visighost's backlog project

[Joe Dubz]

1 hour ago, visighost said:

Hyper Light Drifter...

What is kind of coincidental is I was enjoying that game too! I just picked something up I liked better, so it's fallen to the backburner for now. I will also be interested to see how situations like you describe with the cloud may be improved with the next gen; it just needs to go a little faster for some games like that, where you will be utilizing it frequently!

 

Songbringer: Very interesting game! I played through the whole game to the end, which was enjoyable. I honestly didn't find it appealing enough tho to go for the plat! Good if you were a fan of old top-down Zelda games, with a bit of a twist!

 

Rain World: 10/10, such an amazing game and I would plat it all over again!! Definitely not for the faint of heart tho, some of the more difficult parts made me want to tear my hair out at times! Very unique take, like Metroidvania/Survival hybrid, to some extent.

 

Bug Fables: Interesting game, extremely reminiscent of Super Mario RPG/Paper Mario series. I want to say it may even have been made by the same dev?! Don't quote me on that!

 

Pier Solar: If you have ever played Final Fantasy VI (it was actually FF3 on Super Nintendo, since you're from NA like me!) this game gave me so many feels back to that phenomenal game! Beware the Eternal Slip minigame tho, that is without a doubt the plat killer for most people. 

 

I hope you enjoyed my mini-reviews as much as I have been enjoying yours!! I'd love to hear feedback if you end up trying any of these ?

[visighost]

3 minutes ago, Joe Dubz said:

I hope you enjoyed my mini-reviews as much as I have been enjoying yours!! I'd love to hear feedback if you end up trying any of these 

 

I did, thanks! I only own the first two (waiting for a better price on Bug and... has Pier ever been on sale??), and was waiting for a guide to be out for Songbringer, but saw that there's one on Steam, so that should work too! Onto the list...

[visighost]

Hey! Nice weekend everyone? I didn't get to I am Bread or more Monochrome Order yet myself, but did try out Death's Gambit (fun!), Rain World (fun! HARD!), Skelattack (fun! hard!), Yakuza Kiwami (looking aged... and lots of talking, little action at this point), Animal Super Squad (fun but looks like the trophies are glitched), and Die! Die! Die! (not so much fun...) - mostly spent time finishing Masters of Anima, though. Will likely write on them this week, unless anyone has more requests or recommendations.

 

Also added a bit of an intro in the first post.

 

Have a great week people!

 

Day 9

 

 

DWVR

Current player count: 442

Platinum rarity: 5.20%

What is it?: Wave shooter/slasher

 

Played: Played two levels (out of three) on easy, and again on medium

Guides: None that I could find. Not sure any is needed.

Trophies: Basically get three stars on each of the three levels on each of the four difficulties, and then finish two bonus missions. Achievement rates are all over the place since it might be easier to get a high score on a higher difficulty than a lower one (the thresholds change).

Thoughts: DWVR is one of those games I've seen my kids play but had never tried myself. I thought I'd boot it up as it's one of the handful of games that Sony announced won't be playable on the PS5. It's a basic VR wave shooter, but unlike most of those, you get to move around a bit (through teleportation, which I find much better for VR-induced nausea). Its scope is... limited. There's only three levels and the enemies are the same across them. You have a selection of unlockable weapons to choose from, including swords, magic wands, and various guns, which would add variety, but I've found the most efficient way to go was to hold two swords in front of me and teleport into enemies for insta-kills, only ranged weapons for bosses and flying drones. Difficulty perceptibly scales across easy to extreme, and I noticed bosses changed in the easy and medium levels, though I'm unclear if that's random or predetermined. Trophy-wise, you need to get to a certain score in order to unlock the necessary gold rankings, but the problem is regular progression will only take you so far (half the score I need on medium). You therefore need to hang around once the bosses spawn, wait until they spawn enough minions, and kill them quickly in order for your multiplier to grow and reach whatever secret threshold is needed (30k for medium and 40k for hard, according to a post in the forums). Overall, I'd say it's a fair wave shooter, but definitely not one I'd recommend spending more than a few bucks on, and not one you should try if you care about your completion rate unless you either have a lot of time to devote to getting gud, or there's a way to cheese minions that I'm unaware of.

Edited October 28, 2020 by visighost

[visighost]

Day 10

 

 

Skelattack

Current player count: 142

Platinum rarity: No platinum, but rarest trophy is 28.87%

What is it?: Metroidvania-ish platformer

 

Played: Finished the game in 3 hours or so

Guides: None that I could find. As collectibles aren't needed for trophies, none is really needed.

Trophies: Only four, all for story progression. Wasted opportunity as there are many collectibles and upgrades in the game...

Thoughts: Unexpected little game coming from Konami, with little visibility and a small player base. The game's aesthetics, which reminded me of Cuphead's, are what initially attracted me to the title. I quickly found out it didn't share any of the uniqueness of the latter, but is a rather run-of-the-mill platformer with mild metroidvania elements (there is almost no backtracking required to unlock new routes, and very few significant upgrades). This doesn't mean the title was bad in any way: the level design is competent, the scenario has a few chuckle-worthy moments, and while there is little enemy variety and the boss fights are all very easy, the platforming itself can prove very challenging, as hitting the spikes (glass shards?) results in insta-death and loss of the money you need for upgrades. That being said, I played without a guide and managed to complete the game within 3 hours. I'm not terrible at games, but I'm not an SMB-platinum holder either, so you might well do better than me. If you can get Skelattack for cheap and are in for an evening of mindless jumping and hacking, sure. If you already have an overflowing backlog? Maybe not. (And if you really want another skeleton-themed metroidvania, I would recommend Super Skelemania over this)

[visighost]

Day 11

 

 

Rise & Shine

Current player count: 1709

Platinum rarity: No platinum, but rarest trophy is 1.29%

What is it?: Platforming shooter

 

Played: Half the game over approximately 2 hours.

Guides: There's one on pst.org. I haven't really used it yet but likely will do for collectibles.

Trophies: Some collectibles, some miscellaneous challenges, and a dreaded deathless run.

Thoughts: I picked this one up as I generally enjoy Adult Swim games, and then realized a deathless run was involved for completion and I put it aside out of... fear? BUT I'M NOT AFRAID NOW! Or rather, I was scrolling down my list and thought I'd give that one a go as it looked like a good, mindless time waster. And it is! It's unpretentious, cartoony, and you get to blow things up. The game reminded me of an action-based Steamworld Heist (which I loved), or a more fluid Lichtspeer (which I also do, and have yet to complete), with the addition of some puzzle sections where you control a bullet in maze-like patterns to break buttons or hit enemies from the back. R&S otherwise shares the stop-and-aim mechanisms of those two games, with some action platforming sprinkled in. You can only get hit twice before dying (which you will, often), so you have to get used to a pattern of moving, quickly positioning yourself, aiming, letting loose a few shots, and dodging the incoming counterattack. Level selection is available, so you can always go back to pick up chests and propellers (?), and the generous checkpoints greatly reduce frustration. I'm not sure why the trophy percentages are low overall - I don't foresee any but one of them as being too hard after a little bit of practice. To sum it up, I had a fun, and would recommend it at a low price point. But man. That deathless run is going to be HARD.

[visighost]

Day 12

 

 

Guard Duty

Current player count: 174 (vita NA version)

Platinum rarity: 80.46%

What is it?: Point-and-Click

 

Played: The whole game over 3-4 hours.

Guides: I followed the @knoef_NL walkthrough. There's some mistakes, but nothing you can't figure out quickly or that will lock you out of a missable trophy.

Trophies: Pretty much all story-related. I recommend following a walkthrough anyhow.

Thoughts: I had seen billed as a Lucasfilm-era homage point-and-click and I can certainly see that that's what Guard Duty is striving to be, but it sadly doesn't compare to the Monkey Island or Indiana Jones titles of yore (I spent so much time on those on the Amiga back in the day! GROG GROG GROG!). The mechanics were reduced to a minimum (activate/examine) and there's a relative scarcity of levels and interactivity. As someone who uses walkthroughs as a rule for this type of game, I may not be the best placed to assess the puzzles, but it seemed like while the solutions weren't completely outlandish, neither were they always intuitive. The third act did bring a bit more novelty to the otherwise uninspired save-the-princess, save-the-world scenario, as well as a more unique design (though the vaporwave aesthetics is getting sort of old at this point), and I can't say that the short playtime need to complete the game was painful or anything, but... I was expecting more? I feel like I'll have forgotten everything about the title in a few weeks.

Last note: performance on the Vita was surprisingly bad, with jagged animations and a cursor that was really hard to point where you wanted it to. Strange for a 1.5Gb file (possibly due to it being fully voiced?).

[visighost]

Monthly update! I added the following games (almost half being VR) to the backlog:
 

Spoiler

 

18 floors
Attack of the earthlings
Death's gambit
Frostpunk: console edition
Gungrave vr u.n.
Mervils: a vr adventure
Middle-earth: shadow of war definitive edition
Sherlock holmes: crimes and punishments
Squishies
The long journey home
The walker
Vampire: the masquerade - coteries of new york
We happy few
Wraith

 

 

And removed these (half being Vita):

 

Spoiler

 

Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition

Castle Pals
Epic Word Search Collection 2

Furwind

Guard Duty

Gun Crazy

Kamiko

Kawaii Deathu Desu

Link-a-Pix Deluxe

Mom Hid My Game!

Skelattack

The Mummy Demastered

Tic-Tac-Letters by POWGI

Timespinner

 

 

For a net sum of 0... technically. In practice, a few these were added and completed the same month, so I'm in the red. Oh well. Onwards to November, where I am planning on trying:

 

I Am Bread

Monochrome Order

Rain World

Songbringer

 

(from requests) and

 

Breeder

Concrete Genie

Defunct

Tekken 7

(for myself)

 

Please feel free to ask if there's anything else you're interested in me trying. Kind of engrossed in Hand of Fate now (not sure if it's "minor" enough to post about), and will likely finish the Shiny and Masters of Anima platinums. Will also play more Death's Gambit, which I'm enjoying but have paused since I can't find motivation for the trophy to kill the first boss with kicks only (also dreading the one-session playthrough). Will also give Coffee Talk more time (liking what I've seen up to now), might try to finish The Witness at last (I've cheated a few times already), and maybe do the Untitled Goose Game speedruns. Of the other games I tried in October, the Torchlight II grind has paralyzed me, as have the Animal Super Squad trophy glitches (and the lack of answer from the devs I wrote to).

 

Should be a fun month with the PS5 release and the elections south of the border (could be a disaster, mind you), if COVID doesn't get crazier than it is. Stay safe and sane, people!

 

[Grotz99]

39 minutes ago, visighost said:

Please feel free to ask if there's anything else you're interested in me trying. Kind of engrossed in Hand of Fate now (not sure if it's "minor" enough to post about), and will likely finish the Shiny and Masters of Anima platinums.

I really enjoyed Hand of Fate (PC) and need to go back to finish up Hand of Fate 2 (PS4) some day, would like to hear your thoughts about it when you get far enough in.

[visighost]

Day 13

 

 

Hand of Fate

Current player count: 13 581

Platinum rarity: 2.14%

What is it?: Card-driven Action RPG

 

Played: 12-15 hours. Finished the main campaign and unlocked most cards. Now going through the DLC mini-campaigns and endless mode.

Guides: Used the Hand of Fate wiki to get information on how to unlock tokens for various encounters. The TrueAchievements walkthrough was also helpful.

Trophies: Wide variety: action-specific, related to unlocking of cards, etc. Some are luck-based, but it makes sense in the context and given the length of the game they should come naturally. It will take a while to unlock every card, especially as the DLC unlockables are needed.

Thoughts: Hand of Fate isn't exactly a hidden gem as it seems to have maintained a constant player base all these years, but as I've just started it and been hooked for the past week, I thought I'd share my thoughts. It's a hard game to describe: across 13 missions with their own specific rule set, you move across a landscape made of random cards picked from an encounter deck you partially control (it includes a minimum number of cards you can choose from those you've unlocked). These cards are each a mini-story or encounter, where chance and/or combat plays a role. Failing might hurt you, curse you, or take away food or gold. Winning will net you the opposite, equipment (also from a deck you control), and maybe unlock more cards for your decks. Many of the cards lead to combat, which uses a simple-looking 3D attack-special attack-roll-block formula. It can be hard to master, with later missions throwing progressively tougher enemies and curses at you. If you own the DLC, there's multiple "classes" (or challenges) to use, each with its own pros, cons, and unlockables, all needed for the platinum. I'm aware it sounds awfully boring on paper, but I found it weirdly addictive, likely due to the short time you can complete a mission in, and the gambling aspect of hoping for cards with the equipment you're looking for, please-not-the-no-healing-curse! I find myself tinkering with my decks before every game, and am still looking for a perfect combo after all the time I've spent on it. I recommend this one, and would offer one tip: quit to dashboard if you want to retry a draw or die when you shouldn't (e.g. during the infamous last boss fight).

 

(Apologies, @Grotz99, I don't have the second one. I do hear it's more of the same, though - which is great if you enjoyed the first!)

[Grotz99]

3 hours ago, visighost said:

(Apologies, @Grotz99, I don't have the second one. I do hear it's more of the same, though - which is great if you enjoyed the first!)

No problem, was actually just curious what you thought of the first. The second expands on the first and if you enjoyed the first, you'll enjoy the second. It is true that it is a hard game to explain to people and you really don't get it until you play. The combat looks simple and the graphics aren't amazing in it, but for some reason it is hard to master some fights, especially bosses. The rogue-lite type levels make you keep trying and you decide whether you want to build an optimal deck for it or add in some cards to attempt to unlock. Some of those trophies will take some crazy deck builds and luck to obtain. The trophies are definitely more difficult looking in the first game. 

[visighost]

25 minutes ago, Grotz99 said:

No problem, was actually just curious what you thought of the first. The second expands on the first and if you enjoyed the first, you'll enjoy the second. It is true that it is a hard game to explain to people and you really don't get it until you play. The combat looks simple and the graphics aren't amazing in it, but for some reason it is hard to master some fights, especially bosses. The rogue-lite type levels make you keep trying and you decide whether you want to build an optimal deck for it or add in some cards to attempt to unlock. Some of those trophies will take some crazy deck builds and luck to obtain. The trophies are definitely more difficult looking in the first game. 

 

Right - I'm down to a few tokens to unlock, one requiring 150 gold and the other at least 30 food to unlock, and it's not easy to get the timing right for both meeting that threshold and hitting the cards in question. I also can't seem to unlock the trap-related trophies. Not sure what I'm doing wrong there, but I've ruined some runs spending my time bashing enemies into traps and not attacking...

[visighost]

Necroposting my own thread to note that I’ve made my backlog file public just so you feel better about yours. ?

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mdSlIfj8xDCK4fnkMVJhlwLI2_qniVmokP_HXMURiQM/edit