straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2025-07-05 06:13 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2025-07-05 06:13 pm
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311 | 10 in 2025: mid-year check-in
We’ve reached the beginning of July—the halfway point of the year—and so I wanted to do a check-in on my progress towards my 10 in 2025 gaming goal for this year.
ten games I want to play/beat in 2025: midyear check-in
already started (1/3)
1. Pokémon Moon (3DS)
2. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (Steam)
3. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Switch)
technically already started, but would need to restart (1/3)
4. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS)
5. Digimon World Dusk (DS)
6. Mages of Mystralia (Steam)
have started or played a different version, but not this one (1/2)
7. Star Ocean: First Departure R (Switch)
8. Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch)
completely unstarted (0/2)
9. Cinderella Evermore (Steam)
10. Spirit of the North (Steam)
In short, so far I’ve finished three games from this list—Pokémon Moon, Mages of Mystralia, and Star Ocean: First Departure R. (Links are to the dreamwidth entries where I shared my final thoughts on each game. Spoilers included!)
I actually 100% completed Mages of Mystralia—all achievements and everything that could be done in the game, completed. I could see myself replaying this game simply because I like it, but there’s nothing that I “need” to do there. I generally don’t play individual Pokémon games more than once, and Moon isn’t a game where I’m interested in the post-game, so that one is as completed as it will ever get.
So of those three, the only one I don’t consider myself to be fully “finished” with is Star Ocean: First Departure R, but I do consider myself to be finished with it for the purposes of this year/goal. I’ve played through the whole story once, which is what I wanted to accomplish, but I would absolutely want to play this again in the future—both because I really like the game, and because of how different combinations of party members change the shape of the story & wanting to explore that.
I’ve also put a fair number of hours (by my standards) into Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life—it was the main game I was playing during a rather busy/stressful March, and I’ve returned to it on and off since then. I highly doubt I’ll beat this game this year, however. It’s actually longer than I expected it to be—I’m still in the first year, oops—and it’s definitely not the kind of game you marathon, at least not if you also want to enjoy it.
Some general thoughts:
If we look at this purely from a numbers perspective, I’m behind—in order to be halfway through the list by the halfway point of the year, I’d need to have finished at least 5 games from this list, but I’ve “only” beaten 3 so far. But that’s not how I feel about it! I’m actually pretty thrilled about my progress so far.
The main point of this list was to prioritize these games/make me keep this list in mind when picking out what I want to play next, and I feel like it’s succeeded pretty handily at that. I’m also beyond delighted that one of the games that I have marked off is a (non-Pokémon) jrpg—I love jrpgs with all my heart and have a pretty hefty backlog of ones I want to play or replay, but consider myself “lucky” if I manage to get to even one within a calendar year simply because of how long they can be.
At this point, I don’t think I’ll fully complete this list this year, but that’s alright, as long as it continues to serve the function that I needed/wanted from it. But that being said, there are two adjustments I’m considering making to this goal.
First of all, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. Like I said above, I highly doubt I’ll beat this game this year, and honestly, I’m not fully sure if I want to. The main thing I wanted from playing this is the experience of returning to a game that meant so much to me as a younger person, and indulging being in that world, and… I’ve kind of already done that?
My thoughts right now are to consider this as checked off if I finish the first in-game year, mostly because I really want to be married to Celia, lol. If I play further than that, then great! IIRC, when I was younger I never got past year 2, and I am a little curious about how the rest of the game plays out. But at the same time, at this point I don’t feel like I have to actually play through the whole game in order to walk away satisfied. I have a lot of nostalgia for this game and these characters, but it doesn’t have the compulsive playability that Stardew Valley has for me, and so if at any time I decide that I’m satisfied—even if it’s not a proper DNF—then that’s good enough for the purposes of this goal.
My other thought is making an adjustment to one of the games on the list. I have Star Ocean: The Second Story R on there, because I loved the PS1 version, owned the remake, and am quite excited about it. But after beating Star Ocean 01, there’s also a part of me that wants to continue on to playing the other games in the series that I’ve never finished in any form. I always feel like, considering that this is my favorite jrpg series, I really ought to have played through more of them than I actually have—especially since I’m genuinely interested in all six of the main series games!
So, I’m adding a little flexibility to that goal: either Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch), OR any Star Ocean game that I’ve never finished any version of. …Perhaps unwisely, as this means I’m now eyeing Star Ocean: The Last Hope in the Steam Sale (so cheap!), despite it also having the longest playtime on HLTB compared to all the other options I have on hand.
So the current list is now as follows:
ten games I want to play/beat in 2025
already started
1. Pokémon Moon (3DS)
2. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (Steam)
3. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Switch)
technically already started, but would need to restart
4. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS)
5. Digimon World Dusk (DS)
6. Mages of Mystralia (Steam)
have started or played a different version, but not this one
7. Star Ocean: First Departure R (Switch)
8. Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch) OR dealer’s choice from Star Ocean 4-6
completely unstarted
9. Cinderella Evermore (Steam)
10. Spirit of the North (Steam)
As for what’s next… I haven’t actually done much gaming since I beat Star Ocean 01, oops. And Battleship is starting soon, so I don’t foresee too much gaming in the near future… That being said, I feel like I’m in the mood for visual novels, so maybe Evermore soon?Alternatively, I could replay Cinderella Phenomenon again and then once again fail to pick up Evermore afterwards. Though if I do play Evermore, I will have one game crossed off from each category on this list, which would feel satisfying... I’ve also been craving the short indie game experience, since it’s been a minute since I last played one of those, so I might take a short break from this list to play one or two of those instead. We’ll see!
ten games I want to play/beat in 2025: midyear check-in
already started (1/3)
2. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (Steam)
3. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Switch)
technically already started, but would need to restart (1/3)
4. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS)
5. Digimon World Dusk (DS)
have started or played a different version, but not this one (1/2)
8. Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch)
completely unstarted (0/2)
9. Cinderella Evermore (Steam)
10. Spirit of the North (Steam)
In short, so far I’ve finished three games from this list—Pokémon Moon, Mages of Mystralia, and Star Ocean: First Departure R. (Links are to the dreamwidth entries where I shared my final thoughts on each game. Spoilers included!)
I actually 100% completed Mages of Mystralia—all achievements and everything that could be done in the game, completed. I could see myself replaying this game simply because I like it, but there’s nothing that I “need” to do there. I generally don’t play individual Pokémon games more than once, and Moon isn’t a game where I’m interested in the post-game, so that one is as completed as it will ever get.
So of those three, the only one I don’t consider myself to be fully “finished” with is Star Ocean: First Departure R, but I do consider myself to be finished with it for the purposes of this year/goal. I’ve played through the whole story once, which is what I wanted to accomplish, but I would absolutely want to play this again in the future—both because I really like the game, and because of how different combinations of party members change the shape of the story & wanting to explore that.
I’ve also put a fair number of hours (by my standards) into Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life—it was the main game I was playing during a rather busy/stressful March, and I’ve returned to it on and off since then. I highly doubt I’ll beat this game this year, however. It’s actually longer than I expected it to be—I’m still in the first year, oops—and it’s definitely not the kind of game you marathon, at least not if you also want to enjoy it.
Some general thoughts:
If we look at this purely from a numbers perspective, I’m behind—in order to be halfway through the list by the halfway point of the year, I’d need to have finished at least 5 games from this list, but I’ve “only” beaten 3 so far. But that’s not how I feel about it! I’m actually pretty thrilled about my progress so far.
The main point of this list was to prioritize these games/make me keep this list in mind when picking out what I want to play next, and I feel like it’s succeeded pretty handily at that. I’m also beyond delighted that one of the games that I have marked off is a (non-Pokémon) jrpg—I love jrpgs with all my heart and have a pretty hefty backlog of ones I want to play or replay, but consider myself “lucky” if I manage to get to even one within a calendar year simply because of how long they can be.
At this point, I don’t think I’ll fully complete this list this year, but that’s alright, as long as it continues to serve the function that I needed/wanted from it. But that being said, there are two adjustments I’m considering making to this goal.
First of all, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. Like I said above, I highly doubt I’ll beat this game this year, and honestly, I’m not fully sure if I want to. The main thing I wanted from playing this is the experience of returning to a game that meant so much to me as a younger person, and indulging being in that world, and… I’ve kind of already done that?
My thoughts right now are to consider this as checked off if I finish the first in-game year, mostly because I really want to be married to Celia, lol. If I play further than that, then great! IIRC, when I was younger I never got past year 2, and I am a little curious about how the rest of the game plays out. But at the same time, at this point I don’t feel like I have to actually play through the whole game in order to walk away satisfied. I have a lot of nostalgia for this game and these characters, but it doesn’t have the compulsive playability that Stardew Valley has for me, and so if at any time I decide that I’m satisfied—even if it’s not a proper DNF—then that’s good enough for the purposes of this goal.
My other thought is making an adjustment to one of the games on the list. I have Star Ocean: The Second Story R on there, because I loved the PS1 version, owned the remake, and am quite excited about it. But after beating Star Ocean 01, there’s also a part of me that wants to continue on to playing the other games in the series that I’ve never finished in any form. I always feel like, considering that this is my favorite jrpg series, I really ought to have played through more of them than I actually have—especially since I’m genuinely interested in all six of the main series games!
So, I’m adding a little flexibility to that goal: either Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch), OR any Star Ocean game that I’ve never finished any version of. …Perhaps unwisely, as this means I’m now eyeing Star Ocean: The Last Hope in the Steam Sale (so cheap!), despite it also having the longest playtime on HLTB compared to all the other options I have on hand.
So the current list is now as follows:
ten games I want to play/beat in 2025
already started
2. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (Steam)
3. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Switch)
technically already started, but would need to restart
4. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS)
5. Digimon World Dusk (DS)
have started or played a different version, but not this one
8. Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch) OR dealer’s choice from Star Ocean 4-6
completely unstarted
9. Cinderella Evermore (Steam)
10. Spirit of the North (Steam)
As for what’s next… I haven’t actually done much gaming since I beat Star Ocean 01, oops. And Battleship is starting soon, so I don’t foresee too much gaming in the near future… That being said, I feel like I’m in the mood for visual novels, so maybe Evermore soon?