The Games I Still Remember of PAX 2025
PAX East 2025 was a different experience for me this year; since this was my second time, a lot of my experiences were in comparison to what I had seen previously. I didn’t get to meet up with as many Epilogue Gaming friends (though I still got to see fellow writer Flora, who previously wrote on her favorite game of the show), and the merchandise selection was less wondrous since I had seen most of it before. But more importantly, the game demo selection felt lackluster, both with the major presenters and the smaller developers.
A large majority of the games showcased in this year’s PAX were strange in their presentation. Elden Ring: Nightreign was a glorified video set up like a spectator arena. A large area was sectioned off for Magic: The Gathering’s Final Fantasy crossover, but it was entirely photo opportunities while the actual new content was showcased in a separate theater. Looking at the indie front, a lot of games were already in Early Access on Steam, had the same PAX demo available on Steam, or were releasing within a couple of weeks, stifling the hype that I might have otherwise had by being a part of a press/media event. The lines were also pretty miserable; this is partially my fault for not booking appointments ahead of time and assuming I’d be ok without an appointment, like I was last year, but the demos available were often very long (at least one game had a demo that lasted over an hour!) with only 1-3 monitors available, causing lines that potentially lasted hours with no seating available.
Despite the overall lesser experience compared to last year, I still managed to find a nice selection of games that are worth a look at. Since this is going up over 3 months after PAX itself, instead of focusing on what seemed good in the moment, I want to focus on a select few that are still taking up space in the back of my mind as must-tries when they eventually release in the near future.
Compensation Not Guaranteed
I didn’t actually get to play Compensation Not Guaranteed myself at PAX, but I had the pleasure of sitting alongside our resident Flora as she played through the demo. At first glance, this looks like a carbon-copy of Papers, Please – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There aren’t many games like it out there, so having another swing at the concept is a huge plus in my book.
What really elevates Compensation Not Guaranteed in my mind, however, is the potential for divergent storytelling. As we approve or decline payments, we also have to make choices in which buildings we are looking at, which may change the outcome of future governmental expansions and provide alternate routes. Maybe I’m thinking too ambitiously, but the game’s tagline is ‘Build a Livable Future Together’, so perhaps my perspective isn’t unwarranted. I also appreciate the fact that there is no time constraint, so there is plenty of opportunity to internally dispute the moral conundrums that will inevitably be presented.
GIGASWORD
What if your sword’s massive weight was an actual gameplay mechanic? And thus, Gigasword was born; a sprawling metroidvania that forces you to find other uses for your weapon other than simply swinging it around. It can be used to hold switches, of course, but it’s also used as an anti-crutch of sorts; as soon as you shed the weight off your back, your movement becomes much more swift, allowing more acrobatic maneuvers that weren’t previously possible. This back-and-forth of heftiness and litheness keeps the flow from getting stale.
The demo I played was actually quite heavy, encompassing an entire area and taking me around 40 minutes or so to complete. The combat also had some weight to it, which forces a Dark Souls-like approach to its bosses where you need to bait and punish as opposed to rushing in and wailing away. I’m certainly looking forward to what the rest of Gigasword has in store.
Away From Home
Away From Home was recommended to me to try out by our resident Flora, and it did not disappoint. It brands itself as a “Rhythm based RPG experience”, which I think is an apt description; the overworld is typical JRPG-fare, perhaps most similar to games like Earthbound or Athenian Rhapsody (one of my favorites from PAX last year!), but the combat is where Away From Home starts to shine.
One of my favorite JRPGs of all time is Mother 3; the combat in that game is incredibly unique, where you get extra hits on your attacks based on timing button presses to the beat of the music. Away From Home takes it a step further, where the entire battle is a music track! I was constantly trying to manage attacks, blocks, and special usage while having to stay in time to the beat the entire time. It’s tricky, but so very rewarding to pull off.
Love Eternal
My favorite game of PAX East 2025 was actually a small part of a larger booth that had a few other games attached to it. I was initially interested in one of their other games, Everdeep Aurora, but the one that gripped me the most was Love Eternal.
This feels like the next Super Meat Boy or Celeste, with crisp movement and instant respawns. Instead of a dash like Celeste, you instead reverse gravity similar to VVVVVV, which presents itself into a variety of challenging platforming gauntlets – just the sort of thing I find myself salivating at the thought of. Put this in a psychological horror wrapper that reminds me of how Celeste presented its narrative, and it feels like we have something special on our hands here.
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