The Games I was Looking Forward to in 2023
how well did I navigate the carriages of my own personal Hype Train?
It’s been nearly a full year since I started this Substack, and while I reflect on the past twelve months and my plans for 2024, I thought it would be good to revisit the list of games I was excited about at the start of the year:
Final Fantasy XVI
A game I ended up having quite complicated feelings about. Bits of it were undeniably compelling, but it’s also a game that I feel failed at the basic tenets of what makes a JRPG ‘work’. Theres no party to customise, combat is flashy but not very tactical, the world rarely feels interconnected and the story often seems more interested in lore than it does character development.
Essentially Square Enix have made a 40 hour character action game whose story is mired in a distractingly bigoted and conservative subtext despite professing to be the opposite, letting down the elements that do work (the ancillary cast, the big set pieces) to such a degree that I don’t think i’ll ever come back to this.
And that’s quite damning for a Final Fantasy game.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
While I take issue with the bigger picture of this much awaited sequel, (my thoughts can be found in this video here), Tears of the Kingdom was a game that excited me more than it let me down. Hyrule this time does feel less like a training ground for one big impossible task like before, but in the moment to moment I found myself easily enraptured by the inventiveness of its new mechanics and the way it repurposed familiar landscapes for new experiences.
They should have just made it about a third smaller, that’s all.
Octopath Traveller 2
Have not played this yet, but word on the street is it’s an enormous improvement over the already quite good first game, with some calling it their game of the year. Something I will come round to tackling in time, I’ve been on a huge JRPG kick recently that sees no sign of ending any time soon.
Season: A Letter to the Future
I feel like I didn’t quite do this game justice in my meandering and unfocussed video on it earlier this year, which is a shame because I don’t see a lot of folk talk about what is a really profound and often beautiful game about the burden of memory and the vitality of ritual.
It’s a tight, contained fragment of interesting worldbuilding that is drawn upon by the environment but ultimately curated by you the player. how you choose to parse it’s ideas and the way its history remains or evaporates makes for a wildy personal thing to behold.
Season is something I think everyone should play at least once. If nothing else for those gorgeous visuals and serene soundtrack. A great game.
Terra Nil
A lot of games on this list I ended up making videos about, huh? My issues with this game are not mechanical, although others have addressed this side themselves, and I feel bad especially after Jonathan Hau Yoon wrote me a really lovely comment on my video. It’s an interesting game, presenting a stark and bare bones vision of the future, something that often ends up being rather meditative and peaceful despite the troubling lack of context for what’s going on with its world. It’s not a reverse city builder, and sometimes it gets a bit too fiddly for its own good, but there’s a lot to love about its art, its animations and the little flourishes that bring life back to a dead world. A feelgood game, can’t deny its appeal.
Like a Dragon: The Man who Erased his Name
I’ve played 30 minutes of this. Seems really good, but I think I have to concede with the fact that I’m just really done with Yakuza as an idea. There are too many games now, and although its clear that the same amount of love and passion goes into the new ones as there always has been, I can’t help but feel like it’s time now for something new. I don’t want to think about the Dragon of Dojima ever again.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Haven’t played yet. Heard good things. Seems to be a good, authentic representation of the culture of that place and time. Another one for the new year pile.
Dordogne
I went into this game expecting a kind of French watercolour Boku no Nasuyatsumi experience and it’s not actually that at all. What it is, however is a simple but effective story of a women revisiting a past she can’t fully recall, and trying to piece together the context behind the troubled relationship of her family.
It’s really well written, and while quite linear it doesn’t hold your hand with its storytelling, to the degree that I really need to go back in for another round because I’m sure I missed something vital. Really can’t recommend it enough.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Not out yet, but i’m still excited about it!
Mineko’s Night Market
Probably my most dissapointing game of 2023. It just didn’t evolve its ideas past the first half an hour, apeing a lot of those survival crafting and community building type games without understanding the vital friction that makes those things compelling. I liked the stealth sections, especially toward the end, they are simple but effective, I just wish I didn’t have to grind so many resources to see what was a very basic story.
Tactical Breach Wizards
Not out yet, but i’m still excited about it!
Sea of Stars
A really solid JRPG that’s embellished with a wealth of lovely artistic flourishes, great animations and a kinetic and tactile combat system, let down ever so slightly by it’s flat writing and not very compelling cast. When I look back at what I’ve played years down the line, thats the thing that keeps these experiences in my memory, so while on paper it’s not really that big of an issue, it will probably be a dealbreaker for some. Still a really fun time to be had.
Birth
Birth is just really good. I don’t really have much else to say about it. It’s macabre and sweet and weirdly romantic. A noodly, fidget cube of a game that rewards curiosity with some great non-sequiters and a cosy time overall. A nice way to spend an afternoon.