#967 itch.io bundle games

[syntaxturtle]

Hellenica

JRPG style tactics game where you play as Diona, an agent of Artemis and werebear.  It's the Age of Steam in classical Greece and the stability of the land is being threatened by outside forces and Luddites within Greece who object to this new technology.  Naturally, you're sent to find out what's what and set things right.  Game play is fairly ambitious, moving between branching stories segments in traditional JRPG back-and-forth and tactical battles where you set everyone's moves and attacks before setting the round resolve.  Attacks play off one another with flanking or special conditions, you earn skill points for more abilities, etc.  I only made it through the first couple of battles before pausing but thought it played well.

Enjoyed? Yeah

#Hellenica #JRPG #PC Gaming #Tactical Gaming #Indie Gaming #itch.io #reviews #967 itch.io bundle games #Yeah

[syntaxturtle]

Project Kat

Short horror JRPG about a girl conducting a ritual in her school.  It starts off with a gotcha "puzzle" that results in being berated by an evil spirit which sets you up for some light puzzle solving, desk shifting and anime girl cattiness before you can cast your spell and take a dive into the darker side of things.  Works fairly well, none of the simple puzzles disrupted the flow of things which was nice and the horror bits were as effective as I'd expect JRPG horror bits can be. 

Recommended to be played in a single session which is very doable (an hour, maybe?) though it would be nice if the dev added an estimated time in so you knew what you were committing to.  Ends a bit unsatisfactory but they explain in the ending credits that this is a prelude to a larger game so that can be forgiven

Enjoyed? Yeah.

#Project Kat #itch.io #JRPG #Horror #Reviews #PC Gaming #Indie Gaming #967 itch.io bundle games #Yeah

[syntaxturtle]

The Stillness of the Wind

Story game told as a farming sim/survival game.  You're an old woman living alone on a farm after everyone you know and/or raised has taken off for the city.  You settle into a loop of raising crops, milking your goats and making cheese, collecting eggs and trading with the local mailman-merchant.  The letters you read tell you about the outside world you refuse to inhabit and stuff gets progressively bleak from there.  The devs have the story they want to tell so there's no real win condition on the farming sim side; you're going to ultimately do what they tell you to do.  Graphics are indie-nice and the music is indie-nice but the experience is hampered by how... slow... everything... is... I get it, you're an old woman hobbling around on your farm but I, the player, only have so much real-life time to dedicate to the five minute round trip trek to the well and back.

Usually I take more screenshots but this is what the game basically looks like, just add some chickens and goats and a few plants later on.  Or take them away when wolves eat ‘em.

Enjoyed? Meh

#The Stillness of the Wind #Simulation #Indie Gaming #PC Gaming #Reviews #967 itch.io bundle games #Meh

[syntaxturtle]

Speed Dating For Ghosts

Visual Novel style game but with far more interaction than traditional VN fare.  Just as it promises on the box, you're a ghost and you're speed dating.  Select a room and get introduced, one at a time, to three ghosts.  Hope you weren't expecting sexy fun-time ghosts since these are all weird wraiths ranging from shadow-eyed monsters  to floating elderly bubbles.  Learn their stories, pick one to go out with and spend an evening on a ghost date doing stuff like haunting people or investigating a murder or robbing a bank.  It was okay.  Not amazing but I did stay entertained enough to run through three dates (mainly because there's three rooms and I wanted to see if there was a grand finale; there was not).  The writing was a little 2deep4u but stayed away from being eye-rolling pretentious.  The art was fairly crude but kept the focus on the story more than eyeballing your date, I suppose.  All in all, I guess it was about as successful as your average blind date.

Enjoyed? Yeah

#Speed Dating for Ghosts #Visual Novel #PC Gaming #Indie games #Indie gaming #bundle game #itch.io #967 itch.io bundle games #Yeah

[syntaxturtle]

Cats Are Liquid: A Light in the Shadows

A puzzle platformer style game featuring you as a blob-shaped cat trapped in a strange world.  Like all cats, you can turn yourself into liquid to slide through small places and, later, turn yourself into a floating cloud ball.  Also, you glow in the dark and I assume you discover more talents later on.  Like Dere Evil, this eventually started to play up a more sinister tone but, unlike Dere Evil, this one features a smiling cat-blob and I never felt the same 2hard4u mechanics.  As far as the genre goes, I liked it.

Enjoyed? Yeah

#Cats Are Liquid #itch.io #Puzzle #Platformer #PC Gaming #Bundle Games #967 itch.io bundle games #Cats #Indie Gaming #Indie Games #Yeah

[syntaxturtle]

A Short Hike

One of the titles in the bundle that everyone gushed over, it's easy to see its attractiveness.  It's a charming little adventure and exploration game with charming little characters doing charming little things. 

You play as a vacationing bird-girl named Claire who has to reach the top of Hawk Point so you can get a cell phone signal for an important call.  Naturally, it's not as easy as just sauntering up there so you need to talk to all the other vacationing critters, run their mini-quests and jump through the appropriate hoops.  This was a Humble Original so it has more funding than the "indie game made in someone's basement after work" titles and it comes through in the graphics, music and general production values.  I don't know if I would have wanted to pay retail for it but definitely worth checking out if you own the bundle and enjoy charming little things.

Enjoyed? Meh

#A Short Hike #itch.io #Adventure #PC Gaming #Reviews #Bundle Games #967 itch.io bundle games #Indie Gaming #Indie Games #Meh

[syntaxturtle]

Prince of Cats

A Princess Maker style game where you are a cat-woman who must leave the faerie realm and go to the land of mortals to find the missing Prince of Cats. From there, it's a lot of picking your job or schooling for the day so you can get smart & pay the bills.  Side mission type things about the people you meet along the way and attachments you form, heavily influenced by the works of Shakespeare.  It’s pretty good if you enjoy this style of game: I played through it twice and had very little overlap between my stories.  Sadly, both times I was denied access back into the faerie realm and had to live out my mortal days as a tutor and a socialite, respectively.

Enjoyed? Yeah

#itch.io #VisualNovel #Prince of Cats #reviews #PC Gaming #Bundle Games #967 itch.io bundle games #Indie Gaming #Indie Games #Yeah

[syntaxturtle]

Don’t Take It Personally, I Just Don’t Like You: The Camping Trip

A short, slice-of-life style visual novel where you plan to go on a weekend camping trip with your buddies and bring along the girl you’re sweet on.  As fate has it, one of your buddies bails on you leaving an awkward third-wheel situation with you trying to balance between your brash devil-may-care friend and your reserved law-abiding wannabe sweetheart.  It was okay as far as these things go and provided enough options often enough to keep me willing to play through it.  Apparently it’s a prequel to a larger game so, if you play this and love it, I have great news for you.

Enjoyed? Yeah

#Don't Take It Personally I Just Don't Like You #Visual Novel #PC Gaming #Reviews #itch.io #Bundle Games #967 itch.io bundle games #Indie Gaming #Indie Games #Yeah

[syntaxturtle]

Walden, the Game

Your very own Henry David Thoreau themed survival simulation!  Take on the role of Thoreau as you live in the woods and plant beans, repair your home and collect arrowheads.  Gain Thoreau-written bits of wisdom and introspection as you look at squirrels, walk at night and visit your buddy Ralph Waldo Emerson.  You need to pay attention to your weariness, hunger and other stuff but, c'mon, this is pretty much an edutainment title and they're not going to let Thoreau die and rot in the forest. 

Incidentally, this game was made with a grant from the National Institute for the Arts so, if you ever railed about your taxes going to the military-industrial complex, this was the alternative.

Enjoyed? Nah

#Walden #Walden the Game #itch.io #simulator #walking sim #PC Gaming #bundle game #henry david thoreau #reviews #967 itch.io bundle games #Indie Gaming #Indie Games #Nah

[syntaxturtle]

Mission: It's Complicated

Superhero dating sim!  A menace is coming to Earth and it can only be stopped by an artifact. And the artifact can only be powered by two heroes with a deep bond.  It's up to you to assemble your team and send them off to fight crime while maneuvering them to also fall in love.  A pretty fun gameplay loop of deciding which heroes to send on which missions, balancing both their talents and who you want to ship them with.  Bright comic book aesthetics and humor that isn't terrible.  I liked it.

Enjoyed? Yeah

#Mission: It's Complicated #itch.io #Dating Sim #Superheroes #Reviews #PC Gaming #Bundle Games #967 itch.io bundle games #Indie Gaming #Indie Games #Yeah

[syntaxturtle]

Sewer Rave

I have no idea what this is but I sort of love it.  Wander through a sewer rave held by rats!  Listen to pulsing dance beats, read weird shit, see weird stuff, try to do some jumping puzzles I totally sucked at.  The art is Indie Awful but the overall experience kept me entertained far longer than most of the stuff so far.  Is it good?  Probably not but it's a heck of an experience and I still recommend it.

Enjoyed? Yeah

#Sewer Rave #itch.io #Simulator #Platformer #Reviews #PC Gaming #Bundle Games #967 itch.io bundle games #Indie Gaming #Indie Games #Yeah

[syntaxturtle]

Babysitter Bloodbath

A horror game that has you playing the part of the babysitter with an escaped mental patient on the loose.  It starts out strong with a great 80s pulp VHS vibe then... gives you what you see above.

Don't you want to see them make out? Resident Evil type game play: Explore the house, solve puzzles to get stuff, save your progress on VHS tapes, yadda yadda but... god damn, those graphics.  I got as far as Jack here getting murdered (spoiler alert) then tabbed out and the game crashed.  Turns out a lot of other people crash in the same spot so maybe it wasn’t me.  Another victim of Babysitter Bloodbath!

Enjoyed? Nah (Broken but probably Nah anyway)

#Babysitter Bloodbath #itch.io #Horror #Survival Horror #Reviews #PC Gaming #Bundle Games #967 itch.io bundle games #Indie Gaming #Indie Games #Nah

[syntaxturtle]

Us Lovely Corpses

2deep4u visual novel dealing with depression, abuse and other such topics.  You are a young witch trying to rescue your friend from the monster which has haunted her since birth.  The monster manifests as vines with roses that give you insight into your friend's mind and history if you talk to them but knowing too much can break you.  Pleasant artwork and music and decent enough writing if this is your sort of thing.  I lost the first time but thought it was worth a second try and completed it on my second play through.  Worth the time spent.

Enjoyed? Yeah

#Us Lovely Corpses #itch.io #VisualNovel #Visual Novel #reviews #PC Gaming #Bundle Games #967 itch.io bundle games #Indie Gaming #Indie Games #Yeah

[syntaxturtle]

Tangrams Deluxe

The intro screen helpfully tells me that a Tangram is a seven-piece Chinese puzzle where you try to fit the shapes into the provided form.  I feel like I knew that at one point but probably couldn't have just told you.  So you're provided a form which is cat shaped, provided that you're fairly flexible in your idea of what cats are shaped like, and you try to make the seven pieces fit into there.  Then you do it again.  And again.  And some more until you're doing bunny shapes instead.  The game does allow you to pick any puzzle you want, rather than require unlocks, which is nice.  If you like seven piece Chinese puzzles, this is the game for you.

Enjoyed? Meh

#Tangrams Deluxe #Tangrams #Puzzle #PC Gaming #Indie Gaming #Indie Games #Reviews #itch.io #967 itch.io bundle games #Meh

[syntaxturtle]

12 Orbits

Local multiplayer game where each player controls one key on the keyboard.  That key causes your little moving ball to either (a) dodge when outside of a grey circle or (b) enter the orbit when inside a grey circle so you can release yourself from orbit into a different direction.  With this basic control scheme, you can play several different maps and game modes, both team or free-for-all, involving things like trying to hit the most balls to turn them your color (and make them hazards to the other players, hence the Dodge).  Seemed like it could be fun, provided you all don't mind sharing a keyboard.

Enjoyed? Meh

#12 Orbits #PC Gaming #Local Multiplayer #itch.io #indie gaming #indie games #bundle games #967 itch.io bundle games #Reviews #Meh

[syntaxturtle]

DeeDum

Called Dum Dum on the store but DeeDum in game, this puzzler is about two shapes (Dee & Dum, naturally) who are tethered together.  Try to move them both into their home spots by manipulating their distance from one another using the environment.  It was okay, but probably better for those who enjoy more difficult puzzles as it seemed to lack the gentle ramp-up of most casual puzzle games.  Or maybe I was just bad at it.

Enjoyed? Meh

#DeeDum #Dum Dum #itch.io #Puzzle #indie gaming #indie games #reviews #PC Gaming #bundles games #967 itch.io bundle games #Meh