#tomyo's backlog Adventure

[tomyo]

Summer Backlog Game Plans:

Harvest Moon A New Beginning

Story of Seasons Trio of Towns

Harvest Moon Animal Parade

Zelda Minish Cap

Harvest Moon GBC 3

Nintendoland

Pokemon Channel

Waku Waku Sweets

Wrap Ups:

HM My Little Shop

Wild World

Kinectimals

Eye Play

Just Dance 4

Sword of Hope

Quick Plays:

Love Hero

Sky Peace

Fairune

Fairune 2

Legend of the Dark Witch

Legend of the Dark Witch 2

Potentials??:

Space Channel 5

Sonic Adventure

Sonic Free Riders

Sonic 06

Sonic Rush

[tomyo]

Harvest Moon: A New Beginning (its trans)

So I've finally hit a point where I feel like I can breathe again which means its time to get back into my backlog made majorly of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games. Admittedly the moment I get into the DS era and beyond, I get overwhelmed by all the mechanics but I spent....a dumb amount of money on these games and I have to push myself to try. Between Trio of Towns and A New Beginning, I chose ANB for two reasons; 1.It might be simpler to jump into 2.You can back door hack yourself into being gay....kinda.

You see the thing is you still can only date hetrosexually BUT you can just change your character to basically look completely like a girl. Trans rights??? Except you'll get misgendered all the time...unless this is a transmasc story instead for the fuckers like me that like to be he/him'd while in full femme mode. Either way, time to romance Yuri!

So admittedly this is a little bit mixed of a guide slash person road map, I am using a Fogu guide but that doesn't necessarily make it easy. So, I'm only on spring 14 but here's what to know thus far:

The game is as handholdy as ACNL/NH and will slowly dole out mechanics over thankfully in game days. Only worry about mechanics as they come.

You will spend per usual a good part of the start will be foraging. Sell the bugs but save flowers/herbs/mushrooms. You will need moon drops for the start of the town restoration. Also save Honey Bees for the second part of it too. Blue flowers are for Emma to befriend her. Hold onto all logs and stones for when Iroha comes.

Talk to all villagers to increase friendship, show them an animal as well but be careful of preferences. Most villager friendship is required to progress to more stores/upgrades.

When you unlock crops, only buy two things of grass. You are given all you need for most of your farm already. Plant and water the grass in the barn area so you'll have fodder in time for the free cow you get a few days later.

Work on shipping tons of potatoes in spring, this will be a headstart for Town Restoration #4 where you need to ship 30 of them.

Events Process: You arrive>>You unlock crops>>Neil arrives and gives you a cow>>Iroha arrives and gives you an Axe and Hammer>> Rebecca arrives and needs house help which unlocks blueprints>> Town Restoration #1>> Town Restoration #2>> Town Restoration #3 start>> Tailor Shop Blue print should unlock if you befriended Emma enough.

Yuri also seems extremely easy to woo honestly, her special like is one of the early recipes which is also important to eat regularly. In general I just love her and its a crime she can't be romanced same sexly but its okay because again, we are transing ourselves which she and Allen will help with. Wow! What a little gay gender affirming circle that is lmao.

The goal is to get Yuri in my town by early to mid fall, the biggest road block is during restoration 2 you need to ship 10 honey which will take 6 days to make so the more hives the better from the start. Clearing out the farm during summer is imperative. Hives are made out of small lumber and honey combs which is why collecting as much as possible is important (and collecting bees for them too!).

After Yuri is unlocked, the only goals are to raise a lot of sheep for wool. hatch 10 chicks, and get one yak when the chance is given. Side goals include birthing three Cows, sheep, and Alpaca during my second year. Most of Restoration 3 and beyond involves mining and wool so I expect to spend winter doing a lot of digging while also being aware that I'll probably not complete the storyline until at least late into year 2. There's more focus on festivals in the final two restorations as well as a lot of odd gems.

Post main plot is for clothing, house decoration, and child rearing. Emma, Neil, Olivia, Sanjay, and the travel location people are important towards gift exchanges. Outfits will just unlock as I go thanks to Yuri. I might also do a split save before marrying Yuri simply because Witch Princess is always kinda cool but is so late game that having to rebuild everything to marry her might honestly kill me.

It seems partially ridiculous to be so early in the game and to be writing so much already but its one of those series where you need a huge planning stage before you even start anything. To which I find fun the preplan. Admittedly also because the current game play is so repetitive; Watering and animal care in the morning, chasing after Emma for her daily gift, and then wrapping around foraging a couple of times before the night watering. It doesn't help either that there is no quality of life improvements as you go, apparently not even power berries this time.

The path to repairing a town is kind of a fun mechanic to be real; ACNH widely disappointed me for not really being the civilization maker it promised, Hometown story is interesting for a similar was in how it runs, Pioneers of Olive Town sometimes is the perfect amount of town rebuilder, and of course the ever popular stardew valley is great for slowly building up additions to an already pretty sound townspace, and I yearn for easier access to Animal Parade for how lovely the area is even if a bit of a travelling nightmare at points. I don't expect ANB to be revolutionary necessarily but I'm excited to GET to the point where I can suddenly dish out a bunch of town support. It's kind of cool how there's barely love interests as well because of it.

[tomyo]

Harvest Moon My Little Shop

So I've been trying to burn through my Harvest Moon collection and I figured it was time to mess around with My Little Shop.

Sadly for me, it's daily events so I'm gonna have to do long term run through of the game. That being said, it's pretty cute already. A lot of the aesthetic is peak Harvest Moon style. The cut out mixed with 3D gives that nostalgic feel everyone has been trying to do with like, PS1 graphics. I love my happy little kid character too.

So far it lets me do Juice and Egg Decorating. I could probably play more in just one sitting and unlock everything but it's pretty repetitive very fast, especially when I'm not good at the egg mini games. When I bought it for my system I also bought the strawberry cow upgrade so presumably I will also be able to play dlc games soon too.

Sadly there's not really any picture taking features with this one nor can you get it anymore so I'm sorry for the small group of people in this game that I will not be helping towards. I can say it is totally worth pirating but you're basically getting a cooking mama type minigame with very light HM/SoS elements on top.

[tomyo]

Tomyo's backlog master post

DS/3DS

Style Savvy

Wappy Dog

Big Brain Academy

Sonic Rush

Harvest Moon DS Cute Replay

Harvest Moon Island of Happiness

Harvest Moon Sunshine Islands

Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns

Harvest Moon A New Beginning

Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns

Hometown Story

Nintendogs+cats

Corpse Party

Kid Icarus

Animal Crossing New Leaf Second Town #

Pokemon Pearl

Pokemon Y

Pokemon Omega Ruby

3DS VC+Digital

Pokemon Crystal

Pokemon Silver

Pokemon Puzzle League

Pokemon Dream Radar

Harvest Moon 3

Sword of Hope

Zelda Links Awakening DX

Zelda Link to the Past

Earthbound

Shantae

Shantae Pirate's Curse

Xtreme Sports

Mighty Switch Force

Mighty Switch Force 2

Dillon's Deadheat Breakers

Waku Waku Sweets

Konbeni Dream

Love Hero

Sky peace

Fairune

Fairune 2

Legend of the Dark Witch

Legend of the Dark Witch 2

GC/Wii/WiiVC/WiiU/WiiU VC

Sonic Riders

Pokemon Colosseum Replay

Pokemon Channel Replay?

Harvest Moon Magical Melody Replay

Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility

Harvest Moon Animal Parade

Harvest Moon My Little Shop

Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon 64

Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town

Harvest Moon More Friends of Mineral Town

Cooking Mama Cook Off #

Nights into Dreams Replay

Udraw

Zelda Ocarina of Time

Zelda Majora's Mask

Zelda Minish Cap

Pokemon Battle Revolution

Pokemon Snap

Animal Crossing Wild World

Nintendoland

Others

Space Channel 5

Time Stalkers

Shenmue #

Sonic Adventure #

Sonic 06

Sonic Free Riders

Just Dance 4

Kinectimals

GTA5

Kingdom Hearts 3

Harvest Moon Save the Homeland

Harvest Moon AWL SE

Pokemon Emerald #

Eye Play 1+2

[tomyo]

Tomyo's Backlog Adventure: 1 Year Later

How it's going

It's been a little over a year since I made the backlog list. Admittedly I did not get through it much simply because I was extremely busy as an artist all that time. Initially I think I hoped I'd get a decent chunk through the DS games only to really never break through much.

What I got/played since

So what are the games I haven't listed?

Well let's see; Sonic and The Black Knight, Wii Music, Pokemon Pearl, Some Japanese Gameboy games of Hamtaro and Tamagotchi, the Dream Eye, Style Savvy Trendsetters, and as of this week, Tomodachi Collection and a substantial amount of Sim 3's content. (Edit: I can't remember if the islands HM DS games and sonic free riders were added on since) There is also a number of switch content that I just refuse to mentally process. Part of making the list was to address how I had gone feral with game collection but was not actually playing the games. I would say in some ways having that list helped me curb my unchecked spending which as you can guess got widely ignored for switch downloads. The irony is I would say I did a lot of switch gaming as well. Notable releases like Sonic Frontiers and Tears of the Kingdom were some of the games I ended up borrowing from the library and spending way too much time on. During the start of the year I was heavily gaming Splatoon 1 only to fail at my mission to collect all the gear before the servers went defunct. There's also been a part of me that spend the last 6 or so months hyper fixating on Tamagotchis. While not traditional games, they do indeed simply function as mini game systems and part of me sees the progression in them as my "gaming time".

What I want to get

Admittedly the urge to buy is flickering in me somewhat. Why? The rise is 3DS game costs. Now with the e shop closed, there is a renewed interest in content that had gone untouched for a while. The big wake up call for me was hearing Tomodachi life now goes for around $100 these days. My other experience in the last year is hunger for 3 things; The sonic games I missed during the GameCube/Wii era, Cooking Mama, and the Japanese series model debut. So here's my list:

Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask remakes

Legend of Zelda: A link between Worlds

Project Mirai with Cards

Nintendogs 3DS (while I have a digital download, I want physical)

Yet another copy of New Leaf

Story of Seasons

Pokemon Sun and Ultra Sun (the only two 3ds games I don't have from the mainline)

Pretty much every Cooking Mama game

Smash for 3DS and Wii U

ZombiU

Ducktales Remaster

Sonic Riders Zero Gravity

Shadow the Hedgehog

Sonic Shuffle

Loosely a few Japanese games like the soul eater one or the switch model debuts

Fashion Dreamer

Various Tamagotchis and Gigapets

Pocket Sakura

That Sega Eyetoy game

What I want to do

Some of the biggest hurdles are playing through Pokemon and Bokumono games on my list for very different reasons. Bokumono games are always a struggle because the require time being set aside to both plan out the game period and to marathon game days, especially during the 3DS era where this is a lot of mechanics to juggle. On the opposite end there is Pokemon to which most of the games on the list I want to stream my playthroughs as it's in part a ribbon master challenge. Pokemon games will probably stay put aside for an undetermined amount of time but I do want to clear out a lot of Bokumonos.

Right now I have been working through ANB to dizzying results. At some point recently I became very frustrated with the loop and set it aside leading to a hyper focus on FoMT's remake which is super easy and will likely hit my clear in just a day or two more of gameplay(my majors goals are to go through mining and fishing in the upcoming winter season and return to go for endgame houses and achievements at a later time). Admittedly I want to return to the battle that is ANB despite its frustration; feeling like I'm creating the progress is half the enjoyment is the struggle. Part of me even forgets what my end goal reach is for that one but my best guess at the moment is mainline story completion, yuri romancing, and full transition.

Onwards from that would likely be tackling either Trio of Towns or Animal Parade. Animal parade is certainly the harder of the two to pick up since it often requires the most effort to set up but of the two, I find it the more accessible story wise as simply every trio of Towns is overwhelming.

As for the casual dailies; Wild World and My Little Shop have been hard to call finished but also do not really have enough to move forward with. MLS is a pretty repetitive mini game series with a vague end goal of achieving clovers so I might just declare it finished with anyways. Wild World slowed to a crawl simply because I missed certain bug and fish seasons and on top of that is hard to enjoy when there is so little to do in game for progression outside of nonstop fishing/bug catching. Wild World might end up ending prematurely with just the encyclopedia completions since the act of endless money making for a house/charity doesn't appeal deeply to me when it is just an end goal. What might start up instead is a series on Nintendo's (and friends) various fitness trackers; My personal trainer walking, my weight loss coach, Wii fit U, the pokewalker, pocket Pikachu, pocket hello kitty, Pokemon go pikmin bloom, and for funsies the Fitbit and my phone's step tracker cuz it's cute. There's a personal love that Miiblr just exists here there's a good number of fitness things that exists around the miis. Part of me can loose the idea that I enjou watching the meters go up on these devices as the gameify walking. My Wii fit U meter has been carried with me for a while now as the goal to see the distance walked and the heights climbed is a huge enjoyment. Seeing as there are other counters, I see myself wanting to just reach a point carrying all of them for the fun of it.

Some games to stream; Pokemon Channel, Wii Music, Space Channel 5, Sonic Adventure, shenmue, and Time Stalkers all make the cut. As obviously mentioned so would most of my Pokemon games if not for being put on the back burner. Possibly towards the end of the month, I might return to some tiktok streaming with Wii Music and Pokemon channel (especially since this one is pretty camp themed). The dreamcast games are a little more tricky because I have a set up in mind but it's just hard to achieve currently. The other thing preventing streaming is my aforementioned job which takes up most of my nights these days. While most of these games are pretty easy to play in one sitting, the bigger rpgs might have difficulty.

And then finally friend plays; sonic 06 has been long on hold as I keep not visiting the very friend that lent me his PS4. At the same time, the latest game has not been decided for my yearly D trip yet; the choices stand as almost certainly Sonic Free Riders, Time Stalkers, Nintendoland, and shenmue.

As it stands I'd like to get out of the way 14-20 games on the list this year; a bunch already half played, some simply shallow games to begin with, 2-4 with the power of friendship, and about 4-7 requiring actual time investment. Additionally out of the 76 on the OG list; at least 7 of them are going to be shelved for now (the Pokemon ribbon master play throughs). Of that 69 (nice) left, 7 are known hold off, 6 are wrap ups, 3 require additional meddling, and 12 simply required setting aside time to play. There's still tons of games but since my art career is a bit on hold atm, I would like to delve into these games more this year.

[tomyo]

Conveni Dream

I picked up this guy tonight and I'd say I'm already pretty satisfied with how far I've gone in it to be real.

I whole goal is to run a shop and then keep making the shop bigger and sell more as you go with as far as I can tell the final goal being to reach level 99 and complete all the tasks.

However that's somewhat annoying to do when you have to watch out for unruly customers while having time speeds of normal, fast, hard mode, and impossible to keep watch upon things. I got to level 15 before I was bored.

It's fun in concept or for a mid 2010's phone game but otherwise the lack of end goal just didn't keep me invested.

[tomyo]

Harvest Moon GBC 3

While I’ve been staying with my friends this week, I’ve basically been limited to time off! I love it. I have basically nothing I’m required to do hahahaha. It seemed the right time to dive into some of my 3DS games each day I’ve been waiting for people to come home for Nights Journey of Dreams or Sonic Riders or when I had them play my copy of Splat 3.

Harvest Moon was finally calling me. I picked up 3 because admittedly I’m still intimidated by the 3DS era as much as I want to play A New Beginning.

Harvest Moon 3 is definitely a lot more relaxing especially with how it limits me on chore work atm. There’s not a lot of foragables on the island and I don’t have the rod yet so my days are mostly limited to instructing my partner, caring for my cow, picking berries, saying hi to villagers and shoveling the ground until I fix Pete’s work. That in itself is mostly just watering the plants right now. I’ve read he gets better as I go so I try to wait out before I interfere.

A lot of my pause in other bokumonos tends to result from choice paralysis and worrying I’ll never get everything done optimally but that’s less of a worry this time. I only really need to win over Billy and Elza, I am not marrying Pete, and there’s so little work to do that I have to work to reduce my stamina.

When I do it’s mostly to dig for change. I’d say digging is maybe even the most reliable way for money as it stands. Since I can’t buy seeds right now more than once a week and I only have one cow, money is minimal most days. However I don’t need for much either. I’ve already dug up the six first power berries so already my attention is on refriending Billy and Elza the most since travel will result in the most game access as well as open me up to Marla and Fishing storylines.

Like a lot of games I’m still in the early stage of this play through but my focus right now is on my 30 turnip job and growing grass to get more livestock. Probably some chickens and cows before grabbing sheep and horses.

[tomyo]

NiGHTS

So I forced my friend who previously beat this game to play it for me instead. Thanks Tonio.

I always played as Helen first to which the fish was horrible to fight. Ironically to learn how different two characters bosses are. The game is also surprisingly short with very little story bits or maybe that's just from coming off of KH3 not too long ago.

The gameplay is rough, in game graphics are a weird mix and the music is god tier. The funniest thing is that gets to me about the graphics is Helen looks horrible in the in game engine but will looks sort of better? If he were supposed to look like a Japanese boy it'd be fine but it's definitely likely he was supposed to be white. However the CG modelers rendered him with defining Japanese features in his cheeks and mouth that I couldn't get over, I jokingly kept calling him Kohei and his dad Yusuke. I promise this is mostly out of adoration for how artists will reference what they are familiar with which even on a professional level results in a blonde haired blue eyed Japanese boy.

The character designs also distinctly bring me back to the era where everyone was trying to be Square Enix. Sega had already been doing particularly well rendered CG scenes but the over designing of Helen especially hits home how games like Sonic 06, Twilight Princess and so on probably took on these traits to catch up with the popularity of final fantasy and Kingdom Hearts to some extent. Helen's playthrough unlocks the artbook and I'm a little sad I'm missing some pieces as the art is fun to look at in all its crunchy glory.

I didn't grow up with the original Nights but the second game definitely came out when I was Will and Helens age which is funny to say since I always perceived myself older than characters like them. Now that I'm an adult I definitely look to the very gender Nights who's playful and essentially a disappointment to their parents in more honor. My first experience with this series was the lovingly rendered key art plastered on Nintendo Power which was possibly also my first one. I remember being enchanted by the reflection in night's eyes. All the more funny to see how old the graphics feel even for the Wii era in comparison to that cover art. But I loved every moment of Nights being almost a fun loving big sibling and annoyed at the idea they should play their role for wiseman.

That being said and it could be because we played Will second, there is like, an air of sexism with Will and Helen. I read up that Nights had some intent for the original kids to represent the masculine womanhood and the feminine manhood and while the clothing they wear or the interests they have represented in their worlds being so gendered isn't as much my issue, the narrative value is. Helen gets the short end being that she is made bad for doubting Nights like Will did but where Will overheard Nights was a nightmaren and was comforted by the owl, Helen hears this from Reala who also paints Nights as on the nightmaren side. It felt a little off equating these two experiences as the same. Nights also only fights Reala in Will's dreams. And while they gave a recent reason for Helen struggling in Will's more straight forward dungeon, there was an ick that Helen was always the one to fall in gameplay to be saved by Will. Like I said I was the one actually playing either so my experience in that is a little limited but Tonio did point out that Will did things on his own in Bellbridge that Helen needed Will's help for. It seems to suggest Helen can't stand on her own and that just sucks.

Considering the in spiritual successor, Balan Wonder world, gave it's female lead no active factor like previous protags (a sport or physical hobby) in a game about theatrical performance, it seems to be a worsening issue. A full tangent on that but if you give the male lead the role of a dancer then why not make the girl a singer???? The other half of theatrical performance????? So weird.

[tomyo]

I know I suddenly posted a lot of backlog adventure stuff back to back haha but just a little lore building here. I felt some energy to actually try games after the rush of playing KH3. At the same time, games are hard alone bleh.

Next week though, I'm briefly staying with a friend who I might try to play through with on Sonic Riders and Nights. Last year when I visited him, I brought my Dreamcast down and we went through Jet Set Radio on it so this is the next playthrough together I guess hahaha.

I would of liked to play more Dreamcast games soon, however a lot of mine don't actually work at the moment. Shenmue and Sonic adventure need to be polished which is big oof anxiety and to a much less extent, Cooking Mama cook off. Might even trade that one in to be real. I think it'd probably be the most fun for us to one day attempt a Dream Cast Binge together. Shenmue will certainly be....a heavy meal of a game and other games like Time Stalkers and Space Channel 5 would just be fun with friends. I might even bring the 360 at some point so I can force him to do Free Riders with me too hahaha.

In general since basically buying every Harvest Moon game out there (as I write this I may or may not be getting grand bazaar and hero of leaf valley 💀) my attention jumped to my Sonic collection. Basically my biggest gap is with Wii era games surprisingly. When I was in elementary to early high school I was pretty big on the games and bought a lot of them for the sub $15 the GameCube ones cost at that time. There is a distinct pain over the fact the copy of Adventure XD I had I had to return for being to scratched given the prices now and for personal reasons, there's someone who I've wanted to be the one to give me their old copy of even though it won't ever happened hahaha. My biggest desires right now are to get my hands on Black Knight but I've also wanted a 360 copy of Unleashed, Generations, Zero Gravity, and Shadow the Hedgehog. Rush adventure and Shuffle also catch my eye but my wallet hurts enough as is. I really need to stop getting into game collecting.

Part of the reason to bring Sonic up is also because I'll probably be playing a replay of Sonic 06 with the friend who leant me his PS4. He apparently never played it but wants to and I love just... Backseat gaming rather than actually playing. Hahahah. Games can be magical but art takes up too much time in my life now. The switch has been helpful for my more on the go lifestyle these days but I often still run short on free time. Even now Ive been wasting work hours to do KH3 this past weekend.

I guess my final little ramble is back to my HM collection. God it's kinda scary how many games I had suddenly bought at once. I keep meaning to play but I know they're the kinda games I have to secretly dedicate a lot of time towards. If I do end up getting the two aforementioned with my recent impulse gets, I've pretty much achieved most major versions of the game. My biggest other missing ones probs come down to the Og Story of Seasons, A version of Back to Nature, and the FoMT remake. Another wonderful life is on there but I'm starting to question my need for that one when I hate all the bachelors which I'm required to marry. Overall though I've reached what feels like a pretty doable conclusion from all of those.

Playing them however.....is a separate case hahaha. I had briefly started a AWLSE run which I might try to pick up, I want to return to Animal Parade as well over the winter, and a Save the Homeland run should??? Be quick??? I just started a my little shop attempt which is a pretty pick up and put down game so I will likely do that daily with Animal Parade when I play that. Overall I think my biggest scare is the handheld games. They should be easier but they feel harder. I want to do A New beginning the most but the game mechanics are daunting. The DS cute Skye playthrough might end up being the better choice from those right now. Which leads me to question how long will I take to go through all those games since I haven't been playing them over the years like they were meant for.

I think if I do go through end of the year as I intend to, recovering from surgery, I will try to go through a bunch of them.

[tomyo]

Kingdom hearts 3, finally finishing it 4 years later

A game I honestly didn't think would be off this list for a while. I bought the game when it came out and then never finished it because I was using my roommate's PS4.

Recently a friend lent me his PS4 now that the PS5 exists and after months of con season I finally sat down with it. I had intended to start from scratch until I learnt the several hours I played on the guest account where erased and my sanity would not allow several hours of tutorial again.

In the end, I bought a psn membership and reached out to that old roommate which was a nice experience. I missed them but have always just been to much in my bullshit to reach out until apparently *this*.

Maybe the funniest thing to say about all of this is this is my first and only time I've played a kingdom hearts game meaning my gameplay expectations were average. I had a goofy fun time after not having to play Olympus a third time and I relate to smooth brained Sora a lot, vaguely I get what's going on but I don't give too many shits. Yeah the start of the key blade war was a mess but my little gay ass cried at every XIII trio and co moment. That ending CG cutscenes was too short but I could easily wax on about how these characters have constantly sacrificed and gone through tragedy often in the name of each other and the hope that those in front of them could move forward. The prequel trio went through tragedy, the main trio constantly just out of reach from each other, the XIII trio stuck in an amnesiatic limbo and so forth. The fact most of them got to literally do fun kind shit together was a nice miracle.

Also bawled at the union cross cameos even though I barely played it. I love tragedy and I did earlier this weekend stop to let my avatar cry scared at their own death in the middle of war so the idea that maybe some actual users got to see their names on screen attacking the enemies but hard. Even though I haven't played the series, it's a permanent part of my life just from the cultural zeitgeist it caused in my adolescence. I wish they gave it more impact if anything but I get it, it wasn't something everyone was for.

Obviously though the biggest issue is Kairi per usual. Utada's song are sort of like a thematic tone to each chapter in the series with a theory that Kairi's designs being inspired from Utada's image at each point. Chikai is not just a love song but a wedding song, the progression from an immature and insecure relationship in the first one to one stubbornly proclaiming it's now or never with your devotion to me. It's a song meant to stand at the end of everything, it's someone waiting for you to meet them in the distance. I remember desperately trying to avoid spoilers for these past four years but being suggested from what I couldn't avoid that Kairi had proposed marriage to Sora at the end. It's also usually Kairi who gets a lot of attention in the CG openings and endings. The natural idea of this all is that it's sealing the idea of Sora and Kairi recognizing each other as a couple and potentially a maturing relationship from when they were children even though like, I don't even think two years have passed in world??? Either way she gets worse than nerfed at the end. You don't get to play as her, she doesn't get to do A N Y T H I N G aside from being said to still believe in Sora and be his emotional angst. And then she is kidnapped and killed. The worst is it failed to make it matter to me. The are a lot of reasons why everything with Kairi just did not hit any emotional level whatsoever as a Kairi stan. Riku had more romantic tension with himself on the beach honestly. And yes, I acknowledge there was literally a gay rainbow bonded key blade. I didn't really ever ship anything with kingdom hearts but I now believe in Sora and Riku I guess. Also the old dudes probably making out. Yeah, wasn't even pissed at that anticlimactic heel turn with the big baddie. Side note, buying the game was 100% worth it to have the immersive experience of Goofy and Donald call out for my from the controller. A+. Just, man, Kairi was more blank than wood this game despite them trying to say she was important. I think for a series so central on the bond of it's trios, keeping her out of the main fights was such a bummer.

Also I am not paying $30 for the dlc when I have already given the game $70+ of my money. I will absolutely watch a video of that instead.

Either way I'm happy I can finally watch videos that sat in my YouTube watch later since 2019 and I happily look forward to KH4. Bitches who know me know I'm a sucker for Shibuya and honestly I should have bought the world ends with us in the ds when i had the chance. Might come on my lists because street style is so big in that game.

With that one of the two most intensive games on this list can be crossed off. The other being GTA 5 but I also don't really plan to jump on that anytime soon. More concerned with playing the Kinect games on my 360 lmao.

[tomyo]

Animal Crossing Wild World Part 1

While going through this game backlog, naturally wild world is a hard one to decide a relative level of completion at. The goals of this really isn't as much to complete these game as so to just get enough of the experience out through them. Wappy Dog for instance was a pretty much one session situation. Wild World meanwhile is meant to be played in longer goals so I have to make those goals. I think the main focus will end up being to finish the museum which is something I've never committed to before New Horizons. So lets see my overall goals:

Finish the museum's fish, bug, and dinosaur sections

Attempt to finish the paintings section

Fully Upgraded Nooks

Full Boondox Coverage

Fully Upgraded house

In the end, I think the thing I will end up focusing on most is the museum and probably the boondox coverage. I think it'd also be fun to try and fully deck myself out in rainbow wear so add finding the rainbow shirt in there.

Obviously since this game is meant to be played slow, I imagine I'll also take the longest with this one.

[tomyo]

Pokemon Snap

For years now this had been one of those games I decided I'd buy for virtual console. I don't really see myself as a collector of games but the problem is is you fall into game collecting by virtue of wanting to enjoy an experience. Snap was one of those games I knew I'd be annoyed with if I didn't own and overall I've tried to avoid more consoles in my life. Outside of handheld consoles, I already live my life with a Dreamcast, Gamecube, PS2, Wii, Xbox 360, Wii U, and now Switch. I know for a lot of people that isn't a lot of anything but I do have a ridiculous amount of other collections, lots of odd electronics and old school toys and and figures and pokemon merch and an ungodly amount of books. Which in itself isn't actually that much when you see how people collect those things but fuck it, I am an independent artist who lives majorly in a 10x10 ft space. As much as I'd love to own a special edition 64, I try to keep my ownership to a minimum which is ironically why I bought my Wii U last year. It just takes up less space and gives me more right now. To be honest I still regret not buying snap on the wii when I had the chance for the sake of the wii board feature but oh well.

The actual game itself I'd say gives for what its worth. As suggested, I didn't actually grow up playing this game and by now it finally got the sequel everyone was screaming for it to be on with the Wii U. Honestly I think there was a lot missed that it in fact hadn't ended up on the Wii U. I don't think it'd be surprising to say based on the list of games in this backlog adventure that I'm much more involved with handheld than home consoles. Even most of my Wii U usage is through its screen. In some ways systems like the Switch have been a great means to catch up on a lot of those games I've missed growing up because it's often the grounding to a TV that stops me from playing many of them.

At the same time I've come to realize a flaw when it comes to the size of graphics now. Would I have played Snap if it wasn't basically handheld on my wii u? No, probably not. Is it an enjoyable experience from the handheld? Kinda also not. I think I could've made it a more engaging experience if I had been playing it on a large tv. Imagining what it would have been like if I had done so all this time or what it would've been like playing as a kid with a tube tv just sounds so much much more appealing.

Currently I'm not really invested in playing beyond the cave level. The biggest thing is knowing some photos aren't good enough to unlock more in it but I can't save the photos I've taken outside of the game. I adore the photo of Jigglypuff I've taken but I'm aware there are higher scoring photos I could take to progress. Again if I could've saved these photos outside of the game I wouldn't be as heartbroken as I kind of feel. In hindsight, the wii u one is the worst port for being the only one that can't allow it.

Outside of that, the experience is fun and easy to pick up. There's just things in my head now telling me how much more I likely would have loved it if I had played it when I was younger. Not as much to say it isn't an enjoyable adult experience as much as how used I am now to smaller screens. Might keep this in mind when playing earthbound and go for playing it on my docked switch more than through the 3ds copy I bought.

[tomyo]

Hometown Story

The expectations of this game can be summarized as C grade ds game to awkward mobile game era game to one of those games that they really mean it when it takes time to warm into.

Given my years with Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, I was genuinely expecting a much more in depth experience but came to an admittedly mid experience. When you find out it was also released on iphone with minimal downgrade, it suddenly makes it clear why I was able to buy a sealed copy for $4 . It isn't bad, it's a different focus and while admittedly too bare bones at the start, once I found a good gamefaqs guide for event triggers I found my rhythm. You really don't have to do much in the game, walk around, pick up everything you find, maybe buy some stuff from the village but definitely come to buy from the 2pm merchant, and stop in your shop to check a bunch of people out every so often.

Things I wish I better knew starting out:

Your tables are not limited, the game has you start out by just dropping one down but you can in fact immediately put more down. My dumb ass went in game weeks with just one item for sale awkwardly waiting around for someone to want it thinking I had to desperately wait for the merchant to have more.

The day doesn't start till you open your shop so if you want to reorganize a little first, do it at 6am.

Sometimes events are triggered by putting up key items to be sold on shelves. I didn't want a rando to buy it but the won't. However, also put it into unreachable corners since you won't need to restock those shelves often. I would definitely cross check guide info on what items go to what event if you dgaf about spoilers like me because sometimes you'll get them for characters you haven't even met yet which takes up valuable space. Then there's ones like the masterpiece which might require in game months of sitting around for their event to trigger.

Fill your store with fruits and sewing kits initially as some characters require that for unlock.

ALWAYS. BUY. WOOD. I was so used to wood being such an easy resource but this game has made it hell for me to wait to get 5 pieces. It can only be bought from the merchant and while he stocked it often at the start, suddenly he never had it. I'm making so much money but I'm stuck on level two because of not having wood.

Thus far I've gone a 12 hour playthrough probably with some gratuitous pausing to read several half finished sources to know that I'm supposed to do. I'm the type of person who like to tailor a guide for my HM style games so my ADHD doesn't overwhelm me trying to keep up with all the tasks so having a lot of very barren wikis and gamefaqs is stressful to say the least. It's been more of a game of patchwork this time. Speaking of said ADHD, the point was I'd say I've made it about half way through the story. I'm at a very awkward point where I feel like I've finished some quest lines while still not having met some pivotal characters to the story. So far I think I'm missing 7 story based characters. It is pretty annoying that the cutscene activation is fickle, I'll follow everything but sometimes it just won't activate that day. I'm barely one month through and I'd even say it's possible to see that whole game in just that one month, maybe two at most but its dependent on things you can't control. Multiple items sit on my shelf waiting to introduce a character to me for weeks in game while I had two item based cutscenes for a character back to back. I mean like literally the moment I placed the next item down after having watched the first. The imbalance in that can only make me think I might end up getting stuck in a slow down after this point.

I personally would like to see the story through if I can. I've been mostly playing this while sick at this point so I've had the time to rip through it.

I think the most unexpected thing about it is how the scenes kind of actually stick with me. As a long time fan of the series, I feel like I've always had a surface level relationship with villagers in farm games. I would say older ones give relatable struggles but don't get too deep into them, maybe even the closest being A Wonderful Life but that's a series I consumed as a kid when a lot of things went over my head and admittedly a lot of my backlog is just catching up on a series that admittedly, looks to have gotten extremely fluffier as it went on. Olive Town has not been that deep. I think one of the bachelors has a somewhat deep plot but since I'm not romancing him, I'm just off with my horsegirl girlfriend having cute dates and befriending the locals when I'm not drowning in makers. And then on the other hand theres Stardew Valley which for some reason only hit me in the last year how like, all the townspeople are just as terrible as the villians.

Maybe that's a stretch but it slapped me in the face when I realized the reason why I spent so much time on my farm was because a lot of them had pretty unlikable traits. So in all the places to feel emotionally invested, I did not expect the half baked spinoff to be it. Yet something about how the mayor and his wife are actually kinda cute with each other or how the mayor's wife coyly has an unaging friend wanting to bring her puddings, or the kinda real moments where the fisherman and the girl from the sea are clearly in an intimate moment and I'm let to realize this isn't even a rival moment like it would've been in some other game. This is it, you are irrelevant to the relationships these characters have.

I think maybe there was some really good power to that. The fact that it seems intentionally most of the romancible npcs are the last characters to arrive in town (two still have not moved in for me) but that you aren't in control of the relationship and can't even date till after the main storyline I think is actually a function that would benefit it's parent series. Imagine a Bokumono where you spent the majority of the time focusing on your farm, building the relationship you have with the town, and saving the day (the town, the harvest goddess, the farm etc) and then after all that some of the friends you met turned out to be people who might like you as more than that. I get why the formula is what it is, this series started in the 90s as a simple 'work hard and raise a family' type of life sim narrative and while it's been modernized that's still at its core but when we talk about franchise shake ups, I could see this being a really good one. I think to some extent people look at the marriage candidates as a check list goal rather than characters to bond with and sometimes that dating check mark even made me not really associate with other villagers outside of benefit. I can't say I'm still not doing that to some extent but the fact the character cutscenes are the progression checks has some satisfying merit to them. I can't ignore the village anymore and it's made me appreciate the characters beyond their benefit to my part in the story. How do I put this, I like the idea of being with Reina in PoOT because I like the idea of her with me and it also feels wrong that she's the only person in the whole town who lives in a basement and I could change that. I only ever saw Rick as an absolute dick as a kid because well he was but also out of some competition to win over Karen and I could never understand why she would go for him. In games like Animal Parade, I'm debating my spouse based off of what kids they'd have moreso in the way I'd miss out on content rather than think about how those characters work with each other or why they'd like each other at all. But hell, again I see this fucking probs a mermaid and fisherman and the way he's bothered she likes being with him and its like okay wow fuck, I'm feeling things for these baby faced sprites.

So like yeah, this was low key working up to talking about the big spoilery plot twist that they kill the local boy. He's literally every generic child boy character to exist in one of these games. He's excitable and adventurous and like, I acually hate kids y'know? But fuck if they didn't masterfully try to fuck with your heart to grow attached to him. Of course they use him for a bunch of like, early level questlines. He's basically a tutorial kid but then the town starts to expand and he gets some fellow snot nosed kids in town, a girl he likes and a 'in the shadow of my manly dad' best friend and y'know conveniently he's always there in storylines. His mother has a few about her restaurant and he's there fucking up making a sign because he's a hyper and excitable 9 year old or something. His sister is interested in medicines so one of those episodes revolves around him. Pretty much everything related to his Peter being sidekick to his grizzled shonen warrior dad has him chilling in the background as well or if there's a crowd around some newcomer of course he's apart of it. I applaud how well they probably actually fucked with the few who played this who then had to deal with a dead kid. Digs up a whole bunch reading The Bridge to Terabithia as a teen.

Like I said, I'd love to make it to that point if the spread of content last well. I don't think I'll play much after this weekend of the game if I don't but I'd say in the end $4 is worth the experience I got.

At first the town looks garishly barren. I still can't fully say it looks good either. A lot of areas start to get a couple of houses in it as it goes on and it really changes a lot though I feel the Town Square needed some much more in it. The map is confusing as hell and the fixed angles are nauseating at first but I've mostly worked out a rhythm. It was hard to stick through it this far if I'm honest but I think it was worth it.

[tomyo]

Tomyo Plays Big Brain Academy

To be real, this is the most recent game I got my hands on (2 days ago from when I wrote this, march 31) and it was mostly because of 2 things, 1. I thought it was a game with miis in it like the Wii version I've owned (and I'm collecting mii games) and 2. It was $3 with the og box.

A lot of the touch generation series is still easy to get complete in box for cheap and I like to because I find it an interesting series. However, I wasn't ready for how bare bones this one was.

The first thing I did was empty all the previous users. Rip guys.

Starting a new experience seemed amusing at first but then that all ended pretty fast. I was given the introductory test which maybe this wasn't the smartest to pick up in the midst of ongoing insomnia spell.

Still managed to do better than the previous players but then that was pretty much the end of the results.

The game never shows your results again and all you can do is practice or test again with no measure for improvement... So yeah that's pretty much it for this guy. 😅

[tomyo]

Tomyo's Backlog Adventure preamble

So like, over the past few years it's been hard to play games what with art school and work. The problem is I kept buying games due to scarcity with things like the 3ds/wii u eShop closings or a sudden burst of buying a certain series before the prices went wild or were wild due to the pandemic spending.

What has happened is now I have a lot of games I owned but never properly played. Most egregiously is my new Harvest Moon collection. It's like what, 17 unplayed games? So in an effort to play the games I own. I am listing a specific backlog and trying to get through all the game on the list. Sometimes talking and sharing images from them too.

Part of the hope with this is I don't spend /more/ money on games during this adventure however since starting it earlier this year I have definitely failed hahahah. Either way you can look through the tag to see what my thoughts are on the games I'm playing for some reason.

[tomyo]

Street Pass Mini Game Special

I truly love my 3DS. Even though I came in to owning one a lot later than everyone else, it's been something I've loved deeply. From themes to kisekae plates to the virtual console IR to AR, I really love exploring the full functionality of the system. At some point I'd probably start a series on other functions of the 3DS but today I wanted to focus on the beloved street pass!

So yes, I did buy ALL the street pass dlc when I hear the shop was closing and it's....an experience to say the least. This has given me the chance to go through them however! So let's go!!

Puzzle Swap

I loved this one a lot when I started using my 3DS. Collecting is definitely a brain activator for me. Admittedly though when they updated to multiple pieces getting collected, it was a lot healthier of a job. Right now, I sit extremely frustrated since my current memory card only shows the standard puzzles and not the ones added over time. I know at one point I was at least to one final puzzle needing filling so now I sit frustratingly finished but not really finished on it.

Find Mii 1&2

Find me was where I truly put more of my attention and also equally frustrating at one point in time as I rarely got passerbys and mostly relied on hires mercs. The biggest struggle was I got my 3DS after I moved back to the suburbs meaning I no longer had the benefit of living in a city or it's huge campus. By the time I did move back to city living, I went to a much smaller school at a time where the switch was about to be released. Sometimes I think back to watching my friends get to play Animal Crossing New Leaf and Pokemon X & Y(which I actually like) with a little bit of envy. There's the tug and pull that I went to a lot of cons at than time and could afford it because I was frugal or how getting an og 3DS likely would've stopped me from getting my beloved new 3DS but sometimes it sucks that I didn't shell out the $180 or so to be apart of all that. The 3DS was probably more of a kawaii golden era staple than any other system could have been and just little things like this suddenly come to mind.... Wait wasn't I supposed to be talking about the games? Ah yes, I truly love the two find Mii games. I think they're extremely fun and you can see the way they paved the path for Miitopia. I still have yet to collect all the rewards you can get partially because of that whole tangent issue but hopefully if I start to walk around with it more I can regularly beat the game. I've started to bring my 3DS to cons and now even own a second one after a lucky find so regular street passing is more common for me!

When it came to the next games, you had to pay for them in I believe $15 increments. Either two to three packages where available alongside the premium upgrade which allowed you to have a longer queue and one additional features. Each game also has a guide character for the stories.

Slot Car Rivals

This was the game I selected from the free choice when they offered that up for the game releases. You race against passers to try and progress and build up your car. If I'm honest I don't get this one much. Your guide character is a race team assistant.

Market Crashers

If somehow you can still get this one I'd choose it of the free choice. You get to do capitalism simply put with more passers equalling better predictions on stock shares going up or down through a session. The gameplay per a session is really short once it starts but I find it fun thus far. Basically rapidly hitting by or sell to make more money as quick as possible. There's also art assets to grab up and hold onto. I definitely get excited at chances to play this one. Your guide character is a reddit looking business man.

Feed Mii

Another concept I really like. You essentially grab ingredients and try to cook the best meals possible for your passers who are going out on quests. Do good and you get good reviews from their success. Sadly also really short gameplay overall. While you're encouraged to try cooking more before ending a session, the gameplay can feel a little to quickly done. Your guide character is a cozy male cook in a bandana.

Ninja launcher

Another extremely quick gameplay session one. You're trying to match up passers to be in your shooting path as they'll give you equipment to fight an enemy but you have a time limit to try and get the most ideal shot. Once you fight the target the session is over. Your guide character is a Yamato nadeshiko ninja.

Mii Trek

This one reaks of edutainment in the best way. Each passed adds to the amount of traveling you can do as you lead an expedition for treasure and find real life animals along the way. It's not fully my cup of tea but I like the journey you get to take being a longer and more complicated game session than the previous ones. Your guide character is a toucan straight out of the 90s era gif graphics.

Mii Force

Another longer game. You're in a classic side scrolling shooter with each passed equating to being a weapon with variation based on shirt color. Its sometimes even a little challenging for me. At points I even feel a bit frustrated because enemy shots aren't always clear on the screen noise but that also means I'll have more reason to come back to it as I progress through it. Your guide character is a robot captain.

Flower Town

One of my favorites and one I was really excited to finally get to play. You raise and breed flowers to create a plethora of breeds. I like anything that involves raising so this one spoke to me a lot. That being said it goes pretty slow hahahah. Your guide character is this calming older dude with glasses.

Warriors Way

I remember my best friend talking good of this one and I do enjoy it. Your troops are your total street passes and then most passer's numbers will also be added to yours which you then use to conquer other nations. Because I started so late I started off with a sizable 900+ and then a few thousand from others joining me. However I did run into a monster army I would of had to of challenged but I was too overwhelmed by the size. The battles are rock paper scissors but with the right number and it letting you know the win outcomes, it can be doable without ever losing. Your guide character is a butler.

Monster Manor

You're stuck in a mansion and collect essentially Tetris pieces that turn into halls to help you discover the stairs to help guide you up to freedom. You also occasionally fight ghosts. I don't know how to put it has more meat of a game but it doesn't hold my attention as much. Your guide character is a tiny girl who you employ (I promise I don't mean it in that way but she's a loli type)

Ultimate Angler

You fish various species with bait you receive from your street passes. It’s even local to your area based on how you registered yourself. To catch certain fish you need the right bait which is based on the color of your street passer’s shirts. When I had a lot of street passes pulled up it was pretty fun but it’s not as great when you struggle to get the right bait. I also wish you could change areas and save bait for new locations but sadly you have to use it all at once. When you get back you can stick the stuff you caught in an aquarium and sometimes get new rods which I haven’t explored much yet. You guide character is a bikini clad girl who runs the desk.

Battleground Z

The final of them is a zombie brawler where passers give you weapons or fight with you. I'm not a big fan of beat em ups so I'm a little sad I'm not a huge fan of this one. Sad because you're guide character is a blonde, Bayonetta looking onee-san.