I fell short of my gaming goals this year yet again, completing only 7 out of 12 target games, with the official mark of success being 10 out of 12. My pledge was to scale back my gaming goals further in 2019 if I failed in 2018, but I came so close this year that I'm rejecting that outright. A few things didn't break my way. I was waylaid by podcasting and illness multiple times. I can still do this. My 2019 gaming goals shall be approximately equal to my 2018 goals in quantity.
One thing I realized about myself this year is that I'm more likely to sink time into handhelds and less likely to dedicate myself to a PC game unless I can listen to a podcast at the same time (ugh, this is not a great look). Console games are right in the middle. Thus, for my 2019 goals I'm focusing equally on console and handheld, and keeping PC out of the running at least for another year. My 2019 list of targets is thirteen games, broken down as such: four PS4 and Vita backlog games, four Switch and 3DS backlog games, four 2019 releases, and one retro title.
The thirteenth game is one of my most glaring omissions from my personal video game resume, but didn't fit any of my categories so I added it as a bonus. It's possible that a few of these games will be played as part of the Retro Encounter podcast that I record for RPGFan, but I don't have full control of what games I play for the podcast, so (like the past three years) my podcasting and my personal gaming goals may be at odds. That's okay. Challenge accepted. I should mention, these are not the only games I will play this year, and games absent from the list below CANNOT count towards my official gaming goals unless there are extenuating circumstances.
I have the 13 targets listed below in alphabetical order, except for the retro game which is placed last. Like my 2018 list, I tried to balance genres a little bit to make the goal more reachable (basically making sure the list no more than 50% Japanese RPGs). Unlike 2018, I added a 13th game. Yikes. A passing grade is beating 11 out of 13. If I fail to complete at least 11 of these 13 games, then I will scale back my next Gaming Goals. Probably. And here's the list:
2019 Gamers' Dozen
One of the most disappointing bits of gaming news I received in 2018 was the second delay of Bloodstained, the high-profile indie game from legendary Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi. I loved Iga's Castlevania games and gave early to the Bloodstained Kickstarter, but I admit that my initial hype is tempered somewhat by these delays and my general feeling of worry is increasing. Regardless, I'm gonna play this thing as soon as it's available. It's been too long since I've played a proper Iga-vania.
The first Devil May Cry and the excellent prequel Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening are two of my favorite PS2 games, but DMC2 sucked, DMC4 was a little boring, and I only played the beginning of the Ninja Theory DmC (but I thought it was quite good). The early trailers for DMC5 look incredible though, and it's definitely been long enough that I'm ready to revisit one of my favorite games from 13 or 14 years ago. The plan is to replay DMC3 and give second chances to DMC4 and DmC prior to playing the new joint.
Probably the non-Dragon Quest game that most charmed me at E3 2018 and by far the youngest game in my backlog, the open-world action game Fist of the North Star game from Sega's Yakuza team is cartoonish excess and intense action, with Yakuza's unique balance of serious tone and slapstick humor, adapting a manga / anime series I enjoy a great deal. I can't wait. There is at least a 25% chance playing this game launches me into playing several Yakuza games afterward. I sort of hope it doesn't (too many games to play already), but I accept that it may.
One very early entry to the PS4's library has been sitting on my shelf untouched for nearly two years, and I gotta fix that. I loved inFamous and inFamous 2 on PS3 (I liked the second more than the first, but that's an uncommon opinion), and it's definitely been long enough for me to be thirsty for a new one. I don't know a lot about Second Son, except that it takes place in Seattle and the main character's Conduit power is stealing or borrowing the powers of other Conduits. Sounds dope.
Kirby: Planet Robobot
Kirby platformers, on the grand scale of Nintendo 2D joints, are typically easier than Donkey Kong, Yoshi, or Mario platformers, but make up for the low challenge level by being full of color and personality, and granting Kirby tremendous gameplay variety when he swallows enemies to use their powers. For many years I loved a few of the 90s Kirby games - I played almost all of them, but only truly liked Adventure, Dream Land 2, and Super Star. My tune changed after playing the 3DS's Triple Deluxe a few years ago, which was excellent and felt like a return to form. And now you're telling me its sequel has giant robots? I'm all in.
Kirby platformers, on the grand scale of Nintendo 2D joints, are typically easier than Donkey Kong, Yoshi, or Mario platformers, but make up for the low challenge level by being full of color and personality, and granting Kirby tremendous gameplay variety when he swallows enemies to use their powers. For many years I loved a few of the 90s Kirby games - I played almost all of them, but only truly liked Adventure, Dream Land 2, and Super Star. My tune changed after playing the 3DS's Triple Deluxe a few years ago, which was excellent and felt like a return to form. And now you're telling me its sequel has giant robots? I'm all in.
I borrowed this game from a friend over a year ago, but returned it to her without starting it, and bought my own copy on sale shortly thereafter. I'm very interested in The Last Guardian, as the idea of a modern game with a giant monster character that reacts like an unwilling animal is fascinating to me, and I loved both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, Fumito Ueda's first two big Sony games. Also I just gotta knock out more of my PS4 backlog. It's getting worrisomely large.
Astoundingly, all of the RPGs in this list are backloaded to the second half. Hey, don't look at me, this is an alphabetical list. I included Trails of Cold Steel in my 2017 gaming goals list, and this year I'm giving it another go. It's a long one, at 80+ hours, but I really loved Falcom's first two Trails in the Sky games, so naturally I'm interested in playing more of the Kiseki saga, which is (allegedly) about 60% complete at nine games in. I should start catching up.
I played the first hour or two of Octopath Traveler (I chose Cyrus as my starting character), but fell off the wagon when I got busy with my podcast and 2018 autumn releases (OK mostly Dragon Quest XI). I'm early on enough that I'll consider this a fresh start, and really dig into Octopath Traveler in 2019. Octopath's visual and audio presentation is INCREDIBLE and there are few video game things I love more than tinkering with a job system, so I will have no problem at all diving deep into Octopath after the New Year.
I loved the first Persona Q. Sure, its characters are watered-down versions of their Persona 3 and Persona 4 versions, but I liked the party customization, battle tactics, giant labyrinths, great music and overall style of the game quite a bit. The sequel adds in Persona 5's cast (and the FeMC from Persona 3 Portable!) to a new quest centered around a supernatural movie theater. Whatever, just let me team up Makoto with Kanji and the FeMC in a spaghetti western maze or something. Also, this is the 2019 game I'm most concerned will get delayed into 2020 or not released in English at all. Concern level is low, but nonzero.
Perhaps surprisingly, the 8th generation of Pokémon games inherited the title of "Sollosi's Most Anticipated Game," following in the footsteps of 2018's Dragon Quest XI and 2017's Persona 5. I binged pretty hard on Pokémon earlier this year, playing through Sun and Black for the first time (I played White 2 several years ago, but never OG Black or White) and replaying Heart Gold, and by the time the new generation of Pokémon drops in late 2019 I'll be ready to go. The Switch is a great device, Pokémon is the world's most popular video game franchise, and at their intersection will be probably be one of the hugest game releases of all time. I plan to be part of that wave.
I finally obtained the seventh game in the Herschel Layton saga (sixth if you don't count Layton vs Wright) earlier this year, and I'm looking forward to finally getting to it in 2019. I'm not interested in the Katrielle sub-series, but the best Layton games are excellent puzzle adventures full of personality and charm, and I've enjoyed nearly all of the ones I've played. Azran Legacy is the third game of the second Layton trilogy, and I'm ready to finish the fight. Unless Layton gets added to Smash Bros., in which case I'll be happy to continue the fight.
The one holdover from my 2018 list, Xenoblade 2 is a game I was very excited to play at first, but I got a little overwhelmed by its first two hours. Like Octopath, I'm letting those two hours slide because that's maybe two percent of this monstrous RPG's playtime. And also like Octopath, I am excited by a lot of Xenoblade 2's visuals, audio, story concepts, characters, and "being on the Switch," so I'm definitely interested in giving it a second chance. A lot of people love this game, and I'm curious to see if it lives up to its predecessor.
Super Mario World
Yup. I love video games of the 1990s, I like a large number of Mario games, and the SNES is probably my all-time favorite video game console. And yet I never got into Super Mario World. I never owned it, rented it perhaps twice but never got far. I played its GBA port a little, but never made it past the 50% mark, I think. This is obviously inexcusable, so the plan is to fire it up on my SNES Classic and play it sometime in 2019. REALLY want to cross this one off my list of unplayed games. Heck it might take me only two or three days.
Contingency Plan: if any of the 2019 titles above are delayed into 2020, I will replace them with Hollow Knight. Exactly the same situation as Bloodstained getting replaced by Majora's Mask in my 2018 quest. I bought Hollow Knight on Switch earlier this year on multiple strong recommendations, and it would've made this list if I finished Octopath or Xenoblade in 2018 or if Bloodstained didn't get delayed. Barely missed the cut. If more than one 2019 game is delayed, I will update this post with a second contingency plan game.
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So that's the list! I know it feels like cheating, one-upping my 2018 goals when I pledged to scale them back, but I had a rough 2018 in general. From a work, personal life, and video games standpoint I hit some occasional lows and was at times too depressed to play video games. But 2019 has me excited to play more games again, and I think keeping away from PC games and making the list more than half handheld is the right approach. So we'll see how it goes.
And I ended up writing 20 blog posts on the year! That's an acceptable number and I'm quite happy with that. My goal next year is going to be a little more modest: 1 blog post per month, absolute minimum. 12 at the very least, hopefully more than 20. Expect a lot of publish dates in the 28th-31st range, just to squeeze them in. I'll see you next year!
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So that's the list! I know it feels like cheating, one-upping my 2018 goals when I pledged to scale them back, but I had a rough 2018 in general. From a work, personal life, and video games standpoint I hit some occasional lows and was at times too depressed to play video games. But 2019 has me excited to play more games again, and I think keeping away from PC games and making the list more than half handheld is the right approach. So we'll see how it goes.
And I ended up writing 20 blog posts on the year! That's an acceptable number and I'm quite happy with that. My goal next year is going to be a little more modest: 1 blog post per month, absolute minimum. 12 at the very least, hopefully more than 20. Expect a lot of publish dates in the 28th-31st range, just to squeeze them in. I'll see you next year!
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