P3: pelagia14's Platinum Pilgrimage

[pelagia14]

On 1/7/2024 at 10:38 PM, Platinum_Vice said:

I am jealous of how many games you've been able to experience this year!

 

A large part of that was having a lot of "less than 8h to complete" games in my backlog - whose count is now in the single digits (not including PS+ Catalog). I'm also hoping to tackle at least six games this year that are each 60h or longer to platinum, so this year won't be a repeat of 2023 in that regard. 

 

On 1/7/2024 at 10:38 PM, Platinum_Vice said:

You're REALLY selling it. I was so on the fence but I guess it just has to be experienced. Any game getting as much attention as Hades and Outer Wilds is surely worth a try.

 

The game has such a unique vibe - so even if you don't fall in love with it as I did, I think you'd at the very least enjoy it for doing something unique and creative!

 

On 1/7/2024 at 10:38 PM, Platinum_Vice said:

Wow! For Hades to take it out over THAT competition... all I can say is "dayum!!!"

 

I honestly considered scrapping GOTY and instead doing something like "Best RPG / Best Action / Best Indie", because it was so tough to choose! Ultimately, Hades really challenged me as a gamer and provides incredible replay. While Inscryption and Outer Wilds were phenomenal experiences in their own right, they are most compelling in your first playthroughs of them, compared to Hades whose gameplay can still draw me in.

 

On 1/7/2024 at 10:38 PM, Platinum_Vice said:

Are you kidding? This was great! Looking forward to the 2024 awards 😄🤩

 

I felt terrible about how the last three awards had barely any description to them, but I was pretty exhausted when I reached that point and knew that any further delay could have turned into a perpetual delay. Divorced from the context of my initial/high expectations, I'm really happy to hear that my post was still enjoyable, though~!

  

5 hours ago, Copanele said:

So glad I wasn't the only one to admire Mirage's surprisingly good graphics  

Also the cats! Not linked to the graphics award, but cats!

 

Okay, so one of the awards that I tragically had to axe was "Game with Best Cat(s)", and AC: Mirage's Cat Clowders would have won second place! (First place would have gone to Spider-Man: Miles Morales, for the sole reason that you can wear an outfit that lets Bodega Cat journey around with you everywhere! 😻)

 

5 hours ago, Copanele said:

I only hope that 2024 will top this year regarding games!

P.S. Fine I get the point, I'll play Inscryption

 

Thanks, I hope it will as well - at least in quality, because I doubt I'll be able to meet (let alone surpass) 64 games this year! 😂

 

Do it! Do it! Do it! 😉

[pelagia14]

Hey, everyone! I know it's been a while. 😅

 

LIFE UPDATE:

 

At the end of December I started on a new ADHD medication which has truly been a game-changer for a lot of issues I struggle with. Messing around with brain chemistry can have obnoxious side effects for the initial weeks, and coupled with a strong bout of Seasonal Affective Disorder in January and the end of December-Holiday-Madness, I wasn't surprised to find that I was spending a few weeks hibernating from social stuff - even online "social". 

 

Life was a bit stressful and hectic at the start of February, and by mid-month I figured my unintended hiatus was drawing to a close. I got sick, and by the time I was feeling better the month was almost over. No worries, I still had time to post something to celebrate the upcoming release of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and perhaps post one or two game reviews that I was behind on. The next game for me to review was Sable, which I really enjoyed but was having a hard time gathering my thoughts around. And sure I could skip that game and come back to it later, but what if I ADHD!procrastinated that to infinity?! Next thing I knew, Rebirth was released and it consumed practically every moment of free time that I had. Suddenly we are in mid-March, and my anxiety is telling me that if I am gonna make a post here, it needs to have some sort of header graphic to keep to the aesthetic I created, plus do I even address my hibernation? (Not to mention, I was still frustrated at how delayed, rushed, and poorly-executed my last 2023 Awards post was...) Another illogical factor was my FOMO over wanting to catch up on everyone else's threads... which just led to further inaction and further backlog of posts. #AnxietyIsIrrational.

 

I've decided to say fuck it, and just make a post without pretty formatting or anything. 'Cos now I can't be all up in my head about "maintaining quality" on this thread if I have a post like this here. This gives me permission in the future to make other low-effort posts here, so I can remove about 2-3 months of over-thinking anxiety and angst from the equation. 😂 Somehow it's been a week since I came to that decision (hello time blindness), so here we are. I'm also forcing myself giving myself permission to ignore the FOMO. Over the next week I'll be catching up on everyone's threads, one at a time, reading through the posts that really grab at my attention, and not feeling (too) guilty about not commenting on what I'm sure are many excellently-written posts that await me.  

 

To those of you who've read to the end of this section, thanks for reading it! I've thought a lot about the PSNP Community in these past few months, and I'm excited to catch up on what y'all have been up to recently.

 

GAMING UPDATE:

 

"Hello, my name is Pelagia and I am addicted to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth."

 

 

Goddamn but this game has sunk its hooks in me. The game released on February 29th - the meta-ness of its Leap Day release is fantastic, seriously - and in the following 44 days my console has ran the game for over 225 hours. Around 40 hours has been me replaying the main story via stream with two dear friends who equally adored FFVII in our youths. (This past weekend we just finished Chapter 9 / Gongaga!)

 

 

How far have I gotten? On March 31st I finished the main story and opened up Chapter Select, bringing my initial playthrough (with almost all non-endgame content completed) to  138 hours per the save file. I'm going to say that it was 120h, once I factor in around 20h of idle time while I did stuff like cooking dinner. The next 48 hours of my main save file (read: closer to 40h) has been cleaning up Hard Scores on minigames, completing the tougher VR fights before Gilgamesh is unlocked, obsessively tracking down the ~20 or so enemies I failed to Assess during my playthrough, alternate Gold Saucer dates, and then defeating Gilgamesh.

 

What do I still have left? I need to complete all of the chapters on Hard Mode, which is going to be... difficult. (I'm terrible at remembering about the Guard/Block button and try to just dodge everything instead.) I also have a few Brutal VR Fights all of the Legendary VR Fights (🥲) that need to be conquered. 

 

I have so many thoughts about the game's design, story, combat mechanics, etc., so I'm definitely going to have to break my thoughts down into several posts!

 

(Also, it's a good thing I already decided that 2024 is going to be primarily focused on a (half?)dozen long games, because I'm definitely not completing over 50 games again this year. 😂)

Edited April 13 by pelagia14

[ProfSeajay7]

On 4/23/2023 at 12:58 PM, pelagia14 said:

However, in this cabinet you won’t find very many FPS, Racing, or Fighting games.

Yeah, I'm not really going to even try those types of games. The only fighting game or racing game I played was on Nintendo(Super Smash Brothers series and Mario Kart 7 when it was on the 2DS as a free add-on) and I don't even like FPSes.

[Platinum_Vice]

After reading your post I am glad now that I didn't send you any messages to say "hurry up - we're keen for the next review." I would have kicked myself for adding to your plate.

 

Absolutely smashing to see you back and can't wait to keep reading what you put out... whenever and whatever that is. 👊

[pelagia14]

On 4/14/2024 at 7:17 AM, ProfSeajay7 said:

Yeah, I'm not really going to even try those types of games. The only fighting game or racing game I played was on Nintendo(Super Smash Brothers series and Mario Kart 7 when it was on the 2DS as a free add-on) and I don't even like FPSes.

 

Gosh, I wish I was better at the Fighting genre because it seems to have some really fun games! Smash Bros had a spamable moveset and didn't heavily rely on a perfect parry/block system (at least for non-pros), so I was able to have fun with the game mechanics. Mario Kart Double Dash was my favorite in the franchise (though I also played Super Circuit on the GBA and the Wii installment), and those are the only Racing games I've played.

 

Honestly, I actually really enjoy the competitiveness of Fighting and Racing games when they are couch co-op (hence my history of mostly Nintendo games in that genre). That's definitely part of my college experience that I still miss over a decade later. For "proper" Racing games, I can see how compelling it might be to become familiar with a track and then constantly try to improve your score on it, but I don't feel like playing against random gamers online and I don't have any gaming friends who play it at a more casual level instead of sweaty.

 

Finally, most FPS games are fairly military/paramilitary in setting and have an especially concentrated dudebro culture. Part of the reason I fell in love with Destiny (and then Destiny 2) was that it was more of a scifi/magic setting and (after a rocky beginning) it developed some really neat lore. I had done several Raids where I found groups on Reddit searching for 1-2 people, and then got lucky enough to run into a fun and chill group of people in one of those runs. I joined their clan, and that group of online friends made playing the game even more fun. It's honestly the only reason I still play Destiny 2 today, even though Bungie has made a lot of missteps and poor decisions in the past year (which has also resulted in the clan group vastly shrinking in size). 

 

I guess this is all to say, if I have a social network of friends for a FPS/Fighting/Racing game, and that game is solid (or at least forgiving/welcoming to newcomers), I can have a lot of fun with them. Understandably, most games in those genres cater to their hardcore fans, and many of my gamer friends over the years have slowly moved on to other hobbies. Honestly, I'm seriously considering playing Helldivers 2, because the game looks like a blast, the community seems to be having tons of fun, and I know 2-3 people who are already playing it. 

 

16 hours ago, Platinum_Vice said:

After reading your post I am glad now that I didn't send you any messages to say "hurry up - we're keen for the next review." I would have kicked myself for adding to your plate.

 

Absolutely smashing to see you back and can't wait to keep reading what you put out... whenever and whatever that is. 👊

 

Haha, if you had sent a message along those lines I would have just taken it as a small kick in the butt to get over the silly irrational thoughts my brain likes to come up with. Or it would have been taken as a helpful reminder for me about how time is an artificial construct an ever-continuing phenomenon, and wow it feels like I was last on PSNP a few weeks ago but it's already been [x] months! But seriously though, how is it already mid-April?! Surely we are still just in early March, right?

 

As for what I'll be putting out, without question there is gonna be a ton of Final Fantasy VII in the coming weeks. The OG, Remake, Crisis Core, and then I can dive into Rebirth. 😂 (Though I should probably sprinkle in some of my backlogged completed games so I'm not just writing a bunch of huge posts back-to-back...) Besides Sable, I'm looking forward to writing about The Banner Saga (Part 1) and Hypnospace Outlaw!

 

I'm excited to be back! I really wasn't kidding about missing the online community here. One of the frustrating things about ADHD/depression/anxiety is that sometimes you can really want to do something, but - especially with ADHD - your brain seems incapable of finding the 'motivation' button to just get started. In the past I've had two modes: either adulting or doing anything but adulting, and now I am trying to learn a new rhythm where I can be/do both, and at the appropriate times. And damn, but following a new rhythm is definitely something I struggle with!

 

Thanks for your reply! ❤️

[MissShake]

Welcome back! I've been wondering where you went, your posts are still among my favorites here

 

I'm glad you're thinking about where you want to focus your energy more. I like the posts you have, but I also think that a lot of people who run these checklists tend to really burn themselves out because they want to hold themselves to a certain standard. While it's cool to have the graphics and stuff, I don't want you to do them if it could maybe take the fun out of this thread for you! In the end this thread is for you and no one else.