I sadly didn't get around to enough 2023 games for a comprehensive (and objectively 100% correct) ranking of the year's greatest so instead I've prepared a selection of miscellaneous "Best Of" categories and other rundowns for you to peruse at your leisure over the holiday break.
This certainly wasn't motivated by any sort of ugly jealousy spawned by everyone else's writing getting more attention. Wait, did I say the quiet part loud again?
Games of a Year
Welcome to Games of a Year, a list that highlights games of a year—which is to say any year, not necessarily this year—that I enjoyed the most in 2023. Pulled from my "List of Games Beaten", I've selected both a favorite and a runner-up for each month. I do plan on playing more 2023 games eventually but I'm in no rush, hi-fi or otherwise. Let them drop in price and get all their patches (looking at you, Starfield) and free DLC first; I've plenty to be getting on with in the meantime.
January: Vampire Survivors (2022)
While huddled around a fragile candlestick one dark and dreary night Dracula's minions wondered aloud why they didn't all attack the interloping Belmonts at the same time, and so Vampire Survivors was born. A twin-stick (twin-stake?) shooter that only uses the one in truth, Vampire Survivors not only created a compelling run-based gameplay loop right out of the gate but continued to embellish it with regular mostly-free content updates just in the off-chance we were about to get burned out on getting merked by chromatic psychopomps after our permitted half-hour of mass slaughter. It's a game with far more nuance and depth than it first lets on but never stops being crowd-pleasing (and crowd-avoiding) fun.
Runner-up: Psychonauts 2 (2021). Helps to be in the right headspace for a game like this.
February: Chained Echoes (2022)
Sea of Stars looks to be the big mainstream-breaching throwback RPG of 2023, but Chained Echoes helped set the stage with its equally adept balancing act of taking what we loved about those older games and marrying it to the modern conveniences and deeper waters we've come to expect from our contemporary RPGs. The worldbuilding has more than a few surprises, the cast all have their distinct personalities and combat roles alike, the mech suits let you pretend you're playing Xenosaga if you're the kind of sicko who's into that, and the Reward Board gives you plenty of extracurricular activities to tackle if you ever need a break from the main progression. Just a really solid and quite substantial game for its weight class.
Runner-up: Eastward (2021). Great work slipping an English language Mother 3 past Nintendo without them noticing.
March: F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch (2021)
There's nothing particularly inventive or revolutionary about F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch but I found myself frequently floored by the amount of earnest, gritty yarn-spinning and presentational chops that went into the game, creating a well-realized steampunk universe of talking animals with thousand-yard stares and difficult personal histories. It's also a highly competent explormer that reminded me frequently of Shadow Complex between its gun-toting foes, mature narrative, and "2.5D" format, and was one of the strongest of its genre that I played this year (and I played many, as I'm known to do). Plus, electric whips. Why can't more games let me have an electric whip? C'mon. I'm responsible enough.
Runner-up: Sunset Overdrive (2014). They really didn't need to make any more open-world city games after this.
April: Lost Judgment (2021)
My annual RGG Studio RPG playthrough saw me once again occupy Takayuki Yagami's stylish loafers as the former yakuza orphan turned public defender turned streetwise private eye took on a case that tapped into the long-term, widespread psychological harm caused by both bullying and suicide: two horrifying scenarios that are sadly all too quotidian. Mostly, though, it's an excuse to ride a skateboard, build robots, hang out at flirty dive bars, scare the crap out of people with the new Snake martial arts style, take someone else's pet dog out to hunt for treasure, and just generally go around giving highschoolers a hard time because you're an adult and they can't do shit to you. Sure, there's a main plot, but that's sort of missing the point of these games.
Runner-up: Metroid Dread (2021). As suspenseful as Breaking Bad, and has almost as many E.M.M.I.s.
May: Severed Steel (2021)
As Mirror's Edge taught us, there's no FPS that can't be improved with parkour and this game takes that axiom to its absolute zenith with its high-paced gunplay and vertiginous platforming as you shred your way through dozens of foes with the most stylish leaps, wall-runs, slides, and flips, all of which are encouraged through concrete gameplay advantages in addition to the mostly incidental "cool factor". I'm also a mark for any game that lets you defeat enemies by kicking open a door real hard. As a zealous votary at the Church of Vanquish—a Vanquishitor, if you like—Severed Steel is the sort of disciple I wish would've appeared more frequently in its wake.
Runner-up: Rising Dusk (2018). Methadone for collectathon addicts.
June: Mortal Shell (2020)
This year produced some apparently stellar Soulslikes, with Lies of P and Remnant II leading the pack, but stuck playing catch-up as I am my pick for best merciless action-RPG was Mortal Shell, which like many Indie games does its best to drill down to the fundamentals of what FromSoft's series is all about in lieu of something much closer to their vast content and scope, often beyond an Indie studio's budget. Mortal Shell in particular eschewed much of the character-building the Souls games are known for in order to give players a group of titular shells, class archetypes in so many words, that offered a small amount of skill customization. Everything else, from the memorable bosses to the ever-present foreboding sense of danger, was remarkably well replicated with a fraction of the cost.
Runner-up: Unsighted (2021). No Zelda game has ever had the balls to make you Sophie's Choice the residents of Kakariko Village.
July: Tales of Arise (2021)
I was happily surprised by how much attention Tales of Arise got from this site and elsewhere, which sees the Tales franchise find a new peak—at least mechanically—as it tweaks its ever-versatile LMB System to include more in the way of evasive maneuvers to add a bit more dynamism to the combat and expand the utility of glass cannon melee types like Law. Much of the game operates like Tales has always done: there's some business with two worlds competing with each other, characters tend to be serious during cutscenes but less so during optional "skits" that offer both comedic asides and incidental lore and personal backstories, and there's a fair few character development features including Graces F's title-based progression (that is, accessing new passive skills to learn by hitting milestones and other achievements) and the usual system of arranging your combat arte bindings to find serviceable combos. This was my twelfth Tales game and for as similar as they all can be I'm still motivated to check out the rest someday.
Runner-up: Sable (2021). Like the prologue of A New Hope just with fewer crispy skeletons.
August: The Great Ace Attorney (2021)
I'm not sure if there's a term for it—jingomasochism, maybe?—but I can't get enough of games made by foreigners that constantly dump on the British. The period pieces that are The Great Ace Attorney games see Phoenix Wright's Meiji era ancestor Ryunosuke travel to London to learn how to become an effective defense attorney, inspired by his (way more confident) friend Kazuma, and while there must countenance the true horror of a jury system staffed by the dimmest and most mercurial denizens our fair capital has to offer. The highlight of these games though, at least comedically speaking, are when you're forced to correct Herlock Sholmes's mad guessworks of deductions; the game keeps it close to the chest whether Sholmes is an actual dummy or just does all this to mess with the strait-laced protagonist. Either way, it's a fun dynamic in a game that clearly didn't lose any of the franchise's surreal silliness after travelling back in time a hundred years. (The sequel's just as good if a bit more climactic; I completed it soon after since they came as a pair in their localized forms.)
Runner-up: Kaze and the Wild Masks (2021). Donkey Kong platformers really put me through the wringer this year, even when they weren't actually Donkey Kong.
September: Splasher (2017)
We're now six years removed (soon to be seven) from the annum in question but that I'm still finding Top Twenty GOTY candidates for 2017, the Busiest (Increasingly Less) Recent Year for Games, really emphasizes just how special it was. Splasher's an absolutely wonderful platformer in the Super Meat Boy mold where the controls are every bit as fluid as the viscous ammo that spurts from its titular goop-shooter (I could've made this sentence less gross, but opted not to). However, while it is certainly exacting, it never goes full masocore like its inspiration and I found its difficulty curve palatable from beginning to end. That the same devs then went on to create Tinykin, another recent platforming favorite, was no surprise in retrospect. I'm just glad if flabbergasted that I can upturn and shake the cookie jar that was 2017 and still have the occasional delicious crumb like this pop out.
Runner-up: The Room 4: Old Sins (2021). It's said the oldest sin of all is betrayal. I fed up with this world.
October: Dark Souls (with randomizer hacks) (2011)
I would argue that you've never truly played Dark Souls unless you've had the good fortune of having half the end-game bosses swapped out for Kalameet and Artorias while having to feverishly check every nook and cranny in every optional (and DLC) area for the critically important Lordvessel and Lord Souls before you're allowed to finish the game. Such was playing Dark Souls with two randomizer hacks activated—one for enemies, one for items—and certainly among the most memorable experiences I've ever had with that franchise. I also had the opportunity to discover just how broken mage builds are in those games, giving me plenty of food for thought for when the next Elden Ring arrives.
Runner-up: Hell Pie (2022). Get your fill of demonic baked goods or, if you will, a Hornish Pasty.
November: Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (2021)
The best CRPGs are where you start off losing every other fight with big centipedes and end it stomping demigods by performing eight critical hits a round. The power fantasy experience is very real in Wrath of the Righteous thanks in large part to its OP Mythic Class progression, as well as an expansive amount of content as you take on a country occupied by endless demon forces with either your military (protip: hire lots of archers) or a small adventuring crew. In the midst of all the min-maxing and munchkin malarkey I discovered a decent core of a "chosen one" trope-subverting narrative (in some way reminiscent of KOTOR II's, even), some relatable stalwart companions each with their own messes to clean up, and such a thorough exploration of the Pathfinder world and ruleset that I couldn't have found a better introduction to Not-Dungeons-and-Dragons if I tried. Now, ask me anything about my rapier dual-wielding finesse-build Slayer!Deliverer MC with all her Angelic buffs and Ranger feats.
Runner-up: Umineko When They Cry: Question Arcs (2016). What's going on? Who cares! Internet debate me, Ushiromiya Battleeeeeer!
December: Pikmin 4 (2023)
I don't even have to write anything more about Pikmin 4: my half-sane musings managed to make it into an official Giant Bomb front page article (with contributions from many other fellow mods). I like Pikmin. I love Oatchi. I don't like tower defense or stressful time trials, but those weren't enough to spoil the fun. I'm just so pleased Nintendo went back to Pikmin 2 for inspiration, vindicating my long-held belief that it's the best one by a mile. They even brought my spooky buddy the Waterwraith back. Just wonderful. My tentative 2023 Game of the Year if anyone asks, though we'll see if it stays as such this time again next year.
Runner-up: The Forgotten City (2021). Like Groundhog Day, only more Pax Romana than Paxatawney.
Animento
Just a ranking of the 15(ish) best(ish) anime I watched this year. I sure did watch a lot. The medium collectively occupied the "something to stick on while I eat" role for most of the meals I had this year. (I won't be ranking those meals too, incidentally, since most of them were sandwiches and pasta dishes. Just a whole lot of carbs; probably won't regret that in fifteen years...)
The Eminence in Shadow (Seasons 1 and 2)
You've possibly seen or heard of enough isekai shows where the protagonist becomes some untouchable godlike entity through his OP cheat skills, but what if that protagonist was also an oblivious dipshit who badly wanted to be Shadow the Hedgehog? You'd get one of the funniest (yet somehow still badass as hell) isekai parodies around. I... Am... suggesting you give this show a shot, at least up to episode 5. (Best character: Delta.)
Isekai Ojisan (Season 1)
And here we have another isekai parody, only this time with a middle-aged guy who loves the Sega Saturn showing his nephew and his nephew's girlfriend-in-all-but-name his adventures in another world through a magical memory viewscreen. Dude's so much a boomer that he predates tsundere culture so he has no idea that all the annoying women who keep insulting him are actually being affectionate (he keeps finding ways to ditch them instead) and he approaches every problem in the least smooth way imaginable. It's a lot more amusing than I make it sound. (I also appreciated the synergy between it and my Sega-themed Mega Archive blog feature too.) (Best character: Mabel.)
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Season 1)
Still ongoing, but this fantasy anime explores the sort of emotional detachment an elf would necessarily have towards her shorter-lived human and dwarf party companions. Seeking answers on what her old party actually meant to her, and she to them, she embarks on another long quest with the protégés of her elderly and/or deceased friends. I really love the pace and quiet emotional intelligence of this series; it has the unhurried vibe of a Ghibli movie, and is as beautiful to boot. (Best character: Frieren.)
Spy x Family (Season 2)
James Bond, Killing Eve, and Stephen King's Carrie create a fake family for the sake of being inconspicuous and it's still the most wholesome thing ever, somehow. I adore the show's style too, adapting a metropolitan 1950s flair with the occasional anachronism along with some of the best intro animations since Cowboy Bebop. The second season is as delightful as the first, with the highlight being a protracted arc on a cruise ship that shows off just how stupidly strong and resourceful Yor Forger can be when she's cornered. (Best character: The dog. BORF!)
Bocchi the Rock! (Season 1)
Introverted guitar prodigy gets talked into joining an all-girl rock band, social challenges ensue. I respect this show for being a very accurate portrayal of someone so socially awkward that it's almost worth putting them into a zoo and studying them for science. Bocchi the Rock! depicts these overthinking freak-outs with some really imaginative animation work, so even while it's just a show about a fledgling highschool band it still manages to be visually distinct and wild. Naturally, it's also strong on its audio component too. (Best character: PA-san. Hope we get more of this mysterious unnamed goth cutie next season.)
Helck (Season 1)
A hulking yet cheerful He-Man-looking dude shows up at the demon capital and participates in a contest to be their new leader. His reason? "I wanna kill all the humans." This show is a rollercoaster of tonal shifts but I got swept up with both its emotional, dramatic moments as well as those times when it remembered it was a comedy. I could really use a second season to see how it all ends. Also, all the demon characters are precious and I want to hang out with them. (Best character: Hyura.)
Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story (Season 2)
The gayest ladies in professional sports are back for a second (and probably final) season of this raucous golfing dramedy where everyone has special golf attacks that can knock down trees and split the atom and shit. This season's biggest dramatic hurdle is the possibility that the heroines are actually half-sisters and can't be in lesbians with each other any more. It's all ludicrous superpowered soap opera nonsense, but the kind that makes certain sports anime sing. And I don't even like golf. (Best character: Vipere, the villainess that uses sexy snake pheromones or something to throw opponents off their game. She now has a yacht and a himbo and has mellowed out considerably.)
Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games Is Tough for Mobs (Season 1)
In most isekai where the guy reincarnates in his favorite video game, he's stoked. In this, the hero was hoodwinked into 100%-ing a kusoge otome dating game (the ones where all the love interests are dudes) for his crappy sister and despised the whole experience. He then dies of exhaustion, wakes up in that same game as a background NPC, panics for a while, and then decides to use every glitch and cheap DLC gamebreaker to mess up that world's careful balance while humiliating the love interests that gave him so much trouble. The sheer vindictive glee behind his actions is what makes this show shine. Some of the most fun I've had with an isekai, excepting similar parodies above. (Best character: Luxion. The AI of the overpowered, anachronistic DLC spaceship (think Invincible from FF9) that the protagonist hijacks through forbidden knowledge. The only way the two are able to bond is because the ship hates all the other characters too.)
Yuri is My Job! (Season 1)
I figured this would be another wholesome yuri rom-com: a haughty, insincere popular girl-type learns some harsh life lessons after being blackmailed into working for a "concept cafe" where the staff are constantly embroiled in fictional G-rated lesbian highschool drama where they have to stay in character throughout (maintaining what I call "gayfabe"). Instead, the place is a pit of vipers and absolutely no-one is sympathetic or likeable except the cook. It's cask strength trainwreck TV suited for anyone who recreationally haunts the "Am I The Asshole?" subreddit. (Best character: The cook.)
Am I Actually the Strongest? (Season 1)
My favorite isekai are where the main characters are overpowered but spectacularly lazy and therefore do the bare minimum of good deeds to ensure they still technically qualify as heroic protagonists. Haruto quickly uses his ridiculous amount of mana to recruit a bunch of demonic underlings, create a clone golem to do all the shit he doesn't want to do (except the clone is as indolent as he is), and eventually has his ancient barrier magic create a passable internet connection to our world so his kid sister can watch anime on Netflix. This show has some slightly off-putting "doting imouto" business going on (she is adorable, yet still) but is otherwise a low-key joy of a hangout anime. (Best character: Flay.)
Skip and Loafer (Season 1)
Just a cute highschool romance thing. The girl is a motivated overachiever from the boonies who's a little overwhelmed after moving to Tokyo; the guy is a nice, chill slacker with a bit of a dark past. Can these two crazy mismatched kids find love with- Yes. The answer's yes. But it's sweetly wholesome for what it is and it does a great job making all its characters feel like real people. (Other equally cute HS rom-coms that almost made this slot: The Dangers in My Heart, Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible, and Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie.) (Best character: Nao-chan. Finally, a sympathetic and fully-realized trans character in an anime that isn't Tokyo Godfathers.)
Too Cute Crisis (Season 1)
Alien lands on Earth to judge whether or not it should be blown up. Finds a cat. Has an existential crisis because of how cute it is; the rest of the galaxy has nothing remotely as kawaii. She then learns that the whole planet is full of equally adorable critters and the whole show is just a lot more of that, really. The end credits include real photos of pets sent in by viewers. I'm just impressed with the sheer dedication to its core tenet of "animals = cute". (Best character: Maybe the cool old guy who really loves his hamster?)
Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon (Season 1)
The most resourceful dude on the planet wakes up in a fantasy world as a sapient vending machine with a handful of canned electronic phrases and a whole vending skilltree. That is, a skilltree dedicated to more efficiently dispensing soft drinks and udon and even print pornography at one point. It feels like the end result of an elaborate dare between mangaka; how do you turn a premise like "guy becomes a vending machine in a fantasy world with medieval-level tech" into an entertaining and occasionally insightful isekai? It just about kinda manages it. (Best character: Boxxo.)
Tearmoon Empire (Season 1)
A proud member of the "lucky idiot" anime sitcom archetype, Tearmoon Empire can be reductively summed up as "What if Marie Antoinette still had a continue left over?". The spoiled and self-obsessed princess of an empire on the brink of implosion due to the vast disparity between its richest and poorest citizens has her eventually captured, imprisoned, and executed when the inevitable revolution comes to pass. However, she wakes up back as a pre-teen and realizes she must mend her ways (and empire), Ebenezer-style, to escape the guillotine. Of course, she's still guileless and selfish and kinda dumb but things just miraculously turn out well for her regardless. It's mostly just a sweet confectionary nothing of a show, but sometimes you have to let yourself eat cake. (Best character: Mia Luna Tearmoon, of course. Desu wa!)
Rising of the Shield Hero (Seasons 1 and 2) / Arifureta (Seasons 1 and 2)
I'm putting both of these here since they share the premise of "guy gets isekai'd with a bunch of others, gets betrayed, gets reaaaaaal pissy about it for the rest of the show, still accrues a harem of ladies anyway because moody, emotionally-withdrawn guys are hot I guess". Nonsense power/revenge fantasies for loner otaku. Still kinda fun though in a grunchy sort of way. (Best character: The chocobo and the M dragon, respectively.)
Bonus: All the old junk I watched for Game OVA this summer
Shout-outs to the Dirty Pair movie. Best anime Bond intro in the biz. Also to the 1988 Appleseed OVA and its fucked up keyboards.
(Incidentally, for this next season Solo Leveling, Delicious in Dungeon, and My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered are the shows I have my eye on (along with the second halves of Frieren and Shangri-La Frontier).)
(Incidentally x2, since I'm already in for a penny in for a pound vis-á-vis showing my entire weeb ass this year, 2023's best VTuber was HololiveEN's Ouro Kronii.)
Games I'm Looking Forward to in 2024 (Besides All the 2023 Games I Didn't Play Yet)
Here's ten games that will (probably) come out next year that might tear me away from my already dismally-neglected backlog.
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Ichibanimal Crossing? Sign me up. Well, actually, the fully turn-based entries in this series will still take a backseat to the traditional gameplay spin-offs I've yet to play (so, Ishin! and The Man Who Erased His Name). I can't imagine it'll be anything short of amazing though.
- Ys X: Nordics. I don't think the localization has a confirmed release date yet but it hit Japan in September and how long does it take to translate a Ys game? As long as NISA doesn't go around calling dungeons "Big Holes" again we should be good. Either way, it's going to be my GOTY and my Best Music winner next year, so look forward to that.
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak. Speaking of Falcom, we'll be getting the first Kuro no Kiseki in English sometime in the middle of 2024. It's the... eleventh Trails game? And I'm about to start on the fourth. I guess I'll see it later, then.
- The Plucky Squire. That one charming game where you leave the book you're in and go exploring around the desk it's sitting on. I assume it's out soon if they're promoting it this hard. Pikmin 4 and Tinykin has me jonesing for more "hanging out in some dude's enormous house pretending I'm a Borrower" games.
- Ufouria: The Saga 2. I just learned about this around a week ago. Sunsoft's making a sequel to their NES Hebereke explormer—one of the earliest of its kind, first released in 1991—and dropping it on everything. It has the potential to be absolute trash, but I want to believe in Bop Louie and his pals.
- Dragon's Dogma II. I mean, I guess I can check it out even if the appeal of the first was always lost on me, Berserk references be damned. It better have a new track from B'z. Keep that Dangan alive and flying into free.
- Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. I liked but did not love the first Hellblade yet there's something very immersive and intense about what they're doing with these games that demands closer attention. I just hope it has a bit more substance to the parts where you're not just freaking out at whispery voices. If I just wanted to scream at stupid rune puzzles for hours I have God of War right here.
- Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. *Just a whole lot of banging on tables yelling for more Suikoden while Konami sits in a mud bath with cucumber slices over its eyes and pretends not to hear me.*
- Pepper Grinder. I don't know much about this game, but Vinny keeps telling me to pick it up.
- Beyond Good & Evil 2. Yeah, right.
The Stuff I Wrote
First, we have the usual 50 annual Indie Game of the Week entries. Most of the highlights can already be found above in the "Games of a Year" section. I'm not going to spam this spot with fifty links but by all means check out the 301st IGotW—Psychonauts 2—and keep hitting that "next" button at the bottom. Hopefully you find a few underappreciated gems you were interested in reading more about, and better still if you were inspired to go check them out yourself. Bon voyage!
We also continued both the Mega Archive and 64 in 64 this year, which each saw twelve updates. The former explores every Mega Drive game in chronological release order as I ensure our wiki is up to date on all its old Sega tapes, leaving us at the start of the autumn of 1993 when it resumes; the latter does something similar with the Nintendo 64 through a procession of mentally-draining hour-long playthroughs, half of which were selected randomly and do not see the system anywhere near its best. Either way, I love my retro gaming and I'll take any excuse to write about it in more depth than is maybe warranted; I'll be sure to come up with some more ideas for 2024.
Some of the shorter features for 2023 include: Go! Go! GOTY! 2022, where I started the year playing and talking about many games I missed the previous year; May Magnanimity, where I spent May going through my Itch.io backlog after one enormous charity bundle too many; The Dark Souls Randomizer, which has a self-explanatory title but is otherwise a real fascinating way to play through a modern icon; Game OVA, which has me comparing and contrasting classic (and less classic) anime with their quickie video game adaptations; The Kobayashi Mario and MisSimian: Chimpossible, two quixotic playthroughs where the goal was to get the full Retro Achievements sets for their respective N64 games or die trying (i.e. give up); and the second edition of VN-ese Waltz, which had me round up a bunch of neat (and kinda dark) visual novels on Steam that I wanted to check out.
I'm proud of all of them. Sorta.
And I'm proud of you for reading. Kudos. Thanks to the GB forum/blogging community for all your support this year and I hope you have a rad 2024. I'll have lots of entertaining nonsense for you to read even if nothing else clicks for you in the coming months.
Oh, and here's Alpha, as promised. Next best girl after Delta.
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