The Backlog Check-in Vol. 233: 6/18/22: Sonic Origins Edition

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Phaseknox
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The Backlog Check-in Vol. 233: 6/18/22: Sonic Origins Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

Played: Clan N, Kitaria Fables, Punch Club, Venetica, Within the Blade

Finished: Nothing

Playing: ?

Added: Clan N, Death’s Door, Grey Skies: A War of the Worlds Story, Kitaria Fables, Little Misfortune, Memoranda, Niffelheim, Punch Club, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, Within the Blade

I got a game ending bug in Venetica, a main story quest giving NPC was gone when I loaded my save so over 20 hours down the drain. I decided to check out some of my new indies to see if I might want to play any of them.

Clan N is an arcade style side view pixel art hack ‘n slash game that’s panned out far from the action, and the graphics are extremely pixelated. There’s some charm to how they created the characters and environments with a limited amount of pixels, but I would have preferred more detailed pixel art myself as it leaves a little too much to the imagination. The gameplay itself is kind of fun with button mashing attack combos against groups of enemies, and a little platforming at times as well.

Kitaria Fables is the standout game of the four that I played. It was developed in Indonesia by three people, but is the quality of a mid-tier game that I would have expected a much bigger team to have worked on. It’s basically Harvest Moon meets The Legend of Zelda with charming, colorful and cute 3D polygon graphics for the characters and environments. It’s isometric view, and offers both hack ‘n slash combat, and farming sim elements.

Punch Club is a pixel art boxing sim that’s all about raising your stats to win boxing matches. You have to exercise, lift and train to raise your stats to get stronger. Your hunger and energy bars deplete when you do these activities, so you have to eat and sleep. You need money to eat, so you have to work to earn money. All of these things are done automatically, there’s not much actual gameplay involved not even for the boxing. It’s more of a management sim. I was finding it somewhat interesting since it’s different.

Within the Blade is a 2D side scrolling pixel art action platformer. It’s similar to the classic Shinobi games which I’m a fan of. While it has action gameplay, there’s some stealth as well. I like its pixel art style, and the gameplay is fun.

Despite somewhat liking all of these games, none of them are what I’m really in the mood for right now. I don’t even know what I’m in the mood for right now. I’ll try and figure it out later.

Games releasing this week
AI: The Somnium Files- nirvanA Initiative
Broken Mind
The Caligula Effect 2
Capcom Fighting Collection
Deathsmiles I & II
Deep Diving Adventures
Deliver Us the Moon
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue DX
Good Company
Gordian Quest
Hatsune Miku Jigsaw Puzzle
Japanese Rail Sim: Journey to Kyoto
Naraka: Bladepoint
Nummels
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined
Ruggnar
Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director’s Cut
Shadowrun: Hong Kong Extended Edition
Shadowrun Returns
Sonic Origins
Steve Jackson’s Sorcery: The Complete Collection
Why Pizza?
A Winter’s Daydream
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isthatallyougot
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 233: 6/18/22: Sonic Origins Edition

Post by isthatallyougot »

Man, I'm having such a great time with Psychonauts 2. So fun exploring and just admiring/appreciating all the little touches and craft that has gone into it. It's making me want to revisit the original too. I might do that when my 3 month Game Pass sub is up.
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Phaseknox
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 233: 6/18/22: Sonic Origins Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

I typed all of that including Punch Club impressions, and you ignored it.

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isthatallyougot
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 233: 6/18/22: Sonic Origins Edition

Post by isthatallyougot »

Phaseknox wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:28 pm I typed all of that including Punch Club impressions, and you ignored it.

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I didn't ignore it. I read it. You said nothing that you sampled grabbed you right now, so I had no comment. (I already know what Punch Club is all about.) Hope you find something that rings your bell to dive into. Sucks that your Venetica save was ruined. I hate when something like that happens. Although rare, it's infuriating.
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Phaseknox
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 233: 6/18/22: Sonic Origins Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

isthatallyougot wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:44 pmI didn't ignore it. I read it. You said nothing that you sampled grabbed you right now, so I had no comment. (I already know what Punch Club is all about.)
I was just joking, but usually you chime in on most of what’s posted here so I was a little surprised that you didn’t comment on anything that I wrote.
isthatallyougot wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:44 pmHope you find something that rings your bell to dive into.
I think that I might have with an indie game called Foregone. It’s a 2D side scrolling action platformer with really good pixel art, and animation. I like the main character who’s voiced, it has a sci-fi theme and plays smooth with sword and gun combat. I’ve been enjoying it.
isthatallyougot wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:44 pmSucks that your Venetica save was ruined. I hate when something like that happens. Although rare, it's infuriating.
I knew that the game had some game breaking bugs, so it’s kind of my fault for not having multiple saves. I was somewhat enjoying my time playing through it again and planned on finishing it since I played a good chunk of it, but I wasn’t enjoying it enough to care THAT much.
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crimson_tide
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 233: 6/18/22: Sonic Origins Edition

Post by crimson_tide »

Pocky and Rocky...POCKY AD ROCKY?!?!?!?!?!??! What the wha...*goes to Google*

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YES!!!!!!!!!!!!...buh buh buh...Sonic Origins AND Capcom Fighting Collection come out this week too. And I Just bought Shredder's Revenge...oh dangit...TOO MUCH RETRO GOODNESS :P!!!

Bought: TMNT Shredder's Revenge (I was going to wait but did you hear the Ghostface and Raekwon track? I bought it immediately on the strength of that alone :D )

Played: Miles Morales (Yep...it's great. Freedom Planet is still my GOTY after two levels though :P ), Lost Judgment (...it got better. Kinda. Still the fact the MC is beating the hell out of high schoolers with wanton and reckless abandon is still mind boggling to me. It's treading that God of War line where I might not be able to continue because I can't get behind the MC), The Adventure Pals...I think that's it.

Beat: Nothing

This week: After Miles, more Lost Judgment and I will start getting through TMNT with all the characters. Might throw a fighting game in there. Maneater looks appropriately ridiculous as well...and it's apparently short. With summer break coming (next Monday is the last day!) I can actually dig into something beefy for the summer. Going to have to see what tickles my fancy :)
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Phaseknox
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 233: 6/18/22: Sonic Origins Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

Since Dragon’s Dogma II was just announced I got in the mood to play the original again since it’s been 10 years since I played it, and it still holds up pretty good in terms of graphics and gameplay. I forgot about the cool rock song that plays during the title sequence, and I also forgot that you can play as a kid. :lol: My only real complaints with it so far are that you play as a silent protagonist, and the pawn companions. I dislike playing as silent protagonists in games because it makes me feel like I’m controlling an avatar instead of an actual character, and I would prefer more traditional party members that you meet and that join your party as you go through the game instead of picking pawns to be in your party.
crimson_tide wrote: Sun Jun 19, 2022 9:53 amLost Judgment (...it got better. Kinda. Still the fact the MC is beating the hell out of high schoolers with wanton and reckless abandon is still mind boggling to me. It's treading that God of War line where I might not be able to continue because I can't get behind the MC)
I thought that you liked the main character, you played through the first game right? High schoolers can be disrespectful to their elders, so I don’t see a problem with laying the smack down on them especially if they’re bullies which they are in the game right?
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jfissel
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 233: 6/18/22: Sonic Origins Edition

Post by jfissel »

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 39 games

Not much gaming last week for me. We'll see what this week has in store.
crimson_tide wrote: Sun Jun 19, 2022 9:53 am Played: Lost Judgment (...it got better. Kinda. Still the fact the MC is beating the hell out of high schoolers with wanton and reckless abandon is still mind boggling to me. It's treading that God of War line where I might not be able to continue because I can't get behind the MC)

This week: After Miles, more Lost Judgment and I will start getting through TMNT with all the characters. Might throw a fighting game in there. Maneater looks appropriately ridiculous as well...and it's apparently short. With summer break coming (next Monday is the last day!) I can actually dig into something beefy for the summer. Going to have to see what tickles my fancy :)
Some of those high schoolers though...they are out of control! Maneater is a lot of fun and it's the right length for that type of game.
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isthatallyougot
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 233: 6/18/22: Sonic Origins Edition

Post by isthatallyougot »

I'm close to wrapping up Psychonauts 2, and it's been an incredibly fun ride. It's a real treat to enjoy something so imaginative and unique. I'm glad I got to play it through Game Pass so cheaply. Otherwise I would have probably waited for a deep discount on Steam. It's surely worth full asking price, but I'm a parsimonious penny pincher. :P
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crimson_tide
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 233: 6/18/22: Sonic Origins Edition

Post by crimson_tide »

Yeah, I'm overly sensitive about that sort of thing when it comes to kids. Ostensibly, these are children they are talking about. As a teacher, when our betters :roll: are actively thinking it's a good plan to arm teachers, it's hitting way too close to home for me. I know it's a video game, but I wish if they were going down this path, that they would have found a better way for Tak to handle the situation especially given the lawyer background. Getting physical with children, I don't care how big and menacing they are (and boy do they make some hefty Japanese boys in this game), is NEVER ok. Is it a dumb game? Yes. I get that but it's not sitting right with me given the Tak should be well equipped to talk or slyly trick his way out of these situations. This is doubly problematic because the school hired them and is seemingly entirely ok with being complicit in having grown ass men beat up children. I get Yakuza is all about beatdowns and whatnot but the whole first chapter in the game has maybe one actual fight in it? I am still on chapter 3 though so hopefully it gets better in this regard but if I am beating up high school kids nonstop, punks or not, I will have to tap out. I was hoping the concept of school bullying would have been handled in a more nuanced way because it can and should be explored.

In other news, Miles Morales is flipping delightful...when they are not getting the most random things entirely wrong. No one would have a campaign rally in NYC on Christmas night. The elections are months out, it makes no sense. Nor would there be a pop up street festival complete with vendors on a snowy Christmas night in Harlem of all places. That's just...no. Brooklyn, in the summer, you could MAYBE pull that off though you still need a permit at least a month out. But other than those extremely weird choices, this game has been quite fun! I am hoping to wrap it up tonight and go back through for the platinum trophy later this year. After that, I will get to Shredder's Revenge for a few go rounds (I am still deciding if I want to be Splinter or April first :P ) before going back to Lost Judgment and Freedom Planet. If Lost Judgment doesn't pan out for me, glad Maneater got the j seal of approval :) .
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