Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky 2025 is Here!

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, My Games, My Stories, Video games  7 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , , ,
Oct 012025
 

October is here, and I’ll be honest, I was tempted not to do Celebrating All Things Spooky this year, considering how backed up my backlog has become even by my standards!

But with some good horror games looming over me, I decided to go ahead with it anyway. Just be aware that I might not be able to stick to my usual pace of reviews (although I’ll still try). So let’s get started with Celebrating All Things Spooky 2025!

Contest

As usual, there will be a contest! Be sure to pay attention to the rules, as some details have changed.

Prizes:

  • Alan Wake (gift sent through Steam)
  • Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (gift sent through Steam)
  • Not It: Spookiest Edition (gift sent through Steam)
  • Silent Hill 4: The Room (gift sent through GOG)
  • Dead Age (Steam code)
  • Lakeview Cabin Collection (Steam code)
  • Tormented Souls (gift sent through Steam)
  • eBook copy of The Book at Dernier
  • eBook copy of It Came Back
  • $15 sent through PayPal
  • You pick a game for me to review!

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. It must be a single game, not a collection (although the chosen game can be part of a collection). I will start playing it in November.

Rules:

  • No purchase is necessary.
  • Only comments made between October 1, 2025 at 12:00 PM EDT and October 31, 2025 at 11:59 PM EDT will be counted.
  • 1 non-spam, non-anonymous comment on any Celebrating All Things Spooky blog post, including replies to other comments or posts from previous years = 1 point.
  • You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.
  • You must earn at least 5 points to qualify for a prize.
  • The top 3 qualifying point earners will win prizes.
  • The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and the person with the third most points will pick third.
  • In the event of a tie, tied winners will be contacted at the same time. A tie for third place will allow for more than 3 winners. If tied winners choose the same prize, duplicate prizes will be possible.
  • The winner will be contacted by November 2, 2025.

Sale

Meanwhile, you’ve got some sales to watch out for again! For the rest of this week and up through the weekend, my zombie comedy novella The Zombie Mishap is available on Amazon for just $0.99!

Looking for something a bit scarier? As we get closer to Halloween, watch for similar sales on my horror novellas The Book at Dernier and It Came Back!

When it comes to the visual novels I’ve worked on, the lighthearted supernatural otome game The Last Act is currently on sale on Steam! Meanwhile, I don’t know if the horror visual novel Not It will get a sale closer to Halloween or not, but I’ll keep an eye out.

Conclusion

For the rest of the month, I’ll highlight horror games and other spooky games (and sometimes other media) as often as possible, giving this blog a spooky feel in honor of Halloween. I’ll try to cover a variety of game types and styles, so stay tuned.

The scariest thing facing me is my backlog, but don’t worry about that. Let’s get Celebrating All Things Spooky 2025 started!

More Details on Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties

 Video games  1 Response »  Tagged with: , ,
Sep 292025
 

For me, the best announcement from TGS was Yakuza Kiwami 3 and its unexpected companion game Dark Ties, starring Yoshitaka Mine.

A few more details have surfaced since then, mostly through a Famitsu interview with director Ryosuke Horii.

(I’m relying on Google Translate here, just so you know.)

They’d originally intended to make Mine’s story something that could be watched as a video (maybe it as originally planned to be new cutscenes added to Kiwami 3, like the added Nishiki scenes in the first Kiwami?), but then they decided it would be better if he was playable. It seems this decision was at least partly made because of how popular Mine is.

When they announced Dark Ties, they described Mine as having an antihero approach in his substories, and Horii touches on that in the interview, saying that Mine doesn’t approach substories with the “defeating evil and protecting the weak” attitude that the other games’ protagonists have.

Overall, it sounds like they intend Dark Ties to be a darker story, which sounds pretty interesting.

The interview also describes the nature of Kiwami 3 as a remake, and how they felt if they kept it too close to the original Yakuza 3, it would feel boring/pointless since Yakuza 3’s remaster is readily available. Therefore, they approached it differently than the previous Kiwami games and treated it like a new work, and they don’t intend for it to replace Yakuza 3.

Another interview emphasized that as well, with Kiwami 3 involving bigger changes than Kiwami and Kiwami 2 had. Sadly, it also confirms the removal of the Revelation system.

(I’ve been hoping Revelations would come back to the series and appear in newer games, so I’m especially disappointed that they won’t even be in Kiwami 3.)

Moving on from the interviews, there’s also one big piece of information that has surfaced from TGS – the length of Dark Ties. Since it’s packaged with Kiwami 3, I thought it might be significantly shorter than the previous Gaiden games. I was hoping it would at least be the length of the Kaito Files, not as short as Kiwami 2’s Majima Saga. However, some previews mentioned being told it will be similar in length to Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.

If it really ends up being that long, that’s incredible. I’m really looking forward to it.

What are your thoughts on the latest details about Dark Ties? How do you feel about their approach to Kiwami 3 as a remake?

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam Delayed to 2026, New Gameplay

 Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Sep 262025
 

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam got a new trailer at TGS… and also a delay announcement.

It’s not a huge surprise; getting this late into 2025 without a release date made it seem pretty likely it was no longer set for this year.

On the other hand, I still remember being disappointed that it probably wouldn’t be out in 2023, and since then its 2024 release window has been pushed to 2025 and now 2026.

(Let’s just hope this isn’t a repeat of the Inazuma Eleven situation, with its constant delays.)

All right, with the delay news out of the way, let’s take a look at the new trailer.

The trailer doesn’t have subtitles yet, although the description says they will be added later.

As it is, we get some great new shots of Layton and Luke, and we also get to see some gameplay. It’s a short segment, but it looks very Layton – visiting a location from the map, tapping a character to get a puzzle, etc. Unfortunately, there isn’t much new shown.

The music choice is also… unique, and I cracked up listening to it. A Professor Layton rap was not on my bingo card.

There also was a playable TGS demo, and some players have uploaded videos, such as this one:

For me, the demo footage was great to see, because it really feels like Layton. There were some concerns when it was first announced, but it doesn’t look like they’ve made any drastic changes to the gameplay we know and love.

I’m looking forward to Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, although I can’t help but worry about it with all these delays. Still, Fantasy Life i saw numerous delays as well and came out to great reviews (I haven’t played it yet), so maybe the same will happen here.

What do you think of the latest New World of Steam videos?

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