Zelrune

October 2022 Progress Report

Happy late halloween! I meant to post this yesterday but at the time I hadn’t finished writing all my reviews so…
I had a pretty good time beating games this month, I finally, finally finished Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch after a couple months of me attempting to force myself to complete it, and the rest of the games were, really good picks. Go me! I bought a healthy amount of games from the Halloween sale, The Room 3 and 4 and replayed the entire series since it’s worth being replayed, I also bought The Gardens Between and The Last Campfire since I’ve wanted to play those for a long while; as well as a couple games I’ll be finishing next month I’m excited to talk about!

Halloween was good, I passed out candy dressed up like a pirate. It was a bit disappointing because I only really saw, maybe 7-10-ish kids in costumes and everyone else just, either didn’t bother or just wore a mask. It ended fairly quickly as well, so I ended up having some unwanted leftover sweets. My pumpkin also went missing; but I’ll still do it again next year because I like to dress up and it’s good fun for the kids.
Hope everyone had a fun time this month!

Games added to backlog: 8
Games 100%: 9

57% (264/460)
20% (92/460)
11% (50/460)
12% (53/460)
0% (1/460)
4.1 hours
A fun puzzle game series!

2+ hours to complete with 5 chapters and areas, The Room is honestly a pretty great interactive puzzle game. You start off getting an invitation to check out the attic of an abandoned house, and you go, because of course you do, and inside there is a rather fun looking puzzle box. The first chapter consists of a tutorial where you learn and get introduced to some mechanisms, and the rest of the game builds off that. At no point is anything terribly difficult and I was able to figure out nearly everything (except a gem puzzle in the last chapter) by looking at it or poking around.

Beautiful graphics, smooth mechanics, fun puzzles and an interesting story with an ending good enough to make you consider getting The Room 2, for $4.99? I say go for it!


Half-Life 2
The second in the series!

The Room Two

10/10
2.9 hours
7 of 7 achievements

3+ hours to complete, The Room 2 continues from the first game, trapped in a forgotten crypt. Your mysterious ally is now sympathetic to your plight, considering that you are just as trapped as they are in this strange, mysterious world. The atmosphere and theme is more darker and Lovecraftian than the first game, increasing in intensity as you move through the seven chapters; the puzzles have also expanded to the entire room than just a table. I wouldn’t classify it as a horror because nothing is particularly scary; there is a rather minor jumpscare in chapter 6, but The Room 2 is an excellent continuation and I wouldn’t bother waiting for a sale to play, as it’s an excellent game.

Half-Life 2
Third in the trilogy! Also the last.

The Room Three

10/10
5.8 hours
10 of 10 achievements

After freeing yourself from being trapped in the manor, once again investigate The Null. After hitting wall after wall on finding a lead to this mysterious power, a note is slipped into your jacket; with a location circled on some far away exotic island and notes on the thing you seek. Taking a train the next morning, a puzzle box appears in front of you. It might be harder to leave than first anticipated.

6+ hours to complete with 5 chapters, The Room 3 is a continuation of 2, and this is the last in the trilogy! There are 4 endings. Puzzles are now multiple rooms that interact with each other and even if you are not good at puzzles, they have similar mechanics as 1 +2 with some new stuff. Chapters 1 and 2 are the tutorial chapters and can be breezed by in 30 minutes, after that, the real fun begins! I had an absolute blast playing and while I’m a bit saddened that the journey is over, the multiple endings ensure everyone can pick their favorite one. If you get stuck or want to change your fate, ask Maggie!

Note: There is The Room 4, but there are different characters and storyline.

Half-Life 2
New characters and storyline!

The Room 4: Old Sins

10/10
4.5 hours
9 of 9 achievements

Investigate the disappearance of a couple in London, one of whom was reportedly working with something dangerous right before both vanishing in their home. Police have searched the area and have noted nothing of importance, but you and your employers are convinced that something is there they just cannot see or understand. Explore the house, locate the missing object, find the residents, and pray you do not become one of the lost yourself.

4+ hours to complete, 9 rooms to explore, The Room 4: Old Sins is a hidden-object puzzle mystery game that can be played separately from 1-3 as it is not part of the trilogy. Unlike the other games, these puzzles expand to the entire house and is not separated by chapters, but by rooms completed. Like the previous games, the puzzles are extremely fun to play and absolutely gorgeous! Lore is heavier here and the story is very well written, the ending especially surprised me! While you can start from The Room 4, I suggest 1-3 first as it will let the story make more sense; even if you are poor at puzzle games, you will definitely find yourself enjoying everything The Room has to offer! I sincerely look forward to playing any more of this series.

Half-Life 2
An ok time waster.

100 hidden aliens

7/10
0.1 hours
100 of 100 achievements

100 Hidden Aliens is a 7-minute hand-drawn hidden object game where you look for aliens; each one looks different and many pretend to be other things, so while simple, it may be tricky enough that you would need to look twice! The music is very upbeat, and matches well with the theme.
This game also offers a nightmode by hitting the “N” key, as well as an option to reset all achievements with “Del” and “Esc.”

Half-Life 2
Cute, short, fun, not lacking in story! Worth playing.

The Last Campfire

10/10
6.1 hours
22 of 22 achievements

6+ hours to complete, The Last Campfire is an honestly cute and heartwarming adventure, exploration, and puzzle game. There are three areas, each with a cold campfire to rekindle and Forlorn to rescue before you move on to the next chapter; Forlorn are like you! Lost souls who found themselves stuck here, a place between places, but gave up, lost their ember, and turned to stone. Touch them to delve into their mindscape and find their fire that was so deeply buried; and bring them back so that they may continue their journey with you! The road is long, but don’t give up hope!

Half-Life 2
I have many regrets in my life. This is one of them.

Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch™ Remastered

2/10
102.0 hours
33 of 33 achievements

Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch is colorful, charming, and incredibly shallow. While absolutely gorgeous, it’s not very fun to play and has some rather significant flaws, most notably the pacing and combat. Random difficulty spikes, bosses thrown at you with no warning or consecutively, and a terrible party AI makes for some frustrating gameplay and frequent grinding for levels. In battle, party members collide with each other and are unable to attack, and occasionally despawn their familiars and attack monsters themselves, meaning they do 1 damage and have basically no defense to speak of; to fix this you need to take over their character and force them to summon something so they don’t die in seconds. Occasionally a monster or boss shows a warning when doing an AOE, and since your group can’t block on time, you may be tempted to use the “All Out Defense” button; but all it does is makes them stop attacking and stand there instead of defending, meaning they always take the most damage. I find it depressing and amusing that if you look at the global achievement status, 40% of players dropped out sometime between fighting the first boss and merely collecting 20 familiars; and only 12.6% have actually completed the main storyline.

Other issues are the familiars themselves; they are not created equal. Characters are more effective with specific familiars, and most are straight up not worth using while others are deliberately overpowered. In a monster catching game, all should be viable options for the end-game bosses when you care and level them, not just a handful. For quests, every single side quest is either an extermination or fetch quest; and many of the fetch quests have a unique function. “Take Heart” and “Give Heart” are special to Ni no kuni; if someone has too much confidence, boundless enthusiasm, and overflowing kindness, you can ask and take a piece of their heart to give to someone who is broken hearted and needs it; but you need to ask. You can only carry one type of heart, and you don’t know which piece they have, and if the npc has a type of heart you are already carrying? That’s right! You get scolded. For being greedy. This is completely unnecessary.

I do however, love and recommend the sequel, Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, but there are some parts of Wrath of the White Witch you really need to know before playing! I suggest you watch all the cutscenes on Youtube and then read the wiki on The Conductor before diving into Revenant Kingdom, it’s a completely different game and significantly better in every way than this one.

Half-Life 2
A cute story about two childhood friends.

The Gardens Between

8/10
3.4 hours
17 of 17 achievements

2+ hours to complete, The Gardens Between is a memorable puzzle adventure game about Arina and Frendt; two childhood friends. Explore about 20 islands created by their childhood memories together, from when they first met to some rather fantastic adventures. The goal is to carry a lantern to the end of the islands, with Arina having the ability to carry and use the lantern to dispel fog, and Frendt being able to clear the way of obstacles by moving them forwards or backwards in time.

A very charming experience and well deserving of its reviews, The Gardens Between is an easy game to love and an even easier game to recommend.

Half-Life 2
Good! If a bit overhyped.

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!

7/10
12.3 hours
19 of 19 achievements

Reluctantly joining the schools Literature club after selling your soul for a cupcake with your childhood friend Sayori; become friends and read Manga with Natsuki, intricate and sprawling fantasy books with Yuri, and write poems for Monika! Just Monika. With the upcoming festival, work hard with everyone to get your club set up making banners, baking cupcakes, and practicing poems! Everyone wants to spend more time with you, and you might want to spend more time with one person than another! It’s important to be friends with everyone equally! Or just be friends with Monika. Just Monika.
Welcome to the Literature club!

4-14 hours to complete, Doki Doki Literature Club slowly turns from a dating sim to a psychological horror; and with multiple endings, there is a lot of replayability and side stories to explore! While this is an excellent game, most of the story’s enjoyment comes from the plot points, and the less you know walking into this, the more enjoyment you receive. If you’ve been spoiled some or most aspects of the storyline… I’m not sure you will like this very much, since it’s admittingly a bit boring in the beginning and you already know what’s coming. Doki Doki is an incredible VN, a bit definitely overhyped, but still a solid read.

Cece09

So many games!!!! All the rooms

Zelrune

So many rooms. Hoping for a 5th room!

Cece09

Room 5: The second floor

mrstasilo

Too many rooms in 1 post, there’s no more room.
You seems lucky to complete DDLC in 12 hrs. Or I was unlucky. Spent ~4-5 hrs of 20 to get last picture for the gallery…

Zelrune

It took a sec for the special opening in ACT 2 but I got the corrupted poem word without even trying; I should have bought a lottery ticket.
Need more rooms. 5, 6, 7 more rooms.

Lengray

A shame about Ni no Kuni. It’s one of those games in my backlog that I’m looking forward to playing and I hope I won’t be as disappointed as you were.

Zelrune

It likely wont but if they ever drop an update to their battle system, it might be worth checking out then! Good luck being one of the few to beat the main storyline, it’s.. an experience.

EDIT: Revenant Kingdom was a genuine joy to play; if you get to the desert area in White Witch and want to stop playing, definitely do so because it just gets worse from there. I put some advice for that situation on the bottom of my White Witch review.

Aquilla

I dropped Ni No Kuni on the second big area for the same reason. Shame, game is gorgeous, but I realised, that I’m avoiding fighting and decided that it’s not worth my time.

Zelrune

I still remember how in the Glittering Grotto literally everyone (Even those on the third evolved stage) except for the familiars I got using the golden tickets were doing 1 damage. It was a good thing you stopped there because every time I moved to a new area I always felt a bit depressed.

Bangledeschler

Awesome update. A shame to hear about the lack of kids dressing up. I’ve always enjoyed the activities of Halloween much more than the actual getting candy in itself but I’m sure recent years have diverted the spooky culture a bit.

I’ve had a copy of Ni noo Kuni for PS3 on standby for a while now, so it is a bit disheartening to hear of your griefs with it. Definitely will still get around to playing it though as a backlog cannot be thrown away and the ghibli-like art style is a nice change of pace for JRPGs.

I didn’t look to closely at your Doki Doki review, but is Doki Doki Plus any different from the original game? I always thought it weird a paid version appeared from it’s free to play variant but never seen any talk about their connections.

Zelrune

I haven’t played the original because I dislike and avoid free to play games but from what I know, the side quests, art, and music was either added or expanded upon.
GL with being one of the 12% to beat the main storyline of White Witch, if they worked on the battle system a bit more it would have been much more enjoyable.

MouseWithBeer

Congrats on all the completed games!

I am happy to hear you enjoyed the room games and that they continue being good games all through the series! I kinda regret not buying 2-4 during the sale now.

Zelrune

Always next time!!! I found this super cute 3 cat game series I’m going to snag during the autumn sale to assist me in meeting my 7-8 game quota. (https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/27043/Ever_Seen_A_Cat_Bundle/) Third game is not bundled. And maybe the Hidden Paws Mystery/Summer Paws game depending on how well I do with my current game objectives.

MouseWithBeer

Ooo those are cute, thanks for making me aware of them! On my wishlist they go. Careful with Hidden Paws Mystery/Summer Paws if you are someone who can get motion sickness quickly. Summer Paws is a lot better than the other ones, but can still be an issue so just a warning. They are nice games otherwise :)

Zelrune

I will play them as a last resort then! I remember struggling to finish Hidden Paws for that exact reason…

aquatorrent

congrats for the assasinations! you gotta treat yourself after finishing that ni no kuni… that 102h is 99% hell, isn’t it?
people usually don’t celebrate halloween in my place, but i can understand your frustration. there is usually a halloween event in my office and i would be pissed off if there are no one dressing up as a ghost. can’t see it this year though since i kept on getting stringed along somewhere else by the others at work :’)

Mitsukuni

I was thinking about getting Ni no Kuni just because of the Ghibli aspect but if the gameplay is frustrating rather than fun, I might even remove it from my wishlist and spend that amount on some other game. Thanks for the review. I was kinda indecisive about it.

Zelrune

Np! I definitely recommend the second one, I never felt the need to grind, especially if you dig into the labyrinth around lvl 30. I saved it for end-game content but it has better weapons/armor than anything in the main game so it’s a huge boost up if you feel overwhelmed any any point in the story. :)

Mitsukuni

I already have the second one but I was waiting to play the first to play it. Apparently story-wise they are not connected so I don’t actually need the first one. I guess I’ll buy Spellforce 3 pack instead of the first Ni no Kuni. My 5 years ago self would probably buy it though but if I can tell I will probably abandon it why would I spend money on it, right? I was actually waiting a 85% discount just like their many other games but I guess it’s a good thing they didn’t make it like that. :)

Zelrune

I mean, story-wise, no but there are a bunch of references and the DLC is fairly tied into it. I would honestly recommend you grab a bunch of popcorn and watch at least the first 30-ish min of this youtube video “Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch ★ FULL MOVIE / ALL CUTSCENES” and then look up information on The Conductor at the very end.

Mitsukuni

So it’s like watching a Ghibli movie. Thanks, will do that. It’s definitely better than trying to play it with frustration. This also prevents a huge backlog. :)