Changing the Backlog: Unexplored Series (Reason 1)

So what is a good reason to scavenge through the backlog?

To those that didn't read, go here,
http://thirdkoopa.blogspot.com/
I'm also lazy, so that's your link. Sorry. Zelda isn't included either. I also will be structuring these differently, so I hope people like the new structure?

You can find gems everywhere. Gems galore. People say when they scavenge through their backlogs, they find garbage, but frankly? I disagree. Scavenging the backlog has been the number #1 way I've found series that I've been missing out. I literally kid you not.

"But how can that be?!" one might ask. It's ten times easier to binge buy all of the Ty games and Half-Life games than actually *playing* them all. How else will I get around to series like this and discover them? Waiting for people to recommend me it? Not going to happen. Waiting to play them at a friend's house? There's so many multiplayer games that that doesn't happen. Wait to meet a fanatic? Yeah, maybe I am better off purchasing.

It brings me to my first victim of the backlog. Tales of Hearts R.

Tales of Hearts R was recent, but the Tales Of games have existed in my backlog and my to-buy list for an atrocious amount of time. What's my excuse every time? "Well, I'll play them with others!" - It's a valid point for someone like me, I mean, they're lengthy games. Tales of Vesperia still (which I did do co-op tho, but wasn't there for all of), Tales of Xillia 2, Tales of Hearts R. It keeps going.

Really, one of the reasons that sold me on doing this whole idea* was the prospect of actually getting around to series I've been missing out on. I won't cheat and list directors, but just to name a few big offenders: Mass Effect, Ty, Half-Life, Devil May Cry, Uncharted, Dead Space, Fable, Prince of Persia, the Department. of Heaven series, Phoenix Wright.

* = and making terrible blog posts at 1 AM

Okay, wow, that's a lot. For a disclaimer, I've played through most of these, just never finished. Some I don't even have data anymore for! That's tragic.

I have a few series that are strange to handle as well. Horror games such as Silent Hill and Fatal Frame have been a big miss on my plays of game series (in-which I've finished most prominent stuff out there. *most*. Keyword on that is still finished.) and Gears of War I've been planning on playing it with my best friend that "I don't need to mention because he'll be mentioned later in this not witty blog".

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Backlog Actual Progress:

Tales of Hearts R.

Literally the only game I touched all this week. I mean, yeah, I grinded in Dust some, but Dust has just demotivated me. So Tales of Hearts R...

I jumped from like, level 15ish range to the level 40ish range. What the heck is going on? Bus time and other various sources of time has given me time to actually play through this, but that's all I had.

Portable is definitely great still, and it'll be pleasant to get a 40 hour game off. It's honestly really enjoyable, and to some degree, I'm taking my time with it.

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I did think a little bit more of how to tackle it, though

I think the summer is meant to get all of the short games out and clean up the trash along with cleaning out what I've really wanted to play. I'm going to clean out the Vita and 3DS library still along with a few others that leave themselves open. I only need to finish one SNES and Wii U game, 4 GBC games, and 8 GBA games to complete all I currently own, so that's actually cool.

To be honest, it's actually not that bad. The only one that circulates triple digits of uncompleted is PS2 (Technically, not even my Steam Library does, but I'm sure I'll have a blog post counting that later). Many beyond that land closer to single digits, or at least on a more manageable scale. I was even shocked to see that the GCN only hit to 43. What? I have 118 games for that thing!

Yeah, that's what I'll do. After that, I'll hope that the long games get me through this year. I am going to make it through even if it kills me.

NEXT WEEK: Depending on what happens with the backlog, next posts could get highly entertaining. Stick around! I'll be talking about Reason #2 as well, "The Game within a Game", or something.