Well, I had coffee after 8pm which was a mistake, so I guess its time to write about games I played in 2023. I feel like my dedication is far shorter than most folks, given how few games I finish, so don't expect any detailed reviewing here, I mostly want to get these thoughts out of my mind. I'll also be using GOTY for this even though its not really one of those because every game can be a little GOTY.
I will try to follow my Steam and PSN order, though there's also some mobile games, and others I didn't buy on the list, so I might end up forgetting something. Anyway!
PC
One of my 2022 holiday purchases, and one of the first ones I played. I went into this game hearing about how people compare it to Undertale, but what surprised me was that it followed the opposite logic regarding killing. If you're curious what that means, well, have a go and find out! Its a blast of a rhythm game, and has one of my favorite secret boss fights.
(spoiler for the fight) https://youtu.be/ngGede_9hAE
Another of my holiday purchases and, honestly, kind of a letdown. The art style is amazing, as is the ambience, but the game just lacks the depth most roguelikes have. Few types of enemies, not enough weapons, the items and abilities are somewhat lackluster, and its also fairly short, with underwhelming boss fights. Very pretty, still.
Another holiday purchase, and an excellent pick. Since the pandemic I've delved into a personal genre that I call "podcast games", any type of game that has minimal story or dialogue, is repetitive, visually stimulating and deeply engrossing. Nova Drift is an Asteroids-inspired roguelike that fulfills all of that, delivering constant fights and increasingly bigger explosions, while allowing you to catch up with your favorite actual plays, or whatever you listen to.
Hmm. Maybe I played too many of these, maybe it was the changing the weapon system to a party member swam system, maybe it was the 3D world, but this didn't grab me as hard as Felghana or Napishtim. All the classic Ys elements are there, Adol arriving in a different continent, explosive soundtrack, killing giant beasts, eviscerating the local fauna, but I just couldn't get into it. I can't really say its not something you shouldn't play, just that I bounced off for reasons unknown.
Maybe one more idle game will fix me. Maybe if I buy The Gnorp Apologue right now I won't need my meds anymore. Just one more number man, that's all I need. Make it a little bigger. Oh yea, that hits the spot.
Oh fuck yea, I love murders. Love solving them. Love looking at a list of suspects, deducing their motives and pinning the crime. This is an interesting one, somewhat related to Obra Dinn but with a much smaller, focused scope. It gets just complex and big enough to not be frustrating, while delivering a solid story and satisfying mysteries.
Age of Empires broke something in my mind as a child. It didn't have just a single resource like Command & Conquer but four. You didn't have a single type of units, but rather progressed through eras. You visibly changed, upgrading each step. It was life changing, and also a disappointment, as I could not run it on my Pentiun 133Mhz and never actually owned it, instead playing it a few hours at a time at an uncle's house. So this is a little bit of wish fulfillment, and a craving finally satisfied.
King of the Dragon Pass is a game I love playing and never finish. There's something about its VN style and absurd warrior world that draws me in but at the same time gets a bit too complex when it comes to communicating with gods and finishing quests. Still, I enjoy it enough to crave another entry, and Six Ages is going to be the one I'll boot up, start a new clan, then abandon a few weeks later for the next years.
This is more of a reminder that I still have more of it to play. For some reason whenever I try a short game, I feel like I have to stall it out and play little by little or else it'll be a waste of money, but that also leads me to forgetting about then. Amid Evil isn't as chaotic and high speed as ULTRAKILL but is still leagues ahead most FPS released in the past decade.
I can't believe I finish Lost Ruins but not this. I'm a disgrace to every brazilian. I'll boot you up again, I swear, please don't cancel the next Momodora.
I love tabletop games and hate that I need other people to play them, so this is another addition to my "spend good times with the CPU" collection. Raise birds, make them lay eggs, and destroy your competition by building the most diverse, healthiest habitat.
I've never been a huge fun of beat'em ups, but the art style is gorgeous, the gameplay is varied enough to keep you going, and it feels good to be a cute, dumb, strong girl once in a while.
I should be allowed to sue my Lancer GM for getting me back into this. Right now I'm on a little break, waiting for the cross save progression, but goddamn, Warframe is fucking amazing. Its dense, its has badly explained mechanics, its lore is baffling, but after 2 years of Genshin, coming back to a 'classic' F2P model felt like a warm shower.
I don't know man. It hooked me up for a few days, I got no excuse. It was free, I guess.
PS4
This was a good trip down the memory lane. I finished the first one, and it was still as barren and lackluster as ever, but fuck man, I still love Mass Effect 2. Left it halfway done because games are fucking big, but I'll pick it up again eventually, and also finally play 3.
A common complaint about Nioh is that it has too many gameplay mechanics and systems. Nioh 2 dares to ask: What if we added one more? And the mad genius fixed everything. The counter is an insane game changing addition, and the feeling of destroying your enemies is 10x better in this. After finishing Stranger of Paradise I'm really craving one more dose, and hopefully I'll finish it this time.
God, this was bad. Just watch Goodfellas or Casino, or any actual mafia movie instead of sitting through the most boring third-person shooter action and driving you can imagine. The only good Mafia game is 3 and you'll pry that FACT from my dead body.
This could've been good. This could've been the EVO of the modern era. Instead its a forgettable game with terrible, finger-breaking controls, that unfortunately has a fairly fun narrative.
Back when Assassin's Creed was at its peak, around the Ezio trilogy, there was one question every Gamer™ would ask: When's Japan? When can I be samurai?
Well, here it is. Its exactly that. And after over a decade of open-world fatigue, it sadly too late, even for me, a recovering Ubisoft fan.
The key word there was recovering. You know what's the problem with Ubisoft? Correct, their string of sexual and physical abuse against their workers. Now the problem with Ubisoft's games, is that they can't settle on whether they want to be wacky zany adventures or gritty sad narratives, and end up failing at both. Also the fact that they keep trying to make their games Diverse™ and just end up more offensive. Hey, did you know the antagonists of New Dawn are two black women who keep bringing their Loud Music and graffiti art to this new post-apocalyptic paradise? Yea, sure, there's some murders there, but man are you going to hear a lot about how these people can't stand listening to rap anymore.
Also the cult leader from 5 not only was right, but he will grant you magic powers. You can double jump in that game, thanks to god. Maybe I should go to church more often.
After the insane revival of the series with Spider-Man, it was obvious the next direction they'd take this story. Miles plays like a dream and has a story that is the worst of every MCU entry. I hope 2 has done him better, even if the game wasn't TGA worthy (that should be a massive positive aspect tbh)
This is just pure crack to me. I'm not good with Minecraft or other builder games that expect me to have imagination, but give a story, some quests and objectives and I'm hooked. Does everything DQB1 did but better, which is a massive accomplishment.
Here's take I'm not even sure its hot: I don't think Cal Kestis is terrible. My issue with Star Wars at this point is the reverence the have to the OG trilogy, or to any point of its canon, to the extent that they can't afford any shred of creativity anymore. They could have the most innovative gameplay or protagonist, this would still be a story that - for some reason - takes place in the few decades of the movies, and there's no way it'll ever deviate from the canon. You don't get to kill Obi-Wan in this one, go back to Force Unleashed if you want to see the last time game developers were allowed to make something new.
An odd entry to the ever growing Souls-like genre. Changing your entire build rather than just your stats felt more complicated to me, and as a result I didn't really vibe with this one. Cool setting, and its interesting how your character is largely irrelevant and just sits there watching the real protagonists making passionate speeches and moving the plot along.
Another entry to the Souls-like genre! And a fucking amazing one. The Surge was one of the few games that, much like Nioh, actually tried something different from Dark Souls. And much like Nioh 2, this takes what was in the first entry and improves it in every way. Its wild to play Souls-like games with actually good gameplay.
First of all: Just like with Samus, allowing us to see through the Doomguy's visor was a mistake. This needs to be corrected.
Secondly: This is an odd game. Doom Eternal feels like a character action game sometimes, or a rhythm game. You're expected to cycle around your arsenal, each tool or weapon feeding the other, and in turn feeding you, all in a deadly ballet of death. I understand why some folks were disappointed this wasn't a run'n'gun but honestly, it was refreshing.
Every year I tell myself I played the perfect detective game, and every year I play another great entry. Paradise Killer addresses many issues I have with games like Ace Attorney: There isn't justs a simple murder, there isn't a few locations to look at, there's no point where the game tells you you found everything and you should progress. You have a massive world to explore in first person, several suspects and at least two cases to watch out for, and a conspiracy to unravel. Its the first time I really felt like a detective, pursuing clues, questioning people, unwrapping layer after layer of the crime to end all crimes.
Evil Genius was an okay-ish Dungeon Keeper-like, with some fatal flaws, namely dealing with hostiles and earning money. The sequel not only addresses that but adds quite a few more improvements, making it one of my favorite games of the type, as well as an incredible podcast game. I listened to the entirety of Expounded Universe while playing this.
Sometimes I have to admit there's games made just for me and no one else. Youngblood forgoes most of the things the numbered entries of this series hinge upon. BJ's morose narration is replaced by the goofy (and bloody) twins, the level based gameplay is replaced by semi-open world, revisitable locations, the straight FPS style now has levels and skills, the story is put in the background and the mindless shooting is the point. In short, it was made for no fans of the series, and I loved it.
The one thing these games have in common is they're both open world and I couldn't get too far in either. I think I finally got past the genre, and can move on to healthier habits, like gacha.
Two F2P games I played with a friend while she was on vacation, the financial failure of Omega Strikers a sad reminder that the 2000s era of online anime games is truly over.
It had been a long while since the first Rogue Legacy came out and started the 'roguelite' trend, so this was naturally a hard act to follow. 2 expands on a lot of its predecessor's inovations, like classes and skills, while still more or less following its formula. Its not as deep as other games made in the genre since, but its enjoyable enough.
This game ruined me for a few days, much like Idle games tend to. Its a massive stream of visual, auditory stimulation, constantly rewarding you with bigger numbers and better tools, while providing just enough excuse of a motivation to keep digging deeper. 10/10.
Another entry in the Mullins-verse, games where you basically play a horror internet copypasta, Inscryption has you facing one the world's biggest horrors: Being trapped in a dark cabin with a Forever GM and having to play their game.
This was probably Adell's Suprise of The Year. Sakuna is fucking amazing. This game got everything, lots of heart, farming, exhilarating combat, cats, dogs, and rice. If you love any of those things,or just want to play an amazing game, you own it to yourself to play it.
Another surprise, though not on the same level. GotG follows the same formula as Spider-man, taking random tidbits of Marvel's canon from movies, comic books and other entries, and mixing them up into a story. You're never sure what exactly is going to be like you know or not, and that already makes it much better than any MCU entry, but the fact that they translated Peter Quill's role as a fragile human with good leadership skills into gameplay mechanics is a fantastic job.
Oh this game got me good. Only started playing it in november but it quickly rose to my most played games of the year, and with good reason. Its addicting, it feels good to blast xenos, there's plenty of weapon variety, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. I've wrote a big post about it that I'm too lazy to link and too hyper to think.
The first good action Final Fantasy game, what a fucking entry. Jack Gaylad is a fucking treasure, the gameplay is amazing, and even the story of this game is great. The fact people slept on this is just further proof gaming needs to die.
The "I'm Sorry I Failed You" Awards for games I need to give another chance
Tchia, Ghostrunner, Scarlet Nexus, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Dodgeball Academia, Nier Replicant, Death's Dorr and Judgement
