Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Top 5 Most-Anticipated Games of 2024

 Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jan 012024
 

Happy New Year!

After discussing my top 5 games I played last year, it’s traditional for me to follow that up with a look at the five games set for the new year that I’m looking forward to the most. Only games confirmed for 2024 qualify.

Of course, who knows what exciting games have yet to be announced… but as it stands right now, here are my top 5 most-anticipated games of 2024!

5. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy

I was torn for quite a while on whether or not I should put the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy on this list. After all, it’s a collection of games I’ve already played, and I might not even play it at launch. Surely a new game I’m excited to play is more deserving of this spot?

But I can’t help it.

It might not be a new Ace Attorney game, but a collection of games 4-6 is something we thought might never happen – and an obstacle between new players and a potential Ace Attorney 7.

Seeing the series get so much attention has me so excited and optimistic for the series that I’m hyped for the Apollo Justice Trilogy anyway (and tempted to replay it just in case the unlockable art is a tease of something new). It’s less than a month away now, and I couldn’t be happier.

Now… is there a chance that at this time next year, we might finally have a new Ace Attorney game to look forward to? All we can do is hope!

4. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time

Early last year, Level-5 made a dramatic comeback after years of silence by announcing several upcoming games! This included Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, a sequel to the 3DS RPG Fantasy Life, which I loved.

Fantasy Life is an action RPG that features a robust class system. Each class, or Life, has its own quests and challenges. Some lives are combat focused, while others are focused on crafting or gathering, and the game is designed so that you can finish the game’s main story as any Life you want. From what they’ve shown so far, Fantasy Life i appears to be building on the original’s systems while also adding a new feature where you can landscape and customize your island.

If this sequel is anywhere near as charming and addictive as the first game as, it will be well worth the wait to summer 2024.

If only Professor Layton and the New World of Steam was still set for 2024, it would have earned a high spot on this list for sure. As it is, we’ll have to talk about that one next year.

3. Metaphor: ReFantazio

The long-awaited Project Re Fantasy from Atlus was finally unveiled last year under the title Metaphor: ReFantazio, and it looks amazing. The announcement trailer left me with the impression that it was basically Persona in another form, but subsequent trailers and details emphasized the fantasy world and what sets it apart.

It looks stylish and exciting, and I can’t wait.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is scheduled for fall 2024, which is good – it’ll give me some time to finish the great games coming out ahead of it, such as the next two we’re about to discuss…

2. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

When the Final Fantasy VII remake was originally announced as a multi-game release, I was skeptical. However, the first part won me over by being an epic experience… if one that sparked a lot of controversy.

Now the second game, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is almost here.

Due out on February 29, it looks like exactly what I’ve been hoping for. Gameplay demonstrations showed vast areas to explore, a beautiful world, and a bunch of mini-games. I’m as nervous as anyone to find out exactly what they’re doing with the story of this remake, but everything they’ve shown has left me confident that I’ll at least enjoy the ride to get there.

Yet for as excited as I am about Rebirth, for as much as I gushed about it when it was shown off this summer, there is still one more game I’m even more excited for.

You can probably guess what it is.

1. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

This time last year, I probably wouldn’t have believed I’d be caught up on the Yakuza series in time for the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

After all, I rarely play games from the same series too close together, especially when they’re as long as these games are.

However, last year I finished Yakuza 5, played Yakuza 6, and played Yakuza: Like a Dragon in time to name it my #1 game I played all year. For that matter, I even found time in the middle to play the spin-off Like a Dragon Ishin, because I just couldn’t get enough of the series.

Three of them made my top 5 list, with another as an honorable mention, and Infinite Wealth looks like it might top them all. With an improved combat system, a ton of fun side content (including an Animal Crossing-esque side mode where you manage a resort island for guests), and a story that already has me on the edge of my seat worrying about what’s going to happen, it sounds like it will be absolutely amazing.

I still need to play Like a Dragon Gaiden before I’ll be ready for Infinite Wealth, but since that’s a shorter game for the series, I should be able to finish it with time to spare before Infinite Wealth comes out on January 26.

Yes, that’s right, January 26. My #1 most-anticipated game of the year is due out in less than a month, one day after the Apollo Justice Trilogy. My only question is how in the world I’m going to balance Infinite Wealth with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth when it comes out!

Conclusion

2024 is stacked with exciting games already. To narrow this list down to my top five, I had to pass over games like the Trace Memory remake, Death Mark II, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Persona 3 Reload, Eiyuden Chronicle (which was on last year’s list, but got delayed), Stellar Blade, a new Shantae game, the Cupid Parasite fandisc… games that could have easily made the list any other year. It’s going to be incredible.

My poor backlog…

So, out of all the amazing games set for this year, the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, Fantasy Life i, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth are the ones I’m anticipating the most. What 2024 games are you most looking forward to?

Top 5 Games I Played in 2023

 Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with:
Dec 312023
 

Here we are at the end of another year. It feels like just the other day we were looking ahead to 2023, and now it’s almost over.

At the end of every year, I like to take a look back and highlight the top 5 games I played. It’s not quite a “game of the year” list, since their release dates don’t matter, but rather a personal list drawn from games I played this year regardless of their release dates.

Honorable Mentions

Before we dive into the list proper, I’d like to highlight a few honorable mentions. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective feels as though it should be on this list, but since I played the original back when it first came out, I decided to exclude it. Jack Jeanne is in contention to be one of my favorite games of 2023, but since it’s a lengthy, slow-paced visual novel that I’ve been taking breaks in between routes of to avoid burning out, I’m not quite done with it yet. Finally, Yakuza 5 gets to be an honorable mention two years in a row, because while I did finish it this year, it just barely missed making the cut for top 5.

So, let’s get into the actual list now! Here are the top 5 games I played in 2023.

5. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

Yes, Yakuza 5 lost out to another entry from its own series, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life!

I am obligated to give Yakuza 6 a 10/10 after learning Kiryu can pet cats in the cat café if you let him sit there long enough.

Just kidding, Yakuza 6 earned its spot on this list for more than just cats. One surefire way for a story to win me over is to have plot points that emotionally resonate with me, and Yakuza 6 is one of the most emotional entries in the series. Its more personal story really hit me hard.

I had high praise for it in my review, and while working on this list, I realized that I like it more than the previous game, despite all the amazing content in Yakuza 5. Yakuza 6 had an emotional, impactful story, fun substories with a great sense of humor, and a ton of fun mini-games.

4. Like a Dragon: Ishin

Yet I have to heap even more praise on Like a Dragon: Ishin, which finally came out in English this year thanks to the new remake. I was dying for this game ever since I first learned of its existence, and it did not disappoint.

Like I mentioned in my review, Ishin is an odd one for me because I don’t think it’s the best at anything it does, but it’s strong enough in every area that those pieces all come together to make it one of my favorites.

I especially loved the farm. I’ve never really gotten into farming sims, but the simple farming side activity in Ishin was just so pleasant. It also has an advantage over Yakuza 6 in that you can adopt cats (and dogs) and pet them whenever you want.

3. Ace Attorney Investigations 2 (fan translation)

It’s hard to believe it was just this past year that I finally played the fan translation of Ace Attorney Investigations 2. This is the sole remaining unlocalized Ace Attorney game, and I couldn’t sit around waiting for localization news any longer.

My review goes into detail about some issues I had with it (which is why it didn’t rank higher than #3 on this list), but the positives ultimately outweigh the negatives. In particular, a certain character’s arc still stands out in my memory. Never before have I felt so proud of a fictional character.

I enjoyed Ace Attorney Investigations 2 a lot, and I have my fingers crossed that it will eventually get an official translation. Who knows? Maybe this time next year, we’ll be eagerly anticipating an Ace Attorney Investigations collection.

(You might laugh, but it was only two years ago that I was desperately grasping at straws about an Ishin localization.)

2. Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Oh yes, the controversial Danganronpa game is not only the first one to make it onto one of my top 5 lists, but it earned the #2 slot. Maybe there’s some recency bias at work… but when I thought of games to include, I knew V3 had to be on the list.

You can read my Danganronpa V3 review to see my more detailed thoughts, but let’s just say that this game broke my heart, then turned around and broke my brain. Those might not sound like positive things, but trust me, they are.

I didn’t have the same early sense of disappointment that I had with Danganropa 2, and it didn’t drag in the middle like poor Master Detective Archives: Rain Code. Instead, it was pretty solid from start to finish.

Although I have some criticisms of certain parts, I enjoyed Danganronpa V3 more than any other game in the series (heck, I even enjoyed the trial mini-games for once in my life), and it ended up being one of my favorite games I played this year.

It didn’t take the #1 slot, because that went to…….

1. Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Sam, you can’t have three entries from the same series on your top 5–

I can and I will! Yakuza: Like a Dragon, aka Yakuza 7, has claimed the top spot for this year, because it took everything I love about the Yakuza series and combined it with my favorite genre.

Now you might be wondering why you haven’t seen me review this game yet, if I loved it so much. That’s because I finished it today, on New Year’s Eve, as my (most likely) final game of 2023.

This entry caused some controversy amongst fans due to being a turn-based RPG, a change not everyone appreciated. Now, I can sympathize with not wanting to see a beloved series change its gameplay so drastically, but as someone who loves turn-based RPGs, this was like a match made in heaven.

While it probably still hasn’t topped Yakuza 0 as my favorite in the series, it has a great story, fantastic substories, and some incredibly fun mini-games. I’ll save my detailed thoughts for when I write up my review, so just know that I really loved playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

Conclusion

And there you have it – my top 5 favorite games I played in 2023. The Yakuza / Like a Dragon series earned three entries in the top 5, with Ace Attorney and Danganronpa snagging the other two slots. I didn’t have time to play all the games I wanted to this year – Alan Wake 2, for example, has been on hold waiting for me to finish Yakuza: Like a Dragon – but I still played many excellent ones. And from the looks of things, 2024 might be even better!

What are your favorite games that you played in 2023?

Top 10 Longest Series in My Backlog

 Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Aug 212023
 

Sometimes you buy a new game and put it in your backlog.

Sometimes you buy a bundle and put multiple games in your backlog all at once.

And sometimes you buy a game, play it, and enjoy it so much that you decide to pick up the rest of the series right then, regardless of when you intend to play them.

While talking about Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and the possibility of catching up on the series before November, it occurred to me that even though Yakuza was one of those cases, I only have a handful of them left to play. That got me curious about what games are taking up the most space in my backlog.

So here we go, the top 10 longest series waiting in my backlog.

(This was supposed to be a top 5 list, but I have so many series with exactly 8 entries in my backlog that I had to expand it to at least the top 7, so I decided to just go for it and make it a top 10.)

10. Dragon Quest

Dragon Quest takes the first spot on the list, with 6 entries in my backlog. I’ve had Dragon Quest III for a long, long time (the box art calls it Dragon Warrior III; I bought it for the GBC as a kid), although I intend to pass on it in favor of playing the upcoming remake. Dragon Quest IV, VII, VIII, and XI are also in my backlog, along with the spin-off Dragon Quest Treasures.

I really ought to get around to playing these, especially Dragon Quest XI – I’ve heard so many good things about it.

9. Tales

The Tales series is a great example of what I mentioned at the start: loving a game and buying the whole series as a result. After I played Tales of Xillia, I was interested enough to finally play Tales of Symphonia, which went on to become one of my favorite games of all time. I loved it so much, I went a little crazy and started buying every Tales game I could find.

Which means that even though I’ve played a good number of them, I still have 7 in my backlog: Tales of Destiny, Tales of Legendia, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Tales of Vesperia (and the Xbox 360 version was in my backlog before I replaced it with the Definitive Edition), Tales of Graces f, Tales of Xillia 2, and Tales of Hearts.

Why in the world have I been impatient for a new Tales announcement?? How about playing those 7 games first, and then I can want a new one.

8. Shin Megami Tensei

Let’s add another situation to the earlier list: sometimes a developer puts all their games on sale ahead of a digital storefront shutting down. During Atlus’s last big 3DS sale ahead of the eShop closure, I picked up Shin Megami Tensei IV, Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, Devil Survivor Overclocked, Devil Survivor 2, Soul Hackers, and Strange Journey Redux, while also picking up the recent Soul Hackers 2 for PS4 in a separate sale. That brings us to 7, or 8 if you count Tokyo Mirage Session #FE, which I picked up day one for the Wii U and still haven’t played. Oops.

For the sake of this list, I decided to count Shin Megami Tensei and Persona separately. If I combined them, they’d easily take the top spot.

This might be the most heinous entry on the list, because not only are these games in my backlog, but I don’t even know if I’ll enjoy non-Persona SMT or not. Still, those sale prices were too good to resist.

7. Pokémon

I didn’t expect Pokémon to make the list, since I played each generation up until the last two, which I skipped. Indeed, Pokémon Ultra Sun is the only… mainline Pokémon game in my backlog.

But I also have Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, New Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team DX, Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, Pokémon Ranger: Shadow of Almia, and Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs.

Yep. 8 Pokémon games. Clearly I shouldn’t have been disappointed about the lack of new game announcements in the last Pokémon Presents, either.

6. Persona

How do I have 8 Persona games in my backlog? There’s Persona 2: Innocent Sin, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Persona 3 Portable, Persona 5 Royal… and then the return of the spin-off curse, with Persona Q, Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, Persona 4: Dancing All Night, and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight.

To make matters worse, I still haven’t decided whether I want to play Persona 3 Portable, the upcoming remake, or both.

5. Sherlock Holmes

This might be the funniest, because I never actually set out to buy all of this series like I did with the others.

At some point, I got a bundle of adventure games that included a whole bunch of Frogwares’s Sherlock Holmes games. And then, somehow I got more. I was surprised when I looked at my Steam library and realized I had nearly accumulated the entire series without ever actively setting out to do so.

The Case of the Silver Earring, The Awakened, the newer reimagining of The Awakened, Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis, Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, The Devil’s Daughter, and Chapter One are all in my backlog. (I also have the first game in the series, but tried it and didn’t enjoy it. I have, however, played and enjoyed two of the more casual spin-off entries.)

8 Sherlock Holmes games, randomly skipping over one in the middle of the series, and I still haven’t finished any of them. Maybe the next mystery month should just be a Sherlock Holmes month.

4. Metal Gear

All right, this one can be explained. I recently picked up Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection on PS3. This is an amazing bundle that includes 8 games: Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

Technically, I also have access to Metal Gear Solid V, if I resubscribe to PlayStation Plus. So in short, if I ever actually get into the Metal Gear series, I have pretty much everything I need.

3. Final Fantasy

I didn’t expect Final Fantasy to earn a spot on the list at all, much less one this high up. After all, I only have Final Fantasy XII and what else? Oh. Final Fantasy IV Interlude, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Lightning Returns, Final Fantasy Tactics, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, and Crisis Core. Thanks to sequels, expansions, and spin-offs, I somehow have 9 Final Fantasy games in my backlog.

At least I’m currently playing Stormblood, so that’s something.

2. Trails

I debated for a while about where exactly to put Trails on this list. Technically, I only have 7 Trails games in my backlog. Trails in the Sky SC, Trails from Zero, Trails to Azure, Trails of Cold Steel, Trails of Cold Steel III, Trails of Cold Steel IV, and Trails into Reverie.

However, it’s functionally 9 games. Skipping entries isn’t a good idea, so I won’t be able to play through those 7 without also playing the 2 missing from my backlog. And each one of these games is going to take a long, long time to finish. I really need to attack the Trails series with the same devotion I showed the Yakuza series.

And at last, that brings us to the final entry on this list, from the developer that never sleeps…

1. Atelier

12.

Twelve.

TWELVE!

All right, there’s a reason for this! While the newer Atelier games go on sale regularly enough, the older ones do so rarely enough that if you see a sale, it might be years before the next one. So when the Atelier trilogy packs went on sale a while ago, I… picked up the Arland Trilogy and the Dusk Trilogy…

…and Atelier Sophie because I wanted to play it ahead of Atelier Sophie 2, which I preordered… and of course I got Atelier Ryza 2 because I expected to play it right away… and I picked up Mana Khemia when I thought the Vita store was shutting down… and I was lucky enough to find a good Ebay price on Atelier Iris… and I ordered the Atelier Marie remake because it just looked so cute…

In short, I should take the next mainline game being a gacha game as the reprieve it is – a rare opportunity to catch up on my backlog and play some of these games that I’ve apparently been hoarding.

What a terrifying glimpse into my backlog. I think I liked it better when I just looked back at the oldest ones. Still, if the Yakuza series can escape the backlog, there’s hope for all these series as well! Which series do you have the most unplayed entries of?

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