Unskippable cutscenes.

Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl on Expert story mode, with no walkthrough or strategy guide to help. It was sweet sweet hell.

It's one of the most amazing games I've ever played, yet it sits at 56.65% with 22 reviews on GameRankings.com. Plebes cannot appreciate fine art.

Been watching this:

https://jojo.wikia.com/wiki/JoJo%27s_Bizarre_Adventure:_The_Animation

So far it has not been as amazing as the internet made it out to be. Perhaps it will get better though, I'm only on episode 5.

Been buying stuff for the lovely Vita:



Started playing Conception 2 right after I got it, and it's pretty damned good!

Exhuminator is a combination of the words "exhume" and "terminator". I often dig up and play old "dead" games, that's the exhume part. I nearly always finish them off too, hence the terminate part. So "Exhuminator" then is about beating the games of yesteryear that I've missed.

Picked up Bravely Default today. Looking forward to investing many hours into this game

I'm glad you bought that. I also bought it this week. Got to love that cover art:



I find it interesting that this is a Nintendo Of America published game, and yet they chose the sexier boxart than the European release had.

Anyway, I mainly bought this to encourage Square Enix to understand we in the USA want handheld JRPGs they've developed. Primarily Final Fantasy Type 0 (ha ha yeah right) and Dragon Quest VII 3DS (maybe it'll happen...).

Picked this up today:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys:_Memories_of_Celceta

This JRPG is the only truly-exclusive* killer app the Vita has currently. So pick it up if you've got a Vita. You won't be disappointed unless you hate awesome games.

*Persona 4 Golden is only partially-exclusive.

I will finally get around to playing Earthbound this year.

If it doesn't live up to the years of constant hype I will burn the internet down.

As an owner of a 3DS XL myself, I assure you the screens look fantastic, both in 3D and in 2D.

I've been watching Attack On Titan. It's decent, but definitely has pacing issues. Hopefully the latter half of the series will become exciting again.

My anime of 2013 top pick would be Psycho-Pass btw. Can't recommend that one enough, it was awesome.

My most recent purchase was this...



It was expensive and I feel dirty for buying it. But a man has needs...

I've been going through Yakuza 2 for the first time. It's pretty fun. If you enjoy beat 'em ups and like a good plot, you can't go wrong with this series.

The PS2 library is unbelievably massive and varied. It's amazing and terrifying in its scope. Especially if you explore all regions and genres. I've owned a PS2 since 2007 and I still haven't finished even 1/8th of all the games I own for it. That being said, here's the top 10 I have personally played so far:

Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War
Final Fantasy XII
Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Ico
King's Field: The Ancient City
Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence
Resident Evil 4
Shadow Of The Colossus
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Yakuza

Not a personally comprehensive "must have" list considering I haven't played my whole collection yet by any means. If nothing else though, don't miss Nocturne, it's the best JRPG I've ever played... and I've played a helluva lot of them.

In the last two weeks...

Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl
Rune Factory 4

Doing my part to keep the 3DS JRPG bastion alive.

I've been playing The Last Story for Wii. It's definitely a good game so far, great production values and a really cool combat system. However, the game does have technical hiccups (spotty frame rate and often blurry textures) and it's wayyyy too easy so far. That said, I would already recommend this one to anyone with a Wii and a JRPG fetish.

Beat Down: Fists Of Vengeance is a really fun beat 'em up for Xbox and PS2, and I think it's underrated.

And since you have a PS2, definitely check out the first two Yakuza games. I haven't played part 2 yet, but the first Yakuza was a beat 'em up blast for sure.

After finishing up Endless Ocean (8/10 from me), I've started playing Deadly Creatures for Wii.
The game's Wikipedia article.

Deadly Creatures is a very, very unique game. It's often disturbing and I can understand why hardly anyone bought this in 2008 considering the protagonists alone. However, I find this game to be pretty fun with design elements that aren't too common. I wouldn't go so far as to call Deadly Creatures a hidden gem, but I guarantee you've never played anything quite like this before... insofar as its base concept and level designs at least. I recommend tracking this one down if you missed it years ago.

I am a pretty serious anime fan, I've been collecting anime since the early 90's all the way to the present.

The last three series I've watched were...

Pyscho-Pass
This was a fantastic cyberpunk thriller series that I adored, best series I've seen in years.

Real Drive
This was an interesting series due to its representation of the internet as an ocean, with hackers being divers and such.

Girls Und Panzer
Definitely a guilty pleasure but I'm a fan of pretty girls combined with technology (i.e. Sky Girls, Strike Witches, GITS, etc.)

Well I am always watching something at any rate. Probably Himitsu next.

Personally I have been buying games off eBay since 2001 and the vast majority (95% I'd say) of my purchases have turned out well or even better than expected. As long as you are careful about inspecting the seller's feedback and location, you have a good shot at not getting ripped off. I don't buy off eBay as much as I used to though, because I use Amazon and Half.com more often since the past several years. I tend to find more reasonable prices on those sites in contrast to eBay in the past half decade.

Anyway, to keep on topic, my most recent acquisition was this:


Official Website
PSN Store Page
I figured Class Of Heroes 2 was worth getting because AFAIK this is the last commercially released JRPG for the PSP in the USA.

Lately I've been playing the original Etrian Odyssey on DS and Endless Ocean on Wii. I'm enjoying both quite a lot so far. One is rape your face hard and the other is chillax to the Nth degree so it's a nice dichotomy.

=
So glad this day has come, considering it's the number one reason I bought a 3DS XL in the first place.

In the past month or so...

PS2:
Star Ocean Till the End of Time
Final Fantasy X-2

Wii:
Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident

3DS:
Nano Assault
Professor Layton and The Miracle Mask
Pilotwings Resort

Definitely dropping money on SMT:IV next week.

I don't read much fiction outside cyberpunk. I read a lot of non-fiction and personal development books though. Currently reading... Real Magic: Creating Miracles in Everyday Life by Wayne W. Dyer.

Personally I consider a backlog to consist of any game I own that I've never played, or any game I've played but have not finished yet but want to. In those regards my personal backlog consists of hundreds if not a thousand games. I actually own literally hundreds of games for various systems from throughout the ages, and many of those I have not yet touched. It's not that I don't want to fondle them, it's just a matter of having the time to do so. When you're a grown man with a full time job and a family and a house etc. video games are not a possible number one priority by any means.

So to answer OP's questions:

Am I the only one with this ever-increasing backlog problem?

Absolutely not. But if a big gaming backlog is a "problem" it's a "first world problem" and not a bad one to have.



And for those of you who can actually keep it on a leash, what do you do?

I'm not sure if this dog is on a leash anymore, but I at least try to only buy games these days I think I'd actually truly enjoy, and not just games that are critically lauded. Outside of that I give myself a budget every week of how much I allow myself to spend on buying new games, in tandem with lists I create of the games I'm currently seeking. There's no such thing as an "impulse buy" for me. Everything I add to my backlog is premeditated and well mulled over before any money is spent. As far as playing games goes, I only play up to two single player games at a time. I either beat them or never play them again, there's no "back burner" games for me. I like to mix it up simultaneously with an action game on one hand and a RPG/adventure/visual novel game on the other. Keeps the balance.

Do you refrain from replaying games until you clear all new purchases?

I hardly ever replay a game once I beat it. Mainly because there's too many other games out there I have not played yet. That, and I'm not the biggest fan of deja vu. If I'm replaying a game it's usually because the game is very short and arcade-y, or it's a game I haven't replayed in over a decade or two. I personally do not understand how it is fun for someone to replay the same game two or three times in a brief period, but that's just me.

Do you play 12+ hours a day?

Even when I was young with endless free time I did not do that. Nowadays I'm lucky if I can pull 2 hours a night, usually it's 1.5 hours. Some days I don't play games at all, either due to obligations or other hobbies. I do worry about people who play 12 hours a day with regular consistency. To me that seems like they are hiding from bigger issues in life behind a reality denial shield of pixels. It's best to diversify your free time in a myriad of interests, and to go outside regularly. Otherwise you'll catch the crazy and let me tell you I've caught the crazy a few times and it's not good for anybody.

Do you enlist your relatives to level up your characters while you're out so you don't have to endure so much grinding?

I would not waste time with a game that required that sort of mindless grinding and neither would they. Power leveling is not fun to me, it's just work. If you can't stay leveled up to passable levels just by playing a game normally, than said game is not well balanced and likely suffers other game design issues as well. If a game doesn't respect my time investment then I won't play it.

I just play games as I get to them, and I take my sweet time with each and every one I play; I never rush the experience. And I do not stress over how many games I own but have not played. A gaming library is a treasure trove, not a to-do list.