Games I Played in September 2025

Blanksword Demo

Steam

I've been keeping a half-eye on this one for a while, so when I saw the Demo and Kickstarter dropped this month, I had to give it a try. And it's pretty good! Gameplay-wise it's a run-centered (I refuse to wade into "roguelite" definition discourse) turn-based RPG. For the length of the demo, the two components complement each other fairly well. I have worries that such a harsh restart may feel too punishing when the game's length is increased, but the amount of options will hopefully help soothe that frustration.

I'm digging the world design. It feels harsh but still has warm pockets for Blank. It really does feel like an environment where someone would be poking around with how their brain works. This extends to the enemy designs. They fit their battle mechanics well while not sacrificing on the visual cohesion with their surroundings and other enemies.

I'm excited to see the full release of this in the future. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying some of the sick fanart people have been coming up with.

Twilight Princess

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess feels like a theme park. Despite its artstyle always being deemed more realistic when compared to Wind Waker, the game tries to show off its sense of aesthetics whenever given the chance. There are cinematic moments of course, such as the showdowns at the Bridges of Eldin and Hylia. But the initial transformation into Wolf Link and... well, anything to do with the Twilight Realm show that style will never be completely sacrificed for the sake of realism. Tying together the theme-park vibes is the role the dungeons play in this game. The Zelda series loves its temples, and while this entry still has plenty there are also semi-abandoned mansions and entire cities currently host to malevolent foes.

The thing about theme parks, though, is that each attraction is merely designed to give off the feeling of what its aesthetics represent. A city you visit as a dungeon doesn't feel too similar to actual urban life. The most egregious example is Zora's Domain, an entire "city" that is about the size of a dorm building's common room. The opening village feels like one of the largest areas in the game and that's just... not Zelda to me. Even Breath of the Wild, a game designed to make you feel alone against an all-powerful evil, felt way more alive than Twilight Princess does and I'm not sure it's intentional.

I feel a similar clash in the gameplay itself. The main path is like getting on all the rides. A lot of the items just feel "cool." Even the items that sounded a bit boring at first, such as the Ball&Chain and a second clawshot, immediately threw me into moments where I had to say "hell yeah dude" at lease once. But once you're off of one and are walking to another, the less polished edges start to stand out. There are two major sidequests that have you scouring the entire map for collectables and your reward for both is... more money. The ultimate reward for one of them is being able to hold more money, after spending the entire chain showering you in more than you could possibly hold before that point.

My whole time with this game carried this weight of "this is fun, but I know it could have been more." The story shares a similar weight, having some good highs but not being able to support everything it first carried out. It feels like there could have been much more interaction between the Twilight Realm and the main world. And Ilia's story in particular feels like there's a whole chunk missing. At the same time, the game's villains are able to display so much ambition as well as despair when confronted with inevitable defeat, despite having so little screentime comparably. Calling this game a theme park is not an insult - I enjoy a good theme park. But it can leave me wanting more at the same time.

Arcade Spirits

itch | Steam

While I'm not often drawn to the "dating sim" type of visual novels, I've heard this one recommended by a few people over the past couple years. One hurdle faced by this genre is the avatar character. The balance between being their own defined character and also a vessel for the player can be hard to find. All this to say is that I felt quite a bit of friction with the avatar. The character creator is much more barebones than I had expected (mainly that there is a single body type), and is only a bigger problem after one of the character introductions has your avatar make a quick fatphobic joke to themselves. Now that's probably the worst case of the avatar being an asshole. The rest of the friction comes in minor quirks such as always saying "what" as "Wat." The majority of "cringe" writing is frontloaded, but those quirks are a bit more persistent.

There are a few other things about this game's writing that I really can't stand. Luckily, most of them are in one specific chapter. The big mandatory falling out with your partner feels forced at its best and absurd at its worst. I kid you not, one of the potential reasons you have this big argument is your partner wanting to put a copyright-infringing penguin on top of one of the machines. That results in a big argument and them not wanting to talk to you for the rest of the day. All of that pales in comparison to the end of that day. I'm not going to spoil it here, but my immersion leaped out the window when it happened.

Despite all this, it was a fair enough time. After my first playthrough, I saw a couple more endings starting from the midpoint. And while the character-specific stories can be pretty trope-y, they're very earnest from what I've seen. The actual plot has some fun diversions as well, setting up a world that feels nice to exist in. The avatar's personal arc is predictable, but lovely to see. And I'd be lying if I said seeing them get out of their lowpoint didn't motivate me to fix a couple things up in real life that day.

Am I about to dive into more dating sims? Probably not. But a little awkward adventure here and there makes for a nice change of pace.