Time for my summary of games played this year. Just like last time, this post wasn’t written in just a few short days; I updated this post every time I was finished with a game, and this time I left timestamps.
There are some other enhancements I added:
- Play time hours. I don’t aim for all achievements and play at a slower-than-average pace
- A “GOTY” award to my favourite game played during the year
And for (potential) legal purposes: I own none of the artwork below, they belong to their respective copyright holders.
Titles
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
- Cleared on: February 21
- Play time: 70 hours
I had this game on my backlog for about 2 years now. I played about 20 hours about 2 years ago, then just stopped. Recently, I came back to finish.
Very unique and fun mix of hack-and-slash + rice farming simulator (yes, really). Sakuna unironically goes into decent detail about rice farming from scratch, and I ended up with a sense of appreciation for the work that goes into growing crops.
- Till the field
- Sort out bad seeds before planting
- Pour seeds and mud (or salt) into water, then mix. Bad seeds will float
- Plant the seedlings
- Planting density affects quality and yield
- Constantly remove weeds and pests
- You can let the ducks do it, but not for too long. They’ll eat the offshoots
- Or rely on the spiders, which are better but get eaten by ducks
- Make sure to prepare and apply fertilizer
- Don’t use too much, or the rice will overgrow
- Salt is a great pesticide, herbicide, and poison
- Control the field’s water level and temperature
- Water depth and temperature varies throughout the year
- Don’t forget to drain the field midsummer
- Monitor the rice’s growth
- Watch the rain and sunshine quantities
- Watch for disease and pests
- Harvest, dry, thresh, and pound the rice
- Always end drying before winter
- Pound less for brown rice. Go all the way for white rice
- Eat the rice and get stronger
- Repeat
- Watch humanity develop technology from pounding rice by hand to automation by a watermill. Or from tilling the field by hand to using a cow
The details are insane.
Your stats depend on the quality of the food you eat and the rice you grow, so you have to farm seriously. You start from nothing and gradually build up; your first meal is grasshoppers and water, but eventually you eat like a king with hotpot, sweets, and alcohol.
Sakuna is a very fun and unique game. The whole farming process really does feel like watching the development of agriculture in fast forward. Combat might feel a little awkward at the beginning, but once you unlock a few key moves it becomes fluid and fun.
And following typical JRPG games, there’s plenty of grinding to do if you want to. There’s a tower dungeon minigame that has 300 floors. I wasn’t bothered enough to clear all of it, but I made it to floor 200.
Mirror’s Edge
- Cleared on: March 30
- Play time: 9 hours
A game that’s been on my backlog for a very, very long time. I made the mistake of installing PhysX (wow now that’s old) and found out the consequences when debris from a broken window turned the game into a literal slide show. The game probably predates 1440p monitors, because it was released in 2008. When selecting 1440p as the resolution, everything (including text) is scaled up. So even the menu text looks pixelated.
The gameplay revolves around parkouring. You can probably perform insanely smooth runs if your skills are good, but I was pretty clumsy and so I felt a little frustrated at times. Probably a skill issue though.
I thought Mirror’s Edge was a pretty unique experience overall. It’s very different from most games in many ways. If you can get used to the flow, the parkouring is probably addicting. The soundtrack is good too, as a bonus.
Atelier Rorona DX
- Cleared on: July 29
- Play time: 33 hours
Atelier Rorona is the first title of the former Arland trilogy (now a quadrilogy). A few years ago, I bought the Arland series on a whim during a sale. I tried playing Rorona a few years ago, but abandoned the playthrough a few hours into the game. So this was a revisit to clear the game for real.
Rorona was a very casual and straightforward game. I think I can understand why some people like it a lot, but I personally didn’t like it that much. There is a time limit that pressures you to act efficiently. I could handle the time limit just fine, but I prefer the games without it. Rorona is also one of those games where you’re encouraged to play a New Game +, which I also don’t like that much. I generally found the game to be kind of boring, so towards the end I got pretty lazy and missed out on lots of optional cutscenes.
I’m not hating on the game, because I still love the later Atelier games. But I suppose Rorona just wasn’t for me. Maybe it’s simply because the game is old and the developer was smaller back then. It makes me worry about the other Arland games I have in the backlog.
Comparing to newer Atelier games, Rorona feels much older and smaller. You can’t even rotate the camera in this game. Animations and overall graphics is much better in newer games, and overall QoL is significantly better too.
Tales of loading screens Arise
- Cleared on: August 28
- Play time: 57 hours
I received this game as a gift (cheers friends), so it had to be higher on the priority list than other backlog items.
This was my first time trying a Tales game. Overall, I think it was ok. This was the most JRPG-like JRPG I played in a while. By “JRPG-like”, I mean:
- Fight god to save the world
- Some grinding
- Power of friendship trumps all
- Hand-drawn anime cutscenes
Luckily, side quest grind isn’t too irritating in this game.
The story starts decently and gets interesting around midgame, but falls apart at the very end. My favourite part about the game were the character interactions, they really helped made the adventure feel more real and gave life to the characters. They are tropey, but each character still feels real and gains a bit of depth.
Combat can sometimes feel awkward and frustrating, but it’s mostly an early game problem and can be very fun and satisfying later on… until the enemies become HP sponges and fights become grindy (last dungeon was very bad). I wish the computer controlled teammates would stop killing themselves.
Music is… average? Maybe I’ve been spoiled by incredible video game soundtracks, but I can’t say the music in this game was memorable. Not saying that it’s bad by any means, but not something that stood out.
I’d say overall that Tales of Arise is an ok game. Not top tier in my opinion, but maybe some people will like it. As far as an introduction to the Tales series, it was mediocre for me.
As a side note, the “loading screens” in the heading is a criticism about the insane amount of loading screens in the game. I wasn’t demanding an open world game, but any movement came with a loading screen; area to area, building to area, building to building. I wish the maps were a little bigger, because constant loading screens made the world feel so discontinuous.
NieR Replicant ver.√1.5
- Cleared on: September 14
- Play time: 45 hours
The full name of this game, “NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…”, is too long. I will go with the rational choice of using the analytical notation for this irrational name.
Nier Replicant is another game that has been on my backlog for a few years. I played Nier Automata years ago and enjoyed it very much. Naturally, I was interested when I heard that Automata’s “prequel” (the original Nier) was getting a remake. That remake is Nier Replicant.
Despite being remade, Replicant still feels like an older game. Technically, the game is a remaster, not a remake, maybe that’s why. The UI especially looks a little old, and the game has big problems like a 60 FPS cap because the game physics is dependent on framerate (seriously?). I had to use a few mods to make the game more functional. Side quests are also pretty generic.
Besides its age though, it was really nice to see familiar things from Automata; the cinematography, story, character design, and especially the music (Nier music is first class material). I know Automata is the sequel, but I got some nostalgia when playing the prequel. I can only imagine how a player that played OG Nier first would have felt when playing Automata.
I also enjoyed the English dub in Replicant. I normally play games in Japanese dubs when available, but Replicant is one of the games where the English dub is excellent.
After clearing the game, my opinion is that Automata is the better game. Story, music, QoL, and gameplay in Automata is better than Replicant. If you can only play one, choose Automata. However, Replicant is still a great game and worth playing; the overall package of story, music, and emotions is very powerful. Overall, I really enjoyed playing Nier Replicant. I wish it got a full remake treatment instead of a remaster, but the game’s core still holds up after a decade from release.
Scarlet Nexus
- Cleared on: October 05
- Play time: 29 hours
Another gift from some friends, cheers guys. Earlier, I said that Tales of Arise is the most JRPG-like game I’ve played in a while. I think Scarlet Nexus is about equal to that.
Unfortunately, this game was pretty mediocre (sorry friends). Scarlet Meh-xus, if you will. There are some parts of the game that I liked. The combat system is unique and very fun once you get the hang of it. The game also looks pretty good, at least within the realm of anime-style games. I’m also fairly certain the game used motion tracking for characters, which also enhances the visual aspect.
On a side note, the world design was quite interesting. Scarlet Nexus takes place in a cyberpunk world where psychic people protect the world. It’s like everyone having a brain chip that gives people superpowers, but also things like telepathy, receiving “brain messages”, brain-integrated AR, and even seeing ads. It’s a disturbing world, but that means the world was designed well enough to make me think like so.
That’s where my compliments end though. The story was rushed, poorly explained, and illogical. Side quests are extremely generic fetch/kill quests and not worth doing. Characters barely have any personalities and are in a superposition of “I fight for my friends” and “Kill every last one of them”. Music was not memorable. Translation was also a little awkward, as if Google Translate was used to fill in gaps. Combat mechanics also had their clunky moments, like trying to dodge anything reliably or using items.
Importantly for me, the lazy style of dialogue ruined immersion. Instead of typical cutscenes with characters moving around, most dialogue scenes were presented in a comic book-like style, where only the characters’ mouths were moving (by that, I mean just opening and closing). There are hardly any real “cutscenes” in the game, and I honestly was not bothered to tune into most dialogue.
Scarlet Nexus features two protagonists which each give their unique perspective on the story. To play as the other character, you need a different save file; play the game twice, in other words. I couldn’t be bothered to play a New Game Plus, so I stopped after the first playthrough. My criticism may sound fairly strong, but I don’t mean to depict the game as a bad product. The game has its share of fans, so it’s not a bad game, but it just wasn’t for me. I think the game could have had real potential if it was given more care. If you like JRPGs and the game is on heavy sale, maybe consider getting it.
Yakuza 0
- 🎉GOTY🎉
- Cleared on: November 1
- Play time: 79 hours
Yet another backlogged title. I bought this game long ago on a sale, after losing my mind over baka mitai deepfakes. After playing, I quickly realized baka mitai was just a surface level meme (literally, the song appears within the first 20 minutes of the story) and the game has so much more to offer. Yakuza 0 is a fantastic game and wins my GOTY award. It was so fun that I felt like I was getting addicted and sometimes playing too long for each session.
Everything about this game is amazing, it’s hard to summarize in just a few paragraphs. The story, the comedy, the minigames (I love cabaret czar), and music. The story is complicated, full of surprises, gets emotional, and takes a lot of inspiration from the real world; 1980s Japan and politics. And then if you want to lighten the mood, you can sing karaoke, dance at a disco club, play pool and arcade games, and even watch somewhat SFW clips of real adult actresses.
That’s another fun fact about this game (and the series): most characters are actually modelled after their real world actors. Perhaps the funniest part of including real actors in this game is those actresses mentioned before. I don’t know why, but almost every female NPC with a name in Yakuza 0 is modelled after a real adult actress. Look up their names if you’re morbidly curious (use a private browser window).
Returning to more serious topics, I hear people treat Yakuza games as “open world”, and I can see where they get that argument from. The game isn’t truly “open” in the sense you can explore a vast world with sparsely populated towns, but instead the game intricately replicates parts of a city. It’s like making a traditional open world and increasing the density significantly, where you can explore every nook and cranny of a town. I really enjoyed how the world was made in this game; people say the game replicates Tokyo and Osaka very accurately, so in a way you indirectly see glimpses of these cities.
Additionally, Yakuza 0 is one of the very few game where side quests don’t feel like a chore. There was hardly any feeling of performing fetch quests; they are mostly short, comedic (or emotional), and not annoying.
So overall, Yakuza 0 is a fantastic game, virtually perfect. There’s nothing I can criticize except for graphics, but the game is nearly 10 years old so it doesn’t make sense to judge in that aspect. The game has amazing story, good world building, really good music, and there’s so much side content to do. It’s one of those games where you feel slightly empty inside after completing. I thoroughly enjoyed Yakuza 0 and will continue the series with Yakuza Kiwami later on.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
- Cleared on: Did not clear
- Play time: 8 hours
Another game bought on impulse during a sale, after seeing memes about Senator Armstrong. Booting the game for the first time and seeing the main menu was very exciting. Sadly, that’s where the fun ended for me. MGRR is a game that I will probably leave unfinished. I went in with high expectations for memes (and got some) but was disappointed.
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Combat isn’t for me
Hack and slash games aren’t really my style, which might contribute to my struggles in this game. I’m not a “bad gamer” by any means. I have enough general skill to beat most genres: platformers, strategy, RPG, and action. I guess I just couldn’t fully get into how MGRR plays. Boss fights became annoying and I was visibly becoming agitated with the game. Even tanky mobs were getting tedious to beat. I’m not playing a game to struggle, I need to get some enjoyment out of it.
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You can’t lower the difficulty
After being defeated by a boss, I decided to lower the difficulty to clear the game. I’m not the type of person to struggle through a difficult part of a game because my pride won’t allow me to lower the difficulty. But apparently in MGRR, changing the difficulty can only be done by creating a new game save. You can’t change it at all during a playthrough, which means you effectively have to restart.
That was the moment I decided I couldn’t continue with this game. My hand was unironically hurting a little because of the button mashing. I wasn’t having fun. Then the boss I died to reset me back to the last checkpoint, which was a while ago. The game’s story was non-existent by the time I quit (chapter 4).
I wish this little review for Metal Gear Rising was positive. I think this is one of the first games that I didn’t enjoy, but the majority of people like it. I’d like to think I gave the game a fair shot. I really did, I didn’t quit 1 hour into the game because I couldn’t get used to parries; I was able to do them pretty consistently.
As a side note that doesn’t significantly impact my reception to this game: it is a terrible port, or the game was poorly made in a technical sense. The maximum supported resolution is 1080p, not even 1440p or 4K are officially supported. Getting ultrawide to work is also particularly hacky. MGRR is supported by Flawless Widescreen, a one-click tool to make supported games output proper ultrawide video. But despite being supported, the mod isn’t perfect. I needed a separate tool to patch the game’s executable, only after that did the game render properly. And finally, the game has a hard framerate cap of 59 FPS.
Fun fact, this post’s title was originally “games I cleared in 2024”. I had to change it after quitting MGRR. “Game I played in x year” will be the series name going forwards.
Yakuza Kiwami
- Cleared on: December 19
- Play time: 43 hours
The “K” in Kiwami stands for “kill everyone”.
After being very happy from playing Yakuza 0, I bought the Kiwami games on Steam during the Autumn sale. Kiwami 1 was a short game in comparison to Yakuza 0 and feels like a PlayStation 2 game with a fresh coat of “Yakuza 0” paint on it… because that’s exactly what Kiwami is. The game is a remake of the original Yakuza 1 from the PS2. Everything seems to have gotten a serious overhaul except for the story, which remains faithful to the original.
SEGA did a good job of remaking an old game, because Kiwami looks as new as 0 and feels almost the same. However, the game does have an outdated side; especially the story. I won’t say anything detailed due to spoilers, but I feel that some characters could have been better used to draw more emotion. Unlike Yakuza 0, Kiwami’s story felt like it hopped between several mini-arcs, leading to a feeling of confusion and lack of central plot. The game didn’t feel as well put together as 0.
My words might sound a little harsh, but I’m not trying to criticize too much. Kiwami is still a decent game. The minigames are just a little behind 0, substories are good, and combat is just as good. It was cool to see a mini history lesson of post-bubble Japan. From pagers and disco in the late 1980s to cellphones and modern outfits, I felt as if I got to see a real timelapse of changing times. Plus, the game gives a lot of nostalgia fan service because of the direct connection to Yakuza 0.
Overall, I think Kiwami was a decent game and look forward to continuing with Kiwami 2.
Wrap up
- Games played: 9
- Total playtime: 373 hours
I cleared all the games I said I would back in 2023, and quite a few extra too. I think that having a list helped. So to repeat the process, here’s the list I have in mind for 2025.
- Atelier Totori
- Yakuza Kiwami 2
- Bayonetta
- Stellaris
One problem is, 2025 will have some new games that I am looking forward to, so these might get higher priority.
- Atelier Yumia
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
It seems like I’ll have a good post by the end of 2025.