I want to write about the video games that I played in 2025. Be aware, I will spoil things! Or, at least, I won’t go out of my way not to spoil things or mark out spoiler warnings.
Street Fighter 6
As always, I continue to play the latest Street Fighter game, currently Street Fighter 6. I don’t play nearly as much as I would like; maybe a few hours a month. Late 2024 I got Lily to Master rank, and then decided to 1) Switch to Ryu and 2) Switch from arcade stick to pad. I found that the Hori Fighting Commander Octa works best for me. While I would like to use the d-pad, I find that I have trouble hitting the corners to block low, so I’ve been using the left stick to control things – but I can’t dash well, so I dash with the D-pad. I’m not very good on pad, but I’m at least reasonable now.
Towards the end of the year, my PC’s motherboard died, and I sent it back for repair. The repair center said that it had bent pins on the CPU socket (I don’t believe that – it worked fine for over a year and I didn’t remove the CPU until all the USB ports and external and then later internal video cards died). Bent CPU pins are not covered by the warranty. It would cost 8,000 JPY to repair, but a bit over 30,000 JPY for a new motherboard – either the same one or one that is similar (e.g., has 6 SATA ports). I decided to have the thing repaired, but since that would take 5-6 weeks, I was out of a computer for a while. It did give me a chance to use my Steam Deck more, but I don’t like how SF6 performs on Steam Deck, so for the last two months of the year I didn’t play SF6 at all.
Persona 4 Golden
After I finished Persona 3 Portable last year, maybe mid-year, I started to play Persona 4 Golden. It’s a good Persona game. As with Persona 3, I didn’t look anything up before I started to play, but I have a much better understanding of the fundamentals given my experience with Persona 3. I maxed out links early with Yukiko Amagi and Chie Satonaka, then later Ai, Nanako, Dojima. I really liked the Marie character, and managed to save her from the Hollow Forest. I did roll credits once early when I chose the wrong dialogue options with Adachi. July 26th I rolled credits on what I think was a real ending, but it didn’t feel like the best ending.
Looking at things online it turns out it wasn’t the best ending, so maybe I will go back and try to get that ending, but for now I will consider it completed in late July.
So far, in November, I haven’t gone back to this one.
Clair Obscur: Expédition 33
I started this game 2025-07-28. It’s been really good in the first 10 hours. I’m having a very hard time parrying, and dodging is a bit easier, but I often have to re-do fights 5-10 times the first time I run into an enemy to learn their patterns. I don’t think the tells are well done, and many enemies have movements that look like attacks, but are not. They are wind-ups or some other sort of fluff that you need to learn to ignore. I’m playing on Normal so far, and I’m pretty sure I can complete the game that way, but I’ve switched to dodging instead of parrying since the windows are larger for dodging than parrying.
I rolled credits on the game 2025-10-4, so about two months. It somehow feels longer. It’s a good game! I plan to go back and check out other endings. I didn’t come anywhere near 100% completing the game, and I’m not sure if I will; I don’t like how you need to know the timings for enemies’ attacks, and how some of them seem to me to intentionally be choreographed to throw you off. The story is amazing, and I’m not interested enough in the game mechanics to do things like pound my head against high hit point high powered enemies that won’t give me any additional narrative content. It is a beautiful game though, and a place that looks like fun to spend some time in, so who knows?
Coffee Talk
I started Coffee Talk sometime near the start of the year as a good Steam Deck game, I thought. Turns out I prefer to read on a larger screen – though the Steam Deck is fine! I just don’t often have the chance to pull the Steam Deck out and when I do a Visual Novel isn’t really what I’m after. I did enjoy playing it a couple of times at a Cafe enjoying a hot chocolate though.
I finished the game 2025-08-15. Well, I rolled credits. It looks like there is maybe some additional game play left, and there is an “endless” mode where you make drinks on demand that I’m not too motivated to try. What got me to finish this is that it is an easy game to through up on the big monitor while watching YouTube videos on the laptop monitor, and is a low-brain relaxing activity I enjoyed after work. So I might look for another game like that.
I can’t really watch videos while playing Expedition 33, that requires too much undivided attention.
Cryptmaster
I started playing Cryptmaster 2025-10-09 since my PC decided to die. Well, not really die; a few weeks back half the USB ports died, and strange graphics artifacts started to show up. Two days ago I got a black screen and NMI_HARDWARE_ERROR 0x80 error. I left the computer off for a while, but eventually was able to boot it by removing the graphics board and using the APU on the 9700x. That can’t even run SF6 at lowest settings better than 20 fps though, so I’m severely limited on what I can do. I think the motherboard is bad, but I don’t want to spend the time and effort it would take to place the components on a new motherboard. So I’ll use my Steam Deck for games, and maybe try some low-power games on the PC.
Transistor
This is the second SuperGiant Game that I played. I played Bastion a long, long time ago. I started this game maybe two or four years ago? I got stuck at some point – when you first run into “the Spine”, some kind of dragon thing that pounds his tail down from the sky onto you. I couldn’t beat the fight there while he was slamming his tail down. Or, I might have beat that fight, but couldn’t figure out how to progress it.
For maybe a few years now I’ve has this Untold story of the design of Transistor video sitting in my watchlist waiting for me to finish the game, and with all the talk about Hades (since Hades II is out now) I figured I should go back and try to finish this. Well, I finally beat that particular fight – although it took me maybe 10 minutes and a cue from the talking Transistor saying “I’m ready to go now” to realize that I could just walk out of the area where the tail was pounding down through a thing that didn’t look like but was a door. After that, I did just a little bit of googling to find some nice setups for the functions, and then made it to the end of the game. I had a small spike at the final pre-last-boss battle (with four The Man characters and their Haircut spawns that kept getting me) but with some effort and changing my build around I was able to make it.
I beat the final battle by the skin of my teeth on the first try. Then I started New Game Plus and things seem a bit harder, but I’ll try to make it through to find all the functions. I’ll be happy with that.
I beat the game the first time 2025-10-18, on my Steam Deck of all things. The motherboard died on my gaming PC so I only have the Steam Deck while I get that RMA’s / repaired. One note on the Steam Desk: sound is fine on the speakers, but does not work on Bluetooth or headphones unless you boot in Linux mode and run it from there. Strange.
How is the game? I liked it! Just like with Bastion, it had a great presentation, excellent music, and a very interesting story. I’m not really a big fan of the action style play. I enjoyed the Turn based play, but then had trouble when I needed to wait for the cooldown to enter back into Turn mode. I should be able to do a bit better on my second play-through. It’s fun to experiment with functions to try to find good combinations. I recommend it – it is definitely different, there isn’t much out there that blends this turn-based action in quite the same way. Interesting that Expedition 33 also does a turn-based action blend, but in a very different manner. Definitely I recommend it!
Tactical Breach Wizards
I started this game 2025-10-22. I think it will be fairly short all told, but I’m only about two hours into it right now. So far I really enjoy it! Visual novel segments in between tactical gameplay. Each stage is a small puzzle game, and I really enjoy it. The story and characters have a sense a humor, and I like that.
I’ve been playing this on the Steam Deck lately – my motherboard went in for an RMA so I have no PC now. I’ve been enjoying the story a lot, and like the tactical gameplay. At the final Train Stage in Act 4, I wasn’t able to win. I just didn’t have the movement necessary for Zan to do it. I set the game to Easy, and was able to win. Then I realized that it had been getting hard enough that I would take multiple tries to win a stage, maybe an hour or two. I usually don’t have a lot of time to game, and like to try to unwind. I realized I enjoyed the game a lot more on the easier setting, so I’ll finish the game out on Easy, and then I’ll probably be done with it.
I completed the game 2025-11-24. I enjoyed it. I really like the presentation – it has a very nice, clean, art style. I did complete the final missions on the easier setting. I’m sure I could go back and get stars on all the levels that I don’t have them on, but I don’t really feel compelled to do that. The story is what I was here for, and I enjoyed the tactical puzzle combat, but not enough to do just the tactical puzzle combat. The characters are cool, and I liked how we got to “resolve” things at the end. Definitely recommended! It took me about 22 hours, which is just great! I like short games.
Dispatch
I’ve been hearing good things about Dispatch, so I bought and played the first episode 2025-11-22. I spent all day at my kids’ school’s “International Culture Day” that the PTA and School organized, and I’m the PTA Chair, so I was exhausted. I just wanted to do something low-stress and relax. This game was just what I was looking for. It plays amazing on the Steam deck. I think I’ll likely do one or two episodes every once in a while, seems like just what I need.
I finished Episode 8 2025-12-03. This was a very good game! The writing was excellent, and the story enthralling. The art is amazing, I don’t know how they did all the excellent animation. The game is a lot like watching a show, interrupted sometimes with hacking mini games which I thought were ok, and a very nice time management mini game that was very fun. There are also QuickTime events that I wasn’t super great at, but enjoyed. They seem like the kind of thing I could get better with a subsequent playthroughs.
I highly recommend the Digital Deluxe edition that comes with an art book and some comics that unlock as you progress the story. I enjoyed reading through those as they unlocked. I was really drawn in by the story, and while I was playing I didn’t think too much about how the decisions worked. After each session though I was thinking a lot about how the choices worked, or what false choices there are, and how the branching would work. It’s still very interesting.
It was so interesting that I started a second play through immediately after the first. I don’t do that often! A very nice game, and just about the right length. I think I put in about eleven hours for my first play though.
I finished my second play through 2025-12-05. This time I went with Blonde Blazer (Mandy, more specifically), cut Sonar, and recruited Waterboy. It was interesting seeing some of the differences, and also see how paths merged again. I did a much better job on this second playthrough, and was able to recruit Sonar back to the team after the final battle. I ended up in a relationship with both Blue Blazer and Invisigal, but “it’s complicated”. Indeed it is!
This game really stuck with me. It is a good story, and well written. I kept wishing at night that I had an easy choice to play a game like this – and I have more of Telltale’s games, but I don’t really like the idea of a depressing “The Walking Dead” play through.
The Vagrant
This released in 2018, and I think I started playing is in 2024? I got it because I saw a review somewhere saying that this was a good game, and a homage to Dragon’s Crown. It definitely has that Dragon’s Crown art style, and the combat (and particularly, loot pickup) is right up that alley. There is also a similarity in how the women are drawn in the game. I’ve been playing it for a while on and off. I enjoy the multiple entrances and exits on a 2-D plane, and the gameplay of running around and exploring to find various things (switches, new weapons / armor) and the combat is fun. It is an easy game to boot up for ten or fifteen minutes without thinking about what I want to play or having a big block of time, so I’ll try to remember I have it and complete it. Probably not this year, since I started it again in December after finishing Dispatch, but perhaps early in 2026, unless I find something else that really captures me.
Banner of the Maid
I installed this game a year or two ago – I heard on some tactical game forum that this is a good game. It’s been described as a Fire Emblem type game. I’ve never played Fire Emblem, so I don’t know what that is like, but after playing about an hour it is a tactical battle game set in revolutionary war France. You play as Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister, which is interesting. You run around and talk to people in different factions to increase your reputation, and I saw a bunch of names I very vaguely remember from high school European History courses.
The art style is very nice. The game is developed by a Chinese studio, and the voice acting is in Chinese – mostly short barks. It’s surprising to me that they didn’t get English voice acting for that, but the juxtaposition of Chinese voices with the French setting is interesting. The ambiance and art is very nice, and the artist particularly focus on the women in the revolutionary war, of which there are many more than I remembered from my history lessons. So far, it’s a fun game, and makes for a good one to get a few rounds of tactical action done if I’m not feeling like hack and slash action.
Wizardry Variants Daphne
I probably should have this at the top of the entry, it is by far the game I played the most of. Mostly that is because it is on my phone, so I can easily access it on commutes. I do the three daily quests each morning, which only takes about five minutes, and for a lot of the year that is all I did. I was stuck at Abyss 3, on the Doll mid-boss that everyone playing this game gets stuck on. Abyss 3 (the Fortress of Guarda) is interesting because it adds a new mechanic: mini boss enemies with a patrol route and line of sight cones that you need to avoid. That makes part of the game into a kind of stealth or action game, if you are trying to avoid to sentries that are walking around and you have to quickly dodge through them and time things. I don’t like that one bit. Right around when they announced that the fourth Abyss would be released on Christmas (sometime in November I think?) I decided I should beat Abyss 3, and I spent a bit of time grinding for better equipment that can resist charm (the mini boss I was stuck on had a lot of charm attacks). Eventually, I was able to beat that boss, and move on. The of the Abyss was not that hard, outside of the final boss which I still can’t beat under the hardest conditions. I finished all three routes on December 27th, and started on the fourth Abyss.
The story of Abyss 3 is more involved and interesting than I was expecting for a dungeon crawler. There are lots of branching paths and different choices you have to make to get to the “good” ending (and I still haven’t got what I think is the “best” ending – saving everyone – because that end boss is too strong!) There is a lot in the story that is hinted at and not explained explicitly. This is the only mobile “gacha” game I’ve played, so maybe they are all like that, but I was pleasantly surprised. The third abyss was more involved than the first or second for sure.
I might as well write a little bit about may party that I used to beat the third Abyss. My A team is usually an evasion based frontline with two Samurai (Bugen and Shiou) and a Ninja main character. They all have evasion of about 170+, with the MC at 230 or so. The mainstay of the backline is a Priest Shelirionarch (with 60 Mage levels), Yuzunamiki (Ninja), and one other person. For my end boss runs, I usually swapped out Bugen on the front line with someone else – once I did Knight Debra and once or twice Fighter Lanaville. In the backline I needed to have another Knight, so I went with Knight Daniel (with 60 levels of Priest). I found that those extra heals / priest spells (Masolutu to improve evasion or Makaltu to improve defense) were useful, and I needed to have one or two Knights so I could use “Knight’s Defense” against the hard-hitting Roar AOE attack. The last time I went through it, I was ok with just Knight Daniel, but the first time or two I needed Knight Debra and Daniel for more “Knight’s Defense”. I still can’t use this group to beat the Gatekeeper end boss with zero corruption. All characters are at Level 60 with their alternative class maxed at 60 as well. Except for Bugen and Shiou, I haven’t changed them yet. I’ll get my current party up to Level 70, since with the release of Abyss 4 that is the new cap, and try the zero corruption run. The boost from 10 more levels, and hopefully by then I will have some new equipment from Abyss 4, should make it easier.
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