Hades (the game), an update

I recently went on a trip for a week, and before my flight, I was determined to beat the final boss in Hades. I succeeded, at which time I discovered what people meant when they said that the game really begins after that point. More story, more gameplay options, etc.

I really am terrible at this game, but not quite 100% terrible. God Mode is still on, but it only (lol, only) took until about 72% invulnerability for me to beat all the bosses. The lasers were my biggest hurdle, and now that I know their secret, that part of the final battle is practically restful.

I've made it through maybe four times now, and due to the way info is doled out, I suspect it'll take at least another six times to finish the main story and who knows how many additional times to fill up my relationship meters with everybody. I'm looking forward to it, even if the game is hard on my hands (compression gloves are my savior).

Hades (the game), revisted

I've been playing Hades a lot this past week, but on my Switch rather than on my computer. I can't decide which option is better or worse for my hands, but I've learned to put on compression gloves before even starting to play on the Switch. I seem to tense up more the deeper into the game I get.

On my PC, I was determined to avoid turning on God Mode until I'd at least managed to beat Meg. On my Switch, I turned on God Mode early, and I can't say I regret that decision. God Mode starts you off at 20% invulnerability to damage and adds 2% each time you die. From what I've read, it's capped at 80%. I am now at...70%. If I remember right, it took about 34% to beat Meg, 40% to get out of Asphodel, and at least 60% to make it out of Elysium. I have not yet beat the final boss, although I've come painfully close.

The things I'm enjoying the most: The characters and voice acting. Finding out a little more about everyone (whether you know Greek mythology or don't, there are some fun moments). Unlocking new stuff. Petting the big dog (I pet Cerberus every time the game gives me the opportunity, even though the Switch version doesn't have an achievement for that). Discovering Boons I really like.

If I could skip one realm in each run-through, it would probably be Asphodel. Although I generally prefer the enemies there to the ones in Elysium , I'm not fond of the whole "lava can hurt you" aspect.

Crossing my fingers that I'm at least decent enough to beat the final boss before I hit the God Mode cap. My goal is to make it out of the underworld sometime in the next week.

Currently playing: Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition

I've had Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition on my wishlist for ages, but I always passed it by because it looked way too complicated. However, I noticed it was on sale for the Switch the Nintendo Game Store and finally caved. Hours of gameplay later (I'm in Chapter 4 of Cyber Sleuth right now), and I can confidently say it's very much my kind of thing. 

The difficulty level has issues - I'm playing on Normal, and the vast majority of the enemy Digimon are incredibly easy to beat, but there are a few stronger (boss?) Digimon that have left me scrambling to survive. In one fight, Devimon instantly destroyed my Black Gatomon (which I had around for element balance and because I thought it looked adorable). I only survived that battle because I had one backup Digimon and a large collection of HP items. I imagine that if I upped the game's difficulty level, most fights would be a little more stimulating, but the boss battles would be just about impossible for me.

Which isn't entirely a complaint, because the primary reason I'm playing is to find and Digivolve as many Digimon as I possibly can. The overall weakness of the enemies allows me to do that without much stress. I just wish "I think that Digimon looks cool/cute" correlated more with "that Digimon is strong, fits my overall party balance, and will help me survive." Poor Black Gatomon.

Yes, there are hundreds of Digimon, each with different strengths, abilities, and attributes that need to be kept in mind depending on what part of the game you're in and the difficulty setting you've chosen. That could get pretty complicated...if you decide to set the game to Hard rather than Normal. I like the more casual feel of the Normal difficulty setting.

My feelings might change in the later chapters, but for now I like it. It's relatively forgiving of the fact that I have very little idea what I'm doing (I had to write myself notes about which elements and attributes are strong or weak against each other, the sum total of my Digimon battle strategy knowledge), the story isn't great but is at least mildly interesting, the character designs are nice, and I'm having a lot of fun randomly Digivolving stuff. At some point, when I've filled out my Digimon Field Guide more, I might consult a wiki and attempt to deliberately aim for particular Digimon, but for now it's fun not knowing what I'll be getting. Although I admit that some of the Digimon designs are absolutely horrifying. Most disappointing so far: Nanimon and Gold Numemon. I will never take either of those two into battle because I don't want to see them running behind my game character.

I haven't played any of the Pokemon or Persona games, the other franchises I've seen this compared to, but the comparisons make me think that I should probably try those at some point as well.

REVIEW: Aviary Attorney (game)

Aviary Attorney is a visual novel with adventure game elements.

Review:

This game is divided into four Acts. Your choices in Act 3 determine which of the three different Act 4 variations you play.

The setting is 1840s France, with animal people. In Act 1, defense attorney Jayjay Falcon and his sidekick, Sparrowson, are asked to defend a wealthy young cat who has been accused of killing one of her guests, a frog. She was found standing over the body, her paws red with blood. In later acts, Falcon finds himself dealing with tricky villains and dangerous French politics.

REVIEW: Paradise Killer (game)

Paradise Killer is an open world sci-fi murder mystery game with slight visual novel elements.

Review:

You play as Lady Love Dies (LLD), an immortal investigator who was exiled a million days ago due to an incident involving a god. LLD is brought out of exile in order to investigate a heinous crime, the brutal murder of the entire Council just prior to the destruction of corrupt island 24 and the move to "Perfect 25." There is one obvious suspect, a Civilian named Henry Division who is known to be possessed by a demon and who was found at the crime scene with a belly full of the Council's blood. Was he the killer or was he framed for a crime he didn't commit? You decide, as you explore island 24, looking for clues and talking to the Syndicate members who have been forced to stay there until a trial has been conducted and the investigation has been declared complete.

You are aided in your investigation by your trusty Starlight computer, which sorts any evidence you find according to whichever suspect and crime it applies, and which can also (after some upgrades) crack other computers on the island.

REVIEW: Hypnospace Outlaw (game)

Hypnospace Outlaw is a combination OS simulator and point-and-click mystery game.

Review:

In an alternate universe where Microsoft and Apple don't exist (I think), a guy named Dylan creates HypnOS, an operating system that allows you to access Hypnospace, a sort of Internet you use while you sleep. It's 1999, and you're working as one of Hypnospace's "Enforcers," people who scour Hypnospace and report various violations (copyright infringement, harassment, malicious software, etc.). As you work, you learn more about the various Hypnospace users and eventually gain the ability to dig deeper and find hidden pages. It isn't all just violation reporting, though - there's something bigger and nastier plaguing Hypnospace, and it's up to you to figure out what's going on and collect evidence.

Hades game, 8 hours in

I am indeed terrible at this game. I managed to encounter Megaera for the first time about 3 or 4 hours in and have seen her several times since then, but still haven't beaten her, although I survive a little longer each time. I'm just not agile enough with keyboard and mouse (in my defense, I've learned that I have to wear braces on both hands rather than just my mouse hand in order to avoid being in pain after playing this game, and the braces do inhibit movement some). I'm thinking of a giving a controller a shot, and if that doesn't result in any noticeable improvements I may just have to accept that it's time to turn on God Mode, because the NPCs have started repeating themselves and I'd like the game to start giving me more story soon.

On the plus side, I'm still enjoying myself, even with all the dying. I suppose I could just keep going and see if collecting more Mirror upgrades helps. I just unlocked a new weapon - "Twin Fists of Malphon," which looks terrible for me since it doesn't appear to have any long-range capabilities, but I may try it anyway and just accept my certain death. So it's not like I've run out of new things to explore yet.

Hades game comments, a little further in

Yeah, I'm still nowhere near escaping - in fact, I haven't even encountered the first boss yet, and am still just basking in the glow of finally having figured out how to more effectively use one weapon (the shield) and not get killed by the Inferno-Bombers. Let's see if I can do it a second time. At the moment, I'm reserving God Mode for whenever the fighting starts to feel more frustrating, or if I run up against a noticeable wall when it comes to getting to know the NPCs in between runs.

I'm still loving the dialogue and characters, as well as collecting new items and boons and the thrill of figuring out how to do something just a little better. The developer has made the game welcoming for multiple types of gamers - God Mode is described in a way that recognizes there are lots of reasons someone might want to use it, and one of the NPCs even brings it up in a guilt-free way (this may be dialogue that only comes up if you've died a certain number of times early on in the game - what can I say, I'm terrible at this). 

I will say this, though: the Steam Discussions area can be disheartening. The game is as judgement-free as possible, so various commenters do their best to take up the slack and look down their noses at people whose runs take longer than X number of minutes, have died more than X number of times, or who can't beat whichever boss after however many tries. And of course they treat using God Mode like a mark of shame. ::sigh::

A look back at 2020

I used to do more thorough "end of the year" posts, with "best" and "worst" lists, stats, etc. The last time I did anything like that was at the end of 2016/beginning of 2017. I figured I'd try to get back to something like that at the end of this year, but less methodical.

So, here goes. As with just about everybody, the pandemic was an issue for me this year, although thankfully it hasn't directly affected me or any of my family members. Neither I nor they have gotten sick or lost jobs so far (although I did have a couple ER visits that were made scarier by the knowledge that, if things got worse, there might not be anyplace else to send me). I worked from home part-time, which was nice in some ways and sucked in others, and I've been back to my physical workplace for some time now, although meetings are thankfully almost all still virtual. I didn't go visit my parents in October/November the way I usually do, so I didn't have my usual vacation manga binge, but I still got quite a bit read during the year.

I got into needle felting at the end of the year, although sometimes I think I like the supplies and the books more than actually doing the felting. We'll see if I'm still doing this craft by the end of 2021, or if I have just have a bunch of rusty needles and a tub of unused wool and doll eyes.

REVIEW: Plant Daddy (game)

Plant Daddy is a browser game about growing plants in your sunny little apartment. If you just want something low-stress and soothing, this may be the game for you.

You start off with a little windowsill space and enough in-game currency (leaves or flowers) to buy one basic plant. As it grows, you earn more in-game currency and can buy more plants, more furniture to set plants on, decorations, and plant nurseries that allow you to analyze plants and grow specific plants you or others have discovered. You also eventually unlock the bathroom, which will give you more plant-growing space and additional options.

At a certain point in the game, you unlock a To Do list. Completing items on the list gives you more in-game currency and adds a tiny bit of direction to the game, but you don't have to do the stuff on the list if you don't want to.

I'm surprised at how much I've enjoyed this game so far, but maybe I shouldn't be, considering how hooked I got on a free clicker game about taking care of a vast army of chickens. Anyway, I've been enjoying growing a bunch of different plants and seeing what sorts of traits, if any, they turn out to have. You get the option to name the plants (I used to name them all but now I only name my favorites) and change their pot styles and colors. The windows in both rooms have nice features too: you can open them to increase the ambient noise, and if you turn the shower on in the bathroom you can draw pictures in the steam on the windows.

Apparently it's possible to find plants with four or even five rare traits. Maybe one day I'll find those. At any rate, I've ended up playing this more than I expected, and even if I'm not actively playing it, I've found that I like having it open in a tab just for its background noise.

REVIEW: Islands: Non-Places (game)

I picked up Islands: Non-Places as part of a bundle. It's basically a series of mildly interactive places. You're taken to various locations - an escalator, a fountain, a parking lot, a lounge, etc. - that gradually change as you interact with them in very specific and linear ways.

This isn't a walking simulator. Although you can rotate the locations, you can't freely explore them. All you do is look for blinking lights (or anything else that seems to be inviting you to click it), click them, and then watch the scene unfold in beautiful and surprising ways. My favorites were probably the parking lot and the flooding lounge, but the escalator was amusing too.

Although Islands: Non-Places was very nicely done and made for an intriguing forty minutes or so, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to most folks, and I'd have been very annoyed if I'd paid full price for it ($4.99). I like casual, low-adrenaline games as well as stuff that some folks would argue aren't games at all, like visual novels (both the ones with choices and kinetic visuals novels where you just sit back and read). This could have fallen into the second category, except there wasn't a story to it. This could have fallen into the first category, except that its interactive aspects were extremely limited and linear, and there wasn't anything that counted as puzzles once you figured out that you had to rotate the scenes and click stuff. In the end it was just...an experience. A very short one.

I have a Nintendo Switch Lite and Animal Crossing: New Horizons now

And wow, is it addictive. I didn't research the game much at all before getting it (I already knew enough about the Animal Crossing franchise to know it was probably my kind of thing), so the real-time aspect took me by surprise. It's kind of nice that the game was literally built to have a slower pace, though. Oh, and another thing that took me by surprise: wasps (so many wasps) and tarantulas (OMG). After my poor avatar passed out for the third or fourth time, I looked up whether that has any negative effects, and it seems like it doesn't. Thank goodness.

I played until way too late last night and managed to pay off the first bit of debt and acquire new debt. But at least I have a tiny house (with storage!), a bunch of flimsy tools, and the ability to cross the river now. I haven't actually crossed the river yet, but I hope to do it during my lunch break today.

Supposedly Stardew Valley-like games I own and am eyeing

I haven't been reading much lately, but I've been playing more Stardew Valley. I still love the game and have put hundreds of hours into it, but there comes a point when you'd like to play something new...but still similar.

I own a bunch of games that I bought because they were supposedly in some way similar to Stardew Valley:

• My Time at Portia: Last played in January 2019. It had some nice character interactions, although it was clearly missing some of its voice acting, and the emphasis on crafting occasionally annoyed me. You have to craft a lot, and a lot of times the things you're asked to craft require you to learn to craft a bunch of other things first. I was also not a fan of the fighting. The first creatures you come across are fairly low level and not inclined to hurt you unless you hurt them first. Later on, however, you have to battle tougher monsters and deal with boss fights. The boss fights were an unpleasant surprise, and one of the reasons I eventually quit playing.
• Garden Paws: Last played in April 2019. From what I've read, the game has changed a lot since I last played it. For one thing, apparently it now has fighting. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I kind of liked that it was completely nonviolent, but fighting must be a thing that a lot of people want in their games, since it keeps showing up. Back when I played it, I really liked the exploration and foraging aspects of the game - there were a lot of little islands and hidden places to discover, some of which took a bit of crafting and thought to get to. What I didn't like was how empty the NPCs felt. I can't even remember most of them, they made so little of an impression on me.
• World's Dawn: Last played in May 2019. This one gets a giant NO from me, which makes me sad, because on paper, at least, it sounds like the perfect "Stardew Valley, but not" kind of game. I managed to play it for four hours before rage-quitting due to the number and kind of bugs I encountered. F12, which normally takes a screenshot in Steam, crashed the game. I was kicked out of a shop when it hit closing hours, and for some reason this meant that my dog, which had been accompanying me, permanently disappeared. The controls were clunky and impossible to properly customize. The list could go on. What's shocking is that this is considered a finished game. It felt like an Early Access game that still needed work.
• Verdant Skies: Last played in February 2020. The character portraits are gorgeous, but the actual game art looks weirdly stiff and unfinished. The exploration aspects are nice, but after a while the world started to feel extremely small, and I never really got into one of the most unique aspects of the game, the gene splicing. The character interactions also didn't work as well for me as I'd hoped. That said, there's still a few NPCs I haven't met.
• Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles: Last played in February 2020. The world is huge, the game is completely nonviolent, and there's lots of quests to complete and things to discover. One of the ongoing tasks involves finding kittens! And there are a bunch of cute animals in the game, even if you never really get into the animal taming aspect of it. That said, once you've built the Cloud Catcher or whatever it was, there's nothing much new to do unless you're a Steam achievement hunter or really want to complete all of the remaining quests. I doubt I'm that committed. As much as I love the kittens, for example, I'm not sure I can put up with the fact that some of them can only be found during certain seasons or times of day. I'm not sure I'd call this a very Stardew Valley-like game, either. There's almost no need to grow crops or keep animals, unless you're an achievement hunter, and there's no depth to your interactions with NPCs.
• Littlewood: Last played in September 2019. Not as Stardew Valley-like as I'd hoped it would be, but not a bad game. It is, however, Early Access, and so you'll occasionally run into things that haven't been rolled out yet. I didn't encounter any game-breaking bugs (looking at you, World's Dawn), but I decided to quit playing for a while and wait until it was finally finished. On the plus side, game updates are pretty frequent, and the developer includes version numbers with the update announcements, which seems like a strong indication to me that the game will eventually be 100% finished.

Speaking of Early Access games, one of the things that frustrates me is that a lot of games listed as being similar to Stardew Valley in some way are Early Access, and have been for a few years. The game advertisements and many of the positive reviews talk more about their future potential than what players can actually do in them right now. A few I've been eyeing:

• Fantasy Farming: Orange Season: This one looks quite nice, but from the sounds of things updates have been slow in coming. I've been looking at reviews, and it's tough to tell how much there currently is to the game, although this seems like one of the more finished Early Access Stardew Valley-like games out there.
• Kynseed: This looks lovely...but the reviews that aren't glowing squee-fests indicate that it has very little content, and what it does have currently serves no purpose. I'd have expected better from a game created by a couple experienced developers. 
• Peaceful Days: Something about the way it looks seems very amateurish, and the non-glowing reviews indicate that it doesn't have much content and is clunky.
• Serin Fate: I'm not sure how Stardew Valley-like this actually is. It seems cute, but also potentially more focused on battles than I'd like. Also, again, it sounds like there are content and clunkiness issues.

Steam also keeps pushing games like Graveyard Keeper and Gleaner Heights at me, which, yes, seem Stardew Valley-like on the surface and are actually complete (I'm starting to loathe Early Access), but only in terms of overall gameplay. Story and character-wise, however, they both sound dark as heck, definitely not the warm fuzzy blanket sort of games I'd actually like to be playing.

At the moment, what I'd really like is to get my hands on a Nintendo Switch so that I can play Animal Crossing: New Horizons. But from the sounds of things the Switch is going to be nearly impossible to buy until sometime after the pandemic. In the meantime, if you have any Stardew Valley-like games to recommend, I'd love to hear about them and what it is about them that appeals to you.

Recommendations for Steam's 2019 Winter Sale

It's time for one of my favorite events of the year, Steam's Winter Sale. I like being able to buy goodies that I don't have to find physical space to store. FYI, my game tastes run heavily towards visual novels, casual games with little or no combat, and puzzle games, so those are the sorts of recommendations you can expect to find here.

Surprisingly, it doesn't seem like I've written too many game recommendation posts. There's this one for the 2017 Steam Summer Sale. All those recommendations still stand, especially Stardew Valley, which recently got an update that added a few things and improved what was already an amazing game. There's also my 2018 game recommendations post - those recommendations also still stand.

My top recommendations from those two posts, if you'd rather not click through:

• Stardew Valley (on sale for $8.99) - This is a farming game that's largely pretty chill. You plant crops, catch fish, get to know villagers, explore the mines and fight monsters, etc. If there's a particular activity you don't like, it's usually pretty easy to work around it. The newest update adds some quality of life upgrades (when you build items like tree tappers, they stack now instead of taking up individual spaces in your inventory), a few fun things like new breeds of cats or dogs you can have around the farm, new fish, and probably other things I haven't come across yet.
• Plants vs. Zombies (on sale for $1.99) - I haven't actually played this in years, but of all the games on my Steam account, this is maybe the third in terms of number of hours I've put into it. It's a fun little "tower defense" game in which you position plants to protect you against zombies. I'm terrible at stressful games, and even I found this enjoyable.
• Hatoful Boyfriend (on sale for $2.49) - This dating sim/visual novel looks ridiculous - you're a human at a school for sentient birds, and you have the ability to befriend and date those birds. You're permitted to see them as their human equivalents at the very beginning of the game, and then that's it, you're romancing birds for the rest of the game. It turns out that this is actually a post-apocalyptic mystery/thriller, and it's surprisingly good. I ♥ sweet, sad Nageki.
• The Rusty Lake games (complete bundle on sale for $5.07) - The best of the bunch are Rusty Lake: Roots and Rusty Lake Paradise. Weird little puzzle games set in an unsettling and strange universe. If you're not sure about taking the plunge, try out the various Cube Escape games, also set in the same universe. They're available for free on Android or iPhone.
• 428 Shibuya Scramble (on sale for $14.99) - I highly recommend picking this up if you like visual novels. The price is fabulous right now. This is a mystery/thriller/comedy told from multiple POVs. The game requires you to switch between the different POVs in order to progress in the story - sometimes you can move forward in one POV unless a character in another POV has gone to the right location already, for example. The story structure alone makes this one worth checking out.
• Hidden Folks (on sale for $2.47) - A Where's Waldo style hidden object game. The art and little scenarios are cute.
• The Blackwell series (on sale for $7.84) - Do you miss old school adventure games? Then you're in luck, because this series will probably be perfect for you. You play as someone with the ability to see ghosts who has teamed up with a ghost. The games get better as the series progresses, although I would generally recommend playing them in order for story continuity purposes.

 What else do I recommend?

• Donut County (on sale for $6.49) - It's a puzzle game that's probably going to be too easy for some folks to enjoy, but I personally think the humor makes up for it. You play as a racoon controlling a hole in the ground that gets bigger and bigger as it swallows things up.
• Unavowed (on sale for $10.49) - I haven't actually finished this yet, but I still think it's great. Honestly, anything by Wadjet Eye Games (see the Blackwell series above) is generally going to be good. Compare this to the Blackwell games, and you can see how far the developer has come in terms of creating engaging stories and puzzles and working replayability into games.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (on sale for $19.79) - Uhh, another game I have yet to finish. That said, I've played several episodes of it, and I've found it to be lots of fun. The humor is great, as are the characters. It's stupid, but I always get a little zing of pleasure when I catch one of the characters trying to slip a particularly tricky lie through.
• Animal Lover (on sale for $2.49) - I reviewed this a couple years ago. It's one of my top favorite visual novels. It takes a while to really get going, but I got really attached to several of the characters once I got past all the introductions and story setup.
• Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to) (on sale for $4.24) - This isn't really a game. It's more a place where you can anonymously write about your problems and fears and get sympathy, advice, and encouragement back from other players. It does have some issues - sometimes the constant stream of problems is difficult to handle, especially if you're the sort that really wants to help people, and there's no way to make a more lasting connection with anyone, since you're limited to one response and the most the person can do in return is send you an in-game sticker as thanks. Still, the very limited setup seems to have left this game with little-to-no trolls, and the community is incredibly kind and thoughtful. 
• Hashihime of the Old Book Town (on sale for $27.99) - No link to this one, because it's an adults-only game. The truly adult content takes a while to show up but is pretty graphic, FYI. Also, be warned, the first route in particular includes a LOT of suicide. That said, this is a beautiful, weird, and fascinating visual novel. It takes ages to really get going, but keep pushing and you'll be rewarded. This is another one I haven't quite finished yet - I've made it through two of the routes. It's very linear and features almost no choices, which I honestly find relaxing after some visual novels. 
• Obduction (on sale for $10.49) - Another one I haven't finished yet - this is a pattern with me I know - but I highly recommend it if you're a fan of old school adventure games like the original Myst series. Like those games, the world of Obduction feels strangely dead and empty and, at first at least, it comes across as weirdly tiny. As you play, the areas you can travel to gradually increase until the world becomes dauntingly large. I love this game but, as with the Myst games, I don't seem to be smart enough for all of the puzzles. I got stuck on a few and ended up never coming back to the game. That said, I still highly recommend it, especially at this price.
• Fran Bow (on sale for $7.49) - A puzzle game in which you're a little girl whose parents were killed and who is now being kept at an asylum. This game is occasionally extremely disturbing, so approach it with caution. Still, the story and puzzles are very well-done. It includes some mini-games, but if those aren't your thing, then no worries, because they aren't required in order to complete the game.

Back to visual novels, nervously anticipating vacation time

I wish I could look forward to upcoming travel like a normal person. Instead, I'm worrying about stupid stuff (like how my apartment is horrible and will never be clean enough to leave) and all the possible things that could go wrong (setting up backup plans for backup plans, and worrying about the backup plans I haven't worked out yet). If I could just teleport to my location, everything would be fine. Or, if not fine, at least better.

Anyway, I'm still planning out what manga to read during my vacation. In the meantime, I made the mistake of getting hooked on a longish visual novel that I probably won't be able to finish before I leave and that I won't be able to continue reading at my destination. Ugh.

The visual novel in question is Hashihime of the Old Book Town, an absolutely gorgeous historical SFF time travel story with mystery, horror, and m/m romance elements. If you give it a shot, be warned, it takes several hours to really get going and contains explicit sex scenes (possibly only one per route? which is weird, because that's likely too little for those who like that sort of thing, but too much for those who enjoyed the previous 18 hours of story with zero sex in it). Also, pay attention to those content warnings at the beginning. If you're a gay or trans person who's depressed, experiencing suicidal ideation, etc., I'd recommend staying away from this visual novel. I've only played the first route so far, and it does manage to give the main character and one of his friends, Minakami, a happy ending, but the journey to that point grinds them to bits.

Judging by others' playing time, I have anywhere from 15 to 25 hours to go before I'm done with the whole visual novel. I'm not sure I'll manage it all before going on vacation, so here's hoping I at least figure out a good place to stop. I just started what I think is probably Kawase's route, so I'll see how long that takes.

Games I've played in the past month (still A LOT)

I've still been doing way more computer game playing than review writing, although I may be in the process of inching my way out of my reviewing slump. We'll see.

FYI, Steam is in the last few hours of its Summer Sale - I recommend taking advantage of it if any of the games I mention below look good to you.

The games I'll be going over this time around (in alphabetical order):

• Armello
• Baba Is You
• Blush Blush (yes, again) 
• Cheeky Chooks
• Chook & Sosig: Walk the Plank
• Donut County 
• Nekojishi
• PickCrafter
• The Room Three
• Slime Rancher
• Unheard

Games I've played in the last month: adventure, RPGs, sims, and visual novels

I was going to list all of the games in the post title, but there are so many that the length got a little ridiculous.

Anyway, I'm going to try to group these together by genre. The games I'll be covering are: World's Dawn, Stardew Valley, Equilinox, Unavowed, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (again), Blush Blush, Lovers of Aether, and Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator.

Currently playing: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, Garden Paws, and The Caligula Effect: Overdose

I'm very bad about not finishing games I've started, so it's rare for me to write full final reviews of them. But I thought some kind of update post about games I'm currently spending a lot of time playing might be nice.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

I've heard so many good things about this series, but until recently, it was only ever available to play on systems I didn't own. I was very excited when I saw that a PC version was coming to Steam, even though the price was considerably higher than I tend to be comfortable paying for games.

I don't think I've managed to finish the first game in the trilogy yet, but I've made it through several cases, and I'm really enjoying it overall. It's structured to be part "collect items and question people" adventure game and part "pay attention and find the inconsistencies" logic game. The periods where you look at crime scenes and question witnesses/potential suspects can occasionally get tedious (during the case involving the murdered actor, there was a brief period where I seemed to be stuck, because I hadn't done whatever was required to get some new characters to suddenly appear), but the stories and characters are generally interesting.

During trials, there's an opportunity to fail: if you don't object at the right moments, or bring up the right piece of evidence at the right time, you're gradually penalized until your client is declared guilty. I haven't found the game's logic to be too difficult, however, and I like that you're allowed to press a witness without being penalized.

Just be aware that the story and characters can get a bit wacky.

Garden Paws

I picked this up during one of my "trying to find something similar to Stardew Valley, but different" efforts. If Stardew Valley's combat was an issue for you, you're in luck, because absolutely nothing in the world of Garden Paws will kill you, not even the bears. That said, although the NPCs will now occasionally chat with you (they used to not talk to player characters unless they needed something), in-game interactions aren't nearly as satisfying as those in Stardew Valley. There are no romanceable or even friendable NPCs here.

Still, I've put more than 40 hours into this game and am nowhere near tired of it. There are at least a couple hundred quests, lots of places to explore, treasure chests to find, and eventually museum collections to complete, and the developers are still adding new content. I haven't done much building yet, but that's my next goal, since I recently noticed that there are several islands that are too far away for me to get to using my favorite method of transportation, gliding.

The game still has a few issues - I had to turn off the animated grass because it was interfering with my ability to play the game, and I still worry that if I play for too many in-game days my computer will overheat. And I wouldn't recommend it to those who need games to have more to them than collecting items and exploring. But I've found that jumping in to play for a single in-game day (approximately 15-20 minutes depending on what you opt to do and how early you send your character to bed) is a nice way for me to wind down after work.

The Caligula Effect: Overdose

Another very expensive game, considering that most of what I buy is $20 or less. I really debated before buying this. The story sounded interesting enough, I liked the animated cutscenes, and turn-based battles seemed like a nice way for me to ease back into this sort of gaming. I tend to avoid games with actual combat, so this would be an unusual purchase for me.

Every review I looked at brought up the original release, which was apparently widely viewed as a failure. The general consensus seemed to be that Overdose (the original release was just The Caligula Effect) was an improvement over the original game, but that the new release still had problems, such as overly easy combat, a battle system that gets tedious a while, and way too many NPCs (more than 500!).

I've been playing it for about 4 hours now on the Normal difficulty setting, and while I'd agree with those who say that it's pretty easy, its easiness is part of its appeal for me. I'm slower on the uptake when it comes to figuring out battle strategies, and this game is, so far, super forgiving. We'll see how I feel once I take on my first big boss, but I just completed a battle against two enemies, one of whom was one level stronger than me and my companions and one of whom was 7 levels stronger, in only one attempt.

As far as the Causality Link aspect goes...eh. I haven't gotten far enough into it to unlock any quests yet, but so far I feel like the NPCs and the main characters efforts to "befriend" them are pretty weak.

Tacoma is free over at Humble Bundle for the next 22 hours, or while supplies last

I reviewed the game a while back. It's a story in videogame form, in which you're an investigator looking into an incident at a space station that was populated by 6 humans, their cat, and an AI named ODIN.

It's definitely worth trying for free. You can get it here.

First thoughts: My Time at Portia (game)

I started My Time at Portia a bit too late to consider it for my "2018 Game Recommendations" post, but I somehow managed to rack up 15 hours of playtime in the past few days, so I figured I'd write up a quick post about it.

This is another one I bought in an effort to find something that hits the same spot for me as Stardew Valley, and I think it's come close (with a few caveats), closer even than Cattails. It's still an early access game, but from what I've seen, it's pretty stable and most of the content appears to be there. The voice acting is the only area where things are noticeably still missing - many characters are missing at least a few voiced lines, and some have no voiced lines, just subtitles. (Edit on 1/24/19 - This article may explain why, even after the game's official full release, it's still missing a lot of its voice acting. Oof. Here's hoping all the voice actors are paid what they're owed ASAP.)

Based on what I've played so far, you can do many of the same activities in My Time at Portia that you can do in Stardew Valley, and then some, although the balance of activities is very different. There are lots of villagers to befriend and potentially marry, and you can complete missions for fellow villagers in order to earn money and stronger relationships. You can grow crops (in tiny little planter boxes - this is not a farming game), build items, raise farm animals, go mining, go fishing, chop down trees, etc. There's world lore for you to gradually learn about - this is actually a post-apocalyptic world where technology almost led to the destruction of everything. Just as Stardew Valley asks you to choose between working towards rebuilding the community center or teaming up with Joja Mart, in My Time at Portia it seems you have a choice between turning some of your mining efforts over to the church or to the scientists at the Research Center (or maybe you can mix it up a bit - I honestly haven't tried that yet).

There are two glaring issues so far, and they're the main reason I'm not entirely sure whether I enjoy this game or not: the Assembly Station mechanics, and the fact that you can't progress without finding half a dozen things you need to track down, build, or do.