The PS2 Backlog Committee Game Club Presents: No seriously, how the hell have I not played this yet?

[argyle]

OK, first I'll rank Crim's list:

01) Captain Tsubasa Rise of New Champions - This is my selfish pick, because it's been in my backlog for a hot minute and I'd love to get your take on it. It also seems like the kind of craziness that you would really sink your teeth into.
02) Chained Echoes - I've heard nothing but good things from this one, another one that's in my backlog as well.
03) XCOM2 - You really liked Midnight Suns which was heavily inspired by XCOM, so you may like the real thing.
04) Sakuna of Rice and Ruin - Another one in my backlog, this one I actually played just a little bit of. What I played was really good, and I think you'd probably dig it.
05) Spiritfarer - Supposed to be good, but also supposed to be depressing.
06) Fell Seal Arbiter's Mark - Had to look this one up, looks very FF Tactics-esque, which is very cool. At the same time, I hear rumors that FFT is getting a remake/remaster, and iunno about you but I'd MUCH rather play that.
07) Death End Request - I played a lot of this, and even tho I enjoyed what I played I don't know that I would recommend it? If that makes sense - it's good, but there are better RPGs out there and since they are such a time sink it's hard for me to recommend a mediocre one.
08) Daganronpa - I enjoyed this because it's nuts, but I'm not sure you would - it's basically a visual novel.
09) Weird West - I've looked at this one before and it's never really grabbed me as anything special - maybe I'm wrong tho.
10) Marvel's Avengers - I thought you already played this? Regardless, this game stinks IMO.


OK, now the final tally on my list!

tally.png (9.72 KiB) Viewed 85003 times

Wow, talk about a nail-biter! A Hat In Time eeked out the win with 1 point! I'm looking forward to starting that one. I had wanted it for a while, and until I was making this list had forgotten that I had picked it up at some point! I've heard really good things, plus it's a big change of pace from what I've been playing lately. This should be fun.

[jfissel]

I'm excited to play Kuon. I briefly started it up a couple years ago, but wasn't in the right mood to play it, so I set it aside. But I'm really looking forward to it now. I failed to really get into the Halloween gaming vibe this past season, so I'll make it a Christmas Halloween.

The results were pretty close with Disco Elysium, Fatal Frame 2 and Illbleed all having strong showings. Interesting that the winner didn't have a single first place vote. Thanks j and everyone else who voted and crim for the fun idea. If you're participating j, give us your list. And crim, I'm still working on yours. Probably tomorrow or Tuesday I'll have it sorted for you.

I'll get a little further in Like a Dragon: Gaiden and then post a few options.

Thanks, fellas!

The people have spoken. With three first-place votes and two second-places, my next game will be ...

Yakuza: Like a Dragon!

Enjoy! I really think you will.

OK, now the final tally on my list!

tally.png

Wow, talk about a nail-biter! A Hat In Time eeked out the win with 1 point! I'm looking forward to starting that one. I had wanted it for a while, and until I was making this list had forgotten that I had picked it up at some point! I've heard really good things, plus it's a big change of pace from what I've been playing lately. This should be fun.

I await your thoughts! Looks pretty cool to me.

[isthatallyougot]

I'll get a little further in Like a Dragon: Gaiden and then post a few options.

Sounds good!

Ok Crim:

1) Sakuna of Rice and Ruin - Wow this looks really fun. I thought I wasn't even aware of it, but it was already on my Steam wishlist. Too many games, lol. I need to pick this up.

2) Spiritfarer - A well-loved game with some emotional depth and plenty of charm. It's in my backlog and I've been tempted to fire it up a few times.

3) Captain Tsubasa Rise of New Champions - Anime rpg + Soccer? Sounds like crim and izzy, peanut butter and chocolate. Reminds me of Shaolin Soccer - one of my favorite comedies of all-time. It's been on my wishlist since I became aware of it. Seems like great fun to me and should be a super fun arcade/over-the-top type of sports game.

4) Danganronpa - This game's (series' - not sure which game we're talking about, lol.) vibe screams *crim* to me. Very quirky and strange.But the genre makes me uncertain for you.

5) XCOM2 - well-loved strategy/tactics game. I think it should be awesome. I hope to get to it one day.

6) Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark - Looks to be a deep and interesting tactics rpg. Not sure if game difficulty will be a turn-off for you though.

7) Weird West - Bizarre and in a potentially very good way. Stylish and strange. I wanna be a pigman. Crim's type of quirk? Although maybe a bit disjointed and bloated.

8) Chained Echoes - Looks like a fun homage to old-school rpgs with some in-depth mechanics and narrative/world building.

9) Death End Request - seems like it might be fun, although has a bit of an unpolished vibe from what I could gather.

10) Marvel's Avengers - I know you like your super-heroes, but the review I watched emphasized some buggy problems. It also seems to be very much a retread of games that have already been out, not to mention the over-saturation of Marvel in general. User score very poor overall, even in relation to mediocre critic response.

Side note- Many of these games seem pretty lengthy and you mentioned needing to be finished by a Yakuza deadline , so best get to it!

[canedaddy]

My ranking for crim:

1. Daganronpa - Pretty sure you will like this. Pure Japanese craziness.
2. Fell Seal Arbiter's Mark -- Excellent FFT ripoff. Play it the next time you're in the mood for one of those.

The rest of these I haven't played so this is based on trailers and reputation and your tastes as I perceive them:

3. Sakuna of Rice and Ruin -- Wow, this one seems awesome. I thought it was going to be one of those titty games (Senran Kagura). Added to my wish list.
4. Chained Echoes -- Looks great. Adding this to my wish list too.
5. Spiritfarer -- Beautiful, whimsical game about... dying. Interesting.
6. Weird West -- Curious about this one, which I think I have from PS+. Hard to tell if the survival elements are fun or a drag.
7. XCOM2 -- If you dug the first one, you'll probably enjoy more of that. I couldn't get into it myself.
8. Death End Request -- There's some appeal there, but the cluttered menu/text in the gameplay trailer is very offputting for me.
9. Captain Tsubasa Rise of New Champions -- Meh. Don't recall your being a sports fan or being into the anime on which this is based.
10. Marvel's Avengers -- Haven't heard anything good about this. I know you like a lot of the source material though.

[crimson_tide]

Cool beans old man, enjoy!

Tallied so far and once my man j chimes in with his choices, I will be locked in and ready to go. Glad y'all took to this idea, I look forward to hearing how everyone's misadventures go .

[isthatallyougot]

Cool beans old man, enjoy!

Tallied so far and once my man j chimes in with his choices, I will be locked in and ready to go. Glad y'all took to this idea, I look forward to hearing how everyone's misadventures go .

Yeah, thanks for the suggestion. I'd be open to doing it again. It's a fun drama awaiting the results of finding out what you're going to play next. I like that sort of suspense and uncertainty in life!

By the way, I am enjoying Kuon so far. It's very much what I expected to this point (a couple hours in), but it still has a unique survival horror flavor that is different from the other big hitters of the era like SH, RE and FF. And the FROM artistic sensibilities are very evident. I'm curious what the DNA of their hiring policies are in terms of the creative teams because they consistently have the artistic chops (from my perspective) if not always the technical ones.

[jfissel]

Cool beans old man, enjoy!

Tallied so far and once my man j chimes in with his choices, I will be locked in and ready to go. Glad y'all took to this idea, I look forward to hearing how everyone's misadventures go .

Here you go, crim:

XCOM2
Sakuna of Rice and Ruin
Danganronpa
Chained Echoes
Weird West
Death End Request
Spiritfarer
Fell Seal Arbiter's Mark
Captain Tsubasa Rise of New Champions
Marvel's Avengers

Once again, I had to look up a lot of these games. I'm not as tuned in to gaming as I used to be, lol.

[isthatallyougot]

Thank you guys for voting Kuon as my game to play. It's been great so far. Thankfully I don't have to listen to the crappy English voice work (and it is indeed crappy - I checked in the beginning before switching) as FROM graciously included the option for Japanese voice. Granted, it may *also* be poor voice work, but not knowing the language and proper intonations, I can easily assume it to be great, and it at least feels authentic to the setting.

And the environments and mood are suitably old-school survival horror. The puzzles have been fun, if a bit different, and overall it's just an excellent example of a form of gaming that doesn't see any mainstream releases anymore for the most part. Evolved/different sure, but not as true to this particular style. Thankfully there are still indies producing this era's form of the genre, but it's really refreshing to go back to one that is originally from the earlier days.

[argyle]

Nice, glad you're enjoying it so far Izzy.

I haven't started mine yet, but then again I haven't really played anything this week. I did plug my PS4 controllers up to charge last night (was reminded recently that you can use PS4 controllers on the PS5 when playing PS4 games - and I loathe the PS5 controller) so I should be good to go whenever I get some game time next.

[isthatallyougot]

Nice, glad you're enjoying it so far Izzy.

I haven't started mine yet, but then again I haven't really played anything this week. I did plug my PS4 controllers up to charge last night (was reminded recently that you can use PS4 controllers on the PS5 when playing PS4 games - and I loathe the PS5 controller) so I should be good to go whenever I get some game time next.

Yeah, hopefully everyone ends up happy with the group's selection. I'd definitely do it again. It's just fun not knowing what you're going to play out of a selection of games you've been looking forward to for a long while. If nobody else wants to do it again, maybe I'll just use a randomizer, lol. But it's more fun as a community activity imho.