Distractions
Pet Monitor
Once you've adopted a pet dog, cat, or...other...you can either take it with you on your adventures, or leave it behind at your house to rest up. And by rest up, we of course mean "go on adventures of its own," because the second your back is turned, that's exactly what happens, every single time! Fortunately, before you leave the house, you're smart enough to rig your pet with...a video monitor on a semi-intelligent self-stabilizing selfie drone with limited one-way communication capabilities, I guess? Best not to question how it works; what's important is, you can watch your pet's progress while you play through the main game, and even help it make choices every now and again - go left or go right, fight that "hellcat" or run away, beg for a treat or turn up its nose at its would-be benefactor, etc. If you don't choose anything, the pet will make its own decisions, but your little snookums will surely be grateful for your guidance - and you stand to gain some freshly sniffed-out bonus items for your troubles, as well as pet experience that will make the babykins a better support member on your next expedition together. So why not keep one eye on the cuteness? It couldn't hoit!
Superi R. Labyrinth
An ancient maze carved into a hollow on the outskirts of Arges. "Discovered" by notorious "guard bro" Philip, who named it the "Superi Remote Labyrinth" - or "Superi R.," for short. Never one to back down from a golden opportunity for earning money, he decided to capitalize on the labyrinth's charms, offering willing participants a chance to traverse one of the many arbitrarily divided "courses" through its depths for a nominal fee. If you decide to run one of these courses yourself, however, be forewarned: though there is much treasure to be found within, there's also a dark, greedy magic at play that limits the time you're allowed to spend exploring. Run out, and you're somehow warped back to the entrance, a bit poorer and no wiser for the experience. But if you can manage to carefully plot a course through the chambers of this meandering maze, you can score quite big! And rumor has it, there may even be some rather extraordinary (albeit deadly) secrets that await those who've mastered the three standard courses. Will you be the first to uncover them?
An old-school "shmup"-style shooter, but with a twist! You control a combat-ready biplane that runs on what's known as an "impossible engine"...or should be known as that, anyway, since the propeller at the front of the plane has no actual effect on flight stability whatsoever, instead serving strictly as a combat aid. Not only does it completely obliterate incoming enemy projectiles, but it can also be shot out in front of you as a weapon all its own, then pulled back in and reattached (albeit sometimes in the wrong place). Using it as a weapon, however, leaves you vulnerable to the flurry of unfriendly fire with which you're being constantly bombarded, so it's all a delicate balancing act! Fortunately, the intense pressure of dogfighting is somewhat mitigated by the game's faux 8-bit BGM, which you'll no doubt be rocking out to like a true nerd the whole time you're blasting cute foes into oblivion (admit it; you know you will!). Add a hard mode for true shmupoholics, and you've got yourself quite the addictive little penne-muncher indeed!
What's a PC game without something you can only play on a PC? (Well, they do make keyboards for consoles too, but shh!) This fun little minigame reimagines the events of Ys II as a typing tutor, complete with settings, characters, monsters, and bosses familiar to anyone who's played Ys I & II Chronicles. Type the letters, words, phrases, or full sentences that appear on the screen before time elapses, and BAM, that foe's been bumped out (which is a lot like getting rubbed out, only with more bumping). Can you make it through all eight stages, typing progressively more complicated sentences and fighting progressively more difficult bosses as you go? Come relive the glory days of Ys in its strangest form yet! Features dialogue for boss enemies that never spoke in the original game (and you won't believe the crap that comes outta their mouths!), as well as a unique rendition of the "Theme of Adol" played using Zwei instrumentation. Definitely not a minigame to be missed!
Mona is a poor little bunny rabbit...thing...who wants desperately to reunite himself with his true love, Mona-Lee. But Mona-Lee is at the top of...some kind of unholy structure made out of photographs and candy. Or something. And in order to reach her, he must climb this structure by making use of the falling candy bricks all around him – falling candy bricks that you control! Playing out as something of an "anti-puzzler," your mission is to arrange the falling blocks such that they stack all the way up to the top of the level in a nice, orderly, climbable column or two. If you should match four of the same type of candy, however, POOF, away they go – and anything balanced on top of them will fall, often leading to dangerous chain reactions with other blocks down below. This means your goal here is to avoid matching blocks at all costs! All while being extra-specially careful not to smush Mona into a pancake, since he's a tiny target and these candy bricks are awfully heavy. Can you successfully guide Mona up to meet with his true love, or will you end this match a broken gamer, leaving naught but a bunny-shaped stain in your wake?