Biggus Bloggus

2025 media review pt. 2 (vidgames)

Reading Time: 10 minutes / Last modified: 2 months, 1 week ago.

If you haven't already gleaned1 from the title, there's a part one to this blog that goes over the films I watched last year and the music I really messed with that was released last year. I wanted to get into a few other things here, including some of my favourite creatives I've been keeping an eye on. However, I could feel myself dragging my feet with this part 2 so I'll just be going over the videogames I played and call it a day.

I'll be honest, I've been stumped. I didn't know how to best format this upcoming section. For my film reviews, I went chronologically based on when I watched them in the year because I didn't watch enough films that were actually released that year. For my music review, I did the exact opposite and discussed music released in the year because I don't keep track of when I checked out something new. So if you're looking for consistency from me, I don't really know what else to say... Bleh! XP

2025 Game Highlights

My Steam Replay says I played about 63 games this year so I'll have to, yet again, be very selective with what I talk about. You can generally make the assumption that anything I don't elaborate on here has already been played in the past and/or I just didn't play enough of it to acquire any meaningful perspective or experience within the past year.2

Yakuza 4/5/6

Having gone through the mainline series in almost its entirety now, I can confidently say that the Remastered Trilogy holds some of the best Yakuza games (6 was also really good but I'll get to that).

You can tell I had a favourite. 4 is probably the weakest one but I can appreciate it for what it did. I at least liked the idea of the rooftops and I'm not someone who gets frustrated when Kiryu isn't in frame for more than a second. Rather, I think moving beyond him gave a lot of freedom on RGG's part to explore other gameplay styles that wouldn't fit his character. Case and point, Tanimura probably had some of the smoothest combat in the entire series (alongside Yakuza 5 Saejima) even though I didn't care too much for him.

I think Yakuza 5 shines the brightest out of all the games. Shinada was its weakest point (I'm sure there's some Shina-heads who've cracked the code on his fighting style, I'm not one of those people) but I was so hooked on everything else. Yakuza loves to throw in multiple factions, oftentimes to its detriment, but 5 was probably the most "justifiably" incoherent in spite of its record breaking long playtime and playable roster. There's no Tanimura, but there is still Saejima and he's bald. His prison chapters were a drag but once he ends up in Tsukimono, I adored playing as him. His move set and heat actions surmounted everything else in the game for me. I have just one achievement left, which is to beat this game in Legend Mode, so I'd love to do that sometime this or next year, in which case I'll absolutely write a full review for this game. There's just way too much ground to cover.

As much as I do not mess with the Dragon Engine, Yakuza 6 was a really strong finale to the main Kiryu saga; if RGG ended the series here, I would've been content. The dynamics within the Hirose family were heart warming in a way very similar to Yakuza 3's Ryudo family but on a larger scale. As a later entry, it also calls back to some fan favourites. Funnily enough, my favourite part of the story was actually the ending. I won't spoil it, but there was something to be addressed regarding Daigo and Kiryu's relationship for the longest time. This ending addressed that finally.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

This was, without a doubt, my game of the year, and I got really worried knowing it would sweep the Game Awards because I knew it would open the floodgates for criticism, purely on the basis of it being "overrated." Then again, that's not something you can avoid either, and staying outside of videogame discourse has shielded me from a large majority of the external toxicity that popularity can bring. Regarding the game itself, once I managed to set it up to perform okay on my Steam Deck 3, it was just... Beautiful.

The music, artistic direction, and worldbuilding all just sweep you off your feet a little bit. You almost want to close your eyes and just soak it all in, especially soaring through the skies on Esquie. I'm no stranger to grief, it's become something of a distant chapter of my life now but I empathised so strongly with all the struggles and realisations of each character as they navigated it. I can't stress enough how natural the dialogue felt either. Obviously, all the love to the main cast of voice actors, but not enough love was given to the actual mo-cap performers, especially Maxence Cazorla (yeah I... Yeah I had to look it up), because part of the believability was the body language and facial expressions.

Struggling with Sekiro years ago really broke my heart because I wanted to enjoy it. I'd say Expedition 33 has sated the appetite I have for parry-based combat. The out-of-battle interfaces were a drag to go through, but in battle everything has such a seamless flow to it. I appreciate that each character had a move set entirely tailored to them and almost completely unique from traditional RPG class systems. Some fights were horrid, rancid even, but as I got stronger I legitimately had so much fun returning to the fights I once loathed. I just... Fuck. That. Parkour. All for some dumb stupid outfits... Fuck.

Split Fiction

This one didn't quite reach the heights of its predecessor, It Takes Two, for a few reasons. I'd wager that part of it is the two female leads, which isn't helped by the Buzzfeed millennial dialogue writing Hazelight unfortunately struggles to get away from. Honestly, though, that reason only goes so far because I'd like to believe we're past that Gamergate flavour of misogyny, and the gameplay is really good regardless. So much fun and variety, Hazelight always knows when to try something new and then put that idea to rest and move onto the next thing.

Maybe it lacked wider appeal because it presented more challenges that I suppose aren't casual friendly? Hard to say, that's the sentiment I saw floating around but I never want to undermine casual gamers, you know? Makes me feel sweaty and gross. Whatever the case, I had a lot of fun with this game. I knew it wouldn't get Game of the Year, lightning doesn't strike twice like that, but I was disappointed it didn't get many accolades. I can't remember being particularly frustrated at anything, I was absolutely in awe most of the time. The final sequence is a ride and an ode to how far we've come in game development, I think. Not in the gross UE5 5 sense, I was just impressed by the level designs. The dichotomy is very similar to another Co-Op game Fletcher and I played a couple years ago, Bokura. Like Bokura, however, Split Fiction also suffered in that we'd get kicked from each other's servers quite frequently. Eh. That's what you get for trying to keep transatlantic love alive.

Death Stranding

I knocked this game. I totally knocked this game at first. Like most people, really. But listen, I snooze to nothing if not a video essay, videogames facts compilation, or VOD. One of my favourite videos to fall asleep to, for the longest time, was Whitelight's Death Stranding essay. If I had known I would enjoy this game as much as I did, I wouldn't have spoiled myself to some of the key events. It took a couple of years, but we got there in the end. Let's give thanks to the holy council of British white guy videogame essayists, everyone.

Kojima perfectly crafted the experience of overcoming a laborious task via the absolute dopamine rush that is its soundtrack. That monumental feeling that came when I climbed the peak of a mountain to see Port Knot City within reach, as Slow Roar gently coaxes you forward-- OH MY-- Oh! OH! My. God! That shit straight up tickled. I really did have my doubts about the gameplay, even now I feel weird about recommending it, but it clicked for me. I felt accomplishments and I felt them very strongly. I'd say the biggest drag was the snowy area south of Heartman's lab but even setting up the ziplines between each base made me feel awesome.

The game is cinematic and beautiful, Kojima loves to be an auteur in his works, but you also have to go into his games with a sense of whimsy. I don't even want him to get better at naming characters. Heartman. Deadman. Die Hardman. Fragile (but not fragile!) I don't care, it's dumb and I love it. The social messages conveyed are done so quite obviously but you can't even hate that. At least I can't. It's just earnest. He took a big risk with this game, I can't imagine how vindicated he felt when thousands of people understood his vision. I'll get to DS2 eventually.

Dragon Quest XI

I've played this game a few times over the years but never finished a playthrough until this year. It isn't because the game's "not good," it's just a lot to get through. Maybe that's what it means to be a bad game, I just think it's a me problem. Honestly, this is probably one of the best traditional JRPGs of our time, I really felt the buzz to complete this game in its entirety this time around.

Where do I even begin? The story itself took some really interesting turns, especially going into Act 3. I absolutely adore the voice acting too, a lot of love was put into the regional accents (by extension, the regions themselves) beyond the "obvious" ones often represented in fantasy games. It's your typical turn-based game, but there are a few quality of life additions that kept me engaged. For example, while I'd try to do bosses fully on my own, being able to automate the battles or a few characters helped me get through the smaller battles I didn't really need to pay much attention to. It also taught me how to utilise some of the spells and abilities I wouldn't have considered using.

The game itself is also just GORGEOUS. It's beautiful, it's fun and quirky, but it's beautiful. God rest the soul of Akira Toriyama, I may very well have to get into Dragon Ball. It was just so smooth and delectable. I like... I just need to play it again, I need to play more of it. I'm going to boot it up again soon. Anytime now. I'm itching!

Honourable Mentions

Persona 5 Royale (January) Very chill, very awesome, very comprehensive in its gameplay (unlike Persona 4)6. I had a vague recollection of the events from Let's Plays growing up, but my expectations were challenged in the latter half of the game. (100%, 115hrs)

Final Fantasy XIII (February) My Steam Replay says this was my first playthrough on Steam but this was one I'd occasionally come back to in my Xbox 360 days. I love it, I really do. But I could never recommend it. (60%, 74hrs)

Oblivion: Remastered (May - June) Are we surprised that this ran really badly on the Steam Deck? Before release, I really wanted to play the original but that too didn't want to run. Am I cursed to never fully get into this game?! (30%, 25hrs)

Dave the Diver (July - September) Looking back, it's actually quite fitting I played this game in the summer. If I remember correctly, I was at the tail end of Death Stranding so I needed something a bit more chill. This filled that casual spot for me. (81%, 45hrs)

Deltarune (July - September) I played the first and second chapter a previous year, but I decided to give in and play all currently released chapters. First-tried Spamton. Your taking too long is taking too long. Yada yada. (26hrs)

Hollow Knight (September) I thought I was just incompatible with Metroidvanias. I gave this one another chance after years of denial and it stuck once I found my footing. I had a lot of fun with this one, hopefully I'll get back to it.7 (60%, 54hrs)

Spiritfarer (October) I played this on Game Pass a couple of years ago, though never completed it. Some parts still get to me, even as my motivation to continue drains in the latter half of the game. (67%, 49hrs8)

Ball x Pit (October - December) A new addition to my casual game repository. The town system was really convoluted but I think I'm coming to understand it. (29%, 14hrs)

Lego: Pirates of the Caribbean (November) I feel like it's imperative to have at least one Lego game in your childhood, lest you had a childhood that SUCKED. This was one of my favourite Wii games, totally awesome to replay it. (21hrs)

and Roger (November) This was messed up. I knew what they were doing very early on but that didn't stop the tears from coming. They do some really interesting things gameplay-wise that tie into the wider story. Beautiful. Truly. (100%, 2hrs)

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Footnotes

  1. I really mess with this word. That reminds me: a couple days ago I watched Ordinary Sausage make a sausage out of... Gabagool... Gabagool-- do I need to watch The Sopranos now? I was saying to Fletcher, "I really like this word," and truthfully it occurred to me that it would be the funniest reason for watching a critically acclaimed show... Gabagool... Gaba-fucking-gool! Too gool for cool. Gool-gaba-gaba. Motherfucker.↩

  2. E.g., I don't want to hear anyone say I didn't care for Katamari Damacy this year-- I totally did! I always do.↩

  3. I know part of their boost in development was the shift to Unreal Engine 5 but I really don't like UE5. There's some exceptions, sure, but almost all the games I've played that run on it are far from optimised and I just don't think resolution scaling alone is an acceptable graphics setting (on Steam Deck, there's a way to force it to reveal all its graphics settings, but it's disappointing I have to do that extra step). I suck it up, at the end of the day, because I'm generally able to see past the crunch of a graphical nightmare for the sake of smooth FPS. Still, games developed like this leave a lot to be desired and alienates people who don't want to or can't shell out on better hardware. They don't need to optimise for a damn calculator screen but it reaches a point, you know?↩

  4. I was playing via the friend pass version, which didn't update any of the achievements. Really unfortunate but I'm past the point of caring.↩

  5. Evil evil EVIL ENGINE!↩

  6. A bit later into the year, I tried to get into Persona 4 and just had to drop it after 20 hours because of how monotonous the dungeons were, which really bogged me down knowing they were compulsory. Corridor upon corridor, battles blending into each other. At least FFXIII had some gorgeous set pieces to make up for its far from stellar linearity.↩

  7. Still haven't beaten the true final boss or the DLC yet, that was when the burn out hit for me, probably exacerbated by the White Palace and coliseum. I know there's some big Hollow Knight heads who probably saw all those parts as a cake walk but frankly you can keep your skill surplus to yourself. One day I too will be awesome. Just not anytime soon. The burn out will dissipate... Eventually.↩

  8. The hours are inaccurate as I've been playing this game for the past week as well (I don't know how to check specifically 2025), completely inconsequential but I had to get that out of the way. A similar situation to Lego: Pirates, actually.↩

#2025 #2025 - 2026 #videogames