Ohhh this was a fun little mystery FMV! I enjoyed forming hypotheses and was delighted when I actually figured out the mystery even if I wasn’t sure if the game was giving me the options for it. It was a fun time, and I’m glad Square Enix is publishing weird little games like this every so often. It’s better than The Quiet Man and NFT shit, anyway…

When is Dragon Quest not aggressively charming? Especially when monsters are involved, I love those goofy lil dudes. This game seems like a great theme and I’m pretty excited to see more of it! The treasure hunting mechanics do feel a tad janky though, some of the pictures weren’t terribly representative. Although while I love Eric and Mia I am absolutely bummed that My Boys are not present. You know who I’m talking about. I want idiot teen Jasper and Hendrik!! Where are they!! okay they’re off in heliodor but I miss them man.

An intriguing introduction, to be sure. I like the art a lot, and I’m pretty curious to see where it goes and how the gameplay actually plays out. It seemed like A Dream so is it all going to be dives into the heart? It’s also kind of neat to see stuff from cultures I’m not super familiar with outside of very broad strokes. That music Atma used to distract the civil defense guy was pretty neat honestly I’d listen to more

Seems kind of neat, and I am pretty curious to see where it’s going… but maybe on a computer. I dunno, I’m not quite sure if the button mapping on the Switch quite works for me. Anyway the pixel art is nice, although the attempt to scare me with a cat was not quite effective. I just wanna pet that kitty.

God I kind of miss the good old stylus gameplay from the 3DS. If the Switch had a second dedicated touchscreen and stylus it would be too powerful. The field stages’ wavy lines in particular are taking some time to get used to with a joystick versus how intuitive the stylus was. Other than that it whips! I can’t believe I’m actually considering digital deluxe for the extra songs… but like I fuckin love the music across Square’s various franchises so maybe? Augh I prefer physical but To Zanarkand….
Purchased

It’s Mother Fucking Kirby Baby! I never got around to playing the version for the Wii because after a certain point I could never quite get around to playing anything that wasn’t portable on some level, so I’m excited to actually play this one. I did watch a LP and thought it was pretty neat though! I have been missing the more technical copy abilities with, like, actual move lists from Kirby games for a while now, so I’m excited for this one. Also excited for that Magolor epilogue!
Purchased

I know Octopath isn’t super well regarded among the hardcore JRPG-heads of Backloggd but I personally liked it! It definitely had areas where it could be improved, sure, but I had a lot of fun with it. It had great music and I enjoyed the characters’ storylines, and it was pretty fun to see how they all converged at the end.

Octopath II seems like it’s doing its damnedest to improve on the first game’s flaws and add more spice, which is very cool! The characters having different path actions depending on the time of day is pretty neat, though I am curious to see how they may or may not overlap the way skills in the first game did. I also really like the characters themselves, which was a great part of the first game! Even if the demo doesn’t get to it, it sounds like there will be more of an effort to have characters interact with each other, and that’s already starting to feel like the case with in-battle banter. I also thought it was neat to have guest party members, too. I started out with Temenos, and his dynamic with Crick was deeply enjoyable. He was also very enjoyable in general. I had high hopes for that horrible twink and he completely delivered. Throne’s story has that interesting dark flavor and I’m curious to see how their actual dynamic plays out! And I’m very excited to see the rest of the cast, of course. I wanted to start with Osvalt but it sounded like you were stuck in prison for way too long to get past the demo, so they definitely tried to nerf The Best Character Class Action from being on your team the whole time… but Temenos had a great opener so it helps.
Purchased

Definitely seems promising! The art is very nice, the music slaps, and the puzzles are kinda fun. Kind of feels like Chrono Trigger meets Tales of meets Mario and Luigi. The default fight difficulty does seem tuned a little high, though that might be because it just kind of drops you into the middle of things. I feel like I might’ve preferred being taken through the start of the game proper instead of being tossed around bits in the story, honestly; I get the impression they wanted to show off with the goofy pirates but I don’t think the main party got as much of a chance to shine. Still, it definitely seems like a game to watch!

I’m not super big on SRPGs and honestly the gameplay segments are taking a bit to get used to, but everything else whips honestly. The artwork is incredible and the characters, story, and world are super compelling! I’m really excited to see where it all ends up going, because the demo really gives you a great taste of what to expect. Also Advocat is SUCH a sexyman holy shit

Hey this whips. It’s like if Dangan Ronpa was an adventure game wearing a tactical rpg trenchcoat. I mean perhaps it’s not entirely Dangan Ronpa but it feels a little Dangan Ronpa what with the quirky cast made of mystery solving individuals with Big Specialties, and I’m pretty curious about the cast! They seem like they all have some fun stuff going on, and their quirks don’t seem too overbearing. I’m not sure how much I trust anything that’s going on and I kind of wonder if there will end up being some sort of timeloop… it’s neat!

This is kind of a weird one because I like the vibes of the art and writing and whatnot but I have no idea what the fuck is going on with the gameplay. Is it totally random what your dudes attack?? I just want to hit the body and kill then man especially since you can salvage parts sometimes if you don’t destroy them. Also the stats seem a little confusing honestly. I think I would like to see someone else play the thing instead of playing it myself!

Seems pretty neat! I think I’d definitely like to pick it up at some point. The eerie vibes combined with the chill fishing create a pretty neat atmosphere, and I’m pretty curious to dig in more! Hopefully I don’t experience horrors beyond my comprehension.

IT'S PICROSS BABEY!!

I keep playing Pikmin demos and every time I have a genuinely excellent time but I keep like. putting off actually buying the games. I really need to actually buy pikmin someday. Anyway this game feels like it's going to whip, I love Oatchi and would absolutely die for him and the squad is pretty fun. I was a little thrown by what was going on with Olimar though, is this like a soft reboot or something or does he just keep crashing? Maybe I will understand if I actually play Pikmin.

honestly i just wanted to play some picross for free. mario super picross's ultra stages weren't scratching the itch because they don't have the nice qol features.
Purchased.

I fuckin love picross dude

Picross But With Sega! The music is pretty good and I like the subject matter, but it’s kind of a bummer that there’s only three clip Picross puzzles. I still definitely want it though.

picross :3

Another entry in the burgeoning “figure out what’s going on based on context clues and enter the answers into a book that helps you figure out what’s going on” genre like Obra Dinn and Case of the Golden Idol, it seems. This one makes me feel kind of dumb because I’m not always sure what it’s asking for… still seems neat, though! I’d be interested in it, I think.

I had a pretty good time with this one, especially as someone who enjoys switching gameplay styles around. Is this a roguelite? I guess, right? Anyway I appreciate being encouraged to pass the baton to different characters as I go deeper into the dungeon, because it keeps things from getting repetitive. I didn’t really want to put it down until I finished it despite getting my ass kicked several times and having other games I wanted to get to.

The story is a cute fairy tale, and I like the princess. The English twitter’s been giving bios for the characters and it kind of makes me wish they had any dialogue or anything. I DID appreciate the cameos from other Marvelous games in the forms of Story of Seasons Cows and Woolies from Rune Factory.

I did find the resource management with the runes to be a bit of a pain, but everything else was a lot of fun. I don’t actually know when I’ll end up having time for this but I hope I do!

A lot of people say 6 wasn’t very good and based on the demo I think this one is a lot more immediately fun and memorable based on the characters. They’ve got fun chemistry and I laughed quite heartily several times. I did find it a little tougher than the other Disgaea demos, admittedly… I guess it’s because you get only two unique units? Anyway it’s nice to have a disgaea about a bunch of funny adults. Cannot wait to see what’s up with Fuji and his adoptive daughter man.

This was really cute and fun! I liked it a lot, the characters are charming and the gameplay is pretty neat. I’m kind of bad at the diving part to start out but the restaurant part isn’t too bad in terms of being a reasonable pace. I’m sure it ramps up as the game goes on and you get more customers, of course, but it starts out kind of relaxing compared to the more tense diving bits. I really want to see where it goes!

Ah I liked this demo a lot! The battle system is pretty fun and the story and characters are pretty cute. It does seem a little old school but I do dig it! I’m kind of curious to see where it goes. I also like that you can see the different portraits from the different versions of the game, which like man, the PSP generation sure looked like that, huh. Also seems to have some replay value since you can presumably play through with Claude as the main character as well. But ah, so many games….

I am SO excited for this game and the demo makes me want it even more. I haven’t played DQM past the second one so I’m pretty excited to mess around with the newer systems like talents and seasons and such, and I’m super excited about the story and concept. It’s mother fucking Dragon Quest 4 Babey! I cannot wait to play as my boy Psaro. I hope there is a part where you get to teach the local animals to talk. There probably won’t be and I’ll still have fun if we don’t but I want to teach the cat how to talk with the secret of evolution. Hell yeah.

I also love how much more complicated the synthesis system is even if I miss the old conceit that the monsters got married and left you an egg. Maybe I can still imagine that’s what’s happening???

Also I’m a Sugiyama hater but I very much did go HEY IT’S THAT SONG FROM MY CHILDHOOD. It really was nostalgia all along.

One bad thing is that not being able to directly order your monsters in tournaments still sucks. I told my monster who cures poison to do the tactic that ostensibly cures status effects and that dude absolutely refused to cure anyone in my party of poison. Like everyone was poisoned but it kept attacking. Come on buddy.

Purchased

Hell yeah this rules so far all the characters are weird little failgirls and the concepts are super juicy. I am not especially good at the gameplay which is unfortunate, but I would make a wholehearted attempt to Git Gud in order to figure out what in the hell is going on in this game and with these delightful weirdos. The chemistry between all the characters so far is just amazing, and I really want to know about the spiritual prequel as well. A friend of mine is big into Crystar and I was not quite aware how much the character writing ruled in this particular way??? Definitely want it when it actually comes out.

Very much Just Kind of Okay, unfortunately. It’s cute but feels kind of aggressively hijinks focused in a way that feels kind of generic rather than fun. Also the text sound feels weirdly loud and it reads a little janky. I do like that there’s a bingus cat though.

On the gameplay side it’s a pretty standard TRPG, though it has cute character portraits and the characters themselves have potential. The dialogue is perhaps a bit stilted, though… I don’t think the translation is the best. I dig it alright but it’s not super duper impressive.

I did like this, actually! The opening leaves me curious about where things will go with these goofy goobers, and I’m pretty charmed by the MC’s looney tunes antics. I was expecting far worse from a bishoujo game from the 90s. With that said, the translation is a touch iffy-not unreadable, mind. The dialogue feels pretty natural, but there’s a case where a character named Minami was called South in the name field and a professor probably has the wrong pronouns. Probably. I hope it gets edited before the full translation release.

I really like the majority of things about this. The art is great, the premise is cool, and I’m interested in seeing where things go. But, uh, this is kind of a weird complaint to have about a VN, but at the same time I think they made a weird decision… that being that the D-pad has specific functions, so if you try to use it to select things in menus you accidentally go into an investigation segment and use up one of your limited actions. I also feel like I skipped some dialogue boxes for reasons I cannot imagine outside of idk I pressed the button weird. The game does come out next year, though, so they’ve got time to smooth things out.

I didn’t play the full demo because I hit the main menu without saving because I thought that might let me save. It didn’t give a “are you sure” warning or like, do any autosaves I think??? Not sure if i screwed something up or not. Anyway I liked this cute little Paper Mario-like, it’s extremely charming and the aesthetics are very good. I’d definitely be interested in playing more, it looks very promising.

Pretty intriguing so far! I remember getting the DS original back in the day but I was a stupid baby so I didn’t get very far. The game looks extremely nice, and I think it’s very cute how they updated the DS lookin’ gadget to a Switch lookin’ gadget. I hope this means the glorious return of CING. Maybe they’ll do a remake of Hotel Dusk so I can play that, too…

Game… weirdly compelling. I’m usually more into story-driven stuff than retro sandboxy stuff, but I still like those sandboxes? It’s fun. Exploring is fun. I feel like maybe I should tone the difficulty down for a breezier experience though, MP management feels weirdly difficult…

Seems neat! I’m not really great at this type of gameplay but it was pretty fun. I was kinda sad they left stuff blocked off so I couldn’t go full metroidvania, but the story and artwork were neat. Honestly the biggest thing that keeps me from wanting to actually buy it is that like. Listen I know this industry is super fucked in every company and they’re all garbage. But Ubisoft sucks shit.

What is it with VN demo save data not carrying over to the full version? It’s not like I’m not gonna buy the VN because I got to play the demo. It just makes me not wanna mess around too much with the demo because I’m going to be rereading a lot of stuff, which I’ll probably do anyway in a VN with Choices.

Anyway this one looks really cool, I like the vibes of the art and what I got of the premise. I’d definitely love to actually buy it at some point, it seems like a fun cool thing.

Demo seems a little short to get a good idea of things, but it was pretty fun. I did see a LP of the gameboy Donkey Kong which was this kind of puzzle platformer and it seemed pretty fun, so I'm curious how complex it gets as it goes. I hope the ending of the GBA game is still in this because it was extremely funny. There's a LOT of stuff on the table to buy, though...

Aw this shit is good as fuck, dude. It looks great, sounds great, and the gameplay is addictive as hell. RTS never quite grabbed me all that much, but I really dig what’s going on here. It’s definitely got the stuff I like from Fire Emblem going on, but it’s very clearly different enough that I’m really digging it.

I didn’t actually complete chapter 1 because I got so distracted by literally every sidequest, but I am pretty curious to see where the story goes and what kinds of characters I get to recruit on my way through. Not sure if this is a Day One thing because I have SO many meaty games to get through, but I do recommend the demo. It’s nice and chunky! Seven hours of free video game. You should try it!

Seems fun but perhaps a little fiddly. It looks pretty good aesthetically, and I do like the gameplay concepts here, but I don't know if I have the resources for it. When drilling through stuff you are always moving, and that's a little bit of a pain for me? I don't know. I'm not sure if it's for me.

Extremely cute and stylish! The gameplay seems pretty simple and I imagine people who are better at games will think it's too easy, but I'm curious to see how things turn out in the full game with all the different flavors of gameplay. I do understand that they can't show off everything in the demo, but the trailer at the end was a pretty exciting tease. Peach is very cute and the Theets have incredible Little Guy energy. I also like that you can slide down rails, that's very cute.

The vibes are pretty neat, and I like the art style and atmosphere. It didn't quite grab me that hard, but I do think the vibes are cool enough that I'd consider picking it up maybe perhaps.

Seems intriguing, and the art style is very nice. It's got that fun brain bendy adventure game type of vibe. However, the translation is a little spotty. The wording's a little clunky and it need another editing pass as far as proofreading goes... Even so, I wouldn't mind playing the whole thing.

I haven't actually gotten a chance to play a SaGa yet, before this, but man, what a wild ride this demo was. The only available story is a delightfully insane jumble of Concepts, in which a magical girl has her powers stolen by a fuckin space marine or something? And then she has to get them back by wandering around and collecting cats? While pretending to be a normal schoolgirl making friends with boys who keep investigating supernatural phenomena? And then she world hops to somewhere completely wild??? I had a great time, is what I'm saying.

The battle system is equally baffling. I don't think I was ever completely clear on what I was actually doing, but occasionally it would sort of click and I would completely kick ass at a fight that I'd wiped on multiple times. It felt really satisfying when I actually managed to execute combos and interrupts and whatnot. Perhaps I am on my way towards being a SaGa pervert...

Outside of that, it's a little... hm. I don't know if I'd say it looked cheap, necessarily, but it was definitely an unexpected presentation style outside of the battles, which look excellent. I mean, graphics aren't super important to me and I like VNs so the weird maps and the VN cutscenes don't bother me, but I wonder if it might turn other people off....

Oops! I immediately purchased this after I finished the demo. It was on sale, okay, and I have been craving Picross. This is even more dangerous than standard Picross, because you have a little wizard spirit friend who unlocks puzzles for you when you solve riddles by combining the subjects of previously solved puzzles. It's so dangerous. I cannot wait to play all of it. You also get puzzles of janky failed attempts at making concepts your Little Guy tried to make before you came along and started actually solving the grimoire. I love this. I think there are also fan-submitted puzzles too?

Thank you Jupiter. You are real ones.

This game definitely seems pretty fun! Penny definitely felt like she could get away from me at times, but I imagine mastering the movement is part of the fun. The cutscenes were pretty cute, even if they're kind of limited. I like the art style, it's good.

I'm not actually good at this game but I DO think it's neat. You play as a dead cat trying to return to the world of the living and reunite with your beloved human, which involves trying to figure out how to break out of the fucked up hellish afterlife. It's got a neat roguelike vibe where you get powers when you die, but it also puts you closer to losing Yourself. What happens if you beat the game as a fucked up cat furry demon instead of a cute little kitty? I do wonder.

It's neat. I feel kind of bad at it, but it's got a great vibe.

Very cute! I like the character designs and animation a whole lot. The dialogue lays it on perhaps a little too thick with the puns (and I say this as a dragon quest fan), but it seemed fun enough to be worth going for. I enjoyed the fucked up cyborg rat pirate king and the muscle mommy bartender.

The first level of this one was a fucking blast. It felt like something with a kind of Pizza Tower vibe, though I know Antonball came out a while ago? There's Going Fast, there's fun movement mechanics, the animation and spritework is Real Good. Unfortunately the other level didn't click with me as much because it fell into the trap of Precision Timed Platforming that I don't really fuck with. I wish it hadn't just because it's very fun and chaotic!

The environments are very pretty and flying around is pretty fun! I’m curious to see where everything goes. There are a few things that I hope get smoothed out between now and release, like a lot of the animals looking worse than everything else, but that’s fine even if they don’t. I am not sure if I like the art style used for the kid’s face for whatever reason, though, and I can’t actually say what bothers me about it.

Like I'm sure many roguelikes go for, does instill that "one more run" vibe, but I don't think I'm patient enough for this. Yeah I do like my grid based strategy but the directional stuff is a little tough to get used to. I also kind of feel like they're laying the "you're the baddies" on a little thick, and trying a little too hard to be funny? I do like the protagonist alright though.

I'm not sure how I feel about this one, honestly. It's got a neat vibe, but I do feel like the fights honestly feel like more of a pain in the ass than its obvious inspiration, Undertale. (It's the fly, man. Fuck the fly.) Obviously I know you can choose violence but come on. I feel like it's got a little more mean-spirited vibe than Undertale, but I'd have to play more to be sure and I'm not 100% I'll be doing that...? I mean, I really do like the art direction here. I like Doggy. I don't wanna fight that damn fly though.

Eh. I kind of like the aesthetic, but the fourth wall breaking feels a little clunky perhaps. Maybe if it was a little better edited... like. I feel like I can come off a little elitist here, but come on indie devs. Surely you can shell out for an editor for your script. Hire me, I'll do it. I can forgive it if it's a long-ass game with the occasional error but it's happening consistently within the first couple dialogue boxes.

The combat feels pretty alright but why the hell is like, the first platforming challenge after you learn how to double jump and wall jump an instakill rising acid wall? Who does that?

This one seems pretty fun! The art and animation style is very cute, and I like the vibes. I also like the quack button, that's Good. However, there's kind of a weird problem in that it causes my controller to vibrate and I need to tab out of the game to get it to stop? (this is a Switch pro controller, btw.) I don't know if it's a demo issue or what, but it's weird.

It's picross baby! Honestly I'm always glad to see themed picross, I think they're neat. When DO we get another nintendo one.

Extremely promising in terms of vibes. The cast is pretty fun, I like the writing and what's going on here. I also like the little details like being able to choose the more polished "studio" art style versus the "doujin" art style. (I picked the doujin art style. I play Higurashi with the original sprites. That's my style.)

However, I'm extremely glad this game isn't actually coming out until next year because DAMN this game's responsiveness is bizarre. Sometimes I find myself mashing through dialogue too quickly and accidentally skipping dialogue or picking an option I didn't mean to, but other times it really doesn't feel like my inputs are registering. Hopefully this will be fixed by the time the full game comes out, because I'd really hate to see something this neat get screwed over by bad controls.