2023 Games

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Merry Gear

A cute little Santa parody of the metal gear series. It seems like it takes gameplay from the original metal gear, but also references metal gear solid. You play as Santa breaking into some kid's house to deliver presents. It's a great, fun little concept. It was fun seeing all the Santa themed things and dealing with the kids, a lot of the sections felt like little puzzles. It was a bit short but that's maybe a good thing, it didn't overstay its welcome. The twist at the end was pretty great too. This made me kind of want to go to the original metal gear games, it was fun to play in a 2D environment.

I also briefly played Merry Gear 2, so I will include my thoughts on that here. A much larger game than the original, Merry Gear 2 is definitely more polished. But, I personally felt it dragged a bit and found myself getting bored. There was a LOT of dialogue too which just eats at the time. And the thing about having a long game like this is that you would want saves right? But at least from what I saw, there was no way to save your progress. So, I'm not sure if it was intended to play this game all in one session, or if I missed a save option somewhere, either way seems unintuitive and annoying. I only managed to get far enough to fight one boss, and it had a crazy solution that I personally found to be a bit annoying, but it was clever I'll admit that. Anyways, with all the jokes included in this, the devs clearly had fun, I just wish I could have saved and that there was less bloat. I expected this to be a simple short fan game like the first Merry Gear, not it's whole own thing.

3D Xmas Adventure: Santa's Rescue

I actually really liked this! Once I fixed the framerate in DOSbox, it played really smoothly. Is this what Doom is like? It's a Christmas themed boomer-shooter styled little game. It's pretty cute, with some nice sprite work and renditions of classic Christmas songs as the background music. Also, your gun is a candy cane in this one, so like come on, that's hecking cool! I only wish that this game was longer and a bit more complex, as the current experience feels a bit shallow.

Santa Claus in Trouble

I literally couldn't play this because of how laggy it was...neverthless it was pretty cute and I'm sure it would've been fun. Well as fun as a simple 3D collecting platformer can be. This is also apparently the only Santa/Christmas themed 3D platformer (maybe just platformer in general?) to exist, which is surprising considering how common that genre is. While this game came out in 2002, it was "remastered" for Steam some time ago so it's pretty accessible.

Metroid Fusion

UPDATE: really liked this game! Absolutely in love with the pixel graphics, the backgrounds and sprite work here were really well done. The abilities all looked very cool too and it felt great acquiring them and getting stronger. I felt that the game is a good length, despite it taking me longer than I expected, a lot of that is because I was messing around or didn't really know what I was doing (or dying a bazillion times). Overall the game was a bit more difficult than I expected, and it kinda scares me to try the more difficult ones haha. Even with "cheating" (save scumming, using savestates) I still struggled a lot at certain parts (these cheats made it so much more bearable). It's not really the game's fault, but there are certain sections, certain bosses that could definitely be designed waaayy better, just makes you question what they were thinking sometimes. Anyways, I don't mean to rag on this game cuz it was really fun and it's great. Just be prepared for a good challenge. There's a lot of items you can pick up apparently if you want to make things easier (though really only the health helps, a lot of later bosses aren't hurt by missles or you don't need 100+ for them anyways). I guess missile spamming mobs would work though. I might play more of this series (or other metroidvanias) but I'm fine just having this as my sole metroidvania experience haha.

Exit 8

This game was actually so fun! Such a simple but effective concept. It was fun running through the subway hall and trying to spot the differences every time, almost like a puzzle game. There were some funny moments where I felt like a legit schizo trying to figure out if I've seen something before or if something has always been that way haha....I was able to complete this game many times and find all anomalies, it was a great game to just chill and chat in. It's also not scary, really more psychological horror as it is tagged, but even then it's pretty light. The game is just unsettling at the beginning where you don't know what's going on and you don't know what to expect. But after that, I wasn't scared at all and I just wanted to see more actually. I wish it was MORE scary with more spooky anomolies. Overall I would recommend this game, it's short and if you like puzzles especially it will fun! I hope this developer makes more things.

Refind Self

Eh honestly this game was quite lame...I really like the artstyle but the gameplay was quite simplistic, which I suppose makes sense, it was a mobile game first apparently. The whole personality stuff just felt quite shallow to me though. It's like those stupid MBTI personality tests that just give you some archetype that could apply to anyone honestly. The game wants you to complete it multiple times to unlock these "extra" personalities, which is kind of interesting because you can go and do things you didn't get to do before, but I wonder if that even makes this whole "personality" thing accurate at all? I mean, I'm just playing a game, can that really say something about who I am as a person? I mean the game said I have no morals, which is obviously false, I think these results are quite dubious indeed.

Conker's Bad Fur Day

More like conker's bad shit day hahaha....god...why...

Metal Gear Solid 2

Continuing the MGS story. The switch to PS2 allows for much better graphics and gameplay potential but honestly I don't like the look of these PS2 style 3D models too much? I especially feel like the codec looks like a downgrade here, where I liked the stylized art renders from MGS1. The enemies also feel a lot smarter and I feel like I need to deal with them (such as taking them out) a lot more than the previous game where I could simply avoid and walk around them. A lot more remains to be seen as I've just started this...

UPDATE: yeah a banger of a game as expected. The meta commentary was actually really cool and neat. I'm not sure how I feel about it compared to the first game...but it was just really cool. Really neat. Wow, video games, this is what they can do...The random incest was a bit weird tho but like okay I'll take it...Some of the gameplay sections were a bit frustrating and bs but not overly so, so overall I'm okay and happy with the gameplay! I can't wait to play more of this series!

Resident Evil 2

The beginning section was quite difficult, and I was almost wondering if it was over for me. Lots of enemies, not a lot of ammo given, and no health items for a while until you get to the police station. After that though, I was able to settle into a nice groove/rhythm and so far it's been pretty easy to navigate and find what I need to do. An improvement from RE1 in this sense where it felt a lot more confusing and the beginning mansion felt a lot bigger. Opinion tentative for now, but I'm excited to play more. I really enjoy the camera angles, inventory management, and little puzzles that are present. The limited saves making a return makes things a bit difficult but it's not too bad, as long as I don't die haha. Sufficiently creepy and eerie. Love Leon and the voice acting so far.

UPDATE: yeah I loved this game too. It was really fun playing it a "second time", going through the Claire route, and seeing how much faster I was because I was used to the game. It's actually a pretty short game so going through it again wasn't bad at all and I got to use some new guns, face new enemies...yeah it was fun. There weren't too many puzzles and it was overall pretty easy to figure out where to go, which I did like, compared to RE1 where I felt so lost a lot of the time, I actually knew what to do! Very fun and cool I don't know what else to say Well designed, fun gameplay, goofy characters and story...yeah I guess the story is the weakest part but it's not too bad really, what I've come to expect from Resident Evil at this point.

Metal Gear Solid

I really like this so far. It actually feels really good and fun to play. I love the stealth sections, and even the boss fights I've faced so far have been interesting and not too hard or frustrating. There's so much lore which I do enjoy but it is just a bit hard to pay attention sometimes, especially because I'm streaming...gomen...I want to know more though!! I want to become a Metal Gear autist!!

Update: I really loved this game. It's like the perfect blend of story and gameplay. The gameplay was actually fun and interesting and the levels memorable. The story was interesting without being tooo long and bless them they had subtitles. There's a lot of little methods of storytelling they use. What I find interesting is that a lot of the characters, we never even SEE them or interact with them directly, we only know them through the codec. And yet they still have their own character development going on. The music is AMAZING and I honestly liked the graphics a lot, something about this old style really appeals to me. This game is also fairly short so it doesn't drag on and it fits nicely into a stream series. Overall I loved my experience here.

Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy

2005 David Cage/Quantum Dream game, if you're familiar with those people you know what to expect. It's an interactive "movie" type game, but there's actually a lot of gameplay here. "Choices" also aren't too much of a thing, it seems like the main differences you can get are simply just whether you find certain items or do certain actions when you're able to move around. I do appreciate what this game was trying to do. At the time, such interactive games were uncommon so it was really trying to do something different, and you can tell from some of the shots and cutscenes that it was trying to have this cinematic feel. There are several downsides though. Certain sections feel like they drag on way too much. Makes you wonder why this is even included, because it seems so irrelevant. It is just such obvious filler. While some of this filler is charming and silly and adds to the experience because it is funny, a lot of it is just annoying. There are quite a few annoying gameplay sections (such as the stealth) which are just boring and needlessly "difficult". The story itself is also quite nonsensical and has a lot of plot holes. A lot of it seems like it's drawing too much from recent 90s references such as the Matrix. Honestly I did not care for any of the characters except for Tyler maybe, because I found his relationship sweet. I didn't care for the ending either. Everything is just so convenient. In short, this game does kind of suck, but I did enjoy the visuals, it had some funny scenes, and it is overall pretty short and not hard to get through (except for certain puzzle sequences which have ridiculous solutions). Oh and also, the voice acting was pretty good for such an old game, but it would've benefitted a lot from subtitles, being a dialogue heavy game. ALSO THIS GAME IS SO HORNY WTTTFFF

Harvester

Neat old point and click adventure game. I love the style of these FMV games. It was also quite funny and goofy. Not as much violence as I would have expected, and not a horror game or scary despite some reviews that I've read. The worst part of this game is all the puzzles and item searching - most items seem to not have any use (at least at the time I'm writing this, I still haven't finished the game tho), and the way you find some other items seems like such a stretch sometimes. But, you have to do these things in a very specific order to make any progress at all. It's the kind of game that seems impossible or at least very frustrating to play without any kind of guide. You'd have to visit every location every day and try all sorts of interactions and combinations to find anything. But I suppose, maybe that's the point? Maybe that was intentional game design back then, they wanted it that way. Anyways, it hasn't aged so well in that department. It also feels incredibly cursed to play knowing the MC is some irl pdf file.... But overall I mean I liked it okay?

Hello Charlotte Episode 1

rpgmaker go brrr. I really loved the art style of this game. The characters looked comfy, and the aesthetic was neat. There was clearly a lot of lore here. It was a bit too "Meta" for my tastes though, to be honest. I kind of hate when games feel such a need to reference the "Player". Maybe this pays off in the later games? But for now, it was just like a gimmick to justify the "rewinding". The puzzles were a bit easy here (with a handful being weirdly difficult/not clear though). It wasn't really scary, but it was spooky, which was enjoyable. Not sure if I'll play the other parts though.

The Witch's House

rpgmaker go brrr. Cute little horror game, I enjoyed the puzzles and the visuals. It was a good length too. Neat little twist at the end. Characters are cute.

Clock Tower

This game is really neat! I played the old SNES version. It's a point and click adventure style horror game. You're exploring this mansion, trying to find a way out and escaping a killer. There's a sense of randomness to it, and a lot of different endings. I can tell this game used a lot of tricks to up the tension, it's pretty smartly done. Walking around is a little slow, and your stamina is tied to your health, so you have to be careful to not go tooo fast. Luckily you can rest to recover it but that does take time too. Certain "puzzles" were a bit confusing and too obvious what the answers were, but nothing too bad. As fun and interesting as this game is, it is quite slow, and people not a fan of the point and click genre probably won't like this. It's not too "scary" either, only in the really campy 90s way. It's a pretty short game though, so it's not that bad to at least give it a try. I could see myself going back to this to try and get all the endings, unfortunately I don't really have the time for that right now haha.

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley

Okay this game is literally exactly my fetishes, sue me. I love it. It has the exact aesthetic and relationship dynamic that I love. The dialogue is amazing in this game, feels so realistic and immersive. I love the design of the characters, and the world is interesting, trying to figure out what exactly happened here. I love RPGMaker games already too so this was already up my alley. I like the multiple "endings" (even though, the actual ends aren't too different - will remain to be seen if there's larger divergences later). The little extra scenes you could get really added a lot to the characterization of Andy and Leyley. My only complaints is that the actual gameplay is pretty sparse. This is mostly just reading, and the gameplay elements are straightforward. Nothing really too challenging, feels like its there because it "has" to be, but thats the nature of these games. It was still fun to walk around. While I love the artstyle of all the characters and CGs, the actual in game art leaves a lot to be desired. Characters don't even have idle or walking animations and it looks very scuff. As an indie game I find this understandable, but it could definitely use more polish. Some of the actions needed for achievements were a bit hard to guess to do, but if you'd play this game a lot it wouldn't be hard to find (and it is short). These complaints are really the only reason why it's not a perfect 10. Anyways, I love these guys and I'm excited for more. I'll definitely play the next episodes on stream, that's why it's on hold for now.

Silent Hill

Absolutely love the vibe of this. Spooky but without being too terrible about the horror. I hate jumpscares or things like that, and this game feels very fair in that department. You can tell when enemies are coming at least.It feel like it is mostly atmospherioc horror which is what I'm really into. The tank controls are definitely wonky but really not that bad. I love puzzle solving too and this game seems to have plenty of that. I'll reserve more judgement until I finish this of course.

UPDATE: So I finished this game, and I think it holds up! The vibes and atmosphere stayed consistent throughout. The puzzles were quite enjoyable sometimes, however there were some parts that seemed like a biiit of a stretch or were a bit difficult to figure out. Especially those sections where you don't have a map and so are just kind of endlessly running around. Not a huge issue though, as the game isn't that big at the end of the day. One thing I did kind of have issue with was the alternate endings. I didn't expect this really, as the game seemed quite linear. To get these extra endings, you have to go out of your way to explore. Except, the whole rest of the game actively discouraged exploring in the open town areas (with most buildings being absolute red herrings with nothing in them). So I had the sense that it wasn't worth poking around in all these little places, especially with the urgency the game put on me to go find Cheryl. And if you don't do anything extra, the default ending is the BAD one. I kind of understand that, but it is frustrating because on a first playthrough there is no way you would naturally figure out what you needed for the other endings. And it's not exactly quick to go replay the game and find the other endings. The game doesn't exactly have the most fun gameplay loop, so I feel replaying it would be quite boring actually? I also kind of dislike the endings (I watched them all on Youtube sue me okay), as none of them really...explain things enough for me. Feels like a lot of loose ends and I still had questions. I was expecting something more epic and spooky at the end but it was really just kind of anticlimatic and confusing. Perhaps this is explained in other games, I don't know. Otherwise, I really did like the game and I think it holds up really well, worth a playthrough for anyone.

Resident Evil

Something about these older Resident Evil games is really fun to me. The survival aspect, the little bits of horror without being too scary, the puzzles. Aiming doesn't feel too bad either. More on this when I finish it.

UPDATE: Yeah I really enjoyed this. Definitely a pioneer of the survival horror genre. It always felt fun and interesting. My main complaint is just all the backtracking; sometimes it does feel quite slow when you're trying to figure out what to do next. Certain puzzles feel a bit too difficult or not quite clear how you're supposed to solve them. All the door animations didn't make the backtracking any easier too...it was a bit frustrating having to spend so much time just watching them. Although I do understand why they were present. Everything else was really fun though. The guns were nice. I enjoyed exploring around the all the locations. I do wish the maps were labeled a bit better, kind of how Silent Hill did it. I didn't mind the fixed camera and it led to some really cool creative shots and enhanced the atmosphere. The puzzles I did enjoy solving for the most part. I find it interesting how there's multiple endings and I'm curious what they are (though I don't plan on playing this again anytime soon). Story wise, it was okay, made sense, but seemed pretty typical. I do like how wacky the Resident Evil Games seem to be though. Scare wise, it actually wasn't too scary. Just some creepy locations, creepy enemies (fuck the spiders...), a few startling moments, but otherwise, I didn't feel scared.

Armored Core 6

So far really enjoyable. I wouldn't mind playing this game to 100% completion. Feels very fun to play around, very smooth and responsive. It feels exactly how you'd want a mecha fighting game to feel. For the most part it's not too difficult, but so far the boss fights have actually been tough and challenging. I've been playing on keyboard as that's what I prefer, I hear controller is better but I think I'll stick to this (though it does hurt my hands a lot actually lol). The customization is also really neat - not just in the visuals of changing your mechs colour and making custom emblems, but all the gun and part options. I know this is present in other AC games too, but if you're new to the series and coming here you'll find it perhaps surprising how many options you have, and how open the game is with letting you do what you want. One thing I dislike so far is the lack of debt from failing missions (perhaps making the game too easy, too easy to just farm money) and the fact that the story is quite "linear", you're simply just clearing every mission that pops up (so far at least).

On hold as I HAVE RAGEQUIT GRRR GAME HARD!!

Pikmin 2

I got up to paying off the debt, and decided to put a hiatus on this for now. It seems like there's a whole second half of the game remaining. While I do really enjoy Pikmin, something about this game burns me out pretty quickly. The formula of "farming Pikmin --> doing a cave --> farming again because you're all out of Pikmin now", is quite draining to me and feels difficult/boring to stream? While the caves themselves are fun, they also feel a bit monotonous at times and almost like too much? Like they're so long, sometimes with weird challenges, and there's this pressure to be very careful with your Pikmin since you don't really get more while in the cave. Which means I end up taking a very slow approach to these caves, which again I feel is not the best/most fun thing to watch for a stream? Pikmin 1 was a short, condensed, enjoyable experience and you stayed within the confines of the world. Pikmin 2 in comparison feels more overwhelming with all these side caves, and much longer game runtime. The time limit is gone, but that just means there's so much more to do and more challenges which drag out the game. So while I do really enjoy the general Pikmin gameplay and style, it's probably something I'd prefer to continue on my own, so it is on hold for now. (UPDATE: yeah okay sorry I just can't go back to this, I don't have the time to keep playing this and my window to play has already passed I feel).

Armored Core 2

The controls in this game are quite difficult and unorthodox. It makes sense for the time, but even so it takes getting used to. I was very frustrated for the first hour or so of playing this. But I kept with it and it slowly staretd to make sense and I got used to it. It's a mission based game with a loose overall story, which is an interesting way to play. It's cool how you can customize your mech quite early on and how you can swap out parts that may work better on certain missions than others. Controls aside, the game is actually pretty easy, and it's satisfying to shoot and to fly around. Because its mission based, you can kind of go in quickly and learn a lot, and choose what you want to do if you're finding a mission difficult. While I do enjoy the game, it is kind of difficult to stream. It is hard to commentate over, and is not exactly too interesting or engaging to watch. Nevertheless playing as a mecha is just really cool. For now, this game is on hold. I may come back and stream it in the future but, I'm not sure, it may end up in the wasteland of games I don't come back to.

Pikmin

A really enjoyable and charming game. What I really loved about this game is how short it was, while still feeling like a full AAA experience. I think it's nice when games don't feel like they have to pad out the game with content. It had exactly enough to keep me interested, occupied, and challenged. This felt like a very casual and chill game, but you also couldn't just sit back and relax and do whatever you want. The time pressure kept you on your feet, always thinking of what you should do next and accomplish for the day. I did not really like this pressure and it worried me a lot especially the closer I got to the deadline, but in hindsight I understand the decision to include it. It makes this game unique and influences your play style. I imagine speedruns of this game are quite interesting. In the end I was only able to get the standard ending; I didn't get the "true" ending as I only had like 1 day to kill the final boss and I simply could not bring him down fast enough. I suppose I was "soft locked" in that way, but since the game is so short, players should be able to do multiple attempts and improve drastically between them. But I was happy to leave it where it was. I especially like these short games as a streamer since I don't have to dedicate too many streams to them, and we can move on from it quickly. Also the game is just cute and I love the retro graphics of it.

Resident Evil 4

I actually love this game a lot, and I'm happy I got to play it. It is such a charming and fun game, perfectly balanced imo. The story and characters, while a bit goofy and silly, have that early 00's charm. The guns are really neat and feel fun to use, and the upgrading system is really fun - planning out what you want, upgrading strategically (for example upgrading the ammo count so that you get a free ammo refill). I thought the aiming would be more annoying, but I could actually do it pretty competently, which is a lot considering my FPS/shooting skills lol. It was not too scary, but still scary enough to keep me on edge. The different type of enemies were interesting to deal with. I also loved exploring every nook and crany for any item I could get - I think it was well balanced in this aspect too. I always felt like I had to be conservative to some extent, but I still ultimately had enough to deal with whatever I needed. I like that I could experiment a bit and die, and the game would respawn me pretty close - so I didn't have to worry about closeby save points too much. The game also felt long enough to have substantial content and feel like a complete experience, but it wasn't so long that it felt like it dragged or would take me forever to finish. I wish that I was perhaps not playing the Gamecube version as I could've experienced the Ada route, but I was still satisfied with the experience.

Black Mesa/Half Life 1

Recently came back to this game, I do intend to finish it. The original Half Life 1 had such a charm to it. Something about those old graphics I really enjoy. It is also pretty simple and straightforward to play. I don't typically play shooters or anything, but this was easy enough for me to pick up and succeed with. It is also really neat how a lot of the learning is diagetic; the game doesn't have explicit tutorials (except for the actual starting tutorial). The story is pretty weak you could say but it's not the main focus. Just exploring the environments, and killing things, is enough to hook me. There isn't even much of a story; you spend the game just going from one place to the next to try to save some lab or facility or stop the alien portal. Black Mesa in particular is interesting as it is a fanmade remake of Half Life 1. It is similar for the most part for the first part (asides from the environments being a lot bigger - something I actually have issue with). However the end seems to be completely different and quite cool. Overall it's an enjoyable first person shooter with a linear story, and lots of cool gun options.

UPDATE: well I have tried coming back to this game several times to make progress on it, and it is just way too long man. I appreciate the content, but it certainly drags. So many points I have felt like "okay is this it, is this the end, this part must be over right" and it's just NOPE not at all...Doesn't help that some of the "puzzles" are kind of stupid and confusing and a bit hard to solve but, maybe that's a skill issue on my part. I definitely think they could do a better job at guiding the player's eyes and making certain things stick out more. Anyways, as much as I would lik to finish this game, there's other games I prioritise more and it's just been taking me too long to get through this. Frankly my patience is thin so...unfortunately yeah goodbye Black Mesa for now...

Spyro 2

On hold as I pursue others things and because I'm traumatized from when I tried this haha...But the little that I played was fun. Spyro is cute and funny with simple and easy controls. I'm typically pretty bad at platforming but the Spyro games have felt good for me anyways, like even I can do it. But since it's been a while since I've played this, I don't see myself coming back to it any time soon. It is a bit awkward to play a game and have it be that you're already in the middle of it right? So unless I actually intend to finish this, it will likely remain in hell.

Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix

Yup that's right I played this and forgot to include it previously! Ahaha...Alright so, I played this as some sort of celebration, I think for when I hit 1k followers on twitch? I played with some foot mat so it was sort of realistic. It was fun and goofy and I loved the animations and the extra implied lore of the Mario world. It was pretty easy too as far as dance games go I think, which was fine for my purposes. I didn't get too far though and I don't plan to really come back to it, but it was fun for what it was briefly!

Gundam Evolution

What can I say, the game died, that should say a lot. I remember first trying this out as an alternative to Overwatch, since I hated the direction Overwatch 2 was taking things. But, I felt so out of place. I didn't know anything about gundam at the time. It was very confusing and I didn't understand the roles of the units, or what made a good composition. It was hard to even distinguish. As somewhat of a Gundam fan now, I get it, but when I tried this first I didn't get the appeal of just looking at robots fight. Anyways, near the end it was so hard to find matches for this game and i had to go on the Asian servers lol. Overall not a great experience.

Majora's Mask

I like this game but something about it, feels tiring I suppose. I'll keep chipping away at it but it won't be a consistent game probably. This game feels harder than Ocarina of Time actually, perhaps because of the reset mechanic. I find it really neat, and it's definitely a groundbreaking mechanic, but in practice at least for me personally it makes me feel more burnt out. Like I've actually played this game so many times when it's really only this "one" time. It can be a bit confusing to figure out what you're supposed to do, but it's not that bad. The only difficult thing is that some things carry over between cycles, and some don't. You have to therefore complete a lot of tasks within one cycle which might be hard if you don't know how to optimize it yourself (likely won't if playing for the first time). This is why streaming this game is actually nice, as I get a lot of advice and guidance from the chat. On one hand, it's nice, like having an older brother there to guide you, but I'm aware that all the handholding and backseating can be a bit much sometimes. The puzzles are neat, as well as all the typical Zelda-isms. Overall though it's a very charming and neat game and I do plan to finish it one day, just expect it to take some time.

UPDATE: I finally finished this game! It was great. I really appreciate what this game did. The time mechanic is somethign completely unique that no other game has been able to do since, as far as I know. The world itself is pretty small, and you get really used to it due to repeatedly resetting the time allowing you to re-explore everything. It's neat slowly getting more and more powerful with each reset as you keep getting items that you can keep. Nothing felt exactly too difficult in this game either, it was a good challenge and the puzzles were fun (except for all the backtracking). The time mechanic DID put extra pressure on though and I kind of disliked that part - that I couldn't just casually explore or do things I really wanted because this time mechanic. Overall I think I liked Ocarina of Time better than this (it's hard to put into words why - maybe it just feels like there's less you can do here overall? And I'm not really into the mask mechanic too much).

Dave the Diver

Really neat game, I love the high quality pixel graphics. Feels like the natural evolution of indie games, just very high polished and well made pixel art. Although it's backed by some Chinese/Korean company which, seemed a bit weird to me at first (like is it truly indie?). Anyways, it is indeed quite a fun game. I love the ocean theming of course. The mix of the diving parts and the sushi restaurant diner-dash esque gameplay is quite refreshing and fun. I initially played this because it was getting a lot of attention around the time it came out, beating out Elden Ring even during the Steam summer sale. So I wanted to try playing the so called "Flavour of the month" game. However, I guess for reasons I had to move on to other games and didn't see the point in coming back to this. I definitely want to play it on my own time, but as a stream game I think it is definitely dead/dropped.

Night Security

This is a game I played during my 12hr birthday stream this year. It's a short horror game made by the well known Chilla's Art. It's short so it was perfect to play as part of one segment. Overall, this game was quite scary. There wasn't even anything deliberate happening most of the time, but just the implication that something was happening was quite spooky. There were some legitimate chase sequences which really did scare me though. Chases are probably one of the things I hate the most in horror games and they really freak me out. I found this game a bit tough to get through because of how scared I was getting (barely even wanted to move forward), so I definitely could have completed it faster than I had. It is a short game that you can easily finish in one stream. Story wise it was so-so, nothing really too interesting or ground breaking. Typical evil vengeful ghosts I guess. The situation of being a night security guard is somewhat novel though (bar the FNAF games) and definitely added to the spookiness factor; something about being somewhere that you shoudn't be late at night. Anyways no way would I ever play this game but I guess I'm glad a did for the short lived spooks and scariness I felt from it. If you're just looking for that then this is fine.

Dark Souls

Dark Souls is one of those games I always wanted to play, as it's one the "classic" "gamer's games". A rite of passage so to speak. Everyone knows Dark Souls. So, why couldn't I play it too? The concept of Dark Souls works really well; you're just fighting bosses and learning how to beat. But well, in reality there's a lot of space between those bosses and you can die to really dumb things. The main thing I disliked was the sense of lost progression. I understand that's partly the point, but for me personally I found it immensely frustrating. I hated redoing the same thing over and over...feels like madness. You can make so much progress and then have to restart miles away. Made me just want to skip fighting enemies entirely to avoid the hassle of potentially dying to some dumb thing. Despite doing only one stream of this game, I supposedly made a good amount of progress (for a first timer at least). Up to the first big dragon or gargoyle or whatever is on that big roof. I just don't think I can bring myself to play this again, or the other Souls games for that matter. That level of difficulty, not even difficulty just having progress taken away from me, is so immensely frustrating and I hate streaming in that state. I'd just be angry and ticked off and irritable the whole time, which I don't think is very fun to watch. So, unless I unlock some hidden gamer sense, or I really want to challenge myself (or punish myself) for some reason, I don't see myself coming back to this unfortunately.

OFF

A classic RPGmaker game that I absolutely love. It is short and sweet and has so much style. It is essentially Undertale before Undertale was a thing. It has a very neat, niche little community. It has a certain sense of humour that's dark but not bleak, just a bit surprising if you're not ready for it. I personally love the humour. There's a lot to get from this game, little messages if you look for them. In RPGmaker fashion, the story can seem a little senseless, especially the ending. Really it is what you want of it. But at least from an artistic standpoint, I think this game is a must play for all the style it oozes. It is also a fairly easy game and you can manage just doing the autobattle for the most part. And it's free! So really no reason to not play it.

Ocarina of Time

I really loved this game actually. I was able to experience it due to the Nintedo Switch Online retro game system, so thanks for that Nintendo I guess? Anyways, this game is quite impressive especially considering the time it came out. I love this game felt linear in the sense of I had clear things to do, a clear sequence of tasks, but it is still open ended enough that you can go off on your own and do things if you want. For being the first 3D Zelda game, it's impressive that it was already doing new things such as the time mechanic later on in the game. The differences between the world as young Link vs adult Link is fascinating. All the temples were fun and memorable, and not too hard to navigate around as a first time player. The combat was fun too and felt responsive and easy to get a grasp of. I also just generally love the style of the game. Low-poly, pops out, fun, colourful, it makes good use of every pixel it has. The final boss and final sequence were quite fun and it brought back a few mechanics from earlier boss fights. This was a great first Zelda experience and I hope to play more.

Katamari Damacy

This game is really fun, trust me. I wish I could play it. My issues with this game are with the controls. They feel sooo awkward. Whether I'm using a controller or keyboard, doesn't matter. It feels too clunky and frustrating. This wouldn't be an issue necessarily, it's still possible and fun to roll around, but a lot of the missions ended up having these tight time requirements that I could just not meet at all. And I don't want to spend the whole stream stuck on one level, making no progress because I can't move in the way I really want to. This game is really cute though and I love its style so I'm sad that I couldn't really follow through with it. Maybe the later games have improvements on these issues?

Warhammer 40k Space Marines

This game was fun, and it was fine. Really gave me XBOX360 era vibes though haha. I wouldn't mind exactly playing this more but I'm not super into it? Like it's cool and all, you get cool weapons, but I'm not invested in the world or story. And it's story really something that pops off on Twitch exactly lol so I feel I don't have much reason to really continue with it. That's why it's dropped.

Monster Hunter Rise

I do love this game! One of my first Monster Hunter games. This is dropped purely because I don't feel it's a great stream game. It can get boring at points, especially with all the loading screens and fighting the same enemies a lot. It was fun to play with viewers though. Maybe I'll bring this back occassionally when I think the time or opportunity is right. It's still a game I play sometimes in my free time though.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

So I played the base game completely on my own (one of my favourite games of all time btw). The only streamed part of this game was the DLC Future Redeemed, as well as some challenge mode stuff from the base game while waiting for the DLC to come out. I streamed the whole DLC, doing very long sessions haha. But it was a great experience and one I wouldn't mind doing again for another game, maybe even the next Xenoblade game. I'm not often genuinely excited and passionate about upcoming games or playing games in general, so I had a lot of fun here. I want to find games like this again that just make me want to stream for hours and hours and hours...This DLC also inspired a video essay on my Youtube channel so go check that out maybe? :)

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Prior to the Xenoblade 3 DLC, I thought I'd try my hand at a Xenoblade 2 series. It is my favourite game after all, and they always say to stream what you love or something. I even had a cool idea of doing some challenge run, with a wheel of challenges and such to keep the game difficult and interesting. Unfortunately after one episode I decided to drop it, as it's a big undertaking to do such a thing, especially considering the size of the game. Would take me a really long time to get through and I just wasn't sure I could really commit to that.

Octopath Traveler 2

I really did enjoy this game. Despite being a JRPG, it felt like a fine game to stream due to it being a non-linear story/experience. The different characters seperated things and made it easy to tell where I was at. However, something I ended up disliking about this game was how...open it is? There isn't much direction as to what you "should" be doing. You can do the character stories but there's tons of side exploration stuff that's a bit vague about what you need for them. These things don't have quest markers or anything either. Overall though, I dropped it because of just how long it is, how much time it was taking and would take to complete it. I tried coming back to this after a while but found myself totally lost so, I'm not sure if I'll come back to this soon even in my own time...But, I will say, I still enjoyed but I did play of it. I absolutely love the art, the pixel graphics and effects go well together and don't seem as "blurry" as they were in the first game. The combat is also really fun. I could do without the random encounters though.

Civilization 5

Loved this game for a long time. There's nothing like spamming "next turn" till like 2am...It's a fun game to stream once in a while, but the sessions can be reallyy long...It also takes some time to ramp up, and can get boring in some sections when you're just waiting for things to happen, so in that sense I don't see it as the best game to stream. Still, I'd like to come back to it some time. It's fun to do challenge and meme runs in this game too, and could make for some nice stream content.

Dwarf Fortress

I picked this game up on a whim, hearing it was a popular "strategy" game, or rather instead of popular, it had a cult following. I love management games so this game seemed right up my lane, a game all about management on a large scale. I played this game a lot for a while and I had a lot of fun learning all the systems. However, it got to a point where I didn't have "more" to do. I learned pretty much all of the basics, and I didn't know where else to take it, other than to just keep the machine running. But personally I didn't find that to be too interesting to watch as a stream. So I officially ended the series. I don't see myself coming back to this really but I enjoyed my team with it!

Sun Haven

Tried playing this game when it was a bit new, as I had a heard of it within Stardew circles. I wanted a comfy and relaxing to play and I do love this farm-sim-like games. However I just did not feel confident in it as a series. I realized how much I'd need to play to get anywhere, certain sections seemed boring, it was highly competitive on Twitch, so I just decided wasn't worth it and moved on. Seems like a fine enough game though and I probably wouldn't mind playing this in my own time? Although I have other comfy to go to as well.

Civilization 6

I like Civ 5 so, I got Civ 6. I didn't like this game to start but after all the DLC it's pretty alright. Definitely plays different from Civ 5 though and I'm still getting the hang of it. I wouldn't mind coming back to this sometime either, same reasons as Civ 5, so it's on hold for now.

Factorio

Tried this game once, it's definitely neat but seems like it can get real complicated real fast. I do like the aesthetics of it though. I'd like to play this game more but realistically, I don't have the time to really devote to this. It's that game of autism game that appeals to a specific group of people and I think otherwise it might just seem boring too?

Crusader Kings 3

Played this game once to get a feel of these Paradox games. Never played the Crusader King games and this seemed like a good introduction to that and Paradox games generally. However I did struggle a bit with this - a lot of what goes on is up to you , you're not given much instruction or guidance and I felt like I had no idea what I was doing or what I should do. Felt a bit restrictive too with not a lot of freedom (as in, I think the game wanted me to play as specific people in specific eras to "learn" the game better but I just wanted to do my own thing). I don't see myself coming back to this so it's dropped.

Pizza Tower

Ragequit this game cuz I suck at platformers lol. It is really frustrating since you essentially need to complete the same level twice (one time forward and another backwards) and if you fail the timed backwards section, you have to restart completely. I just don't have the skill to pull it off, but it is an incredibly stylish game that would be amazing to watch from a proper speedrunner or someone who knows what they're doing.

Club Penguin

I love Club Penguin, I'm a Club Penguin girlie, I'll keep playing this game until I die, whatever private servers of it I can find. I always find myself coming back to this game once in a while, about 2 times a year or so. Something about it, is just so incredibly nostalgic to me. Sometimes I will just go on Youtube and look up old Club Penguin videos from 2006-2008 parties. It's so comforting in a way but also incredibly sad that I'll never have that back, that Club Penguin is fucking gone and no matter how much I try to relive the memories with various private servers they are never quite the same. Anyways it is on hold because I'll likely stream this again some time.

Cosmology of Kyoto

A very neat old exploration game. I had a bit of issues playing this, needed to use some kinda old computer box thing. A lot of the game is typing responses to people and I couldn't actually see what I was typing, some kind of bug with the text box, so that made some things hard. I also wasn't sure exactly what my goal was here. But, it was nice to just go around and see what I could do, interact with all the weird characters.

Final Fantasy Tactics

Another game that I've always wanted to play and get into. It was neat and I love the style and graphics of it. But, I wasn't really into the story. I'm not sure if story is really the point here? But still. Felt a bit lost sometimes as to what I should do. Wasn't really into the characters either. A hard game to get into it seems. I currently just don't have the time right now to really consider it for streaming, but I wouldn't mind someday trying again. So it's still open as a possibility I guess but just dropped for now.

Powerwash Simulator

Played this for a bit, what can I say. Comfy, satisfying, chill game to just talk to. Good to just have playing in the background for zatsus. However I don't really care for it anymore and nowadays I'd rather just play an actual game.

Fire Emblem Engage

Played this when it came out on stream, and continued on my own. That's why it's dropped as a stream series, but I did complete on my own time so I guess it's technically completed? I do really like the combat of Engage but the story admittedly is pretty shit. Not the worst, I mean standard Fire Emblem stuff I guess, but doesn't do anything amazing. Didn't like the beginning or the end of this one. But gameplay wise one of the most fun Fire Emblems I think. I struggled a bit with it though, when I lost my momentum playing it felt hard to get back into it. Thinking of doing another playthrough of it on Maddening, and that might be something I stream, who knows.