This is the fifth virtual Xmas card I've done. I thought the first one would be the last and we'll see how long I keep it up. I'm going to stop counting after this one. I also might stop entirely after this one. It depends how I feel in about two months. If the past few years are predictive, one extremely cold night in February I'll be extremely bored and start the 2025 draft.
This year follows the format as previous ones, maybe not in the same order:
I didn't post a lot this year. That's because I really wanted to finish Retail Clerk '90. I fully intended to finish it in 2020 and definitely had the time to do so. Instead I spent a lot of time working on the development tooling and a completely different demo called Speedrun Tower. The reality is, I didn't like the story I created for Retail Clerk '90 and couldn't get motivated to finish it.
I decided this year to crank through it. Along the way, I made enough changes to the plot to no longer completely dislike it. It's not great, or even mediocre. I built some nifty tooling along the way. It wasn't a total waste of time.
I will do another game demo, maybe soon, probably not. Like everyone who enjoys video games I have 1000+ ideas for one. Of those, there are 2 I am really interested in doing... and 1 that I'll probably do just because it seems easy. Check back in a year or four to see what I actually finish.
I'd like to post more frequent, but shorter, programming articles than I typically do. I started with a small handful this year:
I'd like to keep this up.
At the end of 2023 I finally upgraded to a PlayStation 5. I know how antiquated it sounds but I wasn't going to buy one until I saw it on a store shelf. Only recently have the "for the safety of..." signs starting coming down from empty display cases.
There isn't a lot I want to play on it right now but hey, GTA6 trailer, amiright.
I was interested in Final Fantasy XVI though. I bought the PlayStation 4 to play Final Fantasy XV originally. This will likely be the case for the PlayStation 6 and Final Fantasy XVII in 5 years. Unless of course Microsoft buys Square-Enix, there's at least a 50/50 shot of that happening.
I watched one trailer for Final Fantasy XVI and went into it pretty cold. I expected it to follow the semi-open-world model of XV but it works more like X. Like X (and others in the series) it's a linear story without a ton of room for exploration. Really, it's a lot like the first Final Fantasy VII remake but with a battle system closer to XV. The first Final Fantasy VII remake felt an awful lot like an Uncharted game and so does XVI.
I think that's a fair comparison. You spend a lot of time walking through amazing scenery and talking to people. There is action-based combat that can be dialed down to "press square to win" if you prefer. Final Fantasy XVI is roughly 3x longer than an Uncharted game. Other than that, the formulas are very close.
I don't know if it's my favorite thing in the game, but I like what they did with the re-occurring Cid character this time around. Now that I think about it, all the re-occurring elements were done well. The story is based around what would be called "summons" in previous games. Changing the summons from glorified black magic attacks into kaiju monsters happened earlier in the series. Something about those battles just works better in XVI. Or at least the first couple of kaiju battles were fun. After that they get to be hour-long ordeals. That's borderline fine for a final boss but not for several mini-bosses. Outside of that, I don't have any complaints about Final Fantasy XVI. I didn't buy the DLC or try New Game+, both are tempting.
After finishing a long RPG I usually pivot to a different genre. So far I played three games in the Shantae series and enjoyed them all. They remind me a lot, a lot, of Dragon's Trap/Curse... something I've already mentioned too many times.
This time, I went with Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. I'm too lazy to look up the chronology, but I think it is the first among the modern games. It's been on my backlog for a while.
It was exactly what I expected. A solid ~10 hour game with moderate difficulty.
Half-Genie Hero is really, extremely similar to Risky's Revenge. That's totally fine. To misquote myself in a previous one of these recaps... if Nintendo made 100 games exactly like Metroid but with different maps I'd own them all. Likewise they could make a 100 Shantae games with minimal changes and I'd be cool with that.
Totally arbitrary running ranking of games I played in 2024 based on no specific criteria:
I used to always play Falcom releases the day they arrived in the US. Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails showed up while I was still knee-deep in Trails to Reverie. After taking a break from Falcom games for a couple months I jumped into it.
I've thought about doing an article about the best (or my favorite) third-party developer and console combinations. It's too convoluted of an idea. I'll try to simplify - Square + Super Nintendo. Get it? You get it right? I hope it's as obvious an idea to you as it is to me.
Square + Super Nintendo has to be first on this hypothetical list, right?
Falcom + PlayStation Portable is going to be a very close second then. Unless it's first. This is too difficult to decide. On one hand, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI could be the two best JRPGs of all time. Final Fantasy V and Super Mario RPG aren't far behind them. On the other hand we have the first five Trails games, Ys VI & Seven, plus remakes of the first 3 Ys games. I haven't even noted the entire library for either developer + console combination. This is tough. Too tough. Let's just agree these are both great eras.
It was sad to start Legend of Nayuta because I knew it was the last Falcom PSP-era game I'd ever go into fresh. The Vantage Master game is the only one I haven't tried but I don't think it's my thing. Also it hasn't been localized, a large inconvenience.
Legend of Nayuta can be described as "better Gurumin". They are, let's say, 80% the same game. They are anchored around a single town with a portal to a parallel monster world. Said world is broken down into a series of stages with objectives that encourage replay. The later Tokyo Xanadu also functions roughly the same way, with a much larger town.
Going back two paragraphs... Falcom + Vita is another solid combination. Smaller selection than Falcom + PSP but some real gems like Ys VIII and the just-mentioned Tokyo Xanadu. Also I know many would argue Capcom + NES, or Konami + NES, is the real right answer.
OK, so Legend of Nayuta... it's a mostly easy game. Lately I've been playing every new-to-me game on the easiest setting, except for Falcom games which are easy by default. The challenging parts of Nayuta come from one janky swinging control.
Maybe I'm simply bad at swinging mechanics in games. Outside of Pitfall! I tend to fail at them a lot. The controls and camera (or lack thereof) feel very early PSP which adds to the difficulty. You can't always see where a jump will land or where the next chain in a swinging sequence is.
The level system in Legend of Nayuta is really odd. You gain levels much faster from cooking meals than fighting enemies. XP gain from enemies is trivial to start with and follows Falcom's usual system of scaling it down when you gain a level. The XP scaling doesn't apply to cooking meals though. In new game+ the level cap is raised but the only practical way to gain levels is through eating a dozen meals in a row.
Totally arbitrary running ranking of games I played in 2024 based on no specific criteria:
Finishing Final Fantasy XVI left me with exactly nothing I wanted to play on my new PlayStation 5. So I pre-ordered Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and started it during the annual "second winter" in this part of the country.
In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth you play as Cloud Strife, a man who has severe issues with furniture.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth starts off strong because the beginning is also the end of Crisis Core and Crisis Core is great. If I ranked all games with "Final Fantasy VII" in the title, Crisis Core would be first.
I was really psyched. I expected a game that was thematically similar to Crisis Core and played like the first Final Fantasy VII remake.
Instead, it turned into a single-player version of Mario Party. Well, OK, M&M's Beach Party. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is M&M's Beach Party with better visuals.
This became clear when the party arrived in Costa Del Sol. To advance the story the party needs beachwear. Instead of buying beachwear, as one would in any sensible civilization, it has to be earned through a series of bad mini-games. After that there is a series of sub-quests that also require completing the exact same mini-games and some even worse ones.
I thought that would improve but the next stop is the Gold Saucer with more mandatory mini-games and linear progression through the story. This is when I started to question if I'd finish the game.
Controversial opinion that will earn me hate mail I won't read: Muppets Party Cruise has vastly superior mini-games to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It's not close. The Muppets Party Cruise game where you throw fish into toilets (look it up) is more fun than Queen's Blood. I mean a lot more fun.
The exploration part of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was OK. Breath of the Wild, released 7 years ago, was 100x better. Still, it was enough to keep me going for a while. Until I hit the Gongaga region, then I gave up on exploring and tried to get to the next story events as quickly as possible. That was a chore because you'd have better luck navigating a real jungle than Gongaga. The side quests got really boring around then too. "Round up chickens using a tin can fishing thing" boring. At that point I started to tune out.
I again thought things would get better when I got to Cosmo Canyon. Exploring desert settings in games is usually a good time. Something about the desert is beautiful to me, maybe because I've only seen one in person a couple times. If I lived in a desert maybe I'd get burned out on it. The Cosmo Canyon region looks amazing, like all the scenery in the game. It's also a pain to navigate. There are deceptively open spots where it looks like you can easily reach objectives. Oh no, you can't reach them. You can try to fly a chocobo through a series of checkpoints to reach them. You can try.
Each region is the same in the end. There's a series of identical things to do in each of them. Like tricking the local Chocobo.
So I skipped exploring Cosmo Canyon and went to the Nibelheim region next. This is when I quit. I made a beeline for the town and advanced the story until reaching Shinra Mansion. This is one of the best locations in the original game and Crisis Core. Sadly, this is where Final Fantasy VII Rebirth became too stupid to keep playing.
A new mechanic is introduced here - box throwing. You play this stage as Cait Sith who needs to trigger various things by throwing boxes at them. That's the only way to solve problems, by throwing boxes at them, just like real life. Also like real life it's quite difficult to hit far away objects with boxes.
This part of the game is so frustrating. I kept going until reaching a point that requires navigating a series of vents that open and close by hitting a central switch with a box. Once you reach the third floor of this area you have to hit the switch again to proceed.
There's the switch you have to hit. In the background are two able-bodied people who could hit the switch. Cait Sith could go up to the third floor and yell at them to hit it. He has a freakin' megaphone. A megaphone, he has a megaphone. There are two people who could, you know, hit the switch after he tells them to... using his megaphone. Instead it's more box throwing.
OK, it's just one more box throw, right? Nope. This leads to another box throwing event. At this point I quit. I know I was close to the end but I can't spend more time on this game.
I thought about writing an article called "life is too short to play Final Fantasy VII Rebirth" but decided life is too short to write that. There's a 3rd Final Fantasy VII installment due eventually. I won't finish the trilogy. I'll play Crisis Core again sometime instead. Crisis Core rules.
You know what else rules? Super Mario RPG. I pre-ordered the remake but couldn't get to it until now.
Super Mario RPG is the swan song of 16-bit RPGs. Originally released in spring 1996, after the PlayStation dominated the previous holiday season. I first played it over spring break in 1999. It's silly how I remember that so well.
The remake isn't that different from the original. I thought I didn't remember the story but it came back to mind quickly. I played it on the "breezy" setting because I definitely remembered it was difficult at times. Not a complaint but "breezy" mode is absurdly easy. I have a lot of other games I want to try so that's cool.
Super Mario RPG was more fun than I remembered. This might be an artifact of the recently mentioned "breezy" setting. Without grinding this is a quick jaunt through a quirky adventure.
I don't recall in the original game if you could go back and explore the world in a sort of New Game+ mode. I didn't try that yet but probably will.
OK, after cooling down I went back to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Maybe it's sunk cost fallacy. It was an expensive game, heck I bought a PlayStation 5 partially to play it. I already put so many hours into it. Can I really walk away from it?
I left off at a silly box throwing segment. It turns out I was almost done with that. After that... uh, yeah, it didn't get much better. The party returns to Nibelheim and some new sidequests open up. One of them is an extremely typical JRPG mission - find the lost cat. Even the Trails series, which at this point in life I definitely prefer to newer Final Fantasy games, uses this trope.
The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth "find the lost cat" quest starts off typical. The cat wanders off somewhere dangerous and you fight off various enemies to save them. When you get back to town the quest should be over, but it isn't. Instead you now have to perform in a concert to complete the quest. That's not a typo or exaggeration. I noped out and went to the main story checkpoint.
Things seemed to improve here. After leaving Nibelheim the party gains access to the entire world map and there are new missions everywhere. I poked around a little but decided to power through to the end. The burnout was too strong to do otherwise. This meant a trip back to the Gold Saucer for a date. I got Tifa even though I didn't try for that. I've heard rumors of people investing time into "earning" their preferred date. I didn't have one since I'm not a big fan of dating angles in games. It wasn't much of a date, more of an extended operatic hallucination.
The last dungeon was concise, a few straightforward puzzles and a small number of battles. Compared to a Falcom game it was downright short. The last boss fight was an epic though. Maybe I should have tackled it over two nights. I think I would have liked it better that way. Whatever, it's done. I'm not playing the next installment.
Totally arbitrary running ranking of games I played in 2024 based on no specific criteria:
Over summer I split time across two games - Persona 3 Reload on the PlayStation 5 and the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on Switch (what else would that be on?) remake. I usually don't juggle two RPGs like that but it's an uninteresting story why I did now.
I played Persona 5 at the start of the pandemic. I probably played it for 200 hours in like a week (not a real estimate). I overall enjoyed it. The story and bonding system were fun. The battle system felt very dated compared to the Trails series. Persona 3 is the same deal. I was surprised how similar the games were. I shouldn't have been but I was. Persona 3 and 5 are nearly the same game. Since I just referenced the Trails series you should know I'm OK with that. Anyway, they're so similar I'm surprised there aren't 10 Persona games by now.
The soundtrack was a highlight of Persona 3. Easily one of my favorites, so many catchy tracks. I'll listen to it for a while. Yes, I played it on the easiest setting and it was ludicrously easy. That's what I wanted.
Totally arbitrary running ranking of games I played in 2024 based on no specific criteria:
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door doesn't have adjustable difficulty. It could be the only RPG I play this year without it. That's alright. I learned 16 years ago that the secret to making this game easy is maxing-out badge points first. I learned that too late 16 years ago. It was far along in the game that I realized targeting HP first was a bad strategy. I'm not going to explain how this game works so this description is confusing.
I keep saying 16 years ago because this is the easiest game ever to remember when I first played it. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was the first game I played after my youngest daughter was born. I played it on the Wii out of convenience, that was the system hooked-up to the "main TV" in 2008. It took a long time to get through. Obviously a newborn limits gaming time. Not understanding the system was the real problem.
In every RPG I played before, growing stats like HP and MP (FP, Flower Points, in this game) are the fastest path to victory. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door the key to success is being able to equip as many badges as possible. Late game battles are easy with low HP and FP if you have a ton of badges equipped. I'm sure some other game did something similar before.
Alright, yeah, Paper Mario. Like Super Mario RPG this is a whimsical adventure. It's filled with humor, happy music, and pretty scenery. I completed most of the game - main story and two of the optional bosses.
Totally arbitrary running ranking of games I played in 2024 based on no specific criteria:
I waited until fall to start The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak. It's always a long delay to get Falcom games so what difference does a couple more months make? At this pace I'll probably save Ys X for January when the nights are unbearably boring.
Anyway, Trails through Daybreak...
I'll start by saying this was my favorite game of the year so far. Persona 3 would be close except I don't care much for the trial-and-error approach to finding enemy weaknesses in every battle. Final Fantasy XVI is close except it needs about 30% less time in cutscenes. The two Mario RPGs are of course great but don't offer a lot of new content over the originals. If I start the latest Zelda game this year this ranking will most likely change.
Trails through Daybreak does almost everything better than the other JRPGs I played in 2024 or ever. So I'll start by getting the negatives out of the way:
There are so many good additions that drown out those issues:
The sequel to Trails through Daybreak is due in the US in a mere two months. For a Falcom game that is an almost unbelievable pace. I might try a new game+ run before then.
Totally arbitrary running ranking of games I played in 2024 based on no specific criteria:
Metroid Fusion has been on my backlog for a while. I generally enjoy the Metroid series, although I've never played one that felt as open and wondrous as the original. Metroid Fusion is an expensive game to own if you didn't buy it when it was new. A lot of Game Boy Advance games are like this. Somehow I missed that it was on the Switch Online service until November of 2024.
It's about what I expected. It looks and plays like Super Metroid or Metroid Zero Mission. It has a little more story than either. Playing it on the Switch makes it a lot easier with the rewind feature.
I played Metroid: Samus Returns back in 2018. I thought it was more recently but whatever. The thing that annoys me about Metroid Fusion is carried on to Metroid: Samus Returns. When the game starts you have 99 energy and enemies knock off 10-20 points per hit. As you collect more energy tanks the enemies do a lot more damage. You'll have 8-10 energy tanks but enemies will just knock a whole one off in a single hit. In the early games collecting extra energy tanks made the game easier. In the more recent ones you need every one you can get to just barely survive.
The difficulty really got to me as the game progressed. If it wasn't for the rewind feature on the Switch I would have quit. In another time this wouldn't be an issue but now I just don't have time, patience, or skill for difficult games. Still I'd recommend trying this. It's a good entry to the series and plays enough like Super Metroid that I think 1990s gamers would enjoy it.
Of course older gamers might run into the same issues as me. After a couple decades spending 8-12 hours a day on a keyboard I have the expected problems associated with that. I'm not complaining, it's just life.
Totally arbitrary running ranking of games I played in 2024 based on no specific criteria:
Metroid Fusion is the last game of 2024 for me. I will start the latest Zelda or Ys game before the end of the year but I won't finish them until 2025. I tend to watch a lot of bad Xmas movies with my wife in December. I also need to save some games for the next 90-120 winter nights.
I have to close out this section by noting the passing of Falcom's founder Masayuki Kato late this year.
He was a major figure in the history of JRPG & action-RPG development. On the internet you may find comments critical of his management style but I doubt he's different from anyone else in a similar position. He started with a dream of owning an Apple ][ store and that grew into an influential game company. I know very little about him personally, but it takes a remarkable effort to accomplish all he did.
Alrigh, I made it through many long games this year. I chalk that up to:
I'll start with a couple I bought on clearance early in the year. There are so many new gaming themed Hallmark ornaments now. It's a gamble which will sell out before December 25 and which will be 40%-50% off the next day. It's an even bigger gamble to see what makes it to 75%-90% off in January. Every year there are a couple where I'm willing to take these risks. This time around it was:
This one did not come close to selling out. I bought it rather late. It's OK. Same for this Sonic Adventure one:
I think they went overboard with Sonic ornaments because there were a lot of early year deals. This Tails one was another good bargain:
This miniature cartridge is nice too:
As has been the case in recent years, there are a ton of new ornaments. The highlight this time around is the Oregon Trail ornament:
It plays the theme music and lights up. Ironically it costs about the same as the Oregon Trail handheld from a few years ago that is playable. No, I don't want a playable ornament, really, I don't.
There is a smaller companion piece:
I probably could nab that in January though.
Their line of miniature Nintendo ornaments continued with Boo:
This year I moved them all to a miniature tree too.
They also continued their line of Mario Kart ornaments with Toad:
It fits in well next to all the previous ones.
I took a gamble on this one, I feel like it will be available on December 26th because it's pricey even for Hallmark:
Batteries not included of course. Of course.
Anyway, this is not going to be an ornament for me. The hook is hidden well so it doesn't even look like an ornament. This will be a regular gameroom decoration.
I added one new cheap ornament too:
This is from Walmart but is probably sold elsewhere.
One very late addition came from Nintendo directly:
I cashed in pile of platinum coins for that. I don't know what else to do with them.
I expanded my little pro wrestling tree just a tiny bit. One of my kids found this one new for $1.99 while out thrifting:
Maybe I did an OKish job raising them if they like looking for deals and also think about getting things for others.
This was another early year clearance find:
Not my favorite, it doesn't look like John Cena all that much. Whatever.
My Spotify Wrapped is pretty unsurprising:
And my PlayStation wrap-up, highlight added:
This worked last year so.. oh who cares. I don't recall how I setup my PlayStation 5 but it's on-brand for me to set the data collection to the least it will allow.
Fine, I'll make my own:
This is from the PlayStation mobile app which only shows the 3 most recently played games. I don't put effort into unlocking trophies. It should be obvious from this that I tried to get through Final Fantasy VII Rebirth as fast as possible while trying to max out all the character bonds in the other two.
Oh, wait... did I see an article about the PlayStation Wrap-up being broken? Maybe I'll try again... nah, let's move on...
My Nintendo recap started with something I forgot about:
I played that with the 4x experience point boost turned on and finished it in a couple nights. It had been a while and I was in the mood for an old-school Final Fantasy game. I will probably do a playthrough of the VI pixel remaster in 2025.
I'm not ashamed by this:
Fine, I average about an hour or two of PowerWash Simulator a week. It adds up. I haven't played it in a little while though. A recent update broke it and the only fix currently available is to delete your saved data. Do better PowerWash Simulator people.
There are more recaps I could include since so many sites are trying to get in on this year-end attention grabbing scheme. Even Peacock sent me a recap. Did you know in a year with the Olympics I watched a lot of sports? Shocking.
I have to mention that I decided to stop podcasting in 2024. Although I might appear in a few episodes that trickle into 2025. This is something I seriously considered over five years ago but decided to give it a while longer. At this point I've been doing one podcast or another for 15 years. This has all run its course for me.
I appreciate everyone who listened to my two most recent podcasts. If you're one of them, I offer a very sincere thank you. If you're not, thanks for reading this far.
I know the pain of losing a podcast you listen to regularly. I can name a couple that I miss like an old friend. I grew up as an "army brat". It's very easy for me to move on from friendships. I formed a bond with someone and then we moved on. Our parting was inevitable and I am happier for having known them. I hope they are doing well. I suppose that is the theme of Persona 3 too. Anyway, I have the same attitude toward my last two podcasts. I'm glad I recorded them, it's time for something else.
I want to make room for a new hobby. Now, I haven't decided what that new hobby is. I'd like to be better at cooking and gardening. I'm minimally proficient at electrical work and plumbing, I wish I was a near expert at either. I might decide to spend more time on an existing hobby I'm already OK at. Whatever I do, I'm sure to post something about it here.
There are a lot of games I am looking forward to playing next year. Trails through Daybreak 2 and the Ys III remake remake are both due in early 2025. There's also a Trails in the Sky remake that somehow is being concurrently released in the US. I preordered FANTASIAN Neo Dimension which I assume I will play next year. The upcoming Lunar remakes look good too. Maybe I'll tackle a couple things on my backlog instead of mostly playing remakes.
I am planning to publish a 20th anniversary tribute to the PlayStation Portable in March 2025. Although I really have just barely started thinking about what that will look like.
I have a few programming articles, including another Genesis one, I'm considering for 2025. No clue what I'll finish.
Happy new year everyone.
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