GOTY 2023
Another year of games in the book, and this has been a particularly tough one to narrow down a list of only ten great games. While there are a handful that are absolute locks, I had a very tough time narrowing down the rest. There are at least 10-15 more games that I really seriously considered for inclusion on this list, but these are the games that eventually won out and ended up at the top of my personal heap.
10. Chants of Sennaar
Following up 2022's Case of the Golden Idol, Chants of Sennaar takes the award for Return of the Obra Dinn Presents Best Investigation Game of the Year. Hopefully we can continue this trend of getting at least one good game about filling in a notebook every year.
The thing that really makes this game is that you can tell the developers have a genuine passion for linguistics. They clearly put a lot of thought into the way each language is constructed. There's a clear logic to everything from the appearance of each individual character to the contents of each group's lexicon. It makes the languages feel genuine. If everything you're deciphering felt like fake nonsense, this game just wouldn't work and would feel like a chore. As someone that has dabbled in learning Japanese (like every good weeb), it was very cool seeing some analogs between the process of learning kanji and the radicals that compose an individual kanji character and the way that characters in these invented languages also work. It just further reinforced how credible the world and languages felt, and really pushed this game over top for me as something worth celebrating.
9. Touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia
I really tried to squeeze Persona 5 Tactica onto this list, but it just wasn't doable because I needed to include the actual best Shin Megami Tensei game released in 2023 - Touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia. This is a genuinely great retro SMT-like dungeon crawling experience with many of the quality of life features you'd find in more modern entries of the franchise. While I have played a decent number of Touhou fangames on Steam, I'm still largely indifferent towards the Touhou Project cast of characters, but I don't think that being in that fandom is required to enjoy this game.
In the grand tradition of SMT, this can be a very punishing game, but the constant support that it's received continues to balance and add additional options to both decrease and increase the difficulty. While the music is very well done, this is admittedly more of a podcast sort of game to me. The character art mostly just gets the job done in my opinion, but it can look good at times, especially in the more detailed art when you're talking to a character.
I'd definitely recommend giving Shin Megami Touhou a shot if you're down for some dungeon crawling.
8. Fire Emblem Engage
I didn't post a top ten list for 2022 here on Giant Bomb, but I did still assemble a list and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes was in that top ten. In recent years, I have had to accept the reality that I do genuinely like Musou games, and the addition of the great cast from Fire Emblem: Three Houses meant that I especially liked that one. The modern Fire Emblem formula has me hooked real bad, and so it's really no surprise that Fire Emblem Engage also made a strong impression on me.
Fire Emblem Engage is mechanically one of the best entries in the franchise, but unfortunately, everything else in this package feels like a step-back from what they were doing in Three Houses. While running around Garreg Mach in Three Houses could get a bit tiresome, it was generally worth it because of how engaging the story and characters were. In this latest entry, there's still just as much, if not more, running around your home base, but the character interactions all feel far more shallow and don't do nearly enough to justify the tedium. It's not enough to ruin the overall experience, but I do really hope that the team tasked with the next entry in the franchise takes a step back and reassesses the overall flow of these games from mission to mission. That said, as long as there are still some lance-wielding himbos and girls swinging massive axes, I won't complain.
7. Sea of Stars
Throwback RPGs that attempt to harken back to the classics of the 16-bit era are nothing new, but Sea of Stars is one of the few, along with 2022's Chained Echoes, that I think genuinely nails it. The game is incredibly polished and just looks and feels good to be in and move around in - Sea of Stars does a great job of demonstrating that traversal in a JRPG can be more than just walking around on a flat plane. Add to that some great art and an incredible soundtrack, and it's easy to see why people have taken notice of this game.
The writing and storytelling aren't flawless and can't capture the magic of the games like Chrono Trigger that it pulls inspiration from, but it's a serviceable enough story with a few very effective moments including one of the biggest tear jerker moments of the year (Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name definitely takes that crown though). I know some people have also complained that there's too much combat, but for me, the active timing element and breaking locks kept me engaged throughout.
I'm doubtful that anything will ever actually eclipse the certified classic Chrono Trigger, but if the attempts to recapture that magic keep resulting in games as good as Sea of Stars, then I hope developers keep taking their shot.
6. Alan Wake II
Control felt like a real turning point for Remedy where they really began to master their particular brand of narrative. While the first Alan Wake was good, it never really tipped over the edge for me into something great. However, in this post-Control era where Remedy has really hit its stride, Alan Wake II manages to hit a lot harder. This is genuinely one of the best looking games that I've ever played, from both a technical perspective and in terms of the aesthetic design, and the story and the way it's delivered feels unlike anything else I've played. That said, the part where you have to point your flashlight and shoot guns still doesn't feel that great to me, maybe better than the first Alan Wake but not as good as Control. It's also a little unfortunate that the PC version is locked up in Epic Games Store jail, but I can't hold that against Remedy - this was definitely an expensive game to make and you gotta do what you gotta do.
5. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
Paranormasight has really been stuck in my head since I picked it up early this year, more so than maybe any other game in this list. Outside of maybe Baldur's Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2, nothing else I've touched this year has had a narrative as engaging as this game. The great plot combined with the distinctly Japanese horror elements and the CRT effects reflective of the late 70s / early 80s setting all combines to give this game a great cohesive vibe and aesthetic that really sticks with you - even eclipsing something like World of Horror that just recently hit its 1.0 release. The gameplay, while mostly following a pretty traditional VN style model, does several things to subvert expectations, often in very meta fourth-wall breaking ways, that also contributes to this feeling like a fresh and novel experience.
Square Enix has really been fire and forget with a lot of these smaller scope titles that they've published, but I really hope that they continue to support titles like Paranormasight and Little Goody Two Shoes (another game with great vibes and aesthetic that may have made this list if it weren't hampered by some frustrating gameplay elements)...and hopefully they finally release that Dragon Quest III remake while they're at it.
4. Resident Evil 4
Capcom continues to be firing on all cylinders with this excellent reimagining of one of the greatest games of all time. While I do have some minor quibbles with some parts of the combat, in general, I think most of the changes here to things like level layout and boss fights are very well done and serve to enhance the experience. This remake can never eclipse the original in terms of how essential or important it is to the overall video game canon, but I do think it can stand on its own merits as a strong modern reinterpretation of the classic.
3. Hi-Fi Rush
I know the writing didn't appeal to everyone, but Sunset Overdrive was really a standout game to me in the early Xbox One days, and returning to it later after its PC release, I still find it to be an excellent open-world experience. Nothing since then has really managed to capture the same bright optimistic hyper-punk vibe in the same way for me, until the surprise release of Hi-Fi Rush earlier this year. While aesthetically similar though, Hi-Fi Rush's rhythm-game infused action combat is something entirely unique, and I have to really credit Tango Gameworks for making a lot of smart decisions with the rhythm mechanics that help keep them fun rather than frustrating. And while the licensed soundtrack does feel like a random stack of CDs pulled from the trunk of a 2002 Honda Civic, it works surprisingly well, especially in the excellent final level - easily one of the best sequences in any game this year.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
The depth of creativity coming out of Nintendo continues to be staggering. After Breath of the Wild being such a fresh new take on the franchise, it's incredible that they've managed to make Tears of the Kingdom feel like yet another reinvention of what it means to be a Zelda game. The pre-release concerns of this being just an expansion pack reusing the same terrain couldn't be farther from the truth.
While I do think there is still juice to be squeezed from the classic "Get Weapon, Beat Dungeon, Repeat" cycle of the older games, there's no denying how refreshingly modern the new open world approach is. Nintendo looked at everything Ubisoft has been doing for the past 15 years, threw it in the bin, and said, "No, this is how you make an open world game." And once again, just like with Breath of the Wild, they continue to be proven right. There's just no other open world that pulls you in and begs to be explored like this. At any given time, there are at least half a dozen things in your field of view that you want to go investigate. The game is constantly pulling you along from one point of interest to the next, so there's no need for the chore of constantly checking a map for the next icon that most other games in this style couldn't function without.
Along with the impeccably designed open world, Ultrahand offers yet another layer of player freedom and creativity, and I'm just constantly in awe of the fact that this game isn't just constantly breaking because it feels like it absolutely should be. Delivering such an incredibly polished and novel experience like this is all the evidence you need of why Nintendo has so much staying power in this industry.
1. Baldur's Gate 3
I'm sure that a couple of decades ago, BioWare couldn't have predicted a gaming audience robust enough to make a game like Baldur's Gate 3 seem feasible - perhaps Dragon Age and Mass Effect would've had very different trajectories if they had.
Back in the Xbox 360 era, BioWare really seemed to be firing on all cylinders with the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. These games were, at least in the beginning, poised to take the depth of character, world-building, and story-telling from BioWare's classic CRPGs and turn it into something that would be palatable to a broader audience. While it can't be denied that Mass Effect and Dragon Age were both successful, every subsequent entry in these franchises seemed to drift farther from its CRPG roots - less concerned with lore and character sheets and more with AAA blockbuster spectacle. That change in focus doesn't make them bad, in fact they're still among the best games of the 360/PS3 generation, but you can't help but wonder what might've been if BioWare had stuck closer to their original CRPG blueprint.
Smash cut to 2023 and BioWare is in a frankly dire state of affairs. Coming off of multiple lackluster releases in Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem and racked by layoffs, BioWare is now pinning all of their hopes to Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, praying that it can revitalize the long dormant franchise and restore BioWare's credibility as a developer. Amidst all of this turmoil, it feels like some sort of cosmic irony that one of the biggest hits of this year is Baldur's Gate 3, a new entry in the franchise that helped establish BioWare as a heavy-hitter of the RPG genre, now developed by Larian Studios. You can't help but feel like this is the moment where the CRPG torch has officially been passed.
Larian Studios is one several developers that have been leading the revitalization of the CRPG genre, alongside the likes of Owlcat's Pathfinder games, Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity, Shadowrun Returns from Harebrained Schemes, and many more. Baldur's Gate 3 feels like the ultimate culmination of this resurgence. Unlike Mass Effect and Dragon Age before it that came to eschew the deep lore and character building in favor of big budget spectacle, BG3 chooses to embrace the RPG minutiae while still applying a thick layer of high production values to help it grab the attention of a bigger crowd. Larian Studios has also really matured over the course of their two Divinity: Original Sin games to a point where they're now very capable of writing captivating characters and dialogue, and more than anything, it is that excellent writing that carries the experience and makes it difficult to resist replaying the game even after already spending 100+ hours on a single playthrough.
I really can't wait to see what Larian Studios does next after such a monumental success, and as for BioWare, let's hope they manage to right the ship and get back on track in the coming year.
