Games Aura’s Playin’ – End of 2025

I know, I know, this is a bit late – so I’m condensing november and december into a single post here! IGF was really tiring (Or maybe more accurately, I tired myself out quite thoroughly), thus the delay. Let’s see what I can dig up from the pile.

• DRAPLINE: today on “Stunningly good games with <100 english reviews on steam but >1000 total reviews!” A hybrid of Raising Sim and run-based-roguelike that sees you choosing what to feed a dragon girl each week so she can defeat her evil dragon cousins in turn-based RPG boss battles. It’s basically everything you want out of both genres – strategic and interesting, full of personality and silly goofs and spooky moments you can opt-into. Big recommend from me, and this game really doesn’t seem to have gotten much english-speaking attention!
• Motor Town: Behind the Wheel: I actually bought this game as a christmas present for a friend and then ended up buying it myself after watching her play it a bit. Basically an “everything simulator” made using entirely asset store assets, this weird little thing combines truck driving sim, taxi driving sim, bus driving, racing, pizza delivery, towing, firefighting, etc into a single world with online multiplayer. It’s VERY messy but genuinely charming, the kind of game I love to spend an hour in at a time here and there.
• Stray Children: I’m going to be thinking about this RPG for a long time. The kind of hard-edged and incredibly creatively confident thing that everyone should honestly be talking about, the kind of game that should become an urban legend cult watchword like the original Moon was. Stunning. Baffling. Wonderful. Frustrating. It’s everything. I adore it.
• Dandy Dungeon: The Legend of Brave Yamada: I couldn’t resist checking out the rest of Onion Games’ backlog. The mobile release is in pretty rough shape but this steam version – while bafflingly lacking cloud saves – is genuinely really fun and reminds me of the best days of mobile gaming. It being de-F2P’d is of course a significant bonus. I can never resist a grinding-and-crafting game for some reason and this one is a great one of those.
• Funi Raccoon Game: I backed this on Kickstarter and the latest beta is one of my favourite platformers of the year? Explore surreal worlds finding items to steal and hoard in your raccoon dumpster. The game just keeps expanding, more and more doors to more and more areas, almost dreamlike, with stranger and stranger mechanical twists and area designs. A true mystery box of a game and I adore it.
• Öoo: God, this is one of those games where I feel like the 2011 indie scene that was obsessed with “purity” of game design would go absolutely apeshit over. And honestly it’s probably WORTH going apeshit over. An elegant game with almost no explicit tutorialization at all that nonetheless teaches you a wide and fascinating set of platforming techniques until you’re an expert at it. Concise and immensely satisfying.
• Road to Empress: The group I’ve been watching Romance of the Three Kingdoms together with gifted me this just to watch me play it. A classic multiple-choice FMV game where all the wrong choices instantly kill you, the fun flavour and solid production make this an excellent campy time IMO.
• Let’s School: I’ve started getting back into sim games in the new year and while it took me awhile to get past the odd UI choices in this one, I think I might be coming to love it. “Elementary school sim” really does introduce a more personal relationship with the students than, say, a park tycoon does with your customers, and trying to get everyone the best grades from year to year by upgrading your blackboards or whatever is genuinely compelling.
• Octopath Traveler 0: Ah, octopath. If you’ve played one you’ve kind of played them all, and yet I keep coming back for more. It’s another one of those! They switched to an 8-person party but no class changing and slightly weaker class identities for this singleplayer adaptation of the gacha’s narrative. I think it’s solid but definitely way weaker than octopath 2 (a game I still need to finish) was. Nonetheless, when I want RPGing, well, they’ll be here for me!
• PEAK: I streamed this a bunch in multiplayer and I have to admit to being slightly confused as to how this ended up coining the term “Friendslop”. Idk! I usually associate slop with like, AI crap or something and this is genuinely just a cute thing that’s doing a lot with a little. pretty good! Though I have some qualms about the idea that people might try to copy the so called “game jam” that produced it, which as I understand was actually like a solid month of no-lifing it in a hotel room???
• Loco Motive: I’m exceptionally bad at adventure games, but the stunningly good voice acting and incredible character animation kept me on this one through to the end. Plot gets a little messy near the end but still, no regrets spending my time on this one.
• Berserk Bits: This was my first foray into the “start-bar-sitter” genre of idle games and I’m gonna be totally honest: I’m not sure I get it. I need that space to do shit! On my computer!! that I’m using!! The MMBN theming is great and I love the art, not sure I’m esp compelled by the game loop as of yet but that’s what early access is for I suppose!
• Absolum: I ended up playing through the entirety of this with Zandra in co-op. REALLY solid time, one of the most compelling beat em ups I’ve played in ages. The hades-like structure has some holes where the metagame is concerned IMO but “not as good as hades” is a preeeeetty high bar, and I quite enjoyed playing it from start to finish.
• Sonic Racing: Crossworlds: I was not expecting to be really into this, but as they say, everybody’s super sonic racing. It’s a very, very solid kart racer!
• Bits & Bops: Kickstarted this awhile back and it came out. Lovely game! I adore a good rhythm heaven and this is one of the better indie ones of That we’ve had recently. Great music.
• The Perfect Tower II: TPT2 headlines the upsetting number of idle games I’ve been playing recently for being very fun and being one that I was able to finish in a reasonable amount of time. If you like “8000 different game mechanics” style idlers this is absolutely for you, tho it’s VERY on the active side. (I’m currently back on Unnamed Space Idle in the meantime).
• This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker: Speaking of idle games, this came out! It’s balatro but idle game! It’s p cute. I don’t know that I have more to say than that, though, haha. Idle game deckbuilding is fun enough, but I’m not sure I can see myself returning to this for a 2nd playthrough anytime soon.
• Various Kairosoft Games: I’ve been playing Forest Golf Planner, Jumbo Airport Story, and Tropical Resort Story, which I would describe respectively as Cute, Mid, and Solid. Kairosoft games are like popcorn, you eat them and they’re usually satisfying even if they’re not amazing. It’s relaxing!
• Crosscode: Yes, for some ungodly reason I started a full replay of Crosscode – a game I have 100+ hours in – this year. Idk. It’s possibly one of my favourite games ever, and this felt like the time. I still adore it, even if it’s sometimes mean or annoying. The highs are always worth it. What a game.
• Rocksmith 2014: So I may have bought a Bass guitar. I am enjoying playing this as my “casual fun” activity to contrast the “explicit learning” activities which are typically much slower – but much better for, like, learning how to actually hold and play the instrument. Rocksmith tries but is IMO not remotely up to the task of teaching the core basics. But it’s fun. I’ve mostly been playing a PS4 version i got used, as setting it up on steam PC is best described as an utter and unending nightmare that isn’t remotely worth the time or effort.

Whew. Busy two months! Good stuff. Onward to 2026!