[Ginkasa]

Eternally playing FFXIV. Last I mentioned it in here a few years ago I had just beaten Shadowbringers. Of course since then Endwalker came out and I was there for launch and it was great. I marathoned through the story. That launch week you had to log in early or you weren't getting in and if you logged out that was it for the day. So I just logged in early and played all day lol. Fortunately I had some time off which honestly was not the plan, but it worked out! I actually was on a bit of a rush because the latter half of my time off was going out of town, so I was also hoping to get through the story before then. Got done the night before, lol. Eventually I took about a year break last summer after the first post expansion patch came out. That was right after I moved and I just found myself not playing much so nixed the subscription and stayed away for a bit. But now I'm back at it. I caught up again story wise, excited for Dawntrail next year. My wife has been watching my go through the story again via New Game + which is fun and I'm also levelling some of the jobs I haven't played before.

I mentioned in the anime thread my wife and I watched the Nier Automata anime. I also started going through the mobile game Nier Reincarnation which has a cute story. Trying to ignore the gatcha bits as much as I can; definitely not paying for anything. But I'm enjoying the overall vibes. I attempted to go through Drakengard. If you're unaware, the Nier series spun off of the final ending to Drakengard and I wanted to go back and see if that scratched the itch as well.

It. Did. Not. That game is so unpleasant. Perhaps intentionally so which I can dig the artistic vision behind it, but I wasn't able to get through it. Got far enough that I became naturally familiar with the character and world, saw endings A and B, but did not want to do the grind for the rest. Ending up looking them up online which was enough for me. It actually does help put some context to Nier. I'm actually replaying through Nier Replicant, the recent remake of the first Nier game, which is nice. That game is pleasant (at least the remake is; I understand the OG is a bit clunky) although I think ultimately it and Drakengard were shooting for similar themes.

I was intending to replay through Final Fantasy VII Remake, and might still, in preparation for the second one coming out next year. I started, but kind of bounced off of it. I've got a surround sound system since I last played it at release and the mixing is garbage. Cutscenes are fine, but conversations during gameplay are quiet, like far away even when I'm standing next to them. That kind of annoyed me and also I just wasn't feeling it. Maybe because it feels more like I have to rather than want to. I'm sort of ambivalent on some of the story changes they've done and are hinting at, bordering on disliking them, and I don't really like the real time action gameplay. I like seeing the characters and environments all done up and voiced and modern looking and I'm looking forward to see more of that in the new one, but the rest of it is not my favorite. We'll see.

My wife is playing the Super Mario RPG remake for the Switch. That was her favorite game growing up so she's been looking for to it. I might give it a go when she's done.