The 2021 Backlog Challenge

[Brickman | 3,986]

13 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I'm 2 hours into Persona Q2.  Race ya

It’s on. I’m already about 8 hours in though so not sure if you want me to wait a few days or give me the handicap haha.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

3 hours 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.

How dare you imply that I won't be able to finish several thousand hours of gaming in the next four months.

...

...

Okay. Maybe you're right. Also, spending 100 hours playing Halo Infinite multiplayer probably won't help.

[Brickman | 3,986]

2 hours ago, Shmup said:

It’s on. I’m already about 8 hours in though so not sure if you want me to wait a few days or give me the handicap haha.

So by 8 hours I really meant 20 hours. Just turned on the game to see where I was haha.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,530]

44 minutes ago, Shmup said:

So by 8 hours I really meant 20 hours. Just turned on the game to see where I was haha.

Oh snap.  Challenge accepted.  The SNES project could wait anyway 

[Splain | 2,569]

Yeah yeah. At the end of 2020, seeing a Backlog Challenge thread looked like it said "just list the games you want done and they'll get done!" because a year seems like such a long time. There's no way I'm finishing my list, and next year's list will definitely be more closely curated, just stuff I really want to beat and fewer pipe dreams that I'm not actually passionate about.

But I did eat some Dippin Dots and I finally finished Chrono Trigger. Then I spent a long time researching the various endings and side quests and stuff I didn't even see in the game. That game is crazy. It's all about the Nu.

I'm partway through a bunch of the other games though, maybe I can squeeze one more in before the checkpoint!

[Murray | 2,448]

@spacepup 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

2 hours ago, Splain said:

Yeah yeah. At the end of 2020, seeing a Backlog Challenge thread looked like it said "just list the games you want done and they'll get done!" because a year seems like such a long time. There's no way I'm finishing my list, and next year's list will definitely be more closely curated, just stuff I really want to beat and fewer pipe dreams that I'm not actually passionate about.

But I did eat some Dippin Dots and I finally finished Chrono Trigger. Then I spent a long time researching the various endings and side quests and stuff I didn't even see in the game. That game is crazy. It's all about the Nu.

I'm partway through a bunch of the other games though, maybe I can squeeze one more in before the checkpoint!

Dippin Dots and Chrono Trigger? You clearly won 2021.

[ScaryD | 237]

Brain Lord complete. Ending screen is a blank screen with copyright info. Not very exciting.

b

[Splain | 2,569]

5 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

Dippin Dots and Chrono Trigger? You clearly won 2021.

I have tasted the future of ice cream. I have also played the uh, future of video games, uhhh, because time travel Chrono Trigger something. Great year so far! But there's absolutely no way I'm going to crank out FF7 and Okami, lol. Lesson learned.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

7 hours ago, Splain said:

I have tasted the future of ice cream. I have also played the uh, future of video games, uhhh, because time travel Chrono Trigger something. Great year so far! But there's absolutely no way I'm going to crank out FF7 and Okami, lol. Lesson learned.

The only downside is that the rest of your life will be filled with disappointing video games and outdated ice cream products.

[monkeybut625 | 39]

Fire Emblem Three Houses down. Beat it with the Blue Lions house. Game was long and the first third seems to drag, but once it hit what I guess would be one of the twists it really picked up. 

[Jicsan | 589]

9 hours ago, monkeybut625 said:

Fire Emblem Three Houses down. Beat it with the Blue Lions house. Game was long and the first third seems to drag, but once it hit what I guess would be one of the twists it really picked up. 

One of three. You beat a third of it.  

[monkeybut625 | 39]

58 minutes ago, Jicsan said:

One of three. You beat a third of it.  

still counting it

[Reed Rothchild | 9,530]

@Shmup Still in the first strata or whatever.  Floor 3 out of (I'm assuming) 4.  I'm guessing the game has 5 areas and that they get exponentially more complicated, so I got a ways to go.

[Abelardo | 154]

Updated my original post, so I set Xenogears aside for a while now (not enjoying disc 2 to be honest), got a Switch earlier this year so that has kept me busy.

Anyways set the Switch aside for a while and to jump back to my backlog so I picked up Phantasy Star 4, playing an old school RPG was a welcome change, the story decent and even good at times, cutscenes were cool, reminded me of the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-CD style, most characters are well developed, my complains probably due to technical limitations since I can't help but compare this game to the excellent SNES RPGs released back then, things like lack of overworld map, limited item space, and the lack of descriptions for the many techniques, skills and items was annoying, even the cost in techniques is not shown in the menu (at least they show it in battle), overall it just doesn't compare favorably to the SNES cream of the crop RPGs, it feels kind of closer to Breath of Fire and quite far from Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6, my rating 7/10.

[Brickman | 3,986]

4 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

@Shmup Still in the first strata or whatever.  Floor 3 out of (I'm assuming) 4.  I'm guessing the game has 5 areas and that they get exponentially more complicated, so I got a ways to go.

Yep 5 areas I believe and the floors change. I think the second had 5.

I’m about half way through area 3 but I’m going to slow down a bit so you can make some progress otherwise it’s just too much of a lead.

I really struggled with the second boss, I think some of my party wasn’t suitable but I refused to grind up suitable characters so just grinded and finally beat him. Will be interested to know how you go with that one.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,530]

On 8/30/2021 at 1:03 PM, Shmup said:

Yep 5 areas I believe and the floors change. I think the second had 5.

I’m about half way through area 3 but I’m going to slow down a bit so you can make some progress otherwise it’s just too much of a lead.

I really struggled with the second boss, I think some of my party wasn’t suitable but I refused to grind up suitable characters so just grinded and finally beat him. Will be interested to know how you go with that one.

Got destroyed by the first boss.  Re-did some things and got closer.  I'll grind some levels and redo some other stuff and try again tonight.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,530]

We're now 2/3 of the way through the year.  Let's (again) take stock of how everyone is doing.  

@Reed Rothchild  15/20
Can I do it?  2 long RPGs, 1 shorter game I haven't really sat down with yet, and 2 platformers that have been busting my ass.  It's gonna be close.  I first started Planescape Torment almost 20 years ago.

@Renmauzo5/25
Well, he was on the wagon briefly at the start and at the 1/3 mark.

@TDIRunner 0/7
On the bright side, he only has 7 games left.

@Richardhead ??/??
Claims to have beaten ALL of the games.

@Deadeye 2/12
On the bright side, he's beating lots of games that aren't on his backlog.

@BortLicensePlate 0/43
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

@Gloves 6/52
Dead in the water.

@Jeevan 3/15
I'm daring you to double this mark in the last 4 months.  Daring you!

@spacepup 2/13
Dead in the water.  To be fair he moved, and has like a billion dogs.

@Splain 4/13
He dipped.

@fox 4/??
Dead in the water.

@Abelardo 2/8
Only two completions, but they were long ass games.

@Murray 7/20
He's quietly chugging along.  He may not reach his mark, but he's been consistently trying.

@ifightdragons 15/85
He's way off the mark, but has one of the higher number of overall clears.  That's what really matters.

@Sumez 11/43
Dead in the water.  He was killing it in January though.

@AverageOliver98 2/32
Dead in the water, with an imposing list to boot.

@ZeldaFreak 0/20
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@ChickenTendas 0/130
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@Mumphy 1/24
Dead in the water.

@Webhead123 3/15
Dead in the water.

@ThePhleo 27/44
...and suddenly we have a contender for best performance of 2021.  He's killing it.

@Aguy 0/22
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@DoctorEncore 8/36
Shattered his goal of 5.

@Mr. CIB 13/32
Was killing it.  Now he's dead in the water.

@LutherDestroysTheGond 0/29
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@Jicsan 6/15
Has turned it up recently after an extremely slow start.

@Shmup5/25
Has slowed down big time, but he can at least beat me to a Persona Q2 completion.

@AstralSoul 0/26
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@Makar 1/35
Dead in the water.

@LifeGame 0/20
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@monkeybut625 8/14
Turned it up recently.  Can he finish the list off?

@peg 3/27
To be fair, most of the shit he aims to do is really hard.

@darkchylde28 0/6
Stop distracting him with game nights @Jeevan !

@FireHazard51 0/60
Guess he's too busy screaming at people in Werewolf

@0xDEAFC0DE 15/42
Got off to a hot start, came to a dead stop, and he's slowly been picking it back up since.

@nettenette 0/17
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@acromite53 7/36
Dead in the water.

@JamesRobot 3/33
Well, he beat the Kraft Dinner game, and Battle Kid 2.  So I guess this year is a success regardless.

@Mega Tank 1/15
Obviously.

@Foochie776 2/11
Dead in the water.

@Californication 6/21
Cleared a decent group of them recently, after an extremely slow start.

@BriGuy82 1/5
Dead in the water.

@RegularGuyGamer 0/11
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@MagusSmurf 60/142
Yep.

@FenrirZero 1/12
Another large list of RPGs.  At this rate it will only take him only about 100 years to get through them.

@MegaMan52 3/50
On one hand, he did join up late.  On the other hand, 50 games seems ambitious.

@ScaryD 7/20
Not too shabby, especially recently.

@G-type 0/5
I was feeling.  I really thought Super Mario Bros. 2 was gonna happen 

@Andy_Bogomil 3/5
So close...

@KokiriChild 1/12
A super late joiner, but he cleared something.

@glazball 11/18
Another super late joiner, and he's killing it to boot.

@AmandaCathedral 1/6
Our latest joiner.  A very manageable second attempt at a list

[Gloves | 11,779]

Grrr. Not enough time! Work! Life! 

All excuses. 

QUIT JOB! LEAVE WIFE! PLAY GAM! 

[Splain | 2,569]

3 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

 

@Splain 4/13
He dipped.

 

 

Edit: this is a statement about how glad I am that I ate Dippin Dots. I'm not glad that I'm doing a terrible job on my 2021 backlog.

Edited September 4, 2021 by Splain

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

I mean I don't got any excuses

I'm just lazy

[MegaMan52 | 2,445]

Actually, I've beaten six games so far this year (Batman, Déjà Vu, Shadowgate, Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters, Namco Museum, and Super Kirby Clash). Still got a long way to go...but yeah, six games not three.

Edited September 4, 2021 by MegaMan52

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

4 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

JamesRobot 3/33
Well, he beat the Kraft Dinner game, and Battle Kid 2.  So I guess this year is a success regardless.

Agreed.  Complete success as far as I'm concerned.  Gonna focus on my drinkin for the rest of the year.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

8 hours ago, Splain said:

 

 

Edit: this is a statement about how glad I am that I ate Dippin Dots. I'm not glad that I'm doing a terrible job on my 2021 backlog.

Dippin' Dots are worth like five full length RPGs. That conversion is well known among future ice cream enthusiasts.

[Jeevan | 8,911]

9 hours ago, Splain said:

 

 

Edit: this is a statement about how glad I am that I ate Dippin Dots. I'm not glad that I'm doing a terrible job on my 2021 backlog.

Spoiler