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chuckroOverlord - The evil overlord has awoken following his previous defeat and long slumber! Unfortunately, his powers are weak and his tower is in shambles. He'll need to lead his minions out personally to retrieve his artifacts and conquer some new lands. I...was expecting more of a sim/rpg hybrid here, and this is mostly a 3D action game with the minion-commanding as a puzzle mechanic. I'm much less enthused about that. (Also, I hadn't quite realized exactly how much the parody H-game Overwhored was riffing directly off of this, beat-for-beat, rather than just generic tropes.)
Pixel Puzzles Ultimate - I have no idea where this came from (presumably one of the many bundles, and I just got it separated in my notes), but it’s exactly what it purports to be: Jigsaw puzzles, and lots of them. You can adjust the number of pieces, the pictures, whether pieces lock into place, and even if you need to rotate the pieces at all. That’s said…the point of jigsaw puzzles is that you do them with your fingers. They’re not actually pleasant to do on a screen.
LiEat - A short rpg / puzzle adventure in three parts about a lie-eating dragon (get it?) named Efina and her constantly-lying companion Leo. As people lie, those lies manifest as monsters you fight for XP. Each part is short (about an hour) and self-contained, though figuring out which event flag you need to trip next can be irritating. Also, the art style is such that I could barely tell any of the characters apart. There are some clever ideas here and it's short enough to not outstay its welcome, but I also found the puzzles either too obtuse or too easy, and the story is often too pretentious for its own good.
World's Dawn - This was on a list of games to play after Stardew Valley, but it's very much a poor man's RPGMaker version of Stardew Valley. It does most of the same things, but half as well, with less variety and a clunkier interface. You only have a limited plot for your garden and can't arrange your property; there's no crafting system; the food/stamina system is clunkier; there's no collection sidequest; there's no fighting monsters; etc. It makes me want to go back and play more Stardew Valley instead.
BONUS: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - This was a bonus game that came along with the Bloodstained kickstarter. The full game is a homage to the Symphony of the Night and later Castlevania games by their original creators. This was by a different design team and was intended to be (and, I think, succeeds at) a homage to the Castlevania 3: Belmont’s Revenge style of game. 8-bit style of graphics, controls that feel like a NES game, multiple paths and character-switching (though with modern conveniences like save games and “casual” mode). Though the difficulty level would be fair, if not for the fact that the game defaults to a really stupid mouse+WASD scheme and won’t recognize my controller put me off—hopefully, that’ll get fixed in a patch, and then I’ll revisit it.
Pixel Puzzles Ultimate - I have no idea where this came from (presumably one of the many bundles, and I just got it separated in my notes), but it’s exactly what it purports to be: Jigsaw puzzles, and lots of them. You can adjust the number of pieces, the pictures, whether pieces lock into place, and even if you need to rotate the pieces at all. That’s said…the point of jigsaw puzzles is that you do them with your fingers. They’re not actually pleasant to do on a screen.
LiEat - A short rpg / puzzle adventure in three parts about a lie-eating dragon (get it?) named Efina and her constantly-lying companion Leo. As people lie, those lies manifest as monsters you fight for XP. Each part is short (about an hour) and self-contained, though figuring out which event flag you need to trip next can be irritating. Also, the art style is such that I could barely tell any of the characters apart. There are some clever ideas here and it's short enough to not outstay its welcome, but I also found the puzzles either too obtuse or too easy, and the story is often too pretentious for its own good.
World's Dawn - This was on a list of games to play after Stardew Valley, but it's very much a poor man's RPGMaker version of Stardew Valley. It does most of the same things, but half as well, with less variety and a clunkier interface. You only have a limited plot for your garden and can't arrange your property; there's no crafting system; the food/stamina system is clunkier; there's no collection sidequest; there's no fighting monsters; etc. It makes me want to go back and play more Stardew Valley instead.
BONUS: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - This was a bonus game that came along with the Bloodstained kickstarter. The full game is a homage to the Symphony of the Night and later Castlevania games by their original creators. This was by a different design team and was intended to be (and, I think, succeeds at) a homage to the Castlevania 3: Belmont’s Revenge style of game. 8-bit style of graphics, controls that feel like a NES game, multiple paths and character-switching (though with modern conveniences like save games and “casual” mode). Though the difficulty level would be fair, if not for the fact that the game defaults to a really stupid mouse+WASD scheme and won’t recognize my controller put me off—hopefully, that’ll get fixed in a patch, and then I’ll revisit it.
