The Backlog Check-in Vol. 292: 8/5/23: Atlas Fallen Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Mass Effect, Mass Effect: Andromeda

Finished: Nothing

Playing: Mass Effect

Added: Nothing

After playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for 30 hours, I quit playing it. I finished it twice two years ago, and it was feeling too familiar. It’s probably my favorite game, but I need a longer break from it before playing it again. I was still in the mood for a similar game, so I started playing Mass Effect: Andromeda because it’s another favorite of mine within the same genre. It’s been over four years since I played it, and it wasn’t feeling as familiar to me as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey did. However, there’s quite a bit to learn - more than I’m in the mood for right now. It got me in the mood to play the original Mass Effect, and it’s more linear, smaller scale and tightly paced with less complexities.

Games releasing this week
Atlas Fallen
Banchou Tactics
Bright Lights of Svetlov
Cat’s Request
Chickenoidz Super Party
The Dragoness: Command of the Flame
Gord
Hammer of Virtue
House Flipper
I Am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival
Tower of Fantasy
Legend Bowl
The Man Came Around
Mondealy
New Star GP
NoseBound
Palia
Piko Interactive Arcade 1
Pups and Purrs Pet Shop
Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders - Bandit’s Trail
Running Fable
Sengoku Dynasty
Space Mechanic Simulator
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
The Sydney Hunter Collection
30XX
Waifu Warrior F-ist
Way of the Hunter - Tikamoon Plains
Western Rye
WildTrax Racing
Within a Dead City
World Soccer Pinball
WrestleQuest
Zombie Soup

[argyle]

Games added: Metroid Prime Remastered, Scarlet Nexus, LIttle Nightmares II

Last week: Finished River City Girls

This week: Not sure - I should play some more FF16 before I forget how to play, but I kinda want to play through Ys IX before X comes out, so we'll see.

Really enjoyed River City Girls overall. Great pixel art style, fun beat-em-up gameplay, and a fantastic soundtrack. The open world gameplay was overall a positive that added to the game, but it did have some drawbacks (more on that in a min). The game also had a great sense of humor and a ton of polish. Not too long (I'd guess 10-ish hours? Give or take a few) but this isn't a negative, it felt like it was the right length. Didn't overstay its welcome. Once I started keeping a stock of consumables to heal I never had any difficulty issues either.

As I mentioned, there were a few drawbacks. Because of the open world design enemies respawn. This wouldn't be an issue except for a few decisions they made. One, enemies level with you so you never really feel more powerful and fights are always moderately tough. So even when backtracking in early areas, the fights are not a pushover. Two, not only do enemies respawn when you leave & re-enter an area, more enemies will come into an area 30 seconds to a min after you clear an area while you're still there. This makes looking for secrets you missed a pain, as there is a near-constant stream of enemies to contend with while looking around the area, trying to make a tricky jump, etc. And three, the way you run is by double-tapping a direction instead of using a run button. This makes running very hit-or-miss and can cause you to get hit while you're trying to just run through an area you've already been through.

In addition, there are some other nit-picks I had - healing items and accessories you buy don't tell you what they do until after you've bought them, which seems very odd. Also, you aren't told how to do new moves you purchase from the dojo or given a training area to learn them. You have to go into the menu to see what the button combo is for pulling them off, and honestly some of them I never quite got even after that - a little more description and the training area would have done wonders for this. Finally, you lose WAY too much money when you die. It works off of a percentage, but I'm not even sure exactly what or how that works - it seems to vary. For example, near the end of the game I had nearly 1k gold at one point & died, and it dropped me down to just over 500. After I beat the game I was messing around just a bit and I had a little over 1k, died again and only (only - heh) went down to a little over 700. So I don't know what the conditions or formula are, but whatever they are you feel screwed when you have a decent bit of money & die - one of the few times I would have asked for a souls-like mechanic of being able to kill an enemy to get my money back or something. That said, I had still bought all of the moves well before I finished the game. I didn't bother with most of the accessories since its a crapshoot what they do and most of them didn't seem super impressive. I could have looked them up, true, but I shouldn't HAVE to.

So yeah, fun game and still an easy recommend to anyone who enjoys a good beat-em-up in spite of my issues with it. I have the second one and I'm hoping they addressed some of these things in that, but I'm not going to jump into it right away. And in case anyone is wondering, I still consider Shredder's Revenge to be the beat-em-up king right now. Gonna take a lot to dethrone that one.

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, ??

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 43 games

Got back from vacation so I didn't play anything last week.

[isthatallyougot]

I know phase gave it a recommendation and your description of River City Girls makes me want to dive in argyle. (It's in my backlog.)

I finished up Monster Tale, and it was really fun overall. A nice blend of genres that I'd never experienced. It felt like it ended a bit prematurely, as it felt like things were just ramping up. (I finished around 8 hours.) But the mechanics were tight and the mixture of raising Chomp and integrating his abilities and forms into the combat of the main character, Ellie, was interesting and kept me engage to the end. Good game and a nice hidden gem on the incredible NDS.

[crimson_tide]

Hey fam, I be all over the place! The last 2 weeks have been goddamn insane. My wife is president of the Brooklyn Branch of the NAACP and had to attend the national conference so it's been a lot of stuff with the kids. My program for the summer wrapped up at the end of July but my 6th wedding anniversary and my promise kept to the wife to take her to Beyonce way back when we were was fulfilled last Sunday night (great show but I spent a ton of it watching how happy my wife was to be there, it brought me so much joy ). And to top it off, the is some leak in the basement somewhere in the house that I can't find the source and it's driving me nuts.

All this is to say very little gaming has been happening. I have been dabbling in things. Rogue Galaxy is losing me because it's too punishing but then I have an attack with Jaster that just destroys everything on screen making it trivial. The game is crazy unbalanced. Fenyx Rising and Scarlet Nexus are getting second looks, might dive into those. Trails of Cold Steel is so, so slow. We'll see if this week calms down and I settle into something. I also noticed The Warriors is on sale for under $10, maybe I will PS2oose that. I don't know, we will see. Hope all is well fam!

[canedaddy]

Sounds like everybody survived the past week or so.


Played recently: Destroy All Humans

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: GTA Trilogy

Current backlog: 34


I tried playing the one last PS2 game in my pile, Shining Force EXA, but the disc didn't read. Sooo... for my PS2oose My Own Adventure, I fired up the PS4 remake of Destroy All Humans. (Yes, I know I am a bad person for skirting the parameters of PS2oosing. So be it!)

I was on vacation last week and didn't get to play much, but the first few missions were a lot of fun. Not sure why I didn't get into this back in the day, as much as I was into open-world games at the time. Probably tried the demo and thought it didn't measure up to GTA. That was dumb... it's a different kind of game, with goofy levitation, mind-reading and other powers that are enjoyable to mess around with.

[argyle]

I tried playing the one last PS2 game in my pile, Shining Force EXA, but the disc didn't read. Sooo... for my PS2oose My Own Adventure, I fired up the PS4 remake of Destroy All Humans. (Yes, I know I am a bad person for skirting the parameters of PS2oosing. So be it!)

I bought a disc resurfaced a couple years back - if it's not working anyway, you can send it my way and I'll be happy to see if I can do anything with it for ya.

[canedaddy]

I bought a disc resurfaced a couple years back - if it's not working anyway, you can send it my way and I'll be happy to see if I can do anything with it for ya.

Sure, why not? I appreciate it. Want to DM me your address? I used to have it but no more (and you might not live at the same place, of course).

[isthatallyougot]

I've been on a bit of a DS kick lately and I decided to keep that ball rolling.

I fired up Orcs & Elves, an obscure dungeon crawler developed by id, of all devs. It's a fun, turn-based hack and slash RPG where you descend a mountain dungeon battling foes, leveling up, acquiring loot and the usual tropes. It's been enjoyable in the first couple of hours, although it could use a little more personality and identity imho. But, I'll reserve judgment until I've finished things. It's definitely fun enough that I'm sure I'll see it through.

[crimson_tide]

So I really, really tried to like Fenyx Rising but it doesn't look like it is going to land with me. I don't like the upgrade paths, it feels weird in combat and platforming (can't put my finger on what doesn't jive exactly), I don't know how this script and tone got approved to be in the same game, and it's just mid. I feel like there's something here but after nearly 16 hours of playtime over 2 years now, it's time to let go. Shame, the sequel which was cancelled was set to be based on Polynesian mythology. That would have been cool and maybe they could have ironed out the kinks and iterated to make their vision work. Oh well, on to the next adventure.