IntrepidWombat

I did some digging because that number was alarming to me, but for Osaka, that's a pretty decent income for a young single person starting out. Just a hair below the median income but enough to cover all expenses plus some discretionary spending if livingcost.org is accurate.

I guess I need to finish Reverie by then. This is also only two weeks after SMTV Vengeance. Hoo boy.

@Rafie Understood. I was only listing what I had personally purchased, and I've never owned a Vita. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

@Rafie Persona 4 Golden was, yes, but Persona 4 (not Golden) was not. It was exclusive to the PlayStation 2 for 4 years.

P3 and P4 originals, both on PS2
P3P on PSP
P4G on Steam
P5 on PS3
P5R on PS4
P5S on PS4
P3R on PS5

Wow, more than I realized.

Just finished Persona 3 Reload last night. Man, what an ending.

I played a bit of the Junon portion of the Rebirth demo. I still don't like the combat. I'll wait until it hits the bargain bin with whatever expansions they put out for it. Not in a hurry to play it, but I'm loving some of the mods I'm seeing for the original. Maybe I'll tinker with that a bit.

Not sure what's next yet. Star Ocean 4, Dragon Quest XI, Octopath Traveler II, Trails into Reverie, Jedi Survivor, and the first Like a Dragon are all on the shelf. I may take a break and do some reading. I picked up The Sunlit Man in hardback last night.

@mcdreamer Cold Steel 1 is a 40 hour prorogue to the Cold Steel arc. CS2 is one of my personal favorites - really fantastic game!

@tselliot Your guess is as good as mine. It may come down to how well P3R does financially.

@tseliot I had to give P4 a couple chances before I got hooked. I actually bought it when it came out on PS2 back in...I don't know, 2006? I couldn't get in to it and shelved it until after I beat Persona 5 Royal in 2021. After getting through the first dungeon and going in to that loop, I finally got in to the story and played right through. Ended up enjoying it so much I bought Golden on Steam and played right through it again. It might be something to check out again later.

Looks cool. I'm looking forward to seeing more gameplay, specifically the combat.

I'm good with the graphics as long as it maintains a smooth 60fps. I'm getting Tokyo Xanadu and Scarlett Nexus vibes. Definitely intriguing at the right price point.

Still working through Persona 3 Reload. I have the second half of the Rebirth demo to play, but I think that's still going to be a sale game for me. Not overly impressed. Just downloaded the Unicorn Overlord demo too, so I'll give that a spin.

Other than that, it's going to be cleaning rain gutters, trimming trees, and prepping for the great garage clean out of 2024. Hm. Maybe a few more floors in Tartarus while my saw is charging.

@AndroidBango That is fantastic, great news about your pension. I think our life experiences color our beliefs - I have the opposite belief. Perhaps it's cultural, but nonetheless, always a pleasure to hear from someone who thinks differently.

@AndroidBango I guess it depends on where you are. Union dues (which are not optional) very often go towards a union that acts in the best interest of the union leaders, not necessarily the members. This could also include large political donations, which is especially a drag if they go towards a party/candidate that you don't support. I live and work in a "right to work" jurisdiction, and I get raises either by merit or by making lateral moves in my industry. The returns have been much better than my unionized counterparts. Invest in yourself by taking as much training and getting certified in as many disciplines as you can. It means less PlayStation time, but it pays off in the long run.

We were paying $50 for games in 1999. That $50 has lost nearly half of its value. If game prices were keeping up with inflation, they'd be over $90 - and that's just looking at a standard PlayStation release in 1999. Chrono Trigger launched in 1995 and retailed for $79.99 (I'm sure due in part to the chip shortage at that time), which would today be over $160.

All I'm saying is that we're lucky that gaming took off and became popular. Economy of scale has allowed the cost of the hobby to stay relatively cheap, but inflation and the higher cost of development were going to catch up sooner or later.

@CooCooKaChoo What a classic! I haven't played it in probably 25 years, but I remember getting stuck on Gerdeaux for a while.

I'm about 8 hours in to Persona 3 Reload, and it's excellent. I bought the original Persona 3 when it came out on PS2 and lost interest a few hours in. Cool to revisit it and already be further than I got before. Not in any hurry at all to finish as there aren't really any games I'm interested in grabbing day one until Trails through Daybreak. I also have Reverie and Octopath Traveler II on the shelf.

I might take a quick romp through Resident Evil 3 (1999). It's been a while since I played it. I realized last weekend that I hadn't ever cleared Resident Evil 2 Remake Claire B on hardcore, so I did that last weekend - always a great game to revisit.

@Rosona I don't really think it was a remake at all, just a sequel with a cheeky subtitle, but that's neither here nor there. It was a game that was paced an awful lot like the devs really, really wanted to get a full game out of the Midgar section, and they packed content accordingly. There was a lot of filler as a result. The combat is a chore, and not very fun for me - I think it might be more tolerable if I could remap the controls, but for some reason, that's not an option. I don't like the game's implementation of ATB or how the standard attacks are just so terribly weak through to the end. It's a game that couldn't decide whether it wanted to be turn-based or action-based, so it chose to do neither particularly well. It ended up being more similar to Parasite Eve, but without the proper balance. I thought the geeky fellow with the VR (I can't remember his name) was a lazy way to tack on extra challenges and add summon acquisition. I adore the original game, so I had high expectations for "Remake," and they just weren't met. I understand that I'm in the minority with this, and I'm fine with that.

It doesn't feel responsive, and the presentation is a mess visually. I've lost count of how many times I've played the PS1 game - so far, Rebirth is on track to be 'ok' much like Remake, which is disappointing.