My Favorite Games (Day 3)

Date: August 3rd, 2026

Last modified: August 4, 2026 (10:59 UTC)

In line with Blaugust’s beginnings primarily beginning with gaming blogs, for the third day of Blaugust I wanted to discuss some of my favorite video games. Now note that I am not much of a gamer anymore; I am always very busy and I just do not have a whole lot of time for gaming. But, I still enjoy it from time to time!

Europa Universalis IV

Europa Universalis IV (or, more shortly, EU4) is probably my favorite game of all time. It is a grand strategy game For those that are unaware, Wikipedia defines “grand strategy” as “military strategy at the level of movement and use of a nation state or empire’s resources.” As a result, grand strategy games simulate this to the best of their ability. Or the best of their profit motives… that begins in 1444 and ends in 1821 (or whenever you decide to end a campaign). You can play as any nation in the entire world and your goals are entirely up to you, but you do have mission trees for some nations that can help guide you along.

I do have to say that admitting I play grand strategy games can be a bit… embarrassing… given the reputation that these games have. I can only put it most politely as socially inept men with political opinions that are akin to the time frame of whatever grand strategy game they are playing. But, I do think they are really fun! I first started playing the game around 2018, as I loved alternate history but couldn’t find any game that scratched this itch. Luckily for me (and unlucky for my wallet), I found it in EU4. However, I haven’t really played the game since I started university as games take quite a while to go through and that I play on my Steam Deck, whose small screen size is not adequate for the micromaxing nature of EU4.

My favorite nations to play are probably the Netherlands (the economic hegemony and start are really fun), the Ottomans (for unmitigated conquest, obviously), Punjab (fun start), Malaya (same reason as the Netherlands), and Austria (for the personal union blobbing). I want to do a Venice campaign soon since I’ve recently found myself become interested in Venetian history, plus it’d be fun to see what I can do with the nation.

One of my eventual goal is to get all achievements, but the fact that I only have 78/373 achievements should probably tell you how hard this will be. Many achievements are extraordinarily tedious or difficult, and I’m not a huge fan of hours of restarting to get the perfect start. On the other hand, it would be a fun little series for this website!

Pokemon

Pokemon Without the accent because my keyboard for some reason is not allowing me to write in accents… this will annoy me. is my oldest video game love and a series that I will treasure dearly, even with the iffy quality of the recent games. My first Pokemon game was Heart Gold, but I think the first game I was actually “conscious” for was a bit of Black & White 2, and more certainly with X&Y. For reference, I was 4 when Heart Gold released and 8 when X&Y released. I fell in love with every Pokemon and all the characters (I’d argue that Valerie and Elesa were pivotal to me realizing I was trans later in life), but I had stopped really playing from Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon until Scarlet and Violet, meaning I didn’t play Sword and Shield until much later on.

My favorite Pokemon, without a doubt, is Aromatisse. During my first play through of Y, I practically exclusively used an Aromatisse named “HealerFluff” the entire game. I actually still have her! I also have a preference for Pokemon with variants (e.g. Vivillon, Oricorio).

I hope to one day have an Shiny OT Original Game All Forms Living DexFor those that touch grass, this means catching every Pokemon in its shiny form in their original game with my trainer name (so all will say they have been caught by a trainer named Aster), having every stage of evolution (so not just Bulbasaur, but also Ivysaur and Venusaur), along with any variants they have (because male and female Venusaur have a visual difference, I would need to have both). This will certainly take me years to do, and I dread for when I get to Vivillon due to the region locks… I think for now I will just stick with an All Forms Living Dex for now.

Animal Crossing

I started playing Animal Crossing with the release of New Leaf, and it reminds by far my favorite game in the franchise. Unfortunately, I have long reset the first towns I have ever made, and they now just live on as screenshots. In tradition with my first town, I always name my Animal Crossing related stuff “Saralia”. I’m not sure why I chose that as the name, I think it was just because it sounded nice. I didn’t really enjoy New Horizons; I thought the villagers (which to me are a very pivotal part of the game) were extremely boring and I didn’t like how the holidays were handled, but since it performed so well, I expect future games to be in a similar fashion.

My favorite villagers are probably Kiki, Phoebe, Jambette, and Marshal!

Project Diva

I have always been a huge VOCALOID fan, so I got into Project Diva when I was fairly young. My first game was actually the 3DS port with Project Mirai, but nowadays I play Mega Mix+ on my Steam Deck. You would think that me playing these games for a long time would make me good at rhythm games but… not really. I think Luka Luka Night Fever, Paradichlorobenzene, Here Comes Karakasa-San, and Close and Open.

In a similar vein, I do play Project Sekai on my phone, but I’m not very good at it. I do want to spend some time with the stories though!

Stardew Valley

You can probably tell from my previous slate of games that I’d be a Stardew Valley fan. It’s such a chill game and probably one of my favorites of all time, but I still haven’t reached Perfection, nor have I really explored the 1.6 and beyond content. Some day! If you’re wondering, I typically marry Alex in my games.

OMORI

This one is also a little embarrassing to admit considering it also has a negative reputation for its fanbase, but I can easily say it has one of my favorite stories in any game ever. It’s hard to describe the game without spoiling it, so I recommend anyone reading it to play the game. I think it is excellent at depicting grief and depression.

Similarly, I’ve also enjoyed Yume Nikki, Ib, and Undertale.

What Remains of Edith Finch

What isn't there to say about this game? Perhaps my love for it arises from my love of family history, but it's such a gorgeous and saddening portrait of a family. You play as Edie, travelling through the abandoned house of your grandmother, Edith Finch, in the Pacific Northwest, learning about each member of your family that had died a tragic death.