Backloggin’ the Year – Sam’s Sojourn, July to September 2024

The last three months have been very busy on my end. Another Summer Reading Club is in the books, and I’m feeling much less stressed now that the kiddos are back to school. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Summer Reading Club, but it is also a lot of work and people. I had some adventures that kept me going, starting with a drag show for my birthday. I had the pleasure of meeting Sapphira Cristál, the runner-up on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16. She also sang happy birthday to me during the show which was a crazy moment that I will never forget.

I also had the pleasure of flying out to Alberta to celebrate my tenth wedding anniversary with my husband. We did some week-long hiking around the province, from the badlands in Drumheller to visiting Canada’s first national park in Banff. We hiked around Lake Minnewanka, to the forests within Kananaskis County. We made it to Troll Falls, but alas there were no trolls to meet. Waking up to the Rocky Mountains every day, and even hiking up Sulphur Mountain was an amazing experience. It’s a reminder of how important it is to spend time out in nature and embrace the world around you. Having adventures is important, no matter where you go or what you spend time doing.

But what did that mean for my gaming life? Well, I didn’t complete as much in my backlog as I would have liked, but I’m also not upset by this. We are moving into cooler temperatures, which means more time indoors with tea, blankets, and video games. I’m hoping to get to a few of my own games, particularly finishing up Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and trying to get to a few more 2024 releases before we begin prepping our Game of the Year feature.

As always for this feature, I’m only going to focus on the games I haven’t written articles or reviews about. If you would like to read more of my in-depth thoughts on those titles, check out the following:

• Adventure Corner ~ Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid
• Elrentaros Wanderings Deep Look
• Sand Land Review
• Stray Gods: Orpheus DLC Deep Look

The RPGs I Played

Persona 5 Tactica: The only RPG I played in the three months was Persona 5 Tactica. After I had finished Sand Land during our #JRPGJuly event, I decided I was craving something tactical, and I have to say, Tactica is an unexpected gem. I loved that the tactical elements had a puzzle element to them, I loved the small objectives for each battle and found myself determined to complete the list each time. Even the side jobs were a ton of fun. I loved the chibi-fied cast, and even the story was super engaging throughout. I truly hope we see another Tactica title in the future because this was a blast!

All the Non-RPG Goodness

Unlike the previous months, I did complete some non-RPGs. I found myself craving a point-and-click adventure game and realized I had Return to Monkey Island downloaded to my PlayStation 5. Unlike my husband, I didn’t grow up playing this series, so my exposure to them came when we started dating. I thought Return to Monkey Island was a solid entry into the series, as the humor is still entertaining, the puzzles are the right amount of challenging, and who doesn’t love little Boybrush? He is so cute! I think my favourite part of the game was attempting to bust Stan out of jail for his usual nonsense.

I also borrowed the Capcom Fighting Collection from work and ended up playing through all of Red Earth and Cyberbots. Red Earth feels like an RPG, even with the fighting game trappings. The characters level up and build skills, but I won’t lie, it was a difficult game to complete. However, playing a bit of history was neat, given that my only knowledge of Tessa’s character was from Pocket Fighter. Cyberbots, however, was just a bad game through and through. It’s neat to have a fighter with robots, and it’s neat that parts can break, but the game’s balancing overall is a mess, and while it is a part of Capcom’s history, I feel like it’s one that perhaps could have stayed in the vault instead.

Lastly, while I was in Alberta, I ended up playing through all of Princess Peach: Showtime! It was a bop, to say the least. It felt like Kirby-style dress-up time, where Peach had all these neat costumes she could put on, each with its own nifty abilities. I think my favourite costumes were Mermaid, Ninja, and Cowgirl. I feel like some of the powers and levels weren’t exactly equal, but I also cannot deny how creative and clever this game was. I hope in the future Nintendo gives Peach another chance to shine!

Whatcha Playing Now, Sam?

Autumn is my favourite season because it’s more time to get cozy and play many video games. Once I finish my current review assignment, I hope to go back to playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. At this point, I have just made it into Chapter 4, but honestly, I find myself getting distracted by all the interesting side content. I also may have gotten addicted to Queen’s Blood, which is not helping my progress. Even though I love playing all of the characters, I am a hardcore Aerith stan, so she often doesn’t leave my party. She is also just so stinkin’ cute. After I finish that, I am sitting on a pile of 2024 releases I’d like to get to before the end of the year. Whether I get to them… that is a different story.