Platformers

Celeste

A classic.

GRIS

Beautiful art and design.

Rain World

todo

Puzzle Games

Baba Is You

Extremely tricky puzzles where you can change the rules of the game.

Rhythm Games

Geometry Dash

There’s a fantastic array of user created levels, some of which you struggle to believe were made in the same game editor as the official levels. If you’re into masochism there is also a ladder of increasingly difficult “demon” levels you can attempt to beat.

osu!

click the circles!

RPGs

Paper Lily

A lovely little puzzle/horror RPG. First chapter is a very tantalizing look into a fascinating world. Eagerly awaiting the second chapter.

Visual Novels

DDLC

A classic for a reason. My first playthrough of this was done solely after midnight which may have not been the greatest idea.

The NOexistenceN of you And me

A very surreal game. Feels like there’s something enormous contained in it that I’ve barely wrapped my head around. Anime girl(s) explaining existentialism to you. What’s not to like?

of the Devil

todo

饿殍：明末千里行/The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty

It’s a very good VN. Content warning: it can get quite dark, and cannibalism is a big theme. Gives you a real sense of the ruin suffered so often in Chinese history as dynasties topple. There are three “fake” endings you can encounter; you have to achieve at least two in order to get the two possible true endings. Eagerly waiting for the sequel.

山河旅探/Murders on the Yangtze River

A detective game like Ace Attorney, but with a rich and compelling plot tying it all together. Set in the last days of the Qing dynasty, it’s a fascinating look into the interaction between China and the West at the time. Some of the puzzles are quite nontrivial, but there’s a built in hint system if you get stuck. The cases are excellently written.

Chrono Jotter

Highly underrated VN. From the store (English) description it’s easy to think that it’s just “murder mystery with high school anime girls”, and it is that. But within this frame it holds almost a sort of coming of age story, reflecting on tying your life to being dependent on others and the apparent futility of changing the past. The ending is quite bittersweet.