BEATEN

Nothing. I had a lot of things going on in September, and playing video games was not really high on the list of priorities.

ONGOING

Final Fantasy Tactics A2 – I got most of the way through this during September and should have a full post up before too long. I remember liking this game a whole lot when it was first released and I eventually really enjoyed this second playthrough. Though flawed in a lot of ways, more on that in a full write up, the game does an admirable job of blending the slightly different flavors of its Ivalice predecessors together into a game that seems to continue all of them. Too bad about the Bazaar system and the actions, which take up time and detract from actually being able to teach characters skills.

Atelier Ryza – I put another hour or so into this. Ryza feels like a game that I will be playing in small chunks for a long time until one weekend it just grabs me and I speed through the rest of it. Or I just lose interest after a few months.

Super Mario Sunshine – I was eagerly awaiting the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection, and the first one I tried out was the one I have never managed to complete in its original form. Fully acknowledging that I did not really give the game enough time to make a fair assessment of it, Sunshine feels like it is trying too hard; as though the developers were aware that they were following up a seminal game and felt pressure to live up to it. So it does a lot and how much it works is debatable. Though the first third or so of the game, I am going to say it doesn’t really work. FLUDD is a little fiddly and something of a crutch. The stages are interesting, but the tropical themeing gets repetitive. The FLUDD-less stages feel like they control sloppily in a way that other Mario games do not. I know all I’ve done is complain about Sunshine, but I still think it is a good game, just not a timeless masterpiece like many Mario games.

Fire Emblem Three Houses – I’ve already written about this. I started a new run through as the Blue Lions. I didn’t make it far before deciding to give it a break for a while, but I’ll get back to it soon. I do like how even this early in the game following a new group kind of recontextualizes things. I can’t wait to see how it looks from the other perspectives.

UPCOMING

Yakuza 5 – I meant to get to this in September, but I never actually turned on my PS4. I hope October goes better for me, in a lot of ways.

Blaster Master Zero 2 – This was on sale and it looked really appealing. I will give it a go. I liked the first Blaster Master Zero, hopefully this scratches that same itch.

Final Fantasies – Still working on this project. FFVII is on my PS4, if I manage to turn it on this month, FFIX is still waiting on my Switch. I’ve also got games for other systems I am eager to get to, from DS to Wii to PS3. We’ll see what I actually get to.