Over a decade in the making, ASTLIBRA proudly deserves my first place for the year. 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.

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. The sidequests were alright, and Rupees are still kinda tedious to get in my opinion, but no 10/10 game is perfect and I found many other distractions. It's so good that it might tie ASTLIBRA as game of the year.

This was an unexpected surprise. I'm not exactly a crazy "Idle game" guy, but I had a couple friends who played this and I looked into it, and I got so intrigued I picked up and played the demo and then bought it and the expansion! I really like the artstyle, how the skills interact with each other (so there's no one "efficient" way to play the game), and for me personally it fulfills that Runescape desire of "max out skills" and such. Melvor is very respectable to its source material while doing its own thing, and I enjoy logging on and seeing those numbers go up. The only thing I hate is it feels like a lot of skills have a middling "hump" to get through before hitting 99. After 100%ing the post-game expansion, there was another hump in melee combat, but the whole package is worth it.

Here's a cheat entry worth talking about. WLK is my favorite Katamari game, and I played it EXTENSIVELY on PS2 as a kid/teen. I had a blast replaying Katamari Damacy Reroll, but I felt as a remaster it was lacking. The aesthetic design upgrade was beautiful and some stages had a little extra time added to them, but literally nothing else from the future games was added. Kind of disappointing. Well, Namco took notes because WLK:R actually adds Eternal Mode, a fun little mini objective with the Namco stickers, some minor QoL, and even a few small extra stages where you're playing as a young King. The game looks beautiful and runs very well. I know I sound incredibly biased, but as a remaster, a sequel, and just as a game overall, WLK:R deserves all the credit it gets and Namco should be proud for working on its remaster track record. I still gotta play Pac-Man World Re-Pac.

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.

Like Tomb Raider 2013 (which didn't make the top 10 cut), it took me years before finally getting around to playing this series. 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.

This is the second VS-like I've played, but I got so hooked on it compared to the other two I played at the time that it earns a high spot here. The artstyle is quite nice, reminded me a bit of Octopath. Progression is uniquely handled with different mini-stages and in-game achievement unlocks, as well as the main progression of unlocking better passive upgrades. The challenges are incredibly fun and rewarding ways to play the game, and if you miss the old VS mode there is one as well, which can run endlessly. They are still actively working on it and I'm glad I grabbed this when I could.

I love most retro FPS games, even if I suck at most of them. Man, this one was really cool. The artstyle, the level-up system integrated with the combat, the weapons (for the most part), the levels themselves. Kind of reminds me of DOOM. I like that you can alternate some weapons and their usefulness if you want (e.g. making your smg an energy grenade launcher, using different ammo instead). The powers were all extremely useful. The boss fights were mostly good. The game's challenge was fun. There's a sequel coming out and I'm definitely looking forward to playing 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 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 pretty subpar. 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 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.

(I forgot to put this on my blog but there were so many games I rated about the same, but this game deserves the ranking thinking back) Okay, THIS is what I would've expected Blind Forest to be (which piqued my interest in the Ori games in the first place). It's really good. So many movement options, so many weapon types also functioning like tools, so many sidequests. Much less punishing difficulty and emphasis on precision platforming, and the sections that have it are much more manageable. Fun combat. Great music and beautiful atmosphere. If Blind Forest wasn't your speed but you're still interested in the Ori series, please don't skip this one! It's fantastic, and unless you're a precision platformer fan, I'd say just skip Blind Forest and play this.