Your Games of 2022

[Nester the Lark]

Once again, it's time to look back at the games we played in the past year.

My gaming was pretty sparse compared to 2021, and even then, it feels like I'm stretching to find games to talk about. Here is my alphabetical order:

Arcade Archives: Donkey Kong

Technically not the first time I've played the arcade version of DK, but I bought this version this year. There's a certain charm to playing the original version, and it's still quit addictive.

Arcade Archives: Donkey Kong 3

I bought the arcade version after enjoying the NES version via the Switch Online NES library the year before. Another addictive game that I think is underappreciated, and dare I say, I might like it better than the original.

Arcade Archives: In the Hunt

Bought this in preparation for the homage stage in R-Type Final 2. It's a fun and unique shooter with fantastic spritework, and definitely feels like one of the parents of the Metal Slug series (the other being Gunforce 2/Geo Storm).

Arcade Archives: Pirate Pete

When I was very young, one of my favorite games on Atari 5200 was the port of Taito's Jungle Hunt. Originally, the game was "Jungle King" and themed like Tarzan, but after being accused of copyright infringement, the main character was changed to an explorer. Later, the entire game was re-themed again as Pirate Pete.

History lesson aside, this game was sitting in my wish list for quite some time, as I expected it to be the kind of obscurity that Hamster would eventually put on sale. That finally happened, and I picked up the game for fairly cheap. While not the deepest game, I still found it addictive, and I highly enjoyed revisiting it, even with the pirate theme.

Congo's Caper

This was added to the Switch Online SNES library this year, and I played it while revisiting most of the Joe & Mac series. Some people consider it a hidden gem, but I found it somewhat average with some questionable level design.

Joe & Mac Returns

Picked this up for cheap. Unlike other games in the series, it's a single-screen action game in the style of Bubble Bobble. Quite fun, but not super deep.

Moon

This was one of the free indie games I won from Nintendo in 2021. I only finally got around to trying it earlier in 2022, and even then, I played for less than an hour. It was originally a Japan-only indie game made for the PlayStation. It's a clever, fourth-wall breaking adventure game, but not really my thing. I'm surprised I don't see it talked about more among the Mother/EarthBound and Undertale fans, as it seems like something that would be right up their alley.

(On a side note, I still have one indie game left from that contest that I have not yet tried: an action-RPG called Cross Code. Maybe I'll get to it in 2023.)

And finally, here are my Top 3 games of 2022:

3 - Radiant Silvergun

I haven't talked about it much, but honestly, it's quite remarkable that this game finally got ported to Switch, and I absolutely loved finally being able to try the legendary Radiant Silvergun. It's the predecessor to Treasure's more well-known shooter Ikaruga, and while there are some similarities, the games are actually quite different. At heart, though, both games are basically like puzzle games disguised as shooters.

Ikaruga is praised for being a more minimal experience than Radiant Silvergun, but personally, I think I might like RS better. While the levels do go on a bit too long, I think a little fat adds flavor. Also, the tone of the game feels more like traditional Treasure, with its colorful anime aesthetics, silly characters, and goofy sense of humor.

2 - Stardew Valley

This game was a bit unexpected. While I have been interested in trying a farming RPG before, my attention was more drawn to Rune Factory. I've not yet played any game in that series so far, however. There was a Switch Online free trial of one of the Story of Seasons games back in 2021, and while I found it interesting, I wasn't sure if it was for me. This past summer, however, there was a free trial for Stardew Valley, and this one, for whatever reason, clicked with me. I bought it while it was on sale, and figured it would at least give me something to do while I was waiting for Xenoblade Chronicles 3. But I've continued to come back to it since then, as well. I can see why this is the one that made farming RPGs mainstream.

1 - Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Eh, it's pretty OK, I guess.

While I've voiced my issues with it, I've overall highly enjoyed the time I've put into it, and I look forward to the rest of the upcoming DLC. What else can I really say? It probably has the best gameplay and combat in the series, the characters are as memorable as in any of the games, and while it may not have my favorite story, world design, or music in the series, I still consider those elements to be mostly superb.

[nocturnal YL]

I haven't played that many games in 2022. Ironically, I wasn't in the mood to play games mostly because I had so many games in my backlog and didn't know where to start.

Much of my time not playing was spent on watching people play Super Mario Maker 2 and Super Mario World ROM hacks, following the progress of the Super Mario 64 A Button Challenge (which saw huge progress last year) and the more general 120-star TAS. I also spent some time messing around with the free video editor DaVinci Resolve.

Games played this year, in the order of when I played them:

BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light (Review) (Video review)

First try on a Gust game outside of Atelier. Gameplay feels like Atelier lite with some minor quality and game balance issues, but the story is excellent.



Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream (Review) (Video review)

Sequel to Sophie 1 that puts her in a dream world and sheds light on Sophie's ability to hear materials, the past of Plachta and Ramizel and Corneria's tribe, plus more story original to this game. A bit on the short side and is rather small-scaled, but everything from game design to UI to graphics (as much as Gust's ability and the ageing hardware allow) to music is done very excellently, making the game very satisfying to play. It's currently my 3rd favourite Atelier title after Lulua and Lydie & Suelle.



Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy (Review) (Video review)

Sequel to Ryza 1 with an updated exploration system and rendering engine, which BRSL and Sophie 2 are based on. I'm still not a fan of the Secret series' semi-real-time battle system, the grindy nature of synthesis and the story, but in more objective ways it's a big improvement upon Ryza 1.



Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix — Mega Mix+ DLC

I finished all songs at HARD in Arcade Mode, and paused my progress there. My Joy-Con (R) has been acting up for long and I don't feel like unboxing my other Joy-Con set, so I played very little of Mix Mode. I also don't really care about my score in this game; Future Tone is my main version of the game.



void* tRrLM2(); //Void Terrarium 2 (Video review)

A game that gives a tiny hope on possible salvation of Toriko's situation… then cruelly pulls it away. The player is forced to do questionable things, and at one point the player is given the option to decide Toriko's fate. Traditional gaming wisdom suggests the longer path will lead to the "true" ending, but this is not the case here, thus either tricking players to go for the "false" ending, or making players (debatably) sacrifice Toriko's future for the sake of game contents.



The Cruel King and the Great Hero (Video review)

The other successor to another Nippon Ichi Software title. Doesn't have a cruel story, thankfully. This is my favourite title from NIS so far, though it's still nowhere close to the non-NIS games I've played. It's a simple storybook-style RPG where the player plays as a hero's daughter raised by the reformed villain, who went on a journey and learned the villain's history and eventually came to her own conclusion on why didn't her father finish off the villain.

Both the story and gameplay are on the simple side, to the point that many modern RPG conveniences aren't present. This game is more about the atmosphere, and outside of the game itself, about how an aspiring game designer had her dream of making games come true by not giving up. (The designer in question is Sayaka Oda, who couldn't get a job as a game designer but managed to join NIS as a web designer. NIS encourages its non-game staff to do game brainstorming, and Oda's ideas gained enough traction to win internal contests.)



Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes — Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire

A Fire Emblem Warriors title that takes place in an alternate Fódlan where Edelgard is more obviously good and Claude is questionable. By exposing the Agarthans early, Edelgard managed to prevent several deaths in the main game, making her route desirable for not just Adrestia but also Leicester. Calude, on the other hand, is too concerned about minimising Alliance losses to the point that joining him will lead to some of the aforementioned Empire deaths. And there's still no way to make all factions get along.

As a game, it's a lot of hits and misses compared to Three Houses and the first Fire Emblem Warriors. Supports and story scenes have 3D backgrounds and look much better than Three Houses, the class system is somewhat better by adding Trickster at the top, but they also didn't add the rest of the Three Houses DLC classes, and each class uses only one weapon type. It also doesn't give that satisfying feeling of going against thousands of enemies, and instead emphasises the strategy part of the game, even more so than the first game.

There's also the story, which does a good job adding details to things that weren't shown in Three Houses, but doesn't really stand well on its own. Unlike the case of many spinoff games where knowledge in the main series is not needed, Three Houses is a prerequisite for understanding the story in Three Hopes.



Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition — Chapter 10, right at where they're about to leave Bionis

Me? Xenoblade? You heard it right. While I wasn't interested, my coworker has a copy. And it's surprisingly high-quality. I'd say the story is a bit too orthodox (home gets attacked, boy goes out for revenge) up to before meeting Melia, but my coworker said it'll get better later. The terrains look gorgeous (if you can look past the low-poly rocks) especially in Satorl Marsh. The gameplay isn't good though (I don't have two left hands), the auto-aim camera goes haywire when fighting airborne enemies, and the pacing feels really, really slow, with quests that require a lot of back-and-forth with way too few landmarks to warp between. The music is excellent, and it alleviates some of the pacing issue.