4 in February is an idea conceived by a few games writers in early 2013. The idea is that February is a bit of a doldrums for game releases, and as a result gamers should choose four games from their backlog to complete start to finish in the month. Here's the original article on the subject: Kotaku! I choose you! And for fun, here are my two 4 in February posts from 2013 and 2014, respectively: numero uno, and numero dos.
So here goes a third time. Two years ago I ended up not making meaningful progress in ANY of the 4 in February games I picked, eventually finishing Psychonauts in March or April. So that's 0% on time and 25% on the year. Last year went better; I finished Assassin's Creed 2, Telltale's The Walking Dead, and Dust: An Elysian Tail with time to spare (75% completed in February!). I played through about half of Mark of the Ninja, but never finished it, deciding to move on to 14 in '14 stuff instead. Still, 3 out of 4 wasn't bad last year, and this year I'm going to try and pass that mark to go 4 for 4 before my birthday on February 28th.
This year I'm abandoning any pretense of avoiding my annual goals. All four of the games I'm pledging to complete in February 2015 are on my list of 2015 targets; they're all a little on the short side, with no lengthy RPGs or open-world action games; and they each are a different genre, just for variety's sake. We have one character action game, one action RPG, one puzzle / visual novel / adventure game, and one of whatever the fuck Katamari is. Should be pretty fun. So here they are:
4 in February: 2015 Edition
Heavenly Sword
Wow, look at Nariko's hair. It's practically its own character. Right. Anyway, Heavenly Sword should be a cool couple of days, as it's made by the creators of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (which I liked well enough) and the new DmC game (which is a critical darling, if not super-successful worldwide). I don't know much about it except that it's a hack-and-slashy action game, but that sounds fine to me.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies
Wow, when was the last time I played a decent visual novel / graphic adventure game? The story modes in Persona 4 Arena don't count. I'm not sure what the answer to that query is, but it'll be great getting back into Phoenix and Apollo's shoes in this new Ace Attorney game. I'll have some rust to shake off, but I'm probably still able to shout OBJECTION into a DS mic.
We <3 Katamari
I played the original Katamari Damacy throughout 2004 and 2005, right when it came out, and man that game is unique and special. I bought its first sequel (and only good sequel, so I've heard) several years later, intending to revive my dormant interest in the series, but I never got around to playing it. This game was MADE for my annual quests, and I'm going to try and attack it first out of the games on this list.
Ys: The Ark of Napishtim
I've missed not having Ys around since playing Ys Seven in January of last year. The Ark of Napishtim, the sixth game in the main series, won't play as smoothly as its successors (The Oath in Felghana, Ys Origin, Ys Seven, and Memories of Celceta), but it'll expose me to a new piece of Adol's journey and provide me with a solid 15-20 hours of hacking and slashing. I might end up using guides if I get frustrated, because I'm an adult. I got shit to do besides get hopelessly lost in a video game. Gonna be nice to mess around with Adol Christin again.
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Yes, I'm still working on reviews for Dragon Age and XenoBlade. Those should hopefully be done in the next week or two. Again, they'll be listed as "14 in '14" reviews, even though they're coming out over a month after finishing either of them. I haven't finished any big games in 2015 yet. I'm right around the halfway point of Paper Mario and probably around 60-70% done with Fire Emblem: Awakening, but now I'm putting both of those games on hold. I'm going to go hard at these 4 in February games, and then resume playing those two in March. I'm going to start up Katamari tomorrow, but I honestly don't know which one of the 4 in February games will wrap first. With any luck, I'll have six target games in the can by March 31st, and if I manage to pull it off, that's a strong start to my 2015 video game goals.
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