Manygame Collection (December 2024): Fixin’ To Chill

The year's almost over, but the Manygames keep Collecting.

The year draws to a close, yet Manygame Collection continues. I will be flying back to my hometown less than twelve hours after scheduling this. Ten days of relative silence: no consoles to lug, no desktops to check. Just me, friends, and family.

The monthly pressure is entirely self-imposed, but I keep feeling anxious about December. And I’m still immersed in games media’s monthly hype cycle. The urge to stuff the end-of-year list to bursting is hard to shake.

Previously: Manygame Collection (November 2024): Clearing Mental Blocks

But the past year of Manygame Collection laid scaffolding for more disciplined coverage elsewhere. And I’ve grown to like having a dedicated space for my oddball thoughts. What sticks, what doesn’t, what I need to mull over. A review, even in progress, is something of a conclusion. But not everything needs one.

Diceheart

Manygame Collection: The player upgrades a four sided die at one of Diceheart's many unsettling altars.
Screenshot via Bad Impression Games.

Diceheart mixes node-based dungeon crawling with turn-based dice battling. And it’s not just D6es. All kinds of upgradeable die sizes, elemental affinities, and collectible relics sprawl across the map. Characters and creatures are hand-drawn in a pleasantly scrungly fashion, but fonts are clear and readable.

And dear lord, the difficulty curve is just the right amount of steep. Even the first map requires careful resource management. Health is precious, so Diceheart offers you a cursed bargain: heal for every enemy left on the map, but they mutate in something weirder, stronger. I beat the first boss by the skin of my teeth, but I had to run away from four irradiated monsters to do it. A true Taylor sicko game.

Paw Paw Destiny

Manygame Collection: A white goat talks to a dog in a cap in Paw Paw Destiny. The goat says, "The sinners who killed the Dragon God and Phoenix, the protector of the earth, and took the blood of the moon. There is no peace for their descendants,"
Screenshot via Daiyu.studio.

Paw Paw Destiny thrives on the contrast between its moving parts. After creating and customizing your cute pixel art kitty or puppy, you’re immediately tasked with purifying human souls. The 2D platforming can be hard to parse, but it ultimately takes a back seat to your pet’s ability to connect or destroy. And even the early game has some capital-O Opinions about people who mistreat animals. Wherever Paw Paw Destiny goes, I expect some big swings.

Great God Grove

Manygame Collection: Ms. Mitternacht, a skeletal nun in Great God Grove, bursts into crimson tears. "WITHOUT KING, THE WHOLE WORLD IS DOOMED!"
Screenshot via Limbo Lane.

Great God Grove’s quirkiness masks thorny conversations that can draw blood. Yes and no gestures return from their previous game, Smile for Me. But this journey to the grove needs a new perspective. You’re a lone passenger on your way to a once-in-a-generation meeting of the gods. But one of their own has gone missing.

King used to help the other gods pass messages, but now they’ve turned venomous. Their megaphone crashes onto your passenger ship, and with it you can hoover up conversation bubbles in third person. Pluck a sentence from one person, fire it at another. Unravel the personal squabbles around the island and the wounds underneath.

Yugo Limbo’s unmistakable style is honed to a point, the cute 2D art and unapologetically queer characters easing players into a full-on crisis of faith. Great God Grove delves into the limits of belief, the burden of responsibility, and spiraling miscommunication. It’s an expert blend of early Alex Winston singles and novelist Frances Hardinge’s webs of deceit.

Breath of Death VII: The Beginning: Reanimated

Manygame Collection: Dem, a skeleton warrior, stands on the world map of Breath of Death VII: The Beginning: Reanimated, monologuing to himself. "(Everyone knows that a true hero never speaks. His silence becomes his strength and his shield.")
Screenshot via Shadow Layer Games LLC.

Breath of Death VII: The Beginning: Reanimated (their title, not mine) updates an Xbox Live Arcade mainstay for modern systems. Dem, a mute skeleton warrior, skewers RPG conventions in between turn-based combat. His party of misfits stumble through the usual fantasy-genre problems and create new ones, but it never gets too serious.

Preserving independent titles on modern platforms is an unmitigated win for our industry’s short lifespan, but the games themselves feel like a mixed bag. I would have loved this on its original release. But more than a decade removed, it’s hard to shake the feeling of overfamiliarity. We’re saturated in fantasy media, from the serious to the irreverent. But if you’re in the mood for a 2010’s-era pastiche, you could do worse than Breath of Death VII: The Beginning: Reanimated.

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island

Manygame Collection: Alex sprints across the sands of Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island as dusk falls.
Screenshot via Whitethorn Games.

Alex is a backpacker looking for a change. And crashing the tour boat onto Ambrosia Island definitely counts. Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island mixes ability-based exploration with a time-of-day system with relationship building. The oddball residents of Ambrosia Island have forgotten their true identities. By helping them scavenge and repair the island network, Alex hopes to discover a way back home.

Mythwrecked commits wholeheartedly to its setup, but any knowledge of Greek mythology makes the early game feel like running in place. Hermes wants to feed the local island birds. Zeus and Hera want to make the island more welcoming by repairing burnt-out lights. And every task means dashing from screen to screen. There’s no time penalty or real pressure, but the god-based amnesia does feel like a bit much. Despite these hiccups, conversations can go from quirky to raw at a moment’s notice.

But maybe a kinder, gentler Metroidvania is just what you need to kick back. Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island’s plot contrivances might raise an eyebrow, but the character design and lighting are all effortless charm.


That’s all for this month’s Manygame Collection. Safe travels! For more indie game coverage like this, stay tuned to Press SPACE to Jump.

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Taylor Hicklen
Taylor Hicklen

Taylor is Press SPACE to Jump's PR and indie reviews person. He likes midrange JRPGs, fighting games, and Dicey Dungeons. Bonus points if there are good fonts. To contact him about your game or other professional inquiries, you can email him at pstjtaylor@proton.me.
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