If my 2021 list was summarized by a GPU and console shortage, this year would be similar with the addition of changes in my personal life. To say the least, after being quarantined for so long, I decided to spend more time outside, meeting people and making new friends.
My gaming has been reduced to a mere 5 hours a week, with a large portion of it playing coop games with my friends and family.
Here are the games that I enjoyed the most this year.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is my GOTY. It has an excellent battle system, great music and an enthralling narrative. The game kept me engaged through the almost 120 hours it took to complete. Surprisingly this game's story and music isn't even the strongest in the series, which goes to XC1 and XC2 respectfully. Despite this, I was so emotionally invested in the game that I couldn't stop playing. I won't lie, the ending to Chapter 5 had me in tears... and I RARELY cry playing video games.
This specifically pertains to the coop mode of Portal 2. I've already played coop mode with a gamer, but it was an even more fun experience playing with a non-gamer. It's interesting to see how my non-gaming partner would approach the puzzles and the numerous difficulties she had especially with analog stick controls.
As Dusk Falls seems like yet another choose your own adventure game, but where this game shines is its coop mode. If you can play with 2 or more like-minded friends/family the game is a blast. I found it fun talking and arguing about what decisions to vote for. The veto system is also genius and can make for some unexpected surprises when a decision the majority thought would go one way would suddenly get overruled.
So I actually had this game on my shelf since the pandemic started and let it collect dust (for obvious reasons). I finally decided to give it whirl in 2022. I loved "The Last of Us" and for the most part "The Last of Us Part 2" is a more bloodier take on "The Last of Us Part 1". It's a solid game with an unnecessarily violent and brutal story.
Ah yes... the infamously bad Zelda with the mandatory motion controls on the Wii. I played Skyward Sword on the Switch without motion controls and found the experience sublime. As of this writing it's the last Zelda game created with traditional dungeons and makes for a great game to play on a commute.
If "To the Moon" was lightning in a bottle, "Finding Paradise" is like a static discharge from that bottle. It tries to go for the same feels as "To the Moon" but to a weaker effect. The novelty is gone, but the narrative is still extremely solid.
I can kind of see what Josef Fares was trying to do with this game. Something like a video game equivalent of the TV show Prison Break. It's a pretty decent coop experience but I found the game get progressively weaker as it goes on, especially once Leo and Vinny are out of prison.
Dumb name aside, found this to be a delightful metroidvania. The Ikagura-like switching between fire and wind elements is a nice touch to differentiate itself with other games of its ilk. Only downside is the characters and the story is completely forgettable.
Shoutout to @bigsocrates for organizing the UUGPGC, otherwise I would not have found this gem.
The Yakuza games are my gaming comfort food and Yakuza 5 is no different. I'm totally okay with setting the difficulty to easy and beating punks with extravagant heat actions. Also I had no idea I had such a weakness for JPop, I loved these parts so much that all did all I could in Haruka's chapters.
I know I'm in the minority here, but I don't think either Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal are great games. They are good games, that failed to charm me like Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 Golden did.
I simply do not like the 2nd half of the game. After you get Futaba, it was downhill for me. With the exception of the Casino dungeon, the others dungeons are too long and padded. And the story gets pretty bonkers and not in a good sense.
The new 3rd semester content is excellent, but the only way to experience it is to play through the dreaded Summer to Fall season.
