2025 games list

2025 is almost done (yay?). I’ve played a bunch of games, started a bunch of games, never completed some and completed most of them I believe. This is the list of what I played overall the whole year, even the games I only played 10 minutes.

Games I finished

2024 Mosaic Retrospective (free)

Minesweeper/Nonogram puzzle game with events that happened in 2024. Very depressing year, I tell you. That hippo was one of the few nice things on there. There is not much to say about this kind of puzzle. There are 3 of them on this list. Color the right amount of tiles around a given number and you’re done. They are very huge though, so if you like this kind of game, go for it. It is free after all.

20 Small Mazes (free)

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=168

You cannot go wrong with a free game that does funny stuff with its simple idea. I like Fleb’s games. I’ve nothing more to say about this than I’ve already said.

A Buildung Full of Cats 2

You know, there are so many games where you need to click on cats. Steam is full of them. But I still like the Devcats games. They are charming and the money goes to help the cats they rescued. So this is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

An Airpot for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=118

I dropped this game at one point because I couldn’t be bothered finding the right gate at some aiport. I decided this year that the game is pretty neat, so it deserved to be completed in its entirity. After losing myself in the airports to many times I did it, and it was worth it. Neat little story. Such a weird charming game.

Arietta of Spirits

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=259

One of the worst game I played this year. It is not bad, just completely forgettable, sadly. Well done, but nothing else to make it stand out in a sea of games of the same genre. It is a zelda-like, action top-down adventure game. It is cute.

Ascent DX (free)

This is a game jam game on itch.io (if I’m not mistaken) that got polished up for its steam release (hence the DX). It is a tiny metroidvania that will not take long to complete (around 1h for me). But hey, it was incredibly good and fun for what it wanted to be. I will take this over Silksong anytime.

Astro bot

I do not own a PS5. So this game was kinda slow to finish by hogging the PS5 at my brother’s home. I’m still missing some bots (4-5 from the main game and then the DLCs), but I’ve completed the main story. I’ve not had so much fun with a 3D plateformer since forever. It is so good. Better than Odyssey and Bananza by a long shot. Also, it’s a very happy game. Everything is full of joy, always and ever, for all eternity.

Bad Dream: Fever (free)

Horror point-and-click game a friend suggested I try out. It is set in a wider universe and it reminded me of Rusty Lake, though less abstract, more compact and also less compelling (but still compelling). I haven’t played other games of the series right now, but I did buy them, so this one worked well. Post-apocalyptic game where a strange disease killed all human life, basically. Again, a free point and click game is nothing to complain about.

Banyu Lintar Angin: Little Storm (free)

This is basically a comic in video game format for some reason. It takes 10 minutes. There is no gameplay, it’s a comic. If I remember correctly it is indonesian.

Batography (free)

Cute and free tiny game where you play a bat who needs to take photographs. Not very long as most free games, but it is an enjoyable experience.

Cat Quest III

Cat Quest III! You cannot go wrong with Cat Quest! I and II were fun and short to play, very meowestic. The puns never stop. They. Never. Stop. You’ll hate or love them. The games are a good time, especially if you can play II and III in coop with a friend.

Cats & Seek: Toge Land (free)

Lots of free games this year, yes. Also I still had a “look for X number of cats” game in the library. They are like cockcroaches, but for your steam library. Steam-library-cockroaches. They never stop, those cat-looking-games. But also, they are free with paid DLC if you ever want to do even more of them.

Cavern of Dreams

This game was quit charming in its own right. Not the best there is but it does a good job at emulating the Banjo-Kazooie-N64-collectathon feeling. It is also quit short, one or two afternoons of playing should do it. The end boss is frustrating though. Most of the games is pretty chill, but that last boss didn’t care about the chill vibes.

Chicken Journey

One of my friends do like chicken as animals. The moment she had some at home, she was done for. She suggested this game, it was a very pleasant surprise. It is a tiny plateformer with sidequests. All to answer one important question: what was first? Egg or chicken? It is worth its cheap price for one or two afternoons of cute chicken adventure.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=104

One of my games of the year. It is just that good. If you know it you know it, if you’re on the internet you’re aware of the hype. The hype is too much, but it is a great game. The soundtrack is a banger, although also overhyped, but it’s great. It deserves the praise.

Cocoon

I wanted something more challenging from Cocoon, I guess. The mind-fuckery the trailers kinda hinted at. It is there, but not at the level I expected. My best friend did have trouble at the end keeping the worlds in order, so, I guess the difficulty is all right. The idea is actually pretty great. You’re moving orbs around and each orb contains another world. You can go inside the orbs. You can go orb in orb in orb. Orbsception. It is very pleasing to play, the atmosphere is great, and even though the puzzles are nicely guided and put together, you’ll always feel satisfied solving them.

Coffee Talk – Episode 2: Hibiscurs & Butterfly

I did not enjoy this one as much as I did the first one. It was too long for what it wanted to tell, but there are still some great and touching moments in it. The Coffe Talk games are cozy and great in their own regard. If you like the formula, you cannot go wrong. Very sad, though, that the main person behind these games passed away so young and never saw this one finished.

DOGWALK (free)

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=232

Look, free games are great if they have a neat and short idea to build upon. Dogwalk would have been terrible if it was several hours long, but half an hour of a dog dragging a child along to construct a snowman? Yes, please. Developped by Blender, it is a free delight. You’re always the winner: half an hour is nothing, if you dislike the experience you haven’t lost much time. If you liked the experience, you had a rad half an hour.

Donkey Kong Bananza

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=184

Good gameplay. Good game. But I’m still mad because of the nostalgia bait.

Dordogne

Our french friends either do Plague Tails or Expedition 33 like games, or they do very artsy games with watercolours and fancy effects. Dordogne is visualy very beautiful. The stories will always be depressing in their own regard, because for some reason the french do like their depressing stories about death and moving on. Dordogne tells us the story of a girl remembering her time in Dordogne at her grandmothers house while visiting again after her death.

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terrible Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (free)

A short narrative experience from William Pugh (Stanley Parable). It is pretty old (2015) and full of tiny bugs. But hey, it’s free and great to see how they evolved. It is still fun to play and to listen too. Stanley Parable is unbeatable though. I love that game so much.

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping

The first Duck Detective was so much fun, I loved every bit of it. The second one, though, was kinda meh. It is even shorter than the first one, but also the glamping part wasn’t that important in the end, and I really wanted my glamping ghost. The quality is there, so you cannot go wrong if you liked the first one or a Duck Detective with bread addiction solving cases.

Everdeep Aurora

Birthday gift from my best friend!! It came out when she visited me and I hesitated to buy the game, so she took the decision of my hand. It’s a great game, one of my favorite indie games this year! The concept is great and there seems to be still some secrets burried in the game. It as also a roguelike element: you can replay it over and over, every run has a different map.

Factory Town Idle

I like playing an idle game per year I guess. The nice thing about idle games, you actually don’t have to play them, they will play themselves. This one was strangely not very idly. There was more planing and strategizing thant I expected. It also made it interesting to play. There was something strangely satisfying when one of your town finally didn’t need you to tweak their ressources.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=108

My most played games if one looks at the gameplay time. All because of the Belzeebub Tuna. I haven’t forgotten. RNG is RNG. Even if it’s fair, you just can get unlucky. The game is great otherwise and has a whole free DLC now.

Final Fantsy II

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=201

It is Final Fantasy II. It did some neat things, but it was overall tedious. I do not believe that FFI and II did age well and the pixel rematers are the only way to experience them without suffering too much. The password system is great. The fact that you’vre characters with names and backstory too.

Final Fantasy III

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=222

Still my favorite of the old FFs. I like the exploration and the freedom of the jobsystem.

Final Fantasy IV

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=228

The foundation of the FF-formula as we know it. I’m not as found of IV than other people, but it does a decent job being the first SNES Final Fantasy.

Fire Tonight

Ok, I remember that I got this one in a fire-themed bundle I bought because Firewatch was in it. And that’s all I remember, honestly. You play a girl that needs to reunite with her boyfriend, while a fire is ravaging the city and the boyfriend kinda does nothing. She had some powers related to music. It was servicable.

Glass Masquerade 4: Constellations

The Glass Masquerade are very beautiful stained glass jigsaw puzzles. The first one is still the best, but the other ones are still great. If you like the visuals and jigsaw puzzles there is no hesitation to have.

Hello Goodboy

Meh. Good thing is: the dog doesn’t die. The dog guides a dead person through his life choices, if I remember correctly, but my memories are hazy. The story was not that great, there were some moral choices per level and I believe two endings?

Hidden Cats in Santa’s Realm

Ok, I think I’m done. I do not have any other hidden freaking cats in my library now. I’ll never buy a cat-bundle again on steam. Never ever.

Hidden Paws

I played this, apparently. I have no memories. It was a puzzle game. You need to find cats. Yeah. I’m so done finding cats.

If On A Winter’s Night, Four Travelers (free)

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=156

The best free game I played this year. The pixel art is amazing, the point and click great, the story absolutely good for a free game. This should not be free, really. I’ll gladly pay the devs for this.

In Stars and Time

I enjoyed this game. You’re stuck in a timeloop at the end of a perilous journey: you only have the big bad king to defeat in order to save the world! But you die. And our hero, Sifrin, is stuck in a timeloop until the king is dead and the world saved. I love the art, and I love the fact that you really have to play Sifrin going to all of it again and again and again. It really makes you feel as desperate as the character. There are enough changes so that I never found it boring, but I also really love every character in this.

Is This Seat Taken?

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=122

I enjoyed the demo, but the full game didn’t convince me. Too repetitive, I guess?

It Paints Me (free)

A short, free, visual novel which lasts under one hour. As always with these free games, you’ll never loose. At worst you’ll have a disappointing one hour at most.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

Some people do dislike the silliness of this game. But the game is pretty clear about this: the ending of the tutorial is Majima doing a disney-musical-song on a boat with a teenager and a tiger-kitten. If you ever thought this was going to be serious at some point, you missed very big signs. It is silly. It is fun if you indulge in the silly. It’s also a spin-off and, well. Silly. I enjoyed my time very much.

Lost But Found

People lose things. You give them back. It looked more enjoyable than it was in the end.

Lotte

Lotte is pretty honest. It tells you in the description that it is a five-minute puzzle game. It took seven minutes to 100%. It is not free, but it is very cheap.

Mega Mosaic

The second of my three mega mosaic games! Some rules, different motive. Still very much big.

Milo and the Magpies

This one is a hidden point-and-click gem for sure. Short, handrawn, Milo the cat need to get home through the neighbours’ garden. The puzzles are not hard, but also not too easy, and it is full of charm.

Misericorde Volume One

Visual Novel inspired by Umineko. But actually with a good length. 3 episodes in all, you follow Hedwig, a noun, trying to find the murdrer of one of her sisters in a remote monastery in the 15th century. It’s a great surprise, I didn’t expect much (I liked the drawings) but it was very compelling.

Misericorde Volume Two

We pick up where we left of in the first volume. I do not want to spoil anything in these kind of story, so if you like what you see and read, just try it out.

Monument Valley 3

If you liked Monument Valley 1 and 2, then you’ll 3. It’s the same game, different puzzles, same idea, roughly the same length. It’s more Monument Valley. They are fine puzzle games.

Mouthwashing

The hype ruined this for me. I new about the game way before it came out, I’ve played how fish is made before and replayed it with the update which had the Mouthwash preview in it. But the sudden hype demotived me, so I only played it this year. It’s great, though. Psychological horror done right.

No Sleep for Kaname Date – From AI: The Somnium Files

This game is to AI: The Somnium Files, what Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is to the yakuza series. A spin-off that you should not take seriously at any point whatsoever. The AI: The Somnium Files are extremely silly to begin with, but this one has not chill when it gomes to the silliness and Date’s NSFW addiction. Date and Aiba are a great pairing though.

Once Upon a Katamari

It is here!! A new Katamari!! It is real, it’s not an illusion, it’s a new Katamari game! It’s great, I love it. It does everything right. It is exactly what I want from a Katamari game. My life is now complete (no it’s not, but a new Katamari!!!)

One Line Coloring

In the depths of my steam library, I do have a ton of games I try to play slowely but stadely. I don’t know how this ended up in my library, but it did. It’s… cute? But… yeah. You need to draw pictures if only one line, on a given path. The challenge is to manage to do so without the lines overlapping. Yes, there are way way better puzzle games than this.

OneShot, World Machine Edition

Great game! The World Machine Edition makes the game playable on every console and support since it gives you a fake desktop interface. The tradeoff is that the actual twists are somewhat spoiled. It’s great. I love it. Very charming.

Paperbark

The game is visually very cute. Gameplaywise boring. But it wants to teach you about wombats and animal habitats in Australia

PowerWash Simulator 2

Ok, this is one of my guilty-pleasure game. I know I spend hours cleaning stuff but it feels SO GOOD. Best game to play while listening to podcats. That’s all.

Proverbs

The last minesweeper/nonogramm game from the same developper as the mega mosaics. It’s basicaly a huge picture divided into tiny pictures which each represent a medival proverb.

Quadrata

This game gave me headaches. Puzzle game where you need to solve two puzzles at the same time. I have forgotten all about this, except the headaches.

Resonance of the Ocean

This was a game jam game I believe. As such it is very short. Sound-based, you hear sounds from far away and you need to find objects on your island to reproduce them. Innovative and sweat.

Samorost 2

I’ve never played Samorost 2 and 3, so… Very charming but also old point and click games, from a time indie games were new.

Score the Fear

You know those games that are clearly put together 3D assets bought in the unity or unreal store, except maybe one or two original assets? This one is like that. But somehow it manages to be charming. I can imagine someone having a vision here, but no idea what to do but trying nonethless. It’s a japanese game where you need to coach a tiny ghost to be scary. You have to score him everyday on how scary he was. Very cute (and sad), with several endings.

Stories of Blossom

Sometimes I DO wonder how some games end up in my steam library. This is one several I played this year. A hand-drawn point-and-click, but only enjoyable if you have a small child to play it with. It is cute, but it is a children’s game. There is nothing to gain from this as an adult, except if you like children games.

Strange Jigsaws

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=130

Most creative game of the year award in this list.

The Answer is 42

I played this. I did. I don’t know what to say more. You need to combine the numbers to get 42. It is what it is, and I’m pretty sure I was bored enough to use a walkthrough at some point because I was done and wanted it to be done too.

The Roottrees are Dead (+ Mania)

Puzzle game of the year, with Lok. The DLC (Roottreemania) is even more complex. It has a somewhat of an Obra Dinn vibe, which is great, because Obra Dinn is one of my favorite puzzle games of all time. Very high recommend. I want more of this kind of games. So much more.

This is Not Your House

Tiny horror visual novel that will last around 20 minutes. You come home from groceries and a lady has taken over your house. You then have a bunch of choices on how terribly you’re going to die.

Time on Frog Island

Look, I… don’t know. Small openworld puzzle game. Cute. It should be up my alley. But for some reason I just didn’t understand what the game wants me to do to a point I waited for my best friend to come over in order to play together. The game only uses pictures and no text, and somehow, whatever the frogs wanted to tell me, I was unable to put it together.

Tiny Bookshop

Impressions: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=188

One of my most anticipated indie games of the year. It did not disappoint. Very chill, very cozy, very much wholesome.

Trolley Delayma (free)

I do not expect much from my free games. But this one was a lot of fun. Very short, but a lot of fun. If you have half an hour (or less) you cannot go wrong. The levels are creative. This year had a lot of great tiny free games.

Tukoni (free)

Very charming, very short point-and-click adventure that kind of functions as a demo for a more extensive game which is still to come. It’s free. There is nothing to lose here.

Wavetale

Article: https://brouillamini.revenniaga.com/?p=251

Very fun short 3D-aventure-plateformer. I do recommend the game, but I have nothing more to say that hasn’t already been said.

We’ll always have Paris

Ah, yes, the tiny indie game that somehow ended up in my steam library and I have no clue how it happenend. A bundle, I guess. Anyway it is a short emotional game about dementia. If you’ve played games with this theme before, it is pretty obvious since the very beginning.

Games I didn’t finish (yet)

1000xResist

I’ve “finished” the game. But I want to see some more endings. It is a really great game. More an interactive story than anything else, but the interactivity really makes the story shine. It is in its own way very creative. One of my favorite visual novel/interactive story experience so far and one of the best games I played this year even if it’s from 2024.

Alephant

I like my puzzle games. I am also very slow and playing my puzzle games. Alephant is a sokoban-kind of puzzle but with a langague twist. It is interesting to play, and I like to come back to it from time to time and try new levels. I am also very bad at it.

Blue Prince

I love Blue Prince. The idea, the execution, all of it is compelling. But I am also an unlucky person. I’ve spent over 20 runs without getting the room I need to just finish the game. I’ve begun solving post-game riddles because I had no clue what to do. Turns out I only lack the foundation room. And it never came. And now I am somewhat less inclined to come back to the game, especially when I see friends and streamers getting most things I worked very hard for in the first couple of runs. The RNG is interesting, but also very disheartening.

Cauldron

Probably the incremental game of the year. I’ve played through it when I visited my father, not all the way through, but a good chunk. It is going to be a long game if you want to finish everything. If incremental games are up your ally, this is a must play. It has a lot of different activities to do, which surprises me. Somehow the “pick-up apples” game evolved into a full blown shmup.

Cross Code

Ok, Cross Code is really good. But somehow I can’t get into the game properly. I’ve played around 10 hours and somthing doesn’t click for me right now, but it is a very beautifuly crafted game. If you like the feeling of SNES-RPGs Cross Code will deliver hard.

Dungeon and puzzles

When my best friend came by, she choose this game to play. And left me all the hard levels to do (we didn’t manage to finish it while she was there)! The idea behind this game is actually pretty interesting. It has the “ice” mechanics (ou will slide until stopped by an obstacle) combined with objects that do different things, like a bow to shoot an arrow (that you need to pick up) or the shield that enables you to push objetc etc. You need to kill all ennemies and leave in a specific number of moves. It is challenging, but alone it’s also way less fun.

Dungeons of Dreadrock

I think I played too many puzzle games this year, so I kinda burned out on this one. It is not too hard though. You need to save your brother by going through a dungeon where every floor is a puzzle. Visually very A Link to the Past.

Egg Squeeze

This one will not take long to complete I believe. You need to squeeze eggs. And not break them. It is actually very fun and experimental and I love my experimental video games. I got interrupted playing it, and as such, have a hard time starting it up again.

En Garde!

A friend gifted me this game almost 2 years ago, and I finally started playing it. It is very colourful, and the gameplay a lot of fun. But it also seems to be pretty repetitive, so I’m kinda unsure of how I like it right now. I’m having a grad time overall. Thanks for the gift, otherwise I would never have tried it, ignoring its existence!

Final Fantasy XVI

I’ve noticed a pattern when it comes to me and long story games: I can take 30 hours. After this I drop of hard or I need a break. My Final Fantasy XVI break as been very long right now. It is pretty hard to get into it again if you stop for some reason, but also, I do not have the right PC to run it. Both my computer and my steamdeck are having a hard time. For a game that is a visual candy party, it’s a bit of a shame. Yes, I could play it on my deck when I’m traveling, but hey maybe I’ll have another visually mega over-the-top combat that will look horribly bad on the deck, so maybe I should wait to get home again and play it on the computer? And once on the computer, it’s putting up wit long charging times and all the joyful things. But yeah, I should finish it. It is interesting. Also very frustrating. Poor Jill, she really did deserve a better treatment from the writers.

Ghost of Tsushima

Remember the 30 hours of game I mentioned juste before? That’s where I’m at in Ghost of Tsushima. Really nice game. Pretty chill. I’ve done all the openworld on the first part of the island and I’ve only mainstory left. I’ll come back to it after my short break. It runs well on the steamdeck!

Gurumin – A Monstrous Adventure

I’ts Falcom. I do like Falcom games. Gurumin is very cheerful, very whimsical, very 3D-platformy. And also retro from 2004. As such it hits a nostalgic sweet spot for those early 3D games I grow up with. This is pur and fun nostalgia, and I need to finish it some time (I think I was against a boss that gave me some trouble).

Hi-Fi Rush

This one falls into the category of “I’m very charmed, I love it, but also I needed to stop playing it because of rea-life-stuff-happening, and then I never got into it again”. But I liked all of the game, the gameplay is such a delight. The music great, the visual popping.

Isles of Sea & Sky

This is not a good puzzle game. For some reasons I can’t figure out why. I love my sokobans, so an open world sokoban seems like a dream made in heaven, but I just got bored really quickly. Maybe I should give it another go. Or not.

Little Goody Two Shoes

This one also falls into the category of “I finished it, but there are more endings I want to see”. I am extremely fan of the whole esthetic of the game. The 90s shojo style is nailed down to every detail, combined with a horror fairytale story… it makes for a special kind of delight I wholeheartly recommend. More people need to now about this game.

Logic Bombs

This game is hard. Or I am stupid. Probably the second. But damn. Matthew Matosis, you will not win. I will triumph. One day. I don’t know what it is with all those youtuber doing their own games but this one wins best award for this category.

Lok

This is my puzzle game of the year. I had a lot of fun with it. But also, I lost all my progress because of a bug, so now I was kinda bumped out for months. But it is a very very good puzzle game. It exists as a book too before getting its digital version, so you can also buy a paper version if you like playing with pencils and earesers. Such a good puzzle game. I’ve finished the main game and I am know(stuck) in the post-game levels.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

This game took me some time to get used too, but damn, it is a good puzzle game (yes, I know, I repeat this a lot). I also started playing it while visting my dad, and that’s not the game to play when you cannot take notes efficently. For me at least. I need more notes so I don’t forget things. But of course, once I was back home, I got sidetracked with *waves around* all the other stuff on this list.

Mini Motorways

This is my neverending game. I love it so much and I still have so many achievements to do, and they also never stop adding content to it to a point I considered putting it in the last category of this article. But in the end it never gets old. It’s just that good.

Pentiment

I am so late to the party, but that game is so good. I enjoyed so much of it. I played it together when my best friend visited and now I’m wondering if I should continue on and finish it or wait until I see her again. She bought the game for herself, but also, it is fun to play and make choiced together.

Preserve

Strategy game where you need to create habitats and biomes for your animal with cards. It is very neat. I enjoy my occasional run.

Silent Hill F

One of my game of the year 2025. I enjoyed it a great deal, but I’m also easily convinced by mystical japanese settings. I do not have a silent hill history so I’ve no clue if it is a good Silent Hill game or not. Most of my friend do believe so, though, so that is great. It is just a shame the game wants you to replay it in its entierty several times for all the endings. This is were the game lost me. Ryukishi can write me several too long episodes of visual novels, but replaying all this three times or more? Hell no.

Silksong

Confession time: I’ve never been the greatest Hollow Knight fan. I like it. It is a great game. I’ll suggest the game to friends. It is good. But I was also very happy to be at the end. I just want my metroidvania to be short and crisp. Silksong did thus not interest me that much, but when they announced the price I figured I cannot go wrong here. Cheap and full of content, I’m bound to be happy at some point. Well, I am not. I am very bored at the beginning. I may come back one day, but right now I don’t understand why I should be bothered running around extremely long distances with annoying basic ennemis that take to many hits for no reasons at all (they are not even hard, just annoying) to maybe find something at several hours in the game.

Soulstone Survivors

Vampire Survivor clone, but a lots and lots of content. It wants to be more than Vampire Survivor and it succeeds at this. I do a run from time to time.

Threes

This is like 2046, but with 3s. it is a no-brainer. I’m also done with this on a personal level, but maybe I’ll sometimes do a run when I feel bored.

Two Point Museum

This game is so MASSIVE. But a lot of fun. But I’ll never finish it with all the content there already is in it. It is even better than Two Point Hospital which is basically Theme Hospital. I never thought building museums can be so much fun, but here we are.

Whisper of the House

Chill game I keep for chill times! Nothing more to say, honestly. People want you to redecorate and clean their houses, you do so, there is chill stuff do to everywhere and all. Have fun being creative and relax.

Yakuza 3

I swear to you I’ll finish this one soon. Before Kiwame 3 comes out. I love the yakuza series. But the camera of Yakuza 3 makes me very nauseous. The combat is also the worst of all Yakuza games I’ve played. Kiryu is still the most precious.

Games that updated on me (and I hate them for it) and live service games

There is a time where I want to be done with games. Some games have led their courses, it is alright to declare them finished. Adding content years later only feels bad. You’re done with it, packed it away, and then suddenly your progress gets lost and you don’t understand what happened. It stings really hard losing your 100% afters several years of no new content. Somehow, I had some of the games listed below bascially reset my progress back-to-back, which warranted this tiny venting section. Cell to Singularity and Fairy Solitaire are the two contenders for this. These games were almost updated the same week if I recall correctly.

Cell to Singularity

This is the worst offender to me in this category. It is an idler game so it was kinda to be expected, I guess, that new content would show up at some point, but two years later feels meh. The new achievements also are very grindy. So I’ll not bother with it. I’ve played 80h. It’s all right. Do not ask me to come back after this many hours already put into your game.

Genshin Impact

I’ve been a first week player of Genshin Impact when it came out. It is also the only live-service and gacha game that managed to hook me to some extend. It being a free open-world when the lockdown hit was its strongest point: I could play with some friends I couldn’t see otherwise. It was colourful and joyful in a boring time. The story and the world managed to hook me enough to play it regularly for the next years, a feat no other live-service game has managed to pull of. I did fall of at the end of Fontaine though, and Natlan killed the game entirely for me. I disliked the very overstretched story, I hate the characterdesign which only become worse and worse for me, I even disliked the exploration which was my favorite part, and absolutely hate the powercreep that is happening since Natlan. Let me play with my characters frome version 1 and 2, thank you very much, I put a lot of time into them. I do not want to hunt the fake currency to pull for characters I do not like and want only to be able to play the game. I returned for Nod-Krai, the new region and I’m still not thrilled, although I like it better than Natlan. So, I guess this was it for me. I’m now completely live-service and Gacha free, only occasionly loging in for the main quest.

Fairy Solitaire Remastered

This one also feels bad, but on a different level. I played it while at universtiy during lockdown. This is how old the game is. I liked the Fairy Solitaire games for what they are: solitaire games. And I kinda understand what the developpers tried to do here. The team is basically two brothers, one doing the programming and the other one the art. Sadly, the artist got sick and still isn’t able to draw again, thus all their games coming to a halt for years and years. It is especially hard to find an illustrator to take up the work: solitaire games are a lot of illustrations, the cards, the background, the story bits.… this one even has pets to evolve. They do not have the money, since they’re two people, and so no illustrator will bother putting so muchtime in a tiny solitaire game. As sad as it is, it is understandable. So the developper decided to do the one forbidden thing: use AI to complet the old, almost done, projects. The DLC for this one only needed drawings to be done, and so he generated them (they AI trained on the work of his brother if I’m not mistaken) and put it out with a ton of new achievements. The AI pictures are to be replaced with real illustrations as soon as … real illustrations exist. I get the sentiment, the bad feeling of having your project sitting ther for 4-5 years, and wanting closure. But from the players perspective their closure is suddenly undone, topped of with AI.

Infinity Nikki

I tried Infinity Nikki. I kinda like the idea of an never-ending updated whimsical open world. But in the end, Infinity Nikki is extremly grindy if you want anything. So I just stopped. I only have a limited number of 5 minutes I can give live-service games per day. That’s why I do not like Live-Service games in the end. I try everytime and I lose interest very quickly. I like to play when I want to and not when I have to in oder to not miss out.

Storyteller

Ok, to be fair, this one is a b it older, but I only played it again this year. I enjoyed Storyteller together with my best friend on 2023 I believe, and we liked it so much, that we did everything there was to do. Really a neat little game. But then, at one point, suddenly 0% achievements. As if we never played the game. From 100% to 0%. Achievements are a great way to track your progress and this was very confusing. “Do I remember something wrong?” kind of confusing. So apprently the developper killed all the achievements, put them ingame, and replaced it with other achievements and new content over a year after we played it, I believe? I don’t know exactly why one would to such a thing instead of only adding to the existing ones. Feels a bit disrespectful to the people who did all the extra stuff. But hey, it’s only achievements. So, when my friend came to visit me this year, we played the new content and needed to redo the older achievements in the end because they didn’t unlock automatically. There is also now a “play the game over 2 hours” achievements, which always feels bad to see, 2 hours being the play time you’re still able to refund the game. So I guess this sums up what happened here.

Vampire Survivor

Look, I love Vampire Survivor. The game is great, it is fun. I played it the most while doing papers for university. Every break would be a 30 minutes run of Vampire Survivors. The first updates were enjoyable. I had a lot of fun going back to 100% of achievements again and be happy. The game has so much content that doing everything is not interesting enough for me, so the achievements are a nice goal to complete since they do not require you to complete everything there is. But at this point I want to be done with the game. I dread the new updates. It is totally a sunk cost fallacy at this point: I’ve spent the time to do over 200 achievements, so getting the 100% stripped of feels bad, I already did over 200 after all, I can do another 10-20 achievements. So I’m coming back to every update, play it and be done with it. The worst thing? It still is fun after all those years. The dopmine hits hard on this one. I guess that’s what a toix relationshiop looks like.