Missiloon

What an awesome game! It made me feel super smart, while also with moments super stupid. In Arranger you move the area you walk on and solve puzzles that way. And they are round, so if you leave an area at the top, you’ll return at the bottom. With this mechanic, you’ll solve many many puzzles in this awesome adventure game. You’ll never fight with weapons in your hand, or open locks with keys in your pockets. The items lay around on the floor and it is up to you to move them toward the objective. It takes a bit of time to wrap your head around it, but it is so well done and unique. What took me the most time to get used to is that you can move items from within buildings outside by just moving them along with you. I also have felt stumped on some puzzles for a while, especially in the later areas and in the optional dungeons. What helped me when I was stuck was to remind me which info I had on solving the puzzle and what am I unsure about or what am I missing. There were like 1 or 2 puzzles I solved by luck by just moving around. However, there always is a solution, you just have to see it. The story in Arranger is interesting and funny. I love that they added a story that made sense and also made fun of that your character is the only one who moves around in such a weird way. You’ll meet a lovely bunch of interesting people, from good to evil people and from clumsy to skilled people. The variety and the amount of characters you’ll meet is crazy for such a short story, but they all fit in and made sense to be there.

Sometimes you just fall in love at the beginning **** just with the concept alone already, this game did that for me. Before starting to play Dungeons of Hinterberg I liked the idea and wasn’t blown away by the artwork while I enjoy that it is a different style than we see a lot. However, after the first dungeon, I was already head over heels in love while that dungeon was short, straightforward, and easy. I could see already the potential and how smooth the controls of the game were. How good it felt and a peek into the people you’ll meet during this journey. And the artwork grew on me while playing through the story. It includes so many details and is so well **** Dungeons of Hinterberg, you’re on holiday in Hinterberg. Where in other small towns/villages in Austria it might be normal to have winter sports activities while on vacation, Hinterberg is special… in Hinterberg you learn how to use magic and complete dungeons during your vacation. However, it still is a vacation so you can also just take the day off and enjoy a scenic spot and during the evenings you’ll meet with all kinds of different people. And all those things will help you out with getting stronger. Yes, even taking the day off helps you out! This game reminds me of the “Persona” series combined with “Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II”. The interactions and hangouts you have with the people feel like the social part of the Persona games. With bonus points for not having X amount of in-game time before the world gets destroyed. You can keep going as long as you don’t finish the last dungeon. And the style of the dungeons reminded me somehow of Phantasy Star Online. In Dungeons of Hinterberg, there are 16 “people” you can get to know better and hang out with. Increasing your friendship level will get you rewards, but the people were so well-written that it was fun as well. I didn’t like everyone, but when getting to know them better I understood where they came from. And it is awesome that there is such a range of personalities. The quiet ones, the social butterflies, the loud ones, the cheesy ones. You will find so many different people in Hinterberg, but all with a story attached to them. For the achievements you don’t have to max out their friendships, which would mean that normally I wouldn’t even go for that. However, I finished almost all of them just to get to know them. I think I spent around 5 extra hours, just to finish most of the friendship levels. There are 26 Dungeons in Dungeons of Hinterberg. What I enjoyed so much about them is that they weren’t too long, you’ll not spend hours going through the same dungeon, while also being different from each other. The dungeons are scattered over 4 areas in the game and in each area you get 2 skills and only those 2 skills. This made sure that the dungeons weren’t too complex. It has puzzles but you also know that the solution has to be done with one or both of those skills. The first time I got new skills it took a bit of time to get used to them, but it works so well and you always know that one of them has something to do with range. Another nice thing is everything you do will improve your stats, even relaxing at the spa will in the end help you get stronger so you can get through the dungeons. This way you don’t feel like spending useless time doing something and you can just strategize what is more important to go for at the moment. The rewards from leveling up your friendship levels are so nice as well.I love how many quality of Life features Dungeons of Hinterberg has. Think about having teleport spots all over the map, so you never have to walk that far after you explore the place the first time. Also seeing chests on the map you found but couldn’t open because not having the key yet is awesome, so you don’t forget them as long as you have interacted with the chest. Another welcome feature is that you can speed up the animation of entering a zone or the switch between afternoon to evening, evening to night ect. And last but not least as it is huge, the game warns you of so many things. “Do you want to spend time with this person, that will take the whole evening” aka “Have you done your shopping before you chose this option” and other warnings like that. After finishing the story you get the chance to say goodbye to everybody, and this was such a nice feature. I cried so hard during this because it felt really like saying goodbye to them as you learn to know them quite a lot. It was so bittersweet as I was glad happy with the ending and happy to play through this game, but that also meant saying goodbye. They did a great job with how to even include that in your Slaycation. However, there were possible hints as to where the story could go next… so hopefully at some point, we will join up with the main character and go on slaycation in another city!

In Magical Delicacy, you just arrive at a new location where you hope to find more witches, like yourself. To learn from them the skills it takes to be a witch. However you are greeted by someone who will show you your new house, but then tell you you owe the city a bunch of money for that specific house. Does this sound like the plot of a farming sim? Well it isn’t that, it is a Metroidvania without fighting or dying, but gathering and buying lots of ingredients to make dishes for the people around you. It took me quite a few hours to fall in love with the game. The beginning was so nice, the movement felt good, the platforming was fun, the world looked amazing and a bunch of nice characters to meet. However, after the first tutorial part, I felt lost. The game mechanics didn’t click for me for hours and it took for me to follow a guide for 1/3 of the game to understand it and start to enjoy it without a recipe guide. So which tips do I have for others?– First is to know that it is normal you’ll have to buy many many ingredients. Some are just not out there in the wilds and you are expected to buy them. For me as a cheapskate in games who mostly doesn’t use any potions in games because I’m afraid I need them for late in the game… this bit me in the *ss… You’re supposed to spend money in Magical Delicacy, not just for upgrades but also ingredients.– The second thing is that you will earn enough feathers to buy the recipes. I was afraid to buy the wrong one which I didn’t need for quests and others that I needed but then didn’t have the feathers anymore. I’m not sure if you can encounter this problem, but likely not as you’ll have a bunch of quests all at once all the time. – The third thing that helped me is learning that the story-related quests show a ! in the top right corner. I have no idea why it took me hours to even notice this. – And last but not least. Tauno, a character that will teach you a second spell sells an item that is called “Notes on Flavor”. This is a lifesaver and helped me to finally let go of the recipe guides, as this one will show you the taste of the end result before making it. Don’t forget to equip it! So with all those tips out of the way, what do I like about Magical Delicacy? Almost everything after that initial phase! – The artwork is beautiful and has so many details. Like candles that go out if you run past them. – So many characters and their background stories. – It has such an interesting main story that takes a bit of time to develop but gets so interesting that I wanted to see the ending! However, what I enjoyed most of all is the movement set you get. In typical Metroidvania style, you’ll unlock a bunch of new movements that help you reach new areas of the map. It also came with a bunch of teleport options which made traveling around so much easier. I really enjoyed the second and third movement set you’ll unlock! What is also lovely is that the game comes with settings to remove the gathering/cooking timed minigame in case you don’t enjoy this or have trouble with it.

Delicious – Mansion Mystery is another great GameHouse/SQRT3 game. They know how to make fun time management games in which you complete orders for different people. In Mansion Mystery you’re playing as Emily. She and her best friend Francois will help host a party for a family who lives in a mansion. However, a lot is going on in this family and you’ll get snippets of all the drama trying to solve a murder attempt. This game has 90 levels, 15 levels in each different area. Which felt like a lot to me, sometimes a little too much. This might also be due because I didn’t connect with the story as well as with other GameHouse titles. There was a little bit too much eavesdropping and searching through other people’s stuff. I understand it is a game and they tell a story, but somehow it still made me feel a little uncomfortable with the methods Francois took while being “the good guy” who want to solve the crime. This is weird because there are other GameHouse titles where the crimes are worse but done by bad guys, which makes it feel a little better, which I can see for myself that it is crazy to feel that way. What I did like about Delicious – Mansion Mystery is that the mini-games were cool and all very good doable with a mouse as well as on the Steam Deck. Another great improvement in later levels was that if you had to find objectives in a level as a side-mission it had a counter so you know for how many more of them you were looking. The absolute best thing for me was that this game didn’t end on a cliffhanger but had a proper ending which leaves room for future installments but didn’t drop you into another adventure straight away. And last but not least, you don’t need any prior info on the characters at all for this installment.

Dreamsweeper is a fun puzzle game that combines a roguelike minesweeper puzzle with battling monsters through a rhythm game. You’ll keep descending floors to the next puzzle and the next and the next. The type of enemies that walk around are based on which of the 4 worlds you’re playing. You’ll unlock a new world after completing a world, which also opens up endless mode on the previous world. The monsters in later worlds felt harder, but that might also be because their timing is less forgiving than the purple attack the enemies in the first world do. It feels like the main character walks a little slow, but this seems to be on purpose because you don’t want to set a step too far while working out a puzzle. Another thing that I noticed only very late is that while you can have 3 heads with you, you can only wear one, and that one is which buff you currently have. While typing this.. it makes sense.. it is a hat.. we don’t wear stacks full of heads. However, with the design in the game and the shop selling always 3 heads, it wasn’t so clear to me before.

What an awesome game! It made me feel super smart, while also with moments super stupid. In Arranger you move the area you walk on and solve puzzles that way. And they are round, so if you leave an area at the top, you’ll return at the bottom. With this mechanic, you’ll solve many many puzzles in this awesome adventure game. You’ll never fight with weapons in your hand, or open locks with keys in your pockets. The items lay around on the floor and it is up to you to move them toward the objective. It takes a bit of time to wrap your head around it, but it is so well done and unique. What took me the most time to get used to is that you can move items from within buildings outside by just moving them along with you. I also have felt stumped on some puzzles for a while, especially in the later areas and in the optional dungeons. What helped me when I was stuck was to remind me which info I had on solving the puzzle and what am I unsure about or what am I missing. There were like 1 or 2 puzzles I solved by luck by just moving around. However, there always is a solution, you just have to see it. The story in Arranger is interesting and funny. I love that they added a story that made sense and also made fun of that your character is the only one who moves around in such a weird way. You’ll meet a lovely bunch of interesting people, from good to evil people and from clumsy to skilled people. The variety and the amount of characters you’ll meet is crazy for such a short story, but they all fit in and made sense to be there.

Wéko The Mask Gatherer is such an awesome game! It threw me right back into memory lane, back when I was a kid, playing games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In this game you play as Weko, you don’t know about your past, but people keep saying or questioning if they don’t know you already. However, something weird is going on in this world and you have to retrieve 7 masks that inflict the people who are under the influence of the mask to one of the 7 sins. Before I started playing Wéko The Mask Gatherer, I was a bit scared because it has the “souls-like” tag on Steam. And I’m not a souls-like girl! However, the game still drew me in and I’m glad I dived in, as I had such a lovely time playing this game! For the most part, it isn’t that difficult, really think back to Ocarina of time and you know what kind of difficulty to expect from this game. (Sorry, I haven’t played any of the newer Zelda games after “Twilight Princess” so no idea how it is compared to those.)What made me have such a wonderful time is that the main story was not complicated and I always knew which way to go. Furthermore, there were a lot of side quests as well that gave the world a feeling of being lived in. So many have their struggle and different quest types. I loved finding the animals in each city that were running around and needed to be caught. That part reminded me somewhat of Slime Rancher. Another great thing is the amount of masks you’ll collect and special abilities. It is nice that the game changes the mechanics just a little in each new area and how you can make those abilities even stronger if you go out of your way a little and complete other objectives. What I also loved is the amount of teleportation/save options this game gives you. There will always be a teleportation point nearby. Which makes running around and returning to earlier areas so nice and easy. The only bad thing I can say about Wéko The Mask Gatherer is that it doesn’t have a pause button at the moment. While playing through the game I noticed it but it didn’t bother me. The fights weren’t long and it was quite easy to stay out of trouble while idling if you are mindful about it. However there is an arena challenge in the game, there I ran into problems with this. In there, it meant that if my phone rang or the doorbell or a cat jumped in front of my computer screen, I couldn’t pause so that meant I lost that run and had to start all over again. However, I’m glad to report that in a future patch, there will be a pause button added later on because of the switch port. (Which is also great news, as this game feels perfect for the switch!)

Ohh “Closer the Distance” you broke me into so many pieces but also got me invested in the story so much and let me fall in love with all the details the developers added.. and that all at once. This was a journey, a wonderful journey but a very sad one and I cried so many times while playing this gem ****. I have played the first Orwell game from Osmotic Studios and that one told me already that this studio is so good in telling stories. That one tells a story about the dangers of our online activities. Not everybody’s cup of tea… However, the story in Closer the Distance is one about losing a relative unexpectedly and what that does with a family, but also within a (small) community. Normally it takes me at least some time to get closer to a character to get so emotional. However, Osmotic Studios did such a great job in storytelling that when the main character dies very early on in the game, I instantly became emotional. In this game, you play as Angie, the person who has died. You are kinda the ghost of Angie that tries so hard to help her loved ones move on. Tries to fix what is broken within the small community of Yesterby, what she already tried to do so much when she was alive, but she can’t let go after she died. This is done in a sims-like gameplay. You start with only having some control over her younger sister because she is the only one who can hear Angie’s voice. You can already see some of the wishes of the other people in the small community of Yesterby and you will unravel more of their wishes and mood swings in the days/weeks/months after Angie passed away. A little into the game you’ll also get a bit of control over some of the other characters. This way you try to complete their wishes for what to do next and what is going on. I love how they choose to go with a Sims-like game style. Lately so many announced sims-likes got canceled while I desperately looking for something that plays just like The Sims, but on Steam with Steam achievements (and not 50 DLCs). This was such an awesome game, and a great way how they told such a heavy and emotional story. With so many different characters and their own life goals, dreams, and quirks. And did I already mention how much love and attention there went into all the little details?? This goes from portraits of the families hanging in their houses to the sounds of characters sounding more echoey in some locations where that makes more sense, to the beautiful music this game adds. Especially by a character who will join a little later.

Wow, I’m blown away but how beautiful and creative Paper Trail is. The gameplay is so unique and done in such a wonderful way while it will also ask you to think deeply about how to solve the later puzzles. I love how you play through different theme levels and how they all add a new mechanic to the already creative gameplay. What makes this game extra good is how it saves automatically at the start of each new puzzle, so you can just quit the game and come back later to a puzzle when you feel stuck or had enough for that moment. It allows in such an elegant way to play this game in short bursts. Furthermore, it is also impressive how the game had no bugs for me. I’m quite good at breaking games and it is quite normal for me to contact developers about breaking X or Y so it can be fixed soon. However, I didn’t encounter any bugs at all in Paper Trail!