Recent reviews by missiloon

This game is a very emotional but wonderful journey about a community that loses one of its members and which impact that has on everyone and how they deal with the grieve.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: 13 hours
Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1,5
Is there a good guide available: No, but you don't need a guide
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: Kinda, however, you can turn back time to earlier days (not forward, only to earlier days, so don't go too far back) to get missing achievements. I would recommend doing this after you finish the first playthrough.
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: A tiny bit, I struggled with the achievement "The Little Things" but I just needed a bit of luck to get the objective done.
Does difficulty affect achievements: No difficulty setting
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

Ohh "Closer the Distance" you broke me into so many pieces but also got me invested in the story so much and let me fall in love with all the details the developers added.. and that all at once. This was a journey, a wonderful journey but a very sad one and I cried so many times while playing this gem of a game.

I have played the first Orwell game from Osmotic Studios and that one told me already that this studio is so good in telling stories. That one tells a story about the dangers of our online activities. Not everybody's cup of tea... However, the story in Closer the Distance is one about losing a relative unexpectedly and what that does with a family, but also within a (small) community. Normally it takes me at least some time to get closer to a character to get so emotional. However, Osmotic Studios did such a great job in storytelling that when the main character dies very early on in the game, I instantly became emotional.

In this game, you play as Angie, the person who has died. You are kinda the ghost of Angie that tries so hard to help her loved ones move on. Tries to fix what is broken within the small community of Yesterby, what she already tried to do so much when she was alive, but she can't let go after she died. This is done in a sims-like gameplay. You start with only having some control over her younger sister because she is the only one who can hear Angie's voice. You can already see some of the wishes of the other people in the small community of Yesterby and you will unravel more of their wishes and mood swings in the days/weeks/months after Angie passed away. A little into the game you'll also get a bit of control over some of the other characters. This way you try to complete their wishes for what to do next and what is going on.

I love how they choose to go with a Sims-like game style. Lately so many announced sims-likes got canceled while I desperately looking for something that plays just like The Sims, but on Steam with Steam achievements (and not 50 DLCs). This was such an awesome game, and a great way how they told such a heavy and emotional story. With so many different characters and their own life goals, dreams, and quirks. And did I already mention how much love and attention there went into all the little details?? This goes from portraits of the families hanging in their houses to the sounds of characters sounding more echoey in some locations where that makes more sense, to the beautiful music this game adds. Especially by a character who will join a little later.

This is very out of character for me, but I won't go too much into detail about the achievements in this game, as most of them are beautiful stories that will play out in the game and I don't want to ruin their stories by already telling you about them. I would recommend playing through the game blind the first time and just exploring those stories you're most interested in. You can always go back to earlier days (but this will delete the progress you made after that day). So I highly recommend just playing through the game once and then going back in time to mop up the missing achievements. I had to replay a specific day a few times because I kept having a little bad luck with one of the wishes, however even the third time I played through a day, I still saw new dialog options which was so surprising to me. A lot of the story you already know by then and can easily speed up time to get past them, but to get surprised with even new scenes was amazing.

I give Closer the Distance 4,5 out of 5 stars.

A fun and cute minesweeper game in which you solve puzzles and beat monsters in a rhythm game while going deeper and deeper into the dungeons. It has no missable achievements and takes around 4 hours to complete.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: I estimate it takes around 4 hours since the treasure room is now more frequently appearing
Estimated achievement difficulty: 4/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Is there a good guide available: You don't need a guide
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: No
Grinding Achievements: Maybe the one to level up to the maximum level?
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: YNo
RNG-achievements: Yes, finding the treasure room involves luck. However, the developer just increased how much is appears.
Does difficulty affect achievements: Yes, there are 2 achievements thight to difficulty. I would recommend doing them independently and not together at the same time. However, the rest of the game can be played on easy.
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

Dreamsweeper is a fun puzzle game that combines a roguelike minesweeper puzzle with battling monsters through a rhythm game. You'll keep descending floors to the next puzzle and the next and the next. The type of enemies that walk around are based on which of the 4 worlds you're playing. You'll unlock a new world after completing a world, which also opens up endless mode on the previous world. The monsters in later worlds felt harder, but that might also be because their timing is less forgiving than the purple attack the enemies in the first world do.

It feels like the main character walks a little slow, but this seems to be on purpose because you don't want to set a step too far while working out a puzzle. Another thing that I noticed only very late is that while you can have 3 heads with you, you can only wear one, and that one is which buff you currently have. While typing this.. it makes sense.. it is a hat.. we don't wear stacks full of heads. However, with the design in the game and the shop selling always 3 heads, it wasn't so clear to me before.

Dreamsweeper has a bunch of nice achievements. Most of them aren't hard and you'll unlock them just for playing the game. There are achievements for playing the puzzles and battles on the highest difficulty. I don't recommend combining those but just do them one by one. As the battles are way longer and the floors are way bigger in both cases. Finding the treasure room requires some luck. You have a chance to find it each time you change floors. The developer just increased the spawn frequency so it shouldn't be too hard to find it while going for the rest of the achievements.

I give Dreamsweeper 3 out of 5 stars.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: My guess would be around 4 to 5 hours if you know what to do. Or if you follow a guide it might be shorter as you won't miss out on an achievement, so you don't have to replay the game.
Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1,1 but probably 2,1... why the decimal number you ask... because there is an ending you can reach within under 20 minutes.
Is there a good guide available: not yet. This guide comes close[gamerant.com], but it is still missing a few achievements.
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: Yes, many!
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No difficulty option
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

What the heck did I just play? I expected something funny and strange.. but I wasn't prepared for this amount of strangeness going on in this game. To be upfront, my rating for this game might be a bit lower than some others because it turned out the humor in this game wasn't my style. There were funny moments, but also quite a lot of moments that didn't do anything to me.

In Thank Goodness You're Here! you play as a little guy who goes to visit the small town Barnsworth. The reason why... I'm not exactly sure. Your boss asks you to go there and don't miss the bus. So the good employee you're... you jump out of the window to not miss the bus! There you have an appointment with the Major, but he is busy the moment you arrive. So you have a choice... wait for the appointment, or explore the town. If you choose to explore the town.. you'll enter the wildest fever dream you'll have without having a fever or without dreaming. You'll make multiple runs through town to help out the people, or sometimes make their life miserable.

The story on its own is wild and I would recommend playing the first playthrough without a guide and using a second playthrough to mop up the missing achievements. At this moment achievements don't unlock if you start a new playthrough directly after your first one. You have to restart the game for the achievements to work on a second or third playthrough.

Thank Goodness You're Here! has many missable achievements. a whole bunch you'll just unlock out or curiosity and some by just following the story, but there are many where you have to do something specific. Like: listening to two potatoes talking before you chop them down to make fries or find all the singing mice. I think that the main story can be beaten in 1,5/2 hours, so a second playthrough to mop up what you missed isn't the worst.

I hope that someone will end up writing a complete achievement guide. I tried to make a start but wasn't sure about everything and also had no clue about a few of them, so I gave up writing one. I'm looking forward to coming back to this game after a guide is available to mop up those last few achievements I'm missing.

I give Thank Goodness You're Here! 3 out of 5 stars.

A great time management title with a crime mystery made by Gamehouse & SQRT3. It takes around 15h to complete and has no missable achievements.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: 15h
Estimated achievement difficulty: 3/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Is there a good guide available: You don't need a guide
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: No
Grinding Achievements: Yes, replaying 25 levels is a bit grindy. However, it is easily done on level 1 after finishing the rest.
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No, you can play on the easiest difficulty and still unlock all the achievements
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

Delicious - Mansion Mystery is another great GameHouse/SQRT3 game. They know how to make fun time management games in which you complete orders for different people. In Mansion Mystery you're playing as Emily. She and her best friend Francois will help host a party for a family who lives in a mansion. However, a lot is going on in this family and you'll get snippets of all the drama trying to solve a murder attempt.

This game has 90 levels, 15 levels in each different area. Which felt like a lot to me, sometimes a little too much. This might also be due because I didn't connect with the story as well as with other GameHouse titles. There was a little bit too much eavesdropping and searching through other people's stuff. I understand it is a game and they tell a story, but somehow it still made me feel a little uncomfortable with the methods Francois took while being "the good guy" who want to solve the crime. This is weird because there are other GameHouse titles where the crimes are worse but done by bad guys, which makes it feel a little better, which I can see for myself that it is crazy to feel that way.

What I did like about Delicious - Mansion Mystery is that the mini-games were cool and all very good doable with a mouse as well as on the Steam Deck. Another great improvement in later levels was that if you had to find objectives in a level as a side-mission it had a counter so you know for how many more of them you were looking. The absolute best thing for me was that this game didn't end on a cliffhanger but had a proper ending which leaves room for future installments but didn't drop you into another adventure straight away. And last but not least, you don't need any prior info on the characters at all for this installment.

The achievement list is what you expect from this type of game: Complete all the levels with 3 stars, play the mini-games, complete all the side objectives, find the mouse in each level. What is nice is that in the in-game menu, you can see how far you're with the achievements, as they all have counters. And in the level select you can easily spot in which level you didn't find the mouse, didn't get 3 stars, or didn't do the side mission.

I give Delicious - Mansion Mystery 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Wéko The Mask Gatherer is such an awesome action game! A throwback to games like Ocarina of Time. It has no missable achievements. Try to save up to 3k souls early on. Completion takes around 15 hours.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: 15h
Estimated achievement difficulty: 6/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Is there a good guide available: Yes, this guide shows how to get a lot of the achievements
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: No
Grinding Achievements: Not really, having 3k souls at one point can be a bit grindy, but if you wait on buying the higher-level upgrades, it is quite easily done
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No difficulty settings
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

Wéko The Mask Gatherer is such an awesome game! It threw me right back into memory lane, back when I was a kid, playing games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In this game you play as Weko, you don't know about your past, but people keep saying or questioning if they don't know you already. However, something weird is going on in this world and you have to retrieve 7 masks that inflict the people who are under the influence of the mask to one of the 7 sins.

Before I started playing Wéko The Mask Gatherer, I was a bit scared because it has the "souls-like" tag on Steam. And I'm not a souls-like girl! However, the game still drew me in and I'm glad I dived in, as I had such a lovely time playing this game! For the most part, it isn't that difficult, really think back to Ocarina of time and you know what kind of difficulty to expect from this game. (Sorry, I haven't played any of the newer Zelda games after "Twilight Princess" so no idea how it is compared to those.)

What made me have such a wonderful time is that the main story was not complicated and I always knew which way to go. Furthermore, there were a lot of side quests as well that gave the world a feeling of being lived in. So many have their struggle and different quest types. I loved finding the animals in each city that were running around and needed to be caught. That part reminded me somewhat of Slime Rancher.

Another great thing is the amount of masks you'll collect and special abilities. It is nice that the game changes the mechanics just a little in each new area and how you can make those abilities even stronger if you go out of your way a little and complete other objectives.

What I also loved is the amount of teleportation/save options this game gives you. There will always be a teleportation point nearby. Which makes running around and returning to earlier areas so nice and easy.

The only bad thing I can say about Wéko The Mask Gatherer is that it doesn't have a pause button at the moment. While playing through the game I noticed it but it didn't bother me. The fights weren't long and it was quite easy to stay out of trouble while idling if you are mindful about it. However there is an arena challenge in the game, there I ran into problems with this. In there, it meant that if my phone rang or the doorbell or a cat jumped in front of my computer screen, I couldn't pause so that meant I lost that run and had to start all over again. However, I'm glad to report that in a future patch, there will be a pause button added later on because of the switch port. (Which is also great news, as this game feels perfect for the switch!)

The achievements in Wéko The Mask Gatherer are great! None of them is missable which felt awesome. No worries about missing out on something! This helps so so much with just feeling free to jump into a game and enjoy the journey without having to worry about missables. There is an achievement for having 3k souls at one time. This can be done easily in the post-game with the arena but if you don't want to grind, I recommend just waiting a bit with buying the higher-level health and stamina upgrades till you get this achievement.

The hardest achievement to unlock will be the one for completing the arena. I wrote in the overview above that completion takes around 15 hours. This is an estimation, some people who are good at blocking/rolling/dodging gameplay might have a breeze with this part and finish it in a shorter amount of time, but I suck at it and it took me 20h in total to complete this game. I think 7 of those were spent on that arena section and I came so close to rage quit. However, it was just the last achievement and I really wanted to 100% this gem. The tip I can give for this achievement is that the boomerang is your friend ^^.

I give Wéko The Mask Gatherer 4.5 out of 5 stars.

What an awesome and unique puzzle game where you go on a puzzle adventure, but you move the world when you move around and solve many puzzles that way. It takes around 10h to complete and has many missable achievements.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: 10h
Estimated achievement difficulty: 3/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Is there a good guide available: I wrote this achievement guide
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: Yes, many achievements are missable. However, the game has a handy-dandy system to skip puzzles which makes playing through the game a second time a breeze. In my guide, I listed the achievements per area so you hopefully don't miss out on any.
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: Not sure, I didn't use the system that let you skip puzzles in my first playthrough. So I don't know if you use that on a puzzle that is attached to an achievement, if that achievement still unlocks or not.
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

What an awesome game! It made me feel super smart, while also with moments super stupid. In Arranger you move the area you walk on and solve puzzles that way. And they are round, so if you leave an area at the top, you'll return at the bottom. With this mechanic, you'll solve many many puzzles in this awesome adventure game. You'll never fight with weapons in your hand, or open locks with keys in your pockets. The items lay around on the floor and it is up to you to move them toward the objective. It takes a bit of time to wrap your head around it, but it is so well done and unique.

What took me the most time to get used to is that you can move items from within buildings outside by just moving them along with you. I also have felt stumped on some puzzles for a while, especially in the later areas and in the optional dungeons. What helped me when I was stuck was to remind me which info I had on solving the puzzle and what am I unsure about or what am I missing. There were like 1 or 2 puzzles I solved by luck by just moving around. However, there always is a solution, you just have to see it.

The story in Arranger is interesting and funny. I love that they added a story that made sense and also made fun of that your character is the only one who moves around in such a weird way. You'll meet a lovely bunch of interesting people, from good to evil people and from clumsy to skilled people. The variety and the amount of characters you'll meet is crazy for such a short story, but they all fit in and made sense to be there.

Another thing that I love about Arranger is the kind of achievements. Sadly it has missable achievements, which I'm not a fan of, but it has unique achievements. Achievements that make you explore the world a little more outside the main story. Achievements that make you do silly things (especially looking at the achievement for stealing a golden toilet). It is also nice that the game has a system to make replays so much faster by having the option to skip a lot of puzzles and dungeons. It took me around 10 hours to unlock all the achievements.

I give Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure 4 out of 5 stars.

What a lovely game. It took quite a while before it clicked but when it did, I fell in love. It has no missable achievements and takes 25h+ to complete.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: 25h+
Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Is there a good guide available: There are many guides online and posts on different achievement websites, but not one guide that combines it all. I used this guide [bonus-action.com] to know where to find specific items.
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: No
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

In Magical Delicacy, you just arrive at a new location where you hope to find more witches, like yourself. To learn from them the skills it takes to be a witch. However you are greeted by someone who will show you your new house, but then tell you you owe the city a bunch of money for that specific house. Does this sound like the plot of a farming sim? Well it isn't that, it is a Metroidvania without fighting or dying, but gathering and buying lots of ingredients to make dishes for the people around you.

It took me quite a few hours to fall in love with the game. The beginning was so nice, the movement felt good, the platforming was fun, the world looked amazing and a bunch of nice characters to meet. However, after the first tutorial part, I felt lost. The game mechanics didn't click for me for hours and it took for me to follow a guide for 1/3 of the game to understand it and start to enjoy it without a recipe guide. So which tips do I have for others?
- First is to know that it is normal you'll have to buy many many ingredients. Some are just not out there in the wilds and you are expected to buy them. For me as a cheapskate in games who mostly doesn't use any potions in games because I'm afraid I need them for late in the game... this bit me in the *ss... You're supposed to spend money in Magical Delicacy, not just for upgrades but also ingredients.
- The second thing is that you will earn enough feathers to buy the recipes. I was afraid to buy the wrong one which I didn't need for quests and others that I needed but then didn't have the feathers anymore. I'm not sure if you can encounter this problem, but likely not as you'll have a bunch of quests all at once all the time.
- The third thing that helped me is learning that the story-related quests show a ! in the top right corner. I have no idea why it took me hours to even notice this.
- And last but not least. Tauno, a character that will teach you a second spell sells an item that is called "Notes on Flavor". This is a lifesaver and helped me to finally let go of the recipe guides, as this one will show you the taste of the end result before making it. Don't forget to equip it!

So with all those tips out of the way, what do I like about Magical Delicacy? Almost everything after that initial phase!
- The artwork is beautiful and has so many details. Like candles that go out if you run past them.
- So many characters and their background stories.
- It has such an interesting main story that takes a bit of time to develop but gets so interesting that I wanted to see the ending!
However, what I enjoyed most of all is the movement set you get. In typical Metroidvania style, you'll unlock a bunch of new movements that help you reach new areas of the map. It also came with a bunch of teleport options which made traveling around so much easier. I really enjoyed the second and third movement set you'll unlock! What is also lovely is that the game comes with settings to remove the gathering/cooking timed minigame in case you don't enjoy this or have trouble with it.

Achievement-wise the game is so nice. A lot of the achievements unlock with story progression, or for buying all the cooking equipment. There are a bunch of achievements for collecting/using everything. I do recommend copying one of the lists of plantable ingredients and one of all ingredients and deleting those you have planted/used, because that achievement might take a while in the end while you can do already most of it while playing through the game.

I give Magical Delicacy 4 out of 5 stars. If you're struggling at the beginning, just like me. Please check out my tips above or maybe use a recipe guide in the beginning, just to get the hang of things. It will click at some point, and it is such a lovely game.

Going on a vacation to slay monsters and solve puzzles in dungeons, never was that much fun! I <3 this game! It has some missable achievements. However, if you're aware of them it is easy to make sure you don't miss them. ~25h to completion.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: 25 hours
Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Is there a good guide available: I wrote this friendship reward guide and this achievement guide . I wish I had also kept track of where I found the coins but I didn't :(
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: Yes, the coin in the beginner's dungeon is missable, finishing a new dungeon while being tired and you can't go back into the dungeons after you finished the last one when only using autosave. so make a manual save before attempting/finishing the last dungeon.
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No you can play on easy and still unlock every achievement
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

Sometimes you just fall in love at the beginning of a game just with the concept alone already, this game did that for me. Before starting to play Dungeons of Hinterberg I liked the idea and wasn't blown away by the artwork while I enjoy that it is a different style than we see a lot. However, after the first dungeon, I was already head over heels in love while that dungeon was short, straightforward, and easy. I could see already the potential and how smooth the controls of the game were. How good it felt and a peek into the people you'll meet during this journey. And the artwork grew on me while playing through the story. It includes so many details and is so well made.

In Dungeons of Hinterberg, you're on holiday in Hinterberg. Where in other small towns/villages in Austria it might be normal to have winter sports activities while on vacation, Hinterberg is special... in Hinterberg you learn how to use magic and complete dungeons during your vacation. However, it still is a vacation so you can also just take the day off and enjoy a scenic spot and during the evenings you'll meet with all kinds of different people. And all those things will help you out with getting stronger. Yes, even taking the day off helps you out!

This game reminds me of the "Persona" series combined with "Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II". The interactions and hangouts you have with the people feel like the social part of the Persona games. With bonus points for not having X amount of in-game time before the world gets destroyed. You can keep going as long as you don't finish the last dungeon. And the style of the dungeons reminded me somehow of Phantasy Star Online.

In Dungeons of Hinterberg, there are 16 "people" you can get to know better and hang out with. Increasing your friendship level will get you rewards, but the people were so well-written that it was fun as well. I didn't like everyone, but when getting to know them better I understood where they came from. And it is awesome that there is such a range of personalities. The quiet ones, the social butterflies, the loud ones, the cheesy ones. You will find so many different people in Hinterberg, but all with a story attached to them. For the achievements you don't have to max out their friendships, which would mean that normally I wouldn't even go for that. However, I finished almost all of them just to get to know them. I think I spent around 5 extra hours, just to finish most of the friendship levels.

There are 26 Dungeons in Dungeons of Hinterberg. What I enjoyed so much about them is that they weren't too long, you'll not spend hours going through the same dungeon, while also being different from each other. The dungeons are scattered over 4 areas in the game and in each area you get 2 skills and only those 2 skills. This made sure that the dungeons weren't too complex. It has puzzles but you also know that the solution has to be done with one or both of those skills. The first time I got new skills it took a bit of time to get used to them, but it works so well and you always know that one of them has something to do with range.

Another nice thing is everything you do will improve your stats, even relaxing at the spa will in the end help you get stronger so you can get through the dungeons. This way you don't feel like spending useless time doing something and you can just strategize what is more important to go for at the moment. The rewards from leveling up your friendship levels are so nice as well.

I love how many quality of Life features Dungeons of Hinterberg has. Think about having teleport spots all over the map, so you never have to walk that far after you explore the place the first time. Also seeing chests on the map you found but couldn't open because not having the key yet is awesome, so you don't forget them as long as you have interacted with the chest. Another welcome feature is that you can speed up the animation of entering a zone or the switch between afternoon to evening, evening to night ect. And last but not least as it is huge, the game warns you of so many things. "Do you want to spend time with this person, that will take the whole evening" aka "Have you done your shopping before you chose this option" and other warnings like that.

After finishing the story you get the chance to say goodbye to everybody, and this was such a nice feature. I cried so hard during this because it felt really like saying goodbye to them as you learn to know them quite a lot. It was so bittersweet as I was glad happy with the ending and happy to play through this game, but that also meant saying goodbye. They did a great job with how to even include that in your Slaycation. However, there were possible hints as to where the story could go next... so hopefully at some point, we will join up with the main character and go on slaycation in another city!

I give Dungeons of Hinterberg 5 out of 5 stars. Yes, I'm in love with this game!

Approximate amount of time to 100%: Many hours, hard to say how many because of the "Risky" achievement
Estimated achievement difficulty: 9/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 3 or more
Is there a good guide available: Tasselfoot and I wrote this collectible guide.
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: No, there is level select
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: Yes, after completing the story at least once some extra difficulty settings unlocked
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

I'm so torn apart by writing this review. The game concept is awesome, making a platformer out of jumping through shadows is such a cool idea! And it was so nice to see the Dutch lifestyle and environment in a video game, which felt so familiar as a Dutchy. However, the game is long with 65 levels... too long in my opinion. What doesn't help with this feeling is that you lose your human very early on and you'll trying to catch up with him the rest of the game, which gets a bit depressing, as his mood is quite depressing. Around level 30 I was so ready to get reunited with my human, but I had to wait another 35 levels before that happened.

Normally more content is a good thing, but there is a limit before something grows stale. don't get me wrong, none of the content felt like filler content to me, it tells a story, and later on, going back to familiar settings was nice. However, I think it should have been quite a few levels shorter, especially with the challenging modes that unlock after completion. I felt no desire to go through all the levels again after taking my time to find every collectible.

So what did I like about SCHiM, the concept is so strong, and in the beginning, the game is so happy and funny. (This makes me wonder how much influence the mood of the human had on my feelings toward the game.) It is so clear to me that there went so much love into this game with how many details there are and how you can interact with so many items. Some just make a noise and have a visual effect, others even let you play around with them. Also, all the little details as the color scheme and the size of the shadows during which time of day the level was and how that changed were so nice to see and notice.

SCHiM has a wide range of achievements. A lot of them are for doing different things in levels, for example using the hoose on everybody in a garden in one of the earlier levels. There are also achievements for interacting with every type of object, interacting 50 times with animals, visiting 1k shadows, traveling 500 meters with vehicles, and using a car honk 250 times. Gladly most of those don't have to be different items, you could just jump into the shadow of a car and honk it 250 times in a row to unlock that achievement. What was very nice to see is that most of those achievements have a progress bar on Steam so you can see how many times you did that already and how many times is left.

SCHiM also has a bunch of quite challenging to even very difficult achievements. As stated above, after finishing the game you unlock some new game modes. One of them is the one jump mode, and there is an achievement to complete all the levels with this mode on. There is also a mode where you don't have checkpoints, so you have to complete the level in one go. The hardest one is "risky mode' which gives you a maximum of 20 respawns to get through 65 levels. Getting all the achievements in this game will test your patience and skill level.

I give SCHiM 3 out of 5 stars.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: My guess would be around 35 hours
Estimated achievement difficulty: 7/10 (Especially the "Perfect!" achievement)
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1 full playthrough and creative mode, but I would recommend 2 playthroughs (one on easy/medium, and a second one on hard)
Is there a good guide available: Not yet, but I'm sure there will be in the future. Check the steam guide section.
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: Yes, Perfect! is missable because no item may get ruined and no animal is allowed to die, gladly the game only saves when it is a new day, so you could quit the game when something like that happens
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: Yes, there is an achievement for playing through the story on the hardest difficulty
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

Horticular is such a cute game, but don't get fooled by its cuteness as it doesn't have to be easy! Especially not if you want to hunt down all the achievements, but I'll come back to that later on in this review.

The developer shared a post on Twitter, a few weeks before the release, that Horticular is a bit of a cross between Rollercoaster Tycoon and Viva Pinata, and I can see that. It starts with the music on the startup screen, it isn't from RCT but you can totally hear the influence of it. Managing your garden and generating income while also reforming your garden reminds me of the managing aspects of RCT. The viva Pinata part is even more clear: create the right environment for an animal and it will visit your garden. If you have the right spot for it you can let them join your garden and they will live there from now on.

In the beginning, it is unknown what are the requirements for an animal to join your garden, however, the more animals of the same type you added, the more info you already get, but if you have enough of that type it will just show you what the requirements are. I expect that there will pop up many guides on the internet on the requirements, so if you can't figure one out, you have a high chance of finding it on the Steam forum or the guide section on Steam. The Discord channel is also a good place to get information on specific animals.

In Horticular there are enemies, who visit on some nights. They are quite evil and will do their best to destroy your garden. Gladly you have a spell which you can cast on them to hurt them, just be careful where to cast it, as that spell will also hurt your animals. Later on, you can also let your helpers learn that spell so they can help out defeating those horrible creatures. This attack spell isn't the only spell you will learn, there are many spells. A few examples from early on are healing plants, but also healing and curing animals.

You earn money in Horticular for placing items in your garden, however the more of that item you place down, the less money that specific item generates. So it is a bit of a balancing act as well as

I give Horticular 4 out of 5 stars.