The Games That Shaped Me #1: The Lion King

 Do you remember the very first video game you ever played?  For many of us that probably seems so long ago that the actual answer has faded away.  We may gravitate towards the first game we ever owned to answer the question, as it's a pretty easy benchmark.  Or they might state that their first game was the first "noteworthy" title they ever played, a game that was particularly memorable not just to them but mayhaps to gaming history.  Statistically speaking, we can't ALL have started with a Mario game, y'all.  Some of us had to have started with, like, the Dora the Explorer game where she meets an ice princess. I do, however, actually remember the very first game I ever played.  It was probably like 1996 or 97, I was barely capable of conscious thought, and I was being babysat at my aunt and uncle's house, either by them or by my cousins.  Regardless, though, I was actually playing with my cousins at the time, and they had a Sega Genesis that they allowed me to toy around with in their room.  Now, there's no way that my cousins would've let me pick a game to play, I was like 3, but they thankfully knew exactly what I liked.  I was, after all, autistic, and so I was very very loud about the things that I liked.  And like most 90s kids, one of the things that I very vocally loved was the Lion King.

The Lion King was, for many years, my favorite movie.  I probably first saw it when I was not even old enough to register that I had, and it quickly became child Me's entire personality.  At least until a game we'll be talking about in a couple entries came along.  I was obsessed with the Lion King, I've been a major animal lover my entire life and the Lion King was probably THE piece of media that contributed to that love more than anything.  I would not stop talking about it.  I remember when I was a kid I would try and memorize the soundtrack lyrics so I could perform them for my half-siblings when they would be around.  Somewhere deep in my brother's memory banks is probably a haunting memory of the time I sat him down and sang the entire soundtrack, front to back, in the loudest, most 4 year old singing voice possible.  It was the origin of my love of animation, my love of musicals, even my love of Broadway.  I saw The Lion King stage show the very first time it came into my city on tour (I was probably too young) and it has been the stage show I have seen the most in my entire life.  I sadly had to throw out the merchandise my mom bought me back when I was a kid, actually, I had a watch I've been holding onto since I was a kid and the plastic band completely snapped in the last move without me realizing.

So as you can imagine the idea that I could play this movie that I loved so much was mind blowing to this younger version of me.  To be clear, I was too young to understand the concept of a "video game", I was like a toddler.  I probably assumed it was just another toy to play with.  If I ever made it past the first level, which this was long enough ago that there's very little chance I did, it was probably on the back of my cousins helping me.  But that didn't really matter to child me, I was just able to run around as my boy Simba in Pride Rock.  What more could one ask for?  There's something that is literally impossible to recapture about the experience of playing games when you're too young to understand them, when you just view them as toys.  It is perhaps the most magical point in your life when you're playing video games, that point where you are unable to beat the first level of a game and you don't even care because even that feels like an impossibly deep world to explore.  It was only important that I was able to play this thing that I loved so deeply.

Thankfully, my cousins also knew all the cheats so I was able to keep throwing myself into the first level without having to worry about my playtime being interrupted.  Granted, I was just throwing myself at the first obstacle over and over again, not really putting together how to win against it.  I think maybe I probably figure out eventually that you could hop on the first beetle you encounter?  There's no way I would've ever beaten that porcupine, though, I never would've figured out at like 3 or 4 that I could roar at it to flip it over.  But again, it doesn't matter, because I was just having fun.  It's weird, because I do have a memory of making it to "I Just Can't Wait to be King", the game's infamous second level where the gloves come off.  But I don't think I ever did, I've played this game so many times throughout my life trying to finish it that I'm probably misremembering.  But who knows, maybe I figured it out and my brain isn't lying to me.  Either way, the Lion King very quickly became my favorite "toy" when I visited my cousins, and we would play with it probably every time I went over there.  I have the sneaking suspicion that I played with their copy of Lion King for the Genesis more often than they did, my cousins were not really the type to play video games constantly, one did band which ate up most of his free time and the other was Mr. Popular so he was always running around.

However, my cousins were thankfully better at games than me, given the development of cognitive reasoning, so I did get to see the later stages of the game through watching them.  They were, in particular, very excited to show me the Stampede stage, the game's fourth stage and if my mind was already blown from being able to play my favorite movie, being able to play a scene from that movie basically as it was in the movie just took it to the next level.  This is actually the most distinctive memory I have of the Lion King, my cousin excitedly going "if you think the game is cool now, watch this" or something to that effect and then playing until they got to this level to see how wowed I was.  It was like the first time I remember connecting with a video game, seeing the Stampede level, and is probably my second earliest gaming related memory?  My first was one year when a different aunt and uncle were throwing a New Year's Party and all the kids sat around and took turns playing Donkey Kong Country but like, I was literally 2 I'm pretty sure so I didn't play and instead just looked at the funny Monkey on the TV screen and probably giggled.

Unfortunately, the Lion King would leave me not too long after these brief memories.  It was already 96 or 97 maybe, the PlayStation 1 was out, and my cousins would upgrade to that.  The Genesis would get relegated to a forgotten shelf of the entertainment center, then to a container in the basement, and then sold.  I would myself get my own game consoles and not even really know how to ask for this Lion King game I loved so dearly, not that I could play it even if I had it.  I had an N64, and it was on SNES/Genesis.  Those consoles had long since been sold, my older brothers becoming "too old" for video games.  But, it would re-enter my life in a big way in my late teens.  There was a brief time in the late 00s/early 10s where I flirted with being a Let's Player.  As previously mentioned on this blog, I was homeschooled and had a lot of free time because I would finish school in like half a day, and so a lot of that time was spent looking up gaming related content on the internet.  This series is going to reveal a lot of embarrassing pieces of content I used to enjoy, I can't wait.  But I got really into Let's Plays in particular, the original style not the Pewdiepie/Markiplier style that would become what the genre is associated with nowadays.  And I wanted to do them myself, it seemed fun.  So I downloaded Hypercam and never registered it, I asked my parents for a camera for Christmas not understanding that I needed a thing called a "Capture card" to get good gaming footage, and I struck out to make Let's Plays.

Now, I never finished a Let's Play.  I had a bad habit of getting way in over my head with a project and then realizing it a few episodes in and stopping.  I did a lot of "blind playthroughs" of old SNES RPGs, namely Earthbound and Chrono Trigger, only to immediately lose steam on them like 10 episodes in because I didn't know what I was doing and also the work was bad.  I save scummed on an emulator over and over and did things like "take phone calls in the middle of recording", which I also recorded post-commentary so there was no reason to leave that in but boy did I.  Embarrassing.  Anyways, my very first Let's Play on this channel (none of these videos exist anymore, kind of sad about that but you know, it happens) was the Lion King.  I figured it was only right, the very first game I ever played being the game that started my YouTube career.  Ignore I had done like 30 slideshow videos of fake Smash movesets.  I'll talk about my Smash project someday.  Anyways, I booted up Unregistered Hypercam 2 and got to recording the Lion King for... Super Nintendo?  Yeah, I don't know why, I forgot I played it originally on Genesis, I was like so certain that I played the SNES version when I was a toddler.  Which does not make sense because there's a game we'll be getting to later in this series that I also played at that cousin's house, and that is literally a first party SEGA title.  Memory lying to me, I swear.

I'm sure people who don't know the Lion King have so far been like "oh this is a lovely story, this is so cute".  And those that DO know the Lion King have been like "oh no.  OH NO."  The Lion King is one of the many very good licensed Disney games that came out during the third and fourth generations of video game consoles, but among that class it is probably the most infamous.  While the Capcom suite of Disney games tended to be a bit on the "tough but fair" side of things, the Lion King was made by the studio that took over after the Capcom license expired, Virgin Interactive.  Virgin tended to be way more cruel.  They were more directly under Disney's thumb with way less negotiating power in regards to game development and Disney was literally just telling them to make the game harder up until it was ready to launch.  You know that old theory that games were difficult back in the day because companies wanted to combat game rentals by inflating playtime?  That was literally what happened during the Virgin days, Disney was telling them to add more puzzles or kick up the difficulty over and over.  The infamous monkey puzzle in level 2 was added at the last minute, as Disney was mandating more playtime and they didn't have time to add more levels.

So I was basically doing a first playthrough of a very difficult game for the internet to judge me, using a mouse and keyboard because, again, I emulated everything.  I am not a PC gamer, even to this day I kind of play games on my PC while gritting my teeth a bit.  I did not grow up on mouse and keyboard, I do not feel comfortable doing it, and outside of management sims and point and clicks, if I HAVE to use a mouse and keyboard I am probably just not playing that game.  And with the Lion King, you have to be VERY precise.  It is a game that will have you jumping to tiny platforms that you can barely stand on, having to play it on a keyboard is absurd as a first time.  I was also too dumb to figure out how to hook up a controller to my PC, or how to even get one.  It was pre-Bluetooth so hooking up controllers to your PC was a process if you didn't have, like, a 360.  Which I didn't because I was hard into my Nintendo fanboy era when this was all happening.

It should not surprise you, I did not beat the game during this Let's Play.  Not only did I not beat the game, I had three entire episodes devoted to one platforming challenge.  I shouldn't have done that, in hindsight, especially since that was the end of the Let's Play, I should've just stopped it when it was clear I wasn't beating it after 30 minutes of trying.  However, I got shockingly far.  A combination of save scumming and me surprisingly locking in at some points (I actually had a good run of I Just Can't Wait to Be King, which is a huge difficult spike, I got that platforming down and only lost at the ostrich parts) meant that I made it all the way to Hakuna Matata.  Yeah, the platforming challenge was not the ostriches in I Just Can't Wait to be King or the tiny platforms in the Elephant Graveyard, it was the waterfall.  I just could not seem to make any actual progress up the waterfall, I was probably playing too safe and not trusting my jumps but it was just a war of attrition.  I would literally do a dozen jumps in a row only to end up at the exact same ledge I started from.  If you've played this game, you can relate, it is the canon experience.  Once again, I recorded this failure, edited it into videos, and uploaded it onto YouTube.  I just thought it would be okay because I sped up the footage and played Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" over it.

Unfortunately, the Lion King did not pan out at that time.  Again, none of my Let's Play games panned out, I got way in over my head and didn't make significant progress on any of them, except for Kingdom Hearts, which I got all the way to Neverland in.  That YouTube channel had to be nuked because I got everyone mad at me from trolling too hard and I was suffering the consequences.  It's a shame too, I kind of wish that work still existed even if it was truly terrible so people could laugh at how much of an idiot I was back then.  I would eventually return to that run and get a bit farther, I made it all the way to the very first adult Simba level which is honestly probably my favorite level in the game?  I love the vibes of it and I love their crunchy 16-bit rendition of Under the Stars as goofy as it sounds.  Unfortunately I would not beat it on that run-through either because I could not mash fast enough to defeat the final obstacle, a gauntlet of the Leopard enemies, and so I wasn't able to beat the level and move on.  I guess fast enough isn't the right term, it's way more of a rhythm thing, just mashing means you will die.  It doesn't help that the first adult Simba level also sees you lose all the upgrades you unlocked as young Simba so the safety net you've sewn for yourself is suddenly taken away.

I put the Lion King down for many years, likely 12?  That sounds right.  A dozen years passed where I just didn't really find the space for a playthrough of the Lion King.  Part of it was that I got really weird.  I bought into a lot of very weird ideas about emulation being a net negative, the value of physical gaming over digital, I grew an obsession with having my games "legally".  You know, just really anti-consumerist viewpoints which behave as if spending money is a moral imperative and blames those who lose out on their games for going digital as if it is a moral failing on their part rather than a call to action for better consumer protections.  You ever notice how the people who are the loudest about the value of ownership are the people who directly benefit from people purchasing old games "legally" because it drives up demand which means if they choose to sell their dragon hoard they can turn a major profit.  Funny that.  I digress.  I spent a lot of that time playing more modern games.  For a while I was big into my Nintendo fanboy era and so really I wasn't playing modern games, I played Arkham City like two years later than everyone else on a port with shoved in controller gimmicks to justify its existence.  But eventually I got a PS4 and started to fill in the gaps of what I had missed the past decade or so by being such a hardcore Nintendo guy.  That combined with the decreasing presence that retro gaming had in my circle meant that returning to the first game I ever played became lower and lower on the priority list.

That is until 2023, my very first year doing Game Clearing in roughly the same iteration I'm doing now.  There have been some nuances year-in and year-out, I initially didn't track my start and end dates and obviously I wasn't doing the blog in 2023, but more or less the way I do things now started in 2023.  My earlier game clearing vibe that year was very slapdash, just kind of picking random games from either my shelf or my NSO service and playing through them.  If I remember correctly something had happened that previously year that made me throw out my TV stand and so I was kind of without a TV.  So basically everything I played was on Switch or on my PC, and again I hate PC gaming and it is only after 3 years of doing it that I don't complain about it constantly when I do it.  And so, pulling random games off my shelf and out of my digital library, I decided it was finally time to tackle the Lion King, which I had gotten via the Disney Classic Games Collection at this point.  I hadn't yet decided I was cool with non-official emulation, 2023 was probably the year I was legitimately coming down from my "forever physical" mindset.

Now, I was admittedly a little hesitant to play the Lion King.  I always think I'm going to hate retro platformers more than I end up actually hating them.  In 2023 I had long since stopped being a big retro game guy, I don't hate retro games now but I'm very touch and go about them.  Like with all things, my opinions on them are always evolving and are very much on a case-by-case basis.  Sometimes I love a game I would probably otherwise hate (Gunstar Heroes) just because it hit me at the right time, you know?  But I have played enough classic platformers to know that usually the harder ones don't do a lot for me.  I tend to find excessive difficulty boring, I acknowledge its importance in the retro game space especially and, don't get me wrong, I totally understand why other people find this compelling.  I get the gameplay loop of hitting a wall and wanting to tear it down and that driving you.  But revisiting older games nowadays for me can be very hard, especially if the game is very hard.  The Lion King, of course, is infamously hard, with its brutality being one of the first things anyone knows about it.  So I went into this playthrough a bit cautious, ready to have my heart broken.

Y'all, I love the Lion King.  I was fully surprised by how truly good this game is.  Now, mind you, I'm biased.  This is an adaptation of one of my favorite movies of all time, a movie that was my literal favorite for the first 16 years of my life until I saw Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes.  Yeah, I know, terrible movie to overtake The Lion King, what can I say.  As well, I obviously have a history with the Lion King, this game has been an important fixture of my life, but that doesn't really mean anything.  One of the biggest posts on this blog is literally me talking about how, despite a long history with the game "Banjo-Kazooie", I ended up hating it.  Like, I was assuming, going into it, that the Lion King would probably just be a very mid platformer that I would be glad I played but kind of shrug off ultimately.  One of the many MANY games I play every year and go "well, you know.  It's alright."  But no, I adored the Lion King, I thought it was great.

A pretty big reason is admittedly how effectively it captures the style and tone of the movie.  It beautifully recaptures the style of some of the most iconic scenes in the original film, from the bright, colorful visuals of "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" creating this super fun and kind of trippy level that's a visual showcase; to the more melancholic look and tone of something like Simba running through the jungle chasing Rafiki.  It's funny, in my memory the film looks way more like the former, like that's the look I associate with the Lion King.  Very vibrant, very colorful, very light.  But playing through the game, it really hit me how melancholic a lot of that film is.  You spend way more of that game in levels with muted color palettes and kind of solemn music.  That's correct, of course, that is what the film is.  It's not a happy film, it's very grand and epic and sad.  I just find it amusing how my memory latched onto the moments of levity just because I saw it when I was so young.  But the game is just such a wonderful recapture of the movie, at some points it even looks like actual movie animation.  Virgin Interactive was good at that, their Aladdin game on the Genesis is largely considered the better version because it effectively recaptures the flow of the movie in a way that the Capcom game doesn't.

But also, the Lion King is just a fun platformer.  Its reputation as an exceptionally difficult game is totally justified, don't get me wrong, it is a very difficult game.  I will fully admit I had to use the rewind and save state functionality contained within the collection numerous times, I am very bad at most games and as such try to use every tool available to me to get through.  But it's also just incredibly fun.  Like the platforming is rough and very precise but it's very satisfying, the amount of secrets hidden in each level make them fun to test different paths in, when you finally unlock combat in the later sections it becomes a very fun sort of hack-and-slash.  It's just a very fun game, I don't know if it is necessarily a "must-play" game in the SNES library anymore, it certainly was at a time.  It is very difficult and can be very frustrating and I think without the obvious connection that you might have to the source material and/or an appreciation for retro platformers, the Lion King probably isn't worth playing.  But truly, I adore it.

And so the first story ends.  The shadow that the first game I ever played cast over me finally dissipating.  But there will be more stories to tell, more games to explore.  I really want to turn this into an ongoing series, I feel like it'd be nice to go over my gaming history in this way.  I hope you all enjoyed this one, and stay tuned for the next entry, where we get a bit more aquatic with it.

If you know me, you're probably surprised to see this here.  I have long evangelized about Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure, an odd ball obscure fishing RPG/Visual Novel for the last generation of consoles.  Or last generation as of 2026.  This is a game I am very passionate about, in... god was it 2020?  2021?  It's been so long.  Anyways, a friend of mine, at the time just a streamer I watched, was playing at least one fishing game a month and we had stumbled into Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure.  And I want to be clear, at first we were clowning on it.  We didn't even like this weird game when we were done, by the final stream of it, we were just like "god, can we be done with this".

But as the year went on and we played a lot of uninteresting fishing games, our minds kept going back to RTA.  It's a weird story about a trio of friends who do not like each other trying to complete a class project while it's implied their friendship is breaking apart.  And there's a really weird supernatural element to it too.  It's an odd duck of a fishing game, but one we fell in love with.  Playing it was a tradition for a while, we probably played through it a few times and have created kind of a small community around it.  I've made a lot of friends through Road Trip Adventure.  But I've never played it myself.  It's been sitting on my shelf for a very long time and thankfully La-Mulana was a wash for me so I had a need for a replacement and a window of opportunity.  This is:

Explaining What Happens in Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure As I Play It For Myself For the First Time

Disclaimer: Some of the things in the following blog post may not actually be official.  My friends and I have done a lot of reading between the lines over the years of this game and technically speaking not everything in this is in the text.  This is probably the closest you're going to get to me writing a fanfiction.  But it's more fun this way, isn't it? As such this will probably also be more loosey goosey than my normal writing.  Little bit of a riff.

Chapter 1: Prologue

Listen, I'm well aware that's not what a prologue is.  So to begin, I think I should give you an idea of what the structure of this game is.  Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure is a fishing simulation game with RPG elements and visual novel sequences.  You are handed quests by a wizened old fisherman and, upon completion of those quests, you get a little story sequence.  So what I'm going to be listing are the interstitials between fishing segments.  I'm effectively not going to talk about the gameplay at all, the gameplay is not good for the record, but that's not why I'm writing this.  I'm writing this because I need people to know the bizarre character interactions in this fishing game.

To start we need to understand the characters at the center of our story.  Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure only has four characters in it, the main three and the shop owner.  So here are our main characters:

• Sean - Sean is the character we spend the game playing as.  Sean is your classic shonen protagonist.  He's dumb,, loud, loves eating, and is hyperfixated on one singular thing which defines his personality.  In this case, fishing.  Sean loves to fish, he eats, sleeps, and breathes fishing.  If given the opportunity, he will make every conversation about fishing, much to the annoyance of his friends.  But Sean has a good heart.  He cares a lot about the environment and while he often takes actions that annoy his friends, they trust him a great deal, allowing him to be the de factor leader of the trio.  Also someone would be mad if I didn't mention this, but Sean's clavicle game is insane.  Bro has it fully on display at all times it's crazy.  They had to nerf it in the sequel, even, that's how crazy it is.
• Neil - For every Goku, there must be a Krillin.  Neil is Sean's best friend, they've known each other since they were very young and both have a shared love of fishing.  As is standard with these stories, Neil is an equal and opposite force of Sean.  He's shy and quiet, takes life slowly, cares more about being studious.  He takes two steps forward while Sean takes two steps back.  They come together because opposites attract.  Neil loves fishing but moreover, he loves recycling.  Neil's primary job in the group is to craft new rods, reels, and lures out of trash he finds on the group's fishing adventures.  Neil is, however, pretty dumb, despite being the "bookworm", and often takes Sean's side in arguments because he's in love with him he wants to keep the peace.
• Alice - Alice is my girl.  The fashionista herself, Alice has not known Sean and Neil nearly as long as they've known each other.  Alice joined up with the group within the last couple years as a result of them going to the same college and loving fishing.  Despite their shared interest, however, Alice doesn't always get along with the other two, usually butting heads with Sean.  Alice is a real girls girl, she loves cooking and fashion and is against the more masculine ideals Sean always presents.  She's also deeply insecure, something that comes from her history of being overweight before college, which leads to her often being defensive in the face of Sean's teasing.  This weight loss plays into her special skill, however, with Alice having spent high school learning how to cook delicious but healthy meals.  She uses her food to provide the group with buffs and healing items during the games' fishing sequences.
• Shopman - Mr. Shopman is an enigma.  A mysterious old man, Mr. Shopman owns a grocery store and tackle shop up in the mountains of Japan.  He has invited the trio out to his home to accomplish their primary goal: completing a class assignment with a very broad goal of "do a report on anything".  Shopman assists them on this goal by allowing them to buy produce for their meals as well as purchasing off of them any pictures of fish that they take.  Not any fish they take, any pictures of fish they take.  It's crazy to me too.  Shopman is also their quest giver, asking the trio to find specific fishes of specific sizes to prove to him that the area's waters are getting clean.  But something is off with him.  He always seems to know just a touch too much at any given time.

So the game begins with our main trio discussing what to do for their big class report.  The trio run a fishing club for their college and are, seemingly, the only three members.  After some bickering about their indecision, the trio decide to go down to the local museum for inspiration.  The museum is currently offering an exhibit on paintings of sea life and, being fish experts, they think this will be perfect for their vague report.  They are immediately absorbed by a specific painting, titled "The Elusive Fish", which appears to show a large, serpentine fish that was caught off the coast of Japan.  While the three are mesmerized by the painting, a mysterious old man walks up to them to discuss the painting.  He states that he knows the artist and, if they can spare the time, he'd love to introduce them.  The trio enthusiastically agree.

A few days later, they're all packed up and have taken a train out to the countryside, and are awaiting the arrival of a bus to take them all the way out to where Shopman lives.  Sean has been stuck with luggage duty, carrying Alice's numerous bags with him, leading to the first of many arguments between them.  As they wait, they go on a little adventure, following the train tracks until they reach their conclusion, stopping right before a sealed off tunnel through the mountain.  Make note of this, it'll be important much later.  The trio is confused by this, but once they arrive at their destination they discover that originally the plan was for the town Shopman lives in and the town on the other side of the mountain to merge into one town, with a train through to both sides.

Arriving at the location Shopman gave them, he reveals that he has actually been the artist of the painting the whole time.  Shopman sought to bring them up here because it has been his life's goal to once again see the Elusive Fish.  See, the Elusive Fish used to appear in a secret fishing location with crystalline water.  But after the failed construction of the mountain tunnel, the waters around here have gotten filled with pollutants.  Shopman wants to clean up the local water sources, in the hops of bringing back all the native fauna, but he is an old man at this point.  So he invited these three young adults, all of whom have a passion for fishing, to aid him in his efforts.  To assist them, he will allow them use of his RV to travel around, as well as providing them with cash and supplies.  But they will need to prove their commitment to the cult cause by regularly showing him photos of fish they've caught, proving the fish in question have returned to the area.

The trio starts out being pleasant enough to each other as they accomplish their quest, but you can tell there's some tension surrounding them.  Their playful banter having an uneasy undercurrent.  Sean is poking Alice a bit too much, Neil isn't sticking up for his friends enough in his attempts to keep the peace.  It comes to a head when Neil notes that Sean has a new phone background.  It's a fish, of course, they always are.  Sean likes to show off his trophies after all.  But when Neil asks about it, both he and Alice regret that decision as Sean launches into a story about catching this fish.  The duo is familiar with Sean's stories but this time seems different, like they're only listening to humor him and aren't actually interested in what he has to say.  They laugh off his behavior as just "being Sean", but the patience seems to be running thin.

How little the group knows about Alice is also becoming incredibly apparent.  Alice went to another school from Sean and Neil and so the trio didn't meet until college, but they don't seem to know, like, basic stuff about her.  They seem utterly flabbergasted that Alice could be an excellent cook, a skill she picked up in high school as part of her weight loss journey.  In fact, they are worried that she cannot cook up until the moment they taste her food, which is a bizarre assumption to make about someone who insists they can cook without having tasted their food.  This is even more bizarre as it's later on revealed that this is what Alice is in school for.  Her dream is to become a professional chef.  So the group knows so little about each other outside of the context of fishing that they don't even know each other's majors.  Insane.  I know there's a sequel to this game but man, these three need new friends.

Chapter 2: Ocean Fishing

So, keep in mind that this is a fishing club and that Sean and Neil have been fishing together since they were very young.  So you'd expect them to be like really into fishing, to be more than just a casual hobbyist.  It turns out, that's not true!  Sean, Neil, and Alice have never done anything greater than your standard "going to streams and ponds and catching bluegill and trout" fishing.  The fourth quest of the game is to go out to the coast and fish for Seabream, and these three are astonished at the prospect of going ocean fishing.  Like this is not a thing they've done before.  Fishing tourists, I swear, people I know who do fishing super casually have gone ocean fishing but these three have never done it.  What's more, we find out that Neil is scared of the ocean anyways!  When he and Sean were in the fifth grade, they went to a summer camp on the ocean and Sean found a cute girl from another school he wanted to impress who is definitely not Alice and so he made a big show of flexing and in doing so pushed Neil off the rocks they were standing on!  And Neil almost drowned!  Sean is a horrible friend, I swear, these people need to get away from him.

After the intensive fishing we've been doing (we haven't caught anything that weighs more than a few ounces), Sean's shirt has gotten threadbare.  Fortunately, Neil is a whiz at sewing, which matches all of his other crafting related talents.  Neil's one of those guys who is like "oh, I'm not actually talented, if you took the time to learn you'd be as good as I am at this".  You know, one of those people where you can never tell if it's genuine humility, an actual belief in other people's skills, or just having astronomically low self-esteem to where you think nothing you do is special.  This is a subtweet to myself.  Anyways, the other two are discussing how maybe they too could pick up sewing and Alice is like "maybe Neil's right, maybe all I need to do is commit more time to it and I'll be able to do it" and then Sean responds "well maybe you can Alice, but me?  No way."  And it's difficult to not feel like this is a microaggression considering Alice is a woman and Sean is a shonen protagonist.  Sean is needling them, Sean is always needling them.  Noodling them?  That's a better fish joke, pretend I said that first.  Anyways, Sean ultimately doesn't think he can pick up sewing because he is, at his core, intellectually incurious and does not want to pick up new skills that aren't related to fishing.  Boy likes to fish and hates the idea he should do anything else.  Alice eventually agrees with him that maybe he shouldn't pick up sewing and Neil is like "Alice, I don't care how right it is, don't discourage him!"

Neil reveals that he has been receiving messages from his parents to be more career-oriented.  This is a common theme with Neil that even goes into the follow-up to RTA, Reel Fishing: Days of Summer.  Neil, being the "perfect student" archetype constantly feels pressured to look towards the future.  It's something that eats away at him because he doesn't really know what he wants and thinks that where he wants to be right now is enjoying the student lifestyle.  This is also where we start to get notes that, despite Neil's claims to the contrary, Neil clearly isn't very smart.  He's flaky and unfocused, he says a lot that he's a model student but it's all kind of words.  Anyways, Neil is jealous of Alice, a very career-oriented person who already knows what she wants to be in life, and is somewhat jealous of Sean, a person who has no prospects and no future but is too dumb to realize it.  Neil is stuck with the worst of both worlds, unable to make a decision about his future and unable to live with the knowledge that that is okay.  As an aside, we find out in this conversation that Sean's professors are so worried about his lack of a future that they are setting up internships for him.  It's a thing that makes Neil very upset but Alice, in her constant need to take a dig at Sean, is like "oh it's probably just that they're not worried about you like that, Neil".  These three need to hang out with anyone else, I swear.

Alice ran into Neil at a party she went to with friends that Neil and Sean were intending to go to independently.  This implies Alice has friends outside of Sean and Neil, which is a baffling prospect because why would you hang out with Sean if you had ANYONE else in your life.  Alice also states that this party is recent, which implies they are going home frequently despite having been up on this mountain camping for like 2 weeks straight at this point.  Anyways, Sean bailed on Neil to go fishing, big surprise, and Neil and Alice hungout at the party for a little bit.  While they were there, Alice spotted a girl chatting up our resident trash goblin and watched him seriously fumble it.  They were in deep, she asked Neil like a lot of personal questions and was apparently rather clingy and Neil just did not pick up on it.  Which of course makes sense, Neil clearly is deeply in love with Sean and likely does not notice women at all.  So Alice and Sean, as if Sean would know how to handle a woman, start teasing him for fumbling this opportunity and Neil is just like "I think she just wanted movie recommendations".  Honestly, a relatable scenario, I once failed to realize a girl was clearly into me at a superbowl party and shy was super clingy the entire time, even falling asleep on my shoulder.

The gang does yoga!  Alice, it turns out, is a massive yoga fan and does extended yoga sessions on a daily basis.  This time around, Sean and Neil decide to join her in her yoga sessions and, despite all three people in this trio having very outdoor lifestyles which include a lot of hiking and fishing, Sean and Neil's cardio is just like.  Terrible.  And then they both do that thing that insecure men do whenever they lose to a girl, try to undermine the other person's accomplishments by positing that they're somehow a nutjob.  Like Alice being more fit and able to maintain exercise and balance for extended periods of time is somehow a negative trait?  And all because they can't handle the hit to their egos?  Not to say Alice is necessarily doing much better here, she reinforces the traditional gender dynamic of men being inherently stronger than women and tries to imply that Sean and Neil are lacking because their cardio isn't as good as hers.  Also, I say that they have active lifestyles but something I want to make clear is that Sean is both lazy and, due to his laziness, an awful fisherman.  Despite fishing being his entire life, Sean fails to get up at the crack of the dawn and refuses to go for long hours.  He shows up at the fishing spot at 10 AM, everybody who goes fishing is at the lake by like 5 AM, and then he only goes until 3.  He's a fake fisherman,

Sean brought fireworks up to the camp, believing that because this is a summer adventure, you gotta have fireworks.  I don't know where exactly he got these fireworks from, again, they have spent a considerable amount of time up here at this point.  Probably a month now based on how long I had to grind out some of these fish.  And also Neil, who is slowing down progress by failing to collect trash efficiently enough to allow me to craft on the reg.  Anyways, Sean decides now is the best time to light up these fireworks.  He, as you might imagine, cares very little for firework safety, immediately choosing to wave them around freely.  Alice points out that there is always one guy who needs to wave his fireworks around, implying that she has been sexually harassed, which checks out, she was a chubby teenage girl, it would be weirder if she weren't sexually harassed.  As if this wasn't bad enough, Sean brought like an actual firework with him, not just the kind you give to kids.  This is, I imagine, illegal, and Alice and Neil rightfully do not trust him to set it off because it's a proper firework.  Thankfully nothing goes wrong, unfortunately, nothing goes wrong, so we still have to hunt for the Elusive Fish, who at this point everyone has taken to calling "the Legend".  I kind of want these kids to stop looking for it so they can head back home, realize that they've grown apart, and move on with their lives.  Alas.

Chapter 3: Mr. Shopman's Change

After spending so much time out here, cleaning up the waters and catching fish, Alice begins to notice that Mr. Shopman appears different.  It's as if he is getting younger.  Not in the sense that he has developed a new lease on life or that he's filled with youthful energy.  No like literally, he's Benjamin Buttoning according to her.  His gray hair has turned mostly black and his wrinkled skin is smoothing out.  Neil and Sean, being who they are, decide to gaslight their friend.  "I don't think there's as big of a change as you think there is".  "I'm sure he's just feeling more lively after hanging out with us."  Just fully convincing Alice that the thing she's noticed isn't happening.  And frankly, if you're playing this game, you've probably noticed it too.  Shopman's sprites have subtly changed as you've caught more and more fish.  Look, all these young adults are awful, but Alice definitely needs better friends, these other two are garbage fires.  Truly they are not good for her and her adorable outfits, she needs new friends so bad.

The gang receives an e-mail from their university which has the test scores for their midterms.  This is surprising, of course, as they are on a summer holiday writing a report on legendary and elusive fish that used to be native to Japan.  When they took a midterm, who can say.  But regardless, they have received their results.  Neil passed with flying colors, something that both of his friends are upset about him bragging about before he reminds them that the test was open book.  Sean then responds that he wouldn't even know where to look in the book regardless, so it doesn't really matter.  As Alice swiftly points out, Sean just admitted that he is both astonishingly dumb and also that he has not gone to class enough to have a basic grasp of his textbook.  I don't even really know what Sean is doing in college, it feels like Sean is just going to get rich on meme stock and then retire at 22 to spend the rest of his days fishing, frankly.  Regardless, Neil sees this as an opportunity.  If he can help Sean study, he can be alone with Sean.  And as we've established Neil likes Sean in what is probably a romantic way.  Sean, being a clueless shonen protagonist, just hates this because he thinks they will actually be studying.  Alice got a B, by the way.

I've been excited for this story.  This is the internship story.  So, as mentioned previously, Sean's professors are so concerned about his seemingly absent possibilities for the future that they have taken the initiative to provide Sean with internship opportunities.  Sean has been going to this internship for a while and is seemingly enjoying his time with the company.  Thing is, Sean has no idea what the company is doing.  See, it turns out, Sean showed up for his first day and not too long after met an older gentleman who always seemed to show up late for work.  Sean refers to him as "his old pal", a thing he means literally in that he is his pal and he is old rather than being a friend Sean has had for some time.  Both Alice and Neil are surprised Sean has any friends outside of them.  I digress.  Sean say this older man showing up for work late every day and so encouraged him to take up fishing.  Cause you gotta be up super early for fishing, you have to be out there before the crack of dawn.  Never mind the fact that we know Sean is lazy and doesn't start fishing each day until 10 AM.  So Sean gets this guy turned onto fishing and, since then, every day has been him showing up for his internship, finding this guy, and just talking about fishing nonstop until the day is over.  He's had this internship for a long time and is fully unaware of what the company does and, being intellectually incurious, does not want to know.  Neil is panicking as he realizes his friend has no future, and will likely be mooching off him for the rest of his life.

The rare Shopman only interstitial.  On a particularly clear, beautiful night, Shopman looks up to the sky and notes how beautiful the moon is tonight.  He begins musing to himself about the clear sky and recollecting the first date he had with his now deceased wife.  They were going to see a fireworks show but it was rained out.  Deciding to not let the moment pass, they bought some fireworks so that they could have their own show once the rain cleared.  But you know how these things go.  It never seems like a good time.  Life always gets in the way.  Shopman kept putting it off for years until he no longer had any time at all.  His wife had passed on and now all he has is a bunch of promises he never kept.  But it's okay, he says.  Because soon him and his wife will be reunited.  Which we can just basically say that Shopman is a ghost who is ready to move on because, if he was just close to death, Benjamin Buttoning out of nowhere is a weird decision if your goal is to be reunited with your dead wife.  The last section was about Sean being too dumb to hold a job and now it's getting spooky out of nowhere, I love this game.  By the way, this was all on the mission to catch a Japanese Sea Bass, so the entire time I was just thinking of the Animal Crossing puns about Sea Bass.

Chapter 4: Mr. Shopman's Decision

A really short interstitial to lead us into the fourth chapter.  Mr. Shopman simply notes how effective our trio has been at cleaning up the local waterways, how almost all of the local fauna has returned.  Soon, the Legend will return as well, the kids will accomplish their goal.  But in this moment, Shopman is concerned.  The Legend reappearing clearly means something is about to happen, something Shopman clearly wants to prevent.  He states that he "won't let it happen again".  What isn't he telling us?  Does the Legend have something to do with the death of his wife?  We probably won't find out because none of these interstitials seem to have any real bearing on the plot, these characters are often just yapping.

Alice and Sean are fighting, because you know.  It's a day ending in y.  This time over Sean presumably tripping as Alice tells him to "be more careful where he's walking".  This exchange makes Neil decide to ask a very important question: are Alice and Sean dating?  See "some friends of his" in one of his elective classes, a class he alleged he attended recently despite us being out here for like a month at this point, asked about Sean and Alice.  After all, they are "always hanging out together", which is odd given that we know Alice has other friends she hangs out with, and people have started talking.  Sean and Alice vehemently deny this, stating not only are they not dating, but it doesn't make sense that people would posit that idea given that they're also always hanging out with Neil.  Neil responds "oh, well, you know, I guess I just don't leave that much of an impact".  Which, to me, makes it pretty clear that there are no friends from his elective class and that he's actually probing the two of them to see if Sean is available.  And then, because Sean is Sean, he cannot let things be and decides to take a dig at Alice, saying she's too loud and annoying and nags too much to ever be in a relationship.  Alice rebukes this by stating she has had plenty of boyfriends, to which Sean responds "yeah, and where are any of them now".  Neil smiles smugly, knowing that so long as he keeps stirring the pot, there's no chance of Alice and Sean getting together.

The gang once again acknowledges that this is summer, making the timeline even more confusing than it already was.  They talk like they're still midsemester in some conversations while, in others, acknowledge they've been up in the mountains for quite some time as school has been off.  Weird time shenanigans are a shockingly common thread for fishing games.  Anyways, Sean suggests that they do a "summer night fight off", a thing I have never heard of but is essentially a dare challenge where you go off by yourself in a spooky area and try not to chicken out.  Alice is vehemently against this idea but, discovering Neil and Sean intend to do it anyways, begrudgingly goes along with them to not be left alone overnight.  They head a ways away to the train station they used to get up here and Alice decides to wait in the car with the person who is currently not doing the dare.  Neil leaves the two alone and when he comes back he prods the other two to make sure they are not dating before Sean takes his turn.  Sean, being Sean, uses this opportunity to scare Alice to death.  He pretends to be a werewolf who is hunting Alice down and takes great joy in how genuinely scared she is.  Sean is the kind of guy who assumes everyone is in on the joke even if they say they aren't.  Alice, furious at Sean, locks him out of the car until he apologizes, something that takes him a while to do sincerely and he only chooses to do so when Neil believes he hears an actual wolf in the forest.  Alice, for what it's worth, was still not going to let Sean in without apologizing even with the threat of a wolf, meaning Sean could've died this night as a result of being a jerk.  Alice needs better friends.  Legitimately, when my friend was first playing through this game, this scene was the moment we went from "these people are awful and deserve each other" to "Alice deserves better".

In a follow-up to the last one, the gang arrives at Shopman's store to restock their supplies and regale him with tales of their adventures.  Sean, being Sean, immediately tries to throw Alice under the bus by claiming that she was about to let him die at the hands of a wolf.  Ignore the fact that Alice indeed was about to let Sean die at the hands of a wolf.  Shopman finds this amusing and also a bit odd, according to him there aren't any wolves or even wild dogs in this area at all.  Ignoring, of course, that wolves can roam.  That's a possibility.  The gang is now all spooked as they debate what it could possibly have been that was hiding in the foliage.  I would assume it was a boar, myself, we are in Japan, but Shopman offers an alternative theory.  See, there are said to be 13 mythological creatures who call this mountain home, forest spirits who are bound to the mountain.  Obviously, he would be an expert, he's one of the 13.  He then excitedly tells the crew that they should incorporate these local myths into their fishing club report.  Alice is very opposed to the idea, partially because it would mean investigating more spooky ghost stories but I imagine it's mostly due to the fact that ghosts have nothing to do with fishing... as far as we know.  Neil is in support of this idea, however, finding the prospect of ghosts to be fascinating.  It really feels like Neil just isn't involved in most of these cutscenes, to be honest.

Chapter 5: The Legend

The time has finally come.  At 9PM, Shopman pulls the trio into his shop and states that, thanks to all their hard work, the Legend has finally returned.  He congratulations them on their efforts and the trio briefly begin to give their bittersweet goodbyes to Shopman.  But before they can, Shopman warns that the Legend is the toughest fish they've fought yet.  They must truly be prepared to face him in the fishing battle of their lives.  As such, he has given us a final test before we can face the Legend itself.  More importantly, when we are truly ready, we have been given instructions on how to find the fishing spot for the Legend.  Shopman draws our attention to a familiar site: the sealed off tunnel from the beginning of the game.  He states that, so long as they trust him, he will lead them to the the Legend through that tunnel.  Once again, he is a ghost, this is the only explanation for his behavior.  The trio is, understandably, confused by the notion that there's a fishing spot beyond a completely sealed up tunnel, but Shopman just says to meet him there at 3 AM.  The witching hour.  Our trio has definitely been swindled into becoming part of some fish-centric cult by a dead guy!!!

Back at camp, the trio decides to regroup and talk over this bizarre revelation.  Sean is very gung-ho about this, believing that he will soon set himself among the ranks of the greatest fisherman of all time.  An impressive title for him to obtain, he's not old enough to drink.  Alice and Neil are less than sure, however.  They have picked up on the weird hour and Shopman's odd behavior and are playing the game we're currently playing: is this a ghost thing or is it a cult thing.  Sean, thick-headed as he is, doesn't believe in ghosts OR cults, and argues that Shopman is clearly telling the truth.  After all, he's been telling the truth so far.  Neil is quick to point out that just because he's not lying, that doesn't mean he's not also dangerous.  Alice also explains what the witching hour even is, proving that among Sean's many failings as a human being, one of them is that he did not have a goth phase in high school.  Sean thinks Alice is once again being a scaredy cat, having already forgotten the lesson about being nice to her, lest she let him be mauled by a boar and/or a forest troll.  But, as Sean says, what does it matter anyways.  No one cared about this witching hour thing until they got up the mountain.  It's almost as if there's a potential ghost cult we now have to deal with that makes the witching hour more relevant.  Regardless, the trio resolves to meet Shopman at 3 AM and catch the Legend.  After all, they are the Fishing Club!  Not any specific fishing club, just "the".

The group notes how good it is to be sitting around the campfire, citing that they haven't done this in "so long".  Again, an absurd statement, they've been up on this mountain for like 6 weeks now and been primarily camping.  They've been sitting around a fire every night.  Anyways, more than that, they are like "I haven't done this since the summer camp where Neil almost drowned".  Said summer camp was in the fifth grade.  Anyways, this is finally the moment where Alice asks the other two what the name of that summer camp was and, surprise surprise, it was the same summer camp that she went to!  It's been like a month since that story about the summer camp and Alice is only now getting around to telling them.  The three of them are super freaked out, noting how odd it is that their lives have intersected multiple times before.  As if the universe itself was trying to pull them together.  Alice doesn't believe in destiny though so that idea is shot down, which means Alice believes in ghosts but doesn't believe in destiny.  Bizarre combo there.  And what do they decide to do as soon as they have this life altering revelation about the nature of their friendship?  Get drunk.  Get super drunk.  This is the first time in this game that these characters have felt like college students.  Also, Neil picks up that Alice is 100% the girl that Sean was flirting with at that summer camp but neither Alice nor Sean seems to connect those particular dots.

The gang notices Shopman's fireworks when they are at his store restocking on their supplies.  As you'll recall, these fireworks have been with him since he was a young adult himself, having been purchased to do a show with his wife.  They are excited about the prospect of putting another fireworks show, though given how poor of a grasp they have on time, they probably believe it is the first one, it feels like we're in a time loop at this point.  Sean of course doesn't notice anything weird about these fireworks, but Neil is quick to note how old the fireworks seem.  When questioned, you ever notice how often the other two question Neil's observations, Neil points out that the fireworks do not just seem to be designed to look old, but that they are themselves likely very old, 40-50 years abouts.  Sean does not care.  He completely ignores the observation his friend has made, shooting it down by going "well, so long as they fire, who cares how old they are".  I'm not an expert on fireworks, but I'm like fairly confident 50 year old fireworks would not, in fact, fire.  I feel like the gunpowder is probably bad by this point.  But again, what do I know.  It's weird that this is one of the final cutscenes of the game, you'd think they'd put the mentioning of the fireworks BEFORE the part where Shopman waxes poetic about the things he never got to do with his wife.  But I digress.

To follow up from the last plot point, the gang purchases the fireworks from Shopman's shop, returning the money he has been giving them to him, once again, fish cult.  And they invite Shopman out to enjoy the fireworks.  Shopman talks about how long he's had these fireworks and how important they are to him and he never mentions to the gang that he lost his wife of course.  That would mean explaining anything.  He's just like "oh, you know, fireworks are meant to be enjoyed together, that's why I've been holding onto them".  And he just awkwardly partakes in the fireworks display, giving off the weirdest vibes.  Laughing but like, Shopman's sprites are just a touch off-putting so it again feels like the kind of fake laughter that a cultist would have.  You know the type.  Halfway through the display he gets suddenly very solemn and goes "I was such a fool" but he won't tell the kids what that means.  Just a weird dude, I swear.  Then Neil is like "fireworks are fun, I should look into buying them more often when I get home" and Shopman responds "oh I don't think you'll find any like this, sadly".  Which is weird, Neil was the one who clocked that Shopman's fireworks were old so I don't know why they're implying he thought that he'd be able to walk into a store and buy fireworks like this.  Also, is it legal for a normal person to buy fireworks in Japan?  That feels like it wouldn't be legal over there.

As we finish the final story mission before the Legend, the final boss of the game, Alice is depressed.  Having all the fish return to the ecosystem and having seemingly the only thing remaining for them to do means that this summer vacation is almost over.  So now we're at the end of the summer even though, again, they got e-mails about their midterms like two weeks ago.  Insane timeline.  She's so sad because she's been thinking on what Neil's parents said and the conversations they had about their future.  How once this is over, they go back to their real lives, have to do adult things.  Figure out their careers.  Pay taxes.  Get a mortgage.  I'm depressed talking about it, to be honest.  Sean, being Sean, decides to use this opportunity to be sexist, asking her if she's crying over some cheesy romance novel.  Why is Alice sad about leaving these people?  Anyways, the three begin to reminisce about this perfect summer and the perspective it's given them, how they now want to look towards their futures.  Alice wants to really invest her time into getting into culinary school and becoming a professional chef.  Sean wants to fish and join the MMA.  I don't know where this came from, but he says he wants to enjoy those one-on-one battles, for the record I realize he is still talking about fishing.  And Neil?  The guy who had trouble figuring out his career path previously?  Neil wants to craft.  That's what he wants his job to be, crafting.  He's so dumb.  The three of them decide to make this summer last forever, enjoy it while they still are here, no matter what happens.  Which is a bad thing to decide at the end of the game, when the only thing left to do is fight the Legend.

Chapter 6: Beyond the Tunnel

Here it is, the finale of the game.  The trio decides to head out at 2 AM to the place where Shopman stated the path to the hidden fishing spot would be, presumably to await his arrival.  However, when they arrive, Shopman is already waiting for them.  Alice finds this very odd, because they had not actually communicated with Shopman that they were intending upon coming up here tonight.  But, since he is likely both a cult leader and a ghost, he just appeared here anyways.  Is this ghost stealing their money?  Will they get it back once he moves on?  I digress.  What's more, the tunnel that was previously sealed is now fully opened.  Sean and Neil are too excited about the end of their quest to clock how truly bizarre this is, but Alice is immediately like "guys, this is weird, I'm not sure about this actually".  Proving that Alice has not yet been fully taken in by the fish cult.

However, as it is a cult, they start gaslighting her.  First by attempting to change the subject, with Shopman definitely totally joking about this tunnel being a path to another plane of existence to distract them, before following it up with "well, yes, the tunnel used to be sealed off, but it's open clearly, maybe you didn't look hard enough the first time".  Sean and Neil concur, after all, they saw the tunnel several days ago and only for a second, maybe they just didn't get a good enough look at it and their mind was playing tricks on them.  After all, Alice, don't you trust Shopman?  The weird fish cult man who is probably a ghost?  Alice, being fully convinced she is crazy by her friends and their new fish cult leader decides to go on in.  She trusts Sean and Neil, and they trust Shopman.  And besides, doesn't she want to catch the Legend?

Arriving on the other side of the tunnel, the group sees a bizarre sight.  An impossibly beautiful beach, otherworldly and mystical, is awaiting them, the Legend splashing about in the waters just off the sight.  Purple flowers cover the area, and fireflies rise above the waters.  Even Sean, as dense as he is, is taken by the beauty, noting how it feels like a fantasy world.  Shopman hands Sean the rod he used many years ago, the first time he encountered the Legend, the time he painted it, and says to use it to catch the Elusive Fish.  All the while thinking to himself how grateful he is for them, how they have fulfilled a life's goal of his, and how he won't let it happen again.  That he will protect these children, that he won't let someone else be taken by the Legend.  Guys, I think we're in hell.  I think Shopman has brought these children to hell.  And has said to them "here, catch the ferryman of the damned for me so I can mourn my lost wife".

Chapter 7: Free At Last

Upon catching the Legend, we discover that it's an Oarfish.  Yeah, just an Oarfish, not some sort of mystical creature of the afterlife, just a normal fish.  It takes almost an hour to catch it in universe, despite it only taking a handful of minutes in real life, even in game time I don't buy it was 50 minutes.  Meaning that the gang only catches it as the witching hour is almost over.  Sean is fully drained from the experience and so Alice and Neil begin their study of it, noting all the information on it for their project, which is going to be quite the report you know.  I wonder how people will take it that they found an Oarfish on a secret beach through a sealed off tunnel in the mountains.  Things are even weirder though.  After the put the Oarfish back in the water, it does not leave.  The Legend remains on shore, watching the children carefully.  As this happens, the fireflies start to increase filling the beach with light.  And the tunnel into the secret spot gets further and further away.  Shopman orders them to run, assuring them that he'll be right behind them, but stressing the urgency.  They are to run and not look back.  Ever.  Once again, this ghost fish cult leader brought these children to hell and put them in a situation where they had to do a frantic dash to escape at the last minute.

We flashback to 1960, with Shopman reading his wife's diary.  His wife had recently passed and this entry is the last thing she ever said to him.  She mourns the time they no longer have, the life they couldn't live together.  How they never got to do that fireworks show they promised, or catch the Legend together, because of course his wife loves fishing.  Who doesn't!?  She says that someday they'll be together again, that she'll find a nice fishing spot in the afterlife.  That the two of them will meet under the moonlight and tell each other of their adventures together, spending the rest of their afterlife together fishing and being in love.  I think Shopman's wife is the fish.  I think the Legend in his wife, and that's what all this was about.  Shopman is in love with a fish.

Back in the real world, the trio makes it out of the tunnel only to see it has sealed behind them.  They panic, thinking Shopman is now trapped, but note that he promised them that he would come back to them.  So they wait.  Hours pass as they wait to see Shopman's return, but with no avail.  He seems to be gone.  As the night turns to day, they decide that maybe they simply missed him.  Maybe he went the long way around the mountain and went home, thinking he would just see them in the morning.  When they arrive at his shop, though, he's not there.  What is there instead, however, are a pair of books he has left for them.  One is a collection of every fish they've caught on their journey, all the photos they've taken during this summer, and comprehensive information on each specimen.  The other, though, is far more intriguing.  An old book, damaged and water logged.  Shopman's own personal journal.  One that depicts a fisherman far greater than the trio could've imagined, a man who caught impossibly large fish, had some of the greatest catches they could conceive of.  The last entry is dated not too long after his wife's death, in which he says he is heading out to try his hand at the Legend.  A fish we know he would never catch on his own, only capturing a glimpse of it.  The crew is stunned, but also, taken aback.  This log is dated from the 1960s, which is just shy of 60 years in the past.  They find it difficult to parse, Shopman was old but not pushing 100 old.  They have not put together that he was a ghost, of course, so they assume it must be a different guy.  We never learn Shopman's actual name.

A few days later, the trio have returned to their university, still without hearing from Shopman.  They are a little worried about him at this point and, seeing no other option, decide to return to the museum, thinking maybe he worked there originally and that they'd find him there.  When they arrive and ask around, they discover that not only is Shopman not there, not only does he not work there, but that they've never had paintings of fish, which I find to be an insane statement, it's like the game is gaslighting me now.  I know for a fact that the thing that started this plot was the trio finding out their museum was hosting an exhibit on paintings of fish.  Anyways, Neil decides to split off from the group, saying they'll meet at the museum cafe in an hour with his findings.  

At the museum cafe an hour later, Sean and Alice are in the middle of getting drunk, they definitely just had a bar asset from another VN that they reused here, and as they are talking about how much they miss Shopman, Neil arrives.  He said that he had gone to the library... at the museum?  Museums have libraries.  Anyways, he had gone to the library and looked at a bunch of reference books about local folklore in the prefecture they were in.  He discovered that there are lots of legends around a mysterious fish who appears to those seeking the afterlife to guide them there.  Alice quickly realizes that this means they were very close to being imprisoned in hell and that Shopman had been using them for his own goals, goals they are totally unaware of because he never mentioned his wife to them.  Sean, however, brushes the whole thing off, just going "hey, Shopman said he'd see us again so clearly he didn't pass on, we'll see him again soon".  The other two make fun of his complete lack of understanding of what happened and try to play it off as if they were complimenting him for being dense.  Sean, for once, is not as dumb as everyone thinks he is and calls them out for making fun of him.  The three give some kind words to the memory of Shopman, and the game ends.

Review

I want to make it clear that I adore this game.  Like truly love it.  This stupid fishing game has brought me so much joy over the years.  I can't recommend it enough for its bonkers plot and all the drama in it.  That being said this game is terrible.  Truly awful.  The benefit that most fishing games have is rumble.  The controller rumbles, so you can properly feel the fishing action and adjust your play accordingly.  Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure does such a poor job of being a fishing simulator that you can barely feel the fishing to know what exactly it is you're meant to do.  I think the biggest example of this is the line breaking.  Line breaking is a common mechanic in these games, a thing you have to consider and adjust your fishing around, but RTA gives you very little feedback to tell you how close your line is to breaking.  Sometimes it feels like it just snaps randomly.  

Combine that with the fact that fishing is such an empty experience.  There's no music, as is common for fishing games, but the environmental sounds are bad and often just constitute a stock sound effect of flowing water.  As well, the game just looks cheap and rushed.  The fish models are fine, a little gross looking, but fine, but everything else is so bad.  There's a certain charm to how undercooked everything is, it feels very budget Wii game.  And while I dislike the modeling, the sprite work is rather charming, especially all of Alice's cute outfits.  But for much of the gameplay it's not a looker.

As well there is just far too much grinding.  This is a fishing RPG and you have to get all the characters to pretty high levels during a normal playthrough to be able to finish the game.  Unfortunately, the material gathering and crafting mechanics are really poorly implemented, so Neil, the craftsman, slows progress to a crawl in the late game.  He both gathers too few crafting materials, randomly gather 3-5 bunches during a day's progress which can sometimes be as low as 3 materials, and because he gathers too few materials he can't craft anything.  So he ends up getting stuck.  Meanwhile, Alice, the cooking queen, levels up super quickly and if you know what you're doing will reach max level before the others reach level 25.  It's a very poorly balanced game.  If I am being honest with you, removing all my biases from how much I adore this game, this is a 6/10.  Maybe even a 5/10.  For me though it's a 9/10, I can't help myself from rating it highly.

For my 2025 game clearing project, and hopefully for any future ones as well, I decided to do something a little different.  In the past, I had basically just been randomly choosing from my entire backlog to find games to play.  While this certainly caused my numbers to be higher, I got through significantly more games this way, I also was just like.  Playing uninteresting games I did not, in fact, want to play.  And a lot of games I really wanted to play were, as a result, getting put on hold indefinitely until I just randomly rolled them.  This was fine, mind, but I found myself wanting for a more structured game clearing experience, one where I'm playing games that I actively want to play, at least until I run out.  

Thankfully, Backloggery's overhaul that happened... I believe earlier this year, might've been last year, introduced the idea of a "high priority list".  One where you could curate a selection of games you actively want to play and just roll from that list.  This was a boon for me.  I had way more fun clearing games this year and it was a very competitive year.  I only actually played three games I disliked this year.  I got to play some of the greatest games of all time, a lot of games I've wanted to play for like over a decade and never got around to, games that I never finished.  It was very fun watching the Top Ten list evolve over the year, seeing games I thought were locks back in June just get ousted from the list.  This was such a competitive year that 8/10s are struggling to make the top 30 list!  And I only played just under 60 games this year for my "official" game clearing (I played many more but they were like short little browser games).  So, this is the ten best.  Without further ado...  

 Ed's Top Ten Games of 2025

#10: DREDGE

I love fishing games!  It's actually wild how much I love fishing games because in real life I have so many problems with fishing, but I am one of the many who loves fishing in a video game.  A lot of my current friendships are actually due to fishing in video games, in 2019 or 2020, I forget which, a streamer I watched who is now a friend played a fishing game a month and we kind of sat back and roasted them and bonded over Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure.  Unfortunately, though, I struggle to find a lot of "must play" fishing games?  Because of how limited time in general is and how many games I want to experience in said time, a majority of fishing games HAVE to slip through the cracks for me as a lot of them are simple fishing simulators.  So when a super unique fishing game comes along?  You know I have to jump on that.

DREDGE is a Lovecraftian horror fishing game where you play as a fisherman who finds himself washed up on a mysterious island in the middle of the open sea.  There is a small fishing town on said island, one that offers to replace his boat if he'll become the local fisherman.  We are tasked with completing some favors to help pay off our debt for the new boat, going out into the sea to fish up some fish we could potentially sell.  It becomes quickly apparent, however, that there's something inherently wrong with this sea.  At night a fog rolls in, consuming everything on the sea.  This fog is tricky.  Makes you see things.  Hear things.  Spending too much time in it will drive you mad.  Make you see ghosts, make you see monsters.  Or maybe... you're doing more than just seeing them.  When you return to the town after finishing you errands, you meet a mysterious treasure hunter who tasks you with traveling across the ocean, facing all its demons, and collecting the treasures scattered throughout.  In exchange, he grants you mysterious powers from his book, powers that will make you a more effective fisherman to accomplish his goals.  What does he truly want?  What else hides in this sea?  And why do the people of this land speak in whispers of the old fisherman and the old mayor?

DREDGE nails the atmosphere it's going for.  The game is obviously going for the Eldritch horror, it prominently features unknowable, ancient monsters hiding in the depths, awaiting the opportunity to awaken.  It's the kind of unsettling horror that exists just out of the view of the audience, the kind of horror that makes you consider how insignificant they are.  It's excellently done.  But what I think is potentially more poignant is that DREDGE aligns perfectly with the tall tales of old sailors.  People who were forced to work long days and rough nights for months, maybe even years, away from home and so went a little crazy.  People who would tell stories of islands they didn't really exist, monsters that they believed to see, stuff like that.  DREDGE fully puts itself in line with this idea, literally using the cover of the fog to change the world around you, make you see things that aren't there, feel things coming after you that don't really exist.  It's almost a horror game specifically about the stories sailors used to tell of what is out there on the open sea, and it's brilliant in this respect.

DREDGE is also an incredibly fun fishing game.  When I wrote about this game before in the Halloween marathon post, I talked a lot about how it worked as a horror game, its atmosphere and its scares, but it's also just a really good fishing game.  You go around the sea finding fishing spots and completing little timing minigames to pull up fish (I was bad at these).  It's a very satisfying way to handle fishing that a lot of games have utilized.  DREDGE combines this gameplay with a sort of Resident Evil style inventory management system.  You have very limited inventory space and the fish are in certain shapes you have to organize to optimize your haul.  As such you have to make a lot of hard calls, especially when you pull up an aberration, a bizarre mutant fish that is noticeably "wrong".  You're also on a race against the clock, as fish will rot if you don't make it to port to sell them, a quest the sea is actively working against you to accomplish as it will send unknown parasites to "corrupt" your haul.  DREDGE is so good, y'all, just an excellent blend of horror, fishing, and survival elements, I'm such a massive fan of this game.

#9: Broken Age

Me and Double Fine have a history.  Double Fine is, undoubtedly, one of the most interesting and creative game studios in the industry.  With landmark titles under their belt like Grim Fandango and Psychonauts, cult classics like Brutal Legend, and just some really fascinating deep cuts, Double Fine is one of the most diverse and beloved studios of all time.  That being said, no game studio has ever exemplified the idea of "games that are great until you play them yourself" more than Double Fine's catalog.  Grim Fandango has a habit of being incredibly obtuse, being one of THE moon logic games.  Psychonauts has creative premises but can also have overbearing levels to represent those premises.  Brutal Legend is three different games sewn together that don't really ever combine into a coherent product.  It's such a trend that one of the games on my 2024 honorable mentions, Costume Quest, had me stating that it was "the rare Double Fine game that has good gameplay".  But, this year, I finally got one, a Double Fine game that I enjoyed playing as much as I enjoyed everything surrounding it.  Enter: Broken Age.

Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure that is told from two vastly different perspectives in two vastly different worlds.  Vella is a young girl living in "the Badlands".  The Badlands, decades ago, were set upon by giant Lovecraftian creatures known as "the Mogs".  Every so often, the people of the Badlands sacrifice their of age maidens to the Mogs, this ensures peace for another several years.  Vella, however, believes that they can fight the Mogs, that their world isn't doomed to continuously sacrificing its people, and so breaks free from her ritual.  She then sets off on a quest to find a way to kill the Mog and try to end the cycle of sacrifice.  Along the way she'll adventure across the Badlands, meeting the colorful cultures and characters therein as she tries to find a way to kill the Mog, having to confront the traditions of her world and convince people to break their norms.

On the other side of the coin, you have Shay.  Shay is the "captain" of a spaceship who is on a long-term deep space mission attempting to seek a habitable planet after the destruction of his original home world.  Shay is kept safe and entertained by the ship's two AIs, nicknamed "MOM" and "DAD", the former of which infantilizes Shay and entertains him by sending him on mock missions that involve ice cream mountains, tickle plants, and gummy bear rollercoasters.  Shay craves independence, desires to be treated as an adult and is exhausted by MOM's overbearing nature and the way his life seems to be stuck in an endless loop.  Until one day he discovers a stowaway hidden within the depths of the ship, a stowaway who informs him that his mission is far more important than he ever could've imagined and that, in fact, the fate of the entire universe is on his shoulders.  Shay must break free of the cycle he's stuck in and forge his own path to allow the survival of the entire universe.

If you couldn't tell, the key theme in both stories is "breaking tradition".  It's a theme that Broken Age handles incredibly well, the thing that ties these two seemingly unrelated stories together.  It plays with the juxtaposition between these two settings, the fantastical and the futuristic, so well, unifying the narrative into a single thing despite these two seemingly unrelated universes.  The game treats tradition as nothing short of complacency, that in both Vella and Shay's stories their guardians stick to the "predetermined way" and bare little consideration for if that is the best way.  And, they argue, that said tradition leads to apathy, that the people of these universes could and should be doing more to prevent all their problems but instead just keep doing things the way they've always done them.  It's an all-too-relatable theme for many of us, the quest for independence in the face of traditionalism, seeing our friends and relatives become complacent in doing things because it's easier to go with the flow than to try and make the world better.  And when the two stories eventually do collide, because unsurprisingly they do, it creates an interesting second act that shows the positives and negatives of radically breaking tradition.

The writing in this game is top notch.  Double Fine's writing is always the best part about their games, mind, not only is it incredibly clever but the worlds they craft are so unique.  In particular Vella's world is so much fun to explore.  It feels very Adventure Time, these specific, fantastical places that all have a singular theme/purpose that coexist but aren't really connected.  Like Vella comes from a town whose economy is built on baked goods, her neighbor is a place whose economy is based on feather clothing, there's a fishing village further on which literally builds everything out of fish.  We don't get to see much of the world but it's incredibly fun to explore.  The jokes in this game are also unsurprisingly really solid, it's a very specific sense of humor, some would say a very "millennial" sense of humor, but it works really well for me.  I unfortunately played this too early in the year to remember a lot of the gags, but I remember chuckling at quite a few of them.  In my opinion Broken Age is Double Fine's best.  I still have a lot of Double Fine to get through, mind, I haven't even played Psychonauts 2 yet, but Broken Age is just so good.

#8: The Walking Dead - A TellTale Game Series

So, I was originally going to open this up with like a whole thing about how "the TellTale style of video games got so oversaturated that it seems like we've forgotten how good they were at their peak".  Like, up until the past couple years, people were sick of TellTale, so much so that it seems difficult to imagine a point where TellTale was among the most popular video game companies period.  Famously they oversaturated the market causing their initial demise as people got more and more tired of this style of game with multiple releases happening yearly.  But none of this really matters anymore.  Like a month after I beat the Walking Dead, Dispatch released, becoming one of the highest rated games of the year, a lot of people's favorite game of the year, and has turned a lot of people who initially missed the TellTale game style onto TellTale.  So you know.  That's amazing, love that.

The Walking Dead is, as you would imagine, an adaptation of the long running comic book series of the same name which was also adapted into one of TVs longest running "prestige dramas".  Rather than focusing on the story of the comics, the story of the post-apocalyptic cowboy Rick Grimes as he survives the zombie apocalypse indefinitely, we are introduced to a new character who is sort of having his stories concurrently with the comic book, Lee Everett.  A former US history professor at the University of Georgia, Lee was on his way to prison the day the apocalypse began after being convicted of killing a senator who his wife was sleeping with.  After a car crash releases him, he stumbles into the local neighborhood and meets Clementine, a young girl who was being babysat when things started going poorly and who had to outsmart her zombified babysitter to survive.  The duo quickly decide to team up, with Lee becoming Clementine's de facto guardian, as they team up with other survivors and attempt to make their way to salvation.

I have talked at length about the Walking Dead on this blog before so I'm going to be kind of brisk with this entry.  The Walking Dead is a truly revolutionary game, the blueprint for the kind of cinematic adventure games that would follow it, games like the other TellTale games but also games like Life is Strange.  Despite being one of the first, however, it remains one of the best.  It tells a gripping, emotionally resonant story that remains compelling to this day, perfectly utilizing its horror setting to tell a very real and human story.  I sometimes struggled to even write about it because I was left utterly speechless at the endings of some episodes.

It also manages to at least create the illusion that your choices really matter,  I'm sure if you played it and really explored every option you'd realize things like "hey, saving this character doesn't really matter because they just die thirty minutes from now so that the game doesn't have to actually account for having an entirely different plotline with this additional character".  But for a one time playthrough, the choices seem so emotionally and dramatically important.  It manages to make what you do feel so significant, which is impressive because this was really only the second time this kind of game existed in the grand scheme of things.  It's a very great game that stands the test of time and I'm very glad that people are now either looking back or looking to it for the first time with the success of Dispatch.  I would be down for the TellTale revival.

#7: Card Shark

Now for a game nobody has heard of.  Card Shark is a game I've known about for a very long time.  It would pop up in Nintendo Directs and indie game showcases and would always draw my eye.  I became something of a cheerleader for it among my friend group, trying to turn them all on to the game where you cheat at cards.  It unfortunately took me a long time to get to it myself, up until I started doing more serious game clearing projects it was very easy for me to lose track of indie games.  A lot of these games are better suited for PCs and I am a PC gamer kicking and screaming.  Thankfully, I received it for free and so it was thrust into my life.  And all it cost me was my dignity as I had to use the Epic Game Store for it!

Set in 18th Century France, Card Shark stars a mute boy who is initially serving drinks at a tavern in southern France.  That is, until, the eccentric and flamboyant Comte de Saint Germain enters his life.  The Comte asks the boy for his assistance in pulling off a con at the tavern and, after an incident happens at the establishment, flees with him into the night taking him under his wing.  At first it seems only that you are conning people for coin, but the Comte's goals are soon revealed as you participate in more and more jobs.  The Comte is seeking audiences with specific high ranking members of the French nobility to uncover what they may know about a conspiracy, a conspiracy whispered only on the winds.  The Twelve Bottles of Milk.  This conspiracy is very valuable, as whatever information is hidden within it, it could lead to the complete upheaval of the political state in France.  Throughout the game, alliances change, people are swindled, and the truth of who our boy is and what power he truly holds is revealed.

Card Shark is another game I have talked about at length on this blog.  I obviously go more in-depth over on that blog entry but the cliffnotes is that Card Shark is one of the most mechanically interesting games I've played possibly ever.  It takes a very simplistic idea, a vast majority of the game is just shuffling cards, and teaches you over two dozen tricks to fix any situation to your benefit.  You'll learn how to stack the deck, how to collect cards so it's already stacked for you, how to get your opponents to stack the deck for you unwittingly.  All the while trying to learn these sleights of hand so you're fast enough at them to not rouse suspicion, as being caught cheating leads to a hefty punishment in this era of France.  Especially with people this powerful and this eager to keep their secrets hidden.

Card Shark's core mystery is also very cool.  I'm not going to spoil it for you, obviously, I do that enough in the Diary post if you want to read it.  But what the Twelve Bottles of Milk is and what it means for France is a super compelling mystery.  Along the way you will meet various important historical French figures and have your alliances change.  Some people you thought you could trust sell you out, others you believed to be enemies end up aiding you.  As you uncover more and more, more questions arise, more things to answer.  It's difficult to talk about a mystery without giving parts of it away but it's super well done and really elevates Card Shark from being another cool indie game to, in my opinion, a must play title that is mechanically unique, narratively compelling, and just all around fun.

#6: Sonic Mania

I have a rocky relationship with the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.  A lot of people who know me will know that I tend to be very critical about it, mostly because the games are mediocre.  Once upon a time, though, I was about as big of a Sonic fan as you could possibly imagine.  Like I was at "would've publicly hated Arin Hanson for clearly and obviously playing into a bit because he's misrepresenting Sonic to people" levels of Sonic fanboy.  I did get into arguments defending the sanctity of the Sonic the Hedgehog series from people who, in my mind, were just blinded by nostalgia and hadn't properly given the franchise a chance.  I used to have a pretty friendly relationship with the people at my GameStop at an old place I lived and a big reason that started was that I preordered Sonic Unleashed and kept calling about it near release.  This all eventually got deconstructed, I realized going to bat for mediocre games was not the vibe and ever since me and Sonic have had a tumultuous relationship.  But man, when he hits, he really hits.

Sonic Mania is a true return to form in every way including its plot.  Sonic has, famously, become very complicated over the years having a deep seeded lore and featuring the character becoming something of a god killer.  Mania, in what I feel is one of its primary strengths, takes this back to the very simple formula the Genesis games had.  Dr. Ivo Robotnik finds a mysterious gemstone and deploys an army of egg robots to obtain it to kickstart his next goal to industrialize the world and enslave all the native wildlife within.  The ruby has incredible power though, giving sentience to the Egg robots and flinging Sonic back in time.  Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles must now work their way through old zones, defeating familiar faces and new foes along the way, to get back to their present and stop Eggman once and for all.  Simple, concise, effectively explains why we're going back to old levels, focuses on the cartoon-esque dynamic between Sonic and Eggman.  It's evergreen.

I'll fully admit, I was a tad skeptical going into Sonic Mania.  I was sure it was going to be good, don't get me wrong, but Sonic Mania is ostensibly a game made by the fans for the fans.  And, in my experience, games made "for the fans" tend to be a bit weaker because of it.  The issue with targeting fans as a primary demographic is that they're usually the people who have hard existing biases and wants that might conflict with those that non-fans may have.  So I was kind of worried that Sonic Mania would be kind of incomprehensible for someone who isn't a devotee of the Hedgehog.  But just strictly speaking, this is the best Sonic game.  They hit this one out of the park.

A big thing, in my opinion, is that rather than trying to invoke the ideals of the truly classic games, Sonic 1, Sonic CD, even a bit of Sonic 2, they took the more measured approach Sonic 3 & Knuckles has.  I love Sonic 3 & Knuckles too, for the record, I beat it the year before I started having a blog and so didn't do a Top Ten list that year but it was my 8th favorite game I played in 2023.  Sonic 3 & Knuckles is, in my opinion, the most accessible of the four classical titles for a new player because while it still contains the design ideology of "exploring a level through replaying it and finding the best possible route through" that the others have, it does not put hard caps on the player's ability to move fast if this is your first time.  Sonic Mania takes this approach, while you will obviously benefit from repeat playthroughs and blast through these levels, Sonic Mania also understands that people will only play this game maybe one time in their life (it me) and if they're choosing to play like that, it would be for the best to allow them to feel like they're going fast.

The level design is also insanely charming and really fun.  Combining a mix of classic Sonic levels, levels that never made it into the final games they were meant to, and brand new stages, Sonic Mania is a love letter to everything classic Sonic.  You start off with the bangers, Green Hill and Chemical Plant, but then you have excellent levels like Studiopolis Zone which recontextualizes the "Sonic casino level" as a movie studio with one of the most iconic songs in modern gaming, Mirage Saloon Zone which is great, Press Garden which is really fun, Flying Battery, Oil Ocean, Hydrocity.  Just so many good stages, a great collection of old and new.  And something I love is that while the old stages will often play like they did in their original games for Act 1, Act 2 will be an entirely different thing that flips the level design on its head and creates something way more modern with it.  Sonic Mania is so good that it even made me like a Sonic CD stage, I think that game is garbage but Stardust Speedway in Mania is like really high up there for favorite Sonic levels.  What a good game, glad I took a chance on it.

#5: Yume Nikki

You cannot overstate the importance of Yume Nikki.  Yume Nikki is a legendary game, one of the OG indie darlings, the only indie game I had heard of in any capacity besides Cave Story before digital storefronts caused the indie revolution.  It's one of the original RPG Maker games, one of the original indie adventures, one of the first walking simulators.  It's one of pioneers of surrealist games, games that don't really have normal gaming conventions and are just about the experience of playing them.  It's difficult to put into words how important and influential Yume Nikki actually is, and I'm sad I didn't play it earlier.  Especially since it was free.  But thankfully, this year's Halloween marathon where I just played horror or horror-themed games gave me the excuse.  And well, it's here isn't it.

Yume Nikki doesn't really have a plot.  Like there is an overarching goal, there is an "ending", but that's not the point of Yume Nikki.  Yume Nikki is about what you bring into it and what you get out of it.  Calling it a game almost seems insufficient, it's a dreamscape more than anything.  It's just a place for you to endlessly vibe in, experimenting and exploring and maybe, just maybe, finding an objective.  It's the kind of game that you play as a teenager because your niche internet friends found it and you become obsessed with it.  It's amazing how evergreen it is, a lot of RPG maker games in particular do not age super well because their visual style proves insufficient but not Yume Nikki, Yume Nikki is eternal.

It's also an effective "horror" game, though calling it horror is insufficient as well.  Many people expect horror to be trying to scare you, understandably given the connotations horror has, and that is not Yume Nikki's vibe at all.  Yume Nikki is, instead, unsettling.  There's a lot of intense, spooky imagery that loops over and over.  Enclosed spaces with shadow people who go in and out of being visible.  Tight areas where you're chased by the very few aggressive mobs who immediately send you back to the hub if they touch you.  It's not scary in the way a lot of proper horror games are, but it's super surreal and atmospheric in such a spooky way, I really enjoy it.  It's very effective.

Yume Nikki is the kind of game that gets in your head.  It makes you want to do things, want to feel things.  Makes you want to create.  There is a longtime project I have been piecing together for half a decade now that I never wanted to jump into more than after I beat Yume Nikki.  It is not difficult to see why this game is so beloved, its legacy so long lasting.  It's truly a masterpiece, a work of art not only in the medium but also in general, our own modern day Dali painting.  Love it.

Honorable Mentions:

"Ed, why are your honorable mentions in the middle of the list?" Mostly to be annoying.  A friend of mine complained about Honorable Mentions always going between 2 and 1 on Top Ten lists and so now they're between 5 and 4.  That'll teach you to question the natural flow of a list.  You know who you are.  Love you buddy, lol.  Worth noting, these are not like the list of games that comes after #10.  These are just games that are kind of interesting and I felt like deserved little blurbs on the list.  A lot of games that I like better than these aren't going to make it on the list because like, what does one even say about Spyro 2, you know?

Back to the Future: The Game

It's very fitting that, in the year I played TellTale's most important cinematic adventure game, I also played their most important LucasArts style point and click.  Back to the Future: The Game is a game I've played the first couple episodes of in the past and just never got around to playing the subsequent episodes.  It's good, it's very solid.  I think the unfortunate thing is that TellTale was kind of at their worst when they were making the LucasArts style games.  I know a lot of people love this era and I have a certain nostalgia for it too, but they really did hit their stride when they moved to the Walking Dead style of game.  But Back to the Future: The Game does work.  It's a very good "Back to the Future Part 4", albeit in a way that plays better if you're familiar with the Back to the Future films but haven't watched them recently.  It fulfills the most interesting idea behind Back to the Future especially, the idea of "what would it be like to befriend an important adult in your life when you two are the same age".  Fun game, liked it.

Shantae

This is the year I finally got around to any of the other Shantae games.  I played Risky's Revenge forever ago and liked it well enough but I own all the Shantae games except the GBA one and just haven't gotten around to them.  This is also one I've written about playing, if you're reading this and are interested in more in-depth thoughts on it.  Fun little Metroidvania.  I really like Shantae's vibe so of course this is going to gel with me, I will say I think the original game is only particularly noteworthy because of how good it looks.  It's definitely an, albeit really good, original Game Boy game so it's kind of funky now.  But it's fun, I like the whole shapeshifting mechanic and I enjoy this world and these characters.  Excited to get around to the other Shantaes!

Tomb Raider

Another retro game I played for the first time this year, the original Tomb Raider!  Yet another game I wrote about my experiences with, while it's definitely aged quite a bit, I found myself really loving its gameplay.  Everything is so precise and motivated, it definitely laid the groundwork for the style of adventure game where movement itself is a puzzle.  And you can't not love Lara, she is one of the coolest characters in gaming history, she has so much charisma, of the like "classic adventure story leads", OG Lara might be my favorite.  I love the Survivor Trilogy games, don't get me wrong, but I wish some of classic Lara's cool was more present in that version of Lara.

Wild ARMS

I played a lot of retro games this year.  Wild ARMS is one of the most interesting JRPGs in gaming history, setting itself in a world heavily based on the "Wild West".  Its theming is its strongest point by far, it is mostly a fairly standard RPG, but its Wild West theming really brings it to a different level from its mostly fantasy contemporaries.  This is yet another one I've written about at length, my wanting to talk about Wild ARMS is actually what caused me to continue the "gaming diary" format I kind of started with Paper Mario last year.  But it's really fun, I really enjoy that this is a JRPG that treats guns like they are D&D spells that you have limited uses of and need to rest to restore.

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga

In what is the funniest thing I could've possible done, LEGO Star Wars is how I experienced the Original Trilogy for the first time.  This is still the best LEGO game.  LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga is basically the only LEGO game that's "required reading" if you want to call it that, everything great about LEGO games is here in full force.  If I had played it as a kid instead of as an adult who already has a rocky relationship with the Star Wars franchise, this would probably be one of my favorite games of all time, it is legitimately one of the best kids games of all time in my opinion.

Hidden Folks

I like hidden object games a lot, I've played a lot of them over the years.  I almost never register them in my game clearing documentation because they're usually like 15 minutes long and I do them over having my coffee in the morning.  Hidden Folks is the best one.  It creates such lively ecosystems to look around in and having genuine puzzles to solve to find some of the characters is very nice.  I think the only problem with it is that it lacks a proper "hint" system, so if you're stuck on a puzzle you're just stuck forever until you find the last person you need to progress.  But Hidden Folks is great, it truly does enhance the "hidden object" genre in a lot of cool and interesting ways.

Arcade Spirits

The only dating sim I played this year, that's sad.  If anyone who knows me is reading this, yes, I haven't actually played Date Everything yet, I'm sorry, I'm a poser.  Arcade Spirits is incredibly well done.  It's set in a cool alternate history where the video game crash never happened, the industry is still centralized in America, and Arcades are still ubiquitous.  You play as a young adult who was recently fired from their job and downloads an AI assistant app to find a career path, said assistant leading the protagonist to an arcade where they begin finding their place in the world.  It's a dating sim about self-actualization that doesn't treat the self-actualization like a consequence of the dating, the protagonist doesn't want to be better to impress someone or because they have to because they're responsible now, they want to be better for themselves.  It also gameifies the dating process in a very unique way, assigning stat buffs and debuffs to most answers you put forward.  Super well done. really enjoyed Arcade Spirits.

Bayonetta 3

In a better world, Bayonetta 3 would've made the best list.  Bayonetta 3 is almost the perfect hack and slash to me, it's fun, it's intricate, it's over the top.  It is everything I love about Bayonetta.  There is just one very glaring problem that keeps Bayonetta 3 from not only being on the best list but on my favorite games of all time list.  But this game is still great, the gameplay is the best its ever been, it does so many cool and unique things with the Bayonetta formula, it has Viola.  Just one of the most fun hack and slashes ever made, I kind of wish I could love it more.  Also shoutouts to the weird Train girl Bayonetta, she's my favorite.

Pikmin 3

Pikmin 3 has been a long time coming.  I played up until the final area of Pikmin 3 like a decade ago and just never beat it.  Pikmin 3 is such a fun Pikmin game.  I love how much the three captains and the Gamepad really add to the experience.  And the areas in this game are just gorgeous, probably my favorite looking Pikmin game.  I've talked before about my opinions on the Pikmin series as a work of art and in that I was pretty harsh to Pikmin 3 but it's just fun, you know.  Just a fun video game, glad I played it, it's probably going to be my last Pikmin game if they continue in the direction they're going due to how much Pikmin 4 just wasn't anything I wanted.

Year Walk

Year Walk wasn't on the high priority list for a long time.  I got it off a Humble Bundle forever ago, one of their rare bundles that wasn't for PC games, and thought it would rot on my WiiU forever.  And then I found out it was a Simogo game and I had to jump on that.  It's a great little horror game, one heavily built on Swedish folklore for all my folklore and mythology girlies out there.  It's atmospheric, it has a couple great scares, some really clever puzzles, it's super cool.  It being a Simogo game also means there's a super cool metanarrative for you to uncover as this all is going on as well, so the game "ending" is kind of the game starting.  Big fan of Year Walk.

Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain

What an adorable little game.  Celeste 64 was released as a bonus for one of the anniversaries for Celeste and man is it good.  It's an attempt to take the core gameplay of Celeste and adapt it into an N64 style 3D collectathon platformer a la Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie and it's amazing this was made in like a week, it's super well done.  Of course, it also wouldn't be a Celeste game if it didn't touch on themes of anxiety, with this being about Madeline trying to find the strength to move forward on her next project (something that's very sad looking back with the cancellation of Maddy's actual next project at the time, Earthblade).  Also, the bit they did for the bonus level music is hilarious, I was reeling the first time I heard it.

Radiant Historia

A playthrough that was a long time coming.  Radiant Historia was the last original DS game in my game library I had yet to either beat or abandon, it was just sitting there for 14 years from when I bought it new.  What a good little RPG.  It's not the most significant RPG of all time, in many ways it's pretty basic.  But with a very unique plot and world, a super cool battle system, and some really fun characters it's well worth a playthrough.  This is another one I've written about in depth, as of the time of writing this it's my longest piece every.  Sorry about that, game long, I worry what will happen when my backlog stops playing nice and decides to finally shuffle me out Persona 5.  I really liked this one, I even held off on finalizing my best list in December because for about half the playthrough I though it was going to be a late addition to the Top Ten list.

Venba

This was one of the most emotionally poignant games I played this year.  Venba is a cooking puzzle game which deals with themes of cultural identity and assimilation and racism in a very nuanced way.  It's a game I haven't been able to stop thinking about since I played it, the puzzles were clever, the story was brilliant, I just love it.  If it were maybe longer and had more to it, it probably would've made the best list this year easy.  If you're going to play any of the games on my honorable mention list, play this one, it's superb.  I've also written about it but I just go in DEEP so play it if you care about that sort of thing first.

Resident Evil

Yet another classic I played for the first time this year, I LOVE Resident Evil 1.  I played the remake specifically and this game still holds up as one of the best horror games of all time.  Admittedly I do think RE1 tends to be more goofy than scary, it has a very B movie tone, but its tense atmosphere, tight resource management, and locked camera angles really do a lot to make it effective.  It's hard to overstate the influence that the original Resident Evil had on the industry, like, every horror game owes so much to Resident Evil, it's just great, y'all.  Also I missed out on the "Jill Sandwich" voice clip because I was too good at the game, RIP me.

Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment

Specter of Torment is the thing that finally made me "get" Shovel Knight.  I've played the original Shovel of Hope and the first DLC, Plague of Shadows, in the past and while I've liked both of them, I didn't love them.  I LOVED Specter of Torment.  One of the most unique platforming experiences I think I've ever had.  The way it's built around this really interesting angular movement makes for some great movement tech and level design.  Specter of Torment even overhauls a lot of the levels from base Shovel Knight and they're just all better here, I still haven't played King of Cards at the time of writing this but I think Specter of Torment is probably the best of the Shovel Knight games.  The fact that it also has a totally redone soundtrack helps a lot too.

En Garde!

I sincerely thought En Garde! was going to make it all the way.  En Garde! was on the best list since May and I think only got knocked off during the Halloween marathon?  This game is incredibly cool.  It's stylish and funny, playing out almost like a living cartoon.  The combat in this game is amazing, the dodging and parrying is super fun.  It really does make you think like a fencer.  This is another one I've written about in-depth if you want to read more of my thoughts, but yeah, loved this one a whole lot.  Also it's gay!  Love a game that's both good and gay.

Night in the Woods

Night in the Woods was a long time coming.  Like, I've seen people play Night in the Woods in the past, my friend Sab who I've talked about previously played this as one of her first gaming stream playthroughs.  And it's just always something I've been meaning to get around to but never have.  I adore how this game combines the death of small town America with Lovecraftian horror.  It's remarkably well done, you can tell there was a lot of passion put into it.  It's also such a honest look at returning back home to your small town feeling like you're a failure and being confronted with the fact that not only have you not changed, but no one else has either.  In a year where I played worse games, this would proudly be on the best list, in 2025 it entered at #11, this year was stacked.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

This year really started me on my Tomb Raider journey in a big way.  I had played and really enjoyed Tomb Raider (2013) in the past but this was the year where I finally sat down and started playing these games.  And Rise is just truly excellent.  I don't just think Rise is the best of the Tomb Raider games I've played, I think it clears all of the "cinematic action-adventure" games I've played.  Like, it's funny these games get called Uncharted ripoffs because I do think Rise clears Uncharted.  While this version isn't as cool as the one in the classic games, she is a more rounded and empathetic character I enjoy seeing.  This is another one I've written about more in-depth if you want to read it, I love Rise, I thought it was going to make the best list this year easily to be honest.

Jet Set Radio

Jet Set Radio was the very first game I played this year and it was on the best list until November.  I truly believed it was going to go all the way.  Jet Set Radio is fantastic.  Truly one of the most stylish and fun games ever made, it manages to hold up better than like any other Dreamcast game.  Soundtrack is amazing, the depiction of Tokyo is superb.  I got jumpscared by Dragula.  It's not hard to see why Jet Set is one of the most in demand games and why so many people find themselves trying to recreate it.  I hope whatever Jet Set project Sega is currently working on is good, we need a Jet Set 3 so badly.

Cave Story

This was my big replay this year, I spent a lot of the early year making my way through Cave Story again.  It's astounding how well Cave Story still holds up.  It was basically the first of its kind, a pioneer in indie games and a vastly important game in the revitalization of Metroidvanias as a genre.  Like, Cave Story is a huge deal and rightfully so.  But a lot of old games and, especially, "pioneers" tend to age rather poorly.  Cave Story is still as good and as fun now as it was in the 00s.  Maybe a little floaty and imprecise, it definitely has some rough edges.  But it's just such a brilliant game that it's hard to have those impact it.  If I counted replays for my game clearing data tracking, Cave Story would be #3 on this list, it's a masterpiece.

#4: Gravity Rush 2

If you know me, you probably saw this one coming.  "Play Gravity Rush" has become one of my catchphrases in 2025, I just will not shut up about this franchise.  I wish that I could claim to be cool and that I got into this franchise when it was new, unfortunately I didn't have a Vita and honestly just kinda stumbled into Gravity Rush.  I bought the Remastered version because it was on sale and I thought I was going to get into game collecting so I kind of bought everything that was on sale when I had the money.  What a fool I was.  Anyways, I loved Remastered so much and I'm sad it took me that much longer from playing it to finally get to the sequel.  Gravity Rush 2 was a long awaited title and I'm happy to say it didn't disappoint.

The Gravity Rush series is a series of open world superhero games built around gravity manipulation.  In it, you play as Kat, a mysterious young woman who wakes up with amnesia in the floating town of Hekesville with superpowers and decides to use her powers to become its protector.  The sequel sees her instead adrift out in the world, being forced to do labor for a mining colony to make her way as she has been separated from her powers.  Until one day, her archenemies, the Nevi, attack her mining colony and she is reunited with her pet cat Dusty, her "familiar" who returns her powers.  Now equipped with her full suite of Gravity manipulating abilities, she's determined to protect her new found family as she looks for evidence of her missing best friend, Raven, and try to find a way back home.  Along the way she'll uncover political corruption, help the poor stage a revolution, and find herself being usurped by another superhero whose intentions might not be as noble as they seem.

One thing I love about the Gravity Rush games is their approach to gravity manipulation.  When you think of games that have a gravity manipulation mechanic, you probably think of like, Mario Galaxy, where there's a natural flow to how gravity works and you're always following it.  Kat doesn't do that, instead, what Kat can do is alter gravity to change what she is clinging to.  So if you use her powers and then say "the gravity is on the side of that building", Kat will fall towards that point, clinging to the side of the building.  You can also use this gravity altering power to "fly", by moving Kat's point of gravitational pull to a far away point, forcing her to fall to said point.  It's a super unique take on gravity manipulation that, while it can be clunky, ends up incredibly fun when you've mastered it.

Gravity Rush 2 adds to all this by adding "gravity styles" for Kat to utilize.  Kat will, as the game progresses, gain the ability to alter her personal density, either reducing her weight by half or increasing her weight by 2.5x.  This allows Kat to gain a whole host of new abilities and changes her movement considerably.  While Kat is at half weight, she's very floaty, allowing her to jump higher and farther and even kick off from a standstill to "fly" across places.  This comes at the cost of being considerably weaker and more vulnerable in combat.  The 2.5x weight style is, as you could imagine, the opposite.  Kat is so heavy it considerably restricts her movement, but she's more resilient and deals way more damage.  It adds so much to the game to be able to switch between these three different densities and have a much more nuanced movepool.

The presentation on Gravity Rush is one of its best parts, and 2 being fully developed for more modern console really allows it to shine.  Gravity Rush goes for this French cartoon/comic book aesthetic, it's a very French-inspired game.  It has this absolutely gorgeous cel-shaded style that makes the entire world look like a European animated film, it's so beautiful.  The music too is just superb, really leaning into the French style, lots of strings and accordion.  It's such a wonderful presentation, I don't talk enough about how amazing the soundtracks to the Gravity Rush games are and I should, I've been doing some clean-up on 2 on the side as I finish my last game clears for the year and I'm just overwhelmed by how beautiful the soundtrack is.  Especially the magical theme song these games have "A Red Apple Fell From the Sky", which Kat sings in this game.

I also just love how the world reacts to Kat.  The world is not kind to her, even as she's saving them all, the people of Hekesville tend to look down on her.  Telling jokes at her expense or being creepy to her because she's an attractive young woman.  It's a rough world for her, made even moreso when a hero people do love and respect arrives in town and takes up much of her spotlight.  But Kat is such a fun-loving, jubilant optimist that helping people is not just what she does, it's who she is.  She saves people who treat her poorly and while she can be sassy about it, she will always do what is right.  I love her so much, she's just this adorable little Superman cinnamon roll and I could follow her forever.  Gravity Rush is so good, play Gravity Rush y'all, just a near perfect duology of games.  I wish Sony would make them available on PC and other consoles to reach a wider audience.

#3: ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights

I'm so sad how little Metroidvania representation there was in my game clearing project for 2025.  Metroidvanias are one of my favorite video game genres of all time, I feel like I talk about this every single time one comes up but it's actually kind of a character arc for me.  I grew up hating Metroidvanias, I got Metroid Prime with my GameCube and I got stuck at one point and was like "this game sucks".  It was only as an adult that I learned to appreciate the Metroidvania formula.  But it's rare that one fully grabs me, when I look to one and say "this is one of the best games I've ever played.  ENDER Lilies though?  ENDER Lilies is truly something special.

ENDER Lilies is dark fairytale set in a gothic fantasy world where a cursed rainfall known as "Blight" ravages the countryside.  This rainfall is a corrupting force, twisting the people of this world, fusing them with the animals, plants, and things around them until they become horrible beasts.  You play as Lily, the last of the White Priestesses, a group that has the ability to purify the souls stricken by the Blight.  Your sisters in the priesthood have long since disappeared and it's up to you to find the current acting White Priestess, Etriea, and find a way to escape from the Blight.  You are accompanied by the Umbral Knight, a spiritual knight who Lily can summon to fight for her at any time.  As you make your way through the game and battle more enemies, you find more souls who join you on your quest to find your Etriea and escape this horrible twisted world.  Much heartbreak and sadness awaits you.

One of the things I love about Ender Lilies is how beautifully sad it is.  The atmosphere of Ender Lilies is oppressive, corruption and decay is present everywhere.  But there is beauty in the tragedy.  The endless rainfall and solemn music make the world somewhat peaceful in spite of how horrifying it is.  It really does feel like a gothic fairy tale in this way, there's a serenity, an air of whimsy about it that carves out hope in the macabre.  Even as you battle horrible monsters, knowing they were once simply people who are now suffering, the game never truly loses its sense of childlike wonder and whimsy.  It's very well done, the atmosphere in this game is among the strongest of the albeit few Soulslikes I've played.

The individual storylines for the monsters whose souls you can purify to recruit are also very nice.  As you explore the world in Ender Lilies, you will occasionally run into souped up versions of monsters you fight regularly, serving as "minibosses" of sorts.  These minibosses are the people who are still fighting, still trying to reclaim their humanity in the midst of the Blight, and having to face the fact that it may never return.  When you purify them, you get to learn a little bit about their stories.  A farmer who tried his best to protect his cattle only to be fused with them.  A knight who stood steadfast to guard his kingdom only to literally become on the gargoyles defending it.  There's kind of this "Beauty and the Beast" quality to their fates, cursed to be what they loved in life.  The one that really tugs at the heartstrings, though, is the dog.  In life, the person fused with the dog was Lily's loyal companion, her only friend from before the Blight began descending and Lily was locked away.  Now, she's the only one who doesn't fight the young girl.  Her place is to be loyal to Lily, and that's true if she is human or beast.

I also just love how excellent of a Metroidvania this is.  It has this huge but very palatable world to explore.  It doesn't overstay its welcome at all in the way some Metroidvanias can by getting like "too ambitious" with the world, y'know?  I think it's one of the most memorable Metroidvania worlds, at least to me it is, because there's such a clear logic to how it's built.  Like the town surrounds the castle, the caverns are under the town, etc.  It makes for what is a very real feeling world, one that even someone like me who is usually VERY reliant on maps in Metroidvanias can get a feel for and begin to navigate without a map.  It also does what every good Metroidvania should do in my opinion and have the player double back through areas to get to new ones at the time where they would have access to the tools to complete said area.  It's such a well designed game, loved Ender Lilies to death.

#2: Return of the Obra Dinn

It is unfortunate how long it has taken me to get on board with the modern era of puzzle/mystery games.  Some of the best work in the entire games industry, the most unique experiences in the medium period, are being done in the mystery genre.  I've talked very positively about Simogo on this list already, and while I am a pretty massive fan of Sayonara Wild Hearts, the game that really made me take notice of them as a company to watch was actually watching my friend play Lorelei and the Laser Eyes.  Spoilers for an inevitable Top 10 list, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a game I feel very passionate about and when I get a copy I WILL drop everything to play it.  Me taking this long to get into the super unique puzzle/mystery games is even more outrageous when you realize I had the big pioneer of the genre sitting on my shelf this entire time just waiting.  But finally, in 2025, I rolled Return of the Obra Dinn.  Full disclosure, depending on the day, I may say Return of the Obra Dinn is my game of the year, it's that close.

In Return of the Obra Dinn, you play as an inspector for the East India Company in the early 19th century.  You are tasked with investigating the Obra Dinn, a ship which had disappeared 5 years prior on a voyage to Formosa (modern day Taiwan), but has now mysteriously reappeared off the coast of England with not a single living soul on board.  Your job is to go through the log book and piece together what happened to each person aboard the ship, if they survived, who or what killed them if they didn't, that sort of thing.  To aid in your task, you received a mysterious watch from one of the passengers on the ship, the ship's doctor who contacted you before you were to head out to the derelict vessel.  This watch allows you to see the exact moment where each passenger aboard the ship died, a snapshot of various moments that would lead to the ship's abandonment.  By viewing these snapshots, you uncover a mystery that involves murder, greed, and the sea itself enacting revenge upon the unsuspecting boat.

Return of the Obra Dinn is yet another game I've talked about in considerable depth on the blog already.  If you want to see me piece together the entire story, I'd go there, it's one of my favorite pieces I've ever done to be honest.  Something I love about Obra Dinn that I talk about in that one is that I love how you never truly need to guess.  Every crew member, even those with uncertain identities and/or fates, can be determined just from the clues in the game and, if they can't, it is only because there are significant clues to disconfirm their identity to where you are able to eliminate every potential suspect of their own identity until there's only one person they could be.  It's an incredibly well designed logic puzzle box that is so satisfying to solve piece by piece.

I also love the structure of the mystery a whole lot.  I really enjoy how the game starts at the end, showing the last moments of the captain and his handful of remaining crew mates as they attempt a mutiny to reclaim control of the ship.  Showing the captain taking out each of them one by one and then, realizing that he's alone, ending his own life, showing the definitive "end" of the story of the Obra Dinn.  But then, in our next memory after this section, we get thrown right into the action as we see the ship assaulted by a Kraken.  A complete change of pace that creates intrigue through its juxtaposition, communicating to the audience that this isn't just a story of betrayal and mutiny on the high seas, something BIG went down, and its up to you to piece together what it was.  It's an incredibly compelling mystery that presents a lot of questions and asks the audience to determine whether or not they were answered.  It's not difficult to see why Return of the Obra Dinn regularly ranks on lists of the greatest games of all time, it's truly incredible, a landmark title in both the puzzle and mystery genres.

So uh... I kind of already put the honorable mentions in the middle of the list so I can't exactly build up tension for what the number one is.  This is awkward.  You know what, how about we do the bottom ten too, just to have a little buildup.  It's not like I'll do a bottom 10 list anyways.

A Quick Bottom 10 List:

#10: Final Fantasy XV

This one is sad.  I almost really love Final Fantasy XV.  The gameplay is very fun, this interesting blend of JRPG tropes and Route 66-esque Americana is very fun, I like most of the party members except for Noctis.  But the story?  The side characters?  The entire second half of the game?  Awful.  Like everything about Final Fantasy XV outside of the gameplay just makes me so sad.  It has some of the worst depiction of women in the series since literally the NES days, it does such a bad job of communicating its plot to players that they literally had to put in an update to have a character explain what is going on, the story is incomprehensible without like eight DLC campaigns and a literal novel.  I love so much about the first half of Final Fantasy XV that it ultimately balances out, but Final Fantasy XV is legitimately a game where the more distance I have from it, the less I like it.

#9: Freedom Planet

I do not dislike Freedom Planet by any stretch, there are certainly things I do like about it.  The combat is an interesting addition to the Sonic-esque formula, I liked the characters well enough, the levels were really creative.  On the flip side, though, I found the story to be kind of a drag, the levels tended to overstay their welcome, and it just becomes an annoying game to navigate.  I mentioned previously in my entry on Sonic Mania that I was worried about it being a game made by and for fans as those tend to have an uphill battle for non-fans.  Freedom Planet is kind of there for me, a game that insists upon itself due to the expectation that the audience playing it is an audience that will already like it.  It's not my thing.  I can see why this is a good game but it's not for me.

#8: Castlevania

2025 was the year I began my Castlevania journey.  Castlevania is a pretty big blindspot for me in gaming history, I've known about it for so long but outside of playing the intro to Symphony of the Night I had never played a Castlevania.  The first game sure is an NES game.  Me disliking the original Castlevania is not particularly noteworthy.  It's a combination of a game that, while good, has definitely aged considerably, my methodology of playing it creating a lot of problems (I played it on Anniversary Collection on Epic Games Store so I couldn't even use an NES controller), and my own patience for NES games, especially earlier ones, wearing thin as time goes on.  I look forward to playing other Castlevanias as time goes on, but the first one didn't do it for me.

#7: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord

This one was a long time coming.  Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King was one of my fondest memories of the Wii era, the cute city builder where you craft your own cozy JRPG town.  I've not only played through it multiple times but it is the first game I ever purchased DLC for I used to love it so much.  My Life as a Darklord ended up being purchased as a result but ultimately would sit in my backlog for years.  And it's just kind of bad!  It's a very mediocre tower defense that has bizarre spikes in difficulty and I feel like it kind of wastes its premise of viewing the longstanding conflict in the Crystal Chronicles series from the perspective of its villains by making our main character an unsympathetic spoiled brat who just wants carnage.  It's an unfortunate sequel and I wish it were handled better.

#6: Fluidity

Another WiiWare game!  If you were around when the Wii was current and you cared about the burgeoning indie scene, you've probably heard about Fluidity.  It's an incredibly unique game, a full on Metroidvania where you play as a pool of water that you have to guide by tilting the world around to complete platforming puzzles and battle enemies.  Fluidity is one of those peak Wii games where you're either really charmed by its unique, novel concept and are willing to overlook the fact that as the game goes it, it just gets more and more frustrating; or you grow to be really frustrated by its gimmicky motion controls and just want the game to end.  I feel like I have too much space away from the Wii at this point to have enjoyed this project, sadly, with it being pretty miserable to play after the first world.

#5: KARAKARA 2

I don't know why I played this.  An argument could be made that I didn't play this, as it doesn't have any gameplay to speak of.  So, you ever play a game and then you're like "I didn't hate it, so I should probably play the sequel someday" but then you change so much as a person that by the time you get to the sequel you can't tolerate anything about it.  That's KARAKARA.  It's also Xenoblade Chronicles but that's another blog post.  I played the first game when I was a more weeb-coded teenager/young adult and thought it was fine, played the sequel a decade later and I was UNCOMFORTABLE.  I just can't get behind this type of anime art style anymore, every character looks like a small child and the narrative makes them say and do sexually provocative things, it's a lot.  Every character is as thin as their sprite work, it's one of those harem setups where they don't give remotely good justification for why all these women are interesting in the main character and there's not even really a game here.  Awful.  Dreadful.

#4: Mega Man X

Here's the part of this list that's going to make people made at me: I don't like Mega Man.  I like Battle Network fine enough, I grew up with it so there's a nostalgic attachment there, but as a franchise I do not like Mega Man.  X is not going to be the only Mega Man game on this list.  Mega Man X was actually my second attempt to really give the Mega Man franchise a shot, by the point I played it I had already figured out that I despise classic Mega Man so I wanted to know if X, with its more interesting movement and more involved narrative, did anything for me.  And in a way it did, but I think Mega Man X is still too reminiscent of classic Mega Man design that I just don't like it.  I don't actually like the whole "choose any stage at the start" thing, to be honest, because it feels so often like gameplay stagnates in the mid game.  I was hoping X would be different, it wasn't, I'm indifferent about it.

#3: Mega Man 2

Meanwhile I hate Mega Man 2.  This has been one of the biggest hanging threads in my gaming life.  I bought Mega Man 2 in the midst of NES nostalgia being the biggest thing online.  Like many games I bought into at the time, my personality in like 2009 was just parroting other people's nostalgia it was so annoying, Mega Man 2 was considered one of the undisputed best games of all time and was often propped up in a way to kind of dig at "modern gaming" and what they were doing wrong.  I've played Mega Man 2's robot master section so many times over the years but between me being a Wii kid and me finally beating it, my tastes changed considerably and uh.  I hate this game, actually.  I think it's really boring.  I would honestly have not beaten Mega Man 2 and shelved it like I did the other classic Mega Man games if it weren't for the fact that I had played through the majority of its content so many times over the years.  It's just not for me anymore.  It's really awkward to be standing here, a couple weeks after a new Mega Man game was announced, and saying openly "I hate Mega Man" but that's the way things go sometimes.

#2: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

I just strictly shouldn't have played this.  I am not a Star Wars fan, I literally have not seen episodes 5 and 6, and outside of games that are otherwise noteworthy and/or important for the medium I tend to be indifferent to the Star Wars universe (I do want to play the KOTOR games eventually but that's about the extent of it).  But I did remember playing the Force Unleashed most of the way through at a sleepover back in the day and I guess I wanted to finally finish that hanging thread.  This game has not aged well.  There are an overabundance of mediocre to bad hack and slashes from this era, everyone was trying to be God of War or Devil May Cry.  The Force Unleashed is one of those mediocre hack and slashes but it makes itself so much worse by having like all these systems that, while accurate to the source material, make the game bad.  Having to guard with your lightsaber constantly is correct, but you end up in all these stand offs with enemies where they won't stop firing at you and you have to damage sponge in order to get in to kill them.  It sucks, I'm glad not every game is trying to be this anymore.

#1: Dead Rising

This one hurts me.  I have legitimately wanted to play Dead Rising for so long.  Back during the Wii/360/PS3 generation, Dead Rising was one of THE games I wanted to purchase a 360 or PS3 to play.  This zombie game where literally anything you could find could be used as a weapon was super interesting to me, so much so that I excitedly covered the Wii release's trailer on a now deleted YouTube channel.  It would take until now to get to, though, as I never did buy a PS3 as I was intending, due to the lack of Kingdom Hearts III coming out on the console.  And when I finally did play Dead Rising it was bad.  Like I just truly hate this game.  It's like all the worst parts of survival horror games, hack and slashes and open world ARPGs rolled into one.  The novelty of using anything as a weapon wears off incredibly quickly as you find out how useless the majority of things are as weapons.  I not only did not finish Dead Rising, but I bounced off it in record time, putting about 5 hours into the game before I quit.  This was my least favorite game I played in 2025, unquestioningly.

Okay, now, without further ado, the number one game I played in 2025.  Let's do this.

#1: Mother 3

Yeah it's Mother 3.  I don't really know what you want me to say, to be honest.  I thought about trying to do a buildup thing like I did last year, leave you in suspense, tell you a story about the game, stuff like that.  But like, if you're reading this blog, there's a good chance you've read my post on Mother 3 so like, no reason to hide it.  We all knew it was going to be Mother 3, especially when Obra Dinn was #2!  I'm almost mad at myself for how boring this all is.  Why couldn't like Gravity Rush 2 be just a little better so a super interesting pick got to #1.  I digress.  Let's talk about Mother 3.

Mother 3 primarily tells the story of Lucas.  Lucas, the only instance of Smash Bros.' commitment to character accuracy also incidentally being a character assassination, lives on a distant island far from any other land mass.  It is a world of beauty and of kindness, an idyllic rural utopia where people live off the land and provide for each other.  It's a world without greed, arrogance, or pretense, a world where a community provides for each other and ensures everyone has their best life.  It is a world that knows not sorrow, knows not anger, knows not death.  It is, at least in the mind of the game's auteur Shigesato Itoi, a staunch opponent of the capitalist system we live under, utopia.

And then it all goes wrong.  A force from outside of the island enters itself into the ecosystem.  It destroys the forest, mutating many of the animals found within along the way, and, for the first time since anyone can remember, brings sorrow, anger, and death.  This force is an all-consuming corruption, a militant group known as the Pigmask Army.  They not only throw off the balance of the natural world, but they begin slowly corrupting the citizens on it as well.  They introduce money into their world and, moreover, things with which to use it.  They tell the citizens that they must buy into their way, that they're better for doing so, and more and more the resistance to the Pigmask ways crumbles.  Simple curiosity about this new technology turns to greed and selfishness, the town develops a class system, and the kind world Lucas grew up in becomes a thing of the past.  Instead, what arises is an increasingly authoritarian capitalist state, one which literally destroys the lives of those who oppose it and frames this practice as simple acts of God.

But hope is not lost.  Lucas discovers that he, uniquely, has the ability to fix all this.  Underneath the island he calls home is a massive dragon, a being that could destroy the world if it is awaken.  The dragon is pinned to the Earth by needles which are scattered across the island.  Whoever pulls most of the needles can determine what kind of being the dragon reawakens as and will be granted a single wish.  Lucas must go on a quest, racing to the needles to awaken the dragon before the Pigmask's mysterious general can do the same.  Along the way he'll make new friends, fight familiar foes, and discover the secret behind the Pigmask Army.  Describing it that way makes it seem like this is just a fun adventure, and it is, but like... I can't really do justice to how heartbreaking this game actually is without spoiling it.

Mother 3 has one of my favorite battle systems in RPG history.  I love Earthbound, in my post about Mother 3 on this blog previously, I touch on my history with Earthbound and how Mother 3 stacks up, and one of the things I love about Earthbound and, by extension, Mother 3 is how they handle turn-based battles.  Mother is, on the surface, a very standard JRPG battle system.  Characters move in turns, you select their movement, the turns play out.  Mother, though, was very unique for its day by caring about the position of enemies on the battlefield.  Enemies exist on multiple planes on the battlefield, and your moves care a lot about positioning.  Some moves only hit one row of enemies, some only a singular enemy, some will just randomly hit, it's a very simple battle system but very satisfying in practice.

Scrolling HP is also a prominent feature of the Mother games.  Rather than you getting hit and losing all your HP immediately, your HP begins scrolling down to the point where an enemy has hit you.  Similarly, if you heal, your HP will begin scrolling back up and if, say, the enemy hits you to where your HP will be less than what it will be after healing, you'll either stop or begin scrolling down again.  This allows you a lot of opportunity to respond to enemy actions in a way most turn based games don't give you.  If you are fast enough and play well enough, you can recover from any fatal hit.  It also adds just this very nice real time element to the battle system but in a way that's a lot more accessible for more people than like ATB.  The battle system still operates in turns, you just have these little options to respond quickly to problems.

Mother 3 also has one of the most brilliant uses of the sound in an RPG.  Music is very important to the Mother series, the series tends to balk tradition in many ways but one of the biggest ones is its soundtrack.  Mother 3 is probably the most "traditional" of the trio and it still is mostly inspired by 60s psychedelic rock than the more classical inspirations of other JRPGs.  What Mother 3 does so well specifically is how it incorporates the music into the gameplay.  Every song has a certain rhythm to it, a beat that you can pick out if your ears are good.  And if you hit on the beat successfully, you start a combo, allowing up to 16 hits in a single go around.  The hits after the first one never do a ton of damage, mind, but it's such an interesting way to make the music matter.

Without spoiling the game entirely, it's almost impossible to articulate what makes Mother 3's story so good.  It's a story about overcoming loss and grief, about finding the courage to keep on as everything in your life goes wrong.  It's a biting social commentary, one that treats capitalist society as not only selfish and cruel, but also childishly simple.  It's a story about how easy it for a totalitarian regime to convince people that it's a good thing because it's "providing" for them, even if they were providing for themselves just fine before.  But despite its serious topics it never loses the thing that makes it Mother.  It's still goofy and jokey and fun.  Mother 3 is almost a perfect game, while I myself personally prefer Earthbound over it, it is very close.  Mother 3 lives up to the hype in so many ways, and I'm proud to name it my Game of the Year.

That's this year's list!  Thank you all for reading.  I really like this era of game clearing more than what I did previously.  I don't think I'm going to shake it up for 2026, I'm just going to keep on going with what I've been doing.  It's been a very fulfilling year for me in terms of doing video game content.  Like, I didn't abandon this blog after a year, that's a huge accomplishment for me.  I've had blogs in the past and abandoned them after a few months.  But even though posts are infrequent because of the structure of the majority of posts, I find this process really fulfilling and I'm glad I've kept up with it.  I promise there will be more essay content in the future, I'm almost done with a few of them.  Here's to 2026 and more fantastic games on the horizon.  And who knows, maybe I'll play a game that released in the year I do my list for once!  Thank you all, and until the next post!