Hello, hello and welcome to this blog´s annual What have I been playing this Summer! With Summer still going strong, I´d figured I would share some of the titles that have caught my attention recently. Something new, Something old, may not be summer related (I will reserve that for a future post.) And Who Knows I might make this a premanent thing, for the curious check my last year´s entry. Let´s get started, shall we? Vampire Therapist An entry that was published in 2024. But only now I got into it during a game sale. That and also I´ve gotten really into watching The Vampire Lestat (the latest season has ended in July to a huge sucess) which made me thirsty for more vampire fiction, plus I needed something to tide me over between episodes and after its end. The premise is a vampire cowboy is seeking guidance from an elder vampire to train as therapist in order to help his fellow creatures of the night and also redeem himself. It´s not easy being a blood drinking immortal, not to mention it comes with its own bagage and trauma, probably even far worse since its like vampire therapists are a dime a dozen. In terms of gameplay its a simple visual novel, you meet up with different clients and help them trought their issues. What I found interesting is how the game presents to you the concept of cognitive distortions, which is a real concept in therapy, and see how it applies to each vampire you meet. Heck, you might use this knowledge to apply to yourself, I feel there´s some educational aspect to this as well and perphpas creating mental health awareness. How it works is at the beggining of each session you pick and choose which distorstions are more likely to show up, I´haven´t gone back to replay it yet, so I don´t how much of a big impact it has on the story, I mgiht reserv that for a more detailed review. But of its biggest strength in its humor, voice acting and how well it uses its historical figures, if you loved What We Do In The Shadows consider checking this out. Game Links: GOG Steam World of Warcraft To be honest I feel like this mmo has seen better days with blizzard making the most disapointing decisions, my thankfully I found refuge on the private server scene thanks to passionate fans. Does it belong in a moral grey area? Yeah, but I´ve seen those servers actually doing stuff better than official ones, so sue me. Added to the fact that I like the community there better, they seem more lively and engaged. Recently the scene has been making waves thanks to TurtleWoW, which became many people´s first introduction to wow private servers, but sadly it got a little big, leading blizzard to pull the plug on it. In fact Blizzard has been all too trigger happy recently and has gone after servers, Ascension being the second most recent server to be getting the shaft (I mean they just launch a new modded server), and its only a matter of time before players have to say their goodbyes. Rumor has it, its due to blizzard planned to make a special announcement, maybe announcing a brand new classic plus or something, with the private servers competing with that, and while they are in their right of protecting their ip, I kinda wish they would just focus on actually making something people would want to play, I doubt the server shutdown is going to get people to become paying customer. Word has it the OctoWow might be the next turtle but only time will tell. As for me I´ve been in this scene for years now, but after a long break I decided to jump right in (boy I sure know the right time to pick em). After doing my research and asking around I ended up with two: Kronos 5 and Chromiecraft. Now I´d also joined nostrum until it kicked the buckect after a month. It a shame too because I liked being in the servers that progressed through tiers, meaning everyone started and leveled at the same pace. But alas its was not to be. Why this two in praticular? Kronos is a more recent progressive server based on the vanilla (for newbies it means the game as it was originally launched) and Chromiecraft is also a tiered progressive Wrath of the Linch Kingserver which nostrum was based on. Never having played vanilla, I wanted to have to that experience before even trying a modded server, plus its it structed often forced people to team up making it a more social experience. Chromiecraft also has a decent community, its kinda of a shame, I just now found about and its currently going throught its WOTLK phases (its started off with vanilla), who knows maybe it will release a new servers for those who missed out the early days. I´ve been having a blast playing, found a decent guild (Shout out To The Care Bears Union and Stonewall Inn respectivily). If you ever joining in feel to send me a message I´m Feldian (Kronos 5) and Liamannis (Chromiecraft). Guild Wars Reforged Yet another oldschool mmo but this time on an offical server, I saw it on sale. It´s kinda of a mixed bag. I think the necormancer class is cool, but still trying to make heads or tails about the best build. I dunno I´m much of a fan of the centralized hub and its not so open world. Yeah, everytime you leave a city or some other hub, its just creates an individual innstace. You can invite other players to join you, but it just makes it feel all the more isolated. Its not like On Elder Scrolls online where it loads a new isntance but you do see other people. I think I like seeing other players running around, it gives me a better notion of active the player base is, plus I like randomly asking someone to party up while Im out questing, Here I can only do that during the hubs. Otherwise I might as well just play this mmo solo. Haven´t been playing this one for long so only time will tell if its living up the hype. But seriously if anyone here reading is also playing guild wars, I wanna ask if it gets any better, and maybe if someone would be interested in leveling up with me (Ingame name is Mathias Stoker). Maybe I might get back into it. Game Links: Official Store Rhythm Thief On to handhelds, I still love my old 3ds XL. I remember playing the demo, forgot about it years later and decided to finally get my hands on it. Its a very cool rythm game, I give it that. There a cute story where you play as the Phantom Thief R, looking for artifacts that might be connected to his father that left him as a kid, also Napoleon has come back and wants to become emperor again. Progress is made by beating each Rythm games, but I kinda like the diversity in the gameplay, whether your mashing buttons to the rythm or using the stylus to tap or slides some gestures. It even makes use of the Handhled´s Gyroscope. It truly makes full use of all the 3DS features. The Music is no slouch either you probaly heard this track that became kinda of a meme (YOu may wanna lower down the volume). And Its for a very good reason. And they get more challenging over time, but dont worry if you don´t that well at first, you can always replay them later. Outside of these sections its basically find the object everytime you enter a new are with the style, pro-tip you might wanna tap in every spot, not just to get some cool stuff like coins, sound track and music puzzle piece. But also there some sound that are neede to complete some puzzle for progress. But what I´m really fond of was the nicely made 2d animated cutscenes, which made this feel more like and anime. I normally play with the 3D effect turned off but they the effect makes them even nicer. Honestly, they need to make a sequel or a remake at least. They did released for the IOS back in like 2014, but it has since been taken down. Currently the only best way to play it is with the original hardware or with Ayn Thor. (I mean you could also emulate it on your pc or other retro handheld but lets face its not the best experience). Potion Permit Sometimes the best handheld is the one you already have with you, and I dont always have my 3DS with me (or a sibling is borrowing it), so my phone is the next best thing. And I know, the phone gaming spaces has been full of slop but sometimes you can find some gems. And its usually in the form of pc ports. That´s right there´s and android port for this indie title, I got this one from epic games weekly game givieway (yes they do give out game in its mobile app). I´ve been sorta enjoying it, it hits all the right spots as other similar titles. Of course I loathe to use the term cozy game calling it a life sim is fine. What make it a bit different from say stardew valley is there is no farming to be had. Instead I get to play as a chemist who is sent to a small town in order to run a clinic and treat different ailments from the locals. The people dont trust them at first so gotta get them to open up to you by progressing trough the game and interacting with them. The gameplay loop , specilally at the start has you pick up ingredients in the wilds, then attend a patient throguht diagnosing their illness and make a potion specific to that condition . Making a potion itself is a puzzle minigame to on to itself, where you gotta fit the ingredients tetris style. And there might even be limitiations to certain ingredients so its good to have a variety of them in stock. Outside of it, you can talk to viallagers, take a part time job for extra cash. And once you level your friendship enoguh you can particapte in some characters story missions which allow you to get to know them a bit better. Of course it still to early form me to tell what other gameplay elements it has, as been playing on and off for a few minutes a session. That being said is it me or the romance options a bit more limited? I wish they had more male romanceable characters. Aside from, its cute, has nice pixel art, and you get a cute dog as a companion. Might also revisit this one of a future post. Game Links: Steam GOG Google Play IOS Monument Valley 2 Another Android title, altought a more exculsive one? Well until it got ported to steam and also other game platform. Its a simple puzzle game, with very surreal and geometrical elements. The story (with little to know dialogue) is about a mother and her daughter and then the daughter goes on her own path facing different challenges. Despite their simplicity there can be a nice mindbreaker, a lot of it makes use of optical illusions, really making you think outside of the box. You will be mostly pulling levers and and roll and pick up environmental pieces to help forge a path. Visuals aside it also has some nice soothing music, its specially great to play if you only have a few minutes to spares There´s not much to say about it so i think this is best experienced on its own. Game Links: Steam Googleplay IOS Games on Pause There´s a couple of titles that have been playing for the past months that I plan of revisiting, but I just dont feel lie playing currently. One is Yakuza Kiwami. Don´t get me worn gits a fun a beat em up but it can be exausting to play it several days in a row. Im also dreading the 9th chapter, form I heard is kinda punishing, you can save in the middle of it you gotta start all over again, plus the car chase scene (not a lot of people hate it), so maybe I might wanna unlock some moves first before I take the plunge. Vampire survivors was also a game I found addicting but it has I cant seems to destroy that gian skeleton ball so I´m stuck. Lastly Fantasy Life, I haven´t finished the full story, maybe since I will have more time to spare with the 3DS I´ll pick it up again, but not likely. Maybe once I´m done with Rythm Thief. Plan to Play However this I´m limited to just these games and I´m thinking pf picking some new titles as finish the ones already mentioned. So my to play pick is Last Day In June Carbernet Rayman Legends Boku no Natsuyasumi (translated to My Summer Vacation) Mind you this not a definitive list, it might be just ones I´m most insterested and might get to if I have the time. This completes but full on playthrough sessions, if you´re reading this feel free to share your own personal favorites during this summer below. I might find some gems on there. See ya in the next one. Special Blaugust Mentions July 2026 Summary - Joel Chrono Preparing for August 2, Blaugust 2026 - Wakupan Bouquet (Post In Japense Best to Use a Translator) It´s better To Prepare - Wakanatrium (Also In Japanese) Blog Navigation Appreciation - I Can’t Think of a Name for this Website Youtube Cookie Consent Dark Pattern - fyr.io Blaugust Begins - Aneesh Sate