Week in Review - 5/15/2026

 

• Planet of Lana (PC - GamePass)

I'm really hitting a lot of games before they disappear from the subscriptions that I pay for. This is a very short and very beautiful game about a girl named Lana separated from her ... friend? Sibling? The graphics are amazing. The music is amazing. I believe it took about 4-5 hours, so it's not a huge commitment of time for a very emotional and simply told story. It's a puzzle-platform game, so it reminded me of old classics like the Oddworld franchise - Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exodus. It has such a minimalist story told through the exploration of the world to reunite these two children - and you get a cute little pet to accompany you on the journey. I can't recommend this short game enough. I'm glad I got a chance before it disappeared out of my sphere of games. 

• Soul Hackers 2 (PlayStation 5)

This is another game that I've wanted to try but is falling off PlayStation Plus on May 19th. I highly doubt I will be able to finish it in time, but if I get hooked then maybe I will buy it on an upcoming sale. For a spin-off in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, it doesn't have the greatest reputation. I have to say the opening sequence was extremely confusing. The graphics are awesome and gameplay seem very fun so far. I see the name Kuzunoha is mentioned in this game. That's another game (Raidoh Kuzunoha) I need to play. It is so far and overall enjoyable. I'm not entirely sure what all the negative press was about, but it has also gone through a few patches as I'm playing it 2 years after its launch.

Week in Review - 5/8/2026

 

• Don't Starve Together (PC / Steam)

Back in the day, Don't Starve was a constant favorite. I've owned Don't Starve Together since it was created because I enjoyed playing the original in tandem with others to compete to see how far we could survive. Together takes it to a whole new level. I'm really bad at it. Though I don't starve that often, I can't seem to stay alive for longer than a week or two. I really want to get better at surviving in this game. So far, I only play Wilson. Perhaps I need to branch out.

• Sand Land (PlayStation 5)

I finished Sand Land this week. It took a lot of determination. It's not a bad game, but I found it very mediocre. The story is cute. The characters are endearing and memorable. It reminds me in a lot of ways of Blue Dragon in that regard. However, I had a lot more fun playing Blue Dragon due to it being a turn-based RPG with a robust job system. The systems in Sand Land feel very half-baked. I really enjoy crafting and kitting out the vehicles - which feels like the main draw of the game - but the combat itself is so repetitive and ultimately quite boring. I had to really force myself to finish the game on a deadline. It was enjoyable, but also rather forgetable. It made me want to play other tank-based RPG games like Valkyria Chronicles or something in the Metal Max franchise. 

• Vampire Survivors (PC / Game Pass)

This game has been on my radar for a long time. It's very popular. People love it. Everyone says I'd like it, but it doesn't look like a game that I would like. Since I absolutely love Vampire Crawlers, I finally tried it. Shocking news! I don't like it. I played it for 45 minutes then uninstalled it. I did like the references in Vampire Crawlers as they translated from this game, but I don't like the gameplay loop at all of this game. I don't like bullet hells in general - or reverse bullet hells, apparently. The exception is Hades because my love for Greek mythology surpasses vampires, I guess. 

Week in Review - 5/1/2026

 

• Pokémon Blue (GameBoy)

I started a project that I wanted to do for a long time. This is Phase 1 of a Generational Nuzlocke or Genlocke where I try to go through as many games as possible in a Nuzlocke-style. Each subsequent game (or Generation) I will carry over surviving members of the team that made it into the Hall of Fame as a new generation. I also cannot use any previous evolution lines that have been used (gained experience) so if I lose a Pidgey in Pokémon Blue then I can never use a Pidgey-line ever again in the run. 

• Sand Land (PlayStation 5)

This game launched right around the death of legendary Akira Toriyama. I had thought to buy it and play through it as an homage to the great creator, but upon playing the demo of the game was sadly underwhelmed - I played a bit of Xenoverse and Kakarot instead. This game leaves PlayStation Plus on May 19, so I decided now or never on checking it out. The demo is not representative of the game, but the game is still fairly mediocre. I'm enjoying the characters and the story, but the gameplay is repetitive. 

• Vampire Crawlers (PC)

I took a pass on Vampire Survivor, but this game is right in my wheelhouse as a dungeon exploring deck-building adventure. I may have to rethink Vampire Survivor since this game is just so amazing. I have lost countless hours checking this game out this week. I don't know what to say about it except it feels like my new deckbuilding obsession akin to Balatro or Slay the Spire back in their day. 

• Yakuza 3 Remaster (PlayStation 4) 

It should not be a shock at this point that "Like a Dragon" is in my TOP 3 best franchises. Yakuza 3 has been sort of the odd man out in this journey because the remaster didn't really do enough to make the game as accessible as Kiwami versions of 1 & 2. However, be careful what you wish for. I'm playing Yakuza 3 alongside the newly released Kiwami 3 and I daresay I'm enjoying the remaster of the original a lot more than Kiwami 3. They changed too much. 

• Yakuza Kiwami 3 (PlayStation 5) 

That brings me to Yakuza Kiwami 3 which is a good game. It's fun. It's silly. It's got great combat, but they just changed too much of the story for reasons I cannot understand. They ditched hostesses; they took 100 substories down to 30 and most of them are new and add nothing of substance. The addition of the biker gang story is fine, but nothing to write home about. Turning the orphanage into its own side-content is a strange choice, because on the one hand it's a lot more in-depth managing the orphanage and hanging out with the kiddos, but removing it from the mandatory storyline means a lot of people might pass over getting to know these kids - which impacts how you feel about Kiryu and how you feel about the orphans in the future games. 

Overall, Kiwami 3 feels like an attempt to make Yakuza 3 more fun to a modern gamer, but totally disregards how it will translate into Yakuza 4-5-6-8 of Kiryu's journey going forward. The choices RGG made to keep, add, remove content is so strange to me. I think it's a good, fun game, but now it doesn't quite fit in with the subsequent games. 

Final Fantasy - A Review & Reflection

Final Fantasy - The Journey That Started It All

I first played Final Fantasy when I was seven years old. I probably got it for Christmas in 1987, but the details are a bit fuzzy. Most of my gaming life to that point was spent in games like Centipede or Super Mario Bros. where the “story” lived only in my imagination based on the limited introduction given in the instruction manuals at the time. 

Final Fantasy was different. I knew it was a paradigm shift immediately, even though I wouldn’t know that phrase until Final Fantasy XIII two decades later. The game itself was far too difficult for me to beat at that age, but it captivated me with its sense of discovery and adventure. Meeting kings, rescuing princesses, and stepping into a world full of towns, caves, and monsters felt like a novel coming alive. It was magical. 

By the time I was in 5th grade, I was carrying my Nintendo Power strategy guide to school, studying monsters and dungeons in my free time. I occasionally asked my teacher to explain words to me, which only cemented my nerd status among my classmates. I remember my first party vividly as it remains iconic to this day. 

• Todd the Fighter

• Dave the Black Belt

• Jed the Black Mage

• QT the White Mage

QT was a girl in my mind, but in elementary school giving her the name of a female classmate felt like a bold confession, so I kept it anonymous and generic. Later in life, I would see the White Mage (and moreso the White Wizard) as a male and name him Kiru after my Final Fantasy XI character who was also a White Mage.

It took me nearly a decade to conquer the NES version of Final Fantasy. I was 16 and over-hyped for Final Fantasy VII to launch, replaying all the classics to fill the time over the summer leading up to it. The day I finished it, I felt like I closed a loop that began when I was seven. I finally mastered a game that had introduced me to a lifetime of stories. 

Game Breakdown

Final Fantasy is a short but dense JRPG, beatable in a weekend if you know what you’re doing. The moment-to-moment gameplay loop is simple. You explore towns for hints. You explore the overworld for dungeons. You explore dungeons for upgrades. Those upgrades come in the form of experience to level up, loot from treasure chests, or gil (money) to buy new spells and equipment when you head back to town and thus the loop begins anew. 

The game opens asking you to build a party of four members from a choice of six jobs or character classes. The freedom to choose between warriors, thieves and wizards felt incredible to my young mind. Later learning those classes would go through an optional evolution was even crazier. When my White Mage was finally a White Wizard wielding Thor’s Hammer and could call down lightning with it, my imagination was in full overdrive. 

By modern standards, the story is a bit thin. However in 1987, it felt groundbreaking. The world’s light mythology about crystals, dragons, chaos, and legendary heroes of light was enough to spark my imagination for years (decades) to come. Even being able to name your party members with the four-character name limit became a huge part of the game’s charm. Homages to this would be paid in Final Fantasy XI and Strange of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin years later - even my old Black Mage “Jed” suddenly found himself fighting alongside Jack - at least that’s how it is in my headcanon. 

Even in this early game, the music deserves special mention. Nobuo Uematsu remains one of my favorite composers of all time, and Final Fantasy really planted the seeds of what would become an entire franchise of iconic soundtracks. Although, Uematsu was working with the NES’s limited sound hardware, he managed to craft themes that felt bigger than the gray packaging that contained them. “Prelude” and “Victory” are simple 8-bit compositions that carry that spirit of adventure and transcend the NES hardware. Later games’ soundtracks would certainly outshine in complexity and emotion, but these foundational first tracks on this first score would echo through the entire series. “Chaos Shrine” and “Mt. Gulg” have permanent residence status in my memory and emotions. 

Notable Versions

The NES Original (1987) is punishing but pure. This game had limited spell usage (spell slots) rather than MP pools that later games would adopt. Predicting the party’s lethality is a necessary strategy, because if the Fighter kills the enemy the rest of the team is targeting, then everyone after him will fight that empty space. This is what I consider to be a true “hard mode” version of this game.

The Dawn of Souls on Game Boy Advance (2004) added smoother combat, the modern MP pool, and additional Soul of Chaos dungeons with bosses ripped from other games in the franchise. The 20th Anniversary edition on Playstation Portable (2007) is my personal “definitive” version with all the content from Dawn of Souls and an additional Labyrinth of Time and Chronodia superboss waiting for you at the end. 

We’re currently in the era of Pixel Remaster which boasts sleeker visuals while retaining the original style of the NES version. This version strips out the optional dungeons for a return to form on the original experience. 

If I were guiding the modern player to check out Final Fantasy, I would recommend the Pixel Remaster edition. It’s approachable, charming, and true enough to the core experience that I described as short, dense, and magical. While I still hold true that 20th Anniversary is the definitive version with all the bells and whistles and extra content, the optional content can frankly be a slog and a distraction from that succinct weekend adventure I’m promising. If you end up loving the game, check out the versions with more content later down the road. 

Snapshot

Pros: 

• Short, dense adventure that respects your time (10-20 hours)

• Party building freedom and satisfying upgrades; good for replaying with different combinations of characters to choose from when building a party

• Timeless sense of discovery and nostalgia; see the origin story of a huge franchise

• Pixel Remaster makes it easy for modern gamers to access and enjoy

Cons: 

• Story is dense, but sparse; no cutscenes, no exposition - just the player experience and dialogue from NPCs in towns to build the world, explore the lore and define the narrative

• NES Original mechanics feel clunky and archaic compared to later versions

• Those optional dungeons are more padding than payoff; fighting bosses from future games is cool, but the dungeons themselves are tedious. 

This depends on your values as a gamer, but the game does not hold your hand. It expects you to talk to the town NPCs and follow clues to complete objectives. There is not a shiny line leading you from point A to point B or quest markers over anyone’s head. Exploring and discovery is part of the design. This is frustrating to some, refreshingly old-school to others. 

Final Reflection

Final Fantasy didn’t just entertain me. It really shaped me. It was my first window into how video games could tell real, captivating stories. It merged my love for fantasy, mythology, and adventure into an interactive experience. Even now, decades later, it’s more than nostalgia. It’s the game that pushed me from gamer to storyteller. It was the first spark that would carry me into a lifetime of RPGs and creative writing - endless imaginary worlds would follow. 

If you’ve never played this game, go in expecting a short, charming experience that is basically a time capsule from the dawn of the JRPG genre. For me, everything I love about games today really traces back to those four little heroes on the NES exploring the unknown to save a world.