With Next Fest still going, I dove back in. This will be a shorter look because the festival’s almost over and I honestly forgot this was a short February. Besides, I still need to rest off the after effects of the spinal tap I just had.

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Geo Mythica is an action JRPG adventure by Guin Entertainment. A young boy named Gio finds himself blessed with the ability to read the mysterious Atlas Mythica and gets embroiled with the Sur Nova corporation. Allying with Liliana, a girl from Peru, he sets out on a worldwide quest to recover Orb Fragments the atlas guides him to to counteract the exploits of Sur Nova.

Geo Mythica feels like it’s in the vein of stuff like Secret of Mana, which I never really played before, actually, so this was a breath of fresh air for me. You primarily control Gio while you issue commands to the other party members. The combat’s interesting in that everyone works on different systems. Being the primary character, Gio builds fury from giving and taking hits to empower his skills, encouraging you to fight fast and furious. Liliana meanwhile snipes from a distance and has status effect skills running on a resource that replenishes at the start of every battle – and the status effects are actually handy, so you’d be a fool not to use them. And then you have actual talking dog Obi, who unleashes buffing howls on a cooldown system – very useful to synergize with Gio. Overall, it’s a combat system that’s easy to understand and fun to play around in. You can even hotkey character actions to keep things more fluid, but eh, I like opening the menu to give myself a little space to breathe.

Later on there’s a magic system where you can choose to teach the party members different skills. Personally, I’d kinda like it if the magic skills were equippables instead of things you permanently teach people in case you get second thoughts. You can already redistribute skill points, so why not?

Gio’s not a silent character, even though he easily could have been. He’s very much an all-loving hero, a star athlete to rely on – though, he’s kind of a dork (derogatory). Like hey, weird that you’re readily friends with two guys openly bullying a kid with a stutter with the implication that it’s a regular thing, even if you call them out on it a bit. And hey, I know you’re middle class, but being an African-American living in California in the decade the Rodney King riots happened and having a lot of faith in the police feels extremely naive at best. Like, Liliana’s kinda right to call you out on that, man. Is Gio’s hopefulness a deliberate character flaw? We’ll see…

Liliana needs some more baking, though as the game seems to be setting up a globe-trotting adventure, more will likely be learned from her soon. Obi’s a dog, can’t ask too much from him, but there’s one more party member shown in the official art that I’m really fucking curious about…

Geo Mythica’s normally not my kind of game, but I liked it, and would like to see where it goes.

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Olaf the Boozer was actually something the developer, Hidalgo code, hit me up with on Bluesky (follow me, btw). I was hit with this during a period where I played things I ended up not vibing with, were unplayable on my computer, or used AI. Normally I don’t take face-to-face suggestions, but I shrugged and decided to check it out, and I actually liked this more than I thought I would.

You are Olaf the dwarf, and you had a wild night of drinking. Unfortunately, Olaf must deal with the consequences of his actions, because he really fucked up a lot of things in his drunken reverie. And to fix things he must… do some sokoban action.

However, it’s not a full sokoban – in fact, I’d like to think of it as a reverse sokoban. By the time Olaf came to, everything’s already been pushed into place, objects smashed. In this game, instead of pushing things together, you’re pulling things back in place. Furthermore, when you move into broken objects, they get fixed and wind up blocking your way, essentially playing out as you making your way backwards through Olaf’s drunken endeavors. Normally, I’m not too into sokoban, but I think the goofy reversal gives it a fun spice to me. It’s honestly making me want to pick Void Stranger back up.

There’s also a lot of writing in the game. Now, I did say that a game adding writing to it helps it establish the game’s identity, like, literally a few hours before I touched this game. And the writing really does succeed in establishing Olaf the Boozer as a goofy fantasy sokoban. I do feel that some conversations go on a bit too long and need to be trimmed down, though.

I honestly did not expect to like Olaf the Boozer, but I did. And you know what? Playing an unknown like this, delving into something I don’t know much about… that’s the ideal of Steam Next Fest, ain’t it?

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Now, this is something I’ve been meaning to look at for a long, long time. I’ve followed the works of Analgesic Productions for years since the original Anodyne back in high school. Played Even the Ocean, Anodyne 2, Sephonie… and now, I’m finally looking at the demo of their upcoming game, Angeline Era!

It is a world of humans, angels and fae, and the human Tets has received an angelic order to help establish a supposedly better world. Though, there isn’t really a story in the demo, it’s very gameplay focused. There’s fun bits of writing here and there, but gameplay is the star here.

And that gameplay? “Bump slash” combat, where you hurt things simply by walking into them. Now, that doesn’t mean you’re invincible and can just walk into things willy-nilly. You have to walk into vulnerable parts of enemies to strike, and they’ll gladly reposition themselves to make things harder, and unlike Aliph of Even the Ocean, Tets does not have a shield, so you may get harmed trying to strike enemies and projectiles could chew right through you. You also have a gun and a choice of item to also fight with, but they can’t be fully depended on. Bump slashing is the only true way through. It makes for an accessible method of action combat, but not something too overly easy.

Aesthetically, I’d say that Angeline Era (mostly) feels whimsical. The presentation of the art of the game feels like you’re peering into dioramas, and much of Melos’ music carries an airy, spirited vibe. It feels adventurous, but not in the way I normally think of adventure. It feels adventurous in the sake of going out to find neat little things in the environment. Though, when it comes to the boss battle, the music goes for something much more high energy that I like.

Speaking of finding neat little things in the environment, discovery is the name of the game here. On the world map, you search suspicious areas to uncover new levels to delve into. Some areas have the token game collectable that unlocks more of the map, but others? They’re just levels to do for fun. In fact, I think the most memorable part of the demo is the hidden level, Recently Cleared Land, which centers around a non-verbal, abstract story that’d feel at home with original Anodyne.

Every game Analgesic Productions has made went into a new direction, and Angeline Era’s no different. I’m not sure how it stacks up to the other games yet since it’s just a demo, but it’s a demo that leaves a good first impression.

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So, this is the end of me looking at Steam Next Fest things. And, say, since I finally checked out Angeline Era…

I am of course still going through The House in Fata Morgana, but I’ve finally done it – I cleared a line off my bingo card! Now, I feel like I can’t start a new card properly until I have one more line clear, and man, there’s been a bunch of stuff I’ve been wanting to check out.

But hey, while Next Fest is going, consider checking out some other games today! Enjoy the thrill of discovery today!