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February & March 2025 Channel Update – Looking for Suggestions

Hi everyone,

Hope you’ve been well!!

Apologies  for the late update - it’s been A Week* and things have gotten away from me. Let's jump straight into it!

(FYI for new patrons: if you ever wonder about any deviations from normal scheduling, both for these channel update posts or for videos themselves, I’m pretty good about mentioning them on BlueSky/Twitter, or you can always ask me directly as well.)

* yes it’s been more like Multiple Weeks… 😭

TL;DR

Finished Stuff

Dragon Age: The Veilguard: Overall I have mixed feelings about Veilguard, maybe with a lean towards the negative given the not-small time investment. Narratively the finale is a series highlight and a great send-off, but the journey leading up to it is pretty flat. It’s a technically polished experience but I didn’t feel like the writing was made a priority. There’s enjoyment to be found here but I’m not sure it’s a particular standout with how competitive the market is these days.

As first looks we also checked out:

Eternal Strands: A third-person action adventure by Yellow Brick Games, a new studio co-founded by Bioware veteran Mike Laidlaw. There’s obvious thought into the worldbuilding and they made effective use of the opening hour to acquaint you to the cast, their relationships & future conflicts, which I think is a positive sign that the later narrative will be solid too. The gameplay I’m more iffy on: the movement felt kinda slippery and I didn’t end the first look feeling like I had a good grasp of their intentions for the combat. (i.e. There’s ranged heat/ice magic and physical melee attacks, but you get hurt by your own magic, so I’m not sure how they want you to mix using these fighting styles.)

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II: An RPG set in medieval Europe featuring a main character that isn’t a chosen hero but more of an everyday guy. There is an emphasis on realism with the complexity of actions that are usually streamlined in similar RPGs, e.g. instead of just clicking to attack, combat involves considering the side of the enemy you’re striking from. Potion-making has the player look at a recipe book, pick out ingredients, popping it all in a cauldron and boiling it for a manually counted amount of time. I don’t feel like I made it deep enough to see whether this realism remains enjoyable and immersive or will become irritating in the long run though. The UI & UX overall seemed a bit jank but I had fun with the first look.

Current Stuff

Baldur’s Gate 3: Still in Act 3 - we defeated 1 of the 2 (?) big baddies so it feels like progress is being made! Guestimate based off gut feeling that we must be at least 60% though Act 3 now!?

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage: DON’T NOD’s latest adventure set in a paranormal American summer 1995. People who enjoy the nostalgia and chill-out vibes of LIS (me) will love this – DON’T NOD takes care in the fine character details like no other. The slower plot pacing could drive some away, though it didn't bother me personally.

I’ll have one more Tape 1 vid checking out some alternate scenes, and we’ll return to the second half of the story when Tape 2 releases in April. (An aside: the staggered release feels like a nice nostalgic return to LIS1 too. Thinking about & checking out community discussions/theories for Tape 2 has been really fun!)

Upcoming Stuff

They said I was crazy for doing BG3/Veilguard simultaneously, but I did it! Mentally I think I handled it better than a few years ago when I did Witcher 3 and RDR2 lol, I didn’t actually feel too bad going through it hahaha.

I think I need time to recharge before the next Big Commitment though esp with BG3 still on the plate, so I’d like to focus on shorter things/indie things/first looks for a bit. For upcoming releases, I’m paying attention to:

I’m probably going to first look the first two (as well as going back to Roottrees – I haven’t forgotten about it!) to “shop around” a bit. Other than that I don’t have anything solidified, so I’m going to open a poll in the next few days. Feel free to leave any suggestions and I’ll include the ones I’m most interested in. No hard rules but I’d say I’m looking for quick turnarounds this time, so games finishable within ~15 hours…?

FYI I’ll be out of town on a quick vacation around mid-March. I’ll be looking forward to coming back, refreshed & ready to check out the poll winner!! 😊

Thanks for your support as always, and drop your comments/questions/suggestions below!

Have a lovely day,

Welonz

Comments

Late to the party, but I actually quite enjoyed Eternal Strands. It doesn't exactly break new ground in terms of its gameplay, but the characters are very charming throughout, and the worldbuilding is surprisingly fleshed out. I think they've had a couple of patches since launch, in which they've addressed issues with the controls. Maybe worth revisiting after the (free) DLC we are expecting soon? I certainly would love that.

Argent

If you're by any chance still looking for recommendations of short games, for either now or the long term; I just recently finished playing Expelled! which is the prequel to Overboard!, which is a choose-your-own-adventure style youdunnit-nowtrytogeddawaywiddit, and quite frankly both games are criminally underrepresented in the public eye. The first one is especially quick to check out, if that matters. And it's from the people who made Heaven's Vault, which you haven't played but I'm sure must have heard about.

Natalie

Forgot to mention but its still a demo

paquichu

Hey welonz, i just saw that you already tried disco elysium and wanted to reccomend esoteric ebb, i think its HEAVELY inspired on it, i just wanted to put it in your radar, sorry if my english is bad

paquichu

CrossCode doesn't quite fit what you're looking for right now, but please consider giving it a look in the future. It's a thoroughly wonderful indie game with excellent characters, world, and gameplay. Certainly one of my favorites. Anyway, thank you for all the entertaining videos!

Patina

I would loooove an omori let's play

A Creative Name

I should have also mentioned it has vibes that reminded me a lot of Outer Wilds 'emotionally' if that makes any sense?

Sammie

I would love to see you play through Citizen Sleeper. It's a lovely little RPG with a beautiful art style and a very moving story. It's quite short compared to something like Baldur's Gate, but they just released a sequel for it! Otherwise I saw Disco Elysium mentioned and love seeing people play it through! :)

Sammie

Nope, I'm casually keeping tabs on the release though!

Materwelonz

Now that you've played many horror games and especially Silent Hill 2 there's one obvious "classic" horror game left that you still have to play, and I'm amazed no one has mentioned it yet (as far as I can tell). It starts with an A. :D I'll also second The Missing J.J. Macfield as it's quite short and basically a platformer with light puzzles and a good story (best to not look too much about it beforehand). Though it's also a bit gore, a bit disturbing, and very niche I feel, so I'm not too sure how well it would do in a poll. That said ever since I played it I'd really like to hear your thoughts about it :) And for one that's more on the relaxing side but with a good mystery and story, Call of The Sea is pretty good too. Thanks for the hours of good content and hope you have a great vacation!

naoxmon

Curious if you got the Preview invite for Clair Obsur: Expedition 33. Hopefully we'll get a first Look at least

Prodigal Sol

I would recommend two fantastic visual novels: Misericorde: Volume One and Sigh of the Abyss. They are quite long, but should fit under 15h mark (considering reading them out loud). Hearing your wonderful voice acting would be endearing :) There is a Steam sale on visual novels right now btw. Best wishes!

Michael Ant

Not sure if it's been suggested before, but I would love to see a first look at Owlcat's game Rogue Trader. First look mainly because it's another 150 hour CRPG and other things below. Not that I would mind a full playthrough, but I'm not sure it's realistic or even something you would like to do. Some pros and cons from my perspective: + Amazing world building (personally I think it's a bit better than BG3) and a pretty unique setting + Interesting characters/story + Have had a lot of big updates and improvements since release - Not fully voiced (I think the beginning is though) - Compared to BG3, the combat encounters is a bit more grindy and the game is less cinematic - Lvling & mechanics can be a bit obtuse (it was for me anyway)

Smull

Not sure if all of those should be in the poll, but maybe something for you to keep in mind: - unpacking - It is just so relaxing, has a cute story and we would get a look into your mind - Astro Bot - ok, this is not something you would usually do on your channel, but I think it is really fun watching others play it and it is full of gaming history and I think you really would enjoy some of thee special levels - Immortality - from the guy who made Her Story and Telling Lies - Heaven's Vault - to be honest, I've never played or seen anyone play it. But it sounds like a good game - Pentiment - Any of the classic Lucas Arts Point and Click Adventures (for example the Secrect of Monkey Island (special edition has voice))

DanielW

Haha I was going to mention waiting for Halloween in my comment. Another game series I thought of is the old Nancy drew point and click games? Not sure if they're your speed though

Claire Vallina

Heyho Welonz, I would love to see a continuation of Broken Sword on the poll :) Puzzle/Point&Click games are difficult to judge gametime-wise, because it depends on how quick you play it, but I would guess BS1 is 10hours. Also I can agree with the others mentioning "There is no game" and "Beyond Good & Evil" :)

ArcticXWolf

I just saw someone recommend Contradiction. I would officially like to second that!

Neyka

Hmm, it has been a very long time since I played them, so I think my impressions of them are mostly nostalgic. While the story is expansive and detailed in my mind, thinking about it now, it's probably a bit lacking in the story department for a YouTube playthrough. The story is mostly told through cutscenes between gameplay sections, and then a little bit through voice lines during gameplay and environmental contextual storytelling as well. I don't mind if you give it a miss, because I'll be watching everything you play anyway!

Neyka

Totally understandable!!! I've been playing it myself because I'm too impatient to wait 😆 but I'll be excited to see your full playthrough when it's finally finished!!!

Jennifer Barrowman

Yee, so far as we know, the literal only major thing they have left to finish is PS5 testing and wrapping up testing elsewhere, beyond that is however long they want to take with marketing, which probably won't be very long.

Calliope Rannis

Pretty unlikely, I'm not much of a co-op person!

Materwelonz

🫂

Materwelonz

Yeah I've been holding off on Hades 2, I feel like I'd rather get into it in a big burst rather than picking it up and dropping it every update and forgetting everything in between 😭

Materwelonz

it's not even Halloween yet and you are all out for my blood!!!!

Materwelonz

Omg I did forget about Expedition 33 for a bit, there's so much releasing all the time these days. Thanks for the reminder!!

Materwelonz

Oh wow I knew Deltarune was this year but didn't know they narrowed down the months already!

Materwelonz

Yes I think I've briefly looked into this before, but wasn't really sure if Halo was more just shooty shooty or if there's a story to chew on!

Materwelonz

Hahah this one's just a tad over the 15 hour mark 😂

Materwelonz

Yup I'm still interested, but it's not short and I want to get away from AAAs for a bit, so holding off for a bit more first!

Materwelonz

JRPGs aren't super my thing and they never seem to make these under 100 hours long, so they're tough ones to get to get to. I'm all ears if there are shorter ones for me to test out the territory!

Materwelonz

I think Obsidian's Pentiment is something you would enjoy (15h) And, can't stop myself from pushing this... When you are ready for a Big Commitment... I believe you would love Kingdom Come Deliverence II. The main quests are epic (... [a] big-screen war movie that pulls out all the stops in its ambition, dialogue, and emotional range, IGN), side quests with unpredictabvle and exciting plot progressions, memroable character dynamics. On your concern regarding whether the realism gets irritating, I do not think that would be a problem. For combat, you eventually learn combos and master strikes - the block/riposte rhythm is satisfying, rewarding, and varied. Side-activities such as potionmaking, thievery, blacksmithing, e.t.c., have their own mini-games, but are always skippable if they are not to your liking. I actually found the UI/UX to be quite intuitive, *once* you've looked at it two or three times. The game has incredible word-of-mouth going on (e.g., people usually not into story-driven RPGs drawn to it, Cahn saying KCD2 is better than RDR2), and I hope you continue your journey with Henry! Have a good day!

Zhenhao Wen

There is No Game: Wrong Dimension is a quick, funny puzzle game. I hope you have a great vacation!

Jim the Adequate

How about playing Beyond Good and Evil? It’s charming, short-ish (including when 100% completing it), very iconic, and has some lovely music. It’s a narrative-focussed action-stealth-mix game. It’s also never too late to explore Final Fantasy some more. =) 8, 9, 10, all lovely titles. 10 is the shortest of these three.

Evrey

Oh I think you will love Scarlet Hollow! Really looking forward to that (and Roottrees)

Nadia

I'm still hoping you return to Cyber Manhunt 2. I really like Detective Welonz. <3

Matt Dorman

Would you ever consider the game "Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk"?

Boudicia Dark

Venba’s got a good “immigrant family trying to make it in Canada” narrative and it’s VERY short. Two hours max.

Jeffrey Hardy Quah

Seconded for more Resident Evil. REmake or the long-awaited Welonz spooky times with RE7 (VR optional).

Ulfenaar

I second this, the Golden Idol series is such a good spiritual successor to Return of the Obra Dinn

Bookwyrm

would love to see contradiction, celeste, or the missing: jj macfield! 💚

cecil choi

If you see this I'm just curious, what are you're thoughts on doing something like a Persona game or the more recently released Metaphor: ReFantazio? They are certainly big games to be sure but I would think not as taxing as something like BG3 or DA: Veilguard. They have fairly straightforward narratives where you don't really need to go out of your way to experience all the story beats. You can pretty much just follow the main plot and do the narratively interesting but mechanically simple sidequests as they come up without having to think to hard about how to see everything. I think these games have truly phenomenal stories and it would be interesting to see your take on them and they do seem to fit in with the style of other more narrative focused games you have played in the past. But if they are bigger than anything you want to take on right now that is understandable.

Kyle Junge

Scarlet Hollow is an amazing game that I love almost as much as Slay the Princess, my #1 favourite game (maybe the second after Outer Wilds). The only thing is that it's not done yet, with only four episodes out seven released so far. But omg how good it is. I would love to see you playing it!

Oleg

Thirded! The writing/world-building is so cool.

Kristine Harbek

I'd also love to see Myst and (even better) its sequel Riven. They're in many ways the direct ancestor of modern mystery-adventure games (Outer Wilds, etc).

k5Josh

Hi Welonz!! What about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle? Since you said you enjoyed it and it piqued your interest, maybe you should get back to it!

Elden Halim

I am once again here to ask for Final Fantasy X to be on the Poll list! It will win one day mark my words!!! 😅

Glen Jones

How about Paranormasight for the poll ? A 10-12h game with an great story, engaging characters and very smart gameplay mechanics. One of my 2023 gotys

Yvan

I think you might enjoy Pentiment (historical mystery adventure game by Obsidian - the one with the stylized old-timey medival art style). Super charming game with great writing. Took me 15 hours when I played it. Thank you for sticking with Veilguard, I enjoyed hearing your final thoughts. Before I played it, I expected Veilguard to be a buggy mess with good writing (after all, the other games never disappointed on that front), and what I got was a technically polished game with disappointing writing. Bummer. I hope the people who worked on the game land on their feet.

diving_cactus

I'm very excited to see what Wanderstop is all about. Mainly because of the people making it, but it does look really charming too. Since I can't think of any recommendations at the moment, I'll just wish you a wonderful vacation.

Blue72

For the poll: > Cats Love Boxes (5 hours; puzzle game where you unlock cute cat photos) > The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (9,5 hours; narrative RPG) > Purrgatory (5 hours; lovely visual novel) I wish you a great rest from a nice vacation! You deserve all the best for years of quality content your channel provides to us.

Dylan Hearts

Arco is a pretty under looked game from last year that has a 12 hour howlongtobeat and a very good narrative. There's also a lot of story choices you can make and the gameplay is pretty fun.

Evan!!

So i suggest Omori too, however it's a bit longer than 15 hours - even just focusing on the main story it takes up to 20 hours, and with side quests that number rises up to 30 (and that's not even mentioning there's a different route that can essentially double the total gametime, though knowing how you play games that won't really matter, i don't think.) It miiiiight be best to leave it until you finish the behemoth that is BG3, so that you can take your time with the game and explore it fully.

ShadowKnight

I'd love to watch you play through the Halo series. I think you might have even mentioned it in the past once. Playing all the games would be quite a bit longer than what you're after for the moment, so it's up to you if you put it in the poll or not. And if not, something to keep in mind for the future. Anyway, thanks for the many hours of entertainment you've given me over the years!

Neyka

I know you aren't as much of a puzzle fan, but if you want ones with strongly intermixed story as well, I can reccomend Lorelei And The Laser Eyes! And while this one isn't out till April, I think Blue Prince is also gonna be great too! Also can very much second Wanderstop, that I have been looking forward to as well. And don't forget, Deltarune chapters 3-4 is very likely to come out this or next month, so I reccomend leaving space for that one too! Finally as an oddball pick, you might find Everhood interesting? If you do, the sequel for that is coming out in just three days also. ^w^ Hope you have fun with whatever you pick in any case! :3

Calliope Rannis

Can’t wait for you to take a first look at Scarlet Hollow!

y

Man, that Lost records playthrough reminds me so much of watching the LIS one, crazy it's been 10 years already :') ! Except for Expedition 33, coming out April 24 (am not sponsored I swear) , I don't really have anything on my radar, Scarlet Hollow looks interesting though! Thank you again for another great month!

Naakhurz

Thanks for the updates. I would like to suggest Half-Life (12 hours approx. ) or the newer version Black Mesa (15 hours).

Sinai Shemer

one suggestion is returning to the resident evil franchise with the 2002 remake of re1? hmm i'm having trouble coming up with anything else that isn't long af

Claire Vallina

As to suggestions, there is one game that I've been wanting to see a new let's play of, and I wonder whether it might be interesting to you... That game is "Sylvio 2"—a slightly odd, eerie horror-exploration game built around EVP (electronic voice phenomena). (You may note that I'm not suggesting "Sylvio 1"—that game is, I feel, a less well-wrought experience than its successor. If only one of the pair is to be played, I'd suggest that it be 2.) It's an old-ish game now, granted. Otherwise, if you like pixel-art point-and-click horror, then I can highly recommend "The Excavation of Hob's Barrow". It's kinda slow-burn, but (to my mind) interesting throughout—and with a really good payoff. Just beware: it goes to some dark and disturbing places at times. Otherwise, have you ever played either of the "Barrow Hill" games? They're both strange, interesting, and well-wrought first-person pre-rendered point-and-click horrors—albeit of a lighter sort of horror than the above, I feel! And finally, I feel that I want to offer at least one non-horror ( ^^; ), and I suspect that you might enjoy "Heaven's Vault": a sci-fi tale of archaeology and translation in a setting of moons suspended amidst the currents of a nebula. That said, it is perhaps a bit longer than you requested—GOG reports 15.5 hours without side-stuff—so maybe this should be a "suggest for someday" rather than a "suggest for now"! Moving on to the rest of the post... Hmm, I'll have to give "Bloom and Rage" another chance, then, it seems! I'll confess that the slow start made it hard for me to get into—contrast with "Life is Strange 3" starting with an exploration of an abandoned space, which quickly grabbed me. (Plus Max, of course.) But it sounds like it might be worth pushing past the opening! Also, enjoy your holiday! I hope that it's a happy and restorative one! ^_^ And finally, I hope that your next week is better than was this one! ^_^

Ian Eborn

Hey girl, thank you for the update! For suggestions, might i offer a very short game called unpacking, where you follow a life of one single person through unpacking their stuff. It might not be something for you though, the game has no voice acting or dialogue, but it would be cool to hear your thoughts! Otherwise I see good suggestions from others. Looking forward to your next game whatever it will be! :)

Skipper

I do think you’d really enjoy Indiana Jones Welonz, hopefully get to see you return to it at some point this year (:

Jordan

I already brought this up in the discord (and I'm flattered you took my suggestion so quickly) but I really gotta bring it up again; you'd LOVE Of the Devil. The worldbuilding, dialogue, characters and plot all fall into visual novels you've enjoyed before. Episode 0 (previously the demo) is totally free and only around 3 hours, with Episode 1 being about thrice that time. I would love a first look with episode 0 at the very least because I have zero doubt you'll end up interested in it and also imo it really needs the exposure at the moment; it's criminally underrated for what it brings to the table

Markel

Gonna give you a broad selection here, lol. Balatro - for at least a first look. It's not something I'd expect you to pick for yourself, but it has won multiple GOTY and surprised a lot of people with how fun it is. And it's one of those "play as long as it's fun" type games. Myst - for some classic goodness that has great remasters. Each game clocks in about 5-10 hours, with cool world worldbuilding and not too difficult puzzles. Unpacking - 4 hours for a calming little break for your brain, that has a surprisingly cute story. Elden Ring - I think you'd have fun with it! However, it's another big time commitment, so this suggestion is for later. I do still live in the hopes of you one day playing The Witness, but not holding my breath. 😅 My friend who also watches you suggests Darkwood, because they'd REALLY like to hear your take on it.

Kristine Harbek

If you wanted a smaller bite sized version of it, there's a prologue version of it called Start Again: a prologue. It's only a couple hours long and gives you an idea of what the game would be like

Jennifer Barrowman

For a suggestion, I'd like to make Metaphor:Refantazio, it is another long RPG but well we're soon to have a couple slots for that

Prodigal Sol

There is a new Hades 2 update if you're interested, but you might be waiting for the 1.0 release lol. Another game that I absolutely loved is a game called In Stars and Time, it is a rock paper scissors turn based RPG that is about a character that gets stuck in a time loop. I don't want to give away too much, but I will say that it isn't voice acted, so Im not sure how interested you would be putting out videos of it. It's a SUPER interesting take on time loops though

Jennifer Barrowman

I second this, even though it's a little bit antiquated. But still one of my favourite point and click adventures of all time... and I know it has been in several polls in the past, but never won sadly...

Christian B

You could consider playing Case of the Golden Idol, and if you liked that you could then play the sequal which came out recently. Both are reasonably short experiences, for sure under 15h.

Natalie

The Longest Journey pleaaaaaaase i'm still out there holding a torch for it

Reiemye

It's a bit longer than what you're aiming for (~20-25 hours) but I would love if you went back to Nine Sols for a full run. I played it after your first look and it was one of the best games of the year. For a shorter thing, I think you would also enjoy Hypnospace Outlaw (it's about 5-10 hours). The dev is currently working on a sequel and it's a fun take on the geocities era of the internet

Alexander McClelland

Sorry it's still so busy IRL. I don't really have a suggestion for the next short game but I have been enjoying the content you've put out, so anything's good. (So helpful!). I have however been going through your let's play of the Wolfenstein series. And with the state of, well, *gestures at everything* it's been cathartic to watch B.J. do his thing.

AngryAngryHippo

I really agreed with you on Veilguard and I just wanted to say that it's valid to criticize a game and you were making good point(especially on the writing) instead of juste hating. But for the future I really believe you would love a Talos Principle. Your way of playing a game, reading every journal and thinking about it out loud is really gonna fit in well.(The negative side may be that some puzzle can be really difficult)

Victor

First of all, I love your channel/videos ! I live in western Europe so the videos mostly release in the early evening which makes for a delightful daily break from everything so thanks for that. My recommendation is Crying Suns ! It's an SF story heavy rogue-like that's not too long (about 15 hours give or take). I loved it, it tackles themes of artificial intelligence (soul?) and the (im)possibility of infinite progress. I also found the game to be extremely pretty ! In any case, I hope your break will be refreshing and I wish you the best ! Edit: I also dream of the day you'll pick up Disco Elysium again. I genuinely think you'd love it.

Oror

Super excited about the prospect of Scarlet Hollow! Would love to see Technobabylon as well. Also it’s a year or two old now but Pentiment I think would be a great addition.

Rachael Maxwell

For the poll Batman Arkham Asylum Astro Bot High on Life Returnal There is no game: wrong dimension I wonder, is there any chance to get an it takes two/split fiction let's play because of the forced coop?

Dragonhunter

Not sure if you want to include older games, but here are some thoughts. Technobabylon, a point-and-click, probably short enough. The Shadowrun series by Harebrained Schemes, probably not short enough, but they are all totally separate so you don't have to play them in order. Oh, almost forgot. A while back they added a first-person mode to Cloudpunk that makes it much more immersive, so I could recommend that.

Kyle

You mentioned being interested in Omori a few years back when it came out but never got around to it, would absolutely love to see you check that out

milkystross

Welonz plus Scarlet Hollow??? Dare I get my hopes up?

Marissa HV


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