"Cool.  I have Shinies and Yours, Weeper as things that stand out in this genre?  Ooh, and Excelsior is a pretty good co-op co-ord game, if the puzzles don't pan out; I wasn't thinking of it because it's kind of neither puzzles nor party."

"I guess based solely on the titles I am most curious about what the heck Yours, Weeper could be about?"

"Well, first off, do you have a game called Minesweeper where you're from?"

"- ah, yes, I get the idea now."

"It's funky, though!  You like, play a run of games until you lose, and you collect a bunch of power-ups along the way that make this easier, like, a really common early one is one that doesn't let your first blind click hit a bomb, if it would, it just flags them until you find a piece of normal ground.  And a later one is like an EMP that deactivates all the bombs within a certain radius, but it has to be your last move on a field otherwise you instantly lose, because it like, shakes the ground.  And the art is really nice; the animations are all really swooshy, and there are like, characters, with honestly pretty good plot.  ....I have some qualms with some of the plot but like.  Overall."

"Co-op minesweeper with plot. Where does the co-op part come in?"

"It's not actually supposed to be co-op but it's not timed - or like, there's an IGT for speedrunners but you don't have to pay attention to it - but I lose most of my runs to carelessness so I think it benefits from like, having someone to discuss moves with."

"Huh. Worth a try."

Setup setup setup.  "Not carelessness carelessness - okay sometimes carelessness carelessness - but like, not being super patient about taking ten minutes to think out all the implications of a single move, y'know?  For multiple moves in a row.  I don't have time for that!  Except for this week when I definitely definitely have time for that."

"A fact which I appreciate."

"Mhm!  I mean, thank my uncle."  Her laptop is now projecting to the TV as a second screen.  Vwoop here's the game.  "Do you want a new save file or do you think you won't be able to pay attention to the plot anyway?"

"I think I can probably pay attention to the plot if you're explaining it to me, I won't be able to absorb it direct."

"Does that count me reading the lines or do you need, like, summaries?"

"I think reading the lines will work?"

"I will tuuuuurn on the relevant streamer mode," she narrates.  There's a toggle for voice acting, apparently.

"- I don't think it works if the computer reads me the lines."

"....That won't happen?  It's voice acted by default; I turned that off."

"Okay. Sorry. I can't read."

"I am also sorry you can't read!  It sounds like it sucks."  Settings settings new save file.  "How do you spell your name - or, uh, sorry, can you not right now -"

With inordinate concentration: "H-A-R-U."

Oh noooo, wow.  Type enter.  Does he perhaps want some extra hug about this. 

Yes that would be nice.

Of course it would.  Well, here's the game.  The plot is apparently about two fantasy civilizations who've been at war for a really long time but finally made peace.  The player character works for one side and is meant to clear out a lot of old minefields.  There's talk of a diegetic tutorial level for regular minesweeper rules with a training simulation but when they opt to skip it it turns out it's been mysteriously sabotaged and they have to go straight into fieldwork.

Ari's a pretty decent reader, at least with the example of different voice actors to draw from.

It is pretty hard to concentrate on. But he can when prompted dredge up general principles about Minesweeper and answer questions about the value of different upgrades and snark about the plot.

"Is this better than nothing?" she checks after half an hour.