Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 45

Top 5 Games I Played in 2022

The end of another year is upon us at last, so I’m ready to take a look back at the best games I played this year – not necessarily all 2022 releases, but any game I finished in 2022.

I didn’t play quite as many games this year, and fewer that stood out compared to last year. Whole months passed with me only playing a handful of games.

I blame The Great Ace Attorney.

Partway through the year, I half-jokingly thought I’d just name The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles as my top game again, because even though I finished it last year, it’s been on my mind more than anything I actually played this year.

But I’m sure you wouldn’t want a list where I simply tell you to play The Great Ace Attorney instead of actually listing anything, so I’m going to rank my top 5 games after all.

Better yet, I have an actual methodology for determining my top games for the first time ever! You see, I loved The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles so much, I’ve realized I can rank the games I played in 2022 by how much they managed to distract me from thinking about it.

GAA images were included in the making of this year’s image, for an accurate depiction of my thoughts.

Now before we get into the list proper…

Honorable Mentions

This year, I have to give out three honorable mentions to games that had a good shot of appearing on this list… except that I haven’t finished them yet. Those games are Elden Ring, which pulled me into its vast world despite my initial misgivings, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which feels like another great entry in the Xenoblade series, and Yakuza 5, which should definitely rank among my top Yakuza games. All three of these games share another thing in common: they’re long. Here’s hoping I finish them next year.

Now now without further ado, here are the top 5 games I played in 2022!

5. Witch on the Holy Night

Recency bias might be partly to blame, as I just finished it yesterday, but Witch on the Holy Night really stands out to me as an excellent visual novel. The world is intriguing and makes me want to explore the related works more. (It sure would be nice if we got another translated visual novel.) I’m glad I finished it before the end of the year.

On the distraction scale, it held my attention whenever I played it, without me losing focus to think about The Great Ace Attorney instead.

4. Omori

Omori is another recent one, and although I criticized the disjointed feel some aspects left me with, I can’t deny that it was a lot of fun. The darker parts were thought-provoking, while the lighter parts were entertaining.

On the distraction scale, it crept into my thoughts occasionally even when I wasn’t playing, temporarily distracting me from The Great Ace Attorney.

3. Birushana

I loved Birushana, and it’s definitely one of my favorite otome games now. The characters were wonderful, the story delightful, and each route filled with many tense, high-stakes moments. I really hope they localize the fandisc, because I need to see more of these characters.

On the distraction scale, a couple of the love interests managed to occupy my thoughts for whole minutes of my free time, though it wasn’t long before The Great Ace Attorney returned.

2. Cupid Parasite

Another otome and another new favorite, Cupid Parasite stands out by being one where I loved every love interest, in addition to having a hilarious story with moments that had me laughing out loud. It was an absolute delight from start to finish. This one is getting a fandisc too, although it’s not even out in Japan yet, so I really hope we eventually get it here.

On the distraction scale, one love interest – and yes, I mean Allan – managed to temporarily usurp my free time thoughts from The Great Ace Attorney for the entire duration of his route and some time afterwards.

1. AI: The Somnium Files

Finally, the best game I played this year is without a doubt AI: The Somnium Files (the first one, although I also enjoyed the sequel). I gushed about it in my review, about how the wacky humor, intriguing mystery, and fantastic story all came together to make it an amazing experience. I enjoyed it more than any of the Zero Escape games, and if you pressured me into ranking my top games of all, it would probably make the list. It’s that good.

On the distraction scale, I spent significant portions of time around my playthrough thinking about AI: The Somnium Files instead of The Great Ace Attorney, and that’s actually an impressive feat.

Conclusion

But Sam, what about all those games on your most-anticipated games of 2022 list? I only managed to play two of them, and while they’d make my top 10 if I was solely ranking games released this year, they didn’t make the cut for this list. The other three are languishing in my backlog. Who knows? Maybe next year will be their year.

In the meantime, I’m not exaggerating how obsessed I’ve been with The Great Ace Attorney. Please go play it. Will it be toppled by a game next year? We’ll certainly find out. Come back tomorrow to see what five games I’m most anticipating from 2023!

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Witch on the Holy Night is an Interesting, Impressive Visual Novel

Today we’re going to talk about Witch on the Holy Night, the first Type-Moon visual novel to ever get an official English translation.

It follows two mages living in a mansion on top of a hill, and a boy who gets mixed up with them while struggling to adjust to life in the city.

The story premise sounded interesting enough for me to want to try it, especially since I wanted to show my support. I ordered a physical copy from Play-Asia, because I thought it was too niche to get a physical release in North America.

I was wrong about that, and the North American physical copy will be out on January 27.

But for those playing digital copies from the eShop or an import like mine, Witch on the Holy Night is already out. I decided to play it now, making it possibly my last game of 2022, and I’m glad I did.

Witch on the Holy Night is an interesting visual novel. It has its share of funny slice-of-life scenes, but also some intense dramatic parts and exciting fight scenes. After just a few hours, I was invested in the characters and wanted to know how things would turn out. I almost regret trying the demo first, because the demo’s presentation of several out-of-context scenes meant I had an idea of where certain aspects of the story would go, even if I didn’t know how they’d get there.

I know there’s a connection to other Type-Moon works, but I haven’t played them, so all of these characters were new to me. I also found the world fascinating, mainly the magic system it presents through both action and explanations.

Aside from the compelling story and characters, I also have to praise the presentation. I’ve never played a visual novel with such high production values before. It has constant CGs, unique backgrounds, and animations – it’s incredible!

(I also love the chapter select screen, which is presented as a bookshelf, with more books added as you complete chapters.)

Now, it’s a kinetic novel, which means there aren’t any choices to make. You start at the beginning and read all the way through to the end. There are some optional chapters unlocked along the way, which provide more of a look at the characters and their lives through non-crucial scenes.

The one exception is the bonus chapter unlocked after you finish the main story. This final extra chapter is a standalone story that does have choices, as you try to solve a murder mystery. That was a bit of unexpected fun on top of an already-great visual novel.

Witch on the Holy Night was originally released in Japan in 2012, and apparently the writer intended to make two sequels. Those haven’t come out yet, but with the remake bringing new attention and new audiences to it, there might be new hope. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Witch on the Holy Night, so I have my fingers crossed that we’ll see those sequels eventually.

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New Mistwalker Game in Development

As is common, a number of Japanese game developers have made end-of-year comments about their plans for 2023.

Published by Famitsu and 4Gamer and translated by Gematsu, most of these statements aren’t too specific.

One of the most interesting ones to me, however, comes from Hironobu Sakaguchi, who said he’s begun writing the scenario for an unannounced dark fantasy title.

I still need to play more of Mistwalker’s games, including their Apple-exclusive RPG Fantasian, which I now have a device capable of playing. It’s exciting to know that Mistwalker has another title coming up, so I look forward to seeing what it is! (I still wish they’d remaster or port their previous games, too.)

There are lots of other little hints in the messages as well, such as references to new games from Level-5, Koei Tecmo, and Spike Chunsoft, among others.

(As much as I wish there was a hint of Ace Attorney news in Capcom’s messages, they only reference Dragon’s Dogma 2, Monster Hunter, and Exoprimal. I’m still hopeful that next year will be our year.)

Anyway, it’s worth reading through these message to get a glimpse of what 2023 has in store for us. Mistwalker’s new game is the one that caught my attention the most, but what about you?

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Sports Story is Out Now (But I’m Waiting)

Last month, Golf Story successor Sports Story finally got a release window after years of silence.

And on Friday, it came out!

It wasn’t quite as much of a shadow drop as it appeared to be at first, since Nintendo had been highlighting indie games all week long. Friday’s video included the official release announcements of Sports Story.

Only a digital version is available so far, but since Limited Run Games did a physical run of Golf Story, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did the same here. There hasn’t been any news yet that I’m aware of, though.

I loved Golf Story, so I was all set to buy Sports Story and start playing it right away.

However, I’ve actually decided to wait. I’ve seen a lot of people reporting bugs, including softlocks and crashes, enough to make me reconsider starting. Fortunately, Sidebar Games already responded to the concerns by saying a patch is in progress, so hopefully that will clear up the issues once it’s out.

At least I have plenty of games in my backlog to play in the meantime. I had thought Sports Story might be one of the last games I’d finish in 2022, but here’s hoping it’ll instead be a game I love in 2023.

Have you started Sports Story? Are you waiting for a patch?

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Introducing The Adventures of Radio Rita!

As we approach the end of the year, I’ve got an exciting story announcement to make!

My latest pulp fiction story, “Radio Rita and the Genesis Machine,” is available now in the new collection from Airship 27, The Adventures of Radio Rita.

Unlike my previous pulp fiction works, which featured classic characters, Radio Rita is a new heroine invented for Airship 27.

Writers were given a few basic details about Rita – her physical appearance and the fact that she’s a pilot – and given freedom to go from there. As a result, each of the four stories in this collection features a different Rita with her own personality, history, and goals.

In my story, “Radio Rita and the Genesis Machine,” Rita is an agent sent on a mission to an isolated mountain village to investigate a sinister organization constructing an unknown device. It was a fun story to write, with some twists and turns I especially enjoyed creating.

Like all of Airship 27’s anthologies, each story is followed by an essay explaining how the story came to be, if you enjoy that sort of behind-the-scenes look.

The Adventures of Radio Rita is on sale now at Amazon as a paperback for $16.99. The ebook version will be available shortly.

So if you’re in the mood for some exciting pulp fiction adventures, pick up a copy of this new collection and let me know how you enjoy “Radio Rita and the Genesis Machine”!

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The Strange and Sometimes Horrifying World of Omori

At the end of October’s contest, one of the winners selected the review prize and asked me to play and review Omori.

Omori is an RPG where you start as a boy named Omori in a strange, white area and leave through a door into a colorful fantasy world where his friends are waiting for him.

When one of their friends disappears, they set out on a journey to find him.

…At least, that’s part of the story. That’s not a particularly accurate explanation of what the game is about, but it would be hard to say anything else without spoilers. So for the spoiler-free parts of this review, I’ll try to focus more on other aspects of the game.

As an RPG, it features a turn-based combat system in which emotions play a role. Certain moves and items can change the emotional state of your party members or of enemies.

At first I worried this would get confusing, but it really just means there’s a rock-paper-scissors approach to which emotional state you want to be in. For regular encounters, I usually didn’t worry about it at all.

There are also lots of side quests, wacky characters, and secrets to find. Before I played Omori, I’d gotten the impression from things I heard that it was a depressing game, but it actually has a lot of humor. It also loves wordplay, like having a dessert-themed desert. A good portion of the game is actually pretty lighthearted.

Those warnings didn’t come from nowhere, however. While it might be lighthearted at times, Omori deals with much heavier themes than you might expect at first glance. It has some fairly upsetting moments, as well as segments that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror game. There are definite psychological horror elements despite how it looks.

I enjoyed both the humor and horror, and I also had fun exploring and doing side quests. The story, I have mixed feelings on for reasons that don’t actually deal with major spoilers, but I’ll spoiler-tag them anyway.

Click for Omori spoilersIn particular, once I played the first real-world section – which was a fun surprise; I’d already figured the other parts were taking place in some sort of imaginary world, but I didn’t expect the real-world parts to be playable – I found it hard to stay invested in the story outside of that. I had trouble being compelled by the search for Basil in Headspace when I knew the events in the real world were what mattered more.

I appreciated Headspace for its symbolic meanings and some emotional moments, and I had fun because of the humor and dialogue, but I found myself not having as much of an attachment to the story there.

Which might be an odd perspective when it’s all a fictional story I’m experiencing by playing the game, but it still affected how I viewed things.

The adventure in Headspace also felt like it didn’t go anywhere. That also decreased my investment in it, and to some degree I feel like that’s an intentional effect, since it makes sense, but that doesn’t change the fact that I had entire swathes of the game where I was having fun with battles and side quests and humor but feeling barely any engagement with the story and characters even though they’re the same characters I was invested in outside of Headspace.

(I know there’s an alternate route in which you never leave your room as Sunny, and I wonder if that route would have made me more invested in the Headspace story since I wouldn’t be as aware of it not being “real” or if I would have even less feeling for it.)

To some degree it feels like two games, and my feelings toward each are different, which makes it harder for me to talk about the game as a whole.

Anyway, I was very interested in the main story and its characters, and the final section had me hooked. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll go back to see other endings, although I intend to at least look up the game’s alternate route sometime.

Omori is definitely an interesting experience. For me, it’s also a somewhat disjointed one. It’s a game that’s sometimes a lighthearted, funny adventure, and other times is a more serious story with horror elements. The RPG elements are fun, and there are a lot of interesting secrets. If my thoughts seem like they’re all over the place, it’s because I’m still trying to get a good grasp on how I feel toward a game that has aspects that all feel so different from one another. Even so, I’d say it’s worth playing to see for yourself!

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Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link Key Art, Prototype Test Announced

The next Kingdom Hearts mobile game, Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, was supposed to have a closed beta test this year.

(And yes, it seems Missing-Link is the correct way to write the title.)

The closed beta was delayed, and a recent update on its progress also included a mysterious new emblem.

Well, now the Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link “Prototype Test” has been announced.

This is not a closed beta test, but a smaller-scale test of the game’s functions. It’s only available in Japan and is limited to iOS devices. An actual beta will follow later.

What’s more interesting to me is the new artwork (pictured here) from the website. This is our first real look at Missing-Link, and why can’t I un-see Bloodborne?

At first I saw a tweet that only had a smaller portion of the art, as well as the game’s logo, and I laughed because the character’s outfit reminded me of Bloodborne. Then I got to see the full art and paid more attention to the architecture, and now it makes me think of Bloodborne even more!

I’m not alone in thinking this, and I’ve enjoyed all the Bloodborne Missing-Link memes I’ve been seeing.

So, what can we take from this key art? Despite the Yharnam jokes, the setting appears to be Scala ad Caelum. A lot of fans think the character standing by the lamp post in the background might be Sigurd due to the similar hat and style.

There’s a lot we still don’t know about Missing-Link. It’s set sometime between KHUX and Dark Road, but that’s about it. We also have that new emblem to consider – a new enemy type, perhaps?

Here’s hoping we’ll have more substantial details about Missing-Link before too long, now that things are finally moving again.

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Ys X Officially Announced (and More Ys News)

We knew it was in development, and now it’s officially been announced: the next game in the Ys series.

Ys X: Nordics will be released for the PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch in 2023.

As detailed here by Gematsu, it is set somewhat early in the series’ timeline (it seems to take place after Ys II) and follows a young Adol exploring a bay made up of numerous islands.

In keeping with this setting, you’ll have control of a ship, which you can use to explore the oceans and fight naval battles.

Now, earlier this year we discussed an interview in which the next Ys game was said to have a “completely different” system. Not only will you have a ship in Ys X, but it also features a new combat system called the Cross Action system.

There will be two combat modes, a Solo Mode in which you control one partner with a partner attacking on their own, and a Combination Mode in which you control both characters as once.

It sounds interesting, so I hope we get to see a trailer with this combat system in action.

Meanwhile, Falcom also announced Ys Memoire: the Oath in Felghana for the Switch for spring 2023, a remastered version of Ys: The Oath in Felghana with newly voiced scenes, the option to switch between classic art and new art, and a high-speed mode and other features, as detailed by Gematsu.

Localization hasn’t been announced for either game yet, so we’ll have to wait a bit to learn when we’ll be able to play them. I still have plenty of Ys games to catch up on in the meantime…

What do you think of Ys X?

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New Features Announced for Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden Ports

If you’ll recall, back during Xbox’s E3 show, Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal were announced for a multiplatform release, later confirmed for PS4 and Switch as well.

Persona 5 is already out, but Persona 3 and Persona 4 ports are set to be released on January 19.

Well, some new gameplay features have been announced for these ports, as translated here by Persona Central.

First, you’ll be able to choose your difficulty level at the start of the game, as well as change the difficulty at any point in P3P, which wasn’t an option before. There’s also a new quick save feature in both games that lets you save at any time. It’s not clear right now if that will be a permanent save, or the sort of quick save that goes away once you load it. Either way, it’s a nice feature for convenience.

Finally, Persona 4 Golden will have a new “Album” feature that lets you replay social link scenes to make different choices. Persona 4 Golden is already on Steam, but it’s expected to get an update to coincide with the release of the new port.

Only Japanese pricing has been announced so far, but based on that, people are expecting them to cost $19.99 each here. There’s been no word about a physical release.

For a long time, I was holding out hope for a definitive remake of Persona 3 that would combine the best of both versions, because I could never make up my mind on whether I wanted to play Persona 3 FES for the 3D exploration and epilogue story or Persona 3 Portable for the manual party control and female protagonist option, and I’m still not convinced that Atlus doesn’t have a Persona 3 remake announcement waiting to spring on people. However, with some quality of life additions and a low price point, this upcoming Persona 3 Portable port is looking increasingly attractive.

Are you planning to play Persona 3 Portable and/or Persona 4 Golden when they’re ported next year?

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Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis Beta Delayed to Summer

It’s been a while since we last heard about Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis, the upcoming mobile game intended to cover the entire Final Fantasy VII Compilation.

It was supposed to receive a beta test this year, but that never happened.

Well, a new trailer has finally comes out, and it turns out the Ever Crisis closed beta test has been delayed to summer 2023. That’s quite a delay, especially for just the beta.

The new trailer shows a glimpse at how you’ll select episodes to play through, combat from different points in the timeline, and a few other scenes, including a look at the Chocobo Farm, where it seems you’ll be able to trade medals for a Chocobo.

(Seeing the “Draws” menu option reminds me that this is unfortunately a gacha game, but I’m still hoping it won’t be too intrusive.)

We also get another look at short-haired, younger Sephiroth at the end of the trailer.

A few scenes show characters fighting in scenes where they don’t belong, but previous interviews had implied that’s a thing for replaying chapters, so I’m not too worried about it. I have mixed feelings about Ever Crisis since I’m not a fan of gacha games, but I’m still interested in seeing what it will be like.

What do you think of Ever Crisis’s latest trailer?

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