In this episode Adam is joined by special guest and editor extraordinaire, Ashton Ruby, to discuss the indie side-scrolling rogue-like gem: Rogue Legacy!

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. S…

This episode is a bit rough around the edges as the new format for Attack the Backlog is just around the corner (after all the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Hi-Fi Rush episodes are out), but even so, it's still a solid time. Having played six hours of Fallen Order so far, I find myself enjoying the game, but not without issue. It feels good, loo…

For our last episode of 2024, we have some awards to give out to various games; including being added to our prestigious Top 100 list! Check out the list here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1shRB_fLOspxuBz78Ol8Dfx0RtEe0BMtnE0f3uUzIijQ/edit?usp=sharing We'd love to hear from you! Join us on our social media by checking out our Linktree: https:/…

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…

Prof, Tom, and Travis dig further into Final Fantasy 1: Citidel of Trials, Class Promotions, the Sunken Shrine, and the Kraken.

This week, Nate takes some time to run down the standings of our Fantasy Critic league and crown the winner of 2024! We're all over social media and we'd like to hear from you! Click Here to visit our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/thebacklogbreakdown The Backlog Breakdown is a proud member of the Play Well Network, a network of podcasts that seek to …

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 yo…

This one is 100% my fault. If I paid any attention, I would have known what kind of game Exoprimal was--a team-based action game about completing the same objectives over and over again until you get so good you can do them in your sleep--but I didn't pay attention; instead, I let myself become disappointed by the game not meeting my uninformed exp…

Prof, Travis, and Tom tackle Mt. Duergar, The Cavern of the Earthn, Mt. Glug, and Marilith!

It's another Patron Pick! This time around, Paul requested that we play The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. He jumped on, along with Wes, to talk about this seminal game in the LoZ series. Be sure and check out The TechnoFunkBoy's music on Bandcamp: https://thetechnofunkboy.bandcamp.com/ We'd love to hear from you! Join us on our social m…

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 …

Travis, Tom, and Prof dig into the first 6 "chapters" of Final Fantasy 1 and find A LOT to love about this glassic gem.

Nate and Josh got together to talk about what they're thankful for...and it ended up taking a bit longer than expected. Go figure. We're all over social media and we'd like to hear from you! Click Here to visit our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/thebacklogbreakdown The Backlog Breakdown is a proud member of the Play Well Network, a network of podcasts…

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 …

Join ProfPlaysGames as he plays through Dragon Quest 3 HD2D, an hour at a time, in real time! As he plays, he reads text, describes scenes, and comments on gameplay.

It's not entirely me, but my overall meh-ness on Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is partially due to my being burnt out on Spider-Man games. It doesn't help that Miles Morales is just another Spider-Man game, for better and worse, but I can't deny my blame in this outcome. While I was genuinely excited to play Miles Morales, it's clear my heart …

Larry, Travis, and Tom are back for another arc. This time, it's Final Fantasy 1 via The Pixel Remasters. Here, we dive into the development history and background of the Final Fantasy 1 and it's place in RPG history--along with our experience with Final Fantasy in general.

Ce mois-ci, Backlog se la joue Day One ! Fonz & Winston remontent en novembre 2013 en test 3 des jeux du line up de sortie de la PS4 ! Du jeu à mascotte Knack (2013) en passant par le futuriste tatapoum Killzone : Shadow fall (2013), au fils maudit Drive Club (2014 ?!), nous allons tenter de faire le point sur les jeux made in Sony du lancement de …

Ce mois-ci, Backlog se la joue Day One ! Fonz & Winston remontent en novembre 2013 en test 3 des jeux du line up de sortie de la PS4 ! Du jeu à mascotte Knack (2013) en passant par le futuriste tatapoum Killzone : Shadow fall (2013), au fils maudit Drive Club (2014 ?!), nous allons tenter de faire le point sur les jeux made in Sony du lancement de …

With Thanksgiving coming up, we decided to talk about the concept of thankfulness and the benefits of cultivating gratitude in the midst of an industry that markets the latest as the greatest. We'd love to hear from you! Join us on our social media by checking out our Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thebacklogbreakdown And if you'd like to support us, …

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 e…

I was excited to finally play Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales as I was deep into my MCU (and live-action Spider-Man) rewatch, but that excitement quickly disappeared as I remembered exactly why I liked but didn't love Marvel's Spider-Man: it was just another Spider-Man game. This shouldn't come as a surprise, but Miles Morales is yet another Spi…

Sometimes, you just want to cozy up with some comfort food. And video games are no exception. This week, Josh attempts to nail down the slippery moniker of "coziness" in gaming, and how it might pop up in other unlikely titles. We're all over social media and we'd like to hear from you! Click Here to visit our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/thebacklog…

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 descript…

It's time for another Patron Pick, where our patrons get to pick a game for us to play and talk about. This time around, we have on Mark Erickson from the Quick Play podcast to talk about Outer Wilds. Be sure and give Mark's podcast, Quick Play, a listen by clicking here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/quick-play/id1623478883 We'd love …

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: M…

You may be asking yourself, "Why on earth did you decide to play Riders Republic of all the thousands of games you own?" The answer is simple: I love Downhill Domination and I'm always looking for games that scratch that itch; first there was Descenders and now there's Riders Republic. Let's not kid ourselves here, Riders Republic is no Downhill Do…

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…

Every year, we play a spooky game in October. This year, we tackled Tango Gameworks' The Evil Within. And now, we have some thoughts: some good, some bad, and some ugly. Are there any deeper truths to be mined while playing the game? Listen in and find out! Check out Josh's recommendation of Canterbury's music video for Gloria by clicking…

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! Th…

On this week's bite sized episode, Nate talks about...what he wants to talk about. We're all over social media and we'd like to hear from you! Click Here to visit our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/thebacklogbreakdown The Backlog Breakdown is a proud member of the Play Well Network, a network of podcasts that seek to approach recreation in a more thou…

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 ma…

L’été est fini depuis longtemps mais Winston & Fonz ont du lag et décident de vous faire un débrief dans la joie et la tradition du Summer of Game 2024 ! Entre ronchonnerie, déception, coup de mou et coup de coeur, on fait le tour des confs de ce chenapan de Geof "Doritos" Keighley et son Summer Game Fest, en passant par Phil "world permiere" Spenc…

L’été est fini depuis longtemps mais Winston & Fonz ont du lag et décident de vous faire un débrief dans la joie et la tradition du Summer of Game 2024 ! Entre ronchonnerie, déception, coup de mou et coup de coeur, on fait le tour des confs de ce chenapan de Geof "Doritos" Keighley et son Summer Game Fest, en passant par Phil "world permiere" Spenc…

The hell of my own making is finally over. After seven longs nights of streaming and over twenty hours of playing, my story with golf has ended and I can finally move on with my life. I don't say this lightly, but I genuinely believe like I wasted my time playing this game; not in the playing it all part, but in the playing it to completion when I …

After ~15 months, ProfPlaysGames has finally finished Final Fantasy XVI. The game began and ended on such highs--with some slow parts in the middle. Overall, an incredible experience, and he shares why he thinks so in this podcast.

This week, Josh addresses how we are to take Paul's charge to think on what is "pure and lovely" while also playing video games and engaging with media that vividly depicts the sinfulness of mankind. We're all over social media and we'd like to hear from you! Click Here to visit our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/thebacklogbreakdown The Backlog Breakd…

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 app…

Things have taken a turn for the worse. While I was indifferent last episode, I am indifferent no more. I hate this game. I hate everything about it--okay, that's a bit of a stretch, but I really don't like a lot of it. What I thought was going to be a pleasant surprise is instead and wave of sand in my eyes (from hitting a lot of balls out of the …

Prof spends some time with a gem from his backlog...Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Six hours in, he's hooked--even though the game is like 85% cutscene so far! Ichiban, Dragon Quest references, and a yakuza taking the fall for another yakuza--oh my!

It's October, which means that spooky things abound. And when it comes to video games, horror is a popular genre that stretches back to the earliest days of home consoles. But what exactly is horror, and how can it be used well in video games? Should Christians stay away from it, or can there be a redemptive purpose in horror? We'd love to hear fro…

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 to…

I didn't know what to play after Kena: Bridge of Spirits. I perused the various short lists I created and, when I got to my Switch, one game popped out at me: Golf Story. I had always been interested in Golf Story ever since it first came out to overall glowing reviews, but me and the Switch haven't had the best relationship, so, like many Switch g…

Prof, Anthony, and Tom finish Final Fantasy Adventure and share their thoughts. Were they so OP at the end that the final bosses were trivial? Perhaps!

Nate gets the gang back together as Logan Sharp joins the podcast to discuss the current state of Marvel Snap, and how the game has changed since he's been away. When you're done with the episode, check out Logan's Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTheoLogan898 We're all over social media and we'd like to hear from you! Click H…

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'…

Prof, Anthony, and Tom return to dig into exploring Final Fantasy Adventure's overworld.

--This episode is the second half of the recording, covering thoughts that contain spoilers for Death Stranding.-- After his unceremonious ousting from Konami, Hideo Kojima came back to make a video game that is like no other: Death Stranding. This quarter, we played the game as a community and now Micah and Josh are here to talk about it. Do you l…

After his unceremonious ousting from Konami, Hideo Kojima came back to make a video game that is like no other: Death Stranding. This quarter, we played the game as a community and now Micah and Josh are here to talk about it. Do you like the game? Hate it? Never heard of it? This episode's panel of hosts have varying opinions, and may just be able…