RPG to Final Fantasy XIV Archives

Hey Folks! There is a thing that I occasionally do on my blog where I run down what I have been playing lately. There are games that I spend time in that don’t necessarily make it to the level of writing about. Regularly Playing has always served as a time for me to update the good ole sidebar of the blog and talk about the things that I am spending time exploring. It is also a time for me to push aside the games that for whatever reason I am just not that into right now. You have a lot of games that make their way back into the rotation, so when I say goodbye it is very rarely forever.

In theory this is a thing that I intend to do every month… but we are living in this time where it still feels like it SHOULD by all rights be March. I think this is going to go down in history as the “Lost Year” because it feels like we are all still very much on pause waiting for things to improve. I expect a significant amount of shake up given that it has been a little over two months since my last update.

To Those Remaining

Oh Diablo, my sweet Diablo… I can’t ever seem to quit you. This game probably spends the most time on this list, especially now that it exists in switch form. While I am finished with the current PC season, I do still fairly regularly pop it open from bed on the switch and chip away at the achievements there. What can I say that I have not already said a dozen times. I just hope I like Diablo IV even half as much as I love Diablo III.

Oh precious baby, you are hanging by a thread. I’ve been back a bit of late for the Yo-Kai watch event, but even that has mostly just been something to do while watching something on television. I know there is a whole new story arc that I need to play through since the 5.3 patch has landed finally. I will do that at some point but I am just not overly excited about Final Fantasy XIV right now. I wish I was because it truly is a wonderful game, but I am not sure what changed in me that struggles to latch onto the MMORPG gameplay experience for very long. I find myself being a strict soloist in the MMO space right now, and as a result I never quite fully buy into the good aspects of the culture and the gameplay offerings. I wish I could get over my fear of doing content with other human beings that I seem to have developed.

I am not what you would call actively playing this game, but every so often I decide to poke my head in and work on leveling some of my alts. During this lull in the expansion I have leveled one of everything horde side by the Shaman, Priest and Rogue. I’ve been most recently working on the Shaman who is in Pandaria and I believe a few levels away from 100? This is often times the character that I play while we are podcasting, or if I am watching some show because World of Warcraft requires a bare minimum of interactivity to play it on the level I am playing it. I still get a stupid amount of enjoyment from its simple mechanics and my ability to just turn my brain off and rely entirely upon muscle memory.

To The New and Returning

I super did not expect to be playing this game right now. I had a lot of issues early on with it, but it turns out that I was more or less bit in the butt by my own shenanigans. There are still some minor issues of mouse and camera not exactly working in the way that I would prefer but it is extremely playable and the story is really solid. In fact I think at this point I am mostly playing because the story is extremely enjoyable. The game hits a deep uncanny valley at times because I think they are trying to shoot halfway between the more traditional comic appearance of the characters and that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’ve gotten used to it however and once I did the story being told has become pure joy.

I have been on a bit of a single player narrative game kick of late, and I have been playing a significant amount of Ghosts of Tsushima. I’ve not made it past the first part of the game, because I keep roaming around and killing baddies. I am more or less following the Samurai path where I present a challenge and then proceed to whittle down the rest of the masses after taking out their strongest. I love this game a lot, and the only thing that would have made it better is if I were playing on the PC with a Mouse and Keyboard. I’ve been a bit distracted the last week or so, but I am hoping over the extended weekend that I can return to this and keep moving forward.

I am not entirely certain that this game has ever made the list, but I have had it in my arsenal for awhile now. I have a deep love for the types of games that Supergiant creates. Even when I don’t mechanically enjoy the game like was the case with Pyre, I really appreciate the story that is being told. Hades is effectively a blend of Diablo and a Rogue Lite game and involves escaping from the underworld, and powering yourself along the way to make that possible. It is a game or repetition because you are absolutely going to die over and over and over in your journey, each time starting back at the start and each time carrying some progress along with you. This has been in early access but we are starting to near an official launch, so I have been playing it again in anticipation. Really solid game.

I’ve not participated in two test events of New World and I am super happy to finally be able to start talking about it. The last long preview event that is wrapping up I believe today had no NDA and as a result I have been able to openly discuss it on the blog. As it stands I am so ready for this game to launch and to start being able to play it in earnest. I am hoping the next event is an Open Beta so that folks who did not pre-order can give it a shot and see if it works for them. This is definitely the type of game that I am going to want to find an active company to play in, and that does not mean that I am sold on the notion of leading one. I’m good at recruiting people, but I don’t seem to be good at keeping people engaged… myself included. So more than likely I will be looking for a company to join that would be open to any friends that I have who are also interested.

This is going to be a bit of a generic heading because I have been poking around in a lot of “retro games”. The thing is… I find it weird calling these game retro, because they are from my childhood. It is moments like this that I remember just how damned old I am at this point. Whatever you want to call them I have been back on a kick of trying to get my closet full of older systems and cartridges up and running on modern display technology. I’ve also purchased a Retro Freak console, which allows me to do a bunch of nifty things including dump rom and save games from cartridges and apply translation patches on the fly. The next project is to try and get my Neo Geo CD system up and running again and maybe apply the mod that replaces the very slow CD Rom with an SD Card interface.

To Those Departing

I am not sure where we went wrong boo, I’m just not playing you. I have no clue what is up but for whatever reason I just haven’t been interested in playing Destiny 2 in this current season. I am not sure if it is the impending gear sunset or the fact that they are “vaulting” content to remove it from the game, but whatever the case I am just turned off right now. I think games should get larger over time not shrink constantly, and I hate the FOMO aspect of seasonal play. The truth however is just that I have not been interested in playing a shooter lately, and this last few months has been largely marked by me playing more single player and narrative driven content. I am sure I will be back when the expansion launches in November and have a grand ole time.

You know that mission that AggroChat folks have been on about playing Guild Wars 2 and getting others to play it as well? For whatever reason it never sunk its hooks properly into me. I still don’t fully understand why this game that on paper should be something I am deeply into… never quite seems to work for me. There is just something about the gameplay loop that I don’t find as enjoyable as I should. The story content also never really hooked me, so while I keep trying to revisit this game… it never really does it for me. I am sure I will be back at some point because I am a glutton for punishment with a very short memory.

I can’t fully explain what happened here and why I stopped playing this game, but it happened. I am not even sure what distracted me. I just know that I have not logged in for a long while other than to convert to the Steam client. I am sure I will return because I was having quite a bit of fun with it. I also know that I was only a few levels away from hitting the cap at the time, and that there is a raised cap now that we have entered Chapter 4. I think I mostly got distracted by a string of single player experiences like Death Stranding.

I really do want to like this game, but I have not been all that into of it late. I think the core problem I have with the third iteration is that there just isn’t really a class that I enjoy. In Torchlight there was the Destroyer that I played a ton of, and in Torchlight II it was the Engineer. Both were big and bashy melee characters and right now in the third game there are two characters that CAN be played that way… but they both sorta feel fiddly. So I have been splitting my time between the Forge and the Railmaster…. and to be truthful neither of them feel the way that I want them to feel. I know Torchlight is a game that tries to cast aside the traditional Mage, Rogue, Warrior, and Cleric blend of classes… but I mostly just wish they had proper representation of those archetypes. My preference is to play something akin to the Diablo Barbarian or Crusader and they just don’t really have that represented.

Ships Passing in the Night

Death Stranding was a phenomenal experience. I legit get emotional just thinking about it. This is the game that I needed to play at the time in which I played it. It has become this extremely relevant allegory for the time that we are living in. I am not sure this is a game that everyone would enjoy, because the whole courier aspect of it that I found enjoyable could be pure tedium for someone else. The story being told though is really good and if nothing else you should probably watch a play through of it at some point.

I had been anxiously awaiting the release of Horizon Zero Dawn for the PC, and when it came out I burned through it like wildfire. I think I put in a solid 50 hours in a very short period of time and cracking this open and revisiting it all was truly magical. I love Aloy and the world of Horizon, and I am anxiously awaiting the sequel. This is pretty much the reason why I will be buying a PlayStation 5 as soon as the pre-orders open. If you have never played Horizon Zero Dawn, you owe it to yourself to experience the game and the bow combat just works so much better with a Mouse and Keyboard.

Summary

I guess this is what happens when I wait almost three months between updates, there is a lot of change. I’ve bounced a few things off the list that I am almost certain I will revisit. Hell to be truthful what usually happens is just writing about them ends up making me want to log back in again. I know we have the launch of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 that will be eating some of my time, and I would really like to restart Jedi Fallen Order but this time play it with Mouse and Keyboard. Additionally I really want to play through Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which has been on my list for awhile. In between those I will be wrapping up Avengers main story and seeing if I like the group content or not, and probably poking my head into New World each time a new test event opens. All the while the backlog continues to grow, but I have gotten fairly used to knowing I will never quite conquer it.

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Art, commentary, and lore from a transformative era inThe journey through the creation of the groundbreaking video games continues with this volume, featuring hundreds of pieces of concept art, design notes, and creator retrospectives from the original team behind the making of Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy XIV.

Art, commentary, and lore from a transformative era in the indispensable role-playing franchise, collected in a beautifully printed 300-plus-page hardcover. Foray into one of gaming's most iconic properties, exploring beautiful art and incisive commentary behind five of the most memorable entries in the Final Fantasy saga.

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Hardcover, 336 pages

Published June 11th 2019 by Dark Horse Books

Bravely Archive

Release dates

January 15, 2015
October 25, 2018

Are you bound by fate?

Tagline

Bravely Archive, formerly known as Bravely Archive: D's Report, was an Android/iOS free-to-play game developed by Square Enix. Archive was set in a reimagined world of Luxendarc and tells an alternative story where things go a bit differently than they were originally planned. The main protagonist is a new librarian whose mission is to gather memories from sealed crystals and return their knowledge to The Library. During the journey, the player meets new and familiar faces from earlier entries within the Bravely series.^[2] The game ended its service on October 23, 2017 in Japan.^[1] Despite its end of service in Japan, the game has debuted in Australia and other regions. However, due to maintenance concerns, Square Enix has announced an August 29, 2019 termination of service. It has since been delisted from all app stores.

Gameplay[edit | edit source]

The game features a "Hold & Swipe" battle system where holding a finger on the character icon revealed its abilities such as attack, magic and defend. Similar to the previous Bravely games, there were a large variety of jobs to choose from, each having unique abilities and skills.^[2]

Players can through dungeon-like areas that contain familiar enemies from Bravely Default and Bravely Default: Praying Brage. The objectives of the dungeons varied from clearing all of the enemies within it, defeating the boss or managing to collect all the treasures. Players moved through the dungeon by tapping on the visible platforms, moving from platform to platform until the player reaches the boss, defeats it and subsequently gathers the crystal from the area.

During battle, players were allowed to swipe up, down, left and right to issue attack orders to their party of characters. Swiping upwards induced an upper attack which raised the enemy into the air, allowing players the opportunity to induce twice the damage by swiping downwards, thereby slamming the enemy from the air into the ground. The higher the enemy is lifted, the more damage is done upon slamming them from the air. Prevailing jobs included sword-users, spear-users, dagger-users and stave-users. Some characters also possessed healing abilities. By double-tapping a character's portrait in battle, players were allowed the function of that character's special ability, targeting either a single enemy or multiple enemies. Players could also utilize an auto-battle option during battle.

There was also an option for players to purchase crystals with cash, allowing the ability to redeem a new character for 15 crystals, replenish travel points for 5 crystals or gain additional character slots for 10 crystals. On September 4th, after the game had announced termination; the amount of crystals required for redeeming characters was reduced to 1 crystal, to make up for the closure of the store.

Characters[edit | edit source]

The game currently features 160 obtainable characters.

• Protagonist - Male Keeper assigned to the Anastasis Library by Dahlia.
• Dahlia Mirchstrasse(ダリア・ミルヒシュトラーセ, Daria Miruhishutorāse?) - Librarian tasked with gathering memories from sealed crystals.
• Director Gorges(フランク・ゴルージュ, Furanku Gorūju?) - The director of Anastasis Library.
• Charia Pantanora(チャリア・パンタノーラ, Charia Pantanōra?) - A carefree librarian who enjoys drinking.
• Vivian Olmet(ビビアン・オルメット, Bibian Orumetto?) - A young librarian who looks up to Daria. She has poor people skills and dislikes eggplant.
• Dmitri Dotnova(ドミトリ・ドットノーヴァ, Domitori Dottonōva?) - A Crystal Broker and Ritchie's older brother. He dotes on Ritchie and is described as having a "sister complex".
• Riche Dotnova(リーチェ・ドットノーヴァ, Rīche Dottonōva?) - A Crystal Broker and Dimitri's younger sister.
• Leti Redith(レティ・レディース, Reti Redīsu?) - A librarian at the Anastasis Library who rarely shows up to work. Her true identity is Tiare (ティアーレ, Tiāre?), an alchemist who was once rumored to have created an immortality elixir.
• Katarina(カテリナ, Katerina?) - A young girl who lost her home and family to war. She appears at the Anastasis library with the cryst-fairy Noin.
• Noin(ノイン, Noin?) - A cryst-fairy who travels with Katarina. The twin sister of Ain. Manipulated Katarina to destroy world boundaries, causing irreparable damage to her body.
• Ain(アイン, Ain?) - A cryst-fairy who is the twin sister of Noin. Forms a contact with Katarina after Noin is defeated to save her life.

Story[edit | edit source]

It was a few hundred years ago that the evil dragon Garganthos tried to end humanity, but was defeated after a long, fierce battle. Garganthos was concealed in a huge crystal, called an "Archive," that controlled and bound the people's fate.

But one day, the Archive slammed into the center of the continent of Luxendarc and the fragments of the Archive scattered across the world.

An institution known as the Anastasis Library was founded to collect and study these mysterious crystals. But another group, called the Breakers, emerged to disrupt those efforts...

Prologue

Development[edit | edit source]

The producer of Bravley Archive: D's Report is Ishii Ryoutarou who is also known for producing Grimm's Notes and Dia Horizon, also properties of Square Enix. His twitter handle is @ishryot, where he occasionally comments on the production of Bravely Archive. The second producer is Yamanaka Jouji, who is also a producer of Bravely Default: Fairy's Effect.

The soundtrack was composed by Revo, using original tracks from Bravely Default.

Packaging Artwork[edit | edit source]

Gallery[edit | edit source]

Logos

Artworks

Screenshots

External links[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

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