Summer Backlog Diary #5: Cosmic Hob Sphere

I know it's been a little while since my last Summer Backlog Challenge 2018 update, but other than one weekend where I played No Man's Sky instead, I have still been playing the games in the meantime. One day last week, I decided I wanted a bit of variety, so I played the first hour or so from each of Cosmic Star Heroine, Hob and Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir.  I had a lot of fun doing this but at the end I knew I had to commit myself to playing one of them or I would never get anywhere.  Cosmic Star Heroine was the game of choice, and I just got to the end yesterday, so the full review will be incoming next Tuesday. I am going to share a few thoughts about the game here but I will be fairly brief.

I remember first hearing about Cosmic Star Heroine when Kat Bailey spoke about it at length on an episode of Axe of the Blood God, or it may have actually been the precursor show Active Time Babble, I forget now.  At any rate, her in depth review and her interview with the main programmer Robert Boyd made me want to pick it up,  so I did shortly after it was released for the PS4.  There, it remained unplayed until this year.  I'm not entirely sure why - I think it was a combination of factors.  Firstly, I play my PS4 Pro far less than my Xbox One X, I just don't like it as much as a console. Secondly, I was constantly running out of space which I just fixed this year by buying an external hard drive, though this shouldn't have been a major factor for Cosmic Star Heroine because it's a small file size anyway.  Regardless, I am glad that I put it on my Summer Backlog Challenge list for this year and have now finished it, because I loved every minute of it.  The game is about to come out for the Switch next week so I really hope it gets a lot more attention as a result, Zeboyd Games really deserve it.

Next up, let's talk about Hob for a bit.  This is the very first game I thought of when I came up with the list of ten games for this year.  How could another game by the makers of the amazing Torchlight games be anything less than amazing? So far, it is indeed pretty good. It plays like a classic 2D Zelda, with a strong emphasis on puzzle solving and exploring your surroundings.  While there are enemies, who do pack quite a punch, they aren't too common.  Despite that, I am still tempted to dial the combat difficult down to its lowest setting so I can just focus on solving the dungeons. I love the aesthetic of the game - it reminds me a lot of Studio Ghibli's Castle in the Sky (aka Laputa), my favourite film by Hayao Miyazaki by far. You have the ancient ruins reclaimed by nature, and the stone golems covered in moss with little bird friends. Something is slowly poisoning the land though, and it's up to Hob to find out what and put a stop to it.  The main character looks a lot like the one from Journey - so much so that I think he must be a cousin or something.  Billy Bob and Hilly Hob? Yes, that makes sense!

Lastly today, we come to Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir.  This game appeals to me a lot because I love the gorgeous artwork (which now looks absolutely stunning because it's been remastered in full HD) and I'm also quite fascinated by Norse mythology.  The combat does feel a bit button mashy at first but the game slowly layers on more depth as you go through the early sections of the story, and if you want to ensure you get an S rank in each encounter you will need to stop and think about what you're doing a little bit rather than simply flailing around. I am not sure I will actually have time to finish this one by end of the challenge, but I still want to play through it even after that.

I am going to return to Pyre and finish playing the rest of that next, because I am already pretty far through.  After that, Hob will be the focus.  Although I have played quite a bit of Battle Chasers: Nightwar, I'm not confident I will get to the end before the deadline.  The need to grind has kind of sapped my enthusiasm for it, to be honest.  I will go back to it eventually though.   That's all for today - don't forget to come back on Tuesday to read or watch my Cosmic Star Heroine review!