2025: let's play weird games

video games
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Typing-of-the-Dead
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been putting together a list of cult classics & other stuff i just wanted to check out but hadn’t yet, god knows all of this could go to shit between super switch dropping with some must-play shit, and the deluge of classic JRPG rereleases ill likely get caught up in again (suikoden, lunar etc)

that said! the purpose of this silly thread is to discuss the titles i have in mind: taking suggestions, both on expectations, ideal seasonal times to give them a go & the like
follow the philosophy of my backloggery: i am not gonna force myself to play anything here to completion, unless i’m having a good time and/or are intrigued enough where i just wanna see it through. it’s perfectly fine to spend and evening or two and say “yeah, i’ve experienced about as much of this as i’m gonna” and move on; god knows i’ve forced myself through so many forgettable slogs, i don’t wanna do that anymore

so here’s how it’s looking!

  • january - my birthday month! let’s start this chaotic year off with some raw danger, mixed with a side of seaman << i watched my roommate play a bit of it in the day, but if i can get the controller ports on my dreamcast sorted soon, i should be down for this

  • february - valentine’s seems right for chulip, and maybe the fan translation of linda cubed (is this better in another month/season?) << haha i just remebered, there’s a whole-ass pirate yakuza game this month, let’s see if i get around to much else

  • march - lack of love/l.o.l. seems like a short enough one, thinking of trying the fan translation of wonder project j2 here and maybe rounding off the month with as much as i can muster of LSD on acid haha (note: this ideal might be horrible)

  • april - let’s try UFO: a day in the life, and start the spring season of with another fan translation, this time sakurai taisen! as a classic sega fan, i’ve never really dove into this series yet, but kimmimi’s writeups have me hyped

  • may - i have baroque here (we’re absolutely spoiled for translations these days!), and star tropics for some reason? never did play the latter, it’s quite the combination though

  • june - boku no natsu also got a recent translation, that seems perfect (especially now that i’m living near a forest of summer cicadas). i also wanna get back into chibi robo and see how far i get this time! oh wait, maybe that one’s better for spring cleaning season?

  • july - let’s keep these summer vibes going with mister mosquito and some gitaroo man, for good measure

  • august - i bailed on tail of the sun way too early back in the day, let’s try it again with some more perspetive/cellular damage. i also have bishi bashi special here? i don’t even remember what that game was about, but it must’ve caught my interest

  • september - hell yes, it’s time for spooky season! gonna open with brandon-advocated kouldeka, then some seven mansions

  • october- oh man, so sometimes ill open the month seeing how far into toby fox’s earthbound halloween mod i get before bailing, that’s like a few hours at best. then onto:
    dead of the brain - this one looks so dope, and translated too! i should have a turbo everdrive plus ready to go for this one
    after this, the list gets a little crowded, so please vote for the ones you think i really should check out!
    enemy zero
    d2 (this is prolly great and i love eno but playing it right after d was such a jarring genre swtich at the time)
    germs nerawareta (?)
    deep fear (i usually try to put some classic RE type shit in this month)
    countdown vamp - looks like dumb fun
    dark messiah

  • november - tying the season off with heart of darkness, maybe some klayman never

  • december - as a twin peaks freak, mizzurna falls looks so up my alley, as does some planet laika
    i was debating finally trying blue stinger here too, but i may do that next month since i don’t have too much lined up, beyond a very dumb goal of playing more shadow the hedgehog on gamecube before the 3rd movie drops

there you have it - very ambitious, right?! if i can close out next year feeling like i accomplished half of this, it’ll be pretty cool, and ill definitely have more to add around here as well.
i dunno man, next year’s gonna be some shit with this trump admin, and a risk-averse industry is likely to stick to more “safe” remasters/etc, seems like a good time to get into some cult/influential weirdness! please share your thoughts here, y’all

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Is there an English translation for BokuNatsu 1, or are you planning on playing the BokuNatsu 2 translation?

Cool list. We just did Baroque in the game club thread (I’m the only one who didn’t like it). You might have fun reading that thread when you play it.

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Something being thought of as weird is usually the ultimate compliment. I agree that next year will be a great time to lean into uniquely awesome experiences to balance out all of the other crap.

Is this an okay place to talk about other weird games experienced in 2025, or would you prefer the thread to focus on your weird games journey?

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definitely the latter, unless the first one gets a translation by next summer! seems a fine place to start

and damn i’m terrible at keeping up with game club threads, but i’m absolutely gonna read through that one for help, cheers!

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oh hell yes, please feel free to talk about other weird games in here. absolutely want input, maybe if some folks say one should be passed on, i can bump it for another y’all talk about that i wasn’t even aware of!

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:sunglasses: heck yeah. I played this game for the first time last year in the lead-up to Zelda being released and had a wonderful time with it.

I think I’ll also be playing BokuNatsu 2 next year, but in January most likely, basically repeating what I did with BokuNatsu 1 (day by day). Nice to escape winter for a few minutes each day.

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ohh a day-by-day boku session sounds really cool, how did it turn out?

and yeah, i have the NES one but wondering if star tropics might work as an analogue pocket game? it just always seemed weird, from an era where i fell in love with the maniac mansion port as a kid, but never got a chance to play it or the sequel, feels in-line with the year’s vibe

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StarTropics definitely has a weirdness about it, but in a kind of charming, childlike way I suppose. the tone strikes me as like…80s/90s kid show or maybe some era of comic books? it’s a nice time.

daily Boku was great! my partner watched while I played and we bonded over some great moments (shouting BIG! when we caught a big bug for instance). it’s a very warm experience and opened my mind to ritualizing games.

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update the first

got my dreamcast working again! you really can just bypass that fuse, i guess. let’s see what comes of that! shame the power supply on my gamecube seems to have crapped out; again, i really get why people ditch all this hardware for a mister sometimes. anyway

thought i’d try out some of my december stuff real quick:

planet laika - this did not work, which sucks! i’m reading that it’s hard to get working on emulation (if at all), but i’m using the disc images on a PSIO setup with original hardware; i guess i could burn the discs of said fan translation & try that? not sure that it’d work any better, may just wait & see if an updated verison drops

blue stinger - hoo boy, you know the US DC launch was hot shit when i totally slept on a b survival horror game. this was neat so far! it’s trying to take itself seriously at times, but you still punch the coins out of monsters, and the dialogue/voice acting is exactly what you expect going in. this game also looks great for a launch title! i totally got stuck on an early puzzle with a timed subway car or something and decided to save this one for next december

january’s titles!

raw danger - oh man, having started disaster report with the last game, this is really cool. the beginning stuff with the waiter and the water creeping in is such a cool setting, and there’s already stuff i missed doing sidequest wise but i’m not looking to use a guide here until i’m stuck; i had such a blast in the day with titles like way of the samurai & just experimenting that this could totally be like that. legit no idea what this game is gonna throw at me next. just an absolute treat of a game in the first hour or two

seaman - so we talk a lot around here about hangout games, but there’s somethng really neat going on here. this is the era before MMO’s & dailies (i don’t recall my short time with ultima online having them, christ knows i ducked everquest) or even the first animal crossing to make it here. i had this habit as a kid/teen where there’s games i’d just replay just to play them for a bit before diving back into whatever main game (usually a jrpg) that i intended to put a lotta time into, you know? for master system, this was stuff like rastan, gangster town & others; on genesis, i’d throw on strider, eswat or the like. not necessarily finish them (though i’d do so many times), but just play till i reached a level i didn’t like…just a thing to do before the main thing, i guess

so here’s this game that’s a crazy idea from the tamagotchi era, where you’d check into a science lab, leonard nimoy would comment on your way in, and then you’d just kinda mess with these guys a bit & their tank

right off the bat, i realize how long i’d sat on this one, because i open the big box & the green felt on the microphone attachment to the controller is very clearly disintegrating (is this common?), but i’m trying to ignore that while messing with the heat & lighting and seeing if it helps these 4 litlte guys (last i checked, they were down to 4?). i do check a guide for pointers here; it’s pretty funny that they can react to words like sega, but also playstation :joy:

i checked in for a 4th time in the first 24 hours, and nimoy admired my persistence but commented that i didn’t need to be there this much! thanks man, you’re right; i’m gonna go explore more areas i forgot years ago in PSO 1. i respect your candor & appreciation of my time here

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quick seaman update: oh my christ what am i doing

  • i can only sort knocking on glass and talking on the mic; i’ve not fed them once yet because getting an item out of my inventory seems almost accidental, how do i do this? i can kinda pick up a food pellet and see a save screen but can’t seem to get it out of the inventory…

  • god one of them was connected to another one and like, maybe feeding off him?? i knocked on the glass and i think he died fuck man i’m gonna go feed my cats why am i feeling guilty here shit

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an update! progress has been slow, as

  1. you know when MS was closing up their store last year? i bought up all the stuff i’d been meaning to (good sales!) & then realized the disc drive on my elite had gone out. looked into it, local spot wanted $65 to fix said drive…so i sniped a 360 S (they’re said to be more reliable?) for <$30! which is to say: mini 360 revival over here
  2. ys: oath in felghana is so good, that took up part of a week

seaman - made progress! there’s only 2 of them now, they evolved into snarky bitches. was worried cause i ran out of food, but then the game introduced another area to harvest larva. ive learned to like, tickle these dudes and do stuff like spin the cursor in circles to make em dizzy, this seems to make them happy! but i’m just not checking in every day, so i’m unsure if they’ll continue evolving.

also, i failed twice when they asked me my gender. i hear the beep, i say the word into the mic to reply, and they just go “fine, don’t answer”. it’s puzzling! i think i named them, so it should be working? also, i tested said mic in mr driller so i know it’s good. maybe the game is finnicky?

i really should get back to raw danger soon, this month ends this week & feburary is already packed

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One of my favorites. I adore the whole series but Raw Danger is probably the best of them.

Did you notice how many of the people at the party in the beginning have blond hair? This is because when they localized the game they changed black hair to blond and left it at that without adding any more variety.

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soooo i told myself i’d not stress this effort: like traveling, all i’m seeking to do here is experience something, and see if i’d want more later if i don’t get around to it here. like, i saw enough seaman (all over my face, really) to say that’s good, i don’t know that i’d see it through without a guide, but coming from an irish catholic upbringing, guilt is not a motivating factor, so maybe my snarky guys can hang in their cold, foodless tank and think about how they communicate for a few years or something
raw danger warrants putting time into, for sure

but we’re past the one week mark and i’ve yet to boot up either linda cubed, or sakura taisen, despite being excited for both!! and who is to blame for this?

dandy dungeon - i really loved finally being able to play moon remix a few years back, and this one + mon amour were on sale last holiday. everyone keeps sayinflg balatro is the ultimate “one more go, then i’m off to bed” game but i’m pretty sure they actually mean dandy dungeon

i’m in the 2nd area and kinda getting whupped up, need to get a handle on better gear & better methods of upgrading

so yeah, this game is plenty weird & totally fits the bill, but if i’m not careful, yakuza pirate game is gonna show up and steal weeks of my life, bumping this month’s 2 titles into an already busy march!

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