To be completely candid, last year was Not Great for me. I was unemployed for most of the year, am about to be unemployed again once my contract wraps up in the coming weeks, and am barely functioning as a human being. Fun!
That said, those circumstances gave me more time than usual to play games... and I took that opportunity to mostly play a bunch of JRPGs. I beat multiple! That's not normal for me! Also other kinds of games. Like Vampire Survivors. I played a lot of that. Was it my ULTIMATE GAME OF THE YEAR??? Find out below, probably!
Games I played that came out in 2022 (True GOTYs)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (GOTY):
Wasn't expecting this to be my GOTY, let alone one of my favorite JRPGs... but this game is that good. It takes the things I liked about Xenoblade 1 (played earlier last year for the first time, also the only other Xeno game I've played) and fleshed them out and polished away a lot that didn't quite work. I played the shit out of this. Like, an honestly embarrassing amount. But it's because they did such a good job on the side quests!! It really feels like an interconnected, living world in a way I think a lot of games struggle with! And the main and supporting casts are sooooooo good! Very low levels of JRPG/Anime cringe content across the board. Even the Nopons aren't annoying.
I think a lot of people may have ignored this game because of the 3 on the end and the kind of negative impression people (including me!) have of XBC 2. And I think a lot of those same people will discover this game in the coming years and wish they had played it sooner. It is connected to the previous games, but not in a way that really requires you to play them first, so if that's scaring you away, please consider giving it a shot.
Vampire Survivors (Also GOTY):
This is where I get to brag about finding this game in my Steam discovery queue in January when it was sub-100 reviews or something like that. Didn't expect it to more or less establish a new genre, though! And I've played a lot of the games following in its wake, but I still don't think anyone has really come close to topping Vampire Survivors.
Elden Ring:
Is this a better game than Xenoblade or Vampire Survivors? Probably. But it wasn't my favorite, even if I think it's probably a masterpiece. Definitely my favorite world design in a game since Breath of the Wild, though.
Dwarf Fortress:
After a solid 15 years or so of trying to learn Dwarf Fortress every couple of years, and a year or two of playing Rimworld, I can finally say with confidence that I am baseline level competent at Dwarf Fortress. It was never the graphics.1 It was the goddamned interface! I mean, I still barely understand what's happening at any given moment in my fortress, and I haven't really figured out militias, but now I'm at the point where I can handle reading a wiki page to figure it out.
Can't wait for adventure mode to make the jump to the new version, though I understand why they (rightly) would focus on shipping fortress mode first.
Last Call BBS:
Nothing but respect for one of the best solitaire2 puzzle game designers in the biz calling it quits to take up a teaching gig, and leaving us with a collection of "mini" games this good. o7
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak
They added a move to the Insect Glaive in this expansion that allows you to change direction mid-air on a dime, and launches you further into the air for combos if you make contact with the monster. 10/10
Tactics Ogre Reborn
I had tried a few times over the years to get into the PSP release of this game, but I was never quite able to wrap my head around it. The massive reworking of systems in this re-release changed that, and wow this game is excellent. The filtered upscaled art is disappointing, but even that grew on me after a while. The way the Warren Report updates with obituaries of all the named characters you kill is so fucking good. I set it down partway into Chapter 2 because of getting distracted by other games, but I definitely plan on getting back to it soon.
Patrick's Parabox
Best mindfucky puzzle game since Baba is You? Perfect puzzle difficulty curve, too.
Orb of Creation
This the best incremental game I have ever played. It is not an idle game.
Neon White
Probably should get back to this, but I'm afraid my skills have atrophied to the point of no return. Still, it brought me back to playing CS_surf maps in high school and that was pretty cool.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Didn't play the other big Pokemon release last year, but this was enough to keep me satisfied for a long time. Here's hoping they can find a happy medium between the two branches for the next release.
Mario and Rabbids 2
This is a late addition to the list, as I got it for Christmas. But yeah, don't sleep on this if you like turn-based strategy games. And maybe even if you don't, as it doesn't quite play like many others. Also, I have to admit... the Rabbids are funny. Sorry!!
Games I played for the first time in 2022
OpenTTD:
I'd never bothered to try OpenTTD until last year, but wow I can't believe this game is free. With mods, the logistics easily rival Factorio and Dyson Sphere Program in complexity. And it will run on pretty much anything!!!
Bitburner
This is easily the coolest "idle" game I've played. It's a hacking sim where the hacking is done by writing a variant of JavaScript. On top of that, it's also got a DopeWars/StickRPG kind of "overworld" where you can get a job and work out etc to increase your stats.
I just love that it's an idle game where you are pretty much entirely in control of the inflation rate. Also, it's completely free and open source!
SHENZHEN I/O
Bitburner gave me an itch to play a Zachtronics game, and I ended up picking this up after years of avoiding it as one of the most "hardcore" of their games. I wish I had picked it up sooner! The interplay between the two puzzle "systems" makes my brain itch in a good way. Also, the solitaire game is so freaking good.
Final Fantasy X
So... I've never considered myself a Final Fantasy guy because, tbh, I just really didn't like Active Time Battle as a system (with some exceptions, even on this list 😬). I completely forgot that this one is turn-based, so I picked up the remaster and I ended up loving it! I had been scared off in the past by the infamous reputation of the voice acting, but honestly??? It's not that bad! I was genuinely impressed with how well done it was, especially for something that hadn't really been attempted at that scale before. Also, I would die for Yuna.
Final Fantasy XII
Fun fact: the original release of this game was my first mainline Final Fantasy game, with my prior exposure being Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and uh Kingdom Hearts. Unfortunately, I don't think my brain was developed enough to really appreciate the gambit system, so I never got very far.
After falling into both JRPGs and programming games last year (and FFTactics), it seemed like a good idea to pick up the Switch remaster. And it was! I think that every JRPG could be improved with the addition of a gambit system.
I really wish I hadn't read about how Basch was originally going to be the MC, though. Vaan kinda sucks. Though obviously Balthier is the best.
Atelier Ryza 1
Really glad I took a chance on this one, the crafting system absolutely consumed me, and I even came to appreciate the ATB-style battling. I want to try one of the Atelier Sophie games next, I think, for the turn-based combat.
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
Picked this up on a whim earlier in the year and was surprised how much I loved it. Even though I said it's not necessary to play before XBC 3 a ways up, I am glad that I did. Going back would probably be a little too clunky for me, now that I know how refined the gameplay in 3 becomes compared to the first game, and there are definitely some "oh shit, what's going on here" moments in XBC 3 if you've played 1 (and I assume 2, as well).
Games I haven't gotten to/haven't played enough of but I'm pretty sure I'll like:
Pentiment
TUNIC
That Kirby game with the big mouth mode
Atari 50
Betrayal at Club Low
-
tbh I've always preferred something like GemSet, which I've used in past attempts, as a nice happy medium between the readability of more literal graphical tiles and the vibes of ASCII. I really hope it gets ported to this new version.
-
using this footnote to acknowledge that I'm one of those sickos/casuals who has probably spent more time playing the Solitaire variants in Zachtronics games. Regrettably, I cannot recommend the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection iOS port if you're playing on the phone. And maybe not if you're playing on iPad, either. It feels like a copy and paste port from PC to phones, with microscopic text and abysmal screen usage... especially since it's landscape mode ONLY. That's better on iPad, but I still run into the issue on both platforms of the game getting cleared from memory half the time if I open a notification, losing all progress in a deck, which is something I don't have to worry about in literally any other Solitaire app I've ever played on my phone, which is a lot. Very disappointing, because it would otherwise be one of my most-played phone games!