Locked in my Darkness 2: The Room (I will be calling it LinD2 for short) is a slow burn, psychological horror. Developed by a solo developer for three years at Blusagi Team and published by indie.io, LinD2 was released on February 11th, 2026. With a focus on atmosphere, exploration, and puzzle solving, LinD2 is a narrative psychological horror. LinD2 creates tension with its dark, grim and warped settings that blur the lines of reality. Players play as Yuki Tachibana, a Japanese high school student who recently moved to New York with her parents. However, the darkness of her parent’s past follows them to their new apartment, and it is up to players to uncover the truth.

LinD2 is actually the finale to a trilogy of games by the same developer. The first Locked in My Darkness released in December 2022, and the second installment, Blue Maiden, followed in December 2023. As a trilogy, these games feel designed to be experienced together, especially if you want the full narrative. Admittedly, there isn’t a whole lot to discuss for this review, as gameplay is quite simple. Players can expect to spend 2-3 hours in total with LinD2, potentially more as there are multiple endings, but not by much. Puzzles are straightforward and I never felt completely lost in what I needed to do. It is a walking simulator, which isn’t a bad thing, but also doesn’t lead to me having much to say.

As a psychological horror, LinD2 is on par, but doesn’t really wow me. It might be a bit biased, but I have a love/hate relationship with indie horror games. I absolutely love the creativity and story-telling that developers do with indie horror. I spend most of my YouTube time on channels that analyze and review indie horror games. Ironically, I rarely play them myself; I scare far too easily to enjoy the experience firsthand. I thought that LinD2 was quite effective in it’s horror and jumpscares, but can also see how they might be a walk in the park for the less fearful. I think LinD2 knows what it is and hits the mark, but unfortunately doesn’t leave a lasting impression for me as a player. So, watch out for collectibles, because it’s time to discuss Locked in my Darkness 2: The Room!

Locked in my Darkness…Literally

Let’s jump right in to the horror elements. As the name implies, LinD2 is literally quite dark in some areas. To give you an example, the next two images show the same view, with the second one taken after I turned the in‑game brightness all the way up.

Darkness plays a major role in building tension and shaping the horror atmosphere. The game gives players tools to navigate it, including a night‑vision camera that drains batteries as it runs. You can find extra batteries throughout the world, but you don’t always need to keep the camera powered on. The camera overlay gives the game a ‘found footage’ feel, like players are watching Yuki’s final moments before the monster man gets her.

Speaking of the monster man, this thing is both creepy and a bit underwhelming. Early on, Yuki can find a police report of multiple murders and mutilated bodies. Next to this report is a CCTV feed of various cameras and as you scroll through them, players can get their first glimpse of the monster man. When I first saw him, I was quite creeped out. In another feed you can view the back of him—a hulking man bathed in red, wielding a large weapon. As a design, I liked this. He’s quite creepy, and the jumpscares he gives later on made me pause from playing for a bit.

However, I did feel a bit underwhelmed at times. For example, there are many occasions where he’s just sort of standing and doing an idling animation. When down in the sewers, you get a pretty good view of him as he stands idle down a hallway. As you walk towards him since there is no other way to go, his loud breathing can be heard. And I mean loud too—I had my in-game volume turned down pretty low (again, I scare easily) and it sounded like it was at normal volume. Once Yuki crosses the threshold, the light snaps to black and he vanishes. The moment is unsettling on its own, but the buildup leading to it feels a bit bland. Again, he’s just standing there, idling. It reminded me of that SpongeBob quote, “He’s just standing there…menacingly!”

It would be creepier if he was actually doing something, like peering from behind a corner, beckoning Yuki closer, or brandishing his weapon at her. Another moment like this appears later in the street. He is standing behind a fence, but the scene gets cut short by one of those in‑your‑face, somewhat cheap jumpscares where he practically presses himself against the camera’s view.

Many moments of horror are created through the use of warped reality that has a grim and gory settings. In the sewers, Yuki can find reports in a greenhouse lab of toxic plants. Visions occur with vine-like tendrils, bathed in red. Body bags hang betwixt vines along a hallway and disappear as Yuki walks past. Be sure to get quite comfortable with it, as later on Yuki finds herself trapped in this altered reality and players need to find a way to escape it.

Overall, the psychological horror works well, though that’s coming from someone who scares easily. The tension builds effectively for me, and the scares avoid feeling repetitive. However, I also don’t think LinD2 is trying to do anything out of the ordinary when it comes to the horror genre. I think it hits on par with what I might expect, which is great, but also doesn’t really stand out from the indie horror genre. I think LinD2 relies more on its narrative rather than its horror elements, but relies on the horror more over its gameplay. It’s a bit confusing to explain, but again, the less fearful may see this as a walk in the park.

Locked in my Walking Simulator with Puzzle Solving

Outside of the horror, gameplay is simple and straightforward. As mentioned, it is a walking simulator with various puzzles along the way. Puzzles are pretty straightforward and not overly complicated. For example, one of the first puzzles you encounter involves pulling fours levers in the correct order. In a nearby room are four pages that inform you the order with messages like “The third was pulled first” and such. There are also a decent bit of numerical codes that players will need to remember, such as for a door code. Puzzles later on get slightly more complicated, but it isn’t anything that will leave players stumped and confused.

Yuki can piece together bits of the story by finding notes, such as the police report mentioned earlier and the lab report about the toxic plants. Yuki can pick up, examine, and read the notes. She can also find other items, including extra camera batteries, keys, and collectibles like pink dolls. The game stores these items in her inventory, which expands whenever she discovers new backpacks scattered throughout the world. I suppose there is a slight inventory management factor, but it never posed as a serious element in my playthrough. In fact, I’m not too sure what the purpose of expanding the inventory was instead of just having an inventory. I suppose its just an extra little layer to the gameplay, but it doesn’t feel like something players will need to be super mindful of.

That’s pretty much it when it comes to the gameplay. There’s a bigger focus on the narrative and horror elements and the simplistic gameplay does its job at driving both of these points forward.

Locked in my Rough Edges

Though I can applaud LinD2 for the work that has been put in by a solo developer, there are a few rough edges here are there. Visually, the graphics are okay, but it does feel a bit reminiscent of an older game. I personally don’t mind, but I can see how other players may not be so enticed to play.

I also noticed a few bugs while playing. At one point after picking up a backpack, the inventory was expanded message got stuck on my screen. It’s pretty small and not too noticeable so it wasn’t a big deal. Another bug was when I went to view the first VHS tape. I found it in an archive/storage room and walked down to where the VHS player and TV are. When I went to put the tape in though, there was already a copy of the same tape on the VHS player. I needed to pick it up in order to play a tape, so I somehow ended up with two copies of the same VHS tape. Not really sure what happened, and again, not a huge deal, but it is something to be aware of.

There are a few moments where the camera will cut to something or play a ‘cutscene’. These feel a bit clunky. For example, the first time it happens is in the beginning. You open a garage to reach the CCTV and camera with night vision. The camera then sort of glides forward and turns towards where the TV is. It takes a second for Yuki to actually say anything during this time. Another moment was when it pans over the hanging body bags after reading a note. Like the graphics, these moments also felt like something reminiscent of an older game in its slight clunkiness. I’m not sure what exactly their purposes are either as they don’t feel all that necessary.

One last thing, and this is more of a personal preference, is that Yuki doesn’t react to much of the horror. Like in my earlier example of the monster man standing menacingly down a hallway, it isn’t until he disappears that Yuki says “Nani?” Why is she not concerned about who this mysterious red man is? Why does she not call out? Why does she not ask herself something like “Who/what is that?” when first seeing him and only reacts after getting halfway down the hallway when he disappears? Again, it’s a personal preference, but when I’m scared, I want to know the character I’m playing is scared too.

Locked in my Review

Overall, LinD2 is just okay. I can’t really say how it fits in as a finale to the trilogy, but all three games receive generally favorable reviews on Steam. From the research I’ve done on the trilogy, I do like the narrative told. I can recommend playing the three games for fans of indie psychological horrors indie. They’re shorter games that deliver the scares (in my easily scared opinion). I think for the work of a solo developer, they deserve at least a look at on Steam to do more inquiring, reading the reviews, watching the trailers, and making your own judgement. A bundle is available if you want to purchase the entire trilogy.

However, as a standalone, I’m not sure if I can recommend this one. There are too many hang-ups for me personally. I think LinD2 hits the mark for what I can expect out similar indie horrors. However, I’m struggling to see what this one does that so many others don’t already do, if not better. There are probably better similar indie horrors out there, even as a non-player of indie horror myself. I know it must be difficult to make something that truly stands out. Simply put, LinD2 is decent for what it is, but I don’t think it will leave a lasting impression.

That’s why I think you should play the trilogy instead of just this one. It will leave a bigger impression. You will have a bigger and better understanding of the narrative. At the end of the day, you will also support a solo developer who has put time and effort into the trilogy.

Yonde itadaki arigatōgozaimashita!

If you’re somewhat into poetry then you might recognize the name Edgar Allan Poe, an American writer well known for his short stories such as The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart, just to name a few.

He’s often referred to as “the master” in horror poetry, with his work focusing heavily on mystery and the macabre. He left such a big mark on the scene that there are awards named after him called “The Edgar Awards”, which are presented annually by the Mystery Writers of America.

His work has been the inspiration for quite a few things, with one of them recently being a game adapted from his creations “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “Berenice”.

Developed by multimedia studio Inscape, this first-person point-and-click psychological adventure delves into Edgar Allan Poe’s brilliant mind, as you witness the stories from both the minds of the victims and the perpetrators.

Stop-motion animation captured the atmosphere so well

When we think of stop-motion animation, most of us instantly think of franchises such as Wallace and Gromit or Shaun the Sheep, mostly shows or films which use this type of animation dating all the way back to the 80’s.

It’s something not seen commonly nowadays, purely because technology has advanced so using the most advanced methods just makes things easier compared to stop-motion which requires meticulous details and the patience of a saint.

Now think of video games and how many have you played that actually use stop-motion animation? The answer for most of you is probably a no, unless you played the most recent hit using this animation, Out of Worlds.

Edgar Allan Poe’s interactive horror does indeed also use stop-motion, and I have to say as a big horror fan it surprisingly works really well with the genre, combined with the puppetry it made the game so much creepier and created such an uncanny atmosphere, something which I didn’t expect to feel so quickly.

The sound design along with the voice acting played a huge part in the atmosphere, the narrator and the voices of the characters did really well and made the overall game so much creepier, and completely nailed the “1900s” voice.

Whilst not technically being labelled as one, for the most parts it felt a lot like a visual novel except that in said visual novel you were able to move around the area and actually interact with most objects within the environment.

Although I wasn’t a big fan of the whole point-and-click mechanic I have to say it did work quite well with this game, mainly because the graphics are similar to retro titles so naturally it doesn’t look out of place.

I was getting into it ever so slowly, but unfortunately due to a few repetitive glitches that I came across I wasn’t able to complete the full game let alone get past the first story, which was a shame because I was starting to get into it and curious as to how the stories ended, but alas I wasn’t able to see why Edgar Allan Poe’s work is highly praised by so many, but maybe reading it instead would prove to be a better way to appreciate it.

As someone who never played the original Disney Afternoon games on the NES, jumping into the Disney Afternoon Collection on Switch 2 felt a bit like opening a gaming time capsule. These are titles many players grew up with, but for me this was my first experience with them. The real question wasn’t whether they were nostalgic classics — it was whether they still hold up as games today.

Published by Atari and Digital Eclipse, the Disney Afternoon Collection features eight NES and SNES titles: Ducktales, Ducktales 2, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers 2, Talespin, and Darkwing Duck. Upon booting up the curation of classics, I felt as if I had stepped foot in an arcade. 

The selection menu treats you to some groovy 8-bit tunes while you decide which classic to get into. The games are chronologically ordered, ranging from ‘DuckTales’, 1989, to ‘Bonkers’ from 1994. And as someone who has never experienced any of this revered collection, I was unsure which game to boot up first, but naturally I started first and went back to 1989 for a little while, with Scrooge McDuck in “DuckTales”.

Ducktales is a classic 2D platformer, avoiding and jumping over passing enemies. Despite being a simple concept, the platformer bested me a couple of times. The goal being to explore the level, collect treasure and reach the end while avoiding a slew of 8-bit foes.

Chip ‘N Dale sees the player taking control of either Chip, or Dale, with two players also available for couch co-op. Chip ‘N Dale is a side scrolling platformer with focuses on puzzles and teamwork. What sets this classic aside from the usual jump on enemies formula, is the focus on throwing items. Throwing a barrel at an oncoming foe will never not be fun.

To a modern audience discovering these games for the first time, these titles make a change from the modern gaming landscape. These games offer short and straightforward levels, with clear and unique mechanisms are a good time for any player. 

The Disney Afternoon Collection offers many customisation modes in game to tailor the experience to the player, whether you are reminiscing and walking down memory lane, to newcomers who have never experienced these classics before. 

While playing any of the titles, pressing R on the joy-con will pause the game, a much-appreciated feature for those harder levels, but also allows the player to customise their experience. Whereas, pressing and holding L will allow the player to instantly rewind time, handy If you get stuck on a level.

Three filter options are available: Off, TV and Monitor. TV and Monitor filters apply a retro feel to your display. When I changed to the monitor filter, it felt like I was in an arcade. These options allow for users to recreate that childhood nostalgia and play these games as if for the first time again.

These customisation features, and the ability to rewind, allow for these NES classics to feel modern and be enjoyed by newcomers, and returning players alike.

These features are some of the reasons why the Disney Afternoon Collection on the Switch 2 make for some old-school, quick-paced arcade feeling gaming. 

Overall, The Disney Afternoon Collection is a short walk through some of Nintendo’s classics, and while some games show their age, these titles managed to feel engaging even in the modern gaming landscape. For those who grew up with these games, this collection will be a surefire way of reliving those memories with a modern spin. With modern features that make older designs easier to handle, this collection is a solid way for both longtime fans and curious newcomers to revisit these classic Disney adventures.

Baladins originally released back in May 2024 for the PC. A fellow reviewer from Movies, Games and Tech actually reviewed the game back then, praising it for it’s engaging and charismatic writing, its charming visuals, and the amount to discover. However, they did think that gameplay was punishing for solo players.

Almost two years later, Baladins is back! Developed by Seed by Seed and published by Armor Games Studios, Baladins had a re-release for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation on February 19th, 2026. This whimsical game has ventured onto console with the same engagement and charm. After receiving many updates since it’s initial release, Baladins has added more content and improved many bugs along the way.

For those of you who are asking “but what even is Baladins?”, it is a roleplaying adventure game that plays in a boardgame fashion. Players play as one of the five Baladins and can explore the board freely, stopping at points on the map such as cities, shops, or castle. At these locations, you’ll meet a colorful cast of characters, each with their own quests for the Baladins to assist with, most of which having multiple possible outcomes. Supporting both solo and multiplayer up to four, players can collect items, make choices, and test their characteristics. After almost two years, it feels like the right moment to step back into Gatherac and explore what’s improved with its rerelease for console. So, grab a couple of friends, because it’s time to discuss Baladins!

Gatherac and Colobra, the Time-Eating Dragon

The story of Baladins begins six weeks before the upcoming Peace Festival, a celebration of love and friendship. Each week, players can explore the town of Mouliac and surrounding areas with the task of setting things up for the Peace Festival. To make matters worse, a geyser shoots water out from a well all over where the festival is supposed to take place! Your main objective then becomes to either plug up the hole or stop the water. Players have a limited number of movement points and action points, and each week is one turn. On week seven, regardless of where you are at in your progress of fixing the geyser, the Peace Festival occurs.

All of the sudden, a dragon named Colobra comes out of the well! They chide the Baladins, asking if they have forgotten the true meaning behind the festival. As punishment, Colobra eats any items you are carrying and then eats time itself. The Baladins are hurled into a vortex, and on the other side is… six weeks before the upcoming Peace Festival. Initially I was very confused. Baladins isn’t just your typical adventure boardgame. It features a time-loop mechanic, restarting after six turns. Everyone except for Baladins guild members forgets everything. Obviously, the Baladins now have a much bigger problem than just setting up the Peace Festival. Tasked with going to the castle in Hortegarde, the real adventure begins.

From here on, players can now freely explore the entire map of Gatherac. In total there are five areas with multiple locations in each. Baladins is really a game of side quests, as pretty much every character you meet at the different locations will have a quest for you to do. As mentioned, almost all of the quests has multiple potential outcomes depending on which actions you take. For example, one of my favorite quests was the rivalry between a theater owner and a general at the arena. Perhaps you side with the theater owner and sabotage the arena’s fireworks with spices. Perhaps you side with the general and turn the theater owner in. Or maybe you want to see their rivalry end and have them come together to perform the best show ever. All are possible outcomes.

On the seventh turn, the loop repeats. Colobra eats your items, filling up a mysterious progress bar of his “hunger”. He isn’t so cruel though, as he will let players keep one item (each if in multiplayer) to take with them into the next loop, but it will not count towards filling the bar. A statistics screen will show you the total number of items fed to Colobra, the characters met, the rumors heard, and the good and bad quest endings you’ve achieved. Though I like this idea, I do wish there was an easier way to keep track. There are 154 items able to be fed to Colobra, but seemingly no way to know which items have been fed already. An in-game tracker would be very convenient.

Though the time-loop does reset the everyone’s memories, sometimes it isn’t always necessary to repeat quests in the same steps. For example, a miller needs the castle to send him an engineer. After the first time discovering this quest, it isn’t necessary to ‘re-discover’ it in following loops. You can head straight to the castle and request an engineer without stopping at the mill. This is a mechanic that I particularly liked, given the time-loop nature of the game. It makes completing quests easier, especially if you are playing in single player. What I ended up doing is focusing on a quest or two for a few loops in order to try and find all the possible outcomes. It made things slightly easier for me as a player, but of course it is up to how you prefer to play the game.

The Baladins, Items, and Characteristics

Players can choose one of five Baladins to play as for each loop—the cook, the luxomancer, the dancer, the pyro, or the bard. Each Baladin starts with the same number of action points and movement points, as well as ten gold. Along with their charming designs, each Baladin excels in one of the five characteristics—physique, finesse, knowledge, creation, and destruction. One characteristic has a value of 8, 1 or 2 points in three other characteristics, and one at 0. The choices you make in a loop may test your characteristics in a dungeons & dragons style. Three six-sided die are rolled and then added to your characteristic to determine if you succeed. Threshold values come in three different variations— 8, 11, or 18. Locations on the map have practice areas where players can improve a characteristic by 1 and challenge areas that test your characteristics for rewards.

Items are another way to increase or decrease your characteristics. You can obtain items in several ways: by triggering random encounters on the map, buying them from shops, or earning them as quest rewards. Most items will passively effect your characteristics. The traveling merchant, who wanders around the map near players, will happily buy your items. Selling to him is a great way to pick up extra gold, which you’ll occasionally need when someone demands 50 gold. There are also consumables, such as drinks that increase your characteristics or refill a point of action or movement. Don’t forget that Colobra allows each player to keep one item between loops. It’s important to keep the right items if they will help in a quest, especially when playing single player.

Single Player vs Multiplayer

I wanted to dedicate a section on my review to discuss specifically the single player vs multiplayer aspect. Many reviews, including the one here back in 2024 when Baladins originally released, claim that the game heavily favors multiplayer. I’ve even seen some say that not everything is possible to achieve when in single player. Though I can’t say that this is true, I do have to agree that multiplayer seems to be the intended way to play.

In multiplayer, each player takes a turn wandering the map and taking actions. Players can be anywhere on the map. During a player’s turn, they can teleport to or summon another player to your location at any point. Players can share items with each other, though this is limited to once per turn. When making a big decision, players can vote on what they should do, which is a fun little quirk as well. And as mentioned, each player will be able to keep one item between loops. It is important to note that the kept item is tied to the Baladin. Single players can keep an item on one Baladin and switch to another between loops. Make sure you don’t obtain that item a second time though. The game will pull it away from the other Baladin, and it disappears if you don’t reclaim it.

Multiplayer can be played both locally and online with a code. Admittedly, I’m not entirely sure if both players will need to own a copy when online. My guess is yes which is unfortunate since on PC it allows players to play without a copy. I am also not sure about cross-play. For local multiplayer, it seems that only a dual set of joy-cons or a pro-controller work. I tried docking my Switch 2 and playing in multiplayer with the two joy-cons separately, but it didn’t work. Eventually, after failed attempts at persuading my partner to play with me, I grabbed the two pro-controllers and just played in multiplayer by myself.

There isn’t really anything gained when playing in single player outside of an extra action and movement point. Though I can understand this, I do think single player makes gameplay a lot…harder? Harder doesn’t seem like the right word as the difficulty in this game is little to none. It definitely will take you way longer to complete and achieve everything though. More strategy will also be required if you want to complete some quests within the loop.

I’d like to give an example of what I mean by more strategy. A farmer is plagued with lavender that keeps growing and needs the player to find a buyer and stop the lavender from growing. In order to complete this quest with the best possible outcome, players will need to have two encounters along the map—a king with a stolen drawing book and a crying child missing her drawing book (her crying magically makes the lavender grow). These encounters trigger somewhat randomly across the map, but each one still belongs to a specific area—for example, Mercazon. Though there are other ways of stopping her from crying, giving her the drawing book is the only way to receive a rare item.

At any point, you will need to stop and talk to the farmer to get a sprig of lavender. Then, travel to the next town over and give the lavender to to a boutique owner who says they will buy more. Then, it’s back to the farmer to tell him the good news and receive his scythe item. In single player, performing all of these tasks took an entire loop for me. This isn’t a terribly long time, loops might take you 15 minute tops, but in multiplayer, a quest like this would be way easier and faster. With item swapping alone, players could easily complete this quest in a few turns, with enough time to explore other things as well.

So yes, though it may not be entirely impossible to achieve everything in single player, it does make things way more challenging than they need to be. I wish that we could fill up the party slots in single player as an optional setting, without needing to have multiple compatible controllers. I can appreciate the game encouraging players to game together. However, I can’t help but feel like they didn’t need to make things as challenging for those that can’t or simply don’t want to. Both options should feel like viable ways to play without the dramatic spike in strategic gameplay.

A Re-Release is Hopefully Good News for Baladins

In conclusion, though I can recommend this one, I don’t think it will be for everyone. I think there’s much to wish for in this game. I would love for them to make single player slightly and optionally easier by allowing players to control multiple Baladins. If I ever want to dive fully into this game, I’ll need a more detailed tracker. There’s no way I’m keeping a personal log of everything I’ve fed Colobra. I wish I could view the map before getting into a loop. Though I can select my starting location, I have already forgotten where things are located many times. The same could be said for the quest log and other achievements. My hope is that this re-release breathes new life into Baladins and that Seed by Seed takes another look into improving the game further.

On the other hand, I loved the game’s charm and whimsy. It is simple, light-hearted fun that would be great for those interested in board games and dungeons & dragons. I found myself playing into the evening a few times even though I typically do my gaming research during the day. I enjoy diving into an adventure packed with side quests to tackle. The wacky and wonderful characters I meet along the way stand out, and their stories are consistently well written. If you have family or friends that you think would enjoy this, then I can especially recommend it to you. I was always more of a fan of co-op rather than competitive in multiplayer, and this fits right in. Gather your friends locally or online and treat it like you would a dungeon and dragons campaign!

Thank you for reading, now go feed some items to Colobra!