After completing Jedi: Survivor, I felt like I needed a cozy game to play next. I searched through my library on Steam and saw I had purchased Zodiacats a few months ago. I didn’t know much about the game except that it has cats, its a puzzle game, and that’s about it. Zodiacats is the perfect cozy, puzzle, cat game that I needed.

Zodiacats is a puzzle game in which the goal is to solve puzzles to reveal pictures about the astrological signs. Each sign has their own image and each image features a cat on it. The puzzles are a sliding square type puzzle with the goal of revealing the picture once the blocks are in the right spot. Once each zodiac is revealed, there are two other puzzles that become available for players to complete.

I loved Zodiacats, but let’s be real, I’m a bit biased. I love any game that features cats, so this game would have had to been really bad in order for me not to like it. It was the perfect game for me to play after a long day at work. I would usually have Critical Role or What We Do in the Shadows on as background noise while I played through this game. The hard mode is actually difficult. There are a few of the puzzles I have yet to complete because I can’t figure out why the puzzle isn’t unlocking. I did read some of the comments from other gamers and they mentioned the possibility of a bug. I don’t know if that’s the case for me. Some of the flowers on the puzzles are difficult to differentiate at times, so it could be that I have a few of the blocks in the wrong spot.

Zodiacats is a cute, Zodiac puzzle game. It’s a good cozy game that I think is perfect if you need a break from a game that’s a bit more time consuming. I didn’t realize, but Zodiacats is designed by the same company who made A Building Full of Cats and Sudocats which are both games I played on my Switch. I’ll be on the lookout for any future games they make.

The last time I played Vampire: The Masquerade was back in 2021 for a one-shot. I hoped this one-shot would develop into a longer campaign, but our group dissolved due to conflicting schedules. A few weeks ago, I was alerted in our Dungeons & Dragons Discord that Bad Wolf Adventure Studios was running a Vampire one-shot on Friday night. I immediately signed up because Vampire has to be one of my favorite TTRPG systems I have played. I’m happy I signed up because it was an entertaining one-shot from start to finish.

The DM running our Vampire session was the same DM who ran the Curse of Strahd campaign I was in, so it felt like a mini-reunion. To prepare for the session, our DM had pre-generated characters to pick from. I liked this a lot because it had been a while since I created a character from scratch, so having readily available options worked quite well for me. Whenever I play Vampire, I usually pick the Toreador or Ventrue clans. I wanted to choose something different and picked Tremere. Tremere is the Blood Witch clan who experiments with Blood Magic. While there wasn’t much time to experiment with all of my character’s abilities, I liked playing Tremere as a clan.

Our session had five players in total with three of us having prior experience in Vampire with the other two players being new to the system. Our group worked well even though we had never played a game together. One of the newer players straight-up tried to use her vampiric abilities to intimidate one of the guards. I was here for it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, but it was cool to see them dive into the game so quickly. One of the vampires we encountered tried to use a power called Dominate on my character which compels someone to obey. This worked, however, I retaliated and used Cloud Memory, so the Vampire didn’t remember anything I told her under Dominate. Our players were rolling well throughout the session which doesn’t always happen in Vampire. After the session ended, it seemed like everyone had a good time.

This was so much fun and I’m happy I signed up for the session. I hope Bad Wolf will offer a longer-term Vampire campaign or more one-shots of other systems in the future.

It has taken me five months, but I finally sat down and finished Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. I would go through spurts where I would play for a few hours at a time and then I wouldn’t play the game for months. When May came around, I knew I wanted to sit down and devote the time to complete the story. I’m glad I made the time to finish Jedi: Survivor, but I can’t deny that there were many moments where this game frustrated me.

Jedi: Survivor takes place five years after Jedi: Fallen Order. Cal Kestis has distanced himself from Cere Junda, Greez Dritus, and Merrin. While stealing military data on Coruscant, Cal’s ship, The Mantis, is heavily damaged. Cal flies The Mantis to Koboh, so Greez can repair it. While locating ship parts, Cal has a vision of two High Republic Jedi, Dagan Gera, and Santari Khri, talking about a hidden planet called Tanalorr. Cal wakes Dagan from a Bacta tank and is horrified to find out that Dagan turned to the Dark Side. After Dagan escapes, Cal realizes Tanalorr would be the perfect place to hide from The Empire. Cal has to team up with his friends to stop Dagan once and for all.

Spoilers Ahead for Jedi: Survivor

One of my favorite parts about playing these games is the characters. Cal and his partnership with BD1 is so heartwarming. BD1 is the best buddy and keeps Cal company on his adventures. Merrin has a much bigger role in Jedi: Survivor which I enjoyed. Cere and Greez still have Cal’s back and reunite as the story continues. I liked the addition of Bode to Cal’s crew. Bode’s voice sounded familiar to me and it turns out that Bode was voiced by Noshir Dalal who recently appeared on Critical Role’s Candela Obscura. I loved Noshir on Candela Obscura, so it was a nice surprise to see him pop up in this game. I mentioned this in my Jedi: Fallen Order review, but I genuinely believe that these games provide essential lore for Star Wars.

In Jedi: Survivor, Cal unlocks new abilities. I like how this game prompts Cal into diving into the Dark Side of The Force. When Cal goes after Bode, Cal unlocks his Dark Side ability which replaced his previous ability. I’m curious to see how this will impact Cal in future games. Will Cal turn to the Dark Side permanently? or will Cal see The Light. Personally, I hope Cal remains a Jedi. Besides Cal’s new ability, there are several new Lightsaber stances to learn. One includes a more heavy melee attack while another stance allows Cal to carry a blaster. I leaned towards the blaster stance as I felt it was useful against the Stormtroopers and Battle Droids.

With the story, I liked the inclusion of The High Republic era of Star Wars. I think there’s so much potential to tell powerful stories before the prequels. Can we talk about Cere’s journey throughout this game? When their base is attacked, Cere confronts Darth Vader. Unfortunately, Darth Vader gets the upper hand and stabs Cere. Cal arrives too late when he senses Cere’s echo and holds her as she dies. This scene was heartbreaking, but so fitting to her character. I liked how Cal didn’t see what happened, but could sense it which plays into Cal’s powers as a Jedi.

Another interesting element of Jedi: Survivor is Bode’s story. Towards the latter half of the game, Bode betrays the group and takes the compass believing Tanalorr can protect his daughter. Once Cal chases Bode, Bode pulls out his red lightsaber indicating his previous history as a Jedi. What a moment! Bode’s character is so interesting to me because it reveals how morally gray the galaxy is when The Empire took over. Bode’s intentions are good because he wants to protect his daughter from the Inquisitors. However, he partners with The Empire because he doesn’t see a way out. I feel for Bode and while I’d say he’s a villain, I think he was shaped by his experiences and he couldn’t sacrifice everything to keep a rebellion alive.

While I enjoyed Jedi: Survivor, I wanted to share a few grievances I had with the game. The first would be the navigation. It feels like Jedi: Survivor made no improvements to the map. For each mission, Cal has a waypoint several meters away. Unfortunately, the area between Cal’s current location and the waypoint is black, so there really isn’t a great way to figure out where you’re going. I still had to use walkthroughs to ensure I was heading in the right direction. I wish these games had a navigational feature where there would be a yellow line or arrow on the ground guiding Cal to the next spot. This feature could be turned on or off in the main menu for those gamers who want to figure it out for themselves. This would have saved me so much time. While there was a fast travel option, I don’t think it addresses the issues I have with the maps.

Jedi: Survivor is as difficult or more difficult than Jedi: Fallen Order. While some of the boss fights seem more balanced, I found the save points were way more spread out. There were several times when I would face a group of enemies, be low on health, and end up dying because I didn’t make the wall run to the next area. This was so aggravating. While this didn’t ruin the game for me, it became a major reason why it took me so long to finish the game.

Jedi: Survivor is a solid sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order. I feel these games appeal to a certain type of gamer and that’s not me. I don’t have the time to grind through a difficult game. Going forward, I will probably play these games on the Story Mode difficulty because honestly, that’s why I’m playing these games to begin with. I want to dive into the story without feeling like I’m getting a ruthless game experience. I’m looking forward to the third game in the series and to the release of Star Wars Outlaws which is set to come out later this year.

I have found myself playing in more one-shot Dungeons and Dragons sessions in between our main campaign on Mondays. One-shots are such a great option for testing out character classes to see how each class plays in combat or a roleplaying scenario. I thought it would be fun to make a checklist of all the classes I played in a long-term campaign, classes I played in a one-shot, and classes I haven’t had the chance to play yet.

Classes I Played in a Campaign

• Blood Hunter
• Sorcerer
• Paladin

For this portion of this list, I count any classes I played as for five sessions or more. I played a Blood Hunter in Curse of Strahd, I’m playing a Sorcerer now, and I played a Paladin when I used to play in Adventurer’s League at a local game store. It’s difficult to choose a favorite class. I am loving Sorcerer right now and it would not surprise me if I ended up playing a Sorcerer again in the future. Paladins are another great class. They can be so versatile with being able to heal, be in melee combat and have the ability to Smite which allows for extra damage to be dealt. It’s been fun to play as all three of these classes in various campaigns.

Classes I Played in a One-Shot

• Barbarian
• Bard
• Cleric
• Fighter
• Ranger
• Rogue
• Warlock

Out of this list, I think I had the most fun playing as the Cleric, Ranger, and Warlock. For the Cleric, I made a Death Domain Cleric and named her Freya. I took Banishment as a spell and tried to use it as often as I could. I like Rangers as a class, but I like when they can be homebrewed into something else. Warlocks and Blood Hunters are similar in a lot of ways, so it isn’t surprising to me that I’m drawn to Warlocks as a class.

I would want to give Barbarian another chance. My Barbarian ended up getting decapitated in the one-shot and I wasn’t rolling well, so it was a bummer. Fighters and Rogues are two awesome classes especially if you’re looking for a combat heavy class. Bards are so good. I have had a Bard in every long-term campaign and they are very powerful.

Classes I Have Never Played…. Yet.

• Artificer
• Druid
• Monk
• Wizard

Out of this list, I’d want to prioritize both Druid and Wizard. Druids are clutch. The fact that Druids can change out their spell list is so vital for a story. Wizards are also incredibly powerful, but they can be squishy meaning they can be hit easily and may need to be healed often. After playing a Sorcerer, I may want a break and play a class with a bit more durability.

Playing at Bad Wolf Adventure Studios has provided me with a lot more roleplaying experience in a short period of time. I’m curious to see what types of classes and characters I will play as or create in the future.

The last Controllers & Coffee post I wrote was in 2023 when I was heavily invested in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. I will say, I have been playing fewer video games than usual. Being stuck on Jedi: Survivor for a bit has put me in a rut. With this month being my annual Star Wars month, I think finishing Jedi: Survivor will help me get back into playing video games regularly. I wanted to share a gaming update as to what I have been playing and enjoying recently.

Consoles

For consoles, I’m currently playing three games at once. The first is obviously Jedi: Survivor. I started Jedi: Survivor in January and here I am still playing the game. I go through spurts where I play a lot and then a month goes by where I don’t play at all. This is similar to when I first played Jedi: Fallen Order, so it’s not surprising that I’m following a similar pattern here. Besides Jedi: Survivor, I’m also playing through LEGO Star Wars. I won’t touch on this too much since I already shared this in my May 4th post.

The third game that I’m playing is Bayonetta 3. Since watching Critical Role, I have been paying more attention to voice acting whether that be in games or shows. Bayonetta 3 features Anna Brisbin aka. Brizzy Voices is a character in the game. I have been following Brizzy Voices for several years now and I’m happy to see her get more roles in video games. I will say that I exclusively bought Bayonetta 3 because of her as I never played the other Bayonetta games. I am enjoying it so far and I hope to finish the game by the end of the year.

PC

I haven’t played a PC game in a bit. I have quite a few games in my library. They include a few of the Nancy Drew titles, Arcade Spirits, and Zodiacats. Since it’s on my mind, I’m going to install Zodiacats and a Nancy Drew game, so they are on my laptop for when I have the time to do a little PC gaming.

As a side note, my laptop might be on the fritz. My laptop is from 2016 which is already eight years ago. From a technology standpoint, my husband tells me this is old. I tend to use my devices until they completely shut off on me. When my laptop eventually needs to be replaced, I plan on buying a gaming laptop. While I would love to have the time to build my own computer, I don’t have the space to put it anywhere, so a gaming laptop would make the most sense.

Board Games

I haven’t played any new board games recently. Most of the games in my collection have been opened and I have played through them at least once which is pretty good for me. I did receive Forbidden Jungle as a Christmas gift last year and it remains unopened on my shelf. I would love to play Queen by Midnight again along with playing another scenario from Vagrant Song.

TTRPGs

I’m still playing in our Dungeons & Dragons campaign every Monday. I should write more about what’s happening in our sessions. My character, Vesper Henshawe, she has been through a lot. Her back story has been revealed to some of the other characters and she’s even involved in a romance with one of the NPCs (non-playable characters). The romance came out of nowhere as this NPC wasn’t in the backstory I created for her, but it’s been interesting to see how this relationship has developed.

While I would love to play in another TTRPG campaign, I don’t think I have the time to fully commit to a game. I avoid playing TTRPGs on the weekends since the weekends are when I’m the most social. If I were to play another TTPRG throughout the week, Thursday would probably be the day I’m most free since that’s usually my off day from the gym. I don’t want to be that player who cancels as it’s not fair to the other players at the table. I could see myself playing in one-shots in the future, but we shall see.

Miscellaneous

I don’t think I have anything to share under the Miscellaneous section. Most of the gaming falls under the previous sections in this post.

I want to carve out more time to play video games and on top of that, I’d like to start writing regular posts about the campaign I’m in on Monday. The gaming section on Bizarre Brunette is one of my favorite sections to write. There will be more video game reviews and TTRPG recaps in the posts to come.

Playing video games will always be a hobby of mine, but the way that I play video games has changed. I don’t have nearly as much time as I used to where I can sit down and play a game for hours. It’s an inevitable part of growing up, paying bills, and being a grown adult. When I reflect on all the hours I spent playing video games, Bioshock is a game that I reminisce about. I could talk about Bioshock for hours, but for me, it was one of the first games I played after taking a break from Halo 3. I recently found out that the creator of Bioshock is coming out with a new game called Judas which will take place in space. I know nothing about this game, but I’m here for it when pre-orders are open.

Judas is a first-person shooter that takes place on a crumbling spaceship. Making alliances and being on the offensive is the only hope to survive. I don’t have permission to share the screenshots for the game, but in scrolling through them, there’s definitely some Bioshock inspiration to them. It appears that the main character will have powers as one of the screenshots features someone charging blue lightning to shock an enemy. Speaking of enemies, they all have this mechanical and robotic look. In one screenshot, a robotic chef is attacking the player character. Their face is painted in this horrific smile that would appear in my nightmares. I do think that Judas has more of an animated tone than Bioshock based on the screenshots that I’m reviewing.

There isn’t much else that’s been released about Judas. If Judas is a carbon copy of Bioshock or it’s a “Bioshock 2.0″, I wouldn’t care. I’d still love the chance to play the game. I don’t normally pre-order video games, but I would make an exception for Judas.

There has been a lot of exciting news released regarding Critical Role and Darrington Press‘s TTRPG that they have been developing called Daggerheart. Critical Role released several videos discussing the Daggerheart open beta along with the rules of the game. Critical Role did film a one-shot with the Daggerheart system which I was able to carve time to watch. Without knowing much about Daggerheart before the videos were released, I wanted to share some things I noticed while digging into all the Daggerheart content.

As a side note, Daggerheart is in their open beta which means that the game is currently being playtested by real players and gamers. This means the rules can change once the open beta period is completed. The game is set to be released in 2025 according to Daggerheart’s FAQ page.

Before reviewing Daggerheart in-depth, I wanted to share a bit of background if you have no idea what I’m talking about. Since Critical Role first aired, each of their three campaigns utilizes Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition rules. Ever since the OGL License controversy, there’s been a lot of discussion over the future of Dungeons & Dragons since many fans disagree with how Wizards of the Coast has been handling the situation. This directly impacts Critical Role since they have worked with Wizards. There have been rumors that Critical Role is making Daggerheart so they can move away from Wizards as a company. I’m not sure how true that is since Critical Role hasn’t commented on this directly, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this was the reason behind creating Daggerheart.

I haven’t played the Daggerheart open beta and I don’t know if I will have time, but I wanted to share my first thoughts from what I have seen. Daggerheart is a D12 system meaning that instead of using a 20-sided die to roll in Dungeons & Dragons, Daggerheart will use a 12-sided die instead. Players will have two 12-sided dice to be aware of. One of the die will be a Hope die and the other will represent Fear. Players will reveal to the DM what they roll while noting which die they rolled the highest on either Hope or Fear. I’m intrigued by this Hope vs. Fear concept. I don’t use my d12s often when I play Dungeons & Dragons, so I think it will be a nice change from other TTRPGs I play.

Another interesting concept in Daggerheart is character creation. Players will have cards that they will pick from which highlight their powers and abilities. I have read critiques of this, but I actually think this is neat. It feels like a mixture of playing a TTRPG and a board game. I like having everything laid out in front of me versus trying to flip through the rule book to find what I’m looking for. Another thing that I’m looking forward to is all of the choices. Daggerheart has several class and race options which means there’s a lot of customization during the character creation process. I’m partial to the Faun or the Fungril. The Fungril are a mushroom species and I think that would be something I would enjoy roleplaying.

From everything I have watched thus far, the combat in Daggerheart is something that I’m skeptical about. For combat, there isn’t a player order like there is in Dungeons & Dragons. Instead, players pick and decide who gets to go first. When a player rolls and their roll is higher on their Fear die versus their Hope die, the DM gets to take their turn. I personally like having an idea as to who plays next. For example, if I’m last in the initiative order, it helps me write down essential notes from the session because I know I’m going last. The idea that there’s no order to combat in Daggerheart, it feels like it will be unorganized and chaotic. The other thing that I feel nervous about is what if a DM or a player is rolling extremely well. If the DM rolls well and gets to take many turns in a row in combat, players could feel defeated. If the reverse is true where players are rolling well, DMs might have to think more on the fly to make combat encounters challenging. If there was a rule where it stated that players or the DM can’t have more than three turns in a row, that might quell my skepticism. I could be completely overthinking Daggerheart’s combat, so maybe this isn’t an issue. I am curious to see if Daggerheart’s combat will be modified once the open beta is complete.

I think Daggerheart as a system seems intriguing and I would be open to playing a one-shot. I don’t think I will have time to play in the open beta, but if anyone is curious and wants to try out Daggerheart, the open beta can be accessed through Daggerheart’s website.

While at Gen Con last year, I was one of the lucky few who purchased Queen by Midnight at Darrington Press’s booth. I think what drew me to the game originally was the concept and the art of each of the princesses competing for the chance to be a queen. A few weekends ago, I finally played Queen by Midnight and I’m so glad I own a copy of the game. Queen by Midnight is a solid, deck-building game with a few interesting rules that make it stand out.

Queen by Midnight is a game where players play as princesses who fight each other to the death to become the Queen by Midnight. This is a deck-building game meaning that each princess has their own deck of cards they play out of. Throughout the rounds, princesses can purchase cards from the market to add to their deck which helps make their decks more powerful as the rounds progress. The game ends when one princess is left standing or when the clock hits midnight.

For my first play-through, I picked Rosaline, The Oneiromancer. Rosaline’s strategy is to recruit resources by going into trances. If she completes her trance, she receives rewards, but if she goes into a trance, she can’t play cards to protect herself if she’s targeted by other players. I liked being able to control when Rosaline could trance at what time and the rewards from completing a trance. There were quite a few different princesses to pick from which helped in increasing the likelihood that I would replay Queen by Midnight. It will take a few games before I figure out each princess’s overall strategy to win.

I liked the game design and it was clear that Darrington Press thought a lot about how this game could come together. The clock was stunning! There’s a clock that keeps the time between rounds and it’s a cardboard cut-out that needs to be put together. At first, it was a little finicky to put the pieces in place, but once the clock was built, the game box had a devoted spot for the clock, so you didn’t have to break down the pieces every single time. This is such a subtle feature, but when a game has components that don’t fit into the box well, it’s a little annoying.

In most board games, once your character dies, you’re out of the game. Queen by Midnight does things a little differently. At a certain point in the game, each princess picks a card that represents which princess they devote themselves to in case they lose their health. You can still win the game even if you’re dead as long as the princess you devoted yourself to wins the game. I thought that this worked out well for players because it made the game a lot more engaging.

Queen by Midnight was one of the best deck-building games that I have played. The game design was gorgeous, the rules had a few twists to them and I think our gaming group had fun learning how to play this game together. I would love to see more expansions whether that be more princesses to play or cards to add to the market deck. I can see this game becoming a staple in my board game collection. I’d rate Queen by Midnight 5/5.