What an absolute treat this game was. Played the game with HD textures, and it honestly felt like playing a remastered game. The characters were (mostly) great, especially the character growth of some. The combat felt really good, especially once you got the hang of the FoF system. The story was an absolute banger, and I felt invested in the world they crafted and the consequences of everyone's actions. The last arc kept this from being a masterpiece - while traveling back and forth from place to place might make sense in terms of a grand story, it makes for some terrible pacing in terms of gameplay - but it might be the best game I've played this year, and I would recommend it heartily.

Wow, is this an unpleasant game to play. So the game LOOKS great. Coming from KH1 remix, basically all of the same assets have been used, with some "smoothed over" cutscenes still from the PS2 remaster. However, basically everything else about this game is garbage. The card combat is clunky and abrasive, even scrub enemies can break your cards pretty easily (don't even get me started on Org XIII bosses...), and the story is pretty dumb. I put the time in to finish the first storyline, but I can't say I enjoyed myself. Maybe I'll play the second storyline and see if it changes my feelings at all, but I'd recommend just catching the story bits from this one in a video wrap-up.

Edit: Went back and played the Riku storyline, and it was good enough to raise the overall rating of this game, but not by much. The story was less than half the length of Sora's, with some good explanatory story bits instead of just "Oh noes my memories!". The pre-determined decks for every world took a lot of the tedious work of deck-building out, but could really suck if you were in a world with a bad deck (Wonder Land). The gameplay overall felt much faster and more dynamic, and reloading your cards with a simple button press instead of holding the button really kept the combat moving. Dueling sucked, to the point I just avoided it entirely, and the final boss was cheap, so it wasn't all roses. I would still recommend just catching the story bits in a video, but the Riku storyline is at least worth playing.

Third GOTM finished for May 2023. It's unfortunate that I played the first game so soon before this one, because it made the faults with this one all the more glaring. This game wanted so hard to be like RE, but missed the mark on nearly every part. The horror element feels lacking, fixed camera angles made it so enemies could attack you off screen, the limited inventory is exacerbated by the high amount of enemy encounters, and the tank controls left movement and dodging attacks a pain. The story was also weaker than the first one, but Flint is great. The EXP system was pretty good though, offering a lot of control over how you built Aya and her mitochondrial abilities. I didn't hate this one, and it probably would've been better received as a standalone game, but as a sequel to one of the better PlayStation games I've played this one felt lacking.

Extremely surprised by how much I liked this game! The combat was unique, though moving Aya would sometimes feel like trying to drag a feather through molasses. The music was killer, and the crafting/tooling mechanic was satisfying if a bit confusing. The body horror in this game was sooo good, even if the overall fear factor wasn't terribly high. The story was pretty nonsensical, with some ridiculously silly science, but you needed the specific premise in order for certain events to play in the space. The game has some other small detractors that are more due to it being a 2000s PS1 game than anything else, but my overall experience with this game was very fun.

Eleventh GOTW finished for 2022. Started out thinking I was going to hate this game. The controls and attacks were a bit confusing, and it just didn't click. Came back to it after a bit, and burned through the whole game in a tidy 1.5 hours. You play as a sorceress who shoots lightning, and you have a small selection of beast companions with different abilities that accompany you. The game is pretty hard, but the upgrades to both you and your beasties help it feel a little more fair. The platforming sometimes felt a bit clunky, but it's an older Genesis game. Didn't hate it by the end.

Oh yeah, and Yoshimi Kanda of Gainax fame was the Game Designer.

First GOTM finished for January 2023. Just a super fun game oozing with charm! Game looks great for its time, has some fun areas to explore (though some are arguably too big with too little in them), and good boss fights. Each of the four characters feels different to play and control, with their own unique items and weapons. The plot is wackadoo, and the writing is at many times quite funny. The camera can be a pain at times, and with any time spent idle will automatically rotate behind the character. This can make some of the jumping in the game unnecessarily tricky, which isn't great for a platformer, but that's pretty typical of an early 3D platforming-adventure game. Even with that in mind, this was still a great experience. Also, you get to pilot a giant mech several times in the game. Who doesn't love that!?

Third GOTM finished for December 2022. One of my favorite - if not my absolute favorite - N64 games of all time. The game oozes charm, and the music is absolutely fantastic. I recognize that there are some bits here and there that keep it from being perfect (looking at you, camera), especially coming back to it after a long period of time, but it still felt absolutely amazing to play this one again. The platforming is fun and tight, the writing is silly and very much a product of its time, and it absolutely scratches that "collect-a-thon" itch. Love it!

Second RPGotQQ played for 2022. This one pretty easily makes its way into my top RPGs of all time. For spending roughly 50 hours on it, the pacing in this game is excellent. You really get the feeling of a "zero to hero" adventurer story. The characters are generally pretty well written and the battle system is just superb. I only have two issues with the game, and they're relatively small. The English voice acting can be pretty flat and uninspiring, and the lack of maps combined with environments that look pretty similar can lead to feeling lost or turned around more than you'd probably want.

It's been a while since I played a game for this long, and I absolutely loved this one.

Forty-eighth GOTW finished for 2023. Not terribly dissimilar to another Christmas themed game I played (Santa Claus Jr.) in that it is actually better than it has any right to be. If there was a story, I didn't follow it, but there's some decent gameplay here and the sleigh levels were an interesting change of pace. Some terrible hitboxes (especially on the bosses), coupled with some other nonsensical story and gameplay characteristics, keep this from being a surprise gem, but there are certainly worse games to play.