Operation Finish All The Games: February 2016

With February now in my rear-view mirror, it's time to check in with my ongoing quest to clear out my game backlog. While many people like to tackle the "Four in February" challenge, I'm perfectly happy to stick with my original goal of finishing one game a month throughout the entire year. How did I do with 29 cold days to work with?

To recap the rules I've set up:

• I must finish one game a month. By "finish" I mean completing the main story mode and getting the end sequence, credits and so on.

• Side-story and post-story content don't have to be completed. If I really like the game I'll go back but I'm not going to hold it against myself if I don't.

• More than one game can be finished per month, but it will not carry over into future months' quotas.

• A game does not have to be started and finished in the same month. I can spend several months on one game, or finish up games I put aside years ago.

• There is no particular order to the games I choose to play or any particular games I am required to play. I'm not finishing every single game I've never completed over the course of my life: Just a selected backlog.

• Single episodes of a larger game do not count toward the quota. It's all or nothing.

• If I buy a new game, I have to finish an additional game that month to make up for it.

The last two rules on the list there are new in 2016, and the latter one was a point of contention for me this month. You see, I received a copy of Fire Emblem Fates from Nintendo earlier this month. So I started it, not necessarily thinking I'd finish it, but there was that question: If I receive a game as a gift or a sample, am I now required to complete an extra game for the month? I didn't buy it but, at the same time, my backlog has now increased anyway. Ultimately, I've decided that the matter was ultimately out of my control and that I shouldn't hold those extra games against myself.

So what did I finish this month? Well... I finally finished Yo-Kai Watch! I started it back in November, but spent way too much time wandering around aimlessly to make any real progress. It's not actually a long game! Well, not officially. While the list of chapters in the story mode is mercifully short, I discovered that there's a minimum amount of side-quests you are required to complete before you can fight Squiddilius McKraken. If you haven't hit that number, you get dropped onto a giant cake. That's not a metaphor.

After making my way out of the surprisingly tedious dessert world I ventured back to the city and started tying up as many quests as I could, as well as leveling up my team of Yo-kai. I admit I never really delved into the attributes and tribes as much as I should have: I ended up with a very Eerie-tribe-heavy team. It was ultimately fine, as a lot of patience and copious use of healing items got me through the final battle. I watched the lovely, though predictable ending. Goodbye Yo-kai... until the post-game quests, of course. There are always post-game quests!

But for now, I'm going to concentrate on playing Fire Emblem Fates and romancing all the characters. Also, I'm reading Console Wars by Blake Harris, because I need a break from looking at screens all the time. So I'm reading about them instead.

Games finished: 1
Squids battled: 1
Girls wooed: Not enough