DVince89
BACKER
2024
Death is something that no one will escape. Not only do we have to face our own deaths but we also deal with the pain of loved ones losing their lives as well. Learning how to live, heal, and grow through loss, tragedy, and acceptance that this will happen to you and all your loved ones is not easily overcome. There is no one way to go about it, there is no correct path to take, nor is there any timetable for the healing or acceptance. After a loved one dies or knowing you will be gone soon, some will lean on others(this is what MOST of the cast does in this game, also its what I would do), some will go into their shell, and for some they cannot handle the magnitude of some losses. Death is not something that most feel comfortable openly talking about, but Persona 3 Reload puts death front and center of their narrative and shows all the effects it can bring on the most excellent cast of characters I’ve ever experienced in gaming. While this game comes with a trigger warning for suicide, bullying, and death (and believe me by the end I was thoroughly depressed) and the content matter is uncomfortable I think its something that needs to be addressed and talked about more. This game needs to be heard and played. Its message is powerful and very real.
Persona 3 Reload has 4 things that single handedly make this a 5 star game. The first two of which I’ve already touched on. First this is my favorite cast in my 3 decades of playing video games. Every character is well written, likable, believable, and relatable. The main cast specifically has 6 characters (The MC, Aigis, Yukari, Misuru, Shinji, and Akihiko) that would be worthy of being the main character of a game. Even the villains, while clearly on the wrong side of things, have relatable, believable reasons for their actions. You will be hard pressed to find a better set of characters in the medium. Secondly is the story which goes in tandem with the characters to make a story that I will remember in detail for the rest of my life.
While I mentioned death is at the forefront of the game, the story to me is more about how to deal with tragedy, sacrifice, love, and ultimately the bonds we forge with the people in our lives. To me it is about how the bonds we forge make life worth it and while death will ultimately end it in sadness it only hurts because of how good the journey was making it more than worth the pain at the end.
Our main cast have been devastated with tragedies before the game even starts. The MC is an orphan, Junpei has a big spoiler happen to him that broke my heart, Yukari’s father has passed, Akihiko’s entire family is gone, Aigis is searching for a reason to live, Mitsuru has dealt with death from her family as well as having to deal with ultimate demons that her family left her with, shinji has no family, Amada lost his parents while in elementary school, Koromaru’s owner recently passed, and they all deal with multiple spoiler losses that affect them all throughout the story. They learn to grow and heal by leaning on and loving each other becoming the family that they all had been missing. I want to go much deeper into the story but it is hard without just spoiling everything but please please play this game to find out what happens for yourself. It is heart wrenching, emotionally draining, downright depressing, but it also has heart warming, uplifting moments, hilarious moments, genuine beautiful moments that again make the journey worth it. I won't spoil the ending either but it was a beautiful tragic bitter sweet moment with major ramifications for all the major characters you meet along the way. I literally couldn’t believe everything I had just witnessed… Also the MC went through and accomplished more than pretty much any protagonist in any game ever.
The 3rd and 4th thing that immediately elevate this to a 5 star for me are the music and art style. Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby!!! One of the most electric and amazing soundtracks gaming has to offer can be found in Persona 3 Reload. “Full Moon Full Life” “Joy” “It’s Going Down Now” “Mass Destruction” are all stand out hits but the Final Boss Theme is by far my favorite in the series so far. When the velvet room hits in the track it immediately became my favorite. The UI is something to behold. It is flashy and beautiful. It captures the spirit of the series very similar to Persona 5’s interface. The characters are unique and well designed and there are some really awesome shadow designs as well.
The gameplay loop is extremely solid and satisfying. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it does require strategy and with knowledge of the persona system you can make the MC wildly overpowered. I always appreciate JRPG’S where you don't just use a physical attack all the way through the game except on bosses and this game definitely isn’t that. The life sim aspects of the game are awesome as well. I will say there are a few social links that I didn't care for at all like the kid in your class whose whole arc is simping for his teacher and “The Gourmet King” who has a touching moment but for 90% he’s a pompous asshole that eats a lot. However there are some truly great and touching social links as well that make it well worth your time to invest in all of them.
My one and literally only complaint in this game is that you have way too many things to juggle during the day time to try and complete and very few night time options. This is especially true during the late game. If day and night was more balanced I would say this is a perfect game.
The story (mostly spoiler stuff that I really want to talk about but wont) really touched me, hit me, hurt me, made me want to cry, made me laugh, and most of all made me think quite a bit, both about the game and about life in general. Not many games have made me do half of that stuff. I haven’t even mentioned the twist and turns this game throws at you, Strega, Pharos, Tarturus, love interests, and so many other things that if I mention this would turn into a 100,00 word review. This is one of the few games I think everyone should play before it's their turn to face death.
It made many lists for me!!
It easily made my top 100! Spoiler you're going to have to scroll way down to find it.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-100-video-game-of-all-time/
My games i played in 2024 ranked
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/
My games of each year
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-game-of-the-year-1985-present/
Best Soundtracks in games
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-sounds-tracks-in-video-games-no-order/
Best Box Arts
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-box-arts-of-all-time-ranked/
Persona 3 Reload has 4 things that single handedly make this a 5 star game. The first two of which I’ve already touched on. First this is my favorite cast in my 3 decades of playing video games. Every character is well written, likable, believable, and relatable. The main cast specifically has 6 characters (The MC, Aigis, Yukari, Misuru, Shinji, and Akihiko) that would be worthy of being the main character of a game. Even the villains, while clearly on the wrong side of things, have relatable, believable reasons for their actions. You will be hard pressed to find a better set of characters in the medium. Secondly is the story which goes in tandem with the characters to make a story that I will remember in detail for the rest of my life.
While I mentioned death is at the forefront of the game, the story to me is more about how to deal with tragedy, sacrifice, love, and ultimately the bonds we forge with the people in our lives. To me it is about how the bonds we forge make life worth it and while death will ultimately end it in sadness it only hurts because of how good the journey was making it more than worth the pain at the end.
Our main cast have been devastated with tragedies before the game even starts. The MC is an orphan, Junpei has a big spoiler happen to him that broke my heart, Yukari’s father has passed, Akihiko’s entire family is gone, Aigis is searching for a reason to live, Mitsuru has dealt with death from her family as well as having to deal with ultimate demons that her family left her with, shinji has no family, Amada lost his parents while in elementary school, Koromaru’s owner recently passed, and they all deal with multiple spoiler losses that affect them all throughout the story. They learn to grow and heal by leaning on and loving each other becoming the family that they all had been missing. I want to go much deeper into the story but it is hard without just spoiling everything but please please play this game to find out what happens for yourself. It is heart wrenching, emotionally draining, downright depressing, but it also has heart warming, uplifting moments, hilarious moments, genuine beautiful moments that again make the journey worth it. I won't spoil the ending either but it was a beautiful tragic bitter sweet moment with major ramifications for all the major characters you meet along the way. I literally couldn’t believe everything I had just witnessed… Also the MC went through and accomplished more than pretty much any protagonist in any game ever.
The 3rd and 4th thing that immediately elevate this to a 5 star for me are the music and art style. Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby!!! One of the most electric and amazing soundtracks gaming has to offer can be found in Persona 3 Reload. “Full Moon Full Life” “Joy” “It’s Going Down Now” “Mass Destruction” are all stand out hits but the Final Boss Theme is by far my favorite in the series so far. When the velvet room hits in the track it immediately became my favorite. The UI is something to behold. It is flashy and beautiful. It captures the spirit of the series very similar to Persona 5’s interface. The characters are unique and well designed and there are some really awesome shadow designs as well.
The gameplay loop is extremely solid and satisfying. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it does require strategy and with knowledge of the persona system you can make the MC wildly overpowered. I always appreciate JRPG’S where you don't just use a physical attack all the way through the game except on bosses and this game definitely isn’t that. The life sim aspects of the game are awesome as well. I will say there are a few social links that I didn't care for at all like the kid in your class whose whole arc is simping for his teacher and “The Gourmet King” who has a touching moment but for 90% he’s a pompous asshole that eats a lot. However there are some truly great and touching social links as well that make it well worth your time to invest in all of them.
My one and literally only complaint in this game is that you have way too many things to juggle during the day time to try and complete and very few night time options. This is especially true during the late game. If day and night was more balanced I would say this is a perfect game.
The story (mostly spoiler stuff that I really want to talk about but wont) really touched me, hit me, hurt me, made me want to cry, made me laugh, and most of all made me think quite a bit, both about the game and about life in general. Not many games have made me do half of that stuff. I haven’t even mentioned the twist and turns this game throws at you, Strega, Pharos, Tarturus, love interests, and so many other things that if I mention this would turn into a 100,00 word review. This is one of the few games I think everyone should play before it's their turn to face death.
It made many lists for me!!
It easily made my top 100! Spoiler you're going to have to scroll way down to find it.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-100-video-game-of-all-time/
My games i played in 2024 ranked
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/
My games of each year
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-game-of-the-year-1985-present/
Best Soundtracks in games
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-sounds-tracks-in-video-games-no-order/
Best Box Arts
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-box-arts-of-all-time-ranked/
Prince of Persia The Lost Crown was somehow my first ever experience with the series. I know that this is the only 2d Metroidvania, which is my second favorite genre, but if the other games are anywhere as interesting or as well made as this entry I am itching to dig further into the series.
Sargon is an excellent protagonist and easily the most likable of the immortals. His movement, upgrades, battle abilities everything just feels extremely smooth and leaves every moment a joy to play through. The gameplay is something I can easily point to and recommend for the reason to play this game. I also thought the difficulty was perfect. There are parts that will really test you without being overly difficult but nothing in this game just comes easy either. I feel Ubisoft hit the perfect sweet spot for difficulty here.
You can see they really put in a lot of work studying the greats. The sprawling map riddled with secrets, the potential for sequence breaks, the ahh hah moment when you get an upgrade that will let you solve something that was stored in the back of your mind that you couldn’t get to earlier. The game borrows heavily from Hollow Knight with the wak wak trees being Hollow knights bench, your amulets being Hollow Knights charms, the fighting is definitely different but strangle feels similar, and select special abilities when you have enough ather or in Hollow Knights case souls. The movement however feels like they were very inspired by the Ori series. I don’t want to spoil anything but it truely feels like Ori once you get your last movement ability.
The story is good not great. Many of the turns I felt coming a mile away but it was still enjoyable and a good story. I like that they give you bits and pieces of peoples backstory and the lord through items and tablets and such through the game.
My only two issues are I feel they didn’t explore the immortals more in the beginning which hurts your ability to care for them more which hurts by lessening the things that happen to them through out the story. If we would have grown to love them some story beats would have hit so much better. The second is I encountered several bugs. One where the game just froze when talking to someone costing me progress, one where I went out of bounds through a floor and ended up on the other side of the map, and most importantly one of the side quest is bugged and there is a good chance you get locked out of it causing you to miss 100% and some items as well as a trophy for doing all side quests. Ubisoft does apparently know about this as it is a big across all platforms and is supposed to be getting patched out. If it wasn’t for these two things I would have given this a 5 star rating and I’m sure one of those will be fixed with patches relatively soon.
At the end of the day this game deserves to have its name mentioned amongst the titans of genre: Metroid, Castlevania, Hollow Knight, and Ori. It deserves your attention and is an extremely easy game for me to recommend to any type of gamer. I hope this game get the attention it deserves so we can see more Prince of Persia metroidvanias.
Hey it made my top 100 list:
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-100-video-game-of-all-time/
And here is where it ranks amongst games I’ve played so far this year.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/
Sargon is an excellent protagonist and easily the most likable of the immortals. His movement, upgrades, battle abilities everything just feels extremely smooth and leaves every moment a joy to play through. The gameplay is something I can easily point to and recommend for the reason to play this game. I also thought the difficulty was perfect. There are parts that will really test you without being overly difficult but nothing in this game just comes easy either. I feel Ubisoft hit the perfect sweet spot for difficulty here.
You can see they really put in a lot of work studying the greats. The sprawling map riddled with secrets, the potential for sequence breaks, the ahh hah moment when you get an upgrade that will let you solve something that was stored in the back of your mind that you couldn’t get to earlier. The game borrows heavily from Hollow Knight with the wak wak trees being Hollow knights bench, your amulets being Hollow Knights charms, the fighting is definitely different but strangle feels similar, and select special abilities when you have enough ather or in Hollow Knights case souls. The movement however feels like they were very inspired by the Ori series. I don’t want to spoil anything but it truely feels like Ori once you get your last movement ability.
The story is good not great. Many of the turns I felt coming a mile away but it was still enjoyable and a good story. I like that they give you bits and pieces of peoples backstory and the lord through items and tablets and such through the game.
My only two issues are I feel they didn’t explore the immortals more in the beginning which hurts your ability to care for them more which hurts by lessening the things that happen to them through out the story. If we would have grown to love them some story beats would have hit so much better. The second is I encountered several bugs. One where the game just froze when talking to someone costing me progress, one where I went out of bounds through a floor and ended up on the other side of the map, and most importantly one of the side quest is bugged and there is a good chance you get locked out of it causing you to miss 100% and some items as well as a trophy for doing all side quests. Ubisoft does apparently know about this as it is a big across all platforms and is supposed to be getting patched out. If it wasn’t for these two things I would have given this a 5 star rating and I’m sure one of those will be fixed with patches relatively soon.
At the end of the day this game deserves to have its name mentioned amongst the titans of genre: Metroid, Castlevania, Hollow Knight, and Ori. It deserves your attention and is an extremely easy game for me to recommend to any type of gamer. I hope this game get the attention it deserves so we can see more Prince of Persia metroidvanias.
Hey it made my top 100 list:
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-100-video-game-of-all-time/
And here is where it ranks amongst games I’ve played so far this year.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/
2018
A question that went through my mind several times playing this was why didn’t PlayStation market Spyro as its rival to Nintendo’s Mario. To me he would have made such a better choice over Crash and, imo, his terrible first game.
Spyro the Dragon was clearly geared towards younger kids with its difficulty but sometimes simplicity isn’t a bad thing. While I prefer challenging games to easier games, it was a nice change of pace for me and I appreciated the simple yet satisfying gameplay. The only thing lacking gameplay wise were the bosses. They all felt underwhelming and I’d hardly call them “fights.”
As far as art the game is downright beautiful. The fun colors and unique characters pop in every level. However as strong as I feel positively on the visuals I feel equally negative in the music as not a single track stood out or stuck in my head.
Overall it’s a very nice game to just sit back and relax with and still fun in 2024.
My 2024 games played rankings
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/
Spyro the Dragon was clearly geared towards younger kids with its difficulty but sometimes simplicity isn’t a bad thing. While I prefer challenging games to easier games, it was a nice change of pace for me and I appreciated the simple yet satisfying gameplay. The only thing lacking gameplay wise were the bosses. They all felt underwhelming and I’d hardly call them “fights.”
As far as art the game is downright beautiful. The fun colors and unique characters pop in every level. However as strong as I feel positively on the visuals I feel equally negative in the music as not a single track stood out or stuck in my head.
Overall it’s a very nice game to just sit back and relax with and still fun in 2024.
My 2024 games played rankings
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/
I have starred at a blank screen for several minutes trying to think of what to say to show my love for this game. Unfortunately trying to describe exactly what makes me feel the way I do about this game is hard to pinpoint without just saying this is a masterpiece that excels in every area a video games can. But in my opinion this truly excels at every level. Character progression, relate ability, replay ability, story, production, sound tracks, visuals, combat, exploration, vast hour syncing beautiful locations, heart breaking emotional moments, genuinely hilarious moments, so many fun mini games that it feels like you could sell it’s as a Final Fantasy version of Mario Party, you want it in a game it’s probably here. Also did I mention music, character progression, and story because these aspects aren’t just top notch for Final Fantasy, they are top notch for the medium.
I don’t know how Square pulled it off but they made one of the most well liked classic cast of characters and made them 100 times more deep, real and relatable. This goes for every party member but two stand out. First is Yuffie. In the original game Yuffie is optional so they didn’t really give her character much more character than “I love materia.” Here she is fully fleshed out, deep, loveable character just as much as everyone else in the party. Secondly is Cait Sith. As much as I loved the original cast I loathed Cait Sith with my entire being. All of my friends I knew that played this game also hated him. But in this game they did the impossible and took him from my one of my very least liked characters made him into an upper tier character. He goes from a legit joke to an amazing, funny, clever, loving character. To me the remakes did more for him than anyone .
The story was magnificent albeit with a some pacing issues. There were so many side quest thrown at you in between small chunks of the story. Outside of that though it was damn near everything you could want. There is some divide between fans on the last chapter but I think it sets up the potential of part 3 extremely well. I want to talk story much more but don’t want to spoil a thing but just know I thought is was S+ tier.
The music was a delight as songs were brilliantly remixed and sometimes used at beautiful or tragic times. This is one of the best Final Fantasy sound tracks, sooo elite of the elite. Two songs that surprisingly were way more catchy than they had any right to be were “bow wow wow” and the Chocobo songs when racing.
The gameplay is by far the best in the series imo with only XVI and Remake coming anywhere close. Everything felt smooth and customizable. Building each character to your unique play style was enjoyable.
The only two downsides I can even see someone arguing against are the final chapter playing out differently than they hoped and the pacing due to side quests. However as someone that thinks the final chapter will be a good springboard into part 3 and wants as much (good) Final Fantasy content that Square can put out these were bonus/non issues for me.
I could legitimately go on about this game for several hours but I don’t want to ramble. I recommend this game 100% and believe it is one of the greatest video games of all time!
I don’t know how Square pulled it off but they made one of the most well liked classic cast of characters and made them 100 times more deep, real and relatable. This goes for every party member but two stand out. First is Yuffie. In the original game Yuffie is optional so they didn’t really give her character much more character than “I love materia.” Here she is fully fleshed out, deep, loveable character just as much as everyone else in the party. Secondly is Cait Sith. As much as I loved the original cast I loathed Cait Sith with my entire being. All of my friends I knew that played this game also hated him. But in this game they did the impossible and took him from my one of my very least liked characters made him into an upper tier character. He goes from a legit joke to an amazing, funny, clever, loving character. To me the remakes did more for him than anyone .
The story was magnificent albeit with a some pacing issues. There were so many side quest thrown at you in between small chunks of the story. Outside of that though it was damn near everything you could want. There is some divide between fans on the last chapter but I think it sets up the potential of part 3 extremely well. I want to talk story much more but don’t want to spoil a thing but just know I thought is was S+ tier.
The music was a delight as songs were brilliantly remixed and sometimes used at beautiful or tragic times. This is one of the best Final Fantasy sound tracks, sooo elite of the elite. Two songs that surprisingly were way more catchy than they had any right to be were “bow wow wow” and the Chocobo songs when racing.
The gameplay is by far the best in the series imo with only XVI and Remake coming anywhere close. Everything felt smooth and customizable. Building each character to your unique play style was enjoyable.
The only two downsides I can even see someone arguing against are the final chapter playing out differently than they hoped and the pacing due to side quests. However as someone that thinks the final chapter will be a good springboard into part 3 and wants as much (good) Final Fantasy content that Square can put out these were bonus/non issues for me.
I could legitimately go on about this game for several hours but I don’t want to ramble. I recommend this game 100% and believe it is one of the greatest video games of all time!
2011
A masterclass of the medium and in my opinion without a doubt the greatest puzzle game of all time. It took everything from the original and ramped it up and tuned it to perfection. The puzzles are more varied, more inventive, more clever, bigger, better, with more viable options, new items to use to solve them, and still boasting amazing physics that feel damn near perfect. It succeeds yet once again in making you feel smart when you get the aha moment.
The story in the first game was ok but the story in Portal 2 is so much deeper and nuanced. We get to see some of how Apatuer Science was created and what led it to becoming what it currently was. GLaDOS is back and funnier than ever and new robot Wheatley is hilarious. The humor is on point from beginning to end.
This is phenomenal game and deserves all the praise and more that it has received over the last decade.
The story in the first game was ok but the story in Portal 2 is so much deeper and nuanced. We get to see some of how Apatuer Science was created and what led it to becoming what it currently was. GLaDOS is back and funnier than ever and new robot Wheatley is hilarious. The humor is on point from beginning to end.
This is phenomenal game and deserves all the praise and more that it has received over the last decade.
2007
I don’t know why I wait so long to play some games. Portal is a big one that I can finally mark off the old checklist. I know I’m not telling anyone anything new here as I’m one of the last people in the world to play it but wow what an inventive, clever, wonderful game. I am not usually a fan of puzzle games but this is easily the best puzzle game I’ve ever played. The puzzles as I said are inventive and clever but not to hard to figure out after just a minute or two but Valve did a great job of making you feel like a genius when you figured each little thing out. It was amazing the amount of high level intelligent puzzles they put together using the most simple concept of just using two portals, some switches, and some blocks. GLaDOS was an excellent and hilarious villain. The comedy hit just right as well. I purposely died to GLaDOS the first time just because I wanted to hear all of the dialogue and it was worth it.
This games deserves all the hype and praise it has gotten. It’s a joy to play all these years later and feels like a game that could have come out this year. I played the first chapter of Portal 2 last year and decided I needed to play this one first to get the full effect but I am so excited to finally play it now!
I thought I was done finishing games in 2023 but I squeezed one last game into my list.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2023-ranked/
This games deserves all the hype and praise it has gotten. It’s a joy to play all these years later and feels like a game that could have come out this year. I played the first chapter of Portal 2 last year and decided I needed to play this one first to get the full effect but I am so excited to finally play it now!
I thought I was done finishing games in 2023 but I squeezed one last game into my list.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2023-ranked/
2024
Hell Divers 2 blew up for reason. The game is action packed, hilarious, immensely fun, 3rd person shooter, PvE, and a game you absolutely owe it to yourself to play with some friends. As someone who finds the shooter genre just very ok I can not recommend this game enough.
It has been since Overwatch (before it sucked) originally came out that me and my friends had a game that we regularly get on every other night and just have a great time together with. For two months me, @Chordata3 and @TSampys25 have regularly got on and just joked, laughed, and had a great time killing robots, bugs, and spreading democracy.
The gameplay loop is great. There are many different missions, across 9 different difficulties, against (at the time of this review) two seperate factions. The first race you are at war with is the alien bug like creatures known as the Termanids. The bugs are aggressive and can overwhelm you with their numbers quickly. The second race is the robot cyborg Automatons. This race while less likely to swarm you and less chaotice are more tactical which makes them in my opinion a scarier threat. With an aresonal of tanks, rocket launchers, grenades, and a whole lot of guns your going to want to seek shelter and be more stealthy in you approach against them. Going from one race to the other almost feels like a separate game. Luckily the game gives you many different weapons you can unlock as some weapons are great against the Termanids but awful against the Automatons and vica versa.
This game can be played alone but I highly recommend playing with friends. Once you get to a high enough level to unlock all the weapons playing on the highest difficulty with some buddies is one of the most fun and rewarding times you can have playing video games.
I will always be thankful @TSampys25 on a whim asked if me and @chordata3 wanted to buy and play Hell Divers 2 together. We had no idea what it even was at the time and its been some of my favorite gaming memories I have with them now.
Now back to spreading liberty, freedom, and democracy.
It has been since Overwatch (before it sucked) originally came out that me and my friends had a game that we regularly get on every other night and just have a great time together with. For two months me, @Chordata3 and @TSampys25 have regularly got on and just joked, laughed, and had a great time killing robots, bugs, and spreading democracy.
The gameplay loop is great. There are many different missions, across 9 different difficulties, against (at the time of this review) two seperate factions. The first race you are at war with is the alien bug like creatures known as the Termanids. The bugs are aggressive and can overwhelm you with their numbers quickly. The second race is the robot cyborg Automatons. This race while less likely to swarm you and less chaotice are more tactical which makes them in my opinion a scarier threat. With an aresonal of tanks, rocket launchers, grenades, and a whole lot of guns your going to want to seek shelter and be more stealthy in you approach against them. Going from one race to the other almost feels like a separate game. Luckily the game gives you many different weapons you can unlock as some weapons are great against the Termanids but awful against the Automatons and vica versa.
This game can be played alone but I highly recommend playing with friends. Once you get to a high enough level to unlock all the weapons playing on the highest difficulty with some buddies is one of the most fun and rewarding times you can have playing video games.
I will always be thankful @TSampys25 on a whim asked if me and @chordata3 wanted to buy and play Hell Divers 2 together. We had no idea what it even was at the time and its been some of my favorite gaming memories I have with them now.
Now back to spreading liberty, freedom, and democracy.
2023
Nintendo’s most under appreciated series put out one of the best games Nintendo has ever produced. Pikmin 4 took everything great from the first 3 games and put them together to make a special game that is easily the class of the series, which is really saying something. This is one of the most just pure fun game that I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing.
The return of caves, 9 types of Pikmin, the greatest surprise/Easter egg in gaming history (imo of course), and my favorite addition dandori challenges. I honestly would buy a Pikmin spin off game that is just a ton of dandori challenges. Also the Easter egg added about halfway through the game blew me away and made me so happy.
The art is my favorite in all of gaming. It is absolutely beautiful. The Pikmin are beautiful, the characters have a unique design, moss and Oatchi are adorable, the world is beautiful and put together so well. The feeling it gives of making you feel so small, it really makes you feel like you’re viewing the world from a bugs perspective. It’s unbelievable how good the art is.
Pikmin is one of the most replayable series ever and I cannot wait to replay this game again. If you have a switch please do yourself a favor and buy this masterpiece. It’s the first game in the series that is killing it in sales but it deserves even more to bring light to this fantastic franchise.
This game easily made my top 100. Check out where here.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-100-video-game-of-all-time/
The return of caves, 9 types of Pikmin, the greatest surprise/Easter egg in gaming history (imo of course), and my favorite addition dandori challenges. I honestly would buy a Pikmin spin off game that is just a ton of dandori challenges. Also the Easter egg added about halfway through the game blew me away and made me so happy.
The art is my favorite in all of gaming. It is absolutely beautiful. The Pikmin are beautiful, the characters have a unique design, moss and Oatchi are adorable, the world is beautiful and put together so well. The feeling it gives of making you feel so small, it really makes you feel like you’re viewing the world from a bugs perspective. It’s unbelievable how good the art is.
Pikmin is one of the most replayable series ever and I cannot wait to replay this game again. If you have a switch please do yourself a favor and buy this masterpiece. It’s the first game in the series that is killing it in sales but it deserves even more to bring light to this fantastic franchise.
This game easily made my top 100. Check out where here.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-100-video-game-of-all-time/
2018
Minit is one of the most average games I’ve ever played but with a phenomenal gimmick. I love the idea of you have one minute to figure out what you need to do and then speed to get it done. However the game only lasts about an hour and once you know what to do it really kills the replay-ability imo. The puzzles were good enough. Nothing to ridiculous but not so easy that you can walk through the game without thinking. The minimal visuals and simplistic gameplay were a nice change of pace. Overall a solid good game, again, mostly because of its awesome gimmick. If you want something quick and easy to play I would definitely recommend it.
1993
Somehow I managed to spend 30 years of gaming and not getting around to playing Doom and that is a damn shame. I can confidently say that the Grand Father of the FPS genre is still a very enjoyable game to play in 2023. I was surprised at how many puzzles were in the levels. I always just imagined Doom as just a point A to B straight line kill em all but the puzzles and the bangin sound track kept levels fresh all the way through. The weapons were varied and fun to use even though i basically just used the shotgun and the plasma gun 95% of the time. If I would have played this when it first came out I feel like my nostalgia for it would be unreal and it would probably have been one of my favorite games growing up.
If you are someone that has never played this game but wanted to but also wasn't sure how it held up do youself a favor and try it out.
If you are someone that has never played this game but wanted to but also wasn't sure how it held up do youself a favor and try it out.
2014
This is easily my “I know it’s a much better game than my feelings about it are game” game. I wanted to love it. I see why people love it. At times I did love it and times I thought it may click to where I kept loving it. But in the end it ended up being a game I think it brilliant but simply and disappointingly not for me. But before we get into that, side note, this game may have my favorite box art of all time.
Being a big horror game fan but a huge stealth game hater I knew going in that I would be conflicted but hoped the horror would win out. This last sentence is probably the biggest reason this game didn’t work for me as the stealth won out. See, the thing is this game is brilliant in that you need to do these varied task across a vast spaceship while being quite and hide from the alien. At first it is super tense as you can almost always hear the alien as it’s surprisingly good AI roams around you both in the level with you and above you in the vents. You never know when you may make a wrong turn or make to much noise drawing attention to yourself and before you know what to do your dead. At first I loved this as the horror was easily the star of the show. However the longer I went through the game it got less and less scary and more and more a game of walking extremely slow and if I made a noise changing into a game of hide and seek. I no longer cared about the horror of the game, I just wanted to progress the story without waiting under a desk or in a locker for what felt like 5 minutes at a time so I didn’t get caught sending me way back to the last checkpoint, which are typically spaced good distances out. It became an annoyance and not horror.
I understand why people love it. The atmosphere is fantastic, the game is tense and the horror at the beginning is great. I know many enjoy the stealth aspect and with the good AI of the alien even for me it was fun at first. There just wasn’t enough in the gameplay loop to keep me wanting more and once the tense scare factor turned into a “ugh here we go again, a wait and hide montage” I just lost all interest.
Even though it wasn’t for me I’m still giving it a 3 star because I know I’m in the minority here and do respect it as a good game because it is. I also still recommend people play this because I think most people won’t have the same feelings I have towards the stealth “hide and seek” moments.
Also this may be and probably will be the last game I finish in 2023 as we are now a week away from 2024, as well as it’s Christmas time, as well as me and my wife are having our second child very soon. So I went ahead and made my Games I played in 2023 ranked list so if you’re interested check it out!
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2023-ranked/
Being a big horror game fan but a huge stealth game hater I knew going in that I would be conflicted but hoped the horror would win out. This last sentence is probably the biggest reason this game didn’t work for me as the stealth won out. See, the thing is this game is brilliant in that you need to do these varied task across a vast spaceship while being quite and hide from the alien. At first it is super tense as you can almost always hear the alien as it’s surprisingly good AI roams around you both in the level with you and above you in the vents. You never know when you may make a wrong turn or make to much noise drawing attention to yourself and before you know what to do your dead. At first I loved this as the horror was easily the star of the show. However the longer I went through the game it got less and less scary and more and more a game of walking extremely slow and if I made a noise changing into a game of hide and seek. I no longer cared about the horror of the game, I just wanted to progress the story without waiting under a desk or in a locker for what felt like 5 minutes at a time so I didn’t get caught sending me way back to the last checkpoint, which are typically spaced good distances out. It became an annoyance and not horror.
I understand why people love it. The atmosphere is fantastic, the game is tense and the horror at the beginning is great. I know many enjoy the stealth aspect and with the good AI of the alien even for me it was fun at first. There just wasn’t enough in the gameplay loop to keep me wanting more and once the tense scare factor turned into a “ugh here we go again, a wait and hide montage” I just lost all interest.
Even though it wasn’t for me I’m still giving it a 3 star because I know I’m in the minority here and do respect it as a good game because it is. I also still recommend people play this because I think most people won’t have the same feelings I have towards the stealth “hide and seek” moments.
Also this may be and probably will be the last game I finish in 2023 as we are now a week away from 2024, as well as it’s Christmas time, as well as me and my wife are having our second child very soon. So I went ahead and made my Games I played in 2023 ranked list so if you’re interested check it out!
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2023-ranked/
2018
A remake of one of RPG Makers most famous games. It is one of the most famous for good reason. This short (I beat it in 55 minutes) horror puzzle trial and error game is well crafted. It’s so short I would definitely say wait until you see a sale on it but I got it on sale for $8 and it is 100% worth that and an easy recommend for a short solid game.
That ending, especially as a father to a little girl, fucked me up.
That ending, especially as a father to a little girl, fucked me up.
A little over a year ago I decided to make a conscience effort to fight through my back log as much as possible. To try and stop replaying the same games over and over when there are so many I hadn’t played. One major thing I’ve learned is I will never be able to play every game I want to play before I die. We only have so much time and sometimes you just need to know when to call it and say this game just wasn’t for me. While Kingdom Heart Final Mix was definitely for me but unfortunately the follow up Kingdom Hearts Re: Chained Memories was unfortunately one of those games I had to call and end it early.
The main reason for this is while I in no way think it’s a bad game, I don’t know why they completely changed the action rpg gameplay to a card game you play to battle. I really gave it a fair shot but it just wasn’t a fun or engaging experience. I believe there is a reason Kingdom Hearts never again went back to this type of gameplay in the other dozen or so entries in the franchise. Not only does the gameplay not really hit with me but it felt way to unnecessarily grindy. Between the RNG of the cards you receive and needing certain cards to open certain doors I just didn’t have the patience or want to to finish this game.
I want to continue my journey through the Kingdom Hearts series so I watched a in depth video about the story of Chained Memories and I’m so glad I did because I don’t think I could have played the 25 or so hours of playing cards it would have taken to beat the game. Again I’m not saying this is a bad game or saying I don’t recommend it, just that it’s not for me and that if playing a game of cards to swing your sword against your opponent doesn’t sound appealing it may not be for you either.
Games of 2024 Ranked
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/
The main reason for this is while I in no way think it’s a bad game, I don’t know why they completely changed the action rpg gameplay to a card game you play to battle. I really gave it a fair shot but it just wasn’t a fun or engaging experience. I believe there is a reason Kingdom Hearts never again went back to this type of gameplay in the other dozen or so entries in the franchise. Not only does the gameplay not really hit with me but it felt way to unnecessarily grindy. Between the RNG of the cards you receive and needing certain cards to open certain doors I just didn’t have the patience or want to to finish this game.
I want to continue my journey through the Kingdom Hearts series so I watched a in depth video about the story of Chained Memories and I’m so glad I did because I don’t think I could have played the 25 or so hours of playing cards it would have taken to beat the game. Again I’m not saying this is a bad game or saying I don’t recommend it, just that it’s not for me and that if playing a game of cards to swing your sword against your opponent doesn’t sound appealing it may not be for you either.
Games of 2024 Ranked
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/
Mario Wonder is a nice true return to form for 2d Mario. I feel there hasn’t been a 2D Mario game with charm and heart since Super Mario World in the SNES as the NEW series did absolutely nothing for me personally.
The worlds and levels are varied, with creativity burst in every level. Each level feels like it was based around a gimmick and the game does a good job of having the gimmick used in more complex ways the more levels you play. The art is spectacular bursting with vibrant colors and the characters all have by far the best facial features in the series. The music was top notch as it is in all good Mario games.
So why only a 4 star (which is still a fantastic rating)
The game is incredibly easy. Like beyond believable, Kirby-esque, easy. I finished the game with 98 lives after beating the final special world level and I would have had 99 but I died literally once on the final level because of a self inflicted silly mistake on the “hardest” level in the game. Also while unique especially amoungst the other Mario games I feel like they dug deep into the DKC series and flat out ripped many ideas straight out of it. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing because the DKC series is great and legendary but still directly ripped it off many times imo.
Wonder is easily the best 2D game Nintendo has put out in this series since the SNES days and I’m excited to see where they go from here now that we hopefully have laid the NEW series to rest.
Here is where it falls in my rankings of how much I enjoyed each Mario game.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-mario-rankings/
The worlds and levels are varied, with creativity burst in every level. Each level feels like it was based around a gimmick and the game does a good job of having the gimmick used in more complex ways the more levels you play. The art is spectacular bursting with vibrant colors and the characters all have by far the best facial features in the series. The music was top notch as it is in all good Mario games.
So why only a 4 star (which is still a fantastic rating)
The game is incredibly easy. Like beyond believable, Kirby-esque, easy. I finished the game with 98 lives after beating the final special world level and I would have had 99 but I died literally once on the final level because of a self inflicted silly mistake on the “hardest” level in the game. Also while unique especially amoungst the other Mario games I feel like they dug deep into the DKC series and flat out ripped many ideas straight out of it. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing because the DKC series is great and legendary but still directly ripped it off many times imo.
Wonder is easily the best 2D game Nintendo has put out in this series since the SNES days and I’m excited to see where they go from here now that we hopefully have laid the NEW series to rest.
Here is where it falls in my rankings of how much I enjoyed each Mario game.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-mario-rankings/
I loved Spider-Man and Spider-Man Miles Morales so I was stoked for Spider-Man 2 yet it still blew away all my expectations.
The gameplay was more of the same from the previous games but with slightly more moves and upgrades. Story wise I will say the first half of the game is nothing to write home about but from mid point on the story is nothing but exceptional. Insomniacs vision and twist on Venom, Kraven, and for spoiler reasons I’ll just say the fire cult leader were fantastic. I’m so excited to see where the story goes next from here between what happens in the ending and spoiler mentioned above. If the story wasn’t so average the first half this game would have been a bonafide masterpiece. The second half is just simply a masterclass of the medium. Maybe the biggest upgrade to the game is that you can now fast travel anywhere and the load times for it are almost non existent and are seamless transitions making traversing so much quicker.
If you enjoyed yourself playing the two Spider-Man games you owe it to your self to play this game ASAP.
The gameplay was more of the same from the previous games but with slightly more moves and upgrades. Story wise I will say the first half of the game is nothing to write home about but from mid point on the story is nothing but exceptional. Insomniacs vision and twist on Venom, Kraven, and for spoiler reasons I’ll just say the fire cult leader were fantastic. I’m so excited to see where the story goes next from here between what happens in the ending and spoiler mentioned above. If the story wasn’t so average the first half this game would have been a bonafide masterpiece. The second half is just simply a masterclass of the medium. Maybe the biggest upgrade to the game is that you can now fast travel anywhere and the load times for it are almost non existent and are seamless transitions making traversing so much quicker.
If you enjoyed yourself playing the two Spider-Man games you owe it to your self to play this game ASAP.