#LetsPlaySomeShit

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MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some $#!7!: Wandersong - Intro

Come join me for another installment of Let’s Play Some $#!7 | LPS$! Initially, I was going to do another Let’s Play Some Demos | LPSD stream, until I noticed I own Wandersong on itch.io! For a year! And had forgotten! So I quickly removed it from my Steam wishlist, downloaded it, and played it! I don’t remember how I was introduced to it, but I was reminded of its existence by another streamer/YouTuber. It looked like fun! And it was fun! Until it wasn’t. The game looks AMAZING! And it was such fun to play… I quit when I started feeling like an ass about not being able to figure out a puzzle. After I had been singing its praises the entire time.

Well, this is all for now! Thank you for reading! If this is something you’re interested in, don’t forget to hit the “Subscribe” and/or “Follow” button!

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The Sunday, October 6, and 630th, Artist Shout-Out goes to Asinjuasflora! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – Starting Soon 9:58 – Welcome Gamers! 11:57 – Artist Shout-Out 14:34 – Game Intro/Game Launch Struggle 17:28 – Wandersong 50:36 – Artist Shout-Out 51:27 – Closing/Just Chatting 53:39 – Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 57:00 – Farewell

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Out Criteria – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble – Odysee – Twitch

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MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some $#!7!: The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood - Part 3

Come join me for another installment of Let's Play Some $#!7 | LPS$, where I play games to provide commentary to educate on game development! Provided I don't get too caught up in the game to comment, which, in a sense, is commentary in and of itself. Today, we continued playing The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood! This was first introduced to The Weekend Game Show | WGS via Let's Play Some Demos - Part 7! Part 2 was a Split Attention LPS$ - Let's finish the demo! stream. I need to address 2 things before we proceed. Firstly, the game contains the following:

CONTENT WARNING

This game tackles sensitive themes and content including: Self-harm, Suicide, Discrimination, Gender Dysphoria, Depression, Anxiety. Nudity, Sexual Themes, Crude Language, Use of Legal Drugs.

Secondly, to the individuals who were proselytizing in my chat despite repeatedly being asked to stop, fuck you. Your not understanding why someone is an atheist does NOT give you the right to dismiss and disrespect it. Your disrespect did, however, earn your asses a block. 

With that out the way, on to my opinions. I LOVE THIS GAME! It is unique in the gameplay and storytelling! There were a couple of typos, which actually aren't easy to fix. Possible? Yes. Time consuming? Yes. It could take HOURS to find the specific graphic(s) containing the typo(s). I don't know how long it would take to distribute the patch, not my area, but the design part is. And having to go back to correct something can be grueling. Not too big a deal, though, since I understood what I was reading. When I was able to read it. That font tripped me up on numerous occasions. Does it fit with the pixel art style of the game? Yes. Do I know what would help? Maybe making the font bold? I've had trouble reading fonts like that and similar ones for as long as I can remember. Reading Times New Roman actually gives me a headache. What I need to do in the meantime is slow down while I read and not let my eyes jump ahead. With the criticism part of the "Compliment Sandwich" done, let's get to what I enjoyed. Which was pretty much everything. How the difficult topics were handled was unexpected, but done smoothly! I wonder how much research was done into how isolation can affect someone. I'm gonna end that there to not give too much away. I lost track of how many times I freaked out at the design. I lost track of how many times I laughed. I didn't wanna stop playing! BUT we got close to 4 hours and going beyond that means I can't upload the video to Rumble or Odysee...

And that's it for this mini-review! Thank you for reading! If this series of videos is something you're interested in, you can watch it on YouTube, The Titans' Discord, Steam, Rumble, and Odysee! Don’t forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there's more!

—

The Sunday, December 15th, and 657th, Artist Shout-Out goes to Elise Catros! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Starting Soon 9:57 - Singing Intro 10:33 - Welcome Gamers! 12:47 - Artist Shout-Out 17:39 - The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood/Trigger Warning 1:56:48 - Break Time 2:11:50 - The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood 3:54:17 - Artist Shout-Out 3:54:52 - Closing/Just Chatting 3:55:35 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 3:56:25 - Farewell/Up Next

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT - MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized - Rendezvous Point Bookshop - Artist Shout-Out Criteria - The Titans’ Discord - Throne Wishlist - #SubOffTwitch - YouTube - Rumble - Odysee - Twitch - Steam

Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on December 15, 2024.

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 11

Welcome to Part 11 of the Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD series! For those who are new, I aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games and to provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes! For this episode, I used some of the demos I had grabbed from the Cooking Fest and Cozy Quest Steam Events!

Today, I, attempted, to play 4 demos for your enjoyment:

Critter Café - Available "Welcome to your Critter Café! Rescue and bond with adorable, fantasy critters in need of your help and build a new home together. Design and run your own café, care for your critters, uncover the secrets of mysterious portals, and create a wholesome café for all to enjoy!"

Grimoire Groves - Planned Release Date: Mar 6, 2025 "Join the witches in their quest to restore the Grimoire Groves! Master magic, grow cute plant creatures and discover the mystery of the Rainbow Socks in this cozy, rogue-lite dungeon crawler."

Pixel Cafe - Available "Step into Pixel's shoes in this one-of-a-kind journey that bridges time, memories, and the aroma of fresh coffee. Dive deep into a city balancing its past and future. Engage in intense arcade challenges, immerse yourself in heartfelt stories, and navigate a world crafted in pixel art."

Wizdom Academy - Available: Q1 2025 "Build your 3D wizard school, recruit students and staff, manage your resources, take strategic decisions and solve the mystery of the severe mana shortages at Wizdom Academy."

All links above are to the games' Steam pages.

Why was it an "attempt" to play? Because Critter Café crashed after 30 minutes, and Grimoire Groves was unplayable DURING the first, in-game interaction. I had to press a bunch of buttons to be able to get the Pause Menu to open so I could get the Main and quit.

However, I will still be able to render a verdict.

Critter Café was FUN for that first 30 minutes. I was disappointed I wasn't able to continue. The character creation was amusing, despite the lack of diverse hairstyles, and designing the café had me excited, even with the limited options! The closer I got café the way I wanted it, I was eager to open it for the first time. And then it crashed, and that will be the last time I mention it. The art style was adorable and reminded me of Fae Farm. The controls were a bit of an irritant. Being able to put down more than one item at a time without having to keep going back to the inventory would have been nice. But the different color schemes were sublime!

I have high hopes going into Grimoire Groves, but they were killed in 5 minutes and 17 seconds. The art style was cute, even though it wasn't consistent. The little bit I was able to do mechanically was pleasant, though. Getting stuck talking to the main quest starter, twice, made me not even want to keep trying.

Pixel Cafe quickly improved my mood. It reminded me of other food preparation games I've played in the past, but this one really kicked in my ADHD drive with the growing urgency! It, also, had more of an RPG element, which I always look forward to in games. The story was surprising! I'm not gonna get into it, but the part where we see how critical the mom is kinda hit home. I'm glad to say mine isn't anywhere CLOSE to that bad. The other RPG element was getting to upgrade the house the character, Pixel, was living in.

I, initially, had issues with the controls, but, after I got the hang of it, I was able to get into a groove. My one big critique is in the player feedback. At the top of the screen, there are anywhere between two or three groups of three blocks. They are meant to show you when someone is at the counter, the mood of the customers, when you need to go to the counter to prevent something from burning or to stop a pouring drink machine from spilling over, and other information, but I had to figure that out myself. Now, the game does advise that it's "fast-paced" and we'll learn on the job, but that's no excuse for the minimalist tutorial. Other than that, it's an EXCELLENT game and I was disappointed when the demo ended.

Now, Wizdom Academy was a GREAT time, and, while writing this section, it reminded me a LOT of Ratopia. In both games, you have to build up your school/community from the ground up. They both require some type of resource management, people management, and growing in a sustainable fashion. Where Wizdom Academy is different is you don't have to worry about anyone dying and having to watch the graves accumulate as you figure out how to effectively take care of everyone. You also have a top-down view and you watch things unfold.

When I loaded up the New Game, the art style immediately caught my attention. Its bold, fantastical realism put a smile on my face. The realist in me, though, had me wondering why the teachers' sleeping quarters were so small. Why wasn't it a building with suites, instead?  Why, when hiring teachers, do we not see their specialty as they're being hired? Why are we picking what a student wants to learn instead of them telling us what they're interested in learning? And why do I have to go through people vandalizing buildings due to their boredom WAY before we get ways to boost peoples' motivations? We're dealing with children; why isn't there anything available from the beginning to help them stay motivated?

With, most, of my criticisms out of the way, here are the positives: the way they provide goals via a council was an EXCELLENT idea! It gave me an idea of how to run the academy sustainably and it gave me a sense of urgency. The additional list of quests were helpful as well. I didn't feel like I was being left, completely, unguided. I was left to figure some things out, which was great. And I got sucked in BIG TIME! I had to rush through the closing because of it because of how close to 4 hours I was getting.

The art was great, and the plot, building a wizarding academy was great, even if only starting off with one course and building from there had me wondering... why? This game made me curious about how to start a school. And well done sucking me in, developers!

Overall, I want Pixel Cafe and Wizdom Academy and they are on my wishlist.

As a reminder, Critter Café is Available, Grimoire Groves' Planned Release Date is Mar 6, 2025, Pixel Café is Available, and Wizdom Academy Demo will be Available in Q1 2025.

And that's it for Part 11! Thank you for reading! If this series of videos is something you're interested in, the videos are available on YouTube, The Titans' Discord, Steam, Rumble, and Odysee!  Don't forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there's more!

—

"Let's Play Some Demos!" Video Series YouTube Playlist "Let's Play Some Demos!" Video Series Blog Posts

Pilot: CrossCode, Dumpy & Bumpy, Ynglet, Zero Ranger

Part 2: A Dance of Fire and Ice, 2064: Read Only Memories, Death and Taxes, Underhero

Part 3: TEKKEN 8, Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition, Secrets of Grindea, Forspoken

Part 4: Death's Hangover, Fae Farm, Fate/Samurai Remnant, Mini Settlers

Part 5: All-Star Fruit Racing, Indivisible, SaGa Emerald Beyond, Visions of Mana

Part 6: Glorious Companions, Tales of Arise, Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge, Cozy Island

Part 7: The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, Cursebane, Dex, The Lady Puppet

Part 8: Detroit: Become Human, Little Goody Two Shoes, Luma Island, Tinkerlands

Part 9: Backpack Battles, Glaciered, Ratopia, Slime Rancher

Part 10: Captain Contraption's Chocolate Factory, Maid Cafe on Electric Street, Neon Noodles, Tiny Glade

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The Monday, December 9th, and 655th, Artist Shout-Out goes to Henri Andersen Vinsnes! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Singing Into 0:38 - Welcome Gamers! 2:23 - Artist Shout-Out 5:05 - Just Chatting 5:34 - Demos' Intro 8:35 - Critter Café 38:34 - Grimoire Groves 43:51 - Pixel Cafe 1:30:17 - Wizdom Academy 3:51:07 - Demos Line Up 3:51:24 - Artist Shout-Out 3:51:43 - Thank You/Links 3:52:08 - Farewell

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT - MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized - Rendezvous Point Bookshop - Artist Shout-Outs Criteria - The Titans' Discord - Throne Wishlist - #SubOffTwitch - YouTube - Rumble - Odysee - Twitch - Steam

Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on December 10, 2024.

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some $#!7!: Tales of Arise - Part 2 | Let's finish the demo!

Come join me for another installment of Let's Play Some $#!7 | LPS$, where I play games to provide commentary to educate on game development! Provided I don't get too caught up in the game to comment, which, in a sense, is commentary in and of itself. Today, we finished playing Tales of Arise's demo! Check out when I first tried the demo here, TIMESTAMP - 54:45! I had to cut the initial video short so it didn't get to 4 hours long. I also gave a quick view of my current playthrough of Ratopia, my current obsession, and you can check out when I played the demo here, TIMESTAMP - 11:29. Another reason I finished the demo was to make sure I did the game as much justice as possible. Now, I didn't call this stream Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD because I want this game. After I get it, it'll be a regular feature on the show. With all that out of the way, here are my opinions: Bouncing off what I said in the Let's Play Some Demos post, Tales of Arise reminds me a LOT of Visions of Mana, a game I also want. I was, also, surprisingly happy the demo made me start from the beginning instead of having me continue from where I left off. One of the reasons being I got to go through the controls again. And, this time, I did MUCH better, I'm pleased to say. I had some unfinished business. When I played it the first time, I ended it after I got my ass kicked by a giant pig. Thankfully, even though I hadn't played it in a month, I'm pleased to say I still had some muscle memory. Good job game developers. I, also, saw some additional tutorial items I didn't see, or don't remember seeing, last time. My biggest gripe during my last attempt was I couldn't switch characters after my character went down in a fight, to discover, this time, I could open up the Item menu during the battle and have someone use a revival item so I could rejoin the fight. Oh. I, also, learned I could use the Item menu to have other people use items themselves AND I could change up the strategy to either focus on being aggressive, focus on healing, and other types. Oh.

Things I remembered I could do, but needed a refresher on, was changing up the party. I thought I needed a reminder on the combat, but muscle memory kicked in. Again, good job game developers. Now, it didn't stop me from continuing to press A for a regular attack instead of RB, but I eventually got myself to drop the developing habit. The combat was FUN! One would think the chaos would be overwhelming, and, for some, it would be, but I was giddy! Everyone's combat style, shown by the excellent animations, showcased the personalities of each character. Yes, they all had different weapons, but how each weapon was used was telling. And, apparently, a certain individual, who I yelled about a LOT, had a death wish. They also had some of the best-looking animations. Huh. All of them were fun! I'm considering going back and playing with each character to see how they all feel to play as. And, since I was able to give Tales more focus, I was able to actually get into a groove and enjoy the demo and the combat. And I got my payback against the giant pig. It was most satisfying. I hope you have as much fun watching it as I had playing it!

And that's it for this mini-review! Thank you for reading! If this series of videos is something you're interested in, you can watch it on YouTube, The Titans' Discord, Steam, Rumble, and Odysee!  Don't forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there's more!

—

The Sunday, December 8th, and 654th, Artist Shout-Out goes to Rei Koh! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Starting Soon 10:00 - Welcome Gamers! 12:41 -Artist Shout-Out 16:25 - Tales of Arise 1:45:54 - Ratopia 1:54:57 - Artist Shout-Out 1:55:57 - Closing/Just Chatting 1:58:55 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 2:02:36 - Farewell

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Out Criteria – The Titans’ Discord – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble – Odysee – Twitch – Steam

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Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on December 8, 2024.

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 10

Welcome to Part 10 of the Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD series! For those who are new, I aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games and to provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes! For this episode, I went to Steam's Demos Category to find they had events going on: Cooking Fest and Cozy Quest! I grabbed the demos they had available. And one was introduced to me via email because I had another game by the developer on my wishlist.

Today, I, attempted, to play 4 demos for your enjoyment:

Captain Contraption's Chocolate Factory - Available A contraption building game. Design and build your own machines to combine ingredients to make chocolates. Automate production using simple components to create ingenious contraptions, which are as satisfying to watch as they are to optimise. 

Maid Cafe on Electric Street - Available Maid Cafe on Electric Street is a leisurely maid cafe adventure set in the otaku haven of Nipponbashi, Osaka. You, the protagonist, quit your job at an extremely toxic workplace and find yourself at a run-down maid cafe, where a cute maid named Shiro works. Maid Cafe on Electric Street is a story-focused adventure game where you enjoy daily life at Fuwa Fuwa Cafe.

Neon Noodles - Available In a future where food is the ultimate symbol of status, you are a recipe programming technician for a ruthless aristocracy. Create, test and optimize your culinary machines in this deliciously dark zach-like!

Tiny Glade - Available Tiny Glade is a small diorama builder where you doodle whimsical castles, cozy cottages & romantic ruins. Explore gridless building chemistry as the game adorns your glades with procedural detail. No management, combat or goals: just kick back and turn forgotten meadows into lovable dioramas.

All links above are to the games' Steam pages.

Why was it an "attempt" to play? Because one of the demos pissed me off, so I cut it short and skipped to the next one. However, I will still be able to render a verdict.

Neon Noodles was the demo that pissed me off and it was uninstalled when I started writing this. I also uninstalled Tiny Glade. It was cute, but playing it gave me a headache. Maid Cafe on Electric Street was, quickly, moved to my WANT collection, as was Captain Contraption's Chocolate Factory. The weirdness of Captain made it endearing. I was having fun with Neon Noodles until they introduced "programming the bots", which, a) I don't understand why we need it and b) the instructions for programming them weren't clear. And that's why I rage quit. Backing up a bit, Neon Noodles is set in a dystopia where being able to have actual food, instead of a paste, is a status symbol. So, it's our job to prepare food for the aristocracy via the Neon Noodles app. They were showing the controls for both the mouse and the controller, which was great, but with both sets of controls, I didn't understand what I was supposed to press/click to make the bot do what I wanted it to do. The only things I didn't understand were how to make it pick things up and put things down. It wasn't clear, so I got frustrated and moved on to Tiny Glade. Also, again, why did we need the bots? We had the conveyor belts to get the food from point A to point B. To end on a positive note, the design was great! The color palettes were futuristic and easy on the eyes. Well done, there! But we need clearer instructions.

Since I already mentioned Tiny Glade, we'll go on to my 3rd favorite game of the bunch. I loved the idea of having a space to just build to your heart's content, but the lack of guidance, while interesting at first, caused me to get bored quickly. There was everything and nothing to do. Also, spinning the camera around started giving me a headache. The art style tap danced on the edge of stylized and realism, which had me grinning, but they locked a lot of stuff for the demo. And made the space to build in tiny. Either I'm not as creative as I thought I was, or the developers didn't do their game justice with the demo. And, since I couldn't play it for long, I don't think I did the game justice, either.

Captain Contraption's Chocolate Factory was endearingly weird! And it engaged my love of playing around to figure things out, which Neon Noodles could learn from. The game has us in a chocolate factory, duh, where, like Neon Noodles, we have to come up with ways to get food from point A to point B, but Chocolate Factory made the puzzling more fun! Their conveyor belts were a bit more annoying, though, because I would click to try and move it and it would rotate instead, but it was my only frustration. My confusion was with the mini-lift, which I forgot the name of. It was supposed to move things without getting in the way of the conveyor belts. I'm getting ahead of myself. In Captain Contraption's Chocolate Factory we are filling orders in our chocolate factory. To do this? Design systems on how to get things items from point A to point B. This game made me think and I loved it! THEY HAD MINI CANNONS! Who uses mini cannons to get orders created? This gal! It's not a game I would make part of WGS, but I will be going back to it. It's wacky and funny! And full of fun colors!

Speaking of fun colors, how many times did I freak out at Maid Cafe on Electric Street design? I LOVE pixel art games! And how many times did I laugh while playing? I'm almost tempted to count. And it will DEFINITELY be getting its own "Let's finish the demo!" video! Out of the 4 demos, I was the saddest when I stopped playing this one. The story, you quit your toxic, and I mean toxic, they had you play it, job and the next day you become the manager of a maid cafe, hence the name. Unfortunately, there's only one person left, the owner is I forgot where, and if the place doesn't reopen soon, it'll close. The owner told the last employee, Shiro, if she's able to find a manager for the place, it can stay open. You take the job out of desperation because your last job provided you dorms, and they gave you 3 days to leave. Like I said, toxic. You take the job because you get to live in the apartment above the cafe. If I ever have a toxic job, I wanna quit it the way I did in the game. It was SO satisfying and everyone cheering as I did so was hilarious! I already mentioned the art style was pixel art, but I haven't mentioned the animations and lighting. It's the little things; while I was moving from the balcony of the apartment to back inside, the lighting actually adjusted when I was in a shadow. Again, the little things. The wind animations in the trees were legit. And it combined 2D and 3D in an entertaining and surprising way while in the cafe. The characters were 2D, but the rest of the space was 3D, or 3Desk, and it didn't feel out of place. The size of your character even increased and decreased in size as you moved forwards and backwards! Again, it's the little things! And it was also the only game that had voice acting, which was on par. And had me laughing. I think... I was laughing so much, I don't even remember at which parts anymore. I'm gonna stop now before I end up posting this at the end of the week...

And that's it for Part 10! Thank you for reading! If this series of videos is something you're interested in, the videos are available on YouTube, The Titans' Discord, Steam, Rumble, and Odysee!  Don't forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there's more!

—

"Let's Play Some Demos!" Video Series YouTube Playlist "Let's Play Some Demos!" Video Series Blog Posts

Pilot: CrossCode, Dumpy & Bumpy, Ynglet, Zero Ranger

Part 2: A Dance of Fire and Ice, 2064: Read Only Memories, Death and Taxes, Underhero

Part 3: TEKKEN 8, Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition, Secrets of Grindea, Forspoken

Part 4: Death's Hangover, Fae Farm, Fate/Samurai Remnant, Mini Settlers

Part 5: All-Star Fruit Racing, Indivisible, SaGa Emerald Beyond, Visions of Mana

Part 6: Glorious Companions, Tales of Arise, Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge, Cozy Island

Part 7: The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, Cursebane, Dex, The Lady Puppet

Part 8: Detroit: Become Human, Little Goody Two Shoes, Luma Island, Tinkerlands

Part 9: Backpack Battles, Glaciered, Ratopia, Slime Rancher

—

The Monday, November 25th, and 649th, Artist Shout-Out goes to Amaia Blesa! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Welcome Gamers! 1:54 - Artist Shout-Out 4:07 - Demos' Intro 7:22 - Captain Contraption's Chocolate Factory 43:00 - Maid Cafe on Electric Street 2:22:25 - Neon Noodles 2:32:22 - Tiny Glade 2:45:02 - Demos' List Again 2:45:24 - Artist Shout-Out 2:46:46 - Thank You/Links 2:49:08 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 2:50:55 - Farewell

—

MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT - MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized - Rendezvous Point Bookshop - Artist Shout-Out Criteria - The Titans' Discord - Throne Wishlist - #SubOffTwitch - YouTube - Rumble - Odysee - Twitch - Steam

Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on November 26, 2024.

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some $#!7!: Glorious Companions - Part 2 | Let's (try to) finish the demo!

Come join me for another installment of Let's Play Some $#!7 | LPS$, where I play games to provide commentary to educate on game development! Provided I don't get too caught up in the game to comment, which, in a sense, is commentary in and of itself.

Today, tried to finish playing Glorious Companions' demo! It was, initially, played in Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 6, but I had to cut it short so the video didn't get to 4 hours long.

Now, I didn't call this a Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD video because I want this game and I had planned to have it be a regular feature on the show. I changed my mind while playing it today; I don't think I can make it entertaining to watch live. I'm considering making it its own video series, though, like I did with Super Lesbian Animal RPG | SLARPG.

And if you came here from Twitch, thank you! I don't know why the stream suddenly cut, but I ALWAYS record my streams in case things like that happen!

With all that out of the way, here are my opinions:

I love the game so far, even though it frustrates me. I have no sense of direction, so more guidance towards quests would be nice. Or a better legend on the map. Now, I'm willing to admit if I've missed something. I did have to find the Tutorials for a reminder of how to turn the camera, which may or may not have caused my headache.

With the stream cutting, it left me unable to find out more about the game, like, how to equip items other than armor to the company. Are bandages and food only to be used while camping? I might have figured out the humanoid figures on the map are possible quest markers; I used them to find the packs of wolves and herds of deer I needed to hunt, and, sometimes, I would be where a figure was and wouldn't see what I needed to find. Again, I'm open to the fact I missed something. It had been 2 weeks and 5 days since I last played and I didn't think until I started playing to go over the tutorials again. Derp.

I am thankful for the bit of muscle memory I had left, which a well-crafted game is able to help establish. I may have forgotten what certain abilities did, but I didn't forget how to give orders to a company member or to fight in general. Well done there!

And someone in the chat pointed out the game looked good, and I agree! Although, I am concerned with how it doesn't help with my lack of sense of direction. Again, more guidance is needed to know where one needs to go when grabbing a quest. If I missed something, oops.

It's a great game that I don't feel like I did a lot of justice by playing. It looks great and it was my forgetting how to do things that added to it being frustrating to play. I'm also concerned about why the stream cut and the game began to lag. Are they the same cause?

And one last thing I forgot to mention is the fact the game is in Early Access and it has been since 2019. That's 5 years. Which explains why it looks and plays so well. If you look at the store page, it has Mixed reviews, in terms of positive and negative feedback. They're taking the feedback seriously, I would say. Bravo!

And that's it for this mini-review! Thank you for reading! If this series of videos is something you're interested in, you can watch it on YouTube, The Titans' Discord, Steam, Rumble, and Odysee! Don't forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there's more!

—

The Sunday, November 24th, and 648th, Artist Shout-Out goes to Ken Bishop! Check them out here!

—

TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Starting Soon 9:56 - Welcome Gamers! 12:17 - Artist Shout-Out/Alt Text Generator 18:26 - Glorious Companions 1:15:51 - Address the Stream Cut/Glorious Companions 1:19:54 - Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD Announcement 1:22:00 - Artist Shout-Out 1:26:55 - Thank You!/Just Chatting 1:29:12 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 1:32:23 - Farewell

—

MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT - MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized - Rendezvous Point Bookshop - Artist Shout-Out Criteria - The Titans' Discord - Throne Wishlist - #SubOffTwitch - YouTube - Rumble - Odysee - Twitch - Steam

—

Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on November 24, 2024.

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some Demos! – Part 9

Welcome to Part 9 of the Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD series! For those who are new, I aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games and provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes! For this episode, I, once again, perused through Steam’s Demos Category to see what was available.

Today, I, attempted, to play 4 video game demos for your enjoyment:

Backpack Battles - Early Access A PvP inventory management auto battler! Buy and craft powerful items, then carefully arrange them in your backpack.

Glaciered - Planned Release Date: To be announced Soar the seas at the end of time. 65 million years in the future, the world has frozen over, and the oceans have been sealed under a thick layer of ice. Become a Tuai — a species that evolved from birds — and protect the Everwinter in this futuristic underwater action game.

Ratopia - Early Access Ratopia is a new game that has combined elements of both strategic survival and city building. With plenty of content available, and more planned, enjoy a vast world to adventure and populate with citizens! Build your own economical system to sustain your ideal city of Ratopia.

Slime Rancher - Available Slime Rancher is the tale of Beatrix LeBeau, a plucky, young rancher who sets out for a life a thousand light years away from Earth on the ‘Far, Far Range’ where she tries her hand at making a living wrangling slimes.

All links above are to the games' Steam pages.

Why was it an "attempt" to play? If you started watching the video before reading this, you'll know the first video attempt was cut due to running out of storage space. Thankfully, I have another drive to move big things.

However, I will still be able to render a verdict.

In both videos, I showed why I wasn't able to play Backpack Battles: when I was "in" the game, the video went black. When I clicked off the game, it was viewable. So, I'll have to play it in my own time and do a written mini-review. I will start with this, though: the art style was amazing! And the two classes they had available looked pretty interesting.

Glaciered was disappointing. That's the dirt on top of the "Compliment Sandwich". The story has potential. The graphics are GORGEOUS! You play as a bird, shark creature! Why did the controls have to be so irritatingly confusing? Good thing I wasn't counting because I would have lost track of how many times I opened up the Controls menu to make adjustments and the menu that adjusted camera sensitivity.

The game has Controller Support, and yet not all of the buttons and sticks were automatically mapped. The tutorial would tell me to press a button to Heal, but there wouldn't be a button symbol shown. It wasn't until I went into the controls and picked a button, X, that it was presented in the tutorial. That was pretty cool, actually, the tutorial adjusting to me. I had to figure out how I wanted the buttons mapped myself. And here's where I get to things being annoyingly confusing.

In order to move, I, eventually, mapped forward, back, left, and right to the Left Stick. Yes, I had to map each one to the Left Stick separately. However, in order to actually turn corners, the camera had to be used, which was mapped to the Right Stick. To Ascend quickly, it was A. To Descend, it was Y. Unless I mixed them up again... To dodge left or right was B. Again, it was X to heal. The game had me using the ENTIRE controller!

And the mapping of buttons wasn't the main issue, as I mentioned. The camera sensitivity was ridiculous! I had to drop it down to the minimum in order to be comfortable, but then, when they showed me how to sprint, I realized I needed more sensitivity. Had I not had to figure out how to MOVE, and had I not gotten motion sickness from all the attempts, on TOP of the motion blur, I could recommend the game. As is, it's too frustrating. I wasn't able to have fun with the combat because I was too busy being annoyed at the controls.

Ratopia SIGNIFICANTLY improved my mood! Even when it frustrated me. I eventually realized I was the cause of my own frustration. It was during this demo that the first video cut. So, since I wasn't going to go back and play Glaciered again, most of the demo was Ratopia. And if it hadn't been, I definitely would have made it a "Let's Play Some $#!7 | LPS$ - Let's finish the demo!" video. I WANT THIS GAME!

The controls were easy to pick up on, despite the typos throwing me off on occasion, and the "combined elements of both strategic survival and city building" had me engaged! I don't remember playing another city-building game that had me caring about the people within said city. Backing up a bit, the bit of story we received was you're a ruler of a kingdom and you're escaping assassination attempts. You tunnel into a new land, with your second in command, and now you're rebuilding. And, due to limited resources, you have to pick which migrants are allowed to enter your community. And you NEED to pay attention!

Would it be better to take in two people with some attitude problems so you have additional workers or take in a more reasonable individual with hygiene issues? Because, yes, you have to monitor your peoples' hygiene. And their joy. And, yes, the developers make you pay attention to their personalities because there are CAUSES of their negative behavior. And they make requests of you. And your choices matter. I had already decided I would be a fair queen who actually gave a damn, so when someone complained there weren't enough fun things to do, I, as soon as I was able, researched the building they were requesting. I also put more focus on fun.

My mistake was not paying close enough attention to the Research. I was being told to build buildings I wasn't even CLOSE to being able to research!

And I haven't even talked about the art; EVERYONE was adorable! Except for the diseased rats that kept attacking everything. Remember when I mentioned in the beginning I was causing my own frustration? They were what I was talking about. It took my dying, and then reloading a previous save, for me to realize I was being overrun by the rats because I was attacking their home base. Oops. I made sure to back away before attacking the invaders after that. And during the attacks was when everyone was the most animated! I mean, duh, but they were very well done! It was always clear how everyone was feeling, regardless of the situation, due to how well done the animations were. This was an EXCELLENT example of Early Access done right!

Slime Rancher wasn't for me, but I see why people would enjoy it. I very much enjoy watching people play, even if watching them gives me headaches. I noticed I didn't really get a headache playing this, like I expected. I had one, but it wasn't caused by the game. And because I had watched other people play, I played CAREFULLY! No genicidal, tar slimes for me, thanks!

I, kinda, got into the ranch building and updates, but the exploring was... meh. I wasn't excited about engaging with the world. Did I freak out once about how cute the non-tar slimes were? Yes, but that was all the game had going for it. That and when I had to beat certain slimes to plorts. My reaction to those slimes amused me because I realized how invested I was getting. But the game wasn't able to maintain the investment. Comparing it to Ratopia, since they're similar, I wasn't really attached to the slimes. In Ratopia, I was actually TRYING to learn about the people in my community. The slimes were a means to an end. An end I didn't care about.

In the end, I moved Ratopia to my WANT Collection, after uninstalling Glaciered and Slime Rancher. 

As a reminder, Backpack Battles and Ratopia are in Early Access, Glaciered does not yet have a release date, and Slime Rancher is Available.

And that's it for Part 9! Thank you for reading! If this series of videos is something you're interested in, the videos are available on YouTube, The Titans' Discord, Steam, Rumble, and Odysee!  Don't forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there's more!

—

"Let's Play Some Demos!" Video Series YouTube Playlist

—

—

TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Welcome Again Gamers! 2:39 - Artist Shout-Out 7:07 - Quick Recap Begins 7:14 - Backpack Battles Recap 7:43 - Glaciered Recap 9:43 - Demos' Description Reading 11:29 - Ratopia Continued 2:31:46 - Slime Rancher 3:24:50 - Took a Call 3:26:10 - Slime Rancher 3:31:56 - Demos' Lineup/Quick Commentary 3:33:15 - Artist Shout-Out 3:34:06 - Thank You/Links 3:35:23 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 3:36:04 - Farewell

—

MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Outs Criteria – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble – Odysee – Twitch – Steam

Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on November 19, 2024.

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some $#!7!: Cursebane – Part 2 | Let’s finish the demo!

Come join me for another installment of Let's Play Some $#!7 | LPS$, where I play games to provide commentary on the game's development! Provided I don't get too caught up in the game to comment, which, in a sense, is commentary in and of itself.

Today, we finished playing Cursebane's demo! It was, initially, played in Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 7, but I had to cut it short so the video didn't get to 4 hours long. That, and the last game played that day scared the $#!7 out of me...

Now, I didn't call this stream Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD because I want this game. After I get it, it'll be a regular feature on the show.

If you came here from Twitch, thank you! I don't know why the stream suddenly cut, but I ALWAYS record my streams in case things like that happen!

With all that out of the way, here are my opinions: If competing with Hades is a goal, the developers are headed in the right direction. Provided enough people learn this game exists. With how heavily saturated Steam is, I'm amazed I found it. If they're not trying to compete, it's the inspiration for the game, but their version is excellent on its own. I mentioned, after I played the demo the first time, Cursebane is a 2D, pixelated Hades and, while true, it doesn't do the game justice. I also mentioned the story was forgettable, and it still is, but not in a bad way. ADHD moment(s). Though, after playing through it for another few hours I'm more invested in figuring it out. If I'm piecing things together correctly now, because of a curse, or a bunch of curses, rifts have split the world into pieces. These pieces are stuck in time loops until you break their curse. For this one area the demo provides, you have to save a village from its curse. Because of the time loop, you can choose how you want to save said village. And as you go around exploring/trying to find your way to the village, each death results in you taking a different path, however, if you die enough times, things will start to look familiar as you revisit areas. As you make decisions, you change what bosses you fight, which allows you to figure out how to make the game easier. I'm guessing it being the demo was why I was able to max out my upgrades, but each upgrade was great for balancing. I was eventually able to make it so I was able to die twice before I had to restart the area. And I maxed out my HP. The demo threw me for a loop when I restored the area and it wasn't "Demo Over"; I was able to try again. Was there something else I was supposed to do or were the developers simply letting me play around more with ability combos? Which I haven't mentioned yet; you can enhance your katana, dash-strike, charge attack (which I barely used), and knockback spell with either Ice, Fire, or Lightning, and BOY are they fun! Ice freezes and slows people down, Fire deals extra damage and/or burns, and lightning strikes repeatedly. My FAVORITE combination was the Lightning spell, so melee enemies were constantly being struck, Ice on my attacks and dash-strike so foes slow down and make them easier to hit, and, even though I barely used the charge attack, I preferred it to have Fire. I could have played around with them more, and I was tempted, but the video was getting close to 4 hours... And that's it for this mini-review! Thank you for reading! If this series of videos is something you're interested in, you can watch it on YouTube, Steam, Rumble, Odysee, and The Titans' Discord! Don’t forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there’s more!

—

The Sunday, November 17th, and 645th, Artist Shout-Out goes to 7NML! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – Starting Soon 9:57 – Welcome Gamers! 12:05 – Artist Shout-Out 16:32 – OED Word of the Day 16:36 – Cursebane Steam Page 18:10 – Cursebane 1:56:43 – Break 2:12:08 – Cursebane 3:43:26 – Addressing the Stream Cut 3:43:51 – Artist Shout-Out 3:44:52 – Just Chatting/Thank You! 3:47:51 – Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 3:49:23 – Farewell

—

MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Out Criteria – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble– Odysee – Twitch – Steam

Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on November 17, 2024.

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 8

Welcome to Part 8 of the Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD series! For those who are new, I aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games and to provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes! For this episode, I, once again, perused through Steam's Demos Category to see what was available.

Today, I played demos for 4 games:

Detroit: Become Human – Available Detroit: Become Human puts the destiny of both mankind and androids in your hands, taking you to a near future where machines have become more intelligent than humans. Every choice you make affects the outcome of the game, with one of the most intricately branching narratives ever created.

Little Goody Two Shoes – Available Venture into the woods as you play Little Goody Two Shoes, a phantasmagorical horror narrative adventure where all your decisions matter!

Luma Island – Planned Release Date: Nov 20, 2024 Travel to Luma Island to go on an epic adventure by yourself or with your friends and family. Build your dream farm, master professions, collect magical Lumas, find treasures and unravel the mysteries of the island.

Tinkerlands Demo – Coming Soon This demo is your gateway into the vast world of Tinkerlands. Explore the island, craft equipment, build a settlement and fight monsters and bosses to survive, solo or in co-op!

All links above are to the games' Steam pages.

The verdict?

Quick note, while doing the TIMESTAMPS for the video, I noticed Detroit: Become Human's demo lasted for, roughly, 20 minutes. Little Goody Two Shoes' lasted for an hour and 40 minutes-ish and Luma Island's lasted for 46 minutes-ish ONLY because I cut it short. I cut Tinkerlands short as well at, roughly, 47-ish minutes. Why is this interesting? I'll get to it.

Also, I had an ADHD moment. I mentioned in the video I didn't know Two Shoes was a horror game, and then I read the description IN THE BLOG POST again. Oh… Let's call it a "pleasant rediscovery"!

My favorite demo is a tie, to my surprise, between Little Goody Two Shoes and Tinkerlands. While I love all of them, Two Shoes being a horror game ACTUALLY didn't throw me (check out LPSD – Part 7, 2:32:28, for the last time I played a horror game) and I was sad when I reached the end of the demo and Tinkerlands sucked me in, proven by the fact I not only went quiet, but I kept delaying ending the video. I'm also pleasantly surprised their art styles didn't have me mentioning Super Lesbian Animal RPG. Almost every pixel art game does.

Two Shoes' story had me from the beginning, introductory cutscene! Even if Elise's complaints right afterward got on my nerves. And even after my somewhat loud frustration at there not being enough guidance to figure out where Elise's home was. My favorite part of the demo was when I talked about there being no map, and then it popped up! What excellent timing! I'm also a fan of how it's LGBT+! I wasn't expecting any romance and the fact all the options were women had me amused. And, because I forgot about the horror element, it was QUITE the twist! I had been wondering throughout the demo when the Hearts, health meter, was going to come into play. This Little Red Riding Hood retelling had me hooked until the demo ended! I wanted to keep playing…

I felt the same way about Tinkerlands. How many times did I say I was going to end the video, but kept playing instead? I had to practically yell at myself to get me to stop playing! I was HOOKED! I don't know what it is about games like this, but the inventory management, crafting, and exploring to get more resources, which then unlocks recipes, always make me happy! I don't think I've found one I didn't like. If I have I don't remember it. OH! And the fact I get to build a house is pretty neat, even if I don't really understand how it works, yet! I'm suddenly reminded of Skyrim (the only reason why I played it was to build the houses)!

Luma Island, a 3D and more focused version of Tinkerlands, had me mentioning Fae Farm repeatedly, which one would think isn't a good sign for it. However, it didn't make me want the game any less. There were some frustrating bits, like the fact the game didn't warn me how time worked. It told me to go talk to a guy, I ran around looking for the guy, but they didn't tell me he would only be available in the morning. The lack of a jump button was annoying as well. I had to run around a building because I couldn't get up at a certain spot because I couldn't jump. Fae Farm handled time better by making sleeping important and I was a jumping fool because it got me to places faster (check out LPSD – Part 4 & LPS$: Fae Farm – Part 2 for a laugh). Does the pixel art style have something to do with it? I can't remember playing a pixel art game where jumping was possible… If I find one, I'll update this section. If I remember. I also can't remember the last time I played a 3D pixel art game. It looked great!

Speaking of games that looked great, Detroit: Become Human handled as I expected it to. I'm a BIG fan of Beyond: Two Souls and don't share the same complaints many others have with the game's controls. I quite enjoy them! It feels more interactive than your usual "press a button to get something done" mechanics. And, being a fan of Quantic Dreams' games, if you wanna consider me biased, I can't really bitch. The graphics were exquisite, as usual. The voice acting was sublime, as usual. The story was enticing, as usual. I felt the usual tension regarding my choices; I was TERRIFIED I would fail to save the hostage! The "Story Tree" was a neat idea, too! AND, even though I enjoyed the controls, they had their usual issues. The camera, as usual, was a hassle. As was the lack of guidance on when I had control of the character. It also, as usual, screwed with my sense of direction. I’m biased, so I won’t end this with compliments.

Overall, I want ALL of the games! Luma Island and Tinkerlands aren't going to be demos I finish on stream, though. Too bad Detroit: Become Human and Little Goody Two Shoes were finished in the video…

As a reminder, Luma Island planned release date is Nov 20, 2024. Tinkerlands does not yet have a release date.

Another ADHD moment. Apparently, I already own Detroit: Become Human…

And that's it for Part 8! Thank you for reading! If this series of videos is something you're interested in, you can watch it on YouTube, Steam, Rumble, Odysee, and The Titans' Discord! Don't forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there's more!

—

"Let's Play Some Demos!" Playlist

—

The Monday, November 11th, and 643rd, Artist Shout-Out goes to Robyn Lara! Check them out here!

—

TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – Welcome Gamers! 1:47 – Artist Shout-Out 5:24 – Demos' Intro 6:28 – Detroit: Become Human 26:35 – Little Goody Two Shoes 2:02:41 – Luma Island 2:48:47 – Tinkerlands Demo 3:35:45 – Artist Shout-Out 3:37:21 – Thank You/Links 3:39:07 – Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 3:40:01 – Farewell

—

MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Outs Criteria – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble – Odysee – Twitch – Steam

Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on November 12, 2024.

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some $#!7! - Split Attention: The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood & Dex | Let's finish their demos!

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Come join me for another installment of Let's Play Some $#!7 | LPS$, where I play games to provide commentary to educate on game development! Provided I don't get too caught up in the game to comment, which, in a sense, is commentary in and of itself. Today, we finished playing The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood's and Dex's demos! They were, initially, played in Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 7, but I had to cut them short so the video didn't get to 4 hours long.

Now, I didn't call this stream Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD because I want these games. After I get them, they'll be regular features on the show. Excuse the lack of sound on this one. It didn't register Streamlabs not reacting to my voice or the games' sounds meant no one could hear me. Thankfully, someone pointed it out. And now that the demos are finished, I can say, again, with confidence, I WANT these games! I knew it when I felt sad their demos ended and I couldn't play anymore. I LOVE their stories! Especially since I finally figured out how to use the damn gun in Dex. Of course, after I figured out how to use it, I over-used it, but we're not here to discuss me... And, yes, I used the code at the end of the demo. One of the downloads didn't work, though... And I didn't notice until looking at the Steam pages of both games they're rated M for Mature 17+. Good thing I have my streams automatically set TO Mature. Once again, with The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, I got more insight into my personality. And I got insight into how I like to design; symmetry, when applicable. I don't know what I love more, the story or the fact I get to design my own Tarot cards! Even though the card designing can be frustrating since the developers thought it would be a FANTASTIC idea to have Rotate and Resize use the same wheel. How many times did I complain about it... I lost track of how many times I went to shrink something and it turned as it did so, so I have no idea. And I was, once again, freaking out about how the characters were designed, (I want Fortuna's outfit), including the new character we were introduced to. The color palette was exquisite! When I took a look at the Steam page, I checked out the developer, Deconstructeam, who, apparently, has a history of excellent storytelling! I'm going to look into them more. Dex grew on me faster than I expected it to after I figured out how to use the gun. It still has its issues, that may have been fixed in the game, but I don't know yet. Exploring the world is fun, even when you don't realize you're taking fall damage, and the combat remains fun. Especially with the gun, although I realized, after the demo was done, I was missing the melee combat. Oops. My biggest issue with the game is a map. If the only thing we can use it for is fast travel, then I would rather there be stations around the town for teleportation. Unless I missed something, there's nothing else useful about it. A mini-map to tell us who is in what area would be nice as well, along with some quest indicators. I get it's non-linear, but no guidance at all is frustrating. I should not be feeling lost in a side-scroller. I checked out the developer, Dreadlocks Ltd., and they LOVE puzzles! The design of Dex drew me in and kept me, and the story has me longing for more!

Well, these are all the updates I have for now! Thank you for reading! If this is something you're interested in, don't forget to hit the "Subscribe" and/or "Follow" buttons! And you can watch my videos on Twitch, YouTube, Steam, Rumble, Odysee, and The Titans' Discord!

—

The Sunday, November 10th, and 642nd, Artist Shout-Out goes to Barbara Sotolongo! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Starting Soon! 9:56 - Welcome Gamers! 11:59 - Artist Shout-Out 15:40 - The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood 1:45:05 - Dex 1:57:43 - Break 2:13:16 - Dex 2:55:46 - Artist Shout-Out 2:57:56 - Closing/Just Chatting 3:01:18 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 3:06:34 - Farewell

—

MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Out Criteria – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble – Odysee – Twitch – Steam

Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on November 10, 2024.

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 7

With the United States of America projected to become the Fascist States of America, I decided to record Part 7 of the Let's Play Some Demos | LPSD video series to share some games with folks. For this episode, I, once again, perused through Steam's Demos Category to see what was available.

For those who are new, the purpose of this video series is to provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes. Today, it's to provide a distraction.

Today, I played demos for 4 games:

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood Immerse yourself in an enchanting narrative experience as Fortuna, a fortune-teller Witch condemned to exile on her asteroid home. Craft your own Tarot deck, regain your freedom, and shape the fate of the cosmic Witch society.

Cursebane Cursebane is a katana-action roguelite where your choices twist your journey. Empower your blade and spells as you seek out those doomed by prophecy and save them from the Curse.

Dex Dex is a 2D, side-scrolling, open-world cyberpunk RPG with a focus on exploration and non-linear gameplay. Designed as a throwback to earlier 2D platforming and action games combined with modern RPG elements, Dex offers real-time combat, a mature storyline and interactive dialogues.

The Lady Puppet The Lady Puppet is a Survival Horror Adventure game that puts emphasis on atmosphere and exploration. Help Lailah Reah escape from Clawhill, a bizarre world where everyone has been turned into a living puppet. Solve puzzles, use your wits to avoid the enemies and use dolls to summon companions.

All links above are to the games' Steam pages.

The verdict?

The Lady Puppet scared the SHIT out of me! And since horror games aren't really my thing, that and puzzle games, I didn't get very far. I couldn't finish the demo, it scared me too much. Which means I highly recommend it to people who love horror games! It did its job! Uninstalling the demo, now… I'm not ending my commentary there, though. The story is creepy in and of itself; you're trying NOT to become a human puppet. The character design was fantastic as well as the pixel art. The sound design was genius, to me; if it's standard for a horror game to make a sound when you step on grass, I wouldn't know. And since the safest way to get through the game is to make as little noise as possible, I was TERRIFIED! Not being able to save whenever I wanted didn't help, either. There was some voice acting, meant to terrify, which set the scene and let us know how the character was feeling. Terrified. I sent the link to the game to my partner.

My favorite demo/game is a tie between The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood and Cursebane. I don't have a gameplay comparison for Cosmic, but Cursebane is a 2D, pixelated Hades and I LOVED it! Cosmic's art style reminded me of Super Lesbian Animal RPG, but, then again, almost every pixel art game does. Cosmic has a darker color palette than SLARPG, which made sense given the game's sensitive themes; there is a content warning. Cursebane's pixelation reminded me of Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice.

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood gameplay was incredibly unique and I appreciated it! You are a witch who summoned a Behemoth to help you out of exile and you are creating your own Tarot deck in the process because yours was taken from you. And you actually get to DESIGN your cards using the in-game graphics provided! I got a bit of insight into my personality while creating the first two cards. I loved it a LOT! I wonder if I like the Behemoth more than I should… and it was implied it was the same about the Behemoth towards you.

Cursebane's story I've already forgotten. I think we've been summoned to break a curse…? The gameplay, however, had me grinning! Since I already compared it to Hades, let me give you some differences: your dash attack recharges, you get your enhancements from elemental crystals, and you only get a sword, but the sword changes depending on how much Fate you have collected. I like speed, so I went with fast attacks. There was one thing I found confusing, though; I was given an item that allowed me to get past a particular enemy type, yet I had to fight groups of them at one point. What did I miss?

Dex is not my usual game, but it's not a point of this series to show my usual. Only. Dex is definitely one I’ll revisit, though, due to the engaging storyline. The point is to survive. I don't remember why the character's being hunted, but the fact the goal is to bring down the system had me intrigued! There was some pixelation in the design when it came to the characters, but the background was more realistic. I had to look at the game's description to remember it was a side-scrolling platformer. The combat got on my nerves, because I couldn't figure out how to fire the gun and I got no direction, but the melee combat was entertaining. It felt a bit like the Tekken series. My biggest issue with it is the map; it's not very helpful. The game's description says it's not linear, fine, but that doesn't mean there should be NO guidance! And, while I am open to the possibility I missed something, I shouldn't be missing anything in a demo. I don't think that's too much to ask.

As a whole, I loved 3 out of 4 of the games, as I expected. The Lady Puppet did its job as a horror game, which is why the demo was quickly uninstalled. I considered giving it another try, then remembered how quickly I chickened out and changed my mind. They are all beautifully, and skillfully designed and I'm happy I played them all, even if I didn't finish so the video wasn't 4 hours.

And that's it for Part 7! If this series of videos is something you're interested in, don't forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons!

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"Let's Play Some Demos!" Playlist

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Welcome Gamers! 1:24 - Demos' Intro 1:52 - The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood 53:31 - Cursebane 1:41:04 - Dex 2:32:28 - The Lady Puppet 3:00:57 - Demos' List Again 3:01:22 - Mini Critique 3:03:17 - Thank You/Links 3:09:33 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 3:12:46 - Farewell

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Outs Criteria – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble – Odysee – Twitch – Steam

Originally published to http://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on November 6, 2024.

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 6

Welcome to Part 5 of Let’s Play Some Demos | LPSD! In sum, these videos and streams aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games! For this episode, I, once again, looked through my Steam Wishlist to see who had demos available.

Today, I played demos for 4 games:

Glorious Companions – Early Access Explore the open world of Terscara as you advance through the challenging and tactical encounters in this epic turn-based tactical RPG. Form and lead a group of battle-proven companions, delve into the ancient dungeons to collect the elusive vault crystals, and end Xandar’s Wraith once and for all.

Tales of Arise 300 years of tyranny. A mysterious mask. Lost pain and memories. Wield the Blazing Sword and join a mysterious, untouchable girl to fight your oppressors. Experience a tale of liberation, featuring characters with next-gen graphical expressiveness!

Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge Ultionus is a love-letter to the home computer arcade games of the late 80s and early 90s, with colorful 2D visuals, catchy chiptune music by the legendary Jake ‘Virt’ Kaufman, and 7 stages of hard-as-nails gameplay.

Cozy Island Take a relaxing walk around a surprise-filled island and build your own secret base! Explore the island, meet cute animals, play fun mini-games, and collect cool toys and furniture. Enjoy carefree and happy moments on the island! Play with your friends and share the fun together!

All links above are to the games’ Steam pages.

The verdict? Cozy Island was a bust. The sound design was annoying and grating and it was designed in such a fashion that one error and I couldn’t proceed with the story. The art style was cute in its simplicity, but the character animation had me tilting my head. Why? As my favorite game critic says, paraphrasing, “I don’t care how big the world is. I only care about what I can do.” And there was NOTHING to do. Just play Fae Farm. My favorite demo was Tales of Arise! And it reminded me a LOT of Visions of Mana! The design was GORGEOUS! I freaked out, excitedly, a few times at how it looked. I, also, freaked out a few times because I was being chased, but that’s another story… The combat tutorials could use some work; it should not have taken me as long as it did to figure out how to block/guard. And I could have SWORN, I was able to switch characters during combat, but couldn’t find how to do it. Unless I mistook it for something else, which is possible. Which is a problem. The combat was fun, despite my, temporary lack of blocking. Why biggest frustration with it, however, was when the character I was controlling went down in a fight, I wasn’t automatically switched to another one. Nor was there an option to switch. I was literally spectating the fight, waiting for it to be over, but I couldn’t remember how to flee if fleeing was even an option while downed. Ending out the Compliment Sandwich, the party banter was entertaining. The character design was sublime. The art style was anime tap dancing on realism. The UI was easy to follow. And it was one of a HANDFUL of games I can remember playing that made me WANT to explore! Normally, I want linear storylines and clear paths, but this one was an exception. Well done! Why had I not heard of this game before? Because I don’t pay enough attention to Bandai… Glorious Companions, which was in Early Access, looked and played GREAT! It was a decent example of Early Access done right! And it was my second favorite. It reminded me a lot of a game called Price of Freedom, NSFW, but was WAY simpler and more straightforward. Price of Freedom had you attacking separate body parts while Glorious Companions was straight-up attacking and defending. The tutorial was easy to follow. It was beautifully designed. Backing up a bit, I ACTUALLY had a tough time picking what class I wanted to play because 3 out of 4 were FANTASTIC! I wished there was character customization, but they might have locked it for either, a) demo and/or b) story reasons. My biggest issue was my inability to add things to the Inventory slots for battle. I was walking into fights with no bandages or potions with no understanding as to why. Which would have been fine had I been able to use them out of battle, outside of camping. And there was no explanation as to why I couldn’t. If I missed the explanation, that’s a problem. I shouldn’t be missing shit in a tutorial. To end on a high note, I LOVED the art design! I loved how it was animated! I definitely intend to recommend this one to my partner!

And that’s it for Part 6! If this series of videos is something you’re interested in, don’t forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons!

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“Let’s Play Some Demos!” Playlist

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – Welcome Gamers! 2:17 – Demos’ Intro 2:40 – Glorious Companions – Early Access 54:45 – Tales of Arise 1:53:26 – Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge 2:12:19 – Cozy Island 2:29:46 – Mini Critique/Thank You 2:37:38 – Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 2:41:58 – Farewell

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Outs Criteria – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble – Odysee – Twitch – Steam

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[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some $#!7!: Reigns - Part 2 | Can we get to a 100-year long reign?

This is a two-parter due to the fact Part 1 wasn't allowing captions. And I do NOT stream without captions. With that out the way, back to business. Come join me for another installment of Let's Play Some $#!7 | LPS$, where I play games to provide commentary to educate on game development! Provided I don't get too caught up in the game to comment, which, in a sense, is commentary in and of itself. Today, we continued playing Reigns! And it was… underwhelming. I didn’t get to a 100-year reign, sad face, and it can only be played once. If you fail to break the curse, you fail. There is no restarting, that I was able to find. It looks like you need to spend money to get more tries…? There is an app version of the game, though, which I'm DEFINITELY going to look into. I downloaded it as I was closing. Doesn't stop me from being disappointed though. Really? Only one playthrough? I guess one playthrough is what $2.99 gets you… While the ending may not have been satisfying, the game up to that point was fun! If you don't mind a game that doesn't take long to lose, or beat, where your choices matter, this is for you!

Well, these are all the updates I have for now! Thank you for reading! If this is something you're interested in, don't forget to hit the "Subscribe" and/or "Follow" button!

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The Sunday, November 3rd, and 639th, Artist Shout-Out goes to Ekaterina Maltseva! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS – Part 2 of 2 0:00 – Pixel Chat/Chrome Confirmation 1:01 – Welcome Gamers! 3:08 – Artist Shout-Out 7:02 – Just Chatting 8:03 – Steam/YouTube Integration Showing 13:25 – Reigns 1:07:16 – Artist Shout-Out 1:09:55 – Closing/Just Chatting 1:13:05 – duskpaw Shout-Out! 1:13:13 – Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 1:16:47 – Farewell

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Out Criteria – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble – Odysee – Twitch

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[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some $#!7!: Reigns - Intro | 53-YEAR REIGN! WOOT-WOOT!

Come join me for another installment of Let's Play Some $#!7 | LPS$! Today, we started playing Reigns! I was introduced to it by another YouTuber/Streamer, Jim Stephanie Sterling. And it made me break my rule, which I compensated for by shortening the stream a little; I skipped break to keep playing. And I got to a 53-YEAR REIGN! WOOT-WOOT! Then died when my Military fell and my brother-in-law poisoned me. Backing up, Reigns is a card game; a card game that provides you with choices that matter. You are a king, so far, every time. I had a daughter at one point, but I might have died too soon to be able to see her be a queen. If her being a queen was even possible. When you die, you rule again as the next heir and it tracks how long you rule for.

The setting is medieval and your choices affect the Church, the People, the Military, and/or the Economy, each represented by a Cross, Stick Figure, Sword, and Dollar sign. If one is emptied, your reign ends. If one maxes out, your reign ends. The latter was INTERESTING to learn! And made for some interesting choices! The choice system itself is complicated by its simplicity, which I tried explaining to a viewer, but they didn't get it. It's fine. I don't always explain things well. How you know what your choices affect is represented by dots above the icons; small dot, small effect, and big dot, big effect. What they don't tell you is if the effect is positive or negative. It's a glorified guessing game that had me hooked! Three problems off the top of my head are, 1) without spoiling some story, they had me execute someone who should have already been dead AND someone died of poison multiple times. And, 2) some choices got repetitive. Why do I need to keep adding fortresses to the castle when there was no indicator of them being destroyed? Or did I miss something? 3) The people you regularly interact with are living WAY too long! The only time there as a replacement was when I had them killed! AM I MISSING SOMETHING? Completing the compliment sandwich, the game's art style is adorable! And also simple! The music was pretty decent, too. And the achievements were fun to figure out! This is a game I will have no issues with revisiting! Can I beat my record of a 53-year reign? Can I get to 100? We'll see! And since I don't know what will happen if I try to start a new game, this is going to be a Stream game going forward.

Well, this is all for now! Thank you for reading! If this is something you're interested in, don't forget to hit the "Subscribe" and/or "Follow" button!

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The Sunday, October 27, and 636th, Artist Shout-Out goes to Ida Smaga! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Starting Soon 9:57 - Welcome Gamers! 12:00 - Artist Shout-Out 14:59 - Game Intro/Launch 16:33 - Reigns 3:13:35 - Artist Shout-Out 3:14:52 - Closing/Just Chatting 3:19:01 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 3:23:44 - Farewell

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT - MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized - Rendezvous Point Bookshop - Artist Shout-Out Criteria - Throne Wishlist - #SubOffTwitch - YouTube - Rumble - Odysee - Twitch

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[monriatitans]

Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 5

Welcome to Part 5 of Let’s Play Some Demos | LPSD! In sum, these videos and streams aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games! For this episode, I, once again, looked through my Steam Wishlist to see who had demos available. For those who are new, the purpose of this video series is to provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes.

Today, I played demos for 4 games:

All-Star Fruit Racing A high-speed multiplayer racer with a unique power-up system! Combine different juices for a range of attacking and defensive abilities. Drift through looping bends. Soar over monumental jumps, and defy gravity around tubular tracks in an explosively colorful racer!

Indivisible Indivisible is a hand drawn action RPG platformer from Lab Zero, creators of the critically acclaimed Skullgirls! Set in a huge fantasy world, Indivisible tells the story of Ajna, a fearless girl with a rebellious streak who sets out on a quest to save everything she knows from being destroyed.

SaGa Emerald Beyond FORGE YOUR OWN TALE The latest standalone entry in the SaGa franchise, SaGa Emerald Beyond, brings together the very best elements of the beloved series to offer each player their own unique gameplay experience.

Visions of Mana Explore a world of elemental spirits and adventure in the latest Mana action-RPG. The protagonist Val and his childhood friend Hinna, the newly appointed Alm of Fire, set off on a journey to the Mana Tree.

All links above are to the games’ Steam pages.

The verdict? All-Star Fruit Racing and SaGa Emerald Beyond were removed from my wishlist, to my dismay. Fruit Racing crashed 3 times; not much else needs to be said. SaGa, however, wasn’t fun. It looked great, visually, and it had an interesting start, but once I started being able to do things, it went downhill. The music was better than I expected it to be; too bad I had the volume so low. The Timeline mechanic reminded me of Othercide, which made me smile, but that was about it. I was NOT expecting the Scottish accents. If the game depended upon my having prior knowledge to enjoy it, I missed that. The art style was excellent! The animations were smooth! The game looks gorgeous! How they did their turn-based combat, however, left much to be desired. My favorite one was Visions of Mana, to my surprise. It reminded me a LOT of Final Fantasy XV, which makes sense since they’re both Square Enix games. One would expect some familiar elements. The character banter was fun to listen to; the combat was intuitive until the camera got annoying. PUPPY MOUNTS! Anyway, the art style was consistent; if there’s a name for it, I forgot, but the art style was realistic enough to be believable while also being stylized enough to be unique and fun. One thing that annoyed me, but probably shouldn’t have since I wasn’t familiar with the series, was all the exposition in the beginning. It probably had to do with the voice acting being meh. I’ve already forgotten the character’s names, except for Val, the protagonist, but I do remember thinking whoever voiced the Kitty Cat, whose name I regret not remembering because he holds a dagger in his tail when he fights, was trying too hard. I LOVE that game regardless. It’s one of a handful of games I’ve played that made me WANT to explore! Indivisible was a close second, despite the fact it pissed me off in the end. It was trying to introduce how to flee a battle, but, no matter what I did, fleeing didn’t happen, which forced me to end the demo early. However, I was having a BLAST up until that point! Once I got a hang of the combat system, mostly, I was grooving! I had trouble figuring out which party member was being attacked so I could block the attacks, but it didn’t stop me from wishing there were more games like it! When playing with a controller, each party member was attached to a particular button. All you had to do to make them attack was press a button. There was no menu or anything to sort through, just a slight alteration of a turn-based combat system. As their attack recharged, you could press the button once you were able and could either have a couple people attacking or have a barrage of attacks rained down on the enemy! It was SO MUCH FUN to watch! Fun art style, and nice, little touches with the animations! I DEFINITELY want this one! Despite the fact it showed up in the video as a tiny rectangle even though I made it full screen.

And that’s it for Part 5! If this series of videos is something you’re interested in, don’t forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow button!

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“Let’s Play Some Demos!” Playlist

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The Sunday, October 20, and 633rd, Artist Shout-Out goes to FestivalOfRavens! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – Welcome Gamers! 1:19 – Artist Shout-Out 3:25 – Demos’ Intro 3:48 – All-Star Fruit Racing 8:21 – Indivisible – Don’t know what’s going on with the small rectangle 44:05 – Be Right Back 1:20:36 – SaGa Emerald Beyond 1:58:31 – Visions of Mana 4:13:38 – Mini Critique 4:17:54 – Thank You/Closing 4:19:02 – Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 4:21:14 – Farewell

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Outs Criteria – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble – Odysee– Twitch

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[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Let's Play Some $#!7!: Fae Farm - Part 2

Come join me for another installment of Let's Play Some $#!7 | LPS$!

Today, I decided to continue from where we left off on Friday's Let's Play Some Demos | LPSD video with Fae Farm! The demo allows one to play through 5 in-game days, so I completed it.

I was first introduced to this by other streamers and thought it was cute. Then I started playing it and was wowed! It's not very often a game makes me want to run around and explore. I normally prefer linear RPGs with a clear direction and this game at no point made me miss it.

I loved hopping around the area. I loved the art style. I loved how everyone was animated. This is a beautifully constructed game and it's clear a lot of effort was put in. And the 5 in-game days being the demo was brilliant AND 7 days would be better since it would be an ACTUAL week.

It, also, had one of THE BEST lines I have ever seen in a video game:

"You're fearless? Well, that's good to hear but probably doesn't lend to good decision making." - Alaric

It's definitely going to stay on my wishlist; I can't justify buying it while unemployed.

Well, this is all for now! Thank you for reading! If this is something you’re interested in, don't forget to hit the "Subscribe" and/or "Follow" button!

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The Sunday, September 29, and 627th, Artist Shout-Out goes to Cana(Dan) Stovell! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – Starting Soon 9:58 – Welcome Gamers! 11:48 – Artist Shout-Out 13:17 – Just Chatting/Quick Announcements 18:14 – Fae Farm 1:59:42 – Artist Shout-Out 2:00:22 – Closing/Just Chatting 2:01:44 – Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 2:05:57 – Farewell

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Out Criteria – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble – Odysee – Twitch

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