SweetieGames

I’ve been very open about the fact that my backlog is huge. I love to buy games, squirrel them away and look at them on my shelf, but not touch them for a very long time. And I think many of us are guilty of doing this!

There are some games on my shelf that I’m determined to play this year, alongside some upcoming releases that I know I’m going to have to get my hands on. This is on top of trying some new genres; looks like it’s going to be a particularly busy year for gaming! Let’s take a look at some of them here, so you can hold me to this.

One game that I picked up last year that I’m interested in giving a go is the PS2 version of Final Fantasy X. I wrote a review of the HD Remaster previously on this blog, so I’m not sure if I’d necessarily play it through until the end (or I may do this over a longer period of time!) but I loved the story when I played on Switch and I’ve heard that the original PlayStation 2 version somehow looks better due to the state-of-the-art motion capture used at the time. I definitely have no issue returning to the world of FFX again!

Another game I picked up last year was Atlus’s Metaphor: ReFantazio, which I’ve heard fantastic things about. As a turn-based RPG fan and lover of Persona, I’m sure I’m gonna really enjoy this! It’ll be really exciting to sink my teeth into an entirely new RPG world, not knowing what to expect in terms of characters or plot. I’ll be going in pretty much completely blind, which I always find is the best way to experience a game.

I previously wrote about the comeback of Danganronpa as the remake of SDR2, Danganronpa 2×2, is releasing this year. I’ve not been back to Danganronpa since around 2018, so I am very intrigued to see how the story has changed and how the game feels in shiny HD. I’m also interested to see how much I remember from Danganronpa 2; I played that game back in 2017.

Speaking of remakes, the remaster of Dragon Quest VII comes out this year, and it’ll be my first experience of this game. I’m usually someone who plays the original version of a game before its remake, but I don’t think I’m going to get around to this before the DQVII remake launches. I want to know how the new doll-like art style works in the game; I had my doubts when I wrote my article about it, but the only way to know if I like it or not is to actually play it and see. It may grow on me.

Like I mentioned before, I need to do some research to discover some good games in other genres to try. I want to expand the topics I discuss here! I’ve been primarily playing RPGs and visual novels for so long, I feel like I need to spice up my gaming repertoire.

I’m sure I’ll try out way more games than what’s on this list, but I can’t wait to see what 2026 brings! There’s plenty of upcoming games that have piqued my interest, so lets see if I actually get through my backlog this year.