Much like State of Decay 2, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is just more of its predecessor, just improved and upgraded in areas. Perhaps a more fully-realised idea (in both cases), whether because of new tech or more resources. In some ways it's the most rational step for a sequel - incremental adjustments, safe improvements - but on the other hand, one wonders what was lost by working on an effective replacement of the first game

If you're unfamiliar with the first game, by coincidence i can refer to fernandopa's review of it, and then briskly move on to saying that almost everything described there is maintained in the sequel. Visual environments are still gorgeous, with a more 3D effect to objects; sound and music is still good but exactly great; narrative is still mostly wordless, and works hard to tug on your tear ducts; movement still feels butter-smooth, with neat abilities that combine together into a free-flow parkour-feeling style; and combat is still slightly too sloppy to get your blood moving (but maybe it reveals its tricks more in hard mode)

An interesting set of changes is the ones that feel influenced by Hollow Knight, released between Blind Forest and Will of the Wisps. The easiest one to point to is the charms shards that you can find in the world and equip to limited slots. There are also more characters to talk to (and buy things from), and they seem to have adopted the language-shaped voices from Knight. Hell, there's just a map-seller explorer-type that you have find in each zone to reveal unvisited areas. I'm not throwing shade, i think these are good mechanics to borrow, i just find it interesting..

I had a very good time playing Will of the Wisps (much like i did with the Blind Forest). Is it the best metroidvania? No, but is it good enough to recommend? Easily, yes

At the fundamental level, State of Decay 2 is very much just more State of Decay. Aesthetics are polished a bit, some annoyances and/or exploits are cleaned up, and there are some new features and mechanics, but this game is basically the platonic ideal of a sequel

State of Decay 1 was great though, so this isn't a bad thing (if it works, keep milking it i guess). I enjoyed the interesting blend of zombie apocalypse community management / survival action back then, and i enjoyed it here once more. There's a bit of a leaning towards playing over and over again, with characters and bonuses being (optionally) carried over, and a bunch of new maps to settle in - including the main map from the first game

Like the first game, there's two extra play modes: Daybreak, which is a defend-the-wall horde mode aimed at multiplayer, which i played once; and Heartland, which is a more narrative-focused run, set between the events of the two games. "Narrative focus" here means your base, survivors, and quests are all pre-defined (barring a few story-choice changes), leaving you to focus on keeping everyone alive, while pushing for quest progress

I'm not sure that i appreciate the skew towards the action side in the extra modes though. I do enjoy the zombie shooting and whacking here, but i don't think it's good enough to carry it the whole thing - i much prefer how it's balanced against base management in the main game. State of Decay 1 had a similar skew with its extra modes too, so i guess it's another sequel thing

Outer Wilds is another one that i took far too long to get around to, even though it came out much more recently than Undertale. Still managed to avoid too many spoilers, but that might be due to the strange code of honour that people have when talking about the game

Yeah, it's pretty much as good as people say. Basically a model solar system, with neat planetary physics, and your goal is to solve the mystery of… existence ? I'm not sure actually… i guess your mission is just exploration; investigating whatever seems interesting to you. It's almost a detective game in that way, with the "puzzles" requiring you to link two separate bits of knowledge (in your own head i mean) and deduce a new move, or otherwise just try out a little sideways experiment

I can imagine it's very tricky to design puzzles like this, as so much can get lost in interpretation, and so the game's quality is held up by some very thoughtful design. Speaking of quality, the visuals are lovely and varied. Each planet feels different to each other, both in mechanic and aesthetic - in fact Outer Wilds definitely follows the "quality over quantity" mantra, which often feels the other way round in games these days

I'm not really one to care too much about spoilers (in fact, i would say i'm annoyed with the whole culture), but this is one game where it's deserved, as with the right knowledge, you can "solve" the whole game immediately. I still have Echoes of the Eye to (buy and then) play, so some mysteries still remain…

If we scored each game in my backlog with an equation like "cultural-impact-and/or-significance" multiplied by "time-spent-waiting-for-me-to-play-it", Undertale might just come out on top (equations are for illustrative purposes only - no math has actually been done here). Which is to say, it's probably some sort of crime that i haven't played it until now

If you somehow don't know about Undertale, i'd love to know how you managed that while still clearly being on the internet (reading this). But in short, it's an adventure/RPG that tries to subvert much about those genres - lots of millennial internet humour, with post-modern writing and themes. It follows in the footsteps of strange Flash games from odd websites in the '90s

Many games have tried to capture this vibe, with a wide range of success, but somehow Undertale came out on top. My rough theory is that it clearly wants you to root for the cast of lovable monster weirdos (not derogatory), which i think a lot of people on the internet - and a lot of people in general, to be fair - can easily feel represented by. I don't know…

Good game, and an easy recommend.
I wonder what would be second on that hypothetical scored list…

A re-release of the (cult) classic game about whimsically rolling everything you can into a single wriggling ball - starting from the size of a coin, getting pushed around by rats, and growing until you can roll up whole islands. Full of whacky but charming music, visuals, and characters. I think if i'd played this in my childhood, i might've turned out slightly differently

A nice short game to start the month; on to the next

As a "cool-down" after beating P4, i got to play the short and simple Limbo. I actually already played this one ages ago, back when i first started getting into indie games on my high-school/university laptop

Limbo was nice for nostalgic reasons, but also because it's interesting to see how simple an "indie darling" of that time could be. The atmosphere has held up though, particularly in the sound-design department

Back to ye olde puzzle-platformer about a small boy in a scary world, but it was a good time nonetheless. This is probably the last thing i'll beat this month though, as i've got some polishing to do, as well as needing just a small rest…

Also, i had no idea that the Persona games were creature-collectors ?! (and i guess the SMT games, too). The fact that all the "creatures" to collect are characters from real-world myth and legend was just extra juice for the nerd inside of me

Anyway, that's a (long) journey completed. I was definitely happy to finally be done after all that time, but there was something incredibly bittersweet about seeing everything come to a close; saying goodbye to all these characters i've spent so much time with was actually unexpectedly moving. I often complain about how often these RPG games drag things out, but with P4 it actually feels designed to be as much of a lived time-span for you as for the main character. Quite amazing, actually

Other than that, the game is beautifully designed and polished, but what more could i say there that hasn't been said a million times already? After P5, it seems the franchise has found a piece of the mainstream, but i hope they continue making games like this, because it's a fascinating thing to experience

Fallout New Vegas in space ? Oh how i hoped Outer Worlds would be that. It's obviously a bit unfair to compare the two, as any game should really be judged on its own merits, but i feel like that was a lot of the pull here (at least for me)

Outer Worlds probably owes some lineage to the Bethesda-type open worlds, and so many of its changes - most of them in the quality of life area - are straight up improvements to the formula.. on paper at least. Maybe i'm a bit off base here, but if all the rough edges are filed off of something, even if those edges were really irritating before, you're kind of just left with a smooth, featureless object, that just slips out of your hands, and out of your mind..

I don't mean to sound so negative on it, as it's still a really good game, and i would recommend it to most. The two DLCs were extra great - the team clearly found their groove by then, and it makes me hopeful for any future work in this series. I guess it just had a lot to live up to.
Is it better than Starfield? Probably. I haven't played it, and i doubt i ever will

[Short (and very late) review this time (again). I'm in a bit of a weird spot with writing these things - trying to find my voice again, if you know what i mean]