by zor
Going to list every 2023 game I played, in order, of where I think they belong on a GoTY list for 2023. Since am putting all of them on this list, it is going to seem weird, until i have more than 10 on this.
Showing 1-10 of 25 items
NSW: An open world action adventure game with some building mechanics, weather/elements factors, lite stealth, resource gathering, and a ton of exploration. Build on a lot of the ideas from Breath of the Wild (the last zelda game), this one main new thing are its new powers. The biggest being building devices, vehicles, and other stuff. The game itself is a lot of fun, and checks nearly all the boxes. The story is good, the visuals are great, the gameplay flow is amazing, the exploring is the best for any game in the last 5 years, and overall, it lives up to the hype it had beforehand. The few missteps it does, are annoying, but nothing critical. The biggest flaw is the abilities controls not being hotkey to buttons, but instead, making the player talk to a npc to trigger them. The other two are just performance (it rarely loses FPS, but nothing major, and is better than most other games), and the combat doesn't feel as good as it did in Wind Waker (it is vastly more complex, so it has to be different, but the sword combat in past Zelda games was better). Oh, and the Korak game design does not respect the player's time. Completed: The game, took 110+ hours, but I did it. I could have done it sooner, speed runners are doing in like 90 minutes, but for me, I wanted to play most of the game. There are still a ton of side quests i didn't do, and I only got 5 out of 20 sage stones. But beside those, i did most of the game. All 152 shrines, 120 lightroots, 60 side adventures, got a ton of armor pieces (and one of them to level 4), and like 85 korak seeds (out of like a 1000... yeah, i just didn't care for them this time. I didn't want to do the bring korak A to korak B ones, so i didn't. They would take me out of the way i wanted to go, and that is annoying, i don't got time for that... even though, i spent 110+ hours, it would be a lot more, if i did every side track thingy).
PC: A CRPG (I think that the right term, its one of those top down, turn base, squad of hero characters (they all have abilities based off their class and items) where you make choices in the game that change events, as well as combat encounters that take place in the world's environment) that uses D&D 5e rules (though, mod a bit to fit into a video game). You can play a pre-made character, or make one of your own. Anywho, the visuals for the game are pretty good, showing off a lot of details (well, on my 4070 TI it did, but i had the settings on Ultra) on the world and characters, however, this comes at a steep price later in the game, where the devs didn't optimize their code. Resulting in lag time (in a single player game) of 30+ seconds. The story is mostly good, though, like most long games, it wears very thin, and breaks a bit by the end. The VO was just great from the start to the end, the voices for the main characters, and side characters, was amazing. Gameplay wise... its a tales of two games. The first half of the game, Act 1 (there are 3 acts, but Act 1 takes about as much time as Act 2 and 3), is great. They had this Act tested in early access for about 3 years, and it shows. Act 2 is good, by straight forward, and lacks the creativity and scope of Act 1. It isn't that it is bad, but if Act 1 was like this, it wouldn't have caught the publics interest (those who already like CRPG would have like it, but the quality doesn't match Act 1). Then there Act 3, which has the same problems as Act 2 and more. When it worked, it was alright, but it often didn't work. The performance through parts of Act 3 was just horrible, and had me concern that I wouldn't be able to finish the game, due to the game being kind of unplayable. Beyond performance issues, there are design issues too. First, the game doesn't deal with vertical buildings or floors well. Getting the camera to display a floor above or below was a real challenge. Also, a lot of the creativity seen in Act 1, was missing in Act 2 and 3. For example, in Act 1, there was a pull-y that you could shot down to break a hole into a structure. Stuff like that wasn't seen in Act 2 or 3. Also, it felt like the ending half of the game didn't introduce anything new to the story, in the sense that, in Act 1 you had a conflict between some 'good guys' in a haven, and the bad guys. And this kind of happen again, almost exactly, in Act 2. So yeah, the gameplay started strong, and then ended up okay. I still enjoyed my time with the game, and I have a positive opinion of it, but by the end, I was glad that it was over, and kind of wished that it was a little bit shorter and much more dynamic. Completed: The game, took about 105 hours or more. I beat the game the day after the 5th patch, so i got the extra ending stuff. Geez, if i hadn't gotten that, my opinion of the game would probably have been much lower. From the sounds of it, the old ending was shallow and lite on details. Anywho, thinking back on it, and i think my big problem i had with this game is that it does a lot of telling you that you are making a difference, and not showing you. Sure, you clear out enemies (either good or evil), but it doesn't really change that much, other than having that area being empty of people. There a story line reason for that, since you have a tadpole in your head and need to get it out ASAP. But gameplay wise, it was a lot of, you did this thing and free the land (assuming you went the good route), but you can't see it, but know that it happen, cause we said so, now run forward and do more stuff that will change the world which you'll never see, so it kind of like it doesn't, but let's pretend that it does. Guess i wanted something like building something, owning a house, or some kind of mini-game thingy to be different. Side note: There were people (ign) that were trying to parade this game out as bug free and other games should be like. And that is just bizarre. Act 3 in this game was some of the worse performance i have seen in a game in a long time. There were 5 or 6 spots on the map that would have lag of 30+ seconds (npcs wouldn't move, couldn't do commands, etc). Beyond that, there were numerous times of dialogue getting cut off, buggy quests, and combat animations displaying a 5 second lag to execute commands through out the game. My guess is that most of these people only played Act 1, and are willingly ignoring that this game was in early access for 3 years, in order to attack other games with an unfair and disingenuous way.
XSX: A puzzle game, with a few combat encounters (not the focus, there like a handful of boss battles in total, and no other combat. No real fail/lose state for combat), where you play a bug like humanoid with the gimmick being that the world you are in, is a sphere, that you can leave, to get into another one (there are only a handful in total) and you use this ability to jump into and out of spheres (including put spheres into other spheres), sphere special powers, and the combination of these abilities to solve puzzles. The game also has a great visual style, that makes the environment feel really alien and different. However, on the flip side, it is this different nature that makes the story, or any attempt at a story, suffer. The game's story process is similar to a Limbo, where there isn't any spoken or written words, so the player has to infer what is going on. But since everything is so alien, and not realistic, there isn't much to understand. Limbo and Inside were weird, but, since it was mostly human stuff, be it afterlife or clone dystopia stuff, it was still somewhat understandable. Cocoon is just too out there, so there really no story to get. Am sure there are youtube videos and such, with people guessing what they think the story could be about. But it all just guessing. And cause of this, the game story suffers greatly, and is one of the biggest things holding this game back. The only other negative I have for the game, is it linear nature, where back tracking isn't really allowed. You can load older states to get missing events, but when you are playing the game, you can't go back. Lucky, the missing events don't really matter, so it isn't a deal breaker, but just an annoyance. Overall, the game is a lot of fun, and doesn't take that long to get through (4-6 hours, or less, if you are trying to speed through). Completed: The game, got all the specials event, but did not get the secret ending, which i didn't know was a thing until afterwards.
NSW : A real time strategy action game where you control a character directly, who in turn has command over several different groups of pikmin. These plant people of a sort come in different colors (which relate to their abilities. Red Pikmin are immune to Fire and are strong fighters, Ice Pikmin are immune to cold stuff and can freeze enemies and bodies of water) and the player has to use them to overcome puzzles and enemies. For the most part, the formula for Pikmin 4 is the same as the other ones with a couple of new additions. Like upgrades, a dog buddy (who has a host of abilities themselves and is super useful), and some QoL improvements. Completed: The game, second ending. Got to the second ending, and that's good enough for me (took about 31 hours). I know there a bit more i could do, but am not going to. The game feels too long, which would have been great when i was growing up, but now that my time is limited, is a minus. Overall the game is fun, but I felt by the end that it was just too punishing, and lost the sense of progression of power. Like in most games, when you get to the end game, you feel more powerful (well, games with upgrades and such), but here, due to a lot of big enemies that can one hit kill your Pikmin, i didn't feel like i was more powerful at the end. And part of that was due to some of the big enemies not having easy exploits or patterns. Well, if they did, i didn't learn them. These complaints aside, I did have a lot of fun with this game. The level design is great, the OCD collecting was fun, visual were interesting, and the story did its job. But with all of that, it just that I don't think I would want to play another Pikmin game that plays like this. If and when they do another, I really hope they change something major. Like have the Pikmin evolve instead of just different colors (i.e. like if Reds turn into the Rock ones, so the Rock ones had all the powers of Reds, plus their own), or more complex commands/controls (the buddy system was decent, but the game loop of just throwing Pikmin at enemies has limits, and it felt like a lot of the tough enemies were just design to be a bit bullet sponge-y cause of this), or some kind of automation, factory or war map thingy... just something more and new.
NSW: A 2d platformer Mario game. Whose main gimmick is the wonder flowers, an item that once pick up in a stage (it isn't in all stages) a gameplay change occurs where the player has to complete it correctly to get the wonder seed (this game's version of a star). These changes include things like the player floating into the air, dodging enemies, being chased by king boo (so, kind of just going to the right, as usual, but without the ability to backtrack, and on a timer of sorts), or being transform into a spike ball which can destroy blocks to clear their path. Overall, i found the wonder changes to be underwhelming. There were a couple that change things in interesting ways, like making the game a top down game. But for the most part, they were just too simple, and repeated too many times (just with a different coat of paint. For example, the King Boo thing was repeated with lava, or bity plants too). The core gameplay is still good, and fun. On the other hand, there weren't that many new power ups, just the elephant power up, and maybe the bubble flower (i think this is new, but maybe it isn't). There is one last thing that this game does, and its a huge plus. And that's the online part. So, when you play online (there is still local co-op, which is what you would expect), the ghost of other players, playing that level at the same time, show up in your game. You don't have to worry about them getting in the way, as you can't touch each other. But if you die, you can revive by touch them, or one of their standee props (a thing you can drop for other players to touch to revive, so, you put this before tough enemies or platforming parts... or as a lot of people did, including myself, over secrets, to flag down other players so that they look at an area). This online feature was super useful, and save my hide dozens of times, help me find secrets that i would have missed completely, and used to cheese my way past parts of a few levels that i couldn't complete on my own. Completed: The game, and all but 3 levels (there were 2 special world stages that i just couldn't complete, and these two, blocked off the final super special level (which i never even saw... :( ). Overall, the game is rather short, taking less than 10 hours to complete. With a mix bag of experiences. The wonder flowers were a let down, but the online part was great.
XSX: An action, soul-ish, lite platformer, with easy puzzles set in the Star Wars universe. It is the follow up to Star Wars Fallen Order. And overall, it is okay... The gameplay is good, the visuals are great, audio is good too. There are some performance issues, but nothing major. But on the negative side, the game is bloated. There are too many collectables, and side paths. And while that is normally a good thing, in this game, it takes away from the experience. I ended up turning on the navigation assist option, not because i was getting lost, but so that i could figure out which ways were side paths, and which ones were the main path... guess that kind of getting lost, but not in the normal 'i don't know where to go' but more of 'i don't want to waste my time getting a paint scheme that i'll never use' type of way. And that was the big problem with the collectables, so many of them were worthless for one reason or another. Either they were costume piece that look bad (oh, look, a new shirt, whoop de doo), were just a paint scheme for a specific costume piece (now i can change the color of a shirt that i don't want, and only for that shirt, this paint doesn't work on anything else), or a piece of collectable currency (there were like 5 or more different types of these). In the end, the game took over 20-25 hours to complete, and i feel it would have been much better at half of that, with the side paths being reduce, made more obvious, and with better rewards (having paints as a collectable reward was insulting, and they should have been include with the items by default. Lightsaber parts should just have include all of them at once, same with bd-1) . Oh, and the story was a bummer, and ended abruptly... which felt like the usual annoying mid chapter non-sense. And the game is one of those games where the player loses in cutscenes. Fight a boss, beat the boss, but in the cut scene the boss defeats you. Feels like the game is cheating with bad story telling. Completed: The game. Did a lot of the side stuff, i think... but the overall percentage was probably like 50%... there just too much.
NSW: A action puzzle game where the gimmick is that you can control two characters at the same time (usual) with the different analog sticks. Using the trigger buttons to do actions with them. And it works fairly well, and is fun. So the game is broken down into a few different segments. First there are puzzles, which require either both characters doing something, one character doing something for the other character to unblock them, or both characters doing stuff at about the same time to help/unblock the other one. These puzzles work fairly well, and don't get to complex, and aren't hard to control. The other big part is combat, where Chesure (the cat demon) is the tank/dps, and Cereza is the support (can freeze enemies in spot, revive Chesure). These parts are okay, and stay fresh due to the new powers you gain along the way, and the many enemy types. So gameplay wise, the game is solid. Visual wise, it has a story book look that is pretty good too. This is in game, and in the cut scenes. Lastly, the story is decent too... you'll be able to guess what happens long before it does, and some parts of the characters whining are grating, but overall, it was good enough. Completed: The main game. There some extra mode that i plan to get to, since it apparently has more story elements. Update: Finish the extra chapter, it was okay. Not sure why some youtube video made a big deal out of it. For the most part, it felt like filler. It could have been cut down to 1 normal fight, and 1 boss fight, the rest wasn't needed. It did tie back to Bayonetta 3, but not much, and didn't really change anything.
XSX,: An open world / space game where you go around questing, grinding up talents, and getting better gear. It has some RPG elements, but they are lite. Mainly just a talent system, which isn't great, and stats on equipment. Visual the game looks alright, and they did a ton of work on VO and presentation. But there are parts that feel like they were rush in and not a lot of time was spent on them, like the UI. Which is just horrible. For example, you aren't given information on a weapons stats while in the world. So, you have to pick up a weapon, to see how it compares to what you already have. Also, the gameplay just feels dated, it like a step or two above what Skyrim did 10 years ago. Kind of feels like it just Skyrim with jetpacks, at times. Also the future setting doesn't feel like it is in the future, other than the space ships. Most of the game you are just walking around a planet or in a space station (which, plays about the same) and you just have normal guns (or lasers, but those act the same as normal guns). The biggest future part of the game is the space ship parts. But even this part is disappointing simple. Space ship combat feel more like a re-skin fighter jet dog fight game, and less like a battleships fighting each other. Lastly, the game tries to mix it up by adding player powers to the game, however, these powers often feel underwhelming, and are more in line with Skyrim powers, and less Cyberpunk 2077. Completed: The game, did one play through, about 72+ hours, lots of side quests and such.
NSW: A TBS squad rpg game. The latest in the FIre Emblem series. It plays nearly the same as the last few, but with one new major change. The engage system. Characters can equip special rings (1 max) that gives them stats bonus, new abilities, and a special action Engage. Which will transform them into an.. well, super hero thingy for 3 rounds. During this, they'll have even better stats bonuses, and a one time use, super ability (which recharges the next time they engage). There are 12 special rings in the base game, and 7 more in the DLC. The rings are different, and work best with different types of units. For example, Corrin gives sword bonuses, so, obviously, she goes better with a character that uses swords. The other rings work the same with other weapon types. And that's the main difference in this game. Quality wise, the maps, visuals, performance, and some of the game systems are much better in this one than 3 houses. But on the flip side, the story is generically bad, all over. The main story isn't good, and most of the characters are dull too. The DLC story and character are decent, but there are only 4 of them, and 6 missions. I found myself skipping a lot of the support conversations with the main cast, since, they just were shallow non-sense. Completed: The main game, and dlc in about 55 hours or so. It was fun, but, i don't think i'll remember most of it in a year's time or so. And unlike 3 houses, which i played through 3 times over 220 hours, i don't play on ever replaying this one. The game was fun, but lack an impact due to the poor story elements.
NSW: The remastered Version. I enjoyed this game (again), but there are a few QoL things it could do, and a few overall changes to its formula that i think it needs. I don't want to start off negative, so i'll state that I think this is a good game. The environments are great, visual, audio wise, and design. The gameplay systems are mostly great. On the other hand, and this is common to most metroidvanias, I just don't care for respawning enemies. It really discourages exploration, and back tracking, which is something that these games want the player to do. Next, there no fast travel system in this game. There wasn't in the original, but it is something that has been in some newer metroidvanias, and would have made this game faster and better. Lastly, the map system needs work. The elevators should somehow link to each other, so that the player can directly see which ones connect to other ones. Overall, I had a lot of fun with the game, but I don't think I will be playing the re-re-master, if it just another graphically improvement. Completed: The game, only got 91% of the items (didn't feel like 100% it again), and 100% of the scans.