Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii - Not the greatest entry in the series, but was pretty fun like usual.

Hollow Knight: Silksong - Fantastic, but good lord it can be unforgiving.

Sekiro - I played this a few years back, and then hit a wall at the guardian ape and bounced off it. After I beat silksong I went back to this and beat it a few times in a row. I had to resort to some cheese strats, but I did it. Silksong was probably harder.

Spiderman 2 - The first few hours felt like a slog to me. It felt like every time I got into a fight the game would take control away from me and put me in a cutscene forced me to do something else or play a certain way. I also didn't like the parry mechanic they put in. It felt inconsistent so I tried to not use it, but some enemies you could only hit after a parry and it just kind of sucked fighting them. Most of your moves feel underpowered and so it encourages you to stick to a few that keep you in the air and away from enemies you have to parry while spamming a small subset of moves. The side quests weren't very fun either. It was a bigger map, but with less stuff to do in it. It picked up after the first act, but I found the first game and MM to be a lot more fun.

Balatro - Good shit

Claire Obscure - Good, but I'm a little surprised by just how much people love this game. Art, acting, story are all excellent, but most of the game I was either steamrolling enemies or getting 1 shotted by wandering into a boss I wasn't ready for. There were very few parts of the game I felt challenged by. It is pretty fun to see just how much you can break the game with different builds, but also by the point you unlock everything there aren't many enemies to fight.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - Pretty good.

Alan Wake 2 - Overall I liked it, but the combat never felt satisfying to me. Story was kind of exhausting in a bad way. Too many parts of the game felt like a chore.

Not a lot this year. Technically there were quite a few games I installed, ran for a tiny bit didn't return to, but not many I actually played. I've had a hard time getting into things - I don't want to learn a new system, I don't want to dedicated the next 40+ hours to a story and I don't want to spend a lot of time fiddling with things.

Citizen Sleeper 2 - It's not as good as the first, but it's still a short, narrative based game I think I completed in just a night or a day off or something. I appreciate that. Though maybe it is as good as the first post-DLC, it's a rare game where I think the best time to play it was right at launch as the additional content added in patches robbed a lot of the impact from the alternate endings. 7/10

Dispatch - Another short, narrative based game. It's just superhero popcorn filler, and an extremely linear "choose your own adventure" but it's very competently done with some excellent vocal performances. Me and my partner had a great time with it. 8/10

Fortnight - My partner likes it so I got roped into it when we had to spend a few weeks apart as something to do together online. I fucking loathe so much about this game. The predatory cash shop. The constant, massive updates. The fact it has that fucking Unreal Engine stutter that everyone swears is the fault of lazy devs but even Epic can't fix in their own games. The horrific, aesthetic whip lash. The fact that it performs like shit and looks so blah. The fact that it is buggy as all hell. 2/10 and I only gave it any points because I enjoy my partner enjoying things.

I played a lot of games this year, but literally none of them matter in comparison to Deltarune. Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 released at some point this year and hijacked my mind like an evil fungus. It was simply incredible. The music is unparalleled, I truly believe that if you don't like a single aspect of Deltarune you will like the music anyway. Listen to the soundtrack if you haven't. Some highlights are Guardian, Ruder Buster and the Third Sanctuary. None of these are my favourite one, but my favourite comes with a very very cool narrative moment and I think its best to go in completely blind. The Third Sanctuary is unlike anything I've ever heard.

I don't want to say too much about the story because if you haven't played Deltarune, and Undertale was of any interest to you whatsoever, you need to play it unspoiled. Suffice to say that Kris might have unseated Asa Mitaka as my favourite character in fiction. I'm obsessed with them. Also they're the most visible nonbinary protagonist that I know of and helped me realise that I was nonbinary back when chapter 2 came out.

Undertale was a generational masterpiece. If you recall ten years ago, a popular discussion among journalists was whether or not video games are art, and people would always point to Undertale as proof of the artistry of video games. It was a paradigm changer. I was utterly obsessed with Undertale, and it was a very obvious 10/10 for me. So when Deltarune was announced, I was pretty cautiously optimistic, because nothing can really live up to Undertale.

But Deltarune is better than Undertale in every single way. Its the easiest 10/10 I've ever seen in my life. I thought it would be impossible to surpass Undertale, but Deltarune goes so far above and beyond. Its an incredible achievement.

Its one of those games where, when the credits roll, you know you've had something permanently changed in your brain chemistry. You'll never be able to relive the feeling of playing this game for the first time. Its like Disco Elysium or Nier: Automata, where the ending credits make me realise I've just witnessed something beautiful. Deltarune made me feel like this, but with the caveat that the game isn't even finished yet, its only halfway there. Seeing the message from the narrator and hearing Neverending Nights still gives me chills.

I'm always aware that the creators I love can fail even when they make something incredible. Tatsuki Fujimoto wrote my favourite manga ever, Chainsaw Man, and unfortunately I think part 2 just isn't as good as part 1. No one is infallible, and I'm always aware of the possibility of disappointment. But Toby Fox might be infallible I'm not gonna lie. Given everything that Undertale and Deltarune have delivered, I can't possibly imagine being disappointed by the final three chapters.

This year has been another year where I've played less games/spent less time playing.

Games I played for the first time this year

Megabonk- My most played game in 2025. A bit like Vampire Survivors, but in 3D. Less content/maps, but still got super addicted for a while. Still have characters, challenges, and difficulties to unlock, but just play occasionally now.

Clair Obscur- Good game and I liked it well enough. Not sure it really grabbed me as much as some of the past GOTY winners like Elden Ring. Haven't finished it.

Strange Antiquities- Someone recommended this and its kinda fun, kinda frustrating lol. Its a bit of a puzzle game where you have to figure out what occult objects your shop customers want based on how they describe it. Close to the end game, but got a bit much trying to track all of the inventory.

The First Bezerker: Khazan-Crunchy soulslike combat, with meh story. Got a bit frustrated at on point and just stopped playing. Might return to this one periodically like I do with another game on this list.

Hades II- Did quite a bit of playing during early access. Then I wanted to see things more fleshed out ( Lots of missing character and item designs). Started a new game when the full version was released aaaaand... I really haven't gotten as into it as much I had with the first Hades. Its not even that I don't like it, but I've just had a hard time sticking with most games I've played this year.

Satisfactory- Had a blast for a few weeks. then got back to focusing on Clair Obscur and the BF6 beta.

Red Dead Redemption- Had played 2 a bit a couple of years ago. Never played the original. Kinda fun, but travel started to feel like a bit of a pain in the ass even with the fast travel options. Story is compelling enough that I'll probably get back into it when I'm in the mood.

Ace Attorney Investigations- Never realized that Edgeworth had his own spinoff series, but I got pretty far into this one. Lots of fun, cute sprite designs and lost of the same hijinks as the mainline series. Got pretty far into this one, but still haven't finished it (as you all can see this is a running theme for me this year).

Night Runner/Xtreme Racer- Similar racing games. You go around challenging drivers to races on Tokyo highways. Racing games don't hold my attention as much as they used to. If I had to pick between the two Xtreme Racer would probably be the one I'd pick back up. Night Runner is pretty neat and I like the sensation of velocity that you get, but finding racing spots felt like more of a chore than it should be, at least much more so than Xtreme Racer.

Games that I came back to in 2025

Balatro- Originally got it on Steam and mostly played it on my Steam Deck, but carrying it gets kinda tiring. Ended up getting it on mobile and its become my ~~addiction~~ commute time waster.

Dark Souls- Played it on and off for years, but this was the first time I really got into it. Got better at parrying. Discovered the wonders of big bonk and no armor. Finally beat the boss I had been stuck on for years and then got to the next and got frustrated all over again lol. Will probably come back to it sooner rather than later though.

Elden Ring- Got though one playthrough the year it released. Loved it back then (put in nearly 200 hours). Tried coming back to it with a new build to get into the DLC and it just didn't hit quite the same. Muddled in the early game for a bit before dropping it. I might comeback to it at some point, but I've held of on getting the DLC since I'm not really feeling it at the moment.

Sekiro-Like DS1, played it on and off over the years and couldn't stick with it. Similarly got much better at parrying, made some progress and I'm stuck again and wavering on whether or not I really want to put in more hours.

Yakuza 3 Got in a few more hours, but couldn't get into it at the time. Kiwami 3 was recently announced and now I'm wondering if I should just wait for it or just finish this play through. I'm still very much in the early game.

It only took my 22 years to beat Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga for GB. The only other interesting things were the Forest and Civ 6.

a LOT of elder scrolls online

2025 in the chinese calendar is THE YEAR OF THE GAMER

A lot of No Man's Sky. Amazing game, it's the game I've wanted since I was a kid watching Star Trek TNG on first run syndication. Trek meets Minecraft meets Heavy Metal.

Hades 2, which is one of the best sequels I've ever played.

This year i have mostly played 4 games, first the new age of mythology plus the 2 new civ dlc, its been pretty fun, both chinese and japanese pantheon are fun to play and im happy next year they are getting the aztecs next, also the norse got a 4th new god and he is also pretty fun being mostly about being defensive

the next one is Numby's Number Factory which is a Peggle like game and its pretty chill, and also i keep playing FTL trying to unlock more ships. Also i played total warhammer 3 with the new norsca rework as throgg the troll king and he is pretty fun, you can just mass trolls and raze every city, last time i send 3 armies to raze not Germany and it was fun.

I also played Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds which was made by the old Age of Empires 2 devs, it was really fun i like how they added things like flying units and stealth, also its funny how the monk are represented by the jedi and sith and are really strong, i played with a mod expanding fronts which added new factions and QOL stuff, my favorite faction was the trade federation that fights by troop spaming with droideka and heavy mech support

the one i have played the most is probably Mario and Luigi Brothership, i really liked it, it was a good sequel specially since the og company that made the M&L games went bankrupt plus it was more like the old games.

Today i played Europa Universalis 5 for a bit, pirate it to see if my laptop can run it plus to learn a bit how to play it, I played bohemia for a bit and built mostly the most money making building and declared a war on saxony, took a provimence off them plus vassalize 4 dudes, which lead to a big coalition. lol

i will probably try to keep playing bohemian until i know what im doing, i also got a defensive pact with branderburg and palatinate, i think next time i will attack poland.