The Game Journal

The developer calls it "aggressively random" but I think this game's design is genius. Mosa Lina is not a "puzzle game" and there are no traditional solutions.

The goal is simple: touch (or remove) all fruits from a stage, then enter the exit portal. With each attempt at a level you're given 3 random tools selected from a pool of 9 different tools that's decided at the beginning of a "run". From there you beat 8 random levels from a massive pool of handcrafted levels, then a final stage that randomly combines 3 of those levels with 6 of your 9 random tools at your disposal. Does it make sense? Probably not because I'm bad at explaining things, but I swear it's really interesting and fun!

It was inspired by the sort of randomness that comes from many immersive sim games, acting on the fly, making the most of whatever you have, giving into impulsive decisions...

In Mosa Lina, there are no punishments for failure, and there are no rewards for success. If you fail? Try again with new tools. Levels seem impossible with your current tools? Reroll your run and start a new. Points are meaningless and arbitrary and the game makes that clear from the get-go. Just a game for having fun :D

I pretty much never have a plan, just make it work

It *technically* isn't a "game I played for the first time" BUT I feel like it's significant enough of a release to warrant a space here. Though, the worst part is that I genuinely feel like I can't say much without spoilers for a game that should 100% be played blind

I guess one thing I can talk about is how far the standard for quality has moved since 2018 with chapter 1. Ch1 almost feels "primitive" just in comparison, which is funny because that made Undertale feel primitive when it came out.

Toby Fox sure did deliver with this one. If you know, you know.

I was going to place a screenshot of the title screen and I realized I can't even do that much

Somehow this is the first time I've ever seen a 2d pixel-art ARPG(?) Are there many of those I just don't know about?

I've seen this game prior to it's 1.0 release but for whatever reason I never bothered looking into it much. At first glance maybe like a year ago I must have gone "ehhh" and never bothered looking at it again because I was surprised to find it's pretty far up my alley, at least so far. Slormancer was kind of my "deltarune waiting room" game so not only have I not gotten very deep into it, but the moment deltarune came out I completely fell out of it, at least for now.

For how far I HAVE gotten into it though, I quite enjoy it. I was originally worried it was going to be a bit too mechanically shallow for an ARPG and the game does start awfully slow for my liking but once you're willing to give it the time of day it really does start to open up a whole lot more. The only thing I really wasn't a fan of is the game's humor, it's very hit or miss and it isn't really my style much to begin with.

She was asked to play an ARPG that wasn't Diablo 4

Oh boy oh boy I sure do love this game!

Now listen... I'm not the biggest final fantasy 15 hater ever (namely because I don't remember it very well :D) but I think it's pretty easy to say that when they wanted to lean more into the action-y side of combat, what they did with 16 was very much the correct way to go. Combat feels so seamless and satisfying even compared to FF7R which I thought was a *perfect* adaptation/modernization of the ATB system. Even with how far into the game I am I still find myself throwing myself into every possible battle I find just because the combat is so fun. Small enemies are fun to knock around, large bosses are actually grand and challenging... perfect...

One thing I will say though on the topic of comparing to FF7R is the side stuff... the one thing I never find myself going out of my way for anymore is the side quests, which sucks because I'm usually all about side content. FF16's side quests are just so bland and at *best* they provide just a little bit of world building for the local area and that's about it. Maybe they'll give a couple scrap crafting materials to pile up in your inventory with the rest of the crafting garbage, which is a whole other topic. Does final fantasy really need crafting? Just give the player new weapons to buy, I don't want to collect 120 wolf claws and 20 meteorites just for a marginal +1 on my weapon I'm going to replace in an hour. It all seems very superficial and extra in a way I simply don't need in a game like this.

Budget couldn't afford a non-spoiler gif sorry

Unbridled chaos. What the hell is going on man? For a game called "Rayman Origins" I feel like I'm learning absolutely nothing about this character or world around him.
I love it

Origins is the first Rayman game I've played and I did have a lot of issues with this game when I first started playing it, particularly with it's janky momentum and annoying controller support for PC, but it did grow on me pretty quick. The music and visuals are very fun even with how chaotic they are.

Beyond that there isn't really much to say! It is very much of it's time, 2011. Very much a pure platformer that simply is what it is.

Duuuuude I swear to god if I see one more person compare expedition 33 to final fantasy I am going to lose my MARBLES which would SUCK because I've had these things since '09

Seriously though, NO this game did not "revive" turn-based RPGs and it certainly isn't what Final Fantasy "should be". Sure, maybe if the only video games you play are whatever [insert popular streamer] is playing, I bet it's fantastic and I'm happy for you! But me? Oh my god this game is total garbage. I could tell from the very moment I got my hands on a real battle I was going to hate this game and after being told it only gets worse the deeper into the game you get I just had to drop it,

Combat is on par with a lot of soulslop games, as in: total lack of strategy, just dodge/parry every attack. Man it is NOT fun, none of the player skills are interesting and the enemy animations are some of the worst I've ever experienced for a game like this, I swear they do not match the sound effects or the dodge/parry timing AT ALL. So not only are you dealing with bad dodge timing, but on top of that the enemy attacks are so delayed, unintentionally faking the player out. This was already bad in a game like Elden Ring, whose boss fights I hated oh so much, but now you've got Expedition 33 where every single enemy can pull this BS. No thanks!

Am I happy that I hate this game? No, not at all and that's the WORST part. It clearly has a pretty interesting story and frankly a really cool world and concept and I would have loved to stick it out and see it through, but alas, the developers did not think the gameplay through. I am happy that a group of ex-Ubisoft devs made something successful tho. Ubisoft can go to hell, just please Sandfall make a game with good *gameplay* mechanics next time.

"When Video Game Enemies Intentionally Make It Hard To Parry Them"

Alright so as of writing this I don't actually have a whole lot of time in the game, only getting as far as reaching the first class on my only character and leveling a few skills. That being said, I think I'm getting a decent enough of a grasp on the game and how it's mechanics work.

Cards are neat but I appreciate their "make or break" impact on some builds as far as I was reading a whole lot less. A lot of mechanics remind me of other MMOs I've touched here and there, for example, the utility of creating a character with the merchant class for gathering money/appraising items reminded me of MapleStory in a way. I think having an *actual* reason to make new characters in an MMO goes a long way, unlike a certain FF14 where it's ultimately pointless because everything can be done on a single character.

One thing that I did think was pretty strange, and maybe it's my fault for choosing a mage as my first character (magic is fun!), but a looot of my skills almost seemed to get *worse* the more I leveled them, in the sense that their cast speed increased 1:1 with the level/number of attacks the individual skills fired. Your only hope for using powerful spells is hoping to freeze the enemies, otherwise an incoming attack will cancel your own attack. Maybe that gets better later, I wouldn't know!

Not a whole lot to say on this one (yet) but I do intend to come back around and fill out the blanks once I get a lot more done in the game

God damn I love this game's aesthetic though...

Remember in 2013 when the early alpha for "Cube World" released and everyone was going crazy over how cool it was, only for the dev to go radio silent for 6 years and drop the full game full of nothing that made the alpha so good? Well this game attempted to rectify that by making their own cube world, "Veloren".

Is it any good? That...would probably depend on who you ask!

...

Alright the game is FIIINE, but it's clearly unfinished (not necessarily a bad thing) and this leads to a lot of jank as far as figuring out how things work and what you're even supposed to be doing goes. Combat and combat skills are really annoying to make work, especially in melee combat but if I look at it from the perspective of "I can see what the devs are going for" then it's pretty cool stuff.

I was playing through it with a pair of friends at first, one fell out of it because it was bored and like, immediately after me and the other friend started to figure it out and you could even say we were hooked for a bit... just not hooked enough to return after 1 really long session (at least, I wasn't)

Progression was a whole lot like most open world survival craft games. Get thing that starts at tier 1, kill tier 1 enemies and mine tier 1 ores to get tier 2 equipment, ect ect. Again not bad! But I've played this gameplay loop a billion times before and no one really does it better than Terraria.

...It does have pretty fun glider controls tho

FACT: Every open world sandbox NEEDS 20 unique crafting stations

Rhythm Heaven I love Rhythm Heaven!!

I'm actually a total poser when it comes to the Rhythm Heaven series because prior to playing fever my only real experiences with the series I can hardly remember because it's been so long. Pretty much all of my prior knowledge of Fever was through the cultural osmosis provided by the internet.

I went in expecting to be a master of rhythm after doing the first few games perfectly only to get humbled rather quickly after... As of writing this I have finished the game but have yet to get a medal on every song, only 31 of them.

My biggest disappointment was many of the game's second versions' difficulty being more focused around concentration with slower songs. I thrive with speed so I was really hoping for some more rapid stuff.

Lethal company? Remember lethal company? Lethal company. It's like lethal company.....but different!

To be more serious even though they're both 'horror' co-op games, the two are very different as far as actual gameplay goes. R.E.P.O. is great, good fun with friends, and unlike lethal company the devs are actually transparent with updates and upcoming content.

Though with that being said, while R.E.P.O. picks up the slack on actual engaging gameplay it does lack a certain something... the comedic timing.....

"What if they took that racing penguin game from the app store in 2011 and made it a full game in 3d" is what I immediately thought when I tried the demo.

It's actually one of the very few games I've played the demo for and bought *immediately* after. Despite this, I don't have a whole lot to say about it. The game is quite repeditive but still fun and addictive to return to over and over, it has a very satisfying gameplay loop.

If I was writing this right when it came out I'd have a big list of issues but the devs were very quick in correcting and rebalancing stuff so uh... yeah just really good. Another Landfall banger (this time without noodle characters).

Featured: running, also jumping

So called "free thinkers" when Northernlion plays a mechanics-driven roguelike

Nubby's Number Factory IS a good game I just find myself looking for more out of it, almost as if I feel like I don't really "get" this game. It's either that or I've just played so many games similar to it that I can't find the same enjoyment I otherwise would have if it was the first of it's type I played.

I feel like the item/perk variety is too low, it leaves me feeling like every other run I play is more or less "solved" by the time I get halfway through. That and the only unlockable content in the game are the characters that are more or less just several new flavors of overpowered. It doesn't help the previous issue very much.

Solid game, definitely fun enough for $5, not something I could see myself returning to.

I love the artstyle a ton though

I can't recall too many times where I was as hyped for a game release as I was for monster hunter wilds. Anxiously sitting and waiting, counting down the days like a child waiting for Christmas... and it was for a good reason!

Ever since monster hunter: world, the series as a whole has become one of my favorites ever and I may be so bold to say Wilds is for the series what World was in 2018, the absolute peak of the franchise. I mean I legitimately don't know how it gets better from here. Almost every single system in the game is improved on, from basic things like focus mode allowing you to actually AIM your attacks for the first time ever(ranged weapons excluded) to more subtle systems like the changes to skills and decorations being exclusive to weapons and armor respectively it's all just so damn GOOD.

With the crazy success the game has had (outside of performance) I see a lot of monster hunter oldheads arguing with nuMH fans that the older games were somehow better and while I GET what they're trying to say, to argue "monster hunter freedom unite is better than world/rise/wilds" is INSANE to me. idk how you can look at what we have right now and go "remember when this series was good". We get it gramps you can't handle action and long for cheesing every monster with hammers and barrel bombs.

I've been playing the game for about a week straight now, going through the endgame, hunting achievements... There's no shot this isn't my top pick for game of the year 2025. I can't wait for GTA6 to wind up sweeping the actual award.

The only real issue the game has is it's god AWFUL optimization on PC, but everyone is talking about that thankfully so I'll just say it runs fine on my 4070 I just wish I didn't need to use frame gen to hit 100fps consistently...

The Hunter Profile

Keeping in line with my recent pinball obsession... Xenotilt! Though I played this game during it's early access period I haven't spent much time with it's 1.0 build and...it's about the same.

Xenotilt is a great game with maybe a *little* too much going on for me to handle. The game is FAST with a lot moving around the screen at any given time as well as putting an emphasis on...well, tilting. It's just too much for my easily distracted brain to keep up with, just trying to peek down at the corner to see my current multiplier could mean losing a ball.

I've been getting really into pinball lately and this one is an absolute gem of a pinball game. So far it's been the only pinball game I've seen that is actually committed to an acurate experience to what the original machines were like. Sure, PinballFX exists but I don't know, it's just not the same...and it has *way* too many liscenced pinball tables that I really don't care about.

It's given me an overall greater appreciation for pinball and it's history especially after watching Technology Connections' series of videos on how old pinball machines work. Pinball Arcade really feels like playing on an actual machine, opposed to a recreation of a pinball machine made for a video game (even though that's exactly what it is).

This was a fun one, maybe a little on the repeditive side though unfortunately. An RPG about going on a road trip in the early 2000s where instead of combat encounters, it's road encounters.

One of the things that did bring it down for me is despite being more of an RPG it feels a whole lot like a roguelike. Nothing is really set in stone except maybe the world map. Every event the game has is procedurally generated from encounters to the hitch hikers you can add to your car (party). The art and atmosphere are great, but the randomness of world events and the actual members you add to your car make the game feel like they put too much into trying to make the game "replayable" when the gameplay itself isn't really gripping enough to make me want to experience it all over again. I would have rather had a more solid, one-time experience.

MORE MONSTER HUNTER YESSS FINALLY IT GETS CLOSER WITH EACH PASSING DAY

I love monster hunter, probably one of my favorite game series ever (though I did start with world). This is why I WISH that Capcom would A) optimize their damn games and B) STOP. USING. DENUVO.

Every game that releases these days needs baggage and Monster Hunter Wilds get's it in the form of being an unoptimized mess! The game needs a super computer to run and even then you basically need frame gen to hit framerates over 70. I have 2 friends who have to upgrade their entire rig just to play this game and unfortunately...it's worth it

The game itself? I have zero doubt it will be my game of the year, I already have 50 hours in the beta alone every weapon, all of the mechanics...so FUN. I'll likely make another entry actually talking about the game more on launch.

Let him cook...

Crypt of the NecroDancer is one of my favorite games ever made since it came out in 2015. Cadence of Hyrule (the zelda spinoff) had me *excited* for it's launch but ultimately I found it disappointing, maybe because I left my expectations too high. Now the year is 2022 and here comes the trailer for a new spinoff title featuring entirely different gameplay so I lowered my expectations accordingly this time. While still looking forward to the release it wasn't really at the top of my priority list especially after playing the demo.

Rift of the NecroDancer isn't a *bad* game by any stretch of the imagination but it's one that I genuinely find too *difficult* to enjoy all the way through. The way the game sets itself apart from being any other game like guitar hero or stepmania is each "note" is a different type of enemy with it's own movement mechanics. Sometimes you have to hit them on beat, sometimes twice per beat, sometimes multiple times across several beats... Now I do think the idea is cool and interesting, but it leaves me feeling like I'm constantly gasping for air trying to comprehend everything the game throws at me, it's just too much most of the time. I DO play the game on hard because like most rythm games, the hardest difficulty is usually the one most true to the song while other difficulties are more boring and too easy.

A neat game with good ideas, just an execution that's hard to wrap your head around at times. The music is also pretty hit or miss in my own opinion. Big fan of Danny Baranowsky and Jules Conroy in particular but a lot of the other artists don't really do it for me the same...

I suck at this game !

Pure first-person speedrunning action.

I saw a glimpse of this game around the time it game out and without doing any looking into it at all I straight up thought it was a visual novel with gameplay between segments. I hadn't heard of anyone playing it until very recently when it popped up in my recommended. That's when it dawned on me the game actually looks incredible and I had to play it.

I have a bad history with these first-person platformer type games where you compete against your own time to beat them as quick as possible. SEUM didn't really resonate with me, I had a lot of issues with Hot Lava, Cyber Hook was a cool looking game with cool music but ultimately I didn't really dig the hook mechanics... Neon White was the first to actually exceed my expectations.

Every level in the game feels like a puzzle, I don't feel like I'm running through trying to optimize my path as much as I feel like I'm trying to "solve" the quickest way to complete the stage by doing things in the right order. That may not make as much sense on paper but I swear in my head this is the best way I can describe it.

The story elements are very...take it or leave it. Personally I leave it, skipping everything... but I'm sure someone enjoys it! It's really the only thing I can think about with this game I don't really enjoy. I wouldn't call it perfect but damn if it isn't *good*.

It's... peak...

I'm not a final fantasy VII purist so I enjoyed the remake a whole lot when I eventually got around to playing it. In fact I enjoyed it so much that the PC port for Rebirth had been one of my most anticipated releases for 2024 and I gotta say it's really held up!

As far as gameplay goes, literally everything about it is a step up from Remake. The combat is the same at it's core but they've really added a whole lot of little things that add up to a greater experience like deflecting attacks if you block in time and skills you can use with your other party members as you're holding block down. It's just great. On top of that, I've been playing on a dualsense controller so I get to benefit from all of the little details in the adaptive triggers and HD rumble for pretty much the first time and it wasn't as gimmicky as I expected it to be, I love it.

I have yet to finish the game (I've been streaming it to a friend and they haven't been as available) but I do expect this to easily be on my top 10 played games in 2025 unless some real BANGERS come out to take it's place.

Every third person action game is better with parrying (FACT)

This one is just a demo but I still feel like including it just for how much I like and man do I LIKE it.

As far as gameplay goes, it's quite literally just warioware. But it's warioware with a very UNIQUE artstyle/direction and for that I absolutely love it. The demo is very short (like 20 minutes max if you don't replay it) but I can't stop myself from coming back and have gotten about 3 hours out of it with the little content available.

I feel like warioware is one of those games you don't see many clones of, the only one I can even think of is Fishlike but that game leaves a looot to be desired... I still appreciate it's existance though.

WE <3 MICROGAMES

I finally caved in and actually bought early access to PoE2 and I gotta say... I don't regret it!

Diablo 2 is probably what I'd call one of my favorite games of all time and after the 3 massive disappointments for the Diablo franchise that followed it, I'd go as far as to think that it's safe to say the game that took Diablo's place is Path of Exile. There are other great ARPGs like Diablo such as Grim Dawn and Torchlight 2 but they never quite came as close as PoE...

Now with rambling aside, I can pretty confidently say I enjoy PoE2 waaay more than the first. One of my main complains of PoE was after awhile it hardly felt like I was playing a game but the sequel's combat and general gameplay was actually overhauled in a way I didn't expect...it feels like a normal action game! We finally got WASD movement, attacks make me feel like I have proper control over my character, boss fights don't feel like you're just throwing yourself at it over and over until it dies... it's amazing. And that's not even counting the numerous changes to things like flasks and skill gems. Not being forced to wear a pair of boots that are 16 levels below my character because they have 4 linked gem slots is going to feel SO nice.

We've never been so back

I've never actually played a Shantae game up until now, I've only ever recognized the series for having great music. In fact it was a video game music quiz that got me wondering how much a key for the game would cost to begin with, which as it turns out, very cheap! Now I've got both this and half genie hero for less than 4 bucks.

The game itself isn't exactly the most special thing in the world but I do absolutely love it's art and music. I'm glad it only seems to be a pseudo-metroidvania too because I'm a little burnt out on the whole metroidvania genre at the moment. Regardless, I'm still having fun with the game. Between all of the roguelikes and RPGs I regularly play it's a nice change of pace.

I did kinda have to install an entire program to limit the framerate though, that sucked.

I knew very little about Elin prior to actually playing it. I've heard of the game that came before it "Elona", but I'd never actually touched that either. What really sold me on the idea of the game was it's base building mechanics and it's randomly generated roguelike dungeon crawling. On top of those two, each bit more I've dug into the game has only gotten me more and more hooked and as of writing this I have around 75 hours of playtime. Learning how the game works has been a total pain in the ass though. So many of it's mechanics go unexplained and there isn't a ton of documentation on the game in english right now. I suppose part of the fun has been figuring most of everything out myself but some extra information would be nice...

Oh yeah, there are also like a million different unique skills to learn and level which is right up my alley for some reason. It's very satisfying to see a character level and progress in a game like this.

I haven't even learned every skill

I don't care if it's reputation is being a furry game where every character has outragous body proportions, I'll be damned if Atlyss isn't one of the best games I played in 2024.

It's a 3rd person RPG reminds me a lot of both an old school MMO and also ARPG games like Diablo 2 or Path of Exile, though admittedly much more shallow as far as loot drops go. The difference between those two and Atlyss is that Atlyss has a stronger focus on actually being fun to play. I will say though, the parts that do remind me of my favorite ARPGs are very shallow at the moment. Loot drops, while exciting for the first little while, start to remind me a lot more of terraria in the sense where you get the best item of whatever dungeon tier you're at, then reforge (enchant) it to fit your class.

It's supposedly only a third of the way complete though, so anything is possible.

Interesting mouse type character