The Best Games I Played This Year
1) Clair Obscur Expedition 33
COE33 just won a bunch of awards, and the Sucker Punch & Kojima fans are Big Mad about it. But the truth is that Sandfall Interactive straight-up ate Square-Enix's lunch. Clair Obscur is a traditional turn-based RPG in the Final Fantasy mold, loaded with a fantastic story, great characters, beautiful environments, excellent creature design, lovely music, and, most of all, thrilling combat.
Excuse me, what? That's right: It's closer to Paper Mario in that you can completely negate incoming damage and perform a massive counterattack. Furthermore, each of the party members are completely unique, and it's up to the player to discover and capitalize on party synergies to annihilate enemies.
I absolutely love this game.
2) Hollow Knight: Silksong
Much like several million other people, I mashed the Buy button on my preferred platform when the surprise release of Silksong crashed every single storefront it released on.
Silksong is by turns exhilarating, frustrating, and obtuse, and despite how much the game enjoys kicking the player when they're down, I pushed on, tooth and claw, right up to the True Final Boss, which I won't spoil. The game is very hard, but it is worth it.
3) Deadzone Rogue
My friends and I love a good roguelite shooter, and DZR delivers. The game lets you build yourself up to the point that you are clearing rooms in seconds, only to pummel you into dust immediately afterward. It's hard, it's fun, it's satisfying, and it has more content than many of its competitors. Bonus: Episode 3 seems to be inspired by the original Duke Nukem with Dr Proton. Yes, I am old.
4) Old Skies
Normally, time travel stories are irritating and contradictory, but Wadjet Eye manages to craft a compelling adventure about forging your own meaning in life against its inherent evanescence. Everything Wadjet Eye makes is gold, and Old Skies is no exception.
5) Cultic: Chapter 2
I should start by saying that Cultic is my favorite contemporary boomer shooter, and I bought the Chapter 2 DLC immediately when it came out. Honestly, however, while the campaign starts out very strong, the developer makes a few missteps that were frustrating and tiresome, including obtuse objectives and one shootout that goes on for much too long. On the whole, however, this is just more Cultic, and there's nothing wrong with that.
6) Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer
You can probably tell that I love adventure games, and the original Kathy Rain was a cosmic horror masterpiece with a compelling mystery. Much like Cultuc, this sequel delivers more of the same with some great Gabriel Knight vibes. If you enjoyed the first, I highly recommend this one.
7) ARC Raiders
I've spent years playing Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, and when my squad told me we were committing, I immediately felt right at home. What is most unusual, however--and is something I appreciate about the game--is that solo players tend to cooperate with each other as squad matches turn into bloodbaths. My squadmate has told me about times where his entire server becomes a veritable army of players working together to hunt down the biggest robots and any rogue player who decides to turn against his fellow man. "Ape together strong." I'm hoping that they introduce a dedicated PVE mode in the near future.
8) The Forever Winter
TFW would rank higher if it didn't crash my computer. Upon booting it up for the first time, I immediately fell in love with the aesthetic as well as the concept. It's a great idea for a game, where you are a tiny baby just trying to get what you can as four major factions ravage the planet in a never-ending conflict. You climb over the bodies of destroyed mechs not unlike the opening of Terminator 1. It's awesome. However, at this juncture, I would recommend waiting for full release. It's going to be epic.
Top Ten Films I Watched This Year
This year, I started keeping a film journal, and I got really into boutique blu ray collecting. I stopped watching franchise films, and you will notice that this list is filled with foreign films. I have a philosophy around my media habits that is difficult to explain without coming across as carmudgeonly.
1) Branded to Kill, Japanese 1967; dir. Seijun Suzuki
I legitimately freaked out when I watched this film. It is, hands down, the most stylish film that I watched this entire year. It would make Quentin Tarantino's head explode (I hate him, just fyi).
Seijun Suzuki was fired from Nikkatsu for making BtK because the studio execs didn't understand it, and it wasn't until 1980 when he was able to make films again. The joke's on them: Branded to Kill is utterly brilliant and it has everything in it, from Blade Runner to One Punch Man.
2) Bullet Ballet, Japanese 1998; dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
I received the Solid Metal Nightmares Arrow box set for my birthday this year, and it was incredible. Tsukamoto is one of my favorite directors, and while this entire set is absolute gold, I came to the conclusion that I love Bullet Ballet the most.
Bullet Ballet is kind of an inverse Taxi Driver. Tsukamoto's central thesis that he has been honing first with BB and then with Killing 2018 and Shadow of Fire 2023, is the impact that violence has on individuals and society. No filmmaker, to my knowledge, has dealt with the real consequences of violence to the degree that Tsukamoto does. In the course of my research after I watched it, I came across this article explaining the meanings behind the film.
What's also funny about Bullet Ballet is that critics wrote it off as Tsukamoto just doing Tetsuo again. But he isn't: It looks like Tetsuo, but it is absolutely not Tetsuo. It is so much more than that.
The entire set is worth getting, especially when it's on sale. Tsukamoto's body of work is thematically diverse, beautiful to look at, and unique. Everyone may remember Tetsuo: The Iron Man, but it is criminal to neglect his other films. Tsukamoto is incredibly talented and carries a unique perspective.
3) Criminal Woman: Killing Melody, Japanese 1973; dir. Atsushi Mihori
I realized that I skipped 3 by accident, so now I get to talk about the one, the only: Reiko Ike, a Japanese actress famous for appearing in many pink films in the 1970s, such as Sex & Fury 1973, Female Yakuza Tale 1973, and The Insatiable 1971, among many others.
Criminal Woman: Killing Melody is just a joy to watch. Reiko Ike vows to take revenge on the yakuza goons who murdered her father with the help of friends she met in prison.
The first half of the film is carried by Reiko Ike herself as she sleeps her way to a small fortune to amass a weapons stockpile, and the second half of the film is pure action as she and her friends carry out the plan. It's sexy The Count of Monte Cristo. The action in both halves of the film (if you catch my drift) is extremely fun and well-choreographed. If you can track this down, it's on par with Sex & Fury.
I would also like to take a short detour and remark about how gorgeous Japanese film posters are from that era. Here is the poster for Female Yakuza Tale:
Like, look at that. It's amazing. I would hang that on my wall in a heartbeat.
4) Tokyo Decadence, Japanese 1992; dir Ryu Murakami (yes, that Ryu Murakami)
Oh man how do I talk about this film? I started watching Japanese pink films this year, starting with Sex & Fury 1973 and Female Prisoner Scorpion 1972. They are called such because they feature copious amounts of expressionist sex and nudity.
As far as I'm concerned, Tokyo Decadence is the gold standard. It is one of the sexiest films that I have ever seen, and is what I measure all else against. There is nothing better.
5) Felidae, German 1994; The Cassandra Cat, Czech 1966
These two films cannot be more different, but they share one thing in common: Cats!
First: Felidae:
Felidae looks like Disney, but I promise you that it is not Disney. A housecat moves with his owner to a new neighborhood, where he is drawn into a strange conspiracy involving serial murder, a feline death cult, and Mengele-esque feline experimentation. It is violent, crass, and it features cat sex; it is extremely good.
The Cassandra Cat, however, is a family-friendly film--at least, as long as you aren't living in the USSR ("Go to gulag!")! It is very similar to The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, which tells the story of a circus troupe that features a taxidermied whale capable of telepathic communication and drives the town insane. In the case of the cat, however, it is very much alive, and its gaze will reveal the townspeople's true natures: Jealousy, dishonesty, violence, and true love. Naturally, the cadre in charge of the school is none too happy with this cat and seeks to have it...disappeared.
What on the surface seems like a nice story about a cute cat is really an allegory about a pro-democracy movement, as the children act to save the cat. And I haven't talked about the special effects yet! During the feline performance, everyone is dancing as they change colors in real time; I don't know what kind of special effects were available in 1963 Czechoslovakia, but I'll be damned if it isn't impressive. It reminded me of The Wizard of Oz. Incredible.
6) I Married a Strange Person! American, 1997; dir. Bill Plympton
I was literally dying when I watched this. I was laughing as hard as when I read JR by William Gaddis.This is Loony Tunes for adults. The visual gags in this film are endlessly creative, hilarious, and horny as hell. It is the funniest film I have seen in my entire life.
7) La Ceremonie, French 1995; dir Claude Chabrol
This film is perfect. Claude Chabrol masterfully deploys every element in this film to great effect and an absolutely jaw-dropping conclusion. The finale may have influenced the opening of Martyrs. I was yelling "OH FFFFFFUUUUUUUUU--!!!!" when the credits rolled. I cannot recommend this film more highly. To say anything else would be to ruin it.
8) History of the Occult, Argentinian 2020; dir Cristian Ponce
If you enjoyed Late Night With the Devil, this film is even better. It never lets up, and it reaches an incredible conclusion. I love when films have a good bad ending, and this one is no exception. It's insane.
9) The Empty Man, American 2020; dir. David Prior
This film is criminally underrated. It's extremely intelligent, and deals with similar themes as New Religion, which is my current favorite horror film (I watched it last year, which is why it doesn't appear here). This is one of those films that people didn't understand, so they hated it, but I believe it to be brilliant, and the conclusion is *chef's kiss.* It's about the power of belief and ideology, but being an American horror film, it is concerned with a cult religion and not an individual. Absolutely worth watching.
10) Out of the Blue, American 1980; dir. Dennis Hopper
I bought this film blind. I'm usually very critical of films like this because the cultural references they make keep them stuck in a particular time and age badly. That is not true for this film. Now, I haven't seen Easy Rider yet, but I'll be damned if Out of the Blue isn't a masterpiece. I loved it. It's beautiful, dark, and tragic; a doomed teenager unable to cope with circumstances beyond her control. The actress, Linda Manz gives a phenomenal and brave performance as CeBe. Bonus: Raymond Burr gets a career change! It's not a pleasant film, but it is absolutely worth watching.
11) August in the Water, Japanese 1995; dir. Gakuryu Ishii
I lied. It's really like 12 films. This low-key science fiction drama has a little bit of everything: Telepathy, a mysterious epidemic, and even some Noroi-type shenanigans thrown in for good measure. There is nothing bad in it. August in the Water is a small feature that captivates and its well worth tracking down.
12) A Night in Nude, Japanese, 1993; dir. Takeshi Ishii
This film is simply gorgeous to look at, and the noir elements work perfectly, with a femme fatale that the audience--and the main character--is never sure of. The performances in A Night in Nude are excellent, as we follow a man who works odd jobs as a stand-in and is hired by a woman to give her a tour around Tokyo. Of course, there is more to her than she lets on, and our poor protagonist finds himself in some deep sh*t. Surprisingly, despite the title, there is hardly any nudity.
13) Safe Word, Japanese 2022; dir. Koji Shiraishi
Man, this list just keeps going, doesn't it?
If you know who Koji Shiraishi is, then you know why this is on here. You know that Vince McMahon meme? Well...
YUP. And if you don't know who Koji Shiraishi is, he is responsible for none other than Noroi: The Curse, which is the greatest found footage horror film ever made. Of course I was excited.
Honorable Mention: Circuit Nurse, Japanese 1988; dir. Toshihiro Ito
Wow this list just goes on forever, doesn't it?
I have to admit that I have a soft spot for this film. Despite the fact that it was made for TV, it gets the aesthetics of cyberpunk very right. Its charming, despite its modest origins, and it's a fun time. The only real criticism of the film is that the acting is very awkward--particularly that of the male lead--but on the whole it's a good time, and it's impressive how much the film gets right.
Director Spotlight: Hisayasu Sato
In the course of my journey through Japanese pink films, I encountered a director named Hisayasu Sato, who directs films just around one hour, and whose body of work is now being released on bluray by Vinegar Syndrome as part of their Pink Line label. His films are comparable to Cronenberg or Michael Haneke, with the glaring distinction that they are horny. I can recommend several of his films:
Love - Zero = Infinity 1994 - I lost the plot toward the very end, but I absolutely love this film, and the sex scenes are phenomenal. Sato always has great sex scenes.
The Bedroom / An Aria on Gazes 1992 - This film is as great as Love - Zero = Infinity and is absolutely worth finding. Both Bedroom/Aria (retitled) and Love are being released in The Films of Hisayasu Sato vol 2 by Vinegar Syndrome.
Survey Map of a Paradise Lost 1988 - Here, Sato is channeling Haneke as a journalist investigates a phone sex club and the women are not who they seem. This one is really good.
Pervert Ward: S&M Clinic 1989 - It's exactly what it says on the tin. This one is hot as f---. I don't know if there's an alternate title.
Hisayasu Sato is also responsible for Celluloid Nightmares and Splatter: Naked Blood, which, according to Allmovie, by way of Wikipedia, has the distinction of featuring the most revolting sequence ever seen in a J-horror film.
Hisayasu Sato is a director whose work satisfies my taste for the Weird, the Scary, and the Horny perfectly, and if you're as disturbed as I am, I recommend seeking his films out.
The Best Books I Read This Year
1) Strange Pictures / Strange Houses by Uketsu 2022, 2025
I came across these on Reddit and decided I had to read them. They are intricate mysteries in which everything has already happened, and you are following along as the investigation unfolds. What I most like about them is that you really need to pay attention, and poring over the blueprints in Strange Houses or the pictures in Strange Houses looking for clues really gets the reader immersed in the mystery. They are short, with little downtime, and they have excellent conclusions
2) The Tainted Cup / A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
Weird fantasy mystery? I'll take it! These were recommended to me by a friend, and I am glad I read them.The first one features a murder where someone was poisoned with a plant seed that burst out of their chest. A chestbursting plant! Hell yes! And, while the murder in the second isn't as bombastic, it still led to a great, politically-charged mystery.
The characters hew close to the Sherlock-Watson archetype, but are just different enough to be interesting, and the worldbuilding is the real star of the show, with heavy Attack on Titan vibes, along with creatures that would be at home in China Mieville's novels.
3) The Slip by Lucas Schaefer
Kirkus called this their Best Book of 2025, and I think they got it right. This book is by turns hilarious and uncomfortable. It stretches on occasion, and sometimes you're unsure where it's going with any given tangent, but it's well worth pushing through this occasionally uneven, wild ride.
4) Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
The weirder real life gets, the more relevant Pynchon gets. Reviews for his latest are kinda meh, so I went for this instead, and it was exactly what I was looking for. A more interesting version of that disappointing follow-up Under the Silver Lake, only set in the early 70s, with plenty of weed and Nixonian conspiracies going on. Everything old is new again, I guess.
5) Mapping the Interior / Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
I have to be truthful and say that I am absolutely f---ing bored to tears of vampires, werewolves, and the like. That is why Sinners is not on the previous list. But SGJ does a great job placing a Native American at the center of his vampire tale, and using that mythology to imagine vengeance against colonialism.
But if I had to pick which two of his works I like better, it is without a doubt Mapping the Interior. This novel creeped me the hell out. I won't spoil it here; read it for yourself. It's almost as good as The Only Good Indians.
6) The Between by Tananarive Due
I read The Reformatory two years ago, loved it, and decided to revisit her. I picked up this book during a trip to New Orleans earlier this year, and, while this novel is not as polished as The Reformatory--it's her first! Give her a break!--it very effectively reads like Stephen King. That is high praise. This book is tense, with sympathetic characters, and acts as a promise of her blooming talent.
The Best Albums I Listened to This Year
1) The Glowing by Hello Meteor
It was maybe two years ago that I discovered Hello Meteor by complete accident. I was on Bandcamp, and I looked at the Similar Artist list from Division Street, whose album Districts is a masterpiece, and I found Hello Meteor. The rest is history. I picked up The Glowing during a sale not too long ago, and I haven't stopped listening to it since. It seems like their answer to Birth of a New Day by 2 8 1 4.
Standout tracks include:
In truth, the whole album is a masterpiece.
2) My Crimson Dreams & Contemplate Your Darkness by Mabisyo
I regard My Crimson Dreams as Mabisyo's masterpiece, and Contemplate Your Darkness reads as both a spiritual successor/sequel while also being its own thing. I will let the music speak for itself here as you experience what can only be described as an aural orgasm.
There are other albums my Mabisyo that I would love to include here, like Everything is Still Under Control, but I will let you discover that for yourself.
3) Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party by Hayley Williams
Hayley Williams' solo career has been nothing short of just absolute fire, and that killer streak continues on her third outing. She comes in hot with a devastating track about inner monologue, and then delivers a sledgehammer to the politics of the South.
I cannot believe they let her perform this on TV. Holy sh*t!
Yeah, I love Hayley Willams.
4) The Clair Obscur Expedition 33 Soundtrack by Lorien Testard & Alice Duport-Percier
The soundtrack of this game is absolutely wonderful. Sometimes I get sick of listening to a game soundtrack after a while, but that has not happened with COE33. The boss themes in particular are just amazing, and Duport-Percier has a lovely voice.
One other thing that drives me crazy whenever it happens is combat jazz. The only other time I heard jazz playing during combat was somewhere in a Yakuza game (I wish I could find it again), but Testard has crafted an absolute banger:
Tell me this doesn't get you HYPED
5) Eusexua by FKA Twigs
FKA Twigs's Eusexua is simply incredible. She has a lot of motifs that remind me of other things I love. She is just a great singer, and her style fits perfectly with the kinds of music I like to listen to. "Striptease" is the best song on the album, hands down:
Tell me the finale doesn't sound like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
What's Planned in 2026
In 2026, I will be working my way through three large box sets: Radical Japan Vol 1 - Cinema & State: Nine Films by Nagisa Oshima, released by Radiance, The Complete Films of Agnes Varda, and The World of Wong Kar Wai, both from Criterion. I have seen some films by each of these directors. I've already seen In the Realm of the Senses, Night & Fog in Japan, and Cruel Story of Youth, and I plan on watching The Sun's Burial before tackling the box set.
As for Agnes Varda, I have only seen Vagabond, and am very excited to dive into her work. I was told to start with the documentary about her life and work first, so I will do that. As far as Wong Kar Wai goes, I have only seen In the Mood for Love, and I am very much looking forward to Chungking Express.
Expect these films, along with one more by Shinya Tsukamoto (I believe Hiruki the Goblin is the only film I have left, unless I dare to watch Tetsuo 3 or Nightmare Detective), and perhaps two more by Seijun Suzuki (Gate of Flesh and Story of a Prostitute).
I have a small pile of books on my shelf that I want to get to, including two books by Laszlo Krasznahorkai (whose Nobel win this year was a brave and correct choice; I've read two of his already), The Auctioneer by Joan Samson, Blank Space by W David Marx, and Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen. I also have Tom's Crossing by Mark Danielewski, which will be my Big Book for the year, and three books of criticism by Kenneth Burke. You could say that I am booked.
