back in the day when it was first released. I love the art style of Dragon Quest, that is my primary selling point of DQ11, I like bright, vibrant games. What I didn't like is infrequent save points/checkpoints in DQ7, at one point I lost close to two hours of game time because my 3ds died. I also didn't like the extremely slow progression for combat, I think I was close to 7 hours into the game and there was no change to combat progression/skills, from what I heard there would be another 5 hours before I get to the area that unlocks classes. The turn based combat itself is fine, just the extremely high encounter rate with not much to do in the way of skills made it boring. I also found the soundtrack to be lacking in DQ7.

I don't mind long games or slow moving stories, but the game has to be respectful of my time with decent check point system/save system and having something else going on between the story beats.

Interesting. Based on what you describe, I think that the things that bothered you about DQ7 would be non-factors for 11.

The game is much more respectful of your time. In addition to churches in town, you can save at statues located at camp sites, which are scattered around the map—and you can zoom to those camp sites, too. That makes travel much easier and presents you with plenty of save points. Sometimes (but not always), there are save points or even full camp sites in dungeons, even set up right before a boss!

I also totally agree with you about monotonous combat in 7 before you get skills. 11 is much better. From the jump, each character has their own skill board, and you can choose how to develop. The board is typically made up of different sets of weapon abilities and then a unique “class”-type ability. Some skills are clearly better than others, but everything can be useful.

All monsters, except for some scripted encounters, are visible on the map, and most environments are large enough that you can evade enemies if you want to. That is also a huge upgrade from previous installments.

The soundtrack of DQXII could bother you. A lot of people complain about the midi quality of the soundtrack, though it doesn’t bother me. There also isn’t enough variety, so the music is super repetitive.

I think my plans to play Persona 3 and Final Fantasy IX are going to have to fall by the wayside. My son has hidden my PSP and literally cannot tell me where it is.

Thats one way to reduce the pile

I suppose in light of that, this is what I'm calling my pile for 2019. It's not everything I own, by any means, but it's the slice of what I own that I'm most enthusiastic about.

PS4:
• Ni No Kuni II
• Persona 5

Xbox:
• The Witcher 3
• Fallout 76

Switch:
• Valkyria Chronicles 4
• Okami

3DS:
• Metroid: Samus Returns
• Strange Journey Redux
• Stella Glow
• Lord of Magna
• Rune Factory 4
• Culdcept Saga
• Yokai Watch 2: Bony Spirits
• Devil Survivor Overclocked

Wii U:
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions
• Xenoblade X

Slice of the pile for 2019. Like that idea, pinching.

There's a lil crossover too.

Bubblefuzz wrote:

Slice of the pile for 2019. Like that idea, pinching.

There's a lil crossover too.

Same here. Might look into setting a slice of my own to map out the ideal pile progress plan for 2019.

Got a bunch of Nintendo credit today. That's what I get for making plans before Christmas!

Adding to the above, some subscription games:

PS Subscriptions:
• XCOM 2
• Iconoclasts
• [Idea Factory JRPG]

Xbox Subscriptions:
• Ashen
• Mutant Year Zero
• Hellblade

That Idea Factory JRPG up there is a placeholder for any of four or five JRPGs from the same developer that I'd like to play, but I can't decide which one.

And we're live!

2019 Pile Thread

Have at it!

Thus far I have only received Mega Man X Collection and no spare cash for Christmas, which is good news for the pile. We'll see what happens with my sister's family once they head over.

Merry Christmas and good luck to the rest of you in regards to pile additions!

I am very near to finishing the last two games on my pile for this year, Doom and Etrian Odyssey Untold. If I get some good time in (and don't run into a wall in Etrian) then I should be able to roll credits on both before New Year's!