Goals for April

Less progress than last month as expected, here are the completed/beaten games of the month;

• Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-
  

  13 hours playtime

  25 of 25 achievements

• Warstone TD
  

  49 hours playtime

  123 of 123 achievements

• MagiCat
  

  15 hours playtime

  24 of 24 achievements

• Gordian Quest
  

  54 hours playtime

  no achievements

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I’ve already shared my thoughts on Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, and how spectacular of a Metroidvania it was. Go get it if you’re a fan of the genre. Warstone TD is decent on its own and one can see that they really put some effort in it. However, the last achievement was locked behind the DLC called “Artbook & Soundtrack”. I felt ambivalent about it since it’s not a proper DLC to lock an achievement behind. I’ve already bought the DLC called “The Astral Voyage”, which has its own achievements. MagiCat will fool you by its cute and simple graphics, but it’s challenging as each stage offers a different puzzle gimmick. Gordian Quest is a great mix of RPG, Roguelike/lite and Card Battler genres. I beat the game and got 21 out of 56 achievements even though they don’t show up on here.

As I’m still working on Gordian Quest, I’m also playing Papa’s Freezeria Deluxe. I’ll be sharing my thoughts on it as soon as I complete it. I might go back to my beaten games and get some more achievements, or maybe even complete them as well.

• Papa's Freezeria Deluxe
  

  8 hours playtime

  27 of 90 achievements

Goals for March

Now that’s what I call progress! I don’t even know how it happened but I was able to make the best of February.

• Zombo Buster Rising
  

  2 hours playtime

  24 of 24 achievements

• Avernum: Escape From the Pit
  

  123 hours playtime

  35 of 35 achievements

• Regency Solitaire
  

  9 hours playtime

  17 of 17 achievements

• Eldest Souls
  

  10 hours playtime

  27 of 50 achievements

• 20XX
  

  12 hours playtime

  13 of 50 achievements

• Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-
  

  11 hours playtime

  17 of 25 achievements

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I don’t even know where to start talking about, let’s get the bad apple out of the way first. Zombo Busters Rising was a huge disappointment, felt more like a clicking simulator than a Tower Defense. I’ve known Avernum games since 2005 and Avernum - Escape from the Pit is the first one I was able to play on Steam. Good RPG all around, still able to set itself apart from other well-known competitors. Regency Solitaire is great if you’re looking for a cozy solitaire experience, probably one of the best and most original you could see on Steam. Eldest Souls, as you can tell from the title, is Dark Souls in 2D, and I loved it even though the story itself is non-existent and feels rushed. 20XX is where Mega Man meets roguelite, pretty fun with brutal achievements. Gonna be fun to get the rest of them. And last but not least, we have Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth; This is the game I’ve been looking forward to playing most, and I loved every second of it. It is a must-play if you’re also interested in elite metroidvanias.

I’ll work on my beaten games to get the rest of achievements and also try to beat/complete another Tower Defense game called Warstone TD. I think it’s pretty solid so far despite some bugs.

• Warstone TD
  

  8 hours playtime

  54 of 123 achievements

Goals for February

It has been an unprogressive month with changes to plans because I didn’t feel like playing or completing certain games on my current list.

• Monster Slayers
  

  81 hours playtime

  22 of 22 achievements

• Doodle God
  

  15 hours playtime

  22 of 22 achievements

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Monster Slayers was challenging enough and didn’t complicate things further than they are. I wanted to play a different type of puzzle game this time, so I picked Doodle God. My impressions for both games are positive.

I started playing Battle Chasers - Nightwar but realized I was not exactly in the mood to play it, so I took an indefinite hiatus. Meanwhile, started playing Avernum - Escape from the Pit which is one of my favorite franchises from my childhood. There’s also Zombo Buster Rising because I was craving for a Tower Defense type of game. If I can shrink my unfinished games further, I could pick up Pillars of Eternity for March or April!

• Battle Chasers: Nightwar
  

  4 hours playtime

  3 of 48 achievements

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• Zombo Buster Rising
  

  26 minutes playtime

  2 of 24 achievements

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• Avernum: Escape From the Pit
  

  41 hours playtime

  10 of 35 achievements

Goals for January

Another year has passed, and apparently I have completed/beaten around 40 games in this time frame. December has been a slow one as usual when it comes to progress, but for January I aim to be better.

• Dungeon Rushers
  

  30 hours playtime

  23 of 23 achievements

• Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
  

  126 hours playtime

  50 of 50 achievements

• One Finger Death Punch
  

  25 hours playtime

  108 of 152 achievements

• Monster Slayers
  

  13 hours playtime

  6 of 22 achievements

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Dungeon Rushers is an old (by today’s standards) and straightforward Turn-Based RPG, and there are surely better games of the same genre that already exist. If you don’t mind bugs that prevent you from getting some achievements (you can still get all of them legitimately), and if you’re completely out of options, you could give it a try. I cannot express my love enough for Icewind Dale with words, been playing it since 2013 before Steam, and loved every moment, alas it’s time to say goodbye… Don’t think I’ll be playing it for a very long time and will be moving on to other CRPGs like Baldurs’s Gate 1 & 2 or Pillars of Eternity instead. One Finger Death Punch will test both your patience and clicking skills, and I don’t know if I can get every achievement, at least any time soon… It’s still fun and addictive. Monster Slayers is another good addition, just when I was itching for another simple game, this time as a Card Game and Rougelike.

Besides working on Torchlight’s achievements, I really gotta complete Clannad this month, and then focus on the rest of One Finger Death Punch achievements. If things go according to the plan, I might start playing these games next!

• Battle Chasers: Nightwar
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 48 achievements

• Pillars of Eternity
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 48 achievements

Goals for December

Not much progress happened as I predicted, well, we’ll go for what we have for now. There’s still next month!

• Tales of Symphonia
  

  102 hours playtime

  19 of 39 achievements

• The Mummy Demastered
  

  10 hours playtime

  37 of 37 achievements

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I already thoroughly enjoyed Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Zestiria in the past, so Tales of Symphonia was no exception. Very fun, very detailed and nostalgic even though I didn’t grow up with Gamecube at all. They did a good job with cinematics and in-game camera angles. The Mummy Demastared was disappointing, probably one of the least exciting Metroidvanias I’ve ever played. It had many problems when it came to presentation and some minor yet very important details, so I couldn’t give it a pass.

I’m sure that I’ll be done with CLANNAD this month, and go back to some other games I intend to complete. Learn Japanese to Survive! Kanji Battle is on hiatus until I get to where I want to be in my Japanese studies. Finally, I wanted to play more of my won games, so I’ve recently added Dungeon Rushers to the list.

• CLANNAD
  

  76 hours playtime

  10 of 22 achievements

• Learn Japanese To Survive! Kanji Combat
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Dungeon Rushers
  

  3 hours playtime

  6 of 23 achievements

Goals for November

November marks my one-year anniversary on BLAEO! Since I started my assassination journey, I’ve managed to complete over 40 games, and have beaten over 10. Let’s hope I can reach 100 completed games before next November or so, one can always wish…

• Cook, Serve, Delicious!
  

  30 hours playtime

  52 of 52 achievements

• Thief Gold
  

  55 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Steredenn
  

  16 hours playtime

  37 of 37 achievements

• Langrisser I & II
  

  88 hours playtime

  42 of 42 achievements

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Cook, Serve, Delicious is a must-play if you like cooking games. Thief still feels so fresh even after 25 years, I really enjoyed it. Steredenn is a fun shoot-em-up with randomized stages, weapons, and eye-candy pixel art. Langrisser I & II was the least enjoyable apple of this bunch, I have mixed feelings about it. Definitely go for any other turn-based strategy RPG game if you can, it has way too many routes and in the end most of them turn out to be irrelevant and time-wasting, just look at my playtime…

This month might be the least productive one of the year, given that the current games on the list are not quick to finish at all. I’ll try my best anyway!

• CLANNAD
  

  40 hours playtime

  5 of 22 achievements

• Tales of Symphonia
  

  36 hours playtime

  7 of 39 achievements

• Learn Japanese To Survive! Kanji Combat
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

Goals for October

Decent amount of progress with some good games and some bad games.

• Vampire Survivors
  

  43 hours playtime

  190 of 190 achievements

• Hero of the Kingdom
  

  4 hours playtime

  38 of 38 achievements

• Astronarch
  

  35 hours playtime

  47 of 47 achievements

• Wasteland Remastered
  

  32 hours playtime

  35 of 35 achievements

• Cook, Serve, Delicious!
  

  24 hours playtime

  46 of 52 achievements

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What can I say about Vampire Survivors? We all love that game indeed. Hero of the Kingdom was a complete letdown and I didn’t enjoy its simplicity at all. Astronarch is a unique roguelike with auto-battles and I’d love to see a sequel happening. Wasteland Remastered is another letdown, it’s completely different from 2 and 3 and gameplay is pretty archaic with grindly achievements. Cook, Serve, Delicious! is probably the best cooking game I’ve ever played since childhood. Very fun game, though it has some unfair achievements as well and I’ll be surely getting them one by one.

These are the games I’m currently playing. I’m so close to finishing Thief and need to get better at Steredenn, it’s a nice shmup game so far. I’ll also be playing Langrisser II, which is another half of the game for the rest of the achievements.

• Thief Gold
  

  50 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Steredenn
  

  7 hours playtime

  21 of 37 achievements

• Langrisser I & II
  

  38 hours playtime

  17 of 42 achievements

Goals for September

Oh lord, lots of progress happened and I don’t know when or how! But these are the games I beat/completed in August:

• Umineko When They Cry - Answer Arcs
  

  109 hours playtime

  23 of 23 achievements

• planetarian HD
  

  6 hours playtime

  21 of 21 achievements

• Blazing Chrome
  

  13 hours playtime

  39 of 39 achievements

• Hue
  

  7 hours playtime

  13 of 13 achievements

• There Is No Light
  

  35 hours playtime

  39 of 39 achievements

• Langrisser I & II
  

  38 hours playtime

  17 of 42 achievements

• Torchlight
  

  22 hours playtime

  23 of 66 achievements

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I’ve talked enough about Umineko and how spectacular it was. Planetarian is another short but great novel with a captivating story. Blazing Chrome is a well-written love letter to good old retro shooters such as Contra and Metal Slug. Hue has a very interesting game mechanic involving the manipulation of colors, recommended for cozy gamers of all ages. There Is No Light was a bumpy start but with a great finish, The pixel art is breathtaking and the gameplay is challenging in a good way with 2D souls-like style.

Both Langrisser and Torchlight are going well so far, I found the latter more interesting and entertaining than the former though. It’s also the fact that Langrisser is a remaster of an old strategy game from 90s or so, still a good game.

So far, September’s goals only consist of completing Thief Gold and Vampire Survivors, but of course there’s always the chance of me playing other unexpected games if I end up finishing them way earlier than expected.

• Thief Gold
  

  20 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Vampire Survivors
  

  12 hours playtime

  90 of 190 achievements

Goals for August

Totally went out of plan with some beaten and some completed games. Without further ado…

• Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War
  

  10 hours playtime

  24 of 24 achievements

• There Is No Light
  

  26 hours playtime

  37 of 39 achievements

• Blazing Chrome
  

  3 hours playtime

  20 of 39 achievements

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Currently I’m studying Japanese and I played Learn Japanese to Survive! - Katakana War as a practicing source. There Is No Light first felt so off and uninteresting but it got much better as I found myself being immersed in it. I need another playthrough to get the two remaining achievements. Blazing Chrome is a pretty good arcade shooter, inevitably reminiscent of the Contra series. I’ll be getting the rest of the achievements later as usual.

This month I’m definitely finishing Umineko When They Cry - Answer Arcs. On the other hand Langrisser I & II is a pretty long Tactical RPG, and I’m going slow but steady. Other than that I’ve also managed to do another playthrough of La-Mulana and got some of the remaining achievements as well!

• La-Mulana
  

  98 hours playtime

  57 of 64 achievements

• Umineko When They Cry - Answer Arcs
  

  101 hours playtime

  17 of 23 achievements

• Langrisser I & II
  

  11 hours playtime

  3 of 42 achievements

Goals for July

June started pretty slow, except for the last 10 days or so lol. I almost forgot how many games I was able to beat/complete in that short amount of time;

• Infinite Adventures
  

  65 hours playtime

  74 of 74 achievements

• Chasm
  

  30 hours playtime

  20 of 20 achievements

• PictoQuest
  

  15 hours playtime

  26 of 26 achievements

• Alien Shooter
  

  9 hours playtime

  17 of 17 achievements

• Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
  

  13 hours playtime

  15 of 15 achievements

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In the end, Infinite Adventures did not disappoint me at all, and Dungeon Crawler fans should definitely give it a chance. Chasm is a short but good Metroidvania. PictoQuest is just okay, decent Nonogram game. Bloodstained - Curse of the Moon is a wonderful ode to good old Castlevania games, probably the one I liked the most from june’s games. Alien Shooter, on the other hand, I did not like it. Personally I found it boring, unfair and very weak but I still respect the nostalgic sentiments other players hold for this game.

Aside from Umineko which I’m already reading, july’s new games (for now) consists of Langrisser I & II, and ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery). I might go back to La-Mulana for another playthrough so I can get some more achievements. I also dropped and removed Onmyoji from my library, because I realized that I shouldn’t waste my time with free-to-play gacha games, when I already have a library of wonderful paid and won games.

• Umineko When They Cry - Answer Arcs
  

  64 hours playtime

  12 of 23 achievements

• Langrisser I & II
  

  69 minutes playtime

  1 of 42 achievements

• ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
  

  72 minutes playtime

  0 of 83 achievements