So this is the first non-intro thing I am writing for Sword Chomp. It’s somewhat nerve-wracking, but in some ways, starting to write something always is. When I was trying to come up with what would be a good thing to talk about with you fine readers, one of the first ideas I had was how I intend to spend my Summer, with regards to playing video games. I don’t have much in the way of Summer plans otherwise; I may live on an island, but I am not a beach-goer, with a beach-body. I am in-shape mind you, assuming you consider very round to be a shape. You folks aren’t here though for beach talk anyway, this is a video game website, so let’s talk about video games god dammit.
If you listened to episode 246 of the Chompcast, you heard me talking about how I have been playing The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3. I have since finished that game, and moved onto the fourth and final entry. I have personally found the series to be a ton of fun as a whole, and I will probably end up writing some larger, review-type article for the “Cold Steel” story-arc once I finish it all. It is an RPG series with a ton of heart, a ton of dialogue, and really expects a commitment from the player. However, it returns on that commitment with a country-spanning story of intense politics, characters with heart, and varied settings. It’s worth playing, and worth sinking a considerable amount of time into.
But moving on through the Summer, I have two real, concrete gaming goals. The first is to catch up as much as humanly possible on the “Trails” series. I have played Trails in the Sky, but I have never finished the second or third entries in that grouping. I own the Geofront translated version of Trails from Zero, but thanks to their partnership with NIS, I am left stranded with Trails to Azure, until that comes out officially in America, which is a while out. So I plan on finishing Trails of Cold Steel 4, then going back to Trails in the Sky 1-3, then playing Trails from Zero. This is a lot of playing hours, but I am so invested in the narrative at this point, that I am looking forward to it.
My second goal is somewhat related to the first. I have always wanted to stream video games, like so many people do today. Something has always stopped me though, which can really be boiled down to stage fright. I could convince myself in many ways that I should not do it, then I just wouldn’t. But I have the time and drive this Summer to dive in on this, and I want to make the most of it. I don’t have anything resembling a schedule yet, but I do plan on starting by streaming New Game+ runs of the Trails of Cold Steel series. You get to carry a lot of things over, so this really would be a replay to experience the story again, in a more condensed fashion. Past that, I have non-RPG’s I would like to stream, but we will see as time goes on. In any case, here is my Twitch channel.
Anyhoo, if you got all the way down here in your reading, thank you so much, and if you ever want to talk video games, or all things nerdy, feel free to find me on Twitter.
-Ray McGill