August 2022 Channel Update – Summer Blues, Q&A and Upcoming Poll

Hi all,

Hope you’re staying out of the summer heat! (Or if you’re down south, the cold!)

Here in Western Canada it’s been REALLY hot… that and the lull in release schedule I think has been making me feel kinda off in the past few weeks, like I can’t muster up the energy to do anything. This happens every now and then though so I think it’s a summer thing. A sign from the Gods telling me to go touch grass?! 💀

Anyway, we’ve got a big update today with polls and Q&As and all that. Keep reading on!

TL;DR

• Finished: VTM – Swansong, The Quarry, Stray, AINI
• Ongoing: As Dusk Falls
• Upcoming: Q&A, POLL
• Submit questions for Q&A here: https://bit.ly/WelonzQnA2022

Finished Since Last Update

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong (30 parts): Aside from the bugs and stuff it very much did stick the landing! The ending segments are some of the most thrilling scenes I’ve played recently. I really think the devs (Big Bad Wolf) are doing interesting things in the choose-your-own-adventure genre with the character builds and wide storyline branching. Excitedly looking forward to their next work!

The Quarry (14 parts): B movie-type horror with dumb teenagers – good fun! I wish there was a bit more resolution towards the end but I’m happy enough with what’s here. It makes me wanna go back to try out the Dark Pictures Anthology games too if time allows, but I heard those ones aren’t quite as good.

Stray (11 parts): Cat game needs no introduction. Super atmospheric, great sound design, but ultimately I think the focus is more on getting to walk around as a kitty with realistic movement and less so a groundbreaking narrative or anything like that.

I went 2 parts a day for this shorter series and liked how that pacing turned out. Will keep this type of schedule in mind for the future!

AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES – nirvanA Initiative (48 parts): A murder mystery visual novel fully embracing Japanese weirdness. Just like the first game it’s a massively enjoyable ride with endearing characters, but does stumble towards the end. Hard to say much without spoilers but I think if you enjoyed the first you should reasonably enjoy this one as well.

Some side thoughts on Japanese vs English dub again: I am always so torn on this topic with accessibility concerns and all, but in hindsight I think Japanese dub was the right call for this one:  there were a number of errors in the localization that the Japanese VA made possible to catch, and I felt like I was able to add way more value to this series with getting to talk about the original puns or just sharing random cultural tidbits too. (I hope those who tuned in don’t forget about the chouchin kowai/scary lanterns thing 🤣)

Progress on Current Stuff

I just wrapped up AINI so there’s not too much here right this moment. We’ve got As Dusk Falls, an interactive visual novel-ish adventure game with a stop motion storybook aesthetic and branching storylines. This’ll be a short, 6-video series – trying not to overcommit with the poll coming up!

Upcoming Stuff

Nobody asked for this lol but August 14 is the 10th release anniversary of Sleeping Dogs, which some of you might know is one of first LPs I’ve done the channel. I think I’m gonna do a first look (technically a 50000th look) just to reminisce and maybe get some new eyes on the game.

I don’t think anyone clarified who has the rights now but if Sleeping Dogs was one of the IPS sold by Square Enix to Embracer Group a few months back, I hope it means we can see something (anything!!!) from this series in the future 🥲

I’m also looking into a Cult of the Lamb first look soon – it’s got quite a bit of a buzz around it atm!

Q&A

Something Something Creators Should Connect With Viewers From Time To Time, so here we go! Submit your questions here: https://bit.ly/WelonzQnA2022

Some of you might remember the last time I did this it took mooonths…. part because I prioritized gameplay videos 100% of the time, and the other part because I found the amount of questions too daunting to even start answering lol. So this time I’ll limit it to patrons/YouTube members, keep this open for just a week or so and pick out the most interesting ones I haven’t answered 500 times already. Fingers crossed this video will actually get made in a reasonable amount of time 🤣

Poll

I haven’t finalized the list yet but I’m going to draw mainly from stuff in previous polls, e.g.

• Batman Arkham Asylum
• Celeste
• Dragon Age: Origins (I’m giving up on a remaster, I think I read an article that said it’s not likely)
• Mass Effect: Andromeda (story only)
• OMORI
• Outer Worlds
• Phoenix Wright: Ace attorney 1
• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
• Resident Evil 1

HOWEVER….. I think the Next Big Thing is a while aways (God of War in November), so I’m also considering some massive 100+ hours stuff too, in particular:

• Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Elden Ring

I don’t wanna get anyone’s hopes up by putting this out there prematurely LOL but I do have a lot of interest in trying out Elden Ring after all that hype early in the year, especially since I have some experience with the fight-a-boss-100-times genre now with SIFU/Hollow Knight. Then we also have BOTW2 coming out next year and I still haven’t really tried a Switch game on the channel yet…!

I’ll put up the poll over the next few days after some more thinking. Let me know you have any thoughts on the shortlist so far and/or anything else. Thanks for everything as always, and have a great August!

Welonz