Belated monthly report, go!!!

So, this month was almost entirely dominated by one game: Hollow Knight. The game absolutely earns its hype. It’s not perfect, but it’s incredibly charming. I had been stuck at tje Soul Master (rather early game, he’s the third named mandatory * boss turns out he’s technically skippable), but I got the first ending and am making my way to the true ending (the game has tons of optional content). There’s some real joy in getting lost, and even when your detours lead nowhere or to some very measly item, it always feels great.

Next in beaten games this month, I finished Detention (I put in about one hour at the tail end of May) and played the entirety of MINIT (a short game). Detention was nice, not exactly what I expected: the “survival” bits of the horror are actually just a few short sequences at the start of the game, unlike in The Coma where they’re a core part of the gameplay loop. I was slightly pissed the game didn’t give me the “check every checkable spot” achievement as I though I was rather thorough, but the core experience was rather good (albeit the plot and themes are slightly unwieldy). MINIT was a short and mostly tight experience. It did have me running in circles a few times; nothing gamebreaking. I’m semi-stuck trying to 100% it and am even unsure if I should just jump to NG+, given how short it is, but I did have fun.

Next category: odds and ends

I made it to before the point of no return of Gato Roboto and am slightly pissed that I didn’t actually get 100% on my own. Had to look up those final thingies, and though I will complete it, that did kill my impulse. It’s still a charming experience. Room design is rather limited which makes traversal not quite as fun as it could be, but it’s a fun mini-Metroidvania nonetheless.

Played a chapter and parts of two more of Munin and it’s erghhhh. Physics are kinda janky, with many failures feeling less a fault of my own and more of the game being clunky by design. The puzzle concepts aren’t bad, but the game does suffer from having various pickups in the same level be the objective and thus lead to a lot of busywork whenever you restart. It’s not even like you must route smartly to pick them up, at least to the point where I’m currently.

Played the opening of The Fall. Sadly my less than stellar setup did stutter a bit with this one. It’s still playable, but annoyingly the dialogue text shows up at snail’s pace. The overall game is quite good though: a bit of a mix of a Point and Click adventure with a Metroidvania interface.

Returned briefly to Deponia Doomsday. While my interest on the game overall has gone down after that terrible chapter in what I think is the middle point of the game, it’s gotten better. If I wasn’t still having Hollow Knight fever I might have completed it after the bits of progress I made.

Did a few more runs of Himno and am actually now more confused than when I played just a couple before. It’s a platforming rougelike. Not sure if the procedural generation is exactly fair in terms of where it puts the necessary elements and platforms, as I did at least once have an impossible setup. There’s also not that much variety. It’s chill, but not quite as relaxing as you might expect.

Speaking of rougelikes, had a couple of runs of The Binding of Isaac as Samson and it remains a fantastic chillax comfort game.

Those I really didn’t play

Opened Goodbye Deponia by accident. I guess I could go achievement hunting sometime, but the lack of a chapter select means that’ll take some time.

Remember what I said about my current PC being on the low end? Well, it turns out WarriOrb: Prologue is one of those games that it can’t handle, at all. I’m used to low framerates, but this is the first time they make a game unplayable as opposed to just a bit more difficult for a sidescroller. It is 2.5D so I should have expected it.