Haven

For lovers only.

Played on the Sony PlayStation 5 Pro (Sony PlayStation 5 version)

Romance is a hard genre to portray in video games. Either the writing is 50 Shades of Grey-levels of bad or it reaches The Holiday levels of good. Haven was developed by The Game Bakers and first released on December 3, 2020. When I first came across this game on Xbox Game Pass, I knew nothing about it. On a whim, I decided to download and play it and got invested in the love story. However, I had to pause this as my subscription ended before I could finish the game. After a few years, I was able to buy the game on the PlayStation 5 and complete it after a long hiatus.

Haven is a story about Yu and Kay and their freedom to love. Their choice to love one another was forbidden by the Apiary, the governing body of their home world. The Apiary chooses your partner and it is set in stone once they have found your compatible partner. Yu and Kay took the risk and flew off to another planet and were lucky to survive the crash landing. This is where you’ll take control of one of the two protagonists and explore this unknown world called Source.

Soul Hackers 2

A great JRPG, with some of the JRPG issues.

Played on the Sony PlayStation 5 Pro (Sony PlayStation 5 version)

Sega and Atlus brought back a niche Megami Tensei spin-off out of the blue. It is a sequel to a game called Devil Summoners: Soul Hackers that came out in Japan in 1997 and then released in North America 16 years later (2013). I was planning to play the first game on the Nintendo 3DS before playing this sequel, but finding a used game was a little bit pricey. I decided to skip the original and jump straight into the sequel. Knowing nothing of the first game, I got this game because it was on sale for less than $15. It was kind of a no-brainer, especially when I do enjoy playing games from the Megami Tensei series.

Every Megami Tensei game starts with some kind of apocalyptic event and tries to find the meaning of life. A lot of the previous games presented philosophical ideas about life and death, and Soul Hackers 2 starts out no differently. The intro shows a god-like being brought into the real world to rewrite human history. Aion, a hidden technological power, created two humanoids: Ringo and Figue. It sends both of them out to understand what makes humans human. It is looking for the power of the Covenants and the duo need to gather all the intel to understand how the Covenants work.

Mario Kart 64

F**king blue shells to ruining friendships.

Played on the Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64 introduced several major innovations to the gaming industry. One of them was the number of controllers you could hook up to the console. This console design set precedent for future game development and multiplayer design. On February 10, 1997, Mario Kart 64 hit store shelves in North America and it was one of the first games to take advantage of the four-player gameplay.

My first real taste of Mario Kart came shortly after its release. I went to the big blue-and-yellow store called Blockbuster, and my weekly allowance was spent on renting this game. I grabbed the video game cartridge and plugged it into the system. Hearing Mario say, “MARIO KART!” and the splash screen telling you to ‘Push Start Button’ remains one of the most nostalgic intros I can remember.

Ghost of Yotei

More of the same.

Played on the Sony PlayStation5 Pro (Sony PlayStation 5 version)

Ghost of Tsushima was one of my favorite games of 2020. Sucker Punch developers paid a lot of respect to Japanese culture and its lore. The world was beautifully crafted and captured a glimpse of what Japan could have looked like back in the 13th century. It was the Assassin’s Creed game I always wanted. I could either stealth around as a Shinobi or duel enemies as a Samurai. As the years passed, I patiently waited for the sequel. After five long years, the game was finally released on October 2nd, 2025. I received this as a gift, so I booted this game up right away. As I played through this game, it felt like déjà vu.

So what’s new in Ghost of Yotei? Besides the obvious like the new story, characters, extra weapons, and some touchpad-controlled minigames, surprisingly, not much else.. This might not sound great, especially for a sequel, but the first game was a well-made game with very little flaws. There were many directions Sucker Punch could have changed or added to the sequel, but I’m glad they stuck with the original formula and polished the game further.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

You are the Knight.

Played on the Microsoft Xbox 360

Batman -or any other superhero- never received a truly great video game for the masses to enjoy before 2009. That is, until the developers at Rocksteady Studios had their turn of recreating the famous detective and vigilante. On August 25, 2009, Batman finally got the game he deserved. Batman: Arkham Asylum is a spectacular game, and I enjoyed nearly everything it had to offer.

Batman brings in the Joker to join the other villains of Gotham at Arkham Asylum. Things are going smoothly until Joker’s plan of taking over Arkham Island is revealed and created his own psychotic playhouse. With the island running amok with crazies and innocent people either hiding in fear or being used as hostages, Batman must bring order to Joker’s chaos and save the night.