Games 2025
It was somewhere in the middle of 2025 when I realized that I could not find a speck of motivation to do anything else besides media consumption (aside from work, which I am obligated to do). Goals are goals, I told myself, and so I’ve set myself on the path of completing at least 12 games. The year was pretty much a success in that regard.
As for 2026, I will try to focus on experiencing a handful of games more thoroughly. I also don’t have that many unplayed (personal) GOTY hits lined up after 2025.
Completed
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
You either know exactly how big this game was in 2025 or you haven’t heard of it at all. As for me, I was completely obsessed with it because it so obviously is a Western JRPG (sounds weird, I know). Modern Japanese-made JRPGs mostly tend to balance on the edge of adolescence, which is a statement I make to point out that this trend predisposes a certain direction many of these games take rather than to impose a value - or quality - judgement. It’s great if that’s your thing and I am always for more games that people want to play getting made. Unfortunately, that is not the type of setting or story I want to play time and time again so Clair Obscur turned out to be exactly the thing I wanted: a mature story, a cast made up of mostly working-age characters and a beautiful belle-epoque world that reminded me of one of my favorite games ever - Final Fantasy VIII.
I won’t talk about the gameplay or the story here because there are N+1 reviews out there, but I will brag about the fact that I managed to end up in Lyon right around the time when they held the first live concert for the game. Seeing Lorien Testard jam on his guitar with an entire orchesta was absolutely epic. It was one of those moments where I felt that asking the question if “video games are art?” is completely useless because the real question now is: can the thing we traditionally consider “art” even catch up with the possibilities of a cross-discipline thing like video games.
An absolute 10/10 game. Also made it to my list of all-time favorites.
Only about 1/5th of the actual queue that was at the Amphiteatre 3000 is visible here. An absolute vibe to see so many people show up for a video game concert.
Pre-concert
Culmination. I won’t try to tell you how cool it was because you had to be there.
Death Stranding 2
The sequel to Kojima’s Fedex* simulator. The initial joke about it being a delivery simulator was, I think, coined in a slightly negative way, but for me this actually is the whole beauty of the game. Sure, Sam delivers packages, but he goes through Kojima’s interpretation of hell day-in and day-out. He doesn’t complain, he just does it. And you, the player, help him to achieve that. Most missions in Death Stranding 2 aren’t particularly stressful: you can aim to be as fast or as slow as you’d like (save for the few timed missions). You can sit down and watch the mountains or scroll Sam’s Social Strand Service feed where all the people he’s helped will be posting various memes and factoids for the player’s entertainment. It is the ultimate cozy game on steroids (read: an AAA budget and the video game equivalent of Spielberg directing it) which the player can tune to their liking. Going through the main story wasn’t difficult on Normal, and I feel like switching to Hard could have given me a better sense of achievement, but I approached it like Animal Crossing instead of Eldeng Ring, and it was great.
I still can’t completely decide if Death Stranding 2 or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was my absolute GOTY, but there are days when Death Stranding 2 sure feels like it. Another 10/10 from me.
*Or DHL/DPD/UPS/Any other local carrier.
Muv-Luv: The Day After parts 00, 01, 02 & 03
It’s hard to get people to agree that visual novels are actually games; there’s also the fact that Muv-Luv: TDA is technically one game split up into 4 (as of the time of writing) releases. However, I’ve deciced to list them as separate games.
It’s hard to describe Muv-Luv to anyone who hasn’t played it. The original Muv-Luv is actually two games in one: the first (Muv-Luv Extra) being a standard harem romcom set in a Japanese high school; the second part (Muv-Luv Unlimited) is where everything from the first part is undone via a parallel timeline plot device, and only the main character remembers anything. Oh, and that is also the timeline where BETA - The Beings of Extra Terrestrial origin which are Adversary to the human race - invade the Earth and the percentage of adult population that perishes fighting them causes Japan and the United Nations to establish academies that train literal teens to go fight bloody wars against hoardes of monsters.
Tl;dr the Muv-Luv universe is full of very astute political commentary and solid sci-fi (based on the Many-worlds interpretation, Causality, and some other obscure physics stuff). The largest hurdle of approaching the series is maybe its adolescent cast and the romcom part of Muv-Luv, but it is nonetheless one of the best written “video games” ever, I think.
So, what is The Day After, then? It’s one of several spin off stories that branch off from Muv-Luv Unlimited. It features a fully adult cast and deals with the aftermath of a very big event – the world getting bombed with loads of G-Bombs which are based on some magic particle that the BETA aliens have brough to the Earth – (select the text in the gap if you wish to see the spoiler) that caused the planet’s magnetic fields to destabilize and shift the oceans so that Eurasia got submerged and North America ended up with most of its surface covered in salt. This is the sociopolitical context for Muv-Luv The Day After and it ends up being a very fascinating read that swings between intense moments of mecha pilots barely saving the day from the BETA and crazy geopolitical bits where the Franco-Canadian alliance starts a war against the Empire of Japan and the United States. This constant infighting between the strapped-for-resources and scarce populations that still remain is a wonderful parallel to our own inability to unite around actual problems instead of partaking in petty quarrels.
Some random captures to give you a taste of the writing:
It happened :)
The game features a lot throwbacks to real-world politics, with the UN being a prominent force. This one is a joke about the UN being so stubborn with its bureaucracy that its adversaries couldn’t even scratch them through all the paper work.
Ad hominem is for losers, kids.
Self-referential humor about anime-style visual novels.
Bonus: if you need a meme.
Verdict: The Day After is a solid 9/10. I don’t even like visual novels, but I love Muv-Luv.
Pentiment
Another one of those hits that blindside you on some idle Tuesday. This game had existed in the periphery of my vision for the longest time, and I managed to watch the wonderful making-of by Noclip before ever touching it. The attention to detail in Pentiment is incredible: from trying to match the idiosyncrasies of late medieval art to all the tiny ways your choices direct the story. It’s a narrative-driven game worth celebrating.
Pentiment doesn’t have a lot to offer in terms of gameplay besides walking and reading, but that’s enough for the story it’s telling. The player is thrown into multiple murder cases without any clear direction and the game attributes guilt based only on player choices. It’s difficult to talk about this game without spoiling it so I highly suggest people to try it out themselves as it can be finished in 10-ish hours or so and has some amazing replay value should you wish to see how the story could unfold in different ways.
Verdict: 9/10. Play it.
Control
There is nothing else like it. Play it. Control is the perfect example of a mid-sized AAA game that does a handful of things so well you are left with no desire for anything extra.
Control takes place in the Federal Bureau of Control – a building that shifts and changes based on the weird items and beings that dwell inside. Due to this surreal nature of the building, there are many spaces that the player can explore and the level design is focused on depth rather than breadth. It’s very easy to run through a room and miss out on secrets hiding in its verticality or vice versa. The core story took me about 15 hours to finish, but I ended up playing another ~15 to go through sidequests and secret areas. That is something I very seldom do with any game because a) most games now turn exploration into finding 200 items from a list, or b) don’t actually feature any interesting spaces.
The action gameplay is tight with many character abilities to use and explore in combat. One downside is that it’s pretty easy to become overlevelled in the later part of the game so there’s no tactical benefit to messing with different powers, but the game is fun regardless.
Also, big kudos to Remedy for making their games feel like Twin Peaks. Not to mention how great Control Ultimate Edition looks and runs - deffo a 9/10.
The Last of Us Part I
I’ve played the original back when it released in 2013 and this one is a remake of that. Nothing much to say besides that it’s a great game and Naughty Dog always delivers peak quality. 9/10
Resident Evil 2 Remake
This one I have also played in its original form and I must say that the remake is definitely an improvement. I love “old-school” survival horror games that have puzzles and make the player explore small, but dense areas, and RE2 is no exception there. It’s also quite short (or rather, perfectly paced, in my opinion) by today’s standards so pick it up if you have an itch for zombie shooting. 8/10
Resident Evil 7
There is no shortage of good things I can say about what Capcom has done with the series. It’s almost hard to believe that the poor ol’ Resident Evil 6 came out before this one because the change is so dramatic.
RE7 is full of intense moments where you are getting chased while simultaneously trying to solve a puzzle. It’s also dark, gritty and often disgusting, sparing no effort to indulge the player in discomfort. While the story is nothing to write home about, the way it employs gameplay, immersion and set design is what makes it a video game first and foremost. And I appreciate it for that. 8.5/10
Detroit Become Human
Some of the most beautifully rendered humanoids in a video game. An interesting concept. Unfortunately, the story hasn’t aged well and the gameplay is often tedious and ridden with immersion-breaking input feedback issues. Mid character writing. 7/10
Carrying over into 2026
- Persona 3 Reload (~70% done)
- Bloodborne (~20% done)
Dropped
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (~60% done)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (~30% done)
Carried over from 2024 and completed in 2025
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
I only had good things to say about the first part of the remake and not many good things to say about this one. Great characters and cinematics, definitely a big budget theme park ride. Did I have fun for the most of the 90 hours it took me to finish? No.
Muv-Luv Alternative
It would be up there with all the classic sci-fi stories, but unfortunately it’s a visual novel with anime characters. An absolute loss for humanity. 10/10