Back in December 2013, I had no idea that a casual conversation with Kimimi on Twitter about how we wanted to play more Falcom games would quickly evolve into a month-long themed game event that centered around encouraging people to play more games in their backlog/”to play” list. Falcom Month was so well received that I decided to take the plunge and do a different gaming theme every month for all of 2014, and now, thanks to everyone’s support, I’m continuing it into 2015!
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| Credit goes to Kimimi for the lovely image to go with this post! Can you guess what theme each game corresponds to? |
Last year I pretty much planned every month as I went along, which didn’t do me any organizational favors, so this year I’ve gone ahead and picked every theme ahead of time! If you’re curious as to what’s on the horizon or would like to plan your game playthroughs/purchases, the full list is below. But, if you’d like to keep upcoming themes a surprise, exit out of this page now and be sure to follow me on Twitter to get the announcement for the upcoming month’s theme at the beginning of the last full week of every month.
Oh, and to bring in 2015 with bells and whistles, January will be dedicated to rhythm games (#rhythmmonth)! This was the most requested theme in my survey, so I hope a lot of people participate! A full rundown post in the usual Community Game-Along style will be coming shortly.
January – Rhythm games
February – Visual novels From Software
March – From Software Monster Hunter-likes
April – Yuji Naka
May – Monster Hunter-likes Visual novels
June – Fighting games
July – JRPGs
August – Point and click adventure
September – Spike Chunsoft
October – Kusoge
November – Natsume
December – Yoko Shimomura
[Update 1/18: Shuffled around February, March, and May themes]
Chime in with your thoughts on the different themes in the comments! I hope you have at least a couple to look forward to this year. I know I do!
Yayyy! Maybe it’s time to beat Project Diva F 2nd on Hard!?
Love this list, I will do my best to partake! I think I have game ready for most of these themes 😀
Wonderful! I already know which rhythm games I’ll be playing this month, but I’m not sure about which VNs I’ll play in February. I wonder if either the Vita version of Hatoful Boyfriend or the Vita version of Steins;Gate will be out in time?
If they aren’t out, I wholeheartedly recommend sweet fuse if you are looking for vita stuff.
I am looking forward to Yoko Shimomura month. So much great music will fill twitter I’m sure.
Thanks, Rowan, but I’ve already played through Sweet Fuse. Very much liked it, though! I’ve also played through (and enjoyed) Hakuoki for PSP.
That I could have thought of since I’m actually sure I’ve discussed this with you.
Hmm, DS, you’ve surely played most of the decent vns there. CING’s work too point and clickish for this. If you aren’t going PC how about going mobile tablet…
Although you are making me think of what to play for Vn month myself… Maybe it’s time to patch that copy of dramatical murder
Looking forward to pretty much every month (aside from maybe April and August) haha xD
Unfortunately, Rowan, mobile/tablet is out as an option for me. PC/Mac is a possibility, but I’d much rather play a console or handheld game. Are 999/Virtue’s Last Reward for DS/3DS considered visual novels? If so, I have 999 and have even played a bit of it, but I never really know if it’s considered VN or survival horror, etc. 😛 Oh, or maybe there are some Wii VNs that I’ve failed to recognize?
I agree handheld is the format for VNs. I and many people count 999 and VLR as VNs. I think they are acceptable.
Wii VNs… Well there is PW? When you get to point and click adventure Another Code is a solid recommend too. But yeah in english I think there aren’t really any for wii…
Wait a minute! Bryan does this mean you finally bought a Vita? ^^
If so..hrmm. Sorry for shouting but *DANGANRONPA* now! ^^
Rhythm games…hrmm rhythm games.
My thumbs still hurt from all that excessive Miku-ing (─‿‿─)
Can go for broke
Ah, then I’ll probably use February’s game-along to (finally) play through 999 for DS. Thank you!
Erm, not yet, Franggio, but soon. Very soon 🙂 Also, duh, of course I’ll buy the first Danganronpa along with it. Can’t believe I forgot that 😛
ok ok 🙂
I’ll *shout* some more at you at a later date then (─‿‿─)
No worries. I certainly don’t mind the shouting!
Make August the time to play dreamfall the longest journey or CING’S master works on DS.
Look up the glitch for the 3ds version of VLR, it’s quite serious, but avoidable.
Thank you for the warning, Rowan, although it’s going to be some time before I even consider buying VLR, as I have to work my way through 999 first!
Well in that case if you haven’t bought it, just get it for vita.
Are we going to go with #spiketember for Spike Chunsoft month?
Hah, that’s a good one! I haven’t thought far enough ahead to decide on hashtags, but I’ll keep it in mind 😉
I’ll have to go back to Miku and attempt extreme @_@
Awesome, so glad to hear it!
Indeed!! I wanted to try something a little different
Great, can’t wait to see what you play!
Go for it!!
Yeah! I think composer as a theme is a great one. And Yoko Shimomura has done so much. I mean that month you could play Final Fight, Parasite Eve, Half Minute Hero: Second Coming, Block Block, and so much more.
I mean, MOST of her work is RPGs, particularly Square ones, but there is a decent bit to work with.
Well, guess I’m going to finally replay Bowser’s Inside Story in December.
MarchMon(th) is nearly underway. Time to buy 4g I think.
what a lovely theme, and an alliteration too. I’m rather fond of those!
oh! while it has a strong fan community in the wider context of JRPGs I find suikoden and suikoden 2 to be a bit under the radar of most people. therefore I would love if people got to experience these gems :3
JRPGJuly might even inspire me to actually finish tales of xillia 2 and maybe even begin abyss… 😀
I hope JRPG July inspires you to play some games! I have Suikoden 2, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet…