Caves of Qud is...wait I'm sorry, Hugo Award winner for best Interactive Work Caves of Qud is only not getting its own entry because for as much time as I've sunk into it, I didn't take that many screenshots of my time in the wastes and I think we've all learned by now I'm a highly visual person.

If you haven't played Caves of Qud there's no better time than now. It may look like a 'simple old dos game' (which like, if that's a dealbreaker for you, you don't deserve fun) but the simulation level and writing for this game is off the charts deep in ways you can't possibly comprehend from looking at it. There are eons of history generated with each run and your experience will be vastly different every time. It didn't win a goddamned Hugo award for "interactive work" for nothing.

You make a character, you explore the wastes, you get a tongue fungus and die. You make a character, you explore the wastes, you meet bear people who ask you to uncover the ancient lost technology of the compact disc. (Then you die to robot turrets). You make a character, you explore the wastes, you become the god of the babboon people. There is so much replayability built into this motherfucker it's hard to grasp how they pulled it all off. (The secret it turns out is doing this for a decade as a labor of love and then get funding for a graphical overhaul and a 1.0 release)

Anyway, if you (like me circa 2024) have seen or heard about this immense work and have been unsure how to start, there's no time like the present. The 1.0 release contains numerous, new-player friendly modes and presets you can get the feel for. The 'Roleplay' mode allows for saving every time you go to a town instead of the more traditional 'autosaves every action, if you die you die, rest in violence and start over'.

Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog

This game was sold to me on the premise that it's like playing through a 90's Mech OVA and like. Look at it, the Gundam 08th MS Team vibes ooze in every pixel (a show I legitimately don't like for story and character reasons but 90's OVA money was wild and the animation of that show is gorgeous) to the point of almost parody; that's effectively Karen Joshua in the center of the key art.

You're a mech pilot who is the sole survivor of a massacre purely on a technicality and the game has you visual-novel your way around your new ship assignment and deal with your feelings about what happened.

I haven't gotten too far into it because I want to make sure I give it the appropriate space; it'll be something I pick away at in the months to come. (Plus this is apparently the first in a series, I'm intrigued)

FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles

You know the score on this, man. It's a great game. Final Fantasy Tactics is a fucking great game - but I don't think I have really anything new to say about it with this remaster / re-release that's specific to that. I've rolled credits on iterations of this game over well over 15 times at this point and anything more to say feels extreme.

The game comes with the original version and the updated; I briefly played the original as a test but spent most of my time with the updated version and the quality of life improvements help A LOT.

It's really hard to get a game over at the infamous Wiegraf fight, random encounters are skippable so as to avoid overlevelling your gang; The Ivalice Chronicles is pretty much the definitive way to play Final Fantasy Tactics, and you should if you like turn based strategy games.

My only real regret here is that I didn't pick it up on Switch - FFT on iOS has been a constant companion for me and it's not the same playing a non-touchscreen version of it on phone via Steam Link. It's not stopping me from doing it but it does feel funny to be loading the PC version of the game on my computer and playing it on my phone when I have a phone version already installed. I guess that speaks to the overall improvements of the Ivalice Chronicles version of the game.

Chained Echoes: Ashes of Elrant

I have really high hopes for this one. Chained Echoes is this game I have a frustrating relationship with; it is a good game with some baffling flaws that I know I overlooked because I really enjoyed the creator's vision of a modern, FFVI and Suikoden (among others)-inspired JRPG done in the style of those older games. I've written about it on the blog before, go check that out!

It's a surprising title that, when contrasted to something middling like Sea of Stars (which purports to do the same thing but for Chrono Trigger nostalgia and fails fucking miserably) feels like a revolutionary work of art. So when a DLC was announced I watched with interest.

I didn't really know what to expect when Ashes of Elrant was announced because I felt the game's story had pretty much been told, but I wanted to support the dev and grabbed this as soon as it was available.

Regretfully, a few hours in and I'm kind of only seeing the things I overlooked as problems weighing down the original on display. The quips, the weird writing choices, the contrived plot reasons you can't use a mech to explore certain areas, the faux edginess:

So why's it on this list of good games for the year?

My mind could change on this as I get further! When I started OG Chained Echoes I was REALLY on the fence about it; it wasn't until I got to the mid/lategame that I ended up really sold. At launch I was stomaching it, but by midway through 2023 it was probably one of my favorite games that had come out in recent memory - so maybe I'll have a similar experience here? I'm giving it space. Though maybe lightning striking twice is too much to ask for. You'll notice I kept this title at the end.