SuperHarman’s January Journal

A note on my rating system. If something is bad, I feel there’s not much room to move there so I came up with a simple 5 star rating system where there only “bad” rating is 1 star. Here are how you should take any rating below:

*= Bad, * = Okay, *** = Good, **** = Great, ***** = Exceptional

It Was Year 10 of JRPG January

Like most things, it started by accident. Despite never having been a fan of the series, I had taken an interest in Final Fantasy XV largely because the marketing had focused around a weird road trip with friends and just a few months prior I’d been on a road trip around the UK, so the vibes were there for me. Unfortunately, by the time I was ready to play it, my Mum was visiting me and it can be difficult to play games with my Mum around, especially story focused ones as there will be a lot of questions that can take one out of the moment. So I saved it to when I had free time in January…only for the exact same thing to happen to the following year with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and at that point, it was a trend.

This was the 10th year of doing this and I’ll give a quick review of the game I played below, but first, the others games and their ratings:

Final Fantasy XV - ****, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - *****, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age - *****, Kingdom Hearts - ***, Yakuza: Like A Dragon - ****, Tales of Arise - **, Soul Hackers 2 - *, Blue Dragon - ***, Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean - ***

Year 10’s game was: Inazuma Eleven – Victory Road

In a lot of ways, this was a return to the reason I started the whole JRPG January thing, it was a game I bought late 2025 and was just unable to play at the end of last year. I was originally set to play Chrono Cross actually but when I ran out of time I pivoted. I had been a big fan of Inazuma Eleven Go Light on the 3DS but never really continued with the series beyond that, mostly because the third game in that series wasn’t translated and I fell off the second. So I was excited to go back into this universe but unfortunately this all fell a little bit flat.

The story never quite reaches any high points and there is a major choice at the end of the game which frankly, the way the game was laid out, feels baffling.  The major football battles are generally fun but the need to create drama always gets in the way of me actually wanting to play the game. It also takes far to long to get to the actual football with a lot of the early game including a baffling rock, paper, scissors talk off battle system being completely pointless.

It’s all a little unfortunate because I did like the football battles, especially when you take on a team a couple of levels ahead of you to really test yourself. The anime cut scenes are also high quality but then have the effect of making the other cut scenes seem a bit second rate. I think that’s my issue with the game, every good thing is dragged down by something, there’s some nice big beautiful locations to explore but nothing much interesting to do in them, you don’t run into anyone who wants to football battle you, you have to go to a hub.

I hope some off this is ironed out for a sequel because there was fun to be had here, but ultimately, finishing this game felt like a bit of a slog - **

Pointing and Clicking - January

Last year, I played a bunch of point and click adventure games, largely driven by the fact that my game of the year, The Drifter, was in the genre. This lead me to spending Friday nights going through a point and click game as a trend and it’s something I’m wanting to continue this year. I’m going to set a goal of about 26 point and click adventure games finished this year as a starting point. As for how I define a point and click adventure game, well, I know it when I see it.

Unavowed – I played through both the Blackwell series and Old Skies last year having previously only played The Shivah of Dave Gilbert games. So I can safely say that Unavowed isn’t only his masterpiece, it’s one of the better point and click games I’ve played and one I actually want to go through again just to work on different outcomes - *****

If on a Winter’s Night Four Travelers – After Unavowed, I felt like I needed something a little shorter and found this free game steam. It’s only about 2 hours but I was so impressed with both the story and art design that I bought the art book just to give the devs some cash. A cool little horror tale that’s worth a look and I’m looking forward to the next game from this team - ****

Whispers of a Machine – I played the Kathy Rain games last year and thought the 2nd one was so good, it ended up on my game of the year list so I thought it best to round out January by checking this game out from the developer. I did have some pathing issues here often not knowing what to do next, but it was a cool world with a great look and the story and characters were engaging to the point that I felt pretty good about the game - ***

2025 Carry Overs

Tormented Souls II – It was in my 2025 game of the year list if you’d like a more extensive write up but yeah, great old school  survival horror game - ****

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – sigh, I was really enjoying this game, particularly the Volt Forge and the Ice Belt...and then I got to Flare Pool and boy, that sure was a bad level. It was all downhill from there for me unfortunately - **

Other Media – January

Film – Going with the JRPG theme of January, I decided to watch 4 Anime films among other films I watched.

Streets of Fire – I rewatch this every January 1st, it’s one of my favourite films and I recommend it along with other Walter Hill films like Hard Times and The Warriors if you want to see some strong 80s video game influences. Of note, my Blu-ray copy died and left me in a panic on Jan 1st, I ended up buying a digital copy - *****

Angel’s Egg – I think this one will benefit from a rewatch because there is a lot to take it and the film is very contemplative. Overall I was impressed but found my mind wandering at times - ***

Trigun: Badlands Rumble – A fun enough side story from the original series and it got me in the mood for Trigun Stargaze, but that’s about it, never quite reaches the heights of the series for me - **

100 Meters – It’s funny, I gave this **** stars on Letterboxed (where I don’t use my rating system) and feel like I may have underrated it because I keep thinking about it. A pretty incredible story of characters pushing themselves to be the best - ****

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time – I’d had this on Blu-ray for years so it was so it was fun to come up with a reason to actually open it. What an incredible journey this one is, another one I can’t really stop thinking about and no doubt one I will also go back to - ****

The Secret Agent – Given I read a lot off South American political literature, it only seemed natural to go and see this. I can see why it’s getting a lot of strong awards buzz and I’ll be going for it, it’s a challenging film though and requires genuine work from the viewer, it also never felt like there was a good time to take a pee break so when I did, I felt I’d missed something - ****

TV

This Monster Wants to Eat Me – Given some of the anime series I’d watched from the Fall season continued into the Winter season, this was the only one that ended. I decided to watch this because nothing much was grabbing me when I read the line up and I took a recommendation of it from a list. I liked it generally but it was also a little on the dull side for me, if they do a second season I’m 50/50 on continuing with it - ***

Books

On the Calculation of Volume II – I only really read on public transport and given January is a month where I have a lot of days off or work from home a lot due to the hot Australian summer weather, my days on PT were limited. I did finish this book though which continues the incredible time loop journey from the first volume. It’s a very literary take on a time loop and isn’t going to be for everyone, but this is right in my wheelhouse and I’m looking forward to tackling the 3rd volume in Feb - *****

February Plans:

Games – Slitterhead, Earth Must Die, Foolish Mortals, The Dark Rites of Arkham I also want to start on Paranormasight and we’ll see if I’m able to finish Dragon Quest VII Reimagined or Resident Evil Requiem before the end of Feb.

Movies – The African Queen, The Guns of Navarone, The Last Picture Show and The Blues Brothers – if you want to know what those films have in common, come back next month.

TV – I’m going to start Fallout Season 2, we’ll see if I get through the whole thing by the end of the month.

Books – I’ll Finish the 21st Discworld Book Jingo, read On the Calculation of Volume III and start on Discworld 22, The Last Continent.