XboxEra's 2024 Backlog Challenge |OT| Surely this is the year?

Yep, that’d be 0.5 per DLC. :slight_smile:

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New week, new leaderboard! Bunch of completions again, always nice to see. Those backlogs are shrinking! Good work everyone.

The Leaderboard:

  1. @Zip 29.5

  2. @SilentJay76 22

  3. @Knottian 21.5

  4. @ACyberRazorCut 14

  5. @APOPHIS1989 12.5

  6. @MasterLeePhD 12.5

  7. @profjjj 11.5

  8. @vrinn 9

  9. @Searsy82 8.5

  10. . @ Mort 4.5

  11. . @ Rodya 2

  12. @BrigadiersBlue -5

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Great an easy 0.5 lol

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I think I started hoping to knock off 10 games from backlog but now going to aim for 20 and that would be some year especially as resisted anything new although may dip into Xmas sales.

Good luck everyone for final stretch!

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You’ve got this! Good luck to everyone, and I’ll definitely be here next year from the get-go… cannot tell you how many games I’ve completed this year (probably more than any year since I entered the work force). Absolutely loving seeing us all share our thoughts afterwards too, it’s always fun going through a classic years later and hearing everyone’s mini-reviews afterwards.

Thank you @Mort

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That’s great! A little friendly competition which gives both motivation and a fun, extra bit of context to it can be a real boost.

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Well, I also have a completion! Finished Yakuza Kiwami +1 .

I really enjoyed the story and characters, as well as the fighting. Kiryu is a badass! The mix of very serious and very silly is pretty great, even though I lean much more into the serious part of it and focus on that when I can.

There’s a lot to like about this game, it has an interesting and engaging story with a gallery of characters you come to like/dislike over the course of the game. It’s very dramatic at times, which is compensated by the silliness of some of the side content which provides a surprisingly good balance and creates a rather unique atmosphere imo.

The fighting is fun, easy to learn but takes a lot to master so to speak. It gets a lot more intricate as you level up your skills. There’s a lot of button mashing though, my hands hurt after playing the finale and it’s brutal long fights hehe.

The game does have some annoying aspects, everything is a little bit more tedious than it has to be. Things like the constant interruptions by random fights when you try to move around the city annoyed me greatly after a while. It really got in the way of the flow of the game at times. Something like going to a specific shop to pick up some healing supplies could mean 5+ fights just to get there… Worse is when NPC dialogues are interrupted by these encounters and never completed, it’s just bad design. I know there’s some items you can get to lower the frequency but those are locked behind a lot of gameplay time, and at that point the damage is allready done so to speak.

There’s a lot of side content, both substories (side quests) and mini-games. I didn’t do too much of it, mostly because I have something like 10 other Yakuza/LAD-games to go through… But there’s lots of fun stuff, which I’ll get back to at some point.

Overall a very good game, and I’ll jump into the next one sooner rather than later.

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I own almost all of those games including the spinoff ones, and I’ve not finished any. Aggh so many games…

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Yeah, same. I tried Yakuza 0 on Game Pass like 4+ years ago and bought everything haha. Added the other stuff over time since… it’s a lot but it’s good stuff. I don’t own LAD Infinite Wealth yet, I’ll wait for a good sale as always. That upcoming pirate game looks fun too…

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I own Yakuza 3 and 4 on PS3, beat them there and then proceeded to buy every single Yakuza that’s been released on Xbox (what can I say, I put my money where my mouth is - unironically have more Sony platform games than the majority of cultists I would wager too). One of my favorite series, and as an OG and current Sega fan, I’ll never understand the Sega “fanboys” that refuse to give this series a chance because it’s not some classic franchise they’re about to reference (despite the fact that Yakuza is almost 20 years, so it’s definitely not some new Sega thing).

Edit: Forgot I also have the Zombie Yakuza game on PS3 lol.

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There’s a Zombie one???

Sheesh. And yeah people just don’t like stuff that doesn’t fit their narrative, it’s hard to change and it causes a lot of problems in society… :pensive:

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image

And yeah, I had to go look at my system but it’s Yakuza: Dead Souls. Only released on PS3, if I recall…. And as much as I love the cheese factor, it should probably stay there lol.

Maybe I should make that a target to beat this year…

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There was a Majima encounter in Kiwami which was like a mini zombie-mode!

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-1 Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy

I didn’t get to put any time into it before it leaves game pass in a few days, but I noticed it was on sale for $10 this week! I would also like to support Capcom in porting over more Ace Attorney games in the future.

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Thanks for the heads up - it was expensive last week so I was going to CDKeys it, but now it’s cheap on Xbox I had a £5 rewards gift card so got it for under a fiver.

Can now relax a bit rather than trying to rush for that GP deadline, same as you :slight_smile:

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I was toying with picking up the newer trilogy that’s also discounted but since I already have the old one and (go figure) haven’t played much of it yet, I’m waiting a bit.

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+0 Paw Patrol Grand Prix

I don’t know why I even bothered starting this on game pass, but it leaves soon, so I finished it last night. The game literally has an autodrive function, so it’s very much a kids game. I let it autodrive while I watched the news last night.

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+0 Fuzzballs

A weird, free sumo style game that you play as different animals in ball form. It was my best choice to complete the TA target requiring the letter Z.

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Ys Origin (XSX)

I’ve had most of them on steam for years and could be my new favourite JRPG series. Origin reminds me so much of a PS1 game, between the graphics and gameplay. You play as one of 3 heroes that have slightly different weapons, skillset, and backstory. The game is set in one tower and your goal is to battle your way to the top! It’s a good idea but wish there was some adventuring outside to break up the repetition. The game Kinda reminds of the best Zelda game… Alundra :joy:

Going to check out Ys I & II chronicles next.

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