Forget ghosts, ghouls, and goliaths… we know the REAL monster is the games backlog that hides in the shadows! The good thing about the spooky season is the cool weather and chill vibes make it the perfect time to face that backlog monster head-on! 

We’re catching up with Emi and Alex to hear how their figurative (and virtual) monster slaying is going. Plus, we’re saying a harrowing “hello!” to a couple NEW friends, Serena and Tyler, who have some great game recs to share if… for any reason… maybe you want to keep feeding your backlog monster?

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You’re new here! Who are ya?! ‍

Heyooo! I’m Tyler, and I’m on Discord’s Recruiting Operations team. ‍

Spooky season is upon us! What games did you end up playing last month?

As many of you can probably relate to, I have a huge game backlog. I do my best to power through it, but… I’m a sucker for JRPGs and Atlus games specifically, so I couldn't resist picking up Metaphor: ReFantazio!

It feels like a high fantasy version of Persona, which I dig. My favorite feature, Social Links, has returned as “Bonds:” You build relationships with NPCs by spending time with them, which in turn unlocks new classes and upgrades them. I’m about 15 hours in (to what is probably an 80+ hour game), but already am loving all of the characters and what I’ve seen of the story. 

When I can tear myself away, I’m practicing my speedrun of Gravity Circuit for an upcoming event. It’s an indie platformer, Mega Man-like game that I highly recommend! It has really tight controls and the platforming feels great — you have a ton of movement tools like wall jumping, a hookshot, divekicks, and even super moves. You’ll feel like a speedrunner even just playing through the game normally! The music is also incredible — I caught myself humming a few of the stage songs while working or doing chores around the house. 

For my speedrun, I’m doing the “Dog%” category - throughout the stages, there are a variety of friendly robots that need to be rescued. In the whole game, two of them are lil pups (Yuki and Amadeus). In Dog%, you need to rescue both dogs in their two stages, head back to base, and last but not least, pet them both. 

So I guess the spookiest thing about all this is that the ghosts of my backlog will continue to haunt me another day. xD

It wouldn't be October if we didn’t talk about some monsters. What is one of your favorite video game monsters?  

I’m a big fan of Final Fantasy, and one of my favorite monsters is the Tonberry. “He’s just a little guy!” you might exclaim upon first seeing one, and then the Tonberry will one-hit KO you. From then on, Tonberries are quite a bit spookier. Super adorable, but super deadly — which, in my opinion, should be the fundamentals of all monster design! 

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You’re new here! Who are ya?! ‍

Hey there! I’m Serena and I’m on Discord’s People Operations team! 

What games did you end up playing last month?

In true Fall fashion, I'm playing an extremely cozy and wholesome indie game called Tiny Glade! One Saturday morning, after failing to rally my friends for our Baldur's Gate 3 campaign, I turned to Steam's Cozy featured section for a suitable alternative. There, I stumbled upon this beautiful building game with an animated fantasy art style.

Tiny Glade encourages curiosity as you discover design opportunities for building architectural wonders. Now, I can create backdrops for my favorite fantasy book realms, like ACOTAR or Fourth Wing, in a game that lets me dream up my perfect fairytale world. My friends have even started creating D&D campaign maps using Tiny Glade for their future playthroughs!

My favorite features include:

• Using the flower feature excessively
• Theme of the Day challenge
• Clicking the sheep and ducks to make tiny hearts appear <3

What is one of your favorite video game monsters?  

My favorite monster is our beloved Owlbear in Baldur's Gate 3. Though, I'm definitely scarier than her when wielding a broomstick in Supermarket Together!

What games did you end up playing last month?

I’m continuing my run with the Yakuza series! I finished Yakuza 0, and now I’m playing Yakuza Kiwami. If you haven’t played any of the games in the series, maybe try out 0 and see if you like it? I enjoyed the story, definitely, but I also loved all of the substories as well! I never turned down going on convenience store runs or solving puzzles. There are still a bunch of substories that I’m missing, though.

I also played more HELLDIVERS 2 — I don’t know which maps feel more scary, bugs or bots. My teammates have been having a lot of fun experimenting with mines recently, which also means there’s been a big uptick in accidental deaths for the squad.

What is one of your favorite video game monsters?  

Is it cheating to say the Alien from Alien: Isolation? Alien is one of my favorite movies, and Alien: Isolation is still one of my favorite games to watch other people play. I’m not sure I have the heart for it nowadays, but I still find new streams and YouTube clips to watch every now and then. I saw that the sequel to Isolation is in development, too!

Spooky season is upon us! What games did you end up playing last month?

While I had a bit of a drought in September due to travel (I played the heck out of the Monster Hunter Wilds demo at PAX though), I’ve been making up for lost time in the past couple weeks with my new Steam Deck that I impulse-bought during Tokyo Game Show. I bought it so I could play Metaphor: ReFantazio lying down. Though this game is supposed to take 80 hours for the main story, I know this means it’ll take me 200 hours from my track record with all other games from Katsura Hashino. I am NOT sitting at my desk for that.

I also have been playing Reynatis, which was my most anticipated game for 2024. While I can say Metaphor: ReFantazio is my “objective” game recommendation for others, Reynatis is my pick for a very specific type of person. That person is someone who was probably between 7 and 14 when the first Kingdom Hearts came out, followed/follows the series beyond just the numbered titles, watched the first Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer in 360P with the “CLOUD” watermark in the top corner in 2006 and thought it was the sickest thing ever, waited with everlasting cope as we neared 10 years without this game, knows what TWEWY is, enjoyed Final Fantasy XV (but still secretly held onto the dream of Versus XIII coming back to us), and finally screamed because Nomura kept the dream alive with Verum Rex and the secret endings in Kingdom Hearts 3. 

Basically, Reynatis is another thing that keeps the Versus XIII dream alive. It was developed by Natsume Atari and FuRyu, not Square Enix, and directed by Takumi Isobe, not Tetsuya Nomura. But what you need to pay attention to are two other very important names in the credits: Kazushige Nojima and Yoko Shimomura. These two legends are the writer and composer for Kingdom Hearts, as well as for many other renowned JRPGs. 

I don’t want to reduce this game at all to just being a replacement for a game that never came out as it was pitched to us. It’s great fun in its own regard. But I will say it scratches a very specific itch for a very specific type of person.

In the spirit of Halloween, I also want to quickly plug Urban Myth Dissolution Center. It’s not out yet (set for a February 2025 release), but there’s a demo out on Steam that I’ve also enjoyed playing this month!

What is one of your favorite video game monsters?  

I wouldn’t say I necessarily care too much about monsters in games, so I was having a hard time picking. But then I really started thinking about it, and I might actually have a lot of contenders here. Is it the Behemoth for being part of a really emotional boss rush at the end of Kingdom Hearts 1? Is it any of the summons from Final Fantasy X? Are those monsters? Is Sephiroth a monster? 

In the end, I have to go with the first one that came to mind and from a series specifically about monsters: the Rathian from Monster Hunter. I love having to strategize cutting off her tail first so she stops poisoning me when she does her flip. I love that she and the Rathalos are a canon power couple. I love that she has a pink variant that’s more powerful. And, I love that she’s a lady, our “Queen of the Land.”

Phew! Lots of monsters this month… they really do come in all shapes and sizes! I still think the scariest one I heard was Serena with a broomstick in Supermarket Together. May we never come face to face with that kind of raw horror in our lifetime...  

Were there any games you’d recommend that we didn’t have the chance to check out? Any particular video game monsters whose pixels still haunt you? Let us know by sending us a tweet over at our X account! (Yes, we said tweets. They’ll always be tweets.)