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As part of our ThanksGAMING event for the end of the year, I want to take time to elevate and appreciate the people in gaming I admire or inspire me – whether they are content creators, journalists, or developers.  Jay Gary is a writer, YouTuber, and former fighting game commentator who I have followed for a while on several social media sites, and I’ve loved the work he has done across a variety of subjects. From his articles on supercombo.gg  to his detailed video essays on the RPGs of yesteryear, Jay’s work is always insightful, taking you places you may not expect at first glance. Thankfully, Jay was gracious enough to chat with me about his content, passions, and other aspects of his life. To kick things off, I wanted to give Jay the opportunity to introduce himself in his own words for anyone who wasn’t aware of what he did already. “Hello! My name is Jay “IdolismJ” Gary! What you know me for depends on where you’re coming from. I’ve been a person of interest in the fighting game community for a long time, I’ve been running a YouTube channel for video game essays for the past couple years, and there’s even a chance you know me because my belly went quintuple-platinum on Twitter back in 2020. I get around.” Twitter is where I first came across Jay on social media, no doubt. Before it became a Nazi hellsite, I spent an inordinate amount of time there reading up on games and sports. Twitter was where I first started interacting with the fighting game community, specifically — a community in which Jay himself was relatively well-known.  If you follow competitive games for any amount of time, you’ll notice that many of its prominent members are a part of teams and organizations. Often these organizations are represented on stream or online using three to four letters, such as “NRG” or “FaZe”. All of Jay’s socials indicated that he was a part of one such organization, YASE, that I had not personally heard of. So, what is 「ＹＡＳＥ」, exactly? “「ＹＡＳＥ」 is a surprisingly long story. Back around 2010 or so, the concept of fighting game teams really took off. This was spearheaded by established eSports orgs like Evil Geniuses adopting their own fighting game roster and community-first teams like the infamous Empire Arcadia. Soon everyone was forming teams and, more importantly, putting their team code in their usernames. A group of my friends and I decided to start YASE as a parody to the burgeoning team landscape, it stood for ‘Yall Aint Shit Ennyways’. But something curious happened; YASE outlasted almost every other team because we were a collective of chill people (who were still halfway decent at these games) and everyone else were these profit models that realized the FGC had no money in it. There are still some teams left out there in the world, Kick Punch Block and Play All Games come to mind, but YASE has stuck together probably the longest of any FGC team.” But something curious happened; YASE outlasted almost every other team because we were a collective of chill people (who were still halfway decent at these games) and everyone else were these profit models that realized the FGC had no money in it. His point about their longevity rings like pointed criticism of the FGC professional space. While fighting game teams have existed for decades, professional teams like Echo Fox and Tempo Storm made big waves by signing major players in the mid 2010s. The influx of new teams and signed players was impossible to ignore; nearly every player in a major tournament would be sporting their organization’s name on clothing, in their registered name, or both.  When the pandemic hit, many of these organizations collapsed as the money dried up and travel became more difficult. Despite the pandemic and surrounding FCG team landscape, YASE remained. What was the secret to that longevity? Were they dedicated to performance in tournaments, or was there something more to it? “...we did take it somewhat seriously,” Jay told me. “We designed a house brand for our group, we sold merch (rather successfully for a scrappy group of friends!), we donated to charities or helped sponsor costs for players,” he continued, “we [even] had people ask if they could apply to join because it wasn’t always obvious this was a bit of a joke. We did expand the team a couple times, but eventually we stopped because YASE stopped being a team and became more of a family. The other members of YASE have been some of the closest people in my life, they’ve come to my wedding and I’ve gone to theirs. We don’t operate like we used to, we’re all a bit older and out of the game to keep up with the merchandising and whatnot, but we are all still around and remembered fondly.” Despite the professional scene contracting, and YASE itself winding down its tournament play, Jay wasn't content to let his time in fighting games end there. Since the pandemic, he has continued to be involved in other ways, such as writing articles for supercombo.gg  all the way back to 2022.  “One day I made a twitter thread delving into some research I was doing at the time, finding some very curious links between obscure publishing parties and the strange fighting games they had a hand on. The thread was warmly received and a mutual of mine tagged Shib, the current owner of SuperCombo, saying this is exactly the type of stuff that should be written for the site. I was already chummy with Shib so we both agreed that I should join the team and retool the thread into a proper article. Since then, SuperCombo has been a place that has allowed me to write on fighting game topics and research dives whenever a topic sparks my fancy.” Image Credit: Jay "IdolismJ" Gary, from the video " The Final Fantasy Legend (AKA SaGa 1) is Cryptic, Innovative, And Purely Okay IMO " This opportunity was about more than just writing articles for SuperCombo. Sometimes, new opportunities arise in places where you don’t expect. “What might not be as obvious is that this opened the door for me to start writing for events,” he told me. “Shib also is one of the higher ups for Vortex Gallery, an organization that runs the side tournaments at some of the bigger events of the year. I wrote the guide for one of their years at EVO and also was hired by Combo Breaker to write their event guide for a couple years. Writing was always something I enjoyed when I was younger, but my life took me down other paths as I grew up, so I’m very grateful that I got to reconnect with that part of my creativity and I feel halfway kosher calling myself a writer these days.” The more you speak to Jay, the more obvious it becomes that he has a deep love and appreciation for fighting games and the communities that surround them. While this love manifests in many ways through his writing, past organizing, and commentating, I was interested in where that love first bloomed. “Well, I’m of a certain age where the answer is almost always ‘Street Fighter 2 happened’. I think the first time I saw the game was playing it on the SNES at my neighbors house and I fell in love immediately. But what took it into overdrive was being the child of a hockey family. I would be taken to hockey arenas all over Metro-Detroit because both of my parents played and almost all of them would have little arcade sections. Further still, almost all of them had fighting game cabinets. Some like the Ann Arbor Ice Cube had these shockingly large arcade sections, some would only have a couple. I recall one arena only had two cabinets, but those two cabinets were Street Fighter 2 World Warrior and Darkstalkers 1. I didn’t need much more than that.” I can’t help but laugh at that Street Fighter 2  point. If you grew up in the 90s you played it, with very little exception. It was such a wildly successful title that it spawned many revisions and sequels for the franchise and has played no small part in Capcom’s continued dominance in the scene. However, after those early days Jay found community in another series by a different company entirely.  “When I got to high school, I found a group of friends that all played Guilty Gear XX . This was the next big step for me because I now had people to play against. GGXX is one of those games that means the world to my life, it was such a pivotal game in my development and I cherish it deeply.” Of course, the allure of Street Fighter remained all the same. “By the time I exited high school, Street Fighter 4 released on consoles and the rest is history. I was one of the “09ers”, a term used to signal the influx of people who properly joined the fighting game scene with the explosive popularity that SF4 brought to the community. This term was originally a bit derogatory, like it was kinda used to beat up on the new kids, but 2009 is a long time ago now and with all the years I’ve put in being a part of the community I’m more of an OG than many.” Speaking of Guilty Gear XX , it’s had a bit of a resurgence the last few years. The Accent Core Plus R  version on Steam has continued to maintain a strong playerbase, with tournaments running on Twitch and through discord channels regularly — even before the rollback netcode update in 2020. What is it about Guilty Gear XX  that gives it so much staying power and what does Jay love about it? “It’s going to be hard to talk about this game without sounding like a bit of an “old man yelling at cloud”, but +R is a game that refuses to die. It comes from a better, more creative, more experimental time in fighting game design and those conditions created a release that stands as one of the best to ever do it. Fighting games are living documents, they grow and evolve as more hands dig deep into them over the years. But eventually, games should be ‘solved’, maybe there is some meta movement that shifts characters around a spot or two, but most games will have a point where they are mined clean of their tech. +R is different, +R is so alive. It’s the final revision of a game that is so formative for the genre, it's packed to the point of overflow with options and playstyles and character kits so unique it would make your head spin. +R feels like no idea was left on the cutting room floor, anything that sounded cool found their way into the game." ...+R is a game that refuses to die. It comes from a better, more creative, more experimental time in fighting game design and those conditions created a release that stands as one of the best to ever do it. Comments like this might seem inflammatory, but I find it hard to argue when you look at a game like Guilty Gear XX and you can see those creative aspects so obviously on display. Its artstyle is bold and flashy, and the music is a rock-heavy assault on the senses. There’s a freedom to the way the game looks and plays that feels unmatched in the modern, more corporate gaming landscape. “And to be an old geezer about it, when you compare it to modern fighting game design you can see how it stands out. I play a fair amount of Street Fighter 6 these days, it’s a fine game I guess. It’s more tightly designed and it creates a more balanced game, there isn’t much in terms of unplayable outliers or unstoppable top tiers. And that sounds good, like that should be something all fighting games strive for. But in execution, I think how tightly and fairly designed Street Fighter 6 is makes it come off as constrained and a tad boring. Maybe that balance is too safe, too tame. Maybe those outliers are the flavor that excites the palette. And if you look back at +R with that in mind, it is a game bursting at the seams with flavor. +R has a reputation of being ruled by powerful characters like Testament, Baiken, and Zappa. And don’t get it twisted, these characters are insane, but they aren’t the overwhelming majority of the playerbase. One of the best players in America, Skeletal Minion, plays A.B.A., ostensibly a mid tier, and wrecks house across some of the biggest tournaments. TTTTTsd gained fame for taking Kliff, another character traditionally seen as a middle-of-the-pack choice and optimizing his gameplay to noticeably raise the character’s stock. Even Robo-Ky, one of the worse characters in the game, looks like a devil in the hands of a specialist like Dr. Stormlocke.  Despite being over a decade old and being part of a game released a decade before that, it has never felt more alive. There is so much movement and discovery still happening, new strategies and tech being crafted by people who pull this game to its furthest edges to find something. +R represents the best of what fighting games can offer. It’s something that will never die, with all the certainty in the world I can tell you that +R will be played with passion and fervor as long as fighting games exist to be played.”  Image credit: Arc System Works Jay mentioned visiting hockey arenas in the Metro-Detroit area in his youth, so I wanted to dig a little deeper into what shaped him into the man he is today.  “Metro-Detroit is a large and somewhat-nebulously defined part of southeast Michigan, [and] I’ve seen official maps have it take up nearly 20% of the whole state. But I lived on the furthest ends of it and I don’t think a soul alive would look at my hometown of Howell and cleanly say it's ‘Metro-Detroit’. It’s like how people may as well call all of Illinois ‘Chicago’. I was born much closer to Detroit in an area called Dearborn, but pretty quickly my family moved to the sticks and I was living out of the rural woodland between Howell and Pinckney until I left for college. Outside of visiting my grandparents who lived in the Downriver area, a collection of small cities just south of actual factual Detroit, I rarely left my neck of the woods. Living in Howell is at least an hour away from Detroit on a good day, and with Michigan road construction there’s no such thing as ‘a good day’.” The 90s are a very interesting time when I think about Detroit as someone who isn’t from there, as much of my knowledge about it boils down to sports successes in a town full of economic anxiety. I wanted to know what it was like growing up during that time, in that place, and get some insight into the formative memories uniquely attached to it that he carries with him now. “I can’t say for sure, but I’m almost certain I watched the 1997 Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanches brawl live on TV. There was very bad blood between the Wings and the Avs, stemming from their violent meeting in the 1996 conference finals and during a game in 1997 a fucking huge brawl broke out. This wasn’t just a fight, this was a riot on the ice. It’s hard to say for sure that I saw this one live, because another historic fight between the teams happened in 1998. It was a bloody, heated rivalry and there’s always a part of me that feels, at like a core, DNA level, that I hate the Colorado Avs. But as far as the city during that time, I was too removed from it. Detroit was always painted as this bomb-out of a city. A crime-ridden hellhole where you need to rolling-stop through every traffic light lest you get carjacked. Looking back on it, I can see how much of people’s view on Detroit was fueled by generations of either their own racism or the racism incurred by how media forces painted the city. I was told not to go there, not like I had much choice with how far away it was. It was only in the last decade that I started living close enough to visit Detroit and saw how wonderful of a city it is, with my career taking me there as my office and many sites I frequent being in Detroit proper.” Looking back on it, I can see how much of people’s view on Detroit was fueled by generations of either their own racism or the racism incurred by how media forces painted the city. A lot has changed since then, but Jay’s appreciation for video games and fighting games specifically has never wavered. Even now, after decades of playing and being intimately involved in the greater scene, he still loves what they bring to people’s lives. “TarZangief [ a fighting game player from Memphis ] posted this very recently and it sums it up nicely: ‘ The great thing about fighting games is seeing your progression in not just a single game but how it carries to other games. The fundamentals that carry you from game to game are a part of YOU not some hexadecimal code stored on a server. ’ Fighting games are living documents, they never end but not because the content pipeline always has more for you. It’s because you can always get better at them and the act of getting better at them is a skill that transfers to not only other fighting games, but other games and just life in general. People who are deep in the weeds with fighting games take their knowledge and apply it to real life. Risk/Reward study, mental stack control, choice optimization, fighting games teach you skills , you can feel your brain continue to grow, for more grooves to form. There never feels like a point where you have to stop playing them, where they have stopped offering you something, because even in a hypothetical world where you are the single best person at a game; then you need to defend the throne. The game itself is almost secondary to the skills, the adaptation, the community, and friendship that fighting games can supply.” Yet, in spite of this love, Jay has taken a step back from covering and commentating fighting games. Is a return to commentary possible, or have those days passed? “I have only moved on from commentary because I no longer travel to larger events. Commentary is where I really started to make a name for myself, I have broadcast radio experience from college and I was one of the first people in the Detroit scene to really bring a level of skill to the mic for fighting games. Because I was such an early starter in the era of taking fighting games to broadcast, I forget how long I’ve been doing it. There’s one of the people at my local who is about a decade younger than me and they told me ‘I watched you on commentary growing up’. Which checks out when I think about the years, but sure makes me feel reeeeeeal old.  But because I have mostly retired, insofar that I will no longer travel to big events for at least a good while, I’ve pretty much stepped away from the mic as well. If the chance shows itself, I’ll gladly commentate an online bracket, but without being in-person at these events I have to hang up the headphones.”  Stepping away from commentary may have been the end of an era for him, but fighting games aren’t the only things Jay likes to play. Instead of live commentary, Jay has shifted to video content on YouTube, where he covers the history of games and offers his thoughts on the games and the circumstances surrounding their creation and reception. But what was the impetus for this change?  “The emergence of Covid in 2020 really turned my life around. One of the reasons my name is held in such high regard within the fighting game community is my work organizing the Michigan Masters event series. You can ask anyone who attended them; these were some of the best events on the calendar. But Michigan Masters 2020 was scheduled for April and that is exactly the month the disease (Covid-19) tore through the world. Before the government shutdowns were implemented, my directors and I were losing our minds trying to find out what we were going to do. I was at one point staring down the prospect of being tens of thousands of dollars in debt because I would be stuck holding contracts for an event that didn’t happen. Thankfully, the work of the Michigan government and the charity of the community at large allowed myself and my co-workers to safely cancel the event and not burden ourselves with life-altering debt. We permanently shuttered the event series after that because not only did we not know when covid would end (I still don’t think it’s safe to run large offline events, personally) but the trauma of it all happening so we never wanted to revisit organizing again. But now there was a major hole in my life. Michigan Masters was more than just running an event to me; I did the branding, I cut the event trailers, I designed the merchandise, this was my creative output. I needed something to do that could continue to fuel my creative passions. And so, I took what I knew and pivoted to making YouTube videos.” YouTube videos come in all types. Let’s plays, tutorials, reviews — there are many ways one can discuss video games using the format. Jay wanted to try something else, however, so he pivoted to video essays. “This is something I decided early on and have stuck to ever since; I didn’t want to do reviews. Reviewing games felt rote to me, it didn’t have the spark I was looking for. I wanted to talk about  games outside of just how good or bad they are. I adopted this as “topic-based videos”, these needed to be videos about games, but held together by a thesis that wasn’t just the video game itself. You could get a review from many places, video or written, I wanted something that was a bit outside that in scope.  This dovetailed into a love for research. I was no stranger to trying to hunt through Japanese wikis for information on obscure fighting games, so the more that these videos [became] to be about the exterior of the game instead of the interior, the more I fell in love with research. After all, I’ve been around the block quite a number of times myself. I have a pretty good memory of most major gaming events within my life. But using that as a springboard and trying to find additional information and tie a video together with something greater than the game itself became the joy of creation. My video on Love Is All Around is a great example of this, on it’s face it looks like a review of the game (it’s one of the few videos I actually title a “review”), but to talk about the game requires you to talk about the state of the Chinese game industry, it requires talking about Chinese gender politics, it requires talking about the history of genre it is trying to fit into. There’s nothing wrong with discussing a game in isolation, but you learn so much more when building the story out and seeing all the influences and decisions that made the game what it is.”  So far, most of the titles he’s covered on your channel have been RPGs. Why choose to focus on titles like Final Fantasy or Radical Dreamers over, say, a fighting game title that he may already be associated with? “The quick answer is that I love RPGs and I think they have the most meat on the bone when it comes to discussion. I shy away from discussing fighting games because I find talking about them really messy and dramatic. Takes in the fighting game sphere quickly become discourse on ramps, the way those games function make them this weird living document where not only is it too easy to speak on something without all the information, but many times the information hasn’t even been discovered  yet. There’s also a tendency to skill check anyone talking about fighting games, like you must have won X amount of tournaments for your take to hold any water. RPGs, on the other hand, lack this combative atmosphere. They are not living documents in the same way, they feel more like historical artifacts. Yes, there’s always more to learn about them, we could always wake up to a new Yuji Horii interview that rocks our English-speaking world, but the games themselves feel complete. They offer interesting and nuanced discussion both in their mechanical play and their narrative focus. It is very easy for two people to like the same RPG for completely separate reasons or for them to split on the same game over a disagreement in how they see a singular aspect. I also just grew up in the golden age of RPGs, these games were such a big part of my life and they are pretty much a lock as my favorite genre after fighting games.” My video on Love Is All Around is a great example of this, on it’s face it looks like a review of the game (it’s one of the few videos I actually title a “review”), but to talk about the game requires you to talk about the state of the Chinese game industry, it requires talking about Chinese gender politics, it requires talking about the history of genre it is trying to fit into. With a deep and continuously evolving appreciation for RPGs, Jay has crafted numerous hous-long looks at some really great titles. Never shying away from his own passions, he paints detailed pictures of titles like The Final Fantasy Legend (known as   Makai Toushi Sa・Ga in japan) , rather than focusing solely on more popular RPG classics. But is that the long-term goal for the channel, or are there other avenues to explore? “When I started the Playing Every Final Fantasy, Kinda series it was just an excuse to get off my ass and play through all the mainline FFs. I had always wanted to, but I was being a bit of a bump on a log about starting with the old and dusty ones. This has since ballooned out of control, not only have I realized the “old and dusty ones” are some of the best, but I have increased the scope of the series multiple times over because the discussion of Final Fantasy hits so many additional points. The Chrono Trigger  and Radical Dreamers  episodes of a series that is ostensibly about Final Fantasy were the points I planned to reveal my trick. What started as just playing the numbered FFs is now an examination of Square and Square-Enix through the lens of their flagship series. Both the main PEFFK series and the Gaiden subseries are going to start featuring more and more non-FF games because to look at Final Fantasy and its growth through time, you have to look at everything that was going on around it. I have mapped out everything I want to do for Playing Every Final Fantasy, Kinda; it will take me approximately 16 years to finish. And that might be charitable, I could be well into my 50s by the time I see the finish line. It has become harder and harder to make these videos because they continue expanding in scope. Not even because I’m trying to inflate them, but just because the discussions needed are so large. It’s entirely possible I burn myself out before I ever finish the series, but I am more ambitious than you may think and having this sort of long-term goal over my head is something that fills me with more motivation than anxiety.” That is an impressively lofty goal, but one that makes sense when you consider the scope of covering even just the Final Fantasy   titles alone. With over 100 titles in the series, covering each and every one with this sort of care would take a lifetime and a half, let alone extending it to games outside of the series. But what about right now? What comes next for the “IdolismJ” channel? Well, Jay has one particular Final Fantasy title in his sights. “It’s the Final Fantasy 7  video. Everything is in service of the Final Fantasy 7 video. I’ve been working on the FF7 video on-and-off this entire year and I still have so much left to go. FF7 is in the argument for one of the most influential games of all time, especially if you look at it as something well past the era of true innovators ( Xevious , Tower of Druaga , etc.). I would not be shocked if this video eclipses 6 hours in length, that’s an egregiously long video, almost a masturbatory showcase of creation, but it’s a game that well and truly deserves every drop of ink spilled about it. My hope is that by the time it is all done you learn just as much about Final Fantasy 7  as you do everything surrounding it that isn’t Final Fantasy 7 . It will also be nice to have this video behind me because I doubt anything else in this series will ever require the effort this one will.” In speaking to Jay, his passion and love for games comes across so strongly. I truly appreciate all of the time he has given me to shine a light on the work he has done and will continue to do and I can't wait to see what comes next. That said, our ThanksGAMING event is all about shining a light on the people and things in our lives that we are grateful for, so I wanted to give Jay a chance to express his own appreciation for the people or things he loves.  “I recently put out a video  promoting a bunch of smaller creators I love, so check that out if you get a chance, but as far as what I’m thankful for; the researchers, translators, and archivists that make what I do possible. So much of gaming history has been logged by the hard work done by them. It’s one thing to tell people about what happened because I was there, it’s another to be able to pull together the artifacts of the time to show  what all went down. When you look at everything we’ve saved, you can see the world where none of this was here for us anymore and it’s a cold and bleak one. Thank you to everyone who helps in games preservation.”

School's out for summon. Demonschool is a breath of fresh air. I know how that sounds, all things considered. Your first look at it will likely conjure some fairly specific comparisons to games like Persona (2, especially)  or shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Those comparisons are lofty in the minds of many as both are beloved franchises that have stood the test of time, but Demonschool  comports itself in some key ways that allows it to distinguish itself from those 90’s paragons, while also coming out favorably. Publisher:   Ysbryd Games Developer:  Necrosoft Games Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released November 19, 2025 on Windows PC (Steam), PS4/5, and Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. First and foremost, I think Demonschool might be the most relaxing tactical RPG I’ve ever played. Perhaps not the most expected outcome for a horror-inspired tactical RPG, but everything just comes across as so free-flowing. There’s no guessing or hoping involved in plotting out your day. With no timers, you’re never feeling like you’re on the clock, or driven by a need for efficiency — you can simply do as much or as little as you want. Spending the days doing mini-games or character quests never limits what you can achieve. There are two distinct ways in which you spend the bulk of your time on Hemsk Island: exploring the town and combat. Exploration is mechanically simple, as each self-contained zone is chosen from a list-like menu, and is small in scope, taking no more than a few seconds to explore fully on any given day. These forays into the island are supported and enhanced by Demonschool ’s phenomenal soundtrack. It’s no surprise that it is full of electronic influences and heavy synth beats given Necrosoft’s track record, but I actually stopped in my tracks the first time I got the freedom to explore the town and the music kicked in. The zones are densely packed with a multitude of NPCs, each with their own personality. Over time, the locales and inhabitants shift, with different people in the zones at varying times of day, days of the week, or during specific story beats; new mini-games reveal themselves throughout the course of the game, as well, such as fishing and cooking games. This really helps the school and island feel a bit more alive. Rather than a static thing  for you to engage with, it’s a place . A place full of humor, and quirks, and even sorrow.  While the game and setting are mostly played for laughs with very few moments of sobriety in between the zany antics of your eclectic crew, I do find myself thinking about some specific interactions had with NPCs throughout the game — perhaps even more so than the story proper. One of the key elements of the story is that most normal people are losing their memory of the supernatural events they find themselves in. So while things go off the rails each and every night, the NPCs continue on as if nothing was amiss. Early on in the game I came across a man who expressed great joy at being a father of 6 children. Only four were standing next to him. Much of the dialogue straddles the line between explicit and absurd, and yet I felt a tinge of sadness immediately. Were they lost to demons and he simply forgot? Are the others at home? Is this man just stupid? As a father myself it hurt my heart. To lose something so important only to turn around and forget it is such a miserable fate that I almost cannot bear to think about it. As the game progressed, those numbers continued to dwindle. Moments like this are rare, but I think there’s a real humanity to the people that makes the ongoing events of the plot all the more tragic, in a way. So stylish. The combat makes up the other major facet of gameplay, and it has quickly endeared itself to me. Combat is a grid-based tactical slaughterhouse, where your positioning and planning will be the key to your success. Each of the characters, including your enemies, have their own characteristics, such as pushing back enemies when they attack, pulling people forward, or area effects. Broken down into “planning” and “action” phases, you’re goal is to use your abilities to plan your actions and position yourself and your enemies in a way in which you can eliminate a specific number of foes in the allotted number of turns, then seal the battlefield off by running to the end of the enemies’ zone.  Fights is quite simple, but the amount of freedom given to the player is deceptively deep. While each character only has two moves, normal attack and special, customization options allow the player to tailor their party to various needs and playstyles and can dramatically change the way each character interacts with enemies. For example, normally a healer can only heal teammates and can’t travel through enemies or attack, but there are abilities that allow them to pass through enemies, or even debuff foes by interacting with them. The way you line up enemies on the small battle grid does remind me a bit of a game like Radiant Historia , where shifting and stacking your enemies was essential to success. That level of planning is less essential here, as the fights are mostly a cakewalk, especially since you can make real-time corrections with the rewind feature. Much like the rest of the game, there’s no need to obsess with efficiency. As long as you come out of the fight alive, you get to move on. Despite my own predilections, knowing that I was not bound to such exacting performance was a relief in itself and a huge weight off my shoulders. Once the planning is done, you then move on to the action phase, which functions as a moving scene that displays the effects of your turn actions. This phase is incredibly satisfying to watch as characters dance and weave around the battlefield, leaving havoc in their wake. Combination attacks make glyphs appear to destroy your foes, demons explode into fountains of blood or pools of poison, and the sounds of your foes being mashed into dust fill the air. Once you’ve had your turn, the demons then act and try to kill you. It’s flashy, grotesque, and mesmerizing. Much like the rest of the game, there’s no need to obsess with efficiency. As long as you come out of the fight alive, you get to move on. It’s hard to talk about Demonschool without referencing the other other titles that have inspired it. The humor is reminiscent of Buff y the Vampire Slayer  in tone and it shares some setting similarities as well by taking place in a school. The more obvious and stronger comparison is Persona , matching the aesthetics of Persona 2  with an isometric view of the fields as you navigate the world. Even the calendar and town listings share similarities to other titles in the Persona series, such as Persona 3 Portable . The horror elements draw inspiration from or pay homage to films such as The Ring and The Cube , and so on. It's all very 90s by design, but rather than just living in those shadows, Demonschool embraces them and carves its own path.  Its visual style is full of bright, bold colors that make each room or scene pop. The character portraits are distinct and striking, utilizing thick lines and emotive posing to express each character’s distinct personality. It has a nearly surreal vibe to it, as if you were watching a neon dream of some half-remembered day long ago. Much of the visual style is jarring in a good way. Those aforementioned colors often clash, and the 2D models don’t always fit neatly onto the 3D backgrounds. But every bit of detail, down to the gridsquares of the battlefield, gives it a retrowave look and feel, overwhelming the senses with energy. Energy feels like an important word as it relates to Demonschool . With the game being so focused on its irreverent humor and style, it is easy to see how it might wear out its welcome, and veer into more juvenile or boring writing traps. I suspect for many it will feel that way. The main cast is one-note, the combat is not crunchy enough to satisfy more tactically-minded players, and the plot itself is a bit routine. Despite these pitfalls, I’ve come away with a strong appreciation for what Demonschool does. It's exciting, and stylish, and a hell of a lot of fun to play; it has great energy. Verdict Demonschool is stylish and irreverent. Grotesque foes are contrasted by the bright hues and neon stylings akin to a retrowave album cover, and the shifting electronic soundscape enhances the mood in any given scene. There are some minor pitfalls in terms of battle difficulty, but there’s enough depth and visual flair to keep things interesting. Demonschool is positively bursting with heart and energy. Image Credits: Necrosoft Games and Ysbryd Games Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Menaces and Maledictions. Malys is good.  Sometimes I think it’s best to get the most important information out of the way, to clarify that which might otherwise be lost in my meandering writing.  Malys is good.  I’m telling myself this just as much as I’m telling you. I’m reminding myself because I just got out of a session in which I was meant to take screenshots, but encountered a number of bugs that frustrated me to no end, save when the game collapsed upon itself and brought my computer to a screeching halt.  Malys is good. I think I’m lying to myself. Publisher:   Summerfall Studios Developer:   Summerfall Studios Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released October 23 on Windows PC (Steam). Malys is the latest title from Summerfall Studios, headed by former Dragon Age writer David Gaider. Thankfully — no, mercifully — Malys differs from many other games in its genre in a few distinct ways. It’s a roguelite deckbuilder with a darker atmosphere and a much heavier focus on its story than your typical deckbuilding fare. When you begin, you start with a choice between 3 different decks of cards and then pick a path to proceed on. Through each run you'll gather cards and items which are used to (hopefully) empower you enough to fight through enemy after enemy until you reach the boss. When you defeat a boss, you move to the next floor and do it all over again. If you finish a run, win or lose, the game will spit you back out to do it all over again.  The fact that it has an engaging storyline at all might be one of its most unique aspects, as many games in this genre are light in that regard. Malys  leans heavily on its writing, each floor a vignette of your demon hunting endeavors. That comes at a cost, however. Repeated text takes up your screen in every new run, forcing you to engage with it in some way before moving on to the battles. Yes, these walls of text can be skipped, but manually skipping the same text over and over is still work.  I wouldn’t be so bitter about it all if Malys wasn’t also buggy as hell, taunting me with slowdown and runtime issues, hitching, and freezing on loading screens. That is a recurring problem across all systems. Every interaction, every single new screen, requires multiple clicks to navigate through — something that might not be too grating if it weren’t compounded by constantly shifting UI elements, or slow animations and performance woes. For example, whenever you finish a fight, a rewards screen will pop up slowly, with the actual rewards moving into place. If you select the top reward, it will disappear and the second reward will shift upward in the first’s place. Trying to click the reward as it moves does nothing — you’ll have to wait for that particular animation to finish. Clicking on things is hit or miss even when the elements aren’t shifting, as well, with clicks sometimes not registering upon first attempt. Everything just goes so much slower than it should.  Even the fights themselves drag on. Enemy stages for the elites and bosses are interesting as a concept in a deckbuilder, forcing you to plan and prepare for additional stages and all the new abilities they bring, but enemy health pools are so large, that the fights can really drag on unless you have a build that can make use of wrath, a buff that increases the damage you do on each hit. That isn’t to say there is no variety in card types available, as Malys has a solid variety of playstyles and supporting cards. Defensive options, regeneration abilities that can also be used to damage enemies, attack-focused decks, and even a summon-based build — any number of these are at your fingertips when you play. All are viable but anything other than a deck built around dishing out damage and buffing your strength is miserable.  I wouldn’t be so bitter about it all if Malys wasn’t also buggy as hell, taunting me with slowdown and runtime issues, hitching, and freezing on loading screens. I’ve encountered bugs with enemy intent showing one action, but the demon performing another, runs where enemies were able to attack me after I had already won the fight, and status effects being misapplied across the combatants. One persistent issue is that the game runs progressively worse the longer you play it. Play for more than a few hours and the slowdown becomes almost unbearable, skipping every animation and causing weird side effects to the gameplay. Inevitably, there will be a point you need to exit the game, whether that’s of your own volition or up to the game. And if you leave it up to the game, it’s going to happen mid-fight, meaning you'll have to do it all over again. I absolutely adore the way this game looks. Malys had a kickstarter earlier this year to help fund it and that kickstarter did not reach their funding goal, so they didn’t get any of those promised funds. They could have really used it. Aside from the obvious and persistent performance issues, Malys lacks balance. Shop pricing is restrictive, which disincentivizes experimentation, and deters players from donating cash to the shops for forward progression. On top of that, some cards and card archetypes are vastly superior to your other options. It also suffers from glaring writing errors, such as card descriptions not matching what they do in-game, and spelling errors in those little blurbs before each fight. But Malys is good. Or at least it should be. It could be. There are some real positives here. The artwork is astounding, accentuating the dark, brooding atmosphere with its bold, menacing style. The elites and bosses in particular have some really great images, full of twisted and creepy demons who loom over their victims. Card art is strong as well, utilizing evocative imagery to great effect. The soundtrack is filled with mostly mood-setting ambient sounds, excepting the exciting vocal boss themes, which work quite well, but begin to wear on you as you play the game. The writing is strong, and I love the way each encounter is treated as its own important event, even against the small enemies. If this had launched without its major performance and UI issues, it would be one of the surest recommendations I could give for the genre. But that’s not what we got. It might not be what we ever get, either. Verdict Malys  is a darker, more story-heavy take on the deckbuilding genre. It's chock-full of great artwork, stellar music, and interesting gameplay mechanics, but is ultimately dragged down by persistent performance woes and quality errors. Spelling mistakes are the least of its worries as Malys  also has the player contend with slowdown, hitching, and bugs that threaten each run more ferociously than any enemy on the screen. Image Credits: Summerfall Studios

It’s a tale as old as video games themselves — your silent protagonist boots up alone in an unfamiliar room, with only an unseen speaker to guide you. This speaker, Hawking, spends these early moments guiding the player through the basics (such as movement, crouching, and puzzle-solving), but he also lets on a bit more. It is here that we get our first hints of meaning. That, at its core, Total Reload  is a game about solitude, loneliness, and working your way through it.  Publisher:  TORSHOCK Developer:  TORSHOCK Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released on Nov 7, 2025 for PC (Steam) You learn right from the beginning that Hawking is alone. The universe is empty, save you and Hawking, but Hawking has a plan: restart the universe. The specifics of this plan and details of Hawking’s past aren’t elaborated on much in the early moments, instead being spread out across the entire game through murals as you progress. Often, Hawking will just tell you the relevant details, but in many cases you must formulate the question by looking at the appropriate images in a specific order to form a question for Hawking to answer. It’s not the most elegant solution to communication, as you’ll find yourself looking at the images accidentally quite often or forming a sentence in a way that the game hadn’t devised an answer for, but it mostly gets the job done.  To do that, we must contend with a series of puzzles in order to get everything back online for Hawking to complete his masterplan. These puzzles start off quite simple, featuring only wires you must connect to terminals and switches to change the direction of the power. Most often, the main objective of any given area is simply to guide all available power to a single terminal in an area, which then opens up pathways for you to continue forward. As the game progresses, the puzzles become more intricate, introducing new mechanics and objects that you must use to complete each task.  Most of these puzzles are curated in a way that allows for only one possible solution or pathway for advancement. You can't run fast enough or jump high enough to cheat your way onto a platform or unexpected area, so engaging with the puzzle exactly as intended is your only recourse (most of the time). Due to the limiting nature of your character’s movement, you are also forced to endure Total Reload ’s biggest flaw — moving platforms.  The speed at which platforms move in this game is genuinely a problem. It is excruciatingly slow, and they feature prominently in the gameplay and puzzle-solving. The first platform I ever set my feet upon was an omen. I turned it on, hopped atop the platform and then it started moving…without me. My character model simply shifted off to the side, falling to my death. Such a thing is unfortunate, but not experience-breaking as a one off, so I set the platform to return and waited. And waited some more.  Oh, that is very slow. The speed at which platforms move in this game is genuinely a problem. It is excruciatingly slow, and they feature prominently in the gameplay and puzzle-solving. Waiting for these platforms has constituted more than half of the 10 hour total runtime of the game. Any time you fall from a platform, or power up something before you are supposed to, or accidentally do a task out of order, you’ll have to find a way to send that platform back to you without messing up the flow of the puzzle. I think it’s easy to say that you should simply do the puzzle right the first time, to look around and make sure your next move is the correct one, but many of the interactions are difficult or impossible to know with certainty before pressing a button; how each system works inside each puzzle is bespoke, meaning you must first engage with it and explore before you can get the full picture. And so you must wait. Waiting in the large, mostly barren rooms in which Total Reload  takes place, I was forced to contend with something unexpected — loneliness. Not the loneliness of the characters in-game, but my own instead. I couldn’t help but feel alone, as there were no actions to take, and no people to speak to in-game. Even outside the game, it isn’t as if I could talk to friends about my frustrations. I was forced to contemplate my mistakes, and the challenges Total Reload  posed — intended or not. Perhaps in that way, the waiting is sometimes welcome, as it offers you a moment to breathe and collect yourself before moving on to the next solution. Environments are a bit drab, which seems reasonable for a robot's abode. To that end, the puzzles themselves are not particularly difficult and I think that’s fine. They force you to think about your actions, and plan your next steps. They keep things interesting enough to give you a few “ah-hah!” moments in between the plodding and waiting. And through all of that work and effort, there is no reward — at least not in a traditional sense. Solutions don’t generate coins or equipment, and there are no achievements or anything of that nature to trigger the Pavlovian responses we’ve become so accustomed to. The work is the reward.  I wonder if that's how Hawking felt. Those countless moments spent just plugging away at his work, hoping to see it through — was it worth the effort? I think so, at least in the right mindset. Total Reload  offers an almost comforting take on the puzzle-platformer. There are challenges, sure, but it is almost entirely a low-stakes walk in the park, with puzzles only tickling the brain rather than wringing it dry. Combined with the quiet hum of the platforms and clanking of boxes that fill an otherwise barren soundscape, it becomes almost mesmerizing after a time.  I do wish the platforms moved faster, though. Image Credits: TORSHOCK Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Cozy games have exploded in popularity over the last few years, making it increasingly difficult for any single title to distinguish itself in this crowded genre. Pine Creek Games rises to this challenge with Winter Burrow , a woodland survival game that manages to feel both comfortingly familiar and refreshingly unique. This single-player indie experience casts you as a young mouse returning to your childhood home deep in the forest; a place you and your loved ones affectionately call "The Burrow." Publisher: Noodlecake Studios Developer:   Pine Creek Games Platform:  Played on Nintendo Switch Availability:  Released on November 12, 2025 for PC (Steam & MS Store), Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One The story begins with you, the young mouse, reminiscing about The Burrow and the lovely memories you have from your childhood. You remember quality time with your mother and father, captivating stories shared by your Auntie Betulina, and the simple joys of woodland life. Your family leaves the Burrow for a life in the City, where both of your parents succumb to the relentless demands of modern life, working themselves to death. Refusing to follow that same path, you head back to The Burrow, where you hope to find your Auntie Betulina and bring life to the Burrow once more.  As the gameplay begins, the screen finishes loading to display a lovely hand-drawn environment. Visually, the game is stunning. Each section of the map is dripping with love and care, from the paths made of fallen leaves peeking over the snow to the small patches of clover that line your pathways. As time passes, the lighting changes and each detail is so intricately laid out that it’s hard not to appreciate it.  The musical score suits the hand-drawn theme very well, a perfect balance of peace during moments of exploration and fast-paced drumming to signify moments of danger. Though reminiscent of the music found in Ori and The Will of the Wisps , I feel the music is distinct enough that it can stand on its own two feet while also helping to build the world of Winter Burrow . I haven't finished Winter Burrow  yet, but I have every intention of finishing the game. Despite being labeled a “cozy game”, I’ve had a difficult time navigating the large world because there is no built-in map. Though, in a way, it works out in the game’s favor, as I’ve had to really pay attention to the details of each section of the forest just to remember how to find my way home. If you’re anything like me, a player who would prefer a map, this game may be difficult for you too. But I promise, it does feel worth it. Winter Burrow is so inviting, it can be easy to forget just how gorgeous it is. Winter Burrow  feels like it’s designed towards the type of player that likes crafting and gathering. With many different items to decorate the Burrow with (such as beds and tables), your only limit is your own creativity. As far as gathering goes, it can be difficult to tell what items in the forest can be gathered or not, because even the gatherable items are drawn with the same level of care as the rest of the environment.  There are hints of what can be described as ‘farming’ if you squint. You are given the opportunity to grow mushrooms in the Burrow’s basement, though I haven’t quite figured that part out yet.  There are quests and a story line you can follow, woodland creatures you meet and help but to refrain from spoiling the gameplay, I have omitted them from this review. I will admit that I’ve had some trouble with the quests. There aren’t many hints to go off of, and if there are, they’re a bit too subtle for me to catch. Despite that, I’m enjoying just being a young mouse learning how to survive in the woods. I don’t feel pressure to complete quests in a certain time frame; I’m perfectly content passing time by just harvesting mushrooms to make mushroom stew. Image Credits: Noodlecake Studios and Pine Creek Games Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product.

As part of our ThanksGAMING event for the end of the year, I want to take time to elevate and appreciate the people in gaming I admire or that inspire me – whether they are content creators, journalists, or developers. When I began brainstorming ideas on the best candidates, MarcoMeatball was the first person I thought of and reached out to. Marco is a YouTuber who wears many different hats but is most well-known for his video game music react videos. I first found his channel (which you can find on YouTube under the handle @MarcoMeatball ) about two years ago. I was browsing YouTube and came across his reactions to “Bury the Light” from Devil May Cry 5 and “To Zanarkand” from Final Fantasy X. I was hooked and I’ve been a subscriber ever since. Marco recently gave me the opportunity to chat a little bit with him so we can all learn more about him, his channel, and what his future plans are. Marco's video, "Opera Singer Reacts: Bury the Light from Devil May Cry 5," was where I found him first. I first asked Marco to tell me a little bit about himself. Q: Who is MarcoMeatball? A: I am a person. Just kidding! I’m someone who loves video game music, my dog, and my fiancée. I’m also someone who left behind a career I studied for over ten years because I realized it was slowly killing me and making my life worse. Q: How did you get into opera/music? When did you first realize you had a passion for it? A: I was resistant to opera for a long time. In fact, I didn’t really like it until I forced myself to sit in a room and listen to it repeatedly. One day, it finally clicked. I realized there was so much potential for expression, purpose, and power in operatic singing. Originally, I went to college for musical theater because I wanted to sing on Broadway. But over time, I discovered how much I loved opera and the stories it allowed me to tell. As for music in general, I got into it because I didn’t have much purpose growing up. My mom forced me to attend a musical theater camp, and there I discovered a love for self-expression, public speaking, and connecting with others through acting and music. I’ve been acting since I was 13 and in the 10th grade, but my love for music has been with me since I was a child. Q: Why did you transition to YouTube music content creation? A: It was an accident. My dad had just passed away, and I was looking for an outlet. Initially, I filmed videos like “deciding whether or not I’d like an anime based on its opening themes,” but I got worried about copyright. Then I tried making Final Fantasy XIV content exclusively, but that didn’t last long. Eventually, I realized there was space for me in the music content creation sphere, particularly sharing my experiences as an opera singer. It seemed like a natural fit. I was lucky—my first video took off about two weeks after I posted it, thanks to the algorithm (or something!). After that, I doubled down. I was mourning my father, doing auditions, and recording voiceover work in my booth anyway. Making videos became an additional outlet for my time, and it’s been a defining part of my life since then.   Q: You always seem to have a very positive disposition online—not just in your videos, but on social media as well. Is that a conscious decision or just who you are as a person? A: It’s a conscious decision. I’ve noticed many people don’t value honest, plain, and gentle communication. We live in a society that often tries to tear us down—it’s easy to destroy but difficult to build. The Internet can be aggressively vile at times, but I believe in kindness. I think people who gravitate toward my content often have soft souls in a world that pressures them to be hard and brutal. That said, my tolerance for rudeness has gone down over time. I wouldn’t quit YouTube over personal issues, but the Internet’s lack of civility and tolerance for disrespect could someday push me to hang up my hat.   Q: Your community seems to share that positive disposition. Why do you think that is? A: Like-minded people tend to find each other. I try to foster an environment of mutual joy and gratitude. Joy for video game music, joy for the games I’ve loved since I was seven, joy because life is short, and music is beautiful. If someone doesn’t share that positivity—if they’re rude or disrespectful—I usually hide them from the channel. That’s just how I run things.   Q: In your mind, what is it about music that brings people together? A: Music conveys feelings, emotion, and power. It unites us around common life experiences, no matter how different we are. That connection makes us feel less alone, and it’s something uniquely beautiful about music. Q: You recently started a YouTube channel dedicated specifically to anime music. What was the impetus behind that? A: I love learning, and anime music is a corner of the music world I know very little about. My goal is to approach it with fresh eyes and curiosity. On my main channel, I have a series called Non-Gamers React to Video Game Music, which I love because it lets me share something I’m passionate about. This anime music channel flips that dynamic—I get to learn from others who are passionate about something I’m new to. I’m pacing myself to avoid burnout. I’ve slowed down production and have content planned through January 2025, so I’m confident I can manage both channels.   Q: Do you feel like your main channel audience and anime audience are separate, or is there some crossover? A: There’s quite a bit of crossover—more than I expected. Some diehard video game fans aren’t into anime, and I was one of those people for a long time. But now that I’ve started reading manga, my world has been blown wide open.   Q: What’s next for Marco the man and MarcoMeatball the creator? A: For Marco the man: be healthy. I want to lose 40 pounds and enter my 40s in the best health of my life. My 30s flew by, and the pandemic didn’t help. I’ve also had to pull back from workaholic tendencies because they can be damaging if unchecked. For MarcoMeatball: ride the wave. I’ve been exploring broader, thematic videos that celebrate video game music rather than focusing solely on hyper-specific analysis. Celebrating video game music is my goal, and I hope to do it for as long as I live. Who knows what the future holds, but I’m enjoying the ride.   Q: And finally, are there any people or things you want to shout out or give thanks for? A: I’m endlessly grateful for my mods, my fiancée, my editor Nathan, and my thumbnail designer Raul. Special thanks to folks like Jesse’s Auditorium, Alex Moukala, Davi, and Tony for their support. And finally, my dog Luna. She’s been a bright spot in my life every single day since I brought her home at nine weeks old. I named her Luna because, at the time, all I had around me was darkness, and she became my moonlight. She’s one of the best things to ever happen to me. Marco doesn't always analyze the music himself - sometimes he brings in others.   Although I only had the opportunity to ask Marco 10 questions, I feel honored that I had the chance to learn more about him. I was struck by his kindness and generosity. It seems to me that the man behind the camera is just as warm as the persona we see on screen. As someone who is not very familiar with the Music world, I’ve always found Marco’s videos to be illuminating. You can learn so much by watching his conversations with others in the Music space or his reactions to your favorite video game music. Marco never fails to teach me things I didn’t know and I walk away with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the music. I look forward to seeing what Marco does next. I am thankful that Marco has been able to curate the community that he is proud of, as it is a community I am proud to be a part of. On behalf of all 350,000 subscribers, thank you, Marco.

Nature is the spiritual successor to North Star Games’ award-winning Evolution . A deceivingly simple game focused on survival of the fittest, Nature  is interesting in that North Star Digital Games (the digital branch of board game maker North Star Games) developed Nature in tandem with   the physical board game, realizing that the best way to playtest and balance the game would be to create a digital version. Letting the computer play itself as fast as possible quickly revealed which cards and playstyles needed changes to better align with their vision. This evolution mirrors the gauntlet the player will have to endure to survive all challengers at the watering hole. With linear challenges, multiplayer, and even competitive online options, players have a choice how challenging survival will be. Publisher:   North Star Games, North Star Digital Games Developer:   North Star Digital Games Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released November 5, 2025 on Windows PC (Steam), Android, and iOS. The basic flow of the game is simple enough. Players (1-4) crowd around the watering hole and create a strategy by taking control of a species to ensure their survival. Each player must decide how to distribute attribute cards, such as making species stronger, faster, more efficient, or more opportunistic. After assessing dealt cards, the real depth comes into play. Cards can be used to increase a species’ population number or size. Raising a species' population increases how much food they eat from the dwindling center pile, with food tokens tallied for points at the end of each round. Although this is the fastest way to win, going after points alone will leave a species weak and easily preyed upon. Leaving cards for the next phase is also an option.  Next players take turns eating resources, and any remaining or unused cards can be traded for an amount of food indicated by a number in the corner of each card, which is then added into the shared pile. If competition is fierce, this could  be a viable strategy to ensure some food is available for something to eat later in the rotation. Any species with un-fed numbers will have those members starve and be subtracted from the total. Only fed members of a species will count for points at the end of the round, making survival of your population your top priority in all aspects. However, there is one more option, one more source of food — another species. If opposing species eat all the food or are too weak to fight off an attack, becoming a predator could be an easy way to deny points while increasing your own. As long as there are viable prey, becoming a predator is an enticing strategy. When predators find themselves hungry without prey to feed upon, cannibalism is always an option. The player that survives this delicate dance and reaches the end with the most food eaten, wins. It's almost shocking how much the artwork clashes stylistically. Each individual challenge (level) is arranged linearly in a route for each island representing the main game and each expansion. Repetition is surprisingly rare as each challenge has either a different number of players, a unique AI, or an additional set of unusual rules. By having a simple, easy to understand spot for each species, the UI is clear, helping the player digest the large amount of information the game displays while understanding what options are available each turn. With a potential of 20 individual species between four players, this is great for lowering turn times and helping players pick up on what is happening with each species each turn. Art and graphics look great for the cards and play areas, utilizing a blend of realism and stylization to create a striking image. Unfortunately, this strongly clashes with the simplistic characters, menus, and maps. This is relatively minor, however, and has little to no negative effect on individual match gameplay. Nature  strikes a great balance between a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling, offering room for flexible strategy when needed as cards introduce RNG, forcing players to adapt their strategy with whatever hand they are dealt each turn. With many challenges to conquer, players have plenty of content to experience before having to resort to attempting to 3 star challenges. Grab a shady hat and a walking stick and get ready to venture out into Nature . Will you survive? Verdict Nature  is a solid card game focused on strategy and resource management. Each card having 4 different options of play makes this game stand out for its simple complexity. Varying challenges in single-player mode keep the game fresh by forcing new strategies. Cards are well drawn and add to the overall natural theme. The positives stop, for better or worse, when clicking through the less appealing menus and single-player map. I do hope these are redone in the future to strengthen the overall theme and continue the passion that shines through in every other aspect of this game. Image Credits: North Star Digital Games Disclosure:  We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Does it suck to suck? It feels like forever since I’ve played a good vampire RPG — maybe I never have at all. While there are numerous successful translations of the subject material into other game formats, such as visual novels, something about the portrayal in RPGs has never quite clicked for me. Political intrigue and thematically relevant stories are abundant, but  actually playing as a vampire is rarely satisfying in a way that feels novel or unique. Oftentimes the vampire aspect is downplayed in combat scenarios, serving as little more than a garnish onto your bog-standard FPS or third-person action gameplay. The standard for many over the last 20 years has been 2004’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines , a game that remains so broken that it requires fan patches to even render it playable — not exactly an enticing offering. Even that game struggles to make vampirism interesting mechanically, as most of the fun comes from the role-playing and social contract aspects of the world. Enter Vampyr , perhaps the first and last of its kind. A game that not only utilizes its interesting world and characters to craft a dark and enthralling atmosphere, but also is sometimes fun to play. Publisher:   Don't Nod Entertainment Developer:   Focus Home Interactive Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released June 5, 2018 on Windows PC (Steam), PS4, and Xbox One. Released on October 29, 2019 for Nintendo Switch. The start of Vampyr sees Jonathan, our protagonist, turned into a vampire and taking a life before he even understands what has happened to him. As a doctor, his oath to do no harm has been broken; as a vampire, his lust for blood puts him on the run. But even as a vampire, the man Jonathan Reid remains, caring and compassionate despite his woes — if you let him be. The struggle to consume people is ever present narratively and mechanically, as devouring NPCs grants an enormous amount of experience, setting up Vampyr ’s most interesting dynamic of first getting to know the citizens and assisting them before being able to or willing to consume their flesh. The predator and prey dynamic is a familiar one to many, as it is a recurring theme in games about vampirism and especially so in Vampire: the Masquerade titles. Of course, the spectre of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines  still hangs in the shadows through it all. Vampyr  takes great inspiration from it and the World of Darkness at-large, even using Vampire: the Masquerade series-adjacent terminology such as “Antediluvian” intermittently throughout. Despite this, Vampyr manages to craft its own world and story, set in post-World War 1 London, full of political maneuvering, threats mystical and mundane, and gloom. That setting is perhaps its most unique attribute, with London itself feeling lived-in, despite the horrors taking place around you. Tight, rain-soaked alleys are contrasted with the lush parks, grimy sewers juxtaposed against the gauche manses of the more affluent members of society, all accompanied by the strings and melancholy of the score. London is a city where people live, not just a playground for your vampirism, and right now things aren’t great!  The precarious situation in London is central to the gameplay in more ways than one. As you explore, you come to meet the citizens, all of whom are struggling with life under the “disease” afflicting their communities. As mentioned before, you need to resolve their woes to make them more enticing targets by increasing the exp they grant you upon consuming them. Vampyr takes this a step further by tying the citizen’s well-being to the city itself. Every person contributes to the health of the district in which they live. Keeping the citizens happy and healthy through quest completion, curing them of diseases, and (most importantly) alive means districts remain stable. Stable districts mean fewer powerful enemies on the streets, and more quests to complete. It’s a delicate balance of decision-making — do you feed in order to gain power, or abstain to save lives?  The precarious situation in London is central to the gameplay in more ways than one. As you explore, you come to meet the citizens, all of whom are struggling with life under the “disease” afflicting their communities. This dynamic comes to a head most prominently in combat and conversations. If you abstain from feeding entirely, as I did, you’ll be severely underleveled for many of the game’s encounters, requiring more precision in battle to advance. You’ll also miss out on some weapons or crafting materials, though these are mostly inconsequential aside from achievements. Perhaps expectedly, your feeding habits are also commented on by the characters who will acknowledge your restraint (or lack thereof), as well as modifying the ending you receive. Those conversations and their depth are where the game truly shines. Each conversation is like a puzzle where you piece together bits of information received for collectibles, other characters and the current subject to open up new bits of dialogue. Occasionally, you’ll be presented with a “Y” choice that becomes consequential. Pick the right option and you’ll learn new hints, but pick the wrong one and you might be locked out of hints for multiple people and all of the experience that comes with it. The game doesn’t tell you what the “right” answers are, though. Instead, your best course of action is to piece together your conversant’s personality through your prior dialogue and gathered information, which can then be used to make an informed guess. You can always just pick what you want, too, as these choices don’t materially affect gameplay or story outcomes in most cases. In fact, many choices don’t give hints at all, but rather shape the tone and tenor of the conversation, forming the backbone of the dialogue system. This grounded approach was such a relief to me. Rather than focus on outcomes or rewards, I felt more free to roleplay and really dive into the text itself and explore Jonathan’s character. Free to really dive into that conflict between his inner selves: the man of science and compassion versus the mystical beast of rage and lust. Even if you did regret a choice, you wouldn’t be able to change it, as the game uses a single save file for each playthrough. There are no manual saves, Vampyr  relies on an auto-save only system that regularly updates as you explore or gather materials. Better get used to living with the consequences of your actions, as well as the follies of the game itself. I was quite fond of this save system in some ways, as it took the pressure off of making a perfect run happen. I could just play as I wanted. Whatever will be, will be. At least, until a major sidequest completely bugged out, rendering me unable to finish it and any associated character interactions. This bugged quest not only prevented me from getting hints for some characters, but locked me out of other goodies related to achievements. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to correct or resolve the issue in some way, but the only reward for me was that I became more comfortable with letting go. Vampyr is dark and dreary, yet full of life. As far as combat goes, it’s a mostly-shallow third person action game with limited abilities and minimal strategy, but it does succeed quite well at making Jonathan feel like a real vampire. The slow movement comes off as a bit ominous as you approach an enemy, and the animations are weighty and impactful. Each fight is a freakish dance of blood and claws and fangs that only ends when you or your enemies lie dead in the ditches of London. I played up my vampiric aspects in my build and combat approach, focusing on spending blood to sling abilities around only to stun enemies so I may feed on them for additional resources to do it all again. The brutality of the bite was probably my favorite aspect of the combat. The camera draws in closer to you and your victim as they struggle against you, and the animations and sound effects really sell just how vicious this whole ordeal is. Which is probably why the disconnect between story Jonathan and battle Jonathan feels so awkward. In the streets, I was cruel and hungry, feeding off of each and every person I could sink my teeth into, but in conversation, Jonathan was adamant he would never feed on a human, keeping his soft and kind demeanor throughout the story’s events. I do understand that this is not something the game was designed around fully. Not being able to feel in battle would be massively restricting, so why punish you for utilizing the game’s core combat mechanics. That seems like solid reasoning until you enter a fight midway through the game and consumption does, in fact, count as feeding on a person for story purposes. I think the game could have really benefited from going all in on this choice in combat, offering better options outside of blood use and feeding for those who didn’t wish to partake. Instead it creates this dissonant structure of two separate experiences, only to flip that on its head in one single encounter part way through. Each fight is a freakish dance of blood and claws and fangs that only ends when you or your enemies lie dead in the ditches of London. Unfortunately, there’s a disconnect in the story dialogues as well, scene-to-scene. A majority of the time, Jonathan’s actions and demeanor are predicated upon your own choices. Whether it’s the actions you took prior to any given scenario, or the explicit “Y” choice you’ve made in a given dialogue, something you have done is informing the way each conversation moves. So when major plot points force you into specific scenarios that are incongruous with the character that you have helped shape, it leaves a bitter taste. This is exemplified best in the romance subplot throughout the game. Early on it does clue you into a bit of flirtation, but midway through the game it turns into a jarring and forced aspect that feels really awkward not to have any say in. Ultimately, where I land on Vampyr  is a bit muddied, as well. While I love the way the conversations and city maintenance aspects intertwine to make London feel lived in and consequential, I’m much more ambivalent toward some story beats and the combat. It absolutely satisfies that itch of playing as a true bloodsucker, but stumbles when trying to guide players from plot point to plot point. Combine these deficiencies with the bugs and somewhat repetitive world navigation, and you’ve really dampened what could have been an electrifying experience. Verdict Vampyr  succeeds when it focuses on its cast of complex and interesting characters. There’s a great symbiosis between those characters and the world they live in that drives the game forward at all times. By focusing on the interplay between those characters, their stories, and their community, Vampyr  forces you to sit with your choices. While it is ultimately dragged down by its bog-standard combat and disappointing story beats, Vampyr  still stands as a great take on the Vampire RPG. It might even be the best we’ve seen yet. Image Credits: Focus Home Interactive and Dontnod Entertainment

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats The Rising Tide is the latest DLC follow-up to Square Enix's acclaimed 2023 release Final Fantasy XVI . In this new addition, we follow Clive, Jill, and Joshua to Mysidia so we may find answers to the mystery of Leviathan the lost. Final Fantasy XVI was one of the most unique games in the entire franchise, and also one of the best. With it's fast-paced combat, darker world, and excellent soundtrack, it released to critical and commercial success last year. I, myself, was so engrossed in the journey of Clive (and by extension Joshua, Jill, and the rest of the cast), that I ran through it multiple times to really soak in the world, themes, and music — something I rarely do with long games these days. As the final DLC for Final Fantasy XVI , The Rising Tide aims to expand upon the worldbuilding introduced in the main story, improve upon some gameplay elements, and let us spend a little more time with the cast we came to love. The story is best left experienced (I won't be spoiling anything here), and I really enjoyed it. We get some nice worldbuilding and lore related to the new region, plus some great new characters as well. It's shorter than I anticipated — with my story playtime rounding out at about 4 hours — but for a DLC offering at this price, it's a pretty normal length. We get some minor character moments with Jill, but it seems like less than we were promised/lead to believe in the marketing. We get the answers we're looking for with Leviathan, but Jill is left out in the cold again. At least she has something to do this time around. A closer look at the wave we've been wondering about for the last year. Despite my enjoyment, it may come as a surprise to hear me say that the story is a bit of a letdown when compared to the main game. An often overlooked aspect of Final Fantasy games is the length they go to to explore the themes presented in them. Final Fantasy XVI itself explores in earnest topics like systems of oppression — how those systems succeed, how they effect people, and what it means to be free of them. Much to my chagrin, The Rising Tide doesn't seem to say much of anything new, at all. It's primary focus is to tell you what happened to Leviathan. The sidequests and some plot beats do, in a few ways, speak in concert with the major themes of the main game, but it never feels like the focus in the same ways that it is in the main plot. On top of that, the DLC takes place just before the final battle, so any implications on the world at large can be conveniently ignored. No mention of the events makes its way into the final sequence, either. All of that is to say — I think it's okay that it is the way it is. Final Fantasy XVI was a complete story, and while something more substantive would have been nice, it doesn't drag the DLC down much. The presentation is neat. Great cutscenes and music, but peppered with the same style of NPC stare-down dialogues we got in the main game. If you enjoyed the main story or previous DLC, you're going to get more of the same here in this regard. The final run of the DLC is an especially incredible visual treat. The combat doesn't have any major changes to things like system mechanics when compared to the base game, so if you loved it before, you get more of that. There are some great additions, however, that really improve the experience. New eikonic abilities, accessories, and buffs to some older abilities really open up the variety for playstyles. With the Ramuh and Bahamut reworks/buffs, it is now entirely viable to run a full magic build, if you are so inclined. Clive using one of the newest additions to his arsenal. There are some exceptional fights here. While I'm not a huge fan of how the eikon battles play, it's hard to understate just how cool they are to experience. The major one in The Rising Tide is similar to all the others in the sense that it is shallow mechanically, but visually incredible. We were told that the fights in this DLC would be more difficult than the main game, but I'm actually not sure that there is anything noteworthy on that front. I had not played since the release of the previous DLC Echoes of the Fallen , but I did not encounter any major difficulty issues, even on Final Fantasy mode (outside of some growing pains trying to remember how to play in the first place). Something is different about the tonberries here... Much of my time with the DLC was spent on the Kairos Gate game mode. It is a sort mash up of arcade mode and an encounter rush type mode. You get a score for your performance in the fight, that score determines your grade, and you get points to spend within the game mode. Those points can be used to buy things like ability upgrades that are temporary or permanent within the mode. You also receive things like accessories and equipment as rewards in this mode. It's a nice addition overall, but I will say the final fight was a big disappointment for me. The Rising Tide dropped right after a major update which saw changes to some content in the main game as well. You can now pet Torgal faster, fast travel to quest givers upon completion, and there are new scenes and cutscenes in some of the sidequests. There were also some changes and buffs to the way certain eikonic abilities work, as previously mentioned. While there may be some shortcomings in terms of the depth of the story, there is still so much to love about The Rising Tide. As a companion piece to Final Fantasy XVI , it succeeds in elevating the base game by virtue of it's gameplay additions. If nothing else, it reminds us that Final Fantasy XVI is a blast to play. Verdict A great new addition to one of 2023's best games. The exciting, fast-paced fights throughout Mysidia are also a visual treat. And, as always, Soken continues to impress with the new pieces on the soundtrack. Side content is hit-or-miss, and it's only about 5-10 hours long in total. Definitely recommend for anyone itching to spend more time with Final Fantasy XVI , even at this price point. Image Credits: Square Enix

Iron Lung is a minimalist horror experience where your goal is to navigate your submersible vehicle underwater in order to take pictures of increasingly unnerving phenomena. Vague, garbled dialogue hints at your objective and the stakes, but you’re not going to get much in the way of exposition. You’re not going to get a tutorial, either, as Iron Lung  throws you into the breach with little more than a console and a four button control key to work with. A full playthrough will land somewhere between an hour or two depending on how fast you adjust to the controls, making this one a brief encounter. With no story or real visual component to speak of, your enjoyment may just come down to how interested you are in the unseen. Publisher:   David Szymanski Developer:   David Szymanski Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released Mar 9, 2022 on Windows PC (Steam). Released Dec 19, 2022 for Nintendo Switch.

What's Next? This October’s Steam Next Fest has finally come to a close. With hundreds of demos available to try out, I was never going to be able to get through them all, or even talk about a fraction of the ones I played. That doesn’t mean I can’t talk about the ones that made an impression, however!  Here are my top 14 demos from October 2025’s Steam Next Fest: Skate Story What if Skate and Lumines had a baby? That’s the design philosophy seemingly behind this upcoming exciting skating title. The story follows a demon made of glass who has been given a skateboard. Your objective: skate to the moon and eat it. Somehow more "out there" than the premise suggests, this one is full of good tricks and great vibes.  Ember and Blade Taking cues from titles like Vampire Survivors and Hades , Ember and Blade  is an enticing mix of action and story. You battle hordes of enemies, collecting power along the way as you aim to fight a larger demon boss at the end of each zone. The art direction and story are pretty interesting from what little we saw in the demo, so here’s hoping the full release is just as interesting throughout. MARVEL Cosmic Invasion Another arcade beat-em-up brought to you by the team behind the tubular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge , this one sees you control teams of Marvel super heroes prowling the streets to beat up some bad guys. Reminiscent of classic arcade titles like Streets of Rage , MARVEL Cosmic Invasion  can be played with up to 3 other players. Hell Maiden Another bullet heaven and roguelite mix to make the list, Hell Maiden  uses its 90’s anime aesthetic to tell a tale of Dante and Vergil (of Divine Comedy fame), but if they were young girls traveling through the hells themselves. While most of the game is rendered in a charming pixel-art style, there are special moves that wowed us with their presentation by featuring fully animated cutscenes in the midst of gameplay. Dead Format Dead Format is a survival horror game set in 1990s Scotland. The premise is simple: your brother has gone missing after becoming obsessed with a mysterious new VHS format. The player character must piece together and follow his trail through the tapes and uncover why the government wants to ban "Video Ghastlies". The atmosphere of Dead Format is top-notch. The videos have a The Ring -like quality to them, and the areas each VHS tape generates captures the feel of the videos perfectly.  Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis A rhythm adventure game about a hikikomori girl - also an avid anonymous poster - who corrupts the world while listening to denpa songs. The art is phenomenal, and the rhythm game portion is exciting as well. Helps that the music is straight gas, too. Cairn A rock-climbing simulation game, Cairn  sees you scaling mountains as professional climber Aava. Using Aava’s stamina and posture as your resources, you must take hold of the terrain and climb as high as you can. Homura Hime One part bullet hell, and two parts character action game, Homura Hime  has style in spades.  Bladesong An impressively deep sword-making game with some interesting RPG elements mixed in. The crafting in this game is insane, frankly, and the amount of freedom you’re given to shape and design your blades lends itself to some truly goofy creations. Lumines Arise Speaking of Lumines, Lumines Arise  is coming out soon and if the demo is any indication, we’ll be talking about it for a long, long time. This rhythm and puzzle game fusion is deserving of every bit of hype it has been getting. Anthem#9 Anthem#9  features similar artstyle and music to Atlus’ Persona titles, but don’t let that give you pause — this title is its own unique thing. Using gems to craft your next move, you’ll have to battle through a series of stages before facing each boss. Rubinite A 2D pixel style boss rush game. The Demo has given us a taste of the combat, and a glimpse into the dark world this story takes place within, and I can’t wait to play more. Alabaster Dawn From CrossCode  developer Radical Fish Games, Alabaster Dawn  is a 2.5D action RPG brimming with charm. You’ll fight bosses, solve puzzles, and explore a finely crafted, lush world in this adventure.  Wizard Cats In Wizard Cats  you play as — you guessed it — a wizard cat. A silly premise, for sure, but this is an impossibly deep game full of spellcraft and danger. Using a nearly endless number of spells, you must sling your way through hordes of enemies and duel other spellcasters.  And that’s the list! I played over 40 demos during Steam Next Fest, and while these were not the only good titles I tried, they were the ones that stood out to me the most. I can’t wait to play these upon full release. If you’re interested, take the time to try out some excellent demos in the meantime!

The moment I set my eyes on the trailer for CARIMARA: Beneath the forlorn limbs , I knew I had to play it. Using a sort of first-gen Playstation aesthetic to fill out its world, CARIMARA: Beneath the forlorn limbs cuts a densely detailed slice full of dread and unease. Low-poly models and a muted color palette are not necessarily unique visual choices, but it’s easy to see at a glance that there has been a lot of care put into this vignette. What is quite unique, however, is its handling of its most basic gameplay elements.  Publisher:   CRITICAL REFLEX Developer:   Bastinus Rex Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released Oct 6, 2025 on Steam. Playing as a little goblin-like figure known as a Carimara, you’ve been tasked with solving the mystery of a haunting by an old woman in the woods. A seemingly malevolent spirit has taken hold within her basement, and your task is to remove it from the premises and figure out why the spirit persists. There’s such a pervasive sense of unease throughout the opening moments, it becomes off-putting. The crone in the house that hired you is constantly shifting her tone and body language into a more threatening demeanor, and the darkness of the space makes it feel claustrophobic in a way. Your small size makes this a small wonder. How does  that lady move around here comfortably?  That first conversation also sets the stakes for your character. The client and other characters are quick to point out that your life is at stake, so care should be taken. This is not actually true, however. There are no true existential threats to be had. There are no traps to fall into, and no enemies to battle. You’re not here to fight for your life, you’re here to learn. But if the player character cannot actually speak, how are we meant to communicate and discover?  Here’s where the cards come in. These little tools are acquired by examining glowing objects or people, and can be used to communicate or interact with things in the world. A Key card could be used to unlock a door, or a card depicting a statue could lead to the lady in the house doling out some more pertinent information. You’ll need to use the correct cards on the right people to make sure you get all of the information you need to set things right. All the visuals have an unnerving feel to them. Unfortunately, the entirety of the game can be completed in only a few minutes. Even with testing every interaction I could think of with characters and rooms, I never crossed past the hour time mark. You could quite literally bumble your way through, if you wanted — there are no negative effects or long-term consequences for getting something wrong. Instead, the game relies more on its art and sound to manifest those disquieting feelings. The low-poly models and ever-shifting textures make everything feel ever so slightly stilted. Sparring use of color splashes demark important areas or help set the scene in other ways. All of this is detailed and hand-crafted, with each and every object set for a specific purpose, whether that’s practical use or environmental storytelling. The things you can transform into cards are a bit of an exception in this regard. They are so obvious and bright that they feel out of place until you examine them.  All of these elements serve to create a short but dense experience that is just waiting for people to explore. Despite that density, it does feel like something is missing. An extra layer of mystery that could liven up the brief time we spend here, or another scenario to work through to flesh out the card mechanics and introduce additional intrigue — these are the types of things I found myself longing for as the credits rolled. I see the vision. Just wish it had been grasped a bit tighter. Verdict CARIMARA: Beneath the forlorn limbs ’ greatest detriments are that aforementioned length and lack of depth. It has a really great core concept, and an excellent atmosphere, but it feels more like the beginning of an adventure rather than a complete tale. With a few more mysteries to solve through exploration and utilizing the card mechanic, I can envision a game that would stick around in collective memory as one of the more unique and interesting horror games on the market. As it stands, CARIMARA: Beneath the forlorn limbs  is more like a dream — an assortment of interesting, but half-formed ideas that will likely fade away in short order. Image Credits: Bastinus Rex and Critical Reflex