06/09/2016

On to the next game!


Yes, I'm back! After more than a month of complete rest, I laid my fingers again on a gaming device at long last. And boy, did it feel amazing.

It certainly doesn't hurt that I reclaimed a lot of my passion for gaming and collecting during that month spent away from gaming devices. Both had become a bit of a part-time job these last months, and I had come to tackling them in a semi-automatic way without even realising it. It didn't help that my collection had been standing in boxes ever since I moved to a new place one year ago and that I had resorted to throwing new gaming acquisitions in boxes and pantries without bothering to sort them. But I finally endurtook that long-overdue endeavour and reorganised my whole beloved collection, generating plenty of pleasant feelings in the process. Sentences such as "oh, I remember I got a super bargain on that game!" or "jeez, this game was so hard to find!" or "gee, I didn't even remember I owned this game!" popped up in my head on a regular basis, along with an overwhelming sense of pride and happiness. I worked really hard on my beloved collection and I'm deeply content that I did.

But most importantly, I recovered the feelings of elation and giddy innocence that used to be mine when I started collecting. I see games again like I did back then, i.e. as promises of many hours of delight and thrill. When I look at my collection now, I don't think anymore about the games I still have to purchase to "complete" it, but rather about the countless hours of enjoyment packed by all the games I already own. It's an amazing feeling that I had lost along the way, and I'm intensely glad it came back to me.

All in all, I'm quite grateful for this forced break away from gaming. I'm coming back refreshed and rejuvenated and more than ready to roll again. Oh, and of course, my wrist is now fully healed! I obviously have to take it easy and go slowly to avoid ending up in the same predicament again, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. See you soon for more juicy gaming bites, dear fellow gamers! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
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14 comments:

  1. Sieg7 September 2016 at 12:33

    Welcome back, Isleif! Glad to see you fully recovered and in good spirits! Sometimes we really do need a break from our hobby just to notice how important it is, isn't that right?

    So, what's next on your "to play" list?

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    1. Isleif7 September 2016 at 15:07

      Thanks a lot, Sieg! Indeed, a break from one's hobby is sometimes most beneficial. This particular break allowed me to go back to the roots of my passion for gaming and shear all the unnecessary padding and interferences, such as worrying about the state of my collection or trying to play more games at once. To hell with that, it's all about following my gaming instinct and enjoying the trip to the fullest! :)

      I started 7th Dragon III yesterday (the US version, not the Japanese one) and it's shaping out to be a really great game. Lovely colours, gorgeous art style, comfortable dungeon crawling, a winning combo! More on that later!

      By the way, did you go to Japan and found some juicy gaming items? ^__^

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    2. Sieg7 September 2016 at 15:22

      Ah, 7th Dragon III! I'm waiting for that one! Seems like Sega actually listened for once and we're getting it (and SMT IV Apocalypse!) physically in Europe! I'm pretty hyped for that one since the other 2 on the PSP were pretty fun albeit a little on the easy side once you got the hang of classes. The DS one was also pretty good but a lot more grindy. What classes are you using in your party?

      Alas, my trip to Nippon-land was postponed for next summer. For family reasons, in a way. My mother got ill in mid July and my girlfriend was way too concerned with me going (as she couldn't go since she had several things to take care of during this summer) so I ended up not going this year.

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    3. Isleif7 September 2016 at 18:29

      Yes, I've heard about the european physical release... Right after I purchased the us version, of course! :P I screwed things up so badly with that particular game that it's almost hilarious. The Rosetta Stone of my gaming collection, that's what this game is.

      I'm playing with a samurai, a god hand and a duelist. Good classes so far, although I'm eager to unlock the rest of the classes!

      Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that! Hopefully your mother recovered. As for Japan... Well, next year you'll have even more Vita exclusives to buy, so that's all good! ^__^

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    4. Sieg7 September 2016 at 21:56

      Ahah, it happens! I gotta admit that almost no one was expecting Sega to even bring 7th Dragon out of Japan, let alone actually arrange for Europe to get a physical release. The year of surprising localisations continues it seems.

      She's fine now. And, meanwhile, I actually got to clear out some of my PS2/PS3 backlog. I guess it just wasn't meant to be this year! :p

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    5. Isleif8 September 2016 at 11:59

      Well, that's good to hear! And congratulations for reducing your backlog, because these things have a tendency to grow exponentially rather than shrink...:P Which games did you play, if I may ask? ^^

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    6. Sieg8 September 2016 at 20:13

      During the entire summer? Let's see here...
      Tales of Graces f (PS3) (I'd already finished before but never the epilogue)
      Ar nosurge (PS3)
      Resonance of Fate (PS3)
      Soul Nomad (PS2)
      Baroque (PS2) (Possibly the weirdest game I've ever played.)
      SAO Hollow Fragment (Vita)
      Asura's Wrath (PS3)
      I'm also at final parts of Toukiden Kiwami, with more or less 70 hours logged into this one. :p oh, and I replayed Riviera in the meanwhile! I missed the game.

      By the by, this reminds me. Can I ask you a small favor, Isleif? When you end up playing Ar nosurge Plus on the Vita, do you mind taking screenshots from the different places and landscapes and random cutscenes and sending me by email or something? I absolutely loved the art style of the game but I can't take screenshots with a PS3 (yeah, really).

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    7. Isleif8 September 2016 at 22:19

      Wow, that's pretty impressive! I don't think I could polish off that many games in a single summer. A big shout-out to you! ^__^

      Regarding Ar Nosurge Plus... Well, given that there is nothing easier than taking screenshots on a Vita, I certainly wouldn't mind doing you that favor. Heck, I'll drown you under pictures when the time comes!^^ Let's talk about this again when I play and review the game, shall we?:)

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    8. Sieg9 September 2016 at 12:08

      I actually manage to make a dent on my PS3 backlog this summer! I guess it helped that I let my 3DS and Vita rest for a while. :p

      Thank you so much, Isleif! I really appreciate it. You probably do the same as me no? Take a bunch of screenshots of the games you're playing as sort of memento, right? Funny scenes, interesting places, cool enemy designs, etc etc. A real shame the 3DS and the PS3 don't let me screenshot my games.

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    9. Isleif9 September 2016 at 17:28

      I'll make a confession, Sieg: I do indeed take screenshots of my favourite scenes in games, but that's solely for the sake of enlivening my blog posts. Not only that, but if I could get away with writing posts entirely devoids of pictures, I would gladly do it. Alas, I think my walls of texts would look a trifle too arid without any pictorial flourishes, even to my own eyes... :P

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    10. Sieg10 September 2016 at 13:13

      I really like taking shots though. A sort of memo of all the great stuff I saw when I played this or that game.

      And I agree that an article really needs some screenshots or even just artwork to make it less "dry" and easier to read. A proportion of , maybe, 1 picture for each 3 paragraphs?

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    11. Isleif10 September 2016 at 17:09

      I like reminiscing about my favourite games, or about any game I've played in general. Memories of each game are made of a wonderful mix of visual highlights, pieces of music, gameplay impressions and a general atmosphere, sometimes combined with snipets from whatever TV show I was intensely listening to at the time I played the game in question. The longer I played the game and the more I enjoyed it, the stronger the memories.

      Then there is the case of some games that are literally burned into my memory after I played them so, so much, and will probably stay there until my dying day. Cult classics such as Ducktales, Super Mario Land, Sonic 3&Knuckles and Link's Awakening are part of that category. I mean, I can pretty much conjure up the layout of every single level of Super Mario Land in my mind any time and replay the whole thing in my head... :P

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  2. Anonymous11 September 2016 at 18:32

    Congrats on your recovery Isleif! I'm very glad to see your break gave you back your drive to play games. I'm probably gonna do something similar too, while you were recovering I couldn't complete any games at all. I started about 5 of them, and they are fun, but I just don't feel like playing. So I'm gonna give up and go back to my old staple of TS2 and play that until my drive comes back.

    I've completed 63 games this year so far, so I think I shouldn't feel so obligated to my backlog anyways. In the meantime, I look forward to your reviews instead.

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    1. Isleif12 September 2016 at 16:25

      Thanks a lot for the kind words, Elisa!^^

      63 games?! Since the beginning of 2016? Heck, I'm at a loss for words!! That's astonishing!! I only cleared a measly 15 games, and I'm supposed to be the blogger here... :P But knowing that, your current gaming fatigue is not so surprising. Enjoy the rest! :)

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