Looking Back, Moving Forward

2023 is the year I finally focus on my ever-increasing backlog with furious intent. The era of keeping up with new releases is over; this is my time to conquer that bottomless void of unfinished games that I impulsively purchased thanks to various bundles and sales and bundles of sales. I have a horrible habit …

Apple Market’s Unimpeachable Vibes

In an act that can only be described as “on brand”, I consider Mega Man Legends to be my favorite in the entire franchise. Not that I consider the other games inferior, mind you; in fact I adore the first few X entries and have always had a soft spot for Battle Network. There’s just …

Finding Sincerity in CHAOS

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin has an iconic scene early on where protagonist Jack Garland declares “Bullshit” at a character’s insistence that Chaos is merely a myth and not an actual entity. He then casually whips out his phone and plays a butt-rap tune while exiting the conversation entirely. It’s an incredible scene for …

An Unhinged Look at the GBA Castlevania Games

At this point, it’s become an on-brand move for me to lightly pepper in a Castlevania article on this website in between other games. Of course, by “lightly pepper” I mean “call upon Mother Nature to pelt the world with golf ball-sized hail”. Even when I don’t write about Castlevania, I’m either referencing it or …

Elden Ring, Tunic, and Narrative Through Exploration

Hey everyone! This is technically the next Backlog Abyss, but it’s going to be different from the listicle format I was using in the previous installments. This time around, I’m narrowing my focus to two particular games I finished in March, and comparing my experiences with them since there are a few similarities worth pointing …

Backlog Abyss: February 2022

Welcome to the February edition of Backlog Abyss! I’m looking ahead at the release calendar for March and I am already exhausted. For February, I played three new releases and finished up a trilogy I started in January that I managed to sneak in right before You Know What™ released and took over our collective …

Super Mario RPG: My First RPG

Over the past decade, RPGs have become something of a blind spot for me. What was once one of my favorite genres has fallen by the wayside due to a combination of time, short attention span, and a ghoulishly large backlog that I will die before cleaning out. I still try to make time for …

Backlog Abyss: January 2022

If there’s one thing I lack complete self-control over, it’s maintaining my video game backlog. Sure, I finish games regularly, but that doesn’t stop me from purchasing a hot new release or falling prey to a good seasonal sale. It’s honestly gotten to the point where I will most assuredly die before I empty my …

My Favorite Album of 2021

Content Warning: Brief mention of self-harm and general talk about anxiety, depression, self-doubt If there’s one artistic medium I love about as much (if not more) than video games, it’s music. I’ve been an avid listener of all types of genres and artists since I was a kid, and that was mostly due to my …

Super Mario World – My First Game

When I think back to my first console, it was technically the NES. I have vague memories of watching my mom play through Super Mario Bros 3 and that one video game adaptation of the board game Othello, developed by HAL Laboratory before their name became synonymous with Kirby and Super Smash Bros. I was …