Backlog 2025

[Kikki]

Hey everyone!

New year, new thread

So, it's time to get 2025 into your head and 2024 (mostly) out of it.

What's your backlog? If you want to list it, go ahead.

Do you have any goals for the year? Things like budget, or games you want to try (old or new). Wanting to push yourself to get better at platformers, or to try being more social in your gaming, like playing more couch co-op or online multiplayer. Want to watch or support more game streamers?

Have your gaming tastes or habits changed, or do you want them to change? Are you looking forward to any games in particular this year? Do you have any plans for tackling your backlog, like using an online backlog account site or a method like the Backlog Blitz, or are you just going to go with the flow?

You don't have to answer ANY of these questions, but they're there to get you thinking about anything you might have to discuss about potential plans for your gaming in 2025.

We've been doing this a while now, so you probably don't need any instructions!

[Bluie]

I'm starting the new year with the following on the backlog;

fault - StP - LIGHTKRAVTE - Around 2 hours in. One more play session will finish it up.

Pokemon Emerald Seaglass - 3 badges in with a full party. I'll pick at it as I feel up to it.

Zenless Zone Zero - After failing to click the first time, I came back to it. Really enjoying it, but progress is slow.

Fire Emblem Engage - Second play through (using mostly only DLC characters) that I need to sit down and finish.

Tears of the Kingdom - Finished, but I want to do quest clean up + explore more

Yokai Watch Switch Remaster - Need to finish, probably around 50% through.

Stardew Valley - Picking at as I feel like it. Want to have a kid and unlock all the new content.

PARANORMASIGHT - Haven't started.

Octopath Traveler II - Around 10 hours in but have lacked the motivation to continue.

Final Fantasy XIV - The eternal grind continues...

------

I want to 'finish' all of these in a way that leaves me satisfied. All of them have my attention, but 2024 had me so focused on another hobby that I had no time for them. It's be nice to have these all done before Monster Hunter Wilds drops, because it will have 100% of my attention until further notice.

[Kikki]

This should be the last time I ever have to mention that I lost my original One Note file, now that 2025 is underway and the GotY thread is done (my entry was pitiful because I had no records of what I played and I stopped keeping any after I lost the file.)

I'll be keeping track again in my NEW One Note (I actually love that silly little program, works great, like a digital corkboard/whiteboard combo) since I really hate not having a record of what I spent and played/completed.

I think I'd have to say that I completed Sun Haven in the last day or two of 2024. However, I've continued to play it, to get the museum and Dynus altars completed. (I only have ONE thing left to contribute to the altars, and I have the museum 85% complete.) I did manage to get married AND to have a kid, and the process of having the child is interesting. You have to do quests to get the child to grow up. They're not INTERESTING quests, mind you. Basically you have to craft a ton of baby food, diapers, and a few toys, and supply the baby every day for a week or two and then it'll grow up. I think mine should be growing up in my next play session.

I want to squeeze every drop of playability I can out of it.

Not sure what's next. I don't remember what I was working on or what I'd finished (GRRR MY ONE NOOOOOOTE...!) I may HAVE to go through Backlog 2024 to see what I did/didn't do. What a chore THAT will be. I know I actually had a great year, though. I played some fantastically fun stuff.

I think sticking to such a low budget was very beneficial. I didn't buy ANY disappointing games, because I could only afford to buy what I MOST wanted, and those were the games I was most sure of. It worked out well. I don't know what my budget is this year, but perhaps I'll stick to the same.

[Kikki]

Oooh, the board is SO quiet. We've even only had FOUR replies (including mine!) to the 'Your GotY' thread. Sad.

But...happy! Because I passed Echoes of Wisdom by because of budget reasons. I DID, in fact, want to play it. I just had other games that were more important, so I had to push it aside.

But my li'l bro-in-law lent it to me last night! Turns out he bought a physical copy. Which means I can play it, now, hooray! Just when I wasn't sure what to play before Daybreak II and XCX remaster come out, since I'm about to the last drops I can squeeeeeeeze out of Sun Haven.

I'm just counterfeiting tickets to fill the 5000 ticket requirement for Dynus' altar, lol. Dynus does NOT deserve real tickets. Anyway, they put a ticket counterfeiter into the game ON PURPOSE, so they must know how hard it is to scrape together any amount of the darned things, which drop in such tiny amounts and nothing sells for very many of them, so...they put in a cheat machine, lol. I'm using it! I still have to go around scrounging for silk to be able to make the fakes, but it's easier than getting the actual tickets by a long shot.

My first task, Backlog-wise, is to go through my games (on Switch, Steam and PS4) to see what I even have hanging around that I either have NO interest in, or that I still want to play, so I can get my head organized again since I'm floundering right now. I probably have to go back through Backlog 2024 as well, but we'll see after I comb my lists of games on each console, if I can remember what I was doing, and what I want to do from now on. I remember I left Pikmin 4 half way done, and that I finished the ocean storyline of Coral Haven but not much that was added after that. But those are the only games I remember leaving hanging. Pretty sure there was more.

I'll get to it! Sooner or later...

~

EDIT: I'm having tons of fun colouring, lately. I have a pretty good cheap set of pencils and a good sharpener and a colouring calendar by Joanna Basford, and because I got it late, I need to hurry up on January's page, lol. So sometimes rather than gaming, I just want to get out my pencil crayons. It's such a peaceful pastime, and I love layering the colours to get the shades I really want out of my small set.

But I definitely want to try some Echoes of Wisdom, today. I can only colour for so long before I get a bit stiff, so...

~

EDIT 2: Coloured the ground and the red trim in my picture, and started Echoes of Wisdom. "Now one of those icky rifts has opened here too!" ?? ICKY? Aren't they more terrifying than icky? Rifts that are obliterating the world...'icky'. Yeah. That's the right adjective.

Super cute, though. As expected. Very smooth, and I'm loving the stonework, lol. Yep, I like looking at the brick walls in this!

[Bluie]

Yeah, it be quiet. Holidays + no new Bokumono game to bring in the new crowd.

I have a little gaming progress. I finished LIGHTKRAVTE like I thought I was. Kinda funny everyone says it takes like 10 hours to beat, but uhhhh, I got it done in under 5. I read lightning fast though, so, it's a (beneficial) me problem. I also made good progress in Stardew. Had a baby, unlocked ginger island, and got a few achievements too. My main goal is to get the movie theatre opened which I'm very close to, but ancient fruit grows really slow and I can't find a dinosaur egg for the life of me. I think it's like, one of two items I'm missing from the museum collection too, which is equally maddening.

I haven't really played anything else including ZZZ and FFXIV. I've been busy writing, and I managed to reach a personal milestone within the 1st anniversary to the longfic I've been working on! But I need to take a break from the nonstop writing. I punched out fourty-nine 10+ page chapters in a year, and while I still have much more story to tell, I think I need to just... cool it for awhile. I'll probably make Stardew my focus until I don't want to play it any more and then move on to something else.

[PSI_Nightshade]

My backlog is too massive, but I got some games floating on top of it at the moment.

My eternal regular game is Final Fantasy XIV which I normally do my weekly stuff then some things here and there (currently on the to do is finishing crafting crafting tools and gathering set as well as finish grinding FATEs in Dawntrail areas).

I still play Bakeru two Mondays a month so that's been progressing. Fairly sure I'm 66% done with it. I'm enjoying it a lot. Fun 3D platform with similar quirks to the Goemon games even if they're not related and play differently.

I play Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising one Monday a month. I reached the Green Earth section of the campaign. Before Re-Boot Camp, I had only played the first game so I'm in new experience territory.

My slow replay of the main Battle Network games is still going, I'm in the endgame section of Battle Network 2 now. Love the series to bits but I played them already so I don't need to obsess about finishing them fast.

As far as my non structured backlog, I'm working through Astro Bot. To say it's one of the best 3D platformer game since Super Mario Odyssey is an understatement. I had lots of fun with Astro's Playroom despite being a very short pack-in game but Astro Bot is the real deal. It's the game I'll mostly work on during unplanned free time.

Finally, I tried out a few games during the Holidays to have a taste and one of them got me hooked so despite working on Astro Bot, I might switch to this one once in a while. Card-a-Ciel is a game made by Inti Creates. It's a deck-building card game with roguelite elements and has big Mega Man Battle Network vibe (which is funny to me because Inti Creates helped making the Mega Man Zero series which was the other GBA Mega Man series). It references a bunch of fictional game IPs which you can deduce is based on other existing franchises or genre but also real IPs owned by Inti Creates. The card battle system is very involved and once you figure out the rules and the cards you find during a run, you can absolutely break the system and it gives me the good brain reactions when things play out as planned. A bit too much into tropes, but nothing that turns me away from the game. Plus the music is great.

EDIT: Almost forgot: the farming games I'm currently playing are Harvestella, a revisit to Harvest Moon 65, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town and Stardew Valley. I only play them once a month each so they slowly progressing along.

[greensara]

Happy 2025 y'all! It was supposed to be back to school and work today, but snowmageddon added a bonus day to Christmas vacation. We have had a pretty fun time, played some multiplayer, did crafts, tried some new recipes, and finished a couple books (that weren't school related, lol). Also found out that the kids fight a lot more playing together without me rather than with me, specifically my second daughter and my son as they both want to be in charge. Oldest likes to avoid the drama, and baby girl (who is almost 2 now, wow) is still at the point she just likes to steal controllers and run away laughing. Ironically, they get along fine playing something like the old TMNT games, lol. Anyway, they are working uncooperatively on a Stardew run without me, Princess Peach Showtime (a hit for all 4), and we are chipping at Super Mario Wonder.

As far as my own backlog, I probably beat maybe 5 or 6 games in 2024, not sure at this moment, so still plenty on the backlog. I cleared Sandrock for the first time right before the end of the year. It dragged a little in the end, but overall, great game. I did want to mention something funny I discovered since I purchased the Love Chronicles DLC, intending to dig into it in my next run, since my first builder married Qi already. You can have Logan and Qi both follow at the same time and they both want to hold hands! So my builder was strolling through town with a guy on each arm, and they were both cool with it, lol! I imagine Qi to be like that meme, "This is my wife, (the builder), and this is her boyfriend, Logan." Too funny! I am on the Switch version too, so no mods here.

I caught up on the story updates in Palia, and worked on my house and the vault packets a little. I also finally logged back into FFXIV and apparently renewed the perks of being a returning player. My first goal was to get a DPS (dragoon) and a healer (white mage) to story level too so I would have one of each role to share the story experience points. Having done that, I kind of want to level all the other classes to at least 30 for their job stones and clothes purposes. (Still on free trial in ARR so limited space.) I have enjoyed most of the class storylines, but I still am not a fan of the DPS magics. White mage has surprisingly grown on me though, I don't mind being a magic healer.

[Kikki]

I've been reading. And working. And paining, lol. I'm almost too stiff for a lot of typing or gaming, these days. I've been colouring, too, though not for a long time since, yep...stiff and sore. MOST things make it worse, heh. Scalding hot baths make it better.

I did play several hours of Echoes of Wisdom, though. Maybe 3 hours? It was fun, but I stopped because I got bored. It's just not the kind of game that can hold me tight...it loses my interest relatively easily. SUPER cute, but the gameplay overall isn't the kind that I find addictive. Glad I was able to borrow it rather than buy it. The library needs a video game section! A big one. Then I could borrow more than I buy, and just buy the ones good enough to want to replay. I'd use a place like EB Games or wherever, but there are none locally.

I really should go back into Harvestella to see where I left the farm in post game. I know I hadn't gotten every goal.

I've got Daybreak II (it is supposed to be called Crimson Sin, but for some reason, stupid NISA is just calling it Trails through Daybreak II. Very underwhelming title.) coming up in February and XCX in March. Guess it's just as well there's nothing in January. OOOH WAIT...there IS. There's FFVII Rebirth! PC release. I plan to buy it SOON because it's 30% off in the pre-release period, and that ends on January 23 (which is when it releases, of course.) I need to do it before I flat-out forget about it and find it's already release day. 30% is a generous pre-order discount. More usually, you'd see 10%.

Guardians of Azuma is supposed to be this spring, and Fantasy Life i is supposed to be April, though I'd never bet on Level 5 actually releasing a game, lol...they like to delay a thousand times before they do. But I guess it's a pretty full release period for me. The only other thing I know of this year is in the fall...the Trails in the Sky remake for Switch. Which I am not in a hurry for, since it's just a remake of a game I've already played. Actually, I'm not champing at the bit for any of these games. I don't know if it's because I'm busy and tired, or if it's because I'm a bit 'off' my entertainment, lately. I really liked Sun Haven, though, so it's not like I just can't get into anything, right now.

9AM and I need a nap. No joke, I'm going to lie down now before I have to go make some turtle pods and raspberry crisp.

[Bluie]

Got all caught up with Zenless Zone Zero's main story. Looks like the game is officially in it's interlude phase as not only was there a big avengers moment, but the credits rolled too. I'm gonna count the game as done for now and move onto other stuff. None of the upcoming characters really entice me and there's a backlog of quests that I don't really want to tackle atm. I'll keep an eye on the leaks, but I'm OK with putting it on the backburner for the time being with the other Hoyoverse games. Now to figure out which game to tackle next...

[Kikki]

I've reorganized my room today, including moving the furniture. Now it's a MESS, because I've moved things on/in/behind/under the major pieces of furniture I moved. The floor is clean, though...just all the surfaces are in major disarray.

Next time, I'll have to have a cleaning and light purging day.

I'm a little grumpy because pain won't go away. Trying to resist taking anything for it.

I'm also a bit anxious if I don't layer tasks, right now...occupy my head as completely as possible. I think my brain has decided that worrying about the XCX port/remaster is better than worrying about actual life issues. I keep thinking about the connection they're going to cook up between XCX and the numbered Xenoblades. The devs outright said that future Xenoblade games will have nothing to do with Klaus or his actions. But even looking back, I can see the Conduit (or the Zohar or Monolith, if you prefer) being the cause of issues in Mira as they were in...er, I don't know what to call the the universe of the Bionis/Alrest/Aionios. I can see it being the power behind issues in both universes, is what I'm saying. Not that it is ever the *cause* of those issues.

Er. This comes up because after reorganizing and needing to find new plug-in spots for various items, I realized I can now completely retire my Wii U. I will never need it to play XCX again. Even if I want to play Skyward Sword, I could get that on Switch as well, so...poor old Wii U is obsolete, now, for me. One more thing to put away and a couple of cords to banish...that's good. It freed up...two outlets, I think, too.

I want to play XCX again, but I really am worried about the potential changes. Even the positive change of enlarging the UI. How have they handled the dual screens, which were essential to managing the map? I loved the section map. If they've somehow done away with it...

Getting a remaster/remake port of an absolute favourite game is full of mixed feelings.

Haven't played Echoes of Wisdom again yet. It's not absorbing enough for my current mood.

[Bluie]

Eaugh, motivation dried up again out of seemingly nowhere. I said I was 'done' with ZZZ, but it's the only thing really keeping my attention. I think bite sized play sessions are definitely more my speed atm. That being said, I still want to finish off another year in Stardew, and I do want to play PARANORMASIGHT, because I can eat visual novels for breakfast and find them to be my personal favorite genre to wind down with. I also grabbed some Nintendo vouchers. I got myself Echoes of Wisdom (skipped it last year, but defs wanted to play) and XCX, because of course.

I wish it was the end of February so I could just lock in on Monster Hunter Wilds. I haven't had a game in ages that has me wanting to play it so badly. Oh well, back to ZZZ for now, and some Stardew.

Next day edit: HOLY « Puppy Doodoo », FINALLY, I 'FINISHED' STARDEW. As in, I finally achieved all the goals I wanted to before putting it down. That stupid freaking DINO EGG! I got the secret bundle done, and FINALLY got the Dino Egg from the crane game after failing to hunt it every other way you can get one. And then I found my final artifact (Dwarf Scroll IV) a few in-game days later, so I'm done for realsies this time. I have no desire to grind out the rest of the achievements - aint got no time!

[midnighttherabbit]

First backlog post of the New Year! I've decided to actually take clearing my backlog seriously this year because I bought way too many games last year and never played any of them - I ended up making a spreadsheet lol, I'll probably only let myself impulse buy a game for every 5 completed games or so.

I was playing a lot of games at the same time at the end of the year, I'm just going to slowly work on finishing them since a lot of them are ones that it's easy to dip in and out of. So, currently playing:

Spoiler:

• Story of Seasons - Pioneers of Olive Town: I gave this one a rest after getting tired of it pretty much the day after getting married, but I do want to come back and finish it soon. I was pretty close to finishing the main story and had just hit a roadblock where the final request would take some waiting.
• Baldurs Gate 3: It'll be a miracle if I ever finish this one ngl, I've been starting and restarting it forever and have only made it out of act one once. I can't face those first 10 hours again and really want to see what happens next so I'm just going to slowly chip away at the character I'm currently playing. Iirc I was at the crèche so I'm close to entering act 2 anyway.
• Warhammer 40k - Rogue Trader: It's an Owlcat CRPG so again it's going to be hard to finish. I'm around 20 hours in and was loving it before I ran out of steam and decided to take a little break. I'll probably get back to it next week.
• House Flipper: I got this in the Steam sale after struggling with the Switch port and I'm enjoying it a lot. Definitely more of a game to dip in and out of whenever I feel like it.
• Piczle Cross - Story of Seasons: Still playing this after buying it pretty much on release. It's nice to just come and do a puzzle whenever I'm bored and have 5 minutes to spare. I'm pretty sure a Rune Factory one is set to release soon so I might get it when it comes out.

Recently finished:
• Pentiment - I started playing a few days ago and ended up not being able to stop, despite bouncing off it the last few times I've tried. It's been a while since I played a game that felt so well written and meaningful, I really loved it and want to replay it again at some point to see some different outcomes for my choices.

[Kikki]

I played Echoes of Wisdom too long. Not THAT long today, but I played it sometime yesterday, too, I think, and anyway...in the last day or three, I burned out on it a bit. I was having loads of fun exploring. I finished the exploring now, though, except heat and ice areas, so I'm a bit less interested. Was going around collecting heart pieces and might fossils or whatever they're called. But Lueberry can't upgrade my skills any more right now...I guess there's another arc to the main story or something, behind which further upgrades are locked. I only have one more upgrade from the fairy, too.

I don't think there's that much left to do in terms of dungeons, though? I mean there must be three more...the castle and the ice and fire areas, right? I assume so.

Anyway I'm going to stop playing it for a bit. I guess I was just really having fun exploring.

I think I'll go on to FFVIIR. I got Rebirth while it's on -30% off in the pre-release period (over in less than two weeks, now) and I need to replay the first one before that.

I have Pentiment, too, but I didn't like the way the choices were going and how I got locked out of a path so early on without knowing what I was doing, so I quit without saving. Some day I'll restart but I'm not feeling compelled toward it.

[Kikki]

Umm...

I've finally booted FFVIIR up. I played it once, sometime during the pandemic and lockdown, when Playstation was running their Play at Home campaign that offered a few free games every month. So probably that was 2021 (though I guess it could have been 2020 or 2022.)

Then it went on a good sale a while back, sometime last year I think, and I grabbed it. Intergrade was the best deal, so that's what I got.

I'm replaying now, in anticipation of FFVII Rebirth coming out in less than two weeks. (On Steam, that is.)

And I'm confused. Is Intergrade THAT different? I feel like the game has parts in it that I didn't play, the first time. I don't remember Cloud being this chatty. I know I've forgotten most of the game, but I distinctly remember thinking of Cloud as 'empty'. Beautiful like a doll, but as empty as one, too. He hardly spoke at all.

He's still rather abrupt and casually unfriendly, but he talks more than I remember him doing. Am I just mis-remembering? Or did Intergrade add all of this? I'm surprised, if it did! I thought that was just an added DLC story, not something that added content to the main game itself.

I'm almost 100% sure Cloud wasn't this chatty the first time I played. But it seems weird to think they'd have added more dialogue to him afterward, so I must be misremembering.

~

I'm permanently busier now, in an unreliable way, lol. I think it's going as best can be expected?

~

Happy that Switch 2 has been announced, but mostly just because I'm really looking forward to getting into our next-gen games.\

NEXT DAY EDIT: LOL. I slept so well last night that it knocked FFVIIR right out of my head. I forgot I was playing it yesterday! This morning I decided to try Tiny Glade. I got it at the end of last year on sale because I was curious about the 'Overwhelmingly Positive' reviews and all the articles claiming it's very therapeutic, and sure enough, it pretty much is exactly what everyone's saying.

It's a little TOO aimless for a goal-oriented person like me, but it's really cool even so. And they DO have a 'Daily Theme' option that gives you a short prompt and a starter bit. Like today's was Adventurer's Guild, and it gave me an autumn forest setting with a castle-ish looking unfinished building in the center of a pond-like moat in the middle of the forest. No paths, no windows, no doors, and the building was very incomplete, but it's just a prompt to suggest a beginning. It changes every day at 11AM, my time. (Which is Eastern, aka UTC -5:00, atm, and UTC -4:00 in the summer.)

I want to play with it more since I only played like half an hour this morning (looks like I'm not being surprise-called in today...unless they call later!) I don't have the full hang of it yet, and I need to make myself a list of themes/prompts/goals, because I just work better that way, but it's really neat even just to mess with for fifteen minutes. The way it works is extremely intuitive, though it's better if you get an idea of how the tools work together...that's easy to do. Just use them and you'll see!

I think most people would enjoy Tiny Glade.

[Bluie]

Mmmyep, probably actually putting down ZZZ now for realsies. While I enjoy the story and the gameplay, the quest progression is still a major pain in the « Mr.Gourmet's hat ». Removing TV mode for the story was a great decision - but it still remains for character quest (at least the first batch) and anything that isn't a fully combat based side quest. IDK if it's my headspace right now, but I'm not in the mood for gameplay that feels like a chore. I'll redownload if I feel the urge, but I think I'm good for now.

I started out of curiosity Wuthering Waves just to try it out. I might honestly vibe with this for a while, but it's too early to tell. The Gacha gave me two characters I wanted, so, yay, but I haven't gotten too deep into it. The setting is nice, very 'people are settled on this planet but it's still early' and I like the battle system so far (very reliant on dodging and counters). My complaints are surface level. The animations aren't as fluid as Genshin's, but I'll get used to it, and I think they really overdid the jiggle physics on literally every female character. As an owner of boobs - dear lord, get these girls some proper bras. Also, the female MC looks ridiculous. This is the first Gacha that lets you choose your MC's gender where I've gone with the male option. He looks very polite and I'll rock an all male party if it means I don't need to see boobs and « Mr.Gourmet's hat » animated like jello more than I need to.

Oh, also, I finally finished the gathering/crafting role quests for FFXIV Dawntrail. The reward for doing all of them this time around sucks. I got a cool minion in Endwalker that I still use to this day, but this time you get... a piece of furniture, an ugly one. I feel kinda ripped off after all the time/effort/money I put into it, but, whatever, it's over now. Now the only grind I have left is my worst enemy - Bicolor gemstone grinding and eauuuughhhh, I am not in the mood yet. I curse my obsession with this game's music every day.