My video review for The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos is nearing completion. While not intending it to be a thorough dissection of every little thing, it's still over two hours long just detailing my final thoughts on what I consider to be the main, important subjects regarding its overall enjoyability and how well I feel it serves as a legacy sequel/prequel to a beloved classic. The full written review is already available to all Patrons and Members if you'd like to read it early, along with a sneak peak of the video from the intro section; the completed video will soon be available for exclusive early viewing to all "Regular Viewers" and higher, once it's ready, and will go public some time thereafter.
In other news, I recently published a 48-minute video ranking some of my most and least favorite quests in Archolos -- if you haven't seen it already (and I'm guessing most of you haven't, considering the viewing metrics are significantly lower than average) then be sure to check that out as well. It might also be a good time to catch up on my "First Impressions" and "Second Impressions" videos; all three of those go into more detail on certain subjects that I chose not to cover in my full review since they weren't relevant to any greater points I was trying to make. I also just didn't want to be redundant in repeating too many things I've already said, or needlessly stretch the full review out longer than it already was with excessive minor details, so there is still relevant (albeit less essential) info in those previous videos that isn't rendered obsolete by the full review.
Meanwhile, it's not too late to vote on the Patron/Member poll for "what game you'd like me to cover next," where Disco Elysium is still holding a slight lead over Arcania, Drova, and Control. I will close voting once I finish editing my Archolos review, and the winner will be bumped up in my priority list, so if you haven't voted already now is your last chance to do so. (The poll is a few months old at this point so you'll have to scroll down through other Member/Patreon posts to find it.)
I also have a 20-minute review of Slay the Spire up for exclusive early viewing, which all "Regular Viewers" can watch in the process, as an added bonus. That review will be going public within the next week.
That's all the news I have to report for this update; thanks for your patience and support thus far. I leave you with an amusing image I put together after my playthroughs of Archolos have left me permanently compelled to react to seeing certain stimuli in the environment.
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My second playthrough of Archolos is complete and I'm early in the process of writing the review. I had intended to have the whole thing finished by now, but unfortunately progress has been very slow as of late on account of being busy with so many real life obligations, which has been further compounded by general procrastination in finishing the second playthrough and now a hefty dose of writer's block in constructing the review. I have a lot of different angles I'm trying to consider with the review and so it's been a struggle getting into a good rhythm with things. Once I get the ball rolling I hope things will go more swiftly, but it'll be a while longer before I finish writing it, and then some more time afterward to do the video.
As always, the written review will be published for Patrons/Members once it's ready, and then there will be an exclusive early viewing period once the video is finished. My "Final Thoughts" from after finishing my first playthrough are already up, which you can read in the meantime for any Patrons/Members who haven't already and want to get a better idea of my overall opinion on the game.
I should mention I also posted a written critique/reactions to the Gothic board game crowdfunding campaign (Gothic: A Shadow's Quest on Gamefound), which THQ Nordic canceled a few days later. They were clearly not prepared to launch the campaign since it was missing tons of crucial information about the game itself, and so many backers were concerned to back the project in its current state; THQ then decided they would cancel the crowdfunding campaign for now and relaunch at a later time after putting more work into its presentation and ironing out the rest of the missing production details. They said they were looking for reviewers to preview the game who are both fans of Gothic and board games, which fits me to T; I reached out offering to preview it in advance of the next campaign launch, but who knows if they'll actually pick me or not. But that's something I would like to do if given the opportunity.
In other news, Patron/Member voting is still open for "What Game Would You Like Me To Cover Next," with the four options being Arcania: Gothic 4, Drova: Forsaken Kin, Disco Elysium, and Control. Disco Elysium has a slight lead as of right now, but it's only ahead by four votes so it's still possible for new votes to sway the poll. Voting will remain open until I finish writing the Archolos review, so be sure to get your votes in soon if you haven't already.
That's all I have for this update. Again I'm sorry it's taking me this long to review Archolos but I just want to make sure I'm satisfied with my work and so far I haven't hit a satisfying stride on it yet. So I'll keep at it, but this at least gives you an idea of where I'm at currently, and hopefully it'll be ready before too much longer.
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Video game blogger/reviewer since 2011. Long-form analysis and critical reviews. Favorite genres: RPGs, horror games, immersive-sims, and thematic shooters, but with other sporadic interests as well. This channel started nearly 15 years ago on my blog where I've written hundreds of reviews and articles before switching to video content on YouTube.
7 January 2019