The Inspirations Of Oceanhorn 2: Knights Of The Lost Realm - Part 1

The best thing about being a small team of developers is that we get to come to work and exchange opinions on what games we played lately, what retro titles our colleagues should check out, and what we could learn from the design of this or that game.

By popular demand, we decided to go over some of the games we think had some influence on our work for the Oceanhorn series, and in particular on its newest chapter, Knights of the Lost Realm.

   

Our first guest is Miko, Cornfox & Bros Game Artist. "I work very closely with Heikki (Cornfox's Creative Director) to create the visual style of the game. I focus mostly on environment art, but have worked on other things as well," says Miko, "We're trying to capture the feel of the original Oceanhorn, but the transition to the new Unreal Engine physic-based rendering opened up new possibilities for the series."  

Knights of the Lost Realm sports a world inspired by quite many late-90s RPG games: in contrast to what came before, often set in a medieval world of knights and castles, here we have both technology and industrial elements seamlessly integrated into a "classic" RPG setting. Breath of Fire 3, Grandia and Alundra (all from 1997) are good examples of this style, where coal, electricity, and gritty backdrops are mixed with classic RPG stuff.

"The world of Oceanhorn 2 is not completely industrialized, and in most areas it doesn't go as far as many of the environments do in FFVII, for example." continues Miko, "We are big fans of this classic though, and one can most likely see the influence Midgar had had on Arcadia's capital, the White City. Like Midgar, it has a circular design and you can see gigantic pipes rising over the walls of the city, but unlike Midgar it's not a dystopia. The White City is a beautiful and bright place, where the sun is always shining. In a way, we try to bring the scale of things to a level similar to what you see in FFVII: even if we use a different aesthetic approach, you feel like you could easily just walk on the pipes."

The more advanced technology in Oceanhorn 2 quite often have rounder and smoother shapes, much like some of the vehicles found in Akira Toriyama's work. The Yellow Bird, Trin's airship, is the perfect example of this rounder design. The most advanced Arcadian tech takes this up a notch, featuring an even sleeker and aggressive design, inspired by modern sports cars or jet planes.

"And then we have the Living Fortresses," says Miko, "compared to the original Oceanhorn, we had a bit more technical freedom with the art, so we tried to make them look even more sophisticated and dynamic. If the Living Fortress in the first title was our version of the Metal Gear Rex, the Living Fortresses in Oceanhorn 2 are an evolution on that, Cornfox's Metal Gear Rays."

If you want to know more about the games and styles that inspired us during the development of Knights of the Lost Realm, stay tuned for Part 2!

The Summoning: I Hope You Crush That Little Dude's Rock

Cool. The last level had like 20 challenges.

         

I had a good last session with The Summoning. The enemies became more challenging and the puzzles retained what I thought was already a satisfactory challenge. (Uber-fans of DarkSpyre probably think it's too easy.) My inventory problems were ameliorated by a Bag of Lightness. I got some more information about the main plot. Everything moved along in a reasonably fast clip. It's not a bad game. But at the same time, I feel like I've gotten its basic experience and I don't really need another 20 hours of it, but another 20 hours seems inevitable whether I "need" it or not.

    

When I left off last time, I was just entering the "Elemental Barrier" levels, of which there turned out to be three. The last one had three elemental barriers in the corridor leading out of the level, and my goal was to find three spheres, have Duncan "activate" them, and then throw them at the barriers so I could pass. By this point, all of the levels have multiple small areas interconnected by teleporters, so exploring them isn't as simple as just always following the right wall. Since you never know where a teleporter is going to take you, and if you'll be back, I've taken to fully exploring each section before moving on. It's also a good idea to toss an unwanted item through each teleporter just to make sure it doesn't have some effect in your current area. 

           

In the midst of battle against hellcats. Man, was it hard to find arrows on this floor.

       

On the first Elemental Barrier level, I met an NPC named Skulk who said he hired himself out as a mercenary and also sold rare and unique items, and I thought I might be able to hire him as a companion or buy some things from him, but despite the dialogue seeming to head in that direction, no such options came to light. Instead, Skulk told me about nine wizards who had tried to defeat Shadow Weaver at the behest of the Council, something I don't remember from the backstory. The wizards were all defeated, and eight of them had their heads impaled on sticks, their souls imprisoned within, and cast into the labyrinth. The ninth, Balthazar, was corrupted to work with Shadow Weaver. This was the first suggestion that I would have to find the eight wizards' skulls.

           

Levels are becoming groups of interconnected areas rather than cohesive structures.

          

Elemental Barrier One (which, confusingly, was the second of the three levels) offered combats against a bunch of ghouls. Ghouls can only be damaged by weapons of silver. Fortunately, there was a sword maker named Kern on the same level. He said he'd need a supply of silver and a holy emblem to make the sword, plus 5 gold pieces for his service. I was delighted at the prospect of finally getting rid of some of the gold I'd amassed, only to find that the level itself provides you with at least the 5 gold pieces you have to pay Kern. Anyway, the holy emblem was in the possession of Rhegad, an ex-priest who had become disillusioned with the world and decided to join Shadow Weaver's horde. Lacking martial ability, he wanted to trade the emblem for a Book of the Sword, a magic object that improves your skill with edged weapons. It's a good thing I met him before finding the book, because I would have used it for myself. I don't know if it's possible to kill him after he gives you the holy emblem and take the book back. I'm not evil that way.

        

A cinematic showed Kern forging the sword. Apparently, it will never break, but it sucks against regular foes.

       

The silver came from a chalice that a warrior named Greyreign was carrying. He had been wounded, but his code prevented him from accepting magical help. Instead, he wanted me to find him a "healing mango," which sounds like magic to me, but whatever. There were a couple on the level, so I gave him one and got the chalice. Kern made me the sword, and I used to wipe out what seemed like dozens of undead. I was frankly a little annoyed that I couldn't break regular weapons on them.

          

Amidst the remains of ghouls.

         

Other new enemies on this level were "hellcats," which look like small cats. I think by now I was also getting attacked by harpies pretty regularly. Minotaurs joined the bestiary on Elemental Barrier Two.

     

It was somewhere on this level that I found a Bag of Lightness, which changed life enormously. The bag has 12 slots, and nothing you put in it weighs anything unless you're holding the bag. I was able to shuffle a bunch of stuff and finally get back below my weight threshold, but that didn't last forever, and by the end of this session, I was back to having to drop a chest at the beginning of the level, explore, and then return for it. 

            

The bag helped, but my new samurai armor made me overburdened again.

         

Elemental Barrier Two started with a combat against an NPC named Murc'met who said he was a great swordsman but died in like two hits. Later, I met one of his former companions, Toh, who talked smack about him. She also talked about making an effort to find the blade Warmonger, the demon-possessed sword created by King Borel and used by the character in DarkSpyre. She discussed a couple of rumors about where it might be held, including a hidden chamber before the elemental barriers or an underground cavern within the territory of the White Knight. I hope it wasn't in a secret area on the Elemental Barrier levels because I never found it.

 

Later, an old man named Nigel introduced the possibility of a multiverse: he said that when he died, he expected to move on to another plane, and he thinks there must be magical ways to move between planes. He cited the example of the Gods of War, Magic, and Intellect, who clearly came from some place external.

          

Punching through the elemental barrier.

           

I otherwise didn't write down much about the Elemental Barrier levels until I got to the end and flung the three spheres into the appropriate barriers. (This required me to take them back to Duncan, but each level had a way to shortcut it on the way back to the beginning.) My shots show a lot of the usual: keyed doors, levers, pressure plates that had to be weighed down (there were a lot of these on the last level in particular), doors that had to be opened with the "Kano" spell, and so forth.

     

Using a rolling ball to weigh down a pressure plate after stopping it with a "Magic Wall." Yawn.

        

As I got through the elemental barriers, I was once again visited by the apparition of Rowena, who confirmed that Shadow Weaver intended to use the Staff of Summoning (I had already learned as much from Dunstan on the Broken Seal levels). The Staff is apparently broken into two pieces, one of which Shadow Weaver already has, the other of which is in another world. To get there, I'll need to learn a special spell from the skulls of the eight wizards. I'm preparing for a twist ending in which this isn't really Rowena visiting me, but we'll see.

          

What do you want to bet that this "other world" coincidentally consists of dungeons with puzzles?

         

The area after the Elemental Barrier levels is called the Realms of the Five Knights. I've only explored one so far, but I'm assuming it ultimately consists of five levels, each ruled by a different colored knight. The first level was the Blue Knight's, and as I entered, I was greeted by one of his warriors, Makabre. He gave me the lay of the land. The other knights are White, Ebon, Green, and Crimson, and the five are constantly looking to undermine the others, sometimes forming alliances, sometimes breaking them. The Ebon Knight is the most powerful of the lot, the Green Knight the weakest. Each wears a medallion, and to get out of the area, I'll need to collect all five medallions and drop them in a hole in front of a great door. Man, I really hope Shadow Weaver has a secret entrance; otherwise, when he's in the mood for a taco, getting out of his own fortress must be seriously inconvenient.

         

You may come to regret that you offered this information so freely.

         

The Blue Knight's level made me complete three "challenges": the mind, the fighter, and the mage. The fighter challenge just had a bunch of enemies, and the mage had a puzzle involving the "Magic Wall" spell that was no harder than a regular puzzle. The "mind" one wasn't hard, but it was funny. The walls in this section were built like an equation, with holes between the operators: HOLE + HOLE = HOLE. There was a chest with three objects in it: a rock, a Jera potion, and an empty potion flask. To solve the puzzle, I had to swallow the potion and hurl one of the flasks at the wall, breaking it, and then drop the resulting objects in the holes so that the equation was ROCK + FLASK = BROKEN GLASS. Unfortunately, the creators made it so the holes would only accept the proper objects, so it was a bit too easy.

      

This was a cute idea.

       

Enemies started getting a lot harder on this level with the introduction of samurai, and then eventually I had to kill the Blue Knight himself. Still, "harder" doesn't mean very hard. Even though the enemies might be capable of pounding away my hit points in a few hits, I can always cast "Freeze," then run away from combat. The spell lasts long enough to make and quaff a couple of healing potions, at which point I can re-engage and cast "Freeze" again if necessary. You can't even run out of spells because the spell preparation window (unlike the inventory window) freezes the action on the screen. To be a real threat, an enemy would have to be immune to magic or last long enough that you exhaust your spell points. That hasn't been a danger yet.

            

This line of samurai was tough, but the pressure plate allowed me to crush some of them in the door.

         

I started finding the wizards' skulls on this level, ultimately finding three: Erastus, Zana, and Sea Raven. Each taught me one symbol for the "Gateway" spell. I figure if I get six of the eight, I could figure out the rest on my own. I don't know if I need to keep the skulls after talking with them, but I have been.

          

It feels rude just to dump them on the floor.

         

The Blue Knight's level ended with a fiendish puzzle. Involving a large area of 20 small rooms, each with two or three doors connecting them to the other rooms. A large chamber nearby held 20 levers, each of which opened at least one door and some of which closed others. I had to test them all, carefully noting the effects (when I could even see them) on the opened and closed doors in the chambers. Each chamber had a will-o-wisp, which has a lightning missile attack. The whole area took a while, but it ultimately led me to the teleporter to the Blue Knight and then to the level's exit. The next area appears to be the White Knight's domain, and here I signed off.

           

My heart sank when I walked into this area.

            

Beyond that, there's not much to tell you except miscellaneous things:

    

• One puzzle gave me a room in the shape of a clock. There were 12 pressure plates that I clearly had to weigh down with rocks, and a skull told me that I wanted "eagle's position." Through trial and error (and reloading, because the wrong choice sent fireballs hurling at me), I figured out that the right positions were 12 and 7. What does this have to do with eagles?

       

Is there some in-game context by which this makes sense?

        

• Since I eventually had plenty of weapons, I tried to prioritize the ones for which I had low skill, starting with missile weapons. By this time, I was carrying two bows and had a quiver full of arrows, including a couple of barbed and poison arrows. While you can pick up arrows after combat, I find that I slowly lost about half of them just because they can be hard to see. But the thing I like is that you just have to run over them and hit "T" ("Take") to pick them up, and they go directly into the quiver. I wish Dungeon Master made it so easy.

• The game has an annoying copy protection system. When you start up, you have to consult a page in the manual, each of which has a string of five faces at the top of the page, which you replicate in the game window. Some of them are kind of hard to make out in the book. 

         

This discourages short sessions.

              

• Melee weapons and shields have broken plenty of times. Armor, greaves, helms, gauntlets, and bows have never broken. Do they?

• Some of the doors are tough to pick out from the surrounding walls.

          

Note the closed door to the southwest of my character.

        

• I'm carrying way too many extra Raido, Gebo, and Thurisaz runes, all of which teleport you to their respective floor sigils if the level you're on has them. So far, I haven't found very many floor sigils that aren't accessible through non-teleportation means.

           

This was a rare exception.

         

• Amulets use up their magic and disappear in less than five minutes. They may as well have not even included them.

• So far, every time the game has called for a miscellaneous item, it has offered that miscellaneous item somewhere on the same level. I assume, given all the warnings I've received, this must change at some point. If not, you're making me carry around a lot of extra junk for nothing.

• Character development slowed to a crawl this section. I ended the last one a "Cavalier" (8/12) and remain one hours later. My edged weapon skill went up to "Savant" (8/10), an increase of one, and my use of missile weapons went to "Skilled" (5/10). Healing magic increased by one category to "Sage" (8/10), but that's only because I used a Fehu rune (creates random objects), which in turn got me a Perth rune, which levels up a random spell skill. 

            

My current status.

      

As I acquire new spells, it's getting harder and harder to memorize them, and inconvenient to refer to screenshots of the hand motions. Now that I have all 12 hand positions, I've assigned a number to each one, and I have a notepad where I've written down every spell's numerical code. This works if I have plenty of time, but I needed something faster for the spells I might want to quickly memorize and cast in combat, so I unwittingly found myself adopting a mnemonic device for the most common spells, based on what the hand movements could represent. 

    

Ultimately, I had labeled the 12 movements, in order:

   

1. "Point." It looks like someone saying "Point of Order!"
2. "Hope." Because I initially interpreted it as crossed fingers. I had to go with what works.
3. "One." That was the laziest one.
4. "Crush," because it looks like someone crushing a soda can.
5. "Commodore." It was the first thing I could think of that began with "C."
6. "Paper." From Rock, Paper, Scissors.
7. "Hook," because that's what he's doing with his finger.
8. "Swear," because it looks like someone taking an oath.
9. "Waiter," because it almost looks like someone carrying a tray.
10. "Rock," also from the game.
11. "Dude." I realize the sign is usually with the thumb, not the index finger, but you go with what you first think of.
12. "Little," as if the person is saying, "just a little bit."

      

Waiter! One little rock, dude.

           

After this, the trick is to string them together along with an image of the spell. "Flaming Arrow" becomes CRUSHING a ROCK, and you picture a flaming arrow doing that. "Kano" (which opens doors) is similarly CRUSHING HOPE, so I picture an enemy on the other side of the door desperately hoping that I won't get through. "Restore" is tougher: ONE POINT is that the DUDE is a WAITER. I don't know why, but for some reason I could hear Robert Downey Jr. saying that sentence, and he was in Restoration with Sam Neill, so it works. I'll probably remember that long after I've forgotten my own middle name.

     

Time so far: 21 hours

Oceanhorn For Mac Appstore - Out Now!

Oceanhorn looks great on Mac, especially with Ultra settings!

We are proud to announce that today we released a remastered version of Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas for Mac Appstore, together with our buddies at FDG Entertainment! Just like in iOS version, the soundtrack is composed by Nobuo Uematsu and Kenji Ito. We did the port for OSX ourselves to make sure everything will be perfect when Mac gamers set on their journey in Arcadia!

Here's the link to the Appstore:
https://itunes.apple.com/fi/app/oceanhorn/id1044375067?mt=12

So if you're a Mac gamer and haven't yet played remastered version of Oceanhorn yet – now's your chance.

Happy adventures!

Quiet Gardens Of Celadon

After leaving behind the sleepy little hamlet of  Lavender Town, Celadon City is quite the overwhelming spectacle. While Saffron City may have the tallest buildings in the land, Celadon is known throughout Kanto as a center of commerce. It boasts the largest population in Kanto, making it the most bustling city you'll find. The streets are packed with people coming and going about their daily lives. Aside from a world-renown shopping center, the city also boasts all forms of entertainment. Neon signs lit up the evening sky broadcasting all forms of attractions in Celadon City.  As tempting as it was to check out some of the local nightlife, I was here on a mission.
My first morning in Celadon found me standing face to face with the Celadon City Gym. I had read in a brochure that only local females were allowed to join the gym as members which  made it a bit intimidating for shy male trainers like myself. I took a deep breath and walked inside. It was humid and balmy, as it was partially a greenhouse. There were plants everywhere making it difficult to see much of anything. Blue had told me this should be my first stop in Celadon and to wait for further instructions. As I pushed my way through the dense plants, I stumbled into other trainers. I startled them as much as they startled me!
I decided that since I was here waiting for Blue, I'd challenge the gym. So I battled my way through the vines and grasses; I battled my way through the strikingly beautiful trainers that Gym Leader Erika had assembled at her gym to test challengers. As expected, Celadon's specialty was Grass-type Pokémon and most of the Grass-types in Kanto are also Poison-types which made them particularly susceptible to Dustin's psychic assaults, but I was saving Dustin for the finale. I didn't want to show my hand too quickly. It was Shakespear who helped clear the way through the gym trainers to face the leader. Shakespear pecked his way through the crowd of Oddish, Bellsprout and the occasional Ivysaur.
"Blue sent you, did he not?"  Erika asked me when I found her lounging in the shade under a tree. I nodded and she smiled softly. "I can see why. I train with these girls every morning and your Spearow put all that training to shame." She sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees. She was dressed in a beautiful, ornate kimono. She looked a bit like a samurai princess. "Are you ready to face Team Rocket, I wonder."
She stood up and brushed the grass and dirt off her clearly expensive attire. She smiled her lazy smile at me again before throwing a Pokéball in my direction, unleashing a Victreebel. I didn't open with Shakespear this time. Instead, Dustin took the field and Erika looked surprised and also satisfied. Dustin tore through the Victreebell with a psychic confusion attack. Erika tossed out a Tangela, which were a rather rare species of Grass-type Pokémon. It was a pure Grass-type and wouldn't be  utterly defeated by a psychic assault, but Dustin was well versed in the Fox-school of Pokémon battling. He hypnotized Tangela and lulled it to sleep, then began to rejuvenate himself with Dream Eater. He faced off against Erika's final Pokémon, a Vileplume, at full strength and won a decisive victory.
"I am impressed," she said as she stepped forward with her hand extended. In it was the Rainbow Badge her gym bestowed on worthy challengers. As I took it from her, our hands touched and I thought perhaps lingered a moment. Her skin was so soft. She blushed a little when I looked at her. "Would you take a moment to accompany me to the shopping plaza?" she asked. "We have some time before other things require our attention."
"I … uh … yes?" I was a bit flustered. Was she asking me out? "I have some things I need to pick up at the store, too," I finally managed to stammer and she laughed very softly. It was true I'd had a close call with Royal on the way over from Lavender as I scrambled to dig my last poison antidote out of my bag. I needed to resupply and reorganize before something terrible happened due to my absent-mindedness.
"Let me speak to the trainers here for a moment and I will meet you outside," she said with a smile. "We are waiting for a few more to show up, as well." I nodded and made my way back out of the steamy gym. As I stepped out into the cool spring air, I wondered if it was the greenhouse or the girl's hint of flirtation that had gotten me so hot and uncomfortable. Had Erika asked me on a date? It was distracting to say the least at a time when I should have been focused on what we were about to be up against. Perhaps it was just the kind of pleasant distraction I needed, though.

The Celadon Shopping Plaza was extraordinary. A shopping mall built six stories tall and specializing in all things Pokémon related. There were other shops and restaurants, of course, but it was truly a trainer's paradise. As I followed Erika through the crowds of busy shoppers, my eyes drawn equally to every flashing sign as they were to every brief smile on Erika's face. I restocked all the items I needed to keep my Pokémon healthy. She helped me find everything I needed at the the right shops for the right prices, smiling shyly and giving a few brief laughs here and there. She also took me to an old man selling rare stones, explaining one in particular would allow Arnold to evolve into a more powerful form if I so chose. It was something to consider and I was grateful for her expertise on both shopping and Grass-type Pokémon!
As we made our way from shop to shop, I noticed people were giving us a bit of a wide berth. All around us was an ocean of people, but for some reason Erika seemed to remain the eye of the storm. As if on cue, the calm was broken by a young interloper who came crashing out of the crowd and into our small private bubble.
"Who the hell are you and why are you so familiar with Gym Leader Erika?" he demanded. His outburst turned more than a few heads in the crowd, but people continued about their own business. This guy was younger than me, younger than Erika, but he stood his ground firmly.
"My name is Fox," I stammered.
"Don't pay him any attention, Fox. He's just jealous."
"Damn straight, I'm jealous!" the boy shouted. A few more heads turned, but when they saw Erika was involved they kept walking. "You don't just get to walk side-by-side with the Princess of Celadon City."
Erika blushed deeply, her porcelain skin turning bright red. "Don't call me that!" she snapped. She grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me forward. He nearly jumped out of the way to avoid her crashing into him. The crowd parted around us as she rushed us forward. It was so strange to observe. She was actually being treated like some kind of royalty, now that the kid mentioned it.
We finally stopped at a quiet spot in a less busy area of the plaza. Erika sat down beside a fountain in the shade of a nearby indoor tree planted by the fountain. "I'm sorry about that," she offered. "Every time I go out something like this happens, so I mostly stay at the gym, surrounded by my girl friends who aren't so damn aggravating."
"What was that all about?" I asked cautiously. I stood near her nervously for a moment before deciding I was being an idiot. Then I sat down next to her, but not too close.
"My father is … perhaps was … the most wealthy man in Kanto. He helped build this place," she said making a sweeping gesture to the grand shopping plaza. "He's pretty  much the reason Celadon City is such a booming success. So that dumb kid wasn't wrong when he called me the Princess of Celadon, but I just hate that title." Her rather soft-spoken demeanor had all but evaporated now that we were fairly isolated and alone.
"Honestly I think Team Rocket runs things, now. Daddy won't admit it. He's very proud and stubborn. Still, I think Rocket has all but publicly taken over this town. They operate out of the most successful casino parlor and arcade, and up until recently they've been mostly hiding in the shadows. Something changed, though. No one knows what, but now Team Rocket is not just a shady organization operating discreetly behind the scenes. They are committing real crimes right out in the open - like at Mount Moon, Cerulean City and whatever's going on in Saffron City. It's as if they feel invulnerable. The police have done almost nothing in the last few months and that's why we need to stop them. Apparently, no one else will."
"I didn't know things had gotten so bad," I offered.
"It's understandable. You aren't from Kanto, but Kanto needs you. We all need you. We need all the help we can get to flush these criminals out of our streets before things get any worse."
After a moment's hesitation, I put my hand on hers. She was depending on me and suddenly that felt vastly more important than Professor Oak's research, my dreams of running a sanctuary, or some League challenge. "I'll do everything I can to help," I said it with confidence. On the inside I was terrified, but I tried not to let it show. I was terrified of facing Team Rocket. I was terrified of sitting next to a girl as pretty and apparently powerful as Erika. I tried to channel my inner Blue and his tremendous amount of self-confidence and hoped it was working.
Erika looked up at me and smiled a genuine, beautiful smile. I felt true calm and confidence sweep over me briefly. Then bells began ringing and sirens began blaring both inside and outside the plaza. Erika's smile vanished in a heartbeat and was replaced with stoic determination.
"Let's go," she said. "It's time."

Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.



Bill's Storage: Kiwi (Pidgeotto) & Vesper (Zubat)

Old Man Daycare: Charlie (Pidgey)

How To Beat The Backloggery Boss! (Monday Musings 79)

The Backloggery is an amazing site where you can add your entire game collection, and see which games you've beaten, and which needs completion. It's frustrating to see so many games not yet beaten, and this site gives you incentives to slay the Backloggery Boss. Indeed, it's a breath of fresh air when you see your backlog numbers reducing, and you also obtain achievement badges, which is a very nice touch!

They also have features that shows you trends of your backlog against games completed. Upon using these cheese strats, my unbeaten games percentages plummeted! I can't find a link on the site where it lists all of your badges in one place, so I'll make that suggestion!

If you find it very useful, make sure you chose a name that you really want, since you can't change your username as of this writing.

TheBackloggery Trends Chart

Here's my Backloggery link.

I love the site because it's so easy to add, edit and view games, so impressed that I donated to the site awhile back. You can easily add games under a Collection Series, which streamlines, so you can view games even more conveniently.

Given that I have a large backlog (when I started, it was over 100 games), and I felt overwhelmed, but digging into my usual ways of finding cheese methods to beat a boss, I found ways you can cheese and defeat the Backloggery Boss!

I would sell, give away and/or donate all physical copies of games that you never played and really feel that you'll never play again. Don't be upset about giving up these games, for you can borrow those games back from library, or rent from GameFly (my review link) which thus far I had a surprisingly positive experience.

By donating and giving my games away, my backlog was heavily reduced by at least 50%, and I got a nice tax deduction! This is a win-win - you no longer have the guilt of an unplayed game, and by selling or donating, you get money back, and someone out there is enjoying your game so it doesn't go to waste. Through donation and giving away strat, that takes out 50% off Backloggery's health.

I wouldn't include any free games you've gotten through your Playstation or XBox subscription, since there's no "guilt" if you never play those games ever again, since they're free anyways. I also wouldn't include games that you received free in a bundled console package, because often you buy these bundled packages because they're actually cheaper than the console by itself.

Therefore, delete those free games, unless you want to include them as a reminder that this is a game you want to play down the road. On the other hand, if you need a reminder that you own a game, you most likely aren't interested in playing the game in the first place!

Next, I was very upset since I purchased a lot of digital copies of games and DLCs which comprised a substantial portion of my backlog. Upon reviewing The Backloggery FAQ section, it was noted how ownership is unclear, especially since a lot of games are purchased digitally. I was then excited, after reviewing legal rules into digital ownership, that we do not technically own these games at all!

Therefore, I deleted all the digital games I purchased that I don't intend to ever play again! Digital copies also include any DLCs you purchased as well! Often, when I buy DLCs, I already finished the game, and would start on the next, never going back to playing said DLC. Therefore, you can also delete those if you know for sure that you'll never go back to those neglected digital games and DLCs. 

I can't tell you how refreshing that is, since quite a few digital games I purchased tend to be classic platform games, which I tend not to enjoy as much as RPGs, as well as iOS games that may not work on the next iPhone iteration (further, I refuse to buy any more Apple products due to atrocious customer service x 2), and hence will never play those.

Thankfully, Fortnite's Save the World was digital, so I can delete that game. Further, is this a finished game in the first place? I don't think Epic games ever completed it, instead focusing on Battle Royale, so there's no cheating here.

Make sure you label games that don't have an ending (such as Karaoke and Dance games), by labeling them as "Null", which will show up on your games collection list, but not counted toward your backlog. 

By removing the vast amount of digital games and DLCs, that left my Backloggery boss near death at 4.9% health. The remaining 6 games are physical copies that I can easily donate. I'm so tempted to give away or donate Witcher 3 as I don't foresee myself playing the game, given that it's been years since I was thinking of buying it, and then once it was on a huge discount, I purchased it, and yet only played at most 30 minutes! 

The remaining physical games I have are definitely games I will play which include only five, all on PS4: Final Fantasy X/X-2 Remake, Gravity Rush Remastered, Kingdom Hearts 3, Nier: Automata, and Nights of Azure 2.

With my strat of using GameFly, I will be renting games, and only buying a game that I want to play more in depth such as Sekiro. This will prevent the Backloggery Boss from resuscitating.

Clearly these strats are very cheese (which is how I tend to play games), but it works and isn't technically cheating!

Do you find these strats helpful or too cheese, and do you find it refreshing when you reduce your backlog?

The How of Happiness Review