June 2024 Progress Report
Happy June! This month went ok for the most part, I didn’t get a lot done as I felt very.. listless? I didn’t want to do much of anything except sleep, I’m hoping the new games I purchased from the Summer Sale get me excited for games again, it’s not fun when you don’t enjoy your hobbies anymore. I purchased Dave the Diver, ATRI, Bustafellows, and AC Valhalla complete edition! I also got two games as gifts, Aka and Marchen Forest, but I’m adding those to next month’s statistics.
For next month.. my POP picker was very cruel to me!!! bullying!!! (I asked for it to be difficult!!) so I’m planning on playing AI: The Somnium Files, the Divine Speaker, Hashihime of the Old Book Town, Graveyard Keeper, and Aka - but I’ve already completed Aka, so that’s nice. Wish me luck!
Total games added to backlog: 6
Total completed: 3
But I deleted 3 games from my library, so I’m calling this month a draw!
Earth is facing a catastrophic extinction event and the only human potentially left alive is on the Moon. Aria is a junior puzzle operative for the Entropy Center, a humanitarian company that generates renewable energy and whose headquarters is, for perfectly normal reasons, in space. Alone and with amnesia, Aria and her AI entropy device Astra must generate enough energy in an attempt to save Earth from its destruction and investigate why she’s been left behind.
8-15+ hours to complete, The Entropy Center is a post-apocalyptic half puzzle-platformer half walking-sim where you rewind objects in time to solve puzzles. Explore a gigantic abandoned space station overgrown with plant life and search through crumbling buildings for information to discover how you ended up alone on the moon. Overall, I had a very lovely experience as it’s a graphically beautiful game with a storyline that’s fun to think about. The only two cons I would note are that I wish there were more unlocked rooms to investigate and that the plot twist was less obvious. There are time-sensitive sections and enemies that appear in and past Act 7, but nothing is terribly difficult or frightening. I highly recommend The Entropy Center, especially if you are fond of abandoned places.
Fallen Seeds
This game was given to me for free to curate, which does not guarantee a positive review, and reflects my sincere opinion.
As a seasoned agent of the Imperial Security Bureau of the Earth Empire, get assigned an easy courier mission to the far-off and exotic planet Ulthar to retrieve a vital package from your currently undercover best friend, scientist, and war buddy Samir. Things go wrong almost immediately when before your starship can even land, a call to return to Earth arrives because Samir went missing. Now there is a choice before you, defy orders to find and rescue the closest friend you’ve ever had from whatever he’s gotten himself into, or stay loyal and return home.
2-6+ hours to complete, Fallen Seeds is a Hand-drawn Mystery/Detective Dating sim with aliens and biotechnology. The first VN in a planned upcoming trilogy, Fallen Seeds features partial voice acting, high-quality art and animations, moving character sprites, backgrounds, a solid OST, and skillful writing. Created from an indie group of just a handful of people, I’m genuinely impressed as this is nicer than some of the more popular VN’s I’ve read. There is only one con, remember that this is an unfinished game, and no one has any idea how Fallen Seeds series will turn out – but if the quality and pacing remain the same there is nothing to fear.
Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly
Waking up alone in a manor full of monsters roaming the endless hallways, find the other humans trapped within and ally together to survive. The exits are fake, the windows unbreakable, the only way out is hints gained through text messages asking your group to collect shining shards of glass and make a kaleidoscope that supposedly, somehow, grants a single wish. With no memories or any recollection of who you are or how you joined this twisted game, work together so everyone can leave, or become an eternal occupant, forget everything, and quietly fade away.
15-30+ hours to complete, Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly is a fully voiced VN with 5 love interests and 12 endings, with a flowchart available for easy backtracking and route selection. Individual character voices, including the protagonists, can be turned off in the sound settings. Optional minigames grant you points to spend and unlock side stories, which reveal more game endings to explore. Overall, I had a positive experience playing Black Butterfly, and I particularly liked the unusual variety of endings as well as the aforementioned flowchart. For cons, there are infrequent oddly translated sentences and the confusing, conflicting skillset and intelligence of the airheaded female protagonist. Highly recommend.
An excellent month really to not have your backlog go up numerically 😂 I definitely relate to June being a month of just wanting to sleep.
I loved Dave the Diver! I have also been tempted to buy AC Valhalla, as I did enjoy Origins and Odyssey… Be interested to see how you go with it!
I’ve also barely played Graveyard Keeper, so would love to see your thoughts on it and whether to prioritize it..
So far with Graveyard Keeper, there is a lot of… micromanaging? or to make one item you need to do twenty things to set up making that item so it’s a bit of a pain. Also I dislike the economy, as you can’t really, ya know, sell things. Stores either don’t take them or if you sell more than 3 or 5 they pay less until they are not worth making. I’m really annoyed that honey is not a commodity, and such. Story-wise, there isn’t really anything so far except no one cares that a new graveyard keeper just randomly showed up. It’s not going to be my favorite game, that’s for sure.
That’s disappointing! I hate when games get too far into having to micromanage, and well if the story isn’t making up for it…
It might stay on my backlog a bit longer!
Well hopefully its just an annoying early game grind and it gets better later on. Otherwise everyone who loves it is clearly a masochist because I’ve only heard praise of it
The Entropy Centre looks pretty neat.
It was! I wasn’t fully in the mood to enjoy it as I only played a couple hours at a time but I love wandering abandoned overgrown buildings and it made me happy. The puzzles are not too difficult, and I really liked a lot of them.
Was just coming here to say the exact same thing :D