JSB Game of the Year 2023!

Welcome everyone to the twenty twenty three JSP Games Cast Game of the Year episode. I am your host, rob Aka then, and for the next hour and a half or so, we're going to explore whom in the same year

this was for video games. While not every game you'll hear today is from this year, I believe twenty twenty three will go down as one of the most important years for games talked about in the same way that we do like nineteen ninety eight, which saw OCCERI, End of Time, Noga Solid StarCraft, et cetera, or even two thousand and seven, which saw like Fileshock

mass Effect called it for Mario Galaxy. This year saw a lot of really big titles like Triple A titles, as well as a lot of small indie titles, some experimental, some a little more safe, but just executed incredibly well. It is just a wild year that just had banger after banger after banger. That being said, this year will also be remembered as a low

point for the industry. I can't in good faith through this episode without acknowledging you know, some of the massive layoffs in studio closures that happened this year. Even some of the major publishers and developers that saw big profits chose to lay off for shut down studios that didn't quite meet their insane, you know,

expectations. On top of like continuous toxic work environments as well, It's created an industry where, you know, games are already really hard to make, right, we don't need to put any additional stress in instability for the developers that creates these great things that we enjoy. So I wanted to use a little bit of this intro time to really say that my heart, and I believe everybody on this show feels the very same way, right like all

of our hearts goes out to everyone that's affected by that stuff. I hope that everyone lands on their feet, you know, and should they continue to work in this industry. And I understand if you know, they don't or they want to go somewhere else, But if developers continue to stay in the industry, I really hope to play like what comes next out of each and

every one of them. I thank everyone for their hard work because they bring us such amazing experiences, and I wouldn't be doing the show, and I wouldn't have all of these amazing games to play without the people that make them right with that an impossible pivot, I know, But let's let's get this show on the road. I think everyone that listens to this show, I think all the developers that makes these games. I think all of the contributors

to this episode. It makes you have no idea how how much I love doing this. So let's let's carry on. Let's move, Let's officially start this Game of the Year's show and enjoy. All Right, it's that time once again. What's going on? Guys? My name is Ryan, also go by RCB, and yeah, here we are Game of the Year twenty

twenty three. Kind of crazy that we've already gone through this year, how fast it kind of flew by. Admittedly, so I really didn't have a lot of opportunities to play a lot of different games per se, mainly because for those of been listening through the podcast the entire time, or those that have followed me on social media and everything, I have basically been on the grind as far as the art journey has gone, and with you know,

doing merchandising, releasing my first ever T shirt, doing tables now, with conventions and things like that, it hasn't really given me a lot of time to go into the gaming aspect, so to speak. But I did still complete my fair share of video games, mainly games like Resident Able for Remake, acknowledge a few other games like that, and you know, game of the Year this year. It's a little different for me, of course.

You know, anytime I get to talk about Thirteen Sentinels or bring up thirteen Sentinels, I will do so. Thirteen Sentinels, you know, jokingly, is my game of the year for the sixth straight year or however long it's been since the game released. So played that game, thirteen Sentinels. I will always talk about that game. So but no, realistically and honestly do have to talk about game of the year and my game of the year this

year. While it didn't come out this year, it is a game that I did play this year, So it is a game of the year for me. Is a Signalis. I'm going to give the nod to Signal Us. For those that don't know, it's a throwback to like the suspense tank style you know, survival suspense type game, think the original Resident Evils and how those were the tank style games or signalisis a throwback of that and really just felt really fun to play. There was definitely a lot of nostalgia factor

with the game. Like I said, I think it released sometime last year and I played a little bit of it when it was free on game Pass, but I didn't have a chance to finish it, And to be honest, I haven't finished it yet, but I'm like near the tail end of the game, so I'll probably be finishing it early, you know, in

twenty twenty four. As far as playing through the game, because it is a short play through, but like I said, my time has been dedicated to other things, so I can only put bits and pieces into you know,

that game, but really enjoyable game. You're basically, you know, this character who seems like she's like a lone survivor of her own, like robot kind almost just about and she's looking for somebody and has to go through through all these different areas and trying to picture and put together this like mystery almost in a sense, while looking for a friend and also trying to figure out what exactly happened with where she is and this to the you know,

the turn of events that you know transpired with it, but like The gameplay is very much a throwback to that retro style of you know, suspence horror games. There's interesting, fun puzzles that you have to do that you have to kind of solve and everything, whether it's you know, your typical puzzles where you're like trying to find certain keys or whatever, to where you're using

radio frequencies to decipher and like crack safes and things along those lines. Even some puzzles where you go in and you see like a lot of apparition illusion type things and you have to match your frequency with those to find which enemy is actually what to be able to solve the puzzle based off of radio frequency, and so like, there's a lot of unique creativity when it comes to how Signalis kind of tackles everything while still you know, trying to play through

this game with that you know, retro feel in a sense when it comes to those type of nostalgia games. You know, there's also the whole aspect of inventory management. You have to manage your items incredibly well. You only get six slots as far as your inventory goes, and that's it. So it's a lot of like turning back and forth in you know managing your items, also managing AMMO. You know what areas do you need to go ahead

and clear through the enemies? Which areas can you just be like nope, leave those enemies alone, because you know you're going to need your AMMO in certain spots, so you're going to have to really really make sure that you're managing everything the best you can. Otherwise, as you go further into game, if you don't manage your items and your AMMO really well, you're going to kind of regret things, which is kind of what I liked about the

game in my play through that Velta so far. Like I said, I haven't quite finished it yet, but I'm on the verge of finishing it probably, like I said, be finished with it by beginning of next year as far as that goes. So that is my personal game of the year.

It's Signalius really recommend playing it. You can find it pretty cheap on Steam, and I'm sure you can probably find it pretty cheap on other sites as well, like Humble Bundle or whatever, but like nine times out of ten there's actually like a sale that goes on for it, So definitely checking out

really really fun before I do wrap it. Up, though there is one other game I do want to give a shout out to, and this is gonna be something that's gonna be like I guess something personally coming from me, But there's a game that I want to give as a comeback game of the year as far as a game that kind of went through a lot of struggles, no fault of its own, is just what happened with its release and what is basically transpired with the world and what it is now, and that's

Grand Blue Fantasy Versus Rising. What they have done with this game in a sense kind of like re releasing the game and it's, you know, basically a brand new game if you think about it, considering all the different mechanics that they added to it and everything. But what they've done in the lessons I guess they learned from Vanilla Grand Blue Fantasy Versus and you know what Rising

has been so far. I have to give a game a lot of credit for being the you know, comeback game of the year that I'll give it for, especially like a lot of the quality of life things they did where

you know, they put rollback in that code in it. There's cross play with this game, which wait, to me, was honestly kind of like a surprise to see that they put cross play in it, but definitely something that's you know, becoming more and more something that you know, finding game developers have been trying to implement, not just with the rollback and that code, but also having cross play involved with the two. So seeing that's been

really really dope. But it seems like, man, it seems like Side Games is definitely trying to go all in with this fighting game that they've done, and you know, with all these new changes that they've done, having brought in new characters as well. Siegfried and Nola, Grim Near and Near are the four new characters that was introduced with us as well. Lucillis is

going to be coming out too. But the big announcement guest character to be going to be in this game, which by the way, to be looks absolutely amazing in this game, especially in that Art system Works style of games, because to me, like even though there's been other games it's been released, like d NF Duel and even like Strive for example, as far as like visuals and aesthetic, I think Grand Blue Fantasy Versus Rising might actually still

be to this day like the best looking Arc system Works game, So like they just kind of put together this unique package with this and really has just been able to rebound. And it's been really fun to see like that community and just see how that game is starting to thrive now in a big spot, and like there's only going to be bigger and better things with Grand Blue Fantasy Versus Rising. It's going to be really really fun to see what ends

up developing with it and how how far this game can go. So that's why I wanted to give it Also like a little bit of a shout out to Grand Blue Fantasy Versus Rising. Admittedly that game still frustrates the hell out of me at times because you know, we're trying to get used to a brand new game in a sense, but you know, I feel like there's

a pretty fun reward out of that game per se. So those are really the two games I really wanted to highlight see not Less and Grand Blue Fantasy Versus Rising as far as games that kind of had to impact on me.

And twenty two three. Oh and also Nick got us a victory. I never ever would have thought that would be a mobile game that I would just attach to as much as I have, because I've literally played that game every day to complete dailies and do a bunch of more stuff anything but Nika got us a victory is a really really fun game to be able to kind of just play as far as some of those boot up for a little bit, complete dailies, knock all that out, and even going through like some of

the tower stuff, and like doing a lot of different events. If I had just a team composition of being able to put together different squads and see how they benefit each other, anything is really unique and fun too. So definitely been putting in a lot of time to that game as well. But

that's a pretty much it for me. As far as some games that I wanted to highlight from this year, Obviously, twenty twenty four is shaping up to be a big one, especially early in the year with Final Fantasy seven rebirth that's going to be in February, to fighting games with Undernight two and Tech and eight dropping in January. Just a lot of unique stuff it's going to be happening early on in twenty twenty four that I'm going to be excited

about. But that's pretty much it for me. Appreciate you guys listening as always listening to JSB games Cast and everything, and yeah, looking forward to see what twenty twenty four is going to have in store as far as video games go. What a world it is. Jamay mail r Ev one of the coolest nerds you'll ever meet. In This is my twenty twenty three Game of the Year for the JSB Game Cast. So I'm super excited to be invited back to chat about my favorite game of the year. And if you've

heard my previous segments, you know I just tend to break rules. But this year, this year, I'm gonna follow the rules, you know, because I am a self proclaimed professional rambler, and with that, I want to make sure to do right. I'm gonna do right this year. So let's get into it. My game of the Year, and I guess it's gonna come with a hot take. I'm not necessarily good at those, but you know, like personally, I think my takes are like lukewarm, tepid

room temp. So with that, let's just dive into it. So my game of the year, drum roll please, Room Assassin's Creed Unity. That is my game of the year. And my hot take, which I personally think is more like room temperature. But again, I don't know. We'll see, but I think that AC Unity is the last true and good Assassin's Creed game. Are you with me? Argue with your mama, Like, listen, I love this game, and I'm going to do my best to

summarize why I love this game. I'm also speaking from the perspective of an AC vet, so let me give you some context. All right. So I've been playing Assassins Creed since one, really since day negative eighty nine, because I love the Prince of Persier trilogy. On PS two, AC one was a spiritual successor, and at that point, I said, you know what, it's destiny for me to play this game, and I love Assassin's Creed. If you know something about me, you know that I love the

AC series. But now it's up to a certain point. So after Go Susushima last year, I think that was my game of the year, I knew I still needed to scratch that Assassin's itch, so I said, let me start working through my backlog. I also love things dealing with Egypt, so I'm like, let me dive into origins. I'll be the first one to tell you I hated origins, Like within the first five minutes, I said, what is this game? This doesn't make sense? Why am I

attacking with both Box and triyaning? What is this? You know what? I deleted it right off my hard drive, no remorse, no hesitation, no regrets. So yeah, that got deleted. Went back to ac Liberation because that was the last one I left off on. I have issues with the voice voice casting, excuse me for Avaline. Then I went into what was it? Black Flag? So I'm not a huge pirate fan despite being a one piece fan, and with that, I wanted to dive more into

assassins versus templars, whereas Edward was more like an assassin by proximity. I didn't really want to dive into that. Then I played Freedom Cry and oh my God like Autawalle story, Gee whiz man. I love, love, love Freedom Cry, but emotionally it's way too heavy for me. Well I won't say way too it's emotionally heavy for me. But I did love the game. I played Rogue. I absolutely loved Rogue, but I didn't agree

with Shay's motivations. But again, we could talk about that later. So I was left with unity in Syndicate played Syndicate, hated it within the first ten minutes. Beautiful, game, beautiful. But then I'm like, what is this kung ful, ragged doll fighting style that you know they have going on here? So I deleted that off my hard drive. So Unity was my saving grace. That was last one. So I said, let me try it out and let's dive into the game itself. So I'll try and

keep this short one. It takes place during the French Revolution. Hands down. Now we know you Besoft are masters sages. They constantly create master classes of reimagining historical time periods and events. This is nothing short of magnificent and on inspiring. I mean, the world is massive, hundreds to upon thousands of NPCs, all functioning and existing. I ain't gonna say they all function

well, but they're all like on screen. Once you have a revolution going down, like it's right there in downtown, then you run through it. You out here, dodging you know, the infantry. But then you see your enemies, the templar, so you can like you get them real quick, keep running up the buildings. Then at that point, if they try and chasing you up the building, you can now, and I think this is new to ac Unity. You can go inside of the lived environments.

So in the colonial era, like starting in three they had the pre render animations. You could hop in buildings, but normally you would hop out of them. Nah. Ac Unity has fully rendered the government buildings, the museums, the markets. I mean, you're going in everything. It is such an amazing game. With the pickpocketing, the lock picking, oh my gosh, I can go on and on about that. Then all of the different missions and the side objectives like man, just the optional stuff is amazing.

I will say that with ac Unity, they wanted to really lean into the co op aspect, so that way you could play with friends, and I didn't know you could do them solo until really late in the game. So at that point, if you choose to go back and play it, know that you can do those co op missions. You can do them by yourself, but granted you'll still keep that same difficulty. So if it's like five star difficulty, yes, by yourself it is five star difficulty. But I

love that. I love a good challenge, so I love that aspect of the game. And in terms of the main character Arno, I feel like they try to recreate the magic of et CEO but didn't quite hit the mark. The narrative wasn't bad, but it wasn't my absolute favorite, So overall, I think it's just like a phenomenal game. Oh oh oh, and I can't forget. I can't forget. So the last potential hot take again, I think mind's a room temperature, but Assassin's Creed Unity has the best

parker in the entirety of the series. None of the new games come close the older games. They walked so ac Unity could run. Well, let me phrase that, they walked so ac Unity could leap and bound and you know, flip and tumble and do all said gymnastics. Like I mean, ac Unity is just it's amazing. The parkour is stellar. Another potential hot take ac Unity. Arguably it's more beautiful than every other Assassin's Creed that came after it. Again, Argue with your mama, I'm saying that with my

whole chest and my chest hairs. Argue with your mama, and if your daddy there, argue with him too, because I mean, like, you gotta go play the game. It's so good. It's so good. I really, really enjoyed it. So that is my game of the Year for twenty twenty three, amongst all the other amazing games I played this year. Ac Unity. Man, that's the Krem de la Crem. That truly is the Krim de la Krem and the Krim Brulet. It's all of them, and lay me on as the entree. So yeah, man, y'all,

y'all quit playing, Go play ac Unity. Give it a run. You will see what I'm talking about. You will see what I'm talking about. But wishing you all happy holidays, a wonderful, wonderful new year. Follow them three hs they healthy, hydrated and hygienic in these streets, and a full amazing year in twenty twenty four of bountiful blessings, amazing things come in your way, and plenty more games to play. So I will catch all

on the next one. Love always and love it always peace. My name is Tin Foyle, and I'm here to talk about my personal game of the year, Commonhood. Commonhood is a game that starts with cutscene. You are greeted with two police officers standing emotionless in front of a dilapidated house. An old white pickup truck full of whatever fits in the back, slowly driving away. This truck belongs to the player character Nicki, who's just been evicted from

her family home. Now homeless, she wanders into an old, abandoned factory complex that her dad used to work at and quickly finds out that several people are already living there squatters. These squatters live as many legally homeless do in a societal comments. Your in Nikki's crafting abilities come into play during this game as she begins her new homeless life as a squatter. When I played this game in late twenty twenty two and early twenty twenty three, the game had

a pretty bar tutorial. It showed you the controls, it showed you how to craft and grow food, and it established one thing that Nicki is new to this comments and because she's new, nobody tryes ser Guided by the tutorial, you and Nikki converse with a squatter and realize that she can solve a problem of theirs by making herself useful. She can use her deceased father's tables sawt stashed in the trunk of her father's white truck to gain the trust of

one member of this content. You build a chair from scrap wood lying around the factory grounds. You find out that another member goes to farmers' markets and sells oddenends for cash for survival, so you build another chair for them to sell out the market. You do this because you need a share of the money so that they can buy welding tools, which you can use to repair

a workbench to solve another squatter's problem. By solving squatters problems, you earn their trust, and if you earn their trust, they can be scheduled to use your workbenches, table saws, crafting and research stations through a time management menu so that your commons can make more and more complicated stuff. At this point, the game no longer guides you. You and the people you convince are now a problem solving machine. As you go through the factory, clearing

blockages and debris in search of more gameplay, you meet other squatters. Most are recruitable, but some of them are actually very angry that you've removed the debris that they put there. They put the debris there because they want to look like nobody lived there. They didn't want to attract the wrong kind of attention the police. They fear that the police might come and remove you all, clearing the factory of all the squatters. They don't want you here.

They want you to go away, to leave them alone, and preferably for your entire idea of this Commons to stop endangering the last semblance of temporary stability in their homeless lives. There are various ways like this. The game continues to ask why you're doing what you're doing. One squatter called Anita that you meet tells you and Nikki, in an attempt to sympathize with her, a drifter turned squatter, to simply fuck off. When Nicky says that she understands

how hard it's been, Anita replies, no, you don't. Try keeping up with three jobs. Try moving from city to city to find opportunities. Nobody can keep up with that shit. Another squad is open to talking to Niki and mentions how he was involved in activism protests organizing that kind of stuff, and Nicki makes an offhand comment that the Commons could use someone like him. He replies, do you listen to yourself use someone like you? It

sounds like you're collecting people like their assets. What happens when people are not useful? He tells Nikki to think hard about the comments that she's helping to build, or the utility of a person seems to be related to their value, and that kind of comments, that kind of society is the one that you and I live in right now. Your utility and my utility are exchanged the hours of nine am to five pm for money paychecks. We use this money to pay for a housing, to pay for utilities, to pay for

food. And when you're no longer useful, as the squatter says, your employer rejects you. You don't earn money, so you can't pay rent, you can't pay the bills. If no employer that you can find can use someone like you, you might become homeless, just like Niki, just like every squadter in this game. At this point, I had to temporarily put

the game down and talk to people. Never before have I played a game that asked me so effectively, whether it's core gameplay loop is morally good, whether productivism is a thing that should exist, Whether you and Nikki reinvented industry as your brain enjoyed the endorphins of successfully creating things, solving problems, and accumulating game progress, Whether there's any alternative to creating a society or common that

doesn't result in evicting all the squatters in your time management menu where today they're useful, Well, what happens if they stopped being useful? Tyranny, a tactical RPG, starts out by telling you that evil won right, you're just working for evil. The moral choices are dialogue options, and those are only complicit options, less bad options, or very bad in evil options. I was prepared to make those, but Commonhood instead told me that the moral choices

here are the entire game. But if you ask what the right choice is, nobody can tell you. Turns out the only possible answer to this stuff is to wing it to ask a whole bunch of other people, just like real life. I'm recording this from Oakland, California, where early this year police cleared out what we called the Wood Street Homeless Encampment, and like all encampments, it was illegally occupied. Along to the California Department of Transportation.

It's a mile long field of debris, RVs that are falling apart, and mikeshift housing, and a corner of the place is designated by its residents. As a lanefill, but I encourage you to read the feature article from a local press outlet called KQEED about it. It has a map of where the little clusters of people shared housing, where an area for shared resources was a kitchen, a shipping container for storage, a small clinic. Before the eviction,

the residents called these two places cobb On Wood and the Commons. Commonhood is about building a community that is not allowed to exist. It's not a game that I can easily recommend. It's kind of buggy. It's not the best thing in the world when it comes to gameplay, loops and all that.

But if you play it and engage with it like I did, it'll help you think about the hires and crisis, the concept of property, and maybe even to dream of alternative systems that don't result in eviction or dejectively moving back into our parents' homes. When we stop being useful, when people can stop using a person like us. I'd like to thank and credit one of

the people that I talked to about Commonhood Castle. They have an essay on Substack about the game that they wrote after we both played it, and their writing is vastly more eloquent than what I'm, how I speak, and what I've written so far, and it contains critical discussion that would be hard to include in a Game of the Year podcast, So please check their article. Now we interrupt this podcast to bring you a special message from jsbhador correspondents sky

Sky. Please tell us your message. Hey, I really like boulders Gate three. Thank you, and back to the show. Good morning, JSB Goons, friends, family, all listeners of the podcast. If you're not familiar with who I am, my name is Asher and I sometimes stream on Twitch and I've been an occasional guest on the GSP anime cast usually. I mean, I've been doing this for the past two years now. Ever since I've gotten to know the Goons and our friendship has only grown in the past

year, I think how should I word this. I'm normally known as the guy who does something a little bit more experimental with these recordings, With these end of the year game recordings, I usually try to do something weird, play with like the timing, maybe play with like a character who talks to himself. But admittedly I've had a lot of difficulty coming up with something like that this year, because well it's been a pretty bad year for me personally,

but and creatively, I feel a little stinted. But also the games that I love this year are a little bit difficult to I guess create something like that, I think without really really mapping it out, and this holiday season I just haven't had to. So I've accepted the fact that I'm gonna do something just a little bit wrong. I'm just going to talk from the top of my head. You know, sometimes simplicity is key. Sometimes simplicity is the best, and I think in this situation that is the best method

for my life right now. So really, I'm just gonna you're just gonna hear me few a bunch of nonsense about the games that I loved this year and admitted I haven't been able to get to every game that I wanted to this year. You know, I feel like I haven't played enough of Super Mario Wonder to understandably put it on this list. I haven't gotten to play Residual for I haven't gotten to play Spider Man two. God, I know the game isn't even that long, but I still haven't gotten to play Slay

the Princess, and I really want to play that game. I just haven't found the time. A lot of the games that I have been able to find time for are games that I could play just before bed, kind of not set a hard schedule for, but have been able to just find time to wind down and enjoy, like a little escape before I escaped to my own dream world. So yeah, I've already used up three minutes just talking

about the situation and saying a couple of things here or there. But that's let's get to what I actually like loved playing this year and what I loved playing this year. I'll actually go like down the list, I've at least made a top ten. I've at least made a top ten, so even if I just mentioned them, I've given them a little spot on the cast, or at least for games that came out this year. And then at the end, I'll talk about a little bit about my favorite game of the

year that I played that didn't come out this year. Okay, so Rob tagged me for my recording being too long, so I guess I'm not going to do a top ten and instead just do a top five, but I will say what my top ten are, so don't you worry. Yeah, so number ten is Liza p nine is Against the Storm, eight is Grand Blue Fantasy versus Rising, seven is Venba, and six is Octopath Traveler too.

So anyway, that gives me enough time to talk about my top five and then my favorite game of that I played this year that didn't come out this year, So number five Dredge. Dredge is pretty incredible. There is no game quite like Dredge. It is a fishing slash scavenging ocean tail with a hint of lovecrafty and lore to it, and you kind of just get sucked into wanting to know what's wrong. It is creepy, it's weird, and you are constantly drawn into this mystery and how it affects the different like

tow folk that live among these islands. And uh, it's quite convenient because my number four is Dave the Diver, and Dave the Diver has a collab now with Dredge, so they have some of the critters that are found in Dredge in their game. If you haven't played David Dave the Diver, you're really missing out. Dave the Divers an incredible game. It it tries to

do so many things and here's the crazy part. I feel like when a game, when you pre preface a game by saying it tries to do so many things, you usually end up in the direction of like, so it fails or it fails to Yeah, it doesn't doesn't live up to any aspect of the game. It's a lot of its categories like fall to the wayside because it tried to focus on too many things. It tried to spend so many plays, that tries to juggle so many balls. Dave the Diver somehow

miraculously has so many things going for it. Restaurant simulator, fish catching game. Uh like a like a questing type of thing, like cooking sam cooking Mama type stuff, and all of it like comes together and ends up working seamlessly. If you haven't played Dave the Diver, you're you're really missing out. Special game. At number three, I have High Fi Rush. I

am curious as to who's going to talk about High Fright Rush. I know, without a doubt we got some goons and JSB that absolutely love this game, and understandably so. Is an incredible feat of a game. Shadow Drop game, but one that like blends it mechanics with its action oriented gameplay in an incredible way and has a certain spirit about it that really makes me just really root for the game and the characters and really want them to succeed and

push past like what society assumes they should be. It's a very it's a very like punk rock game, even though punk rock isn't like the primary genre of the game. It's it's a very cool like journey for this coming of age level protag and I advise anybody to check it out. It's free on game paths, so why not give it a shot? Of course? Of Number two is Baldersgate. This this is a funny game to talk about, right because like it's probably on most people's like number one list, and because

I assume someone's going to talk about it. I'm in that place where it's like I don't want to talk about too much because someone, no doubt is going to devote their entire segment to it. But then like what if everyone else is thinking that too, and nobody ends up talking about BALLTERSK three. Here's the thing Like BALDERSK three, I'll say my piece. It's an incredible game. It's the best long form game to have come out this year in

my opinion. It is a fun game to play with people. It's how you do I've seen a game do early access as good as this since Hades. It's exactly how you do it, and you make a game for the better. Everything is immaculate from top to bottom, cast, voice acting, the story, the way the game is played, the kind of problem solving

you can have in the game. It's just amazing. And then especially for the people who like loved the older balders Gate boulders Gate one Shadows of a Balderskate two Shadows of Bomb, Like, there's some deep cuts that really are

emotionally resonant in the story. It's just an incredible, incredible thing. And as a person who also plays magic, the gathering kind of incredible what it did on that end too, because there is a balders Gate set at Dutch as a dragon set as balders Gate characters in it, and people just go crazy for it and it only enhanced it further. So, Yeah, if I had to pick like a big game to play this year, it's like, no contest Balder's Gate three, And then my number one game that came

out this year is Cocoon No surprise indie game. I always lean more to the indie game. I think what makes Cocoon cocun fit in that category of games that I love? That to me, the way I judge games is to me, the best games are at their peak form are video games. I do not think you could make Cocoon a book, make Cocoon a movie, make Cocoon of fucking orchestral piece without it losing something and not gaining anything. Cocoon is at its best a game, and it is one of the

best games I played this year. The wave of emotions that I feel playing that game, the kind of like confusion that eventually turns into oohs and oz and how proud I am for like solving a puzzle and the mystery that is unraveled is incredib the ball. It is such a special little game. It only takes five hours to play once again also on game Pass. Give it a shot if you can. You really won't regret it. Come on five

hours, perfect perfect, perfect game length. And then finally, my favorite game that I played this year is a game that I was put on by rob By, my friend Carrie, and just a couple of other people that have said it's good, but oftentimes this game, I think is not played by so many people because of its sheer length, and that is Zeno Blade Chronicles three, Xeno Blade Chronicles three. It's and this is gonna be a

weird comparison. It's kind of like if you have seen the movie this year, Killers of the Flower Moon, which I don't fault you if you haven't, it is like a three hour and thirty minute movie. And some would argue against this that I think it uses to maximum efficiency. I think the emotional theft of the finale of Killers of the Flower Moon is due to its is partly due to its run time and everything that felt so necessary to include

in that. And so when I get through Xeno Blake Chronicles three and I've spent so much time with these characters, so much time in this world, I get teary eye just thinking about it. It is an incredible, incredible journey with characters that I will remember for the rest of time. That I can have memories, you know. It harkens back to the feeling that I had when I was a kid at like the age at thirteen, playing stuff

like Skys of Arcadia or Tales of Simfonia. These long form RPGs where I didn't want it to end, and I love the characters and I love the story. And as I was getting near the end of Zeno Blade three, I was so scared for it to be over, and I'm nearing like one hundred hours and then just for it to end the way that it does and what it says about, like moving on and those who you care about. I just it's gonna be with me for a very long time. And I

get it. Not everyone has like one hundred hours to dedicate to a game, but it absolutely is worth it. It's truly truly something special. So all right, I'm under the time. I'm under the time, I promise. Yeah, you guys, take care, Happy New Year. Be sure to watch me on twitch Penoy Gregio. I also host the JSB Anime Cast and we're gonna be back next year and that's gonna be tight. So yeah, take care, love you guys, and yeah bye bye. You know

the voice, you know the cadence. He's back to give his unfettered and perfect opinion on this year's Game of the Year titles. My segment's going to be a little bit different, I'm sure than everybody else's. Everyone segments are always a little bit different, so I think I'll do my approach similar to those I've done the past, but this year I'm going to approach it by giving out some awards on my own. Whether or not there it's gonna like

that as much. We'll see. You don't have to agree with my opinions, although they are one hundred correct all the time, but you do have to listen if you want to, of course. So let's go ahead and get this out of the way. There's a few games this year that I did not get to play that I feel like could have been strong contenders for some awards that I personally made up categories for, also potentially awards like Game of the Year, though I'm pretty stuck online. So games that I didn't

get to play this year Resident Evil for remake. Those have been paying attention to the stream and stuff know that I've been playing Resident Evil to remake. It's the first time that I'm really getting into Resident Evil because I do not like scary games. We've gone through this a million times. Everyone knows I don't like them. Final Fantasy sixteen. I don't like Final Fantasy. People say it's really good, it's the best Final Fantasy in a long time.

Maybe ever. Yeah, don't care if Final Fantasy sucks Sue Mario Wonder. People said it's really good. It came out of the scene really hot. I have it sitting on the desk right next to me. I just have not played it. Alan Wake two is the only one that I could probably consider to be a game of the year, but next to it because I've played alan Wake one and I've read a lot of stuff about alan Wick two and what the studio has done. I mean, I love Control. People

say it's better than Control in a lot of ways. So had Potential and Super Mario RPG. Again. I also have a copy of that sitting on my desk. I just have not played it yet. So I want to just get it out of the way. I want to attack the elephant in the room here and just talk about the game of the year. I don't think that there's any question what game of the year should be. Everyone's going to have their opinions. Some people may not like the format, but let's

just say it. Balterer Skate three is the game of the year. I know that wasn't a very popular opinion. If you listen to the Vocal Minority Online. But undoubtedly it is the best game that came out this year. It shook the industry. It pissed off Triple A developers for them releasing a game that was so whole and complete. It is a fantastic game. The only criticism that I could give it for those who may not enjoy it is that it's not really as fun to play by yourself as it is to play

with others. But if you've played other games made by Larry and you'd know that those are kind of the same way. They're party based games. And while the party experience is really great because the party characters are wonderful the whole all the characters, all the voice acting, it's all very wonderful. I think the game really benefits from being in the party atmosphere. That's when I had the most fun with it. Personally, my solo play did not last

as long. I just didn't have enough fun. But I think as a party game, I wasn't going to play this game. I'm glad I did play the game. My friend convinced me to play the game because it was in the Dungeons and Dragons aspects, and I love Dungeons and Dragons, and I'm glad I give it a shot. You guys know I don't like turn based games. If you go back to the early days of the podcast,

you'd know that I don't like turn based games. Since the episode where I talked about firem Blom three Houses and how that was the first turn based game that I ever played that I enjoyed. I have not played a turn based game since maybe one very small amount, but that gives you a sort of point of reference on my feeling on turn based games. But I loved Balder's Three. I think it was a wonderful treat and I'm very happy that it

came out. I'm very happy that Larry did what they did, and I'm very happy that it took the industry by storm and became like the highest industry rated game ever. I mean, you know, elder Ring did that last year. What we thought in this game did even more than that, So I think it's an obvious win. Let's get into some of my unique categories here. I might ruffle some feathers with these, but you know, these are my opinions, and like I said, my opinions are one hundred percent

facts, So let's start on the positive note. Hi Fi Rush has came out early in the year. I didn't play it until late in the year, and if I wouldn't have played it until late in the year, or if I wouldn't have played at all, it would have never been on my radar. But those who know I'm a big fan of jets at Radio like the art style. I like that sort of cartoony like, very boisterous art style, and the idea is unique. It wins my a unique Fresh Taste

in the Industry award. It brings a sort of different aspect to it with the rhythmic combat, similar to a game like Cadence of High Rule, which we talked about a really long time ago on the podcast. It brings a fresh element fighting to the beat, a cool storyline, interesting dialogue, a beautiful art style. I think overall, it's just a really fresh a breath

of fresh air in the industry, in a very mundane industry. We're going to go to a game that I have some pretty strong feelings about, which is winning my biggest piece of Shit award for the year, which is Starfield. Everyone hyped up Starfield is this late great creation from the Bethesda formula, and look where it got. It was a piece of dog shit. It's

not fun, it was boring. It's undoubtedly the Bethesda experience. So while it is called my biggest piece of shit of the year, ord, I think more than likely it should be the biggest example that the Bethesda strategy is dead ORed. I think that their strategy has been the same for a really long time since Skyrim. I think the strategy is boring. I think their whole idea of making these World League games with very lackluster stories, it's overplayed,

it's done. They should change their strategy. Todd Howard is a sinking ship. Maybe if he hadn't spent the last ten years trying to remake Skyrim for everything from the next gen consoles to Samsung refrigerators, he would have made a better game. Let's talk about my favorite game that I played this year entirely aside from Bowlersgate, Cyberpunk Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty came out this year. It's a beautiful piece of art. I think the what am I looking for here?

I think the update that came out fixed the game. People are still haters on it. I didn't play it when I originally came out, so I didn't have that awful taste in my mouth. I think most people are still stuck on that. If you haven't played it yet, though, you should play it. It is beautiful. I mean, the story is wonderful, the writing is tremendous, the gameplay is fantastic. Now they have really

done a great number to fix this game and the DLC. While it's not really the longest, I do think that it added a wonderful element to the story, the new characters. I think the voice acting is tremendous. I mean it is really good. I mean, the soundtrack is good. The game is just phenomenal. I fully believe in my heart that if this game came out this year in the condition that it was in now, this could

have potentially edged close to Balder's game for Game of the Year. I mean, I don't think that it would have won, but I think it would have easily been a second place. I mean, the game is phenomenal. So if you haven't played it, stop being a hater and just play it. It's a blast, I mean, coming from me, it is very critical of video games. I mean, the game is awesome. I loved playing this game is my favorite game that I played this year outside of Baldersgate

by far and above. Let's go to an interesting topic here, sports games. E A FC twenty four. We're just gonna call it the biggest greed move of the year. You know, EA decided that their FIFA contract ran out, so they were going to completely re brand and not give any more money to FIFA, so they just created the EA Football Club twenty four game. Thanks a lot, gaming industry greed strikes again. The next game that

we can touch on here Tiers of the Kingdom. I think this is an interesting one because, against popular opinion, I am ill impressed by it. I think it's fun, it's interesting, and of the of the category that I'm giving it, which is best not remake remake, it is the best one. I think they've done enough to make it interesting and fun. But I think they spent a really long time making adjustments that I just don't really feel like we're that worth it. So that's why it wins the best not

remake remake award. Let's talk about the most forgotten game of the year. Hogwarts Legacy came out early in the year. It was a pretty mediocre RPG at best. It expanded the Harry Potter universe. Regardless of what everyone has to say about JK. Rowling, the game was fun. It was fun to play. The spells were unique and useful. It kind of expanded on the sort of Harry Potter universe while not using a lot of the same characters.

It introduced some characters that were sort of in the storyline. I think in a year full of disappointing ass games, everyone just forgot about this game because they hyped up these disappointing ass games just to be disappointed later. Though everyone forgot about the game, I still think it deserves some recognition because it was fun to play, unlike some of these other boring, ass disappointed games that came out this year. So most forgotten game of the year that deserves

some recognition obviously Hogwarts Legacy. Now let's address the real elephant in the room, the top of the Oh my gosh, it got robbed radar by people who really don't enjoy video games, just play barely anything. Spider Man two. Spider Man two was a lackluster piece of garbage game that barely upgraded on

what it was worth. If you want to consider this year as anything considered a lesson learned that people should be more strict in the way they're critiquing video games, because developers can spend five years recreating the same game with an even more atrocious storyline and lack of anything meaningful, and then tout it is the best game that came out this year, and you guys will hail it as

something that deserves so much praise. A ten hour long story game with unbelievable amounts of quick time events and unbelievable amounts of long ass cut scenes, including the ending, which is a like thirty minute long cut scene of just nonsense trash writing with no real character interaction. Only saving grace for the end of the boring ass thirty minute cut scene at the game is the ending where it

sort of introduces a specific character. Don't want to ruin it for anybody who hasn't played it, although I wouldn't waste your time playing it if for being honest, the game is not interesting. The storyline sucks, and while this is pretty thematic in superhero games, is that you're already set in a universe, you're already kind of set in the character you know, buying because there are introduced characters, you're just trying to sort of keep those characters in check.

This game just does an awful job at writing the characters. I mean, unfortunately, I have to critique it because it's really suffering from, you know, a significant amount of pushing. And I mean that in a different sort of way. Is that it's okay to inject sort of these moralities into

your writing. I mean, if you write anything, it's going to come through, of course, But when the entirety of the story is just sort of making Peter Parker ound to be a big sissy piece of shit and everyone else to be a bigger superhero, he is And I'll be honest, the whole school fight, and if anybody's played the game, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about was one of those moments where I just really didn't want to

play the game anymore because the dialogue is so indicative of someone's personal feelings that it really just it just makes me. It made me visibly cringe. The game is not fun. The ending kind of sucks. The sort of climactic not really I don't want to say death scene because it's not, but it's like that sort of thing that was like amazing in Spider Man twenty eighteen, because the writing was great, the character introductions were great. This game,

it was just a letdown on all fronts. I wouldn't rate it higher than a five and a half out of ten at best, and that's really just because of the fun gameplay, mechanics and really just the swing, because the combat is fairly boring and once you sort of unlock the base moves, that's kind of it. You don't really do anything else. I mean, you could sure get creative with it, but I mean, I just think that

the combat is pretty boring. It's very superhero e, which makes sense because it's a superhero game, but I think it got a lot more hype than it deserved. And I think this is a good example of holding developers accountable because they spent five years making a game that's very small of an upgrade compared to Spider Man twenty eighteen or even Miles Morales. I mean, Miles Morales is basically this, but I think it's better and it's better written. So

unfortunately, this is my worst writing game of the year. Although there's many other problems with Like most overhyped game, this is the best award that I could give to it, I believe. Thanks for listening, Morning Gamers's trippy. As you know, twenty twenty three was the best year for games ever. There are a lot of games out loud. One of my all time

fair games got a sequel. Imagine me twelve years old crying his ass off Edge Hero to grow up to be thirty three years old, crying his ass off as you hear, I fear to be boring to hear about water Z eight three again. Though we've all played it, we've all heard about it, We've all thought there's no way Asterian has eight stream with that Tourso so I'm picking another game to talk about. Yes, Walter's eight three is my twenty twenty three game of the year, but is it really Yeah, it

is as far as I'm concerned. The idea of overcoming an invading fleet of aliens, hanging out with imaginary friends who love and protect you, sharing intimate moments with enemies to friends, and having a really attractive cast as something balder Skate three does. Well. You know what else did it? Well? You fucking guessed it? And those Mondays, dreams and deadlines. Let me

set the scene. It's Friday night, I just got off my eleven hour shif data faceless, late stage, Capitalistic Evil Empire as a Corporation, and

I'm fucking hammered drunk. I'm doom scroll on Twitter while playing my stupid fucking gotcha game I See someone Mention a game about a woman who stuck at work over the weekend at our faceless, late stage capitalistic Eva Empire Corporation and Everyone's hot end This Monday is a visual novel about a girl a penny stick at work because you procrastinated too much on a big project she doesn't know anything about. The goal of this game is to somehow make it to the end of

the weekend. It's up to you, with the player, to decide if you finish the project. Instead of doing that, you can do other activities, such as investigating your work facility after hours, taking naps, playing a phone game that will literally take hours of your life away. I set a bottle clicker to play it for me. Calling your friends and foes and mom, dueling your hot little tiger girlfriend, and drinking coffee that may be days

old. No one's there. You've become uncomfortable. The art pops it's all pixel art and rats from dismal corporate America to fanatical about logging. There's a ton of small detail in every scene to make it really hit me in the I fucking hate my job. Bits like a coffee mug that says, love your job as much as you love your coffee. We have those as community mugs in my office. I fucking reeled. I hate it so goddamn much,

and every character is delight Your boss, Miss Whiskey. She constantly calls you to come clubbing with her, to just give up on the work. And one of my favorite endings, I'm gonna spoil it because it's only like four lines in. She asks you to come clubbing with her, and if you agree to it, you wind up getting fired for the company. Move back in with your grandfather back home, but he passes away, so you pick up his hoe and pickaxe and manage his farm. Eventually you become friends

with the locals, but it is instant enough to sustain the farm. You must journey to a nearby cave to earn more money by killing little jelly creatures. You live happily ever after, married to someone of your own, choosing farming and killing jelly creatures. The game is great. I love it.

There's also Hannah, who works in operations. If you've ever worked in a faceless late stage capitalist to keep a Umpires corporation, you've probably had to deal with operations in this year fact that no one knows what the fuck they even do around here that ties heavily into her storeline and it does actually hit like

incredible. My favorite character is Skuy. She's an ex employee who quit because she hated working for a facelessly stage capitalist to keep the Empire Corporation, and is currently pursuing her dreams of becoming a YouTuber whose entire gig is their frying foods. Her entire demeanor is just perfect. Though we all have that one extremely weary coworker, she just meanders around the company drinking coffee. It just fucking hates her job. It's such a goddamn mood. There's a bunch of

minor characters and they all have tons of jokes attached to them. You have a succulent time your desk that Miss Whiskey gives you that you wind up talking to, and whenever you do talk to him, you affectionately call him Lil Suck. He has he stayed back, stay on track sort of not really ever, he just distracts you and makes fun of you. There's also Tiger Chan, the pre previously mentioned targer girl that you doodle. She comes back

to life and follows you around for a bit. It's sort of ambiguous if it's real. There's also an alien she abducts you. It's a thing, but the game pretty much unfolds with you. Hav any get six inspirations for ads for this product that you have no idea about. You wander around, you talk to people, maybe do a little bit of puzzling, do a

little time travel to get these inspirations. I love the puzzles they hit sort of like Hate Plus's puzzles, where they weren't just click here and do this, but rather click here, do this in that order, and that gives you a hint for the next playthrough. You can easily saves come through the entire game though. All in all, the game only took me about six hours of Platinum, but that was also because I had a little Shivo guide

and an auto clicker. If you do play and you want to follow up, the artist does have a monthly fanzine that you can also buy it unless Monday dot com. It's pretty much monthly just PDFs, jokes and stuff like that. It was a great game. It was only about six hours long. As I said, it's only about six to eight dollars on Steam,

and it is a fantastic way too blow one one evening. Especially if you've ever worked in a faceless, late stage capitalistic Evil Empires corporation, then like you will definitely see a lot of parallels to your job, even if you haven't. The characters are all very fresh. Even my least favorite characters still wound up being one of my favorite characters, for instance, and that's not just because like there's only like four characters. Aside from Endless, Mondays some

other games that I really enjoyed and I'm really looking forward to. I finished the rest of Full Medal Damon Maramasa. If you are okay with a game that pretty much comes up with an entire content page and a half of warnings, definitely check it out. It had a lot to do with history, revision of history, politics, mes kendo god like so much. Also check out a Tokyo necro not as Bad has one of the best lesbians I've ever

seen. She's still goddamn powerful. Her father has like this entire mastery of a school of martial arts, all involving around killing the shit out of zombies, and she hates them so obviously instead of using this these guns that have like pile drivers in them, instead she uses chainsaws and it is incredible. Beyond that, I also read al Kana for Rhythms Across the Blue. If you like your very stereotypical dating sims, definitely check it out. It's a

fun spin on. It has a lot to deal with sports and not sports. It's an imaginary sport about floating and other stuff like that. All the characters are fantastic, and the sport actually feels like something I would watch. Shameless plug for Signalis it still exists. It's still the best game of the year all years. Forever Shared a un recently came out with a re release

for White Album. The first One and also one. White Album was the prequel to a game that is like legendary in the visual novel Spaces One is pretty much the prequel to every key visual novel. All of the team that did One pretty much went on to being in Key, so games like Clannad, Cannon Air, all of those guys, all key all came from this

one project. But yeah, I get rant. If you do want to hear me a loath of my jobs more and feel free to follow me on Twitter at Shrimpy Underscore Shift eleven and if you want to hear me drunkenly round about visual novels, feel free to follow me on Blue Sky, same thing without the underscores. I do also want to do a shout out to the Assenheim Project as well a collab for recruiting PC ninety eight games to be able to be playable in browser with several translated and fully playable. Right now you

can play True Love ninety five, Divvy Dad, a few others. But yeah, if you do want to cringe and see how far we've come with our writing in visual novel spaces, absolutely hop over to t ss dot A s E n h E I M dot Org's right for that. Yeah, it'd be good new crime read Flowers and I will see you guys next year. I hope everyone has fantastic safe holidays and play some good ass video games. Take care big all right. Game of the Year, My name is

sigis. I like MMOs and mostly play Pharma Fantasy. But for my game of your recommendations this year, games i've played, so I'm gonna go with the real obvious one. I loved Pharma Fantasy sixteen. It was amazing, a good job through and three had a little had a few stale parts to it, but still, man, I haven't been a game in thirty two hours in a lot, thirty hours straight in a long time, like just thirty two hours of playing that game. I still go back to it occasionally.

I enjoy the harder difficulty stuff. I haven't gotten around to the DLC yet, but like by and large, I really enjoyed myself with that game. I know some people said the combat felt a little stale. I don't personally feel that way. I like the way that I have to mix and

match things that could also be THEMO player in me. The real big highlights for me in that game where the boss fights, Holy shit, those are some of the most fun boss fights I've had since the other game that would be on my list, which would be Sonic Forces, where I Holy god, I still remember those moments and like, I really wish there was just a boss rush mode because I'm pretty sure actually they add in one. I haven't just haven't gotten to it, but holy fuck. Uh, definitely one

of the high points of my year. The Phamit fight literally blew me out the water. Dude. You I still remember that first moment, screaming whoa, whoa, Holy fuck whoa, and just like I just yeah, I love that fucking game. I love the attention to detail with it, uh, the way that there's little nods and references, especially if you're a fourteen player like I am, right, like, for instance, like Bahamad goes spoilers, Bahamad goes golden at some point and I was like, oh shit,

oh look at you and throwing fucking awkwards down like crazy. Uh. Also the second recorded or the third recorded use of Zeta Flair literally ever, uh, which was insane. I thought that that was that was the high point for me. I saw him fucking already examined. I was like, no fucking way, no fucking way. Uh. The time fight was great too. The music there was great. In fact, the music for the entire game was amazing. But you know that's soaking. He just does great

fucking work no matter what he's doing. Yeah, just a fucking really good game that I loved. Let's see what else that I beat this year. I really enjoyed Wishes did come out this year, didn't it? Pretty sure? I've really loved Street Fight or six. It's been a well, I stay really love I haven't been enjoying it casually, good game, fun time, bad music, terrible music. Oh, I fucking beat Ultra Kill for the first time. That's a good fucking game that everybody should play. Holy

shit. I actually ended up streaming that game this year towards the beginning of the year when I had time off and when I was fighting it. That was exhilarating. The moment to moment of action, the lightning fast like reactions. You had to have the fucking robot what's to say A two? I think no? Uh? In the red version of you dude, I could not beat him. It took me, I think legitimately three hours, so that the second time you fight him to kill him. That was a fucking

trip. And then I found out there's like extra little levels that I've never done. I still need to go back and do those. So those are fucking great. Let's see what else did I play this year? I have been currently Oh uh Armor Corps. Armor Corp six that was also really amazing. I had a fun time with it. I really enjoyed the customization for

it. Just solid gameplay overall. I make this joke because I know people who play Armor Corps hate it. I really felt like I was just playing a Gundam, Like I just walk in and they be like, Hey, I'm gonna fucking get your ass, and I'm like, no, you're not. No, you're not. I swear left right, shoot him down, Like nah, not you. Where's the boss at? Show me, show me, show me the guy that that's actually helping you. A nice curve of difficulty. I know people had problems with that first boss. I did

too. By the way, beat it before the nerves get direct idiots one time, uh Beatholius, Like it really was a knowledge skill check that made me actually have to like sit there and redo my entire uh my entire setup multiple times. You kill him. Loved the music in that game as well. For my first Armor Corps, I think it was I think it got a little too hard in the middle. There was a point there was mission

where I like I had to do some other stuff. You need to fight your way through this entire corridor and shit, and I was like, I'm not doing this. Rather fight the boss over and over and over again than do this like thirty times. Otherwise, I loved it to death. The weapons are my favorite. It's a really satisfying feeling and going. The noise is terrible, but you get the idea. Other games, oh entropy effect plays blue interpret the effect, so it's plays blue and name only, naming

characters only. Very good rogue. Like, if you haven't played it yet, I think it just released. I think they just finished, like actually releasing it. But I played it on Early Access right, and the entire time I have I really enjoyed myself, Like I haven't pushed myself to beat a roguelike in a long time, and I am doing it there. I love the mix and match skills. The characters feel very real, reminiscent to their fighting in counterparts. There's some people who say it's not like Blaze Blue

and Name Only. I don't think they played Blaze Blue that long. Like the the chin feels like Jens uses her crests and feels like s fucking my zips around on her fucking pole arm like you're playing the game like you're just doing your emotions over and over and over again. Very fun times. Yeah.

Other than that, really, the only other game that I really played this year was Farma Fantasy fourteen, and as a longtime player now for the last like three or four years, I've always really enjoyed myself with the raids and things. A little bit of a trudge if you've never played an MMO, but I severely tell you that it'll be worth it. If you've never played, it's just a great time. That's about all I got. Thanks, Rob, and I hope you have a nice day. Hello there,

fellow adventures. JSP Gamescast co host Drew Roberts here again to share my thoughts for Game of the Year twenty twenty three. Well, it's never easy selecting exactly which game is deserving of the coveted title. Game of the Year. Twenty twenty three, in particular, is a year stacked with so many standout titles it feels almost impossible to choose a clear cut winner. And that's only

from the pool of games that I actually managed to play and complete. After much consideration, back and forth in rumination, I'm confident in saying that Octopath Traveler two from Square Ings's team Asano deserving of my pick for Game of the Year. This pick may seem a bit unusual in the face of such titles such as The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, or Balter's Gate

three, a game I unfortunately did not get to play. Octopath Traveler two comes in as a sleeper hit, building upon what its predecessor tried to achieve while also pushing itself off to new heights. Octopath Traveler two starts as identically as the first. You're given the opportunity select for one of eight prospective protagonists, ranging from the bright eydo Chet setting off on an adventure to stop a rapidly approaching calamity, to the exile Prince Kari fighting to reclaim his homeland from

his warmongering brother and preventing him from drowning the continent and blood. It's up to the player to choose which adventure to embark on first, but will soon come to learn about all the inhabitants of Solicia. While returning players from Octopath one will already be familiar with the games setups and systems. Octopath who improves

itself on the original in terms of scope a narrative one hundredfold. While some quirks from the first game still exist within Octopath DNA, Autopath two does a much better job of creating a living, breathing world where aspects of all these stories interconnect with each other, as well as deep in the connections between the

playable characters, which was a major fault of the first game. The game's narrative aspects are vastly improved from the first game, weaving much more compelling tales for its protagonists while also subtly connecting them together that comes and brings a finale that is one of the best payoffs in games I've played this year, if not recent memory. Also returning for the second outing is an excellent soundtrack from

composer yes Andri Nishiki. To pair along with the journey from solemn character themes vowing revenge to high octane boss battle themes, Autopath two doesn't slatch in the sound apartment. If the game isn't deserving a Game of the Year, it's certainly deserving a Soundtrack of the Year. In a feat I thought impossible. Nishiki how does himself in the second outing and produce some of the best music to come across my ears. We cannot get enough of this game soundtrack and

honestly worth it alone for the experience. I constantly think about the soundtrack all the time. The entire year. Was this soundtrack in my head the entire time. This is very much the best soundtrack of the year. I will fight you, I will fight you, I will fight you, I will fight you. This is the soundtrack of the year. The main gameplay aspects from Octopath Ie, the combat and path actions, remain mostly unchanged from the

previous outing. While I still feel that the path action system is something that can be improved upon, it's serviceable enough for the scope of the game. Combat, however, is where the game shines. The break and boost system of octopath is one of the most satisfying turn based combat systems, allowing for

snappy battles that keep the player on the toes as the game progresses. Job system also makes its return, with each protagonist representing one of the twelve job classes available to the player, all of which are mix and metch allowing players to come up with deep and interesting team compositions. Some will note that Octopad two still isn't perfect in what it sets out to do. However, it's made leaps and bounds over the original and comes out way ahead because of it.

I played Octopad two at the very beginning of the year, and even after playing Zelda Sea of Stars, Trails Into Reverie, Residuvil four, Fire Mom Engage, and many other games this year, it's the journeys I made

in Octopath Traveler two that still hit me the hardest. The character vignettes that still tug up my heart strings, the melodies that I constantly find myself humming, the feelings that make me want to return to Solicia still resonate with me in a powerful way, and it stays with me long after I've shown this game, And so I can confidently say Octopath Traveler two is deserving of Game of the Year and welcome back to where it all began. Did you guys

have a wonderful trip through a year of incredible video games? I certainly did. We had a lot of people contribute this year. We had some new voices this year, which he it's very, very excited for. And there was a lot of games listed, and there was several different like takes on video Game of the Year segments. Right. You had Nick who did his

own personal Nick Awards, right, some good, some bad. I take a little issue with the last one he did, but I can't really talk about it here because I didn't beat that game until twenty twenty four when I'm recording this. Yes, I am late on my own show, Sue me, so that's something you'll hear from me later down the road. But you know, we had a top five list from Asher, We had personal takes

from like Drew as well as Tinfoil, who was a new contributor. We had a very passionate speech about Assassin's Creed, which is a series that I don't think any of us really think about these days too much, aside from to meme on it, but that series still means a lot to people out there, right, and Rev took us on a wonderful journey on like what really speaks to him in that franchise and some of the popular ones don't speak to him, And he gets really in depth about it, and I found

that super interesting. You look at Ryan who played through Signalis, which was an incredible game, right, He found a lot of enjoyment out of that and a mobile game that he's stuck with. Right, he is not one to stick with mobile games for very long, but Nick speaks to him, and I can agree that that game is pretty solid, and a whole host of other games I would mentioned that are pretty incredible in their own rights.

So what about me? What about me? In twenty twenty three, One of my goals this year was to play more video games than the previous year, and I hit that goal. I smashed that goal. Actually, I was actually able to play and knockout just about every major release this year and a bunch of little, tiny ones. I think I clocked in at over sixty games across all platforms, which is an insane number for me for someone

that like hardly has time to do anything. And a lot of the ones that I loved were talked about today, right Balder Skate three, I don't need to say much more on that. Like, I love that game. That is probably my game of the year if I had to pick a single game. What that game does for that genre in the industry, change the landscape, which I'm very curious to see how other developers react to that release and maybe maybe see what changes in terms of like dev cycles and how games

are developed. Street Farther six was mentioned like, this was a year of incredible fighting games, right. Street fart Er six came out and kind of revital lies the space with amazing net code, a great single player campaign, a bunch of like training mode features, and just like a really tight package out of Capcom, who we were kind of meming on for the past couple

of years as far as our fighting games go. And to follow that, we heard about Grand Blue Fantasy Versus Rising, which is an incredible game that I'm playing through now. So fighting games are an amazing spot. Cocoon Asher talked about this game, which was a game I introduced to him, which is one of my favorite puzzle games of the last like ten years, probably since like The Witness, Right, so there's a bunch of games in there.

Final Fantasy sixteen was a game that I really loved. Hi Fi Rush, I think is incredible, probably my favorite character action game of all time if I was to really sit down and think about it. It's art style is really smooth. It captures that look and feel of like a Futurama type thing. The action is very tight, but also not like so strict that somebody can't play it. It is an action of rhythm game, and it rewards you for playing on beat right, but you don't have to. You

can still get through that game without it. There are some moments that sort of require it when it comes to like parrying. But I do believe in that game's accessibility options, which it has some of the best accessibility in all of games of this year and probably just in general right. It is definitely up there. It took a lot of care and to make sure that anybody could pick up and play this game. You can probably adjust the timings of

that stuff to make it easier for you. The way that the world reacts to the music that is being played, so like everything is timed to the beat of the music. All of the animations, even like little subtle stuff like lights flickering in the background or machinery that are like turning and twisting and stuff, everything reacts to the word that the music is being played. The attention to detail is wild, So that is that was a huge standout for

me. Zimplee Chronicles three was the game that I got to for the first time this year. That was something that I've been meaning to play for a while, and I got through it, and I feel almost as passionate as as sure about that game like that, that game is truly one of the best JRPGs to release in a very long time, and it hits the ground running, and it is a world that you love to be in AND's characters that you love throughout the whole entire thing. Peak Peak for that for that

studio, I can't wait to see what they've learned from that. So what about games that haven't been listed, right, what are some other games that kind of speak to me that came out in twenty twenty three or that I played in twenty twenty three At the beginning of the year. Space for the Unbound came out. That is a small side scrolling game done by a small studio in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, if I remember correctly, And that game

is truly like an emotional ride, right. It's a very simple, like slice of life kind of side scrolling game where you're just kind of doing fetch quest. Right. You're hanging out with your girlfriend and she's like, let's go do this, So you go do that, You go pick up this and to give to this person, and just a really emotional story comes out

of it that left me in tears. It's a little longer than it needs to be, right, It is like a five to six hour game that could probably be like a four hour Like the backtracking gets a little rough at times, but it started my year off with like such a bang because I was not expecting it. In a beautiful pixel art. The music is incredible and just a truly, truly emotional and like personal story that is being told.

There amazing release from that team. I played like a dragon Guiden, which this is the first time I've caught up on the Yakuza series, right, Like, I get to play them as they come out. I don't feel behind, and Guidan is probably one of the best in the series. Right. It certainly is top tier in my mind. It has one of the strongest endings for the entire series. Which think about that, I'm including Judgment and all the other games in this series. Right, it has one

of these strongest endings for our protagonists Cosma Kidio in the entire franchise. I was left in tiers by the end of that game. It is a short experience. It is like the miles morales of the Yakaza series, right, so you can get through that whole game in like twenty that I think I

basically one hundred percent of that game in about twenty ish hours. It's not much, but man, it is a really tight experience that you should go in to that game after playing the entire series, right, because this is very much the end of like QTO storyline, so it cashes in on pretty

much the entire series, right. There are some key games that are that are important that it focuses on, but it really banks and you haven't been with this character from the beginning to the end, and it's it's incredible. And it's a different tone for an ending too, because normally, like the end of these Jakraza games are like very like high energy, like the adrenaline is is pomping and uh shit's hitting the thin and it's just like, oh I gotta get in there, I gotta go, gotta gotta gotta go.

But this one has a very like sad like tone to it, right, This is definitely like an end of like an era type feel and the emotions going in just like it feels different than anything before. It definitely recommend you

know, playing through that series and getting to that game. Paranormal Site was a horror visual novel that came out of Square NX, out of all places, like this is a Square NX in house team, right that put out this small little visual novel game that's probably about ten ish hours, maybe a

little bit more than that. That really messes with you. I want to be very careful about like talking about it, because you should go into it with a fresh like with a blank slate, Like you shouldn't really know much about what's going on in Paranormal Site, but it talks about like the Seven Mysteries of Hojo I think it was, and you're just kind of investigating like this murder that happened, and it's it gets crazy. There's supernatural elements to

it. It kind of messes with the player a little bit, ye know. It does some things where you're like are you There's like a a feeling that I'm being seen right now, like you're seeing through me right now. Incredible game. I walked away from that game like truly impressed by what they've done. Trails to Reverie was a game that we played this year that is

the newest Trails series game. Like you've heard me Andrew talk about these games for the past however long this podcast has been going on, I don't think there's much else to really say about it. Like this was a breath of fresh air for us having gone through the Cold Steel series, which we were very like on right, we didn't really care for them that much. They're solid, but it's okay, and Reverie like revitalized us and it's like,

oh yeah, this is why we love this series. And it's not without its issues, but ultimately it points us in a very like good direction right where it's like, Okay, I think we've got sort of the worst of it out the way, and now we're trending in a positive light to where like we're really looking forward to which is the next game that we'll get, probably some time in twenty twenty four, so stay tuned for that. I

got to play Live a Live for the first time this year. It did come out on consoles in PC this year, came out of Switch To twenty twenty two, but I never got a chance to play Live a Live the original version. I've seen it played, right, I know of Live a Live, but I never got to experience it. And I took the opportunity to get through. It is not a very long game, twenty ish hours maybe a little bit more, and it was really good, Like it's it

stands the test of time. It does some super experimental things. It is these It is kind of like the prequel or the predecessor to like an octopav Traveler, right where you have like these seven or eight protagonists that have nothing to do with each other, that's just kind of going on their own little storylines, and then at the end it kind of ties everything together in a way that is mind blowing, honestly, and you're like they had these ideas

back in you know, the bigness nineties when this came out. That's crazy, and it got touched up with the HD two D look. So it is a beautiful game. I'm running over time, but you know what, I'm the host of the show, so I could do what I want. I gave Asher like fourteen minutes, I can get like the same amount,

right, That's how this works. But that just goes to show there's so much to talk about and I won't even get to everything right that it is insane to me that like there's I'm gonna stop with this recording and be like, dang, I should have talked about this, I should talk about this. Star Ocean the second Story remake came out. I didn't even have this on the list. I just looked at it on my desktop as a recording list, and I'm like, man, that game is phenomenal, like what

a remaster remake should be in my eyes. Right, it's just enough different to like keep you engaged, and it's still like that same game that you know, I can break that game in the same way that I broke it originally. It is. It is a great, great release. See if Stars was a game I was really looking forward to that came out this year. I really enjoyed that game. I do have a few criticisms about it, right, I do feel a little like let down towards the end of

that game. There are aspects of the ending that I truly do love, but there's another aspect of it that I'm like, I wish there was more here. And I don't know if it was like a time constraint thing or just like they're setting up for more, but there's like an abruptness to the ending that's just kind of like, man, I wish you did more here, but the journey through that game was incredible for me. I love the look of that game. I love the music of the game. I really

like the combat too. I know some people kind of fall off of it, maybe think it's a little too easy or something like that, but I was like, just amount, just the right amount engaged with, like trying to break the locks and trying to find the right like combination of skills to get through this enemy. Like it was just enough to string me along, and I wish there was more, right but ultimately like it also felt like it was just enough. You know. I certainly love that game. It's

high on my personal list of games to play this year. I wholly recommend people at least check it out. It's also not a very long game, thirty to forty ish hours compared to like a Boulders game, which is hundreds of hours. Right, but yeah, Ceo Stars incredible release first, no second release, right for the studio because it's a Messenger studio, So imagine those guys making an RPG. Chia is a game that came out that's t C Chia. I wanted to take a second to highlight this game because I

thought it was really cool. I didn't finish it, but I do think about this game a lot, Like I'm very fond of this game. It is a team It is a game that is inspired by a culture that not a lot of people have known about prior to its release, and that's a chain of islands known as New Caledonia I believe it is, which is like a French territory, is composed of like a dozen islands in the South Pacific.

And it is really good. It's really really good at just like introducing you to this culture, this group of people that are in this area, and like the traditions that they go through. And it follows the journey of this girl who is trying to like save her father that got to kidnapped, and she has the ability to like send her send our consciousness into any object or being in the world. Right, So there's some fun like body possessing

things you can do in this game. But when you meet new characters, they go through like little rituals and they have like these little moments where they're singing like folk songs and stuff like that, and they're just giving you little bits and pieces of like how these people live right in what their culture is

like and it is really cool. It's chill. It is not a very like high stakes game, despite like the premise, like the intro sequence is kind of like crazy, but when you get to the act of playing this like open world game, it's just like I'm just doing these small tasks and just exploring these islands and it is very cute and wholesome and I really like it. Maybe one day I'll finish it. I don't know, but that

game left a very very strong impression on me. And finally, the game that I want to talk about at least a little bit here is Tears of the Kingdom, which is a game that stuck with me in a way that I did not think it really would. I am someone that really enjoyed Breath of the Wild. I like that game a lot, but also post elden Ring right, there's something about open world games that I'm like, you need to do something here, because this space can get very boring and uninteresting.

But Tiers of the Kingdom, for me, did a really good job of stringing me along, especially with this narrative. I do feel like that world is lived in in a way. There are a lot of NPCs that are about. There's a lot of side quests that have side stories to them that can not every one of them is hits, right, but like they're charming at the end of the day, right, Like I get the feeling that these people are living in this world in between like the sky area and like

the underground area. You kind of do like a lot of environmental storytelling. So like when you're exploring the underground it's like you realize, like, oh, there was there were people living here before. Right. You start seeing like the statues and some of the monuments that are around, like the rock formations, the temples that are about, and just like there's a whole thing

down here. I wonder what the story is about that stuff. And it also like it's one of the games that like really gives Zelda a strong like presence in the game, Like she has she goes on her own journey through this game that is equally as important as Link's journey through the game. She has a level of like agency in this game that she doesn't have before that

that is incredible to me. That builds up to one of the best payoffs I think in the entire series that brought me to Tears and continues to bring me to tears. I will see artwork of like a very particular moment in

this game that like elicits an emotion out of me. There is a weight behind like the revelation of like where Zelda is right that I'm just like, I can't believe y'all went here, Like this isn't something that this isn't necessarily something new that they've done for this character, but there is a weight behind it in the in the way that it's revealed is just like heartbreaking in a

way that I feel like they've never done before. Getting the Master Sword in this game literally like will be a moment that sticks with me for all time, right, And I can't really say that for very many other games maybe ockerat of time, because like that was one of the first ones that I've

played, but like, man, I love that game. And then the system mechanics that that's before you even talk about the system mechanics, and that was something that I didn't really engage with to like that extreme level of building gundams and stuff like I'm very basic, I'm very I'm dumb. I'm not

gonna sugarcoat it. I made simple stuff. I'm a cave Man. But I get so much enjoyment out of the clips from that game, Like anytime I see a clip posted and it's just someone with a crazy creation, puts a smile on my face, man, Like very few games can do that. It surprised me every single time. So I think ultimately I am torn between like a Tears of the Kingdom or boulders Gate three for like a Game of the Year award, But like, why not both? You know?

Why not? Every game that I listed here, they're all games of the year in my eyes, and most of those I listed was released this year. Right that it on top I said, this was one of the greatest years in video games. Like, think about that for a second. The games I listed here, all of them could be like nine or ten out of tens, right, And then you have all the games that were listed before y'all got to me, right, that are also like nines and tens

in their own rights, Like it is incredible. So that's that's my rant, you know that. That is my my summary of twenty twenty three. I want to think everyone that contributed to this again, this is one of my favorite projects for the Games GAS to work on. Game of the year means a lot to me. This is something that I would love doing to put some sort of positivity out there, even though sometimes we have little negative segments here and there, but it is always a fun time, you know.

I love hearing everybody's recommendations. If there's games that I haven't played, I always write them down so that I can get to them the following year. And I hope that, like you guys, take away something too right. If this is something that you really enjoy, please let me know. You know, I always open submissions for people, so like, if you want to be a part of it the next one, you know, you just let me know. And I look forward to twenty twenty four. It's

going to be an incredible year as well. I feel so thank you guys for listening, Thank you guys for contributing. Thank you guys for always being here. Thank you to developers for developing these amazing games. Thank you to this industry for sticking around and being so fucking cool. Like I love all of it. So I have a wonderful new year, enjoy some games. Thank you, Bye School, School, Because the