Hello everyone, the year is almost over, so this is the time to look back and think about the things we really enjoyed throughout the year.

This year was the first one that I spent working a full time job from start to finish, and it's certainly had an effect on how I value and spend my free time. I've fallen off single-player gaming quite a bit, choosing to spend the limited time I have for hobbys either on art projects or playing with friends. Nevertheless, it is still one of my biggest hobbies, and if done right, video games can be beautiful and unique works of art in their own right. So towards the end of the year, I want to share some memories about the ones that I played and enjoyed. And who knows, maybe someone out there will find a new thing they love because of it as well.

On the multiplayer end, the big ones for me were V Rising (older game, but I finally got the hardware to run it properly) and For The King 2 (new release, but we've been big fans of the first one and eagerly awaiting this one). Both great with friends, but less so for solo players.

I also tried my hand at Elden Ring since I've been a fan of souls-like games ever since Salt & Sanctuary. I had quite some fun with it, but eventually found the open world aspect too tiresome to keep playing. Still, a great game and I don't regret my time with it.

On the furry end of things, I played Laika: Aged through Blood, which is absolutely gorgeous in it's music and art direction. Unfortunately I feel like it does lack a bit of polish, and a multitude of minor nuisances eventually made me quit before seeing it through to the end. I would still recommend taking a look, because there is a lot to be loved about this one.

Then there is Age of Wonders 4, sequel to my much beloved Age of Wonders 3. I got a play group for this one going since it allows for asynchronous play, where anyone can simply take their turn whenever they feel like it and games can last several weeks or months. But unfortunately, the net code for that is rather broken, and we routinely end up softlocking our multiplayer games because of it. Amazing game, but that one aspect unfortunately is just really really buggy.

And then the biggest one of them all and a serious contender for one of my favourite games of all time, Cassette Beasts. My closer friends are probably sick of me gushing over this game at this point, but it just hit all the right notes for me and was the exact type of game I've been longing for for years, so please bare with me as I shower some more praise upon it.
On the surface, it is a monster collecting game in the style of Pokemon, but it's also so much more than that. It's an RPG with interesting characters that tells a story about hope and teamwork in the face of hardship, and it never drops it's unapologetically optimistic tone. There's a very interesting theme of 'human creation' going on with the monster designs, where almost all of the monsters are based either on human mythology or human-made products and inventions, ranging from traffic cone-wearing hermit crabs over living gumball vending machines to floating ghostly emo-sheep. The bosses you face are personifications of humankinds own destructive impulses, like the drive to seek bliss in ignorance, or the dangers of blind, unquestioning faith. It also draws from and directly references Shakespeare and arthurian legend (yeah, it's made by a british developer). And all of it looks like a Saturday morning cartoon straight from the 90s.
The music is an absolute joy as well, with the somber "Wherever we are now" singing of feeling lost and homesick while also finding new friends, the somewhat spooky "Like Chimeras" reflecting the confusing yet empowering experience of fusion and temporarily becoming one with your friend (Or so I choose to interpret it), and the energetic and rocking "Shot in the Dark" inspiring you to fight on for the still vague and unclear hope of making it back home some day.
The gameplay is also pretty much everything I've been missing from monster collecting games over the past couple of years (with the exception of maybe Monster Sanctuary. Monster Sanctuary is a very different, yet still amazing kind of monster game). It is a lot more free form and exploration heavy than most games in the genre, allowing you to explore the world at your own pace and whenever you feel ready to take on it's challenges. Main story objectives can be taken on in almost any order you please. The game also does something very interesting with it's elemental type system. While effective attacks will deal a negligible amount of bonus damage, the main draw is the "Chemical Reaction" system, which will apply status effects based on elemental types. Fire attacks will cause plastic monsters to melt and temporarily become poison types, water attacks can increase the conductivity of electric types and causes all of their future attacks to target multiple enemies, and glitter types just get everywhere and turn everything else into glitter too! The game also comes pre-packaged with many adjustable difficulty options, something which is surprisingly still missing from many, many modern monster games, despite it being well known that these games appeal to players of all ages and experience levels.

In conclusion, I am still madly in love with this game and can't stop talking about it. But it is something that genuinely made me happy for many weeks, and I really want to share that with anyone who might find enjoyment in it as well. So I really hope you will give it a look... or maybe even just a listen.

And remember... when you are surprised by an enemy and a fight is inevitable... just take your cassette player, insert the tape, put on your headphones and press Play.