Today I finished Quell - a relaxing puzzle game (well, relaxing up until the very last 4-6 levels). The game starts out thoughtful and relaxing, then suddenly (without any warning) there is a huge up-tick in difficulty starting at the 6th-to-last puzzle or so, and continuing at that level (rising slightly higher) by the time you reach the end of the game. Would have enjoyed the game completely had the difficulty level been the same throughout, or slowly increased rather than rammed up at the very end. 6/10

I also participated in the May challenge and finished 12 Labours of Hercules IV - Mother Nature, a nice Time Management game with nice artwork, amusing story / dialog, pleasant atmosphere / music, and you get to “build” your own base (a temple on the top of Mount Olympus) slowly over time by completing each level with Gold status. As a side note: this is the first Time Management game I’ve ever played, and I’m really glad I played it!

And finally, before I forget, I also finished Earth Defense Force 4.1. I had previously decided to just retire the game after it became super boring near the end as a Wing Diver (a class that has some really great weapons that essentially auto-target and kill stuff for you, just hold down the “Fire” button). For some reason or other, I came back to it and decided to swap out and play as Ranger, which was way more interesting and fun (though also a lot harder to win levels, since that class lacks any crowd-control weapons that don’t also blow yourself up if you accidentally fire them when a foe runs up just slightly too close). I ended up finishing the game by swapping between Ranger and (if needed for harder levels as a last resort) Wing Diver. I fun little romp.

Hello, this is my first post here! I just want to say that I finished some games last month, and just finished some more this month that I had been working on for a while.

Last month:

The chronicles of Emerland. Solitaire. (sic) - really not a solitaire game I’d recommend. If you do play it, you can see just how little effort was put into making the game. Very poor game design!
Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena - a pretty good beginner HOG! The difficulty in finding hidden objects ramps up as you go along.
PAC-MAN 256 - a great dip into the past, satisfies the nostalgia while still offering something new! It’s a rogue-like, and I’ll probably come back every once in a while to give it a whirl!

This month so far:

Dragon Quest XI - finished this yesterday after a long while of playing it. The beginning of the game is fantastic, it kind of slows down near the end. And there’s a post-game option that I’ve decided to avoid, since people say it makes the whole game feel hollow. Stellar music, nice graphics, and pretty good voice-acting.
Lost Legends: The Weeping Woman Collector’s Edition - an okay HOG.

Recently, I’ve also learned that I dislike games where the player is encouraged to be ruthless, or that devalue human life. So, regardless of the Metacritic scores and Steam reviews, I’m going to be more careful and avoid getting games in the future with those characteristics!

Also, thank you to everyone who writes a little something about the games they’ve finished – reading those really inspires me to play those games and finally get them out of my backlog! =)