Progress report: January ‘24 (a.k.a. What? Am I, Like, Totally Back In Action Now?!)
…Kind of, yeah! It’d be a lie to say I’m not struggling with some stuff, but things are moving and changing ever so steadily. I found myself a bit of a job and I hope it turns out to have been worth my time. And my gaming progress? Just as steady, guys, and gals, and other configurations of being!
But how steady? I’ll show you:
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100 hidden turtles
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Cleaning Girls
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Crystals of Time
2.1 hours playtime
no achievements
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Margo
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memories
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My Name is Mayo 3
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Not Anyone's Business But My Own
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Pineapple on Pizza
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WooLoop
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Wordle
100 hidden turtles - The color is a nice touch, but the variations in shading the found turtles are ultimately confusing. For some reason, the game launched in a misaligned window at first, which can’t be changed, because the game has no options menu and the cursor is locked to the game… A relaunch fixed that, but considering that I’ve been able to complete all the other games from the series without closing the game and opening it back up again, that seems like a bit of a problem.
Cleaning Girls - I said I’d stop buying these, but then, at some point, I won this one on SG, so I knew I was going to play it sooner rather than later. Some of the girls in this one looked particularly… off.
Crystals of Time - You know… I feel like every HOG has one or two moments where it makes you backtrack to a location that seemed out of the way by that point for a single HOG scene. Meanwhile, this one was all about wandering around locations to find the next random, inexplicable HOG scene waiting to be explored. (And they were always the same! If it felt like you decluttered one of the scenes a bit, tough luck: next time you check it out, it’s going to look the exact same as the first time around.) By itself, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, but the hint takes a long time to recharge, fast travel is kind of useless on account of featuring only some locations, the silence between the background tracks is too long and the plot is impossible to get into.
Margo - A small point-and-click in which you have to help Margo with her errands after she wakes up from an afternoon nap. Everything seems fairly normal at first, but then it’s revealed that she lives IN SPACE. I don’t even like space that much, but that was really cool to me for some reason. It’s implied that Margo has some kind of mental disorder (cough “vitamins” cough), and it makes me wonder if she’s neurodivergent. Despite being on the spectrum myself, I always feel like it’s not my place to say this, but the overall feeling of this small journey felt, to me, much like one of my own and I liked that. Her repetition of the tidbit about fish and attachment to the overdue textbook really stood out as well. I feel like we could all benefit from being thankful for everything that goes right everyday without us putting in any effort instead of worrying about the things that don’t.
memories - Short VN about the power of memories, especially those tied closely to particular objects. For the main character, it’s the outfits she wore when spending time with her significant other. Some part of me wishes I could say this game did nothing to me, but I just can’t! There’s just something about people falling in love that makes my heart flutter. Although this wasn’t long by any means, I feel like it could be improved by speeding up the text and maybe adding another BGM.
My Name is Mayo 3 - I’ve been crazy overdue! I didn’t even realize until I checked just now, but I first played this game on my PS4 all the way back in September… of 2022. (What even is time, at this point?) Then again, I can’t be too mad at myself, seeing how excited I was for it to come out back when I shared my thoughts about the second game. This time around, there aren’t any minigames to make the clicking go by more smoothly, but there is a brand new, exclusive side to this game that I can’t really say anything about in fear of spoilers, and that’s where some optional minigames come in (I absolutely sucked at them, by the way). In general, this game keeps the wacky and nonsensical humor through and through. I feel like this series ended on a good note and I can’t wait to see what Green Lava Studios is going to come out with next.
Not Anyone’s Business But My Own - Sort of a cross between a choose-your-own-adventure and a visual novel (so, a CYOA game with visuals?) that makes you wonder who you are in relation to the story. I always appreciate voice acting, but sadly, the narrator doesn’t modulate his voice at all and the princess’ VA has a really crappy mic, which is impossible to miss. At the end of the day, still a fun idea.
Pineapple on Pizza - Just ~20 minutes of sheer randomness. This little game really feels like it was made because the devs just felt like it. It’s impossible not to like.
WooLoop - Bonus mention just so I can say that I’m back to playing this game! (Since I completed it before, I’ll keep it in the blue, just like Coloring Pixels.) It finally got enough downloads to be allowed more achievements, so I bought all the packs in bulk (and later, the Science pack, when it came out) and am now working my way through them. Nothing like a biiig cup of coffee, a long video essay or podcast and some casual gaming in the evening ^^
Wordle - I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find this game challenging… but then again, I am an ESL person, so I was fully expecting myself to give up sooner rather than later. It’s a shame that this game is so bland (and at some point, blatantly unsolvable… thankfully that doesn’t extend to achievements).
See you next month! :)