Category: dragon quest xi

3-5 What Are You Playing?: Everyone’s A Gamer Now

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It seems like everyone is gaming these days. Just try and find a Nintendo Switch, good luck. I get it though, we have all this time on our hands and gaming is a great way to socialize with each other. Even if you’re not playing an online multiplayer game, there’s a sense of community because you’re playing a game that others have played. There are resources out there for you to seek out, videos to watch to learn tips & tricks, livestreams of people speeed-running the game. You’re not alone in playing a game. There’s a whole industry and community of people behind those buttons you’re clicking. And there’s a comfort in that.

I’m not super into online gaming. It’s not a thing I’ve really been about. I’m a solo gamer who likes to do my own thing. There are a bunch of reasons for this, but the main one is that I’m very idiosyncratic with my gameplay and I’ll play something for 3 minutes and decide I’m not in that mood and move on to something else. I don’t want to have to deal with another person and possibly hurting their feelings because my brain is weird and operates in its own distinct way.

I hope all of you are staying safe and surviving the quarantine. Be sure to practice safe social distancing. It does work, it does matter, and we are seeing progress.

Here’s what I’ve been playing:

  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons
  • Dragon Quest Builders 2
  • Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
  • The Outer Worlds
  • Hitman 2
  • Detroit: Become Human
  • Divinity Original Sin 2
  • Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

A hodge-podge of RPGs and crafting simulators. That’s just been the mood. Happy Gaming.

2-5 Going Back: Previously On LOST

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Returning to a game you haven’t picked up in months can be a frustrating experience. Outside of feeling disconnected from the narrative of whatever game you’re attempting to hop back inside of, you have also likely forgotten a number of other aspects of the game: controls, attack patterns of bosses, and where you are in the game (literally, somewhere on a giant map unsure of your next step).

DRAGON QUEST XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

I wish more video games took a page from television serials and provided a “Previously on…” kind of recap. Dragon Quest XI, which I’m currently playing does just this and it’s a brilliant addition to an already stand-out game. I am glad the developers recognized that in a game that is potentially 120+ hours long, that it might be useful to have a short recap while your game is loading, explaining that your character was last on this island battling this evil demon and your next goal is to find maguffin A so you can restore order to the blah blah blah.

What often happens to me when I return to an older game is that I start a brand new save, so that I can re-familiarize myself with the game’s narrative/controls and then once I feel like I’ve recalled enough of the game, I will hop back into my older save which has more progress.

I do also wish that outside of a “Previously on…” type of feature, that more games would allow you to replay the introduction/tutorial because that would basically solve the problem of not knowing how to play the game after so many months (or even years) of inactivity.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.