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Where the hell did the year go? It doesn't feel like it was that long ago I joined in on this for the first time. It's been... a year of highs and lows for me but the gaming has been great throughout. Let's see if I can make me a ding dang list once more. Honorable Mentions: Wandersong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xfmb7S-aAI This absolutely would've made my list if I had actually played it myself. But I discovered this game through watching an LP of it. Boy is it a real treasure though. Super charming. Incredibly earnest and heartfelt. It was an experience I needed while my life is in a weird place. If anyone hasn't heard of or played this I highly recommend giving it a go. The world is in danger but you aren't a hero, you are a bard. It's cute, it's wholesome, it's got a lot of feelings. A real good one. Ocarina of Time: Randomizer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynXS-g3cht8 It's seriously insane how robust the Randomizer for this game is now. It's still getting updates and new features! I put Majora's Mask Randomizer on my list last year. I still love Majora's Mask more as a game but as a randomizer experience Ocarina of Time is the better one I feel. If you are a fan of the original game and want a reason to revisit it I can't recommend this enough. It breathes fresh life into the game and it's absurdly customizable to your preferences and skill level. Splatoon 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xh-HuNsoBw I really did love this game a ton but once I finished the single player and got my fill of multiplayer up through the first splatfest it fell off pretty hard for me. I'm not sure why it fell off because I enjoyed every minute I played but I guess it's just enough degrees to the side of my wheelhouse that it didn't stick. Still though it's a pretty fantastic game and I adore the series all the same for how unique, stylish, and fresh it is. Splatoon is basically it's own genre of music and I loving love it. --- Short Version 10. The Forgotten City 9. La-Mulana 8. Dicey Dungeons Reunion 7. AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative 6. Vampire Survivors 5. South Park: The Fractured But Whole 4. Apex: Legends 3. Live-A-Live 2. Pokemon Scarlet & Violet 1. Elden Ring. The List: 10. The Forgotten City https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDF3VFaHSz0 I tried this out at the beginning of the year at the recommendation of people from last year's thread and enjoyed it very much. You find yourself landed in a strange underground city, seemingly having been thrust way into the ancient past. There is no escaping and if a single person commits any act of sin everyone will die. It's up to you to explore the city, get to know its inhabitants, and figure out the mystery of whats going on and try to prevent the death and destruction of everyone. It's very enthralling. You can definitely tell it started life as a Skyrim mod in places, such as the stiff character performance and the occasional jank in the environment but it absolutely doesn't detract from the overall experience. Was a nice fun way to start the year. 9. La-Mulana (The trailer linked is for both games but this entry is specifically for the first game!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC8oLp73tSs I've known about this game for like a decade, it's one of my boyfriend's favorite games ever. Even played it a couple of times. But this year marked the occasion of me finally playing it through to completion which was a great experience I enjoyed. La-Mulana is an incredibly dense experience and it's one that does not hold your hand one bit. This game is well-known for it's difficulty both in its exploration combat and in its complex puzzles. But none of it is unfair, you're given the tools and the information to figure it all out. Accompanying the stellar gameplay experience are some beautifully rendered pixel environments and an amazing soundtrack to really sell that sense of adventure and mystery among the crazy ruins. If you've somehow never heard of this game and are interested in a Metroidvania style adventure that really tests your abilities and brain, please give this a try. 8. Dicey Dungeons Reunion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVsWXAAccVg Oh man this game. This game. It's been a huge favorite of mine for years and this year we got surprised with a big free DLC expansion. A roguelike where all of your equipment is fueled by dice rolls. On the surface that might sound like RNG Hell but the experience is so meticulously and cleverly designed around the concept that you actually have a surprising amount of control. Success comes from learning how to improvise with what you roll and how to manipulate dice with your equipment to get them where you want them. What seems like a simple premise at first becomes a surprisingly deep combat system with a lot of options available on how you go about your play. All wrapped up in a really cute, charming art style. And I'd be remiss to not mention the godlike soundtrack made by chipzel full of jazzy, game-showy, chiptuney jams that you can just vibe to. I love this game so much. 7. AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRBu6Es0qc4 Uchikoshi's Wild Ride never stops. From the brain that gave us the Zero Escape series. This is the second game in the Somnium Files series. Though this story is written in such a way that you don't need any knowledge of the first game to enjoy it I still highly recommend the first game too. Part visual novel, part escape room puzzle game, part murder mystery. It's a game full of fun characters and the story manages to straddle the line between dark murder mystery and extreme goofball nonsense perfectly. Throw in some wonderfully heartfelt character moments and you got a nice meaty sandwich of a game. I can't say too much without ruining some context but the basic idea here is that there's a murder mystery and you are solving it by going into the dream worlds of characters where poo poo can get surreal and funky. Definite recommend if any of this sounds intriguing to you. 6. Vampire Survivors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvMkS6GcxFU How is it that some of the most compelling games end up being the most simple? The concept here is simple: you kill enemies to level up, level up to get more gear, get more gear to kill more enemies. Repeat & Survive. Literally all you control is the movement of your character, everything else is automatic. And yet I've lost so many hours to this game. There's just some element of pure joy to having your character build run exponentially out of control as the game throws a ludicrous number of enemies at you until it struggles to run. Layered in this experience are a ton of unlockables and progression to make and a frankly ridiculous number of characters to change up every run. Sometimes all you need is a game to turn your brain off and just watch crazy poo poo happen and this game does that in spades. Also this game is literally only $4 while the DLC is only $2. They could be charging 3x this amount and it would still be worth the money. It's insane the bang for your buck this is. 5. South Park: The Fractured But Whole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5iH-uKHmfo This game has no right being as good as it is. I had played a decent chunk of Stick of Truth and enjoyed it so I while I expected to enjoy this game I didn't expect it to grab me so drat hard. It's South Park so whether or not you enjoy this game will hinge heavily on how much it's style of black comedy and crudeness jives with you. If you do jive with it though underneath the ridiculousness is a startlingly deep RPG system. On the surface none of the mechanical systems are all that complex on their own but everything layers together in a way that gives you a lot of freedom and is a lot of fun to engage with. You get a huge amount of customization in your character that really lets you fine tune how you want to function. You start off by picking one of three starter classes but as you go through the game you'll gradually unlock more classes to pick from as well as multi-classing (up to 4 by the last stretch of the game) to mix and match your own skillset. On top of this there's a wide variety of gear to let you further hone in on what you want your playstyle to look like. And then you get a metric shitton of allies to fill out your party with. I played on the Diabolical difficulty (read: Super Hard) for 99% of the game and while most of it wasn't that hard to handle there were definitely times where the game really made me work for victory, especially towards the end. There's also some combat challenges from DLC (which I think most editions of the game get bundled with now) that are legit some hardcore difficult battles to work through. Exploration is fun even if nothing super innovative. Exploring the world basically plays somewhat like a Paper Mario game, where you call upon various allies and use various abilities of your own to navigate around. The story is... well it's a South Park episode. It was entertaining but again that'll hinge on how you respond to South Park in general. Honestly everything about this game is just super polished and again I have to reiterate that it's weird that a South Park game of all things is this good. I spent about 20~25 hours on the main story and now I'm playing the DLC stuff and I'm still not tired of it. If you like a good RPG and the South Park name doesn't scare you away I highly recommend giving this one a shot. 4. Apex: Legends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha_VsTDmoGg This one is a surprise for me. As literally my first experience with the Battle Royale genre I wasn't sure how I was going to respond to it. But I finally got intrigued enough to give it a shot with a friend and got hooked pretty hard. Even when I'm crashing and burning real hard because my aim is horrible I'm having fun anyways. Even the bit of anxiety at first with playing with random other people was quickly assuaged. With the press of a button right at game start I can mute the other people in my squad and this isn't even really a detriment like you might think. This game has an incredibly robust pinging system that lets you communicate effectively and quickly with your teammates without ever requiring voice. This is also backed up by the characters having their own voice stabs for what their doing that keeps you aware of whats going on. Everything is designed in a way that I went from a baby who had never played a BR before being anxious about playing with other people to now having... 145 hours played jesus christ what the gently caress. Speaking of the characters I specifically appreciate the large cast of queer characters this game features. Bloodhound is non-binary, Valkyrie is a lesbian, Gibraltar is gay and the latest character to be released this season is a trans woman named Catalyst. That's not even listing everyone either. It does my queer heart good to have a game willing to have all these queer characters front and center. Hell the entire reason I decided to give the game a shot to begin with was because the internet erupted when they made a couple canon: Bloodhound (Non-binary) & Fuse (Pansexual) are dating and even got to kiss in an official lore video. It made a lot of idiots mad. It was great. Anyways uh... yeah Apex is pretty cool and fun and has dominated my life in a completely unexpected way. 3. Live-A-Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tQt3Nq8hTw I was one of the people that had played this originally through emulation with a translation patch. I loved it to pieces then when I experienced it for the first time. So to suddenly have news of a full remake thrown at me was insane. Nobody in their wildest dreams could have expected this to happen. But it did and I'm so happy. This remake is good too. Featuring the iconic and gorgeous HD 2D art style, a touched up modernized soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura herself, and the addition of voice acting this was basically a dream come true for any fan of the original game. All these years later and there's still nothing else like Live-A-Live. Each different character has their own story and each story is its own little genre to boot. Play as a wrestler in the modern day who wants to be the strongest fighter in the world and experience a combination of Mega Man & Street Fighter. Play as a little adorable robot companion in the distant future while an Aliens-esque horror plot takes hold around you. Each character and story is like its own little experiment in what stories you can tell and what gameplay you can put together in a JRPG shell. It's like a little variety chocolate box in game form. There's more beneath the surface that I won't elaborate on but this game is an incredible piece that I highly recommend everyone go experience. It's so very good and the remake is fantastic. 2. Pokemon Scarlet & Violet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSMqv0EKZPw This is simultaneously the most ambitious and well-realized Pokemon game in years and a big mess. Let's just address the elephant in the room right away: Yes this game runs bad. Yes it looks terrible. Yes there's a lot of bugs and issues and this game should've been left in the oven for more time. I still loved every single minute I've played of it in spite of all the issues. Once you move past the problems this game is the best Pokemon experience in recent years. You are given a lot of freedom even during the early portion of the game to run off and explore on your own and once the game truly opens up you are left to your own devices. You don't get railroaded down one path, you don't get fenced off from places by NPCs telling you No. You get to run off and decide your own journey. There is actually a set level to every objective and region and such so there's an "intended path" of the order you go through objectives but the game doesn't stop you from throwing down with pokemon 30+ levels above you and getting your rear end kicked if that's what you want to try to do. And it's great! Pokemon has always had a problem of railroading the player too much so this game just being open and free from the word go is fantastic. The storylines are a breath of fresh air too. They aren't like groundbreaking or anything but they are enjoyable stories with fun characters. I enjoyed all three of the main plotlines in this game. The finale is some amazingly good JRPG eats and I wouldn't dare spoil any of it for anyone. Also this soundtrack kicks rear end. Pokemon has never had bad music really but they really stepped it up this time around with a lot of great bangers. I suppose it helps that a handful of tracks were composed by Toby Fox himself. I've put a lot of hours into this game and still am probably not quite done with it yet still. It will always be a shame that any talk of it will be with an asterisk beside it because of the underbaked technical issues the game suffers. But it's still be an incredible experience as someone that's been someone on-and-off with the series. I got into competitive battling for the first time ever with this game! I never thought I'd ever do that with how overwhelming all the nitty gritty training stuff always sounds but they made it super accessible this gen. Good stuff. 1. Elden Ring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKXiKBnzpBQ Surprising no one Elden Ring clocks in at #1. With the 100+ hours I put into it there was no way to justify putting it any lower. This game is just incredibly sublime. I was doubtful at first of how they would ever manage a Soulsborne style open world game and with how long the wait stretched out I think a lot of people were worried about how the game would be. Unfounded worries as it turns out now. What even can I say that other people haven't already? The world is mind-numbingly huge and gorgeous and there's something to find in every little corner and crevice. The sense of discovery in the game is unmatched and its one of those experiences you'll wish you could forget and experience all over again. Finding Siofra River for the first time had my jaw on the floor. You can just lose yourself in exploring and chilling out in the world without even progressing anything. It's a gorgeously crafted world. I'd recommend everyone give the game a shot even if you aren't typically into Soulsborne games because it is just a magical experience. It also probably makes for the easiest game to try to get into because for the first time you are given an incredibly powerful option for dealing with difficult roadblocks: If it sucks, hit da bricks. You are very rarely forced into a roadblock to progress. If you find yourself ramming your head into a difficult enemy you can't seem to win against just go somewhere else for awhile. Elden Ring truly does feel like a culmination of everything From Soft have been doing. Like every Soulsborne game that came before was building up to it. I can't recommend it highly enough I lost my life to this game for weeks it's an incredible experience. Also you get a very good horse friend and you can feed him raisins. YoshiOfYellow fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Dec 29, 2022 |
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Dec 24, 2022 02:24
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Look you can put thought into a post at least once a year.
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Dec 25, 2022 02:55
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Love to see all the love the AI games are getting in this thread. 
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Dec 27, 2022 21:01
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I knew I'd regret making my list early. I was gifted South Park Fractured But Whole for Christmas and it's a startlingly good game. Like dang it's legit a real fun RPG. But I legitimately don't know what I'd bump on my list to make room for it if I wanted to revise it. Gaming is stressful.
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Dec 27, 2022 22:46
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Rarity posted:(Held for results) Quoting you for ease of visibility: I've revised my list. 10. The Forgotten City 9. La-Mulana 8. Dicey Dungeons Reunion 7. AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative 6. Vampire Survivors 5. South Park: The Fractured But Whole 4. Apex: Legends 3. Live-A-Live 2. Pokemon Scarlet & Violet 1. Elden Ring. YoshiOfYellow posted:5. South Park: The Fractured But Whole I suppose it wouldn't be a year end game list if I don't have to gently caress with it at least once. 
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Dec 29, 2022 05:18
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Triangle Strategy as a name. Any other name would feel like it's trying way too hard. Triad Tactics? Tripath Traveler? Triple Triad? ....wait
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Dec 30, 2022 02:28
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Aw poo poo, 7th Guest has arrived. This is that good poo poo. It was the moment that made my first GotY Thread experience last year feel magical. 
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Dec 30, 2022 22:57
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VideoGames posted:Games drat son, you're trying to steal my heart by including Majora's Mask, FFIX, and FFX on a list in 2022. That is a loving stellar list you got there.
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Dec 31, 2022 01:36
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Goddamn Mirror's Edge getting a #1 this year. These lists are loving fire lot of great opinions from y'all.
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Dec 31, 2022 11:24
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Oh man I hadn't been fully paying attention to Crystal Project but it definitely looks like something I'd have a lot of fun with. Curses that I'm perpetually poor during the biggest game buying time of the year with this thread. 
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Dec 31, 2022 21:33
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CAR CRASH CRACKERS posted:
Playing this on PS5 thanks to Christmas and I have a strong feeling it'll be on my list next year. I'm absorbed!
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Jan 1, 2023 09:43
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:I have caught up on this thread, so many good lists. I'd be curious to see what that list looks like for my own personal curiosity. I've got a few games I'm considering eventually but there was A Lot in this thread to read through.
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Jan 2, 2023 00:43
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I like this thread direction. I saw someone put in select music track links in their list and that's an idea I might just have to steal for next year. Anyways, here's some of my picks from games I played. South Park: The Fractured But Whole - Spontaneous Bootay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGbs5bWig5E Splatoon 3 - Lobby 09 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkIrasP5KVk AI: The Somnium Files nirvanA Initiative - Neurotic Inception https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQcorqztVE8 Dicey Dungeons Reunion - Swing Me One More Six https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZuyTP1z4wo Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - Battle! Cassiopeia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgbh7j7nnmI YoshiOfYellow fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Jan 2, 2023 |
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Jan 2, 2023 05:43
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I didn't realize you could not have embeds. Fair enough, I've labeled all my links in my last post. Everyone deserves to experience Spontaneous Bootay.
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Jan 2, 2023 08:31
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Well I can already say that Cyberpunk 2077 is gonna be on my list for next thread. The constant post-launch support has really done a lot for the game. It's sucking my life away.
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Jan 3, 2023 21:02
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I missed a large chunk of the countdown since it started in the rear end crack of dawn for my time but I'm here now. Been quoted once so far.
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Jan 7, 2023 21:08
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I've been obsessed with Cyberpunk at the start of this year and it will absolutely be high on my next list. It's been incredibly fun.
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Jan 7, 2023 21:34
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Live-A-Live just barely missing the Top 20. Deserves higher but I'll be happy with that. Just garnering so much praise and attention with how old a game it is makes my heart full of warmth. It was so wonderful to watch people experience it for the first time was a joy.
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Jan 7, 2023 21:55
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Looks like I still got 4 games that haven't showed up yet. Things are heating up now!
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Jan 7, 2023 22:04
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Between last year's thread and this thread (for now) I've consistently been quoted on every game of mine that's ranked. You just gotta write some quality content. 
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Jan 7, 2023 22:25
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So 3 of my games make it to the top 10. Not bad.
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Jan 7, 2023 22:34
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Lol at Pokemon SV placing above Ragnarok. Get in losers we're going shiny hunting.
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Jan 7, 2023 23:28
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More people should cry more often.
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Jan 7, 2023 23:57
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drat, we knew Elden Ring would sweep #1 easily but that's a helluva mountain of #1 rankings. I'll be first to volunteer for my GotY probate if y'all are handing those out again this year.  (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jan 8, 2023 00:14
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Oh me and my match were basically only a match because we both ranked Pokemon SV #2 and Elden Ring #1. So it goes when you have a weird collection of games in your list. Still though these extra stats and gamer matches and stuff are incredibly cool, this thread gets better and better every year I love it. I'll see y'all in 11 months when I rank Cyberpunk stupidly high in a year full of other releases.
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Jan 9, 2023 00:27
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:There we have it. Thread over as soon as it rolls to 70. See you all in 11 months!!
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Jan 9, 2023 01:51
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