The 2021 Backlog Challenge

[Reed Rothchild | 9,513]

Definitely the sorta game where you're supposed to be making your own maps...

[fox | 1,665]

On 3/13/2021 at 6:08 PM, DoctorEncore said:

How were Pathless and Curse of the Moon? I'm definitely interested in both.

Pathless is like Journey meets Breath of the Wild meets Shadow of the Colossus.  You explore an open world with cool traversal powers and solve puzzles to chill music with the occasional boss battle.

I enjoyed it so I hate to say it, but $50 is too much for what is pretty much an indie game.  If you can find it on sale, or if this ends up on PS plus, it’s worth checking out.

Curse of the Moon 2 is much improved over the first game.  It is still a throwback to Castlevania 3 with its alternate paths and character swapping, but handled much better here.  The characters are all vastly different here, and there is a bit more of a puzzle element using their abilities to unlock alternate paths.

Plus the coolest thing is the entire game can be played co op, which is how I played it. Riding on each other’s shoulders and using different character powers together, makes for some real synergy moments.

The first game had the nostalgia hype, but I think this brings it to a new level. I haven’t heard it talked about much though.  Oh and the soundtrack slaps esp the later levels.

On 3/13/2021 at 6:36 PM, Gloves said:

Sadly not enjoying Mortal Shell as much as I'd hoped I would. The combat is plodding and definitely shows its humbly small dev teams shortcomings compared to the masters. 

I felt the same.  Kind of how I feel about most Souls-likes, they lack the From magic.

Edited March 15, 2021 by fox

[Sumez | 2,934]

7 hours ago, fox said:

Curse of the Moon 2 is much improved over the first game

That's the first time I've heard this. The consensus I've seen everywhere is that it was a massive downgrade.

What did you feel the first COTM was "lacking"?

[fox | 1,665]

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

That's the first time I've heard this. The consensus I've seen everywhere is that it was a massive downgrade.

What did you feel the first COTM was "lacking"?

I never said the first title was lacking. 2 has a number of improvements, calling more varied characters and a 2 player co op mode a downgrade is weird.

[DoctorEncore | 3,690]

14 hours ago, fox said:

Pathless is like Journey meets Breath of the Wild meets Shadow of the Colossus.  You explore an open world with cool traversal powers and solve puzzles to chill music with the occasional boss battle.

I enjoyed it so I hate to say it, but $50 to too much for what is pretty much an indie game.  If you can find it on sale, or if this ends up on PS plus, it’s worth checking out.

Curse of the Moon 2 is much improved over the first game.  It is still a throwback to Castlevania 3 with its alternate paths and character swapping, but handled much better here.  The characters are all vastly different here, and there is a bit more of a puzzle element using their abilities to unlock alternate paths.

Plus the coolest thing is the entire game can be played co op, which is how I played it. Riding on each other’s shoulders and using different character powers together, makes for some real synergy moments.

The first game had the nostalgia hype, but I think this brings it to a new level. I haven’t heard it talked about much though.  Oh and the soundtrack slaps esp the later levels.

I felt the same.  Kind of how I feel about most Souls-likes, they lack the From magic.

Yeah, $20 seems like a more reasonable price for The Pathless based on what I've seen. I really enjoyed CotM (more than RotN, actually), so I'll have to give the sequel a go as well

[Reed Rothchild | 9,513]

I played a shit-ton of SNES this weeknd.

Equinox is beat
Sparkster is beat... on Easy.  Turns out the true final boss is only on very hard.  So... I'll be working my way up to that one...

[Sumez | 2,934]

  

12 hours ago, fox said:

calling more varied characters and a 2 player co op mode a downgrade is weird.

The common problem that I hear is that the levels and bosses feel very tailored to specific characters and their skills, which is definitely a downgrade compared to the former game's much more flexible and dynamic design, where each character allowed different ways to approach the same challenge.
I haven't played it, so I'll reserve my own take on the game until I have. But the thing I loved the most about the original game, was foregoing all extra characters and unlockable skills, and tackling the entire game as an un-upgraded Zangetsu, and it sounds like the new one is designed for the opposite approach.

 

9 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Sparkster is beat... on Easy.  Turns out the true final boss is only on very hard.  So... I'll be working my way up to that one...

Good luck with the space boxing...

[Reed Rothchild | 9,513]

2 hours ago, Sumez said:

  Good luck with the space boxing...

Indeed.  I was able to brute force it on easy.  Got back to that fight on the first credit on Normal and got my ass kicked.  The game is sitting paused on that level right now, but I really wasn't having much luck with it.  I have 4-5 credits still left, but it's plausible that I burn through all of them.

[Gloves | 11,771]

I might give up on Mortal Shell, really just not enjoying it.

I've started playing Shining Tears on PS2, my first time playing something from the Shining series. So far it's rather cliche with the "Mysterious stranger with amnesia has mystical powers" storyline, but maybe it gets better. The combat seems like it'll be alright, and I do like the art style.

[Sumez | 2,934]

47 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Indeed.  I was able to brute force it on easy.  Got back to that fight on the first credit on Normal and got my ass kicked.  The game is sitting paused on that level right now, but I really wasn't having much luck with it.  I have 4-5 credits still left, but it's plausible that I burn through all of them.

Honestly, that one section of the game almost ruins all of it. It's so bad and inconsistent, even speedrunners hate it.
Try looking up guides on the internet, and most of them are "try this, but also get lucky". It's a great game otherwise, so I don't understand why they had to have that.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Sumez

[Reed Rothchild | 9,513]

Holy Jebus.   Sparkster on normal, with one extra life remaining on my final credit.

Not sure I have the heart to go for the true final boss right now.

[Webhead123 | 675]

On 3/13/2021 at 1:22 PM, DoctorEncore said:

After a short break playing some Tetris Effect, I decided to start The Last of Us Remastered (PS4 on PS5) as my next backlog game. Holy cow! What an amazing opening 15 minutes. It quickly devolves into more generic third-person dystopian zombie stuff, but I'm still interested in seeing where it goes.

This is what I'm afraid of with LoU and why I haven't cracked it open yet. All the praise you hear about it is, "Wow! So emotional!" and "What an impactful story!". Never any mention of the game play. Add to that the fact that I have not been impressed with just about any modern 3rd-Person action game (with one or two exceptions) and I'm really kinda dreading this one.

I got nothing against good storytelling but a game has to have good game play if it's gonna take longer than 2 hours to finish.

[Splain | 2,560]

Mega Man II down. More thoughts on the GB thread, but this one was wayyyy easier than MM1. They might have over-compensated on the difficulty. And there was a weird de-tuned element to a lot of the music, which made it hard to listen to. And there were other things that made this MM feel kinda phoned-in. As much as I complain about MM1, it's definitely the better game. And here's Top 35 Photos Taken Moments Before Disaster; the battery died just before "Thanks for Playing." On to #3! (uh, I mean, #III)

[Sumez | 2,934]

3 hours ago, Splain said:

Mega Man II down. More thoughts on the GB thread, but this one was wayyyy easier than MM1. They might have over-compensated on the difficulty. And there was a weird de-tuned element to a lot of the music, which made it hard to listen to. And there were other things that made this MM feel kinda phoned-in. As much as I complain about MM1, it's definitely the better game. And here's Top 35 Photos Taken Moments Before Disaster; the battery died just before "Thanks for Playing." On to #3! (uh, I mean, #III)

2 is the black sheep in that series for sure. And Capcom realised this, so they had Minakuchi (who made the first one) come back to make the remaining three, which IMO is pretty fortunate.  
They also made Mega Man X3.

[DoctorEncore | 3,690]

11 hours ago, Webhead123 said:

This is what I'm afraid of with LoU and why I haven't cracked it open yet. All the praise you hear about it is, "Wow! So emotional!" and "What an impactful story!". Never any mention of the game play. Add to that the fact that I have not been impressed with just about any modern 3rd-Person action game (with one or two exceptions) and I'm really kinda dreading this one.

I got nothing against good storytelling but a game has to have good game play if it's gonna take longer than 2 hours to finish.

Take what I say with a grain of salt because I'm only about 3 hours in, but you would be wise to temper your expectations. The opening setup is very, very cool, but the gameplay has not aged well over the last 8 years. Even the story, which may have been stellar at the time, seems a bit cliched and generic now. I'm trying to keep an open mind and enjoy it for what it is, but it may be a game which is more enjoyable on the easiest setting.

[Webhead123 | 675]

1 hour ago, DoctorEncore said:

I'm trying to keep an open mind and enjoy it for what it is, but it may be a game which is more enjoyable on the easiest setting.

I can't remember exactly which game it was but I was playing another "modern 3rd-person" game where it was very obviously trying to be "cinematic" and about the "cool story" over the game play and I realized that I was better off doing that very thing...cranking the difficulty down to the easiest setting. At least that way, I wouldn't be artificially inflating my time-investment by constantly reloading saves a half-dozen times just to get to the next cutscene the developers had planned for me.

That's kinda become my default attitude when I detect that a game is focused on its story first and game design second.

[Sumez | 2,934]

Are we already talking about wether The Last Of Us has aged well?

[Brickman | 3,983]

Haven’t finished anything on the list in a while due to playing a few games at once.

persona q2- a little under halfway I think. Stuck on a boss and raged quit for now haha. Love it even more than the first one.

SMT IV- put a few hours in and love it so far.

Xenoblade 2- Nowhere as good as the first but still enjoyable so far. About 10 hours in.

Nights into dreams- like Mr CIB I wish I hadn’t put this on my list. Only couple of levels in but I’m not really digging it. I’ll finish it off but it will take a while.

Trails of Cold steel 1- this is the main game I am focusing on and probably around 2/3 done. Absolutely love this game. Unless this somehow turns to shit it’s a 10/10 for me.

[DoctorEncore | 3,690]

23 hours ago, Webhead123 said:

I can't remember exactly which game it was but I was playing another "modern 3rd-person" game where it was very obviously trying to be "cinematic" and about the "cool story" over the game play and I realized that I was better off doing that very thing...cranking the difficulty down to the easiest setting. At least that way, I wouldn't be artificially inflating my time-investment by constantly reloading saves a half-dozen times just to get to the next cutscene the developers had planned for me.

That's kinda become my default attitude when I detect that a game is focused on its story first and game design second.

That may be a good idea here. Hopefully it picks up as I progress.

16 hours ago, Sumez said:

Are we already talking about wether The Last Of Us has aged well?

Yes.

Added Monkey Island 2 to the now playing list. Figured it would be a good low stress quick play game as long I don't forget what I'm doing.

Edited March 19, 2021 by DoctorEncore

[KokiriChild | 1,644]

Added some DS and 3DS games to my list since its where all my free time not spent on planning Survivor or working on the N64 list has gone. And with it, I have completed my first backlog game of the year, Professor Layton and the Curious Village! 

This game was so freaking fun, as someone who loves logic puzzles, click-and-point adventure games, and visual novels, this scratched all thoses itches. I ended up 100%-ing the game including all the stupdily hard bonus puzzles. Can't wait to tackle the rest of the series and my Phoenix Wright Trilogy on Switch. But GOD DAMN, did some of the later Layton games get EXPENSIVE. I'm hoping this is just roaring 20s corona-mania prices and they will come down eventually, because I really want to experience the rest of the series. 

Now I am working on Harvest Moon DS, which I am thankful to now know I happen to own the mostly bugless Version 1.1. 

I forgot how incredible the 3DS/DS is, it may just be one of my favorite systems of all-time.

[DoctorEncore | 3,690]

1 hour ago, KokiriChild said:

Added some DS and 3DS games to my list since its where all my free time not spent on planning Survivor or working on the N64 list has gone. And with it, I have completed my first backlog game of the year, Professor Layton and the Curious Village! 

This game was so freaking fun, as someone who loves logic puzzles, click-and-point adventure games, and visual novels, this scratched all thoses itches. I ended up 100%-ing the game including all the stupdily hard bonus puzzles. Can't wait to tackle the rest of the series and my Phoenix Wright Trilogy on Switch. But GOD DAMN, did some of the later Layton games get EXPENSIVE. I'm hoping this is just roaring 20s corona-mania prices and they will come down eventually, because I really want to experience the rest of the series. 

Now I am working on Harvest Moon DS, which I am thankful to now know I happen to own the mostly bugless Version 1.1. 

I forgot how incredible the 3DS/DS is, it may just be one of my favorite systems of all-time.

The Layton games are great and a perfect fit for the DS family. I also adored the first one and found most of the puzzles pretty enjoyable. The series does get a little repetitive in both gameplay and puzzle type as it goes on, but I haven't played it in years.

If you liked the humor and style of Layton, I'd highly recommend checking out the Puzzle Agent games on Steam. They move at a relaxed pace with a silly story and are a lot of fun.

Edited March 19, 2021 by DoctorEncore

[Reed Rothchild | 9,513]

Splatterhouse 2 is beat

edit: I took a pic but it doesn't seem to exist!

[Reed Rothchild | 9,513]

And after spending all afternoon and evening on it, Ghouls n Ghosts is done.  No pic though because my phone is long dead and I have absolutely no idea where a charger is.

[fox | 1,665]

On 3/18/2021 at 5:07 AM, Sumez said:

Are we already talking about wether The Last Of Us has aged well?

I thought the gameplay was fittingly tense, and very rewarding to sneak through an entire area unnoticed, or kill everyone with tricks and traps.  I felt like an urban Rambo.

If you are playing it like a military shooter, getting into gunfights and fistfights with everyone, it will become very run of the mill.

It does take awhile to get going.  Once you get Elle and hit the road, there are a lot more interesting locations, characters, and set pieces.

Edited March 21, 2021 by fox

[MegaMan52 | 2,442]

Updated my previous post on page 4. I beat Batman for NES.

Edited March 22, 2021 by MegaMan52