My resolution is this: unless it starts with the words “Disgaea,” “Fire Emblem,” or of course, “Final Fantasy,” I’m not buying any more tactics games.  I’m done.  I never finish them, and they generally end up frustrating me, because I’m not very good at them.  They’re tricky, though, because they like to masquerade as the type of hyper-Japanese game for which I have a regrettable weakness.  What this ultimately means for my backlog is this: aside from weeding out a bunch of those games which didn’t make the cut (I’m not listing them all, but you can check out my backlog page if you’re really interested), I also stopped playing Ninjatown.  Ninjatown was great for the time that I continued to manage progress through it, and it almost made me forget that it was a strategy game because it was just so gosh-darn cute.  Eventually, though, the truth will out, and once I got to a particular stage that defeated me a solid dozen times in a row, I decided it was time for me to pack up and move on.  That’s about when I made my resolution, too, so there has been a noticeable reduction in backlog size as a result.

Okay, I have another confession to make.  I…. I sorta like Star Ocean.  Just a little, I swear!  It’s really pretty, and the battle system is addictive…. truth to tell, I’m a little afraid I’ll end up like I did with Tales, just playing in ridiculous chunks until my friends are worried about me.  I do have one complaint, though (well, aside from the voice acting, which is downright abysmal in a couple of cases…. Lymle, I’m looking at you), and it’s at least partially of my own making.  Right now, the game just seems really *easy*.  I don’t need for it to be cripplingly difficult or anything, but I’m beginning to wish I’d picked the next difficulty level up (I went with the easiest… yes, I know, cop-out, but after my last experience with the series, I wasn’t taking any chances).  As we’ve discussed before, I am a bit of a completionist, which often leads to me being a bit of a leveler, by necessity if nothing else, but I haven’t even really done that much of that, and I’m still tearing things apart with minimal effort.  This is a complaint you won’t often hear from me, but I find myself wishing it were harder (hehe, that’s what she said).

Upcoming will be Puzzle Quest: Galactrix as well as Resident Evil 5; the first I’m playing at the same time as my esteemed colleague, and the second we will be playing together, so it should be good times all around.  It’s good to have someone else to help you scream at things.

Recap:

Current backlog total: 109

Now playing: Star Ocean: The Last Hope (360); Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3); Puzzle Quest: Galactrix (DS); Resident Evil 5 (360)

New games added: Phantasy Star Portable (PSP); Avalon Code (DS); Resident Evil 5 (360)

Games completed: Ninjatown (DS); a bunch of strategy games (various)