My 2023 Ranked
Notable games I played the majority of during 2023!
A great great year. I think it marks the beginning of my turn-based RPG honeymoon, playing quite a few, both older and modern. The highlight of this in particular are the fantastic Trails games which I never would have got into if it wasn't for the friends I made this year (shoutout).
I also spent a lot of time addicted to two particularly standout rogue-likes, slay the spire and necrodancer. These two games alone took up more than 500 hours of time for me this year and it's all thoroughly deserved.
Finally it's a massive year for visual novel-esque games as I played a fair few, 3 of which becoming some of my all time favourites: Ghost trick, VA-11 Hall-A, and Umineko (which I hadn't even finished).
A great great year. I think it marks the beginning of my turn-based RPG honeymoon, playing quite a few, both older and modern. The highlight of this in particular are the fantastic Trails games which I never would have got into if it wasn't for the friends I made this year (shoutout).
I also spent a lot of time addicted to two particularly standout rogue-likes, slay the spire and necrodancer. These two games alone took up more than 500 hours of time for me this year and it's all thoroughly deserved.
Finally it's a massive year for visual novel-esque games as I played a fair few, 3 of which becoming some of my all time favourites: Ghost trick, VA-11 Hall-A, and Umineko (which I hadn't even finished).
30 Games
Honestly, way cooler than it looks.
Extremel innovative gameplay and some beatiful scenery.
Amazing art, a HUGE amount of decisions, absolutely delivers what it promises.
I don't give a rats ass about the story that's being told but these puzzles are exquisite and, in some places, mindblowing.
Very awesome puzzle concepts that ultimately felt under-utilised. The world and themes were still enjoyable.
So charming, completely blew my expectations out of the water.
Great presentation, good themes, story and gameplay (for an rpgmaker walking sim). Just a shame that personally I find storytelling through symbolism very difficult to engage with.
Rare return to soulful Sonic writing, but it is just a meme game in the end.
A decent story with an amazing and charming atmosphere given the clear budget constraints.
Awesome improvement on the first game in many aspects, absolutely rocking.
I really have no clue what this was but it was creepy and I liked it for that at least.
More of an insight than a game, but is well written and eye-opening.
I didn't love the main story of this yakuza entry but surprisingly everything else made up for it big time.
Coming hot off persona 4 golden this felt fairly lackluster in comparison but still a very good time overall. Gameplay was great but there was loads of boring filler and the characters just weren't all that.
Cool rhythm game, just extremely short and the user made stuff didn't look as good (could be wrong but I didn't feel that compelled to investigate).
This deckbuilder will never be topped.
Good game, just didn't stand out.
It's alright, too horny.
Despite a bit of an underwhelming story that's very clearly setting up a sequel, this had lots of fun to offer with great attention to detail in many aspects.
A true classic that I'll always appreciate.
The first playthrough wasn't very fun, all subsequent playthroughs were much more enjoyable.
It hit me quite hard, really knows how to connect to the player.
So unbelievably fantastic and it's only one half.
I really liked it, then I replayed it and it became an all time favourite. Jill Stingray is my favourite character ever.
So uniquely addictive, loved grinding for aria low% then kinda said goodbye.
Fun game. Can see how it was a classic, it's aged alright but playing it for the first time in 2023 didn't hit very hard.
Didn't think it was as good as the first but still sits right next to it, this world is amazing.
Probably the best JRPG I've played up to this point.
I spent more playtime on this than tomb raider 1 and I didn't even get 70% through the game (I then dropped it), it was so much less fun, needed to look at guides constantly.
It's aged horribly but I still had a lot of fun with it as a lara croft fanboy.