Zelrune

February 2022 Progress Report

This month didn’t go super well for me game wise, I only beat 5 games when I planned 7, and tbh I wasn’t terribly impressed with anything I played. For some reason I just felt burned out and never got to the games I had scheduled so next month is a self-care month with my favorite genres that will let me RP a bit. I was supposed to play Crosscode and a few VN’s but finding the motivation to play sidequest sim and a few dating games was difficult. I haven’t really chosen what I’m doing in March, but The Outer Worlds, Slime Rancher, and perhaps Planet Coaster? None of these are short so I’m already kind of dreading how many games I can complete.

Games added to backlog: 1
Games 100%: 5

52% (218/420)
21% (88/420)
14% (59/420)
13% (54/420)
0% (1/420)
4.6 hours
Bright colors and a decent story.

Head back to the Island of Ogasawara, a gorgeous island with clear waters, radiant skies, sparkling sands, and lingering childhood memories of a girl that was left behind when you moved to the mainland.
Return, reconnect, and forge new friendships as you are pulled into an adventure of a lifetime.

I had a lot more fun with this VN than I honestly expected, the CG’s are vibrant and gorgeous, the story itself and characters are really enjoyable, and its fully voice acted. 3-5 hours to complete, Adventure of a Lifetime isn’t so long it’s ridiculous or too short it was rushed. Two love interests, and the island itself, Ogasawara, actually exists including the areas you visit in game are real life locations. The hidden cove area seen in game is Minamijima Island, and I suspect this game was made to promote tourism, while also being a really solid VN. Regardless, I absolutely recommend you pick this up, the quality and care put into this makes it one of the better VN’s I’ve read.


Half-Life 2
MC was a bit annoying but story was overall good if a bit too long.

A Sky Full of Stars

7/10
32.9 hours
20 of 20 achievements

Akito is known as the astronomer who never looks at the stars. Left alone after his parents and grandfathers deaths, Akito works part-time at a convenience store and lives in the astrology clubroom as it’s only member - if only to save it from being cancelled and to have a roof over his head. Life changes however, when the former club president requests Akito to meet up with another astronomy club president at an all-girls school. With that, an ambitious idea leads you on a quest to resurrect The Six Stars; six astrology clubs in six schools on the verge of being disbanded! Reconnect with your childhood friends, and embrace a budding romance that’s written in the skies!

A Sky Full of Stars is a slow-paced “slice of life” 25-50hr VN with minimal choices, four love interests, and no bad ends. While I did feel like the length was a bit excessive, it wasn’t horrible as the writer did a fantastic job building up the story and relationships. The entire VN is fully voice acted, which I didn’t expect because of its length, and the CG’s and movies are high quality. The only thing I really disliked was that Akito is a bit of a pervert, so some of the text involving him was cringy. Regardless, if you want to read a slow paced VN that will take you all day to finish, this is definitely a good option.

Half-Life 2
Cute, short, enjoyable. Flirt with the dark lord in a D&D session, who is also your irl crush.

Bard Harder!

8/10
0.9 hours
no achievements

You are Crab Rangoon, the dashing-est bard in all the lands. Your D&D session is coming to a close as your group makes its way to the final boss – Vulcuzar! But trouble strikes, your friends are trapped and you are the only one left to fight… The only thing you can do… IS BARD HARDER!

Robin: I flirt with Vulcuzar.
Subin: …
Presley: You…What??
Alden: Here we go.
Nia: Omigod! YAY!

I love this! Bard Harder is a VN with a short playtime (less than an hour!) but the entire time I was cackling! Well drawn, fantastic music, incredible writing and story set up, I am very happy with the quality and enjoyment I’ve gotten out of it. There are multiple endings, and if somehow the store opening video didn’t convince you to play Bard Harder, I hope this review does!

Half-Life 2
Some motionsickness, an open ending, an unrefined story. Gameplay is interesting.

A Story About My Uncle

6/10
11.6 hours
15 of 15 achievements

A simple request for a bedtime story from your daughter has you remembering Uncle Fred; a man who has long since vanished on a spontaneous adventure with no one knowing exactly where he wandered off to – except for you. Retell a magical adventure full of mysteries and intrigue, of strange creatures, enchanting caverns, dangerous beasts, and otherworldly places; the story about your uncle.

Warning: this game can give you motion sickness; this issue is resolved by going into options and removing motion blurring and/or speed lines.

Before you buy, I’m going to note here that I only recommend it depending on why you want to play A Story About My Uncle. If you want to play for the story, or you like speed runs and optional timed challenges, then yes, you’ll probably like this! If you’re playing with the intention of getting 100%, I doubt you will. A handful of achievements are actually kind of difficult to get, beating the game will take about 3+ hours, but 100%’ing it? 10+. One is getting a gold medal on all timed challenges and the time constraints are… not going to be giving you much room for mistakes.
With that out of the way, the story is pretty good, the gameplay itself is really fun, you fly around 5 areas with a grappling hook and the speeds you can hit are exhilarating. Some of the paths you need to take aren’t obvious and there is a bit of room for exploration, but all stages are linear. There are a bunch of collectables and story objects to interact with to enhance the world building, but the game ending is a bit disappointing. While I don’t fully recommend A Story About My Uncle, I definitely don’t hate it enough to give a negative review.

TL;DR: 3-10+ hrs, good story, fun gameplay, exhilarating speeds. Optional timed speedrun challenges and plenty of story collectables. Hard to 100%; ending falls a bit flat, play it if you want.

Half-Life 2
An atmospheric horror with beautiful, if unusual, pathways and scenery.

NaissanceE

8/10
5.2 hours
no achievements

NaissanceE is a curious atmospheric horror game where you are alone in a huge structure that seems to have once carried a civilization that has vanished. Enjoy hostile architecture, strange yet familiar structures, unusual but unsettling pathways all while getting the rather strong feeling that you are being hunted. Run, hide, wait, explore beautiful and abnormal scenery, and just try to escape this seemingly endless world.

Important note if you are on the fence about playing! There are no jumpscares, nothing is going to eat you, and you are completely alone. Don’t worry about it. My only real complaint is that I wish there was more story or clues that might give you hints about what happened so you’re not just making it up as you go along. While there are a lot of Easter eggs, none of them seem to have any connection to the story from what I can tell, sort of making this a guessing game. Then again, the biggest fear is fear of the unknown, so perhaps it’s not all bad it’s never stated? This game is pretty big on atmosphere. Anyway, it’s a fun if unusual game, play it if you are curious and don’t mind exploring.

Vito

Well, at least you managed to beat more games than add new ones :) Still a victory over the backlog.

I know the feeling, sometimes you just can’t get into the games. I think it’s a good idea to take some time for yourself and not focus on the backlog too much. Sometimes we just need something comforting, especially in these times…Good luck with your next month’s gaming!

Thanks for the warning about the A Story About My Uncle achievements!

Zelrune

Thank you~ I was trying to add no games but Calico practically landed in my lap so.. +1.
Tempted to ignore my backlog and start on Trails in the Sky Chapter 2, it’s been a year since I beat the first one but I also know it’s going to take me an entire month + some to beat.

Vito

Oof, those long games can really look intimidating, yeah! I’m currently playing HoMM 6 and although I’ve almost played it for a month I’m far, far form done…Spending a lot of time on one single game is always a worthy endeavour though when you enjoy it. So if you liked Trails in the Sky, why not give Chapter 2 a try?

Zelrune

I’m trying to work on games gifted to me atm, although for most it’s been so long I no longer remember who gave them to me and I feel guilty. Planet Coaster, Dishonored 2, Tales of the Black Forest, Fatal Twelve, Crosscode, The Outer Worlds, and Subnautica Below Zero.
I still need to play The First Dishonored again to 100% it, although fortunately I’ve already gotten the clean hands achievement because I try to be a pacifist when I can. Not looking forward to the high chaos routes. (;⌣̀_⌣́)

Edit: and Edge of Eternity. I need to make a list…

Traqie

speeds you can hit are exhilarating

Hmm I feel like we played a different game… my main criticism of “A story…” was that it really lacked a sense of speed. Even at “high speeds” I felt like I wasn’t going that fast, I even said that a game like Apex Legends gives you a better sense of speed.

Zelrune

In the timed challenges you were running pretty fast for me, aside from the barely forgiving time limit It was pretty ok, Valley was better.

devonrv

I like challenges, but didn’t like A Story About My Uncle because of how difficult it is to tell whether or not you’re in grappling range. Not only is the depth-perception awful, but the cursor’s change is too subtle; it needed to snap to a different color instead of slowly glowing a bit brighter than normal.

Zelrune

Would definitely be more user friendly that way, yeah. A lot of times it was just, a leap of faith and hoping I didn’t fall and ruin the run. Star Haven was worse than Ice Cave for me, someone had a tip to skip the falling block part and I just… thank you random stranger. Hardest part of the run, no thanks.