November’s Stats
aka. Good games releases are the ennemies of the backlog
I can’t believe it’s December already, where did 2017 go?
I plead guilty, this month was a complete wreck when it comes to the backlog fight. I added so many good new games I was excited about to my backlog that it was a huge dilemma to pick a “favorite addition” this month (and I still feel like 5 of the added games could have been equally picked for this spot). At the same time, I started a lot of them and barely finished any, but for that the blame can go to Trails of Cold Steel. This game took over my gaming time for the past weeks and I was even happy to have some insomnia phase along with the busy RL so I could still crank some time to play in my schedule.
Anywho, on the plus side I didn’t get much during the past sales. I’m going away for the first week of December, so no gaming will be done during that time, but after that, real life should be a little less hectic (except for the usual holiday season BS). What about you fellow assassins, played/got any games you were excited about? Got a lot of things during the steam sales?
I’ll see you all in about a month for the 2017 summary post. Until then stay safe, have a happy holiday season whichever you celebrate, and of course, happy backlog slaying!
| Played | Finished | Completed | Backlog+ | Achievements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 8 | 3 | 15 | 164 |
ABC Challenge Progress (12/26)
Finished this month: 2Most Satisfying Finish
Most Exciting Addition
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Viridi
3 hours playtime
25 of 47 achievements
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Highlands
12 hours playtime
24 of 27 achievements
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Old Man's Journey
2 hours playtime
no achievements
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Pyre
3 hours playtime
5 of 51 achievements
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Interstellaria
18 hours playtime
27 of 28 achievements
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Loot Hound
14 hours playtime
21 of 21 achievements
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Mini Metro
11 hours playtime
21 of 40 achievements
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Hand of Fate 2
4 hours playtime
8 of 50 achievements
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DeathComing
5 hours playtime
8 of 15 achievements
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Machinarium
4 hours playtime
12 of 12 achievements
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
77 hours playtime
38 of 51 achievements
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Displaced
6 hours playtime
21 of 31 achievements
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Battle Chef Brigade
2 hours playtime
2 of 25 achievements
I started the month with the game that was next on my ABC list (which didn't progress much this month btw) and it was really a pleasant surprise. I generally love turn based tactics so I guess I'm the perfect target for this, but it was both visually pleasant and entertaining enough. It's not the best tactics game I've ever played and the story is pretty simple, but it was fun to play. I liked that there was an achievement per level that needed you to follow a special condition for added challenge. That being said, it would have been nice to prompt it in game, I missed the first one because I hadn't checked the achievement list before hand (but could grab it at the end pretty easily by restarting the game's first level). Worth getting on sales if you like tactics.
Old Man's Journey
2 hours playtime, no achievements
This is one of the loveliest game's I've played this year, it's pretty short and comtemplative but it was really relaxing. The graphics are so lovely, I was constantly grabbing screenshots as I played. The story is both sweet and sad, and even if it wasn't anything surprising, it fit well with the game's visuals and music. Definitely a hidden gem, grab it if you have the opportunity!
Loot Hound
14 hours playtime, 21 of 21 achievements
A cute side game I grabbed in a bundle, Loot Hound is really simple yet entertaining concept. You go walk your dog to various parks and have them dig up a whole panel of random objects to fill up your collection. It sounds not like much, but it was the perfect game to play a few minutes during the day when I needed a break from whatever I was working on, and then just go back to what I was doing. I admit the last piece to my collection was really feeling like it would never show up, but it eventually did.
So this is going to sound weird, but I really enjoyed this game, yet I can't recommend it unless you already own it. I'll explain in just a little while. Basically this game is a mix between FTL and a simplified version of Starbound (without the building sandboxy stuff), which is not really surprising as it's a Chucklefish game. The whole plotline is simple yet interesting and I loved exploring the galaxy. I played it for a whole week end straight and I regret nothing. That being said, why I wouldn't recommend buying it is because this game is not only quite buggy (I was lucky and it "only" crashed twice, but the steam forum is full of people with problems) but on top of it, it's been completely abandonned despite some PR person saying otherwise. It's really a shame because it could have been a great game, but it's just ok if you're part of the lucky ones for whom the game runs correctly.
Machinarium
4 hours playtime, 12 of 12 achievements
The monthly theme was the perfect occasion to replay Machinarium now that they have added achievments, and it's still completely adorable. What can I say, I love Amanita Design's games and Machinarium is no exception. Such a cute wordless P&C game where you play a little robot trying to save his robot girlfriend from the big robot bullies. I know, so cliché, but I still love it.
Displaced
6 hours playtime, 21 of 31 achievements
So this game is a mixed bag. I really wanted to like it as it looked like a This War of Mine meets Choose your own adventure. You are managing a group of regular people trying to escape a country at war and survive. As you travel across the map, you encounter other groups, places you can loot, various quests... The game does have a bit of replayability but sadly becomes repetitive after a while. I'd say you can have 3 different playthroughs to see the different ways to pass level one, but after that it's pretty much the same. Visually, it's pretty basic (some would say bare) and the music was quite repetitive. Overall, it was okay for a time but I don't think I'll go back to it unless there is a major update. A lot of wasted potential.
Death Coming
5 hours playtime, 8 of 15 achievements
I came across this little game completely randomly and it's a fun little game. It's a Where's Wally? game composed of several stages full of pixel art details, but where you're playing a grim reaper trying to find all the traps in order to kill the most people possible. The game is not finished yet (The devs apparently published it by mistake instead of putting it in Early Access) but on the plus side they're very reactive on patching and updating it. It's okay for the asked price anyway as the game's pretty cheap, and if you decide you wanna go for a perfect clear of all the stages it will be pretty challenging.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
77 hours playtime, 38 of 51 achievements
This was the biggest chunk of my gaming this month, no doubt about it, and I have to admit it exceeded my expectations big time. I had heard good things about the Trails in the Sky series, but had never played any of them, so I went completely blind in the story. From what I know anyway, the two series are only related by the fact they happen in the same universe, so it wasn't a big deal. You play as a student of a sort of military academy through the course of a school year, and each chapter is divided in a similar way (each chapter being a month in the school year). You take some classes, spend a free day running various errands, take a practical test and then go on a field trip with a group of your classmates where you there again get assigned some errands + the plot develops a little more each time. I liked the various characters as you learn more about their back stories and choose which ones to bond with. As far as the story goes, some sort of political plot is unravelling but the game kind of ends in a cliffanger, which is the main criticism I'd have about the game (that and the fact that you can speed up cut scenes but not skip them completely, and some can be really long). I guess I'll have to get the second and third games when they are ported to PC (the trilogy has been out for a while on Playstation from what I get), as it really got me pleasantly surprised.
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Pyre
3 hours playtime
5 of 51 achievements
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Coffee Pot Terrarium
0 minutes playtime
0 of 44 achievements
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The Last Door: Season 2 - Collector's Edition
0 minutes playtime
0 of 16 achievements
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Loot Hound
14 hours playtime
21 of 21 achievements
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World to the West
0 minutes playtime
0 of 36 achievements
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Silence
0 minutes playtime
0 of 46 achievements
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Hand of Fate 2
4 hours playtime
8 of 50 achievements
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DeathComing
5 hours playtime
8 of 15 achievements
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Serial Cleaner
0 minutes playtime
0 of 28 achievements
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Endless Fables 2: Frozen Path
0 minutes playtime
0 of 28 achievements
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Holy Potatoes! What the Hell?!
0 minutes playtime
0 of 78 achievements
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Battle Chef Brigade
2 hours playtime
2 of 25 achievements
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Brütal Legend
0 minutes playtime
0 of 59 achievements
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SteamWorld Dig 2
0 minutes playtime
0 of 34 achievements
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OneShot
0 minutes playtime
0 of 11 achievements
Oh I am so excited for Trails of Cold Steel. If you want to go back and play Trails in the Sky, I’d recommend it - i’ve mentioned before that I think it’s my favorite overall JRPG series. I definitely get what you mean about it being a major timesink.
My gf just got me the third Trails in the Sky game, so I’m going to move Trails of Cold Steel up in my wishlist. It sounds like it’s another game I’ll love.
I like Amanita Design games, too! They’re really fun c: and I hope you like Battle Chef Brigade! I’ve been keeping an eye on that for a while and it’s so exciting it’s been released!
ToCS was really surprisingly good, for example I got way more attached to the majority of the characters (of course there is always exceptions) compared to something like Final Fantasy where I usually like one or two of them and barely tolerate the rest of the bunch. I also really liked the whole school schedule kind of thing. I might have a go at the Trails in the Sky trilogy later down the line, I’ve read they’re quite good indeed.
Amanita design just make so lovely games. Like I said to Formidolosus above, they apparently have a new game coming next year, I’m excited.
Battle chef is great so far, I haven’t played too far in the story but it already filled all the expectations I had for it (It has been on top of my wishlist since maybe a year and a half ago). I’m really a sucker for food based anime/mangas so I guess I was the perfect target >__>
A lot of progress considering how much time was gobbled by Trails. Lots of good games added to the backlog too, I’m curious to see what you’ll try to tackle first :D
*bumps Old Man’s Journey up in the wishlist*
It really took over, especially after the 15th, I only put a few hours into Battle Chef Brigade because I really really REALLY wanted to try it after waiting for so long, but other than that it was exclusively trails (and thankfully there is that turbo option that you can speed up the game for example when walking around, it saved me a loooooot of time apparently, as my ingame save says around 120h while the steam counter is at 77h).
I’m currently having started (and playing): Hand of Fate 2, Battle Chef Brigade and Pyre. And I’ll probably start Steamworld Dig 2 and Holy Potatoes! What the hell? before too long too.
I’m currently having started (and playing): Hand of Fate 2, Battle Chef Brigade and Pyre. And I’ll probably start Steamworld Dig 2 and Holy Potatoes! What the hell? before too long too.
I approve the list as long as you come back and play Oneshot too :3
Oh, this is planned too, but since I bought it myself during the quick chrono.gg sale, it’s a bit lower on the priority list than the stuff I got gifted.
Oh, you have a parallel backlog of gifts that’s breathing down your neck. Talk about pressure :O
*waves whool around to cheer the sheep*
I completely agree that despite its simplicity, Highlands was fun, and Amanita equals cuteness. :D
I was surprised by the number of awful reviews for Highlands calling it complete garbage honestly.
Well, I could see how anyone looking for a deep game or expecting this to be focused on turn-based combat could be disappointed, since it’s essentially resource-management. For me, it was like playing a (beautifully presented) board game. The mechanics were straightforward and easy to grasp, and the story wasn’t even worth mentioning, but it provided enough strategic decisions to keep it interesting and fun. :)
That’s true, now that you say it I didn’t need much of my attention to play it but it was entertaining as a side game so I guess it’s why i enjoyed it that much. If you go in expecting something like xcom or the banner saga, I guess it’s a bit of a downer.
What about you fellow assassins, played/got any games you were excited about? Got a lot of things during the steam sales?
Bought 2 games during the sale: The Shivah and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider. Already completed both. I’m going through that “I want to have a backlog but I can’t find anything I want to buy” phase again. :(
Awww. Well, you have until the xmas sales to figure out a small wishlist for yourself :p
I love the amanita games as well. I know Machinarium wasn’t their first, but it was the first game I played on a smart phone which didn’t suck.
Loot hound is on my back log and Old man’s journey is in the wishlist, time to bump both of them up some notches I think.
One thing that replaying Machinarium taught me is that they have a new game coming up (I won’t lie I was excited).
Old man’s journey was really such a nice surprise (and so pretty. The banner of this post comes from it). As for loot hound, i found it so simple as a concept, yet so good to take my mind off of more serious stuff :3