Progress report: Third week of June ‘21 (a.k.a. It Was My Birthday!)
As mentioned in the title - birthday, yay! I got a big gift this time around - a brand new, turquoise Nintendo Switch Lite, exactly the one I wanted!
…and then I looked through Nintendo’s digital storefront and remembered how expensive everything I want is. Welp, looks like it’s gonna be sitting on the shelf just like the 3DS is! ^^;;
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6 PEOPLE
0.2 hours playtime
no achievements
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A Lazy Magic Teacher
0.5 hours playtime
no achievements
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Clover Tale
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Cooking Companions: Appetizer Edition
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Hentai Honeys Jigsaw
0.0 hours playtime
no achievements
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Hentai Honeys Slider
0.4 hours playtime
no achievements
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how do you Do It?
0.0 hours playtime
no achievements
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Kidnapped Girl
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Maui
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Space Between Worlds
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Teenage Blob: Paperperson - The First Single
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the static speaks my name
0.2 hours playtime
no achievements
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The Supper
0.3 hours playtime
no achievements
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Toy Tinker Simulator: BETA
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Tree Trunk Brook
6 PEOPLE - An intriguing set-up for what could potentially be a good horror story. I say “set-up”, because this VN is 10-15 minutes worth of playtime, a third of which may or may not involve idling to experience riding the subway the story is set in (I’m still not sure if me clicking around did anything to advance it or not). The character art is so good it stands out, too.
A Lazy Magic Teacher - “In this visual novel you play as Mike, a fat and failing wizard, in his quest to uncensor a photo of a naked woman.” Conclusion: it was just as bad as it sounded. The art style is incredibly basic, the BGM doesn’t lend itself to reading and the VN is made in TyranoScript, which is easily my most disliked free VN making software. There also seems to be no good end (although I’m not sure I would even be satisfied with one due to how unflattering the art style is).
Clover Tale - Wow, wow, WOW! I actually managed to finish one of the endless games this month! Clover Tale is one of the many free-to-play casual games that utilizes an energy system (and can therefore include in-game purchases). I have not spent a single dime on the game and got through it just fine, if not frustratingly slow at times. This might just be one of the most, if not the most varied match-3 game I have ever played, with each in-game location setting a different completion goal. There are also a bunch of creatures that appear as you progress through the quest line - you can feed/scare them with the related items to get additional money, experience and some other items. Some locations were a breeze and had straightforward goals, the ones unlocked later had mostly unplayable levels (assuming you don’t want to keep being stuck and spending in-game money on access items), so I stuck to playing the first levels of those. I did my best to get better scores where possible, but it rarely ever happened. There clearly still are some things to be done in the game, but will I be going back? Nah, I’d have to have absolutely nothing else to do to consider picking this up again. But as far as the endless game bunch I’m pushing through right now, this is one of the better titles.
Cooking Companions: Appetizer Edition - An odd VN, that one. On one hand, you’re cooking and eating with the four people who live at the cabin. On the other hand, you’re playing hide-and-seek with Chompettes, the five living pieces of food. …all of that and you don’t even know who you are. Complete with a warning not unlike DDLC’s. However, the main game has an estimated release date already, so I will be watching that closer from now on.
Hentai Honeys Jigsaw - Exactly What It Says On The Tin™. The only difference between this game and the mahjong games is that, since it’s from a completely different company, I don’t yet know what games the ladies are from. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) I believe one of them might be on Steam. There are also DLCs for the more thirsty ones out there; I don’t see the point in buying them.
Hentai Honeys Slider - See Hentai Honeys Jigsaw.
how do you Do It? - Similarly to You Must be 18 or Older to Enter, how do you Do It? intends to bring back the memories of exploring sexuality as a child. This game, however, is much more colorful. Uhh… not much more to say about it, really.
Kidnapped Girl - A story about a kidnapping gone wrong. I have to say, I really like Alice’s design and voice (although there was background noise to her lines at times), but other than that… eeh. The plot is very thin and unrealistic. Still, not the worst VN to play on Steam, especially from Russian developers.
Maui - A short game based on/inspired by Hawaiian culture. You’re Maui, the brother of a princess who fell in love and changed into half a flower, to complete her lover’s other half. Your task is to call upon the powers of the gods and fulfill their trials so that they will bring your sister back. The game is pretty bland, with imprecise controls, occasional clipping into walls (although not game-breaking, at least from my experience) and one piece of BGM playing over and over. If you’re interested in Hawaiian legends, there is a section where you can read up on some of them, so perhaps that’s a reason to play it. Otherwise - avoid?
Space Between Worlds - This little experience focuses on the concept of proximity. It reminds me of Pretentious Game, in a way. (It’s probably just that it’s all about squares.) The whole thing is only ~5 minutes long, play it if you’d like to see a small hidden indie project.
Teenage Blob: Paperperson - The First Single - This seems to be a demo to the already existing Teenage Blob, a game based on an EP from Team Lazerbeam and The Superweaks. The title is sort of a lie, because inside you learn Paperperson is actually the second single. Still, it’s a cool song and you get to destroy the neighborhood with sandwiches, if you so please. I think I’m liking this new trend of promoting music through games.
the static speaks my name - This one is kind of legendary by now. I have seen it played on YouTube a few times before, but I still wanted to have it played on my own account. It’s so short there’s really nothing to say about it that wouldn’t spoil it, so I strongly encourage everyone to play through it themselves.
The Supper - A pixelated point-and-click about Ms. Appleton, the cook behind the titular supper. In just 20 minutes, you’ll get to help her prepare the supper, as well as learn more about The Voice, so briefly mentioned in the game’s description. The game’s atmosphere is great, even if this kind of playtime can’t really get you invested. This is one of those games that should cost at least a quarter.
Toy Tinker Simulator: BETA - I don’t really get the idea behind making another demo to the game, but there are seven more toys to fix up here… and I don’t believe anything except that changed. The UI still looks the same and the music is still very royalty free and very random. There could at least be the option to choose what color you’d like to paint the toy or what kind of stickers you want to stick on it (or if you want stickers at all). The game isn’t good, but it’s not bad either. I might wishlist it just for the sake of it.
Tree Trunk Brook - A relaxing game about hiking in the forest during the pandemic. There’s a nice blend of the clean, cartoon characters and photograph-sourced environments. While hiking, you can take photos, make friends with other hikers and pick up litter. It’s a cute experience, but I feel like the achievements for picking up litter should have been capped at 30 pieces, since that gets a little repetitive.
See you next week! :)
Oh thats a nice gift, i’d love to get a switch but then you’re look at 300 for that then a couple more hundred for the games
Thats alot of games done, free games are like that. I thought the same with 6 people that it could be a good story but it needs to be finished, as a standalone its just kinda lacking. Plus the fact you probably spend most of your time wondering how to progress only to realise fullscreen cuts of the writing
I know, right?! I was kind of in on the fact that titles starring Nintendo’s own characters are priced at the full $60… but then I checked again and I saw them pricing some games at $80?! Damn, Nintendo, how about you cut the size of your Switch game boxes down and save on that? Holy hell.
Yeah, it starts out like a classic, good Japanese-style horror only to cut out after 15 minutes because ??? And then the author claims that’s part one of three, so 1) the other two parts have not come out yet but 2) if they’re going to be as short and blue-balling as that, they might as well just not put them out at all; it’s just a letdown for everyone interested.
This week is finals, at last, but I’m still aiming for another 15 completions, since most free titles are still no longer than an hour, maybe two. A full 60 would be nice to see. See what I did there? Full sixty. Full circle.
I would love to give mario games a go, they are ones I’ve been interested in but never had the chance to play but I dont have 60 bucks to buy a game that will last me like 10 hours
Well good luck with finals, I’ve found a few free games that are longer but not many
Oh my I went to check on if we had any free games similar and we have so much in common. Kinda wished it would give a number on top but we got a like a hundred games combined
Oh, I don’t think they’d last only 10 hours. (which would make them reasonably priced) Games like Super Mario Maker or Animal Crossing are technically endless as long as you’ve got the creativity and will to play more; I heard there’s a lot of content in Super Mario Odyssey even after beating it, too.
Yeah, there’s a crazy amount of free games catering to my tastes alone! Even if some of them only last 5 minutes lol
Yeah I’m saying 10 hours for the ones I want. I would want the story mario not the endless version, games like odyssey you mentioned, galaxy those types. I know people love animal crossing but that’s not my sort of thing, neither is 2d mario. I could play it but only if given a copy
Animal Crossing is something I kinda thought I’d want to get into, but then I saw a solid video essay on why it’s extremely slow-paced and ends up more like a chore if you realize you only really like one aspect of it… so yeah, I’d probably pass on it too.
yeah its a game that plays in real time, I don’t think I could handle doing everything so slowly. Being on at the right times and all that. I can barely handle doing a couple of games for overwatch to collect their event stuff, how could I deal with a game that apparently knows you haven’t touched it for a while
Real-time games are a special brand of torture, I swear. Unfortunately, there’s this thing called real life and it’s annoying that said games don’t feel like adapting :/ Plus, a game talking my head off for not playing it seems even more creepy.
If you don’t mind going physical, I highly suggest skipping the eShop entirely and getting games second-hand. You have to be very cautious not to be ripped off but I managed to pick most of my games (Paper Mario, Breath of the Wild, Fire Emblem, Astral Chain, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, … ) for under 30 euros each (about $35) complete in box. Besides, unless you decide the collect them, you’ll be able to resell them for pretty much what you paid.
I’ll gladly go physical! I’ve already narrowed my wants down to games I can’t get for any other platform, but either I don’t have good intel on where to get cheap used games, or they’re still just way too expensive (assuming a game was priced at $60, I think the cheapest I’ve seen it go around used would be about $45). Really don’t get how or why the multiplatform games are the ones ending up the cheapest second-hand…
Probably because Steam, PS4 and Xbox games get heavily discounted after a while. Exclusive Nintendo ones, never. So if someone wants to sell their multiplatform game, they have to take into account the actual price of that game on other platforms, which (generally) drives second-hand prices down.
As to where to get them, I would suggest pawn shops, eBay, Facebook Marketplace or any trusted classifieds website, preferably with a reputation feature.
No wonder people say they’re always looking to rip customers off of their money… sigh I’ll be on the lookout for good offers, but I’m still more interested in getting games for the Vita (since, y’know, the Vita is still dying while Switch is thriving).