I made a post at the beginning of last year that was all about me writing out my thoughts on the games I completed that year. I’m going to try to make that a tradition, and so here we are again.
I should note that there is one notable exclusion from this list in the form of Methods: The Canda Files. The only reason I’m not including it is because the final chapter is set to release early 2026, and so I might as well wait to write about it then. Does that contradict with the fact I write about other episodic releases in this? Sure, but they’re nowhere close to being fully finished games like The Canda Files is. This is my review post, I make the rules. Now strap in, nerds.
Deponia: The Complete Journey
Where do I start with Deponia? Having played through the three games of the Deponia trilogy with friends, I see why people have fond memories of them. They were witty, nonsensical in all the best ways, and it’s all piloted by a character that you love to see get his shit kicked in with Rufus. All of the games do a wonderful job at making you feel exactly like the other characters do in response to your hijinks, because half the time you feel pretty awful for most of it, but it’s like watching a train wreck through your fingers. You just can’t look away from whatever crazy stunt Rufus is going to be pulling next and how it will inevitably make the lives of everyone around him worse.
I’m not going to go in depth with each of the three games individually as they all are part of a greater story, though I will say that I think the second game, Chaos on Deponia, is probably my favorite of the bunch. The level of exploration in it felt a lot more vast, and generally just had my favorite bits across the trilogy. There are some gags that have not aged well from the series, the third game notoriously being the worst offender of such to the point that I can’t blame anybody for not finishing it because of its decisions. I don’t think the developers meant any of it in bad faith, given the prior two games have generally done a decent job at being respectful to any affected groups and making it clear that the protagonist is the asshole, but rather it was just an ill advised decision.
I am still torn on how I feel about the ending overall. It leaves you feeling conflicted, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. If anything I think it works in the game’s favor given all the build up prior. I’m just not sure if I would have executed it the same way if I had the pen.
Either way, I think if adventure games are your thing and you haven’t tried this series, or even if they aren’t and you’re still curious, then I highly recommend giving it a go and see what you think. The complete collection is relatively cheap on Steam and I do think it is worth every dollar. I had a lot of fun in the world of Deponia, and I plan on going back at some point to try out the fourth game that is not attached to the original trilogy.
of the Devil Episodes 0 and 1
For anyone who knows me, they know I am an avid and enthusiastic supporter of Women’s Wrongs. That feels like what of the Devil is all about, wrapped up in a red bow as vibrant as our protagonist Morgan’s hair. I should preface that at the time of posting, only Episodes 0, 1, and 2 are out. If I remember correctly, the developers said this is meant to span 5 episodes, so if you are someone who likes to wait until the full game is released before you play it, then you’re gonna wanna hold off on this for a while. I plan on getting to Episode 2 here very soon.
Now on the game itself, I thought this was a fun evolution of the mini games you might do in the likes of Ace Attorney and Danganronpa. They are more concise and don’t overstay their welcome and for the most part are easy enough to navigate through. I thought the blackjack mini game was a bit confusing in Episode 1 to maneuver, partly because I am just very unfamiliar with blackjack itself, but beyond that, everything else went well. The investigation segments were fun to go through and thankfully included a system to allow you to see what else you’re missing, which I feel should be a necessary inclusion in linear mystery games. The bits of lore scattered around the world you can find were interesting to read, and there was not a character that I didn’t enjoy across both parts.
I recommend this for anyone willing to give it a shot, especially if you are a fan of Ace Attorney and games like it. For those wondering if you should skip Episode 0 before playing Episode 1, please do not! Going through 0 will greatly impact how you perceive the events of 1, and it is a very short introduction case so it won’t take much time.
Now go out there and support evil women!
Anamnesia Part 1: Am I My Body?
Not many visual novels nowadays sell themselves solely on its story alone. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but what I mean is usually you have branching story paths, romance options, minigames, things of that nature that add a level of interactivity to the plot going on. Anamnesia doesn’t do that, the only thing that interacts with the narrative itself is how many times you open the menu while you play. I give it kudos for that.
In terms of the story, it is your pretty standard Zero Escape-like death game, but that isn’t really the point of this. This is more so a character study with a death game backdrop, letting us really dig into the inner workings of our protagonist and those trapped with him. Proceeding to uncover the connections they all share was a very enjoyable time, and by the end it did leave me wanting to find out what’s going to happen next.
If you’re looking for a good short read you can finish in a day or two, then I recommend this if you are a mystery fan, or just someone who really likes character exploration. It’s free after all! I’ll be anticipating part 2 in the meantime.
Emio - The Smiling Man
For the first time in over 30 years, the Famicom Detective Club series has a new entry added amongst its ranks. After the 2021 remake of the original two games, which you can read how I felt about them in depth in my post from last year, and the return of one of the original games’ writers as well, it was time to see what they could do with this series from a new beginning. My expectations were pretty high after my playthrough of the past games, and they were… Not quite met. What started off with a very strong early and middle act establishing the return of a killer of urban legend with a lot of intrigue built up amongst the main cast members, turned to a final third that petered out and spun its wheels until a rather abrupt climax out of nowhere.
Looking back on it, I understand what they were trying to do by going into the culprit’s backstory as a standalone epilogue. As a side story it was very well crafted and if you had implemented what we had learned in it in the main story, we could not have gone nearly into as much depth as we did. However, I really think it would have been for the best had it been there. The last act needed far better pacing, as we were left in a state of going in circles that lead us nowhere, and having us discover these tidbits during it as a build up to the final encounter would have resolved this issue.
It’s a game that I am glad to have experienced, though I do not think it was worth the price it was. If it ever goes on sale, a rare thing for Nintendo IPs, it might be worth it then.
The Letter
This was the game that made my girlfriend realize that I was telling the truth when I said I was a wuss about anything horror related. The Letter is a horror visual novel following a group of seven characters that are all being followed by the curse of a mansion outside of town. Each chapter you take control of a new one of the seven, and the choices you make in this greatly impact the story that follows for the others. While many games claim to have that same system, The Letter I believe is the only one to be as expansive on its cause and effect of every choice within it, the in game flow chart becoming a massive web of decisions. With character relationships, general decisions, and quick time events all playing huge roles in determining outcomes, you could replay this game easily twenty or so times and still find new things.
Unfortunately for me, I am a huge wimp who covers her eyes when the curse makes itself known! Even with this game giving large audio and visual cues that a jump scare is about to happen, or that something freaky is about to appear, I still can barely hold myself together enough to progress. I will say that there are some rather gory images depending on the route, not helped by the fact that all the CGs usually have some form of movement in them making them even more gut wrenching, so if you’re sensitive to that, be mindful! I’m sure by most people’s standards this is not that scary, so don’t take my experience to mean that this is the most frightening game of all time, I’m just a little baby. In truth that is a shame because I would love to go through this game some more to experience everything that could happen, but my blood pressure cannot handle that. Go out and do it for me instead!
Nina Aquila: Legal Eagle Chapter IV
As the certified #1 Nina Aquila fan girl amongst my friends, I was sooooo stoked to see that the fourth chapter had finally come out. For those unfamiliar, it is a courtroom drama murder mystery series much like Ace Attorney. The twist on the formula though is that every chapter has a genre crossover and associated minigame with it. The previous ones included what was essentially Yugioh and mountain drag racing. It had been quite a few years since the third case had been released, and the premise of this new one was going to be magical girls, which had me very curious. While the Yugioh case dipped a tiny bit into some fantasy elements, everything was still grounded in reality. What could they do with magical girls yet keep it realistic?
When we found out that we were going to be set on a live action set, I figured we were going to be acting out fight scenes or doing stage shows for an audience as our minigame. However, it quickly turned out that that wasn’t the case, as we did in fact become an actual magical girl, fighting actual monsters, saving the actual world. While that on its own sounds wonderfully delightful being a lawyer by day and magical girl by night, the problem is that it doesn’t work here specifically. Up to this point we have established that despite these genre crossovers, all of the mysteries themselves have been based fully in reality. This case however bucks that trend, and while I am fine with it in the likes of Tyrion Cuthbert, I’m not in favor of it here. The mystery itself was still put together very well, it’s just given the expectation thus far, it was a bit disappointing to see.
On top of that, I also felt as though the whole magical girl aspect overtook the murder mystery. I understand the two were very interwoven together, but it seemed like the fact we were trying to solve a murder took a backseat to all the crazy stuff that was going on. It kind of left a sour taste in my mouth, and I sincerely hope that this does not happen again in the fifth chapter which will supposedly be mecha/Metal Gear themed. I really enjoyed the first three chapters, so maybe that paired with the long wait for this one just makes this more of a letdown than it would’ve normally. With only two chapters left to go, I really hope they manage to stick the landing with them, bring the story back to reality a bit, and are able to tie a bow on the story neatly.
Clinical Trial
I know I don’t like to talk about spoilers in these entries, but this game is one I really can’t talk about at all without having to spoil it, which is a disservice. All I can really say is that it was disturbing, but not in a sickening sort of way.
Okay I take that back, the stuff in it was kind of sickening, but in a way that was really interesting to think about. I think there’s a lot of conversations you can have about what the game is critiquing and about the characters of Lee and Angel themselves, they are really unique duo to analyze.
It is really short, probably less than an hour or two, and it is free. Read the trigger warnings before you play as there is some sensitive content in there, but if you’re okay with them, then I think think is a good game to think upon.
Pitstop In Purgatory
Welcome to purgatory! Time is seemingly irrelevant and your guide in this immortal realm is kind of an asshole. How did you get here? Why are you here? Why can you not fully perceive people and how come they’re from all across time? Well strap in and find out because purgatory sure has some weird stuff going on.
This is one I’d like to not touch on how I feel about its specifics too much for sake of anyone wanting to play. I rather enjoyed it and I hope you will too. I found the world of the game to be a fun take on the usual tropes of purgatory, and the world building was in general done well I felt. I know there is a prequel game called Ezrebeth that is set in the same world as this, and I plan on going through it at some point.
Neo Cab
Going into this game, I was honestly kind of skeptical. I thought “Oh this is just going to be VA-11 Hall-A again”, except this time you’re an Uber driver instead of a bartender. Given that I had never heard of it, but have heard of other games that use the VA-11 Hall-A formula not being received well by my friends, and the fact that it was originally an Apple Arcade exclusive before being brought to Steam, I went in with low expectations. I wouldn’t have minded if it was bad, I only spent $2 on it if I remember correctly. I was prepared to go in, have a laugh, and leave.
But then to my surprise, this was actually a really great experience! Learning about the lore of the futuristic cyber city setting was really fun, I really enjoyed the ongoing arc with our main character, and most importantly for these kind of games, I thought every single passenger I encountered was an absolute treat! Every interaction I had made me want to go back for more, but unfortunately you can’t see every possible one in a single run of it. While I have not gone back yet to revisit, I definitely plan to at some point so I can see just what all these kooky characters have going on.
Kathy Rain: The Director’s Cut
After having introduced me to the wider genre of point and click adventure games, my girlfriend bought this for me as a gift and said I would really enjoy it given my love of mystery games. Well guess what, she was absolutely right! Following the death of her grandfather, Kathy Rain is out to try and find out more about the man he was, and the strange circumstances that are popping up around town. The mystery took a turn I was not at all expecting, and it still felt like it stuck its landing perfectly. Every character in the game left a distinct impression on me, which I don’t find many games being able to pull off with their whole cast. It’s also helped by the fact that Kathy is the type of protagonist that I really enjoy, where she does have her comedic moments, but the game did an amazing job of making her feel like a fully fleshed out character that I truly felt for in her grief.
The original version is seemingly always on sale, but if what I have read about the differences between the two is true, I would absolutely recommend getting this extended version if you’re curious. I plan to play the sequel game this year that came out not too long ago, and I’m very excited for it!
Golden Idol Mysteries
This is actually the two DLC stories for The Case of the Golden Idol. Last year I believe I lumped any DLC in with its base game, but for this one, it felt like its own distinct plot line enough that it warranted being discussed on its own… And, well, the three of us who played the base game didn’t get around to playing this until 2025, we wanted a break to let the base game simmer a bit.
Anyways, this was an excellent addition to the plot, this time delving into the backstory of the idol itself and its ancient history. All the intricate details the team had put into the world to establish this accursed trinket were really cool. I thought the puzzles were also all very well put together, it felt like a strong step up in difficulty compared to the base game, yet everything was still laid out fairly. There wasn’t ever a time we were just having to slot in words to make something stick.
If you have played the base game, but have not yet tried the DLC, you should! If you haven’t played either, go play them!
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Honestly it’s astounding that I never played a Professor Layton game before this point considering my love of mystery games on the DS. I did play the Ace Attorney and Layton crossover game for the 3DS, but I never went back to experience what the rest of Layton is like until this point. A group of five of us all got together to play this via Discord, with only me and one other person having never experienced it ourselves. I also was the one controlling the game, so it meant I got to have fun clicking on every single pixel to find every damn hint coin I could that I would refuse to ever expend when the time came for puzzles.
This was a great thing to go through with my friends, we bastardized the hell out of Layton and Luke’s relationship to many laughs as we played, with bits like Layton hoarding all the furniture and Luke not having eaten in five days. On top of that, the rest of the gang got to laugh some more as the two of us who hadn’t played it struggled hard with a lot of the puzzles. While I can find contradictions easily enough, regular puzzles I am notoriously bad at. Anytime we would run into one that we were stuck on, we made a joke called us being “back in the building”. We went to the building so much everyone there knew our names by the end of it.
The story caught me off guard. What do you mean this is just what you Layton fans have been used to this whole time? What do you mean that the crossover wasn’t the first time a plot like this happened for you? Insane stuff, really.
Either way, we’ve already started the second game in the series to play while we hang out sometimes, here’s to more laughs and feeling smart!
The Rise of the Golden Idol
Hey remember all the praise I heaped on the original Golden Idol and its DLC? Yeah, scrap everything I’ve said in regards to its sequel.
I was really excited to see what they were going to do with bringing the idol into a more modern setting, only for the idol to not really make an appearance until the latter third of the game. The plot that they had built up just felt so scattered trying to focus on a multitude of threads that all went nowhere. The UI was a massive downgrade compared to the original, being very overly cluttered with its numerous additional menus that served only to be a headache more than anything. Its choice of font was also very hard to read in conjunction with the fact all the drag and drop bits were so small. Also, remember how I said in the original game that there wasn’t ever a point where it felt like we were stuck and just had to force ourselves through the puzzles by swapping words out over and over? This game is the opposite, as we had to do that on a vast majority of puzzles in the second half of the game. The clues just were not there for what it wanted us to figure out, and it was infuriating.
I think what is most egregious in this game is that one of its reoccurring major characters gets revealed to be someone entirely different in the end, only for them to have no bearing on the ending and instead was used as a DLC hook. That is one thing I do not tolerate when it comes to games is when they deliberately do something that is not followed up on at all in the base game and is only touched upon in DLC. It is a scummy business practice, and the integrity of the base story suffers as a result. Now we’re not going to have a conclusion to this character arc because we sure as hell are not going to play the DLC for this one unless we really have nothing better to do.
I truly don’t know how there was such a shift in quality between these entries, it feels like this sequel was a bad attempt at mimicking the first game by a different developer. However, that is not the case, it is the same development team. I do not get how the ball was dropped this hard.
What sucks most of all is I can see what they were trying to do with this. I can see the things you would need to do to fix this plot to be able to make it more comprehensible, I can see the changes in UI that can be done. But nah, it is what it is, and that’s a disappointment.
Expelled
Speaking of games that I adored only to be extremely disappointed in their sequels, or in this case prequel: Expelled! This was the backstory game of everyone’s favorite leading lady from Overboard, Veronica. It is precisely because of that framing that this game immediately suffers, because instead of laying out a character that would make sense to turn into the Veronica we know, it felt more like they were trying to force a square peg into a round hole of someone who was meant to be entirely unrelated to her, only to decide midway through development that they should make this a prequel for her instead.
This is especially highlighted because the character we play as doesn’t even start out named Veronica, she randomly chooses to use that name in the ending! We start out named Verity, a poor girl on scholarship to a private all-girls boarding school, who at no point ever shows dissatisfaction with that name, and has no qualms with her upbringing. Throughout the game you seemingly are just trying to find the best way to not be framed for pushing a girl out a window, and then try to keep hold of your scholarship, with an optional goal of being named best student of the year. The rug is pulled out from under you when you get that optional ending, where it is revealed that you actually did push the girl from the window, immediately betray your father who up to this point you have only ever shown massive affection for in exchange for potential stardom, and then have your entire personality change on a dime to become the two-faced Veronica we know with the name change from nowhere. It was so baffling, when my friends and I played it together, we were all stunned and immediately pissed off! There was no justification or seeds sewn throughout the game that would have lead to this conclusion naturally, it was all shoved in at the last second! What makes it worse is that one of the main selling points of this game was the fact that you have a morality meter that tracked how many times you did evil deeds, and it would overtime get rid of options you could do and unlock new bad ones. If the selling point is about how good or evil you can manage to get through the game as, then having the supposed best possible ending happen no matter what your morality is be you turning heel and becoming an asshole makes the entire system pointless! Why would you design your game with that in mind if it doesn’t matter in the end?! This is why I strongly believe that this truly was not meant to be a prequel at all until development had already begun, because the ending directly contradicts everything prior to it, which is a shame.
On top of that, it also in turn becomes a character assassination of the Veronica we knew from Overboard. We always knew that she was a gold digger who cared about fame and fortune above all, but allowing us to have seen what she was like before that point and then try to make the entire shift happen all at once just waters her character arc down significantly. You could have very easily made it from the start that we were a bitter teenager who wanted to be popular and would take any means to try to be, and talk about how being from poverty made that harder for her by giving her less opportunities and allowed the rich kids to pick on her. That framing alone immediately fixes almost all of the problem presented with the plot. You could then have the morality system instead reflect how everyone around her truly saw her, seeing if she could make it with having true friendships, or if she’s going to be leaving by crushing everyone underneath her and being seen as vile by the end.
Lastly, the thing that frankly annoys me the most, is the fact that we stumbled into finding the best ending and still have no idea how we even managed it. We think we sequence broke the game because none of the actions we did in our mind should have been enough to constitute the best ending. We didn’t even discover half of the content we knew was in the game to get there, hell, we legitimately didn’t even visit every area in the game you could before we got it! In Overboard, you HAD to explore every nook and cranny to be able to plot out your optimal path to be able to get the best ending. Here? That wasn’t the case, and that was the biggest let down. Coupling that with the fact that we were upset about how the ending was handled, we put the game down and still have not gone back to see anything else it has to offer. In truth, the only reason I’m even counting this as having finished the game is because we saw the credits roll, but it doesn’t feel like we earned it. However, I have far too sour of a taste in my mouth to want to go back to it even now, several months later.
Trials of Innocence
During the holiday season, I didn’t really play many games. That was something I really struggled with last year, even when I had both the desire to play and the time to, I never felt like actually picking anything up. Honestly I felt kind of guilty for it, like I should be doing something else, that I should be doing chores, or I should be talking to people, or whatever reason popped into my head. It left me feeling mad at myself and ultimately ending up doing nothing. It was that feeling of never taking time to do anything, feeling incapable of it, even if you wanted to. I had plenty of social hang outs during the holiday period, be it with family or friends, and it kind of was overwhelming. But I never took that time for myself to enjoy my alone time, even when I desperately needed to.
I wanted to change that when it came to the middle of December. I saw the Steam replay come out and I looked at how little I had played in my own time. I loved every second I played games with my friends and my girlfriend, but when I looked at games that I had played on my own, it was… Very minimal. There were games on here that I played by myself, but they were all games I finished in a day or two, with Emio being the exception. I think that’s what finally unlocked the ability, or kind of the need really, to finish something for myself, by myself, before the year ended.
That ended up being Trials of Innocence, an Ace Attorney-like game that by god had a rough translation, but I enjoyed the characters in it enough to stick around. Is it the best mystery game I’ve played? No. Is it the best courtroom drama game I’ve played? Also no. But I feel like there was an earnest effort in it, that was trying to do something different, even with the very familiar formula that it was based upon. I was genuinely astounded at the absurd stuff it would pull out for its murder schemes sometimes, having shared tidbits with two of my friends and we were flabbergasted. The main cast I thought developed really well throughout the game, I wanted to see where this overarching story for them was building to, and the pay off to it all felt very cathartic for me. I convinced one of those two friends to add it onto their list of games to play soon just by sharing my enjoyment of what was going on at the time with them, not even with the aim of making them play it, and I think if a game is able to make that happen, it’s gotta be special in some way.
It was New Year’s Eve when I finally finished it, just in time for 2025 to end. Honestly, with its finale, it felt like a good way to close out the year. I genuinely felt accomplished with it, proud of myself for getting it done, as silly as that might sound. January has already come and gone extremely fast, and I feel myself falling into that same cycle as I had before, but I’m going to try and not let it happen again. I saw the other day that the developers have announced a crowdfunding campaign to make a DLC case for this, only able to be contributed to if you’re from China as that is where they’re located. They unfortunately lost out on three months of sales due to a DMCA issue having them taken off of Steam for awhile, and they admitted they weren’t in a great financial position because of it. They said they still wanted to do what they could to stay afloat, or if not that then at least have this DLC made, and I think that announcement has given me a bit of hope in a weird way. Even when things are down, when you’re struggling, there’s always still a way to do something. I hope for their sake that they’ll be able to keep going, and not just for the fact that I would love to see the cast again for a new mystery.
This game is definitely not going to be for everyone, despite what I’ve said. As previously mentioned, the translation is really rough. I had to use a guide at times because some things didn’t make as much sense as they could have due to awkward wording, and it was made a bit harder even due to all the guides also being in Chinese, thus needing a tool to translate those. I really can’t be too mad about it because I saw in the credits one of the two English translators was the director’s mom, which is very sweet to see, but I completely understand if that is something you would rather not go through. Plus, while I like the way they do Ace Attorney style gameplay, if that isn’t your jam, then this won’t be either. But if you do enjoy those, and if you just want to give something a shot, then I think it would be cool to see it for yourself.
If nothing else, it was a game that came at the right time for me. That alone will keep it in a special place in my heart.
Ending Thoughts
Looking at my calendar, it’s already February. Whoops. So much for getting this out in January. I had gone and written all this in time, but then just didn’t have the motivation to format it and all that jazz before now. I said in last year’s post that I was going to write these as I finished playing the games, and I did for the first couple of entries, but you can probably guess what happened when it came to the other based on what I wrote in the last entry.
Looking back on what I wrote for the 2024 post and what I wrote for 2025, I faced a whole lot more disappointment. My complaints were all genuine, but I wonder if maybe why I was so sour on games and skeptical of others before playing them last year was due to my general mental state. I’m not really sure. I hope 2026 goes better for my enjoyment of games, and myself in general.
At the very least I really need to actually write these entries out as I finish them, hahaha. Maybe I’ll actually stick to it this time. For now, I’ll be back again next year with the 2026 version of this. If you’re one of my friends and play one of these games, tell me how it goes.
A fun little one for a game no one recognizes that I haven’t even been able to convince myself to make it a print even though I really like it. Anyway Famicom Detective Club is really good and you should play it
One of my favorite things every year is when everyone posts their top ten favorite games that came out lists and the typical end-of-year awards discussions. It’s exciting watching everyone have these analytical talks and detailing why they’ve enjoyed what that year had to offer. Something I don’t see as commonly though are people reflecting on games they’ve played that hadn’t come out that year, which I think is an incredible disservice. There are tons of gems hidden away in yesteryear that are just waiting to be discovered, and I think they deserve the time to shine.
It will be January 31 when this post goes out, so I’m running out of time for this topic to still be relevant, but I wanted to go over every game I finished in 2024, be it on my own or with my friends. To clarify, this won’t be about every game that I played, else I would be here forever, but rather ones that I had completed the main stories of. This is going to be written mostly in the order of how I completed them, at least as best as I can remember. I’ll be keeping better track of that in 2025, but for now, let’s get this show on the road.
Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion
So this game will hold a special place in my heart as being the first game my now girlfriend and I played together after first speaking to each other two weeks prior. The Nancy Drew games were ones I hadn’t really played when I was younger, and so it was fun getting to experience some of them last year with him as he took me on a trip through memory lane. This one had a very good sense of atmosphere in its short runtime, feeling very genuinely spooky at times. The puzzles were all solid, we had a blast messing around in the maze segment, and aside from one touchy tile puzzle, the game held up pretty well. Out of all the Nancy Drews we played last year, this one is probably my favorite of the bunch. I even surprised my girlfriend with a tapestry of the poem in the game when we met, so it will be near and dear to me.
Famicom Detective: The Girl Who Stands Behind
I am almost ashamed as to how long it took me to actually finish this game. I’m fairly certain it took me… Two years, roughly. As a murder mystery lover, I always felt guilty about having never picked it back up again, but now that I have finished it, I am so glad I finally did. The reason I put it down the first time was because of the command prompt system that the game utilizes to do actions. It was simple enough, but there were some points in the early and mid game that made me frustrated due to not understanding the typical workings of this style of ADV gameplay which would require me to have to repeat options or do them in particular sequences to trigger. I was much more used to how the Ace Attorney games handle it where your options are more free flowing and clearly labeled on what you hadn’t done yet, so to go to a game where that wasn’t the case, I became frustrated and took time away from it. Once I finally let myself give it another chance, I remembered why I kept trying to throw myself at a wall to try and get through it in the first place, and that was because this game was a very solid mystery, but more importantly, had an excellent grasp on making you feel for the characters within it. With this being the prequel between the original two games, this one centered on the backstory of Ayumi, and I cannot express to you enough how seeing her try and do everything she can to solve the mystery of her best friend’s death made me feel so many things for her. I didn’t want to stop because I would have felt bad about not seeing her story through, and once we finally got to the end, it was all well worth it. This game doesn’t lean that far into the horror elements that you might think it would based on the premise of everyone thinking a ghost haunting the school killed a student, but when it does choose to go that route? Oh buddy, it hits. While I prefer The Missing Heir’s actual overarching mystery more, I think this one handles its character development better. If you have the chance to play this game, please do give it a shot, and don’t feel bad about having to pull up a guide at times if you feel lost.
Return to Mysterious Island
Another one of the old computer games that my girlfriend has shown me this year, I can confidently say that upon starting Return to Mysterious Island, I couldn't have have guessed where it was going to lead. I don’t want to elaborate because it is definitely best experienced going in blind. Exploring every nook and cranny of Mysterious Island was a joy, and it definitely puts your brain to the test in trying to think of ways to use your inventory. If you’re looking for a short and fun adventure game, this would be a good one to have a romp through with some friends.
Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel
Nancy Drew winds up at an amusement park to investigate a haunted carousel and somehow causes massive property damage along the way. Sounds like an average Tuesday for Nancy! When it comes to the Nancy Drew games, the actual gameplay is the same for all these ones that came out in the 2000s, so nothing is different there. I feel like this one didn’t hit the atmosphere quite like Message in a Haunted Mansion, though there’s were some fun set pieces to go throughout it. It was another cute one to play through with my girlfriend while we were with each other in person, so grab a friend or a loved one and just have a laugh at some Nancy shenanigans.
Murders on the Yangtze River
If you were to ask any of my friends how I was when I talked about this game, they would probably say I was extremely annoying because I constantly kept recommending it to them all every chance I had. Murders on the Yangtze River is easily in my top three games I finished last year, all of which I am still juggling as to where they sit in that said ranking. As previously mentioned, being an Ace Attorney fan, any game that has a similar feeling in its investigation system is probably going to get a thumbs up from me. Playing as the very well traveled detective Shen alongside his silly yet ingenious inventor sidekick Afu made every investigation a joy to experience. The two have very fun back and forths reminiscent of the Edgeworth and Kay from the Investigations games, with Shen being more socially adjusted than Edgeworth. When it comes to any mystery story that is from the perspective of a detective who is stated to be known in-universe as extremely competent and knowledgable, you always run the risk of not meeting those expectations due to trying to stop the player from trying to get ahead of the character’s current logic, and thus making the detective seem dumber than intended. Thankfully this is not the case here, as each chapter is handled with diligent care to ensure that the player feels right next to Shen each step of the way, with neither you nor him having their intelligence downplayed. All of the crimes were very well thought out, and the cast of characters in each were all thoroughly enjoyable form beginning to end. The game also has one of the most unique systems to solving one of the overarching mysteries near the end of the game that I have seen, and for that alone I think this game would be worth experiencing. There is only one part of the game that I could mark as a negative, that being a very small horror detour that we take in the latter third, but it is not big enough of a section to make me lose any overall enjoyment. Going throughout the story, you wouldn’t think the experience of each chapter could ramp up as much as it does when all of them are as solid as they are. And if you were curious, I’ll even say that this game doesn’t suffer from “Case 3 Syndrome”, so that’s all the more reason to play it. All in all, I absolutely think this is worth every penny, and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did if you try it! There is going to be a DLC case released for it sometime this year, so when that drops, you will find me right there playing immediately.
Unicorn Overlord
Something very funny occurred as I was writing this out. Before I began on the entries, I had written down all the games in as close to chronological order as I could remember, so I could go about them in the same order and try and remember details of each one better. The only game I I had forgotten to put down was Unicorn Overlord. This was not because of it being a forgettable experience, far from it. In fact, this is another one of my top three games of the year as I had mentioned in the previous entry. The reason I hadn’t listed it is because I had somehow convinced myself that this was Fire Emblem Awakening, my favorite game of all time, which I had once again replayed this year as well. The reason I confused it for that game is not just because it features a blue haired swordsman as the protagonist in a medieval fantasy setting, but rather because just as I had done with Awakening, I 100% completed Unicorn Overlord. I played every level, I recruited every character, I saw all the endings, I had unlocked every single rapport conversation available between all units, and I had even gone and watched every Rite of the Covenant scene at the end of the game with every character on my save file. For those who have played this game, you know that there are over 60 playable characters to unlock, and all but roughly five of them have rapports to view (this game’s version of Fire Emblem’s supports). Once I had started this game, I had become obsessed with it, not putting it down until I saw literally everything that there was on offer. All of this is being said before I even have mentioned the gameplay! A lovable cast will get you very far in my books, but this game also backs it up with a modern version of the Ogre Battle team combat system mixed with real time strategy in the overworld. You get to comprise multiple units for your band of merrymen to go ride into combat together, and with a bevvy of classes that all have unique properties, there are seemingly infinite combinations you can make. Sure, there will be those layouts you can create that will just utterly run through the game, but if you are someone who loves experimentation, then you are going to fall in love with this combat system. The game incentives you to watch battles play out so you can make adjustments between each one on the map so you can better tackle it and try to retain your members. This game does does have varying degrees of difficulty available, all of which have since been fine tuned by the developers in patches to make it as fitting and fair as possible, and while there is no permadeath mode to begin with, you unlock one to play on after you finish your first playthrough of the game. There is so much to love about Unicorn Overlord that it even made me log into my old Tumblr to go reblog fanart of it and actually make posts in the subreddit for the game, which I have never done on Reddit before. If you are a strategy RPG fan of any sort, or you are wanting to try and jump into the genre, then I would say this is a wonderful game to do that with if you were wanting to look beyond the usual recommendations of the Fire Emblem series.
Death Come True
This is an FMV mystery game that was the first released project by Too Kyo Games, the studio that Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi, the creators of Danganronpa and Zero Escape respectively, founded. Centered around our protagonist waking up in a strange hotel with an unconscious woman tied up in the bathroom with no memory of how he got there, this is a wonderful and short game that you can finish in a day. The portrayal of the main character by Kanata Hongo was the highlight of the game, he really made this story come to life. As it becomes evident that this is a timeloop story, he does a great job at showing off the growing agony of the perpetual infinity. Due to this game being so short, I don’t want to go much further beyond that so as to avoid spoilers. It is well worth checking out, and I am sure if you got some friends together to go through it, you all would have a fun time. The game also comes with behind the scenes commentary and interviews, so if seeing the production of an FMV game is something that interests you, it is all there to see as well.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
Stray Gods was crafted in a basement by a Professor Plutonium-like figure who was searching for the best form of addiction possible to hook either queer folk who were theater kids in high school, Percy Jackson fans, or the most likely scenario: Both. As you can imagine, I fall into the “both” category. The songs all were wonderful, and the fact that they change depending on how you choose to behave leading up to that point makes for a great way to encourage replayability. I do think that maybe the games leaned a bit too hard into its dating sim aspects, but then again, it never really tried to act like it wasn’t going to also be that on top of the story being told. Surprise surprise that it is rooted in another murder mystery, so if the idea of using magic and fantasy elements in mysteries is something that excites you, I think you would have a fun time with this. The worldbuilding is very solid, the idea of the gods now living among us out of sight is one you can see being real and they take some fun liberties with the concept. The cast, while not feeling particularly faithful to their original mythological counterparts, is still fun to see go about the world they find themselves in. It goes on sale on Steam somewhat often, so if you find it for 20% off or more, then I would recommend getting ahold of it yourself to go through it.
Famicom Detective: The Missing Heir
In the last Famicom Detective section I had mentioned that it was the prequel, so now we are onto the original title that spawned the series. You can definitely tell as much as this story is more focused on the protagonist rather than Ayumi, to the point that she barely features in it for the most part. You will be conducting an investigation into the Ayashiro family, whose matriarch has just passed away, though her butler seems to think that there was foul play afoot. As you look further into each member of the Ayashiros, you will come to find that all of these people are thoroughly unpleasant people to be around with the ownership of the family business at the core of the story. It is a very classic setup that finds ways to surprise the player, even if they have experienced something like this before. Like I said before, I enjoy the actual mystery that was occurring in The Missing Heir more than I did in The Girl Who Stands Behind, it is a good and meaty taler to read through with twists and turns you wouldn’t expect. If you are going to play these remakes, then I highly suggest to play them in the order of The Girl Who Stands Behind and then move into The Missing Heir, as it is going to provide some more characterization to the main character that makes this story more enjoyable to consume. I am very happy that I finally got through these, and I am currently in the middle of the new entry in the series that just came out last year, Emio: The Smiling Man. If this series continues beyond this third game, then I think these two games have established two very solid leads in the main character and Ayumi to guide us through.
Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake
Fun fact, this is the only Nancy Drew game that I played a part of when I was a child. I didn’t finish it back then, and frankly after going through it last year, I am not surprised that I didn’t as there were some puzzles that even as an adult had me a bit stumped. You know when you and your friends have to bust out a guide for a Nancy Drew game that this game maybe was a bit above the mental capabilities of a five year old, hahaha. Nancy has once again found herself at the behest of a friend calling in a favor, this time investigating a seemingly haunted house on a park lake that gets attacked by - you guessed it - ghost dogs at night. Winding through the history of a gangster who once lived there and the untold riches left behind, it comes as no surprise that someone wants their grubby mitts on a piece of the pie. This was another fun adventure with Nancy, and it had a very unsettling atmosphere to it that had me freaked out as the night approached each day. I would recommend giving this one a shot, but do not feel bad by any means if you have to bust out a walkthrough.
No Case Should Remain Unsolved
This might be one of the most emotional two hours I have ever spent playing something. This is such a beautiful short story in game form that I truly think everyone should go and play. It is centered around unraveling the timeline surrounding a missing girl and her family to figure out what must have happened. The gameplay itself is relatively simple in connecting keywords across the bits of conversation with each family member to unlock new pieces of information, with the occasional question asking if you know enough to unlock a new answer. With that said, please, go take the time to experience this.
Dokapon Kingdom Connect
Have you ever seen those videos talking about “the most rare/expensive Wii games”? If you have, then you have probably Dokapon Kingdom included in a few of those. Thankfully, the game has since been rereleased on Steam as Dokapon Kingdom Connect, meaning you and your friends can all… Suffer. Suffer, forever… Okay, that’s an exaggeration. The game is genuinely an extremely fun time, as if you made a Dungeons and Dragons campaign into a board game featuring rock-paper-scissors combat. The game is heavily luck based, to the point that even if you try and plan accordingly for maximum profit in gaining the most money and towns, you can still very lose everything at the drop of a hat. Over the five months it took us to play through this game, all four of us at various points were either vastly far ahead of the rest or way behind everybody on the weekly scoreboard, and then after one chapter event, everything would be scrambled. If you go into it with no expectations and just are wanting to have a good time, you will enjoy yourself. You can sabotage the other players and steal the lead from them, constantly threatening your friendship as if this was Mario Party cranked up to eleven. The problems arise however when you get to the final three chapters of the game, where the enemies become exceedingly difficult, and the game begins to cheat against all of you. This is not an exaggeration either, as the final four boss fighters of the game do actively read what inputs you are doing to try and counter them, and it caused my friends and I to have to grind seemingly forever to stand a chance, only to then still lose all of our progress. When we finally got to the end it was pure catharsis, however, I would never want to wish going through all that nonsense on my worst enemy. Thankfully, we have since discovered that you can just have a set umber of turns to play through, so you can have much more fun and take far less time to get through it all. For anyone wishing to go through a full campaign, I wish thee luck, and may you have either the greatest friends in the world, or not mind having a bunch of computers to just try and zip through it as fast as possible.
Find Love or Die Trying
This was a tale of two halves if I have ever seen one. The first half of the game is akin to The Bachelor, where you take on the role of the lead love interest, except the twist here is if you aren’t entertaining enough and the show ratings go down, you get killed by the production crew. I thought that was a very unique premise as it is what the game is sold upon, and while it has its moments, the week that you play through is almost excruciatingly unbearable when it comes to cliche and over the top writing. The executive producer is comically evil to the point of annoyance, and outside of the outlandish date events you get, the only really interesting part is the underlying plot with the director after each day of filming. However, once you get through the week, that is when the real game truly begins, as you realize you have found yourself in a timeloop story, forced to repeat this cycle again. Normally I wouldn’t spoil that, though I found the first part of the game to potentially be painful enough for some people to put it down. Once the pretenses of the situation are dropped, the writing actually becomes very good as you and the girls you are taking go on a thriller adventure trying to uncover what is going on behind this show, all while trying to act like you are none the wiser. Beyond the first week, I thought the whole cast was really fleshed out and I found myself attached to each of them and wanting the best for them, and I am happy that I pushed myself to continue after that initial hurdle. I know everyone hates the whole “I promise it gets good after a certain amount of hours” argument, but thsi is a case where I think it is warranted. It also helps that the initial week isn’t that long to play through, perhaps two to three hours at most depending on how fast you read, so everything beyond that point is smoothing sailing.
Mindcop
By now you should expect this list to continue with the trend of mystery games. Adorably drawn and animated with a charming detective duo, Mindcop is what I would call the puzzler’s murder mystery. Combining match three and detective gameplay together worked much better than I really thought it would, with the mind surfing mechanic giving us detailed mental examinations of those we are interviewing. The set up has a Twin Peaks feeling to it, where an extremely small town faces its biggest challenge yet in one of their own having been murdered, just replace Twin Peaks with Merrilyn Crater Camp and Laura Palmer with Rebecca Goodman. Not to say that this story will eventually devolve into the paranormal, though it does share the idea of the further you, the titular Mindcop and your partner Linda, go, the more of the dark secrets of this town will be uncovered. Coupling this with the fact that the game features a time mechanic where each action takes a certain amount of time and you only have five days to catch the killer, I felt like I was racing against the clock all the way until the end to try and confirm whether my suspicions were correct. You can end the game whenever you like by arresting who you think the culprit is, but I think the fact that I got down to the final two in game hours left before I was able to make my decision with enough confidence to feel good about it is a testament to how well done this game handled its core mystery. The fact that this is a nonlinear investigation game as well greatly serves this purpose, so one playthrough is very unlikely to be like another. Even when I had finished my first run, I wanted to go back and explore so much more that I didn’t have a chance to before. Thankfully there was a free play mode after that gave me the chance to do so. While it isn’t in my top three games I played this year, I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of either match three or mystery games.
Loco Motive
Speaking of my top three, Loco Motive is the last of those titles. As someone who hadn’t ever played point and click adventure games growing up, this to me felt like I was watching a Hanna-Barbera cartoon play out on a Saturday morning, except it was based around a murder mystery on a train. Once again another very classical scenario to the mystery genre, you are playing as Arthur A. Ackerman, the estate attorney to Lady Unterwald, the head of a major railway company. With her not getting any younger, she keeps making adjustments to her will, but tonight, on the Reuss Express, she is going to finally announce who she will be granting the business to once she retires. Right when the moment of truth comes however, after passing through a dark tunnel, tragedy strikes, and Lady Unterwald is found dead! Now it is up to you and your extreme lack of qualifications to try and figure out who did it! With a very beautiful pixel art style and fully voiced dialogue, this game oozes with charm. To those who are more familiar with point and click games than me, I am sure you will find some similarities between it and popular ones of the genre like the Monkey Island series. For anyone who hasn’t experienced games like that and have wanted to try it out, then I say look no further than Loco Motive. I found myself laughing about the whole way through this title, and I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything.
Queer Man Peering Into A Rock Pool.jpg
One of my friends who I had played through Dokapon with gifted this to me for Christmas and I decided to play it that evening after he had told me it was a good short game, to which he was correct! This falls into the “walking sim” genre, and is a very metaphysical expression of living as a gay man and trying to navigate how the world acts around you while you try to make the best of your situation. That is just one potential explanation of many, as the creators intentionally left it ambiguous as to what it was all supposed to mean. If you want a game where you walk through what looks like a synthwave music video and then eventually starts pulling out The End of Evangelion references, then this is a game for you. It is another game that can be done in just under two hours, so it a fun think piece to sit with.
The Case of the Golden Idol
This was the last game I had managed to squeeze in right before New Years as the player alongside my friends. Upon opening this game up, you have a very minimalistic tutorial given to you on how to open menus and then you are off to the races and have to piece together how to proceed on your own. Normally, I would say that is a horrendous approach to the beginning of a game, however, this time the developers made it work. The Case of the Golden Idol felt like what an advanced version of an ISpy book, where you are given a scene of a tragedy and from there you are meant to fill in the blanks as to what is actually happening. You get to examine the people and environment to add keywords to your bank, where from there you try to slot them into the spaces they are meant to go in and see whether or not you were right. This process with each scene was always very entertaining and felt like a good puzzle to try and solve each time. Watching the overarching narrative unfold all centered around the aforementioned golden idol was fascinating, and my friends and I always felt like we deserved pats on the back for being able to get through some levels with how minimal the information you are given is. There is a sequel to this called The Rise of the Golden Idol, alongside two DLC stories, and us three have already said that we will definitely be checking them out sometime this year. If you are looking for a fun puzzle game to play with friends, then this is definitely the one I would recommend to you!
Games that I have watched to completion
This is going to be a much smaller section, but I wanted to still shout out these games that I watched my friends play all the way through. Seeing as I wasn’t the one holding the controller I can’t really speak for how these feel to manuver, but still experienced the entire story.
First off is a slice of life visual novel called Twofold, but to call it just that would be doing the game a huge disservice. You play as Olive Penn, a college student on the verge of failing out, who is looking for a club to join in hopes of trying to get study partners before they get given the boot. They eventually find themselves stuck between the Literature Club and the Art Club, ran by our two main love interests in Millie and Caprice respectively. Depending on whose club you choose to join will determine which path you will be on, but the two are much more intertwined than just being a route split. Navigating through Olive’s life and seeing them try to connect with the various members of the club and seeing how they are all going through their own struggles, it is a game that really pulls at your heart strings. I very rarely cry when it comes to games, but learning more and more about both Millie and Caprice really did bring me to tears on numerous occasions. For a game to be able to do that to me makes it very special in my book, and I think this is a story that you should seek out and experience all the way through on both sides. I don’t want to say too much, so please go and play it yourself, or watch a playthrough of it. You can find my friend Don’s stream VODs of it on YouTube, linked here!
Next up is a game you have probably seen floating around by now due to the explosion of popularity it receieved in Mouthwashing. It is a psychological horror game that while being light on the jumpscares, makes up for it in rich storytelling and making you reconcile with everything that you are witnessing on screen. This is truthfully a game that I would not watch a content creator go through, as the topics within it are very serious, dark, and deserve to be treated with sincerity, rather than being played through with someone trying to be entertaining. My friends and I were aware of this when we went through and it was a harrowing experience, though one that I would say is more than worth experiencing. This is another game I would try to go into as spoiler-free as you can, though again with the popularity and level of fandom it has achieved, I understand that it can be hard to avoid. I normally am someone who is not a fan of horror games due to being easily scared and not finding the adrenaline rush enjoyable, but this is a game where you will not have to worry about that. There is a segment in it that does behave like a traditional horror game that I think overstays its welcome in the maze section, but beyond that, I think this is a fantastic game.
Finally, another horror game, albeit one that doesn’t quite feel like it due to its aesthetics: MiSide. I think the premise is a fun one, where the trope of the yandere girl is subverted in how Mita doesn’t actually care about you romantically, but rather she just wants to keep you trapped for her own amusement. Going through and meeting the various Mitas was a fun concept too, and you could feel the looming presence of Crazy Mita and how she has affected all of them. Perhaps calling this a horror game isn’t quite right, as it is more of a thriller with the occasional jumpscare and spooky setdressing. All in all, it was a fun thing to go through with friends, but it wasn’t something I would have personally found interesting had I been on my own. At the time of writing, the development team is still working on the “Peaceful Mode”, which I assume will just be the continuation of the romance slice of life activities at the beginning of the game. However, with the team currently leaning into the posts that go “Oh I can fix her”, I don’t foresee it coming out and being in the spirit of the rest of the game. Maybe I will be proven wrong, time will tell.
With that, those are all the games that I had experienced last year! Looking back on it, I really didn’t imagine that my top three games of the year would actually be from 2024, let alone the fact that I would say they all rank amongst my top ten favorite games of all time. Last year was a wonderful year of gaming for me, and I hope 2025 gets to be the same! I am going to be smart about this for next time and write these entries as I actually complete them instead of all at once. At the very least, I accomplished my goal of getting this out before February, though in the spirit of me, it was at the last minute. Hopefully this article will have given you some good suggestions for games to check out, and if you do, tell me what you thought of them!
extremely funny to me that these two characters have the same name, knightly personality, and class type yet one is a wife guy and the other is divorced
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