About Heroes, Stickmen, Witches and Depression

Wild mix today of games from both sides of the spectrum:

• Songs for a Hero - Definitive Edition
  

  15 hours playtime

  59 of 59 achievements

• INMOST
  

  9 hours playtime

  29 of 29 achievements

• The Henry Stickmin Collection
  

  11 hours playtime

  82 of 82 achievements

• Black Book
  

  40 hours playtime

  50 of 50 achievements

Songs for a Hero - Definitive Edition: Definetely on the light-hearted side. Songs for a Hero is a platformer game which - for the most part - is on the easier side. During the game you mostly progress from the left to the right, fighting enemies with your sword and some simple magic and searching for secrets and hidden/collectible stuff. “Novelty” of the game is that your “progress” is accompanied by descriptive singing of the game OST. But before you wonder - or complain - it does not follow your every tiny movement but rather sing certain text passages when you reach the trigger point in the level. Still, it is mostly entertaining and you can have some fun with the text (also special mention for the level names which are horrible puns and wordplays).
Collectibles reach from three notes per level, as well as two heart and diamond halfs which increase your life and endurance. Each new world introduces a new special power which improves movement or combat ability. Many collectibles are hidden behind non-visible walls which get transparent as soon as you find them. But to be fair, most of them are clearly marked if you look for them. However, some collectibles need certain power-ups to be reachable which you only get in later worlds. Also, there are bonus bosses behind doors locked by a certain amount of needed notes which you can’t possibly have the first time you are there. Both those things make replaying levels a necessiy by design if you go for full completion. Story-wise it mostly starts straight-forward but gets very confusing in the last world. And the epilogue makes everything even more confusing. I didn’t understand those parts. Achievement-wise prepare to bring some time for the whole collectible thingies as well as some minor skills for the no damage boss fights although most have an easy attack pattern. There are some level-specific achievements which need some special conditions but also nothing to difficult.
Game already exists for a longer time but was before only available in portugues until the developer translated and adjusted the texts for english. There are also DLCs which can be easily be missed. Which is sad because the Undead DLC has the best OST in the game. Overall, a nice time waster. A bit less excessive collectibles wouldnt have hurt though.

INMOST: And now into the darker territory of the mind. INMOST is a puzzle-platformer for the most parts which mostly separates into three different parts. The main game part is the bearded man in a kind of dark and rainy metroidvania world where you have to solve puzzles and gather new equipment in order to reach new areas. At certain points in this world, the game switches control to one of two possible other characters. One is a little girl which explores the house she lives in accompanied by one very disturbing bunny toy. This part is mostly story-orientated. The other character is a knight which fights his way through different segments and is more action-orientated. And from gameplay this is mostly is.
Story-wise the game has more to offer, however it is sometimes hard to understand because most of the game is actually a metaphor about depression and grief. The “real” story only happens when you are playing the little girl. However, it is not everything and the reason why her parents react the way towards her and each other is only explained at the ending although hinted at during playing the game. The bearded man in the metroidvania world is a metaphor for the grief and following depression of the mother and/or the man himself which starts consuming more and more of their world. The knight itself is yet another metaphor for the “act” the bearded man has done and how it lead to the problems. Most of the story is made clear in the epilogue scene and also has a halfway forgiving ending. Nonetheless, it is some heavy topics.
Achievement-wise most of it is straight-forward and story-related, but there are also achievements for collectibles (including INVISIBLE pain stones and one permanently missible note) and for no-damage runs during the knight scenes and even a no-death run for the bearded man (reloading last checkpoint is an option though). While some of this sounds difficult, you have a chapter select function. However, few achievements need a complete rerun which is not that bad though as the game can be completed in about 2 hours or less.

The Henry Stickmin Collection: And another light-hearted game again. Henry Stickmin is the protagonist of the game which you have to control through the game. However, you don’t control him actually. The game is …. hm …. some kind of interactive mini-movies where the game at certain points gives you different options to do. Often these decisions lead to failure or death and only one let you continue the game. And there is no way to know which options are the correct ones because the game has a lot of silly. So, it is for most part trial&error which is however fun. That said, sometimes there are also different options correct leading to split routes and different endings for a scene.
Achievement-wise there is also a lot to do and most is fun stuff which can be done easily or is even story-related. But there are once again some time consuming achievements like RMB-clicking EVERY character in the game (with the last episode featuring over 100 different characters) or like randomly clicking at certain objects or texts during the game unlocking special scenes or getting every single fail in the game.
But all in all it is a game where you can have some fun in-between as the episodes are rather short and don’t ask for much brain power. Also, the story and characters are partially more fun then I would have thought. And some of the silly stuff is so over-the-top that it makes you smile.

Black Book: And here the game which took most of my time from this batch. Black Book is a story-heavy, deck-builder game where you play a young witch which has very very recently her fiance. Driven by grief she finally accepts her grand-fathers offer to become a witch. All this is done in order to break the seals on the black book, an one-of-a-kind special item which grants the wielder one wish of his choice if he manages to break them all. However, she has only 40 days. And with this the premise for the game is already given, as well as the game structure. Each chapter you have to break a new seal and you first have to find out and remove all obstacles in your way. With each new broken seal you gain access to new cards - which you can sometimes buy or you get them after fighting enemies - more powerful than before, ever increasing your power. However, being a witch (or koldun) is not as easy as it sounds. The power comes with responsibility and you get your own devil servants which you have to send out to do sinful things in your name. And if you don’t do this they will torture you. As a person of power, a koldun, you also get visited regularly by people who want your help and not always for good things. So, there is a lot of moral choices you have to do which may lead to you accumulating sins which have influence at the ending of the game.
One things I like about games is that they give you insight on different cultures you have never heard before. DreadOut for example plays in an Indonesian horror setting and Unforgiving in nordic folklore. For Black Book it is russian folklore during the tzar time, revolving around the dark magics of kolduns (wizards), chorts (devils) and more. All voice is therefore also in russian with the text translated to english (although some minor sentences have slipped through the crack :P).
Achievement-wise you can do a lot as long as you just do everything possible. But depending on some choices you might miss one or two achievements forcing a second playthrough - which you probably need anyone thanks to the sin system. Story-wise the game does an excellent job portraing the responsibilities of the kolduns and how they are regarded throughout the world. And also showing why our young witch is doing what she has to and becoming more and more powerful. While the power sounds enticing it is a given fact that every koldun ends up in hell.

And with this, a new batch is done. A now I will go back to either trading new games, activating some old keys or maybe finally playing some already activated left-over games.