The Backlog Check-in Vol. 318: 2/3/24: Helldivers II Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Star Ocean: The Divine Force

Finished: Nothing

Playing: Star Ocean: The Divine Force

Added: Nothing

Monday is my birthday and I was going to get either Granblue Fantasy: Relink or Persona 3 Reload, but now I’m not getting either. I wasn’t that impressed with the Granblue Fantasy: Relink demo, and to make matters worse reviews have been claiming that the single player story campaign is only 10+ hours long. Apparently it has a short single player story campaign, and a separate multiplayer quest mode that is the main meat of the game. All of the years that I was waiting for the game I was expecting it to be an epic 40+ hour single player action adventure RPG, so I’m disappointed that it’s not. I’m still going to get it when it’s cheap since reviews claim that the single player story campaign is good, but it’s extremely short especially for an RPG.

As for Persona 3 Reload, they’re charging $70 for it including the PS4 version. There’s not enough changes made to it other than graphics to make it worth that price IMO. They’re also charging $70 for the PS4 version of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Charging $70 for PS4 games is ridiculous IMO. I still don’t plan on getting a PS5 until next year when Grand Theft Auto VI comes out.

Playing the demo of Granblue Fantasy: Relink got me in the mood for a third person action RPG, so I started playing Star Ocean: The Divine Force. It’s a sci-fi JRPG with 3D anime characters that kind of look like dolls, especially the female ones. The environment graphics are a little more realistic looking, but have somewhat blurry low res textures and no lighting effects. It literally looks like a PS3/Xbox 360 game. But I’ve been enjoying the somewhat cheesy story and characters, some of the dialogue so far has been funny. The game itself is pretty fun with solid gameplay and combat.

Games releasing this week
Alisa
Atomic Heart - Trapped in Limbo
Clem
Empyrion - Galactic Survival: Dark Faction
Foamstars
Golfinite
Helldivers II
Illang
The Inquisitor
Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! Love for These Clothes of Desire!
Race Boat Simulator Racing
Shanghai Summer
Touhou Danmaku Kagura: Phantasia Lost

[isthatallyougot]

I finished up Boku no Natsuyasumi 2. What a *ridiculously* charming game. Any who are willing to emulate and like the idea of an off-beat, life-sim / childhood summer vacation, easy-breezy type of experience really ought to try it out. I spent a little over 19 hours with it, but I had time passage set to "slow" most of the time so I could enjoy exploring and do random things without too much pressure, and I was enjoying it so I wanted it to last. Really grateful to the translator(s) for doing the work. And Boku himself, that kid is a real rascal (unintentionally so). Man do I love him, ha!

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Windbound, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 43 games

Still in chapter 3 of Windbound - I reloaded a save earlier in the chapter and then died at the chapter end fight, trying again. Infinite Wealth...more like infinite time sink, am I right? 25 hours in, chapter 4, doing substories and other crazy things in the game but hopefully ready to move on soon as I am probably way overleveled and need to unlock more jobs.

[canedaddy]

I finished up Boku no Natsuyasumi 2. What a *ridiculously* charming game. Any who are willing to emulate and like the idea of an off-beat, life-sim / childhood summer vacation, easy-breezy type of experience really ought to try it out. I spent a little over 19 hours with it, but I had time passage set to "slow" most of the time so I could enjoy exploring and do random things without too much pressure, and I was enjoying it so I wanted it to last. Really grateful to the translator(s) for doing the work. And Boku himself, that kid is a real rascal (unintentionally so). Man do I love him, ha!

That is super appealing to me. Maybe in retirement I'll transition into a PC neckbeard type and give it a go.



Played recently: Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 35


This game is soooo good. I just finished up Chapter 12 with that tough boss fight and then a nice surprise cameo or two. Great stuff.

[argyle]

Games added: Beacon Pines

Last week: Finished Goat Simulator 3, played Yakuza: Like A Dragon

This week: LAD

I think I'm probably done w/ Goat Sim 3 now. Credits rolled week before last but I had still been messing around with it some. I may come back to it at some point & finish up some of the last things I have to do, it's just a fun game to screw around with. But LAD has my full attention right now. I sunk a ton of time this weekend into the property management minigame - got the #1 spot last night. I wasn't going to do much with it since it didn't click with me right away, but then I learned that there's a party member you get from it so I pulled up the video crim recommended and learned how it worked. Once I got into it I kinda got hooked - you actually unlock the party member pretty early on in it, but I had to keep playing at the point.

Also did a few more side stories that had opened up with this chapter - I'm in the Chinatown area right now, and there are several there. Did the one with the mascot (and I got the feeling that was a callback to another Yakuza that I either didn't play or forgot - am I right?). Also did one in that general area called Forget Me Not which was very well written and extremely sad. My wife watched me play that one and said she didn't expect it to be so sad. I told her LAD has side missions with better stories than most games have.

Really glad I decided to get back into that one.

Oh, I ordered The Man Who Erased HIs Name from Play-Asia last week. If anyone is interested, they're running a promo right now for 3 games for $100 w/ free shipping and TMWEHN is on the list. There are a LOT of games on the list, so worth checking out if you're interested. https://www.play-asia.com/

[canedaddy]

Indeed.

The mascot, Ono Michio, first appeared in Yakuza 6.



Thanks for the tip on Play-Asia!

[isthatallyougot]

That is super appealing to me. Maybe in retirement I'll transition into a PC neckbeard type and give it a go.

Yes, I think you'd really enjoy it. It seems very much in line with much of what you've enjoyed over the years.

As for myself, I started up Prince of Persia 2008. I had intended to do so a while back, but ended up passing on it for other choices. It's a mixed bag so far. I'm well into it, and it's very formulaic, but also pretty and easily digestible *entertainment*, for better or worse. There's very little depth, well *none* really, but it's mostly inoffensive, largely passive time-wasting. It's not memorable, but it's not an awful time. It's a Ubi game, to be sure.

[crimson_tide]

Hey y'all. Posting while monitoring kickboxing club. Hope all's well! argyle, sorry I didn't direct you to the Like A Dragon vids earlier. I thought you had moved on or I absolutely would have. Those vids were invaluable for the management sim and getting a handle on what would be useful investing time for the chapter 12 boss. But you are right about the music, it's goddamned insane how good that dude's boss fight music is, dubstep and all! That game has some solid music.

I foolishly dropped my Steam Deck with my inability to zip up the case. The L buttons don't work and the d pad is all kinds of messed up. Right does nothing and up and down are reversed. I tried to remove the back and see if I couldn't fix it but the last screw stripped. The repair place said removing the back plate voids the warranty which was weird because I thought the thing was made to be modded. They also said replacing the screw was $40. So the solution according to them is to send a ticket to Valve and when I send it back they will send me a new one or repair it since it's still under warranty. We will see what happens. Regardless, I am most bummed because my wife went out of her way to find a thoughtful gift and I broke it so soon. At least there's still the warranty.

Bought: the Ori games, Dust an Elysian tale and Fallout New Vegas all for Steam Deck.

Played: Cave Story, Vampire Survivors, Infinite Wealth

Beat: Nothing. Except my Steam Deck

Not getting nearly enough time with Infinite Wealth. About 5 hours in on chapter 2. Some big story beats are happening and I think Ichiban is off to Hawaii soon? I hope? At least midwinter recess is coming soon and the wife isn't hauling us off somewhere this year so I can hopefully play a good chunk. I really, really hope I can because I am really digging the bit I have played !

[isthatallyougot]

I foolishly dropped my Steam Deck with my inability to zip up the case. The L buttons don't work and the d pad is all kinds of messed up. Right does nothing and up and down are reversed. I tried to remove the back and see if I couldn't fix it but the last screw stripped. The repair place said removing the back plate voids the warranty which was weird because I thought the thing was made to be modded. They also said replacing the screw was $40. So the solution according to them is to send a ticket to Valve and when I send it back they will send me a new one or repair it since it's still under warranty. We will see what happens. Regardless, I am most bummed because my wife went out of her way to find a thoughtful gift and I broke it so soon. At least there's still the warranty.

Oh man! That really stinks. Hope you can get it all fixed up again. Nothing worse than that feeling of damaging new and shiny tech you just got.

I finished up Prince of Persia 2008. It had its pluses and minuses. It was pretty attractive visually. Some of the art was a little too busy for my tastes, and the world geometry made little sense, but overall I enjoyed the presentation. And the adventure was decent fun. The platforming was more automatic than I typically prefer, but it had a decent flow to movement, minus some awkwardness with input delay. But it was also very Ubi in the sense of being formulaic as well as having some uninspired gameplay elements. It was an average (good) game in the end. Good enough to enjoy once and forget about. I still think I'd prefer the original Sands of Time series reboot based on my memory with that one - the only one I played out of that PS2-era trilogy. On to something else.