Persona Q: In which a large group of teenagers become very lost

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth is a dungeon crawler RPG developed by Atlus. It was released in North America just a couple of months ago (November 28, 2014) and I happily purchased it on release day as a huge fan of the Persona series. Persona Q is a spin-off title of the main Persona series, which is itself technically a spin-off of the main Megami Tensei series--but it has eclipsed many other games in that series in popularity. Atlus is also the developer for the Etrian Odyssey series and that is the source from which most of Persona Q's gameplay is drawn. Although it features all playable characters from both Persona 3 and 4 and pays homage to their backstories and personal struggles, Persona Q feels less like a Persona title and more like an entry into the Etrian Odyssey series. And that's absolutely fine if you're a fan of EO's gameplay and Persona's plot and characters. I'd never played an Etrian Odyssey title before tackling Persona Q, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was skeptical about what Persona Q had to offer, but I now feel I can safely say I'm a fan of the format.

Persona Q takes place in a bizarre alternate version of Persona 4's Yasogami High, its inhabitants ghostly, unliving facsimiles, save for students Rei and Zen that serve as the only playable characters unique to the game. Upon starting the game, the player will be prompted to assign names to the P3 and P4 protagonists. Unfortunately, the names I chose did not fit completely. According to the Persona 4 anime, that game's protagonist is named Yu Narukami--and according to a Persona 3 manga, that protagonist is named Minato Arisato. Although the compromise made me grit my teeth, I was forced to name them Yu Narkami and Minato Arsato. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make but I'll have to admit it was irksome I was required to make it at all. I have to wonder why Atlus felt it was a priority to retain the silent protagonist concept in  Persona Q. That's right--whichever protagonist you choose at the beginning of the game will be mute for the entire running time save for dialogue options chosen by the player--which are of course not voiced. I chose Minato (the P3 protagonist) expressly because he was given little to no character development in Persona 3 and I was eager to hear him delivering lines and interacting with other characters. Unfortunately, I was left with VA for only Yu, who I'd heard plenty not only in the Persona 4 anime, but in the two spin-off fighting games, Arena and Arena Ultimax. If I were to play the game a second time, I'd definitely select Yu as my protagonist of choice just to see the content I'd missed.


Your choice of protagonist has the most effect on the game's first chapter, where you are tasked with conquering the You in Wonderland dungeon, a labyrinth with a quite obvious Alice in Wonderland theme. You'll field a predetermined party of either P3 or P4 characters. Shortly before conquering the dungeon's final boss, a group of characters from the other crossover title will find their way to you. From that point on, you'll be afforded the opportunity to field a party of your own devising. When I first heard about Persona Q, this was the part I was most anticipating. I'd already planned out the kind of parties I wanted in my head--but of course at that point I had no idea how it would actually work.

The reason behind being trapped in Bizarro Yasogami High is kept tightly under wraps for the majority of Persona Q's formidable length. Suffice it to say that it is made clear very early on that newcomers Rei and Zen must have something to do with it. Zen is tall, stoic, and humorless, whereas Rei is a bubbly teenage girl with an obsessive appreciation for food of all kinds. There's very few scenes in Persona Q involving Rei that do not involve takoyaki or various other foods for which I have no name. Surprisingly, given her zeal, Rei is quite trim. I can only speculate that her boundless energy and enthusiasm must go a long way toward burning off those extra calories. Regardless, Rei and Zen play an important part in the plot of Persona Q, although their impact is not apparent until much later on.

Denizens of the mysterious Velvet Room take much more of an active role on the storyline in Persona Q than in previous Persona titles, although series regular Igor is nowhere to be found. Persona 4's Margaret takes over his persona fusion abilities whereas Persona 3's Elizabeth is relegated to running the Nurse's Office. She is happy to charge the gang for her healing services, however. Theodore from Persona 3 Portable is available to sell various goods to the party like weapons, armors, and accessories, provided you can bring him the requisite materials looted from the labyrinths' many enemies.

One of the things that excited me most about Persona Q when I first heard about it was its status as a crossover. I'm a huge fan of crossovers in general and I think they're so much fun when done correctly. I weep openly at the amount of time it will take for fan translators to work through the rest of the Super Robot Wars catalog, for instance. I thoroughly enjoyed Persona 4 Arena and Ultimax not just for their fighting gameplay, but because they featured a lot of dialogue and interactions between characters from Persona 3 and 4. In those games, the Persona 3 characters are a couple of years older, whereas the Persona 4 characters have essentially just finished with their murder mystery case--so the dichotomy is very different from what's on display in Persona Q, where all of the characters in question are in the midst of their personal story arcs. Because of this, each of these characters feels very limited in their potential trajectories. It feels impossible to develop these characters any further because of how it would interfere with the established canon. Unfortunately, this leads to a game that is fraught with novels of dialogue about things that are essentially very trivial, with most important dialogue relegated to that which is directly relevant to whatever labyrinth is currently being explored.

There are some exceptions to this, however, but these excerpts are sadly few and far between. The storyline does pick up considerably closer to the end of the game, and a few of the established characters do get a chance to shine, particularly Yukari. Still, I'd have to say it was disappointing not to see any genuine story arcs surrounding any of these characters I like so much. It might be disingenuous to say that many of the Persona squad are caricatures of what they're supposed to be, but it's not far off. Their personalities are correct and loyal to how they have been portrayed in various titles, but they're given very little dynamic range. This is particularly disappointing for characters like Minato and Shinjiro, who are sadly absent from other spin-off titles.

Persona Q is framed from the very beginning as a giant side quest because it takes place during the events of Persona 3 and Persona 4. Because of that, it lacks the epic "end of the world" feel of Persona 3 or the very real sense of danger presnt in Persona 4. The characters' only real motivation is just to get back to their homes--while attempting to have as much fun as possible while they're stuck in the Bizarro Yasogami Culture Festival. In order for the stars of Persona 3 and 4 to make it back to their homes, they must undo the four chain locks on a pair of ominous doors smack dab in the middle of the Velvet Room. These locks correspond to each of the dungeon's four main labyrinths, although once these dungeons have been conquered, you may find there's a reason to hang out for a little while longer.

I've not played any Etrian Odyssey titles (though that's coming soon) so I can't make many comments on how the combat in Persona Q differs from that series--but I can draw comparisons to Persona 3 and 4. In those games, exploiting enemy weaknesses was an important part of strategy in even the most mundane of encounters. This is also true in Persona Q but for different reasons. Enemies aren't staggered by these attacks nearly as often (although it will occasionally happen). Instead, party members will acquire a "boost" when exploiting an enemy's weakness. On that character's next turn, provided he or she does not get hit, all skills and spells will cost no resources, whether that be HP or SP. For physical skills, critical hits will provide this same bonus. Done correctly, boosts will allow players  to minimize usage of their all important resources and plumb the depths of Persona Q's enormous labyrinths without having to frequently retreat to Bizarro Yasogami High. This difference in playstyle was jarring at first, but I grew to appreciate it in time, especially when I discovered another important mechanic in Persona Q. Each of the game's many playable characters (including the protagonists) are able to equip a sub persona in addition to their primary persona. These primary personas will learn a series of skills pulled directly from their original games (for the most part, with some exceptions) but the sub persona is chosen by the player. Instead of fusing demons only for the use of the protagonist, you'll have to maintain several more just for use by your four other party members as well as two support characters! These support characters assist you in and out of combat. Fuuka and Rise are your only non-DLC choices here, but you can assign one character to both if you'd prefer. These sub personas will significantly bolster the number of skills at your disposal, but they also boost your characters' HP and SP. This bonus refills after every battle, which means that you can easily keep your resources up over the course of a labyrinth if you exploit weaknesses and otherwise conserve.

The range of skills available to your characters in positively staggering. Although Persona Q features most skills from Persona 3 and 4, it also features many skills pulled straight from Etrian Odyssey,
although I'll admit to being unsure about exactly which ones these are. Suffice to say, series stat buffs like Rakukaja (defense), Sukukaja (evasion/hit rate), and Tarukaja (attack) return, but inventive buffs like Death Chaser and Death Counter help to significantly flesh out your strategy. Several personas also have Link attacks, which are attacks that will automatically follow up on other party members' attacks. For example, Akihiko casts Bolt Link at the very beginning of the turn. When Naoto casts Megidolaon and fails to secure a kill on an enemy, Akihiko will follow up with an additional Bolt Link. Certain abilities will augment the damage of these links and increase the number of times this can occur, making them very powerful against many of Persona Q's difficult bosses.

Each of the labyrinths in Persona Q generally feature only one primary boss, but all of them have menacing roaming enemies called FOEs, evidently a hallmark of the Etrian Odyssey series. In most cases, FOEs can be avoided altogether, although it is increasingly challenging to do so as you progress further in the game. If you're up for a challenge, you can choose to attack these enemies. In many cases, they're more difficult than the boss of the labyrinth, but will reward you with high level personas and lots of experience. Many will require strategy to defeat if challenged at a reasonable level. In most cases, optional requests can be undertaken after a labyrinth is completed to venture back in and defeat these FOEs--for a reward of additional experience, money, and special items.

Because Persona Q is primarily a dungeon crawler, ample emphasis is placed on the labyrinths and how one traverses them. Many of the puzzles and layouts on display are satisfyingly inventive, particularly in the game's latter stages when things are becoming more complex. Accurate mapmaking (drawn with assistance from a grid on the Nintendo 3DS's touch screen) is essentially to successfully
progressing through these labyrinths. The player is required to find keys for locked doors, solve puzzles, scare off or avoid FOEs, and chart entire floors in order to progress. If a floor is completed 100%, a special chest containing a rare or unique item will be unlocked automatically.

Although most of Persona Q's labyrinths only contain four floors, these floors are positively packed with puzzles and content. Each of these labyrinths took me 15-20 hours to complete. I'd wager my thoroughness played no small part in the amount of time this took me, but it's a testament to the game that I was that engrossed.

Even though Persona Q borrows heavily from the Etrian Odyssey format, it still feels to me very much like a Persona title. Most of the series' voice actors return and much of Shoji Meguro's music appears on the soundtrack--although I was surprised to learn that he was not credited as a composer. He composed the main theme, "Maze of Life," but the rest of the game's punchy soundtrack was handled by Atsushi Kitajoh and Toshiki Konishi. Many of these themes borrow heavily from Meguro's work. The battle themes struck me as arrangements of those from Persona 3 and 4, whereas a track like "Corn Dog" seems like a mashup of Persona 3's "Iwatodai Dorm" and Persona 4's "Period." Regardless of the credited composer, Persona Q's soundtrack is absurdly catchy and loyal to themes established in the original games--and unlike Persona 4 Arena and Ultimax, Persona Q at least features its fair share of new music.

Persona Q is not a perfect game and omits some of my favorite features of Persona 3 and 4--but it also adds a ton of new content that I was happy to explore and experience. Because of the game's setting, characters had very little room to grow or develop. As a result, much of the game's dialogue could easily be dismissed as typical anime filler. Regardless, the gameplay is excellent and I'm still quite happy to join in on the adventures of Aigis, Akihiko, Yosuke, Chie--of all the Persona squad. Atlus are certainly at risk of oversaturation with all of the Persona spin-offs in the last couple of years, but I imagine they'll have to be wrapping up on that pretty soon. Having said that, I might have to pass on Persona 4: Dancing All Night, where Atlus might just be jumping the shark.

Overall Score: 9/10

Breath of Fire II: A tale of a corrupt religion and an ancient dragon clan

The second entry in Capcom's Breath of Fire series was originally released in 1994 in Japan, with an official North American localization following in 1995. Capcom is indisputably better known for franchises such as Resident Evil and Street Fighter. Personally, I'm a much bigger fan of some of their other offerings, like Ace Attorney, Mega Man, and of course, Breath of Fire. I've completed three of the five main series Breath of Fire titles, so I feel I have a decent grasp on the series as a whole. Of course, I've only just recently completed Breath of Fire II, some 10 years after its original release. I can't say it's changed my opinion on which Breath of Fire title is best (that honor still belongs to Breath of Fire IV), but I'm glad I've played it, and I'd love to finally finish Breath of Fire III and possibly even Dragon Quarter in 2015.

Although Breath of Fire II is generally considered a serviceable SNES RPG, the North American localization is nonetheless infamous for its poor quality, particularly where the game's dialogue is concerned. The script's many errors resulted in a plot that is confusing and difficult to follow. Fortunately, the fine folks at Watercrown Productions took it upon themselves to remedy this problem and craft an updated translation for the game's script, vastly improving on what was the original title's worst flaw. I've played the original North American release but never finished it--so when I heard a fan translation was available, I decided to give the game another shot. I feel safe in saying it's an infinitely superior version but it is not enough to completely salvage a game that is not without a number of flaws.

Like the first entry in the series, Breath of Fire II features a blue-haired swordsman protagonist by the name of Ryu, a winged humanoid woman named Nina, as well as a certain secret character only intrepid adventurers will discover. Despite sharing their names, these are not the same Ryu and Nina from the first game, as some 500 years have passed in the interim. The series continues this tradition of featuring characters named Ryu and Nina with character designs that are similar but different in important ways. Breath of Fire II's Nina, for instance, features striking black wings, in sharp contrast to the lily-white wings of her predecessor.

The game opens by placing the player of control of a young Ryu, who lives in the town of Gate with his father Ganer, a priest of the Lord Eva and sister, Yua. After visiting the slumbering dragon perched over the opening of a nearby cave, Ryu returns to Gate to find that his family is missing and none of the town's inhabitants have the slighest clue who he is. Ryu seeks help from the mysterious Father Habalk, who has evidently been the acting pastor for many years and it is there he meets Bosch, first of many anthropomorphic animal companions (this one a portly dog man) that Ryu will recruit in his journey. The mischievous Bosch convinces Ryu to escape town during the night so they could live in the big city, but in doing so, they encounter an ancient and powerful demon in the nearby cave. The demon calls Ryu the "destined child." Ten years later, Ryu and Bosch are close friends and are employed as rangers--individuals who are hired for various mundane tasks--in the town of Newhaven.

Ryu travels the world and recruits a variety of party members, including Nina, a burly armadillo/pangolin man by the name of Rand; Lin, a feline girl; Tapeta, a frog prince; Sten, an agile monkey fighter; and Spar, a genderless Grassman. A certain immortal half snake sorceress returning from Breath of Fire is also an optional recruit. What I think is refreshing about this cast of characters is that they are all relevant in some way to the plot of the game. Each will undergo trials at various points that serve to further flesh out their personalities and backstories. In many RPGs, party members are forgotten as the storyline progresses. This occurs to much less of an extent in Breath of Fire II as each character receives their fair share of screen time--when recruited and also generally at a later stage of the game.

Nina's black wings, her status as a descendant of the "original" Nina, and her relationship with her sister Mina are all important plot points. Lin is initially just an opponent in a gladiatorial bout early in the game, but her budding feelings for Ryu and meeting with a man from her tribe by the name of Tiga later in the game also result in forward momentum for the plot. Tapeta, although unforgivably useless in combat, is central to many scenes regarding Fort Nageur, the home of the frog race to which he belongs--including the emergence of an impostor to his position as prince. During the course of the game the hometowns of both Sten and Rand will be visited. Sten will find himself undergoing a solo mission and coming into conflict with his old friend Turvoe and the sinister force now taking control of his people. Rand puts his mother in a dangerous position and must live with the consequences.

Underpinning the events of the plot is the sinister Church of Eva, a religion for which Ryu's father Ganer was a priest. As the game progresses, the party will discover the true purpose of the religion and its true leader, at which point the game is beginning to draw to a close--in the sprawling Abyss Tower. I've played many RPGs in my day that feature corrupt religions and this one strikes me as not very different in that regard.

Although the fan translation gave me an excuse to revisit Breath of Fire II, what really made me want to give the game another try was the game's combat system. I had fond memories of the shaman fusion system and really wanted to get more in depth with that. However, the combat is a bit of a mixed bag. For the most part, it's very standard turn-based fare. Your party members all have different strengths and weaknesses and are not interchangeable in any way. I really enjoy when RPGs field a cast of characters that feature unique strengths and weaknesses so that each character is useful in one way or another--without eclipsing the usefuless of another. Breath of Fire II succeeds in this in some ways, but not so much in others. In my experience, Tapeta has been close to useless, with his only real redeeming quality being his ability to cast the vaunted Warp spell, an ability that allows the party to teleport to previously visited towns. This is the only reason I ever dragged Tapeta along, unless I needed him for certain plot events. Even still, Spar learns this spell as well, while learning a few utility and healing spells in addition to that.

In most cases, though, each party member has something helpful he or she can bring to the team. Ryu is a strong all around figher and has the most powerful spells in the game--although they take all of his AP to cast. Lin is probably the strongest offensively and is blisteringly fast--but of course she's about as durable as a paper bag and doesn't have enough AP to cast any of her spells for the majority of the game. Conversely, Rand can take a lot of hits and learns some very useful healing magic, but will very rarely cast his spells before the enemy has a chance to strike. Sten is about as fast as Lin and is only decent offensively, but he has the ability to cast more spells than Lin. Bosch is the party's best healer and is reasonably strong offensively. Spar is likely the party's weakest healer, but unlocks a shaman fusion relatively early in the game that dramatically increases AP pool. Tapeta is slow, weak offensively, and casts few useful spells. I could never figure out a reason to actually use him if not forced.

Of course, the shaman fusion system was what I found to be most interesting about Breath of Fire II's combat. Throughout the game Ryu will meet with shamans associated with different elements such as fire, water, light, and darkness. Each party member will be compatible with two out of six different shaman and feature anywhere from 1 to 3 fusions when linked with these shamans. If the correct combinations are discovered, party members can be transformed in really interesting ways. Sten can become a floating djinni, for instance, and Bosch can become a bulky combat mech. These fusions augment stats and increase abilities in different ways. The system adds a satisfying element to the game's combat--more on this later.

Outside of combat, characters also have additional utility. Some special abilities can be performed on the world map or even in dungeons. Lin can break through certain obstacles with her staff. Tapeta and Rand can assume alternate forms that make travel faster and easier. Sten can make use of his agility to cross certain gaps. These further reinforce the importance of each individual party member. No one is ever irrelevant.

While adventuring all over the world, the player is also tasked with maintaining a small town and recruiting tenants for its vacant buildings. This is not only a pleasant diversion and barometer of progress throughout the game, but an excellent way to acquire various difficult to acquire items. One of three architects can be recruited to build the town, which influences the type of tenants that will reside in the town. It is up to the player to decide which six other tenants will take up residence there. Other diversions include fishing and hunting, which are both good sources of income early in the game. Fishing in particular is the only way to acquire some of Ryu's strongest items.

Breath of Fire II features a fair share of dungeon crawling, most of which is unremarakble. Occasionally a party member's power will be required to advance, but seldom are these puzzles too challenging to complete. Frustratingly, the random encounter rate is frequently a tad too high. Additionally, the handful of solo missions certain members of your party must undertake can be quite difficult, since you're given no warning about them beforehand. If these party members are underleveled, random encounters in these sections of the game are particularly challenging.

For the most part, these complaints are minor. However, Capcom decided to up the ante in the game's final dungeon, the Abyss Tower. Featuring dozens of floors and circuitous passageways, Abyss Tower also has an absolutely ludicrous random encounter rate. I have seldom dealt with a dungeon more tedious. Compounding my frustration is the fact that once you've made your way down the interminable length of that dungeon, you'll find there's no reprieve. It's not possible to warp out and renew your party's shaman forms and then return. If you've lost your shaman forms by that point, you'll have to do without them. Only a couple of hours of gameplay have elapsed since acquiring the final shaman fusions and now you can't even use them. This seems like a pretty terrible oversight on Capcom's part. I've spent 30 hours developing these characters and I want to use my shiny new shaman transformations on the game's final boss!

Of course, the game's soundtrack also does it no favors. It features a series of mostly dull and plodding tunes, but no track is as repetitive and miserable as the ubiquitous dungeon theme. The battle theme is not bad, but is nonetheless forgettable. On a console that is overflowing with classic RPGs with great soundtracks, Breath of Fire II definitely does not stand out.

Breath of Fire II is a game with many flaws, but I did enjoy it overall and feel it was an improvement on its predecessor. I haven't finished Breath of Fire III so I can't make a firm judgment on whether or not it improves on this game's problems--but I can say with all confidence that Breath of Fire IV is superior and ultimately my first recommendation for this series. Still, Breath of Fire II is memorable because of its unique mechanics that were not later repeated in the series. I'd love to play another RPG that has a mechanic like the shaman fusion system. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that's similar to it is Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga's demon transformations, but it still doesn't really scratch the same itch.

Overall Score: 6/10

The 2014 Video Game Retrospective

This is an entry about video games on a blog that has historically been pretty intensely focused on the subject--but it will also contain some thoughts on what's been happening in my life over the past year. I have made a habit of making my life entirely about video games on many occasions over this year. It could certainly be argued that my slavish devotion to these games is a touch misguided and it's inarguable that there's a host of more productive things on which I could spend my time. However, none of these intrusive thoughts have legitimately made me consider interrupting my breakneck pace of playing and completing games this year. I don't regret that. What I do regret is that I haven't been writing about it over the past month. I told myself I would take some time off and come back with more thoughtful and well-written content.

It remains to be seen whether or not I will turn this blog into something substantial. I updated it every single day for over a year and I think some good things came out of that exercise--but what is it I'm really looking for? Is it an audience? If that's the case, I'll have to write more interesting articles that could potentially appeal to a wider audience and then discover a way to get them seen.

For now, though, I need to do something I've been planning on doing for several months. I've played and finished a lot of games this year, some of which were a part of something I called the Backlog Eradication Marathon, an effort to revisit games previously abandoned and to finish them for good. In some cases, this took a lot more effort and time that I'd previously imagined. It might sound silly to consider a video game hard work, but in some cases it felt like it was! Some of these games I may not have bothered to complete under normal circumstances, but with the way my life has been over this past year, it felt good to pursue some sort of personal challenge and to chronicle my efforts. I felt pretty strongly that to analyze a game critically, I had to complete it first. Maybe this is short sighted, particularly for games that are essentially long stretches of the same kind of content for the majority of the game. At the same time, though, it felt pretty good to finally conquer these games I'd left sitting on the shelf for years in some cases. Without further ado, here's the list:

Completed 1/9 and 1/13

It's always been a practice of mine to list expansions as entirely new games on Backloggery. In most cases, I feel it works. There might be some niche expansions that definitely would not count as new games in their own right, but I can't think of many cases that I've listed where that's true, at the very least. Titan Quest: Immortal Throne may have only added another chapter to the game's content, but it was a very long one, and not unlike the addition of Lord of Destruction to Diablo II. In both cases, there were a number of pretty substantial additions that warranted listing them separately.

At the beginning of the year, I was unemployed and never left my house. I was in a pretty bad spot, all things told, both depressed and hopeless about my place in life. I won't say that the course of this year has been a meteoric rise for me, but it's at least pretty apparent that things have improved. At the time, though, I found solace in video games--and for the first time in quite awhile, I'd found someone I could socialize with in at least one way. I started playing some co-op games with a friend of mine (an old coworker, in fact) after I became interested in an action RPG in the vein of Diablo II by the name of Path of Exile. I remembered that my friend had been a huge fan of the genre so I messaged him on Steam about it. We started playing Path of Exile a lot. After we got a little burned out on that (we really did play it a lot), we started looking for something else to play. Titan Quest was something we'd actually played briefly several years ago while we were still coworkers. I remembered liking it and I can't actually remember why we stopped playing it back then. Honestly, it might have been because we started playing World of Warcraft together--for the first time, in fact.

Even though we were a little burned out on Path of Exile, we both still craved some action RPG gameplay. Titan Quest seemed like a perfect fit, even though it is a tad dated by today's standards. Still, we both enjoyed the game, and got quite a bit of playtime from it, despite some technical difficulties with Tunngle, a virtual LAN program we were using to play it cooperatively. After we were finally finished with that, I started racking my brains on what other cooperative games we could play. This was further complicated by the fact that I was hopelessly broke. We had to rely on games that we both already owned or could be obtained for free.

Completed 1/15

It was my suggestion that we try to jump even further into the past and play a game for the SNES--a classic action RPG that for some reason I'd never managed to complete. I enjoyed the game alone for the most part, and in fact I'd made quite a bit of progress in single player--but it just wasn't the same as playing with a partner, as I quickly came to find out. The game has flaws, yes, but it was still a blast to play cooperatively. I'm actually pretty surprised that story-driven, co-op RPGs like Secret of Mana aren't more common. It's a pretty damn successful formula. I'm glad that we were able to get through what is a very seminal release in the SNES catalog.

Completed 1/22

With Secret of Mana out of the way, it seemed like a no-brainer for us to move on to its Japan-only sequel. I'd known about the fan-translation for years (it was originally released in 2002 if I'm not mistaken) but again, had never managed to make my way all the way through it. I ended up enjoying SD3 a lot more than SoM although we did restart at least once because neither one of us liked having to rely on spellcasting characters too much. The constant pausing of gameplay was frustrating. I think the party we eventually finished the game with was Hawk, Kevin, and Duran.

Completed 2/23

Because I was woefully unemployed and my new co-op partner had an actual job, I still had plenty of free time on my hands to play single player games. I figured I had nothing better to do, so why not start tackling some games I'd been putting off for countless years? Why not do an entire Final Fantasy marathon? Well (spoiler alert) I didn't quite do that, but I did manage to finally finish the first in what has been a very important series in my life. I can honestly say I liked it, too, despite some frustrations with many of the game's dated elements. I did play the Final Fantasy Origins version of the game, but all of the original gameplay was completely intact--only the graphics were updated. I've always enjoyed job class systems in just about any game and although it is present only in its barest essentials in Final Fantasy, it was enough to keep me interested.

Completed 3/4

I can't honestly say I had nearly as favorable an impression of the second game of the series. SquareSoft elected to try something different with their sophomore effort, and although increasing basic attributes by performing actions tied to those attributes is a great idea in theory, in practice it was painfully tedious. If a few numbers had been tuned, it might have been a really streamlined and fun system. Leveling up magic in particular was a time consuming and often completely unnecessary process, in retrospect. I want the 34 hours this game took from me back--although I'm still happy to say I've finished almost every main series Final Fantasy now.

Completed 3/15

At this point, I was still laboring under the assumption that I was embarking on a massive Final Fantasy marathon. I thought dipping into a spin-off title might be a good idea, especially since I was planning on tackling a friend's copy of Bravely Default soon, a game that served as this title's spiritual successor. I think The 4 Heroes of Light is a good game, but it was also frequently quite tedious and annoyingly difficult. I'm surprised it only took me two weeks to finish. It felt like far longer, but I had nothing else better to do all day. . .

Completed 3/19

I had moved on to Bravely Default, but for some reason I wasn't feeling it. I decided to start clearing out my backlog more. My thought process was that a Kirby title would be quick and painless! Surprisingly, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror ended up being the longest and most convoluted Kirby game I'd ever played. It's structured more like a Castlevania or Metroid title than any Kirby I'd ever played. However, it's quite good and probably one of my favorites, even though it was frustrating to constantly get lost in the game's labyrinthine environments. This game will always remind me of House because I watched it constantly while playing. There are many games with which I've established similar strange connections. Tales of Symphonia reminds me of death metal, for instance!

Completed 3/23

Completed 3/26

"Maybe I'll just have a Kirby marathon instead of a Final Fantasy one?" This was my next thought, because I'd already become burned out on Final Fantasy. I didn't enjoy Mass Attack as much as Amazing Mirror or in fact pretty much any other Kirby title I've played. I wouldn't say it was a bad game, per se, but it didn't feel much like Kirby at the end of the day. There's no copying of powers, and most of the gameplay is built around pushing tons of little Kirbies around to complete various puzzles. Combat boils down to throwing 20 Kirbies at things. It was interesting, but not my favorite.

Okay, never mind about the Kirby thing, I thought. Let's do a Dragon Quest marathon! I've just finished  the first two Final Fantasies, so it should be no big deal to do the same thing with Dragon Quest, right? After all, Dragon Quest literally only took me 9 hours to finish and it was quite easy, all things told. There was some minor grinding, but other than that, I got through it without incident. I liked it! It was simple and refreshing.

Completed 4/3

As with the first two Final Fantasy titles, I attempted to play the definitive versions of Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest II. Thanks to the thriving ROM hacking community, a fan translation exists of the Dragon Quest I + II SNES compilation. Dragon Quest II layers on the complexity by allowing the player to field a party of three individual characters, all of which have their own attributes and spells. Battle mechanics remain mostly the same, but the biggest change by far was the actual world map, which positively dwarfs the first title in size. I had to consult a map on GameFAQs frequently to have any hope of finding my way--and I still got lost quite often. I still have trouble believing a game from the NES area could be so dizzyingly massive. It made the worlds of any of the early Final Fantasy games pale in comparison. I did quite enjoy the game, as it was notably longer, more complex, and more difficult than its predecessor.

Completed 4/7

Predictably, my Dragon Quest marathon halted right there--although not necessarily because I wasn't ready to move on. A good friend of mine purchased me a copy of the Diablo III expansion because I was still unemployed and he's a really nice guy. I burned through it in just a day or two with my trusty witch doctor and enjoyed it. I'm a fan of pretty much any game in the genre, but Diablo style games tend not to have a lot of longevity with me. In the case of Reaper of Souls, it had less sticking power than Path of Exile, so it wasn't long before I moved on.

Completed 4/23

Completed 6/11

Super Robot Wars J was a revelation to me because I had no idea it existed until I stumbled across a fan translation in my internet travels one day. I'm a huge fan of Super Robot Wars Original Generations (both games) on GBA. They are still the only games in the series to have official North American localizations--so when I found out a more traditional title existed from that era that I could actually play in English, I was overjoyed! I ended up loving it, even though the only anime characters from the game I recognized were from Full Metal Panic. I became a tad obsessed with the game during this time and started watching several of the anime featured in the game--and this is a little strange, because I'd never been a big anime fan. I watched a lot, but I still haven't finished a single one of those series aside from the original Full Metal Panic.

Completed 6/20

Hey, why not do a Super Robot Wars marathon?! Marathons always work out for me, right?! This game took me longer to complete than probably any other game I've played this year, due to a number of factors. I finally started at a job in April (I'm still working there, thankfully) and found myself with significantly less free time than usual. Beyond that, however, Alpha Gaiden is just a tremendously long game--and not a particularly easy one, either. I never had a pilot/robot in Alpha Gaiden that seemed as devastatingly powerful as some of my units from Super Robot Wars J. I was also tasked with taking control of many more units than I was accustomed to and missions frequently took over an hour to complete--all 43 of them. To top it all off, I was even less familiar with the many mecha anime on display, although Alpha Gaiden did include characters from Gundam Wing, one of the few anime I've watched to completion. I still think it's a great game, but it was glacially paced and quite tough! I was sick of Super Robot Wars by the time I was done. I wouldn't mind jumping back into it now, but my options are sadly quite limited.

Although Alpha Gaiden was a hellishly time consuming project for me, I was glad that I'd finally managed to complete it. I'd started it a couple of years before and abandoned it. I got the idea at that point to start a marathon (yeah. . .) of games from my backlog. I knew that playing multiple games from the same series back to back frequently did not work for me. I did it for Super Robot Wars and became incredibly sick of the series (although now I look back on them fondly) so I decided instead to jump around in my backlog and take them out one by one. The only catch was that I had to play only one game at a time. Lunar 2 is a classic RPG that I'm really surprised I never finished before this year. I have nothing but good things to say about it. It's reasonably challenging, fun, charming, and a relatively short play, much like its predecessor.

Completed 6/25

At this point, I figured I might as well try to clear out my PlayStation backlog completely. I didn't have many left and it seemed like a fun thing to do. Vandal Hearts is an indescribably ugly game to look at, but it has sharp tactical RPG gameplay and a fun class-branching system. It is the shortest game I played this year other than the original Dragon Quest, clocking in at only around 14 hours. It is extremely fast-paced for a strategy RPG, not unlike games from the Disgaea series--but without the endless level grind. I've briefly played the sequel to Vandal Hearts and I'm sad to say it's completely broken and unplayable! I've heard decent things about Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment on the other hand, so I might attempt to give that a try one day. I feel pretty safe in saying there are a number of games on my list that have a higher priority. After all, I still have a decently sized backlog to clear out.

Completed 7/2

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Vagrant Story, built from a hodgepodge of mechanics and beautiful artwork. I feel like I had to do an extreme amount of studying to get my mind around Vagrant Story's unique gameplay and combat system--but I can say I definitely like it. It was very challenging and if I'm being honest the plot was almost completely incomprehensible to me. The dialogue was extremely well written and the art direction was fantastic albeit marred by the PlayStation's primitive hardware. I spent a not inconsiderable amount of time absolutely lost while playing Vagrant Story. I'm sure an individual with a better sense of direction would have been able to complete Vagrant Story in less than 20 hours, but I ended up clocking in at around 24. I've never been great at navigating 3D games, especially when it comes to games with as mazelike a structure as Vagrant Story.

Completed 7/6

Next on the list is Tales of Destiny, a game I'm shocked only took me four days to finish. It felt like an eternity. I did pick up on a file that was already in progress, but the structure of the latter half of the game was built around a series of painfully tedious mazes chock full of that most beloved of mechanics--random encounters. The battle system was really the game's only redeeming factor, because the plot and characters certainly weren't going to save it. It's definitely not my favorite Tales title, but I'm still glad I finished it. My original plan was to move on to Tales of Eternia, but I wasn't yet ready to tackle another Tales game after what ToD put me through. I have plans to play through more of the Tales series, but I know full well how well my plans usually work out.

Completed 7/16

It was at this point that I broke my rule of not playing any games on the side. It was for a good reason though, because I started playing games with my co-op partner again. I decided that it was okay to play one single player game when he wasn't available--and one co-op game when he was. I continued this process for awhile. He purchased Borderlands 2 for me during a sale, because even though I'd been working for some time, I was pouring all of my cash into paying off debts and frankly, surviving. I also wasn't making commission yet, so my funds were decidedly limited. I'm not a huge fan of shooters, but Borderlands 2's plentiful RPG elements and fun cooperative gameplay were enough to salvage the game for me. I'd played through the original game with another friend when I was living in Austin, Texas in 2012.

Completed 7/23

I saved what I felt would be the longest and most complex title left on the PlayStation for last in my Backlog Eradication Marathon. It turned out that I was correct about the game's length, but it was a much shorter and more focused game than Front Mission 4, a game I finished in 2012 after having owned it for four years. Front Mission 3 took me around 35 hours to finish, whereas the fourth game in the series took me at least 20 hours more than that. I really do enjoy the Front Mission series, particularly when it comes to assembling and upgrading your mechs (called wanzers in the series) for combat. The only games in the series I have left to complete are Front Mission 2 and 5, both of which have never been officially released in English. FM5 has a complete English fan translation available, but FM2 is only partially translated. These are both games I plan to play someday.

Completed 8/6

Divinity: Original Sin was probably the first game I bought with my own money the entire year. I still wasn't completely comfortable financially, but I was able to set aside from cash to buy the game at my co-op partner's suggestion. It ended up being a great investment that for which we both got about 70 hours of playtime. It felt weird to play a very story-driven CRPG cooperatively, but in the end it totally worked for me. It's definitely a great game and deserves all the praise it's been getting this year. It blends many of the best elements of classic Western RPGs like Baldur's Gate with turn-based tactical combat more along the lines of XCOM. My only real disappointment with Divinity is that there aren't more games like it. It feel as if my co-op partner and I have completely run out of games to play together. I might have to start playing shooters at this rate.

Completed 8/11

I'd been playing Dissidia 012 since I finished Front Mission 3, only taking breaks from it to play Divinity when my co-op partner was available. Since I'd cleared out my PlayStation backlog completely, I decided to move onto the PSP, a platform I hadn't touched in a couple of years. The PSP is an oft forgotten system that nonetheless features a handful of really great games. Both Dissidia titles definitely rank up there as some of the best games on the system. I decided to start with Dissidia 012 because I wanted to play something with more action since I'd just played a string of mostly slow turn-based games. As it turned out, Dissidia 012 has a ton of content to unlock and conquer, some of which was fiendishly difficult. It took me much longer than I'd anticipated, much like Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden a couple months beforehand. I only managed to finish it as quickly as I did because I poured every once of my free time into it. Honestly, I could have considered the game completed without finishing the Confessions of the Creator campaign, but just playing through the classic mode really seemed like a copout.

Completed 8/15

Way back in June, I'd finally cobbled together the funds to purchase a new smartphone to replace my long out of service iPhone 4. I'd decided to try out Android this time around and purchased the then brand new HTC One M8, which plunged me into the wonderful world of Android emulation, allowing me to play retro games on my lunch breaks at work. I started with DeSmUme, a terrific Nintendo DS emulator--and immediately began plucking away at Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem on hard mode. This might have been a mistake, since it drastically increased the amount of time required to complete the game. Each of my play sessions was only 30 to 45 minutes long. I eventually grew frustrated with how slowly I was making my way through the game so I set aside an evening to press through the latter half of the game so I could move on. I love the Fire Emblem series, but New Mystery and Shadow Dragon are among the weaker entries, despite their standing as enhanced remakes.

Completed 8/22

Okay, so I'd had my dose of action in Dissidia 012, so why not play another tactical RPG? I'd already finished two this year (Vandal Hearts and Front Mission 3) so one more shouldn't have been an issue. Gungnir is an interesting game, but a very difficult and flawed one. There were many times where I felt skeptical I'd actually be able to finish it, but I somehow persevered. Gungnir's developer Sting is known for incorporating a lot of oddball mechanics in their games so I shouldn't have expected a vanilla strategy RPG in the first place--but I don't feel Gungnir is one of their more successful experiments. I liked games like Riviera, Knights in the Nightmare, and Yggdra Union better than this one. I wasn't particularly fond of how the enemy seemed to be given all the advantages in terms of unit movement and taking actions.

Completed 9/7

Next on the list was yet another strategy RPG--but in this case it was a remake of a game with which I was already very familiar. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is an excellent remake of a game that was already very good. The PSP version corrected what was probably the PS1 version's biggest flaw--its poor translation. Unfortunately, I was rather burned out on strategy RPGs by this point, and my decision to embark on what was a very completionist playthrough of War of the Lions left me with a rather poorer reaction to the game that I might have otherwise had. I did enough grinding to unlock the PSP version exclusive Dark Knight class, which made the rest of the game an absolute joke to blaze through.

Completed 9/20

I closed out my PSP backlog with--again--what I thought would be the longest and most complex title. In this case, Dissidia 012 was still the most time consuming PSP game I played this year, but Innocent Sin ended up being a close second at roughly 50 hours. Although it wasn't as long as Persona 3 or 4, it did clock in at around 50 hours or so, at least double that of the original SMT: Persona title. I liked Innocent Sin a lot, despite some decidedly weird plot elements involving nazis and Hitler. I really enjoy how these early Persona titles allow the player to field a five character party and I'm puzzled as to why future entries abandoned that concept. Fortunately, the recently released Persona Q brings this feature back, although not Persona 2's excellent combo system, unfortunately.

Completed 9/25

I was on a full on Persona mood at this point (I'm still in this mood) and decided to tackle Persona 4 Arena, a title I'd known about for some time but never had the funds to purchase. I'm not great at fighting games, but this one featured a fun, although overly easy single player campaign. The pacing is very weird since the game's plot is delivered in a visual novel style only occasionally broken up by traditional fighting game matches. The plot itself is interesting, since it features characters from both Persona 3 and Persona 4 a short time after Persona 4's ending. This means characters like Akihiko and Mitsuru have aged two years since the ending of Persona 3. The way these characters have changed is a little strange, but it's fun to see what Atlus/Arc System Works came up with.

Completed 10/1

I'd been putting off finishing Torchlight II for the longest time. When I first started playing the game, I was convinced by my friend to play it in Elite difficulty. After reaching Act 3 on my berserker, I hit a brick wall and was unable to progress. Soon afterward, my video card died and I found myself unemployed and therefore unable to play the game. Once I finally did buy myself a new card, I set my sights on finally finishing up the game--only to find that it was nearly impossible to do so alone. My co-op partner and I had run out of other games to play, so I begged him to help me get through it. This is definitely not my favorite action RPG, but it's a solid game into which I'd already pumped a lot of my time.

Completed 10/3

As it turns out, I started Persona 4 Arena just shortly before Ultimax was set to release. I hadn't known about it beforehand, but I was pretty eager to give it a try since the rest of the Persona 3 cast was set to show up. Junpei, Yukari, and Ken all underwent pretty drastic changes in their character designs over the course of two years. I was a little disappointed with what they did with Junpei--he'd evidently become a baseball coach and now wielded a bat as a weapon--but Yukari's new role as a TV superhero was a funny and interesting touch.I enjoyed this one a lot too, although the gameplay was largely the same. The campaign was structured in such a way that the player could experience the story while switching from character to character, which cut down on the repetition inherent to the first game quite a bit.

Completed 10/13

I was finally making some money and doing the responsible thing by buying video games. I felt a little bad about it because I still had a massive backlog to get through, but I kept seeing these games that were coming out that I just had to have. I enjoyed this game a lot too (much like the original Theatrhythm) but I was still disappointed in the wasted potential of the "combat system." Playing and completing the songs (all of which originated from the Final Fantasy series and related titles) would result in your characters gaining experience and new abilities. Most of this was little more than meaningless background content that seldom had an effect on your performance in the game. Regardless of your party's makeup, completing songs accurately would result in success. I just feel Square-Enix could have done a lot more with the format. This marked my 30th completed game, which I'd decided was my goal for the year. Of course, with two and a half months left to go in the year, that left the possibility of hitting 35. . .

Completed 10/21

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals is the second game I played entirely on my phone. I started playing it right after I finished New Mystery of the Emblem, so yeah, it definitely took me awhile. RPGs definitely take some time when you only play them in 45 minute sessions, as it turns out. Lufia II is a great game that dramatically eclipses its predecessor in quality. Although I'm not generally a fan of puzzles as a general rule, Lufia II's wide variety of fiendishly difficult puzzles were genuinely interesting and fun. I'd be lying if I said I didn't consult GameFAQs on a few occasions when I was stuck, though. I got stuck a lot. . .

Completed 10/30

Because I'd already hit my goal of 30 games, I felt like it wouldn't be a big deal to start playing an MMO. I'd been meaning to try out Final Fantasy XIV for some time and when I saw it was on sale on Steam for only $10, I decided to take advantage of that. I wanted to take my time and experience what the game had to offer. Even so, it only took me about a month to hit the level cap of 50 on my trusty dragoon. I really enjoyed all the callbacks to classic Final Fantasy and enjoyed the music, the atmosphere, and the game's beautiful graphics. The combat is a little slow-paced compared to other MMOs I've played, but it's something one grows accustomed to after some time. The fact that many melee abilities require some kind of positioning requirement goes a long way toward making things interesting and bosses typically feature an array of interesting mechanics. As with every other MMO I've played, I lost interest just about as soon as I hit level 50. I'd be interesting in trying out different classes at some point in the future, but I'll probably wait until the expansion, Heavensward comes out before I do so.

Completed 11/2

Once I received my first commission check after getting full status at work, I found myself overjoyed at the options I saw before me. I bought a Wii U and Bayonetta 2, proceeding to devour the game within days. It was quite challenging, but extremely fun, even if I don't particularly care for Bayonetta's new look. I briefly considered the possibility of playing the game again on a higher difficulty, but these thoughts were quickly dismissed when I found out that the game's alternate character Jeanne was not altogether very different from Bayonetta herself--and of course the fact that I still had a lot of games left in my backlog. The Wii U also came with New Super Mario Bros. U, which I expected to complete in a timely fashion as well--but that has so far proven not to be the case. It's now the end of the year and nowhere close to being completed. Onward to 2015 for that one, I say.

Completed 11/21

I'd already decided that my Backlog Eradication Marathon was on indefinite hiatus, so I figured I'd go ahead and try out the new World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor. I had little to no expectations of it, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by it! Warlords of Draenor is almost completely self contained and features no real interaction with the game's older content. This design decision results in a game that feels very fresh and new--no small feat considering the base game is ten years old now and the level cap was just raised to 100. Questing through the orc homeworld of Draenor was great fun. Maintaining and upgrading my garrison was even more fun--but just like with FFXIV, I lost interest soon after I hit the level cap. I may have played for longer if I'd had some other folks to play with, but they jumped ship to play more Diablo 3 around that time. Radelle, the blood elf paladin, is going into retirement for now, but she may well return in the future.

Completed 12/16

Finally, the last game I completed this year was Breath of Fire II, third of the games I played and finished entirely on my phone. As per usual, I finished the latter parts of the game while at home. Somehow, I doubt there'll be an RPG I finish entirely at work, but I could definitely see a shorter game of another genre working in 30-45 minute sessions. It's actually a little depressing to learn that I've only finished one game in a month's time, but 35 is a nice number to end on for the year and still a vast increase from my previous high of 22 in 2012. Breath of Fire II ended up being way more trouble to finish than I'd imagined. It was generally a breeze until the final dungeon, which was like hitting a massive implacable brick wall. Only after hours of grinding was I capable of making my way through it. I'm left with somewhat of a mixed impression of this game because many of the game's most fun mechanics were introduced near the end of the game--and then for a significant chunk of the final dungeon you don't have access to them. It stinks of bad planning to me, but I still think my impression of this particular version of the game was overall positive. I played the fan translation, which vastly improves on the original NA localization's clumsy script.

The only conclusion I can draw from this whole exercise is that I really enjoy video games and writing about them. I've been told by at least one friend that I'm insane for "forcing" myself to play through so many games I might not have otherwise completed--and it's true I may not have necessarily enjoyed every second of it, but it does fill me with a tremendous sense of accomplishment every time I finish one of these games. Even if I don't love every single one of these games, I really enjoy having perspective on them and being able to write about them objectively. Will I play nearly this many games next year? Will I finally get through my backlog? Probably not. But I will continue to investigate new things I can do for this blog, even if no one but myself reads it. It's a really fun thing to do!