The Backlog Check-in Vol. 311: 12/16/23: The Rumble Fish+ Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Persona 4 Golden

Finished: Persona 4 Golden

Playing: ?

Added: Nothing

Games releasing this week
Crude
The Enjenir
Growth
Loot River
One
Railbreak
Rough Justice ‘84
The Rumble Fish+
Three Minutes to Eight
Terra Nil
World Warfare & Economics

[isthatallyougot]

While I'm awaiting the voting on d-pad for my next game, I've been playing Letter Quest : Grimm's Journey Remastered. It's a word game where you make words out of a list of 15 letters in order to damage foes. The whole thing has an rpg-type skin driving everything, and there's a good amount of variety to things, even if the core game of making words out of random letters remains the same. It's got a cheap flash-game type presentation visually, but it's fun to play in small bursts and I've already put 10 hours into it. It's certainly not a "great" game, but if you enjoy word games, it's a good time waster.

[crimson_tide]

10 HOURS?!?!? I didn't realize that game was more than 5-8. Learn something new everyday .

Played: Sakuna, God of War 2018,...kinda looked at Trails of Cold Steel...it's so slow and needlessly meticulous in its world building. I feel like whatever they are doing they could've wrapped up in a Xenoblade style 120 hour single game. The 60-80 hours for EACH GAME is ridiculous. And this is at 4x speed. I am really failing to see the appeal here.

Beat: Nothing

This week: more God of War and then Sakuna...and maybe Trails. It HAS to get good at some point right? I hope? Please ...

So I put on God of War to have something to do with my hands while the wife was crafting decorations. I think I'm like halfway done with it now. While I still cannot stand Kratos apparently neither can his kid which is just fine by me. Also, Atre is kinda badass and has been carrying the squad every now and again.

[canedaddy]

Interested to hear what you think about how the whole Kratos-Atreus thing plays out.

While I'm awaiting the voting on d-pad for my next game, I've been playing Letter Quest : Grimm's Journey Remastered. It's a word game where you make words out of a list of 15 letters in order to damage foes. The whole thing has an rpg-type skin driving everything, and there's a good amount of variety to things, even if the core game of making words out of random letters remains the same. It's got a cheap flash-game type presentation visually, but it's fun to play in small bursts and I've already put 10 hours into it. It's certainly not a "great" game, but if you enjoy word games, it's a good time waster.

I'm going to grab that for my phone the next time I have to travel.



Played recently: Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Finished: Amalur and all DLC

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 33

The new Amalur DLC was a mixed bag. It didn't go as hard into Oblivion territory as I thought it would, thankfully. Still, it didn't add much in the way of awesome new stuff (environments, characters, gear, etc.) I'm still glad I played it and replayed the rest of the game. It was a special one for me.

My first taste of the turn-based combat in Yakuza was a turnoff, but I got over that pretty quickly. Loving it now.

[crimson_tide]

OLD MAN IS ONE OF US, ONE OF US!!!!



This will make sense, I promise.

[isthatallyougot]

10 HOURS?!?!? I didn't realize that game was more than 5-8. Learn something new everyday

There's plenty of quests and an endless mode which can eat up time. And even though I usually don't care much for achievements/trophies, I got interested in them here. But despite the really cheap presentation, it's a fun time-waster, and more fun than it has any right to be imo.

And I can't stand *new* Kratos. They castrated him imho. (And I absolutely despised that kid.) I love the old unapologetically, irredeemable brutal Kratos. Gameplay was decent, but I still prefer the older entries from that standpoint as well. I may never play Ragnarok unless it gets put on Steam and I find it at an absurd discount.

I'm going to grab that for my phone the next time I have to travel.

Yeah, it'd be ideal for a time eater on a trip.

[argyle]

Games added: RPGolf Legends, Koumajou Remilia: Scarlet Symphony, Star Ocean: The Second Story R, River City: Rival Showdown, Double Dragon Collection, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe + Booster Course Pass (special Japanese English release that has all of the DLC except the very last part that released this month on the cartridge), Azure Strikers Gunvolt 3, Helvetii, Gravity Circuit (all for the Switch - my Play-Asia order arrived last week )

Last week: Finished nothing, played Jedi Survivor and a little bit of Star Ocean

This week: Jedi Survivor until the credits roll, then on to Star Ocean. I also want to go back & finish up the last little bit of Souldiers before the end of the year so I can properly place it in my top 10.

Jedi Survivor is amazing. I had fully intended to stick pretty closely to the main story line and not get sidetracked in this one, but it's just SO MUCH FUN that I want to explore & get all the extras just to play more of the game. This will definitely be high in my top 10 for the year.

The Star Ocean 2 remake seems top-notch so far. I'm hoping these Square remakes (the ones that stick very closely to the source, not FF7) and the rumors I'm hearing that after 16 underperformed for them they may be thinking about going "back to basics" is a good sign. There's also very strong rumors that we'll be getting FF9 & FF Tactics remakes very soon.

Oh, I also played the first level or so of Gravity Circuit. It was the only one in my order that didn't have confirmed English support, but I took a gamble on it because it was by a Western dev & the Japanese version was $23 compared to $35 for the EU one. It does have English support, and it's also really fun - it's heavily inspired by Mega Man with beat-em-up combat instead of shooting. I am going to have to turn the difficulty down when I start to play it proper tho, that first boss was no joke.

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Spider-Man 2

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 42 games

About 29% complete in Spider-Man 2 and working through the story nicely. It's a great game so far!

[isthatallyougot]

I started up the game that I believe will be the pick via the combined votes from you guys and d-pad. I don't think there are any more votes coming. But I'll still give it until the 22nd for the votes from that forum. But I don't think it will change either way. But if it does, I'll drop it of course and start whatever took its place.

I also started trying to get my year-end reviews and rankings together. Hopefully I can have things mostly sorted by the new year so I can share them. I'd love to read you guys yearly reviews/ranks as well, although I know it can be a bit of a hassle to do it. But if anyone does, you can be sure I'll be interested and read them.

[argyle]

I also started trying to get my year-end reviews and rankings together. Hopefully I can have things mostly sorted by the new year so I can share them. I'd love to read you guys yearly reviews/ranks as well, although I know it can be a bit of a hassle to do it. But if anyone does, you can be sure I'll be interested and read them.

I should actually have my list up in a timely manner this year. I've already compiled a list of the games I've either finished or played enough to judge this year. I'm not setting any unrealistic goals of "one more game I want to squeeze in" this time either. I just want to finish Jedi Survivor - which I'll do by Christmas, most likely - and I'd like to finish up the last little bit of Souldiers (which isn't much at all, but that also isn't 100% necessary for me to make my rankings).