Okay, I know this technically came out late 2022 but it makes the cutoff for the Backloggd GOTY and I played it this year so Im just going to pretend it released 1st Jan 2023 ok?

GOTY - Best Narrative
An absolute masterclass in narrative design, using its various influences of In The Name of the Rose, The Cheese and The Worms, Return of Martin Guerre etc to make a historical game that is about the process of history itself. Its honestly depressing to me the amount of "it should have been a book/movie" or "its a glorified VN" from people who just dont get it man.
The genius of the limited time investigation mechanics keep you on your toes and mesh wonderfully with the games' themes of the limits of truth, the fleeting nature of life and how our choices and those of who came before mold us into who we are today. None of which would work as well in a different medium. It evolves the usual skill system of RPGs like FNV to make them more unique flavours and different "choices" with good and bad consequences rather than the win game button of F3 and FNV and the like.

Touching, funny, insightful and full of humanity, Pentiment is reminds me why I even like this hobby at times.

GOTY Pick
Jusant isnt a perfect game, arguably it could have leaned in further into its mechanics focus and made more challenging, but I think its light physicality and atmosphere are top notch, and would probably be diminished if it were a full on realistic climbing sim. No, I think Jusant is more akin to Journey and it absolutely captivated me from the moment I played the demo of it a few months ago. Absolutely gorgeous looking as well, being able to gauge progress by looking back at the lower areas you came from is a great feeling.

A stressful, historical sewing sim, very cool

A Wonderful little narrative focused farm sim. Does a lot with very little, growing into this community of very human feeling people trying to live their lives as best they can. Refreshing and engaging in all the right ways.

Just a solid little short snack of a manic platformer. The humour is a bit hit or miss and I would have enjoyed a couple more levels but good nonetheless

GOTY Pick Best Gameplay
Banger Rhythm Action hybrid

A wonderfully atmospheric little experimental vibes em up set in a star wars esque world. Could have leaned further into the difficulty, but its good as it is.

At the risk of tooting my own horn, nothing brought me greater joy on this website this year than to bring attention to this gem, with mutuals playing it and then their mutuals etc. Uses a clever core idea to tell a compelling narrative about love, loss and disability.

GOTY Pick Best Soundtrack
I cant rank it too high cause its not finished yet, and if episode 2 and/or 3 dont follow it up well its going to take the wind out of my sails but goddamn, the soundtrack, visuals and writing are good.

Mostly just for completeness sake

Wonderful minimalistic bus sim that uses the mechanics as a framework for a melancholic, vulnerable piece about growing apart from your friends, the awkwardness of feeling stuck in your childhood home and worrying about leaving your family to be alone when you want to go out on your own

"vanitas vanitatum dixit Ecclesiastes omnia vanitas"
omg hit tweet bestie

GOTY pick Best Multiplayer
Theres no multiplayer, I just wanted to shout it out and havent played any multiplayer games released this year
I hate roguelikes, so imagine my shock that I quite liked this one. A Card game as well! Its a 0 tutorialisation roguelike, not super hard and figuring it all out is really all there is to it, but its a damn stimulating 45 mins (or shorter if you are quicker on the uptake)

Respect any game which gives you an achievement when the main character loses their virginity. I should read the original novel at some point

GOTY Pick Best Artstyle
Its a shame its so buggy, cause an epidemiological detective game is a great idea, I should know cause Im working on one.

15 min free wario ware type game about Vietnamese new year. Easiest game to recommend ever tbh.

Shmup made by a friend. Im not the biggest shmup fan cause they usually aggravate me and Im really bad at em, but for what its worth Cycle Chaser made me motivated enough to beat on normal. Hard is still a bit too hard for me right now, but maybe in the future

Its a gag walking sim about "skiing" in switzerland. Good for a quick laugh, especially if youve ever been to one of these stations.

If you like rail grinding segments in 3d sonic games, this is the game for you. Short and sweet

Magical realism VN set in Bogotá. You play as a taxi driver encountering different characters with colourful personalities. Its cool

TOTK burns twice as bright as BOTW and as a consequence burns itself out twice as quickly Im afraid. I still enjoyed it.

A rather unique specimen, its a sort of geocaching sim? Could have been more challenging but its cool

Dragon themed pokemon like. Its ok, has a neat hook as a sort of neverending story type setup

Okay Solarpunk Platformer

Cute

It has its flaws, particularly pacing and structure, but its a solid adventure game

Feels weird to even rank this, its a very personal interactive music album describing the author's experience with bipolar disorder

Im the only person who likes this game apparently

Its a good coming of age story, but its repetitive and didnt really hit me how it wanted to.

A charmingly amateurish solo developed photography sim

Solid

Better to fail from overambition than to fail from being derivative as hell I suppose

Interesting ideas, but too brief to make much use of them

Im a sucker for weird gameplay hybrids, so the VN/RTS mix of travelers game could make me forgive the rough translation and repetitiveness, just not for 12 hours jesus christ.

Did not really enjoy this one, disappointing after Ringo being a highlight for me this year. Maybe on replay it will shine more?

Waste of a good concept, its mostly mediocre

good ideas, mediocre execution

boring

meh

Cool air strafe sim, but last level filtered me

Cool concept but wooden acting and condescending narration spelling everything out, its like the original cut of blade runner. Also this might seem like a weird complaint, but I wish the bike handled a bit more like shit, idk would have made the traversal more engaging probably

What a disappointment man, cool little historical themed rpg that ultimately shits itself

Its ok I guess, better than isle of armor but not as good as crown tundra, seems like the real dlc is the 2nd one and this is mostly padding for time.

I think I just dont like Deconstructeam. I liked For Every Great One a lot, but everything else of theirs Ive tried I though was middling at best. The character writing is...not great and I think others have called out the paradox of having a seemingly supportive trans narrative whilst also being weirdly gender essentialist. I leave that convo for those who know more about this than me though. For the most part, I didnt review it cause it felt made for a different audience, but man I wish I could get those hours back cause I got next to nothing from this. How do you make magic tarot boring?

Its a PSA in VN form, its fine

Mostly just uninteresting, doesnt really succeed at much

The most disappointing game for me this year, I wish I liked it

If only the game was funny

bleh

Not even trying to make a joke here, I genuinely forgot Id played this, which is funny.

Bleh

flaccid

Diorama sim, short and yet wears out its welcome somehow

Neat idea, bad execution, boring

More like the bad-rito quest

I dont know why I liked The LightHouse but hated this, on the surface they are quite similar, and yet.

Mediocre Detective game, even its cool ass setting cant save it

If your problem with run and guns was that they werent shit enough, here you go!

There's a point at which adorably bad gets overtaken by using shitty AI Art and straight up Unreal Engine's default photogrammetry assets in the most haphazard way possible. You can't use a boulder as a stone and then upscale it to be a mountain, its looks like ass ffs.

Get Fucked Squeenix

Ashamed that I even paid actual money for this shit