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More of a fever dream than a fright-fest When I think about my early childhood, the memories are a bit hazy. I can picture the broad strokes - cattails in the pond, tall figures walking around and talking, shadows and shapes of houses in the distance. But all the details, like faces or words spoken, are lost. Little Nightmares is like those memories translated into video game form. At least aesthetically. The actual events and creatures contained within the game are certainly more unnerving than anything I ever experienced first-hand, but the visuals hold a dream-like quality to them that is really engaging as an art style. Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, Playdigious, Namco Bandai Games America Inc. Developer:   Tarsier Studios Platform:  Played on PC Availability : April 28, 2017 for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows. May 18, 2018 for Nintendo Switch. From the very first moments of play, it is clear there is something more to the game than meets the eye. The camera sways and shifts as you wander through the dark. Giant figures stalk the halls, reaching around corners and under furniture with long, spindly arms. Grotesque people with squished faces look for every opportunity to devour you. So much of the game is dripping with a sinister visual flair, it's impossible not to think something deeper is happening here. Yet, the game doesn't give you any direction in the storytelling department. There are no cutscenes or text boxes, no dialogue or notes to find. Everything is communicated through environmental design and music. That music does a lot of the emotional lifting, too. While it mostly fades into the background, it is a tense and disconcerting score that shows up in all the right moments - keeping you on your toes when there's an enemy nearby, or inducing paranoia through clever sound design in more quiet moments. Hide and Seek is the name of the game. Unfortunately, that wordless, oblique storytelling doesn't really give you much to work with on a surface level. You don't learn much of anything about any of the characters’ (including Six, the protagonist) motivations or ideals, and you'll never hear a thing about how they're all related. While not necessarily a negative, that hyper-focus on visual style over all else means that people not looking to do a deep-dive on the environments might not get much out of the experience. At this point, I'm sure you've noticed we haven't discussed the way the game plays at all. Truthfully, I find the actual action to be the most underwhelming aspect of Little Nightmares. At its core, this is a puzzle platformer with a heavy focus on stealth. I'm using the word “puzzle” a bit loosely here, as the most difficult decisions you’ll have to make are whether you sprint past an enemy or wait them out under a table. There is no combat in this game - you're just a child running for your life. You'll dash, crawl, swing, climb, and jump to safety as you're chased across the few short levels in the game. There's not much mechanical depth to the action - you have a grab button for picking up items and climbing/swinging, a jump button that doubles as a throw button when holding an item, a crouch button to walk silently or slide while running, and a lighter to illuminate the darkness. That mechanical simplicity works in the game's favor, as it never feels like you're searching for the right move. There's a clarity of purpose when you walk into a new room - hard to mess up when you have so few options available. Little Nightmares has great ambience, combining a unique visual flare with a moody soundscape. Disappointingly, that lack of mechanical depth goes hand-in-hand with mostly uninspired level design. Each room usually has a single exit, and it's just a matter of finding the right object to climb up or finding a key for the door. There are a few exceptions to this formula, but they're rare. The chase sequences are great fun (maybe the most interesting part of playing  the game), but suffer from this same problem. There's really no creativity in the way you progress or navigate the world. Luckily, Little Nightmares is an incredibly short game, with my run clocking in at just over three hours. The brevity of the experience keeps the game fresh, even if it is mechanically repetitive. There's always something new and interesting to look at or figure out in the brief runtime. Despite these hiccups, Little Nightmares was still a positive encounter. It is extremely expressive in its visual language, and it kept me on the hook for the whole ride. The music and art direction create a very uneasy atmosphere, which I found more interesting than scary, but your mileage may vary. In the end, Little Nightmares feels just a bit unfocused and comes away seeming more like a fleeting daydream than the nightmares it sought to emulate. Verdict Little Nightmares is a game begging to be examined more closely, but even if you do, I'm not sure you'll ever get a concrete answer. Despite being visually engaging, nothing I was shown motivated me to dig deeper — leaving the experience feeling a bit underwhelming. With such a short runtime, Little Nightmares stays engaging the entire playthrough, but it never quite reaches the heights I had hoped for. The game has a captivating atmosphere (both aesthetically and musically), but it ultimately left me feeling more ambivalent than excited. Image Credits: Taylor Rioux

The wolf has been defanged It has been 10 years since the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition  and a lot has changed since then. BioWare, specifically, has undergone massive changes over that time, with much of the leadership of the company moving on. Included in those departures was David Gaider, the lead writer and creator of the setting of the Dragon Age Franchise. While Dragon Age: Inquisition released to critical acclaim, receiving the first Game Awards’ “Game of the Year” award in 2014, BioWare has had only a few games come out since then – both of which would be classified as ‘disappointing’ at best. 10 years is a long time to wait for a new game, especially one as highly anticipated as Dragon Age: The Veilguard . So that begs the question: was the wait worth it? Well, let’s talk about it. Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer:  BioWare Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released on Oct. 31, 2024 for PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series S/X Dragon Age, as a series, has always been inconsistent in terms of its gameplay, tone, and even its art direction, in some respects. Its general need to reinvent the wheel could be likened to another famous RPG series: Final Fantasy. While perhaps not as drastic as the Final Fantasy series, Dragon Age is a property that does not iterate on many of the core concepts in previous games, opting to instead completely modify any aspect they felt was not working for the latest game. Dragon Age: Origins , the first game, was a largely grounded dark fantasy game with a breadth of roleplaying systems and opportunities. Dragon Age 2  kept many of those bones, but made some shifts in tonality and gameplay – opting for a more quippy, or sometimes even silly, tone compared to its predecessor. That isn’t to say Dragon Age 2 did not have serious or dark moments, or that Origins  was humorless, rather that there was a shift in the prevailing tone and tenor of the story and dialogues. This was supplemented by BioWare changing how dialogue works, offering 3 choices at a given time – Diplomatic, Humorous, and Aggressive. Dragon Age 2 also modified the combat to a more action-oriented style, with a faster pace, button mashing, and waves of enemies versus set encounters you could plan for ahead of time. Dragon Age: Inquisition then made another leap – eschewing much of what came before. Continuing the trend of tonal shift, Inquisition was a much more sanitized story, with nothing negative ever happening to you or your party, and no lasting consequences for any of your actions. In almost every instance, the “bad stuff” would happen off-screen, with you only coming in to see the aftereffects and do cleanup. Dragon Age: Inquisition  made additional sweeping changes to the combat, now being almost entirely action-focused (although there is an option for a tactical mode), and relying much less on consumables or traps. Inquisition also removed the existence of healing magic, opting instead for limited-use potions. The largest and most controversial change was the shift to an open-world style, with large explorable zones and an unimaginable number of collectibles and banal side quests. Flashy and fun, the combat is always engaging. Despite all these changes, Dragon Age kept a throughline on a few things – strong character writing, a grounded, semi-realistic art style, and choices carrying over to the following games in the series. BioWare has always excelled at character writing; these games have been no different. Some of the most complex and interesting characters to ever grace the medium have come from BioWare games, and the choices you made regarding those characters always influenced the next game or games, even if in small ways. Codex entries here, dialogue there, or a questline that way – your choices felt meaningful and represented in the world around you. I say all this because Dragon Age: The Veilguard doesn’t really have any of that. Despite being an explicit and direct continuation of the previous entry, it has so thoroughly divorced itself from Inquisition and the continent of Thedas that it barely feels like it belongs in the same world. Some change is to be expected, but I was a little thrown off by just how different it is. How could a direct sequel, in a series known for its choices, only include 3 from the previous entry? I would be selling it short by saying I was incredibly disappointed with this decision from BioWare, and it becomes even more frustrating when characters from those previous games start showing up and just completely gloss over or ignore any consequential happenings from the prior games. I think BioWare underestimated how much people appreciated seeing their world come to life, even in small ways, as the games went on. I do understand the difficulties this presents from a development standpoint. At some point, there must be a crunch in terms of what carries over – I just don’t comprehend why now . This is meant to be the big finale for many major plot threads in the series, and many major players are deeply involved in the prior game. Condensation is fine, but 3 choices total is bizarre. Veilguard goes to great lengths not to step on any toes for world states, but it just seems off to include those cameos in the first place. That lack of reactivity is not limited to imported choices – even self-contained choices are cosmetic or misleading. As you progress, it becomes clearthat you and your team are safe. There are never any real stakes throughout the campaign. There is a single choice in Act 1 that feels consequential and then absolutely nothing until you reach the end of the game. The game plays it so safe that you can’t even be a little mean  most of the time. The dialogue wheel will present you with an option that may look scathing, but if you select it, you just get a lukewarm response that doesn’t even say what you’ve chosen. All outcomes through the bulk of the game are also predestined. So much is happening in this world; how can there be no tension? Something you’ll also notice very early on is that there is almost no intraparty conflict – everyone gets along great. Even at their worst, team members are quick to reconcile after a brief lecture from Rook, and most often the conflict is entirely juvenile. This is not necessarily a bad thing – it’s prudent to put aside your differences to face the greater threat – I just didn’t love the way all of it was handled. With so many disparate personalities and backgrounds, you would think something would pop up here or there. Companions in Dragon Age have always been very vocal about their dislikes and opinions of other members, often sparking some of the most memorable conversations between the cast. Despite this, I do love this cast of characters. It may be my favorite companion class in all of Dragon Age history. Each party member is unique, and the game does a great job of fleshing them out as people. Many of the missions in-game are directly tied to the party members, and those quests are some of the best content in the game. There is a gift-giving system, but it’s underwhelming. You just bring the gift, and you’ll get a short dialogue about it and then it’s done. Even beyond that, many of the companion scenes suffer from the same writing issues that permeate the entire game – everything comes off a bit like it has been crafted for a children’s movie, rather than dark fantasy. The game also suffers from the exclusion of the opportunity to speak to your party members outside of their specific missions. There’s no way to ask them about themselves, their people, or anything they care about. Every interaction with your party is on-rails. And while all the scenes are so well animated, I think it may come off to some as over-animated . Everyone is so expressive physically that it creates a juxtaposition with the underwhelming facial animations. We may owe some of this to the shift in art style, which has been met with mixed reception, but I love the way this game looks. I don’t really mind the changes in proportions of the characters versus prior entries, and the high saturation and color palette give the game a clean look. The effects and environments are often flat-out stunning. The environments are especially gorgeous, with beautiful vistas, grimy keeps, and everything in between. The layout of the areas being more self-contained seemed to help BioWare focus more on the visuals. Where Inquisition  had giant, muddy, open areas, Veilguard  makes everything worth looking at. However, I do feel like changes to some of the more iconic designs (i.e. Darkspawn) do a disservice to the franchise by further distancing Veilguard  from Dragon Age’s overall visual identity. The character models look incredible, and the hair is gorgeous! The new visual flair works wonderfully with the combat as well. Splashes of color and nice particle effects keep the battles engaging - not that it really needed the help. I played a custom difficulty with enemy aggression and damage turned all the way up, and the fast pace and high damage kept me on my toes the entire time. It’s going to draw a lot of long-term comparisons to Mass Effect 2  – you map only a few abilities to your loadout at a time and give commands to your companions rather than fully control them. Also, much like Mass Effect 2 and 3 , there is a primer and detonation system that makes up the real meat of the battles. There’s not much to it: some abilities set the weakened, sundered, or overwhelmed status, and other abilities detonate it – causing a high-damage burst. The systems have been shaved down to make room for the fast pace, much like the transition from Mass Effect 1 and 2 . The mechanical complexity has taken those same hits, with there being very few auxiliary systems to worry about, outside of finding gear sets and equipping them. There’s no more crafting, traps, supplementary potions, or anything of the like. Repeating the same missteps they did with the Mass Effect franchise, BioWare has distilled Veilguard  down to only combat and conversations with more restricted input. For some, this might be a welcome change, as fights in the previous entries could feel a bit bogged down by all the options, and gathering and crafting were just so time-consuming in Inquisition. There has also been a change in the composer for this title, with Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe taking over for Trevor Morris. It’s a pretty drastic change in style. I am generally a fan of Zimmer when he’s on , but it’s just another miss for me. I can barely remember much of the music from my time playing, but there are a few standouts. It’s not that I feel like the music is bad , per se. It’s just not particularly memorable, and occasionally doesn’t fit the mood of the scene or fight quite right. One major strength of Veilguard  is in its story. Seeing some of these plot threads come to a definitive end after so long was really satisfying. They really nailed it for me, especially in the back third of the game. Act 3 is just so moving as a long-time player. That said, I couldn’t help but wish for more. In my mind, there’s so much missing from the game because of those excluded choices from the previous games. As events were unfolding, I often thought back to some of the people who never made it into Veilguard. What would THEY be doing right now?  There’s a lot of room for head-canon and fanfiction, but I prefer stuff like that is codified. Overall, the game seems to have positioned itself as both an ending for what has come before, and a new beginning for what the Dragon Age franchise could be moving forward – within the narrative and without. There is a notable exception for the post-credits scene. It is, quite possibly, the worst storytelling decision BioWare has ever made, and I really hope they take that one back. That strong story is elevated even further by wonderful performances from the cast. In particular, Solas (Gareth David-Lloyd), Neve (Jessica Clark), Bellara (Jee Young Han), and Davrin (Ike Amadi) are standouts to me. But from top to bottom, this cast does an exceptional job of making every line count. Each member nails the emotions of the moment in every scene, and I don’t really want to single anyone out for best or worst. I would find myself running back and forth from area to area just to hear them talk a little more, which makes it even more disappointing that you don’t have the option to ever just sit down and chat with the party. All that running back and forth also let me enjoy the level design. The levels are self-contained areas with a great mix of winding paths, semi-open fields, and shortcuts that help you loop back around. Navigating any level can be engaging, as you’re always looking for those secret rooms for treasure chests, or hidden ladders to take you back to another room you’ve already been to. I was honestly a bit surprised by the verticality of the levels, as well. Generally speaking, BioWare games have a very flat structure – single-level rooms or fields, with maybe the occasional stairway to a second floor. But here, it’s built into every structure, and those structures fit into the world around you in interesting ways (sometimes). If I must nitpick, I would have liked to see more variety in the biomes or zones we went to. Obviously, this story is mostly self-contained to a specific geographical location, so I understand why we didn’t get to see more. I just think the game is beautiful, and I would have loved to explore more of the world. The environments are breathtaking and absolutely worth exploring. I fear I’m at risk of sounding too negative as this review goes on, but I really liked this game! When all the gears are turning, and things click into place, it’s some of the best work BioWare has ever done. There are just a lot of little bumps in the road for me. Ten years is too long to wait for any game, and even if the wait was shorter, I am not sure this is where I would have wanted this series to go after Inquisition . Dragon Age’s struggles with identity are longstanding, but I think it’s time for BioWare to lay down roots and start watering. If they are certain the old Dragon Age is dead and gone, it’s time to focus on what works here and grow from it. I do wonder how those 10 years were spent. We know it used to be a multiplayer game, and now it isn’t. We know that other characters were supposed to appear, but they didn’t. After so many delays, so much turnover, and untold amounts of corporate meddling, it is a wonder that this game arrived at all. I wonder if this is the game the team set out to make, or if there just came a point where you have to get it out the door. There are a lot of head-scratching decisions in the way this game works, but it does  work. It runs well, is fun to play, and has so, so much heart. I have gripes, but I did love my time with the game. Every time I felt like I was losing interest in the game, a new main mission would rope me back in. There is a lot to love about Dragon Age: The Veilguard , but if you’re a long-time fan of the series, your enjoyment of the game may be affected by how you weigh the changes that were implemented. For me, I can’t really look at this game in terms of what it could have been, or what we should have gotten – all I can do is play the game in front of me. In that respect alone, I think it’s a damn fine game. Verdict Dragon Age: The Veilguard  is an exciting, beautiful, and engaging game that I really enjoyed. Stunning environments, character models, and effects give the game a unique visual flair, but the lack of variety in enemy types and places to go hampers it. Great combat, fun characters, and an engaging story keep things afloat - even with a laundry list of faults. Veilguard  suffers from juvenile writing for most of its runtime, with many of the interactions coming off as candy-coated or softer versions of what one would expect from this long-running series. Despite those faults, the game has so much heart that it feels impossible not to like it. Image Credits: Taylor Rioux and BioWare

Kaya’s Prophecy  does not shy away from its influences, positioning itself as a mash-up of Slay the Spire  and Stacklands . However, by explicitly naming them, it does open itself up to direct comparisons. While it may not reach the highs of Slay the Spire , the comparisons are not at all disastrous for Kaya’s Prophecy , which manages to blend the village management mechanics quite well with the card-based battles.  Publisher: Yogscast Games Developer:   Jérémie & Thibaut Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability: Released on April 10, 2025 on Steam. Developed by Jérémie & Thibaut, Kaya’s Prophecy  starts off with the destruction of a nearby village by a malevolent god. As the sole survivor of the event, you must rebuild the village and repopulate, all while checking off the boxes the game gives you in your checklist. There is a story here, but it’s not particularly substantial — you just get snippets here and there after major checkpoints, as well as dialogue between the villagers and whichever boss you encounter at the end of the area. Once that basic plot groundwork is laid down, the game hits the ground running, putting you into the village management portion of the game. Building up your village requires you collect and stack cards to craft recipes you either buy or find, which in turn allows you to check off the list of objectives to progress further. Items you don’t need or have too many of can be turned into Evil Blood, which can then be turned into booster packs to provide you with another set of resources or locations that you can use to craft what you need. The RNG nature of these booster packs adds a bit of tension, as each day in the village is on a timer and you need a specific number of food items in a day to appease the god who torments you. This may lead to frustration early in the game, but by the later stages of a run, you’ll have more resources and food than you know what to do with. Explorable locations can be purchased from an in-game shop once it is crafted, and this is where the game brings in the Slay the Spire  aspects all the marketing alludes to. Starting on a map with multiple pathways, you work your way through card battles and randomized events to collect resources which can be brought back to the village to help in advancement. Some resources are only available through the exploration and card battling portion of the game, so venturing out is necessary — it is also the most fun aspect of the experience. I love these card battler games, so there’s just going to be some bias there, but Kaya’s Prophecy  nails the battles, even if they’re on the easier end. The attractive art and clear visual indicators make Kaya's Prophecy easy on the eyes. Each battle consists of your exploring villager taking on 1-3 enemies using hands of cards dealt to you 5 at a time. Your villager has 3 energy, which can then be spent to use those cards, with each card having a specific cost tied to it. Card types are split between armor cards, utility cards, and attack cards. Attack cards do damage to enemies, armor cards give your villager armor to resist attacks, and utility cards do things like draw additional cards, heal, or give your villager additional energy to use on a given turn. While this is extremely similar to Slay the Spire , this game differs in the fact that armor is carried over between rounds and it is not as difficult. Building your deck in Kaya’s Prophecy  is extremely easy and I would say a mostly passive endeavor. You gain powerful cards through equipment you craft within the village sections of the gameplay and you can occasionally swap out abilities here and there when you traverse through locations. Not a ton of customization, but you do get noticeably more powerful as you advance — to the point where later stages of combat feel mostly inconsequential. The art style is simple-but-effective, with easy to read icons and text, and pleasant backgrounds and UI elements. It clearly draws major inspiration from aboriginal cultures, using similar body paints and even leaning into the Australia/Oceania connection by using cassowaries as recurring entities on the currency and other iconography. Whether those cultures are well represented is not really something I can speak on, but I do not feel like there’s any hint of negativity in the portrayal. However, the stylings being so obviously drawn from traditional aboriginal imagery was immediately obvious to me, a random American across the planet, so I do wonder how this lands with people within those cultures or spaces. I’m not sure that I would consider Kaya’s Prophecy the most original game — it is blatantly and intentionally not so. However, the concepts and ideas it draws from Slay the Spire  and Stacklands  are well executed, with great balance between the two disparate gameplay sections. While the two elements themselves are quite different from one another, they are married beautifully together, with each feeding into the other to create a fun, varied experience. Verdict Despite not being wholly original by design, Kaya’s Prophecy succeeds in marrying the two disparate ideas of card battler and village management. A simple, yet distinct art style, combined with timeless deck-building mechanics, makes for an endearing and addictive experience. Image Credits: Yogscast Games Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Onto the Next One. * Editor's note: A segment of this review has been modified to exclude criticism that the reviewer has since deemed "wrongheaded". Next of Kin: Fidelity  is the second of three Next of Kin titles by Spelkväll Games — the follow-up to 2024’s Next of Kin.  Marketed as an emotional journey of a man haunted by his past, it’s the type of game that I love to cover most — a short indie experience with a heavy narrative focus. Loss, trauma, and grief are not uncommon subjects for games to touch upon, and while exploration of these subject matters is certainly welcome in games, I always find it a bit more interesting to look for what’s revealed between the margins. What does a game say about the other stuff it touches upon, even accidentally? What can we find beyond the grief, beyond the trauma, and beyond the text? How does the way we play, and what we can (or cannot) do affect the experience? There’s always something a little nerve-wracking about taking a game like Next of Kin: Fidelity  at face value. People pour their hearts into the work — what if I just don’t understand it? What if I just don’t like it? Unfortunately, at least one of those is true. Publisher: Spelkväll Games Developer:   Spelkväll Games Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Released on September 18, 2025 for Windows PC (Steam, Epic Games, GOG), PS4/5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, and Nintendo Switch. But maybe I’ve gotten ahead of myself there. Let’s talk about the game as it is, not as it is intended to be. Next of Kin: Fidelity  is an pixel-art adventure game set across two distinct eras, following the lead character Bjorn throughout both. We get to explore both how he lives now and how he got there, reliving his childhood memories and exploring his dreams all while Bjorn the adult tries to go on dates and navigate daily life.  Starting off in an intense space sequence, we quickly learn this is a dream — one that Bjorn has had before. As Bjorn wakes up to his blaring alarm, he realizes he’s late for a date and rushes to meet a woman he doesn’t even know. From here, the game darts back and forth between a series of dream sequences, memories, and contemporary scenes in order to give you a clearer picture into Bjorn’s mentality.   There are a large number of very basic grievances I have with playing this title in any capacity, especially when we eliminate the story from consideration. I think much of it boils down to the fact that not only do you not really do anything engaging, but also that the imagery on-screen does not convey anything interesting. There are a large number of very basic grievances I have with playing this title in any capacity, especially when we eliminate the story from consideration. The first hour or so is especially rough, in this regard. There are no immediate narrative hooks, and it is further distracted by multiple asides in the forms of dream or memories. The dialogue and overarching text is quite bland, as well. You can interact with many objects and NPCs throughout the game, but much of what we get is just the main character, Bjorn, telling you that he doesn’t care about the thing you’re looking at, or doesn’t have pressing action to take. The interactability is wasted. The text for these situations is also repeated — no unique identifiers or wording regarding that examination per object. Additionally, the art is disjointed, with objects and figures seeming to have distractingly variable levels of quality. At one point there is a toy ship model on the screen that just looks like it was ripped out of an entirely different game. Objects have varying levels of “pixelation” to them, with some objects appearing low poly and others smoothed out. Asset reuse is rampant, with trees and boulders haphazardly and frequently copy-pasted next to one another. The buildings are all plain, and much of the scenery is repetitive. Assets frequently clip through one another as well, such as when a character is walking through a small passage or between objects. If that weren't enough, the environs and area layouts themselves are quite dull. There’s no real sense that anything here was placed deliberately, with those cloned objects seeming to fill space rather than tell a story. Embarrassingly, there was a cave early on that actually put me to sleep, as every inch looks exactly the same, with a single set of rock tiles replicated over and over. The cave is not even that long — it’s just a stretch of time where nothing is happening visually with no music. The lack of sound effects is also quite glaring, save Bjorn’s footsteps.  Most of the game is structured this way — uninspired areas with no sense of purpose or identity. Next of Kin: Fidelity  is marred by technical inadequacies, as well. I’ve been met with overlapping text and clipping multiple times. Navigating menus is a huge pain because there is a significant delay, and you can't cycle through options quickly as the game simply will not register your inputs if you put them in too fast.  Of course, Next of Kin: Fidelity  is built around its story, so how much can any of these matter? Quite a lot, actually. Especially when you combine all of it together. As a single entity, maybe the lack of cohesion in art style would be more forgivable, but if every part of the game is lacking except for the story, I inevitably circle back to my initial question: why is this an adventure game ? The rampant asset reuse combined with frequent visual glitches makes for a bad experience. Frankly, the story is effective. It offers an exploration of Bjorn’s grief that is interesting enough to keep you going, taking a look at what that grief does to a person, how we live with it, and so on. It also takes a smaller look at subjects like abuse and sexism, and how those things might affect the lives of people around us. However, the scenery and gameplay take away from what is being presented. There’s a real lack of humanity and cohesiveness to the presentation element of the game. I understand that it has been developed with combined sets of free assets, and that it is building on a prior title, but everything in this world that isn’t the text feels like an afterthought. On the page, there’s an opportunity to offload some of that visual work to the reader, to let the mind take the reader to places the art team cannot, but in a video game like this the details matter for expressing intent. Video games are such a unique medium for many reasons. Interactivity may be the single most important, but it is a mistake to dismiss the value of other elements when creating a game world. The way your trees look or even how they are placed can shape a player’s perception of the setting, the music you play at integral scenes can set or enhance the mood of any given moment, and even the color palette or lighting used can dramatically alter meaning. There’s no limit to the stories you can shape with the tools at your disposal, so for a game to be so bereft of it all is disheartening. Games excel at telling stories in-between the lines, but for Next of Kin: Fidelity , the margins are blank. Verdict Next of Kin: Fidelity  has a story to tell, but holds no mechanism for delivering it in an interesting way. It’s a shame that the environments and assets used are not up to the task of creating something that serves the game better, as the story can hold up as something worthwhile on its own. Image Credits: Spelkväll Games Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product.

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 its 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

This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  is an incremental idle clicker title that simultaneously functions as a roguelite and deck-building game all at once. If all of that sounds like it is a bit beyond you, don’t worry, it plays much more simply than it sounds. Publisher:   Oro Interactive, Drillhounds Developer:   Mash Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability: Released December 11, 2025 on PC (Steam). The premise is simple, both mechanically and “narratively”. You, the player, are trapped in some casino-esque domain by a joker and tasked with earning one billion dollars. To start, you only have a single card in hand, and you earn a small amount of money when you flip it over, which is based on the type of hand you draw. These hands are your standard poker hands, high card, pair, straight, and so on. If you know poker, you’ll know what to look for and build towards, but it’s not a death sentence if you don’t; the game literally plays itself. Once you earn some cash, you can then spend it in an upgrade tree that allows you to increase your handsize, payouts, card auto-flip rate, and more.  While this is billed as an idle game, the first run is quite hands on. You’ll need to manage your upgrades deliberately in order to make earning that first billion an easy affair. Realistically, you could upgrade a little and then set and forget it while you accumulate cash, but part of the appeal is seeing all of the crazy flashes of light and coins jingling across the screen — which requires high levels of upgrades and forward progression in the story. The easiest way to do this is to play until you hit a wall in a run, where the cash you are earning is outpaced by the scaling of the upgrade requirements. At that point, you just end the run, buy your permanent upgrades, and go again. You’ll also be awarded with higher payouts as a bonus. There are no fail states in a run, either — you play as long and as leisurely as you deem worthy of your time. It is deeply satisfying to see all of the effects go off during play. And, boy, was I surprised at just how satisfying all of that is. I’ve never really bothered with an idle clicker game before, and if you had described this game to me. I probably wouldn’t have jumped in headfirst. However, it is immensely satisfying to see those numbers skyrocket and all of the visual effects pop off in tandem. Every time I thought I was going to be done I stuck around for ‘just one more hand.’ A gambler’s mindset if I’ve ever heard it. And it does satisfy a compulsive urge in that sense — rewarding engagement and interaction with quick and affirmative feedback.  This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  never veers into complicated territory, even as all of the bits and bobs are unlocked. There are systems like merging cards, card removal, incremental upgrades and so on that make manual engagement interesting, but in terms of deck-building it doesn't get much more simple than thinning out a 52 card poker deck to generate good hands. On top of this, full achievement completion (and by extension story completion) can be attained within a few short hours, but it is fun to work toward setting up a fully completed board where all of your decks are pumping out the maximum earnings on every flip, just so you can watch those numbers soar. I think that simplicity is part of the appeal, though — at least from an Idler perspective. Unfortunately, beyond the satisfaction of flashing lights and ever increasing numbers, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  doesn’t have much going for it. The story is maybe 10-15 lines of dialogue in total, the music is an abhorrent remix of “Entry of the Gladiators”, and once you’ve played beyond a few hours, there’s nothing more to see or do that you haven’t already done.  Despite those elements being underserved, I don’t feel like they are strictly necessary. At the very least, I don’t get the sense that anyone has ever picked up an idle clicker for the plot. Instead, what you get is exactly as advertised: a hyper flashy and ultimately satisfying deckbuilder idle game. If you’re in the market for something like that, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  is a worthy detour. Verdict Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  is flashy, fun, and addictive. While it is ultimately an extremely simple and short game, it is at the very least a nice way to spend a few hours if you just want to tickle the parts of your brain that like seeing numbers climb. Image Credits: Mash, Oro Interactive, and Drillhounds Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Indika  is strange. It's a third-person narrative adventure game that isn't always third-person. It’s a dark and serious 3D puzzler that is also sometimes a pixel-art platformer. It’s down-to-earth, except for, you know, all the supernatural elements. It is a game that is never content to fulfil all of your expectations. Indika  is wonderful. Indika is also the name of our protagonist, a young nun of small stature and quiet demeanor. Taking place in a fictionalized 19th-century Russia, the events of Indika  follow Indika as she tries, unsuccessfully, to navigate life in the convent while the devil speaks to her in her head. Indika’s odd mannerisms and awkward demeanor seem to push the other nuns away, as they treat Indika with a level of disdain that could gently be described as “cruel.” This frayed relationship with her sisters is no doubt the reason Indika is eventually put on the road to deliver a letter. Developer:  Odd Meter Publisher:  11 bit studios Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Released May 2, 2024 on Windows PC, May 17, 2024 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and November 17, 2025 on Nintendo Switch. Early on in this task, a few things become apparent. First, Indika is quite naive. She easily trusts those around her to do right by her, and when they fail her in some way, she is quick to forgive. Second, she is deeply disturbed. I did mention that she speaks to the Devil in her mind, but this relationship goes far beyond pestering voices. The Devil and his disturbances shape the world around Indika, opening new pathways for exploration and changing the visual perception of people and objects in the world around her. The Devil can be brought to a whisper through prayer, but as the manifestation of Indika’s doubt in her religion, he can never be fully exorcized.  The Devil is not the only disturbance Indika feels, but the veracity of her perception can at times be difficult to determine. A 20-foot-tall cow and a 10-foot-tall dog are surely exaggerations, but what about the spaces we move through? How much of the environment is real? Is any of it? Indika navigates these spaces as she sees them, but where are we really? When we view Indika’s past as a pixelated, 2D isometric experience, how much of that is true? The strangeness of Indika  extends beyond the titular character, as well. In the opening hour of the game, we are joined by Ilya, a former soldier and escaped prisoner with some religious fervor and a necrotized arm. Ilya believes that he has been chosen by god and endeavors to find a means to heal his dead appendage. Ilya works as a great foil by his nature as a pious man, certain of his holiness and sure in his faith. In this way, he and Indika reflect one another, presenting opposing ideas on the nature of religion and what it means to be pious. Where Indika examines her own faith, questioning it and putting it to the test, Ilya remains cocksure. He has an answer for everything. And while answers are exactly what Indika desires to temper her faith, Ilyas's answers do not satiate that curiosity.  Where Indika examines her own faith, questioning it and putting it to the test, Ilya remains cocksure. The examination of the nature of religion is interesting, often making pointed comparisons to the practice of religion and playing a game. Indika’s faith is represented by experience points, which are gained after every pious act performed. When you pray at an altar, light candles at a shrine, or engage in some typically religious activity, you are awarded some number of points. Reach a specific threshold and your faith levels up! The game does note early on that chasing these points is meaningless; you can’t pay your way into Heaven, but that did not stop me (and by extension Indika) from trying it all the same. Beyond the “points” system and levels involved, Indika  utilizes both mundane and absurd imagery (often juxtaposed) to paint a memorable canvas upon which the game is played, and through which the aforementioned ideas and themes can be further enhanced or examined. At the risk of drowning in vagueness, I must refrain from providing too much in the way of explicit interpretation here. Indika is a short enough game that it could be played through in only a few hours, and there are enough activities to engage in and places to explore in that short runtime to make a consistently arresting experience. So, while I am gesturing broadly at the idea of “ideas”, I would simply implore you to look a little closer at the scenery, and listen to what the characters are saying. Sometimes, a room full of fish is more than just a room full of fish. While there is a strong sense that so much of the game’s narrative and imagery are painstakingly deliberate, there is at least one moment near the end that is a bit tonally inconsistent with the rest of Indika . Throughout my entire playthrough, I couldn't help but feel like so much of what was being said or shown was carefully constructed to present the ideas as something to be equally as carefully considered by the player. This single moment right before the end of the game does not quite meet that standard.  I am just unsure how any of it fits into the overall messaging that had been extolled up to that point. In some ways, it felt like the writers were looking for a way to move things along and end Indika  after having written themselves into a corner, but I do not have any certainty here, either. Was it something I missed? Was there some message or meaning to these events that has escaped my grasp? The uncertainty sours the already abrupt ending that follows. This narrative confusion in the closing act does not materially affect how I view the rest of the game, thankfully, but the same cannot be said for the crux of the engagement: actually playing Indika . The imagery goes a long way toward making the exploration segments visually interesting, but does nothing to improve what is, fundamentally, a lifeless walk for most of the game. The opening moments are particularly excruciating, such as when it tasks you with slowly delivering five buckets of water to another nun. The puzzles throughout Indika  are rarely inventive or even interesting, and most of your navigation amounts to little more than holding the stick forward. There are moments of lucidity, however, such as the pixel sprite segments that serve as the vehicles for the largest deviation in gameplay mechanics. As negative as this sounds, I rarely think of those moments in retrospect. While the act of walking itself may be boring, so much of what makes Indika  special also unfolds in those same moments. You’re very rarely just  walking; conversations between characters, absurd visual spectacle, and even some object collection take place simultaneously with the otherwise mechanically dull traversal. There is also something to be said about simply performing the act of being Indika, as the boredom of the opening section and “normal” exploration may reflect Indika’s disillusionment with her life as a nun. Rather than focus on any individual element, the totality of what Indika  does is positively enchanting. Verdict Indika  is an absurdly arresting experience. Its strong character writing, bold visuals, and excellent acting all contribute to delivering a story that consistently surprises. Its oscillation between realistic, dour moments and the humorous and absurd makes each moment shine, while also serving to blend the game into a coherent, cohesive whole. Sure, the overarching story and themes may not be exceptionally profound, but the carefulness and deliberateness with which those elements are generally handled make this a powerful experience. Image Credits: Odd Meter

The Reins of History Disclaimer: This article contains heavy spoilers for the following Final Fantasy Titles: VI, VII, X, XII, XIII, XVI, and Tactics I’ve been thinking about the Final Fantasy series a lot lately. Those thoughts have largely avoided analysis of the gameplay systems or the controversial direction of the series. Instead, my mind has turned to the stories they told and the lessons they taught me from a young age. On its face, Final Fantasy may seem like a series of completely disconnected entries, with few shared messages, stories, or even iconography. Yet, Final Fantasy has always held one consistent throughline: those who aim to oppress the downtrodden are evil and must be opposed. How each title presents these stories of resistance differs, with some focusing more heavily on government and church overreach, while others highlight systems of oppression like slavery and the impacts of such violations on the psyche of its people. Each circumstance is unique, but they all feature an overbearing ruling class that uses force to stifle and control the people they lord over.  Though many of the games eventually morph into fighting a god-like entity, those entities themselves represent or run the systems of oppression being enforced on the populace. They function as stand-ins for the specific type of corruption that has been perpetuated throughout the story. Sin in Final Fantasy X is more than just a big monster; it is the embodiment of the church that has long abused its position of power to control the people of Spira. In Final Fantasy VII , Sephiroth is the personification of Shinra’s hubris. Not only is he the product of their scientific experiments, but the circumstances that led to his disillusionment were entirely of Shinra’s own making. President Shinra overlooks the fallen plate of Sector 7. Image Credits: Square Enix As a Minnesotan, I can’t help but see the parallels between these stories I grew up on and the actions of the US government and agencies like ICE in Minneapolis. Masked secret police that hunt down dissenters, even peaceful ones, murdering anyone who dares to try and hold them to account. Roving gangs of state enforcers who target the downtrodden in an effort to eliminate the “others” and build their supremacist project, with no care for the collateral damage that ensues. The methods used to justify this violence are also eerily familiar. For instance, when Cloud and the AVALANCHE team destroyed a mako reactor in Final Fantasy VII , the Shinra Corporation sent their own secret police (the Turks) to squash AVALANCHE, dropping the Sector 7 plate on the slums below. After the fact, Shinra blames the attack on AVALANCHE, citing their status as a terrorist cell. A tactic also employed  by our government, despite evidence to the contrary. This cycle of state violence is further enabled by the legal protections that shield those in power. In Final Fantasy XII , the Archadian Judges enjoy such immunity. Much like the ICE agents in the USA, these judges wear helms that conceal their true faces, sheltering them from observation and accountability. They serve as the guardians of ‘law and order’ within the Archadian Empire, enjoying full immunity from any repercussions of their actions, and they may designate anyone they wish as an enemy of the state and punish them accordingly. The Archadian Empire itself is a project in racial supremacy, only employing Humes  outside of extreme circumstances — a fact the judges are all too keen to uphold. Of course, this type of oppression and abuse is not new to people of color in the USA. State violence has long been a method of control. Black Americans are  incarcerated en masse for petty crimes , jailed at nearly six times  the rate of White Americans, and despite comprising only about 13% of the population, they make up nearly 40%  of the prison population. Hispanic people are kidnapped, beaten, and forced into concentration camps , and people detained by ICE are taken on “starlight tours”  where they are driven and dropped off in adverse conditions far from civilization. Their capture has been facilitated in many ways by the reintroduction of racial profiling as a legal justification for “reasonable suspicion”. These newly minted “Kavanugh Stops” allow ICE and Border Patrol agents to target and detain people based on their skin color, accent, and even occupation .  These are all happening today. They’re not relics of a distant past, and all are done at the hands of local, state, and federal forces. TODAY coverage of George Floyd Protests. However, some recent events, such as the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, have galvanized large segments of the citizenry to question police involvement. The fact that the current government occupation is taking place in the same city where George Floyd was murdered is not lost on me, but things have meaningfully changed since those protests in Minneapolis. Police-caused deaths have diminished greatly, with no killings by law enforcement officers  in the entire state in over two full years, and zero Minneapolis Police Department shootings . There was a real sense that things were getting better, and despite what the Trump administration would have you believe, crime is down  across the board.  And while the recent ICE occupations in LA, Chicago, and beyond have all been done under the pretence of “immigration enforcement”, it was inevitable that this violence would turn inward, used as a tool to harm the very citizens the government is meant to serve. Moments where the apparatus of “security” morphs into a tool of domestic oppression are present in the ideological manipulation found in Final Fantasy XIII,  the territorial occupation and subsequent conscription in Final Fantasy XIV , and the hunting and exploitation of espers in Final Fantasy VI . “Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.” — Robert O. Paxton, The Five Stages of Fascism In Final Fantasy XIII,  Cocoon is at odds with the planet Pulse. The threat of Pulse l’cie and Fal’cie looms over the people of Cocoon, who have been taught that Pulse and all of its people are evil — fears deliberately stoked by their ruling class. But Pulse is dead, the people of the planet long since removed. The truth of the matter is that the Cocoon Fal’cie want to see Cocoon destroyed, but cannot do so themselves. To this end, they brand the main party with a Pulse Fal’cie, turning them into the intended instrument of cocoon’s destruction. Final Fantasy XIV ’s Garlean Empire has been a driving oppositional force in the world of Eorzea for much of its run, and utilizes tactics that can be seen in the United States. The Empire captures a territory and conscripts its people into the military, forcing them to fight for the furtherance of the Empire’s aims. They come under the banner of liberation, with messages of freedom from the terrors of beastmen and magick. But in each and every conquered territory, the local population suffers, often at the hands of locals who have become useful tools for the Empire’s goals. Characters like Fordola, an Ala Mhigan who serves as commander of a particularly brutal imperial regiment, and Yotsuyu goe Brutus, a Doman woman who acts as viceroy and lives out her days tormenting her citizens, become useful for the Empire as avatars of terror.  In Final Fantasy VI , the main character Terra is a half-esper, making her part of a race of magical beings at odds with the Gestahlian Empire. The Empire hunts espers for their magical power, draining the living essence of these beings to fuel their Magitek machinery. I find similarities here to our treatment of migrant workers on our farms in the US, who are so often used, mistreated and discarded  when it is politically convenient to do so. But how much should that distinction of citizen and non-citizen matter? Would someone not born in the US have deserved such a fate? For all the assurances that Renee Good and Alex Pretti were both good people and American citizens, I can’t help but hear the distant implication that they would have deserved it if either of those facts were untrue. I implore you to consider this: we don’t need to adhere to DHS and ICE framing in our defense of lives, especially when they so often lie  about who the people they detain are. “Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism For many Americans, particularly middle-class white Americans, these infractions have been seen as minor incidents. It is easy enough to accept the story of officials when none of this is happening to you and yours. But now with the deaths of Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti, Parady La, Keith Porter, and more , the illusion of safety and “rule of law” is being shattered in real-time for millions of people. Circling back to Final Fantasy VI, the major event that comes to mind is when Kefka finally realizes his aim of destroying the world of balance midway through the game. This moment signals the total collapse of the social fabric of the world and an end to civilization as it had been known up to that point. Normal no longer exists. Any sense of structure in the everyday lives of FFVI ’s characters has been completely upended. It is in this moment that the survivors must find a new purpose, and they must band together to rebuild the world that was taken from them. In Final Fantasy Tactics , the death of Delita’s sister Tietra at the hands of Ramza’s aristocratic allies forces a shift in his worldview. A proud noble by both birth and upbringing, Ramza must now contend with the injustices that have been (and continue to be) perpetuated by those he once called friends and family. He recognizes that those he previously associated with are using their status and wealth to harm those less fortunate so that they may be further enriched — a position he can no longer abide. He realizes that his title and appeals to honor cannot stop the violence of the state.  For many, the events in Minnesota are such a moment. It presents an unmistakable threat to the peace and safety that had at one time been assured. With this comes the realization that simply talking to the agents will not stop them . ICE agents did not have values of decency or any moral character when they joined the organization, and there certainly was no incentive to develop it post hoc. On top of this, Donald Trump and his appointees are not aiming to calm things down , either, telling us that such events are the consequences of our opposition to their cruelty. Appealing to their better nature will not save us; they must be opposed and confronted at every opportunity. To that end, large-scale protests have been effective in galvanizing the populace; even the most sheltered among us take notice of the collective efforts of the people in the streets. As of writing, the “all” page of Reddit is almost entirely full of anti-ICE posts, across a wide range of hobbies and communities . YouTubers and Twitch streamers are speaking out, with some raising funds  for local organizations to assist in protecting their communities. CBS coverage of an anti-ICE protest. But what does opposition look like in Final Fantasy, and what can we take from it for real-life application? I think the best course of action lies in community. Final Fantasy XVI  shows us a world full of slavery and discrimination. One in which the ‘others’ of the world are brought to heel through the use of a poison brand, and by extension, the threat of death should they disobey. Despite this, multiple different resistance cells arise. The main group, first helmed by Cid and later by Clive, forms an enclave (The Hideaway) to meet the needs of the disenfranchised, which is full of formerly branded members who have come together to create a community that supports itself through trading, farming, and other activities. Disparate groups throughout the world also take on the burden together. Martha’s rest serves as an allied outpost, smuggling branded slaves and working to fight the systems that endeavor to persecute magic users; in Northreach, Isabelle and her cadre of courtesans work to keep control of the city away from the Holy Empire of Sanbreque. But resistance is not just about the physical networks we build, but also about the moral lines we refuse to cross. While Final Fantasy XVI focuses on survival through community, Final Fantasy XII  challenges us to reject the very tools and methods of our oppressors. One such moment is when Ashe is offered the power of the Sun-Cryst, a large piece of nethicite that has been used for centuries to control the people of Ivalice by providing magical power to those who hold its pieces. In this moment, Ashe is given the opportunity to take the Sun-Cryst and lay waste to the Archadian Empire, serving the goals of a shadowy cabal known as the Occuria. However, realizing that this arrangement leaves her indebted to the Occuria and that it also makes her little better than her own oppressors, she declines. She recognizes that you cannot liberate a people by using the same logic of domination that enslaved them. The power of the Dalmascan people is not in their magick or their weapons. It lies in their love for one another, in their unity. Both Final Fantasy XII  and XVI  show ways in which we can make an impact by banding together and doing the right thing. We can take lessons from Final Fantasy XVI’ s hideaway, building networks of mutual aid, feeding our neighbors, and shielding the vulnerable.   Simultaneously, we must possess the moral clarity of Ashe in Final Fantasy XII . We must refuse to collaborate with the machinery of violence and understand that our strength does not come from the authority we wield, but from the community we protect. Things like AI and mass surveillance will only serve to harm the people in the end, so they must be turned away. The Occuria in FFXII are the shadowy figures that control the course of history. Image Credits: Square Enix By saying “no” to those who would seek to steal our neighbors away and by declining the invitation to sit at the table of despotism, we can impose our will and create a better future. Helping your neighbor find food is resistance, alerting each other of the presence of ICE authorities is resistance, and even the act of cultivating joy is resistance. The stubborn insistence on living with dignity under a system that demands our submission empowers us. In recent years, it has become evident that our institutions and political leaders offer limited safeguards against malevolent actors. Rather than act as a shield to safeguard our liberties, they have become the sword used to rend them. There will be no outside party to come and fix our problems. For us to reclaim the reins of history for mankind, we must be the heroes who take up the cause and stand together with our neighbors. We must be the shield against the violence aimed at our marginalized cohorts. We must become the warriors of light to stand against the darkness of chaos, and we must do it in service to one another.

As the latest release from The Game Bakers, makers of the games Furi  and Haven , Cairn is a climbing simulation and survival game that pushes you to your limits, asking a lot of the player in an effort to convey meaning through struggle. In the story, you control Aava, a seasoned mountaineer whose latest goal is to climb Kami, the most difficult mountain of all — one no other climber has managed to ascend. Publisher:  The Game Bakers Developer:   The Game Bakers Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released on January 29, 2026 for PS5 and PC The climbing controls allow the player to control each separate limb intricately, but it is neither as delicate in its handling nor as punishing on missteps as something like Baby Steps . While the baseline mechanics of climbing are easy enough to understand, the intricacies of those controls are not always intuitive. When you climb, the next limb to be used is automatically selected based upon some combination of placement and balance, but following this auto-selection will very frequently lead to awkward placements and maneuvers, or even put you into detrimental scenarios where the game lifts the only securely placed limb you have.  Thankfully, there is a way to manually select the appendage next used, and it’s a feature I suggest you try and get comfortable with quickly — you’ll need it to reach the summit. I further suggest that you set the manual selection mode to either “dial” (if on controller) or one of the various button settings. The default setting, stick, is difficult to use as it is based upon your character’s posture and, given the less-than-ideal placements you could find yourself in, may limit visibility. That said, once you have everything set up and are more comfortable with the manual selection controls, man, does this game feel smooth. There were times while climbing where things just started to click, as if I entered some sort of flow state where all of my movements would blend seamlessly into the next before I finally found myself atop the cliff I was scaling. It’s just you against the mountain. And god, does it feel good to win. Even the small climbs feel like earned victories. Rather than a meter, Cairn  uses animations and sound to help signify the quality of your holds and Aava’s condition to the player. Aava’s shaking legs, heavy breathing, and darkening vision add tension to the climbs in difficult spots and show you everything you need to know about your current position. You can mostly tell when you have a solid hold based on her hand and foot placement on a surface. Cairn just has this incredible knack for emulating the tension and struggle of climbing in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a video game before. This is largely owed to the groundedness with which it approaches climbing. While it is by no means a true-to-life sim, Aava is still just a person (although a freakishly flexible one). She cannot leap from hold to hold; her stamina and grip are actually quite limiting, and when compared to other games that heavily feature climbing, every movement must be deliberate because Kami demands it. Of course, some issues arise from time to time when climbing as well. The sort of magnetic attachment of Aava’s limbs to surfaces can become a great annoyance in tight spots. In moments when you need to cling to a specific ledge or hold, it is all too frequent that she will instead choose to latch onto an insecure surface. This will happen even when you have your hand lined up in perfect position; sometimes Aava just wants to kiss the Earth, no matter how precise your directions are. There’s no real penalty for death in normal, aside from lost time, but in survival, this ended a run for me. I just could not get her to grab a crack I was aiming at, no matter how hard I tried. Cairn just has this incredible knack for emulating the tension and struggle of climbing in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a video game before. There are some nice gameplay options that you can toggle on or off, such as survival mechanics, an auto-save feature, rewinding time from falls, and infinite climbing resources (chalk, pitons, and tape), but doing so permanently marks your save as having used “assist mode.” This is not necessarily a problem, and I don’t think anyone should be ashamed of using these tools to play Cairn , but it is worth noting that even turning them on just to see what happens or how they work will make this mark visible permanently. The route you take is open, allowing a freeform approach to your ascent to the summit. Do you take a more difficult path that gets you to your destination more quickly or take a safer path that may leave you with fewer resources? You could choose to explore more of Kami to learn more about its history and the people who have tried to climb it, or bee-line straight for your destination. In my first playthrough, I did a little exploring, sometimes going off the beaten path for collectibles and resources, but with so many routes to take and being unsure of how limiting the survival aspects would be, I did not attempt a full search of the mountain. I did much more of that on my second run of the game. I think that’s when I really fell for the game, to be honest. Truly exploring the mountain in a free-form way gave me such a deep appreciation for the care that was put into piecing together Kami. The mountain is littered with details that I missed on my first trek, like corpses with letters home or abandoned beach chairs in hard-to-reach areas. In some ways, you get to follow the journeys of the people who came before you, reading notes they left behind or seeing the ropes and pitons that might indicate failure.  Those stories mirror Aava’s in more ways than you might pick up on in the first playthrough, testing the limits of what we are willing to put ourselves through, and why we do it. What do we gain by confronting our fears? What do we leave behind in the process? That story and the examination of Aava’s will and purpose caught me off guard. I truly was not expecting to be so moved by what transpired, yet here I sit, still thinking about the journey and the intense closeness of every moment, the loneliness of climbing up the mountain, how beautifully each event within that story is married so well to the gameplay, and the lessons we can learn by playing Cairn .  When you get to the final moments in the expedition, you will have such a familiarity with what Aava can do that planning your routes and moving up to new areas becomes more of a practice in planning than mechanical performance. You will know where Aava can make a climb just by looking at it, what angle of a cliff face is still scalable, and how far you can move without a strong hold. It is a game that teaches you patience, tests your perseverance, and forces you to accept your failures.  I felt my fair share of failures as well. Moments on the climb where I seemingly hit a dead end or took on a challenge without proper preparation, and was forced to start from my last save — sometimes losing “progress” of up to 30 minutes. Despite those setbacks, or perhaps because of them, I was compelled to contend with my own carelessness; I was driven to move beyond the frustrations of disappointment. Frustrations that Aava lets you know she’s feeling, too. With every fall or struggle, Aava will fume, railing against her own weaknesses and inability to make the climb.  Underpinning all of this is perhaps the best game soundtrack I’ve heard in a long time. The score by Martin Stig Andersen, Gildaa, and The Toxic Avenger is mostly understated, featuring haunting melodies and gentle strings that play during the breathers you get between rock faces, but they are so impactful in expressing the emotion of the moment. I have genuinely broken down into tears hearing the music at times. And that is to say nothing of the more intense and layered synth pieces on the soundtrack. I fear that my limited musical knowledge leaves me unable to adequately convey just how incredible the soundscape is, but it has engendered in me a feeling I cannot escape. As I sit and listen to the sounds while writing, I can feel a tightness in my chest, a tension rising with every note, and then finally a release at the song's conclusion. It is so perfect for the game itself that it is hard to fathom. It is a soundtrack that is so symbiotic with the story events and gameplay that it becomes impossible to separate them. It is a fundamental part of experiencing Cairn . It is a soundtrack that is so symbiotic with the story events and gameplay that it becomes impossible to separate them. It is a fundamental part of experiencing Cairn. Earlier, I said Cairn examines the limits of your patience and tests your perseverance. I learned something about myself in that sense. I was not always patient, forcing paths and holds that were suboptimal simply to try to reach the next segment, only to then fall and become deeply frustrated at the mistake. But I did persevere. Through every hard moment, through every frustration and failure, I continued the ascent, and in doing so, I gained something beyond a simple satisfaction of completing a game.  Rather than focus on the things I couldn’t do, I honed an ability to learn what I could  do. To utilize what I know in order to achieve something that at first glance felt so beyond me. As I played, I bore the weight of the stress I put upon myself in every step toward the summit and saw that same weight fall away when I reached the peak itself, as if I were one with the mountain and the stars beyond. Verdict Cairn  is a climbing and survival game that examines the limits of your patience and tests your perseverance. Supported by a phenomenal soundtrack and great acting performances, it presents an exploration of the main character Aava’s will and purpose. In doing so, it holds a mirror to the players, asking a lot of us as well. What is to be gained from climbing the mountain? Why do we do it? What do we leave behind when we face our fears? You’ll only ever know if you dare to try. Image Credits: The Game Bakers Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Hey there, and welcome back to the weekly news roundup! It’s been a pretty tumultuous week in the industry, between corporate closures and big-name releases, a lot is going on. That said, here are five particular stories that have caught our attention. Ubisoft Cancels Six Titles in Development, Delays Seven More Ubisoft has confirmed in an interview that six titles have been cancelled, including the remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time , and seven other titles have been delayed. These cancellations also mean the end of Ubisoft studios in Stockholm and Halifax, Canada. Not much is known about which titles have specifically been cancelled aside from Prince of Perisa , but one title that has weathered the storm may surprise you. Yes, the game that has been in development for 17 full years at Ubisoft remains alive , with Ubisoft even continuing the search for development talent.  Fable Gameplay Finally Sees the Light of Day First revealed in February 2025, the Fable series reboot has been noticeably quiet in terms of marketing over the last year. This changed on Thursday, Jan 22, 2026, during the Xbox Developer Direct , when a new gameplay look at Fable was shown . Between the showcase reveal and accompanying release window trailer, there are quite a few interesting tidbits about the environments and stories that take place in the revitalized Albion. Perhaps the strangest addition are T he   Office -like cutaway interviews . Popular Cyberpunk 2077 VR Mod Hit With DMCA Strike A popular VR mod for CD Projekt Red’s dystopian first-person RPG has been taken down after CD Projekt issued a DMCA strike. While CD Projekt is no stranger to mods in their games, this particular one was deemed an issue because the creator was charging money for it, violating fan content guidelines. Despite some back and forth  between the mod creator Luke Ross and CD Projekt, the mod remains unavailable at this time.  Double Fine Announces Its Latest Zany Project — Kiln Following the hot on the heels of their recent release Keeper , Double Fine Productions has announced a new game titled Kiln. In Kiln, you sculpt pots using tools such as sponges, shapers, scrapers, and even your hands, which are then sent to do battle and put out the opponent's kiln. The announcement trailer  showcases unique imagery full of color and impressive effects. Can't wait to see more! Queen’s Blood Will Return in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Series’ Next Entry In a recent Polygon interview , remake part 3 director Naoki Hamaguchi stated plans to include and expand upon the popular mini-game, Queen’s Blood, that first made an appearance in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. “Queen’s Blood is a very popular and beloved minigame, and I believe a lot of people are still wanting something like that,” Hamaguchi told Polygon. “I want to expand on Queen’s Blood so that we are enhancing it, and giving you a more powered-up version of it when you see that third installment… Queen’s Blood is still going to be available in the third installment. We just want to expand on it.” He also made sure to assuage fears that Snowboarding would not be present in the next installment, noting fan anticipation for the mini-game. Thanks for sticking around! Come back next week and we’ll share a few more stories for you to take a look at!

Trials of Mana  is extremely faithful to the SNES classic — perhaps to its detriment. While it does a commendable job of upgrading its aesthetics to the modern era, many other aspects remain close to the original when they could have used a bit more love. The combat system works well enough in 3D, but it becomes repetitive and tedious outside of the big boss battles. Additionally, side content is bland and uninteresting to engage with, and some gameplay systems are not explained well. Thankfully, the story remains charming, despite its simplicity, and the music is exceptional at conveying the personality and tone of each area and scene, respectively. Ultimately, Trials of Mana  is a mostly boring experience. While it can be forgiven for relying on cliché material due to its nature as a remake, it could still have used some love in the margins, such as improving the flow of combat, revising tutorials, or expanding side material. Pros: Strong visual style Party building is quite open, allowing for a variety of strategies and builds Music is vibrant and works well in giving the world a personality Cons: Combat is quite boring outside of boss battles Side content is tedious and uninteresting to engage with Some systems are not explained well Developer: Square Enix Publisher:  Square Enix Platform:  Played on PS4 and PC Availability:  Released April 24, 2020  on PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Released July 15, 2021 for Android and iOS; September 26, 2024 for Xbox Series X/S.

Hey all, hope you’re doing well! Welcome to our first weekly news roundup. The goal of the roundup is to highlight the news stories and announcements that are of the most interest to us in the gaming space. This is something we’ve been considering for a while, so let’s see how it goes! This week has been pretty slow in-terms of big news items, but a few updates and announcements have caught our eye. Resident Evil Requiem Showcase The Resident Evil Requiem   showcase  that took place this week revealed a ton of new info regarding gameplay mechanics and structure. The two characters have pretty distinct playstyles, with the Leon campaign more focused on action and Grace’s campaign being a more traditional survival horror experience.  Frosthaven Update — Legacy of the Algox Frosthaven  came out in early access last year (still remains in early access, actually), but still managed to end up as one of my favorite gaming experiences from 2025. It continues to get more updates in terms of story content and playable classes, so I’m always on the lookout for new information. That said, Frosthaven ’s second major Early Access content update, Legacy of the Algox, comes out Jan. 22 and adds New Playable Heroes, pets, biomes, bosses, and more. Looks to be a great addition to an already great early access title. The new environs look really cool. Super Battle Golf Oro Interactive has announced  Super Battle Golf, a 1-8 player golf game where you do whatever it takes to reach the hole first in a free-for-all take on golf. Super Battle Golf is coming out on Steam February 19th, and looks like a really fun game to play along with friends in a group if you just want to mess with one another. Monster Hunter Wilds Performance Woes An explosive claim  has been made towards Capcom in regards to  Monster Hunter Wilds ’ continued performance woes. First brought to light  by a redditor going by the handle de_Tylmarande, it appears as if Capcom has implemented frequent checks for DLC into the code of the game, dragging down the game’s performance. After independent testing by Digital Foundry , the claim seems to be accurate, with DF’s own findings reflecting that of the reddit post. Given the nature of the issue and just how widespread criticism of Wild ’s performance has been, I would not be surprised to see some sort of internal retribution for this colossal oversight. Meta Shuts Down Twisted Pixel, Armature, and Sanzaru Games Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has reportedly cut an estimated 10% of employees in its Reality Labs division. Formerly known as Oculus VR, the Reality Labs division makes products like the Meta Quest VR headsets and AI-powered glasses. Armature Studio, Twisted Pixel, and Sanzaru Games are reportedly among those affected. This seems to be signaling that Meta is finally cutting its losses after having lost billions over the last several years. You can read a full report on the subject by Bloomberg here . RTX 5070 Ti Destined for Oblivion? While it was   initially reported  by Hardware Unboxed that the RTX 5060 TI (16 GB) and 5070 TI graphics cards may be discontinued, ASUS has since put out a statemen t claiming otherwise. Despite the clarification, rapidly increasing RAM prices and demand continue to put the consumer side of the market in dire straits. Games Workshop Prohibits Staff From Using AI in Its Content or Designs As reported by Financial Times , Games Workshop (perhaps best known for its popular Warhammer series) has indicated that the use of AI is strictly prohibited for in-house development. CEO Kevin Rountree has stated “We will be maintaining a strong commitment to protect our intellectual property and respect our human creators.” This roundup is already over! Thanks for joining us and see you next week!