Amedama

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: There are some mechanic spoilers that are inherently story spoilers.
• Time Played: 17 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It didn't feel too long, but it probably should have been a little shorter by reducing how much certain sections needed to be replayed.
• Soundtrack: It's pretty decent. Some tracks are a little repetitive but it fits the setting well enough.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pretty pleased with this one.
• Why I played: Basically just because it looked cool. I tried the demo and liked it, put it on my wishlist, and it went on a decent sale almost immediately after.
• Did I cry: I think I did choke up a little here and there. Not as much toward the end as I would have expected, but as a game that has you interact with a lot of wayward souls in order to help them pass on.
• Jank: It has a little bit of jank, but nothing that really hurts the game besides the fact you can get stun-locked. Sometimes there is weirdness with dead bodies standing up, and the dialog has not accounted for every possibility.
• Difficulty: Normal, it's probably a little harder just getting started before you figure out everything, you can easily supplement any difficulty by eating to temporarily increase your stats. The hardest parts of the game being when you don't have the opportunity to do so.
• Recommend to others: I don't think it would go super high on a recommend list, and I'm not sure of the audience I would potentially recommend it to, but if you're interested in it, I'd say go for it.

I liked Amedama, it's unique but somehow doesn't do too much to stand out - maybe just because its good, but only good, never really exceeding expectations. In it, you are a soul that can possess bodies of people you have killed. If you have previously killed them, you can later possess them just by hitting them. This isn't like some games with similar mechanics where it is a combat mechanic, but rather something you can only do outside of combat, essentially choosing who you go into each battle as. As a bonus, there are times when the dialog of the game will adjust according to who you have possessed, and as you proceed, there will be times when advancing requires you to possess certain people. 

There is a Groundhog Day element to the story, requiring you to possess more people and go different locations to uncover why things are occurring and uncover the mystery of everything. While I do enjoy the story -Kind-of Spoilers Until Next Paragraph- Ultimately I feel like the payoff and result is rather unsatisfying, it did a great job of creating intrigue, only to have very simple explanations for occurrences, no reason behind certain actions, or simple coincidence resulting in certain outcomes. The ride is great, the destination is... fine. -End kind-of spoilers-

Monster Hunter Wilds

• Genre: Action.
• Spoiler Free Review: I guess it is, but who cares. Here is a spoiler. The story is terrible and the characters are worse.
• Time Played: 32 Hours.
• Too Short/Long: Time is probably right for where I am in the game. 
• Soundtrack: Not that Monster Hunter has always been a contender for sweet music, but I felt it lacked even more than usual in this one. The only time I even remember music playing was the final battle of the main story and it was so damn loud and bombastic, rather than epic and moving.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Eh... I don't wanna say disappointed, but... I guess I am.
• Why I played: I've played most Monster Hunter games, maybe not every version of every monster hunter game, and I never went back for the extra stuff in Iceborne or Sunbreak, but generally speaking I am a fan of the series.
• Did I cry: No, in fact I don't think this game manage to make me feel any significant emotion.
• Jank: Damn does it have some jank when it comes to the UI. Not every Monster Hunter has had the same menus, but this one definitely made the most changes and I'd dare say exclusively for the worse.
• Difficulty: I think the difficulty is about what you'd expect for a Monster Hunter game. Some of the more general aspects of it are easier, since you can get right back into the fights right away, it can feel like less of a slog. By the same measure, the discrepancy in which you take damage is insane. I just feel like I should be able to tank a hit or two without having to heal between each hit.
• Recommend to others: I mean I guess if you like Monster Hunter you'll like this, but I'd sooner recommend Rise or World to a new player who didn't just want to play the so-called "Latest and Greatest". Monster Hunter Stories 2 is still the best Monster Hunter game overall though.

I'm so tired of Monster Hunter Wilds, I don't even want to write this. I'm not necessarily "fully done" Monster Hunter Wilds. I usually aim for more or less 100%ing a game. Or rather completing the bulk of the primary content. I'm conceding a bit prior to finishing the "High Rank" stuff. But I did get the credit roll, and for all intense and purposes I "beat the game". Some people specifically refer to high-rank as "post-game" too, further establishing that the game is finished.

It's not typical of me to stop playing a game at this point though. It's just that as we go into this weekened and I look at what I want to spend it doing, I realize I have a literal zero interest in playing Monster Hunter Wilds. I don't even necessarily have another game lined up, and so I may spend the weekend sampling things until something really catches my interest. I just know I don't want to play Wilds. Which is unfortunate. It's not a bad game. It can be really fun, and there are aspects of it I really appreciate. I appreciate there is a little bit more customization than normal. I appreciate how some of the weapons function in ways that didn't really interest me before. I like the wounds and wound attacks.

Ringlorn Saga

• Genre: Action RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes, there isn't much to spoil.
• Time Played: 3-4 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Honestly maybe a bit too short. I certainly could have kept going, it felt like once I got in the groove it was over.
• Soundtrack: It actually has some pretty fun tunes to wander around to.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased.
• Why I played: I kind of did want something short and classic before diving into the new Monster Hunter and even though it's very simple, something about the visuals appeals to me.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: It's relatively simple so there aren't many places it can go wrong. Occasionally a tile looks like you can step on it, but you can't. That's about it.
• Difficulty: The difficulty "curve" is basically a 45° decline. It starts off pretty tough and you get better equipment and get better and navigating and realize who you can attack with what and even though enemies get tougher, it's only in a feeble attempt to keep up with your level since they don't really mix up attack patterns or anything like that.
• Recommend to others: I would probably only recommend this to people who like the exact type of game it is. "Action RPGs" with bump combat that are more or less navigation puzzles. It's probably most similar to Hydlide specifically. It's not the best of them, but there is nothing wrong with it if you want another.

I don't have too much to say I haven't really summed up in the above sections. It's pretty much a game that puts all it offers out on the table. The trailer is a minute and thirty seconds. You only need ten seconds of it to know if it's for you.

Some of the writing is pretty fun. Make sure you interact with people in defense mode.

Keylocker

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Story-wise yes, some aspects of progression and mechanics are kind of spoiled. Picture are not spoiler free.
• Time Played: 24 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It goes on just a little long. It could just be because each battle is pretty methodical, but I felt like the last couple chapters kinda dragged the game out a little bit.
• Soundtrack: Amazing soundtrack. It has some great music for both the rhythm sections, and more dramatic moments. Honestly great soundtrack all around.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Despite what I may say below, I did really enjoy the game.
• Why I played: I wanted to experience some Turned Based Cyberpunk Action, and it looks really cool.
• Did I cry: I did a little bit here and there. Mostly when the music hit at the right moments.
• Jank: HIGH Level of Jank, this game made me consider the fact I needed a jank category. To be fair, after considering some moments in recent games like Prince of Persia and Omochapon as a whole helped lock it in. 
• Difficulty: This game also made me consider a difficulty category. I'm sure I'll talk about it later, but it's worth noting how difficult I thought a game was in general. This one, for a turn-based rpg, was pretty difficult.
• Recommend to others: I probably would, but I would have to tell anyone who is interested to make sure you give gifts to people in the early chapters, or otherwise as soon as you can, and also you can buy weapons from some shops, and also maybe be willing to mess with the difficulty settings. Also the game can be janky. Also every chapter is a point of no return so to speak. But I WOULD recommend it.

While I have finished a few games since Tunic, most of them are relatively short, or in the case of Phantom Rose, a game played in many short bursts, off to the side of another activity. I've probably played 30+ more games this month, trying to find something to captivate me. Maybe it's just because I was so engrossed in Tunic while playing that, I just couldn't get into the groove for something else that required any thought on my end.

You could say, this game was the key to unlocking that which was closed off to new games for the past few weeks. Keylocker has a lot of style, a lot of really good art, a unique look, a unique sound, a lot of ways to captivate the senses, and for the most part I'm into it. There are a lot of character designs I really like. There are some that... aren't quite my style, but there is definitely a good variety and because of the world they built, I guess it would be hard to put anything in there and say it doesn't fit.

Rogue Flight

• Genre: On-Rails Shooter, Shoot 'em up
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil.
• Time Played: ~4-5 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's about right, but could feel like if you find the gameplay repetitive.
• Soundtrack: Great soundtrack, I immediately purchased it after finishing the game.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pretty pleased.
• Why I played: It just really had a kickass trailer.
• Did I cry: No.
• Recommend to others: I would recommend it specific to fans of the genre, maybe Starfox fans.

Despite being behind the ship, and most games of it's ilk being specifically on-rails shooters, I feel like Rogue Flight takes a lot of inspiration from shmups. With it's constant action, dodging waves of enemy fire, shooting everything, it just feels more like a shmup than an on-rails shooter. When I think of an on-rails shooter, I think of a more cinematic experience, something that has you navigate through an environment, albeit on rails. There isn't really any navigation in any of Rogue Flight's stages, it's straight forward and a breakneck speed. There are barely any obstacles, and though while I prefer shmups that have "level design" as opposed to just taking place in a large rectangle, Rogue Flight more or less mimics that more commons shmup design, except from behind.

I'm not complaining, I just want to make it clear the type of experience it is. I don't know my exact time, but estimating at 4-5 hours of playtime, with some messing around with extra modes, it's not very long, but these types of games never really are. In fact, a more or less "full run" barely takes an hour. There are some options for shorter paths, and eventually you unlock a harder version of the "full run", but it's more or less the same stuff, so you kind of have to want to play the game just for the sake of playing it, but I really enjoyed it.

Phantom Rose

• Genre: Roguelike Deckbuilder
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil.
• Time Played: 10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's appropriate for what it offers.
• Soundtrack: It's only a few tracks, but they're really good and help set the mood.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pleased.
• Why I played: I had seen this on mobile years ago and played a little but dropped it when I dropped all mobile games. Thankfully they released a Steam version sans microtransations.
• Did I cry: No.
• Recommend to others: I like it and I like the aesthetic, but there isn't much to recommend it over the more popular examples of Slay the Spire and other bigger games it's inspired. So I'd only recommend it to people whom the aesthetic really appeals to.

Having already starting diving into the second, I can already say that despite some of my preferences for it visually, Phantom Rose is more of a proof of concept or prototype for it's successor that looks like it might offer a good bit more. It's fun and engaging, and for me is just the right level of challenge. Not so hard it's frustrating, but I really need to optimize my moves to come out on top, and when I do I feel like I succeeded.

Though, once you get further in the game, I'm really only talking about the last leg of each run. Eventually the first two sections(of three) start to feel too easy and it ends up just kind of being a chore to get through them. That or because you haven't yet built up enough of a deck, resetting to the standard strategies feels dull.

Regardless, at it's best it's pretty fun, and I liked seeing more of the characters and art, so no real complaints.

Omochapon

• Genre: Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Not really anything to spoil
• Time Played: 2 hrs 50 min
• Too Short/Long: It's appropriate for what it offers.
• Soundtrack: Almost non-existent. Most of the the games background is random mechanical sounds or maybe elevator music at best. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: It's fine.
• Why I played: I needed something low-effort after Tunic. Something I could just play and mostly turn my mind off to, this worked out pretty well.
• Did I cry: No.
• Recommend to others: Probably not. It's fine, it's just not anything really special.

Omochapon harkens back to the early days of 3D platforming. This could have easily been a PSX/Saturn/N64 platformer, and maybe been better for it. Even if it were released 30 years ago though, I don't think it would have been revolutionary. That's not to say it's bad, it's just pretty simple, it generally uses only one or two buttons per form and there is a switching form button.

You get a handful of toys you unlock/play as, but most of them just feel like their only purpose is to serve as an ability gate. The robot exists almost exclusively to climb ladders, but can also open things. It's most clever use is mid-air switching to it when performing platforming as a car/bunny, or flying in the plane directly into a ladder - which to robot happens to be the only one that can climb. Despite it arguably being the "coolest" and the only one that isn't a gashapon toy, but a boxed figure, it is probably the one you play as the least. Even the pill bug toy has a couple forced sections where you play similar to a marble platforming game.

It's not bad, it's a cute game. It could be a lot more, but I'm not complaining.

Tunic

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Mostly, there are sort of mechanical spoilers, but I tried to be vague, it's more spoilery after the instructions screenshot.
• Time Played: ~25 hours
• Too Short/Long: Probably about right. Mileage may vary, depending on how well certain puzzles click and how much effort you wanna put forth.
• Soundtrack: Decent, mostly mood setting ethereal stuff that's not going to get annoying if you hear it a lot.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased.
• Why I played: I got this back when it first released on Switch, excited to have a good looking Zelda-like, but didn't really delve into it until now.
• Did I cry: Not much reason to cry in this one.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would recommend it to people who really like to delve into their games. Early on my recommendation would have been much more general, but the more I played the more I realized exactly how much it asks of the player.

Tunic is a bit more than I expected it to be. At first, I figured it just a straight forward Zelda-like. You're a little fox wearing a tunic and you start off on a shore, exploring an island of sorts, fighting some little slime-like monsters, some goblins with swords, and some other usual fare. You get a stick first, eventually you get a sword and can cut grass, a shield, so on and so on.

It doesn't take too long for the game to hint that it's going to take some outside of the box thinking to play. Rather, you're at least going to have to be willing to explore every possible crevice, with a lot of the official paths hidden by the perspective of the game. You may even have to wander around blindly a bit to get where you're going. That's where I was when I started the game when it originally came out on Switch.

Refind Self: The Personality Test Game

• Genre: Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 2 hours
• Too Short/Long: Fine for what it is - but I wouldn't have minded a bit more.
• Soundtrack: Some cute tracks, but relatively low key stuff.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased.
• Why I played: I just really liked the art to be honest. Also I always liked doing "personality quizzes"
• Did I cry: Nah, it didn't really get deep enough into it, even if it was trying to be touching.
• Recommend to others: I would for the simple fact I want to use the little comparison feature in the game to weigh peoples diskette against mine and see how we did things differently. The most fun part of personality quizzes is seeing how your result stack up with your friends. 

Refind Self is what it says it is, a personality test game, it wraps the "test" up in a little adventure of a robot girl, going around a town, doing some tasks, as you do them you'll uncover the story. Well maybe, I supposed you could get through without uncovering anything... depending on your personality.

That said the game wraps up pretty quick, it gives you some options to extend the game time, but to "fully unlock" your personality, and "finish" the game, you have to play through at least three times. Since your first run or two will allow you to discover more options, you can really focus on what you want to do in that last run, and just maybe "see everything" in that given amount of time.

Your actions will be judged, and compared to I guess every other player that has played the game while online? Some neat stats, and even though a lot of them may end up being "most common choice" the fact that you chose to perform that action at all, is a choice. I thought I was going to get all the most common personality types based off my stats, but it turns out none of them were common - not quite the least common, but I think it's an interesting analysis into how differently people approach games.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 37 Hours
• Too Short/Long: This definitely could have been a good 10 hours shorter and not been any worse for it.
• Soundtrack: Nothing too special. Not bad, just kinda generic setting appropriate orchestra.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased overall. 
• Why I played: I heard it was actually a pretty good metroidvania, so I checked out the demo and picked it up sometime later.
• Did I cry: Nah, though there is some story drama, nothing really sad.
• Recommend to others: I would put it pretty high on the recommendations for metroidvanias, especially those who like both a challenging combat system based around perfectly times parries, knowing when to dodge, and when to use other abilities to out maneuver your opponent, AND precision-based platforming.

I've never really been a fan of the Prince of Persia series. Generally speaking, it's just not my style, but I like "Exploratory Action Platforming" or "Search Action" games a lot and it's been some time since I sunk my teeth into one. Maybe because a lot of them were blending together? Maybe just because I've been playing more RPGs lately. Regardless, The Lost Crown really scratched an itch. I almost want to say it's "more" than your standard metroidvania. There is just so much detail and thought put into the navigational mechanics, the level design, and the combat that it really feels like they blended together a few games that would usually independently focus on one of those points more than the other.

A lot of similar style games come down to "hit the enemy", and even if you have different ways of doing that, it doesn't really change the dance of combat - outside of maybe boss battles. Some similar games that focus too much on the combat, face the problem of just every battle becoming a grueling experience. The Lost Crown walks that line but maintains a balance to keep things mostly quick paced, while allowing you to feel the satisfaction of power scaling as well. Even to the end, it felt like I was more powerful, but I could fail if I didn't give it my all, but of course, mechanics came much more naturally as well.

Crystal Project

• Genre: Platforming RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: There isn't really much to spoil in this game.
• Time Played: 85 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's a little long for what it is if you are trying to do "everything" because of the immense amount of exploration, if you're less of a completionist, it's probably not too long.
• Soundtrack: As far as I am aware, it uses entirely free stock music, but I feel like the creator of this game managed to find a handful of artists whose style perfectly emphasized the setting. Despite some most generic rpg beats, there are a few bangers I'll be listening to down the road.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased, I liked this way more than I expected.
• Why I played: I had a friend point it out some time ago and while the idea of a platforming RPG seemed neat, I wasn't exactly in a hurry to get a game that kiiiinda looked like Minecraft a little bit. It came back up on my radar in some youtube video and I was like "you know, that does look sweet.
• Did I cry: Probably one of the few RPGs I can see I didn't. Mostly because the story is pretty sparse.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would recommend to anyone who likes a good classic style japanese rpg. Like someone who can play any old Dragon Quest or the few Final Fantasy games and get something out of it. 

Crystal Project was a lot of fun. It's a big open world, turned-based RPG filled with platforming, and a good bit of that which requires some very precise navigation. While I would say it's mainly an RPG, the platforming aspect should not be understated. You just will not get everything out of this game if you expect to just walk around from encounter-to-encounter. You need to not just be willing, but eager to explore. It's almost as if it was designed by someone who like to go beyond the boundary of games, someone who likes to see if they can glitch to somewhere they're not supposed to be. You have to want to try to jump on everything - even things you wouldn't expect the game to expect you to.

UFO Robot Grendizer - The Feast of Wolves

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review: Yeah, unless you look at the screenshots too closely.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It feels about right.
• Soundtrack: There are some classic tunes when the action is going on, something I'm sure is nostalgic for fans, but either way reminiscent of old timey action super robots, but nothing mind blowing. Interestingly there is no music when nothing is happening, so you get to hear a lot of Grendizer's feet stomping. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased actually, despite it's jank.
• Why I played: A handful of mech games came out last year, in fact another that featured Grendizer - Megaton Musashi. I often tell people I'm more of a "mech video game" person than mech anime person. Here you have the best of both worlds.
• Did I cry: No.
• Recommend to others: I think anyone I would truly recommend it to has already played it. It's also too broken and too budget for me to really want to go out on a limb here. But if I ever hear someone mention liking Grendizer, likely the first thing I will then ask them is, "Did you play The Feast of Wolves game?"

Grendizer surprised me a good bit. Not that I expected it to be bad, which in some senses, it really was, but I didn't expect to enjoy it quite so much. I thought the combat would be a bit more basic, and I didn't expect as much variety as they provided me with outside the standard gameplay.

After playing a good chunk of Gundam Breakers 4 and Megaton Musashi this past year, I expected something more along the lines of them. A pretty basic combat system where I just spam things as much as possible, in a linear path or single combat arena. Nope, instead Grendizer offers a pretty unique enemy "shield" that forces you to alternate your attacks in a less spammy way. It also offer some, maybe simple, but challenges none the less, that require you to run around, act quick, use ranged attacks, etc. If that wasn't enough, between stages you're likely to get a shoot 'em up or even on-rails shooter sequence. I think in at least one instance, both back to back. They're not so involved or long that they detract from the main game, but not so simple they feel pointless. It's a good balance when compared to the rest of what the game has to offer.

Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind

• Genre: Beat 'em up
• Spoiler Free Review: Yeah, though I don't really think there is anything to spoil, either.
• Time Played: 3 Hours
• Partners: Alice, Taylor, Brandon
• Too Short/Long: It feels about right for a more or less standard beat 'em up.
• Soundtrack: While there are some really good Power Rangers tracks, it's not doing anything too special with them. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: A little bit of both, I had fun with it and am glad it existed, but it wasn't all that ambitious.
• Why I played: I love the Power Rangers franchise and the timing of this release was really perfect, following my personal Power Ranger Renaissance era.
• Did I cry: Only because of how bad I was at at Megazord combat.
• Recommend to others: It's hard for me to actually recommend it. There are many better beat 'em ups. But there aren't many better Power Rangers games, so it's fun having some... not bad Power Ranger content.

Rita's Rewind kind of pulled a 180° on me. I was pretty hype seeing initial trailers and such, and thought this was gonna be the best beat 'em up in years. Better than Shredder's Revenge, maybe even better than River City Girls 2(no hope to be better than the first though). It was not.

It was fine. It was serviceable, and there is some fun stuff in there for Power Ranger fans. But it's not gonna blow anyone away. It's more or less what you'd expect from an older licensed title. More or less standard fair with a Power Rangers coat of paint.

There character don't really control or act differently, they pretty much all have the same exact move sets/stats/handling etc. So who you play is only for aesthetics. The Megazord combat leaves a lot to be desired. It's actually pretty similar to Divine Dynamo Flamefrit which I played not too long ago. Instead you have to chase down your opponent and there is no shooting, so it grows a little tiring. Maybe this actually would have benefitted from playing single player? In multiplayer you alternate turns for the Megazord, and maybe it just took us out of the groove. Still I can't help but feel like they could have mixed up the gimmicks for the different fights.

There are also individual Zord, and motorcycles sequences, so between the 4 different types of gameplay, it does a good job at mixing up the content. It's just all imperfect. I can't help but feel like each aspect is just missing that one thing to make it much better, and there is often too much happening on screen to see what's going on, creating a downward spiral of messing things up.

Still, I had fun with it, even if it could have been a little frustrating and wasn't as inspired as I hoped for.

Game Completion List 2024

Compared to last year, this list is much shorter - I just barely squeezed in to my "average goal" of 30 games a year. The past few years I've exceeded it quite a bit, but this years game list was comprised of around 50% RPGs, depending on how you define the genre. Surprisingly those seem to take up more time than action platformers.

 In order of completion:

1. Sea of Stars
2. Firewatch
3. 8-Colors Star Guardians
4. Tekken 8
5. Bat Boy
6. Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission
7. Astlibra Revision
8. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
9. Unicorn Overlord
10. A Short Hike
11. Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir
12. Stellar Blade
13. Signalis
14. Mayhem Brawler
15. Battle Circuit
16. Minishoot' Adventures
17. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
18. Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed
19. In Star and Time
20. Time Crisis
21. Moon: Remix Rpg Adventure
22. Doll Explorer
23. Sclash
24. Final Fantasy XIII
25. Final Fantasy XV
26. Visions of Mana
27. Metal Slug Attack Reloaded
28. Divine Dynamo Flamefrit
29. Metaphor: ReFantazio
30. Fantasian Neo Dimension

There are just a lot of games I wanted to get to this year that I just did not. I even revisited some of the games from last years "Games I played a bit of but did not finish" and continued to not finish. I have had them in a "high priority" list all year, but there was always something... higher priority. Not that some game like, Sclash, was a high priority, but sometimes your spontaneously play a game, and you just happen to play it long enough to finish it.

Some of the games I played the most this year, like Halls of Torment, don't even get to be on this list because I haven't beat it. Can you beat it? I mean technically I "beat" all the levels, so is there ever a credit roll? I don't even know, but I guess I have to keep doing stuff until that happens, because it could just be hidden behind one of the many things I've yet to do.

That's kind of a problem with some of the more procedural games, too. They're more of a "thing to do" rather than a game you expressly play with the goal of finishing. Like I'm sure "Slay the Spire" has an actual ending. I finished a run and even though it rolled credits they cryptically hinted at it not being the "real ending", and there are other characters, so I didn't log that here, as I don't feel like I "truly" finished it yet. But what does it take to truly finish it? I know someone who has purchased Slay the Spire 7 times and seemingly played it hundreds of hours. Does it truly take that much? Or is it just a fun game to play without the goal of ever finishing?

Yeah, so I got caught up in a handful of those, I like the Vampire Survivor-like games, and sometimes it's hard to tell when they are really over. Maybe I did finish something and just neglected to log it.

This year, 2025, which truly feels like a year that means I'm now actually living in a sci-fi-esque futuristic dystopia, except it's a lot less aesthetic and cool than portrayed in media of the 80's and 90's or prior, my goal is really just to hit the backlog I already had existing for 2024. This means some of the games I started in 2023 mostly, except now I'm also adding games I didn't finish in 2024, and games that have yet to come out. It's truly a never ending backlog.

So finally, my Game of the Year picks. Unfortunately for everything else, a new Final Fantasy VII game came out this year, so Rebirth takes it by miles. That said I also added/revisited some favorites. Odin Sphere already had the spot on my favorites list from it's original release, but Astlibra Revision just captivated me like no other game. I even started the rogue-lite-esque spin off Astlibra Gaiden: The Cave of Phantom Mist, but it's a bit repetitive and I grew a little tired of the procedure. I'll get back to it soon though(I say).

Other than that, I really liked Unicorn Overlord, Fantasian and Metaphor, but I don't think they're quite absolute favorites of all time material, for me. Final Fantasy 13 and 15 are both great if not flawed in very different ways, which is also funny because of their relation. I think too many people really focus on the... assets of Stellar Blade, rather than it's content as a whole and are otherwise missing what a great game that is.

Here is a compiled image of all those game yearly wrap ups. Even though the one I care about the most, Nintendo, doesn't include December. They literally show you a "by month" list that ends in November! It infuriates me! Fantasian would have been my second longest game played on Switch with a playtime over 85 hours. Plus, I played a few other new games here and there in December that go unaccounted for.

Fantasian Neo Dimension

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Pretty much spoiler free, didn't really talk about the story, screenshots have the slightest of spoilers, like party members you get later.
• Time Played: ~85 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's a little long for what it is. I thought I was going into a PS1-2 era rpg here, and when those pushed over 60 hours back in the day, it was noteworthy. "This is a super long rpg, it's nearly 80 hours!" and you'd see something about the length in everything discussing it. 40-50 hours would have really been the sweet spot for this.
• Soundtrack: There are a couple tracks that are pretty good, and it has the option to play music from a handful of more recent Final Fantasy games. I think it's necessary because this soundtrack isn't always the best on it's own merit.
• Pleased/Disappointed: At first I was extremely pleased, then it waned a little bit as I got tired of grinding, but overall, I'm pretty happy with it.
• Why I played: Fantasian's main draw for me was how it invoked classic JRPGs, and this has been a big year for me in revisiting some old favorites.
• Did I cry: I don't really think this game had any big moments like that. Maybe one or two slightly watery eyed moments.
• Recommend to others: I would recommend Fantasian to anyone who loves classic japanese rpgs, specifically PSX-PS2 era - maybe some weirdo PSP or DS games. It does a good job at invoking nostalgia despite being an entirely new thing.

I really did love this game. I'd have to sit with a bit to think if it's a "favorite of all time", and maybe it's not quite that, but it's really up there. I really enjoyed it and as I mentioned it did a great job at invoking nostalgia while being entirely it's own thing, and I mean it. It has these prerendered backgrounds, but these aren't primitive CG, they're photos/models build from actual real life dioramas, and that's amazing to me. There are so many areas in this game. Hearing about this aspect, I thought there just may not be a ton of areas in the game, but there are, and you can tell each was just so meticulously crafted. It really makes the world come alive in a way that modern games with their basic textured assets that may look "realistic", but in the end are the kind of copy-paste type thing you see in any game.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: No story spoilers, mechanical spoilers and minor spoilery screenshots.
• Time Played: 133 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's not too long necessarily, it just took me way too long. It can probably be wrapped up dozens of hours quicker, but I did everything and fretted over everything I did.
• Soundtrack: For a game in which the universe roots itself in music, the music is just good. It really fits the mood, and style of the game, but I won't be listening to it regularly besides a track or two.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased with this, while I'm not sure it makes the favorite games list, it comes close, and was thoroughly enjoyable.
• Why I played: I liked most of Atlus' games, but I'm tired of the school setting and calendars, which is why I liked Soul Hackers 2 so much. This dropped one of them at least. I wasn't too interested in "generic fantasy" at first, but it seemed to ooze style.
• Did I cry: Choked up a few times here and there a little bit, but it got watery eyed toward the end.
• Recommend to others: I really would recommend Metaphor to everyone, but especially those who like "modern"(as in the past twenty years) Atlus games at all. This is the best of them, by far.

First to address the new sections above. I meant to add them to the template during either FFXV or Visions of Mana and forgot both times. It wasn't as important for the others. But I figured the spoiler note is important, because occasionally more than just my wife reads these and I have as many as 4 whole unique visitors. Soundtrack is more of a reference for, is it worth listening to outside of the game? I think to a degree all soundtracks are, but some have some real bangers and are worth going out of the way for. Did I cry? I can get pretty emotional during a good story. Or just a really well set up moment in an otherwise bad one. I just thought it would be fun to keep track of. Most long story games will at least choke me up. But I probably didn't cry for Flamefrit or Metal Slug. Now on to the main course.

There is so much to say about this game. It was really great, and exceeded my expectations. The story has it's ups and downs, but when it's down its only in the sense of "I get it, I'm along for the ride" rather than downright bad, and when it's up, it's really up.

Divine Dynamo Flamefrit

• Genre: Action
• Time Played: 2 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Fine for what it is. It's a little clunky so much longer and it would have worn out it's welcome. If it was smoother, then I would have wanted more.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm happy it exists.
• Why I played: Why wouldn't I play? I pretty much play anything Inti-Creates makes, but this little throwback was practically made for me.
• Recommend to others: Not really going to recommend this one. It's a bit short, a bit rough around the ages. 

Divine Dynamo Flamefrit was announced(?) as an April Fools joke, and the joke was it is real. I believe it was a semi-promotional stunrt for Card-en-Ciel, I saw something about it coming with preorders, which in hindsight, I should have gotten, because I do plan to get Card-en-Ciel.

But it's not much more than that. It's a fun little love letter to some SNES and more specifically GBA style action games and mecha, specifically Super Robot media in general. All things I like, so I really appreciated it, but it's also clear it's just a little bonus. It's not a full game in it's own. It only took my 2 hours because 2 of the boss battles were really difficult and I had to replay them a dozen or so times each. If you're better at game than me, it might only take you a little more than an hour to blow through it. 

It's a pretty cute little game, and maybe now when I go to play Card-en-Ciel, I'll have more an attachment to the references to this, or have context for something I wouldn't have otherwise.

Metal Slug Attack Reloaded

• Genre: Tower Defense
• Time Played: 60+ Hours, Semi-Passively(who knows what the active time is)
• Too Short/Long: It was entertaining to me for the right amount of time. Just as I was growing bored I manage to finish the story mode. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: It's fine, it was nice to have some Metal Slug fan service but I knew what I was getting into.
• Why I played: Metal Slug Tactics just came out, and though I'm excited for that, this went on sale at the time. Also, I really really appreciate devs making their highly monetized gacha games available for a single purchase after they delist their mobile game.
• Recommend to others: Not really. It's a mobile game's single-purchase adaption. It's good for that, but I'd only recommend it to people who explicitly like Metal Slug and gacha games.

It was a fun distraction and something to have running while I was more focused on something else. It scratched an itch, since I dropped mobile games a few years ago.

I really wish more developers would release one-time purchase versions of their mobile games when they decide to shut down the servers and no longer support the game. Mega Man X Dive did it, Metal Slug Attack now too. There are probably other games that have that I just didn't care as much about it, but it's a really good thing. It's a shame the content of so many mobile games will be permanently lost to time. While they are usually greedy monetized to hell wastes of time, often even the worst have something redeemable, if not only some unique art, music, or assets. Sure a lot of that type of content might make it's way on the internet in a ripped format, but seeing it all together and experiencing it in motion is what made that game a game.

For Metal Slug Attack Reloaded specifically, it was just a tower defense game that has you grind out items to keep you playing and probably eventually cave to roll for new characters. Since this version contains no micro-transactions, it removed some of the features of inconvenience. It's still a timesink, and most of the game will be played just managing your squads, going through the upgrade motions, and then autoplaying, but it can be a fun hit of dopamine to see numbers go up, blow through previously unbeatable forces, and what the screen descend into madness of just dozens of sprites and effects.

Visions of Mana

• Genre: Action RPG
• Time Played: 66 Hours
• Too Short/Long: A little longer than it needs to be because of the side quests. I kept playing them because I was still having fun, but maybe I should have cut some out and went straight for the main story.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I liked it a lot, it was a lot of fun. I was hoping for a bit more, but I'm not disappointed.
• Why I played: Despite remakes and rereleases, we haven't received an actual new Mana series game for 17 years. Which feels crazy to think about. I was just real hyped about it after seeing it in action.
• Recommend to others: This is a tough one, because I liked it, it was fun, but it's not exactly something I would go out of my way to recommend. If you're looking into an RPG because of it's compelling story, narrative, characters, I don't know what I'd say, but I'd recommend it to people who are on the fence and just want a fun game.

While playing Visions of Mana, I said something like "The only thing this game has got going for it, is it's fun." Similarly, I feel like "If this game wasn't fun, it would suck".

It's not a bad game by any stretch, it's just... on par with every Mana game. I feel like the Mana series gets some undue recognition. Almost all the Mana games are fun to play, but they're all flawed. Even Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 3), are rather acclaimed, or were closer to their time, and even then I feel like there were better examples of similar rpgs that don't see quite as much recognition due to their lack of Final Fantasy ties. Even Legend of Mana, my personal favorite of the series is an exceptionally flawed game. Fun to play, but flawed.

That's okay though. If you ask me what'd I'd change about this game, there wouldn't be much. A few nitpicks here and there about navigating the UI, both in and out of combat. Some jankiness experiences while traveling the world. Some choices that make for some annoying time wasting rather then the smoothest experience. Nothing that really kills the game stand alone. Not even combined. But combined does have a bit of an overall impact.

Ex-Wishlist Games

There are too many games to play them all.

This is more of a post about games I won't beat just because I wanted an outlet for my thoughts and it was too big for discord. It also gives me a nice place to come back to, to maybe revise in the future.

Back in ye old days, I had a certain pride of being someone who pretty much tried every game worth trying. A feat that was much more possible in the 00's and prior.

Like with other media; tv shows, anime, music, movies, youtube videos. There are just so many more games now. Within my friend group, we often cite anime, simply because it's somewhat unique in the sense that while there is so much more of it being produced, ~4x as much, but there aren't 4x the studios, and some of them have barely grown. So the quality suffers as they pump so many more of them out in the same amount of time. Other forms of media don't suffer as much in that regard, but have their own problems, such as being subject to to shifts in how people consume media, giant corporations whims, or slaves to the algorithms.

Video games just weren't as mainstream 20+ years ago, and now that they are at the forefront of entertainment media, the tools to make them have expanded to the point they can be produced at every level. There are dozens of video games being released every single day. Maybe not a dozen on Switch, maybe not a dozen on PS5. But across all platforms, if you are including ultra independent works, shovelware, and mobile games, we are just saturated with video game releases. Games released on Steam alone hit above a dozen on slow day, daily.

As someone who used to be very online in my younger years, almost always having some sort of opinion about every game, I've continued trying to keep up with as many games as I possibly can. Putting more focus these past few years into actually finishing the games I play, I finally have to come to terms with the fact I can't play everything. It's at the point where, even if I came upon infinite money, could quit my job, quit all other hobbies, devote every moment of my life to playing video games, I can't even play everything I have interest in playing.

My Steam wishlist has nearly 1000 games on it, and I already own over well over 1000 games on Steam, if not closer to 2k. Steam is far from the only platform I own games on, on PC.

My Switch wishlist seemingly randomly prevented me from adding games to it at 391 games. It didn't let me add that 392nd game. Seems like a arbitrary point, but that's fine. I thoughtfully considered how much I needed to add that 392nd game, and turns out I didn't. I just wanted to add it so I didn't forget it. It's a game I have the vaguest interest in because it has cute sprite art, and I MIGHT play it if it goes on sale for at least 50% off and has great reviews. That said, I knew there were going to be other games I want to add to my wishlist soon, and so begun a mass exodus.

I went through and spent time watching trailers for games, reading reviews, and considering what the odds I would play a game even if I purchased it, for hundreds of games. In the end, I reduced my Switch wishlist to 269. It would have been lower... if I didn't add 4 games in the process. Maybe I didn't entirely learn my lesson, but I made a step forward. A lot of these games seem like they might be great games. I just had to consider, will I ever prioritize them over everything else in my never ending infinite backlog?

No, I don't think I will.

There are a few reasons my wishlist is still quite so high, obviously I like games a lot and there are still many titles I'm interested in, but I also have a refusal to remove shoot 'em ups that I don't already own on another platform from it. I wouldn't be surprised if over 100 of those titles are shmups alone. I love my shmups, and the Switch has a hell of a library in that regard, brand new ones, rereleases, and tons of previously arcade-exlusives, but because I already have so many options for shmups, I almost exclusively buy them on sale, when I know I'm going to play them soon.

Another category that takes up a couple dozen of those wishlist items is music game dlc. Music games are an extremely monetized genre, usually coming with a few dozen tracks and then releasing songs via track or pack incrementally for years to come making it very easy to spend hundreds of dollars on a single game if you're not careful. So a lot of these tracks or track packs sit in my wishlist waiting for a day when they're both on sale and I'm in the mood to play said music game.

That said, I still have that fear of missing out on certain titles, fear of forgetting they exist, fear that maybe I made the wrong choice in removing them from my wishlist. So I logged every game I removed from my wishlist I was worried about potentially forgetting. I didn't include games I already down that would have been a repurchase or an updated rerelease, or direct sequels to games that would be easily remembered, or games that are just too mainstream to forget.

Maybe I also logged them so I could present it, and if anyone feels like I made a bad move, can say, "hey, I saw X on your list, actually you should really play this." Maybe I'm saying all this just to justify this backup wishlist. Eh... baby steps. (but seriously let me know if you think I'm dropping a banger)