Battling the Backlog 2024 - A Yakuza September? And A Lot of Retired Games!
Games Mentioned
- Judgement
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
- Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
- Motorstorm: Apocalypse
- Binary Domain
- Just Cause 2
- Trine 3
Completed on 16th September
Played on PS5
Well, I am at a point in my backlog where I am now ready to play four games that are in the Yakuza franchise. I am a big fan of the Yakuza franchise (or Like a Dragon, as it is know in Japan), but I have fallen behind on the last few releases.
Yakuza 6 seemed to be the end of the line for the main protagonist's storyline and I thought Yakuza would probably have ended for good.
After Yakuza 6 a title called Judgement was released and was advertised as being set in the same universe as the Yakuza games with similar gameplay and a new protagonist to delve into.
As I have a number of un-played games in the Yakuza franchise I thought I would treat them all as one big game and play them one after the other. I plan to play them in release order:
- Judgement
- Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon
- Lost Judgement
- Like a Dragon: The Man who Erased His Name
I suspect the whole month of September will be focussed on the above four games in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise.
Judgment, as many Yakuza games before, has a rather slow start and Judgment is no different. A lot of chapter 2 involves tutorials for optional side missions and places to visit. I felt chapter 2 and 3 are when the game really begins to shine.
As usual with previous Yakuza games Judgement has an intriguing main story, bonkers Japanese side missions and brutally fun upgradable Kung Fu fighting in the streets of Kamurocho.
With other games in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise I always had great fun with the Kung Fu combat, but I always felt that the random fights that you have outside the main missions seemed to end too quickly.
The above issue is also somewhat true for Judgment, but from chapter 4 random fights do feel slightly tougher than previous Yakuza games and occasionally a random fight will have an enemy with a larger health bar and thus a number of random battles will last for a good amount of time - letting me enjoy the random fights for a little longer than previous entries in the Yakuza universe.
Judgment is similar to the Yakuza games in that it has a super serious story that adds twist upon twist and has a compelling epic story.
9.5/10
Judgment - Combat Trailer
Short Combat Gameplay
The Yakuza Universe May Have To Wait a Little Longer
I realise that previously I wrote that I would play all the Yakuza universe games in my backlog one after the other, but while I enjoyed my time with Judgment I wanted a little break from Yakuza titles as they tend to be longer games than I typically play and I do not want to risk burnout on similar games, so I will play a few other shorter games before I head back into the Yakuza universe.
Retired on 17th September
Played on Xbox 360
Played on PS3
I am not a massive Star Wars fan, but I do have a soft spot for the original trilogy and I thought I would try some of the Star Wars games as a curiosity.
Recently, I have played the remastered version of Jedi Knight Jedi Academy and the more recently released Jedi Fallen Order and I enjoyed both of these games. But, I tried with both Unleashed games and never quite found the games to be that rewarding. The reasons included:
- They became quite repetitive and dull really fast.
- Just felt like there was not enough variation.
- Thought I would play both games back to back, but was just not enjoying the game.
I often thought while playing I would rather just play one of the classic God of War games, the more recent Jedi Fallen Order or even a game I completed earlier this year Jedi Knight Jedi Academy.
Retired on 18th September
Played on PS3
When I bought my original PlayStation 3 back when it was a new console I picked up the very first Motorstorm in a 3 for 2 offer when purchasing alongside a PlayStation 3 console. I remember buying Uncharted, Burnout Paradise and Motorstorm.
I was never a huge racing fan, but the graphics for Motorstorm at the time were amazingly realistic and a showcase for the PlayStation 3. When I played Motorstorm out of the 3 games I bought with the PS3 console Motorstorm was my least liked game - I thought it was okay, but not as fun as Uncharted or Burnout Paradise and I was also just bad at the game.
When the sequels for Motorstorm originally released I ignored them because of my middling experience with the first game. Recently, I decided to pick up the 2 Motorstorm sequels for a nice price as they looked like they both had interesting extras that set them apart from the first game.
I tried my best to like Pacific Rift and Apocalypse, but I did just not enjoy my time. At first it seemed quite promising as Apocalypse had a similar mechanic to another racing game called Split/Second, but whereas Split/Second captivated me Apocalypse just did not entertain me.
I think I find that the Motorstorm games tracks may be too open for me and it just is so easy for the vehicles to run out of control. Maybe I am just really bad at Motorstorm titles - in the end I just decided to retire both games.
Retired on 20th September
Played on Xbox 360
I have just completed this month a spin off game in the Yakuza series called Judgment and I own 3 more Yakuza/Like A Dragon games in my backlog, but little did I know the next game I have chosen to attempt in my backlog actually has ties to the Yakuza series.
Binary Domain was actually an experimental game created by the development team that released the Yakuza games. This video below explains the connections that Binary Domain has to the Yakuza games.
Binary Domain - The Yakuza Team's Weird Experiment
Sadly, I decided to retire this game. It looked interesting and when I learned that the developers of the Yakuza games were involved I became even more interested in attempting Binary Domain. It seemed to play fine and had an intriguing story concept, but the game play, while fun at first, just ended up becoming too repetitive for me. I am not the biggest fan of shooters, although there is the odd exception here and there, and Binary Domain did not quite do enough for me to want to continue.
Retired on 21st September
Played on Xbox 360
Well, it has been a busy month for retiring games. I was never 100% sure about if Just Cause 2 was the right game for me, but the positive reception that it has received made we want to at least give it a try. Also there was an Easter egg in reference to the LOST (a tv show that took the world by storm) that I wanted to check out.
Just Cause 2 LOST Easter Egg
My initial fears were right, I as much as I tried Just Cause 2 was just not for me. Maybe it is because I am not much of a shooter fan or maybe because I prefer liner games to open world ones. It is just not a game for me and thus it has been added to the retirement list.
Completed on 24th September
Played on Xbox One
I played both Trine 1 and 2 many years ago when they first were released but I did not buy the sequels that came afterward. Well, another game in my backlog I bought for the massive price of £4.99 is the Trine collection that includes Trine 1, 2, 3 and 4.
I have previously completed Trine 1 and 2 on the PC, so for my backlog I am just going to concentrate on Trine 3 and 4.
The Trine games I played before were fun 2.5D physic style puzzle platformers, but Trine 3 changes the formula and is presented more in a 3D environment. I think the change in the camera perspective was received negatively by fans as for Trine 4 the developers returned the game to it original 2.5D perspective.
I have a strange feeling I may not enjoy Trine 3 as much as the previous 2 Trine entries because of the camera perspective, but I want to give it a chance before venturing into the 4th game in the series.
A few times I found myself thinking I was jumping to another platform successfully only for the character to not make the jump as my character was actually further away from the screen than I realised and not actually directly above an object. In Trine 1 and 2 this was never an issue for me as the characters stayed in a fixed position just like 2D games of old.
Despite my issues with the perspective I was still having fun with Trine 3, but another issue I have is with the way of tackling levels. There is a nice 3D looking hub area for selecting each level, but you have to collect a certain amount of triangles (essentially the Trine's version of coins) before opening up a level. I find this quite annoying as when I finish a level I just want to access the next level, rather than have to go back previous levels I have already finished in order to continue the game.
I understand the the triangles (or Trinangles as the game call them) can be collected to open optional levels, but the fact they are needed to unlock the main levels I find is quite disrespectful of my time.
Judging from the How Long To beat website it seems that Trine is shorter than the previous 2 games and I feel that the developers just added in the triangle collectable requirements to unlock the main chapters to artificially lengthen the game time.
Maybe I am just bad at finding the collectables but I do not want to keep repeating the same levels over and over just to collect more triangles in the hope of unlocking the main chapters. I would rather the game be 3 hours with optional collectables than having a 5 or 6 hours that requires you must play through the same levels again and again.
Overall, I did enjoy my time with the game, but it was definitely not as fun as the first 2 Trine games.
7/10
Summary
Completed: 2
Retired: 6
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