Ready for Steam Summer Sale!

A few days ago, the dates for the Steam Summer Sale seemed to have been leaked on a Russian Social Network post.  Dates for seasonal sales have been getting leaked for the past few years because a developer, publisher, or editorial "accidentally" slips it out.  If the dates are real, then Steam Summer Sale will be between June 11th to June 20th.  As usual, I'm not exactly ready to buy more games when I still have a backlog to get through; however, there are a few games I'd be willing to buy and play right away if they're cheap enough.

[Lords of the Fallen]


I highly doubt it'll get a sale under $20, but this game's on the top of my wishlist as I'm kind of craving for something like the Souls series, but isn't Souls because I'm not quite ready to play it yet (Bought Dark Souls 2 and haven't played it yet).  Lords of the Fallen received mixed reviews of people loving it and people hating it.  It's obvious its influence and inspiration comes from the souls series, so it's not surprising a lot of people compare it to those games.  But I think that is why I'm so interested in the game.  It's designed to be like a Souls game, but what are they offering different to make it stand out on its own?  If anything, this is the one game I kind of want above all the rest this Summer Steam Sale, but I don't know if I'm willing to pay anything over $20.

[Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires]
I never did get to play any of the Empires iteration of the Dynasty Warriors series.  I want to give one a try, but the one for PS3 is digital only (I think) and my PS3 is already stretching thin for Hard Drive Disk Space.  So I was a bit excited to hear it made it onto steam.  The problem now is that a lot of user reviews complain about the port and how poorly it was handled.  So I'm a bit reluctant to spend a bit more on it, if that's the case.  But if I know it'll be a smooth experience, I'm pretty sure I can make even $25 worth while.  I've been having a Hack-n-Slash craving and I think Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires would be a great game to satiate that hunger.  I'm really hoping this gets a good sale.

[Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor]
If Lords of the Fallen doesn't go under $20, I hope this one does.  I've heard so many great things about this game and I've already seen it get discounted down to $20 twice if not three times already.  I saw a lot of comparison it had with the Assassin's Creed series, but it also seems to be more of an Action-RPG of sorts.  I think that's what I'm actually craving for right now: Action-RPGs with a kind of Hack-n-Slash feel.  Because I've been having the urge to play Vindictus again, but haven't since I've been trying to complete games.  I guess I've also been having craving for Metroidvanias, possibly because of the announcement of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.  Out of the three games listed so far, it has the greatest potential for a good sale price.

[Cooperative Multiplayer Games]
I'm trying to look for new multiplayer games I can play with my friends because we kind of burnt out everything we have with multiple games completed several times already.  Dying Light is one game I'm looking out for, but it came out so recently that it doesn't seem like it will go down in price by all that much.  Borderlands: Pre-Sequel also hasn't been getting much of a discount, but I'm not too excited to play it anyways since I still feel kind of burnt out from playing Borderlands 2.  Divinity: Original Sin hasn't been getting much of a discount ever since its launch last June, which I'm kind of happy for the developers because they put a lot of love and passion into this game and it seems like it's doing incredibly well.  It's definitely one of the higher priority multiplayer games I want to get since it has lots of depth and gameplay hour potential that my friend and I could get out of it.

[Indie Games]
There's a bunch of indie games I'm curious about and want to play.  I loved Hotline Miami 2, so I'm keen on playing the sequel.  Titan Souls boasted itself for being a difficult game and I seem to want to play challenging games recently.  Perhaps I've been playing too many games on "Easy".  Among others, there's Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, Broforce (Which still isn't out of Early Access!), Freedom Planet, Wings of Vi, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, and the Shadowcrypt.  Everything else, I feel like I can kind of wait for (though it'd be nice to get Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for $5).  More recent games like Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, Bladestorm: Nightmare, Ys VI, and Axiom Verge will probably get a small discount if any.  So I'm going to have to wait if I want those for cheaper.

[Dragon Age: Inquisition]
I know this isn't on Steam, but other digital distribution services often have sales alongside Steam Seasonal sales.  Besides playing the main game, I'm also interested in the Online co-op multiplayer mode.  From what I've researched, there are 4 playable maps and 16 unlockable classes to choose from.  If I can find friends to play with, I'd be willing to pay more than $20 for it.  But right now, I'm still kind of on the fence about it.  If I'm just going to be playing the single-player mode, I rather just wait for a heavier discount.


Steam Summer Sale starts next Thursday (if the leaked dates are true) which isn't too long from now.  But anticipating the sales will make these next two weeks drag by.  I need to work hard these next two weeks because I know I'll be heavily distracted once Steam Summer Sales begin.

Incoming Distractions!

The month of May seemed so far away when I started this year, and yet here we are at the end of the month already.  I was still dealing with the chain of ailments I had been suffering with at the end of April.  I went down to SoCal Irvine area early in the month to see friends and celebrate my sister's birthday with her as well as Mother's Day.  I had planned for that weekend for months and I ended up going down there with a stomachache just as I was thinking I was getting over my chain of ailments.  On that weekend, I hung out with 9 friends on one day and 11 friends the next.  We played mini-golf and played a bunch of arcades.  I wasn't sure if I was able to manage since it was a lot of people to interact with, I wasn't feeling well, and I didn't really plan where to eat and kinda winged it along the way.  It was exhausting and a bit nauseating with the stomach not cooperating the entire weekend, but I had a lot of fun and was sad to see everyone off.

On the day I was on my way back home from the weekend trip, I checked on some gaming news and saw that Koji Igarashi had finally launched a Kickstarter for "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night"; the game he was working on.  I had no doubt that he would start working on another Metroidvania when he left Konami several months back.  What did surprise me was that he asked Michiru Yamane (composed/produced pretty much all the music to Castlevania games from Symphony of the Night to Order of Ecclesia) to join the project to work alongside Ippo Yamada in creating the music.  I was ecstatic and couldn't contain myself.  In the description, it said that Yamane was "excited to hear the fan's covers, remixes and arrangements of her first song for the game 'Theme of Bloodstained'".  I felt unbelievably motivated and worked tirelessly the next 3 days on a remix.

Here's the original:

Here's my Remix:

I had sent a message to both Koji Igarashi and Michiru Yamane on the Bloodstained official Youtube Channel in hopes that they'll hear my remix.  But I still haven't gotten confirmation whether they've heard it or not, and I'm not sure if I ever will.  We probably won't get to play the game until 2 years later, but I'm excited for it.  It's currently at 2.8 Million Dollars and still has 15 days to go.

I knew I would crash in motivation after finishing the remix for Bloodstained, and it was hard to get past.  I went back to working on my Guardian Legend Remix project and created probably the least inspiring remix I've done so far.  But I got through with it because I wanted to move on and continue working rather than brood over one remix.  I did that with the first remix on this project and wasted a lot of time, but I suppose it was worth it.  I've already started on the next remix, but I've got some things on my mind that's threatening to impeded on my progress.  I haven't looked at available jobs in a while and am thinking it might be a good time to take a look at listings and apply for some.  Then there's also the problem with incoming distractions.  June and July are my favorite months of the year, right next to December.  In these two months, there's Steam Summer Sales, E3 News and Game announcements, my birthday, 4th of July BBQ, and EVO Tournaments to watch.  Last year, I heavily invested my time looking through gaming news, buying and playing new games, and watching a bunch of fighting game tournaments and had a LOT of fun.  With very little opportunity to go out and have fun, you tend to take the smallest of pleasures and revel in them.  I have no doubt I'll be going through the same thing this year which is why I am a little worried.  I guess I'll figure it out somehow.


Looking at my backlog progress, I actually completed very few games this month compared to previous ones in the year.  The two major games I've completed this month are Dragon's Dogma and Metro: Last Light.  I've had Dragon's Dogma for a while now and really made an effort to finish it after I had completed Time and Eternity.  After playing so many RPGs, I wanted to play an Action game or Hack-n-Slash on the PS3.  I started Drakengard 3 and had mixed feelings about the game.  The quality of the graphics are not nearly as nice as the cinematics and the gameplay is slightly on the clunky side.  But I think the writing is pretty good, even though it's quite twisted.  The game has a really messed up sense of humor that's overtly sexual and violent.  For an Action game, it seems longer than most in gameplay time.  The levels look much longer later in the game, and I hope it doesn't drag out for the sake of gameplay time.  I'm enjoying it so far, though I can understand the negative feedback it's been receiving.  I also really like the music:

Here's the arranged version for the boss battle:

On 3DS, I'm still working on getting through Bravely Default.  I wanted to finish it before seeing my sister so I could return it to her, but I just couldn't finish it in time.  On PC, I'm a bit lost on what I'm really focusing on, but I suppose I want to finish Valkyria Chronicles first since I've installed that since February.  I kind of have 5-8 games I plan on finishing up before moving on, and it's really hard since Steam Summer Sale is approaching and I'll probably be adding more games to the list.  On PS Vita, Hyperdimension Neptunia U just got in the mail this past Sunday.  I was rather reluctant on pre-purchasing the game or even getting it.  From the gameplay footage I saw, I was afraid of it being too easy.  There were players who would stand there to demonstrate that even being hit there was barely a threat of dying.  Well, either they changed the game for the US release or those players were incredibly over-leveled because I often lost half my health in one hit or died really quickly.  I didn't mind it because I wanted the challenge.  I was also afraid the game might be too simplistic.  In a way, it kinda is as most missions require the player to kill a certain amount of enemies in a small closed-off arena.  There doesn't seem to be enough depth to the game and that kind of saddens me.  It seems like the new game they're working on uses the same game engine as HDN:U but with zombie like creatures.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  I wouldn't be so bothered by this if I was paying $20 for these spin-offs.

At the very least, I like the humor in HDN:U that the series is known for.  But I don't know if I can justify buying anymore HDN games at full price if they're going to spew out so many games at once.


I've been listening to the soundtrack to Senran Kagura Estival Versus today and I'm really liking a lot of the songs.  They're a bit different from usual, but perhaps they're all following a theme.  In Senran Kagura 2 (which is set to release in the US this Fall), the music sounds a lot heavier and darker.  The opening is also darker.  But in Estival Versus, the music and game looks and sounds happier and lighter.  It looks like the theme is based around the beach, which might explain some of the more happy sounding music.  I'm actually a bit disappointed in Ikaruga's theme this time around.  It doesn't really stand out like it usually does.  Although Murasaki's Theme isn't nearly as good as it was in Shinovi Versus, I still kind of like that powerful opening:

I loved Yomi's themes in Burst, but didn't like it as much in Shinovi Versus.  It was a little weird in Senran Kagura 2, but at least I thought it was okay.  But this new theme of her's in Estival Versus has some of that flavor that Burst did with an uplifting, bouncy theme.  It's sort of fun and carefree and catchy which I like.

I'm also liking the themes for the 5 new characters.  Jasmine/Sayuri's theme has an opening that sounds so akin to Dynasty Warriors' music that I would believe it to be from that game just by hearing that one section.  Renka's Theme definitely stood out to me.  It's like DDR music mixed with Taiko no Tatsujin (Taiko Drum Master).  I remember seeing a short footage of Renka's gameplay and how she fights using Bachi sticks and smacks enemies like a Taiko drum.  The song is hyper, exciting and catchy.  And also, that Taiko playing is so entrancing.


We probably won't see Senran Kagura Estival Versus until next year, but it'll be a game to look forward to.