Another year is about to come to a close, marking my first year writing about games. In 2023, my life has both changed a lot and barely at all. Last October marked the anniversary of leaving university behind and moving onto a ‘normal’ adult life. It’s taken some getting used to, without endless assignments, lectures, exams, deadlines, seminars, my time has felt a lot less productive. Without a singular project for my efforts to feed into, there have been times where it’s all felt directionless. This change has not been not without merit and the freedom from obligation has meant that I’ve had time to pour into other things, one such project being the launch of this very website. I’d already started writing before then, but the website helped calcify my work from faffing around on a word processor into a project.

At this time of year, it’s wise to do a touch of reflection, leading to a round up of the most noteworthy titles from my first year as a critic (some of which I never published a single word about). These aren’t necessarily the best games I played, although every game on this list comes with a recommendation, they are five games that have had impact in some way. In no particular order, here are my games of 2023.

Persona 5:

I had my doubts on whether to include Persona in this list, as the first time I picked it up was back in 2022. What swayed me was how each time I’ve picked it up this I’ve devoured it for days at a time. Persona 5 is a delectably stylish experience, with a je ne sais quoi that made it stand out against almost everything else I’ve played this year. It is an incredibly well built game, with care and attention lavished on even the smallest of details. The visuals pop with over-saturated colours, the soundtrack is filled with funk-inspired bangers, the story is thoughtful and its characters complex. All this and more slots together to infuse Persona a sense of style and identity.
I’m not normally a fan of JRPGs, and the traditional dungeon crawling and traditional party-based combat are probably its weakest aspects, but the whole game is oozing with enough charm that I was too busy having fun to even notice.

Baldur’s Gate 3:

Big surprise. The winner of Game of the Year at the Game Awards is one of my top 5 games. Baldur’s Gate 3 has proved to be a landmark title in its genre. I’ve always been a solitary gamer and sprawling RPG’s have long been my bread and butter, yet in recent years, I’ve felt somewhat distant from the love I once had. I put it down to getting older but now I’m beginning to think that it was genre fatigue. One can only embark on so many epic quests before things begin to feel a bit routine.

BG3 takes the massive scope of an isometric CRPG and injects it with some incredibly well written characters and a cinematic quality that make the world feel more vibrant to explore. I cannot praise the Origin character in this game enough as I think they ground the experience in a story with stakes. Spending so much time devouring an new RPG has stoked my love of the genre, leaving me desperate to see what other gems I can unearth in 2024.

It Takes Two:

If a problem shared is a problem halved then fun shared must be double the joy. I’d heard great things about this title and since in mandates a second player I suggested to my girlfriend that we give it a shot.

Bless her, but she isn’t much of a gamer; she likes animal crossing, but only the fishing, and that is about it. She was hooked by It Takes Two from the word go. I don’t know if it’s the excellent art direction, the robust platforming but I’m not complaining, and we ended up finishing it over a few weeks. It’s a fantastic game for a newcomer – the puzzles aren’t difficult enough to leave you scratching your head and the platforming rarely takes more than a couple of tries, but what made this game worth remembering was sharing the journey.

It’s been a delight sharing a little bit of my hobby with her, doing so in a way that didn’t feel like I was pressuring her to engage. I have a few other games in mind that we might try now it’s over but, even if they fall flat, It Takes Two has allowed us to share something that I will forever look back on with fondly.

Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire:

Yes, I know this is technically two games, but they are effectively the same game with only a few variations in pokemon availible and a different villainous organisation to stop. This year I played through both of them, in tandem, on purpose. It may seem bizzare to effectively play the same game twice through, but it came about through a series of serendipitous circumstances.

Years ago, I started a playthrough of Sapphire, getting about halfway through before getting distracted and leaving my team. I always meant to return, and years later I could still remember them: Ophoelia my starting Combusken and Edgar, a Surskit I spent many hours trying to track down. Then, on a family trip to Windemere, I decided to start a playthrough of Ruby (coincidentally, I also finished Ruby on a second trip, with a different set of family members). For the next few days, I continued playing and eventually reached the location where my Sapphire team had been languishing in exile. Putting down Ruby, I loaded up Sapphire to see how the old crew were getting on, played a little on there and before loading Ruby back up again as I didn’t want to leave another playthrough unfinished.

Before long, this back and forth began to create a tale of two rivals taking the same journey, with each challenge making an interesting point of comparison in how their teams stacked up. I started importing the two teams into an online simulator to pit them against one another, at regular intervals and, though I was only competing against myself, Pokemon’s remarkable ability to make 1’s and 0’s feel like living creatures created a tension between these fictional characters. When one team lost, they became the underdog, and the next leg of their journey became about training to clinch victory in their next encounter.

There’s probably an element of nostalgia at work here, Sapphire was my first Pokemon game so it was easier to tap into that childish ability to let imagination run wild but it allowed for a memorable experience and a lesson in finding my own fun in game outside of the ways a developer intended.

Tears of the Kingdom:

Those that read my review earlier this year will know that Breath of the Wild, the predecessor to TotK, is one of my absolute favourites. They will also know that I was left a little cold by my second jaunt through Hyrule, back in July. Well I’m here to set the record straight. I am aware that I had incredibly high expectations, likely so high that Tears had no hope of ever eclipsing them. The rose-tinted glass had grown thick in the six years wait.

Objectively speaking, it is an incredibly robustly made game. Though I moved on before I finished it, I did enjoy my second foray into Hyrule. Hopefully I’ll get around to finishing my quest in 2024 because I fun, I just wish Nintendo had provided a little more for me to explore.

So if it wasn’t love, then why is Tears still in my top five? Mostly because of the time I spent reviewing it. I sunk a lot of time into that piece, playing, collecting images and condensing my thoughts. To date, it is still the piece I am most proud of. From the writing to the presentation, I think there was a notable improvement in quality from my previous few pieces, so this game will always hold a special place for me.

In 2024, I have a few aims towards building up my writing. I want to get more consistent with working on my novel, as the last couple of months it has slipped to the wayside. The agenda also includes getting a piece of games writing published by someone other than myself, and consistently be able to do a latte art swan. Big plans are in the works, so keep an eye on this space for more content and I hope you have a wonderful New Year.