I usually like to explore. Most of the time I've been the type of person that wants to do every possible optional thing before progressing the story anymore. However, this has changed recently as the number of games have increased. I know it's also because while the number of good games have increased, the number of awesome don't want to put down games has actually declined. So what ends up happening is that I want to finish, but I don't care about the optional stuff anymore.

This actually plagued me with Zelda: Spirit Tracks. The game was... fun... but nothing spectacular and certainly not a couldn't put it down thing. I ran through most of the game in a day or two, you can see that with the "stamps" you collect. Suddenly, there will be a gap of a few days, then a week, then 2 weeks... and that's when I forced myself to finally beat it. I didn't bother with any of the sidequests for the first time in a Zelda game. I have the default size bomb bags and arrows... and only like half of the bottom row of hearts. That's unheard of for me... but it's just what's going on these days!

THE JACKEL