Tales from the Backlog

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'...

Animal Well , by Billy Basso / Shared Memory came out of nowhere. For me, and I think a lot of others, the initial announcement was more of a shock that videogamedunkey had started the BigMode publishing company than excitement about the game being published. Once people got their hands on Animal Well, however, all skepticism or publicity about dunkey publishing games went out the window- Animal W...

Dave the Diver , despite clearly having a great character name, is not my kind of game. Mintrocket 's dive-collect-sell-upgrade-dive loop is one that I'm not very motivated by, but Dave the Diver got such unanimous acclaim that I had to take note. And apparently the patrons of the show wanted me to play it as well, because it won one of the montly polls. And this was an interesting episode to make...

Since Nintendo has apparently decided that Wario Land is a series not worth pursuing, we find ourselves telling that familiar story where an indie developer says "ok, they're not making the game I want to play any more....guess it's up to me!". Enter developer Tour De Pizza and their love letter to Wario Land, Sonic the Hedgehog and all manner of 1990s cartoons, Pizza Tower . That set of inspirati...

I am FINALLY caught up with Ryu Ga Gotoku and Sega 's Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise, and let me tell you, it feels great to play the games as they release now. This time, in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth , Ichiban, Kiryu and friends take on the streets of Honolulu. This episode talks about the new story, the unique logistical challenge that the non-Japanese setting presented, giant sharks, baby...

Continuing along my journey of playing Konami and Hideo Kojima 's Metal Gear Solid series, next up is Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater . This is the one that is most often held up as the greatest in the series, and I can absolutely see why. It's not without flaws- it's still clunky to play and continues the trend of no Metal Gear Solid game having normal pacing, but I greatly enjoyed my experience...

Every now and then, I want to take a break from story-focused games and just play a puzzle-ass puzzle game. Geometric Interactive 's Cocoon was just what the doctor ordered, from that perspective. But Cocoon's world hinted at a deeper story, one that seems inaccessible yet present, and that left me with a feeling of want, despite how great the puzzle experience was. Listen to the episode for more!...

In this bonus episode, I'm joined by returning guest Charlie Young to discuss FromSoftware's Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. The public feed includes roughly the first half of the episode, and all paid members at [patreon.com/realdavejackson](patreon.com/realdavejackson) will get the entire discussion. This is a full spoiler discussion, though the spoilers really start flying at about...

I was convinced to try out Gris after seeing a single screenshot, but in true gamer fashion, I bought it a few years before finally playing it. It took the backlog resolutions challenge in our Discord server to finally get me to play it, and unsurprisingly, I was hooked by what Nomada Studio had created immediately. The marriage of art, music, gameplay and color take you on a journey through the m...

For any lover of RPGs, and especially "weird RPGs", as former guest on the show Rebekah Valentine termed them, Lisa: The Painful, by Dingaling Productions, will probably jump out at you. From its art style, non-pretty boy protagonist to its serious themes and punishing gameplay, this is not a game for the faint of heart. However, if you are willing to engage with the game and its premise on its te...

Sunset Visitor's 1000xRESIST came out of nowhere for me. Releasing on May 9th, 2024 meant it faced stiff indie competition on its day of release, and it wasn't until others were shouting from the rooftops that I found myself drawn to try it out (and a big thank you to Sunset Visitor and Fellow Traveler for the review code!). What I found was a story that had all the hallmarks of the best sci-fi: a...

Famously never localized for an English-speaking audience, HAL Laboratory and Brownie Brown 's Mother 3 has almost become a meme at this point. So much so that I wondered if it could live up the inflated expectations that I unwittingly put on games that are unavailable or difficult to find, a kind of forbidden fruit syndrome. So I made sure to put Mother 3 on my Backlog Resolutions list for 2024 a...