Year in (mini-)review - 2023 Video Games

Fire Emblem: Engage (January 2023) – Switch

Intelligent Systems - Nintendo

Recommendation: A bland Fire Emblem game that overstayed its welcome. Better off waiting until the next one perhaps.

After Fire Emblem: Three Houses, I was keen to play a more traditional Fire Emblem game that was less hub-based and more of an adventure through lands with a definitive cast of characters. Be careful what you wish for. Perhaps my tastes have changed, or maybe Fire Emblem: Engage did not quite live up to the nostalgia I had for the older Fire Emblem games, but Engage was long and… unengaging (no pun intended).

Engage brings in the heroes from all the other games to help fight alongside the new protagonists. While I enjoyed the multi-verse of heroes, it added nothing to the story and almost nothing to the mechanics of the game except for some fun combinations of characters, relationships and weapons. The level challenges were boring and never required a mix of characters or additional requirements. Of the 26 or so missions, the latter 20 felt like a boring chore I could churn through with the same team.

Wildfrost (January 2023) – Switch

Deadpan Games, Gaziter - Chucklefish

Recommendation: A unique and difficult deck builder, but lacking depth and replayability.

I’m always impressed when game developers are able to develop new game systems or rule sets. Wildfrost is a lane-way card battler where you build a deck of heroes and actions and fight against AI enemies. The unique mechanic that underpins Wildfrost is that each hero (yours and the enemies') has an automatic countdown until they “act”. This means you also know exactly when each card will act and what will happen when they do.

The fun of the game is foreseeing your own heroes’ demise and then doing everything you can prepare for the attack, while also attacking the enemies. This game is challenging at first as you get used to the mechanics and learn the likely card drops from the rogue-lite mechanics, and while it gets easier, I would never say I could ever cruise through. My qualms are that the meta-game doesn’t enable great replayability and that after a while, the different cards and features feel limited or lacking depth. However, that shouldn’t preclude anyone from playing the game – the art is fantastic and it’s well worth the lower sticker price.

Aces and Adventures (February 2023) – Steam

Triple.B.Titles - Yogscast Games

Recommendation: A unique spin of poker, deck building and story telling – worth the play.

As a neat follow-on from Wildfrost, Aces and Adventures also provides a unique deck-building experience, but this time using poker hands. The poker hands allow you to use your abilities (also cards you draw), make attacks or set up future hands with the overall aim to defeat your opponent. Each battle takes place in the context of a greater story with choose your own adventure elements.

The story and framing is definitely worth noting in this game. You work through a series of decks which make up a greater narrative, poetically told. It is almost too flowery at times, but still engaging nonetheless. Given the choose your own adventure story telling, and the way the stories were told, playing through each of the different classes was an overall enjoyable experience and one I still keep coming back to.

Hogwarts Legacy (February 2023) – PS5

Avalanche Software - Warner Bros. Games

Recommendation: If you object to the Rowling getting money of a purchase of this game, then borrow it from a friend because it’s a fantastic game.

I’m conscious there is a fair bit of controversy around this game given the views of the author and the fact she’s getting money from every purchase. And this is a real shame because Hogwarts Legacy was a fantastic game, especially as an immersive world of Harry Potter experience. You play a random student in the late 1800s in your fifth year of Hogwarts, who is also a central element to plots concerning ancient and secret magics, the origin of Hogwarts and a goblin rebellion. The overall story, friends you make along the way, castle exploration and attendances at classes makes this game feel like you are living one of the novels.

The school is large, dynamic and feels like an alive environment between the students, flying books, talking gargoyles and paintings. It is the most immersive game I have played, likely helped a tight and easy to learn magic and combat system, and my familiarity with the source materials of course. My main criticism is the majority of the game takes place outside the castle around the vast Scottish highlands full of side-quests, collectables and mini-games that didn’t add much to the story. They could have cut the bottom two-thirds of the map out and still told their story in the remaining space, or set more of it in and around the castle.

This is my 2023 game of the year (noting I didn’t play many of the big releases this year – so limited pool).

Story Teller (March 2023) – Android

Daniel Benmergui - Annapurna Interactive

Recommendation: Great couple of hours of puzzle gameplay.

I picked up this one through Netflix’s new phone game offering and given its short 2 hour playtime, won’t have much to say. It’s a puzzle game where you are given a story description and need to put together the different scenes and characters to allow that story to happen. The innovative part of this game is how one scene subsequently affects later scenes. Like if you kill a character in the first scene, they appear as a ghost in the next scene you place them in. It’s simple, not too difficult and satisfying when you figure out the combination.

Tchia (March 2023) – PS5

Awaceb - Awaceb

Recommendation: Tchia is somewhere between Breath of the Wild and a Disney film, a great effort from a new and culturally-focused studio.

Tchia is an open-world exploration game inspired by New Caledonia and presents a mythological story set in a modern, alternative version of New Caledonia – think Moana with more French speakers and fuel canisters. It is the closet thing to Breath of the Wild I’ve played outside the Zelda games. The game gives you all the tools you need to progress at the start of the game, including a glider, slingshot and most importantly, the ability to possess creatures and objects.

There is lot of exploration to do, things to find and quests to go on as you adventure to rescue your father and rid the islands of a demon dictator. Although there is no direct combat, you possess fuel canisters so you can fling yourself at cloth monsters. Beyond the mechanics, the aspects of Tchia that really shine are the unique world, music and an overall Disney-esque feel which comes through in the humour and little character beats.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (April 2023) – PS5

Respawn Entertainment - Electronic Arts

Recommendation: A fantastic sequel in both story and mechanical progression, I’m keen to see where this series is going.

The Star Wars Jedi games are generally get lumped in the Souls-like genre, but they’re closer to action-adventure games that take elements from the Souls and Metroidvania genres. For me, they are the definitive game to play if you want to feel like a Jedi and have a gallivanting adventure through space. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the next step on the adventure and picks up where the first game left off, a lone ex-Jedi fighting against the Empire at its height.

And it picks up from the first game brilliantly. You start with all the prior abilities and build upon them, there are more types of enemies, more characters to meet, old grudges to resolve, and larger and more expansive worlds to explore. That being said, similar to the issue I had with God of War Ragnorak, the bigger game with expanded scope means that every system, mechanic and environment can be overwhelming, as well as lacking the first game’s focus and clarity. But this is a minor gripe with an otherwise fantastic game.

Age of Wonders 4 (May 2023) – Steam

Triumph Studios - Paradox Interactive

Recommendation: Some 4X at its best, with a specific focus on the combat.

Age of Wonders 4 is the sixth game in the Age of Wonders series and a streamline and focused addition to the 4X genre. There are multiple resources that you accumulate to expand your army, expand your territory, expand your magic and culture and win the scenario. On the surface, this is a very stock-standard 4X game. What differentiates it from other 4X games are complex turn-based battles, customisable races that evolve as your play, and an additional underground world to play within, as well as an overworld.

However, because of the deep combat system where each battle is an individual turn-based battle and each unit has a variety of actions and abilities, battle can take a long time and that translates over into multiplayer. I found Age of Wonders 4 untenable as a multiplayer game with other humans, unless you are prepared to wait around while they have potentially multiple battles. As a single player game (against AI), it stands well.

Sea of Stars (August 2023) – PS5

Sabotage Studio - Sabotage Studio

Recommendation: Play this game, especially if you are a fan of old-school JRPGs.

Sea of Stars won indie game of the year, and for pretty good reason. It's a western-made JRPG tuning into nostalgia for old JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and the Final Fantasies, but doesn’t get too caught up in that nostalgia. It has beautiful art, music, story and characters, and a good level of depth and complexity in the combat mechanics. Despite there being so much going on, it feels tight and so many things set up early including dialogue, locations and character actions are paid off by the end.

Sea of Stars only has a few flaws; the story exceeded the new mechanic drop by a few hours, and the two central characters lack personality which is a strong contrast from every other character. Otherwise I can’t fault the game, the way it presents itself and the story, and the adventure it takes you on. Highly recommend.

Chants of Sennaar (September 2023) – Switch

Rundisc - Focus Entertainment

Recommendation: A complex language puzzle game and the closest thing to the Return of the Obra Dinn I’ve played.

Chants of Sennaar is a deductive reasoning language game where you have to decipher a series of hieroglyphic languages in order to continue to rise up through a tower (which I think meant to be a tower of babel). The deciphering mostly comes through context clues, people speaking to you or mosaics and images. You have a book in which you log what you think the word is and if you get a set of them right, it locks it in the words and then shows the correct subtitles when people speak to you. Once you figure out the language and ascend the tower, you then have to decipher the next language where some words are shared, some context is different, and the syntax varies as well.

The game starts off difficult, but gets easier as you get into the “swing” of figuring out the language. It’s a short game which is great as it doesn't overstay it's welcome. There are some annoying movement/stealth puzzles interspersed throughout, but otherwise Chants of Sennaar is a great game and the closest thing I've played to the Return of the Obra Dinn.

Cocoon (September 2023) – Xbox

Geometric Interactive - Annapurna Interactive

Recommendation: One of the most unique and mind-bendy puzzle games out there – a must-play.

Made by one or two of the Limbo/Inside people, Cocoon surpasses both in my opinion. It's an isometric puzzle game controlled entirely with a joystick and single button where you jump into worlds contained within orbs that also serve a puzzle solving purpose. The real puzzle is in the way you take orbs into other orbs and end up creating a "cocoon" of worlds that you carry around to progress through the environments.

Cocoon is surprisingly intuitive in its complex puzzle design, has a unique mechanic/insectoid art style across five distinct worlds, and is probably a master class on intuitive game design. The story is vague which is typical of these developers, but it serves it purpose. Also, another short and concise game at only five to six hours long.

Mortal Kombat 1 (September 2023) – PS5

NetherRealm Studios - Warner Bros. Games

Recommendation: Despite being a reboot, it feels like MK is falling behind the bar of fighting game genre.

It’s a strange thing to say, but I play Mortal Kombat games for the story. I love watching these zany, bastardised Ninja characters go through an 80s B-movie story, including all forms of quips, romance and drama along the way. As a very soft reboot, the story met my expectations of quips, drama and betrayal, while also subverting the prior ideas and characters (some are now good, some are now poor, Johnny is now older, etc.). EXCEPT the ending was awful. It was bland, impersonal to any of the characters, tied up with the prior eleven Mortal Kombat games, dumb (but not the fun kind) and generally the worst ending to a video game story in my memory. Despite being a reboot, it was not willing to let go if its past.

Conscious the story campaign is not what most people want to know about fighting games, Mortal Kombat 1 brings back the deep mechanics around juggling, countering, blocking, etc., and lots of instructions on how to become good at the game. However, in a year where Street Fighter 6 came out, Mortal Kombat 1 has stuck to its tried-and-true form and has not done anything to properly re-boot the series. When the impending release of a new Tekkan game as well, Mortal Kombat might find itself left behind.

Honourable Mentions

Games that I also played through this year and worth mentioning, although were released prior to 2023.

• Outer Wilds (2019): Outer Wilds took me a couple tries to play through purely because it is a game your progress through by obtaining knowledge and when you take breaks, you lose that knowledge and it's hard to continue. Knowledge isn’t a statistic you incrementally acquire, but a genuine understanding of how the universe operates, from darkness and waterspouts to the laws of gravity and observation. Once you know these things, including the genuine orbital physics operating in the game, you can complete the game in 20 minutes. The final message and the way you get there in Outer Wilds has elevated this game to one of my top 10 of all time. Please play.
• Escape Academy (2022): This is an escape room game, including the best kind of puzzles. Generally they are logic-based and self-contained. All the information you need is in the 3D level which you can explore like an escape room. I recommend this game because it does a multiplayer escape room well – where both players feels like they can contribute, collect and trade clues and work on puzzles. You feel like a well-oiled engine when you complete them.
• God of War - Ragnarok (2022): I loved the 2018 God of War. it was the story about an ex-Greek demi-god spreading the ashes of his Nordic wife in an Odyssey-like story. It left enough open that playing the second game was a no-brainer, especially if it embraced the mechanics and limited, but detailed open world presented in the first game. For the most part, it met my expectations of what I wanted. I did feel the story was not quite as tight overall and lots of random elements and mechanics that were overwhelming at times. I believe Santa Monica decided to bring two sequels into one, and I wished they had kept it as two. That being said, the ending hit the heartstrings, as did the acting.
• Neon White (2022): Neon White is an anime speed-racing game where each levels requires you to kill all the demons with various weapons, while also discarding those weapons to get certain traversal powers, like double-jump, dash, grapple, so forth. While not too difficult to complete the game (which has some genuinely smart pop-culture references and good story beats), to get all the platinum medals will take some effort, especially if you are aiming to beat that one particular friend who crushes all your high-scores and must be cheating… right?
• Pokémon Scarlet (2022): A controversial release, you could really connect into the inexperience of the Game Freak team in developing open world games. Regardless of all the technical issues, it was over-large and too full of Pokémon in the wild. The central city and all the lands were unnecessarily big and empty of stuff, except for the Pokémon which existed in extreme abundance in the wild, showing they had forgotten the joy of finally finding that rare Pokémon in the grass. I will give it praise for some of the stories it was running across the world, especially the realisation of what the final area was.