Backlog Battle Report (March/April 2021)

Yep, I’m doing this again.

I won’t be operating to any set schedule of releases, but I’m aspiring to at least have an editorial style post up here every week. If I’m falling short, I might revert to the more blog-esque Battle Reports that I did previously and just talk about everything I played this week in brief.

Delfeir, February 27th 2021

There’s at least two articles that I’ve started but haven’t been able to get to a place I’m happy with since the Gnosia review. I can largely attribute this to terrible sleep for the last week and change. Even so, I want to at least try and write something (even if it’s rambling and low quality). The rate at which I’m able to play games now is exceeding the pace at which I’m writing, so they’re starting to queue up. As such, I’m going to just write really short impressions and comments on some of the highlight games I’ve played from the last two months. Two to three paragraphs on each, tops.

Vs. The Backlog is supposed to refer to my gaming backlog, not my editorial writing backlog. Having one is eternal enough. So let’s go.

Stellaris (PC)

My primary time sponge of the last week, thanks to the new Nemesis expansion. A full review of that content is one of the aforementioned unfinished articles, so I’ll leave my full thoughts for that one.

If I had to review this in a single paragraph, though? The 3.0 patch that all players get is pretty solid and I like most of the changes. Nemesis itself, on the other hand, is probably not worth the purchase. The content within is good for maybe a game or two just to try it out, but it doesn’t add anything that’ll dynamically change future Stellaris sessions. Espionage is also seriously underpowered, which doesn’t help. So yes: no buy, only play.

Monster Hunter Rise (Switch)

Well I fucking loved this one. I’ve dabbled in Monster Hunter for many years but never really stuck with any until World. Played a good stretch of that and of the Iceborne expansion, and now I’m in. I’ve tried to go back and play some of 4U and Generations Ultimate, but the streamlining of more tedious elements in World make them hard to back to. Rise only doubles down on that, and it’s going to be hard to see Monster Hunter any other way.

If new Monster Hunter games see a constant arms race between the monsters and the hunters, Rise is humans deploying orbital strikes. The sheer mobility and power we have with wirebug recoveries, aerial moves, and wyvern riding is crazy. We’re able to be far more aggressive than ever before, and most monsters just can’t keep up. It’s kind of an easy game to get through by series standards — partly because there’s no G or Master rank yet — but it feels like the tough stuff is coming later.

The biggest complaint I could level against it is that it’s… well, unfinished. The story just kind of ends on a cliffhanger and there’s no real endgame as yet, even with updates scheduled as soon as this month. Despite this, I’m keen to continue my hunts and still just dip in from time to time to stay sharp and expand my armory. Magnamalo will drop his stupid gem one of these days…

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (PSP)

I played the original PS1 release of this game maybe 15 years ago after already having played Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced. I liked it quite a bit then, though the PSP’s updated translation and script strikes a much stronger chord this time around. FFT drew me into its political struggles and story far better than I expected, and I think that I like it much more now than I did previously.

That’s only for the story, however. Gameplay wise, I actually remembered it being much better. The sequels (and games like Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark building on its systems) generally have a better implementation of the systems imo. If you don’t know the job unlock paths and what works best ahead of time, grinding felt mandatory in order to catch up and beat some encounters. Looking at you, Wiegraf.

Even so, some of the ideas like cast times and unit/tile targeting are strong. For all the balance quirks, the core concept is solid and propped up by the strong narrative. It remains one of the better explorations of a sociological story as opposed to a psychological one — that is, focusing more on the organisations, politics and societies of Ivalice rather than the characters. Plus, it’s clear just how much Final Fantasy 14 was drawing from this that I didn’t pick up on at first. Interesting stuff and a fun visit down memory lane. Speaking of which…

Final Fantasy 6 Advance (GBA)

I talk up FF6 quite a bit as far as the series pedigree goes, and I still stand by that. Even so, it’s been long enough since I played through it that it’s worth a revisit. Partly, that was from still feeling the itch after finishing Tactics, but not wanting to go to either of the sequels for that one. So I got a copy of the GBA version, hacked in the original SNES music so I wasn’t significantly compromising my experience, and got to it.

Still working my way through it, but it’s holding up well given the era and I am enjoying myself. Just recently wrapped up the opera scene. Plenty of game still ahead, but that scene is fairly iconic for a reason. Not exactly going to bring me to tears or anything nowadays, but I do genuinely appreciate that they tried to do something like that on the SNES in the mid-90s. I remember liking the Esper system better in the past, but I’ve still only gotten a handful so we’ll see where my sentiments line up.

Saga Frontier Remastered (Switch)

What a fucking weird game this is. I’d only dabbled briefly in the original PS1 version, but SaGa Frontier is ridiculously experimental. Compared to the other traipsing through Square’s back catalogue I’m partaking in, this one was less favourable. It’s nice that they’re bringing their stuff forward and making it available to play and preserve (fuck you Sony), even if the sell price for Square Enix stuff tends to be too high. But that doesn’t mean this is a great game, with or without the remaster.

I like other stuff in the SaGa series, and the very versatile “learn by doing” skill system is relatively unique in JRPGs. They took the under-explored level ups of Final Fantasy 2 and fleshed them out more. But SaGa Frontier feels like an absolute blender of character ideas, systems, and worlds. Barely anything is really explored or fleshed out; you just have a list of like 20 places you can bounce around between, with practically no coherent threads to connect them.

With some experimentation and play, I came to grasp the systems a bit better and got through a chunk of one protagonist’s story. The more I played, though, the more frustrated with it I got. Finally, I just shook my head and retreated to a game I actually like…

Romancing SaGa 3 (Switch)

This was the last SaGa game on SNES before SaGa Frontier was made for the PS1. It only got officially remastered and released in English a couple years back, but I played the fan translated ROM quite a bit during my high school years. Even after that, it’s a game I’d occasionally come back to and try again. If anything, I feel like this is the game Octopath Traveler later tried — and failed — to be.

For a game that came out on the same system and time frame as Chrono Trigger, Romancing SaGa 3 can’t exactly compare directly in terms of quality. But RS3 experimented really heavily, featuring an extremely non-linear world and supremely flexible skill system. There’s 8 playable characters that you can start as, but something like 30 in total to assemble your six person squad with. It’s crazy how varied this game is for a SNES JRPG.

Sure, many playthroughs will still go through similar beats and gravitate towards common characters. And it can be just as esoteric as SaGa Frontier for a new player. But it’s overall a much more consistent experience, and one I’m always happy to revisit. A real underrated game.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker (PC)

I’ve been plotting to go through a bunch of CRPGs for comparison purposes since last year. Planescape: Torment was the obvious starting point, but I also revisited Baldur’s Gate 2 and Morrowind to see how they held up. Well, they held up extremely well. But how far had the sub-genre come since then? That was what I wanted to find out, and my first major port of call was Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

This game is… mixed. Really mixed. I can’t say I hate it, and I did have fun with it, but it’s got some serious negatives that continued to impact the experience. As the game dragged on — and it REALLY dragged — the issues just compounded exponentially. I finally gave up in something like the second last dungeon, because I just couldn’t be bothered anymore. I simply didn’t have enough attachment to the story or characters to really see it through.

Credit must be given for transplanting a fully functional version of the Pathfinder tabletop into game form. That all works extremely well. The issues that do arise are from the lack of a DM to tweak the circumstances, as you’d have in the tabletop equivalent. Instead, you’re forced to wade through all the bullshit fight design, crazy systems, and micro-management heavy Real Time With Pause gameplay to get to the end. I really did try, but alas, I just couldn’t really care about Pathfinder: Kingmaker too much. Better luck on the sequel, I guess. Full article about this one coming one day, hopefully.

Risk of Rain 2 (PC)

Risk of Rain 2 is second only to Hades as far as roguelike/roguelite games go. That said, I like the action more in RoR2, so it’s the kind of game I can come back to and play in short bursts. Hades tends to be something I’m going to latch on to and play for longer periods. Different strokes and all that. But man, Risk of Rain 2 is just excellent.

The main reason I’m bringing it up here is because a new update dropped for the game. It added a new class, as well as redoing the entire final level and adding a few extras. Future content updates are likely to be paid expansions of significant size, and I trust Hopoo Games to make it worthwhile. Either way, the new stuff got me playing it again and having a ball. If you haven’t played this one yet, it’s seriously good stuff.

Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers (PC)

Lastly, have you played Final Fantasy 14 yet? There’s a free trial that’ll get you to level 60 and all the way through the first expansion pack!

Ahem. Meme aside though, FF14 continues to be great. The last patch of Shadowbringers (5.5) was a strong one, setting up some pretty interesting questions and concepts for the upcoming Endwalker expansion. Most importantly though, it continued to be super consistent in weaving old loose threads back into the narrative in a really satisfying way. The new dungeon was great fun and visually spectacular.

I’ve still yet to do the Diamond Weapon fight, since I’m a bit behind in that quest line. But I did do the final NieR crossover raid, and man… that was incredible. There’s a full article I could write about that one, but suffice to say it impressed the hell out of me. Yoko Taro remains a madman. Can’t way to play NieR Replicant when that comes out, like, tomorrow. I’ll get to the Weapon fights soon, but then I’ll be settling in for the Endwalker wait. Looking forward to it so much.

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So with luck, I won’t need to resort to the Backlog Battle Report format too frequently. But if nothing else, just putting aside the more structured and full blown pieces I was writing lets me get something here. It’s a morale and confidence boost if nothing else, since I tend to start getting grumpy and miserable if I’m not writing for extended periods.

With luck, I’ll get something more substantial out next time. That’s entirely reliant on my sleep, though. We’ll see how we go. I’m also going to be recording game footage and potentially streaming in the next week or so as an experiment, so we’ll see if that goes anywhere. Until next time!