Games (from any year) which I finished playing in 2023.
Showing 1-10 of 34 items
01/12 (Normal, Act IV) -- I picked up Gordian Quest in early access because it looked like a story-focused deckbuilder. To be blunt: it isn't. The character art is great, but the campaign has barebones storytelling with almost no character development. Gordian Quest picked up for me in its progression elements. There's a lot to keep up with (multiple decks per hero, skill trees that you place, gear, crafting, deck building, etc.), but I often found myself poking at new level-ups, skill points, shop items or loot. The combat gameplay is also pretty fun. It didn't always feel balanced, but it has an interesting focus on positioning and obstacles in addition to card combos, status effects and other mechanics.
01/22 (Hard) -- Slice & Dice has surprising depth for its premise. You gain a little power after every battle, with class and item abilities sometimes interacting in powerful ways. Each round of combat often involves puzzling out options. It's easy to pick up and play (on mobile) and the Normal mode feels challenging but reasonably fair. 02/09 (Loot Normal) -- Regular Normal runs are pretty forgiving, and I'm not a huge fan of the curse-style drawbacks on Hard. I decided to try Loot mode for a challenge. It's tough and you get to see more of the game's items. I wouldn't call Loot mode "good", though. The item pool is large and a lot of the low-level options are marginal or narrow. It takes a lot of luck to assemble a build that stands any chance in later levels -- most runs stumble through a few early levels and get trounced somewhere in the mid-game. 03/06 (Curse Mastery++) -- I'm still enjoying Slice & Dice (often on the train), partly by hunting down the achievements and challenges. I tend to dislike curse modes in games. I think partly because they "punish" the player for playing the game -- the endless challenge tends to be generated by gradually weakening the player and player mechanics or synergies and/or introducing annoying negative mechanics. (Hades is one game which offset this by setting goals, gradually ramping difficulty and giving the player enough control to make some interesting trade-offs.) Cursed-Hyper is similar to Loot mode in the sense that the player is more at the mercy of variance, especially early. Bad curses or bad luck will quickly end a run for a mediocre team. There is an interesting push and pull with the blessings, which can offset curses (like HP reduction) or power up one type of mechanic (like spells) while the curses are weakening others (like melee damage).
01/29 (Married) -- Having just played Rune Factory 4, it's hard not to compare the two. They do have very similar core gameplay loops, right down to some of the systems and even specific items. I enjoyed Rune Factory 5 and I actually like some of the changes it tries. The transition to 3D didn't hurt the farming significantly, and I prefer it for the combat and exploration gameplay. The spell seal and the "co-op" activity mechanics were fun and thematic (although the co-op activities were straightforward minigames). There are also a few major quality-of-life improvements (like accessing the crafting and inventory menus). I think Rune Factory 5 is a much more accessible game than its predecessor, but it gave up some of the content and polish. The dialogue in particular didn't seem nearly as varied or context-aware as RF4. RF5 also has a much shorter and easier post-game (which doesn't match that well with the complicated crafting system it inherited). The Switch may not be the best platform for Rune Factory 5 -- I've heard that it performs better on PC.
02/03 (Stormterror arc) -- Genshin Impact's style is certainly part of its appeal, with a pretty cel-shaded look, an anime-inspired roster of characters and a colorful open world. Though it isn't all style. The world is fun to move around and filled with little objectives. You can build parties of four characters with different combat abilities, using both character skills and the environment itself to create elemental combos. I also enjoyed the setting and the first main story arc (and Paimon!) The progression slows down after the first area -- it took me about a week of dailies to unlock the next story mission (by raising my Adventure Rank from 19 to 23). There are also an overwhelming number of currencies and upgrade materials, and important gameplay elements (like characters, talents and weapons) seem to be behind the gacha.
02/06 (Pokémon Scarlet, Area Zero) -- Overall, Scarlet/Violet has a fun core gameplay loop but falls frustratingly short on content and polish. (Pokémon Legends Arceus similarly felt underdeveloped.) S/V's open world design is a great step for the franchise. Pokémon games are about themed regions to explore and monsters to collect. An open world can offer this with more player freedom -- for example, the three main questlines ("paths") incorporate the series' iconic gym and villain battles in basically any order. The boarding school theme is a good fit for a young adult adventure, and some of the character stories made me smile. (Nemona's antics are pretty great.) S/V lacks fit and finish. Its technical issues made news (Nintendo even offered players refunds). Slowdown and pop-ins certainly hurt the game's feel. The visual style often feels like a step down from all (three!) of the Switch's previous Pokémon titles -- not just technically, but some of the characters and Pokémon are relatively stiff and bland. Mechanics (like the picnics), gameplay elements (like the shops) and the open world in general also don't feel fleshed out or complementary.
03/09 (Steam Deck) -- Potionomics seems to be directly inspired by Recettear (a game I enjoyed quite a bit), but it has its own set of mechanics which work pretty well. Negotiation in particular is a pretty cool idea -- it's a card game, but social activities (where Sylvia can spend her limited time with friends and business partners) unlocks new negotiation ability cards. The 3D art is also charming, with animations adding a lot of expression to negotiations, conversations and contests. Potionomics can be pretty hardcore. Brewing potions is a combination of resource management and math puzzle and the UI doesn't quite keep up with the demanding inventory management. (I had a much easier time after I wrote out a cheat sheet.) The complexity ramps up quite a bit, too -- I felt like I was on my toes up until the final stretch.
03/14 -- It was cool to try out Iron Marines for free (by the makers of the Kingdom Rush games), but I didn't get past three or four missions. My phone screen felt a little small for the tap-and-drag RTS controls -- I had trouble selecting and moving the right units.
----- POTENTIAL SPOILERS ----- 03/17 (Final, Final Boss) -- Stacklands is a light survival RTS using cards, which has positive and negative quirks. Reading and stacking cards is easy and crafting (by stacking) is generally intuitive. On the other hand, space and organization become a problem. New resource cards and moving enemies frequently push card stacks (food, equipment, items, etc.) in haphazard directions. I had fun with Stacklands and enjoyed the crafting and "travel" side quests (like the portal and island).
04/23 -- Phantasy Star Online has a long history (especially in Japan), but NGS is the first one I've played. (I did try to play PSO2 when it first launched on the Microsoft Store. That launch was famously broken.) I can see the appeal. It's stylish, featuring Sega's aesthetic (both visual design and music), a sci-fi setting and some cool combat animations. (My Gunner would stop and strike poses mid-air.) The third-person action gameplay is also pretty fun. The Gunner specifically rewarded staying close-range, timing dodges and building up hits to set up a temporary boost. Customization options include ranged and melee classes and sub-classes, an interesting "multi-weapon" concept and some weapon and armor augments. I enjoyed NGS for about 30 hours. The daily progression didn't seem too slow, although I decided not to invest the time necessary to reach the current level cap.
----- POTENTIAL SPOILERS ----- 05/09 (Give Me No Mercy) -- Ragnarök is a solid follow-up to its predecessor. Kratos and Atreus still work well together, however, Atreus' is becoming a teenager(?) and new threats (like Fimbulwinter and Ragnarök) are appearing. The other characters are also still interesting and sometimes surprising (especially Odin and Tyr). Ragnarök's gameplay mostly iterates on the previous entry, which was fun to begin with. There are a few tweaks to progression and the companion characters (and a really cool new weapon). The loot system still had some problems -- I was arbitrarily "gear scored" out of some side challenges (which felt like a frustrating punishment for exploring). The full armor sets did offer some interesting build options (like my parry and stun build, or an interesting "realm shift" option), but there felt like a superfluous number of sets and relics.