2025 Media Wrap-Up

It is time for my 6th annual “what did I read/watch/play this year” blog post! You can find all the previous years’ lists here.

Before we start, a few notes on how I organize the lists:

1. I’ve ordered lists alphabetically, not in order of when I finished or what I liked most.
2. For tv shows, anime, comics, and manga, I marked down what chapters, seasons, issues, etc. I finished if I didn’t finish the entire thing. Since some are ongoing or very long, I figured it’s a distinction worth making!
3. If it wasn’t the first time I’ve read, watched, or played something, I’ve noted it.
4. If I explicitly decided to not finish something, I’ve marked it down in the completed lists but with a note of when I abandoned it.
5. Just because I finished something, it doesn’t necessarily mean I recommend it!

Books

Continuing my trend for the past few years of starting books and not really finishing them. Even more shocking is that a Brandon Sanderson book came out in 2025 and I didn’t read it yet! Surely I’ll get to it in 2026, surely.

• The Apothecary Diaries Volume 1
• The Apothecary Diaries Volume 2

This Year: 2

Last Year: 1

Movies

Between First Reformed and Wake Up Dead Man, this year’s movie selection had a minor trend of interrogating / critiquing the American Christian church. Finally getting around to watching First Reformed was inspired by La Dispute’s release of their album No One Was Driving the Car, one of my favorite albums of 2025 and one that cited First Reformed as a large influence on the lyrics. And I will always be down for a new Benoit Blanc film from Rian Johnson, and Wake Up Dead Man was both my favorite movie of the year and quite possibly my favorite of the series so far. Highly highly recommend that everyone give it a watch! And finally, my award for weirdest movie night of the year goes to watching Grave of the Fireflies in theater with my roommate and then going home and watching Friendship.

• Angel’s Egg
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• First Reformed
• Friendship
• Grave of the Fireflies
• School of Rock
• The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
• Wake Up Dead Man
• Wake Up Dead Man (rewatch)
• Wicked: For Good

This Year: 10 (9 new)

Last Year: 21 (11 new)

TV Shows

This year was mostly just a Dropout + Taskmaster year for me. I haven’t been in the mood for longer shows, but having some comedic series to throw on in the background while I work on programming projects or chores has been perfect.

• Game Changer (season 7)
• Make Some Noise (season 1-2)
• Severance (season 1-2)
• Taskmaster (season 1-3, 7, 19-20)

This Year: 4 (4 new)

Last Year: 4 (4 new)

Video Games

I tried something a little different this year for tracking video games! I tracked (to the best of my ability/memory) all the games that I played at least once during 2025, and highlighted and marked the ones I beat. This shows a little better how distressingly many games I try out but never beat. What can I say, I like to sample games!

Some stand out games for me this year:

• Asbury Pines - Short but sweet idle narrative game that does cool things with using a timeline to show how a town changes and stays the same over the years. The ending has some odd implications if you think about it, but overall I thought the story was wonderful.
• Blue Prince - Incredible puzzle roguelike game that I loved so much I made my own internal wiki in Obsidian to track all the clues for the meta puzzles. I beat the story of this, but haven’t yet dove into any of the larger puzzles in the post game. One of the coolest games I’ve ever played.
• Breach Wanderers and Monster Train 2 - Both very good deckbuilding roguelikes that scratch different itches. I remain a contrarian that likes Slay the Spire but prefers some of the games that came after (like these 2).
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - I mean, it received the numerous accolades that it did for a reason. I think the greater zeitgeist loved it a bit move than I did, but I had an incredible time with the story. And it being one of the few games I beat this year spoke to how much I did enjoy it (and how refreshingly short for an RPG it was!)
• Elden Ring: Nightreign - I went into this game expecting to play about 5 hours of it and bounce off. Instead, I played it for 67 hours, beat all the base game Night Lords, and have been itching to keep making runs at all the new content in the DLC that dropped near the end of the year. I’ve been lucky to have a solid rotation of friends that I can play this with, which absolutely enhanced the experience. If you can go in with the expectation that this does not have the slow and methodical exploration of locations that normal Soulsborne games do and instead is a tense sprint of a roguelike that tests your combat skills and threat + time management, you will have an amazing time. (Probably. I know some people who love Soulsborne games bounced off this hard.)
• Walkabout Mini Golf - This is basically the only game I play regularly on my VR headset anymore, and it still has pretty much justified my ownership of a VR headset. My family has a Sunday evening mini golf night every few weeks together (with half of us in VR and half on our phones), and it’s been a wonderful way to catch up with my family and play delightful mini golf courses from my bedroom.
• Guild Wars 2 - After dabbling in college and then getting my account stolen somehow, I finally remade an account and dove back in to Guild Wars 2 this year. I’ve needed a bit of a break from Final Fantasy 14, and pivoting to an MMO that is more focused on an open world experience was the perfect choice. I’ve been loving getting to just wander around and explore and set my own objectives for the play session - it scratches an itch that FF14, as much as I adore the game, can’t.
• UNBEATABLE - After some of the best trailers I’ve ever seen for a game, I was pretty excited for UNBEATABLE, and aside from a few plotting/pacing issues and some rough around the edges technical polish, I absolutely loved it. The direction of it was impeccable, the moment-to-moment character writing was some of the best I’ve seen, and the final chapter was an unexpected gut punch. Oh, and the music absolutely ripped. It’s not a very long game, I blasted through it in about a day - play it!!

• Absolum
• Against the Storm
• Ambrosia Sky: Act One
• Angeline Era
• Anno 117: Pax Romana
• Anno 1800
• Asbury Pines (beaten)
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Ball X Pit
• Banjo-Tooie
• Battle Suit Aces
• Beat Saber
• Berserk B.I.T.S
• Blue Prince (beaten)
• Borderlands 4
• Breach Wanderers
• Bullet Surge (demo)
• Cast n Chill
• Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
• Cauldron
• Chaos Zero Nightmare
• Civ Idle
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (beaten)
• Clicker Heroes
• Clone Hero
• Clover Pit
• Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion III
• Crusader Kings III
• Cyber Knights: Flashpoint
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Cyclopean: The Great Abyss
• Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin
• Darkest Dungeon II
• Death Stranding: Director’s Cut
• Demon Bluff
• Demonic Mahjong
• Disc Room
• Dispatch
• Donkey Kong Bananza
• Dragon Cliff
• Dungeons of Eternity
• Dungeons of Hinterberg
• Echopoint Nova
• Elden Ring
• Elden Ring: Nightreign
• Eternal Strands
• Etrian Odyssey HD
• Everspace 2
• Faeria
• FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Fellowship
• Fellowship (demo)
• Final Fantasy 14
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
• Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
• Flip Flop Solitaire
• Forge (MTG Shandalar fan reimplementation)
• Foundation
• Fretless
• Genshin Impact
• Golf With Your Friends
• Golf+
• Guild Wars 2 (beaten - personal story)
• Guild Wars Reforged
• Hades 2
• Haste
• Helldivers 2
• Hitman: World of Assassination
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• House of the Dying Sun
• Hunt: Showdown
• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
• Idle Slayer
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
• Inertial Drift
• Inkbound
• Into the Grid
• Jet Island
• Journey to Incrementalia
• Kaizen: A Factory Story
• Katamari Damacy Reroll
• Katamari Damacy Rolling Live
• Kenshi
• Kirby Air Riders (beaten)
• Leaf Blower Revolution
• Logiart Grimoire
• Logic Bombs
• Loot Plot
• Lost Skies (demo)
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
• Mario Kart World
• Mario Kart World
• Mechabellum
• Megabonk
• Melvor Idle
• Mind Over Magic
• Mini Healer
• Monaco 2 (demo)
• Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
• Monster Hunter Rise
• Monster Hunter Stories
• Monster Hunter Wilds (beaten)
• Monster Hunter World
• Monster Train 2
• Myst (2021) (beaten)
• Nioh
• Once Upon a Katamari
• Overcooked 2
• Path of Exile 2
• Persona 5: The Phantom X
• Pistol Whip
• Pokémon Legends Z-A
• Pokémon Legends: Arceus
• Pokémon Pocket
• Pokerist Plus
• Power Wash Simulator 2
• Pragamata - Sketchbook Demo
• Promise Mascot Agency
• Puzzle Quest: Immortal Edition
• Q-UP
• R.E.P.O.
• Rana Card
• Ravenswatch
• Red Dead Redemption II
• Replicube
• Rez Infinite
• Rhythm Doctor
• Rift of the Necrodancer
• Risk of Rain 2
• Riven (2024)
• Rock Band 4
• Roguebook
• Rusty’s Retirement
• Satisfactory
• Scourgebringer
• Sea Fantasy
• Settlemoon
• Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond
• Shapez
• Shogun Showdown
• Skin Deep
• Skyrim VR
• Slay the Spire
• Sonic Frontiers
• Soulframe
• Soulstone Survivors
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home
• Star of Providence
• Star Wars Outlaws
• Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
• Subnautica: Below Zero
• Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
• Super Mario Bros Wonder
• Super Mario Party Jamboree
• Super Mario Run
• Superhot VR
• Swarm
• Tabletop Simulator
• Terra Nil
• The Alters
• The Bazaar
• The Conquest of Go
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow (beaten)
• The King is Watching
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• The Light Brigade VR
• The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
• The Rise of the Golden Idol (beaten)
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2
• Typecast
• Umamusume: Pretty Derby
• UNBEATABLE (beaten)
• UNBEATABLE Demo
• Unnamed Space Idle
• Unplugged Air Guitar
• Until You Fall
• Vintage Story
• V Rising
• Walkabout Mini Golf
• Wayfinder
• Wildfrost
• Witchfire
• Wolfenstein: The New Order
• Worshippers of Cthulhu
• X4 Foundations
• Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist
• Zenless Zone Zero

This Year: 192 (8 beaten)

Last Year: N/A (1 beaten)

Anime

Not a big year for watching anime, but The Apothecary Diaries ruled.

• Oshi no Ko (season 2)
• The Apothecary Diaries (season 1)

This Year: 2 (2 new, 0 abandoned)

Last Year: 3 (1 new, 0 abandoned)

Comics/Manga

My recommendations from last year all continue to be great, so I’ll highlight a few new ones I started this year that I really liked:

• Centuria - A dark fantasy that perfectly balances actually lovable and compassionate characters with the bleakness and brutality that you would expect from a dark fantasy manga. Extremely excited to see where this goes over the next few years.
• Girl meets Rock! - A slice-of-life / drama about a shy music nerd who isn’t naturally talented at music, but has the passion and determination that you actually need to be a genuine performer. Love how the author uses real rock songs for the musical performance sections.
• Hikaru no Go - Special shoutout to Hikaru no Go because my reading of it is what got my brother to dive into learning Go. He has since acquired a 9x9, 13x13, and 19x19 board and has been forcing me to also learn Go so he can crush me in it.
• Make the Exorcist Fall In Love - A very fun mix of romance and battle shounen that has consistently surprised me with more nuanced takes on faith, sexuality, and guilt than I would expect from a romance/battle shounen manga.

• Akane-banashi (chap 141-188)
• Beat & Motion (chap 46-48) (finished)
• Blue Box (chap 179-224)
• Centuria (chap 1-76)
• Chainsaw Man (chap 188-223)
• Dandadan (chap 179-220)
• Dragon Ball (chap 1-11)
• Drops of God (vol 41-44) (finished)
• Embers (chap 1-20) (finished)
• Fairy Tail (vol 1-16)
• Girl meets Rock! (chap 1-90)
• Harukaze Mound (chap 1-20)
• Hikaru no Go (chap 1-189) (finished)
• Hima-ten! (chap 25-72)
• I Have a Crush at Work (chap 105-112)
• Ichi the Witch (chap 17-64)
• It’s a Little Late, but I’ve Fallen in Love with My Childhood Friend (chap 30) (abandoned)
• Kagurabachi (chap 63-106)
• Kill Blue (chap 1-115) (finished)
• Make the Exorcist Fall In Love (chap 1-105)
• Märchen Crown (chap 1-3) (abandoned)
• Marriagetoxin (chap 111-149)
• Monochrome Days (chap 1-33)
• Moriarty the Patriot (chap 69-76)
• One Piece (chap 1135-1169)
• Otr of the Flame (chap 1-25)
• Ruridragon (chap 1-42)
• Sakamoto Days (chap 12-69) (reread)
• Sakamoto Days (chap 70-232)
• Shiba Inu Rooms (chap 1-41)
• Show-ha Shoten! (chap 37-43) (finished)
• Someone Hertz (chap 1-15)
• Spy x Family (chap 109-127.1)
• Star of Beethoven (chap 1-20) (finished)
• Syd Craft: Love is a Mystery (chap 1-28) (finished)
• The Hunter’s Guild: Red Hood (chap 1)
• The Mage Next Door (chap 1-2)
• To Your Eternity (vol 1-13)
• Tomie
• Who Killed the Hero? (chap 1)
• You and I Are Polar Opposites (chap 1-65) (finished)
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist (chap 75-92)

This Year: 41

Last Year: 30

Board Games

I feel like at this point I should stop calling out Flesh and Blood as being the most played game. Until I stop playing Flesh and Blood competitively it’s always going to be the most played game of mine! Arkham Horror: The Card Game and Aeon’s End also makes sense being high up on the list as they continue to cement themselves as some of my favorite games of all time. (Tangent: I taught Aeon’s End to a few friends who had never played before, and within a week they had all bought their own copies of the base game.)

Some standout new (to me) games I played this year:

• Heat: Pedal to the Metal - My favorite new game I played this year, as evidenced by my girlfriend pointing out I had played it 5 times in a couple months, which is shocking for me. I normally pick up a new board game, play it a few times, and then it is banished to my collection only to occasionally be pulled out for a game night. Heat is the perfect blend (to me) of easy enough for anyone to pick up fast, complex enough that you can actually be strategic, and funny enough with its push your luck mechanics that everyone around the table is always egging each other on to push your car for juuuuuust one more space of movement. It captures what you would imagine driving a race car would feel like perfectly with its mechanics. Extremely excited to play it with more modules added on in 2026.
• Texas Hold’em - Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s wild that I hadn’t played poker until I was 30. I got invited to a guys’ poker night by some of my girlfriend’s friends and I had them teach me how to play. Turns out, there’s a reason Texas Hold’em is so well known, and also turns out I’m not half bad at poker. Shoutout to Balatro for teaching me poker hands.
• Vantage - This is such a fascinating game to me. An open world game where you and your friends will likely never be in the same location shouldn’t be so good… but it perfectly captures the wonder of being dropped into an open world video game and slowly discovering its wondrous secrets and locales. I’m sure that, as with any open world game, the magic will slowly fade as I actually become familiar with the open world, but until then I will continue to enjoy Vantage as a weird mix of a mechanics-lite almost-roleplaying experience in a box.

Total Plays: 486

Friends Played With: 96

Unique Games: 65

Unique Locations: 22

New Games Played: 14

Estimated Time Played: 334 hours

Days Played On: 150

Note: Friends Played With includes myself in each of them :P

Games tracked with the BG Stats app and summary compiled with a Python script I wrote

Thank you very much for reading! If you would like to discuss any of the media I finished this year with me, feel free to shoot me a message on Bluesky or Mastodon, I’d love to chat!