Zelrune

November 2020 report!

Y’all this month kinda sucked for me, I got a bad streak, but at least I finished Hyperdimension Neptunia 1.

55.4 hours
I understand the Hype now.
Played on Steam

In Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 you play as Neptune, an amnesiac protagonist with a penchant for pudding! Follow Nep as she makes new friends and saves Gamindustri from destruction!

I definitely enjoyed Hyperdimension Neptunia and I look forward to playing the second one. While the grind in the game was a bit rough in the beginning, there are a lot of guides and tips you can utilize to speed things up a bit. (Example: if you kill this guy, in this area, he gives you 100k exp compared to the 2k mob exp.)
The story line was pretty appealing and the characters were unique and felt like actual people rather than just a game sprite on a screen. I particularly enjoyed all the 4th wall breaks, references to other games, and jokes. Also noteworthy, the sheer amount of stuff to do, enemies, dungeons, and music tracks.

I haven’t played a Hyperdimension game before, this was my first, but I think I can really get into this game series, and I recommend it for anyone that wants to give it a go.


Half-Life 2
I enjoyed it but I can't recommend it.

Titan Souls

6/10
24.3 hours
27 of 27 achievements

Titan Souls is an incredibly difficult game with a very steep learning curve. There is no tutorial, the only way you learn the mechanics is to get killed over and over and over again until you finally get it.

While I understand and enjoyed finishing the game, I can’t recommend it due to the fact it deliberately turns players away. The first boss, the slime, is one of the most difficult bosses that you must defeat and that’s the boss most people interact with first. A game is meant to be enjoyed, one way or another, but making the first boss so frustrating to kill is incredibly harsh considering the rest of the bosses are simpler in comparison.
If you are looking for a harder game though, Titan Souls is pretty good - the story is basically non-existent however. If you are only looking for a tough challenge, this is the right game for you.

Half-Life 2
All the beauty in this game cannot stop my *seething* hatred of it.

The Witness

0/10
20.5 hours
2 of 2 achievements

The Witness a game where you must uncover puzzles, use the environment for hints, and solve them. The more puzzles you solve, the closer you get to the endings, and there are two. You can do one ending by doing half the puzzles, and the other by either sheer luck in the beginning or by completing all the puzzles excluding obelisk and environmental.

I absolutely cannot recommend anyone to play this. The only type of person who can enjoy The Witness is someone who loves puzzles enough to do them in their spare time. It’s fun for the first couple hours but as you get further and further along, the puzzles build up on each other to the point where looking at a guide become necessary. And while there was a joy at discovering secrets and unlocking doors, as someone who has 100%, experienced all puzzles and endings, I was shocked at how every single finale fell flat.

There are no books to read, no narrators, nothing to piece together any part of whatever story is going on. The only voices are audio logs you can occasionally find that are purely philosophical babbling. On average, this game has a playtime of 30 hours. Only 18% of anyone who has started the game has completed half of the puzzles to see the first ending, and only 4% of that have actually beaten the challenge room.
If you enjoy a small puzzle occasionally in the real world and decide to go for 100%, you will absolutely hate every single one by the time you are finished with this game.

Half-Life 2
Enjoyable, but the ending is literal trash and ruined the whole story.

Weeping Willow

2/10
0.9 hours
no achievements

Weeping Willow is a kinetic novel where Sophie needs to find her husband, who left the house after an argument during quarantine. The investigator has shown up, a guard, a nun… and her husband?!?!?

While I did enjoy Weeping Willow - the plot and story was unique and interesting - I can’t recommend it because the terrible ending ruined the whole novel for me. If that something you are willing to look past though, you can get a good solid 50 minutes of entertainment.

Half-Life 2
I hated this game more than The Witness and I would rather shoot myself in the foot then play another game by Cherrymochi.

Tokyo Dark

-10/10
15.3 hours
44 of 44 achievements

Warning: Photosensitivity and Seizure warning. Jump scares, blood and gore, violence, liquor.
I recommend going through the bug report forum before buying or even playing the game, and then note that despite the numerous bugs there has been no updates or technical support for any issues since it came out in September 2017.
I had an easier time with bugs playing Fallout 4 than Tokyo Dark. Game not loading, character not moving, getting stuck in areas, unable to interact with objects, getting the wrong ending on your playthrough, achievements not popping up correctly, and serious flickering that has given me multiple migraines.
“But Zelrune, you must have enjoyed the story at least! You did get all the achievements!” No. No I absolutely did not. I do not know why this game has so many positive reviews, but unfortunately it was too late to refund the game for me because I set it aside for too long and as an achievement hunter, I’m not letting this leave a blemish on my record.

Actual gameplay:
https://i.imgur.com/N30R2Nj.mp4

I can run AC Odyssey on max graphics with no lag, I have played this in compatibility mode, windowed and full screen, and messed with the settings. I have also sent two emails, a FB message, posted in Tech support and general discussions and have been ignored since Nov 2. If you have any issues playing this game, You. Will. Not. Get. Any. Help.

Half-Life 2
Short and fun. Good if you need a 10 min stress break.

Feesh

8/10
3.3 hours
13 of 13 achievements

Feesh is an enjoyable offline multiplayer game that’s very minimalistic and yet colorful in its design. Each “evolution” lasts about 3 min and you keep evolving your creature until you run out of lives and the game ends.

For only $0.99, it’s a pretty good game you can play with other household members, or just play a short game or two by yourself.

petpasta

Oof, you really turned me off with Tokyo Dark review, I was actually planning on trying it. That sounds (and looks, thanks to the video) really awful.

Zelrune

I’ve never had such a difficult time playing a game before. I have an easier time with Bethesda games and their bugs.

RikkiUW

Ouch. I picked up The Witness in a bundle and was looking forward to playing it, but it sounds too frustrating for me. Have you played The Talos Principal? Is it comparable to that? There were some overly difficult puzzles in that game but I still enjoyed it overall.

Zelrune

I have not. It seems to have better reviews than The Witness, but i’m not keen on doing another puzzle game after that hell. If for whatever reason it falls into my lap, or shows up in a $1 bundle, I may give it a shot though.
The Witness was easy at first but some of the puzzles were not as intuitive as I wished they were. That, and there is nothing to interact with, so after a while your head may start spinning. I think at the 11 hour mark I started getting frustrated and looked at a guide.
(even looking at a guide, the answer key, I couldn’t figure out why the answer was what it was.)

EDIT: I would look at some gameplay videos. The game intentionally slows itself down via walking speed + backtracking + slow mechanics, like a moving board under your feet to go to another area will take 20 seconds to go 5 ft. There are 18 areas, and personally, the endings were unrewarding and confusing.

RikkiUW

That sounds infuriating. I’d heard the 2 games were similar but it sounds like The Talos Principle is definitely better, at least in having fewer frustrating mechanics. Thanks for the info. I’ll play The Witness eventually though.

Mskotor

I really enjoyed The Talos Principle, but could not end The Witness. I also found puzzles to be uninteresting, just like Zelrune.

Some people really enjoy this game, but there is small portion that - even when they do like puzzle games - can’t force themselves to play The Witness.

RikkiUW

That’s discouraging. Thanks for the info though.

Mskotor

Sadly doesn’t look like there is The Witness demo available… So it’s not possible to try game officially, unless you buy it on Steam just to refund before 2h mark.

RikkiUW

I have it already actually, got it in a bundle and was really looking forward to it, doesn’t sound like it’ll be as good as I’d hoped though.

Cece09

To bad you suffered so many problems with tokyo dark. I didn’t find any with mine but I did also ruin the gameplay by finishing my 1st route so early. I wanted checkpoints but by doing so I ended up messing things around, but hey it saved me a repeating the whole game again to go on the same path way

Zelrune

I was following a guide to get achievements but I didn’t get the “sober” achievement until my 3rd or 4th try. I struggled.

JaffaCaffa

The long distances between bosses was definitely the main enjoyment killer for me with Titan Souls. A massive kudos on 100%ing the game, definitely wouldn’t have had the patience myself..was relieved when I just beat it. :D The frustrations/not wanting to fail definitely outweighed the fun aspect which is a shame, since there was some interesting design.

I’ve been scared off by The Witness because of what people have said about the difficulty, seems super intimidating. But with it being on Epic for free don’t have much to lose if it gets to be too much.

And what the heck…that’s awful re: the strobe lights of Tokyo Dark. I’ve been trying to win it on SG for a while but happy I didn’t now, seriously thank you for the heads up. Hope you have better luck next month with games, yeesh.

Zelrune

Not gonna lie, the worst foe for me was Sludge Heart. While Gol-Set ruined a bunch of titan runs, I found out you can actually skip and clip behind him. =w=”
It was somewhat enjoyable game that i’m never, ever, playing again. <3
Also I absolutely do not recommend playing The Witness unless you just L O V E puzzles.

I hope I have better luck too, this month sucked. ;A;

JaffaCaffa

Hey on the bright side it was the first boss so if you could restart right away if it went poorly! Knight Elhanan was the one I struggled with the most even though I understood what I had to do, kept just barely missing. :( Apparently my depth perception was very off with that room haha. That and The Soul before I learned the trick.

I do love puzzles as a whole, but my ceiling cap for certain types of puzzles I have no patience for/need to be in the mood. So we’ll see! Am hoping I enjoy it more than others, but it seems to be a strong love/hate game from all the reviews I’ve read over the years. So I should know pretty quickly if it’s for me or not and won’t endure 20 hours. :P

Mskotor

I really like puzzle games. I love The Talos Principle. And I could not stand The Witness. I tied to beat it few times, but I had to give up each time. Don’t know really why. Puzzles did not look interesting enough? They were designed in weird way? No idea.