Steam Deck – Many Welps

Choppin’ it up with Conan Chop Chop

January 17, 2025January 17, 2025Kluwes2 Comments

Here’s a list of things I know about the Conan the Barbarian IP:

It was a movie starring Arnold Schwartzenneger
Before it was a movie, it was a series of books.
There was a 2000s era MMO set in the Conan Universe – Age of Conan – which is apparently still running!
Oh, and there’s a survival sandbox, Conan Exiles, which was big a few years ago.

I’ve seen the movie once or twice. I haven’t read any of the books. I tried the free to play version of Age of Conan a handful of times but never stuck with it. I apparently own Conan Exiles but I haven’t played it. All this to say, I am probably not the target audience for a cartoony, Conan the Barbarian parody game, announced as an April Fools joke. But here I am, and I can’t stop chopping!

I vaguely knew of this game’s existence from the Massively OP Podcast. I don’t know how or when it showed up in my Steam library so it’s probably from a bundle. Shortly after finishing Wytchwood, I went looking through the “Great on Deck” category in search of something else to play on the Steam Deck. I scrolled past Conan Chop Chop a few times before deciding to just give it a shot. I’m not usually one for action rougelites, preferring games that don’t make you start over when you lose, but it looked like a game well suited for the Deck. I thought I’d do a run or two and get bored but I was hooked!

So what is it? Conan Chop Chop is a 2D, action rougelite, set in the Conan universe. Honestly, it’s kind of generic. You know the type of game, you’ve probably played it before. You collect random items to make a build, you clear out rooms to advance to the next room, you unlock chests for a chance at better items, you fight bosses, and when you die, the run is over and you’re sent back to town. There is permanent progression in the form of unlocking new items with a special currency found during run and hero progression through experience gained towards your Warrior level at the end of a run. When you level up, you unlock skill points that can be used to make your chosen heroes stronger. But at the same time, there’s cartoon Conan with stick figure legs. It is a game that doesn’t take itself seriously but is also strangely compelling. I have been booting it up everyday for a run or two.

The runs aren’t very long, I’ve been averaging under an hour, and consist of four stages. Before you start, you have a chance to buy some items in town to kick off your build before venturing off. Within each stage, there are a set of rooms with enemies. You need to clear all of the enemies before advancing to the next room. Some rooms are optional and lead to chests or merchants where you can get better gear. Some times there are mini bosses down these routes or additional health. Each stage leads to a dungeon which has a few different enemy types and environmental hazards floor traps and spiky walls. At the end of every dungeon is a boss. Once you defeat the boss, you complete the stage, and go back to town where you can upgrade your gear again before moving on.

The stages open up in the same order every run and have the same final boss. Starting with the Darkwood and a fight with Thrak, followed by the desert of Koth where you’ll face the Giant Sand Worm, then the ice mountain of Vanaheim ruled by the Frost Giant, and finally Hyperboria with the Fire Skull. At the moment, I can consistently get through the Darkwood and Koth. Sometimes I get to the Frost Giant but I can’t consitently defeat him yet. I have been to Hyperboria twice but I’ve only faced the Fire Skull of Hyperboria once. It wasn’t a very long fight…

There are a few things that have helped my runs go further. First, I’ve unlocked most of the skills for Valeria which includes upgrades like more health, movement speed, and damage. She also has a skill which stacks bleed damage with every attack which adds even more damage. There are a total of four characters but I don’t plan on trying to unlock all the skills for them at the moment. I’ve also unlocked a good amount of the weapons, charms, armor, and shields. They aren’t necessarily better items, but they do have new effects to synergize with other items for more build variety. My favorite so far is the charm that doubles your bombs and the charm that leaves a bomb decoy behind you after using your dash. Used together, you drop two decoys every dash so there are explosions going off all the time!

I’ve also got better, mechanically, after a bunch of runs. Learning to use every tool at my disposal has been key. The bombs are good for some decent AoE damage on normal enemies and some extra damage on bosses. The bow can sometimes do more damage than your primary weapon, but aiming it can be a little weird on the Steam Deck some times. The biggest thing was learning some patience and using my shield effectively. If you time your blocks right, you can parry attacks which can stun enemies and trigger some effects depending on what shield is equipped. But you can also block through attacks without a parry. Eventually your guard will break but it negates damage until it does. It took me a while to stop trying to kill enemies faster than they can attack and learn to block every once in a while. I ended up having more health for longer which let me go farther into the runs.

I’ve settled into an equipment priority list as well. Enemy health goes up with every new stage so I always make sure to prioritize upgrading my weapon first. Next is armor, because it typically gives you more health which covers my mistakes. The bow comes next. I’ve found that a decent bow can dish out a lot of sustained, single target damage, that is until you run out of arrows. I won’t prioritize this as much if I’m going with an explosion build since bombs and arrows share the same resource meter. Shields are up next, so I can block through more damage and my last priority is charms. I’m a fan of using whatever I find during the stages to use as charms. I’ll rarely buy them in town, unless I have enough money and there’s a synergy I want to try.

I’m kind of surprised I’ve been so taken with this game, it’s not something I would typically seek out. The combination of a relatively short run time and that little mental reward of doing slightly better than last time has keep me engaged with it. I plan on continuing along until I either win a run or unlock all the items. Whichever comes first. The thought being, with everything unlocked, it’s not an item issue it’s a skill issue. By that time, I’ll be ready to put the game down regardless of if I complete the run or not!

Backlogged: Wytchwood

January 8, 2025January 8, 2025KluwesLeave a comment

Alright, time kick off the first Backlogged post of 2025! Let’s see, the last time I did one of these was *checks notes* – Horizon Zero Dawn back in July 2023. Wow, been a while the . That tracks though, it’s probably the last time I finished a game. So Wytchwood must of done something right if I saw it all the way through. (It did!).

Last spring, I was really into cozy games. My wife had just picked up Disney Dreamlight Valley on the Switch and was playing it constantly. Which is out of the norm for her. Typically, she only plays games featuring a certain plummer in a red hat whose having a party.

What stood out to me while watching her play was the quest system. It wasn’t just a Disney skinned Animal Crossing but a Disney skinned Animal Crossing with crafting and gathering quests! It seemed like the perfect Steam Deck game but it stubbornly refused to go on sale. So I went in search of a game with a similar vibe. What I ended up finding was Littlewood which satisfied my need for endless crafting quests up until Dreamlight Valley finally went on sale a short time later. But ran into Wytchwood recommendations constantly on my search.

Flash forward to this year’s Winter Sale where Wytchwood once again caught my eye. I was looking for a low key game with quests that I could play on the Steam Deck (I’m trying to use it more this year).

Wytchwood tells the story of a Witch (suprise!) who has enters a magical contract with a goat. Well, more like some sort of supernatural entity trapped in the body of a goat. There’s a shrine near the Witch’s home that contains a woman in a magical slumber. The Witch has no memory of the woman, or the goat for that matter, but seeing as she’s in a shrine on her property, she must be important. The goat informs her he’ll wake the sleeping woman once the Witch gathers twelve souls, from villans who wronged the sleeping woman in some way, to complete the contract. So off she goes to collect the souls.

Things I Liked:

The QUESTS!

It’s a good thing too because that’s why I bought it. Wytchwood is a crafting adventure game which means every quest is a crafting quest. It’s one of those games where everything is a gathering node. Logs, plants, animals, people, they all drop something that’s neededto craft something else. There are certain items that have to be crafted to continue the story so I was constantly running back and forth between zones to get materials.

I quite enjoy games with this mechanic. Most notable for me are Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles and Summer in Mara. At the start, there’s a phase of discover when everything is new and I’m figuring out where to get the things I need. Later, there’s a phase of mastery where I know where everything is and all I need to do is go out and get it.

I also thought the progression was well done. The story is split into three chunks where the Witch needs to gather four souls. The crafting requirements start off simple with with only a few materials needed to make each item. As the story goes on, you might need to craft multiple items to craft one story item for the next step in the quest. Towards the end, I even had to craft multiple items just to craft an item I needed to gather a certain material. It never feels overwhelming though.

The Length

One of the reasons I didn’t initially buy Wytchwood is because one of the complaints I kept running across was that it was too short. I should have probably gone over to How Long to Beat to verify that, or maybe I did and thought that 10 hours was too short at the time. Now that I’ve played it, 10 hours is plenty. Any longer and it would have out stayed its welcome. I can only run back and forth, gathering wood yet again, before I say enough already. With that said, I didn’t have to spend too much downtime in between quest steps gathering materials. The crafting recipies range from 1-8 materials so I usually only needed one or two more of each ingredient to complete the recipe.

The Docks Theme

As a whole, the Wytchwood soundtrack is serviceable. It’s not overly exciting, but it does it’s job and sets the mood for the world. But, for whatever reason, The Docks theme has been stuck in my head for the last two weeks and I can’t make it stop. I even plucked it out on the piano a few times. This particular track reminds me of the Summer in Mara OST. For that reason alone, I’m sticking music under things I liked. Oddly enough, The Docks theme doesn’t actually play in the Docks, it plays in the Village and the Market areas. The actual Docks theme is missing from the official OST. Which is a shame, because I quite liked that one too!

Things That Could Have Been Better:

Steam Deck Battery Drain

Wytchwood made my Steam Deck work for it. The battery lasted about an hour when I was playing. I haven’t played that many titles on the Deck, but I don’t recall another game draining the battery quite so quickly. It’s fine though, I rarely played longer than an hour at a time on it, but I thought it was notable.

Backlogged – Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles

June 23, 2022Kluwes2 Comments

Platform: PC/ Steam Deck

Time to Finish: 12 hours

I was expecting to write more posts about Yonder than I have. I had so much fun playing it that by the time I got around to writing about it it was over. Quite suddenly, I might add. The main quest actually isn’t that long consisting of only 5 or 6 quests that need completed. It’s gated a bit by the number of Sprites found but overall, if I was just doing the main quest, I bet I could finish it in two or three hours.The rest of my time in Yonder was spent doing side quests, finding sprites, clearing murk, occasionaly picking up lost cats.

I bought Yonder in 2017 on release and put about 8 hours in to it before bouncing. I don’t remember why I stopped but it was probably because something new and shiny came along. But it’s a good example of why I don’t get buyers remorse for games I buy and play for only a little bit. Eventually there will be a time and a place where I want to come back and play said game.

Yonder is the game I needed right now. It’s an colorful exploration game with no combat, no real lose conditions, and repetitive but satisfying content. It’s a game I was able to play in short bursts or for long periods when time allowed. It was also a great game to throw on a podcast and wander around or fish. There’s nothing ground breaking here but it is a nice little world to explore and if you really like doing fetch quests this is the game for you.

Things I Liked:

World Exploration: This game’s world map takes inspiration from recent Ubisoft open world games. The map is littered with icons and question marks pointing out Points of Interest. Most of the quests have big markers on the map and mini map of exactly where you need to go. In case, that’s not enough, there’s also a big blue line you can summon to point you in the right direction. Now this might all sound like a negative but when you’re looking for a game where you can turn your brain off it’s a big ol’ positive.

It also helps that the world is easy to get around on foot and it looks great! There were only a few instances where I couldn’t figure out how to get somewhere right away.

Changes with the Seasons: There are seasons in Yonder and things actually change when the seasons change. And I don’t mean just the weather. Animals migrate to a different area or leave Gemea entirely for the season. There is a Halloween event in Bobbintoff at night in the Fall. Even the lost cats only appear in certain regions in certain seasons.

One of the night time teleports. *Not so active in the day*.

The Fast Travel System: The more hours I put in to the game the more I appreciated the “fast travel” system. I put that in quotes because it isn’t all that fast but I think it was done well.

There are Sage Stones in every region that lead to a central hub where other Sage stones can be accessed. Sometimes the stones are conveniently placed near a town but most of the time they’re in the middle of nowhere in the region. There are teleports scattered throughout that are portals from one particular spot to another. Some of the teleports are only active at night and some are only active during the day. I didn’t use these too much, I would go in them just to see where they led.

By far the best system was the farm teleports. Once a farm in a region is unlocked, a Traveler’s Knot can be crafted out of vine and stone that will teleport you to that farm. The farms are usually in pretty convenient places to access towns, crafting houses, and regions without farms. I used these the most.

But traveling through Gemea on foot isn’t all that bad. It helps that the total map size isn’t all that large. I found it big enough to find the fast travel methods useful but not so big it was a slog to go on foot. Traveling on foot also has the added benefit of finding treasure chests, tree planting plots, and cats I may have missed the last time I traveled through the region. Traveling in general never feels like a chore.

*When’s the last time you saw blogging mentioned in a game?*

Things That Could Have Been Better:

*Here’s a handful of berries for your manufactured goods.*

The Barter System: I see what the intention here is and it is a unique system. You aren’t able to offload extra items in exchange for currency so wealth can’t be horded as easily. Inventory can fill up quickly if you’re adverse to outright destroying an item. Each town’s trader carries different stock, usually related to the Guild in that town and the stock is refreshed and items rotate every day. These traders are also want some items more than others and will pay more for items they need and less for ones they have.

The problem is, nothing is so expensive it can’t be bought with a few stacks of fodder or sticks. Items that are picked up relatively often while traveling. As I got further in the game and needed some more big ticket items to craft, I upgraded to trading berries since no matter where I went, except Mocha Bay with the Chef’s Guild, they were worth 50 value. My farm produced them like crazy so I was never strapped for cash.

Sure, I could have engaged with the system the way it was meant to be but I didn’t find crafting enjoyable enough to make items just to trade for slightly more than a couple berries.

Or maybe food is just scarce on the island.

Crafting: The crafting system is your standard collect materials to make a thing, craft more materials, and use those materials to craft a bigger item. I don’t mind that as a crafting system as it’s really common. The thing that made that particular crafting less enjoyable was not being able to pin materials needed for one of the bigger crafting items as check list. Instead, I found myself constantly having to craft a couple smaller parts and check the big ticket item continuously until I made enough to make the big item.

Now maybe I just have a bad memory for these things and this isn’t a big deal to most. But in a game where everything else has a checklist, it would have been nice to have one for crafting recipes.

How Does it Run on the Steam Deck?

It run’s great! The whole reason I started playing Yonder is because it was one of the first Steam Deck Verified titles that caught my eye in my library. Out of the box everything ran smoothly, all of the cut-scenes played. I didn’t limit the frame rate at all or make any performance tweaks. As a result, the battery usually only lasted two to two and a half hours. Plenty of time for me when it comes to playing on the Deck.

I only encountered on issue while playing on the Deck. I loaded up the game one day and it would start but immediately freeze once I got in to the game. I only had one save at this point and was panicing a little bit. Luckily, when I booted up the game on my PC everything worked fine. I immediately made 2 other save files and didn’t run into the issue again.

Wandering Around Yonder

June 6, 2022June 6, 2022KluwesLeave a comment

According to my last and only save file, I last played Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles in 2017. I thought I had written a post about it at some point but when I went back to read it there was no post to be found published, in drafts, or otherwise. I must have not gotten around to it. I do remember I was going to call it something like Fetch Quest: The Game though. That’s what has stuck with me over the years when I think of Yonder. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I remember it being enjoyable actually. Enough to want to give it another shot a few years later.

I didn’t intentionally set out to start another play-through. I was going through my library and looking at Verified games for the Steam Deck. Right there at the bottom of the list was Yonder. I just wanted to see how it would run (it runs great by the way). I started a new game, because there was no way I was picking up a 4 year old save and went through the little tutorial. Then I got to the first area and started to remember a bit more about the game. I did a quest or two, chopped down a few trees and before I knew it an hour had passed and didn’t want to put it down.

Yonder is a game about exploration. It has some trading, farming, crafting, and resource gathering in it as well but at it’s heart it’s about exploring the world the world, collecting things, and finding little Sprites scattered aroudn the world.. There is no combat, it’s just you, your tools, and the needy inhabitants of Gemea who can’t be bothered to do things like pick up sticks from the ground or talk to the trader standing next to them. Nope, that’s my job! Happy to do it!

The majority of my time has been running from place to place sucking up every material in sight like a vacuum for these people. . There are a ton of these quests in each zone and the only reward is a little notification about the amount of quests remaining in the zone. That’s good enough I guess.

*More often than not these guys are not happy to see me. They do love living in my backpack though.*

There’s also a story but I haven’t been progressing it to much yet. A mysterious mist has settled in places around the island and it’s up to me and my spirit friends to dispel it and figure out where it’s coming from. I just have to find the Sprites hidden among the island first. Each mist needs a certain amount of Sprites found to get rid of it. So far I’ve found 7 of these little guys.

Last but not least there is a bunch of things to collect along the way. There are missing cats, treasure chest, clothes, hair styles, fish, crafting recipes and more cats. I was also given a farm not long after my arrival. If I lure animals in to it after feeding them their favorite food I can “adopt” them. And by adopt I mean put them in a pen and have them make trade goods while I’m out and about. I think they can also come on my adventure with me if I so choose. I’ve set up my farm with a large animal house for my Griff, a small animal house for my fox, and a garden for the seeds I’ve been picking up.

*I’ll trade you six bundles of sticks, 5 bundles of grass, and a fish for a pickax. Seems fair.*

The trade system is based of bartering. Goods have an assigned currency value at the traders but there isn’t any currency. Most raw materials are worth around 1 currency with the crafted goods going for a lot more. Each town has something they need so goods in one town are worth more than another. With all the raw materials I’ve been picking up, I’m usually able to get what I need just trading the grass and sticks I’ve picked up. It’s a good thing my inventory is so large.

There’s a crating system which involves finding the different guilds on the island and asking nicely to join. There isn’t much to it, as long as you have the required materials in inventory you can make the item. So far I have joined the Carpenters Guild and the Tailors Guild. I started out as a novice and was given some basic crafting recipes and a quest to craft enough items to be worth 1000 in value. You might think, like I did, that there would be a couple of the quests to do. Each time increasing your rank, unlocking some more recipes, and having to craft a a greater value of items. But like me, you’d be wrong. As soon as I turned in the quest to the Carpenters Guild I was told I was now a Master Carpenter. I’m assuming the same is true for the rest of the guilds. Though right now I’m having a hard time sourcing materials for the Tailors guild since the trader there seems to only stock one of each item. I’m not sure how often their inventory updates. It’s something I’m still looking in to.

Yonder is not a challenging game, it’s not a game that you have to use critical thinking skills, it’s a game that literally points out the next objective with a very bright light. It’s a game where boxes are checked, items are discovered, and there is no danger in exploring. It’s a very relaxing game and it’s one that I’m very much in need of right now.