Who actually makes New Year’s resolutions? I know I never have before, but I’m looking to change that.

In 2014, I told myself that I was going to work to clear out a backlog of games that I wanted to play. Some of these were games I’ve never played before and others were ones that I’ve played but never beaten. Out of the 100+ games on my backlog, I got through maybe five or six. That’s just not going to cut it. So, I’ve decided to make an actual list of games and a New Year’s gaming resolution to beat them.

The list of games that I have to beat for my 2015 gaming resolution doesn’t include new releases. I’ve gotten pretty good at beating new games and not letting them sit around. Being able to finish new releases has me adding less games to my backlog, and I plan to keep it that way.

My backlog is made up of games from several eras that I’ve always wanted to beat. This means some old titles are going to be popping up. With the lack of traditional RPGs being released in the last few years, I’ve also been digging through old games to find more to fill my appetite.

I’m obviously not going to be able to clear my backlog in a single year, but I can help reduce its size. That being said, my New Year’s gaming resolution includes about 20 games. Maybe I’m a little too optimistic, but as long as I don’t run into what Alia and I refer to as “End of Game Syndrome” (Getting to the end of a game and not finishing it), I think I can do this.

Now that I’ve got the background out of the way, let’s look at my list of games to beat in 2015.

• The Last Story (Wii) — This isn’t actually a game I bought for myself, which is weird to me. I’d heard about it before, but it wasn’t until Alia decided to picked it up that I decided I wanted to play it. It’s currently the game from this list that I’m playing and I’m about 20 hours in. So far, I’m enjoying myself.

 

• Ar Tonelico (PS2) — I got this several years ago for Christmas and its been sitting on my shelf for most of that time. I did put some time into it when I first got it, but its been so long that I think I’ll need to start over when I do play it again.

 

• Okami (PS2) — This is one that I never beat because I saw the ending early. I played about 70% through the game before stopping. The only reason I quit is because my sister got really into it and beat it before I did. Unfortunately, I watched how it finished and lost my drive to beat it. I still have a great memory of the game and what happens in it. This means I’ll just be booting up my old save to finish the game.

 

• Grandia 2 (PS2) — This game suffered from End of Game Syndrome. I got to the final dungeon and stopped playing. Funny thing is, I did the exact same thing with the first Grandia. I’m confident that I could pick this up again from where I left off, but I’m still going to start it over just because I love how these games play.

 

• Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii) — Alia got this for Christmas this year (Yeah, right before it was announced that it would be a digital release on Wii U) and it seemed like a good opportunity for me to try the series out again. I put a lot of time into the first Metroid Prime, but it just didn’t sit well with me (Mostly due to the controls). I’m hoping I can get past that in this playthrough and complete all three games.

 

• Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U) — Yeah, I still haven’t beat this yet. I’ve got almost 400 hours in and I’m still loving it. I’ve added it to the list because I really need to finish it up before Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate comes out. I’m near the end and this will probably be the next game on my list after I finish The Last Story.

 

• Final Fantasy III (DS) — There are only a few Final Fantasy games that I’ve never beat and III is one of them. For the longest time it wasn’t available in the U.S. and I even tried playing a fan translation of the NES version. However, I ended this playthough when it was announced that the DS version was coming to America. I was a PSP player instead of a DS player so I had to wait a few years to pick this up, but now I can finally play through it.

 

• Wild Arms (PSN) — This is a game that could almost be mistaken for suffering from End of Game Syndrome. I first played it while borrowing a PS1 back when it came out, but I had to return it before I could beat it. A few years later I traded my copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for the PS2 for a copy of it (Yes, I’m still kicking myself over that trade). Unfortunately, the game froze right before what I believe to be the last dungeon. I bought it on PSN a couple of years ago and plan to finally finish it this year.

 

• Suikoden II (PSN) — I’ve never played Suikoden II, but I’ve always heard great things about it. I liked the first game well enough and I’m willing to sit down and beat this one.

 

• The Legend of Dragoon (PSN) — Another game I’ve never played. A friend of mine had a copy when we were kids and it looked really cool. Besides that, this is a game that I’ll be going into blind.

 

• Lunar 2: Eternal Blue (PS1) — This was a fairly hard game to track down, but I did finally find a copy. Like Suikoden, this is another game where I played the first in the series but not the second. I have no idea what it’s about or how it plays. Should be fun.

 

• Chrono Trigger (DS) — This is kind of a cheat on my list. I’ve played Chrono Trigger and beat it before (multiple times even). It’s actually my favorite game and I wish there was more to the series. My main reason for buying this version was so I could take it with me anywhere and to see the extra endings that were added in.

 

• The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS) — I never had any desire to play this game. Tried a demo of it out once and found the touch controls to be really annoying. However, Alia says I should give it another try even though it’s not the best.

 

• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS) — I was skeptical of Zelda and trains, but getting to play the demo at E3 2009 changed my opinion on this. Not having a DS, I was unable to play this when it came out. Luckily, Alia owns a copy that I can play.

 

• Final Fantasy IX (PSN) — Another Final Fantasy game that I’ve never beat. This may be my least favorite in the series. I can’t even pinpoint why I don’t like it. Something just throws me off about it. I’ve been to the third disc before back when it first came out, but I had to return it to the friend I borrowed it from. I’ve tried playing through it again via my PSP, but couldn’t. Let’s hope that changes this year.

 

• Titan Quest: Immortal Throne — Watched a friend’s brother play through this years ago on his, at the time, powerful gaming PC when it first came out . It looked great so I picked it up on Steam a couple of years ago. At first I played with friends a lot, but then we all fell away and I lost interest in the game. It’s by no means bad and I’ve recently picked it up again. Pretty sure I’ll beat this one this year.

 

• The Witcher — Steam sales add a lot of games to my list for cheap, and I’m okay with that. I picked this and its sequel up for $5 and have been wanting to play them because multiple friends have told me how good they are.

 

• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings — Have to beat the first one before I can tackle this one. This is actually really low priority on my list, but I figured I’d include it anyway.

 

• Legend of Grimrock — Another great game that I started playing and never beat. Alia was actually the one to convince me to buy it. She was watching the Yogscast play through it at the time. I’d heard a bit about it and thought I would enjoy it so I picked it up during a Steam sale.

 

• Metro 2033 — I don’t remember when or how this got into my Steam library. I think I heard John Breeden gushing about it on a podcast and figured I should give it a try. Couldn’t really get into it at first, but maybe I can get around that this time.

 

• Assassin’s Creed II — I know, I know. “You haven’t played Assassin’s Creed II!?” Nope. In fact, the only one I’ve played is the first and I beat it. Really enjoyed it and started playing II. I stopped playing because my graphics card died (RIP) and I just never got back around to it when I bought a new one.

 

• Darksiders — A guy from work (I was a Walmart employee during college and an intern here at GiN) really liked this game and talked about it all the time. It seemed interesting enough and I remembered that when THQ was going under. A Steam sale happened right around this time on THQ games and I picked this, Darksiders II and roughly 20 other games from THQ up for $20.

 

• Darksiders II — Just like with The Witcher II, this game is a low priority on my list because I haven’t beat the first one. I just wanted to include it just in case I get more done than I expect this year.

Alright. That’s it. That’s my list of games to beat for my 2015 gaming resolution. They aren’t listed in any kind or priority or anything like that. It’s just a list that I can pick from at random to help me achieve my goals. Honestly, most of my decisions on what games to play when will probably be decided by a dice roll.

Here’s hoping you all have a great year of gaming in 2015! I’ll be running another editorial at the end of the year to report how well I’ve done with my gaming resolution.

(Note: I recently got my hands on a copy of Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl. I only play a Harvest Moon game once every few years because they’re like crack to me. That being said, I might start playing it this year, but I’m not adding it to the list and I’m going to try to limit myself so that I don’t kill my productivity for an entire month or more.)