crazy year for unlisted obscura too (all those baroques!)

and finally shouts to all the homages i need to get to: night striker gear, earthion, salamander 3, birdcage, tetris grandmaster

and the new stuff silent hill f, dreams of another, octopath zero and implausibly, the new inazuma and digimon

5. milano’s odd job collection: a westone wonder

4. lunar 2: the most an epilogue has ever done for a game

3. dq1&2: the funniest use of ‘remaster’ yet

2. saga frontier 2: it was all leading up to this, king kawazu forever

1. raidou 1: a modern atlus reimagining i was happy with, it's a miracle

2. stray children: an absolutely challenging work, designed to defy any ranking exercise

1. promise mascot agency: perfectly meticulous fussiness and busywork in service of a perfectly crafted world. next time pls remove the portraits i only need to see those beautiful ps2 era models thanks!

4. donkey kong bananza: some marvelous level work marred by the unwanted arrival of a stupid looking cr**

3. road to empress: beyond the memes and my lack of cdrama experience this was genuinely surprising at each turn, smartly designed, hilariously well produced

7. blue prince: 90 hrs of roguelike-like tricks, if only the worldbuilding text and art was not diminished in service of the clue-scouring
6. clair obscur: i will never talk about this game again
5. mario kart world: the open world is actually p. great when you have that soundtrack buoying it all

10. dear me, i was …: r.i.p. cing :(
9. the keeper: r.i.p. my gamepass sub in 3 months and d.i.a.f. microsoft
8. to a t: r.i.p. keita my hero

(i promise these titles will become more scrutable as they go)

at least the ESRB excerpts appear to be somewhat ... colorful

love how even the most linear and 'straightforward' saga is still wild as hell, incredible game

saga emoji saga emoji

having listened thru i can now say this was worth the years long journey: correcting the record on breath of fire, shouts to hilltop getting the bag for milano, getting a tetris grandmaster track on the interstitials, this pod had it all! pls come back monthly.

haha tbh i been listening to other shows for the last several years but this is the type of thing designed to bring me back!

ayyy zupapa that's been on the wishlist for years, now to decide where to get it

slightly more than me i guess