The Backlog Check-in Vol. 369: 1/25/25: Citizen Sleeper 2/Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero/Sniper Elite: Resistance Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Final Fantasy X, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Finished: Nothing

Playing: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Added: Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, #Blud, Fear the Spotlight, Forgive Me Father, Freedom Planet 2, Genso Chronicles, Grandia HD Collection, Hogwarts Legacy, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, Persona 3 Reload, RWBY: Arrowfell, Shantae, Soccer Story, Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy

Games releasing this week
Achilles: Survivor
Atomic Heart - Enchantment Under the Sea
Beyond Blue: After the Storm
Botany Manor
Cardfight!! Vanguard Dear Days 2
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Coridden
Cryptical Path
Cuisineer
Darkest Dungeon II: Inhuman Bondage
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle
The End of the Sun
Eternal Strands
Foundation
Genso Manege
Gimmick! 2
Heart of the Machine
Hello Kitty Island Adventure
Jumping Jazz Cats
Knights Province
Laika: Aged Through Blood
LostMagic
The Mute House
Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap
Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero
Poppy Playtime - Chapter 4
Proud Dad Simulator
Rebellion Godsoul: Awakening
ReSetna
Robobeat
Robots at Midnight
Runa and the Chaikuru Legacy
SCP: Fragmented Minds
Sniper Elite: Resistance
Space Engineers 2
Spider-Man 2
Star Wars: Hunters
The Stone of Madness
Tails of Iron II: Whiskers of Winter
Tears of Magic
Techno Banter
Those Who Rule
Turbo Balls
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.
Warside
Wayfinder
Zombie Cards: Survival Showdown

[argyle]

Games added: Nothing

Last week: Finished nothing, played mainly Cyberpunk with just a little of the Ninja Gaiden 2 Black remaster (to get my daily points for my Microsoft rewards)

This week: Same.

Cyberpunk is a massive game, in terms of content. And the side mission stories are often very interesting (and also extremely dark at times). Also, they WANT you to sneak around in a lot of them but you aren't penalized for not doing so (or if you are, it's so minor that it's inconsequential). Add that to the fact that you can very easily make yourself into basically a walking tank, and sneaking around is the last thing I want to do. I usually walk up to enemies and shoot them point-blank with my shotgun. They aren't very bright, and they go down like they're made of paper. Not a knock against the game really, it's fun to feel so overpowered and just be able to focus on the exploration and story without really worrying about the combat.

[isthatallyougot]

Played: Final Fantasy X, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

This has got to be some sort of typo.

I've been playing a pretty fun rogue-like twin-stick called Neurovoider and the fan-made Barkley, Shut Up and Jam : Gaiden, a pseudo follow up to Barkley, Shut Up and Jam! on the Genesis. It's wonderfully silly, and, although of a very modest budget, has a unique kind of charm and personality that you'll only find from creators that are unburdened with balance sheets, ha. The battle system is decently fun too, if not very challenging - at least so far.

And I'm really getting into the meat of my Out of the Park Baseball league creation. I've got all the team names finally sorted out and am in the process of designing all the (50!) sets of uniforms. I'm hoping to at least get a semblance of what I want done in not too long so I can have the initial opening day of THE UNITED STATES BASEBALL LEAGUE. © The league is really starting to have a personality, even in these early stages as teams are starting to establish an identity / personality. I've still got a little work to do on sorting out the league structure although the fundamentals of the regular season is set in stone. I'm thinking about having a single elimination cup at the beginning of every season in order to whet the appetite of the fans, add some crazy excitement and offer the possibility of glory for some teams that may have no shot at any regular season hopes due to rebuilding and or plain stinking. It's been very time consuming over the years, although admittedly sporadic, but I can't really articulate how *excited* I am to feel like I can see the finish line and really get lost in my own fantasy headcanon. I think I'm hyperventilating! I'll surely lose the last marble I have remaining when I descend into this rabbit hole of my own fashioning. Goodbye.

[Phaseknox]

This has got to be some sort of typo.

I’ve been enjoying Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver since it’s an early third person action adventure platform puzzle game without any handholding similar to the original Tomb Raider games, but some of the block puzzles are really annoying/frustrating and I’m glad that they’re a thing of the past.

[argyle]

This has got to be some sort of typo.

I’ve been enjoying Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver since it’s an early third person action adventure platform puzzle game without any handholding similar to the original Tomb Raider games, but some of the block puzzles are really annoying/frustrating and I’m glad that they’re a thing of the past.

I've been curious, did they add any quality-of-life improvements such as autosave, a map (I don't THINK the original had a map? Man, it's been a minute), etc. or is it just a graphic upgrade? Either way I'll end up picking the set up eventually, just curious.

[canedaddy]

I've been tempted by the Soul Reaver collection. Looking forward to your final thoughts.



Played recently: Nioh

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 45


Looking for a nice meaty game, I found myself playing the Soulslike Nioh. It sucked me in immediately... the combat, characters/story, world, everything hit the spot.

That is, up until I got to the second boss.

After a whole lot of failed attempts, I peeked to see if that thing is regarded as one of the tougher bosses in the game. Nope, apparently not even top 10.

I also should mention that you need to spend 10-15 minutes going around killing dudes to get your special attack ready for that boss fight... every time.

I did it many times, and went in there using the best weapons/abilities/strategies I could come up with... and I never got its health bar past the midpoint.

I suck.

On to the next game!

[Phaseknox]

I’ve been enjoying Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver since it’s an early third person action adventure platform puzzle game without any handholding similar to the original Tomb Raider games, but some of the block puzzles are really annoying/frustrating and I’m glad that they’re a thing of the past.

I've been curious, did they add any quality-of-life improvements such as autosave, a map (I don't THINK the original had a map? Man, it's been a minute), etc. or is it just a graphic upgrade? Either way I'll end up picking the set up eventually, just curious.

No, it’s just visually improved everything else is exactly the same as far as I can tell. You have to manually save, and there’s no environment map just a world map that shows the different locations in the game. An environment map would have been nice since it’s one big interconnected world that has areas that you can’t access until you gain the abilities to do so.

Looking for a nice meaty game, I found myself playing the Soulslike Nioh. It sucked me in immediately... the combat, characters/story, world, everything hit the spot.

That is, up until I got to the second boss.

That’s kind of what my experience with Bloodborne was, I loved everything about it including the difficulty of the regular enemies but the first two bosses that I encountered were OP and stopped me in my tracks. That’s the problem that I have with most Soulslikes, everything about them is great except for the difficulty of the bosses IMO. I like bosses in games when they’re basically just stronger enemies with patterns to learn, I don’t like when they’re extremely OP and can basically kill you with one hit and have extremely long life bars that take forever to whittle down. Too many games that I’ve played have been ruined by bosses like that, and unfortunately the popularity of Soulslike games has had more devs put bosses like that in their games. They completely halt my progress in games that I’m otherwise really enjoying, and that upsets me because I want to play games that I like to the end and I hate to not be able to due to OP bosses that prevent me from doing so.

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Ace Attorney Trilogy

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 43 games

Not much to report, didn't get to start anything because I was sick most of the week.

[canedaddy]

Hope you're feeling better, j!

That’s kind of what my experience with Bloodborne was, I loved everything about it including the difficulty of the regular enemies but the first two bosses that I encountered were OP and stopped me in my tracks. That’s the problem that I have with most Soulslikes, everything about them is great except for the difficulty of the bosses IMO. I like bosses in games when they’re basically just stronger enemies with patterns to learn, I don’t like when they’re extremely OP and can basically kill you with one hit and have extremely long life bars that take forever to whittle down. Too many games that I’ve played have been ruined by bosses like that, and unfortunately the popularity of Soulslike games has had more devs put bosses like that in their games. They completely halt my progress in games that I’m otherwise really enjoying, and that upsets me because I want to play games that I like to the end and I hate to not be able to due to OP bosses that prevent me from doing so.

That was what made Elden Ring so compelling to me compared to other games like this. It has less of that thing where your progress is blocked by one super-tough boss and that's that. You can go to other areas, level up and fight other bosses, then come back and have a much better chance against the other guy.