Back to GRIND! What We're Playing in the 2025-2026 Academic Year

Vivat Academia,
Vivant Professores,
Vivat GRIND!

The GRIND editorial team supports education in all its forms, and the start of the school year always brings big plans and a burning desire to learn new things. To help students and teachers in this situation get through the challenges of the 2025-2026 school year, we have prepared a list of games that perfectly capture the #backtoschool spirit and could offer, in addition to motivation, some unexpected life lessons.

Persona

Recommended by: Vladimir CioLAN

School is coming, I'm so glad

The classroom's full of dread,

Are they Japanese instead?

I don't think I'm the first or the last to come to the simple conclusion that the Japanese are weird. They were a bit weird, at least for Westerners, even before, but it seems like after they were defeated in the Second World War, they developed an even greater sensitivity to the seen and unseen horrors of the observable or unobservable universe. After reading Junji Ito cover to cover, I noticed another very interesting thing: when it comes to liminal spaces and horror stemming from the most mundane and boring spaces and situations, you can bet on the Japanese to deliver as much liminality as ten Lovecrafts would deliver cosmic horror, with some left over. A Japanese horror, whether it comes through cinema, sequential art – a pretentious way of saying “comic book” or “manga” – or an interactive entertainment product, aka a game, has the great quality that it doesn't have to be good or bad to leave you racking your brain trying to figure out what the hell kind of yokai you just saw. And that in itself is a horror. School, used by Westerners mostly for summer slasher flicks, is for the Japanese a continuous source of psychological horror and liminal spaces. I don't have the space (sic) needed to elaborate as much as I'd like in this direction, but I want to mention here the Persona series, a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series, in which Pokémon have been replaced by demons from all religions and mythologies on Earth, a series of several JRPGs where by day you're a student like all students, navigating social currents, and by night you wander through labyrinths, collect devils, and, symbolically, fight problems and dramas embodied as demons of Japanese teenagers.

White Day: A Labyrinth named School

Recommended by: Silviu Tănase

“White Day: A Labyrinth Named School” is the kind of game that brings school into a completely different context than you knew, a “Back to School” that has nothing to do with textbooks and teachers but with fear. You have no weapons, no special powers, you only have dark corridors, creaking floors, and the constant feeling that someone is watching you. You realise how powerfully the game keeps you on edge when the simple sound of footsteps or the creak of a door becomes more terrifying than any monster in modern horror. The puzzles aren't just there to block your progress; they're designed to make you feel like you're trapped in a labyrinth of the mind, where each solution or each drawing on the blackboard becomes part of another reality. The school isn't just the environment or the level you play in, but the true antagonist, a character more terrifying than anything else, both by the simple fact that it's a horror game and because it makes you think of your own school. As if we all didn't think how “spooky” it would be to be in school at night when we were kids. And if the atmosphere isn't oppressive enough, the game comes with multiple endings, hidden secrets, and dialogues that change the story, which makes it worth replaying. For me, “White Day” is exactly the kind of horror I would recommend to those looking for a “Back to School” experience, both literally and figuratively. It's not long, it's not complicated, but it's intense and memorable enough to make you see school differently, not as a safe place but as one of the most terrifying spaces you can get stuck in when night falls.

Henry Halfhead

Recommended by: Tudor Sprînceană

I thought that in this journey through the school vibe of certain titles, there would be room without much effort. A game that discusses education as one of the main influencing factors on human life is Henry Halfhead! Okay, I've made a playful game, which at first glance seems like something childish and ignorable, sound like a Kafka story. The truth, regarding Henry Halfhead, is somewhere in the middle, because this amusing game brings up a theme often encountered in our own existences, namely happiness in life. What makes us happy? How do we achieve this goal? Last but not least, what role does school, education, the rigours of such an institution, play in our lives? I won't give you the answer, partly because HH is an interpretable game, with multiple valid solutions. I encourage you to play it, to conduct your own introspection. School, in short conclusion, has an especially large contribution to the development of our life's journey, so choose prudently and calculatedly, not quite like in maths or art class in Henry Halfhead, but close enough.

Bully

Recommended by: Zuluf

You don't mess around with school. A kind of GTA that deals exclusively with the tumultuous life of a problem child among the colourful characters populating Bullworth Academy, Canis Canem Edit manages to juggle small and big ideas without demanding more than 15 hours from us. It's hard to compare it with today's open-world titans, but like the years spent in the secondary education system, it deserves its place in the drawer of memories as a formative stage from the mists of history, both ours and gaming's.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Recommended by: Gabriel (arhivaBD)

My recommendation comes from 2001, namely Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. A wonderful game, with a beautiful story, pretty graphics, and relaxing gameplay mechanics. Does it even make sense to talk about the pleasant music and the fact that you play in the famous wizarding school?
An excellent title for school, and don't forget a little secret: look for the hidden cards in every corner, because the reward is really worth it!

River City Girls

Recommended by: Darky

The Kunio-kun series was brought back into public attention in 2019 through a spin-off developed by WayForward, under the license owned by Arc System Works (originally by Technōs Japan). We're talking about River City Girls. This time, the protagonists are two high school girls – Kyōko and Misako, the girlfriends of the two rebellious teenagers, Kunio and Riki, the heroes of the original River City Ransom (Renegade) series. The story is simple: the boys have been kidnapped, and the girls embark on a crazy adventure to rescue them.

The gameplay retains the classic essence of the genre but adds many RPG elements: characters can obtain or buy upgrades and new moves, use items to improve their abilities, and have access to a wide range of weapons and other useful items. An interesting gameplay element is the ability to recruit enemies, who can come to your aid during battles, as well as unlocking additional characters to extend replayability.

The game's action begins in a high school and unfolds across six different areas, each with its own challenges. The animations of all the characters in the game are very fluid and greatly assist the multitude of spectacular combos. The soundtrack and audio effects are perfectly calibrated to amplify the game's energetic atmosphere, and the manga-inspired cinematic sequences excellently complement the visual experience. Added to these are memorable bosses, alternative routes, collectible items, and, very importantly, the possibility of playing in local co-op mode, sharing the fun on the same sofa with a friend.

Secret World Legends

Recommended by: Tudor-Codrin Enea

Whatever I do, I always return to my favourite MMORPG this time of year. With school starting, there's no better time to visit Innsmouth Academy in Secret World Legends. Its “sacred” corridors are haunted by ghosts, the laboratories hide disastrous experiments that have reanimated… something hard to name, and a Golem bent on destruction makes its home in the basement. For those who can't get enough of studying, the library houses the secrets of occult societies, from the Illuminati to the Masons. In short, a perfect institution for shaping future generations… as soon as we solve its minor supernatural problems.

Silent Hill (1999)

Recommended by: Ronan

The first big test in Silent Hill (1999) throws you directly into a haunted school. Empty corridors, locked doors, and then the transition to the Otherworld, where everything is rust, as after an unfinished renovation (classic Romania), and Grey Children appear from the darkness, greeting you like in nursery school. Add the legendary piano puzzle and the boss fight with the Split Head Lizard, and you have the perfect recipe for a level that has remained a classic in survival horror history. So, if you're not in the mood for school yet, if the timetable hasn't been made and the register hasn't broken, quickly visit Midwich Elementary School and see what you can do before the bell rings.

Fallout 3

Recommended by: whosyourdadyMike

Among games with school themes or insertions, I can't help but remember Fallout 3.
Even though I played it during a summer holiday, the way it introduces us to its own universe is very much like the school semesters we all went through. Starting with the character's first gurgles – when we choose the protagonist's strengths – until leaving the Vault (which signifies the end of adolescence and entry into adulthood), Fallout 3 takes us through a tutorial, to finally give us a multiple-choice final exam. I don't want to whisper spoilers, but the last question of the test was very interesting.

We hope these recommendations catch your eye this school year. Also, we have a message for gamers who have already stepped into this academic year:

“Good luck in the new year, from the Grind team, to all students and teachers with gamer blood, regardless of age or rank, regardless of the selection of titles played or tastes in the field. It won't be long until we meet again in a festive setting, all celebrating to the sound of the graduates' anthem, “Gaudeamus igitur!” ready for a summer of 2026 full of AAA releases.”