I haven’t written on here in awhile and the format in draft form is all wonky now. I have no idea what is going on. If it looks weird, font and size-wise, it’s not my fault.
Wrestling – Truckin’ along.
Here’s the thing. I thought MJF as World Champion was going to eat up a lot of time on TV and have a lot of edgelord bullshit that made me not want to watch the show. Instead, he has, ultimately, been super boring, and the least interesting part of any feud has been in it. Surely he has something else right beside the two poles of problematic and boring, right?
Honestly, I don’t have much to say about what is going on in the world of wrestling at the moment. Tanahashi’s retirement match against Okada was very emotional. I’m happier that Yota Tsuji has brought back the V4 IWGP Heavyweight Championship than I am the fact that he is champion. I think he’s good, but his matches don’t quite excite me as much as bringing back my favorite championship of all time. I’m still watching AEW and enjoying it, but it’s like, just my little show I watch every week with friends. I am excited about Kenny Omega wrestling more singles matches and going after the AEW World Championship, but I think I’d have more to yell about it if I thought he had any chance of winning. All the stuff involving Hangamn, Swerve, Andrade, and him is fun. It feels like the ranking system back without actually showing the rankings on screen (I will always wish we still had the rankings and AEW used them better for storytelling). That’s just sometimes how it goes.
Books – The Boys (Fellowship) are back in town.
So, I don’t know how it started, but my friends and I started watching The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition movies, and I was giving little commentary about information that is in the books but isn’t in the movies at their request. I think I wrote on here that around December, I used to start Fellowship a lot because Christmas Day is the date the Fellowship takes off from Rivendell. Well, I did start it last year, but didn’t commit. Now I’m committed as I’ve already finished Fellowship and moved on to The Two Towers. I even broke out my pocket editions, which I usually keep in my car. It’s a nice feeling when you have a niche interest in something, and your friends are like, “Yes, let’s hear it. We want to hear it.”
This is just an aside, but I prefer volumes of The Lord of the Rings to be three separate books rather than just one large volume. In hardcover form, that is few and far between, but still, that is my preference.
Games – A Bundle of Swords
All the jumble of games I’ve been playing feel sword themed. I put in a lot of hours into the remastered Oblivion, completing all of the Thieves’ Guild, the Mage’s Guild, and the Dark Brotherhood. All I have left is the Main Questline and the Fighter’s Guild before I go to the Shivering Isles. I’ve finished all of Silksong Act 2 for the second time, and I’m trying to beat Grandmother Silk while cursed for probably the last achievement I’m going to go for in this game. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker is available on the Nintendo Switch Online service for the Switch 2, and I’ve been surprised how well that game’s look has held up. Whatever upscaling they’re doing, if they’re doing any, makes the game look amazing on my Switch 2. However, I’ve never played the Wii U’s HD remake of that game and, in fact, have barely seen it. I wonder how that looks?
A Keyblade is a kind of sword, and I’ve set up a Steam Deck Dock near my treadmill and have been going through Kingdom Hearts 1 while I walk. There was a game I started on Steam Deck on the treadmill that I had to stop because I wanted to play on my good PC, Lies of P, a game I bought on sale but have had on my backlog for a while. I think I’m past the point where it’s like, emulating Bloodborne too much and has become its own thing. The last sword game I’ve been playing is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on my PC which, man, that game looks a lot better on PC than my PS5, especially the faces, where sometimes on the PS5 the lighting made their faces look weird. I get people being mad about some of the open-world aspects, but I love this game. The battle system is definitely my favorite of the new non-turn-based battle systems Square has tried to use recently in FF games.
I decided to do my top 20 games, briefly write on 20-11, with 10-1 being the main part of this volume, so let’s jump right into it with some honorable mentions, which are mostly games that might have made the top 20, but I didn’t play them enough. Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo brings back that classic The Minish Cap on Game Boy Advance feeling, including a fake GBA filter you can put over the game, though sometimes the game feels overly punishing. Peak didn’t hold my attention for long, but when playing with friends, it was a real fun time. Capcom Fighting Collection 2 contains a lot of games I love, but I just didn’t put in a lot of time into it this year. Let’s get into number 20 and beyond.
20. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4
As a kid, I did not play the Tony Hawk games and only played 1+2 starting in November of 2024, so plain and simple, I am bad at this game. I understand what people are saying about the difficulty of getting good at fighting games because this feels similar, but I still enjoyed it a lot. It being a genre I basically never explored before feels so novel, as funny as that sounds. It feels like a game series where, for the longest time, I didn’t get it, and now I get it, although it might be far too late. Music: Good
19. DOOM: The Dark Ages
Alright, I’m going to say it, I miss DOOM Eternal’s platforming. I know people hated but I loved it. This game, I really like the gameplay with the shield and the different fantasy guns and power-ups, but I found the dragon riding kind of annoying. I kind of think they listened to too much of DOOM Eternal’s criticism and almost did a two steps forward, one step back situation. Unlike others, although it is stupid, the story of DOOM with this entry included, I find to be stupid fun. Music: Pretty Good
18. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
People might be mad at this one, but I think this game is the definition of very good, but it is not the perfect RPG people claim it to be. The whole controversy about using AI texture placeholders aside, and the whole fact that it isn’t really an indie game, just based on the game itself, I like a lot of it, but there are design, gameplay, and writing flaws that kept this game lower on the list for me. I’ve seen others say this, and it echoes my sentiments. The more I played this game, the more I disliked it. I think I wanted more Expedition 33 and less Clair Obscur. Music: Incredible, but that one guy’s singing and the heavy guitar actually make that song everyone loves worse, and I’m not afraid to say it.
17. Monster Hunter Wilds
This was my most anticipated game of the year, and with over a hundred hours in it, I can’t say I didn’t have fun. When it came out, I played it non-stop, but then I reached the end of the story and, well, didn’t have a reason to continue, go back, or continue the loop to min-max my character. I can’t speak on the performance because I played it on an underpowered computer and have yet to try it on my new rig yet but I am going to go back eventually. The previous two Monster Hunter games had me returning to them again and again and again. This one, though a lot of fun, is not so much. Music: Alright
16. Blue Prince
Anything I tell you about Blue Prince is too much. You inherit a house and must reach room 46 to keep it. There are all sorts of puzzles to unravel to reach that room as you choose the rooms of the estate to reach the end. Sometimes the RNG of the game comes down to luck, and that can be a bit frustrating, but the puzzles of each room and how they interconnect reveal a story deeper than just inheriting the house. I found it captivating. Music: Mesmerising, great to put out when you’re writing.
15. Possessor(s)
Any and all Metroidvanias were going to have a hard time competing with Silksong in both challenge and style, but this game has it in spades. The game feels generous in what power-ups it gives you right away while keeping it challenging, like Silksong, if you don’t use everything at your disposal. Luca and Rhem’s clashing personalities and growing understanding of each other are a real highlight of the game. The combat and platforming are really cool, but I didn’t expect how much I would find the story engaging. Music: Very Good
This probably would have been higher if I had played it sooner and more. Did I play through Dragon Quest I, then move on to II? No, I have ADHD, so I’m bouncing back and forth between the two. Since DQXI was released, it has become one of my favorite game series, and I am ready for more remakes, especially of 4 through 6. Music: It’s fucking Dragon Quest of course it’s great.
12. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
From one dragon to another. All the parts of playing Majima in Infinite Wealth’s Hawaii, I found a lot of fun alongside the Pirate Ship battles that occur. The combat is addictive even when I was maxed out, and I loved looking for more outfits to unlock. At times, though, this game looked like shit, especially its lighting, and the extended cast minus Samoa Joe were kind of annoying. It was all worth it for the final scene of the game, which had me emotional for Like a Dragon 9. Music: Alright
11. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
Like DQI+II, this would have been in my top ten if I had not gotten it so late and played so little of it, but I am already hooked on this, having never played this game in previous incarnations before. This is my first experience with FFT, but I’m already finding the story better than 16, 15, and 13. Whether it’s better than any others, I’m not far enough into it yet to determine, but I may like it more than 12 and 10. I’m not going to presume, though. I’m going to be playing this a lot in 2026. Music: Great, classic Final Fantasy quality.
10. Kirby Air Riders
It shouldn’t be better than Mario Kart World, but it is, and boy, this game is a lot of fun. It’s a weird game, to sure sure, and I don’t know if I’d recommend it to everyone, but I am having a great time playing it. It can be, at times, overstimulating, but it has that Sakurai touch of gold upon it that’ll keep me coming back next year. The thing is, even when I’m doing poorly in any of the different modes, I feel like I am having fun, which I’m not sure I can say the same for Mario Kart or other similar racers. Sometimes, even better in a video game than the number going up is the feeling of Oh, I’ve unlocked something and you unlock something in this game, doing nearly everything, and there is so much of it. Kirby and Persona share that trait of Oh, let’s go on a mundane adventure, and then at the end, we fight a god. This game is no different. Music: Kirby as fuck, very good.
9. Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O World Stage
Before Street Fighter 4 was even announced, the original Virtua Fighter 5 on Xbox 360 was my first steps back to fighting games. Now, Virtua Fighter is back, baby, and in a way, this remaster of this old ass game is better than a lot of fighting games out right now. It’s still incredible, it still holds up, and they updated it twice on Steam to make it even better, especially when I don’t feel like playing it online. I’m so happy Virtua Fighter is back, and I am going to play much more of this in 2026. Until whatever the next Virtua Fighter game is going to be called comes out, this game will be on my regular fighting game rotation with Street Fighter 6 and Guilty Gear Strive.
8. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
I have no nostalgia for old Shinobi games because I don’t remember ever playing them. It’s funny because I do have history with Ninja Gaiden and I bounced off NG: Ragebound pretty fast. I picked this up because the art is so beautiful, and stayed because the combat feels like I’m playing Street Fighter, stringing combos together to take out my enemies, unlocking new moves, and new ways to traverse to get through the stages. Joe Musashi, without ever saying a word, is the coolest ninja in 2025. The only downside I found from this game was it was quite easy when it came out, and after playing Hollow Knight Silksong, I found the challenge of this game even less so. Still, I can’t wait for that DLC they have planned. Music: Good to Very Good.
7. Absolum
It was hard to choose between this game and Shinobi, which would be 7 and which would be 8, but ultimately, Absolum brings something new that I’ve never tried before: a rogue beat ‘em up in a fantasy setting, plus it has a frog wizard. Since the Ninja Turtle games of the early ’90s, Streets of Rage, and Maximum Carnage, I have loved beat ‘em ups. Turning a beat ‘em up into a roguelike is such a smart choice, and obviously, this is determined by your own skill level, but I seldom failed a run and felt like I got absolutely nothing out of it. The game’s art is fantastic, the animation is so fluid, and the combat feels like multilayered beyond most beat ‘em ups. The branching paths and sidequests they give you to incentivize you to take those paths are something I hope future beat ‘em ups will emulate, even if they’re not roguelites. I actually really loved the story and the moments of exposition, where you get info about the different places you visit, are so fleshed out, and the reason for the entire run leads up to a really strong finale that felt satisfying while also giving you a reason to get all the way to the end again. Music: Incredible
6. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
Trails in general has been a series I’ve been hovering over, waiting to dive in, and boy did I actually have the worst timing. After I got my Steam Deck in August 2024, I bought the original Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter but didn’t start playing it until two weeks before the remake came out, without knowing it even existed until it was mentioned on Into the Aether. One day, I’ll return to the original, but I started the remake on day one of release. It’s a slow-paced RPG for sure, but something is charming about it where other slow RPGs can be frustrating, mostly because the pacing feels intentional rather than poorly planned. Despite the complaints, I like Estelle’s dubbed voice, even if I was picturing a more Sailor Jupiter dub voice for her character or a Hilda from Fire Emblem: Three Houses type voice when I briefly played the original. I understand why Trails fans called her Bestelle because I love her character, Joshua, not so much, but he’s growing on me.
The stakes feel low to medium, and from my understanding, it’s the end of the game and chapter two where the stakes get really high, but there is something chill about helping out your neighboring cities, working your way to become a full Bracer with Estelle and Joshua. The rotating extra party members is a fun addition as you travel, giving you different strategies for different areas. All the different systems involved, from the way combat works with different areas of effect and the orbment system for customizing your character’s abilities, are really fun to play around with. Fighting in battles as you travel doesn’t feel like a grind the way the battle system is designed, and I like figuring out what works and what doesn’t, even though the games lend you a hand in what an enemy’s weaknesses are straight away. Music: Three different options, all great.
5. Hades II
It’s more Hades, both to its benefit and to its detriment. The stakes feel higher as you go to war with Cronos to save your family, but the ultimate payoff at the end of that war is wishy-washy as hell. Melinoe is a character I love most of the time, but the way she is written sometimes, as a result of her upbringing, being young, and isolated, she sometimes sounds like a cop or a snitch. She doesn’t quite have the rebellious spirit Zagreus had, and the writing can reflect that both positively and negatively. Going up in this game the first time was such a cool surprise, but the journey to reaching Mount Olympus felt like what I wanted out of a sequel to Hades. I feel like the combat of Hades II is better than Hades, but I still like most of the weapons from the first one more. If they tuned them up somehow and said they were going to add those weapons to this game as a DLC, I’d definitely want to buy that, but the weapons from this game I gravitated towards, like the axe or the dual wands, I may like even more than the ones from the first, but boy, do I miss that shield.
All the gameplay that involves actually traversing up or down feels fine-tuned from the first one, but there is way too much currency that could have been pared down. It feels kind of overkill, but at the same time, what I get from the currency never felt like I was being ripped off or wasting my time. I feel like Hades being released in lockdown helped that game but hurt this one because I played so much Hades, and I’m seeing this sentiment a lot in other places, that this being so similar has me taking a break much sooner than I thought, bringing this down from what I thought it would be on my game of the year list for me. Still, it’s more Hades, and Hades is awesome. Music: Just as Incredible as Hades, if not more so.
4. Tokyo Xtreme Racer
What if a racing game were an RPG? Apparently, this was a Dreamcast game. I wish I knew about it because I would have loved it, but the original developer got back together and decided to make a new one in 2025, which they launched, and I bought in early access. Watching this game develop to 1.0 has been fascinating and fun as different aspects get tweaked, changed, and added. Driving around on this one giant expressway, challenging racers to rise in the ranks in a system that is like a combination of an RPG battle and a fighting game fight, but you’re just racing instead. Learning how to tweak the different cars featured in the game has been a learning experience as someone who knows nothing and, quite frankly, doesn’t care all that much about cars.
All the rivals you fight have cool and endearing names like Deep Green, Golden Beast, Lightning Shift Takuya, Lonely Jackal, Drift Baby, Full Moon Lunatic, and Midnight Cinderella, with different personalities you only get to briefly see through conversations with them. All of them have different shades of obsession with racing on this highway, while some in the parking garage will give you hints on how to race rivals called wanderers. The progression feels mostly good, but the late stages of the game really require nitro, maybe too much, without any way to fill out without finding a parking area or going back to your garage, which can break the flow of the game. Still, I surprisingly liked tuning the different parts of my car and trying to figure out what were the best options. Music: A bit repetitive but all bangers, the kind of music that makes you feel like your car is going faster.
3. Deltarune Chapter 3 and 4
I don’t care that it isn’t the full game yet. Chapter 1 sets up the main characters and general premise, Chapter 2 introduces side characters and expands upon the world, but then Chapter 3 begins with a bombshell reveal that you think is interrupted by a fun premise but underneath that reveal in the beginning is an integral part of that premise that hits you in the climax only for everything to go completely balls to the wall in the finale leading to Chapter 4. It also has sections off the path that you don’t have to do, but give some insight and hints about Kris that had me biting my nails to know more. Music: The Absolute BEST of the Year, in my opinion.
Chapter 4 cranks up the dial, not a touchscreen, on the setting, plot, characters, reveals, music, and, quite frankly, my emotions. Kris, or we controlling Kris, may be the protagonist, but Susie might be the hero of the story. After the ending of Chapter 3, Chapter 4 could have brought the tension back down to earth and done like a next-morning reset of the status quo, but the tension remains high and even exceeds it by the time you reach the end. The way this chapter hooked me with both the story and the gameplay, it was the first time playing this game that I thought “Oh, this might turn out better than Undertale by the end,” or at least that I might fall in love with it more than Undertale. Along with my number one game, this is a game that I could not stop thinking about after I was finished with it, and the only reason I did not replay all of the chapters again before the end of 2025 is that I’m going to do so when Chapter 5 comes out in 2026. Music: Best of the year.
2. Donkey Kong Bananza
I loved Donkey Kong Country on Super Nintendo, and I actually did really love Donkey Kong 64 when it came out originally but I haven’t really given a shit about Donkey Kong since then. He was not a character I liked playing in Mario Kart or Smash Bros, nor was I impressed at all by Donkey Konga or Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. By the time they did Donkey Kong Country Returns and DKC: Tropical Freeze, I was completely checked out of Donkey Kong. This game is pure Nintendo magic for making me care about Donkey Kong again. His new design, along with everything about Bananza, is just pure fun because it is fun to be a big gorilla who can smash nearly everything.
The game is an essential Switch 2 pick-up. It has so much of what I love about gaming in it. Unlockable outfits, number go up, unlockable abilities after number go up, destructible environments, references to older games without soaking in nostalgia too much, nonsense languages and music like a blend of Splatoon and Banjo-Kazooie, and a finale with a reveal that was just unbridled joy for me when it happened. After I beat the final boss, I went back and did it two more times just to experience it again and make sure I loved it as much as I thought I did. The moment and the music that goes with it alone would keep this game in my top ten, but the game was so much fun it was the only thing I wanted to do when it came out. I know when I start a new game, it’ll likely happen again. Music: A central theme of the game, and therefore fantastic.
1. Hollow Knight: Silksong
I haven’t really stopped thinking about Silksong since it came out. If my backlog wasn’t so large with games I know are excellent, I’d easily have two hundred hours in this game before the year ended. When I am playing other games, I’m thinking, if there is even a second of a lull, hey, maybe I’ll stop and play Silksong. They’re not tired of it yet, but my friends are soon going to grow tired of the Silksong fan art being posted in the group chat. I even modded the game on my PC to include a Christmas tree in one of the towns and put Hornet in a Christmas-like dress with a white Santa-like frill and a jingle bell (Thank you, Nexusmods). Even now, as I’m writing this, I’m thinking of stopping to go play it.
Now, when Silksong was announced, I was like, for so long, “Oh, cool, I think Hornet would be cool to play as.” I loved Hollow Knight, and I thought the idea of a sequel or whatever it was going to be considered was simply, you know, neat. When it kept getting delayed, or no news was coming about it, I was really phased. I’ve been on my share of delayed games before; you have no idea what it was like as a kid waiting for when Zelda 64 was finally going to come out after that was delayed multiple times. I was looking forward to it, but I was thinking about it all the time, or anything. It wasn’t until they finally announced the release date two weeks before the game was coming out that the hype hit me all at once, where I made a high-frequency sound that only dogs could probably here.
I’m not going to talk about its difficulty because I won’t be mean about it, but what I have to say might sound a lot meaner than my intention. I will say, I had a much harder time with Hollow Knight than this game, and I think it’s either cause I was picking up what Team Cherry was putting down as far as movement is concerned in combat, or I was so hyper-focused on this game more than any others at the time of release. Each tool and power-up you get in this game feels so satisfying to learn how to use, especially against bosses. There are power-ups I like and use more than others, but I don’t have any that I actively dislike so much that I’m like anticipating replaying the game using the different tools that I don’t tend to favor.
I love the Knight, and in general don’t mind silent protagonists in games, but Hornet is now one of my favorite video game characters thanks to her writing and voice in this game. When she speaks to NPCs, she balances speaking reverently to those who perceive her as younger, being kind to those who are young and naive, while calmly threatening her enemies. Whoever on Team Cherry writes the dialogue of the game makes deliberate diction and syntax that I just can’t get enough of. I know people want Team Cherry to make a different kind of game next time around, and that they’re a small team. However, Hornet is Team Cherry’s Samus Aran for me, and I want her to be the main character of this series, and for it to continue with her exploring new kingdoms. What makes Samus so cool they nailed it in Hornet by being a compassionate but no-nonsense badass.
There is no better way to describe it than I’m likely going to be playing this game in some capacity for the rest of my life. Music: Haunting and Incredible.
Those of my games of the year, I’ve got a little companion piece that is much shorter than this of Games of the Other Year, Games of 2025 I want to play more of, and Games of 2026 I’m looking forward to coming, probably tomorrow, but all this writing about games makes me want to play them instead. 2025, a great year for games.
I’ve been rewatching matches, finishing some 2025 games, and reading up a storm to wrap up the year, plus to be hones,t working a lot more to have some extra money for Christmas presents, Steam sales, and whatever deals may interest me. I haven’t found any worth it though, and by the time my normal bills came a calling.
This post is going to be mostly on all the end-of-the-year wrap-ups I’ve gotten this year as I work on a longer post. I hope everyone reading this has a good holiday.
Music
Halfway through this year, I cancelled my Spotify Premium account and switched to Tidal, then proceeded to listen to very little music so my Tidal 2025 wrapped doesn’t paint much of a picture of my 2025 music. I’ll just say it was a lot of Paramore, The Beaches, Kendrick Lamar, Aesop Rock, Freddie Gibbs, the scores for Deltarune chapters 3 and 4, and the soundtrack to Hollow Knight Silksong.
Since it’s likely to be my last wrapped, I did temporarily reinstalled the app to get it, so here you go. The only surprise to me here is how fast the Deltarune Chapters 3+4 shot up my personal listening stats, considering I quit Spotify in July and those chapters only came out in June. Last Girls at the Party is not only, in my opinion, a good song but a real earworm that gets my ADHD brain playing it on repeat.
Nintendo introduced their own music app either late last year or early this year if you’re an NSO subscriber, so of course they had to do their own wrapped. My number one and two are a result of Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World’s great soundtracks that harken back to older games. I do wish Nintendo were faster on the draw to bring those games’ soundtracks to the app, maybe next year.
Games
Speaking of Nintendo, they’ve delayed their 2025 recap release to January, so expect me to include that whenever it comes out in any post I make then. I will, however, make some educated guesses. With the release of the Switch 2, Donkey Kong Bananza is probably at the top of my list,t with Super Mario Odyssey in second because I wanted to replay before making the switch from the first Switch to the second. I put in a decent number of hours of Mario Kart World before I became bored with it, and maybe Kirby Air Riders or Metroid Prime 4 squeezes in towards the end there, depending on when Nintendo chooses a cut-off date.
I expect my stats to be much more spread out between my Switch 2 and Steam next year, but with getting a Steam Deck OLED last August, saving and purchasing a new gaming PC this year, and Switch 2’s launch titles being kind of dry until November – December, these are some very Steam-heavy stats. Plus, I may have spent way too Steam Sale purchase happy Fall 2024 with how I excited I was about my Steam Deck, so I had a lot of different games to play this year. Plus, after receiving a fancy new monitor for my birthday, I really wanted to see the difference between my Nvidia 2030 and my 5060 TI.
What was I doing December 6th that ended my Streak? No idea.The Steam Deck really changed things up for how and how much I play, huh?
Monster Hunter Wilds and Hollow Knight Silksong served as two peaks where I really locked in. The big difference is with Silksong if I didn’t own so many other games I want to play, I’d still be playing it. Actually, no, I am still playing the window of time is just smaller since release. Monster Hunter Wilds, while I do very much like it, once I finished all the main quests, it left me nothing to keep me going through the loop like previous games did, where I’d unlock different add-ons and such to min-max my gear for future scenarios. I do plan on returning to it next year since they’ve had so many updates, but I expected to put in like a hundred more hours than I did on that game. Silksong, though I will continue to play especially when that Sea of Sorrows expansion comes out in the Spring. It’s not only my number one most played game on Steam this year, but my Game of the Year. More on that later.
On the other games on my list. With the release of Sagat, my favorite character to main, SF6 could easily have been number one, but I’ve played so much Street Fighter 6 that I needed a break and that so happened to be when Silksong came out. However, with a recent patch that buffed Sagat I’m ready to dive back in and really learn Sagat until whenever the New Virtua Fighter Project comes out.
Persona 5 Royal could also have been number one, but I did mod the shit out of the PC version to reduce the time I need to play it. I’ll accept no judgment. I’ve 100% this game twice on PS4, once on Switch, and once on PS5, so a little modding won’t hurt anyone.
The last game on my list I bought before finding out about the BDS Movement, so I’ll be posting a link to that instead.
Between the Switch 2, the Steam Deck, buying games on Steam Sale, and buying a powerful new PC I’m just about done with PlayStation, and my time playing it this year reflects that.
2025
Now look at 2024. All these games I own on Steam now and have paid half the price. Why would I buy anything on PS5 ever again? They mostly don’t have any! Not pictured in 2024 is Dragon’s Dogma 2, which I also own on Steam now. What I’m going to do with my PS5 now, I’m not sure cause not even playing Ghost of Yotei before it comes to PC could entice me. With the basic end of exclusives between the Steam Deck and maybe purchasing a Steam Machine in the future unless Playstation 6 has something crazy to play on it where I can’t play it anywhere else I’m probably done with it.
Books
I’ve been putting in the work over on GeeklyInc.com with my reviews, which is also part of why this post is so delayed after Thanksgiving, and I’ve got two more I hope to get out there this week. I’ve also snapped into it and been reading a lot since Thanksgiving, just about eleven books with two more probably before the end of the year. One of those books is from one of my favorite authors, Jenn Lyons, who this year raised money on Backerkit to publish a science fiction book called Full Negative. The digital copies came out to backers about three weeks ago, and I just finished it about a day ago. I loved it. I’m working on a full review that’ll be published later, but here is a link to the BackerKit if you want to preorder a future copy (Sorry, I don’t know exactly how that works.
While I don’t have my Books of the Year list complete, that’ll be a future post. Here is my article in what I likely consider my favorite book of the year I did for GeeklyInc
The problem every fan has to deal with when it comes to their favorite wrestlers is two things: one day, they’re going to hang up their trunks and no longer wrestle, and when they win the big one, they’ll eventually have to lose the big one. I expected Hangman’s reign to eventually end, maybe even before the year was over, but I did not expect it to end in such a stupid way. Hook being the catalyst to end his reign is such horseshit. Hook’s first match was in December 2021, and it was exciting because he looked like he had a lot of potential as the son of Taz, likely the greatest ECW World Champion ever. The problem is that just a little bit above that level of his debut is where he has stayed since then. He doesn’t seem interested in improving either with just eighty matches since he started. Never seen him advertised for an indie date, hardly ever see him on Ring of Honor, never hear about veterans working with him like they talk about other wrestlers. So, after All In using Hook for this person seems such a foolish idea.
It mostly doesn’t matter, though, because none of this shit after Hangman’s loss is going to matter. A month ago, Samoa Joe being the one to dethrone Hangman at forty-six in what should be a young man’s company, while also having acting jobs he’d have to be written off TV for at a moment’s notice, seemed just as foolish as using Hook. Now MJF is back, and nothing Samoa Joe has done for the past month is going to mean a damn thing. Neither will Swerve Strickland’s return nor his teaming up with Hangman. At World’s End in a four-way for the AEW World Championship, MJF is going to win, and we’re going to have to deal with his bullshit flavor of ice cream until Will Ospreay beats him a Wembley Stadium, which is 251 days away. So, for those who shit on Hangman fans when they were upset (at least they fucking felt something, which is part of the point of pro wrestling), I hope you enjoy Swerve taking a backseat and MJF delivering what is likely going to be a borderline racist promo to Bandido at Maximum Carnage.
To all my readers, I hope you have a Merry Christmas or a Happy Holiday, in whatever way you celebrate.
I want to use my local library, specifically, I want to walk to my local library, which is only about a ten-minute walk away, and write these on my laptop at the library. I had planned to work on it Monday through Friday, but one thing after another kept happening, so I ended up skipping a week. The theme of this one is in the title, as I’m rereading The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, released last April, I’m playing games that I played in the Xbox 360 era on my PC, and in AEW, a lot of the men’s feuds seem to be continuing to mixed results.
Books – The Incandescent Reread and Blood for the Unyding Throne Release
The urge to re-read The Incandescent by Emily Tesh from earlier this year took over me about a week ago, and I just finished it again. That may be my favorite book of the year, even more so than The Devils by Joe Abercrombie, who is one of my favorite authors. I don’t often describe a book as beautiful, but to me, that is a beautiful book. Particularly this time around I find Dr. Walden’s meeting with Nikki Conway just heartbreaking. A teenager, barely an adult, is thinking of turning down a great opportunity to be the support system to her friend, who, like her, has no support system in a world where money can determine everything you have in life. Through this conversation, Dr. Walden has to kind of reassess the privilege she has had, which the character of Laura Kenning pointed out before she lost her job. It’s honestly such a great take on the British magical boarding school; it’s going to end up being one of my favorite books ever.
The terminology of academia may seem like an obstructing wall of jargon—and sometimes, perhaps, it is—but far more often than that, it is a set of keys. You cannot understand the forces you are dealing with, still less wield them meaningfully yourself, unless you have the words to set around them. The language of power is the handle on the knife.
The hardcover for Blood of the Undying Throne came out this Tuesday and I didn’t want to say anything about it when it was on my advance reader copy but the official copy has a quote from my podcast No Page Unturned on the GeeklyInc podcast network. If you don’t know, often praise for the previous book of a series will be quoted on the next one from various sources who talk about it. I didn’t know this was happening and was quite shocked in a good way to see this. It means a lot.
Games – Xbox 360 Games Come Back Around and God of War (2018)
It seems, without realizing it, I’ve wandered back to my Xbox 360 era with the games I’m playing recently. I already mentioned Mass Effect: Legendary Edition in the last volume. Still, I’ve been crafting a private list on my Backlogged of my personal best 100 games of all time, and I came about to a discussion with my friend Hiro about how Batman: Arkham Asylum is essentially a Metroidvania. So that discussion has me playing it, to see where in 2025 it falls on my list, and it holds up amazingly well, especially the combat system, considering how many games have taken it and evolved it since then. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work on my Steam Deck, but its sequel, Arkham City, does, so I’m also playing that on there bit by bit when I am lounging on the couch, taking a break from reading, or lying in bed in the morning. It’s also October, so I installed the Dead Space remake from last year onto my desktop. That’s another Xbox 360 era game I played a lot. Now that I think about it, weirdly, the last year has been filled with throwbacks to the 360 days.
Almost a year ago the first Red Dead Redemption came out on PC.
Sega put out that remake/remaster of Sonic Generations that added Shadow content.
Valve updated Half-Life 2 last November for the 20th Anniversary and put it out for free.
Dead Rising came out with that Deluxe Remaster last September.
Castle Crashers put out new DLC and updated all the art for that game.
Oblivion received a remaster earlier this year.
Gears of War Reloaded was released for the Playstation and PC.
A new version of Ninja Gaiden II was released called Ninja Gaiden II Black
All of this brings me to say, where the fuck is a new Peggle?! Also Capcom, make vanilla Street Fighter 4 on Steam playable again, thanks. Back to the subject of my 100 greatest games list, I don’t know where they fell on the list, but Batman: Arkham Asylum and God of War (2018) were, I believe, close together, so somehow playing Arkham Asylum led me to installing God of War and sinking my teeth into it once again, and deep.
Oh, wait, I remember now. I was listening to a gaming podcast where one cast membner said they haven’t replayed the new God of War games because they’re only fun when Kratos is fully kitted out, which I fundamentally disagree with. After playing twenty-two hours of the PC version, I vehemently disagree with this. It’s still amazing how good that axe feels in it, when you swing, when you throw, when you bring it back to your hand. The incredible feeling of it never goes away, even after seven years, three if you’re talking Ragnarok. When our family received money for our possessions in our house that were lost in the fire in 2017, I, on a whim, bought a PlayStation 4 Pro and God of War (2018). In a weird way, those two purchases for a time represented all the systems and games I lost in the fire, which was not a small amount, going back to my childhood.
Wrestling – AEW Forbidden Door to Full Gear.
AEW Wrestledream was great, but I think I missed my moment, personally, to write about it when I skipped writing about it last week. The only comment I will make is that I didn’t love the main event so much that Samoa Joe versus Hangman Page shouldn’t have been a main event, but I also am not Darby’s biggest fan. I’m sure what is coming out of it will be great, but I’m going to be perfectly honest, Samoa Joe v. Hangman and Darby Allin v. Jon Moxley really didn’t need to continue.
I said the other day I kind of miss when AEW only had four pay-per-views, and that’s not completely true. The truth is, the spacing for Forbidden Door to All Out (or vice versa with All In mixed in) to WrestleDream to Full Gear to World’s End is kind of a mess as there are so few weeks in between those to build feuds. It doesn’t help that sometimes a Dynamite after a PPV can be the real end of the feud, with Dynamite acting as a sort of fallout for the final match of the feud on PPV. Neither do the specials like Blood & Guts, Ring of Honor PPVs, Grand Slam, Anniversary episodes thrown in the bunch there. It’s all kinda messy. I say this, when in fact I’m not unhappy, really, with AEW at all right now, but it does feel like the late summer to fall to winter lineup needs some sprucing up especially when you compare it to Revolution to All In.
Personally, I think World’s End is a cursed pay-per-view. The first one was not only boring but represented a lot of what was wrong with MJF’s first title reign and his vision for AEW. The second one, even with the Continental Classic finals, was tarnished by Jon Moxley’s terrible idea for a four-way with AEW top guys at the time, where the Death Riders just made them look like idiots, and then Adam Copeland returned to make them look even more like idiots. Throw it in the bin, put WrestleDream in that spot on the calendar, have the C2 finals there, and move Full Gear up by maybe a week or two to give space between it and WrestleDream. You can have whatever special TV episodes you want, like Blood & Guts, Grand Slam in NY, etc, between All Out and Full Gear when WrestleDream would originally take place. Forbidden Door would maybe benefit and be seen as more special if it were biennial. That’s one solution to the too-tight schedule that is AEW’s late August to December, but I’m sure Tony could come up with a different or better plan if he tried, perhaps.
In this week’s volume, I talk about Orange Cassidy becoming AEW Men’s World Champion one day, share my progress and a review of Blood for the Undying Throne, and talk about Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Team Cherry’s Samus Aran, and the worst order to play the Yakuza / Like a Dragon games.
Wrestling – Orange Cassidy as AEW World Champion: Important to AEW’s legacy
In the main event of AEW All Out 2023 Orange Cassidy defended the AEW International Championship against Jon Moxley and lost after 326 days, in one of the best matches in AEW history. I already believed he could be before this, but in this reign, Orange proved himself as a main eventer, a regular TV wrestler, a member of your roster you can count on, and get behind. Since he lost the International Championship the first time, his booking has been kind of stop-and-go due to injuries and, to be honest, not capitalizing on the hype of this run. After the match with Moxley, though, Orange stood in the ring with Best Friend members Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta, and Kris Statlander as the crowd gave him a standing ovation and thanked Orange for this incredible run. The Best Friends are no longer together as a faction, but this photo of them at the end of All Out will live on forever.
Someone posted this photo in a Best Friends channel in a Discord I’m in, and said, “Honestly, this reunion will be so sweet though when OC wins the Men’s World Championship. That had me really thinking about it. AEW has a lot of amazing talent that would make great world champions, but I’ve never been of the belief that every one of them needs to be a world champion, except Orange. There is a list of people who will definitely be the men’s world champion or repeat champion. A lot of them are inevitable.
These three will be the men’s world champion multiple times.
I think Orange needs to be the men’s world champion sooner rather than later. It feels important to All Elite Wrestling‘s legacy to say yes, the man who weighs whatever from whenever should be the guy, no matter how long a reign he has. By mainstream wrestling standards, before AEW was founded, Orange as a top guy would be unconventional, but with his International Championship run, he proved he could be that guy who carried the company on his back to everyone that mattered, and even some who disagreed. Orange Cassidy is a foundational piece of All Elite Wrestling, and to have him in the lineage of one of your top titles is, in my opinion, essential.
Books – The Blood for the Undying Throne Review from Christina
I’m still working my way through The Blood for the Undying Throne by Sung-il Kim, translated by Anton Hur. I haven’t made much progress, but it is the main book I’m reading this week, and by the time next week’s edition of BGW comes out, I will likely have finished the book. In the meantime, you should read my podcast co-host Christina’s review of the book. I haven’t read it yet, just in case of spoilers, but Christina’s reviews on GeeklyInc are always smart, thoughtful, and entertaining. She edited my reviews for a long time, and when we were done they were always better than my earlier drafts.
Games – Paragon Path, Hollow Knight 3, and the Worst Like A Dragon Order.
A friend got me talking about Mass Effect because he started playing the Legacy Edition, and somehow I’ve been sucked into playing it again, and rather than continuing where I left off in Mass Effect 2 from 2021, I started a brand-new Shepard in Mass Effect 1, and I am already into the same Shepard in Mass Effect 2.
Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2, Street Fighter 4, those were my all-timer Xbox 360 games for a long time. Back then, I thought Mass Effect 2 was a perfect sequel, adding new elements that improved the game and taking away a lot of unnecessary elements from the first. Now, maybe it’s because I’ve played so much more RPGs since the early 2010s, I see it a little differently. I wish some of those elements weren’t so stripped away, the different weapon attachments that change your ammo type, the different armors, and weapons. I miss all of them now in Mass Effect 2. The way they do powers in the second game, either the biotics or the tech powers, is much improved.
Back then, there was this code at the bottom of the 1st game for your custom Shepard that I wrote down because I didn’t quite like how my Shepard looked in Mass Effect 2 when I transported it over, so I kept a .txt file that I used to do this. I still have that .txt, so the Shepard I had back then is the Shepard I’m using now, over fifteen years later. That’s kind of amazing to me.
I’ve never played Mass Effect 3 since I finished it for the first time the year it came out. To be honest, I don’t remember how I feel about the ending, but I do know that I played through Mass Effect 2 all the way through at least 7 or 8 times before ME3 came out, and after finishing the third game, I never played any of them again. I don’t think I was angry or disappointed by the ending. I just kind of felt empty about it. I remember thinking the father telling the story of “the Shepard” to his son, which meant to show how the story of Commander Shepard became a timeline myth, was just corny and poorly done. My point is, I think this time I will play Mass Effect 3 again, this time with all the DLC I missed the first time, and see how I feel about it. I’m sure I’ll write about it.
I was thinking about this. A lot of people have been making fan art of what could be the next Hollow Knight protagonist, and it had me thinking if there was another Hollow Knight game, Team Cherry should just make Hornet their Samus Aran. Hollow Knight as a series doesn’t need a new main character; they’ve already got the best one. In Silksong, Hornet felt like both an established character and developed throughout that game at the same time. In fact, she reminds me a lot of Samus. Hornet speaks with a dignified air of someone who is long-lived and is compassionate to those in Pharloom who deserve it, and shows her prideful warrior side to those who deserve that. So, like Samus visiting new planets, Hornet can go to new kingdoms, gain new powers, and continue on in as many Hollow Knight games as they like to make.
One of my favorite gaming podcasts, Into the Aether did a special episode all about Yakuza 0. One of the co-hosts Brendon Bigley has said and maintains on this podcast that the best order for three of the Like a Dragon games that star Kiryu is Yakuza Kiwami 1 to Yakuza 0 to Yakuza Kiwami 2, and I agree! Kiwami 1 is much more of a breezy introduction to the series than 0 which is a fine introduction to Kiryu and the world of Like a Dragon doesn’t exemplify exactly what you’ll be getting out of most of the Kiryu games or what Kiryu is like as a character. 0 is amazing, but Kiwami 1 is a better introduction.
Do you know what order you shouldn’t play these games in? The order that I played in them, which was pure chaos. Here is the order in which I played the games. In 2018, I played Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 6, you know, the prequel game and what was going to be the finale of Kiryu’s story. To this day, I don’t know why I did this. I think I might have picked two I had the money for at the time during a sale, and was like Oh, surely these two will be a good introduction to the series. What was I thinking? You might say, Josh, you knew about Yakuza: Like a Dragon coming out in 2020 with a new protagonist? No, I did not, but that was the game I played next. Then, when they announced Infinite Wealth would have both Kiryu and Ichiban as dual protagonists, I played Yakuza Kiwami 1 and The Man Who Erased His Name. Infinite Wealth basically took up the last quarter of 2024 because it is that damn good. This year, I played Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, followed by Yakuza Kiwami 2. So here is my Like a Dragon order in all its chaos
Yakuza 6
Yakuza 0
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Yakuza 7)
Yakuza Kiwami 1
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Yakuza Kiwami 2
A list of pure chaos, but I had fun nonetheless. The thing about Like a Dragon is, whether you know the story or not, you just have to buy in, and even if you don’t know the details, you’ll get what is at the heart of the stories, no matter which one you start at.
Books – Blood for the Undying Throne by Sung-Il Kim, translated by Anton Hur
Now that I’ve gotten the Silksong obsession out of my system, I am going to spend the time between now and the end of September catching up on some books I’ve been meaning to finish, including ones mentioned here, and starting the sequel to last year’s Blood of the Old Kings (which the first book is out on paperback now if you want to pick it up yourself). I have my copy of Blood for the Undying Throne, but I haven’t started yet. I’m literally planning to sit down and start it as soon as I finish this book, but what I expect is more of the mystery of how the Empire in the book got its iron grip over this world, and more resistance against it. The Bleeding Empire series so far somehow feels like a throwback to the late eighties – early nineties style of fantasy books, and also a breath of fresh air. One of my cohosts of No Page Unturned, our book podcast, said they can’t wait for me to read this book, as the new country they go to will remind me of Jorat in The Name of All Things by Jenn Lyons, which is one of my favorite books.
Games – More Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades 2 1.0 announced.
I have been positively obsessed with Hollow Knight: Silksong. As of writing this, I have done everything to do in the base game one hundred percent, except for one optional boss I missed in the middle part of the game, which I didn’t know was available. I have every mask, every skill, every tool, every crest, and beat the final boss literally like thirty minutes ago. This is definitely one of my top Metroidvanias of all time, and might be one of my favorite games ever. There was only one boss that I became frustrated with after completing Act I, but it always felt like it was on my part rather than the design of the boss itself. I don’t know if others are the same or different, but the patterns of bosses often take me multiple times to catch up, I think perhaps due to my not-so-great eyesight. Like, first try, I’ll see oh this attack causes this attack to pop out, oh I can pogo that I didn’t know that, or I can deflect this attack and get under them, and so forth. The last last boss definitely tested me a lot, and it took quite some time for me to finally beat them, and even then, I think I just barely squeaked by. When I beat them, I didn’t go, “Oh, I’m so glad it’s over.” I wanted to try again and see if I could do it better with different tools and different crests. No such luck so far, but like I said, I just beat it not that long ago.
I don’t want to go into detail about the story or the ending, but I do think I love the story and the characters more than the first game. Hornet’s dialogue is so good, and her interaction with the characters nails what I think her character’s voice and personality based on what we knew of her from the first game. Without spoiling the ending, I do think Team Cherry isn’t done with this franchise or Hornet, and I am looking forward to what they do next. The story of difficulty continues to be a discussion, and I’m firmly in the camp of, just like the FromSoftware games, that difficulty options should be in the games, especially accessibility options. Easier modes should be an option, but if you are able to, normal mode should at least be tried, even if you go through the game on easy mode first. That being said, I am forty now and definitely have had to take breaks from Silksong to rest my hands so they didn’t hurt later, and anyone with accessibility issues should be able to enjoy a game like this with the options available.
Anyway, I had to open my big mouth. I believe I mentioned it here, but as soon as I said Silksong was going to be my game of the year, a Nintendo Direct aired shortly afterward and announced that Supergiant’s Hades 2 was coming out of early access and into 1.0 on September 25th. That’s just next Thursday already, after Silksong has just come out on the 4th! That’s absolutely crazy, but I don’t think personally it’s going to topple Silksong or Donkey Kong Bananza from my top 2 games simply because, quite frankly, I don’t really care for roguelike games in general. There are only two I’ve liked, Hades and Dead Cells, and Hades 2 is about to become the third, most likely. Meanwhile, Metroidvanias and 3D Platformers are some of my all-time favorite genres, but my heart is open to Hades 2 being number one.
I meant to mention this last year, but some games had to get their releases out of the way when Silksong came out, and to be honest, some of them I had not heard of before it was reported about their delays. The one that stood out to me was called Demonschool, sort of Persona 1–2 meets Fire Emblem kind of deal. I think it looks really cool and just wanted to give it some love since they had to delay til November.
Wrestling – AEW All Out 2025
AEW’s All Out is this weekend, and I am excited, as 95% of the time, AEW pay-per-views are outstanding, with the occasional, but I won’t deny the build for some of the show has been a little wonky. I feel bad for Wardlow who was injured on his return and was penned in to get the AEW Men’s World Heavyweight Championship match against Hangman on the PPV, but as someone who was down on Wardlow after Double or Nothing 2022 the guy is a TV defense at beast. I much prefer the idea of TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher challenging Hangman as a fun parallel to last year’s Jack Perry (TNT) vs. Bryan Danielson (World) match. Not only that, but I’ve liked that they played with the history of Hangman at All Out by bringing up his championship match against Chris Jericho at the first All Out. Honestly, it only occurred to me this week, but the list of top heels available right now to challenge Hangman seems kind of thin, almost to a point I understand why they didn’t pull the plug on MJF’s contract for a world title match, but it doesn’t change how I feel about how dogshit that angle was before Forbidden Door.
Likewise, the build to this four-way for Toni Storm’s AEW Women’s World Heavyweight Championship has been kinda thin, especially for Toni Storm. However, women’s fourways in AEW have a long history of overdelivering, and it is another parallel to how Toni Storm won the title for the first time at All Out 2022, which also included Jamie Hayter. I’m always rooting for my girl and Long Island’s own Kris Statlander, but I am not quite sure if this is how I want her to win, nor am I too keen on her turning heel again and joining the Death Riders. Her face turn last year was badly done, but it felt like she was gaining momentum as a face after facing Mercedes Mone twice for the TBS Title in some outstanding matches from both of them, then they spent months of Kris trying to find some resolution with Willow Nightingale that never went anywhere. So, it’s not like the heel turn wouldn’t turn out well, it’s more like I feel like they’ve wasted the potential of what they were building with her as a face the past year, after an unnecessary face turn. I’d almost be more excited if it turned out Jamie Hayter was the one turning heel and joining the Death Riders, as she is hard-hitting and has a lot of history with Toni Storm. Just in general, I’d like them to do more with Statlander and Willow for the next year.
I’ll have more on All Out in next week’s post, but I will tell you that I have absolutely not given a shit about this Cope and Christian reunion against FTR. Christian is the only person in this match that I care for. Cope has been so uninteresting since his return at last year’s World’s End, and while much more entertaining as heels FTR still only does so much for me. If this match is the main, I’m going to be annoyed as either of the world champions are much more deserving, although I do prefer it being Hangman vs. Fletcher, we’ll see what happens.
Hey, it’s my website, I’m changing the order this week with Silksong as the main event.
Books – Green Bone Saga Gold Edition by Fonda Lee
I’m still reading through those two Anthony Ryan books from last week. I won’t like, I’ve only had Silksong on the brain since it released.
Not only that, but I will say, I splurged a bit and bought these fancy hardcover editions of Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga that just came out. Jade City was a book I’ve owned since it came out, but kept putting it off to my to-be-read pile until, I recall, 2021, when the final book in the series, Jade Legacy, came out. Urban Fantasy is not usually the flavor of fantasy I’m into, but this is one of those series, like A Chorus of Dragons, The Murderbot Diaries, or The First Law, that instantly clicked, and I knew instinctively, “Oh, this is going to be one of my favorite series ever after this.”
It’s a family crime drama with magical Jade that gives you superhuman abilities that result in some of my favorite fight scenes in fiction. The characters are beyond flawed, to put it more bluntly, they’re fucked up, and you’ll love them even when you hate them or the decision they make.
Wrestling – Third Stretch is the Charm for Kenny Omega
All the complaints about the closing angle for Kenny Omega this week on AEW Dynamite, I read, were fairly on point about not having good payoffs. The Elite sent him home last year, with Jack Perry bragging about it. Kenny returns and doesn’t immediately retaliate against the Elite. Jack Perry is also nowhere to be found. Okada and Don Callis attack him again before their match at All In brutally, with blood coming out of his mouth, Kenny ends up losing and taking about a month and a half off. Last week, it was hype city for a Hangman and Kenny reunion. Now, the Don Callis family, namely Kyle Fletcher, beat the shit out of him, and he’s stretchered off with Hangman distraught. I am unsure of where this is leading for Kenny Omega, and yet, I must admit, I still remain invested in this one, probably because Hangman was involved, to be honest. Will it have a proper payoff? I’m not sure, but if All Out ends up being AEW World Champion Hangman Adam Page vs TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher, it’d be a funny little parallel to last year’s AEW World Champion Bryan Danielson vs. TNT Champion Jack Perry. I think, if they had set this up maybe a week or two before the reaction, it might have been better because more time for Hangman and Kenny to really be seen together, maybe more than one match with some talking segments, whether backstage or in the ring, would really have had people on the hook. If Kenny comes back and does not interact with Hangman upon his return, I’ll likely be more critical of this whole scenario. We will see.
Games – Hollow Knight Silksong
It’s finally arrived, Hollow Knight Silksong is real, it’s finished, it’s released, it’s everything I wanted from a sequel to Hollow Knight, and it’s difficult as hell. I thought, hey, I’ve played a fuck ton of Hollow Knight, how hard could the sequel be? The beginning of the game does not ease you in but throws you into the deep end. I really don’t want to go on and on about the difficulty, because that is what so many people are talking about. Act I is difficult because you start with basically nothing, but you get new upgrades and new abilities and learn the patterns of the enemies as well as your own combat. It’s kind of like learning a fighting game in that way. Bosses doing double damage, something only late-stage Hollow Knight bosses did in the first one, was rough, as well as those rooms that were basically a gauntlet of dudes. In fact, I find those gauntlet rooms far tougher than the bosses. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s my horrible eyesight, but I’ve always had trouble seeing the whole screen. It’s why I have such trouble with that piano mini-game in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth. Wait, no, it’s probably not an issue of seeing the whole screen but having to be closer to the screen because my vision is not great. The platforming, though, specifically the red flowers in Hunter’s March, that’s the kind of thing in Hollow Knight that I loved. Sure, you might mess up and die, but once you find the rhythm, especially with Hornet’s diagonal down attack, it’s really fun. I’ll tell you now, you’d better learn to do it because you’re going to be doing it a lot and in far more treacherous areas than Hunter’s March.
“This is probably my game of the year,” he says about Silksong, like he said about Deltarune Chapters 3+4, Donkey Kong Bananza, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. The First Berserker: Khazan, Monster Hunter Wilds. I probably would have said it about Shinobi: Art of Vengeance too, if I hadn’t already known SIlksong was coming out. However, I will say, more than any other game I’ve just mentioned, except for maybe Donkey Kong Bananza, Silksong has caused me to lose time in the joy of playing it. I’ll sit down and be like, I’ll just play for an hour, and suddenly the sun has gone down, and my stomach is rumbling for some reason. People hate this, but like Dark Souls, both Hollow Knights have this atmosphere of melancholy and a society decaying that draws you in, but the bugs are all so joyful, cute, and bring a smile to your face plus, and I love the stories of FromSoftware games don’t get me wrong, the stories of both games are much more straightforward with all this lore underneath you can choose to what level you want to engage in. Silksong‘s plot is basically Hornet gets kidnapped, taken to this far-off land called Pharloom, and has to find out who and why by ascending to the Citadel above. It’s much more complicated than that, but that’s basically all you need to know to start the game. The NPCs in this game, I love them, all these little bug friends of mine, especially Sherma, whom I just want to make all their dreams come true. His little song for the gate I will never forget.
Metroidvanias (No, I will not nor will I ever call them Search Action games) have to be one of the best genres of video games, top 5 easily. The satisfaction of finding a secret, beating a boss, getting a new upgrade, discovering new areas you didn’t know about before, and going back to areas with secrets you couldn’t get before is one of the most satisfying things in video games. Games are all about the illusion of achievement, and Metroidvanias nail that to a T. I know that now that I said Hollow Knight: Silksong is my game of the year, I just know Supergiant Games is going to announce Hades 2 is coming out of Early Access and into version 1.0 before the year ends. Still, I think, as of right now, Hollow Knight Silksong might be one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. No doubt, I will still be playing it and talking about it next week.
If you want to see my current Games of the Year + games of 2025 I want to play, you can check out my full Backlogged list here. My Top 10 is as follows
Before we jump straight into it, I will say while this will focus on my main hobbies, Books, Games, and Wrestling, I do have other interests that I will comment on from time to time, like TTRPGs, Music, NBA, and Anime in much shorter comments at the end, but very briefly.
Books – An Anthony Ryan double-whammy, The Feeding and Born of an Iron Storm
I’m delving into two Anthony Ryan books recently that could not be more different. I’m still early in The Feeding, and I purposely didn’t read the description, so I have no idea what the Feeding actually is, but from what I surmise, this is a post-Zombie-like apocalypse set behind what may be the last human settlement fortified by walls that keep out the feeders. The remains of humankind seem desperately low on resources, but are trying to survive. They send out people to trade with other remaining settlements to trade for supplies, which hasn’t been going well. I can feel the desperation of everyone living in the settlement and the rising tension of hearing the people who go outside the walls not coming back with supplies. The horror of the feeders has not quite hit yet, but the way the setup for the plot is going, it looks like the main character, Layla, will be going out into the remains of the world soon. I’m looking forward to it.
Now, Born of an Iron Storm, I’m much further in. Ryan is so good at jumping straight back into where he leaves off in the previous book, and this follow-up to A Tide of Black Steel jumps right into it. I won’t spoil what happens, but my favorite, I don’t know what you would call it, a trope, concept, recurring story idea? Anyway, I love it in a fantasy book with multiple Point of View characters is when the branches of the story start all separate but then as the series goes on the branches begin to converge like for example a side character of one POV character in the first book has something happen to them only to end up in POV chapters of another character in second book. This is starting to emerge in Born of an Iron Storm and I’m loving it.
I have never played a Shinobi game ever, but I saw the art style for this game and saw someone describe the combat as made for people who love fighting games, and I had to have it. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is so much fun. The combat is simple but has the capacity for a ton of combos that only expand as you play through the story, unlock new abilities, and buy new attacks. The platforming is not as complex as the game it’s going to be compared to the most, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, but still robust enough for in between bouts of combat. To 100% it you’ll definitely have to revisit stages as you gain abilities, but the different fights and stages you reach with those new abilities feel worth revisiting earlier stages. The bosses are so much fun, challenging the first time and fun to just destroy when you figure out their patterns the second time, especially as you learn to juggle and chain combos. I’m a sucker for skins, so having multiple colors for Joe Musashi rules, but in my opinion, every game that has skins should count how many they have and add four or five more. Once more, I have to say the art, the backgrounds, the details of the characters, and the music are outstanding. This is a great game to play right before Silksong comes out. I want to take my time with it, but I also want to beat it before Hollow Knight: Silksong comes out, since I know that will completely take over my brain.
There are some other games I’ve been playing alongside Shinobi. I tried the Lost Soul Aside demo and did not care for it. It looks pretty, but the gameplay feels floaty, and the combat is not for me. I’m nearing the end of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and I find this game difficult to talk about. I like it a lot, especially the combat, but I find the characters and story kind of flat and sometimes frustrating. It’s wild to say I both feel like this is one of the best games of the year and also largely overrated. It has a lot of flaws, I feel like they aren’t acknowledged, but also the game rules. It’s a bit of a conundrum for me. Thanks to getting a new PC, I’m finally playing DOOM: The Dark Ages. Between the gameplay involving the shield, the weapons, and the melee, like the flair, the game is so much fun, but who told id Software that we wanted more story from DOOM? I’m enjoying it, but it’s a bit much, and the story is not why anyone plays DOOM. Lastly, so many games deemed as cozy usually are not in fact cozy at all, especially ones that simulate labor. Tiny Bookshop, however, is actually cozy. You drive a bookmobile to a location, you suggest books to customers, you buy more books to sell, you decorate your bookmobile. I play it a lot before bed and it is fact, quite cozy.
Wrestling – Bandido vs. Hechicero is must see.
Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor was last Friday, unfortunately, during my D&D game, so I did not get to see most of it live, but our session did end just in time to see the first half of Bandido vs. Hechicero for the Ring of Honor Men’s World Heavyweight Title. I knew it was going to be great, but I was sure that before the show, they had wrestled one-on-one before this, which was incorrect. Coming into it, I had no doubt of the outcome, but Hechicero did a great job of countering Bandido’s offense in the early parts of the match that sold the idea of him and his manager, Don Callis, having the champion scouted out.
Despite Hechicero’s size, Bandido was able to show impressive feats of strength against his opponent and, combined with his agility, displayed technical prowess to counter the submissions and holds Hechicero was more of an expert in. Likewise, despite his larger size and focus on technical wrestling, Hechicero was not intimidated by Bandido’s high-flying maneuvers. There is a sequence where the challenger ducks and weaves out of Bandido’s handspring backflip, only to be caught in a hurricanrana that he immediately flips out from and onto his feet. Spots like this resulted in Bandido not only needing to escalate his offense, but also the amount of risks he needed to take to retain his title. The crowd didn’t like it when Bandido returned the favor, beginning to pull on Hechicero’s mask, but I do believe in babyfaces who sometimes reach a limit of what they’ll take from their heel opponents. The suplex on the barricade was genuinely brutal (positive), and a lot of Bandido’s offense that led to the ending was like fuck-yous in wrestling move form. In the end, this is definitely one of my matches of the year, and I believe I loved it more than the match with Konosuke Takeshita, which was also amazing and worth seeking out.
Due to a problem with the stream on Ring of Honor’s website, Tony decided to put the show up for free on YouTube so you can check out the match for yourself, which I have time-stamped here.
AEW Dynamite was great, AEW Collision was good, yeah yeah yeah. What I want to end this with is this week on AEW Dynamite, I was hooting and hollering for one reason and one reason only, The AEW Men’s World Heavyweight Champion Hangman Adam Page reunited with his former tag team partner and faction member of the Elite, another former world champion, the Best Bout Machine himself, Kenny Omega. That’s all I thought about all episode UNTIL they announced they’d be reuniting not just in a segment but in a match that airs TODAY on AEW Dynamite. Insert more hooting and hollering.
Music I’m currently listening to: The Beaches’ new album No Hard Feelings, just came out and I’m really digging it, especially the single Last Girls at the Party and Did I Say Too Much
Anime I’m watching: I must confess that I love romance anime, and Season 2 of My Dress-Up Darling is escalating the rising romantic tension between Marin and Gojo so sweetly and nicely. I really want to watch The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity, but goddamn, a Netflix subscription is so expensive now. I don’t regret canceling it a year ago, but letting the money go when I had an active subscription was easier than joining now at the current price point. It just doesn’t seem worth it.
I’m not going to give a long explanation yet to what this is or why I’m writing, because before I know it, I’ll have a thousand words, and that’ll be this entire post before I get to the point of the thing. To sum it up, I want to write about what I like in a shorter format than my book reviews on Geeklyinc.com or on No Page Unturned. I love books, I love video games, and I love wrestling, hence Book, Games, Wrestling. I hear the Aesop Rock song Food, Clothes, Medicine when I say it, but here we go before I get off track again.
Book – Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
My review will be up soon enough, but I have to say, my reading habits this summer have been such a mess. My To-Be-Read pile has grown too tall this summer, yet my reading habits have been subpar. Fall and Winter are such better reading seasons for me as someone who doesn’t do well in the heat.
Automatic Noodle, though, has been a book I’ve been thinking about since I first heard about it. The premise is essentially set in an unidentified future, where robots want to, for once, serve good food to their patrons and are given an opportunity, out of sheer luck, to open their own noodle shop. It’s labelled as cozy, but there is definitely a cloud of desperation hanging over most of the plot, both from the bots, the humans, and the overall world that is in the vibe of a dystopian future run by megacorporations that we seem to be getting a lot of, gee, wonder why? The feeling of dread and oppression is not what I would call cozy, but I’d still recommend it regardless.
I mean, just because it’s marketed as cozy but doesn’t mean it’s not an interesting read. The oppression of sentient robots is a subject I’m sure will be explored more as technology advances and more rights get taken away in the United States and beyond. I will admit I’m holding back for my review, pretty sure, but I really enjoy how Newitz makes each of the bots distinct.
Game – Hollow Knight – Team Cherry
Silksong is real and will be out as of this post in a little over a week. I’ve done everything but the Godmaster DLC on the Switch edition of Hollow Knight because by the time it was out, I was already finished with Hollow Knight, at over 100%. Plus, in 2018, on the Nintendo Switch, I remember being kind of insane, as well as my life at the time being kind of insane. When I bought a Steam Deck last August, Hollow Knight was one of the first games I bought during the next Steam sale because, quite honestly, though it had been six years since I played it, I still felt it was one of the greatest games of all time or at least one of my greatest games of all time.
Now that Silksong is coming out, I felt it was time to play it on PC/Steam Deck. It was like riding a bike again to be honest, and I was aiming to get that achievement of beating the game at 100% under 20 hours. I got very close at about 20 hours and 23 minutes, so annoyingly close. I do not remember there being achievements on the Switch edition; it probably had in-game quests as the equivalent, but it’s not quite the same. Take or leave achievements, I do often find them fun, even if Steam achievements feel lesser than other platforms. I’ve left just enough time between Hollow Knight playthroughs that the challenge remains thrilling, yet not so much that the backtracking feels tedious, while retaining enough memory to avoid repetition. I’ve already beaten it, and once I did, I thought to myself, “Oh shit, it’s still not September 4th.” I started a new file, intending to hopefully get that achievement this time, and also to leave Zote to die, the ungrateful little shit that he is.
Wrestling – AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025
The build to Forbidden Door was messy, it’s always messy, and to be quite honest, even with the mess I still do find it fun. However, a lot of MJF’s creative ideas I do not find fun, and it felt like, with the stipulations he had forced Hangman to agree to under the pretense that he was going to light Mark Briscoe on fire, that I’m being forced to watch Triple H from the early and mid 2000s reborn. In 2023, I was annoyed with MJF, but in 2025, I’m just tired of it. His promos to all his opponents feel the same; his nicknames for his opponents are all terrible, not in a fun way, but in a way that makes me want to look at my Steam Deck and continue playing Hollow Knight. It just feels all the same. But Josh, you might ask, isn’t that just what heels do? Well, I’m not sick of what Kyle Fletcher and the Don Callis family are doing, nor since All In am I sick of what Jon Moxley and the Death Riders are doing. Ricochet with the Gates of Agony is quite interesting, and Christian Cage, who often has the same edgelord shtick as MJF, quite frankly does it better because he’ll do enough to at least give me the illusion of changing it up. Except for Christian, the difference between a lot of those heels and MJF is that they actually wrestle quite frequently. Maybe if MJF took up so much TV time wrestling as well as promos and segments I might feel different but as of right now, I’m quite tired of MJF.
This isn’t about MJF, though; it’s about Forbidden Door, and despite Max’s terribly convoluted idea for a finish, yes, I am one hundred percent sure it was his idea because it reminded me of the era of WWE I know he loves. Hangman’s world title defense against him, I thought, was excellent before that. It’s how I felt about the pay-per-view overall, quite good overall. Hiromu Takahashi looked great against Kyle Fletcher. Toni Storm defeated Athena in what I thought was a very good match, but I thought they might be holding back for a future rematch. I took a break during the beginning of the tag title match and came back just in time to see some mysterious masked men drive the Hurt Syndicate back to the airport before Bandido could even get the pin on whichever member of FTR was pinned (I think Dax? Don’t correct me, I do not care.). Bozilla, Persephone, and Alex Windsor all showed out for the four-way against Mercedes Mone for the TBS Title, impressing me with ideas I don’t think I’ve seen in four-ways before, and it felt like Mercedes made sure to make them all look good in defeat. Swerve versus Okada might have bee my match of the night. Say what you want about Okada’s efforts I felt he really put his all or at the very least 90% into his defense of the Unified Title against Swerve. The main event lights-out cage match, was both fun and intense, and if this is the last we see from Ospreay and Swerve in a while, it was a great showing by both of them.
Was it my favorite Forbidden Door? No. Was it the best Forbidden Door? I don’t think so either but I felt happy watching it, and when it was over, I was more curious about what was going to happen next rather than worried about the direction AEW was going.
If the rumors are true and they are doing another Persona fighting game, like Persona 5 Arena or whatever they’re going to call it, just the Persona users alone from the various P5 games make up a good roster.
You got from Persona 5/Royal: Ren – Joker Morgana – Mona Ryuji – Skull Ann – Panther Akechi – Crow Yusuke – Fox Makoto – Queen Futaba – Navi Haru – Noir Kasumi – Violet Dr. Maruki
From Persona 5 Strikers: Sophia – Sophie Zenkichi – Wolf
From the new mobile game Persona 5 Phantom X: Protagonist – Wonder Luffy the Owl – Cattle Motoha – Closer
And there appear to be some other Persona users in the game who are not part of the main cast that could be good playable roster members. The game hasn’t come out yet, so it’s difficult to say.
Then Persona 5 Tactica appears to have a new playable character named Erina, though I don’t know if they’re a Persona user yet.
Plus, since Persona 4 Arena had attendants as playable characters, I imagine they’ll do two for this one—Caroline & Justine as a duo character and then Lavenza.
Since Persona 4 Arena had original characters, too, I imagine a P5A game would do the same. So likely a new original Phantom Thief and a new original Palace user who is also a Persona user, like Dr. Maruki (who would give him a reason to be involved, maybe).
So that’s 21 roster members right off the bat, throw in characters that appeared in P4A, and that’s a stacked roster.
I can easily imagine them using Mementos as a sort of tower of fights you go through, as that had many layers, and each one is never the same when you go to it, perfect for randomizing the battle in an Arcade More or some such.
If there is a new Phantom Thief, I would prefer it instead of it being a random unknown person; they make Shiho a phantom thief. The game can take place after enough time that Shiho has recovered and is in her new school, and she can have the emotional growth to want to stand up for what she believes in a way that will awaken a Persona within her.
Honestly, the setup is straightforward, with lots of characters to choose from, and the concept of palaces could continue the story. P5 is stylish and has plenty of characters and hooks you can pull to make a great fighting game and continue the Phantom Thieves’ story.
The hardest part will be the gameplay. People will expect whoever is developing it, I assume ArcSystemWorks, to improve upon Arena’s gameplay without straying too far from it. Maybe they should, though; P5 is a very different beast than P4. Perhaps gameplay built from the ground up is a better idea. Possibly being a tag fighter would be better, considering the importance of the baton pass in Persona 5’s battles.
Whatever direction they take, I hope the rumor is true. I love Persona 3 and 4, but 5 was my first, and from my perspective, it’s always someone’s first Persona they’re attached to the most. On top of that, I love fighting games, and even though last year they released Persona 4 Arena Ultimax with a rollback netcode, not many people were playing it, and those who were far outranked me in experience in the game. Therefore I’d love to get a new Persona fighting game to start fresh with.
FourofFiveWits 