Dressmaker
This game has me absolutely hooked. There are so many ways you can design the same dresses, almost unlimited options. The stories are fun and cute and they follow an overall arc, with a few isolated stories for the characters not involved in the main story. I recommend this game to every one who loves dresses, and also to those who don't and just like a good creative game.
Woodo
Amazing puzzles you can complete at your own pace, with no time pressure or anything negative; plus if you get stuck you have the hint button, which I only needed to use a few times. In between each puzzle is an interesting story that develops across the map. There's something satisfying watching each world come to life, as it is filled in with colour and animations as you progress.
Assemble With Care
I loved this game's puzzles, which were complicated enough to have to think, yet easy enough for me to solve. There is also a story each side of the puzzle to make the game far more interesting than just a puzzle game. There are only a limited number of puzzles/stories, but the quality makes up for the quantity. The only one I couldn't solve was the bonus puzzle after the main story is complete.
Paralives (Early Access Review)
If all you want is to customise your characters and build the perfect home, then this is an amazing game full of hundreds of customisation options for your characters and hundreds of furnishings for the houses, plus even more through a free Steam Workshop. The gameplay itself I've only had limited time to experience as I bought this mainly as a building game, not as a life sim so much.
Cozy Caravan (Full Version)
This is probably one of the cutest and most relaxing games I've ever played. Unlike other games, I've not run into inventory management issues, other than the max items I can carry. Just love the characters, their stories and the whole setting.
There are plenty of outfits and character design choices and a large number of food recipes to make, each with their own minigame. The best part it there is no money in game or real life, just friendship; I mean friendship is literally used to earn guild tokens with can be used to unlock upgrades and more customisation options. There are no microtransactions or paid DLC.
Disney Dreamlight Valley
A peaceful adventure game where all the characters are from different Disney stories. Has all the usual elements like story questing, crafting and farming, as well as friendship unlocks as you progress. There is plenty of space to build all of the houses for the huge number of characters you can unlock. The only choice you have to make is which friends you want to make first.
There are plenty of free unlocks beyond the main story, as well as many more from paid DLC. There is a premium store, but you can earn the currency in game; so far I've not had to buy any of the premium currency, and many of the clothes and furniture can be bought in game without spending real money.
Equinox Homecoming
Enjoyable and mostly peaceful horse game, where you can complete quests and tasks across a large map at your own pace. The game is technically a multiplayer game, but has the option to hide other players, except in the chat and leader boards. I haven't played the crown chases with other players yet, so not sure how well the multiplayer elements work.
I have enjoyed the main story so far, which gradually get darker, but nothing excessively violent or horror, more just supernatural. The main story seems to be episodic, so the story isn't fully finished and will be expanded upon in future updates, although how many total chapters there will be is not yet known.
Mixtape
This game is so fun in a goofy way, it had me laughing out loud. The game is modern, while still creating a sense of nostalgia, despite not being a teenager in the 90s.
It has the interactive fiction design of a game like Life is Strange, without the stress of having to make character affecting decisions. The game mainly consists of a short story arc of the present, with the goofy antics which are played out as a variety of mini games. The mini games are supposed to be memories, so they're not necessarily an accurate depiction of what actually happened, so there's a little flexibility in the way you play.
Swan Song
Puzzle box game that's a little different, but also tells an emotional story as you progress. The puzzles get more complex with more options as you progress, but the general idea is you have to get a swan from one side of the box to the other by using the music notes to determine when to move or rotate the blocks.
The Artisan of Glimmith
Beautiful puzzle game with lots of different types of puzzles to solve, so even if you get tired of one type of puzzle, there are many others to progress. The puzzles are in different difficulty levels, so you know in advance if the next puzzle you are about to try is likely to be easy or harder. Some puzzles are slightly frustrating at first, but only take a little bit of time and patience to find the solution, and so far I haven't found any that I've gotten completely stuck on. Plus you can always come back for another try if you need a break from the more difficult ones.
Solarpunk
This game has all the things I like from several other games I already love. It has the build system like that of Valheim, but without the combat and death, so you can focus on building and exploring without having to worry about losing your things (if you choose the soft option). It also has the farming elements that are familiar to those who play a lot of farm sim games, although I would say the crops grow a little too quick, but in a survival game this makes more sense as you need to keep your food and water levels up as starving is one of the few way you can actually die in this game.
The automation you can make further into the game are also essential, otherwise I would be constantly mining every ore on every island. The power system is a good way to allow automation in a controlled way, so you can't just go straight to max level, you have to build energy sources like solar panels and later wind turbines and turbines to balance your energy demands, which makes it more realistic.
Thrifty Business
Adore this game. It's so chill and peaceful while I sell all the second hand clothes and items that people don't want. It's not just a shop sim, there are also events and stories to make it feel more personal, such as why the characters are selling their belongings and not just to make as much money as possible. There are plenty of upgrade options to expand your store as you progress. The only thing I would suggest it they add an auto sale for non story characters, otherwise the characters stack to form a big queue, especially when you get further in the game.
Life is Strange: Reunion
This game makes a great end to one of my favourite game series. I did enjoy Double Exposure, but as you probably already know if you've played it, it didn't have the same impact as the original game. Reunion gives fans closure by completing the story that DE started in a way that improves on the ending of DE, and yet still feels like an authentic LiS game, with all the emotional narrative you would expect.
Does it answer every question? No, but it doesn't need to. This game gives you just enough to form your own interpretation or speculation about the ending, while at the same time making it clear that this is intended to be the final time we see Max and Chloe in a game together.
Will there be future games or spin offs? I have no idea, but if they do open the series up again I hope they create new characters or give minor characters from the main series a spin off. I would be happy either way as long as the story is great.
Dordogne
This game is great and I love the water colour art aesthetics. It has the gameplay of a story through environment type game, with information and clues hidden around the room, and back story via phone, but without the difficult choices and heart breaking endings you usually getting from story focused games.
The other thing I loved about this game is that you alternate progression between the present day Mimi as an adult investigating her past through the use of memories. She can enter her memories attached strongly to items like letters and photographs. At the end of each chapter you get the chance to add any photos you've taken to the book, along with stickers you've found and you can write a 3 line poem.
I would say though that the ending is somewhat inconclusive and leaves more questions than answers. I won't spoil the story here, I'll just say that the ending felt incomplete, but I would still recommend this game as the journey along the way is still very good.
Catto’s Post Office
This game was quite fun and found it from the developers of Cozy Caravan, who are also Australian. (Catto is in this game as a cameo).
I would say to anyone wanting to play this game, that they should play it in the knowledge that the entire game exists of a single day and night cycle and that the game ends at the end of the first day. So don't rush through delivering all the parcels and explore the town and interact with all of the other cats and things to do before you complete the day.
Inbento
This game is cute and has a variety of puzzles all around the idea of arranging ingredients into a bento box. After each chapter you get an adorable animation with the cats. Each chapter has a different way to arrange the pieces and increases in difficulty quite quickly. After a few chapters they start to combine multiple type of puzzles to make it even harder. I haven't completed the whole game yet, but it's nice to have a go and solve a couple puzzle at a time.
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain
This is a pretty fun game which is also fairly simple and easy to play. The quests aren't very long, but at least you can go back and complete the extra items once you are done. Shame the game isn't a little longer, or there is more to do once you complete the main story, but still had a decent amount of fun playing this game.
Monument Valley
I love these puzzles. Most puzzle games have some kind of combination to solve, but this is the first one I've played where geometry is a major part of the design. Some of the designs make your head spin trying to figure out which face to walk on and very much in the style of M.C. Esher. I love these and slows you down a little, even though there are only a few puzzles in total.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure
I did genuinely enjoy this edition of the story of Max Caulfield, although I understand why it got much criticism compared to the other games in the series. For starts the lack of Chloe, who only exists in the form of text messages, is a big dampener of the game, so for the rest of the review I’m going to focus on the game itself.
I do like that they didn’t just reuse existing characters and decided to create a new cast of characters we’ve never seen before, each with their own troubled back story. The game focuses on Max, now a grad student, and her new best friend Safi. I won’t explain the nature of Safi’s powers, just that Max isn’t the only one with powers that can be either abused or used with caution. Safi is less than cautious with her powers which brings about the event at the beginning of the game. Max has lost the ability to rewind time, but has discovered she has a new power, that she must use to solve the mystery of what happened between her and Safi, and decide whether to forgive or reject her new best friend.