Is anyone interested in a Steam key for Persona 5 Royal? PM me if you are.

Persona 5 Royal (Steam key)

Edit: It's gone.

Nope. Nothing again. Fell back into the Hoi4 rabbit hole.

I have finished a few things this August, mostly things I started a while ago, but still.

Rune Factory 3: Special - In itself, a fine game, but as a modern remaster, I found it woefully lacking in QOL improvements.

Witch on the Holy Night - It is pretty decent, the production values especially, but otherwise, it wasn't really my cup of tea. At least it's fairly short.

Yumina the Ethereal - I really wasn't a fan of the gameplay, and honestly cheated my way through to game to avoid it, but the story is engaging and the characters are fun.

So, I have finished Yumina the Ethereal, and it was a decent time for the most part. It's a visual novel/JRPG hybrid. The story itself was fine, and so were the characters, although somewhat regretably, the pace only picks up in the second half. That second half was fairly engaging, though. My real problem was with the gameplay. It's not that different from the typical turn-based systems such games use, but the game's unique twist on it felt more like a hassle and nothing but a restriction. Also, the gameplay and narrative were not integrated in the slightest. Most battles were relegated to a separate dungeon-crawling mini-game, which was just boring, honestly. When, during the second major boss fight, I could easily beat the boss, but still lost the fight due to not fulfilling some arbitrary secondary objective, thanks to the gameplay's unique quirks, I was fed up and gave up on the gameplay completely. I played the rest of the game with cheats on, since the narrative was still fun. It's a fairly long game regardless.

All in all, I could not get behind the gameplay at all, but the story and characters were still fun.

Hey there! Is anyone interested in Warhammer 40k: Boltgun? Drop me a message if you are.

Warhammer 40k: Boltgun (Steam key)

Edit: It's gone.

So, I have finished Rune Factory 3 Special, and it was fine, in of itself, but I did have some issues. In itself, the game is fine, and can be quite fun too. The core gameplay loop of farming, combat, crafting all sorts of items, and interacting with the other characters is pretty solid. Though the combat is a mindless button-masher, and since our character controls like a tank, it doesn’t feel good at all. The rest of the systems aren’t all that deep either, and the characters, although charming, are a bit one-note too. This, more or less, was my opinion of Rune Factory 4, as well, and RF3S, down to every system, is pretty much the same game. Unremarkable in their systems by themselves, but together, they make a satisfying whole. Though RF4 was still a fair bit more enjoyable. All in all, Rune Factory 3 Special is a decent package, even if nothing more.

That. Being. Said. This special edition is a remaster of the original, and as far as I can tell, a pretty substantial one at that. Because my biggest issue comes down to 3 simple letters: QOL. Quality of life improvements are what developers apply to the rougher edges of their games, to make things more user-friendly, to make the gameplay a smoother, more seamless experience. The devs of Rune Factory 3 remaster either never heard about QOL, or they didn’t give a single, flying f@%*! Yes, I am mad, and yes, I’m going to rant now. I don’t know if the devs were simply lazy or if it was that difficult working with a game that was originally for the Nintendo DS, but honestly, I don’t care. I expect more from a remaster (on PC) that came out in 2023, four whole years after the release of Rune Factory 4. I would think that in that time, they figured out how to, I don’t know, allow the player to exit to the main menu, instead of out of the whole game. As it stands, the only way for you to reload a save file is to quit the game entirely and then reboot it. This was a problem in Rune Factory 4 too, and annoying as hell there, but that was my first RF game, I didn’t know any better, so I gave it a pass. I’m not going to give a pass for that the second time. Not considering the circumstances and the elapsed time. And this is just the icing on the cake, I came upon such deficits every hour at the beginning of the game. Even the one I mentioned is actually a basic ass function in any other game; it would only have been a QOL improvement over the previous Rune Factory release (I'm not counting RF5 now). I could list a number of things that weren’t improved in the slightest. Hell, it’s even worse, Rune Factory 4 Special actually has better QOL than this remaster, which came 4 whole years later. Frankly, I don’t think I’m unreasonable to expect more from a remaster, in this day and age. I wouldn’t even have wanted something like them revamping the clunky inventory management, I would have been fine with even basic improvements, such as being able to quit to the main menu…

But yeah, once I got over my initial anger, Rune Factory 3 Special is still a largely fine game, if severely lacking in quality of life improvements.

So, I have finished Witch on the Holy Night. It was fine. It's a visual novel from the same people who are responsible for Fate Stay/Night, the story takes place in the same universe too, though they don't have anything to do with each other. I don't really have anything against this title, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I never grew fond of the characters, there weren't as many as I prefer, and the story was very simple and somewhat uneventful. At least it was fairly short. Also, the production values are incredible, certainly compared to most VNs.

The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales

It’s an adventure game with a pretty fun idea for its main concept. The execution of this idea, however, left me wanting. Part of that might just be me, but part of it might just apply to you as well. Before getting to the whys, I must explain some of the whats of this game.



You see, in this world, writers can quite literally jump into their stories (through some never-explained „magic”) and adjust things there, becoming the architects of their own story in a much more literal sense, than in our world.

They can do that not just with their own books, but with others as well. That, however, is illegal. This just so happens to be the main activity of our protagonist, whose job throughout the story is to jump into various books, and steal certain items. Thus, the subtitle of the game.

The framing of these „bookwalking” sequences, is that of an isometric RPG. At least that is how it looks and controls, but The Bookwalker is not a role-playing game, it’s an adventure one, and a fairly linear one at that.

More than just looks, the game plays exactly like a classic CRPG, you explore, you offer people help, you get involved in straight-up side quests, and you spend most of your time navigating dialogue. This last part is what got me confused. The game often gives you choices in how you approach situations, you can try lying your way through a confrontation, instead of escalating it into fisticuffs. Exactly like in a proper RPG, and the Bookwalker is full of instances like this, where it seemingly offers you a fair bit of freedom.

Except this is an adventure game, not an RPG, and the illusion of choice is soon shattered. Many times throughout the Bookwalker, I felt like the game was giving me a lot of choices, only for them not to matter at all. It felt that no matter what I do, the narrative will chug along where it wants to go, regardless of my supposed agency. Sure, that often is technically the case in actual RPGs, but those make a greater effort to respect your choices, to maintain the illusion of choice.

A tell-tale sign of the kind of game you’re playing is that you can't save in the traditional sense, there are no save slots, only the save and quit option. You can’t reload a save and try a different solution in this game. Since I have not replayed the whole game, I cannot, with 100% certainty, claim that the game doesn’t respect your choices in the slightest, but it seemed pretty obvious, especially as time went on, that "choice and consequence" was not part of the game's design.

The entire time, however, I expected that the decisions the game makes me choose would matter somehow.

None of this is helped by the fact that the only instance where I read about the Bookwalker, it was likened to Disco Elysium. I honestly don’t understand why anyone would compare the game to that. For one, it’s not an RPG, it offers a very different kind of experience. For the second, its writing is nowhere near as strong, at least I certainly wasn’t as entertained and engrossed.

Now, I understand this above-mentioned is a personal problem. A regrettable case of mismanaged expectations. However, I do feel like the game could have worked better as an RPG, and I still feel like the game misleads player expectations regarding the consequences of our actions.

Another one of my more personal problems, though this might be somewhat more relatable than mishandled expectations, is the highly episodic nature of Bookwalker. I’ve never preferred this type of storytelling method. For me, they never gave enough time to get attached to the current plotline before the narrative moved on.

In Bookwalker, as I explained in the beginning, you jump from one book to another, just when you start to get accustomed to the world of one book, you are off to the next one. There is also the fact that the game is 6-8 hours long, which means you only get about 1 hour per book, and that is not a lot of time to get used to a brand new world. Of course, none of these books, or episodes, try to introduce a whole new world in their entirety (very wisely, I should add, the game’s at least aware of its own limitations), but this structure still left me rather unattached. There is a main storyline too, besides these episodes, with our protagonist and their own backstory and motivations, but there was a smidge too little of that for my taste.

An even bigger problem, and this one comes less down to personal taste, is the way the game’s story presents stakes. Early on, it is established that bookwalking, the main thing we engage in during the game, is not necessarily an easy task, and not one without consequences. You are told there could be permanent damage to these books you delve into.

Or so I interpreted, because the game itself never really made it clear. It’s hard to care about any potential damage you might do, if, as far as you understand, it will be just as easy, if not even easier, to fix it, than the amount of effort it took to mess it up. The game simply never quite explains to us what the consequences of our actions will be on these fictional settings.

I’m not necessarily bothered by a game’s lack of explanations. I don’t need to know every nitty-gritty detail about how a game’s world works. For example, in the case of Bookwalker, I didn’t need an entire essay on how this world’s "jump into books" magic works. However, if they constantly bemoan the impact we may have on the book worlds we intrude upon, then I would have liked a longer explanation on said impact. As it stands, I could never really care about what happened to these characters and worlds.

If I couple this with the previously mentioned fact that the game never really cared about the choices that it itself presented, that resulted in me not caring either, and never quite getting attached to the story.

After saying all this, however, I would not call The Bookwalker a bad game, it’s a fun enough adventure and an intriguing concept, and I did have a decent time with it. My dislike simply stemmed from my own preferences, my mishandled expectations, and I do believe the game could have handled its narrative stakes better, too.

Read your thoughts on Disco Elysium now that your blog showed up at the top again.

Definitely encourage you to continue writing something whenever you free yourself of HoI 4's grasp. You have a very enjoyable writing style. It helps of course that I absolutely love Disco Elysium, and just wanted to let you know that your bartender / cafeteria manager reference got a chuckle out of me all this time later. 😁

Hey, thanks for the encouragement. Alas, I rarely have it in me to write such pieces as the Disco vs. Torment one.

Most of them are more modest ones, like this next one. (Which, funnily enough, has a relation to Disco Elyium, though that is entirely coincidental.)

So hey, it's been a while, huh…

I honestly didn’t intend to disappear for so long. Which feels all the more awkward considering I just started my blog here, and I immediately disappeared for half a year. At least, I do prefer to periodically update my blog. Even if I prefaced my activities here as something that hinges on the games that I play.

Well, what I happened to play during my absence is this little game called Hearts of Iron 4. I wasn’t planning on spending too much time on it, either because I will bounce off of it hard, considering it’s my first ever grand-strategy game, or because after a dozen or so hours, I will have my fill of the game.

That is not what ended up happening. This game devoured me whole for six months straight. I started in January with zero hours, and by the time I managed to put the game down, it was July, and I had nearly 700 hours in the game. Never before in my life did a game grab me for such a long and largely uninterrupted time. I simply couldn’t play anything else, even when I did try. It was honestly a little bit concerning. Hell, I'm still struggling with the desire that is pulling me back.

As for whether the game is good, by my reckoning, quite so. Though, again, this is my first game of its kind, so I can’t compare it to any other grand-strategy game. At least I certainly had a blast. There really is a stupid amount of content in it.

And I certainly will be back for more, but for now, hopefully, I managed to put the game down.

After being held hostage by Hearts of Iron 4 for the past half a year, I once again managed to play and finish other titles.

Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog - A visual novel/adventure game inspired by retro sci-fi anime with lovely PC-98 graphics. The presentation is top-notch, and the story is no slouch either. After the introduction, the pace kicks into high gear, and it’s a wild, action-filled ride until the end. This was a pretty fun one.

Total War: Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay – I finished all three new campaigns added this DLC, and they were all pretty fun.

The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales – An adventure game with a pretty intriguing concept. The execution, however, was not exactly to my taste. It’s a decent game, but I had a hard time connecting with it.

Dredge – A fishing game with a lovecraftian horror story? Works better than you might think. The gameplay is smooth and enjoyable, and the world is interesting. Dredge is one of the great ones.

So, I have finished Dredge, and I had a lot of fun with it. Gameplay-wise, it's a fishing game, and a fairly addictive one. At least I certainly enjoyed exploring the map, catching all kinds of fish, and slowly upgrading my ship; it was an effective gameplay loop. The real flair of the game is that it's also a Lovecraftian horror story. The entire world is populated with strange phenomena and clearly otherworldly creatures. In fact, the game also heavily leans into this gloomy and mysterious atmosphere. It's fairly light on story (at least, overtly), but what is there fits very well with the rest of the game, and is more than enough for the game's relatively short runtime. Also, it is worth mentioning that the game is not that scary, thankfully, I'm not that big on horror.

All these elements combine into an intriguing experience that is a lot of fun to go through.

So, I have finished The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales. It's a fun little adventure game with light combat elements. The main idea of jumping into different stories is a unique and fun one, but the execution of it is... not exactly how I would have gone about it. That, of course, is an entirely personal issue; the game is quite fine regardless, but I felt more could have been done with the concept. I'm not a huge fan of highly episodic stories of this nature, either.

In the end, my problems are mostly just mine, mishandled expectations and all that, The Bookwalker is a quite good game on its own terms.

So, I have finished Total War: Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay. As in, I've finished all three campaigns added this DLC, which was another 70 ro so hours of Warhammer 3. I had a ton of fun with it, all three new factions were a blast to play, and the new units and mechanics were also great. Thrones of Decay is a well-rounded package, an all-around excellent piece of extra content.

So, I have finished Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog. It's a visual novel/adventure game that is a deliberate throwback to old-school sci-fi/mecha anime. At least it certainly nails that lovely PC-98 art style. While there is some interactivity, you're mostly gonna spend your time talking to people and reading the story. The narrative, which is largely linear, is pretty fun and quite eventful, it's fairly short, too. I was mostly engaged with it.

The Gun-Dog is a pretty fun title.

Still nothing, but! I'm starting to come off of Hoi4, because I want to play something else on my summer vacation.

Nothing again... still stuck playing Hearts of Iron 4.

I did manage to finish a couple of games in between falling ever deeper into the HoI4 rabbit hole.

Midnight Fight Express - It's a pretty fun and stylish action game. Simple and short.

RoboCop: Rogue City - This was a pretty entertaining shooter, the story, while nothing to write home about, was fun enough to experience, and so was roleplaying as Robocop. The shooting is pretty nice too.

So, I have finished RoboCop: Rogue City, and it was pretty fun. It's a pretty solid shooter, and with not just shooting, either. At times, you get to roleplay a little by going around town and solving crimes, as well as doing other side quests. The main story is nothing to write home about, but the various side stories and character moments were fun to experience. It's a pretty fun package!

So, I finished Midnight Fight Express. It was fun, though a little else. It's a slick and stylish action game that can be pretty satisfying. The story is just kind of there, and the game gets more annoying enemies and gimmicks as it goes on, but these are minor complaints. The music is excellent, though! It's a fun little game.

Okay, yeah, I think I have had enough of Hearts of Iron 4. At least for a while, because I'm damn sure I'll be back. I've been playing this game constantly since January and have racked up 355 hours. This is now the game that I have played the longest consecutively. I've played this game non-stop for three months and nothing else. I have never done anything like this in my life. In this last game (pictured above), I decided to play the game as it was "intended", regular (normal) difficulty and ironman mode on, as only this combination allows achievements. The ironman part is bullshit though, it just funnels me into an overly slow and catious playstyle, I'm not really gonna play the game like this anymore. I only played the game on the intended difficulty, just so that I could say that I did it. Just so that I could say that, after 300 hours, I've gotten good at the game. I turned Italy into the Papal State, and then into the Roman Empire, only to beat every major nation and faction and conquer 70% of the world in one holy crusade. (Just goes to show the crazy stuff you can get up to in the game.)

Even after all these hours, there's still a staggering amount of content in the game. Even that last campaign took me almost 40 hours. (Although that is admittedly an extreme case, as mentioned, I was playing slower than usual; most runs don't take that long, and you're really not meant to play the game all the way to 1960.)

So, after 300 hours, can I say the game is good? Honestly, I'm not sure. As far as I really have no comparison to other grand-strategy games (the company DLC policy is iffy, though). However, if you can get into it, it can be a ton of fun, and as I've mentioned there's a metric ton of content.

I, however, do need a break.

Is anyone interested in Trepang2? It's a very good F.E.A.R. inspired shooter. Fast-paced action with a lot of slow-mo and the occasional trippy horror section.

Trepang2 (Steam Key)

Edit: It's taken.

Still nothing, still stuck in Hearts of Iron 4... I'm over 300 hours now...

Hey there, everyone! Is anyone interested in Blasphemous 2? If so, send me a message.

Blasphemous 2 (Steam key)

Edit: It's gone.

Nothing. I'm still stuck in Hearts of Iron 4. I started it in January, and the game still hadn't let me go. I'm nearly at 200 hours...