Topic: Recent Retro/Misc Gaming Purchases? (Not PS4/PS5)

@Ralizah Good stuff, looking forward to playing it!

I actually played CrossCode for a couple of hours through Game Pass and found it to be so good that I'd rather just buy and play it on Switch since it's a fairly lengthy game. It truly captures the feel of an old school RPG from the 90s, even down to the music:

I think you'd like it if you're into old school RPGs.

Welp, that didn't last long. I was just randomly browsing the usual online retailers and found one that had received copies of Robotics;Notes - Double Pack on Switch today. I've been wanting to buy this game ever since I played through Steins;Gate (since they belong to the same universe, Science Adventure) and so I decided to order a copy for €18. It's usually priced at €45, the retailer had it for €25 and I had a €7 discount code so overall, I think this was a great purchase since it's two visual novels in one. I'm very happy to have more games from this universe to play now!

@LtSarge Interesting. I'm not sure I have any particular hankering for 16-bit JRPGs, but, at the same time, I can enjoy a good game no matter how "old-fashioned" it is (within reason; pre-NES stuff tends to be a little too archaic for my liking). The way it attempts to mimic the aesthetics of games from that generation reminds me of Pier Solar, which released in 2010 as a new Sega Genesis game before being ported to modern consoles. I always thought it was cool how the creators actually went out of their way to make it a genuine Genesis game.

@Ralizah Oh right, I've completely forgotten about Pier Solar! That was one of the games I really wanted to get on PS4 back when I bought it in 2014. Can't believe I haven't thought of it until now, will have to add it to my watchlist.

Just bought Blue Dragon on Xbox 360 for €5. Been wanting to buy this game for quite some time since it's one of the few JRPGs that's exclusive to the 360 from the early days of the console. A used copy of the game goes for €30, so being able to buy it now on sale for only €5 is an absolute steal. Will have to start up either this or Lost Odyssey on Xbox one of these days.

@LtSarge Blue Dragon is on my to-play list this year. I bought it on disc for £10 in 2009, but only ever played a little at the time. Lost Odyssey is excellent from what I remember. The 360 was actually pretty good for Japanese RPGs in the early days of the console. It's easy to forget how much effort Microsoft put into acquiring exclusives across a broad range of genres.

@mookysam Oh nice, would love to read your thoughts of it whenever you get around to playing it! And man, that's a really long time ago since you bought it. If you manage to finish it, then that would be such a huge accomplishment.

I agree, hopefully Microsoft will do the same this generation in terms of bringing over more Japanese games to Xbox. Maybe even fund some exclusives of their own. Would be cool to see a revival of that Scalebound game that was cancelled on Xbox One.

@LtSarge Will definitely share my thoughts and tag you in. And yeah, this year I'm hoping to play some of the oldest things in my backlog, some of which I'd written off a long time ago. To that end I've just started Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask on the 3DS, which I bought in early 2013. Getting a Series X has really motivated me to go back to the 360 and replay some of my old favourites, as well as play things I hardly touched.

@mookysam Oh wow, you pretty much have the same idea as me for this year, I've also set up a goal to play titles that have been in my backlog the longest. I have so many games that have been in my backlog for over a decade now, most of which are on Wii, PS3 and 360, so I'm hoping to to get through them in the foreseeable future.

@LtSarge Good luck! How many are you aiming to play? I've come to really dislike the PS3 for multiplats as I didn't realise at the time just how bad the performance was on so many games. Most of my backlog is on handhelds, but there's still a fair few Wii games that I'd like to play.

NDS

3DS

@mookysam Well, I believe I finished over 50 games last year so probably around that number. I don't really count all the games I've finished because the exact number doesn't really matter to me.

I do have more games to play on 360 than PS3 in my backlog because I realised just like you that most third-party games are better on 360. Although I still have a lot of games to finish on PS3. JRPGs such as Ni no Kuni, Tales of Xillia, Final Fantasy 13 trilogy and so on. Then there are exclusives like SOCOM, Starhawk, Beyond: Two Souls, Puppeteer, Sly 3, Invizimals and so on. Not to mention the dozens of digital titles such as Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, Jet Set Radio, Tokyo Jungle and Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse among others.

I actually finished Sonic the Hedgehog 3 from the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection on PS3 today since it's not available on the latest Mega Drive collection. I'm playing through the games on the PS3 version that aren't in the latest one and I have three left to go through: the two Ecco the Dolphin games and Sonic & Knuckles. After that I'll consider this collection as finished from my backlog since I can play the rest of the games on the newer one.

But yeah, I'll definitely need to focus mostly on PS3 and 360 since those have the most amount of games that I still need to play. The Wii on the other hand has probably like 20 games left for me to finish so it's not as much to go through there. I actually finished a couple of Wii titles last year, which were Red Steel 2 (awesome game!) and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (also a good game). I recently purchased No More Heroes 3 on Switch so I'm contemplating playing through the first No More Heroes on Wii and finally finishing that game.

Just bought Just Cause 1, Nights Into Dreams, Timesplitters 2 and Future Perfect, Killer is Dead, XCOM Enemy Within, Midnight Club Los Angeles Complete Edition, Aliens vs Predator and Panzer Dragoon Orta on Xbox for €40 in total.

It feels like it's been ages since I've experienced a sale this good, i.e. with lots of games that interest me at cheap prices. Normally I browse through sales on all three platforms and find that I already own most of the games on sale. But thanks to the ongoing backwards compatibility sale on Xbox, I've found so many compelling games from the PS3/360 era that I've been wanting to check out for a long time now. Very excited to play all of them eventually!

@RogerRoger Just Cause 1 was only €1.5 and Timesplitters were €2.5 each so I definitely had to buy them at those prices!

I don't know why, but I'm actually looking forward to playing Just Cause a lot. I think that's because it's an early 360 game and the visuals of the games from that time make me so nostalgic. It's not the same as when I look at Just Cause 3 or 4. Even Just Cause 2 makes me nostalgic!

So I couldn't stay away from the back compat sale on Xbox and decided to buy several more games, which are: Dark Void, The Darkness 1 and 2, The First Templar, Prey (2006), Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Supreme Commander 2 for a total of €30.

This time it was a mix of games that I'm not sure I'm going to like since people have mixed thoughts about them and ones that I've heard good things about. Dark Void and The First Templar are two of the former kind and I honestly just felt like experimenting. Dark Void looks interesting since it's apparently like Uncharted but with a jetpack (later on) and The First Templar is so heavily reminiscent of the first Assassin's Creed game and I've missed those titles, so I'm hoping this game will satisfy my craving for those games. The Darkness games look like pure fun titles, Prey (2006) is apparently one of the most inventive FPS from that era, Prince of Persia is a series I've always been interested in playing through and in terms of Supreme Commander 2, I just felt like adding another RTS game to my backlog. I only have Halo Wars and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 on 360 but I feel like this is a genre that I would really enjoy from what I've seen.

Still building my Switch collection! I’ve ordered Monster Hunter Rise and Daemon X Machina and I’ll be getting Pokémon Legends: Arceus next week! Once I’m done with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on PS4 then the Switch will become my main console while I finish all the games I’ve bought for it recently.

Well the back compat sales on Xbox continue for a second week now and I just bought Lego Indiana Jones 1, Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga, Star Wars The Force Unleashed II and Split/Second for €15 in total.

Picked Chronicles of Mystara and Mayhem Brawler on the Xbox. I was in the mood for a beat em up and Chronicles of Mystara was on sale for $2.99!!! Mayhem Brawler I wanted have been wanting to check out for awhile as well. Very pleased with both purchases.

Just bought Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky on Wii U. Been wanting to buy these games for quite some time now, so I'm really excited to give them a go!

My Odin Pro Super Pack arrived last week. Very impressed with it so far.