Philip Seymour Hoffman is not George Clooney.

I added a new show to my schedule in August, dear LusiCrabs, and while I knew what I was getting into, I did not really know what I was getting into. Suffice to say that my workload has made an already incredibly exhausting year even more exhausting, although I did not think it possible.

But I open with tales of tests to my character so I can contrast it with how light the last few days have felt for me. I was treated to an exceptional production of Les Misérables on Saturday followed by a wonderful family gathering, then my girlfriend and I followed through on our long-overdue plans to clean our apartment on Sunday and today was actually a calm, manageable today of work without all too much yelling and stressing and feeling like I was working my ass off just so that I could feel like garbage.

Yes, LusiDungeons, that is what constitutes some of the best days of the last few hundred for me. Cleaning and an average workday. The Les Mis thing would have been a stand-out either way. But still, fuck the Year of Luigi. Anyway, I also was able to play some different games this week, so let us talk about that.

Dungeon Village

I received my Nexus 5, and it is as excessively powerful as I hoped. I recently made a decision to stay away from social media until at least the new year, so I decided to load up a few apps on my phone to fill the times at work when I am waiting to be slammed with stuff to do, but do not have the time to do something more productive like read or write. I turned to Kairosoft, makers of Game Dev Story, for a reliable developer that I knew could give me an entertaining and well put together game without the acid rain cloud of microtransactions poisoning the experience.

I know it is well over a year old, but I found out about Dungeon Village for the first time by looking up Kairosoft, and it has been doing exactly the job I hoped it would do. It is breezy, fun, and – refreshingly – not an exercise in greed. I also love the concept of managing a town designed to profit off of typical RPG adventurers. An even smaller test of this occured in Dragon Quest IV and I loved it then too. The RPG is established enough as a genre that riffs like this have the potential to be highly successful. Dungeon Village is not life-changing, but I hope similar concepts continue to be explored.

We will equip you well, brave warrior!

Assassin’s Creed: Revelatioliver Is Stupid

You all remember Oliver Montok, correct? This handsome fellow? I awoke to an earnest text from him the other day that declared Assassin’s Creed: Revelations to have the best mechanics in the series, despite its turgid story. I had given up on the story ages ago, but I still value the series for – at its best – satisfying gameplay and well-stuffed open-world design, especially when the setting is a beautifully realized 16th century Europe, so when I saw the title available for $20 on the PlayStation Store, I decided to give it a download.

To what is likely soon to be a chorus of “I could have told you that”s in the comments, I found Riddles to be wrong. The game is fine. It is worth the green bill, to be sure, as it is closer to Assassin’s Creed II than it is III, but it is hardly an improvement of any kind. It is more of a DLC pack. With a head-scratching tower defense mini-game. Not head-scratching in that it is challenging, but because I have no idea what it is doing in an Assassin’s Creed game. And I am that guy who likes tower defense. Oh well, it is my own fault for not paying attention to the warning signs.

Ask Ethos?

We all joked around about this back during the first phase of this column, but how would it be received if I actually did include a sardonic, yet enthusiastic section in which I addressed questions and comments from the previous article? I suppose I will find out in the comments section of this article, but I want to know noowwwwwww.

Stop Whining Ethos

Seriously.

What About Little King’s Story? Is That Good?

Tell me.

Final Thoughts

I played a little more Tales of Xillia recently and I have new thoughts about how the games in the series consistently lose any thematic focus they may have had by the end of the game, but I would like to dedicate a little more space to that, and I also do not want to talk about the same two games every week. Otherwise, I am hoping for a continued pleasant streak in my life. What about you, LusiMontoks? Let us meet up in the comments and have a jolly old time.