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BusinessisBlooming

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The 25 games of the year 2022 (no connotation)

This year, I thought it’d be fun to rank all my games as I played them through the year. And that’s why there’s uh, 25 games on this list. You can stop paying attention after the 10 mark if you want I guess. I thought I’d played more, but I’m only ranking the new games that I played this year. New to me, I mean. Not new to the year. Just letting you know before you google if Donkey Kong Country 1 came out in 2022. I know how much of a stickler you are for this type of thing.

List items

  • I was someone who enjoyed God of War 2018, but didn’t put it on the bees knees game of the year pedestal that I saw a lot of people doing. I can’t tell if the combat is so wildly different this time around, but I found myself enjoying it more? Maybe it’s increased enemy variety, maybe it’s you getting your second weapon really early. Maybe it’s the annoying “Eeeugh” noise Atreus makes when you bump into him when you’re exploring.

    I definitely enjoy it way more from a narrative standpoint. I find that I like games with a lot of characters with intersecting goals, and there was certainly more of that on offer here than in 2018 which had like 6 characters. Now, we have those, but also we’ve got Odin and Thor and Freyr and Thrud and Tyr and Surtr and fucking Heimdall. They’re all really compelling in their own ways.

    This game is packed full of good moments too. Thor and Odin’s entrance at Kratos’ cabin, Freya’s final decision on Kratos as an ally, the spear blessing, the Garm fight, Tyr’s defining moment, Surtr’s transformation at the Spark and his apprehension beforehand, the entire Ragnarok sequence. And, of course, a major plot twist involving a doggie’s chew toy.

  • This was another deadly combination of a gripping story with a lot of silly moments and side-quests. You’ve got this serious drama of Majima struggling to carry out his bosses orders to kill an innocent civilian, and then he walks down the street and has to contend with a school bully who steals peoples' pants. Alternatively, you can play as Kiryu who is suddenly ousted from the Yakuza and now has to survive against his old comrades for long enough for a shady real estate agent to get him off the hook. Sounds pretty dire, but in the meantime there’s a sidequest where a young boy convinces him to buy nudie mags for him, but not while nearby older ladies are watching, because then Kiryu will get embarrassed and walk away. Early on, there’s a guy selling mushrooms (the non-druggy, grocery type) in an alley who is unknowingly presenting himself as a drug dealer and Kiryu is just like ‘this is a bad look, dude.’

    I like how money flies out of dudes when you beat them up. I like how intensely Kiryu grabs the phone at the phone sex shop. I like Majima’s break dance fighting. The combat music is dope and has been in my gym music playlist ever since. I looked it up afterwards, and I think it’s the same composer who did F-Zero GX. I’m glad that guy still gets work.

  • I got this on a Christmas sale in 2020, and it took until Last of Us news came out during the middle of this year did I look at my shelf and go, ‘Oh yeah, I have that second game to play still.’ I’m not a big Uncharted guy (as evidenced by this list), but there’s something about Naughty Dog’s gunplay and narrative structure that works better for me in the more tense setting of The Last of Us. The larger level design and new enemy factions were a nice evolution from the previous game as well. This game broke my brain for a month or so, which I realized when I passed by a building with big glass doors and my first thought was to look for a brick or bottle to chuck, so I can get in and loot the place.

  • I got all the gifts and aced every level in this game. This was a fun game to master. I played on the Nintendo Switch, which is a great video game console that is good at playing video games, so I didn’t go too out of my way for the red medals or the tippity top of leaderboards, but I still feel like I wrung a lot out of this one. I really like the minimalist aesthetic of the earlier levels; the vibrant colors gave some good readability. I thiiiink I even came around to the story as the game went on. The characters are pretty aggressive in their personality archetypes in a way that was offputting until I got used to it. I felt like I was reading the story as a formality, or as a courtesy for how good the speedrunning gameplay is. I did end up enjoying White and Red’s strained relationship and seeing what would come of that. Mikey’s alright too.

  • Earlier this year, I was surprised with how comedic I found this game that I started recording some of the highlights down in a document. I think I’ll just post those here:

    General Radahn's tiny horse

    The little frog guys that attack by cartwheeling at you

    Hot air balloons piloted by skeletons

    It literally rains wolves

    Jar guys

    Erdtree Watchdogs animations

    Birds with sword feet that throw exploding barrels at you

    Indiana Jones ball that follows you around a room

    Rest in a coffin prompt

    If I was on a Game of the Year podcast, I probably would have fought for this to be its own category. I should probably beat this game. It might have been higher on this list if I could vouch for it after the midgame.

  • Pretty unique Pokemon game here. It reminds me a little of the Gamecube Pokemon RPGs in that there is a fusion of classic Pokemon gameplay with some new ideas. Even if a lot of those ideas seem lifted from some other very popular open world games of recent memory. Still, it was a pretty neat time and I could go for at least another one of these Legends-type games. Maybe do one with Victini or something. Always wanted a Victini smartphone.

  • Alright, hear me out. You play as a whip guy in a Castlevania game. For like, one stage. Maybe two. Then, you unlock the little girl who throws birds, dragons and a few other animal friends and has a double jump. She just HAS a double jump. And also, she fuckin’ throws those birds fast. Like, an unironically good defense is to just throw birds and it’ll block projectiles fairly well. Beats the shit out of some dumb whip. I think the “tradeoff” is that little girl dies in 4 hits whereas whip dude dies in 8, but those birds block really well and the double jump is a decent safety net from instant death pits, so it kinda just feels like easy mode.

    Oh! Also, there’s altered story cutscenes for when you beat Dracula as a little girl and they’re pretty funny. He’s this big scary vampire guy doing some melodramatic bit about human greed and she’s just pouting at him and accusing him of being a big meanie. It’s great.

  • Perfect Chronology version. The 3DS port with the voice acting and the bad economy changes.

    This was the coolest game ever made for my first bunch of hours with it, until I realized that there were only two main branches to go down. It’s still a pretty decent execution of the protagonist-with-time-travel-powers idea. There’s a lot of one-off endings that Stocke can go down, and when those go awry, he’s always brought back to Historia to try a different route. This means that in-universe, Stocke is reliving all of these side-branches (some of which I assume go on for months at least) without ‘Game Over’ that would make me think “Oh, well that didn’t happen then.” You’d expect Stocke to just be so tired at the end (or even during) this game, but he never falters in his convictions. He’s willing to go through so much shit to make sure his friends don’t die, and I can’t help but root for him.

    Combat was fun for a while too. I had a good arc with Aht where I thought her traps were useless (or at least not worth using over other party members), but by the end of the game, her Stocke and Rosch were the default threesome.

  • This is the first metroid-vania-dust-an-elysian-tale-like game I played where I thought the story/worldbuilding was a central part of the appeal. The premise of the game is that you’re a mechanic (or something) in a world where fixing things is a profane act in the eyes of the hyper religious government. I think you get arrested because some lady narc’d on you for fixing her pipes. Then you escape by crawling through the vents of the local bar, but only when the patrons are making a ruckus via bad puns so they don’t hear you. This is all to say that the tone successfully balanced lighthearted goofiness with some pretty tragic character beats and I think that’s neat.

  • Within 3 minutes of controlling this game, I felt right at home. Aria of Sorrow was one of my first metroid-vania-bloodstained-blasphemous-kirby-and-the-amazing-mirror-likes, but I hadn’t played it in a while, and had never played the other gbavanias. This game is like Aria of Sorrow, but without the monster soul collecting or different equippable weapons, which to me just means less menu usage and a more do-ey game. And hey, your guy uses a whip in this game. In a Castlevania game, there’s a whip guy, can you believe it?

  • This game was a grower, not a shower. I’ve heard from other people that this series evolves from game to game as the characters and their plights carry over from entry to entry. I felt like this happened over the course of this game too, as characters you are introduced to early on then become interactable in different parts of Crossbell State each chapter. When I realized this, I made it a point to explore the whole map at every new interval to see who was where, and if there was a nugget of characterization for me to find. It ended up being a cozy [55 hour] experience that I’d like to return to when the second part of the duology comes out next year.

    Music’s pretty good too (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XUzvISRwUQ&list=PLzFTGYa_evXiUoQ4-sWk4-2E2XUbcRLuc&index=65) ((In case what I linked to gets taken down, it’s the track ‘Inevitable Struggle’)) (((While you’re there, check out Afternoon in Crossbell and Ancient Pulsation)))

  • I’m so glad Kirby finally got his 3D platforming debut after so long without it. Mouthful mode is pretty funny and the power upgrades were a good addition as well. I kinda wish it landed a little better for me. I think it took a little too long to get back into a level, or to get into a new level because of the collection aspects ticking up, and Switch load times on top of that. And I wish the secret objective in every level wasn’t a secret, so I could more easily complete levels on the first go-around. It’s a good game, don’t get me wrong. This was my most anticipated game at the beginning of the year. I love Kirby, which is why I know he can do better.

  • I beat this game a few hours ago. It was kinda fun. There is a boss in this game that is an oil drum and it’s name is Dumb Drum. King K. Rool is a Dark Souls boss.

  • I speculated last year (when I was playing Hitman 3) that Hitman 2 was probably really good. I can confirm that Hitman 2 is probably really good. I didn’t go for level completion on most levels this time around, but the level design seems pretty solid and the amount of dumb things you can do continues to impress. I really liked the suburban neighborhood level. I didn’t expect it and it’s a brilliant idea for a level.

  • Neat little pixel-art cyberpunk 2D hack and slash. I was going to say I liked the harbor town area, but I also liked Anne’s apartment town, and also the nighttimey lookin’ one with the idol concert in the back too.

  • Conquest specifically.

    Holistically, I rate this game kinda low because I dislike the story, much of the character work, and this game’s insistence on putting random skills on enemies to catch you off guard. Also, usage of the Fates royals seems required to progress on Hard mode. I don’t know how you’re supposed to get through some choke points without a decent Xander.

    But this is such a fun game for theorycrafting and in the early game. There’s so many options on what you can do with character skills, classes, and pairings. I married Mozu to my Niles not necessarily to get Nina with the coveted Aptitude skill, but because Mozu passes the Sniper class to her husbando, which makes good use of Niles bow weapon rank and gives him extra killing power for Captures. That was a good move. I married Odin to get a Nohr Noble Ophelia that could use Corrin’s unique dragon class while also using Ophelia’s tome rank. That was a meh move. The dragon thing ended up not being amazing on her. I beat the game and have a new appreciation for the forging and meal time mechanics that I found needless on my first playthrough years ago. I restarted and now I’m doing a run where I instantly promote my healer Elise at 10 and reclass her into a Malig Knight (because of her crazy magic and speed growths) so I basically have 2 Camillas flying around in the early game. I turned Selena into a pegasus knight. Why? That’s the only way to get a gen 1 pegasus knight in Conquest aside from reclassing Azura, who is the dancer and I’m not willing to give that up at this juncture. Do I need a pegasus knight in a run where I have 2 Malig Knights and probably a dark flier later on? Well, yes, obviously, because I’m going to turn Camilla into a Berserker (I’ll wait until she gets Savage Blow. I’m not a monster), and I’m turning Charlotte into a Maid and Leo into a Strategist which is a brilliant idea because…

  • Played it co-op with a buddy and the class options were surprisingly fun to mess around with. I liked the Dragoon type classes and the late-game off-magic classes. You guys, Jack kills things so angrily in this game. His kill animation on the generic harpy enemy is to grab her by the foot and slam her against the ground 3 times. Then there’s a brief pause. Then he slams her again one last time, but with just as much impact. It’s so needless. There’s probably a good supercut on YouTube of Jack kill animations that is the ideal way to experience this game.

  • Booted this up directly after beating Radiant Historia and I gotta say, you don’t want to go back to back on turn-based JRPGs where the combat is fighting enemies on a 3x3 grid. This was not the better of the pair. That said, as a fan of the anime that hadn’t seen it in a few years, it was kinda nice to be back in the world. There’s an epilogue that takes place at a part of the anime that I never got to, so putting this on the shelf until I catch up. Might take a while. There’s sooo many ads on the free version of Crunchyroll.

  • The Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck DLC.

    Borderlands 3 is a fun game that refuses to shut the fuck up and let you play it. This DLC is actually very to-the-point. The side quests are mostly inoffensive go-here-and-press-a-button affairs, but compared to the main games long, drawnoutedness, it was a breath of fresh air.

  • Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution DLC.

    We found an exploit where you can get the loot room at the end of the DLC to respawn if you quit the game before the turn in point, so we did that. We were selling on-level orange guns by the end to make backpack space.

  • The GBA version to be abundantly clear.

    Stiff Gameboy Advance Howie Mandel with 6 lines of hyper compressed dialogue is my favorite Howie Mandel. I actually took the million dollar case on my first run. You see, each run has so many combinations of banker offers, so really this is the first real roguelite ever and it doesn’t get the credit it deserves for defining the genre.

  • Meh

  • There were some good scenes I think, but this did not leave much of an impact on me. After this though, I have now played all currently released Uncharted games. And I don’t know why, because Lost Legacy aside, I think they’re all kinda mid. They’re pitched as quick, cheesy action movies-as-games, but then they go on for like 6 hours longer than they need to.

  • This game doesn’t feel very good. It’s a laggy NES game that really throws enemies at you faster than you can get Kirby to dodge. I realized after I was deep in this one that I played a remake of this game a few years ago: Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land. And I didn’t even like that one very much either.

  • Talkin' mainly about Ys I here, but I did play a little Ys II. It’s an action RPG where you bump into enemies to damage them, but they damage you if you bump incorrectly, and the bumping physics are weird. The game frequently wants you to find some obscure sequence of things to progress with hints on how to get part of the way there, but not the full picture. Not even in a clever figure-out-the-puzzle type of way. Playing this beside a guide felt like a requirement. Did not enjoy.

    If someone tells you that you need to play Ys 1 to understand future Ys games, let me say that you don’t. Not much happens that seems like it’d matter, and the little that does lacks the emotional weight to carry whatever narrative thread you think might be enhanced by it.

    In Ys II, the bump combat is a little more refined and there's a neat mechanic where you disguise yourself as an enemy and then can talk to the enemies, but I'm not especially thrilled about that one either.
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