Year-End Wrap-up 2025

Oh god there are only a few hours left in the year and I forgot to write a year-end wrap-up. Okay okay let's see how much I can do... let's go.

Stuff I did

My creative year was pretty centered around X-YZE, which released at the end of September! I've been extremely humbled and happy with the response. Thank you to everyone who played.

I started streaming again under a different alias. That's been a nice time, and I've been able to form and strengthen lovely friendships thanks to it.

I started making a visual novel, my frist project in Renpy, some time in October. I wrote it as just a 7k-ish word short story, and then figured out what format I wanted it to be in. I mostly finished it in early December, but there are still a few loose ends and I didn't wanna rush it amidst the holidays. Should be releasing in January.

I started a simple Patreon.

Alix and I decided to do a tiny little creative challenge in the last 5 days of the year. We came up with 5 themes and individually made some sort of creation for each of them in a day. That should be releasing January 1st!

Video games

Gonna give a very quick and dirty "top 10" here. It's actually a top 9... sorry... this economy... I'm sure you understand.

Discover the World - Enlightened kitten lover and slayer of game design, sylvie, is back with another heater. Turn-based RPG where the overworld combines side-scrolling platforming and symbol encounters. Battle system combines jumping and bumping and a cool sack system. This is a deckbuilder for deckbuilder skeptics.

Super 10 Pin - Bowling game with absurd mini-golf-life courses, a pleasant N64-style presentation, and a killer soundtrack. Just good simple fun. Short enough to complete the game in under 10 hours, but still with challenges to puzzle out if you want the 100%.

VIVIDLOPE - Dreamcast-tinged arcade puzzle action game where you play as a creature. Some levels got on my nerves, but honestly the game earns that. I still want to go back and try the other characters with different mechanics and sometimes different levels entirely. Also a fantastic soundtrack.

Brandish: The Dark Revenant - A PSP remake of the original Brandish (PC-98 and SNES). Much funnier than I expected with its character interactions, plaques, and dungeon designs. This was more-or-less my first full play of a dungeon crawler. It was grueling and confusing and sometimes frustrating, but always meditative and therapeutic. Had a blast. Also very funny realizing how hugely influential this game was on Undertale.

Mage Recall - 1-2hr Game Boy style game of exploring, talking to NPCs, and trading items back and forth. The overall texture is cozy and gently funny (complimentary), but there is at least one character that took me on a journey from "haha funny -> aww cute -> oh my god i'm actually crying -> holy shit, bad ass". The game is also interesting in what aspects of its world and the world's larger story it chooses to leave in the background.

Lovely Lodgings: Autumn Edition - You're a turnip-headed creature travelling across the land to review inns (or the closest approximation of such) for a magazine. It takes upwards of, idk 10 minutes? I didn't time it, just to reach a new town. But during that long walk, you do... absolutely nothing. Or rather -- the way I decided to think of it -- the walk is filled with whatever you choose to do outside the game during the wait. For me, it involved reading about fairies and folklore for one of my own projects. I imagined my turnip-headed representation reading these during their travels, discussing it with their crow-like companion, writing down the ideas that inspired them. The walk is only one half of the game, though. When you get to your destination, it's so much weirder than you expect. Eventually you find somewhere to sleep... or at least to stop walking... and then you leave a review, which is posted alongside reviews left by other fellow travellers (real players). This game is just fascinating. You need to approach it with a meditative mindset and just roll with it. I love this game.

Final Fantasy X - Goodness, what new can be said about FFX? The combat was surprisingly breezy and flexible. The story was painful and touching, beauty set against great darkness, fighting against what seems like irrevocably-entrenched systems. I was especially surprised to see a character relationship where the one who did horrible things was, rightfully, not forgiven. Contrary to popular belief, no one is owed forgiveness, especially not from those they've wronged. It was refreshing to see this portrayed so clearly. FFX was not only a blast (except for some of the optional super weapon type stuff), it was also deeply affecting. It's now either my #1 or #2 favorite non-MMO Final Fantasy.

1000xRESIST - Smarter and more well-spoken folks have talked about this game. I don't know how to do it justice. What I'll say is this: The best-acted, best-directed, most incisively-written game of the last... decade? Is not from a AAA studio with a nauseating budget and over 10 years of production. It's from Sunset Visitor, a handful of theater nerds in Canada who made their first game only because they were stuck at home for a while in 2020 for some reason. 1000xRESIST is easily a decade-defining game.

Final Fantasy XI (private server) - Specifically a server that replicates the Chains of Promathia era or earlier (I don't recommend the current retail version).

I played countless hours of this game in the early 2000's. It was already a life-changing and taste-defining game for me, and I already knew it was one of my all-time favorites. Long story short, I returned to this game kind of by chance, and it let me reconnect with a childhood friend (who I originally played the game with back in the day), while also forming a new friendship with my buddy azalea.

This game is littered with friction at every turn. Basically no quests to guide you. Imperfect maps. EXP loss and leveling down. Slow recovery. Shops with actual operating hours. No easy money and everything is expensive. Mobs that will destroy you from the very start... I could go on and on, swooning about all of that, and more.

All that stuff only makes the game hard if you approach it like people normally approach MMO's: hastily and with eyes only on the end-game. FFXI wants you to take it slow, think and plan, look at your surroundings, and, unlike nearly every other MMO, actually earn every inch of progress. Savor in the journey and the struggle.

I've always worried nostalgia is the only reason I remember the game fondly. But, by playing it in 2025, with both an experienced friend and a friend coming into it blind, I know it really is just that good. There was an extra joy in surprising my new friend with a bunch of discoveries, some of which I kind of planned special reveals for, and some of which happened naturally.

So yeah, not only does FFXI remain firmly in the top of my all-time favorite games, it also has let me reconnect with an old friend and form a new treasured friendship. All while sharing the joys of the far superior Final Fantasy MMO.

I also wanna give special shoutouts to Alix for making many lovely things despite a year that was absolutely brutal to the Alix. There were the Valentine's Day cards featuring our new love: the Hyrax. There was Late Night Solace, a short visual novel and Alix's first foray into VIDEOTOME as well as composing music (I'm very proud!!)! Next was Crafted with Care, which is another short visual novel and a parallel story to go alongside last year's The Anniversary. Lastly, Comfort Foods Filled with Heart, which is a short recipe zine featuring some of our staple dishes we make when we want something... comforting! Here's to another year of Alix creations blessing this world!!

Books

I did more reading than ever this year! Here are the ones I was most compelled by. Links will go to my blog post review if I have one, otherwise I'll write some brief thoughts here.

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, by Margaret Killjoy - Anarchist occult horror novella. Margaret's writing has really been inspiring and captivating me this year. I've read 1 other book in this series so far and also liked it, but The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion is my favorite so far.

The Sapling Cage, by Margaret Killjoy

A Winter's Promise, by Christelle Dabos (also book 2 and 3 of the quadrilogy)

Snapdragon, by Kat Leyh

Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir

How to Catch Fairies, by Gilly Sergiev - So much beauty and love imbued into these words. Made my heart swell with wonder and inspiration. Reads like a mix of a compendium of fairy info, plus a bedtime storybook. Alix somehow managed to track down a physical copy for me as a Christmas gift, and I will treasure it for a very long time.

Little, Big, by John Crowley

Bloodchild, by Octavia E. Butler - Many-limbed alien creatures, humans as non-dominant species, body horror, male pregnancy. Some gnarly stuff, but, like, in a warm kinda way? So good.

Music

I had a free trial of Apple Music in the early part of the year, and I went hard listening to stuff while I had it. Buuut I kinda fell off after that (and because I was focused on wrapping up X-YZE and making my own music for it). I still have some stuff I wanna highlight though:

i will be clouds in the morning and rain in the evening, by ameokama - Ambient, metal, noise, and very experimental.

The Holy Crag, by DIM - Gentle choral kinda dungeon synth.

Clockworked, by Stray from the Path - Extremely angry nu-metal. Really cathartic. Sadly the band's final album.

Are We All Angels, by Scowl - Just some really satisfying poppy punk with hardcore leanings.

God's Country, by Chat Pile - It finally clicked. I finally got into Chat Pile.

Gaiaphilia, by Yumiko Morioka & Takashi Kokubo - Nature ambience, gentle piano, organic synths. It's gorgeous and calming, and frequently brought me respite from the year's constant onslaught of rage and despair.

Revengeseekerz, by Jane Remover - This album just goes so hard. Noisy and heavy, catchy and danceable.

SINNER GET READY, by LINGUA IGNOTA - Nearly everything on this list is from 2025, but this one had such a strong impact on me this year that I had to include it. Perhaps the scariest and most uncomfortable album I've heard, and I love it all the more for it. Kristin/LINGUA IGNOTA's personal story is deeply affecting as well. Huge inspiration.

Southern Progress, by Flummox - Good god does this album make me feel seen. This is my rage and despair album of the year, but it's also an incredibly exciting album sonically. I've got another new favorite band. This is my #1 album of the year.

I also did a full deep-dive of Rush's studio discography. Rush was one of the bands that hugely inspired me to get into music when I was a kid. Despite that, I was really only familiar with 2112 and Moving Pictures. I was long overdue for a proper deep-dive, and BOY was it a journey.

It was cool hearing seeds of their sound on their self-titled, then seeing them quite quickly come into shape. I probably most enjoyed their 70's era (I'm officially a Caress of Steel lover), was pleasantly surprised by some 80's stuff, mostly disliked their 90's stuff, and was moved by their 00's stuff largely due to Neil Peart's story around that time.

My favorite part of all of this, though, was getting to listen to most of it in parallel, chat about it, and thereby spark a friendship with my buddy Millie, which happened totally unplanned, but was a huge bright spot in my year.

Anime

I mostly wasn't super captured by anime this year, but I'll list some stuff I enjoyed. No descriptions because I'm tired of writing descriptions!!

Final thoughts on 2025

thank god it's over (and thanks for reading)
~ Chris / DFR