We are almost at the end of the year (!!!) and all of a sudden i find myself finishing large gaming projects. First up:

Spider-Man
Loved it. It feels like forever since I've properly engaged with Marvel universe so this was a big nostalgia hit with me. Spider-Man has always been one of my favourite heroes particularly because of how campy he is. This is really no exception, publisher Insomnia nailed the tone and whilst I feel like the story didn't do anything incredible, this was still a very polished experience. Big recommend.

Cats Organised Neatly


Essentially a block puzzle game with cats. What's not to love?

Return of the Obra Dinn
Wanna feel like a real detective? Play this game. It hurt my brain but it was so so good. Nothing at all like it.

Broken Age


Had this in my backlog since 2016 and finally got around to it. Richard Schafer of Lucas Arts fame come back for a Kickstarter adventure game. Pretty good! Very charming and great characters, voice cast and design. Except... That last puzzle is just do tedious and the game thoroughly wears out its welcome. Still a recommendation on sale though.

Yeah that part catches everyone.

I'm not really sure how much benefit there is in having this thread since I've already started? Nevertheless, here we are, jumping into a new anime I've no clue on except that it's an Isekai.

I've been really enjoying this so far. Yuko, her friend Asano and another girl named Sakimoto all end up dragged into fantasy China. Except it was just supposed to be Yuko that gets pulled in, but Sakimoto has a major god complex and considers herself a chosen one for a special destiny or whatever. Asano is just the random boyfriend material that gets taken along.

So far a lot of the beats follow Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, which makes this more enjoyable to me. The kids have quickly been separated by they guide Keiki and almost killed or sold off multiple times. Now Sakimoto has betrayed them and Asano is missing. Meanwhile Yuko is changing physically and mentally plus she's getting mind attacks by this weirdo that keeps making her think everyone hates her. It's good stuff, more than I expect from a typical Isekai.

Let me know what you think of both!

djinn Plays Hipster Games


I finished 4 games this month lol

djinn Watches Anime



Watching 12 Kingdoms. Up to ep 6?

Return of the Obra Dinn - Part 2: Applying the Hammer to the Puzzle

There's a bit of a domino effect that happens in this game, I noticed. I banged my head against the brick wall that was one sailor that appears in almost every memory. Search hard enough and it turns out he's actually named at one point (Brennan). Don't know why I never caught that. Brennan murders 2 people (the executed Taiwanese guard and then the mutinous 4th mate) and is then murdered by the Captain after his own mutiny. That's 3 fates down with the reveal of just one character.

All Midshipmen wear the same uniform and there's only 4 of them. At his death, Thomas says to say sorry to Paul's mum for him. So go back to a different chapter, there's Thomas with a rope around someone that's getting blown up. So that must be Paul. Suddenly there's another 6 or so down and I'm stuck again.

So you gotta kinda brute force it sometimes. All the stewards wear a unique uniform. I account for one steward that's being murdered by a sailor. The sailor is then shot by a woman. So I've got 2 women in the manifest as possibilities and something like 20 sailors that she could be shooting. Time to work through every single one. Take me a few minutes but I get there.

So I'm 39 out of 51(?) crew accounted for. Haven't used a guide yet, which is honestly astounding for me. I tend to give up quickly nowadays but I like the method of breaking down an image that's used in this game. Honestly when the game me all the cutscenes I had no idea how I was going to get all 51. Now it seems doable. There's only 12 people left in my list and if all else fails I can apply the hammer again to the problem.

I will keep an eye out for socks then 👀

27 fates correct.

Return of the Obra Dinn - Part 1: The Mary Celeste but with Cthulhu Mythos

You ever find a game you just know you're going to love? Like the whole thing was made specifically for your particular tastes. That's The Return of the Obra Dinn for me, murder mystery game where you play an insurance inspector trying to unravel the fates of all 51 souls aboard the Obra Dinn. Your only tools are a book and a magical stop watch that can send you back in time to the moment of someone's death.

I was immediately sucked into this. The moment you first step back in time is like an extraordinary diorama, a scene frozen in time and you can walk around the players.

I played 4 hours yesterday I was so hooked on the mechanic. But this game is blisteringly hard. There is very minimal handholding here. You have to do a lot of the detective work yourself, looking through artist impressions, crew manifest, trying to pin accents to origins and there's a good amount of guesswork involved to. A lot of the time you'll have to go by a hunch and see if it pays off. I've successfully identified 15 fates so far, with the game only letting you know only when you have 3 correct fates before confirming.

I've seen all the memories and now the piecework begins. Haven't looked at any guides yet but that's likely to happen once I get really stuck.

djinn Plays Hipster Games



Starting a new game: Return of the Obra Dinn