At last, we have arrived at the bitter truths at the heart of Snaktooth Island. We have resolved(or at least tried to resolve) the lingering issues that hang heavy upon the hearts of our fellow Grumpuses, and it’s time to bring our expedition to its shocking conclusion.

But remember, no matter what happens, this is a cheery kids game about hybrid snack food/insect creatures that transform the person who eats them.

W3 4Re Wh4t W3 3At! 😉

Special thanks go out to TheAffableGiraffe on YouTube for doing the uncomfortable work letting all of the Grumpuses die during the final confrontation.

Now that I’ve seen the genocide ending, I understand why characters who have completed their sidequests are immune during the finale. By helping them complete their character arcs, we essentially break the allure that Bugsnax have for each of them. Once they realize that Bugsnax are not going to magically save them from their problems in the outside world, they’re able to rationally and logically approach the situation and resist the compulsion to indulge.

That said, I do still maintain my stance that I wish the game had gone farther down the eldritch horror angle that they pivot to in the finale. It would have been cool if our feeding Bugsnax to our friends had doomed them to snakification before we were even aware of the dangers. Part of what makes that such a cool twist is that it completely recontextualizes every single thing we have done up until this point since almost every activity is around catching the Bugsnax and feeding them to our fellows. If we experienced consequences for all that we’ve done up to that point, it would have added that much more to the horror of it all.

But despite that, I appreciate how closely the game holds its cards to its chest. Every aspect of the twist is carefully seeded early on, so it doesn’t come out of nowhere. What we lack is the vital piece of information that ties all of it together… right up until the interview with Lizbert. The true nature of the Bugsnax, parasites that infest and assimilate those who consume them, suddenly brings together the complete story.

The team at Young Horses should be proud of the work they put into Bugsnax. It’s an easy recommendation from me.

Last week, we finally got around to participating in the Sentinels of Light event, long after it had already concluded. During that battle, two new champions found their way into the game in the form of playable cards.

We’ve already explored the potential of the Ruined King of the Shadow Isles, Viego. Now, it’s time to give his rival among the Sentinels of Light his due. That man is Akshan, from Shurima.

As always, credit goes to Mobalytics for the deck recipe.

Deck code: CMCACBADCYBACAYLEMBAGAYBAMCAIBZXLWBADCQBAMAQCAYZAEBQGBYDAQDQ3AABQMAQGAIBAMKACBADCUAQIB3H

This is an unusually aggressive deck for me since I vastly prefer to pick and choose my attacks and overtake my opponent with value. Though it performed well despite that. Unfortunately, it also performed well despite not really being allowed to showcase its gimmick.

Once either Akshan or a Vekauran Vagabond hit our board, then create a landmark called the Warlord’s Palace. Along with the usual lockdown when the turn ends, this landmark also advances when one of our units is targeted, or when Akshan strikes. After the countdown hits zero, it spits out a card valuable multipurpose, and Akshan levels up. From this point forward, Akshan will instead summon and countdown the Warlord’s Hoard, which creates a card that provides several effects potent enough to completely swing the game: Potent enough to build our strategy around.

And this is why we’ve both Riven as one of our supporting Champions, along with the Reforge package she comes with. Each of these blade fragments and the Blade of the Exile created from them are cards that target our units, counting down both the Palace and the Horde.

Draven serves a similar purpose with his Spinning Axes. They’re targeted, and with all the cards we’re creating with both him and Reforge, we should usually have enough fodder to pay their discard costs.

Our removal spells, Whirling Death and Grappling Hook, also fall into this subtheme of targeting our own units to further get those landmark procs we desperately crave. If our combination of Quick Attack and Overwhelm can’t close out the game, often these spells can help us clear the way to give us the opportunity.

We also have powerful supports in the form of Ruined Reckoner, which can give us a few extra swings when we need them to chip down at a problematic opponent or get in the last bit of damage. And the odd copy of Merciless Avenger can force our opponent to block with creatures they otherwise wouldn’t, in suboptimal ways. The Reckoner’s Midnight Raid also counts as another targeted spell for our landmarks to proc off of.

That said, even if we don’t arrive at our actual win-con, both our supporting champions are strong offensive powerhouses in their own right. It’s entirely possible for us to win without Akshan if we rely on Draven and Riven to swing in for high damage.

Get in there and swing. And if your opponent still stands, swing at them again.

We’ve been trying to help out the Grumpuses here on Snaktooth Island, but it’s difficult to say whether or not we’ve been succeeding on that front. And between those menial tasks, we continue to investigate the Bugsnax.

Hopefully, everything will go smoothly and nothing back will happen.

You will once again have to forgive me for my exhaustion. I will try not to make this a continuing issue.

That said, it might have ultimately been a boon. That means we can confidently go into next week with nothing else but the finale on our minds.

Almost there, people.

It’s been over a month since our last excursion to the lands of Runeterra and in that time a whole special event has come and gone. With this Sentinels of Light event, a slew of new cards, alongside new champions, have been added to the game.

And naturally, my eyes are drawn to the champion that enables an Aristocrats strategy using my favorite nation to play: Shadow Isles. Even better, this new champion pairs with my beloved Nasus and his support from Shurima.

That’s right. We’re joined by the Ruined King himself, Viego.

Thanks as always to Mobalytics for providing the deck recipe.

Decklist code is: CEBQIAIFBMUDAMIDAQDQEL3HAMCAKAZWG4BQCBAHGYAQIBIQAEAQKGICAICAOO3ZAICAKBA4

On its face, this deck uses a lot of the principles that we make use of in the Thresh/Nasus deck I showed off way back when Shurima first dropped. We use our own creatures as sacrificing fodder, slaying both them and our enemies in order to power up both of our champions. The difference is that our original deck relied on Nasus as the sole win condition, with Thresh being an alternative method of getting him onto the board. With him enough power he can attack it or kill him with an Atrocity for a victory.

While that’s still on the table, we have an alternate win condition in this deck with Viego and his level up. In the event Viego ever attains his level up, the game is almost definitely over. Each turn, he will either take control of our strongest enemy unit or kill them if they are a champion. Very few boards will be able to withstand this shift in tempo, especially since we are equipped to sacrifice our brainwashed pawns to make sure our opponent never gets them back.

And even if we never reach that payoff, Viego, and his Camavoran Soldiers, create Encroaching Mist that power up all future mists and Viego himself every time that are spawned. This can quickly transform Viego into an extremely powerful Champion on his own, without the level up. And if you’re willing to take the hit, his signature spell Despair can get rid of a major threat before it can do even worse damage to the Nexus.

It’s far from a top-tier deck, but it’s a deck I love to play. And I doubt that will ever change.

Our investigation into Bugsnax and the disappearance of Elizabert Megafig continue, and we’ve returned as many of the remaining Grumpuses to their homes in Snaxburg. Hopefully, if we help them deal with they’ll problems, they’ll provide the information we need to get to the bottom of this.

At this point, we have started completing the side quest chains offered by our fellow Grumpuses, and a pattern has begun to emerge in them. Each has come to Snaxtooth Island in the hopes that Bugsnax will be the solution to a problem that they face in the outside world.

To that end, we help them by hunting the Bugsnax they request and delivering it to them. And each time they provide a temporary, yet fleeting surge of pleasure before the fundamental issues underlying the hole in their heart reemerges. Culminating in the hunt for a legendary Bugsnak, and the ensuing boss battle.

My stream audience remarked that the ends of these questlines didn’t feel meaningful because we aren’t really addressing the problems any of the Grumpuses have. There’s no growth or sense of development whatsoever.

I don’t disagree necessarily, but I would posit that the pointlessness is entirely the point. At the end of the day, what we are is a journalist moonlighting as a Bugsnak catcher in order to get to the bottom of a big story. The Bugsnax don’t perform miracles and we aren’t a therapist, there was no world in which we were magically going to make Chandlo stronger or give Wiggle the inspiration to compose a new song. At best, all of them are running from their problems without confronting or addressing them in a meaningful way. As a result, their efforts were destined to amount to naught.

It’s a lesson that we must all strive to engrave into our minds.

Another Elusive Target has entered our crosshairs, one befitting the Season of Lust. A wedding planner that grows obsessed with his clients to such an extreme design that he kills their partner to be in order to be with them before falling out of love and leaving them alone.

Such a man cannot be allowed to live, so let us save the unwitting victims-to-be by taking him out.

The best about this episode is that it really highlights one of the other perks of using poison that I don’t often get to talk about.

As you know if you’ve watched my other Elusive Target videos, the rules of an Elusive Target dictate that the moment one objective is complete, such as the death of the target, then the attempt is locked in and cannot be restarted or retried. Therefore, if I attempted to snap his neck, I would immediately be spotted and have to deal with that problem.

However, when injected with poison, there is a brief moment after the attack, but before the target is officially “killed” by the poison. If I was noticed during the attack, I have that window to pause and restart the mission to make another attempt, even though logically my attempt should be locked in.

Between this and the many other benefits, the lethal poison syringe is the most useful weapon in the game, and it has been since 2016.

We’ve arrived on Snaktooth Island in order to investigate “Bugsnax,” a bizarre genus of hybrid bug/snak creatures that transform the bodies of Grumpuses who consume them. The leader of the expedition and the one who invited us out here, Lizbert Megafig, has gone missing.

So we’re on our own, looking into both the Bugsnax and her disappearance. With luck, we’ll get answers from the other expedition team member as we locate them and bring them back to the Snaxburg. It’ll probably involve a lot of feeding.

We are what we eat, after all.

I probably should’ve canceled this stream since I was exhausted well before I went live, but I wanted to get something out at least since it’s been so long.

The game actually does a pretty good job seeding the late-game reveals early on. A first-time player likely isn’t going to pick up on them, but people who are replaying the game, like I am, get to see the cogs turning. There are surprisingly few “wasted” details in the story, as each scene serves a purpose. Doubly so since some of them definitely feel like throwaway plot points at first blush.

As for the game itself, the tutorials leave a lot to be desired, but the act of catching Bugsnax makes the player feel extremely smart, especially once they’ve discovered the ideal methods. The best example of this is the Cinnasnail we had to catch as part of the story. When I first ran through the game, I remember catching a different Cinnasnail and feeding it to Chandlow. What you saw in the episode was my piecing together the “correct” way to catch it in real-time. While there should’ve been more explanation leading up to it, the fact that I pieced it together myself made me feel really smart.

Hopefully, next time I’ll be wide-awake to appreciate my own brilliance next time.

Once more, we join Agent 47 as he succumbs to another of the Seven Deadly Sins. This time, our hearts are aflutter, as Lust reigns supreme.

And as such, it’s our job to play matchmaker!

It’s been a long time since I’ve gone through a Hitman mission like this… guns blazing. It’s not the ideal way to play, but it’s a ton of fun in its own right.

As for the mission itself, I love it, for lack of a better term. I’m a sucker for anything resembling investigation mechanics since they bring out my passion for detective fiction. I enjoy sneaking around looking for the clues I need, then using them to draw a conclusion about which of the would-be suitors is the correct one.

More interesting than that is the choice to make it a 1-stage escalation. While that means there’s no real “Escalation”, it also means that we don’t have access to the save/load system. In other words, failure will set us all the way back to the start of the mission. This is why the moment I make my first kill, eliminating any chance of a Silent Assassin run, I just roll with it and start mowing down any guards that give me a lick of trouble.

I’m definitely going to need to replay this on my own time.

At last, we have finally wrapped up our time with Resident Evil: VIIIage. While the series is billed as a horror game, by the end of each of them we’re always so well equipped that it’s hard to be truly frightened. We need a game that will bring in the kind of terror thought impossible in a video game. Something so horrifying that it haunts us.

And that is why we have chosen to play… BUGSNAX!

Now that I’m playing it again, maybe this isn’t a terrorizing as I remember. I mean, just look at the Bugsnax. How could anything that adorable and delicious-looking be anything but wholesome? Just ignore the fact that they transform and mutate whoever eats them. That’s perfectly normal and not a sign that something more insidious is afoot.

In all seriousness, the game already starts to hint that it’s aiming to be more than another throwaway children’s game. We’ve already started hinting at the fact that the people who have come to Snaktooth Island are all deeply emotionally damaged people, for whom this is their last chance. Wambus, as an example, was unable to build the farm of his dreams, so he came here hoping to. Beffica has also alluded to similar troubles, noting that even international laws don’t apply here. And that’s nothing compared to Gramble’s desire to be part of a family. Each of them has a reason they don’t want to return to the outside world, beyond the Bugsnax. They came here for more than just an island vacation, and it’s rare that premises like this explore that aspect in a video game.

And none of the matters. The only thing that matters is BUNGER BUNGER BUNGER!

It’s been a while since our last run of Monster Train. With a new expansion coming out for Runeterra, it is tempting to explore the new cards. Alas, I have not yet had time to play around, so until I do this is a good way to spend the time.

Let’s give it a go.

I was really impressed by the strength of my deck this run. A little bit of a boost to magic power and a few cards that hit enemies multiple times and suddenly we’re killing even the final boss before the can even start their attack. We lucked into some extremely potent synergies.

And then we got to the bonus final boss… and we fought valiantly before it kicked out butts. Next time, I’ll be more prepared.