Weekly Overview of the Bundle For Ukraine | Gaming
WOBFU Page 7: Wrath of the Software
Holy cow.
Overview
I said on Page 6 that we’ve been on a trend towards fewer games and more software, but I wasn’t expecting it to get this extreme so soon. This is a page with only 8 video games, giving us a massive 8/22 ratio, and one of the four duplicates is a video game making the total of new titles 7. We’re on page 7 with 7 games, The coincidences know no bounds.
For context, the only time that the Racial Justice bundle reached this few video games was on page 34, and there are only ~2 times else that this number went below 10. In terms of bundles, this should be a relatively uncommon occurrence that probably won’t happen again.
However, the fact that we aren’t even halfway does give a possible indicator that this bundle may be more ‘software’ heavy than my previous overviews.
Enough speculation, let’s look at those games.
Video Games
Software
Duplicates
Video Games
Pale Cachexia
To begin our 7th page journey, we step into the gothic fantasy realm of Pale Cachexia, a visual novel by Argent Games. Dubbed a ‘kinetic’ since it is strictly a novel — no interactions to alter the course of the plot — players follow a young girl named Esther.
Esther hopes to find a cure for her deadly disease, known only as the ‘Pale’, and her only lead is an apothecary within the haunted woods. Like with all things, however, her quest does not come up with a straight answer, and her life becomes entwined with another.
It’s hard to delve into this style of game without giving away too many spoilers. After all, kinetic visual novels do not have any interactions outside of the button presses to move the plot forward.
What I can divulge is the intricacies that go into the relationship between Esther and the mystery girl of the apothecary’s manor named Seina. Living alone in this massive house, Seina is just as surprised as Esther to meet someone else out here. They appear to be polar opposites of each other, contrasting Esther’s cynicism and determination for a cure with Seina’s boundless optimism and care.
This makes for a gorgeous foundation of a friendship that continues forward deep into the plot. The tone mixes their personalities perfectly, as players read somber facts about what Esther sees while feeling the comfort that Seina speaks. The writing balances this dynamic constantly, flipping between fluffy interactions of happiness with dark moments of pain and sadness, all in the name of building a story that only needs two characters.
Rather than being directly within Esther’s head, we read from a slightly detached point of view — as if she herself is somewhat detached from herself. This helps it avoid some of the more sinister tropes of this style by focusing on what Esther sees and feels in the moment, rather than wallowing in depressed monotony.
It’s a hard balancing act to pull off, because you don’t want to become so far from Esther’s thoughts that she comes off as vague and uncaring, else the plot suffers. Thankfully Pale Cachexia does a fantastic job of towing this line to create a wonderfully heartfelt story about an unlikely friendship. They work through each other’s memories and pains atop a gorgeous backdrop of expressive set pieces and beautiful music, tying it all together into an experience hard to forget.
This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but those of you that love visual novels (even without choices) will absolutely adore this gothic cozy tale.
10mg: SNAAAK
The game ‘Snake’ is a classic video game genre dating all the way back to 1976’s arcade game ‘Blockade’. It’s tried and true gameplay have kept us entertained for decades, either from the early days of Nokia cell phones to more recent ideas such as Slither.io.
SNAAAK is another one of these ‘Snake’ games, created by CloveIt as part of their 10mg (10 minute games) series, and believe me when I say that this is one of the most expressive ways Snake has ever been recreated.
Players are a strange snake blob that has escaped a prison, only to find that the entire facility has been shut down and overgrown. With no direction, the snake must explore and find a way to escape, if it is even possible.
In traditional Snake fashion, movement involves leaving the self trailing behind and making right-angle turns to navigate the world. Making 180s is possible, but this snake uses momentum to move at faster paces, and that ‘180’ turn causes all of that to die instantly.
This is a different approach to Snake, usually employing static speed, but that should not be the first strange addition. The exploration alone is something rarely seen in Snake games, which is better known for its arcade-centric gameplay. It is once the players ‘turn on’ the power, however, that SNAAAK explodes open into the game it actually is: a Metroidvania.
Pathways open up, and movement suddenly becomes nuanced as players learn that the snake can ‘jump’ between two lines of orange goop. One line acts as a wall, but if a second wall is behind the first then the snake phases through the first and appears on the other side of the second.
This makes strange puzzles appear at times, and multiple pathways that can be accessed depending on how each puzzle is ‘solved’. Then one starts to realize; isn’t the snake also made of that orange stuff? And from there, the world opens into a terrifying realm.
It only needs to be 10 minutes to somehow break through a standardized gameplay loop to create the most interesting rendition of the genre. There are secrets hidden everywhere, yet you might not even find them all on a single playthrough. I can’t believe that a 10 minute game left this kind of impression on me, but it’s easy to say that you should play it for the concept alone.
Hypnagogia 無限の夢 Boundless Dreams
Get ready, because I’m about to spout some gibberish.
Hypnagogia 無限の夢 Boundless Dreams is a retro-stylized adventure by sodaraptor, a solo indie developer. Created as a loose sequel to the equally dreamlike Hypnagogia, players are trying to reforge the Dream Crystal to stop the sudden influx of nightmares from flooding everywhere. Except… what exactly is a dream, anyway?
The ‘Dreamer’, a see-through humanoid representing the player, is tasked by a massive bird to search for these fragments across different dream worlds. Each world has its own strange problems, but at the heart of them always lies a shard of the Dream Crystal. So as a valiant adventurer, the Dreamer will navigate through the challenges, interacting with different people to gain context and look for clues to solve the level.
Those familiar with 3D adventure games from the 90s will feel right at home with the sheer amount of aesthetic and atmosphere that has been created as a love letter to the era. The puzzles can involve finding keys, delivering items, and navigating the mazes, all connecting by platforming puzzles to different neutral hubs in the level.
‘Minigames’ can appear throughout the levels to give each one of them more flavour, and are rarely seen more than once. Heck, the game is being ‘played’ on a Dreamstation — if that isn’t too on the nose about what it wants, I don’t know what is.
Here’s the thing though: as I’ve said in the past, I don’t have nostalgia for this era of gaming. While I have some experience with this specific generation of consoles (not the Sega or Atari series unfortunately), I can’t say that it really shaped much of my childhood. Compared to many of my peers and friends, I didn’t have access to many of these consoles so I didn’t gain massive interest until I was entering my teen years.
Which begs a strange question, doesn’t it. If I don’t have nostalgia for an era of gaming, why am I recommending a game specifically made for evoking that era?
The answer is simple; this game is fascinating. The characters appear like nothing more than mouth pieces to assist in setting a scene, yet each gives context to a layered world. They give blatant hints about where you are going mechanically, yet as the game progresses you realize that they react to their world being affected by the Dreamer. The choices you make matter to them.
And boy, there are a ton of choices; for a game so explicit in telling players what to do, it is very easy to not realize how much freedom you actually have. Each world has its own secret levels within it, accessed through seemingly ‘random’ means, yet they can also affect the original world that you came from. Where you go alters how the game perceives you just as much as how you answer certain questions.
I started realizing I was hooked when I fell into lava after skimming the text of an NPC, and found myself staring at a Hell world with no apparent escape. Suddenly I went from acquiring a shard to assisting a CEO in firing people.
The scariest part? I looked up a walkthrough to see what was happening, and the first major search I came across was a playthrough that didn’t look a single thing like my own game. It didn’t even start in the same starting level I did. Do I understand why? Absolutely not.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that this game definitely isn’t something I’m actively into, yet I’m recommending anyway for the sheer wonder that I felt while playing. It’s a collection of stories that weaves into themselves, creating a series of unsettling scenarios and loveable characters that somehow keeps even the most uninterested wondering what will happen next.
If you’re a fan of retro-stylized games and hadn’t heard of this yet, then you owe it to yourself to play this. If you’re not, try it anyway and see how it drags you in no matter what.
For the others:
Pumpkin Eater
Ready for a terror? This is another kinetic visual novel, but unlike the previous one this is muuch more sinister. Pumpkin Eater tells a simple tale about a family that has found themselves in an uncomfortable delimma; taking care of a son that has a pumpkin head.
That is all I will say about the plot, for within the 45 minutes it took to play it will take you on a revolting tale that is best left unspoiled. What I can say, however, is that the intriguing watercolour style and scientific accuracy make for an extremely memorable read. Make sure your stomach is ready — those content warnings aren’t to be taken lightly.
Antecrypt⚡
Antecrypt is a byte-sized arcade arena shooter game created by PUNCAKE Delicieux. Set within humanity’s last hard drive, it is up to you to stave all all of the viruses to keep the data clean. As with many games of this style, players are aiming to survive each round by blasting their way through their problems.
However, due to some strange issues on the hard drive, the ability to aim has been taken over by the ‘DVD Loading Screen’; or in a less retro-reference description, the aiming module is freely bouncing around the map with no care in the world. This means that players will be running around trying to get the best angle possible in order to shoot at the enemies while hoping to avoid them all the same.
Add in that the laser gun equipped needs to recharge by getting close to the aiming circle, and you’ve got tight gameplay wrapped in a fantastic package.
Sophie’s Safecracking Simulator
Ever wanted to know why, when cracking safes, people use a stethoscope? Well Sophie Houlden has decided to teach us all about how safes work in this interactive simulator designed to explore the innerworkings of lock technology.
Given a safe seen straight out of a movie, players are encouraged to try and ‘crack’ it. The entire instance is timed for you speedrunning enthusiasts, but there are also a few pieces of tech that can assist in the solution such as a ‘stethoscope’, an XRAY, and a magnifying glass.
Of course, for those unaware of the tech, there’s an entire tutorial that teaches how these locks are made and how they function. The whole thing is fascinating, so if you are looking for this kind of game then here you go.
Sokobond
Sokoban is a genre that I’ve mentioned numerous times, and we’ll be revisiting it again with this brilliantly fun chemistry game. Using the principles behind Sokoban, you’ll attempt to connect all of the elements together to create different chemical compounds.
It starts out small, like H₂0 — controlling the Hydrogen particle to connect to the 2 Oxygens — and slowly begins to morph into Methanol and other compounds I cannot pronounce. The trick is in the number of ‘bonds’ that each element can have, indicated by the ‘circles’ rotating around each one. If an element has no circles, it cannot bond anymore.
You’ll have to get clever to find ways to move the elements around, and maybe learn a thing or two about basic chemistry.
Software
Adventures On A Single Page · Season 1
The English version of the Adventures on a Single Page! Now that I’m able to read it clearly (curse my lack of bilingualism!), these are 15 different adventures that you can utilize in any game that you may be wanting to spice up.
If you want something ‘compatible’ with it, Sodalitas from earlier in the bundle is a fantastic system to use these adventures. So add something new today!
You Cannot Kill Me in a Way That Matters
Ever wanted to play a roguelike tabletop? This is a game about cycles, where the player has fungal spores attached to their body that cause them to reawaken after death. Each death is a transformation, as your body may not be your own.
The way it works is through ‘Solitaire’; yes, the card game. Both you and the forest get cards, and you’ll see if you beat the encounter or die trying. Good luck out there.
What Crooked Roots: Folk Horror Encounters
Sticking with terrifying encounters, What Crooked Roots is a 5E expansion focusing on western folktales and tropes. These encounters are more roleplay heavy than combat, focusing on how you can deal with horror encounters rather than how well you can fight it.
If you want to run this, make sure to check that your party is down with more roleplay-centric encounters, and also with the spookiness that could come with.
Superstition
A ritual-crafting journaling game, you’ll be utilizing cards to convince your chieftain that your oracle powers are legitimate; even if they aren’t. Failing to do so will reveal you as a fraud, and you will be exiled immediately, or worse. It’s all about seeing how far your luck can go, and that’s not something you get often in a journaling game.
What’s So Rotten About Zombies Defending An Ancient Temple
If you were ever curious about what it would be like to defend an ancient temple as the zombies you usually kill constantly, then look no further. Join your friends as shambling husks of people, brought to life and sustained by your God’s holy powers as you fend off the heroes and adventurers.
‘What’s So Cool About’ is the system in question, and the entire thing is an enclosed encounter taking no longer than 3 hours. If you want some horror, while also being the horrors, then you’ve got your game.
The perpetual broth
Now this is new, because I’ve never seen a ‘pop-up’ zine before. Focusing on solving mysteries, it utilizes a simple rules-light system — called DURF — so you can focus on the true magic: the pop up. It’s an actual inn, the focal point of the game’s setting.
It’s something you’ll get to talk about regardless of how the game goes, and that might just be more interesting. Who knows? Get playing to find out.
Beloved
A roleplaying game rooted in the ‘Lost & Found’, a solo TTRPG system. You are one of the six ‘Beloved’, who are toys that live with their child. Through the three acts you will meet and guide children, and question what it means to be something that a child can love throughout their life. Or possibly, what it means to be loved.
If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to hug my childhood teddy now.
Forget-Me-Not: Myosotis
This is a TTRPG in which you will create characters and setting based on the memory left behind after their deaths. It’s a strange way of looking at how information is interpreted by the memories that are left behind — what will get lost in translation, what will get created?
Using a deck of cards and a pencil, you’ll slowly piece everything together before writing a eulogy for the deceased. Who knows how it truly goes.
The Third Sector
This is a sandbox campaign, originally for the ‘Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG’. Utilizing a pixel art map and slotting it into whatever sci-fi RPG you want, you’ll navigate through the cosmos with a web of clues and rumors, and even a table for documenting reputation. It’s gorgeously created, and is best seen printed out in a trifold.
THE MARTIAL CULT of BLOOD KNIGHT GAIUS
Back we go to dungeon crawls with this zine about surviving against ‘honourable’ vampires. Your party has been chosen to participate in a duel for survival using Ben Milton’s ‘Knave’ (can be converted if you want to), with all kinds of morbid and religious-centric monsters roaming the halls. It may unnerve, it may excite, but you’ll get that gothic sense of spookiness the entire way through.
The Rot King’s Sanctum
Another dungeon crawler, but this time set within a sewer-based temple for ultimate moisture. A game for early levels to establish settings, or possibly just to run as a one-shot, players will be navigating through the sewers to find out just what a ‘Rot King’ truly is.
Originally created for D&D, a remastered edition for DURF now exists as well for you to utilize if you don’t want to deal with D&D. Perfect for both you who want to set off a campaign, or those who want to just run a quick sewer-themed dungeon run.
Bleak Spirit
Stepping away from dungeon crawlers is Bleak Spirit, a collaborative storytelling game inspired by the bleak worlds of the Souls franchise. The players will be taking turns as the world, setting the scene for the lone wanderer who has been draped in destiny. Players will also be playing the wanderer in turns as well to ensure that no one is ever truly in control.
The point is that every person will interpret the world differently based on the lore given by each scene, and eventually culminate in a grand proving ground where all of the lore smashes together. Even still, only one gets to choose the final enemy, which in turn sets the tone for the ending. It’s bleak, it’s grim, and it is exactly how I like my narratives. Give it a whirl, you poor lost soul.
Yourself
Back to solo games we go, as Yourself asks you to wonder what it means to be ‘you’ when you find out that you’re a Changeling; a fae left in place of a human baby, raised among them. There are 5 Acts of self-reflection, combing through your past, present, and what could be your future. You’ll need a tarot deck to play properly, and you are off to discover yourself.
The Drain
Interesting how we have gotten another game for ‘Mothership’. This one is a ‘level 0 funnel adventure’. Level 0 is meant to serve as a moniker meaning that this game has no levels to speak of, for levels do not exist in ‘Mothership’.
Sometimes this means acting as a ‘prequel’ to establish characters, while other games use it as a way of distancing from the traditional RPG systems. ‘Funnel adventures’ are a unique concept in which players play many characters with the goal of seeing who survives at the end. Basically, you are ‘funneling’ them to their doom, treating them like another resource or perhaps even worse.
It’s set on a combat-ravaged farming habitat out in deep space, with the goal of finding legendary religious artifacts for their corporate overlords. Your mobs will do anything to survive, and there are a ton of assets to help you understand the weaponry and setting that your characters are stuck in. While technically the second in a trilogy, this can work on its own.
A History of Moments
Somehow sticking with a similar theme to a few above, this is a collaborative character design game for 1–2 players that already exist. One player is the character in another TTRPG, exploring their memories and backgrounds, while the second player adds tension to explore those memories.
This is how you turn a simple backstory of ‘growing up alone in a village’ to ‘growing up in a village that slowly died before you were the only one left’. Fantastic for anyone that has a partner and wants to explore their characters and what they’ve done to get where they are now.
Where Magic Died
You’ve played as characters, you’ve played as the world, now play as a Tower. Yes, a tower. This ‘Belonging outside Belonging’ game will have you explore the ‘life and times’ of an old Tower and those that have wandered into it.
It’s realistically a game about recognizing what it means to be a part of history, settling into a foundation that you may not have built yourself but you own. It’s hard to describe, so give it a read and see what I mean.
Sweaters by Hedgehog
No more existentialism, it’s time for games about adorable hedgehogs selling sweaters. Players use cards to represent the customers that you receive, and slowly record what they mean to you and the world. It’s cozy as heck, and I have no more need for words. I’m too comfy.
A Man on the Road
Alright, back to the darkness we go. Utilizing the ‘Old-School Essentials’ RPG system, it asks a very simple question; “Is that really a typical man on the road?”. This pamphlet highlights all of the dangerous traits that this man may have, from strange fighting styles to fake identities, all to create a strangely difficult NPC in a completely relaxing moment.
This is how you make a character fight that players remember forever, one that they say ‘remember that time our party all died to a guy on a horse? Good times’.
The Lay Of Our Land
Our final game is a solo journaling game, focusing on the ephemeral (short-lived) things in life. You are the map itself, and just like maps you must constantly change as explorers update for every hill, war, mountain, and natural disaster.
You are touched by many cartographers, and you will forever keep changing. Everything is done in increments of ‘time’, so no dice nor cards are needed to record what happens.
Duplicates
Four isn’t a lot.
Humble Fonts — Gold
Coming in from page 28 of the racial justice bundle, this is a font series to give you 5 brilliant fonts. Soon to be discontinued. Read here.
Pixel Fireplace
Cozy little ‘game’ where you can alter all of the colours of the fire to make it as comfortable as you want. May not be a game. Read about it here.
May Project Na Naman Si Kapitan?
Tagalog-English RPG about investigating a strange town project. Filipino directed with their culture, not as rich in English. Read more about it here.
1–6 Oozes in the Dark
All the way on page 50 of the Racial Bundle, it’s a micro-module for 5E D&D focused on old school Underdark exploration. More on it here.
