The older Tomb Raider games are so much fun! Don't get me wrong... I like the new ones too, especially Rise of the Tomb Raider, but they are so serious and gritty. There's definitely something to be said for just relaxing and having a good time. You kinda know what you're getting with this game as soon as you open it up for the first time with the silly 007-esque sequence just before the main menu. It's got everything the classic Tomb Raider fan could want from swinging across vines to diving from the tops of waterfalls to running for your life from giant boulders like you're Indiana Jones. Oh and let's not forget... actual tombs to explore and lots of them! Everywhere from the jungles of South America and Africa to the peaks of Nepal, Lara definitely gets her explore on in this game. If you want to kick back and relax, you've even got a whole manor to explore right in England with all kinds of treasures to find. My only major annoyance with this game was a bug with the next gen graphics setting that would randomly crash in certain levels. You could get around it by changing the settings, but I do love my pretty graphics. Other than that, it was all smiles all the time. And of course, Lara is <3<3<3.

Here's a little gem I found. It's a match-3 game with a heartwarming (but also heartwrenching) story that says you don't have to be physically strong to be a hero. You just have to be determined and have a big heart. Claudia, a young French girl, wakes up one day to find her uncle missing. He's left her a note, a lantern, and a strange book, telling her to go to her parents. Of course, she wants to find her uncle instead and get to the bottom of this mystery. The only problem is she can hardly walk. She has to wear a leg brace due to a crippling illness she had when she was little. Because she has trouble walking, she has to make use of her ingenuity and her friendship with helpful elementals if she's going to survive the attacks from dangerous fae creatures during her journey. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but in this game, you even have to match-3 just to *walk* and for me, it really hit home how hard Claudia has to work just to keep her legs moving. The levels are pretty short, so you can do one or two at a time or however many you want, though the difficulty does ramp up toward the end of the game. It's just a really sweet game!

Do you like strong female characters? Do you like to laugh? Do you like Shakespeare and/or literature? ...But not so much that you'll get offended at jokes about it? Then this game is for you! To Be or Not To Be might just be the funniest game I've ever played. I couldn't stop laughing and smiling like a goof pretty much the whole time. Personally, I recommend turning off the narration and just imagining the voices in your head. But then, that's what I do with visual novels too. Sometimes it even screws up my actual reading voice and I freak out... but it's so worth it! There's SO many ways this story can turn out, and pretty much all of them are hilarious. I like to play as Ophelia the best. She has some of the best story arcs, and because she's written as a strong and intelligent character, you get to witness all of the crazy Hamlet shenanigans through that lens. It just really makes the story that much better imo, of course unless you choose to play her like a bimbo to the eternal dismay of the author. :P

I love the backgrounds in this game. Honestly, they are so beautiful that sometimes I just stopped to admire how pretty everything was and feel the little flutters in my heart from a majestic aurora borealis or an exotic palace in the background. IMO, Moacube make some of the best choice driven VNs around. Cinders is one of my favorite games of all time. While for me, the story of Solstice doesn't really compare to Cinders at all, you can see how the graphics and animations have improved. Solstice is set in an interesting world with lots of mystery and political intrigue where much is not how it seems. The story is darker than Cinders. In fact, the ending I got was really, really dark... maybe because I'm such a softy. But like I said, the thing that made me smile about this game was the beautifully drawn graphics and the wonderful music. You can really tell that the artists put their heart into it. There's also a guy/guy romance route and a girl/guy route, but no girl/girl routes sadly. Like most moacube vns, the romance is just kind of background to the rest of the story. The characters, at least, were interesting enough to make me want to learn more about them while I admired everything going on in the background.

I loved this visual novel so much. It's got everything a dreamer needs... adventure, romance, laughs, DRAAAMMAAA. It helps that I'm a girl who likes girls like the couple in the story. I'm not sure when was the last time I smiled so much. Not like the smiling I do most of the time that's just kind of because I'm supposed to but like legit no fucks given how silly I look smiling. It's kinda funny because I installed the adult patch, but I almost wish I didn't because it almost felt weird after getting so engrossed in the romance. After reading this story, I want to do my own exploring. I can't afford to go on a big trip or anything but there's so many state parks I haven't seen, and now I want to see them! Who knows, maybe I'll even find my own Marina, someone that loves life so much and doesn't take anything for granted.

If there's any VN, yuri, or just adventure story lovers out there, please let me know if there are any other games like this game! I'd love to pick them up while they are on sale.

• Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
  

  18 hours playtime

  33 of 44 achievements

• Oxenfree
  

  6 hours playtime

  8 of 13 achievements

• Memoria
  

  10 hours playtime

  19 of 31 achievements

• Eventide: Slavic Fable
  

  5 hours playtime

  22 of 25 achievements

There's just something special about finally getting to play some games you've wanted to play for so long. Shantae, Oxenfree, and Memoria were all on my wishlist for probably more than a year. I finally picked them up between the winter sales and humble bundles in the holiday season, and I'm so glad I did! Eventide wasn't on my wishlist, but I picked that one up too and loved it just as much.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

This is such a fun series. I started off with Risky's Revenge a year or 2 ago and have been wanting to try this one ever since. It did not disappoint! Pretty much the whole game is adorable and so funny, plus we get to learn a lot more Rottytops and the infamous Risky Boots in this story. Some of the platforming bits were a little frustrating later on in the game, but I guess that just makes it more awesome to finally get through it. There seems to be a lot of people (both men and women) that say this game is sexist on the steam reviews, but I disagree. If people give this game a chance, it actually has a pretty empowering message about friendship and staying true to yourself. People need to lighten up!

Oxenfree

Mommy can I go home now? I should start off by saying that I'm a HUGE wimp, so horror fans might want to take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I thought this game was really scary! Maybe it was because I was playing alone in the dark, but by the time I got a few hours into the game, I had already screamed at least 3 times. Hopefully it didn't disturb my neighbors. =P The real gem of this game though is the really innovative dialogue system. Everything is pretty much real time, you have multiple choices that you have to choose quickly, but not only that, whether or not you respond at all can affect the flow of the conversation. Like sometimes, if you choose to interrupt someone, it'll change the subject of the conversation and you won't get to hear what they were going to say. Which is actually a lot like real life and the first time I've ever seen anything like that in a game. And yeah, I'm drawn to any game with a blue hair protagonist. Her hair was very very blue.

The Dark Eye: Memoria

Otherwise known as just Memoria on steam, The Dark Eye is a point and click series based on the imaginative German Dark Eye fantasy world by the great storytellers of Daedalic. I played the original game, Chains of Satinav, and LOVED it, and this game is definitely just as good. I would recommend playing Chains first to set up the story of Geron and Nuri. You might feel kind of lost without it, but it's not totally required. Actually, while I like Geron and Nuri, the real star of this game is Sadja al-Kebîr, the ancient princess of Fasar who dreams of immortalizing her name throughout history by heroically destroying a demon army. As her story happens 450 years before Geron's time, and he has no idea who she is, we know that it doesn't go as she planned, but we have to find out as the story develops. Maybe I'm a hopeless romantic but I just love the characters from this fairy tale world. If there was a book of this series, I would read it over and over. When I finally got to the ending, I cried so hard that I was literally trembling. *sigh*

Eventide: Slavic Fable

One of my favorite Artifex Mundi titles to date! It was a little easier than some of the others, but I really enjoyed the story. I'm really interested in pagan culture, and I consider myself kind of an amateur botanist and tree-hugger. ^^ That is pretty much what this game is all about!

Next up: I actually have no idea!

• Lumino City
  

  6 hours playtime

  no achievements

• KAMI
  

  11 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Crystals of Time
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Regency Solitaire
  

  18 hours playtime

  17 of 17 achievements

So easy games mouse and keyboard games it is!

Lumino City

Kinda cool story about this game. I originally got LC from the Leading Ladies humble bundle way back in 2015.. moooostly for Marvellous Miss Take, but this game looked fun too. I kinda wanted to try it, but it was the only game I had left to get to level 3 on SG at the time, so I sucked it up and gave it away. Ever since then I was entering Lumino giveaways like a freaking fiend! lol. And I finallly won it! So got a chance to play after all. It's a really neat concept where the devs literally built the objects in the game by hand which is really really amazing. That combined with the story behind getting this game, I really wanted to like it. But for me it was just okay. I'm not the best puzzler, and by the end of the game I was looking up almost everything and that took a lot of the ooooo moments from solving things out of it If you're good at puzzlers, it might be more fun for you.. It was still pretty cool at least to experience though and I did enjoy at least some of the earlier puzzles. Still worth it I guess. ^^

KAMI

Another game from the same dev as Lumino City. This one is a lot more relaxing and is even marketed as a zen game. Low key and low stress always has a place in my life. Or at least, it should. KAMI is a nice little game solving construction paper puzzles to relaxing Asian-ish music in the background. There are easy ones and also some pretty hard ones. I had done all of them except the very last and a while ago just gave up. And then one day recently I picked it up again and solved it on my first try! Who knew it would be so easy!

Crystals of Time

A little HOG but definitely not the best one I've ever played. It might be a weird thing to say about a HOG, but I like variety. If I feel like it's just an endless onslaught of HOG scenes, I start to burn out. That's kinda what this game felt like at times. It also had a lot of going back and forth and a really weird hint system that would just show you a pic of the room you were supposed to be in without telling you what to do or how to get there. In this games favor, it at least had some really pretty areas to explore, but I wouldn't really recommend it as your first go at a HOG.

Regency Solitaire

Pride and Prejudice meets solitaire! If you like solitaire and sappy English romance novels, this game is for you. Actually, the story was a little TOO sappy for my taste and the main character was kind of annoying. =P But the solitaire was FUN. There are loads of levels with all different kinds of set ups, plus normal and hard difficulty. This is one of those games that felt really good to complete and get all the achievements because I almost thought I'd never make it. But then.... somehow... I got better! And by the time I got to the end of the game, I was a combo freaking countess, and Bella lived happily ever after with Mr. Right. Too bad Charlotte is still alone. Maybe she'd like a blue haired American girl? I guess we'll never know...

Next up: Waiting for controller!! But I really want to finish Shantae and the Pirate's Curse of course! Risky and Rotty need me. No seriously... they're waiting. Hurry up amazon!!

• Epistory - Typing Chronicles
  

  9 hours playtime

  45 of 55 achievements

• City of Chains
  

  13 hours playtime

  33 of 52 achievements

• Wanda
  

  3 hours playtime

  11 of 12 achievements

• The Lion's Song
  

  76 minutes playtime

  11 of 41 achievements

• Mandagon
  

  80 minutes playtime

  5 of 5 achievements

I've been on a little indie kick lately. Indies are nice because they're usually pretty short, so it doesn't take a HUGE commitment to play them. Plus, a lot of them are actually really fun. The past couple weeks, I managed to finish three games I won from SG. Three! Plus, 2 free games* I found out about from the queue during the winter sale.

*well one of them is only sort of free...

Epistory: Typing Chronicles

This game is so beautiful and imaginative. I'm just in love with it. You ride around on a 3 tailed fox, unfolding an origami world, exploring forests, mountains, caves, mysterious cities, and more, while using your amazing (or not so amazing...) typing skills to fight off various creepy monsters with fire, ice, lightning, and wind magic. I got so wrapped up in this lovely little world that I would keep playing even when I was tired and my fingers flailed around the keyboard like an idiot. =P I guess that's a good thing, but I don't think I improved my typing at all, lol. I'm not so much in love with the actual game mechanics but the world and the story. I don't want to spoil anything, but the ending made me cry. It was beautiful. If you have this game in your backlog, I totally recommend giving it a try.

City of Chains

This is a unique little dystopian RPGmaker game. It has a few things going for it like being able to make choices that affect the story and using different tactics to complete the game. For example, you can choose to fight everyone, or you can try to sneak around by picking locks, hacking terminals, or using grenades to take out enemies before they get to you. The game has 3 different ending paths that you can choose toward the end of the game, and I think little aspects of the endings can change depending on your decisions throughout the game. If you keep lots of save files, it's not too hard to get them all. I did two of the three. My only complaint really is this game is either poorly translated or written by someone who doesn't speak English or write very well. The dialogue is not great and has grammatical errors all over the place, but I still enjoyed it for what it was.

Wanda

Mmmmm... yeah, this is definitely a different game. I won it on SG, and I was so excited to pick up a wishlist game, that I played it right away. Thing is... it's REALLY slow, like slogging through a pool of molasses slow. The game is kind of a blend of cinematic scenes, puzzles, and exploring. The problem with the cinematic scenes is sometimes you're supposed to press a button to continue and sometimes you aren't, so at the times when you try to make it continue but it won't... and you just have to wait and wait and wait... omg... that makes the game really annoying. Other than that, it's a kinda cute game with an interesting twist. The robots speak their own language, so you can't understand anything they say. You just have to rely on emotions and expressions to get an idea. It's kind of a sweet/bittersweet story, but I was just too frustrated by being covered in molasses from trying to slog through this game and figuring out the puzzles to enjoy this. Oh well.

The Lion's Song: Episode 1

If you like music, art, and theater, you're going to love this. It's a free game but with a catch. It's actually just the first episode that's free. There's currently a second episode and 2 or 3 more coming out in the future. I'm not really sure whether I can say I finished this game because I don't own the non-free parts. Anyway, episode 1 is about a struggling violinist and composer that's trying to write her next big masterpiece but struggling to do so. The game sends her out to a cottage in the woods where you have to find inspiration to write your song from various influences like poetry, nature, and human experience. I think your performance at the end can change depending on what you find, but I don't know for sure. I played this game the same day that I went to the theater downtown to watch a performance, and I felt SO high brow. The only things I didn't like about this game were the unnecessary and cringe-worthy "romance" that was actually just swooning and the weird and creepy dream scenes, but overall it was still a lot of fun. Episode 2 is about an artist, but I probably won't pick it up unless it goes on sale so... guess this is unfinished. @.@.

Mandagon

This one is totally free. If you like platformers, spirituality, and exploring exotic locales, you'll probably like this game. It just kind of plops you in a Tibetan temple without telling you what to do or why, so that's a little weird, but basically you have to look for tablets to unlock the main doors and find little spiritual words of wisdom along the way to unlock the story. I got lost SO many times in this game. That's probably the only reason I managed to get all 5 achievements. Because I literally explored everything! Probably 5 times over! But yeah, it's a neat little game, it's free, and it's a lot different from pretty much any game I've ever played, so it definitely has that going for it.

Games I'm playing right now: Regency Solitaire (still slowly!), Lumino City, Catlateral Damage (^^) and Fifa 17

Next up: Yeah I wanna spoil myself pretty soon with the games I got for myself for the holidays, so I'm thinking Rise of the Tomb Raiders dlcs, Oxenfree or Ori and the Blind Forest, and Shantae when I pick it up from the humble bundle soon after resigning myself to not winning a copy. ^^

• Bear With Me
  

  3 hours playtime

  18 of 27 achievements

• The Purring Quest
  

  6 hours playtime

  20 of 23 achievements

• Time Mysteries: Inheritance - Remastered
  

  6 hours playtime

  10 of 10 achievements

• 1979 Revolution: Black Friday
  

  3 hours playtime

  22 of 39 achievements

Between gifts and picking up games for cheap during the Winter Sale, the holidays are both an exciting time and horrifying time for backlogs! I played a few games over the holidays, though not nearly as many as I picked up. Most of these games are little indie games that I play on my old laptop when traveling around, with the exception of 1979 Revolution. I played that one a little bit before the holidays.

Bear With Me

I cannot recommend this game enough. If you're anything like me, you were running around as a kid dreaming you were everywhere and everything except where you actually were! This game is kind of about that. Amber is a young girl, dreaming up the world around her, and in that world, she goes on hilarious noir adventures with her trusty teddy bear, Ted E. Bear. Her brother is missing, there is a sinister "red man" burning the city and asking lots of questions about her, and it's up to her to solve the mystery. The voice acting in this game is kinda corny, but the story is adorable and funny. If you think about the voices as something you might dream up as a kid, it actually kinda fits. The good news is that the story isn't over. This is an episodic adventure. The bad news is episode 2 isn't out yet. I'm not sure if they will charge more money for that or not, but I liked this game so much, I'll probably pick it up.

The Purring Quest

Meow meow meow! This game is SO cute. My bff got it for me over the holidays because they know me so well. <3 You play as a cat, as you probably guessed, and you've gotta go on an adventure to find your lost human. It's a platformer, and the controls are a little wonky, but I didn't care. I was smiling the whole time. The only frustrating thing is right now the only thing standing in my way between two more achievements is ONE fishbone. I've got 999 of them, and I just can't find the one! Literally spent like an hour looking for it too. =P

Time Mysteries: Inheritance - Remastered

This is actually the first game that BLAEO inspired me to finish. I'm a HUGE Artifex Mundi fan. The games are a little corny, but I like that. They have fun stories, pretty graphics, and puzzles that *usually* aren't that hard. I've got a ton of these games, and I've finished all of them except the most recent Grim Legends game that I picked up recently. So naturally, it was bothering me that I hadn't finished this one Time Mysteries game. Unfortunately, the Time Mysteries series is kind of a let down compared to some of the other stories. My favorites are Grim Legends, Nightmares from the Deep, and Enigmatis... plus Vampire Legends mostly just because I love vampires so much! Time Mysteries is... okay. It has a neat concept where you go to different points in time, but it just didn't do it for me like the others. Plus, I was stuck on one puzzle for ages... I had given up until some amazing person on the steam forums helped me finish it. Another game to add to my perfect games on steam though.

1979 Revolution: Black Friday

Now this game is an experience. If you like history, stories about drama and hardship, or just learning about new cultures, this is definitely a game to check out. It's kind of a fast paced "choices matter" game that will end before you know it if you let it grab a hold of you. Prepare for feels. I actually want to go back to play this game again to just soak in the atmosphere and do some more exploring to find more items for the achievements. There's a lot of stuff to learn about Iranian culture, politics, history, and religion by finding different items in the game. I want to try to find more of them than I did in my first playthrough and just take some time to read them and learn. ^^

Games I'm playing right now: Regency Solitaire (slowly!), City of Chains, and Fifa 17

Next up: Probably Memoria and maybe Epistory: Typing Chronicles again or Rise of the Tomb Raider (I just bought the season pass over the holidays and want to try it out. <3 Lara.