Ringlorn Saga

• Genre: Action RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes, there isn't much to spoil.
• Time Played: 3-4 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Honestly maybe a bit too short. I certainly could have kept going, it felt like once I got in the groove it was over.
• Soundtrack: It actually has some pretty fun tunes to wander around to.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased.
• Why I played: I kind of did want something short and classic before diving into the new Monster Hunter and even though it's very simple, something about the visuals appeals to me.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: It's relatively simple so there aren't many places it can go wrong. Occasionally a tile looks like you can step on it, but you can't. That's about it.
• Difficulty: The difficulty "curve" is basically a 45° decline. It starts off pretty tough and you get better equipment and get better and navigating and realize who you can attack with what and even though enemies get tougher, it's only in a feeble attempt to keep up with your level since they don't really mix up attack patterns or anything like that.
• Recommend to others: I would probably only recommend this to people who like the exact type of game it is. "Action RPGs" with bump combat that are more or less navigation puzzles. It's probably most similar to Hydlide specifically. It's not the best of them, but there is nothing wrong with it if you want another.

I don't have too much to say I haven't really summed up in the above sections. It's pretty much a game that puts all it offers out on the table. The trailer is a minute and thirty seconds. You only need ten seconds of it to know if it's for you.

Some of the writing is pretty fun. Make sure you interact with people in defense mode.

Keylocker

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Story-wise yes, some aspects of progression and mechanics are kind of spoiled. Picture are not spoiler free.
• Time Played: 24 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It goes on just a little long. It could just be because each battle is pretty methodical, but I felt like the last couple chapters kinda dragged the game out a little bit.
• Soundtrack: Amazing soundtrack. It has some great music for both the rhythm sections, and more dramatic moments. Honestly great soundtrack all around.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Despite what I may say below, I did really enjoy the game.
• Why I played: I wanted to experience some Turned Based Cyberpunk Action, and it looks really cool.
• Did I cry: I did a little bit here and there. Mostly when the music hit at the right moments.
• Jank: HIGH Level of Jank, this game made me consider the fact I needed a jank category. To be fair, after considering some moments in recent games like Prince of Persia and Omochapon as a whole helped lock it in. 
• Difficulty: This game also made me consider a difficulty category. I'm sure I'll talk about it later, but it's worth noting how difficult I thought a game was in general. This one, for a turn-based rpg, was pretty difficult.
• Recommend to others: I probably would, but I would have to tell anyone who is interested to make sure you give gifts to people in the early chapters, or otherwise as soon as you can, and also you can buy weapons from some shops, and also maybe be willing to mess with the difficulty settings. Also the game can be janky. Also every chapter is a point of no return so to speak. But I WOULD recommend it.

While I have finished a few games since Tunic, most of them are relatively short, or in the case of Phantom Rose, a game played in many short bursts, off to the side of another activity. I've probably played 30+ more games this month, trying to find something to captivate me. Maybe it's just because I was so engrossed in Tunic while playing that, I just couldn't get into the groove for something else that required any thought on my end.

You could say, this game was the key to unlocking that which was closed off to new games for the past few weeks. Keylocker has a lot of style, a lot of really good art, a unique look, a unique sound, a lot of ways to captivate the senses, and for the most part I'm into it. There are a lot of character designs I really like. There are some that... aren't quite my style, but there is definitely a good variety and because of the world they built, I guess it would be hard to put anything in there and say it doesn't fit.

Rogue Flight

• Genre: On-Rails Shooter, Shoot 'em up
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil.
• Time Played: ~4-5 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's about right, but could feel like if you find the gameplay repetitive.
• Soundtrack: Great soundtrack, I immediately purchased it after finishing the game.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pretty pleased.
• Why I played: It just really had a kickass trailer.
• Did I cry: No.
• Recommend to others: I would recommend it specific to fans of the genre, maybe Starfox fans.

Despite being behind the ship, and most games of it's ilk being specifically on-rails shooters, I feel like Rogue Flight takes a lot of inspiration from shmups. With it's constant action, dodging waves of enemy fire, shooting everything, it just feels more like a shmup than an on-rails shooter. When I think of an on-rails shooter, I think of a more cinematic experience, something that has you navigate through an environment, albeit on rails. There isn't really any navigation in any of Rogue Flight's stages, it's straight forward and a breakneck speed. There are barely any obstacles, and though while I prefer shmups that have "level design" as opposed to just taking place in a large rectangle, Rogue Flight more or less mimics that more commons shmup design, except from behind.

I'm not complaining, I just want to make it clear the type of experience it is. I don't know my exact time, but estimating at 4-5 hours of playtime, with some messing around with extra modes, it's not very long, but these types of games never really are. In fact, a more or less "full run" barely takes an hour. There are some options for shorter paths, and eventually you unlock a harder version of the "full run", but it's more or less the same stuff, so you kind of have to want to play the game just for the sake of playing it, but I really enjoyed it.

Phantom Rose

• Genre: Roguelike Deckbuilder
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil.
• Time Played: 10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's appropriate for what it offers.
• Soundtrack: It's only a few tracks, but they're really good and help set the mood.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pleased.
• Why I played: I had seen this on mobile years ago and played a little but dropped it when I dropped all mobile games. Thankfully they released a Steam version sans microtransations.
• Did I cry: No.
• Recommend to others: I like it and I like the aesthetic, but there isn't much to recommend it over the more popular examples of Slay the Spire and other bigger games it's inspired. So I'd only recommend it to people whom the aesthetic really appeals to.

Having already starting diving into the second, I can already say that despite some of my preferences for it visually, Phantom Rose is more of a proof of concept or prototype for it's successor that looks like it might offer a good bit more. It's fun and engaging, and for me is just the right level of challenge. Not so hard it's frustrating, but I really need to optimize my moves to come out on top, and when I do I feel like I succeeded.

Though, once you get further in the game, I'm really only talking about the last leg of each run. Eventually the first two sections(of three) start to feel too easy and it ends up just kind of being a chore to get through them. That or because you haven't yet built up enough of a deck, resetting to the standard strategies feels dull.

Regardless, at it's best it's pretty fun, and I liked seeing more of the characters and art, so no real complaints.

Omochapon

• Genre: Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Not really anything to spoil
• Time Played: 2 hrs 50 min
• Too Short/Long: It's appropriate for what it offers.
• Soundtrack: Almost non-existent. Most of the the games background is random mechanical sounds or maybe elevator music at best. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: It's fine.
• Why I played: I needed something low-effort after Tunic. Something I could just play and mostly turn my mind off to, this worked out pretty well.
• Did I cry: No.
• Recommend to others: Probably not. It's fine, it's just not anything really special.

Omochapon harkens back to the early days of 3D platforming. This could have easily been a PSX/Saturn/N64 platformer, and maybe been better for it. Even if it were released 30 years ago though, I don't think it would have been revolutionary. That's not to say it's bad, it's just pretty simple, it generally uses only one or two buttons per form and there is a switching form button.

You get a handful of toys you unlock/play as, but most of them just feel like their only purpose is to serve as an ability gate. The robot exists almost exclusively to climb ladders, but can also open things. It's most clever use is mid-air switching to it when performing platforming as a car/bunny, or flying in the plane directly into a ladder - which to robot happens to be the only one that can climb. Despite it arguably being the "coolest" and the only one that isn't a gashapon toy, but a boxed figure, it is probably the one you play as the least. Even the pill bug toy has a couple forced sections where you play similar to a marble platforming game.

It's not bad, it's a cute game. It could be a lot more, but I'm not complaining.

Tunic

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Mostly, there are sort of mechanical spoilers, but I tried to be vague, it's more spoilery after the instructions screenshot.
• Time Played: ~25 hours
• Too Short/Long: Probably about right. Mileage may vary, depending on how well certain puzzles click and how much effort you wanna put forth.
• Soundtrack: Decent, mostly mood setting ethereal stuff that's not going to get annoying if you hear it a lot.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased.
• Why I played: I got this back when it first released on Switch, excited to have a good looking Zelda-like, but didn't really delve into it until now.
• Did I cry: Not much reason to cry in this one.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would recommend it to people who really like to delve into their games. Early on my recommendation would have been much more general, but the more I played the more I realized exactly how much it asks of the player.

Tunic is a bit more than I expected it to be. At first, I figured it just a straight forward Zelda-like. You're a little fox wearing a tunic and you start off on a shore, exploring an island of sorts, fighting some little slime-like monsters, some goblins with swords, and some other usual fare. You get a stick first, eventually you get a sword and can cut grass, a shield, so on and so on.

It doesn't take too long for the game to hint that it's going to take some outside of the box thinking to play. Rather, you're at least going to have to be willing to explore every possible crevice, with a lot of the official paths hidden by the perspective of the game. You may even have to wander around blindly a bit to get where you're going. That's where I was when I started the game when it originally came out on Switch.