When I’m not rotting my mind watching piles of crappy anime, I tend to find myself rotting my mind playing video games, like any other self-respecting 20-something nerd. My poison of preference is, as you’ve probably already guessed, the RPG. My problem is that I’m somewhat of an ADD gamer - due to having poor priorities in life and far too much disposable income I end up buying lots of games and hardly ever actually finishing them, resulting in my current situation: I think I might have more games in my rack that I haven’t actually played than I do games that I’ve finished. Especially RPGs. So I thought I would tell you, dear reader, about my Pile of Shame. Games that I haven’t finished. Perhaps you can give me some suggestions on whittling away at this pile of woe, or at least motivate me towards finishing one or two.
.hack games.
I make no secret of the fact that I actually quite enjoyed .hack//SIGN. The games… not so much. I own all four, but I haven’t ever finished the first one due to some annoying game design choices, such as not being able to save in a dungeon prior to fighting a boss, which necessitates grinding through the whole fucking area if you screw up. Which I was doing. A lot.
Xenosaga games
Amusingly, Xenosaga was one of the games which sold me on the PS2 way back when. It never got a PAL release (due to Namco hating the PAL territory with the fury of a thousand suns) but I have a US import copy, along with the third. We got the second one here for some reason, so I have that in packaging which jars against the other two. Have yet to actually bother playing any of these at all.
Valkyrie Profile 2
Another PAL-didn’t-get-this-while-it-was-relevant entry that I picked up as an import. I got maybe a third of the way in then something else grabbed my atte–ooh, shiny.
Tales of Legendia and Tales of Eternia
Played a bit of Legendia (import, see also Namco hates PAL) but wasn’t that impressed and Tales of the Abyss followed by Final Fantasy XII both pulled me away from it and I never went back. Not sure if I should. I picked up Eternia only recently, PSP release, haven’t fired it up yet but I probably should.
Rogue Galaxy
Came out here right at the beginning of the massive run of AAA Xbox 360 titles (Bioshock, Halo 3, etc) and I just haven’t gotten around to starting it up.
Blue Dragon
This one I picked up right in the aforementioned mad 360 rush, and I believe that I ended up stopping playing so that I could play Halo 3 until I got sick of that, by which time other games had stolen my attention. I didn’t get too far - only as far as picking up Marumaro.
Persona 3
Haven’t even started it. 
Eternal Sonata
I was really enjoying it, then Mass Effect happened and Bioware almost always gets priority (don’t worry, Mass Effect isn’t on my list - finished it once, will play through again when the first round of DLC hits). I believe I was past halfway, but not far past. Of all my current stuff this is probably the most likely one that I blow the dust off next.
Atelier Iris
I really like Gust’s traditional, simple 2D JRPGs. Well, what I’ve played of them. I was around 3/4 the way though the first Atelier Iris and I’ve got the second and third waiting for me.
All those crazy Nippon-Ichi SRPGs
La Pucelle - barely touched. Disgaea - halfway on both PS2 and PSP. Disgaea 2 - 1/3. Makai Kingdom - 1/3. Soul Nomad - haven’t even fired it up.
Ico
It’s not an RPG but it easily belongs on my shameful pile because this game is pure awesome and I feel ashamed that I haven’t finished it. (Have finished Shadow of the Colossus, and yes, it is the best game of its generation)
Conclusion: I need to stop buying new games until I actually finish some of these other ones. I’m at risk of getting jaded and losing interest in games because of my inability to actually finish anything (fwiw I have about this many more that I haven’t finished but am not so worried about too). I need to take three months off work or something and just play video games all day.
Anyone got any suggestions what I should do? Instigate a must-finish-a-game-every-week rule or something? Are there any in here that I should give priority to? PBB is mainly an animu website but there’s a fair amount of crossover with the JRPG crowd among animu blog readership I believe, so would it be worth me finishing these things and writing my thoughts?
p.s. I considered writing a list like this with anime, but my on hold list on MAL indicates this route leads only to despair and self-recrimination.
hmmm, I just have to comment on that
Priority-Scale is 0-10
.hack
I played through the first game, liked it pretty much, then played the 2nd and just lost intrest, no use playing the 3rd, 4th.. so ..
Priority: 1
Xenosaga
didnt even finish the 1st so no use playing the 2nd and 3rd, I hated that they split the game into 3 games and that it took them so long to release them.. I also didnt like the battle system
Priority: 4
Valkyrie Profile 2
Didn’t play this one yet, some say it’s good some say it’s average/bad
Priority: 5
Tales of…
I never really liked the Tales of series (battle system) so I haven’t played them.
Priority: 1
Rogue Galaxy
Played and finsihed it, great game.
Priority: 8
Blue Dragon
Played and finsihed it, story is lame, charas are kids -.- bleh bleh bleh… still a decent game with a nice combat system
Priority: 6
Persona 3
Like you I didn’t play it yet, heared it’s quite good
Priority: 8
Eternal Sonata
mmmmh, beautiful graphics, nice characters, story is so-so… battle system is average… stoped playing it the first time I died… guess I’m 3/4 through the game or so…
Priority: 6
Atelier Iris
Started playing it, but just couldn’t get into it for some strange reason..
Priority: 4
NIS Games
HOORAY, played and completed them all, great games, I LOVE them all…
if you are into SRRPGs
Priority: 8-9
if not
Priority: 6
Ico
ok ok haven’t played it…. like you I feel so ashamed :/
Priority: 6-7
so my tip is, get Lost Odyssey for 360
best JRPG for 360^^
Priority: 8-9
I feel like playing some games all of a sudden > devil may cry on the PS3.
Yeah, DMC4 and Lost Odyssey are both tempting me terribly. Plus I have Mana Khemia ordered (couldn’t resist, the deluxe preorder package comes with a figure), Jeanne D’Arc to ship when Patapon releases, and the Metal Gear Solid collection ordered (another shame listing, I haven’t actually played any of the MGS games)
I’ve got a pile of games still in shrinkwrap. Luckily, I stopped buying them after about a backlog of 6-7 of them. I make it a point to finish the ones I actually like though, right now slowly making my way through the third Xenosaga game. About an hour or two a week is about all I play anymore though. I’ve still got Resident Evil 4 on the GC to finish as well as Jade Empire on the Xbox. This backlog has made for a very easy excuse for not buying a Wii, 360, or a PS3.
i’m still backlogged to chronotrigger. yeah my friends think i’m crazy since i still have a lot of games still shrinkwrapped too (like 75% of my games)
the last rpg i played and completed was illusion of gaia, but i think soul blazer was way better.
Why I feel so much better now that I know I’m not alone with this problem haha. It’s a bad habit, I’ve so many unopened games. The last 3 months have nearly been all COD4 for me, I haven’t even beat the single player yet (albeit very close) but I’ve been completly absorbed in the multiplayer end of it. I think the very last RPG I managed to finish was in fact Final Fantasy X.
I’d be here all day if I listed the RPGs I hadn’t finished. But here’s the main ones, and I know I’m going to be labelled completely mad for this list:
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy X
Tales of Symphonia
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories/Kingdom Hearts II
Then there’s a bunch of SRPGs too, like Luminous Arc and Advance Wars on the DS.
That’s on top of the other random Wii games I haven’t finished, like Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy (getting close on that one tho) and Zelda: Twilight Princess.
I think my backlog’s only going to get worse now that my Wii is chipped.
FINISH FFX YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT
100% in agreement with Marmot, even tho I never finished any of the other FF series…I know without a doubt FFX was the greatest haha.
Well I *have* finished every other core FF game… and it’s in the top 3, for sure, but 6 and 7 edge it out IMO.
SIX AND SEVEN!? LOL NEGS YOU ARE A FUNNY, FUNNY MAN!
No, it’s just that the gap between our ages is significant enough that I played FF7 when I was the age you played FFX.
To be honest, a lot of FF7’s appeal is nostalgia and the fact that it was such a massive leap, technology-wise. No one had seen a game like that before.
FF6 is actually probably on par with FFX now that I think about it carefully. And Chrono Trigger was far better than all of them.
EDIT: FF12 has the best FF character ever, incidentally. Balthier is even more awesome than Auron.
And I just bought FF12! I LOVE LIFE!!!!
6, 7 and X are near the top of my list. Along with Chrono Trigger.
I loved X, I just got stuck on one of the bosses then lost my disc after loaning it out. And by the time I got around to forking out another $20 for another bloody second hand copy at EB, I’d forgotten where I was up to.
I’ll finish it one day.
Speaking of big piles of shame…I’m seriously waiting for Sony or Squarenix to port some of our favorite FF titles to the PSP so I can waste more money on owning different versions of the same title haha. I would love to play FF7 on my PSP and or slightly less graphical versions of 8 and X.
I’d prefer to get a PS3 remake of 7 than a PSP one. X is not possible on PSP simply due to the capacity (9gb DVD vs 1.8gb UMD).
They’ve basically said that an FF7 remake is on the cards, it’s just that all the major Squenix teams are tied up with FF13 games so it’s a manpower issue rather than a desire issue.
I’ve played through Valkyrie Profile 2 and I have to say I enjoyed the experience. Battle system was pretty fun, though I have yet to battle in a split party scenario (too much work lol). The puzzles are a nice addition aside from the fighting. Freya ftw!
Seriously, I’m on the fence over a PSP at the moment (the DS seems to suit my needs for portable gaming just fine), but the talk of a PSone emulator on the PSP quite nearly pushed me over the edge. Then I dug around a little more only to find the PSP homebrew “community” is just a bunch of code-theiving, bickering asshats.
If Square Enix made a port of 7 to the PSP, or (even better) Sony made an official emulator not unlike Virtual Console, then I’d snap one up without hesitation. I think the homebrew project has already proven that the PSP has enough power.
I think any sort of FF7 remake will be for the PS3 though. We’ll probably hear after 13 comes out - I don’t think they’d be too keen on taking the spotlight away from it.