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

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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 stopped playing Dragon’s Dogma, it was feeling too familiar and I was having a hard time sticking with it. I have too many PS4 games that I haven’t played to be playing through old Xbox 360 games that I’ve played before especially lengthy ones.

I started playing an indie 2D side scrolling pixel art Metroidvania called Timespinner, and while it was ok I didn’t stick with it because I was finding its levels to be a little simplistic in look and repetitive in design. Pixel art games in general kind of seem like handheld/mobile games to me that can be fun, but don’t usually suck me in quite like more modern 3D games tend to do. Pixel art RPGs do a little more of course, but action platformers, beat ‘em ups and Metroidvanias don’t as much.

I started playing Katana Kami: A Way of the Samurai Story, and it had the potential to be a really good isometric view action RPG. But instead it’s some weird repetitive procedurally generated dungeon crawler thing. I just found it to be an odd game in a lot of ways, and it failed to pull me in. It’s yet another indie game that I wasted money on, and I have a feeling that there’s going to be a lot more that I bought that I’m not going to like. Indies are really hit and miss for me, and unfortunately they’re usually more miss than hit.
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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 finished up Psychonauts 2, and it was quite a ride. I'm not sure if I prefer it to the first or not, but basing it on old memories, they're about on par for me, each having some pros over the other. I've still got a few collectibles I may or may not go back and get. I'll check and see if the rewards are worth the hunt. Anyway, it's a wonderful platformer with personality to spare, as anyone who's played the first might reasonably expect.
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Dragon kick your a$$ into the Milky Way!
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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 »

isthatallyougot wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 11:48 am I finished up Psychonauts 2, and it was quite a ride. I'm not sure if I prefer it to the first or not, but basing it on old memories, they're about on par for me, each having some pros over the other. I've still got a few collectibles I may or may not go back and get. I'll check and see if the rewards are worth the hunt. Anyway, it's a wonderful platformer with personality to spare, as anyone who's played the first might reasonably expect.
That was pretty quick! I don't remember if there were rewards for the collectibles, but I did them anyway. Hard to say which I liked better as they both have some great level themes.
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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 »

jfissel wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:24 pm That was pretty quick! I don't remember if there were rewards for the collectibles, but I did them anyway. Hard to say which I liked better as they both have some great level themes.
Yeah, and it was actually quite a bit longer than I was expecting. I spent well over 20 hours with it, although I did wander/collect and just enjoy the world more than was required. (I've only got a small amount of collectibles remaining if I feel like 100%-ing it.) And yeah, the creativity visually in most of the worlds surely met my expectations coming from the original so long ago. Wonderfully creative. Maybe we'll get a third one day.
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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 played Children of Morta, it’s a top-down view 2D pixel art procedurally generated dungeon crawler. The pixel art is quite good, it’s a more modern style instead of trying to mimic the look of 8-bit/16-bit games. The game itself has an interesting story told by a fable-like narration. There’s a bit of a Diablo vibe to the game, you make your way through dungeons killing enemies, collecting loot and reaching a boss.

It’s designed where you have to complete a dungeon and defeat its boss in one run. There are no checkpoints or saves in the dungeons, or before the bosses. When you die you keep whatever gold that you’ve collected in a dungeon, and you use it to pay for upgrades like more health, stronger attacks and faster movement speed. The dungeons are procedurally generated, so their layouts are different for each run.

I was somewhat enjoying its design structure at first, but of course after several times reaching the dungeon boss, dying and restarting the dungeon again from the very beginning started to get a little repetitive. I finally beat the first dungeon boss after several runs, and it felt satisfying. I was looking forward to playing a new dungeon after playing through the first one so many times, but the second one looked almost identical with basically just a different color scheme so it didn’t really seem like a new dungeon. And they more than doubled the amount of enemies in it which proved to be too much for me to handle, so I stopped playing.

I like the story, the pixel art graphics, the gameplay and even the design structure of having to do multiple runs through the dungeons, but the dungeons looking similar and having a ridiculous amount of enemies to have to contend with when you make it further in the game are unfortunately dealbreakers for me.
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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 »

So I beat Miles Morales. It was really great! I have some gripes but the length was definitely not one of them. being able to beat it over several days of light to moderate playtime was really welcome. It was structured and paced nicely. Had a great deep cut villain. All good stuff. Still pales in comparison to the first 2 levels of Freedom Planet. I am so scared to go back to Freedom Planet because those opening levels are so good :P .

Also started Shredder's Revenge with Splinter. Seemed thematically appropriate given the history between him and Shredder. It's good! I made it about halfway through. They load you up with Bebop and Rocksteady up front (which I am absolutely fine with) but the back half has more varied villains. I am playing story but can't tell you what the story is yet? Besides Shredder revenging, I think the Turtles are ostensibly trying to stop Krang's body from being assembled and something something Statue of Liberty? I also thought they'd talk more the way everyone is going on and on about the voice cast being reassembled but there's really not much voice acting happening. That music goes hard though..but the Bebop and Rocksteady duo fight was not where the Ghostface and Raekwon track showed up which just seemed like a given. They better have a good reason for holding that track back...

I also am trying to decide what to buy? Sonic, Capcom Fighting Collection or Pocky and Rocky (thanks Phase :P )...but I also downloaded like 5 games from this new Playstation Plus jammy including Ghosts of Tsushima and Maneater so i might buy nothing. Decisions, decisions...
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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 »

crimson_tide wrote: Thu Jun 23, 2022 11:16 am So I beat Miles Morales. It was really great! I have some gripes but the length was definitely not one of them. being able to beat it over several days of light to moderate playtime was really welcome. It was structured and paced nicely. Had a great deep cut villain. All good stuff. Still pales in comparison to the first 2 levels of Freedom Planet. I am so scared to go back to Freedom Planet because those opening levels are so good :P .

Also started Shredder's Revenge with Splinter. Seemed thematically appropriate given the history between him and Shredder. It's good! I made it about halfway through. They load you up with Bebop and Rocksteady up front (which I am absolutely fine with) but the back half has more varied villains. I am playing story but can't tell you what the story is yet? Besides Shredder revenging, I think the Turtles are ostensibly trying to stop Krang's body from being assembled and something something Statue of Liberty? I also thought they'd talk more the way everyone is going on and on about the voice cast being reassembled but there's really not much voice acting happening. That music goes hard though..but the Bebop and Rocksteady duo fight was not where the Ghostface and Raekwon track showed up which just seemed like a given. They better have a good reason for holding that track back...

I also am trying to decide what to buy? Sonic, Capcom Fighting Collection or Pocky and Rocky (thanks Phase :P )...but I also downloaded like 5 games from this new Playstation Plus jammy including Ghosts of Tsushima and Maneater so i might buy nothing. Decisions, decisions...
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Phaseknox wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 3:48 pm I played Children of Morta, it’s a top-down view 2D pixel art procedurally generated dungeon crawler. The pixel art is quite good, it’s a more modern style instead of trying to mimic the look of 8-bit/16-bit games. The game itself has an interesting story told by a fable-like narration. There’s a bit of a Diablo vibe to the game, you make your way through dungeons killing enemies, collecting loot and reaching a boss.

It’s designed where you have to complete a dungeon and defeat its boss in one run. There are no checkpoints or saves in the dungeons, or before the bosses. When you die you keep whatever gold that you’ve collected in a dungeon, and you use it to pay for upgrades like more health, stronger attacks and faster movement speed. The dungeons are procedurally generated, so their layouts are different for each run.

I was somewhat enjoying its design structure at first, but of course after several times reaching the dungeon boss, dying and restarting the dungeon again from the very beginning started to get a little repetitive. I finally beat the first dungeon boss after several runs, and it felt satisfying. I was looking forward to playing a new dungeon after playing through the first one so many times, but the second one looked almost identical with basically just a different color scheme so it didn’t really seem like a new dungeon. And they more than doubled the amount of enemies in it which proved to be too much for me to handle, so I stopped playing.

I like the story, the pixel art graphics, the gameplay and even the design structure of having to do multiple runs through the dungeons, but the dungeons looking similar and having a ridiculous amount of enemies to have to contend with when you make it further in the game are unfortunately dealbreakers for me.
I've played those types of games where it's basically like you have to die a lot and spend gold on upgrades to get a little further in a level. There is some sense of accomplishment, but it always feels slow.
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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 got in a beat ‘em up mood, and started playing Bloody Zombies and Itadaki Smash. Bloody Zombies is an arcade style beat ‘em up that takes place in England, and has a somewhat odd art style especially for the characters that sort of look and animate like puppets. The backgrounds look fairly normal. The game plays like your standard beat ‘em up with punches, kicks and occasional weapons to pick up and use. You fight zombies which the title of the game gives away. It’s cartoonish, comical and decently fun for the most part.

Itadaki Smash is an arcade style beat ‘em up somewhat similar to Bloody Zombies. It also has a bit of an odd art style where the characters almost look like claymation. It’s cartoonish and comical with a crazy nonsensical story, and weird cast of characters. It plays a little clunky and heavy, but it’s kind of fun.

I also started playing a cute and colorful 2D Metroidvania called YesterMorrow, and I’ve been enjoying it. It has good level designs with appealing graphics, and some challenging platforming. My only real complaint is that it lacks combat, it’s almost all traversal and platforming. Being able to fight the enemies instead of always having to avoid them would have made the game more fun.
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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 finished Itadaki Smash, it was a decent arcade style beat ‘em up. The story is complete nonsense, the characters are weird, the same few enemy types are repeated throughout and it’s really short. But the combat is fairly fun, and I enjoyed my time with it for the most part.

I stopped playing YesterMorrow because it completely lacks combat, despite there being enemies everywhere it’s strictly a platform puzzle game where you have to avoid them. The game starts out promising like a 2D adventure game, but basically becomes nothing but continuous platforming challenges. Combat would have definitely added some variety to the gameplay, and seems oddly absent from the game since there’s a lot of enemies in the levels.

I started playing Niffelheim, and what I was expecting to be a 2D action adventure game is in fact a resource gathering, building and crafting Viking survival sim. There’s some basic combat, but the majority of the game is resource gathering, building and crafting. The 2D graphics are really good, but the game itself isn’t my thing.
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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 started playing .hack//G.U. Last Recode, and I’ve been liking it. The story and characters are what have been pulling me in the most, the game itself is kind of a repetitive dungeon crawler. But the combat is decent, and the pacing is good with story moments constantly happening. Of course originally being a PS2 game the graphics are somewhat dated looking, but this remaster is displayed in high definition widescreen running at 60fps which makes it feel a little more current.
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