July Sum-Up

I never played Life is Strange before, but it felt like playing Telltale games with better graphics. You watch a scene and move around afterward. I hated the exploration part - the main character walks slowly and the game has a slow loading time in my device. I'm pretty sure it's because of my potato spec though. The story is nice at least. There are some story branching but I don't think it matters that much.

It's not much of a game. You walk and strum your guitar around. The scenery is nice, though. I still enjoyed it despite hating walking simulators because of its pacing. The sidescroller format works well since you only need to focus on one direction. There is a simon says minigame on each boss fights, but it's nothing too difficult.

I liked the adjustable difficulty. The game was too fast for me on the default setting so I had to lower it. It's a nice beat 'em up with cute visuals. There are a lot of weapons to adjust your build, and some bosses are challenging - you need to learn their attack pattern to win.

The game used one of my favorite concepts. There is a trouble on your way as you go home and you must avoid getting killed within the next twelve minutes. If you die, you'll wake up from the beginning. You need to piece together some information in each loop and combine it to figure out the ending. However, the execution doesn't seem to be as good as the concept. I got stuck a lot and replaying was a pain since I had to go through the same thing over and over again. The ending wasn't particularly good either so I was pretty much disappointed.

This game is a combination of two games. I played the first one, 999. I regretted playing it so much - as someone who enjoys Danganronpa games, I liked this a lot. It's a combination of visual novel and escape rooms, and the story touch a bit of interesting topic that can make you shiver. I finished the game with coffin ending, and I was so invested in it and wanted to get all endings. I figured that I'll just buy the game on steam later so I could experience it to the fullest.

I wanted to see what the hype is all about. I wasn't good at beat 'em up games, though. I found it hard to finish it solo so I had to resort playing it in multiplayer. It's a good thing that the game is still new; a lot of people are still playing even if you don't find a friend to play with you. The game became fun when I played with more people, especially since I could just wreck stuff up without having a care of my HP or whatever. I found it hard to remember all the moves though. The game lists them all out at once and I was even confused when I saw other people keep on spamming their specials. It turns out that there is a button for that - one that I found by searching online since I couldn't manage to find the move list in the game.

To my surprise, I enjoyed it more than I thought. Despite the 3D models, the game actually is played in 2D. Well, mostly. Ever see a street sign? Yes, the puzzles are there. The unique thing is that there might not always 1 street sign in the level and you can arrange them so that they connect to each other. I enjoyed playing it.

The game is good. You play as three people that can be switched anytime you want in an action RPG in sidescroller format. The game can be repetitive with the quests, though. You need to revisit the same dungeon a lot of times just to finish them all, not including the time that you need to revisit after obtaining upgrades. And by a lot, I mean A LOT. I think I explored the first dungeon more than 5 times. I felt that it's quite cheap to do with such a high price tag. The game also doesn't end here - it ends with some mysteries since it's a prologue to their main game, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. I was bummed since I couldn't see what happened to one of the main characters.

What a great stress reliever. You play as a monster that eat humans. Yes, that's it. Some humans will have weapons that give you trouble, but it's fun to play overall. It's played like metroidvania in a sense that you'll get upgrades that will let you to explore previously unaccessed areas later on.

Don't play it if you expect it as a zelda-like or farming game. It's neither. It's a quest-focused game where you do daily quests and beat enemies up in action adventure style. The combat is stiff though and the game is quite repetitive. The daily quests are pretty much randomized so you might get the same thing every day, and you need to do it if you want to unlock some upgrades. As someone who like quest-focused game, I still enjoyed it, although there are still times when I loathe it since I know that I could finish the game faster if not for the daily quests.

If you are planning to play it in Game Pass, don't. The game is very bugged on release, and the Game Pass version doesn't have all the fixes (which the steam version has). I can understand all the negative reviews on release - the puzzles didn't even have the solutions as it should be. The gameplay was nice though. The puzzles can only be solved by looking up online, and you need to understand what the game really asked for. There are some that can be very tricky to solve though, although the difficulty is toned down as you play.

Not sure what to say about this one. It has good-looking areas. You basically need to solve some puzzles in one huge area to go to the next one. It's hard to hunt for the collectibles this way though, and there are some areas that are too vast if you have to walk on foot. Moreover, it can take a while to figure out where some puzzles are.

It's a game with some escape rooms. The difficulties are varied, although sadly, there weren't a lot of hints in the game. Got stuck on some of them, especially the one with big rooms since I didn't know where everything is. It's still a great game, though. There are ~13 escape rooms in total and it seems that they will release a DLC later. If you like Escape Simulator, this could be a good alternative. I still prefer Escape Simulator over this though. Some escape rooms in this game were timed, and I didn't like that.

I don't know if it's just me, but the narrative style reminds me of Shadowrun. There are a bunch of info dump being told at the beginning and it took me a while until I could understand everything. The game didn't let me to process it bit by bit though so I had to replay the prologue. Anyway, it was a unique game. It said that it mimics TTRPG, but I never played those so… don't ask me if it's true. You get some dice every day that you can use to do some action. Higher die increases your chance of success, and the lower one decreases it. I hated that you need to know everything to play it effectively though. My condition was deteoriated in my first playthrough without me knowing how to increase it - it turns out that I used my dice in the wrong place. So I restarted it from the beginning. It works well at the end though. I was enjoying it. There are a lot of reading involved, so beware.

Just like Life is Strange, it felt like Telltale games. It touches a unique topic, though. It starts when a robbery gone wrong, from two point of views. And then it tries to tell what happens 10 years later. It tells the trauma that the victim went through and how they cope with it. The how part depends on you, though. Your decision will hold some meanings to their end. I liked how you can replay the game from certain point in the timeline (not at the beginning of the chapter). However, replaying to get everything will still be boring since you have to watch the same cutscenes several times. Ah, and you need to get used with the animations. The game chooses to make them not smooth on purpose.

A beautiful-looking metroidvania that focuses on platforming. It was an enjoyable game although I hated the boss fights since you need to remember where everything is to pass them - the "boss fights" are basically obstacle course and you need to run while avoiding the obstacles. You can lower the difficulty if you want, although I don't know if it will affect them.

I used to commute long hours before covid strikes. I liked to space out while driving and looking at the scenery. This game provides a good alternative. You deliver some mails in a rural area that is surrounded by lake and greeneries. The game can be boring to some people though, especially since it's very repetitive. But if you like to relax and space out a little, this game can provide that little distraction.

The game has some boss fights this time. I was stunned with the visual improvements at the beginning - the first game was good, and this one was so much better. There are also more areas and content to increase your playtime. Although both are good, I still prefer the first one over this, though. Boss fights can be cheesed (and you probably will since they are very bulky and hard to predict), and some projectiles (I'm looking at you, light burst) was hard to aim with my 4-directional controller. By the time the ability was introduced, I wanted to switch to keyboard, but I didn't know the controls so I had to endure it.