Kyrrelin

July 2022 report


Thanks to participation in Cj’s event on Steamgifts we managed to play a good amount of games again and all of them were pretty much enjoyable.

Enough of small talks and now to the actual assassinations! Good luck in a new month and enjoy your games!

In AER Memories of Old we follow young girl Auk on her pilgrimage through the Land of Gods. The old Evil which caused a great disaster to the land of her ancestors is slowly creeping back and shows its dark presence around the world. She has to visit old temples and seek help from long forgotten gods. Her journey will take her around the broken world which now consists of clusters or lonesome flying islands. There she will find memories of old and maybe a hope for the future.

Main aspect of the game is Auk's bird shapeshifting ability, with it we are free to explore the broken world and go everywhere we want. Just jump off the edge of the island (or simply into air) and change into a bird. And then… fly. I have heard that dreams about flying are the best (not sure I ever had any), but now I can understand it a little, because flying in AER feels so amazing! I have enjoyed simply soaring in the skies and watching my shadow running on the land below or diving headfirst into the clouds and piercing through them. It was a joy!
The controls were a little bit confusing at the beginning, but once you grow accustomed to them nothing stops you from exploring the vast skies. To land you have to change into human again and doing it at high speed can lead to missing the island utterly so you have to change into bird, circle the island and then go on the landing again, but with more islands you land on the better you get with it. You don't have to be afraid of dying when you fall off or fly beyond the threshold or you slam into the land, you are pretty much safe in doing anything. :)
When you are not high in the skies you can search the islands for ghostly remains of the past or notes of previous shapeshifters, both of which can shed some light on the events that happened a long time ago. When you have explored enough or just want to move forward in the story, you have to visit old temple ruins and solve puzzles to uncover their secrets. The puzzles are not hard, which isn't bad as it doesn't disturb the calm mood of the game.

The relaxing experience of flying around is intensified with a beautiful soundtrack which nicely corresponds to the game atmosphere. I found the simplistic graphics rather appealing, it's very colorful and every region offers different surroundings. Controls can be somewhat clumsy, but nothing serious. The game can be completed really quickly I suppose, but I really liked flying around and just exploring the islands. It was great fun.
The ending was a little abrupt though and no definite answer was given to us. There are hints through the game on what's gonna happen, but we will never know for sure. To say the truth I though there's gonna be some post credit scene about the world and its inhabitants, which would offer a closure to a great mysterious story, but sadly we are left in dark.


Silence is a sequel to The Whispered World, so it's very much advisable to play the first game before the second one as lot of The Whispered World's events and characters will get mentioned or even will make their appearance. But the true feeling of nostalgia will kick in once you hear the iconic main music track from the first game and see the beautiful background visuals. And of course, once you hatch Spot. <3

Silence is an adventure game where you get to play as three different characters - Noah, his little sister Renie (she is a real sweetheart) and Spot. Both Noah's and Renie's characters are greatly written and especially Noah undertakes a serious development through the story. As the game is focused on the storytelling and on heavy emotions the gameplay is sadly rather shallow. You have no inventory and the items you find get used mostly on the same screen. There are few (very few) traditional logical puzzles, attention is mostly focused on interaction with the surroundings. I got stuck once, but it was mostly of a bad game design as I wanted to perform an action, but before that I had to perform two other actions even though they were completely unnecessary for the result.

The highlights of the Silence are great main characters, beautiful soundtrack and gorgeous hand painted graphics. I was a little bit afraid of the 3D characters, but it worked nicely in the end. The story adapts the same theme as the first game, this time without its “wow effect”, but the idea is still very strong to carry another whole similar storyline. Weakest point are side characters whom we meet right at the beginning. Even though we can select in what way to interact with them and their characters develop somehow it all leads into a big nothingness. Their whole presence in the game is pretty much without any meaning and if they wouldn't be there it would have pretty much the same effect. It's rather sad, because in The Whispered World all important characters got their conclusion during the credits (it was a touching moment). Not this time though and all we can do is ask why they were even there.

To obtain all of the achievements you have to play it twice at least. Some of them are rather tricky so beware as you can't simply load it up. There is only an auto save, which is pretty much disappointing and sometimes leads to replaying a whole scene again as it saves only in certain moments - once you start doing some scene, you better not leave in the middle of it.

I have enjoyed the Silence even though it in some moments felt like a weaker sibling of The Whispered World. The nostalgic note plays well with me, I admit that.


Half-Life 2

Jotun: Valhalla Edition

4/5
13.0 hours
21 of 36 achievements

In Jotun we assume the role of Thora, a Viking warrior, who lost her life when her ship got sunken during a stormy night. As this was an inglorious death unworthy of a warrior, she is given a second chance to prove herself to the Gods and earn her place in Valhalla. From Ginnungagap, the Void, she has to venture into five different worlds and collect their respective Runes. Each Rune is protected by a mighty Jotun though and fights with them will put her fighting skills to some serious test. If she wishes to stand before Odin himself she has to endure and fight bravely to the end!

Even though Jotun is basically a game about fighting with Bosses filled with short intermezzos of exploration and story, it can be quite enjoyable. Each world offers a different setting (snow, grassland, magma etc.) with specific challenges to overcome on our search for the runes. The route isn't always straightforward and we are required to perform certain actions to open it. As we explore the surroundings we can stumble upon God shrines - bestow godly powers on Thora, trees bearing Ithunn's Apples - permanently boost Thora's life, Mimir's Wells - refreshes health and skills, or uncover secrets from Norse mythology.

All of this is wrapped in beautiful hand-drawn graphics and accompanied by a fitting soundtrack. Icelandic voices create an awesome atmosphere and listening to them was absolutely amazing. Jotun also does a great job in portraying Thora's smallness and overall insignificance as everything around her is so big (especially bosses), that she is sometimes even barely visible. ^^
Biggest flaw of the game is sadly in the fights. Thora moves around rather slowly, which is intensified even more by her smallness. There is no run option (only with a God skill and only for a moment), the illusion of a quicker movement offers a dodge roll. Sadly it's not very useful even during fighting. After the roll Thora doesn't continue in her movement (even if you hold the button), instead she stops for a tiny moment, which is enough to get hit. Also, when she rolls, she just pushes the enemies before her instead of smashing them around. So when she is getting up then the enemy is free to attack her. Not very helpful. Thora has only one weapon, her trustworthy axe, with two kinds of attacks - basic and powerful. Both of them feel slow and the powerful will even hold Thora on the spot until she releases it. Sooner or later one will get used to it… my biggest issue was with godly powers. There are six of them and they have limited charges, which is fine. What isn't fine, is that they are all set on (basically) one key! You scroll through them with Q and E, from the front or from the behind. In the heat of battle it can get pretty confusing and I have selected the wrong skill like that many times. When I was trying for the timed or no hit achievements it felt almost like a typing game as I have prepared a clear sequence to navigate through the skills.

Playing through the game doesn't take long (it depends heavily on your skills), so luckily those small problems don't overgrow into a bigger frustration. It was rather fun. Some of the achievements are pretty crazy, so kudos to all who manage to get them.

Half-Life 2

Little Nightmares

4/5
12.8 hours
13 of 22 achievements

Little Nightmares is what would Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi by Hayao Miyazaki look like if Tim Burton decided to film it.
That's how I feel about it. I didn't know much about Little Nightmares when I started and after finishing it I still don't know much.

The visual design is truly creepy and unsettling. Similarly soundtrack helps to create the right atmosphere, which is really well done in the game. You spent your time crawling around or running away from your chasers and that can get pretty intense. Controls were okay, in some moments a little clunky, but worse was the camera angle in some jumping parts - I just couldn't see if I was in the line or not, so I usually died. This can be a problem when doing the no death run.
The game uses an autosave and only in certain locations, so it's better to leave the game after you are certain it was saved (I have sometimes mistaken flashing icon for save when it was just for a found collectible). When you die in a chase or you are caught when sneaking you are usually respawned right before that part, but when you leave and come back you can find yourself at the start of the area. The game isn't long and the chases are mostly doable on the first try, even though some parts require pretty tight timing for succeeding. Luckily re-doing my failures didn't turn into a chore and I have quite enjoyed it.

Story is… well there is something. Not really clear though. I still miss the DLC's, so I don't know if there is something more said about it, but I highly doubt it. I have read through official materials, different player's thoughts and many hypotheses, but nothing from it creates the right image (for me).

Half-Life 2

Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition

5/5
46.3 hours
39 of 47 achievements

I was thinking about playing through Batman games in an order and because I had finished the first one a long time ago and because I was still missing some achievements (especially Party Pooper was nagging me as I have stupidly missed it the first time), I have decided to play it once more, this time on hard difficulty. Let me say that doing that achievement on the hardest setting was one of my dumbest decisions. I screamed some dirty words unworthy of a lady and almost broke my table with my angry fists. Also I almost cried when I realized that I would have to play through the whole game on easier difficulty to obtain it should I fail on the hard… but I did it! To my surprise, I am not even sure how. ^^ Final showdown with Joker was also horrible. Have to say that I am even a little embarrassed for the tantrum I was throwing when failing miserably, I have then slapped myself (figuratively speaking mind you) and came victorious! It felt good, but never again.

I was then playing around with challenges. Stealth missions are pretty good, I will maybe even try the hard ones (with the help of a guide), but those combat challenges are just too much for me. I always make some tiny mistake and it destroys the whole combo. As I was playing Batman after Mad Max I was quite displeased as Max has a much longer threshold for the combo continuation. Here if you miss the one millisecond you are busted. Anyway, I am not sure that I want to spend more time on it, I am just not that good at fighting games. And I actually can't wait for the second game. ^^

Beaten during July, reports will follow once I complete them or am done with them in some other way.

SSS… Steam Summer Sale

Except for three games, all were on my wishlist.

Lego Humble Bundle

Hentai Stuff

You see nothing. >_>
  • LEWDAPOCALYPSE

    0 hours playtime

    0 of 146 achievements

  • Zetria

    0 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • FIGHTING GIRL SAKURA-R

    0.0 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • MAGICAL ANGEL FAIRY HEART

    0.0 hours playtime

    no achievements

GoG

April 2021 - the list was made
6% (9/149)
4% (6/149)
6% (9/149)
84% (125/149)
December 2021
8% (13/154)
4% (6/154)
7% (11/154)
81% (124/154)

Uplay

4% (1/23)
13% (3/23)
83% (19/23)

Origin

33% (7/21)
14% (3/21)
52% (11/21)
ninglor03

They never replied to my steam key request for Starfighter. But I played it on itch (maybe I should add non steam games also in my report… not that I play that many that often thinking) and I was very happy I did :3

Kyrrelin

Glad you have enjoyed it. :) Sure thing, that you can add non steam games to your report! ;)

aquatorrent

thanks for letting me know that silence is a sequel of the whispered world. i was about to play it before playing the prequel.

Kyrrelin

Happy to help. ^^