Backloggin’ the Year – Sam’s Sojourn, Year End Wrap-Up
There has been a lot happening in my life over the last few months, and it’s been a whirlwind. I have some newfound health goals that I am working on achieving. I’m already missing hiking season (yes, I am aware you can hike in the winter, but… I hate winter). I’m looking forward to the New Year, as it means I’ll have some new goals to work towards, and while I would say I was mostly successful on my personal goals for 2025, I feel short in a few areas. The main goal of 2026 is to prioritize myself, which, if anyone knows me and knows me well, I’m generally an utter failure at that. It means doing a better job of listening to my body, recognizing when I need rest, and having as many adventures as I can outdoors.
Fall hikes, fall vibes…
Despite all my lofty personal goals, I have to say I ended up with too many games in 2025, to the point where my stockpile feels very large. I had some failings when it came to sales, but I have also played a chunk of what I bought, too. If there is one thing I love about winter, it is that it becomes prime gaming time for me. I make a hot beverage, I work through a few titles, and my backlog feels like it’s being tackled. I also didn’t write a lot for the site these last three months because I wanted to play some of the stuff in my own collection, but with a new year upon us, I feel like you’ll see more writing from me soon enough.
As always for this feature, I’m only going to focus on the games I haven’t written articles or reviews about. If you would like to read more of my in-depth thoughts on those titles, check out the following:
RPGs I Played
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Usually, I tend to be the person who poops on popular games with a ton of hype. While I had been keeping my eye on Clair Obscur, and then when all the rave reviews came in (including one from our own Ryan Costa), the game became a much higher priority to play. I have to admit, the game made me cry far too many times, which is a testament to how powerful the narrative was (or if I am an easy crier, both could be true). I loved watching these characters grow and wander through such a strange yet vibrant world. I loved this game so much, I have been pushing it on my coworkers because I’ve wanted people to talk to about it. Also, I can’t remember the last time I adored a game’s soundtrack in its entirety. I’m looking forward to getting my copy back so I can tackle some of the post-game content and perhaps force my spouse and bestie to play it. Easily, Clair Obscur is probably my favourite RPG I played in 2025.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles — Final Fantasy Tactics is the best Final Fantasy. Statement stop. This has been my favourite Final Fantasy game since I was a child, spending many of my summers as a kid replaying it with different job builds. I really loved this remaster, as the voice acting was such a fantastic touch, and it was great to finally know how to pronounce certain characters’ names… like Wiegraf! I thought it was Why-graf, but no, it is Wee-graf! I won’t lie, I didn’t savour this replay very well and found myself completing the game and the majority of its side content in less than three weeks. I just love the story so much, and it provides all the family and political drama a person could want. If you have not played this classic, you should, because there is a reason why this game often makes Best Of lists.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak — I finally did it! I beat another Trails game. It only took me over a year of on-and-off play to finally take down Trails through Daybreak, which I did enjoy. Still, much like a lot of the games in the series, I tend to start strong, the game hits a lull where I seem to care less about what is happening in the plot and put it down, and then pick it up again, only to be addicted and needing to know how it ends. I loved the cast in this game; the combat was solid, but some parts definitely dragged in the middle, and I find this series can be a bit bloated with content to do. It’s not a bad thing, it’s more that I need to be in the headspace where I want to do that. I’ve heard the second game isn’t as great, so I may end up putting it off for a bit and going back to Cold Steel III or the remake of Sky FC. I also want to know why everyone calls Van an old man — he’s twenty-four!
Weird and Unfortunate Things Are Happening — At some point, I feel like I should review this game for the site, because it really deserves more attention. Weird and Unfortunate Things Are Happening is an RPGMaker game, but it has excellent writing, interesting characters and world-building, and the stakes of what is happening feel strong and unnerving. Its combat system encourages the use of status effects, which I think is a great concept given that many characters in RPGs have status effect abilities, but it’s not the forefront of the game’s overall battle system. Also, our heroine uses a baseball bat to slay enemies in true horror film fashion. I stan Alicia’s ability to twack baddies with a bat. In all seriousness, the game is free on Steam and is absolutely worth checking out if you’re looking for something budget-friendly and with a great use of horror tropes throughout.
All the Non-RPG Goodness
I played so many excellent games throughout October to December. I found a bunch of new cozy games and visual novels, and I thought I’d share some of the ones I played. I was trying so hard not to spend money on the recent Steam sales and failed, but I also ended up completing most of what I got. In terms of point-and-click games and visual novels, I played through I Have No Mouth, I Must Scream, which might be one of the most difficult and uncomfortable point-and-click games I have played in my life (and if you have played it, you know what I mean!). Bard Harder! is a cute game about trying to smooch a darklord, and Man I Just Want to Go Home is in a category of its own for strange visual novels that do a great job of making you want to explore every route possible because the story is written in such a tight and interesting way.
During Extra Life, I ended up streaming on the RPGamer channel some Dream Daddy (we dated the broest of bros, Craig). Then, upon completing that, I ended up working my way through the terrible classic Night Trap… and I never want to touch it again. Then, throughout November and December, I worked through some of my cozy games like Spilled! where you play a little boat that cleans oil spills, and Is This Seat Taken?, A fantastic and smart puzzle game about seating arrangements. I also put over sixty hours into Power Wash Simulator, and I finished the Resident Evil 2 Remake because my coworker demanded I play it, because he didn’t understand why I played the RE3 Remake first. The answer was that I owned that one first, duh. Overall, I completed nine non-RPGs, and most of them were pretty fabulous.
Whatcha Playing Now, Sam?
I don’t think I will be finishing anything new before we all move into 2026, which is okay given I finished 46 games this year! That being said, I started Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which I got on a deep discount. I am deep into Chapter 7 and have just met Cosmos, who, of course, I love, because he is a talking Labrador Retriever. The game itself is surprisingly a lot of fun, as is the banter that happens between the cast of characters. I’m looking forward to diving into it more as I have time.
That’s a wrap on Backloggin’ the Year 2025! I hope 2026 is happy, healthy, and full of some great new games for everyone to enjoy! Happy New Year!
2025 Final Game Tally
Games Completed: 46
# of RPGs Completed: 21
# of Non-RPGs Completed: 24
# of Games Purchased: 13
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