January 2024 Progress Report
What a lovely January! this month was really nice, I managed to find two games to add to my sparse favorites list, and DREDGE was absolutely the right choice to be my first game of 2024. To be honest, I’m a bit nervous of the games I picked to play for February, but I did purchase an indie game called The Silent Swan, and I’m curious to see how that goes as it was a bit of an impulsive purchase.CARRION was pretty fantastic, it wasn’t horrifying at all and was actually pretty relaxing, I loved the creature’s movement and the subtle backstory. Birth was really exciting for me, it’s definitely an unusual game to play but after playing Landlord of the Woods, I wanted more of that wholesome morbidness, and Birth absolutely delivered. I’m a bit disappointed in SAO: Lost song, the first 6 hours were super fun but it falls off fast, against my better judgment I’m playing SAO: Hollow Realization, and hope to have all that nonsense in my next post!
Speaking of, I have plans for SOMA, two visual novels, and the Witcher 2, as they are my POP picks and I’ve admittingly fallen behind a fair bit. February is ideally going to be my catch-up month so I only have two games to play in March. I’m going to smuggle in a BL novel, in Fair Spirits, to compensate my uncertainty. I hope everyone has a fun month!!!
Total games added to backlog: 3
Total completed: 6
Washing up onto the shore of the small town called Greater Marrow, take up the job as a fisherman and pay off your new boat by selling your catches of the day. Occasionally, aberrations tug at your line, reeling them in reveals malformed, unnatural sea life that can be sold for a high price at the fishmonger. Upgrade your boat and sail past the jagged rocks to see what ports lay beyond the blue horizon and search for your forgotten past in the depths of the sea; just be sure to find somewhere safe before nightfall and the fog rolls in, as madness is not far behind.
10-20+ hours to complete, Dredge is a Fishing open-world Lovecraftian adventure with an unsettling atmosphere and a fairly impressive storyline. There is a sanity bar that influences the RNG rate for encounters, so keep it low if you want to play it safe, or high if you want to explore more of the Lovecraft theme DREDGE is known for. There are two endings, one you get by following the storyline, and the other by seeking the truth; it’s impossible to lock yourself out of either one. If you liked the base game, I sincerely recommend picking up The Pale Reach DLC for more.
Deep in an underground research facility, a study sample held in a glass container shakes and bursts apart, unleashing a new horror onto humankind. A living biohazard to anything made of meat, it rips apart and consumes flesh to add directly to its own biomass, becoming bigger and evolving into more aggressive abilities. Creep your way through vents or leave blood spatters in the hallways as you make your escape from below the surface.
6-8+ hours to complete, CARRION is a reverse-horror game with pixel graphics where you play as the monster hunting down humanity and those who imprisoned you. Be sneaky or loud! Changing your size changes your abilities allowing a solid amount of gameplay variation. Weirdly chill and relaxing, the character's movement is smooth and natural despite being a mass of flesh-eating tentacles. The level design is clever with engaging logic puzzles and steady game progression. Rare are the games that let you play as the Lovecraftian Monster, rarer that the game is made well, and I highly suggest you take the opportunity to play CARRION.
Sword Art Online: Lost Song
ALfheim Online, a VRMMO world of fairies, flying, magic, and Norse mythology. Sword Art Online protagonist Kirito and the gang are logging back in to experience and conquer a new update – the floating Islands of Svart Alfheim, but they aren’t the only ones! A huge guild called Shamrock led by child genius and idol Seven are racing to be the first ones to defeat every boss, finish every quest, and snatch every treasure chest they can find! Fly high and be quick to keep ahead of the competition and discover the truth behind the name of "Lost Song."
24-45 hours to complete, Sword Art Online: Lost Song takes place after SAO: Hollow Fragment and shortly after episode 25 of Season 1, the events of ALfheim Online. Game canon is different from the anime, but the game plays and expects you to already know the previous storylines mentioned and does not recap. In total, there are 5 maps to explore, the floating city of Ryne, four islands, and numerous dungeons. I had a fun time with the fast-paced flying, generous height limits, and expansive islands with many hidden secrets and explorable dungeons.
And yet. While this is a lovely game to play if you are a fan of the SAO series, there are things that should have been done better. Aside from the floating city and the first island, a meadow, it very much feels like the game creators went out of their way to create islands with themes that required the absolute minimum amount of effort to embellish. Except for being full of enemies, the second and third islands are completely barren with the last being an almost exact copy/paste of the first island with a gloomy recolor and some new buildings and a couple of things moved around, making them exceedingly boring to explore. Enemies, dungeons, and bosses are frequently reused and recolored, with new ones thrown into the mix on occasion, giving the impression that Lost Song was created with tight time constraints in mind. There is about 15+ hours of grinding if you aim to get 100% as a couple of achievements are RNG dependent, meaning you may need to brute force a single mission for 5 hours to get Excalibur and all 100 weapons. In the end, I will only recommend this to people who like SAO and want to know more about the non-canon storyline because as a game I find Lost Song lacking and full of wasted potential.
Birth
Feeling solitude creeping into your studio apartment in a busy city, explore places such as the bakery, post office, florist, restaurants, and a museum around town in search of spare bones and organs to build a partner, a warm, wet heart.
2+ hours to complete, Birth is a hand-drawn point-and-click physics-based puzzle game with a wholesome creepy cute story made entirely by one person. The explorable town is a good size, with many little secrets in its fine details. I bought this game pretty much right after finishing the developer’s previous hand-drawn game from 2021, Landlord of the Woods. If you’re not sure if you would enjoy Birth, I recommend checking out Landlord first as it’s a fairly cheap and enjoyable experience with similar vibes.
A kingdom falls, and grave by grave, the dead arise. Taking advantage of the chaos, a thief slips into the Astral Academy to steal an artifact known as the Trine. On top of the Academy looking through his telescope is a wizard, and seeing the approaching army of the dead, heads down to hide the artifacts for safekeeping only to find a thief already inside. A Knight, in pursuit of the thief, charges into the academy hallways and without much thought, all three touch the Trine, their souls merging into one. To unbind their souls from each other, seek out three great artifacts, discover the reason the dead have risen, and save the kingdom from its peril.
6-15 hours to complete, Trine is a fantasy physics-based puzzle platformer and side-scroller game in which you play as a Wizard, Thief, and a Knight who accidentally merged into one person that you can switch between as needed. The Wizard can conjure platforms and move impossibly heavy objects, the Thief is an archer skilled with a grappling hook, and the Knight is a very strong, healthy tank. Trine features clever layouts, engaging puzzles, smooth gameplay, as well as co-op and local multiplayer. Despite the dated graphics, I had a fun time playing and I'm particularly fond of the OST.
30 years ago, a Great War broke out, effectively ending the human race. The world with its small handful of remaining humans left is barely surviving the remnants of the war. Great, autonomous mechs known as Warmongers roam the cities and land, still wiping out anything with a heat signature and enemy machines. The cities they were ordered to defend, have long since been empty of any life they had to protect. It started raining toxic water 9 years ago, and since then, it’s never stopped for a single day. A solitary man infiltrates a dead, still-guarded city and stumbles on one of the few places left on Earth with air conditioning, untouched by the apocalypse outside. A Rooftop Planetarium, the sole occupant inside is a robot named Hoshino Yumemi, the last remaining employee. For the first time in his life, he sees the stars.
2-3 hours to complete, Planetarian is a story-rich emotional kinetic novel that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. There are no choices to be made, only a story to be told. The CG’s are of good quality and the writing was excellent with no noticeable spelling errors. The music is a bit repetitive but overall, I had a positive and lovely experience. Despite its short length, it’s an easy KN to recommend.
Congratulations! What a nice board of games for the month! Glad to read that you also loved Dredge. As for Carrion, I finished it a while back, and it was lots of fun, although I felt that it was starting to get a bit repetitive towards the end. Still, seems that you enjoyed a great start of the year. May February be just as good, if not better!
February so far is, dare I say looking optimistic?
Did you play the Carrion Christmas DLC afterward? I really loved the tactical puzzles where you had to puppet someone without the puppet dying. (or you got a nasty shock!!)
No, I didn’t play that DLC. Sounds like it’s a worthy one. I’ll take note. Might be a fun one to revisit.
I enjoyed both Dredge and Carrion as well. Memorable games.
Witcher 2 is great, and it has branching paths around the midway point.
Ooh nice, didn’t know Planetarian is so short. I’ll have to play that one soon. Congrats on having a great month! I also want to grab Birth sometime soon :)
It’s a pretty good VN, I look forward to your commentary about it if you play it!! Birth was really fun! Morbid, wholesome, and hand-drawn with a lot of love and details.
I just finished my first game of February, I accidentally binged it for almost 6 hours straight, It’s an Indie game I took a chance on called The Silent Swan and I’m really excited to talk about it in my next post, as it gave me familiar vibes to NaissanceE!!! I kinda went crazy on the screenshots but while unpolished, it scratched that one really specific itch of wandering in a completely empty city that doesn’t look like it was meant to hold people.
You nailed it with the morbid/wholesome description for Birth and Landlord of the Woods! I love that art style :D
I saw you playing Silent Swan on Steam last night >_> #creeping
I have NaissanceE in my library (I assume I added it because it’s free lol), but never really gave it much thought–now it’s on my radar too!
Pleaseeeeeee play them and post about it I love this niche so bad. Also, take a look at Manifold Garden!