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straightforwardly) wrote2026-01-04 10:59 am
straightforwardly) wrote2026-01-04 10:59 am
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338 | 2025 year in review, gaming edition!
► As the header states, it's time for my year in gaming wrap-up for 2025!
Games Beat in 2025
Pokémon Moon (3DS)
Strange Horticulture (Steam)
Mages of Mystralia (Steam)
Star Ocean: First Departure R (Switch)
Rituals in the Dark (Steam)
Cinderella Phenomenon (Steam)* — Fritz’s route
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)*
Final Fantasy VII (Steam)*
The Dark Queen of Mortholme (itchio)
A Date with Death (itchio)
Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore (Steam)
The Rose of Segunda (Steam)*
Guardian Heroes (XBox 360) — 1/5 endings
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Case of the Mummy's Curse (Steam)
* = replay
Total Games Beat = 14
Number of Visual Novels = 5
Games Played, But Not Yet Beat — 2
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (Steam)
Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch)
Other Games Played (e.g., games that don’t have an official endpoint) — 1
Palia (Switch)
Games Abandoned — 2
If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers (Steam)
Spirit of the North (Steam)
A game released this year (2025): The Dark Queen of Mortholme was released this year! An excellent little game <3 I believe that everything else was older?
A game you can finish in a day: A fair number of these count. Rituals in the Dark, The Dark Queen of Mortholme, Guardian Heroes, The Case of the Mummy's Curse…
A game you've been meaning to play: There’s a fair number of games that this could apply to, but I think this spot absolutely has to go to Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore, considering how long I was both deeply anticipating and yet constantly procrastinating on playing this game. <3
A game chosen for you by a loved one: Both Guardian Heroes and the Sherlock Holmes game were games I played together with my brother.
A game you've previously abandoned: There’s a few! Pokémon Moon and Mages of Mystralia are both games I started years ago, but wandered away from at some point before finally coming back and beating them in 2025. I also had an abandoned playthrough of Star Ocean: First Departure on the PSP, though it was the Switch version that I played through in 2025.
A game that intimidates you: I don’t think any of these were particularly intimidating to me, unless we count my “oh no but what if I don’t like it???” fears about Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore.
A game you've already solved at least once: The big ones were definitely Crisis Core and the original FF7!
A game with an unusual control scheme: Nothing is particularly coming to mind at this point in time.
A game you should have played when it was first released: Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore, maybe? Considering how much I loved Cinderella Phenomenon and how excited I’d been about its upcoming release.
A game you’d owned for a long time but had never played: None! Some of the games I played were games I owned for a long time, but I’d at least started them before.
A game that has been the subject of controversy: I tossed the “award-winning game” question this year, since it’s one I always struggle with and don’t find much value in, but now I’m contemplating if I should toss this question as well, because I also often struggle to answer it… I’m just not involved deeply enough in the broader gaming community to know much about controversies. The best I can think of is maybe Crisis Core, in that I know many fans of the original FF7 don’t like the compilation gamesor Genesis, my unexpected new fave, lol.
► This year, I also once again tracked my gaming-related purchases.
Acquired Titles
Strange Horticulture (Steam) ✔
Rituals in the Dark (Steam) ✔
Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Steam)
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (Switch)
A Date With Death + Beyond the Bet DLC (itchio) ✔
Winter's Wish: Spirits of Edo (Switch)
✔ = beat/finished
Not too bad, I think. If we ignore the final game on that list (I bought it on the last day of the year, because that’s when the Switch’s sales end, so it would’ve been impossible for me to play through it before year’s end), I beat 60% of the games I purchased, which is not the worst of percentages.
► Finally, I want to check in on my 10 in 2025 list!
ten games I want to play/beat in 2025
already started (1/3)
1. Pokémon Moon (3DS) ✔
2. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (Steam)
3. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Switch)
technically already started, but would need to restart (1/3)
4. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS)
5. Digimon World Dusk (DS)
6. Mages of Mystralia (Steam) ✔
have started or played a different version, but not this one (1/2)
7. Star Ocean: First Departure R (Switch) ✔
8. Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch)
completely unstarted (2/2)
9. Cinderella Evermore (Steam) ✔
10. Spirit of the North (Steam) DNF
In short, I finished four games on this list, abandoned one, and made progress on two more. (...Arguably three, in that I did play like ten minutes of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, but I was having difficulties with the game card & so set it aside to figure out later instead.) Meaning that there were only two games on this list that I didn’t touch at all throughout the year—Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Digimon World Dusk.
The games I beat were: Pokémon Moon, Mages of Mystralia, Star Ocean: First Departure R, and Cinderella Phenomenon Evermore. (Links are to the dreamwidth entries where I shared my final thoughts on each game & include spoilers!)
The game I abandoned was Spirit of the North.
Finally, the games I played but didn’t complete were Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life and Star Ocean: The Second Story R.
Overall, I am absolutely thrilled with the results of this little project! The whole reason I made this list was to help me prioritize games that I really wanted to play, but struggled to make time for, and I feel like it was an absolute success on that front. I’m so pleased with how my gaming in general turned out this year, and I feel like this list played a large role in why! Not just in terms of how well I followed this list, but also in regards to the kinds of choices I made and the mindset I had when picking out games to play. I can’t believe I played through multiple jrpgs this year… incredibly happy about that <3 <3 <3
I’m still not entirely sure if I’ll be making a 10 in 2026 list for this year—I have some ideas, and I’m leaning ever-so slightly towards yes, but I’m not fully decided yet. This is a project meant to revitalize me, not be a chore, so I want to make sure that I really do have a list of ten games I’m excited about and that feel “right” for the coming year. If I do make that list, I’ll talk about it in another post.
Games Beat in 2025
Pokémon Moon (3DS)
Strange Horticulture (Steam)
Mages of Mystralia (Steam)
Star Ocean: First Departure R (Switch)
Rituals in the Dark (Steam)
Cinderella Phenomenon (Steam)* — Fritz’s route
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)*
Final Fantasy VII (Steam)*
The Dark Queen of Mortholme (itchio)
A Date with Death (itchio)
Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore (Steam)
The Rose of Segunda (Steam)*
Guardian Heroes (XBox 360) — 1/5 endings
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Case of the Mummy's Curse (Steam)
* = replay
Total Games Beat = 14
Number of Visual Novels = 5
Games Played, But Not Yet Beat — 2
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (Steam)
Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch)
Other Games Played (e.g., games that don’t have an official endpoint) — 1
Palia (Switch)
Games Abandoned — 2
If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers (Steam)
Spirit of the North (Steam)
A game released this year (2025): The Dark Queen of Mortholme was released this year! An excellent little game <3 I believe that everything else was older?
A game you can finish in a day: A fair number of these count. Rituals in the Dark, The Dark Queen of Mortholme, Guardian Heroes, The Case of the Mummy's Curse…
A game you've been meaning to play: There’s a fair number of games that this could apply to, but I think this spot absolutely has to go to Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore, considering how long I was both deeply anticipating and yet constantly procrastinating on playing this game. <3
A game chosen for you by a loved one: Both Guardian Heroes and the Sherlock Holmes game were games I played together with my brother.
A game you've previously abandoned: There’s a few! Pokémon Moon and Mages of Mystralia are both games I started years ago, but wandered away from at some point before finally coming back and beating them in 2025. I also had an abandoned playthrough of Star Ocean: First Departure on the PSP, though it was the Switch version that I played through in 2025.
A game that intimidates you: I don’t think any of these were particularly intimidating to me, unless we count my “oh no but what if I don’t like it???” fears about Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore.
A game you've already solved at least once: The big ones were definitely Crisis Core and the original FF7!
A game with an unusual control scheme: Nothing is particularly coming to mind at this point in time.
A game you should have played when it was first released: Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore, maybe? Considering how much I loved Cinderella Phenomenon and how excited I’d been about its upcoming release.
A game you’d owned for a long time but had never played: None! Some of the games I played were games I owned for a long time, but I’d at least started them before.
A game that has been the subject of controversy: I tossed the “award-winning game” question this year, since it’s one I always struggle with and don’t find much value in, but now I’m contemplating if I should toss this question as well, because I also often struggle to answer it… I’m just not involved deeply enough in the broader gaming community to know much about controversies. The best I can think of is maybe Crisis Core, in that I know many fans of the original FF7 don’t like the compilation games
► This year, I also once again tracked my gaming-related purchases.
Acquired Titles
Strange Horticulture (Steam) ✔
Rituals in the Dark (Steam) ✔
Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Steam)
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (Switch)
A Date With Death + Beyond the Bet DLC (itchio) ✔
Winter's Wish: Spirits of Edo (Switch)
✔ = beat/finished
Not too bad, I think. If we ignore the final game on that list (I bought it on the last day of the year, because that’s when the Switch’s sales end, so it would’ve been impossible for me to play through it before year’s end), I beat 60% of the games I purchased, which is not the worst of percentages.
► Finally, I want to check in on my 10 in 2025 list!
ten games I want to play/beat in 2025
already started (1/3)
2. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (Steam)
3. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Switch)
technically already started, but would need to restart (1/3)
4. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS)
5. Digimon World Dusk (DS)
have started or played a different version, but not this one (1/2)
8. Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch)
completely unstarted (2/2)
In short, I finished four games on this list, abandoned one, and made progress on two more. (...Arguably three, in that I did play like ten minutes of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, but I was having difficulties with the game card & so set it aside to figure out later instead.) Meaning that there were only two games on this list that I didn’t touch at all throughout the year—Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Digimon World Dusk.
The games I beat were: Pokémon Moon, Mages of Mystralia, Star Ocean: First Departure R, and Cinderella Phenomenon Evermore. (Links are to the dreamwidth entries where I shared my final thoughts on each game & include spoilers!)
The game I abandoned was Spirit of the North.
Finally, the games I played but didn’t complete were Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life and Star Ocean: The Second Story R.
Overall, I am absolutely thrilled with the results of this little project! The whole reason I made this list was to help me prioritize games that I really wanted to play, but struggled to make time for, and I feel like it was an absolute success on that front. I’m so pleased with how my gaming in general turned out this year, and I feel like this list played a large role in why! Not just in terms of how well I followed this list, but also in regards to the kinds of choices I made and the mindset I had when picking out games to play. I can’t believe I played through multiple jrpgs this year… incredibly happy about that <3 <3 <3
I’m still not entirely sure if I’ll be making a 10 in 2026 list for this year—I have some ideas, and I’m leaning ever-so slightly towards yes, but I’m not fully decided yet. This is a project meant to revitalize me, not be a chore, so I want to make sure that I really do have a list of ten games I’m excited about and that feel “right” for the coming year. If I do make that list, I’ll talk about it in another post.