Last post we brought you Cunzy and Chris’s’s comparisons of their 2005 versus 2025 tastes. Now, we bring you the Shaolin duo of Pat and Jay. Expect about 4,000% more discussion of Souls games and then be disappointed that somehow those games didn’t come up. Don’t you feel foolish? I do mention Shenmue, though.
Pat
In 2009 I began keeping a spreadsheet that tracks all the games I finish each year. Astute readers will note that 2009 happened after 2005, and conclude that I do not have a complete and accurate record of the games I played that year. My memory – I know where I lived at that time and can remember playing certain games there – and the internet provide some clues to what I was playing in or around 2005, and comparing what I think I was playing then to what I play today reveals more similarities than differences.
Through that period the majority of my gaming took place on a PS2. God of War was one of 2005’s biggest hits and I sure did play it. At the time I was very impressed with the game, the open area and boss fight were spectacular in the way that became a calling card of the series over the inevitable sequels. I eventually either matured or just grew tired of the increasingly realistic violence in that series and stopped playing after God of War III. The 2018 reboot did interest me (so I guess I just skipped Ascension and maybe some PSP or mobile games?) as it seemed perhaps the series had also matured by then, making Kratos a father attempting to live a humble life in foreign lands. I enjoyed that game and its direct sequel Ragnarok. I currently consider myself open minded about the series and will probably play the next one.
The Ys series has a bit of a convoluted history, especially outside of Japan. I believe we are up to 3 completely separate versions of Ys IV, early releases often weren’t released in North America, and several games have been remade, often multiple times and occasionally changing genres in the process. I think Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, which came out on PC in 2003 but home consoles in 2005, was the first game to receive an official release in my native land since Ys III over a decade prior (Japan in 1989, US in 1991). It must have been met with at least reasonable success, as subsequent mainline games all received US releases. And I have played many of them since: 7, 8, 9, Oath in Felghana, and Memories of Celceta. It is a good series – straightforward action, fun sense of adventure – and always a good time, though some of the later entries have gone in directions I don’t love. I will give X a try one of these days.
Katamari Damacy was released in 2004 and its immediate sequel We Love Katamari was released in 2005. I remember going to the Gamestop near where I lived in Hoboken to buy it and being told it was sold out; bittersweet because I wanted to play it but was happy it was met with some demand. My perception is it came out too soon after the first and didn’t do enough new stuff. I loved the original – the sound, the look, the oddball characters and dialogue – but I didn’t finish the sequel until 2012. I haven’t returned to the series since, and didn’t play Noby Noby Boy, but am vaguely interested in the new one and retain a soft spot for the series, even if it did get too big or popular for its own good.
Jay and I are (or were) friends in real life and get together (got together? it’s been a while) for a weekend at a time to play games. I actually think that is how I started playing Ys VI. My best guess for what we were playing in 2005 is one of the Shining Force 3 scenarios. The first came out in English in 1998 and we played it together on Saturn. Scenarios 2 and 3 never came out in the West and we played all of 2 and much of 3 with a printed out translation courtesy of (I think) Shining Force Central. I still play a ton of RPGs from the 90s and 2000s so this is definitely still my thing, but today I think you can mod the game with the fan translations rather than printing hundreds of pages at work. Shining sucks now though so I haven’t really kept up with the series.
My favorite game from 2005 is Doublefine’s Psychonauts. It is fun, creative, and people complain too much about the difficulty spikes. My favorite game that came out in 2021 is Psychonauts 2. (My favorite game I played in 2021 is Disco Elysium. but that came out in 2019 – thank you spreadsheet! And I know about the Definitive Edition.) I haven’t loved most of the rest of Double Fine’s output, but the bigger games, this series and Brutal Legend, I have enjoyed.
The genres, developers, styles, even series of the games I play have barely budged over the decades, but what has changed is how I approach what I choose to play. Perhaps middle age has brought an awareness of my eventual mortality, but I now choose with much more intention. The last time we revived this site, we published gaming resolutions, where we committed to playing certain games over the subsequent year. That was a valuable exercise for me as it forced me to confront decisions on what I wanted to play or to have played rather than just being satisfied picking up whatever was available to me. I have continued doing that in the years since, and even when I am playing something off the list, I try to concentrate my time on games that are either classics, from a developer or in a genre I care about, interesting in some way, or a more recent game that reviewed especially well.
Jay
Here are some games I played around 2005 followed by words about them.
Resident Evil 4
What more can be said about this absolute classic other than I will not play the remake because I already played Resident Evil 4. I will admit to a willingness to play remade 8 bit games though; I’m looking forward to getting around to Dragon Quest 1, 2, and 3.
Virtua Quest
The exact story of this game is unclear but we know Yu Suzuki initially planned Shenmue as a Virtua Fighter RPG spinoff. Maybe Virtua Quest is some of the worst discarded ideas AM2 had, handed over to Tose to make this piece of shit video game. I’ve yet to play Shenmue 3 despite backing the Kickstarter with hundreds of dollars and can’t actually remember the last Sega developed game I played.
Shadow of Rome
This is still maybe one of the most violent games I have ever played, but it was a lot of fun. To me it is a great representation of a big but not huge PS2 game – basically as high budget as video games should get. Apparently we can blame Inafune for canceling the sequel.
Shadow of the Colossus
Sometimes I forget how good this and Ico were. I like to make fun of how Ueda seems to remake the same game with shakeups in mechanics, but then I end up playing one of them again and am re-floored. I still haven’t played Last Guardian but I mean to and if Ueda’s new thing comes out on something I have, I’ll say I’m going to play that too. At least Sony closed their internal development team.
We Love Katamari
The less inspired sequel by the designer who didn’t want to make a sequel to a game that was one of a kind before they made ten more. Oddly enough, I haven’t played a game in the series since this one so I may pick up the new time traveling version that comes out soon.
Trace Memory
Like Hotel Dusk, but worse and starring a child. I guess Cing had to start somewhere, and then end somewhere, unfortunately. For curious nerds, Last Window was mediocre but it’s unclear if it’s the game’s fault or Nintendo of Europe being significantly inferior to Treehouse when it comes to localization. I still enjoy Visual Novels and their ilk; I’m currently playing Roadwarden on Switch, which is a terrible port of a cool game.
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn
This is probably my favorite Fire Emblem. I have not played the old ones beyond the mediocre Shadow Dragon remake for DS, the Mystery of the Emblem fan translation on DS, and the remake of the second game on 3DS. And also some of the first Super Famicom one that didn’t have enough information about what damage your attacks would do and the resulting HP of the target. Oh and a fan translation of the Japanese only GBA game. I guess I’ve played a lot of Fire Emblem, but what I was trying to say is that Radiant Dawn is maybe my favorite. Awakening began the series’ descent into anime hell and the newest announced game does not look any less hellish.
Phoenix Wright
At this point I’m just airing grievances. The first three games in this series are great, you should play them. The next three I couldn’t finish, especially the last game. The number of times you, your assistant, Maya Fey, or Maya Fey while she’s your assistant is accused of murder really was the pits. I couldn’t stomach it any more when the final game of the hexology includes maybe three of those already cliche-by-then accusations. The first Edgeworth game was not good and the Layton crossover was stupid. Maybe I should play the two old timey games.
King’s Field: the Ancient City
You thought I played this in 2005 but I have tricked you yet again. Do not be angry at my ruse for it is for a good reason – many of the games I play now are old games. In the past years I have played King’s Field (2), Shadow Tower, and now King’s Field IV (4). This is part of my mission to attack and dethrone god (Miyazaki) but I will write all that up at a later date. When I am not old man gaming, I play indies like the other game I’m currently going through, Roadwarden, as previously complained about. This title does double duty in my explanation of taste (tastesplanation) because it is also a visual novel adjacent game, and I still like those.
The other genres I partake in frequently these days are roguelikes, card games, and roguelike card games. Slay The Spire, for example, is maybe the best game. I did play and enjoy Fatal Labyrinth and Toejam and Earl contemporaneously, two very early console roguelikes, so please do not confuse me with someone who changes or grows. On the card front, Arcana is the oldest game I can come up with followed by the generations later Baten Kaitos, preceded by the generation former Kartia. Oh and the thirty seven thousand hours of Culdcept I’ve played.
Strategy (like Civilization) and simulation games (like Theme Park), which aren’t the same thing but sort of overlap in my head, are genres I still enjoy. Crusader Kings 2 and 3 took hundreds of hours of my life and I recently played some Arcade Paradise. Then I realized the actual simulation portion of that game, which is mostly picking up trash and washing clothes (are there actually laundromats that do your laundry for you?), is kind of boring and shallow, so I played more of the arcade games, which is likely the point. But then I realized those are mildly fun but likely not as good as the stuff in UFO 50. So I stopped playing Arcade Paradise and will wait for UFO 50 to go on sale and play that while doing my laundry.
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