While I’ve not had as much time lately due to all the things I have to do in Final Fantasy 14 to help settle the community and situate some kind of new normal, I do really want to get back to playing Avowed. I’ve been having a great time as a Gun Mage and enjoying the sort of build/rebuild system of leveling up that allows me to effectively tweak how I do things every time I get to a new tier of power and should probably stop using weaker spells. I mean, I still have the drain life spell because that’s part of my “ultimately sustainability” maneuver, but really mostly because I have the bonus that locks down my target. It’s nice to have a panic button, you know? Freeze whatever moster or hulking man is charging me, looking to obliterate me in one hit because I’m a weak little noodle with only brainpower and determination to see me through the day. I’ve also gotten deep enough into the story that I think I know what’s going on (and have a suspicion that I might be shaping some amount of it? But maybe that’s just good writing to make me FEEL like I have more control than I do) and have only reloaded a save once because I had made a note to go do a thing, had to deal with my FF14 free company imploding, and promptly forgot in the hubbub that I’d made a note to go do a thing until after it was too late. Which I’ll give myself without any guilt. That was a wild, exhausting few days.
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Desperately Grasping For New Games
In my doldrums, I’ve been trying to find new things to play that aren’t Final Fantasy 14. I’ve mostly succeeded, thankfully, but it’s still kind of rough since all the stress and everything of the last few days makes it difficult to enjoy things [and, as of editing this after everything blew up two days after I wrote this, I now feel compelled to be logged into Final Fantasy 14 and Doing Something To Fix This]. Thankfully, Pokémon Violet (a revisit, now on the improved Switch 2 hardware), Avowed, Ghost of Yotei, Pokémon ZA’s DLC, and Grounded have been there for me. Pokémon to fill my quiet idling hours, Avowed to bring me in, Ghost of Yotei to give my something else to do when I run out of this stuff, and Grounded for a survival building game with a friend. I’ve got everything I could need and I only feel a little panicked every night as I turn to this little collection of games and try to figure out what I’m going to do with myself. Which, lately, is mostly Avowed. The whole premise of it didn’t super appeal to me, especially considering everyone calling it an adventure game like Skyrim, but thankfully I looked past those statements (Skyrim was fun, don’t get me wrong, but I’m very tired of it now) and I’ve been enjoying myself. It’s actually been a fun alternative to FF14 rather than something I embrace out of a desperate need to do anything else.
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