New Years Resolutions

New Years Resolutions for 2014

• Find a job that isn’t in sales. (Good riddance, retail.)
• Replay Final Fantasy X and give it yet another reconsideration. (I’ve never been a fan.)[1]
• Replay Final Fantasy XII and re-ignite my conversation with Brendan Keogh about it.
• Finish Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter (what “finish” means is in this case flexible because of how the game’s various endings work.)
• Continue to be capable of going on dates with betting the metaphorical emotional farm on it.
• Record, release, and promote The Breadshots Love Each Other, and be ready to follow it up in a year’s time.
• Write and record heavy metal.
• Continue to question my own privilege and the abuse of privilege of those around me even though it is a pain even though, frankly, it is often a pain in the ass to do so.[2]
• Write the scripts and design documents for my game ideas. (I might document these ideas and my difficulties to try and get them right if I’m able to make any progress whatsoever.)
• Write/start writing a good “JRPG”. (This will be at least one of the above.)
• Make a simple game using Game Maker.
• Restart and finish Xenogears,[3] and begin making headway on Xenosaga.
• Finish Persona 3
• Write about why Persona 3 is completely asinine in a formalized manner.
• Become a better competitor in King of Fighters XIII by showing demonstrable tournament results over my previous tournament result.
• Go to a major fighting game tournament.
• Revisit “Free Will and Defiance” and begin work on an updated version that includes as comprehensive a look at MGS1’s flaws as its qualities (This is the least likely to get done.)
• Finish my essay about Kingdom Hearts by September. (It’s more ambitious than “Free Will and Defiance” but a year is where I draw the line.)
• Begin reading Infinite Jest
• Begin reading either Hard-Boiled Wonderland, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle or 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
• Purchase and review Drakengard 3
• Have a PS4 ready to play Metal Gear Solid V.

- Austin C. Howe, Maryland, 2014

---

[1] The reduced-size HUD in the HD version looks like crap, by the way.

[2] Wait a minute, is “pain in the ass” homophobic? (That’s a joke.)

[3] I got stuck in a loop of inevitable failure at a particular bossfight thanks to spectacularly shitty game design.