As always it seems, a new year, and a new chance for me to look at this site, granted, I know this is happening in March, when normally I make these…not mea culpas, but promises in January. However, I have to admit my life took something of a hard-left turn at the start of the new year. I spend the tail-end of January, and all of February in the hospital, dealing with issues that needed to be dealt with. I did not have ready access to much in the way of video game-playing devices, as such, this year has had relatively few games played, but there have been a few, let’s get into it:
Hades II: A beyond-solid sequel to what is probably one of my top 10 games ever made. It does nothing to reinvent the Hades-fueled wheel, but instead, it doubles down on what made the first title great, which is basically everything. The story is good, not great; but has higher stakes than the first game. The dialogue and writing is top-notch once again, and the moment to moment gameplay is simply divine, with weapons that rival, and often surpass the first game in terms of fun. I don’t know that I like the level design nearly as much as the original Hades, but it is still good, with more variation making for different ways of approaching levels. It’s a great game, but it is not stoking the sublime feelings the first game did for me. I still want to get the true-ending to Hades II, I just don’t know when it will happen, just that it will.
Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut: Yakuza 0 is what got me into the whole Like a Dragon series in the first place, which considering it is a prequel, is no small feat. This game was already jam-packed with so much to do, that it was a truly dizzying affair. Yakuza games are really half super-serious crime dramas, half Sega amusement parks, and I am here for all of it. So far I am not seeing a lot of the changes made for this Director’s Cut, save one huge deal: the English voice track. I find in my old age, I look for expediency in things, even at times at the expense of an authentic experience. This is a very long-winded way of saying one simple thing: I am playing Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut with the English voice track. While this may seem like some debasement of the series as a whole to some, I do applaud the English cast, giving the characters the weight and gravitas they all deserve. The game still feels serious when it needs to, silly when it needs to, and I don’t even have a problem with the honorifics being kept with the English voices. The Real Estate Royale and Cabaret Club Czar games are still triumphs of side-game design, and really I would still play entire games where these systems were fleshed out, and made into their own Like a Dragon entries.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak: This one I have played the least out of my 2026 in gaming. So far I am liking it, and I am appreciating the (seemingly) clean break from how absolutely overstuffed the Trails of Cold Steel arc made things, but I am sure that will change, and by the end of the second game, I will be making a party from something like 82 characters. I am not saying the 82 characters is a bad thing, as the Legend of Heroes series has made me care about just about everyone I have used in a battle over the course of a dozen-plus games; but the chance to focus on a couple of new ones is just kind of refreshing. Not much I can say about this one yet, but if it follows in the tradition of quality of the Cold Steel arc, I know I will be in for something that is a lot of fun.
So that is what I have been playing so far, in this year of our lord 2026. All of it is on the Steam Deck, and I feel that is where most of my gaming this year will be done. I do want to get back to writing here, writing more, blah blah blah. Same shit I say every year, let’s see if I can stick to it.
Ray Knows Nothing 