Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky: The Count Lucanor

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 282026
 

I remember seeing The Count Lucanor years ago and thinking I’d like to play it someday.

Then the dev announced Yuppie Psycho, and I remember thinking it looked cool and that I should also play The Count Lucanor. Now they’ve got an upcoming game called Catechesis, and it occurred to me that I still had yet to play The Count Lucanor or Yuppie Psycho.

So when I saw it go on sale on the Switch (and I believe elsewhere, too), I picked it up.

From the beginning, The Count Lucanor has a strange, fairytale-like atmosphere. You play as Hans, a young boy who runs away from home in search of treasure and finds himself in the castle of Count Lucanor, where he’s told he’ll win riches if he can correctly guess the name of the kobold who guided him there.

You have to search the castle for clues by finding key items and solving puzzles. Some puzzles have multiple solutions, especially related to how you interact with the other characters you meet along the way.

It isn’t all puzzle-solving, though. Monsters roam the halls, and you have no way of fighting back, so your only hope is to avoid them. My one criticism is that sometimes the monsters didn’t patrol so much as stand right in front of the door I needed to reach, which added undo frustration. Fortunately, you also find food you can use as healing items.

Oh, and saves are limited, since you save by throwing gold coins into a fountain. Exploring helped me find coins readily enough that I didn’t have to worry, but it did cause some additional tension early on.

Because of these elements, it would be fair to call The Count Lucanor a horror game, although I’d say it feels more like an adventure game overall. The story and atmosphere, too, feel more like a dark fairytale (with plenty of blood) than outright horror.

There are multiple endings, all of which are possible to get at the end of the game rather than being based on decisions throughout. Overall, I enjoyed the few hours it took to beat The Count Lucanor, and I’m glad I finally checked it out!

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Unforgiving – A Northern Hymn

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 262026
 

Sometimes it takes me a while to get around to games. You might have noticed.

All the way back in 2017, I watched a video from Game Informer in which they played the start of a horror game called Unforgiving – A Northern Hymn.

I was hooked, especially by the ending, and I immediately put the game on my Steam wish list.

And then I played it… this October… for the first time… All right, so it took me a little longer to get around to it than I expected back when I first saw it in 2017. Nevertheless, I remembered the start of the game when I started playing, and I was excited to see the rest.

This is the style of horror game where you can’t fight back, which I found a little frustrating during some of the parts where roaming enemies can chase you (because they are persistent) but even more frustrating during a mandatory stealth section near the end. That section frustrated me to the point where it was no longer scary, just annoying.

Aside from that, it has some good scares and creepy moments. Although there isn’t anything too complicated in terms of puzzle solving, there are some simple puzzles and a mechanic with a harp that I really liked.

Once you get the harp, there are points where you have to play a melody based on runes. The major ones are stored so you don’t have to manually play the melody each time, but for some you need to look at the runes and then select the matching strings. It’s simple, but it adds a nice touch.

Your light source also comes in the form of matches, with a matchbox you can pull out to actually look and see how many matches you have left. Matches are plentiful enough that I rarely felt in danger of running out, so I ended up liking this mechanic, too.

(And it’s a good thing they’re plentiful, because I kept forgetting that left-click was “strike match” instead of “interact” so I lit a few matches by mistake.)

Meanwhile, the story is… fine. I wish it had multiple endings, and it felt like more could have been done with it. More interesting than the story itself is the lore. It has a lot of Nordic inspirations and folklore, with collectibles to find that shed more light on the creatures you encounter.

Unforgiving – A Northern Hymn isn’t a perfect experience, and it frustrated me at times. However, it’s got some nice lore and interesting features, so I’m not sorry I played it.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 232026
 

Now, why don’t we talk about a game really suited to Halloween?

The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival is an online Halloween festival that goes live every October.

Although I’m not a big online game person, I was curious enough to check it out.

I started the game and created a little ghost avatar for myself. Then I carved the world’s most basic pumpkin and loaded the game.

I immediately saw countless pumpkins that put my weak artistic efforts to shame, but I nevertheless headed out through the festival in search of a spot. This is where I found myself frustrated. Whenever I saw a spot where a pumpkin could be placed, the other pumpkins were crowded in too much for mine to fit. However, I switched to a less-populated game world and eventually found a spot for mine.

Not only can you look at all the other players’ pumpkins, but you can even given a award ribbon to a pumpkin you like.

But there’s more to the game than just pumpkins, such as a hayride and other features that make it really feel like a festival. On top of that, there even areas with puzzles to solve (and pins to collect, which you can put on your ghost). When I checked out the city portion of the world, I found a theater playing public domain classic movies and a locked door that led into a maze that played out like a small survival horror game.

I actually didn’t check out everything the game has to offer, let alone finish it all, but since it’s a time-limited game, I wanted to blog about it now instead of waiting until I’ve finished (especially since I’m tempted to return to it closer to Halloween).

Oh, and I know someone in the comments will ask, so here, this is my pumpkin. Like I said, it’s not exactly an artistic achievement.

In short, The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival is a delightful little Halloween experience, whether you want to design the perfect pumpkin or see what puzzles and scares the festival has to offer.

…Maybe I’ll design a more creative pumpkin when I return to the game.

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