An Octave Higher

A spoiled and selfish noble unlocks their empathy and compassion through being forced to interact with the proletariat and discovering more about their world.  The game is a visual novel which signals, at each choice, whether it's increased your relationship with another character.  Am I talking about Cinderella Phenomenon or An Octave Higher?  Trick question, it's both.  The biggest difference is that Cinderella Phenomenon is based around fairytales while An Octave Higher is more politic.  It still takes place in a fantasy world, but a major focus - especially in the journey to the true ending - is the difference between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.  In some ways, this theme is handled well, for example, we see through the eyes of someone of each class, and someone more inbetween, which is a straightforward way to grasp this society on a wider scale.  In other ways it is handled badly, for example [Spoiler Alert] as in the "true" ending, when the former proletariat convinces the leader of the rebels that the poor should work their way out of poverty - completely ignoring that fact that this has been shown to be impossible for the vast majority, and she only got out due to a massive amount of luck combined with a skill she gained only due to her former life as a member of non-proletariat family.  [Spoiler Over].  That said, for the most part, it's an enjoyable journey.  I feel like the creators bit off more than they could chew, which is why the endings are unsatisfying and don't adequately address the questions raised, but the game overall is still pretty good.  Not as good as Cinderella Phenomenon.

I've owned the game for a while, but played it now because Steam encouraged me to with a spring event.  I'm a sucker for a badge.  I also started playing Science Girls!, for the same reason.  I'm still working my way through the Dark Parables series, and I just finished the first Crystal Story game, so I'll play the sequel soon.  I'm still playing Octopath Traveler and the Phoenix Wright trilogy, and I started Tales of Symphonia, so I'll probably only play shorter games until I'm done with one or more of those.

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.