August - Week 4 Update

Hey, it’s me again! Remember when I said I’d redeem myself in the last week of August? You probably don’t, but I actually did kinda pulled through with it. This week I’ve set a new high for myself in terms of completed games, having completed a total of eight games! Although to be fair, most of the games I completed weren’t even that impressive considering they’re just visual novels that require little to no effort and time, but they’re still a chunk out of my backlog, and improvement is always welcomed so I’ll be throwing a small celebration while I can.

Completed Games

• Abrix for kids
  

  13 hours playtime

  19 of 19 achievements

• Beach Bounce
  

  13 hours playtime

  10 of 10 achievements

• Club Life
  

  15 hours playtime

  20 of 20 achievements

• Highschool Romance
  

  9 minutes playtime

  2 of 2 achievements

• Last Days of Spring Visual Novel
  

  4 hours playtime

  9 of 9 achievements

• Over The Hills And Far Away
  

  15 hours playtime

  8 of 8 achievements

• The Adventures of Mr. Bobley
  

  10 hours playtime

  8 of 8 achievements

• The Walking Dead
  

  23 hours playtime

  48 of 48 achievements

Let’s get the visual novels out of the way first: Beach Bounce, Club Life, Highschool Romance, Over the Hills And Far Away (SG Win!) and Last Days of Spring Visual.

A lot of titles, but to be frank the only one that really impressed me was Over the Hills And Far Away. I’ll be honest - I was initially tempted to skip through it and be done with it. But my curiosity led me back to it, and I have no regrets. The story was expertly written and beautifully told, and it was actually very moving and entertaining. The novel got me interested in the wars and I’d been reading up about it ever since I completed it. If you have it collecting dust in your library, I’d like to urge you to play it soon. It’s short and requires zero efforts from you aside from clicking. Also to keep the music and sounds on, as the music/sound effects helps the game to shine even brighter.

Beach Bounce, Club Life and Highschool Romance were all far less impressive for me. I was never that big of a big fan of these “look at my boobs” kinda games, although some of them do have a great plot. I quickly skimmed through most, although Club Life did catch my attention quite a few times. Pretty appalled by Beach Bounce though.

To my surprise though, neither of the games I mentioned earlier ends up taking the prestigious “Worst Game of the Week” crown.. as it belongs to none other than Last Days of Spring Visual. Times like these you’d wish there were actually boobs jiggling around your computer screen to entertain you, because the novel is just so bloody boring. The art style is ugly and lazy, the hardest decision I encountered in the game was choosing between hot chocolate and tea.

Moving on to the better games.. Abrix for kids! It’s not even much better, but I’ll take pretty much anything over Boring Days of Spring. A SG win, Abrix for kids was actually rather entertaining, and I have very little complain about the game. Having kids as their main target audience, the game isn’t hard and the achievements were very easy to get, excluding the two or three very grindy eachievements. My favorite memory of the game was walking 5,000 steps around an empty lot.

Coming up next is the hardest title in the list, The Adventures of Mr. Bobley! Showcasing incredible physics such as kicking a cement ball 500 feet into the air, the game was mostly a repetitive mess with very little interesting moments. The horrible controls didn’t exactly help, and the fact that they tagged the game as ‘Family Friendly’ sorta baffles me considering most parents wouldn’t put their children through such torture. tl;dr It was dull, tedious and annoying.

Last but not least - The Walking Dead! It was the biggest and the best title I played this week, and I’m frankly craving for more. I can’t say much without spoiling the story, but it was an incredible game and I’m really going to try to grab the second season next sale, and the third whenever it’s released. I’d also like to give a special shoutout to Quisty who was kind enough to gift me the 400 Days DLC, and char for the heads up on the missable achievement in the DLC. You guys rock.

Started Games

• I am Bread
  

  13 hours playtime

  2 of 35 achievements

• Soul Gambler
  

  5 hours playtime

  3 of 24 achievements

While I didn’t progress in other games this week, I did start two new games.

The first one is I Am Bread. It’s a very popular game so I’m sure most of you know what the gameplay is like. It’s very entertaining, although I have to admit it is harder than I expected. I’m still getting used to controls. I don’t plan to rush through it though - I’m probably not going to start hunting for achievements until I finish the story.

The second game is Soul Gambler. I haven’t played the game much, but the story seems to be very interesting from what I’ve seen so far. The achievements are a little of a nuisance to get from what I’ve read, but I’m hoping to finish it next week. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

Summary

Although I do think that it could’ve been a little better, overall I think it was a pretty good week for backlog killing! I’m quite happy with what I’ve achieved this week, any step to the right direction is a good step. I didn’t start Tales of Maj’Eyal as I planned and said I would however, which was a shame. I do have the game installed and ready however, so I’ll probably try to start it this week.. maybe. It’s gonna be such a big commitment for me so I’m still a little cautious about it. I’ll have to start it eventually though.

If you’re still reading, thank you! ♥ Also thanks to Daerphen for the formatting tips.