August 2025 Progress Report
Ok, so I totally failed doing 5 games last month, I’m gonna try again this September.
Absolutely fell in love with Wildmender, I wanna get back into playing it, but my backlog is kinda catching up to me, so I gotta knock out some games to give me some breathing room. I’m pretty pleased to have completed Coromon, I won it on SG a year ago and was having a good time until my cute little nibblegar evolved into a hulking shark sailor thing with anchors for hands - I lost interest playing so fast it took me until last month to start the game over again on a fresh save file with another starter ahaha. Lil’ gator game was also a SG win! I won that recently and had a fun, whimsical time playing with it; it brought back memories of A Short Hike and Haven park. The ragdolling on command was super funny and made for some adorable screenshots. As for Like an Angel, I bought that game years ago but I never got super into it because of it’s wretched english translation, happy to say while I did enjoy the endings, figuring out how to get anything other than a normal or bad end was weirdly difficult and required a lot of invisible checks I had to hunt down; leading me to a Chinese spreadsheet and guide. That sure was somethin’.
As for next month, I’m definitely finishing Dead Forest, I’m gonna try again to play Falconeer, and Philo and the Holobook. The PAGYWOSG requirements are kinda.. spicy so idk if I can even participate this month without playing BG3, but I’ll do my best to try and join with something. I’m kinda planning on Mato anomalies and time willing, Tales of Arise. Let’s be real though, this might get derailed by a Hollow Knight 100% marathon, then Silksong.
Total games added to backlog: 3 (Wildmender, Lil Gator Game, Pilo and the Holobook)
Total completed: 4
20-40 hours to complete, Wildmender is a desert restoration and light survival fantasy game. You begin with almost nothing but dry sand, a fragile, small oasis, and a few seeds that barely cling to life under the scorching sun. From this, you slowly transform the desolate surroundings into a thriving, verdant garden, first by using Dune Grass to turn the sand into arable earth that can nurture crops and over time, trees for shade to which then you can plant more delicate species. As you cultivate, two different plants can crossbreed and you can discover more specialized plants; some use less water, some become ok with full sun, and some tie into the game core mechanics – such as purification.
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Wildmender is not all just environmental restoration, it’s a fantasy game and the little island you exist on used to hold another civilization that wiped itself out in a rather spectacular fashion. Wraths haunt the desert, leeching what little vitality remains to fuel their lifespan and magic, leaving blighted land that warps and ruins anything that grows near it and poisons the air; and spirits linger at night, some lost, and some trying to fix the disaster, either by passing on their knowledge or skills. You will learn to create stone sigils to defend against attacks or encourage seed and fruit production, and as mentioned, some plants you grow will help you clean blighted areas.
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On a more personal note, I had a really great time playing Wildmender both as a solo player and in multiplayer, and this is definitely one of the top games of 2025 for me. One of my favorite things aside from the general gameplay loop of creating an oasis from scratch was the ghostly foliage – at night the dead plants and trees become transparent shades of their former life, softly glowing lavender leaves that flutter with the wind. The survival aspect wasn’t difficult, but you absolutely had to prep when you left your oasis, or dehydration and sun exposure would kill you, and I liked the combat, it’s a nice break from regular farming games where they can be a bit too easy sometimes. Highly recommended!
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Coromon
25-50 hours to complete, Coromon is a monster taming JRPG where you play as a newly hired Battle Researcher at Lux Solis Campus, one picked specifically to join the Titan Taskforce, a team dedicated to investigating the legendary Titan Coromons and their unique forms of energy. With your newly acquired starter at your side, set out on a journey across the region of Velua. Challenge other Battle Researchers, catch and study any interesting Coromon you may find, explore the diverse regions and deserts… just remember to check your text messages from mom sometimes.
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I really enjoyed Coromon – and even more so when I realized I could make an ‘all dogs’ team. The pixel art is gorgeous, the world feels pretty big and open, and the story was pretty interesting and kept me engaged, but what really sets Coromon apart from similar games is its quality-of-life improvements. You can relearn or swap moves at any time, freely change traits, and even DEVOLVE a Coromon; either to unlock its enhanced trait or just to keep em’ cute. Catching a mon’ is really flexible too, you can upgrade or swap the spinner color to fit your aesthetic, and shiny Coromon are actually attainable – there are three types, Basic, High Potential, and Perfect Coromon that reflects slightly in it’s status, each is a unique color variant and if you catch a Perfect Coromon or something but don’t like it’s look, you can recolor it to another variant.
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Progression is super rewarding with milestone goals and tangible rewards as you gain experience as a Battle Researcher, and it never felt grindy with plenty of EXP share items (I found six in my run). Map Traversal is a breeze thanks to instant teleportation items you can buy for cheap at any shop, and best of all are the game's difficulty settings. You can tailor the game to suit your playstyle, easy, normal, hard, and insane mode; or enable Nuzlocke rules, randomize all items, set the game so you can catch other trainers Coromon, make it so you can’t run away from any battle, and a lot more; I didn’t bother scrolling past the Nuzlocke option because I’ve always wanted to do one. The game is as fun as you want it to be, and with all the quality-of-life changes Coromon has, it takes out a ton of inconveniences that made me drop other monster taming games.
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2-5 hours to complete, Lil Gator Game is a wholesome, casual adventure game about childhood magic and growing up. You play as a lil’ gator exploring two islands with your friends, using imagination to turn sticks into swords, plywood into castles, and cardboard cutouts into monsters. Complete quests for your friends for ‘legendary’ costumes and weapons, climb mountains, hills, and trees in search of pots to break and cardboard to shred; with the ultimate goal of reminding your older sister of the games you both used to play by crafting the greatest adventure yet!
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This is a really nice, whimsical game that brought back fond memories of A Short Hike and Haven Park as you climb, glide, float, slide, and hop around an open world. As you progress through the game, completing quests and making friends, the playground slowly transforms into a town where everyone roleplays at. While it is a bit of a collectathon as you use cardboard scraps and confetti as currency to craft new ‘weapons’ and ‘armor,’ you never have to go out of your way to get what you want unless you are aiming for 100%. Highly recommended if you seek a short, warm adventure.
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Like an Angel
5-10 hours to complete. Like an Angel is an LGBTQ+ VN with eight different endings, you play as a male succubus undergoing his coming-of-age trial: Survive one whole year in the human world, attend college, blend in, avoid attachments, and don’t catch the strange withering disease that takes the lives of many young demons every trial. Finally, return to the demon realm as a fully-fledged adult.
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Reviewing this game is kinda tricky, because while I genuinely enjoyed a lot of aspects such as the beautiful art style, a little bit of the time management aspects, the fact this game is completely uncensored, and the wholesome but lewd good endings; with only one being bittersweet – there are way too many glaring issues for me just to hand out a positive review. There is a LOT of non-con in the beginning, the storyline is kinda weak, the English translation is super rough; it’s plagued by spelling errors, confusing sentences, and awkward phrasings. It gets worse, though, because there IS full voice acting, but it’s only available if you’re reading in Chinese, even though, looking at discussion pages, it used to be available but oddly stopped working around the time the developers stopped updating. Also, all the DLC is Chinese only and doesn’t have an “English not supported” tag – If you still wanna read it, get the Google Translate app on your phone; it does a good job.
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For me, I especially had a difficult time with this game as reaching the in-game requirements to reach any good ending is unnecessarily difficult due to said translation errors and high condition clearance. Following the English guide alone makes it impossible to get a good ending, as vital requirements are outright not stated; I had to translate the Chinese guide into English and then hunt down a spreadsheet across two websites, and then translate THAT spreadsheet to fully understand the requirements to get a good ending. Overall, while I honestly really liked Like an Angel, I absolutely cannot recommend it to anyone who’s not already a depraved BL lover, and doesn’t mind wading through a frustrating experience to get to the good parts.
Super interested by your reviews on Wildmender and Coromon. The first didn’t appeal to me but i see now from your review why it can be liked.
Congratz for your 3 completions !
Four completions!!! Also, I see Beyond Blue is unplayed in your backlog, it’s short and I would adore if you gave it a chance this September!!!
Ah shit you’re right ! As it was in red i thought it was given up lol ! :p
Congratz for your 4 completions then ! ;)
I’ll play it in the end, can’t promise for september but i don’t buy games i don’t wanna play !
A Hollow Knight 100% marathon… I wish you luck and mercy.
Otherwise, nice progress. Glad you enjoyed your Chinese BL though it sounds like it was a lot of work. Suppose guy on guy hand holding action can be worth it. :thinking:
Girls like two guys holding hands for the same reason guys like two girls holding hands.
Seriously though, I’m hunting down an image translation service for my PC. The DLC for it was all in Chinese, and it was written so much better using my Google Translate phone app that views through a camera - if THAT’S what I missed out on, I’m actually kinda sad spending 20 hours in the games given English translation.
Hindsight 20/20.
Not questioning or judging. Just observations.
I had found an application for my desktop to provide an overlay that translate on some VNs, however it requires you to provide your own API key which can require a subscription for Google Translate to get. So, gotta work out the details on that a bit more, but if you find anything kindly let me know.
See this isn’t good. I can’t see like an angel so unless I remember you disliked the gameplay I’m gonna come across it in the future. Not be able to see reviews and think sure that will go on the wishlist. Then I’ll play it and realise this is bad where’s my damn warnings!
But good to know you did enjoy it somewhat
I wish you luck finding it anywhere else than on Steam, it’s never been bundled since it came out 3 years ago, the developer and the publisher are the same, and they went MIA in 2022.
You….you….you 100%ed Coromon and you plan to do the same with Hollow Knight/Silksong?
I can(t say if I should congratulate you or call for help.
Probaby both, so nice assassinations :p
Idk If I can do the one death run - that usually ended at the soul boss on my last few attempts. I’ll try the rest for sure, then I might be good enough for it.
That’s a solid month. Wildmender in particular seems like a lengthy and enjoyable experience.
I’m obsessed with post-apocalyptic themes and I’m a big fan of those silly farming sims where you revive a community, Wildmender literally has (almost) everything I like in it. I’m planning on mayhaps making a new playthrough, one less rushed since I try to start and beat games within a month. There was a lot I learned and different ways to go about things.
Post apo is also my favorite setting in general.
I personally think that when you find a game your truly enjoy and/or identify with, the backlog can wait. After all, the primary goal of gaming is to enjoy yourself. ;)
Yeah, but I’m almost done, I’m sooo close. I also have gems like The Witcher 3 I still need to play, Code Vein, etc. The possibility of being done halfway into 2026 sounds super insane and I really wanna hit that goal.
I mean, Witcher 3 is one of the greatest games of all time, so there is that.
Code Vein was also very good.