It bothered me so much that the above list of links* that I include in each of these posts didn't have anything for 2023, that I'm gonna make it right. Not all the games are fresh enough in my memory anymore that I can go as in-depth as I'd like, but that's how it's gotta be.
* In the original Cohost publication, there was a list of links to previous "Games I played in month/year" at the top of each of these. Here, the archive is short and focused enough that it's not necessary.
Trails from Zero
I was both excited and unsure going into this one. On the one hand, a new setting, a new story, new characters. On the other, the Trails series started so strongly, with one of my favorite game protagonists, that I wondered if Zero would live up to the Sky games' standard.
And it did in most ways - I think Zero might be my overall favorite Trails game so far. I really like its design of being based in and around a small city. Compared to the nearly constant travel around the country in Sky, Zero does a much better job of getting you to know its more focused setting. The gameplay is fine and mostly unchanged from Sky, although a bit too easy for me.
The cast is great - Lloyd is not Estelle, but he's very likeable (and cute), and Tio is my beloved autistic daughter. The main cast being new police recruits did make me worry I'd have to sit through an overly naïve view of the police the whole game, but nope. This game uses Lloyd's position as a newcomer to contrast his (and some players') preconceived, idealized image of the police against reality, both how it operates internally and in how they are seen by the people. Hoping I'll have time to play the sequel soon.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
This game is cute and charming, and was a good time. I've never gotten very into Sonic (neutral statement), so it was nice to see some characterization and to see the characters interacting with each other, as someone who had little grasp on what they're like. Would love to see more like this, preferably with a faster-moving story.
Shantae
Shantae is fun and ambitious, with a big world and a lot of forms for Shantae to turn into that feel good to play as and have varied mechanics. I did constantly wish it had been for the GBA instead, though. The tiny GBC screen just doesn't work well with the large, expressive character sprites in an action game like this - I can't see very far ahead, and I keep having to just hope I'll land safely when jumping. Positive on it overall, though.
Aperture Desk Job
I do still enjoy Valve's comedy writing, and this was a fun way to inaugurate my Steam Deck that my boyfriend generously gave me. I think that's all I have to say about this. ROT13: Nygubhtu gur tnzr frrzrq jnl zber cyrnfrq guna zr jvgu gur vqrn bs Pnir Wbuafba'f pbafpvbhfarff orvat hcybnqrq vagb n tvnag fphycgher bs uvf urnq.
Mother 3
This was such an emotional, earnest, and funny game, and probably my favorite in the series - it really takes a lot of steps forward from Earthbound in terms of character, setting and story, and resonated well with me. It feels silly to mention this, but the one thing I didn't like was its combat - like with Final Fantasy VII, I strangely view it as good, puzzle-light adventure game with a light RPG battle system added.
AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative
The first AI: The Somnium Files is my favorite Kotaro Uchikoshi work to date, so maybe that affected my thoughts on this by having set a high standard, but even so... Nirvana Initiative has a lot of good moments and a lot of good character writing for both new and old characters - and those are the high points of this game - but its plot and mystery were a big disappointment.
It's not only very derivative of Uchikoshi's older game Ever 17, but also seemed to prioritize the convoluted twist to such an unfortunate degree that everything else suffered for it and was forced to contort into a less-interesting form to support it - and bafflingly, it did despite that not do anything to get you on board with it, expecting you to just accept it (or, I guess, to either remember the minutiae of the entire story, or immediately replay it).
I say that the character writing was generally good, but it still has problems. The twist meant that [ROT13 punenpgref pna'g qrirybc zrnavatshyyl qhevat gur znva fgbel, gb hcubyq gur vyyhfvba gung gur cnfg naq shgher gnxr cynpr pbapheeragyl]. The game being split in two "routes" also means that after getting me acquainted with Ryuki and Tama, I don't get to see them much for the entire next half of the game, as it switches focus to Mizuki and Aiba.
And regarding those two... in AITSF, Mizuki and Aiba tend to be the straight man to Date's funny man, in manzai comedy duo-style scenes. This game still tries to make that type of comedy work, but constantly has to make them break character. Aiba sometimes did already in AITSF, but it feels really odd to see the usually stoic Mizuki act like this.
I wonder if all of this happened because Uchikoshi only worked as a writer on this game, while also being busy with several other projects at Too Kyo, whereas the previous game was both written and directed by him. Maybe I should just think of this an expansion, rather than a full sequel? It feels like that in some ways, like how many locations and characters are reused from the first game, even when it seems like a stretch for them to be relevant in this case.
Super Mario RPG
It felt so weird to finally be in the midst of playing through SMRPG for the first time just as the remake was announced, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes. This was really cute and funny, and it was very cool, as a big fan of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Paper Mario, to see how much of what defines Mario RPGs was already in place from the start. I only wish that the story and the supposedly-major characters were a little bit more fleshed out, and that the world was a little less linear - but this is still a solid RPG.
Master Detective Archives: Rain Code
This game has a lot of problems. It's still pretty good, but man. Most of the characters involved in each case lack anything beyond the most surface-level characterization (meaning I don't really care that so-and-so did it), the way each chapter has you team up with a new detective means you don't get to spend that much time with each, the labyrinths and mysteries are much too basic and easy to guess, and I have a hard time getting entirely on board with the ending.
All that said, I still liked most of the core cast of Yuma, Shinigami, Wendy, and the people at the Nocturnal Detective Agency, and they really helped carry it; my favorite by far was Halara, and I really wish I could've gotten to spend more time with them. All in all, I'd say the larger scope compared to Danganronpa (and it's impossible not to compare the two) was detrimental, and that I hope Rain Code 2 scales things back again.
And also...
Eight games in one year is not a lot for me, but that's because I'm only going over games I finished (or hypothetically, gave up on) during the year. Tears of the Kingdom took up a lot of my game time in 2023, but I still haven't finished it. Fate/Stay Night was probably the longest visual novel I've ever played, and took up most of my game time from late November to January, and is covered in my January post.
By the way, I don't expect anyone to notice or care, but while I normally like to use the original cover of the versions of the games I played for the collage at the top of these posts, I could not get that to work well for these, while still keeping them in the order that I played them. Their proportions just differed too much for it to work out in a visually pleasing way. To solve this, I went to steamgriddb to get uniformly sized images, which basically looks fine for all except Super Mario RPG.
Originally posted on Cohost.