Zelrune

September 2021 Report!

This month was a mess. It’s done though. It’s done.

Finished Styx, and Dragon Time which i’m counting as completed. An achievement was added for a future update and isn’t in the game yet and the other one is bugged so those last two are impossible for me at the moment. I’m just marking it as done and will quietly finish any updates in the future. I’m going to be getting into Dragons Dogma next, and I have a lot of anxiety about all the ending achievements and the speedrun achievement, which is why I’ve put it off for so long. Will I be able to beat it in a month? Likely no. But I have three months to beat my last two games and I’m hoping that’s enough. I hope Biomutant has another update to push it out of their mixed reviews before I get to it.

I’m going to be playing a lot of VN’s for October, I’ve picked out some spooky ones, including Sweet Pool, which has way more gore than I expected and I realize that going in blind was probably a mistake. So far a guy had his eye licked and that was something that’s definitely in my top 10 things of “things I never want to see again in my life.” I have plans to play Return to Shironagasu Island, Fatal Twelve, and Tales of the Black Forest so I have something to play side by side with Dragon’s Dogma. I would like to get to Styx: Master of shadows but I don’t think that’s gonna happen this month.

2/12 SG wins left!
+2 added to my backlog
+6 added to my 100%

9.3 hours
You die in nearly every bad end but it was better than I was expecting.

Play as Raylan, a young chef who moved with his adoptive father to the new continent on the other side of the ocean to open up a restaurant and start a new life. Unfortunately for him, his simple lifestyle soon comes to a screeching halt; war has already broken out and Raylan gets caught in the crosshairs of a scouting enemy patrol while gathering ingredients on the nearby mountain. Separated from his father, injured and unarmed, all he can do is run until he stumbles, quite literally, onto a sleeping vampire named Yella who quickly resolves the issue while creating a considerably larger one.
And that is where life as an incompetent thrall to a vampire 300 years into the future begins.

Vampire’s Melody was really fun, 5-9+ hours to complete, 100+ CG’s, animated sprites, memorable music, Yella has full voice acting, there are multiple endings as well as an interactive flow chart detailing all of your choices and endings. There are two routes in the game, A and B, which lead to four separate endings and a handful of smaller bad endings(?) scattered throughout the game. While I enjoyed the story and the banter between Raylan and Yella, I did find a few issues.
Path A has a bug in it. If you previously played Path B first you have the option to skip the section “Death Comes” since you’ve already experienced it, but if you do that you get locked out of the Path A ending and skip straight to the true end. With no context it gets really confusing. Also, for some reason, my entire flowchart vanished after seeing all endings so I can’t view them again without replaying the entire VN.


Half-Life 2
A disappointing amount of recycled maps but really good gameplay.

Styx: Shards of Darkness

7/10
31.0 hours
38 of 38 achievements

Styx is a one-of-a-kind talking goblin mercenary for hire that will do anything you want as long as you pay him well. Sneak, steal, sabotage and assassinate your way though 10 missions in this 17+ hour game. You can craft items, daggers, and find apparel that gives unique perks and debuffs to suit your playstyle. While Shards of Darkness is the second game in the Styx series, you do not need to play Master of Shadows first.

While I enjoyed playing, it’s a fantastic stealth game with complex level design and a lot of the maps are really fun, one map is recycled three times and another was twice. The final mission was remarkably short, 8 min normal play with no attempt to speed run, and the actual game ending was very vague, so it’s a bit disappointing. You also get points taken off your final mission scores for killing people, which is annoying for two reasons. One, it limits a player’s playstyle and renders a whole branch of assassination skills pointless, two, you need points to actually get skills so unless you want to wait till later missions to get anything useful, you need to sneak your way past enemies making maps longer and more difficult.

TL;DR: A great stealth game, 10 missions to play through but a lot of recycled maps and a vague ending. You get points taken away from killing npc's, which you need if you want skills.

Half-Life 2
It's been updated a bit in the past year and i've updated my review to reflect that.

Elmarion: Dragon time

8/10
36.5 hours
11 of 13 achievements

Play as a Dragon.
Help or become the enemy of humanity in this 5+ hour adventure! Chose one of four dragons to start as, Electric, Earth, Fire or Ice. Each dragon has a unique skillset and as you level up in this game, you can adjust your build accordingly. Equip armor and rings for extra status and elemental damage resistance, find legendary artifacts delve deep into dungeons!
7 maps, 8 dungeons, and multiple quests. This game lets you choose how to complete them. You can either assist humanity against a hoard of undead by doing as the quest entails or attack and kill the humans and destroy what’s left of their kingdom.

This game was created and is updated by one person, and it’s been in Early Access for a long time, updates are slow but the game is not abandoned. I really enjoy playing and It’s worth checking out!

Half-Life 2
Apparently the boosters multiply your total score rather than it just adding on. I thought I was going to beat it next year.

Crush Crush

10/10
78.2 hours
25 of 25 achievements

Crush Crush is an Idler dating sim with lots of events, daily rewards, and DLC. Full voice acting, hundreds of CG’s, and LGBTQ+ friendly there is quite a bit to do. This is a long-term game, as it can take years to unlock and see the final ending. It’s pretty interactive as well, a lot of care and time was put into it and with the addition of Phone Flings, it’s difficult to not find anything to do.
I had a ton of fun playing over the years and it’s been a pleasure to finally bring this to a close, while this is the type of game you only put a few minutes a day in, it’s added up to 75 hours to 100%. If you’re looking for a fun long-term commitment that requires almost no effort on your part except patience, this is it.

Half-Life 2
Not as good as the first but definitely still fun and worth playing!

Orwell: Ignorance is Strength

7/10
9.3 hours
19 of 19 achievements

Play as a yourself using a government surveillance system, Orwell; and this time, you have a very specific job to do. The editor-in-chief of The People’s Voice, Raban Vhart, has been making waves with his anti-government headlines and putting a strain on diplomatic relationships between The Nation and its war-torn neighbor, Parges. Your job is to silence, distract and discredit him until he has no choice but to stay quiet, one way or another.

While not as long as the first Orwell game at 5-9+ hours to complete, with 3 chapters and 4 endings, it’s definitely worth checking out if you enjoyed Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You. You can connect your playthroughs together as both games take place at the same time, so your choices in the previous game show up in news headlines in this one. (Does not affect the story, just articles and a letter.) This game introduces new mechanics, a search engine, the ability to manipulate news headlines, and timed events. Every piece of info you add to Orwell increases time by 10 min, but it doesn’t make the game difficult as you can reach your goal hours ahead of the cut-off. The storyline was more focused in this one, around one central character, but I guarantee Orwell: Ignorance is Strength deserves its positive reviews!

Half-Life 2
A fun 20 minutes! Actual puzzles this time.

100 hidden eternals

10/10
0.3 hours
100 of 100 achievements

100 Hidden Eternals is a hand drawn hidden object game with animated puzzles. 20-30 minutes to complete, it’s pretty entertaining and has a satisfying finish. I’ve played other 100 hidden games by Anatoliy and so far, this was definitely one of the best!
Pressing the “n” key on your keyboard makes it night mode, which is easier on the eyes and also shows a few secrets in game!

Kyrrelin

Is it even possible to go blind in Nitro+Chiral games? ;) They are experts on different things. <3

Zelrune

It is if you suck at downloading fan patches and stay away from spoilers, I thought it was about a horror school and a sick protagonist, three love interests and it was a “escape the school” scenario. I was wrong. More like one not-really love interest and everyone else is a glorified bad ending, + other things. I’m not even sure how i’m going to review this without making it an entire essay.
I haven’t finished any routes yet but at this point i’m more curious to see why this is rated positive.

Kyrrelin

Well I meant it more like that Nitro+Chiral don’t make normal games and everything from them is rather disturbing. So I always anticipate what gore they have prepared for us next. ;) I never check what the game is about, so I am always in the dark and I like it that way. :) I thought you played even other games from Nitro+?
My two cents on positive rating: it’s from Nitro+Chiral and they can’t make bad game, it has a great cast, nice graphic and disturbing story. There are some buts, but I still rated it 8.

Zelrune

I played Dramatical murder but other than that one bad end and the entirety of Minks’ route I didn’t have any issues with it.