Just picked up Radiant Historia the other day and it’s been a surprise. The soundtrack especially has been 10/10 so far, no notes. I really should play more games Shimomura’s scored.

I made posts here on some of the games I was patient on this year, so I’ll include links to those in-line here along with the rest of my list, in chronological order:

Control - I ended up grabbing–and devouring–Alan Wake 2 very soon after finishing this, mostly because one of my favorite singers ever resurfaced on the game’s soundtrack, to my complete astonishment. The setting and a few of the dialogues remain fresh in my mind, but the rest of Control ended up buried under AW2, which is saying something considering I don’t like survival horror.

Lost Odyssey - Interesting timing, as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was announced just a few months after I finished Lost Odyssey, a clear source of inspiration. I hear a lot from JRPG fans that wish there were more games with adult cast members and mature narratives, and LO fits the bill. “Letters from a Weakling” is still utterly devastating.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Torna: The Golden Country - Mostly just more Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a new main character and some light changes to the battle system keep things fresh. Come for the soundtrack, stay for the emotional scenes. Despite being forced into hours of side quests, this was worth seeing through to the end.

Atelier Meruru - My favorite of the Arland trilogy, I was engaged by the alchemy and kingdom building throughout the game. Real fun sense of progression with city, world map, and music changes. Surprisingly touching scenes with returning characters.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (plus Future Redeemed) - A solid entry in a fan-favorite series I gave my thoughts on earlier, but what stands out in hindsight is how good the side quests were. A long time weakness of JRPGs, it’d be nice if the genre was spurred to step things up. The base game and Future Redeemed were sprinkled with enough Xenogears references to get my brain churning.

Atelier Ayesha - Ayesha changed the vibe in a dramatic way that I wasn’t entirely prepared for. Enjoyed that, the new cast, the story, and the soundtrack, not so much the gameplay. I’ve been proceeding through this series slightly faster than they get released, so maybe I’ll catch up some day.

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor - Plenty of spectacle and fun with lightsabers, yet all those hours spent running around are already fading from memory. The game’s focus on family and home still resonates with me in a way it wouldn’t have ten years ago.

Citizen Sleeper - Recent events have me turning this story over in my head a few times. I thought this had a strong anti-capitalist message, but I may have even underestimated it. This one’s earned a replay, and soon.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - I wouldn’t have made it through this game without the Ys brand, a series I grew up with. It did get better in the back half, but probably still not worth it. The city exploration did little for me and I never want to see a raid/Nox battle again. With the recent announcement of an “enhanced” version of Ys X, it’s going to be forever before I get to it. Monstrum Nox is going to be stuck in my craw for a while.

Since The Witcher 3 came out, my favorite video game stories have been Disco Elysium, Cyberpunk 2077, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Alan Wake 2, Citizen Sleeper, and Metaphor: ReFantazio. I also really liked Death Stranding, but Kojima’s not for everyone.

It’s funny how often I hear of Trails being COVID games. I honestly didn’t like most of FC and SC and wouldn’t have finished them if they weren’t pandemic companion games. Glad I did, though; Sky the 3rd hooked me in a big way and I’ve been devouring the series ever since, all the way through Daybreak.

Zero and Azure are some of my favorite all-time games, too.

I dunno, I might side-eye my partner a lil bit if it turned out they were really good at CK3’s schemes.

That 15% number is reassuring. Huge majority of Steam users are patient gamers!

That’s the original version of the game. It’s had enhanced ports but never a remake previously. From what we know, this is a full remake, with changes to gameplay, a new localization, and some additions for continuity. The game’s 20 years old. Hard to put that anywhere near modern.

Since it’s the first in a continuous series, it’s long seemed necessary to at least bring the game into full 3D for new players to come on board. For long-term Trails fans, the value of this remake (and the inevitable second one, at least) will probably depend on some of the details, especially the localizations for players that don’t read Japanese.

I don’t know what it is with Japanese devs and arbitrary multiplayer decisions. The way Capcom handles Monster Hunter’s multiplayer continues to baffle me.

From a PC gaming perspective, it feels like Western developers decided to just give players multiple options to play together all the way back in the 1990’s. This sort of thing always feels badly regressive to me.

I wonder how well the marketing exclusivity is working for them. I’ve come across more than one person that thought Metaphor: ReFantazio wasn’t on PlayStation because of it.

Don’t mind me, I’ll be sitting here waiting patiently for my Destiny of an Emperor remake.

Biggest surprise for length was Dragon Quest VII, the PSX version. Started playing it close to release, dropped it several times and finally finished it years later.

I’d played multiple games in the series before and I think the longest one topped out at 40 hours, so I really was not expecting a 100+ hour marathon like that was (although the very, very long prologue should probably have served as a warning).

Especially considering last I checked, Porsche isn’t pushing a line of space ships.

Post-Meiji is an interesting time period. I don’t know how much media with Western localization there is in this setting. Even The Last Samurai was early Meiji.

Big, chunky logos are part of this specific vibe, though I can understand why it’s a turn-off (with a couple of the fictional ones being out of focus).

AHHH this raises so many questions. So ready for this.

It’s a meme at this point.

“Turn based RPGs are dead!”

points at, well, everywhere

“No, I meant turn based JRPGs”

points at Like a Dragon, Persona, Metaphor

“No, I meant turn based JRPGs developed by Square”

points at Bravely Default, Dragon Quest, countless remasters/remakes

“No, I want AAA mainline Final Fantasy to be turn based!”

🤷‍♀️

I don’t think these people will ever be happy, even if Sakaguchi came back to Square and brought the whole gang back with him.

They are also on Bluesky. GDL’s a great follow if you’re interested in Japanese gaming trends.

I personally don’t think the monsters add much to the game. While I haven’t tried it, the “safe” mode seems like a fine way to play it. There is some atmospheric horror similar to Subnautica’s, too.

That said, SOMA is Existential Horror: The Game, and removing the monsters isn’t going to change that. So I’d tread carefully if you can’t handle horror.

Been considering jumping back into this one. I absolutely hate it when loot-oriented RPGs make it easy to find gear with level requirements, and boy did Everspace 2 ever do that. I was finding stuff level +5 or higher. The inventory system made it even worse.

I don’t know if there’s a mod now or a change that eased up on this, but it was enough to push me out of the game when I tried it earlier in the year.

I played the demo a couple months ago and have only played a few hours since release (the save carried over), but so far this is in the running to be my personal game of the year. I’ve discovered a love for these repetitive problem-solvers like Papers Please and Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and this has been absolutely brilliant so far, with a very solid plot hook and a mature, wacky, occasionally gross vibe that totally fits the setting.

It’s quite difficult, and the gameplay loop is clearly intended to be meta-progression driven, with player knowledge of how to repair the ships being the major factor. Hopefully it doesn’t fall apart once I’ve “solved” it, and also would be nice if the story holds up. It’s damn interesting. It’d be great too if this turned out to be as replayable as something like Papers Please, where a year from now I drop into the game from time to time to do some repairs.

Edit: Now that I’m in the late game, I’ve unfortunately discovered a couple of bugs that make things more difficult than they should be (or even impossible in one particular case). I’d say wait for a patch for this one at this point.