Disco Elysium is a game that really has a story to tell, a message to give, and it does everything it can to relay it. It makes fun of everything, but not really in a cruel way. It pokes fun at your political alignments; there's even a whole section that pokes fun at game developers. There is a lot of self-deprecating humor that will be even harsher in hindsight, considering what happened to the studio. It deals with grief of all kinds, surprisingly gently, however raw it may be.

It is a masterclass in storytelling.

I guess a proper review should cover the basics first, right? Here we go then.

Note: Some spoilers in the screenshots, but nothing serious. The game has over a million words, so I believe that these will not really spoil your experience too much.

Play time: 51 hours
Played on: PC
Difficulty: Default

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut is a groundbreaking role playing game. You’re a detective with a unique skill system at your disposal and a whole city to carve your path across. Interrogate unforgettable characters, crack murders or take bribes. Become a hero or an absolute disaster of a human being.

I always try to include the Steam description of the game when I write a review, but I’ll be honest, I don’t know if the description above is enough to describe what the game is about. Maybe it’s because I am bitter about the whole ZA/UM situation (I’ll cover this at the end), but this description makes the game seem like your run-of-the-mill detective game, when it does so, so much more. I don’t know how it can be improved, but I think that the TvTropes page gives a good description if you are interested in finding out more.

Every once in a while, I get so enamoured with a game that it occupies around 85% of my brain for a while after finishing it. Last year, it was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I think this year, it will be Disco Elysium.

When I finished the game, I thought to myself, “Why didn’t I play this earlier? Why did I wait so long?” I had bought the game back in 2021, and I played it a little in 2023, but I felt so lost in that world that I dropped it. Then I realized that had I finished the game back then, I don’t think it would have had such an effect on me.

Playing as a sociology graduate

As I said in the title, I studied sociology at university. It was back in 2013-2018, and most of my professors were amazing, very accomplished individuals in their fields. I loved studying it so much. Has it been very useful for post-university times? Not exactly the degree itself — it was a very good university which does get me more opportunities than most, and I did my studies entirely in French which allowed me to have academy-level French, but we sociology majors generally agree that as a degree, it is not the most useful unless you want to be a researcher or go into field-related studies.

But well, it did give me an entirely different worldview. I learned about different ideologies, how civilizations work, and how a society functions and doesn’t function. The curriculum was so dense and packed, and I understood a lot about the world we live in and how to scrutinize it.

I wasn’t expecting my studies to come in handy like this when playing a video game, though.

You cannot criticize something without having a thorough understanding of it. I found that the game really understands the ideologies it’s making fun of. It does have a very leftist view, but it mocks it too. But it does so gently. It’s very self-aware. There is a particular side quest that you can take on if you choose a certain path, which I won’t spoil too much, but I’ll just say that you can talk with a couple of communist students, and it’s one of the most accurate depictions I’ve ever seen. I was in awe the entire time, because they nailed how the students were so idealistic, but also so immersed in the theory and studies that they were not able to bring anything to life. So focused on the books and the terms, and how even the slightest deviation from their true path would mean that you cannot be a true communist. Their thinking that reading something other than Mazovian theory (like novels) is ridiculous was really funny and also really accurate for some of the students in my class.

I won’t get too deep into deconstructing the ideologies of the game. There are people better than me doing that, and we are here for a game review, not a deep read into Mazovian theory.

Dice-based role-playing mechanics

Disco Elysium’s branching narrative paths are definitely the strongest element in the game. There are so many ways that a conversation can go, depending on your choices, how you build the character, and how lucky you are. You can build your character however you want: you can have him be an average Joe (which I don’t really recommend), you can make him an absolute unit with a lot of physical skills but with rocks for brains, you can have him be incredibly empathetic and a bit ditzy but absolutely miserable at holding a gun, or have him be an intellectual Art Cop but frail as a twig. There really is no right way to make your character, and any way you build him will be a viable way to play the game. I had him as someone smart and good at Rhetoric, but sacrificed his physical skills for it.

I found the wide variety of skills very fun. Each of them has a distinct “voice”, so to speak. Depending on what skills you have the most points in, your character gets a distinct personality. This makes multiple playthroughs very entertaining, as you might want to go with a brawler cop on your first time, then go for a Sherlock Holmes-type character in your second. It changes your interactions with other characters, which can lead to intriguing scenes.

During the game, you are confronted by various situations that require you to roll dice to pass checks. However, failing checks is not actually framed as a bad thing, as they can lead to some interesting and sometimes incredibly funny scenes. You find this out very early in the game. You are also almost always rolling dice to pass passive skill checks in the background, but they will only be apparent if you succeed at them. Depending on the skill check you pass or fail, the corresponding skill will comment on the situation (I know how it sounds, just trust me that it’s good).

So don’t be afraid to fail checks. They can lead to very interesting scenes.

Kim Kitsuragi (Yes, he gets his own section)

For the murder investigation, you are joined by a police officer from a rival district, Kim Kitsuragi. He’s an honest and proud police officer in a sea of dirty and corrupt cops, who is doing his best to help you out while you are suffering from your (mostly self-inflicted) amnesia.

Honestly, Kim is among the best-written characters I’ve seen in gaming. He has immense patience for your hilarious and sometimes downright depressing antics, but that doesn’t mean that he’ll let himself be pushed around. Despite his stereotypically nerdy look, he is actually canonically very cool (and you can acknowledge this in-game). He is a lieutenant with years and years of experience, had to fight tooth and nail to be acknowledged for his skills, and had to fight against racist remarks and prejudice against him all the while. This made him a very level-headed and serious person, albeit sometimes to his own detriment.

I’ve been looking at the reviews and comments of the game, and there is a reason why almost every single one of them mentions that they want to be on Kim’s good side. He is such a character that, despite his immense composure and patience, you don’t want to disappoint him or push his limits. He is, after all, the narrative proof that the world still has good in it. He represents your hope, your willingness to get better. Just take a look at his in-game portrait, and you will see the symbolism.

Kim Kitsuragi is the representation of hope because when our character is seemingly at a loss, angry at the world and in despair, Kim comes in and proves that there is still some things worth fighting for.

It doesn’t mean that Kim is always right about everything, though. He is his own person with flaws, which is what makes him a great character. He has his own set of beliefs, morals, likes and history separate from you, which you can slowly unravel as you play. He can be way too set in his own ways. That is why your character is so important to his — you can challenge him in various ways, you can loosen him up a little, and bring whimsy to his life.

(You can also be absolutely awful to him and make him miserable, so it’s all up to you. It’s a choice-based RPG, after all.)

So yes, befriending Kim was one of the highlights of the game for me. One of the most rewarding moments in my gaming life happened towards the end of the game, and it was just a line of text in a skill check — I don’t want to spoil it, but if you know, you know.

Post-impressionist art style

Honestly, I wasn’t too sure about what sort of art style the game uses. I know it rocks, but what type is it? I didn’t know, until I stumbled upon a Reddit thread that described it as a type of post-impressionism, and I thought it fit. The oil-painting style with visible brushstrokes definitely brings out a unique aura to the game, and when you see a screenshot from the game, it’s impossible to mistake it for another game.

The color palette is very desaturated, with sparse bright colors that make the art pop even more, and it is very disco. It generally has a very industrial feel to it, without making it seem claustrophobic. The portraits are also fantastic. And I have to talk about the whole art situation going on in our skills and thoughts, because those are some incredible artworks on their own. They should be available as posters, especially the ones for the thought cabinet.

Atmospheric music

The music carries a lot of weight in the game. does a great job exploring the themes of Disco Elysium and the soundtrack, so I absolutely recommend giving her post a read, it’s fantastic:

The soundtrack to Disco Elysium is an excellent match to the thinky, pensive feel of the gameplay. For a game that is technically about solving a brutal murder, it is extremely atmospheric, and quite beautiful.

One of the songs that personally stood out to me was Rue de Saint-Ghislaine 32B. It is one of the most hauntingly gorgeous uses of piano I’ve ever heard, and it gives so much personality to the place it plays in. Its repetitive motif immediately sticks in the mind. There were times when I just clicked on stuff in the area and lingered because I just wanted to listen to the song a bit more.

What is Disco Elysium exactly?

Disco Elysium is, above all, a game that criticizes. Satire is dripping from every interaction, every word, every skill point. It is a critique of the world we live in. The game is very leftist, but it is harsh against every single one of the political leanings it features. You can be a communist, a fascist, a liberal, or a centrist, and the game will make fun of you regardless. But in satirizing these ideologies, it gently leads you to think about them in a more critical light and consider their good and bad sides.

It is also one of the wittiest games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. For such a bleak world with desaturated colors and melancholic music, the game is incredibly funny to me. The unhinged choices, wild internal monologues, and your interactions with the other characters make for a very amusing time. The self-deprecation is also very apparent throughout the game, whether it be about politics or game development. They really didn’t hold back from mocking themselves.

I’ve mostly talked about the political alignments in Disco Elysium (a side effect of being a sociology graduate, I guess). Still, it is also a game that discusses grief of all kinds incredibly well. As you discover more about your character’s past and learn more about the person that used to be, you can also shape his future and decide how he’ll tackle his challenges. How do you want to get better? How will you approach such great grief? It’s very fascinating to think about.

Studio troubles and controversy with ZA/UM

I know that simplifying what happened to ZA/UM and the talented people working there to just “studio troubles” is not a good way to present it at all, but it’s a complicated situation. I recommend that you do your own research about it, there are plenty of explanations online. I can guide you to this link to start out with, and encourage you to come to your own conclusions about it. I wanted to include this section here because I want to be objective in my review and give all the facts for those who may not be aware. My take is that the whole situation is very ironic and tragic, and downright depressing to think about. So much talent and effort went into creating this game, and it is such a shame that it came to this.

Overall thoughts

I loved this game. I loved every second of it, and there is a good chance that it will be my game of the year and place on the top of my list (personal GOTYs don’t have to be new games). The worldbuilding, the characters, the art, the music, the gameplay — everything about it spoke to me in a way that not many games can.

A word of warning, though: the game uses very vulgar language, and deals with some really uncomfortable and sensitive topics. Just wanted to give a heads up in case it’s not your thing.

It’s important to once again emphasize that I did not vibe with the game too much when I first bought and played it years ago. This is why sometimes giving games a second chance really works. For this, I owe a thanks to the awesome people at Good Game Lobby Gaming Club for choosing this game for May. I always intended to go back to this game, but I never had the headspace to do it. This was a good opportunity to finally get back into it, and talking about it with other people while playing made it a more engaging experience. The discussion call we had at the end of the month was also a very fun time. I loved dismantling the tropes and the themes with everyone.

What are your thoughts on Disco Elysium?

Games

Chants of Sennaar

This game was April’s game of the month for the Good Game Lobby Gaming Club. I had played it before, but playing it alongside others was very fun, and very enlightening. This game takes a lot of inspiration from the Tower of Babel, and features one of my favorite puzzle mechanics of all time, which is decoding languages.

As all the floors of the tower in the game have been separated from each other for centuries, they developed different languages and cultures. You are given the mission to decode their languages, find out how to get between the floors and figure out how everything connects together.

It is a fantastic game for puzzle lovers and language enthusiasts, which I am both, so I was very much the target audience for this game. And I must say, it didn’t disappoint. I will write a whole review on it one day, but I just haven’t had the time lately. One day.

Disco Elysium

The game of the month for the club May is Disco Elysium. I must say, having a game of the month is really helping me stay on track with the games I play. And as Disco Elysium has been in my backlog forever (and I even played a little back in 2023), I jumped at the chance to finally play it to completion.

First things first, I am freaking loving this game. It took a while to truly draw me in, as I couldn’t relate to the main character, despite this being an RPG where you build your character. However, as I got further in, I got more and more into it to the point where I just couldn’t stop thinking about playing. During the normal course of the day, I often catch myself thinking, ‘‘I wish I were playing Disco Elysium right now’’, or ‘‘I can’t wait to go home to play more Disco Elysium’’. It got me THAT bad.

A big factor for this is how tight the writing has been. The amount of stuff that you can do is staggering; the options feel limitless. I firmly believe that no two playthroughs will ever be the same, and I can’t stop thinking about how it must have taken so much work to finish the game. It is so dense. But the thing is, this option range is not just there for the sake of padding. Each choice actually tells you something. Even the seemingly most mundane things you can do can have an effect, if not on the character, then on you.

I will definitely have a full review after I finish the game, and will discuss my thoughts further on this, but I don’t want to get more into it right now, especially since it’s so politically charged and this would get much longer if I got into it now. I will just end this section by saying that Kim is the best, he is my buddy, and I got his back no matter what.

A Painted Symphony

Not a game, but I attended the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 concert in Lille at the beginning of May, and it was one of the best musical experiences I’ve been to. You can read all about it here:

Books

Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #1)

I wrote about reading this book back in March, and I recently finished reading it. While it was a good book from a more technical standpoint, I wasn’t able to get too much into it, very possibly because of the monotonous way that the main character tells the story. I know that the it is an artistic choice and it was very deliberate, but because of this, it felt like a slow book and I only got done with it. Despite enjoying my time with the book, I don’t think I’ll be reading the rest of the series.

Legends of Localization - Book 3: Undertale

I had talked about Legends of Localization before. It is a website/blog where the author writes about video game localization, usually from Japanese to English. I find it to be an incredibly interesting website, and even though I don’t speak Japanese, the insights into video game localization are very valuable.

That’s why I wanted to get this book. While I enjoy Undertale and find it to be an amazing game, it was not my main reason. The main reason is the localization aspect and how the Japanese localization of the game came to be. I think it casts a very important light into why localization is not strictly translation.

My brother surprised me and gifted me this book for my birthday (I’m 31 now, wow!). Sending it to me from the US proved to be a challenge and it spoiled the surprise because of Fedex schenanigans, which he is upset about but I don’t mind at all. I’ve been reading it whenever I get the time, and it has proved to be thoroughly interesting and I’m learning quite a lot.

Series

La Casa de Papel

I started watching this show with my husband, because we heard that the new prequel show takes place in Seville, and we needed to practice our Spanish. What better opportunity to watch, am I right?

I had watched this show back in 2017 or 2018 when it was at the peak of its popularity, and I remember enjoying it a lot, but I had forgotten almost everything. We are currently on the 5th episode, and while I do think that it’s still a very enjoyable and solid show, I think I got more nitpicky in my media and tend to question things more. There were a few times that I facepalmed, but things are still very interesting. I’m excited to see more.

And that’s all the main things for April and May this year! I wish got to play more games, but it was still a good time. One thing that I’m regretting is that I didn’t have much time to continue playing Baldur’s Gate 3, but I think it’s becoming more and more like a real-life D&D campaign where the crew gets together just once a month. So this playthrough has been a very realistic one so far…

How was your April and May?

Warning: A lot of pictures.

I was hoping to publish this sooner, but a lot has happened in real life, so it sat in my drafts for a bit. Trying to strike a balance between being detailed but also not too long was not an easy task, so I changed things up a bit, but here it finally is!

Ever since it came out, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been the talk of the town. It especially gathered a lot of attention after it swept all the awards at the award shows. And if you know me even just a little, you probably know that this game had a huge impact on me. And after sitting on it for a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that the soundtrack was probably the biggest factor as to why it had such a hold on me.

I’ll give it to you straight: The soundtrack of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the best I’ve ever heard. If there is one thing that most people agree on about this game, it’s how beautiful its soundtrack is. I loved it to the point where it dominated my Spotify Wrapped last year1, with Une vie à t’aimer comfortably placing right at the top.

So when they announced that they would be having a concert tour in Europe, I was over the moon. It also coincided with my move to Spain, which facilitated things a great deal because it meant that I didn’t have to deal with visa stuff (a nightmare for anyone living in ‘‘developing countries’’, as much as I hate the term).

Buying the concert tickets was very tough because I knew they would sell out very fast, but I wasn’t expecting it to be that chaotic. Both my husband and I were trying to get tickets at the same time, and he ended up getting tickets to Geneva. However, I had my eyes on the concert in Lille. I spent a whole year as an exchange student in Lille back in 2016-2017, and I had been waiting for a chance to go back there and see the city with a new perspective. This proved to be the perfect opportunity. After a lot of waiting and some frustration, I ended up getting the Lille tickets, and we put the Geneva tickets on sale.

I was so happy. Getting to visit one of my favorite places in the world while attending a concert of one of my favorite games? I couldn’t have asked for a better setting. Actually getting to Lille was the tricky part since there was no direct flight there, but we decided to take the opportunity to visit Paris first, then take the train to Lille.

So I decided to write about my experience to recount and remember what took place during this amazing weekend.

The Trip

We took the flight from Seville to Paris on May 1st. We had both been to Paris before, so it was a more relaxed sightseeing for us. Paris is actually way more beautiful than I remembered. I think they changed a lot of the car traffic in the city and made it way less chaotic. At night, the Eiffel Tower looked beautiful but it was INCREDIBLY crowded. Thankfully, we found a place near the river that had a direct view of the tower.

On the morning of May 2nd, we took the train to Lille, and my husband commented that it was one of the most comfortable trains he’d ever been on. I agreed. Lille was way more crowded than I expected, and I realized that I had forgotten a lot of things. Still, it was very nice to stroll around the city and bask in the nostalgia. It felt great.

Then the concert was in the evening, and it took around 2 hours. After the concert, I was hoping to take my husband for a beer (my favorite beer during my exchange was Kasteel Rouge, and I wanted to let him try it) but we were exhausted, so we returned to our hotel.

The next day, I got to see my old campus and dorm, which gave me such a kick in the gut. I immediately texted and sent photos to my old friends from those days, and I felt incredibly grateful for them. Despite a lot of hardships and distance, I’m so happy that I’m still in contact with them. I know that I sometimes take it for granted.

Anyway, then we returned to Paris by train, and from there back to Seville. We were incredibly tired, but every second of it was worth it.

Now, on to the main event: the concert.

The Concert

I’m not going to go over all the songs for the sake of brevity (the post is long enough already), but if you want to check out which songs were played, you can check out the setlist here. For now, I want to focus on the songs that stuck out to me, though every single song was incredibly impressive, so I find it hard not to just talk about all of them.

Links to the original songs will be included in the song titles below.

The concert arena, Zénith de Lille, was packed to the brim with people wearing berets, striped shirts, checkered scarves, and some people with full-on cosplays. It felt incredible to be a part of this crowd and see the passion emanating from the fans. I was ready to be a part of this crowd with my baguette costume which I had prepared long beforehand.

To my absolute horror, I realized right as I was getting ready that I didn’t have my red beret with me, which is arguably THE most important article of clothing for the baguette costume. I immediately went to the shopping mall to look for a new one, but I couldn’t find one. However, I did find an incredibly cute checkered bowtie hair clip that fit very well with the theme, so it worked out in the end.

Alicia

The incredible main menu theme of the game was also our intro to the concert. And what an intro that was! I could see the whole vibe of the arena changing as Alice Duport-Percier set the mood with her beautiful voice. She is an incredible storyteller, able to convey a narrative with just her voice and mannerisms. The emotion in her voice is unmatched, even in a made-up language.

Departure / Taking Down the Paintress

As the title suggests, this song signals the expedition going on its way to take down the Paintress, and it is as hype as you would expect. I felt ready to fight my way through Nevrons and reach the Paintress as this song played.

In Lumière’s Name

This is the song that plays whenever you fight a Mime. During the concert, one of the most memorable moments happened when the accordionist came in wearing a French beret and handed a baguette broken in two to the conductor. The conductor proceeded to conduct the orchestra with the baguettes in hand. It was such an adorable moment, and it was heartwarming to see them embracing this meme so much.

Goblu / Rain from the Ground

In the game, Goblu is the song that plays as you make your way through Flying Waters, which is arguably one of the most beautiful areas of the game. It is a very serene and atmospheric song. On the other hand, Rain from the Ground plays when you actually fight the boss Goblu, and it is an incredible techno banger. I’m always like this whenever this song plays.

They combined these two songs amazingly in the concert, and I could barely contain myself and not dance. A few other people were bopping their heads like I was, but most of the audience was much calmer than I had expected.

Monoco / Gestral Market / Golgra

One of the hypest moments of the show happened when we got to this trio of songs. Monoco’s theme is my husband’s favorite, mainly due to the funky saxophone, so we had been waiting for it. When the saxophonist came in, we all cheered. And as Gestral Market started playing, we heard even more cheers from the left side of the audience, and 3 seconds later, we saw the reason why: there was a giant Esquie, floating onto the stage! He made his way to the audience and started gliding above us! Golgra’s theme started playing, and Esquie continued flying above while Lorian and the saxophone guy were shredding it up on the stage. Esquie flew around until the songs finished and then went back inside, saying goodbye in his original voice.

Lampmaster

The Lampmaster is a very memorable boss at the end of Act 1, where you have to shoot the lamps on the boss to be able to defeat it. What they did in the concert was very cool and fitting: there were lamps on the stage that looked like the lamps from the game, and after a moment of silence, they started lighting up one by one with a bell sound, just like the boss fight, and then they started to play the song.

I think this song has to be one of the hardest to perform, due to how quickly the notes change, how challenging the vocals are, and how difficult it must be to stay on beat, but it was nothing less than stellar during the concert.

Verso

Opening the “Act 2” of the concert with this song was an incredibly fitting choice, as the Act 2 of the game is also called Verso, and we get introduced to the mentioned character. As it is a piano-only piece, only the pianist, Orane Donnadieu, was on the stage, and she actually looked strikingly similar to Verso to the point where the conductor had joked about her being the inspiration for Verso’s design.

The piece itself is a very touching one, and it is very intricate, so much so that I had doubted that it was meant for just two hands. But the pianist was amazing and graceful, and set the mood for Act 2 of the concert.

Robe de Jour / Poème d'Amour / Portrait Imparfait

The Axons in the game are beautiful creatures, impactful bosses, and have some of the best music. Portrait Imparfait, in particular, has been a favorite of mine. The impeccable combination of heavy strings, accented drums, and crazy vocal harmonies really drives it home. It was even more goosebump-inducing during the concert, where they amped it up to eleven. Robe de Jour and Poème d’Amour have a more whimsical vibe, whereas Portrait Imparfait is a more dramatic song. The delayed harmonies in Portrait Imparfait, especially at the 2:17 mark, were incredible to witness live.

Portrait Imparfait was sung by Axelle Verner, Marie-Cécile Henry-Brossard and Eugénie Loiseau. The main singer Alice took a break during this, and the trio proved that they can bring in the amazing energy and talent that Alice always brings. Hearing this song live was an exceptional experience, and it really elevated one of my favorite songs in the soundtrack to another level. I cannot praise it enough, honestly. One of my favorite performances of the night for sure.

Our Drafts Collides & Lost Voice

These were different songs that played back to back, but I’m combining them here because the effect they had on me during the concert was similar. In the game, Our Drafts Collides2 plays during the famously cruel choice at the end. Lost Voice plays during the end of the equally famous prologue, the one that imprinted itself into the minds of so many people. So both of these play at incredibly impactful moments of the game, and hearing them will probably take you back to those moments.

I was emotional during the whole concert, but it was at this point that tears finally ran down my face.

Both songs describe a tragedy, something irreversible and emotionally charged. Alice Duport-Percier and Axelle Verner were at the forefront of both of these songs, delivering a spectacular performance.

During Our Drafts Collides, they stood facing each other, mirroring almost exactly the moment of the grand choice at the end of the game, and they sang their hearts out. In the middle, Lorien himself stepped up and delivered the emotional speech that gave me goosebumps.

The two singers then sang Lost Voice, a song that contains no lyrics, just a haunting, emotional harmony of humming. It was impossible not to think of the scene with Sophie and Gustave as both Alice and Axelle hummed in harmony, with the strings softly accompanying in the background.

Nos vies en Lumière (Une vie à peindre / Une vie à t’aimer / Une vie à rêver)

Nos vies en Lumière (Our lives in Lumière) is a compilation of Une vie à t’aimer (A life to love you), Une vie à rêver (A life to dream) and Une vie à peindre (A life to paint). With each song being 11 minutes, the total is 33 minutes.

I don’t really remember if they actually played for 33 minutes. I think they did, but I was too mesmerised to actually look at the time. I had always dreamt of seeing Une vie à t’aimer live ever since I played the game, and now my dream was coming true — I wasn’t going to stop and look at the time.

The original male singer, Victor Borba, apparently does not do live shows. To make up for it, they found a nice solution and recruited Miki Martz, a fan who uploaded a short cover of Une vie à t’aimer back in May 2025.

Miki Martz, to his credit, is an amazing singer, very stable and strong. His positive energy was contagious. However, one thing that I’ll have to note here is that his voice does not have the same raspy quality to his voice as Victor Borba’s. Miki embraces a more operatic approach to singing, which changes the vibes of the song quite a bit. In the original, Alice’s voice has a sorrowful and haunting tone, whereas Victor’s voice has a gruff and coarse quality to it that conveys yearning and pleading, which fits the game’s narrative perfectly. As you listen to it, you can easily imagine Renoir begging for Aline to come back while Aline is lost in her own grief. I felt that this was unfortunately lost in the concert version.

Despite this, Alice and Miki had great synergy on stage. They were both very theatrical, conveying the meaning of the song perfectly. There was also a moment where they danced together cutely, which I adored.

This part of the concert, where they tirelessly played Nos vies en Lumière, was truly something to behold. The energy, the drama, the theatrics were all incredible — to the point where, after the concert, my husband commented that it seemed like a rock concert at this part.

It was incredible and worth every second.

Maelle

This is the proper French version of Alicia, and the song that plays during the credits if you’ve chosen a particular option at the end. This is when you actually understand what the intro song is about. During the second chorus in the concert, they showered the stage in red and white petals, and everyone wowed and cheered. The petals falling down on stage and on the audience looked so beautiful, and after the concert, I (and a few others) immediately went to collect a few as a memento.

Lumière

I think one of the advantages of attending the concert in France was that everyone knew the lyrics to this song by heart, and as the singers prompted the audience to clap their hands, everyone sang along. It was a magical experience to be a part of this atmosphere. The stage was showered in petals again, and Esquie entered the stage once again, gliding happily above us.

Aux Lendemains non Écrits

To our surprise (or to the people who didn’t look at the setlist beforehand), after everyone left the stage, Alice and Lorien took the stage again and sat down in the middle. So this was the second encore of the concert, and the last song they played.

Aux Lendemains non Écrits (To the Unwritten Tomorrows) plays if you choose the other option at the end of the game, and it’s an incredibly poignant piece. It is melancholic, but also hopeful. It felt incredibly fitting that the people who brought this soundtrack to life were the ones to stay until the end and finish the concert.

This was the song that brought it all together, and a great closing act for this grand concert.

Overall thoughts

You can probably tell that I can get quite passionate about music. I think that it’s a great way to express yourself, or an incredible tool for storytelling. This concert only made my thoughts about video game music stronger. You could feel the passion in the air, both from the fans and the artists themselves. You could tell that they loved being on stage, that they were proud to be a part of this tour, and being able to do something that they loved. This passion definitely bled into the crowd as well, and the cheers were monumental — people were stomping their feet at times because they felt simply clapping was not enough.

Also, apologies for the quality of some of the pictures — the low-quality ones are screenshots from the videos and didn’t come out the best, but I still felt like including them would be nice.

Would attend again, 10/10 experience.

To the unwritten tomorrows <3

Co-op Days is a series where I write about the multiplayer/co-op games I’ve played with my friends and let you know my unfiltered thoughts. While I usually play games with my brother and our childhood friends every Sunday, I may also talk about games that I’ve played with my partner or with my other friends.

You can check out the other entries on this series here.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a co-op days post, but here it finally is!

First things first, Trine is actually a series of puzzle-platformer games. Each game features 3 main heroes: a knight, a wizard, and a thief. From Trine’s own Steam page:

3 Heroes – Amadeus the Wizard, Pontius the Knight and Zoya the Thief, each with their own skills:

• Wizard is able to cast physically simulated objects and levitate them in the totally interactive game world

• Knight is a mayhem-bringer like no other, able to destroy objects and smash skeletons to pieces with his weapons, including the mighty Storm Hammer!

• Thief can hit enemies from a distance with her accurate arrows but she also has a grappling hook to easily swing from one platform to another.

You can play these games solo or with other people. With some absolutely gorgeous scenery and fun mechanics, it is sure to be a great time for everyone involved (well, for the most part. It lasts until your friend decides to troll you and cuts the rope you’d been hanging on or electrocutes you through metal blocks).

I got introduced to this game back in 2010. My co-op squad is actually made up of my two childhood friends and my brother, with whom I grew up playing games. We played the first game together on the same screen, and had a great time.

One day in 2023, my brother couldn’t make it to our usual co-op session. The three of us were pondering over what to play, as there aren’t many games that are made for 3 people — most of them are for 4 people. Then I suggested going back to play Trine and then going through each game whenever my brother couldn’t make it. They readily agreed, and thus we started our long journey of playing Trine games.

One thing all the games share is the absolutely gorgeous visuals. They seriously nailed it with every game.

One thing to note about our playthrough, because my friends love torturing themselves are completionists and love a challenge, we played every level at the hardest difficulty possible, and we went back to collect every tiny bit of experience points and treasure chests. I played the Thief in every game, which was amazing since I got to swing from platforms.

Trine: The Enchanted Edition

Playtime: 4.6 hours
Played on: PC
Difficulty: Hardest

Trine 1 is not a long game. I think we finished it in one session, judging by my achievement history. It helped that we were familiar with the game, so we kind of breezed through the puzzles and enemies, even on the highest difficulty.

But even after finishing all the Trine games, this one has our heart and we agreed that the puzzles and fights were the most fun in this one.

I absolutely recommend this game for anyone looking for a fun platformer game. You don’t have to play co-op, it is completely playable solo as well! It goes on sale very regularly, and gets up to 80% discounts. And as it’s not a very long game, I’d say it is worth a try!

Trine 2

Playtime: 19.5 hours
Played on: PC & Steam Deck
Difficulty: Hardest

If you finished playing Trine 1, and are looking for more of the same, look no further because this one is what you are looking for. It’s significantly longer than the first one, especially if you count the DLCs. But it’s still gorgeous, still fun, and one of the best co-op experiences I’ve had. There are tons of different and fun ways to solve puzzles, which is half the fun.

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power

Playtime: 5 hours
Played on: PC
Difficulty: Hardest

This one, unfortunately, is the weakest link of the series. It is the first one to deviate from the 2.5D formula of the previous games, and adapts a different camera and perspective, which unfortunately introduces different kinds of bugs. I watched the trailers for a refresher since it’s been more than a year since we played it, and I realized that I don’t remember any of it. I guess it wasn’t really memorable for me. I still remember having a fun time, it still is a beautiful game with great soundtrack, but out of all the games, I think I’ll recommend this one the least.

Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince

Playtime: 17 hours
Played on: PC & Steam Deck
Difficulty: Hardest

Trine 4 goes back to the classic 2.5D formula, and what a wonderful return it is! There is more of a story to this one, and the puzzles are still very fun. Not much to say about it, it’s good old fun and you won’t have a bad time with it. The story is a bit more intricate than the older entries, and it has more side characters.

Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy

Playtime: 29 hours
Played on: PC & Steam Deck
Difficulty: Hardest

Trine 5 is more of the same, but with more puzzles, more playtime and more story. It also has adaptive difficulty, which means that the difficulty changes depending on how many players are in the game (on top of the difficulty you chose). The issue is that, as I’ve said before, my friends like a challenge, so we played at the hardest difficulty, and since we were 3 players, the puzzles were even harder.

There were times where we were stuck, and wanted to look up tutorials on Youtube, but there are not many guides out there that show the hardest difficulty with 3 players. Because of this, we kind of had to bullshit our way through some of the puzzles, if you’ll excuse the language. Because of this, we had some kind of burnout, though we are aware that this is mostly due to self-inflicted challenges.

Thankfully, all Trine games have such puzzles that don’t necessarily have only one solution. There are multiple solutions, even ones that the developers probably also never foresaw. Since all the games are physics-based and you can interact with quite a lot of the environment, getting through a puzzle is a matter of how creative you can get.

Overall Thoughts

Playing through these five games has taken quite a long time, but for me, it was fun at every step. I really enjoyed my time with them and strongly recommend playing them. They are especially fun if you have a friend group that you can goof around with, and the gorgeous visuals and amazing music are the cherry on top. If you’re in search of a good co-op game, I’d say give the first game a try. It often goes on sale for up to 90%, and you get around 5-6 hours of gameplay out of it, so I’d say it provides great bang for your buck. The first one is worth trying out and if you enjoy it, you can always get the rest later on.

And lastly, the Wizard is OP. _{(not really, but it became a meme)}

I wasn’t able to play this game in the past few weeks as much as I would have liked, but I still managed to squeeze some time in. As I get more and more used to the systems, it’s becoming more fun. I’m still not that great at battles, but I get by.

You can find the first part of the series here:

• Finally got through the fight against the Phase Spider Matriarch. It was a pretty satisfying fight actually, since I used some tactics I had never used before (using the environment to my advantage by making the Matriarch fall down some webbings, ambushing and eliminating the minions etc). The fight didn’t give me much XP, but I did find a gem that I can probably put into the Necromancy book that I had found before.

• I gave the book of Necromancy to Astarion. I know it’s an evil book, but he wanted it and I thought, why not? I think I’m a bit too lenient with him though, I don’t know if he’ll use it for good causes in the future but I’m just very curious as to how his story will go.

• Did a long rest and finally got Shadowheart to open up to me. Apparently, she’s in a cult?? And they want to engulf the world in darkness?? I guess her being a Cleric misguided me (I should check my assumptions). I thought she was a Cleric with a dark aesthetic, but having no idea who Shar is (or Selûne for that matter), I did not see it coming. My companions keep getting wilder and wilder. I’m scared of what Wyll or Lae’zel will surprise me with. I did promise to be understanding of her situation, and that got her approval rating pretty high. I still believe in her though, she’ll come around and not want to plunge the world into despair!

  

• Lae'zel's interactions with the Tiefling Zorru made me realize that I probably should not keep her and Shadowheart in the same party. All my companions are so bloodthirsty…

• Hindsight is everything because after I learned that Astarion is a vampire and Shadowheart is actually in a cult, the cover art of the game made more sense. Astarion literally has blood trickling down his lips, for God’s sake! I don’t know why I never realized it before.

• Hindsight really is everything and here is an example: I went to fight Aunt Ethel. Fought her minions first. Realized halfway that I can do non-lethal damage. So I decided to spare the last minion left, which was a little more work, but I got through. AND THEN, while I was looting the bodies, I saw that they had a note and a mask. I just shrugged and put the mask on before checking out the note. WHOMP WHOMP. Got brainwashed by dear auntie, and I got into a fight with my companions. Geez. I reloaded the game, then looted the bodies again. This time, I read the note first. Two guesses as to what the note says?

  

• Ethel is pissing me off. I got through the minions, but then the path ahead was covered with noxious gas. I tried blowing it off with a wind spell, but it didn’t work. I got poison resistance and tried disarming the vents, the skill check is 30 POINTS?? How in the... The game told me that I could cover it up with something, but there is nothing nearby to cover it up with, and I can’t conjure anything. What an annoying puzzle. I got stuck here literally. I decided to peace out of there until I have a better idea of what to do.

• After I messed around a bit more in the bog, I gave up and returned to the village. Then, as I was exploring, a devil appeared! I was taken aback, but I did not agree to the deal, which my companions seemed to approve. But for some reason, I was not expecting a random devil to show up and try to persuade me to do… something. Hmm…

• Gale also finally opened up to me after I fed him 3 precious artefacts. And apparently, he has basically the equivalent of a nuclear bomb inside him and it can trigger when he dies… and he also slept with a goddess. Talk about wild backstories. Though now I’m curious to see if the ‘bomb’ goes off if he gets killed in battle. I think not, but it would have been interesting to see.

• After a battle against some grotesque hyena monsters, I went back to camp and saw that Shadowheart was dead at camp?? To say that I was shocked would be an understatement. I went to check on her, and the artefact she carries clung to me. But I couldn’t figure out why she died. I thought it was a story beat, but no character commented on it, so I assumed it was a bug. After doing some investigating by going to my previous saves and seeing when exactly she started losing health, I finally deduced that it was because… I had forgotten that I had her cast Warding Bond on Astarion, and every time Astarion took damage, she also took damage… for a long time. I didn’t know that these spells continued when they returned to camp! I’m sorry Shadowheart, I had no idea you were suffering in camp while I was going on my merry way. I revived her using a Revivify, and all was good again.

  

• I have a new friend! I’m so happy that we can pet the dog in this game, I pet Scratch any chance I get. Talking with animals is absolutely the best skill you can get in this game, 10/10.

  

• I finally met Karlach and she convinced me to take down the ‘Paladins of Tyr’. And Karlach turned out to be such a sweetheart?? I was so surprised because the game painted her as so cruel and unforgiving, especially after talking to Wyll and then the Paladins of Tyr. But it turned out that she is such a chill and funny companion, and I’m so happy that I got to befriend her so easily. I think she and I will make a great duo of the tough Barbarian and her goofy Bard, I don’t think she’ll be leaving my party easily. She’s very cool.

  

• Wyll came around, and he and Karlach became friends. Well, maybe not exactly friends but at least they get along now, which I count as a plus. But then he said some vague stuff about repenting and now I’m worried about him. I guess I just have to wait and see.

• I discovered the beauty of mods! There are quite a lot of gorgeous hair and face mods and I’ve been trying out new looks for my character. So the screenshots I provide in future posts may not show a consistent main character because I like to play around with the appearance. It’s very fun!

  

• And at last, I arrived at the Goblin Camp, and I am currently trying to find my way around. There seems to be quite a few things to do, but I’ll leave it here for now. I just walked around and discovered the surroundings, but I had no energy to continue on with the story for now.

  

  ---

  I can’t believe I’m still not done with Act 1, this game is LONG but I’m enjoying it a lot! With the pace I’m going, I fear that it will be quite a while before I’m able to finish the game. I also started playing Disco Elysium these days, so it’s been a lot of dice-throwing and decision-making recently, which I love but it does take time and energy. I am open to suggestions for a game that requires not much thinking and decision-making, something that I can turn my brain off when playing. If you have any suggestions, send them my way in the comments!

  Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts. If you want to support my work and give me a boost, you can always buy me a coffee <3

I immediately opened the lid of the DS, and turned the device on. To my absolute delight, it still worked! I’m talking about at least 10 years of disuse here, and I hadn’t plugged a charger in. So, it still had some battery left even after 10 years, maybe even more. Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice cartridge was still in it, and I was apparently in the middle of talking to the noodle guy in the second episode/case.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my other games or the charger anywhere in the house, and my mom is still unsure if she threw them away (which I doubt) or if they’re hidden really well somewhere. Because of that, the battery actually finally drained after a few minutes, and I couldn’t turn it on again.

Holding it again reminded me of how much I loved this little thing, how portable it was, and how it kept me company during some of the toughest times of my life.

All I’m trying to say is, the Nintendo DS was one hell of a device. I think it truly withstood the test of time. And I think it was one of the best portable game devices ever, the form factor is unmatched. Which is why I always had my eye on the newer DS’es, but I refrained from getting them because of the limited library and expensive games.

Then I saw the AYN Thor, and I was immediately intrigued.

What is the AYN Thor?

The AYN Thor is an Android emulator. It is basically a device that runs on Android, and allows you to play games on multiple platforms. Android emulators are usually used for playing games from older eras, like Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, etc.

I’ll start by saying that I had no intention of getting a dedicated device for emulators. I’m not too into retro games, and the ones that I do play, I usually play on my phone (which I admit is not very ideal but oh well). So getting a whole new device just for emulation was not one of my goals. So when I saw this device, I thought to myself “oh, neat”, and went on about my day.

Then I found out that you can run PC games on it.

Needless to say, I was sold. As I mentioned at the beginning, the Nintendo DS holds a very special place in my heart. The form factor is amazing, and I was looking for a portable device. I’m a proud owner of an LCD Steam Deck since late 2022, but you have to admit that the Deck is bulky, heavy, and takes a lot of space in your backpack. I wanted something that I could fit in my small tote bag. This seemed like the device.

The shipping

I was warned that the shipping would take a lot of time. The Thor is still not in normal production; you need to technically ‘‘preorder’’ it, and the device is made to order, it is not mass produced yet. And around those times were the days that I was moving to Spain, which also made me wary of ordering immediately since my address was going to change. In the end, I made the purchase for a Thor Pro on February 19th. It arrived at the end of March. So it was a LONG time waiting, and every day I wondered if I spent my money on a device that won’t arrive. Thankfully, it arrived without issues aside from the long wait time.

Also worth noting that the Base, Pro and Max versions share the same kind of chip, while the Lite features a less powerful version. I opted to go for the Pro since I’ll probably mostly use it for PC games, but if you intend to only emulate older devices and keep the budget low, the Lite should be enough for you.

The setup and some tips

I feel the need to mention something very important if you want to get this device: you need to be comfortable tinkering with software to get it working as you want. The setup is not difficult, there is a plethora of guides on the internet that show you what you need to do step by step. But you will have to download and move files, research how to do some things, and troubleshoot online. I imagine that a lot of people in my generation are used to dealing with files and stuff like that, but I just felt the need to address this. The Thor is not a console. It is not the seamless experience that you might expect from a PlayStation or a Switch. There will be software issues, some things won’t work the way you want at first, and you will need to look for solutions.

I’ve always enjoyed tinkering, so for me it’s like a puzzle, but I’m just setting expectations so as not to misdirect anyone. If you want to use the device as it comes (the stock Android), you’ll only be able to run Google Play Games. So, I’m going to give you a few pointers to start customizing your Thor to your liking.

Firstly, it depends on what you want to use the device for. Do you want to play retro games on it? It is as simple as checking out a setup guide. Here are two different guides that can get you started: here and here. You don’t need to do everything in the guides. Simply go to the section for the device you want to emulate. For example, if you want to emulate PSP games, search for it, download the PPSSPP emulator, and follow the instructions.

I personally diverged a little from the guides, since I have experience with emulation. I downloaded DraStic emulator for Nintendo DS, and Citra for 3DS games. I simply went with them because I used them before and I’m comfortable with them, but the guides provide newer alternatives that get more regularly updated. DraStic used to be on the Google Play Store, and I had bought it, but apparently, it was pulled from the store. However, it is still on Github so you can head there and check it out if you wish to.

Oh, and I must note that most of these emulators are free and open-source, so you can download them to your heart’s content.

If you want to play PC games on it, as I do, you have basically 3 options for “emulators”: Gamehub, Gamehub Lite, and GameNative. Gamehub currently only plays Steam games, so I opted to go for GameNative as it can also run Epic and GOG games. I found it pretty easy to set up and use. It is also an open-source project.

For the frontend (which is the user interface part), I went with Cocoon. It gives your device a console-like feel and is regularly updated; I highly recommend it. It also has a setup wizard that makes installing it much less daunting. Of course, it is not a console software; it’s just a frontend being developed by independent people, so there might be some bugs and unintuitive parts. But as far as frontends go, I found this one to be very cute and highly customizable.

I also bought the official case from AYN’s website, as I wanted to be able to just throw the device into my tote bag or backpack without worrying too much about it. Of course, the clamshell form of the Thor already provides some protection, but you can never be too careful. I think the official case is very nice and seems to be sturdy, but I did hear that you can also use a 3DS XL case if you already have one on hand.

The games

As I’ve said, I got this device because it can run PC games. I’ve been meaning to run my indie games on a smaller device than the Steam Deck because of portability issues, and I can confidently say that the Thor has exceeded my expectations so far.

Don’t expect to run AAA games on this device. I’m sure with enough tinkering, you can get some to run decently, but whether it is worth it or not is entirely up to you. It runs a lot of games well, but I think it has some issues rendering some 3D games, as it stuttered significantly while trying to run Wanderstop.

So far, I’ve finished both Dredge and Chants of Sennaar on this, with no issues whatsoever. I’ve also played some of Disco Elysium, Minami Lane, Ghost Trick and NAIAD on it, and they all ran perfectly, though my testing wasn’t as thorough for these ones (yet). I also tried running Fire Emblem Awakening and Professor Layton vs Pheonix Wright via the Citra emulator, and it was also smooth as butter.

Basically, so far, it has run almost everything I threw at it almost perfectly. I’m not going to try playing Cyberpunk on this, but for most indie games, it handles them beautifully.

Concerns

It’s only been a short time since I received the device and I haven’t had the chance to use it too much, but so far, it’s exactly as I wanted. The battery life, the compact form, the portability, the gorgeous OLED touchscreens…

But with devices like these, there are bound to be some issues. I think the Thor has the chance to hit big, but I’m under no illusion that it will be the next Switch or the Steam Deck. It is from a relatively unknown company, and it takes a lot of work to set up for how you want to use it. Most people are not comfortable using Android devices and this will probably stay a niche device for people who enjoy customizing their software.

What makes me worried is the lack of statistical data about its potential issues. You see, every time I make a purchase like this, I go deep diving into reviews, videos, and comments, and try to see what issues the other users came across. I weigh the pros and cons and try to make a healthy decision. As it is still in the pre-order phase, the data is scarce, and most of the user reviews are on Reddit, and sometimes on YouTube. And the scarce data may mislead. When I ordered the device, there were little to no issues with the device, aside from a cosmetic hinge crack that some devices got. Nowadays, I keep seeing other issues, and I cannot tell if it’s because people with good devices don’t really post about how issue-free their device is, or if it’s because the latest batches got worse Quality Control. So far, I’m happy to report that I have absolutely no issues with it, but only time can tell how it will be.

The hinge also worries me a little, as devices with hinges can be a lot more vulnerable than others. I learned this the hard way with my old Galaxy Z Flip 4 phone, another device that I really loved. Again, no issues with mine after 2 weeks of use, but I’m being cautious.

With the device and the technology behind it being as new as it is, and AYN being a relatively new company, I have my reservations about the longevity of the device. I hope that it surprises me in the best way possible, but I am also trying to approach this realistically before recommending it to anyone. Unlike my trusty NDS Lite that was still operational after 10+ years of disuse, I don’t know if the Thor will give me that kind of durability.

But I’m keeping positive thoughts. If there are no technical issues with the device, I can see it being the ultimate portable emulator. It has so much potential, and if AYN plays their cards right, they can dominate this part of the gaming sphere.

Overall thoughts

I can say that Thor is a fantastic device that has met all my expectations so far. It’s cute, it’s portable, and it’s powerful. It’s basically everything I want in a handheld gaming device. I still love my Steam Deck and will use it to run more demanding games or games that require a bigger screen, but for traveling or short gaming sessions, the Thor will probably be my go-to. Even though I have my reservations about the device, I hope I’m proven wrong and it provides me with years of entertainment.

If you are in the market for such a device, and don’t mind following a few guides online, this just might be the device for you. Please do note that due to the RAM prices skyrocketing, the price for the Thor keeps going up every batch, so you may want to take that into consideration. Also, do mind the long shipping times, it will probably be at least a month before you get the device. But all in all, I think it was worth it for me!

Work has been incredibly busy these days, but I’m proud that I could publish 4 whole posts in March. I was also intending to publish this one earlier, but the last part of March was too chaotic for me, so I had no time to write. It also coincided with the Semana Santa/Holy Week, which people in Spain take very seriously. There were a lot of processions in the week leading up to Easter, where religious brotherhoods carry pasos to the Cathedral and back. An incredible tradition to watch, and we went to watch as much as we could.

Because my life became a little bit more hectic than I imagined, I didn’t have much time to play more Baldur’s Gate 3. But I’m enjoying what little time I can spare for it, and wrote all my first impressions on it in a previous post — beware of spoilers though, I don’t really hold back in that post!

I’ve also been going to the gym to swim these days, and it has actually helped me feel better, both physically and mentally. Turns out exercising is good for you, who knew?

Games

AYN Thor

Not exactly a “game”, but I figured it belongs in this section. I ordered this back in February and received it very recently. I’ve been refreshing the shipment page almost obsessively, and now it’s here! I’ve been tinkering with it and so far I couldn’t have been happier. I do have my reservations about this amazing device, but I’ll go into detail in my full review of it — which should be coming out soon. But so far, I completed my Dredge playthrough on it, and completed Chants of Sennaar for the Good Game Lobby Gaming Club. Both of these games ran extremely well on the Thor. I’m trying to use the device as much as possible to get a good idea of how it is.

Dredge

This was Good Game Lobby Club’s February game, and one that I enjoyed so so much. The story, the art and the mechanics are fantastic, and the music is probably one of my favorite soundtracks ever. I’m hoping to have a full review out for this game soon. As the first game I finished on the Thor, I think it also deserves a special mention here.

Trine

I’m a big fan of the original Trine, and with my co-op squad, we’ve been playing the games from 1 through 5. We finally finished it the other day, and it has been a blast! I’m going to do a full review on this series pretty soon, but covering 5 games in one post is not as easy as I thought. But it is a great series to play with 3 people, I absolutely recommend it!

PEAK

Another game that we played with the co-op squad is PEAK, and I loved this game SO MUCH. I wrote all about it in a previous post, if you would like to check it out!

Books

Project Hail Mary

I became aware of this book when kindly recommended it to me in my previous In a nutshell post. I’m not sure how I managed to miss the hype of this book, but I’m always in the mood for a good sci-fi book so I immediately added it to my TBR list. Luna recommended the audiobook version, but it wasn’t available on my library so I was going to read the e-book version. But as the movie was coming out soon, the waiting time of my library was around 1 month because the queue was so long. Then gave me a heads up about Audible having a trial for just 1€/month, so I decided to jump into the audiobook (and the trial was actually somehow free for me, probably because it’s my first time using it).

And I have to say that I’m REALLY enjoying the audiobook — probably more than I would if I read the e-book. Ray Porter is a fantastic narrator, and I find his storytelling to be very immersive. I listen to the audiobook while I do house chores and I keep wanting to find out more, so I keep wanting to clean the house or cook something.

So thank you Luna and Sey for the great recommendation! My house is cleaner than ever!

Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #1)

I started this book because I’ve been in a sci-fi mood, and this one has been in my backlog for quite some time as it has won a lot of awards. I’m currently not done with it, I think I’m about 65% in. I will say that the premise is super interesting, and it’s a good book, but it is slow. The first half of the book kind of felt like exposition after exposition, which is not always a bad thing, but it definitely slows things down. But I am determined to finish it since I’m curious as to where the story will go.

That’s it for March! A super busy month where I didn’t even understand how time went by. We’re already done with the first week of April now, I just don’t know where time goes! But hopefully it’ll be a fun month.

How was your March?

Co-op Days is a series where I write about the multiplayer/co-op games I’ve played with my friends and let you know my unfiltered thoughts. While I usually play games with my brother and our childhood friends every Sunday, I may also talk about games that I’ve played with my partner or with my other friends.

You can check out the other entries on this series here.

Play time: 7 hours
Played on: Steam Deck
Difficulty: Normal

I’ve been wanting to play PEAK for a long time — basically since the moment it came out. But because we were playing another game at the time, my co-op squad and I couldn’t get to it.

Well, we finally tried it out, and let me tell you: it’s a blast.

PEAK is a co-op climbing game where the slightest mistake can spell your doom. Either solo or as a group of lost nature scouts, your only hope of rescue from a mysterious island is to scale the mountain at its center. Do you have what it takes to reach the PEAK?

In this game, teamwork is key. You have to ensure that you stick together. You have to be aware of who has what, who is the better climber, who is the better strategist, and who dares venture forth and ‘pave the way’. I’ve been playing games with this specific group since basically I was a baby, so we instinctively knew who would be good at what. But we also tend to troll each other, which made for a chaotic and fun time.

Gameplay Mechanics

The system in this game is simple: you have a stamina bar at the bottom of your screen. Everything depends on this bar. As you climb, the bar depletes; so the more stamina you have, the better you climb. If you take damage from a fall, it takes up space in the bar. If you get hungry (which will happen no matter what), it eats away at your stamina.

As you climb the mountain, you encounter some items that might be useful to you. It is usually not immediately clear what they do; it takes a little bit of trial and error to figure it out. And each item has a certain weight, which also takes away from the stamina bar, making climbing even more difficult. So you need to consult the group as to what you might need for the future, what you might need to throw away, or use immediately.

Oh and you need to climb the mountain as soon as you can.

The mechanics are very simple indeed, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. It involves a lot of decision-making and discussion. And you have to get creative sometimes. The places that seem unclimbable can actually be climbed with the right tools and strategy. I’m actually proud that I was able to make a way for a part of the map that had us stuck for a long time. I think we all sighed in relief after we got past that part.

The good thing is that the maps don’t stay stagnant either — they are renewed regularly, so you don’t really play the same map over and over again.

Good old silliness

I’m not sure if PEAK is considered “friendslop”, but if it is, it is one of the best examples. It offers a fun gameplay loop, but more than that, it allows for some hysterical moments.

The implementation of the proximity chat is amazing. The voices have effects depending on where you are. For example, they echo when you are in a cave, or when you are far away from each other. It is also hilarious when a friend falls down, you hear their voice getting farther and farther until you can’t hear them.

One of my friends decided to take a trumpet with him and played it nonstop during the whole first map. He didn’t even speak. We would ask him a question, and he would answer by playing the damn trumpet. It was so annoying, yet it was the hardest I laughed in a while.

Overall thoughts

PEAK is one of the most fun co-op games I’ve played in a while, especially due to its chaos factor. There are a lot of ways for things to go wrong, and when they do, they are often hilarious. It is very engaging to play with friends, but I heard that it’s fun to play solo as well, if that’s what you prefer. It’s definitely a game that I’d love to play from time to time, especially in between more serious games.

As I mentioned before, I’ve recently started playing Baldur’s Gate III, and I decided to make a series of sorts to keep track of what I’ve been doing and how I’ve been enjoying the game.

I’m intending to make this a very casual, very chill series where I’ll be writing about my train of thought with bullet points. I chose to use bullet points because this isn't really meant to be a structured article, but rather a log of my impressions of the game.

I won’t be writing everything I do. Just some stuff that made impressions on me.

Naturally, this post will be full of spoilers.

• As soon as I opened the game, I was greeted by a kickass cutscene, and then immediately got the ick — really, anything involving eye-horror is enough to make me squirm, just like the worm that was inserted into my character’s eye. Eugh. What a way to leave an impression, though.

  

• Then I was thrown into the character creation screen, and I spent nearly an hour creating my character. I’m not exaggerating. I tried to read the tooltips for every class, subclass, race, what they do, what skills they have. Most of it was very confusing, but I didn’t realize how time went by.

• I ended up creating the cutest character with pink hair and eyes with heterochromia (because why not), who would probably belong in a peaceful and cozy farming game, not the goblin-ridden world of Baldur’s Gate. I love her even more because of that, she looks so silly in this world. I named her Lila.

• I chose to be a wood half-elf, hence the farming game comment. And I chose Bard as my class. I was going to go with Cleric, as I always choose the healer with my co-op squad, but I had heard that playing with the Bard or the Druid was fun, so I decided to give it a go. So far, I’m very happy with my decision.

  

• After the character creation screen, another cutscene kicked in, and I immediately heard a Wilhelm Scream1, and I lost it SO bad that I almost couldn’t focus on the rest of the cutscene. I was laughing so hard, it was so unexpected, but very welcome.

• Then the actual game started — mind you, I was about 1.5 hours in at this point. I was given information after information, and the small screen of the Steam Deck was making it feel very cramped. I felt as disoriented as my character. I found navigating the menus difficult. I switched to the computer after a while.

• I met Lae’zel on the ship, and then we rescued Shadowheart together. I was surprised to see Shadowheart so early in the game. I know that fans seem to love her. The way her rescue was presented made me think that it was optional? I wonder what would happen if I didn’t rescue her. Would she just never become a part of my party? Or would we still form a party, but she would be distrustful of me? Very interesting.

• Shadowheart has the same voice actor as Maelle from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I was fully expecting to find it hard to get used to her voice here, but Jennifer English is such a great VA that I had no issues getting used to it.

• When we got on the land, I felt very directionless, but I think that’s by design. It’s taking me a long time to find my footing, even as I write this.

• As I encountered the grove, I got thrown into a battle and almost got my ass kicked. Thankfully, I managed to come out on top, but I’m a bit upset that my first proper fight was not a breeze.

• I'm so happy that I went with Bard and got the Speak with Animals skill, because I was delighted to speak to the oxen2 in the grove. What a fun surprise! Speaking to all the animals is the most delightful thing, and I intend to do it every chance I get.

• I then recruited Wyll into my party, and together we went on some schenanigans, settling disputes and stuff between the Druids and the Tieflings.

• I encountered some bugs along the way. One bug in particular was very funny: I tried to smash open a door in the grove (the one where the paralyzed Tiefling was in), the game immediately cut to inside, as if I was already speaking with the Tiefling. The interaction ended with me trying to cure her, but instead of showing me curing her, I was standing outside again, with the door having less HP. Then I attacked the door again, and then I was speaking to the Tiefling again. The same thing happened a few times, and when I finally managed to actually break down the door, the Tiefling was very angry with me (her approval was like, at -55 😂) and she was already standing up. I don’t know what kind of bug it was, but I assume that the door is not meant to be kicked in, so I need to find another way to get in.

• Then I encountered Astarion, realizing that I had missed him by a SMIDGE. If only I had explored JUST a bit further without going into the grove, I would have gotten him, and maybe my first battle would have been easier. Oh well, the flock grows.

• I also recruited Lae’zel, then did a long rest. At the camp, Astarion started relentlessly flirting with me, and I remembered why people call this game a dating simulator in the coat of an RPG. I don’t know who I will go for later on, but Astarion is already stealing my heart, I must admit.

• I wandered around aimlessly until I found Gale. The first thing I did with him was to summon a cat. Because you know, priorities.

• Shortly after getting Gale in my party, he started keeling over and got sick? Then he asked me to give him a magical item so that he could consume it?? I was very confused and at first kindly refused to give him my precious items. Then I wanted to see where it would go, so I gave him the locket that gave me the ability to cast Dancing Lights. I’m not sure if I’ll regret it later (as I also told Gale).

• Found a selunite chest, and died to it like 5 times. The game makes no indication of what to do. I had to look up the solution. Thankfully, people had already told me to save scum, so it saved me multiple times, but it was still a frustrating time.

• Came across a group of people who believed in the Absolute. Totally convinced them that I was their Chosen One — or whatever they called it — on first try. Okay, on second try. But I handled it with grace!

• Then I ventured into a chapel guarded by bandits. Totally convinced them that they needed to run away. On the first try this time!

• Then, using my bard skills, I convinced another bandit that I was his friend, and entered the chapel and promptly killed him. Patting myself on the back for being such a good bard.

• As I was exploring a cellar, I opened a coffin and a skeleton awakened. It promptly went on to wake the other skeletons, and I thoroughly got my ass kicked. After using everything in my arsenal, I finally managed to beat the skeletons. Bony jerks.

• I went to do a long rest after the fight and got woken up by… Astarion trying to suck my blood??? He’s a freaking vampire apparently, though I had a suspicion when I found a boar in the woods with all its blood drained, and Astarion was acting jumpy. He pleaded to have a taste, and I actually thought that he was being sincere, so I reluctantly let him. It was… uh, an interesting scene, to say the least. What is up with my companions being so freaky? First, Gale absorbs my relic, then Astarion wants to eat me. Shadowheart is hiding something, and La’zael is always angry. Wyll is the only normal one so far, though I’m suspicious that it will change soon. Anyway, Astarion was very happy the next morning (which is like a double entendre, I guess??), and I was very bloodless. Really, this is a status effect. They really think of everything in this game. I used Shadowheart’s Lesser Restoration to get rid of it.

• I encountered some ogres, and I convinced them to fight for me, and they promised to lend me their help. Again, my top-notch bard skills came in handy. I keep either deceiving or persuading people, it’s great!

  

• I went down a well, then AGAIN got my ass thoroughly kicked by some phase spiders and some other things I don’t remember the name of.

• Finally deciding to play smart, I reloaded and used the ‘hide’ command, and what do you know, it’s actually very useful! I was able to get the jump on the monsters, and it looks like Astarion is a beast when it comes to surprise attacks. I got through the area with ease after that.

• Lastly, I’ve been fighting the Phase Spider Matriarch, and I rage quitted 3 times during the fight. The first one was hopeless from the start. I had no plans, no strategy; only willpower and determination, which proved to be insufficient. My second try went much better, because I had planned everything, used the area to my advantage. And killed the Matriarch! But the little ones… they became the death of me, literally. They attacked so fast and I apparently rolled all the Saving Throws very badly, and my entire party was wiped out… I was pissed. The third try was also a failure, at which point I just quit and took a little break.

Overall thoughts

And that’s basically it for now! I admittedly didn’t play too much of the main quest yet. I keep getting distracted by a shiny new side quest, which is probably the result of my ADHD coming through. I haven’t been able to play as much as I’d like, which is why I’m not progressing too much for now.

Please do note that I have done so much more than what I wrote here, but I just wanted to share the funny bits, because I’m having a blast with this playthrough. I forgot to take more screenshots at the earlier stages of the playthrough, and I’m going to amend that in my next post.

Hope you had fun reading this! I definitely really enjoyed writing it. Let me know if this bullet-point format works for you.

In 1802, the merchant ship Obra Dinn set out from London for the Orient with over 200 tons of trade goods. Six months later it hadn't met its rendezvous point at the Cape of Good Hope and was declared lost at sea.

Early this morning of October 14th, 1807, the Obra Dinn drifted into port at Falmouth with damaged sails and no visible crew. As insurance investigator for the East India Company's London Office, dispatch immediately to Falmouth, find means to board the ship, and prepare an assessment of damages.

Return of the Obra Dinn is a first-person mystery adventure based on exploration and logical deduction.

These days, I’ve been in the mood for a nice puzzle/detective game. I never really thought of myself as such, but I seem to really enjoy deduction games. Games like The Case of the Golden Idol, The Roottrees are Dead, Botany Manor, just to name a few that I played and loved recently. Ace Attorney series is my favorite game franchise of all time, even if it doesn’t exactly fit the type of games I listed.

There is something really satisfying about gathering the clues and solving a case.

I had heard that Return of the Obra Dinn is a great example of this genre and had it in my backlog for a long time. I think the only reason I didn’t get to it sooner was because of the art style. Don’t get me wrong, I think it has a fantastic art direction, but I think I got overwhelmed by the screenshots. It looked hard to distinguish stuff, so I think I subconsciously delayed playing it because of that.

Don’t make the same mistake. If you are a fan of deduction games, Obra Dinn will satisfy your craving.

Monochromatic art style

I talked a bit about the art above, so let’s dive deeper into it right away.

Return of the Obra Dinn uses a 1-bit monochromatic style that is reminiscent of games on early Macintosh systems. It also gives you the option to choose a style from a few different systems: Macintosh, IBM 8503, IBM 5151, Commodore 1084, LCD, and Zenith ZVM 1240. These change the graphic colors, and you can choose whichever one you like the most. I personally used IBM 8503, which I found to be the easiest on the eyes and the best one to figure out the smaller clues.

But I will admit that it is not easy to get used to. Character portraits can look like each other, and it makes it harder to distinguish who is who. You will have to do a lot of guesswork from a person’s clothing, where they stand in the group sketch, what items they carry, and who they hang out with.

Despite that, it is still a very unique art style that I believe is worth experiencing. I think they used this monochromatic style very well, and it definitely gave the game a lot of charm.

Non-linear Story

In this game, you assume the role of an insurance investigator for the East India Company, and you are tasked with the mission to find out what happened to the crew and passengers of the Obra Dinn. Someone sends you a package to help you with this arduous task, and inside you find a pocket watch that lets you see the snapshot of the exact moment someone died, and a book that has a manifest of all people aboard, character portraits, and ship sketches. You need to fill out all the blanks and figure out the fate of each person on the ship.

The story itself — by which I mean what happened to Obra Dinn — is pretty linear, but the way you discover it is pretty non-linear. You will uncover stuff from different chapters, and some things won’t be obvious until you go even deeper. How you decide to tackle this is up to you, and many things won’t make sense until you put the pieces together.

Mechanics

The game’s mechanics are simple: walk around the ship, find a dead body and use the watch on them, see a snapshot of their last moment and fill out your book according to the information you have.

I find it necessary to make a content warning here. The watch, called the Memento Mortem, lets you see the exact moment that someone died, along with dialogue and sounds. And accordingly, some of the moments can be… gruesome, to say the least. There is no danger to you, since everything has already happened. But there were times when I used the watch, listened to the dialogue and prepared myself for it, and still said ‘‘holy shit’’ as soon as I saw the scene.

As someone who cannot handle any gore or body horror, I’ll say that it wasn’t actually very bad. The monochromatic graphics definitely make it easier to handle. But if I could handle it, I’m pretty sure you can handle it. I have the weakest stomach for those kinds of things.

As for the puzzle mechanics, some of them were pretty fun to figure out, but I felt like some of them were very difficult and felt like a chore. Especially the ones towards the end, where they get very obscure, and you need to resort to guesswork.

My biggest criticism of the game is this: You need to walk back to the body of the person if you want to see their memories again, which results in a lot of going back and forth. There should have been an easier way to access these memories. I’d been using a fantastic nudge guide (a guide that gently steers you in the right direction without giving away the answer), but towards the end, I ended up looking up some of the answers because I felt frustrated walking around the ship, trying to find a specific body, then going through their memories, trying to find the tiniest detail. Being able to see the memories without having to walk around every time would have been a great addition, and would have made for a less frustrating experience towards the end.

Overall thoughts

I had a great time with this game, playing it in short bursts. Even though it got frustrating at times, it had me invested in the story from the beginning to the end. The story does get bonkers as you discover more of it, but that’s part of the fun! What else could have happened on the ship? How did this person end up like that? How much wilder will it get?

The answer is: much wilder. And I found that very fun, and I hope you will too.

I’ve been trying to get into some social circles like book clubs, but I recently caught a cold and it kind of halted those plans. Now I’m feeling better, but I cannot figure out how I managed to get sick when the weather is like 22°C outside and I haven’t been really taking public transportation, which is usually how I get it.

Games

Baldur’s Gate III

I have mentioned this in a previous Note, but I have recently started playing Baldur’s Gate III. I know that I’m late for the hype, but finding the time and headspace for these kinds of games is not easy.

Even though it’s a very dense game, packed with lore and exploration, I’ve been having a good time with it. I want to do a series where I write my impressions and thoughts as I go, like a diary or journal. I may still do a full review at the end, but I imagine that getting to the end will take quite a bit of time, so it will be a while for me to get a review out there.

I hope you join me for the ride!

Return of the Obra Dinn

I’ve been wanting to play a game like The Case of the Golden Idol. I had played that game and its sequel back when it was still on Netflix’s game catalogue. I wanted to replay it, but it turns out that Netflix removed these games from its catalogue last summer, along with some other great games.

Just another reminder that these kinds of services are inconsistent and you should not rely on them for your backlog.

Anyway, I had heard that Obra Dinn was a similar game, and it was sitting in my backlog so I decided to give it a go. And while I have not finished the game as of writing this, I’m enjoying my time with it very much. It has an incredibly unique art style, though it was a bit difficult to get used to. The puzzles seem okay so far, and I hope it doesn’t become too difficult.

Books

System Collapse by Martha Wells

If you had told me that I would be this enamoured with the adventures of a sarcastic, cynical, loving, and so damn caring half-human construct, I would think that you were joking. But seeing Murderbot’s growth, how it comes to care about the people around it, how it goes from ‘‘I do not care about these humans’’ to ‘‘I only had these humans for only a day and a half, and if anything happened to them, I would kill everyone in the room and then myself’’ is very endearing and I find myself drawn in every single time.

The current last book of the series, System Collapse, takes place directly after Network Effect, which I read last month. System Collapse packs some amazing action and humor, but it also brings in the emotion. There were quite a few moments that tug at my heartstrings, but one moment in particular made me choke up, especially after seeing our beloved Murderbot’s development.

I apparently took 34 notes and highlighted even more sentences, which is probably a record for me.

When I read the last sentence of the book and closed my Kindle, I immediately missed it. I do hope Martha Wells never stops writing this series, because even though I usually have my issues with sequels in general (in all of media), the structure of the Murderbot Diaries and how it follows Murderbot’s character growth rather than a concise plot line allows the series to grow and flourish even more. There is so much to explore in this universe and in this character, and I can’t wait to read what happens in Platform Decay, which will be released this May.

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

Continuing with the sci-fi theme, I started reading this book right after I finished System Collapse. Record of a Spaceborn Few is the third book in the Wayfarer series by Becky Chambers.

I love Becky Chambers’ books. I cannot recommend the Monk & Robot series enough if you are in the mood for a quiet, cozy, and contemplative book. To be taught, if fortunate is also a very solid and short book that I enjoyed quite a lot.

I had read the first two books in the Wayfarer series and really liked them. Chambers has a remarkably peaceful writing style, and although it may become too saccharine and didactic at times, I found it engaging and interesting enough to keep reading. I’ve seen them being described as ‘‘hopepunk’’ and I think it describes the style perfectly. Maybe they are not good books for when you are in the mood for action-packed, gun-blazing scenes, but there is something about the peaceful writing that pulls you in. It pulled me in, at least.

Record of a Spaceborn Few is probably the most lore-heavy of the Wayfarer series, as it tackles the worldbuilding in very interesting ways. The characters are not that fleshed out, honestly. I found that they serve as narrative tools to enhance the worldbuilding, each interaction a way to explain how the humans got off of Earth and built the Fleet. Usually, if I don’t care too much about the characters, I cannot continue reading, but this was different. I think the worldbuilding was masterfully done. The idea that humanity is finally able to create a communal system that benefits everyone and that everyone is treated equally, especially after nearly destroying themselves on Earth, is a very hopeful one. That’s why these books are called ‘‘hopepunk’’, I guess. They have a very positive outlook on our distant future, and it does fill me with positivity.

Both The Murderbot Diaries and The Wayfarer series are explicitly anti-capitalist books and share a similar outlook, but their approaches to tackling this theme differ significantly. The Murderbot Diaries takes place in a very capitalist universe, with slavery in full effect and people being exploited, spied on, colonized, kidnapped, and even killed for profit. The Wayfarers’ universe has mostly moved on from the cold, hard capitalism that we know, and tolerance and understanding are the basis of most of the interactions. It’s interesting to read about these universes back-to-back, since they offer very different perspectives.

Next up is the Wayfarers #4, which is The Galaxy, and the Ground Within.

Movies

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Rewatch)

My husband and I have been (re)watching The Lord of the Rings every weekend since moving to our new house. My husband is a big fan, and I did enjoy the movies a lot when I was a kid. He did warn me that the movies are around 3 hours each, which is usually a lot for me, but I had been itching to watch them. It’s been 3 weeks since we moved to our new house, and we watched a movie each weekend.

I just recently published a post about my issues with live-action adaptations of animated works, and you might be thinking, ‘‘Isn’t this trilogy technically a live-action adaptation?’’ And you’d be right, but this is a book adaptation, and I think this trilogy was made with a lot of heart and passion, with a lot of respect to the original works, which is why they are a classic now, and which is why I even praised it in my post.

Some of the shots are straight-up breathtaking in a way that you cannot achieve with green screen, especially in the second movie. The battle at Helm’s Deep is as great as I remembered it being, and being able to see what the heck is going on is wonderful. I know it may not be realistic to have that much light at night or whatever, but this is a movie about hobbits, elves, orcs, wizards etc. I think I can suspend my disbelief for some nighttime lighting.

It does have some janky moments, and outdated CGI, but the overall experience was pretty great. The costuming department deserves a praise as well. I loved how lived-in everything looked, and they weren’t afraid to show some dirt and grit. The actors had dirty hands, tear-streaked faces, puffy eyes, messy hair… Except for pretty boy Legolas. He never has so much as a gash on his face, while his buddies are rolling around in dirt, getting into fights with the orcs and Uruk-hai, and getting their fingers bitten by otherworldly creatures.

I’m slowly getting back to gaming, but I think I’m also starting to become a bookworm these days. I’ve been loving going for a walk and reading a book on a bench somewhere. If anyone has recommendations (especially sci-fi, since I’m in that mood recently), I’m all ears!

How was your February?

Welcome to POV! POV - or Point of View - is a series where I will be discussing some things on my mind and give my completely honest opinion. It is a very broad category that I couldn’t fit into other series of mine, so I might discuss anything and everything.

Okay, I admit that I am being a bit dramatic with the ‘blight on society’ part. But I didn’t know how else to put it to convey just how strongly I feel about this topic.

A disclaimer: This is going to be a very opinionated article, and my most negative post thus far. I’m not saying that you should not enjoy the works I will mention here. I just have strong opinions about what they mean as an art form, the intentions behind creating these works, and how these intentions have an effect on the legacy of the original work.

What made me sit down and write this article was seeing the promo poster for Season 2 of the Netflix live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender (A:TLA). As soon as I saw it, I felt a surge of annoyance rising within me, so I took a deep breath, took a sip of water, and sat down to write my thoughts.

Believe it or not, I tried writing about this topic before, nearly 2 years ago. Here is the screenshot if you don’t believe me:

That post is still saved in my drafts, with 2k+ words and still unfinished. I decided against publishing it because I thought it was getting too negative and a little nitpicky, which put me in a mood that I don’t like to be in when I’m writing.

The original post was about some of my favorite original works getting subpar adaptations for the sake of consumerism. In this post, I will specifically be talking about live-action adaptations of animated works, mostly A:TLA, but similar points apply to most book-to-movie adaptations. The difference is that books are written media, whereas both animation and live-action movies are visual media, which makes the live-action adaptation approach to animations all the more unnecessary and incomprehensible (except for, you know, more money I guess).

And another very important disclaimer: none of what I’m about to say is written to bring down the young actors in this series. They are very enthusiastic about this series and have very big shoes to fill, which must put a lot of pressure on them. What I’m about to say about their characters doesn’t have anything to do with the actors themselves.

Why does it exist?

There is a reason why we still talk about the original Avatar: The Last Airbender even 17 years after it ended, and not the Netflix adaptation that was released in 2024. I had completely forgotten about its existence until the Season 2 promo poster was released, whereas I still think about the original A:TLA from time to time - how it handled such heavy topics like war, genocide, and loss of loved ones, how it teaches us that power without restraint is destructive and how it shows us that friendship and camaraderie is the key to achieving peace. For a kids’ show, it handled these topics beautifully.

It baffles me how the adaptation manages to miss the point entirely. I try not to go too much into the little details on the exact moments, but it makes me question: why does this adaptation exist? Why did they choose to make it? It doesn’t tell us anything new. It doesn’t give us a spectacle or improve on the visuals - the original show was beautiful and exciting enough. It doesn’t give us more interesting characters.1 It doesn’t give us more dynamic music.

So, what does it give us?

Why does this exist at all?

The most obvious answer is: money. Capitalism. Milking the nostalgia. They can “get away” with half-baked characterization and direction because it already has a really strong fanbase.

But why should I continue watching this with its awkward direction and acting, and less fleshed-out characters, when I can watch the original again?

It says a lot that much of the behind-the-scenes stuff between the actors is way more interesting than what is going on in the show. The chemistry between the actors is fun to see in the promotional material — not so much of it is present in the show.

Misunderstanding the source material

For those who have not watched the show, here is a very short summary of the premise:

Aang, as the Avatar who is the only one with the incredible power to bend all elements and summon the strength of the previous Avatars, needs to defeat the Fire Lord before the latter takes over the world. Aang is the last airbender in the world after a cruel genocide, and he is tasked with the duty to bring balance back to the world.

It has a lot more nuance than just this, but for a children’s cartoon, it handles some heavy themes remarkably well, and the characters are very interesting and multi-dimensional. There is a reason why it’s considered a classic now.

Anyway, I don’t want to go too deep into nitpicking the moments that the adaptation fails at, but I do want to point out something that royally pissed me off when I was watching it:

Netflix’s version of A:TLA is obsessed with power.

And I hate it.

It goes against everything that the original A:TLA stood for. In the original, Aang, the main character and the avatar, was afraid of his power. This pacifist kid, who believed that even the smallest life is sacred, is given the world’s most immense and destructive power.

And he has nightmares about it.

He hurts people with this power, and it deeply affects his psyche. He never wanted to be the avatar, he never wanted this power. Aang is scary whenever he uses the Avatar state, and seeing this peace-loving, happy-go-lucky kid enter such a state is jarring, as it’s supposed to be. All the other avatars that he speaks to have always been understanding of Aang’s struggle with this power.

The Netflix adaptation, on the other hand, loves it. It loves this huge and grandiose show of power. Whenever Aang goes into the Avatar state in the adaptation, we are supposed to be impressed and not sad that this kid’s body is being used as a vessel for destruction outside of his control.

When Netflix’s Kyoshi talks to him about being the Avatar, the dialogue goes like this (emphasis mine):

Kyoshi: There are many dimensions to being the Avatar. You need to be a guardian, a general, a mediator, a guide. You must fill several roles, and many of them require unparalleled strength.

Aang: That’s why I need to master all the bending disciplines? To become strong?

Kyoshi: Yes. And to help you gain control over the ultimate power. […] The Avatar State gives you the strength of a thousand benders.

Aang: I’ve seen it. It’s dangerous.

Kyoshi: If uncontrolled, yes, but it can also be the ultimate weapon, and it can save your life.

Do you see what I’m seeing here? This emphasis on being the ultimate weapon and having an unparalleled strength is upsetting, especially coming from an old avatar, who should know how scary it actually is. We know just how much this power actually damages Aang’s psyche. They had the headstrong and determined Kyoshi tell this to Aang for a reason and not the soft-spoken, old Roku.

Kyoshi telling him this in an almost shouting, scolding way is just infuriating (emphasis mine):

Kyoshi: [Turns to face him again.] And how many have already been hurt because you haven’t been here? [Incensed.] Run away from your responsibilities again, and even more will be hurt! Being the Avatar means putting your duties above all else. Even your life!

[…]

You asked me what it means to be the Avatar. It means being a warrior. [Kyoshi rises as her voice distorts.] A mighty, merciless warrior.

First of all, girl, what the hell are you talking about? Aang, in this version, never ran away from his responsibilities. He just went out to clear his head! He was going to come back! It’s not his fault that he got caught by a storm while he was doing the airbender equivalent of “taking a stroll”.

And Kyoshi, an actual avatar, telling this 12-year-old pacifist monk that he has to be a “mighty, merciless warrior” has to be a joke. Where is the wisdom? What is this power-hungry approach for a show that is supposed to teach us the importance of peace and understanding? Yes, Kyoshi in the original was ruthless when needed to be, but she understood what this immense power brought. I feel like they took the fan interpretation of Kyoshi and ran with it. They did not bother to look deeper. The emphasis on words like “merciless, ultimate weapon, ultimate power, strength” is upsetting in this adaptation and shows me that the writers did not understand the core message at all.

The avatar was supposed to be the bridge between the physical world and the spirit world — someone who brings peace and mediates conflicts. Where did this “mighty and merciless” stuff come from? Since when is an avatar supposed to be merciless?

I don’t know how they achieved this fundamental misunderstanding of Kyoshi’s character. This “girl-bossification” of her — and frankly, many of the other female characters — makes me afraid of what they will do with Toph. Katara is the worst offender so far. She is not strong because she is the heart of the group, she is not strong because she still cares so deeply despite all the hurdles she had to overcome. No, she is strong because she can beat someone’s ass (plus, she realizes her strength because two male characters in the show tell her that she is strong. Like, come on, do I need to say more?)

Bumi, the legendary earthbender, is another adult who is supposed to serve as a guide for Aang. But in this version, he also keeps treating Aang like a carefree kid who doesn’t take his responsibilities seriously - which is SUCH a disservice to both Aang and Bumi. Aang, in this version, is very aware of his responsibilities and never ran away in the first place!

Why are all these adult figures, who are supposed to guide Aang, just keep yelling at him and telling him he sucks?2 What are we trying to accomplish here, hello? If this was an attempt at enhancing Bumi’s character and diving deeper into his characterization, it fails miserably because that is not Bumi. That is not the master earthbender whose whole character is about the neutral jing - waiting and listening. This one is not a wise character.

I think it could have been interesting to see a character study on someone who saw the world crumbling down, having to endure despite everything, and lashing out because of it, but that’s not Bumi. That’s someone else in his costume.

I just… yeah.

Look, I know I said I wasn’t going to go into too much detail, but I get worked up just thinking about it. There are too many things about this show that I just can’t look past…

Like how they decided to explicitly depict the genocide of the airbenders to give the show a more ‘‘mature’’ vibe - because, violence, right? Nickelodeon could never do that, but we at Netflix can do it! Let’s use a whole genocide to show it! Because we want Game of Thrones fans to watch this!3

Like how Aang never has to come to terms with his past “mistake” - the actual Gyatso explicitly tells him that it was not his fault. He never has to forgive himself; it is done for him instead.

It’s all so explicit, nothing implicit, and it makes for a much worse storytelling experience. We are not allowed to come to our own conclusions. We are not allowed to think that the characters are flawed, no way.

Live action as a “superior form of art”

All these live-action remakes make me question this: do stakeholders see live-action as inherently more valuable? Is it somehow superior to all other forms of media that we keep getting live-action adaptations? Or is it just more digestible and marketable to a bigger audience?

As I said above, I can sort of see the value in adapting written works to movies - they are totally different types of media. The Lord of the Rings movies remain incredible, and they don’t take away from the value of the books either. The cinematography, the music, and the use of practical effects combined with CGI all show a certain respect to the original work.

Video game adaptations can vary in this aspect. Video games are also a visual form of art, but the interactivity makes them unique. Did we really need an adaptation for The Last of Us? Not really. It was solid, but not really groundbreaking. Because the video game had already done the groundbreaking part - everyone on this platform probably knows the effect The Last of Us had when it first came out. The game already had great cinematography, great acting, and great music. What did they do differently in the adaptation? Did we get a more thorough character study on Joel’s psyche, or did we just get a more palatable form to tell the story?

But especially when it comes to animations, I don’t understand the need to make it live-action. Most of these animations have magic or supernatural elements in them, which make the live-action look either uncanny valley or straight up bad. Think of The Lion King and its adaptation: which one gives us more emotions on the characters’ faces? Also, despite Disney’s efforts to imply otherwise, I vehemently disagree that it is a live-action adaptation — it is almost entirely animated. Which makes me question, again, WHY did we need this? Why did we need to make another animated movie but market it like it was actual lions on the screen?

I guess 3D, photo-realistic animation is more preferable to 2D, cartoony animation, which is such a shame because hand-drawn animation is so flexible, expressive, and dynamic. And honestly, looks much better. Compare the use of colors and lighting in the image above — which one appeals to you more?

New IP, what is that?

I’ve gotten fed up with this era of remakes and adaptations, especially when they are done with the intent to squeeze out more money and not enhance an experience. A lot of game remasters are actually good because they bring the games to modern platforms and add quality-of-life changes. Or the Final Fantasy VII Remake games — I have my own criticisms about them, but at least they are telling a different story and actually enhancing the characterization. Whether you like it or not, it tries to do something different.

Riding the hype of a successful IP is understandable. Many game sequels reached success this way, to varying results. There is an existing fanbase who want more of just the same, so why not capitalize on that? I wouldn’t normally mind it.

What I dislike heavily is when they do it so haphazardly. It feels like they do not analyze character motivations. No deep dives into world-building. No effort to make the world look authentic.

Animation and live-action have very different principles when it comes to character design. The silhouette for an animated character is important, which is why we have wildly different hairstyles for each character. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a main character who has a boring style in the cartoon. They are exaggerated because animation allows us to suspend our disbelief easily. But trying to replicate these styles in live-action fails, because it just cannot translate with the exact same details. You need to take some liberties, or else the viewer will see it as a wig.

Anyway, I’m getting off track here. What I’m trying to say is that I want to either see new IPs, or adaptations done for the right reasons and not just retellings of the same story over and over and over again. I’m aware that in this world, it’s a very idealistic way to look at it. But it can be done. Just look at Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai! It’s a new IP, and it was so incredible. Look at Arcane, a video game adaptation, which was amazing, and it tells a completely different story. I did find Season 2’s writing to be weaker than the first, but the amazing art direction is still there. Can you imagine if it were live-action? I shudder to think about it.

Closing thoughts

You can see that I’m especially attached to the original Avatar: The Last Airbender. It helped me shape so many of my core values, and I hold this silly little kids’ cartoon to the highest regard because of this. This is why I got so worked up over it, and needed to rant a bit. As you can tell, I’m very passionate about this.

In this era where we get bombarded with content after content, I think that it’s important to be picky about what we choose to spend our time on, and I refuse to accept subpar media that’s created solely for the sake of profit.

I just need art to be made for the sake of art again, and not for putting the consumers’ minds to sleep.

I find it very disturbing how these CEOs and big suits started perceiving art.

How they see art as simply… content. To be consumed and forgotten.

How they expect the consumer move on to the next big thing immediately after…

Joke’s on them, though. As you can see, I don’t move on. And I encourage you not to move on either. I encourage you to hold on to the feelings you felt while watching a show, reading a book, or playing a game, and to ponder what it wanted to tell you, why you loved it, or hated it. I believe that our greatest weapon against corporate greed is intentionality. Be picky. Be selective. Be critical. That’s how we can value art and help it flourish.

As most of you already know, I moved to Spain this month, and as chaotic as it has been, I’m getting more and more used to it. Aside from the occasional language mishaps here and there (e.g., ordering a cold brew and a hot americano instead of just one ice americano), it has been great! The city is absolutely lovely. The weather has been occasionally rainy, but it’s not cold, and it’s been really fun to just walk around and explore the streets. Randomly coming across flamenco dancers putting on great shows in the middle of the streets has definitely been a highlight.

As you can imagine, I didn’t have much time to play games or read stuff this month because of this, but let’s see what I managed to play or read!

Games

Cult of the Lamb

The January game for the Good Game Lobby Club was Undertale. As I already watched countless playthroughs of the game and know most of its secrets by heart now, I decided to opt out of playing it, but it’s been very interesting to see everyone’s reactions to the game. Join the club if you would like to discuss it with us!

Cult of the Lamb is the game for February, but since I already skipped Undertale, I thought I could just start playing it early on. I had already played a good deal of Cult of the Lamb and already written about it in a roundup post before. But the great thing about this game is that you don’t really run out of things to do.

And with the whole moving to another country thing, I wanted to fall into the comfort of playing a familiar game, so this one was a no-brainer to play this month.

I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I can say that I have beaten most of the main bosses and will try to beat the ultimate (I think) boss - though I’m really in no rush to do so. For now, I’m just focusing on growing my camp, getting more Followers and doing occasional dungeon runs to farm resources.

I would love to play the new Woolhaven DLC when I get the chance, but I need to just finish the base game first.

Books

Network Effect

As I mentioned before in my November post, I’ve been going through the Murderbot Diaries. I had listened to them in audiobook format before, but now I’ve been reading them on my Kindle.

As the first full-length novel in the Murderbot Diaries, Network Effect takes us on a journey full of action, drama, friendship, and a lot of heartwarming and tear-jerking moments. I love taking notes of my reactions on my Kindle as I read through books. I usually try not to filter myself and just write my heartfelt reaction to the scene, which is very fun when I reread the book later and see my reaction from back when I first read it. I’ve been doing the same thing for this series on this reread.

Looking back at the notes I took for Network Effect, you can tell that I was going through some emotions throughout the whole book. I apparently took 25 notes (most of which include a variety of ‘‘this is cute’’ and ‘‘this is heartbreaking’’), and highlighted even more stuff. I was very invested in the story, and I was glad to see that it was as fun as I remembered it being.

Next up in the series is System Collapse, which I just started reading. I was sad about my reread coming to an end, but apparently, the new book, Platform Decay, is coming out on May 5, so I’m looking forward to that.

And that’s basically it for this month! It’s not much, and it’s already stuff that I was familiar with before, but sometimes it helps to take comfort in forms of art that you’ve already seen before if your mind is busy.

I’m hoping that after the dust settles in February, I can start a big new game. Currently, I’m trying to decide between Baldur’s Gate 3, Nier: Automata, and Disco Elysium. Which one do you think I should go with?

Of course, I’ll continue playing smaller indie games alongside this big game. The current lineup is: Return of the Obra Dinn, Citizen Sleeper, and probably Lil’ Guardsman but it is not set in stone. I only have my Steam Deck with me, as we had to leave my PC and our PS5 behind, but I think that the Steam Deck is more than enough for these games.

How was your January?

Game Roundup is a series where I briefly introduce some games that I’ve played and give my thoughts on it along with a short review.

Personal update

As I mentioned in my thank you note, I’ve entered what I imagine will be a pretty busy time of my life, and now I can finally tell you why:

I’m moving to Spain in just a few weeks!

I’m very excited but also very nervous. I’m trying to learn Spanish too, but finding time for a new language is not easy when you are an adult. If you have any resources you’d like to recommend, I’m all ears!

This change will bring many others with it, and I’ve been trying to focus more on smaller games that won’t take too much of my time to keep my sanity. I don’t think I can handle a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3 or Disco Elysium right now (though I want to play both sometime this year for sure, when things settle down).

Now that this personal update is out of the way, we can focus on some of the short games that I played recently.

The Roottrees are Dead

Played on: PC
Play time: 9.5 hours
Difficulty: Default

A genealogical mystery straight out of 1998. Scour the early Internet for clues, uncover hidden connections, and piece together the family tree behind the secretive Roottree Corporation.

I don’t remember when or how I came across this game and added it to my wishlist. But when it went on sale in December, I checked it out again and decided to get it. I’m very glad that I did, because it turned out to be a very fun deduction game.

They really nailed the ‘90s vibe in this game. Searching on the internet for clues, printing out flyers, and burning CDs (millennials know what I’m talking about). Using these clues, you need to figure out the entire Roottree family’s family tree. I loved the entire process, and discovering a few Easter Eggs here and there was very fun.

After you finish the game, you unlock another chapter called Roottreemania, but I’m saving that for another day - it looks even more complicated than the first chapter.

Botany Manor

Played on: Steam Deck
Play time: 4.4 hours
Difficulty: Default

Welcome to Botany Manor, a stately home in 19th century England. You play as inhabitant Arabella Greene, a retired botanist. Explore your house and gardens, filled with research, to figure out the ideal habitat of forgotten flora. Grow each plant to discover the mysterious qualities they hold…

I first started this game probably at the beginning of last year on Game Pass, but I was unable to finish it because I had cancelled Game Pass. Then I got it on Steam as part of Wholesome Snack 2025, and decided to play it to completion.

I’m so glad I did because I had a really fun time with it. I thought the puzzles were not too simple but not too difficult either. It struck the perfect balance for a non-intensive game session. Finding out more about the plants, figuring out the story and discovering the manor was very satisfying.

You do need to be paying attention to some of the more vague clues. There was one puzzle that I wouldn’t have gotten right without looking it up - and I still don’t get why it was solved that way. But that’s okay, because the rest was very fun.

Overall, it is a very chill game with some really pretty visuals. I came to expect some sort of “dark secret” or “that one spooky room” from these kinds of games, but I was pleasantly surprised that there was none to be found. It is very straightforward in its vibes from start to finish, which I enjoyed immensely.

Many Nights a Whisper

Played on: Steam Deck
Play time: 1.2 hours
Difficulty: Default

A short interactive essay on dreams, pressure, and expectations. Take part in an ancient ritual where one shot determines the fate of a generation.

I had no idea this game existed, until I read ’s thought-provoking review of the game where she tells us of 3 different perspectives from 3 different players. I loved how different people can have such different approaches to the game, so I wishlisted the game and bought it on Winter Sale.

So, Many Nights a Whisper became the first game I played and finished in 2026, and I’m very happy that this game how I started the year. The Steam description is correct in saying that this is an interactive essay. It is meant to push you to ask questions, and to think.

The setting and the premise is very interesting. You are faced with some hard decisions, as well as some no-brainers. Trying to balance the decisions was not easy, and I felt tense throughout the decision-making process.

I won’t say more to avoid spoilers, but I found that it was an interesting thought exercise, rather than a fully-fledged game. For me, it was definitely worth the experience.

This was originally going to be just a note, but my emotions got a bit out of hand, so I decided to make a short post.

As we approach the new year, I’m filled with very warm feelings, especially towards my Substack. There was a time that I took a year off from Substack and had no desire to continue writing here. My motivation was almost non-existent. If you check my post history, you’ll see that there is almost a year-long break between my Game Roundup #1 in 2023 and Game Roundup #2 in 2024.

Then I tried to keep posting and keep a more consistent schedule, but real life kept getting in the way.

Then I took off another few months in between January this year and April.

Then I finally found my groove and passion for writing.

I’m so glad I returned and kept it up.

I just checked and saw that at the beginning of the year, I had 43 subscribers, which I was already grateful for. I currently stand at 225 subscribers, which is something I never expected when I first started.

I try not to check out my stats often, because it makes me feel anxious. I don’t want to become focused on numbers. I want to write what I want to write without any SEO, growth strategies, or a/b testing. Just my pure, ADHD-riddled brain, trying to put my thoughts into coherent words.1

It has been incredibly freeing to be able to share my thoughts that would otherwise plague my always-busy mind.

Because of this, it would be incredibly amiss of me not to thank each and every one of you who subscribed to me, all 225 of you. I find it amazing that so many people want to read my perspective. It makes me think that I’m doing something right, and it urges me to continue being my authentic self.

I’m grateful to everyone here who has written anything nice about me or my Substack, who has left a comment on any of my posts, who liked a post, or even just read any of my posts. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much.

The little community we have curated here has become one of my highlights. It’s been very fun to be here, and to be able to discuss gaming with like-minded but also versatile people feels like a blessing. The wide variety of talent here is amazing, and Substack is doing all the amazing writers here a disservice by not raising their voices more.

Maybe we can finally get that publication category for Video Games this year, what do you say, Substack?

This has been a very rewarding year for me, both in my personal life, and on Substack. I won’t say it hasn’t been challenging, because god knows that it was exhausting. I imagine that my life will be just as hectic in the upcoming year, but as long as it feels rewarding, I don’t mind being busy.

To an even better 2026!

Mutlu yıllar! 🎉

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A fantastic sequel to Strange Horticulture. I often have my gripes with sequels, but I think this one improves upon Strange Horticulture in almost every aspect. It doesn't mean that Strange Horticulture was bad or anything, but I enjoyed Strange Antiquities more.

It has the same vibes as Dredge, albeit with wildly different gameplay. I think I really enjoy the kind of dark, Lovecraftian, cozy type of games. We need a more applicable term of these types of games, I’m running out of adjectives.

To read more on it, check here:

#4 - Persona 5 Royal

As I mentioned in Part 1, I couldn’t believe the amount of time I spent on Persona 5 Royal at the beginning of the year. The first part of my year was spent on playing P5R, which was an amazing time. However, there is one issue.

P5R is a freaking long game. I apparently have 100.7 hours on Steam right now. And considering that I actually started playing on Game Pass, my playtime is probably even more. I need to go check my save file, but to do that, I need to redownload the game, which I’m very lazy to do. So you can take me at my word.

P5R is a very polished game, and it improves on its predecessors by a mile in terms of QoL changes. It’s stylish, it’s fun, it’s comforting, and it really feels like you live in modern-day Tokyo. Between this game and The World Ends with You, I feel like I can navigate my way in Shibuya if I ever visit.

The music in Persona games is always a highlight, and Persona 5’s OST is no different. I sometimes start humming “you’ll never see it comiiiinnnngg” out of the blue, and unfortunately, no one around me understands the reference.

🥉#3 - Final Fantasy XVI

The worst thing about playing a game right before you play your personal game of the year is that it loses the spotlight pretty quickly. Don’t worry FFXVI, I may not be talking about you too much right now, but I haven’t forgotten about you. You are still the game that got me in tears at 3 am on a weekday. You are still the game that got me looking up lore and theories at random times of the day.

What a magnificent game.

Jill Warrick still deserves better, though.

🥈#2 - Hades II

I assume that there are no surprises here, given that I have a short series of me talking about each of Supergiant’s entries, and you can see how much I enjoy their games. Hades II was really no different. Now that I have reached the end, I can put it in the second spot. Phenomenal art and music, fun gameplay, solid story. I will say that in terms of characters and the dynamics between them, I still prefer Hades. But Hades II is still an amazing game that deserves all the hype and praise.

Though I have to say that FFXVI and Hades II’s places are kind of interchangeable depending on my mood. Both were really good games that deserve the second place in this list.

🥇#1 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

What a shocker, am I right?

I have been incessantly talking about this game ever since I first played it, and the impact it had on me was huge. Writing just one post about it was not enough for me, so I had to write a second one.

The soundtrack was living in my head rent-free, and it ended up dominating my Spotify Wrapped. Is anyone here surprised that Une vie à t’aimer was my top song?

Expedition 33 recently broke some records on The Game Awards, sweeping up a lot of awards, including the Game of the Year. The contenders this year were really strong, but I’m happy that they came out on top.

I’ve been playing the latest free DLC, which is amazing and heartwrenching at times like the main game. And the music is, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the highlights. Pour que Naisse un Bouquet is the standout for me, especially because of the way it uses Verso’s theme playing underneath the heavenly vocal melody. Lorien & Alice duo is incredible ,and Sandfall really hit big when they recruited these two.

They really gave us a banger album and made a game alongside it, how generous.

Aaand that’s all, folks! What a year, especially for gaming! I’m going to schedule another post before the New Year, so I won’t celebrate it here yet, but I’m very happy with how this went in terms of my gaming, my hobbies and especially my Substack. I feel like I found an amazing community that I can share my nerdy passions with, and wow, what a help it has been for my always chaotic brain.

I hope you enjoyed my top 10 games of 2025 list! What games do you have on yours? Were you able to make a dent on your backlog or did you mostly play newer games?

I’m not gonna lie, I love it. I really enjoy seeing those numbers for some reason - maybe because it is easy to forget what you were doing at the beginning of a year, and these recaps remind you. I had totally forgotten just how much I had played Persona 5 Royal at the beginning of the year.

So, while it’s not really a recap, I wanted to make a list of the best games I’ve played in 2025. I had already written about some of them, which I’ll link to if you are interested in knowing more about them.

The only criterion is that it must be a game I played this year - not strictly a game that came out in 2025. So you might see some older games here, too.

I’m also calling for anyone reading this to make their own list. It was really fun to write!

#10 - 1000xResist

The only reason why 1000xResist is so low in this list is because of its lack of gameplay. It works incredibly well as a visual novel/walking simulator type of game, though. Phenomenal writing and incredible storytelling. Definitely had me at the edge of my seat at times.

#9 - Ori and the Blind Forest

And the only reason why Ori and the Blind Forest is so low is that I have yet to finish it as of writing this. We are playing it as part of the Good Game Lobby Gaming Club’s December game.

I don’t play metrodivanias. I don’t play platformers. That’s for a very specific reason: I suck at them. I’m usually proud of my hand-eye coordination, but for some reason, I do very poorly at these games. Maybe I just lack the patience.

Ori proved to be an exception. Not only is it fun, but it is also a gorgeous game. From its amazing visuals to the incredible soundtrack, it has been a wonderful experience so far. It has its moments where I get frustrated and have to take a break, but it is way less than I expected.

And some of the story parts broke my heart, which I wasn’t expecting from this game.

If only I weren’t so bad at it.

#8 - Deep Rock Galactic

Deep Rock Galactic is a game that I didn’t expect to have so much fun with. I was reluctant to buy it, but I caved in at the insistence of my co-op squad.

I am so glad I did.

This game is a blast. Just pure, unadulterated fun. No thoughts, just go and drill there, or fight against a swarm. I’ve been looking forward to playing this game every Sunday.

#7 - Stardew Valley

It would be amiss of me not to list Stardew Valley here after playing it for around 80 hours with the squad. Though I did find it frustrating to play it on my own, it is super fun to play with other people.

In our playthrough, we all got married, and our spouses moved in with us and helped us with the farm. The spouse who watered the garden was celebrated, and the spouse who did nothing at all was shamed. Unfortunately, Elliot was the one who spent most mornings inside, and as his spouse, I was left to defend his lazy butt against my perfectionist friends.

#6 - Dredge

It is a bit shocking that I didn’t write about Dredge before, considering that I absolutely loved playing it. I was sure that I had included it in one of my roundup posts, but apparently not.

Dredge is a Lovecraftian horror game that is strangely cozy. Setting sail to the sea, catching fish and various other unholy creatures, uncovering the mysterious story… It also features a fantastic soundtrack. Just writing about it makes me want to replay it.

I did play in Passive mode, which is basically the easy difficulty. When you turn it on, the monsters do not attack you. I had tried playing it with it off, but… I am a scaredy-cat. I don’t do well with high-tension games (or any other media, for that matter). Dredge thankfully does not feature anything gross or actually scary - it’s just that the vibes are a bit sinister and spooky. But it is also a very cozy game. The fact that they managed to hit that balance is impressive.

…I really should replay it.

Honorary mention: Split Fiction.

I wrote about my impressions of Split Fiction in my November post. We finished it recently, and it was an incredible experience. I will never forget the amount of detail and effort that obviously went into those final levels. “How did they do that??” was the main question we kept asking ourselves as we played the levels - it really is an impressive game, especially on a technical level.

I still tried making time for games, books, and series this month. Let’s dive in!

Games

Split Fiction

Both Split Fiction and Astrobot have been on my husband’s wishlist on PS5 for a long time, and finally, they went on sale recently. As soon as he saw the notification, he texted me asking if we should get them, and I was, of course, very eager to get them as they are both games that I’ve been wanting to play for a very long time.

Even though we didn’t have the chance to try out Astrobot yet, we are currently playing through Split Fiction, and it is good. We did have a blast playing It Takes Two a few years ago, and Split Fiction is currently scratching that same itch.

They really took it to the next level with this game. The graphics, the non-stop action, the unique abilities… all are really good, and the banter between the main characters is fun. We both burst out laughing whenever we see a reference, and some of the sections are just mind-blowingly awesome. I will probably have a full Co-op Days post when we finish the game; it is really good.

Deep Rock Galactic

I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been a little prejudiced towards this game. Mostly because it takes place underground, and I thought it would feel claustrophobic. The game looked chaotic and not really my style. My co-op squad kind of pressured me to get this game when there was a sale, and we finally got to play it.

I’m happy to say that I was wrong.

The game rocks, pun intended. First of all, it did not feel claustrophobic at all, as the caves were pretty spacious and plenty of room to breathe. As 4 players, we each chose different characters to cover all areas. I chose the Scout, who can shoot flares to light up the caves and can travel quickly with the grappling hook. Suuuper fun to play this character, and really fits my playstyle.

Every week, I’m looking forward to playing this game, which says a lot about how fun it is. It also reminds me of Helldivers 2, which I watch my husband play all the time. It used to look too chaotic for me, but maybe Helldivers 2 might also be fun to play for me, hmm.

Pokémon Go

I used to play this game back in 2016, when I was an exchange student in France. It was such a cultural reset; everyone and their mother played this game. It was such a novel idea, and it worked really well. As someone who is mostly only familiar with the original 151 Pokémon, I can’t say that I’m the biggest fan of the franchise. But I am very fond of that first 151, so I played Pokémon Go a lot back then and collected many of them.

Recently, my husband and I decided to redownload the game, mostly to have an excuse to take a walk and get some exercise in. It works really well as a motivator, I must say. And also, seeing my old Pokémon from 2016 made me super nostalgic, like I’m seeing my old friends, and I cannot get rid of them, no matter how weak they may be.

Books

The Murderbot Diaries

This is quickly becoming my comfort book series. Despite the dark-sounding name, it is actually a very heartwarming series, with some amazing action-packed sequences and funny moments. But it’s also a series that takes itself seriously, with some big emotional payoffs and gritty scenes.

Following Murderbot - a half robot half human construct - on its journey to discover what it means to be human, what it means to care for others, is very engaging. I deeply relate to its desire to do nothing but watch its favorite serials all day. If Murderbot were real, I’m pretty sure it would be an author on AO3 and get into arguments with the rest of the The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon fandom.

I had already listened to the audiobooks last year, which are FANTASTIC. Kevin R Free is a phenomenal narrator. Every little pause, every little sigh makes me feel more connected to Murderbot and it’s like I’m listening to a friend telling me an exciting story. I’ve been re-reading them on my Kindle and it’s been great. I’m currently reading Fugitive Telemetry, and Network Effect is the next one on my list.

And it was adapted to TV on Apple+, which was released recently, and it’s also quite good. Despite having my own criticisms of the show, it is still quite a good watch. But I recommend reading the books first (or listening to the audiobooks) and then watching the show.

Shows

Pluribus

Will I be crucified if I say that I never watched Breaking Bad? My brother certainly always scolds me because of it, since Breaking Bad has been one of his favorite TV series for a long time.

Maybe it’s because of this that I had never heard of Pluribus. So I went in with no expectations, but I was very impressed with the story and the cinematography. The premise is incredibly interesting, and I’m very curious to know how it will all be resolved. I’m hoping that they’ll nail it. I’ve seen some people criticising the show because of how slow the plot moves forward, but I’m the type to enjoy character studies and how a character might react to certain circumstances.

The only thing that put me off so far is how some of the side characters reacted to the main event (trying to be vague here). It was a little difficult for me to suspend my disbelief there, but I understand the reason why they chose to go that way.

Oh and it was a little cruel of them to end the latest episode with a cliffhanger, and have the next episode scheduled to be released 10 days later. I’m dying to know what is going to happen in Episode 6.

November was a pretty hectic month for me. I know that I seem to keep complaining about how busy my life is, but I genuinely am feeling like I’m always rushing to get stuff done or even make time for my hobbies. Nevertheless, some good stuff also happened this month, and exciting news should be waiting for me in December! Hopefully!

How was your November? Let’s discuss!

Game Roundup is a series where I briefly introduce some games that I’ve played and give my thoughts on it along with a short review.

These are some of the short games I played recently that gave me the peace of mind I needed.

TOEM

Played on: Steam Deck
Play time: 11.5 hours (4 hours on this playthrough)
Difficulty: Default

Set off on a delightful expedition and use your photographic eye to uncover the mysteries of the magical TOEM in this hand-drawn adventure game. Chat with quirky characters, solve their problems by snapping neat photos, and make your way through a relaxing landscape!

The game of the month for the Gaming Club was TOEM! I was the one who pitched in TOEM, as I had finished the game before, and I had been meaning to replay this game. Thankfully, a lot of people had it in their libraries already. And the gaming club was a great opportunity to not only replay it, but also to re-experience it along with other people and discuss it.

It’s a very cute game where you go on a little journey with your trusty camera in a black-and-white world. You are on a mission to experience TOEM, whatever that may be. As you make your way through different places, you get to interact with quirky NPCs, take photos of the tiniest corners of the world, and help people in order to get stamps. Each stamp helps you get to the next bus stop, and your goal is to reach the last stop.

The humor in this game is exactly my taste; it has just the right amount of silliness without being obtuse. The NPCs are funny, the art is charming, and the music is just amazing.

You can really tell when developers love creating their games, and this is one of those cases. The amount of love and care they put into this world is heartwarming, which is even more evident in the message at the end of the bonus area that they added after the credits as a gift to the players.

The sequel is on its way, and you can be sure that I’ll be one of the first ones to play it!

Cocoon

Played on: PlayStation 5
Play time: 4 hours
Difficulty: Default

From Jeppe Carlsen, the lead gameplay designer of LIMBO and INSIDE — COCOON takes you on an adventure across worlds within worlds. Master world-leaping mechanics and solve intricate puzzles to unravel a cosmic mystery.

Cocoon is a very, very interesting puzzle game. You are controlling a little moth guy and making your way through different biomes. These biomes become little spheres that you can carry on your back, and they give you specific abilities as long as you hold them.

The mechanics get more and more complex as you continue, and it becomes a bit mind-bending in a good way. The visuals are amazing, and the sound design is intricate.

I played Cocoon with my husband as my co-pilot/backseat gamer. We had to put our brains together to get past some of the puzzles, and discussing how to best proceed was really fun.

My biggest criticism of this game would be that it requires some backtracking for some of the puzzles, which I normally would not have the patience for. It was because I was playing along with my husband that I kept going, and I’m SO glad I did because it feels so satisfying to get the solution right. The backtracking was not actually too bad, but I tend to get impatient in games like these.

Strange Antiquities

Played on: Steam Deck & PC
Play time: 10 hours
Difficulty: Default

Become the custodian of a store dealing in occult antiquities. Explore the quaint and gloomy town of Undermere, where strange goings-on and dark mysteries abound. Find and identify arcane artefacts, use your collection to aid the townsfolk with their unusual problems — and remember to pet your cat!

I had been waiting for this game ever since I played Strange Horticulture, which I wrote about 2 years ago. Despite its Lovecraftian vibes, it’s actually a very cozy game. It reminds me of Dredge a lot, which I also adored.

Strange Antiquities is a game where you temporarily take over a store that deals in weird occult objects and give them to your customers according to their needs. You need to consult your books and your notes to find the correct item, and you can shape the future depending on what you give them. You can also “explore” a few areas to find new objects.

After mulling it over, I realized that I enjoyed Strange Antiquities more than its predecessor. The developers learned from their experiences with the previous game and made this one a much better experience, in my opinion. I enjoyed analyzing the little trinkets more than trying to see the subtle differences between plants.

Co-op Days is a series where I write about the multiplayer/co-op games I’ve played with my friends and let you know my unfiltered thoughts. While I usually play games with my brother and our childhood friends every Sunday, I may also talk about games that I’ve played with my partner or with my other friends.

You can check out the other entries on this series here.

Play time: 47 hours
Played on: PC & Steam Deck
Difficulty: Default

It’s been a while since I wrote a Co-op Days post, so I’m here to amend that! This time, we have the ultimate pirate game: Sea of Thieves!

Sea of Thieves is a smash-hit pirate adventure game, offering the quintessential pirate experience of plundering lost treasures, intense battles, vanquishing sea monsters and more.

I’ve always loved pirates. Pirates of the Caribbean was one of my favorite movies when I was growing up, and I always liked the aesthetic. There is something about the frilly shirts, corsets, boots, and the many accessories that they use.

The first time I played Sea of Thieves was back when I first started dating my then-boyfriend-now-husband. Because of Covid, we had to stay apart, so we wanted to find a game to spend time in. He told me about this game, and I bought it for my PC.

My PC didn’t run it that well, but we still had a grand old time in the game. With him as the captain and me as the first mate, we took our little ship from adventure to adventure, found treasures, and escaped from other ships.

Recently, we got back into it as we were looking into a game to play together, and we wanted to relive those times. With him on the PS5 on the big TV and me on my Steam Deck, this time we played it side by side.

Then we got our friends to join us for our sessions, and it became one of the coziest and most entertaining gaming experiences I’ve had recently.

What is Sea of Thieves?

Sea of Thieves is, first and foremost, a social game. You are encouraged to play it with friends. Since I’m very used to playing co-op games with these friends, and my husband is a very easy-going guy, our teamwork is pretty good. Except for when my friends, who are brothers who bicker a lot, start fighting among themselves. But as I grew up with them, I’m pretty used to it; it’s their thing.

It has a pretty distinct art style - very cartoony characters and models, along with probably the best sea I’ve ever seen in gaming. Seriously, I don’t know how the hell they managed to achieve this level of detail, but because you spend around 90% of the time on or near the sea, it makes sense that they paid so much attention to it. It looks absolutely gorgeous on the PS5 compared to my LCD Steam Deck, but it still looks amazing on the Steam Deck.

You can play this game any way you want: You can plunder treasures, find random quests to complete, you can make it your mission to find and sink other players’ ships and steal their treasures, you can focus on exploring and discovering new stuff, you can complete Tall Tales, and much more.

Tall Tales in this game serve as story-focused quests that can have pretty elaborate stories and puzzles. It is my favorite thing to do in this game, and I always push my crewmates to go for a Tall Tale. Usually, you are given a book with some vague instructions, and it’s up to you to solve what the clues in the book mean. These quests are pretty lengthy, so they are good for longer sessions.

Your ship might get attacked by some other players as you casually make your way to your quest. I don’t like it in other games when other players try to hinder your progress, but the ship battles in Sea of Thieves are actually pretty fun. You need to work together to either escape or fight back. The ensuing chaos after a battle starts is very entertaining.

Here is one of my favorite videos that depicts this sudden chaos, it still makes me laugh every time I watch it:

It’s so damn funny.

We quote it almost every time we come across another ship.

Teamwork in this game is essential. In our game, one of us is the captain, I’m the one in charge of repairs and the maintenance of the deck, and the other two are responsible for navigation and setting the sails. Our roles can change depending on whether we are in battle or not.

If it’s chill and I have nothing to do, I usually grab some grog from the tankard, start drinking, and playing some pirate tunes. Yes, you can do all that in the game. If you drink enough, you actually get drunk and can even fall off the ship, much to the captain’s dismay (don’t ask me how I know). It’s especially funny if everyone except the captain is drunk.

Technical issues

The game is not bug-free, but we had a pretty smooth experience - for the most part. The most challenging part is having to log into your Xbox account, no matter the platform you are on. Trying to play a game and having a login screen open is not a fun experience, especially if you are playing on PlayStation or Steam Deck.

The second most challenging part was to actually invite friends and bring the crew together. Our two friends were on PC, my husband was on the PS5, and I was on the Steam Deck, which made it a tad more difficult to find each other.

But both of these are mostly a one-time thing, and they did not affect the rest of our sessions. The rest was pretty smooth-sailing, if you don’t mind the pun.

Overall Thoughts

Sea of Thieves can be defined in many ways, but for me, it’s an entertaining game that gets chaotic at times and cozy at other times. Piloting a ship together with your friends is definitely fun - just make sure that you play with the right people.

Pretending to be a pirate and navigating the high seas is a priceless experience. If you are looking for a co-op game like this, Sea of Thieves is a definite recommendation.

I’ll finish up this post with my favorite sea shanty of all time:

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