Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2024

[Note]

Well, I've started my next game for the Summer Games Challenge, which is Final Fantasy Adventure. This is actually one of the first video games I was gifted when I was a kid, and I've played through chunks of it over the years but never actually finished it. Hoping to change that!

I'm a few hours in, currently in the basement level of Kett's Dungeon, and so far I'm enjoying my time with it.

[Note]

With fall approaching, how did everyone do with their Summer Games Challenge list this year?

I ended up finishing three out of my five games, and am close to completing the fourth, Final Fantasy Adventure. My fifth game, Donkey Kong Country 3, will have to be saved for another time. After I beat FFA, I plan on playing some survival horror and other Halloween appropriate games.

[pierrot]

I've been sort of meaning to recap for a week or so, because it's unlikely I really get through anything else, but I finally burned a Sylverant disc and have just been spending most of my time with PSO ver 2.

My original list looked like this:

Dragon Quest IX (DS)
Megami Ibunroku: Persona (PS1)
Dragon Quest VII (PS1)
Xenogears (PS1)
Vagrant Story (PS1)

The Longest Journey (GOG)
Fallout (GOG)
Raiden (Series) (GOG)
Myst (GOG)
Shadowgate (GOG)


I ended up with something like this (the only time I ever finished a summer challenge was with a list that looked 90% different from what I started with):

Dragon Quest IX (DS) (Finished)
Albert Odyssey Gaiden (Saturn) (Finished)
Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst - Episode 4 (PC) (Finished)
Wild Arms (PS1) (In Progress)
God Slayer / Crystalis (Steam) (In Progress)
Persona (PS1) (Dropped)
Myst (GOG) (Dropped)


I actually said in my original post that I didn't think anything on the list I made would get finished outside of DQ IX, and that ended up being fairly prescient.
DQ IX I haven't really played since getting kind of tired of grinding for that last ice dungeon map I needed. I finished the main game and most of the post-game, but I did want to clear those last couple wifi quests, and fill in that last bestiary entry--meh.
Albert Odyssey was not at all what I was hoping for, but it seems like the Working Designs version is a bit better. I still don't really have any interest in that, but it's good info.
PSO ep 4 is just kind of more of the PSO I don't care as much about. I've recently realized that I like PSO as a whole, but it's mostly just Episode 1 (particularly ver2) that I actually love about it, and everything after it is just kind of a garnish.
I've played a bit more of Wild Arms and have access to a boat around the inner sea. I really haven't been playing it much, but I might actually finish it before the end of the year.
God Slayer I need to find a wind ring or something before the second sage will talk to me. I don't really know what to do. At some point I might look up where in the snow caps the thing is.
Persona I don't know that I'll ever pick up again. The PSP version supposedly has a number of updates to make it less miserable, but I don't really like the Persona experiment. Things were better as just SMT.
Myst I find somewhat interesting, but it feels like it uses too much moon logic, and realizing that the ages thing wasn't just background lore, and is actually different stages of the game kind of killed a lot of my early interest in pressing through.

[Key-Glyph]

Posting here a year later not to bump the thread and cause confusion with the 2025 challenge (sorry), but to say that I really enjoyed finally reading through everyone's progress. I disappeared early on in this thread, much to my sadness then... but your feats remained, waiting for me to return to after all this time!

I know the @ doesn't notify any of you that I'm addressing you specifically, but I'll use it as a visual cue all the same:

@Hardwired, I loved that you joined us! I hope your first go at this was fun. I really enjoyed your thoughtful posts.

@pierrot, I laughed more than once at your updates. I'm sorry it was such a distressing year for you, but I enjoyed the salt. Also, I can't tell if you always pick games that are practically PhD courses in statistics and/or chemistry or if it's actually that you have a superpower for coaxing any game into reaching such levels of complexity, but it was fascinating to watch.

@Ack, did you ever do Ultima IV? I've probably asked you this already.

@Note, did you wind up finishing Final Fantasy Adventure? It's really special when you can finally see a game from your childhood through to the end.

@Syndicate, I loved this quote from you: "I'm also still poking away at Batman and Thunderforce III, I have to say that sucking at games has rarely sounded better ". Sooooo true, haha.

@AJ, I've never played a Dragon Quest, but you made V sound really cool. Would you say that would be a good one to start with?

I'm glad everyone in the thread had fun and got some good experiences in. And as always, thanks for detailing them all for the rest of us. <3

[pierrot]

@pierrot, I laughed more than once at your updates. I'm sorry it was such a distressing year for you, but I enjoyed the salt. Also, I can't tell if you always pick games that are practically PhD courses in statistics and/or chemistry or if it's actually that you have a superpower for coaxing any game into reaching such levels of complexity, but it was fascinating to watch.

lol, well it was mostly just a function of the games I was playing (particularly Dragon Quest IX and Persona) on account o' I ain't even know any other way to interact with those types of systems.

@AJ, I've never played a Dragon Quest, but you made V sound really cool. Would you say that would be a good one to start with?

I know I'm not AJ, but just knowing that you like Phantasy Star III, I think Dragon Quest V is almost a must. If I had to guess, I would say that there are aspects of how DQV handles things compared to PSIII that you might end up not liking by comparison, but personally, I feel DQV (on PS2 at least) is the best game in the series. There are some lore ties to DQIV and DQVI, but the order doesn't really matter very much. You can sort of start anywhere in the series, from a story perspective. Some people have opinions about the order of 1 through 3, though.

[Ack]

No, I never did Ultima IV...

I know, I'm a bad person.

[Key-Glyph]

No, I never did Ultima IV...

I know, I'm a bad person.

I was going to reply with "YES, I HATE YOU!" as a joke but wasn't sure if the tone would carry.

I'm actually genuinely happy, because this means I haven't missed it.

All in due time. And when the day comes, please ping me about it.

EDIT: Forgot to mention to you, pierrot, that I read your comment linking Dragon Quest V to Phantasy Star III and thought, "OHOHOHO, you don't say??!?!"

You know me so well. With such a specific recommendation as that, I will definitely pursue V as my first Dragon Quest, if/when I get there.