I've never played a Nier game before, but hear very good things. A friend wanted me to play the original, but I don't own that one. I do, however, own this very nice remake. So let's do that!

This early title by Sting with music by Hitoshi Sakimoto was one of the first Japanese language games I ever tried to play, way back when I was in high school. I didn't get far, but it taught me some katakana and set off my imagination about all the fun things I would be able to explore were I to learn the language. So it has fond memories, and I bought a copy a few years back. Looking forward to finally properly exploring it next year.

Have wanted to play these for ages. My introduction to Shin Megami Tensei was Persona 2, and while I loved Nocturne, the next game in the series that I played, I found myself longing for something a bit closer to the character-focused storytelling that I had fallen in love with in P2. I hear this one somewhat fits the bill! I have the second one as well, so maybe that'll be for 2028 if we get through this one.

I've started this one twice and wound up abandoning it in the early hours both times. But it seems like an absolutely lovely game with some beautiful music and a fun sense of humour. And quite a few of my friends are fond of it and put its name forward. Third time lucky hopefully!

Not entirely sure why I've never played Dino Crisis. I know I'd like it. It's Resident Evil with dinosaurs! I mean what's not to like about that? Glad it made 2027's list.

The story to this one has a bit of a legendary reputation in Japan, and I often see it cited as having had an influence on Final Fantasy VII (it's the same scenario writer). So it's always been the one I'm most curious about in quite a well-liked series that I've never explored at all. I have the fourth one on SNES as well, so will definitely give that one a spin at some point too if this one turns out to be my jam.

Think I played about half an hour of this on the pretty terrible PS3 port way back when. But it really wasn't the ideal way to play the game. Have been eager to give it another chance to impress. Very sexy, very stylish, very Sega, very Hideki Kamiya... All good things.

I think I actually have finished this a long time ago, as I definitely remember my brother and I renting it as kids. But it's been so long now that it basically feels brand new. And I had an awful lot of fun with the third game when I played it for a list a few years back. So it's about time we played through the more well known second title.

DreamFactory's brawler follow up to THE BOUNCER. And I am a big fan of THE BOUNCER. If this is even half as good as THE BOUNCER then we are going to have a good time.

THE BOUNCER.

I've always been interested in this weird mashup of Lord of the Rings and Final Fantasy X, especially after being spoiled on the absolutely unhinged final boss fight. But I'm not sure I would have ever thought to sit down and play it without a friend giving me a wee push. So yay.

I really wanted to play this back at release, but didn't have a PS4. And by the time I got one, my interest had sort of cooled. Curious to go back now and see what it was all about, so I bought a copy of the complete version a wee while back. It's probably a better and more complete game now than it was back when I originally wanted to play it, so not a bad thing that I wound up waiting!

I toyed with playing this one a few times in the years following its release, as it's an early Monolith Soft title with Xenosaga cameos. But felt I didn't really know enough of the characters to get the most out of it, especially on the Namco side. I very much do now! I hear the gameplay is pretty clunky, but it's a fun time outside of that.

It also has one of the sickest vocal themes ever put in a video game, courtesy of Streets of Rage composer Yuzo Koshiro. So hey, that's always a plus.

I played the first Final Fantasy XIII right after its Japanese release and actually had quite a good time despite its divisive reputation. So I've always been quite interested in the sequels. I'll probably have to replay the first game at this point, as I don't really remember it that well now. But yeah, excited to retread some of the prettiest environments of the whole seventh generation.

I never really thought that Mystery Dungeon games would be my thing, but after falling in love with the very Mystery Dungeon-adjacent Tower of Druaga in 2025, I went and bought up copies of quite a few of them. This one is close to the top of my list of ones I want to play given the Final Fantasy ties and the fact that it came right out of Square's golden age. I hear good things!

One of the most beautiful SNES games ever made, and one of the last really big hurrahs from Square's stellar pixel artists before the company transitioned to primarily 3D games. It's a bit cursed for me though. Despite really liking it, I had one playthrough drop on the second to last mission way back when, and then lost another to corrupted data on the cartridge a few years back. This time for sure!

It's Ridge Racer. Riiiiiidge Racer.

I hear it's maybe the best one. Everyone loves it. I played quite a lot of it in high school and hardly remember it now. I am excited that I get to experience it afresh all over again.

I don't remember much about this at all, save that a very sweet friend in university really liked it, and it always makes me think of him. I think that's pretty much the whole reason I bought it in truth, but hey, can't go wrong with Castlevania.

I had Atelier Totori on my list for 2025, and it wound up being one of my favourite games of the year by far. Just made me smile all the way through, and reminded me how much I like the Atelier series after many, many years of not really engaging with the series much at all. Very keen to play more of the post-PS2 ones now, and glad that one made the list.

Saw this one a lot in stores back in the day, and the cover always caught the eye of RPG-brained teenage me. And a friend kindly gave me a spare copy he had a wee while back. Looks like a fun wee action RPG!

I hear this is a prime slice of video games from Platinum at the peak of their powers. And the slide move looks very fun and very stupid. I am 100% down.

I think I played most of this at release? But it dropped right in the middle of some pretty bad years for me, and a lot of those years are a blur now. So I hardly remember it. A lot of folk speak about it as the best in the series, and I am awfully fond of Dante and have good memories of the first title in particular. So about time I gave this one another spin.

This basically looks like a big, stupid Dreamcast game released long after the Dreamcast had died. And from the moment I saw footage of it, I knew I had to have it.

One of the few on this list that I know absolutely nothing about, save that it is about man who kill the zombie. I just bought it because it was quite a famous 360 title that was very cheap. But I like Capcom and I like man who kill the zombie. So let's kill some zombie in 2027.

I actually started this in 2026, and may finish it before the end of the year, in which case I'll replace it with something else. But adding it here for now because a friend suggested it, and I want to make sure it doesn't get dropped. It's one of the handful of Treasure games I haven't spent that much time with, and seems like a whole heap of fun from the little I played.

A very nice person on social media that I like a lot was showing off her copy of this, and I got jealous and had to buy it too. It's basically a secret Macross game, and we're big Macross fans in the Barleybap household.

I was super-excited about this one back when it was announced, as the music absolutely rules, it has a lovely visual style, and I'm a huge fan of the Final Fantasy V job system that it lifts wholescale. But when I actually got it, I never actually wound up making it that far. No shade to the game really. I just was sort of drifting away from video games at the time. Sure I'll enjoy it a lot more on revisit.

Very well liked by quite a few friends. Nice presentation, looks really weird, by the Landstalker devs, on Sega Saturn... Yup, that'll do pig.