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It seems like every long lasting RPG series has that one entry with a reputation for being one of the most meticulously crafted mechanical objects but also having some unique failing(s) in its storytelling, whether it's Fire Emblem Engage having maps that will be circlejerked for decades to come at the cost of some of the worst prose and cutscene presentation in an RPG or SMT IV: Apocalypse having a cast of party members so annoying that the option to kill them is a significant portion of its playerbase's unironic reason for loving it. Final Fantasy 5 serves this role for its respective series, as a game with a well crafted job/skill system (Random side note: I think it is extremely funny how the job system being seen as "too complex" is a major reason the game initially wasn't released overseas when in hindsight, it's incredibly tame in comparison to the level of systems bloat in the average 2020s AAA release) but also its goofier story that would seem out of place when put next to the other two SNES Final Fantasy narratives. However, this piece is not going to go over the game as a mechanical object, or really anything about it that's already near universally loved (Gilgamesh my beloved). When it comes to how I use this website, I operate by a rule that I only dedicate extended writing pieces to things that I haven't seen said and the positive qualities of FF5's gameplay have been said countless times by hardcore fans of the series. Rather, this is a piece dedicated to why the story resonated with me in a way that, while nowhere near the heights of what this legendary series has accomplished at its best, is still significantly more than what most would give it credit for.
To me, Final Fantasy V is a game about humanity's mistreatment of the environment. The game's inciting incident is the wind crystal shattering as a result of the inventor Cid creating a device to amplify the elemental crystals' power for the sake of increased productivity. This reason for the crystals' destruction is best exemplified by Karnak, a town whose use of the fire crystal for the sake of unnecessary opulence is visualized through the excess of flames within it, not serving any practical function beyond a flashy showing of the wealth its rulers live in. The destruction of all four of these crystals results in the return of main antagonist Exdeath, whose existence similarly ties into the general idea of the environment being mistreated both in terms of his origins as several evil spirits dumped within a tree as a failed solution to the problems caused by an evil sorcerer's quest for ultimate power and in terms of his sealing in Bartz's world 30 years ago by the Warriors of Dawn being a similar failed attempt at short term solution for a long term problem.
And around halfway through the game, the consequences of this collective disregard for the environment begin to show. Exdeath burns down the Forest of Moore in which he initially hailed from and obtains the crystals of the Warriors of Dawn's world, which are destroyed shortly after, resulting in the two worlds being merged together. This new merged world has a melancholy feel to it, conveyed through the lower energy overworld theme, visual imagery like the once active quicksand surrounding the pyramid dungeon becoming lifeless or the Forest of Moore's desperate attempt to cling to life, and the constant threat of whole stretches of land and their inhabitants being completely consumed by the void, which even causes you to go through the aforementioned pyramid dungeon with only three party members due to the presumed death of the fourth. In a stretch of a game that was no doubt the blueprint for the next entry in the series' biggest twist, it seems like humanity has doomed itself to destruction by its own hand.
However, by the endgame stretch, you should have mastered quite a few jobs on each of your four party members and been able to combine the best attributes of these mastered jobs to create a freelancer (or mime for the truly Gogopilled) that can't truly fit within the narrow roles of the old society. In my playthrough of the game, Bartz and Faris combined the stat boosts and counterattacking ability of a monk with the weapons and equipment of knights, Lenna transferred over the stat boosts from her brief stint as a berserker to her usual role as a support mage, and Crylle became a mime with both black and white magic as well as the HP +30% gained from her time as a monk. The ludonarrative purpose of the game's job class system is to be the radical transforming of societal roles necessary to prevent an environmental crisis and these new roles are what ultimately allow our four heroes to stop Exdeath once and for all.
Is Final Fantasy V making a truly radical political statement here? No, it's ultimately just another drop in the vast ocean of cheesy/defanged 90s environmentalist messages and its environmentalism especially comes off as milquetoast when you literally play as an ecoterrorist two games later. But with the various environmental crises our planet deals with only worsening three decades after game's release, it takes on a new meaning as representing both the impossible odds that humanity must overcome and a symbol of hope that we can pull through regardless. I long for the day where Bartz and friends can master the Marxist job class.

Art is highly subjective. Different things will resonate with different people for different reasons: our aesthetic sensibilities, nostalgia, the sum total of our experiences that shape our inclinations over the course of our lives. I often find it difficult to put into words why something speaks to me. The term “debcore” has found a place in my vocabulary as a useful shorthand for “this is my thing, though I may not be able to articulate why.” Signalis may be the most debcore game I’ve played yet.

There's a lot I can point to that I like about this game. The animesque cassette futurist aesthetic; the thick atmosphere; the powerful, open-ended romantic tragedy; the lived-in feel to the environment; the music. All of these are related to its greatest strength: its presentation. Signalis is a master class in doing more with less. rose-engine has achieved so much more with quality writing, direction and a handful of simple assets than lesser studios have with hundreds of millions of dollars.

There are plenty of games out there that share some of these qualities, but few have tickled my brain the way this one has. Work shifts, showers and late nights spent contemplating what actually happened in this surreal, tender, cruel work of robot yuri. Maybe I’ll be closer to understanding it if I go for the other endings. For days now, I’ve been thinking on why exactly I love this game so much. Ultimately, Signalis as a whole feels laser-targeted at the things I like in video games and storytelling. I think I now have a clearer picture of what debcore actually looks like.

The fifth console generation and the golden age of survival horror were before my time. I grew up in the era of the annual or biennial military shooter, and came of age at the onset of that disease called “games as a service.” In an industry landscape where each AAA release just wants all of your spending money and free time, this relatively short but impactful single player experience has reminded me that, maybe, video games are alright.

"A person will experiences two deaths. The first is when a soul leaves their body. And the second is when the memories of that person fade from everyone's hearts."
- Sayoko Robbins

"Because you remember her, my mom lives on. And thanks to that, I got to see her."
- Ashley Robbins

Been thinking a lot about remakes. What is the value of a remake? What is lost in returning to an older work to "fix" things? All these meta-commentaries and adaptations are interesting in theory, but why is it so hard to simply release the old games?

Another Code is a messy example in that so much of its foundation is built on hardware that no longer exists. Cing used every aspect of the DS and the Wii to build its narratives and these clever methods of interaction are a crucial beating heart. Losing a majority of that puzzle interaction in the Recollection's format does... hurt. But there's still so much love here that its a compromise I understand.

The game undeniably provides two key features: ease and access. The game is easier to navigate, dialogue easier to skip through, backtracking and surplus content is snipped off for a more pleasant experience. Running around the mansion in Two Memories is really fun! The sensation of interacting with a tiny video game map to unravel, rather than an exhausting open world, feels like something that's been lost in a lot of modern game design. It felt amazing to return to it and even more amazing that its so easy to acquire this game. People can play and experience these games in one complete package. It'd certainly wish people to at least seek out emulators, but I'm choosing to be happy for the people experiencing this narrative for the first time.

But I think what really won me over on this game was the director's cut feel of it. Head Writer Rika Suzuki and Director Taisuke Kanasaki returned for Recollection and you can feel that sense of time permeate their approach to this game, especially in the Journey Into Lost Memories section. One character in the Wii game was a character I often found frustrating and boring to engage with. Recollection completely changes the final climax of the story and alters his journey into something full of tragedy, misunderstanding, and existentialism. It ties up loose ends and closes the book on a series that never continued. It says goodbye, but with peace and joy rather than misery.

In 2022, Rika Suzuki became an honorary member of the Game Preservation Society. Her interview after Cing's closure can be found here. Cing's closure was the first time I understood as a child that a company closing meant something could be lost that wouldn't be filled. That something would change. And from there, an understanding that when an uncaring company fires its workers, its throwing away the talents and efforts of so many dedicated people. That lesson influences how I think about... a lot of things into the present.

Games are built through the hard-work and care of many different individuals we will never know. Their names passing us by on a credits screen symbolizes days and weeks and months of work. I can feel the love pouring from the screen. I can feel the passion for creativity and joy. If you don't feel it for this game, and I would never demand that you have to, feel that passion in your own favorite games. Find a favorite moment or scene or piece of art and look up who was in charge of art design or script or lighting or any piece of visual scenery that you adored. Someone made that. Remember them, if just for a little while. And if you don't want to do that for games, do that for your fridge, your coat, your wallet. Someone made that. We're all connected by work we'll never see. Remember them.

Another Code helped teach me that a decade ago and its still reminding me that now.

NES sequels are always hella interesting because you really never know what you are gonna get. Sometimes ya get a mario 2, sometimes ya get a zelda 2, sometimes ya get a mega man 2-6. The first Wai Wai world game was a fun adventurey romp gathering playable friends to explore levels and solve puzzles and whatnot, and this game throws pretty much all of that away to just be focused on linear action. You play as some robot named Rickle or something and rather than being able to switch between different konami characters, the characters work as limited power-ups where you transform into them for a brief period of time, with their health working as a timer. It's neat, but it loses the whole ragtag "getting the gang together" vibes that the first game had, and even then the roster here is nowhere near as insane as the first game. The levels are still fun homages to Konamis output at that time, with goemon, bio miracle bokutte upa, castlevania, contra, twinbee, getsu fuuma den, frogger, gradius, and more all getting some time in the spotlight. My only gripe is that there are a lot of mandatory auto-scrolling levels that just go way too slowly to be interesting, and it makes me not want to replay the game to try the other level paths or character selections, and the game for the most part is quite easy with the exception of the shmup sections which are your typical bouts of gradius-isms. Overall it's pretty bland but still a good time especially if you are a konami fan. The whole game is also playable in co-op, too!

I wish konami would make a waiwai world 3 with all their modern IP but that would require them to actually have to do something. Where's my fan-made doujin Wai Wai world game where all the konami characters have to break into the konami HQ and defeat the people preventing them from getting new games? ill direct it lemme at em