Ogu and the Secret Forest and Sable

A pair of exploration games!

Ogu and the Secret Forest 

In this silly and happy cartoonish game you play as the baby platypus Ogu who armed with a hat and butterfly net sets out on an adventure on a strange island which has lots of puzzles to solve, friends to make (who you can call to help pass obstacles) and enemies to beat up...? Yeah this turned out to be a much bigger game than I first thought with plenty of places to go and things to do. There's a bit of a clash between the cutesy animal art style and activities such as dancing, fishing and drawing versus beating up the dangerous enemies (you can turn on god mode as an option because they can get pretty mean) but its all rather fun with very simple controls. Will especially be of interest to explorers, collectors and those that enjoy RPG Maker type games. 

Sable

The visuals are so different, its great!

This is an amazingly drawn exploration and puzzle jumping game with a very simple story that actually has no bad guy. Indeed I don't think you can even die in it which makes it quite relaxing. Good controls and the ability to climb, glide and ride your customizable hover bike across the large map make it fun to explore, with very hard to find collectable stuff for those who seek to do so. The many optional side missions are quite cute and are the actual "meat" of the game. Apart from the optional fishing mini-game (which as usual I don't have the patience for) I really enjoyed this one. 

Behind the Frame and Them's Fightin' Herds

Games with excellent animation.

Behind the Frame

This very short and relaxed game is all about painting and puzzle solving. Despite the "painting by numbers" portions that let you brush paint everywhere, the art is really good with its anime style. Thankfully the puzzles are pretty easy to let you focus on the excellent story which will put a knife in your feels I enjoyed very much. Highly recommended, if you enjoy something that is more of a narrative than mechanics.

Them's Fightin' Herds

It's is like Streetfighter for My Little Pony, but the smooth animation and cute critters are very well done! There's also a story mode that plays a bit like an RPG Maker game interspersed with both jumping puzzle and (many) combat segments which is pretty cool, but the difficulty ramps up rather quickly and boss fights become a chore. It's a different one, that's for sure.

Murder by Numbers and Impostor Factory

Games with MURDER!

Murder by Numbers

With an awesomely animated upbeat opening its hard not to get into this game which features bright art and follows a newbie detective and a flying robot who are thrown into solving MURDERS mainly through discovering items via grid puzzle imagery that use numbers outside the rows and columns for hints.

For a simple example a 5x5 grid that has 1,1,5,1,1 on both the top and bottom results in a cross or plus sign +, and none of the puzzles are that simple. Pretty cool and easy to get into as the story is nice and the good art and music really draw you in. My only downside is the puzzle solving can be repetitive. Still recommended though.

Impostor Factory

From the makers of To the Moon and Finding Paradise comes this horror comedy that starts with you being invited to a spooky mansion on a stormy nights along with a number of other guests... and soon enough things turn MURDEROUS! It's a pretty good change from the previous games actually, but that lasts just for the opening act - after which its back to tugging your emotional strings with some awesome story telling.

And this team are really good at doing that. While I'd rate this game better than Finding Paradise, you probably should still play To the Moon before this one if you haven't already. Much less puzzle solving here, but more laughs for sure. Recommended.

Waiting for Duviri: The Third Trial

This third group is all adventure games, a genre I quite like! Let's see how these fared...

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap

This 2D platform adventure game boasts some excellent art, nice music and absolutely terrible mechanics. Force player to repeat zone multiple times because they didn't exit the correct way? Check. Not have many save points? Check. Enforce back tracking? Check. This gets a big fat NOPE from me.

Evoland

This action adventure RPG starts out as an old RPG maker game but quickly evolves to slightly better standards as you play through it, which is the main draw and not the generic but appropriate fantasy plot. It's also surprisingly short as it's one of the few that I actually finished! I guess if it kept my interest right until the end, it did something right. :)

Alba - A Wildlife Adventure

This happy, bright and relaxing game is just about exploring and taking photos of wildlife while doing nice things for the environment like picking up litter, fixing bird houses and the like. A little too zen for my liking but a cute little game nonetheless.

Supraland

In this hack and slash FPS, you are a red toy man in a child's sandpit - tasked by the red king to find out why the town has no more water. This quickly spirals into a big quest of trudging across the dunes littered with rocks, lego bricks and other items in this surprisingly big game. While it's full of neat ideas, its problems stem from its jumping puzzles (thankfully there are jump pads that activate to help out if you stack it on more complex ones) and the notion that you MUST find the hidden barrels because they unlock the skills (like double/triple jump) for you to progress in the game. Not a great design idea, but still quite a fun game.

Spirit of the North

In this wordless but pretty game with nice music, you are a fox in some cold place who... frolics around with a ghost fox and gives staves to dead people so that their spirits can move on. You also get some fox powers later and that's around the part the annoying jumping puzzles come in. Most annoyingly of all though is this features my design pet peeve: huge spaces of traversal for no purpose other than traversal. The opening 30 seconds is probably you holding down the "forward" button. Just, no.

Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove

This cooperative game has aliens searching for parts of their destroyed spaceship and the elevator to the next floor while avoiding enemies, shaking trees for money, and wondering what the hell the devs were smoking when they designing this. Not recommended.

Funny Freebies and Free Stories

A double whammy of free games on Steam.

I love RPG maker games that have little to zero combat and instead focus on story and a lot of meaningful choices, and that's exactly what The Ghost Cage is. You have just moved into a haunted house and need to deal with the cute ghost in whatever manner you see fit. If you prefer some light combat in your RPGs then you might instead try Unsung Kingdom where you play a band of time travelers sent back to save a great king. The story moves at a good pace, weapons dictate abilities, areas are small enough to be meaningful, and combat is quick which is helpful since there is a tiny bit of grind required especially towards the end. Still a good game. Last up for the "story" segment of this post is The Colossus is Coming - a first person interactive experience that takes place in a very small playing area where you have to find and listen to five cassette tapes. It's very different.

Now if "story" is not your thing and you just want to have a laugh, you might want to try Laserboy, a funny action game where you have been implanted with an eye that fires a powerful beam every six or so seconds. This beam is strong enough to destroy items, kill people and push you back and if you his a wall you bounce in the opposite direction. The main objective in each level is to reach the exit with the LEAST amount of damage. I didn't expect much from this but it turned out to be pretty fun! The same can be said for There is no Game, a brilliant little experience that tries its best to convince itself it isn't a game. Needs a bit more thinking though, and if you like having to think then Clay Game might be for you - it's a hilarious 3D puzzler with a pretty unique look that involves some minor platforming but a LOT of thinking, especially towards the end. I quite enjoyed it.

The harder puzzles of Clay Game definitely warrant this.

There you have it, I hope there's something in here that you enjoy too!

Steam Discovery Queue - Crusade of the Free XXX

Continuing freebies from last time... the one in bold is the best of this set.

Alone (Free) - A short horror RPG maker type game with way too much text but a fun timed section as the climax.

Biphase: A 2D platform puzzler in a world set in black and red. Each jump alternates what you can see and stand on. Gets more annoying as game goes on.

Contraband Police Prologue: Much like Papers Please, this first person game sees you as a border control guard whose duty involves taking note of any discrepancies in paper work of people driving in and to decide if you are forcing to turn them around. You earn extra for any additional (and correct) notes you add about their vehicle, which you are allowed to open and fully inspect. Pretty cool, but super long loading time.

The Darkest Tales - Into the Nightmare: Well voiced side scrolling platformer where you are an angry teddy bear with scissors. Repetitive though, especially since you only level up by killing.

Evergate Ki's Awakening: A beautiful 2D platform puzzler where you are a cute spirit sent back to Earth. You can shoot a "lazer" at a few things which do a variety of effects but it still ends up being annoying.

Fortuito Lost History: A first person action horror with poor graphics, which undoes most of the horror part - as well as getting weapons right away.

GranAge: Kiddie fantasy 2D brawler / platformer MMO with excellent music. Pretty good!

Neeron the Blade of Nature: In this 3D action game you play a blade wielding, weather changing bear man who fights against blade wielding robots. An abundance of invisible walls makes it annoying to navigate.

Project Morpheus Prologue: A very well done 3D action horror much like Resident Evil. Does a good job of getting me interested in the full game!

Needs slightly better controls though.

Remnants: Generic first person shooter where you fight drones for... elemental shards for no reason. Also XP is just lying around on the floor. Bleh.

Steam Discovery Queue - Crusade of the Free XXVII

Continuing freebies from last time... the one in bold is the best of this set.

Alphadeck: Pixel card battler where your cards are weapons instead of the usual minions/monsters. Bleh.

Astro Sentai Jarbonder: Side scrolling pixel bullet hell with awful music. Garbage.

Dream Dasher: A hard core 2D pixel platformer where you are either a dream catcher or a beholder. Good music and quick rooms make it addictive. I gave up at the upside down levels.

Flak: An odd game about purchasing and sending out air planes to fight the enemy. I didn't get into it.

Greed Knights: Pixel idle game of boredom.

Lirica: A very cool student made 3D game with a nice story and heavy emphasis on music. Despite there not being an ounce of violence, I really like this game.

I actually played through it twice.

Puzzle: A 2D puzzle platformer where you are a rectangle with a face mask. Bleh.

Shu's Misfortune: An odd RPG Maker game where you play a princess who wants to kill their father so you set out on your quest with a chainsaw and aminoacids? WTF.

Tree Trunk Brook: A point and click exploration game where loads of people decide to go hiking into the forest with face masks because of COVID, and then lose shit that you have to find. Stupid. Also, don't these people know of self-isolation? Walk speed is annoyingly slow too.

We're All Going To Die!: PvP top down shooter. Bleh.

Steam Discovery Queue - Crusade of the Free XX

Continuing freebies from last time... the one in bold is the best of this set.

Chernobyl Liquidators Simulator Demo: Super long load until forever. Doesn't even start. Zzzzzz.

Kingdom Fall Dawn of the Druid: You play an archer in a pretty 3D world which is devoid of life, save for the bad guys that portal in when you get close enough. Kill of all them to level... and... stuff. Bleh.

ROG CITADEL XV: Has nice graphics but takes forever to load and goes absolutely nowhere. Garbage.

Sea of Roses: A hand drawn exploration game with loads of reading and a fair dose of backtracking. Pretty good, but not for me.

Silent Dream: RPG maker style horror with lots of text where you probably won't react fast enough and have to start again. Stupid.

Siren Head Awakening: First person horror where you must find car parts in the dark before slenderman Siren Head gets you. The low quality graphics help Siren Head blend into the trees.

Siren Head - The Siren's Forest: A higher quality version of the above with a more story based approach which leads to a better game, even if its more on the rails.

Submorse: Basically an education to learn and memorize morse code. Good if you are interested in improving that skill.

Summerland: A first person find the spot game with nice graphics and a good story. As a bonus the spots aren't that hard to find either. Thumbs up!

A modern hall of trials.

Zolaris: First person shooter with decent graphics where you must take on a cult of crazies. Unfortunately the epic music doesn't match the tedious walking / exploration segments where nothing is happening and since it wasn't made for keyboard it gets frustrating fast.

Steam Discovery Queue - Crusade of the Free XIII

Continuing freebies from last time... the one in bold is the best of this set.

Anarchy Wolf's Law Prologue: A pre-alpha first person survival shooter which is pretty neat, but obviously more designed for PvP. If that's your sort of thing, it may be worth checking out.

Commie Killer 2069: Terrible pixel first person shooter. Bleh.

Escape From Planet Aelea: First person stealth (more like sprinter since you can out run everything) with a decent premise: you need to escape from mining robots gone rogue. Unfortunately has game breaking bugs.

Estigma [Steam Edition]: A really strange game where you must "paint" every tile in many maze like levels with your avatar without stepping on a painted tile more than once. For added difficulty, ugly monstrous things are also trying to kill you so you can't stop to think too long. Not really for me.

Fears to Fathom Episode 1: Psychological horror walking simulator, with OK story telling but only one 20 minute "episode". Decent enough.

He Needs His Medicine: "Scary" 2D pixel explorer with little instruction. Got the "Humane ending". Bleh.

Mrs. Santa's Gift Hunt: A short, fully voiced RPG maker style game where Mrs. Claus must find all the stolen Christmas presents. Surprisingly very good!

Also decently voiced.

Spaceship Visual Effect Graph Demo: Just a sample of high rendered CGI in Unity, but still worth a peek for the five minute story.

Super Raft Boat: Pixel top down shooter where you must both create a raft to stand on (limited by cooldown) while surviving the dangers of the sea... fish, seagulls and raft eating sharks? Bleh.

Swallow the Blue Remastered: 2D pixel explorer (same as He Needs His Medicine) set in a hotel where something isn't quite right. Like when you press a light switch the entire thing crashes. Bleh.

The Escapists 2

Because you haven't escaped ENOUGH!

I didn't like the first game and the theme in this one hasn't changed at all: you are a prisoner that needs to escape from whatever prison you are placed in. Luckily, most of what I disliked was fixed here. There are much better controls and a more user friendly HUD, and there are some awesome prisons: every thing from a regular jail to a moving train and space station!

I quite liked this one.

Even better, there is co-op capability for up to four people so you can try this out with friends. While it's still not a game in my wheel house, this is definitely an improvement from the initial offering and one that would probably interest those who like this genre. Not something I'd go out of the way to play though, so I give it two escapes out of five.

Insight: Read the signs near the start as they give great options per map.

The Escapists

You need to breakout of prison. A lot.

In this RPG-maker like game you must get your custom prisoner to get out of each of the five prisons available (in the base game). As all but the first is locked you need to beat them in order of difficulty, and at the start can name all the other inmates and guards present too.

That translates as "someone's digging a tunnel".

Then it becomes a matter of learning routines, getting the right jobs and doing favors to get the right tools (like a guard uniform from the laundry), and escaping just like in the short tutorial which fails to cover MANY things which is frustrating. Almost as frustrating as trying to click on the correct character when they stack on each other and are moving. And is there a combat/non-combat indicator somewhere?

Ultimately, this is not a game for me as the main thing it requires is patience - and given that after using it once the program refused to open ever again, there wasn't really enough in my first foray to encourage me to fix that. Not one I'd recommend but if you are into this sort of thing then it's supposed to be very popular.

Developer Appreciation: To the Moon / Fear not this Night

This elegant RPG Maker game is fantastically crafted and is my answer to last weeks prompts from Belghast of "a game that made you cry" and End Game Viables "favourite or most engrossing story delivered through a game". It helps that the music for it is also amazing, and I've actually semi-learned "Everything's Alright" by Laura Shigihara on piano with voice. Can't replicate her talent or tone though.

On the topic of pieces from games, "Fear not this Night" from Guildwars 2 is also amazing, especially since you get to listen to the whole thing in game after beating Zhaitan. It's another one I've semi-learned though there's no way I can reach the key change near the end (after already octaving it down), so I just skip it. As a friend once said, you know I really like something when I start learning the music for it!

It plays soon after this part. :P

Finding Paradise

It was probably on the Moon?

The sequel to To the Moon sees Neil and Eva attempting to grant another client their "last wish" and as expected, complications arise. Like the first game, this one is an interactive novel made in RPG Maker albeit pushed to its boundaries to host a load of mini games too. For the most part it is uncovering the patient's story and solving simple puzzles. Much like To the Moon it also hit me in the feels, though to a lesser extent (measured by number of tissues required) possibly because the story isn't as deep this time around.

The machine that makes happy lies.

Giving out much more might ruin things for you, but I can still highly recommend it to everyone rating it 4 paper airplanes out of 5. If you are only going to play one RPG Maker game this year though and haven't played To the Moon yet - play that one instead.

Trick and Treat

I didn't know Cutesy Horror was a thing.

In this RPG Maker game, you play as an airhead Trick or Treater who for some reason decided to go with her friend to get candy from a Vampire's Castle. You are quickly separated and must do your best to find her ( and all the candy) at the same time. It goes without saying that you will run into actual ghosts and somewhat creepy dolls, complete with funny jump scares and simple puzzles. For a light hearted, cutesy horror - it's quite entertaining. My only complaint is the exploration of the castle does require some legwork but that's a flaw feature in most RPG Maker games.

Featuring the friendliest vampire ever.

If you are after short gimmick to kill a few hours, this one is worth a look - especially since it is free on Steam. :) Don't expect the depth or quality of of To the Moon though. I give it two pumpkins our of five.

Eternal Senia (Free Game)

This is a free little game that's available on Steam and was built on the RPG Maker system in which the player controls Senia as she searches for her "sister" in the Tower of Eternity. It might sound pretty plain but thanks to the developers reworking of the system it plays more like an action RPG than the standard type, which means you'll be more: evading red areas on the floor and less (actually none): taking turns with enemy groups to hit each other.

Instead every time you bump into an enemy you exchange damage. It sounds weird but it works, especially when you start gaining special moves and it makes for a much faster and fun game play. There's also a fair bit of crafting you can do to upgrade your gear and bonus quests that encourage you to find all the secrets or kill all the monsters. I found it pretty clever to put the quest givers at the END of a level too, meaning you may have already completed the things they wanted you to do by the time you get to them. If you want to go back for completion or press on through the game is entirely up to you.

Makes the grinding less grindy!

While there are some slight translation problems in that some of the lines are poor in grammar or spelling it tells a pretty decent story and one that is easy to follow. Highlighting that "games should be fun, not work" every single boss fight has a selectable difficulty level too (easy, normal, hard) and you are not penalized in anyway for whatever you choose. All up Eternal Senia is a fun game to play, earns three and a half little fairies out of five, and is easy for me to recommend to any gamer out there looking for an easy "down time" game. You should give it a try. As I said at the start, it is completely free!

To the Moon

Superb music and masterpiece story telling make this game fantastic.

Wow. I've read reviews on this before but I wasn't prepared for how outstanding the whole thing would be which is surprising for a game that uses something like RPG Maker as its core engine. Don't be fooled though, it still requires some work to get all those pixel sprites and background tiles looking good and all the little mini-games make for a good break from the usual point and click adventure offered here but really, it is the main plot and the slow peeling of the story layers that give this game (or to some, an "interactive novel") its drive. The label doesn't really matter when it is of this caliber.

Epic Feels.

I am intentionally keeping this short (much like the game itself, which can be finished in four hours) as to not spoil the plot at all, so suffice it to say that it is a very powerful and moving piece which will make you laugh and cry, even on your second play through with your spouse. Ok, I totally broke down at one point and still get teary eyed when I think about it. For something to have such an impact in so short a space of time, the creators definitely did something right. I give it five out of five manly tears. Highly recommended for everyone!