End of the Year 2022! Honorable video game mentions
Here is the honorable mentions for the video games of 2022. I’m separating them somewhat in the list, but you’ll find both the pre-2022 and the 2022 lists here. They’re all generally fine games, just I quit playing them for various reasons.
Pre-2022
HM: Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance
A fun little Action RPG, but also ball grindingly hard. Perhaps it's because I went with the Wizard character but this is astonishingly difficult. I'll probably go back and finish it.
HM: Divinity: Dragon Commander
I like this game even though I'm not particularly great at strategy games. I enjoy the story quite a bit, but I'm undecided if I'll go back to it.
HM: Undernauts
A good dungeon RPG but I sort of just fell off of it. I played it for twelve hours or so, but I just kind of moved on to other games. I love the art style.
HM: Shining Song Starnova
I got a few hours into the game when my computer decided I didn't make any progress into the story and deleted my save. Idol Manager made me think about giving this game a go.
HM: Daggerfall: Unity
I am trying desperately to figure out why people like the Elder Scrolls games so much. This one is pretty good, but I didn't play it for any great length of time.
HM: Elder Scrolls Battlespire
I decided I wanted to try an Elder Scrolls that is a more straight forward game compared to the more open world options. I didn't get far in it, but I do intend on giving it a more fair shake.
HM: Titan Quest
I wanted to play an Action RPG, and I was drawn to the more Greek inspired look than the typical dark fantasy games in the genre. Really I just want to play the expansion set in China.
HM: Torment: Tides of Numenera
I watched the opening movie and I thought it was pretty cool. Sadly I didn't play beyond the opening because I decided to play Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny instead.
HM: Open X-COM
I finally decided to take a real shot at trying to play "classic" X-COM, every other time I just sort of bounced off it. This time however I seemed to actually get a nice handle on how the game actually plays, so who knows maybe in the future I'll actually go through the entirety of original X-COM.
2022 Propa
HM: Evil West
Started this one just a smidge too late for it to be eligible for proper best of the year consideration. A fun hack and slash to be sure, kind of a cowboy pastiche of a Devil May Cry. It's a hoot.
HM: Steelrising
A soulsborne-esque yarn where you play as the robot bodyguard of Marie Antoinette during the robo-French Revolution. Sadly I didn't get particularly far before my attentions were drawn elsewhere.
HM: Conan Chop Chop
Decent little roguelite game.
HM: Card Shark
An interesting game with a unique selling point, being a game set in France's past and with the main gimmick being you're not trying to win the card games legitimately but by cheating better than your opponents. I should finish it some day.
HM: Pentiment
I love a good murder mystery. Sadly I had to let this one slide unplayed.
HM: Lunacid
You're spoiled for choice these days with Dark Souls derivatives, so it's nice to see someone go back and make a King's Field-like.
HM: River City Saga: Three Kingdoms
I enjoy beat-em ups and I thought a Kunio game set in the historical period of the Three Kingdoms sounds like a fun idea. I'm not sure I've played it enough to really pass judgment on it.
HM: Moonscars
One of approximately a hundred Soulsy Metroidvania dark fantasy games that came out this year. I liked what I played though.
HM: Tarnishing of Juxtia
See above, also it reminds me a lot of Blasphemous more than any other game.
HM: Souldiers
Unfortunately all these Metroidvania games came out too close in my mind so I kind of had to let some of them fall to the wayside.
HM: Weird West
Yeehaw.
HM: Salt and Sacrifice
I don't care for the character art, but the gameplay is generally solid. I don't know if I'd recommend it over any other of these Metroidvania types, but I thought it was pretty good from what I've played.
HM: Soulash
A fun pixel-graphics roguelike that I wish I spent more time with.
HM: The Last Hero of Nostalgaia
Allegedly a satire of Dark Souls and all those types, but I found it to just be a generally fun game to play. Maybe it really goes down hill, but from the demo I played it seemed pretty decent.
HM: Undecember
It's like if Diablo Immortal was a slightly better roguelite phone game. That sounds mean, but I actually quite like this.
HM: Thymesia
Bloodborne inspired game this time. Unfortunately I didn't play much of it because of all the other games vying for my attention.
HM: SD Gundam Battle Alliance
2022 was just positively cram packed with games that were generally pretty good and did what they set out to do quite well. This is a decent little Action RPG, and one day I hope to finish it.
HM: Valkyrie Elysium
One of the dozen or so games Square Enix released with practically no advertisement. I like what I’ve played so far, it just fell onto the back burner and out of my priorities list.
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Sekhi's Big Boopin' "Games I Played in 2023" List.
So, since my buddy @moxpunk did one of these I figured I'd join in on the fun. As with her list...
There's gonna be spoilers.
There's gonna be a lot of games.
This will be limited to games I didn't play until 2023. Either because they came out this year, or because I didn't get around to them. I got into some, like Elden Ring, good and hard... but I got that one in 2022 for example.
Ready? Here we go!
Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader:
So this is one I started just recently, but its a hell of a lot of fun so far. Owlcat is the same company that made the Pathfinder CRPG games (Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous,) and they brought the same level of love and detail to the 40k universe. Its still a bit buggy, but unlike Bethesda they have an excuse of actually being a smaller indie studio and, unlike Bethesda again, they actually patch their games so give it a month or two if bugginess is a deal breaker, but I heartily recommend this one!
Steamworld Build:
A city management sim set in the cutesy cartoony robot-wild-west world of Steamworld. Its... okay. Its not horrible, but its not something I really feel like I'm going to get too huge into. If you're into city management games then go nuts, but in my case I've already got a lot of games that do what its doing already so it just feels like one more to the pile for me. Sadly that happens a lot these days with how many indie games come out every week anymore.
The Caligula Effect 2:
I got the original a while back but wound up returning it as it didn't grab me, but the sequel always had my eye so when it went on sale during the Steam Autumn Sale I wound up nabbing it. The sequel, happily, is far better than the original one. A great soundtrack (if you like Japanese music, which I do) and some fun as heck characters with an interesting presence of an evil Vocaloid whose music pulls anyone with regrets into a very anime Matrix essentially. Its weird, but most good RPGs, especially modern ones, are gonna be weird. Its part of their charm.
Bonus points for my fellow LGBTQA+ peoples, one of the main characters is cannon non-binary. Try to guess which one. :D
Dredge:
A fishing sim with a Lovecraftian twist. Fish up your catch to make money, but don't be shocked if some of the stuff you fish up has multiple eyes, or whispers dark secrets, or just wants to slap you with a tentacle. It can be fun, but also a bit frustrating at times too. Solid B+.
Undernauts: Labrynth of Yomi:
Hm. Its... hm... its... something. Its certainly something. A first person dungeon crawler with turn based combat along the lines of the old Wizardry games, but... well... very surreal dark urban fantasy set in Japan... sorta... except its evil parallel not-Japan.
Its... something. But it sure as hell isn't worth $60. Do what I did and wait for a Steam sale if you're gonna give this one a go.
Dungeons 4:
I was a big fan of Dungeons 3 so I fully admit to bias here, but I'm having a blast with this one. A ton of over the top cheesy tongue in cheek parody of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and more in a game that basically does very well with the formula of the old Dungeon Keeper games that EA completely fucked up. The humor might not be your thing, but this is a good one for my collection.
Flipwitch: Forbidden Sex Hex:
Go ahead and mark my blog NSFW like every other queer person Tumblr, I'm including this one! I swear I felt like I was having a bit of a stroke when I first played it. I found the one good adult video game on Steam! A retro style 2-D metroidvania game where you play a witch that can swap sexes at will. You use it for sex of course, but also some really interesting puzzle mechanics that can involve swapping between male and female in mid-jump to bypass barriers and other obstacles as well as dodge enemy attacks. They took kinky sex stuff and made a good game! I didn't think that actually happened on Steam!
My Time at Sandrock:
I really don't know what to say here, I just don't care for this game at all. Its just... eh. I think its because I tend to favor Survival/Crafting games which have a lot more creative freedom than this one does, but... well yeah. Its not a bad game, but its bad for me. Moving on.
9 Years of Shadows:
You are a knightly woman who is backed up by a magical plushie who you recharge by hugging it and singing to it in a world where color has been consumed by a ravenous shadow. Dear gods its a Care Bears special.
Blacktail:
A really unique take on the old Slavic legend of Baba Yaga, set in a fairytale world where you play as Yaga (or is it Baba?) Its quite the trip, though I didn't play it for very long. Its one of those games I keep saying I'll finish one day and then OOO! SOMETHING SHINY!
Coral Island:
Its... alright. Its Stardew Valley but on a tropical island... but thats kind of the problem. Its Stardew Valley but. It runs into the same problem that the aforementioned Steamworld Build did where I already have other games I like that do the same thing. So yeah... decent enough, but don't be shocked if it's just another for the pile.
Dragon Quest Treasures:
A spinoff of the recent Dragon Quest installment (number eleven if you're keeping track) where you play as the thief character Erik and his sister when they were kids as they go on an adventure to become treasure hunters. Its... well... its alright, but it just didn't click for me. I feel like some of these Dragon Quest spinoffs are coasting on name recognition sometimes and this is definitely one of them that gives that vibe. I haven't tried the new Dragon Quest Monsters title yet though so maybe that'll be good.
Gunbrella:
Boy Devolver Digital does some weird shit don't they? Its a decent enough metroidvania style game where you play as a man on a quest for revenge with an umbrella that is also a gun. You uncover occult mysteries and it all has this 1920s Noir-ish vibe to it. Its a fun enough game... but I only played it for an hour and a half and I'll be damned if I could tell you why.
Persona 5 Tactica:
Look. I loved Persona 5, I even had fun with Strikers... but for crying out loud Atlus the bottom of the barrel has been reached. This one is a perfectly fine entry if you really like tactical RPGs a-la Disgaea and the like, but I think we're all ready for Persona 6 now! Don't even get me started on the damn mobile game.
Remnant 2:
The dimension hopping adventures of a heroine with an acid-flamethrower, a cursed rifle that shoots fingerbones, and her companion Captain Sparky McBorkbork the Wonder Dog. What more need be said? Its fun as hell, give it a go.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew:
A pirate stealth 'em up where you command a ghost crew of undead swashbucklers fighting the not-inquisition with a sentient pirate ship that has the power to reverse time in a way that allows you to use the stealth game 'that didn't happen' mechanic in a way that fits into the story itself. I've been hearing people say that it seems weird this didn't do better... but I think I might know why it didn't.
Shadow Gambit's release date: August 17th 2023.
Baldur's Gate 3 release date: August 3rd 2023
To quote Messir Robin Williams: "AHA! A CLUE, SHERLOCK!"
Two games that, at a glance, are very similar (top down, mouseclick to move, RPG elements, etc) but one of them was a LOT bigger hyped than the other. Yeah... Shadow Gambit got overshadowed it seems.
Survival: Fountain of Youth:
A survival game where you're part of an expedition in the Age of Exploration from Spain to find the mythical Fountain of Youth. Its quite the title and very involved. You need to worry not just about food and water but things like sunstroke and sunburn, exhaustion, and the like. That being said it's still early access so maybe give this one some more time in the oven. Its neat so far, but they're planning a lot more for it.
Wildmender:
A cozy game with a twist. Your world was reduced to lifeless desert by someone fucking around with shadow magic and now you need to help restore it. Go from a tiny spring next to one of the few remaining trees into a massive garden by reawakening other springs, connecting them via digging rivers, and growing plants along the bank to bring life back to the desert... and occasionally fight shadow demons with a magic mirror. Good times.
Aces & Adventures:
I'm normally not one for card based games, but this one grabbed me and I wound up really enjoying it. A sort of combination of five card poker and Dungeons & Dragons where you pick one of five classes and adventure through the world and history to save it from an evil god. I stuck with mage and found that as long as I played it right there was very little that could touch me, but there's four others who seem neat too.
Evil West:
This came out in 2022, but I didn't play it until February 2023 so I'm counting it! A spaghetti western meets Van Helsing where you play a vampire hunter who literally punches the undead to death using steampunk weaponry and a shitload of guns. Its a heck of a fun ride that evokes the better action games from the 360 era. Think Warhammer 40k: Space Marine but set in the Wild West and using vampires instead of orks. There ya go.
Marvel Midnight Suns:
It is such a damn shame they screwed up the marketing for this so bad because my god this was fun as hell. Make your own character, then hang out with Spiderman, Captain America, Blade, and Deadpool of all people while saving the world from H.Y.D.R.A and Cithon. I had an absolute blast playing it and it genuinely saddens me that we might never see a sequel because they dropped the ball so hard on getting word out there.
Octopath Traveller 2:
An amazing follow up to the original game with much improved gameplay, some of the most endearing characters I've seen in a JRPG in a long time (I actually commissioned myself cosplaying Agnea because I liked her so much,) and some absolutely incredible music. Its really astounding what Square Enix can pull off when they remember why we loved them in the first damn place.
Also Ochette. She is a precious bean.
Lies of P:
Forgot to add a few of these as I played them on PC Games Pass and they weren't on my Steam list, but yeah one of those I played there was Lies of P which actually is the reason I got back into Elden RIng. Lies of P is a superb Souls-like that, while difficult, is never too difficult to stop me entirely (except for Laxasia I mean jesusfuckingchrist how am I supposed to dodge that?) I hear that either the DLC or the sequel will be their take on the Wizard of Oz which, given what I know of the works of L Frank Baum is going to be freaking nuts. Hell they'd barely need to change the Wheelers at all to make them into souls-like monsters, and I'm pretty sure I actually did fight flying monkeys in Elden RIng.
Hi-Fi Rush:
I didn't wind up finishing this as I'm just really not that great at rythm games, but ye gods did Bethesda get it right with this one. Really Yahtzee said it all back in his review before the Escapist collapsed and he and his cohorts fled to form Second Wind: "Hi-Fi Rush was simultaneously announced and released on the day of the Xbox showcase, which is something you only do if you’re really fucking confident in your game’s instant appeal and high quality. And by all the locally sourced meatless lasagnas in Hell do I hate to admit they were probably right to be." I didn't finish it, but what I did play was damned amazing.
Guardians of the Galaxy:
I forgot I even played this one until my Games Pass account reminded me this morning, but in hindsight it was pretty dang neat. I got to hang out with some of my favorite Marvel characters, I got to meet Adam Warlock who was one I'd never heard of but I wound up looking up on the wiki after the fact, and I got to meet Cosmo who is the goodest comrade. It was funtimes. Yahtzee, formerly of Zero Punctuation and now Fully Ramblomatic, calls these sorts of games a 'Ghost Train Ride' but, well, sometimes its fun to go on those if they've got some nice visuals and good voice acting.
Sea of Stars:
This one is one of those "I should really go back and finish this one day" games that I know, deep down, I probably never will get around to. A lovely throwback to classic SNES/Early PS1 era RPGs with lovely sprite-based visuals and some really fun enemies (I especially enjoyed the ghost pirate captain.) Definitely worth a try and I really will go back and finish it at some point no really pinkie swear.
Warhammer 40k: Boltgun:
Funny how this list begins and ends with a Warhammer game. I swear that wasn't intentional, I was just going through my Steam library and saying 'oh right, that one.'
Boltgun is a lovingly done boomer shooter set up in the Warhammer 40k Universe and is actually a direct spinoff of W40k: Space Marine from the 360 with a fragment of Inquisitor Drogan's power source serving as the principal macguffin you're after through the whole of the game, meant to bridge the gap between that fun ork-stomping simulator from a few generations back and the upcoming sequel this September (Imma 'cited. :3)
Its fun, its cheap, its short and sweet. Go blow up some heretics.
And yeah, thats the last of them. There were others, but none really worth mentioning. These are the ones I still remembered for whatever reason. Happy Holidays everyone. Here's hoping we get some more memorable titles in 2024.
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Mon-Yu launches September 21 in the west
Gematsu Source
Dungeon RPG Mon-Yu: Defeat Monsters And Gain Strong Weapons And Armor. You May Be Defeated, But Don’t Give Up. Become Stronger. I Believe There Will Be A Day When The Heroes Defeat The Devil King will launch for PlayStation 5, Switch, and PC via Steam on September 21 in the west, publisher Aksys Games announced.
Here is an overview of the game, via Aksys Games:
About
With an emphasis on character creation, party optimization and good, ol’ fashioned turn-based combat, Mon-Yu: Defeat Monsters And Gain Strong Weapons And Armor. You May Be Defeated, But Don’t Give Up. Become Stronger. I Believe There Will Be A Day When The Heroes Defeat The Devil King celebrates the pioneering RPGs from the earliest days of videogames. The game features a plethora of adorable character portraits, tons of weapons and armor, and flexibility in skill point allocation so players can tweak their lineup to their heart’s content. Players also have the option to speed up combat so clearing dungeons never feels like a grind!
Key Features
Choose from eight different classes and a wide variety of cute character portraits to assemble your team of heroes and challenge the tower!
Portraits from other Experience titles also included: Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi, Spirit Hunter: Death Mark, Spirit Hunter: NG, and more!
Find strong weapons and armor as you traverse the dungeons! Level up your heroes, class skills, and gear, and defeat the Devil Kings, no matter how many times you die!
Three different playstyles—Carefree, Standard & Challenging—each with a unique play experience and access to the maps.
Watch a new trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.
Gameplay Trailer
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