No Game New Year- Week 1

Hey Everyone and Happy New Year!

With the new year upon us, resolutions abound!  Many people make resolutions such as losing weight, eating better, or to stop reading the comments, but none of these really appealed to me.  So what did I decide was my resolution this year?  No buying any new games for one year, and I even have a support group for it.  No Game New Year is a group on Facebook started by Substance TV, (it's all his idea, I am but a mere participant) and it is very simple; go the entire year without buying a single new game!  I can still accept gifts and gift cards, but I cannot buy a game for myself.  For more details here's a video from the great SubstanceTV himself.  Since I cannot buy any new games, I must amuse myself with games I already own (which I assure you, are plenty, my steam library alone boasts around 200 games, some of which have never even been installed).  The plan is that every week I will post an update here about what games I'm playing and the progress I've made in each.  I've also created a google doc spreadsheet so I can keep track of what games I actually get done (or maybe even 100%) this year.  This will help keep me motivated as I do so love filling in forms such as this.  Feel free to keep track of my progress using the link above as well!  If you like to join in on the fun by all means join the facebook group.  So without further ado, here are the games I am currently playing and what I am up to in them.  I will try to keep the updates as spoiler free as possible, but I will by neccesity have to mention story locations at the minimum.

Final Fantasy 13-2

I picked up this game last year sometime when it was on sale for PSN+ members.  I got fairly far into it, but then something happened and I dropped it and never got back to it.  As someone who really didn't mind the first Final Fantasy 13, I find this game not quite as appealing story wise thus far, however I find the combat to be improved (I really like the "pokemon" mechanic).  I am not very far in, with Sunleth Waterscape 300AF being the most recent main story area I've finished.  I have however been working on a couple of side areas.  One of the things that is much improved in this game over the first is the fact that it is very non linear, which I enjoy.     

Pokemon X

As you can see by my completion spreadsheet, I technically finished this game a few weeks ago, however Pokemon is one of those games where finishing the main story is just the beginning!  Right now I've been working on breeding a competitive team and flushing out what my friends have in their friend safaris. (Check out my contact info for my 3DS friend code (be sure to send me a message somehow with your code so I can add you), I still have plenty of room for others that play Pokemon, especially if you have a ditto safari).  The main roadblock for me right now is the fact I don't have a friend with a ditto in their safari, which makes breeding difficult.  If I could get my hands on some 2IV dittos I'd be in great shape, otherwise it's going to be a long road.  I have also started working on getting my pokedex completed.  I'm basically going through each region by number and catching the pokemon I missed.  This is the first pokemon game I've played and I am having an absolute blast with it, there's just so much to do!  I have one person to thank for getting me into pokemon and that is RiptidePow.  He casts pokemon everyday, and does a lot of team building and viewer battles, so if you like pokemon you should definitely check him out.

Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

I can sum up this game with one word.  Nostalgia.  This LoZ entry takes place in the same world as the SNES game, and so it is very familiar to many of us.  I quite literally got nerd shivers when I heard the overworld theme play, it is so good.  I am really far into this game; I believe I only have one dungeon left, and I have admittedly been stalling on finishing it as I just didn't want the game to end.  I have now found out there is a "hero" mode which lets you replay the game in a harder mode, this will probably allow me to finish the game.  Link Between Worlds (LBW) is a bit different as far as how you obtain Link's tools.  In previous LoZ games you would go through each dungeon in order, obtaining the item needed to finish the puzzles within.  In LBW you buy all necessary items from a shopkeep "Ravio" before heading to your dungeon of choice.  This makes LBW very non linear, as you can do the dungeons in any order you please.  The one catch to Ravio's shop is that for most of the game you are only renting the items, so should you die, you will have to pony up the dough again.  This means that money plays a much larger role in this game than the others, and I even found myself having to farm for rupees a few times.  Overall however, this is a fantastic game, and I will most likely finish it this week.  

That's it for this week, thanks for your support in this endeavour, it's gonna be a toughie!