Splatoon 3: Hero Mode

Genuinely surprised myself by managing to complete this launch day, expected it to be like Splatoon 2 and require me to beat all the levels, but I guess not. I really like how they brought over some gameplay mechanics from the Splatoon 2 DLC, I'm disappointed with how they incorporated little buddy into the gameplay though, it seemed like he was gonna have a way bigger role, but they kinda just shoehorned him in. The over world also seems more open? Like, it feels like an actual world instead of a collection of levels, and the way you go about discovering levels and finding secrets feels more rewarding than the past games.
The boss battles and main levels felt a little too easy, only a couple of them actually gave me a challenge, but it is a kids game, so it's expected.
Over the next couple of days following the release, I 100 precented it, but I haven't finished the secret level yet. The final boss made me pog in real life.
I actually really like the story they present through the alterna logs. It's surprisingly melancholy in a way that the other lore snippets we got from the octo expansion weren't. I'm really looking forward to reading that last log once I finally manage to beat the last stage, I'm surprised I haven't been spoiled on it yet.
Completion: All levels except for the final secret one.
Unpacking

Literally a dream game for me. I went into a fugue state as soon as I opened it and beat it in one sitting. I've actually played through it completely 4 different times. Once just to play it, twice to get all the achievements, thrice just to play it again, and four times for the dark star mode that was added. I really like how they allow you to put any item anywhere (to a point). This would have been a very different game if all the items had a set place, they had to be put every level.
Apparently there's an overarching story to this that made some people cry? I did infer things like the main character going to college and breaking up with her boyfriend, but the story wasn't clear enough to make me actually get emotional. I did like the reveal at the end that the main character is bi/a lesbian.
Really sad they aren't gonna create any sequels or extra levels, I hope a game like this gets created again, so I can experience sorting out some shit for the first time again, I love organizing.
Completion: 100%
Slime Rancher

The comfort food of games, I play it whenever I have something I want to watch but don't have the attention span to fully pay attention to it. Last time I played it, it took me around 2 days to get to the end credits, I've got the whole game down to a science at this point, genuinely think I could get into speed running it if I wanted to.
There is SO much stuff to do, every time I start a new save it always surprises me how much I have to do to get to where I was previously. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some place or mechanic I completely missed.
Despite how simple they are I am in love with the slime designs, my all-time favorite is the tarr, I have a novelty mug of it from fan gamer I still use to this day. A close second is the glitch slimes reminds me of the Pokemon ditto.
Completion: Finished the game but havent gotten all the acheivements.
Potion Permit

This game can only really be compared to stardew valley in a 'there's a village with people you have to interact with' way, everything else is pretty different. Everyone in the town starts out hating you, for starters. One aspect of the townies I LOVE is the fact that there are random events and quests that can just happen to you around town. And that you can see conversations happen between characters in certain places AND that when you walk by people they'll stop and say hi. It made me realize how quiet the town in stardew valley is, if that makes sense. The writing is kinda awkward at times, but I do like how they've handled some characters so far.
One of the characters has DID which the game calls 'Split personality disorder' I know it's an outdated term, not sure if it's offensive though. The way they depict it is ok in my opinion (take that with a grain of salt though cause I don't have the disorder) but I haven't gotten far enough in the story to really tell, it's definitely not the movie split levels of abhorrent though.
The mini-game aspect is pretty fun, isn't too hard but isn't mind-numbingly boring. I can see it getting monotonous, though, especially in the end game when patients aren't needed for money anymore. The potion making aspect is pleasantly challenging, I was kinda worried that it (especially since it's one of the main things you're doing) would get too easy, but so far some of the potions I've had to make really made me work for them. I've seen a lot of reviews on steam complaining about how grindy it is, in my opinion it isn't really that bad. But that's probably only because I'm used to spending days on idle games and good at spacing out.
Completion: ~70%
Stardew Valley

I got pretty far into stardew valley on a steam account I had before my current one, Kinda sad I lost all that progress. I've only ever gotten to the end game once, it's just the right amount of length for me to get bored with it before completing it.
It can be surprisingly eerie at times, like the weird rock that quits you out of the map when you click it and all the secret items that have no explanation, it's kinda disappointing how little lore videos there are of it (that I know of).
I've never personally gone down the jojamart path, but I love that that's an option that you can even choose, It's nice to know you can just be a complete dick. The ability to decorate the farm and the house is also very fun. I am abysmal at decorating in games, so It's fun to just turn my house into a cluttered mess of stuff I've found.
The choices of bachelors and bachelorettes is the best I've seen in these types of games (and I'm not just saying that because Shane is in this game). Every character that i was even remotely interested in was romanceable, and their stories, as well as the other townies' stories, were also interesting to watch play out. I've not gotten very far into the island update, but it seems really interesting and I look forward to exploring it further.
Completion: Finished the Community center (multiple times) but ive never gotten perfection
Hollow Knight

First time playing one of these types of games and I fucking love it. My favorite boss by far is Nosk, the lead up is so good, I love how eerie and weirdly sad it is. Second fav is the soul master solely because of that second phase.
I really love all the world building, it's perfect at conveying that you're in an abandoned kingdom, even without all the story stuff.
I've seen a couple of people complain about the platforming and I couldn't disagree more, I've never had this much fun platforming in a game. Fighting is also really fun and I love how snappy it is. The movement overall looks and feels amazing.
This game is beautiful, I love the character designs and the way the backgrounds and maps are designed. I especially love greenpath, the whole vibe of that place is so serene, I also really like deepnest for the opposite reasons. Fuck the fungal wastes, though.
If you couldn't already tell, my all-time favorite thing to do in this game is explore. Finding new areas and characters is more than half of the fun for me, a consequence of this is that I routinely forget about boss battles that I skip over. I accidentally killed Zote on my first playthrough 'cause I forgot about him :/