Tales from the Backlog

Entering 2024, there were very few indie games as hotly anticipated as The Plucky Squire (All Possible Futures, Devolver Digital)...but then release date came, it got good-not-great reviews, and seemed to inspire more disappointment than anything else. So what happened? And how is the game, actually? Buckle up, because we've got you covered. Guest info: Roger Reichardt of The Gamerheads Podcast -...

Fullbright made a name for themselves with 2013's Gone Home , leading many to anticipate their next project. 2017's Tacoma , however, seems to have come and gone without much fanfare. It is a fairly simple game that may not reach the emotional peaks of Gone Home, but Tacoma is a very good game in its own right. And then, due to director Steve Gaynor's workplace behavior during the development of O...

Learn about and support the SAG-AFTRA union and video game actors on strike . Whenever the topic of "7/10 games" or "underrated games" or "bargain bin gems" comes up, Mad Max ( Avalanche Studios ) is almost guaranteed to be mentioned in the conversation. This game isn't tied into the movie storylines, but it does a great job of getting you into the grimy, desolate, hyper-masculine and violent worl...

As a fan of Red Candle Games ' previous projects, Devotion (episode 139) and Detention (bonus episode on Patreon), Nine Sols instantly leapt onto my watchlist as soon as it was announced. However, as it released, I was a bit nervous to dive into it due to its Sekiro-inspired combat. I like Sekiro a lot, but did I want another one right then? Luckily, a few friends (including Josh, today's guest) c...

I once heard the original Pathologic ( Ice-Pick Lodge ) described as "the best game you shouldn't play", which is an oddly appealing pitch to me. I need to see what it is that puts it in that category, ya know? Luckily for me, Pathologic 2 exists and seems to be the preferred way for many to get the Pathologic experience, and I was not disappointed with what I got. Dense worldbuilding, intriguing...

In 2024, we began a new community event in the Tales from the Backlog Discord server- the Backlog Resolutions Challenge . A big group of us picked a list of games that had been collecting dust in our libraries and resolved to play them! This episode is all about how that challenge went- what worked, what didn't work, why most of us didn't complete our lists, and any adjustments we are making going...

Dave recaps his favorite games that released in 2024 and discusses the year in podcasting, gaming and more. Catch Dave's favorite games from other years that he played for the first time in 2024 on Patreon, available to all paid patrons! TIMESTAMPS : Intros/Reminiscing 0:18 Honorable Mentions 5:40 #10 13:44 #9 18:01 #8 21:15 #7 26:38 #6 32:01 #5 36:34 #4 41:17 #3 46:40 #2 52:26 #1 and thank yous 5...

Check out more information on the ongoing SAG-AFTRA video game actor strike and support the actors in any way that you can. Batman video games got a resurgence with 2009's Arkham Asylum, continued to be critically acclaimed with 2011's Arkham City, and then started to become divisive with 2013's Arkham Origins and especially 2015's Arkham Knight. Since Arkham Origins takes place during Christmas,...

System Shock 2 **( Looking Glass Studios/Irrational Games**, 1999) contains one of the most iconic images in gaming (the scifi horror Medusa-esque SHODAN) and one of the most iconic spiritual sequels in gaming (the Bioshock series), but I still feel like experience with System Shock 2 itself is relegated to those who were there playing on PC in 1999. What was it about this game that made it so fou...

It all started with an elevator pitch, courtesy of someone on the Axe of the Blood God podcast- "A sokoban puzzle game with a JRPG story". Sign me up! Void Stranger ( System Erasure , 2023) does boast those things, but to my surprise, Void Stranger is so full of secrets as well. But if you want to get at those secrets, Void Stranger will challenge you in more ways than one. Join us as we dive into...

Remedy Entertainment have built a sort of extended universe by this point, but 2019's Control is both the piece that introduced a lot of people to their world and the key that unlocked the possibility for an extended universe in the first place. Control's Men in Black-meets-SCP Foundation setting is ripe for creative sci-fi storytelling and Remedy took full advantage of that. Despite some hiccups...

What was FromSoftware up to before Demon's Souls? Most people know about the King's Field series, and the Armored Core sickos have been around too, but they were even more prolific in the RPG and dungeon crawler space than just King's Field. Shadow Tower: Abyss (2003), the sequel to the Playstation game Shadow Tower, was never officially localized in English, but thanks to FromSoftware's explosion...

Night in the Woods ( Infinite Fall , 2017) challenges us in a lot of ways. The gameplay mechanics are a means to get you from one side of town to another and nothing more. The protagonist can be unlikable. The story is much more local than your standard "save the world" fare. And it's all the better for the direction it takes. Instead of a sweeping epic, we get a very emotional, personal, close-to...

Final Fantasy VII Remake started this epic remake project off with a bang, and it left us with a few questions, namely "what will they do with Aerith?" and "how will they handle the more open world nature of the game post-Midgar?". Both of those answers came in somewhat messy and/or convoluted forms, which I won't spoil here in the podcast description, but it's a good thing we have nearly 3 hours...

To celebrate 3 years of Tales from the Backlog, I figured it was time to talk about the namesake of the show- The Backlog. Do we get FOMO as dozens of great games release every year? Do we feel pressure to complete the games we buy? What's the best approach to keep our habits healthy? All this and much more in this discussion episode! Guest info : Matt aka Stormageddon of "Fun" and Games and Reign...

Here are the games I played at GDEX 2024 gaming convention in Columbus, Ohio! Games mentioned in the episode: Skate Fish Tales of Thisrea Zakumba: Astraia Dark Sky Derelict Mole Maiden Quiet On Set RA RA BOOM Intro/Outro music composed by Bert Cole- check them out at bitbybitsound.com Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi ! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord s...

Have you ever thought to yourself, "how scary could this pixel art horror game be? It's just pixels!". If so, you and I are the same. And granted, Decarnation (Atelier QDB, 2023) isn't an in-your-face type of horror. It's more of a psychological, empathetic horror and dread for what your character is going through. And it's very, very effective! This is a really unique horror game with fantastic p...

Stop me if you've heard this story before. A game that I once thought would be too scary for me to play, so I spoiled the entire story for myself only to realize that it sounded too good to not experience for myself. Add Devotion ( Red Candle Games , 2019) to that list. Despite the controversy surrounding the game and subsequent delisting from all major storefronts, this one is worth seeking you....

As a fan of Silent Hill 2 (episode 10 of Tales from the Backlog, by the way), I figured at some point I would need to go back and play the original. Silent Hill (Team Silent, Konami, 1999) was really interesting to go back and play, for a couple of reasons, most notably that I thought I knew what the game and town's whole deal was, but that was apparently not the case in the first game. The other...

There has been a lot of talk about the cult classic "7/10 game" lately, and no game better exemplifies this than Deadly Premonition ( Access Games, 2010 ). It's one of those games where the average might land on 7/10 because there will be a lot of 10's and a lot of 3's in the review score distribution. Memorable characters, poor graphics, lifelike town, terrible combat, fun mystery and rough perfo...

Sometimes a game has such striking and memorable art that one screenshot will implant that game into your head, even if you never play it. Omori ( Omocat , 2020) was almost one of those games for me. A combination of thinking the game would be too scary and having tons of other games available kept Omori on the periphery for a long time, until today's guest, Aaron, played it and kept (lovingly) pe...

Lost Odyssey , by Mistwalker and feelplus , is almost legendary at this point. A darker, sadder RPG by Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, with a moody yet eclectic soundtrack by Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu and short stories interspersed throughout by famed Japanese author Kiyoshi Shigematsu, there is pedigree and talent behind the game, and perhaps most crucially- you...

Friends of the show probably know that I love games (especially indie games) set in "uncommon" real world settings- those outside of the US, Japan and Western Europe. Mojiken Studio 's 2023 title A Space for the Unbound is one of those, set in Indonesia. That was the draw for me- an emotional story set in a place that I've been in real life. I didn't quite know what kind of emotional story lay in...

Final Fantasy is one of the most well-represented series on this podcast, and its anthology structure means you can pick and choose which games you want to play without fear of playing out of order. So this year, I wanted to make sure I played a foundational one- Final Fantasy IV . I expected this to be the turning point where Square and the Final Fantasy team started to prioritize story and chara...

Do you ever feel like you missed the boat on a game? Maybe it was really influential and subsequent games used its "trick"? Maybe you wonder if that OG still has the juice even though you couldn't possibly go into the game completely blind? These were the thoughts running through my mind as I booted up Pony Island by Daniel Mullins Games for the first time in 2024. I'm happy to say that despite I'...