God. I am so shit at keeping to a schedule. I say this because I had every intention of finishing my Low-Tier Playthrough of Pokémon Silver in October. The most recently published post in the series, Part 8, was actually written all the way back at the start of October if you can believe that. I just didn’t finish editing it before I got tapped on the shoulder about reviewing Dog in the Machine, so I shifted gears to that instead.
But then something like 2 days later the press preview for the October Next Fest dropped so, I started ramping up my Next Fest coverage.
Basically, my todo list turned into a LIFO (Last In, First Out) stack.
Uh…here’s a picture for those of you who aren’t current or former programmers:
Either way, I eventually squared away Next Fest, and then everything else fell into place. However, it looked like I was doing dick all for a solid 2 weeks there. You’d think that after covering Next Fest for 3 years I’d have figured this out a little better, but organization is (evidently) not my strong suit.
That said, I think I’m starting to streamline my process for covering the event to a point where I’m happier with it. Having earlier access to the event via the press preview, AND limiting myself to an hour per demo (most of the time) has made it a lot easier to keep on top of things. I still kind of miss when demos were only 20 to 30 minutes a piece, but I have to admit that some of the hour long demos do a much better job of highlighting exactly why the game in question is compelling. I just…wish I had more time to play through more of them.
If you missed it, here’s everything I posted in conjunction with the most recent Next Fest:
- 11 Cool Games to Try During Steam Next Fest (October 2026)
- Prison of Husks First Impressions
- Alethra First Impressions
Anyway, that’s enough of the behind the scenes stuff. Let’s get into what games I was playing throughout October.
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Well Dweller
The first game that I wanted to mention from what I played in October is Kyle Thompson’s latest Metroidvania masterwork: Well Dweller. You can likely already discern based on that description, but I rather enjoyed my time with the game. That’s not terribly surprising though given it sits at an 87 on Opencritic, and has a whopping 97% approval rating on Steam with over 4000 reviews counted. Evidently, Well Dweller is Thompson’s most successful release to date, and it’s well deserved.
So, what makes Well Dweller so damn compelling?
The short answer is that it kind of does everything right. And I mean everything. The main character, Glimmer, feels great to control, the platforming is surprisingly compelling without being masochistic, and the bosses all hit the perfect balance of challenge and spectacle. The art direction, sound design, and soundtrack are also excellent. And the bits of story, and lore that are sprinkled throughout the game feel really well paced, and written.
As I said, Well Dweller does everything right.
Though, if I had to elaborate on what specific element of the game really worked for me, it’d be the platforming. I say this because platforming is often an incidental part of most Metroidvanias. For example, I wouldn’t necessarily describe the platforming in most Metroid games as the focal point of the experience like it is in more traditional Platformers. Outside of a few rare exceptions, platforming is typically used as a way to get from point A to point B. It’s the thing you do in-between the fun bits of the game, instead of the thing that makes the game fun to play.
By contrast, Well Dweller’s platforming is the star of the show. Most of the map is a series of back-to-back platforming challenges that highlight the unique strengths of the game’s core set of abilities. This ensures that the journey is just as enjoyable as the destination, which made the 11 hours I spent 100%ing the game absolutely fly by.
Also, I really appreciated how Well Dweller made map markers, specifically markers for the next story quest, completely optional. That was my single biggest gripe with Silksong, and I was relieved to see that it was an opt-in feature within Well Dweller. This meant that I was able to enjoy the game the way I wanted to, but others were also able to enjoy the game the way they wanted to. And I think that’s pretty cool.
All said, Well Dweller is one of the easiest recommendations I’ve made all year. If you like this sort of thing then it’s a must play.
Valheim
Miranda, and I have continued plunking along in our Hard playthrough of Valheim, but we’re still quite a ways off of any of the new content. We’ve made it as far as the Plains, and have a full complement of fully upgraded armor, and weapons. However, we still haven’t managed to hunt down all of the requisite items that are required for spawning in the fifth boss, so we’re at a bit of a standstill for right now.
That said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed at how similar 1.0 still feels compared to Early Access. The newly added enemies in the Swamp, Mountain, and Plain biomes are…sort of whatever. In the majority of cases, they don’t meaningfully change how you interact with, or explore those areas so…honestly I’ve been a little bit bored.
This boredom is further exacerbated by how absolutely mind-numbing the progression path still is to engage with. It takes so much of everything to make anything in this forsaken game. Just as a quick example, it costs a little over 200 pieces of linen to make a full set of fully upgraded Padded Armor. Why?! It wasn’t even hard to get! It just took something like 5 hours of planting, harvesting, and processing flax. What did we prove by doing this? That we’re a couple of idiots who’ll waste 5 hours to get 8 more defense?!
Existentialism aside, I’m at the point where I’m not looking forward to future areas because I’m anticipating that things will only continue to get more tedious. Every single area thus far has asked for an ever increasing pile of resources to make new equipment, and I can’t imagine that will cease when we reach the Ashlands, or Deep North.
As such, I’m a little apprehensive about the future, but we both decided we needed a break from the monotonous grind, so, for now, Valheim is going on the backburner.
Editor’s note: I decided to look at the Valheim wiki, and all of the future armor sets have equally absurd crafting requirements. Yaaaaaaaaaaaay~
The Mermaid Mask
The final thing that I wanted to cover for October was The Mermaid Mask, which is the latest entry in SFB Games’ Detective Grimoire series. As with Tangle Tower, the previous entry in the series, you’ll follow the duo of Grimoire, and Sally as they attempt to solve another locked door murder mystery.
Generally speaking, I rather enjoyed the game, but I think the highlight for me was the writing, and voice acting instead of the detective-ing. That’s a bit of an oddity for me, so let’s unpack what I mean by that.
For starters, the banter between Grimoire and Sally is great. The writing itself gives the pair an almost Sherlock and Watson dynamic, but 2 end up passing the role of Sherlock back and forth. This means that neither member of the pair feels too domineering, which makes both of them likeable in a way that Sherlock rarely is.
Plus, the vocal performances from Edwyn Tiong (Grimoire), and Amber Lee Connors (Sally) help to convincingly paint the picture that these 2 have known one another for quite some time, and have a very strong friendship.
In fact, all of the voice acting is really well done. You get a palpable sense of each character’s personality from the very first words that you hear uttered out of their mouths, which helps to bring them alive in a way that text simply couldn’t.
I also thought the overarching mystery was pretty well constructed. The twists and turns come a little slow, but the eventual reveal makes a ton of sense. What happened, how it happened, and why it happened all make perfect sense to where no one should be walking away feeling as though they were cheated. There’s no supernatural elements, or magic at play in the background here. It’s just a story about how 2 people with conflicting obsessions eventually led to the demise of one another.
That said, the actual act of unravelling the mystery isn’t necessarily as fun as it is in other Detective games. There were quite a few times where I had a line of inquiry that I wanted to pursue based on a piece of information I inferred, or was told by a character, and I wasn’t able to do so. Instead, I had to wait until I’d checked all of the boxes that the game wanted before I had the opportunity to ask about whatever it was that I was curious about. As you might imagine, this was kind of frustrating, and more than once resulted in me just…asking about every piece of evidence until I finally got the go ahead to ask what I was actually interested in knowing.
So…putting my obvious preferences aside, The Mermaid Mask is genuinely a fun whodunit that wraps up in a really satisfying way. The voice acting, and writing are particular stand-outs, and I think a lot of people will probably enjoy it even if they’re not predisposed to enjoying Detective games.
That said, I wish I had a little more freedom while investigating. C’est la vie.
Review Round-Up
Dog in the Machine
I ended up getting a review key after Dog in the Machine was released (which was my fault), but I’m really glad I had the opportunity to review it. A lot of the game’s systems are very complimentary, and the result is a very fun Tactics experience. There’s a lot more under the hood here than I’m willing to repeat, so go read my review if you want the full details on why you should play this if you’re in the market for a new Tactics game.
Indie Spotlight
This month’s Spotlight is a little…different from what I normally do because I’m (probably) reviewing 2 of the games. Either way, here are some things to keep your eyes peeled for in November.
Annihilated
This is the second time that I’ve highlighted Annihilated in this block, but this time I know for sure that it is coming out. I can say that with absolute confidence because I’ve been actively playing a review copy of it for the past week. Provided nothing crazy happens, Annihilated should be out on November 10th, which is also when I’ll be publishing my review.
As far as what it is: Annihilated is a cross between a Visual Novel, and RPG with a light dusting of Roguelike randomness. You’ll embark on a journey with a member of the legendary hero’s party, and try to escape the confines of a labyrinthine dungeon. Can you escape, or will the pull of the dungeon prove too powerful?
I’m being intentionally vague here so I don’t violate the terms of the review embargo, but you can play a demo of Annihilated if it sounds like your kind of thing. Or, you can check back on the 10th for my review. Whichever floats your boat.
Handshakes: Hands On
I quite literally just wrote about the Sokoban Puzzle game Handshakes: Hands On, so I’m going to quote myself here:
Sokoban is a great framework for logic puzzles, so layering additional mechanics upon it will likely result in a stellar gameplay loop.
In the case of Handshakes, you’re attempting to make the 2 goobers, at either end of the game board, shake hands with one another. They’re only able to extend their arms for a specific number of tiles, so a lot of the puzzling comes down to figuring out exactly how you can rearrange obstacles with your limited movement, while creating an opening that’ll allow for a game winning handshake.
-Me / 11 Cool Demos to Try During Steam Next Fest (October 2026)
As with Annihilated, I’m hoping to have a full review for this one out in time for the November 9th release date, so I’ll bite my tongue for now.
Monster Train 2: The Punished
Monster Train 2, my beloved.
I erroneously assumed that Shiny Shoe was done releasing DLC for Monster Train 2, but it looks like they still had quite a few ideas for new cards. So much so that they’re releasing a new faction as part of the latest DLC.
That means approximately 40 new cards, and a handful of new mechanics to mix, and match with the existing collection of over 500 cards.
As with Annihilated, The Punished DLC releases on November 10th.
And with that, I’m outta here. Fingers crossed I can actually finish my Low-Tier Pokémon challenge in November. I already have the footage, which is…something. Now I just need to sit down and write the remaining…5000 (give or take) words.
Regardless, thanks for sticking with me, and I’ll see you in the next one. Stay safe out there.
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