The 2023 Backlog Challenge

[Sumez | 2,969]

Awesome! Now the true game starts

[Foochie776 | 1,057]

I’ve put in a successful run of Aladdin (still can’t beat that jump at the end of “The Escape”) so I’m just going to do a full run and skip that part and call it complete with an asterisk. 
 

I’ve started Earthbound, slowly. I’ve never played a turn based RPG besides Pokémon and there’s a learning curve. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

On 4/18/2023 at 9:27 AM, DoctorEncore said:

@Reed RothchildBruh... Further Fields in Temple Ruins almost made me gouge my eyes out. Took me a couple hours to finally figure that out. I seem to have a knack for making puzzles more difficult than they really are by searching for a convoluted solution instead of an easy one.

I finally went back last night and tried this one for the first time.  Spent 30 minutes trying out some ideas, but none of them were quite panning out.  I can't tell if I have the right concept, or if I'm doing it completely wrong.

I'm near the end of the game, but spent a very long time not making progress, so I took a break to work on two new games:

Xenoblade - I can already tell I'm going to prefer the worlds of Xenoblade II, which are jam-packed full of little secrets and treasures.  And I got really used to the crazy convolutions of 2's combat.  But it's a nice game to play while watching movies or Netflix, and I'm always in need of those.

Ghost of Tsushima - Maybe 2 hours in.  I'm digging it, and I could see myself doing all of the side stuff since it seems like it will be a chill experience.  But it feels like more of an 8/10 and won't be threatening Elden Ring on my year end list.  But that's still pretty good.

House of Fata Morgana - Restarted after getting an hour into it last year.  It's hard though, because I'm also reading a couple books right now, so it's hard to have time to dedicate to those and this.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

On 2/19/2023 at 11:30 PM, Gloves said:

@Reed Rothchild can I be a complete pain in the ass and ask since you're currently tracking progress with @ peoples' names, could you change it to be a link to each person's post with their progress? This would make it easier for us all to find our posts much faster. >_>

I swear I'll make this update soon...ish...

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

3 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I finally went back last night and tried this one for the first time.  Spent 30 minutes trying out some ideas, but none of them were quite panning out.  I can't tell if I have the right concept, or if I'm doing it completely wrong.

I'm near the end of the game, but spent a very long time not making progress, so I took a break to work on two new games:

Xenoblade - I can already tell I'm going to prefer the worlds of Xenoblade II, which are jam-packed full of little secrets and treasures.  And I got really used to the crazy convolutions of 2's combat.  But it's a nice game to play while watching movies or Netflix, and I'm always in need of those.

Ghost of Tsushima - Maybe 2 hours in.  I'm digging it, and I could see myself doing all of the side stuff since it seems like it will be a chill experience.  But it feels like more of an 8/10 and won't be threatening Elden Ring on my year end list.  But that's still pretty good.

House of Fata Morgana - Restarted after getting an hour into it last year.  It's hard though, because I'm also reading a couple books right now, so it's hard to have time to dedicate to those and this.

Man, that level kicked my butt. Took me so so long to finally find a viable solution. Also, if Baba has another 150 levels beyond the 170 I've already completed, then I'm gonna call it complete and cross it off the list. I'll keep picking away at it, but if I stopped now, I'd happily call it done haha.

[RH | 4,928]

On 12/3/2022 at 5:22 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

We all have gigantic backlogs, right?  Dozens of games.  Hundreds of games.  Thousands of games.  We've always wanted to play our dusty copy of Dragon Warrior 2, because everyone tells us it's a stone-cold classic. 

But who has the time, right?

Well, we made the time in 2021 (and 2022).  And some of us nailed it.  Some of us did rather well.  Some of us put in a respectable effort.  And some people completely failed.

Welcome to Round Two Three.  Apply whatever necessary lessons learned, and good luck.

• Participating users will create an initial post with a list of games that they want to finally beat in 2023.
• The list can be as big or small as you want.  5 games?  Fine.  10 games?  Better.  25 games? Go for it.  50 games?  You're a crazy person, but I believe in you.
• Please use that same post to make updates and track your progress throughout the year.  That way it will be much easier to see how everyone is doing.  You can still make new posts to notify everyone of updates, or discuss whatever you want, but let's have everyone track their progress in each of their OP.
• What constitutes 'beating' a game?  That's up to you.
• What games are in scope?  All of them.
• Can you amend your list later?  NO.  I mean, I won't stop you, but this is the backlog challenge.  Not the "What Games Have you Beat Recently" thread.  Try not to change it.
• Try to have your list together by January 1st.  Once it's posted and the new year begins, consider it final.
• Also, you may find this helpful:

 

Running tracker of everyone's progress to go here:

@Reed Rothchild 24/45
@ThePhleo 0/110
@twiztor 6/13
@MagusSmurf 2/36
@darkchylde28 1/13
@FireHazard51 3/31
@Sumez 17/50
@Brickman 9/33
@Webhead123 2/14
@Renmauzo 1/18
@Gloves 3/9
@ScaryD 2/16
@Philosoraptor 11/50
@Lago 5/20
@fox 6/39
@Murray 0/10
@ifightdragons 0/26
@PekoponTAS 3/21
@the_wizard_666 0/40
@Foochie776 3/25
@Vectrex28 0/11
@Floating Platforms 18/50
@spacepup 3/15
@Splain 1/6
@Gaia Gensouki 9/305
@Jicsan 0/1
@HANSOLOOOOOOOO 3/20
@greenthunder 0/20
@nesmaster14 6/10
@Jaden 1/20
@ConfusedCollector 4/41
@Jeevan 14(?)/75
@DoctorEncore 2/20
@BortLicensePlate 0/14
@Matchbook 0/8
@G-type 0/1

@RH 0/1
@Jynx 0/13
 

Replace “she is” with “I am”

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

15 minutes ago, RH said:

Replace “she is” with “I am”

 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

Looks like Jean Ralphio is quite the gamer too

 

 

[Sumez | 2,969]

"So and so OBLITERATES Castlevania 4"

> literally game over on stage 8

[Sumez | 2,969]

Omori - Beaten 2/5

Eartbound-inspired indie RPGs are a dime a dozen nowadays. While I don't think it makes sense to say Omori stole anything from Undertale, it's very hard not to draw a continuous comparison between the two because 90% of the time they are trying to build on the same core values. The majority of Omori has you move around in a cute, oddball fantasy world viewed through the lens of childlike imagination. At best it's endearing, at worst it feels like a dollar-store Undertale.

Combat is mostly rote and pointless (compared to the consistently entertaining and creative action-based bullet dodging of Undertale), and the game really, really likes wasting your time for the sake of world building. It takes the artistic pause very seriously, and is extremely fond of the "unnecessarily loooong hallway" trope. And any time you decide to speak to an NPC there's a high risk they'll spend an eternity playing out a full cut-scene about deciding which color to paint their living room.

The game has another layer though. Where the "creepy" elements in Undertale were mostly just a fun facet of its quirky humor, Omori plays that aspect much more straight - trying to deal with very real emotions as a terrible event shakes up a previously tightly knit group of childhood friends. Although the indication that something is off is dropped right off the bat, the true nature of this twist isn't really revealed until you are quite a way into the game. I'm not gonna spoil anything here, so this writeup will be a little brief as it's hard to say more about Omori without spoiling the story.
In terms of writing, it has some really nice moments, but the themes are extremely heavy-handed and often come across very immature in their execution. There is an additional plot twist towards the end, and although it's intended to be a shocking reveal that ups the stakes, it just comes across as cliché instead. IMO the game would have been better without it, focusing instead on the more direct story involving emotions and people's feelings towards eachother, which could easily have used a few more layers to really work.

If you enjoy games like Earthbound and Undertale and really want to play more like it, Omori is an easy recommendation, but it comes with the caveat that you have to equip yourself with quite a bit of patience. And don't expect much in the way of actual gameplay, this is a story-driven game through and through.

Edited May 9, 2023 by Sumez

[Sumez | 2,969]

Crash Bandicam - Beaten 6/5  (100% completion 9/5)

Cras Banicot isn't a game I've ever given much consideration. Even at the time, its awkward attempt at being "edgy" fell completely flat to me as a young teenager, arguably the game's target audience. In the years to follow, the entire PS1 trilogy would quickly end up as one of those games you'd find a million copies of at fleamarkets and such, which you'd ignore while you're searching for the real gold. You know, alongside annual sports releases, shitty licensed cartoon games, and other baby stuff. I have all three of them, only because they inevitably ended up in bundle purchases.
I think only fairly recently, those games have entered more of a renaissance due to the people who grew up with them as kids now actually entering adulthood. Which aside from making me feel really old, also suddenly affected its second-hand value quite a bit, leaping directly from bargain bin trash into the "suddenly-collectible-despite-being-extremely-ubiquitous-like-the-zelda-games" territory.

So in order to challenge my perceptions, and actually give the games a chance, I put the first Bandycoot game on my backlog, with the other two as "bonus games". And uh, what do you know, I actually enjoyed this game a lot.

This isn't the first time I've played this extremely popular game before, of course. But I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've played more than a couple of stages, and compared to how simple it seems at first, it thankfully actually has a lot going on, once you really get into it.

The game follows that early pre-Mario 64 trend of trying to take platformers into 3D by mostly sticking to a singular axis, but switching between heading into the screen or going sideways traditionally. Or even moving towards the camera in a chase sequence - probably one of the more iconic setpieces from the series, despite it only happening in two stages, surprisingly!
It's easy to assume then, that the game is really just a 2D game with a fancy 3D camera. But the 3D controls are actually consistent throughout every perspective, even though it is only occasionally useful. Knowing well that the game would feel awful requiring real 3D spatial positioning, due to the lack of an analog stick, the developers wisely never require you to make use of anything other than the four lateral directions. The game is also never too action paced, relying instead on a methodic stop-and-go rhythm, with each stage being mostly a basic sequence of individual traps and obstacles, rarely giving you more than one thing to focus on at a time. That kind of design usually gets boring really fast, but Crash Bathingcoat is really good at staying fresh the whole way through.

It's honestly easy to forget that the game actually is fully 3D at all times, leading to a few awkward plummets off the side of a platform. In general, a lot of deaths in this game feel like a result of that ever-present awkwardness, rather than your own mistakes. Hitboxes can be extremely unfair and unintuitive, and judging your position over platforms mid-air while moving away from the camera will never be able to feel as precise and intuitive as the traditional sideways view. The controls are extremely reliable, however. They take a lot of getting used to, but once you do, you should be able to control Crahs with perfect precision. Many small platforms are typically placed at a distance where a single long jump will perfectly hit the center of them, so you rarely have to second guess the required velocity.

Getting through the game's 30 regular stages is quick and fairly trivial. You'll die a lot no doubt, but there is also a plethora of extra lives spread throughout the game to accomodate that.
What is clearly the meat of the game, however, is acquiring the hidden gems. Every stage that's not a boss fight will award you a gem if you destroy every box present on the stage. Some times those are hidden away in hard to find places, or annoyingly just outside the view of the camera. And some times managing to destroy them without taking a hit becomes cleverly tricky. The bigger challenge however, is that you need to also do this without dying even once on the stage.

This is a great incentive to return to old stages, and replay them until you master them, focusing on practicing your chokepoints. The game is clearly designed around this approach, and going for those gems is where Cars Bandicote gets elevated from a mildly enjoyable platformer to something that feels truly rewarding to play.
It can be devastating to finally reach the goal of a really long stage without taking a death, only to be rewarded with a screen saying you missed one single box, that you have no idea where was hidden. But the excitement of making it to that goal and holding your breath while you find out if you get the gem is exhilarating all the same.

 

[Sumez | 2,969]

Valfaris - Beaten 11/5

I barely remember playing Slain. I do remember it being fairly competent but, as it would turn out, not very memorable. Valfaris being the spiritual sequel of sorts (or maybe actual sequel? Like I said, I don't really remember, and I'm not sure it matters either) similarly tries to look like the cover of a cheesy heavy metal album, and as far as that goes, it mostly succeeds.

I was sold on it being an almost Contra-like run-n-gun, but I wouldn't advice going in expecting anything of that sort. Right out of the gate, your pea shooter has a massive cap to its firing rate, and even the smallest enemies take multiple hits to kill. You aren't ever really gunning your way through hordes of popcorn enemies, instead stopping every so often to dodge shots and counterattack. It's fun to play once you find the balance, just don't expect to play it like a run-n-gun and you'll be alright.

Throughout the game you are constantly unlocking a plethora of new weapons to play around with, so arguably I'd assume which you stick with can affect your play style a lot.
Each weapon can be equipped into one of three available slots with different purposes: For my melee weapon I just picked an early sword with a good range and heavy damage facilitating satisfying timed quick-kills. You also have a secondary gun relying on limited ammo, for which I went with the most heavily damaging rockets I could find. My main weapon was the flamethrower-style gun which worked nicely as a situational defensive option, though it was clearly the one seeing the least use. Instead my core gameplay loop ended up consisting of closing in to hit everyone with my sword, which refills the ammo, used to instantly blast away heavier enemies, or those who spawn too far away to quickly close the distance.
It's likely that someone going with a different loadout might have a very different experience with the game, but this setup was so powerful I never felt enticed to change it out, and it seemed to gel really well with the game's challenges and enemy design.

Once you do find your groove, the game manages to open up quite a bit and become a lot more entertaining than it initially appears. It has a very "euro" like feel to it due to the way it relies on gimmicky weapons and finding items to upgrade them, but it ultimately doesn't affect the core gameplay as much as you might fear. It's a pretty easy game too, thanks to health items dropping left and right, and checkpoints showing up every time you turn a corner, which also refills your health.
But an interesting mechanic to shake that up, is a certain item used to activate those checkpoints, which usually shows up once per checkpoint (with a few extra hidden ones around). By opting out of using a checkpoint you can then spend that item at the end of a stage instead, to exchange into upgrade materials. Not that you'd ever need that, because as it turns out the later stages of the game are absolutely littered with those items, much more than you could ever need. In general the mechanic is a little weird and clearly not too thought through. Every time you beat a larger boss, your capacity for carrying those checkpoint items increases by one, until you can carry 20 at the end. But you can only ever spend 4 to 5 of them at the exchange, so I'm not sure why you'd need more?

Yet, I made a point ouf of amassing as many as I could, because the game really feels a lot better balanced if you systematically forego every second checkpoint. This means you'll have to fight some bosses multiple times if you die later, but in general replaying and improving at individual sections is what makes games like this enjoyable. You'll still have frequent checkpoints, and there is no punishment for dying over and over, but at least the game demands some kind of decent performance from the player. The bosses are generally very brisk and not very difficult, but unique and creative enough to be satisfying to fight.

 
The timer seems to factor in real time where the Switch was on standby, which is kinda hilarious

Ultimately there's not much bad to say about Valfaris, and I feel like it's the kind of game I should really like, once I get over the realisation that it's not gonna be arcade-style action. But at the same time, the game doesn't really do that much for me. It's functional and plays like it should, but that also seems to be it. Give it a try if it looks like something that will be up your alley, because in that case it probably will be. But it's not likely something I'll ever return to again, and in a year or so I'll probably remember as little from it as I do from Slain.

[Sumez | 2,969]

Are you guys keeping up?

Crash Candyboot 2 - Beaten 12/5 + (100% completion 14/5)

As expected, the next game in the series doesn't do a lot to change up a the gameplay. A general consensus among fans seems to be that it's like the first game but better, and often a fan favourite out of the original trilogy.
I'm not sure I can agree with that though, because while the sequel doesn't add much to the formula, most of what it does add is quite consistently worse.

The biggest new addition is a crouch button, which also enables platformer staples such as sliding, crawling or ground pounding. These a rarely really employed in a way that makes the gameplay any more interesting though, and whenever you do need to slide, it just feels unnecessarily forced. A lot of the new obstacles and enemy types introduced tend to involve some sort of awkward timing element which often result in either tedious waiting or cheap hits. It's not a massive detriment, but overall many stages just feel less lean and focused than the original game.

Crash 1 also did a pretty nice thing where every stage theme, dictating both the feel and type of challenges present on a stage, typically appeared on two different stages, with the later one often making up a more challenging version of similar obstacles. This ensured a decent amount of variety, while still keeping the player in check and challenging skills learned earlier. Crash 2 meanwhile has most themes repeat three or more times, which is just enough to make them feel a lot more played out, causing many stages to blend together more.
One type of stage that of course makes its return is the chase sequence towards the camera, and those are actually much worse in this game. In the original, they were mostly inoffensive, relying on basic patterns and intuition, and some quick reaction. In this one they have a lot more going on, but end up being based more on memorization rooted in trial and error, which really isn't much fun.

There's a lot more talking in this one too, mostly via hologram faces that pop into your map hub every once in a while. But everyone either whispers or mumbles, and the devs refused to add subtitles for some reason, so if they said anything important I probably missed it.

That's not to say Crash Banditcup 2 is a much worse game than the first. It's mostly just a bunch of little things I like slightly less. I do like some of the new ideas in the game, and the hub world definitely works better. The bosses were pretty terrible in the first one, and while they still aren't great this time, they are a lot more inoffensive. Some of the challenges introduced to get additional hidden gems in the sequel are also pretty cool. One stage expect you to avoid smashing any boxes (which also foregoes the checkpoints), while some others require you to speedrun to the goal, something even the first game felt designed for though it never required it.

On the downside however, the expectation of beating every stage without taking a hit is gone, allowing collection of all boxes (which is still a goal on every stage) even though you died.
This removes what I found to be the biggest appeal of Craahs Babdicoot 1, so I'm sad to see that change. Instead getting all boxes now often involves some esoteric solution that is not immediately obvious, and getting them in one could require finding an invisible teleporter in another completely unrelated stage you've already seemingly completed all goals in. There is very little enjoyment in finding out those on your own, and I'd probably recommend just checking a guide whenever necessary.
Where making it to the end and being told that you missed some boxes in the last game felt like an invitation to prove your skill and repeat the process, Cras Bandicot 2 makes that same blow feel a lot more like tedium.

 

On the surface the sequel is indeed more of the same, but a lot of little things being only slightly worse ultimately makes it a "fine" game that I just happened to feel a lot less engaged in. Getting 100% in the first game felt like an awesome victory, and in this one it felt like I just managed to complete a job.

[Brickman | 4,000]

Super Mario Advance 4 (SMB 3) finished along with all 38 e+ card levels.

It was a lot of fun playing through SMB 3 on the GBA. The graphic updates are very nice and aren’t all set to high contrast like Super Mario Advance 2. This will 100% be the way I play SMB 3 in the future. 

I also discovered that there were 38 e+ cards released in Japan back in the day (if anyone has a set and is selling let me know). These were also released in the US but not as many levels made it there. I managed to find a ROM with all 38 levels and played it on my Everdrive.

100’s of deaths later I have finally made my way through them. They were hands down the hardest Mario levels I have ever played, some were absolutely brutal and I spent easily up to 50-60 lives on some levels.

I feel like these levels were a precursor to Mario Maker. They have a lot of mixed up levels with things from things like SMB 2 and Super Mario World added in. There are speed run levels, Super Mario World ghost houses, levels where you have to bounce on nothing but the bouncy notes and even remakes of a few SMB 1 levels using SMB 3 assets. 

If you’re a fan of SMB 3 and haven’t played them I highly recommend giving them a go.

11/10

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

On 5/15/2023 at 2:13 AM, Sumez said:

Are you guys keeping up?

You'll be passing me up.  My games are not short.

[Floating Platforms | 728]

On 5/15/2023 at 3:13 AM, Sumez said:

Are you guys keeping up?

I'm going to be falling way behind. I took a break from long game Yakuza Kiwami to start massive game Tears of the Kingdom. If I don't want to do either of those, I have long game Picross S2 and my handheld time is long game The World Ends With You.  I might get a couple Sega CD games done by the end of the month if I'm lucky.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

20 minutes ago, Floating Platforms said:

I'm going to be falling way behind. I took a break from long game Yakuza Kiwami to start massive game Tears of the Kingdom. If I don't want to do either of those, I have long game Picross S2 and my handheld time is long game The World Ends With You.  I might get a couple Sega CD games done by the end of the month if I'm lucky.

I'm maybe 5 hours into Ghost of Tsushima.  And since it's the PS5 release it has all sorts of extra content.  I probably won't go for 100%, but I do plan on exploring the whole map(s).  So, probably 50-60 hours total.

I'm 15 hours into Xenoblade, so even just doing some of the side stuff, including the Switch epilogue,is looking like another 60+ hours, minimum.

Whenever I return to Shenmue and Paper Mario, I'm only an hour or two in and neither is a short game.

I keep getting distracted with non-backlog games like Baba Is You and PS2 games.

My boys and I are rocking Super Mario Maker 2 during their game time.  They love it, and I encourage anything using imagination and creativity.

[twiztor | 854]

after taking about 2 months away from gaming, i returned to Tomb Raider today. yeah, i decided that this one's not for me. I'm probably around 50% through the game (at the Midas catacombs or whatever people call that area). i'm kind of enjoying the puzzle elements, but everything else is a negative. the graphics, the tank controls, i'm just not loving the overall package, so i'm calling it quits. on to the next!

[Sumez | 2,969]

Anyone trying to get into the Tomb Raider series really should start at TR2. The first one is a drag. 

[Sumez | 2,969]

Slay The Spire - Victory with all classes on 16/5

If all I said was that this game is pretty much a traditional deckbuilder card game mixed with the typical design elements of modern indie "roguelike" games, I think that actually describes Slay The Spire to the point where it would almost be enough to cause an AI to make this exact game.
What that doesn't quite illustrate however, is how well that formula works, and how fun this game is.

To explain the deckbuilder concept briefly, think a dueling card game like Magic the Gathering. But instead of buying and trading yourself to a good deck outside of the game, you always start each new game with the same extremely basic deck, and instead expand that deck by acquiring new (and much better) cards along the way as you progress through battles and other events - the resulting deck being unique to that run only.

The core card combat is extremely simple, in the best way possible. It definitely relies on making the right tactical decisions, but never requires you to juggle too many aspects at once.
It's mostly based around using cards to either add defense or perform attacks on opponents, but the various effects of the cards you can attain throughout a run add a lot of variation and depth to this setup. Since it's a single-player computer game, rather than playing against humans, that allows combat to be asynchronous and tilted towards the player's advantage rather than needing to balance between sides. What that means is the player always has the advantage of seeing what the enemy plans on doing the next turn. So you always know exactly how much damage you need to defend against on the current turn instead of making guesses.
In general, Slay The Spire is very good at being completely open about these kinds of information, allowing the player to always make an informed decision. 

In spite of its "basic" nature it's actually quite incredible at giving each different enemy type its own unique nature that requires you to consider who you are fighting whenever you play your hand, and the four playable classes likewise, since they each have very different strengths and weaknesses extending into several vastly different play styles.
Usually, seeing that a game has a card based "combat" interface is something that makes me turn off on it entirely. But by owning the concept this hard, Slay The Spire just nails it, and manages to never feel dull - it's a card game that would be a lot of fun to play in real life as well.

Regarding the game's "roguelike" side, it follows all the typical tropes of that recent tendency in many indie games. You move through dungeons in the a branching path system similar to the one in FTL (which I really disliked, btw), and you're often presented with a selection of multiple new cards or relics (permanent powers) allowing you to pick one, hopefully honing in on ones that will offer good synergy with the strategy you are aiming for. The randomness in this means you'll some times scrape by as you're clinging to your life, while other times you'll become near invincibile - much like Binding of Isaac which started this whole trend in games, but not necessarily to the same extreme degree. I have an impression that if you really know what you are doing, you'll probably always have a very likely success, but I think it relies on a much heavier insight into each class's core strategies, as well as the dedication to keeping your deck slim. I can't do that. If I see a card that looks even slightly good, I want it

So when is a game like this done? My very first run through the game took me to a victory screen, which also unlocked the next character. This run took a whole three hours, and at that point I thought the game was good but exhausting, and honestly ready to call it a day almost there. However I wanted to try out the next class just to see what they thought up, and ended up with another victory. In fact I started out with three victories straight, using three different classes before my first defeat.
Of course, that's not the true end of the game, as getting a victory with each of those classes then unlocks the "secret" extra "true final boss". I died there with the fourth class, and gave it a few more runs with the one other class that seemed the most overpowered to me.

Before I knew it I'd invested 20 hours in the game, it's just that addicting. I still haven't beaten said super boss, and after taking a character that seemed impossibly strong to it, only for a whole bunch of effects happening between turns where I'd just take an insane amount of damage from who-knows-what, I honestly don't think I have the patience to go for this before putting the game down as "beaten". Taking the more basic victory with each class is good enough for me, and it's safe to say this isn't a backlog game for me any more.
I also know it's a game I'll be returning to many times in the future, probably pretty soon too, for a single "quick" playthrough every now and then.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

One of my favorite games of all time.  But yeah, I had to take a break and walk away after getting through everyone's first run since a "full" completion can be so maddeningly hard. 

I'd give it another go or two every month or so, and eventually the stars aligned and I beat the heart.

[Floating Platforms | 728]

On 5/17/2023 at 11:51 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

I'm maybe 5 hours into Ghost of Tsushima.  And since it's the PS5 release it has all sorts of extra content.  I probably won't go for 100%, but I do plan on exploring the whole map(s).  So, probably 50-60 hours total.

I'm 15 hours into Xenoblade, so even just doing some of the side stuff, including the Switch epilogue,is looking like another 60+ hours, minimum.

Whenever I return to Shenmue and Paper Mario, I'm only an hour or two in and neither is a short game.

I keep getting distracted with non-backlog games like Baba Is You and PS2 games.

My boys and I are rocking Super Mario Maker 2 during their game time.  They love it, and I encourage anything using imagination and creativity.

50-60 sounds about right for Ghosts of Tsushima. I did all the non-multiplayer stuff including the DLC island.  Xenoblade scares me with how long that could be for someone like me with a completionist mindset.  Shenmue shouldn't be too terribly long compared to these others. I'm one of those types that absolutely loves the game for its campy-ness so I was wasting tons of times talking to all the NPCs after everything to see what they would say..  All of the talk around Baba is You on this thread is making me not want to pick it up, just because I don't want to get sucked into that time commitment.

Juggling these long games (and knowing more are waiting in the wings) is making me think about how to readjust my 2024 backlog goals even further.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Finally played a little bit more Deathloop. It's definitely a cool concept, but I can see why a lot of people bounce off it. It presents itself as having this deep puzzle that needs solving, but really you're just following a bunch of markers and completing quests. The special abilities are pretty cool and the levels are extraordinarily dense in terms of design, but the gunplay is a bit underwhelming. I'm surprised it got so many perfect scores from critics and I'm unsurprised that it was less liked by the general audience.

Finished up Death Squared co-op with my son. That is a very cool indie puzzle game with some really unique ideas. It's great because it doesn't require extraordinary dexterity, so I was able to coach my 6-year old through the tougher puzzles without having to take control. Highly recommended.

[twiztor | 854]

played through Wario Land 2 for the Game Boy Color today. hadn't planned on beating the whole game, but the save battery was dead so had to power through in one sitting. only about 5 hours, so that wasn't too bad.
the game is pretty mediocre. all of the abilities from the first game are gone. the challenge level dropped considerably so it is closer to a Kirby game in that regard.
this game did have some interesting level design with lots of exploration opportunities. there must be some sort of branching paths or hidden exits, because i know there are levels i didn't reach. but with no saving and no world map or stage select, i have to call it done.

[Sumez | 2,969]

I bit the bullet and got the new Zelda, so that might be impacting my backlog progress for a while - and just as I was finally catching up, too.

On the flip side, I don't really feel too engaged in it so far, so maybe it won't hijack that much of my attention.