gameing

A family friend of mine, who I was once very close with, gave me a copy of Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter for the Nintendo DS when we were kids. At the time, I said, "Wait, this is a sequel. What about the original?" And my friend said, "Don't worry about it. This one is better anyway." I should have listened.

Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter

The game was released in 2009, and apparently is not to be confused with the Wii game of the exact same name, which has a completely different plot. In the DS game, you see the Raposa, a species of humanoid with fox-like features, lamenting and running in fear as their town is stripped of life and color. They run to the shore and are intercepted by a giant turtle, sent by a being called "the Creator." The Creator, of course, is you, as your job is to draw a hero and pilot them to save the Raposa. The turtle allows you to sail to different places, and eventually to find the evil Wilfre and defeat him before he destroys the world.

I loved this game as a kid. I played the hell out of it, over and over, because I liked it so much. It was easy for me, so naturally I assumed the original would be just as fun and easy for a stream series. I was wrong.

Drawn to Life

I acquired the Drawn to Life Collection, which contains both the first and second game, and decided to stream it. However, I could not have predicted the sheer amount of differences between the sequel and the original. For starters, this game is leagues harder than the second installement. I don't know what it is, but there's a serious balancing issue, especially in boss fights. Once of the bosses is a tree, and you basically get attacked and hindered from all angles. It took me Days to complete it. I liked the story well enough: the game details what happened to Raposa Village before the events of the second game. Basically, Wilfre has covered the town in shadow, as he is trying to harness the power of Creation to remake the world in his own image, and many Raposa have run away. Your job is to draw a hero, explore the many areas that lie behind magic doors, find the pages to the Book of Life (which allows the Creator to draw different things the town needs, such as buildings and whatnot), and rescue the missing Raposa. Then, at the end, you must defeat Wilfre to put an end to his destruction. Also, we made everything Mario themed. This would have been all good and fun if the levels were just a Little easier, but otherwise I wouldn't call it a bad game. The Next Chapter is just better.

Apparently, the company that bought the rights to the game (after THQ went bankrupt in 2013) has released a new game called Drawn to Life: Two Realms. I have just found out about this, but it seems like it might be good? Maybe I'll check it out some day.

Garden Story is a game I got on Steam because it looked cute and fun, and I was sooo right!

Garden Story is an action RPG released in 2021. You play as a grape named Concord, who is the caretaker of the Kindergarden, a place in Spring Hamlet where new Greenlings (plant creatures like Concord) are grown from the Grove. However, the Rot has taken over the Grove, and the Greenlings have stopped sprouting. The guardian of Spring Hamlet, Plum, asked for Concord's help fighting against the Rot, pulling them away from their duties. You are given tasks to complete to help better the town, and to do so, you must slay Rot, collect materials, and rebuild the town. Later, you gain access to the other four areas of the Grove: Summer Bar, Autumn Town, and Winter Glade. You also encounter boss fights, where you fight large, powerful Rot.

Garden Story is incredibly charming. The music is very nice, the pixel art is adorable, and the story is interesting enough that I spent two 8+ hour sessions playing. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's a very good game which I highly recommend :) Note: it's NOT a life sim, like Stardew Valley; Garden Story has a linear progression and a definitive ending, so don't go into it expecting relationships or complex farming!

I am completely 100% serious when I say Imagine: Master Chef is the best game ever.

Released in 2006 for the Nintendo DS, Imagine: Master Chef is allegedly a cooking game and short visual novel. You play as Lisa, a sixth-grader who is panicking about her father coming home from his long business trip. She's worried because she had promised to make him a home-cooked meal when he got home, but hadn't done any cooking all summer. Luckily for her, an angel from the moon overhears her troubles and beams into her bedroom late at night, possessing her stuffed rabbit named Hopper. Lisa is shocked when Hopper starts talking to her about making her wish come true, believing that she must be dreaming. However, Hopper is still there when she wakes up the next morning, and her mother calls her downstairs to meet famous TV chef Rachel Jones, her new cooking teacher.

In case you couldn't tell already, this game fucking rules, but let me drop some more points to convince you anyway. The main activity of the game, besides reading the story as it progresses, is cooking. It's sort of like Cooking Mama, but way easier and much lower stakes. However, you also play cute and fun mini games, such as washing dishes, memory card games, and throwing suction darts at a spinning wheel and sometimes a frog. You also talk to your stuffed animals who are all animated by the power of the moon angel. Additionally, you take your dog Choco on walks to any one of 4 different locations, where there is a different person to meet in each lesson. When talking to different people and learning more about the story, you find kitchen utensils and appliances which you can use to decorate your kitchen. You have to play through the game a couple of times to 100% the game, and it is not worth it.

I intend on speedrunnning this game at some point in the future. That will not be happening any time soon as I am just about done playing Imagine: Master Chef for the next year and a half. I streamed the 100% process, and you can watch all that here. I do not recommend that anyone plays this game, but I'm not about to stop you.

Katamari is a franchise I've heard a bit about in my life, but never dove into until very recently. I have Smiley to thank for getting me into it, because it is honestly now one of my favorite game experiences to date. I absolutely loved it.

Katamari Damacy was the first installment in the Katamari series, originally released for Playstation 2 in 2004. However, I played the remastered version, Katamari Damacy REROLL, on Steam. The game is considered a puzzle-action game, but it's really in it's own genre.

The gameplay is simple: roll a ball (called a katamari) into things you find lying around. If they are small enough, they will stick to the ball, making the katamari larger. The goal, usually, is to make the katamari as large as possible within the time limit, although there are some special challenge levels where that is not the case. By making your katamari larger, you can pick up bigger things and, eventually, pick up the entire world.

This game is really special. It was easy to pick up, and every level was fun and just a tad more challenging than the last. You can look at the objects you collect, play split-screen pvp with a friend (which is SO fun), and with some extra effort you can unlock endless levels without a time limit. I especially loved the dialogue and music, which are just excellent. If you don't ever play a katamari game, at least listen to some of the soundtrack.

There isn't really much to say about the game, since it's so simple, but that's what makes it so great. Just go play it if you haven't already, or check out my vods if you aren't convinced.

Kirby is cool. I don't even need to make this post, because everyone knows that Kirby is adorable and Kirby games are awesome. But of course, I like them so much that I will make a post anyway :)

The only Kirby game I feel justified in writing about is, my favorite, Kirby's Epic Yarn (2010) for the Wii. I've played small portions of games like Squeak Squad and Super Star Ultra, but I need to play much, much more of those to write on them. However, Epic Yarn is not like that; I must have played through the entire game about six times as a kid, and I bought Extra Epic Yarn recently so I could play it some more. It's a really good game, and I have a lot of nostalgia for it.

Kirby's Epic Yarn is a platforming game, like many Kirby games. However, in the opening cutscene, Kirby is banished to Patch Land by the evil sorcerer Yin-Yarn. There, everything is made of yarn and fabric, including Kirby himself. In this state, Kirby finds himself unable to inhale, as he is essentially just an outline of string, so he can no longer float or use copy abilities. Instead, he is able to change his shape, which allows him to save a blue character named Prince Fluff. He asks Kirby to help save Patch Land, which has been separated into pieces by Yin-Yarn. Kirby must find all of the magic yarn to bring Patch Land back together and go home.

This game is beyond cute. The style is adorable, with all of the patchwork and buttons around, and the music is excellent as well. The different lands are also so so cute. I always especially liked Treat Land. Additionally, I liked that there were no health bars, lives, or time limits. These are things that make me nervous, and Epic Yarn completely bypasses them. Instead, you collect beads, and lose them if you take damage. At the end of each level, you are given a rank (bronze, silver, gold) for the number of beads you finished with. I also like the shapes kirby can become, such as the car, parachute, and submarine. The game also features minigames, in which you must beat the tenants of the apartments in Quilty Square in their respective games (things like tag and hide and seek). Another awesome feature is Kirby's Room, which you can decorate any way you like. You can spend beads on wallpapers, floors, and furniture, and you also earn special furnishings by finding them hidden in levels. I used to spend a while just hopping around on my furniture, sitting on chairs and rugs, and smacking stuffed animals of the different enemies so they would wobble.

I'm not sure how easy this game is to come by, with it being on the Wii, but if you get a chance to try the enhanced, 3ds version, Extra Epic Yarn, I suggest you do so. This game is a whole lot of fun, and I intend on playing it more in the future.

I like to peruse Steam, looking for awesome games to play. My interest is not easily piqued, but this game was an instant wishlist for me.

Little Witch in the Woods is a game currently in early access on Steam. This demo version was released in May of 2022, and is constantly being updated and reworked based on the players' feedback. At the time of writing this, it's $15, and you can check out the store page here.

In the game, you play as a young witch named Ellie, who has a talking hat named Virgil. You were on a train to your apprenticeship when something blocked the tracks, so you went off to adventure the woods. There, you found an old witch's house, and decided to take a short nap. When you awaken, however, you find that the train has left without you. Stuck in the woods, you decide to fix up the witch's house and help the people of the nearby, destroyed, and empty village. Your job is to explore the woods, collect materials, make potions, and use them to help the village. It's very fun, and the game is very cute.

Since the game is in early access, you can only play the prologue and first chapter, but there is much more on the way, and the demo is a lot longer than it sounds. I played for about 9 hours myself. I really recommend playing this game, especially now that it's only $15. The devs say that, once the game is officially released sometime in 2023, the price will go up to match the work put into it. So, if this game sounds fun to you, go pick it up and play it!

I can't believe I forgot to write a post about one of my favorite games ever. This changes right now.

Murder by Numbers is a cross between a visual novel, detective game, and nonogram collection :) Released for Nintendo Switch and Windows in 2020, the game follows Honor Mizrahi, a young TV actress living in Los Angeles in 1996, who gets fired from her co-star position on the show "Murder Miss Terri" soon after the start of the story. Upon going outside to get in her car and go home, she finds a strange, cuboid robot named SCOUT. SCOUT is missing almost all of his memories, but he's very good at finding and identifying things. Honor asks him to find her car keys, which she has misplaced, but they aren't outside anywhere, so they go back into the film studio to find them. However, when they get inside, they discover that the showrunner who fired Honor only minutes earlier has been murdered in his office! An investigation is launched, but Honor is impatient and decides to try to solve the mystery herself. With the help of SCOUT and friends made along the way, the story unfolds into something much more serious than Honor had bargained for.

I really really love this game :) It was super fun to play, since I am an avid picross enjoyer, but there was so much more beyond that. The soundtrack is super fun, the art style is really really pretty, the characters are well-designed and easy to fall in love with, and the story itself was just !!! wowowowow, y'know? So many characters, even the ones that straight up lie to your face during investigations, are just so ridiculously charming. There's also a lot of LGBT+ rep! I refuse to say Any spoilers for this game, you really need to just play it yourself or see someone play it.

Now, you may be wondering, "Orion, how am I supposed to play a nonogram game? What even IS a nonogram?" Well, my hypothetical friend, you've come to the right place. A nonogram, also known as picture cross (picross, for short) is a logic puzzle where you use the information provided by a series of numbers to figure out what parts of the grid need to be filled in, with the solution forming a picture! If you've never done it before or worry they might be too hard, don't worry! Murder by Numbers actually has a great tutorial that explains how to play really really well. Plus, it has lots of options for hints to make the puzzles easier, so you can progress in the game without getting hung up on the tougher puzzles :)

The game is available for Switch and on Steam, and I highly recommend playing it! If you're not feeling up to it, Miss Holly Hollowtones played it a few years ago, which is how I discovered it myself, and her streams are always really fun :) You can find the VODs for that series here!

It's time to talk about NSR. I love this game for a lot of reasons. Smiley and I played it together on co-op, and it rules.

No Straight Roads, or NSR, is a game developed by a Malaysian company called Metronomik. It follows Mayday and Zuke, the duo that makes up a rising indie rock band called "Bunk Bed Junction," who live in Vinyl City, a futuristic city ran by elitist EDM artists who make up a group called NSR. The city is powered by transformers which turn music into electricity, but there have been blackouts that affect the whole city, with all of the backup energy being routed to NSR's venues and homes. You must overthrow NSR with the power of rock, which entails hijacking their concerts to rock out and beat the shit out of them.

The gameplay is awesome. It's a third-person action RPG where you attack enemies with your instruments. In co-op, you each control either May or Zuke, while in single player, you have to switch between the two for whatever playstyle you are trying for. May has heavy damage output with her guitar, while Zuke has great combo capabilities with his drumsticks. In our playthrough, I played as Zuke, and Smiley played as May. The game also uses rhythm elements. Since the game is about music, enemies move and attack on the beat, and the scores are given letter grades based on time, damage taken, and other rhythm-game-esque factors.

I can't say enough good things about this game. For starters, the gameplay is super fun. Smiley and I sunk hours into this game each week, trying to get higher scores on each boss or attempting harder game modes (perfect parry mode is the devil, I think). There's a lot of really fun characters, and the soundtrack is incredible. If you can get a hold of it, I highly recommend playing with a friend :)

OFF has held a special place in my heart since I found out about it. I was finally able to play it for myself on stream (since it refused to run properly on my old Mac), and I love rotating it in my mind.

OFF is a French 2008 RPG game by Unproductive Fun Time, a Belgian team made up of developer Mortis Ghost and composer Alias Conrad Coldwood. It has been translated by fans multiple times, which allowed it to reach a wider audience, particularly with English-speakers. Translations apparently include English, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish. The game has become basically a cult classic, with a few fans still making content to this day, and it seems as though it will never truly die.

Developed using the notorious RPG Maker 2003, OFF features a rather plain looking, pixellated overworld. You control a character called The Batter, who is aware that you are his Puppeteer. You are told that he is on a sacred mission to purify this world, and you accomplish this by killing specters with the swing of his bat. At the start, in Zone 0, you meet a cat called the Judge, who teaches you how to fight and solve puzzles. Then, you travel to Zone 1, where you meet the Elsen, who seem to be overly-anxious humans. However, as the game progresses, you learn much more about the world you are purifying, and that there is more to the Zones than you have been told. I won't say much more, except for that Zacharie is my friend.

Some highlights that aren't spoilers: the soundtrack is INCREDIBLE. "Pepper Steak" is the most widely known and enjoyed track, and you get to hear it in every fight, which rules. Some other cool tracks include "Fourteen Residents," "Soft Breeze," "Desperately Safe," and "A Stab of Happiness." Additionally, all the characters are awesome and cool and good. None of them will be particularly kind to you.

One of the main things about this game is that you should play it without finding anything out about it. So, if you're up for it, you can download the game for free online. The Internet Archive has a compilation of some different translations here. I will say that the game does have a few warnings: OFF is considered a mild horror, due to some non-graphic blood and body horror, and disturbing themes. I call it "non-graphic" because it is black and white, hand-drawn pixels, and the blood is just bright red pixels that are not terribly frequent, but that doesn't mean it won't bother everyone, so I think it's important to mention. This game is certainly more focused on the horror of the world you are in and your existence, rather than the horror of, like, killing or getting scared. If this doesn't sound like it's for you, by all means, go ahead and skip this one. If it sounds like your kind of game, though, I INSIST you give it a try. It's truly worth it. Also, I highly recommend putting in a little extra work to get all three endings. You get to decide which is the good or bad ending, but there is only One True ending.

That's all I can say, I suppose. Go play OFF :)

Piggy in Numberland (1998) for Windows 95/98 PC is a video game .

I have been Piggy Much of my life. Piggy has been there and he HATES me he hates me so so much. so. sososO so i played it Again for my one year STREAM anniversary and we had an awesome awful time and it was great and it was terrible. eight hours of my life eight hours on this precious earth thrown away to H .

Piggy in Numberland was developed by ThoughtMakers as a children's educational game. The game itself is not easy to come by, but it has been revitalized with the help of user ZombieTigers on Reddit and my friends (shouts out to Mercury and my sister for everything). The game lets you control Piggy, an anthropomorphic pig who can be seen in the left sidebar of this page. Piggy arrives in Numberland, which is a castle on an island in what seems to be a liminal space outside of any form of reality, in which you are tortured by number games. Of course, it didn't feel like torture when I was in elementary school, but 100%ing it in one sitting on stream was certainly painful after a little while. Piggy also has many friends, including Panda, the Bee (who actually looks like if a helicopter was made from biological parts and also wore glasses), a mama and baby kangaroo, and many other animals who all play games with you. By finishing number games, you earn Brain Power, which you can use to build toys that you can collect. The number games themselves see multiple formats, including connect-the-dots, board games, falling block puzzles, and retail. Ultimately, though, all of the games involve counting, adding, or subtracting. Also the music will drive you insane, especially if your files are a little fucked up.

It meant a lot to me to get this game up and running again after so many years. I'm glad I was able to contribute to its revival in some small way, and that I was able to re-experience the minigames that occupy my earliest childhood memories. If you have the means to play it, well . i'm not sure if you Should but if you WANT to you can email ZombieTigers for the game files :)

Pikuniku is an adorable game that many of my friends highly recommended I play after I purchased it in an Itch bundle. And I'm thankful for them, because this game was super fun!

Released in 2019, Pikuniku is a puzzle adventure game where you control a round, red character with long legs called Piku. You can walk, jump, and roll to explore the world, and you must solve puzzles along the way by kicking and pushing things around. You wake up in a cave, greeted by a ghost, and you make your way out and down the mountain to the nearest town. You are met with people who think you are some sort of monster, who does arguably look a bit like you. You discover that a rich, pink guy called Mr. Sunshine has been exploiting the people for all their resources (such as corn, wood, and water) in exchange for "free money," which is basically useless in comparison. It is your job to help the revolution destroy Sunshine Corp. and save the people from Mr. Sunshine's greed.

Pikuniku is EXTRA cute and fun. I especially loved all the funny hats you can unlock, kicking, rolling, and talking to people. It even has two-player where your friend can pilot Niku, who is the same as Piku but orange. The music is also very enjoyable, and the puzzles and areas were fun to traverse. My only complaint about the game is that it was very short! It only took me three streams to beat the game (which you can watch here), but still, it was so fun. I highly recommend playing it if you get the chance :)

Portal! It's a classic, although I didn't know anything about it until a friend told me in 2021. They bought me Portal 2, while another friend bought me the original Portal, both of which I played on stream soon after. I absolutely loved them both, and here I am to tell you about it :)

Portal

The original Portal was published by Valve in 2007. It's a puzzle platformer with a unique mechanic: place two connected portals to help you solve the puzzle. There's physics involved with it, too, such as using your momentum to launch yourself across a large gap, which makes some of the puzzles extra fun.

In the story, you play as Chell, a test subject at Aperture Science, and you are being put through a series of puzzle trials by a supercomputer AI called GLaDOS. You use your portal gun to get through the puzzles, and later, to destroy GLaDOS and escape the facility. However, when you do manage to escape, you get dragged right back in, leading into the second game of the series.

Portal 2

Portal 2 was released in 2011 as a direct sequel to the original. This one has some new mechanics, but maintains the old as well. You wake up in a destroyed Aperture, and try to escape with the help of a round robot named Wheatley. However, you're stopped at the gate after Wheatley accidentally reboots GLaDOS, and you get forced back into the test chambers. With the help of your portal gun, you traverse the puzzles as well as areas inside and out of the facility, in order to free yourself from Aperture Science once more.

I had so much fun playing Portal! I'm notoriously Not Great at 3d platformers or puzzles, but I managed to get through most of it without much help :) If you, like me, have somehow never played either of these games, I highly recommend picking up a copy during the next Steam sale. It was a super enjoyable and memorable experience.

Psychonauts fucking RULES. Probably on the list for my favorite games of all time. Let me tell you about it :)

Psychonauts

Psychonauts is a 3d platformer developed by Double Fine Productions and originally released in 2005 for Windows, Xbox, and Playstation 2. The game sets up for a sequel, which was finally released 16 years later in 2021. It was around this time that I saw how many people loved this game, and decided to purchase them both for myself.

In the game, you play as Razputin, a young boy who has incredible psychic abilities. He has broken into Whispering Rock, a summer camp where the psychonauts train psychic youth to hone their abilities and become psychonauts themselves. Initially, he is told that he needs to go home, but the psychonauts quickly realize his potential and allow him to stay. Using the combination of Raz's psychic abilities, which you unlock as you progress, and his acrobatic background in a family circus, you must enter others' minds in order to help them combat the problems in their own heads.

There isn't enough I can say about this game to give it the credit it deserves. The music is very enjoyable, and the way that every level is entirely new and different was really cool. The characters were also super interesting and memorable, specifically Sasha and Milla, Agent Cruller, Gloria, Edgar, Fred, and, of course, Raz. Even the other kids are fun to interact with, particularly Dogen, Phoebe and Quentin, and Vernon. The story is also great; What better way to test your skills as a soon-to-be-psychonaut than to be thrown into a potentially world-ending situation? (I would detail said situation, but, y'know, spoilers and all)

Overall, Psychonauts is amazing. There were definitely some frustrating parts (which you can see in the VODs) where I had trouble with the way the game was designed. Apparently, the last levels before the final boss are a known hair-tearing nightmare, but I think beating them made it all the more rewarding, and I spent a lot more time enjoying other aspects of the game to make up for it. Also, I decided to collect all figments, sort all baggage, and clear all mental cobwebs, because I was told there would be a secret bonus cutscene at level 100, and - well - there was! There WAS, in fact, a bonus cutscene. Mhm. Totally worth it. Highly recommend. It ONLY took an additional 6 hours. In all seriousness, though, I am notoriously bad at platforming, so the fact that I was able to do this is very cool to me :)

Psychonauts 2

The sequel to the game was released in the long off year of 2022, nearly twenty years after the first game. Despite its name, Psychonauts 2 is the third installment in the series, joined to the original by Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin. Released in 2017, this game is only playable in VR, making it inaccessible to many fans. Luckily, Psychonauts 2 begins with a recap of both the first game and Rhombus of Ruin, narrated by Razputin himself. Following the end of the first game, after saving the world from the situation, the Psychonauts are called to rescue the Grand Head of the Psychonauts, Truman Zanotto, AKA the father of Lilli, who Raz may or may not be kind of dating. Truman was kidnapped by Doctor Lobotto, one of the villains of the original game, and they manage to capture him and recover Truman.

This is where the beginning of Psychonauts 2 kicks in, where it is revealed that Truman is unable to wake up due to psitanium poisoning, and thus is unable to tell anyone what happened. Still, the Psychonauts don't believe that Loboto would have, or could have, kidnapped Truman alone. After some investigation, Sasha, Milla, and acting Grand Head Hollis Forsythe discover that someone must have hired Loboto, and that that person is a mole lurking within the Motherlobe (Psychonauts HQ). Even more concerning is the mole's apparent plan to bring back Maligula, the powerful, evil psychic who destroyed the Aquato home country of Grulovia and cursed the family to die in water. The Psychonauts assure Raz that Maligula is dead and gone, but who can he really trust?

Not only does Psychonauts 2 really embody the original energy and style of the first game, but it also does it even better. Every area, physical and mental, goes above and beyond anything I could imagine, and the story takes turn after turn after dark, dark turn! It was a blast to play through, and even if you haven't played the first game I really highly recommend playing this one. Everything about it is gorgeous, from the gameplay and design all the way to the themes of the story and how meaningful it all is. Ultimately, the game is about taking care of yourself and others, and about family. Also, Sasha loans Raz some of his old clothes after a mishap and it ends up being the second best thing that's ever happened to him in his life. Just like in the first game, the characters are excellent, especially the Psychic 7 and the intern kids!

GAME IS GOOD. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Check it out for yourself on Steam or watch my VODs for a,, crunchier experience :)

Smile For Me is another one of those games that all my friends practically begged me to play. So, I did, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing so :)

Smile For Me, released in 2019, is self-described as "an unconventional Point-and-Click Adventure Game," in which you nod or shake your head to communicate with new friends. You play as the Flower Kid, and you have arrived in the Habitat, created and overseen by Dr. Habit. Your goal is to help the Habiticians be happy again by easing their troubles before The Big Event. I'd prefer not to spoil anything about the story, so instead, I will tell you that the game is fun, the characters and music are delightful, the nighttime is scary, and Ronbo is my best friend :)

It's a fairly short game, only taking me two streams to finish (which you can watch here), but I highly recommend playing it yourself :) Oh, but if you have issues with mild horror related to teeth, maybe skip this one.

Ough. Spiritfarer.

Spiritfarer is a lovely, beautiful, brilliant game. It was released in 2020, and received its final major update in 2021 in the form of Farewell Edition. It is described as an indie management sim and sandbox action game, but it is so, so much more than that. Spiritfarer is about love, and life, and death. Spiritfarer is about leading your lost loved ones to the Everdoor. Spiritfarer is heartwrenching. Spiritfarer is wonderful.

In the game, you play as Stella, the newest spiritfarer. It is your job, with the help of your cat, Daffodil, to find spirits (who have taken up forms of animals, each with their own spirit flower) and convince them to board your boat. Then, you must build them a house, furnish it to their liking, help them with their troubles and their joys, and, eventually, take them to the Everdoor upon their request. The Everdoor leads to the afterlife, where all spirits are meant to go. In addition to your hospitality, you must also collect resources for construction, ingredients and recipes to feed your passengers with, fulfill quests and requests, and explore every inch of the sea. Some of my favorite spirits include Atul, Alice, Stanley, Gustav, and Daria (and, of course, they are some of the ones that hurt the most).

Spiritfarer is truly very enjoyable, as well as extremely heartbreaking. This game will make you laugh and cry. It will make you mad. You will feel the true feeling of grief and loss, and you will feel love and hope. I cannot recommend Spiritfarer enough. Do yourself a favor and purchase it on Steam, if you are able.

Everyone already knows what Undertale is. Everyone. There is no reason for me to make a post explaining what Undertale and Deltarune are about, or how they are played. Instead, this post is a love letter to those games.

Undertale

Undertale is like an old friend to me. I remember watching my very first playthrough when it first came out. The YouTuber I was watching, who I was a longtime fan of, hated it for some reason! She thought it was slow, and goofy, and had no replayability (WHAT?). What had happened was she had gotten the neutral ending, and when the game told her to go back and try talking to more people, she FLIPPED. In all fairness, she had killed Toriel as far as I remember, so she WAS going to need to replay the game. Still, I was so upset by her rude review of the game, after enjoying everything leading up to that point, that I unsubscribed and stopped watching her videos forever. After that, I watched a different YouTuber I liked play the whole game again, and that about solidified my love for the game.

Years after the release of the game, in 2018, a friend of mine at the time let me log into his Steam account to play the game. I was ecstatic. I played the entire true pacifist route, and then a few years later I played it again. Undertale never gets old. Were it not for the in-universe/meta implications, I would have played it way more than two times. The only reason I played it a second time was because I got a new computer and someone bought me the game for my own Steam account, so no save file resets. If anything, I saved yet another instance of the Underground.

This game doesn't need a favorite characters list, or my favorite moments, or my favorite tracks, because they're ALL GOOD. And I don't need to tell you that. Everyone knows that.

Deltarune

As for Deltarune, no notes. I love it. Can't wait to see more. The jokes are hysterical and I love all the characters, especially Susie, Lancer, Queen, and Sweet Cap'n Cakes.

Zag insisted that I get this game like a year ago and MAN was it right.

AI: The Somnium Files is a 2019 mystery visual novel game developed and released by Spike Chunsoft for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PC, and later Xbox One. The player pilots Kaname Date, a special agent for the Tokyo MPD in a top-secret division called ABIS (Advanced Brain Investigation Squad), where cases are investigated by entering and exploring a subject's dreams. In this space, called Somnium, Date is able to uncover clues in the person's subconscious and memories with help from his AI partner, Aiba. Aiba is stored in a cybernetic prosthetic eye, which replaces the one that Date lost under unknown circumstances six years ago, the same time he lost all of his memories. At the start of the game, Date is called to a scene to investigate the murder of someone he knew personally, and everything spirals out of control from there.

I don't want to get too ahead of myself here talking about the plot. This game was written by the creator of the Zero Escape games (you can read my ultimate faves page on that here), and they are very similar in having major plot twists, multiple story lines and endings, and things not being what they seem. I will say that there are many loveable characters in this game, especially Mizuki, Date's twelve-year-old half adopted daughter and half fiery roommate who bullies him to hell and back; Ota, an initial suspect in the case who spends all of his time and money falling over himself to spend time with an internet idol called A-Set; and Mayumi, Ota's mother who loves him very much and hates that "witch" A-Set. There were so many fun parts, big and small. My personal favorite was one of Date's coworkers who you can ask what his name is about twenty times throughout the game, much to his exasperation. "It's. Kagami!" Whatever you say, Kaniza.

As is standard with these games, I do have to tell you some warnings: There are deaths in this game! The main plot is that you are a detective trying to catch a serial killer, and there are many on screen corpses and violent scenes. The corpses are often displayed in some way, including hanging by the mouth on a hook, sawed in half, or completely dismembered. There are several different forms of murder, involving things like giant circular saws, guns, knives, bombs, and so on. There is a LOT of blood, and it goes all over. The big one is eye trauma. The main thing connecting the murders is that the killer always removes one of the victim's eyes, and as such most of the corpses are missing an eye and there is visible blood in the area, sometimes an empty socket. It's brutal out there. Besides the gruesome visuals and topics, there is another thing to be aware of as well: in some routes there is discussion of conspiracy theories involving a secret organization controlling the world. There is a reason for this that makes sense later in the game, but it is pushed very heavily by a certain character and initially portrayed as real. I believe that covers all the major stuff without giving too much away.

Now that that's all accounted for, I really liked playing this game!! You can check it out on Steam here. I got it on sale for a pretty good price, something like $15, and I highly recommend it. Thanks once again to Zag for showing me this series!

After one thousand years I FINALLY finished this goddamn game. I started playing this game on March 23, 2023 and finally beat it on February 23, 2024. Good lord. It's not that the game is difficult or bad lol I just am constantly battling for free time and spare energy and also juggling multiple people's schedules so the four of us (me, Zag, Jay, and Smiley) would all be present to experience the game. But it's finally finished, and now it's time to talk about it!

I am planning on using my awesome "spoilers" feature that I implemented in my "Storytime" page recently, so please stay tuned for an in-depth discussion of the game's contents and what I liked best. For now, though, like the original and the Zero Escape series before it, this game is so spoiler oriented that I can't really say anything about it LMAO. I will tell you that the new character, Ryuki, is my best fucking friend. I love his lil gay ass.

The Professor Layton games are ones which I have always held in high regard. As a kid, I only played one, the one my sister had gotten for her DS, and I wasn't too good at it being so young. Now, I'm older and I can play any game I want :)

Professor Layton is a puzzle-adventure video game series developed and published by Level-5. As of the announcement of a new installment for the Nintendo Switch, there will be eight main titles in the series. The original trilogy consists of games 1-3, while the prequel trilogy consists of games 4-6. These trilogies follow the titular Professor Hershel Layton and his apprentice Luke. The seventh installment follows Layton's daughter, Katrielle Layton, while the eighth, based on trailers, will return to Professor Layton himself. In these games, Layton and co. must solve many mysteries by solving logic puzzles. While some of these puzzles are related to the given mystery, most of them are puzzles presented to them by other characters, or ones which they recall after seeing something during their adventures. In the end, there always seems to be some sort of twist, as everything is not what it seems.

Layton puzzles are super fun! They range in difficulty and types. They can involve riddles, visuals, numbers, words, and more. Some of my favorite puzzles I still think about from time to time when I see something that reminds me. And, if puzzles aren't your strong suit (or your brain just stops working when you're tired, like me), there is an in-game hint system as well as online guides :)

If you're interested in the games, but don't have the means or desire to play them for yourself, you can watch the VODs of my own playthrough here on YouTube. I'm going through them one game at a time, so please be patient as I make my way from one to the next.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is the first installment in the Layton series, and the first game of the original trilogy. It was released in Japan for the Nintendo DS in 2007 and gradually released to other parts of the world in 2008. Layton and Luke have been summoned by a letter to St. Mystere, a secluded village with an enormous tower. The letter was sent by Lady Dahlia, the recent widow of Baron Augustus Reinhold who left behind a myserious will: whoever were to solve the mystery of the Golden Apple would inherit his fortune. However, nobody knows what the Golden Apple is or what the mystery entails. All the people of the town love puzzles, and they give Layton and his apprentice many puzzles and riddles to solve in exchange for information. However, the Golden Apple isn't the only mystery of the town, and it's Layton and Luke's job to discover the truth about St. Mystere and its residents.

Playing this game for the first time on stream was really fun! There are so many puzzles of varying difficulty, the story is genuinely interesting and the plot twists are surprising from start to finish, and the character designs and dialogue are so fun :) I highly recommend picking up any Layton game, but this one is a definite good one, especially considering it is the first in the series.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

The second installment in the original trilogy, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, was released to most of the world in 2009. This time, Layton and Luke are off to visit Layton's mentor in London, who has apparently acquired an enigmatic antique known as the Elysian Box. The box is notorious for supposedly killing anyone who opens it, but Layton is skeptical of such a phenomenon. However, upon arriving at his home, the puzzling pair finds him dead in his office and the box has vanished. The only clues they find are an open window, a photograph of the box, and a train ticket with no destination. With help and hinderance from old friends and foes, Layton and his apprentice climb aboard the Molentary Express to discover the truth about the Elysian Box.

I played this game probably a hundred times as a kid, and I finally played through it again on stream :) I forgot about some of the things I loved most about this game, especially the minigames. My favorites were the tea set and the camera, but the hamster one was also really fun (although as a kid I couldn't figure out how to do it properly lol). This game does reference the first game, which was weird for me because I played this one first and a lot of stuff just made no sense to me. It was weird seeing Luke assault a man with zero hesitation, or meeting some girl on a train and Layton being all "hey good to see you again what are you doing here" etc. So, if you don't have the means/patience to play the first game and are okay with being confused about minor details, then you can just skip to this game :) I like it better than Curious Village and I promise it's not just the nostalgia talking lol you will have an excellent time with great puzzles and a great story that has higher stakes than the original. So yea! Give it a go sometime!

My sister got this game for her 2ds before I had my own 3ds, and I played it sooo much but never got too far. Until now :]

Fantasy Life is a life sim RPG developed by Level-5 and published worldwide by Nintendo for the 3ds in 2014. In the game, the player lives in a world called Reveria in a kingdom called Castele. They are summoned to the castle by mail to receive their Life License from the King, which allows them to take up a Life. The player is able to choose and switch between twelve different Lives, of which there are three categories: Combat, such as Paladins and Hunters; Gathering, such as Miners and Woodcutters; and Crafting, such as Blacksmiths and Alchemists.

On the way to the castle, the player meets a sparkling, talking butterfly who wants to explore the world and hear everyone's wishes. Later, the player and Butterfly discover a large, ominous "Doomstone" after it crashes into the roof of their rented attic space. Nobody seems to know why they are falling, what they are made of, where they are coming from, or why they are sending beasts of the world into a violent frenzy. The player's goal is to master many Lives, hear everyone's wishes, and save Reveria.

Fantasy Life is a beloved, fantastic game with hundreds of hours of fun, exciting story and gameplay, simple controls, and pleasant graphics and sound design. Some people have criticized the game for being repetitive or too easy, but I personally have no such issue. I think my sister must've beaten the game at least four times, but I never had much time to get too far as a kid since the cartridge wasn't mine. Now, I have my own copy for my 3ds, and I've been reliving my childhood :) My favorite lives include Angler, Blacksmith, Miner, and Paladin, although they're all super fun and useful. I highly recommend anyone check it out if they can!

You may be aware of the new title, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, announced to be released for Nintendo Switch in 2023. This is the second console release for the franchise, as the previous Fantasy Life 2 (later renamed Fantasy Life Online) was released for mobile devices. It will introduce two new lives, Farmer and Artist, as well as new mechanics such as more customization options and time travel :) Really looking forward to seeing how people like it whenever it comes out, and maybe I'll get it for myself.

Ace Attorney is yet another game franchise that I knew about for a long time but never bothered playing for one reason or another. Luckily, I have several, very adamant fans in my friend group :)

Ace Attorney is a visual novel game series developed and published by Capcom. Each game contains several court cases which the player uses investigation and court strategies to solve and win. The series began with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, originally released in Japan for the Game Boy Advance in 2001. It was later ported to the Nintendo DS in 2005. This version was the first to be available in English and included a fifth bonus case that showcased many of the capabilities of the Nintendo DS, such as 3D models, touch screen, and microphone.

I have no interest in spoiling the details of the later cases, but I will tell you a bit about the plot. The main protagonist is Phoenix Wright, a rookie defense attorney mentored by Mia Fey. She guides him through his first case, a murder trial involving his childhood friend, Larry Butz, who is charged with the murder of his girlfriend. They prove his innocence by pointing out contradictions between his and the witness' testimonies, causing the true killer to crack and confess. However, Wright's second case turns out not to be so simple: Mia Fey herself has been found dead, with her sister, Maya, caught there at the scene. Foul play is abound and not all is what it seems, especially with the notoriously ruthless prosecutor Miles Edgeworth working against them. In his cases, Wright must seek out the truth and save the lives of his clients and even himself.

Ace Attorney is AWESOME. The music is fun, the gameplay is cool as hell, the character designs are great, the art style is excellent (although I'm told it changes in future games...), and it's just overall a really fun time :) If you haven't played it I highly recommend that you do! You have to meet my funny friends Edgeworth and Gumshoe and Maya and Larry and of course Mr. Phoenix Wright himself :) You will laugh and smile as I have so much. Give it a shot if you get the chance!

I really enjoyed streaming this game. I have every intention of playing the full series on Twitch, and will be updating this post as I make my way through it :) You can watch the VODs on YouTube here!

A good friend of mine bought me this game off my wishlist for my birthday, and I LOVE it so so much.

Moonglow Bay is an indie, voxel-style fishing RPG developed by Bunnyhug. It launched on Steam in October of 2021, and while it was praised for its gameplay and story, it was met with mixed reviews due to multiple bugs at launch. I watched Holly's playthrough of it, but one of these bugs did end up cutting her run short. Luckily, in July of 2023, the devs released a patch to fix most if not all past problems. So, this is when I decided to try the game myself :)

The game places the player in the role of an older individual surnamed Fisher. Soon after retiring together to live in Moonglow Bay, a small Canadian town right on a crescent shaped bay, Fisher's spouse disappears on a fishing expedition and is declared deceased three years later. Since their disappearance, the once thriving fishing town began to avoid the water altogether out of superstitious fears, and now the town creeps closer and closer to bankruptcy. The pair's daughter, River Fisher, travels to Moonglow to help pull her parent out of their spiral of sorrow and regret, and they decide to team up and help the rebuild Moonglow. Although their partner was the resident angler, Fisher learns the ropes from some seasoned locals and combines fresh catches with their ever-expanding cooking skills. Despite good intentions, the townspeople still warn of strange creatures and curses, and Fisher ends up with a bit more trouble than they bargained for.

Moonglow Bay is truly an EXCELLENT game. It combines several of my favorite things: voxel graphics, fishing, the aquarium from animal crossing, minigames with skill incentives, and a dog that you can pet :) there's also a WHOLE bunch of fish you can catch with their own local names and mythical descriptions, and lots of yummy seafood dishes to unlock and perfect. You can also give 12 people their favorite dish each day to learn new things about them or the town, and once you've heard everything they have to say they will sign your journal, which your character uses like a diary to their partner :) The whole game is really sweet and meaningful, on top of being super duper fun!

I definitely 100% recommend this game :)! You can pick it up on Steam here, and it's also available on other platforms like Switch and Xbox.