In and Out, Out and About: Gaming Challenges in 2017

This year has been extraordinary in terms of my two-front battle against the games I want to play and push upon to its end and dealing with whatever work and life throws my way. The working front thus far has proven to be very difficult to deal with as the unexpected frequency of employee turnover at the company’s New York office and shortening windows to complete particular tasks have forced me to divert more of my time and energy in order to having them done on time. On top of all the time spent on working alone, my brother and I have been busy taking care of weekly errands and been going out to a number of music concerts and sporting events. Both of which has limited my opportunities to play through the games I want to play. I am in bad shape already with the existing backlog before heading into the year, but this year has made it worse with abnormal amount of excellent games already released before June.

In spite of all of the limitations, I do what I can to play the games within the times I am able to get to them. Some of the times I used to squeeze in a bit of gaming time, such as weeknights and Saturdays, have been lost due to increasing work demands and life events. It has been frustrating to see my available time to play games shrink, but it makes those times where I finally find an opportunity to play much more impactful than it has been. I probably could have squeezed in more gaming time here and there, but I made a promise to myself to not play anything if I was either in an extremely exhausted or irritated mood. I have only played a handful of games and only two of them count as this year’s major game releases that has been widely discussed by the gaming community. Luckily, those two games plus a few others have made my gaming sessions enjoyable and impactful. Those short and sweet times with games definitely provided some of my personal highlight moments of the year and provide that essential and necessary escape and relief from the constant unsatisfactory barrage from daily working and life events.

It’s always painful to miss out on a number of games, but this year is making that pain more excruciating by having so many great games already out there that I am certain I will not get around to this year. I am starting Persona 5 soon and after hearing total playtimes exceeding 100 hours, it’s going to make it tough to juggle other games while trying to keep a semi-frequent routine to keep up my momentum in P5. The timing to start P5 could not have come at a more rotten time, as two fighting games that I will try to put in some time into are coming out soon with Guilty Gear Xrd REV2 and Tekken 7. The gaming mess will compound when I eventually purchase the Nintendo Switch with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Splatoon 2 being the first games I plan to buy with it. No matter what games I get or not get around to, I hope that they will be the necessary excellent experiences I need to get through to balance out what I expect will be a very long year at work. Folks have been saying it’s the best time to play video games, I don’t doubt it one bit.

With so many games out there, there’s going to be a good chunk of those games that sadly will be on the back burner for the year. I already see Yakuza 0 as a victim of this year’s crop of games that I probably will not have a good shot of playing and completing within the year. Other JRPGs offerings outside of Persona 5 will probably see the same fate with the Dragon Quest VIII re-release on the 3DS and Tales of Berseria. I think Zelda will edge out against Horizon in terms of squeezing in another action adventure before Super Mario Odyssey takes the reigns later this year. I can see myself putting in a lot of hours into Splatoon 2 online multiplayer at the expense of trying to train and play some online games in any fighting game, particularly my focus on REV2. I could also jump in on buying an import digital copy of Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] but erring on the side of passing it as I’ll be deep in the trenches with Persona 5 at that time. It’s going to stink not being able to get around to all of 2017’s great offerings, but for the games that I do manage to get around, it’s going to be some bloodbath to see which one gets the number one spot by year end.

I always placed precedence on current games so that I could compile enough games for a top-ten list at year end, but there are times here and there where I am able to squeeze in an old or side game or two. This year has been a mixed bag in trying out some side games to play concurrently with the main game. Before all of the great gaming releases started to come one by one, I got through a couple of quick short side games in Inside, Jazzpunk, and Pocket Card Jockey. Then I tried to gamble by playing a handheld JRPG in Rune Factory 4, as I wanted to give that game a chance after continually pushing it back in favor of other handheld JRPGs. Unfortunately the game was not impressing me as much as I had hoped and placed it on the backburner once again. I purchased Mario Sports Superstars in hopes that would be a decent side game to play but found the game to be pretty bland. Since then, I got through Wild Guns Reloaded, Picross e7, Neo Turf Masters (via the ACA NeoGeo line by Hamster), and Puyo Puyo Tetris (again).

Handhelds have a special place in my gaming heart as they have kept me busy during my hour-long frequent commutes to and from work for many years. It’s helped that many of my favorite games have come through the handhelds, such examples are Etrian Odyssey IV, Fire Emblem: Awakening, The Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds, Picross 3D: Round 2, etc. Persona 4 Golden on the Vita helped me finally play through and complete Persona 4 which I failed to do for so long until I finished it back in 2015. The handhelds have been a major source of my JRPG ventures the past few years with EO4, SMT4, FE:A, P4G, etc. Though I do have plenty of backlog handheld games, I fear trying to tackle a major handheld game is going to be problematic trying to play concurrent with the major console games which has gotten a majority of attention this year. As a result, I don’t think the handhelds will get a big shake from me this year.

Despite the seemingly hell landscape on trying to get games done in 2017 so far, I am glad the two major games I did get done so far this year have been very enjoyable. Both of them took a good chunk of time to finish (close to 40 hours each), but Gravity Rush 2 and NieR:Automata have been excellent games to play and experience and I am glad I chose those two games to start of the year. Those two games kept my interest and I always wanted to get around to them even if I couldn’t due to work or other circumstances. I did all that I could to play both games as frequently as possible so that I would not forget too much on the progress I have made on both games. Persona 5 will be a slightly tougher challenge as a JRPG with so many items to be mindful for during its very lengthy time to complete. Nonetheless it’s a task that I hope will be enjoyable and keep me company until its end.

I applaud everyone who has completed their fair number of games already as lot of these games take a lot of time to complete. I won’t get to every one of these games but I hope to join many of you in a few games that I hope to complete or play plenty of to share my thoughts over the year and by year end.

The Long Haul

Finish

• Gravity Rush 2
• NieR:Automata

Starting

• Persona 5

Hopeful

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Super Mario Odyssey

Pessimistic

• Dragon Quest VIII
• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Tales of Berseria
• Yakuza 0
• Ys VIII

Plug and Play

Priority

• Guilty Gear Xrd REV2
• Splatoon 2

Hopeful

• DiRT 4
• Everybody’s Golf
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Pessimistic

• Tekken 7