Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 29

Top 5 Games I Played in 2023

Here we are at the end of another year. It feels like just the other day we were looking ahead to 2023, and now it’s almost over.

At the end of every year, I like to take a look back and highlight the top 5 games I played. It’s not quite a “game of the year” list, since their release dates don’t matter, but rather a personal list drawn from games I played this year regardless of their release dates.

Honorable Mentions

Before we dive into the list proper, I’d like to highlight a few honorable mentions. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective feels as though it should be on this list, but since I played the original back when it first came out, I decided to exclude it. Jack Jeanne is in contention to be one of my favorite games of 2023, but since it’s a lengthy, slow-paced visual novel that I’ve been taking breaks in between routes of to avoid burning out, I’m not quite done with it yet. Finally, Yakuza 5 gets to be an honorable mention two years in a row, because while I did finish it this year, it just barely missed making the cut for top 5.

So, let’s get into the actual list now! Here are the top 5 games I played in 2023.

5. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

Yes, Yakuza 5 lost out to another entry from its own series, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life!

I am obligated to give Yakuza 6 a 10/10 after learning Kiryu can pet cats in the cat café if you let him sit there long enough.

Just kidding, Yakuza 6 earned its spot on this list for more than just cats. One surefire way for a story to win me over is to have plot points that emotionally resonate with me, and Yakuza 6 is one of the most emotional entries in the series. Its more personal story really hit me hard.

I had high praise for it in my review, and while working on this list, I realized that I like it more than the previous game, despite all the amazing content in Yakuza 5. Yakuza 6 had an emotional, impactful story, fun substories with a great sense of humor, and a ton of fun mini-games.

4. Like a Dragon: Ishin

Yet I have to heap even more praise on Like a Dragon: Ishin, which finally came out in English this year thanks to the new remake. I was dying for this game ever since I first learned of its existence, and it did not disappoint.

Like I mentioned in my review, Ishin is an odd one for me because I don’t think it’s the best at anything it does, but it’s strong enough in every area that those pieces all come together to make it one of my favorites.

I especially loved the farm. I’ve never really gotten into farming sims, but the simple farming side activity in Ishin was just so pleasant. It also has an advantage over Yakuza 6 in that you can adopt cats (and dogs) and pet them whenever you want.

3. Ace Attorney Investigations 2 (fan translation)

It’s hard to believe it was just this past year that I finally played the fan translation of Ace Attorney Investigations 2. This is the sole remaining unlocalized Ace Attorney game, and I couldn’t sit around waiting for localization news any longer.

My review goes into detail about some issues I had with it (which is why it didn’t rank higher than #3 on this list), but the positives ultimately outweigh the negatives. In particular, a certain character’s arc still stands out in my memory. Never before have I felt so proud of a fictional character.

I enjoyed Ace Attorney Investigations 2 a lot, and I have my fingers crossed that it will eventually get an official translation. Who knows? Maybe this time next year, we’ll be eagerly anticipating an Ace Attorney Investigations collection.

(You might laugh, but it was only two years ago that I was desperately grasping at straws about an Ishin localization.)

2. Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Oh yes, the controversial Danganronpa game is not only the first one to make it onto one of my top 5 lists, but it earned the #2 slot. Maybe there’s some recency bias at work… but when I thought of games to include, I knew V3 had to be on the list.

You can read my Danganronpa V3 review to see my more detailed thoughts, but let’s just say that this game broke my heart, then turned around and broke my brain. Those might not sound like positive things, but trust me, they are.

I didn’t have the same early sense of disappointment that I had with Danganropa 2, and it didn’t drag in the middle like poor Master Detective Archives: Rain Code. Instead, it was pretty solid from start to finish.

Although I have some criticisms of certain parts, I enjoyed Danganronpa V3 more than any other game in the series (heck, I even enjoyed the trial mini-games for once in my life), and it ended up being one of my favorite games I played this year.

It didn’t take the #1 slot, because that went to…….

1. Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Sam, you can’t have three entries from the same series on your top 5–

I can and I will! Yakuza: Like a Dragon, aka Yakuza 7, has claimed the top spot for this year, because it took everything I love about the Yakuza series and combined it with my favorite genre.

Now you might be wondering why you haven’t seen me review this game yet, if I loved it so much. That’s because I finished it today, on New Year’s Eve, as my (most likely) final game of 2023.

This entry caused some controversy amongst fans due to being a turn-based RPG, a change not everyone appreciated. Now, I can sympathize with not wanting to see a beloved series change its gameplay so drastically, but as someone who loves turn-based RPGs, this was like a match made in heaven.

While it probably still hasn’t topped Yakuza 0 as my favorite in the series, it has a great story, fantastic substories, and some incredibly fun mini-games. I’ll save my detailed thoughts for when I write up my review, so just know that I really loved playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

Conclusion

And there you have it – my top 5 favorite games I played in 2023. The Yakuza / Like a Dragon series earned three entries in the top 5, with Ace Attorney and Danganronpa snagging the other two slots. I didn’t have time to play all the games I wanted to this year – Alan Wake 2, for example, has been on hold waiting for me to finish Yakuza: Like a Dragon – but I still played many excellent ones. And from the looks of things, 2024 might be even better!

What are your favorite games that you played in 2023?

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New Banjo-Kazooie Rumored to Be In Development

It’s rumor time again!

The latest rumor making waves is that a new Banjo-Kazooie game is in development.

Hope for a new Banjo-Kazooie was revived earlier this month, when Phil Spencer touched on the possibility of reviving past games in an interview with Windows Central and said “You’ve seen from our history that we haven’t touched every franchise that people would love us to touch — Banjo fans, I hear you.”

This acknowledgment, while not confirmation of anything, was enough to spark hope that our beloved 3D platformer series might still have a chance to return.

Now new rumors have come from a supposed insider who claims a new Banjo-Kazooie game has been greenlit.

Banjo-Kazooie is one of my all-times favorites. That’s why games that try to evoke a similar style, like A Hat in Time (which I enjoyed) and Yooka-Laylee (which I still need to play) always catch my interest.

I absolutely loved Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, Nuts & Bolts was one of my primary motivations for getting an Xbox 360 and was quite enjoyable despite being so different, and I even enjoyed the GBA spin-off Grunty’s Revenge. A new Banjo-Kazooie would be a day-one purchase for me for sure.

2024 is already shaping up to be an amazing year for new game releases, and a Banjo-Kazooie announcement would make it even better. In the meantime, I have some of those spiritual successors like Yooka-Laylee to play, while I wait with fingers crossed for the real thing.

Do you think we’ll actually see a “Banjo-Threeie” after all this time?

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Muv-Luv is Coming to the Switch on March 28

A couple months ago, it was announced that Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative would be coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2024.

Now we have a release date.

According to Gematsu, Japanese retailers have listed the Switch versions with a release date of March 28.

There will be a special edition called the “Muv-Luv 20th Odyssey Box” that includes both games, a carabiner handle mug, a Gate Guard badge, a 20th anniversary medal, a download code for Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After, and an art book. It costs 32,780 yen, which is approximately $230, so that’s quit a pricey collector’s edition.

The most perplexing part of the collector’s editions contents is the inclusion of Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After. There’s been no announcement of The Day After coming to Switch yet, so either this is a quiet announcement of that or it’s a PC code. Including a PC game as a bonus with a Switch collector’s edition sounds strange, but the official website links to sites for all three games, and the Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative pages show the Switch as a platform while The Day After’s page does not.

Either way, at least this is positive news for the series!

For a while, the fate of the series was looking pretty grim, with reports that its future depended on the success of a gacha game and other things like that, so I’m happy to see it coming to Switch!

It’s unclear if the Switch versions will get an official release outside of Japan or not, but they will include English. So if you’ve been waiting on the Muv-Luv series and would prefer to play it on the Switch, you’ll be able to when Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative are released for the Switch on March 28!

Hopefully that means Resonative and Integrate are still on the table. In the meantime, I really should get around to finishing Total Eclipse and its prequel…

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Danganronpa V3… My Favorite Danganronpa Game?

After watching the Danganronpa 3 anime earlier this year, I was all set to play Danganronpa V3, and the winner of this year’s Celebrating All Things Spooky contest chose the game review prize and picked it.

Like the other two mainline Danganronpa games, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony begins with a group of teenagers learning that they’ve been imprisoned and forced into a death game. Kill someone, and a trial will be held. If the killer is found, they’ll be executed, but if they get away with their crime, they’ll be allowed to leave while everyone else is killed instead.

The setting is back to a school this time, although much more grandiose than a normal school.

That applies to the cast, too. My first thought after meeting the main characters of Danganronpa V3 was that these people were eccentric even by Danganronpa standards. However, that didn’t stop me from liking them.

In fact, I’d say this is actually my favorite Danganronpa cast. There were several characters I wanted to learn more about from the start, and despite being so exaggerated and eccentric, they developed in a way that felt believable to me. Maybe that’s why this is also the only Danganronpa game to make me cry, with a particularly hard-hitting case.

V3 follows the same structure as its predecessors. While storytelling is largely presented as a visual novel, it also has point-and-click gameplay elements, as well as some areas with 3D exploration. During the Free Time sections, you can choose a character to hang out with to learn more about them, until the story reaches a new death. Once someone dies, you switch over to investigative gameplay and inspect relevant areas to gather evidence. A trial then begins, in which you must contradict statements and present evidence, all in the form of various mini-games.

In my previous Danganronpa reviews, I’ve made it clear that I’m not the biggest fan of the trial mini-games… but in V3, they’re not actually so bad.

I still don’t like having to aim and shoot evidence at contradictions instead of simply presenting it like in Ace Attorney, and I disliked the new “lie” mechanic that lets you reverse a piece of evidence’s meaning to lie during a testimony (on the other hand, it replaced the “grab a key phrase someone else said and use it as evidence against a different phrase” mechanic from 2 that I hated, so I’ll accept that trade-off), but it has much better versions of Hangman’s Gambit, Rebuttal Showdown, and the rhythm game, I prefer the new Psyche Taxi over 2’s Logic Dive, and the newly-added mini-games are… actually kind of fun.

There’s a place where you can play certain mini-games outside of trials to earn tokens, and I actually did so voluntarily, which is a big change from how much I hated the mini-games in Danganronpa 2.

So in short, V3 has my favorite set of trial mini-games, which made trials feel infinitely better to play.

Now, as far as the story goes, it’s not my favorite. The character interactions are top-notch and really helped elevate the story, but it lacked the tight storytelling of 1 and the thrilling climax of 2. It also added five new mascot characters in the form of the Monokubs, and they’re far more annoying than Monokuma ever was.

However, by the time I reached the final chapter, I was still enjoying it enough to consider it my favorite in the series… and knowing how divisive it is had me worried about just what would happen in the ending.

Then I played the final chapter and understood.

After having a little time to reflect on it, though, I… liked the ending. Some parts of it are brilliant, and the whole concept certainly had me thinking. It seems to me that there are multiple ways to interpret the ending, and the interpretations that get people the most upset aren’t how I took it at all.

Click for major Danganronpa V3 spoilersThe first, of course, is the view that it invalidates the previous games by making them fictional. I don’t really see that. They were always fictional from our perspective, and I don’t think V3 makes them more fictional. Nothing suggests the stories of 1 and 2 were a show with real people playing roles, because there are multiple lines that imply they started out as purely fictional media.

My takeaway was that V3 is set in a separate continuity where the Danganronpa series also exists. Danganronpa got to be so popular in this universe that they decided to do it for real.

Of course, another interpretation is that the mastermind lied about everything and the events of Danganronpa 1 and 2 were real. In that case, it seems their in-universe Danganronpa was based on those events. Either way, it doesn’t invalidate them.

Anyway, the the other main interpretation that makes people upset is the belief that the ending is telling us that we’re bad for enjoying Danganronpa, and I don’t think that’s true either. The in-game audience is enjoying it while real people are dying, seeing them as fictional because their memories have been replaced by invented backstories, which is a world away from enjoying a fully fictional story. While certain aspects of the ending did make me wonder if Kodaka had felt under pressure by fans to make more Danganronpa games (and having the main character shout about ending Danganronpa made me say “So we’re never getting a Danganronpa 4, huh?”), it never felt to me like the game was saying enjoying it was bad.

So I can see why the ending is divisive, because it was a pretty wild twist, but it’s one that I don’t mind.

(I was actually more bothered by case 1’s twist relying on the viewpoint character withholding information from the player, which felt like cheating.)

Actually, considering the story up until then had said that after scraping through for our happy endings in the previous games, the world was destroyed and only 16 people survived… yeah, I’ll take the actual ending instead.

Overall, I came out of Danganronpa V3 thoroughly enjoying my time with it. To me, 1 has the best standalone plot, and 2 has the most exciting endgame, but V3 has my favorite cast, my most appreciated version of the mini-games, and a story that certainly kept me guessing.

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Capcom Actually Referenced Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright!

What’s this? An actual official Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright reference, you say?

With the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy coming out in just over a month, Capcom has been releasing a short trailer for each case in the trilogy, narrated by the characters.

We’re now up to the second case in Spirit of Justice, The Magical Turnabout, and the promo video starts by presenting Trucy’s magic show. In it, they mention the spell “Granwyrm.”

Now unless I’ve forgotten an existing reference, Granwyrm is never actually mentioned in Spirit of Justice. No, that’s a reference to one of the much-overlooked Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, in which the spell Granwyrm plays an important role.

Of all the Ace Attorney games, the crossover is the one I least expect to get a remaster. It’s not up to Capcom alone but also Level-5, and even the mainline Professor Layton games haven’t been given the attention Ace Attorney has. Mobile ports of the original trilogy are the only remasters available. Back when the 3DS eShop was open, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright never even went on sale. So despite my growing hopes for an Investigations duology, I really don’t expect to see Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright again.

On the other hand, Capcom also acknowledged the crossover with the 20th anniversary artwork, where a handful of characters were included, so that together with this reference shows they at least aren’t trying to ignore it. And since the Professor Layton series is making a return, the crossover’s chances look marginally better now, at least.

I have such mixed feelings about Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright. Back when I played it, I said it was “almost perfect,” but my dislike for the ending left me remembering it more negatively.

However, I’ve softened toward it since then. My disappointment with Layton’s Mystery Journey made me realize I much prefer insane storytelling with a plot twist that introduces a thousand plot holes but feels like the writers put their whole heart into it, over the dull low-stakes storytelling that took up most of Layton’s Mystery Journey. I want the next Professor Layton plot to go crazy again, and that gave me new appreciation for Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright.

So if it was remastered, I’ve course I’d buy it. I’d love to see it make a return and be easier for new fans to play, since right now the only option is tracking down a physical copy, and prices had skyrocketed even before the 3DS eShop shut down.

Do I think Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney will be remastered? Not really. Would I like it to happen? Absolutely. Either way, it was still nice to see it be officially referenced!

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Toys for Bob’s Mysterious Tweet Sparks New Spyro Hopes

It’s been 5 years since the Spyro Reignited Trilogy brought the first three Spyro games back, and 15 years since the last new game in the series.

(We are rapidly approaching 20 years since the last Spyro game I played, since I never tried the Legend of Spyro games, and I don’t quite know how to feel about that.)

Despite hopes of a new Spyro game announcement for the 25th anniversary, the anniversary came and went without so much as a tease.

Spyro was added to Crash Team Rumble recently, however, which has led some fans to hope that the new assets could hint at an upcoming new Spyro game.

Now we have another shred of hope to add more fuel to the fire, as Toys for Bob, the developer of the Skylanders games and the Reignited Trilogy, shared a tweet about working with Unreal Engine 5 that has blurred screens in the background of the picture. A blurred screen doesn’t say much, but one of the screens shows enough purple to get fans whispering about Spyro and Skylanders.

Personally, I don’t quite see it yet. It does look like the right shade of purple, but nothing else in that image really screams “Spyro” at me. Nevertheless, it at least seems like they’re hinting at something in development… and I’d love for it to be a new Spyro game.

I know, I know, I should play the Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash Bandicoot 4 while waiting. I can’t really talk about anticipation for a new one when I’m still twiddling my thumbs about those.

Anyway, what do you think of the latest potential hints to a new Spyro game? Is Spyro 4 (or whatever they’d end up titling it) in development, or are we merely grasping at straws?

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Another Code: Recollection Demo Available Now

With all the exciting game news we’ve had this year, you might have forgotten about Another Code: Recollection.

Set to be released on January 19, Another Code: Recollection is a remake of the DS adventure game Trace Memory (here using its original name, Another Code: Two Memories) and its Wii sequel, Another Code R.

Those are games I never thought we’d see again. Between the games being somewhat obscure and the developer filing for bankruptcy in 2010, I assumed they were lost to time until Recollection was announced.

It’s even getting a physical release!

Another Code R was never released in North America, so I’m excited to finally get a chance to try that even though it got mixed reviews, and the remake also looks fantastic in general. I’m still shocked that they took a game as niche as Trace Memory and gave it a full remake.

For comparison, the original DS game looked like this.

Of course, this has led to hopes that Hotel Dusk and its sequel will receive similar treatment.

Anyway, a demo for Another Code: Recollection is now available. It covers the first chapter of the first game, and you’ll be able to transfer your progress to the full game.

I just hope it sells well despite when it’s coming out. While its audience might not overlap as much with the JRPGs coming out in the first two months of the year, it’s also being released just a few days ahead of the Apollo Justice Trilogy, which probably does have decent overlap. Trace Memory was a great game, and I want to see revivals like this succeed.

Are you planning to play Another Code: Recollection?

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Capcom is Aware of the Demand for AAI2 Localization

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been blogging about wanting an Ace Attorney Investigations 2 localization for over a decade now.

(Yeah, that was back when my blog posts were sometimes just walls of text.)

After all this time, there’s still no official way to play Ace Attorney Investigations 2, or Gyakuten Kenji 2, in English, although the fan translation is quite good.

Well, some of us are still asking for it despite the amount of time that’s passed. More importantly, Capcom is aware that we want it.

In a recent interview with Siliconera about the upcoming Apollo Justice Trilogy, producer Kenichi Hashimoto was asked about the possibility of an Investigations duology including an official translation of the second game, to which he responded:

The development team is aware that fans are hoping for this. Unfortunately, we have no announcements at this time.”

I know, that’s a complete non-answer. The good old “no announcements at this time” response would be given even if they intended to announce it next week, and probably if they never intended to release it at all. But the fact that he said they’re aware of demand for it feels like an encouraging sign.

I still think the Ace Attorney series is in one of the best positions it has been in a long time. The interview also revealed that development of the Apollo Justice Trilogy began in 2021, which threw me for a loop since most of my theories were based on the success of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles leading to it being greenlit, but that means they already considered it worthwhile by then. And as I’ve said before, even localizing The Great Ace Attorney at all is a promising sign for the future.

(That interview just says 2021, but I saw another one that specified spring 2021, which would mean it was before Chronicles even came out.)

So, what about Investigations 2?

Investigations 2 has come up more lately than it has in years. It was included in the Capcom Museum’s special exhibit about the Investigations duology. An official Capcom survey had it as an option when asking what Ace Attorney games you’ve played, even listing it as Ace Attorney Investigations 2 instead of calling it Gyakuten Kenji 2. Now this interview acknowledged that fans in the west want it.

You know what? I think it’s going to happen.

Ace Attorney 7 should still be next. With this many years having passed since the last new game and the Apollo Justice Trilogy bridging the gap for new players, it would be a shame to have another collection come out before the next game. However, I have new hope that we might see Investigations after that.

For the first time in years, an official Ace Attorney Investigations 2 localization feels like something we can realistically hope for once again.

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New Details Revealed About Metaphor: ReFantazio

We were just talking about Metaphor: ReFantazio because of the Game Awards, and now we have even more to discuss.

Atlus shared a bunch of details during an end-of-year broadcast, and Gematsu translated the information here.

The setting, already showcased during the Game Awards trailer, is a kingdom thrown into chaos when the king is assassinated (and the prince is cursed). The world has eight tribes, each with unique physical characteristics like wings or beast ears.

There are also twisted monsters that Gematsu has translated as “humans,” which at first made me wonder if a different translation would be used in the game, but I looked back at the E3 reveal trailer and there’s a point in there where the characters react to seeing a “human,” so it seems like that’s what it is.

I found the story details a little difficult to follow, because the protagonist sets out on a quest to break the death curse on the prince, but then it says he joins the magical race for the throne, so I’m not entirely sure if the protagonist is actually trying to get the throne or if he just gets mixed up in it while trying to save the prince.

Anyway, the new information also covers the combat we saw in the trailer. The core combat system is turn-based, but you’ll be able to defeat weak enemies on the field with action gameplay.

(Which sounds similar to what Trails Through Daybreak did, so expect to see that comparison a lot.)

Metaphor: ReFantazio will include daily life mechanics that are said to be evolved compared to those in Persona and will create a “realistic daily life experience as if you were actually planning a journey,” as well as multiple bases across the world to travel between. I’m not quite sure what that first part means, but I’m curious.

I have to admit, when they showed this game at E3, I thought it was a lot closer to Persona than it is. I’m really intrigued by the world and story now! It still seems like the real world has some connection – maybe with the “humans”? – but the fantasy setting is a lot more pronounced.

Anyway, it’s still a fair way off, set for a fall 2024 release, but I’m looking forward to Metaphor Re:Fantazio? What do you think about the latest details?

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Highlights From The Game Awards 2023

The Game Awards took place last night, and that meant we got plenty of new game announcements and trailers alongside the awards.

There wasn’t anything Earth-shattering for me (which is probably good, since 2024 already looks so stacked my backlog is shuddering in fear), but there were still some great announcements.

The following games were the highlights for me.

First, a really big surprise was Pony Island 2: Panda Circus. We talked about the first Pony Island a couple years ago, as part of 2021’s spooky games celebration. It was a puzzle game that was bizarre, funny, and creepy, with some fantastic tricks for the player. I enjoyed it a lot, so I’ll definitely play the sequel when it comes out.

The next big highlight for me was the new trailer for Metaphor: ReFantazio. It was announced ahead of time that it would be shown, so I wasn’t surprised, but I was excited to get another look!

Its fantasy setting comes across more clearly in this trailer, and it looks like it will be a great game to play. It’s now set for fall 2024 (fortunately distanced from the crush of games at the start of the year).

Now, what should have a been a huge, exciting surprise for me was the announcement that God of War: Ragnarok has DLC comeing out on December 12 for free, especially since it’s an epilogue to the story.

But my enthusiasm diminished when they said it will involve roguelike elements. Hearing the term “roguelike” doesn’t immediately turn me away anymore after I enjoyed Hades so much, but it did change my initial reaction from “I need to get back to Ragnarok and hurry up and finish it!” to “Sure, I’ll get back to Ragnarok eventually.”

How about another exciting surprise, then? The Mana series is getting a new mainline entry next year with Visions of Mana. It looks beautiful! I’m disappointed that there’s no Switch version, but maybe they’re assuming the Switch’s successor will be out by then.

(I probably should play some more Mana games before then, though.)

Getting back to DLC, another big announcement of the night was the reveal of two DLCs for Final Fantasy XVI, the first of which is already out while the second will be coming next spring. I’ll get around to playing Final Fantasy XVI one of these days, once I finally pick up a PS5.

The Game Awards was one big long reminder of games I want to play. Don’t forget the epic performance by Poets of the Fall as the Old Gods of Asgard, which I watched even though I haven’t played Alan Wake 2 yet. It just got me even more excited to finally play. Rise of the Ronin also looks pretty cool, and so does the new game from the developers of Ori and the Blind Forest, No Rest for the Wicked.

These are the announcements that stood out the most to me from this year’s Game Awards! What games are you most excited for?

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