Zelrune

July 2022 Progress Report

I did it! It was rough but I beat a couple games I had planned from last month and then participated in Cjcomplex’s event, so, I’ve knocked out 10 games! Woo! Time was kinda tight working on Ni No Kuni 2’s DLC but thankfully it was a Friday and Saturday, so I was able to pull through.

Working on Wrath of the White Witch for August but I don’t have any solid plans until I see the HB monthly and the new events going on. I’m soooo tempted to buy myself Stray, but I’m going to leave that as a reward for myself along with some other games when I beat my new years resolution. (Beat 80 games, complete more than I buy, etc.) I feel kinda burned out tbh because I’ve never beaten 10 games in a month before so I’ll probably re-read something I like or pick up a new book. Looking forward to next month!

Games added to backlog: 1
Games 100%: 10

56% (246/443)
20% (89/443)
11% (50/443)
13% (57/443)
0% (1/443)
112.4 hours
Excellent story, even better combat.

Evan is the young prince of Ding Dong Dell, but on the day of his coronation to become king, Roland materializes out of thin air from another world in front of him. Both are very confused and it gets even worse when Roland and Evan realize that Mausinger, the previous King’s trusted advisor, has staged a coup in an attempt for glory. Evan escapes with Roland’s assistance and vows to make his own country- A place where there is no war and everyone can be happy- and here starts this tale of a small king and his advisor building the soon to be legendary kingdom of Evermore from scratch. Recruit citizens, forge alliances with other kingdoms, uncover various schemes and create unbreakable bonds; but beware: something stirs in the background, and you, my friend, are in their way.

55+ hours to complete, Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom is honestly kind of boring until the third chapter. Chapters 1-3 are all about setting up the story and it’s not until a couple hours in you actually get to really play and get into city-building. Once you start though? Amazing, fun, intuitive, the combat is my favorite and I would get into fights just for the fun of it. The number of items you could pick up made my little packrat heart happy; and I say this to you with all the love and experience as someone who has completed this game – Do not sell anything, ever. Especially shoes. Every item you get will be needed, either to complete a quest or to create an item. Even the pebbles; especially the pebbles.

The DLC is a must-buy; especially if you’ve played Wrath of the White Witch. The story ties in and I’m genuinely a bit salty I listened to people who said it doesn’t matter which game you play first, it does. The Labyrinth is an incredible place where you get a ton of EXP and equipment that are far better than literally anything in the base game; and while I had significant issues such as every 1 out of 4 runs crashing and the occasional exit door not spawning; it was absolutely still worth using it to level to the 150 cap. After that, the Winnower quest and Tale of a Timeless Tome, tie into White Witch and connect the stories.

TLDR; 55+hrs, city building, fun combat, amazing DLC, lots of side quests, make alliances with other kingdoms. Don’t sell anything ever; and play Wrath of the White Witch first.


Half-Life 2
Great base game, terrible DLC. I had a ton of fun playing in the underwater environments!

Maneater

8/10
21.9 hours
44 of 44 achievements

As a small shark with a traumatic entry into the world, become the greatest apex predator! Survive, evolve, and grow from a pup, teen, adult, elder, and mega shark; everything and anything is on the menu! Take your revenge on Scaly Pete, explore and become the underwater queen of the 8-9 locations on the Gulf Coast, and lure bounty hunters out in the open as you gain infamy points to unlock special perks and abilities. This world is yours!

8-12+ hours, Maneater can be played in a few different ways. Yeah, you can go all out and be super aggressive but the best moments I had were just, swimming around and enjoying the beautiful and realistic graphics. Later on, you get a perk which makes things smaller than you ignore you and swimming with the sharks is just, really fun! I went out of my way to find the albino versions of every animal and the Orcas are super cute. I named my character Ophelia and I really did have a great time. There are plenty of sea caverns and ecosystems to check out and many are just, absolutely gorgeous.

The game does have a couple cons and work-arounds I would like to mention to anyone interested in playing, the narrator is fun but can get super annoying 2+ hours in. He can be muted in the settings thankfully; but comes back in the DLC; which I actually recommend you skip. When I bought it, I thought it would just be silly but, is just, really annoying with all the conspiracy theories and ridiculous objectives. Fighting the final boss was good, but everything before then just made me thankful it was over.

Half-Life 2
An artistic reconstruction of myths and lore of The Mooseman, fun game.

The Mooseman

7/10
3.1 hours
15 of 15 achievements

Yen is the first god, father of mankind. He filled the middle worlds with spirits, animals, and men; seeded the forests with trees and filled the rivers with fish. He married and had 7 sons before leaving his wife and taking them on a long journey to become skilled hunters and slay the greatest of beasts; Vorsa. Vorsa is a legendary six-legged moose who carries Shondi’s fire, the sun, in his antlers and was created with the beginning of the world; and after a long hunt, was slain by Yen. With Vorsa’s death, the sun fell into the lower realm and Yen told his seven sons to draw lots among themselves, with each day a new son journeying to the underworld to bring a fragment of light back to the middle world so that the sun may rise again.

The Mooseman is 1+hr game that is largely an artistic reconstruction of myths and lore of the real-life Komi Permians, Komi Zyrians, Mansi, and Saami people who live in north-east European Russia around the basins of the Vychegda, Pechora, and Kama rivers. Artifacts represented in game are stored in the regional museum of Perm Krai in Russia. You play as one of the sons making their journey to the Underworld to collect a fragment of light and bringing it back to the middle world. Gameplay is very easy, simply move forward or backwards while switching between your mortal eye and spiritual to complete puzzles, progress through physical objects, and hide from the more dangerous spirits. Plenty of optional puzzles and riddles to collect secrets and artifacts.

Half-Life 2
Solve all sorts of puzzles in The House of Da Vinci.

The House of Da Vinci

7/10
7.5 hours
6 of 6 achievements

7+ hours to complete, 8 chapters; House of Da Vinci is a well-made 3D puzzle adventure game with a large variety of mechanical puzzles and fabulous inventions! Solve your way through the House of Da Vinci and find the reason behind his mysterious disappearance. In nearly every room, there is a hidden blueprint which grants you both an achievement and a collectable that can be interacted with in the achievement room.

Half-Life 2
Great game, fun boss fights and mechanics.

Pumpkin Jack

8/10
6.7 hours
33 of 33 achievements

The world is peaceful and the Devil is bored; so, he jams a troublesome soul into a carved pumpkin that’s on fire and sends them to the human world to cause as much chaos as they can. This unfortunate- or fortunate? Soul is none other than Jack; the man who became a legend after tricking The Devil on multiple occasions; has made yet another deal with the devil; In exchange for hunting down The Wizard, The Champion of Humans, Jack can then leave Hell and wander the world once more.

6+ hours to complete, 6 chapters. Playing Pumpkin Jack was really easy and satisfying; the gameplay isn’t difficult and the puzzles, boss fights, weapons and power-ups are fun. My favorite character is The Cowardly Crow, a bird companion you meet almost immediately and spends the rest of the game with you. There are collectables but none of them are missable unless you choose to not explore an area or ignore them, the gramophones and outfits especially! I didn’t note any errors or sudden difficulty spikes, but there are some parts of the game where it’s easy to get vertigo; Either way, Pumpkin Jack well deserves its positive reviews.

Half-Life 2
Lovecraftian, but not a horror. Excellent story with a twist.

Call of the Sea

10/10
7.1 hours
34 of 34 achievements

Nora Everheart sets sail on the steamboat, the S.S Caramel after her wayward husband, Harry Everheart, and crew goes missing on an expedition to a strange island 74 miles east of Otaheite. He left in search for a cure for Nora’s strange genetic illness; and after searching for clues he is convinced that somehow, this island is it. Nora arrives, and immediately feels something is… off. There is a reason sailors won’t speak of this island except to warn you away, and it’s time you find out why.

Call of the Sea was such an awesome game, 7+ hours to complete, a good and interesting story with excellent puzzles and plenty of charming characters. A walking sim with gorgeous and colorful environments, and despite the well-deserved Lovecraftian tag, not a horror! 6 replayable chapters, two endings, and a lot of fun discoveries; Call of the sea is absolutely worth playing if anything I’ve written sounded interesting to you.

Half-Life 2
Slow paced, feminine, and pastel. A few bugs but overall, I just wanted to bake more.

Calico

7/10
6.2 hours
13 of 13 achievements

Arriving at one of many islands to take over your retired aunt’s calico cat café, meet and make friends with the animals and residents of Heart Village. Complete requests and errands from the villagers to collect various furniture and 21 recipes for your shop! With numerous animals, horses, foxes, cats, dogs, crows, bears and more, have up to 10 animals living with you in your café. Carve out a space and life for yourself on this gorgeous island, and make it your home!

There is a lot to unpack here, so I’ll try to keep it short. 6+ hours to complete, slow-paces and LGBTQ+ friendly yet with no romance options; Calico is purely a pastel slice-of-life and relaxation game. Every piece of furniture and apparel is fully customizable with a huge color wheel with apparel having numerous patterns. The baking minigame is very fun and there is such a huge variety of things to do on the island you can pretty much do whatever you like; with my favorites being relaxing in the hot springs with the capybaras and running the café. The music is a bit repetitive but it’s very enjoyable and in particular I love the NPC designs and dialogue; the game is however, very feminine.

For the cons: as stated before, it’s very feminine. Making a character is supposed to be androgynous but making a male character is fairly difficult due to the body types/outfits; this game is marketed towards women. Another is at the time of this review, cake decorating as shown in the steam store video was removed due an issue and it’s not certain if it will be re-implemented. There is a bugged quest with Kai; you have the option to give her a dog or cat for her to feel more comfortable living alone at the lighthouse, and I chose to get her a dog, but going to bed resets the quest and defaults to giving her a cat instead. Riding horses is fun because of their quick speed, but dismounting them while they are running makes them continue at that speed until they hit a wall or unclimbable area. While this can be hilarious, chasing down a horse zooming across the map is just fun for the first few times it happens.

Overall; it’s a fantastic game. I really enjoyed playing and while I wish there was a bigger display case for pastries and sandwiches you can make, it’s a very fun 6+ hours and it would be interesting if they ever decided to add multiplayer.

TLDR; 6+hrs, LGBTQ+ friendly, a pastel slow-paced slice-of-life game where you run a cat/animal café. 21 recipes and a ton of customization for your character and furniture is available. Very feminine and relaxing.

Half-Life 2
Fantastic strategy game, I only wish the secret ending was a bit more... intuitive? more?

Timelie

9/10
7.1 hours
22 of 22 achievements

A girl wakes up alone in a strange place with floating blocks, missing walls, and a void below her. The floor crumbles as she discovers her unique abilities – The power of precognition and time manipulation; Team up with a cat to repair broken paths, open doors, and hide from the dangerous sentinels that roam the floors, and make your way home; Wherever that is, anyway.

Timelie is a very enjoyable 5-7+ hour stealth puzzle and strategy game! Absolutely worth it to get all the relics for the True Ending! My only complaint is that I wish it was longer, or a book. A bit hesitant to play at first since I’m not a huge fan of the strategy game genre, but it quickly grew on me - Time manipulation is fun to play with – and is worth checking out if you’re even slightly interested.

Half-Life 2
Hand painted, satisfyingly short. find hidden objects to progress the story and solve puzzles.

Milo and the Magpies

10/10
2.5 hours
10 of 10 achievements

Poor Milo! On his way back inside from a wonderful day of sunning on the roof, some pesky Magpies drive him away! Slightly lost but not too far from home, Milo needs to make their way back through the neighbor’s backyards and outsmart those Magpies to get back home before that storm rolls in!

1+ hours to complete, Milo and the Magpies is a hidden object point-and-click adventure with original music created by Victor Butzelaar. Hand-painted and created by the developer Johan Scherft, there is a lot of love put into this! Solve puzzles, find all the collectables, get into your neighbors’ catnip and meet some new friends on your wayward adventure.

Half-Life 2
More enjoyable than initially expected, I love walking sims and this one had unique and multiple endings.

Paradise Lost

10/10
5.8 hours
12 of 12 achievements

Szymon is a 12-year-old boy, left alone after his mother passed away. Exploring the nuclear wasteland that was Poland created from an alternate reality WWII, he stumbles upon an abandoned massive Nazi bunker that had its own city and civilization deep underneath the earth. Learn about its origins, the reason for its existence, what happened to the original occupants when it was eventually attacked and taken over by Polish rebels, and the colony they created inside from the ashes; and perhaps, make a home for yourself here too.

I had a really fun time playing Paradise Lost, I also however, love walking sims and haven’t experienced the bugs mentioned in other reviews. Aside from a visual glitch that in no way affected myself or the story, I had a great time! 3+ hours to complete with four endings and decent replay value. I highly suggest when you start the game you turn off head bobbing and severely reduce the camera sensitivity. There are no jump scares, nothing terrifying, nothing ever chases you. Fantastic game, play it if you want.

Something to note: In chapter 1 you have an option to walk through the station gates directly or take a detour through boxes and luggage – I suggest you go through the gates the first time and on your second playthrough; should you choose to do so; go through the luggage for a more fulfilling experience. (also, it makes more sense story-wise.)

Jaded

So many completions this month, congratulations!

“Even the pebbles; especially the pebbles” I feel like you had a bad experience with this hahaha

Zelrune

Not a bad experience, more like an almost-missed one? You can trade 10 pebbles to a npc for a +1 boost to a random stat like attack and magic defense, but I never realized until about 100 hours in the game.

stef

Wow nice progress! I like the mix of genres you played, gives me good insight on what to check out!

Zelrune

All of these were really nice, and it’s kinda suspicious how I haven’t run into a game I’ve disliked in a while. I might have Jinxed myself for August.
If you pick up any of these games, you would likely find them enjoyable.

Zelrune

Jinxed myself. Yep.

stef

oh no. What game broke your streak? lol

Zelrune

Fortissimo FA INTL Ver. The story is sooo convoluted I had to cross check things with a wiki to make sure I’m following the story proper.

mordsmiez

Nice progress! And you inspired a few additions to the wishlist, so thank you for that! :)

Zelrune

Noticed you got Ni No Kuni 2, again I’ll recommend playing White Witch first; as there are some references and mentions; but definitely do not start the tale of the timeless tome DLC if you haven’t played.

mordsmiez

Alright! Thanks for the advice!

EvilBlackSheep

Congrats on the many completions, you made great progress while also playing a game as daunting as Ninokuni!!