In 2021 I made a list of monthly games played to talk about with you fine folks. Last year I didn't, and I missed it, so I´m doing it again! I forgot to bring it up so far (oops), but I just finished Ys 9, as good a time to start as any! So, let´s start

I guess I'm at the part where the evil mastermind revealed he created a being superior to the gods themselves, and said being is about to be killed by 3 people with pointy sticks. World, get ready to be saved!

Come on people who make RPGs, monsters born out of humanity's evil was a nice idea the first 50 times or so, but maybe it's time to let it go and come up with something else?

I think Ys 9 would be a better game without the lvl 10 prison sections. Oh, and I'm struggling with some nasty bacteria, apparently. Well wishes welcome.

Anyone else rarely if ever gives a chance to RPG party members that only show up after your party is already full?

It seems the controversy turned Atomic Hearts into a best seller. Now it's being widely reported Ukraine will demand the game be banned, giving it even more publicity and raising the specter of "buy it while you still can". The devs must be thrilled.

Well, minutes into the game Ys 9 makes it clear this is going to be a dark game about dark things in a dark world with dark characters, a sharp departure in tone from the previous game. Let's see how it works out.

Ys 8 finished! Ending spoilers in the comments. An excellent game that finally turned me into an Ys fan!

Reached a psychedelic Ys 8 dungeon that's a maze of floating platforms that looks nothing like anything else in the game. Yep, this is a Japanese final dungeon alright. Hopefully it's not an annoying 3-hour long labyrinth.

Ys 8 spoilers.

If the subscription model becomes dominant in the games industry eventually (a big if, but hypothetically), would it fundamentally change how AAA games are designed? Perhaps they wouldn't feel compelled to add so much bloat for the sake of value.

Come on, Ys 8 don't make me go save the super obnoxious and annoying noble. At least ask me about it. I don't care if you punish me with a bad ending or whatever, I just want to let him die so bad. It doesn't help that I actually think he's... *spoiler*

Probably going to devote my gaming time the next 2 months to exploring the PS Extra Catalogue before the subscription expires. Tried Returnal despite roguelikes not appealing to me, was promptly reminded why they don't appeal to me, now trying Ys 8.

Finished Star Ocean 1. Cute little game, hardly a must play classic, but nice, if simplistic, game nevertheless, nice to see where it all began.

"This enemy is incredibly advanced and immune to all our advanced weaponry, our only hope is to round up a bunch of folks from a primitive planet who know how to fight with blades and sticks" Never change, Japan.

I might just end up finishing Star Ocean 1, which is a bit surprising considering the barebones story and characterization is typically a turn off for me, but I just fell into a groove in the gameplay loop. Button mash, level up, distribute skill points.

It never ceases to amaze me that people who live their entire lives online and know better than anyone else exactly how the internet works keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Case in point:

Playing through Star Ocean First Departure, the only one in the series besides the lastest one I've never played. I had low expectations, teen JRPGs no longer hold the same away over me, but I'm happy to say 10 hours in I'm still quite into it.

Browsing through the PS Extra Catalogue I came across World of Fantasy and decided to try it out. I don't know if it's got enough of a hook to keep my attention for dozens of hours, I'm finding myself less easily charmed in my old age, but so far so good.

What did you play this month? What did you finish, what was your favorite? I finished TLOU2, Wolfenstein 2 and Remnant From The Ashes. Surprisingly, my GOTM is a tie between TLOU2 and Remnant.

Wolfenstein 2 spoilers.

I can't believe it took me so long to check out Remnant From The Ashes. It's pretty good, I'm hooked! Anyone here still playing it? Or maybe it's been languishing in your backlog for years? I highly recommend giving it a shot!

Finally finished TLOU2. And boy, do I have thoughts and feelings to share.

Mild TLOU2 Spoilers.

Those TLOU2 sequences where Ellie gets the jump on people, then gives them long, huge, predictable openings to fight back just so she can kill them in dramatic fashion rather than execute them are ridiculous.

I can't use the Steam mobile app chat anymore, Steam decided to make it a separate app that can't log in to my account for some reason. Yay.

TLOUS2 spoilers in the comments.