The Banner Saga, Eternal Senia and Crystal Story I and II

For a while, I've been trying to play The Banner Saga. Right now, I have to say, it's not for me.  I've managed three hours of gameplay, and I'm just not having fun.  I don't get the battle system, I find it difficult and unrewarding.  The gameplay - which I gather is Trail to Oregon style - just isn't my kind of thing.  I find it hard to figure out where we are, what we're trying to do, and who all these people I'm talking to are and what they want.  I'll probably have another go in future - maybe on easy mode, after reading a few guides on battling - but, right now, I'm letting myself off the hook.

I also removed Eternal Senia from my Steam account.  It's a free game so I didn't actually lose anything, it just reduces my stress level a fraction.  I played it for about 5 minutes, and in those 5 minutes I found one completely-untranslated text box.  I get that the game is free, which probably means the devs had fewer resources - and might be literally one guy in his bedroom - so I can get over the overall low-quality of the text and translation.  But to just...forget to translate some of it entirely?  It's not the fact that it was one box, it was that it was one box I found within 5 minutes.  If it was that easy to find, that indicates that there probably more, and also that there was less than 5 minutes of playtesting to try to avoid the error.  At that point - especially when I'm grumpy anyway, which was definitely the case - I'm happy to give up.  It had great reviews, so I might come back to it later, but I also might not.  Who knows?

One game I'm not giving up on is Crystal Story II, which I own on Steam.  I played the first Crystal Story game on Kongregate in 2011, and I liked it enough to remember it fondly and to buy another game in the series.  I also own Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale, which has some links to the series.  The thing is, I don't want to play Crystal Story II because I don't remember the story of Crystal Story, so I'm currently replaying that. I'm also playing Octopath Traveler, the Phoenix Wright trilogy, and the Dark Parables series.  The next game on my list alphabetically is Bioshock Infinite, which I suspect will be another intensive, story-heavy game, so I'm not going to start that until I've finished a few more.  I'm still making progress on playing all my Steam Games, and the finish four games before I allow myself to buy one more game is still holding up.  I'm not going to copy my whole spreadsheet and list over again, but here are my stats.

Not Played	99	48.06%
Did Not Finish	42	20.39%
Completed	65	31.55%
Total Games	206

I officially submitted my last piece of degree coursework last week, and I've applied for a lab role for now.  There's a huge demand in the current crisis for temporary lab workers.  I'll still be applying for PhDs to start next year, while doing that.  For now though, this means I have nothing else putting demands on my time, so I hope to at least play and appreciate more of the games I own.

I made a tracker of how much I spent on my steam games and how much I've played them...

...and the results are a little embarrassing.  I knew I owned a lot of games I hadn't played - hence my new year's resolution to play some of them - but I didn't realise quite how bad it was.  Of the 188 games I own, I've completed around 29%, or 54 of them.  23%, or 44, I've played a little of, as in, I've at least downloaded and opened the game.  48%, or 90, I've literally never opened.  So, yeah, I should probably stop buying games.  I've also spent £949.88 since 2013, and played for 3,548 total hours.  That does mean the total cost over total hours of playing is 27p - which isn't terrible - but the mean cost is actually £3.14 per hour, which is.

Over the past few weeks, I've mostly been working on my final year lab report - which is worth 16% of my total grade over the four years, and so effectively decides my degree classification - but I have also been playing some games.  I finished Idle Evolution, a cute little game based around the periodic table.  You unlock extractors which extract atoms, and you spend those atoms on further upgrades, basically playing through the history of the universe and life on earth.  Unlike other idle games, there's no resetting for an increased overall bonus, and you can finish the whole thing in 24 hours (according to the steam achievement) if you keep the game active.  Annoyingly, that means in the foreground, not just open.  When it considers itself closed - either literally or in the background - the number of atoms drops drastically, and, even if it didn't, you can't store enough atoms to bother leaving it alone for too long.  It was a fun way of becoming comfortable with the periodic table.  I needed some chemistry to begin my degree (genetics), and some was required in first year, and I'd say that's about the level this game is - pre- or early university.

I also played an actual educational game, The King's Request.  That was a really fun little game - took me about half an hour, though I did replay the last half of the game to make sure I hadn't missed anything - and it was free.  To defeat enemies, you need to answer a quick question about their physiology.  There are a maximum of four answers and no penalties for getting it wrong, so you could just guess your way through.  It's really well put together, as a game, and I enjoyed playing it, despite my anatomy being less than my chemistry (some pre-uni and an optional module in first year, so theoretically the same, but I've needed to recall the knowledge less since).

I also completed Dark Parables: Curse of Briar Rose because I (correctly) predicted that it was short enough to play in one sitting.  I really enjoyed it.  I'm normally bad at point-and-click games, but this was at just the right level of mystery for me.  That said, my previous experience was in playing the Discworld 1 and 2, which are notoriously difficult, so maybe I'm not so bad.  Through I struggled with (and gave up on) Deponia, so...

Oh, I did finally complete the first Discworld game!  It's available for free online.  I followed a guide.

One of the issues I've been having with games - apart from being a compulsive buyer - is that I really like long, involved RPGs but, since starting my degree, I've not had the brain power free to focus on them.  I've replayed some that I'd finished before - FFX and X-2, FFIX, FFVIII, etc - but a lot of the time, I'd buy them, play for a little while, and then realise I didn't have the energy to focus on it long term.  That's why I didn't finish Alphadia Genesis before challenging myself to play all my games this year.  I'm still playing through the Phoenix Wright Trilogy, and I really like it's episodic nature, for reasons of following the plot.

Oh, I'm still playing my sims game, though slowly.  Since the christmas sale, I now own all of the DLC, so my total price for the Sims 3 is £190.50.  I have played it for 390 hours though, so my price per hour is 49p, and that will drop further over time.  So it's fine!  Oh, theoretically, I'm still playing the Banner Saga, but I've not opened it in a while.  I'm also replaying Anodyne just because I felt like it (but not enough to buy the sequel).

Game	Paid	Hours	Cost per Hour	Achievements	Status	Comments
7th Guest	£3.50	7.00	£0.50	NA	Completed
11th Hour	£3.50	8.00	£0.44	NA	Completed
13th Doll	£23.79	14.00	£1.70	NA	Completed
1bitHeart	£0.99	10.00	£0.10	100.0%	Completed
The 39 Steps	£1.09	5.00	£0.22	100.0%	Completed
About Love, Hate, and the Other Ones	£0.49	7.00	£0.07	NA	Completed
Alicemare	£1.39	2.00	£0.70	100.0%	Completed
Alphadia Genesis	£6.99	70.00	£0.10	100.0%	Completed
Amnesia: Memories	£7.19	30.00	£0.24	100.0%	Completed	Could not find purchase - price from Steam Store.
Analogue: A Hate Story	£4.68	5.00	£0.94	100.0%	Completed
Hate Plus	£6.99	7.00	£1.00	90.9%	Completed	1 achievement is impossible.
Anodyne	£0.69	20.00	£0.03	100.0%	Completed
Aveyond 3-1: Lord of Twilight	£1.39	20.00	£0.07	100.0%	Completed
BAD END	£1.04	2.00	£0.52	NA	Completed
The Banner Saga	£3.74	2.00	£1.87	28.2%	In Progress
Bioshock Infinite	£4.99	0.00	£4.99	0.0%	Not Played
Black Mirror I	£1.74	0.00	£1.74	NA	Not Played
Black the Fall	£0.80	0.00	£0.80	0.0%	Not Played
Blush Blush	£5.37	202.00	£0.03	84.2%	Ongoing
The Book of Legends	£1.09	0.38	£2.84	0.0%	Did Not Finish	I have no memory of this
Boundless	£0.80	0.00	£0.80	0.0%	Not Played
Braid	£6.99	16.00	£0.44	91.7%	Completed
Broken Age	£2.87	0.00	£2.87	0.0%	Not Played
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons	£2.74	0.50	£5.48	0.0%	Did Not Finish
Carpe Diem	£0.00	0.13	£0.00	50.0%	Did Not Finish	I have no memory of this
The Cat Lady	£7.19	0.20	£35.95	0.0%	Did Not Finish	I have no memory of this.  Could not find purchase, price from Steam.
Catherine Classic	£10.04	0.00	£10.04	0.0%	Not Played
Celestian Tales: Old North	£3.99	61.00	£0.07	100.0%	Completed
Children of Zodiarcs	£0.80	0.00	£0.80	0.0%	Not Played
The Chosen RPG	£0.39	12.00	£0.03	100.0%	Completed
Cinderella Phenomenom	£0.00	28.00	£0.00	100.0%	Completed
Civilisation V	£4.99	18.00	£0.28	7.7%	Completed
Confess My Love	£0.00	1.95	£0.00	100.0%	Completed
Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy	£6.50	0.30	£21.65	0.0%	Did Not Finish
The Crooked Man	£1.67	0.00	£1.67	0.0%	Not Played
Crush Crush	£27.21	582.00	£0.05	100.0%	Ongoing
Crystal Story II	£0.67	0.02	£40.20	0.0%	Did Not Finish
Crystalline	£3.74	0.00	£3.74	NA	Not Played
CUPID	£0.00	9.00	£0.00	100.0%	Completed
Cursed Treasure 2	£3.99	8.00	£0.50	56.6%	Did Not Finish	Completed on another platform
Dark Parables: Curse of Briar Rose	£2.44	5.00	£0.49	NA	Not Played
Deadbeat Heroes	£0.80	0.00	£0.80	0.0%	Not Played
Death and Taxes	£8.24	0.00	£8.24	0.0%	Not Played
Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten	£3.95	105.00	£0.04	63.3%	Completed
Degrees of Separation	£3.87	3.00	£1.29	50.0%	In Progress
Deponia	£0.69	0.72	£0.96	15.8%	Did Not Finish
Destiny Warriors	£0.13	0.00	£0.13	0.0%	Not Played
Dinner Date	£1.49	0.33	£4.47	NA	Completed
Disgaea	£14.99	89.00	£0.17	40.0%	In Progress	Previously completed on another platform
Disgaea 2	£3.74	0.00	£3.74	0.0%	Not Played
DLC Quest	£0.99	0.00	£0.99	90.9%	Completed
Doki Doki Literature Club	£0.00	14.00	£0.00	NA	Completed
DoraKone	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	NA	Not Played
Dream Daddy	£7.33	0.68	£10.73	0.0%	Did Not Finish
Dreamscape	£0.44	0.00	£0.44	0.0%	Did Not Finish
Désiré	£2.69	0.00	£2.69	0.0%	Not Played
Dysfunctional Systems	£0.99	0.00	£0.99	0.0%	Not Played
eden*	£4.49	0.00	£4.49	0.0%	Not Played
Elisa: The Innkeeper - Prequel	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	0.0%	Not Played
Emily is Away	£0.00	0.97	£0.00	100.0%	Completed
Eternal Destiny	£2.24	0.00	£2.24	0.0%	Not Played
Eternal Hour: Golden Hour	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	0.0%	Not Played
Eternal Senia	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	0.0%	Not Played
Everlasting Summer	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	0.0%	Not Played
EvilMaze	£0.79	0.00	£0.79	0.0%	Not Played
Evoland	£1.74	17.00	£0.10	100.0%	Not Played
Factorio	£21.00	3.00	£7.00	NA	Did Not Finish
Fear Effect Sedna	£0.80	0.00	£0.80	0.0%	Not Played
Final Bravely	£1.39	0.00	£1.39	NA	Not Played
Final Fantasy III	£5.49	3.00	£1.83	0.0%	Did Not Finish
Final Fantasy IV	£5.49	0.52	£10.63	1.7%	Did Not Finish	Completed on another platform
Final Fantasy Type 0	£9.99	1.03	£9.67	0.0%	Did Not Finish
Final Fantasy V	£5.49	0.00	£5.49	0.0%	Not Played	Completed on another platform
Final Fantasy VI	£5.49	0.00	£5.49	0.0%	Not Played	Almost completed on PS1, but never actually finished
Final Fantasy VII	£0.00	240.00	£0.00	100.0%	Completed	Gift
Final Fantasy VIII	£9.99	351.00	£0.03	95.6%	Completed
Final Fantasy IX	£7.99	148.00	£0.05	91.8%	Completed
Final Fantasy X/X-2	£19.99	499.00	£0.04	100.0%	Completed
Final Fantasy XIII	£5.49	0.38	£14.32	2.9%	Did Not Finish
Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition	£14.48	0.00	£14.48	0.0%	Not Played
Forget Me Not: My Organic Garden	£2.30	5.00	£0.46	11.4%	Did Not Finish
Forgotten Anne	£0.80	0.00	£0.80	0.0%	Not Played
Fox Hime Zero	£1.69	0.00	£1.69	0.0%	Not Played	Could not find purchase - price from Steam Store.
Fran Bow	£3.44	0.00	£3.44	0.0%	Not Played
Goetia	£3.39	12.00	£0.28	100.0%	Completed
Gone Home	£10.99	0.27	£41.21	0.0%	Did Not Finish	Could not find purchase - price from Steam Store.
Greyfox	£0.13	0.00	£0.13	0.0%	Not Played
Hatoful Boyfriend	£1.74	1.50	£1.16	0.0%	Did Not Finish
Helen's Mysterious Castle	£1.59	0.00	£1.59	NA	Not Played
Her Story	£2.99	0.00	£2.99	0/13%	Not Played
Hero Generations	£8.11	1.63	£4.97	0.0%	Did Not Finish
Heroine Anthem Zero	£6.49	0.00	£6.49	NA	Not Played
Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnorak	£0.00	0.17	£0.00	0.0%	Did Not Finish
House of Hell	£3.99	14.00	£0.29	93.3%	Completed
Huniepop	£1.74	132.00	£0.01	10.0%	Completed	Cleared achievements for replay
Huniecam Studio	£1.24	20.00	£0.06	100.0%	Completed
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1	£11.39	0.35	£32.54	2.2%	Did Not Finish	Could not find purchase - price from Steam Store.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sister's Generation	£11.39	0.00	£11.39	0.0%	Not Played	Could not find purchase - price from Steam Store.
I Love You, Colonel Sanders	£0.00	1.72	£0.00	NA	Completed
Idle Evolution	£3.49	31.00	£0.11	57.5%	Completed
The King's Request	£0.00	0.47	£0.00	NA	Completed
Labyrinthine Dreams	£0.99	4.00	£0.25	100.0%	Not Played
Labyronia RPG	£0.53	0.00	£0.53	0.0%	Not Played
Labyronia RPG 2	£0.53	0.00	£0.53	0.0%	Not Played
Lake of Voices	£0.00	1.02	£0.00	8.3%	Did Not Finish
Lara Croft GO	£1.99	15.00	£0.13	100.0%	Completed
The Last Remnant	£7.99	11.00	£0.73	NA	Did Not Finish
Last Word	£1.39	25.00	£0.06	0.0%	Completed	Cleared achievements for replay
Leaflet Love Story	£1.04	0.00	£1.04	0.0%	Did Not Finish
Legend of Mysteria	£0.53	0.00	£0.53	0.0%	Did Not Finish
Let's not stay friends	£2.31	3.00	£0.77	100.0%	Completed
Life is Strange	£3.19	0.67	£4.79	1.7%	Did Not Finish	Makes me very seasick
Lilly Looking Through	£6.99	0.32	£22.07	NA	Did Not Finish	Could not find purchase - price from Steam Store.
A Little Lily Princess	£10.99	6.00	£1.83	100.0%	Completed
Long Live the Queen	£4.19	19.00	£0.22	100.0%	Completed
Lucy - The Eternity She Wished For	£2.79	0.00	£2.79	NA	Not Played
Marie's Room	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	0.0%	Not Played
Material Girl	£0.47	0.00	£0.47	NA	Not Played
MEMENTO	£1.91	0.85	£2.25	NA	Not Played
Milennium - A New Hope	£0.47	0.12	£4.03	0.0%	Did Not Finish	I have no memory of this
Mirror	£1.69	0.00	£1.69	0.0%	Not Played
missed messages.	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	NA	Not Played
Monster Loves You!	£1.87	2.00	£0.94	28.6%	Completed
Moon Hunters	£4.99	0.00	£4.99	0.0%	Not Played
Moonchild	£7.67	0.00	£7.67	0.0%	Not Played
Ms. Splosion Man	£6.99	1.77	£3.96	8.3%	Did Not Finish
Mysterium	£0.27	0.97	£0.28	NA	Completed
Mystic Destinies: Serendipity of Aeons	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	0.0%	Not Played
A New Beginning - Final Cut	£0.79	0.00	£0.79	0.0%	Not Played
Notch - the Innocent LunA: Eclipsed Sinner	£2.37	0.00	£2.37	0.0%	Not Played
The Novelist	£1.09	0.00	£1.09	NA	Not Played
Oblivious Garden	£3.73	0.00	£3.73	0.0%	Not Played
Octahedron: Transfixed Edition	£0.80	0.00	£0.80	0.0%	Not Played
An Octave Higher	£2.24	0.00	£2.24	0.0%	Not Played
OCTOPATH TRAVELER	£24.99	30.00	£0.83	22.7%	In Progress
Oh My Godheads	£0.80	0.00	£0.80	0.0%	Not Played
One Way Heroics	£0.68	0.00	£0.68	0.0%	Not Played
ONINAKI Demo	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	NA	Not Played
Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy	£3.74	0.00	£3.74	0.0%	Not Played
Papers, Please	£3.49	0.68	£5.11	7.7%	Not Played
Phantom Brave	£2.74	0.00	£2.74	0.0%	Not Played
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy	£14.99	51.00	£0.29	70.0%	In Progress
Plague Inc: Evolved	£11.99	0.00	£11.99	0.0%	Not Played	Could not find purchase - price from Steam Store.
Pocket Waifu	£0.00	0.08	£0.00	0.0%	Did Not Finish	I have no memory of this
Portal 2	£3.74	0.18	£20.40	2.0%	Did Not Finish
PRICE	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	0.0%	Not Played
Princess Maker Refine	£3.26	0.00	£3.26	0.0%	Not Played	Completed on another platform
Princess Maker 2 Refine	£5.09	0.00	£5.09	0.0%	Not Played
The Princess' Heart	£3.99	6.00	£0.67	13.3%	Did Not Finish
PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness	£9.99	0.00	£9.99	0.0%	Not Played
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale	£2.59	7.00	£0.37	NA	Did Not Finish
Richard & Alice	£4.79	0.47	£10.26	0.0%	Did Not Finish
RPG Maker VX Ace	£52.99	24.00	£2.21	NA	Completed	Used to create a game to propose to my fiance
The Sacred Tears TRUE	£6.48	0.00	£6.48	0.0%	Not Played
Science Girls	£0.79	0.00	£0.79	0.0%	Not Played
Season of 12 Colours	£1.99	1.28	£1.55	100.0%	Completed
Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossoms	£2.99	6.00	£0.50	100.0%	Completed
Secret of Magia	£0.13	0.00	£0.13	0.0%	Not Played
Seduce Me the Otome	£0.00	5.00	£0.00	100.0%	Completed
Sentinels of the Multiverse	£0.27	0.70	£0.38	0.0%	Did Not Finish
Sepia Tears	£0.00	3.00	£0.00	36.4%	Did Not Finish	I have no memory of this
Shattered Hourglass	£6.47	0.00	£6.47	0.0%	Not Played
She Remembered Caterpillars	£2.69	0.00	£2.69	0.0%	Not Played
Silence of the Sleep	£0.38	0.00	£0.38	NA	Completed
The Sims 3	£190.50	390.00	£0.49	NA	Ongoing
Spyro Reignited Trilogy	£6.50	55.00	£0.12	74.3%	Did Not Finish
Spyro the Dragon					Completed
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage					Completed
Spyro: Year of the Dragon					Did Not Finish	Too much lag
Stardew Valley	£0.00	0.50	£0.00	0.0%	Did Not Finish	Gift
Stories Untold	£1.74	1.40	£1.24	23.1%	Did Not Finish
The Suicide of Rachel Foster	£11.24	0.00	£11.24	0.0%	Not Played
Sunless Sea	£6.24	9.00	£0.69	25.9%	Did Not Finish
Tailor Tales	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	0.0%	Not Played
Tales of Symphonia	£14.99	2.00	£7.50	5.1%	Did Not Finish	Previously completed on another platform
Tales of Zestiria	£9.99	0.00	£9.99	0.0%	Not Played
Ticket to Ride	£0.27	32.00	£0.01	62.7%	Completed
To Be or Not to Be	£0.99	0.00	£0.99	0.0%	Not Played
To the Moon	£1.87	5.00	£0.37	100.0%	Completed
Tokyo Dark	£0.80	0.00	£0.80	0.0%	Not Played
Trick & Treat	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	0.0%	Not Played
Trick and Treat - Visual Novel	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	0.0%	Not Played
TUG	£0.00	2.00	£0.00	NA	Did Not Finish	I have no memory of this
The Turing Test	£0.80	0.00	£0.80	0.0%	Not Played
Undefeated	£0.99	0.00	£0.99	0.0%	Not Played
Vagrant Hearts	£0.44	0.23	£1.89	0.0%	Not Played
Valdis Story: Abyssal City	£10.99	0.00	£10.99	0.0%	Not Played	Could not find purchase - price from Steam Store.
Valkyria Chronicles	£7.49	0.00	£7.49	0.0%	Not Played
Virginia	£0.69	0.00	£0.69	0.0%	Not Played
Voices from the Sea	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	NA	Not Played
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition	£3.49	0.00	£3.49	NA	Not Played
XOXO Droplets	£0.00	1.90	£0.00	5.6%	Did Not Finish	I have no memory of this
The Yawhg	£6.99	0.00	£6.99	NA	Not Played	Could not find purchase - price from Steam Store.
Your Dry Delight	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	0.0%	Not Played
Yume Nikki	£0.00	0.00	£0.00	NA	Not Played
Zenge	£0.00	9.00	£0.00	100.0%	Completed	Gift