Author Topic: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo  (Read 28312 times)

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Offline M.K.Ultra

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #25 on: August 15, 2021, 11:38:31 PM »
I have one more to add the list of completed games, Splatoon 2. I figured with over 100 hours spent on multiplayer and Splatoon 3 scheduled for next year, it was time I played through the single player campaign. I think it is called Octo Canyon, at least that is what is says on the menu. I beat each level and found all the Sardinium and Sea Scrolls. It was as good as the campaign in the first game, though the final boss battle was not as epic. It was cool to try out some of the other weapons. I had not used the umbrella or brush before. I also did not realize I should be mashing jump when swimming up a wall. Worth playing if you have the game but I don't think I will buy the DLC single player content. I am about halfway done with Giana Sisters and starting to like it more.

Offline broodwars

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #26 on: August 16, 2021, 01:00:11 AM »
Rolled credits on Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Eeesh, that game's final dungeon + final boss + hour-long epilogue dragged on forever.

I still have a bunch of side stuff and bonus content to do for the Platinum to "officially" get it out of my backlog, but I've beaten the game. That should suffice for this.
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #27 on: August 16, 2021, 01:09:01 PM »
Inching closer to completing Skyward Sword. Did some FAQ checking on the weekend to find a couple Goddess Cubes I missed and why I was missing my last heart piece. All side quests are wrapped up, all treasure chests should have been found, all equipment upgraded. According to the Sheikah Stone, everything is cleared except for the Sealing Grounds and the last dungeon I've just entered.

Minor spoilers ahead.

To get the Hylian Shield, you need to rescue the Thunder Dragon who then has you fight against previous bosses. There are 9 total boss fights to revisit. When I was doing this mode, I'd fought 8 bosses and could quit for the Shield or keep going for 2,000 rupees. I thought I might as well do the last fight and collect everything. The last fight happened to be the 3rd Imprisoned fight and I almost blew it. I got up to Groose's cart and was hitting A to end his dialogue only to accidently fire myself out of his catapult when it ended. I was so upset thinking I'd just choked on the whole thing right at the end. Fortunately, I was able to get back to the cart and stop the Imprisoned in time. Then I found out that all I won was the 2,000 rupees. I thought the rewards were cumulative and that I'd get everything offered up to that point including the Hylian shield and Piece of Heart that were offered.  >:(  I don't need any more rupees at this point. So, then I had to play through the bosses again and beat 8 for the Shield and then another 4 to get the Piece of Heart. Ugh.  :P

That means I got to fight The Imprisoned 12 times this game. It didn't come up during my run of 4 for the heart piece. That said, it was kind of interesting to go back to these fights and see how easy they were at this point and when you know what to do. Truthfully, the Imprisoned fights were no big deal at this point. They have  an easy pattern / strategy to them. They were all under 3 minutes when doing them again. Same with Girahim. For some reason, I ended up having to fight him back to back each time during the three boss rushes I did. The first time when I beat all nine I didn't even have a shield. So, I just got more aggressive but I had also figured out better sword swinging strategies so I was surprised at how easy and quickly those fights now were. I knew from looking ahead at how much is left in the game I've got one more fight with the dude. Hopefully, it goes as smoothly as these rematches did.

Hoping to be done with this game either today or tomorrow. Pokepal makes a big deal out of Fi but I've had no problem with her. My biggest gripes about the game has been the amount of back tracking and going over the same old ground a bunch of times. I also hate how the game has to relearn all the insects and materials each time you play. While it's sort of been a long time part of the gameplay baked into this brand of games, there just seemed to be a lot of fetch quests and busy work that felt sort of excessive or included for the sake of padding things. For instance, when bringing a basin of water to Eldin to open the sixth dungeon, you can't just warp to the entrance of the dungeon. No, you've got to go up the mountain from the bottom again and defeat enemies for an escort mission. Meanwhile, I just want to get to the point already and get started on the dungeon instead. It's just an artificial reason anyways for having to now do this task. I guess that maybe is what I'm searching for. It just seems or feels like I could see a lot more of the artificiality in this game than in other Zelda titles.

In the first part of the game when getting through the first three dungeons, I was really enjoying the game and got re-enthused by the classic Zelda formula. However, this game wears out its welcome and now gives off a vibe of the formula getting exhausted and running on fumes. It's rather interesting to see how a lot of ideas and concepts in this game were taken over into Breath of the Wild and work so much better there. Justin will love this but playing Skyward Sword just makes me appreciate BotW even more.
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #28 on: August 17, 2021, 06:37:58 PM »
I don't think I will buy the DLC single player content.
For what it might be worth, the DLC is quite different, and is more varied; challenging; and interesting than the original single player mode.

Offline broodwars

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #29 on: August 17, 2021, 07:40:06 PM »
I don't think I will buy the DLC single player content.
For what it might be worth, the DLC is quite different, and is more varied; challenging; and interesting than the original single player mode.

Agreed. The Single-Player Splatoon 2 DLC is the best content in the game IMO. It focuses the experience on small bite-sized chunks that serves the game's mechanics SO much better the main game's drawn-out levels. And it ends with a pretty big bang.
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Offline RABicle

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #30 on: August 18, 2021, 10:34:42 AM »
I should probably mention that instead of many of the games I’ve listed, I’ve been playing Burniut Paradise Remastered. Expect to finish it before the week is out.
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #31 on: August 18, 2021, 11:08:02 AM »
Skyward Sword is done and complete. Sure there's Hero Mode but I'll just copy Adrock with the Steve Rogers meme and "No, I don't think I will" when it comes to that. It's not often when I complete a game that I wonder if I should try and sell it off. It's not that I hated the game but rather that I just don't see myself ever replaying it. There are some good parts to the game but there's also a lot of dull stuff to drag it down. One of these days, I'll play Ocarina of Time 3DS to remind myself what that game is like since it's been over 15 years or so since the first time I played it. In my mind, either OoT or SS would be the game I would slot at the bottom when ranking the 3D Zeldas. I'm kinda leaning towards OoT at the bottom but I feel a replay is in order to make a more accurate choice.

Monday, I completed the last dungeon and got all the way up to the warp point to the fight against Demise. Yesterday, I completed that fight. It took two tries. I got through the first phase on my first try and then got my butt kicked on the second phase. I only had a couple fairies with me which gave me six hearts when revived but with Demise dealing two heart damage on his blows, they didn't provide much cushion against his attacks as I was trying to figure out what to do next. So, on the next attempt it was back to Skyloft to get a heart potion and upgrade it a couple times and then back to the fight. Good thing I did that as I needed it. Thought I did better on the first phase of the fight on the second go around. Lost way less health and felt I did it quicker. But the second phase was rough. I liked the idea of the villain also using a Skyward Strike of their own and using the hero's tactic against them. It definitely amped up the difficulty. The learning curve was just in the timing. I needed to get my sword raised to power it up also and Demise was having none of that. He always seemed to be rushing me or shooting out his sword beam just as I almost got powered up knocking me down and preventing it. A couple times, I did get him knocked down and the game gave the alert of doing a finishing blow but by the time I got over to him to do it he was getting back up on his feet. A bit demoralizing as it felt like I was letting victory slip away. However, I'd finally clued into a method for getting me sword charged and avoid his blow. I got in the fatal blow on the third time he went down with about 5 or 6 hearts left. I'd used up the heart potion and fairies at that point so victory came just in time.

After it was all over, I reloaded the save file and went to Skyloft to check the Sheikah Stone which confirmed I'd cleared everything. I watched the hint about the Demise fight and the tip that was shown was what I had clued in about on timing near the end so it confirmed I had been on the right track at the end of that fight. I don't put much thought into the Zelda timeline because its pretty inconsequential to enjoying the Zelda games. I know the fact that OoT creates multiple branches in the timeline hasn't been the most popular choice. However, after wrapping up the game, I feel this title would have created more multiple branches in the timeline than OoT. Maybe it does and Nintendo just has said anything about it yet.
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #32 on: August 18, 2021, 12:34:21 PM »
So, with Skyward Sword cleared, the question now is what's next? Looking at my backloggery account, I've had something that I've wanted to finish but have put off for a few years now. Finishing the Hypermode difficulty on Metroid Prime 3.

I've put it off because other stuff came along and as time elapsed from when I last played it, I felt it might be kind of tough to jump back into and relearn the controls since I left off at the final Ridley fight. Still, since I completed Skyward Sword which was a Wii-mote and nunchuk heavy game then perhaps it might not be so bad to try it again now. I loaded up the game and took a few moments going through the buttons and controls. Reading up on some of the weapons and how they work. Did some quick aiming practice and then went to battle. I actually got over halfway through the battle or at least Ridley's health was brought down about over half by the time I failed which was a lot better than I expected to do jumping into this game after so much time gone by. By the end, I was getting pretty familiar with his attack patterns and how to avoid them. In fact, at one point I went from 2 energy tanks and some change to 5 energy tanks and some change as got better at dodging the attacks and collecting some health from destroying his fireballs. Ultimately, getting knocked around a lot at the start and losing a lot of health when first re-acquainting myself with this battle did me in. Still, it is not often I lose a boss battle and feel good about how it went done. I think it ended up lasting like 20 minutes though so I know it's going to be a long slugfest which is part of why I walked away from it the first time. At least I have enthusiasm for playing through it right now although I know I've still got the hardest fight ahead of me yet with Dark Samus and I wonder how much of a pain that will be.

MP3 released in 2007. 14 years ago. Wowser. It may be next year that MP4 actually gets released making 15 years between entries.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #33 on: August 19, 2021, 12:09:24 AM »
Instead of continuing with the game club but sticking with the overall theme, I've decided my next project for this is to finally finish Axiom Verge now that the sequel's out. I've owned this on like 4 different platforms but never got very far into any of them, and now I'm going to change that.
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Offline RABicle

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #34 on: August 19, 2021, 12:11:18 AM »
I have beaten Burnout Paradise Remastered
I will update my first post accordingly.
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Offline TOPHATANT123

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #35 on: August 19, 2021, 05:55:21 PM »
Not been making much progress on the old backlog.

Almost the end of August, but I've managed to finish one: Astral Chain.

The combat is excellent. There's room for criticism with some of the other parts of the game, but at the end of the day it's a Platinum game. The combat is what you're here for. It's deep and complex, but it slowly introduces you to all of the moves and techniques so you don't get overwhelmed. The controls are clever as they allow you to pull off a variety of different attacks without requiring you to remember and execute a string of button inputs.

Offline GK

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #36 on: August 20, 2021, 03:09:47 AM »
Almost the end of August, but I've managed to finish one: Astral Chain.

Congrats!

Funny enough, I was at Game Stop yesterday looking for Astral Chain & they didn't have it. Which reminds me, I probably should move Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance & Nier: Automata up the "to finish" list, but eh. Maybe another time.

As for Horizon Chase Turbo just crossed the last finish line of World Tour. The map is 79% complete so not sure if I'll move on to another game or go back & get some more 1st place finishes.
Mission...complete?

Offline RABicle

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #37 on: August 20, 2021, 11:10:53 AM »
Fire Emblem Heroes has been beaten. I’ll update my list in the morning, for now it feels like a tumour has been removed.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #38 on: August 20, 2021, 03:17:29 PM »
I'm making strong progress in Chibi Robo: Clean Sweep. There isn't much information out on this game because it is an incredibly niche import title but based on how the main storyline is playing out I do believe I'm at the final act. It's a damn fun game either way though.

Offline GK

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #39 on: August 20, 2021, 06:10:59 PM »
Anyone here have Hardcore Mecha? I'm wondering if they ever patched the slow-down & crashing issues with the Switch version of that game. I did finish what I think was the final boss, but the game crashed during the big escape part of the stage afterwards, so nothing was saved.

Got frustrated & haven't gone back to the game since.
Mission...complete?

Offline broodwars

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #40 on: August 21, 2021, 01:33:15 PM »
Well, my Limited Run Collector's Edition of Panzer Paladin finally arrived a few days ago, so it got me in the mood to FINALLY try and finish that game. I've been playing it off & on for a year now, putting it down when I got tired of its rather punishing difficulty. When last I'd played, I'd gotten up to the Wiley's Castle equivalent. Well, I've finally rolled credits on it. That final boss went down absurdly easily considering the insane crap you have to go through just to GET to him.



I do really like the game (hence the CE with the statues & soundtrack CDs), but man I wish the stages themselves were better balanced and paced. I really question why a "Life" system was even needed in this game, considering Shovel Knight didn't use one.  I've played Mega Man games easier than this thing on Normal. Killer soundtrack, though.
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Offline RABicle

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #41 on: August 22, 2021, 08:11:15 AM »
I have finished Orwell. Fun game, worth a replay or three to figure out all the achievements. I played through most of it while sitting through some bullshit training for a new job I'm doing. The training was delivered by Zoom so I just chimed in once in a a while as I played.

Can you guys feel my momentum though? That's 3 dames in like 4 days. What game will fall next?
« Last Edit: August 27, 2021, 10:54:56 AM by RABicle »
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Offline TOPHATANT123

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #42 on: August 22, 2021, 04:49:34 PM »
Another one in the bag: Suikoden.

I really like this game, it's solid. The best thing it's got going for it is that it's nice and short. It's from before side quests were invented, meaning I was able to finish it in 26 hours. It's got a simple battle system that never gets too hard, while providing some challenge during bosses. Plus some fun mini games that are integrated into the story.

The story itself is refreshingly straight forward compared to other JRPGs, and well executed. You have a clear goal and it's a game world that managed to capture my imagination. It packs a lot into its relatively short run time.

The USP of Suikoden is its number of characters. There are over 100 party members and I think they pulled this off rather well. Everyone levels up insanely quickly so you don't have to worry about characters falling behind. Even the characters you never use are integrated into the battle system at certain points, so characters you don't plan on actively using are useful in the grand scheme of things. I've also got to say as well that the art style is lovely.

My main criticisms would be quality of life stuff. The menus are slow and clunky and your character can't run inside dungeons for some reason. Swapping out equipment is a chore that disincentivses you from changing your party too often. The game thankfully allows you to teleport wherever you want, but in terms of quality of life the series has a way to go.

Looking forward to playing the next one at some point in the future.

Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #43 on: August 23, 2021, 10:13:53 AM »
Can you guys feel my momentum though? That's 3 dames in like 4 days.

You're a real ladykiller, RAB!
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #44 on: August 23, 2021, 06:35:56 PM »
As for me, after declaring I was going to try finish MP3, I ended up being rather busy the next couple nights and not really able to play much of anything. I did a bit of travelling on the weekend as I went out of town to visit some people. (I like to keep things vague.) The main takeaway is that I ended up playing some of Super Mario Party again. While playing it, I was surprised to see I still had characters that hadn't been unlocked yet. There was also another mode that hadn't been unlocked because I has not played all the minigames. Finally got around to doing some River Survival and Sound Stage to try them and get those minigames. Ended up getting the Gem for Sound Stage. Later I did a round of Partner Party on my own and got the last minigame I needed which opened up Challenge mode. The end result is that I unlocked two characters with another two to go. I guess I'll keep plugging away at this game now to get the other three gems I need and unlock the last couple characters as well. These other modes are still kind of fun even as single player so this has now become my new obsession to finish for Backlaugust.
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Offline RABicle

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #45 on: August 24, 2021, 02:28:04 AM »
Can you guys feel my momentum though? That's 3 dames in like 4 days.

You're a real ladykiller, RAB!
Goddamn I can't correct the typo now!
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Offline Order.RSS

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #46 on: August 24, 2021, 06:09:43 PM »
Whew, some of y'all are flying through these!
I've basically made zero progress in anything yet, with just a few days left in the month. Where did August go?!

Offline RABicle

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #47 on: August 25, 2021, 02:13:59 AM »
With the final week looming down I'm looking at my diary and It's going to be tough to get much more done. I can probably schedule in The Novelist and I think at this point if I simply turn on The Longing I'll have finished it. Actually I'll check that now, brb

alright I'm back. Yep the countdown has finished, I just need to leave my room and wake up the King. I have no idea if this actually is the end though. I kinda suspect that the King is dead. Here we go I'm leaving my room.
Oh dear…
The Longing has ended.
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #48 on: August 25, 2021, 10:04:27 AM »
Can you guys feel my momentum though? That's 3 dames in like 4 days.

You're a real ladykiller, RAB!
Goddamn I can't correct the typo now!

That's the power of the forums, baby!  ;D

Well, if it bugs you that much, I have the power to make it all go away. Let me know if you do and I can work my magic.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Backlaugust 2021: Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
« Reply #49 on: August 25, 2021, 01:33:01 PM »
Whew, some of y'all are flying through these!
I've basically made zero progress in anything yet, with just a few days left in the month. Where did August go?!
God, remember when I thought I could beat a long ass RPG? Now I can barely scrape enough time to finish a Chibi Robo game.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2021, 02:32:11 PM by pokepal148 »