S T O R Y T E L L E R

5/5 (100%), 2.4 hours

I played the game for Play or Pay 2nd Cycle of 2026 and it was picked for me by Aquatorrent.
This game was gifted to me by Bruteforce123 from PoP Secret Santa.

Storyteller was such a fun little puzzle game. I really liked how creative the puzzles and story setups were, and the whole idea of building stories from a vague prompt kept things feeling fresh the entire time. It’s basically a puzzle game about putting events in the right order and watching chaotic little stories unfold, which was honestly really charming.

The game is definitely on the short side, but I had a great time with it while it lasted. If you enjoy cute logic puzzles and experimenting with different story outcomes, this is absolutely worth checking out.

That said, I do agree with a lot of people about the price. For how short the game is, it feels a bit expensive for the amount of content you get. I’d personally recommend grabbing it during a big sale, because it’s a really enjoyable experience, just a very brief one.

I S L E T S D E F E N S E

25/43 (58%), 9.5 hours

I won this game through SteamGifts.

Islets Defense was a really pleasant surprise for me. The graphics are lovely, the gameplay feels polished, and the mechanics stay interesting because the game keeps introducing little twists and new ideas as you progress. I had a lot of fun with it overall.

That said, the difficulty curve gave me a bit of whiplash. Early on it felt very forgiving, like you could kind of do whatever and still win, but later some levels became super punishing where one small mistake basically meant restarting the whole thing. I got pretty close to giving up a few times, honestly. I didn’t even touch hardcore mode because normal mode was already destroying me enough.

I’d also say the “tower defense” label is a bit misleading. It feels more like a turn-based strategy game since you can only do one action per turn and can’t freely spam buildings whenever you want. Not a bad thing at all, just different from what I expected going in.

Even with the difficulty headaches and the lack of strategy guides online when I got stuck, I still think it’s a genuinely good game and definitely worth recommending if you enjoy strategy games that make you think a bit.

N A I R I: T O W E R O F S H I R I N

20/20 (100%), 5.5 hours

I played the game for Play or Pay 2nd Cycle of 2026 and it was picked for me by Itsly.
I won this game through SteamGifts.

NAIRI: Tower of Shirin was a really charming little adventure game. The character designs are adorable and full of personality, and I got attached to the cast way faster than I expected. The world feels warm and cozy despite some of the heavier moments in the story, and that balance worked really well for me.

The puzzles were mostly fun too, with a nice variety of tasks so the gameplay didn’t feel repetitive. I also appreciated that the game gives subtle hints here and there instead of completely holding your hand. That said, a few puzzles definitely crossed into “how was I supposed to know that?” territory and had me either brute forcing solutions or looking things up.

One thing that annoyed me a bit was navigation. Some exits between areas really aren’t marked clearly, so I got lost more than once just trying to figure out where I could actually go.

The biggest downside though is that the game is clearly only part of a bigger story, so it ends on a cliffhanger (kinda literally, which honestly made me laugh a little). Still, if you enjoy cute point-and-click style adventures with lovable characters and puzzles, it’s definitely worth checking out.