The 2021 Backlog Challenge

[Estil | 1,264]

7 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

You tell me:

https://www.metacritic.com/search/all/Legend of heroes/results

The five/six that came before the Trails series were all on SNES and/or PS1...before the Internet was even thought of much.  And now I come to find out none of them made it out of Japan...surely there are translated versions for the SNES versions but I don't reckon that can be done on PS1?

I guess for nearly all US gamers the first Trails game (on PS3) IS the first in the series if you get what I mean.

Geez think you guys can pile on anymore in my retro JRPG "IN" box?  Or do people in offices really do have those "IN" and "OUT" boxes in real life (I wasn't sure if that was just a comic strip/cartoon/TV thing or something)?

Edited October 21, 2021 by Estil

[Sumez | 2,943]

3 hours ago, Estil said:

To be honest I never even heard of this series until you brought it up.  Wouldn't it be better though to play the previous five "The Legend of" games (the sixth one for whatever reason is only on PSP which I don't have) or is Trails enough of a distinctive series that I can start with it?  Hey, it'd give me a good excuse to go for more trophies!  

The "Trails" series have basically nothing to do with other Legend of Heroes games, so don't pay much attention to that title. Trails In The Sky (2004, PSP) is really the first in its own mega-series, which the two "Dragon Slayer" and three "Gagharv" games aren't a part of.
However, every Trails game takes place in the same world, in its own continuous storyline, with several of them straight up overlapping and referring to events in the other sub-series.

So you basically have three individual series which are a part of the same overarching universe:
Trails in the Sky 1,2,3
Trails from Zero, Trails to Azure (crossbell arc)
Trails of Cold Steel 1,2,3,4
Trails into Reverie
Kuro no Kiseki (brand new game just released in japan, seemingly the start of a new sub-series)

Outside of those games there are also a few more spinoff games, but those aren't "canon". All the games above were released sequentially in that order (in japan), but the Crossbell games and Reverie have not been translated into English yet. It was recently revealed that they will come out over the next couple of years though. A crossbell fan translation does exist, but it's been pulled back because the translators are actually involved with the official release (which I can only applaud).

Each sub-series is episodic in nature, so you can't by any means play them out of order, it would be like jumping into the middle of a story (and I'm told Reverie makes for a conclusion to both the cold steel and crossbell arcs), however you can play each series out of order. Cold Steel has some spoilers for Sky series, so if you do want to play them all I think it's still better to play them in order. Also, Trails In The Sky 1 is just such a fantastic game in terms of story telling that I think everyone should play it. It's also a lot shorter than the rest, but all of these games are fairly beefy.

Based on your tastes I think you'll probably like the Cold Steel games best, because they focus a lot on inter-character relationships. But I think you'll also like Estelle, she's a fun and spontaneous character who starts out very cliche and is initially passed off as stupid, but as the story progresses you can tell she's kinda intentionally playing off that trope. The whole game is just incredibly well written, especially for a video game.

[Brickman | 3,983]

Fantastic summary from Sumez.

Estil, you should definitely play ToCS( trails of cold steel).

I’m just about done with the first one and it has become one of my favourite JRPGs.

The character development is amazing, the writing is some of the best I’ve seen in a JRPG (except for my two favourites SMT & Persona). It also doesn’t have any of those tired tropes like “amnesia” or young lad out to save the world that so many early JRPGs relied on.

Do yourself a favour and bring it to the top of your JRPG pile

[Estil | 1,264]

On 10/21/2021 at 2:28 AM, Shmup said:

Fantastic summary from Sumez.

Estil, you should definitely play ToCS( trails of cold steel).

I’m just about done with the first one and it has become one of my favourite JRPGs.

The character development is amazing, the writing is some of the best I’ve seen in a JRPG (except for my two favourites SMT & Persona). It also doesn’t have any of those tired tropes like “amnesia” or young lad out to save the world that so many early JRPGs relied on.

Do yourself a favour and bring it to the top of your JRPG pile

Well why do all the games before it have to (mostly) be JP only?  

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

2 hours ago, Estil said:

Well why do all the games before it have to (mostly) be JP only?  

Dude, did you play every Final Fantasy before you played VI?  Just let the early LoH games go.  Prioritize the stuff that is worth your time.

 

And to answer your question about not being overwhelmed, just craft a realistic and varied list that prioritizes games that are worth playing.  For some people that may mean 5 games (and no RPGs) for 2022.  For some it might be 50+ games.

My own backlog of JRPGs includes multiple Dragon Quests, Final Fantasys, Megatens, Trails, Personas, Tales, Manas, Bravelys, Suikidens, Etrians, Grandias and on and on.  I accept I can only do a few a year, and that some may never happen

[Gloves | 11,776]

Just learn Japanese. Tch.

[Murray | 2,448]

Hit a wall boys. Okami, just can’t get into er. 

[Gloves | 11,776]

Just now, Murray said:

Hit a wall boys. Okami, just can’t get into er. 

RIGHT!?!?

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

Okami is priority #1 for my 2022 list btw 

[Estil | 1,264]

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Dude, did you play every Final Fantasy before you played VI? 

I haven't yet done the third one.  And the only Dragon Quest I'm still working on is the ninth one (DQ10 (and FF11 for that matter) doesn't count as that's online only).

Edited October 22, 2021 by Estil

[Gloves | 11,776]

6 minutes ago, Estil said:

I haven't yet done the third one.  And the only Dragon Quest I'm still working on is the ninth one (DQ10 (and FF11 for that matter) doesn't count as that's online only).

It's a shame you won't play FF11 cuz it's online only. It's STILL active, and receiving regular updates. They're having a Fall campaign right now!

[Estil | 1,264]

6 hours ago, Gloves said:

It's a shame you won't play FF11 cuz it's online only. It's STILL active, and receiving regular updates. They're having a Fall campaign right now!

Geez are they a game or a department store?  

[Estil | 1,264]

9 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

And to answer your question about not being overwhelmed, just craft a realistic and varied list that prioritizes games that are worth playing.  For some people that may mean 5 games (and no RPGs) for 2022.  For some it might be 50+ games.

My own backlog of JRPGs includes multiple Dragon Quests, Final Fantasys, Megatens, Trails, Personas, Tales, Manas, Bravelys, Suikidens, Etrians, Grandias and on and on.  I accept I can only do a few a year, and that some may never happen

I mostly just keep the list in my head...I mean I knew about the "big two" series (DQ/FF) starting out but boy was it something discovering it was more like "big three" ("Tales of...") and then you add to that me wanting to get caught up on stuff I missed out on with the PS1 (I mean its prime was in my HS years and I completely missed out on it and only got one in 2001 for the MegaMan games).

Now if I can just figure out a good "Everdrive" sort of deal with the PS2...and having a nice condition OG Xbox ready for MAME arcade roms/games would be quite appealing too...

[Brickman | 3,983]

3 hours ago, Estil said:

I mostly just keep the list in my head...I mean I knew about the "big two" series (DQ/FF) starting out but boy was it something discovering it was more like "big three" ("Tales of...") and then you add to that me wanting to get caught up on stuff I missed out on with the PS1 (I mean its prime was in my HS years and I completely missed out on it and only got one in 2001 for the MegaMan games).

Now if I can just figure out a good "Everdrive" sort of deal with the PS2...and having a nice condition OG Xbox ready for MAME arcade roms/games would be quite appealing too...

Do you have the SMT & Persona games on your RPG list? If not, get them on there and to the top

[Estil | 1,264]

12 minutes ago, Shmup said:

Do you have the SMT & Persona games on your RPG list? If not, get them on there and to the top

I'm one persona who persona-lly has never heard much of Persona  

[Jicsan | 589]

I got extremely distracted from the backlog by the Castlevania Advance Collection. If only all game’s motivated me like Castlevania does. I think I am going to buckle down on Metroid Return of Samus and get that done so I can start Metroid Dread. 

Edited October 23, 2021 by Jicsan

[Estil | 1,264]

I guess with my backlog as well as the other hobbies I'm working on it's just like that expression on how to eat an elephant...one bite at a time.  Though, we should update that expression with a new large animal as elephants are an endangered species  

Edited October 23, 2021 by Estil

[Sumez | 2,943]

On 10/22/2021 at 5:09 PM, Estil said:

Well why do all the games before it have to (mostly) be JP only?  

Not sure if you missed my post which explains all the details you need to know... but "Legend of Heroes" is just a moniker used by Falcom that doesn't mean anything about a collective series.

The "only" games before Trails of Cold Steel, are the thee Trails in the Sky games, which are all in English, and Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure, which are not (officially) out in English yet, but will come around to that next year.

"Trails" (or Kiseki in Japan) is the overarching series. Not Legend of Heroes.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

I've been working on Castlevania III on-and-off since January, and it is now looking plausible that I can't beat it in time.  At least not if I want to play other things too 

[Estil | 1,264]

6 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I've been working on Castlevania III on-and-off since January, and it is now looking plausible that I can't beat it in time.  At least not if I want to play other things too 

They did an amazing job on that game's intro.  Though the game after...

[MegaMan52 | 2,443]

Beat Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered for Switch:

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

Two months left.  I'll probably start the 2022 thread on December 1st, so everyone would have one month to curate their next list.

I'm also thinking about how we can do prizes or badges or whatever as well.

[Brickman | 3,983]

My goals for these last two months:

• finish off ToCS (almost done now, 3 hours tops left I think).
• Castlevania 3, I’m just past death.
   

I’d also be happy if I could knock off Persona Strikers but I think that is going to be a challenge because I’ve only just beaten the first dungeon. 

If I can take down the first two I’d be happy and if I took down all three I’d be satisfied with my backlog challenge.

I put way too many RPGs on this years list. I’m now curating my list for next year…which has SMT V haha.

[Californication | 1,477]

Thought I was getting close to clearing Blaster Master, but the level 6 boss is difficult.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Californication

[peg | 370]

Believe it or not but I've knocked off several of these over the last few weeks:

Mushihimesama Original mode no deaths

Mushihimesama Maniac mode

Deathsmiles with EX stage/canyon clear

Progear 1-ALL

 

I've been working on NES Tetris all fucking year and my PB still stands at 888K.  I feel like I could hit 1 million at any point but it just hasn't happened.