Not ready to slow down, 2017 keeps on truckin’. Game releases are finally slowing down a bit now that we’re halfway through May, but that barely gives a breather from everything else we’re all still catching up with from earlier this year. Persona 5 seems like one I’ll be trying to finish for a good long while, and Battlegrounds is one I’ll continue to play and watch every good stream of. With The Surge and Rime right around the corner, let’s take care of last month’s unfinished business.

1. Persona 5

I’m about 30 hours into this one, and just finished the second major “Chapter” for lack of a better term. I have a feeling that if I ever finish this, it’s not gonna be anytime soon. Though I don’t think the writing is nearly as good as Persona 4’s, I’m still having a lot of fun with it. Despite some early story issues, a few of them have already ironed themselves out. Fair warning, this isn’t a game that you’re going to be able to recommend without several caveats, maybe even moreso than Persona 4 this time. The writing often feels awkward and mistranslated, the only woman character in the group so far is treated like a sex-object more often than not, and the main conceit of the story (focusing more on the villains than the protagonists) means that we get to know the characters less than we would have in Persona 4. Even though we’re stuck with more issues than I was hoping for, I’m still enjoying my time with it and am excited to meet new characters as the story goes on. I hear that some of my issues are touched on the further I get, so I’m hoping that happens sooner rather than later. The dungeons are fantastic though, and are a necessary improvement that should have been made before the fifth game in this series. As it stands 30 hours in, Persona 5 plays better than any Persona game to come before, and I’m hoping the story and characters can catch up.

2. Little Nightmares

Little Nightmares isn’t made by Playdead, but if I hadn’t known that ahead of time I’d have probably assumed it was. Sitting easily along Limbo and Inside, Tarsier Studios nailed the style they so obviously were aiming for. You play a small child in a raincoat making her way through a series of terrible, malicious environments. It’s dark, tense, and I kind of already want to play through it again. Clocking in at roughly three hours, you have no excuse to skip this one if you’re interested in this kind of platformer.

3. What Remains of Edith Finch

Following in the footsteps of Gone Home, the creators of The Unfinished Swan have crafted a short story about a girl returning to her childhood home. Where the similarities end, though, are when you explore the rooms of the family you used to know and the ones you’d only heard stories of. Once you find their quarters, you’re whisked away to take control of them in their final moments before they passed away see those moments through their eyes. What Remains of Edith Finch is essentially an anthology told inside the trappings of the now well-worn “Walking Simulator” genre that I tend to enjoy so much. If those kinds of things scare you away this one probably isn’t for you, but for everyone else, this is a very solid entry in that genre. It didn’t resonate with me as much as Gone Home or The Beginner’s Guide, but by the end I felt like I had finished reading a nice short story. Sometimes just being pleasant and good is good enough.

Honorable Mentions

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – The best version of the best Marion Kart game, and another reason the Switch is potentially the coolest video game system of all time.

Banana Boy – A weird arcade thing that you’ll play for about ten minutes and probably remember forever.

Yooka-Laylee – A game that had a lot of potential and lives up to about 40% of it. If you’re desperate for the return of Banjo… I mean, I guess this is an option.