As a pre-preamble, as someone who is much more of a writer than an editor, I let this year's Moosies get completely out of control, and it grew so long that I had to split it into two parts. Part 1 is games ten through six on the top ten, along with the “in between things” because I cannot control myself. Part 2 should be soon, and cover the rest. Don't worry, Part 2 is even longer than Part 1, haha.
Even split in twain these aren't short, so I don't begrudge anyone who just skims through it, or skips certain segments. Part 1 should be pretty spoiler free, but Part 2 gets a little iffy in spots, but I'll be clearer about that there. Until then, enjoy!
Every year I write one of these, and every year I start it basically the same way. I go on about how it was kind of a bad year on the whole, aside from video games, because even on off years, there's always some pretty good video games out there. And that's what these are about, video games.
Except this year, I can't even bring myself to say “it was a bad year except for the video games,” because even though the videos games were excellent, it was still a terrible year for video games as an industry. Thousands of people who worked on video games lost their jobs this year. It sucks, there's no other way to put it, it just sucks. There's no way to sugarcoat it, no way to reframe or spin it to make it feel any better. Not that I really have anything other than this to say about it, but it just...is such a bummer.
So as much as I am about to lavish praise unto quite a few games in the many pages of text to come, just know this is lurking in the back of my head too.
Anyway, for better or worse, it really was a year packed with fantastic games, frankly too many for anyone to realistically play them all. Either they wouldn't have the time to play them all, or (more accurate for me) the money to buy them all. There's one really obvious game in particular, that I know would have been on my top ten if I played it. A game that has received wide praise, and seems like a masterclass in what it set out to do.
I am of course, talking about Hi-Fi Rush. The mix of stylish melee action with rhythm game timing (to a rock soundtrack), is just one hundred percent up my alley. Never mind the cool art style! It's certainly top of my list of games I'd play if I ever get a modern Xbox.
Naturally, that's not the only game I missed, there's another high on my list to get to too. A modern take on an old, well-worn franchise, a follow-up from a different studio to a classic game that we aren't going to see the original studio tackle again.
No other game that could be, than Lies of P. Bloodborne is an all time favorite of mine, truly a modern classic, and I don't think From is doing an official sequel...ever, at this point. Lies of P seems like the closest we'll get, at least at this budget and level of production, and it sounds like it's truly excellent! Hope to play it some day soon-ish!
Oh, and I guess Baldur's Gate III, I should probably play that too, at some point. I'm waiting for them to actually finish it. I know they say it left early access months ago, but when they're still patching in significant story stuff, like, that game is not done. When it's truly done (and received a healthy price drop, haha), then I'll give it a shot.
10. Eco-Terrorism Simulator of the Year: Tchia.
I don't play (or for that matter, write about) enough games like Tchia. Games that are made by (as far as I know) relatively small teams, but feel ambitious. Tchia feels like it was made by people who wanted to make their own Breath of the Wild, just at a scale that while obviously much smaller than that, still feels really big. And they pulled it off, it's a lot of fun to explore the various islands, whether on foot, raft, or by possessing animal critters.
It's also, given the primary award won here, a game about fighting off corporate/colonial invaders as a character indigenous to the islands. And that stuff's fun too! For as weirdly dark as this game gets (there's this ancient evil demon (god?) that eats children (don't worry though, the children don't actually die)), it's fun to do stuff like possess oil lamps, and fling them into the piles of fabric that enemies spawn out of.
I'm always a fan of when things can go for big tonal shifts, and pull them off, and I feel like Tchia manages it pretty well. It's also got a very cute queer relationship at its core, and that was something I was not expecting in the slightest. Partly because Tchia herself is a kid, and games don't really tend to have “kids who get crushes on each other.” I'd imagine it's even rarer when it's gay. But mainly because I thought this game was just about Mario Odyssey-ing into animals and fighting off colonizers.
That's Tchia in a nutshell. It's cute, ambitious, and fun to explore its world. And again, weirdly dark in spots! It's not super long either, I think it only took me twelve or fifteen hours to do everything I wanted to do (which involved finding most if not all of the collectibles), so give it a shot!
Tchia also wins:
- Ukelele of the year.
- Cutest game of the year.
- Animal petting of the year.
- Heterochromia of the year.
- Most inventory friendly/carryable animals of the year.
- High fiving of the year.
- Possession of the year (as in possessing other entities).
- Most interestingly realistic photography system of the year.
Best Live Service Game Taken from us Too Soon: Knockout City.
There are a lot of problems with video games as a whole, and outside of labor related issues (though I can only assume these are often linked together), I think the frequency with which games just disappear is among the worst ones. Now, to be fair to Knockout City, this is the rare instance where the devs released a free private match only version of the game. So it isn't entirely gone, but only remains for those who play on PC (and I have no clue what portion of the player base that was), and are willing to put in the work to figure out times to play with other people by grouping up manually.
For me, someone who played on PS5, Knockout City is effectively dead and gone. And while I think it's a shame when just about any game is delisted, I think it's especially bad in cases like this where it was a really fun game! By focusing so much on having a lock-on, it moved the “skill” away from aiming, and allowed for a greater focus on movement, and trying to outwit opponents by doing things like faking throws. Yes, plenty of games have a large emphasis on both aiming and movement (Titanfall 2), but I feel like Knockout City was trying to appeal to a broader, and possibly younger audience. It was also refreshing to have a game structured so much like a multiplayer shooter, but have there be zero guns in sight.
After it got harder and harder to actually find matches in Titanfall 2 (at least on console, I've heard PC had a resurgence this year), and after I lost all interest in playing Crucible in Destiny 2, for a while there Knockout City was the only versus “shooter” I liked playing. Of course I've been afflicted with the curse of Fortnite over the last year, and now that's the only one I have left. And that's its own sort of nonsensical fun (I typically prefer the Team Rumble (just team deathmatch (with respawning)) over the die and you're out Battle Royale), but it doesn't scratch that itch Knockout City did. Even if the increasingly silly crossovers scratch a different itch (I can play as Harley Quinn AND John Wick, and nerfed rear or not, Snake is coming soon!).
At least, so far as I know, the team that made Knockout City is still together, and working on whatever their next project is. The last I saw they hadn't ruled out the possibility of a Knockout City 2. I certainly would be excited if they made that, I just hope they plan ahead, and make a game that won't disappear. I'd also like if all my unlocks carried over to the sequel, but I'd settle for just being able to play it again.
9. Most Strategically Dismembered Remake of the Year: Dead Space.
2023 was a really fascinating year for remakes in video games. Specifically for remakes of what I would classify as “action horror” games. That's a term I feel like only I use, and I only use it because these particular games have way too much of a focus on action and combat to feel like traditional “survival horror.” Games where when enemies show up (which they do frequently), the expected, and often only option is to just defeat them, and do so without having to worry about managing ammo, or other resources.
The original Dead Space, and a certain other game that will get its time later on, are one hundred percent that. In a lot of people's minds, particularly after 2 doubled down on being a linear action game, Dead Space 1 was a proper, scary, moody survival horror game. When, in reality, it was also always a (mostly) linear action game, just one with a spooky atmosphere.
But, and this is where I think it gets interesting, when making the remake, the team at EA Motive made the right move, and decided to remake the game people remembered, rather than the game that actually was. That means that while it still has a high frequency of enemy encounters, the quantities of ammo and healing items doled out are much lower, which makes the game harder, but I think more fun. I don't remember ever having any problems with ammo, or healing items in the original game, but the remake is balanced to make that stuff always at least a bit of a concern, even on the default difficulty.
In retrospect, I kinda wish I had played on hard, because I bet it only pushes even further in that direction. Still, I had a ton of fun on normal, and crucially, I think balancing the game this way makes it a better, more interesting game than the original. That's true of almost every change or addition to the remake, they're all beneficial. Redesigning the ship to be a single, contiguous whole helps the immersion, and allows for easier ways to return to old areas than the original. In that same vein, while changing the zero gravity to function like it did in 2 and 3 does lose the sense of disorientation from the original, it's significantly more playable and enjoyable than the unwieldy mess of jumping from surface to surface.
Isaac talking, and actually being a character with motivations and agency just makes it a better story. The remake lets him feel like a proper engineer who knows what he's doing, as opposed to just silently doing whatever he's told. And it's cool that they got Gunner Wright back from 2 and 3, rather than just unceremoniously recasting him. I'm not sure how much of the rest of the cast is the same or not, though.
Another smart change is that new weapons are scattered throughout the ship, meaning that Isaac just has them when they're found, as opposed to having to spend resources to craft them. That, along with the Trophy for finishing the whole game with just the Plasma Cutter meant I played the entire original game with only the single weapon. Which was still fun, but lacking in variety. The remake has that Trophy too, but it also has individual Trophies for getting X number of kills with each weapon (for all I remember the original may have too), so with the weapons not requiring crafting, I actually used them this time. They're pretty good, for the most part!
My only issue with the remake, is one of the new “spooky elements” added. I'm not sure how much of it is supposed to be the Marker affecting Isaac, or how much is his own mental illness, but the “spooky voices” that chime in frequently are silly at best, and annoying at worst. I say this as someone who would never, ever joke about suicide, but I could not help but shake my head and laugh when one of the voices just said the words, “suicidal ideation.” I'm not joking, I heard the spooky voices say those exact words, multiple times throughout the game. Again, I would never joke about suicide, and I'm sure that actual suicidal ideation (a term that I don't love because it's a bit too clinical for me) takes countless different forms... But I sincerely doubt that a single human being has ever had it come in the form of a spooky voice in their head just saying “suicidal ideation.”
That misstep aside, I think the Dead Space remake is about as close to perfect a remake of that game that I can imagine. It retains the best parts of the original, and changes everything that needed to be changed. Crucially, Motive integrated all these changes in so well that without looking back at the original game as a comparison, they feel like they were always like that. That in itself is a special feat, and it makes me so excited to see that team tackle remaking Dead Space 2. Of course, part of me would rather see them make a wholly original game, but maybe that's what we'll get instead of a Dead Space 3 remake. Only time will tell.
Dead Space also wins:
- Worst posture of the year.
- Map zooming noises of the year.
- Immersive UI of the year.
- Zero gravity of the year.
- 3D audio of the year.
- Lighting and shadows of the year.
- Stomping of the year.
- Toggleable jungle ambiance of the year.
- Zero G Basketball of the year.
- Muffled zero air noises of the year.
Cutest Bunnies and Cutest “Game” of the Year: Usagi Shima.
I am the first to admit my own biases when it comes to video games. I almost exclusively play console games, and among those, mostly larger budget ones. Even the indie games I play tend to be the larger ones, whether in terms of the teams that build them, or the scope of the games themselves. Worse, I tend to put off actually buying those smaller games until they're either on a steep discount, or outright “free” on a subscription service, which is one reason why my end of year top tens are always so big budget heavy. For the life of me, I can't explain why it's often easier for me to justify buying one single, bigh full price game than it is to justify buying multiple smaller games for the same amount of money.
Which is all to preface my writing about a phone game made by a single person, Usagi Shima. Even though I don't think it even meets my own personal definition of what a “video game” is, but at a point, who cares?
The bunnies are cute! Look at them! Sometimes what I need is to look at something good on my phone, instead of the usual bad things I see on my phone. Adorable cartoon bunnies playing on a cute little island, with relaxing music wafting over it is exactly what I need, and that's what Usagi Shima is. Even though I've more or less run out of things to do in it, I've covered the island with doodads and decorations, I've amassed a fortune of carrots (normal and gold), I've befriended every bnuy, achieved every achievement, I still keep checking in on it every day. Because seeing those cute little buns makes me feel better.
Luckily, since it isn't even an actual “pet simulator” or anything like that, I don't need to worry if I stop playing that the bunnies might starve or something. They'll be there when I need them, and they can take care of themselves when I don't.
Plus, like I said, it was made by a literal single person, and that is a true achievement in itself. It's free to download, though honestly if you spend any real amount of time with it, I'd say get the carrot doubler just to support the dev. That's what I did!
Anyway, it's cute. I love bunnies.
8. Cooperative Game of the Year: Remnant II.
When it released a handful of years ago, the original Remnant was a curious little game. A mishmash of all sorts of concepts, pulling game design from a variety of sources, and settings/other accoutrement from a variety of all sorts of media. Procedurally generated worlds, but static loot. Starting in a post apocalyptic Earth, it goes into a space faring adventure spanning from a Stargate-esque “Space Egypt” to swamps and forests in almost fantasy like worlds.
It was a surprisingly good game, but one that did not stick with me after I finished it. The quintessential, “they could really knock it out of the park with a followup if they focus on the right things” game. And, boy do I have good news, because they did just that! Remnant From the Ashes was a surprisingly good game, while Remnant II is a genuinely great one. In every way that I can think of, II improves on the first game, and it does so pretty obviously right from the start. A technical leap is expected when there's a jump from one generation to another, but while the first game looked okay at the time, II looks really great. Both technically, and artistically. The framerate suffers at times (especially in co-op, which is a bummer), but I'd say it doesn't suffer nearly as bad as it did in the previous game.
I think the story and characters are better, or at least easier to follow in II too. It's far from the deepest stuff ever told, but it's all enjoyable. And each of the three main worlds has different stories that play out depending on what the procedural generation lands on. For that matter, even the order these worlds come in can change from one playthrough to the next! Though, I feel like I should add that nothing in II really has the same feeling as the “what is going on here” revelation at the end of the first world (Earth) in the first game, though that would be kinda hard to follow up. Not that I don't have questions after finishing II, but I won't spoil anything here.
Perhaps most improved is the core game play, though. The first game was fun, but this one just feels so much deeper, and all in ways that make it a better experience. The addition of character classes (two can be equipped at once!) allows for a level of character building that I certainly don't remember from the first game. They all have a main active ability (or rather, multiple versions that can be swapped around), and passives that make them all feel fairly unique, and doubly so when another is equipped as a subclass. My personal favorite is still the one I started with, Handler. I just love dogs, and having a doggy friend with me was a lot of fun. It was nice to go pet the dog after a good fight.
And that dog ended up being indispensable, as despite this being “Cooperative” game of the year, I actually spent most of my time playing it alone. Blame it on technical issues with the game (a co-op related bug that was wiping saves, and latency for non-host players) that I certainly hope have been fixed by now, and difficulties coordinating times to play with a friend who is very busy. Anyway, having a dog to revive me (there's a cooldown to keep it balanced), give me passive healing, and distract some of the enemies was absolutely vital to my getting through the bulk of this game solo. I had Medic as my subclass, which also helped keep me alive (particularly late game when the dog (at the time, I think this has been adjusted) didn't scale, so wasn't as useful with enemies).
Other classes range from simple things like bonus damage, to deploying a turret, to even summoning alien critters to help fight. Both of those, if I recall, are secret classes, of which this game has many. I did not come close to unlocking all of them, or even leveling up all of the regular ones. Anyway, the point is that there's a ton of character customization (I haven't even mentioned the rings, or any of the other items) that can really make any particular build feel kinda unique. That's not even getting into the weapons themselves, which can either be modded, or come with unique mods built in that have special abilities.
There's so much packed into this game that it's literally impossible to find it all in one playthrough, which might sound frustrating, but I think it actually a smart design choice. Rather than having everything in every world be there in every playthrough, and potentially creating worlds that might feel like they drag on a little bit too much, it's doled out in smaller pieces. I think the intent being to play through the game in co-op multiple times, just swapping from player to player as the “party leader,” and presumably after doing this with all three players, they'd have seen just about everything.
There's also a way to create individual worlds, for those seeking a specific thing, and not wanting to go through a full campaign again. Or just wanting to see a different flavor of each world in a slightly smaller version.
Now, this next bit I say as someone who has played a lot of Destiny 2 over the years, but I greatly appreciate that none of the loot in this game has any sort of random elements to it. Weapons and armor always have the same stats. Specific rings and other items are always the same, so there's no need to perpetually run the same content again and again in the hope of getting exactly the right roll on something. It's refreshing after so much Destiny 2 to be able to get loot and know that it's just the thing, and not, “well let me check to see if it's good first.”
Perhaps one of the most telling things about how good Remnant II is, is that it manages to feel unique while also being so heavily “inspired” by other things that at times it borders on litigious. One of the areas in the game is just Yharnam from Bloodborne. One of the bosses is just a Sentinel from The Matrix. Many things in this game feel aesthetically like they're lifted almost directly from other games, movies, etc. But by having such a wide variety of this stuff, and by doing it all so well, it never comes across like it's ripping things off. It comes off as earnest, and it makes that stuff funny, rather than cheap.
Plus, the game part feels unique, even as it's cribbing aesthetically. Yes, that one area may look like Yharnam, but Bloodborne isn't a third person shooter. It's also a lot more cumbersome to actually get co-op friends into a game in Bloodborne, whereas Remnant II is a normal game where that stuff is straightforward, so ultimately it's a very different feeling experience.
That's kind of Remnant II in a nutshell. A mishmash of this and that, taking the best bits from other things, and putting them together to make something greater as a whole than the individual parts. Except usually when people say that, they mean it because the individual parts are lacking, whereas I think all these parts are good on their own. So it comes together as a pretty great game!
Remnant II also wins:
- Dog companion of the year.
- Most endearingly “inspired by” game of the year.
- Old coots of the year: Reggie and Mudtooth.
- Stew of the year.
- Procedural generation of the year.
- Coolest weaponry of the year.
- Souls game of the year.
- Emote of the year: Praise the Gun.
Destiny 2 Yearly Check in.
What do I even say about Destiny 2 after the last year? Do I start with all the recent layoffs at Bungie, and reports that the overall mood at the studio is pretty dire? The Final Shape feeling like it's their final chance to get things back on track, and keep people playing the game? What about how disappointing Lightfall was? Or basically all of the storytelling this year being not very good or interesting? Or all the baffling balance changes that at a point just go in one ear and out the other when my friend tells me about them? All they really do is just elicit an, “I don't understand Bungie at all,” then I go back to playing the game.
That's the thing though, right? I just wrote out a paragraph of all this bad sounding stuff and yet...I'm still playing it. Sure, Lightfall's story was nonsensical at best, and outright bad at worst, but the new Strand subclasses are good. Or, at least I like the Warlock one, as I haven't wanted to suffer through Lightfall's final boss again to unlock Strand on my Hunter. Of course, I'm writing this literally the day after a friend was telling me how “bad” Strand Warlock is now after recent balance changes when like...I dunno, it still seems good to me? So who knows.
I just play Destiny 2 for fun, and do what I do based on vibes. Most of the story has been mediocre this year, but the seasonal modes have been mostly pretty good. Conversely, I haven't felt especially compelled to grind any of them for specific loot, so maybe I haven't played any of them enough to get sick of them.
I guess if I had to settle on a word to describe the current state of Destiny 2, it'd be confused. Everything around it feels like this awkward limbo before The Final Shape. Just killing time, and a lot of time, what with that expansion getting delayed months. The story is just meandering around aimlessly, slowly working its way toward building to The Final Shape, but suffering from the nature of the plot beats needing to be stretched out over months in a season.
So again, I dunno. It's hard to feel particularly enthused about Destiny 2 at the moment, and yet... I guess I'm somehow still hopeful that the next expansion will (Final) shape up and give a fitting end to this “story arc?” Or will it be the last hurrah before Destiny 2 fades away into the darkness?
As a last thing, I just want to give one more rest in peace to Lance Reddick. It's been months now since his passing, and obviously he had a much larger career than just his role as Zavala, but I know I'm not alone as that being the role of his, for me, at least. All these years, through all its ups and downs, like how Zavala was a pillar in universe to keep the Guardians together, so was Lance. Both with his performance in game, but also outside it with the community. He played the game like the rest of us, and always seemed more than happy to post videos of him saying goofy stuff people wanted to hear Zavala say, like asking Guardians to go get some groceries, haha.
Again, rest in peace, Lance. We miss you. <3
7. High-Flying Mecha-Action Game of the Year: Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon.
For better or worse, this is the first Armored Core game I've played, which means that like a lot of people, I came at it from the perspective of being a Souls fan. So, I could write about expectations, and how I think it's refreshing to see From tackle something substantially different from the bulk of their work over the last decade plus, but... Instead what if I just wrote about Armored Core VI on its own terms?
Which is to say, it's rad. Don't get me wrong, there's “war is bad” mixed in with the “wow cool robots” in this game, but I wouldn't have had as much fun as I did during my three playthroughs if the robots weren't cool. At its (Armored) core, though, this is a game about amassing an arsenal of parts and weapons to find the best ways to outfit a mech to deal with increasingly demanding missions. All while slowly uncovering the pieces of what exactly is happening on planet Rubicon, over the course of three playthroughs to eventually get...if not the whole picture, then enough of it.
One thing that struck me about the structure of AC VI is that, despite the fact that I've never played one of these games before, parts of it felt weirdly nostalgic. Specifically because it's a mission based game about piloting big vehicles. Back when I was a kid (90s and early 00s), games like this were a dime a dozen (including the old ACs!). In those days, a game could just be going around in a helicopter doing generic missions about blowing stuff up. One of the flagship launch titles on a new console could just be a game with like ten spaceship missions set in the universe of Star Wars (and I still love Rogue Squadron II to this day). They didn't need big open worlds, they didn't need RPG skill trees, they didn't need all this other stuff that just about every big game has these days.
So AC VI being a game about piloting big robots, where everything is mission based, and most of the missions are pretty short, it was not only refreshing, but made me think a lot about this style of game that's pretty much fallen out of favor these days. Not entirely gone, I'm pretty sure Ace Combat (the other AC Bandai Namco franchise) is still this too, but I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. Not in the big budget space, at least.
None of this is to say there isn't depth to AC VI, because there one hundred percent is. There are tons of different parts to build the mechs, and dozens and dozens of different weapons to equip on them. They're not all there just for show either, whether just in stats, or the fundamental feel of the mech, all the body parts have some sort of meaningful impact. My preferred style ended up being very quick and agile, the emphasis on dodging attacks, but while carrying something bigh to lay on the damage when the opening arose. It wasn't always ideal, especially toward the end of my third playthrough I had to focus more on just carrying light weapons to whittle down the bosses because the opportunities to demolish them with the heaviest grenade launcher my speedy mech could carry were few, and far between. I did, however, never give up on taking a melee weapon with me, even if the style I took to (Moonlight Greatsword) has a ranged aspect to it.
But for more defense focused missions (of which there are not many), I tended to lean more toward making a slow hulk of a thing loaded up with the biggest guns and missile launchers I could afford. A four legged monstrosity of armor and gun, basically the exact opposite on the spectrum from my speedy build. These are just two examples, but there really are countless different ways to build out mechs, and thankfully the game has slots to save hundreds of different loadouts, which is the sort of quality of life feature that should be expected, but sometimes you just don't know.
Of course, all the customization in the world would be pointless if the feel wasn't good, and same for the missions. The feel is going to vary wildly depending on the build, but the parts are there to let anyone fine tune their mech to exactly what they want. Even if it might take a long while to unlock every last thing. For the missions themselves...perhaps my one criticism with the game is that the difficulty feels really inconsistent.
Some of the bosses are brutally difficult. And I say this playing the game after some of them were apparently patched to be easier (though the ones in question I did not have a tough time with). The final boss of the third ending in particular, that one crossed the line from fun challenge to frustrating for me, which was a bummer way to end my time with the game. Everything else though, stayed on the fun challenge side. Despite one other boss being a little tedious because of an energy shield that more or less requires a specific weapon type to effectively wear down, and I wasn't well equipped to deal with. There's an option to change loadouts after dying and restarting from a checkpoint, but it doesn't allow for going to the shop to buy new stuff, and at the time I was too stubborn to replay the whole mission to get back to that boss after buying more of the weapon type in question.
The missions themselves though...tend to be pretty easy. At times too easy, which means the game often feels like it's swinging between a cakewalk as you trample over weak little MT mechs, but then need to completely change gears and suddenly it feels like get through by the skin of your teeth Souls game when an enemy AC appears as a boss fight. Perhaps that's an intentional design choice to reinforce how powerful ACs are? I am glad the bosses are tough, they're some of the most fun parts of the game, and I'd much rather this than the whole game be too easy. I just wish more of the missions were a bit more challenging.
I'd also say that the bulk of the game doesn't really require that much time spent customizing the AC, which can be seen as either a good or a bad thing. I didn't really want to go into this game and spend “more time in the garage than missions” like the obnoxious people who are obsessed with the older games tend to say (I don't care if that's literally true or not, it's annoying because the only thing they ever accomplished is scaring people off from trying this series). But it is an (Armored) core part of the game, and not having to really explore its intricacies is a bit of a shame.
I haven't really said anything about the story thus far, not because it's bad, but more because it's pretty straightforward. Some high concept sci-fi stuff in there (like a prized energy source that's actually a collective of intelligent life forms), but for the most part it's a story about rival corporations battling each other, and C4-621 is just a generic mercenary caught in the middle of it. There's memorable characters, for sure (Rusty!), but it's always pretty easy to tell when anyone is up to something, or has an ulterior motive. Again, it's not bad, I thought it was entertaining enough that I wanted to see all three endings. It can be surprisingly funny at times too, especially early on. Just, pretty straightforward.
At least until that third ending, then it suddenly gets weird.
I will also say, it's not just the ending that changes, I was really surprised with how much changes and is added from first playthrough, to new game plus, and even new game plus plus. Entirely new missions, and new events and choices that pop up during some older ones, it's a really interesting way to tackle this stuff. Some of them way harder than anything at the beginning of a new game, so I can see why they didn't just want to include all of it from the get go. Absolutely worth the time to experience it all.
Anyway, I shan't spoil anything, because I think AC VI is pretty great, and I'm excited that From now has a second type of game that they're making again. I love the Souls games, but I couldn't be happier that they've found success is both trying something “new,” while also resurrecting the franchise they were known for before Souls. Here's hoping for AC VII!
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon also wins:
- Most fonts used in the title.
- Old fashioned mission based game of the year.
- Mecha customization of the year.
- Goofy mid mission dialog of the year.
- Mecha designs of the year.
- Biggest mechs of the year.
- Playing all sides of the year.
- Handlers of the year.
- Robo kicks of the year.
- Big glowy explosion effects of the year.
- Worm of the year.
- Wingman of the year: V.IV Rusty.
- Coral of the year.
- Raven of the year.
- Rail cannon of the year.
- Moonlight blade of the year.
- Duel on top of a ship falling out of orbit of the year.
- New Game Plus of the year.
Historical Document of the Year: Like a Dragon: Ishin!
Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza) is one of those series that I, on the one hand, deeply love, but also think can vary wildly in terms of quality. The best ones are fantastic, though even those can often be frustrating with some queer-phobic sequences (they have at least restrained themselves in more recent titles, even if those also don't have the outwardly queer-positive stuff that was in 2). The worst ones though, can be kinda bad, and there's a few that are decidedly good...but not great.
I feel like Ishin is in that camp. It's good! I enjoyed it. It was almost on my top ten list, but then...I bought another game that may or may not be in this franchise, one that I like quite a bit more, and may appear in this top ten soon.
As for Ishin, I think it is the sort of thing that for the main story, how much each person will get out of it varies on how much they know, and are interested in the historical period represented. I knew, a little bit about it, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that what I knew was dwarfed by what I “learned” from the game. Even as I am 100% sure this game is not remotely historically accurate.
It's also a remake from a time that, outside of one outlier (Yakuza 0, still my favorite), was pretty middling for the series. The zombie spin-off (which I never played), 5, this, Kiwami 1, and 6 are all...not great. If my timeline is correct, the order of release in Japan was zombie game, 5, Ishin, 0, then Kiwami 1, and finally 6. 0 is the standout there, and the rest range from good but not great (Ishin and 5), to okay (Kiwami), to outright bad (6 and probably the zombie game?). That was a bit of a ramble, but the point is that Ishin could have benefited from more substantial changes to the story, or overall flow of the game (my understanding is very little if any of that was changed).
At least it looks nice, mostly. The lighting can be great at times. A lot better than the other game I will get to shortly, haha. All that said, I did enjoy my time with Ishin, I just wish it had been better. If nothing else, it has a lot of fun side activities, and goofy sub-stories. And dogs and cats. Lots of dogs and cats.
6. Best Name of the Year: Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.
I really did not have “spin-off game picking up with Kiryu during the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon being one of the better games from RGG Studio in the last few years” on my bingo card, yet here we are. Yes, it is a bit lower budget of a game than their typical fair, and I do think it suffers for it in some ways, but I also think it being more focused, and leaner is a strength in that doesn't really have any spots that drag in the story.
It also leans into one of the biggest strengths of this series, which is that they've created some really compelling characters, that after spending so much time with over the years, I know I at least have developed a stronger emotional connection with than I might have previously realized. Due to the story, and Kiryu having effectively chosen to exile himself from his past life (the titular erasing of his name), he's the only returning character with major screen time.
But, prior to the torch passing to Ichiban, he was the protagonist of the series, even when they went in the direction of multiple playable characters. And as much as I still am deeply frustrated with parts of the ending from Yakuza 6, I think LaDGTMWEHN finds a way get to the core of what erasing your name, and abandoning your previous life to protect the people you care about would do to you. These games always make me feel things, but usually it's either laughing at the goofy sub-stories, or feeling gripped by the twists and turns of stories so convoluted they'd make Kojima blush.
I don't think they've ever brought me to the verge of tears like this one did at the end. Not quite there, but I can see the thing they could be building toward, whether in Infinite Wealth, or a Gaiden 2, and if they do I think that would get me to bawl almost as hard as Kiryu did here. It's the sort of thing you really only get when you've had this sort of attachment to a character build over so many years.
And that's not even getting into how bizarre and goofy the game part is, because for some reason RGG Studio decided to make Kiryu into secret agent Spider-Man??? So, Kiryu once again has multiple fighting styles (which he did not in 6 or Kiwami 2). One is his typical brawling fair, with heavy hits than can be charged into even heavier ones, and a strong focus on fighting a single opponent. The other is faster, and with a slew of new gadgets, better for dealing with large groups, and LaDGTMWEHN has larger groups of enemies than I can recall facing in the previous games.
These gadgets are...unusual, to say the least. The starting one (and my favorite), is the wire. It's used for grappling enemies, and tossing them around like they weigh almost nothing. By default it can only grab one at a time, but fully upgraded it can handle five guys at once. To be clear, that means lassoing five enemies, and then throwing them all like twenty feet through the air, screaming and flailing along the way. Naturally Kiryu can also pull them in, then hit or throw them back, sending them spiraling through the air, and it is just so silly. I didn't laugh literally every time I did it, partly because I did it a lot, but I did giggle a lot at it. I really don't know what to say other than to call it silly. Not all enemies can be wire grabbed, heavier ones need an upgrade to grab, and bosses (mini or full) will just break the line, but it's good for just about everyone else.
The other three gadgets I didn't find nearly as useful, but they all had some use. There's drones that can be used to swarm and harass enemies, and exploding cigarettes that well, explode. Finally, there is perhaps the most ludicrous of them, the jet boots. Yes, jets in his boots. Sadly they're not nearly as useful as I wish they were. As far as I can tell, they're really only good for bowling into enemies and knocking them over, but I feel like grappling them five at a time is a better way to do that. Of course that requires upgrading the wire a lot, so that's something to keep in mind. The relative lack of animations on Kiryu as he jets around are again, very silly, which I appreciate.
Structurally, this is a Like a Dragon/Yakuza game. The story is linear, and aside from bits that introduce minigames, new gadgets, or other side stuff, it's focused on the story it's telling. Given the shorter length, it's a lot more focused than these games tend to be. Not as much side stuff as a full one of these tends to be, but there's more substories than I expected, and some pretty good ones in there too. There's a very funny one about the dangers of relying too heavily on an AI chat bot for advice (one that tells someone to jump off a bridge to impress his date, but can't manage to recommend a good local restaurant). There's more serious ones as well, like one involving another person from the same orphanage Kiryu grew up in, only he went down a very different path than Kiryu.
There's arena fights to be had, a whole crew to build up for those, gambling to be done, and of course hostesses to try to chat up... Now with full motion live action video, for some reason. I never really spend any time with that stuff, only what's needed to progress the story, and I can say that making it live video of actual women did not inspire me to come back for more. If anything it only makes it weirder, more awkward, and made me want to get it over and done with faster.
On the other hand, Kiryu raps as a backup vocalist in the karaoke, so that's rad (shout out to Akame being a cool lady in this game that doesn't fall victim to the usual annoying tropes this series pulls against its women characters). Don't worry, he sings plenty in the karaoke too, it wouldn't be one of these games without a good rendition of Baka Mitai. Or a Christmas song with video of Kiryu dressed as Ono Michio dressed as Santa.
Again, I'm really surprised that this game is as good as it is. I'm not shy about how disappointed I was with 6, and as fun as his cameo was in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, when it came to light that he wasn't really retiring from playing a major role in the series, I was getting pretty worried. With the longtime producer leaving to start up something new, it felt like the people now in charge didn't have any good ideas, so they were just going to trot Kiryu back out again.
If I'm being completely honest, I'm still a little skeptical about Kiryu's role in Infinite Wealth, even after playing the great demo included with LaDGTMWEHN. Everything else in that demo got me really excited, but perhaps that game's seeming confidence in itself should be reason enough to think they aren't bringing him back just to shore up the franchise, and there's good story reasons for it.
Kiryu's...not very good English voice actor isn't helping matters either. I know the “right” answer is to just play in Japanese (which I did in LaDGTMWEHN, and would have even if the dub wasn't patched in after I finished the story), but I like English Ichiban a lot! The English dubs for Yakuza: Like a Dragon and both Judgment games were great, but one of the reasons why I tried them in the first place was because they were positioned as being standalone stories, or at least semi-fresh starts with new casts of characters. Had I known this was going to happen, I probably would have stuck with Japanese for Y:LaD. But now here I am, attached to Kiryu's Japanese voice, and Ichiban's English voice. This is what I get for growing up on English dubs of Godzilla movies and anime, I guess.
I know this is a stupid thing to add that no normal studio ever would, but they should let people pick and choose what language each character uses. That would solve the problem, and surely not introduce numerous others, haha. Anyway, Kiryu aside, I still have high hopes for Infinite Wealth being good.
We'll know soon enough, because it's not long until that game is out. As for now though, I had a lot of fun with LaDGTMWEHN, and the story and emotional sides of it were a lot better than I expected, so even if Kiryu isn't done yet, so long as he's still being used well, who am I to complain?
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name also wins:
- Codename of the year: Joryu.
- Like a Dragon game of the year.
- Wire of the year.
- Arcade machines of the year.
- Silliest ragdoll physics of the year.
- Most perplexing use of live action video of the year.
- Karaoke of the year.
- Most/best use of traffic cones.
- Best fight against multiple tigers at once of the year.
- Jet boots of the year.
- Most ridiculous gadgets of the year.
- Networker of the year: Akame.
- Best cameo from another RGG Studio of the year.
- Castle of the year.
- Most health bars on one boss.
- End credits with lyrics of the year.
- Included demo of the year.
Expansion of the Year: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
I wrote a lot about Cyberpunk 2077 when I played it. Enough that I had to split it into two separate blogs. But there was a lot to say, between everything I liked (the story, characters, world, a lot of the combat/stealth), and the things I criticized (like how not very punk it actually was, how it treated the cops differently from regular enemies, etc). Suffice it to say that after spending 90 hours in that world, and getting really invested in V, and their journey, I was more than ready and excited for whatever CD Projekt had in store for DLC.
While some things that I was excited for ended up getting cut (multiplayer), we did at least get one expansion, Phantom Liberty. As of right now, it's supposed to be the only one, and while I think CD Projekt will stick to their word and not do another, it wouldn't surprise me if they did some more smaller updates in the future. They already added in a functioning metro system and the ability to go on dates with romantic partners in the time between my playing the expansion, and writing this. So who knows! I do kinda want to reinstall the game and see what those dates are. I'm curious if they actually wrote new scenes, and got those actors back in to record new lines, or if “dates” is just code for “watch the sex scenes again.” One of those things would be more interesting than the other (I've got no problems with the game having sex scenes, I just think they're all way longer than they should be).
There were various changes and bug fixes in the year plus since I played it, but Phantom Liberty and the accompanying 2.0 update to all the skill trees are the two big additions here. The changes to both how the skill trees work/are laid out and how the skills and systems function in game are honestly a lot more significant than I expected, and thankfully for the better. Right now, it kinda feels like there's no way to go wrong in the trees, and just about any build is at least good (especially since the game is so easy on normal (I turned it up to very hard at a point in Phantom Liberty to give myself a decent challenge)), and many are great.
I played the base game as a stealth focused hacker (netrunner?), and by the end that was so comically over powered that I could literally use one quick hack against one enemy, it would take them out, then spread to like six or seven other enemies. It was absurd! It's certainly still possible to focus on quick hacks that spread amongst enemies, but it's no longer a given, and that meant that even going into the expansion at a high level, I found myself having to think and strategize way more than before. Importantly though, after I got used to the new, more combo focused approach to quick hacks, they were basically just as powerful as before, if not more so in some other ways. To me, maintaining the usefulness, but requiring me to actually think about what I was doing to do well is absolutely a positive. I already enjoyed this style of play, but the 2.0 update made it even better.
Part of me wants to start the game over and go for a completely different build (speedy melee?), but considering how long it is, how I still have games in my backlog to get to, and the next three months are comically stacked with new, big releases (LaD: Infinite Wealth, FFVII Rebirth, Dragon's Dogma II, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (which based on the alpha is actually very fun (plus Harley has become one of my favorite DC characters so I feel obliged to play it, haha)), etc), I think it'll be a while before I can justify that sort of time. Especially when there's another game on this top ten that patched in a new game plus that changes the story on subsequent playthroughs that I haven't gotten around to yet.
All this, and I haven't even gotten to actual Phantom Liberty yet, since the 2.0 system changes are a free update to the core game. It's just one of those things where I don't want to say too much, because I think it's pretty great, and don't want to spoil anything. Especially when, if I'm being honest, for a spy thriller, it didn't have nearly as many twists and turns as I expected. Or rather, it didn't have much that I didn't see coming. That's not me saying it's predictable, or complaining, just making an observation. Outside of one moment early on, there wasn't much that surprised me.
I know that Solomon Reed was the focus of the marketing, and of course he would be since he's Idris Elba, but the actual heart and soul of Phantom Liberty is Songbird. Both the narrative, and emotional core revolve around her, and she's great. I'd put her up there with characters like Judy, Panam, and Takemura from the base game that I got really invested in. That's all I'm gonna say though, because I think Phantom Liberty is absolutely a must play. Obviously anyone who enjoyed the base game is going to want to play this, but I'd even recommend it to a lot of people who had issues with the core game. I know several people who didn't particularly like aspects of the core game, but really liked Phantom Liberty. Not anyone I know super closely, all my close friends have better taste than that, haha.
I'm just kidding, I know this game isn't to everyone's tastes, but seriously. Phantom Liberty is everything than an expansion should be. Lots of good additions to the game part, a compelling story, and some really great side missions too. The one where V disguises themself as an infamous assassin quickly became one of my favorites across the whole game.
Apparently Phantom Liberty even adds a new ending to the base game, but I've not seen that. It requires both a different ending to the expansion than what I chose (and without spoiling anything, I will say that was one of the most difficult choices I've made in a game in a very long time), and obviously finishing the game again. Since I had picked up my old save from last year, it didn't feel right to go through and see a different ending. The one I got felt perfect for my V, and their journey through Night City, so I stand by that.
Maybe if I play it again, I'll get that new ending. Do that while playing an air dash katana build, while using the new cosmetic system to get armor bonuses from the few coats and helmets that have them, while looking nude. Who doesn't want to be a wild naked swordsman in a dystopian cyber future?
Or, in underwear at least, because everyone knows it's okay to show your character slicing and dicing people into pieces with a sword, but not okay to show genitals in first person. That does still annoy me, that V appears nude in the inventory screen, but has undies on in first person, or photo mode. At least the nude glitch still works, as of the last time I played, but that's only good for photo mode. No point in doing it for regular game play if I can't look down and see V's Penis 2 flopping around as they walk.
Anyway, so I don't end on a silly note like that, I do want to say that while I generally don't like celebrity casting for video games (as opposed to getting regular voice actors), I do think Cyberpunk 2077 is the best example of that being done right. Keanu as Johnny is as good as ever (they got him back in for lots of new lines), and Idris as Solomon is about perfect too. Aside from the marketing, in game it doesn't come off as a stunt, it feels like these actors were cast because they fit the roles (or perhaps the roles were written with them in mind), and they have enough presence that they didn't show up just for a quick cash grab.
Oh, and Dogtown. It's both fun to say, and has a really different vibe from the rest of Night City, which is cool. I wish it was maybe a little bit bigger, but I'm just happy they found a way to add more places to explore to the game at all.
Again, actual final words: Phantom Liberty is great, definitely the best expansion I played this year.
That's it for Part 1, which is technically not half the total length of the Moosies, but it made much more sense to cut it off halfway through the top ten. For anyone reading this on the day of publication (Friday, Dec 29), Part 2 should be up on Monday (Jan. 1). Thank you for reading, and hope you'll come back to see the rest soon!
Log in to comment