Libritopia: Librarian Simulator (Steam Review)

Librarian Simulator on Steam was sent to me by the fine folks over at Nuuvem and Little Giants. For those of you that have followed me for a long time you know I love simulator games like this. This one is actually rough for me to review. I will be honest right now, I did not like this one for a number of reasons.

First and most importantly, I never had any fun with it. The game loop is simple: books get delivered seemingly randomly, you put them on a shelf, and people borrow them. You don’t choose what books are in stock, and sorting them at the start is damn near impossible depending on what gets sent because the variety and how many shelves you have won’t really match up.

It is cool to see real-life books you have read.

Second, you only have two options for gameplay. You can play until you lose, or you can play for 15 days. You never really feel like you are building up a library so much as you are racing against the clock in a race to get as much done as fast as possible or to go as far as possible before it becomes impossible to keep customers happy.

The third thing I didn’t enjoy was simply that there never seemed to be a point I felt like I was doing anything other than doing busy work while playing the game rather than running the library.

Everything I said up until this point however is subjective. The game cost $7, and at that price point (and in early access) the game does look and sound nice. Far better than many games at that price point. Reading Steam reviews the game is also sitting at positive reviews, with many people saying the game is better while using its online co-op and this is honestly true. Having someone to help you sort books and find the customers what they want does make the game more enjoyable.

While for me the game wasn’t fun, the game functions well and is very reasonably priced. I will say it is a 7/10 and many people will find hours of enjoyment, I just was not one of them. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Demo Released for Innovative Tactical RPG Valor Of Man

ndie developer and publisher Legacy Forge is excited to announce the release of a playable PC demo for their upcoming tactical RPG with roguelike mechanics Valor of Man. Available to download now PC via Steam, the Valor of Man demo is your first chance to immerse yourself in the tactical action you can expect when the game launches via Steam Early Access later in 2025. 

Announcing Cast n Chill – Cozy Idle Fishing

We’re excited to announce Cast n Chill, a cozy idle fishing game for PC where you explore tranquil lakes, rivers, and oceans. Catch rare fish, upgrade your gear, and reel in legendary catches – all with your loyal pup by your side.

Like Rusty’s Retirement, it can run passively on your desktop or be actively played. Cast n Chill Steam

DISCOVER IMMORTAL LOVE IN VAMPIRE THERAPIST: COUPLES THERAPY

Even vampires must endure the emotional turbulence of relationships, something players will witness first-hand in Vampire Therapist: Couples Therapy. The brand-new DLC for Little Bat Games’ critically acclaimed debut title is available on Steam today! This expansion builds on the award-winning blend of comedy, history, and real-life therapy techniques that made Vampire Therapist a critical darling.

Players will slip back into the spurred boots of Sam Walls, a reformed cowboy turned accomplished therapist. Sam has his work cut out for him as he seeks to help two vampires, battling with both domestic and personal struggles, as well as social discontentment following their demises during bloody revolutions in France and Iran. 

But that’s not all! This juicy new helping of content takes place during the annual Bachfest in Leipzig — home of Johann Sebastian Bach— where a ghost of Leipzig haunts the streets. It’s Sam’s job to track down the troubled soul between therapy sessions.

Vampire Therapist: Couples Therapy will explore themes of revolt, duty to humanity, and the complications that can arise from age gaps – hey, what’s a couple hundred years when you’re in love? 

Check out the trailer for Vampire Therapist: Couples Therapy below: 

Vampire Therapist’s all-new DLCwill continue the hallmarks of Little Bat Games creations: deep, history-informed writing exploring systemic issues, screwball comedy, academic partnerships, best-in-class voice acting, and stunning artwork. Try your hand at analysing affairs of the heart and purchase today on Steam for £2.49/€2,99/$2.99. 

“In a time of political turmoil, we hope Vampire Therapist: Couples Therapy will help players process difficult questions about the citizen’s role in civil society and find a little respite in love and compassion. And if all else fails, we have vampire fart jokes.” said Cyrus Nemati, Creative Director of Little Bat Games. 

Shujinkou PS5 Review and Language Learning Trailer

Shujinkou is an upcoming Dungeon Crawling RPG from Ricegames. It will be available on Steam and PlayStation on February 13th, and the big selling point of this game is that it tells an intricate story about a man named Shu as well as Jin and Kou. You will travel a world full of political intrigue, and real people just going about their lives trying to survive.

The game starts out with you playing as Shu, a retired samurai living with his little sister, Momo, whom he adores. Momo just wants to grow up and make tea. It isn’t long however before this peaceful village is shattered when an Omi attacks killing a villager and Shu is forced out of retirement to protect the village.

If you use the Japanese kana to spell enemy names you get a significant boost in damage

I won’t go into the story too much because there is a lot to cover, but I will say it is a solid story, far better than I ever expected from a game that says it is built to be able to teach you a foreign language, but we will get to that. The combat is built around a turn-based system like many dungeon-crawling RPGs. Every enemy name is given to you as “??” marks which denote how many kanas or syllables their name is. For example cat is “Neko” and in hiragana, this uses the kana Ne and Ko, which I do not know how to type on an English keyboard admittedly but I did find this pretty accurate image. If you are fighting a cat and spell this out however you will receive a significant damage boost permanently.

Now I am no expert on the language, going into this game I didn’t know any of this. The game does however teach you all of this, and at the push of a button you can literally just shut it all off. In fact, the game will ask you at the start if you are even interested. Outside of a few trophies, you aren’t even punished for not learning. The game is perfectly playable without knowing or learning any Japanese.

Another totally optional but awesome thing, the game will remind you to practice writing

This brings me to one last thing, is this game fun to play? As great as the game looks and sounds, it means nothing if it isn’t fun. I am happy to say everything isn’t tossed at you at once. As you explore the dungeons you will come across new kana to learn and the characters will give you explanations of them. Sign boards will teach you sentence structure that you can study or ignore. The menus are in both Japanese and English so there is no guesswork or stress involved.

The game starts out with a message from Julian Rice explaining that he and his team made this game as he helped a family member through a medical issue and sadly she did not live long enough to see it finished. As one of the first people to have seen this message, I am happy to say that Mr. Rice and his team have succeeded in their goal. I won’t say you can fully learn Japanese from this game, no single source will teach you any language. This game will however absolutely give you a solid foundation. The game also succeeds in being a fun and in-depth RPG.

Originally I intended to review this on its merits as a game and as a learning tool separately. Instead, the game is simply a 9/10. What I thought was simply a gimmick turned out to be fantastically built into the game as an optional part of the experience that anyone can enjoy. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Day Shift (2022)

Day Shift from 2022 is a sort of horror comedy that doesn’t really manage to succeed at either one of them. What you end up with however is an oddly enjoyable movie.

  Jamie Fox plays a vampire hunter that for reasons that quickly becomes obvious has been banned from the official channels of work. He keeps going however through less official channels that pay far less money. When he needs money to keep his daughter from being taken to Florida by his wife,he calls an old friend for help. (It’s Snoop Dogg for the record)

  The big man at the Union however isn’t a fan and assigns Jamie Fox a party to make sure he does everything by the books. Dave Franco however while being kind of a sissy (he literally pisses himself multiple times throughout the movie) is easy to be pushed into ignoring certain things to help save Jamie’s family.

The movie honestly is neither funny nor scary, but somehow I found myself cheering for these guys to figure out how to make the money to save Jamie’s family and to rescue them from some vampires that Jamie pissed off.

That being said, outside of the extremely flexible group of vampires that come from a famous group of people who’s French name I won’t even try to spell,it’s really more of just the same. It is still worth watching tho. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sugardew Island – Your Cozy Farm Shop Launches March 7 for PC and Consoles

February 6th 2024. Indie developer and publisher rokaplay and publisher Silver Lining Interactive are excited to announce that Sugardew Island – Your Cozy Farm Shop, the cozy farm shop sim, will launch digitally on March 7th for PC via Steam, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. There will also be a charming retail boxed edition launching for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch on March 14th! Xbox X/S will follow shortly after. 

Father Figures (2017)

  Father Figures with Ed Helms and Owen Wilson find out on their mother’s wedding day (Glenn Close) that the man they thought was their father,is in fact,not their father.

  This sets them off on a road trip to find their real father, Terry Bradshaw, who is actually playing Terry Bradshaw. Maybe. Turns out it could be any number of people.

The premise here isn’t great, but with Helms and Wilson and vast amount of talent here really did pull it all together. That honestly is this movies saving grace. The acting is amazing and everyone involved plays parts that aren’t good well beyond what they should be. There is nothing new here,but the movie is funny and well acted,and that alone makes it worth a quick watch.

Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Roadside Egg Stand Preview

Roadside Egg Stand on Steam is an upcoming title from Zozo Studio. They haven’t released much about the game aside from the release date being sometime this year and a short trailer. The basic idea however is that it is a cozy Idle game where you simply raise chickens and run a Roadside Egg Stand. So check out the trailer, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Cryptical Path (Steam review)

Cryptical Path on Steam was sent to me by the people at Old Skull Games for which I am very grateful. There are a lot of rogue games out there but this is the first rogue builder I have come across.

Now the game flow is what you would expect, start a run, fight some enemies, collect power-ups and different currency, fight a boss, and hopefully win. When you die start all over again with new abilities, power-ups, and hopefully make some better decisions.

Build a room, any room.

The key difference here is this time around you are the master of the dungeon, someone has simply usurped some control of it. You as the master are back to reclaim it. This allows you to build your route to the boss room. Need a shop? Just build one, need to heal? Feel free to build that as well. It isn’t free for all though. You only have so many crystals to build rooms with and this is where you will need to decide do you fight enemies to gain more crystals and money or not. You can go into the negative, you will just be cursed for doing so.

Also don’t even think about taking the easy way out, because once you hit negative 10 it is a one-way ticket to the boss’s room.

Good luck with this chick your first run

This is one of those games I don’t want to undersell too much, but I also don’t want to undersell it. Suffice it to say, if this ever comes to a console it is a must-buy for me. The game is a 9/10, and you would be doing yourself a disservice by not picking this up for $15 it cost, and with very positive reviews on Steam, I am not alone in this. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.