The Backlog Check-in Vol. 33: 8/18/18: Shenmue I & II Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Life is Strange, Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Finished: Life is Strange, Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Playing: Life is Strange: Before the Storm

I finished Life is Strange, and I have mixed feelings about it. I can't remember the last time that I played such a thought-provoking game, when I wasn't playing it I was thinking about it. It's essentially a mystery thriller that kept me wanting to know what was going on, and what was going to happen next. Being an episodic game that's the way that it's designed - to keep you wanting to find out more and not being able to stop playing until you do. At least it did for me, because I was sucked into the story and characters from the start.

It's a modern take on point and click adventure games that unfortunately similar to Telltale games focuses more on storytelling and choice making, and less on actual gameplay like key items and environment puzzles. It includes more of those elements than Telltale games, but still not as much as I would like. It also includes a time rewind mechanic that adds another gameplay element, and it's used well for the most part allowing you to change decisions that you've made and to solve puzzles.

A lot of the game involves slowly walking around somewhat small environments examining everything, talking with characters and making dialog choices that impact how the story plays out. The decisions that you make impact the story, but the problem is that none of them impact the actual ending of the game. No matter what decisions that you make throughout the game, the ending is scripted with two choices that you get regardless of the decisions that you made. And this is my main problem with the game, the entire final episode including the scripted ending selection and the ending that I got were really weak compared to the previous four episodes. There's so much buildup and a twist that I didn't see coming, but it's all pretty much deflated in the final episode and I was left extremely unsatisfied when the credits rolled. So much wasn't explained, so much didn't make sense and the ending that I got was really short to the point where I thought that it was being left open for a sequel but the sequel is going to be a completely new story with new characters.

I really liked the story and characters and I liked how dark that it all was, even though it was still a little on the tame side compared to books and movies that deal with the same subject matter. But it did push the envelope more than most games do, and I found that refreshing. In fact, I found the entire game refreshing because it was something different and didn't play it overly safe like games tend to do. Unfortunately, it all kind of went downhill at the end which is disappointing considering how good that it was up until then.

Shenmue I & II comes out next week and I'm really looking forward to it because I'm a big fan of the games, and it will be nice to play them again after so long.

[canedaddy]

I've never played Shenmue, but I supposed I should give it a look given it's from the same folks as Yakuza, right?

Played last week: No Man's Sky, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 35 (13 PS4, 10 Vita, 5 3DS/2DS, 5 PS2)

I'm enjoying both of the game I'm playing now, but I haven't made much progress... it's been a busy week.

I got word this morning that Bloodstained has been canceled for Vita because of "Sony's plans to discontinue the Vita console." That takes a lot of balls, telling all the Vita folks who supported your game on Kickstarter a few years ago that they can piss off. I'm getting a refund, and if I ever do buy the game it'll be used.

[Phaseknox]

I played and finished the bonus episode "Farewell" that comes with the limited edition of Life is Strange: Before the Storm, and it was a cute and sad flashback of when the two main characters Max and Chloe were young teens and does a good job of showing why Chloe changed.

I'm playing Before the Storm now and while it's primarily an interactive story since the gameplay mechanics are even more stripped down than in the main game (BtS is a Chloe backstory prequel without the time rewind mechanic), I'm enjoying it since the story and characters are really strong.

I've never played Shenmue, but I supposed I should give it a look given it's from the same folks as Yakuza, right?

Yeah, Yakuza is considered the spiritual successor to Shenmue and the two share some similarities but there's no guarantee that you will like Shenmue just because you like Yakuza.

Bloodstained has been canceled for Vita because of "Sony's plans to discontinue the Vita console."

That SUCKS!!!!

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 29 games

Was out of town for a few days, but now I'm back and ready to play more Ass Creed: Syndicate and post.

I've also never played the Shenmue games...would like to check them out at some point.

[argyle]

Games added: Octopath Traveler, Raiden V & some Vita games (Trillion, Hyperdevotion Noire & Megatagmension blah blah blah )

Last week: Played Octopath and Flint Hook

This week: So far the same

Phase, the ending is what killed Life is Strange for me. Both of them sucked (I looked up the one I didn't get). What's really bad is that there is a point where if it had ended it would have been great, but they keep going because the ending has to be "edgy" or whatever. Blah.

Cane, I can't believe you're bent out of shape out the Bloodstained news. Sony is stopping production of physical Vita games, and they announced that Bloodstained isn't coming out until next year now. Seems pretty straightforward to me. *shrug* Then again, I switched to the Switch version when they sent out the survey a couple months back because that's clearly the best version to get.

[Phaseknox]

I've also never played the Shenmue games...would like to check them out at some point.

Now's your chance, Shenmue I & II came out today. I think that you will like them, and I think that you will like the Life is Strange games as well.

Phase, the ending is what killed Life is Strange for me. Both of them sucked (I looked up the one I didn't get). What's really bad is that there is a point where if it had ended it would have been great, but they keep going because the ending has to be "edgy" or whatever. Blah.

I think that I know which point that you're talking about, and I agree. It would have been a good place to end the game, it didn't need to keep going on beyond that point but the developers painted themselves into a corner with the whole storm thing which along with the other elemental things that happened throughout the game seemed completely out of place and unnecessary. The game would have been better without them, and just stuck to the main story subject and characters IMO.

Speaking of which, that's what Life is Strange: Before the Storm does and I think that it's a better game for it. There's nothing supernatural about it, it's just about the characters without any weird stuff added. I'm well into the final episode now, and it's offered one of the best stories and cast of characters that I've experienced in any medium. It was developed by a different developer than the first game, and I think that they did a better job. Also, Chloe is a much better main protagonist than Max is IMO. Sure she's an angry teenager with an attitude, but for good reason and she's still a good person and is funny a lot of the time. While the core game is somewhat dark and serious, it also offers a lot of humor which is something that the first game lacked.

[argyle]

So I'm done with Flint Hook. I have put way too much time into that game already due to it's "just one more game" addictive nature plus the fact that for most of the past couple of weeks I haven't been in the mood for anything really story focused when I did get a chance to play. I'm not sure how much time I've logged into it, but it's substantial - I hit character level 50. Last night, I beat a boss that I had been stuck on for a week & a half or so. It was close, but I had a lucky run and managed to play well when I got to him. This was the *second* boss btw. The third area of the game is ridiculously difficult, spawning tons of enemies in the room and having them move much faster than before.

I hate when games do this, and more often than not it is indies that fall into this trap - I suspect because they either can't or don't properly play test them and therefore end up setting the difficulty way too high because of course THEY are really good at their game. I'm not asking for a "gimme", but I feel like I put the time in and got reasonably good at the game. I'd like to be able to reach the end without acquiring superhuman reflexes through some kind of gamma radiation incident. Is that really too much to ask?

So great game, but not being able to finish it will hurt it come year-end ranking time.

[Phaseknox]

I finished Life is Strange: Before the Storm, and it was powerful storytelling that had me going through various emotions throughout. It didn't delve into the supernatural like the first game did, it was grounded in reality and was a great experience. I say experience instead of game because it wasn't much of an actual game, sure you walk your character around small environments interacting with some stuff and solving the occasional light puzzle - but for the most part it's watching story scenes and choosing different dialog choices that determine how the scenes play out but don't really affect the story. I know this because on several occasions I reloaded a checkpoint to choose different dialog choices, and while the scenes changed a little based on my decisions they always ended up still leading to the same outcome. Of course some decisions did affect the story a little more, but for the most part it's a scripted story that you can't change the course of.

The decisions that you made in the first game definitely had a bigger impact on how the story unfolded than they did in this one, but that's to be expected since this is a prequel that's basically telling a story that already happened. It was tighter paced than the first game, but also quite a bit shorter. While the story that it told was complete, I still would have liked for it to have been longer since it did seem a little on the short side. I was hoping that it was going to take place up until the events of the first game, but it didn't. I still think that I like the first game more since it offered more actual gameplay and is longer, but this one was better paced, I enjoyed playing as Chloe more than as Max and the ending didn't suck.

I hate when games do this, and more often than not it is indies that fall into this trap - I suspect because they either can't or don't properly play test them and therefore end up setting the difficulty way too high because of course THEY are really good at their game. I'm not asking for a "gimme", but I feel like I put the time in and got reasonably good at the game. I'd like to be able to reach the end without acquiring superhuman reflexes through some kind of gamma radiation incident. Is that really too much to ask?

No it's not, and I blame gamers out there who praise the Souls games and "old school challenge" indie games strictly for their punishing and unforgiving difficulties for this gaming trend. I personally think that the Souls games are more frustrating than fun, and I can't enjoy them even though I want to because they're so difficult. I also finished a lot less games in the earlier days of gaming than I have after because they were too difficult for me to do so.

I know that it might sound crazy, but I actually like to play through and finish the games that I buy. Difficulty settings have been the norm in games for quite some time now because not everyone has the same skill level or patience, and difficulty settings allow people to adjust the challenge of a game to what suits them best. If you want to be extremely challenged then crank a game up to its hardest difficulty setting, or if you just want to play a game for the experience then drop it down to easy. It should be up to the player, not the developer.

[canedaddy]

So I was enjoying Danganronpa 2 up until, for the second time, the game threw some really gross fan service in my face. It's about high school kids, and one girl keeps falling down and ending up in compromising positions. "Oops, I slipped and now here I am with my legs spread wide open!" And the screen just lingers there for an eternity. Very creepy. Bugs me so much that I stopped playing and deleted the game.

Cane, I can't believe you're bent out of shape out the Bloodstained news. Sony is stopping production of physical Vita games, and they announced that Bloodstained isn't coming out until next year now. Seems pretty straightforward to me. *shrug* Then again, I switched to the Switch version when they sent out the survey a couple months back because that's clearly the best version to get.

They've promised a Vita version from the beginning knowing full well that the Vita hasn't been a big seller and might not be around by the time it came out. Very slimy move to pull out this far into the game. The only consolation I have is there's a bunch of negative buzz surrounding Bloodstained, so maybe I won't be missing much.

Now if this happens with something I'm dying to play, like Shakedown Hawaii, that'll be a big-time bummer.

[Phaseknox]

I finished Blackwood Crossing, and it was a pretty average experience. It's an extremely short and linear first person adventure "game" (it's barely a game) with some very light puzzle solving. It's basically an interactive story where the story is told in-game while you're playing, it's not cinematic with cut scenes. You're supposed to piece together the story while playing, and while I got the general gist of it - it was still confusing and hard to follow with a lot of unanswered questions. I can't remember the last time that I played such a short game, it was over quickly and didn't seem like a complete experience. While it had its moments, it's not something that I needed to play.