Backlog Report – April 2023

Another month, another adventure.

In last month’s monthly report, I mentioned that I was potentially moving in the coming months. That plan has unfortunately come to a pause since renting or buying in the new area is freaking expensive. Our current mortgage is cheaper than most of the places available for rent in the area. The plan now is to wait and see if more affordable housing becomes available in the area, or I start looking for a new job that pays more. Either or, I like where we live currently, but we both wish there were more people our age around for us to make friends.

With the new roadmap ahead, my buying habits will be toned down exponentially. Unless it is something I really want to play on day one, my game purchases will have to wait until a good sale happens. I have already been doing this for a while now, but new restrictions on myself will limit me to deals that are too good to pass by. So far the only new releases that have my attention are Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy XVI, Street Fighter 6 (maybe), and The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie. Eventually I will acquire other games that I want, but this also means that more games on my backlog can start being completed.

Games Finished This Month

Metroid Prime Remastered

At one point I called this my favorite Metroid Prime out of the trilogy. After revisiting it, I’m not too sure. I do love the classic feeling of the Metroid game, but the constant backtracking wore me down after awhile. There were some abilities that I wish Samus had in this game like the Space Jump or Screw Attack just to make traversal move a bit faster. Overall though, I enjoyed my time revisiting this game in its shiny new coat. Hopefully this means that the other Prime games will release before the fourth game magically materializes.


New Additions

Diablo III: Eternal Collection (PS4)

I have never played a Diablo game before. This caused the game store attendee to die of shock and then resurrect themselves to tell me that I am not a real gamer since I have never played Diablo. So with that I started the game with some resentment to it, but gradually understood why people like these games. You go around and destroy waves of monsters to find sweet loot to get stronger to fight other strong monsters. It is a good mind-numbing experience, but would be better with other people I guess. Until I get over how annoying it was to talk to that annoying store clerk, the game will remain as “It’s okay” from me.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner – Soul Hackers (3DS)

I didn’t technically buy this game. I requested it from my older brother since he long abandoned it and was just sitting on his shelf. I asked if I could have it in order to complete my 3DS SMT collection. He agreed, and now I have a complete collection! Another score for not paying scalper prices!

The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure (PS4)

I completely missed the release window of this game. The fortunately/unfortunately was a panic buy since most places didn’t have a physical copy of this game in stock. Thankfully my reliable source had them in stock, so I bought to ensure that I had a copy. I still need to sit down and finish Trails from Zero first and then try to get this done before Reverie comes out (it’s not going to happen).

Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection (NS)

I never got around to playing the Battle Network games on the GBA. I played and beat Network Transmission on the GameCube, but for some reason I never sought out to play these games. At one point I was going to choose between finding them all or purchasing them off the Wii U eshop, but then Capcom decided to make them all available in one (kinda) collection. This saves me hundreds of dollars finding the GBA originals and one less headache hooking up my Wii U just to play these games.

Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp (NS)

I love the redesign of these games. Haters can hate, but nothing about this series needs to be gritty or war-like (Days of Ruin is pretty good though). I hope that this series can return in some format and that this rerelease helps rekindle interest.


Currently Playing

At the beginning of the month, I had planned to play through Atelier Ryza 1 and Diablo III. That all changed one day during my lunchbreak when I decided to try Romancing SaGa II again and got hooked. I was not expecting to have this game constantly on my mind. There is nothing special about this game much, but my imagination with building my own lore has made this one of my favorite “role playing” games in a while. I’ll talk more about it later.

My weekend Divinity II sessions has to go on hiatus for a few months. One of our players needs to take a break from gaming to focus on other things. I don’t blame them at all since life comes before pleasure. Kat and I still have our game going, but last time we played the connection kept dying on us and made us lose an hour’s worth of progress. Divinity will return at some point.

This month I also started one of my streaming challenges. The first challenge is to obtain the platinum trophy in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition. I thought this was going to be easy and something I could easily stream. I forgot however that the game moves incredibly slow at the beginning since you don’t have much to do. After a few streams I decided that I would haste through some of the boring stuff offstream and stream the game during more of the interesting parts. The streams will resume once I get to the end of Chapter 1 since nothing exciting happens before you get married and more options become available. I have more challenges that I want to do in the meantime, so those may occur while I work on this.

I haven’t stopped playing Theatrhythm, and you can’t stop me.


That is about all that I have for this month. If you are like me and think post on this blog have been dry then fear not! I have three post in the works with two of them practically done. These will be spaced out just so new content appears on the blog. In June I will have a fun post that will come out on my birthday. Other than that, I will try to stockpile more post that can be used throughout the year. Writing has become fun again!

Thanks for reading as always!

DaNamesX

2021 Lightning Prediction Round (Anniversary Edition)

Last year I wrote a post with my wild ideas and predictions of what I would be playing in 2020. Out of the 13 games that I mentioned I have played 3, own one that I haven’t played yet, didn’t pick up one of them, will be playing two this year, and still dreaming about the rest. I wanted to come up with another post similar with my wild ideas, but didn’t know where to start. Lucky for me, there are a butt ton of anniversaries this year. So I want to do a sort of “lightning round” event where I come up with a realistic idea on what we could get, and then a fantasy that would be cool to see. If any of these things do come true, you heard it hear first!

Anniversary Lightning Round

Donkey Kong (40 Years)

Realistic: I’m not sure. Nintendo has kinda let Donkey Kong do his own thing Mario spinoff games outside the Country series. If we do get anything, it will be a surprise to me. Maybe a Game & Watch with the original Donkey Kong on it.

Fantasy: Funky Kong mode enable for all of 2021.


The Legend of Zelda (35 Years)


Realistic: Nintendo is going to try to push out Breath of the Wild 2 this year. I have no doubt we will get it this year (maybe).

Fantasy: A situation like the Mario 3D All-Stars, but it has the GameCube versions of Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Four Swords. Bonus points for me if an Oracle Duology ever happens.


Metroid (35 Years)

Realistic: Eh… A lot of people are hoping for Metroid Prime Trilogy on Switch to keep them fed until Prime 4 comes out, but I’m in the kiddie pool on this for now.

Fantasy: Metroid Prime Trilogy for Switch OR Metroid Prime Pinball DX


Dragon Quest (35 Years)

Realistic: They just finished porting XI to all consoles. Unless they can put it on smartphones, I don’t think Square will do much.

Fantasy: DQ9 on Switch and PS4/5 wouldn’t be a bad deal (do NOT do it dirty like you did with Crystal Chronicles)


Castlevania (35 Years)

Realistic: I would make a joke, but Konami has released the older game to current gen consoles. That alone is a miracle no one saw coming.

Fantasy: You know what hasn’t been rereleased though? The N64 games. Do it you cowards!


Kid Icarus (35 Years)

Realistic: There haven’t been any news or rumors about a new Kid Icarus. Don’t hold your breath for anything.

Fantasy: If there is a new Kid Icarus game then it will be a surprise for all. I still need to play Uprising at some point.


Sonic the Hedgehog (30 Years)

Realistic: Sega has reassured us that Sonic’s 30th will have a lot for the blue blur. Sega has been pretty good at listening to their player base and delivering games that they want to play with mixed results. Expect a new 3D game and maybe that Adventure remake.

Fantasy: Look. All I want is Generations 2 with at least 2-3 stages from each mainline game. I will eat that for breakfast everyday.


F-Zero (30 Years)

Realistic: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Fantasy: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH


Civilization (30 Years)

Realistic: Firaxis already has a road map currently for Civ 6. We might get another cool attempt of a spinoff like Beyond Earth, but I don’t see that happening.

Fantasy: Speaking of fantasy, how cool would a fantasy civilization game be? You can pick a different fantasy race with special perks and everything. If this game already exists, please let me know.


Pokémon (25 Years)

Realistic: The Pokemon Company is already on the move with their announcements. There was a trailer for the 25th anniversary as well as a trailer and release date for New Pokemon Snap. I’m sure they have a lot more in store for the rest of the year. On a side note, it is also the 15th anniversary of Diamond & Pearl, so get your expectation hats on.

Fantasy: If I could ask for one thing, it would probably be a new Pokemon Pinball game or rerelease. Those games rule!


Resident Evil (25 Years)

Realistic: Resident Evil 8 is coming out this year. Outside of that will be a treat for fans.

Fantasy: A Resident Evil game from the perspective of a mutant. Instead of fighting, you have to avoid people trying to kill you while you try and find a cure for yourself. Along the way silly things happen to make you evolve and more of a threat to the people hunting you. Done right, it could be better than all the multiplayer games they’ve tried.


Crash Bandicoot (25 Years)

Realistic: Crash seems to have been fully revived now. We just got Crash 4 last year, so maybe some DLC will come to say that they did something.

Fantasy: Crash, Mario, and Sonic at Wrestlemania (Shut up. I know you would play it)


Persona (25 Years)

Realistic: Atlus shocked us with Persona 5 for their 20th anniversary. It feels too soon for a Persona 6 since they are not done yet milking all they can from 5. The rest of the world is getting Persona 5 Strikers, but sadly that is nothing new. Atlus has said that they are working on something, so we will see.

Fantasy: Bring Persona 1-3 to PC. I’ll buy them like 4 Golden and then not play it, but I’ll buy it!


Super Mario RPG (25 Years)

Realistic: See F-Zero

Fantasy: Mallow for Smash


Tomb Raider (25 Years)

Realistic: It has been some time since Lara’s last adventure in 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I have no clue what’s in store for the capable adventurer, but an adventure in 2021 may be unwise due to the pandemic.

Fantasy: A point and click adventure style Tomb Raider game. It may not be what the core audience wants, but I think it would be a nice change of pace until the next blockbuster hit.


Nintendo 64 (25 Years)

Realistic: Nothing. If Nintendo did anything it would come as a surprise for both us and them.

Fantasy: A N64 mini or start releasing N64 games on the Switch Online Service. As long as it has Star Fox 64 I’m good.


Halo (20 Years)

Realistic: Halo Infinite would have been nice, but the title also indicates how long you will have to wait for it. The Master Chief Collection was completed last year, so if anything you may see rereleases on the Xbox Series X.

Fantasy: Halo Battle Royal (Shut up. You would play it)


Devil May Cry (20 Years)

Realistic: Nothing foreseeable. DMC V was recently ported to PS5, so nothing special that I can tell.

Fantasy: DMC X Resident Evil. DMC started off as a Resident Evil game, so bring back the concept and see what happens.


Advance Wars (20 Years)

Realistic: Why do I hurt myself so much? War never ends, but Advance Wars ended in 2008 and it would take discovering oil in Switch games to bring it back.

Fantasy: At least Advance Wars 1, 2, & Dual Strike collection….


Golden Sun (20 Years)

Realistic: On the subject of pain. 

Fantasy: Filling in the cliffhanger from Dark Dawn. I will take anything at this point. A sticky note from the director with how the series ends will be enough closure for me.


Wii Sports (15 Years)

Realistic: Nothing. You can’t even play real sports outside right now, so why pretend to do it virtual.

Fantasy: Switch Sports. Why is this not a thing?


The Elder Scrolls IV and V (15 & 10 Years)

Realistic: It will be the end of an era if Skyrim was not on PS5 or XBSX (it pretty much already is). Elder Scrolls online is getting Oblivion gates added so that is neat.

Fantasy: The official Todd Howard mod update. He just turns everything into Skyrim. Oblivion HD would also be pretty neat.


Bastion (10 Years)

Realistic: Supergiant’s first debut game was my first indie love. The world and gameplay was so interesting to me that I wanted to try and complete everything. It has shown its age lately since playing Hades. I don’t expect Supergiant to do anything for the game, but any surprises would be nice.

Fantasy: When playing Bastion recently, I found that the game is still great, but could benefit with some improvements. An anniversary edition of Bastion could speed the game up a little bit and improve some of the weapon’s speed. My only real request in an enhanced edition, but if they found other things to add to it I would be gracious for it.


Dark Souls (10 Years)

Realistic: We just got a remastered version of Demon’s Soul. What more do we want? From Software is probably hard at work with Elden Ring that anything new to the franchise will come years later.

Fantasy: A version of Dark Souls 1 that plays like Dark Souls 3.


Overwatch (5 Years)

Realistic: The yearly anniversary event might be interesting this year. Until Overwatch 2 comes out, I don’t think any more interesting content will be coming out like new heroes or game modes.

Fantasy: Overwatch 2 is actually done and they release it this year.


Stardew Valley (5 Years)

Realistic: Stardew Valley still amazes me to this day. Version 1.5 was released on PC recently and console players will get it later this year. It has been a while since I finished it, so maybe it will be the perfect relaxation tool I need in the future.

Fantasy: This game does not require any fantasy ideas from me. It has delivered what I want in a farming simulation game and it continues to deliver.


Whew. That was a long strike of lighting.

Please don’t get mad at me if none of these wild predictions come true. Blame yourself for giving into false hype. Keep your expectations low and keep an open mind to experience new things. If any of these do come true, then I take full credit and your heard it here first! If there are other anniversaries happening this year that I did not cover, you can leave a comment and I’ll give my opinions there.

Now if you excuse me, I have to go back to counting the days without a Nintendo Direct.

Thanks for reading,

DanamesX