Backlog 2020

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
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Kikki
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Alright, everybody...let's dive into 2020's games. Will our backlogs grow more this year, or can we actually shrink 'em? :) This thread is great for keeping track of your backlog progress, whether you're doing the Blitz or not...but we also just use it to talk about the games we're currently playing and maybe get some info on games that others are playing that we think look pretty good. Everyone is welcome to join in!

My known purchases of 2020 so far are:
Spoiler:
Definitely:
-Animal Crossing: New Horizons
-Rune Factory 4 Special
-Final Fantasy VII Remake
-Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town (not much doubt that this will be out in 2020, though the release window hasn't been announced yet.)
-Tales of Arise
-Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive
-Littlewood
-Gods & Monsters
-Piofiore
-Cafe Enchante
-Collar X Malice Unlimited

Probably?:
-Two Point Hospital
-Trials of Mana
-Summer in Mara
-Digimon Survive
-Re: Legend (Definitely getting this! But that's if it comes to Switch in 2020.)

If they come out in 2020: (good chance they won't be out until 2021):
-BotW 2
-Cold Steel IV
-Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
And here is my existing backlog, going into 2020...which I'll dip into when not working on 2020's current games. 14 games, 2 or 3 of which I'm likely to just toss into the 'gave it a try and am not into it', abandoned pile...not too crushing :)
Spoiler:
-Torchlight II
-The Caligula Effect: Overdose
-Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!
-Skyward Sword (I will never abandon this. I can't.)
-Liar Princess and the Blind Prince (probably will abandon this)
-Rune Factory 2
-7th Dragon III Code: VFD
-Exist Archive
-Tokyo Mirage Sessions (never found it that interesting...may abandon it)
-Harvest Moon: Animal Parade. (Yeah, this...probably needs to be abandoned.)
-Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness
-Pandora's Tower
-Earthlock
-Wandersong
~

For anyone interested in the 'Backlog Blitz' method of paring down your backlog, it's pretty simple. The biggest benefit, imo, is that it provides a clean slate...which makes your backlog feel like less of a huge juggernaut, no matter how many games you have. Even if it's in the hundreds.
Spoiler:
At the beginning of each year (or define your own year in gaming...doesn't HAVE to begin on January 1) you take ALL of your backlog...and zero it out. So if on December 31, 2019, you had 72 games on your backlog, as of January 1, 2020...you have ZERO games on your backlog.

From that point on, every game you purchase counts as -1. Every game you complete counts as +1. That includes ANY game that you complete for the first time in 2020, even if it's a game you bought previously and forgot about, or never got around to, or whatever.

(You can also do your accounting in reverse...count each game purchased as +1 and every game finished as -1. It works out to the same, it's just a different way of looking at it. As long as you're consistent on how you keep track, it doesn't matter which way you go.)

There are also a lot of resources out there to help you keep your backlog organized. Lots of people around here like Backloggery. I like Grouvee, as I prefer the interface and overall style. There are others, too. Howlongtobeat is also a really nice site to help you sort through your backlog, as you can see a good estimate of how much time you'll have to invest in each game to finish it. So if you want to beat some more games but don't know what to tackle next, it can be helpful to see that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 takes the average person 65 hours to beat just the main story, but 112 to do the main story plus some extras (this is probably the standard play style). While Wandersong takes 9-11 hours whether you're casual about it, or a completionist.

Sometimes knocking a few short games off your backlog to get those precious pluses can be a morale booster :) (Though it can be a morale crusher to do all your short games at once and then only have looooong RPGs left to work on the rest of the year, so howlongtobeat can be really good for this...figuring out just which of your games would be best to tackle next.)
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Shan O 123
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The next few months actually will be busy for me. And it’s as follows:

Pokémon Shield until RF4s comes out which I’ll be playing until animal Crossing. Lol that’s it.
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Kikki
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Fingers crossed for that to be possible. I'm afraid RF4S isn't as close to release as I'd hope, and may not come out enough in advance of AC:NH to be worth getting before April/May, as my time will be very sucked up by AC for at least a few weeks (the phase where I can't put it down to play anything else because there's too much new new new stuff to do!)

And April to July are the busiest months of my year, IRL, so...narf. I really need RF4S to come out sooner rather than later. Timing on games has not been good for me, this last half year. I really wonder what's holding XSEED up on RF4S, since they already localized this game. I doubt the honeymoon content is so big that it would take them this long...I'm guessing it must be a voice actor issue. Amazon.com has already budged the placeholder date out a month (it was January 21, but now it's Feb 25) and I expect Xseed will probably announce the game as close to exactly a month in advance of the release day as they can. Since it's not announced yet, I'm thinking February is as soon as we can expect it.

Guess we'll see. But it'd be really great if it came out in January. Or at least by mid-February.
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Night Owl
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Oh boy, a new backlog thread! Excellent. Well, I've been plugging away at Persona Q1 because I just had the sudden urge to go: "Yeah, I'm beating this game now" I didn't even start over from my file that was in the 3rd Labyrinth. I originally got stuck years ago in the 4th Labyrinth, and well, didn't think to look up the puzzles on YouTube. Which is what I'm doing now, because the 4th Labyrinth is actually evil. And also in my original playthrough, I didn't realize that I HAD to use the P3 and P4 protagonist in my party at least until level 55, whereupon I will get a quest that allows the Personae for the party to evolve. But when I started over at some point, I actually had a decent party composition, so I just rolled with it.

I also did start a new file on Fire Emblem Three Houses in the interest of doing a Silver Snow run. Not even two chapters in, and I already stole Lysithea. Goodbye Hubert, I've got the best black mage in the game now.

But as for-sure purchases in 2020:
Spoiler:
-Rune Factory 4 S Archival Edition
-Persona 5 Royal
-Animal Crossing: New Horizons
And some games that have made my list, but not too sure if I'll end up getting it:
Spoiler:
-Final Fantasy VII Remake
-Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
There's probably some games I'm forgetting here and there, but those will get added eventually as I remember them.

And then as for games I want to beat in 2020...
Spoiler:
-Caligula Effect: Overdose
-Dragon Quest Builders 2
-Persona Q1
-Fire Emblem Three Houses
-Trails of Cold Steel 2
-Trails of Cold Steel 3
-Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
-Etrian Odyssey Nexus
-Persona Q2
-Code Vein
-Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition
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RopeMaidenKirie
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Phew, these last few months have been killer for me in terms of completing games. Luckily I don't really have too many since I cleared my backlog this year before I started college back up again.

I'm working on Pokemon Sword and Disco Elysium in terms of games I'd like to get through before the March/April barrage of games hits me in the face lol. I'm also replaying FFVII before the remake hits.

For games I'm 100% getting in 2020:
Spoiler:
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Cyberpunk 2077
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
RF4:Special
Story of Seasons: FoMT (Already have in Japanese but still want in English lol)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Ghost of Tsushima
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2

Games I'll be importing:
Rune Factory 5
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 7
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Ronin19
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Oh boy, here we go again!

Games I'm guaranteed to get:
Spoiler:
Tokyo Mirage Sessions
Warcraft 3 Reforged
Rune Factory 4 Special
Animal Crossing New Horizons
Persona 5 Royal
Cyberpunk 2077
Godfall
Psychonauts 2
Littlewood
ReLegend
Rune Factory 5 (Probably just a JP release, but putting it here just in case)
Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town (doubt we'll get it this year, but you never know)
Tales of Arise
Twin Mirror
Tell Me Why
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition
Maybe Games
Spoiler:
Bravely Default 2
Sports Story
Large list of games that still need to be finished
Spoiler:
Like I'll list them again, but, trust me, it's big.
Right now I'm finishing up Mass Effect 3 (I'm almost done, just two more DLCs to go through and then I'm done!). Afterwards, I'm gonna work simultaniously on Animal Crossing Wild World (the goal is to finish my last house debt before Animal Crossing New Horizons comes out), Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life (the goal is to finish this up before Tokyo Mirage Sessions comes out, so I'll be playing about 2 months a day), and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Complete Edition.
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Mikodesu
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Oddly enough the only game I know I'll get (want/has a release date) is AC: New Horizons. I'm really hoping we get a surprise January direct out of Nintendo, because their year seems pretty up in the air at this point.

Unfinished games
Spoiler:
Ni no Kuni 2 - would like to play, haven't tried to solve my computer problems in a while
LoZ: Oracle of Ages
Talos Principle
LoZ: Skyward Sword - determined to start a walkthrough playthrough of this once I get a new power cord for my WiiU
Making lists like this is so good for my teeny brain. I get so distracted by other things, I think all of the above would go untouched.
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Pachi
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So far I only have two games I'm 100% getting in 2020: SoS Friends of Mineral Town and Bravely Default II and I'm already excited eee

Existing backlog
Spoiler:
Octopath Traveler
Okami
ANB
I'm currently playing FE3H and Rakuen, and I'm looking forward to finish them so I can start Octopath already :lol:
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Bluie
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HERE I GO AGAIN NEGLECTING GAMES FOR OTHER GAMES.

But in all seriousness, I love this thread and i'm happy it's back for another year! My backlog went from decently controlled to 'I bought too many games on sale and the pile keeps rising'. Regardless, this is the current damage;

Switch:
Spoiler:
SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions
Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission
The Grisaia Trilogy
PS4:
Spoiler:
Ni No Kuni II
Trails of Cold Steel III
Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception & Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth
Games I plan on purchasing this year:
Spoiler:
Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Encore
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Trials of Mana
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen
Project Sakura Wars
And on top of this, I'm playing Final Fantasy XIV, Dauntless, and Fire Emblem Heroes practically daily. I'd love to get everything done asap, but there's simply not enough hours in the day! I plan on taking a break from FFXIV one my current time card runs out and then knocking out a few titles before going back to it. Hopefully I stick to that LOL.
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Finished Astral Chain, and it was pretty good! The biggest con being the silent protag and the essentially half-baked story. There was SOME potential there it just felt really...undercooked. And a lot of it's ideas were pretty heavy handedly taken from other genres. That Could be overlooked in most cases, but you have to put the work into it to make it your own.


But! The gameplay itself was REALLY fun, the art/graphics were fantastic, some of the characters were quite likable (I loved Hal, Kyle, Olive. And even Akira grew on me quite a bit.), and most especially; the music was PHENOMENAL. Some really great boss fights, although it kind of mehh-ed out at the dead end.

Just really hate that protagonist didn't speak. Felt like there was a LOT of lost opportunity there, especially since it felt like the deuteroganist was more of the protagonist than you, at times.

Overall a really great game for the Switch and I do hope they make future entries. It's got a lot of potential, as the concept is really cool and there is a LOT they can do with the lore, but they would definitely need to add more meat to the bones for the next one's story.
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Pachi
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I've seen a couple of users put Astral Chain in their favorite games list in the annual favorite/least favorite 2019 games, so I might go check it out :) look at me increasing my backlog lmao

I've finished Rakuen and it's a very wonderful game. The music and storytelling are fantastic. It's not perfect (there were two parts where I'm ?? and just doesn't seem to make sense), but the game does live up to the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam. It's on 50% discount right now and I recommend everyone to get it! :heart: Also, aside from Mom, Sugarbaby is the best :lol:
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Code_Name_Geek
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I loosely tracked games I played and bought last year but didn't go in with any particular goals or expectations, so I might do that in a more structured way this year. One thing I'm curious about is if anyone else weighs games differently based on length, since counting short indie games the same as 100+ RPGs seems a tad unbalanced for my particular style of playing.

Anyways, here are some games I want to get to next year:

Already owned:
Spoiler:
Persona 5 (started but not finished)
Bravely Second
Finding Paradise
Rakuen
Persona 4 (after I beat P5)
Pokémon Conquest
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Puyo Puyo Tetris story mode
Probably at least one of the BokuMono games I haven't gotten to yet, depends what my mom wants to play
Games to buy:
Spoiler:
Octopath Traveler
Dragon Quest XI S
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (unless my brother buys it first)
Story of Seasons: FoMT
Bravely Default II if it gets localized this year
I'm also kind of interested in the Trails of Cold Steel series, but haven't decided if I'll commit to more huge PS4 RPGs since portable gaming is so much more convenient for my current lifestyle and it's hard enough to find time for Persona 5. I'll definitely finish P5 first before considering that one further.
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Kikki
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I have no idea how people count things in just a general way, but when it comes to the backlog blitz method, nobody I know so far counts their games based on length.
Spoiler:
I play mostly very long games, too. There has never been a single short game on my list of favourites, ever. I require quite a bit of time to get invested! Kirie's the one who told me about Backlog Blitz and we sort of talked about that stuff, as well as what to do about games that have no actual ending, etc, like Mario Party or Tetris...if they go on the backlog at all or not. Counting your games as more than 1 based on length gets into a 'perceived value' area, rather than something concrete, if that makes sense. Plus everyone takes a different amount of time to finish things. Liar Princess is supposed to take 5 hours. But I was only 1/3 done and already at 6 hours. (And I'll probably never finish it, as sweet and adorable as it is. I hate platforming, lol. I was just so interested in the fairytale setting and story! But getting through each chapter is like pulling teeth, for me.)

It's not like getting a high total is 'winning' or anything since the only thing you're up against is your own backlog; the blitz is just a method of tracking how many games you buy versus how many you actually play. I've actually found the Backlog Blitz is super useful in showing you your habits and automatically curbing spending...or so it worked for me, anyway. If you end the year with a negative number, you're buying more than you're able to play and your backlog is growing. That's all it really is.

Keeping a list of the actual games played automatically shows how much time must be invested, imo, at least on a basic level. If my list is full of ten games like Xenoblade, Trails, Tales, Breath of the Wild, etc, you can see that it represents massive play time, even if you're comparing it to a list of thirty games like Liar Princess, Wandersong, Oxenfree and Kitty Love.

You could also always include your play hours on your list, if you wanted, beside each game.

Of course, you can do as you like, even if you use the blitz method. The Backlog Blitz is meant to be a method to encourage gamers to actually play and complete their games (and has the side effect of curbing purchasing, ime, and getting me to try older games to see if I can finish them after all.) So far everyone I know who's tried this counts every game as one, regardless of length, but if you found it more motivating to count it based on time, you'd need to make a consistent system to stick to.

Making my own system made things too complicated for me, so I stuck to '1' for everything, regardless of length. Except games that were literally more than one game, lol, like the Atelier Dusk Trilogy bundle. I'd count that as 3 because it is, in fact, three separate games.
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ryume
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Post  Posted:

Looking forward to everyone’s gaming adventures in 2020!

Guaranteed Gaming Purchases (at this time):
Spoiler:
FFVII Remake
Cyberpunk 2020
RF4S
Animal Crossing: NH
The Last of Us Part 2
Trials of Mana
I’m not keeping any sort of backlog whatsoever. I think I gave up after the very first backlog thread was in existence for about a week lol,
Last edited by ryume on Dec 31, 2019 9:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Kikki
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Most people who participate in the backlog threads don't seem to keep track formally. Or that's how it looks to me, anyway. I think I may have been the only one who did, in 2018. (We've only had 3 backlog threads so far...2018, 2019, and now this one, for 2020.) Others just kept lists of their purchases and completions and left it at that, iirc.

Keeping actual numbers was fun and motivating for me, though. I would never have gotten 36 games done in 2018 if not for that. It was a big boost for me. Late 2018 and the first half of 2019 I was too unwell to manage, though...for half a year or more, I could barely stay awake, let alone get anything done. So I only kept a list of what I completed in 2019 and nothing else...I didn't even keep track of my purchases. But it mustn't have been too bad, because I only have 14 games on my backlog now, and more than half of them are from years ago.

Gonna go back to full-on numbers-keeping again for 2020. I enjoyed the backlog blitz, so...why not? :) My health is in much better condition now than it was at this time last year, so there's nothing to make it more of a burden than a benefit for me, at this time.
Last edited by Kikki on Oct 26, 2020 3:24 am, edited 2 times in total.
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