The time I threw out a blog

I don’t write a lot. 

Well, I don’t write a lot for myself. I do write emails and whatnot for work, but writing this blog is something I want to do more often. So when I threw out a blog I wrote in November, it was sort of a big deal for me. 

It was about the Moon Channel youtube essay Why is K-On! So Popular With Twitter Nazis? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDneagagd5s). The video is pretty much as the title suggests, a deep dive into why the K-On anime is seemingly so popular with fascists on social media. You can still go on Palmer Lucky’s twitter/X account (who is a far right douchebag for reference) and see him posing with the characters from the K-On anime today. It is a thing that unfortunately still seems to be occurring.

My blog was pretty much just about why wouldn’t you fight for this show? Why would you let the fascists have it? Why not argue why they are wrong? Explaining why they love it, but then not providing insight in why they shouldn’t enjoy it seemingly gives them permission, I argued. The thing that actually stopped me publishing it was someone commenting something akin to “DEBATE ME BRO!!!” on the video, and I decided that I may be on the wrong side of things here. 

I took some time (7 months actually) and rewatched the conclusion of the video, and I am glad I didn’t post that blog, because I think I got something over mulling it over. 

One thing that helped me think this through was a video from lil' bill's barbershop called Black Lives DON'T matter, and I blame you (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pQWjgQMbeM). It goes over a lot of things, but one of the things that jumped out to me was how comfort isn’t security, and how online spaces deal with conflict, and allow us to dehumanize those in which we don’t regularly interact. For one, it helped me put things into perspective, and understand that while we have politics and things we believe in, the reactions we have to things aren't necessarily rooted in what we believe. I have a lot of baggage and stuff that I have to sort through, and one of the big things I have to work through here is how the media I watch may not be actively destroying anything, but it is the sort of trashy media that is empty calories. Sure, the cake and potato chips aren’t evil, but maybe they are killing you?

The question here is then do we need media to make us better people, and no it doesn’t. The issue is that with a world seemingly so broken and on fire, can we pretend that something that isn’t screaming metaphorically (or literally) about the world is okay? We are all suffocating on the building anxiety of growing unease that we will not be able to sustain ourselves, so does watching something that ignores that even worth indulging? We all need to relax and escape, but how much escape do we need before things just sort of collapse around us?

There then sort of creeps in this sort of puritan impulse that feels embedded in Americans at birth that we need to put away our childish things, and focus on the problems instead of our own mental health. We have to feel guilty, we have to feel bad, because we are guilty and bad. At all times. There is nothing you can do to get rid of this feeling, so you have to constantly fight and improve. If you don’t, you are letting yourself and your community down. This is why I couldn’t post that blog. I didn’t really care that much about K-On, it is a fine show, the video essay even says that in its own conclusion. The thing is that I didn’t want to feel bad anymore. I am so tired of feeling bad all the time. I don’t want the world to judge me. I don’t want them to think I’m a fascist, so I just feel bad, and continue to feel bad. 

This truth I wandered into made me understand why I had such a reaction. It was just this bullshit of my own creation that I needed to dismantle. I don’t need to feel guilty, because the crime is something of my own creation. My own anxiety composes a situation in which someone will think less of me. In the end, if I take the sugary trash I am consuming in the right vein, and I understand the implications, and fight against what I believe is wrong, then I am good. Even a little cake and potato chips can be part of a healthy diet in moderation. It is just tough to circle that square in the moment. Can I watch K-On, or any other slice of life anime, without thinking about the fascists now? Did we allow them to steal this from us, even though it was never theirs? 

Maybe this was never about Moon Channel, right wing bigots, or anyone else at all. It was always just another way to beat myself up with other people’s perception. Watching anime has always had guilt attached to it for me. I remember when I was in elementary school getting up early before my parents woke up and trying to sneak the Sci Fi Channel program Saturday Morning Anime where they would show things like Vampire Hunter D and Dominion Tank Police. While these were censored, it still felt adult and sinful to a youth like me. I got into Sailor Moon as a child, until I told my mom. I stopped watching because she actually supported me enjoying it. The allure of watching media I wasn’t supposed to was gone. Slice of life anime for an adult man is often an exercise, whether we like it or not, as a window into a space we are not typically given access to. In my defense, as a true slice of life connoisseur, I don’t just watch stuff like K-On that shows the life of high school girls, but I also enjoy shows such as Suzae-san and Atashin'chi which gives access to the slice of life of domestic family life. Specifically Japanese ideal family life, if we are going to keep it a buck. 



As an introverted person, slice of life anime do give me comfort, and maybe that is comfort that I should seek out myself in real spaces. Maybe I should just talk to more people and gain community that way. Would I then just be creating relationships just to make myself feel good and accomplished? Objectifying people that way also seems wrong and off. The key here, much like the balanced diet mentioned before, is to indulge when you need it, and then still go out and socialize. Let people be people, and then consume media when you need a little treat. Like a diet, it isn’t always going to be easy to stick to. The key is when you fall off the wagon, make sure you get back on. 

Or am I just giving into my puritan ingrained subconscious guilt again? Am I really going to improve, or am I just going to tell you I am working on it, and keep watching anime by myself? Maybe the worm that has crawled into my brain is that somehow being a social person and watching slice of life anime are conflicting things, but really they aren’t opposed at all. It has actually plagued me so much that I needed to write all this down. Writing this feels like I am vomiting bile that had been building in my soul. Hopefully this helps me, and maybe even helps you too. 

In the meantime, maybe I just need a nap…

Games of the Year 2025

5. For Fans of the Genre - Ender Magnolia and Another Crab’s Treasure
I usually intend for my GOTY lists to go in no order, but this year, it does have an order of sorts. Not necessarily of quality, because all 10 games this year feel like must plays to me, but the order is more of games I would recommend people to play. Ender Lilies and Another Crab’s Treasure both represent games that I really love what they are doing, especially in their respective genres. Ender Magnolia is a great iteration of the Ender Lilies formula (which is in itself an iteration on the Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia game design), and Another Crab’s Treasure is a great version of Dark Souls that retains much of the challenge, but makes it more accessible. Both games are great, but wouldn’t be the first thing I would recommend out the gate unless you already love that genre.

4. Endings that Stay with You - Soul Hackers 2 and Angeline Era 
Video game endings are hard. Even some of the best games just sort of peter out in the end. That is why having a great ending is so impressive. That being said, Soul Hackers 2 Good ending does take a bit of planning, so it can be a bit of a slog to get, but I loved it all the same. Especially that last boss. Angeline Era’s ending is in its own league, and put an already good game rocketing to one of the best games I have played this year. It not only pays off the character development it gives throughout the game, but is almost an entire game onto itself. Imagine playing through an end game boss rush in any other game, and then in between bosses, there is an entire game of the year contender that plays out. It is honestly sort of bonkers. I would say that both games are good on their own, but it is their endings that put them on this list.

3. Best of Narrative Explorations - Despelote and Anthology of the Killer
I always hated the term “walking simulator” as a video game genre. It is cheeky and seems like a put down in a way that feels like punching down. It does highlight something where maybe games where narrative is the focus needs to make sure the player is engaged and a way that goes beyond just walking around an environment. Both Despelote and Anthology of the Killer do an amazing job of making games where you are walking around, but your relationship to the environment is much more than a museum. They are on the opposite sides of how to approach this, so while Despelote has you forming relationships and understanding the personal history of a place, Anthology of the Killer makes you more afraid as the environments become more and more threatening. Both tell personal stories, some more abstract than others, but both leave me happy that I played through them both. 

2. Fan Makers/”Woman do be getting into Trouble” - Half Life Alyx and Misericorde vol. 1
I talked about games that are more for fans of the genre, so these games are the games that instead would make you fans of that genre. Half Life Alyx doesn’t need much introduction, as it may be the best VR game ever made, but Misericorde vol. 1 might need a little more explanation. Misericorde vol. 1 is a murder mystery Visual Novel where you are trying to figure out who killed one of the nuns in a nunnery. This proves much more difficult as volume 1 deals with the main character is an anchoress (a nun that is cut off from all other human contact to study and advise on religion), and with the complex emotional world of some of the most charming characters. Visual Novels I have found can be hard to get into due to their pacing, and aesthetic choices, but Misericorde oozes with style, a fantastic soundtrack, and moments that, even though it is only volume 1, still will stick with me. These are the types of games that turn one from a casual player, to someone dying to play more. 

1. RPGs from France - OFF and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
So I wrote a lot about both games in a previous post, so it is probably safe to say that these are the two games I have thought about the most this year. In that post, I think I might have underplayed how much I enjoyed my time with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I really did love the music and the characters. It has some of the all time best voice performances I have heard in a video game. People are correct to put it on their “best games of all time” list, but in the end, I can’t help but use it as a helpful tool to illustrate how much I love OFF instead. It doesn’t help that I sort of hated the lack of maps in areas, how the first time I was playing it I was distracted by waiting for the other shoe to drop as far as the narrative twist, and how they used GenAI in some of their place holder graphics (GenAI is such a blight on daily life, and I hate it so much). OFF to me is what I wanted Clair Obscur to be, and you would think that would disqualify Clair Obscur from even appearing in this list. If I did a traditional list where I didn’t pair games up, it wouldn’t show up, but as a companion game to OFF, they are in such conversation that I couldn’t help but put them together. Like The Batter and The Judge, or Verso and Maelle, you can’t have one without the other.

Building a Better Trolley Problem: Comparing the Endings of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and OFF

Anytime you have to choose between two different things, it can metaphorically be a trolley problem. The moral quandary of letting a runaway trolley either run over one thing, or another, is compelling because it is something we have to deal with every day. Do we eat the cookie, or be good and eat the apple instead? Do we leave the spider hanging by a thread in the doorway alone, or kill it knowing it is not really doing any harm?

Granted, most of the metaphorical trolley problems we deal with are not a huge deal in the grand scale of things, but they do help determine who we are as people. The most interesting trolley problems then are the ones that bring this in sharp focus and make us realize where our priorities really lie. Uncomfortable truths can be revealed, and maybe make you see yourself in a new light.

If you are then making a video game, and the climax of your video game is making the player choose between two things, the key to making this into a good trolley problem is making the player realize something about themselves. Make the player face who they are as a person as the climax of your game.

Last chance here, I am going to spoil the entirety of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and OFF, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, this is the time to get off the trolley, so to speak.

You still there? I hope so! To discuss the trolley problems both games give you at the end of their narratives, let’s look at the narratives.

Clair Obscur, when boiled down, is about the man who built the gun, and then the man who wants to shoot that gun to destroy the world. Gustav realizes how to use magical devices called Pictos to enhance their battle capabilities, and allows their expedition to prevail against the obstacles that had slain previous parties. Verso then witnesses Gustav’s death, and takes advantage of the situation by planning to lead the party to their total annihilation. Verso, having lived for over 100 years, wants to end his existence and this world, and will do anything to cause this to happen. By the end of the game, he is doing this not just for himself, but for his sister Alicia, which destroying the world will also save her. 

OFF, on the other hand, has the player as the wielder of the gun, and the main character you control, The Batter, is that world destroying gun. The game asks for your real name and pronouns directly through The Judge, a cheshire cat like character that helps you throughout the game. The Batter’s role as destroyer of the world is not quite revealed until the end of the game, though clues are there if you look for them. The biggest clue is that after The Batter purifies an area of ghosts and its guardian, going back to that area will reveal that nothing is left. Only empty buildings and horrifying enemies called Secretaries remain. Even the music is gone, replaced by whispers that you can’t quite make out what they are saying. The reason The Batter is even doing this is up to interpretation, but it is what he was created for. The Batter never wavers, and can not be reasoned with. 

The choice given at the end of both these games is whether you allow Verso, or The Batter, destroy the world they reside in. Do you as the player allow them to finish their mission, or will you side with their opposition?

For Verso, the opposition is Alicia, or more specifically Maelle, which is the version of Alicia that grew up in the world Verso wants to destroy, and wants to save the friends she has grown to love. For The Batter, the opposition is The Judge, who has witnessed The Batter “purify” their world and now needs to stop him before even the memory of their very existence is erased.

In both cases, destroying the world will also destroy them, so it isn’t necessarily only a selfish act. For Verso, the painted world he resides in is a monument of a life he never lived, a person he wears the skin and talks with the voice of, but could never be. The painted world is a creation of the real Verso before he died in a fire, and now he exists as a version of Verso that his family in the real world can visit. It is important to note that, despite the painted world being a fake world, the people that reside in it are as real as you and me. So, if Verso has his way, he will be destroying countless lives, but he would be saving the life of his sister Alicia, whose lifeforce is needed to keep the painting alive, and will die if she continues. 

For The Batter, since he has nothing else other than purification, there is no real convincing him that what he is doing is wrong. You get the impression in Clair Obscur that maybe there was a version of Verso that could allow the painted world to keep going, but there is no version of The Batter in OFF that would allow his world to keep existing. The world of OFF is initially shown as being haunted by ghosts, but the more you learn, the more it becomes clear that the ghosts are merely a symptom of a world diseased at its core. Most residents feel like empty shells, and the cruelty enacted on them to keep the world going is untenable.

Both OFF and Clair Obscur offer worlds that are broken, maybe beyond repair, so the question becomes do you save them, or let them be destroyed?

The choice in OFF is obvious when it is given to you. As the handler of The Batter, do you allow the runaway trolley to destroy the world, or pull the lever and instead choose The Judge and kill The Batter? If you choose The Judge, the fight against The Batter reveals that his mundane image of just a baseball player is a facade, and you see him as The Judge now sees him:  a complete monster. The choice to see the world through someone else's eyes instead of your own reveals the truth that was always there in the background. The ending with choosing The Judge is a melancholy one, but there is something about it that feels fulfilling. You didn’t really save much in the end, but you get to choose how you feel about it. If you instead choose The Batter, you kill The Judge, The Batter flips the switch ending the world of OFF, and only the enveloping darkness of the credits with the song "If You Want the Rainbow" playing in the background to accompany you as the game ends. Whether you are the type of person to resign yourself to the momentum of annihilation, or lash out to save what little is left, is up to you.

The Batter, as perceived by The Judge

This is where Clair Obscur falters a bit. You have the choice of choosing either to go through with Verso’s plan to end the world, or side with Maelle/Alicia and preserve the world. If you choose the Maelle ending, you don’t get to see the ending from their eyes. The ending is still from Verso’s point of view. Because of this, siding with Maelle/Alicia gives you an ending cut like a horror movie ending stinger. Everyone is happy, but for Verso who is seemingly having a panic attack while the impending death of his sister becomes more and more apparent. Pulling the lever to divert Verso’s plan feels like a false choice because we never get to experience it outside of his head. You only get to see his increasing dread, not the joy Alicia would feel seeing her dead friends living again. If you choose Verso’s ending, and allow him to destroy the world, we get to see a family reunited, and a son finally grieved for. 

By trapping both endings with Verso’s point of view, you aren’t really asked a question at all. It feels like less of a trolley problem, and more like a multiple choice question you weren’t prepared for. The Clair Obscur does give you some hints here and there, like with how Monaco tries to revive his friend Noco and is met with a different being in a late game side quest, but it doesn’t feel like a genuine choice. It is more like a “good ending” and a “bad ending” that feels less interesting since it is just whether it was good or bad for Verso, instead of the cast of characters you grew closer to. The game allows the player to choose, but instead we choose what happens to Verso, rather than learn anything about ourselves. It would have been a more honest ending if you made the choice, and then Verso instead took that choice from you, not unlike how Verso is taking agency away from Alicia.

In the end, OFF is a game that I will carry with me and will help me be a better person, while Clair Obscur was a good game with great music, good graphics, and a story with great acting. 

Maybe that isn’t fair, but if there was a runaway trolley, and I had to choose to save Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or OFF, I would choose OFF every time.

GOTY 2025 Candidates

I play through a lot of video games, so when it comes to writing about them at the end of the year, some really good ones slip through the cracks. To alleviate that, I am going to write a preliminary list of games I completed that I liked. Whether these will be on the GOTY list I usually write at the end of the year is still up in the air. I have written them out here with reasons they will end up there (GOTY) and reasons why it might be left off the list (NOTY).

In any case, it is fun to look back.

Listed somewhat in the order I played them:

Resident Evil 2 Remake
Reasons for GOTY: The urge to play this came out of nowhere early this year, but I’m glad it did because it was a fun romp.
Reasons no NOTY: A good first entry here because it does make me think about the purpose of GOTY list. Is it just like a little journal for me, or should it be something for an audience? Do I list it because it was a very fun, solid experience, or leave it off because people already know this game is good from like 6 years ago? It might not even matter because there are probably at least 10 other games I could list instead anyway, but it was a good time for sure. 

Capcom Fighting game Collection 2
Reasons for GOTY: Capcom vs. SNK 2 is my favorite fighting game, and this has a bunch of other great games, and good netcode
Reasons for NOTY: It is a collection of old games, but it will probably end up on the list somewhere. Especially since it got me to get a lever-less arcade controller this year which is neat and I can write about that. I played through Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics as well this year, and while that is fun, it doesn't compare to Capcom vs. SNK 2 and Project Justice.

Ender Magnolia
Reasons for GOTY: Good Search Action game, maybe some of the best in the genre
Reasons for NOTY: As good as this game is, it sort of wilts in the presence of Silksong. I’ll talk more about Silksong later, but even in the context of its own series, Ender Magnolia is just an improved Ender Lilies, so it is treading a lot of familiar ground. It might make it, but we’ll have to see. 

Another Crab’s Treasure
Reasons for GOTY: Absolutely loved this game. Fun gameplay and some of the best moments of the year for me.
Reasons for NOTY: It was released last year, but the big update was this year, so this is absolutely making it in. 

Ena Dream BBQ
Reasons for GOTY: Surreal and free adventure
Reasons for NOTY: Little short, other indies might beat this out, but this is totally worth playing through.

No One Lives Under the Lighthouse
Reasons for GOTY: Solid horror game with a great retro aesthetic
Reasons for NOTY: Similar to Ena, though this one I sort of fell off in the back end. I missed the true ending by 1 collectable, and I didn’t have the urge to go back. Good game, but probably will be left off. 

Dead Lamb Walking
Reasons for GOTY: Still thinking about it to this day
Reasons for NOTY: It is pretty much the best example of “I really wish I read the trigger warnings” sort of game, and I think the twist here isn’t exactly done with an expert hand, but I’ll never forget it, and for that, it deserves something. I don’t know if that something is GOTY, but maybe. 

Half Life Alyx
Reasons for GOTY: Best VR game ever made?
Reasons for NOTY: I have been spoiled by Resident Evil 8 VR and Resident Evil 4 Remake VR that took a lot from this game, so it didn’t hit me as hard as it did other people, but it is still some of the best VR experiences you can buy. It almost makes up for the fact that the PSVR2 was totally abandoned by Sony, except that they made it compatible with a PC (with a $60 dongle of course). 

Blasphemous
Reasons for GOTY: Solid search action game, the Spanish VA is best in class
Reasons for NOTY: I loved this game, but if I had to choose, Ender Magnolia was the better game.

Orbo’s Odyssey
Reasons for GOTY: Fun platformer
Reasons for NOTY: The best part of this game was not knowing how to play for like 20 minutes, thinking it was broken/too hard, and then having it click. Once I got how the main jumping mechanic worked, it felt amazing. That feeling of frustration, followed by the total bliss of figuring out my mistake was some of the best gaming I had this year. The issue is this: would I have had that feeling if I actually read the tutorial and did the mechanic right the first time? Maybe not. 

Pseudoregalia
Reasons for GOTY: One of the best platformers I have played in years. Imagine that issue I had with Orbo, but actually designed that way, instead of being an accident. Mario 64 levels of platforming genius. 
Reasons for NOTY: I do wonder if I would have liked the game more if, like Mario 64, it gave you all the movement abilities at once, but in any case, it will end up on the GOTY list.

Soul Hackers 2
Reasons for GOTY: A Japanese turned based RPG for adults you say? Well, it took some updates, and a DLC, but they actually achieved the goal of making a compelling monster collecting game without it being in a high school or involving Pokemon/Digimon. 
Reasons for NOTY: The QoL stuff they added later (I remember the game designer Melos Han-Tani remarking QoL actually stands for Quality of Low-swag) really saved the slower beginning parts, and some of the dungeons are really a slog. Having one teleport dungeon is fine, but 3 of them??? I really loved the cast, and things really pick up at the 2nd half of the game, but it isn’t a game I can recommend without caveats. Still, I do think of this game fondly. 

Mario Kart World
Reasons for GOTY: Knockout mode is the Wacky Races game I always wanted. Pure fun and chaos. 
Reasons for NOTY: The single player is a fun chill experience with the open world, and the tracks are good, but it sort of lacks the options and content I expect from a $70 game (granted, I only paid the $50 for it with the Switch 2 bundle). It is a problem I imagine will be eventually solved, but I really want more options for a more traditional Mario Kart Online experience (bring back 3 laps in a course, transitioning from course to course is fun, but I want the option to not have to do that), and just more content in general. For the love of Holy Rosalina, give us a jukebox feature!

Dear Me I Was/And Roger
Reasons for GOTY: Short sweet VN experiences
Reasons for NOTY: Probably not enough on their own, but combined is probably worth writing about. They are similar in gameplay style, and with story. Both deal with loss, finding those you love, and doing what you can to be near them. Dear Me, I Was I thought had the better art and story, but And Roger had the more interesting gameplay stuff. 

Mesericorde Vol 1
Reasons for GOTY: The story of a murder in a nunnery has great pacing, great characters, and big questions.
Reasons for NOTY: Being volume 1, it has big questions, but not a lot of answers. I think it is good enough to make the list, but hopefully it continues this high quality of writing. 

Mouthwashing
Reasons for GOTY: A chilling tale of TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
Reasons for NOTY: I actually misunderstood part of the story when I played it, and I didn’t even know until I watched a video about it. My interpretation isn’t technically invalid, but it was probably wrong so I feel like a lot of the mixed feelings I had when I finished it were just based on that mistaken assumption. It will end up on there one way or another, but it is funny how these things can just fly over my head sometimes.

Anthology of the Killer
Reasons for GOTY: One of my favorite video games I have played in a long time.
Reasons for GOTY: This one is for the sickos. For the people sick of traditional narratives, and ready to go into the deep end of what a video game can do. You might not be ready for this one, but it should go down as one of the greats. 

Big Ocean, Wide Jacket/Despolote
Reasons for GOTY: Utterly charming snap shots of life in their respective time periods
Reasons for NOTY: These are short but worth it, I will squeeze them all in.. I might just combine this with Dear Me, I Was, And Roger just so I can list them all. 

OFF
Reasons of GOTY: I am obsessed 
Reasons for NOTY: No chance, this is making it. There are issues people have had with this remake (OST being the big one, though if you have it on PC, there are ways to mod the old one in anyway, so it is now a moot point), but this is the game that struck the biggest chord in me. It also has some interesting links to the next game on the list. 

Clair Obscur Expedition 33
Reasons for GOTY: Beautiful OST, haunting story, some of the best acting in a video game period
Reasons for NOTY: It is ironic that two of the best French turned based RPGs I played this year, and they are now competing with each other. Clair Obscur I have some issues with, but OFF is the perfect game for me, warts and all. Clair Obscur will be on the list, but OFF has my heart.

Games I plan to play, but might not get to finish:

Hollow Knight Silksong: I can get a little hipster-y when games get so popular with the GOTY talk that I stop playing it, even if I know I will like it. I do suspect that is also what is affecting me with OFF vs. Clair Obscur, which I will admit is a personal failing of mine. Who cares what other people think? Well, me, and hoping you too, because why would you be reading this then???

Silent Hill f: It is tough to finish horror games in a rush. I want to be scared, not exhausted.

Donkey Kong Bananza: It is fun to just smash things, but I don’t have a lot of motivation to get back to it before these other games because there is no story I need to keep track of.

Stray Children: This is rough because I should have beat a previous game the studio made, Moon RPG Remix, before I played this, but I am now 2 hours in and I sort of want to continue. Little bit of a rock and a hard place with this one. 

Misericorde Vol. 2: I do want to play through this, but there probably isn’t enough time. These are the other Visual Novels I was hoping to play through at some point, just to illustrate my issue- Stories from SOL, Kemono Teatime, Promise Mascot Agency, Great Ace Attorney, AI Somnium Files, Urban Myth Dissolution Center, Ace Attorney Investigations, Butterfly Soup 2, Coquette Dragoon, Ochistubaki, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, and many more I am forgetting. 

Games I liked, but not sure if I have anything interesting to write about other than “hey this game was good”:

Streets of Rage 4, Poinpy, Castlevania Order of Ecclesia, Curse Crackers, Elephantasy, Man I just wanna go home, A Plumber of All Seasons, Pepper Grinder, and Terry’s Other Games for collecting Don’t Look Back and that cool Flappy Bird inspired game.

Look forward to the GOTY 2025 list later this year or early 2026!
 

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.

Resident Evil 8 VR Review

Playing through Resident Evil 8 VR made me realize that I only a fraction of a fraction of people will be in the same situation as me. That is to say that as a person who could afford a Playstation VR2, never played any VR other than PSVR1, and never played Resident Evil 8 before, it is hard to imagine many people being in my position. That being said, I wanted to write a review because I think RE8VR figured out something about survival horror that I had not even considered. 

Survival Horror as a concept has been codified to mean something that makes getting through the game tougher and more resource focused. Whether that is through challenging game play and forcing you to use healing items, movement systems that force you to be more deliberate, and limited inventory space, Survival Horror hinges on the player making (hopefully) interesting choices to get through the game. As time went on however, Survival Horror as a concept will cling onto some of these concepts, and leave others behind to make getting through the game more akin to an action game than something you have to "survive" through. Resident Evil turned from a Survival Horror series into more Horror Themed action series. RE8VR keeps this tradition, and it is very much an action game, but the VR adds two important things: the VR enables visuals with added depth, and motion controls that, by default, require you to manually reload your weapons. 

The first added thing is obvious: what makes VR virtual is how the environment now has full depth, but it is surprising how much RE8 feels like it was made for VR. Perhaps this is just how the developers use a first person perspective, or remnants of how Resident Evil 7 in VR was made, but there are moments and environments that seemed tailor made for virtual reality. Whether it is something going right into your face, or the ability to look around and look right at the monster approaching you, never has Resident Evil felt like a horror movie (perhaps not since RE7VR).

The second thing isn't as obvious, which is how the game by default requires you to use motion controls to take out and reload your weapons. Some VR games are compatible with a normal controller, RE8VR utilizes the PSVR2 motion controllers to aim, choose your weapons, and reload. Reloading via motion controls is on by default, and it is something you can turn off, but new functionality redefined what Survival Horror meant for me. Before, it would be about what handicaps the player has in order to facilitate interesting choices, but now with manual reloading, the ability you have to precisely reload a gun while something is trying to harm you adds a new dimension to Resident Evil. In games like Resident Evil 4, being able to shoot with a laser sight and reload like a button made you feel like a special ops badass, but fumbling to put in a clip, trying the trigger, and then having to remember to cock the gun, only for you to run away from whatever harm is quickly approaching you, reintroduces the horror and interesting choices. As the game progresses, you get better and better, but then as you get more powerful guns, figuring out how to reload them in the middle of a fight is something you have to relearn as the game progresses. 

These two things work in harmony to bring what could be a new direction for the Resident Evil series (well, at least in VR). Having things that pop out at you, and then fumbling to make sure you can continue to defend yourself, makes for an experience that I really enjoyed. Survival Horror becomes more about that moment when you realize that reloading your new pistol isn't how it used to be, and scrambling to pick yourself up and put yourself back into a place of power. It just feels right to be in the shoes of RE8VR protagonist Ethan Winter's shoes, and not knowing how to reload a sniper rifle while fighting a dragon. It feels like the ideal way to play the game for me.

While is was ideal for me, it should be said that it isn't a perfect experience. With some cut scenes still being in 2D (including the ending), some loss of motion tracking (only happened to me once in a fight, but it wasn't great), some graphics clearly not being made to be looked up close (it was also a bummer to try and read any book titles as they were always blurry), and special modes like Mercenaries not making the cut (no trophy support was also disappointing, but I'd rather had more modes than trophies), it feels like all the polish and time went into the full game, and they didn't have the time or money to work on anything else. Overall though, Resident Evil 8 VR redefined what it means to be a scary game, and the potential they can have to make some fun, scary times.

5 Games that mean a lot to me

I read a writing prompt inspired by the My Perfect Console to write about 5 games that meant a lot to you and your life, and decided to write them out. These aren't necessarily my favorite games, or the best games, but the games that were significant in my life.

1. Persona 3P

I met my then girlfriend, now wife, when she was living in Kyushu near where I lived, but we didn't actually start going out until she moved much farther away from me. This meant in order to see each other, we had to take 2 hour plus train and bus rides. There was a lot of time to kill, and that is where this game came and ate those hours with exploring Tartarus, making social links, and uncovering the mystery of the Dark Hour. The game took 100 hours to complete, which were colored by looking forward to seeing the one I loved, and then the melancholy of having to go back home. Persona 3 Portable is so intertwined with the beginning of the relationship of my wife, that it is hard not to remember one and not the other. It is what filled the spaces of my life while I was falling even further in love. In that way, it is a way for me to remember the things I was into all the way back then.

2. Final Fantasy 7

Middle school was awful. Honestly, top 3 worst time in my life. Even compared to later in life when I would have an anal fissure, broken bones, a concussion, they just don't compare to middle school. The only times that are worse are times when I had to deal with the sickness and death of loved ones. They are awful for the same reasons: loss of control of being able to feel anything other than the relief that nothing could get worse at that moment. This is why Final Fantasy 7 stood out to me because it was one of the things I remember that went right during this time. It felt like me being a fan of Final Fantasy was finally paying off, and now everyone was enjoying the video games I liked to play. I could finally talk to people about Cloud, Tifa, Barrett and the rest and have some sort of chance that they would know, or at least be curious. The rest of my life may have been filled with awfulness and angst, but at least I could talk to somebody about how hard it was to get Knights of the Round.

3. Nier

When I played Chrono Trigger, I remember thinking that this was the best game ever made. The graphics, the music, and the story. Oh the story! Never did I think a game would ever make me feel the pure feeling of this gesamtkunstwerk than Chrono Trigger did. It became this feeling of nostalgia, something I would never truly feel again. Then I remember sitting on my floor couch, loading this into my PS3, and playing it for a few hours. I can't remember when exactly in the game it was, but at some point it hit be like a brick. I was experiencing the same sort of joy, the feeling of everything coming to together to create that gesamtkunstwerk feeling all over again. Something I felt like I would never was going to feel quite the same again. It made me realize that perhaps this feeling was more personal, and less universal than I thought, but it was great to feel that way about a video game again after to long. I now have music CDs, books, and other materials from Nier that I have consumed, all so I can live in that moment again. It just goes to show that video games can still wow me every so often.

4. Kentucky Route 0

Kentucky Route 0 is a game that even when I didn't get it, even when the broader commentary of what this game was trying to say were obscured to me, I loved the vibe of it. It spoke to a sadness, and a feeling of loss that I didn't know how to label yet. Even when I completed it, the ending sort of confused me because I didn't realize that Kentucky Route 0 isn't about a delivery to 5 Dogwood Drive and the characters trying to get there, or at least, it wasn't just about that, but about the mythology of America, and how it has died. Perhaps it never existed. Just like a recording of a priest playing to an empty building, it somehow keeps resonating. This is the first game that has hit me like a good book, and it is something that I still think about every so often. 

 5. Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution changed how I play video games, and how I appreciate them. DDR is why I bought a $500+ VR headset in 2023, and am having fun with it. Video games aren't just about sitting in a chair and pressing buttons on a controller, it is about getting up and breaking out into a sweat. I still remember the elation and the rush of endorphins when I was able to get through Maxx Unlimited on the Heavy difficulty. I remember getting shin splints playing this game on a concrete floor and having to sit out of football practice. It saddens me that this game has faded into relative obscurity, and the only glimpse of these dancing games are hidden in particular arcades that are themselves dying out. If I had unlimited money, I would make a non-profit organization that would make sure Dance Dance Revolution was made available on every platform, and that good dance pads were made to support those platforms. We'll just have to settle for emulation, and googling websites for pads that hopefully won't be too expensive and will actually stand the abuse of being stomped on.

Horizon Call of the Mountain Review

Horizon Call of the Mountain's premise is that you are always chasing somebody. First it is your brother, and then the big baddie, and that premise leads to the assumption that no matter where you go, someone else has already been there. This leads to narrative justification for why all the climbing paths have white or yellow paint, and why supplies are all over the place, but this also leads to a feeling that this has been done all before. It is hard not to then expand this from the literal story to how the game was made for it is trying to stand on the shoulders of giants of other VR games. Games like Half Life Alyx surely influenced development, but the game this is the spiritual successor of is the PSVR1 AAA VR experiment Blood and Truth. Though it is a successor, it feels a little behind that game in some ways.

Perhaps saying the game is "behind" isn't fair, because from a graphical standpoint, other than the occasional flat flower or flat fire texture, it is a beautiful game. It fully takes advantage of the premise of climbing a mountain by constantly barraging you with beautiful vistas. Whether it is majestic waterfalls, or a cool robot frozen on top of a mountain, Horizon has the "cool thing in the distance" on lock. What you are actually doing in these environments is mostly climbing and finding items. Climbing is done in the typical VR way of waving your hands around and alternate triggers, and it can actually give a sweat if you do it fast enough. In between climbs, you investigate various villages, abandoned factories, etc. for items to improve your armor or make arrows. This is where the feeling of "this has been done before" really starts to sink in. You will never run into anyone while climbing for (with the exception one or two scripted moments), or run into anything that is anything other than climbing or use a tool that assists in climbing. You will run into settlements, which are interesting at first, but the cut and paste of assets make these rather rote by the end of the game.

One of the things that breaks the climbing portions apart is the combat, which, due to how they made the combat mechanics, always takes place in either a circle or straight line arena. You primarily have to shoot dozens of arrows at a robot (with different damage depending on where you hit) and then dodge when the enemy attacks you. These combat encounters are pretty fun at first, but by the last boss, having to sling what felt like 300 arrows to a single target while dodging attacks become tiresome. Sure, you can use different types of arrows and status effects to make enemies weaker, but your strategic options are limited by ammo, and I never got a good read on if there was a strategy to make the fights less repetitive.

The other thing that breaks up the gameplay is the story. The protagonist Ryas is always talking to themselves, and they are on a trek to redeem themselves. I haven't played a lot of the other Horizon games, and all the proper nouns made my head spin at some point, but I couldn't help but feel for his quest and his Nick Offerman character-esque personality. It became clear that a lot of dialog was engineered to make you feel sorry for him, and want him to succeed. Despite how transparent it was, it worked on me for the most part.

Which is funny, because that is how I ended up feeling about the game as a whole. I could see the flaws, I can see what they are trying to do and roll my eyes at it, but there would always be one moment when I was standing on a robot tentacle, with rainbow particles in the air, and think, "well, I don't think any other game has done exactly this." It is a game that relies on execution to draw you in, and despite fumbling here and there, it still has some stuff that was great. It is something that if you have not played other FPS games in VR, I would imagine you would have an amazing time, but as it played to me, it was something that I'm glad I played, but probably won't end up on my top 5 games list this year.