These are the Weeks of Our Games – 01/25/2009

Another week and even more surprising than the ever passage of time, another completed game. I’m making pretty good progress this year and I don’t even feel like I’m taking a hit to my social life. Time management is really key.

And what a better way to feel better about managing one’s time than finishing a game that was started over two years ago. That’s when Final Fantasy 6 Advance got into my  hands and while I had ample of time, I often found myself getting distracted from this game. My main goal was to get through the bonus content, but after that I decided to go ahead and finish the game off. Didn’t take too much time as by going through the bonus dungeon I found my characters becoming quite powerful. The Dragon’s Den, the main bonus content of FF6a, featured not only a lot of puzzles and powerful enemies but surprisingly challenging boss fights. Not only did were there powerful high hit-point bosses, there was one who constantly stopped magic from being used, one who had to be destroyed by depleting its magic points and another who could not be damaged at all. There was a set amount of moves that it would do, and if you survived this hellish onslaught, victory was yours. A compelling collection of fights that really made me appreciate the Active Time Battle and really thirst for another one to play. Despite that, FF6a is being replaced by Phantasy Star 4 in my currently-playing games.

Dissidia has become my “play whenever I can on Saturday” game because, as the game asks for the day it will be played the most, it gives lots of bonuses that day. More bonuses can be purchased with “PP”. What that stands for I can’t recall, but as they are awarded every fight, let’s go with Play Points. Anyway, I was able to get a lot of my characters powered up, and I am currently on Tina’s quest which, once proceeded, should progress me onto something that I have not yet  unlocked. Quite excited. I noticed on the in-game calendar that I should be getting bonus Gil on Thursday, so perhaps I should make a note to boot the game up then. I find this to be a brilliant system for a game like this. Having these bonuses gives me that “gotta play a little bit every day” feeling, although right now the bonus days seem kinda slim. If they start coming in more frequently, that’d be pretty excellent.

Devil Survivor has been fairly neglected this past week, which is a shame because I am really enjoying it when I do sit down and play it. Thing is I tend to get it booted up right when I am laying in bed. The game has lots of dialogue, which I am enjoying, but lots of  Japanese text still tends to put stress on my brain and makes me feel sleepy. Still, a little bit every day and while there has been no major changes yet to the formula, I’m hardly far along enough to judge. That said, I’m still having a good time.

With FF6a out of the way now, I expect to get good work done in both PS4 and Devil Survivor this week. January and February seem to be fairly clear of any releases I really want, so I think I should be able to clear out at least another two games by the end of February, maybe more.