Community Backlog Blitz Season 8 - Runs July 1 through September 30 with a raffle at the end

[Cacher]

I am a bit burnt out by the endgame of Mario + Rabbids because the challenge stages are pretty long and difficult, so I started the Donkey Kong DLC yesterday to change the pace. Very shocked by the throw mechanic of Donkey Kong... it is awesome! I feel that this mechanic can get very deep in the challenge stages of the DLC. Going to juggle between the DLC main story and main game's stages tomorrow onwards.

Meanwhile, I am progressing Fairy Fencer F slowly. The game did not click last time, so I completely start over. The dialogues are pretty funny without being too cringey so I am enjoying my time so far. Hopefully it will click soon.

 

[Spamlynguist]

Oh right, I forgot to mention that I beat Watch Dogs: Legion - Bloodline a couple weeks ago.

Great DLC, kinda meaty as well with a bunch of sidemissions.

 

[Madventure]

I was going to just try Oxenfree to see if i liked it or not enough to play it as one of my backlog games and ended up beating it in one sitting.

It was alright but the controls were kind of shit for a point and click game which is kind of arguable the most important thing about it. I also was super annoyed by the fact that I couldn't adjust the games volume at all so I was going deaf. I had to just crank my speakers way down.

Storywise I thought it was alright enough but some of it was just kind of eh? I don't know if i was just too annoyed at the audio annoyances I had

I give it 3 out of 5 What's

 

[Routa]

I'm assuming the only way to play that one would be to get a PS2 and that game? That's not happening. I think I can play the proper Code Veronica on PS Now so I might have to check that out.

PS2 or Emulation.

I finally finished EDF5 and got the true ending in Way of the Samurai 3. Just Darq left

 

[Deku]

I finished SteamWorld Quest yesterday. It was fun, but didn't expect it to a deck builder. Never watched any trailers or gameplay before, all I knew it was a rpg game.
In the beginning it was fun, but as I got longer in the game it got harder and because of the difficulty I had to cheat through the 1/3 of the game. I didn't like the randomness. It made the game a bit too difficult

I continued to play Darksiders 3. Currently only having the final boss left. But instead of beating the crap out of the boss I went instead to find humans instead. I only had six left out of 20 to find. Also found a lot of demonic and angelic artifact

 

[Deku]

Finally finished Darksiders 3 and that marks my fourth game in the Blitz. Really great game! A bit too hard, until I decided to upgrade my weapons and such in the end I waited too long to upgrade my character

Ending spoiler

The ending ended with Strife taking over, I assume it's here where his story begins in the fourth game

Is Genesis related to the story? Or is it a filler game?

Only got Code Vein left

 

[Wibblewozzer]

Finally finished Darksiders 3 and that marks my fourth game in the Blitz. Really great game! A bit too hard, until I decided to upgrade my weapons and such in the end I waited too long to upgrade my character

Ending spoiler

The ending ended with Strife taking over, I assume it's here where his story begins in the fourth game

Is Genesis related to the story? Or is it a filler game?

Only got Code Vein left

Darksiders III events happen at the same time as II. But yeah, Strife is the remaining character needing their own full game so safe assumption a fourth game would have him as the lead.

Genesis is fantastic. I think in the storyline it's a prequel to all of them? I always compare it to the two Lara Croft games that came out that were those overhead adventures. There's just a ton to Genesis and everything really feels great to play. They did a great job taking the combat from the series and making it work in the new style. I still think it's probably my overall favorite game of the whole series.

 

[Futaleufu]

Disgaea is the most grindy game I've played in a long time

 

[Deku]

Darksiders III events happen at the same time as II. But yeah, Strife is the remaining character needing their own full game so safe assumption a fourth game would have him as the lead.

I am wondering if the series' story will conclude in the fourth game. Or will there be a fifth game?

Spoiler

War summoned the other three horsemen in ending of the first game.
I wonder what happened to Death after his, what I assume, sacrifice.

So if there were to be a fifth game, will all the horsemen join together and battle against the council

 

[Cacher]

If they announced the fourth Darksider later this year, it will likely a late 2022 / 2023 game. To space out a bit, I probably wouldn't start 2 until next year.

BTW, I think Fairy Fencer F just clicked for me. Starting to enjoy the gameplay. It actually brings quite a lot of variations to the table.

 

[beep boop]

Gonna try to do these:

Record of Lodoss War DIWL
The Silver Case
Mark of the Ninja: Remastered
Tacoma
Underhero

Already started VA11 HALL-A so I’ll leave that one off and treat it as my side game as I start with MotN.

Disgaea is the most grindy game I've played in a long time

I played the one on DS to completion and a good bit of the 5th, and yeah… It’s a long-term commitment alright. I realized I had my fill with just the one game under my belt when I was playing 5.

 

[Cacher]

Tacoma

I liked the story a lot. Hopefully you will enjoy it as well.

 

[Derrick01]

Finished demons souls remake. I never finished the game back in 09 as the maneaters made me rage quit but this time I toughed it out and got it all done.

I'm going to swap out AI sominium files for dark souls 3 since demon's put me in the mood for more of this style.

 

[Madventure]

I started playing Serpent in the Staglands, I was just going to try it out to get a feel for it but now Im like a dozen plus hour into it and I like it quite a bit.
It's kind of rough and nowhere near perfect so far but it's very much baldurs gate esque with similar style to games like that. I'd say more like the first baldurs gate because combat etc was simpler? but its got a lot going on under the hood

Anyways Its cool but janky, a lot of reviews of it from a quick glance have people hating that so whatever lol

 

[Deku]

Done with Darksiders 3. Kinda regret buying the deluxe edition content. The arena dlc wasn't for me and the dungeon dlc was kinda boring. But at least I got the soundtrack

I started to play Code Vein. Didn't spend long time to create my character, maybe 20 minutes.
Did the tutorial and started to play a few minutes of the game, and then I had to go to sleep. It was late

 

[Deku]

Done with Darksiders 3. Kinda regret buying the deluxe edition content. The arena dlc wasn't for me and the dungeon dlc was kinda boring. But at least I got the soundtrack

I started to play Code Vein. Didn't spend long time to create my character, maybe 20 minutes.
Did the tutorial and started to play a few minutes of the game, and then I had to go to sleep. It was late

Here is my character

 

[beep boop]

I completed Mark of the Ninja. That was excellent through and through. I expected as much since I’d played most of the original release before, but I had been meaning to play the remaster start to finish. The visual cues and controls are incredibly well designed. That goes for just about everything else in it, but those really stand out.

Also, Tacoma is really fun so far. I must've not been in the right mood when I first tried to play it, because this time around I am loving the process of looking at different stuff, taking in the atmosphere and learning about these characters through various scattered bits and bobs. I think part of the appeal is its mix of voyeurism and investigation. All these ostensibly superfluous details do a lot to make the game's world feel like it was indeed inhabited by its characters, as opposed to spaces being vessels for moving from one key expository scene to the next -- something I felt very acutely in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, for example. I recently also played a little bit of Paradise Killer, which, counter to my expectations, didn't really hook me even though the intersection of walking sim and mystery is catnip to me. I hadn't really interrogated why that was, but I think it might be related to the aforementioned. Paradise Killer seemed relatively low-density in terms of information per square meter and put so much weight on just aesthetic and text to bring personality to its world.

Anyway, I'll be slow playing this one and really soaking in it for as long as it lasts. Good stuff.

 

[ganmo]

Okay first game finished on this blitz which was Batman Arkham Origins

1. Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-
2. Batman™: Arkham Origins

I think I'm going to continue on it to pick of some easy achievements though. And maybe also grind Riddler's hidden trophies and tasks
As always very enjoyable Bat game. Surprisingly it felt like this one had the shortest main story? While playing this game I was also surprised on how much these games are actually recycling from the previous games. Basically no new move animations. Maybe the bad guy's grunts are recycled too xD
Also realized that this game was much more enjoyable than Arkham Knights. Perhaps the criticizer was right with that the batmobile kind of ruined the game. Btw I like the fast travel feature in this game, must be the only bat game which had it right?

No idea what to play for this, perhaps I'll continue on grinding GG Xrd. Or go for the arcade stories

 

[beep boop]

Btw I like the fast travel feature in this game, must be the only bat game which had it right?

I want to say there were others with it... Like, I distinctly remember some animation of the Batwing picking you up and dropping you off at a chosen point... Might just be thinking of Origins though, haha.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

Looking online is seems Origins is the only one with fast travel. Mixed feelings about it as some people say they just preferred gliding and such. Maybe overall opinion wasn't into it since they didn't keep it for Knight.

 

[Parsnip]

City needed an unlockable fast travel badly since the city shape was a horse shoe, towards the end it was just frustrating if you needed to go from one end to the other. Midway through the game they could have given you some kind of upgrade to alleviate that.

 

[Cacher]

Done Emily is Away.

What a shitty and relatable game.

Edit: I didn't expect it to be this short. Note to self: trying to find a longer game next time for a blitz.

 

[Parsnip]

Started and finished BloodRayne: Betrayal. It's not particularly good. But that's 3/5 done.

 

[Futaleufu]

Wolfenstein 2 completed, thats 4/5. I feel the developers put more effort on the story and cinematics than in the gameplay. Compared to TNO and TOB this game lacks unique gameplay moments.

 

[beep boop]

Finished Tacoma yesterday. Already summarized some things I liked about it above. Goes down smoothly, it's just the right length, well-written and has fantastic performances by its voice actors. Some of the best gaming to be had. and experiences like this are why I love the medium.

And then there's also this relevant context that just came to light, which exemplifies some of the things I dislike about the industry around the medium:

How the founder’s toxic culture tore apart Fullbright, the studio behind Gone Home

Co-founder Steve Gaynor has stepped down following complaints from employees

www.polygon.com

I'm thinking I'll do The Silver Case next for a more passive experience and play either Underhero or Lodoss on the side.

Edit:

Me just one hour into The Silver case:

What the fresh hell have I gotten myself into? A passive experience this is not.
It's gonna demand my full attention just to keep it all in my head.

It's like 90% proper nouns per sentence. MADNESS.
The control scheme is also something else, but I managed to piece together a somewhat more intuitive controller layout.

 

[Madventure]

I played the the entire game of Serpent in the Staglands it's a pretty neat game. Arguably its got some rough edges but I really like the story overall! It's made by a pretty indie company and was funded on kickstarter which was supposed to have an expansion come out for it at some point but I think that might of got abandoned or pushed out so they could work on another game (Who knows but it would be cool to come back to this world in the future, so fingers crossed)

My only real complaints would be that there's still a lot of bugs in the game that can sort of steal your overall joy from the game that sometimes when you save or change areas arrows/bolts disappear completely from your character or party members inventories and then you end up in combat and just die because well they aren't shooting anything.

There's also the problem of certain quest items need to be in your inventory or quest people will basically think you're a stranger or idiot because you don't have them but the game doesn't really tell you what's what. I don't know if that's part of their "We're an old school game!" philosophy or what but it just sort of felt stupid because there's limited inventory space and trying to keep everything that might be important when it is probably useless.

I spent about 70 hours in the game, which sounds like a lot (Because it is) but i restarted halfway through because I was an idiot and second guessed my character I made so I was like i should restart. I'd definitely recommend giving the game a try if you like older style RPGS but just keep in mind it's not perfect but I enjoyed my time playing it quite a bit.

 

[ganmo]

Looking online is seems Origins is the only one with fast travel. Mixed feelings about it as some people say they just preferred gliding and such. Maybe overall opinion wasn't into it since they didn't keep it for Knight.

never underestimate fast travel. still an option if you choice not to use it. btw perhaps they decided not to keep it in Arkham Knight just to make people use the batmobile? just a thought

 

[Wibblewozzer]

never underestimate fast travel. still an option if you choice not to use it. btw perhaps they decided not to keep it in Arkham Knight just to make people use the batmobile? just a thought

Yeah, most likely. I can't really recall feeling a need for fast travel because it was so quick to get around in that game, especially after some upgrades since you could launch out of the Batmobile with some height and speed, glide far, and if needed dive right back in from the sky and boost forward again. There were good options to move quickly.

I also liked the Batmobile in the game more than most so that's likely why I enjoyed that.

 

[Madventure]

Arlkham Knight
Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Are all made by Rocksteady

Is made by
Arkham Origins - WB Montreal/Splash Damage

There's a lot of people who think Origins is the best one or that it's complete shit compared to the others. I think it's "Awesome a batman game"

 

[beep boop]

I think Arkham Knight might be my favorite of the bunch. The tank sequences blow and the ending requirements are a questionable choice, but I am a simple person and I loved, loved, loved driving the Batmobile.

Anyway, I'm flying through Lodoss it seems. It's a little simple, but I love the way the game plays. Feels good. The Silver Case is... interesting. The writing has a Kojima-like quality to it and flows about as well as an oatmeal river, but I like the general mood and weirdness of it all.

 

[ganmo]

Yeah, most likely. I can't really recall feeling a need for fast travel because it was so quick to get around in that game, especially after some upgrades since you could launch out of the Batmobile with some height and speed, glide far, and if needed dive right back in from the sky and boost forward again. There were good options to move quickly.

I also liked the Batmobile in the game more than most so that's likely why I enjoyed that.

by far the gliding was the best in Arkham Knights with the extra boost to make it faster. when I was doing the same moves in Origins I just couldn't get the same speed. otherwise I would just glide instead of using fast travel.

 

[beep boop]

Just finished Record of Lodoss War DIWL. Solid game, and I enjoyed my (short) time with it. I’d have loved for it to have been a full-fat igavania. The art is beautiful and they really nailed how the character handles. Would pay good money for a version of this with more sprawling level design.

- - -

After playing some Underhero, I decided that I'll be retiring that. I wasn't feeling it based on the hour and a half I played, so I looked at some footage from later areas and that seemed pretty much on the same wavelength as what I played. It's perfectly fine, but to sum it up I had difficulties with the pace of the combat and the game more broadly (slow), and its platforming wasn't clicking with me.

I'll be tagging in Pillars of Eternity to fill the slot. I got about a third of the way through before I put that on hold, and I've got the White March DLC as well, so there's still plenty of game left -- probably more than the previous three I finished combined, yeesh I think it's pretty alright from what I played, but there'd still be plenty of game if they just cut the so-so content, and it'd be more well-rounded for it. Not really excited to go back to it, but it's one of those I feel obliged to finish, the install has been hogging space for a while now and I keep hearing how great the sequel is, so now's as good a time as any.

 

[Derrick01]

Finished Dark Souls 3. It's my least favorite in the series and I didn't really enjoy it at all. I found the level design to be mostly lackluster and the difficulty weirdly front loaded (including like 10 knights in the FIRST area). I didn't even bother doing the DLC since I just wanted to be done with it.

Arlkham Knight
Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Are all made by Rocksteady

Is made by
Arkham Origins - WB Montreal/Splash Damage

There's a lot of people who think Origins is the best one or that it's complete shit compared to the others. I think it's "Awesome a batman game"

It has the best story and writing in the series by a massive margin. I also liked roger craig smith's portrayal of batman more, even though some find that blasphemous. The emotion he put into it made him a lot more interesting than the usual stoic (boring) batman.

 

[Deku]

I defeated the first Successor in Code Vein. I can't believe that boss fights are easier than normal monsters. Maybe because the area are much more open and bigger compared to where the normal monsters are. And bosses don't have other monsters that constantly attack you. Even elite monsters are harder than the bosses.

Cathedral of the Sacred Blood is probably the worst dungeon so far in the game. Everything look the same and it's very large dungeon. So it's constantly looking everywhere to look for hidden paths.

 

[gabbo]

Had the swap out Church of the Darkness with The Suffering. I just couldnt be assed to play Church, and I figure I am playing Suffering so why not? I may even finish The Suffering... maybe

 

[Cacher]

Surprised to find out that Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force is on the harder side of the JRPG spectrum. I play on normal difficulty but the enemies still hit pretty hard. Looks like this game is going to take longer than expected to complete...

 

[beep boop]

I’m having a really hard time with The Silver Case. I love the game's aesthetic and I like the occasional spooky weirdness, but its writing style is becoming increasingly grating as I go on. I’ll stick with it, but it’s a real struggle to motivate myself into finishing it. I’ve managed to get side tracked and complete three other games since starting it

 

[Deku]

Curse Terraria! I started to play it again since forever. I don't think I played since v1.2. There are so much new stuff in the game. I don't think I have tried any new content yet that was introduced since v1.3. I have played around 14 hours since last Thursday. I have also been experimenting with my Raspberry pi to set up a terraria server. So far it's running, but laggy for some reason. Maybe the rpi revision that I have is too weak for a Terraria server

Anyway, yesterday I continued with Code Vein. I believe that I am halfway through with the story

 

[Ascheroth]

Cathedral of the Sacred Blood is probably the worst dungeon so far in the game. Everything look the same and it's very large dungeon. So it's constantly looking everywhere to look for hidden paths.

Absolutely awful level. Almost made me quit and I had to look up where to continue at one point.
Thankfully, the rest of the game is far better and never hits those lows again.

I'm legit not sure how this made it through playtesting.

 

[Parsnip]

I'm currently playing a non-blitz game Lego City Undercover, will probably get back to blitz games after I 100% that.
Will probably be Dex, leaving Aquaria last.

 

[Magnamalo]

Started Nier Automata not a fan of having to constantly press R2 for dodging and sprinting

 

[beep boop]

Finished The Silver Case. Much of the last hours I spent with it had me either nodding off or being in utter disbelief at the blatant disrespect of your time. The series of tunnels and escalators near the end there... I could not believe that that was actually happening.

That said, I kind of want to play 25th Ward. In the meantime, I'll watch a playthrough of Flower, Sun and Rain.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

I've been putting a lot of time into other games so randomly I decided to make some progress in Mega Man X2. I had left off with around half the robot masters down so tonight I defeated the rest and collected most all the upgrade stuff and then set it aside to finish later. That later turned out to be ten minutes later I went back and just finished it up. I was going to then hop right into Trine 4 to knock that out next but I'm trying to hit level 100 in Destiny 2's season ending next Tuesday so I went back to that. I'm pretty close but that'll have more priority and then Trine 4 will likely be what I focus on after that.

Ideally I go into September with just Assassin's Creed Unity remaining to work on (and maybe Sly 1 if I don't get to it by then). September is such a stacked month for releases I'd prefer to have Bliltz stuff mainly done.

We are just past the halfway point overall. Hopefully everyone is making decent progress? Prize pool is still at $45 from early on so please feel free to chip in.

 

[ganmo]

Just updating that I switching out GG Xrd, to GG Strive instead.
Goal maybe finish of the mission, or I dunno

 

[Cacher]

Finally reach the last dungeon after playing over 40 hours in Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force. Every side quests cleared. This may seems short for a JRPG but there's a caveat: this is only the very first of the three playthroughs due to branching story lines. The second and third playthrough should take much less time because everything brings over to the next playthrough, but I expect to spend at least another 40 hours on this game.

Now that its playtime vastly exceeds my expectation, I may need to change the last game (ie. Fae Tactics) to something shorter. Anyway, let's see how this goes. I will decide around mid-Sep.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

Finally reach the last dungeon after playing over 40 hours in Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force. Every side quests cleared. This may seems short for a JRPG but there's a caveat: this is only the very first of the three playthroughs due to branching story lines. The second and third playthrough should take much less time because everything brings over to the next playthrough, but I expect to spend at least another 40 hours on this game.

Now that its playtime vastly exceeds my expectation, I may need to change the last game (ie. Fae Tactics) to something shorter. Anyway, let's see how this goes. I will decide around mid-Sep.

I'm curious if multiple playthroughs will feel worth it. I like that company's RPGs as a sort of comfort food since they're decently fun but not all that complex or anything. So I started Fairy Fencer F a long time ago and played for a few hours and thought it seemed decent but never went back to it. I think about it on occasion but it'd be good to know what I'm getting into if it turns into an 80 hour game!

 

[Futaleufu]

167 hours later, Disgaea PC is complete. That makes it 5/5 for this season.

 

[Cacher]

I'm curious if multiple playthroughs will feel worth it. I like that company's RPGs as a sort of comfort food since they're decently fun but not all that complex or anything. So I started Fairy Fencer F a long time ago and played for a few hours and thought it seemed decent but never went back to it. I think about it on occasion but it'd be good to know what I'm getting into if it turns into an 80 hour game!

I originally couldn't get into it as well. But the game started to get more fun after around five hours because new mechanics and weapon arts were starting to appear gradually. All party member also has their own unique skill which adds to the fun.

The story is overall light-hearted with some dark twist and turns. Can't say much without spoiling the story, but I think it is better than expected. Currently I am playing the Goddess route. I heard it is the original story in the first Fairy Fencer F game with some added scenes to improve the pacing, and the second and third route are added in Advent Dark Force and both have completely different story, new characters and party members. Some people also said the third route can be considered to be the true route and has the hardest enemies. Don't know if they are true because I haven't gotten there yet, but I look forward to playing them.

Overall, the game does nothing ground-breaking, but it is a pretty decent JRPG with some hilarious as well as dark moments. I like it a lot!

 

[Cacher]

Goddess route done!

 

[Parsnip]

Finished Dex, so I'm 4/5 done now.
It was fine, gets up its own ass at the end a bit.