Hand of Doom

First time I tried it I bounced off hard. It's a neat art style, but it leans too far into its own unserious style that it makes it difficult to figure out just how invested I should be, which when the game is based entirely around the story and monotonous tasks, this game seemed like something I should just write off. I've been giving my entire library a playthrough just so I can check over a bunch of titles and actually try my unplayed games. This game absolutely hooked me this time. Expecting the gameplay to not be the greatest and to just expect this all to be a vehicle for the devs to ♥♥♥♥ around with wizards for the sake of having fun makes this super enjoyable. Sure the spellcasting takes forever and it's essentially a walking sim, but the little interaction you do have is pretty neat, and the artstyle helps distract from this. I felt I've been having a fantastic time solely because I know whatever I'm doing isn't really going to take *that* long, and maybe I'll learn a cool new spell or two, maybe find a neat trinket and be rewarded with some goofy lore entries about wizard college roomates where one is pissed the ♥♥♥♥ off someones been using a light spell as a flashbang to start parties. Or an egotistical unnamed wizard totally didn't invent a spell of unlocking just to put locksmiths out of business, definitely wasn't them, although I heard that whoever it was, was super sexy and beautiful and smart and amazing. All of this topped with some extremely budget green screen footage that's pixilated and shoved in as cutscenes. It's hard to not enjoy the charm this game has when you get into it.

The vibes are immaculate

It's slow and jank but in a cozy way.