Dev spotlight: What games are we playing?

For today's update, we asked our staff members if they want to share what games they have been recently. Here are the answers we got!

PhleBuster 

As a long time RTS fan I've recently been really into Stormgate, and made it to rank 110 on the ladder so far. I think it does a great job on some conveniences that older RTS have been missing, the TTK (time to kill) is a nice medium, not too slow and not too fast, and you can focus on actual strategies instead of just microing units. The game's still in early access, but it's already completely playable to the degree that the focus of discussion is on balance.

I also got totally hooked on Metaphor: ReFantazio, to the degree I'm pacing it out to not clear it too fast. A Persona game in fantasy setting is pretty much straight out of my wishlist, and Shigenori's character designs have been fully freed from their shackles. The game might feature the best JRPG battle track, to boot.

Azureedev "Sora"

I started this year playing several games from the Tales of series with code brother trackftv. We've been going through Tales of Vesperia, Symphonia, Xillia, Graces f, Berseria and Arise. We even plan on going for Tales of the Abyss sometime soon. I personally started the series on Wii with Symphonia Dawn of the New World, then later on Xillia/Graces f on PS3. The fact we could use Parsec to play together on those games was a lot of fun, and definitely a lot of memes came out of it (our DM pins speak for itself.) Other than that, I play Helldivers 2 which I had quite a lot of good moments in it. As for usual games that I played before and still for this year, it's been a mix of Final Fantasy XIV, thanks to Rive to introduce me to it and made me play almost 10.000 hours of my life in it... (x.x) I also played, although rarely today, french MMOs such as Wakfu or Dofus. I'm also a gacha game player, mostly Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, and hopefully soon released Azur Promilia. I cannot wait 2025 personally, as I'm waiting a few games such as the new Orcs Must Die, Borderlands 4, and Den of Wolves (assuming it goes out in 2025!)

Rapha

For never played before old games, I finally played Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi, for some reason played Girls' RPG: Cinderella Life, and you don't know what a weird game is until you play a game from Akihiro Hino where you are a hostess, and also got hooked on the simple but addictive mini-game Kandagawa Jet Girls.

For revisiting entries, I got again into Digimon Stories Cyber Sleuth and various Hatsune Miku Project DIVA. Spent countless hours with Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, replayed the Hitman Trilogy, got a bit into an old game that I once got from a CD in a magazine called Switch Ball that's on Steam now. Replayed White Album and White Album 2 while hoping for a new release, well at least To Heart will have a remake. Replayed lots of my favourites Bokujou Monogatari games, mainly Youkoso Kaze no Bazaar e and Futago no Mura +. And also got hooked into playing again Precure All Stars Zenin Shuugou Let's Dance again, because the Wii was there and この空の向こうにはどんな夢がある🎶. Oh, also replayed Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 that got a Switch release.

For new stuff I played the demo for Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, in the hopes that Level 5 will actually let me play the full game next year, played the newest release of one of my favourite indie developers (since Magical Battle Arena) AREAZERO, Valkyrie of Phantasm and played Mario Party Jamboree a lot. And the voice from above speaks: "WarioWare: Move It! is amazing".

And finally, recently got again into SAO: Fatal Bullet and Lost Song (the latter after almost 10 years of playing it for the first time), still amazing games, while waiting for Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream, that after two sad release from Aquria, that mainly showed how PhyreEngine is outdated and how you can't just switch out of nowhere to Unreal Engine, finally got again into Dimps amazing hands for them to show how to make a polished game. And now I just wish they remade all the previous ones with their Unreal Engine expertise.

For 2025 can't wait for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, just so I know in which new and creative ways Game Freak can make me sad, since XY is my second favourite game after DP. And can't wait for possible new remasters of Rune Factory and the new entries that are scheduled to be released.

Ryuzaki

I have been playing Monster Hunter Rise with 2 other friends for almost a year now, still not done with Sunbreak because we only play when our schedules align, but so far it's really good, sorry itzpress but I think I like this one more than World (and maaaaybe a little more than 4 Ultimate, the QoL and wirebug movement have spoiled me too much I'm afraid.)

 Earlier this year a friend gifted me 3 months of xbox game pass for PC, and instead of trying out the more expensive stuff, my attention was caught by 2 very pretty and vibrant games: Hi-fi Rush and Another Crab's Treasure (aka "Bayonetta but rhythm" and "Dark Souls but crab"). Hi-fi Rush in particular having amazing animations and a brazilian dub with some pretty big names (the tutorial narrator is the iconic dude that voiced both SpongeBob and Goku!)

I also played the remakes of the first 3 Halo, and now I can see how that series became so popular, it feels a lot like modern shooters except it was released in 2001, so it must have been pretty groundbreaking.

Another great one that I was eager to play was Another Code: Recollection, truly a miracle that series got a remake. I was curious to see how they would adapt the DS puzzles into the Switch, but I won't spoil how it turned out. I have to say, though, I was disappointed in how a couple things from the original got either flat out removed or severely underused here. The story in the sequel had major changes which in my opinion were very interesting, and it was all by the original author too.

Very rarely do I get to play games the same year they're released, either due to not having enough money or not meeting the minimum specs, and this year was no different. There were a few 2024 releases I was able to catch though, such as Momodora: Moonlit Farewell, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and although technically not a new game, the Paper Mario TTYD remake.

I'm so happy top-down zelda games are still being made and this one is so cute >.< Shoutouts to people finding cool uses of echoes, my brain stuck with spamming a dozen favorites and replacing enemies with more powerful ones as I went lol Also rip poor QA team that had to check every interaction...

As for the future, I can't wait for Pokémon Legends Z-A! Kalos felt incomplete and deserves more love.

Yulay

Well... games I played this year... No way I can write about all of them here but here are some of the most memorable ones for me:

Played "Helldivers 2" and "Space Marine 2" and enjoyed both. As a fake fascist states enjoyer in fiction, both games are fun thematically. I can be defined as a Warhammer 40k lore "fan", so Space Marine has a special place in my heart even though I played Helldivers more. Helldivers leaves you in a state of struggle, always throwing yourself around in panic, running away from monsters while you're trying to call reinforcements (kids, bind your stratagems to arrows so that you can both run and call stratagems). On the other hand with Space Marine 2, you play a giant man wearing a tank and being a badass... and not realising you are dying. And not to die you have to kill MORE... Yeah, two different vibes. I enjoyed both games.

This year I also returned to Division 2 after 4 years. A friend wanted to experience it, and luckily there were new events and I enjoyed my time with it. Looter shooter at its best. The music, sound effect and the action is on point. One thing you have to keep in mind is that it's not a pure shooter game, it's an rpg-like looter shooter therefore the enemy is a bit of a bullet sponge.

Very recently I started "Zenless Zone Zero". Not going to lie, a certain music video piqued my curiosity. And surprisingly I'm staying with it. I admit I got lucky with my free pulls but I'm truly enjoying the game play. I'm in love with the designs, the storytelling, the cinematics and the directing. It is so very well edited. The combat is very flashy and pleasing to watch, but I admit, it might not be for everyone.

Also on the same line I gave "Honkai Star Rail" a go... it's fine. It didn't make me as happy as ZZZ but has a lot of things to do - a lot of things to enjoy so... it's fine. If you like jrpg you probably are already playing it.

Latest game I started is a rogue-like/light(?) card game called "Menace from the Deep". It's a Lovecraft (Cthulhu) themed card game where on each run you play an agent of a secret organization who is trying to face the monsters and worshippers of cosmic evil beings and... dying or going crazy in the process so that that your organization can advance further. I enjoyed the theme, the art style and game mechanics. I giggled when I figured why the newspaper gave you 20 armor... because it's implying you read about the creature in the newspaper and therefore was prepared for it. Loved these little snippets that add flavor to the world.

There are many more games I played or "bought and didn't even touch" this year but these are the latest or the ones that left the marks.

As for board games, the games that had the most impact this year were "Dune Imperium", "Terraforming Mars the Dice Game" and "Vampire the Masq. Vendetta".

Dune is a worker placement and deck builder game; where you buy cards to build a deck so that you can send your agents to locations on the board to take action. Get help from major unplayable factions and fight battles and obtain control of Dune. The game was extremely fun for me and the group we played. Recently a digital version was released but not all expansions have been implemented yet (haven't tried that one).

Terraforming Mars the Dice game is, I believe, the 3rd variant of the original "Terraforming Mars" game. In this game you are trying to make the most profitable company by building stuff using random dice rolls. It's lighter and faster than its older siblings, a bit more accessible and easier but still not simple. I don't have many dice rolling games, so this was fun.

As for ""VtM Vendetta", it's a harder game to get into, the rules are a bit confusing, you don't know what's happening but as soon as the first turn ends something clicks and everything fits in, gets easier to understand and becomes very fun. It's a game of area control, you try bluff and scheming and fight for control and gain prestige. Learning the game takes as much time as playing the game, but once that's done the game is fast and you can play a couple of times back to back no problem without wasting too much time.

I guess that's it from me. I probably have so much more but this is already long enough.

Have fun and game on!

Zomoroko

A lot of games stuck out as highlights for me throughout this year. I'll go through them all timeline style.

I started the year off with Backpack Hero, a roguelite based around how many upgrades you can fit in your backpack. The game has so many mechanics involving organization and spatial positioning that really appealed to my love of sorting things! It was hard to put down...

I also started playing FFXIV after receiving it as a gift. Clearly there is no escape from this game... eventually it finds you 😰. I mostly spent my time putting off the MSQ to level my crafting skills, because I'm insane.

In May, I started playing a new TTRPG, Fabula Ultima!! I've been having a fantastic time with it so far and definitely recommend highly, especially for people who most enjoy the character RP aspect of TTRPGs. Fabula Ultima's mechanics are designed based off of JRPGs, specifically with that genre's focus on grand adventures and centering the story around the character arcs of the heroes. It supports a very dramatic and over-the-top storytelling style which is super fun!

Most of my early summer was spent cracking open the different layers of Thistlemine!! I've talked about this game a lot before, but to quickly summarize, it's really left an impression on me as being a puzzle game like no other. Its open-ended solutions and focus on routing create an interesting gameplay balance between efficiency and resource management. Optimizing my runs has been a grueling challenge that's so satisfying to solve.

I played Palworld for the first time this October and I ended up liking it more than I thought, which was surprising since I was already expecting to like it to start with. The game offers a new and interesting take on the monster-catching genre and is genuinely well made. It feels like a great example of how being derivative of a lot of different games and genres doesn't mean that a game is inherently "lesser", and I honestly respect Palworld for its commitment to this idea.

In terms of gaming websites, Backloggery released its much-anticipated website revamp in May, and RetroAchievements started supporting GameCube games in July, so I've been using those a whole lot more this year~ Lastly, the end of the year is being capped off for me with a lot of Binding of Isaac online co-op, which released just a week ago!! I'm now always itching to jump into another co-op run for anyone who wants to invite me to one hint hint. 

 For my anticipated future releases, I've been eagerly following the development of Edmund McMillen's newest game called Mewgenics, which is shaping up to have a ridiculous amount of intricate gameplay systems to mess around with. I'm also super looking forward to Fantasy Life i, since Fantasy Life for the 3DS was always one of my favorite life sim games.

trackftv

I started this year playing several games from the "Tales of" series with code sister "Sora". I've only played through the games settled in the Aselia world, so having a reason to check more of the series out was nice and playing together with "Sora" turned out to be a lot of fun.

I knew next to nothing about the more recent entries, so it was interesting to see how the series has progressed. As someone who's been living under a figurative "Tales of"-rock, I was astonished with how much the cutscene work has improved over time. Also, with how the battle system for the series is always being changed, it was fun to have to learn what the changes were when hopping to the next game.

Another game I "played" with "Sora" was Detroit: Become Human. I say "played" because "Sora" just watched me go through the game, probably laughing at the manner I was doing so. The game is absolutely fantastic, I think it's a must play if you haven't tried it yet. Didn't get to go through all the content in the game, but hopefully there will be more chances to do so together again in the future.

That about sums up what I've played so far this year. It helped me get plenty of ideas to try to implement for the improvement of 100% Orange Juice, which I hope will be welcomed by the players.

ItzPress

There's a bit of a number so I'll be going through the plot-driven singleplayer ones first. In terms of completed single-player experiences, Witchspring R was a special one as I had been following the series from its smaller origins as paid mobile games made in spite of how proliferated microtransaction-full mobile games were. Made with heart and numerous sequels, this remake of the first debuted on PC and certainly made its splash. A fun, visually-appealing and wholesome fantasy RPG with crafting elements, it brought me briefly back to those some rare former days as a child where I'd spend nights just gaming to experience the game as fast as possible, only aided by how playable it was on the Steam Deck. It certainly showed that the game learned from and drew upon all the experiences and design choices made from all the former games of 1-4 on mobile. I'm awaiting the post-game content, but all good content takes its development time and resources, and I hope that the game continues to do well and all the best for the developer. Why not play as a cute witch who loves pies and berries, yet also trains up to get strong enough to fend off various threats from the likes of knight attacks sent by the pope to fantastical beasts such as golems and dragons?

Another completed single-player experience was the metroidvania Afterimage. While the game may drag on just a tad, the game is full of content in terms of area to explore, skills and weapons to acquire and overall playtime to achieve so you certainly are given a lot to play around, and it culminates into quite a good experience of a metroidvania game, and definitely fulfilled a similar itch that Ender Lilies had did last year. The story and it's themes are just a bit hard to get around, but the vibes of it all are still communicated well, and it's a very fun, fantastical, elegant and even a bit ethereally-themed kind of game, which is a fun contrast to the dark fantasy setting of the Ender Lilies experience as the prior metroidvania. Curious to if this will get additional content as it definitely seems like some branches of the story looked unresolved or unexplored.

Aside from that, the other single-player experiences I've played this year can probably be said to have just been dabbled into to varying degree. From those, CrossCode takes a good spot as a game I'm still playing through, but has shown itself to be a fun 2D action-RPG inspired by elements of both retro gaming with its graphics as well as gaming today like MMOs, and rather endearingly in both execution and story elements, all while the story itself still is executing its own more futuristic sci-fi elements. Stories in general have a brief amount of time to take your interest, and this certainly did with exhibiting that you're trying to find more information about yourself and your origins all while there's areas in the real world where fantastical gaming-adjacent elements are taking place in the real world rather than somewhere virtual. The game has been added to my mental collection of games I need to finish and/or revisit in general, and then I've also recently been trying out Dungeons of Hinterberg, which has shown itself to be a fun one so far. Stylistically appealing, the setting is the real world where it seems magic phenomenon have been happening in this particular place, and for a while now so there's business out of it, and so you're a lawyer fed up with their current position trying to attempt a new experience, that new experience being dungeon adventuring, with that coming monster-slaying and puzzle-solving, and experiencing the thrill and usage of magic.

Now comes the multiplayer games that basically never really end, and seemingly the same is my enjoyment of them. As someone who's been playing Monster Hunter games on and off since the Freedom Unite days of the PSP, I still occasionally play Monster Hunter World: Iceborne; around the Master Rank currently of 750-ish, I wonder if I should try getting up to 999 before Wilds releases, and that comes the obvious tell that I'm eagerly awaiting Monster Hunter Wilds. I've at least managed to learn to play all weapons both on keyboard/mouse as well as controller, the only struggle being that when I swap from one to the other it gets a bit disorienting at first. I should probably also stop procrastinating on defeating Fatalis…

In terms of games scratching that shooter itch, it was initially Deep Rock Galactic, which I appreciate is still getting updates and progressing my acquisition of overclocks, however then after being gifted a copy of Helldivers 2 on its release was all my co-op shooter focus then thrust onto that. I didn't even know about the game, yet after being given the gift did I look into it and little did I know that it'd be one of my more main games played onward. Having followed and playing through the game in its various changes and iterations, it has continued to overwhelmingly be a fun time for me, as it's hard to decline passing the opportunity of shooting some bugs or rebellious bots with an overpowering arsenal of weapons, sentries and orbital strikes from the destroyer ships in the skies. Scratches that bit of military itch too as someone who has an interest in military and military-themed games. The success was so resounding, it was no surprise and an endearing scenario for me to see Deep Rock Galactic take some notes with a cosmetic armor set and a new enemy type; those dreaded stalkers seemed to have left a lasting impression! Hats off to the developers who managed to still stick strong to improving the game despite hurdles.

That's all the more meatier commentary, but in terms of mobile gaming I'm still exploring what I can, having played some Dicey Dungeons and Coromon. It's always nice to see proper and full games and adjacent experiences on mobile.

That's all from us for now! What have you been playing this year, and what are you looking forward to?