It's been a great year for gaming, I think. Granted, only 6 or so of the games I've played this year came out in 2025, but judging by what all my friends have been saying, it's apparently been a great year for gaming. I trust them.
Like I've done the last couple years, I will now talk indepth about every single game I played this year, listed in order of when I played them (and grouped together if they're part of the same series). I'll try not to do too much, if any spoiler talk.
I start rambling a lot, so this will be Part 1 of a (what should be) two part post. Second part will be up before the end of the year.
1) AGAIN
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I know, I’m starting off this list with a real scrimblo bimblo of a pick. It’s only gonna get more dire as I list more and more visual novels, okay
AGAIN is a mystery game on the Nintendo DS created by CING, the genius(?) minds behind Another Code and the Kyle Hyde series. Sometime last year, I decided I wanted to try and play all of CING’s library and picked this up, but this was the only game of theirs I played this year.
AGAIN follows FBI agents J and his partner Girl Character I Forgot The Name Of tackling a case with uncannily similar details as the case that involved the murder of J’s family 18 years ago. Are these incidents linked? What does it all mean? Using J’s unique gameplay ability to tap into the force to look into the past, he and his partner begin to unravel what it could all mean…
Okay, it’s time for me to get real here. I don’t think CING was really that good at writing mystery stories. Now, this wasn't gonna stop them from writing them while they were active because they really seemed to like them, but across multiple games, they seem to share the same writing quirks— the core of the mystery (whodunnit) is usually pretty obvious by the 40%-60% mark, and the actual endgame reveal of the whodunnit and other details is incredibly unsubtle and weird. I can’t say what it is here because that would be spoilers, and this game is a unique enough romp that I’d say you should play it, but it’s as if the characters acknowledge there’s someone playing the game on a DS and need things spelled out for them. The big bad acts intentionally obvious for the benefit of said player.
I don't think they got good at writing mysteries until the end of their lifetime with Another Code R and Last Window, and even those aren't perfect. Their other "spiritual successor" games post-closure, Chase (i'm counting this fuck you) and Another Code Recollection don't have the greatest mysteries either. I have yet to play the game that the original artist was involved in that came out this year, not sure if that's a mystery too, if it is then I'm curious how it holds up.
Anyways, as I said before, AGAIN is a unique enough experience that I say to play it. It's maybe 10ish hours so not that much of a commitment. The most unique part is the live action/FMV aspect which I think is really fun. But I guess they got scared Americans wouldn't like that because the American boxart is so boring that I featured the Japanese boxart for the header of this section.
...Wait what could you do on the wifi for this fuckass game
2.5/5
2) Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling
This is the fandisc/sequel to Cupid Parasite, which is already one of my most favorite otome games ever. If you haven't played that, then this will hold little value to you, as 6 of the 7 routes are just sequel routes— AKA, "what happened at the end of the route from the first game" routes. I highly recommend both the first game and this game because this was a great treat. Super fun scenarios, funny moments, really really absurdist writing that makes this stand out from so many other otome games.
Not much I can say about it without you knowing the context of the first game, so I'll give my three highlights:
1) This game has a lot of borderline sex. They describe it in very flowery ways and don't show it, but if you're a #FemaleGoonerAndProud, you will love this game. They really need to let Yuuya (the artist of this game) draw porn because you can tell she's holding back during all of these CGs like how Goku and the gang wear weighted clothes.
2) I saved my favorite guy from the first game's route for last, and half of it was about how he had erectile dysfunction. This route was insane for probably five different reasons, this being one of them, and another reason being you can choose to get distant from him after his ED problems, he gets distant from you too, and then you can cheat on him with another man and have your relationship end in divorce. The game will ask you three times if you REALLY want to see that ending also. It's so fucking funny
3) One of the routes has you fuck your chosen love interest while he's a wolf-dog-thing. If I recall correctly they also ask you if you really wanna see that ending, or at least make it really hard for you to get. It's kind of insane ngl, a lot of people did not like this, but some freakazoids also really liked this. I'm telling you this game was made for female gooners.
5/5
3) Otogirisou
This is a hard game to rate. While important for its time, it doesn't hold up to what you can read today. You really wouldn’t play this unless you’re insanely visual novel-pilled (me) and even if you do it’s not very interesting— a weird trait of this game is scary things will happen to the main characters, they freak out, and then about 10 lines later they totally forget that happened. If a suit of armor came to life in front of me and started moving around I'd probably have a heart attack and die, but not these guys.
I can describe Otogirisou as how playing any Uchikoshi game post-Ever17 is better than playing Ever17, because Ever17 itself is actually boring as hell save for a few parts, even if it directly influences all of Uchikoshi's work.
2.5/5
4) The Entirety Of Xenosaga (1, 2, Pied Piper, Flash Game Thing, 3)
Following the announcement of Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition and some people saying "they totally reference Xenosaga in the new content", I decided it was about time to lock in and get through all of Xenosaga so I could understand what would go on in X (which I would also play for the first time, I skipped it on the Wii U).
I am gonna get a little bit mean in this section, so scroll by if you don't want to see all of this. But by the end of this experience, I genuinely fucking hated Xenosaga LOL.
I played Xenogears in 2023 and while I walked away from that experience thinking, "Honestly, I only grasped maybe 30-50% of all of that, but I feel like I liked it" (sort of akin to how it felt for me to finish Remember11 or the hit movie I'm Thinking Of Ending Things), I walked away from this experience thinking, "I only grasped maybe 20-40% of that and I'm fuckin PISSED".
Thoughts on each game:
Episode I: Actually good and probably my favorite of all of them. Good set up, I dig the art style, I'm confused by some of the plot but I do like the vibes. I don't have much to say about this one because it's a solid 3/5 for me which is the "good" range.
I love Shion as a protagonist, and I love her interesting relationship with KOS-MOS. I know I seem like I boil everything down to a yuri vs yaoi debate but Shion was the most compelling character for me in this entire series by a country mile, and thinking on it, she's probably my second or third favorite Xeno- protagonist? The yuri helps but I just love that she has so many problems and is also a bit of a lil stinker.
Episode II: Here is where they started to lose me for a few reasons.
1) A lot of stuff that should have been foreshadowed in EP1 way more just kind of gets revealed. Everything about Momo and Junior and their shared past (technically, it’s Sakura, you get what I mean) feels like it just comes out of nowhere because they seem like they very much are strangers. Junior doesn’t seem to recognize Momo at all in EP1 and then in EP2 you find out Sakura was basically his girlfriend? Ok I guess. I know there were development issues but this lack of connective tissue between the two, combined with an entirely new art style and a game that doesn’t even focus on its main character, just made this thing feel like a whole mess.
2) It REALLY started to annoy me that this game kept pushing Shion to the side to have other characters do things. I think Shion is a really awesome protagonist and this episode straight up forgot she existed for at least 40% of the runtime to focus on Junior’s issues. The final boss having nothing to do with her also fucking blows! She had a really great crashout when Feb’s sisters were finally found, Jin said “hey dude, you can either kill yourself or don’t I guess.”, and Shion said “Ok bye” and they just let that be.
Would it kill them to let us explore Shion’s mental state with all of this going on? No wonder she hates her life Jin sucks so bad
Now. You might be reading this thinking, "No, Lone! You see, there were huge development issues, and staff switched around, and they wanted this to be six games but had to rewrite to accommodate the fact they weren't going to get that many!" Well, I eventually asked, “Okay so how did this six game deal work? Did they sign something saying they’d get six games and Namco revoked the deal…? That would be a typical Bandai Scamco thing to do.” And the responses I got were a resounding “well they kinda just said they were gonna get six games and namco just let them say it”.
I am going to be so harsh right now. Never in my life would I defend the demon known as Bandai Namco, the harbinger of terrible gamedev choices and microtransactions, but in this situation, the only people they have to blame for Xenosaga turning out bad is the Monolith Soft team. Like holy shit, you can’t just ASSUME you’re going to get six games and plan your series around that?! On a Playstation 2 game budget?! When your 3D assets are huge and cost a lot of money compared to 2D assets?! When you hadn’t even MADE six games up until that point????? even hideo kojima would not be this idealistic
I truly cannot wrap my mind around how stupid this all is. By the time I asked this I think I was just about done with EP2 which kind of shaped how I felt about all the rest of the games. 2/5
The Flash Game Thing: Fine. I really can’t believe all of this important connective tissue for EP3 was in a flash game, even if I was Japanese I wonder what the likelihood of me seeing this would have been. No rating.
Pied Piper: I feel insane because so many of the reviews for this game call it a masterpiece of video gaming but the entire time I watched, I just felt like it was getting into LOST season 3 territory where they’re showing me TOO MUCH backstory for a character who I already know the backstory of anyways.
I guess it's because Xenosaga’s story is already a total mess by this point & it has other side games with too much stuff going on in them that my eyes started to glaze over during this one. I love ziggy a lot but I really didn’t need all this to be quite honest. 1.5/5
Episode III: To be so real with you, there is so much I can say about what I dislike about this game... But the thought of going on and on about it, much like how I hate RAINCODE, actually tires me out. This was just a really poor experience for me.
I really liked how it started out— good art style, Shion's original voice actress is back, and more focus on Shion compared to EP2. But the fact that so much of this takes place in the past for some reason (I know the reason, doesn't mean I have to like it), I cannot describe how much this irks me. EP1 had a huge section in the past. EP2 had a huge section in the past. Now EP3 has like 60% of the game in the past. I'm so fucking sick of this. It feels like we accomplish nothing at all.
I hate nearly every character in this game except for Shion and KOS-MOS. Kevin is a borderline sociopath, almost every scene we see of him is him being pedantic toward Shion (whos like what, 8? and hes a grown teenager) or the really weird romance between her and him, Jin is a genuine piece of shit who won't help his mentally ill sister and won't tell her anything she needs to know, Shion's dad has the legendary "I didn't mean to sacrifice my wife!!" line, Allen starts out likeable enough but becomes Reddit Fedora White Knight for Shion when that role should have never fallen upon him, etc, etc.
The plot is nonsensical, it is told as clearly as walking through Silent Hill after someone ripped a fat vape through it with your eyes closed and your hands tied behind your back, the literal ONLY THING that kept me through this was Shion being the greatest protag ever and her and KOS-MOS's relationship.
If I was Allen and I saw how often Shion physically opens up to KOS-MOS and no one else I would have blown my shit smoove off a while ago.
I don't want to go into this further, this was just so not my jam. By the end I feel like I wasted my time even touching this series. 1/5
And yet. And yet, if Monolith Soft ever did a remake of this series now that they got their shit together and got humbled by Nintendo, I WOULD PLAY IT. If this game's plot was put all into one game where things were clearly planned out from beginning to end, and everything was explained like how a normal person would tell a story, I WOULD PLAY IT. THAT IS HOW MUCH I LIKE SHION AND KOS-MOS.
Well, anyways, those were my Xenosaga thoughts. Boy, now that I played all that I'm really looking forward to understanding all of Xenoblade X! Surely all of that time was worth it.
5) Metroid Prime: Federation Force
I played this with my good pal Screwy over three IRL meetups, as Pretendo network did not support Fed Force at the time (currently, they're doing beta testing for it) and playing this by myself would probably be as lonely as eating an entire birthday cake by yourself.
As far as I know, we are one of maybe 100 people to play this game in its entirety. This game was slammed upon its release back in the day and you could find copies of this wasting away at Five Below for the longest time.
Now here's my certified Lone opinion: Fed Force is pretty okay.
In the pantheon of budget 3DS releases from later in the 3DS's life, Fed Force is a fine title. For my money the greatest of these budget 3DS releases is Triforce Heroes, a genius title of which you will only see people who have no friends say is boring. Legit that's one of the best 3DS games ever and I'll die being one of its biggest shooters ANYWAYS, Fed Force is in the same vein as Triforce Heroes— a game you can play by yourself but you really should play with friends for maximum enjoyment.
Because I think only 20% of people who slammed this game actually played it, I want to give you, dear reader, my personal pros and cons for this title, so you too can have a more educated opinion on it in this year of 2025, a year in which literally zero people are talking about it anymore.
Pros of Fed Force
- I think the graphics are pretty good. The art style of this game is very nice and clean for a 3DS title. I do think it kind of has a underlying cheap, kid-like feeling, possibly because the Fed soldiers you play as have big heads and little bodies, so whenever you get ejected from your suit you feel like you're watching Jerma play Big Head Tennis.
- It will definitely make you bond with your friend because of how hard you're going to need to focus and do team work during each mission.
- The plot is genuinely whatever. I couldn't tell you a single thing that happens in this save for moments that involve pre-existing Metroid characters. The whole game consists of you doing various missions across random alien planets and it all culminates in one big wrap up mission toward the end. Some of these missions are exploration related, some have a specific gimmick (like guarding a payload), some are just boss fights.
- I consider the lack of interesting plot to be more of a fault of the Metroid series as a whole. I said as much while streaming MP4, but Metroid lore is very sparse and doesn't reference itself super often. That is to say, nothing is super connected with each other aside from some key elements. The Chozo are the only big reoccurring alien species, for example. Or the Hunters are all from different planets that don't really get brought up again. This is why I pog out when things from the original Metroid manga get referenced in Dread, because it's like "Oh my god, we're making the world more fleshed out/connected with each other".
- The plot is still in the "pros" section despite my above slamming because every time the game feels like it's losing you for how boring it is, they jangle a Samus appearance in front of you like a pair of car keys. And yeah, every time they did this we both got really excited, fucking sue me! Sylux appears at the very end of the game to steal Metroid for Prime 4, also.
- The big boss fight toward the end has Samus turn into a giant ball for you to blast. I just think this was kinda hot. please agree with me on this.
Cons of Fed Force
- Fed Force makes the Galactic Federation look like a bunch of baby back bitches, I can't lie. Whenever they have any problem there's a 60% chance they outsource figuring it out to Samus. I understand this is only done because we know Samus, so when Samus does thing, we point and clap because we know thing. But like, oh my god, she doesn't even work for you guys anymore, you don't have ANYONE ELSE on staff to assign to do what she does? Is it because she's considered a contract worker so you don't have to give her benefits like health care? Fucked up.
- This game was clearly made with the intention for you to play it with four people, because every mission was incredibly difficult for us to beat with just two people. Enemies hit hard, you can be swarmed super easily, you have to be not good, but GREAT at playing. This is an extremely unreasonable expectation for this game because I cannot believe at any point in development they believed they would sell enough copies where tons of different groups of four people would be able to link up and play it.
- Controlling this on an OG release 3DS was very hard. Gyro helps a lot, but I was fighting for my life without a C stick.
- It was not an incredibly outstanding experience overall. You will not feel changed after playing this like you would any other Metroid game (for better and for worse).
- The reason this game was slammed at the time of its release was because we hadn't gotten a new Metroid game for a while, and so to get this game, which did not involve playing as Samus, was 99% a filler game, and was really not a Prime game in a traditional sense, really pissed people off. Many, myself included, hated this game for these reasons alone. Having played it now, while I think releasing it at any other time would have made reception for it more palatable (say, after Samus Returns), it still isn't good enough to warrant being excited for it. It's fine. But it's not good. Y'know what I mean?
I still like Samus saying she likes us though. Thanks sammy i love u too
I recommend getting a group of three or more friends and playing this yourself. Preferably in person, or at least over Discord call. And then after you play that, go play Triforce Heroes, the best multiplayer 3DS title.
2/5
6) Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4
I have nothing to say about these. It was really good. I don't really know how to say anything about Undertale/Deltarune, I just really like them both.
Chapter 3: 4/5
Chapter 4: 5/5
7) Death Mark II
I feel like the first Death Mark was kind of unremarkable. Not bad but not something that really blew me away either. A perfect middle of the road experience. Going into NG, Death Mark's sequel, I had the same expectations, only to be pretty much blown away by the quality. It ended up being one of my most favorite things I played in 2024.
So when Death Mark 2 dropped and I finally got around to playing it, I had sort of mixed thoughts— should I be hyped about this? Is it really just going to be… Death Mark 2 (negative)?
But surprisingly, it was Death Mark 2 (positive)!
Death Mark 2 is a great improvement on the first game! Another mystery horror paranormal detective game with a tighter plot. Rather than exploring unconnected areas for spirits in every chapter, the game takes place entirely in a fixed environment with a stronger overarching story. It also brings back preexisting characters in a way I really like— they don't overstay their welcome, they get more fleshed out than they were in the first game, and they're used pretty well as partners for you to team up with throughout the game. AINI could never.
While I don't think this beats NG for me, this comes pretty close to being as good as it. I recommend this one for sure. This was also the game series I've talked about in the past that is very clearly trying to appeal to male players by sexualizing its women but yet the fandom is extremely yaoi pilled for the MC and a partner of his (who reappears in this game as a partner and stays an especially long time, they KNEW).
I heard they plan on rebooting the series after this, which is pretty funny because it's not even that old, but lowkey understandable when you hear some of their reasonings behind it; for example, the first game was made on a pretty low budget, and this game shows what they can accomplish with more money behind them. All games in the series have done pretty well, so now they can go back to the first game and redo it, make it even better/don't have to limit themselves because of budget, and link it better to future installments.
(another reason they want to reboot it is because the name "death mark" is bad seo because "death" gets censored online, LOL)
I really wish this dev group all the best.
4/5
8) No Sleep for Kaname Date: From AI - The Somnium Files
When I was able to get very limited French wifi later in the day and saw this was announced, the only thing that filled my heart as I saw Date onscreen was dread. I really cannot describe how sad it was to see a new AI game announced and ONLY feel bad about it. In 2019-2021, I probably sold enough copies of AITSF to get a promotion at SpikeChun if I worked there, but in 2025, the idea of a new AI game only making me feel upset/being unable to be excited for it is... a lot to unpack! I will never forgive you AINI.
I didn't go seeking out other people's opinions on this, so I don't want to say everyone felt the same way, but I seem to have cultivated a group of followers and friends who basically felt the same way I did. I saw zero people extremely excited for this on the level we all were pre-AINI, only cautiously optimistic "well maybe it'll be ok since it's not AI3" and "yeah this is gonna suck".
(Side note, I was really skeptical of all the prerelease advertising that was like "this is for the fans of AI!!!!!!!!!" I generally consider wording like that a red flag, but also SO MANY FANS have been saying not to have characters come back for these games and this game has about 80% of the casts from both games come back. so like i do not think their asses are listening)
The game came and went a few months later. I remember honestly struggling to even get it started because AINI was so not good that I just didn't want to experience that again. However, after powering through it, I think it was a solid "this was better than AINI and a fine little romp in the AITSF universe" out of 5. That is to say, a 3.5/5.
Stuff that was good about AINS (no spoilers):
- Pewter is the absolute best character in this game hands down, and this deserves a playthrough just to see what they do with him. My jaw was actually on the floor, truly feels like reparations for AINI not doing jack shit with his character. It's worth the price of admission and why my score for this game is so high.
- I like that Mizuki is a young CEO and they don't try to do that anime shit where she's extremely gifted at it. She's flawed and even says that Aiba had to teach her stuff which I think is so cool and a really cool idea for her character.
- I feel like this path for her makes the most sense on the True End route [what AINS/AINI is on], where she and Date didn't bond as much and so she clings more to the memory of Renju here by taking over his company
- I like this Mizuki much more than AINI Mizuki by a country mile because they didn't entirely change her character to fit a stupid fuckass plot twist. Kinda prefer CEOzuki to any Psyncerzuki stuff now...
- Game show references w/ Amame were peak.
- I really really liked seeing the daily life of these characters where they're not in some twisted 4D chess game and are just handling a regular mystery. A lot of the extra short stories were really fun to read, I wish an AITSF fandisc was more in this direction (sort of Fate Hollow/ataraxia vibes).
- I like that they didn't beat jokes to death like they did with AINI (for example every good joke in AITSF gets repeated too much in AINI), they either held back or had some kind of twist on them to make it refreshing (Date closing his eye so Aiba can't see the bugs, Kagami only appearing twice and both times it's huge insight into his character instead of being the name joke over and over).
- There was insane Date/Kagami stuff. I was speechless holy shit
- Not sure how I feel about the story. It's not a bad concept at all on paper, it's a cute enough romp. But it's basically a nothingburger that only exists because characters decide to withhold information from you until the very end because they just felt like it. After a certain point they just started sprinting to wrap the game up and the section where characters just explain the game at you/fix plotholes was like meh. I also disliked Aiba in this game which is shocking.
- I'm truly baffled that they brought Lien/Gen back for just two scenes when I can name maybe 7 people total that like either of them. Man if i was a voice actor and i was told i was voicing Groomer Steve i'd be so pissed to be back in that booth for Groomer Steve's 15 lines in a spinoff
- TO WHOEVER AT SPIKE CHUNSOFT IS DECIDING THE AI SERIES NEEDS THE FUCKASS SPOILER TOGGLES -- PLEASE RESIGN ASAP OR GO ON A MYSTERIOUS FISHING TRIP AND NEVER COME BACK TO WORK. THE SPOILER TOGGLES ARE ACTIVELY RUINING THESE GAMES AND THIS GAME'S SPOILER TOGGLE SUCKS.
- It is not obvious what the spoiler toggle is when it happens.
- There are various plot holes/inconsistencies in the spoiler toggle I don't want to get into because they are major spoilers for AITSF.
- I ended up playing with no spoiler toggle and it still spoiled the hell out of AITSF anyways.
- Tesa is criminally stupid in this game and is not even remotely the same character as in AITSF or even AINI. She is completely empty. I guess some of it is to justify her needing Date's help to complete puzzles, but this is the girl whose favorite Zero Escape character is Kyle, she should KNOW puzzles! Even for things that are slam dunks for her like Egyptian history she's weirdly dumb and silent on and AIBA has to explain everything?! #NotMyTesa. Genuinely sad this was done to her character.
- I love Hitomi so much but both AINI and AINS boil her down to "she is Date's love interest who now just exists to be shipped with him”. Like that's my girlboss manipulator blackmailer right there put some respect on her name. The ending where she gets fed up with Date's bullshit and saves Tesa herself was good at least but it really sucks that this is all Hitomi can be now
- Same with Moma, he was honestly cool in AITSF and AINI/AINS boils him down to Tesa Fanboy
- No Komeji what the FUCK guys...... oh so groomer steves 1 and 2 can be in but no fuckin komeji huh
spikechun, if you make ai3 and it has reoccurring characters and the stupid spoiler toggle i will just assume you like engaging in psychological warfare because you keep making choices the fans keep saying they don't like. i will put a hex on you guys if you pull this shit again.
9) MAMIYA + MAMIYA DoomsDayDreams
MAMIYA and its DLC, DoomsDayDreams, is a visual novel about people and their relationship with an "imaginary" being known as MAMIYA, who has many different forms and appears to people at their life's lowest points. While DoomsDayDreams is a separate paid DLC, this is the ending to the game, so it is basically required for you to buy it along with the base game. MAMIYA was made by a really small team (noticeable in its use of stock music and effects, in TyranoBuilder), so I guess they really needed the extra dough, but is insane work to lock the ending of your game behind paid DLC. Whatever.
I really did not care for this to be honest. I enjoy reading stories with darker subjects (in this case, suicide/bullying/abuse), but the writing of this game was stilted and unclear in why some points were so harped upon while others weren't. It wants to be deep so badly, but it doesn't have strong enough writing quality to stick the landing. I have no idea if this is because the translation was of poor quality or the original Japanese was just not that great (I lean toward the latter, because regardless of translation, plot points did not stick together well).
There's one really bad plot twist in the ending DLC that actually makes me roll my eyes and I just want to spoil it here because it's actually fucking stupid, so skip this next part (I'm using an image to block your eyes from immediately going to the below text):
This ranting might make no sense if you haven't played the game, but in the final hour, they reveal that the MC is part of Mamiya (what Mamiya is is a nebulous being, it doesn't matter). This is revealed through one of the characters saying "aren't all imaginary friends called MAMIYA? MAMIYA is two people for me, a boy named Natsume (MC) and a boy named Mamiya".
if i had two friends named jeff and steve, would i just assume all friends are called jeff?????????????????? fuck out of here with this. this was so stupid I can't believe they pulled this
Base game: 2.5/5
Ending (Paid DLC): 1/5
11) Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar
I've mentioned it enough now, but Harvest Moon was my bread and butter growing up. I played so much Harvest Moon in my childhood I probably made Natsume (and later XSeed) some serious cash. This was the series that helped me figure out I liked women, even. Shoutouts to Natalie from Sunshine Islands.
[If you don't know, Harvest Moon switched names to Story of Seasons here in the west during the 3DS era due to switching publishers/localizers from Natsume to XSeed. Natsume kept the Harvest Moon name (and all previous localizations) in the divorce, and they continue to release new "Harvest Moon" games that they develop themselves— these are basically shovelware and probably only exist to trick people.]
I really liked this game on the DS as a kid. Played it endlessly. The gameplay loop of this one is every week, you sell your items at a bazaar rather than throwing it into the shipment bin outside your farm. You expand the bazaar and revitalize tourism in the small town you've moved to. Capitalism, ho!
A wise Lone once said on Backloggd in 2023, "when they get around to remaking this one in 2035 it's going to go crazy". It turned out I didn't have to wait that long, and also that I was completely correct. This is THE BEST Story of Seasons game out there at the moment, and you should play it RIGHT NOW!!!!!
The story? Xenoblade Chronicles is quaking in her boots. They flesh out the original story super hard. Every NPC has a series of quests you can unlock the better friends you are with them, and there are more random events where you can just watch other characters interact. Some of these were in the original DS game but nowhere near as long. This cast has so so so so much content, it almost feels unfair to every other cast. It's fucking awesome.
The bachelors and bachelorettes? Probably the strongest lineup in the series thanks to the further fleshing out of characters and redesigns. They all have full voice acting, all have really long and nice heart events, and I think the 3D models are the best they've ever looked in the series. You can also choose to date multiple people at once before you get married, which I really like as an addition to this game. I went out of my way to get all the heart events for all the characters I cared about (that is, everyone but Gabriel and Derek, sorry guys) before locking in on marrying Kagetsu, and it was really awesome. Plus, you can be gay in this!!! YIPPIE!!!!!!!
I wanna focus on Kagetsu for a second. In the original game, her name is Emiko (remember, Natsume took the original localization in the divorce, so Kagetsu is her original Japanese name.. I don't know why Natsume changed names like this haha) and you had to grind to get her, sort of considered a secret character for the game. She's a shrine maiden that lives in a pocket dimension underneath the town's waterfall, and you can't visit her on rainy days or in the winter (her waterfall is frozen).
I fucking loved Emiko/Kagetsu growing up. I know I talked big game about loving Natalie but Kagetsu was my second favorite Harvest Moon wife. One thing that always stood out to me in that game was that she barely had contact with the outside world. The other townsfolk don't know she exist— in one heart event, she gets the courage to leave her shrine to see the outside world with you, but does not meet any villagers during her excursion, only staying with you.
When the two of you get married, you're the only two people in attendance. I remember this feeling really tragic as a fourth grader. No one knows about my beautiful mysterious wife! In my head I would imagine how she would introduce herself to the other people after we got married...
In the SOS:GB remake, Kagetsu goes into the outside world... a LOT!! She gets her courage to visit the outside world with you, immediately runs into villagers who welcome her openly, and after this she starts showing up at events and talking to everyone!! It's so good! A lot of her romance with the player revolves around her worrying your lives are too different, that she's strange, so on and so forth. It is so, so, so, so fucking good. It is even made better if you're a girl so you feel that tragic yuri pull. I shant elaborate too much more so you may experience it yourself, but I will say, what legit made me tear up was...
When you get married to Kagetsu, everyone is in attendance!
This is such a dream game. It's unbelievably good. I really recommend this to anyone who likes farming sims, dating sims, or generally Likes Seeing Number Go Up. I'm 75 hours into this and still not done with experiencing all of the quests, and we haven't had a kid yet! I cannot wait to see what the future holds... Please please please play this game.
when the sunshine islands remake comes out and i can get married to natalie as a woman i'm gonna flip my lid
5/5
12) Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
Phew! Now that I've played all of Xenosaga, I can really sink my teeth into XBCX! That entire experience may have been pretty mid, but I can probably say it was worth it for this!
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