Kashiramoji D - Another Story is one of those weird little GBA RPGs that never made it outside Japan, but it's got this odd charm to it. You start off in this gloomy fantasy world where everyone's obsessed with collecting these cursed masks—pick one at the beginning, and it actually changes how your character fights. I went with the fox mask first time, which gave me some sneaky evasion moves, but the samurai one turns you into a straight-up damage dealer.

The battles are classic turn-based stuff, but with this weird twist where your mask abilities unlock as you take damage. First half-hour in, I was just mashing attack like an idiot until some skeleton knight wrecked me, and suddenly my character started dodging everything. Felt like the game was laughing at me for playing it wrong.

Graphics are typical early 2000s GBA—lots of brown and purple, sprites that look like they were drawn in a hurry—but the music’s got this creepy music box vibe that sticks with you. If you’re into obscure JRPGs with janky mechanics, this one’s a fun rabbit hole to fall into.