Well, my 2025 Video Game New Year’s Resolutions went much better than my anime resolutions. I got through most of the list as of this writing (I’m writing this the week before Christmas), with two titles remaining – Final Fantasy XVI and 428 Shibuya Scramble. Of those, I’m probably going to get through Shibuya Scramble before the end of the year, and hopefully I’ll get through FFXVI before AGDQ. However, it’s time to talk about the year to come. Here are my resolutions for 2026.
Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster (Joined in Progress)
This is the first of my big Joined In Progress games of the year, and one of my two Final Fantasy games, after last year’s Summer of Final Fantasy. I’ve got a lot of progress made in the game so far, so knocking this one out should hopefully not be too big a deal.
Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (Joined in Progress)
This is the other of the year’s Final Fantasy games. I was able to get Heavensward finished before the end of the year, and that’s even with a couple extended grinding periods to get my crafting classes up to 30, so I can desynthesize trash items in my inventory. I still need to get Astrologian, Black Mage, and Red Mage to 60, but going from 50 to 60 is a lot faster than starting at lower levels.
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (Joined in Progress)
This is the other major Joined in Progress game. I’ve gotten most of the way through this game and am working on some of the expansion content. This puts me at a good spot to finish this game before the end of the year, as something to play on the side while listening to podcasts (particularly since part of the expansion content is an extended arena sequence).
Spider-Man 2
This is my big GameFly title that’s on the way as of this writing, making for another good title along the lines of Judgement to beat this year, and for another more recent title at that.
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Last year I tried to take on 4 Final Fantasy games. This year I’m going to try to take on 4 of the titles for past Axe of the Blood God Pantheon Picks. This is one of those 4. I’ve currently beaten only one Legend of Zelda game, and this feels like a more approachable one for the purposes of this list, and I’m looking to keep playing things on my Polymega.
Phantasy Star
This is the third of my Pantheon picks I’m taking on. I’ve got this game for the Switch, and that version of the game has some very useful quality of life improvements. Even if it doesn’t have money or XP multipliers, being able to compare weapons and having dungeon maps will be tremendously helpful.
Witch on the Holy Night
I’m trying to complete one of the Visual Novels I own a year, and with this game getting an anime adaptation soon-ish, I should really finish this one, particularly for the podcast, ideally before Nasuvember next year.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Finally, one more older Metroidvania game – and one of the defining works of the genre. I had actually played this game on the PS1 a long time ago but never quite beat it (I think my disk I’d been using had an unfortunately placed scratch). Fortunately, now there are a lot more options to play it that aren’t at risk of being disrupted by a scratched disk. This makes for Pantheon pick #4.
So, one less game than last year, but one less joined in progress game this year. Also, there’s a lot more focus on the Switch (or rather Switch 2 this year). We’ll see how well this all goes in 2026.
We’ll see if I manage to make it through the whole list this year.
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