The Backlog Check-in Vol. 257: 12/3/22: Chained Echoes/Dragon Quest Treasures/Samurai Maiden Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Valkyrie Elysium

Finished: Nothing

Playing: Valkyrie Elysium

Added: Akiba’s Beat, Almost My Floor, The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut, Crazy Strike Bowling EX, The Cruel King and the Great Hero, Dark Nights With Poe & Munro, Hard Reset Redux, John Wick Hex, Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience, Mighty Switch Force! Collection, Moon Raider, Olija, Poison Control, Retrace: Memories of Death, Roki, Smoke and Sacrifice, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, The Technomancer, The True, Tunche

I’m currently in chapter 5 (of 9) in Valkyrie Elysium, and the game has gotten better in this chapter. It wasn’t bad before, but a little average. This chapter has been the best looking and best designed level in the game so far. I was mildly enjoying it up until this point, but now I’m really enjoying it.

The game is AA mid-tier that looks and plays kind of like a PS3/Xbox 360 game. The graphics are a mix of cel shaded and realistic which is a bit of an odd combination, and the colors are somewhat muted. The environments/levels are kind of barren and lifeless which is purposeful, but makes them a little less interesting. The levels are fairly basic and linear lacking exploration, platforming, or environment puzzles. There’s some areas off the beaten path where you can find loot, but you’re pretty much funneled down a straight and narrow path most of the time. This is a linear third person action hack ‘n slash game for the most part, there’s unlockable skills and you can level up your weapons but you use collected gems and not XP. There’s no XP or character leveling, this isn’t really an RPG.

Combat is what this game is primarily about, and thankfully it’s really good. You have two attacks, a soul chain grapple, a block, parry and dash. You get different weapons, unlock new moves and have different magic attacks. You also have spirit companions that you can summon to help fight alongside you for a limited time. Combat is fairly deep without being complicated, and is always fun which is good because it’s basically what you do in the game.

The story and characters are kind of average, they’re nothing really all that exciting but still interesting enough to be somewhat entertaining. The combat is definitely fun, but it would be nice to do more than basically just fight enemies over and over again. Some exploration, platforming and environment puzzles would have added to the experience.

The game in general just seems a little low budget and older kind of like a PS3/Xbox 360 game, it doesn’t seem like a big budget modern AAA game that came out this year. I’m finding it to be worth the $40 that I paid for it because I’m enjoying it, but that should have been its regular price as it’s not quite the quality of a $60 game.

Games releasing this week
Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent
Afterglitch
Art of the Rail
Cafe Owner Simulator
Chained Echoes
Choo-Choo Charles
Crossfire: Legion
Cyber Hook
Dad’s Monster House
Divine Knockout
Dobo’s Heroes
Dragon Quest Treasures
Dwarf Fortress
Far Cry 6: Lost Between Worlds
Firefighting Simulator: The Squad
The Forest Quartet
Goonya Monster
Hello Neighbor 2
Hindsight
Hubris
Impaler
Inner Abyss
Ixion
Jitsu Squad
Knights of Honor II: Sovereign
Kukoos: Lost Pets
Kynseed
Medieval Apocalypse
Paper Cut Mansion
Paragon: The Overprime
The Rumble Fish 2
Terror of Hemasaurus
Samurai Maiden
She Wants Me Dead
Shredders
Stalcraft
Super Kiwi 64
Swordship
Togges
Two Point Campus: Space Academy
Witch on the Holy Night
Zombie Cure Lab

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Stray, Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, God of War: Ragnarok

Added to Backlog: God of War: Ragnarok

Current Backlog: 44 games

Up to 10/11 hours played in Ragnarok, getting more time to play. Though I did just buy like 8 bottles of bourbon in the last 7 days...

[canedaddy]

Played recently: God of War Ragnarok

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 28


I'm having a great time with Ragnarok, although there are a few quibbles (playing as Atreus isn't as much fun as Kratos, for example, and some segments have ventured into walking simulator territory). Still very glad I'm playing it now rather than waiting for it on PS5.

[crimson_tide]

Thanks for the Valkyrie Elysium thoughts Phase. Waiting for it to be cheap. Also really want to play Lenneth. Which is supposed to be this month, Square...

Played: ummm...kiddo and me are looking for our next games. Cars 3 (I kinda love this dumb game), One Piece Pirate Warriors 4, Lapis X Labyrinth...dear God in heaven, I can't believe I am going to say this...Lego Marvel Superheroes. And I don't hate it. Shut up. Also we downloaded....Lego Harry Potter. Shut up. Again. She likes them, she really likes them. It will be fine.

Beat: nothing

Bought: nothing

This week: last week was the end of the marking period. So not playing much. Hoping to get back in the swing this week .

Oh, I finally figured out how to name my next workouts after Sonic Frontiers (I name my daily lifting routines after gaming and geek adjacent nonsense). I forgot Big is in the game! So it will be: Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Big, Sage, Robotnik.

[canedaddy]

Oh, I finally figured out how to name my next workouts after Sonic Frontiers (I name my daily lifting routines after gaming and geek adjacent nonsense). I forgot Big is in the game! So it will be: Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Big, Sage, Robotnik.

This is so weird I have to ask for more info. Do those correspond to what you're doing, i.e. Big is a heavy day, Tails is squats, Robotnik is using machines instead of free weights, Amy is curls (we used to say "curls are for girls"), etc.?

[Phaseknox]

I finished Valkyrie Elysium, it took me 30 hours playing it thoroughly including doing all of its sub quests and I was rewarded with a bad and an unsatisfying ending. There are four different endings, one true ending (which I didn’t get) and three bad ones. I looked up how to get the different endings, and it’s ridiculous since there’s no way of knowing unless you look up how. I don’t really like there being different endings in games. I can understand having different endings in choice driven games that reflect the choices that you make throughout, but not in games like this that don’t offer any player choice whatsoever. The ending that I got left me feeling unsatisfied, so I watched the true ending on YouTube which is good/satisfying and should have been the only ending to the game. Not only was I robbed of the true ending, but also of the true final boss as well. I would have been much more pleased with the game as a whole if I got the true last boss and ending, but I didn’t so I was left dissatisfied since it ended so poorly for me after playing it for 30 hours.

The game in general is kind of average and repetitive with only a few different enemy types throughout the game, and only five different areas that you revisit several times for both the story quests and sub quests which sometimes have the same exact layouts. Both the enemies and levels are recycled throughout the game. The last two chapters of the game are basically reduced to just fighting waves of enemies over and over again. You fight enemies while traversing through all of the levels in the game, but usually not wave after wave of them and there’s usually a little downtime to explore off the beaten path. But the last two chapters lock you into areas and throw wave after wave of enemies at you continuously every step of the way. And the sub quests for those chapters do too. If it wasn’t for the rewards that I got for doing the sub quests then I wouldn’t have done them because they’re basically just replaying parts of the same areas that you already played in the story quests, and fighting harder versions of the same bosses that you already defeated. They almost feel like filler that were added just to extend the length of the game since the main story is on the short side.

The game had the potential to be a lot better than it is, it could have been a really good action adventure game or action RPG, but instead they decided to make it a linear action hack ‘n slash game. I kind of liked the story and characters and the combat is a lot of fun, but it all starts to wear a bit thin before the end due to the repetitiveness of it all. It just seems like a somewhat archaic game in design, look and feel. There’s nothing really modern about it. I still enjoyed it for the most part since it was fun to play, but it ultimately felt a little shallow lacking a lot of substance. It definitely seems like a lower budget game that would have released for $40 instead of $60, and I can’t really recommend paying more than $20-$30 for it if you’re interested in it.

[crimson_tide]

Cool beans Phase, thanks for the review and heads up. Before I play when I buy it at a lower price, I will check for the true final boss and ending requirements. I think I have had to do this for all the Valkyrie games... mostly because the good ending requirements make zero sense in these things .

Oh, I finally figured out how to name my next workouts after Sonic Frontiers (I name my daily lifting routines after gaming and geek adjacent nonsense). I forgot Big is in the game! So it will be: Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Big, Sage, Robotnik.

This is so weird I have to ask for more info. Do those correspond to what you're doing, i.e. Big is a heavy day, Tails is squats, Robotnik is using machines instead of free weights, Amy is curls (we used to say "curls are for girls"), etc.?

it's definitely weird old man! I have been doing it for years. Back when did a second round of a specific routine called 5/3/1, I didn't just want to call repeating the next phase of 4 workouts cycle 2. It just seemed boring. So I named it after the lyrics from the Ninja Turtles theme song (Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines, etc) to keep them in order. And I named to other 3 push pull legs weekly workouts after the Deception Seekers (Thundercracker, Skywarp and of course STARSCREAM who was leg day because that day sucks like STARSCREAM ) . Beyond that, there's been no real logic. I just pick a group of 7-9 things I enjoy and name the workouts after them for fun. I am the only person who sees them so it's just a goofy little thing for me. My wife finds it hilarious but dumb and entirely perfectly in character for me anyway. So far I have had Fullmetal Alchemist, Persona 5, specifically the forms of the boss Seven Force from Gunstar Heroes, the casts of Like A Dragon and DQ11...just whatever is playing at the moment mostly. Since Sonic Frontiers is the new hotness and it's time to refresh, I was looking for a way to make it work. Occasionally there's a method but mostly it is just for funsies because I am me .

[Phaseknox]

Cool beans Phase, thanks for the review and heads up. Before I play when I buy it at a lower price, I will check for the true final boss and ending requirements. I think I have had to do this for all the Valkyrie games... mostly because the good ending requirements make zero sense in these things .

Apparently I got the normal ending, and while it wasn’t terrible it definitely wasn’t as good as the true ending. Linear narrative games like this that don’t offer any player choice should only have one ending IMO.

[canedaddy]

it's definitely weird old man! I have been doing it for years. Back when did a second round of a specific routine called 5/3/1, I didn't just want to call repeating the next phase of 4 workouts cycle 2. It just seemed boring. So I named it after the lyrics from the Ninja Turtles theme song (Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines, etc) to keep them in order. And I named to other 3 push pull legs weekly workouts after the Deception Seekers (Thundercracker, Skywarp and of course STARSCREAM who was leg day because that day sucks like STARSCREAM ) . Beyond that, there's been no real logic. I just pick a group of 7-9 things I enjoy and name the workouts after them for fun. I am the only person who sees them so it's just a goofy little thing for me. My wife finds it hilarious but dumb and entirely perfectly in character for me anyway. So far I have had Fullmetal Alchemist, Persona 5, specifically the forms of the boss Seven Force from Gunstar Heroes, the casts of Like A Dragon and DQ11...just whatever is playing at the moment mostly. Since Sonic Frontiers is the new hotness and it's time to refresh, I was looking for a way to make it work. Occasionally there's a method but mostly it is just for funsies because I am me .

That is great, and I'm sure the results show it is 100% effective.