Backlog Un-Challenge

Yeah we should probably get another one started. I am packed with summer activities however so I would be opping out of running it until things slow down again in September.

And this reminds me of how much I suck at Bloodstained. I cannot get past the 1st boss but at the same time can platinum Elden Ring

Finished my last playthrough of Dark Souls 1, now finishing up the second plat of Elden Ring. 20 hours in and almost 50%, at Crumbling Farum.

After this I need to figure out what I want to knock off next. Either Returnal, Bloodstained, or (finally) RE1+2 remakes.

Leaning Returnal, but I'd say there's a 50/50 chance I'll fire it up and tap out after a few hours, like I did the other two times I tried to play it. Also considering Uncharted 4.

Finished the Elden Ring plat over the weekend, now playing Returnal. Finally made progress with it for the first time, managed to beat half of the game once I finally got into a groove with the right powerups. The second half is a separate grouping from the first and said to be easier, so I think I'll have it wrapped up pretty fast.

Returnal is an excellent game with terrific graphics/sound/controls. Might make the best use I've seen of the PS5 controller's vibration/feedback. It really is something else to play. Shame the difficulty is so ridiculously high that half the players will give up on level 1 (and trophy statistics back this up). They added a suspend mode recently so it's possible to save scum it at least. But yeah, it's difficult in a bad way, the frustrating type of way. I don't mind tough bosses, but sending the player back to the beginning on a death makes the game feel like such a waste of time. At least now you can suspend/backup before a boss fight and try it multiple times, which makes a world of difference.

nice ya I’m down for the backlog but I’m going to delve back into EQ and 40k wargaming too

Just beat Returnal. Didn't think I'd ever get that one done. Was stuck on Biome 1 for like a year (admittedly I only tried every few months). Finally studied up on the game to find out how everything worked, turned out it was simpler than I thought, and with the suspend function it was a lot more playable. Beat the first boss in my first try, then the rest of the game pretty much all in one shot except for Nemesis (Biome 3 boss) and Hyperion (Biome 4 boss) which both took a few tries. Biome 6 was ridiculously dangerous so I ended up just running from almost everything in that one, which was the hardest part of the run. Getting a Carbine with the Leech ability on it was the difference maker, for sure, and later when I got a Leech II ability I was unstoppable. Was shocked at how easy the final boss was after everything else. Like an absolute joke and I don't think it was supposed to be. I stocked heals for it and ended up not even needing to heal once.

Final time was 15 hours, though counting the reloads I did on a couple bosses and the last two Biomes, probably closer to 20. Funny thing is, half of my game time was probably spent tooling around the first level over the past year and the other half was me stomping through the rest over the last couple of evenings.

Worth playing? IDK. It's like a 3D combination of Metroid and Contra. Super atmospheric in a Prometheus sort of way. The lack of save points kinda kills it, though I made my own. I guess you could just play it as intended in a roguelike style, but I generally had terrible RNG and a lot of failed runs doing it that way. Once I finally got good weapons and powerups, I saved it and used reloads like a normal game.

Either way, glad that one's done, really liked it, but at the same time can't really recommend it, if that makes any sense.

Now that I survived one bullet hell jump-n-shoot game I might take another swing at the almost-done Cuphead. I thought I had like 4-5 fights left but it's actually twice that. IDK, we'll see how much patience I have for that one on Sunday.

Seananigans said:

July completions. Demon’s Souls PS5 plat, and Sekiro plat. Rajaah your turn for Sekiro!

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Niiiice. I might well move up Sekiro since I'm on a katana binge lately as is. Have a few things lined up for August, mostly June/July things that I didn't actually finish any of:

-Ys Memories of Celceta (almost done)
-Uncharted 4 (about halfway)
-Live A Live
-Dragon Quest 5 SFC (about halfway)
-Xenoblade X

After that I might take a swipe at finally finishing FNAF 5 and Cuphead, both of which I have like...very little left in. And in October I'm supposed to do a Rondo of Blood play on PS4 with a friend. The one 2D Castlevania I never played, we'll see how long that takes.

And then Sekiro, no ifs ands or buts. I want it platinumed by Halloween.

Seananigans said:

I started Rondo since it was a part of the SotN platinum, but I don’t think that’s in my wheelhouse anymore. I played the old NES shit but child me was much better at that old crap.

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Yeah I'm a little worried about whether or not I'll be able to handle Rondo of Blood. We'll see in a few weeks.

The past month I knocked off:

-Ys Memories of Celceta
-Ys VIII
-Resident Evil 1 Remastered
-Resident Evil 2 Remake (well, shortly, I got to the final area)
-Cuphead

Cuphead in particular was super tough and I didn't think I'd ever actually beat the game. I chipped at it over literally four years. Finally thanks to the new DLC powerups I was able to clear the last 7-8 fights and beat the game. Did a lot of the DLC fights too, at least until I'd had my fill of it. $7.99 was worth it for the new powerups alone that make the game so much more beatable.

I think I've taken down more than half of the backlog I started 2022 with, feels good.