Links Round-Up 2

Previous Links Round-Ups: 1

The story of the obscure Japanese video game, Kowai Shashin, as re-told by Baxter Burchill is an interesting read. Lots of other cool articles on that blog, too. Tsundoku (積読) is a great Japanese word meaning “acquiring books without reading them.” Someday I’ll have to compile a list of the books that I still need to read. Or, y’know, I could just sit down and read them.

YouTube video producer eurothug4000 made a video about some of the cool indie games from 2025. The video wraps up with a montage of clips from other indie games worthy of checking out.

Project: Gorgon is out of early access. The screenshots look intriguing. I’ve tried a handful of massively-multiplayer online games, including Final Fantasy XIV, and I tend to not like them very much. Maybe they’re more fun when played with friends? They tend to feel like a lot of lonely busy work (and, in that sense, not much different from single player games). Nevertheless, I do have a fascination with the worlds in these games. There’s a demo for Project: Gorgon, so maybe I should give it a shot.

Speaking of demos, I tried the one for Elin, the spiritual successor of Elona. Before I knew it, two hours had gone by. Clearly a dangerous sandbox game. I was impressed by how easy it was to play on the Steam Deck without resorting to a keyboard and mouse. Not sure if I need a time-sink game like this one to play, but glad to see that the spirit of Elona lives on. I always admired the plucky, chaotic nature of the original.

Ugetsu Kitan is dripping in style. I love the user interface and how the Japanese text follows the traditional top-down, right-to-left convention. Using that traditional text layout seems rare for video games; makes me wonder if more use it. The game is on my radar thanks to tangomushi’s very thorough coverage of the game and the stories it’s based on.