My Week Unwrapped: May 14, 2021 – The Chronos Principle, The Sense Point, Woodle Tree Adventures, Tears of Themis and More

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Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. I’m still trying to get Zhongli in Genshin Impact, even though I have next to no chance of it happening at this point. I also played a few new puzzle games, some more impressive than others. There’s quite a bit going on in Sky right now, too, but mostly in the beta version. I also revisited Grindstone after a long break because it got a new Daily Grind mode that’s quite different from anything else we’ve seen before. Anyway, let’s get to it!

The Chronos Principle

By far my favorite game that released this week is The Chronos Principle, a puzzler in which you work together with your past selves to get to the exit. It starts off simple, but gets deviously difficult, with some levels taking me quite some time to solve. I still have to play through the last two levels before I review it, but I wrote some early thoughts here. I have more gameplay videos in my YouTube channel if you want to see what the late game puzzles look like and I’m working on a walkthrough here.

The Sense Point

I wanted to love The Sense Point, as it’s a point-and-click adventure made of claymation — two things I love. Unfortunately, there were a lot of issues that hampered my enjoyment. I already wrote a full review here, so I’ll let you read that. I also have a walkthrough guide here if you get stuck.

Woodle Tree Adventures Deluxe

I didn’t know much about Woodle Tree Adventures Deluxe — wow, what a mouthful — but since it’s free to try, I figured I’d do so. It turns out it’s a platformer where you play as a little tree stump who has to collect magical water droplets. It’s basically a collectathon that very forgiving, as death sets you back but you keep everything you collected already. The graphics are cute, but I found the gameplay enraging. The camera has a life of its own and you don’t have much control over it. That led to motion sickness after just a few minutes. It also makes it hard to judge jumps, since you’re sometimes looking at it from a 2D perspective but can jump in 3D. I kept missing jumps and it didn’t feel like it was really my fault so much as the terrible camera. I stopped playing after 10 minutes and have no plans to return. But try it for yourself if you’re curious, since it’s free to download.

Tears of Themis

Tears of Themis is an upcoming visual novel from MiHoYo, the folks behind Genshin Impact. I managed to get into the closed beta and have since spend about half an hour with it. I have mixed feelings, as I’m interested in finding out how each lawsuit turns out, but I’m a little put off by the timers and currency and gacha mechanics. I’ll probably stick with it until those things start to affect gameplay, but it’s hard to say just yet how much of an issue it will be. I’ll make sure to keep you updated as I play more, but you can watch my gameplay video below if you want to see what the game is like.

Day Repeat Day

This week I finished my second full playthrough of Day Repeat Day. I made better choices and got to see a lot more this time around — not least because I knew about the phone early on — but I failed to get an alternate ending. There was a captcha introduced in the second-to-last chapter and I didn’t manage to solve it in time, so the final chapter was the same as in my first playthrough. As much as I would love to see what I missed, I can’t see playing through all the same match-three puzzles again, so this is it for me unless something changes in the future. I still enjoyed the game, but I am a bit bummed it’s not easier to hunt down alternate endings. Again, you can see all my videos here.

Genshin Impact

Like I said, I’m still trying to get Zhongli in Genshin Impact, but he’s eluded me so far. There’s only a few more days left and not many more chances available for free primogems, the currency that allows you to try to win new characters. I decided I’m not going to spend the money, even though $50 would guarantee him. I don’t want to start down that route, especially since I pride myself on the fact that I’ve never bought in-game currency in any game before. I decided that instead I’ll just play more casually after his banner ends and wait for him to return without stressing over how many primogems I earn. I’ll just focus on the events so I don’t miss out on new content. Speaking of which, there’s the Windtrace event that started today, which is a load of fun. It’s basically hide-and-seek but you turn into objects to hide. It’s wild seeing other players turn into a crate and then move around, like one of those cartoons where someone camouflages themselves as a bush. I’m enjoying it and I’m glad that it’s not as competitive as it sounds, since you earn some currency even if you lose. It just means you have to play more rounds to get all the rewards. Definitely check it out if you haven’t yet, as it’s one of the more interesting events they’ve introduced.

Sky: Children of the Light

The Season of Assembly is still in progress in Sky, so I made videos for the new treehouse quests. There was also an update to the beta version of the game which fixed a lot of things, including the color trail spells that are part of the upcoming Days of Rainbow. So I was able to buy those and the rainbow cape, as well as the new rainbow beanie they added, which will cost $9.99. I really like the color trails, but I wish they weren’t a temporary spell. I’ll likely never use them in live because I’ll be afraid to run out. I also wish the cape wasn’t so expensive, as you need a total of 205 candles to buy it. Besides the rainbow event, they also made some changes to the exclusive Nintendo Switch area and made the Ocarina gray instead of blue. You can see all this in my video below.

Grindstone

I hadn’t played Grindstone in a while, so I took the opportunity to record my playthrough of the new Fortune Grind Daily Grind mode that was added today. I like how it introduces a new mechanic, a big wheel that you can spin if you hit it after matching 10 creeps together. When you spin, you’ll get one of the items on the wheel — like a new power-up or ice blocks dropped on the board — and also all the creeps will calm down. So one of the keys to getting a high score is trying to last as long as you can before spinning the wheel. But in one of my games, I got cocky and waited too long and all the creeps were angry. It’s a fun mode and I’m always happy for more ways to play Grindstone. But I wish these scored modes would keep track of your score while you’re playing so you have an idea how you’re doing compared to others — or even your last attempt. It’s hard to tell when I should take more risk or play it safe. It’s still a great game but quality of life additions like that would be appreciated.

SP!NG

And last, I’m still chipping away at the new SP!NG content. I’m on Chapter 12 now and making my way to the end. I just want to savor it since I don’t know when the next content update will be. Again, you can see all my videos here.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! Against my better judgement, I also finished Season 2 of Westworld and started Season 3. It’s still kind of dumb but I’m finding it far more entertaining than the second season. I’m not sure what I’ll watch next, so feel free to leave recommendations. I’d also love to hear what games you’re playing, so let me know in the comments section and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!

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