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2023 was stacked this year for gaming. I didn't get half of the games that came out this year because I was too busy playing the other half. And I really struggled with the order for my top 3 this year. ~DemoneeHo's 2023 Game of the Year Rankings~ -Honorable Mentions- FFXIV I have not once canceled my subscription. Eventually I will run out of content between now and the release of the next expansion. Process of Elimination Nippon Ichi released a murder mystery Visual Novel with a twist: what if the investigation played like a watered down SRPG instead? The story is good with fun characters, but the actual gameplay of the investigation leaves a lot to be desired. You can draw a lot of parallels with Danganronpa with its writing and character designs. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Speaking of Danganronpa, the creators of Danganronpa made a new mystery game. It’s decent enough, but only about half of the cases were interesting. It never quite reaches the highs nor the lows of its predecessor, but it is a fun enough romp. Hopefully they’ll release a sequel on a console with actual processing power. Wario Land 3 Played this for the first time on the Switch, and I’d say it holds up very well as a Metroidvania-esque game.Tons of stages and secrets to discover. World of Horror The not-Junji Ito horror rougelite finally released version 1.0. It’s alright, kinda bs hard. But I’ll chalk that up to skill issue and haven’t had that much time to play it. We’ll see how I feel by next year’s goty list. Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog RIP Sonic, 1991-2023  Sayonara Wild Hearts This is not how it ends, this is not goodbye 'Cause wild hearts never die Wild hearts never die We're just changing our shape like butterflies 'Cause wild hearts never die Wild hearts never die Gravity Circuit Very cool Megaman X/Zero-inspired game. Instead of shooting or slicing foes, you get to beat them up with your fists. Super fun, would love to see a sequel. The Roottrees Are Dead Another game in the Obra Dinn-like genre. I think that makes 3 total? It just barely missed out on the top 10 for me, but that is due to heavy competition this year.. Anyways it’s free and fun. Go play now. -The Top Ten-   10. No More Heroes 3 Awesome Holiday in the Sky Travis is back in a crazy, surreal goofball adventure. The trademark Suda51 writing shines throughout the game with offbeat humor and bombastic personality. And I did like most of the combat changes that this game implemented. But I didn’t love it as much as I did with NMH1 and 2. While mowing through a lawn of tall grass was oddly relaxing, I found myself missing the standard stages of mowing through waves of enemies in a bloody orgy of violence as a lead up to each boss. And fighting through shorter, closed-off battles located in a choppy overworld doesn’t scratch that same itch. Still, after Travis Strikes Back had stages that lasted way too long, I can live with the gameplay flow of 3.   9. The Case of the Golden Idol The Watching Eye The other game in the Obra-Dinn-like genre. Pick up a bunch of keywords and names, plug them into blanks and hope you got the right combination. Unlike most other mystery games where you determine who killed who, you also have to work backwards and find out the story leading up to each death. All the while picking up on the overarching plot of intrigue that ties each chapter together. It’s a unique and novel way to tell a story. The art and setting are very atmospheric. I just wish the game were longer. Highly recommend getting both of the dlc’s.  8. 30XX Skybound Since Megaman games are in a state of constant re-releases, other developers have stepped up to make some really good Megaman clones, like the aforementioned Gravity Circuit. 30XX is both a Megamanlike and a Roguelike that blends both concepts together rather nicely. Unlike 20XX which resembled an old Newgrounds Flash game, this game is fully pixelated and looks fantastic. Bright and vibrant graphics with a really catchy soundtrack. X and Zero, sorry, Nina and Ace let you play with two familiar play styles that have been expanded on. You can run and gun with a buster, and combine boss weapons into absurd attacks. Or you can get up close to enemies and hack them to bits with melee attacks. Add in the usual roguelite elements, you can get some really absurd weapon loadouts, which you’ll need to take down some late game bosses. Lots of replay value, and the fanmade stages on the steam workshop ain’t half bad. I’ll be playing this one years to come.  7. Fire Emblem Engage Bloom in the Breeze Straight up, FE Engage is jam packed full of tough maps that push you towards your limits. And yes, the writing of the main story largely exists to move characters from fight to fight with some standard fluff about family. So it is the strategy game equivalent of a Fast and Furious movie. Fortunately the gameplay more than makes up for the main story. A lot of chapters offer up challenging battles and interesting map design. There is a crazy amount of character customization, and combining that with the Ghosts of Emblem Past allows for some galaxy brain strategies. And you can find some fun character writing if you bother to, uh, engage with your units. The game is not without some criticism of its mechanics, but it is a fun strategy game through and through.  6. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo The Storyteller A horror/mystery adventure game/visual novel? Yes please! The premise is that the real life urban legends known as the Seven Wonders of Honjo (actually nine) are in fact curses that have lingered for many years. And one night these curses activate and attach themselves to seven random people (actually nine) in town, who are told to kill each other. Now ordinary people have to utilize their new powers to navigate a deadly web of chaos and figure out how to get out of this alive. By which I mean they engage in Bizarre Jojo Battles. There is a lot to gush about this game. The cast has a bunch of fun personalities, and the overarching mystery is quite gripping. The writing is top notch. Every twist and turn has the player guessing what comes next. Just a really solid story that I wish lasted longer than the seven hours (actually nine) it took me to complete it. Side note: someone else earlier in the thread mentioned some mechanical similarities with 428 Shibuya Scramble. I would also put that on my top 10, but I didn’t play that this year.   5. Risk of Rain Returns Coalescence Risk of Rain 1 is one of my favorite games of all time. I love the chaos of playing as a tiny little person fighting against huge swarms of huge enemies that explode into a rain of coins due to item interactions that I don’t quite understand. And now there is a new version of it with new characters, new modes, and most importantly, a functional multiplayer. It’s all I ever wanted.   4. Vampire Survivors Forest Night Fever Today I will select [THE DOG] character and I will pick up the [THOUSAND BLADES] weapon and the [BAYONETTA GUNS] weapon and the [POPEYE VEGETABLE] passive and kill [43827] enemies.   3. Hi-Fi Rush The Rush Invaders Must Die Whirring This one just came out of nowhere, but I’m glad that it did. Who knew that the studio behind The Evil Within would make a game about a slacker who gets a robot arm and an ipod heart that lets him beat up robots with a guitar? And it just works. Take a simplified DMC or Bayonetta game, blend it with some rhythm minigames, add in a dash of saturday morning cartoon and anime aesthetics, a rockin’ soundtrack, and finally some goofball humor, and you’ll end up with one of the most fun beat em up game released in years. The game isn’t without some flaws. Enemies with color-coded barriers break the flow of combat. Platforming is vestigial. Some stages could have been broken up into multiple shorter ones. I really hated an escape sequence that has an instant death failure. But I also remember the parts that I loved about the game. How I got better at timing beats to string together some kickass combo attacks. I love the goofball jokes and homages and Chai’s idiotic antics. I love the boss battles and fighting wave after wave of deadly robots set to music by The Prodigy or Nine Inch Nails or a cover of Fiona Apple. It’s a game that knows that it is silly and isn’t afraid to be earnestly silly.   2. Armored Core VI: The Fires of Rubicon Contact With You Once again From Software made a game that kicked my rear end and once again I was forced to git gud. Armored Core VI is fast, intense, pulse-pounding. It pushed my reflexes to the limit. I got wrecked more times than I can remember. I died 20 times to the last boss of chapter 2. I swore at the game, put it down for 5 minutes, and came back and beat the fucker. It’s a thrilling game. It’s exhilarating. It’s difficult. It tells the story of humans crushed by rampant capitalism. It tells the story of a race of people struggling to fight for survival. It tells the story of bloodthirsty warriors out for a challenge. It tells the story of those traumatized by the past and their doomed journey to control the future. It tells the story of friendship and loyalty. The customization in this game is top notch. You make any mech you want. Lightweight and zippy and frail. Big and tanky and full of ammo. Whatever the situation calls for, you can make any crazy build you want. Make your AC look like EVA 01, or give it the ol’ Spongebob paint job. There is no “right” or “wrong” AC, there are only ACs that defeat the enemies. At this point I'm rambling. Armored Core Vi is an excellent wait. Rev up those engines, fight against gravity, let the thrill of battle take you.      1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Colgera Battle It’s loving Zelda. Okay, i’ll try to do a proper writeup. BOTW was in my top 3 Zelda games, below Majora’s Mask and Link’s Awakening. It completely redefined the series in its approach to nonlinearity and freedom to let the player approach any situation however they so choose. The map was huge and had a metric ton of secrets. How were they going to improve on that? Rather than make a new map wholecloth, Nintendo instead revamped the physics engine and turned the game into Zelda Nuts and Bolts. Now players had better powers to play with and more tools to get around any situation. Make a rocket glider or a hover bike or a flamethrowing deathbot. You could create whatever mechanical monstrosity you wanted to in order transport Koroks or fly across ravines. It’s loving insane the sheer amount of options available to you. The sky’s literally the limit. Dungeons did see improvement in terms of level design. They were still rather easy to beat like in its predecessor, but at least the temples felt like dungeons. I do have to knock on the underground map. It is too big and boring and bland. And the story has absolutely no faith in its characters. Just let Link’s friends have some degree of reactivity to the plot, I beg you Nintendo. And speaking of said friends, wow, they really chose that way to implement the sage powers. Baffling decision. Despite the fact that I was going through the same Hyrule as before, I still had fun discovering new secrets and shrines. TOTK really gets me in a way that most other open world games cannot. No stupid waymark pointing out every attraction on the field. Just pure freedom to travel the land and sky, wind blowing in Link's hair, however I want. Anyways, that wraps up 2023 for me. Now I gotta see what all the hype is about for BG3 and Lethal Company. Top 10 for 2023 10. No More Heroes 3 9. The Case of the Golden Idol 8. 30XX 7. Fire Emblem Engage 6. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo 5. Risk of Rain Returns 4. Vampire Survivors 3. Hi-Fi Rush 2. Armored Core VI: The Fires of Rubicon 1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
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Dec 27, 2023 23:42
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Top ten cool/interesting games that I never heard of until reading this thread and added to my steam wishlistImpAtom posted:1. In Stars and Time DalaranJ posted:
Nephthys posted:The Sekimeiya – An interesting form of mystery, I thought this had a lot of potential and I love the quality of life features such as a full reference system and section to write notes about each scene. The writing is good and the mysteries are genuinely really loving difficult. If you want a measure of how good this year was, I was fairly sure this was going to be in my top 3 when I finished it and it somehow didn't even make the top 10. An Actual Princess posted:6. corru.observer Jossar posted:
Erwin the German posted:6. Shadows of Doubt Venuz Patrol posted:9. BOSSGAME: The Final Boss is Your Heart Oxxidation posted:7. Turbo Overkill Mix. posted:27. MalViolence Mix. posted:
Rogue AI Goddess posted:1. Elsinore
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Jan 1, 2024 22:26
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Microcline posted:DemoneeHo Those recommendations are all games that I do actually wanna play and haven't yet, so thats pretty accurate. How does everyone feel about Hitman 2? Better or worse than its prequel or sequel?
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Jan 17, 2024 16:50
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Chaos... reigns
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Jan 18, 2024 04:52
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