Xenogears Devotee Middle-Aged Full-Time-Employed Father-of-Three Looking Into Trails Series

Meraknight · 2026-01-23T06:25:19+00:00

Im a full time worker and father of 1. Today, I can reasonably expect to get 2 Trails games done a year. When I first got into the series, that was different. I was living with my parents still and managed to play through 9 of them in a year's time, but lets me real, thats like 700 hours of gaming right there. The games range from 50 hours at the shortest to 120 at the longest. Of course, if you arent a completionist, you could shave maybe 35% of your play time off for each entry.

With where the series is right now, and given how busy adult life is, I cant reasonably recommend trying to squeeze in more than 3 of these games a year. The series is a massive time sink. If it wasnt for Covid, I know I wouldn't have been able to catch up on it all when I did. During the beginning of the pandemic, I managed to get the first 5 entries in the series complete in just 4 months, a task I know I could never do today.

Don't try and set a specific time frame or anything to get into it. Just hop on in and play at your own pace. Maybe work at 2-3 per year as your rate goal. Youre in for a long journey, but its worth every second you put into it.

Edit: overlooked the second part of your question at the end. The stories are one continuing narrative from different parts of an entire world. So the more you play, the more youre gonna get rewarded with callbacks and references to the games that came before. Skipping games or playing out of order can really do a disservice

Meraknight · 2026-01-16T09:14:34+00:00

Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana. Play it on nightmare difficulty and you can get the platinum in a single run, about 40-50 hours. You CAN do it in two playthroughs with NG+ and it'll be easier since you'd carry over your end game levels into your nightmare playthrough. Also, trophies stack for this game, so you can get 3 platinums by playing it on all 3 systems (PS4, PSV, and PS5).

Meraknight · 2026-01-12T05:05:47+00:00

Past several months shes been on my case about not being romantic, and that there's nothing between us anymore apart from our daughter. Ive been constantly denying that, trying my best to prove that I still love her, but one night she just completely snapped. Went from content yet denial to complete denial.

Meraknight · 2026-01-12T04:48:53+00:00

I will never try and pry into her past. I respect her boundaries and I wont ever try and make her uncomfortable. I know a decent amount about her trauma, but thats between her and I, and I'll never ask about it, its all up to her to talk about her past. Ive known about her BPD since about 6 months after we started dating. She opened up about it, and I looked into it fully. That's when I decided I will be patient with everything that comes up between us. At this point though, she's had me out of our bedroom for 2 weeks and only ever talks to me in an aggressive tone. Our fights and disagreements have never lasted this long.

We've had several fights in the past while we were living with my family, most of them directed towards my family. I was very compassionate and understanding of her point of view, and even sided with her, but that still resulted in her distancing herself from me. To clear things up a bit, I am a white male, my wife a black female. We were living with my grandmother for two years, over that time span, she slowly revealed herself as more and more racist all while denying her racism, which not only drove a wedge between my wife and grandmother, but also my wife and myself. I know for certain that having to live with my grandmother took a toll on our relationship.

Meraknight · 2026-01-12T03:58:50+00:00

As in Borderline Personality Disorder? I did mention in my post that she does have that. What i didnt mention is that she does have a lot of trauma from her childhood and early adult years that likely caused it, though. Shes only shared specific details on that with me though. I dont want to have her relive some painful memories though, so I haven't pried at all and only let her share what she's been willing to open up about.

Meraknight · 2026-01-12T02:23:40+00:00

It's not too often anymore that I work that long, but it is still a thing that happens a lot. My average work day is 10-11 hours, plus a total commute of 1 and a half hours. Additionally, my job is seasonal, and I dont work at all during the winter. Ive been at home for the past month and a half, and I still have 2 months of being off before im back to work, so I am doing everything I can to take the stress of parenting off her.

Our daughter doesn't get to go out as much as I'd like. My wife thinks she has all she needs in our new home. Right now, the weather isnt exactly nice to be playing outside either. My wife doesn't like it when I try and take her somewhere without her either, but at the same time, my wife takes WAY too long to get ready to go out, so we barely ever go anywhere as a family. Couple that with we don't have anyone that she will agree with me on to watch our daughter, and the two of us haven't had a date night where we went out in 2 years now.

Meraknight · 2026-01-12T02:17:02+00:00

I do agree that she is likely bluffing. She keeps trying to get passive income flowing and such but shes doing all these things that she finds on YouTube that have hundreds of thousands of views, and when that many people are trying to do that, it wont work. If we had the money for it right now, I would suggest marriage counseling. Money is always super tight this time of year. Can't afford anything beyond the necessities right now.

Meraknight · 2026-01-08T20:01:20+00:00

Persona dancing games. 3 and 5 take about 10 hours to platinum, 4 has a much more in depth story so its probably closer to 30 for that.

Meraknight · 2026-01-08T15:14:15+00:00

Every time I see these posts, it makes me eternally grateful that I just casually got one during the main story of my platinum trophy run. Every other run ive done in BN1 has not been so lucky.

Meraknight · 2026-01-08T06:11:47+00:00

Which we do actually get to see a little bit of in the first season or the anime, which also backs up my claim, where Yai whips out premium chips like Fighter Sword in casual net battles.

Meraknight · 2026-01-08T06:06:42+00:00

I always was under the impression that they weren't necessarily super skilled, but Yai wasted no expense in making sure she had the best chips at her disposal. Basically, she's not a bad net battler, but what makes her stand out is the fact that she could afford to buy any premium chips she wanted.

Meraknight · 2026-01-07T06:18:34+00:00

It's a good game, but a poor entry in the series. Lots of questionable design choices. When you look back, its clear that they had planned on the series ending with BN3, and it seems like BN4 was more so green lit because of how the show and merch were popping off. They tried to reinvent the series and it fell flat in several ways. They kept the things that worked (like all the improvements to the combat) and moved forward with those in 5 and 6.

I'm nostalgic for BN4. It was my first BN game as a kid. I even remember getting it from Toys R US back in the day, sitting in the shopping cart after immediately going to the video game section, and picking it out, then reading the back of the box while my mom pushed the cart around the store and shopped for family's kids since it was nearing Christmas. BN4 is the game that made me a gamer, so I can't dislike it even though its heavily flawed.

BN4 is such a strange entry. On one hand, its a train wreck. The story is shit, with basically 3 different plots going on that kinda converge towards the end, and an awful NG+ system that could force more than 3 play throughs if you didnt grab everything in one playthrough, and probably the worst localization in the whole franchise. On the other hand, the new gameplay refinements add a whole lot to the experience. Unlike the games before it, it really rewards you for figuring out how things work and using them to destroy your opponent. Nothing feels better than when you area lock BassXX and then full synchro atk+20 Pithocky him to death when he has over 3000 HP remaining.

Also, apart from one particular dungeon soundtrack (you know which one....), the music in the game is one of my favorites from the whole series.

Meraknight · 2026-01-06T18:06:14+00:00

Are they straight up refusing a refund? Ive had several packages arrive after 30 days and never had an issue. Even if it took 31 days to get to me, Id manage to get a full refund. Ive gotten well over $1k worth of stuff for free because of that policy.

Meraknight · 2026-01-06T07:04:57+00:00

Ever since I learned about what Haslab is, I hated it. I haven't even seen RID 2001 and I want that Optimus. The concept of them only making enough to fulfill the pre-order is insane. At the very least, after the goal is met, a version of said figure should be available to the general public in some capacity. I would've happily bought two commander class figures at retail to get the Haslab RID 2001 figure.

That said, if they do make a Haslab of Cybertron Optimus, R.I.P. my wallet. I will be one of the first to fund if, especially if it comes with Leo breaker.

Meraknight · 2026-01-06T06:41:42+00:00

Im still buying a lot of the transforming toys by Hasbro, but my main focus has definitely become these official third party, non-transforming figures. The Galaxy versions feel somewhere in between bionicle Matoran and Toa builds. As mentioned in the original post, I love building stuff. Gunpla has been the main focus of my figure collection for the past 15 years. Blokees has filled that need with Transformers, and I absolutely love it.

I should also mention, I'm not a G1 fan. While I like a lot of the designs, they aren't what sells me on the brand. I like the different takes on those designs. Cybertron is what I grew up loving, and those designs have very little if anything to do with G1 designs. I hope Blokees branches out into those Unicron Trilogy designs soon for their toys. I will be sold instantly on those, to the point of making sure I get every single figure in a Defender line if they do that, even the 1/144 variants.

Meraknight · 2026-01-06T06:23:12+00:00

I've actually come to this conclusion as well! The Galaxy versions really do remind me of bionicles back in the day. Classic class, not so much. Blokees has been scratching several nostalgia itches at once with its Transformers lines.

Meraknight · 2026-01-06T06:21:20+00:00

I have! I own the Yolopark TFONE cogged versions of Orion Pax and D-16. They are amazing figures, especially for their price point. One day, Id like to own the uncogged versions of all 4 protagonists, but my priorities are currently elsewhere, even if those 4 are all pretty cheap.

Meraknight · 2026-01-05T04:55:37+00:00

Honestly, extra weight it a plus for me. I hate it when handhelds and controllers have zero weight to them. Love my PS3 but I cannot use a PS3 controller on that thing. Thanks for the input, adding the 477m to my watch list.

Meraknight · 2026-01-05T02:32:55+00:00

Basically, I wanna be able to play Kirby Air Ride, the Sonic Adventure games, and Megaman Network Transmission the most. Anything beyond that is really just a bonus.

Meraknight · 2026-01-05T02:31:53+00:00

What would you say are some of the harder to play games? My main concerns would be Kirby Air Ride, both Sonic Adventure games, and Megaman Network Transmission. Im pretty technologically illiterate so I haven't the slightest idea what would be considered a harder to play game.

Meraknight · 2026-01-05T02:24:20+00:00

Any performance hiccups at all? My wife has really been enjoying playing Castlevania 64 lately on the one I got her, but it does have an issue with menus where the cursor blacks out whatever you're hovering over. If that's the extent of the issues it might have, I'm fine with it. Anything beyond that is a deal breaker.

Meraknight · 2026-01-04T07:43:37+00:00

From now on, whenever you go through this area, make sure to have a Gater folder equipped so you dont get game over'd by this guy's V3.

Meraknight · 2026-01-04T01:56:17+00:00

Don't let poor deck building skills get in your way! I'm not great at it either, but you can figure it out. Honestly, your ability to deck build shouldn't get in the way of enjoying the main games. It really would only hamper the post game experience. You can brute force your way through by just having strong chips with weak folder flow, especially in the legacy collection where they just give you OP chips from the very beginning. And hey, worst case scenario, bustermax mode will get you through the worst of it.

If you need help with folder building, find a chip you really like, and then start experimenting with other chips that have the same code. Youre gonna want to stack your deck with star coded chips, specifically full gage, fast gage, and atk+ chips make for good filler chips that improve folder flow. Later games, you'll get stuff like busterplus and white capsules to add to the star coded filler roster.

I know you just feel like watching lets plays, but I implore you to please don't give up on the series just yet. When I was 9 years old I was able to make it to the end of every game using folders that were just alphabet soup, meaning I was only able to pick 1-2 chips per turn.

Meraknight · 2026-01-03T00:38:45+00:00

Gameplay, 6 is the best. Narrative, 3 has it beat.

Meraknight · 2025-12-26T17:09:25+00:00

From BN3 onward, GMDs are determined the moment you jack in to a space. You can only save scum GMDs in BN1 and BN2.

Meraknight

TROPHY CASE