Activities
Today
“Updated my backlog”
And so i finish my four-month sprint of the Infinity Engine games with the best one, Planescape: Torment. I did manage to finish it in December, but only after my monthly post, so i decided to roll it over to 2025
There's a few reasons why it's the best of the four, but the simplest one is the de-emphasis on combat, which was the least entertaining part of these games for my modern brain. Not only is there a lot less combat overall, but your main character is immortal, so combat deaths are just an inconvenience, rather than a game reload. He also gains the 'raise dead' ability pretty early, so companion deaths are similarly inconsequential
Replacing the missing combat is a much greater focus on writing and dialogue, which suits me nicely. The lore of the Planescape setting is so dense and strange, and the characters so rich and interesting, that i rarely got tired of reading about it all. Dialogue choices are expanded as well, with more options for persuasion, intimidation, or even sneaky logical deduction. Most conversation paths simply lead to more exploration of the world, characters, and the various themes floating around, however
For some plot setup: your character wakes up in a mortuary with no memory. Your initial goal is to find out where you are, who or what killed you, and why it didn’t stick. You find some notes tattooed on yourself as starting pointers, and following these eventually reveals your immortality and the numerous lives you've already lived – which obviously leads to a quest to resolve that mystery. Along the way, you'll meet an array of strange characters in stranger settings, attracting the strangest to be your companions
Like i said before, a lot of Planescape: Torment is reading, even if it's very good reading. I got the same feeling exploring the details of this uncanny world as i did reading fantasy novels in my younger years, and so every now and then, i wondered whether a medium like a book or movie would suit the story better. I would always quickly reject that idea, because so much of the story is centered around your narrative choices, and how you (the player) choose to present this character, when faced with the results of his past actions
Planescape: Torment is a lot more narrative and dialogue-focused than Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, which i think is a better fit for this genre – although it's easy to say that with writing this good. Be prepared for lots of reading, but also for some new existential thoughts and questions living in your head
Yesterday
YEAR #1 - 2024 RECAP
Total played games: 44
Assassinations (=Beaten+Completed): 42 (95%)
Total played hours: 973.07 hours
Most played games:
1st - Dirt Rally 2.0 (126.5 hours)
2nd - Cyberpunk 2077 (105.9 hours)
3rd - CrossCode (100.4 hours)
Loved/Liked: 27 (62%)
Personal GOTY: Baldur’s Gate 3
Neutral/Mixed feelings: 6 (14%)
Disliked/Hated: 11 (24%)
Dropped: 0 (0%)
Total games added to Steam library: 87
Won on SteamGifts: 9
Gifts from other sources: 9
Final verdict: I should quit my job and play more!
#12 DECEMBER 2024
Dread Templar
21.8 hours playtime, 27 of 30 achievements
The premise is that I don’t often play boomer shooters. From my little experience, though, what I recall is that a boomer shooter should be hard or at least punishing. Well, this one isn’t punishing, but it can become quite hard for entirely the wrong reasons. I didn’t find it punishing because not only most enemies, apart from maybe the boss at the end of the second episode, are very easy to read and kill, but also because the save points are way too frequent. I found it hard at times, instead, because the monsters are huge HP sponges, even at low levels, and I think this may be the main flaw of this game. You often risk running out of ammo if you try to clear a whole map of them. That means that if you really want to kill them, all you have to do is take your time and wait for the very slow reload (even with runes that speed it up) of the only weapon that doesn’t require ammo or, alternatively, you must know beforehand where all the secret stashes are in the game (which means you need to have played the game already or have a guide of some sort with you). Not particularly fun, I must say.
That’s too bad because the very first impression of the game was good and the first 2-3 hours were quite fun.
I liked the graphics and I liked the level design of the first few maps. But as you progress, you soon realize there’s been less and less care put into the level design. The last two episodes were the ones that were designed the worst in my opinion. They had no interesting new monsters (or worse: they recycled some of the old ones and simply gave them more HPs), plus the maps felt a bit rushed, with many unpolished areas where you can encounter many invisible walls or actual walls but that aren’t really there, since you can’t jump on them. That’s most notable when you’re searching every nook and cranny of a map for secrets, which for the reason expressed before is something the game requires of you.
A thing that I liked instead was the plethora of easter eggs. There are dozens of them, and not only references to other boomer shooters that clearly inspired this game (Quake, Blood, etc.), but also to other games or movies (Mortal Kombat, Fallout, Terminator, etc.).
As a whole, I didn’t particularly like this game and I can’t recommend it.
Stacklands
10.1 hours playtime, 36 of 36 achievements
Interesting little game. It’s nothing overcomplicated as it may seem at the start. It only felt a bit repetitive by the very end. You basically have to get a stable income of basic resources, which allow you to get coins (=money) that help you stabilize your food production. Once you’re at that point, you can upgrade your structures for more advanced resources and upgrade your fighters in order to prepare for the *big* end-game fights.
There’s a first final boss, after which the game gives you access to a whole new area where you get the items needed to summon the *real* final boss of the game. In this new area you have to basically build everything back from zero with little to no help from the mainland (the new area is an island). Well, I didn’t really like this start-over concept. It was interesting the first 5 minutes, but once I understood monkeys aren’t hostile but rather an actual source to exploit, everything felt like I had to replay the game from scratch again.
Furthermore, everything, as I said, is done in order to prepare for some supposedly hard boss fights, but in reality if you have enough fighters (I went with 7) and at least half of them are equipped with something that can stun enemies (let’s say even the most basic iron shield with just 10% stun chance) you can take down all the bosses with ease, since they end up being almost perma-stunned. That makes the fights quite trivial.
There are DLCs too that expand the number of cards and add new game mechanics, but I didn’t meddle with them. I assume they may enhance the whole experience, since the base game is quite poor imho and doesn’t have much replay value. Not a bad game, but I don’t feel like recommending it.
Remnant II
15.7 hours playtime, 17 of 65 achievements
We’re slowly progressing through the game. We explored a handful of new areas and beat a few more bosses.
I’m still of the same opinion as last month, except for the fights, which are a bit better since I managed to get better armor, so I don’t die right away like before. But given that I die less, fights are even more underwhelming, since we kill even strong monsters with relatively little effort.
By this time, I don’t think there’s enough left to make me change my opinion about this game.
Progress report: December ‘24 (1/2)
Quick! I need y’all to pretend we’re only halfway through December for a bit!
Forget what I said about any of the other games, this one lets you ZOOM. (And you're gonna need it, too.)
I played both the original map from last year and the one that just released today (as of writing this). The new map got crazy intricate in comparison!
Fatal Paws
You've just gotten word from your boss that school will be in all week long from now on. Understandably frustrated, you rush to get to your job on time… and end up hitting a stray cat on your way there. The vet checkup reveals that the cat has the power to heal itself, and that's only the beginning…
This was clearly a solo dev's fun idea for a game that would also serve as a memory of their own cat (the in-game sprite is even designed after her). It was an hour-long romp through increasingly wacky turn-based encounters, simple yet effective. If I had to point out something I didn't like, it would be the random profanity. I feel every story should use swearing rather sparingly, even if some people have a bigger tendency to swear than others. On the positive side, while the music and SFX are royalty-free, the art assets were provided by people on Fiverr; thought that's important to mention in the advent of AI-generated art.
Fatal Paws is Playable on Steam Deck due to some text being hard to read. (I'm not visually impaired in any way, but this is the first case where the text really was tiny.) Use touchscreen, A, L1, R2 or R3 to advance text, L2 to hide textbox and R1 to bring up backlog. Right touchpad is active.
A tiny side-scrolling game about a family of possums celebrating the day they go into Winter hibernation. It's a short adventure that is mostly child-friendly (save for one distasteful attempt at a joke), with a cute art style, though it does suffer a bit from the devs being ESL. If you've got twenty minutes to spare, check it out.
Hunter Hearts
"Hunter Hearts is from the book the creator is writing at the moment. The game on the other hand is completely different compared to the book. (…) This is part 1 of 3 (could be changed in the future) of the story of Hunt, where Hunt gets to witness his side of the story."
Please, don't change anything. Just let this stay a self-published book. Hell, this should be rotting in the depths of some fanfiction site that no self-respecting fan visits due to its abysmal design.
Hunter Hearts is one big mess of harem anime tropes set in a world that makes no sense (English speaking characters with English names living in modern day Japan, studying Dutch in college… and the year is 2119, for some reason), written by an ESL author who can hardly command the language in a way that is pleasant to read. Also, no developments matter at any point, because no matter what you choose, the story stays largely the same (to the point that I thought I had accidentally toggled "skip all text"; after you're done with your initial playthrough, the game does not give a damn that you're checking out different choices - it will skip past the few brand new lines). There's no consistency when it comes to censoring profanities ("cock"/"dick" is censored, but "hoe" isn't), all of which come out of left field. There's a sex scene in one of the "routes" and it's written as if the author has never read a single piece of erotic fiction of any quality and is also a child. But perhaps most insulting is the lack of subtlety when it comes to introducing difficult subjects. One of the characters suddenly announces she is terminally ill and no matter what you do from that point on, she will die at the end of the game. In most endings, another character will also commit suicide. Neither of these ever feel like the shocking events that they would be in any real person's life, giving pause to the characters as well as the reader; instead, it's as if they're seen simply as "story beats" that need to be hit. The suicide is perfectly egregious in that manner, where the game will end with something to the effect of "It's my time… bye, everybody…" and then fade right back to the main menu.
And on the note of a lack of a credit roll… the UI is a basic Ren'Py template, the character sprites were made using Mannequin (half of them suffer from "same face syndrome", not sure if that's more on the dev or the software), the BGM is one and the same piano track, all the way through (I love /s when bad games try to drive me crazy by doing that) and the backgrounds are the most compelling part of the whole thing… but then my friend quickly pointed out that one of them is straight up taken from - you guessed it - a successful harem anime. Also, the actual "credit" the dev gives for the backgrounds is something like "these backgrounds aren't mine, so all the credit to those guys"… pay them in exposure, why don't cha? Ugh.
Hunter Hearts is Verified on Steam Deck, matching my experience as of 08/12/24. Use the touchscreen, A or R2 to advance text, Y to hide textbox, L1, L2 or View to rollback, R1 to undo rollback, Menu to bring up save menu.
In an alternate, dystopian universe, a birth crisis is upon us. It's been looming over humanity for long enough that people have started getting comfortable with the thought of dying as soon as food supplies start running out. But there is also a kind of a fad: monotypes, virtual pets that are supposed to… entertain your human children or outright substitute them if you don't have any, I'm not quite sure anymore. The newest invention in the product line, however, is Momo - the real "virtual" monotype, one you can for sure love like you would a human child.
The unnamed protagonist of this story, in spite of not caring for monotypes, cannot escape their fate - their boss has gotten on great terms with representatives of the company that makes monotypes, so now everyone at their company is going to get their own brand new pet. Weirdly enough, in spite of Momo looking like a cat head, they're never established to have fur or behave like a cat would in any way, but I digress.
Momos are set to live for seven days only and during that time, you can choose to feed them something, play with them, watch TV with them… to my understanding, the show you choose to watch first will influence their dream and how their body evolves. After that, Momo will read their label and get an existential crisis from learning they're only meant to live for a week… and that's when the horror part comes in. Only the third (or the fourth in my case, as I've gotten the "secret" ending on my first playthrough) Momo will avoid this fate, instead going to "the bunker" and convincing the protagonist to follow. This is where it gets needlessly complicated instead of delivering a satisfying conclusion: "the bunker" keeps coming up in every loop, yet not only is it not an actual bunker, it's just a horde of Momos congregating in a certain spot and coming together to build up the one big Momo near the ocean. When the protagonist catches up, they're allowed to ask a bunch of questions about the lore of the story… and then the game just ends. The visual aesthetic of the game is great and the idea of a virtual pet rebelling against its owner as a horror premise doesn't seem too tired, at least not for me. This game, however, was largely incomprehensible. It was supposed to be something about how complex and layered love is as a feeling? Okay? I'm just busy thinking about how cool it would be to have my own Momo, even though I feel like a story like this would normally aim to make me not want that.
Momotype is Verified on Steam Deck, matching my experience as of 13/12/2024. Use R2 or Menu for options, R1 to rollback, A, R2, R3 or the touchscreen to advance text, View to skip, left stick left for accessibility options, left stick down to take screenshot. Right touchpad is active.
OnCall
In On Call, you're an unnamed doctor working a three day rotation at the Merritt General Hospital. During this time, you have five patients to take care of, each with a different condition. Your job is to talk to the patients and their relatives to help them get the best treatment possible, all while keeping your stress level in check. If I recall correctly, there are two scripted opportunities to bring your stress level down outside of conversations, but you can also take a rest three times per day, so even if it doesn't do much, it's not hard not to overwork yourself. From what I've discovered, three of your patients can die, although one of them does not get an obituary, for some reason. You can end up with three different outcomes: quitting right after finishing your rounds (I got this ending after choosing what I perceived to be the least intrusive or negative options all around), just going home, ready to have some time off, or strongly implied to commit suicide by jumping out of a window, if your stress level gets maxed out at any point. One aspect of the gameplay are patient charts, all of which get updated twice (or should get updated, at least). The dates were off sometimes, especially when it came to the obituaries, which are dated near the end of February, while the rotation takes part at the start of August. This either wasn't checked for logic or made sense in the devs' heads, but was never properly communicated to the player. Since there aren't any achievements, guides or hints in or outside of the game, I figured that after almost 90 minutes, I've probably seen just about everything. To me, the game felt accurate enough to reality, but at the same time, I think I'd like to see an actual doctor react to and fact-check it.
On Call is Playable on Steam Deck. Use the touchscreen, A, R2 or R3 to advance text, R1 to rollback, L2 or Menu to bring up the save menu, View to skip, left stick left to open accessibility options, left stick down to take screenshots. Right touchpad is active.
It's just like all the other games, except you're coloring by letters instead of numbers and the images are meant to look as if they were cross-stitched. This one also hasn't beaten Coloring Pixels on how smoothly it runs for me.
Three college friends - Strelitzia, Lycoris and Oleander - team up to create a child android for a school project. At first, their bickering might seem ordinary, but when their creation (named Nano by default) is to wake up for the first time, the cracks start to show. As it turns out, their friendship has been strained by the loss of Lilium. Now that Nano is a part of their life, it's up to the guys to move past it or keep blaming each other for what happened back then.
Robot Daycare was originally released as a NaNoRenO submission back in 2019, but got a significant visual update in 2021. The character art has a chibi-like feel to it, which I really like. Naming all the human characters after flowers sure was a choice, though. I can't tell if it was supposed to carry any meaning; I tried looking up the flower language for each of them and there wasn't anything worth mentioning for any of them. There are two very distinct endings and while the good one is adorable, I really liked the fact that the bad one was nauseating to read… but it's also good that there is an option to tone it down, if that's not something you're up for.
Robot Daycare is Verified on Steam Deck, which matches my experience as of 07/12/24. Use touchscreen or A to advance text, X to bring up settings menu, Y to bring up backlog, B to toggle auto mode, View to rollback, Menu to bring up save menu, R1 to skip (hold), R2 to skip (toggle).
This was just like all those other sexy anime girl puzzle games I've played before, except not exactly. The way the menu is programmed (bit worse than all those other ones) and the abundance of colors within the possible matches quickly betrays that this was made by someone entirely different. I still don't know how on earth they get all this art to look near-identical, though.
Sleeping With Sakuya Izayoi
This is Exactly What It Says On The Tin™️. You get to stare at Sakuya as she's laying down and from there, you have a few options to choose from at all times. "Talk" prompts her to say one of maybe fifty things available, "Kiss" lets you kiss her, "Sleep" has you two pretend to fall asleep for a second, "Change background" lets you switch between three available backgrounds and "Change music" lets you switch between two available BGMs.
Half of the things Sakuya can talk about are references to characters and major events of Touhou, which went completely over my head as I don't know the Touhou lore, but that's on me. If I had to define the other half, it's generic cute girl/confidence boosting things or attempts at humor that don't quite land.
I don't know that this game is "bad", it's just not very entertaining or novel. Sleeping with fictional characters isn't a new concept, so this game could easily have a few more options to add to its longevity, such as voice acting (preferably from someone who sounds like she does in the anime), more background and music options (heck, even white noise and other sounds to fall asleep to) and perhaps most importantly, a nap timer, so that players would actually put time into this game if they want to.
That being said, though, I feel like the devs are more into the idea of interacting with Sakuya in different scenarios than focusing on the sleep aspect (this is far from their first game about her); as short as the script is, there were too many spelling errors.
I mentioned more music options as a way of improving the game, because for some reason, only two tracks are available and neither of them sound like "sleeping with your dream girlfriend" to me. It should be easy enough to look for more suitable royalty-free music to include, it might just take more time. It would definitely be worth it, though.
Sleeping with Sakuya Izayoi is Playable on Steam Deck. Use touchscreen, A or R2 to advance text, View, L1 or L2 to rollback, R1 to undo rollback and Y to hide textbox.
This… was not bad. I'm not exactly sure what to say, maybe it didn't grip me like the dev expects it would, because it's not a particularly novel concept. If anything, it just makes me curious about The Purgatoryverse, as mentioned last time I played a supplement title, which is by all means the desired outcome. Maybe I will check it out one of these days.
The Painting is Playable on Steam Deck. Use the touchscreen, A or R2 to advance text, R1 to rollback, left stick down to take screenshot. Right touchpad is active.
Let's say I get the gist when it comes to GreenDam - it's infamous for being government-mandated censorship software, which internet users were having none of, and that's how the Green Dam Girl was born. In this story, the main character is a poor uni student on the lookout for a job. After scanning the QR code on a suspicious job advert, he gets an interview with the people behind it and is informed that the job was meant for him (only he still had a phone old enough to scan this particular QR code). Next day, he blindly signs a contract for becoming GreenDam's tester and receives a box with the GreenDam android inside. As expected of GreenDam, she evaporates all of MC's porn and breaks his computer the very first day she's there. From then on, a few… days? weeks? months? go by as they warm up to each other. At some point, GreenDam falls for the main character despite her makers taking care to remove love from her programming… and then she dies… because of course?
I'm not going to pretend like I knew what to find funny, especially because the translation isn't all that great. Every wrong choice leads to a bad end, each as abrupt and nonsensical as the next, but one in particular caught my attention: during the initial job interview, if you tell GreenDam's developers that you like cute boys (as opposed to cute girls), instead of the GreenDam delivery, some guy just comes to MC's apartment and references Yaranaika, then MC mentions being restrained and/or unable to move, so… that's a funny gay sexual assault joke (not). GreenDam herself looks to be around 13-15, while MC having freshly enrolled in uni would be 18 or 19, which seems to have given English readers the ick, but there really isn't anything here that crosses the line of your typical eroge. Rather, it's a case of the girl being GreenDam and therefore assuming all men are lecherous (she's a tsundere, because of course she is).
As for the technical qualities: GreenDam is fully voiced (well, minus whatever she says in the bad ends) and her sprite is animated with Live2D. There's also a solid selection of royalty-free BGM that sounded familiar, though I wouldn't be able to place where I heard them before. I do have to mention, however, that one of the achievements is bugged in the new version; a fix suggested in the discussions is unlocking it in the old version. If you decide to play on the Deck, keep in mind that the old version is not translated. I tried checking out the settings in the old version, as I usually would, and I must have toggled the fullscreen option, 'cause the game stopped showing up on screen entirely. All in all, I think you'll get the most out of this one if you know Chinese and account for how old the game is (the original version released all the way back in 2013).
There is No GreenDam is Playable on Steam Deck. Before a proper launch, it shows a setup window. Use the touchscreen, L1, R2 or R3 to advance text, L2 to hide textbox, R1 to open backlog. Right touchpad is active.
Tiny Stories: Santa Closes
I decided to add this to my library when I saw it's a cute and free Christmas-themed point-and-click. As it turns out, the only truth is that it's free. The art style may be cute, but this game is not meant for children. Instead, it's some kind of "edgy" story about "saving Christmas" that entails driving a reindeer to suicide and killing multiple tree ornaments. I would almost praise the translation for retaining and/or adapting the jokes in the script, but it's lame puns all the way down. The conclusion doesn't even make any sense. Only play this if you're of age and aware that it takes 10 minutes and leads nowhere (knowledge of French may help). That being said, I do not recommend this to anyone.
More to come…!
January Assassination #2
Steam Review - Consider liking it - it means a lot to me :)
Kind of …. meh. I tend to enjoy walking simulators, but I guess I prefer the ones where you don't feel completely alone. Such as Firewatch, where you always have a buddy talking to you and the world is open and expansive. Or Tacoma, where you're always surrounded by other characters. Gone Home reminded me more of Rachel Foster, which is kind of … not my favorite at all. The ambient is a bit oppressive, which I don't fully appreciate, and the game didn't run so well on my system, which surprises me given I can play RDR2 and The Last of Us remaster without an issue. Movement is quite sluggish.
It's a weak recommendation because of what it represents in the development of walking sims, but definitely not my favorite at it.
Firstly, have a belated Happy New Year from me.
Cadence, or lack of, when it comes posting my Reports sadly means I tend to miss big moments. Hope you had a great time and 2025 turns out better. On the gaming side of things I finally got around to playing more them Switch games I talked about. Albeit on totally opposite end of the genre spectrum I believe this one also falls under “either love it or can't stand it” category as Asura's Wrath. Also makes me wish Vanillaware would finally release their games on PC.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
( Nintendo Switch – Adventure, Strategy – 2022 ) + TRAILER
Game I've been meaning to play since it came out originally, then postponed checking it out until the Switch release and only now three years removed have I sat down and played through 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Surprisingly, I managed to last all that time without getting myself spoiled so expect the same from this review in case you want to check it out for yourself. It was definitely worth the wait.
Game opens bombastically as a teenage girl amidst the panicked mass summons this giant robot called Sentinel out of thin air and not long after gets thrust into battle. Girl is Iori and she's quickly joined by her classmate Juro with his own Sentinel to fight these mechanical Kaiju destroying their city. Guided by a mysterious voice our pair makes it through only to end up in an even worse place – a 1985 high-school where everything is normal with no ruins in sight. Fast forward and we now see a military youth who appears to be chasing after a girl... in 1944. Something impossible involving blue lights happens and Hijiyama is now living with this not-exactly girl out of an abandoned warehouse in 1985. Just to make things confusing even further this is followed up by yet another battle scenario where our boy is inside a Sentinel of his own. How many of these are out there?
If the above came across as scatter brained that's because 13 Sentinels chose the most ungrateful premise as its core tenet. What would be even more difficult to write than tackling something traditionally seen as challenging like time travel? To approach it with an ensemble cast of THIRTEEN (13) characters, of course. Each of them gets a prologue section intersected with five battle scenarios which culminate in the beginning of The Final Battle. I'll get into it more when I tackle the actual strategy tower defense mode, but there are three modes in the game: Destruction, Remembrance and Analysis. Remembrance is aptly named as that's the majority of the game with characters going through storylines and events that actually lead to the Final Battle itself. Analysis mode keeps track of all events and so-called Mystery Files you can unlock to get greater understanding of what's transpiring.
I want to make something crystal clear so you don't go into the game with misplaced expectations. This is NOT a puzzle game where you'll be expected to solve anything on your own – there are no items to combine and correct action is never beyond your Thought Cloud which acts as inventory and journal in one. Real mystery of 13 Sentinels comes from myriads of perspectives, bite-sized nuggets of information and sheer layers of complexity. You're playing for the story, which I've only scratched in the opening as bait for potential players, and characters who are themselves piecing it all together. I did have fun trying to figure out just what is going on before the game gives you enough pieces to pull the rug from under you with revelation after revelation. Don't be afraid you'll be left in the dark if mysteries are not your forte because game will explain everything rather too neatly towards the end. Perhaps some ambiguity would've helped, but so much of the narrative hinges on crucial information you cannot leave to player's imagination.
If extensive story development is one half of the narrative black then 13 Sentinels' characters are most certainly the other, and I can't tell you which is better. Eponymous characters are naturally not created equal and I had favorites, but they're all highschoolers who may or may not be what they seem. Surprisingly there's a valid reason why this age old anime cliche is in place here. Many familiar archetypes are here from stern, ominous Gouto who really likes to push up his glasses, to UFO nerd Natsu-chan and everything in-between. All their stories are worth playing through... which you'll have to do anyway because you don't really have freedom. Remembrance and Destruction keep tabs on one another to balance story progression. This means you'll juggle characters or go fight some battles to a certain threshold before further stories unlock. At no point was I annoyed by this, but keep in mind you WILL have to do combat.
Speak of the devil...
It's good to keep track of what's a flashback and what's actually happening if you want to piece the plot together ahead of schedule.
Arguably the most important screen in the game where you play through each protagonist's story. With some roadblocks, mind you.
There's a lot of customization to be made for the battle mode and since you can't bring everyone with you assemble with care.
This really isn't what it it looks like, but Thought Cloud is how you interact with the world in lieu of puzzles.
Battles in the game are something you can trivialize by lowering the difficulty. Given they're essentially glorified tower defense I really wouldn't.
Enter aforementioned Destruction mode aka tower defense employing real-time with pause and ability cooldowns. In reality I've just summarized the entire thing in that sentence. Sure, holographic presentation of the city and abstracted units give a different aesthetic from gorgeous 2D visuals the rest of the game employs, but all the visual effects from various weapons quickly endeared me to it. After the tutorial you start with the entire roster of thirteen protagonists to choose from with different specializations based on what generation their Sentinel is. Close combat, long range, all-rounders and air support specialists all have a role to play based on their abilities, movement rate and even pilots themselves with their own individual skills. What's the catch? Well, you can only field six characters in any mission, as others are relegated to fixed Aegis defense slots, and characters can do two battles in a row before they're overloaded and you need to bench them. Add optional special requirements missions present and you're naturally trained to rotate your Sentinels. Game even gives you the general gist of what kind of Kaiju you can expect to see in the mission so you can make informed choices.
That would be simple, wouldn't it? We go beyond simple. Completing missions in Destruction mode and going through character stories in Remembrance mode will grant you meta-chips. These are used to pick and customize Sentinel abilities as well as Aegis' aka tower in question you have to defend, own field-leveling abilities you have a limited number of uses with. After you're done with the first block of ten missions you then proceed to unlock another feature – statistical upgrades to your Sentinels via improved armor, generator, etc. For the most part you'll be using the former ability customization way more than the latter unless you're willing to grind missions for meta-chips. In case you're worried battles will get in the way of just experiencing the tremendous narrative don't be because you can REALLY trivialize the mode by playing on Casual difficulty. If you opt for Normal there are missions later on that will test your ability to put together a coherent and stay up to date with your abilities. You know it's go time when theme song starts playing for a particular mission in the style of mecha anime game draws from.
So what's 13 Sentinels like to actually play?
In the effort to maintain sanity you're juggling between Destruction and Remembrance modes. Analysis is something you can take or leave depending on how much attention you're paying to tiny bits of extraneous information. Timeline feature contained therein is handy to reference events, but knowing more about this “hemborger” meal one character likes may not be on your agenda. I forgot to mention you unlock Mystery Points as you complete missions in combat mode and you can use said MPs to gain access to Mystery Files for further clarity. Part of me wishes there was more of that P&C adventure tradition in Remembrance mode, but it's clear developers went for simpler mechanical approach. Since game takes place in certain time periods and characters are constantly shifting about you can expect to re-visit locations aplenty. This only began to grate towards the very end because I wanted to see the finale, but game kept taking me back to flashbacks of earlier routes I'd already done because by god, you will see that scene from every character's perspective. I get the reality of creating all those assets, though.
Production almost always ends up being a footnote in my reviews yet with Vanillaware games they're practically the main appeal. Gorgeous 2D art balanced by futuristic imagery present in battle mode, and strong soundtrack really carry the game on that front. That, however, is no stranger to this developer. Sheer scale of the script is what steals the show. Could it have been done with less convolution? Probably, but you can tell writers really went off the rails with so many characters and motivations that end up working toward one focal point. There's some unevenness among the thirteen protagonists and yet they all get their big moment to shine. I especially sympathized with a certain hoodlum who ends up in a time loop trying to get out.
Final Thoughts and Rating?
Ever wondered what navigating a mind-bending story involving time travel with thirteen fleshed out protagonists would be like? 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is here to help. While the story primarily takes place in 1985 Japanese high school, the game's second mode, that being tower defense strategy employing real-time combat with pause, is unfolding during The Final Battle. Seeing through those thirteen interwoven stories with plenty of drama, romance and intrigue actually sets the stage for the former. Both the adventure and strategy bits are on the simple side carried entirely by gorgeous Vanillaware presentation, stellar soundtrack and script that has to be experienced first hand as most of it will overwhelm you. Until everything clicks together and you start figuring out exactly what is going on.
Jan 03 2025
3 January 2025 | S25E01
Fallout 
So I picked this up in order to reach Fallout Tactics later in the franchise for my A Journey Through Time challenge.
What can I say, this game's a classic I've never played before. The lore & the story, as well as the storytelling, are truly remarkable for 1997. I hated absolutely everything about the game mechanics so I followed a step-by-step guide just to get through it. Still a fantastic game for its time.
Update 140: 2024 is over welcome 2025
In the last year I've completed 49 games and beaten 39 games. That's a total of 88 retired games, quiet a few less than last year. Also completed 19 DLC's for various games.
For SG wins I went from 42,28% of unfinished or never touched wins to 43,83% (a rise of 1,55%, was hoping for a drop -_- ). And for the overall backlog from 59.06% of unfinished or never touched games to 57,51% (a 1.55% drop, I'll take that). It is progress, I guess.
Current Progress January 2025
Overall Backlog Progress: +0,4% change to last times unfinished/never played games (57,51% unfinished games)
Overall SG Wins Progress:+0,2% change to last times unfinished/never played games (43,83% unfinished games)
Progress January 2024
Overall Backlog Progress:+0,3% change to last times unfinished/never played games (59,06% unfinished games)
Overall SG Wins Progress:+0,49% change to last times unfinished/never played games (42,28% unfinished games)
Update 139: December 2024
How is the year already over? Also my backlog is screaming because I have too many crazy friends. I totally sucked on the not activating more than I played front. Guess I need to find a different goal for the new year. But more to that later.
Love the game, need to get back for more play throughs
Landed on my won't play list. No matter what I did they would not start or crash immediately. So guess no dice. After trying to fix it for 30 minutes I gave up.
Sadly same for this one. Landed on my won't play list. No matter what I did they would not start or crash immediately. So guess no dice. After trying to fix it for 30 minutes I gave up.
Loved this game a lot, though be aware going in that it is very sad.
Completed the game together with mousewithbeer, what a fun game. Though some of the achievements were a pain in the ass to get.
Nice puzzle game some of the achivements are badly broken
Honestly I don't get the hate for this game. Is it as great as the first game or True Colors, not really.
But it has it's own charm. Has Max changed, sure she has. She's a professor and artist in residence. Would be bad if she hadn't. Also love Moses and Amanda. Not so sure about the rest.
It's an okay game, but I won't ever be a big fan of it since there is too much RNG involved. You can do perfectly fine in the game and then you draw a few shitty cards and your whole game goes to shit.
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Coloring Pixels - Advent 6 Pack
22.85 hours playtime
25 of 25 achievements
-
Coloring Pixels - Lunar New Year Pack
22.85 hours playtime
21 of 21 achievements
-
Jigsaw Puzzle Pack - Pixel Puzzles Ultimate: Santa
1.3 hours playtime
6 of 6 achievements
Overall Backlog Progress: +0,4% change to last times unfinished/never played games (57,51% unfinished games)
Overall SG Wins Progress:+0,2% change to last times unfinished/never played games (43,83% unfinished games)
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WooLoop
-
Lucky and a life worth living
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Dreamstones
-
American Truck Simulator
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Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
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Pixel Puzzles Ultimate Jigsaw
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Coloring Pixels
-
PlateUp!
-
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
-
Forgotton Anne
-
LEGO® DC Super-Villains
-
The Signal State
-
Color Pixel Heroes
9.6 hours playtime
no achievements
-
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes
-
Lost Words: Beyond the Page
Got all these gifts from some awesome people, you know who you are.
SG wins:
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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
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Crime Boss: Rockay City
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Remnant II
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Crysis 3 Remastered
Gifts:
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Terraformers
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GOD EATER 3
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Chef
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UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late
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PIXEL PUZZLES TRADITIONAL JIGSAWS PACK: CHIHUAHUAS
0 hours playtime
0 of 14 achievements
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Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
-
Resident Evil 4
-
COLORING PIXELS - VISTAS 3 PACK
0 hours playtime
0 of 21 achievements
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If My Heart Had Wings
-
COLORING PIXELS - JUNGLE PACK
0 hours playtime
0 of 21 achievements
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COLOR PIXEL HEROES - EXPANSION PACK 2
0 hours playtime
no achievements
-
WOOLOOP - ADVENT PACK
0 hours playtime
0 of 25 achievements
-
Farm Together 2
9.2 hours playtime
no achievements
-
Bully: Scholarship Edition
0 hours playtime
no achievements
-
WOOLOOP - NATURE PACK
0 hours playtime
0 of 22 achievements
-
WOOLOOP - VIDEO GAMES PACK
0 hours playtime
0 of 22 achievements
-
Color Pixel Heroes - Expansion Pack 1
0 hours playtime
no achievements
-
WOOLOOP - FANTASY PACK
0 hours playtime
0 of 22 achievements
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JIGSAW PUZZLE PACK - PIXEL PUZZLES ULTIMATE: VARIETY PACK 24
0 hours playtime
0 of 26 achievements
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Divinity: Original Sin (Classic)
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Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition
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Divinity: Original Sin 2
-
Forgotton Anne
-
Saint Maker
-
Perfect Gold
-
Planet Zoo: Twilight Pack
0 hours playtime
no achievements
-
Station to Station
-
Solstice
-
Cuisineer
-
The Bookwalker
-
XBlaze Lost: Memories
-
Disco Elysium
-
God of War
-
Coloring Pixels - Isometric 3 Pack
0 hours playtime
0 of 21 achievements
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Queen's Quest 5: Symphony of Death
-
Mafia: Definitive Edition
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Two Point Campus
-
Moonstone Island
-
Everreach: Project Eden
PoP: thanks to TEROBERO & Zlia for challenging me
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The Signal State
-
Forgotton Anne
-
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
-
Gal*Gun: Double Peace
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LEGO® DC Super-Villains
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Overlord II
0 hours playtime
no achievements
-
Dead In Vinland
-
American Truck Simulator
-
Pixel Puzzles Ultimate Jigsaw
-
Coloring Pixels
-
WooLoop
-
Lucky and a life worth living
2024: Backlog Progress
The good news is that I should be able to write a much more positive 2025 backlog review, the bad news is that it was because 2024 was absolutely shocking in terms of backlog progress! Sums it up really that I’m only just getting around to my yearly review now days late. It was a good year for me generally with a house move that took out a lot of time and have only recently started to feel settled, so I’ve had my reasons for it, but still its been a shame to see no real progress made with the games added about equalling those played, it just bugs me that I’m about where I was a year ago.
But staying positive I had plenty of gaming highlights from those I did play, I made some decent progress into the Final Fantasy series again, now having played a couple of classics in 6 and 7 that I loved and can’t wait to get onto the remakes, and hope to get through VIII, IX and X this year. I was able to play through BG2 after beating BG1 the previous year, setting me up to be ready for BG3 when I’ve got the urge for that huge RPG. I was able to put my new graphics card to the test with Cyberpunk 2077 that was one of the best looking games I’ve played, until I tried Veilguard later in the year which was visually stunning too - my biggest disappointment was not being able to get properly into Veilguard with it clashing with the house move, and couldn’t get invested in it at all. To stick with Dragon Age, I was able to do a series replay that I promised I would treat myself to in anticipation of Veilguard’s release, which definitely contributed to my backlog problems with Inquisition taking hundreds of hours again, but I loved every minute of it, especially returning to Origins and beating it and Inquisition on nightmare difficulty. I will have to give Veilguard a second chance at some point this year as I’m sure it was just the timing of it more than anything else that affected my enjoyment.
The full list of my 2024 progress can be found here, feel free to ask about any :)
My key targets for 2025 are below, lots of repeats from my target list for 2024 because of the lack of progress made, but plenty of new additions I’m excited about! In particular I’d love to give the XCOM series a go, feel like it makes sense to play it before trying out Midnight Suns so deserves a priority pick, I’d played Uncharted 1-3 on Playstation and have no excuse to have delayed as long as I have in playing the fourth given its reputation, and I’ve been listening to the soundtrack of TUNIC since it came out and would love to be able to actually enjoy it in-game too!
In terms of future releases that might tempt me in 2025… I was a huge fan of Spider-Man and Miles Morales and really excited that the sequel is coming to PC soon, the full release of Hades II for sure though I just know it will make me want to replay the first game beforehand, Avowed, Outer Worlds 2 and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2… ok I’m now slightly worried looking through the release schedule of 2025. I’m going to set myself a target of having fewer than 100 games remaining unplayed by the end of the year (164 at time of writing) and see if I can treat myself depending on how on schedule that target is!
2024: Favourites
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Cyberpunk 2077
139 hours playtime
33 of 57 achievements
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Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition
220 hours playtime
no achievements
-
Dragon Age™ Inquisition
241 hours playtime
69 of 69 achievements
-
Final Fantasy VII
87 hours playtime
23 of 36 achievements
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Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
17 hours playtime
no achievements
2025: Targets
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DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT
0 minutes playtime
0 of 63 achievements
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Divinity: Original Sin 2
0 minutes playtime
0 of 97 achievements
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ELDEN RING
0 minutes playtime
0 of 42 achievements
-
FINAL FANTASY VIII - REMASTERED
0 minutes playtime
0 of 34 achievements
-
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
5 hours playtime
0 of 42 achievements
-
NieR:Automata™
0 minutes playtime
0 of 47 achievements
-
TUNIC
0 minutes playtime
0 of 36 achievements
-
UNCHARTED™: Legacy of Thieves Collection
0 minutes playtime
0 of 101 achievements
-
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
2 hours playtime
0 of 85 achievements
-
Yakuza 0
0 minutes playtime
0 of 55 achievements
Something's missing
I did not had the chance to play anything during November, as I got a new job and spent a lot of time doing transitions, not just with the job but I took it as an opportunity to turn my life around, now that I spend all the day at home with a remote job I want to use that saved time to get into my real passion and try to eventually make something significant out from it, which is Art, writting, drawing, music, cinema.... That's the passion I am looking for.
This post makes sense #2 - December 2024
Hades 
4/5
4/5
5/5
4/5
17/20
Will 100% eventually, I expect some level of grinding but it doesn't seem that much compared to other rouge games
Balatro
5/5
2.5/5
4/5
5/5
16.5/20
Way too much grinding, which I love but not expecting to 100% this anytime soon