Recent reviews by JauntyHat

A game that knows what it wants to be, tells its story, and leaves with you with both more questions than answers as well as satisfactorily answering the one's it cares about. Needless to say, I left NORCO wanting to dig even deeper into its fully fledged world but also understood that sometimes the act of trying to answer a question is more worthwhile than actually getting any resolution. Check this one out if you're into cold opens, depressing corporate futures with diesel-punk aesthetics, and characters that feel real-er than they should.

A great visual novel + deck building combo. I loved the artistic style of the characters and watching them grow along with/against their alien surroundings. Definitely worth a second or third play-through as some events are impossible to pass or even see until you discover the mystery behind everything. Definitely check this one out.

Pentiment takes place in a small German village in the 16th century and is an intricate, character-driven, murder mystery that I can only describe as a historical passion project for Obsidian. If you love getting to know the setting of your game and the underlying quirks of the characters in it, then this is a fantastic game to play. I found myself getting very attached to the troubled townspeople and the disconnected clergy of the village and, while I was enamored with the ending, I was saddened to see the credits roll.

At first the only hook I got from this game was "too weird not to keep going" with absurd character names, designs, and world building. Definitely worth it once you get over the initial style introduction - an open world detective game that mixes cute, weird, and sinister in some very compelling ways.

It's dialogue heavy with minimal voice-work so be prepared to read a lot but I'm a sucker for well-written stories with developed worlds.

My only complaint is the 'true' ending that moves -way- too quickly for what unfolds. The buildup makes up for it though!

In case you are wondering, there's a lot of similarities but this is not Reigns! There's a resource management aspect but the main focus here is on storytelling with there being a lot of character interactions in the form of dialogue options and even a detective subplot. There's a lot of replayability here with but with all the text it might be a slog to get back to the main choices to see the different endings. I would recommend for at least one play-through!

A fun role playing game that's a little mindless in its action but offers a ton of things to do. If you're a completionist this will definitely keep you busy. I wish the story had a bit more depth since the game goes on for awhile and suffers because of it. I was ready to be done about 3/4's of the way through since the story and the character development didn't keep me interested - there's a LOT of potential but it falls flat. The gameplay is what saves this game though and it's definitely worth its current asking price <~25

One of my favorite surprises this year; Pyre is a Fantasy Basketball (3-on-3) game that has just enough story, fantastic art and sound design, and fun gameplay that made playing through it feel more like an experience than something that is simply labeled as a "video game."

Pyre's controls take some getting used to and I would highly recommend a gaming mouse or controller for your time with it to make things a little more manageable.

This is an interesting game to recommend as I know a lot of my friends won't enjoy it but I definitely found a glimmer of something special inside. It's very much a moving boardgame in the sense of visuals and playstyle; the player must tactfully advance across the board while playing tokens they earn by doing specific task (or luck). The point is to raise your family line into something great; this however doesn't necessarily mean becoming incredibly wealthy or status oriented as one can become important in the lower tiers of the game as well.

It can be tedious at times but I find the interactive story events charming and intriguing as you advance through family generations and across different ages of time. If you have the patience it's definitely worth your time. $9.99 is a fair price price I feel.

Probably the biggest surprise that I've had in gaming in a LONG time. With a group of 3-4 this game takes off and it didn't stop the whole time I played it; definitely worth the price of admission. It takes a little while (20 - 30 minutes) to get used to the controls and really start speed running but once that happens the fun doesn't stop. I'd highly recommend this for group play!