Didn't vote for either of these, so I'll just watch my nomination anyway. :D

Here's the second Ace Attorney fangame I finished. This one is a crossover between Ace Attorney and Danganronpa.

October 3rd - Ace Attorney: Ultimate Justice - 1h 40m - 6/10 - 100% - Started same day as finished - Beat all currently available cases, which is currently 1.

Full Review

TLDR Review:
Pros:
High quality, neat references and epic remixed music for the final cross-examination.

Cons:
The fangame is unfinished and likely abandoned, so the plot threads it sets up are wasted.

Here's the second Ace Attorney fangame I played. This one being between Ace Attorney and Danganronpa.

October 3rd - Ace Attorney: Ultimate Justice - 1h 40m - 6/10 - 100% - Started same day as finished - Beat all currently available cases, which is currently 1.

Pros:
Ace Attorney: Ultimate Justice is a crossover fangame between Ace Attorney and Danganronpa. For the gameplay it uses Ace Attorney mechanics, but it mixes in Danganronpa characters with the Ace Attorney characters and takes place in a world where both franchises can co-exist.

The game has quite a few fun refences, like one to Spirit of Justice that allows it to be placed in between Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice on the Ace Attorney timeline. Even though Komaru and Makoto are the main DR characters involved in the case, you also get cameo's from Kyoko and Byakuya which was nice to see. The fangame also uses its premise to have some jokes you wouldn't expect, like Phoenix thinking that Hope's Peak Academy is a bit extreme, to gather the best of the best in one place.

Overall it's a very polished fangame, it re-creates the Ace Attorney gameplay to a tee, with all the elements you would expect. It has a good amount of custom art that emulates the art styles of both series depending on which series the piece is tied to closer. Even though the gameplay mostly emulates Ace Attorney, there are still a couple twists, like using Danganronpa music for specific segments in place of AA music. Most of the music is reused from the DS AA games and THH but the final cross-examination uses a new remix instead, which made it feel extra epic (like it should) and gave it the climactic finality it deserved.

Cons:
At the end of the case there is setup for future cases and it's hinted that the next case would take place at Hope's Peak Academy. Sadly the fangame only has one case out right now and it's seemingly abandoned as there haven't been any dev updates in a while. Which leaves the ending as pretty anti-climactic and disappointing, considering what we could've gotten. However for a one case fangame it still manages to scratch that itch of having two franchises collide.

Also, sorry for the double post but I've got a question. It was brought to my attention that for 12-2, "A game adapted into another medium", my entry is sort of incorrect, because it was Vanilla P5 that got a stage play and not P5 Royal. What do you guys think? Do I need to replace it with something else or is it fine? I'd argue that it is since P5R technically also contains P5.

I would say it counts, since P5R is just a remaster of P5 with some extra content tacked on.

Finished two short Ace Attorney crossover fangames. This is the first one, which is a crossover between Higurashi and Ace Attorney. I'll write the review for the second one tomorrow.

October 2nd - Ace Higurashi Attorney - The Curry Turnabout - 34m - 5/10 - 100% - Started same day as finished - Beat the game and saw the staff room.

Full Review

TLDR Review:

Pros:
Funny dark humor and surprisingly good art that recreates the Ryukishi style in Ace Attorney poses.

Neutral:
Good music, although you can't adjust the music volume and it's very loud.

Cons:
Basic VN gameplay that doesn't adapt the Ace Attorney gameplay mechanics. Leads to leaps of logic and not getting that eureka moment when you figure something out.

Finished two short Ace Attorney crossover fangames. This is the first one, which is a crossover between Higurashi and Ace Attorney. I'll write the review for the second one tomorrow. Also trying out a new conclusion section for my reviews, to make my opinion as a whole clearer. if I like it, it'll keep it in my review format.

October 2nd - Ace Higurashi Attorney - The Curry Turnabout - 34m - 5/10 - 100% - Started same day as finished - Beat the game and saw the staff room.

Here's my review:
Pros:
For a shitpost style crossover game Ace Higurashi Attorney does quite a few things well. It is consistently funny, with some great dark humor coming from the fact that a murder has taken place in Higurashi. Considering it's a crossover game I was expecting something a little more lighthearted, but no it's just straight up that Chie has been murdered and the resulting punishment would be the death penalty.

The new art in the fangame perfectly emulates Ryukishi's artstyle while giving them recognizable poses from Ace Attorney characters. Rika has a judges outfit, while Keiichi uses Phoenix poses and Satoko Edgeworth's.

Neutral:
The music is better than I was expecting for a fangame of this size, although it's a shame there's no way to adjust the audio volume, because it was way too loud.

Cons:
The Ace Attorney part of the crossover is more in terms of the setting rather than the gameplay as none of its gameplay mechanics are adapted one-to-one. Probably due to this being a low budget project or maybe limitations of the engine that was used to create it, as the game uses basic VN text mechanics and nothing else. This hindered the gameplay a bit, while you could look at evidence, you couldn't simultaneously look at the question you were trying to answer. If you got an answer wrong there isn't a penalty either, you get shown that your answer was wrong and then immediately get to choose again. This lack of of feedback also made me unsure of whether I was getting my answers correct in the first place. The max amount of choices you were offered were only 6, so it was easy to just brute force the correct answer without getting that "AHA" moment and figuring out what happened yourself. So you're playing catchup with the characters most of the time and it also led to a couple moments that felt like leaps of logic.]]

Conclusion:
Despite it's lacking gameplay, I would still say that Ace Higurashi Attorney is a worthwhile experience if you're a fan of both series, because of it's very short length and humor.

Beat 2 games via Xbox Game Pass before my subscription ran out. I also finished Deltarune Ch4, however I'm also planning on going through all the routes for Ch's 3 & 4 and so far I've only done the pacifist route, which is why I'm not considering the game finished. Not sure what the chances are that I'll finish it this month, since I'm putting most of my free time into a personal project of mine.

August 5th - Little Kitty, Big City - 10h 7m - 8/10 - Main+ - Started August 22nd - 14 Days Taken - Beat the game, did all the quests, got 54/56 hats and got 82% of achievements.
August 6th - Unpacking - 4h 11m - 4/10 - Main - Started same day as finished. - Beat all levels and got 56% of achievements.

The best game is Little Kitty, Big City. It uses the fact that you play as a cat to its fullest potential and the character customization adds that extra connection to the game by being able to recreate your own cat.

The worst game is Unpacking. The game is grounded and has good environmental storytelling, however the combination of puzzle and cozy game elements don't mix that well. Would've been better if it leaned more into either direction.

September Update

Beat two games near the beginning of this month and I managed to fit both into the list.

✅️ 29. A game with an interesting hook - Little Kitty, Big City
✅️42. A game with a female protagonist - Unpacking

Here's my progress so far:

Collection Link

✅️ 1. A new game (released within the past year) - Sewer Tales
❌️ 2. An old game (released 10+ years ago) - Kentucky Route Zero
❌️ 3. A really old game (released 20+ years ago - Clannad
✅️ 4. An ancient game (released 30+ years ago) - Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
❌️ 5. A time sink (50+ hours) - Octopath Traveler II
❌️ 6. A quickie (less than an hour) - UBERMOSH Vol.3
❌️ 7. A remake or remaster of a game - Braid: Anniversary Edition
❌️ 8. A game with 6+ endings - Chaos;Head Noah
❌️ 9. A collection of games - Zero Escape: The Nonary Games
❌️ 10-1. A game that’s title starts with a number - 80 Days
❌️ 10-2. A game named after the main character - Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
❌️ 10-3. A game that starts with the letter Q or Z - Q.U.B.E 10th Anniversary
✅️ 11. A game from a genre you don’t normally play - Neon White
❌️ 12-1. A game adapted from another medium - Splendor
❌️ 12-2. A game adapted into another medium - Higurashi When They Cry
✅️ 13-1. A game with a short title (4 letters or less) - SOUP (2025)
❌️ 13-2. A game with a long title (8+ words or a word with 13+ letters) - Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
✅️ 14-1. A game with over 1k completions - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
❌️ 14-2. A game with under 100 completions - Airport Madness 3D: Volume 2
❌️ 14-3. A game with no recorded completion times - Reigns: Beyond
❌️ 15-1. A game you previously retired or shelved - Fire Emblem: Awakening
❌️ 15-2. A replay - Fire Emblem: Three Houses
❌️ 16. A game that’s been a Game of the Month - Ori and the Will of the Wisps
❌️ 17. A game chosen by the HLTB randomizer - Industria (2021)
✅️ 18. A game with a real or fictional religion - The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante
❌️ 19-1. A “threequel” (third part of the series) - McPixel 3
❌️ 19-2. A spin-off - Hitman GO
❌️ 20. A cornerstone of gaming culture - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
❌️ 21. A game where you play as an anti-hero or villain - Carrion
❌️ 22. A game heavily featuring zombies - Dying Light: The Following - Enhanced Edition
✅️ 23. A game that hasn't aged well - New Super Mario Bros.
❌️ 24. An indie game - Isles of Sea and Sky
❌️ 25-1. A game that takes place after a timeskip (5+ years) - Layton Brothers: Mystery Room
❌️ 25-2. A game that takes place at the same time as another game in the series - Hitman: Blood Money
❌️ 26. A sequel that's more famous than the original - Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition
✅️ 27. A game that has no business being in its series - Super Mario Bros. 2
❌️ 28. A game from a franchise that rarely gets new games - Professor Layton and the New World of Steam
✅️ 29. A game with an interesting hook - Little Kitty, Big City - (Replaced: Children of the Sun)
❌️ 30-1. A game with a great plot twist - Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane
❌️ 30-2. A game with a bad plot twist - Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
✅️ 31-1. The definitive edition of a game (or GOTY edition, Ultimate Edition, Deluxe edition, etc.) - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
❌️ 31-2. The base game version of a game with several DLCs or Editions - I am an Air Traffic Controller 4
❌️ 32-1. A platform exclusive - Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
❌️ 32-2. A game available on 7+ platforms - The Legend of Zelda
❌️ 33. A game you beat to 100% completion - Mario & Luigi: Brothership
❌️ 34. A game that started a long-running franchise (7+ games) - Metroid
❌️ 35. A recent (within the last 5 years) game in a long-running franchise (7+ games) - Kirby and the Forgotten Land
✅️ 36. A game that's smaller than 100MB - BoxBoxBoy! (Replaced: Can of Wormholes)
❌️ 37. A game that won any category in the SPIKE Video Game awards or the Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley - Journey
✅️ 38. A game that made it out of Development Hell (5+ years) - The Witness
❌️ 39. A game where the characters speak a language you don't understand (can be real or fictional) - Will: A Wonderful World
❌️ 40. A game with a memorable soundtrack - Ace Attorney Investigations Collection
❌️ 41. A game on someone else's Game Challenge 2025 list - Metaphor ReFantazio
✅️ 42. A game with a female protagonist - Unpacking - (Replaced: CrossCode)
✅️ 43. A Game inspired by Mythology or Folklore - Hellhound's Trail
❌️ 44. A Game inspired/based on real world historical events - Not For Broadcast
❌️ 45. A game developed by a single person - Taiji
❌️ 46. A fanmade/bootleg/rom hack game - Undertale Yellow
❌️ 47. A game that won or was a finalist for a Steam Award - Sifu
❌️ 48. A game with a silent protagonist - Snake Pass
❌️ 49-1. A game that features time travel - Steins;Gate
❌️ 49-2. A game that features space travel - Super Mario Galaxy 2
✅️ 50. A Game that prominently features food/cooking - Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

Totals:
Completions (15/50)
Alternatives (0/13)
Bonus (0/4)

April-September Update

Completely forgot about this thread, so I haven't posted an update since March. There have been quite a few books I didn't manage to fit into any category, mainly the multiple Kokoro Connect Volumes I read, as well as Republic of Thieves, which was just shy of the 700 page mark.

May: ✅18. A book from an abandoned or currently unfinished series. - Red Seas Under Red Skies - (Scott Lynch)

June: ✅07. A "classic" / literary cornerstone. - The Shape of Things to Come - (H. G. Wells)

September:
✅11. A graphic novel or manga. - your name. Thoughts & Dreams, Vol. 2 - (Bleda)
✅14. A self-published book. - your name. Thoughts & Dreams, Vol. 1 - (Bleda)
✅29. A book that has at least two of the following words in the title: How Long To Beat. - How To Talk To Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships - (Leil Lowndes)

Gaming Adjacent challenges

❌01. A book published by Boss Fight Books. - Outer Wilds
❌02. A novel that was (directly) adapted into a videogame. -
❌03. A book based on a videogame. - Higurashi When They Cry: Abducted by Demons Arc (AKA Onikakushi), Vol. 1 - (Ryukishi07)
❌04-A. A book based on a table-top game (DnD, Warhammer, Shadowrun, Magic, BattleTech, etc)
❌04-B. a Gamebook (e.g. Choose-Your-Own-Adventures, single-player RPGs). - Fighting Fantasy Deathtrap Dungeon - (Ian Livingstone).
❌05. A non-fiction book about videogames. - Hey! Listen!: A journey through the golden era of video games - (Steve McNeill)

Regular challenges
❌06. A book published since the start of 2024 - Thunder City - (Philip Reeve)
✅07. A "classic" / literary cornerstone. - The Shape of Things to Come - (H. G. Wells)
❌08. A short story or novella. - The Emperor's Soul - (Brandon Sanderson)
❌09. A doorstopper (Approx. 700 pages). - Ship of Magic - (Robin Hobb)
❌10. A play -
✅11. A graphic novel or manga. - your name. Thoughts & Dreams, Vol. 2 - (Bleda) - (Replaced: Hope You're Happy, Lemon)
❌12. A memoir or (auto-)biography. -
✅13. A book adapted into a movie / TV series. - Kokoro Connect Volume 1: Hito Random - (Sadanatsu Anda)
✅14. A self-published book. - your name. Thoughts & Dreams, Vol. 1 - (Bleda)
❌15. A book from a genre you don’t normally read. -
❌16. A book you have read before but remember nothing about/think you won't like anymore. - Alex Rider: Snakehead - (Anthony Horowitz)
❌17. (Reread) a book that was assigned in school. - How to Win Friends and Influence People - (Dale Carnegie)
✅18. A book from an abandoned or currently unfinished series. - Red Seas Under Red Skies - (Scott Lynch)
❌19. A “hopeful non-fiction” book. -
❌20. An animal xenofiction novel. -
❌21. A novel set in your city/state/country. -
❌22. A book from Wikipedia’s list of “Most Commonly Challenged Books in the US”. -
❌23. A book actually purchased in your local walk-in book shop. - Higurashi When They Cry: GOU, Vol. 1 - (Ryukishi07)
❌24. One of the oldest books in your backlog. - Arsenic For Tea - (Robin Stevens)
❌25. A book in your mother tongue. -
❌26. A book about a character engaging with a hobby of yours. -
❌27-A. A book set before medieval times. -
❌27-B. A book set in the far future. - The Sunlit Man - Brandon Sanderson
❌28-A. The debut book by an up-and-coming author (They must not have any other books out at the moment). -
❌28-B. The first book by a famous/pre-established author. -
✅29. A book that has at least two of the following words in the title: How Long To Beat. - How To Talk To Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships - (Leil Lowndes)
❌30. The Discussion Challenge -

Looking at the remaining categories and the books I'm planning on reading, I'll probably able to reach the Main completion milestone.

Total: 6/30

I don't really watch horror movies, so I don't have many options.

For the campy movie I'll nominate Final Destination Bloodlines and for the scary movie I won't nominate anything because I couldn't think of another horror movie I would want to watch.

Since I'm busy playing bigger games, I'll nominate a shorter game, Carrion. It's a reverse-horror game where you play as an monstrous creature and you get to devour those pesky humans.

The second game I beat for game pass. Took a whole week for me to have enough time to write the review, but I finally got it out.

September 6th - Unpacking - 4h 11m - 4/10 - Main - Finished same day as started - Beat all levels and got 56% of achievements.

Full Review

TLDR Review:
Pros:
Very grounded, even has pixel art of real brands.

Neutral:
Bit too expensive for it's length.

Cons:
Puzzle and cozy games design ideologies don't mesh together very well. Leaning into one aspect or the other would've been better.

This review's a week late, but better late than never I guess.

September 6th - Unpacking - 4h 11m - 4/10 - Main - Finished same day as started - Beat all levels and got 56% of achievements.

Pros:
My favourite detail in Unpacking is how grounded it is. Among all the items you unpack, you see pixel art versions of real life brands and objects. The ones that caught my eye were the various game consoles and their respective games. This realism is supported by the concrete dates given for each location. It makes the game feel like it just takes place in real life.

The game also uses environmental storytelling to its advantage to tell a simple but realistic story of someone's life. It's interesting to build a mental picture of what could be happening based on where the main character is moving and what items she has with her. You can also gauge what type of person she is based on the objects she keeps with her throughout the years.

I wasn't expecting a small-scale game like this to have vocal ending theme, but I'll take those whenever I can.

Neutral:
Unpacking's value is a bit lacking given its short length and relatively high price. The game is $20, while only being 4 hours long. I recognize, that it does go on sale for $10 and there are achievements I didn't go far, which could take some amount of extra time to complete, however even that isn't the best value for money out there. This is the reason why I played the game via Xbox game pass instead of on Steam like I do for almost all of my PC games.

Cons:
Unpacking is officially a "zen puzzle" game and because of that it sits in a weird middle-ground between a puzzle and cozy game. It tries to take aspects of both, but the combination has some glaring flaws. Let me explain what I mean.

Puzzle games usually have an "aha!" moment when you finally figure out the solution of the puzzle, but Unpacking doesn't. The reason why is because for a 90% of each puzzle you don't need to think critically. There are no restrictions placed on where you can place objects for most of the level, you are only shown which ones are in the wrong spots until after you've placed every object. Most of the time you spend in a level is placing objects willy nilly, which does get a bit tedious in the later levels, since there are a lot of objects. Even when you're told when objects are in the wrong spots, there's not any puzzle solving going on, since the rules where you can place objects aren't listed anywhere. On top of that, most objects placement is either obvious or obtuse. In the latter case you're just placing it in random places until you find one the game deems good enough.

On the cozy game front the game also takes hits. It feels like a part of the game's fun should be roleplaying and placing objects in the room in the same way you would in real life. Here the game's minimal restrictions are also a detriment but in the opposite direction. A couple times, I was baffled why I couldn't put a specific object in a location, even though to me it seemed like a perfectly sensible location. Because of these restrictions most of the roleplaying and fun of placing items is lost, which is what made it feel tedious in the bigger levels. There were only a couple times where I was really able to customize the levels in a way that felt personal. The only one that stands out is when I placed the 3DS in a prominent drawer separate from the rest of the game consoles, because I love the 3DS.

One of the games I beat for game pass, I also beat another one, but I still have to review that one since I've been quite busy as of late.

September 5th - Little Kitty, Big City - 10h 7m - 8/10 - Main+ - Started August 22nd - 14 Days Taken - Beat the game, did all the quests, got 54/56 hats and got 82% of achievements.

Full Review

TLDR version:
Pros:
Leans more into it being a cat game than Stray. Customization adds much needed emotional attachment.

Neutral:
Music and humor are decent but nothing outstanding.

Cons:
Noticeably buggy, but not enough to ruin the experience.

I wanted to make my 500th post before I wrote this review, so that's why this review is a bit late. Little Kitty Big City was better than I thought it would be for reasons which you'll soon find out.

September 5th - Little Kitty, Big City - 10h 7m - 8/10 - Main+ - Started August 22nd - 14 Days Taken - Beat the game, did all the quests, got 54/56 hats and got 82% of achievements.

Pros:
Out of the two games I've played where you play as a cat, Little Kitty Big City's stand out quality is that it leans much into the cat aspects of a game than Stray does. In Stray there are a few cat related things you do, like nap in some area, but other than that, you could replace the cat with another small agile animal like a monkey. The same principle can't be applied to Little Kitty Big City. Not only can you nap, but you aren't allowed to touch water, you need to eat fish to gain more energy and you can catch birds. There is even a dedicated emote button where you can perform cat actions on the spot, like stretching and sleeping. Stray is a game where you happen to play as a cat, while LKBC is a CAT game. The other cat mechanics the game implements, like climbing, make you feel like you're really playing like a cat, which is exactly what I'm looking for in a cat game. In Stray, you can only move and jump from predetermined points, meanwhile this game lets you jump and climb wherever your heart desires. It embraces the natural freedom you would expect a cat to have and it feels very rewarding when you pull off a tricky jump or climb.

The map is also well designed. In the beginning you are led through two smaller tutorial areas that teach you some of the game's key mechanics, after which it sets you free into the world to do whatever you want. The world feels like it's worth exploring due to the quests, hats, fish and napping spots scattered throughout the map. However, it doesn't fall into the trap of having a bunch of empty space between those collectibles as everything is still packed close together, due to the city setting. There are also plentiful fast travel points scattered about if you want to get somewhere quickly. Due to these factors, exploring the map is a joy and never feels like chore.

Partway through my playthrough the Picture Purrfect update came out and the customization feature it adds, improves the game tremendously. It allows you to recreate your own cat in the game, which makes the game feel much more personal. The creation system isn't perfect, I wish it had a couple more options, but overall it gets to job done well enough. The increased attachment you have towards the cat can also be made use of because of the new photo system. It allows you to snap pictures of your beautiful cat and it has a lot of options you can tinker with like filters and stickers. I had a lot of fun coming up with creative pictures I could take of my cat.

Little Kitty Big City's story is simple, you fall off your owner's windowsill, who lives at the top of an apartment building and your goal is to get back there. However, a simple story is all the game needs to give you concrete goal to work towards while letting the gameplay shine. There was one aspect of the story that really stood out to me though, which was the fact that you get to name the cat at the end of the game. You don't see it coming, because, usually when you name a main character, it's done at the beginning of the game. Throughout the entire game the cat has been referred to simply as Kitty and you don't expect that to change. The reason why you are given the option to name your character at the start of games is so you can roleplay better and build a stronger emotional attachment to the game and its characters because of that. But in Little Kitty Big City it still works because you're likely going to name it after one of your own cats, which you already have an emotional connection to. This connection is further strengthened by the new update because the cat you're naming will look like the one you're naming it after. This was especially effective for me, because the cat I recreated in the game was one that went missing 1.5 years ago (as of writing this) and it felt special to be able to immortalize her in digital form within the game. I was able to relive some of the joy I had with her through the game. I was able to take digital pictures of her that I can't take anymore IRL and I love that Little Kitty Big City gave me that avenue.


Neutral:
The game's humor and music are decent, but nothing out of the ordinary. The one exception would is Taffy's theme, which is one of the new themes added in the update. It stood out due to its use of lyrics.

Cons:
One small issue I had with Little Kitty Big City was one quest where I had to use a guide to figure it out due to the instructions not being clear enough. You had to find a specific location with a set of hints, one of which was that it was behind a yellow house. Except the house it was actually next to was more beige than yellow.

The bigger issue I noticed was the amount of bugs I encountered during my playthrough. Sometimes when you landed somewhere the movement would freak out a bit and place you in the wrong location. I also noticed one prop that was floating off the ground after I had interacted with it. One time a piece of ambient audio got stuck playing in the background, although it was very subtle so it took me a while to notice it was happening. The biggest issue I encountered was that I got softlocked after the movement bugged out and I was forced to reload a save. Luckily I had saved shortly beforehand, so it didn't affect my progress. These bugs aren't so plentiful that they completely ruin the game, in fact I only encountered them near the beginning of my playthrough. However they're still frequent enough
to be noticeable. It felt like the game could've used a bit more polish in the bug testing and QA department. It contrasts quite a bit with the other aspects of the game, which are well polished.

This is my 500th post on the HLTB forums and for it I wanted to do something special. (Technically the 501st because I made a blunder.) This year also marks 5 years that I've been on HTLB, (very coincidentally yesterday was also the one year anniversary since I created this blog) and I want to celebrate that. Because HLTB has the best and most positive gaming community I've found online. This goes for the forums as well as the Discord server. On the tracking side of things, it's been so good that I've never felt the need to find something better, I can't say the same thing for the movie/TV show and book tracking sites I use. On top of that the site is always improving, due to Everdred's effort and diligence to listening to the community's feedback. HLTB has impacted my life as well. If it wasn't for HLTB I don't think I would've ever started to review games, movies, TV shows or books. (Who knows, I might start to review more things in the future as well.) It helped me view the media I consume with a critical eye and form opinions for myself. To be specific, I joined HLTB on January 8th of 2020. It took a couple years, but in May 2024 I decided to take the plunge and start reviewing books and movies/tv shows as well. I joined Storygraph and Trakt on May 11th and 12th respectively.

To celebrate, I want to showcase some HLTB stats that aren't directly related to games, starting with the amount of forum posts I've made per year.


It took a couple years before I really got into the forums, the past two years it has gone down slightly, but the reason for that is because I have spent more time on the Discord server instead. I joined it on December 30th of 2024, but really only started actively talking there on May 4th of 2024.


These days I review every game I beat, but it didn't start that way, I slowly developed that habit over time. The first game I reviewed was one I did retroactively which I beat before I created my HLTB account. It was Headliner, which I reviewed on December 19th of 2019. In the first year, I was only reviewing some of the games I beat, I have no idea why I was being selective about it. However that changed after my review of Game Dev Tycoon on December 22nd 2020, after which I've reviewed every game I've beaten since, with only a few special exceptions. The first book I reviewed was Assassin's Quest On June 18th 2024, about a month after I created my Storygraph account. My first movie/tv show review took until September 16th 2024 and it was a review of the first Ranma 1/2 movie, Big Trouble in Nekonron.

The reviews I write per year, depends on how many games, movies/tv shows and books I manage to consume in a year. However since I created this blog, I've also started to create reviews for games when I haven't strictly beaten them, like separate reviews for each arc of Higurashi and reviews for Fortnite seasons. In total I've written 157 game reviews, 29 movie/tv show reviews and 23 book reviews. The total number of reviews I've written is currently stands at 209.


Recently I've also started to keep track of what my longest reviews, in general as well as per media type.
Games: Persona 4 Golden (956 words, 5218 characters) -> Higurashi: Tsumihoroboshi (1505 words, 8783 characters) -> Fortnite Ch6 S3: Super (1795 words, 9987 characters)
Movies/Shows: Ranma 1/2 2011 Live Action special (1444 words, 7966 characters) -> Squid Game S3 (1811 words, 9896 characters)
Books: Ranma 1/2 Volume 34 (1054 words, 5971 characters) -> Ranma 1/2 Volume 36 (1184 words, 6564 characters) -> Republic of Thieves (1396 words, 7782 characters)

I also checked what my longest review was for each year per category.
Longest Game Reviews each Year:
2019: Headliner (29 words, 157 characters) - A technicality, because it's also the only review I wrote that year.
2020: The Henry Stickmin Collection (217 words, 1156 characters)
2021: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice (260 words, 1362 characters)
2022: Super Mario Bros. (427 words, 2285 characters)
2023: Super Mario 3D All-Stars (925 words, 4962 characters)
2024: Higurashi: Tsumihoroboshi (1505 words, 8783 characters)
2025: Fortnite Ch6 S3: Super (1795 words, 9987 characters)

Longest Book Reviews each Year:
2024: Ranma 1/2 Vol. 36 (1184 words, 6564 characters)
2025: Republic of Thieves (1396 words, 7782 characters)

Longest Movie Reviews each Year:
2024: Ranma 1/2 2011 Live Action special (1444 words, 7966 characters)
2025: Squid Game S3 (1811 words, 9896 characters)

I like pushing myself and seeing if I can break my record. The ones that end up doing it have been the ones I least expect, like the Ch6 S3 review. But it isn't only the record breaking reviews that have been increasing in length. I knew the average review length was increasing, but I didn't realize the rate it was increasing at. The first 5 years it was pretty consistent, growth at around 50 words per year. but after that, a switch must've flipped and the rate of increase quadrupled. I'm wondering when the length of my reviews will plateau.


That's the last of the stats I wanted to share for this celebration. I've loved the 5 years I've spent in this community and here's to hoping that the next 5 years I spend in this community, will be just as positive and amazing.

First Light just seems like a modernized version of the third person shooter Bond games. I'm just hoping the stealth mechanics aren't complete trash. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has stealth that makes me want me want to punch a wall at times.

It's made by IOI, the same team behind Hitman. World of Assassination (the latest trilogy of Hitman games) is one of the most replayable stealth games out there. First Light does seem to be a little more action oriented than Hitman, but I trust IOI to make the stealth segments just as good as those in Hitman.

Forgot about this for a couple months, so its been 5 months since my last attempt. Some of the games I've beaten since then, I could see appearing like MK8D, The Witness and New Super Mario Bros. The rest are all niche indie games or DLCs that don't stand a chance.

Page 1 - (4 games) - Hollow Knight, Portal 2, Portal, Persona 5 Royal
Page 2 - (1 game) - Undertale
Page 3 - (1 game) - Celeste
Page 4 - (3 games) - Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition, Persona 4 Golden, Cuphead
Page 5 - (2 games) - Outer Wilds, Life is Strange
Page 6 - (1 game) - Persona 3 Reload
Page 7 - Strike One
Page 8 - (1 game) - Stray
Page 9 - Strike Two
Page 10 - (2 games) - Papers Please, Among Us
Page 11 - (1 game) - Super Mario Odyssey
Page 12 - (1 game) - The Sims 4
Page 13 - (1 game) - What Remains of Edith Finch
Page 14 - Strike Three

Predictably none of the new games showed up, although I did still get slightly farther than last time due to the different spread.

August Update

Beat two games this month. but one of them was a DLC, so I'm only putting one of them on the list.

✅️ 13-1. A game with a short title (4 letters or less) - SOUP (2025)

Here's my progress so far:

Collection Link

✅️ 1. A new game (released within the past year) - Sewer Tales
❌️ 2. An old game (released 10+ years ago) - Kentucky Route Zero
❌️ 3. A really old game (released 20+ years ago - Clannad
✅️ 4. An ancient game (released 30+ years ago) - Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
❌️ 5. A time sink (50+ hours) - Octopath Traveler II
❌️ 6. A quickie (less than an hour) - UBERMOSH Vol.3
❌️ 7. A remake or remaster of a game - Braid: Anniversary Edition
❌️ 8. A game with 6+ endings - Chaos;Head Noah
❌️ 9. A collection of games - Zero Escape: The Nonary Games
❌️ 10-1. A game that’s title starts with a number - 80 Days
❌️ 10-2. A game named after the main character - Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
❌️ 10-3. A game that starts with the letter Q or Z - Q.U.B.E 10th Anniversary
✅️ 11. A game from a genre you don’t normally play - Neon White
❌️ 12-1. A game adapted from another medium - Splendor
❌️ 12-2. A game adapted into another medium - Higurashi When They Cry
✅️ 13-1. A game with a short title (4 letters or less) - SOUP (2025) - (Replaced: Myst (2021))
❌️ 13-2. A game with a long title (8+ words or a word with 13+ letters) - Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
✅️ 14-1. A game with over 1k completions - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
❌️ 14-2. A game with under 100 completions - Airport Madness 3D: Volume 2
❌️ 14-3. A game with no recorded completion times - Reigns: Beyond
❌️ 15-1. A game you previously retired or shelved - Fire Emblem: Awakening
❌️ 15-2. A replay - Fire Emblem: Three Houses
❌️ 16. A game that’s been a Game of the Month - Ori and the Will of the Wisps
❌️ 17. A game chosen by the HLTB randomizer - Industria (2021)
✅️ 18. A game with a real or fictional religion - The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante
❌️ 19-1. A “threequel” (third part of the series) - McPixel 3
❌️ 19-2. A spin-off - Hitman GO
❌️ 20. A cornerstone of gaming culture - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
❌️ 21. A game where you play as an anti-hero or villain - Carrion
❌️ 22. A game heavily featuring zombies - Dying Light: The Following - Enhanced Edition
✅️ 23. A game that hasn't aged well - New Super Mario Bros.
❌️ 24. An indie game - Isles of Sea and Sky
❌️ 25-1. A game that takes place after a timeskip (5+ years) - Layton Brothers: Mystery Room
❌️ 25-2. A game that takes place at the same time as another game in the series - Hitman: Blood Money
❌️ 26. A sequel that's more famous than the original - Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition
✅️ 27. A game that has no business being in its series - Super Mario Bros. 2
❌️ 28. A game from a franchise that rarely gets new games - Professor Layton and the New World of Steam
❌️ 29. A game with an interesting hook - Children of the Sun
❌️ 30-1. A game with a great plot twist - Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane
❌️ 30-2. A game with a bad plot twist - Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
✅️ 31-1. The definitive edition of a game (or GOTY edition, Ultimate Edition, Deluxe edition, etc.) - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
❌️ 31-2. The base game version of a game with several DLCs or Editions - I am an Air Traffic Controller 4
❌️ 32-1. A platform exclusive - Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
❌️ 32-2. A game available on 7+ platforms - The Legend of Zelda
❌️ 33. A game you beat to 100% completion - Mario & Luigi: Brothership
❌️ 34. A game that started a long-running franchise (7+ games) - Metroid
❌️ 35. A recent (within the last 5 years) game in a long-running franchise (7+ games) - Kirby and the Forgotten Land
✅️ 36. A game that's smaller than 100MB - BoxBoxBoy! (Replaced: Can of Wormholes)
❌️ 37. A game that won any category in the SPIKE Video Game awards or the Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley - Journey
✅️ 38. A game that made it out of Development Hell (5+ years) - The Witness
❌️ 39. A game where the characters speak a language you don't understand (can be real or fictional) - Will: A Wonderful World
❌️ 40. A game with a memorable soundtrack - Ace Attorney Investigations Collection
❌️ 41. A game on someone else's Game Challenge 2025 list - Metaphor ReFantazio
❌️ 42. A game with a female protagonist - CrossCode
✅️ 43. A Game inspired by Mythology or Folklore - Hellhound's Trail
❌️ 44. A Game inspired/based on real world historical events - Not For Broadcast
❌️ 45. A game developed by a single person - Taiji
❌️ 46. A fanmade/bootleg/rom hack game - Undertale Yellow
❌️ 47. A game that won or was a finalist for a Steam Award - Sifu
❌️ 48. A game with a silent protagonist - Snake Pass
❌️ 49-1. A game that features time travel - Steins;Gate
❌️ 49-2. A game that features space travel - Super Mario Galaxy 2
✅️ 50. A Game that prominently features food/cooking - Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

Totals:
Completions (13/50)
Alternatives (0/13)
Bonus (0/4)

Beat 1 game and 1 DLC this month. The game was a 3 minute shitpost game jam itch game, so the DLC was the real completion for this month. It also derailed my gaming plans for this month, the only reason I played Episode Aigis now was so I could finish it before P3R left game pass. I've spent the rest of the month getting the most value out of my subscription, although I haven't finished any of those other games yet. Hopefully I can squeeze in two quick ones before my game pass expires.

August 16th - Persona 3 Reload - Episode Aigis: The Answer - 44h 20m - 7/10 - Main+ - Started September 22nd 2024 - 328 Days Taken - Beat the dlc, did all Elizabeth requests, completed 94% of the compendium and did two bosses in the Monad Chamber.
August 19th - SOUP (2025) - 3m - 4/10 - 100% - Finished same day as started - Got a score of 6.

The best game this month is Episode Aigis. It's almost entirely combat, luckily didn't get tedious for me due to how good Persona combat is. The story is intriguing with some shocking twists and turns. Not nearly as bad as the community made it out to be.

The worst game is SOUP (2025), since it's not much of a game in the first place.

I'll nominate Akihabara Geeks, a 2006 documentary, which features the creator of Higurashi When They Cry, Ryukishi07. What is notable about it is that it was while he was still working on the game and it supposedly brings some insight into his development process. Because of this, it might have some indirect spoilers for Higurashi. The documentary can be found for free on YouTube.

Didn't manage to finish Deltarune this month because I had to finish Episode Aigis before P3R left gamepass and now I'm making the most of my subscription. However after that is over, I'll continue it. So surely nominating Deltarune for the 4th time will do the trick?

My plan to play more Deltarune got derailed by P3R getting removed from Xbox game pass, so I had to play the DLC real quick. Rest of the month will consist of playing the games on my wish list that are also on game pass, so I can maximize the value I get from it.

August 16th - Persona 3 Reload - Episode Aigis: The Answer - 44h 20m - 7/10 - Main+ - Started September 22nd 2024 - 328 Days Taken - Beat the dlc, did all Elizabeth requests, completed 94% of the compendium and did two bosses in the Monad Chamber.

Full Review

TLDR version:
Pros:
Story that compliments that of the base game, with plenty of cool moments and plot twists.

Neutral:
Gameplay difficulty was more balanced than I was expecting for a Persona game.

Cons:
The DLC lacks the life management and calendar system that Persona is known for and 90% of it consists of playing through an inferior version of Tartarus (which I wasn't that much of a fan of either).

Finished the Episode Aigis DLC for Persona 3 Reload right before it left Xbox game pass. I didn't actually take 328 days to finish it, 99% of my playthrough was within the span of 8 days. I started it in September of last year because that's when I was originally going to play the DLC, but I made a deal with my brother that he would first finish his P4G replay. I'm still waiting on him to do that, the only reason I played this game now was out of necessity. If P3R wasn't leaving game pass, I would've waited however long it took for my brother to finish his playthrough. Either way, I definitely think Episode Aigis is a bit overhated within the Persona community, it's not nearly as bad as what I'd heard from others.

August 16th - Persona 3 Reload - Episode Aigis: The Answer - 44h 20m - 7/10 - Main+ - Started September 22nd 2024 - 328 Days Taken - Beat the dlc, did all Elizabeth requests, completed 94% of the compendium and did two bosses in the Monad Chamber.

Here's my review:
Pros:
Episode Aigis's story is about how people deal with grief and how to move past it. It provides a new angle for P3s theme to explore and compliments the main game's story well. The DLC has the Abyss of Time keep SEES stuck in a time loop, repeating March 31st over and over until they can deal with whatever is holding them back. As you progress through the doors, you see flashes of the party members pasts, specifically the moment that caused them to awaken to their potential. It forces them to reflect on their past and from that, Metis (a new character in Episode Aigis) figures out what's really holding SEES back. It's that they're stuck in the past and unable to deal with and move on from the P3 protagonist's death. (Who will hence forth be referred to by his canon name Makoto.) SEES is quite literally being held back until they deal with those repressed thoughts.

Once that's revealed, the DLC moves to showing how people deal with that grief. Some are ready to move on, but Yukari and Mitsuru need more convincing. The Abyss of Time would allow them to go back in time and potentially save Makoto's life. This leads to one of the coolest segments in the DLC which is where you fight your party members in 2v2 matches. (More RPGs should do something like this.)

I did get spoiled on the last part of the story, which is what happened to Makoto at the end of the base game. The answer is that he became a seal, preventing Nyx from reawakening due to the will of mankind. Even though I got spoiled on it, it wasn't too bad since you could have already inferred it from the fact that the move you use against Nyx in the final battle of P3 is called Nyx Seal.

What I didn't get spoiled on was the plot twist related to Metis, which is that she's actually a part of Aigis that split apart. It happened because she wished to be a robot again due to the grief she was going through from Makoto's death. Aigis took the more robotic elements while Metis took the emotional half. You see this throughout the DLC as Metis is shown to be a very emotional character. The plot twist is also foreshadowed well in the cutscene where Aigis chases after Makoto. You see Metis's shadow rise from Aigis's body after she wishes to be a robot again.

Neutral:
Moving onto the gameplay. I played all of Episode Aigis on hard difficulty, compared to the normal I played the base game on. The difficulty was pretty well balanced, which is surprising for a Persona game. The problem that Persona difficulty suffers from is that the difficulty curve is inversed to some extent. It's hardest in the beginning when you have the fewest options available to you and gets easier once those options unlock. However despite those flaws, I still had to play skillfully and having a party member go down or even a game over was never out of the realm of possibility. The optional superboss content was also fittingly difficult, although I didn't manage to finish all of it.

Returning to the plot point about what is causing the Abyss of Time, it suffers from similar pacing issues as P3s main story. The plot point is spread out throughout most of the DLC and you only find out the cause near the end, once you reach the last door of time. This means that for a majority of your playtime you're seeing the flashbacks without any idea of how they're related to the main plot. There's no meaningful progression until you reach the penultimate door of time, which makes the time spent to reach them feel less rewarding. Speaking of what it takes to reach those doors...

Cons:
My main gripe with Episode Aigis is that a majority of the DLC is just Persona with the daily life management ripped out, leaving only the dungeon combat. Persona is unique, because it balances these two very different halves of the game and it's one of the things I like a lot about Persona. For 90% of the DLC you're just running through Tartarus with a different coat of paint. I already wasn't a fan of Tartarus compared to the dungeons and palaces in P4 and P5 due to the lack of unique theming and repetitiveness. It also doesn't help that the music isn't interesting whatsoever compared to the dungeon music from the later games. The Abyss of Time shares all the same qualities that Tartarus has, except it fails even harder. Each block of Tartarus has a unique theme, meanwhile the Abyss of Time repeats them. It would've been much better if each Door of Time had its own unique theming that fit the character whose flashback it contained.

Another odd choice is to not have a gatekeeper at the end of each Door of Time. The design choice made sense in Tartarus, because they weren't the main bosses you faced during the game. However, in Episode Aigis, the Abyss of Time gatekeepers are the only bosses you fight until the very end of the DLC. It felt redundant to trek through multiple floors after beating the last gatekeeper of a block, so you could reach the Door of Time. It would've been much more rewarding if the Door of Time was directly after the last gatekeeper. The fact that the DLC is almost entirely gameplay with little in between, could've resorted in a tedious and boring experience. However, Persona combat is very fun, so it never reached those levels for me, especially because of the higher difficulty I played the DLC at.

In cases where I have finished a game in some form but are continuing, or plan to go back and do more, I tag as completed and then playing/backlog as an additional field.

The status of game is a checkbox rather than a radio button, so you can have as many statuses/lists as you want applied to a single play through.

But once you finish the continued playthrough, you'll put in the new completion times, essentially erasing the original completion. So the result is the same.