Backlog Conquering - RiME - My Journey - Start to Finish

This is, mostly, my journey through the RiME. i cut out a couple of sections where i got stuck for a long time, but left in moments when i was stuck for a short time or when i died. it was a difficult game to edit into one play through, especially as i had 7 parts to my journey. soin a few places, it's a little rough due to the edit or due to mistakes i made, but hopefully you'll enjoy my journey or at the very least find it useful.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 7 - The Final Part

In part 6, https://youtu.be/1p_1m3GFPFE, i got stuck on a puzzle for around 30 minutes. if i solved it much sooner, i might've finished the game in that session. But as i didn't, i went into part 7 not really knowing how much of the game was left to play, and yet feeling like i was near the end of the game, that i was near the top of the tower i had been working my way up.

So part 7 is really short because there wasn't too much left to do in the game. I was lucky that the game, when it started, had moved me to where i needed to be. i finished Part 6 at the final statue i had awakened, but not where all 4 of their "spirits" had congregated. So when i started right where i needed to be, i did my scream, solved a light puzzle, and had to deal with the top of the tower being the bottom and then i got to the ending.

Ultimately, i don't get it. i say it in the video but the truth is i found it much more enjoyable tackling the puzzles and progressing through the world than what the conclusion ended up being. these puzzle parts of the game ended up being better than the game itself. The mystery of the king, the kingdom, the queen, and the other child were never explained, nor were the robots. if i had seen some sign of these at the end then i might've understood how or why they were in the world i had just played through. the story i had created in my own mind from my own experiences, which at times i say throughout this whole series, ended up being nothing like the actual ending. The ending i got didn't match the game i had just played. it's such a big disconnection that not only is it frustrating, it almost makes the game pointless to the point that i think of the game more as a series of puzzles than something with a story.

But that's just me and my interpretation of my own experiences. players from different cultures and backgrounds might have different feelings for the ending. I enjoyed the puzzles so much, especially that i was only stuck twice, that i would still recommend the game. probably best played on a PS5 because it really spun up the fans in my PS4!

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 6 - Taking 30 Minutes To Complete The Robot Room Puzzle

At the end of Part 5, https://youtu.be/c96t5xE35-s, i was left in a room with robots at one end. i had a look around but couldn't work out the puzzle so i left it for this Part 6. 

But i would be stuck in this room for 30 minutes! it's a little embarrassing how long it took for me to solve this room. once i finally got out of the room, the rest of the video went really smoothly. it was a little strange to have the dark creatures no longer attack or pay much attention to me. it seemed that each time i met them they'd react differently. the rainy maze looked impressive, as does much of the game, but it actually felt easy to get through. during the video i commented if i had brute forced my way through the maze like section rather than navigate it as it was intended. ultimately, whilst the maze looked nice, it seemed somewhat pointless.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 5 - Dark Creatures Attack and I Build A Robot

In part 3 of playing RiME , i didn't finish the section with the windmills and bird, https://youtu.be/lmlH4yN_1r8. I had released the storm from 2 of the 3 windmills, but still had the third and final one. So in today's Part 4, that was my first objective. Once both were done, the next area resumed underwater traversal and it wasn't too bad. there's plenty of oxygen so it wasn't too tense. 

When i emerged in the "Tree" area, then things got weird. corridors seemed to go on forever in one direction and straight ahead could also mean up! i don't know if it was luck or not, but i seemed to navigate it right the first time. this also means that i didn't do any exploration either. But the thing that annoyed me the most was getting stuck on a tree. I needed to walk up it to dive into water. i fell off the first time and on the second attempt i slid on the spot. non of the face buttons or analogue sticks did anything. all my character did was slide on the spot. i had to restart and spend time getting back to this room.

Thankfully it didn't happen again and i ended the video after restarting a robot that seemed to tease a part of the game with more of them. so far i had found other robots, but none of them worked. so i was surprised to find one that did and it was useful. there will be a part 5 as i'm curious how robots fit into this world that seemed devoid of anything technological. 

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 4 - Bird and Windmill Finished, Game Broken, Robot Awoken!

In part 3 of playing RiME , i didn't finish the section with the windmills and bird, https://youtu.be/lmlH4yN_1r8. I had released the storm from 2 of the 3 windmills, but still had the third and final one. So in today's Part 4, that was my first objective. Once both were done, the next area resumed underwater traversal and it wasn't too bad. there's plenty of oxygen so it wasn't too tense. 

When i emerged in the "Tree" area, then things got weird. corridors seemed to go on forever in one direction and straight ahead could also mean up! i don't know if it was luck or not, but i seemed to navigate it right the first time. this also means that i didn't do any exploration either. But the thing that annoyed me the most was getting stuck on a tree. I needed to walk up it to dive into water. i fell off the first time and on the second attempt i slid on the spot. non of the face buttons or analogue sticks did anything. all my character did was slide on the spot. i had to restart and spend time getting back to this room.

Thankfully it didn't happen again and i ended the video after restarting a robot that seemed to tease a part of the game with more of them. so far i had found other robots, but none of them worked. so i was surprised to find one that did and it was useful. there will be a part 5 as i'm curious how robots fit into this world that seemed devoid of anything technological. 

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 3 - 2 Windmills, A Bird, And Lot’s Of Water

In part 3 of playing RiME on PS4, i feel like i continue to make good progress, but i still don't have much of a clue what's going on. Plus, in this video, i'm a little confused about the giant bird and what we're doing to subdue it. surely, if this bird has always been an issue, the fact it still exists should be worrying. especially when we're seeming painting the sky with storms. Is this a permanent thing? is this a "weapon" that was made and never used before? it brings a weird tone to the story of the game.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 2 - An Hour Of More Adventuring

After getting stuck at the end of the first video for RiME, https://youtu.be/dEA0laV7RbA, i had a quick look at a YouTube video for the solution and found out i was soo close to the answer. so i started this video, part 2 of playing RiME as part of my Backlog Conquering series, by solving the puzzle.

After the puzzle, i didn't know what to expect. i stopped watching the video as soon as it showed the solution, so once more i was off exploring and solving the puzzles as they came. Part 2 feels a little different to the part 1 video as i didn't find any pedestals with glyphs on them this time and the puzzles seemed to be a little more complicated, or that i didn't solve them too quickly. 

The game continues to look stunning and it continues to push my PS4 so hard the fans are actually really loud, so loud i tried to edit them out of my audio. But the game's story hasn't really grabbed me. i don't know if i've missed something or i'm not quite understanding what's been shown to me, but the drive for me is exploring the world in the game. so there will be a part 3, but my enthusiasm for the game has dropped a little and getting messed about by the autosave system didn't help.

at the end of the first video, i quit after an auto save as there's no way to manually save. but when i started RiME for part 2, it was immediately clear that things weren't as i left them. it almost felt like the area i was trying to solve reset. it was frustrating having to do stuff that i had already done to get to the puzzle i was stuck at and because i was unhappy with it i didn't go back to do the side areas that i also did in part 1. i can only hope that things will go smoother at the start of part 3.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 1 - The First 55 Minutes

RiME is the new Backlog Conquering game. i'm playing this on my launch model Japanese PS4 and it's a PSN download, i think there was a disc version of this game in some markets.

I've had this game for a while and i don't really know why i never played it. i think that it maybe wasn't as good as people had hoped for tho i don't really remember. i do remember there being some hype around this game.

It quickly became clear that this is a game that leaves it to the player to work it out. it does offer some hints as to what you need to do. for the first part, there were pillars of light and there was fruit strategically placed next to animals. but as i moved to the second area, i felt like there were fewer hints and that did lead me to stopping the game because i had been stuck for 5 to 10 minutes.

I did have fun exploring. there was no sense of urgency nor anything that seemed out to kill me. so it was nice to do it at my own pace. But it did feel a little dated in that your character is unable to climb and seems not able to jump high at all. i can understand why this character can't jump, it's to confine you to an area. the game may look like an open world but it's actually several gated areas. i have done the first area and i'm in the second, and yet i don't really know if i've finished the first area. there are many collectibles in the game but there doesn't seem to be any record of how many you need to find in area. maybe this'll be something that'll unlock at the end of the game or maybe i'll get a in-game map later.

There will be a part 2, but getting as stuck as i did at the end of part 1 has taken the wind out of my sails, so to speak, and completely halted any momentum i had up to that point.