You may recall how I’ve declared to attack my backlog of games by challenging myself to pick one game and sticking with it for the whole month. Depending on the game length, boss difficulty I encounter, and free time I have during the week and weekends, the effort is made with the intention of completing a game to the best of my ability. This may mean I may only complete the main story missions of a game, but not all or any of the side missions. As much as I want to get 100% completion for a game, let’s face it, I don’t have that much time to devote all my availability to doing that. With this month nearly over, I’m here to report my results as I promised.
Having a head start with KoA was a huge advantage for me when I picked this game as my first challenge. The main story quests I still had left to playthrough wasn’t too much of a daunting task. It was a lot easier than I thought. I was half-way done with the game, but got sidetracked doing the side missions offered throughout the world of the game. Once I left those alone and refocused on the larger story itself, it was smooth sailing after that.
I played the game on Normal and I didn’t encounter any real hindrances to my progress. Mini and big boss fights were easy to get through for the most part, maybe a few deaths once or twice, but that had more to do with making stupid mistakes or needing a little bit of time to figure out what the attack patterns were of my opponent. The only real problem I encountered was the very end of the game when I had to fight Tirnoch. It’s not that the fight was particularly hard to do, but it had more to do with an in-game camera angle problem of being in the precise spot to highlight the button to activate the final finishing move to end the game and defeat Tirnoch once and for all. It took several tries and a near rage quit to finally get to the end.
I managed to finish the main story ahead of schedule than I had previously thought. Instead of starting on a new game, I decided to do more of the side missions I haven’t finished. I did say I would devote an entire month to playing KoA and I wanted to stick with it. It’s not like there wasn’t anything left to play in the game. If there’s one game that will occupy all of your time for several months to come, if you choose not to play anything else, it would be KoA. There were optional side story lines to playthrough and I have completed a few.
Now that it’s truly the last week of February, I’m ready to leave this on my shelf with a sense of accomplishment. I would say this month has been successful in getting one challenge conquered. I do plan on doing a formal review and my personal thoughts on KoA in a few weeks, so watch out for that. What game will I choose to tackle next for March? You’ll have to wait and see.
simpleek 
Congratulations on finishing this one! How exciting. I’m enjoying tackling my backlog too — feels good to finish them! =)
Thanks! It really does feel great to have finished one game and being able to move onto the next. Makes the backlog not as intimidating to tackle. 🙂
Yay for getting games done! I’d like to get to this one myself someday, so I look forward to your review. Can’t wait to see which game comes next. 🙂
I’m still in the process of deciding, but the big reveal will happen in a few weeks! 🙂 Overall, I enjoyed the game. There were some minor things I had issue with, but I think you’ll like this one, if you like RPGs!
I have a half way game save in this that’s been on my shelf for about a year. Really need to go back and finish it up. Solid game
I agree. The combat system is a lot of fun and I enjoy changing my weapons any time I want to.
Yeah, I forgot how in depth KoA can be. There’s certainly a ton of content in there so congrats on pushing through to the end of the main story! I tend to get wildly distracted in games like this.
And yes, that final battle was tougher than it should have been for non-gameplay reasons.
I do too, but after doing so many side quests, all I want to do is get on with the story. I hope I can finish the other side quests I missed at a later date when there isn’t so much in my backlog to play!
I didn’t expect the final boss to be harder than it had to be, especially on something so small too.
Impressive! I wasn’t able to get through KoA for some reason. I may have to start working on my own backlog though – miss that sense of accomplishment.
It’s the best feeling in the world! Finishing a game and then being able to move onto the next one does make it feel like your backlog isn’t an insurmountable mountain you can’t conquer.
I started playing Kingdoms of Amalur again with fervor 🙂
Congrats! I’m looking forward to your review. 🙂 I don’t usually follow a schedule, but I do try to stick to one game and just play it and play it until I finish before moving onto the next one despite the lure of other games, because it’s just such an awesome feeling to finish it! It’s not the way for everyone, but I certainly enjoy doing things that way. I’d love to try your 1 game a month challenge though, because it certainly sounds like a great way to cut back on that dreaded backlog!
Thanks! 🙂 It seems to be working so far. I used to be able to focus on one game before moving onto the next, except I had less games I actually owned at the time. Now, I’m constantly distracted by the new games everyone else is playing and can’t resist the urge to play a little bit of the newer games I either buy or receive as presents!