Hey everyone, Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for the small yet friendly community on this site, among other things. I thought I'd give writing a blog a try, so why not talk about my 2023 favorites? Normally I do yearly stacks, but I think I'm going to try something new this time. This is written in ranking-style order (#1 at the end) but I may consider writing a chronological-based one next time (Q1 in retrospect, Q2 etc). Let me know if you like the new format!

Compared to 2022, I've played drastically more games in 2023. A lot of this is due to quitting an MMO I played a lot and picking up a Steam Deck early on in the year, for better and for worse. While my backlog/game counts grew, I think I've calmed down and am ready to work on conquering it again especially next year.

My Hits of 2023

My first Final Fantasy, one of the first games I've ever played, and my favorite FF to this day. I played pretty much every version of this except the mobile port (which stopped going on sale RIGHT when I decided to take the plunge, my luck). My friend gifted me this for Christmas (this is my first FFPR). I played this early on in the year as well, and it was a nice throwback. The game is still an 11/10, but the remaster is... okay?
Square doesn't know how to listen to their audience sometimes. No one asked to have content removed from the game. People complained about the font 5 times and STILL haven't patched it. Character movement in cutscenes is kinda weird. Music is alright, mostly good but the 1994 OST was amazing and there should've been a toggle for those who want it. Seriously, if Square just cleaned up the mobile/OG versions and made them more like 1/2/4 on the PSP (especially 4) with the ability to toggle your experience (sprites, music, whether to use the new or old MP system etc) they would've hit a grand slam with this series.
That said, since I haven't touched this since early year, allegedly they patched a few of these issues up so I may revisit it when I go back for achievements. Otherwise just get the GBA or somehow find the mobile port, do a little bit of easy tweaking, and bam. Also apparently the console ports have stuff the PC ports don't have for whatever reason, even though PC has been out longer? SMH Square.

Let's continue the trend of "remakes" by including Link's Awakening. The original is extremely underrated in my opinion. I've played through it several times and even did a min% run years ago. Link's Awakening is an odd choice to remaster in my opinion given the grid layout of the old game, but they made it work. I like that certain items are mapped to buttons by default (though I'd rather the feather and power bracelet be swapped). They added a lot of extra content via shells and 24 more heart pieces and some figurines you can collect and place. That said, this is not worth $60. It'd probably suit a $30 3DS title more. I also found the dungeon maker repetitive and boring, and you need to do it a LOT to get 100%. Still a good game, but Nintendo's asking too much for it. I'd totally consider buying an Oracle remake though

Spoiler alert: I wasn't expecting much from this because I disliked Touhou Luna Nights. That said, I played through this and I had a much better time! Different weapons, slightly less linearity, some minigames and activities sprinkled throughout, MUCH better difficulty management, very respectful to the source material, and I really liked the mechanics of the two elements with this game. I still think its asking price is a bit steep, but if you're looking for a modern parallel to Symphony of the Night, I can give this a decent recommendation.

If I had to pick a favorite game genre, I'd tell you I couldn't and pick 3 instead, lol. Metroidvania would be one of those, and Vigil: The Longest Night does a good job at carrying the spirit of an MV. Unfortunately delisted now due to some legal controversy overseas, Vigil has a spooky setting and is pleasantly open-world from pretty much after the prologue onward. A couple missables in sidequests, but you can NG+ and the game isn't too long. Fast travel is generous. The weapon selection is kind of lacklustre but the weapons have unique properties that suit different styles of play. It's souls-like, but save for a couple frustrating bosses and a couple long sequences between checkpoints near end-game, it's fairly challenging and I'd recommend grabbing this if you can find it.

Early on in the year I was in a Terraria-like mood without wanting to play Terraria. I remember grabbing this thinking it was going to be a more RPG take on it, and well it is. Realms of Magic is basically if Terraria and TES had a baby, and I had a great time with it overall. Some sidequests were cryptic and some skills were tedious to work on, but I liked what it had to offer. You can build on nearly any square of land (just remember to mark it) and the music was really TES-esque. I paid $10 for it and definitely got my money's worth out of it.

So last year I was way more into Synth Riders than BS, but this year I thought I'd give BS another more serious try. The only reason it's on this list is because of the modding community, their songs are fantastic! It's crazy how above and beyond the community is willing to go to make really fun flowing songs that get you moving, and unlike Synth Riders not every custom song is impossibly difficult and there's a bigger selection, I've found several songs I liked that I was comfortable playing on Hard, even Expert for a few. I am incorporating it more into my workout routine, especially when it's cold or miserable outside.
That said, the base version of the game, for $30, is ridiculous, moreso when you realize there's a bunch of rhythm games that are cheaper without sales. Songs aren't that great, the mappings are kinda bad (especially when you compare it to the flow of custom songs), the campaign mode is dumb, and you don't get that many base songs to begin with, plus the game never goes on sale. Not to mention just like every other rhythm game that comes out now, there's a boatload of DLC that costs multiples more than the base game which again, never goes on sale to begin with.
With mods/custom songs, this game becomes one of the best VR has to offer, and this game earns its rank as an exception I hold among games with mod dependencies as a ranking/experience. If you don't want to dabble with mods though, I recommend grabbing Synth Riders over this.

A friend gifted me this for Christmas, and I picked this up when I came home from holiday break. I will say, the amount of coziness and relaxation this game gave me when I needed it was out of this world and enough for me to recommend the game with only a few hours of gameplay. You can sail to pretty much any island and build to your heart's content. Grinding materials is a bit tedious, but the building costs are extremely generous and the unlockables are fun. The survival aspects aren't too heavy as to be a hindrance. They're heavily working on the game and adding new regions and recipes. I can't wait to see what comes in the end, and hopefully co-op gets picked up in full.

My retro FPS mood has been lower this year than usual disregard me playing a certain trilogy coming up but one morning I got a hankering for one, so I picked this up. MAN is this game cool! Love the artstyle, the wittiness of the characters. It's basically old-school DOOM but with the good aspects of modern-day upgrades. You get a skill tree that changes/upgrades your weapons. You get really useful powers to use throughout the game, and each character gets different ones. Secrets are fun to find and don't require just banging against every wall. Difficulty is challenging but not too bad and it is rewarding. The setting is Lovecraftian and it's pretty wicked.

2023 marks the year I entered the VS-like subgenre space. Do I love it? Admittedly no, but I enjoy it enough. Thanks to Humble Bundle putting out a $8 for 8 bundle of various VS-likes, I was able to play Rogue: Genesia. God this game is so good, doing just enough differently to differentiate itself from the rest of the genre. Different game modes (including the traditional VS-like mode if you miss it). Beautiful aesthetics. Fun challenge and unlockable system. Great weapon skills and metaprogression. There's basically a campaign but there are lots of challenge modes that take you through the campaign and give you great unlockables if you complete them, and they're fun to do. They upped the price recently but I still recommend it in full. My favorite of the genre, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Another key of importance this year was me finally playing this trilogy. Finally. The atmosphere always intrigued me since I love retro-y themes. After finally completing it, I can see why people like it! The setting is fascinating. The whole underwater bubble aesthetic is cool. The combat is pretty basic and the enemy variety is small, but develops with different ammo types, plasmids, and passives to collect. The hacking minigame is pretty fun but grossly unbalanced later where you absolutely need passives, fast reflexes or cash to beat them. Still, it felt fun and I don't think I ever got bored through the game, just lost.

Right after comes this! I've been playing a lot of sequel games this year, and it feels like every single one I've played has been surprisingly better than the original. Don't get me wrong; the first BioShock was awesome. Cool setting, fun gameplay, decent mechanics and all. Somehow, its sequel fixes the shortcomings the first game had such as the hacking minigame being fun but frustrating (now it's just fun), the research minigame being more interactive, the tonics being lumped together instead of 3 tracks (adding more options), more upgrades overall, easier to use plasmids and weapons at the same time, and overall more intrigue. My only complaints are this game actually crashed on me a few times whereas the first remaster never did, and this game is just begging to have NG+. I thought it did because the first game got it, but no dice.

I promise this is going to be the last remake I gush about in this blog post, but for personal context the original of this and Katamari Damacy were very important to me as a kid, and their level of wackiness was just sublime. There wasn't anything like this, and they helped me cope. This is the only game I bought day-one this year, and while I may regret it now from a pricing standpoint, the value of the game holds up insanely well today. The music is probably the best in the series. The unique levels compared from the first game were just executed to perfection and kept the game interesting. Actually being able to play as the cousins (which KD:R should've done among other things) and toggle what music you want is a huge upgrade overall. The game looks beautiful, and some stages got the ever-requested Eternal mode treatment. That said, I wish EVERY stage got the Eternal treatment, and the sound effects felt oddly lower-pitched. I still recommend it in full, and it's still one of my favorite games to this day. Perhaps M&MK and BK will get a reroll treatment too.

My first, and probably only, long-dive into the idle genre. I've played a few before but got bored or annoyed fast.
I actually started playing this late last year when the demo for it was out, but I bought it over Christmas break and played it in full throughout the year. I will say, this is a unique take on the idle genre! There isn't one linear level of progression. You can progress pretty much any way you want as skills have synergy with each other. The respect to the source material is great. Funnily enough I actually wanted to play this game actively, that's how good it was. I 100%'d the entire game plus its post-game content in Throne of the Herald, and while the game had a couple of lulls both early on and late-game, the amount of time and fun I got out of it during the year makes it worth its weight in gold. They're actively working on it, and even though the second expansion didn't get good reviews, they're working hard on it to make it better, and I can respect that. If you're an idle-game fan and/or a Runescape fan and you want something new, definitely grab this and the first expansion.

Okay, that covers a lot of the really good stuff I played this year. Let's talk about some honorable mentions before we tackle the game s of the year.

Honorable Mentions

I played this game's demo years ago when it was still only in Portugese. While I got distracted by... something else probably, I eventually grabbed this game and ended up picking it up when I got my Steam Deck early on this year. As a platformer, it's pretty easy and on the more cozy side. The gimmick of this game is it's a musical, and I found it very humorous. The unlockable items you get are pretty fun to use too. I will say it is rather basic and the combat is lackluster, but these small aspects don't weigh the package down much. I recommend it if you can grab it and want something light-hearted and silly.

While this game almost made the cut, it deserves an honorable mention for being a solid enough, light-hearted and cheap Zelda-like. Told as like a storybook, you get gear, go through dungeons, get awesome equipment, beat up bosses, solve some puzzles, and then defeat the bad guy. It does a lot of Zelda aspects well like the inventory, the heart pieces/magic system, and just the feel of the game and exploring. There are also silly sidequests you can do with good rewards.
I will say the combat is strange. Your sword sucks, your gear is OP (especially the boomerang) but a lot of gear uses magic which takes forever to recharge. The difficulty was pretty easy and the dungeons were a little boring and too linear. It has heart though, and I enjoyed my time with it. It's also less than 4 bucks on sale, and I am planning to play the sequel once it gets a sale too. Probably my second favorite non-Zelda Zelda-like, barely beaten by Rogue Heroes.

I'm probably going to get crucified for only putting this as an honorable mention, but it is what it is. That's right, I finally played this game! I can see why it birthed a sub-genre. It OOZES with charm, easter eggs, references, and incentives to continue playing and unlock stuff. The weapon fusion and growth system encouraging gear synergies was interesting and made me want to try different builds to see what could overpower the endless mobs. The limit break system on the weapons was fun to toy with. It's just an all-around banger and rightfully deserves its place. I wish the early game picked up a little bit faster, though, and I wish the game was just faster feeling overall (or I could've been spoiled by the 4-5 VS-likes I played before this one, which is admittedly my own fault). Solid game.

My last honorable mention for the year. Around mid-year sometime I got a craving for a hack-and-slash title. Probably because D4 came out but I couldn't be bothered to spend $70 on it. So I spent $8 on this instead. It's kind of like PoE yet different, with the potion charge system, the skill tree, collecting skills and developing them etc. A lot of the mechanics feel pretty good and I had a mostly fun time playing through the 3-chapter campaign. Then chapter 4/post-game came around and everything just started feeling more slow/tedious, from the leveling to getting gold to dealing with the non-arena objectives. The resource management was cool and I really wish you could benefit from both types but the skills are based on your weapons unlike PoE where it was mostly stat-based. I liked the 3-life system. The "ultimate" was cool but then in chapter 4 it felt weak. It also has occasional visual bugs/annoyances. For $8 though? Not bad and I had a good time with it. Just a shame it held strong for 3 chapters and then faltered in the final/post game. Would've made the cut if they polished it more.

If you didn't catch it earlier, yes I am putting two games up for my Game of the Year. They both come from such radically different backgrounds that I think they can share the title.

Games of the Year

Okay, is anyone surprised by this? No but seriously, Wow! What a follow up. As reasonable as it is to trash on Nintendo as a company nowadays, their IPs are still PHENOMENAL. During my time playing BotW, I remember having a lot of fun with it but not enough that it deserved all the accolades it got. This game's a different story. While I still prefer the OG style of Zelda, this game feels like it took BotW, fixed just about all the main issues it had, and cranked it up to 12. More overworlds. More (quantity and fun) shrines. Better weapon management systems in place. More fun tools (although I do miss some of the older ones). Always something to explore in the overworld. Better/easier to deal with sidequests. The temples/boss fights were okay, but I think the path getting to them counts as part of the experience and they were pretty fun. I didn't mind the depths either as it yielded great rewards and was just a nice distraction when I got sick of the overworld. I hope this game gets at least one award this year, it 100% deserves one.

Before even talking about the game, let's talk about how this game was made by A SINGLE PERSON OVER A DECADE (10+ years). This isn't just "oh I worked on it for a year, put it down for 9 then finished it" either. If you're curious, look up the development of the game. Genuinely impressive. Anyway, the game itself. It looks exactly like something you'd see in the early-mid 00s, but it's done so gorgeously and well-detailed too. The story is convoluted and you keep thinking it's going to end, but it keeps going and it portrays that in such an engrossing way you WANT to continue. Yes, there's grind in this game at some points, but the combat and grinding is so adrenaline-inducing and addicting that you genuinely don't mind it. There are several venues to upgrade your character and it's just so much fun to explore them. The music is really well-done and most of it was free non-copyrighted stuff. Is it perfect? No, I didn't like some parts of Chapter 4 and didn't like Chapter 8 that much, but everything that came after these two hiccups more than made up for it. No game I've given a 10/10 on is perfect either, but this game is pretty much stellar art. KEIZO, I can't wait to see what DLC you put out for this game. It's just an amazing piece of work.

If you took the time to read this blog to the end, thank you! Hope you enjoyed it. Let me know your thoughts, what your hits were and all that. I'll have a "flops" to follow soon enough.