Top Ten of the 2023 Gamers Dozen

My 2023 could've been better, but I at least played some great video games. Let's talk about them. 

I finished 30 video games in 2023, which doesn't seem that bad at first glance, but I'm still going to call it a disappointment for my personal gaming goals. I only knocked out four of my thirteen published goals, and two of those were 2023 games that I even recorded full podcasts about. That's disappointing, and I'll blame it on an extremely slow start, punctuated by multiple hospital stays and unfortunate life events. But I did play a bunch of great video games in 2023, and you KNOW I want to talk about them. Even if it's almost ten full months into the year. 

In late 2022, I set aside thirteen target games to play in 2023, and as previously mentioned only got around to four of them. Because a top four list for my 2023 video game accomplishments just sounds sad, I'm expanding the list to ten by including the additional six 2023 games I bought and completed within the calendar year. That gives me a clean top ten of games that (mostly) were my principal got 'ims of the year. 

So, naturally, this article has a dozen or so honorable mentions before I get to the proper list. Let's go over those, and then my ten favorite games I played in 2023. 

Unplayed, Embarrassingly

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

God of War (2018)

Kingdom Hearts II (pictured)

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Outer Worlds

Tales of Graces F

Xenoblade Chronicles II

I played only a few hours of the above games, mostly Tears of the Kingdom and The Outer Worlds. What I played was always at least pretty good, and they're all candidates for future lists of this nature (I'm actually playing Kingdom Hearts II right now!). Maybe someday. 

Played For the Podcast

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

Dragon Age: Origins (pictured)

Super Mario RPG

These are one new play (Rhapsody) and two replays that I wasn't planning to do when the year began, but they got picked for the podcast and on I went. Fortunately for me, these three are pretty good (Rhapsody) to excellent (Dragon Age) and finding the motivation to play them was never an issue. Hell, I recently completed a full Dragon Age trilogy replay, and I have the Rhapsody sequels wishlisted for my Switch. I played Super Mario RPG via its recent (and gorgeous) remake, but since it's SO close to the original game I decided not to include it in the main top ten. 

My Biggest Distractions

Vampire Survivors (pictured)

Pokémon Shining Pearl Version

This is a similar situation to the previous blurb, but these are games I already owned and didn't include on my big list for various reasons. Vampire Survivors is a 2022 obsession that bled significantly into 2023; Shining Pearl I played on the airplane enroute to my vacation in Tokyo, because I was feeling some Pokémon hype leading up to Pokémon Worlds, which my partner and I attended a week or so after arriving. Vampire Survivors is brilliant; Shining Pearl is just OK. 

If I were to consider those last five for the big list below, well, Vampire Survivors would be disqualified because really it was a 2022 game that I finished in the first week of January 2023, and I would also discount Pokémon, Dragon Age, and SMRPG, because they are games I've loved for many years and replayed in 2023. The only surprise entrant left is Rhapsody, which is a pretty good PS1 RPG, but I think would ultimately finish 9th or 10th out of 11. And I almost forgot Mortal Kombat 1, which I've immortalized as the top image in this piece! MK1 has a decent story mode but far less substance than others on this list, so I'm also declining to count it. Them's the breaks. Let's get to the real list: 

Sollosi's Top Ten of the 2023 Gamer's Dozen

Number Ten

Sea of Stars

Sea of Stars is not a bad video game by any means, but I feel I was oversold on it. This is a mostly-fun turn-based RPG with some good dungeon designs and nice animations, not the homage-slash-successor to Chrono Trigger and Grandia that I was lead to believe it was. Sure, the character designs and music are also good, maybe great, but I found it almost unforgiveable that your team uses the same three or four basic skills for the entire game, and puzzling that it won so many end-of-year awards. Sea of Stars is... fine. Not spectacular. 

Number Nine

Fire Emblem: Engage 

Fire Emblem: Engage's story mode isn't as good as that of previous entries (I've seen it compared to Saturday morning cartoons, in a disparaging way), but features character building, job classes, and maps that that are among the best in Fire Emblem history. I had an absolute blast navigating these over-the-top silly character designs through a variety of missions and your home base castle, even if I can only remember a few characters' names. And most of those characters are the twelve summon-able heroes from previous games. So that's not a good look, but Engage is still fun, and the best time I've had with a Fire Emblem game since Awakening over ten years ago. 

Number Eight

Like A Dragon: Ishin! 

Here's our first line in the sand - SoS and FE:E are good three-star video games; the next four are excellent four-starrers. Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a stunning historical-fictional story set in 1860s Japan during the volatile Bakumatsu period, with dramatic swordfights, an interesting version of 19th-century Kyoto to explore, and a few dozen likenesses and performances from Like a Dragon characters and actors. So what's not to love? Well, mostly the grind. The gameplay pace of Ishin! screeches to a halt whenever your sword lags behind in damage, and I did a huge amount of chicken race gambling and material-farming to upgrade my stats and equipment. Ishin! is a great game in the Like a Dragon catalog but fails to reach the upper echelons of the series. 

Number Seven

Dave the Diver 

A very fun exploration of two concepts: "what if there was a roguelike RPG with only fishing?" and "what if there was a game where you caught fish during the day and sold sushi in the evening?" Dave the Diver combines these two gameplay theatres with witty dialog, amusing characters, fishing gameplay that's alternates between serene and quite intense, and sushi restaurant gameplay that I never grew tired of. Dave's abilities and tools grow consistently throughout the game, so those mechanics get more layered every few hours. Dave the Diver was a super fun diversion in 2023, and even writing about it now makes me want to go back to it! 

Number Six

Lost Judgment 

Maybe the most fun action-oriented combat in any Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio game (!), Lost Judgment has four fighting styles used by detective Yagami as he tries to solve a series of murders connected to alumni of an acclaimed Yokohama high school. But it's not just the combat - the story and characters are pretty compelling throughout the game (including a pair of great villains), and the number of activities Yagami can engage in as a teaching assistant advisor is stellar - Like a Dragon classics like darts, golf, batting cages, and Sega arcade games are paired with new biker gang races, boxing matches, strategic robot puzzles, dance team rhythm games, and more. Lost Judgment isn't perfect (the story has too much unnecessary suffering and not every minigame is a winner), but it's a standout Like a Dragon-adjacent game that even has an awesome DLC to go with it in The Kaito Files. But there are five games I played last year that I enjoyed more. 

Number Five

Final Fantasy XVI

FF XVI has more moments of cinema in it than just about any other RPG I've ever played. The boss fights are massive, exciting spectacles; the biggest emotional moments are highlighted by stunning visuals and gorgeous music as well as any modern game, and it's almost impossible not to like the handsome protagonist Clive and his loyal dog Torgal. FF XVI's story doesn't always match the highs of its presentation, and its exciting, dynamic combat is somewhat diminished by regular enemy selection that doesn't live up to the game's boss fights and specialized hunts. Regardless, I think FF XVI is the best new non-MMO Final Fantasy in at least the last 20 years. 

Number Four

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Now we're crossing into another tier of this list, which I'm calling "outstanding, best-of-genre-caliber video games, five stars." Mario Galaxy 2 is an absolute triumph of a platformer, expanding on the great gameplay of the first Mario Galaxy with new power-ups, cooler and flashier stage designs, and improvements in just about every respect other than story (with apologies to Lubba and the rest of the Luma crew, I miss Rosalina). My only concern about Mario Galaxy 2 is that now just about every other 3D Mario game will pale in comparison (Sorry, that's a lie - Mario Odyssey is also incredible). 

Number Three

Octopath Traveler II

I wasn't planning on buying Octopath II at the start of the year, but its positive reviews and testimonials from folks I trust were enough to convince me. And convinced I was, because goodness gracious this is a great throwback RPG. Richly detailed maps, great battle and class systems with shocking depth, eight separate stories and five tie-in follow-ups that are all way better than those of the first Octopath, and positively stunning visuals and music. I can't wait to hear whatever Team Asano has planned next, and I kind of want to re-buy Octopath 2 on PS5 eventually just to get a platinum trophy. Those are fair indicators of my Octopath feelings. 

Number Two

Street Fighter VI

With apologies to Street Fighter Alpha 3, this is the best systemic combat in Street Fighter history. With apologies to Street Fighter III: Third Strike, this is the best-looking Street Fighter ever. With apologies to Rose, Karin, and Sakura, these are the best new characters to join the Street Fighter official roster. And with apologies to Super Smash Brothers, I have never been more excited for fighting game trailers. I've played dozens of hours of online matches and the single-player World Tour mode in Street Fighter 6 and spent almost as many watching professional matches. This could be my Forever Fighter. I hope we get nine seasons of DLC. But as much as I love it, Street Fighter 6 wasn't the best game I played in 2023....

Number One

Bloodborne

Bloodborne is a damn masterpiece. 2014's PS4-exclusive FromSoftware title eschews the methodical combat and high-dark-fantasy setting of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls for a grimmer, grimier Gothic horror village and its environs, to amazing effect. In search of a cure for a blood plague, your character uncovers secrets of the city of Yarnham, from monster-worshipping cults infiltrating the church to academics accidentally summoning cosmic dark gods to a small group of suffering Hunters struggling to keep their sanity as the sole bastions of hope in a brutal world. 

And the combat, holy shit. Bloodborne walks a line between the Souls and Monster Hunter balance of deliberate striking, dodging, and stamina management and the Devil May Cry and God of War balletic dances of death, with over twenty weapon movesets and an impressive range of character builds. I played Bloodborne less than a year ago and I already want to replay it to unlock another ending. It's a hard game, but I'm a Good Hunter. 

---

Well, this took far longer than planned. I started writing this article in April, and then abandoned and/or restarted it multiple times. But hey, that is (almost) ten excellent games I wrote on, and I'm happy with how it turned out! 

Hopefully I have one or two more blog posts in me by the end of the year, before moving on to my regularly scheduled January 1st gaming goals (I've already picked them out). Happy gaming!