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Games I've Been Playing: Vol. I

I guess for this first one, I'll be a little more generous with my definition of "lately". These are stand outs among the games I've played over the last year or so. I'll probably make another of these pretty soon with games I'm currently playing. The images for each game link to their respective Steam pages and I tried to provide links to anywhere else they're available.

Outer Wilds

Also available on Epic Games, Playstation, Switch, and XBox.

Outer Wilds is a game about exploring an alien solar system. The game is completely open. You travel from planet to planet, learning about an ancient race and solving puzzles. All of that is great. But the story and ending are one of the most powerful experiences I've ever had in a piece of media.

I can't really tell you how powerful of an experience Outer Wilds was. It's one of those games where the less you know going in, the better. This is doubly true for Outer Wilds. The game is a giant puzzle, and everything is locked, not with a key, but with knowledge.

Hi-Fi Rush

Also available on XBox.

Hi-Fi Rush rocks, in every sense of the word. It's a combination of a DMC or Kingdom Heart style action game with a rhythm game. Everything from the scenery to your footsteps to both you and the enemy's attacks happens to the beat of the music. This game is just plain fun. The story is fun and goofy. The gameplay is a blast. I had no trouble keeping on beat since I was constantly tapping my feet to the amazing soundtrack featuring a mix of liscensed and original songs.

Slay The Princess

Also available on GOG, Playstation, Switch, and XBox.

You're on a path in the woods. And at the end of that path is a cabin. In the basement of that cabin, it is a princess.

You're here to slay her

Another game where the less you know going in, the better. But to be spoiler free. Slay the Princess is a horror visual novel with an incredible amount of choices available. All of the art is done in a gorgeous pencil style and the writing and voice acting is incredible. I can't say much else but please trust me and give this game a try, you wont regret it.

This is a love story.

Cassette Beasts

Also available on Switch and XBox.

I won't lie, Palworld was fun, but something about it didn't feel right. Controversy aside, Palworld didn't scratch that itch that I had for a Pokémon like game. Maybe it was that it wasn't a JRPG. Maybe it leaned too far into the "Pokemon with guns" angle. Either way, while it was a fun survival/monster collecting game, it didn't give me the same feeling as the greats of Pokemon Like Platinum or Emerald.

Enter Cassette Beasts. I'm not unconvinced that this game was made specifically for me. Turn based gameplay, a fun story and characters, an interesting world, a great soundtrack, secrets, beating up capitalists. It has it all! It even does open world gameplay better than Scarlet and Violet.

One of the most unique parts of Cassette Beasts is its type matchup system. Most games simply give a damage boost for type matchups. In Cassette Beasts, however, type matchups have unique extra effects as well. Fire turns ice types into water types. Astral types are boosted by elemental types like fire and water but weakened by artificial types like plastic types.

There's also an equivalent to shinies! Every encounter has a 1/1000 chance to have a "bootleg." A monster with a different color and type than normal.

There's also a TON of postgame content. I swear, the more I play this game, the more there is. Cassete Beasts gives Pokemon Mystery Dungeon a run for its money. New quests, a new area, new types of enemies, boss rematches, an awesome secret boss, and more. That's not even to mention the other gamemodes you unlock after you beat the game, a nuzlocke mode and a randomizer mode!

AND THEY KEEP ADDING STUFF! They've had several updates since the game released adding things like multiplayer and, just recently, a Battle Tower style gauntlet.

Seriously, if you want a game that really does justice to classic gen 3-5 era Pokemon, Cassette Beasts is it.

Lenna's Inception


Another game by Bytten Studio, the devs of Cassette Beasts. This one is a 2d Zelda inspired game with a procedurally generated world. Really neat game, only a few hours long, and filled with references to both old game and game glitches. It really feels like the devs at Bytten Studio grew up playing a lot of the same games that I did, and in the same way. Particularly with regards to glitches. Lenna's inception is a really fun, underrated game that sadly, very few people have played.