Finished Starship Quasar, a bite sized adventure by Crystal Shard, its an old game and I had in my backlog for years. It has a creative experimental structure of gradually unlocking characters to achieve your goal. Short and fun. Also playing through Prisoner of the Ephemeral Kingdom, its plot kind of reminds me the Nonary games but I am still in the beginning.

Wow, blast from the past! Thanks for reminding me of  Starship Quasar, I'm going to check out the Crystal Shard catalog again soon. I didn't know Prisoner of the Ephemeral Kingdom (not very familiar with visual novels), but the plot and setting sound intriguing.

I reached the end of Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer and Bad Dream: Afterlife a while ago. I have a couple of unfinished thought and feelings bouncing around my brain. Here's what I've puzzled together so far:

Soothsayer excels in retro+ design and goes out of its way to appeal and facilitate. I admire its puzzles, structure and high production values. I'm not entirely on board with its design philosophy, but it works like a charm.

In contrast, Afterlife doesn't appear inviting. It goes the extra mile to look unfinished, discarded and deteriorating. The inhabitants of this world seem to loathe your work. There's nuance here, on all accounts, but it remains a far cry from the warm embrace of Kathy Rain 2. Interesting touch: your cursor is subject to the laws of energy and matter implied by the game. It's not a hovering manifestation of pure will, it's more visceral and allows for creative (navigational) puzzle design.

I just started  finished The Stew of Las Moras, by Babar and jfrisby (Bani Gala Games?).  Took about half an hour. Great premise. The writing is funny and lighthearted. Fairly easy inventory puzzles with a little misdirection to keep you on your toes. It's working within more basic constraints than the games mentioned above, but it pulls off a striking and singular visual style. One location in particular is quite beautiful, it made me wish there was more to explore. I love the story-oriented audio design. It sounds like a band playing along to a silent movie; a neat way to underscore the tone of this game.

I'm playing Perfect Tides. Digging it so far - while cringing at all the relatable teenage antics. (I was also 15 in 2000, just like our main character. )

I just picked up TR-49 after reading the review here and on The Guardian. Excited to start it later this evening or tomorrow...

I was playing The Beekeepers Picnic, but as soon as Perfect Tides - Station to Station came out I just had to start playing it immediately. So far I'm absolutely loving it, a perfect continuation of the first games coming of age-story, but with a cool new RPG-esque gameplay system and such pitch-perfect writing. Strong GOTY contender for me already.

Melon Head, by Wavey Games! I'm completely absorbed by its creative vision.

I just picked up TR-49 after reading the review here and on The Guardian. Excited to start it later this evening or tomorrow...

I loved it! I agree with the Hotspot review for the most part but I'd rate it a bit higher.  
Just one word of advice:  In some cases bruteforcing is quite easy when you're unable to find the exact file name. Yeah, I'm afraid I did that a few times when I found the info too overwhelming. But the game will punish you after a while *without any warning* by making things harder. Very frustrating and imo unfair. I didn't have a clue why that happened, read about the punishment (and a way to get back to normal) afterwards on Steam.

Played through The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo and Last Report.

The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo has superb animations, funky bizarre art and nice puzzles that gradually become challenging with a variety of surreal interactions that with constant experimentation you make sense of the surroundings and arrive to your goal. Kind of reminds me of games like Bulb boy, Mr. shadow and the Goblins series. Only scene that kind of tired me is the time loop one near the end. The time margin to react is really tight (a couple of seconds) and the scene keeps repeating without the option to skip the animations. The fact that the first action you have to take is obtuse and not hinted at all makes it worse, because it is the only part of the game you aren't free to experiment. That was the only time I needed to rely on the in-game hint system and I advise anyone playing it not to waste time and just to look at the hint.

Last Report on the other hand is a game drawing inspiration from "Papers Please!". It tells an effective, albeit kind of ambiguous horror story, featuring sweet eerie pixel horror graphics and creepy sound direction. The "simulation" gameplay here being decorative essentially carrying the story to a conclusion.

I loved it! I agree with the Hotspot review for the most part but I'd rate it a bit higher.  
Just one word of advice:  In some cases bruteforcing is quite easy when you're unable to find the exact file name. Yeah, I'm afraid I did that a few times when I found the info too overwhelming. But the game will punish you after a while *without any warning* by making things harder. Very frustrating and imo unfair. I didn't have a clue why that happened, read about the punishment (and a way to get back to normal) afterwards on Steam.

I think I found it a bit too clever for its own good unfortunately. The gameplay, which is basically clicking on links, is just data entry and got tedious for me even as the parts of the story were falling into place. Staring at that same screen on the screen for 6 or 7 hours was like being at work! Did I enjoy it? Not sure. It's a pretty good story and has a powerful atmosphere. Actually reminded me of a Christopher Priest novel, but I think if I am on a linear path to discovery I would take a book over a game like this. I'd give it 3/5 (if I gave game scores, which I don't) because at least it wasn't too long.

BTW - yes, it was possible to guess some of the codes but apart from a red blob not appearing next to the book title I didn't notice any punishments...

I'd give it 3/5 (if I gave game scores, which I don't) because at least it wasn't too long.

A somewhat positive score for a very negative reason. Interesting.

BTW - yes, it was possible to guess some of the codes but apart from a red blob not appearing next to the book title I didn't notice any punishments...

I'm not sure if your comment about the red blob is a joke, sorry. The punishment consists of the main text (not just the quote read by the author) getting more and more scrambled.

A somewhat positive score for a very negative reason. Interesting.

Like I said, I thought it was a good story but I didn't enjoy the gameplay much. I did also appreciate that it didn't go on too long given the gameplay; a lot of games do.

I'm not sure if your comment about the red blob is a joke, sorry. The punishment consists of the main text (not just the quote read by the author) getting more and more scrambled.

I didn't notice that the text got more scrambled. It always seemed just on the right side of understandable. The red dots were marked next to some of the links I had made and I just assumed they indicated that I had successfully deduced a connection without trial and error. Maybe that's incorrect though.

I have been thinking about the game some more today and I could add that I really liked the creepy portraits of the authors, and the voice work was outstandingly good. The authors seemed like a real group of randomly associated people from another dimension. I do also think that 'logical deduction' is not a gameplay type that really suits me though, not in the format that TR-49 presents it anyway.