OFF Review

OFF is the first game in awhile that gave me nightmares.

I play all kinds of horror games like Resident Evil in VR, Silent Hill, and various indie titles, but they didn't effect me like OFF does. 

Which is weird because it is originally a turned based RPG from 2008, that looks like it has a shoestring budget, because it did. It was originally a free game that the creator Mortis Ghost (real name Martin Georis) and a small team created. 

So how why did it unnerve me so much? The key there is how intense it is. 

The game starts with you controlling a character named The Batter and a Cheshire Cat like creature named The Judge starts asking your real name, and your pronouns. You are then thrust into a battle tutorial, and before you know it, you have to write down numbers to solve a puzzle to move on. 

 OFF isn't a game that you can half pay attention to. You always have to keep aware for clues, and know that writing down numbers, words, and symbols could be the only thing between you and being stuck. The game also follows this same design with its story. Even when things are explained to you, the greater context is something you need to figure out for yourself. One moment you can be talking to some sad office worker, and the next that same office worker could get you into a turn based battle. 

The battle system, as paired down and clean as a turn based RPG it is, is filled with strangeness. The way the game works is that usually the entirety of the game is in a 4:3 window with borders, but the battle scenes are 16:9, and even the resolution and pixel density feels off. Combined with a sudden battle transition from your field view to battle view (this can be modified in the accessibility if it is too much) every battle feels like a mild bonk to the head. You then use attacks ("Competencies" as they are called in game) named things like "Saturated String" and "Run with Dementia" and the whole thing feels like a fever dream.   

The world of OFF is one of misery, strangeness, and metaphor. It is never clear exactly what is happening, and the more you try to scrutinize it, the more it feels like nothing is how it should be. Despite The Batter's purity as shown on the status screen, or the sheer incorruptibility of his purpose, you as the player never feel safe. There is not a moment in OFF that you feel like you have a handle on things. The biggest contributor of this feeling is the amazing soundtrack. With tracks from morusque, Toby Fox, and more, the soundtrack never lets up as it is constantly either weirding you out, hyping you up, or whispering in your ear the emotional truth of this world. 

The truth then becomes that OFF is a meditation. Is is a mediation on purpose, on resolve, on how we gather resources to live, and how long will we put up with the state of things. Are the facades and stories we create worth the pain and suffering? What would you sacrifice, and when you reap what you have sown, are you prepared for the consequences? The game never asks you to really determine how things will proceed, and it doesn't care for your cleverness, or if you could have done things better. It just asks how you feel, and to be honest, I feel uneasy.

In 2025, I can see OFF being, well, off-putting. For me, sure it gave me nightmares, but maybe in an uncaring, pure world, even a nightmare can be a sanctuary.

Soul Hackers 2 Review

Reviewing Soul Hackers 2 is tough because there are so many lenses you can review it through.

I could talk about how the version I played is so much more improved than the version that was released originally, and how things like being able to speed up battles improves the game so much that most reviews you see online might not even put that into account.

I could talk about how the game is a commentary on the Shin Megami Tensei series as a whole and how it priorities your relationships over a Law/Chaos/Neutral system. It postulates that maybe the only difference between Law and Chaos is how you feel about it.

What I landed on is how this game feels much more of the moment in 2025 than it did in 2021. Soul Hackers 2 is set in a future world that seems ready to die. People have lost their passion, and things have just gotten worse. One group called the Phantom Society is looking to end the world, and they almost have all the macguffins to do it. While the game events have you trying to stop them, a lot of the game's narrative, especially early on, is getting to know your team.

You have mainly 4 characters, Ringo, the super advanced techobiological being born from an AI intelligence to save the world, Arrow, the boy scout tough guy himbo, Milady, the evil assassin cynical lady, and Saizo, the cool jazzy goofus freelancer. Whether you like the game will be mostly based on your interest in seeing these four people, and more, into fully realized people.

That is what surprised me the most, I ended up liking all four of these party members in the end, even Arrow, which I pegged as sort of boring at first, but eventually won me over. That is the trick the game pulls. I even started learning the names of the shopkeepers and became interested in their whole deal. The game is at its best when it fights the premise of a world full of apathy, and fills it with vibrant characters. The game wants you to realize that maybe if you got the whole picture, people would make different decisions.

This is what made it resonate so hard for me. 2025 is a time where the US government is using people’s ignorance and apathy to hurt people and let people suffer in order to gain advantage. It makes you wonder if the Phantom Society is somehow in the right for trying to end it all. The game winds up with an answer I wasn’t expecting to affect me so much. I was expecting a game in which I stop the bad guys and save the day, but this isn’t all about that.Yes, stop the bad people, but make sure you are also building your community. Make sure you know the people closest to you, and if they are hurting, because if you don’t, you may end up with a bigger problem than you were fighting in the first place.

The game does have some issues, like I think the dungeon design and the level progression slows the game to a crawl that I needed to just listen to podcasts instead of the game audio for large swaths of it, but the stuff it does right I think outweighs those moments (also I like listening to podcasts, so I did catch up on a bunch of them while playing). I felt the 50 hours of doing most of the sidequests and the DLC was completely worth it.

If you are looking for a turn-based RPG about building a community to save the world, and making sure it stays saved, then Soul Hackers 2 is worth a play through.

Video Game Quarterly Report

 

Games I have played through

Resident Evil 2 Remake

I started this game years ago, and I finally played it through this year. I have watched an old friend play through the original PS1 game in the 90’s, and never actually played it through myself. The Remake ended up being the perfect way to finally get to it. Playing through as Claire first, and then Leon with the PS1 classic costume and the original PS1 music I really enjoyed. One day I’ll play through the game with Leon first and then Claire with the PS1 model, but for now I’ll move on to the Resident Evil 3 Remake.

Lost Your Marbles and Executive Golf

The first Playdate games I have played through. The Playdate I have been mostly playing more on the go, arcade-y games that don’t really have endings, but these were the first ones I played through and got to credits. Honestly, I don't have a ton to say about the games without getting into minutiae about the mechanics, so I’ll just say that I love the form factor and looking to play more! Reminds me a lot of the original Gameboy I played with ages ago.

Marvel vs Capcom Arcade Collection

I don’t have a ton of arcade game experience, but the ones I have are X-Men vs Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom. I never got super good at either, but neither did anyone I played with, so I had tons of fun with these back in the day. Playing this collection almost got me thinking maybe I should practice these a bunch and see if I can play online, but not quite. I am more comfortable at just setting the difficulty low and playing through each game. More of a content tourist at this point.

Capcom Beat ‘em up Collection

Big collection year so far. I imagine because this year started off really rough, and I needed some comfort food. Beat ‘em ups are the most comfort food of comfort for me. Nothing really insightful to say other than Warriors of Fate is better than I remember (despite the odd localization) and Battle Circuit was disappointing.

Poinpy

Poinpy is the spiritual successor to Down Well if not only because it was made by the same creator, but now you are going up instead of down. My favorite iOS game, and something I wish I didn’t have to have a Netflix account to play, but what can you do? This will be my 2nd time playing it through and hope that it remains available to play in the future.

Terry’s Other Games

Terry Cavanagh is one of the best game designers living today, and has made some of my favorite games with some of the best video game OSTs. Mainly got this for Don’t Look Back, which is such a brilliant little game. Haven’t played much else yet, but hidden in this collection is the secret best version of Flappy Bird.

Pepper Grinder

I played this mostly because Patrick Klepick of Remap recommended this and I get why. For platformer fans, it is the level design of New Super Mario Brothers with the speed of a Sonic the Hedgehog game. It works for a while, and when it doesn’t, it changes it up. I don’t think it really lives up to its inspirations, but it is fun, and has a killer soundtrack.

Ender Magnolia

I loved the previous game Ender Lilies, so this had a lot to live up to. Luckily, I ended up loving this one just as much, if not more. My first GOTY contender. Love playing a good search action game early in the year.

Streets of Rage 4

If Beat ‘em ups are my comfort food, Streets of Rage 4 is like gourmet hot chocolate, with the perfect amount of sweetness, and maybe even a little booze to really get you in the mood. Honestly the only other game that competes is Streets of Rage 2 as far as satisfyingly beating up people in the street.

Capcom Fighting Collection

Mostly played in anticipation of Collection 2, which I am really looking forward to (Capcom vs SNK 2 is probably my favorite fighting game). I did enjoy finally playing as Hsien-ko in a fighting game after enjoying her character design for so long. I can’t say I really love the Capcom Collection interface for them to keep reusing it, but it is good enough. Really wish these games had some sort of Ending viewer, but I get that with youtube and whatever, the need for that probably is not worth the work.

Angel At Dusk

A bullet hell shooter in the vein of Mushihime-sama Futari, Ikaruga, or whatever game people remember (1943? Does anyone remember these games under the age of 35?) that lured me in with its gory visuals, and made me stay with the surprisingly cheeky and silly UI. One of the best one of these games I have played in a good while.

UFO 50

I put 30 hours in this game, and I haven’t even played all of the titular 50 games. I did manage to get through 5 of them, and this might end up on my GOTY list again.

Games I am playing now

Paper Mario

I beat Mario RPG last year, so I am hoping to finally play through this now.

Zelda Echoes of Wisdom

Maybe it is because everyone was saying it was mid, but I am having a lot of fun with this one. It is all about finding silly solutions to things.

Another Crab’s Treasure

This is the first Dark Souls-like game that has really grabbed me. I love so much of what this game is doing with the story, environments, and skill load out. I think I am nearing the end, and I hope it really closes out good because if so this will end up on the GOTY list for sure.

Suikoden 1+2

Finally going to play through 1 ever since quitting before the final area, and play through 2 which I heard is great.

Super Lesbian Animal RPG

Sort of reminds me of Suikoden 1, but with more lesbians, and more animals.

Assassin Creed Shadows and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Not sure if I will have the time to get through these games but we’ll see.

Naiad and Toem

Both seem like relaxing games that make good use of the Dual Sense controller. Gotta find quiet times to put on the good headphones and really vibe out with these.

Like 18 Visual Novels

Shout out to Seabed, Misericorde, and Hello Girl. I swear I will at least play more of these!!!

Games of the Year 2024

For this year, I found that not only did I play too many games I liked, but a lot of them paired up in an interesting way, so I am going to have a list with no particular order about pairs of games I thought were worth writing about. Shout outs to games like Shinobi non Grata and Smushi Come Home that I rather enjoyed but didn’t quite fit with this framing.

    Theatrhythm Final Bar Line and Mario Wonder

So these are games I really should have put on my Game of the Year list last year. The way I make these lists is that I take the list of games I got through for the year, highlight the ones I really liked, and then I choose about ten or so for a list. I don’t know how I forgot Theatrhythm. It is not only the best rhythm game I played, but also one of my favorite rhythm games of all time. It has some of the best music, and the charts, especially the hardest Supreme level charts, make you feel less like a rhythm game and more like you are learning some sort of strange, ultra modern instrument. I imagine I just forgot it because I have a bad memory, and use game narrative (which this game has none of) to really remember what I played. As far as Mario Wonder, I just didn’t finish it. One of my rules of these lists is that I have to finish the game to qualify, and Mario Wonder I just wanted to savor. It delivers the promise that the New Mario Bros. series never quite lived up to where it is a sublime 2D platformer with fun art and music to boot. I loved these games, and I look forward to other games like Resistx1000 appearing here next year.

    Drakengard 3 and Astrobot

These two games on the surface really couldn’t be more different. Astrobot is a super polished 3D platformer made for mainstream audiences, while Drakengard 3 is a sequel to a cult hit Playstation 2 beat ‘em up action RPG series that seems to be designed for people to hate it. Astrobot is super smooth, looks great, and wants you to play it more, and Drakengard 3 feels like it wasn’t even made for the system it was created for. It feels like a bad port, despite only having one version in existence. In this way, I couldn’t help making the connection. Astrobot is a game that wants you to love it so much that it comes off as hollow, while Drakengard 3 wants you to hate it so much that I ended up loving it anyway. This video game dyad of my creation was a microcosm of how 2024 went for me. The year wanted to be seen like the happiness and optimism of an Astrobot, but in reality it was the horrible pain and suffering of Drakengard 3. It was not something like Astrobot that could be loved by all, but something like Drakengard 3 where you had to get the backstory and experience the pain of the past to understand why it is all happening. Astrobot is the game I wanted to love and be a part of what made the year great, but Drakengard 3 is the game that resonated with my soul. Astrobot is the fulfillment that is always barrier away or in the past, and Drakengard 3 is the pandora’s box, but instead of hope, it offers only catharsis and pathos. Sometimes bringing your amazing game to a tough year is going to feel like bringing your favorite dance playlist to a funeral. On the other hand, please play the Final Song (Saigo no Uta) from the Drakengard 3 OST at my funeral.

    Anodyne 1 and Anodyne 2

Anodyne 1 and 2 by themselves are good games. Anodyne 1 feels like a take on the classic Legend of Zelda series, while Anodyne 2 takes 3D platforming exploration and combines them with classic 2D dungeon puzzling. By themselves, Anodyne 2 is the better experience, and if you are only going to play one, 2 is the to go with. That being said, something special happens if you play both, a sort of synthesis that comes with sequels being 10 years apart. It is a 10 year conversation that enriches both games, and makes two pretty good games into a narrative that is sort of mind blowing with implications. The things Anodyne 1 leaves out, but is then covered by Anodyne 2 and vice versa isn’t always obvious, but when combined together they really feel like they were always meant to be played together, even if that isn’t super obvious. Sometimes it takes 10 years to make an amazing story that makes it worth experiencing.

    Momodora Moonlit Farewell and Shadow Generations.

Momodora and Shadow Generations are on opposite sides of a trend I had this year where I would play a game, and then play many games in that same series or genre. With Momodora, I played it early in the year, and then proceeded to play through many of the 2D Metroidvania/Search Action games such as Castlevania Symphony of the Night and Hollow Knight. With Shadow Generations, I actually started with Sonic Mania, and I played through all the classic Genesis Sonic games, and ended up with Sonic x Shadow Generations by the end of it. When playing all those Metroidvanias, I actually grew fond of Momodora Moonlit Farewell and appreciate it much more than I did when I played it originally. Shadow Generation then felt like a culmination of what made Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay fun (having the mechanics to speed run through a level) and felt like the developers finally got why this series is fun in the first place. Like Anodyne 1 & 2, I find playing games that are in conversation with each other to be one of the best parts of playing video games as a hobby, and makes all the money and time I invest worth it, so I have these two games to help thank with that.

    If Found… and Milk Outside A Bag Of Milk Outside A Bag

I find it hard to recommend games sometimes, especially the narrative ones I love. Visual Novels in particular feel different to recommend than a book. A book you can just recommend the writing, or the story, but with Visual Novels there is a sort of synthesis with interacting with the game and the story being told that is hard to really articulate at a party or get together. A lot of times a part of me just wants to tell people to just trust me, buy the game, and you won’t be disappointed, but I know that isn’t really the thing that actually gets people to play it. I remember recommending Kentucky Route Zero (which is still one of my favorite games of all time) to people and it sounded more like a desperate plea than a convincing recommendation. Knowing that, If Found… and Milk Outside A Bag Of Milk Outside A Bag are games about the human condition that I think are just required experiences. If Found… especially, as Milk Outside A Bag Of Milk Outside A Bag can be a bit disturbing and weird as it explores mental illness. If Found… is about a youth trying to find themselves and finding it is a bit harder than it should be. As much as I could write about both, seeing as they are mostly about reading and story, it is hard to really go into without spoiling, and so much of the joy of these games is the discovery, so as bad habits go, this is one I will repeat. Please play these games.

    UFO 50 and Resident Evil 4 Remake VR

If I was doing a more traditional Game of the Year list with numbers that indicated best to not as best, UFO 50 and Resident Evil 4 Remake VR would have been my 1 and 2. UFO 50 is the perfect platonic ideal of video games with 50 games to play and discover what they are all about. They are also a great representative of how I got into old video games this year, and loved finding those obscure treasures I would never have found normally. Resident Evil 4 Remake VR (RE4RVR) is the most fun I had with an action game this year, and the VR experience was both beautiful and a perfect way to reimagine this classic game. Both these games are games I will carry with me, and I haven’t even played all of the games in UFO 50, so that might even be eligible for next year. Hell, I could play Resident Evil 4 Remake in flat mode and that could be eligible too. Let’s keep the good games going!

    Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore and Thank Goodness You’re Here!

Like I mentioned in the #2 entry, 2024 was a tough year. Medical stuff, moving stuff, life stuff, it was all tough to adjust and get through, and that is why I wanted to leave off with two games that really made me smile. Arzette is a take on the old, bad Zelda CD-i games that were more known for their odd cutscenes than awful gameplay, and Thank Goodness You’re Here is a take on the traditional adventure game, but instead of dialog choices and inventory puzzles, you just are a little man who punches things. Both games take their genre and spin it in a way that just brought me joy. Both games are fun adventures where you get to help a bunch of odd characters have better days. Neither are perfect, Arzette without the cutscenes is just a competent 2D action adventure, and Thank Goodness You’re Here can feel like it is punching down a bit with its humor, but I think what really alleviates them is how they are both about doing good things and building communities. As we go into the darkness and uncertainty of 2025, I think these games allow us both the opportunity to laugh, and maybe instructions on how to survive: sometimes you just gotta help people and hope they say something like Matt Berry in response.

The Polymega Review

The Polymega is a video game emulation box that can play physical CD games from the Playstation and Sega Saturn era. Not only could they play the games, but you could upload the games to the harddrive, and make it so you no longer needed the disc to play the games. It is also modular in a way that you can pay extra money to be able to play cartridge systems like Super Nintendo Sega Genesis, and even the Nintendo 64.

Is this device worth the $500+ price tag?

Short answer is no, at least not yet.

For the long answer, well, let’s go back to the beginning.

The Polymega was originally going to be a FPGA box that instead of emulating software, it emulates the hardware of video game consoles. Hypothetically, this would eliminate the need to have to adjust settings for each game, and would perfectly play these video games of the past. I say hypothetically, because this never happened. While it picked up momentum and interest from the old video game community, it never followed through and it turned out to be just an emulation box, abandoning FPGA and relying on emulation to play software.

This made the Polymega from a unique wonder, to something you could make yourself, if you were so inclined. The Polymega was no longer unique in premise, so the software and hardware would have to make it worth it.

Now, for me, I have tried making my own emulation box with my Steam Deck. I would take roms from the Sega Genesis games I purchased on Steam and load them up. I would download games like Gitaroo Man (which I legally own, if anyone’s asking), and play them on my portable PC. While it functioned for what it was, it left me wanting.

I couldn’t exactly pinpoint why that was, maybe it was how I have had issues getting my Steam Deck to show how I want it on a TV or monitor, having to drag and drop awkwardly in desktop mode, how garish the interface of Retroarch was, or maybe I was just being obstinate, but my attempt of my own emulation device just didn’t spark joy.

So in October 2023, I ordered the Polymega with a SNES module. It was supposed to come in December, so in the meantime, I decided to get back into collecting old games. I have to admit, this was pretty fun, albeit expensive. I remember traveling to Quebec and finding Kaze no Regret (Winds of Regret), an obscure Sega Saturn game that was made for even blind people to be able to access because it has not a single visual and everything is communicated via sound. Going into retro game shops and finding old, obscure games reminded me why I still love video games.

As the December 2023 date passed, and I still didn’t have the Polymega. I was anxious about it not arriving, so I looked around online, and it turns out I was hardly alone. While video games as an industry prospered during the pandemic since everyone was trapped inside, the Polymega instead suffered problem after problem. They had already had issues with European shipping (they say that their distribution partner took the money and ran), and then the factory making the thing basically shut down in 2020. People had to wait months for customer service updates, and years for their actual device. The start of 2024 rang in with a bunch of worries that I had just wasted a bunch of money.

Then March 2024 came around and I finally got the device. It was joyous to finally see the thing in the flesh and start loading up games, but even in that early honeymoon period, stuff felt off. The controller felt sort of cheap and hollow. Then I started playing Super Mario World, and not only was there just enough input lag, but the screen would flip out every so often. Lastly, sometimes when I turned on the console, it would immediately turn off.

The first issue was easy enough to solve. I got a Retrobit controller that looks like a Sega Saturn controller but with analog sticks at the bottom. It took a little bit to sync it to the Polymega, but I’m pretty sure that was the controller’s fault, or at least user error.

The second issue is sadly due to a bad system update. Apparently they are going to fix it, but more on that later.

The third issue is where things started to really unravel. I had managed to upload most of my collection at this point, but the console itself just didn’t like to stay on for some reason. At first I thought it was a power supply issue, but the controller receivers would stay on, it was just the console that didn’t want to stay on. All this wait and money seemed like it was going down the drain for me. I emailed customer support, and waited for the inevitable shipping label to send it back to them to fix. I remember preparing myself to ask for a refund, but then I got a different answer than I was expecting. Instead of sending it in, customer service asked for me to open the system, and loosen a screw to fix the problem the power button was having.

So, just in case you didn’t catch it, the issue wasn’t software, power supply, or anything like that, but the power button itself was defective, and everytime you pressed the power button, it was actually pressing the button twice. I was sort of beside myself. This thing costs as much as a Playstation 5. How could this have been made so poorly?

At this point, I looked for answers online, and I stumbled into the unofficial Polymega discord. Searching for this issue online had given no answers, so I figured if I joined this discord, I could at least vent about my issues with this thing. Customer service told me to open the device, but hadn’t actually sent me any details on how to do this, so I was a little desperate. It turns out that this was a relatively common issue, and someone chimed in with what screwdrivers I needed and how to fix it.

As of May 5th, 2024, I haven’t heard back from customer service since they told me to just open it up, but it occurred to me while writing this review that perhaps that person that chimed in on the dischord was the customer service representative. I don’t use my real name in discord, but I did copy and paste the email from customer service, so they may have connected the dots. I suppose I can give them the benefit of the doubt on this, but it does strike me as odd.

In any case, I opened the system, loosened the screw next to the power button (I am still unclear if I actually loosened the right one, but it no longer has the issue, so it is fine for me), and now it is working. Ever since, I have been having fun with it. Replaying games like Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Final Fantasy IX, and Beatmania has been a treat. Being able to boot up games from save states, and make it run games at 2x speeds have made picking up and playing old games much more convenient. I like the interface, and being able to make your own gaming playlists on the home screen is something missing from even modern consoles.

I can’t help but feel that even the fun I am having now with the Polymega is more due to the games I own, rather than the device itself. Now that it actually stays on, and I can play games, I do get the appeal, but I am wondering if this was really the best way. Even the unofficial Polymega discord I joined turned out to be full of people who I don’t really want to be in community with (it is already repulsive enough to complain that there aren’t enough “beautiful women” in games, it becomes repugnant once you realize no one seems to object to it, then when people start saying “make games great again” and unironically posting South Park gifs, that is really the final straw for me to not even bother and bow out).

While a developer does post in the discord regularly, all they do is post about how good the new update for the device is going to be. Sure, there was an update that borked the SNES emulation, but there is a fix coming, and the system will be better than ever before! When will this come out? Well, it has already been delayed. Seeing how the Polymega developers have been late and slow with just about everything, I honestly would be surprised if it came out this summer. If I was still waiting for the update 6 months from now, that would be about up to par.

So, what can I say about an emulation box that I am still using after all that trouble? I had held off writing this review for a while hoping that update would come, but I then realized what I actually bought. I didn’t buy an emulation box, I bought myself a bunch of problems to solve. Reading that developer day after day talking about things to come, and thinking about all the things that I already dealt with, I realized that even if they fix everything in the next update, what guarantee that they wouldn’t just break it again in a future update? This company seems so slow, and while it seems like they aren’t just grifters, how long can this last? How do I know that they will still even be in business to make a new update? If they are gone, will anyone even care enough to make it so it still runs?

I have made my peace with this. I have learned my lesson, and still use it to play old games. As far as anyone else, I can’t recommend it. Perhaps one day this will all just be water under the bridge. For now, maybe just wait for them to actually fulfill their promises before even considering jumping in.

Games of the Year 2023

 These are the 10 games that were the most memorable for me!

Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid being on my GOTY list is odd, but not the most improbable game on the list. Konami did release the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1 this year with the game included, but it is actually a pretty bad port with audio issues and other problems (though being able to play the original Japanese Metal Gear Solid is nice) and it isn’t a game that you will probably see on many other lists.

Metal Gear Solid made my list because it gave me resolve and gave me the perspective I needed to speak out.

The game has always been mired in politics, but the politics aren’t exactly complex. They pretty much boil down to “nuclear weapons are bad,” and the only complexity it really has is its love of how cool weapons and the military are, but how war is not cool. I remember as a youth trying to argue with an anti-video game violence spokesperson about how video games do try to have non-violent political opinions, but they shut me down because Metal Gear Solid requires you to kill people to proceed.

In my younger self’s defense, military violence always has this contradiction. If anything, Metal Gear Solid’s ability to show how committing violence to gain peace will always feel off, and trying to justify your violent actions will always come off as excuses. This is why when Hamas killed 1,332 people, and then Israel reacted by bombing Gaza for weeks and weeks, it felt off to me.

Well, it felt off because of what I went through on 9/11, and then the wars that came after. Seeing the parallels between how US intelligence knew this was coming and did nothing, and Israeli intelligence knowing this was coming and did nothing raised a few red flags. I’ve already gone through a leader pretending that killing innocent people will somehow make the world safer, and the idea that those who oppose it aren’t patriots.

I watched an NPR interview with Benjamin Netanyahu about the bombings in Gaza, and he avoided the 9/11 comparisons and focused on how his bombing of Gaza was more like when the US bombed Germany in WWII. It isn’t really a good metaphor, but it did remind me of how Liquid Snake, the antagonist of Metal Gear Solid, would rant about how he had been cheated his whole life and was owed revenge. Both Liquid Snake and Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t really care what you think, they just want to justify their violence. They want to make you feel bad enough so they can just roll over you, and do what they think is right.

In both cases, I just want them to stop, and for the violence to end. Replaying through the game helped me remember why we speak out about these things, and reminded me that yes, it can be corny, and maybe you don’t get everything right, but speaking out against injustice and pleading for a ceasefire whenever you can is the right thing to do. Metal Gear Solid didn’t tell me what I should do, but reminded me of the fire needed to keep fighting for what is right.

Ceasefire in Gaza now.

Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

(Link is forming an air bike with Auto-Build in a middle of a grain field, it is just one steering stick platform, and two fans, the fan on the front is a little misaligned to the left)

Tulin: How come you always use this bike?

Link: Well, it helps me get places I normally couldn’t.

Tulin: No, I mean, I get that. Why do you use that bike? Everytime you use it you go immediately to the left, and have to steer to correct it.

Link: Hmmmm, that is a good question, Yunobo, why do you think I use this particular bike?

Yunobo: Uhhhhh (thinks for a beat), because you’re used to it now?

Link: Yeah, I like that answer, why change something that isn’t broke.

Riju: But it IS broken. You can’t fly that thing straight to save your life.

Tulin: He eventually can, it just takes a while.

Mineru: I can assist you if you like.

Link: Look, everybody, I like this bike, it gets me where I want to go! Who cares if it leans to the left or not.

Yunobo: My dad always says that just because it is broken, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a use.

Link: Exactly! Well, this isn’t broken but…

Yunobo: He usually says that about my head though. You think my head is broken?

Riju: Your head is fine, but Link, you should really let Mineru help you here…

Link: Look, it’s fine! Here, watch me go!

(Link starts to go forward, then rears to the left, hitting a mountain, and falls)

Link: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (hits the bottom of a valley)

Mineru: I’ll go get him

Riju: We should probably go get Sidon since I think that is water down there.

Sidon: Already got him! I’ve been waiting here the entire time. Forethought always wins out!

(Yunobo, Riju, and Tulin shrug their shoulders and go after Link, who looks to be okay, if not a little beat up)

Melon’s Journey Pocket

Melon’s Journey Pocket is an original Gameboy game released in 2023. It is cute and charming, but the real reason it is on this list is because of the Analogue Pocket. The Analogue Pocket is a portable device that supports both physical Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance physical carts as it does digital only games you can load onto a micro SD card and load them to your Pocket. This makes the device both the height of portable video game nostalgia, and also the bleeding edge of hipster, weird independent games that have decided to wrestle with 34 year-old technology to make something new. It is sort of beautiful to have new Gameboy graphics, music, and experiences.

The act of formatting the micro SD card, finding the game on the internet, loading it on the Analogue Pocket, and playing through a 30-50 minute game feels magical. It feels like how games should be. You should be able to pay somebody 5 bucks to play a game that just feels special. I can’t say that the novelty will last forever, but there is a magical feeling in legally buying a small game from a creator or team and being able to boot it up in your Gameboy-like device.

This is what has led me to the conundrum that I have been facing for years: Why do physical games, and digital games I paid for feel more real and playable then games you can download for free? Is it just my capitalism poisoned brain that won’t allow me to fully enjoy games I didn’t pay for? Or is it something about the physical carts, and digital files from the source that are more authentic? In any case, I am happy to support people making Gameboy games until the end of time.

Rogue Legacy 2

Making addicting games, games that you will play over and over again, is probably more science than art at this point. I am sure there are textbooks locked away in game studios and universities that analyze all the pain points, and all you can do to keep the player going. Rogue Legacy 2 certainly has that knowledge in spades, knowing how much you can upgrade yourself as you throw yourself into the ever shifting castle. The thing that makes it better than its predecessor, and the many 2D action rogue-likes that exist in this genre, is how it is able to balance both humor and a genuinely interesting story into the grind of going into the castle, dying, upgrading, and then going back.

As you level up, gain new abilities, and find your groove, Rogue Legacy 2 becomes a very dangerous, comfy experience. Sure, you will die a lot, there will be runs that don’t go anywhere, but the more you put time into it, the more stuff you can get out of it, even further than many other games in the same genre. It is a game I will go back to, and perfect my wooden spoon cook and exploding boxing gloves pugilist, but in the meantime, I will leave it here as the most played Steam Deck games this year.

Resident Evil 8 VR

I have already written about this game here: https://ddrog.blogspot.com/2023/06/resident-evil-8-vr-review.html, but it still remains one of my favorite games of 2023, and probably my favorite action VR experience. One thing I didn’t really go into is how much I enjoyed Ethan Winters as a protagonist. Resident Evil isn’t really known for its pathos, but playing through Resident Evil 7 and 8 this year, it was hard not to feel sorry for this guy who only seems to want to do the right thing. He wasn’t incredibly deep, but there is something about how he grows in these games, and how he survives that makes him memorable. Every time he gives a single word expletive, pleads for his life, or tries, and fails, to do some sort of action movie one liner, it is hard to not root for him, and at the end, feel incredibly sad for him.

Before Your Eyes VR

Before Your Eyes was originally a game only for Windows that needed a camera to function the way the game design intended. This is because it is a story of someone’s life that utilizes when you blink in order to move forward in the narrative. It is a story about looking back at this character’s life, and reflecting upon it. It is a story that is relatable, but can be profoundly sad. It is something that should be played by anyone looking for the power that interactive media can bring to story-telling, and the VR for me makes it just that more effective.

Before Your Eyes uses both intimate and vast environments to convey that story, and being able to experience that in VR is amazing. There are things that this game really wants you to feel on a physical level that just feels better seeing it right at your face. Though, when the game showed its cards and made me burst into tears, the VR headset isn’t really the ideal place to deal with that sort of moisture coming out of my face. In any case, there were images and choices I made that I don’t think I’ll be forgetting for a long time.

Lil Gator Game

It feels like there is a new subgenre out there that involves low-impact gameplay with 3D platforming emerging lately. I started noticing it with A Short Hike (also a fantastic game), and continued with games Here Comes Niko!, Tinykin, and more. These feel like games that take the platforming and collecting of things in games like Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie, but removes a lot of the difficulty and stakes in order to provide a more laid back experience. This year was tough, so having these types of games is a boon. Lil Gator Game shined for me this year because it manages to be fun, chill, and still feel like it is meaningful.

While I love these games, by the end, often the “comfort 3D platformer” feels a little empty. You collect all the things, and then the game ends, and you are left to just find another game like it if you weren’t satisfied. With Lil Gator Game, going through the dynamics of the Lil Gator and their older sister, and gathering up all the friends, just struck a chord in me that made it feel much more meaningful. Going through the arc of Lil Gator navigating these relationships, while jumping and collecting things on the island felt great both mechanically, and narratively.

Yakuza 0

Yakuza 0 was a game I started playing in 2018, and finally finished this year. It feels like I finally turned a new leaf when I finally got to the end. Having now played 7 Yakuza games, and finishing 3, Yakuza 0 still seems to have the best of the series. It has the best story, best mechanics, and the 80’s atmosphere just helps fill in the cracks that this series tends to have. Now the series is called Like A Dragon, and I do want to play the new entries, but I have a bunch to play before I ever get there.

It just feels nice to play a game, and go back to it year after year. I get in my head about buying and playing too many games, but Yakuza 0 proved to me that I still can go back to games in my backlog, have a great time, and have them be a part of my life. The struggles of Kiryu and Majima became something that I enjoyed over the years. Sometimes the power of video games isn’t just showing or doing something exciting, but being something that is there for you whenever you want to go back.

Shovel Knight Treasure Trove (King of Cards)

Talking about games I have come back to over the years, Shovel Knight continues to be the pinnacle of the 2D action platformer. With so much content added over the years, it hasn’t been until this year that I actually played through all the stories. King of Cards was a fun one that I never expected to fall in love with. This is because a big (albeit optional) part of the game was a card game. I have bad memories of wasting time on card games in video games, especially when I ended up losing good cards, but King of Cards allows you to recover from these loses pretty easily. The real joy in the card game is realizing how and when to cheat. The cheats are so ingenious as they both allow you to win, and get better at the game at the same time. By the end, I didn’t need them because I finally understood how the card mechanics worked together.

In a way, I think Shovel Knight's real trick is covering everything in retro video game paint in order to experience new things. It may look like Megaman, Duck Tales, or some other classic 80’s video game, but it really is a revolutionary design that learns from those old games to do something completely new. By the end, I loved all the knights, perhaps even more than I loved any character from those old games.

There Swings a Skull: Grim Tidings

There Swings a Skull: Grim Tidings is a game I have thought a lot about. It is a short indie game about two perspectives of a couple experiencing what could very well be the end of the world. As people are randomly combusting, and their ashes are all that remains, both characters go on their journey to figure out what to do as everyone around them falls to an awful fate. As the world goes the way it has this year, watching dead children cry with blood on their faces, watching people argue while people die, and people preventing anything being done to stop the violence, There Swings a Skull was always in the back of my mind. It was one of the few games that fit the vibes the world was giving.

I don’t think the game necessarily has any direct message about how to avoid this crisis, but a lot of it is about being there for the one you love, and maybe by working together, you can make the world better, even if it is just for yourselves. It can be a tough game to play through, but it also does have a wacky story you can play through once you get through both stories. At the time, it felt oddly non sequitur, but as time went on, I gained an appreciation for just being silly sometimes as respite.

Jury Duty

I have been requested to do jury jury 3 times before, and 2 of them I just waited for 4 hours and got to go home, and 1 I had to go into a whole thing because I didn't live in the state anymore. I felt like my number was coming up for a to actually sit on a jury for a case this time. 

I had already delayed it for a year, so it was finally time to take my chance, and fulfill my civic duty. I got on the train at 7:30 AM, and got to the courthouse around 8:30 AM. We then proceeded to wait for 3 hours (got some book reading in), and then the jury selection began. It was a civil trial for a car accident that happened in 2018, so they only needed 7 people (I think actually only 6 were needed and 1 alternate), and there was 18 people, so my chances of being picked were low. They had actually picked 7 people, and I was ready to go home, but then they dismissed 2 people, and called me up. I told them I was in a car accident before, so I may be biased, but they didn't give a shit apparently, so I was now in the jury box.

The case started fine, the two lawyers said this was a he said/she said issue, and that an older couple was suing this this 30 something guy. The thing is that the older couple didn't speak English. This normally doesn't matter, but in a place where they have to be interviewed and cross examined through an interpreter, it unraveled pretty quickly. The lawyer for the older couple looked nice, and had an accent that I could only really parse 50% of the time. I only really understood the interpreter, and the questions for the first 2 hours of the trial were mainly just about who the old couple were, and how this crash effected them. I still had no idea what the crash even was, or what happened, which is really what this whole thing is balanced upon.

The defendant's layer was quite possibly the most hipster person I have seen since 2010. He had a bow tie, and a jacket that just needed a steam punk hat, and he would be at home at the experimental music section in any record store. He was clearly trying to "gotcha" the old couple, but he was foiled every time. For example, he would show the old lady a picture of this crashed car, and ask them if they recognize it, and they would say they don't remember. He then would still move on to the next question ("in your opinion, does this look like a car was going slow when it was in that accident?") as if the prior question had the answer they wanted, rather than the one they gave. 

My favorite exchange was where they said they were in an accident in 2017, and they told their chiropractor that they had lots of back pain, but why they didn't go back in 2018? The old lady just said they weren't in business anymore, and the lawyer just said "fair enough." There was even a moment where the older couple's lawyer was trying to establish that the weather was nice and sunny on the day of the accident, and when the defendant's lawyer tried to pull a gotcha implying that the sun being out meant that they were liable for the accident, they then went unto a whole thing where they said only the weather was nice. When the defendant's lawyer tried to ask if it was sunny outside during the accident, the translator just didn't get through, and we never actually found out.

Now, maybe I have just watched too many detective shows, but since they knew the date, and the time of the accident, whether or not the sun was out during the accident isn't a mystery. This is something you can look up. I actually did look it up, and it looks like sundown was at 4:31 PM on the day of the accident, so it was probably pretty dark. This could not be said in court though, and it did make me wonder about how this happened in 2018, and yet both lawyers seemed to not be prepared for this case at all.

By the end of day 1, I was more confused about this whole incident than I was at the beginning, and we still had no idea how the crash even happened. The next day (Friday, which is my day off by the way) at 9 AM, they brought us back in the waiting room, made us wait another hour, then brought us back into the court. We sat for another 10 minutes, and then the judge said to take a break. I took this chance to get some donuts. After the break, the judge steps into the jury waiting room, tells us they are making a legal ruling that they don't need us anymore. Luckily I had donuts, but the whole thing left me so confused, that I don't even have an opinion about who was liable. I never even heard the defendant speak. It was just a bunch of hours waddling through translations, without having to actually rule on it.

It was a confounding experience. Any sense that I had done my civic duty had dissolved, but at least I now have this story to tell.