Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. This was a very cat-heavy week thanks to an adventure game about a missing kitty and an event in Genshin Impact that had us — finally!! — petting cats. Was also surprised by a new game similar to The Room and I gave Wildfrost a try. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get started.

Boxes: Lost Fragments

I don’t know if there can ever be too many games like The Room. I just love watching realistic mechanical boxes open and unfold. They’re also usually relaxing games that feel very tactile and perfect for an iPad. So when I saw Snapbreak and Big Loop released their PC game, Boxes: Lost Fragments, on iOS, I was eager to try it. I was immediately impressed by the graphics. Everything looks great and it’s a joy to watch the animations. It’s also a pretty hefty game, consisting of five chapters each divided into four rooms. I’ve gotten through the first four chapter so far and it took me a few hours. I’m looking forward to playing the last chapter hopefully this weekend. I do have a few gripes about it, namely that most of it is very easy. And usually what trips me up is missing a small detail and then feeling dumb for missing it. But one of them was intentionally easy to miss. I also overthink some puzzles — like one that I thought was connected to the music notes playing, but it wasn’t. Overall, I’m still impressed with it and I think it’s worth your time if you don’t mind the easier puzzles. It’s also free to try, so I recommend doing so and seeing for yourself if you want to pay for the full game. I have more videos here and will probably make a proper walkthrough once I finish it.

Wildfrost

Wildfrost is a card-based roguelike in the vein of Slay the Spire that’s been out on other platforms for a while and finally came to mobile this week. I spent some time with it and must say, it’s quite addictive. There’s a lot going on that I’m not going to try to explain, but you select one of three random leaders and you have to keep that leader alive in order to keep going. If the leader dies, it’s game over. However, there are unlockables you earn through play so early on, at least, no run should feel like a waste. This isn’t a roguelite, though, so you can’t actually keep anything between runs that makes your characters stronger. What you unlock are cards that can show up in a run. I’m fine with that kind of progression, as long as it doesn’t feel like too much of a slog to unlock everything. What especially stood out to me, though, is the hand-drawn art. The cards and characters all have so much charm and I just want to keep meeting more of them. I definitely plan to play more, though I feel like I was getting worse with each run. Hopefully I can turn that around. This is another game that gives you a a free demo and then the option to unlock the full game, so give it a try for yourself.

Scott Whiskers: The Search for Mr. Fumbleclaw

I really wanted to love the point-and-click adventure game, Scott Whiskers. After all, you get to volunteer in an animal shelter and pet the cats. And the main quest is a search for a missing cat. What’s not to love? Well, for me it was the amount of dialogue. It was endearing at first, but after only about a half hour with the game, I had enough of it. I usually like to click on all dialogue options in an adventure game to get extra dialogue, but here it wore me down even when I didn’t go out of my way for more of it. I ended up zoning out for part of my first video. I didn’t want to skip while I was recording, but it was becoming too much. I think if I do continue with it, I would be very tempted to skip dialogue. It’s unfortunate, because I really do like the overall concept and the puzzles have been decent so far. Am I got to pet a cat! But I would recommend watching some of my video before deciding for yourself whether to buy it.

GUNCHO

GUNCHO is Arnold Rauers’ latest game, though it’s still in beta. I had early access to it for a while and finally decided to give it a try. As so many of his games, it’s a turn-based roguelike. What’s unique about it, though, is that you play as a gunslinger. Each turn, you can either move to try and get yourself out of harm’s way, or you can shoot your gun — if one of the bullets is aiming at an enemy or object that can interact with your bullets, like an exploding barrel. If you don’t want to do anything, you can empty one of the bullets from your gun. When all canisters are empty, you’ll automatically reload. What makes things a little tricky is that your gun barrel rotates after each move. So it can be a little difficult to make sure you have a bullet lined up with the enemy you want to shoot if you don’t have many bullets left. The game also counts your moves and they act as a sort of high score where the goal is to beat the game in as few moves as possible. You also earn lives for each stage you clear and if you die at any point you can restart the stage as long as you still have lives left. There are also upgrades and abilities you pick up that can help you in a pinch. My only real gripe with the game is that sometimes I couldn’t tell how I died. I thought everything was going fine and then all of a sudden I was dead. Still, it’s a solid game with a ton of depth and I’d like to see next how I can handle the harder difficulties. Definitely keep an eye out for this one when it gets a full release.

Genshin Impact

And last, I spent some time with Genshin Impact. Version 4.5 is coming to an end soon and it’s been a bit of a dry one. We had a few small events but no new areas to explore or major events. The potion brewing one was probably the biggest. Still, it’s going out with a bang as we just finished one where we got to help out in a cat shelter. The owner of the shelter needed help getting the cats to warm up to her and Paimon is an expert, so that’s where we came in. We basically just pet lots of cats. Yes, Genshin Impact finally let us pet the cats! We needed to figure out each cat’s favorite spots to be pet and avoid petting them where they don’t like it. In the end, we not only got to adopt a unique cat named Sir Pouncelot, but we got the piece of furniture for our teapot that lets us invite cats to be pet. Absolutely the best reward yet! I’m also amazed by how realistic all the animations are. The cats roll over when they’re particularly happy and their ears twitch while they’re waiting for you. You can tell how much attention to detail went into it. If you play Genshin Impact, make sure to play this event so you don’t miss out on that pet or that furniture forever. Aside from that, I decided to wish for Neuvillette after all and he cost me a whopping 159 wishes! I think he was my most expensive character and I’m still not ever sure I like playing him. I do love his character and voice lines, though. Hopefully I can make use of him and won’t regret spending all those wishes on him.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I also finished the 8th season of The X-Files and just started the 9th. Things are getting a bit confusing and Mulder disappeared without end explanation. But I got this far and I’m in it for the long haul. I’m also in middle of an episode with Lucy Lawless, aka Xena, so that’s cool. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re playing and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!