Amitte

Progress report: March 2019

It’s finally done…! Man, March was a crazy month! I like to believe I stopped wasting time online, even if just a little bit - and started putting more of it into my backlog. I’ve also had a small accident at the very start of the month, so yay, a week off! /s That being said, let’s get into what I’ve accomplished:

18+ - This one was made by the dev of 21+ and… I didn’t think I’d say it, but it’s even worse than that one. It took literally 5 minutes to complete, on the dot. All there is to it are simple riddles with photos of animals behind them… like, what? Is this what people think games are now?

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs - Huge plot twist! Just until recently, I’ve had this one on my won’t play list, but now that’s changed; my boyfriend played it and I diligently watched him, reading all the in-game notes and offering tips when he got stuck. Truth be told, I still don’t really grasp the story hiding in that game… I’m up for some explanation, if anyone wants to provide! Also, for now this will be beaten, but who knows, I might take up the challenge of collecting all those notes one day.

Antenna - Truth be told, I’ve seen Antenna in the Steam Store years ago, but hadn’t decided to play it until now. It looks really good, I have to give it credit for that; but my gripe with it is the same as nearly everyone else’s - what are we? why are we where we are? what are those sound puzzles supposed to be? why are we solving them? what is anything supposed to represent in this game? I finished the game in less than half an hour and I don’t suppose I’ll miss it much.

Confess My Love - Confess My Love is a small game created in China, telling a story of a high school boy who doesn’t quite know how to confess his feelings to his classmate. You can help him do it… with as many as 20 endings. Personally I really liked that at some point the outcomes started to deviate from what about 3/4 of the first ones are. One thing about this game that I imagine might turn people away from it is the incredibly tiny window it plays on (might not look the best on a big monitor?); but hey, it’s free. Also, it was one of those games I thought I was gonna get stuck on forever, but who knows, maybe my boyfriend’s presence helped me finish it that one day :D

Dad’s co-worker - Ah, yes. I’ve had so much free time this month I decided to go through the whole Hanae Novels catalogue and… these “VNs” are so bad I can’t even believe they were released. Such are Steam’s politics, I assume. This one took five, maybe ten minutes to read… and the next two hours and a half to idle all the achievements. Congratulations, your “game” sucks ass. Want a cookie?

Dark Angels: Masquerade of Shadows - I have to say, the moment I saw this one on HRK I had to get it. The girl on the cover image really caught my attention, but… it’s not the protagonist. I know, I know, I was sad about that too. But let’s get back on track. Dark Angels is a fairly linear HOG game - by which I mean I don’t remember any “HOG logic” happening. Both the hidden object scenes and the minigames were challenging enough for me to be hovering my cursor over the hint button before reminding myself that I can’t use any hints if I want to actually 100% the game. The story of the game was pretty interesting - if someone wanted to make a movie out of it, I feel like I’d watch it. I have to comment on this though: while there was no “HOG logic” in the interactive aspect, there was some in the plot. I mean, at first the protagonist isn’t quite sure what killed her mother and why it happened - she’s not too convinced about using her mother’s chakram - but as soon as she gets to the DA hideout, she’s raring to go? Doesn’t make much sense to me. The art was amazing - especially when it got really colorful and vibrant - best example would be the hotel and its neighboring areas. The sound was good - for the most part - of all the characters, the protagonist had to have the worst voice acting… a real shame. One can also tell the game wasn’t made by native English speakers - while the VA’s accents sound very clear, they pronounce the word “chakram” as “shakram”? I guess that’s not that bad though. I also really like the theme song for some reason. I’ll have to look it up sometime.

Dima Rescues Ira - A surprisingly short and dull point-and-click. Honestly, I’m glad it wasn’t longer because I could have checked out before completing it in one sitting. Thankfully I could watch the dev’s walkthrough to get it done - and celebrate a finished SG win! Yaaay! :D

Emily is Away - Oh, I love games that awake nostalgia for things I didn’t have the privilege to experience myself… Emily is Away is definitely one of those games. Shortly put, it’s a bittersweet coming-of-age story. I’ll be looking to pick up the sequel sooner or later.

Glass Masquerade - This one had been included in my very first post, but by now it had been updated with multiple DLC puzzles, and it’s here to mark me completing all of them. My opinion on the game remains unchanged - it’s as mesmerizing as it’s been before. I can’t wait to play the second one.

Glass Painting: Winter Art - This one is a special snowflake …get it? no? okay. As of the time of writing this, the game is (officially) unplayable because of some mistake the creator made and you have to fix it yourself if you’re eager enough to play. I, for one, was terribly disappointed in what the game had to offer. The designs are nice, sure, but the execution is so poor that it would be more enjoyable to buy a real coloring book and fill it out instead. Plus the achievement that wants you to “play the game for 2 hours” probably so you won’t refund it immediately, seeing how bad it is… I love idling games! /s

Hidden Object - Sweet Home - Hidden Object - Sweet Home is a game made with basic Unity assets. Really. It’s mind-numbingly easy even on the “hard” difficulty …and just… not that good-looking. It also has an achievement that wants you to play for an hour (even though the content it has to offer might last you… maybe 20 minutes, and that’s if you can’t see an item or two), which is honestly the only reason I completed it only now. Verdict: Avoid.

If you know what I mean - This is definitely the longest VN from Hanae Novels, which mildly compensates for the time needed to idle all the achievements in comparison to Dad’s co-worker. Shame the most they could do went into a story that’s pretty much someone’s wet dream (or at least their imagination of one).

Keyhole Spy: Fantasy Passion - Meh, just another Keyhole Spy game.

Keyhole Spy: Naughty Witches - Meh, just another Keyhole Spy game. x2

Lauren’s visit - It’s as short as Dad’s co-worker, if not shorter. I literally cannot congratulate Hanae Novels for being one of the worst “developers” out there.

Lines X Free - A free- Wait! That’s already in the title! clears throat Okay then… Lines X Free is one of Konstructors Entertainment’s multiple takes on Numberlink puzzles. Like some other games mentioned in this post, I picked this one up earlier, then just left it and decided to come back to it in March. Nothing special to say about it, really.

Little hidden city - This one initially didn’t really seem appealing, but then I played it and for an unfinished-looking game, it was actually pretty dang hard! Other than that, it was just a short 100%.

Love Games - This one had an interesting premise, but, as Hanae Novels go, it had to stop at a To be continued… screen. Jokes on you, Hanae Novels, I know it’ll never come to that.

Masha Rescues Grandma - See Dima Rescues Ira.

Minecraft: Story Mode - A Telltale Games Series - Episode 1 - I’ve never been much for Minecraft - not when my cousins played it because they genuinely found it entertaining, and definitely not when it became one big meme. However, when I tried out Minecraft: Story Mode… it feels weird to admit that I actually really liked it! I might return to the full version of the game some day.

Missing Translation - A free puzzle game in monochrome colors. Call me stupid, but I still don’t really get anything about what happened in it.

MONMUSU - Realistically speaking, I had finished this game months ago… but only now did I finish grinding the important parts… ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Mosaic: Game of Gods - Mosaic: Game of Gods is a puzzle game, which, as the name suggests, has you completing “mosaic” puzzles. Every ten (or so) levels, you get transported to a different world and the materials the puzzles imitate change - paper, stone, glass, etc. I enjoyed putting the puzzles together, but I got somewhat fed up with the sound effects after so much puzzling. There was also some story introduction to it, but I barely paid attention to it.

Mosaic: Game of Gods 2 - I got this one before the first game and played most of it shortly after, but when I realized the puzzles started taking longer and I thought I wouldn’t get the time- and point-based achievements, I quit for a while. Luckily enough, finishing the first game prepared me for this one and I ended up knocking it out shortly after as well. At least this one didn’t have a weird opening song xD

Mutual Secret - Technically I don’t have any achievements in this one… but that’s just because Hanae Novels had become so bad they managed to fuck up the only thing that made their games sell back when they could charge from them. The fix I found only worked halfway for me, so if anyone’s bonkers enough to know how to make it work, I’ll appreciate it. As for the story… a woman falls in love with another woman. Way too fast. Just like the VN’s “ending” - way too fast.

My Lady - A short VN from Michaela Laws that has you assuming the role of a young noble girl who is hopelessly in love with her butler - the one man out of her reach. I like the fact that this one has voice acting (Michaela Laws puts on a fairly amusing accent to establish the maid’s personality… or does she sound like that in real life too?! DUN DUN DUUUNNN!), but due to how short it is, it ends very abruptly, which is a shame. Was it worth however little it costs, in the end? Honestly, I can’t tell. It seems people either totally love or utterly hate Laws’ works, so it’s up for you to decide.

Mystic Journey: Tri Peaks Solitaire - Ladies and gentlemen… here it is. After a whopping playtime of 15 hours, I present to you… Mystic Journey: Tri Peaks Solitaire - completed. I first downloaded this one after seeing it’s free because I thought “Hey, I like solitaire!” and pretty much dismissed the mixed reviews. 15 hours later, I can surely say that people are right in not liking it - it is the worst custom solitaire game I’ve played up to date. It uses a rechargable life system and only rewards you with bonuses when if you finish a level. The bonuses are scarce and usually end up not helping. The AI (I guess that’s what it would be for this game?) is terrible. Let’s say you have to remove two “6”s from the board. Okay, you’re looking for either a “5” or a “7”. What does the game give you instead? A fuckload of “6”s… or other unrelated cards. Like, how the hell are you supposed to deal with that? Chance is chance, but that is just ridiculous. Long story short, I got pissed at the game a lot, but in the end I don’t feel like it took me that long to complete it… so if you really want to play it, I suggest you do what I did and only play once in a while, between some more interesting games.

Orwell - I’ll start by saying that Orwell has become one of my favorite games. In it, you assume the role of a person examining data on citizens of The Nation (has a powerful ring to itself, doesn’t it). Your job is to discern which information is right, wrong or doesn’t matter in the predicament you’re set in. All in all, Orwell is an anti-utopia piece that gets a little too close for comfort.

Piquant Bathing - It seems the Keyhole Spy franchise got somewhat of a rival, as Piquant Bathing came in to present pretty much the same concept… only with Numberlink puzzles. Sometimes I wonder if it isn’t just all the same people making those games, hiding under different dev names.

Refunct - Once again, boyfriend’s a dearie and lowkey got hooked when I let him try this one out. Here’s to hoping he’ll get the last two achievements for me, now that he managed to get the eigth one.

Regeria Hope Episode 1 - Regeria Hope is, to put it bluntly, an Ace Attorney copycat. It does what it aims to well, but it could use just a little polish. Shame no more than one episode has ever come out.

Rescue Love Revenge - I started playing Rescue Love Revenge years ago literally but in time, I ran into a wall. Thanks to my boyfriend, who helped me with the tricky jumps in one or two levels, it can now be marked as Completed. It’s a somewhat climatic platformer, but cowboys aren’t really my thing. The story, if there is supposed to be any, doesn’t make any sense to me either.

Slash It - As its Steam Store description states: “Slash It is a 2D colorful arcade game. The goal is to match shapes, press letters and numbers in the right time and direction.” Short and not complicated. I did have to mute the music though (which isn’t something I do often), as it was getting on my nerves.

Slash It 2 - This installment somewhat improved - the new “Words” mode quickly became my favorite and a sure way to quickly get most of the letter achievements (why the hell would you not input any words with “J” in it though, developer?!). The music got a step-up from the first game as well (Vocaloid ftw!). I’m inclined to believe this one took me half an hour longer than the first one because I had to grind out the letter achievements I couldn’t exactly get in the “Words” mode fast enough.

Speedy Girls: Dream Team - Pretty much Keyhole Spy, just that it adds a racing/tuning mechanic. One of the many games I’ve decided (and managed) to finish this month, nothing more to say.

Step sisters: Episode 1 - Last of the Hanae Novels galore (at least for now), this one talks about, uh… two girls… who fall in love with each other… but just so you know it’s not incest, they’re step-sisters! Bleh. I’ll play the second one whenever. Oh, and achievements for this one are broken too.

TAIKU MANSION - I must have gotten this one in a bundle somewhere… can’t remember what bundle it would have been though. Originally I was scared away from the game by a reviewer saying how they feel like it contains malware… but it doesn’t seem to do so. All in all, if it wasn’t for the walkthrough, I’d never have passed it because of how unreasonable the game is - with the walkthrough however, it was a damn short game. Nothing exceptional about it, though.

Teddy Floppy Ear - Kayaking - Gosh… Teddy Floppy Ear is one of the many fictional characters I loved when I was little, and it was interesting to get a peek at what he would look (and sound!) like in game form. The results are… somewhat surprising, but not in a bad way. I’ve actually passed most of Kayaking back last year, but I held it off because I thought I got stuck right before the end - as it turns out, I was just too hasty with my directions! It only really took a minute or two to finish the game properly, but I guess that makes it count for March 2019 after all.

The Girl on The Train - My first experience with NewWestGames’ VNs - it’s nothing special. Contains some logical errors that are tough to overlook, but other than that it’s just a short story about a girl falling in love with another girl.

The Monster Inside - A short visual novel (or “an audio-visual novella”, as its title screen describes it - honestly, this will never not make me chuckle softly) with a somewhat predictable ending. Aside from that, it only takes one word to describe it: noir.

The NADI Project - A walking simulator made in Unity. Laggy, unintuitive and its story is so pieced I still didn’t understand it in the end.

The Tiny Bang Story - This one is real nostalgic! I remember playing it on Big Fish Games back when I didn’t even know of Steam’s existence. Grabbing a key for it from some freebie was a joy. Experiencing the game in all its glory was that as well (instead of only really using BFG’s hour-free trial; I know, I know, lame :P), although there were a few frustrating sections. A particular concern that people seem to have with TTBS is that its riddles, while creative, can’t be solved properly by colorblind people - a real shame the developer didn’t do anything to improve on that front.

Trash Story - Another one from the dev of 18+ and 21+. Trash Story puts you in the shoes of what’s-his-face Russian guy who, uh… goes on an adventure? Not a single thing in this one made sense. It was the kind of bad that makes you smile before you start sobbing softly at the thought of someone thinking this is a legit game. In the 20 minutes it took me, it managed to get so weirdly offensive I… bleh. That’s how I feel about this “game”. Bleh. It has 5000 achievements, end of story.

Unhack - In this InvertMouse game, you assume the role of… a debugger, I assume? - who, for the sake of the game, is referred to as an “unhacker”. In your job, you’re assisted by your company’s AIs, who will turn out to be important in the story of rivalry, friendship and dealing with the past - all of which Unhack has got in store. Personally, I like the fact that this game is fully voiced (save for the main character). There also aren’t any achievements, so I didn’t have to force myself to replay it multiple times for the sake of passing it on the hardest difficulty or something like that. Also, when I was stalling it, it had gone from a viable entry on VNDB to one that’s now deleted (having been recognized as “not a visual novel”; possibly in comparison to its sequel, which is a straight VN), but that won’t stop me from keeping it on my BLAEO VN list, since the game is made in Ren’Py and whatnot. I will also note that I played the DLC - Unhack:Destruction.

Who is Mike? - Yet another short and free VN; this one begins as you (aka Mike) wake up and see yourself standing right before you. But how can that be? Can there really be two Mikes? And most importantly: Who is Mike?

Without Within - Without Within is a short and free visual novel created by InvertMouse and follows Vinty, an aspiring calligraphist. Honestly, this one’s so short that writing even a sentence more to hint at what it’s about spoils its ending, so I’ll stop here.

XXZ - A match-3 game from L. Stotch that deals with girls, girls… undead girls. Initially, I turned this one on some time last year, passed two levels and uninstalled it. In March, however, I suddenly felt an urge to give it another shot, and, as it turned out, it wasn’t as tricky and bullshitty as I imagined it to be (still some BS in its mechanics, but I believe that’s only for the game to try and last longer) and that I didn’t understand all it had to offer due to the way instructions are presented in L. Stotch games. All in all, it’s a short and free match-3 game that lets you kill zombies and rewards you with erotic pics.

东方试闻广纪 ~ Perfect Memento of Touhou Question - As the name suggests, this is a quiz game that focuses on the Touhou franchise. As recognizable as some of the Touhou characters are, I’m convinced bullet hell games are not my cup of tea, but I saw this and I just went for it… with a walkthrough. I pretty much don’t know any Touhou lore, but kudos on gathering so much info from all the different places, I suppose?

over 5 years ago 7 comments
Cece09

Well that’s a lot of games and you even unlocked achievements in the 100s and 5ks I never did. Mentioned your step sisters was broken at 80 I couldn’t even unlock 1 with both of them which I don’t hate. Took 4 minutes for both those stories so why should I have to idle for ages

over 5 years ago
Amitte

Yeah, I’ll be really surprised if anyone actually reads this whole post! I did read most of the recent posts, including yours ^^

On one hand, it feels somewhat satisfying to get so many achievements… but then I remember they don’t actually matter and aren’t usable since the games are removed from Steam, and then Completionist.me makes it seem like I’m some pro achievement hunter while that’s totally not the case, lol.

I mean, some people got all the achievements in those games - either normally, or using the fix someone posted in the discussions - but for me even that fix didn’t really work. And yeah, it’s not a case of idling for those, the dev just doesn’t know how to make games properly.

over 5 years ago
Cece09

At the times I did have the achievements working I just had to idle the achievements out first since they kept blocking most of the words. If I’m going to be spending the next few minutes reading their story I was going to do it right.

I’ve read some of the parts of this report but I don’t normally read most parts of reviews and stuff normally. Most of the time if I do I just look at the cons since more fun then reading whats good

over 5 years ago
Traqie

What part of story in Machine for Pigs did you not understand? I don’t remember all of it nor I think I understood it perfectly, but maybe I can help

over 5 years ago
Amitte

Let’s see if I can still recall all I’ve gathered… what we’re given to work with is that we assume the role of Oswald, chasing after his sons, Edwin and Enoch and most of that has you wandering through some kind of… factory? which becomes more and more mad as you travel down. Then there’s also the mysterious caller whom Oswald deems a “saboteur”… and the grande finale. Point is, what I did grasp from the story is that Oswald definitely had a hand in making pigmen come to life; or rather changing humans into them - and I assume that’s also what he has done to his sons, hence the mysterious voice’s taunting. But is there anything that explains who the voice might be? Or what the ending means? Or was that nothing more than Oswald killing/modifying himself to “join” his sons?

over 5 years ago
Traqie

Ok before I explain have you played previous Amnesia? I would have to spoil that one a little

over 5 years ago
Amitte

I didn’t, actually. But I don’t mind spoilers :)

over 5 years ago