The Backlog Check-in Vol. 201: 11/6/21: Forza Horizon 5/Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy/Shin Megami Tensei V Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Claire: Extended Cut, Everreach: Project Eden, Trulon: The Shadow Engine

Finished (playing): Claire: Extended Cut, Everreach: Project Eden

Playing: Trulon: The Shadow Engine

Added: Terminator: Resistance, Wasteland 3

Do not buy Everreach: Project Eden, not even on sale. In addition to it being a poorly made game, it has a checkpoint/save bug on the final chapter that drops you through the environment when it loads.

It’s a shame about this game since it has a good premise, and starts out promising. Unfortunately, it goes downhill fast. The story and characters are decent, and the graphics and music are pretty good. However, everything else about it is mediocre. Character controls are somewhat clunky/stiff, aiming/shooting is some of the worst that I’ve experienced in a game and the hover bike sections are sloppy/frustrating. Also, checkpoints/saves are spread really far apart, and when you die and reload the loading is infuriatingly long. But despite all of its issues, I was still enjoying it enough to keep playing. It reminds me of a PS2 game, and I was finding it somewhat appealing for that reason.

It can be frustratingly difficult at times even on easy due to the crappy aiming/shooting controls, bullet sponge enemies, sloppy hover bike sections and sparse checkpoints/saves, but I was still finding some fun in it and kept playing. However, I was well into the final chapter when I got a checkpoint/save bug that dropped me through the environment every time that I loaded it, so I was forced to stop playing since it doesn’t have multiple saves.

I started playing an indie turn-based RPG developed in Finland called Trulon: The Shadow Engine, and I’ve been mildly enjoying it so far. It’s a classic JRPG inspired top down view RPG, but with a Western looking cartoonish aesthetic mixing 2D hand drawn characters moving over 3D environments. While the graphics are cute and colorful, I would have preferred an anime aesthetic. It’s a port of a mobile game, and that’s what it looks and plays like which I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of. It’s not bad, but I like my JRPG style RPGs to look like JRPGs even if they’re developed in other countries.

While there’s towns, villages and an over world map to traverse, the focus of the game is on its strategic deck of cards turn-based battles. I like the battle system, but there doesn’t seem to be much else to the game as the towns and villages are really small (at least the ones that I’ve been to so far) with just a few NPCs to interact with. I haven’t been to any dungeons yet, but there are outdoor areas that I’ve traversed with enemies standing still in them and attack if I get close to them.

The story and characters have been fairly basic so far, but I’m still early in the game. I expect things to pick up more the further in it that I get. I’m finding it to be a fairly pleasant if albeit somewhat slow paced RPG. It’s holding my interest for now, but I don’t know if it will for the entirety of the game.

Games releasing this week
Airborne Kingdom
Blue Reflection: Second Light
Bright Memory: Infinite
Epic Chef
Football Manager 2022
Forza Horizon 5
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition
Gynoug
Jurassic World Evolution 2
Shin Megami Tensei V
Synthetik 2
Treasures of the Aegean

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Final Fantasy VII Remake, Lost Judgment PS5

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 40 games

Now in chapter 4 of Lost Judgment since I had to advance to story to do anything else (besides the always-there side activities such as arcade games, etc).

Looking forward to impressions of GTA from people buying the digital versions.

[isthatallyougot]

Started playing Katana Zero. It's very much in the vein of Hotline Miami, and really fun.

[Phaseknox]

I played some more Trulon: The Shadow Engine, and I’m enjoying it a little more now than I originally was. While most aspects of it are fairly average including its story, characters, graphics and levels, there’s still some charm and fun on offer. Just enough to keep me playing.

The card deck turn-based battle system is the highlight of the game as it’s pretty good. Combat is what you mostly do in the game in addition to walking around in small cities and towns talking to NPCs, traversing the overworld map and going through “dungeons”.

It’s a fairly basic RPG at its core, but being a throwback to classic top-down view JRPGs gives it some appeal. While the character art and environment graphics are ok, I would have preferred a Japanese anime aesthetic for both the characters and environments.

[canedaddy]

Played recently: Diablo II, Shakedown Hawaii

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 17 (13 PS4, 1 Vita, 3 Switch)

I was out of town last week, flew to Arizona for work, and got in maybe 8 hours with Shakedown Hawaii on the flights to and from. Such a fun game. I'm not sure whether I'll just finish it now or save it for the next time I fly. It makes the hours go by.

I was enjoying Diablo II until I ran into this crap where you spawn into a boss area toward the end of Chapter 2 and the boss gets in several hits while the scene loads. If you're fortunate, you'll get a glimpse of the boss before you die, but most of the time you're dead as soon as the load is done. Game killer. I'm not alone:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/31 ... d/79681151

Apparently they're not fixing it, which is ridiculous. I'm going to try to see if I can just get enough better gear/levels to survive long enough to take the thing down, but if not, that's it for me. I will demand a refund but probably won't get it.

On the off chance one of you has run into this and has any suggested ways around it, please let me know!

[Phaseknox]

I quit playing Trulon: The Shadow Engine despite having played a good bit of it because it all of a sudden decided to ramp up the difficulty quite a bit.

It’s been somewhat of a challenge from the start, but always fair and reasonable. However, as soon as I got my fourth and final party member the difficulty spiked and became unfair with my attacks barely doing any damage to the enemies while their attacks dealt large amounts of damage to my party members. A group of three normal enemies were able to repeatedly defeat my party of four while I was only able to get their health down halfway.

My only option at that point would have been to level grind which the game doesn’t really have the design structure to do, nor did I want to do. So I decided that I wasn’t really enjoying it enough to keep playing it anymore.

[Phaseknox]

I was browsing my digital games to decide what to play next, and LEGO City Undercover sounded fun so I decided to check it out. I played a bit of it and found it to be somewhat cute, mildly humorous and semi-entertaining. I think that the best way to describe it is Grand Theft LEGO. It feels somewhat like a LEGO version of GTA, but cartoonish, comical and kid friendly of course. It seems like a fairly sizable open world game with a lot of content, so I’m going to wait and play it when I’m more in the mood for it.

It got me in a LEGO mood, so I decided to check out The LEGO Movie Video Game since I liked The LEGO Movie. It includes scenes from the movie, and follows its plot. It’s a linear level based action platform puzzle game, and I’m mildly enjoying it. Other than figuring out some environment puzzles, there’s not really any challenge to it. It’s colorful, comical and cute, but ultimately a kids game. I’m sticking with it for now since I’m having some fun with it, but I’m not sure if it will keep me wanting to play to completion. We’ll see.

[jfissel]

I was browsing my digital games to decide what to play next, and LEGO City Undercover sounded fun so I decided to check it out. I played a bit of it and found it to be somewhat cute, mildly humorous and semi-entertaining. I think that the best way to describe it is Grand Theft LEGO. It feels somewhat like a LEGO version of GTA, but cartoonish, comical and kid friendly of course. It seems like a fairly sizable open world game with a lot of content, so I’m going to wait and play it when I’m more in the mood for it.

It got me in a LEGO mood, so I decided to check out The LEGO Movie Video Game since I liked The LEGO Movie. It includes scenes from the movie, and follows its plot. It’s a linear level based action platform puzzle game, and I’m mildly enjoying it. Other than figuring out some environment puzzles, there’s not really any challenge to it. It’s colorful, comical and cute, but ultimately a kids game. I’m sticking with it for now since I’m having some fun with it, but I’m not sure if it will keep me wanting to play to completion. We’ll see.

Watch out for crim with these LEGO game comments...

[isthatallyougot]

Guys...play Katana Zero. Really, really fun. (a little tough on an old codger, but I'm near the end, I think.)

[canedaddy]

Looks cool. Thanks for the word.