August 2024 Progress Report
“Next month! I’m gonna be super serious! Promise!”
So that was a lie.
I ended up with COVID-19 (Which I still have, and I’ve had since the 23rd.) and spent nearly the entire month on Royal Road reading “A Nerubian’s Journey” instead of gaming. While I did finish Hashihime of the Old Booktown, I still have a couple of routes to explore so that will appear next month. Fortunately, it wasn’t a total loss, 40 hours of gaming is 40 hours, but I’m still disappointed I didn’t finish all the things I wanted to.
Next month is gonna be a bit wonky, I’m flying to Germany to visit my childhood home then taking a train to Paris to meet my Aunt for the first time, so I’m super anxious about that 15-hour flight and also I’ve never been on a train before. And I don’t speak German. Or French. Gaming-wise, I’m hoping to play AI: The Somnium Files, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Graveyard Keeper, and finish off Hashihime of the Old Book Town but I’m sure I’m going to be just as clueless as you are as to what my next post will look like. At least I’ve removed a couple games from my library. Farewell, Fairy Fencer series, and Dragon Star Varnir.
Total games added to backlog: 0 (-4?)
Total completed: 2
Life has always been pretty bleak for Natsuki; after being disabled from a childhood accident that took his leg and his mother, and then having to drop out of school as a young adult due to his grandmothers passing, he inherits her boat, her submarine, and her debts. A small glimmer of hope lies a couple 30 meters under the sea behind Natsuki’s submerged childhood home; his grandmother was an accomplished ocean geologist in her lifetime, and surely, she has some expensive equipment he could salvage from her locked storehouse! What he finds, however, is a girl, an android named Atri sleeping peacefully beneath the waves. Sell her to get a fresh start in life, or try to win her heart instead… if she has one.
11-13 hours to complete, ATRI is a bittersweet VN where most of the earth has been swallowed by the sea. It is very high quality; the art is excellent and there is full voice acting. A Bad End and a Good End must be played to unlock the True End. Overall, it’s an incredible and well-written visual novel well worth playing that’s almost perfect without any faults. Almost. The protagonist Natsuki gets creepy near the end, he confesses his love daily and gets rejected just as often, and twists those rejections in his favor. “Was she sad I confessed to her? No, that can’t be right. People cry when they are happy too.” and is under the impression the only reason she’s not returning his affection is because “Even she isn’t aware of her true feelings.” Due to his inner narrations and outlook, the ending gave me a much darker impression than I believe was intended. While I’m not fond of the male protagonist of ATRI, it’s still an excellent novel.
Fallen Hero: Rebirth
Los Angeles has fallen due to numerous natural disasters and in its ashes rose the rebuilt city of Los Diablos, a lawless city untouched by the government and run by those with power – literally. Heroes and Villains are in a constant battle for control and in the aftermath of the Heartbreak Incident, the telepathic hero Sidestep is presumed dead. Armed with the knowledge you shouldn’t have and secrets that were buried long ago, remake yourself into the greatest villain the city has ever seen.
6-13 hours to complete, Fallen Hero: Rebirth is a text-based RPG with a rare villain protagonist. LGBTQ+ friendly with optional romance, it’s a pretty amazing fallen superhero novel where every choice you make feels like you’ve made the correct one where you choose the tone and level of violence. 385,000+ words and the first book of three, the next in the series being Fallen Hero: Retribution then Fallen Hero: Revelations. Reaching the end of the novel saves that game and brings it into the second novel, and so forth. Overall, it’s a fantastic novel to invest your time into; the only thing I can complain about is the lack of a save/load system and the fact that you can’t backtrack to see the results of other choices unless you start a new game.
Sorry to hear you got sick. Hope you’ll feel better soon.
Farewell, Fairy Fencer series, and Dragon Star Varnir.
Bless. I may not have played any of those, but in my defense, my track record with JRPGs has been awful so far.
After I got Covid a second time, I also ended up with mechanical sleep apnea as a long Covid issue. Which I still have to this day, although it’s manageable by simply using Flonase which more or less incentivizes my body to remember to breathe when I’m asleep.
Hopefully yours just goes away without any further symptoms.
I hear only good things about Atri.
And Jaegerschnitzel ftw. :)
Other than a persistent cough and positive tests I’m feeling much better than the first few days of body aches and general illness. I hope I manage to avoid any long term effects! How long have you had sleep apnea from covid?
Not quite four years. I’d guess it’s permanent at this point. It’s not as bad now as when it first came up though, so that’s a positive.
Even in the mddle of having covid, our hero Zelrune finds the time to congratulate everyone.
Get well soon!
I’m only really active on the website for the first day of each month so I try to go hard on my comments - I remember years ago it was a lot quieter of a website and I felt a bit lonely.
To be honest I have always found it weird. Like you are cheering for others only one day in a month and if someone posts their report even right the next day, bummer I am no longer interested… fascinating.
I don’t obsessively check the activity feed every time I happen to pop up on the website to update my stats, that’s how it is.
Thank you! Also how did you post this.
Probably an easier way but I just took the example photo when you write a post and put a gif in instead
![images] (example.gif)
Had no idea if it could happen but I had to do something special for you