PokeCommunity Game-Along 第七届

We're back again. Welcome to the seventh iteration of the PokeCommunity Game-Along!

This is a fun little challenge that runs throughout the year. On the first day of each new month, I will be posting some sort of theme in this thread. These themes will come in a lot of different flavours. Some will be highly specific while others will be broader or even delightfully vague. You can expect genre specific themes - play a platformer or a horror game for example. Other themes will be a bit more esoteric - like playing a genre you typically avoid or something with a fishing mini-game. As a participant in the challenge, your task is to complete a game that fits the theme for that month (meaning completing the main story mode/primary game mode and seeing the end credits).

For the aforementioned theme of horror games, you could play anything from FNAF to Silent Hill. If the theme was games with multiple endings, you might try Dispatch - or a lot of Silent Hill games might apply there too. It doesn't matter how long the game is, nor does it matter if it is a new game or something you have played before. You can even use a game you have already started before the theme was posted. The only rules are that the game must fit the theme and that it must have a clear end point that you aim to reach by the conclusion of the month.

If this sounds like fun to you (trust me, it is), entering is also simple. You just have to post in this thread to let us know what game you're going to try and finish that month and then post again to let us know when you finish it. There's no obligation to do every month either. The goal is just to have fun and play an interesting mix of games. Feel free to pick and choose the months you participate in. If you manage to complete every month though, you do get the bragging rights.

We also love to see how everyone is progressing along and how their experiences with their themed games goes. To that end, I'll be posting a list of everyone's completed or failed attempts and another for each of the themes. I also highly encourage posting a game journal thread to give more detailed thoughts on the games you play for the Game-Along, but you're also welcome to share your general thoughts here in this thread.

In-progress games will be marked grey. Completed games will be blue. Failed attempts are red.

Spoiler:

January - Free Choice
February: - Decisions, Decisions
March: - Play-by-Number
April: - The Gold Standard
May: - An Ace in the Hole
June: - Be Gay, Do Crimes
July: - Dance Dance Complication
August: - Gotta Go Fast
September: - Press A to Jump
October: - The Fear of Judgement

Last edited: Oct 8, 2026

As tradition dictates, we're kicking off the year with a free choice month. The theme is that there isn't really a theme. This is just a nice and easy round to ease into things before the madness of some of these monthly themes really kicks in. It's also a handy excuse to play those games that you got given as gifts or collected en masse during the Steam Sale.

Have fun!

Janp

6,357
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I'm so ready for this year. But... I'm currently having problems with my GPU, so I'm going to pick non-PC games until I fix it. That means... Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on PS1.

A shame the thread names haven't continued the star wars naming theme! But I'm excited for another year of this. I'll be starting off with Keeper for this one!

Picks "Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles" for this month. Never played the original.

I saw the 2025 one right at the end of last month so I decided to wait to join this till the start of this month!

I'll be playing The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily on steam! I have made a tiny bit of progress into the game but only to the first area after the tutorial so I'm hoping to finish the game this month!

A shame the thread names haven't continued the star wars naming theme! But I'm excited for another year of this. I'll be starting off with Keeper for this one!

That's because next year might have been confusing since it'd have to be "The Last Gaming." I figured I'd quit while I'm ahead.

I'm doing Z-A for this month.

Janp

6,357
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13
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That's because next year might have been confusing since it'd have to be "The Last Gaming." I figured I'd quit while I'm ahead.

Missed opportunity to call it "The Gaming Jedi".

Firstly - thanks GP for hosting last year's it was super fun and I'm glad I've finally (somewhat) managed to complete a full term!

Going to try and stop doing last minute shenanigans (especially as all the things that were getting in the way have now kinda cleared up), so I'm going to try and use this to bust my backlog a little more this time around.

Starting strong with Tales of Symphonia for this month's theme! I have had an outstanding run on this for SO long so I'm going to use this as a means of making my lazy ass actually finish it (i.e. start the run again of course but actually follow through and complete it.)

I have finished Keeper!

It was a fun little experience. It was very short and I can imagine I'd play it again at some point probably in black & white mode or something like that. I'm away next week for a while so glad I was able to get it done quick!
Onto the next month!

ok ok I'll play Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter to ensure I actually finish it in a timely fashion

bobandbill

Let the music play

17,775
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Would the Legends Z-A DLC count...? As I beat the main game but not that.

Will see how I go this year, did enjoy trying it out last year and managing each month (with a few close calls!). These are fun!

Would the Legends Z-A DLC count...? As I beat the main game but not that.
Will see how I go this year, did enjoy trying it out last year and managing each month (with a few close calls!). These are fun!

I think it's probably okay to count it. It's its own story and it's like 10 hours (or even longer if you're a completionist) to play it.

bobandbill

Let the music play

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I think it's probably okay to count it. It's its own story and it's like 10 hours (or even longer if you're a completionist) to play it.

Cool, I'll go for that and to help pad it out aim for (regular) Dex completion and getting the Shiny Charm as well.

For this month, I played Icarus: Alien Vanguard, a megawad for Doom II: Hell on Earth. It's from the same developers who made TNT: Evilution, which was my favorite part of Final Doom.

(A Megawad is a custom map pack for Doom comparable in size to one of the original Doom games. This particular one didn't make any core gameplay changes aside from swapping all the maps, so you can count it as part of Doom II if you want.)

Beat Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. Wrote a game journal entry about it.

Short version: Not a fan. Kept getting blindsided by mechanics in the first half. Failed to read the fine print sometimes. Gave incomplete information other times. Really questions some things like buffs and Raise missing. Veered all over the place on difficulty. Probably expected you to grind a lot.

Sounds like an improvement over the original, though, which is certainly something. (Included the original game in there too. Approves of that. Cannot say if any of the changes made it into that. Presumably not.)

Setsuna

♡ LIGHT IT UP LET'S GO LIGHT IT UP LET'S GO

[PokeCommunity.com] The PokeCommunity Game-Along VII

I've been eyeing this thread for a little while, I wanna go for another year! I'm a bit disappointed I didn't finish a game every month so I'm gonna try again for it this year! My same self-imposed rules apply, I'm gonna try and pick something I've never finished for each month and try and clear off the backlog!

Just haven't responded here right away cause I was too busy looking for something to play, since I didn't pick up anything over the holidays. But I've recently picked up Borderlands 3 again, typing this as I'm playing it, and we're nearing the end so I have confidence I'll either be finishing it tonight or next session, so it'll fit right in this month.

Setsuna

♡ LIGHT IT UP LET'S GO LIGHT IT UP LET'S GO

But I've recently picked up Borderlands 3 again, typing this as I'm playing it, and we're nearing the end so I have confidence I'll either be finishing it tonight or next session, so it'll fit right in this month.

We did in fact finish it last night! It, ummm, sure is a video game that I played during the month of January 2026...

I didn't get very far with this last year, but new year, new me, so I'll try again. I'll choose Sonic Adventure as my January game since I only have Big and Gamma's stories left.

bobandbill

Let the music play

17,775
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18
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I beat the Z-A DLC and also completed the refular dex and got the Shiny Charm. January is done!

While I enjoyed the base game (prefer Arceus though) the DLC was... very grindy and repetitive and not worth the cost tbh. Tempted to pen an article on it (if I find the time).