In the last post, I was talking about how I always ended up doing the grind at some point in any game I played that had leveling/buying shit. I’m deep in it while playing Promise Mascot Agency (Kaizen Game Works), and I really wish I weren’t that way. Part of the problem is that I have an obsessive personality, but it’s also that I usually buy games waaaaay after they are released, which means that I get the DLC with it. I was playing Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions), which came with the DLC. I was into it (but didn’t love it as much as other people did) until the end of the second act/beginning of the third. Then, the story did me so dirty, I instantly hated it. I won’t get into that because it’s not really relevant here, but I played the third act with no joy in my heart.
I should have stopped once I finished the main game, but something compelled me to play the DLC. Which was more of the same and less enjoyable. It had cat sanctuaries, though, so that was a bonus. By the end of the DLC, I hated it so much, I quit during the last mission. I was probably half an hour to the end of the game, but I just could not make myself do it. I went back a month or so later to finish it up, but everything in me rebelled at playing it again.
I get this way with every game, even ones I love. At the end of every FromSoft game, I am so tired and weary, and yet, I keep trudging on. I begin to hate the game with every fiber of my body until I kill the final boss. Then, the fog lifts, and I’m back in love with the game again. Except the first Dark Souls. I hated it for whole year after I finished it.
With From games, I always bounce back and want to play them again. Except Sekiro, but that’s not what this post is about. Oh, and Bloodborne. What I sohuld say is that I always have one of the Dark Souls or Elden Ring playthrough on the go.
Today, as I was playing Promise Mascot Agency, my mind was on automatic. I’m not progressing the story at all–I’m just trying to clean up the side quests. And there are so many of them. I started a new mechanic today in which I (well, rather, Pinky, my assistant) debates with the corrupt mayor around the prefecture. Except, the game never explains what this means. It told me that I had to talk to NPCs in each area to learn things to use against the mayor. When I tried to initiate a debate, it would give me a percentage in multiples of 25%. When I saw 100%, I assumed that meant I would automatically win the debate.