2023 update - Somehow even lazier than usual edition

I failed even the easy target of 2 updates per year but hey, at least 1 is better than none (?)

• Current status

My goal of limiting the amount of games I add to try and get wins over the backlog is going well, as I again end the year on a positive score (66 beaten, 55 added) and a ratio of 1.2, roughly in line with the 1.1875 of last year and infinitely better than the years prior.

Some help came from the 20/23 Challenge that I took last year, beating 22 of my 23 picks and pushing me to experience what have been some of my favourite gaming experiences this year (special mentions to Hollow Knight, Monster Sanctuary, and OMORI)

Beaten/added ratio graph

• Future plans: moving forward with the backlog assassination! (hopefully)

The goal for next year will be more of the same: trying to only add things that I want to play rather than get overexcited by cheap deals - thing that I’ve definitely still done in 2023 - and playing all of the good stuff that’s still in my backlog.
On that note I think I’ll make a list of backlog games that I really, really want to play, with the plan of doing a “backlog freeze” (no games added whatsoever) until I do.
This isn’t a formal challenge - after all I haven’t even made a list yet - but it’s more of a general goal moving forward, we’ll see how things go.

Have fun in 2024! Even this message is recycled smh

July/December 2022 update - Success! New Challenges*! Other words!

(* = by not putting “20/23 Challenge” in the title, I’m saving money on the trademark. Probably.)

• Current status

Time for another update, this time to celebrate the end of 2022 and to reflect on how the fight against the backlog went in the past year (spoiler: the title might be a hint, wait, too late >_>)

At the start of 2022 I gave myself the goal of drastically reducing the amount of games I added, to give myself the chance to actually come out on top.
*drumroll* I did! While I only beat 57 games (down from 88 in 2021) I added just 48 (down from 120!) so this officially makes the first year that I beat the backlog, at least a tiny bit.

Graph

• Future plans: 20/23 Challenge and more!

It felt pretty good to only add games that I wanted to play, so I’ll try to do the same moving forward. I want another backlog win in 2023!
To help with that backlog win goal, I’ll follow Evilblacksheep and Skatrzoo by joining their 20/23 Challenge. My rules will be:

• I have to finish 20 of the 23 games on the list.
• The games must have been added to the backlog before 2023 and either untouched, just idled or “just tried” (under 30 minutes of actual playtime). Games that I’ve tried will still be started from the beginning regardless
• They must be games I’m excited to play. Playing games shouldn’t feel like a job so I’ll just drop and swap them if they turn out not to be enjoyable. I’ll still try to give them a fair chance.
• I can replace games as needed, of course still picking from games that fit rule 2
• And finally, I only have this year to finish it - if I don’t, I will be sitting in the corner in shame

I have a tentative list here which I’ll adjust at a later date (and yes, at the time of writing it has 24 games in it). While trying to make the list I probably glanced over several good games that fit the criteria, but I’m too lazy to double check right now :3

• Closing thoughts

Someone expected me to make 2 separate posts, one for the recap and one for the challenge. They clearly underestimate how lazy I am. Have fun in 2023!

As of the time of writing the draft for this (early June) I’m undergoing one of my usual “lack of will to play” periods, so I figured I could write a few lines about how the first half of the year went. So without further ado:

January/June 2022 - A Midsummer's Night* Update

* ⁽ᵗᵉᶜʰⁿᶦᶜᵃˡˡʸ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵐᶦᵈᵈˡᵉ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵘᵐᵐᵉʳ / ⁿᶦᵍʰᵗ⁻ⁿᵉˢˢ ᵐᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵛᵃʳʸ ᵈᵉᵖᵉⁿᵈᶦⁿᵍ ᵒⁿ ˡᵒᶜᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ / ⁿᵒ ʳᵉᶠᵘⁿᵈˢ⁾

• Current status

After many years of succumbing to the backlog, adding more games to it than I was beating, I started this year with the goal of staying in the positive, and so far I’m holding on to that promise, being at 31 beaten vs 25 added across all platforms.

• Future plans

I’m positive in my ability to stay ahead in the second half of the year as well, although I would really like to bump up that “games beaten” number pretty decisively. There are a few games coming out later in 2022 that I want to play (highlights off the top of my head being Persona 5 and Plague Tale 2) so I’ll try to focus on not adding any unnecessary titles to the backlog before I’m comfortably ahead of it.

• Some games I've played

ELDEN RING

186.8 hours, 42 of 42 achievements

Click to expand

Vampire Survivors

46.9 hours, 120 of 120 achievements

Click to expand

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

17.6 hours, 46 of 59 achievements

Click to expand

OPUS: Echo of Starsong - Full Bloom Edition

10.3 hours, 27 of 40 achievements

Click to expand

• Closing thoughts

Nothing really. Stay safe and not too hot :3

January/December 2021 - Whole year update Mk 2

Welcome back to my monthly-but-I-skip-11-months update! Around the end of June 2021 I ended my last post with

so far I’m around the 50% mark for 2021 but a few kills might swing the momentum my way

and I’m happy to report that numbers really went up in the second part of the year.

• Progress (or lack thereof)

Thanks in part to the 13 spooky games beaten in October the total tally for 2021 says 83 backlog kills vs 120 new games added to it. It’s still not quite as balanced as I might have wanted it to be but it’s still another bit of progress compared to the previous years.

• Some games I've played this year

One of the things that I conveniently left out of my previous post in June is that I’d just picked up a used Nintendo Switch, which was both a positive (gaming in bed is so comfy!) and a “negative” (yet another backlog!).
Some of the games that I’ve played on it include Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Pokémon Sword and WarioWare: Get It Together!, but I definitely have lots more that I want to check out.

My main gaming platform’s still been PC of course, some of the honorable mentions among the games I’ve played go to Yakuza 3, 4, 5, 6 and Like A Dragon (thanks Game Pass!), Forza Horizon 5 (I have no idea how I have 150 hours in it in not even 2 months <_<), NieR Replicant™ ver.1.22474487139 (I still listen to the OST regularly) and Rise/Shadow of the Tomb Raider (both really solid overall)

• Game(s) of the year

I was a bit skeptical to see It Takes Two win GOTY at The Game Awards over some of the other contenders but after playing it (and A Way Out) right at the end of the year I’m completely converted to the Church of Josef Fares and I can say it’s my game of the year as well… if we’re talking games released in 2021.

My pick for best game I’ve played this year goes to Outer Wilds. It was absolutely worth sticking with despite the fact that the first few hours didn’t really seem to “click” with me, because once things started making a bit of sense in my head every bit of exploration and every new discovery gave me feelings that I find a bit hard to even express in words.
It probably requires the right mindset to properly enjoy so I’m not sure I can recommend it to just anyone, but if the idea of slowly piecing together the story and the mechanics of a solar system and its past inhabitants by means of exploration and puzzle solving interest you, just buy it and don’t look up anything else.

• Plans for 2022

Saying that I have plans is a bit of an overstatement but I’ll definitely look into further shrinking the amount of unnecessary backlog additions. I won’t be able to avoid adding some heavy-hitters I’m looking forward to like God of War, ELDEN RING, A Plague Tale: Requiem, and a handful of others, but maybe I can cut down a bit further on adding “maybe I will play” games.
Before the storm of good game releases starts to hit I plan to give myself a headstart by clearing some more small to medium sized games I’ve added recently; I don’t know if it will be enough to finally see a win over the backlog next year but I’ll sure try ^_^

January/December 2020 - Whole year update

My last post was in December 2019, so I’m long overdue an update. I guess it’s time for a 2020 recap as we are at the end of the y-

Uh, we’re halfway into 2021?

I closed the previous year’s post with

Speaking of 2020, have a nice and safe New Years’ Eve

In hindsight I should have mentioned having a safe rest of the year too. While the worst might be over it’s been a trying year, and games have been a big help. So let’s get to them, shall we?

I had prepared a 𝒻𝒶𝓃𝒸𝓎 𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓅𝒽 like last year to show the progress month by month but I must have misplaced it somewhere, so I’ll only mention that the tally for 2020 totals 69 kills ⁿᶦᶜᵉ and 127 total additions to the backlog.
Crunching the numbers (major maths at work here, 69 divided by 127) I was 54% of the way to tie with the backlog, nowhere near my goal but still up from the 46% of 2019 and the 25% of 2018.

The honorable mentions for 2020 are Horizon Zero Dawn, Disco Elysium, Danganronpa V3, My Time At Portia, There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension and Marco & The Galaxy Dragon.
The honorablest honorable mention is of course Hades, which deserves every single award and GOTY nomination it got.

Moving forward I’ll try to be more timely with the end of the year update and to improve my % a bit more, so far I’m around the 50% mark for 2021 but a few kills might swing the momentum my way. Anyway, have a nice rest of the year >_>

October/December 2019 - End of the year update

Stats are scary but still useful in assessing the… uh… damage. Man did I do a lot of damage to my chances to ever win a little against the backlog ;_;

To look at the positives I beat almost twice as many games as last year (91 vs 48) while keeping the backlog growth rate stationary (198 vs 194). That means I beat 46% of the games I’ve added versus last years’ 24,7%, and that makes it kind of a good year nope it still hurts inside

In the last 3 months of this year I tied some loose ends, going back to games I had started months ago and beating some small games I added to the backlog last year, some of which are listed as a comment for December’s theme as they don’t show up in BLAEO due to the Limited Profile features B.S.

I won’t write reviews like usual due to me being lazy but I will give some honorable mentions to Danganronpa Ultra Despair Girls, Minoria, Cat Quest 2 and missed messages., as well as some (jokingly) dishonorable mentions to the absolute time vampires DemonCrawl and Dicey Dungeons, hoping I won’t carry the addiction to either of them into 2020.

Speaking of 2020, have a nice and safe New Years’ Eve and [obligatory see you next decade dad joke] \o

July/September 2019 Update

I’m pretty surprised I managed to get here, I didn’t expect to survive the 179 heat waves in this crazy summer but I guess it was destiny, I couldn’t die without getting fully caught up with my BLAEO updates. guess I’ll die now? >_>

Numerically-wise most of the backlog slaying this month has been in the month of August, thanks in part to the monthly theme and in part to my newfound resolve in finally clearing up my ABC Challenge list (only one to go ^o^). Speaking of which, I prepared a second semi-WIP list which already has 2 kills on it, so yay me :3

NieR:Automata™

41 hours playtime, 47 of 47 achievements (100%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

Just go play it. Seriously. Go. Now. "But I already played until X" you say? No. It doesn't count. Go back and play it. I'll be waiting.

When talking about Sekiro in the last update I made sure to call it my GOTY as far as 2019 releases go.
It was a bit of a cheeky spoiler/foreshadowing because at the time of writing I had already played NieR, and I'm 100% sure it's the best game I've played - and I'll play - for this year.

I don't want to call it my favourite game of all time only because I don't believe it's fair to choose a single game to give that "award" to, but I'd say it's one of my all-time favourites, a masterpiece deserving of the title of classic that should be a must play for people interested in what can be achieved through the videogame medium.


Oxenfree

7 hours playtime, 5 of 13 achievements (38%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

It feels like this is one of the games I put off the longest, always thinking "hey, I heard it's great and I should play it" but never actually going through with it. I actually started it a long time ago but just dropped it very early, so the Unfinished Business theme was a blessing :p

I'm happy I finally got to play it as I liked pretty much everything about it, from the story to the setting to the characters and the interactions between them.
I had a very good time getting to around 80-85% to the end but the last part kind of ruined it for me, so at the end I felt no drive whatsoever to go back and play the game again as I originally intended.

A bit of a bummer, but I enjoyed my time with it.


Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

10.5 hours playtime, 31 of 65 achievements (48%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

If you have to choose just one Shantae game to play just stay away from this one and go play Pirate's Curse instead. It sounds a bit harsh but the reality is that I was pretty disappointed by Half-Genie Hero after loving the other 2 episodes of the series available on PC.

The game starts well but suddenly turns into a neverending fetch quest which has you repeatedly go back and forth between "beaten" levels and new areas to get this or that item to forward the story.

It really, really feels like it's been done to mask the low amount of actual content present in the game and it leaves a bad aftertaste, thinking what could have been. After all, the presentation is amazing, the quirky story and characters are all there and the OST has some of the best tracks in the series. grumble grumble :(


Zenith

9.5 hours playtime, 12 of 12 achievements (100%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

Frankly speaking the only reason I even played this game was because its name started with Z and I needed the letter for my ABC challenge. I'll be blunt: Zenith is not a good game.

The presentation looks straight out of the early to mid 2000s, the controls and gameplay are serviceable at best and you'll be left wondering how on Earth a game launched in 2016 can have such a lackluster options menu. Looking at the middling 57 on Metacritic you'll also wonder why this is in a section that I usually reserve to games that have something remarkable about them: why am I writing about it at all? Spoiler alert: I loved it!

From looking at the store page description and screenshots I honestly anticipated to find some forced jokes here and there, fully expecting to be put off by some cringy attempt to be funny and abandon the game after an hour or so. What I found instead was some amazing writing, with a Monty Python-esque humour made of funny characters and non sequiturs, with a metric ton of videogame/movie references and meta-jokes that made me play half of the game grinning from ear to ear. The plot was surprisingly good as well, simple but with enough plot twists and a satisfying conclusion.

I'm conflicted about whether or not to recommend it, as the humour can be a personal thing and frankly there's no other reason to play it :/


Blasphemous

17.1 hours playtime, 30 of 45 achievements (67%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

One of the weird thing about having a comically large wishlist on Steam is that I often don't look into new WL releases enough to assess whether or not I'd want to pick up a game at release. In an alternate world where I hadn't bought Blasphemous right away, I would have probably acquired it in some bundle 2 years from now and proceeded to ignore it, until a BLAEO theme made me look back to it. Luckily for me, in this world a certain friend got me hyped up pretty much out of nowhere, making me pull the trigger spending some store credit I had.

Metroidvanias are admittedly a dime a dozen these days, and most of them end up drowning in their disappointing mediocrity, so it's refreshing to see one getting it right. The combat is mechanically simple but responsive, the music fits the oppressing nature of the game perfectly and the map design is excellent, rewarding exploration with items, upgrades and shortcuts that make backtracking easier.

What really sets Blasphemous apart the is probably the grotesque take on religious iconography, which frankly might be a turn-off for some; the screenshots on the store page are a good warning, the game has many intense and gory scenes that might upset someone, but if you are fine with that your eyes will be rewarded with some of the finest set of pixel art and animations I've seen in a long while.

Personally I loved almost everything about the game and I'd easily pick it for my top 5 games played in 2019 ^_^

April/June 2019 Update

Easter is gone, summer is just starting, it’s time for another update! After all, July has just sta-what do you mean I already used this joke and it wasn’t funny the first time?! *double-checks sanity meter*

As usual, I’m only gonna write about a few of the games I’ve played; for the full list clicky the button on the bottom of the post :3

Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice

56 hours playtime, 24 of 34 achievements (70.59%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

I'm not the kind of Dark Souls fan that obsesses over them, playing them multiple times min-maxing and using optimal builds, spending hundreds of hours in their sorry excuse for multiplayer modes. Still, I've enjoyed all 3 of the main series titles so far so I was positively hyped about the latest From Software work, being ready to accidentally ignore my "wait patiently" policy and snag a copy of it at release.

I can't hide I was a little bit worried by the early reviews coming out days before release: while they were all positively glowing they still outlined some significant departures from the tried-and-true formula of the Dark Souls series, namely by focusing on timings (deflecting and parrying instead of just rolling away? Scary!) and the almost complete lack of equipment management.
I thought the latter especially would be conducive to unsatisfactory exploration - after all, knowing that you won't find a cool piece of armor or a new weapon at the end of the rainbow is a bit disappointing - but after playing I wouldn't say that had any impact on my experience.
What *did* have an impact are the changes to the combat, and oh boy, they 100% nailed it!

The game wants you to deflect, parry, jump over or just move away from the different kind of attacks the enemies have at their disposal. It took a very long time to get used to it, but when it finally "clicked" everything changed for the better.
The frustration of feeling like a certain enemy had an unfair move was swept away, replaced by the awareness that everything can be countered if you do it well. Fights turned into adrenaline-fueled dances, rhythmically punctuated by amazingly impactful sounds and animations.
The lack of weapon and armor management turned out to be a blessing rather than a curse: taking out of the equation the doubts that you aren't using the right weapon, armor or accessories leaves only the core realization that's it's just you and your opponent, and you have at any moment all the tools needed to succeed. It felt liberating.

As far as 2019 releases go there's no doubt Sekiro is my "Game of the year", and I can't see that changing in these last few months.



Yakuza Kiwami 2

56 hours playtime, 46 of 59 achievements (77.97%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

Another series for which I'm happy to buy right at release I actually preordered it, please don't judge me (ಥ﹏ಥ)

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a remake of the original Yakuza 2 on a new, shiny engine also used for Yakuza 6. The contrast with the previous 2 entries on pc is immediately apparent, both in graphical fidelity and in the lack of loading screens, with seamless transitions to and from combat and going in and out of most shops.

The improvements don't stop at a surface level: the exp system is much more sensible, replacing the "money=exp" paradigm of Yakuza Zero with 5 kinds of skill points (like strength or agility) that you can obtain almost with any action and spend them on a list of passive and active abilities almost devoid of "prerequisites", meaning you can freely focus on skills that catch your fancy instead of being forced through an uninteresting series of "stepping stones" like with the skill trees of the previous entries.

An unexpected improvement was the quality of minigames; I didn't realize how bad many of the minigames in Zero were until I played their refined and polished versions in Kiwami 2. I hope they don't go back to being bad for the next 3 games, which will be on the old engine again. Also, I still refuse to learn mahjong :p

There's little else to say: the game's story and characters are still amazing, almost everything I can think of was improved and SEGA has shown again they're fully committed to bringing the entire series to PC. Speaking of which... when is the next one releasing? Sega please? :3



Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell

3 hours playtime, 5 of 5 achievements (100%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

I received this as a birthday present after having it on my wishlist for a long time. It was on my list because literally everything is it is made by the creators of the Fault series and is supposedly set in the same universe, so it naturally piqued my interest.

It's a short story about two children that escape the orphanage they're secluded in with the help of a fairy - you could call it a literal fairy tale in Visual Novel form. Just like the fairy tales of old it hides some deeper, darker themes behind some cutesy characters and scenes; everything is enhanced by the medium used, with amazing art (just look at the store screens!) and a great soundtrack as well.

It's a pretty short read so I'm not going to write anything more, but I definitely recommend it even to people that haven't read other works from ALICE IN DISSONANCE.



Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc & Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

20 hours playtime, 13 of 38 achievements (34.21%) & 30 hours playtime, 25 of 47 achievements (53.1%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

I mentioned my fear of starting long games in the past, and I'm pretty sure that was the sole reason I have never picked up Danganronpa before. On paper I should have loved it, with its similarities to Phoenix Wright and Zero Escape which are amongst my favourite game series; but I couldn't bring myself to buy one and try it until they were recommended to me by a friend during the Steam Golden Week sale. I picked up the Danganronpa 1+2 bundle and guess what? It's another series added to my favourites :3

In both games a group of students from the prestigious Hope's Peak Academy find themselves locked in a weird life-and-death game, from which the only escape is to kill another fellow student and then escaping the judgement of a "class trial" very reminiscent of the trials in the Phoenix Wright series.

The stories are both great, and especially the second one is full of plot twists that are very hard to figure out in advance, meaning you'll be constantly on the edge of your seat not knowing where the story will bring you next.

I liked both games so much that I picked up the rest of the series during the Summer Sale and regretted it later when they went on a deepest sale a few weeks ago and plan on beating them over the next few months.



Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark

33 hours playtime, 30 of 43 achievements (69.77%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

Looking at the store screenshots you'd certainly notice the game is heavily inspired by the Final Fantasy Tactics series: everything from the pixel art style to the interface, from the class system to the inventory seem to be from one game of that series or another.
It's not very surprising: many games in the genre have tried to copy elements from FFT/FFTA/FFTA2 hoping to bank on the fondness many people have for the series; if you, like me, have tried for a long time to find something similar to those games you'd be familiar with the crushing feeling that all those similarities are only surface-level, and once you start playing for more than a few minutes you start to find reasons to complain and ultimately stop, sighing in defeat and accepting that you'll never find what you're looking for.

I was "patiently waiting" (unlike for Sekiro and Kiwami 2) to finally grab a copy of Fell Seal, knowing perfectly well I was probably going to walk into yet another disappointment, but I was happy to be wrong: it's the closest you'll get to a Final Fantasy Tactics game experience on PC without firing up an emulator.

Right from the beginning I felt immediately at home. There are a few basic classes to assign to characters right from the start plus a plethora of more classes (around 30 total) to unlock by satisfying their pre-requisites; each class has a set of 2 passive, 1 reaction and several active abilities you can learn while assigned to it by using skill points obtained in battle, and on each character you can "equip" a set of active skills from another class, as well as any 2 passive (which are added to the 2 passives from the class currently assigned) and 1 reaction abilities they've learned in the past. This level of customization creates great opportunities for fun theorycrafting, trying to figure out sets of abilities that work well together and making each of your characters feel unique.

As a negative I have to point out that aside from the main missions there are barely any side quests - FFTA had 300 missions by comparison - which means you'll be beelining to the next plot battle most of the time. There are hidden chests scattered across the various maps which sometimes require you to backtrack to them after obtaining an item (for example a chest surrounded by water, for which you need water-walking shoes you'd obtain later) but other than that (and grinding) there's little incentive to go back to locations unrelated to where your next plot battle is.

Speaking of that, the story's alright and it will take you around 30 hours to complete. Not too shabby considering the lack of side content, which in games like this can easily push the expected playing time close to 3 digit hours ^^



Shantae: Risky's Revenge & Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

14 hours playtime, 10 of 26 achievements (38.46%) & 13 hours playtime, 26 of 44 achievements (59.09%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

I beat both games thanks to the June 2019 theme, Lost at Sea. I backlogged them for months and I probably wouldn't have touched them for a very long time if it wasn't for it, so kudos to the theme masterminds (henlo :catpeek:) for that.

Both games are very capable action platformers, taking several cues from more traditional metroidvanias when it comes to backtracking with new abilities. The gameplay's great and the stories, while simple, are filled with wacky characters and funny scenarios that are impossible not to smile at.

If I had to pick my favorite it would probably be Pirate's Curse, as everything felt a little more refined and the items in that game are a lot of fun to use, but that's not to say Risky's Revenge isn't a great game too. Both of them are completely worth playing for anyone remotely interested in the genre or anyone looking for a few hours of challenging fun.

January/March 2019 Update

The Winter festivities are gone, so it’s time to talk about some of the games I’ve played during these first 3 months of the year.
After all, April has just sta-what do you mean it’s AUGUST?! *double-checks calendar*

Ahem. So… things have happened and I’ve missed *a few* updates. Time to bridge the gap, let’s get going shall we? :3

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

13 hours playtime, 13 of 14 achievements (92.86%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

Some games are made just for the money, some try to tell a story. Ninja Theory, with their game Hellblade, clearly tried and aced the attempt at doing the latter. During the development they shared many videos pertaining to the process of creating Senua, and their attempts to represent the aural and visual experiences related to her psychotic disorders.

"Created in collaboration with neuroscientists and people who experience psychosis" - now *that's* a line you don't see often in a videogame description!
My interest was piqued, but I patiently waited to see the game at a high discount or in a bundle. While it eventually did get bundled, my copy came as a Xmas gift, so I played it over the holidays.

I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a one-of-its-kind game that masterfully takes advantage of 3D sound to create a unique experience. While neither the combat sections nor the puzzle portions are anything to write home about - so much that it almost feels closer to a walking sim - the powerful emotions that the game can evoke are definitely worth a play.



Yakuza 0 & Yakuza Kiwami

44 hours playtime, 32 of 55 achievements (58.18%) & 23 hours playtime, 34 of 55 achievements (61.82%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

I (maybe used to?) have an issue with starting games that I knew were "long", probably for fear of finding out after 10 or so hours that I didn't like them and abandoning them, feeling like I'd wasted time that could have been used to experience other, shorter ones. That changed with me winning and playing Yakuza Zero, and oh boy am I happy about it!
The storytelling and the characters are top-notch, and at this point it's safe to say the Yakuza series is among my favourites. I seriously can't wait for SEGA to bring more episodes of it to PC.



What Remains of Edith Finch

3 hours playtime, 9 of 9 achievements (100%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

I've read many times that What Remains of Edith Finch is the new paragon of excellence in the "Walking Simulator" genre, and after playing it I can't do anything other than confirm its virtues and praise Giant Sparrow for their little masterpiece.
For the few hours it takes to experience the whole game I was completely captivated by the whimsical stories that unfold while exploring the Finch mansion and finding out about the various member of the eponymous family.



Celeste

11 hours playtime, 14 of 30 achievements (46.67%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

One of the review one liners published on the game's page calls Celeste "a surprise masterpiece". While it may sound a little excessive, I don't think that statement is far off the truth.

The game's core mechanics of a precision platformer are great, and it offers as much (or as little) challenge as the player chooses, with a healthy set of "assist" features to help everyone enjoy their time with it. Like a good story? You're right at home! Want to explore? There are tons of secret areas and collectibles often in hard to find places! Do you want tons of levels? They added extra content with free updates!

The game would have been perfectly fine - even great - just on its mechanical merits. The same core mechanics with some metal music in the background and devilish imagery adorning the levels would have still made for a great game, a true Super Meat Boy successor in the tough-as-nails precision platformer genre.

What sets Celeste completely apart and sets it up for the "masterpiece material" status is the depiction of depression, anxiety and lack of self-esteem afflicting the main character Madeline at the start and during her journey. Playing the game you see her climbing the mountain in an act both literal and metaphorical to signify her character growth, and that in turn reflects on you, the player, in a positive reinforcement loop that brings you to push forward and try again after any failure, wanting to reach the summit.



Pyre

14 hours playtime, 47 of 51 achievements (92.16%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

This one's a bit weird. I'm sure I tried the game around release and I didn't like it at all, I don't even remember why. After receiving it as a gift and playing it a bit though, I found myself completely unable to put it down.

As you progress through the game you slowly uncover details about your companions' - and enemies' - past lives, and they go deeper than surface-level trivia, meaning you'll see what makes them tick and surely grow attached to some of them.

Another brilliant point of Pyre is found in the unusual 3-on-3 "magic basketball" game, more specifically in the fact that losing one or more matches does not mean game over, and it's instead just another way to move the story forward, just as valid as a win. You might even *want* to lose, sometimes :)

As the cherry on top there's another masterful original soundtrack composed by Darren Korb that credits song :cry:, making Pyre a worthy successor to Transistor.



Kingsway

3 hours playtime, 6 of 21 achievements (28.57%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

A very simple roguelite RPG with a little interface twist: it looks like a computer OS and everything is a window! After experiencing a few cute tricks made possible by the UI - like a pop-up window with a prompt to avoid a surprise attack or strong attacks that make some of the windows minimize, leaving you panic-trying to reopen the important ones while the monster keeps attacking you quickly realize there's not a lot more going on for the game, so it only stays interesting for a couple of playthroughs. Still, a worthy experience, just for the novelty of it.



Forgotton Anne

8 hours playtime, 22 of 33 achievements (66.67%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

The presentation once again steals the show: everything looks beautiful and is animated just as finely. If you, like me, are pretty trigger-happy when it comes to taking screenshots, you'll probably end up with your folder containing several hundred shots.

The similarities with a Ghibli movie don't stop at the surface either, with an interesting story - which I won't talk about in case of spoilers - taking place in a land inhabited by everyday objects that were forgotten by their owners in the human world and have come to life.

I'm still conflicted about the thought that maybe a puzzle platformer wasn't the best genre for the game, as the mediocre jumping and running controls sometimes snap you back out of the otherwise mesmerizing experience. The devs surely prioritised "looking good" over "controlling well" and they mostly got away with it, but a few sections were a little infuriating. The story, while pretty good, was incredibly easy to figure out, so much that I'd already figured out a lot of it 10 minutes into the game -.-, and the fact that the "choices" you have mean pretty much nothing doesn't really help making mine a 100% recommendation. It's still a good 90% recommendation though, so give it a try if you can :)



Battle Chasers: Nightwar

30 hours playtime, 39 of 48 achievements (81.25%)

↓ Click to expand ↓

I'm pretty sure I play 1 JRPG per year, so this is the one for 2019 I guess >_>
I have a somewhat hard time remembering the details of my experience after so many months, but I'm pretty picky when it comes to the genre, so the fact I kept playing all the way to the end is enough to say I didn't find anything too offensive about it

The visual style and character design were pretty interesting, the combat had a mechanic called "overcharge" which I really liked (some action would give overcharge - temporary mana - which you could use instead of the real mana to fuel other skills) and the skill tree system let you "spec" a character into either a supporting or a damage dealing role, which leaves a lot of options to shape your team the way you want it.
Maybe the only real complaint I'd give is about the dungeon design: they are procedurally generated and almost never feel like a cohesive environment, just a bunch of rooms lined up one after another.

November/December 2018 Update

I never stood a chance.

Looking at other people’s posts I remembered that one of my resolution for my 2018 on BLAEO was to keep track of games backlogged and played to make a proper balance at the end of the year.
Surprising no one I forgot about doing that, but I still cobbled something together by looking at my product activation page on Steam and going from there. Let’s just say it was not pretty…

I thought I’d be more bummed out that I am when looking at the numbers, but I’m actually fine with how things went, considering the circumstances. I like to look at the positive side: I have some nice games to look forward to play whenever I’m in the mood for some, so all’s good :3
It’s just… a little disappointing there was no month in which I gained any advantage on the backlog, but that has more to do with my chronic wishlist feeding addiction >_<

As for the Nov/Dec blacklog kills there’s not much to see, so I’ll just plug an honorable mention for Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death, a game that I would have never heard about if not for Totalbiscuit’s video about it several years ago. It was the right kind of cheesy fun I was looking for to lift up my spirits ^_^