Month: April 2025

Nintendo Switch Indie Game Recommendation List

Written 4/27/2025, updated 4/27/25

I’ve invested in and played sooo many indie games for the Nintendo Switch since I first got the console (and continue to scour the Recently Released page in the eShop for anything else fun), that I’m afraid to see exactly how much money I’ve spent on games in total. While many of them have been well worth it, many of them have been total busts that I wish I never wasted my money on. Here, I will list my recommendations and non-recommendations alongside those that are just kind of meh, in the hopes that maybe it will help someone else. Some of them will have a mini review attached

Games I enjoy are:

  • Point-and-click
  • Farming sims
  • Puzzle/mystery adventures
  • Parody
  • Action

I don’t like:

  • First-person view (makes me very ill)
  • Frustrating gameplay
  • If gameplay is good, I can forgive bad graphics, but not if it’s especially nasty
  • Poor translations
  • PvP

I also like Visual Novels and Kairosoft games, but they will be in different posts. I won’t add first-party games because the vast majority of the time there’s a reason that they are first-party. They’re GOOD. Almost like a breath of fresh air after playing lots of indie games.

** denotes Favorite games in the Yes column and ABSOLUTE WASTE OF MONEY in the No column

Yes

  • Arcane Arts Academy
  • Artifex Mundi games
  • **Barbarous: Tavern of Emyr
  • Brok the InvestiGator
  • **Big Farm Story – a little short, but great
  • Breakfast Bar Tycoon
  • Broken Sword 5 – The Serpent’s Curse
  • Cape’s Escape Game series
  • Cooking Festival
  • **Crowns and Pawns: Kingdoms of Deceit
  • Darkestville Castle
  • **Demetrios – The BIG Cynical Adventure – absolutely hilarious even if the graphics are unattractive. Not bad, just unattractive, though I think it adds to the silliness
  • Disease ~Hidden Object~
  • Escape Trick: 35 Fateful Enigmas – though it made me horribly ill, this game launched my love of puzzle games. Walkthrough
  • **Everdream Valley – My Walkthrough
  • **Fae Farm – Great, solid game. A little short.
  • Fishing Paradiso
  • FiveBN games
  • **Garden Story – VERY cute, awesome game. Too short!
  • Goetia
  • **Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love – Positively hilarious, awesome point-and-click
  • **Kitaris Fables – Similar to Ragnarok Online
  • Leisure Suit Larry Wet Dreams Don’t Dry –NSFW though mostly innuendo and lewd art. On the lower end of the recommendations, but fun overall
  • **Lost Horizon 1 & 2- good point-and-click puzzle adventure
  • Lost Phone game series
  • Mahjong Stories: Vampire Romance – Short, enjoyable
  • Metropolis: Lux Obscura – a little bit of NSFW, intense, short game
  • Mom Hid My Game!
  • **My Time at Portia – Play this before Sandrock
  • **My Time at Sandrock
  • One Night Stand
  • Pantsu Hunter – weird yet fun game
  • Pocket Quest – Not bad, a little dull
  • **Potion Permit
  • Prison Princess – lots of fan service
  • **Puzzle Battler! Mirai – Surprisingly awesome game
  • **Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns – Fantastic just like the original
  • **Root Letter: Last Answer – NEATO game. Very much enjoyed it. You can play with either animated or live graphics. Insight into Japanese life
  • Secret Files games series
  • Sentimental Death Loop – disturbing yet interesting. My Walkthrough
  • Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles
  • **The Testament of Sherlock Holmes – My Walkthrough
  • **Songbird Symphony – My Walkthrough (incomplete)
  • **Spirit of the Island – Good. Short and repetitive, but fun
  • **Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Islands – thought I wouldn’t like it at first, but it grew on me, and I had a good time playing
  • **Summer in Mara – Good game, a little slow to start. All other games in the series are not nearly as good
  • **Tell Me Your Story – Really nice game. My Walkthrough
  • The House of Davinci Series – Nice puzzle games. My Walkthrough
  • The Mahjong Huntress
  • **The Raven Remastered – Very much enjoyed this game and the music
  • Time on Frog Island – short
  • **True Fear: Forsaken Souls Series – Finally releasing the 3rd game this year 2025! My Review
  • **Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion – AMAZING game!
  • Turnip Boy Robs a Bank – Good, just not as good as the first game. My Walkthrough
  • **Voez – great music/stepmania type of game
  • **Welcome to Primrose Lake
  • **Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles – REALLY liked this game despite some the shortcomings

Ehh

  • Car Mechanic Simulator
  • Castaway Paradise – Review
  • Chex Quest HD – I played the holy heck out of the original and for some reason the remake doesn’t hit right. It’s somehow better yet clunky and while it’s cool to have remade such an old game, didn’t like it much
  • Commander Keen in Keen Dreams – doesn’t hit like it did in the 90s
  • Electrician Simulator
  • Enchanting Mahjong Match – great if you like speed mahjong games and unlocking illustrations of females
  • Fabledom – Ehh. The controls aren’t clear and seem to be made for PC. Could be a good game
  • Fall of the New Age: Collector’s Edition – I really enjoy this type of game, but this was very unintuitive. I’ll still buy these types of games, though because I have an insatiable appetite for them. My Walkthrough
  • Gems of War – made by creators of Puzzle Quest. I just dislike things you have to play online PvP
  • Half Past Fate – Good story, just put me to sleep at least 10 times while playing it. Boring… or relaxing…
  • Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch – Could be good. Made me horribly ill
  • Hungry Shark World – fun for about 30 minutes
  • Japanese Nekosama Escape: The Local Train
  • Jewel Fight: Heroes of Legend: Similar to Puzzle Quest, not nearly as good
  • Lego Worlds – nausea!!
  • Long Ago: A Puzzle Tale – Misleading cover art. Repetitive and boring puzzle game
  • Love on Leave – Interactive visual novel game. Played halfway and then stopped
  • Monster Prom: XXL – Ehhh…
  • Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists “Ateliers of the New World” – Put me to sleep a few times, but overall fun. Atelier series crossover
  • Oceanhorn – Solid gameplay, just couldn’t get over how it’s a shameless Zelda knockoff
  • Paradise Lost – kind of creepy, just an ehh game. Great graphics
  • Reminiscence in the Night – it’s okay…
  • Rune Lord
  • Sherlock Purr 2 – Made me ill instantly
  • Storm Tale 2 – match-3 and hidden object. Just eh.
  • Sunseed Island – Game content behind paywall. Unable to zoom in and out of map, slow. Could be good
  • The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 – It’s actually a solid game. I just stopped playing halfway because I lost interest
  • The Future You’ve Been Dreaming of – It’s good. Different. Fan-servicey. Just repetitive to unlock everything. My Walkthrough
  • Legacy Games games – They’re okaaaay. Gameplay not the best. At least voice acting is better than others and graphics are good
  • Yesterday Origins – It seemed good at first, and then something bothered me about it, gave me a headache, and then I stopped playing it about halfway through
  • Yooka-Laylee – Wanted to enjoy it. Just kind of fell flat

No

  • Alba – premise seemed cute, but game is insanely boring
  • Buried Alive: Breathless Rescue – made me ill immediately
  • **Cop Car Police Simulator Chase – Terrible, terrible game all around
  • Deponia series – As much as I love point and click parody games, I disliked this whole series. I found it to unintuitive and tremendously disliked the characters
  • Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders
  • Doodle Hunt – I dunno, I thought I’d enjoy something so simple more, but I hated it.
  • Eroblast – I loved HuniePop and thought this would similar. I really hated the characters and the whole texting thing
  • **Frederic game series – I just really really hated these games. Wish I’d never wasted money on them
  • Gal*Gun 2 – Way too annoying
  • **Grow: Song of the Evertree – very disappointed by this game especially having loved a different game they made
  • Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing – gave it a try, very boring
  • **Harvest Life – Quit within 5 minutes of trying it. UGLY graphics, just awful game
  • Hokko Life – Animal Crossing knockoff, boring. My Review
  • **Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara – utter disappointment after playing the other games in the series
  • Leisure Suit Larry Wet Dreams Dry Twice – Too much back and forth, loses the spirit of the first game, not funny. Unintuitive, overall repulsive. Does offer the explicit, raunchy stuff missing from the first game.
  • Let’s School – Controls better suited to PC
  • Life in Willowdale: Farm Adventures – Looks like it should be good. Didn’t make it past 10 minutes. Character very unattractive
  • Little Friends: Dogs & Cats – Having played Nintendogs way back when, this doesn’t even come close. Cute, but boring
  • Nora: The Wannabe Alchemist – don’t bother
  • Ocean Media games – They’re ugly, puzzles are bad, and overall, not recommended despite being one my favorite genres. All I do is spam the hint buttons
  • OmegaLabyrinth Life – Nope. Thought it would be good. Lots of boobs.
  • **Orange Season – Tried really hard to like this game, but it’s been out for so long and still unpolished. Fell asleep several times playing it. NOT recommended.
  • Regular Factory Escape Room – nausea
  • Scheming Through the Zombie Apocalypse Ep 2: Caged – Eh. Played 15 minutes.
  • Sprout Valley – looked cute, but extremely confusing with no direction. Tried to like it.
  • Sword & Fairy Inn 2 – Clunky, not fun
  • Syberia 1 & 2
  • **Tardy – just nope
  • VTM Coteries of New York
  • **What Comes After – SUPER short game, all you do is talk to dead things. Tries too hard to be deep. Just boring
  • **Windbound – Uggghh! I get frustrated just looking at the name. My Review
  • Yeah! You want “Those Games,” Right? So Here You Go! – Yes, I wanted the pin pulling game. Yes, I played a few levels. No, I do NOT recommend.

Steamed Buns (Banh Bao Hap) Recipe

written 4/19/2025, updated 4/29/2025

Ingredients

3 ½ Cups + ½ Cup  All-Purpose Flour (White Lily or Martha White, if possible)*

2 ¼ tsp or 1 pkt  Active Dry Yeast

⅔ – 1 Cups  Sugar

1 ½ Cup  Water or Milk

½ tsp  Baking Powder (optional)

Supplies

Large Mixing Bowl

Wooden Spoon

Measuring Implements

Plastic Wrap and/or Clean Dish Towel

Workspace

Paper (for bun bottom)

Steamer

Time and Servings

Time: 5 minute Yeast + 15 minute Prep + 5 hour Rise + 30 minute Shape + 20 minute Steam = ~6 hours TOTAL

Servings: 14 buns (2in)

Directions

Yeast

  • Heat Water or Milk (1 ½ Cups) to 100-110F
  • Dissolve Sugar (½ tsp)
  • Add Yeast (2 ¼ tsp or 1 packet)
  • Cover and let sit 5-10 minutes until foamy

Dough

  • Combine Yeast Mixture with Flour (3 ½ Cup)
  • Mix using a wooden spoon (because it will be sticky) until combined
  • Add remaining Flour (½ Cup) and gently mix in

*NOTE: Make sure to read the packages on the flour you’re using. The softer flours, like White Lily, call for an additional amount of flour per cup to equate that of normal all-purpose flour*

  • Cover with plastic wrap and a clean dishcloth
  • Let rise for 4-5 hours
  • While waiting, prepare any fillings, and allow to cool

Cook

  • Punch down and knead (don’t overdo it)
  • Let sit for 5 minutes
  • In the meantime, prepare the workspace with some extra flour
  • Add water to the steamer and turn it on
  • Cut paper into 2in squares if not done already
  • In small batches, shape the dough into 2in balls, being careful not to overwork the dough
  • If adding filling, flatten and fill, pinching the tops together
  • When desired shape and filling are achieved, then put each ball on 1 square of paper (will prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the steamer)
  • Place them into the steamer basket, apart from each other (they will double in size)
  • When steamer is boiling, put them in and close the lid
  • Steam for 5-10 minutes
  • Remove and let cool a bit

ENJOY!

Notes

Attempt 1, April 2025: Baking Powder gave it a bit of a bitter taste. Not sure I’d recommend using that. Original call for ½ + 1 Tbsp of Sugar was not enough, especially for the plain ones. Rec probably 1 Cup for plain. Buns came out overworked and hard. Wasn’t sure how much to work the dough, but it seems that the least working, the better, to keep things light and airy. If working too much, then let rest in between. Didn’t realize that White Lily flour required and extra amount to equal that of normal AP flour, so flour ratio was off. Used Oat Milk. Testers wanted more sweet for the filling. Used Lee Kum Kee Char Siu sauce on top of homemade char siu for that plus onions on the stove. Would recommend homemade version instead of the jar for the sauce next time. That way there’s more control over taste.