Organize ALL the Things!?

I've been playing a lot of Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library! on my laptop on a nearly daily basis.  I'm currently at 18.5 hours, which isn't a whole lot, but considering you can speedrun the game in under three hours, it does make my time spent on just over half of the game feel a little bloated.  If you're not familiar with the game, I have a First Impressions article shortly after I first started, and I've only gotten deeper into the game.  What Librarian (shortened for my own sake)is, is an organization sim, somewhat of a sub-genre of the cleaning sim games like Powerwash Simulator and Lawn Mowing Simulator, where you complete busy tasks that just need to get done.  I would categorize it with games like Wilmot's Warehouse and Unpacking, but more focused on its niche.  In Librarian, you pick up books off the ground and put them back on the correct shelf.  That's the gist, but the gameplay loop is pretty much the same.  Pick up one to 10 books and put them back.  Repeat.  I mentioned it before in previous articles how much pleasure I get out of organizing things in the real world, like two of our bookcases and our two movie bookcases (moviecase?).

Knowing that I am definitely going to finish Librarian at least twice, the first run without using any magic to help organize and put away books, and a second run where I lean heavily on the magic in hopes that it will feel like a halfway different game, I have been keeping an eye open for similar games.  While I have found other similarly styled games, mostly releasing in the next week or two, that could be mechanic clones with a different asset pack, most of the games I've seen don't have the same appeal as Librarian.

First, there's Supermarket Chaos (June, 2026).  You're in a supermarket where all of the items have been knocked off the shelf, and you have to put them back.  Like Librarian, there is a skill tree that you can build out to make organizing and putting items back easier and faster.  My disinterest in this game is that it's a grocery store in the real world.  And I find putting specifically books back where they belong infinitely more interesting than 10 packs of raw chicken breasts.

Then there's Cellar Keeper (August, 2026), probably the closest visually and mechanically to Librarian, where you are putting away 2,448 bottles of wine back in their correct location by type of wine.  Shiraz, Pinot Gris, Cabernet, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, etc.  Along with the type of wine, there's also the specific vineyard label, and I'm not sure if the game would get as specific as the vintage too.  While moderately interesting, apart from the labels, all of the bottles look the same.  There doesn't seem to be a distinction between red wine bottles, white wine bottles, Champagne (or bubbly for those that don't use Champagne grapes), or the occasionally oddly shaped wine bottle for port, or maybe a limited vintage Viognier.

In a similar vein, there's Shelve the Potions (August, 2026), where you have to sort 2,000+ potions by color and shape of the bottle.  I'm sure there are other criteria, as each potion has its own type of label with a number or a symbol.

Keeping with the fantasy theme, there's the aptly named Shelves and Sorcery: Tidy Up the Enchanted Shop (August, 2026), where you are tasked with putting back not just potions and books, but grocery items, spell components, weapons, armor, and other questing equipment.

And then there's Cleaning Up the Puzzle Gallery (August, 2026), where you're tasked with putting back over 2,000 pieces in the correct puzzle that line the walls and panels of the gallery.

And if oversized puzzle pieces of public domain works of art are too big and uniform for you, there's Never Sort by Color (November, 2026), where you have to put away and sort through a Japanese bedroom that looks like a LEGO YouTuber's filming room exploded.

Lastly, but not actually because I'm not about to list ALL of the organizing sims that are being released in the next six months that all have used some level of AI in the development of their games, is TV Archive: Tidy Up Together (August, 2026), which I am probably the most interested in.  Except I'm significantly less interested in the multiplayer aspect of it.  I don't think I'd be able to organize sessions to play this with other people because I don't have a consistent "Time to play games!" schedule.  What I like about TV Archive is one of the reasons why I really enjoy Librarian.    I like organizing things on a shelf like books and movies, two things I have in my house.  And I did work in a video store with Dellanos 26 g-damn years ago, so there's that too.  I'm also interested to find out what the movies are titled, how many are just straight-up parodies of existing titles, how many are wholly original, and if they have a top shelf against the back wall that the little customers can't reach and likely can't make out entirely what all those stickers are supposed to be covering.

By the looks of things, I don't think this is going to be a genre that I'm going to be swimming in for the next month.  Maybe there'll be a similar game that crops up that interests me, but it can't just be another clone or whatever game Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library! is itself derivative of.  Plus, the developers, ArtRising, have said that they're planning on future updates, and if that means a different library with different books, then I'll probably have to stick with this one game.  But only as long as the quality of the humor stays true to what I've been playing so far.  It's got to be special, to me at least.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

But It's All Routine

MIDI Week Singles: "Aquas" - Star Fox 64 (N64)

 

"Aquas" from Star Fox 64 on the Nintendo 64 (1997)
Composer: Hajime Wakai
Album: STARFOX 64 Original Soundtrack
Label: NINTENDO64 SOUND SERIES, PONY CANYON
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EAD

Along with "Zoness," "Aquas" is one of my favorite tracks from Star Fox 64.  Something about the marimba-esque instrumentation and the MIDI vocal "Aahs" makes this song a perfect fit for an underwater incursion against a giant energy bubble-launching clam; being in 3/4 probably also helps.  I also feel that this is one of those songs, not just from Star Fox 64, that sounds great in-game; with all of the environmental and Blue-Marine sound effects almost seems like it would drown out the music, but it just manages to enhance it.  And then on its own, there does feel to be a bit of a downgrade as far as the epicness goes when you're not firing a limitless supply of torpedoes, but I still find it to be a great piece.

The other thing I love about "Aquas" is the perceived slowness of the song, because of how the vocals sound.  Even with the faster 145 bpm synth that's driving throughout the entire song, it still feels like a much slower piece, which again works perfectly well in the water level where your ship is less agile, and especially when the framerate tanks in the second half of the level, this track makes it all feel purposeful and thereby, all the more epic.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

I Never Thought They'd Change the Beer and the Coffee

Game EXP: Poetic Trio (NS1&2)

[Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Poetic Trio through Keymailer, a third-party company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game key was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that it be played, and content be created.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]

Poetic Trio
Systems: Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PlayStation 5
Release Date: June 9, 2026
Publisher: Sometimes You
Developer: Tonguç Bodur
Play Time: ~2 Hours 30 Minutes
Playthrough Montage on YouTube

I had high hopes for Poetic Trio, but sadly, after an hour of playing the first of three chapters, I was quite a bit let down.

Before we actually get to the game itself, the problem I have with Poetic Trio is that there is no checkpoint or saving system.  So my first hour of gameplay in the first of three chapters didn't register in-game because I didn't finish the first chapter.  So if I want to see the actual end of the first chapter, I'll have to start over from the beginning, solving all of the environmental puzzles again.  Writing about it again makes me salty.  On the Steam page for this first chapter, Pluviophile, because Poetic Trio is a collection of these three similarly styled games, the developer said that adding in a checkpoint or save system would mean having to essentially make the game all over again, so it's not likely to happen.

But let's get to the game itself.

Poetic Trio is a collection of three chapters, each with its own environmental and poetic theme.  You walk through an enclosed area where you locate a glowing magenta flower and then take that flower to an ornate white circle painted/engraved on the ground.  You are rewarded with a selection of the poem that is contextually based on the environment, and then a new area is opened up, usually in close proximity to where you are.  This new area is typically larger in size and has two or more glowing flowers to collect to activate two or more painted circles.  After finding two or three collections of these flowers and fragments of a poem, the screen fades to black, and you start the process all over again in a new area in an identical or similar biome.  The game is primarily a walking simulator, with the option for a light jog to move faster.  At first, I thought that the regular walking speed was enough, but I quickly realized that moving faster, considering the size of the area, was more my speed and likely shaved at least 20 minutes off my play time.

The first chapter, "Pluviophile," takes place in a wooded area outside of what looked like a small urban city.  There is a constant drizzle of rain, as opposed to a deluge or downpour of rain.  The setting is actually really wonderful, and I could spend a significant amount of time here.  And I did, as mentioned above.  I was enjoying the languid pace of the game, although I quickly decided that running felt like a better pace considering how large the second area was and how far apart the glowing flower was and where the painted circle ended up being.  I was in the second area in "Pluviophile" and had been wandering around for a while trying to locate the last of three (I think) glowing flowers, after the path I had taken had me loop back on an area I had been in earlier.  I soon located the last flower and the last circle.  The screen faded to black, and I was about to start the third area.  

By this point, I had been playing for an hour and felt that I needed to get some sleep since I was playing at night.  I knew the Squire would want to play the Switch in the morning, so I exited back to the main menu, a little wary that I hadn't seen a quicksave or checkpoint in between loading screens.  When I started the game back up and clicked the "Continue" option in "Pluviophile," I was horrified and annoyed to be back at the beginning of the entire chapter.  The thought of having to go through roughly an hour of gameplay was not at all appealing, even though I loved so much about the environment.  Needless to say, I was conflicted.

Rather than playing through "Pluviophile" again, I decided to start the second chapter, "Chionophile," and I was immediately glad that I did.  This chapter took place in a mountainous and snowy expanse with occasional active snowfall, crunching snow under your noncorporeal feet, and a soft, unobtrusive piano playing in the background.  Honestly, my biggest critique was the size of the area compared to how fast you could walk, and I think I only felt this way because I knew there weren't any checkpoints.  If I was going to finish "Chionophile," it was going to have to be done either in a single sitting, or if I could keep the Switch away from The Squire long enough.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish "Chionophile" either, but due to different circumstances.  First, between the first and second areas, there was a loading screen that went over what looked like a new mechanic.  I tried to take a screenshot both for future reference and for the montage videos I was making.  As I had earlier been unable to save videos, the game told me that it couldn't take any screenshots, and I was initially confused since I'd been doing this for the last 30 minutes.  By the time I thought to take out my phone to take a picture, the loading screen faded, and the level started.  Something about when following tracks, to go straight.  This new area was similar to the first, but still felt different in that there were more mountains in the distance, but no distinct paths that I could see.

But eventually there were paths, and while I did find one flower and activated a painted circle, I was unable to find the second (and/or possibly third?).  I doubled back down the path I'd taken, took different paths while keeping straight if the paths ever crossed.  I wasn't sure if there was some kind of hidden mechanic that kept a flower from spawning if you diverge from the path, but I couldn't be sure.  Maybe I was just missing it somewhere?  So I started wandering willy-nilly.  That was when I got physically stuck.  I was walking along a frozen river, and tried to walk through some branches, but I couldn't move.  Then I tried to back up, but I couldn't move.  I could rotate the camera, but I couldn't move.  Everything I tried, from pausing and unpausing to pressing all of the buttons, but nothing happened to get me unstuck.

But what did happen when I pressed the B button was that it put markers on the screen where the flower and the circle were located.  But I still couldn't move.  So I exited back to the main menu and turned the game off.

The final chapter, "Loverowind," was an interesting one, and one I don't think I could have completed if I hadn't accidentally figured out that pressing the B button highlighted where the flowers and painted circles were located.  This chapter started out in a castle, but after pulling a lever, rotating a giant spiral staircase, and following a flight of stairs further up, I came out to a vast valley that literally stretched miles.   I pressed B and saw where my targets were.  One flower was way over to my left, and the circle was way over to my right.  I probably could have played this area for an entire hour without finding both of the flowers and both of the circles.  The gimmick in this level, though, to help you travel across such a large expanse, was floating white orbs that made you accelerate for about 10 seconds, which was a couple seconds longer than you'd need to reach the next orb if you ran in a more-or-less straight direction.

The second interesting choice "Loverowind" made was introducing a chase sequence.  After activating the second circle, the camera panned out and up, and a large neon green dome appeared near the center of the stage with the text, "Catch It" slowly flashing at the top of the screen.  It then began moving very quickly, relatively speaking, and while you had to use the white orbs to increase your speed to catch it, it was still faster than you, so you had to flank it and approach it from an angle.  Once this was completed, you returned to the castle.  And did it all over again after rotating the giant staircase in the opposite direction.   While I knew what to do at this point, it didn't feel particularly great to comb a large, expansive valley and then chase another giant green dome all over again.  Then the castle opens up, and you make your way back to the room where you started, and the chapter ends.

I feel a little annoyed that my biggest hangup, what felt like it prevented me from fully enjoying the game, was knowing that there was no checkpoint or saving system in the game.  I enjoyed the calmness of the first two chapters, and I enjoyed the serene soundscape and the music that played in the background.  I was mostly fine with the flower/circle unlocking mechanic, but annoyed that I only found out about the B button locator by accident, which would have made the first two chapters significantly easier and less frustrating because there is no saving.  I really feel that I don't have it in me, right now, to restart "Pluviophile" or "Chionophile" again from the beginning, and "Loverowind" was the most gameified chapter in the game, compared to the first two walking sim chapters.  Not the best way to end the game, but at least I was able to finish one chapter.

I'm sure that means something.  Had I known beforehand that there was no checkpoint system and that pressing B brought up visual indicators for where you're supposed to go, I might have had a different feeling for the first two chapters, and thereby, the overall game.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Night Spreads Its Wings

My State of Dungeons & Dragons

I wouldn't dare write an article titled "The State of Dungeons & Dragons" for oh so many reasons.  First, I haven't played D&D since January 2021, which isn't my longest drought from playing, but it does kind of feel like it.  Secondly, the only officially licensed D&D product I have after Hasbro went from D&D 5th Edition to D&D 2024, to One D&D to D&D 5.5, while also seemingly trying to funnel people to primarily use D&D Beyond so that Hasbro can infinitely charge their player base outside of physical content, is the newly released Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. However, I'm still annoyed that the maps were packaged separately for $24.95, because of course Hasbro wants to eke every cent out of a single product.  While I might be in Hasbro's demographic for avid D&D player, I am not part of their active target financial audience because I don't have D&D Beyond or Maps installed on any of my devices.

If you were to look at the Dungeons & Dragons bookshelf in my basement, you'll see two main product lines: Ravenloft modules and resource books from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons era, and modules and resource books from 5th Edition.  By this visual alone, you might think that I've played soooooo much D&D from 5E, but you'd be sadly mistaken.  To date, I've only played about half, maybe a third, from Curse of Strahd.  I did DM for two pretty consistent groups of 3-8 people for almost four years, but in all of that time, we only played quests that I wrote after playing through The Lost Mine of Phandelver.  16 modules, and they are all unplayed.  If you combine all of the AD&D Ravenloft books in that, it would be almost the entire shelf, although I did have Dr. Potts and Dellanos play quite a bit of the Castle Forlorn before our playing D&D died off; when was that, '96?  1997?  Did we really only play D&D consistently for four to five years?  I did pick it back up around 2002, though, when I joined GMan's campaign along with Dellanos.  Anyway, we're getting off topic.

What I've realized, along with all of the reading of the Forgotten Realms books that I've done over the past four years, is that I've come to terms with not having played any of the modules on that shelf.  If I think of all of those quests as interactable stories that I could play, then that's an added bonus, because right now, they're no different than the number of books on our two other bookshelves with books that I haven't read yet.  They're just big novels with possible gameplay elements incorporated into them, and I'm okay with that.

But again, the issue I run into mentally is that because all of these 5E quests take place in the 1480s DR, I would like to know as much of the backstory of the world and its inhabitants as possible; I am currently reading Shadows of Doom, which takes place in 1358 DR, so I've got a bit to go before.  Because all of the 5E quests I have all take place somewhere along the Sword Coast regions, I don't need to know everything that happened in Calimshan, or Cormyr, or Halruaa, or The Endless Wastes, so I'm not reading everything that was published by TSR and Wizards of the Coast between 1987 and October 2025.  I will eventually get to.

But since Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast hasn't published a physical copy of a quest that takes place in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting since the (apparently) poorly cobbled together Vecna: Eve of Ruin in May 2024, I might actually have time to catch up by the time Dungeons & Dragons 6th Edition rolls out in 2030.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Something Lost and Something Gained

MIDI Week Singles: "Unknowable Geometry" - Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (PC)

 

"Unknowable Geometry" from Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP on iPad, iPhone, Windows, OSX, Linux, Android, Nintendo Switch (2011-2019)
Composer: Jim Guthrie
Album: Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP: The Ballad of the Space Babies
Label: Bandcamp
Publisher: Capybara Games
Developer: Capybara, Superbrothers, Jim Guthrie

You'd think that after the number of times I had to redo battles against triangles, especially the last battle inside the tree, I'd hate this song, but I don't.  I love it.  I love how dramatic it gets and how the action during the fight is synced up with the music for the most part.  I think if the music had been something closer to traditional JRPG battle music, or even mini-boss music, it would have played against having to replay several of the battles, especially after the shield was incorporated.  When the music is this good, it makes the trudge of trying to get through a difficult sequence that you really need to memorize all the more palatable.

I also love that something this slow and dramatic is used for several of the mini-boss battle themes, again showcasing that dramatic and tense music doesn't have to be played at breakneck speeds.  A dirge-level series of chords can be equally tense as anything played at 192 bpm; it's just a different tone.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Doch bitte knüppelt euch nicht allzusehr

Game EXP: Alveole (PC)

 

Alveole
Systems: Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5
Release Date: April 9, 2021
Publisher: North Lab
Developers: Emil Ismaylov & Denis Petrov
Time Spent: 40 Minutes
First Four Minutes

I picked up Alveole shortly after playing PULMO because I was hoping to enjoy another art game from the same developers, and this one was… different.  Different than what I was expecting, different in its gameplay mechanics, different in its message, and different stylistically in almost every way possible.  Except there was the animated black outlined figure that was also used in PULMO.  Everything that I'm going to write is going to be bare bones compared to other Game EXP articles, because, almost the less that's said about the mechanics of Alveole, the better, but we'll scratch just the surface.

Alveole is a minimalist game.  When you start, there's an exhalation of breath as the essence or spirit of your figure falls into the character lying in the middle of an all-white screen.  The screen then becomes populated with seemingly random images, all around your black-outlined figure, who is standing in what looks like a one-ton human hamster wheel.  The game is controlled by making your character jump or deciding not to jump as they run on the wheel.  Periodically, a trapezoidal obstruction appears that you can either jump over or stumble through.  What any of this means is up to the player to decipher.  A lot of the objects on the screen, though, are dynamic, so again, it's up to the player to try to recognize the cause and effect of something happening.

Because Alveole is a puzzle game, it's up to the player to figure out what all of the images surrounding the player mean, what the mechanics mean, and how jumping or not jumping affects the game.  As you play, you collect pictures that populate the middle third of the screen.  Once you have collected all sixteen pictures, the "game" is over.  And I say "game" not as a derogatory statement against Alveole, but because it feels more like an interactive art exhibit with gameplay and puzzle elements.  The biggest downside is that oftentimes, the player will be rewarded with a snapshot that they've completed one of the "tasks," but there is no immediate inclination to decipher what the player did to specifically earn that picture.  It's also a memory game, to try and remember which image that used to be above the player is now gone.

The whole "game" took me about 40 minutes, usually playing for 3-5 minutes at a time, though you could easily finish it in a single sitting if you're in the right mindset.  I can't really say that there is much replay value, maybe apart from watching someone else play and maybe giving hints when asked for to unlock some of the more potentially obscure puzzles; here's looking at you, Adventurer.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental

Game EXP Trilogy Part II: Castle Crashers, Crayon Physics Deluxe, & Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (PC)

We're back with another trilogy of unrelated games, one of which I bought and the other I received as part of past Humble Indie Bundles; specifically, 4 and V back in 2011 and 2012, respectively.  I finished all three of these games (I'll elaborate where needed on that statement), and for the most part, I enjoyed all three of these games (I'll elaborate where needed on that statement).

Castle Crashers
Systems: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows, OS X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4
Release Date: August 27, 2008
Publisher: The Behemoth
Developer: The Behemoth
Time Spent: 35 Hours, 30 Minutes - 177 Hours,  54 Minutes

First off, I put down 35+ hours at the time that I first beat the game, which, according to the date tag on my screenshot when The Squire and I first beat the Evil Wizard, was in February of this year (2026).  In the five months since that time, we've put in an additional 140 hours.  Although I had introduced The Squire to the game sometime in late 2024.  And before that, I played it a bit with Chreekat, probably sometime around 2015, when he stayed with us for a while.  So I've been playing Castle Crashers in some iteration for just over 11 years.  But it wasn't until I reintroduced it to The Squire earlier this year that we got serious and beat the game with the Green Knight.

Since that time, The Squire has wanted me to collect all of the animal orbs, collect all of the weapons, and try to unlock all of the playable characters, although that's kind of where we've stopped since some of the characters can only be unlocked by beating certain levels with certain characters on Insane Difficulty.  So we've spent a lot of time in the mornings playing and replaying levels.  The Squire has also recently discovered the different characters available in the Steam Workshop, and I've had to limit him to selecting only one character per week, otherwise we'd end up spending 30 minutes just sifting through the same group of poorly designed characters, characters that a six-year-old shouldn't be playing as, and characters that are just a real person's face slapped on the design template.

Crayon Physics Deluxe
Systems: Windows, iOS, OSX, Linux
Release Date: 2007
Publisher: Kloonigames
Developer: Kloonigames
Time Spent: 6.5 Hours

Back when I was putting together "The Ultimate Spreadsheet Database," I remember I came back across Crayon Physics Deluxe, a 2D physics-based puzzle game where you try to get a ball to interact/collect a star.  It's actually pretty similar in feeling to Scribblenauts, but instead of controlling a character, you're drawing objects with a digital crayon to interact with a ball.  Like most puzzle games, the levels start out very simply, getting the player used to the mechanics and rules, slowly upping the difficulty until the game hits the player with a puzzle that absolutely stumps them into stupid.  You end up staring at the screen, trying to figure out how in the hell you're supposed to get the ball to the star, feeling like a complete idiot who shouldn't've been allowed out of kindergarten. 

Similar to a lot of games from around this time, the late two-aughts, the game operates on a star/flag basis, meaning the "better" your solution, the more flags you earn per level, and if you earn all three possible optional flags in a single stage, you earn an additional star on top of the one required to complete the stage.  So if the first world, or island in the case of this game, has 10 stages, then there are a possible 20 stars you can earn: one star for completing the level, and an additional star for earning three flags.  The primary feature of these kinds of mechanics is to lock access to levels down the road, often requiring the player to replay levels to better their score to unlock additional worlds/islands, because you're going to need 120 stars to unlock the final central island.  There are a total of 150 stars before getting to the island, and I currently have 98.

In my head, I have completed the "main campaign" of the game, in that I've completed all of the levels and earned stars on every level, if I consider the 120-star island an optional end-game stage.  In order to collect the remaining 22 stars for the center island, I would need to look up tutorials for 22 more levels, and even then, because the game is physics-based, if your drawing differs even slightly from the walkthrough you're looking at, it can throw everything off.  That feels like it kind of defeats the purpose of playing a puzzle game, if you're just going to have to follow a walkthrough to earn a flag for an Elegant Solution: a solution that uses only one continuous line; an Old School Solution: you don't click on the ball or draw any pins to essentially create a fulcrum; or an Awesome Solution: you can click this box yourself only after you have completed the other two solutions.  So I called it there.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

Systems: iOS, Windows, OSX, Linux, Android, Nintendo Switch

Release Date: March 24, 2011

Publisher: Capybara Games

Developer: Capybara, Superbrothers, Jim Guthrie

Time Spent: 5 Hours 18 Minutes

I feel like I would have liked this game a lot more had I played it as god intended, on an iPad or on the Nintendo Switch.  Basically, a platform where the touchscreen was the novel mechanic in controlling the game, because playing this on my laptop, with mouse controls, felt like I was playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword again on the Nintendo Switch.  What I mean is that Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP was originally developed for iOS and touchscreen devices, so a lot of the mechanics and puzzles in the game were created with the novelty of a touchscreen device in mind.  I felt that to really enjoy this game beyond the quirky dialogue, intriguing story, beautiful pixel art graphics, and haunting music, you had to put yourself in the headspace of someone who was playing on a touchscreen.

There were a lot of times when you had to tap specific areas of the environment to either solve or start a puzzle.  Drag your finger/mouse from one thing to another in a specific order.  Tap a specific place on the screen at a specific time to trigger the next part of the puzzle.  In one instance, you were supposed to drag two stone statue-like figures towards the center of the screen, but since that was impossible, it took away from the significance of the puzzle, which meant that how to solve the puzzle wasn't clear, and it lost a bit of its meaning.  Even battles in this game, where you had to tap either a sword or a shield at a very specific time, felt poorly optimized for a player using only a mouse.  Maybe it's just me, but it felt that there was a significant difference in response times between moving and clicking a mouse, and having a finger from each hand hovering centimeters over a shield or sword icon on the screen.

The only other thing that put a sour taste in my mouth was feeling that I was only scratching the surface of the story in the game.  Like I was given a primer on the characters and the world, but there was more to discover that I hadn't figured out.  After finishing the game, I discovered that there were several ARG elements by way of phone numbers you could call based on the actual cycle of the moon, hidden grooves within the vinyl soundtrack, and a conclusion of sorts from a video located on Vimeo (which is no longer available, even on the Internet Archive).  This made me feel left out, but I guess that's partly my fault for not playing a 15-year-old game when I first got the game back in May, 2012.  Even then, the fact that needing to buy additional products to experience the full story makes me a bit salty.  As in spitefully salty.

And yes, I did wait for the actual moon cycle to be accurate for two of the in-game quests, which I appreciated was a mechanic in the game.  I didn't cheat.

We'll be back next month with three more games for another Game EXP Trilogy article, although with these next games, there was a little bit more of a struggle than with the previous six games in this series.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental

[Pixel Font - Olde Tome by Lady Liefy]

MIDI Week Singles: "Space Pirates" - Castle Crashers (PC)

 

"Space Pirates" from Castle Crashers on Windows, OS X, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 & 4, Nintendo Switch (2012-2019)
Composer: Waterflame
Album: Age of Flash
Label: Bandcamp
Publisher: The Behemoth
Developer: The Behemoth

Castle Crashers is one of those odd games where about half of the music in the game was pulled from pre-existing sources.  Taken by itself, "Space Pirates" does have several elements of quirky science fiction, from the spaceship sound effect in the opening seconds, the instrumentation behind the keyboard/synth, to the electronic-sounding bass throughout the song, it's all very tongue-in-cheek sci-fi.  But within the context of Castle Crashers, it manages to fit perfectly within the confines of a forest overrun by thieves, possibly in the employ of the Evil Prince (I don't know his actual name, but that's what The Squire and I refer to him as).  Because of how much I've played the Thieves' Forest stage, I can really only hear how well this song works in a forest setting beset by an annoying band of bow-happy thieves ohmygod they're Robin Hood and his Merry Band, minus Robin Fitzooth.  And a group of trolls who have taken up residence in an abandoned mill.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

If You Cross Our Path in this Nation of Death

First Impressions: Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library!

Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library
Systems: Windows, Steam OS, Linux
Release Date: April 30, 2026
Publisher: ArtRising
Developer: ArtRising
Time Currently Spent: 2 Hours 30 Minutes
Playthrough Videos on YouTube

So you're telling me that there's a game where you're stuck in a library by yourself, and you have to put away over 3,000 books on the correct shelf?  And that's it?

This game is 100% my jam.

I'm two and a half hours in, and I've only put away 4.88% of the books.  I've put away 150 books.  There's an achievement where you have to put away all 3,072 books in fewer than 3 hours.  That achievement is not for me.  

Because this is an arcane library, and you are presumably a student at this arcane institution, you do know some spells from the beginning that you can use to help you organize books to a certain extent.  I wouldn't actually know because I didn't know spells existed in the game until I had already played for a literal hour.  Not that I'll be using magic at all, because that's not why I'm playing this game.  I'm not playing to see how fast I can put away books, or to build out my spell tree to maximize the number of books I can put away in 60 seconds.  I'm playing this game because I love organizing books.

About five years ago, when Conklederp and I reorganized our house, we moved our two bookshelves into the basement. I was excited because it meant I got to take down all the books from the shelf and then put them back in a slightly more efficient way.  About six months ago, I did the same thing because I wanted to make room on the bottom shelves of the bookshelf for some of our board games.  At the same time, I reorganized the two bookshelves I have full of DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

I know I'm not playing this game very efficiently.  I'm not taking notes on which shelf each genre of book is kept so that I don't have to run back to the stairs at the front (back?) of the library that has a visual diagram.  I also don't organize the stack of up to 10 books I can carry by where they are supposed to go in the library to minimize the time I'm spending putting books away.  I'm going to take my time with this game and enjoy every hour of it, because once I got mentally past the sheer number of books in the game (albeit a bit sad that you can't actually open any of the books), I fell into my kind of satisfying zen game.  This is a game I play to mentally decompress while on my lunch break at work.

There's plenty more that I haven't gone into yet, but I will save that for the eventual Game EXP article.  So I'll see y'all in about 50 hours.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Just Let Me Be A Freak

MIDI Week Singles: "Lullaby" - Crayon Physics Deluxe (PC)

 

"Lullaby" from from Crayon Physics Deluxe on Windows, Linux, Android, iOS7, & macOS (2009)
Composer: _ghost
Album: Crayon Physics Deluxe
Label: Humble Bundle
Publisher: Kloonigames
Developer: Kloonigames

"Lullaby" is the perfect song for a game like Crayon Physics Deluxe, where you can go from puzzle to puzzle with this ethereal voice singing while you try to figure out how best to get the ball to the star using the fewest number of crayon strokes.  The piano/chimes and guitar are a nice accompaniment that helps to break up what essentially is the same 14ish-second vocal part sung over the course of the whole song.  There isn't much development in the song, even with the flittering flute and additional electronic instruments and sound effects, but it doesn't need to be anything more than it is.  The song feels like it exists for the player to lose themselves in, bringing any aggravations from either receiving only one star at the end of a level or having to restart a level because the game wigged out when your single line became too long for the game to comprehend.

I've only been able to find out a little bit about the artist _ghost, primarily their SoundCloud page that I found from a Reddit thread.  It looks like the song was written independently of the game, three years before it came out, and that it uses samples from skoria and brad sucks.  They haven't uploaded any new music in seven years, although they're part of Ghost Kollective, who were last active five years ago.

That's all I've got for "Lullaby," a calming song used brilliantly in a game that is calming in and of itself, until it isn't.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

I've Been Waiting So Long

Game EXP: HORSES (PC)

HORSES
Systems: Windows
Release Date: December 2, 2025
Publisher: Self?
Developer: Andrea Lucco Borlera & Santa Ragione
Time Spent: 3 Hours 22 Minutes

Probably like a lot of people, I first heard about HORSES in late 2025 when there was the hubbub about the game being pulled from Steam and Epic due to material content.  Intrigued, I went over to GOG, where the game is still available, plunked down a digital $5 bill, and got the game after watching the trailer.

HORSES covers a lot of ground in the ideas and themes it explores: human trafficking, sexual assault, generational abuse and trauma, the Milgram effect, social hierarchies, and functionalism.  But how the hell do you write about a video game in all of its parts while glossing over such heavy topics like generational trauma, human trafficking, and sexual assault?  The honest answer is that you can't.  Or you could, but then you'll find yourself writing things like, "I don't mean to gloss over thousands of years of slavery in human history, but..." or "I don't want to ignore the trauma of survivors of sexual assault..." and even just writing those fictitious sentences feels wrong.  So, as I get into this bare-bones Game EXP article for HORSES, just know that these things were at the forefront of my mind as they came up in the game.

In HORSES, you take on the character of Anselmo, a young Italian man who is dropped off at a farm to work for two weeks during the summer, presumably because his father wants him to understand the meaning of hard work.  A significant portion of the horror and tension in the game surrounds the people forced to live as "horses", but the other half of the game, Anselmo doing his daily chores and the mere existence of living on this farm, makes up the other third of the horror.  Over the course of the game, more and more disturbing aspects of the farm come to light.  First and foremost, as the title suggests, and if you haven't seen any of the trailers, all of the horses on the unnamed farmer's farm are captive and tortured, naked humans forced to wear horse masks.  All of the horses are kept in a small pen and treated as one would an actual horse, including feed, water, and working conditions, although, thankfully, never shod by a farrier.  

The existence of so many people kept in pens is horrific enough without the implications that the farmer never leaves the farm, so there must be significantly more people involved in this operation.  And then the question if Anselmo is also an accomplice who could be implicated in all of these crimes because you, the player, go along with nearly everything that is asked of you by the farmer.  Pointing out which "horses" misbehave, assisting with doling out punishments, and covering up torture perpetrated by the farmer.  For me, this was one of the primary sources of horror, and it was exceedingly effective.  All of the implied horror that you don't see, similar to all of the murders in Se7en that you don't see, along with what you do see, is now all a part of your daily routine.

Every morning and evening, you sit down to a meal.  Often in the mornings, the farmer has left your breakfast out, while in the evenings, you sit down with the farmer to eat your dinner with him.  The TV is usually left on behind the farmer, and you can watch the looping program, often equine-related, and then eat your meal while the farmer either converses with you or just stares.  I don't know if it was intentionally implied, or the idea popped in my head because I've played The Walking Dead: A TellTale Games Series - Season 1, but any time there were steaks or sausages on Anselmo's plate, I immediately suspected the farmer had used "horse" meat.  And since there wasn't any way to turn down your food, and you had to eat the food to progress with the game, I stubbornly choked down the food, one bite at a time.

There is a story that goes along with the game, and it's not just a horror-based farming simulator.  Over the course of the weeks you spend on the farm, Anselmo interacts more with several of the "horses," and the interactions become more and more disturbing.  You find out more about the history of the farm, a few of the "horses," and even the backstory of the farmer towards the very end.  In the last third of the game, the main story really kicks into overdrive, focusing less and less on Anselmo's daily chores and activities, and more on the plight of the "horses" and what Anselmo does to affect any kind of change, be it overtly or subvertly.  Several surreal sequences could be dreams or Anselmo's descent into psychosis by merging his waking life with nightmares.  The game ends on what could best be described as an upnote, but in the same way that a Lovecraftian story could have a "good ending" because humanity has been momentarily saved at the expense of the narrator, who descends into madness.  There's a goodness in the ending, but at what cost to Anselmo and the player?

HORSES was indeed a strange, horrific, and disturbing game.  I don't think it deserved to be delisted from both Steam and Epic, considering some of the NSFW games on Steam's storefront; not that you can search for NSFW tags since they were removed in May of this year.  I am obviously not denying that there are disturbing and potentially offensive elements in the game, but they're not there to be offensive, or at least I didn't feel that way.  It's definitely an Italian art-house horror experience, Susperia or Phenomena, that aims to both seduce and disturb the audience, all the while telling a story that you're likely not to have come across before.  And HORSES certainly is that.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

But Lately It's Been Screaming in My Ear