General Gaming ~*D1P's Games of 2023*~

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Out with the old, in with the new as Father Time stops for no one!

[GameDadGrant]

Pokémon Violet/Scarlett should be #1 since it is such a well-programmed game that was clearly developed by professionals. 

[stepee]

Here we go again..definitely won’t hit the highs of last year, I went insane. But looking forward to finishing some good stuff this year still.

 

First up is looking to be F.i.s.t or Huntdown.

[best3444]

I will contribute to this since we're starting over. TLOU 1 will be my first game of 2023.

 

Beat TLOU 1 (PS5) - 8.5 (Amazing visuals but has mechanically aged. It still controls pretty damn smooth and plays like a current gen title)

[dualhunter]

Finished the Intermission part of Final Fantasy VII Remake. Just have Weiss left in the main part now.

[stepee]

First game of 2023 down the hatch! F.I.S.T - a 2D beat ‘em up metroidvania with an anamorphic rabbit made in China. Great looking game with ray tracing and a general look that is probably closer to FF7 Midgard but in real time than the remake is. Solid combat as well with unlockable moves and a decent variety in mechanics and options.

 

It gets a bit difficult on easy for my tastes after the first half which toned down my opinion of it from like an 8 to a 7 or 7.5 but definitely a solid pickup for $20 or so, or for free from Epic which is how I got it. Also sometimes there aren’t clear connections on the map which can make you get needlessly lost sometimes, and that probably made me explore less than I otherwise would have in a game like this. A little jank sometimes too and the story is very much B level.

 

But it’s a fun nice looking metroidvania with tight controls so I’d definitely recommend it if that strikes your fancy. They could pretty easily take it from a “good” game to a “very good” game so I hope they get to do a sequel.

[stepee]

Second game down: Huntdown

 

Whew barely could beat this one, but I guess there aren’t many run n shoots that I can beat unless they are credits based so I’ll take it as a win! At least this one has an easy mode and a checkpoint system. They could have made the last boss more annoying too but kindly let you resume from the second phase of you die.

 

It’s really good. Probably a solid 8.5/10, and thats just because that’s probably about the highest Id rank this type of game. It’s definitely up there with the best in its genre. And solid game length that works for me better here than other old school with extended game length efforts like Shredders Revenge. An absolute steal for the $4 price I got it at, thanks @crispy4000 for the note on it. Though I almost wish I just paid full price to see it on the oled switch instead. It’s a REALLY gorgeous 2d game. 
 

Keep giving me high quality 32 bit action games forever thank you.

 

F.I.S.T (can’t wait to have enough games here to be worth copying/pasting the list so I can stop typing that annoying name)

Huntdown

[Fizzzzle]

I've been celebrating actually being able to play games again (and also mostly taking the last 2 weeks and change off work). I've knocked out 4 so far

 

1) Assassin's Creed Valhalla - 7/10

Teeeeechnically it was still December 31st when I beat this one, but... close enough. The game has essentially the same gameplay loop as AC Origins and Odyssey, both of which were amazing, but dear GOD did Valhalla wear out its welcome. Maybe it's because the characters all felt so bland, but the game just felt like busy work. I spent the last ~30 hours just going "fuck, please, whyyyyyy does there have to be one more mission?" I didn't complete the Ireland DLC and never even touched the France DLC. I spent over a hundred hours in the game already and I was fucking done by like hour 65. It's a testament to what Ubisoft has built with the AC series that simply running around toy versions of historical settings is enough to keep me playing a game for like 40 hours after I stopped really having fun with it.

 

2) Tales of Arise - 7/10

Again, just kind of... alright. There was a lot of hype around this game, I was kind of expecting more from it. I've played almost every Tales game released in the west, and this one wouldn't even crack my top 5. It's not a *bad* game by any means, but, but it felt lazy and the main character kind of sucked.

 

3) Horizon: Zero Dawn - 8.5/10

Probably would be higher if it didn't have some technical issues/clunkiness. I stopped trying to use mounts about halfway through because using mounts caused the game to crash fairly frequently. Also the stealth stuff is very, very clunky. But, other than that, great game. It says a lot that it was an open world collectathon game that never felt like it wore out its welcome, which 90% of them do. Especially only two weeks after playing AC: Valhalla. After Valhalla, I was kind of hesitant to even start the game because I felt like I would just get burnt out, but I didn't.

 

4) Ys Origin - 8/10

After so many big games in a row, I kind of wanted to dial it back a bit. Ys Origin is an action RPG that takes place entirely within one dungeon. You can choose between 2 main characters - Yunica, who plays like a typical hack n' slash action RPG character, or Hugo, who plays almost more like a bullet hell game. That was kind of fun. Some of the older Ys titles play around with genre-bending like that - it's mostly an action RPG, but then you'll have a random boss fight where the camera pulls out to top-down mode and you can only use ranged attacks, so it basically turns into a top-down shooter. It was interesting to see them go full-boar with a character who basically plays that way the whole game.

 

I did my first playthrough on hard with Yunica (melee combat), my second playthrough on easy with Hugo (ranged combat), and my last one with mystery character on VERY easy because I didn't really care anymore.

 

Technically the "true" ending is the one with mystery character, and you need to play through the game at least once to unlock them. But if you like Ys games as much as I do, just give it a whack with all three, you'll have a blast. Each playthrough takes between 7-9 hours, depending on your difficulty (it's probably a lot longer than that on Nightmare. I did one run in 9 hours on hard, but I was playing with a guide)

[best3444]

On 1/3/2023 at 11:49 AM, best3444 said:

I will contribute to this since we're starting over. TLOU 1 will be my first game of 2023.

 

Beat TLOU 1 (PS5) - 8.5 (Amazing visuals but has mechanically aged. It still controls pretty damn smooth and plays like a current gen title)

 

Just beat TLOU 2 this afternoon. 9.5/10.

 

My complaint is that 

 

Spoiler

Either Abby or Ellie needed to die at the end. There just isn't any sense of conclusion but I guess that's how part 1 ended.

 

Overall, nothing on the market comes close to overall production in this game. TLOU/TLOU2 are in my top 10 of all time.

[Brian]

I finally went back and completed Psychonauts 2. The combat isn’t the greatest but everything else is top notch. I wanted to complete it before SpongeBob releases. 

[best3444]

12 minutes ago, Brian said:

I finally went back and completed Psychonauts 2. The combat isn’t the greatest but everything else is top notch. I wanted to complete it before SpongeBob releases. 

 

I got a few hours in and stopped for some reason. That needs to change.

[LazyPiranha]

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

 

————————

 

Trying to explain the plot of this game or how it plays out in a blurb is a fools errand. The non linear story and sci fi intrigue all work together really, really well all things considered.  When I first started I thought for sure that the constant swapping combined with unfamiliar foreign names would make it a nightmare to follow, but it actually managed to stick and cohere.  Plot wise my only complaint is I feel like there was just one layer too many and at the end it just felt like so many reveals that it was in danger of tipping over.

 

Really the only downside of the game is the relatively uninteresting tower defense kinda sorta turn based rts combat.  Fine enough to be not be a drag playing, but basic enough to not be enough reason to play through alone.  

[TheLeon]

Pentiment - tough game for me to evaluate. I think it’s an overall great game in a genre/setting that’s just not for me. The central story and mystery mechanic was just compelling enough for me push my way through the incredibly dull “gameplay”. 

[XxEvil AshxX]

Finally got around to Assassin's Creed Rogue.

 

 

[LazyPiranha]

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

 

———————————

 

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!

 

2013’s game of the year returns to steal your soul once again.

 

I played so much of this game when it came out it was genuinely invading my dreams.  It’s the perfect mobile time suck, fast enough for a quick session, addictive enough to lose hours at a time.  It’s got great humor, a fun art style, and the wherewithal to let you skip everything once you’ve moved past all of that and just need that sweet, sweet dopamine hit.  
 

Honestly, the only possible negative is that’s just basically just the 3ds game with some slightly updated graphics and slightly worse controls.  One phase of the game used to have you trace your horse’s path to better position and on the 3ds it was just a hand drawn path.  On the phone it’s a weird tap from point to point thing and it just doesn’t work as well.  It’s a truly minor thing, but it was better before.  That and it’s an Apple Arcade exclusive so feel about that what you will.  
 

If you loved it in 2013, you’ll love it all over again now.  If you’ve never played it before and you have an apple phone, it’s worth the month trial just for this.  If you already have Apple Arcade, download it now.

 

 

[dualhunter]

Finished Blossom Tales 2.

[crispy4000]

45 minutes ago, dualhunter said:

Finished Blossom Tales 2.

 

How was it?  Always was interested in these games.

[dualhunter]

2 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

 

How was it?  Always was interested in these games.

 

I think they're the best of the Zelda clones. A Link to the Past is better but Blossom Tales is a good tribute.

[stepee]

On 1/22/2023 at 7:02 PM, dualhunter said:

 

I think they're the best of the Zelda clones. A Link to the Past is better but Blossom Tales is a good tribute.

 

I played the first one, is it even better?

[dualhunter]

25 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

I played the first one, is it even better?

 

It's been a while since I played the first one, but I think I enjoyed 2 more.

[Fizzzzle]

Final Fantasy VII Remake - 8/10

 

Much, much better than FFXV, but still, Squeenix just kind of fumbling the game in the final stretch. I loved it until the last couple hours. I am definitely excited for the next installment, and I LOVE how they treated the music for the game. I just think it kind of lost the plot in the final act. Also, I wish they managed the combat system better. I appreciate what they were trying to do with keeping the main spirit of the game while making combat more fast-paced, but what ended up happening is you constantly have to micro-manage your battle layout between battles. It gets really tedious. I honestly feel like the game would have felt more fast-paced if they just kept the original ATB system, rather than constantly micromanaging your battle layout between battles.

 

Ys: The Oath in Felghana - 5/10

 

I'm almost done playing every single Ys game. This is the only one that I thought kind of sucked.

 

Every Ys game can be punishingly difficult if you play it on anything harder than easy/normal mode. That's a thing. However, Oath in Felghana is the only one I've played so far that doesn't feel so much "challening" as it does "FUCKING ANNOYING." Like, the game makes a point to make sure that every single mob in the game has aerial enemies, which guarantees that you are always vulnerable to attack regardless of what you do. Like, you can't win, you just have to mitigate disaster the whole time. On top of that, the game has some pretty ridiculous difficulty spikes. Also also, the platforming challenges.... Ys games are not platformers. They are action RPGs with platforming elements. The controls are not tight enough to be a platforming game. However, there are multiple points throughout the game where you are severely punished if you don't hit the platforming challenges excactly right, but the controls aren't tight enough to reflect that. It ends up feeling unfair.

 

I haven't finished the game yet, but I have to say, it's the first Ys game I've played that I can confidently say you can just skip and you aren't missing  much. Unless you want an origin story for Dogi, because that's covered in this game. But honestly, if you do want to play Oath in Felghana, play on very easy or easy. Even normal mode cooked me a few times, and it never felt earned. It just felt cheap. The enemies don't have the same rules as you. In other Ys games, you can knock enemies into spikes or whatever to gain an advantage, but not in this one. The spikes only hurt you, not the enemy.

 

I've replayed every other Ys game at least once (except 8, because it's really long). I doubt I will ever play Oath in Felghana again.

[crispy4000]

3 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

Final Fantasy VII Remake - 8/10

 

Much, much better than FFXV, but still, Squeenix just kind of fumbling the game in the final stretch. I loved it until the last couple hours. I am definitely excited for the next installment, and I LOVE how they treated the music for the game. I just think it kind of lost the plot in the final act.

 

I was both excited by the setup for the future, and really disappointed by how much it presumed you remembered about post-midgar.  Someone who never played the first game would be totally lost.

 

The final boss never bothered me like it did for some people though.  I was too impressed by the visuals to care about the absurdity of it, haha.

[Fizzzzle]

16 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

 

I was both excited by the setup for the future, and really disappointed by how much it presumed you remembered about post-midgar.  Someone who never played the first game would be totally lost.

 

The final boss never bothered me like it did for some people though.  I was too impressed by the visuals to care about the absurdity of it, haha.

That actually is something I thought about. Like, the game was clearly made for people who had played the original, let alone crisis core.

 

"Who is this game for?" Crossed my brain multiple times.

[Fizzzzle]

21 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

 

I was both excited by the setup for the future, and really disappointed by how much it presumed you remembered about post-midgar.  Someone who never played the first game would be totally lost.

 

The final boss never bothered me like it did for some people though.  I was too impressed by the visuals to care about the absurdity of it, haha.

Yeah I definitely felt like "who is this for?" The whole time

[stepee]

Beat New Super Luigi U Deluxe, never got around to that on Wiiu and for some reason when NSMBU came out I played through that again rather than the one I hadn’t beaten. It is of course very good. NSMBU is by far the best of the “New” series and this is more of that but a little harder. It’s probably a 10/10 or something because it’s a Mario platforming game. Happy I left that for me to play during this shitty 5+  year long Mario drought. 

 

New Super Luigi U Deluxe

F.I.S.T

Huntdown

[SaysWho?]

2023 Games

 

Starcraft (using SCII Mass Recall campaign)

Starcraft: Brood War (using SCII Mass Recall campaign)

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm

Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void

 

 

First time playing this with a new gaming laptop. It was nice to place ultra and not have any slowdown for once.  

 

Besides a useless shit joke in LOTV, it's definitely a huge step-up writing-wise from Heart of the Swarm. And Tychus Findlay really won me over a while ago. 

[crispy4000]

 

A much better game than its flaws suggest.

 

I’ve seen it described as a jack of all trades, master of none.  That’s true on some level, but we don’t see 3D Metroidvanias all that often.  Even fewer are in 3rd person.  That’s a reason enough to cut it some slack for dipping in and out of Uncharted and Souls-like tropes.

 

As much as I wish the power ups were more meaningful, I enjoyed the level and world design.  It’s not on the level of Metroid Prime 3, the closest parallel with its multiple planet structure.  But the pathways are still varied and interesting, at least outside of imperial sections.  If the map UI was less cumbersome, I think the world design would be better regarded.  Many of its secrets are well hidden, even if far too many are cosmetic.

 

Combat is good, not great.  I think its big problem is that you’re never quite sure how soon you can block or parry after being hit, or after your attack cooldown.  You need to utilize these defense options, but it still feels a little mashy against harder foes and bosses.  It’s like playing a fighting game where you get the basics, but don’t truly understand flow of it.  Still, on the whole, it does an admirable job melding the melee combat with platforming and traversal.

 

The final area feels bit rushed out the door, sadly.  But that’s counterbalanced by the music being exceptional throughout.  This is the best non-Williams Star Wars has ever sounded.  From two video game composers nonetheless.  Listen through the credits if you haven’t.  Disney, put them on a movie.

 

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - 8/10

 

 

2023 Games

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - 8/10

[gamer.tv]

Finally beat Fire Emblem Three Houses and thoroughly enjoyed it. I played the Blue Lions storyline and it too about 37 hours on casual. Times gone by, I’d keep this to replay again in the future, but that ain’t happening, so trade in, where we come! 
 

9.5/10. 

 

Next will either be Final Fantasy 6 as I’d love to actually beat it, or something on the Switch.

[best3444]

Just beat Dead Space remake. Phenomenal survival horror game and a very solid 9/10 game. 

[LazyPiranha]

13 Sentinels: Aegis

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!

 

—————————-

 

Bayonetta 3

 

 

…

 

….  
 

…eh?

 

Bayonetta has been one of my favorites since it came out.  It was an old school game if you didn’t just assume the term meant it was balls hard and hated you.  Old school games also had a sense of playfulness, a “who cares, it’s fun” attitude that permeated the entire thing.  Decades removed people still remember Ninja Gaiden for being impossibly unfair, but they forget that part of that impossible unfairness was football players charging at you atop snowy mountain peaks.  Why?  Fuck you, that’s why.

 

Bayonetta had that in spades.  I never gave a shit that she was wearing a skin tight suit made of hair, she gave a motorcycle the finger and that somehow hotwired it.  You fought on the ruins of buildings falling from impossible heights and murdered angels

built out of the remnants of gothic cathedrals.  It never cared why anything was happening as long as it was cool.  On top of that it had buttery smooth combat and genuinely challenging gameplay that was friendly enough to people who just wanted to breeze through whole engaging enough to people who wanted to dig in.

 

Three keeps the great combat (mostly) and just sort of loses the thread on the rest.  It’s sort of all over the place and it never manages to recapture that devil may care glee that one and two had.  If you want stylish action combat you’re in for a treat, but everything else just feels like a team spinning it’s wheels.  Without getting into the weeds with spoilers, you play a fair amount of the game as someone other than Bayonetta.  That’s fine in and of itself I suppose, and honestly the whole thing would be largely fine if it weren’t for one, exceedingly boneheaded decision.  This other character, for whatever reason, activates witch time by blocking instead of dodging.  Ok, fine, that makes no real world difference EXCEPT…. block is a different button than dodge.  So now, you have to take * checks calendar * 13 YEARS of muscle memory and flush it down the shitter for no real reason.  This character which you play a little less than half of the game with is needlessly annoying to play as because even if you ignore the part where you aren’t Bayonetta in a fucking Bayonetta game, you need to change how you control that character for no real reason.  Imagine you player Super Mario Bros for half the time as Luigi, and the jump button was switched.  You’d get used to it, but you’d resent the fact that you had to.

 

All told, I imagine this is the last Bayonetta game ever, or likely for a very, very long while and honestly, I’m kind of fine with that now.  I’d have been happy with a new entry every five years or so, but I’m no longer really that confident they have it.  I’m more than happy to take two excellent games and one pretty good one and leave it at that.  The original Bayonetta was a swan song to a game that doesn’t exist anymore, an absurd mishmash of whatever the hell people were thinking of at the time gleefully thrust in front of you with no restraint.  That it lasted this long at all is worthy of celebration.
 

 

[Demut]

I guess it was only a matter of time until someone developed a competitor game to Mahjong S*ul and ate their lunch. Riichi City might just be that game. It features the same kind of cutesy animoo gril* line-up and insufferable g*cha mechanics (although, hey, at least it's free, right?) but the latter are a smidge less greedy for now and the client itself runs more smoothly, looks better and, so far anyway, features events more frequently. The whole "daily quests" thing is also more interesting and varied and on top of that provides you with more generous rewards. Customization is largely the same although there is as of yet no option to change one's hand's appearance for instance. On the other hand (huehue), bonding with characters takes both less time and fewer resources than in MS*ul.

 

If I had to come up with an actual downside peculiar to Riichi City, it would be the currently limited player pool. This is far less notable in the lower ranks but as you gain access to the higher-ranked tables the number of peers grows smaller and subsequently it takes longer to find players for a round. Tonight, for example, there were a whopping 8 players in the queue for the Sun rooms or whatever they're called. But this issue should resolve itself as more people download the game and climb the ranks. In the meantime one can either continue playing in the lower rooms regardless (although that risks one's rank thanks to the disproportionately higher punishment for losing and lower reward for winning), pick another mode like Tournaments or join a private, unranked lobby.

 

Overall, I'd recommend the game to anyone who is looking for an accessible riichi mahjong client and is willing to put up with the saccharine aesthetic.

 

*Animoo fuckbois are available, too, but right now the selection there is much more limited than in MS*ul.

[stepee]

I see

[Demut]

You may wanna give it a try some time. It's a bit like a mix of poker and Rummikub. Easy enough to learn and, in my opinion, more fun than either of those two.

[LazyPiranha]

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!

Bayonetta 3

 

——————————-

 

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (GBC)

 

Ah, memories.  When this game was first shown, it didn’t seem physically possible that the Game Boy Color could possibly pull it off.  It’s a night and day comparison between this and other games on the system at the time.  I was so excited to get it and play it then… IGN gave it a four out of ten.  I bought it anyway because I just had to see it in action.  All these years removed, the fact that all I can remember about this game are the initial screenshots and the mediocre IGN review seems appropriate.

 

It’s fine.  Barely.  Even now, it’s still a weirdly impressive game to see in action, it looks shockingly good for the hardware.  Blowing it up to switch proportions or, god help you, a television screen robs some of the impact that the smaller screen gave it.  
 

Playing it on the other hand…. What little story the game has isn’t even worth talking about, it’s barely two hours long and that’s with getting lost.  The action scenes are a totally different style than the exploring and barely functional.  
 

If you have the Switch online service already, it’s worth poking at just to see what people were trying to squeeze out of the system towards its end, but beyond curiosity there’s not much else of worth.  A fun trip through my own personal nostalgia for a forgotten little game.

[LazyPiranha]

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!

Bayonetta 3
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (GBC)
 

—————————

 

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

 

Six Golden Coins is easier than I remember it being, I blew through it in one sitting and I feel like as a kid it would last me through lots of road trips.  Other than the easiness, it’s still good fun, great music, fun level themes, etc.  Unlike Alone in the Dark, this one is actually worth playing for something other than sheer curiosity.