About

KAT

A Kat's Kronicles · Since 2022

I write about games the way I wish more people wrote about games — from inside the experience, not above it.

This site started as a place to put thoughts that were too long for social media and too personal for anywhere else. It's still that, mostly. I care about narrative-driven games, systems that say something, and the specific feeling of finishing something and not knowing quite what to do with yourself afterward.

I'm not a professional critic. I don't get review copies most of the time, and I'm not trying to be first. I'm trying to write pieces that are worth reading six months after a game comes out, because most of what I have to say doesn't arrive until I've had time to sit with it.

My GOTY picks lean hard into JRPGs and narrative RPGs — Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Persona 5 Royal, Metaphor: ReFantazio. That tells you most of what you need to know about my taste. I have a high tolerance for slow starts and a low tolerance for bad final acts.

24 Reviews Published 2022 – present

4 GOTY Picks one per year, no ties

~800 Hours Logged tracked, not counting replays

5 Currently Playing always too many

The Site

What You'll Find Here

Everything on this site is written from direct experience. I don't cover games I haven't finished. I don't write about a game's release week unless I have something to say that couldn't have been said later.

The formats I use are chosen because they let the writing go somewhere, rather than ticking boxes. A review doesn't need a score. A boss feature doesn't need to be a guide. An essay doesn't need to cover every angle.

Reviews

Long-form, first-person, written after completion. Follows your experience rather than a checklist. No scores.

Boss Features

A close reading of one fight — mechanics, mood, and what the encounter says about the game around it.

I'm Excited

Short pieces on upcoming games. Not previews — just honest anticipation, before I know if it earns it.

Essays

Longer thinking on a topic, a pattern, or a question a game opened up that one review couldn't close.

The Writing

How I Think About This

I try to write about the experience of playing a game rather than the game as an object to evaluate. That means I'm less interested in whether something is "good" in the abstract and more interested in what it actually felt like to be inside it.

I don't separate mechanics from narrative in my writing because I don't think they're separate in the experience. When a boss fight lands emotionally, that's a design achievement. When the pacing breaks something that was working, that's a writing failure. The line between them is usually imaginary.

I have opinions. I'll give them. But I'd rather persuade you with a specific example than a declaration, and I'd rather the piece be worth reading even if you disagree with where it lands.

Reach Out

Get in Touch

I'm not hard to find. If a piece resonated, or if you think I got something badly wrong, I want to hear it. The best conversations I've had about games started with someone disagreeing with me politely.

I'm not currently taking sponsored posts, affiliate arrangements, or early access in exchange for coverage. If that changes, I'll say so clearly at the top of anything it touches.

Contact

The best way to reach me is on Twitter / X. I check it more than I should. For longer things, there's an email in the RSS feed.