2022 Favs

Only listing games I played/finished for the first time this year!

The House in Fata Morgana: Dreams of the Revenants Edition
The House in Fata Morgana: Dreams of the Revenants Edition
Ambitious Visual Novels that pull you through multiple timelines and elaborate twists are nothing new - in fact, they're practically the norm at this point, with most critically acclaimed titles following a similar formula. Fata Morgana stands out through its expressivity - it satisfies 'intellectual needs' through it's elaborate plotting and thematic depth, but it's also a deeply emotional story that's felt with your body as much as your mind.

The painterly illustrations, simple prose, and elegant vocal arrangements build a dreamlike texture that lulls, disarms the audience before striking with intense violence and horror. Deliriously romantic and painfully tragic, Fata Morgana lands its punchlines with such consistent ferocity that it became one of the most emotionally exhausting games I've ever experienced. But it's not like the story is 30 hours of misery porn - the cruelty serves a necessary contrast to the tenderness, the humility, the empathy of the characters. Underneath the negativity and suffering is a positive message about longing and the value of connection, touching on the core of human decency in ways you wouldn't expect.

It gutted me. Resonated in a way that I can never forget, I'm in awe of the talent on display at Novectacle. One of the most powerful works of art I've ever experienced, every second of Fata Morgana was humbling. Deeply, deeply humbling.

1

Library of Ruina
Library of Ruina
Takes turn-based jrpg combat (a formula that's been ubiquitous for over 30 years) and finally perfects it, adding a level of depth and strategy that allows the gameplay to become the star of fhe show.

It pushes away from risk-free healing and prescriptive weaknesses to instead focus on status effects, turn manipulation, deckbuilding, and complex multi-turn synergies, reaching a level of thoughtfulness and planning yet to be seen in the genre. It also stands as one of the few jrpgs to bridge narrative and mechanical design - nearly every enemy's combat mechanics (perks, attacks, even their AI) are informed by their personality or backstory or some aspect of the game's lore. Project Moon has built one of the most unique and memorable worlds in the medium and they refuse to let it go to waste, constantly using the gameplay as an extension of the story's themes. It recalls my favorite moments of the Armored Core series, and it's no surprise that the director's favorite studio is FromSoft.

And beyond 'fixing' the genre, it has all sorts of smart twists that innovate on standard formulas:

- 'Emotional levels' that reset at the end of every chapter turn exp points into a short-term resource akin to health or mana.
- Conditional loot drops reward players who dive into optional challenges, letting skill and strategy dictate the pace of their progression.
- A constant influx of new equipment and abilities encourage experimentation and build variety without outright funneling the player's options.
- Turning 'evasion' into a manually activated ability instead of passive damage mitigation adds another layer of decision-making + counterplay.
- 'Positive' and 'Negative' cards (basically Limit Breaks) are a BRILLIANT twist on disadvantaged states and comeback mechanics that every game can learn from.

Even if we push beyond insular genre comparisons, Ruina stands as a triumph of game design - few combat systems are as carefully considered as ruina's, turn-based or otherwise. This is the new standard for jrpg design - a benchmark experience that I'll judge every game against.

2

Hyper Demon
Hyper Demon
Peak caravan shmup, its uncapped speed + volatile enemy composition gives it a (theoretically) limitless skill ceiling.

However, I'm afraid that scoring strats are starting to homogenize - optimizing a game into set-play is the heat death of any competitive experience.

But maybe this is just hand-wringing over a hypothetical endgame I'll never actually reach - so many of my fav arcade games have been mostly 'solved' and it's not like that ever bothered me. Judging from what I'm capable of, Hyper Demon still feels open-ended, and that's all that matters for now.

3

Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk DX
Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk DX
Her name's Ayesha but she's NOT a black woman???

tired of this bait and switch bullshit

The fact it's not pronounced how it's spelled is ALSO incredibly black, come tf on

4

Sifu
Sifu
Single-handedly proves that you can meld deep arcade mechanics with a semi-grounded setting, fulfilling the potential of Ghost of Tsushima's combat.

Turns out aggressive homing attacks can be a good thing? The tracking on attacks rubbed me the wrong way at first, but it turns out that positioning is still extremely important.

Wall splats and item pickups reward players who are aware of their placement in a stage, and carelessly backing yourself into a corner just makes side-stepping attacks even harder.

It just goes to show that there are no hard rules in game design and seemingly annoying mechanics can be enjoyable in the right context.

5

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
While it doesn't capture the sharp encounter design of the old infinity engine games, it makes up for its shortcomings through its absurdly open-ended choice and consequence - tapping into the tabletop fantasy of a personalized campaign better than most everything in the crpg genre.

But it's more than just choice for the sake of choice! The quests and writing are genuinely compelling in their own right, regardless of potential branching. Resource management is an engaging puzzle that adds weight to your decisions, not just menuing for the sake of menuing. Character customization is a series of interesting mechanical trade-offs, but is juuuust lenient enough that you can fulfill whatever fantasy you want.

It's hard to believe this game exists, the rare intersection between ambition and quality.

6

Splatoon 3
Splatoon 3
Each new Splatoon recalls playing a new Tekken or Blazblue - a seemingly redundant entry that feels like more of the same is actually filled with loads of subtle tweaks designed to push the skill ceiling higher and higher. New movement tech + a rebalanced sandbox + tweaked camera really shakes things up for the sweaty tryhards, even if most people won't notice.

An armored dodge roll that cancels animations and doubles as a wall jump is obviously awesome, but the redesigned supers are especially great - we've finally found a good balance where they feel powerful and demand respect from your opponent, but still have room for counterplay. You need skill to use them properly, and even then, you're not guaranteed a kill.

And for PvE fans, splatoon's new horde mode actually has some bite to it, drastically increasing the difficulty so you can't sleepwalk through stages.

This would've been higher on the list if Nintendo didn't screw up the map design (everything's too cramped)!!!

7

Armed Police Batrider
Armed Police Batrider
A bajillion characters plus a bajillion bosses plus a bajillion stage combinations... My fav example of Raizing Maximalism™️.

Arguably a little gimmicky, simplifying the tight level design and rank management of Garegga to accommodate many different playable characters, but I think it's a worthwhile trade-off.

The team-building isn't just a cool back-of-the-box feature, it massively complicates routing by asking you to form a cohesive team that specializes in different areas of a run. You also have to strategically kill characters to manage dynamic difficulty, but revive them at opportune moments to trigger optional routes and the like. It's as deep as Garegga, just in a different way.

Also the source of the best Character Portraits of all time. This cast is WAY TOO COOL, like a bunch of snarky anti-heroes from the sickest Saturday morning cartoon that never got made. The IGDB cover art doesn't do them justice, you HAVE to see their in-game renders

8

ESP Ra.De. Psi
ESP Ra.De. Psi
A jack-of-all-trades that dips its toes into numerous scoring mechanics that all cleanly flow into another. Building and cashing in multipliers, destroying enemy bullets with explosions, rapidly alternating shot types - you can see the start of ideas that would eventually lead to progear, ketsui, and mushihimesama, all amazing classics.

However, ESP.Ra.De. lacks the volatility and ridiculous skill ceiling that accompanies most CAVE games, opting for a more beginner friendly experience designed around frequent bombing and (relatively) thin bullet patterns. It's a gateway game designed to prime you for harder shmups while offering incredible longevity in it's own right.

Beyond mechanics, its also one of the most beautiful bullet hells I've ever played, showing a keen attention to color palettes, framing, and theming that's incredibly rare in the genre.

Every inch of every screen is distinctly memorable, and the final stage alone is enough to place this among my favs.

9

Live A Live
Live A Live
Live A Live understands that snes combat is most notable for its flexibility - the simplistic mechanics make it a perfect fit for contextual interactions designed to accentuate the narrative.

Combat isn't just a byproduct of the medium, it's a tool designed to supplement the story's themes - to better sell the stakes and setting of whatever era you're playing through.

Hopefully this remaster will get this game the attention it deserves, creating a new watershed moment that permanently shifts how jrpgs are designed.

I want to marry yoko shimomura

10

Norco
Norco
A cyberpunk tale of ecological racism and the cycles of black suffering set in the real life town of Norco, Louisiana.

Norco taps into millennial angst, the dangers of technology, and our troubling relationship with religion - seemingly the only way to make sense of disasters that are beyond our comprehension. Religion is the story's greatest source of conflict but also doubles as our cast's greatest source of comfort, a contradiction that's at the core of the game's themes.

The children of slaves put to work in an oil refinery set atop old plantations, directly benefiting a company that haphazardly expands through their ancestor's graves. And when the factory's cancer spewing fumes - the spirit of the antebellum - invade Catherine Madere's body, her only respite is the religion passed down from old slave masters...

There's so much to unpack and reflect on, and the more I learn of Louisiana and its history, the more I appreciate the intent and depth of each character's arcs. Many of the plot beats feel like standard cyberpunk exaggeration but are actually based on real events, pulled from the director's childhood in Norco.

Few adventure games are as unique and personal and thoughtfully written as this. Some of the absurdist humor can feel forced or out of place, but that awkwardness only adds to how genuine it feels. Less than a year after release, I already have an urge to revisit and further unpack Norco's petroleum blues.

11

Melty Blood: Type Lumina
Melty Blood: Type Lumina
Tricked me into reading Tsukihime.

Can't say anything intelligent about Melty when my knowledge of the franchise is thin. I'll just say - reverse beats are awesome, and French Breach is one of the only devs that understands smart pressure can be just as satisfying as smart neutral.

12

Sol Cresta
Sol Cresta
More fodder for the 'Is platinumgames even good?' discussion from a bunch of nerds that haven't played half the studio's games.

13

Weird West
Weird West
Prey 2.0. Not just because of its surprisingly high quality, but because the marketing reeeaaallllyyy failed this game. I legit thought it was a roguelite until a friend told me otherwise!

It's actually an extremely big brained blend of the SaGa games' multi character campaigns and Original Sins' emergent chaos, wrapped in a delightfully pulpy (yet sensitive!) twist on westerns.

A lovely reminder that small teams are capable of building great rpgs.

14

Quantum Bummer Blues
Quantum Bummer Blues
Don't tell Heather I didn't pay the cis tax yet. Also don't tell her I had to cheat to win.

And defininitely don't tell her about Gundam Extreme Vs Maxiboost On. Or Armored Core: For Answer. Or Phantom Brigade.

15

D*sco Ep
D*sco Ep
Oh god, I thought it would be funny to make a Kanye reference in the review but it's aged HORRIBLY

I'M SORRY ZIAD

16

Return to Monkey Island
Return to Monkey Island
People wanna dunk on PnC, but I'm too busy jookin through beautifully rendered interactive dioramas.

Monkey Island was never about the puzzles, it was about Investigative Storytelling, poking and prodding and PLAYING with props in a way that's wholly unique to the medium - exploring your inventory's relationship to the world around you while enjoying whatever goofy situations are thrown your way. The puzzles were just an easy excuse to force this experimentation, this curiosity from the player.

Of course, that doesn't excuse the series' puzzles for being needlessly obtuse or cumbersome, but hopefully this new release (designed for modern sensibilities) can finally highlight this genre's appeal.

17

Pocky & Rocky Reshrined
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined
Finds its niche as a deliberately paced shmup that never overwhelms you like its bullet hell brethren, letting a lenient dodge and parry carry you through any tough situation. Bouncy spritework {heheh} and an upbeat ost give it a cozy, pleasant vibe, contrasting against the hostility and dour nihilism typical of the genre. No suicide missions, please!

The simplistic scoring system (kill everything, don't die, fiddle with the ones digit or something) holds back its longevity, but it will always be a perfect comfort game!

18

Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
My opinion of the gameplay has dropped even further since I wrote my review. It doesn't even have the consolation prize of best xeno gameplay, cause I'm starting to MASSIVELY prefer X and 2's mechanics, both in and out of combat. It's also frustrating that 4 games in, Monolith still can't emulate basic MMO combat without some massive screwup (tanks that can't tank, dps that can't dps, teammates with minds of their own)

But the story? That's some good shit, only getting better the more I reflect on it. The ending was PERFECTLY executed and is one of my favorite moments in any jrpg i've ever played. I think anyone craving the emotional storytelling and great character writing of ps1 classics would really enjoy this.

19

Bayonetta 3
Bayonetta 3
Basically, Platinum made a spiritual successor to Ninja Theory's DmC reboot - a stylish action game where balancing is thrown out the window and enemies are little more than punching bags for you to experiment with sick combos.

Even though Bayonetta 3 has the most exhaustive moveset ever seen in an action game, the combos are undermined by homogenized hit reactions and restrictive movement, failing to reach the high standards set by dmc4 and 5.

I've grown into a picky little bitch for combo systems, so while bayo3 is super enjoyable, (and EASILY clears bayo2) I don't see myself grinding combos for 100s of hours.

20

Elden Ring
Elden Ring
The opening and closer were incredibly memorable, but the middle 70% was an absolute blur.

Despite souls games having better combat than 99.9% of similar arpgs, it's not enough to sustain an 80 hour juggernaut like this. Souls games need creative scenario design and thoughtful problem solving that goes beyond systematically checking every corner or memorizing enemies' attack patterns. It needs to ground you in its world, asking the player to approach their surroundings like a cautious adventurer, not a content-clearing power gamer.

It needs the shit that fromsoft used to be great at.

21

Poinpy
Poinpy
Conceptually should be a slam dunk - evolves Downwell's movement by turning you into a pinball that bounces off walls at reflective angles to kill enemies and collect fruit. Bouncing on enemies' heads maintains momentum and refreshes 1 air dash, letting you extend your current 'fruit combo.'

Wall interactions are one of the best strategies for adding depth to a platformer - angling across surfaces gives the player a level of granular control that surpasses most movement options while still holding them to the limitations of gravity and level geometry. This push and pull between player expression and performative challenge is why Mario 64, Mirror's Edge, and Super Metroid are some of the best in the genre - even a more casual game like Yoshi's Island greatly benefits from letting you bounce projectiles across walls.

But why is Poinpy so low on the list despite improving on one of my favorite rogeulites???? Well, it runs into a similar issue as gunvolt where enemies only pop into view 1 or 2 at a time, practically funneling your route through a stage - enemy placement is so simplistic and repetitive that it quickly felt like I was going through the motions. As much as I love the freedom of poinpy's movement, these enemy layouts are just too damn rigid, needlessly stifling a great idea!

Poinpy's great, but I'd rather jump into Downwell's chaotic descent, even if it's mechanically primitive.

22

Azure Striker Gunvolt 3
Azure Striker Gunvolt 3
I'm not against the concept of arcade games focusing on execution more than routing (i love ikaruga!), but pulling off combos in Gunvolt is so simplistic that mastering its levels just left me feeling hollow.

insta-killing enemies as they pop into view one at a time isn't always satisfying, even if the game is moving at mach speed. Still, dope bosses and satisfying kinesthetics made it super enjoyable in the end.

23

Tunic
Tunic
Combining ys + myst (+ a little dark souls) is a really cool combination, but I'd much rather play ys or myst separately.

I'm not sure why, but most games that attempt to blend obtuse puzzle solving with combat/platforming tend to fall flat for me. Like it needs a stronger adhesive to justify the genre fusion.

Part of it may be that most of these games don't have the same narrative hooks as myst, making me less likely to care about the world I'm in. I enjoy puzzles for the sake of puzzles, but if I have to decode the rules of a world, I want that world to be compelling in some way. This narrative could also re-contextualize the combat into something more than 'the thing that breaks up all the puzzles.'

24

Signalis
Signalis
It's in the same category as games like Nier/Bastion/Killer 7 - an experiential game that butchers an established gameplay formula by doubling down on a bland, samey loop. But, just like the other games, the brilliant mood and interpretive narrative try to make up for Signalis' average mechanics.

I have a lot to say about how it overly 'gamifies' Silent Hill's systems (turning the flashlight + radio from sensory tools into puzzle fodder was a bad choice), but it's really not that offensive in hindsight.

There's no reason for Signalis' lenient survival horror to bother me more than the aforementioned games' lightweight combat, but I couldn't stop my apathy from drifting to annoyance. Even when the gameplay grew in complexity towards the back half, it felt like a roadblock to the story more than something worth engaging with.

Hopefully it grows on me over time.

25

Escape Academy
Escape Academy
While I'm not super fond of this game, I still have deep respect for the devs' ability to consistently put together elaborately designed rooms.

Creating puzzles that let players intuitively bridge disparate concepts while giving them enough agency that they feel smart for solving it on their own? This takes an incredible amount of iteration and a deep insight into your players' thought process.

Especially when you have to juggle aesthetic needs, making rooms that are visually compelling and feel decently 'grounded' without compromising mechanical clarity. It's tough!

26

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
Death is too good for the red ninja turtle.

27

Gunfire Reborn
Gunfire Reborn
Gunfire's stuck in podcast purgatory - a game you only give half your attention as you listen to 30-year old comedians call each other slurs.

A numbing experience that only functions as a counterweight to the embarrassment of listening to podcasts.

28

Nobody Saves the World
Nobody Saves the World
Nothing makes a bad first impression like mobile game quest design and unironic copypastas.

I wouldn't have lasted more than 30 minutes if it wasn't for drinkbox studio's AMAZING art design and music (Jim Guthrie's a god). Their production values were enough for me to finally finish 'Nobody,' but it wasn't enough to truly redeem it.

While I enjoy games that are sold on the strength of their aesthetic, I think it's best when that aesthetic is in service of a greater purpose - mood, themes, emotions... not just a distraction from some middling dungeon-crawling and reddit jokes.

29

Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors
Behold! A roguelite that reduces the genre to its most essential elements - build variety and routing. Cutting the fluff and diving straight into 'the meat' should be a slam dunk, right?

Well, Vampire Survivor's underwhelming for me because its primary source of depth (build optimization) is defined by rigid set bonuses that funnel you into a handful of prescriptive strategies. Instead of designing loot that naturally synergises through whatever utility they offer (though there is some of that), the game relies on a simple formula of Item A + Item B = Item C.

Get Item A? Re-roll til you get B, because it's the obvious 'correct' pairing. The REAL decision is finding what pairs go together, but arcanas and character specific quirks funnel that decision too.

Way too many roguelites fall into this trap, and I'm totally bored with it. 'Cutting the fluff' just exposed how mechanically barren the genre was in the first place.

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