Steam Wishlist for 2026

in anticipation:

2022 Steam Replay, PS Recap

 A fun way to cap off the year. 

Steam Wishlist

 

A snapshot of the type of indie games I'm looking forward to playing on Steam

Caught up on JRPGs FFVIIR and P5

Wrapped up playing Final Fantasy VII Remake last month and Persona 5 over the last week. I think what I'm left with is the imprint of the character designers at the pinnacle of their work.

25 years on, Cloud and crew are iconic as ever. Kept in the zeitgeist by Square Enix's dedicated investment into spin-offs and media. I'd actually mostly familiarized myself this cast without playing the original FF7 (only made it a few hours in). I read the lore, script, and watched the animated OVA and movies. The characters somehow hit the sweet spot of being a fresh archetype for gamers in that generation. In the remake, they aren't as wordy as they would be in a text-based classic RPG, but I think it works to the advantage of letting the characters express themselves through motion and just showing themselves as visual marvels on screen. They 100% brought these characters to life again. Though Yuffie wasn't in the main campaign, she's naturally my favourite character here.

Persona 5's another story altogether. I started playing this one about 4 or 5 years ago, and was immediately enthralled except for the challenge of its length. After nearly finishing the second Palace, I put it on the shelf until 2021 when I picked it up again on the PS5, easily accessible in the Plus Collection. This is another game oozing with cool, filled with unique, recognizable characters that slowly opens up the more time you spend with them. It wasn't until continuing the game that there was a wave of introduction of confidants and I found the motivation to build relationships with them. And it was rewarding, too, to follow each of the character's struggles as they tried to better the world, and as they tried to overcome their own self-doubt and weaknesses. The game was a heartfelt reminder that change is achievable with support and resolve. My favourite addition to the party was Makoto.

2021 A Year in Games

Quick list of games played in 2021:

Genshin Impact, Cyberpunk 2077, Artifact, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Seek Etyliv, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Dyson Sphere Program, Final Fantasy XV, Valorant, Concrete Genie, Control, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, God of War, Knockout City, Virtua Fighter 5, Wild Rift, Industries of Titan, Naraka: Bladepoint, Hunter's Arena, Florence, Superliminal, DotA 2, League of Legends, Battlerite, Runeterra, Hitman 3, Bright Memory: Infinite, Legion TD 2, Titanfall 2, MageQuit

In progress:

Pathless, Persona 5, Kena: Bridge of Spirits

Sampled:

Timelie, Shadwen, Loop Hero, Rhythm Fighter, A Plague Tale: Innocence

Thoughts:

This year, I've had more interest in classic JRPGs and shooters.  Both in the style of high fidelity experiences, action cutscenes and a clear throughline story with memorable set-pieces.  The music in FFXV set the tone of a grand epic.  That followed with a lot of focused, fun time in FFVII Remake and Persona 5  Voice acting went a long way to make the character drama come to life.

The weakest genre as of late has been stealth.  I did play Cyberpunk 2077 with a stealth build, so perhaps that covered my needs there.  Maybe the military backdrops of that and Metal Gear / Splinter Cell franchises are more compelling to me.   As for the other, more traditional hard stealth games, I found that there was a tradeoff where the designs had a lot of tutorializing of stealth mechanics that I did not have the patience to get past.  The puzzle-like elements of early stealth games felt restrictive and bland, as I'd have seen these before from past experience.

Competitive games were fun (as always) but a bit of a struggle this year.  Without dedicated time to study and master the strategies, it was harder to keep up across multiple multiplayers games.  These are still very fun, I thoroughly enjoyed Hunter's Arena, Virtua Fighter 5, Knockout City, MageQuit, and Naraka a lot, especially in the early learning curves just after each game's launch.  I'm happy to play out a season in each one and see how I rank compared to other players.  But there's no chase to be the top 1% for me here.  Mastery is a bit out of reach without focus.

Biggest surprise and enjoyment was Superliminal.  It spoke directly to me as a game developer, by showing the backstage elements of creative work.  

Ultimately, I'm reminiscing on Nier: Automata.  This is the masterpiece that come back to me a lot, especially through the soundtrack.  I've picked up the prequel remake Nier: Replicant ver 1.22474487139... and it's going to be my focus for 2022.

Anticipated games of 2022/23:

God of War: Ragnarok, Elden Ring, Sifu, Final Fantasy XVI, Astrea: Six Sided Oracles, Endless Dungeon, Citizen Sleeper

Losing Streaks and Winning Streaks

Sometimes you get stuck in a rut and perform poorly for a long while.  Last week my 8-game lose streak in league of legends was difficult to get through.

But situations like these come in waves.  Losing can put you in a poor mentality that is difficult to come back from.  

The momentum can go both ways!

Once you get over that hump and change your mentality, you can find the start of a winning streak.  That first win can give you the push for you to outperform your own expectations, and maintain it consistently afterwards.

Losing!

And then winning!