Developer: Dan Trimble
Release Date: June 30, 2021
MSRP: $5.99

I’ve always been fascinated by stories told out of order. That’s what drew me to Her Story back in 2016, and why I was interested in playing The List. The problem is, past the most basic of basics, it’s hard to talk about a game of this type without potentially spoiling the hell out of it.

In case you’re not familiar with this type of game, here are those basic basics. You’re tasked with putting together the pieces of a series of interrogations by searching for keywords. The List gives you access to some basic documentation to get you going, but before long, you’ll be frantically typing in every word that gets said in the last clip you managed to unlock, hoping upon hope that it’ll lead you to the next tiny scrap of story. I’ll admit, that doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun, but there’s something very satisfying about putting the pieces together from a series of short sections of video.

Here’s what you know at the outset. A young man named Jordan Grady kills his mysterious assailant in self defense. Nothing is known about the gunman, and the only physical evidence is an unregistered gun, a strange coin, and a list of name. Jordan’s name was on the list, and was the only one not already crossed off. The West County Police Department interviews him over several days, and shortly after he is murdered. The case goes unsolved, and now, several years after the fact, you’re tasked with poring through the damaged segments of those interviews to see if you can figure out what really happened.

There are a whopping 275 video clips you can potentially unlock, but it isn’t necessary to find every single one to end the game – in fact, there is one key clip that once you discover it will trigger the end game state. Of course, you also have the side quest of figuring out just how to get into that password protected email account for an essential bit of information. Solving the mystery will require a bit of American-centric knowledge, and there were several reviewers who complained about this, but it wasn’t a stumbling block for me personally (and I say this after tabbing out to Google far more obscure information that led me exactly nowhere).

It took me about two hours to unlock the ending, and after the credits roll, you can go back into the game and watch any clips you might have missed. There were a few that made me realize that I passed over some really obvious keywords, and a few more that made me wonder how anyone would ever have found them. Overall, the game felt fair to me, even if I found myself a little frustrated from time to time.

SteamDB estimates that The List has sold between 1,300 and 3,600 copies on Steam. With the recently popularity of FMV video games and interactive mysteries, I’m surprised it hasn’t seen more success, because I felt like it was pretty well put together. It is ranked 3286 out of 10,967 games released in 2021.

Developer: Worldwalker Games LLC
Release Date: June 15, 2021
MSRP: $24.99

This post is a little off the beaten path for me – normally, I play something, and if I’m going to write about it, I do it fairly soon afterwards. My credits roll on Wildermyth happened about 6 months ago – I meant to write about it at that time, but I kept pushing it back for one reason or another until it fell off my radar entirely. When I was making my list of games to talk about for the #JustOnePercent project, I realized that this would be the perfect excuse to revisit the game – even briefly.

Wildermyth is a party-based RPG, where the focus is on character and story more than on combat and gear. There are six story campaigns, each of which has a distinct over-arching story, but with random encounters in between the story beats, as well as four random story options. Upon completing a campaign of any type, you’re given the option to add characters from that campaign to your Legacy, where they can be selected for later playthroughs with better starting stats. The more times you play a certain character, and re-add them to your legacy, the stronger they become.

It’s a neat gimmick, and if you find yourself playing a lot, it won’t take too long for your legacy to get a bit unwieldy. However, if you don’t care for the base gameplay – and that includes a lot of reading and choice-based character progression – the legacy system probably won’t endear you overly much to the rest of the game.

There are only three classes – warrior, hunter, and mage, and rather than dithering over stats and equipment, the character creation process focuses mainly on the look of your character and their personality traits. In most campaigns, your would-be heroes start with frying pans and pitchforks, and class customization is limited to choosing from one of a handful randomly rolled abilities when you obtain enough experience to level up. There are also limited enemy types, and it can lead to the combat sections feeling repetitive and almost dull after awhile.

The main appeal of the game lies in the stories it tells. Initially, getting a new event is exciting; most of my game time was spent playing co-op with a friend, and we’d spend a significant amount of time debating our choices, when we could only guess where those choices would lead. However, despite the randomly generated maps, there are only a limited number of these carefully constructed encounters, and even if you just play through the story campaigns, you’ll likely have a handful that you encounter enough times that you’ll have learned the optimum choice to make, especially if you tend to choose similar personality traits for your heroes. Personally, I was partial to making character that were snarky and bookish, and since traits have an effect on what encounters you receive, it wasn’t long before I started seeing repeats.

Despite these weaknesses, I really enjoyed the more than fifty hours I spent playing Wildermyth. I really appreciated the need to manage how long you spent on each chapter; as enemies would get stronger with the passage of time, and if you weren’t clearing infested areas quickly enough, you could get an incursion of many powerful enemies to deal with. I liked feeling like every decision I made had some weight, and I’ll admit to getting attached to my characters. I was sad when they aged up and retired, and sadder still on the (very rare) occasions one ended up being permanently maimed or dying. I wanted success and happiness for these little paper people, and was charmed by the short summaries of how they filled their time during the years of peace between chapters.

SteamDB estimates that Wildermyth has sold somewhere between 249,500 and 686,100 copies on Steam. It’s been reviewed almost 12,000 times, and has an overall review score of Overwhelmingly Positive. It is ranked 73 out of 10,967 games released in 2021, a huge accomplishment for a first game from a indie developer.

Developer: Banana Bird Studios, LLC
Release Date: June 12, 2021
MSRP: $9.99

I don’t remember where I heard about the Kickstarter for Beasts of Maravilla Island, but I’ve always been a sucker for photography games, and with a $5 tier that included a digital copy of the game, it seemed like a no brainer. Then, I did what I usually do with Kickstarters – I proceeded to basically forget all about it until I received my key, which I activated, and then forgot about it all over again.

… this is why my library is so out of control, I’m pretty sure.

You play as Marina Montez, who has decided to follow in her late grandfather’s footsteps and visit Maravilla Island to explore and document the creatures living there. The story doesn’t quite hold together under any kind of scrutiny – at the beginning, your character seems to almost not believe that the island even exists, despite having with her a journal that documents her grandfather’s visits. But the player isn’t kept in suspense long, you arrive on the island and start your quest to photograph all the flora and fauna.

There are three distinct biomes on Maravilla Island, each with unique plants and animals to photograph, including one “special” animal in each biome. Your tasked with taking specific behavioral photos of each of the special animals, as well as any photograph of all of the critters and plants. Missing these won’t impede your progress; the game is very much on-rails, and it is only a handful of light puzzling sections that keep you from rushing immediately to the final biome and the end of the game.

Without a strong story, or challenging gameplay, what’s left for Beasts of Maravilla Island is a gorgeous artstyle (although I found the second biome to be a little hard on the eyes after a bit), and some pretty adorable creatures to photograph. While I found it charming, and appreciated its conservation-focused message, it shouldn’t take more than a couple hours to get through even for completionists, and I don’t feel any strong pull to go back to it. I enjoyed my time with it, but am unlikely to return.

SteamDB estimates that Beasts of Maravilla Island has sold between 4,800 and 13,300 copies. With only a handful of negative reviews, it seems like most people enjoyed their time on this magical island. It is ranked 753 out of 10,967 games released in 2021.

Developer: Midori Games
Release Date: June 4, 2021
MSRP: $0.99

Environmental puzzle games can be really fantastic if they’re well done, but they are just a likely to miss the mark if the player just doesn’t get it. For me, the hallmark of a good environmental puzzler is clear cause-and-effect. It may take you a while to figure out exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, but you can clearly see what happens as a result of your actions. You flip a switch, and a light comes on or goes off. You stand on a pressure plate, and a door opens. You push on a book, and the bookcase slides over.

No Ghost in Stay Home is an environmental puzzle horror game that I think misses this mark, or perhaps it’s me who just didn’t get it. There are probably a dozen spots in the single room puzzler that are interactable, and after several (admittedly very short) playthroughs, I have very little concept of what anything actually does. There are a few different items that can be picked up, but again, I’ve only figured out what one of them is for. You can only hold one at a time, and they don’t seem to do anything or have any effect on the ending you get.

In fact, I’m not even sure what the role of the player actually is. The premise is that Anna is being left home alone for the first time for a few hours. You can see Anna sitting in a chair during the entire play through, so clearly, you are not Anna because you are all over that room looking for stuff to touch. However, she’s also supposed to be there alone, so you’re not a parent, babysitter, or friend. I suppose you are just a force, screwing around with a child who is scared (and to be honest, probably quite bored) for a few hours.

Even when I managed to make something happen, I didn’t fully understand what led to a given result. Going by achievements (which are outrageously non-descriptive for the most part) there are seventeen different endings. Although I managed to get a handful of these, I also managed to get the same ending from not touching anything for the entire three minute playthrough as I did for a round where I messed around with absolutely everything. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

It’s possible that something is lost in translation with No Ghost In Stay Home. It’s also possible that this game just didn’t do anything for me personally. On the upside, each playthrough only takes – at a maximum – about three minutes, so if you like the aesthetics and don’t mind the idea that it might all feel a little too random, it could be an interesting experience if you have a dollar to spare.

SteamDB estimates that No Ghost in Stay Home has sold somewhere between 1,000 and 2,800 copies on Steam. It didn’t do it for me, but almost everyone who left a review left a positive one. It is ranked 1151 out of 10,967 games released in 2021.

Developer: inkle Ltd.
Release Date: June 2, 2021
MSRP: $14.99

Overboard! is a bit of a backwards murder mystery. It’s not a whodunnit – you did it after all – but a whocouldadunnit as you unravel the mysteries of the other passengers on the ship to figure out who can be blamed, and who is going to help you get away with killing your husband. It’s best to go avoid walkthroughs for this one – the point is not to succeed on your first try, but to pull at the different threads to see how it all shakes out until you manage to pull off the perfect crime.

Your first playthrough is almost definitely going to result in you going to jail. That’s okay. You’ll be able to try again, taking with you the things you learned from your last run. Everyone else will do things exactly as they had before – only your character can change things up. If you visit a location early enough, you can prevent an important clue from being found. If you’re in the right spot at the right time, you may be able to use your charms to convince someone to help you, or perhaps you’ll be able to blackmail them into silence. It might take a few runs before you actually get away with murder, but as long as you switch up something each time you play, you’ll learn something new and – just maybe – be able to twist that to your advantage.

It took me three attempts to avoid getting thrown in jail, and seven before I got away clean, with someone else taking the fall for my crime, with a total play time of just over 90 minutes. There are still quite a few alternate routes I could explore, and more achievements to unlock, but the retail price is a little steep for a game that can be beaten (without any sort of out of game information) in such a short period of time.

Still, I enjoyed Overboard! quite a bit; every little bit of information I managed to stumble across made me feel clever, and as I finished each play through, I was eager to dive back in, armed with new clues about how to get away with it. Despite already having “won”, there are a few more things I’d like to try, just to see how they play out, and the short time per run (mine averaged between 10 and 15 minutes) means that “just one more time” isn’t overly tedious or a big commitment.

SteamDB estimates that Overboard! has sold somewhere between 6,100 and 16,700 copies on Steam. Reviews are mostly positive, with detractors mainly citing how quickly you can see everything it has to offer as a point against it. I personally appreciate a game that doesn’t overstay its welcome, but agree that $15 might be a little high for the amount of content. It is ranked 730 out of 10,967 games released in 2021.

Developer: Moonlight Kids
Release Date: May 20, 2021
MSRP: $24.99

I’ve been vaguely interested in The Wild At Heart since I spotted it on GamePass a few months ago, but puzzle adventure games are so hit and miss for me, I kept putting it off. As of a few days ago, it’s no longer available through GamePass. Fortunately for me, it’s still playable through Humble Trove, and because of where I had it scheduled and when it was set to go off of GamePass, that’s the version I ended up playing.

It took me just under 9 hours to complete the storyline on the easier of the two difficulties, and I knew before I was through my first hour of game play that I was going to want to see this one through to the end credits. While I feel like the Wanderer difficulty better fit my play style, I also feel like in some ways, I missed out on some of the experience, but I’m getting ahead of myself a bit here.

You begin the game as Wake, a boy who had made plans with his best friend Kirby to run away from home together, and manages to get so lost, he ends up in what feels like another world. The Deep Woods is the home of the Greenshields, and their companions, the Spritelings, who protect the world at large from the dark forces of the Nether. When you arrive, most of the Greenshields are missing and things are in disarray after the loss of The Green Witch. You’re asked to lend a hand, adventuring with the Spritelings, who seem to be fond of you, and you start exploring, using both your new friends and your trusty backpack vacuum to overcome obstacles in your path.

There’s very little in the Deep Woods that you can interact with directly – most tasks need to be performed by sending out your Spritelings. Initially, you only have Twiglings, who help by destroying toxic mushrooms, reinvigorating plant life, and carrying large objects back to where they belong. As you progress through the story, you will meet four other variety of Spritelings, all of whom are suited for different sorts of tasks, so you’ll want to make sure you keep a good assortment with you at all times.

Once you get a bit into the story, your friend Kirby manages to join you, and then you will control both characters. By default, Wake, Kirby and the Spritelings all move together, but you can (and will need to) occasionally separate them. Kirby is smaller, and can squeeze through logs to get to previously inaccessible areas, and she soon acquires a special lantern, which, like Wake’s Gustbuster, can draw things in close to her. This ability is critical not only for quickly picking up piles of resources, but for herding up wayward Spritelings.

Once you unlock the hub area, you’ll be able to repair some structures, which unlock some upgrade paths & additional game play elements. While playing on the Wanderer difficulty, most of this felt irrelevant throughout the majority of the game, and I admit that I mostly skipped over all of it. Sure, I picked things up and threw them in my stash, but I didn’t feel like I needed to grind resources to upgrade my health – unless I stayed out after dark, I very rarely took damage, and if I stayed out after dark, it was unlikely that another pip (or even two) of health was going to make the difference.

Making sure to get to camp once the sun sets is critical – once it’s dark, the denizens of the Never come out, and your only real recourse is to find a light source. Monsters you encounter during the day time can be dealt with by your Spriteling army, but you’re not meant to fight the forces of the Never, only to avoid them for the majority of the game. Playing the game on the Wanderer difficulty also meant that combat really didn’t feel like a big focus – throw the right Spritelings on the monsters, and they were vanquished fairly quickly. Because of this, the very end of the game was a bit of a culture-shock, and making sure I had an adequate supply of health restoration items was critical for the first time in the entire game.

Still, I enjoyed the story and the game play of The Wild At Heart, and the pacing felt really good – every time I really understood how it all worked, a new element was added, almost right until the very end of the game. I will admit to consulting a walkthrough a time or two, but usually it was due to my poor navigational skills rather than particularly obtuse puzzles – I struggled with finding things, not with figuring out what I needed to do once I arrived.

Overall, it’s a beautiful game with lovely music, and interesting story, and puzzles that will make you think, but that for the most part, aren’t likely to frustrate. Post-credits, you can go back into your save file and do completionist things if that suits you – what feels like a point of no return will roll the credits once you’re past it, but doesn’t stop you from finishing up anything you missed.

SteamDB estimates that The Wild At Heart has sold somewhere between 4,700 and 13,000 copies on Steam. While those aren’t stellar sales numbers, subscription service availability and low replay value have probably lowered sales a bit, and as a Humble Games published title, it’s a good candidate for eventual inclusion in Humble Choice. However, reviews overall have been favorable, and it is ranked 342 out of 10,967 games released in 2021.

Developer: NanningsGames
Release Date: May 102, 2021
MSRP: Free

I don’t generally go in for platformers, but I feel like story-driven platformers aren’t terrible common. Unforgettable You is just that – in fact, it leans so heavily into the focus of story and art, I’m not entirely sure it needed to be a platformer at all. Certainly, the game play is the weakest part of this short, free title; it’s a minimalist journey through a love affair from first meeting until final goodbye.

Did I mention the graphics are stunning? Your character is forever a silhouette, against 21 distinct background designs. On each level, there are three hearts to collect (most of which you will get easily just moving from one end to the other), and a light orb that finishes out the level. Thankfully for me, the platforming is not difficult, and there is no combat. There are, however, places where missed jumps or touching dangerous creatures can reset your progress, and two levels where for at least part of the time, speed is of the essence, and missing a single jump can mean being returned to the start of the level.

I know I already said that Unforgettable You‘s strength is not in its game play, but I was impressed at the number of different (and yet not too challenging) mechanics peppered throughout. I think even in a game that I was able to complete in under an hour, without the frequent changes and additions in how the levels were structured, it would have become tedious. The story is fairly minimalistic, with each level only having a handful of lines of (full voice acted!) dialogue.

If you’re a platforming aficionado looking for a challenge, give this one a pass. If you want to look at pretty graphics, and enjoy lovely music while taking in a short and sweet love story, this game is 100% worth the download.

SteamDB estimates that Unforgettable You has been downloaded between 500 and a 1,300 times from Steam. It is ranked 1961 out of 10,967 games released in 2021.

Developer: Nyfarious
Release Date: May 10, 2021
MSRP: $0.99

What I thought I was getting with Redeliver was a visual novel about delivering lost letters with some light puzzle elements. Well, I was right about the visual novel part. Sure, you need to deliver some letters along the way, but this is a fairy tale remix, that crams a whole lot of story into a very short game. You play as Red, who is taking an important package to her grandmother, and in doing so, stumbles into a plot to overthrow the government and teams up with some revolutionaries to save the day.

No, I’m not kidding.

This may be the first time I’ve ever said this, but I think Redeliver could have benefited from being twice as long with half the game play, at least with the elements that exist within the game as it stands. The game description mentions puzzles; however, what you have is a few not-so-hidden object scenes (some of which are really just down to trial and error) and a few reverse-fetch quests, where you need to click on a map based on vague directions from other people you’ve encountered. As far as I’m concerned, neither of these things added anything to the game. Twice, I was actually annoyed at how tedious and drawn-out the “puzzles” were. Instead of feeling clever, the best I could hope for was feeling lucky.

Redeliver definitely has more to offer in storytelling than gameplay. Despite feeling very rushed, the story has a couple emotional moments and some difficult choices, which are only made slightly less difficult by knowing that there is only one ending, which is, by default, the best ending. It’s easier to just go with your gut if you know the outcome isn’t going to change based on what you decide. Although multiple endings would have added some replayability, at the sub-dollar price point, I am not sure the game needed them. Unfortunately, the bigger flaw in the plot is that everything happens so fast, and you’re just kind of dragged along for the ride. It was like playing the Cliff’s Notes version of a visual novel.

Although I didn’t find the whole thing to be wildly successful, I did play it through to completion in just under an hour. This is yet another game that – as far as I can tell – is the first major effort from a solo developer, and it does hold together. Considering it falls a bit outside my preferred gaming genres, I consider this to be a successful game, because I did enjoy it.

SteamDB estimates that Redeliver has sold somewhere between 100 and a 300 copies on Steam. While not a huge success in the sales department, all the reviews so far have been positive. It is ranked 3873 out of 10,967 games released in 2021.