The Backlog Check-in Vol. 219: 3/12/22: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Edition

[Phaseknox]

Elden Ring is...*glances at izzy*...it's a'ight I guess. I mean, if you LIKE awesome genre-redefining games. If that's your thing, it's ok.

Yeah, izzy, I think you might enjoy Elden Ring. I sure am so far.

You guys are going to make me get it aren't you. I'm patient, but how patient? The Souls franchise is my favorite series of games in all of gaming, but I also love delayed gratification...hmm.

The Souls franchise is your favorite series of games in all of gaming, yet the rest of us here have played more games in the series than you.

I can understand you being patient with some things, but not with a new FromSoftware game. I would expect you of all people to be the first in line to play a new FromSoftware game on day one. Yet Bloodborne has been out for seven years and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has been out for three years, and you haven’t played either. How long are you going to wait to play Elden Ring? It seems like your dream game, yet you don’t seem to be in any real hurry to play it.

None of us are getting any younger and life can be unpredictable, so it might be a good idea to experience things that you’re really interested in sooner rather than later because you never know what tomorrow might have in store for you. Just some food for thought.

[canedaddy]

Wait, is that true? Izzy, surely you've played Bloodborne. I beat that one in 2015.

[isthatallyougot]

The Souls franchise is your favorite series of games in all of gaming, yet the rest of us here have played more games in the series than you.

I can understand you being patient with some things, but not with a new FromSoftware game. I would expect you of all people to be the first in line to play a new FromSoftware game on day one. Yet Bloodborne has been out for seven years and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has been out for three years, and you haven’t played either. How long are you going to wait to play Elden Ring? It seems like your dream game, yet you don’t seem to be in any real hurry to play it.

None of us are getting any younger and life can be unpredictable, so it might be a good idea to experience things that you’re really interested in sooner rather than later because you never know what tomorrow might have in store for you. Just some food for thought.

If you only knew me in real life, lol. I've *never* been in a hurry - of *any* kind. I drove my father and ex-wife crazy.

Wait, is that true? Izzy, surely you've played Bloodborne. I beat that one in 2015.

Nope, I've had it in my backlog since release. I've only played Demon's (twice +), Dark 1, 2 and 3. (And King's Field the Ancient City if you want to count that.) I haven't even bought Sekiro yet.

What can I say, I'm an enigma.

[canedaddy]

Indeed! It's funny, I'm usually years late to the party myself, but I will show up on day one on occasion when it's something I know I'll love (RDR2, for example).

[isthatallyougot]

Indeed! It's funny, I'm usually years late to the party myself, but I will show up on day one on occasion when it's something I know I'll love (RDR2, for example).

I'll get there. I intended to play it years ago, but then I thought (and hoped) there might be a PC port, and then my personal circumstances changed via divorce and I put most of my things in storage when I moved and just haven't bothered getting them out. It's not like I intended to put it off this long, despite my leisurely nature. I even bought the Bloodborne manual at release (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/38699 ... UTF8&psc=1), which apparently is a minimum of $200 used, and I still have it in the shrinkwrap. I keep thinking about grabbing my PS4 and Bloodborne along with some others, but I'm always playing something, and I don't feel like driving a couple hours to get it, lol. Who knows which way the river flows.

[Phaseknox]

I stopped playing The Last Stand: Aftermath despite enjoying it since it’s a bit of a grind that I knew would take me a while to finish, and I was in the mood to check out some of my other games.

I played and finished a little indie game called Eight Dragons. It was a mildly entertaining homage to NES beat ‘em ups such as Double Dragon, Renegade and Target: Renegade. It has a visual style as if it’s being displayed on an old CRT TV which I found a little off-putting. Usually for these types of retro inspired games playing them displayed that way is an option, but not for this one. It mimics the look and feel of the games that it’s basically copying with 8-bit style pixel art graphics, and basic limited button input gameplay. However, it’s not as good as the classics and it seems like minimal effort was really put into it. But it was still worth the $2 that I paid for it.

I also played a cute and wacky dungeon crawler RPG called Marchen Forest. It starts out kind of like an adventure game in a small forest area with NPCs (mostly talking animals) to interact with, and a few simple tasks for you to do to progress the story. But eventually you uncover a multi-floored cave/dungeon/labyrinth, and the goal is to make it to the bottom floor. It’s overhead view and you navigate through maze-like level layouts engaging in random battles, and finding loot as you make your way down each floor. The combat is against one enemy at a time, and you stand in place and can attack, block, parry and dodge. I was somewhat enjoying it, but just going down floor after floor of a rather same-y looking maze-like dungeon was a little too repetitive for me so I stopped playing.

[Phaseknox]

After watching this gameplay reveal of Hogwarts Legacy it went from a game that I was a little curious about to one of my most anticipated of the year.

I’m not a big Harry Potter fan so I wasn’t that interested in this game, but it’s not a Harry Potter game it just takes place in the Harry Potter universe.

I was expecting it to be more aimed at a younger audience, but it has a darker and more serious tone than I was expecting. It also seems like a fairly in-depth game with a lot more to it than I was expecting.

It seems like it’s going to have an entertaining story, interesting characters and compelling game world. The gameplay and combat look fun, and the game in general looks like it’s going to be an enjoyable adventure.

Not much has really been sparking my interest lately, this is the first game in quite some time that has really piqued my interest like games used to do in the past. We get a lot of new games in already existing franchises that while are often good ultimately feel familiar, so they don’t usually feel like fresh and new experiences. Hogwarts Legacy is something different, and I could go for something different right about now. It’s a shame that it won’t be out until the end of the year, because it’s something that I would like to play sooner rather than later.

[crimson_tide]

Phase my friend, I don't like rogue like games. Or zombies. But that Last Stand Aftermath sounds really cool . I like the idea that you're infected with something but while you get abilities with it, it slowly kills you forcing the restart. Does the car run out of gas and you start at different points each run? Just curious .

Also, I am very over Potter stuff. That Hogwarts thing looks cool though and I am glad you're excited for it.

I am conflicted fam. Lost Judgement with the season pass is $45. And P4 Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold is another $30. Plus now Sony's dumb sales have several things I actually have been waiting for. I bought some stuff in the last sales but I am really clogging up the backlog (school's back bruhs) and Lost Judgement would probably have to wait. I will have to be mad picky I guess...I can give myself a budget I guess...

[isthatallyougot]

After watching this gameplay reveal of Hogwarts Legacy it went from a game that I was a little curious about to one of my most anticipated of the year.

I’m not a big Harry Potter fan so I wasn’t that interested in this game, but it’s not a Harry Potter game it just takes place in the Harry Potter universe.

I was expecting it to be more aimed at a younger audience, but it has a darker and more serious tone than I was expecting. It also seems like a fairly in-depth game with a lot more to it than I was expecting.

It seems like it’s going to have an entertaining story, interesting characters and compelling game world. The gameplay and combat look fun, and the game in general looks like it’s going to be an enjoyable adventure.

Not much has really been sparking my interest lately, this is the first game in quite some time that has really piqued my interest like games used to do in the past. We get a lot of new games in already existing franchises that while are often good ultimately feel familiar, so they don’t usually feel like fresh and new experiences. Hogwarts Legacy is something different, and I could go for something different right about now. It’s a shame that it won’t be out until the end of the year, because it’s something that I would like to play sooner rather than later.

Male protagonist...

I've never been into Harry Potter. I did see one of the movies at the insistence of my ex-wife long ago. It was ok, I guess. The game does look pretty interesting, although I'm not sure it's something I'll need to play.

[Phaseknox]

Phase my friend, I don't like rogue like games. Or zombies. But that Last Stand Aftermath sounds really cool . I like the idea that you're infected with something but while you get abilities with it, it slowly kills you forcing the restart. Does the car run out of gas and you start at different points each run? Just curious .

The concept of being infected and slowly turning into a zombie gaining a new ability with each mutation is an interesting one on paper, but in execution it’s not quite as appealing IMO. It’s there to give you another thing to look for in the environments which is an antidote syringe that stops the infection bar from depleting for a while so that you can survive longer. You begin each run with one, but of course you’ll want more if you want your character to survive longer and get further. I personally find it to be a somewhat annoying nuisance while I’m just trying to explore, find/gather resources and survive zombie hordes. Those things are enough to contend with, the added being infected thing just seems like one more challenge too many to have to deal with to me. Perhaps you will feel differently, but some critics have said the same thing in their reviews.

As for the car running out of gas thing, whenever you start a new run as another character the car is back at the survivor compound where you begin. You enter the car to start the run, the screen goes to a loading screen and then you arrive at the same first starting area with the car running out of gas and you have to get out and find gas cans in the area to refuel it. This is how every new run begins, but the areas are procedurally generated so they’re never the same layout twice. Each gas can that you find has a different amount of gas in it, and you can only carry one at a time. The amount of gas in a can is usually 1-3 gallons, it takes 5 gallons to fill the gas tank. However, you don’t need to completely fill the gas tank to drive to the next area. Areas are shown on an area select screen, and require a certain amount of gas to reach. Close areas take 1-2 gallons to reach, while further areas take 3 or more. Whatever gas that you don’t use to reach an area remains, and there’s always at least enough gas in each area to reach the next closest area.

Male protagonist...

No, did you watch the gameplay video? You can select either a male or female character, and customize their look.