The 2021 Backlog Challenge

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

22 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I set the guidelines, but I'm not gonna be an absolute stickler about it: this is all for fun and for pursuing our own feelings of accomplishment. 

I personally won't edit my list, and advise you all do the same, but God knows enough people have changed their's by this point 

It's easy to lie to other people, but lying to yourself takes some real skill. 

[MagusSmurf | 577]

Tentative 8-bit JRPG ranking ("Action-RPGs" that seem more like Zelda than Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy generally not allowed. Might be a neat list of its own though. Would probably consist of better games too.) Decided the easiest way to handle the original Game Boy library is just to allow everything released for it. Game Boy Color games not allowed though, since they’re not part of this era.

Parenthesis around a title means I haven't played in awhile. Everything else was in 2019-2021.

Great-ish Tier:

None.

I guess I should elaborate on why in general none made it.

• Quality of life and UI are usually dated which is a problem in a genre that heavily involves menus.
• Battle systems are all pretty much standard turn-based and there’s little in the way of interesting customization. This also leads to requiring substantial grinding just about killing a game. If a battle system is particularly good or if you are knowingly working towards a cool upgrade grinding is much easier to tolerate but here everything is generally too basic to matter.
• Random battles are often annoyingly frequent and sometimes difficult to run from.
• Characters and stories just aren’t generally good enough to care about; even when they’re actually sorta trying the results never really approach the Mendoza line. Best results for me here seem to be the ones that do something weird or memorable.

Good-ish Tier (Even the best 8-bit RPGs are pretty creaky compared to the good ones of any later era, hence the "ish.")

• Dragon Warrior IV - It's a Dragon Quest game without getting too basic or having something go too drastically wrong (some people might contend the party member AI is a dealbrealer though). This isn't that high of a bar to beat imo, I definitely don’t think V or Vi are close to the best SNES RPGs for instance, I'm just not sure anyone actually surpassed it during this era. The chapter system is a nice touch that adds some uniqueness to the game.
• Sweet Home - One of Resident Evil's inspirations. Atmospheric and unique. The inventory being so limited can make managing it a pain and the battling is pretty disposable but somehow it kinda works. It's probably mainly just from providing a different experience than you usually get from these games without making things unbearably long or tedious.
• (Pokemon RBGY) - It’s Pokemon. I don’t think it’s all that great. It just doesn’t really need to be for it to beat out most of these games. That’s 8-bit RPGs for you.
• (Final Fantasy Legend II) - It's been awhile but I remember liking this game and thinking it did a good job of expanding on the first game. But I also remember constantly save-scumming and running to limp my way through a lot of the last dungeon. That's probably a bad sign.
• Dragon Warrior III - See IV kinda but the lack of something like the Chapter system and its class system not really being worth fiddling much with hurts it. Still got a lot of Dragon Quest's strengths though. It's got more replay value that IV but in the 2020s only crazy weirdos like me replay 8-bit RPGs.
• Final Fantasy III - It has great quality of life for the era. The job system gives you some party customization although it doesn't allow the mix-and-match of abilities that makes FFV or FFT's job systems compelling. Running away rarely works and drops your Defense to 0 so you generally shouldn't even try it. Progression is pretty linear without really having a notable enough plot to justify it. The big problem though is the endgame: the connected set of final dungeons taken together are really long, the Exit/Warp spells don't work (pretty much the only time too; the developers were actively being dicks here) making for some very long trips back, and even after you've cleared everything else, making a straightforward attempt at finishing the game takes likes two hours from your last saving opportunity and is of non-trivial difficulty. Final Fantasy III's endgame is rightfully infamous and just isn't very fun.

Okay-ish Tier:

• Earthbound Beginnings - You're mainly here to go to places, take in the graphics and music, and talk to people. The combat generally needed work. They included autobattle but also have the typical NES-era lack of retargeting when an enemy dies, meaning autobattle leads to a ton of whiffed hits. The endgame randoms have no real balance either; you pretty much just need to run from some of them or pull out an instant-win item or you can get in pretty bad trouble.
• The Final Fantasy Legend - It moves pretty fast for its age, has its own growth systems, and is of a pretty short length. It doesn't explain jack in-game about how its systems work though; you really need to look up the manual or an FAQ or something. The lack of polish really stands out at times but it doesn’t hinder you too much since the game is mostly easy, quick, and you can save anywhere. Not a real contender for "good" but settles for being efficient and concise while still being sort of unique. Ultimately though, this game just doesn’t really feel like a worthy, full-scale adventure.
• Final Fantasy - Despite its fame its probably not even a top 100 NES game and not all that interesting in general.  If you can tolerate its quirks its alright. Final Fantasy Origins on PS1 is probably the definitive version for improving the polish, speed, and presentation, fixing some of the bugs, and offering an optional easy mode without outright taking an axe to the gameplay like later FF1 remakes do.
• (Fire Emblem Gaiden) - If you activate Easy Mode that doubles experience gained and promote your characters to a higher class whenever able, you get an alright Strategy-RPG with fairly boring map design - lots of open fields with minimal terrain. Don't do that and I hear it's apparently a grinding hell. I did the East Mode and thought it was alright.
• (Final Fantasy Legend III) - Was more conventional than its predecessors in some ways I didn't like. Not much here is egregiously bad but standing out less made it age poorly - there's much less reason to go back to this merely competent JRPG from the early 90s than FFL1 or FFL2. I didn't really bother exploring its growth/customization mechanics too much back in the day though, so I might be underestimating it a bit.
• Radia Senki - It's pretty and the action battles are kinda okay and neat for the NES but nothing too special. However movement is too slow and there's way too much backtracking. It's also really easy but with how frequent the random battles are I'm not sure you would want this one to be too terribly hard.
• Destiny of an Emperor - It's an interesting idea but the Shu propaganda and distortions already present in Romance of the Three Kingdoms have gotten completely ridiculous here. Cao Cao is practically absent from the game and you get stuff like Liu Bei's forces being the main ones responsible for vanquishing Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shao. It's neat to move from area to area, constantly progressing by vanquishing castles held by armies and occasionally recruiting a new guy. Then for some reason the game occasionally succumbs to cliche and asks you to go send your thousands-strong army into a cave to go loot chests and it kills the fast progression that is the game's main asset. I seldom don't use the autobattle option and the battles are too slow without it. There's also a really stupid bug that toggles items found by searching on/off that can potentially make the game unwinnable.

Bad-ish Tier:

• Final Fantasy II - It's got problems but maybe a little underrated? If you know how it works its system for gaining stats goes well enough but yeah course-correcting mid-to-lategame if done wrong looks like a pain. A lot else is wrong with the game overall though. The game kept spamming 7 Undead at me I couldn't run from that presenting neither reward nor threat. It moves anyone revived into the back row without the main menu having a visual indicator of this and no way to fix it in-battle - and often no way out but winning. Maria and Guy received way more attacks than they should have by random chance. The dungeon design is infuriatingly poor and filled with empty rooms it forces you to the center of upon entry and then cranks the enemy encounter rng way up  on your way out.
• Phantasy Star - It's pretty and has a mildly neat setting but the combat is very autobattle heavy, the first-person dungeons have no maps or mapping support, and your party has no customization besides equipment. If you just want a fun game, you can probably go play just about any halfway reputable first-person JRPG released later than this instead.
• (Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light) - Unbelievably crap UI and menus. It's Fire Emblem; people die if they are killed. I need to know precisely how much attack everyone has in order to be sure I avoid that and don't really want to memorize or look up the attack and weight values for every weapon in the game, thanks. Some interesting map design pretty much goes completely to waste as a result, but I guess this game has remakes to help remedy that.
• Dragon Warrior II - You get a ship around a third of the way in and a lot of places to explore but that's not too special at this point, a lot of the random encounters just don't quite feel fair, and there's a massive grind at the end.
• Revelations: The Demon Slayer/Last Bible: I played this within the past couple years and already forgot most of it. Uh. I think I remember it veering wildly between insufferably grindy (probably early on?) and totally trivial but kind of sucked regardless? And the Megami Tensei demon negotiation was really annoying here, far moreso than in Shin Megami Tensei from the same year. At least the game is short.
• Mouryou Senki Madara - It's like Tales of or Star Ocean except nobody has any non-spell attacks besides their normal one and you don't control anyone directly and what interference you CAN make is generally counterproductive. Lot of other weird design choices too.
• Ghost Lion - Requires way too many button pushes going through menus for even basic combat, generally minimal reward for fighting plus running away is nearly impossible.
• Dragon Warrior - Boring.

Destiny of an Emperor and Lagrange Point probably coming up later this year. Maybe Great Greed. Will probably replay FFL2 and 3, not sure I’ll have the time and patience for the Fire Emblem games and Pokemon too.

Edited December 27, 2021 by MagusSmurf

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

My primary goal of this challenge is achieved!  I conquered Battle Kid 2: Mountain of Torment.  It was brutal.  I started January 8, 2021 and finished just after 12 AM August 14, 2021.  6953 deaths.

Spoiler

 

[AmandaCathedral | 148]

I finished Super Mario 3D World!

I don't have a photo to show, but I beat the game, got all the way to World Crown in the post game, and then decided I was REALLY sick of it and didn't actually care enough to beat Champion's Path. I did beat Mystery House Marathon though, which was horrendous!

Overall I liked the main game a lot, but the post game content sucked. I'll certainly play through the main story again some day.

[OptOut | 8,884]

39 minutes ago, AmandaCathedral said:

I finished Super Mario 3D World!

I don't have a photo to show, but I beat the game, got all the way to World Crown in the post game, and then decided I was REALLY sick of it and didn't actually care enough to beat Champion's Path. I did beat Mystery House Marathon though, which was horrendous!

Overall I liked the main game a lot, but the post game content sucked. I'll certainly play through the main story again some day.

And then again.

And again.

And one more!

And THEN you'll be done!

[AmandaCathedral | 148]

1 hour ago, OptOut said:

And then again.

And again.

And one more!

And THEN you'll be done!

No thanks Nintendo, I have more of a life than you think I do.

[TDIRunner | 2,740]

5 hours ago, AmandaCathedral said:

I finished Super Mario 3D World!

I don't have a photo to show, but I beat the game, got all the way to World Crown in the post game, and then decided I was REALLY sick of it and didn't actually care enough to beat Champion's Path. I did beat Mystery House Marathon though, which was horrendous!

Overall I liked the main game a lot, but the post game content sucked. I'll certainly play through the main story again some day.

I did the same thing.  In fact, I completed everything up to that point including, all coins, all stamps, all flag poles and all characters.  The only exceptions were Champions Road and the Toad house in the Crown world.  I gave both very honest efforts and eventually said to Hell with it.  

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Nintendo's idea of enjoyable end game content is seriously lacking in imagination. Captain Toad had the same problem and it was an easy no for me.

[AmandaCathedral | 148]

I liked the one in the original Mario Galaxy the best, where when you beat 120 stars with Mario AND Luigi, you get a bonus level where you go back to the star festival and essentially take a little victory lap around the castle town and courtyard. It's a lovely little ending. I'd rather have more of that than the brutal final levels. After I beat The Perfect Run in Mario Galaxy 2, I kind of never wanted to do another level like it.

4 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

Nintendo's idea of enjoyable end game content is seriously lacking in imagination. Captain Toad had the same problem and it was an easy no for me.

Pokemon has been suffering from this for a long time. Why so many Pokemon fans defend the Battle Frontier in Emerald as something worthwhile I'll never understand.

Edited August 16, 2021 by AmandaCathedral

[Sumez | 2,951]

I think the "brutal final stages" in some Mario games are usually pretty good, but the added difficulty tends to come from a lack of checkpoints moreso than the design of the challenges themselves. The one in Mario Odyssey isn't really particularly hard, but going the whole stretch without dying becomes really taxing.

And I'm saying that as a fan of arcade games.

[AmandaCathedral | 148]

57 minutes ago, Sumez said:

I think the "brutal final stages" in some Mario games are usually pretty good, but the added difficulty tends to come from a lack of checkpoints moreso than the design of the challenges themselves. The one in Mario Odyssey isn't really particularly hard, but going the whole stretch without dying becomes really taxing.

And I'm saying that as a fan of arcade games.

That's extremely true of the one in Mario 3D World. I actually got most of the way through Champion's Path, but dying in the second last section and starting it all over every time was too annoying. If it had even a single checkpoint, it would be challenging standard stage. 

You nailed it on the head perfectly.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,530]

Wasn't the Mushroom Kingdom a post game thing in Odyssey?  Because that is an absolute perfect bonus to me.

[TDIRunner | 2,740]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Wasn't the Mushroom Kingdom a post game thing in Odyssey?  Because that is an absolute perfect bonus to me.

Yes, but they are referring to the Darker Side of the Moon which has a long ass level with no checkpoints.  

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

Finally, got back on track by beating Castlevania II. It's such a weird game. I quoted my thoughts below.

On 12/31/2020 at 11:04 AM, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES) - 8/16/21 - It's been awhile since I last cleared one of these. I figured I try Castlevania next. I used a guide since I knew this was one of those games with a couple BS things that there's no way you could figure out without beating your head against a wall for hours. Anyway, I definitely did not expect it to be that much of a departure from the first. I did enjoy the less linear gameplay, but the game feels a bit unfinished especially since there's only three bosses. It's also a bit on the easy side. My first playthrough, I went for 100% and got the normal ending (I beat it in 11 IG days). I decided to play again to get the good ending, and just beat that in 5 days (5:14:58).

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

On 8/12/2021 at 4:48 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

I set the guidelines, but I'm not gonna be an absolute stickler about it: this is all for fun and for pursuing our own feelings of accomplishment. 

I personally won't edit my list, and advise you all do the same, but God knows enough people have changed their's by this point 

Nope, the shame will be on full display at me not finishing any game on my list.....

Edited August 17, 2021 by FireHazard51

[Jicsan | 589]

Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu is finished.  I resorted to playing on the emulator and using rewind, but for this list I'm considering it done.  I ain't got the time or patience to memorize those blasted auto scrolling levels.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Jicsan

[Reed Rothchild | 9,530]

[ScaryD | 237]

I finally decided to get back on the wagon and beat a game on my list. Ducktales down!

 

[ScaryD | 237]

Chip and Dale Rescue Ranger's beaten.

 

[ScaryD | 237]

Mega Man 3 complete.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,530]

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, with the True Demon ending.  This was not a short or easy game.

[ScaryD | 237]

Castlevania Bloodlines complete. Used the 9 lives code, unlimited continues through reset and normal difficulty. Definitely would have taken me a lot longer to beat with 2 continues and 3 lives.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,530]

So I have in-progress playthroughs of my remaining 5 games.  Its gonna be tight but I think I can do it.

In a few days I'll do the 2nd summary post of how everyone is doing.  I'm guessing a lot of 2022 lists will be a lot more realistic in response.

[Brickman | 3,986]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

So I have in-progress playthroughs of my remaining 5 games.  Its gonna be tight but I think I can do it.

In a few days I'll do the 2nd summary post of how everyone is doing.  I'm guessing a lot of 2022 lists will be a lot more realistic in response.

I’m already thinking of my 22 list haha. Waaaaay more Indies and shorter retro games. I am determined to finish ToCS and Persona Q2 though.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,530]

I'm 2 hours into Persona Q2.  Race ya