Kupo Cafe Game Awards 2025 Day 3!!
Welcome in, and enjoy our thoughts of this year in gaming~!!
First, a word from your celebrity guest star appearance - Klonoa!:
Wahoo~!!
Don’t Sleep On This One Award - Citizen Sleeper 2 by Jump Over The Age, published by Fellow Travele
Presented by Andrew
Funnily enough, this year really was a big helping of follow-ups to video games that I had rated highly before. I last played and reviewed Citizen Sleeper 1 back in 2023 and enjoyed it fully. (Feel free to read that review in our archives). I recall learning about the sequel either slightly before or right on the release date, and I had nothing major on my plate at that time, as I had just gotten back from holiday.
For anyone unfamiliar, Citizen Sleeper 2 and its prequel take place in a timeline of post-capitalist interplanetary space travel. Humans, androids, and robots and anything in between are scratching out lives on space stations, colony ships, and colonized planets in the Helion System. As in the first game, you play as a Sleeper, an artificial body with a consciousness uploaded from your original body, but wiped of any original memories. You find yourself indebted to a gangster after escaping corporate slavery. After making a brash escape, you find yourself on a stolen ship with no fuel, no money, and no real purpose but to survive.
From minute one, the in media res opening is a fantastic opening compared to the almost melancholic tone that I felt the first game really honed in on. With this start, you already have a leg-up from where you begin in the first game, you have a ship, you know some friendly faces (for now), and most importantly you don’t need Stabilizer, the drug and pseudo-timer of the previous Sleeper. After picking a class that gives some basic stats, Citizen Sleeper opens up with a pretty simple goal: keep moving so Laine (the gangster that “owns” you), can’t find you. But to move you need fuel, and fuel costs money, combined with stress on your well-being. Thus the game opens its gameplay loop.
At the start of every cycle, you are randomly assigned dice, numbered 1-6. With your class you are given specific bonuses to certain stats, thus affecting dice outcomes positively and negatively. When you perform an action, like working an odd job or talking to a bartender, you select a dice to use, the higher the number on the dice, the better chance of getting a good outcome, like more Cryo (currency) or bonus items. If you roll bad, then most likely you’ve received some negative consequences like damage to your stress bar or a reduced payout. These actions can have varying degrees of importance. Some are easy, at worst maybe you fumble a conversation with a baddie and you get some stress but you can try again, other times you may be disarming a bomb on a ship you hoped to salvage. Failing something like that might be disastrous.
As you progress, you can get people to join your crew. Unlike CS1, you can take people on bigger contracts together, multi-stage jobs that require a good crew with specialized skills as you race against the clock to extract rewards from derelict ships or find caches in abandoned stations. A good crew can make even a bad contract go well. This addition is what made the game stand out to me, no longer were you alone, for better or for worse you had to use everyone to the best of their ability. You can’t take all the actions yourself and need their expertise to get through these challenges. Later on, when you get enough crew members you can make yourself a ringer wherever your crew may be making mistakes, or there is a particular starting class’s ability that allows you to supplement their dice in exchange for taking stress, which as having the most capacity is absolutely worth it, imo. These aspects, new additions from CS1, are the best and most interesting gameplay sections. Contracts, for the most part, are split between the main objective, and a secondary objective that usually incentives like more Cryo, or other items. I enjoy that the gameplay allowed me to make that decision-making interesting with its risk-reward system.
After moving from station to station and planet to planet, collecting components, upgrading your ship, taking more crew abroad, CS2 has a great rhythm in its gameplay. I really enjoyed the story beats and the insight of characters and how they live in these environments, colorful and bright, but equally unforgiving and cruel. The one main detractor I would have in its writing is that I found Laine, the initial antagonist and main driving force for most of the game, is not present enough for me to have taken him as a threat. He shows up, gets mad, and you escape, and that’s really all that happens until the finale, where, without much ado, he is taken care of rather quickly with no real exertion. He just kinda dies and that’s it. To me, he never felt that important to begin with. Sure, him looking for you creates some of the initial momentum for you to explore the Helion system but he soon disappears from your mind as much more interesting story lines open up.
A lot of the real meat of the game comes from contracts and meeting new NPCs, I am especially fond of Juni and Bliss, and progressing all their storylines really cements my love for this game. Coupled with an amazing soundtrack, Citizen Sleeper 2 is a worthy successor to its first game, and easily made my list for this year. I think ingraining the dice mechanics even more into its gameplay is definitely something for the better and the game does not necessarily pose any ‘difficult’ challenges, just thoughtful ones. I do wish the finale was a bit stronger but I hope it leads to further expansion of this, or any future sleeper’s fate.
It seems that every year more and more games involving cards pops up, and every time I give a try it all seems like clones of other card games to the point where I'm like "I should just play the original". Something though clicked with Starvaders. Perhaps it's the art style with its bold lines and shading, almost like a comic book. Perhaps it's a combination of both grid tactics and ability cards. Perhaps it's the multiple characters with multiple play styles combined with the mysterious and open story that you'll get the answers for the more you beat runs.
Nothing Else Comes Close Award - Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception by Access Games, published by Namco Bandai
Presented by Andrew
I hope after all this time writing for this column, readers come to expect at least two things from me. One: Wow, I'm putting another airplane game on my list. Two: There is obviously going to be a 15+ year old game on this list. This year, like many years before, I was experimenting in getting some hardware to work. A close friend of mine offered me the opportunity of trying out a ROG Ally over the summer, boasting about its range of capabilities and usefulness as an emulation machine. Being in a rut at the time, I took him up on his offer. I enjoy tinkering with hardware and software, trying to troubleshoot these old games into playing on machines years into the future.
Ace Combat X, like most Ace Combat games (not counting that one), takes place in Strangereal, the not-so-distant timeline, where we find ourselves on the onset of the invasion of Aurelia from neighboring nation Leasath. The plot, like most in the series, is boilerplate evil invaders set off a false flag operation to justify war against a peaceful (read: wealthier) nation. As the invasion came as a complete surprise, most of Aurelia’s military infrastructure was destroyed with one airfield operational. You are one of the last survivors of Gryphus Squadron; it sits on you to be the spearhead of the liberation of Aurelia and turn the tide against Leasath.
Gameplay is more or less the same as traditional Ace Combat titles. It is a bit more streamlined as the PSP has less buttons to work with than a PS2 controller, but the changes are reasonable and straightforward to adapt to. The structure of the campaign offers some choice in missions, whereas AC5 missions were guided by answers given during missions, ACX plainly offers a selection of missions that can be chosen in any order, with mission outcomes changing the nature of future missions. In order to see all possible missions and their outcomes, it would require 3 separate playthroughs plus a bonus mission. Mission variety is, again, pretty standard, air-to-air, anti-ground, and anti-ship. Similarly to AC5 one of two boss enemies is a big mothership/airborne carrier launcher, and the other being a super-powered planes with microwave energy beam weapons. Par for the course for these games. Although it may sound like I may be downplaying the mission variety, I found that they were quick, and enjoyable, without any frustrating experiences.
As mentioned, the story plays into the whole Strangereal universe, countries in constant conflict, you play the lone ace against the enemy. The story is portrayed with an anime style, for a PSP game these cutscenes are well-animated and well-produced. You can sometimes tell that this probably didn’t receive the budget of one of the mainline games as some cutscenes are just documentations with the camera panning from left to right. The narrative has you liberating Aurelia from Leasath forces by covering the ground forces taking part in the fight, so as the missions progress you find that the mission select map is slowly pushing north as you reach the Aurelian capital of Griswall and later Santa Elva, the Leasathian capital. After some of the more basic missions, you’re pitted against the major warship Gleipnir, I found this to be the high point of the game, with some really great voice acting and impressive cutscenes. You later fight and destroy Fenrir, Leasath last and latest weapons, but those two fail against Gryphus. In short, the narrative of ACX is exactly what it needs to be, furthering the lore of Strangereal and providing a great platform for its missions.
There is one detail that I am incredibly fond of. Most of the narrative’s narrator is none other than Albert Genette, the journalist from AC5 appears, as he covers the Aurelian War as a war correspondent. I love those little additions that connect these games together.
Wailord-ass looking m’f-er
After all this time, these games still get me. My love for the skies and these airplanes will forever be in my heart. From Osea, to Aurelia, to Usea, my love for this series powers through. I am glad I was able to strike this off my list, and I‘m more excited to see what Ace Combat 8 has to offer. Perhaps I’ll try to squeeze in one more game next year before it comes out. As it's said, nothing else comes close to what these games are.
Now that’s character-building.
Get Up (Physically) to Get Down (Emotionally) Award - Upwards, Rain! The Post Office of Farewells by Studio Élan
Presented by Moguri
After discovering visual novels for the first time as a wee lad, then getting into the indie English Visual Novel, or EVN, scene soon afterwards I've always been appreciative of all the work that goes into making one of these games. Nowadays, there are so many new creators and new names that I'm seeing that make quality work. There are also a few that keep pushing on with this niche, and kudos to them for keeping on and creating work that I'll always be recommending.
Upwards, Rain! is a visual novel by some of the folks that won my "best visual novel" award two years ago with a project that I have been following since I got started following EVNs. What started out as a game jam (that I played a bit when they released it) then moved onto a fully fleshed out project with voice acting and extras - what a fun sight to see nowadays.
What drew me to this visual novel in particular, aside from the developers, is the design of the characters and the world surrounding them. Rain, a newly fledged mail courier, with her wings and green eyes being complemented by Mila green and brown eyes. Combined with their personalities that on the surface should clash a bit (and does) but the adventure they go through allows them to relate more to one another to the point where they make quite a fun duo.
The story structure is quite nice and in a way refreshing to read through. Starting from the base of this giant word tree and slowly going up, unveiling the secrets of why the letters fall from the sky and ultimately reaching the "final boss" whom you sway through your appeals of emotion. Also, the hints throughout (Mortem Post, huh....) and just the fun little moments between Mila and Rain just add to the suspense and the reward of seeing this story all the way through.
Upwards, Rain! Is a fantastic short read and gets very emotional at the end. One of my favorite and most memorable reads this year. Do check it out!
sounds of Rain
— Moguri @ Kupo Cafe Game Awards - now LIVE~!! (@MogKnight) July 5, 2025
(please read Upwards, Rain! The Post Office of Farewells) pic.twitter.com/clLzd0CpAT
Big Dogs Gotta Eat Award - Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved by Armonica LLC
Presented by Moguri
When games wear their influences on their sleeves yet set out to make something original within it, now that's love for the medium. You got your fun and quirky characters, you got your murders and mysteries, you got your unsuspecting suspects, you got your plot twists, you got your menus and sound effects and beeps and boops, you got your Steve Buscemi - all wrapped up in a multi-day train trip. What more can you ask for?
Detective Instinct follows you, the MC, and Emma along their trip to study trip Europe with their professor to hopes of being inspired and writing their term essay on a topic inspired by their stay. Right before their leave to London, a murder takes place outside your hotel, in a kind of... shattering manner. The day passes, and you board the train to head to London then eventually back home. But turns out, somehow the mystery of the murder has followed you... what will you and Emma discover?
I do not play these styles of ADV, or point-and-click adventure games, very often as a lot of them can be slow or the puzzles not well-done or just plain uninteresting. That's why I think some of the best ones are centered around mysteries and finding clues. And you bet in this game you'll be searching around to help Emma get a peace of mind.
Without spoiling, or at least trying, you meet a small but memorable cast of characters that all have a trope or are easily identifiable, a la Ace Attorney style of character design. The more you talk to them, the mystery starts to unravel and the story continues I think at a pretty good pace.
What really stood out to me about this game is all the love and effort put into it. From the graphics to the music to the sound design to the narrative, as said before it is a love letter to their influences. It is an extremely solid game, and I would say one of the easiest ADV point-and-click games to get into. If you have a few hours to spare to try it out, this is one to read then, if you like it, get into the heavy hitters like an Ace Attorney or Super Famicom Detective Club or even, dare I say, oldies like Snatcher.
There are many modern games of this genre, and Detective Instincts to me is placed on "one of the best ones to play". I hope they do more in the future as they certainly do have the formula down! Also, because Emma deserves to be in more mysteries! Just not really sad ones, please.
Jawdropping Cutscenes Award - Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog by Space Colony Studios, published by Astrolabe Games and Meridiem Games
Presented by Moguri
For some reason, I remember when I first started to watch anime there was a lot of space and spaceships involved. Tenchi Muyo, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, Galaxy Angel, Evangelion, Gundam. I also had an obsession with blue-haired anime girls, but that's beyond the point. Since then, space has been a bit nostalgic to me, and the idea of being trapped in a hunk of metal with a small crew is both fun and frightening, depending on who's on it.
Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog is a point and click ADV style game with graphics and UI design inspired by the PC-98 games of way back when (so much so that you can change the color schemes and sprites to really get back there, or make it more modern). After a bit of a mishap during a crucial battle, you are now assigned to a ship at the ends of the galaxy as a security officer alongside a few others. You later learn that they have also been assigned this ship due to mishaps and... compatibility issues. Even your past crewmate is here, who will not let you live a certain moment down. The good part about all this, though, is that your girlfriend is here too! Yay!
The story itself is a short but well excecuted one. No spoilers, but for me there were a few jaw-dropping moments in this whole mystery whodunnit fashion. At a certain point, you wake up and everything seems fine in the mess hall, but then as the scene goes on the music starts to get a little wierd and the characters then start to be a bit strange and not like themselves and then you realize something is horribly wrong. There are a few moments like these, a lot smaller and some way bigger. This game really captures suspense in a was inspired by Snatcher and other shocking ways you would find in a sci-fi thriller.
I absolutely love the characters - a bunch of ragtag individuals who you know why they got kicked off from their original assignments immediately. I wish we could have had some more moments with them or like some vignettes or hangouts with them. But alas, they are roped into the main conflict together with us, but at least the ending gives all of them a good send-off. Good? I guess good for them. They know that they did.
What really blew me away though is the finale ending cutscene. Once all the action is done, you just drop your controller and watch everything unfold. In the style of these retro games, it felt like watching the ending climax of an anime where people do these heroic acts and pop in at the very last minute to support each other despite being assholes to each other 5 minutes ago, and taking risks that if you think about it too much there surely would be better ways to handle thing BUT in the moment you couldn't help but to be astonished. Oh, and the ending twist? Super fitting and opens up even more in the Sol world, which is what I think these devs and this franchise was going for. It is definitely a satisfying watch, read, and experience all the way through.
Stories from Sol: The Gun Dog is another point-and-click ADV game that I recommend to anyone wanting to get into these games to see if it interests you. Super well done, not too long of a read, and scratches that sci-fi thriller itch.
Most Unhelpful But Cool I Guess Title Award (GOTY Runner-up) - S4U: CITY PUNK 2011 AND LOVE PUNCH by U0U Games, published by GCORES PUBLISHING
Presented by Moguri
There are stories out there that make me laugh, make me ponder life, make me bury my head in a pillow and kick my legs in bed because it's so adorable, make my heart hurt out of relatability and feels, and make me just cry tears of happiness or shed a tear or two of sadness. This one, this year, has managed to do all the above. What seems like a simple story about taking up a freelance job to pay for your sister's expenses as a gift while worrying about your own living expenses far to attend college from your hometown turned out to be one of the best experiences I've read to start the year.
S4U is a narrative game much cross between VA-11 Hall-A and Emily is Away, but in more retro-futurist angle. The story takes place in 2011, hence the CITY PUNK 2011 but again you have elements of "old tech" like the tube CRT monitor and cassette tapes but futuristic tech like vending machines with a virtual intelligent clerk that can talk to you, and talk of politics on regulating non-human intelligent machines. LOVE PUNCH comes from the fact that you can deal with love, have aspects of love from your past come back, and just interact with the people you meet outside your apartment - platonic and non-platonic, friends and family, all the fun stuff. Oh, that robot vending machine clerk too. They're fun.
Two things that really blew me away was the gameplay and the execution of the narrative.
Gameplay-wise, you play as Miki who needs money, so she takes on a shady job as a "mouthpiece". She along with a partner who she has never met in person basically takes over a client's chatting account and does a task for them. It can be as simple as finding out information through looking at their chat logs to something more detective-like and probing whoever is available to chat on their account to something more... direct. Like telling one's boss who's been sexually harassing your client to flip off and on her behalf both quitting and reporting him to HR. Or working with a vtuber to extort their donors into sending them more money so they can get out of the city. Which is out of the scope of what the client actually wanted Miki do to. Beyond whether your sense of justice as a player does the "right thing" or not, the way the game presents itself is so cool to me. You run your computer and access these chats, and to respond you either do the lame thing of holding down the space bar to progress the text OR do the cool thing of mashing the heck out of your irl keyboard. There are other things that happen narratively to mix things up, like being hacked to forgetting to do your college assignments, so now you have to manage them while doing your side hustle. It's a nice change of pace and a good challenge of multitasking and not blowing your cover.
Oh did I mention what you're doing is low-key illegal? Gotta make that money though. Oh, you can also buy frivolous stuff at the vending machine that will make you happy. But poorer. Oh, and you don't even need to buy it either. It's fun though~! Just don’t flirt with the androgynous vending machine clerk, please. Unless you're weird like that.
Without spoiling the narrative, I do have to say there were many moments where it left me thinking a bit. On relationships, on family, on leaving people behind, and on humanity in general. With the rise of AI tech and the bit of sci-fi futurism where virtual humans exist and can also not have a physical body but only exist as, let's say, a chatter on the internet, ideas of what humanity is certenly arises. S4U doesn't tackle them in the most perfect of ways, but it does present them in a way that I find interesting and unique. You get the narrative in its text form and gameplay, but the game also allows you to go outside your apartment and talk with people. Sometimes they are just random people. Sometimes it's people you hear about as a mouthpiece. Sometimes it's the actual people who's lives you have impacted as a mouthpiece and you just piece it together. Sometimes it’s your own friends and people that you know, reaching out and connecting with you after so long. For example, your friend and his daughter whom you are tasked with trying to convince her to not follow in her deceased mother’s footsteps of being a professional gamer. There’s a lot to it, I swear.
But when it all comes together, boy does it all come together. There's a video call you have with your mom and sister later in the game, and that's where my eyes started to get a little watery. It's important to know that I am such a big fan and supporter of Asian-American works and just understanding of asian cultures and family dynamics in general, and that call is one you hear and read a lot about, and was such a wonderful experience to have happened. In all the things Miki has to do and go through, her family and friends and support is a shining light and motivator. S4U, while again not a perfect game, does highlight that well in my opinion. With the rise and consumption of the internet, media, and faceless interactions blurring the line of human connection, this game, I think shows those ideas and balances pretty well.
I recommend it so much!! Please play it so I have someone to talk to about it. If anything, this would be my contender for GOTY, that’s how much I loved experiencing this game.