Time to relax. Pour yourself a glass of something fun, sit in your favorite chair, put your feet up, and let us lead you to the good stuff.

As our vibes are uniformly immaculate here at Skybox, we feel a responsibility to direct you towards good things and avoid the bad via omission. Welcome back to our curation series, where our work is play for mortal stakes.

At a point in time when there are indisputably too damn many video games, we’ve been playing as many of them as possible. Here are some of the stories we brought back. Enjoy.

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When I wasn’t lending my voice to the soundtrack of different fighting games, my game of choice transports back to a story familiar to my formative years that has been retold in a manner appreciated by my adulthood. Dynasty Warriors Origins turns the traditional Musou formula on its head by increasing its emphasis on story-telling and character relationships with the player character acting as a roaming force before having to make a choice between one of the Three Kingdoms in their foundational stages. An increased focus on the narrative has resulted in much more nuanced portrayals and designs for characters once flanderized beyond recognition, offering a welcome departure from the caricatures that permeated previous installments.

The game’s combat doesn’t fall behind in service to narrative, presenting a challenge that is more reminiscent of Dynasty Warriors in its earlier days while simultaneously providing ways for the player to still live out their power fantasy as the One Man Army facing down 1,000. Bodyguards, tactics, battle arts, and an assortment of weapons that all offer pros and cons create an intuitive dance, producing a marriage of combat systems that, when mastered, assure that you never feel unfairly outmatched in any situation while the screen floods with a never-ending sea of bodies. My spare time has been taken by revisiting the story of the Three Kingdoms through this new lens, and even as I have 100%’d this title (with a platinum trophy to show for it), I find myself wanting to go back to the lands of Ancient China to simply experience more. Among men, Lu Bu. Among horses, Red Hare. Among Musou, Origins. – Lawrence Maldonado

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Somehow it’s been 20 years since Resident Evil 4 came out. I was a senior in high school, playing it on the family TV so much so that my mom had a very convincing impression of the merchant. Then again, don’t we all?

I just finished it on the Switch and damn, it still holds up beautifully. It speaks to me, as someone who grew up watching Arnold, Keanu, and Bruce Willis in cheesy but endearing action flicks. It’s a wonderfully paced action romp, with enough horror to satisfy. During my time with the game, I encountered only a handful of instances of slowdown, which isn’t nearly enough to hamper the experience. I’ll never be as cool or as dreamy as Leon, but I’ll always be glad Capcom let me pretend. – Edward Kane

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Over the past week or so, a bunch of folks in games media have booted up Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth for the first time, and I’m replaying it along with them to soak up the vibes. I’ve been screaming about this game for years, so it’s nice and validating (and maybe a little frustrating) to see it finally pop off some thanks to glowing previews for the new one and some serendipitous sales.

This game is basically a Pokémon alternative for sickos, with a cool story on top that might seem like “anime bullshit” at first, but with a kind of off-kilter energy that ends up bringing a little more juice to the cookout than expected. It’s the grinding that reels me in the most, though.

See, Digimon aren’t like Pokémon in that they just level up and evolve. Each ‘mon has a tree of possible outcomes, and branches are only available if you meet the requirements (a combination of stats and other factors). You can also send Digimon back and forth on their evolutionary chains at will, giving you more long-term gains. Your team of creatures, which progressively gain more muscles and guns that jet out from their elbows and shit, inevitably become a crew of absurd Frankenstein motherfuckers that reward the most degenerate kinds of dopamine-fueled grinding sessions. That’s the kind of system I can tinker with for hours and never get bored. – Lucas White

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Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest was actually my first RPG as a kid. I never finished it back then, but it was definitely influential when I eventually played Parasite Eve and Final Fantasy VII. People often give it grief for being “baby’s first RPG,” and it kinda is, but that was the point. These days, it’s pretty easy for RPGs to drown me in mechanics right out the gate. Mystic Quest reminded me that simplicity is sometimes exactly what you need. It’s brief, to the point, and doesn’t bog me down with terms, side quests, and lore. Mystic Quest allowed me to focus on the gameplay and enjoy myself, and it’s a reminder that in these terrible days, even the simplest video games are still fun. – Justin Grandfield

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I have been in the process of discovering just how much of a sucker I am for a voice. The right vocal delivery from a person just does things to me, regardless of gender. As such, Date Everything! has proven to be rather illuminating in that front. As a visual novel, the game is… fine. It’s very well-written, don’t get me wrong, but the very nature of going around romancing dozens of household items with the mentality of “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” means that the larger narrative falters a bit. Likewise, each individual character only has so much screen time and interaction, which means genuine long-term attachment can be difficult to make. Despite this, Date Everything! absolutely kills it on presentation, with a not-insubstantial amount of that carried by the overwhelming feast of talented voice actors giving their all to even the most ridiculous concepts. I love it. – Kris “Delfeir” Cornelisse

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Sometimes, living the freelance writing life means you don’t get to play a game you get a code for until a couple weeks after the review period. You watch all your buddies playing a game you’ve been waiting to get your hands on, but you’re at an event, or you’re working on something else, or you’re in the process of buying a house and trying to run your little indie website and spend time with your wife, who says things like “I miss spending time with you” during the couple hours a day you’re awake and not working, and so the game you really want to play sits on the bench while you do all the other stuff. All of this is to say that I’ve finally gotten to sit down and grind out some Elden Ring: Nightreign runs with my boys (shout outs to Justin and Mitchell) and I’m having a good-ass time.

Nightreign‘s interesting because it’s the opposite of a regular Souls game. While other games built around From Software’s now all-encompassing design choices emphasize preparation, perfecting a specific build, and individual skill built on learning a fight’s pattern, Nightreign is all about teamwork, communication, planning, responding in real-time to whatever the game decides to throw at you, and building your character on the fly. Dark Souls and its ilk are about multiple stabs at the same fight in rapid succession until you succeeded. In Nightreign, you get one shot with this build, this group, the series of circumstances that got you here. You can challenge the same Night Lord again, but no two runs will ever be exactly the same. That makes each defeat a special kind of painful, and each victory into a unique story you’ll tell over and over again. Each run is a one-time shot at perfection defined by key moments. And win or lose, you come to appreciate perfection where you can find it. Then you queue up again. – Will Borger