Erotic and terrifying in equal measure, Kusarihime induces a rush of blood in both directions. Raw emotions of lust, hate, regret and euphoria are distilled to their purest in this game, then subdued by an overwhelming nostalgia in the end. The story is rough around the edges, but as you peal away the time loop and step into the deepest desire of the heroines, you will be absorbed into it by the atmosphere and mystery. Too bad the little sister trope is front and center in this game as well, but in 2002, it was not as obnoxious as it is today.

Combat system takes a long time to get interesting. Thankfully the story lays its hook very early. In many ways, this is a "classic" JRPG story beginning with your hometown destroyed, and ending with you killing a god, with a war fueled by racial animosity sprinkled in between and some love triangle for good measure. What elevates Xenoblade to greatness is how it translates classic JRPG experience into full 3D gigantic world to explore. Keep in mind this game came out around the same time when "HD town is hard". It was a beacon in the age of darkness when JRPGs either abandoned their identity or retreated to handheld.

Only a near perfect execution can carry a Metroidvania game over 30 hours long (triple the length of the founding classics), and Team Cherry pulled off the impossible. The genre lives and dies on three key elements: exploration, combat and platforming (in that order IMO), and Hollow Knight excels in all of them. Aside from DLC super bosses, the game keeps a good balance between challenging and fairness, so you should not be deterred by its vastly overstated difficulty. Special shout out to the world building, which deploys the same esoteric method of Souls series, while creating a vivid sense of space and history.

Striking and memorable art, although the game takes a bit too much liberty with homages from, even for an indie title. Unique story, though I did not fully grasp. I do wonder if the creators intended for the players to figure out the vast amount of references pulled from different cultures, or they entrusted the task of decoding their game to Youtubers all along. Uneven gameplay. Puzzles are generally interesting. Limited inventory is horror game staple, but the backtrack with key juggling sucks the momentum out of the game. Tying the ending to play style is not good design either. It's only reasonable to avoid combat when ammo is limited, enemies can revive, and most importantly, it's not fun. Why should player be locked out of an ending because of it?

Ingeniously conceived and beautifully laid out, the story condenses centuries of history into a murder mystery in a secluded rural town in the Alps. It's a well-researched history lecture, but is also relevant to our current society, calling on us to embrace our history, even the parts that we prefer to avert our eyes from. The art is gorgeous and features some of the most lovable kids in videogames. It is an unbelievably slow burn though. You need to push through the first two hours to get to the murder itself. A fast travel option or a VN interface would save a lot of time of backtracking. I'm just grateful that Microsoft, out of all companies, allowed this game to exist.

Loss of loved ones is the theme of half of these walking simulator adventure games, though I suppose siblings are rarer than some other relatives. The story is about dealing with bereavement and guilt, and moving forward, as you'd expect from this type of games. It was unfortunately released in the same month as What Remains of Edith Finch, the anthology of deceased love ones, and easily outshone in presentation. It does win the prize of the slowest moving speed in a first-person game ever. Combined with head bobbing that cannot be turned off, this game can easily knock you onto your bed if you underestimate it.

A gem of story telling. It hooks you in at the start with the question "why is he quitting". You go down the memory lane with the protagonist until right before the end when everything comes together, and your curiosity is replaced by an overwhelming sympathy. The protagonist's voice resembles old De Niro in The Irishman, especially the stutter, which leads me to drawing more parallel between the two: lonely old man, shunned by his own child, no purpose or joy in life. The PC port sadly is bit shoddy. I got stuck a few times, had to redo certain sections, and there's one part of the game where I simply had no idea how to complete using mouse and keyboard so I resorted to controller.