The End Credits Archive

Play Dates: Feb 05, 2026 - March 21, 2026

Playtime: ~100 hours (100% completion)

*SPOILER FREE*

This was Brent's pick for NuNuResResBoisBois, where each of us gives the other two Bois a game to play over the course of four months. Thank Goodness!

In a video game industry that feels bloated by safe bets, trend chasing, and a preference for quantity over quality, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 feels like a defiant achievement. It is a game that reminds you why I fell in love with video games in the first place, and I breathe a sigh of relief: yes, we CAN still create high art new IPs that are comprehensive in their excellence.

I play about 20 to 35 games a year, and while I’m usually reserved when a title receives this level of universal praise, this has become one of my favorite things ever made. To have an experience this profound and meaningful as an adult, rather than something I’m viewing through the hazy lens of childhood nostalgia, was completely unexpected and deeply moving. It managed to break through my defenses in a way I wasn't prepared for; I actually cried more than once during the playthrough. I was trying to remember the last time a game did that to me...and while Spiritfarer definitely got me, that almost feels like "cheating" given the subject matter. To find a narrative this resonant, I have to go all the way back to Final Fantasy IV.

The premise is hauntingly beautiful: a figure known as the Paintress wakes once a year to paint a number on a massive monolith, and anyone that age is instantly turned into flower petals and erased. We join the 68th Expedition (those aged 33) on a desperate, final trek across a continent to kill her. The narrative is a masterclass in exploring grief, trauma, and the sheer audacity of human hope. It treats these heavy concepts with a maturity and gravity that I wish more writers would study, yet it never feels like a slog. It’s lightened by genuine warmth and the bickering, lovable dynamics of the party. The voice acting brings a level of humanity to the crew that makes every interaction feel earned. I found myself so caught up in the mystery of the Gommage and the revelations about the world that I was frequently left mouth agape, staring at the screen as the layers of the plot peeled back.

The world itself is a sensory masterpiece, a surreal dream of saturated colors and implausible architecture. Every environment, from the Flying Waters to the twisted labs of the underground, feels like a character in its own right. And we as a society simply do not deserve a soundtrack this good; it skips effortlessly between classical, jazz, and techno to mirror the game's wonderful weirdness.

And the combat! Oh the combat. It plunders the genre’s best (Persona, Final Fantasy, and Paper Mario) to create a turn-based system of its own. I'm not just mashing buttons; I am reacting, dodging, and parrying with the intensity of a Soulslike. Mastering the "Picto" system and stat allocation to break the game’s mechanics is an utter thrill. By the mid-game, I had Maelle sculpted into a fencer that could stack millions of points of damage, bypassing entire boss phases through sheer preparation and execution.

While there are minor gripes (the menus can be a stylized nightmare to navigate and the lack of a compass occasionally left me wandering) they are tiny footnotes in an otherwise flawless debut. This game shows that a small, dedicated team can still plant a flag among the stars. It is an artistic statement that feels profoundly personal, a reminder that even in a cynical media climate, we can still create something that hits like a literal million hit points to the soul.

Sandfall Interactive hasn't just made a great game; they’ve made a masterpiece.

Play Dates: January 14, 2026 - Feb 05, 2026

Playtime: ~30 hours

This is Game 2 of my REGP (Resident Evil Game Project) of 2026, where my goal is to tackle the entire franchise this year. This was actually my second time through the Resident Evil 2 Remake, and I went all in with four full playthroughs to cover both Claire and Leon’s A & B scenarios. Even though I’ve never played the 1998 original on the PSX, this version feels like it captures exactly what that era was about while dragging it, kicking and screaming, into the modern day.

The environment is a masterclass in atmospheric design. I adore the "CAPCOM-i-ness" of the RPD; the sheer absurdity of needing diamond-crested keys or clockwork gears just to open a door in a government building just makes me feel warm and cozy. It strikes that perfect balance between genuine, skin-crawling dread and the wonderful cheese of 90s action cinema. You’ll be staring at a zombie’s jaw hanging by a single tendon and then Leon will drop a line so earnest and optimistic it feels like it belongs in a Saturday morning cartoon. It’s that exact intersection of horrific visuals and "world's best rookie cop" that makes Raccoon City so memorable.

Play Dates: March 28, 2026 - April 13, 2026

Playtime: ~10 hours

The transition to Wario Land 3 is been the most jarring part of the Wario Land series thus far. The game takes the "Invincible Wario" foundation of WL2 and mashes it together with a heavy Metroidvania structure.

In the previous titles, Wario enters a level with his full kit, and your success depends on your ingenuity. In WL3, they strip your abilities away and make you earn them back through treasures. It’s a "thinking man’s platformer," but that often means hitting a roadblock because you haven't unlocked the right ability or a specific stage transformation yet. The game is built on backtracking; you’ll see a treasure you want, but you can’t get it until you find a magic bean in another level that grows a beanstalk here. It turns the game into a massive, interconnected puzzle, which provides a great sense of progression but can also feel linear and arbitrary when you’re just wandering around hoping to find the one thing that unlocks the next path.

Shoutout to this Flowchart, which I used throughout my plaything and made the frustration of exploring a bit less: https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/7p736e/wario_land_3_game_progression_chart/

That said, once it clicks, there’s a rewarding feeling to gaining a new move and realizing exactly which obstacle it overcomes. While the boss fights (including the final boss Rudy the Clown) feel a bit too easy, the core loop of exploring and "powering up" Wario is a unique twist that I can appreciate.

It still feels like a massive departure from the simplicity of Wario Land 2, but it’s a fascinating look at Nintendo experimenting with what a platformer can be.

Play Dates: March 10, 2026 - March 14, 2026

Playtime: ~5 hours

Okay, now things are feeling weird and Wario. The choice to move away from the Super Mario Land branding is the right call because Wario is officially doing his own thing now. The biggest shocker to me is the invincibility...it’s such a bold move to tell the player "you can’t die," but it doesn't make the game easy. Instead, it shifts the challenge from survival to logic and puzzle. The levels feel more like giant puzzles where the enemies aren't trying to kill you; they’re trying to inconvenience you by turning you into a zombie or a ball of fire just to mess up your path. I’ve even developed a bit of a headcanon for the invincibility: I like to think of Wario as that classic cartoon villain who gets flattened, burned, or blown up, only to shake it off and yell, "I'll get you next time!" before running back into the fray. It makes every "mistake" feel less like a failure and more like a comedic beat in his relentless quest for loot. He’s essentially too angry and too greedy to actually get hurt.

Swapping out the power-up hats from the first game for "status effects" like Flat Wario or Fire Wario makes the platforming more reactive. I found myself actually looking for enemies to hit me just so I could use their "attacks" to reach a hidden treasure. It's a clever bit of game design that forces you to rethink everything you know about platformer tropes.

Play Dates: March 01, 2026 - March 03, 2026

Playtime: ~3 hours

Since Nico picked Wario Land 4 for Cartridge Club, I’ve decided to marathon all four games leading up to it, starting right at the beginning. To make the Game Boy era feel a bit more modern, I played this one with a colorized mod and a mechanical tweak that brought Wario’s speed and shoulder charge closer to his WL4 kit. Between those upgrades and a healthy dose of save states, the whole experience went down like butter. It’s not necessarily a "reinvent the wheel" kind of game, but the music is surprisingly catchy and the level design feels much more creative than I remembered for such an early title.

The absolute highlight of this playthrough, though, wasn't the mods or the mechanics. It was the fact that this technically became the first game Annie ever played. Watching her practice "jumping" on the controller while Wario stomped around gave the whole run a different kind of weight. It’s one thing to appreciate a classic for its history, but seeing a toddler get a kick out of those same pixels makes it feel brand new.

Also, the ending. Genuinely one of the most disrespectful moments. After an entire game of Wario busting his back, collecting every stray coin, and finding every hidden treasure just to get his dream home, Mario shows up. He flies in with a helicopter, hooks your castle to the bottom of it, and gives you a cheerful "Peace out!" wave while he literally steals your house. I was sitting there with the controller in my hand, absolutely fuming. I’ve spent the last several hours shoulder-charging through monsters for this damn castle, and Mario treats it like he’s just picking up an item in Mario Party. Mario is officially on my list.

Play Dates: January 22, 2026 - January 24, 2026

Playtime: ~8 hours Exactly the kind of mindless incrementalism I needed during our ski weekend at Sugarloaf. It has this great arcade-y, creative energy that makes it relaxing to sink into, perfect for unwinding when you’re tired but still want to be doing something.

While the core loop is satisfying, the levels could definitely use more variety to keep things fresh. I also tried out the new "Endless Coffee" roguelike mode, but it didn't quite land for me; the pace felt a bit too slow, and the lack of meta-progression makes it hard to feel like I’m actually working toward anything. I’m curious to see if they’ll patch that and add some more depth later on.

Play Dates: December 18, 2025 - January 12, 2026

Playtime: ~60 hours

Spiritfarer was my 2025 pick for the ResolutionBois from Brent, who wanted to broaden my horizons with something outside my usual tastes. Management games have never really been my thing (I tend to feel stressed out when juggling too many resources or optimizing every little system), but I figured I’d give it a fair shot.

At first, I thought I was just running a cozy spreadsheet-ferry, but it became something more meaningful.

Atul’s disappearance hit me harder than I expected. One day he was joking around, cooking up meals, and being that constant spark of warmth for the ship. And then suddenly, he was just… gone. No farewell, no Everdoor. At first, I thought it was a bug, but realizing that he simply left without goodbye hit me HARD. I kept his workshop running for a while out of habit, almost like maintaining a shrine. I kept wondering if I had done something wrong, if there was a missed conversation or hidden quest that would’ve given him a proper goodbye. But that absence (sudden and without ceremony) ended up feeling too real? Sometimes people leave our lives with no closure. Some losses in life never give us tidy endings.

The management side of things definitely wore on me after a while. There’s only so many times you can smelt ore, time garden harvests, and cook meals before it stops feeling like exploration and starts feeling like upkeep. I realized I didn’t need to be producing everything all the time...focusing on what was actually needed was the key to keeping the game enjoyable. Once I let go of “efficiency mode,” the world opened up again. The structure became less of a burden and more of a rhythm, something that flowed around the relationships I was building with the spirits.

Beverly’s dementia touched me too. She was fading, gently and almost beautifully. Sitting beside her reminded me that caring for someone doesn’t always mean fixing or understanding them; sometimes it just means being there.

By the time I reached Stella’s own goodbye, I’d stopped thinking of Spiritfarer as a management game altogether. It had transformed into something softer. An act of care, patience, and acceptance.