B-Squared's Belated Top 10 Games of 2023

Well, this has come out…a lot later than I wanted to but life gets in the way. 2023 had a lot of fantastic games in it…but sadly I didn’t get to very many of them. So many great games, from the indies to the AAAs and everything in between. As of now I’ve had to be a bit more careful with money and still haven’t gotten my hands on either a beefy PC to play all the new games or a next-gen console, so my options are somewhat limited…which will be reflected in this list. So for anyone asking why Baldur’s Gate 3 or Alan Wake 2 or Spider-Man 2 or anything else isn’t on this list…I had no real means to play it. That said, I still enjoyed the bulk of what I played in 2023, so I figure it’s better late than never to celebrate those games.

#10: F-ZERO 99

F-Zero is a franchise I have limited experience with; I’ve played far more of Captain Falcon in the Smash Bros. series than any other F-Zero game combined. Regardless, the release of a new game after a near 20 year hiatus certainly had my attention. F-Zero 99 is a new take on the original game, after the popularity of Tetris 99 on the Switch. Up to 99 players race together in a battle-royale fashion, aiming to take first place…or at least survive to the finish line. I’ll be up front that I’m terrible at this game and didn’t play that much of it, but I can recognize that it was a fun spin on an old idea, giving players ample ways to try to play catch up in the chaotic, high-speed races, and for those that are more well-versed in F-Zero it served as a way to scratch an itch that has been bugging them for a good long while. Its unclear what the series’ future will be but I’m hopeful that the overall positive reception to this free-to-play title means there might be more to come for F-Zero sometime soon.

#9: ADVANCE WARS 1+2 RE-BOOT CAMP

As long as we’re talking about older, revived Nintendo franchises, we may as well talk about Advance Wars. After Fire Emblem really took off worldwide, this series has been rather dormant over at Intelligence Systems. Due to real world events, this release was delayed by about a year, but I’m glad that the remake of the first two Advance Wars games helmed by Wayforward was able to finally release. Overall, these are very faithful remakes with some great new bits of animation, voice acting and music, with players able to compete in the campaigns or wage war locally or online in the multiplayer modes. Some people weren’t a huge fan of the visual style in this remake, or felt that it could have done more, but ultimately I’m just happy to see this series come back again and I think Wayforward did a great job. The endless horrors of war have never been so fun!

#8: HOLOLIVE FAN GAMES: (HOLOCURE: SAVE THE FANS AND IDOL SHOWDOWN)

You might remember from a while back that I’m a VTuber fan, especially the ones over at Hololive. There’s been a number of really fun fan games that have released over the years but this year we got two of them released that were right up my alley…well, kinda. First off we have Holocure, a “bullet-heaven” game in the same vein as Vampire Survivors starring the Hololive girls. It’s technically still in early-access and has been out for a while…but the STEAM release was in 2023 and that’s when I first played it so it counts. It’s a very fun game with cute pixel art, great remixes of Hololive songs and is filled to bursting with tons of interesting references to these streamers…which makes it almost completely incomprehensible to non-fans, but that’s beside the point.

We also received a Hololive fighting game in Idol Showdown this year, which I also enjoyed for the most part. The character movesets are filled with just as many references, with some very expressive sprite work on both the playable cast and the backgrounds. A rogue like Digital Frontier mode adds to the stuff to do in the game if pure fighting isn’t for you, and it’s even received some free DLC characters as time has gone on. I do wish the game was a bit more optimized in some regards, but it’s otherwise a really fun game that managed to combine two of my interests together into one package. So I’m counting both of these games together under the umbrella of being Hololive fan games. Give them a try….and fall down the rabbit hole.

#7: NICKELODEON ALL STAR BRAWL 2

Speaking of fighting games, I was pleasantly surprised by the reveal and subsequent release of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2. Despite being excited by the prospect of the first game, I wasn’t all that fond of it by the time it released. It was a barebones experience, devoid of any voice work for these iconic characters (often with iconic voices), looked bad, ran worse at times and most of the cast had very same-y, uninspired movesets. So I’m very happy to say that the sequel is everything the original game should have been.

NASB 2 is a gigantic improvement in every way; it looks a lot better, the voices are here from the get-go now, there’s a huge single player campaign and the cast this time around all feel FAR more fleshed out and distinct. I still have some qualms with the roster overall, but I’m glad the team at Fair Play Labs (and the few members of Ludocity on this project) managed to create something that can appeal to both hardcore platform fighter fans and fans of the Nick characters. Sadly, I think a lot of people felt burned by the last game and didn’t even give this one a try, but trust me…this really is one of the more inventive platform fighters out there. The Slime mechanic itself is kind of worth the price of admission, being able to augment your moves, burst out of combos, or spend on a huge super move to send foes flying. The single player is also filled with fun references and a fair bit of things to do as you fight various minor enemies and bosses from across the various Nick shows. While a bit bug-riddled at launch and my potato PC can barely handle it at times, I had a blast with it, and I hope that people can eventually give this game a chance.

#6: BAYONETTA ORIGINS: CEREZA AND THE LOST DEMON

Oh hey and speaking of burning fans with the last installment and giving things a chance…yeah Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon was always going to be a tough sell. Even if Bayonetta 3 had been well-received by fans, taking a series known for its over-the-top arcade action and extremely sexual heroine and pivoting to a fairy-tale aesthetic and relatively simple puzzle solving and exploration wasn’t ever going to have a wide appeal. If you don’t like the other Bayonetta games you might end up enjoying this, but then why would you even be looking in this game’s direction? And conversely, if you love the other games, this one is so completely different there’s no guarantee you’d enjoy it. Truly, Bayonetta Origins is a game for an extremely small niche of players, but I was willing to give it a shot and ended up quite enjoying it. In fact, I think it’s one of the best games Platinum has put out in years.

Taking place when young Cereza was still a witch in training, players have to guide Cereza and her first demonic summon, Cheshire, through a maze-like forest infested with dangerous fairies. The game itself feels inspired by something like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, alongside Platinum’s own Astral Chain. Players control Cereza and Cheshire simultaneously, using each control stick to guide them through puzzles and the occasional combat encounter. Cereza uses her magic to hold enemies in place or manipulate the environment while Cheshire is in charge of tearing enemies apart. The cel-shaded storybook aesthetic is very charming, making for a game that I think is a lot easier on the eyes than Bayonetta 3, and the coming-of-age element of Cereza learning to stick up for herself and get stronger gave us a fairly well-told story (which is kind of a rarity for this franchise). Outside of a map that isn’t all that helpful, and the fact that it’s still connected to Bayonetta 3 in some strange, confusing ways, this is far and away the best Bayonetta game developed for the Switch, and yeah, I’m just as surprised as you are.

#5: STREET FIGHTER 6

Once upon a time Capcom was considered to be the kings of fighting games, but everything changed when Street Fighter V came out in such a barebones, awful state that the FGC at large moved onto other things. But 2023 was the year Capcom returned to take their crown back, and MAN is Street Fighter 6 a massive return to form. Now, I should stress my time with this game has been limited; I’ve played with a friend with their own copy of the game as well as poured over the PS4 demo, but I don’t actually own this game myself yet. If I DID, this would probably be a bit higher on this list honestly.

SF6 took a long hard look at the complaints levied at the previous game and did everything they could to turn things around here. Rather than launching with no arcade mode and later adding a lackluster story mode, 6 launches with a massive World Tour campaign, giving players the ability to create their own character and dive into the world of Street Fighter in what is ostensibly an action RPG hidden within the greater game. Rather than give us the divisive V-System that encouraged passive play and largely locked away each character’s strongest tools, the Drive System in SF6 gives players tons of way to engage with the game right from round start and encourages both aggression and proper resource management. At high-level, SF6 becomes a tug-of-war between players doing everything they can to whittle down their opponent’s Drive Gauge, while holding onto their own, and then place them into checkmate when they go into Burnout. The game’s new, more realistic artstyle took some time to grow on me personally, but I think they ended up making it work, though admittedly I’m with everyone else in stating that the OST for the game is a bit lacking. Thankfully, they nailed it where it really matters: the roster is filled with some awesome new faces (Marisa my beloved) and manages to make the veteran fighters feel fresh, and the cherry on top is an almost impeccable online experience. I’m glad Capcom learned from their mistakes, and the result is one of the best fighting games around.

#4: FIRE EMBLEM: ENGAGE

Releasing right at the start of the year, I’m sure a lot of people forgot about Fire Emblem Engage, though really I think they’re missing out. I’ve been a fan of the series since Awakening, so the gaps in knowledge with the series is vast, but I could still recognize this as a love letter to the entire series. Clearly intended as a celebration of the franchise’s 30th anniversary before a certain pandemic got in the way, Engage is filled to the brim with fanservice…and not just the sexy kind! Truthfully I do feel aspects of this game are at odds with each other; while the overall presentation is great, being the most colorful and flashy game in the series yet, its story is…let’s say lacking. The characters are all fairly one-note and at times lean way more into stock anime archetypes than fully-fleshed out cast members, especially in comparison to the best parts of Three Houses, and there is the odd….otaku-bait stuff for lack of a better term, especially regarding the romance options, but the actual core gameplay is the best in the series.

Fights are fast, ferocious and give players a ton of great new mechanics to sink their teeth into. The star of the show is obviously the various rings characters can equip, which can summon a ghost of a past Fire Emblem hero to help out, giving you a neat little Stand of sorts to augment your abilities for a short time. Adding to that, players can push enemies away, or even break their guard, preventing them from attacking during your turn. I really enjoyed some of the changes to the core weapon triangles of the series, including a new one with archers, mages and bare-handed fighters. Being able to have my healers lay waste to those units with some fisticuffs never got old. Engage might not be the most ambitious game in the series, but at the same time it was a fantastic celebration of how far this series has come and how much more life it still has in it yet. Alear’s hair is still kinda dumb though…

#3: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM

Years ago Breath of the Wild not only launched the Switch into immediate sales success, but also started a conversation about how to craft an interesting open world game after years of the genre feeling overdone. And now in the twilight years of the Switch, Tears of the Kingdom returns to that same world with some new tricks. Link’s new abilities give players even more options for engaging in that world, and many of them are true technical marvels. I’ve gone over a lot of this game in a separate blog post, so I won’t try to reiterate what I said there too much, but ultimately I just enjoyed getting to bounce around a familiar world with even more freedom and opportunities to mess around and see how things worked.

I’d argue that TOTK has more in common with a big old box of random Lego pieces than a game at times. Half the fun is reaching inside and seeing what I can create when mixing and matching things together. Using Link’s Ultrahand and Fusion abilities I can craft vehicles and weapons that are often very goofy and don’t always work right…but when you land on something that’s just crazy enough to work it’s magical. In addition to the massive world from BOTW we also have islands in the sky to investigate, alongside the mysterious Depths, so there was always something to poke at and do. You get into a pretty solid gameplay loop of using the sky islands to look for areas of interest down below, then messing around on the ground during quests and visiting towns, before traveling into the Depths to harvest ore that goes towards making a variety of vehicles that can help me get around elsewhere, especially when it comes to getting back into the sky. Your options start out limited, but as you play you get more and more tools to work with and your various mechanisms become that much more complex. This even gets reflected in some of the dungeons you investigate, with one in the Depths in particular being such a programming flex, tons of game developers on Twitter were losing it, just wondering how Nintendo made it happen. For as much as we tout graphical upgrades as true progress in games, Nintendo is doing more interesting things with the very innards of a game using a console that was already out of date when it launched, and that needs to be championed.

For as much time as I poured into this game (probably somewhere close to 200 hours), I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed all of it. With that amount of playtime, you’re bound to notice some cracks. While this game definitely amplified everything I loved about BOTW, it also failed to really address many of the concerns people had with the previous game. Fusion as a mechanic makes ALL weapons feel usable to a degree, but the constant breaking is even MORE frequent. While there IS a way to stop slipping on wet surfaces, it requires a TON of time investment and the potions that give you slip resistance feel like a bandage over the whole annoyance. And then there’s the story being…very repetitive and a bit too much like the previous game in ways. I can see why talk of this game kind of dried up faster compared to BOTW; there was both a lot more competition this year, but also a lot of this game felt too derivative and lost that novelty of the original game. I wouldn’t have poured over 200 hours into the game if I didn’t love it, but there was definitely enough there to hold it back from being my favorite experience of the year.

#2: XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 3: FUTURE REDEEMED

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was my GOTY last year, and I knew that a beefy DLC campaign was still in the chamber. I was looking forward to Future Redeemed, but it exceeded about all of my expectations. While the core Xenoblade games have their connections, they’ve all been relatively standalone experiences on the whole until now. I had remembered going into Xenoblade 3, curious to see how all of these elements from the first two games would come together, but that game’s story leaned far more on the brand new cast rather than touching on the older characters in the series and I was left with a lack of closure. I should have had more faith in Monolith Soft, as Future Redeemed serves as not just a prequel to the story in Xenoblade 3, but as the glue that ties the entire Xenoblade series together.

Similar to Xenoblade 2’s Torna: The Golden Country DLC campaign, Future Redeemed is about the size of a medium-sized RPG in its own right, even if it never got a standalone release like Torna did. It keeps a lot of the same core systems of the base game here, but with some interesting twists. Whereas base game Xenoblade 3 made use of a class system and the ability for allies to fuse together, Future Redeemed emphasized pairing up different characters so they could cover for each other’s weaknesses or add to their strengths, on top of having some flashy combination attacks. There was a ton of things to do on the world map at any moment, with Monolith Soft making great use of a more limited map compared to the base game. Seriously, grind rails that can go up AND down were about the one thing Xenoblade 3 really needed! There was also just…so much fanservice and real love for this series found throughout. Seeing Shulk and Rex, the protagonists of the past entries, interacting with each other was fantastic, and newcomer Matthew was a great lead in his own right.

Longtime fans of Monolith Soft CEO and overall creator of the Xenoblade series, Tetsuya Takahashi, will know that his vision of a complete story has been a difficult one to see to completion. Starting back with Xenogears and later Xenosaga, it’s here that Xenoblade finally managed to have a satisfying multi-game arc and conclusion that finally answered some burning questions I had from the ending of 3. Somehow Future Redeemed managed to bring it all together in ways that longtime fans had always hoped for, and all in a neat 30-ish hour package. While I had greatly enjoyed Xenoblade 3, it was still missing something and Future Redeemed was that final piece, making me feel really valued as a longtime fan in the series, and also seems to have some nods to fans of the overarching “Xeno metaseries” that makes me extremely interested in seeing just where Takahashi’s Wild Ride takes us. If this DLC was an indication, the future is indeed bright.

#1: SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER

As long as we’re talking of bright futures…boy is it good to be a Mario fan right now. From a billion dollar box office hit, to remakes of two beloved RPG spinoffs, that alone would have satisfied fans of the plumber, but then we got hit with the first wholly original 2D Mario in almost two decades. While the New Super Mario Bros. games were all mostly well-regarded critically and commercially, they were just as often considered kind of stale. Inoffensive, but not very interesting, and with so many pumped out in such a short time, it was felt that Mario’s 2D outings had lost something. With the Super Mario Maker games, many had felt that Nintendo had done all that they could with the formula and left it in the hands of fans…but boy were we wrong.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is oozing creativity out of every pore. From the stylish art direction that calls back to the older 2D art from the NES and SNES days, to the focus on music found throughout the game, it’s a rare game that made me smile about the whole way through. So much here feels fresh and different, from the litany of brand new enemies and power ups, to the various Wonder effects that often cap off levels and take them off the rails. I’ve gushed about this game enough in a separate blog post, which you can read here, but ultimately it has to be said that Wonder is a fantastic experience from moment to moment.

Not every game needs to be revolutionary or create a whole new industry standard to be recognized as great. Sometimes it just needs to be really fun. But even so, the amount of care that went into Wonder deserves praise. The developers weren’t given a deadline at first and got to really explore ideas before nailing things down. To see so much of the original Mario crew still involved on this project after so many years in the industry also showcases Nintendo’s iterative design that is continually polished to a fine sheen. The simple act of moving around is so smooth and responsive, the level design constantly plays with your expectations and makes hunting for secrets such a blast, and many of the new mechanics are slotted in seamlessly, like they were always there. Why yes, giving Mario a grappling hook makes perfect sense! Of COURSE he can turn into an elephant and put out fires with water shot out of the trunk! Some dislike the changes to multiplayer, no longer having any collision or ways to really screw with other players, but that results in seamless online play that lets players experience the levels together, yet apart, in a way I haven’t seen many other games implement. Being able to guide newer players through levels by giving them hints, or even a power up if they need it, and throwing down a standee sign that can revive them even if I’m not there…it’s really something special, akin to how players of Journey felt back in the day. The one blemish on what is otherwise a perfect experience are the boss fights that are both too few and too same-y, but honestly that’s a nitpick in the grand scheme of things. So yeah, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the game that probably gave me the most joy this year. Not the longest game or the most technically impressive, but a masterclass in design that deserves every bit of praise.

CONCLUSION

There are tons of games I wish I got to this year. I’m sure this list would look a LOT different if I had a beefier PC to check out certain games with, or a fancy new PS5, but that wasn’t in the cards this year. If anything though that just goes to show how many talented people are in this industry that there are so many finely-crafted experiences, so many ambitious titles that keep pushing the medium forward. It was admittedly a lighter year for Nintendo, which has always been my bias, but I’m glad to see the folks over at Remedy and Larian and so many others pushing the boundaries of what we can expect to see in games. Having a virtual D&D campaign filled with moments where you have to adapt to things on the fly is nothing short of a magical experience, and seeing how Alan Wake 2 fuses together film and video game to create something so unique deserves its roses as well. Ultimately though, this was a year filled with some developers running on all cylinders, truly excelling at their craft. We’re getting fighting games with honest-to-God single player content! Strategy games are alive and well and continue to tease and torment players with tough decisions. All the while smaller developers pump passion into their projects, resulting in some fantastic experiences all their own. It was a good year for games and I look forward to seeing what will make my list next year. Until next time.

-B

A Tribute to Akira Toriyama

It’s been a bit over 24 hours since I’ve heard the news that acclaimed manga author, Akira Toriyama, has passed away, and frankly it’s still hard to process. I’d like to just say a few things to honor and mourn a man that I have never met, but whose work touched me and millions of others all over the world in ways I am only now really beginning to see.

Like a lot of 90s kids in the United States, my first exposure with Toriyama’s work was through the Dragon Ball Z anime. Despite the fact that I didn’t even know this was a sequel to a completely different series, and I had no real clue what anime even was at the time, I was captivated. For years I would race home from school and sit glued in front of the TV as Toonami would air the latest episodes. A phenomenon that rippled out across the world for several years in waves, from the original airing of DBZ, to some snippets of the original Dragon Ball and even later on with the anime-only continuation that was Dragon Ball GT, this series had such a hold on me. Friends and I would spend recess trying to recreate the iconic Kamehameha Wave, we’d scream trying to become a Super Saiyan, or take turns fighting each other in one of the MANY different video games based on the series over time. I’ve made friends through my love of Dragon Ball and it would go on to foster a love of anime and later manga. But little did I know just how far Toriyama’s influence would reach.

While I was never all that knowledgeable of his past work, particularly Dr. Slump, so many other series would be inspired by him or have his involvement in some way. Sonic the Hedgehog’s Super Sonic is an easy reference to spot, but less so was Cloud Strife’s garb in Final Fantasy VII being a dead ringer for Gohan’s outfit in the Cell Saga. As long as we’re talking about RPGs, Toriyama’s long history with various properties, from Chrono Trigger to Blue Dragon, and going back to the grandfather of all RPGS in Dragon Quest, it’s safe to say his legacy is felt in multiple mediums rather than just one. This wasn’t even limited to Japanese media either. I would see references to Dragon Ball in things like The Powerpuff Girls or Codename: Kids Next Door. Even well into my 20s, I was still seeing series inspired by him, like the whole fusion concept that made up Steven Universe. His reach was vast and multigenerational.

As I would get older, I would listen to Linkin Park AMVs on YouTube, with songs like Numb or In the End overlaid over the various hypest moments from the Dragon Ball series and its later movies. Even long after the series had finished airing, you’d still see the rare movie or special crop up, alongside an endless series of games trying to capitalize on the success of the Budokai Tenkaichi games. Toriyama was inescapable, and in a way it was comforting. You start to get used to his work being there, whether subtly or overtly. You never think about the day when he’ll be gone.

When first reading the article stating his death, it took a moment to really let it sink in. This man who had been with me, inspiring me throughout my childhood, was gone just like that. Over the past day I’ve seen the greater Internet in mourning, as people share their favorite manga panels, or iconic moments from the various anime interpretations of his work. Outpourings of fanart and inspirational stories from people who grew up with his work just like I did. There are people that got into bodybuilding to be just like Goku, for one. For another, during the finale of Dragon Ball Super there were massive watch parties set up in Mexico and even when authorities tried to stop the events they went forward anyway because they just had to see how Goku could finally defeat Jiren. I remember when Trunks first appeared in the anime, and I thought he was the coolest. I had to try to draw and replicate his first appearance, how he defeated Frieza, the person that took Goku so long to defeat, in a mere instant; I’m realizing now Toriyama might have been my real inspiration to start drawing, alongside who knows how many thousands if not millions of people. As sad as it is to see him go, to see so many people pay tribute and remember him, it really does lay bare just how influential he was, just how powerful art can really be.

It was only in more recent years that I’ve come to really respect Toriyama’s craft. Far beyond the screaming and power ups that many associate with him from Dragon Ball Z this was also a man who valued whimsy. He got his start as a comedy author, and for the longest time the Dragon Ball manga was just a humorous retelling of Journey to the West. The man loved a good bit of toilet humor and the occasional fourth wall break. Looking back at his manga, you can see just how amazing his panel work was, and how it still holds up. The ease at which he guides your eye from panel to panel, the expressiveness of his characters conveyed at all times. Many of his peers have called him a God of Manga, and I think they’re right to do so. The likes of Osamu Tezuka, the creator of manga, had called Toriyama his heir apparent, and stated he was “almost too good.” You can’t get higher praise than that.

Outside of his manga work, just his raw talent at creating iconic character designs needs to be praised. Taking a rather uninteresting mockup of the slime enemy in Dragon Quest, Toriyama would create perhaps the most iconic enemy in all of video games. His enemy designs are often cute and goofy, but occasionally can be quite ferocious. If nothing else, they are eye-catching and never boring. He was also a fan of vehicles and machines, with some really interesting modes of transportation shown off in a lot of his work. And then there’s the fact that so many of his characters have the trademark spikey haircut that has become shorthand for “anime hair,” that is understood to this day. To see him effectively retire after finishing with Dragon Ball back in the 90s, with the occasional contribution here or there, only to get right back to business as usual in the 2010s with amazing designs like Beerus or Android 21, not to mention his continual work on the Dragon Quest series all throughout that time…the man never lost his edge even once.

A sentiment I’ve seen over the last day or so is that Toriyama might, with no exaggeration, have inspired more artists than anyone else in modern history. So many people making their own “Saiyan-sonas” or being inspired to make manga of their own…we may truly never know how far his reach really was at the end of the day. But we do know that the “Big Three” of Shonen Jump throughout the 2000s can be attributed to Toriyama, as the likes of Eiichiro Oda, Masashi Kishimoto and Tite Kubo are all big fans of Toriyama, with Oda in particular worshiping the ground he walks on. Kubo is also on the record for stating that a letter from Toriyama, when his first draft of what would later become BLEACH was rejected, gave him the encouragement to try again and later be accepted into the magazine. And now these authors have gone on to inspire the next generation and so on and so on.

Over the last few years, we’ve lost a lot of creative figures in the manga industry. Toriyama now joins other similar legends, such as Yu-Gi-Oh creator Kazuki Takahashi as well as Berserk author Kentaro Miura. It is the end of an era, arguably of many eras, and it can be hard to imagine the future, but the Earth continues to spin and as Toriyama has inspired and influenced others, we too will inspire future generations with our work. It isn’t enough to call him a legend; he truly was in a league of his own, a legend among legends, and the outpouring of love for him across all manner of social media posts in just a little over a day alone is a testament to his immense talent and reach. I can think of no greater sendoff than the one that Eiichiro Oda gave him: “I pray for his soulful rest in peace. May heaven be the joyous world he envisioned.”

Rest in peace, and thanks for everything, Mr. Toriyama.

-B

2023 In Gaming: Great For Games, Terrible for Workers

It’s that time of year again (or perhaps a bit later than usual), and while we await the juicy gaming news and big reveals of 2024, we should really take 2023 to task. Every year in gaming is going to have its highs and lows, and especially since the start of this decade it’s been…a fairly tumultuous time. 2023 still manages to stand out from what’s come before. A huge refrain you might have heard throughout the year was that “2023 is great for games!” So many highly regarded games and some really big success stories…but that isn’t the whole story. So yes, 2023 was a great year for games, but a terrible year for anyone working in the industry itself.

THE BIG THREE’S BIG YEAR

We can start by examining the Big Three of the gaming sphere: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Sony themselves had a somewhat mixed year overall. Certain timed or console exclusives like Forspoken or Final Fantasy XVI had somewhat mixed reception, though the latter at least seemed to sell alright. In the realm of adaptations to their video games, things were somewhat better. While the Gran Turismo movie…exists, and many enjoyed the Twisted Metal series, the real winner here was HBO’s live-action Last of Us series. It won critical acclaim for it’s writing and acting, regarded by many as one of the better game adaptations out there. The biggest first-party release was obviously Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 and while that game did get a fair bit of acclaim and is the fastest selling PS5 exclusive so far…not long afterward Insomniac was hit with a major hack that put a real damper on things. From personal employee information being stolen in this hack, as well as the plans for Insomniac’s next few projects (such as the already-confirmed Wolverine game), there was also a lot of information shared about Insomniac’s difficulties with selling games to appease Sony higher-ups. At one point, one presentation questioned the much larger budget for Spider-Man 2 and how that didn’t seem to translate to higher sales, or even significant recognition for that extra bit of cash injected into things. While Sony seems to be doing fine in some regards, the PS5 having sold over 50 million units, keeping pace with the PS4’s sales along the same time frame, there are signs that the company is having major issues behind the scenes. After the acquisition of Bungie last year, (alongside the Firewalk Studios acquisition this year), Sony has changed course on a number of in-development live-service titles, shelving over half of them. Adding to this, there was the rather strange announcement of the Playstation Portal, a device that lets you stream games to a small screen imbedded in a PS5 Duelsense controller. Many have likened that to the ill-fated Wii U system, and as it stands it feels like a strange project to put money into with an uncertain audience to adopt it. Alongside their continued VR efforts, Sony trudges on, but the cost of these endeavors might be starting to take a toll.

For Microsoft undoubtedly the biggest story this year from them was the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Despite resistance from various government officials, the business deal eventually went through. Along the way some absolutely WILD statements were thrown around by the likes of both Microsoft AND Sony, from downplaying Nintendo’s success in the industry, to Microsoft basically admitting to having failed the entirety of the Xbox One generation and losing customers, feeling that they NEEDED to take steps to become a monopoly to even compete. As talks closed down, Microsoft would promise to keep Call of Duty on Playstation consoles for the immediate future, though other titles are up in the air. Regarding their games this year, I’d say it was also a bit of a mixed bag. Starting the year off strong with the shadow drop of Hi-Fi Rush, a colorful, inventive rhythm action game by Tango Gameworks under Bethesda, we would later see the atrocious reception to Arkane’s Redfall not long afterward. Along with this, we ended the year with Starfield, a supposed “game of the generation” that many hyped up as being the ace in the hole Microsoft needed. That said…the game didn’t quite make the impact many might have wanted. While selling around 12 million copies by the end of the year, the game seemed to vanish from public opinion entirely. No nominations at The Game Awards, and no major impact on the gaming industry compared to the Elder Scrolls entries that came before it. Gamepass still goes on as a subscription service that attempts to bring in more players, but even Phil Spencer knows a lot of work must be done to win over fans again. During an appearance on the Kinda Funny podcast, Spencer was asked some hard questions on Xbox’s fumbles and he was honestly pretty frank, especially an admittance that losing the Xbox One generation was a major mistake that they’re still paying for. Regardless of the money they throw around, it’s clear Xbox is still on the defensive.

Now, I’ll admit I’m probably a bit biased here, but Nintendo had a hell of a year and is the clear “winner” for the Big Three. The launch of Super Nintendo World across various Universal theme parks was mostly well received and I’m sure that will continue to expand as the years go by. Getting in on the trend to have a shadow dropped hit, Metroid Prime Remastered came mostly out of nowhere to tantalize us and whet our appetite for the long-awaited Metroid Prime 4. Pikmin fans were thrown a real bone this year; from the first two games being ported to Switch to the release of the equally long-awaited Pikmin 4, the series feels like it’s experiencing a boom of newer players that could take the series to new highs. Strategy fans saw the release of Fire Emblem Engage, a title celebrating the history of the franchise, alongside the revised released date for the Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp remakes. For the Xenoblade fans this year, the final bit of DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Future Redeemed served as an amazing sendoff to the trilogy and a way to tie things together in a way many fans had hoped for but figured would never come. One of the absolute biggest games this year was the latest Legend of Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom. Building on what the previous entry, Breath of the Wild started, this was seen by many as a technical marvel. Getting such a massive world to run seamlessly on the Switch’s tech is witchcraft, as is the game’s advanced physics and building mechanics. Engineers were blown away by what this game accomplished, no doubt helped by the game having essentially an entire year of polish. That said, the game didn’t seem to quite hit the mark for some fans and ended up repeating some of the criticisms of Breath of the Wild, somewhat reducing its overall impact. Mario fans had a TON to chew on this year. For starters, there was the smashing success of the Super Mario Bros. Movie, with it becoming a billion-dollar earner for Nintendo and Illumination. While critically it didn’t fare well, it fared well with audiences and was clearly part of a plan to push the plumber this holiday season. The first wholly original 2D platfomer in a long time, Super Mario Bros. Wonder released to critical acclaim at the end of the year, alongside the reveals of remakes for Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, thrilling longtime Mario RPG fans. With a Princess Peach game on the way in early 2024, alongside a remake of the original Mario vs. Donkey Kong game and a Luigi’s Mansion 2 port, Mario fans are eating well. This year also saw us saying goodbye to Charles Martinet as Mario’s voice, taking on the task of being a “Mario ambassador” (whatever that means) as we welcome newcomer Kevin Afghani to this role. With rumors of a new Nintendo console being revealed (and maybe even released) in 2024, Nintendo’s future is looking quite bright as the Switch enters its twilight years with some amazing games. But that’s just the Big Three so…what about everyone else?

OTHER INDUSTRY ILK

One major thing that really stood out this year was the final nail hammered into the coffin that is E3. The Electronic Entertainment Expo seems to be dead and buried, cancelling not just the 2023 venue but the next two years as well. After years of being THE place to get gaming news and reveals, it really is the end of an era. We’re at a point where other developers are using their own digital presentations on their own timetables to great effect, following Nintendo’s lead with their successful “Nintendo Direct” format. While E3 was a great way for fans to play games before anyone else and for some truly legendary on-stage moments to occur, the pandemic clearly sped up the venue’s demise, not helped by longstanding controversy with leaking attendee information and the costs of running these large presentations.

Sega had a particularly interesting year, starting with their acquisition of Angry Birds studio, Rovio which is sure to bring in some money. Following the success that the Sonic the Hedgehog brand has seen this year, Sega also seems poised to carry that momentum into new titles. They revealed several new entries in long-dormant series such as Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi among others right at the end of the year, and are also apparently hard at work at some extremely expensive “super game,” though seeing as they also cancelled an expensive new IP in Hyenas I’m a little skeptical of how this project will turn out. Sega of America also voted to unionize, which seems like good news, but there have also been apparent threats of layoffs if a union comes to pass which puts a real damper on things.

Square Enix had a somewhat rocky year. Forspoken was one of the more ridiculed games online this year, particularly due to its dialogue, and it failed to earn high sales. The primary team behind this title, Luminous, has since folded back into Square Enix proper and the engine they used for this title (as well as Final Fantasy XV) seems like it might be shelved despite a lot of time and money pumped into it. Square Enix themselves has also stated that they are going to start focusing almost entirely on larger-scale projects and scaling back on smaller games in the near future, likely as a result of several smaller projects released over the last few years not doing very well.

When it comes to larger figures in the industry itself, it’s also been a bit of an off-year. Following the disastrous launch of Babylon’s Fall and the shaky reception of Bayonetta 3, one of the founding members of Platinumgames, Hideki Kamiya, left the company in late 2023. Starting a YouTube channel in his spare time, it’s currently unclear why Kamiya left the company, though leadership apparently going full-steam ahead on live-service titles despite signs of the bubble bursting in the industry is a pretty good guess as to why. Someone of Kamiya’s pedigree would likely be a great asset to any developer…just as soon as his non-compete clause ends. Elsewhere, Yuji Naka, largely viewed as the “creator” of Sonic the Hedgehog, was also sentenced to prison for insider trading during his time at Square Enix. It’s safe to say that Naka’s reputation in the industry is about shot, though it’s sad to see the fall from grace all the same.

Speaking of falls from grace, Unity as a developer tool and engine is likely going to be a thing of the past soon. Following news that Unity would begin charging developers after they’ve past enough sales of titles that use Unity, many have sworn off the engine entirely, or are at least heavily considering it. Konami also continues to lose a lot of goodwill from fans as many Silent Hill fans are forced to watch the quality of the franchise fumble. Silent Hill Ascension is being regarded as one of the most hated games of last year, with some accusations that the game’s writing might be using AI generated scripts, if not voice work. AI has itself become a hot button issue for most of 2023, and the gaming industry isn’t immune to that. Alongside Ascension, Embark Studios’ The Finals was under fire for using AI voices for the game in lieu of paying professional actors, and the most recent entry in the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series has been accused of using AI voices for at least the English dub of some lines, though nothing has been officially proven. Of course we also have more old-fashioned scams alive and well with The Day Before, an online shooter accused of asset flipping and misleading marketing that ended up killing its developer, Fntastic, after only being available for purchase for about four days. Scams are eternal.

Leaks are ALSO eternal. Outside of the massive hack and leak of information from Insomniac, Rockstar also suffered various hacks, with the Grand Theft Auto V source code potentially stolen. This comes alongside the source code for League of Legends also being stolen from Riot. A bit of a recurring story throughout 2023 was repeated leaks of military information from forums for the game War Thunder as well; it seems people would risk the wrath of the US Military just to win some online arguments.

To end this segment on some GOOD news in the industry, several sexual assault cases from Riot, Activision and Ubisoft resulted in several victims receiving settlements. Several former members of Ubisoft were even jailed following sexual assault allegations, so there’s at least SOME justice in the world. And for some interesting surprise hits of the year, there were quite a few!

Larian ended up stealing the hearts and minds of gamers in 2023 with the long-awaited release of Baldur’s Gate 3. They would go on to sweep many award shows at the year’s end, enjoying tons of sales success for the title. Effectively letting players enter into the world of Dungeons and Dragons with a moving story filled to the brim with charming characters, it was also considered a marvel at giving players TONS of freedom to explore, fight and progress through the game. In some respects, it’s the next best thing to a real tabletop experience with lot of room for improvisation and countless variables resulting in unique playthroughs for everyone. Remedy also gained a lot of attention for the release of the similarly-long-awaited Alan Wake 2. A survival horror game with an arthouse approach, many praised the game’s presentation and foreboding atmosphere…alongside some dazzling musical numbers thrown in for good measure. After years of hit or miss titles, Remedy seems to have really hit their grove and fans have been enjoying the “Remedyverse” that has been connecting so many of these projects together. From the likes of the Max Payne games to Quantum Break, Control and now Alan Wake, the story goes ever deeper, and many a fan can’t wait to see where it goes next.

On top of the big AAA hits, it’s important to not forget some of the most notable indie hits this year. From RPG throwbacks like Sea of Stars to the colorful, distinctly-animated platformer that is Pizza Tower, there’s too many to list. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a loving spiritual successor to the likes of Jet Set Radio that has been in the works for quite a bit, and for fans of fishing, the horrors of Dredge were sure to delight. While not a 2023 game, this was the year that saw Suika Game gain a huge amount of fans due to various streamers (and Vtubers) playing it, resulting in a worldwide release after previously being only available in Japan. A fruit-based puzzle game, where players try to merge the same types of fruits to make progressively bigger fruits, the simple charm of the game won over millions of new players, having sold over 5 million copies by the end of the year. But if we’re talking big sales success with indies, we have to bring up the sleeper hit that is Lethal Company. Developed by Zeekers, previously an amateur developer using Roblox, Lethal Company came out of nowhere to become one of the biggest hits of the year at over 10 million sales since October of 2023, and this is still as an early access title. A co-op horror experience, players enter into creepy facilities in hopes of finding scrap and spare parts to sell in order to make a profit…but many things lurk in the shadows and players will have to keep their wits about them to survive and meet their quotas. A simple game and certainly a bit crude at points, the game’s success speaks for itself, becoming a gigantic hit especially with streamers. Just goes to show that success can come from anywhere.

While that covers the industry in broad strokes, I’d like to now spend some time investigating some more specific trends that slowly emerged throughout the year. Strap in, because with few exceptions, things start to get a bit bleak.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE A JRPG

With Final Fantasy XVI as one of the most talked about games of 2023, not all of that talk was positive. Playing like a traditional action game was controversial for longtime fans that associate the series more with turn-based affairs, or at least “RPG staples” like multiple party members and gear to collect and swap around to make builds. Many argued it was wrong to call the game an RPG at all. During the various bits of press for this game, as well as the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Rebirth game, Tetsuya Nomura mentioned his own dislike of the term “JRPG,” feeling it was trying to “other” games out of Japan. This kicked off a whole slew of discourse over whether he had a point or not. Some argued it was always said endearingly, or pointing out that design differences between a game like, say, Final Fantasy VII was markedly different from, say, a Fallout or Witcher game. While they are all considered RPGs, the way they are designed and play are so different that the umbrella term ceases to be useful. It did lead to some interesting discussions of game genres and how they’ve evolved over the years, but also a lot of disparaging remarks that seemed to brush off Nomura’s dislike of the term, among other things.

Nomura’s offhand comment on JRPGs would be the catalyst for a greater discussion of how western journalists and gaming pundits would often disparage anything out of Japan in the past decade or so. In some cases these seemed to be tongue-in-cheek digs, but some could be far more unpleasant and looking at them from today’s standards, it led to many a jaw drop. Among all this talk, the game review show, X-Play, was often brought up. So many “jokes” and comments directed at anything outside of Japan were seen as being incredibly racist at worst and just in poor taste and crass at best. From the constant mocking of anime or manga fans, not to mention RPG fans during this era, there was this common belief around the seventh console generation or so that the West was on top and Japan had fallen behind. Certainly Japan did struggle with the switch to HD consoles and certain Western franchises like Call of Duty or Halo found great success around this time, but none of that really excused the venom that was directed at Japan at the time.

While I think you can argue that things have largely improved over the years, that one random comment from Nomura opened up some old wounds and a lot of that xenophobia that had started to fade away during the 2010s came RUSHING back as various game pundits denied any such sentiments had existed. Adam Sessler, one of the former hosts of X-Play, didn’t exactly have the best response to criticisms though. There have also still been some statements made from Western devs in recent years that show these sentiments are still around, such as firing back against Elden Ring’s UI and general UX design among other things. If anything, I think it shows that the gaming industry still has a lot of growing up to do and some skeletons in the closet they keep trying to hide.

CAPCOM RECLAIMS THEIR CROWN

Of my many biases, fighting games are a big one, and this year had a lot to talk about regarding the genre. Let’s start with the bad before we get to the good though. For starters, the winner of “Best Fighting Game” for 2022, Multiversus, ended up being taken offline partway through the year. Having started its second season of content around the holiday season of 2022, updates began slowing down to a crawl with only one new character added during that season amidst some seasonal costumes and events. The developers, Player First Games, would announce that the game’s beta period was ending and we would see the game return…sometime in 2024. This was confusing for many as it felt like the game’s full release had already happened alongside the first season pass. Considering the game’s hefty monetization, it certainly SEEMED like a full release, but as of now it’s as if the game never happened and considering the tumultuous nature of Warner Bros. after the Discovery merger, there is a real fear the game might not actually be brought back. Alongside this, the fighting game battle royale, Rumbleverse also shut down in 2023. Despite its interesting twist on the genre, many fans just didn’t click with it and it was lost in the sea of other live-service titles. Nintendo also ended up turning heads when they revised their tournament guidelines for games like the Super Smash Bros. series. Many are left confused and frustrated with the constant attempts to throttle the competitive scene, though at this point what else is new with Nintendo?

That said, there was a lot of hype this year with a variety of reveals and launches of some greater fighters out there. With more news on SNK’s new fighter in the Garou series, City of the Wolves, fans are looking forward to seeing them continue onwards, on top of them finally adding rollback netcode into the latest Samurai Shodown game. Arc System Works continued to pump out content for Guilty Gear Strive, and despite security issues with hackers affecting some players and lukewarm receptions to much of the season 2 DLC characters, season 3 has been more highly regarded with new mechanics, special moves, characters and modes being added. ArcSys would also throw fans of Granblue Fantasy a bone with an updated pseudo-sequel to the licensed fighting game with Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, finally giving that series rollback netcode for fans to enjoy. Speaking of rollback, Dragon Ball FighterZ also finally received updates on the rollback to be integrated into the game, making just about every modern ArcSys game in line with online quality. French Bread fully unveiled Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes, a sequel to their original IP, launching right at the start of 2024. Namco’s Tekken 8 is also hotly anticipated, with many fans welcoming the new installment after years of waiting.

When it came to the biggest releases for fighting fans though, Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 were the stars of the show. The former was Capcom’s apology for the previous game’s sorry launch, on top of creating a deeply satisfying set of mechanics and new characters to play with, on top of a significant single player campaign with World Tour Mode, with perhaps the best online experience in a modern fighting game. Capcom also drew attention to their Capcom Cup tournament taking place in 2024, with the winner receiving one million dollars, which certainly helped propel interest in Street Fighter 6. Meanwhile, the latter was the first game set in a brand new universe following the events of the previous Mortal Kombat, and while the assist-based gameplay with the new “Kameo” system was praised, fans had some qualms with the story in this “new” world alongside the game’s DLC characters feeling a tad redundant (both Omni-Man from Invincible and Homelander from The Boys make the cut, both being “evil Superman” archetypes). The game also launched with a number of bugs and many criticized the lack of single player content compared to other entries, but it was still a major sales success.

Seeing new entries in the biggest fighting game series launching within a year of each other, Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat fans are eating well as we enter into a new era of fighting games. With some exceptions and issues here or there, most fighting games have finally embraced rollback netcode, and we’re starting to see more emphasis placed on single player content, resulting in games that feel like full packages. Indie fighters also pop up every so often, pushing boundaries in ways the bigger budget games might not, so no matter where you look there’s something to look forward to. I hope you all enjoyed this brief indulging of my biases and some rare good news in the industry, because our final segment here is going to cover what is easily the most distressing trend about this year in video games.

AN ENDLESS SEA OF LAYOFFS AND CLOSURES

There is no sugarcoating it; 2023 was absolutely awful for many in the industry, as month after month news of layoffs and closures would ripple throughout the industry. Studios big and small have seen massive issues, and as a bit of a spoiler for 2024, that trend isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Where to even begin here? We have the absolute industry giant Epic Games cutting over 16% of its workforce, as reported in September. That’s over 870 jobs gone in the blink of an eye. Despite Fortnite being the biggest thing ever, apparently for years Epic hasn’t been really making much money and these layoffs are an attempt to cushion that blow. It’s hard to really picture the BILLIONS of dollars they rake in between Fortnite, licensing out the Unreal Engine and various other revenue streams still not cutting it, but regardless workers are paying the price.

(from PC Gamer)

Really, September and October were where the floodgates really started to open with closing after closing, layoff after layoff. The QA staff for the upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf game were laid off after being brought on to help out Bioware in late September. Team 17, known for the Worms series of games has laid off much of its QA staff, around 50 jobs on top of the CEO leaving. Following over three different rounds of layoffs, the devs over at CD Projekt Red have started unionizing to protect themselves. That’s over another 100 jobs lost. Things aren’t safe at Bungie either, also reporting layoffs, on top of a “soul-crushing” atmosphere at the studio. That’s about another 100 gone, same with Pokémon GO developer Niantic. These layoffs come at the price of cancelling games and delaying expansions, with employee morale at an all-time low. Even studios that died once and were resurrected, like Telltale Games, have seen layoffs.

Layoffs are already bad enough, but longtime developer Volition shut down in 2023 following several rough years. Once well-known for the Saint’s Row series, things were rocky after the fourth game’s somewhat mixed reception. Following the absolute dud that was Agents of Mayhem, the Saint’s Row reboot failed to perform well. That said, much of the blame for Volition’s demise must be laid at the feet of Embracer Group, their parent company that swiped them up a few years prior. Embracer was on a spending spree for quite some time, snatching up various other studios such as Eidos and Crystal Dynamics from Square Enix, which have also seen better days more recently, but the biggest blow came from a 2 BILLION dollar deal falling through, and as such they have had to do some serious “restructuring.” Considering they’ve snatched up somewhere around 138 different game studios alongside all of the other non-gaming ventures they’ve gone to (such as buying the IP rights to Lord of the Rings), this could wind up being absolutely catastrophic. One really has to question just where this ends, and if we might be brushing up against another gaming crash.

For my own two cents here, this is partially the results of unchecked corporate greed, mixed in with the short-sighted belief that the boom the tech and entertainment sector enjoyed with COVID would go on forever. As much as the pandemic lingers and the world state has changed, things are not like they were for the bulk of 2020 when most people were stuck inside with nothing to do. As the “streaming wars” have raged on with movies and what was once television, games continued to do well and brought in tons of money that is now drying up, at least in comparison to the days of lockdowns. We’re at a point in capitalism where the negative effects are harder and harder to ignore. Studios are bought up and then multiple “redundant” jobs are removed. All in the pursuit of capital. The line must ALWAYS go up, and it doesn’t matter how many people must suffer for that to happen. This year was good for business but don’t ever forget that it came at a very human cost.

CONCLUSION

Alright, let’s take a breath and try to take this all in. It’s kind of crazy what can happen in a year, just looking at one industry. As many were so quick to say throughout the year, it was a GREAT time for video games. Some amazing sequels, sleeper hits and breakthroughs in the industry I hold so dear. I’ve made it no secret that gaming is one of my biggest interests and over the last few years especially, it’s served as an escape from…well, the awfulness that seems to have enveloped the entire world. It’s certainly important to highlight the good in this industry. I’m glad to see a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 resonate with so many people, showing that games like this can find mass appeal and success. It was great to see the Xenoblade series get some closure with the trilogy’s final bit of DLC, which also feels like closure for all of the various projects Monolift Soft have been involved with dating back to the days of Xenogears. Seeing Sega bringing back classic IPs is always good to see, and Remedy finally hitting the big time with Alan Wake 2’s success is heartwarming. There was a time when Sam Lake felt a sequel would never happen, and then this year ended with him performing a song and dance number from the game at The Game Awards. A lot of fantastic games and great memories this year, but we can’t lose sight of the worst aspects of the industry that produces these experiences.

People make games, not corporations. People that work hard for years and often never get even a shred of recognition. And then, when we’re seeing record levels of profits, they can be cut loose. All to please the almighty shareholders. I don’t know how we get better from here; again, going into 2024 we’re still seeing TONS of layoffs that rival 2023 already. This isn’t going to get better anytime soon. It’s worth pointing out that this has been predominantly a Western gaming issue, and Japan has seen little if any layoffs overall. There definitely seems to be much stricter labor lays in Japan comparatively. The legacy of Satoru Iwata during his time at Nintendo is greatly impacted by his repeated reduction of his own salary to prevent layoffs during the tepid Wii U years, and while that is a very noble thing…that also just kind of seems like a cultural norm over there. I’m not saying the answers to our troubles lie solely in the Japanese gaming industry, as they have their own problems, but it’d be great if CEOs worldwide would realize that constant downsizing and expensive acquisitions don’t exactly keep the industry healthy. Because honestly if this continues there won’t really be much of a gaming industry anymore.

So far, roughly a month in, 2024 is already giving us a ton of things to talk about, but I’ll hold out hope that at least some of it will be some positive news for the industry going forward. Rumors have been swelling for a while that Nintendo’s next major console will release in 2024, and with the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles entering into their fourth years on the market, people are looking forward to seeing this new generation really take off. At any rate, I’m sure it will take a great while for things to stabilize. I suppose in the meantime, we still have indies! So that’s something, right? It’s hard to really end things on a positive note when you really look back at all the garbage at the end of the year. But it’s important to not give into despair and just let things go by without comment. As bad as things have been this year, it’s always possible to turn things around. While 2024 still isn’t looking great for employment in the industry, we still have 11 months to go, and I will hold out hope we can see some momentum swing into the other direction. That said, I think that’s about enough for now. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the next time I do one of these, I’ll have some better things to talk about.

Take care out there!

-B

Super Mario Bros. Wonder: How Mario Got His Groove Back

Mario has had a rough regression into 2D. Once the top dog in platformers, Mario has been in a bit of a lurch regarding a number of his titles for the last several years. While once seen as a breath of fresh air, as the New Super Mario Bros. series went on many regarded them as too same-y and stagnant. The same could be said for the 3D titles, as every title from Super Mario Galaxy 2 onward sanded off a lot of the wackier, more experimental aspects of the earlier 3D titles. The less said about the state of the Mario sports and RPG spinoffs the better. However, in recent years there have been glimmers of hope that everyone’s favorite plumber might be getting back to his roots. Super Mario Odyssey was a well-received return to form for the 3D sandbox titles, and the resounding success of the Super Mario Bros. Movie speaks for itself. But the real test was releasing a 2D Mario game that manages to actually FEEL new and exciting. Is Wonder that game, or will be left wondering when this supposed renaissance will truly begin? Let’s find out!

A NEW COAT OF PAINT, AND A FRESH NEW SOUND

The first thing that stuck out to me when first booting up Wonder was just how alive everything felt. The New series after a time felt anything but new, filled with lifeless animations and a bland visual style that was…fine but not exactly exciting. Wonder by contrast is vivid and adorns everything with either a painterly or even clay-like texture. It might not be the most visually striking game ever made, but as far as Mario’s 2D outings go this one really pushed past some boundaries. While in 3D, everything looks a lot more akin to the older 2D art for the Mario cast. Faces are rendered with this 3/4s style, always facing the camera and making sure we can see just how much more expressive each character is. From the determined looks on their faces when dashing about, the way Mario pulls his hat over his eyes when he crouches, or the little flourishes like how the extra-large elephant versions of characters have to squeeze through doorways or pipes, there’s so much attention to detail here.

Adding to that is the sound design and music having a much greater presence here than normal. Over time, we’ve taken for granted how past Mario games have sounded, but Wonder shakes this up a bit. A jump is now the plucking of a string instrument that’s different for every character, while a ground pound is accompanied by a drum roll into a satisfying cymbal hit. Even the iconic sound of entering a pipe has been changed, replicated with a xylophone. The music in general matches the tone of each level well enough. From the early stages and their more laid back tones, to the more sinister themes of the Bowser airships, there are also several stages that feature musical setpieces that really stand out as the most memorable parts of the game. But that’s not all regarding the game’s presentation taking it up another level.

Wonder’s plot is about as simple as we’ve come to expect for the Mario series, and yet there is FAR more voice work and dialogue in this game than you’d think. Mario and friends are visiting Prince Florian of the Flower Kingdom when Bowser crashes their party, stealing one of many powerful Wonder Flowers. Harnessing their power, he merges with Florian’s castle, using his newfound status as…Castle Bowser to build up Wonder energy for…well, something that can’t be good! Florian accompanies the Mario crew in a manner similar to the assistant characters we’ve seen in the older RPG series, having something to say after major levels are beaten or when you enter into a new world. Each world itself also has its own subplot that gives a BIT more context to your platforming fun. In the Sunbaked Desert, we have to track down Bowser. Jr. and take back all the water he’s stolen from the residents. Whereas in the Fungi Mines, players have to investigate several ruins and progress further and further underground to save a group of miners that have been trapped by a cave-in. Even the talking flowers you see throughout the game help the world feel more real, like the adventure is unfolding in real time. At times they can be there for a joke, or as a more diegetic in-game hint, but they also serve as a way to test the waters for more natural voice work in the Mario series after mostly abandoning the prospect with Sunshine. On the note of new voices, this game actually marks quite the shake-up in the voice cast.

After nearly 30 years voicing the plumbers, Charles Martinet is now succeeded by Kevin Afghani. Afgahni’s take on the Mario brothers clearly takes a lot of inspiration from Martinet’s portrayal and in many cases is downright identical. His Luigi sounds uncannily like Martinet, though there are places here or there with Mario where you can hear a bit of a difference, but the transition is largely painless here. Giselle Fernandez also takes over for Daisy after Deanna Mustard’s similarly long tenure with the character, and they really capture the energy Daisy is known for overall. Nabbit is now voiced by Dawn Bennet, while Prince Florian and his Poplin subjects are voiced by Caitlyn Elizabeth and Christine Cabanos respectively. The likes of Peach, the Toads, Bowser and Bowser Jr. are all still done by their longtime actors, but this definitely feels like a new era for the series as the old guard is stepping down. It’s a bit strange to see more professional actors taking on some of these roles, as a good amount of Mario enemies and NPCs are often done by members of the sound team or even the Nintendo Treehouse, but if there was ever going to be a game to swap out a good chunk of the cast, it would have to be this one. The first of MANY changes and surprises in store!

ELEPHANTS AND BADGES AND FLOWERS, OH MY!

Within the first few moments of touching the game, I was reminded of my first impressions with the likes of Super Mario World and how different that game had been from the NES games. Wonder feels like another step forward for the series regarding not just level design and gimmicks, but core gameplay elements that aim to surprise and shatter past conventions. Don’t get me wrong though; this is still a platformer through and through. You run through stages, grabbing the flagpole at the end and gaining collectibles along the way. But each level has something that feels well and truly new and exciting to spice things up. Be it the rather large roster of new enemies, level-specific mechanics like pools of goop you have to slowly push through, or using water to cool down giant superheated platforms, there’s always something around the corner that makes for several standout levels. But the biggest takeaways for a given level will arguably be the various Wonder Flower segments.

Just about every level features a Wonder Flower players can touch, which then triggers a large change to the stage that players will have to navigate in search of a Wonder Seed, which will turn things back to normal. Sometimes the stage itself starts moving like its alive, while at other times enemies might change in size or multiply, and there are even transformations that will affect the Mario crew. While a handful of effects are repeated throughout the game there are a number of completely unique ones that make for a fun climax to the stage. What’s interesting is that the vast majority of these segments are optional, allowing players to skip past them either on replay or when speedrunning, but you’ll be missing a huge part of the game’s charm if you don’t engage with them.

Outside of that, there are also new tools at your disposal to get through these stages. The Elephant Fruit power-up is the most documented part of Wonder in general, letting players become powerful pachyderms as they slam enemies away with a powerful trunk, which can also store and shoot out water. That said, its own uses feel a bit less revolutionary when compared to, say, the Cat Bell from 3D World. Other new power-ups include the Bubble Flower and Drill Mushroom, with the former letting you  bubble up enemies and jump off of them for a boost, while the latter lets you burrow past obstacles and occasionally unearth secrets. Alongside the Super Mushroom and Fire Flower, Wonder uses the power ups smartly, especially with certain timed challenges that task you with taking out enemies as quickly as you can with your arsenal of abilities.

When it comes to character-specific abilities however, some might be a bit disappointed to see the cast is largely homogenous. While it’s great to play as the likes of Daisy and Peach, alongside the Mario Brothers and Toads, everyone is the same (barring the Yoshis and Nabbit, who function as “easy mode,” basically)…so that’s where the Badge system comes in. Players obtain Badges throughout the game, which come with a wide range of effects. From replicating those character-specific abilities (the very first one you get is essentially Peach’s floating from past games), to passive effects like drawing in coins or hinting at secrets, there’s even some Expert Badges that make the game harder on you. You can try out the Jet Run badge to speed through levels but there’s no way to stop running. Or try out the Invisibility Badge to sneak past enemies…just good luck platforming when you can’t see yourself either! Badges are probably my favorite addition to the game, allowing for a degree of customization with exploration and difficulty that really ups the replayability and even accessibility of the game, though I do wish there was a bit more freedom with the system. Only being allowed one Badge, even in multiplayer, is a bit of a shame, but if anything this is a great new system that I’d love to see become a mainstay to the series.

PLAYING “TOGETHER”

Speaking of multiplayer, that’s one facet of Wonder that’s drawn some ire from some circles. Compared to the past few multiplayer Mario platformers, Wonder doesn’t employ collision between players, and also limits the ways players can interact with each other. So this means no more running into people, or picking them up and “accidentally” throwing them to their deaths. This also allows the level design to no longer have to space things out for up to four players, keeping things from feeling too cramped OR too spaced out. It seems perfect and we should all be rejoicing…but for the griefers out there that love to mess with other players this is a dark day and they probably cancelled all of their pre-orders. Now, there is something to be said about being able to physically interact with players and create some spur-of-the-moment plans to grab a collectible or make it through a tough section. If someone plays as Yoshi you have the ability to ride on their backs at least, but otherwise it feels more like you’re playing alongside someone rather than truly together. But perhaps as a result of this, the online experience might be some of the best the Mario games have ever seen.

When connecting online, players will encounter “ghosts” or “shadows” of other players that can be seen but, similar to local play, can’t be interacted with normally. Players can see each other and use little emotes to communicate, but you’re all largely playing your own instance of the level. As a result though, there’s no real input delay or lag to worry about (except when players are loaded into a level you’ve already started) and you can go about your business without worrying about someone messing with you. That said, you can’t, say, ride on another Yoshi player online like you can in local play, but you do gain the ability help out other players. Players can share spare power-ups with other players even online, as well as revive players if they die if you can touch their ghost before a short timer goes down, in a manner somewhat similar to co-op in Cuphead. On top of that, online is where Standees showcase their use. Players can crouch down and press “X” to throw out a standee of their character on the spot, which can serve to either highlight a hidden block or area players can reach, but also serve as a way to revive other ghosts. Throwing down a Standee right before a tough spot can end up really helping other players out, even if it doesn’t do much for you. Players can gain “heart points” by helping other players out and finishing levels with them, which do nothing but give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside. While most online interactions are with random players that can come and go as they please, it IS also possible to make dedicated rooms with friends and engage in races through certain stages too. While the online and even co-op multiplayer might not quite be what every player wanted, I do feel that Wonder found a way to truly innovate after the last several Mario multiplayer experiences were often characterized as being chaotic and frustrating. It feels nice playing through levels and serving as a guide to less experienced players, and being able to race about with friends can be fun in its own way.

THE DIFFICULTY OF CREATING A CHALLENGE

Now, one major aspect of Wonder I was worried about pre-release was the overall challenge the game would pose. Seeing how strong the new power-ups and Badges were, combined with the ways that other players can help in multiplayer, I was worried this wouldn’t be very engaging and you could kind of sleepwalk through it. As subjective as difficulty can be for people, I do think that Wonder largely managed to keep me engaged and offered some real challenges, while also enabling players to really shape the game to their own skill levels. Mario is always going to be a series that appeals to as many people as possible. It doesn’t carry the kind of reputation that, say, the Donkey Kong Country series had regarding difficulty, but Wonder does give players a TON of options to make the game ease up on you and a lot of the difficulty can come from just NOT engaging with these options. Just avoid using Badges, the power-ups or the Yoshis and Nabbit for a more challenging run through the game. That being said, the game does pepper each world with far more challenging levels off the beaten path. Most of the world map actually allows you to tackle levels in any order you want, and levels have individual difficulty ratings so you know which ones to avoid if you want to have a chill time, or indeed which ones to seek out for a real challenge. The game’s final challenge was also suitably hard, so on the whole I was satisfied with my time with the game….with really only one exception.

The vast majority of Wonder is designed around surprising players, constantly doing something unexpected and weird….which makes it all the more disappointing to see them drop the ball with boss battles. Now, this is a platformer and I don’t really ever go into a platformer thinking about the boss fights. If they’re fun, then that’s good enough for me, but they’re often not at the top of the list and I care way more about the levels leading up to them. In Wonder’s case though, not only are the bosses very simple and easy, they’re also infrequent and very same-y. In that regard, it’s the one thing that I think the New series handled better. You fight Bowser Jr. in most of the worlds, with the same overall idea of him attempting to run you over in his shell, with the only difference being a Wonder effect that changes up the arena a bit. But after about three or four jumps on his head the fight is over and they all fail to leave an impact. Not helping matters is that a few worlds just don’t even HAVE boss fights at all, not even minibosses like Boom Boom show up here. While the final boss at least was unique and fun, it still felt like it ended somewhat too soon and I was left underwhelmed by the finale before the post-game challenges. Again, most Mario bosses aren’t much to write home about but with every other aspect of Wonder really going out of its way to impress me, the bosses just stuck out like a sore thumb. Maybe if they had gone for a more setpiece driven platforming challenge for the final level, similar to the finales for 3D Land and 3D World, that would have been better, but at the end of the day I wish the game had just pushed the envelope just a bit further.

That being said, I applaud how accessible the game is overall, and for younger or more inexperienced players they’ll likely have enough to grapple with and be plenty engaged. Multiplayer can be both helpful but also make things a bit more tricky depending on the level, and having some easy-mode characters on top of certain badges SHOULD give everyone a chance at beating this game if they so desire. I do feel that the path to true 100% completion is a bit more fulfilling. Each level has at least two Wonder Seeds to get, one for beating it normally and one for completing the Wonder Flower segment. Some levels have secret exists that bestow another Wonder Seed though, and I had to really keep my eyes peel for hints to find those. Wonder Seeds are the only plot-critical collectible but the game also keeps track of whether or not you got three large purple coins in each level, on top of reaching the top of every flag pole at least once, so I had my hands full getting full completion and felt satisfied enough at the end, so I think they did well enough. Maybe in the future they could use the Badge system to let players tweak the difficulty a bit more minutely. Maybe give us some Badges that make enemies tougher or impose a time limit on stages (something this game notably removed compared to past games), just for some extra spice. Difficulty is always going to be tricky to balance, but for the most part Wonder excelled enough there.

A WONDERFUL START TO A NEW ERA

2023 really does feel like we’re entering into a new era for not just Mario, but Nintendo as well. A new console is all but confirmed to exist within the next year or so, and after the Mario Movie’s smashing success, on top of the debut of the Super Nintendo World theme parks, Nintendo is likely ready to make even bigger moves with their IPs, and that includes Mario. Wonder, at least according to the developers, isn’t necessarily the blueprint for every Mario title to come, but it does at the very least paint a picture that this franchise isn’t anywhere close to running out of steam. Mario’s “dark ages” are still far better than the heights of many other franchises but all the same it’s nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel here. With remakes of beloved RPGs, and games like Wonder and Odyssey taking chances and being real returns to form for both 2D and 3D platformers, the future of the series hasn’t looked this good in a while, and I’m excited to see where it goes next. I don’t know if I could say that Wonder is the best 2D Mario game, but it’s easily the best in a long while and will likely be considered a bit of a swan song for the Switch era. Endlessly creative and boasting some surprisingly novel online elements on top of playing like a dream, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is one of the easiest recommendations I’ve had in a while and even with releasing so late into an utterly packed year of amazing games, it stands on its own as far as being in the Game of the Year conversation.

Until next time,

-B

The Avengers Game: The Surefire Hit That Misfired

With the stronghold that the Marvel Cinematic Universe had on pop culture for the past decade, it was all the more puzzling that they didn’t capitalize on that in the realm of video games. Superhero video games have been a thing since the medium began, but for the longest time Marvel’s gaming efforts were few and far between, outside of the rare Spider-Man title. But in 2017 a collaboration between Square Enix and Marvel was announced, with a variety of game products teased, among them being a project centered on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. On paper, this seemed like a complete slam dunk. A prolific AAA game developer, a hot IP that hadn’t had a lot of game action in a while, and it would be landing right when the MCU hype was at its peak with the back-to-back hits of Infinity War and Endgame. But that wasn’t what happened. Something went wrong, and the surefire hit….misfired. Just before the game’s delisting at the end of September 2023, I ended up purchasing the game on a deep discount, curious at what all the fuss was about. So let’s talk about how this game ended up the way it did.

A FALSE START

Marvel’s Avengers launched in September of 2020, and to say the launch was rough would be an understatement. Broken matchmaking, a litany of bugs and performance issues, and a deeply unsatisfied fanbase. While it’s clear the pandemic had played a huge part in the game’s lackluster release state, the fact it was allowed to release like this at all was worrying. Only a month later player numbers on PC had dropped significantly and the game seemingly was in its death throes. In March of 2021 the next-gen console versions of the game released, and with it a multitude of fixes and additional content. It was clear this was an attempted re-launch of the game, but you know what they say about first impressions…

Now, to give the developers some credit, there were legitimate attempts to improve the game and add more worthwhile content. They didn’t just cut and run and leave players holding the bag. Effort was put in to making the game better and trying to right the ship, though the damage had already been done with the game’s reputation. Even as someone who got the game far after every patch and fix went out, I still encountered a ton of issues and on my last-gen PS4 console the overall experience was still rough. It feels like a game that really should have been next-gen only, but was pushed out to the last-gen systems to get as much profit as possible, in a manner similar to the ill-fated launch of Cyberpunk 2077. The sad truth here is that regardless of patches and additions to the game, no matter how many bugs they fixed and feedback they implemented, there were problems with the very core of the game, and in order to properly address these issues…they would have been better off making a new game from scratch.

THE GEAR SCORE MAKES THE HERO

One of the most hotly debated aspects of Marvel’s Avengers was its status as a live-service game. At a time when the “games as a service” bubble was about to burst, fans had largely grown intolerant of more games coming out competing for their time and money, and if you are going to market yourself as a “forever game” with tons of ways to spend money and get players to log in every day, you have to make it worth it for them and…well, I think the game’s overall reception and failure speaks for itself.

So much of Marvel’s Avengers is grinding for grinding’s sake. Everything takes longer to unlock and build up than it should, clearly designed in such a way to squeeze money out of the playerbase. After a certain point, the goal is no longer to make a satisfying game for players and instead to make it into an infinite revenue machine. At the game’s launch you had TONS of cosmetics that could only be gotten through a tedious grind of in-game currency….or you just pay up with real money. At one point the developers even tried to market an experience boosting item for players, before it was removed due to protest. Keep in mind this was a full-price game. Just a few years prior we had Marvel’s Spider-Man as a solid single-player game that had NO microtransactions at all, and a TON of costumes you could unlock by…playing the game. How novel! Speaking of Spider-Man, let’s not forget that one of the most popular superheroes of all time was made into a PlayStation exclusive for no other reason than greed. Now, I’ve played the game long after the final update just unlocked all cosmetics for players to enjoy for free, and what few things I have to unlock from in-game vendors shows me that this grind must have been awful to live through, and it must be even worse if you HAD paid for stuff without knowing that one day it would be made free with the flip of a switch.

On top of all of this, there was also artificial bloat inserted into the game’s progression systems with the focus on loot and raising your player’s Power Level. Over the last few years I’ve seen a lot of games worship at the altar of “gear score” and I hate it every time. They completely miss the forest for the trees regarding what makes loot and loadouts work in other games. Often times your own abilities as a player are downplayed in favor of forcing you to micromanage your gear, and it unfortunately infects the Avengers experience. Despite the fact that you’re playing as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, you don’t feel all that powerful unless you have the right arbitrary number attached to the endless loot you sift through during missions. Hulk Smash….but only if you put on the wrist guards that give him plus 5% damage when it’s raining outside. Remember how in Spiderman: Homecoming Peter has to grapple with being a hero despite Tony taking away his fancy suit with all those gadgets? Or how this game’s own campaign is constantly touting the platitude that “Good isn’t a thing you are, it’s a thing you do?” Yeah well actually the gear makes the hero, so get to grinding if you want to actually embody these characters!

You constantly have to deal with gear you get from enemy drops, finding them in strong boxes, or completing missions. While you do on occasion find some gear with some tangible effects that you can tuck away for a specific mission, the bulk of gear is garbage and exists almost purely just to sell off to get a pittance of currency in exchange, or later on to feed existing gear and make it stronger. But with each mission you’ll get better and better gear, constantly having to replace what you already had, so don’t get attached. So many of the modifiers and stat bonuses to gear are so minor they don’t even feel noticeable, and what’s more, it’s all there to keep up the illusion of progression.

There’s no actual progression from the gear system; the game automatically scales to whatever your Power Level is when selecting most missions. There are SOME missions that have a higher Power Level by default that you can’t take on until you’re at that level, but they didn’t feel noticeably more challenging than other missions. Now, I never hit the Power Level cap with any character, and I’ve seen evidence that some missions are hidden from view unless your Power Level is high enough, so I can’t quite speak for the pure endgame content, but the bulk of the game showcases just how horrible the gear system is as a progression system. It’s worth noting that there’s also individual levels for each character, which actually works FAR better as a real progression system. Each level up gets you a skill point that can be put towards multiple skill tress that further expand each character’s moveset and allows for experimentation to suit different playstyles and strategies. Gear systems CAN be down well, but it doesn’t work in this game, and I can say with confidence the entire experience would have been better without its inclusion. Getting off of my soapbox then, we should probably discuss the actual contents of the game itself, starting with what many touted as the best part of the whole game….the single-player campaign.

AN INHUMAN CAMPAIGN

A fair bit of the pre-release coverage of this game was focused around the story. Well before we saw any gameplay or even know what type of game Marvel’s Avengers was going to be, they were hyping up the voice cast as if it was a movie. Despite all of that focus, the single-player campaign didn’t exactly live up to my expectations for more than a few reasons, despite a decent start.

The premise is an interesting one for starters. The Avengers are blamed for a tragic accident and forcefully disbanded but years later a superhero fangirl, Kamala Khan, sets out on a journey to help clear their names and get the gang back together. Kamala is one of a few newer Marvel characters that has gotten a fair amount of buzz, similar to the likes of Miles Morales, and it’s undoubtedly great to see her take on a major role in a game like this. The early bits of the game put you in her shoes as she struggles to come to grips with her new found super powers, and the dynamic she has with the Avengers is endearing. That said, over time it started to feel like the story was being stretched thinner and thinner, and more problems started to emerge that sadly weren’t solved by the ending.

For starters, Kamala takes up the bulk of screen time. I don’t mind her being the main focus of the narrative, but for a game named after the Avengers…the team itself actually doesn’t do as much as you’d think. While we get to Hulk and Iron Man early enough, and Black Widow has a decent behind-the-scenes impact on the plot, I really feel like the narrative didn’t know what to do for Thor or Captain America. By the time the whole team is back together the game is about over, and any fun banter or moments they could have had together was mostly relegated to how they all feel about Kamala. There are times when the game’s narrative almost feels like it was written like Kamala’s fan fiction, where she is the center of everything and the other Avengers seem far too trusting and supportive of her right away, not to mention she faces little to no consequences for her actions at times. I want to stress I DO like Kamala and I think Sandra Saad does a good job portraying her, but the game gets awfully close to being a game about Ms. Marvel, featuring the Avengers, and that’s not exactly how the game was advertised.

Outside of that, I take issue with the game’s focus on the Inhumans, or rather, the lack of focus. In the comics, Inhumans are descendants of humans experimented on by the alien race known as the Kree. When exposed to “Terrigen Mist” they develop superhuman abilities, and there’s also a lot of political stuff with a royal family of Inhumans that live on the moon. In this game however, the alien aspects of Inhumans are severely downplayed, and the event that ends up releasing the Terrigen Mist and creating Inhumans here is more or less implied to be completely manmade, with no mentions of the royal family either. While it’s possible the game would have delved into the Inhuman’s alien origins later on (as certain missions do tease the Kree quite a bit in the postgame), all we’re left with in the base game is…effectively bootleg X-Men. There’s this guy, Theo, who can teleport people here and there, and he’s also bright blue…and he kind of just comes across as a less-cool Nightcrawler in every way. When you meet the Inhuman resistance later in the game, they end up being led by…Ant-Man? Because I guess they couldn’t think of or use any other prominent Inhuman character aside from Kamala. For the last few years, as Marvel began really pushing the Inhumans in the comics, TV shows and now games, it was largely as a response to not having the X-Men film rights and not wanting to promote them once the MCU took off. Many fans likewise dislike the Inhumans and view them as poor replacements for the X-Men .While I think both could have their place in the Marvel world and the premise does have potential, this particular game doesn’t really do ANYTHING of note with them.

Then there’s the lack of notable villains. While on the one hand I appreciate that the developers weren’t just reusing villains already seen in the MCU like Loki, Ultron or Thanos, their use of A.I.M. and M.O.D.O.K. leaves a lot to be desired. I’m sorry, but M.O.D.O.K. isn’t a strong enough villain to carry the rest of the game, and while there are a FEW other notable Marvel villains in here, I find they’re not used well. Taskmaster is a tutorial boss fight, and Abomination is fought early on…and then that’s about it in the base game. With both of them copy and pasted into post-game missions with a vague “oh, they’re just clones” justification. It wouldn’t be until the other story expansions that we’d get a few more villains like Maestro, an evil version of the Hulk from the future, or Ulysses Klaue, a notable Black Panther villain, but at that point it felt like too little too late. And that’s not to mention that most of the basic enemies in the game are just robots with no real personality or designs that really pop, or else fighting waves and waves of “guy with gun.” What a notable roster we’re working with here.

For all of the potential that the early hours of the campaign showcased, the cracks started to form quickly and my opinion of the story only went down with time. We started with nice cinematics and character banter, some intrigue with how it was all going to come together…but steadily it became apparent that most of the Avengers were being sidelined, the villains were weak, and the emphasis on hand-crafted single-player levels and setpieces would dwindle with time, revealing the game’s true colors.

AVENGERS: AGE OF REPETITON

For as negative as I’ve been so far, I do want to stress that I DID enjoy the moment-to-moment playing of the game and it’s clear a lot of time and effort was put into making a fun action game with Marvel characters. Now, there IS a certain level of balance here to make sure everyone is equally viable, which leads to some characters not quite living up to the power fantasy. Black Widow can take on enemies just as effectively as Hulk can, while Thor and Iron Man’s flight is slow to keep them from leaving everyone in the dust. Despite that, every character has enough tools to make them pop. Hulk can grab minor enemies and use them as weapons. Kamala’s stretchy attacks let her be a menace from any range. Smacking enemies with Thor’s hammer, or flinging Captain America’s shield at multiple opponents never got old. Even the non-powered characters like both of the Hawkeyes or Black Widow were plenty fun to use, armed with a lot of tools to take on enemies and get around the giant levels. From the intricate takedown animations for each character (Thor having a penchant for wrestling, while Kate Bishop uses teleporting to take out enemies in style) to the heavy amount of customization with everyone’s skill trees, there was a lot to like about the combat…but that can’t save a game that is so dull and repetitive elsewhere.

After the first few hours of the campaign I was suddenly forced to start selecting missions on the War Table and saw the game for what it truly was; the same handful of maps, enemies and objectives repeated over and over and over again. Compared to the curated single-player levels, the main missions, designed around multiplayer, are filled with massive maps that honestly felt way too big for their own good. You have to wander about as you look for small enemy outposts dotted here and there, fighting a pretty pathetic roster of enemies along the way. Not only are most enemies rather uninspired robots, but so many of them are just annoying to fight. Snipers that teleport away from you the instant you get close, endless turrets and drones that are always picking at you from far away, and more “elite” enemies that have tons of health to chew through in lieu of being more challenging to fight most of the time. Bosses are especially bad about this; most are huge damage sponges and play similarly to each other, completely shrugging off any attacks you land and taking forever to take out. I understand they’re balanced around four players but even so they would take so long to defeat and required barely any real engagement. Just dodge the big telegraphed attacks, sneak a few hits in and run, then rinse and repeat for several minutes.

Outside of just fighting enemies, your main mission objectives rarely change up in a meaningful way and just a few hours in I had seen most of what the game had to offer with objectives. Save some Inhuman hostages by opening up their cages, or defend some allies from waves of enemies. Maybe you need to use JARVIS to hack into A.I.M.’s database, so defend those computers from enemy hackers! There is on occasion some “puzzles” that would require a BIT of coordination, hitting switches or stepping on pressure plates to open doors for more loot but ultimately that was about as advanced as it got. Most level design would vary from gigantic open environments to linear corridors that are repeated so often I knew them like the back of my hand after just a handful of missions. Now, again, maybe that endgame stuff does change things up, but I’d rather not wade through so much of the same content over and over to see for myself.

And that’s the real shame here…for all the potential I see in this game, it gets exhausting quickly. It takes so long to actually flesh out your character movesets and try everyone out, but by that point you’ll have done the same handful of missions to the point of getting sick of them. Even with the expansions there just isn’t enough meat here to justify the grind. Sad as it is to say, it was painfully clear just why this game failed after just a few hours of playing.

AN UNENVIABLE LEGACY

The domino effect of Marvel’s Avengers’ failure is arguably just as interesting as the game itself. The poor showing for the game cost Square Enix a LOT of money, and was likely a factor in their decision to sell off their Western developers, including the developers of this game, Crystal Dynamics. The year after this game’s launch, Eidos Montreal’s Guardians of the Galaxy game ended up getting the cold shoulder from fans…despite the fact that it was exactly what many fans had wanted; a solid single-player experience with a great story that had a lot of love for the source material. But fans saw a Marvel game with Square Enix publishing it and assumed it would follow in Avengers’ footsteps. Elsewhere, the frosty reception to DC’s live-service superhero efforts with Gotham Knights and the yet-to-be-released Suicide Squad game can be at least partially attributed to this game’s poor performance. While Gotham Knight’s full release was devoid of microtransactions, the grindy nature of player progression and multiple in-game currencies to juggle points to it possibly being removed later in development. Meanwhile, the instant the word “gear score” was uttered at the gameplay reveal for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League the game was attacked by fans and the game has suffered multiple delays and as of now, it’s not clear what state that game will release in. All due to one poorly-received game!

(One screenshot was all it took for people to turn on this game)

It’s clear that the live service bubble has burst; you can only get so many people to sign up for so many “forever games” before something gives. While your mega hits like Fortnite might continue on, it’s clear by now that you can’t quite compete with that and I wouldn’t be shocked if major game releases start to pivot away from this model. It’s also been argued that the superhero bubble might have burst in mainstream pop culture. Several superhero films over the last few years have not done particularly well with fans OR at the box office. From MCU misses like the third Ant-Man movie, or the latest Thor release, to DC’s extremely costly failure with The Flash, it’s possible that superhero games might also be on the way out. That being said, Marvel does still have SEVERAL other games in the pipeline, such as the next game from Insomniac, Spider-Man 2, so it’s possible this game’s failure wasn’t enough to scare them off.

It’s sad to see how poorly this game performed in the end, even if it’s easy to see why things went this way. In another world, this game could have been a smash hit, creating a platform filled with fun things to do and multiple Marvel heroes added over a very long life. I can only imagine how they might have made certain characters work if they had only gotten the chance. Had the game launched in a better state, or hadn’t gone the live-service route, things might have been very different, but regardless the damage has been done. With Square selling off Crystal Dynamics and Eidos to Embracer, and mass layoffs hitting multiple Embracer entities, Crystal Dynamics included, there’s no hope of a second chance with this title. I can only hope the best for the people involved that they can use their talents on a better game down the line

With Marvel’s Avengers officially delisted from all major storefronts and the future of the game’s online services somewhat uncertain, I thought it important to talk about this game before it is lost to the annals of history. For all the problems I had with the game, I was happy to at least play it before it was too late. I can see that this was far from a cheap cash-in title, and a lot of talented people gave their all on a game that just didn’t work out for a multitude of reasons. I can only hope that someday we can get a more successful spin on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and game developers can look at this game as a cautionary tale for how to somehow ruin what should have been a guaranteed success.

Excelsior!

-B

The Frustrating State of Splatoon 3

Splatoon 3 was among the best-selling games of last year, and if you read my top games of the year post you’d see that I ranked it relatively highly. In just eight years, Splatoon has gone from the strange new IP on the struggling Wii U to being a major franchise for one of the biggest game developers out there. Being right there from the beginning, it was a magical time as the game slowly came into its own. However, almost one year into Splatoon 3’s release, I find myself torn. While largely enjoying the game as much as I ever have with the past two entries, 3 in particular has some pretty glaring issues that is slowly but surely whittling away at my patience and desire to play at all. So join me as I vent a bit about the state of Splatoon 3.

THE NETCODE! IT DOES NOTHING!

When it comes to most Nintendo series, online play is an afterthought, if it has it at all. Generally speaking, the company has shown to be laughably out of date regarding their consoles’ online infrastructure and the online experiences of a lot of their big titles. So imagine the problems when it comes to designing a game like Splatoon that is predominantly an online experience. The first two Splatoon games had their share of issues but they were fun enough…but something went wrong with 3.

From day one of release, up until the time of writing, I have suffered countless connection issues and errors in Splatoon 3, far more than I had with the first two games combined. Now, to this game’s credit, there have been attempts to address certain issues that have plagued the series. Matches end in a No Contest ruling if someone disconnects early in a match, you won’t be assigned a loss if someone on your team disconnects, and people that disconnect frequently are not only assigned losses, but also can get penalized and timed out of playing. These are some great improvements…if the infrastructure for the game even worked. Splatoon 3 is one of only a handful of games on Nintendo’s updated in-house server system, and I have to imagine the developers were grappling with issues well into the game’s release and couldn’t quite smooth them out. It was extremely noticeable in the early days of the game’s release, and even after several patches that allegedly helped with matchmaking and connections, I still see issues frequently. I have pretty good Internet, and actually sprung for an Ethernet adaptor to have a wired connection with my Switch. I have rarely had issues in other games and yet I’ll still see random disconnections in this game…and then it has the gall to blame ME for it and put me in time out. Oddly enough, Splatoon 3 is pretty much the ONLY game I play currently that has any kind of punishment system for disconnections…and yet it’s also the most unstable game of the lot. Ironic, really.

Outside of people disconnecting, which isn’t always the game’s fault, there’s also the game’s matchmaking and lobbies. At first I was really thrilled with the game’s overhaul of lobbies and queuing for matches. In the previous games you’d be stuck watching a screen as people slowly filed in for a match, without much to do. Being able to now freely run around in a training room and try out your weapon while the game searches for players in the background is great! What is less great is when the game flashes a “communication error” or “one or more players disconnected” message and completely crashes the room. This happens so frequently that it’s rare I play more than one game with a given group of randoms. I have noticed far less issues when grouping up with friends, and I appreciate that it is far easier to play with friends in general here, but it still ruins the overall pacing of a game session with a lot of starting and stopping of matchmaking, whereas in Splatoon 1 and 2 I could get a faster series of matches after that initial wait.

I understand that online connectivity can have tons of variables in play. In fact, for a time this past April I had a number of online issues that took me quite a bit of time to solve. It wouldn’t be fair to expect a flawless experience every single time I boot up Splatoon 3 but even accounting for other people rage quitting or the Internet in general having some hiccups every now and then, the frequency of issues is still far too high. Even if the rest of the game was flawless, the simple fact that it just doesn’t WORK at times makes for a stain on the rest of the package. But of course there’s more to this game’s problems than this, so let’s move on.

DUDE, WHERE’S MY FLANK ROUTES?

Stage design is important in any shooter, but especially one like Splatoon, a game defined by the ability to ink and swim over any terrain. Each game in the series certainly has its ups and downs with stages, but I’m particularly disappointed with 3’s so far. I think it’s telling that my favorite stages in 3 are actually from the two previous games. There are a number of things at fault here, with the most baffling one to me being the decrease in verticality for most stages. Many stages are flatter, with less ways to get to higher vantage points. There’s also an increase in un-inkable terrain, especially regarding walls. By itself that’s not necessarily a bad decision if the developers just wanted to go into a different direction…but then why did they include new mechanics that are clearly based AROUND having more verticality? The Zipcaster special weapon is supposed to let you grapple around the stage, but on many stages the special barely has any impact. It’s like if you take Spider-Man out of New York City and see that his web swinging is far more ineffective when he doesn’t have giant skyscrapers around him at all times. There’s also the Squid Surge, a universal technique that lets you quickly shoot up inked walls, but most of the time it’s easy to forget it even exists because so few stages feel like they were designed with it in mind. Even the single player largely ignores the mechanic at times, which just makes me question why it was even included at all. It feels like the developers weren’t all on the same page here.

You could also apply that to the lack of alternate routes or flanking options in most stages. Many stages in Splatoon 3 are little more than straight shots to the middle of the stage, with it often becoming a bloodbath with no way to quickly escape. You have forced drops that make it difficult to retreat to higher ground, if not impossible. I think the stage that showcases this the most is Hammerhead Bridge, which is from the first game but has been so heavily altered it’s practically a different stage. The bridge is basically just one straight line, and as a result the stage is one series of chokepoints after another. Once one side breaks past the middle it becomes harder and harder for the defending team to force them out. Having an alternate route to get around this and flank them from behind would help alleviate the spawn camping that usually results on that stage, but they’re gone. With that in mind, Hammerhead is probably my least favorite stage in the game; matches just devolve into being the first team to push past the middle and lock the enemy down for the remainder of the match. Some stages are more open than others, but on the whole it feels like options are limited and more than ever it’s easier to be backed up into a corner. What is especially frustrating is that pre-release footage of stages like Eeltail Alley or Scorch Gorge showcase dramatically different layouts that were more open, and yet the final release leaves us with stages that drastically limit your approach to the other team. Clearly, plans changed during development.

(Stages like Mahi Mahi Resort saw drastic changes from Splatoon 1 (Left) to Splatoon 3 (Right), becoming smaller and flatter)

Now, Splatoon is a live-service game and there are constant changes and additions to be excited for, and to a degree the stage situation has gotten better. Stages like Manta Marina or Flounder Heights offer more vertical options and are mostly untouched from their previous games, though personally I’m not very impressed with most of the new post-launch stages. One aspect the developers seemed to be aware of was the power that certain ranged weapons had on some stages. Eeltail Alley and Mincemeat Metalworks could be completely locked down by a good Charger or Splatling if they claimed the middle bridge. After the 3.0 update though, signs and other objects were added to some stages to provide some cover and keep long-range weapons from having such an advantage though the changes feel more like a bandage over a larger problem with the stage design on the whole. The series has completely renovated older stages in the past and that might still happen with 3, but as it stands we’re nearly a year in without major changes. Time will tell on how well this matter is handled but for the moment there are some days I log in and see the stage rotation and just immediately close the game because I’d rather not deal with certain stages at all.

SALMON RUN: REMEMBER, YOU’RE HERE FOREVER

Salmon Run was one of the best additions to Splatoon 2, a unique co-op experience that clearly had potential to be built on in a future game. 3 definitely makes some good improvements. Having the mode available at all times for starters, and the ability to toss eggs a good distance forward is a game changer that would make it tough to go back to 2’s version of the mode. That said, other changes for the mode haven’t been nearly as welcome I find.

As a live-service game, Splatoon needs to find ways to keep players coming back for more. Players already earn rewards for playing in the mode, though it often only takes a handful of games before your bonus rewards dry up until the next shift starts. In comes the addition of the Xtrawave, and a chance to fight a King Salmonid if you’ve managed to clear all three normal waves. The Xtrawave is itself a fun challenge that can cap off a successful win-streak, without any penalties for losing. That said, the rewards for clearing Xtrawave feel very lacking for the effort you have to put in. Scales are awarded for participating in the Xtrawave, gaining more if you manage to defeat the King, on top of how high the hazard level is when the wave began. While finishing quicker with high hazard levels can net you more scales there is a hard cap on how many you can earn, not to mention good old random chance when it comes to getting the rarer silver and gold scales. In fact, if your hazard level is low enough it’s apparently just straight up impossible to get gold scales. So the mode pushes you to juice up that hazard level and play over and over and over again to get just a handful of the things…and when it comes to what you can trade them in for, you’ll be working your tailfin off to afford anything of value. There are some stickers and figurines for your locker, with cosmetic items like extra slop suit colors and even some gear you can wear in normal multiplayer, but there are some problems here. The prices are pretty absurd for how long it takes to build up any of the rare scales, and what’s more the game’s shop won’t even show you everything you can buy unless you spend some scales to “uncover” more rewards. It already takes forever to earn scales but you might be forced to buy things you don’t want just to uncover stuff you DO want…and then you’re right back to having to grind out and save up for more.

Really, “grind” is the perfect term here. This game expects you to devote a significant amount of playtime to get any form of reward, with very few ways to speed the process along. While it took them a bit to implement it, the new Big Run events do increase your scale rewards which is appreciated…but they are rare, happening at most twice in a season and only for about two days at a time. On that note, Big Run itself is an interesting idea, having the Salminids taking over a multiplayer map and pushing players to get as high of a score as possible to get a trophy. The Eggstra Work mode that was also added recently is somewhat related, having players go through five pre-determined waves in the push to get the highest score. The problem is that both of these modes only really reward the hardcore fans of Salmon Run, giving casual players few incentives to play along. The scores you need to get to even get a bronze trophy are fairly demanding for a more casual fan, and if you don’t care for score at all…there’s not much these can do for you. Splatfests at the very least grant you sea snails to further upgrade your gear, in addition to being a hyped-up event in-game centered on Turf War, the most beginner-friendly mode in the game. To be brutally honest, the continued focus on getting that score higher and higher has turned me off of Salmon Run in general. This, coupled with Salmon Run being just harder in general makes me more frustrated than anything else. Some shifts are just filled to the brim with enemies that start to mesh with one another and at times there’s so much going on the game actually starts to lag and slow down. If their intention was to keep me invested and want to come back to the mode, they managed the opposite, which is a pretty damning issue for a live-service game.

SEASONAL DROUGHTS

The success of Splatoon is largely tied to how Nintendo seemingly understood how to make a live-service continually appealing. While a full-price game, all further updates for multiplayer are free and often go for 1-2 years of the game’s life. Splatfests and other events ensure that there’s always a reason to come back later. The third game tries to change things up a bit regarding rewards and updates and honestly I think it mostly does a good job, though it isn’t without some downsides. In Splatoon 1 and 2 updates were typically weekly; every Friday or so you’d get SOMETHING new. Sometimes that meant a new weapon, or stage. Other times it might mean a completely new mode (more so in the first game). Splatoon 3 has instead adopted the season approach to content updates. Seasons last three months, and on day one of a new season players are given a ton of new things all at once. Roughly 10 new weapons, two new stages (so far the pattern being one returning stage and one brand new one), a balance patch and a new Catalog. Catalogs are effectively this game’s take on the Battle Pass that plagues so many other live-service games, though it’s mostly inoffensive. Catalogs have 100 levels to them, but pointedly cost the same amount of points to level up each time, and you get a huge bonus of points for your first win of the day. I think they serve as a decent, but attainable challenge to complete each season, without too much FOMO attached if you don’t finish them. That said, anyone that plays a lot of ranked tends to complete Catalogs quickly and then they don’t have much left to look forward to for the rest of the season.

Even if you’re not big on the Catalog, a growing sentiment with players is that the seasonal model isn’t enough to keep players coming back. All that new stuff at the start wears off before we’re even halfway through a season and the wait for the next season gets harder and harder to bear. These events like Big Run and Eggstra Work are clearly meant to help with that, though I’ve already detailed why I think these fall short. This game’s iteration of Splatfests have issues too. Going with three teams rather than two, on top of the controversial Tricolor Battles has resulted in a lot of complaints with each Splatfest, rather than excitement. Tricolor Battles were labeled as unfair to Defender players as early as the game’s pre-release beta Splatfest, and even after they were reworked slightly going into the first winter season, there’s been other issues. The Cryptid Splatfest ran into an issue where the vast majority of players picked either the Alien or Loch Ness Monster teams, with only 8% of players picking Team Bigfoot (at least in North America), meaning that the majority of players couldn’t earn points in Tricolor Battles, as they were thrown in with fellow Alien or Nessie players. And then there are the new Challenges, added with this past Sizzle Season.

On paper, Challenges seem like a great idea. Wacky rule sets that give players another reason to turn the game back on, but again the execution is lacking. Challenges themselves occur irregularly with limited time slots. One challenge might start on a Wednesday evening from 10 PM to midnight, and the next time slot would be Thursday morning at 6 AM, as an example. If you aren’t available on that day or that specific time…tough luck. The whole issue of playing the game on its own schedule versus your own has existed since the first game, but stuff like this feels nonsensical. There’s also the fact that the rule sets vary, some being quite interesting, like fog rolling into a stage periodically, while others amount to playing one of the Ranked modes without sub abilities…which doesn’t really feel nearly as fresh. And the rewards for challenges are also fairly minor, getting badges if you place high enough (once again going the score-attack route) and if you get five wins you get…a free roll of the Shell-Out Machine. Yippee. All of this wraps back around to the same core issue in that I don’t think a lot of the content in Splatoon 3 really values the player’s time. Scheduled events are rare and you have little control over actually being able to participate in a lot of them, and the rewards just don’t feel worth the time investment, outside of the Catalog. Despite their best efforts to retain players, I fear they might actually just drive them all away.

CONCLUSION

To wrap things up here, I want to stress that I do often enjoy playing Splatoon 3 and I’m pretty sure I’ve managed to put way more time into it than the first two games combined at this point. The updates to mobility with the Squid Surge and Squid Roll feel great, the new main and special weapons are fun, visually the game continues to be fantastic and its single player campaign was a welcome improvement from the first two games. Splatoon 3 clearly benefitted from the developers having gained more experience with the previous two titles and there’s tons of overall polish and content packed into this game. As a live-service, it will also continue to change and by this time next year when the last of the planned updates will be finished, it very well might be in a better place.

I don’t like to be negative and just rant and rave without any amount of constructive criticism, and ultimately I want this franchise to continue doing well and improving itself. There’s nothing else on the market like this (we’ll see if Foamstars can holds its own I suppose), and as a fresh, new franchise for Nintendo the last thing I want is for it to crash and burn. Splatoon 3 in some respects feels like a worthy successor to the previous titles and does feature a number of positive changes and additions to the core game, but the issues are even more prevalent than ever and I really hope the developers take all of this into account with the next game, whenever that happens. Considering this game was developed at the peak of the COVID 19 pandemic, on an aging console that likely couldn’t match the developer’s ambitions, this could have come out far worse, and despite what the last 3000 words or so might tell you, Splatoon 3 is far from a bad game. It’s a good game, that at times can be great fun, just held back by a number of smaller issues that I’ve love to see addressed so this trilogy can end on a high note. Maybe in a year I’ll do a follow-up and see how things have changed, but for now I guess I’ve said my piece. Thanks for listening.

-B

Tears of the Kingdom Review: Building a Better Sequel

Breath of the Wild was a massively successful entry in Nintendo’s acclaimed Legend of Zelda series. It sailed past the best-selling installments, and served as both a swan song for the ill-fated Wii U console, and the first breath of life for the Switch, which has become a massive success in its own right. BOTW wasn’t just considered to be a great Zelda game, but it served to redefine how open world games could be made, and its effects on the industry are being felt to this day. A sequel seemed inevitable, but even so, many questioned if Nintendo could make lightning strike twice. After six long years of waiting, Tears of the Kingdom is here…and it makes BOTW look like a tech demo.

UPHEAVING THE FAMILIAR

One of the biggest obstacles Nintendo likely faced in development was finding a way to make the world of Hyrule fresh again, despite largely using the same map from BOTW. Their answer is The Upheaval. TOTK opens with Link and Zelda investigating the source of a strange, toxic substance seeping out from deep below Hyrule Castle. The Gloom sickens and weakens anyone that touches it, and eventually they see the source is a decayed, withered body held in place by a strange, glowing arm. Soon enough the body stirs and a torrent of Gloom is unleashed on Hyrule. The Master Sword (and most of Link’s right arm) is destroyed, Hyrule Castle is suspended high in the air and Zelda vanishes after being engulfed by a strange light. In the aftermath Link finds himself on a floating island, one of many now dotting Hyrule’s skies, with the mysterious arm having replaced his corrupted one, and with it he has two goals: stopping the strange figure and finding Zelda.

The structure of TOTK is largely the same as the predecessor, being almost completely open after players complete a lengthy tutorial. For what it’s worth, I find this game’s story a bit more interesting than BOTW, but TOTK still inherits some of that game’s issues when it comes to narrative. When you have a game where 90% of the plot is both optional and can be done in any order, it can be difficult to make things impactful and coherent. As a result, the Zelda team arrived at a solution that is understandable, but a bit grating after a point. Most main missions are largely written as if they could be the player’s FIRST main mission after the tutorial, and the end result is a lot of repetition as the same exposition dump is given to players multiple times over the entire playthrough.

Similar to BOTW, the juiciest bits of this game’s narrative are found in the past. Link can find memories hidden away all over Hyrule, which largely explains the bulk of the game’s backstory concerning the ancient Zonai, a race of beings that were there at Hyrule’s founding but are strangely absent in the present day. This is also how we primarily get the main villain, this game’s incarnation of Ganondorf, fleshed out. As a result of the game’s commitment to nonlinearity it’s possible to skip all of the set up and arrive at the conclusion without any of the build-up, which happened to me. Suddenly I know of the game’s biggest twist and the answer to the game’s main driving question, which made any subsequent plot moment lose a lot of impact. While the game is often very good at acknowledging sequence breaks with certain quests, it was a bit annoying that the game continued to play coy despite having laid out the main answer to me so early on. Admittedly, that won’t be everyone’s experience, but that was a big issue for me that held the narrative back a bit. Well that and some bad audio mixing. It would have been nice to actually hear the sparsely used voice acting over the often booming music!

I do appreciate that this game’s overall tone is a lot more optimistic and focused on unity compared to BOTW’s almost crushing loneliness, serving to give TOTK its own identity. Link has plenty of allies right from the get-go this time around, with a base of operations near Hyrule Castle that slowly expands as the game goes on. It’s pretty rewarding to see the races of Hyrule join together, at least after you help them with their own issues Ganondorf’s revival has caused. As with the previous game, the overall art direction is also fantastic, making for some breathtaking vistas at times. As much as the Switch is really showing its age, the technical aspects of this game are proof that specs aren’t everything. Being able to load up this massive world with almost seamless navigation and juggling of physics objects is nothing short of astounding considering the Switch is little more than an outdated tablet at this point, and it manages to be at a mostly stable 30 FPS, making a marked improvement from BOTW. While I have my misgivings with some of the narrative structure, I was immediately pulled in and think the game has a great start, but there’s plenty to sink your teeth into, as I’ll demonstrate.

TIERS OF THE KINGDOM

BOTW was already a gigantic game, but TOTK pushes to somehow stuff in even more. Broadly speaking, we can look at three different tiers of the kingdom (heh), each with their own distinct feel and gameplay loop. Starting with the sky, there’s this calm, almost ethereal feeling to most of the sky islands found in this game. The Great Sky Island that players start out on definitely paints a good picture of what to expect as they continue exploring…however I found that the sky was far and away the most lacking part of the game’s world.

The Sky Islands are both lacking in size and frequency, a criticism that also plagued Skyward Sword from back in the Wii era. The Great Sky Island really set me up for disappointment, when most other sky structures are barely a fraction of its size and start to feel same-y after a point. You pop up into the sky, find a shrine, maybe a treasure chest…and then you’re done. Only rarely can you find somewhat larger, more interesting structures, but they’re surrounded by a TON of empty space. To a degree this is probably intentional. If the entire skyline was filled with floating islands it wouldn’t look very good from the surface, so having some room to breathe makes sense aesthetically. There’s also the fact that making sure the islands are more spaced out naturally makes it harder to get to them. You end the tutorial without your paraglider, and early in the game your stamina won’t hold out long enough to sail through the massive gaps in the sky to reach another island. That way, there’s this sense of mystery and anticipation when finding the next destination in the sky. I would look up at massive sky labyrinths or floating spheres and wonder both what was in there…but also how I’d even get up there. Even so, the fact that some sky islands are so small you can’t even really spot them on a zoomed-out map is a step too far. I’m shocked at how much they were played up in marketing when they barely factored into my total playtime.

Thankfully, there’s a lot more to this game. The surface is where the bulk of the game’s focus on community really comes into play. You have all the different villages and regions to explore, and it’s where the bulk of vendors and quests will be. Without Guardians roaming around, you notice a LOT more NPCs just out and about in Hyrule, and it was a welcome contrast to the other tiers and their relative isolation. Be it checking in on the latest gossip at stables, or getting my fashion on at Hateno Village, there was always something to do. The bulk of the game’s Shrines of Light are also found here, giving players quick, isolated puzzles that slowly drip feed health and stamina upgrades. Even if you want to go visit the sky, you’re basically required to return to the surface in search of new ways to get up high, such as the Skyview Towers invented by Purah and Robbie. These not only fill in your Purah Pad’s map, but also catapult you high into the air, giving you the chance to reach certain sky islands, or get a different perspective as you plot where to go next. But sometimes you might notice some strange areas on the surface that require…deeper examination.

All over Hyrule players can find massive chasms that are surrounded by Gloom, but if you’re brave enough to head down one you’ll find one of the game’s biggest secrets…the Depths. A gargantuan subterranean region, I found the Depths to be a very interesting inversion of the game’s normal environments in more ways than one. For starters, compared to the boundless freedom found in the surface and the sky, you have to take it slow and steady underground. Most of the Depths are pitch black, and you never know what is lurking just beyond the shadows. Link will either have to use special seeds to create temporary light, or seek out Lightroots that can illuminate larger chunks of the map permanently. Unlike when you use the Skyview Towers to map out the sky and surface, Lightroots only illuminate a small radius around them, causing me to slowly work from root to root, occasionally being sidetracked by various treasures and structures to explore. Eventually, I noticed that Lightroots connect to the Shrines of Light found on the surface and suddenly it all came together: the Depths are just an inverted surface. Every mountain becomes a massive, deep valley. Every body of water turns into an impenetrable wall. Similar to the sky, players will have to leave the depths and find another way back down in order to get to certain areas, but even more than that…being in the Depths for so long can be fatal. Gloom is much more concentrated down in the Depths, and enemies are also infected with it. Taking damage from Gloom goes a step further and effectively “breaks” your heart gauge, requiring special meals made from Sundelion flowers found mostly on the sky in order to heal, that or natural light from the surface or Lightroots. As dangerous as the depths are though, they’re the main source of Zonaite, a special ore that will be incredibly handy when using the wide range of Zonai technology found throughout the game.

THE FUN OF CHEATING

The Skeikiah Slate from BOTW is no more, but Link has arguably better powers to work with this time around with the help of his nifty new arm. During the tutorial, players gain four main powers from the Zonai to help on his adventure and it doesn’t take long to realize that Link is so powerful now that you’re basically playing with cheat codes.

The first and likely most important power is Ultrahand. At first glance it seems like a reskin of Magnesis, letting you pick up and move objects, though this time you aren’t limited to metal. But the real kicker here is the ability to combine objects together with…basically magical glue. Take some wooden boards and glue them together, attach some wheels and BAM…you have a makeshift cart. Or you can use one of the many different ancient Zonai devices by attaching them to a wide variety of things for almost limitless possibilities. Zonai devices often look like modern-day technology, even running off of a battery of sorts that Link can upgrade as he goes through the game. Fans, flamethrowers, steering wheels…the list goes on. Some devices are just strewn about all over the game, but in the sky specifically you can find…basically gatcha machines that dispense TONS of devices in capsule form that you can store and use later on when you need them. What’s more, later in the game you can find the Autobuild power that allows you to save “recipes” of various constructions, and then assemble them quickly, being able to use zonaite if you’re short some parts. What I like about this power is that you can be as simple or as complicated as you want. You COULD just glue some logs together as a makeshift raft…or you could go out of your way to make something far more intricate. For players that’d rather not mess with the ability entirely…while the game is built with it in mind, you can still get by for most of the game without worrying about it as much. Autobuild especially helps cut down on the time spent building things as a really great upgrade too. The entire game could have easily been built around this concept alone, but we still have other powers to cover.

Fuse is effectively a combat-centric take on Ultrahand. Using Fuse, Link can take almost any object and glue it to his weapons. I can put a Zonai spring on a shield, or glue a sword to my sword. I can even put a chunk of meat on my arrowhead if I’m so inclined. Nearly every object or material in the game can be fused to your arsenal, with a variety of great effects that can make weapons stronger, more durable, or given extra attributes. As an early example, I fused a mine cart to my shield, turning my shield into a skateboard that let me grind on rails like I’m in some Sonic game. Getting elemental weapons is as easy as attaching a special fruit or ore to my weapon, and those are way easier to find than elemental weapons ever were in BOTW. Your arrows are also much more versatile now; attach an enemy’s eyeball to an arrow to make it home in on targets, or a bright bloom seed to light up the Depths from afar. Fuse allows even the weakest of weapons to be useful, which is something that just wasn’t possible in BOTW. I can take a stick and fuse a rock to it to make a makeshift hammer that’s great for breaking open ore deposits or brittle walls, so no more stockpiling rare hammer weapons or waiting on my bomb runes to recharge. It also goes a long way towards making battles more worthwhile to even do, as enemies drop horns and claws that can grant HUGE strength increases to weapons. Before, in BOTW I would eventually avoid fighting late-game enemies because they were too beefy to deal with, as you’d lose multiple weapons in the process and any weapons they dropped weren’t as good. It was a net loss. But now even fighting silver enemies isn’t that bad, since that means I can put that silver moblin horn on some middling spear I found and suddenly that is among my strongest weapons. I have my own qualms about combat in general in this game, but Fuse goes a long way towards making it more fun to experiment and stick with than ever before.

Ascend admittedly is a step down in application, but is still quite good. The fact that it was initially a dev tool should be telling enough. With Ascend, Link can jump up through any ceiling and pop out on top of the structure. Sometimes this is just as simple as going up a floor in a house, or being able to explore a deep, expansive cave and then use Ascend to leave, popping out at the very top of the mountain you found the cave in. In the depths there are even some rare structures that lead all the way back up to the surface that Link can use Ascend on. It honestly breaks traditional level design and so the game had to do a lot of careful restructuring to manage but even then with some application of your other powers, it can be pretty easy to Ascend past areas you’re meant to go through normally. But nothing compares to the power of Recall.

Initially, I thought Recall was a very situational puzzle solver. You aim at an object and can rewind it back roughly 30 seconds or so, but further applications showed that it might be the most broken of the lot. Recall has much more range than any other power, and can affect virtually anything you could also use Ultrahand or Fuse on. I’ve had instances where I’ve built a glider, only to go off course or miss my mark, and I would use Recall as basically a reset button to bring it back to a better position. Enemies dying and leaving their valuable collectibles falling off a cliff can be saved with a button press. What’s more, any movement you did with Ultrahand will be replicated with Recall, so I’ve done that to get vehicles aligned or to rise up platforms I would then Ascend onto to get up high. I’ve even completely broken shrine puzzles with Recall, nullifying any challenge they might have otherwise posed. Some might get a kick out of it, but I felt I kind of optimized the fun out of puzzles to a degree. Regardless, these powers are a lot of fun to mess with and even more versatile than BOTW’s power set was. But while we’re kind of bringing up a negative…I may as well get a bit more critical.

TEARS OF THE FANBOY

I want to stress that, despite my complaints here or there, I adored this game and just DEVOURED it over the last month or so. I put over 245 hours into it, doing almost everything of value. Playing the game for long stretches and having it basically absorb an entire month of my life…I’ll be the first to admit my own experiences and annoyances won’t be shared by many, and for normal people that just play in smaller bursts and don’t care about full completion, they likely won’t have nearly as many issues as I did. But…spending that much time with any one game is going to reveal some of the cracks in it, and those did chip away at my enjoyment a bit.

TOTK is a complex game, with a ton of things the player can do at any given moment, but I do think that Nintendo went a bit too hard on filling this game up with actions you can perform, and then realized they ran out of buttons on the controller along the way. Simply put, some actions are far more cumbersome than they should be. Selecting materials to use, either to throw or attach to arrows is tedious. You hold Up on the D-Pad, then use the right stick to find the item you want, but seeing as there are dozens upon dozens of materials you can use throughout the game, eventually that list becomes harder and harder to parse, leading to a lot of wasted time scrolling to find the exact item you need. You can hit Y to sort by different parameters, but if want you want isn’t near the front, then prepare to spend several seconds scrolling down to find it. A “favorites” option would have been a godsend here; just let me label a handful of items for quick reference. Throwing materials is also awkward, having to first throw your weapon, but then selecting an item with Up on the D-Pad as well. While I appreciate having more options for arrows and the like, the elegance of quickly swapping between arrow types in BOTW is missed here.

Speaking of direct comparisons between these two games…let’s talk Sage Powers. Compared to the Champion Powers from BOTW, these are a massive downgrade in both strength and usability. In TOTK if I want to use a Sage’s ability I have to manually walk over to them and ready them with the A button, then usually hit A again to actually use it. In the heat of the moment having to chase down my AI companions gets old fast, and then aside from that there’s the fact that the A button is already pretty multi-contextual as it is. I’ve had tons of experiences mashing A to grab items on the ground, only for Tulin or Yunobo to walk in front of me and have me accidentally activate their power and blow items away. Looking at the four powers in depth, while they have their uses they’re rarely worth the hassle of using them. Sidon’s water shield and attack is very niche, as ice attacks can do the same things as water, with the added benefit of freezing targets. Riju’s lightning arrows take forever to set up, and aiming Yunobo’s fire spin can be tedious. Tulin is about the only Sage that feels well designed, as more often than not I will always have him around to give me a boost of horizontal movement while gliding. I don’t have to worry about tracking him down, or the A button doing something else most of the time. On the ground though, he has the same issues. I enjoy having the Sages around as AI partners to take some of the heat off of fights, but compared to how simple and effective the Champion Powers were in BOTW, all mapped to different buttons and being next to impossible to accidentally do…it’s pretty disappointing.

There are other things to go over too, some of which already existed as problems in BOTW. Just as in the previous game, climbing wet surfaces is torture. TOTK introduces some solutions but they feel poorly implemented. Players can now make tonics that grant “slip resistance” to climb up wet surfaces more easily…but in practice you’ll barely notice the effects. There’s also an armor set that is said to make you immune to slipping entirely, but that is locked behind a quest chain that can take a while to complete…and then once you get the full set you realize that you need to upgrade all three pieces two times to actually unlock the hidden set bonus to make you completely slip immune. On that same note…upgrading armor is still incredibly tedious, especially when it comes to dealing with any pieces you need from dragons. Horses are also still pretty pointless to use after a point. Without even getting into the fact that they can’t be used in huge chunks of the map, like sandy deserts or rocky mountains, not to mention the sky islands or Depths…being able to build vehicles with Ultrahand basically replaces their only real function as transportation. And yet for whatever reason, whistling for your horse is still mapped onto the D-pad. In a game where they’re clearly hurting for more buttons having one relegated to something I barely even considered using is pretty bad.

I have plenty of issues with combat in the game as well. I know Zelda isn’t a series where action is the main event, but even so the action is typically satisfying in its own way. I’d best describe it as tedious here; enemies are damage sponges, your own attacks send them far away and force you to track them down, and after a certain point the difficulty curve falls apart. I know difficulty is subjective, but both BOTW and TOTK are very strange about balance. The beginning of the game is the hardest, as you have almost nothing. But once you stockpile some meals to heal, armor to up your defense, and materials for fusion the game can’t really do anything to you. I once thought Gleeoks or Lynels were to be avoided, but getting my hands on enough Keese eyeballs to make homing arrows means I can stun them easily and melt through their health as they lay down defenseless. Mastering the parry and perfect dodge also eliminates most options enemies can even do to you. But admittedly, not everyone IS always going to be perfectly prepared for any given fight, or know that certain abilities can just render some enemies a joke. I can tell that balancing a game that is so nonlinear and open-ended is no easy task, but I do think they made players a BIT too strong at points and hope later games can find a better balance. But overall, that’ll mostly do it on the nitpicks.

CONCLUSION

When I beat BOTW, I had wished I could play it through again with my memories wiped, just so I could experience it all again for the first time. Tears of the Kingdom is arguably the next best thing. A twist on something familiar, with some curveballs thrown in for good measure. Link’s new abilities do a lot to spice up how you interact with the world, and there have been some noticeable improvements to the original’s issues, even if some still remain. With this likely being the future of the franchise, at least for now, I’m interested in seeing what lessons Nintendo can take from these two entries. For my money, Nintendo has managed to iterate on one of my favorite games out there and have made it hard to go back. I’m hard pressed to think of too many things BOTW did better, outside of the novelty of being the first game in this new style. I liken BOTW’s strength to being the joy of discovery, the appeal of exploring the unknown. While there are elements of that in TOTK, this time around the focus is on experimentation. Like the joys of playing with a tub of random Lego pieces, being able to adapt to any solution with whatever you have around, bending and breaking the rules of the game world, the end result is unrivaled freedom and depth that will keep people busy well until the next main Zelda.

Until next time,

-B

How Monolith Soft’s Future Was Redeemed

Whether you’ve heard of game developer Monolith Soft before or not, if you’re into the gaming landscape they’re definitely a name worth remembering, and they’ve had quite the history over their 23 years in the business. Founded by Tetsuya Takahashi and Hirohide Sugiura, themselves veterans of Square from the 1990s, the company has undergone many trials and tribulations and worked with a variety of different companies from 1999 to the present day. With their latest release wrapping up the current trilogy in the Xenoblade series, I figured there was no better time than to look back and reflect on the journey the company and the founders of that company have gone through, so let’s get right to it!

TAKAHASHI’S PERFECT WORKS

Looking at Takahashi’s resume alone will show that he had a hand in a variety of beloved games during his time at Square. Working on Final Fantasy IV, V and VI among a few other titles such as Romancing Saga, Takahashi and his wife, Soraya Saga, would pitch an idea for the seventh Final Fantasy game. While rejected for being considered too dark for the brand, they were eventually given permission to develop it into their own title, which would become known as Xenogears. Takahashi and Saga had ambitious plans for the title, believing it could become a massive franchise in its own right, though the actual game’s development was fraught with issues.

Xenogears was composed of two discs, and the first disc set up lofty expectations for the rest of the game, balancing a story steeped in religious and philosophical themes alongside turn-based battles that would utilize giant robots, or “Gears.” However, the second disc was mostly comprised of narration from characters with hardly any gameplay or cinematics. This was allegedly done as a result of both the development team’s inexperience and inability to extend the two year development deadline, and thus was done as a compromise of sorts, or else the game would have shipped half-complete. The game’s English localization almost didn’t happen, with several translators quitting the project, both due to the difficulty of translating a game loaded up with references to various scientific and philosophical concepts, on top of controversy surrounding its religious themes. Despite these setbacks, the game was still critically acclaimed and it was clear that Takahashi and Saga were keen on developing the game’s world more. Alongside development of Xenogears they had also crafted “Perfect Works,” their plans for other installments in the setting that would span a much larger story. Xenogears itself was considered, chronologically, to be the fifth part of what would have eventually been six entries.

However, Takahashi and company had routinely faced issues with Square both before and during development of this title. Growing frustrated with their prioritizing of the Final Fantasy brand above all else, they would eventually found Monolith Soft, taking with them a number of other staff they worked with. They found themselves in bed with Namco, who would publish their games for much of the 2000s. Monolith Soft would then decide to start over and craft a new franchise that would follow Perfect Works…and that game would become the Xenosaga series.

A more explicitly sci-fi series from the get go, Xenosaga was conceived as a six game series, with possible plans for it branching out into multimedia, with an animated series and manga series produced, alongside a few spinoffs titles that would end up staying Japan exclusive. A spiritual successor through and through, Xenosaga contained a number of references to the Xenogears series, alongside a continued focus on mech battles, religious and philosophical themes and turn-based combat. While the first game was a strong debut for this new franchise, each subsequent entry would sell less and less, eventually trimming the series down to three games out of its originally planned six. History repeated with regards to development issues, particularly with Xenosaga: Episode II, as Takahashi had taken on a supervising role, and the team itself was composed of newer staff that wasn’t prepared for such an ambitious title. Takahashi would admit the series underperformed on the whole, part of the reason for the sudden halving of the planned story. Despite a clean start, it seemed as if Perfect Works was anything but a perfect project, with now two failed franchises behind them. However, the winds of fate would wind up changing.

FINDING THEIR FOOTING WITH NINTENDO

Monolith Soft ended up cozying up with Nintendo as the years went on, eventually being purchased by the company and becoming a first-party studio in the late 2000s. Morale at the studio was low after Xenosaga’s abrupt ending, but Takahashi was ready to move onto a new project as a way to boost employee spirits. Coming from an image that appeared in his head of two gigantic gods locked in fierce battle, the idea would develop into a game originally titled Monado: Beginning of the World. However, at the behest of former Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, the title would be changed to Xenoblade, to honor the struggles Monolith Soft had undergone over the years and serve as a slight connecting thread to past projects. And the rest is history…to a point.

The original Xenoblade Chronicles debuted on the Wii in 2010, a massive near open-world RPG with a deep MMO-inspired combat system and an ambitious story. Compared to past efforts, Xenoblade was a game that Takahashi and company were able to realize with a comparatively smooth development, with few compromises to the original vision of the game at that. Releasing to relatively high critical acclaim, the game was initially not localized outside of Japan. Eventually Nintendo of Europe showed interest and would localize it, but Nintendo of America wouldn’t budge. This game, alongside a few others, actually inspired the “Operation Rainfall” fan movement to give them more attention and see localization (and I’ve even written about it before LINK HERE), and while Nintendo might not publically acknowledge the campaign as a deciding factor the game would eventually be brought to North America…exclusively in Gamestop stores. A low initial print, combined with Gamestop selling “used” copies at high prices, insured it became one of the harder to find Wii games, and while it was somewhat better known outside of Japan, it was still rather niche.

That began to change in the Wii U era, however. In a 2013 Nintendo Direct showcasing early looks at various Wii U games, a mysterious title from Monolith Soft was shown. Codenamed X, it was yet another massive RPG with a decidedly more sci-fi look…that sure seemed familiar. Eventually releasing as Xenoblade Chronicles X in 2015, this title would also see acclaim for its massive world and complex combat, though being a Wii U release it didn’t exactly reach many players. A year prior however, Shulk was revealed to be included in the base roster for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, being the last character announced before launch. This helped to put Xenoblade as a series on the map, and gave some momentum that Monolith Soft would continue into the Nintendo Switch era.

Since their acquisition, Monolith Soft would also work as a support studio for Nintendo, particular with their Kyoto office comprised mainly of artists, creating assets for a variety of projects. Over the years, they’ve worked on the Super Smash. Bros. series (Brawl), the Legend of Zelda series (from Skyward Sword all the way to Tears of the Kingdom), the Animal Crossing series from New Leaf onward as well as the Splatoon series. Their help was greatly appreciated with the more recent console Zelda titles in particular, as they were instrumental in creating the vast expanses that would help make Breath of the Wild a smash hit. Considering they’ve lent their talents to a variety of games that have gone on to sell like hotcakes and break past previous franchise records, I think that really helped them prove their worth as an asset for Nintendo, and as such they are given license to continue their own ambitious projects.

At the tail end of 2017, the Switch’s debut year, we would get Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which would go on to become the best-selling entry in the series and experience a boon of new players. More in-line with the fantasy aesthetics of the Wii game, 2 also continued exploring similar themes and further developing the battle system shared across both previous games in the series. Despite its success, the game itself still ran into problems though. With much of Monolith staff working on BOTW it was mostly a skeleton crew on Xenoblade 2, resulting in a number of third-party artists being brought on to ensure the game could be completed, though that also led to complaints about the inconsistent art style and character designs. Technically, the game had issues at launch that were slowly patched out, and being the first simultaneous worldwide launch of the series, it was clear that the English localization was not given as much care as previous games. Despite this, it was clear that this title was what helped to establish Xenoblade as a core Nintendo IP moving forward, and the franchise continues to do well.

A BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD

Following Xenoblade 2’s release, it would receive a prequel game as part of its expansion pass, Torna: The Golden Country, which fleshed out events happening in that game’s distant past, alongside polishing up gameplay to relative acclaim. In 2020, an enhanced port of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 would release on the Switch, with updated visuals (in particular polishing up the character models), and a new epilogue story, Future Connected. The heroines of Xenoblade 2, Pyra and Mythra, would be announced as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s second Fighters Pass as well.

In 2022, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 would see a surprise reveal at the start of the year, releasing just a few months later. After the somewhat mixed reception of the previous game, 3 received rave reviews and several Game of the Year nominations. Many felt it to be an emotionally charged journey, once again spanning a massive world and containing complex combat to wrap it all together. In just a few years, the entire trilogy was now available all on one system. Not too shabby for a series initially struggling to get localized.

The major thing to remember with the Xenoblade series is that it was yet another fresh start for Takahashi and company. While still clearly its own thing, as the years went on many eagle-eyed fans would spot various references to past Xeno games. These often were seen as knowing winks and nods, but little else. When it came to various characters and story beats, there were also some connecting threads indicating that Takahashi, after all of these years, might finally be dusting off “Perfect Works” and starting anew again, after he had previously sworn it off and considered the ideas scrapped. One major change this time around however seemed to be based around making sure each individual game in the Xenoblade series would be a standalone tale that wouldn’t require playing previous entries. There were some connecting threads, yes, but ultimately each entry could stand on its own and fully realize a given theme or story idea without having to overtly connect into a larger narrative. And then Xenoblade 3’s story DLC happened.

Released at the tail-end of April 2023, Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed was yet another prequel campaign in a similar vein to Torna. Future Redeemed would cover events that occurred in the backstory for the base game, however this time around it became clear VERY quickly that this was where it would all come together. Without getting into the details of things, on top of being wary of spoiling this expansion after it just released, Future Redeemed ends up being the means to tie the trilogy together and end it on a satisfying note, with a conclusion that gave fans a lot of closure. Various theories were finally put to rest, though just as many have sprung up in the wake of that game’s ending.

It isn’t immediately clear just where this franchise, or Monolith Soft as a company, will be going next, but my gut tells me we have some great things in store. The core Xenoblade trilogy may be done, but Takahashi has gone on record stating he wants the series to continue for as long as he can do so. There’s still a lot of clear affection for their previous efforts as well. Xenosaga’s KOS-MOS and T-ELOS were guest characters in Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s expansion pass, and there have been more…overt nods to the series in general as time has gone on. There are rumors here and there that the series might return in some form. At the very least, I’m sure many a fan would be happy with simple ports to current systems, but we’ll have to wait and see just where Takahashi’s Wild Ride takes us.

In the end, I’m just happy to see that Monolith Soft has managed to turn out alright after all these years. I first became aware of them when, on a lark, I picked up a copy of the original Xenoblade. I was struck by that game’s scope and ambition and I’ve been a diehard fan ever since. Seeing just how much they’ve been carrying Nintendo into the Switch era, I think it’s only fair that they get the respect they deserve. On top of it all, it sounds like the company promotes a fairly healthy work/life balance, and their time with Nintendo has enabled them to see their visions through with few compromises. A win-win for all involved, really. Their own original entries might always be a bit niche and definitely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m glad their ambitions are becoming more and more realized as time goes on. From humble beginnings in the trenches at Square, to now being a pillar of one of the Big Three game publishers, I can’t wait to see the heights that Monolith Soft can climb.

-B

Gaming in 2022: A Look Back

With another year behind us, many have a lot to look forward to, especially in the realm of gaming. That said, it’s also important to take stock of just what happened last year. While it’s taken me a bit of time to get this out there (December was a pretty crazy month), it’s time to look back on gaming in 2022, from the highs to the lows and everything in between. Some interesting trends, drama and surprise comebacks are in store for us so let’s get started!

THE BIG THREE (AND EVERYONE ELSE)

Let’s start with a quick recap of the highlights for some of the biggest companies in the gaming sphere. First, the Big N: Nintendo had a pretty interesting year. The Switch continues to sell well, currently sitting at 114 million units sold, with it now working on overcoming the strong sales of their most successful handheld consoles. Despite loud cries for a Switch successor, sales haven’t really slowed down. In fact, at multiple points this year Nintendo made headlines for strong sales, with the much awaited Splatoon 3 breaking records for the best Japanese launch ever, just a few years after Animal Crossing: New Horizons crashed past the previous record. And just a few months later Pokémon Scarlet and Violet threatened that record as well. Overall, strong sales for many games and some mostly well-received titles too. It was a year for trilogies as we saw the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Splatoon 3 and Bayonetta 3 within quick succession of each other, not to mention Kirby and the Forgotten Land as a strong debut for the pink puffball’s first fully 3D outing. That said, other titles weren’t as warmly received: Nintendo Switch Sports and Mario Strikers: Battle League have a somewhat lukewarm reception, receiving criticism for lacking content that would be rectified with free updates throughout the year. As far as big reveals, the long-awaited sequel to Breath of the Wild was fully unveiled as Tears of the Kingdom, though would be delayed into May of 2023. Adding to this, in a bit of a swerve Nintendo would reveal a two year plan of DLC tracks for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, on top of reveals like Fire Emblem: Engage and Pikmin 4 slated for 2023. One of the most talked about gaming topics in 2022 however was the full unveiling of the Super Mario Movie. While the casting of Chris Pratt as Mario still draws criticism, once full trailers were out showcasing the rest of the cast and gorgeous visuals the overall perception of the movie has become quite positive as it approaches a 2023 release as well. A busy year for Nintendo, with plenty still on their plate moving into the new year.

Microsoft’s efforts this year have been fairly mixed. On the software front, they didn’t really bring much to the field this past year, something they’ve acknowledged themselves. Outside of some smaller, more narrative-driven games like Pentiment or Immortality the bigger IPs currently tied to Xbox are very quiet. Games like Everwild or Hellblade 2 seem a ways off, with other large titles like Starfield delayed into 2023. On top of that, the overall reception to Halo Infinite continues to be mixed for such a tent pole release. Various updates like co-op or the Forge were constantly delayed, with split-screen co-op, a mainstay for the series, having been dropped entirely. Really, the biggest news out of Xbox this year was Microsoft shocking the industry with the attempted acquisition of Activision and Blizzard. While negotiations are ongoing, with the FTC getting involved at points, there has been much discussion generated about the potential purchase. Microsoft has had some pretty wild arguments as they attempt to paint buying up a gigantic company right off the heels of buying another giant company with Bethesda as necessary to compete with the likes of Sony, though the current heads of the FTC don’t seem to be buying them. Hard to tell where the news will go from here, but it was definitely one of the biggest stories to come out of gaming in 2022.

Lastly from the big three we have Sony, which also had a somewhat slower year. When it comes to large, first-party releases they were spread fairly thin. Horizon: Forbidden West came early in the year, though all discussion on it seemed to be snuffed out just weeks later with the release of Elden Ring, Fromsoftware’s latest smash hit. While we would see releases like the Last of Us remake later in the year, discussion didn’t really pick up again until the proper release of GOTY contender God of War: Ragnarok. Two prestige games to bookend the year isn’t too shabby for Sony, on top of their continued efforts to make certain first-party games available on PC, such as the first Horizon game, 2018’s God of War, the Uncharted series and now one of the few true PS5 exclusives in Returnal. On that note, it would seem that 2022 is the last major year for cross-gen games, which has somewhat contributed to the latest console generation’s rather sluggish start (but hey, a global pandemic on top of several other issues will do that). As the year went on however, it does seem as if PlayStation 5 consoles are becoming slightly easier to acquire and sales are generally on a positive turn, at roughly 30 million consoles sold at the end of 2022. As a response to Microsoft’s continued bids to acquire studios, Sony has also announced a plan to purchase Bungie, likely in a bid to have them craft a first-party multiplayer title to compete with the likes of Halo, Bungie’s former claim-to-fame, or even their own efforts with the Destiny series. Sony also caught flack for their VR support this year, revealing not only the hefty price tag on the PlayStation VR 2, but that it would not be compatible at all with the previous VR system. For the big movers and shakers of the industry we’re definitely seeing the ongoing aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, with delays and dry spells, not to mention supply issues, though it does seem that stability is on the horizon.

For the smaller developers out there, there’s definitely some good and bad spread around. Fromsoftware finally released the long-awaited Elden Ring and created a smash hit the likes of which the company hasn’t seen before, selling over 17 million copies by 2022’s end. In addition to winning Game of the Year from The Game Awards, they also dropped a full reveal trailer for their next project, Armored Core VI: Flames of Rubicon, which delighted many long-time fans. While many have argued over just how successful the company has been in recent years, some still calling them a rather niche developer, Elden Ring’s success seems to have cemented Fromsoftware as among the most prominent Japanese developers, and all eyes will be on their future work.

Square Enix had a somewhat rocky year. While further details on the likes of Final Fantasy XVI, as well as the next installment in the Final Fantasy VII “remake” were real highlights, alongside the reveal of Kingdom Hearts 4, a number of smaller titles released throughout the year were more mixed. The strategy game The Diofield Chronicle, the action RPG Valkyrie Elysium and farm sim Harvestella had a so-so reception, but then there were more acclaimed titles like the Live A Live and Crisis Core remakes, as well as Strange of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. But the year started with quite the one-two punch of Babylon’s Fall and Chocobo GP, both lambasted by critics and players alike. The former was seen as a disappointing action MMO, with the latter being a greedy live service racing game that held back what could have otherwise been a welcome remake of the older Chocobo racing games. But far and away the biggest story coming out of Square Enix was selling off their western studios to Embracer, and not long after the sale Embracer would close down what was once Square Enix Montreal. For one of the more prominent developers out there, it was quite the spotty track record this year.

When it comes to third-party consoles or gaming platforms, we saw the death of one and rise of another. Google’s Stadia, a cloud-gaming service, was formally shut down, though customers were refunded all purchases, so there’s that! Elsewhere, Valve released the Steam Deck, effectively a portable gaming PC to mostly positive reception. While likely not going to overtake the Switch anytime soon, it stands as a viable alternative for gamers that want more portability with much better specs. All things told, the industry has had its fair share of ups and downs, but it continues onwards, and as a result there are some interesting trends coming out of the year.

A NEW ERA OF FIGHTING GAMES, THE REVIVAL OF HORROR AND…SONIC IS GOOD AGAIN?

We’ll start with my personal bias and once again dive into the world of fighting games. Generally speaking, things have been on the upturn for the fighting game genre. The pandemic finally forced Japanese developers to recognize the importance of quality netcode and we have been hit with multiple announcements of retrofitting the netcode into older titles, and even more current titles. Arc System Work’s entire modern catalogue has either had rollback added or will be added in the near future, while enjoying continued success with Guilty Gear Strive on top of the release of DNF Duel. Strive’s DLC also ended up getting quite a bit of attention throughout the year, with the release of Testament, a nonbinary character and fan-favorite Bridget, who has come out as transsexual in this new installment, many praising ArcSys for their portrayal (mostly). SNK isn’t far behind, releasing King of Fighters XV to great acclaim, with it boasting quality netcode, on top of them announcing the implementation of rollback for the most recent Samurai Shodown game as well as announcing a new Garou game to end the year on a bang. After the mixed reception to the previous entry, the proper unveiling of Street Fighter 6 has been extremely well received. The updated visuals, warmly-received newcomers to the roster, impressive online and a bevy of single-player offerings has many hyping this up as perhaps the best Street Fighter yet, due out in June 2023. Namco fully unveiled Tekken 8, and while concrete details are still unknown, many praised the updated visuals and hope the game’s netcode will be up to snuff with the competition. We also saw the release of MultiVersus from Warner Bros. A platform fighter starring a gaggle of characters from various IPs under WB’s control, it managed to make massive waves as the open beta hit, becoming the best-selling game in July with over 10 million downloads in that first month alone. Being a successful free-to-play game certainly gives other full-priced fighting games some pause, though it remains to be seen if this success might impact the genre in a greater capacity. Still though, things are looking good for fighting game fans, but they’re not the only genre fans eating well.

Horror fans have had their ups and downs, though in recent times the genre has seen a resurgence of sorts, and not just from smaller indie games this time either! Fans were hit with a double-whammy of reveals for the long-rumored Resident Evil 4 remake, alongside a Silent Hill 2 remake. In addition to confirming an Alan Wake remake, Remedy would also confirm work on Alan Wake 2.  In an ironic twist, EA has also prepared a Dead Space remake launching just a few months after the spiritual successor The Callisto Protocol. That said, there were still some smaller developers out there that deserve some spotlight, and late in the year horror fans were suddenly gifted with Signalis, a stylish throwback to classic horror games that has been very well received.

Something that might be a bit of a coincidence this year was a number of people from the game industry sharing their insights with pivots into the likes of podcasts, and YouTube videos. Industry legend Hideo Kojima is starting his own podcast, while former employees from Nintendo of America, Kit and Krysta, launched their own podcast and shed some lights on the inner workings of Nintendo. Probably the most interesting of all though was Masahiro Sakurai, the man behind Kirby, Super Smash Bros. and Kid Icarus Uprising becoming a YouTuber as he has entered “semi-retirement.” His YouTube channel boasts surprisingly high production values as he offers up a variety of game development tips, tricks and insights delivered in entertaining, concise videos at no cost. That certainly wasn’t on my Bingo card for this year.

We can keep the positivity going strong here, as 2022 was a fairly good year for adaptations of games for the most part. While there were some panned ones, such as the Uncharted movie, the Netflix Resident Evil series, and the live-action Halo series, this was also a year that gave us some solid animated adaptations. Arcane was seen by many as a fantastic look into the world of League of Legends, with amazing animation and an emotional tale that had people excited for more in that game’s world. Netflix’s Cuphead animated show also received a warm reception from fans for paying tribute to classic animation and giving players the chance to see a different side of the quirky cartoon cast. Something that caught everyone off-guard was the runaway success that was Cyberpunk Edgerunners. While tying in with the CD Projekt Red video game, this also draws from THAT game’s inspiration, the Cyberpunk tabletop game. Animated by Trigger, Edgerunners had praise heaped upon it for the stylish animation, emotional gut punches in the story and embodying the style and flair of the cyberpunk genre even better than the game did. It was so successful it had a pretty large impact on the game’s sales as well. There was also the second Sonic movie…and speaking of…

So, Sonic has had it pretty rough for a while now, we can agree on that right? A punching bag to the gaming population at large, he hasn’t been seen in a positive light by anyone but the most diehard fans in quite some time, and yet 2022 seems like it might just be the start of a redemption arc for the blue blur. While the first movie was successful, the second movie in particular did quite well with a third movie already green lit, on top of a separate Knuckles series on the Paramount+ app. Elsewhere on the animation scene the Netflix show, Sonic Prime, has been mostly well-received for its energetic animation and interesting premise, though we only have a scant few episodes to judge it right now. The IDW comics have received praise for quite a while now, but the real test was the release of the first major Sonic game in years: Sonic Frontiers. While opinions are somewhat split, the overall consensus has been positive. Most consider the game a step in the right direction for the series in terms of tone and storytelling, the plot itself penned by IDW comic writer Ian Flynn. The open world…or rather “open zone” gameplay has mostly been well-received with particular praise given to Sonic’s control. The soundtrack also goes pretty hard too, just to give my own two cents. For the first time in a while, Sonic has a lot of positivity surrounding him and it’s great to see the underdog come out on top for once.

THE BIGGEST HITS AND MISSES OF 2022

If we’re talking underdogs though, indies are always struggling against the bigger dogs in the industry, so it was quite cathartic to see one of the more successful sleeper hits of the year come from one person. Luca Galante, also known as poncle, published Vampire Survivors in early access in late 2021 and the game truly blew up in 2022. A shoot ‘em up where players maneuver through waves of enemies as their character attacks automatically, the game boasted a roguelike design with random power ups and such strewn about to make every run of the game unique, alongside a consistent dopamine hit of new weapons, power ups, and synergies to continuously experiment with. While the overall presentation is a bit cheap, the game itself is quite cheap, with strong word of mouth allowing it to become of one of the best success stories of the year, inspiring a number of imitators in the short time it’s been out.

When people look back on 2022, there are quite a few games that managed to stand out in one way or another. Elden Ring certainly is among the biggest winners of the year with tons of acclaim and sales success, there are the big aforementioned Sony prestige games with Horizon and God of War, Nintendo’s three-hit combo of trilogies with Bayonetta, Splatoon and Xenoblade, on top of a few other notable games from smaller developers. Asobo Studio’s A Plague’s Tale: Requiem and Bluetail Studio’s Stray managed to garner quite a bit of attention. The former continues from the previous A Plague’s Tale’s brutal and unnerving rat-based horror and for Stray…well, who wouldn’t want to play as a cute cat in a robotic, post-apocalyptic setting? There’s honestly a huge amount of games that came out last year that deserve tons of attention. Beat ‘em ups got a fair share of play with River City Girls 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and Sifu. The former two build off of classic 2D beat ‘em ups and have some gorgeous pixel art, while Sifu embodies the style and flow of martial arts movies, with the added twist of your character aging with every death and giving players a hard limit to how many times they can die before having to start from scratch. I wish I could list every single notable release, but there’s only so much time I could use to spotlight them all.

Not every game is perfect, or for everyone, but a good many games this year got raked through the coals from fans and critics alike for a variety of reasons. Considering the ongoing allegations from Activision-Blizzard, not to mention the potential Microsoft buyout, is it any surprise that the release of Overwatch 2 would generate such controversy? For starters, many weren’t exactly on board with the game’s seemingly minor changes to aesthetics and the paltry amount of new heroes at launch. Overwatch 2 changed gears to a live-service model complete with a battle pass that forces players to grind to obscene amounts to unlock new heroes to play as, and at launch received flack over the requirement of a phone number for voice chat that actually locked out certain players if they weren’t on specific plans. The fact that the original game was absorbed into Overwatch 2 and is no longer playable also didn’t go over well. Of course that isn’t to say the game didn’t do well though, so it goes to show how even massive controversy can’t really keep people from their favorite games.

Similar flack was levied at Gotham Knights, a co-op action game set in the Batman universe that was lambasted by many for an overly repetitive, grindy design that was very likely going to follow in the footsteps of the Square Enix Avengers game that crashed and burned awhile back, though any live-service elements were stripped out of this one. The Saint’s Row reboot, however, not only got lambasted by longtime fans of the series, but the sales apparently weren’t all that impressive and developer Volition isn’t in the best straits at the moment. Despite riding high on the hype of being a true Dead Space spiritual successor, The Callisto Protocol was seen as a disappointment by survival horror fans for the game’s strange focus on melee combat, as well as a subpar PC release. Probably the most overtly reviled game this year, at least on social media, was High on Life, a first person shooter by Squach Games. While by itself a competent FPS with some neat combat and puzzles, for many the kiss of death was the heavy involvement from Justin Roiland. Even BEFORE all of the drama with Roiland’s sexual abuse scandal, many had grown tired of the same voice Roiland put on for many characters as well as the rambling, improv-heavy dialogue…though it still seemed to do quite well on Game Pass so…make of that what you will.

BAYONETTA BOYCOTTS, BROKEN BACKS AT TWITCH CON, AND CONTINUED CORPORATE KERFUFFLES

While Nintendo largely skates by with games that are, at worst, a bit disappointing, they managed to find themselves in quite a few controversies this year. While the release of Bayonetta 3 should have been a welcome one for longtime fans who could finally play the game after a lengthy wait from the first announcement, mere weeks before release Helena Taylor, the former voice of the titular character, took to Twitter and called for a boycott of the game. She alleged that she had been offered a mere $4000 for her voice work on the game and she had argued for a fair wage only to be rejected. While further investigation would show she wasn’t being entirely truthful, the debacle ended up making Bayonetta 3 a catalyst for extended talk about how voice actors are often undervalued by multiple industries. The game’s release itself generated some complaints levied at its ending as well, though nothing nearly as big as the VA controversy. Considering Platinum also launched Babylon’s Fall this year, a game that crashed and burned almost immediately after and will be shut down not long from now, it’s been an off year for them. Then there was the launch of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. You would think one of the most profitable franchises of all time would have something approaching quality control and yet the release of the latest generation of Pokémon games resulted in this game joining the likes of Cyberpunk 2077, and the GTA Trilogy in what is becoming a trend: releasing highly buggy, borderline broken games right at the end of the year. The game’s poor performance in the open world, alongside various visual and audio bugs made the rounds on social media, with many once again questioning why such a prolific series would allow games to release in such a state. Despite that, many felt the games were among the most fun in the franchise in a good long while, praising the open-world approach, which softened the blow somewhat.

Then, just as the year was about at its end, Nintendo once again drew the ire of the Super Smash Bros. competitive scene. After partnering with Panda Global last year, many had hoped this was the start of Nintendo working well with eSports and competitive Smash, but the cancellation of non-Panda events, including the Smash World Tour opened old wounds. The Panda CEO, Alan Bunney, would step down but that hasn’t stopped roughly 80% of Panda’s signed players from leaving the company in protest. Panda allegedly got Nintendo involved in closing these other events down, seemingly eyeing a monopoly and as it stands 2023 is likely to be a very rocky year for the Smash scene, and serves as a stern warning to others in the fighting game community about the dangers of working with corporations on their terms.

Outside of some games being of lower quality though, the industry at large, like anything else, still has some unsavory dealings that sprang up throughout the year. Admittedly the year was off to a good start, with Riot forced to pay up as a result of their sexual harassment case. Sadly, comeuppance like that wouldn’t exactly last. Hard to pick where to start here, really. Rooster Teeth, an entertainment company with roots in the gaming industry, is no stranger to controversy but in October of this year a former employee alleged mistreatment at the company on a number of grounds that Rooster Teeth itself acknowledged in a response, claiming that they would do better, though I suppose old habits die hard.

Twitch Con was the subject of some controversy during the event in October. A ball pit ended up being the site of multiple injuries by attendees, the foam bits used to fill it not being very deep and solid concrete found underneath. One attendee, Adriana Chechik, broke her back in two places, the tweet showing this going viral and putting eyes on Twitch Con’s lack of safety precautions. Seeing as Twitch also changed up the revenue sharing with creators, going from a 70/30 split to 50/50, they aren’t exactly gaining any fans at current.

Late last year to the surprise of many G4TV returned to television. A revival of the gaming-centered channel, featuring a number of new and old talents attempting to reclaim that magic from the early 2000s sadly closed its doors late this year. The news itself went out in a tweet that ended up being the first time many members of G4, such as Jirard the Completionist, would find out they were losing their job. While G4 was once a big deal in the gaming scene, I think this revival showcased just how much the landscape in gaming media and journalism has changed. As disappointing as it is to see the channel fail once again, at least you got Scott the Woz episodes on cable for about a year so…n-no that doesn’t really seem worth it at all, does it?

The man who is often credited as the creator of Sonic, Yuji Naka, ended up in the news several times this year, and in the process has lost much of his once lauded reputation. Following the disastrous release of Balan Wonderworld back in 2021, Naka made headlines as he addressed some behind the scenes drama regarding the game’s development. He claims he was shut out of development and his vision was not fully respected or realized with the game, laying the blame solely at the feet of Square Enix and Arzest, who assisted with development. However, later in the year he would be hit with not one but TWO different arrests over insider trading so…maybe he’s not exactly squeaky clean either.

(Photo credit to gamepressure.com)

Perhaps the most unfortunate bit of business this year has come from ZA/UM, the developers behind the acclaimed narrative game Disco Elysium. The ZA/UM Cultural Association, separate from the development studio, was disbanded last year and three of the leads behind Disco Elysium were ousted from the company. There have been accusations that the current leadership ousted them under false pretenses and as it stands now, the original creators of the Disco Elysium game are suing the company. Taking a game that was lauded for its iconic artwork and writing, a deeply satirical tale that took shots at politics of all kinds, and seeing unchecked corporate greed ousting the creative leads that gave that game the special sauce that led to such acclaim is saddening. At the moment it is unclear just how things might shake out with court proceedings and if any other accusations might be unearthed, but going into 2023 it isn’t exactly boding well for the in-development sequel.

On a somewhat lighter note, 2023 had some surprising leaks and resurfaced projects hit mainstream attention. An older version of the infamous Duke Nukem Forever was found, hot off the heels of a leaked copy of the cancelled Rayman 4. Considering how hard it can be to find these pieces of gaming history, if nothing else these are interesting finds. That said, there was an extremely substantial leak from Rockstar from the still in development Grand Theft Auto 6 game that garnered the most attention this year. It just might be the biggest leak of a high profile game at the moment, and quite a lot of discussions stemmed from it. Some complained about having a female lead, others criticized the game’s visuals…despite said game not having a set release and judging it solely off of footage from in-development builds that are not meant for the public eye. If nothing else, it likely made things even more difficult for the developers and someone likely lost their job from this if nothing else. With remote working becoming a bit more of a standard as the pandemic lingers on, it’s likely that proper security practices will have to be updated to adapt to the new development environment.

IN CONCLUSION

Whew! A lot can happen in a year, who would have guessed?! It’s a lot of work combing through all kinds of articles, podcasts and social media posts as I curate topics for discussion but I find it a labor of love for this industry and the games that are birthed from it. Remembering the big news stories of the year, the biggest games and the most notable flops…it all helps to put things more into perspective. Sometimes you can see new stories and the biggest titles of the year coming far in advance. Elden Ring was always going to be big, for example. But then there are the surprises of the year: Vampire Survivors coming from out of nowhere and garnering huge success, for one. Sonic’s redemption arc isn’t something I was counting on this year but it’s a welcome surprise nonetheless. While a LOT of bad can still be found in this industry, it’s important to take that alongside the triumphs. Gaming has really never been bigger than it is now. The Game Awards accrues more viewers than the Oscars, and while it’s been off to a slow start, a big shiny console generation is really starting to kick off. We have big games to look forward to, and plenty of surprises are surely in store. I try to stay positive and while I ended on a bit of a downer this year (again), it’s clear the industry will continue to move forward. 2022 was a solid year with some really big games, and 2023 is shaping up to surpass it in some regards with some highly anticipated titles. We have the next Zelda and Final Fantasy titles to look forward to, Starfield might actually exist and get to be a thing, and that’s just the stuff we already know about! I have no doubt there’s controversies and seedy dealings that will be brought to light this year, like any other year, but the fact that more noise is being made about better work environments at all is comforting to me. People aren’t just sitting down and taking it, and ultimately we all continue to move forward, doing our best to ensure tomorrow is a bit better than the day before. Let’s hope 2023 can be a better year.

-B

B-Squared’s Top 10 Games of 2022!

It’s that time again! Where I chase trends and rank games that I played this year on an arbitrary scale that is purely subjective! This year had some real strong releases…most of which I didn’t really play for one reason or another. There are just too many games, and not enough time (or money) to get to them all! Some of the more talked about games this year unfortunately passed me by, so this list might look different from yours and that’s OK! Now, of the games I DID play this year, I liked most of them and have some things to say, so let’s dive into the 10 games I liked the most this year.

#10 - FIRE EMBLEM WARRIORS: THREE HOPES

This year was filled with rumors of the next major Fire Emblem game being revealed, and while that DID happen eventually, few were prepared for another Warriors spin-off, this time centering on the cast and setting of Three Houses. Three Hopes pulls double duty as both a second attempt at a Fire Emblem Warriors game, as well as a reinterpretation of the overall plot for Three Houses. An alternate take on events with a new protagonist in Shez, Three Hopes was a fun action-packed romp through the lands of Fodlan, with tons of fanservice for those that loved the most recent Fire Emblem game. With a large cast of playable characters, three distinct stories to choose from, and an interesting blend of the hack-and-slash action Tecmo Koei is known for alongside the RPG and more character-driven elements of Three Houses, Three Hopes was a welcome surprise for this year before Fire Emblem Engage graces us in early 2023.

#9 - MULTIVERSUS

When leaks spoiled that a Warner Bros. platform fighter was in development with QUITE the odd selection of characters in late 2021, I didn’t think much of it. Slowly but surely as more was shown however, MultiVersus became quite the surprise fighting game hit for 2022. Despite a lot of high-quality titles out this year, like King of Fighters XV or DNF Duel, it was MultiVersus that made a huge splash with some impressive player numbers in the opening weeks. A team-based platform fighter, the game manages to carve out its own niche in the increasingly crowded platform fighter subgenre, and alongside that the potential cast for this game insures there’s something for everyone. From classic Looney Tunes, to the cast of Game of Thrones, or even LeBron James himself, you’d be forgiven for thinking that such a mash-up wouldn’t work. Instead, the strong art direction manages to make every fighter feel like they could actually exist in the same world without it being TOO jarring, and it helps that the developers are going all-out with some really interesting movesets to make sure each character is true to their respective texts. Velma supports allies by looking for clues and calling the cops…er…Mystery Machine to take away foes, while the Iron Giant’s moveset is mostly just him having fun or eating some scrap metal, only to bring out his combat mode to save his ally. The sole issue the game really has is the free-to-play business model that encourages grinding out countless matches for meager returns, and charging exorbitant prices for various cosmetic items. Despite all of that, MultiVersus is a game I sunk a lot of time into this year and makes a case that fighting games can go free-to-play and still manage to do quite well for themselves.

#8 - MARIO + RABBIDS: SPARKS OF HOPE

Probably the craziest release of 2017 was a Mario and Rabbids spin-off from Ubisoft that, for whatever reason, was a tactical RPG. Despite the odd premise and gameplay shift, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle was a surprisingly good time and seemed to sell rather well. With that in mind, a sequel seemed like a smart decision, and so here we have Sparks of Hope. A space-faring adventure with Mario and company, this is one of those sequels that does just about everything bigger and better. Levels are more expansive and fun to explore, the roster of playable characters grows, and the story is just a bit darker. Combat has been made a bit snappier while maintaining the strategic freedom that made the first game so great and the end result is a content packed romp that was pretty hard to put down. Having a playable Bowser is always a good sign that a Mario spinoff is gonna be great, but what’s most surprising to me is that Ubisoft has found a way to make the Rabbids less irritating…and maybe even kinda cute? This two-game streak has somehow managed the impossible: they got me to tolerate the Rabbids. With Rayman DLC in 2023, the fun is only just beginning for this inspired crossover.

#7 - POKEMON SCARLET/VIOLET

The Pokémon franchise has had its fair share of ups and downs lately, but even so a new generation is definitely still something worth celebrating. Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are themselves very interesting games when looked at in comparison to what’s come before them. The franchise’s first full-blown open world adventure, players are given newfound freedom to explore the world and progress the story in whatever order they desire. On that note, I wasn’t really ready for the story to stand out as much as it did. Surprisingly heartfelt with some really sweet moments, the cast of Scarlet and Violet feel well-realized; more so than the casts in most Pokémon games. The Paldea region is a ton of fun to explore, with some great new Pokémon to capture as well. I would do anything for my adorable Tinkaton. That being said, this entry was mired by a number of damning technical issues that were inescapable and really dulled my enjoyment. While there is hope these issues might be addressed in future patches, it is my hope that future Pokémon games can launch in a better state. After the release of Sword and Shield, the future of the franchise seemed in question, but after 2022 I have faith the series is on the right track and we’re on the cusp of a brand new era for the franchise where it can really shine bright.

#6 - MONSTER HUNTER RISE: SUNBREAK

Now this one might be cheating a bit. The Sunbreak expansion for Monster Hunter Rise might not technically be a FULL game, but it has more than enough content to count in my book. Building on the systems in the base game, Sunbreak delivers on a more challenging adventure for hunters to tackle. Set in a more European-inspired locale, it was a blast taking on not only the base game’s roster of monsters with new tricks up their sleeves, but the brand new monsters inspired by classic European folklore. From the lupine Lunagaron, to the bulky Garangolm, and the vampiric Malzeno leading the pack, it was great to lose countless hours in a blink in the pursuit of just one more hunt. And of course there have been tons of free updates since launch to further tide hunters over lasting well into 2023 as well, so really what more could you ask for? Well you know besides cross-play or cross-progression? If nothing else, the expansion gave me an excuse to jump back into Rise’s world, swinging around like I’m Spider-Man with the Wirebugs and learning a whole new assortment of powerful Silkbind techniques. With Rise heading to other consoles in 2023 as well, players that still haven’t experienced it won’t have many excuses left.

#5 - BAYONETTA 3

You might have noticed my extensive review of Bayonetta 3 from a bit ago, so I’ll try not to retread things too much, and if you want to hear more of my thoughts, you know where to go. A game that was over five years in the making from its initial teaser, it was definitely one of the most anticipated titles for me this year. Platinumgames blends their over-the-top spectacle with deep and satisfying combat as they attempt to move their most well-known franchise forward, and despite stumbling on some things, they still came out swinging. The scale of some of these setpieces are out of this world, and even in normal combat the ability to summon and fight alongside a gigantic demon at virtually any time definitely gives Bayo’s latest romp a distinct identity all its own. The music might also be the strongest in the entire series, which is honestly kind of saying something. I can’t get the various battle themes out of my head, alongside the operatic piece “Fertile Rondo,” from what might be the game’s signature scene. While some didn’t quite like the focus on demon summoning, and uh…well the story has its own controversies to untangle, there’s no doubt that Platinum brought out all the stops for this one and after so long I’m glad it’s finally here. We have an honest-to-God Bayonetta spin-off in March 2023 to look forward to as well, so we won’t have to wait too long to see everyone’s favorite umbran witch.

#4 - SPLATOON 3

This was a year of hotly-anticipated third entries in ongoing Nintendo franchises, and perhaps the biggest of them was the launch of Splatoon 3. An absolute smash-hit of a series, particularly in Japan, the squid kids (and octarians) return for messier, inky battles alongside the signature “fresh” attitude that has set this series apart from every other core Nintendo title. While there was a lot of whining and gnashing of teeth over whether this game needed to even exist, or if it was different enough from past entries, Splatoon 3 delivered on a content-rich, highly polished multiplayer shooter, and most critics have been rather silent after its record breaking opening in Japan. With new weapon types, tweaked mechanics and a story mode that goes surprisingly hard, it’s a game I find myself coming back to and playing months after release. I’ve played more of Splatoon 3 in the first few months of its life than I put into about the entirety of Splatoon 2, just as an example of how much it gripped me. While the core of the series remains the same, the progression systems and constant stream of rewards has kept me coming back, and there’s only more in store down the line. With two years of planned free updates with a paid single-player expansion on the horizon, it’s pretty clear Splatoon 3 is going to be in my rotation of games for a good long while. Now if only they could fix the matchmaking…

#3 - POKEMON LEGENDS ARCEUS

It’s rare to get TWO Pokémon games in a year, and while Scarlet and Violet will undoubtedly get more attention as they kicked off a new generation, for my money I was much more impressed and satisfied with Pokémon Legends: Arceus overall. Releasing right at the START of this year, it’s been a constant in my mind, as an ambitious new direction for the series that I hope continues in some form going forward. Taking place in the distant past of the Sinnoh region, players are confronted with wild, aggressive Pokémon at every turn in a world where Pokémon Trainers are not yet a common occurrence. With the game having far more focus on catching and cataloging the Pokémon available in the region, this is really the first game in a long time where I felt compelled to “catch ‘em all.” Adding to all of this, Arceus’ revamped battles and streamlined approaches to teaching moves and buffing up stats on Pokémon resulted in a game with a far quicker pace that was a breath of fresh air in a series long accused of becoming stagnant. Admittedly, a lot of these changes came at the cost of what many consider to be core elements of the series. There were no gyms, barely any trainers to fight, and many of the design decisions likely wouldn’t work in a more traditional game without extensive rebalancing. The fact that this game largely drops any multiplayer component is pretty telling in that regard, and for those reasons I can understand why many would prefer something like Scarlet and Violet over this one. That said, the technical issues found in the generation 9 games weren’t nearly as present in Arceus and on top of that despite the environments being far simpler and smaller than the open world counterpart, I found navigation and exploring to be FAR smoother in this particular title which helped push it over the edge for me. I hope future Pokémon titles can blend the best of both attempts to create something truly special moving forward, but what we have now is a solid foundation that I really hope is built on.

#2 - KIRBY AND THE FORGOTTEN LAND

Everyone knows Kirby is a pretty consistently good series, but to see a Kirby game ranking this high should tell you this is something special. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the pink puffball’s first fully 3D mainline adventure, which is noteworthy enough on its own, but the fact that their first attempt feels more polished than most other platformers well into their 3D era is what elevates this further and nearly made it my game of the year. Kirby finds himself in a strange new world, the ruins of a bygone civilization dotting the various levels he travels through. That alone helps to give the game a lot more personality. You aren’t just going through a generic desert or beach level; it’s the ruins of an old mall that was beaten down by the elements, or .a flooded city barely glimpsed beneath the sparkling waters. While levels aren’t as open as some might like, they’re designed well, with plenty of hidden goodies to find if players are savvy enough. Adapting Kirby’s array of Copy Abilities into a fully 3D space was clearly a tough one, and while I do wish we had more powers available, the ones chosen feel great to control. Being able to evolve abilities into stronger forms is a nice bonus, and tying this all together is some surprisingly solid boss fights. Kirby games aren’t typically too challenging to get through, and sure this is no replacement for the Devil May Cry or Bayonetta games, but this is a great introduction to the genre for younger players. The fights are filled with some great spectacle and surprising depth, not to mention…you trigger slow motion if you perfectly time a dodge so…need I say more? I mean, I will. Hal Laboratory really knocked it out of the park here; the game looks amazing, the soundtrack is a real standout (even amongst other Kirby games) and compared to the somewhat lacking Star Allies this felt like a fully-formed game that left me almost completely satisfied afterward. The level design to rival the best platformers in the genre, a soundtrack that feels like it belongs in some epic RPG, with some combat and boss fights that make it feel like baby’s first Bayonetta…part of me still finds it odd to rate a Kirby game so highly but Forgotten Land is anything BUT forgettable and shouldn’t be missed.

#1 - XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 3

Watching the Xenoblade series grow over the years has been a great experience. From the original Wii title that I lucked into getting, having no idea how rare it would become, to the ambitious if destined to flop Wii U title, Shulk appearing in Smash Bros. and the Switch era’s solidification of the brand as a core, if niche, series…it’s just great to see developer Monolith Soft continue to top themselves. Rumors abounded for quite a bit before its unveiling, but when the February Nintendo Direct closed with the proper reveal the surprise was still palpable. Xenoblade 3 quickly shot up to be one of my most anticipated games of this year, and after it launched in July I knew very early on this was going to be my Game of the Year.

Set in a world stuck in an endless war, six young soldiers, once sworn enemies, must learn to work together to set the world to rights. Xenoblade 3 tackles the horrors of constant fighting, the fragility of life, the fear of leaving an impact before you’re gone, but it also highlights the value of life, and makes seemingly mundane things we take for granted feel like miracles. It is a game that, even in the depths of a perpetual nightmare, never once loses hope for a better tomorrow. With how dark the world seems nowadays, I found this story really resonated with me; it’s the kind of story that I felt I needed to hear, gripped by my own indecision and fear of the unknown. Watching Noah, Mio and the rest of the group grow and come together was a heartwarming, and occasionally heartbreaking, journey and I came away loving the entire team. Monolith Soft crafted a gorgeous world that builds off of the previous mainline Xenoblade games, but still manages to stand on its own by delivering a character-focused narrative that had me gripped from the first moment. On the gameplay side of things, for as complex and at times overwhelming as the Xenoblade games can get at points, 3 is the most streamlined and approachable game in the series. The class system was a lot of fun to mess around with, and combined with some really gripping sidequests and optional party members to add to the group, it stands out as the first Xenoblade game where I did absolutely everything in it. I couldn’t put it down for the longest time, and by the end I felt sad that the journey was over. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 really feels like Monolith Soft firing on all cylinders; we have gorgeous vistas in a strong anime-influenced art style that pushes the limits of the Switch’s hardware, a powerful, memorable soundtrack with songs that still give me chills to this day. Seriously, The Weight of Life is also my Song of the Year. Taking the best elements from every previous entry, 3 feels like the most consistent game in the franchise. While there are aspects in the other games I might prefer over 3 in general, the entire package is the best it has ever been for Monolith Soft. We still have more to look forward to in 2023, with extra quests and costumes in the expansion pass, on top of a new story that, judging by 2’s DLC, will be a full game on its own. The entirety of the Switch era has really shown Monolith Soft has become the backbone for modern Nintendo; from their support teams assisting on first-party entries like the Splatoon series, Breath of the Wild and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, to the continued success of Xenoblade… I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next time. It’s likely to be another GOTY contender.

And that will do it for my Game of the Year discussions for this year. Obviously a lot of BIG games weren’t in this list, and I’m sure if I had gotten to them things would have shuffled a fair bit. I sadly missed out on Sony’s prestige titles like Horizon: Forbidden West or God of War: Ragnarök. Despite being surrounded by discussion on Elden Ring, I didn’t get around to it and might not for quite a while. There are even several smaller titles that caught by eye, like Neon White, Freedom Planet 2 or Stray that I’ll attempt to get to in the near future but ultimately…there are just too many games and not enough time. Gamers are spoiled for choice these days, and that makes me happy to see the industry still delivering some real solid hits. For as bad as things can get, I always have a game within reach to entertain me and occasionally hit me in such a way that it stays with me long after finishing it, and really I can’t ask for much more than that. Here’s to a great year in gaming, and here’s hoping 2023 can continue to deliver!

-B

The Bittersweet Taste of Bayonetta 3

PlatinumGames is among my favorite developers out there. Rising from the ashes of Capcom’s Clover studio, they are on my short list of developers that make amazing games that really resonate with me. Their games are quirky, often mechanically deep and a bit unwieldy. They’ve managed to carve out a cult following over the years, and by far their most infamous series has been the stylish action of Bayonetta. In 2017 Bayonetta 3 was announced but as the years passed with no news, many grew nervous. Platinum’s output since then has been quite inconsistent, and earlier this year they released Babylon’s Fall, a game that didn’t crash and burn so much as spontaneously combust before it ever got off the ground. There’s this cautious air around Bayonetta 3’s release; it isn’t enough to just be a good game in its own right, but many feel that Platinum’s future rides on it succeeding. In the weeks before the game released, the game became the catalyst for a discussion on properly compensating voice talent. Bayonetta’s original voice, Hellena Taylor, called for a boycott, claiming she wasn’t offered a fair wage, though later information would imply she was omitting information to make her case look better. Regardless, the air around Bayonetta 3 wasn’t all that positive and I’m sorry to say that, after having gone through the game, I find it didn’t come out the other side smelling like roses. Bayonetta 3 is a very interesting game to talk about, for a variety of reasons both quite positive…and unfortunately very negative. One of my most anticipated games of this year, it has given me some mixed feelings and leaves a bittersweet taste in my mouth.

ENTER THE BAYO VERSE

After two games where Bayonetta has taken on the legions of heaven and hell and taken on a few gods, there’s really only so much the series can do to raise the stakes. The game opens with the introduction of our main threat: Singularity. A being so strong it threatens not just the universe, but the entire multiverse. As Singularity consumes one unlucky world, a young woman named Viola just barely escapes, traveling to another universe and enlisting the help of Bayonetta to stop Singularity and save all of reality before there’s nothing left. There’s definitely a more dire tone to a lot of the game, as we can see firsthand the destruction of Singularity’s forces, with Bayonetta and company being pushed to the limit to save the day. Of course, there’s still plenty of fun, campy moments throughout, like impromptu dance offs, a demonic concert (complete with glow sticks!) and more than a fair share of tasteful nudity and the sensual style that has made the series infamous. The opening prologue level certainly hits a lot of the same beats from past entries; Bayonetta’s living it up in town, something goes wrong, Enzo is made a fool, and she beats up some basic enemies while taking her clothes off and eventually showing off some fantastic new guns. Viola serves as a pretty interesting foil to Bayonetta at the start as well; despite putting on a cool front, she’s clumsy and goofy, frequently at odds with Bayonetta as she struts about with all of the confidence of a seasoned Umbran Witch. With the titular witch taking on a bit of a mentor role, it’s a decent starting point for another adventure. The promise of interacting with different variations of our heroine as they jump from world to world also just seems rife with possibilities. That said, this strong start can’t quite hide the game’s frequent rough edges in the presentation.

As the Switch gets on in years, the lacking quality of its hardware only becomes more apparent, with even Nintendo’s own first party offerings often having to make sacrifices to run on what is ostensibily an outdated smartphone. The Bayonetta series has never really been a graphical showcase, though there’s aspects of 3 that definitely feel more than a bit dated, even going back to the original game’s release during the seventh console generation. NPC character models look and animate quite stiffly and environments are often extremely empty and lacking in high-quality textures. Sadly the game’s performance follows suit, being a bit of a downgrade from even the previous entry on the Wii U. The game targets 60 FPS but often is somewhere closer to the 40s or 50s, with occasional dips below that in more hectic moments. Now, I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the most sensitive to this stuff and it never really impacted my gameplay, at least to a degree I was consciously aware of it, but it is a shame the game can’t give more consistent results.

(source: Eurogamer )

I do find the game is smooth enough most of the time, and it’s clear Platinum brought their A-game when it came to the overall presentation despite all of this. Cutscenes are still directed with that manic energy that makes Platinum’s titles such a joy to experience. Bayonetta herself, and most of her enemies, are animated extremely well, with tons of personality oozing out of many attacks and even idle animations. The menus are a bit sleeker than past entries and generally things are as seamless and smooth as could be when getting into and out of combat encounters. There’s a lot less of the stop-motion cutscenes in this game as well, which helps the overall story feel a bit more high budget and consistent. Music is also pretty consistently great. From the eerie, ethereal music often accompanying Singularity’s minions, to the peppy battle themes accompanying Bayonetta and Viola’s various scraps, there’s a lot to like. One of the real highlights would be “Fertile Rondo,” an operatic jam that doubles as a huge reference to The Fifth Element.  

Voice acting also remains generally strong throughout, with returning actors like Yuri Lowenthal, Grey DeLisle, and Dave Fennoy feeling right at home with Luka, Jeanne and Rodin respectively. I have to really credit the amount of charm Anna Brisbin gives to Viola, and overall the character made a good impression on me. Of course, this also means I have to touch on the controversy with Bayonetta’s voice change. Taylor’s take on the character was great, and regardless of who replaced her, it was always going to be a bit awkward, but Jennifer Hale is a pretty good get in that case. A veteran in voice over, Hale’s credits are numerous and should honestly speak for themselves, and I would say she nails this take on Bayonetta, to the point it almost feels like she’s always played the character. There are points she sounds almost uncannily like Taylor, though admittedly it isn’t always consistent. But overall, she embodies the sass and style associated with the character and makes the transition about as flawless as could be hoped for overall.

I have…more things to say regarding the overall story, but we can save that for later. Instead, there is still an underlying action game under all this, so I’d better get to talking about that.

SIZE ISN’T EVERYTHING (BUT IT HELPS)

There’s been a fair bit of escalation throughout the Bayonetta series from game to game. The first title mostly focused on Bayonetta herself beating up hordes of angels, with only occasionally summoning limbs of demons for her Wicked Weave finishing strikes, and often a fun QTE at the end of major encounters to finish off bosses that teased more of the demon. Then in the sequel, Infernal Climax took center stage, where for a brief time ALL of Bayonetta’s attacks summoned demons, and at one point you were even directly controlling the demon Madama Butterfly for part of a boss encounter. But the threat in Bayonetta 3 is so great that summoning the whole demon is both frequent and required to even hope to win. In a bit of a twist on things, the main villainous faction are man-made homunculi, and since they aren’t angelic in nature Bayonetta’s summons have no real desire to help out in battle. Thus, she invokes the Demon Slave ritual to take direct control over them, allowing players to control the demons in real-time. There’s definitely some stipulations though; Demon Slave constantly drains Bayonetta’s magic meter and once emptied you’ll have to wait for it to fill to a certain amount to summon them again. Demons can also eventually turn on Bayonetta and go on a rampage if attacked enough, and perhaps worst of all, Bayonetta is stationary while players are in control of demons, meaning players need to learn the proper time and place to invoke it. Players can equip up to three demons at a time and freely switch between them in combat, in many ways allowing demons to serve as additional weapons to Bayo’s arsenal. Admittedly, some of the demons are a bit unwieldy and require practice to use efficiently, and some are a bit situational, but all of them bring something unique to the table and further expands Bayonetta’s combat options.

One facet I really enjoyed about the game is the Demon Masquerade system. Depending on the weapon equipped, at points Bayonetta can take on a form similar to the demon said weapon is based on, which can drastically change her mobility. With her default guns, Colour My World, she takes on Madama Butterfly’s visage and gains the ability to slowly hover through the air on her wings, while with Gomorrah’s weapon, the massive G-Pillar, she takes on a more feral stance and hops about, with a fast air dash to help her cross gaps quickly. Players also use skill trees for each weapon to unlock more moves in her arsenal that also have her transform to perform them, like powerful crowd-clearing attacks, or the near-universal gap-closer moves that have her home in on the nearest enemy. Demons also have a similar skill tree to enhance their own movesets, and by filling out both you gain one final upgrade that fleshes out each moveset. It’s a bit different from being able to buy moves in Rodin’s shop, but it works well enough as incentive to keep fighting and trying out different weapons.

On that note, Bayonetta 3 has some of the best weapon variety in the entire series, if not THE best. While this game does away with the ability to set weapons on both your hands and feet, thereby reducing the amount of interesting weapon combinations and synergies, this change allowed them to go all-in on some out-there weapons that wouldn’t have worked otherwise. One of my favorites is Abracadabra, a combination of a top hat and cane that allows Bayonetta to moonlight as a magician, allowing her to summon various projectiles out of her hat at random, as well as utilize powerful electric blasts. Or there’s Tartarus, a slow but powerful weapon consisting of thick, stone doors that can plow through enemy attacks, but when opened can summon a variety of weapons, including some powerful gatling guns that rip through targets. I could go on, because there are TONS of weapons in this game with their own quirks and uses, all with their own demon that has their OWN intricacies. Many demons are often large beasts, like the dinosaur-esque Gomorrah, or Baal, a giant toad, but there’s more than a few unique demons like Wartrain Gouon which…is a train. And when you summon it, you have to draw the train tracks and hit attack buttons along the route before the train barrels on through and slams past all in its wake. The sheer options available is amazing, to the point that it’s a tad disappointing you can only have two weapon sets at any time. That said, while weapon variety is great, enemy variety leaves a bit to be desired.

Most of the homunculi enemies suffer from one of two major issues: they have samey designs that keep them from standing out and feeling distinct, or they’re giant enemies that are basically designed purely for demons to rip through their inflated health pools. If you’re someone who ends up hating using demons in combat and would rather ignore it, then have fun chipping away at these damage sponges! Of all of them, the Virga enemy might be the least fun to fight in the game. Basically a giant Wiggler enemy from the Super Mario series, it never stops moving or attacking and often has no reactions to any attacks done to it, making it difficult to get through the fight unscathed. That’s on top of the camera frequently clipping into it and making it almost impossible to see. Really, the camera might be the greatest enemy in the game. Not only does this game employ a “soft-lock” and force Bayonetta to attack whichever enemy has triggered it, but the “hard lock-on” often forces the camera to make strange, sweeping movements, and it isn’t long before that lock-on is broken and you’re forced to do lock-on again. On top of that, enemies break the series tradition of mostly not attacking when off-screen, and won’t hesitate to take potshots at you with little warning. With the combat areas in general much larger to accommodate the demons and large enemies, this can also mean it’s quite easy to lose track of some smaller enemies and be forced to whirl the camera around frantically to find them. After the previous two games had such a tight camera by comparison, this is a bit of a downgrade unfortunately.

Generally, when Bayonetta’s core combat is allowed to shine and it all clicks, it works amazingly well, but sadly there’s even more things inserted into the game in the name of variety that often bogs the entire experience down a bit.

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

While Bayonetta’s flashy combat is the star of the show for the most part, at various points in the story players will engage with different gameplay styles and different playable characters. This is really nothing new with most games from Platinum, as they love to sneak in schmup sections and setpieces to change things up, though I find that in the case with THIS game…they don’t often land and come across as annoying padding.  There’s multiple instances throughout the game where Bayonetta will ride atop a demon, or players just get to command it directly, which are far more sluggish and unresponsive than in normal gameplay, Demon Slave or otherwise. A good example would be a timed platforming section as you ride atop the flaming spider Phantasmaraneae that is noticeably slower and less agile than when it is used in Demon Slave combos, OR the much faster, responsive Demon Masquerade version of it, complete with an awkward camera that’s often far too close. But then we go bigger with more climactic battles culminating in Bayonetta invoking the Deadly Sin ritual, offering up her own heart to empower demons and allowing them to go even further beyond their original powers. I wouldn’t say these sections are all-together bad, but the variety frequently goes against what I came here for in the first place. I want to play Bayonetta 3 for high-octane action, not weird rail shooters or slow kaiju fighting games and DEFINITELY not rhythm games, but you’re forced to play these if you want to advance through the game. This series is a more arcade-like action title that really tries to get you to replay levels and get better scores, and these sequences are kind of a drag to do again. Had they been their own self-contained chapter, I wouldn’t mind as much, but they’re often at the end of already long chapters and really bring down replays. That said, this game now saves your highest score for each separate Verse of a chapter, and you can pick specific “checkpoints” in a chapter to minimize replays, so it doesn’t sting as much as it could.

That said, it doesn’t stop there. Throughout the game you can play as both Jeanne and newcomer Viola, but sadly there’s a lot to be desired there. In Jeanne’s case, you play through short 2D side-scrolling segments with a focus on stealth as she seeks out a scientist to assist in defeating Singularity. So you have a series that prides itself on cool, kick-ass characters and suddenly force them to hide in vents and do stealth kills to the cannon fodder grunts? Feels more than a bit out of place. Again, these aren’t really BAD…but they’re not that fun and take away from the very first time Jeanne has been playable during the main story, as she’s usually relegated to being an unlockable moveset clone of Bayonetta after you beat the game.

Viola though is where my real disappointments lie. We’ve had different playable characters before, but they’re either near identical to Bayoentta in gameplay (Jeanne and Rosa), or restricted to a separate mode (Rodin and Balder), so Viola being an out-and-out NEW character that’s playable during the main story SHOULD be really interesting but she instead feels half-baked. Armed with a katana, some throwing darts in lieu of a gun, and the demon Cheshire as a familiar, Viola on paper seems like a fun enough alternative to Bayonetta. She’s got some fun, flashy sword combos, and in an interesting twist, when she summons Cheshire to help, she’s free to continue moving around and attacking because Cheshire isn’t under direct player control. It gives her a completely different bareknuckle moveset and feels satisfying on its own. But unfortunately, it becomes clear this game was not designed with her in mind. The bigger enemies are clearly made for the Demon Slave summons to tear through, but Cheshire just doesn’t cut it. He’s often slow and at times actively lofts about and smokes on his pipe rather than attack, leaving Viola to fend for herself. Some friend. Adding to this, Viola’s moveset is decently fleshed out…but it’s still just ONE weapon compared to the plethora of other weapons Bayonetta can mess with. She lacks variety and feels really stale after a bit. With so many weapons in this game, surely they could have spared at least ONE for Viola. But the worst aspect has to be how she activates Witch Time, a core mechanic in these games. Bayonetta dodges attacks to activate it, slowing down time and letting her go to town on the defenseless enemies as a result. Viola meanwhile must parry incoming attacks by blocking, which brings to mind Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, another Platinum title. A couple problems here though: most enemies don’t seem balanced for the parry at all. They either do huge, sweeping attacks that either miss Viola completely, or have ridiculously tight timings to even land the parry in the first place. It’s WAY less forgiving than Bayonetta’s dodge and one optional challenge mission involving you only being able to damage enemies while in Witch Time nearly had me tearing my hair out. Playing as Viola frequently feels like trying to jam a square peg into a round hole. Maybe that’s the reason she’s only playable in three of the game’s chapters, falling behind even Jeanne’s side-scrolling missions in frequency. She feels like a last-minute inclusion, despite playing such a big part in the story.

IN CONCLUSION (kind of)

With all I’ve said up until now, I have qualms with some aspects of the core gameplay but I largely had a blast. When the game just lets you focus on fighting, the game is fun and dynamic, with TONS of satisfying tools to learn and master. The game’s larger levels allowed for more downtime as I searched out optional missions or collectibles, and I largely appreciated the change in scope. Some levels left a bit to be desired, feeling more like large boxes than real places, but there are times when the game really shines. The levels taking place in an alternate Egypt are what I wish the entire rest of the game was like. Huge, sprawling locations with tons of secrets tucked away, what felt like small dungeons with some quick puzzles and interesting combat encounters, and probably the best of the Deadly Sin gameplay change ups. I largely enjoyed Bayonetta 3 as an action game, with spectacle that few other series can match. Despite some rough edges in performance and visuals, and some annoying setpieces, it is clear Platinum gave it their all to make a game that attempted to surpass the high expectations of fans. The music goes HARD at times, the story has some real standout moments that I loved, and in a lot of respects this might be the most fun game in the series when you factor it all in. This feels like not just an evolution of the Bayonetta series, but Platinum continuing to tweak and iterate on ideas found in their other titles. The DNA of many of their games exist within this one, serving as a bombastic, content-rich entry that in many ways was well worth the near five-year wait from the initial reveal.

With all that said however, the game’s ending left me extremely conflicted on the entire product, and I want to go into that, but also I’d rather not spoil it for people that might want to go into it themselves. I’ve put my concluding thoughts here ahead of a spoiler-filled section on this ending for that reason. So, overall despite some rough edges, Bayonetta 3 is a high-quality title that stands up with some of Platinum’s greatest….as long as you just completely ignore a terrible ending that feels like they’re trying to torch the franchise and run away.

THE ENDING: MESSY, RUSHED AND UNEXPLAINED

PlatiumGames isn’t really known for their storytelling; they make really fun, goofy action games, and barely anyone really talks about those games’ narrative. So, for anyone that hears Bayonetta 3’s story is bad, it makes sense to think “Well, who cares about story in a Platinum game anyway?” In general, a lot of video games place gameplay over story, so is it really that big of a deal if Bayonetta 3’s story falls flat as long as the gameplay is good? For a lot of people, I’m sure that is enough and I can understand them brushing off complaints. But that isn’t enough for me. Just because this is an action game, I don’t think the story should be half-baked. Plenty of action games, not just from Platinum, manage to strike a better balance, and despite the shortcomings of the previous games in the series, I like the world and characters Platinum have created here. Which is why the ending stung as hard as it did, as it feels almost vindictive towards all that came before, and if that wasn’t the intention, they really botched the execution.

Bayonetta 3 has a lot of great ideas for a fun story, or even a great one. But the problem is that Platinum tried to shove too much into one game, and as a result almost every plot point and bit of narrative potential is wasted. Multiple important details that make the story comprehensible are locked away in character bios that most players aren’t likely to dig through and read. Certain elements of the endgame feel unearned, and the game’s tone changes so often the whiplash is constant and jarring. So, let’s delve into those points one at a time.

I’ll start with the tone. Most of Platinum’s work are over-the-top and not really meant to be taken too seriously. They employ humor throughout the vast majority of their work, they aren’t afraid to blatantly homage things they think are cool and to me they’re at their best when they just have fun with their premise and setting. Bayonetta 3 has a lot of these moments for sure, but they attempt to blend it together with a darker, more dramatic turn and it just does not work at all. The prologue chapter has the entirety of New York flooded, as Singularity begins his assault. The death count alone in this chapter easily eclipses the other two games. Even Enzo, the plucky comic relief, is reduced to tears as his family has seemingly been killed. So when Bayonetta and Rodin are just quipping back and forth it really feels misplaced. Did this game want to be serious, or just as irreverent as past titles? They needed to pick a lane and stick with it. Honestly, I don’t think being more serious fits either Platinum or the Bayonetta series, and if they did want to try to branch out, I think they overcompensated.

(Bayonetta without a confident smirk on her face is just...wrong!)

Bayonetta, much like her predecessor Dante from the Devil May Cry series, is a power fantasy. She’s sexy, she’s powerful, she’s always in control. The draw of these games is seeing her mop the floor with celestial beings without breaking a sweat. So when this game tries to up the ante and establish higher stakes, they really struggle with doing so in a way that feels organic. The game opens with one universe’s Bayonetta being killed by Singularity, which works as a demonstration of the threat he poses. The problem is that this keeps happening throughout the game; every single alternate Bayonetta we encounter gets about five minutes of screentime before being unceremoniously killed in a cutscene where they become uncharacteristically incompetent. No one in this game ever looks behind them. So there’s drama here and the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been, but that comes at the cost of Bayonetta as a character looking less powerful and capable. This dark tone and constant death toll also just kind of spoils all of the fun a multiverse tale like this could have had.

When promotional materials made it clear this was a multiverse story, I was looking forward to all of these various character interactions…so imagine my surprise when there’s not much done with that premise at all. For all of the infinite possibilities that come with bringing a multiverse into your story, all Platinum could seemingly think up was “What if Bayonetta lived in another country?” There’s flashes of interesting elements that never get fleshed out on-screen at all. The Tokyo Bayonetta is a delinquent while the Egyptian Bayonetta is a princess with Jeanne as both her bodyguard and her superior in combat. I did enjoy the Paris Bayonetta sections though. Working with her mother Rosa, they’re a pair of thieves with that world’s Enzo chasing after them as a cop, like Lupin III’s Zenigata. But I wanted MORE of that! The Chinese Bayonetta is a war general who apparently lost her eye in an interesting story…the game has no interest in telling us that story though! They had an opportunity to really shake things up; what if we had a world where Enzo was the one with the magic powers, or one where Bayonetta was a Lumen Sage instead of an Umbran Witch? I also find it odd that while we do get to see some alternate Jeannes and Enzos, we only get one alternate Luka and zero alternate Violas, when having more could have made some interesting contrasts. I could forgive a curbed roster if they did much with them, but the bulk of the game just has us hopping from universe to universe, taking every alternate Bayonetta’s demons and weapons for our own and promptly forgetting about them. The Egyptian Bayonetta has a character arc concerning her lacking confidence and overreliance on Jeanne squeezed into two chapters of the game when that could have been fleshed out over the course of the game instead. With our “prime” Bayonetta serving as a mentor to Viola, it could have been interesting to see multiple Bayonettas attempt to give Viola advice, to showcase how different these alternative selves were, but alas, there was just no time apparently.

Further adding to the missed potential, there is the entire concept of fairies introduced into the series with this game. Now, if they wanted to introduce a new faction I have no real objections. Bayonetta’s already fought angels and demons, and spends the entire game fighting these strange man-made homunculi, so beating up some fae folk isn’t really that big of a stretch…except the game barely touches on them at all. After two games without them being mentioned, suddenly Luka is revealed to be part fairy, and this influence is then retconned to be the reason he became a journalist. Despite the fact that the first game made it clear he was obsessed with “the truth” because he watched his father being torn apart by angels he couldn’t even see so uh…that doesn’t really fit. If this is meant to merely tease them being fleshed out more in a sequel, this really wasn’t the place to do it.

I can’t talk about Luka without touching on the controversial romance subplot with him and Bayonetta. Now, this is controversial for a number of reasons. For one, while Bayonetta did flirt with Luka a fair bit in the first game, they barely interacted at all in the second game or this game for that matter. The chemistry just wasn’t really given time to develop. That’s not even getting into the backlash from the series’ gay fans. Over the years a lot of queer folk have kind of “claimed” Bayonetta as a series, mostly from the game’s constant campy tone, combined with a lot of romantic subtext with Bayonetta and Jeanne. But the backlash goes beyond just a ship they liked not being made canon, but moreso this strange subtext applied to Bayonetta and Luka’s relationship in this game that many feel is at best “bi erasure” and at worst downright homophobic or heteronormative. At various points, Singularity calls Bayonetta “Arch-Eve” and Luka “Arch-Adam” so there’s this idea that they’re like…a universal constant and are destined to be together? This coupled with Jeanne not really getting to do much in this game is viewed as a slap in the face by some fans. I don’t really believe Platinum was intentionally going against their gay fans here, and I do think some fans took their own headcanons a bit too far. I’ve heard some even try to claim that there just was no way straight people could get anything out of the series and uh…yeah I don’t really see that point at all. For my own two cents, I just think this romance was really rushed and should have been fleshed out more throughout the series. Or just have Bayonetta, Jeanne and Luka in one big happy threesome, I don’t know.

All of these rushed plot points and dashed potential end up getting twisted up into a very long, grueling final boss fight where…things just kind of happen suddenly, without any explanation before or after. All of the killed Bayonettas (and Jeannes) are revived…and then disappear again, the game being unclear on if they’re still gone for good or were saved. Two more Bayonettas, each clad in the first and second game’s designs respectively, appear to help out in the final battle, but they also vanish without a trace randomly. Then the final blow is dealt to Singularity and a vortex opens up in the sky at the EXACT moment Bayonetta loses control of her demonic summon. This is all a contrived situation purely to force Luka to save an unconscious Viola as she’s pulled into said vortex, thereby allowing Gomorrah to kill Bayonetta definitively. Luka cradles Bayonetta’s soul as they are both dragged into hell, all while Viola cries out for her mother and father and pounds the ground in frustration. Cue credits. Oh, except for the part where Viola suddenly fights…Dark Eve. A character that isn’t explained in-game at all and is only fleshed out in the character bios that update after the game is beaten. By somehow fighting off this uh…dark amalgamation of all of the other dead Bayonettas…somehow this means Viola has proven she has what it takes to take on the mantle of Bayonetta. We get another stinger where we see she is taking on jobs from Rodin, with the game seemingly setting up that any future Bayonetta games will have her in the starring role. Cue dance party ending!

Where do I begin here? The game’s inability to confirm anything really muddies the waters here and makes the ending come across as more somber than I think was intended. New York seems fine in this stinger, and Enzo’s family is seemingly alive and well…but what of the other worlds? If they’re all back to normal…why isn’t Viola with her real mother and father? On that note, why did the game wait until the exact last second to confirm something most fans guessed before the game even came out? I feel that dragging out Viola’s parentage until the very end of the game did nothing for the story, especially seeing how little Viola really factored into the story at all. Then there’s the ending with her as the new protagonist. The game sets this up as an optimistic passing of the torch but…I just don’t think it’s earned at all. Throughout the entire game Viola is showcased as being a bit of a joke. She never gets to actually defeat anything of real significance, and even in the final battle with Singularity she’s batted away and becomes a liability at the end. Sure, she defeats Dark Eve, but the sudden appearance of this random character the game barely tried setting up undoes any amount of triumph the moment should give the audience. I like Viola, but she isn’t ready to headline this series.

In the time since the game’s release, series creator Hideki Kamiya has commented on the backlash, stating that Platinum hadn’t been as clear with some things as they should have been, and that Bayonetta 4 would address these concerns and criticisms. Of course, there’s the question of if PlatinumGames as a studio will even exist long enough for another game to come out, but assuming that it does happen, I suppose there is a chance they could smooth this all out. Maybe we see that Bayonetta and Luka are living it up in hell, and all of the other universes are fine and dandy. Maybe Jeanne is still around and can help out Viola as she comes into her own. That’s a lot of maybes though, and there’s no guarantee THAT game wouldn’t just drop the ball in its ending too.

A lot of the issues I levy at this game could also apply to the other two games. All three games feature villains with no actual substance to them, with no motives for why they do what they do; they exist to be a big boss fight to cap off an action game. All three games don’t really explain everything as well as they could, with the first two having time-travel nonsense wrapped up in the narrative. I wouldn’t call the stories for the first two games good, and going into this game I didn’t really have high hopes on a good narrative, but I assumed there would at least be a fun one. I think that’s the biggest problem here; the fun is gone. Bayonetta 3 tries to raise the stakes but in the process, it lost a lot of what made the first two games so compelling for people. Yet they try to carry on like everything is fine, with a dance party ending filled to the brim with characters that are, as far as this narrative tells us, dead, and we’re left with a character we barely know headlining the series as everything else fans have come to love about the franchise is long gone. It feels like Platinum saw the ending to Devil May Cry 5 and thought “Hey we can do that too!” except they completely misunderstood why that game’s ending worked as well as it does.

Not to go into it too much, but Devil May Cry as a sister series to Bayonetta has already done the passing of the torch thing, with Dante eventually letting the younger Nero take over. What I think Platinum missed here is that it took Capcom TWO games to fully allow Nero to graduate to the main protagonist role, and even then, I feel like the massive gap between the two games is what allowed fans who previously disliked Nero to eventually cool down and come to accept him. Adding to all this, Nero was at least playable for half of Devil May Cry 4 and roughly half of Devil May Cry 5, whereas Viola gets barely three levels to herself in Bayonetta 3. Even though both Bayonetta 3 and Devil May Cry 5 end with the previous protagonists in Hell, Dante doesn’t seem all that bothered by it and the narrative allows enough wiggle room to bring him back with little trouble. In Bayonetta’s case, her end seems far more permanent. Despite some similarities, the contexts differ dramatically.

I think I’ve gone on long enough here. I really want to stress I didn’t expect to come out of this game feeling as down about it as I did. I heard people not liking the ending, and assumed they were just jaded Bayo/Jeanne shippers…but I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s frustrating, as in some respects I feel like Platinum can and HAS done better. For as silly as it was, The Wonderful 101 had real heart to it, and I think to this day that is the best story Hideki Kamiya has ever written. While Bayonetta 2 didn’t have the best narrative, I think it was an improvement over the first, and humanized Bayonetta a fair bit. My criticisms stem from my desire to see Platinum succeed. I am without a doubt in their corner and want to be excited for their games, and in recent years it’s been hard to be a fan. Astral Chain was pretty interesting, if a bit wonky at points (and also didn’t have the best story), but from 2020 onwards Platinum felt like a shell of their former selves. Using a Kickstarter to port a barely-touched “remaster” of The Wonderful 101, releasing self-published titles like World of Demons on the Apple Arcade and nowhere else, or the ridiculously overpriced schmup that is Sol Cresta. 2022 opened with the disastrous launch of Babylon’s Fall, and now this game, despite delivering on the action, had to stumble so hard at the very end. When they first started their company, co-founder of PlatinumGames, Tatsuya Minami stated that they chose to be named after platinum because “platinum never loses its luster,” and that was their motto for making games. But as 2022 draws to a close, their shine has dulled, and I’m having a hard time coming to terms with that.

Ultimately, that’s just my take on things. I value story a lot, as you can probably tell, so a bad ending for me matters a whole lot more than a lot of Platinum’s audience I’m sure. As I’ve mentioned before, Bayonetta 3 is still a high-quality title when it comes to stylish action, with plenty of fun setpieces, tons of weapons and tools to master, and a presentation that is constrained only by its hardware. I wouldn’t for a second label Bayonetta 3 as a bad game. It’s great, in fact, and one I would recommend to others…I just wish I didn’t have to attach an asterisk to the end of that recommendation. Despite it all, I’m glad this game finally came to fruition and I desperately hope Platinum can regain some of their luster in the years to come.

Until next time.

-B

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Review: The Best of Both Worlds

Monolith Soft knows a lot about ambition. From their early days as a game developer, they’ve always strived for more. With ambition however, there’s often compromise. For co-founder Testuya Takahashi, his vision has often been unfulfilled despite his best efforts. From Xenogears’ infamous second disc, to Xenosaga being cancelled partway through the six planned entries, and even with Nintendo’s own Xenoblade franchise there have been issues that held the games back. Xenoblade Chronicles wasn’t initially localized outside of Japan, Xenoblade Chronicles X was both on the ill-fated Wii U, but also had re-writes that severely impacted the story, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was made with a skeleton crew, as Monolith Soft was also assisting with two major Nintendo games (Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2) that would launch in the same year. Despite all the hardship, Xenoblade has become a bona-fide franchise and with the latest release, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, we might be getting a look at Monolith Soft when the shackles can finally release and they can complete their vision without compromise.

FIGHT TO LIVE, LIVE TO FIGHT

Something to address right away: it is perfectly OK to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3 without having played any prior game. While connections exist, the focus is on the world and characters introduced in this game, and while having extra context is nice and you might notice some references to past entries, it is far from required reading. With that said….

In the world of Aionios, there is nothing but war. Two factions, Keves and Agnus, are locked in an eternal struggle. They don’t fight for resources or politics; they fight and kill because it is the only way they can stay alive. These factions find themselves at the mercy of the Flame Clock, a measurement of their remaining life force. Though they must also eat and sleep, they too must take the lives of the enemy faction to keep their own Flame Clock filled. The people of Aionios learn to fight from the moment they are born, and have frighteningly short life spans, or “terms,” of roughly ten years. Should they make it to their tenth term, they are taken before their queen for a Homecoming ceremony, returned to her and laid to rest. A life of nothing but fighting, no one questions the natural order…until one faithful day.

Six soldiers, three from Keves and three from Agnus, find themselves on an unorthodox mission and end up meeting a man named Guernica, who is far older than anyone they have ever seen before. He tells them of a “true enemy” and that the world was once different, though it isn’t long before the group is attacked by this enemy: Moebius. Though fatally wounded in the battle, Guernica bestows a strange power to the six youths, enabling them to fight back against Moebius and give the world a fighting chance to set things right. With both factions branding them as traitors and Moebius also working to hunt them down, it is up to an unlikely ensemble to shatter the nightmarish status quo and find out what it really means to live.

Xenoblade 3 at times is the darkest entry in the franchise to date. A somber atmosphere, the game doesn’t shy away from the horrors of war. The fact that most characters in the game are basically child soldiers is merely the tip of the iceberg. Each of the main cast have experienced trauma from the constant fighting, from the people they’ve lost and what they’ve had to do just to survive in the nightmare of Moebius’ creation. Noah and Mio, our main leads, are off-seers, tasked with sending off those that die in battle, so they are both the closest to death among the main cast but also the ones who are quickest to set aside their differences in an effort to set the world to rights. Noah is a lot more philosophical about life and death throughout the game; despite being against fighting if he sees another option, he’ll still take up arms if he sees no other choice. Mio meanwhile is fairly restrained and kindhearted, but is constantly weighed down by the knowledge that she is on her final term, with roughly three months left to live at the game’s start, giving her a sense of urgency to complete the group’s mission before it is too late. That’s not to say the game can’t have more light-hearted moments though; though not to the extent of Xenoblade 2 there are often characters and missions with a more laidback, comedic bent which serve to mostly balance out the otherwise bleak setting, and leave us with memorable secondary characters. Despite the dark setting, there is a sense of optimism that shines through and keeps the game from being too exhaustingly bleak. On top of that, it might just have the best main cast in the series.

A goal for the development team was to flesh out the main cast, to not have any one “main character” that took up the bulk of screen time and development, which is definitely something the other Xenoblade games have been guilty of in the past. While Noah and Mio are given a bit more focus in the core plot, the rest of the group aren’t far behind and have their own effects on the narrative at various points. Lanz, easy to write-off as the hotheaded idiot of the team, works through his own trauma throughout the game and has to come to grips with letting go of his past if he wants to walk forward. Eunie, a brash if well-meaning friend of Noah and Lanz, struggles with strange visions that haunt her and give some eerie implications into the greater setting. She also has some of the funniest lines in the whole game. Taion, who I feared would quickly fall into a route “smarmy know-it-all” archetype displays a fair amount of depth early on. Despite being among the least-pleased with working with his former enemy, he’s smart enough to rein it in and at least attempt to get along with everyone. Despite taking a lot of pride in his strategic prowess and at times coming across as stoic, his more emotional moments lead to both some of the more touching parts of the game, and also some of the funniest. Sena, at least initially, came across as a bit lacking. She’s the plucky girl who seems to be Mio’s personal cheerleader; however her development is more subtle. Despite being driven and powerful in her own right, she lacks confidence in herself and is constantly seeking validation. She sees herself reflected in other characters throughout the game, and eventually learns of her own self-worth, though I do feel that quests ostensibly meant to be focused on her aren’t always keeping her in the forefront, so it isn’t perfect.

While the main cast feels more fleshed out than any previous Xenoblade game, I do feel that the antagonists are a tad undercooked as a result. Moebius are billed as hedonistic monsters who orchestrate the eternal war behind the scenes mostly out of boredom. They pointedly refer to this all as a game, and have no real respect for any life but their own. While easily detestable, I do feel that the vast majority of Moebius lack depth, coming across more so as Monster of the Week styled obstacles than real characters. Coming off of the villains of Xenoblade 2, in my eyes the strongest antagonists in the franchise, this is definitely disappointing. Then again, seeing as Torna in Xenoblade 2 was a tight-knit group of five, it was far easier to flesh them out compared to Moebius’ 25 members. They went with quantity over quality, but even with the “main” members that received larger focus, I do feel that the game fumbles a bit at giving us villains that are all that memorable. While I want to avoid outright spoilers, I do have to mention I find the ending also loses a bit of steam. The game has a real emotional and narrative high point and…kind of runs on fumes after a while; though I think the ending is strong enough. I do feel there are more unanswered questions with this game when the credits roll, and some moments that don’t make much sense if you stop to think about them. Xenoblade 3 at points seems to be going for a more thematic, symbolic story than an overtly logical one, so I can let a few things slide. Seeing as there is story DLC coming next year though, it is possible the closure and explanations I yearn for are a ways off.

On the whole though, I think Xenoblade 3’s story is very well done. An interesting hook at the start, a steady supply of new developments that push things forward, with a large variety of interesting characters and the best main cast in the series yet, even with the ending stumbling a bit. Monolith Soft seems to have taken a lot of the criticisms of the English dub of Xenoblade 2 to heart here as well, as the English performances are excellent across the board. Lip synching also applies to either the Japanese or English audio tracks, so we no longer have the more awkward moments from Xenoblade 2 where things didn’t even remotely match up. As far as other aspects of the presentation go, Xenoblade 3 continues to push what should be possible on hardware as old as the Switch. Vast landscapes filled with things to see and do never fail to impress, while the overall character models are expressive and detailed. The main cast can even get dirty when out exploring, with a dedicated option to wash clothes when at camp. What the game might lack in high-fidelity textures it often makes up for in its strong art direction and expressive anime cel-shaded style on characters, making this one of the Switch’s most technically impressive games. Also worth noting, there has been more focus on making the game look good in handheld mode as well, which was often seen as an afterthought for previous Xenoblade games on Switch. Coupled with a targeted 30 FPS frame rate the game is about as smooth as one could hope for, considering the console specs and sheer scope of the game. I also feel I should point out how seamless the game is when switching from cutscenes to gameplay. Previous entries in the series would have to fade to black to quickly load in boss fights but in 3 the game instead has a more stylish zoom out straight into gameplay out of the cutscene. While there is a definite difference in quality for the pre-rendered cinematics versus the in-game cinematics, the transitions between the two are a lot smoother, and coupled with voice work even in many of these in-game moments, the overall presentation is a good deal higher than past entries in the series.

To go this far without mentioning the game’s music is a crime unto itself, but to be honest here, when it comes to Monolith Soft, I simply just expect great music by default. Thankfully, Xenoblade 3 delivers here. From a beautiful piano piece that serves as the main menu theme, to several fantastic battle and field themes, there’s almost too much to parse when picking favorites. Compared to the previous games, Xenoblade 3 has a heavy emphasis on flutes, tying in with Noah and Mio’s instruments when working as off-seers, and giving the game its own distinctive sound. It can be hard to name favorites but I’ll try anyway. The Moebius battle theme itself includes ominous chanting, which ties in with the player tackling higher beings with god-like power, and at points the song even sounds like it is laughing at you, emphasizing that Moebius sees this all as entertainment over anything else. “A Step Away” is one of only two vocal tracks in the game, playing at the game’s emotionally draining darkest hour and may or may not have caused tears to be shed. For my money though, “The Weight of Life” has to be my favorite, despite how little it plays in the game. A climactic song that amplifies the cutscenes it appears in, it showcases just how hard the team has to work to overcome overwhelming odds and has moments of intensity that give me chills every time I hear it. Appearing at the end of the game’s second official trailer, I couldn’t get it out of my head then and still can’t. As always, Monolith never disappoints when it comes to music. Well…except for the fact that using a Chain Attack completely overrides whatever theme is playing, which means you can miss out on the more dynamic boss themes. So that could be better. That said, we still have an actual game to describe here, so I’d best move on.

BATTLE WITH CLASS

To anyone that has played any of the games in the series up until this point, Xenoblade 3 will be easy enough to get into, but for those that might be new to the series, here is a quick run-down of the basics before we get into what this game does differently. Speaking broadly, all Xenoblade games play out very similarly to MMO-styled combat. Players are free to move around in control of one character while the rest of the party is controlled by AI. When in range, you’ll attack automatically, though these attacks are often weak. The real damage comes from using Arts, special attacks with a wide range of uses and effects, which undergo cooldowns after use. Some Arts require you to hit opponents from a specific position, like Noah’s Edge Thrust, which does more damage from behind. Depending on which faction they belong to, Art cooldowns differ slightly in this game. Kevesi characters like Noah, Lanz and Eunie, have to simply wait for the cooldown to expire similar to Xenoblade 1. Agnian characters (Mio, Taion and Sena) instead recharge their Arts with auto-attacks similar to Xenoblade 2. Many Arts also are used in status combos, with the party using specific Arts in sequence to force a given status onto the enemy. Noah might inflict Break on opponents to stagger them, and Lanz can follow up with an Art that inflicts Topple, making the enemy defenseless for a time, as an example. While the AI generally follows along with what you want to do, this game also allows you to swap control to any main party member during battle, and even outside of that you can give some orders to allies to make them do specific things if need be. For the most part as long as you do your thing, you can let the rest of the party handle things on their own, but having the option is certainly nice.

This game really emphasizes proper team composition and everyone acting according to one of three roles: attacker, healer or defender, which should be fairly self-explanatory. New to this game is a wide variety of classes characters can obtain, all of which fall under one of these three roles. While Noah and company all have their own starting classes, throughout the game players can recruit extra party members, known as Heroes, and unlock the Heroes’ classes for the rest of the party. As a class is used, it levels up separately from the character and after certain milestones players will gain skills and Arts that can be used regardless of class, which is where some real interesting customization happens. You could have characters learn some healing Arts so they can help out regardless of class, or just give characters more offensive options in general. Given enough time it becomes easier to do various status combos or inflict some big damage, but the game still has plenty of other systems at play to make you even stronger.

Following the inciting incident in the game, the core party gain the ability to Interlink into powerful forms known as Ouroboros, which they can freely use in combat a bit later on to great effect. While active, the Ouroboros has powerful Arts unique to them and they take no damage from attacks, though the form has its drawbacks. The Interlink will eventually overheat if not cancelled early, locking out the form for some time, and early on before the forms can be properly leveled up you won’t last long and be able to do as much. On top of that, characters have specific Interlink partners; Noah with Mio, Eunie with Taion and Lanz with Sena. If one of the pair is defeated in battle or hit by certain statuses, the Interlink cannot be performed. There’s also the problem of being down a character. If your healer Interlinks your party loses out on any heals, so you better make them count. While not an instant-win button, with practice the Ouroboros forms can help turn the tide of harder battles, but for situations that require even more power, there’s always the series staple in the Chain Attack. Once the Chain Attack gauge is filled, players can activate it at any time. Time stops and players can go all in on one enemy with the ability to use any Art on any party member. Without getting into the intricacies, the player is given an assortment of “orders” at the start of each “round” of the Chain Attack, which all have different effects if completed. Noah’s order has attacks potentially bypass an enemy’s defense, for example. The goal of each round is to use Arts to build up Tension Points. Once you reach 100 Tension, the order is executed. Rinse and repeat until you either run out of party members or the Chain Attack gauge empties. Heroes have their own orders that can be incredibly powerful; Valdi adds more Tension to his Arts if fighting a machine-type enemy, for one. And later on, Ouroboros orders can be used if certain conditions are met for even more damage. It takes a bit of luck and coordination but this game’s iteration of Chain Attacks might be the best yet in the series…perhaps even too good.

The series has quite the reputation for being difficult to get into and having quite complicated combat, though 3 aims to streamline things a great deal and ease players into things. From an honest to God training mode, to the slow but steady introduction of major mechanics with dedicated tutorials, Xenoblade 3 is perhaps the most straightforward game in the series, even if the beginning of the game somewhat goes too far with handholding and forcing players to do something as simple as, say, equip a piece of gear onto a character step by step. I’d rather the game teach me at all than flash a tutorial prompt on screen that can never be revisited though, so it’s a massive improvement from Xenoblade 2! Navigating menus is also made easier, with shortcuts that let me get right to where I want from the main game, like letting me open up the area map or party customization screen instantly, and those shortcuts can even be customized. There’s lots of smaller accessibility features in the options as well to make things flow smoother, like letting your AI allies Interlink on their own or leaving it to your explicit order. These quality-of-life updates really start to add up over time.

Throughout the series, Monolith Soft has streamlined combat and with 3 they’ve landed on a really solid series of systems. The combat is faster and snappier than in 2, though retains that game’s improvements from 1’s combat, such as attack cancelling and the more streamlined UI. That said, an issue this game shares with all but Xenoblade Chronicles X is the inability to jump and run in combat, which can get awkward in the often bumpy terrain battles take place on. Getting launched by an enemy attack can cause you to get stuck on a small hill and be unable to get back to fighting unless you holster your weapon, at which point you’re a sitting duck. While the UI is streamlined and the game generally does a MUCH better job of teaching you, some fights are still a cluttered mess. I’m not sure it was really worth it to have the entire party (plus one Hero) active at once. Against larger, single targets like bosses it is mostly fine, but when fighting multiple enemies at once it becomes sensory overload, it being a legitimate problem trying to find who you’re locked onto and knowing what’s even going on. Those issues are fairly minor though, and the end result is some of the most engaging combat the series has ever had. Other aspects like equipment are further de-emphasized as was the case in 2; you can equip some basic accessories and gems to your character, as well as fiddle with the skills and arts you obtain by mastering classes, but that’s about it as far as “builds” go. As someone who dislikes having to constantly buy new armor and weapons for huge RPG parties, I’m not all that upset to see things simplified down like this and find the class system engaging enough when trying to optimize characters, so I think it balances out. While fighting is a huge part of the game, let’s not forget there’s other aspects to this gameplay experience too!

SATING MY WANDERLUST

As a series, Xenoblade really excels at sating my wanderlust, boasting vast landscapes filled with things to see and do that are often quite striking. In some respects, 3 makes some great improvements from the previous entry, though I’m still left wanting more. Aionios, according to the developers, is roughly five times bigger in terms of walking distance compared to Xenoblade 2’s Alrest, though I find the ways to navigate this world aren’t scaled up to match. Your run speed and jump height and distance aren’t much different than in either Xenoblade 1 or 2, despite the world being so much bigger and it just doesn’t cut it. Often the jumping is mostly to get over the small bumps in the road that you should logically be able to already walk over but can’t for whatever reason, and it’s otherwise useless for any amount of platforming, and while I made frequent use of the fast travel system to get around there’s still large stretches where I would turn auto-run on and put my controller down to do something else as the group crossed large expanses. The most infuriating thing about all of this though is that Monolith Soft already solved these types of issues with Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U. That game was also massive, bigger than Breath of the Wild in fact, and was a seamless, open world to boot. And to match that players not only could run FAR faster than in any other game, they could jump far higher and farther to make navigating the vast world of Mira fun in its own right. And later still you would gain access to a giant robot, the Skell, to cross even larger expanses faster and eventually unlock the flight module to make the world your oyster. While I’m not asking for 3 to add in a giant robot to fly around in (I mean I wouldn’t say no either) at the very least I wish this game took the running and jumping from X. Later in the game you do gain access to a boat to cross a large aquatic region…but its controls both leave something to be desired and the sheer scale of this ocean means the boat only makes moving from point A to B SLIGHTLY less tedious.

To the game’s credit though, it does improve on one of my least favorite aspects of Xenoblade 2’s navigation. In the latter, you would frequently need to unlock paths forward with field skills and constantly open up menus to swap around Blades to get the appropriate skills in order, but it was a real mess and pace breaker. In 3 field skills are taught to the party after meeting certain Heroes, and just have them permanently active from that point onwards. The game even teases you a bit at the beginning by showing you tightropes you won’t be able to use until a ways later into the story. That said, there’s only four field skills in the entire game and two are completely optional, and even in those cases I can count the times you DO need to use them on one hand. Expecting every Hero to have their own field skill would have been overkill for sure, and in this specific case I’m glad Monolith Soft didn’t go for quantity over quality. Sadly, the game couldn’t improve on 2’s map at all, as it still makes it difficult to judge differences in elevation. Certain symbols only show up on the minimap but not the full map, and you’re limited to just one pin you can put on the map per areas, which simply isn’t enough. Seeing as so many people from Monolith Soft worked on Breath of the Wild, which had detailed maps that showed off things well, as well as multiple pins and such to work with, this is a pretty disappointing step down. Far from unusable but there’s more that could have been done here.

Thankfully, the game does improve on one aspect the series has always been a bit iffy on: the quests.

HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO (QUEST)

Xenoblade has often had a LOT of quests, but very few were really worth doing outside of the experience or money they’d give you. The first game went a little too hard on MMO-styled quests that just amounted to killing a given number of enemies or gathering a given amount of items. Some quests had more worthwhile rewards and little storylines associated with the NPCs giving them out but it really wasn’t worth having to trudge through all of the basic ones to get to them. Xenoblade Chronicles X was a fair bit better with more engaging quest lines throughout the game with more tangible rewards. Watching your city slowly accept more alien citizens into it was really neat, among other things. But that game also had strange requirements to even take on quests and often limited who could or could not be in your party to even accept them which held it back. The vast majority of quests in Xenoblade 2 were kind of unremarkable to be honest, though the Blade quests were often higher quality…a shame most Blades were only obtainable through in-game gacha that took TONS of luck and grinding to even get. So really, the bar was pretty low for Xenoblade 3’s quests and they still raised it so much higher that it’ll be very hard to top.

Side quests in 3 come in two flavors: basic quests and Hero quests. Basic quests can vary but often concern themselves with NPCs and tend to have their own minor storyline connected to the colony they hail from, while Hero quests are for both recruiting and later strengthening the Heroes you can add to your party. Hero quests come with voice acting and even some extensive cinematics at times, so the presentation really makes them stand out. While some Hero quests are actually required to complete the story, the vast majorities are optional…but if you take nothing else from this section, know that it is within your best interests to do them if you can, because they contain some of the game’s best moments. Be it character development, gags, or some really great rewards in the form of power-ups or party members, I was almost never disappointed with the Hero quests. Some are so good I’m shocked Monolith Soft didn’t make them required, especially since they often tie up loose ends to the core story or some characters’ personal arcs.

Something I came to enjoy about all of these quests is how they would often feed into each other and in some cases build off of one another. Take the quests found in Colony 9. The colony is rather run down at the game’s start and the new commander, Zeon, isn’t well respected by the rest of his subordinates. His initial Hero quest is about learning to trust Noah and the others, but subsequent quests around the colony are about him earning the trust of his peers and eventually getting the colony to start growing their own crops to sustain themselves. This requires the help of Colony Tau, which you encounter much later on, but serves to strengthen relations between the two. Most of the colonies in the game end up being paired off with a colony from the opposite faction, further emphasizing the game’s core themes of looking past initial differences or prejudices and working together for a common goal. Some basic quests can have some unexpected payoff. One questline has you attacked at random points by strange robotic soldiers, which eventually leads to a late-game Hero quest, and that hero teaches you a field skill that enables you to tackle another Hero’s ascension quest as you go off in search of a mythical hot spring. It made me feel validated in scraping every inch of the map and doing every quest when I could. Often times I was torn between continuing the core story and doing as much side content as possible, which is about the highest praise I can think of for an RPG. Things aren’t perfect, of course.

While I would say most missions are at least somewhat interesting for delving into NPCs or occasionally shaking things up, the game does repeat certain quest types a bit too much. Virtually every “follow the tracks” mission is the same, but the tracks themselves sometimes seem to wig out and spontaneously pop into existence. Not bad, but also not very engaging. Any time you have to follow an NPC that walks as slow as possible also kills the pacing of the game. I’m begging you here, Monolith Soft, please never do this again. There’s even two separate quest lines about making it rain that either requires random waiting around or dropping a ton of money on an NPC to make it rain instead. But really, the biggest issue I have with a lot of the quests in the game is how you get them.

Sometimes you’ll just be given a quest straight away, while others will be displayed on the map with a big glowing question mark. But often times you have to gather information on a quest before actually being assigned it. Wander over to NPCs with neon yellow speech bubbles and just eavesdrop for a few seconds and BAM, you have some quest info. But some quests require multiple pieces of information to even accept and even then, you have to go back to camp and specifically discuss the info to gain the quest. Some quests require you to have specific Heroes in your line up OR be discussed at a very specific camp just to give you more hoops to jump through. This does nothing but really add extra steps to the process and I don’t find it adds anything of note but maybe some minor flavor text. I can tolerate it for the most part at least, except for the handful of cases where the information you need to gather can only be obtained at VERY specific times of day. I wasn’t able to even START a few quests near the end of the game because I would have to go to a specific part of the map at a specific part of the day for the CHANCE the conversation would be there to overhear. Granted, you can change the time of day in-game manually but it was still an annoying obstacle that didn’t have to be there.

That said, I did everything in the game, which isn’t something I could say for ANY other Xenoblade until now, as there was always something that would burn me out of the process. Maybe there were just too many quests, or weird requirements to even start them, but Xenoblade 3 is the first game in the series I’ve 100% completed, so that should speak to the sheer quality of most of the side content in addition to the core story.  For the most part the game is very keen on making it easy to keep tabs on your progress through quests, or making it easy to see where to go next. Some quests which required you to grab specific items would sometimes mark themselves on your map, and some areas would spawn a large amount of items in said area to make gathering take no time at all. That said, this wasn’t universal and there are still some really tedious questlines involving gathering items that I had to look up to cut down on time. All told though, I never felt the need to just drop a quest and enjoyed having so many things to do throughout the game. Monolith Soft has come far when it comes to their side content, though there are still some pitfalls with the greater balance of the game with all that in mind.

AN UNENVIABLE BALANCING ACT

Balancing a game is hard, especially an RPG with tons of systems layered over one another. Past Xenoblade games have been a bit hit or miss with balance, and going into Xenoblade 3 I was curious how well they’d balance a game where your entire party is battling at once. I think for the most part the game’s intended balance curve when focusing on the story is mostly fine. And it does take steps to keep players from growing too strong too fast and breaking the game over its knee but…well, let’s just say there are some issues with their approach to things.

Most regular encounters are generally fine so long as you are within a few levels of your enemy, and as long as you single out some stronger enemies and don’t attract a group you’ll do fine. Same old Xenoblade. As in past games though, there are varying types of enemies that can rapidly change things, namely the Elite and Unique enemies. Unique enemies are a series staple, basically bosses in disguise and are often far stronger than their level would imply, with Elite enemies a slight step down from that. These two enemy types are a LOT bulkier than standard enemies, and as I found throughout the game, most storyline bosses qualify as these types of enemies as far as health and defense goes. On the one hand, this meant that even in situations where I was quite over leveled, these bosses still put up a fight, but it also kind of makes most fights a drag….unless you use Chain Attacks.

Which leads to my next point: Chain Attacks are kind of broken. They are SO good, you’d be foolish NOT to abuse them, but by using them battles can get kind of samey, all that unique music is drowned out by the Chain Attack theme, and it also makes it easy to over level without even trying. See, similar to Xenoblade 2, if you kill an enemy during a Chain Attack but keep going for as long as possible you end up getting an “overkill” modifier to your experience. Depending on when and where you do the Chain Attack, you could end up getting upwards of 1000 times the normal experience. Add to this that Elite enemies also have a separate modifier for experience you gain from taking them out, as well as the fact that one of the perks to doing more side quests is upping the chances of seeing more Elite enemies…and it means you are DROWNING in experience before you even get to the experience gained from quests and exploration.

Now, in Xenoblade 2 Monolith Soft implemented a system where you would have any non-battle experience stored separately that you could access at an inn to bolster your levels if you needed a boost, or ignore it if you didn’t want to over level. This carries over into Xenoblade 3; however it lacks the ability to level down, which was added to the Switch port of Xenoblade 1, at least until the post-game. So you have a game where it is extremely easy to over level, even if you aren’t trying to optimize it, and that leads to another problem.

Whenever you complete a Hero Quest in this game, a given party member will “inherit” that Hero’s class. So, when you beat Valdi’s quest and add him to your party, Lanz gets the ability to be a War Medic immediately. For everyone else, they have to unlock it slowly by fighting alongside Valdi and/or Lanz in that class, as an example. What the game fails to tell you though is that if you are more than four levels higher than an enemy, characters gain NO progress towards unlocking these classes. Despite the fact you still gain experience and Class Points (to rank up the classes), they saw fit to freeze your progress. In a game where it’s criminally easy to accidentally over level, which pushes you to fight stronger and stronger enemies to actually unlock the classes the game is clearly built around. Which will just over level you even more. It’s a problem that starts small, barely noticeable, but by endgame I was left with a ton of classes I couldn’t really pass on to anybody, which really limited my options.

To be fair here, this isn’t an issue every player is likely to really run into. Not everyone’s going to do every quest in the game, or use all their stored experience. The game is perfectly playable and beatable without getting every class on every character. As I said before, going from story beat to story beat, the game offers pretty decent challenge, and if you don’t abuse certain things like the experience modifiers, you likely strike a good balance with the game. I also only played on the default difficulty so maybe the harder difficulty would have been a better idea. I’ve definitely seen strategies and set-ups that break the game in half and trivialize it even at the higher difficulties but that’s so far removed from an average experience with the game I can overlook it. Monolith Soft likes to put a lot of things into their games and striking a perfect balance between rewarding players for doing it versus not punishing players who don’t engage with every facet is impossible. For the most part, the game works fine as intended and for those that enjoy exploiting and optimizing things out, Xenoblade 3 can be a lot of fun. I just hope in the future they can try to limit punishing players that stray off the beaten path and gorge themselves on all this wonderful optional content. They’re getting better in some ways, but there’s still a lot more that can be done.

BRINGING AND END TO THE ENDLESS NOW

I’ve had a lot to say here regarding Xenoblade Chronicles 3. If you couldn’t tell, I quite enjoyed it and took great delight in devouring it over the course of about 170 hours. As it stands, this game is likely my Game of the Year, or at the very least in the running for it. Monolith Soft has become one of my favorite developers over the course of the Xenoblade series. From their support work on major first-party Nintendo games, to this series, I’ve seen tremendous growth from them. They learn from their mistakes and shoot ever higher, with each original title from them demonstrating that they are some of the best in the business. I said before that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is Monolith Soft more or less at their best in many regards, and shows a glimpse at their true potential, with their ambitions fully realized.

While I am a bit mixed on certain endgame elements of the story, it was an extremely engaging, emotional title that excelled at giving me a main cast I really cared about. I love Shulk, I…tolerate Rex, but the rest of their party members were hit-or-miss By contrast, I love the entirety of the Ouroboros gang here. Demonstrating surprising depth and story relevancy, at no point did they fade into the background. While the setting definitely takes elements from past titles and longtime fans have a lot to dissect and mull over, making this game mostly a standalone experience allowed the cast to shine, no fear of being upstaged or made to play second-fiddle to returning characters. For anyone joining this series with this installment, I’ll say again that you don’t miss out on too terribly much and the core experience will still hit hard.

This is easily my favorite Xenoblade when it comes to the combat, making for a smooth experience that I easily lost several hours in without even noticing. The ease of swapping between side quests, the main story and exploring the corners of Aionios cannot be overstated here. For as long as the game was, it was hard to put down until I saw the ending through. Despite some bumps in the road, Monolith delivered not just a good story, but a good game built around it. It was a journey that seemed endless, and at times I didn’t want it to end.

For as bleak as the game could get, there was always an optimistic streak that kept it from being too much. For as nightmarish as the world was, the heroes moved forward. Xenoblade 3 is a game all about moving forward; it is about accepting loss, celebrating the good times along with the bad, and cherishing the time you have while you can. As tempting as it may be to live in a stable status quo, that leads to stagnation and ultimately destruction. The future is uncertain, there are doubtless struggles ahead, but despite that fear of the unknown, moving forward is the only way we can go on living. The past few years have weighed pretty hard on me, as I’m sure it has for many others out there, and it has put a lot of things in perspective. I found myself frozen, afraid to move forward or back. Trapped in my own “endless now,” I’m glad to have found hope again. This might be “just a game,” but it was a game I felt I really needed to play at this specific moment in time. It means a lot to me, and I’m glad I was able to share my thoughts on it. A triumph of the genre, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 stands out to me more so than perhaps any other game this year, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Learning to Love Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Over the years, I’ve become a big fan of Monolith Soft, and the game that kick started that was Xenoblade Chronicles. A Wii JRPG that famously took many years to be fully localized to the West, I consider it one of my favorite games of all time. Many years ago, I even did a review of it (which you can see HERE) and two different write-ups of the spiritual successor in Xenoblade Chronicles X (which you can see HERE and HERE). However, despite coming up on five years since the initial release, I’ve never talked about Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a true sequel to the Wii original and a game that cemented Xenoblade as a certified hit franchise. Despite the game’s sales success, critical acclaim and a growing fan base, I went against the grain a bit and came away from the game fairly disappointed. For a time, I considered Xenoblade 2 to be the weakest entry in the series and my least favorite. But…as the years have passed, I’ve come to look at things differently, and I’ve recently come to some different conclusions. In a twist I never would have imagined a few years ago, I find myself…stepping up to the plate for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. So let’s chat about the successful sequel that nonetheless drew some backlash.

BOY MEETS GIRL, SAVES THE WORLD

In the world of Alrest, there was once nothing but a vast, cloud sea. At its very center was the World Tree, and at its top was the Architect, the divine father of the world. Taking pity on the people of Alrest, the Architect sent down Titans, massive creatures the size of continents, to serve as homes for his children. For a time life was good, but as time passed Titans began dying out, and with land becoming scarce, war looms on the horizon in a fight for resources. Hope for the world lies in the hands of a young man named Rex, a salvager who dreams of one day finding Elysium, the home of the Architect, and find a way to save his world before there’s nothing left of it.

After Rex takes on a lucrative salvager job, he has a chance meeting with a woman named Pyra. Pyra is a Blade, a life form that can bond with another being to be granted life, giving their newfound “Driver” immense power in exchange. Pyra is no ordinary Blade though; she is the Aegis, a legendary Blade said to wield terrible power that once nearly brought about the end of Alrest 500 years ago. Pyra also wishes to go to Elysium, and after resonating with Rex and making him her Driver, the two set out on a journey that sees multiple parties attempting to capture Pyra and use their power for themselves, or else destroy Pyra to prevent said power from destroying what remains of Alrest.  As exciting as that all may sound, the game’s start is sadly a bit of a bore.

The first few chapters of the game involve Rex and Pyra moving from Titan to Titan, meeting new friends (who subsequently become party members) and enemies. Despite Rex nearly being killed at the start of the game, with Pyra’s intervention being the only reason he’s even still around, he shakes it off very quickly and the game takes on a more upbeat, comedic bent. Now, the original Xenoblade wasn’t devoid of humor itself, but comparing the start of that game to Xenoblade 2 is pretty night and day. The start of Xenoblade 1 has a flashy sequence taking place during the climax of a great war, and later on has a more dramatic meeting with the game’s main threat that sets the stage for main hero Shulk’s revenge quest. Xenoblade 2 starts…with Rex fighting a crab. Him bonding with Pyra and fighting off the mercenary group Torna, who end up composed of the game’s main antagonists, is somewhat exciting, but the pacing almost immediately dials back down and goes into Monster of the Week plots for the early game. I feel that the sequel really lacked a strong hook to get me motivated to see the game onward for quite a while. I pressed on, but I wouldn’t be shocked if many lost interest and bounced off of the game entirely.

On a revisit, I still stand by that Xenoblade 2 could have had a better start, but a major part of this game early on is the bond between Rex and Pyra, as well as sowing the seeds for later development for several other major characters. Over the course of the game, it becomes clear Xenoblade 2 is more character-driven compared to the first title, and by the story’s end I do feel that the main cast is more fleshed out when compared to the original game. Nearly every main party member, while outwardly resembling a pretty stock archetype, is revealed to have far more complexity to them later on. Zeke, a comedic recurring foe early in the game, as an example, demonstrates surprising maturity throughout the game and his character grew on me as it became clear there was more to him than Team Rocket-esque gags of him fighting the party only to get sent flying into the distance. Even the antagonists, Malos and Jin especially, have more to them than one might expect, the game delving into their tragic backstories, while giving them plenty of attention in the main adventure, to contrast the antagonists of previous Xenoblade games, who comparatively feel underutilized.

Admittedly, I do think that one’s opinions on the game will likely depend on how quickly you connect with Rex and Pyra. For my part, I found them a bit bland at the start, and even at game’s end I wasn’t all that fond of them. Rex is a pretty stock shonen protagonist; he’s hot-blooded, well-meaning and more than a bit dim at points, constantly rattling off nonsensical platitudes that are part of the “Salvager Code.” He’s basically a character I’ve seen in multiple other stories and there wasn’t much that made him stand out. Pyra similarly comes across as a bit generic. She’s the Yamato Nadeshiko ideal almost to a tee; she’s kind, supportive and a great cook too! Totally wife material! Neither character was really offensive, but they did little to endear themselves to me. However, on reflection I’ve come to some different conclusions.

Rex starts his journey as a naïve, optimistic kid and over the course of the game he’s forced to mature a fair bit. He faces some major setbacks as the story unfolds, though he never really loses his youthful spark. He’s surrounded by jaded adults who scoff at his worldview…and I guess that also kind of includes me a bit. It is due to his optimism and determination that he ends up helping out the rest of the party. He convinces Pyra to see more value in her own life, serves as a role model for Tora, and eventually gives Nia the confidence to be herself and no longer hide for fear of being rejected. Contrasting him with Jin and Malos, they have no support system at all. They’re cynical, jaded people that push each other into a spiral of ruin with no clear way out. Rex ends up being the light in a darker and darker world. While his dive-suit/ass-less-chaps/overalls outfit is really dumb, and he can be a bit annoyingly upbeat and ignorant at times, I come away appreciating what he does for the game’s story and begrudgingly admit I have a certain fondness for the kid now.

Pyra meanwhile…is still kinda just the sweet cinnamon roll market tested to be everyone’s favorite waifu. OK not really. That said, Pyra still comes across as a fairly restrained character, but if we’re gonna talk about her in depth, I have to discuss the elephant in the room. You know, the elephant that was in tons of marketing material and a huge update to Smash Bros. Ultimate? That one. Partway through the story, players learn that Pyra is a personality constructed for Mythra, the true form of the Aegis. Mythra made Pyra as a bit of a coping mechanism for her role in the Aegis War 500 years prior and when she initially reawakens she is…not pleased. While there’s reasoning for Mythra’s initial coarseness to Rex and other characters…it really doesn’t do her any favors in endearing herself to the audience. She comes across as a stock tsundere character, complete with a freak out moment towards the “perverted” protagonist later on in the game. She mellows out as time goes on of course, and she has more depth to her than initially expected, but all the same I found Mythra harder to like on my initial play through. Giving it some thought though, Pyra and Mythra are an interesting duo, two sides of the same coin in many ways, but also polar opposites in others. To a degree, you could read Pyra as everything Mythra is not, and maybe how she wishes she could be. There’s certainly a lot there with the two; they view themselves as sisters but others like Rex view them as one singular person, which raises some interesting questions the game never really delves into at all. That said, once we learn more about how the two really feel about themselves and their end goal once they reach Elysium, I think they end up becoming endearing enough. They complement each other well more often than not, and have their own moments to shine, even if their first impression isn’t all that strong.

As long as we’re talking about the story’s rougher points, we should probably discuss the game’s voice direction for the English dub. I play most games in English where possible and the Xenoblade games are no different. I quite enjoyed the original game, which was localized through Nintendo of Europe and as a result used a UK-based voice cast. It was refreshing and opened me up to a talent pool I wasn’t familiar with at all. Xenoblade 2 follows in that game’s footsteps…but something went wrong with the game’s voice direction this time. According to interviews with Skye Bennett, Pyra and Mythra’s English voice, often times the actors didn’t receive proper context for their line reads, and didn’t have the luxury of multiple takes. Having gone through the game, I can believe it. Sometimes the line reads match up well with the scene and how characters are acting, but at other times it comes across as completely wrong and feels jarring. Character sound vaguely irritated when they should be absolutely furious. They should sound solemn but come across as sarcastic. Probably one of the worst reads in the game is right at the beginning, with Rex’s extremely lame-sounding battle cries.

To give credit to his English actor, Al Weaver, I think he does a fine job most of the time, and in more emotional scenes he’s able to bring in a commendable performance. That goes for most of the cast honestly; for every bad read they have, the vast majority is fine if not great. This is an RPG with a TON of dialogue, so completely dismissing a game because one or two lines feel a bit awkward at the start isn’t being fair…but all the same, first impressions are lasting impressions. It’s hard to say why this game had so many issues in comparison to the original; maybe since this was the first Xenoblade game to have a simultaneous global launch, Monolith Soft didn’t allocate enough time and resources to the English voice direction, or maybe production companies switched out for this game.

When looking at the game on the whole, I think the most awkward line reads came early on and as the game’s plot begins to further unravel the voice work improves alongside it. I think that some of Catrin-Mai Huw’s work as Nia is fantastic at her emotional character arc’s climax, and special mention goes to Arina Li as Poppi. Despite having to juggle both a robotic tone of voice (as Poppi is a robotic artificial Blade) AND inheriting the simplistic, childish speaking patterns of her Nopon creator, she still turns in some fantastic reads during Poppi’s more emotional bits. As Poppi gains new forms in the game and “grows up” she is able to shed the robotic cadence and the vocal range Arina Li applies is pretty incredible. As far as the antagonists go, John Schwab as Jin has more understated delivery as the aloof edgelord villain but I think he manages to showcase Jin’s deeper character bits later on. He conveys Jin’s no-nonsense demeanor alongside his inner grief, and in the snippets we see of him in flashbacks, a tenderness that is no longer there in the present. David Menkin as Malos on the other hand fully embraces being a hammy villain and his performance is all the better for it. Every single scene containing Menkin is improved dramatically, and his Malos kind of steals the show. On top of it all, I appreciate that this game goes a step further with the localization efforts and showcases a variety of accents across Alrest. Each Titan visited feels more like a distinct culture when everyone there has a given accent. The cat people of Gormotti are Welch, while Uraya is basically Australia. The Blades all boasting American accents makes them stand out and feel somewhat otherworldly in a way that feels like a deliberate choice. So for all of the issues the story might have at points, I think it all ends in the positives.

As for other aspects of the presentation, my thoughts haven’t changed much regarding both the visuals and music. Xenoblade games tend to push their systems to the limit, with very detailed environmental design that makes the best of the hardware it finds itself on. Each Titan in Alrest feels distinct and is littered with tons of secrets and interesting details. Some of the vistas rival, if not surpass the original game, even if the overall design of the game eschews the largely connected design of both the first game and the fully open-world Xenoblade Chronicles X. Character designs have also changed to a cel-shaded anime aesthetic that looks FAR better and more expressive than the potato faces of the Wii original or the somewhat uncanny faces of X, though there’s also the talk of the game’s character designs and use of fanservice.

(Dahlia’s become a bit of the face of this thing...you WERE looking at her face right?)

Look, that’s a whole hornet’s nest but to talk about it briefly, I think some designs are a tad too horny and I see why that turns some people off the game entirely. Xenoblade 2 is in a weird spot though, as many guest artists were used for the designs of many of the Blades, though that came about as a result of Monolith needing to outsource as they were understaffed at the time. The antagonists of Torna are designed by industry titan himself, Tetsuya Nomura and as a result they all stand out a fair bit, though in a good way. As for the other Blades though…it varies. Some designs are tasteful; others feel a bit too indulgent. Some are simple and others are extravagant to the point of feeling too busy or over-designed. It results in the game having a bit of a patchwork feel. That said, just because some designs might not work for you, there’s bound to be a winner around the corner. I would have liked a more unified style, but involving so many different talents has its own advantages I suppose. All that said, being on the Switch does lead to some big limitations on the game’s visuals on the whole. It’ll never be the shiniest, smoothest-running game out there and in handheld mode the game is QUITE blurry, but seeing as it was made by basically a skeleton crew and was a first-year title for a new system, you could do far worse in visuals.

As for the music…it’s kind of against the law for a Xenoblade game to have a bad soundtrack. With much of the same musical talent involved in this title from the original game, there are a variety of tracks that serve as companion pieces to the original’s OST. Field themes like the day themes for Mor Ardain and Tantal evoke a sense of adventure and grandeur that reminds me of the first game’s Guar Plains track, while Counterattack serves as this game’s Engage the Enemy, a song that plays during pivotal points of the story and lets you know things are getting serious. You even have some vocals in Drifting Soul, another dramatic track that plays at a few of the more memorable moments of the game, sometimes with lyrics and at other times purely as an instrumental, and it hits differently each time. I can’t think of a single song in the game that I dislike, and even years later, I find myself revisiting this soundtrack, much like the other Xenoblade games. If nothing else, people shouldn’t pass up the music in this series. I’d best start talking about the actual gameplay or we’ll be here all day huh?

DRAW YOUR BLADE

Blades don’t just feature heavily in the story, but in gameplay as well, so I’d best explain them first. Think of Blades as a cross between the various weapons you can equip and upgrade in a given RPG and a full-blown party member. Players only directly control the various Drivers that make up your party however (Rex, Nia, Tora, etc.) and while each Driver joins with their own Blade already bonded to them (Pyra, Dromarch and Poppi respectively, for example) players can bond with far more Blades throughout the game. Blades come from Core Crystals, which serve as fairly common item drops from enemies and treasure spots. All you have to do is select a Core Crystal, select a Driver to resonate with it and BAM, you have a Blade! The only catch is…the Blade you get is almost entirely up to chance.

(Credit to RPG Site)

One of the biggest complaints I have about Xenoblade 2 is how you acquire most Blades in the game; it’s a gatcha system seen in so many free-to-play mobile games. Now, you don’t pay any real-world money for these, so you aren’t wasting money on microtransactions…no, you’re just wasting your precious time is all. It’s little more than gambling and I don’t care for it in the least. Adds nothing to the game in my experience and instead just makes everything more tedious. Blades come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, elements, rarities and classes. Much like the Drivers of the game, Blades can be one of three classes: attacker, healer or tank, and the game emphasizes good synergy with Drivers and Blades. Problem is, you can totally pull a Blade that really doesn’t benefit your Driver all that much. Or you might keep getting the wrong element you’re looking for, or just get a plain bad Blade. Common Blades, for example, are pretty lackluster for most of the game, though the generic template designs should be a dead give-away. Rare Blades meanwhile get fancy designs by all those guest artists, unique voices and a quest line with them as the star, and are just generally much better than most Common Blades…and it’s all up to RNG if you get any.

Adding to my frustrations though, Blades are also assigned various abilities you’ll have to slowly unlock through their skill trees. The only problem is, unlike the Driver skill trees, you can’t just get the skills you want once you accrue enough points. Instead, each node on their skill page requires specific tasks to be completed. “Do this attack 10 times” or “collect 20 of these things.” On top of that, players will have to raise their affinity with their Blades to unlock further nodes, and no matter how late in the game you get those Blades, you always start from rock bottom. Even with party members this happens! Zeke and Pandoria are super close, implied to be romantic even, and yet once Zeke joins your party he has to slowly grind up his affinity with Pandoria as if he just met her! It’s like the game was trying to pad things out as much as possible.

When it comes to exploration, in some respects Xenoblade 2 is similar to past games. You can wander around vast landscapes, though often times strong enemies can gate your progress a bit. On top of that, you can take fall damage and can’t fight while swimming, so you have some limitations to where you can go at points. Where things take a turn for the worse, however, is the game’s overindulgence with Field Skills that Blades possess, which frequently interferes with your ability to explore the world as you are forced to pass seemingly arbitrary skill checks. See in Xenoblade 1 you could walk into a cave and open a treasure chest after exploring it for some nice instant gratification. But in Xenoblade 2 before you even ENTER the cave you need to have Blades on hand with Earth Power Level 2 and Super Strength Level 3! And then to open that treasure chest, make sure you have someone with Lockpick Level 4! So many times I’ve had to scroll through menus over and over to get the exact team of Blades that would let me interact with the world, and at other points I was actively prevented from progressing the story because I didn’t have certain Field Skills the plot actually required. So I either had to grind out that particular skill to level it up enough OR constantly pull Core Crystals hoping to get another Blade that would give me the boost I needed by also having that skill.

Basically, I think Blades are a cool concept but in execution they actively make the game more of a slog for me to play. It’s like playing a Pokémon game except you get no choice in what Pokémon you get, they will always be level 1 no matter how late in the game you get them, and you will have to constantly double-up on HM moves to explore the world because THIS tree requires Cut level 1, but THIS one wants Cut level 3! Can you tell I hate it yet? I suppose to be somewhat fair, there are a small handful of Blades you can acquire through side quests or other means, and most of the time the Field Skill stuff is relegated to optional exploring, but it does little to undo the problems the systems have in general.

BATTLING WITH THE BATTLING SYSTEM

As for the game’s combat…there’s a bit of a mixed bag here. In some respects, it’s very similar to the rest of the Xenoblade series. Players control the party leader, while the AI handles your other allies, everyone using their skills and classes to their full advantage in MMO-esque battles. You enter battles seamlessly from the overworld and start off using auto-attacks to charge up your Arts, special attacks with a wide range of uses and secondary effects. Some moves require specific positioning (like doing more damage if you hit enemies from behind); others require a bit more set up to even use at all. All the same, you also have the returning statuses ailments from previous entries, like Break and Topple, which can immobilize foes, with new statuses like Launch and Smash that, if properly set up, do tons of damage. So far so good. As much as I complained about Blades before, the fact that you can swap out on the fly to change up your Arts and elements is legitimately cool and allows for a lot of customization for your party, RNG willing of course. But the thing is…there are still a lot more complex systems underneath all this that the game does a poor job of showing.

So we have auto-attacks as basic moves, with Arts as more powerful attacks but there are stronger moves yet: Blade Specials and Blade Combos. You slowly build up a meter for Blade Specials as you use Arts, but if you perfectly time your auto-attacks and cancel them into Arts, you build the meter up even more, so timing becomes pretty important. Once filled up enough, you can perform a Blade Special which is assigned an element based on whatever Blade you have equipped. Blade Specials get progressively stronger, up to three levels, as you build up more meter as well, almost like a fighting game honestly. Blade Combos then involve using progressively stronger Blade Specials in specific orders, and upon doing a full Blade Combo, you inflict a given status on the opponent that seals certain actions on top of generating an Element Orb that floats around them. So for example, if you can get off a level 1 Fire Blade Special, then a Fire level 2 and a Fire level 3, you’ll get the Mega Explosion Blade Combo, which prevents opponents from self-destructing. However, you could instead do Fire, Water, and Fire to get Steam Explosion, which prevents enemies from inflicting the Stench status on you. The level 3 Blade Special you end on is what determines the Blade Combo’s effect, but there are specific routes you HAVE to follow to get that result. So depending on your starter element, you’ll be cut off of specific routes. Now, remember those Element Orbs I mentioned? Well…we’re still not done.

As you attack enemies in general, you slowly build up your Team Gauge and much like in the first Xenoblade game, you can eventually get your entire team to attack the enemy at once with a Chain Attack if you have the full gauge. Unlike the Chain Attacks in Xenoblade 1, which gave you full control of your party to do big damage or force specific statuses on the enemy, in this game Chain Attacks solely target any Element Orbs you’ve generated over a given enemy. Element Orbs break after three hits, though if they are struck by a Blade of an opposing element, it will count as two hits. Your goal is to both generate and then break as many Element Orbs as you can, which can result in a HUGE burst of damage on top of more experience and rarer item drops on a target if you can finish them off with one.

Couple issues here though. For starters, the game does a poor job of both teaching you all of this and letting you get comfortable with the mechanics at hand. Tutorials show up once and can never be re-read throughout the rest of the game (though you can PAY certain NPCs who will sell you…hints…) and you can’t read up on Blade Combos and what they do outside of battle. You lack enough Blades and party members in the early game to really use most of this stuff effectively, and enemies aren’t hardy enough to really require all this work…until they suddenly are. I noticed a fairly big difficulty spike somewhere around Chapter 3 where the pendulum swings in the other direction and you simply MUST start using Blade Combos and Specials and Chain Attacks or you won’t be able to outlast the enemy, or else drag the fights out dramatically. Speaking of, the game is also just very slow too; in battle characters actively move at a glacial pace. Once Rex takes his sword out he’s suddenly walking through tar or something. That makes it all the more irritating when you have to constantly move around to reposition for specific Arts, or manually run over to healing potions Healing Arts generate to actually get any use out of them. You also can’t move and auto-attack at the same time, which you could do in the other two Xenoblade games. There’s a good combat system deep down with a fair amount of agency and customization…but that is mixed in with a lot of baffling decisions that bring it down a fair bit.

Taken on the whole, I think while Xenoblade 2 stumbles a bit, there’s too much it’s doing right for me to consider it a bad game. The story starts out slow, but it does eventually pick up and I think the characters are fleshed out very well. The combat system is deep and rewards mastering it, and if you can stomach gatcha elements, there’s a lot to love there, even if the game fumbles the actual teaching of said combat at times. If only there was another version of Xenoblade 2 that had a story that got to the juicy stuff quickly, and trimmed some of the fat from its combat system and made some quality-of-life improvements. But what are the odds of that happening?

TORNA TIME

Xenoblade 2 ended up receiving a fair amount of DLC after launch. Extra costumes, challenge missions, more Rare Blades…and by far the most expansive: Torna: The Golden Country. Billed as a prequel campaign to the main game, Torna showcased events that were only hinted at or briefly shown in the main game. Originally, the contents of Torna had been planned as a full chapter in Xenoblade 2 proper but the scope was too high and it was eventually cut, but with DLC greenlit, this was the end result. Technically speaking, Torna is a separate game. You can buy it separately or as part of the game’s expansion pass, but it’s very much a companion to the full title. I wouldn’t really recommend playing it if you have no intention of touching the base game, but at the same time I think even if you disliked the base game Torna is still worth a look for a number of reasons.

From the start, Torna looks and runs slightly better than the base game did, likely with Monolith having a better understanding of the hardware (and more staff), and with no guest artists (outside of Nomura’s characters obviously) you have a more cohesive feel. The story is also more to the point, so even with the game’s much smaller scope you get to the meat of the thing pretty quickly. More focus is put on Lora, Jin’s former love, fleshing her out more from the few flashbacks the base game gave her. I think Anna Koval does a great job with the character, though she sounds a bit older than she looks. She’s still able to deliver on Lora’s more endearing qualities; she’s brave, kind and humble, and her relationship with Jin is very sweet. While Lora is somewhat billed as the protagonist of the game, there’s just as much, if not more focus put on Jin here as well, and I think John Schwab gets to have more range to work with for the character. That said on a story standpoint, Mythra starts to steal the show near the end, receiving some much-needed depth, and we also get to spend more time with Addam, her original Driver, who had only been seen in brief glimpses under a cloak in the base game. Paul Thronley does a good job as Addam here, giving off a gallant demeanor and really playing up a fatherly vibe with Mythra, who starts the game off as more of a cocky brat. Skye Bennet showcases a much better-rounded Mythra here as well I find. It certainly casts Mythra’s words and actions in the base game in a different light and goes a long way towards redeeming the character in my eyes. No longer a stock archetype, she gets a fair bit more depth as she is dragged through the emotional wringer. Across the board the localization seems a bit more polished than the base game, with much better line reads overall. It feels like the localization team took criticism to heart here. While a smaller-scale story with less voice work than Xenoblade 2 proper, they made the most of it with some powerful scenes especially as you approach the tragic climax of the story. The whole game is one foregone conclusion, but finding out just HOW certain things went definitely adds more weight to the events even if you can see them coming.

Gameplay-wise, while the DNA of the base game is still there, there have been some very nice tweaks that honestly make for a much more engaging time with the game in my opinion. Exploration is still tied to Field Skills, but with a fixed party and much faster progression overall, I felt like I wasn’t burdened by unlocking affinity or grinding to upgrade Field Skills. As this game is set before core crystals became more commonplace, our Drivers don’t constantly resonate with Blades and are focused on the ones they join with, resulting in a tighter party that isn’t bloated. While the base game, at least to me, had elements of a fighting game involved in combat, with attack cancels and meter building leading to cashing it all in for big damage, Torna adds a bit more interesting elements into the mix, while also streamlining the process a bit. Both Driver and Blade attack as one in this game, and players can swap control between them with the press of a button, allowing players to play as the Blades directly for the first time. As the point character takes damage, they can tag out to their ally to recover health…pretty much like your standard tag-team fighting game. Characters will even have different Arts they can use depending on if they are on point or supporting from the rear, with the CPU taking control of them in that case. Knowing when and where to tag out is a pretty important part of combat. Blade Specials and Blade Combos can still be performed, as can Chain Attacks, though there have been tweaks to make things easier. You no longer need to perform specific routes with Specials to get a Blade Combo off but you WILL be rewarded with stronger Blade Combos if you use the base game’s established routes. Element Orbs are also generated every time you land a Blade Special, not just when finishing off a Blade Combo, meaning you’re more likely to get off stronger Chain Attacks as well. On top of all of this, the game also allows you to re-read tutorials after the fact, so Monolith is capable of learning…just a shame they never back-ported that into Xenoblade 2’s base game.

About the only aspect of the game that is really worse off than the base game is in regards to how it handles side quests. Much focus is put on the people of Torna in this campaign and as such, many side quests have you dealing with problems around the nation, which begin to form a complex social web that ties the various NPC quest-givers to each other. Over time you raise up your Community Level, which allows more and more quests to be unlocked, somewhat similar to side quests in the first Xenoblade. However, what makes the Community system a bit of a pain is that there are two points where the main story grinds to a halt until you get your Community Level up to a given threshold. So these side quests…aren’t optional. Now, I did pretty much everything I could as I got them and enjoyed them well enough. They’re fine as an optional distraction or way to pad out the game’s runtime, but even doing everything that was available to me I was still stopped from progressing the game at the end until I got past that final hump with side quests that only unlocked at that point. It’s not the best design and kind of ruins the flow of the story in that regard. I get the intent; the game WANTS to get you to care about the people of Torna…so that your heart can get ripped out when you get to the endgame. But still…if something is presented as optional, only to be required later…that’s kind of pulling the rug out from underneath you. That said, seeing how “small” this game is (roughly 30 hours which is a far cry from the base game’s length), it wasn’t TOO much of an issue for me, but pretty much the only real blemish on this campaign. I mean it when I say that overall, Torna: The Golden Country is a great slice of a game. You get a good look at a more truncated Monolith Game that I enjoyed more than the full package in some ways. It was a great way to learn from mistakes made during the base game’s development and in some cases make Xenoblade 2 better retroactively.

CONCLUSION

So here we stand, just a scant month and some change before Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s release. This franchise has seen some ups and downs but I’m glad it has stuck around. I came down hard on 2 when it came out because it was so different in tone and structure from the first game. I also wanted a follow-up to Xenoblade Chronicles X over a follow-up to the first game but that’s a story for another time. As time has gone on, I’m glad I could see this game in a different light and acknowledge all the things it succeeded at. While I still have my issues with the game, I no longer wonder just what others saw that I didn’t. Monolith Soft has also demonstrated the ability to learn from mistakes with past titles and with everything they’ve shown off so far with the third game, it is shaping up to be the best of both worlds (perhaps more literally than figuratively at that) and I couldn’t be happier for them.

A rocky start gives way to deep, well-developed characters that clearly resonated with players. Some spotty performances are contrasted with genuinely well-done moments and truly fantastic scenes. The combat has depth and a lot of customization, with a huge amount of things to do, though perhaps the execution wasn’t as graceful as it could have been. The visuals are great except for the cases where they aren’t. The soundtrack remains perfect. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a very strange game for me, filled to the brim with highs and lows that shouldn’t all belong to the same game. Somehow, it works, and the end result is a game that I can’t ever forget, for better or worse. While I think I’ll always like the first game more from a gameplay standpoint, and really liked X’s overall aesthetic and the potential its story had, I can see the value in 2 overall and would argue it might be the best package overall when you consider the Torna expansion on top of all of the other DLC. At any rate, the series’ future is looking bright and I can’t wait to tell you all my opinions on the third main game…whether you want to hear them or not!

Until next time,

-B

Pokémon Legends: Arceus Review - A Dream Game Nearly Come True

Pokémon’s had a rough transition to 3D. At least, that’s what the fans have been saying for years. From the 3DS era onwards, discourse surrounding Pokémon has grown more negative, as many feel the series has been stuck in a rut. The games are accused of sticking to the same old, stale formula and that any additions to the series aren’t worthwhile. Things reached a fevered pitch with the release of 2019’s Pokémon Sword and Shield. This was meant to be the big push into the home console scene (ignoring 2018’s Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee games), a chance for the series to truly push forward and capitalize on the potential the series always had…and even the most ardent defenders of Sword and Shield would find it hard to argue that the game was revolutionary. While it’s clear that the franchise is practically too big to fail, the games merely a vehicle for all of the merchandise (which is where the REAL money lies), many fans feel disappointed and yearn for something…more. For many, it’s clear that Pokémon needs a major shake-up. There needs to be…some changes.

IN ANOTHER (POKEMON) WORLD, WITH MY SMART PHONE

Right from the outset, Legends: Arceus makes it clear that this isn’t going to be your typical Pokémon experience. The game opens with you being summoned by the creation God of the Pokémon world, Arceus, where it instructs you to “seek all Pokémon” before dropping you into the distant past of the Sinnoh region, back when it was still called the Hisui region. I wasn’t expecting an isekai story for Pokémon, but here we are. In short order, you meet Professor Laventon, who is attempting to create the very first Pokedex, and with your goals aligning, you are inducted into the Galaxy Expedition Team located in Jubilife Village, charged with documenting every last Pokémon in the region. In some respects, the game has a similar premise to past titles, but the context is quite different, and enough attention to detail is paid to establish that things worked a lot differently in the past. Most people barely interact with Pokémon and are in fact frightened of them, with Pokémon by and large not domesticated and a great deal more aggressive than we see in the present day games. Legends: Arceus sells the idea of the wilderness being dangerous, with characters outright stating that if you can’t prove your worth to the Galaxy Team you would be cast out to die. I appreciate the extra bit of edge in the setting, but let’s be clear: this is still Pokémon and is far from being gritty or ultra-violent. The story is still largely simple and easy to follow: go into a given location, locate a Pokémon that has become frenzied and find a way to quell it, before moving on. And along the way get that Pokedex filled up!

Pokémon as a franchise isn’t really known for its storytelling, though some games have more going on that others (the Black and White series, as well as Sun and Moon are a lot more ambitious with narratives, for one), but I think Legends: Arceus deserves credit for trying something different. There are no Gyms, no Elite Four and no Champion, and not even a real villain team to contend with, and with that, the game’s narrative is given just a bit more freedom to breathe. Antagonists aren’t quite as obvious as past games, and really a lot of the core story telling is restrained, but for the Pokémon lore fans out there, there’s a lot of interesting questions raised by this game, and delving into Sinnoh’s ancient history allows for some interesting world building. Certain regional variants of Pokémon show up here that are implied to eventually die out in the present day, and minor details mentioned in past games like how Pokémon used to be much bigger and roam the land gets a nod with the addition of “Alpha Pokémon” that players can encounter. Compared to some past Pokémon entries I do think the overall storytelling of Legends: Arceus is a bit lacking, as most of the named characters in the story fail to leave much of an impression and there’s pretty large gaps in the meatier parts of the story, causing the game to drag things out a tad, as players are also encouraged to go out and explore. I think it’s clear Game Freak wanted to lighten up on the story as a result of this shift to open exploration, and I think for the most part it works, but there’s still room for improvement.

But if I’m talking about story, it’s only fair to touch on other aspects of the game’s core presentation and…well, there’s no real avoiding talking about the visuals. One of the most common and immediate criticisms of Legends: Arceus is the visual quality, or lack thereof. I can’t sugarcoat it; on the whole, the game looks rough. Like a game that was rushed out a year or more too early. There are points where I felt like I was playing a modern game where all of the textures weren’t loading, or that I was somehow out of bounds and somewhere I shouldn’t have been. You hear the insult “looks like a PS2 game” thrown around far too much, but there are points where the environments do legitimately look that dated. The world’s seams are far too visible and lots of random mountains and hills look unnaturally jagged, and on the whole the game just has a fuzzy look to it. That isn’t to say the game can’t look nice when it wants to. The game world is vibrant and the cel-shading seems to be trying to evoke old Ukiyo-e art, or ink wash art. There IS stylization here, but I think that can only cover up the rough edges so much. That said, to be more positive, I do feel that animations for both people and Pokémon are of a higher standard than more recent titles. Humans are more expressive, and Pokémon have more realistic animations for moving about the overworld and attacking. Some attacks in particular can look quite striking. Shout outs to Spacial Rend looking a lot like Vergil’s Judgment Cut from Devil May Cry, for example. There’s some interesting attention to detail at points; your characters take off their shoes when going inside other people’s homes, Pokémon have a variety of different idle stances (with Mr. Mime even referencing the Detective Pikachu movie), and various weather effects like rain or snow or mud will show up on various Pokémon. Legends Arceus is not the best looking game on Switch by a long shot, but to dismiss the entire game as lacking artistic merit is a step too far in my book. Some call the game lazy, but I’d argue the people working on this title worked VERY hard; they just weren’t given the proper time and budget to polish things up. The foundation of the game is very good and the issue is more one of sanding off those rough edges. I think the same could be said for the gameplay, honestly.

FILLING OUT THE POKEDEX UPHILL BOTH WAYS (IN THE SNOW!)

The Pokedex has always been a core part of the Pokémon experience but despite it being the catalyst for your adventure, it quickly becomes an optional objective as players would thwart villainous teams and acquire Gym Badges. Legends: Arceus by contrast puts a lot more emphasis on filling out the Pokedex; even if you aren’t going for 100% completion, you’re still required to engage with filling the Pokedex out at least to some degree. Actively completing the Pokedex requires a lot more effort now as well, with each Pokémon having a variety of research tasks players must complete to be awarded research points that go towards completing that specific Pokémon’s entry. On top of that, completing research tasks allows you to climb the ranks of the Galaxy Expedition Team, which unlocks more areas to explore, allow you to catch and control higher-level Pokémon, and craft better items.

While this might sound significantly more complicated, in practice it serves as an interesting way to push players to experience all the game has to offer over time. Often the research tasks for a given Pokémon reflect their nature; skittish Pokémon like Starly run if they spot you, and attempt to escape from battle as soon as they can, so players are inclined to sneak up on them and catch them. More aggressive Pokémon require being battled before they can be caught, and their tasks often center around defeating them in battle, watching them use specific moves or even hitting them with their elemental type weaknesses. Many Pokémon have a variety of tasks related to specific sidequests you can take on, or encourage you to use a variety of items in your satchel. Be it through using various foods as bait, or smacking them with items to stun or scare them away, the process of filling out each Pokedex entry has decent variety to it.

Players only need to get ten research points to have the entry for a given Pokémon be considered “complete,” though each task requires higher and higher milestones to be cleared to award more points. You might get a point for catching something, but won’t get more points until you’ve caught three more of the same Pokémon, and then another point when you’ve caught ten, and so on. There’s far more milestones for each task than necessary and while there IS some benefit for getting absolutely EVERYTHING cleared on a given Pokémon, it’s such a tedious grind that only a true madman would do it for everything. By just asking for ten points, players will realize that they’ll have to change up their strategy with certain Pokémon to get that entry complete, or else face that grind. For example, certain baby Pokémon like Togepi are rare, so in addition to trying to catch them, I try to lure them with food first, and catch them unaware, all of which are tasks that turn one Pokémon into multiple points gained. The fact that some tasks will give out double points means the game clearly wants to emphasize certain tasks over others for players, but you’re still given plenty of wiggle room for Pokedex completion. While this system is undoubtedly more time-consuming in some respects, I felt more rewarded for finally completing everything. I’d argue the payoff for completion is better than most Pokémon games, which often just give you a little certificate and maybe a Shiny Charm if you were lucky. If anything, the Pokedex serves as a good excuse to get out into the wide world and explore it, and that’s something I would argue that Legend: Arceus does very well.

ROUGHING IT WITH ROWLET

While Sword and Shield toyed with the idea of a sprawling 3D world for Pokémon, Legends Arceus runs with the idea. While not quite the vast, inter-connected open world fans might have thought they were getting, I’d argue the game uses the various biomes you explore rather well. Considering Pokémon isn’t known for big 3D environments, the scope of things in Legends: Arceus is pretty impressive. While Jubilife Village serves as a home base you will constantly return to, with its own selection of sidequests, shops and NPCs to interact with, you then choose which area of Hisui you wish to explore, with your choices increasing as the story progresses. In that sense, the game has more in common with Monster Hunter oddly enough.

While the areas are closed off from each other, there’s still decent variety. Meadows, forests, swamps, snow covered mountains, old ruins and more dot Hisui, though I did notice a distinct lack of large caves, which feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. Still, individual areas are large enough to keep you occupied for quite a while, but not too big as to be a pain to navigate for the most part. Exploration-heavy games live and die by their traversal options, and thankfully with time Legends: Arceus gives players more tools to traverse the land. At the game’s start, your trainer can’t do much more than run around; they can’t swim or climb up anything, or even jump, so a good chunk of the world is locked off to you. However, with time you eventually prove yourself to special Pokémon that allow you to ride around on them to reach areas previously inaccessible. Similar to the Ride Pokémon of Sun and Moon, this effectively replaces the HM moves from older titles. I find it was a good way to not only gate your progress, but make each navigation tool feel more powerful. When you finally get the ability to travel in deep water, or to soar the very skies, it feels quite a bit bigger than…say…being able to cut down a single tree blocking your way.

On top of this, Legends: Arceus takes cues from many other open-world titles and allows players to craft items by collecting all manner of things. While not groundbreaking in the slightest, I think this game uses them well as a way to keep the player engaged in the world. I don’t have to constantly go back to a Pokémon Center or store (which don’t even exist yet) to buy Pokeballs or potions, when I can just make my own. The only real issue I have is the lacking room in your satchel, which can only be upgraded by paying an NPC increasingly ridiculous payouts for ONE extra slot at a time. It doesn’t help that, with the exception of key items, every other item type, from Pokeballs to potions to all manner of berries are all forced to share the same space. Considering more recent games had dedicated inventories for multiple different types of items, seeing inventory management regress is a bit annoying. But then, I guess you’re using a small satchel rather than a dedicated backpack, and might reflect that you’re roughing it and can only carry so much at once. It might be more “realistic” but I’d argue the annoyance isn’t really worth it.

At the end of the day though, I enjoy how well this world is realized. Past Pokémon games almost feel like theme park rides at points. Super linear, with no real ways to deviate from the intended path and limited ways to really engage with the world; by contrast here, I feel like an actual participant in things. Little things, like having to crouch down to sneak up on Pokémon, using tall grass as cover (talk about a role reversal!), to having to manually aim and throw Pokeballs myself is just really satisfying. I wouldn’t think having to do something manually when it used to be handled automatically through a menu would be a GOOD thing, but I really enjoyed the depth given to gameplay with the ability to aim your Pokeballs yourself. There’s more to consider this time around too. Different Pokeballs have different trajectories; Heavy Balls don’t fly far at all, but are very good if you take the risk to get up close to your target, while Feather Balls fly far and can snipe certain flying Pokémon out of the sky. If you manage to nail a Pokémon in the back with a Pokeball, you get a better shot at catching them too. You manually toss out your own partner Pokémon’s Pokeball too, and if you time that well, you can get a back strike that basically gives you a free turn in battle. Speaking of, a LOT changed with battles this time around, so it’s best we move on.

POKEMON: NOW WITH STYLE SWITCHING

If you look at the back of the box for Legends: Arceus, you’ll see the phrase “Action meets RPG!” While this game is more action-oriented than past titles, don’t confuse that for the series fully switching to a real-time combat system. This game dips its toe into real-time combat, while still retaining the turn-based combat of old, though with notable changes. So as mentioned before, some Pokémon are more aggressive than others, and will actively attack the player if they are spotted. Not attack your partner Pokémon; attack YOU. For once, this game demonstrates what would happen if you were to leave your starter town at the beginning of the game WITHOUT receiving a Pokémon from the professor. At the game’s start, most Pokémon have attacks that are pretty slow and ridiculously telegraphed, so you’re in very little danger, but if you let your guard down you would be surprised at how quickly some Pokémon can wipe you out. Angering a group of Pokémon results in them fanning out in an attempt to flank you, and later attacks can be harder to dodge. I had a group of Golduck take turns keeping me locked in a hypnosis loop so I couldn’t escape, and later a pack of Riolu annihilated me in less than 20 seconds. You do feel a sense of danger at times, particularly with Alpha Pokémon roaming around. Alphas are bigger, stronger variants of Pokémon that occasionally spawn in. Some are fixed and others can appear randomly, so you’re never QUITE safe from being assaulted by something several levels higher than anything around them. In a sense, they remind me of the Unique Monsters from the Xenoblade series. While not a huge part of the game, there are also points where players have to physically take on frenzied Pokémon in real-time, dodging their attacks as you pelt them with balms to calm them down, calling out your own Pokémon at key points to stun them further. The fights are a tad basic, and later ones run into what I like to call “Yellow Devil Syndrome,” being more about dodging for large stretches of time before you get a small window to do some damage before returning to dodging. I’m not in any hurry for Pokémon to switch to real-time combat all the time, but what’s here does make for an exhilarating change of pace.

As for the tried-and-true turn-based battles, a lot has changed under the hood, even if at first glance the game seems pretty similar. Sure, you aim for weaknesses and chose your four moves, but from there changes start to be more apparent. In old games, turn order was almost exclusively based around speed stats. Whoever was faster goes first, unless you have a particular move or item that bypasses that. In this game however, there is a new dynamic turn order where if you play your cards right, you get to have multiple turns before your opponent. Speed still matters, but also various moves can affect your initiative, granting you more or less turns, which the game’s HUD will display. This is true of moves that, in old games, would cause foes to flinch or would require users to skip the next turn, like Bite or Hyper Beam, respectively. In this game, something like Bite would potentially give you two turns in a row, while Hyper Beam might give the opponent two turns after you use it. This is also seen in a new Style Switch system for moves that have been “mastered.” Strong Style moves do more damage, or have their effects increased, but at the cost of lowered initiative, while Agile Style makes the move weaker but grants you more turns. While there’s some interesting strategy at play with this system, as I played the game I ran into a lot of annoyances that soured me on battles in this game on the whole.

Legends: Arceus is a more aggressive, fast-paced game than typical Pokémon games. While the dynamic turn order allows for a bit more strategy, much has been stripped away in the process. Pokémon no longer possess abilities, they cannot hold or use items, and the overall pool of moves is much reduced. Outside of status-inflicting moves or buffs/defuffs, all you have are attacks to smack the enemy down. What’s curious is that certain set up moves, like Stealth Rock (a staple of competitive play that damages incoming Pokémon and can upend entire strategies) are allowed to remain, but reworked to be purely offensive. Changes were also made to buffs and debuffs as well as certain status ailments, lasting only a few turns with no ability to stack them, and in the case of Sleep and Frozen, those statues have been changed to Drowzy and Frostbite, no longer being a guaranteed immobilization of the target. I think some of these changes aren’t necessarily bad, and fit the faster pace of the battles, but for competitive fans this is a major change and much of what they like about Pokémon PvP is gone here. But of course it’s worth mentioning Legends: Arceus has NO PvP component at all, being primarily a single-player affair, outside of limited trading. I’m not much of a competitive player so most of these changes don’t affect me at all, but this could be a major turn-off for a huge part of the competitive Pokémon scene. But I’d argue that the bigger issue is that this game isn’t really all that fun from a single-player perspective either.

It took a bit to realize, but damage in Legends: Arceus is through the roof compared to old titles. It’s common to die to a super-effective hit even at full health in a lot of cases. Now, that’s not necessarily unique to this game, but the rate at which virtually ALL Pokémon faint was a lot higher than usual. Levels also don’t really have nearly as much as an impact in this game, as you can still be routinely one or two-shotted by things that are half your level. I can understand some aspects of this design, since it means even weak Pokémon are still a threat and you can’t just power level to decimate the game, and on the other side of things, you are allowed to come from behind and take out things far stronger than you. The real issue comes from this being combined with both the dynamic turn order, as well as this game allowing for multiple Pokémon to gang up on your single Pokémon. In the wild, this makes sense. Piss off a whole group of Pokémon and then engaging in battle, you’re intentionally making it hard on yourself when four Pokémon get to attack before you even get to select your move. But there are a few points in the game’s main story where they throw two or three Pokémon at you at once and you’re just supposed to deal with it. This wouldn’t even be so bad if you could target multiple Pokémon with certain moves, but you can’t in this game! Despite it being a feature in past games, alongside double and even triple battles. I want to make clear that Legends: Arceus isn’t some harsh, unbeatable RPG in the vein of Shin Megami Tensei or anything. It can be challenging, but it’s the type of challenge that isn’t all that interesting to overcome.

Pokémon games have been labeled as too easy for years now, and I approve of Game Freak trying to give fans the challenge they’ve been craving, but this isn’t the way to do it. Just as critics decried Pokémon games for being too easy, fans would often point out that while the campaigns rarely forced players to learn the ins-and-outs of what the game had to offer, the competitive scene (and often post-games like the Battle Frontier/Tower/etc. in old games) is where the depth was on full-display. But Legends: Arceus just takes all of the depth away and jacks up some stats to call it a day. Is this battle difficult because I need to carefully weigh my options and formulate a good strategy? No, it’s difficult because it’s a two-on-one fight, or the Pokémon itself is given a special stat boost. All Alpha Pokémon and many of the game’s bosses are given a unique status that gives them a 50% boost to all stats. By the true endgame, all you’re basically doing is taking turns knocking each other out; fights turn into rocket tag where almost everything dies in one hit, or two if they’re lucky. Really, I think there are at least some good foundational decisions here, but things feel overtuned. In a lot of cases too, the game seems to frame battling as a last resort. Why fight a Pokémon when you can just sneak up and catch it? You get tons of experience that way without having to risk losing a given Pokémon. And in battles, experience is only doled out at the VERY end of the fight, likely when most of your Pokémon are dead and can’t even receive any of it. For the real-time fights, actually using your own Pokémon is optional too, come to think of it. What really seals the deal here is that there are very few actual “trainer” battles in the game…likely because trainers aren’t even really a concept at this point in the past. What kills me about this is that of the few trainers you fight in the game…precisely ONE of them uses a full six Pokémon party. Rather than give these trainers full teams to contend with, you end up fighting opponents with two or maybe four Pokémon that you’ll defeat almost purely through attrition. It’s a bit disappointing that after all these years, the GameCube Pokémon Coliseum games might still be the standard for a challenging single-player Pokémon experience.

I want to stress that Legends: Arceus still has some interesting tweaks to gameplay and certain quality-of-life improvements that I hope future games don’t ignore. For starters, being able to edit your Pokémon’s movelist at any time in a menu is SO much better than being limited to four moves and having to track down a singular Move Relearner NPC to get them to remember older moves, or to forget current moves. Evolution now just being a prompt in the menu is preferable to the game bothering you about it on every single level-up, and the fact that you can just pay straight money to a Move Tutor in Jubilife Village to give your own Pokémon a diverse moveset is so much more convenient than in the old days. Even the control scheme allows for more convenience. I went back to Sword and Shield for a comparison and the most interesting thing right away was that it never used the shoulder buttons or triggers. Players can quickly toggle through items or Pokémon using the L and R buttons in Legends: Arceus, while using ZL to aim (or just play the game in first person) and ZR to throw items. It’s a game that feels like it was actually made with the Switch in mind in that regard. While I didn’t really mess around with it, the game also features gyro controls as an option to throw things more precisely, but unlike the Let’s GO games, it’s purely optional. One aspect I really liked with this game was the fact that everything was attainable on my own, with no need for trading. I know trading is baked into the DNA of Pokémon and I’d never ask for its removal, but it was nice having options. I could use a specific item to get Pokémon like Gengar or Machamp, who in the past have only been attainable by trading their previous stages to trigger an evolution. Every single Pokémon is attainable if you’re patient or resourceful enough, but trading exists for those who have had rotten luck with rare spawns or just want to trade amongst friends. It’s fairly limited, as you just upload a four-digit code and hope you get paired with someone which is less than ideal, but it’s still there. More than anything, I just hope future games retain at least SOME of these changes, because I’ll find it hard to go back to a more traditional game otherwise.

BUILDING OFF A STRONG FOUNDATION

I was pretty nervous in the lead-up to Legend: Arceus’ release. I’ve felt burned by Pokémon for a while and was wondering if the franchise was really for me anymore. I think it’s clear that the mainline games have issues, likely a byproduct of being merely one part of the multimedia juggernaut that IS Pokémon, and not even the main moneymaker. I can’t imagine the stress of sticking to immovable deadlines, all while trying to play catch up to the industry in just a few short years. That isn't to say that these games can’t be better and it isn’t too much to ask for a franchise to be up to par with other titles in my opinion. Despite all the complaints levied at it, Sword and Shield are currently the second highest-selling games in the franchise. Despite people complaining about the Diamond and Pearl remakes, they’re also selling very well. With that in mind, there was no reason for Game Freak to do what they did. They really could have played it safe and just made another traditional title, but they took a chance. Legends: Arceus has been selling decently well and has a lot of good word-of-mouth carrying it, but it very easily could have crashed and burned. Dramatic shake-ups to established franchises don’t always work out, but I’m happy they took that risk anyway. Legends: Arceus lacks in pure visual fidelity, and it contains many aspects cribbed from modern games that aren’t done nearly as well. If I were to really rake the game over the coals, I’d point out that stealth is extremely basic, and the ways you can interact with Pokémon boil down to just throwing things at it. The story feels weak with a lot of characters that never really get fleshed out. It’s far from a perfect game, but what it is matters to me more than what it could have been at this point in time. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a bold, experimental title that really tapped into feelings of exploration and wonder that the series hasn’t really had in a long time. For years I’ve had this dream game in my head concerning Pokémon. I’ve fantasized about all the changes I would make to the series, all the things I wished they would do that seemed to fall on deaf ears. But this game is eerily close to that dream game in many respects. It helped to rekindle a love for this franchise that I thought had long since dried up. When Sword and Shield released, I had stated in my review of it that this marked a turning point for the series. Would they continue to just churn out the same old thing with minor changes and in some cases LESS content? Or could we see something more? While it’s unclear how future titles will be impacted by Legends: Arceus’ success, I think this franchise has a lot of interesting potential, and if they build off of the strong foundation this game created, we could get something truly special next time.

Rowlet gang, BTW.

-B

Gaming in 2021: A Look Back

As I detailed in my last post, gaming is important to me. It is my preferred medium of entertainment and what I turn to for relaxing and letting off steam. Games have helped me through a lot of rough patches and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that 2021 was one large rough patch for a lot of people, myself included. As the year is now at its end, I wanted to take a look back at this year. The highs, the lows, the interesting trends, and everything in-between. So let’s take a close look at anything and everything gaming in 2021!

DELAYS, SHORTAGES, AND WTF IS AN NFT?!

If there’s one thing that the gaming industry is well-versed in at this point, it’s delays! Due to…current events though, delays are becoming even more common. Many publishers are either announcing games SO far in advance that delays don’t even need to be announced, or waiting to announce games when they are practically done and ready to go, to leave no ambiguity behind. Larger tentpole games that seemed to be aiming to launch this year are now pushed to 2022, such as Horizon: Forbidden West, Elden Ring, King of Fighters XV, the new Saints Row reboot and Pokemon Legends: Arceus, among others. At any rate, this means the first half of next year is looking pretty stacked. Obviously delays are to be expected, and I’d rather a game take the time it needs rather than be kicked out half-baked, and in most cases there was still plenty of quality titles to play this year as it stands, especially as we’re right at the beginning of a new console generation.

That said, one common issue people are still having with new consoles is the difficulty in snatching one up. Be it through bot accounts sniping up consoles right as they go on sale, so that scalpers can make a pretty penny from desperate customers, or the much more wide-reaching problem of a massive computer part shortage that is affecting many industries outside of gaming. A lot of these shortages can be traced to the continued efforts of grifters using the likes of crypto currency and especially Non Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, to try to make money, often at others expense. To explain what an NFT is, in short they’re an incredibly wasteful digital receipt that is virtually worthless. Rather than buy something tangible, you buy a token generated in a block chain, which requires a TON of computer power to generate and maintain, which is where both the parts shortage comes into play as well as environmental damage. They’re currently unregulated by the government and are a wild west where SOME are making tons of money…but often at the expense of many more people losing it all. NFTs are basically just a massive scam rich people thought up because they’re bored, and it has spilled into a lot of other industries. Cars can’t be sold because there aren’t computer chips to put into them, hospitals cannot keep their equipment up to date, and yes, this is making PCs and consoles harder to make and sell. Due to this, the new console generation is taking even longer to truly get off the ground, not helped by many true next-gen games either being far off, or still having last-gen versions available. Console sales on the whole are taking quite the hit from this, even the sales juggernaut that is the Nintendo Switch. Despite all of this, they still managed to release a new model of Switch with an OLED screen, though it’s not quite the “Switch Pro” so many people were banking on being a thing.

For many people, this year felt lighter on the whole. Major releases weren’t coming out on time, consoles are harder to come by, and ultimately the effects of the pandemic are becoming all the more tangible. I wouldn’t say that’s entirely a bad thing though, as this allows several “smaller” franchises and studios to take center stage. Nintendo, for one, shone a light on franchsies that haven’t seen a lot of attention in a bit, such as with a new Warioware entry, or making a 2D Metroid game one of their major releases for the year. One of the true PS5 exclusives, Returnal, also got a lot of eyes on it despite it being a completely new IP in the increasingly crowded roguelike genre. In some respects I think these games might have been overshadowed by other games had things gone differently. On the note of worthwhile releases, I noticed an interesting trend this year. 2021 was the year of “miracle sequels.”

YEAR OF MIRACLE SEQUELS

Now, sequels are inevitable. Of COURSE there will be a new Mario game or Halo or what have you. They’re just too popular and make too much money to justify stopping. But not every game can be that lucky. Some sequels take quite a while to come out, and some never actually happen. Fans give up their hopes and dreams for another entry in a franchise they like, and the world keeps spinning. But this year was different. 2021 was filled with a variety of long-desired sequels, some of which had quite the gap between releases.

If you were an RPG fan, you were eating pretty good. From Square Enix, Bravely Default II was long-awaited by many, though at this point I think Square realizes people will show up for this franchise so another entry probably isn’t that far away. In complete opposition to that, NEO: The World Ends With You is undoubtedly one of those “Oh wow, they’re actually doing it!” releases. Fans of the cult DS game finally got a new entry after over fourteen years of waiting, and while it seems like the game wasn’t a smashing success (not helped by a lack of advertising), the game itself ends on a good note. As a fan of the original, I feel a sense of closure and I’m happy this finally saw the light of day. Capcom isn’t known for their RPGs, but this year saw the release of Monster Hunter Stories II, a sequel to a spin-off that many passed up back in the day. Monster Hunter has never been bigger though, and it’s clear way more people were interested in checking this game out compared to the 3DS original, and so far it seems like it has been a success. If we’re talking about long-awaited sequels that many were starting to doubt, Shin Megami Tensei V finally hit the Switch. You know, the game that was announced way back when the Switch itself was revealed? It’s been a long road but it is finally here.

Outside of RPGs, there were still quite a few miracle sequels to juggle too. With every new console release, many would often remark that making another Pokemon Snap would have just made so much sense…and now we FINALLY have a new release this year on Switch. I had given up hope on ever seeing a third No More Heroes game, but now the trilogy is complete (please forgot about Travis Strikes Again). The two titles that take the cake for the amount of time fans had to wait though were undoubtedly Psychonauts 2 and Metroid Dread, at 16 years and 19 years respectively. True, there are remakes and VR spin-offs to consider, but the huge gap between releases are still impressive. In Dread’s case, the game had become something of a legend, a rumor many felt was little more than just that, and as it would turn out, the game had been attempted more than once before the finished product finally hit store shelves. While I will always applaud new ideas in the gaming scene, and nonstop sequels can be a bit dull and risk stagnating a franchise, 2021 was a year in which many fans were happy to see a familiar face, and that was pretty alright.

FIGHTING GAMES AND ROLLBACK

Now, I’m a big fan of fighting games, and while they are not the most successful genre out there these days, I’m always keeping my eyes open in hopes of seeing the genre move forward. The pandemic hit the fighting game community rather hard, as a lack of in-person events meant that games would have to rely solely on their online netcode…and many of the biggest fighters out there don’t have netcode that is up to par with other genres. While many Western and even indie titles have largely embraced the wonders of “rollback netcode,” resulting in more stable, consistent netplay, many Japanese fighters were way behind. Forced to deal with the subpar netcode, many fans were VERY vocal about their displeasure, and while it has taken many years and a global pandemic, it seems Japan is finally listening.

This year, undoubtedly the biggest game release for fighters was Guilty Gear Strive, and it made waves by incorporating rollback netcode, and the resulting sales success seems to have given Arc System Works the urge to push forward. At the end of the year, they announced that two more older titles, BlazBlue Central Fiction and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle would receive retrofitted rollback in 2022. SNK meanwhile has also been working on implementing rollback into a few older titles, as well as heavily promoting the rollback in their next big title, King of Fighters XV. French Bread’s latest game, a reboot of the Melty Blood series, also incorporates rollback, though to mixed success. That isn’t to say there haven’t been some missteps though. Sega announced a new version of Virtua Fighter 5 that would release on PlayStation 4, and while it sported a new coat of paint, online was not really improved, largely the same as the oldest release from nearly a decade prior, though now with servers that in some regions would only serve to make the connections worse. Released as a free title for PlayStation Plus subscribers, it wasn’t quite seen as a title Sega was willing to go all-in on, though they have since stated that they were happy with how it performed and this might be the thing the series needs to make a comeback in a big way.

With all of that said, there were also some other licensed fighters either announced or showcased this year that got a lot of people talking for better or worse. On the one hand, Nickelodeon All Star Brawl got a lot of attention from Platform Fighter fans for being effectively a mixture of Super Smash Bros. with Nickelodeon characters. Many rallied behind it and one of the developers, Ludocity, for being a true successor to Smash Bros. Hearing the game would have a competitive focus and also rollback netcode (something Smash lacks) only got more people hyped for the release. However…it would be an understatement that the game’s release was rough and the fanbase has had a rocky start, though updates after launch and promised future content gives the fans hope the game can live up to its potential. Of course, the announcement of Multiversus, a crossover Platform Fighter composed of various characters owned by Warner Bros. also kind of took some wind out of Nick’s sails. While Multiversus isn’t out until some point later in 2022, it shows a lot of promise and fans are excited to get their hands on it. Last year, DNF Duel was announced, a joint effort from Arc System Works and Eighting, based on the popular Korean MMO. After almost a year of no news, suddenly multiple trailers and an open beta were rapid-fired at the end of the year, and while the beta itself had some issues, looking past connection foibles, many were having fun with the game and eagerly awaited more, with the release set for summer of 2022. Riot Games also shared more information on their long-discussed fighting game spin-off to the popular League of Legends, Project L and fans were salivating at the thought of a team-based fighter that promises top-of-the-line netcode. All things told, fighting game fans have a lot to look forward to in the years to come!

DLC is often a common thing in fighting games, and some interesting releases dotted the calendar this year. Tekken 7 released what many believe to be its final DLC character, the fictional Polish prime minister Lidia Sobieska, and Street Fighter V’s final DLC season released several old favorites like Dan, Rose, and Oro, alongside a Rivals Schools guest fighter with Akira, and to end it all, a “sneak peak” at the next major Street Fighter with…Luke. Maybe not the hypest character but an interesting end to the game’s long life. SNK continued to pump out DLC for Samurai Shodown, alongside a guest fighter from Guilty Gear in the popular one-armed samurai Baiken. Dragon Ball FighterZ at first glance seemed to end its final season with the release of Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta, however more content seems on the way, leaving many baffled at how much longer the game will be supported. Speaking of support going on far longer than first thought, Skullgirls continues to tease and release a brand new season of fighters. Annie arrived on the scene after years of waiting, with Umbrella following not long after, with Black Dahlia teased for 2022. Power Rangers Battle for the Grid, in addition to a fourth season of content (which saw, among others, the long-awaited release of Rita Repulsa), also saw the surprise crossover with Street Fighter, as Ryu and Chun-li morphed into their own special Ranger forms to do battle. All and all a great year for fighting game DLC, but there IS one game that probably deserves a bit more focus, as their DLC always got people talking.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is undoubtedly one of the most successful fighting games out there, and when word of a new DLC reveal cropped up, multiple characters would begin trending on social media as people weighed in with predictions. Fresh off of the shocking one-two punch of Steve from Minecraft and Final Fantasy VII’s Sephiroth last year, the reveal of Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 wasn’t especially earthshattering, but it was still mostly well received. Then at E3 2021, Tekken’s Kazuya Mishima made the leap to playable, which was certainly exciting, if a tad predictable (Namco makes Tekken and developed the past few Smash titles, so a Tekken rep seemed like an inevitability), but the final fighter was far and away the most hyped and somehow, despite all odds, it mostly lived up to that hype. The most requested fighter worldwide, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, finally joined the battle and ended off an utterly legendary gaming crossover that will likely never be topped.

THE BIG THREE…AND ALL THE REST

Trends are all well and good, but let’s also take a look at some of the more notable aspects of some of gaming’s biggest publishers while we’re at it. Starting off with Sony, their current focus is clearly on the PS5, though to say it’s had a slow year would be an understatement. In its first year, they’ve managed to ships somewhere in the ball park of 14 million units, roughly five million units less than the PS4 managed in its first year. Obviously supply constraints and the previously-mentioned computer part shortage are to blame here. As far as high profile games, Sony was a bit light this year, with only Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart and Returnal as big first-party PS5 exclusives. The indie-developed Kena: Bridge of Spirits received some fair buzz, though that’s not first party and also had a PS4 version. That’s not to say Sony’s been asleep at the wheel, as they also bought Bluepoint Studios this year, a studio specializing in gorgeous remakes of past titles like Demons’ Souls and Shadow of the Colossus, and their previous buyout of Insomniac is likely to pay off for them with two big Marvel games in development in the coming years. Sony did face a lot of backlash this year when they announced seemingly without warning that the PlayStation Network for PS3, PSP and PS Vita games would be taken down. Following fan complaints however, they would later pull back slightly (only the PSP store at this time is down, though most games are also available through the Vita). Later in the year they removed the ability to add funds to accounts though, so the great purge WILL happen sooner or later. Not a good time for game preservationists.

After a slow year in 2020, Nintendo had a pretty big  year right out of the gate. The much loved Nintendo Directs resumed and a variety of games were shown off throughout the year, with many more teased for 2022. New entries in series like Mario Golf or Mario Party got teased, we got a bit more of a look at Breath of the Wild’s sequel, Bayonetta 3 was shown off at long last, and probably the highlight of the year for many was the reveal and subsequent release of Metroid Dread. 2021, for Nintendo fans at least, is sure to be a year to remember for smaller franchises. From remakes of the Famicom Detective Club visual novels being localized, remakes of Advance Wars 1 and 2 announced, as well as a new Warioware hitting in 2021, there was always something interesting to play or look forward to for next year. The Pokemon Company also revealed remakes of the Generation IV games, as well as what looks to be a 3D open world Pokemon game in Legends: Arceus which looks very interesting. After a tumultuous year or so of Nintendo’s rocky relationship with the Smash Bros. professional scene, late in the year they inked a deal with Panda Global regarding the streaming and promotion of tournaments for not only Smash Ultimate but also the pro scene darling Super Smash Bros. Melee, so maybe things are finally turning around? Of course on the consumer side Nintendo still employs some…questionable at best decisions. They went through with delisting several games for both the Mario and Fire Emblem anniversaries in March, despite the backlash, fans were upset that the much-rumored “Switch Pro” turned out to just be a new model with an OLED screen and no real power boost…and then there was the massively overpriced Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass announced later in the year that a lot of people disliked. Nintendo took a lot of criticism for a lot of their game releases this year being remakes or ports of varying quality, with many balking at the price points for these games too. Despite that, game sales were high and continue to break records, with many of Amazon’s most preordered titles of the year being Nintendo titles. The Switch continues to dominate the market in Japan, and even with part shortages and production issues from the pandemic, the Switch is close to passing 100 million units sold worldwide, if it hasn’t passed it already.

That leaves us with Microsoft. Which basically means Halo. I kid, but let’s not pretend that Halo Infinite’s release wasn’t among the most important events for Xbox fans this year. All things told, Infinite has largely been received well in terms of it’s overall visual polish, campaign and core multiplayer, however switching to a free-to-play structure for multiplayer seems to have seriously impacted the game’s progression structure, which has gotten a LOT of flak. Hard to say how fan reception might change as the game continues on, though it at least is off to a strong start. It’s clear the delay was needed. Outside of this though, Microsoft completing their purchase of Zenimax, which includes Bethesda, now bolsters their core first-party offerings. This means that the previous Sony console exclusive, Deathloop, is now part of Xbox, same going for Double Fine’s acclaimed Psychonauts 2. Surreal to boot up a Sony console and be greeted with Xbox branding, but that’s the world we live in! Really, Microsoft had arguably as strong a year as Sony with various releases like Forza 5 or Age of Empires IV alongside aforementioned titles. But if we’re talking Xbox, we continue to talk about the Xbox Game Pass. The subscription model is estimated to sit at about 30 million subscribers, though apparently this somewhat falls short of projected new subscribers for the year. Microsoft doesn’t like to release hard numbers on a lot of this stuff for whatever reason, as similarly the exact sales numbers of their consoles can be a bit of a pain to pin down. The Xbox Series X and S seem to have sold roughly 6 million units in their first year, seemingly behind the estimated 10 million the previous console, the Xbox One sold in its first year. With the surprise success of Game Pass though, I could see Microsoft positioning the subscription model as another main pillar of the brand as the years go on. Rumors are swelling that Sony is keen on competing, creating their own subscription service to rival it, so if anything else, Microsoft is making things interesting.

Outside of the larger console manufacturers, there’s still more to cover! Remember Stadia? Of course you don’t! Google announced early in the year that they would be scaling back their efforts on Stadia, shutting down their in-house studios. While various games still release on Stadia, for many the writing seems on the wall that Google is once again leaving something to die a slow, pitiful death. When it comes to individual companies, there’s a small handful to really single out this year. Capcom saw a pretty successful year with a variety of well-received games. From a new Ghost n’ Goblins game, to the final DLC season of Street Fighter V, they had a little bit of something for everyone this year. Monster Hunter Rise was one of the best-selling Switch titles of the year, and Monster Hunter Stories II managed to be successful, but really Capcom’s biggest smash hit this year was Resident Evil Village. One of the more iconic games of the year for many, the game was praised for melding the first-person perspective and overall structure of Resident Evil VII with the goofy, more action-oriented tone that Resident Evil 4 had started all those years ago. Alcina Dimitrescu, one of the supporting villains in the game, also gained a lot of…infamy among the fanbase, enough for her actor, Maggie Robertson, to receive an award for Best Performance at The Game Awards. Not bad for the capsule corporation.

That said, the roller coaster that Square Enix has been on this year has been pretty crazy. Right out of the gate fans were hit with a bit of a one-two punch of Outriders and Balan Wonderworld. The former being a glitch-laden looter-shooter that failed to impress people, and the latter being the much-anticipated last-ditch-effort 3D Platformer from the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, Yuji Naka…which was seen as a major disappointment. With Balan Wonderworld in particular, it seems like bashing it became a bit of a local pastime for much of early 2021, though sadly as a result of this Naka would leave Square Enix in favor of mobile gaming, though he also hasn’t ruled out retirement. During E3 this year, fans were not impressed with Square Enix’s showings, which focused largely on Western-developed titles like Life is Strange: True Colors or Eidos Montreal’s Guardians of the Galaxy game, though both would later be considered quality titles upon release. Outside of some memes generated from the announcement and demo release for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, fans were also split on the spin-off’s direction and tone. That said, if you were a fan of Final Fantasy XIV, you were eating pretty good.

(Credit to Tiny Mito on Reddit)

Over the years, Final Fantasy XIV has become one of the biggest success stories of the gaming industry. While once so derided that it had to be effectively relaunched and reworked practically from the ground up, it is now considered to be one of, if not the most successful MMOs in the world. Following continued acclaim from various expansions, alongside the incredibly generous free trial, the amount of players continued to swell. With many players of World of Warcraft becoming increasingly displeased and jumping ship to FFXIV 2021 was a year in which Square’s MMO was literally TOO successful. In July of 2021, for a time Square Enix’s online store…somehow ran out of copies of the game, and going into December and the launch of the Endwalker expansion, the game became so flooded with new players that Square Enix has now ceased sales and pulled all advertising of the game as they attempt to deal with the onslaught of new customers. A lot of this actually goes back to the computer parts shortage, as Square quite literally could not obtain more servers to better deal with the large amount of players, and as a result queue times for players can get absolutely absurd, if they can even get into the queue at all. Due to the game’s transparent development updates and the fanbase’s near worship of Naoki Yoshida, director and producer on the title, fans have been mostly understanding, but the sheer absurdity of the game suffering from its own success hasn’t been lost on fans. And then going into the new year Square Enix has announced that it is all aboard the NFT train, so…way to be a downer there, Square.

If you’ll recall last year, Cyberpunk 2077 was launched and quickly became an infamous end of the year trainwreck, the game’s console ports of abysmal quality, being removed from the PlayStation Network for sale, having seizure-inducing sequences in the game with no adequate warnings or safeguards in place…the list goes on. While various patches have slowly been chipping away at the game’s various issues, the touted next-gen patches for the game have been pushed back and it is clear that CD Projekt Red has a lot of work to do if they want to win back goodwill from players. While higher-ups at the company have tried putting their Quality Assurance employees under the bus, there have been signs that the company has been upping salaries for the lowest-paid employees at the very least, so hopefully that’s a sign that they are making changes for the better.

This year had a few games swoop in near the end of the year that gathered similar attention to Cyberpunk 2077, however. First was the updated remaster of Sonic Colors, which was riddled with a number of glitches. The Switch version especially had absolutely awful glitches that made the rounds on social media ahead of the game’s launch. While it would turn out at least some of those glitches were due to emulation or exaggerated to a degree, many more were real and Sonic once again became a punching bag for gamers everywhere. But that was just the start of things. The release of so-called “definitive editions” of the PS2 era Grand Theft Auto games released at the end of the year, and it quickly became clear that these remasters were rushed out and riddled with issues. From awful visual effects and art style shifts that largely made characters look awful in comparison to the original, you had several strange glitches, the infamous “hot coffee” sequence still in the game’s code, removed licensed music and to rub extra salt in the wound Rockstar would remove the original versions of the game from PC stores, though these were added back after complaints. How ironic that members of parent company Take Two Interactive would take snipes at Cyberpunk 2077’s release to follow in their footsteps a year later. Oh, and Take Two is also trying to go after noted award-winning indie title, It Takes Two all because of the name. Boy this industry is gross sometimes! But unfortunately, that isn’t the half of it…and I’ve saved the worse for last..

THE INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO BE GROSS

(from Coworker.org)

The last several years have been rather eye-opening for anyone following the gaming industry, seeing the seedy underbelly laid bare. From the toxic, abusing workplace that Riot Games cultivated, to widespread accusations of crunch culture in various studios, to Ubisoft’s blatant protection of abusers within the company…it can all feel pretty dire. Far and away the biggest story of the year, that kind of defines 2021 in gaming for many, are the multiple lawsuits levied at Activision-Blizzard for a variety of horrible working conditions. Many described the company as promoting “frat boy” culture, with constant sexual harassment and workplace discrimination. From “cube crawls” to the “Cosby Suite,” working at Activision sounds like a nightmare for many, and despite employee walkouts and constant pressure from others in the gaming industry, there have not been much in the way of change from leadership. For many, the allegations levied at Activision-Blizzard goes a step beyond the “normal” conditions that have been normalized in the industry (and many other industries if we’re being honest), and in the case of one employee, the harassment eventually led to them taking their own life. The cost of Activision’s negligence is staggering, and it is sickening to think how long this has been going on. If there is anything that can be taken as a silver lining, the overall response to these allegations have gotten far more attention than normal. Activision clearly lost control of the narrative and attempts to downplay or deflect didn’t take. The lawsuits are still underway and the effects of these allegations aren’t likely to be visible for some time, but I hope this can be seen as a turning point for the better in years to come.

Outside of Activision-Blizzard, there was also the Apple/Epic court cases that drew a lot of attention. After Epic updated Fortnite to allow users to bypass the Apple store to pay Epic directly, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store, leading to Epic taking legal action. Legal action that involved a really cringy ad that emulated the 1984 Apple commercial and “#FreeFortnite” merchandise all ready to go. It became pretty clear to courts that Epic had planned this all along, and while for most of the gaming population, the outcome of the court case wasn’t really something that would impact them much, it was an interesting turn of events to see the court case finish with BOTH Epic and Apple losing out in some respects. Apple can still keep Fortnite off the App Store, but must now allow for more payment methods. Meanwhile, Epic has to pay Apple millions and didn’t succeed in proving Apple to be a monopoly. Granted, that won’t dent Epic that much but still, it’s nice to see rich companies who throw hissy fits not getting what they want! Which reminds me…remember that crazy pump and dump with Gamestop stock at the start of the year?! Random stock market jerks tried to artificially inflate Gamestop’s stock and then cash out, but when normies caught wind of it and tried to get into it too, suddenly THAT was going too far! Maybe we should have looked at that stock situation as a foreshadowing of how weird this year was going to be…

IN CONCLUSION

So…yeah, 2021 was an interesting year! Some highs, some lows…and while I ended on a bit of a downer, I do think that it is important to look at the positives. While the world is still in a very confusing, dangerous place, we’re still moving forward. Despite all the problems in the world, the gaming industry still tries to deliver on fun, memorable experiences and when you really look at everything that came out this year, it’s pretty commendable. We saw tons of great sequels to games that have long-since needed another entry. Fighting games can finally stop complaining about a game’s netcode…and complain about the game itself! We see more and more indies pop up in the industry, showing that great games can come from anyone and more importantly, anywhere. I love that Nintendo does their frequent Indie World Directs, where they show off indie games made globally. I love that games in general are being made with more accessibility options to ensure more people can enjoy the hobby. I’m glad that we can get games about mental health and emotional struggles, like Psychonauts 2 or Life is Strange: True Colors. I love that I can chop up aliens as Travis Touchdown while wearing a hoodie that reads “FUCK RACISM.” You have Josef Fares, director of It Takes Two accepting his reward for Game of the Year and expressing love for his family, or relative unknown Maggie Robertson getting a lot of acclaim for her work in Resident Evil Village. It’s easy to dwell on the negatives but I think it’s important to remember it isn’t all bad.

For all the grief I can throw at the gaming industry, it’s also worth noting that North America has its first gaming union, from Vodea Games, an independent studio. I mentioned last year how the fallout of Lab Zero games, developer of cult fighting game hit Skullgirls ended with the entire company being laid off or quitting, however the remnants of the studio formed Future Club as a co-op business where every employee is on equal ground, and later were hired by Skullgirls’ publisher to continue work on the game. A rare happy ending! After years of hearing about crunch culture, some studios are making more efforts to combat it. Developers of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart were all too happy to mention that the game was made with no crunch, and the same is true of Double Fine with Psychonauts 2. Industries don’t change overnight and there is always room for improvement, but ultimately I want to go into the new year with my head held high and hoping for the best. At the very least, there are a lot of great titles we already know about going into 2022, and surely more surprises heading our way. Hopefully most of those surprises turn out to be a bit more positive.

Happy Gaming, and take care out there.

-B

My Top 10 Games of 2021

2021 was certainly a year. It sure happened, alright! And when it came to finding distractions from the constant string of horrors that is modern day life in the 2020s, video games were often what I turned to for relief. While the video game industry mostly did well enough last year, 2021 showcases some of the long term effects of the continued battle with COVID, resulting in a year that in some cases felt a bit light on heavy-hitters. Games were delayed either to later in the year or even into next year, and some of the more common tent pole series were no shows this year. That said, I think 2021 was a year of some really great games that would have otherwise gotten passed over if other bigger titles hadn’t been delayed. This was the year of secondary franchises and up-and-comers getting some much-needed limelight, as well as quite a few games that I would consider “miracle sequels.” I didn’t play as many games as I would have liked to this year for a variety of reasons, and mostly stuck to a few choice games that caught my eye. I missed a few high-profile AAA releases due to either lacking the means to play them (any PS5 or Series X exclusives for one), or them just not being my particular thing (sorry Capcom, but no matter how hot the vampire mommy is I will not have the nerve to pick up a horror game). With that said, I’d like to talk about ten games that DID strike my fancy in one of those tried-and-true Top 10 Lists, so let’s get to it!

10 - Cruis’N Blast

Racing games aren’t normally my thing, but what I saw of Cruis’N Blast definitely caught my eye. A bombastic, spectacle-laden arcade-styled racer, Cruis’N Blast reminded me of a time long past, where you would walk into an arcade and hop into a giant race car seat as you attempt to beat the computer players and get to the end. The game is fast, almost garishly bright and colorful, and unapologetically silly. Considering most racing games that come out nowadays are usually either hyper-realistic racing simulators or something more in the style of Mario Kart, it was nice to play something different. Now admittedly, I think this game is a bit of a hard sell as it is now, with many tracks that are just slight reworks of existing tracks, and no online multiplayer, however the developers have said that online is on the way, alongside more DLC, and as it stands now, I think Cruis’N Blast offers a fun foundation that I’d love to see built on. As it is now, it’s a racer that feels out of time, and it was a fun time blasting through tracks. Hopefully future content rounds it out.

 9 - No More Heroes III

Way back in the Wii’s hayday, the No More Heroes franchise was one that I grew really fond of, and after completing the second title I dreamed of what a potential third game would look like. I ended up waiting for so long that I had assumed it would never happen. The road to No More Heroes III was a long and bumpy one, and while the finished product definitely has some rough edges, the passion and charm of its director, Goichi Suda, shines through. I talked about the game in more detail in another blog post (LINK HERE), but to summarize: No More Heroes III is one of the weirdest, silliest and at times hilarious games I played this year or any year. A pervy otaku assassin is the last hope to take out an alien invasion. It was great to take control of Travis Touchdown once again, hacking and slashing through hordes of alien goons with his trusty beam katana and taking out big bosses with suplexes. I mean, just read that last sentence over again and tell me that isn’t even a little bit interesting!

Of course, there’s more to say. In-between taking on alien assassins, Travis travels around a big open world and gets involved in all kinds of odd jobs like having to pick up trash in alligator-infested waters or taking out rival street gangs in motorcycle races. While dedicated levels leading up to bosses aren’t really a thing in this entry, each boss fight is unique and memorable, with this game having by far the strongest combat in the entire series. Some aspects of the game don’t sit well with me upon reflection, like the open world performance or a somewhat underwhelming story at points, but still, No More Heroes III is a game I had lost hope of ever receiving, so it existing at all is cause to celebrate. Suda makes games like no one else, and while they might not click with everyone, if you can get on his wavelength you’ll get a gaming experience like nothing else, and I can’t wait to see what he has in store next.

 8 - Mario Party Superstars

Mary Party is infamous for its ability to destroy even the tightest-knit friends. Despite the colorful, inviting exterior, what lies within is a foul creature that will have you all at each other’s throats in record time. It’s also pretty fun. Despite the reputation, Mario Party is a franchise I had no first-hand experience in until Superstars, and the greatest hits nature of the package makes for a good first impression. The game beautifully recreates several iconic boards from the N64 trilogy, while containing over 100 minigames from across the entire series. With board hazards, minigame mayhem and the ever-looming threat of a bad roll completely reversing everyone’s fortunes, Mario Party Superstars is a fun pick-up-and-play experience with friends. To my surprise, it also boasts perhaps the greatest online experience of any first-party Nintendo title in the last several years. Considering that up until this year the series had never HAD any online to really speak of, it’s impressive they got it so right on this first attempt. While it would be nice to see more boards brought back, and the game itself seems like a good fit for DLC, I’ve had a lot of fun with Superstars in the few months it’s been out.

7 - Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury

Now, ordinarily the idea of me ranking a re-release of Super Mario 3D World in a Top 10 list seemed pretty unlikely. The original game itself is a fun enough time, with great controls and inventive level design and gimmicks aplenty. It’s a Mario game, so quality is certainly up to par, but living in a post-Super Mario Odyssey world made me realize just how much I prefer the open sandbox style of 3D Mario. However, the Switch port of 3D World itself is pretty impressive, with a number of notable improvements. The game itself was sped up a bit, characters gained a few new movement options, levels were slightly tweaked in a few instances, there was a photo mode…oh yeah, and online multiplayer. Itself a game-changer and giving me the ability to actually play this game with friends, it was really appreciated, but what sends this title over the top for me was the Bowser’s Fury side-game.

Bowser’s Fury is…well, I don’t quite know what to make of it. Is this a sneak-peak of what the next full-blown 3D Mario will be like? Just an experiment they’ll never try again? DLC for Odyssey they just put into the 3D World port to get people to double-dip? It could be all or none of the above, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was a fantastic time from start to finish and I utterly devoured it in one big sitting. Bowser’s Fury is a wide-open, seamless 3D Mario adventure with an emphasis on exploration, while using power-ups and other assets from 3D World to collect special Cat Shines that work towards the goal of riding Bowser of all of his fury. Fury Bowser repeatedly descends onto Lake Lapcat, raining fire and spikes onto the world, as well as targeting Mario with a gigantic stream of fire that players will need to find cover to avoid. Collecting Shines causes him to retreat for a time, and once enough Cat Shines are found, Mario dukes it out with Bowser in a supped-up Giga Cat Mario form in what’s essentially a kaiju battle in a Mario game. One of the only real flaws with the experience is that it was over so soon. Bowser’s Fury isn’t a full game experience, giving you anywhere from 2-5 hours of enjoyment depending on how much you care about 100% completion, but damn was that time well spent. If you’ve never played 3D World before and like platformers, this whole package is a total no-brainer recommendation, and even if you HAVE played 3D World before, I’d almost argue Bowser’s Fury is good enough to justify double-dipping.

6 - NEO: The World Ends With You

When I talk about miracle sequels, NEO: TWEWY is definitely up there. For years, fans of the DS original title hoped and prayed for something, ANYTHING to keep the franchise going. A mobile port here, cameos in Kingdom Hearts there. Then, almost at random, a true sequel was confirmed after ten long years. Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of people looked past this one for one reason or another. But I’ll use my platform to hold this game up as something special that deserves more recognition than it got.

In NEO: TWEWY players are once again trapped in the Reaper’s Game, forced to fight off monsters called Noise and they’ll need to work together to survive. But this game is different from the one Neku and friends experienced only a few years prior. Newcomers to the scene, Rindo and Fret will have to gain allies and face off against rival players for their shot at winning the game and earn their freedom. I’d say the story and characters are the game’s high point, filled with charm and some interesting developments as time goes on. I’d argue the cast in this game is better utilized than a lot of the original’s cast, honestly. The core trio of Rindo, Fret and Nagi play off of each other well, and all remain relevant throughout the story as more twists and turns pop up. Coupled with great voice acting and a fairly sharp script, I really grew attached to the Wicked Twisters and kept pushing past the game’s mounting challenges until the very end.

Gameplay-wise, this game shifts into a 3D action RPG combat system, with some interesting ideas, though I do think at points the controls are overly finicky and at times feel gimmicky just for the sake of it. Each character equips a pin that allows them to use a particular ability, like shooting out fire or slashing with energy blades. Each pin is assigned to a button, and you end up controlling the entire party at once, with party members automatically cycling out as you press different buttons. The goal is to swap between players in a good rhythm, constantly juggling enemies and building up your Groove, which lets you perform a powerful screen-clearing move when filled up. Outside of combat, there are simple puzzles and optional challenge battles to engage in. The game is structured in such a way as to make it relatively easy to replay certain sections, and the more optional content you do, the more you’re rewarded with palpable upgrades and new mechanics unlocked to mess around with. I felt the endgame relied a bit too much on damage-sponge enemies and leaned a bit too heavily on exploiting enemy weaknesses, and the camera itself isn’t really in your control most of the time, which leads to some awkwardness, but outside of all that, NEO: The World Ends With You was a memorable, stand-out JRPG in a year with some real heavy-hitters. It also had one of the best soundtracks of the year and sadly was snubbed by The Game Awards, so if nothing else, check out the OST.

5 - Guilty Gear Strive

So, I like fighting games a whole bunch, despite being bad at them. Up until a year or so ago I didn’t know much about Guilty Gear though. With Strive’s announcement, I decided to check out the older games to get better acquainted and kind of fell in love with the series. Guilty Gear is undoubtedly one of the craziest fighting game franchises around, with truly unique characters that stand out immensely from each other. From the beginning, the series has always celebrated music, especially rock music, and with Strive you basically have an entire album shipped with the game. Each character has their own vocal theme, with many themes in particular being absolute jams that I’m still listening too even months later. From the progressive rock of Ramlethal’s theme, Necessary Discrepancy, to May’s peppy, Paramore-esque theme, Disaster of Passion, series composer (and creator and main artist and writer and voice of the main character…) Daisuke Ishiwatari wasn’t afraid of experimenting and going above and beyond with this soundtrack. With Zato-1’s theme, Let Me Carve Your Way, it starts out as screamo death metal, but by the end morphs into a love ballad, reflecting the character’s radical changes throughout the series, just as one example.

While the music is a true standout, the visuals don’t slouch in wowing players either. Ever since the release of the previous Guilty Gear game, Arc System Works has pioneered a new graphical style where they take 3D models, then shade and animate them in such a way to resemble traditional 2D sprite animations of old, and perfectly capture the anime aesthetic better than most games out today. The game looks really good in motion, basically. On the gameplay side of things Strive is a bit simplified and slowed down compared to past titles, which ruffles some feathers, but I do find many of the changes interesting and the end result is still a fantastic fighting game that I’ve stuck with for far longer than I thought I would. With most fighters I pick up, I just mess around with them for a few hours and put them down to never pick them up again, but here I’ve gone online with every character, done all of the single player, watched the story mode movie, and still find myself going online from time to time to test out a new character. Online is a bit of an odd mixed bag, as the lobby system is just flat-out worse than previous entries and prone to issues, but the netcode is absolutely stellar, with Strive being one of the first big Japanese fighting games to prioritize improving netcode for the sake of foreign fans, which has made waves in the fighting game scene. All and all, Strive is definitely one of my favorite games I played this year and a pretty decent entry level title for the series on the whole. Start with Strive, then work yourself up to the goofiness that is the earlier titles.

4 - Psychonauts 2

I have an odd relationship with the Psychonauts series. I heard nothing but praise for the original game for years, but up until last year I had never played it. Overall I’d say it held up rather well, and by the end I could see why people were hoping for more. The wait was pretty long, with multiple development issues, but after 16 years, the sequel is here. Raz finally achieves his dream of becoming a Psychonaut, but things don’t quite go to plan for him as he begins his internship and a shadow of the past threatens to destroy the world. I was surprised by how emotional and introspective the story got, as the original came across more like a dark comedy akin to the likes of Invader ZIM. And yet, there is tenderness to the sequel that shines through immediately. Booting up and displaying a mental health advisory, the game itself doesn’t shy away from some heavier topics, but it pushes through with a message that despite how crippling mental health issues can be, there is a path to stability. Pointedly, Raz does not cure anyone of their issues, and the issues themselves are often shown to be life-long, but like a true Psychonaut, Raz does help give people the tools to help themselves. So many games are based around fighting things and hurting people, so it was really refreshing to play a big-budget title based around helping people instead.

On a gameplay level, Psychonauts 2 outshines the original in pretty much every regard. Levels are just as inventive and visually distinct, controls are tighter, and collecting everything is far less of a hair-pulling ordeal. The hub worlds in particular were fun to explore, my curiosity being rewarded as I searched every nook and cranny for various collectibles. The two weak points for me was the combat not being particularly fun, and the base PS4 version (which is the only one I had access to) is far and away the worst version, suffering many performance issues and long loading screens that bring the experience down a bit. I feel like there isn’t much talk about Psychonauts 2 this year, despite the fanbase’s eager anticipation for it, so I want to echo their sentiments and say that this is not only a rare sequel that improves on just about every aspect of the original, but it’s a fantastic time that shouldn’t be overlooked.

3 - Deltrarune Chapter 2

Three years ago, Toby Fox announced his next project, but it would be one so ambitious he’d have to release them in chapters. The fans waited, and eventually the next chapter in the Deltarune saga arrived…also for free! I suppose this might not technically count as a full game, merely a chunk of the eventually finished Deltarune, but the amount of content and the sheer quality of it (not to mention the gap in releases) basically tells me this is just as much Deltarune 2 as anything else. Once again, Kris, Susie and Ralsei venture into the Dark World for shenanigans where absolutely NOTHING sinister lurks in the background, no sir! Only good times to be had!

Toby Fox’s games perform a delicate juggling act of often absurd or subverted humor, only to swerve head-on into meta-laden horror. For some, the meta aspect of both Undertale and Deltarune is the main draw, but to focus only on that is a disservice to Toby’s ability to make compelling, memorable characters. Chapter 2 of Deltarune is no exception, as the antagonist Queen is an extremely fun, quotable threat, and the focus on Kris’ other classmates like Berdley and Noel was much appreciated, as was Susie’s continued character development from the first chapter. The gameplay is iterated on from the previous chapter, with more incentives to spare enemies, as well as more options for those that actively seek combat. With item crafting, more party members and some interesting deviations in this chapter depending on how you play it, I can tell that Deltrarune is several magnitudes more complex than Undertale, and I can see why Toby needed to get a team on board to help him get this done. I kept stopping and thinking as I went through this chapter that it was just…delightful from start to finish. The game didn’t feel bloated in pacing, the character bits were all fun, the combat got challenging but never felt too unfair, and the music continues to be a real high point. Seriously, between NEO: TWEWY, Guilty Gear Strive and Deltarune Chapter 2 it’s really hard to pick what my actual favorite OST is for this year. The ending of this chapter certainly leaves quite a few questions, and I anxiously await more chapters in the future to see how this all shakes out. If only a fraction of the adventure can be of so high quality though, I can’t imagine what the finished product will one day be.

2 - Monster Hunter Rise

If we were ranking games based on how much time they sucked out of me, Monster Hunter Rise would be number one. Rise absolutely devoured my March and April, a game I couldn’t really put down until I had practically sucked every last piece of meat off the bone. Capcom’s monster hunting franchise has always been a bit rough around the edges, and many people that tried the series bounced off of it hard due to some of the more…questionable design choices. The efforts made by Monster Hunter World and Rise however, have done much to make the game more welcoming and appealing to newcomers, to great sales success. Rise is the most streamlined game in the series yet, with multiple aspects of the series having been scrubbed away. Players no longer have to pop Cold or Hot Drinks to survive various climates, the map is always available rather than being an item in a very small inventory, you don’t have to repeatedly slam away at ore deposits to get rewards, or even worry about throwing paintballs to mark monsters and make them easier to track. Rise in some respects feels more arcade-like, trying to get you in and out of the monster fights as quickly as possible, and while some see that as a problem, I’m really happy with that change in direction. Combat was always the series’ strong suit, and it’s never been as satisfying as it has been in Rise.

With new mechanics to contend with, like being able to ride atop monsters for a bit, or using the Wirebug to swing through the sky like some kind of human spider, Rise breathes new life into a variety of weapons, granting them all mobility that only a few weapons have been able to enjoy in the past. The feudal Japan setting of Komura Village makes for a pretty visually striking game, with yokai themed monsters that are among the best newcomers in the series. Compared to World, getting together with friends is far easier, allowing for a great pick-up-and-play feel. The only real problem I have with the game (outside of the series itself being a bit overwhelming for newcomers at times) is that it feels like content dried up too soon, though an expansion targeting this coming summer should help alleviate that. With the PC release soon, anyone that hasn’t had access to a Switch shouldn’t pass it up. Among the best titles in the series, and nearly my Game of the Year.

1 - Metroid Dread

You know, when this year started about the LAST thing on my mind was that we’d be getting a Metroid game at all this year, let alone a 2D one. To an outsider, the fact that Metroid Dread is the first 2D entry in over 19 years might be pretty surprising, but for long time fans, the fact that this game is the long-rumored, assumed vaporware Project Dread is mind-blowing. It’s hard for any game to live up to expectations, but few games have to live up to nearly 20 years of expectations and dreams of where it could go. Metroid as a series has been stuck in prequel and interquel hell for nearly two decades, so having a game that finally moves Samus forward is very much welcomed. And where it might go from here is so exciting.

I already talked about Dread in a separate blog post if you want an in-depth break down (check it here), but I’ll give you all one last rundown. For one, Samus moves buttery smooth, and she retains the free aiming and melee counter introduced in Mercury Steam’s previous entry, the Metroid II remake. Any criticisms of Samus Returns were addressed in this title, making her counter faster and able to be done while running, so the pace of the game never slows down, and the game is much more designed around her free aiming than the remake was. The action setpieces also up the ante and present us with a Samus at her peak. She’s been through so much at this point, that of COURSE she would calmly stare down massive alien threats and take them out without breaking stride. The game’s improved map also helps cut down on pointless backtracking and gives players more tools to discover the path forward, and the overall area design is done in such a way as to subtly guide players and ensure that if they do get lost, it won’t be for long. At the same time, the map is open enough that longtime fans that want to speedrun or sequence break can absolutely bust the game open, and what’s more…the game rewards it and was clearly designed with this in mind.

I know for some, the idea of a 2D Metroidvania being a Game of the Year can raise an eyebrow, and I can totally understand someone not feeling the same way. In most regards, I wouldn’t say Dread broke new ground or completely revolutionized the genre. In some respect, indie games made by much smaller developers have done that, but at the same time, this is just such a polished experience. Buttery smooth movement, tough but fair combat, great visuals and spectacle, and a very tightly designed world add up to a game that is more than the sum of its parts for me. To be clear, pretty much every game on this list excelled in some way. Cruis’N Blast was just a fun, wacky racer, and those just don’t get made anymore. Nothing could match the zaniness of No More Heroes III, the chaos of Mario Party, the joy and exploration in Bowser’s Fury, or the sheer style of NEO: TWEWY. I think Strive is hands-down the most fun fighting game released this year, with unbeatable presentation, and Psychonauts 2 had the best narrative that I personally experienced. Deltarune’s second chapter had a lot of heart and mystery, and Monster Hunter Rise delivered on nonstop fun and a ton of content, but more than ANY other game this year, Metroid Dread just made me so happy. Happy to see the Metroid series back again. Happy to see people giving the franchise a shot for the first time. It felt good to finally use the Morph Ball to fit through tight gaps, and to see Kraid’s ugly mug again. It might seem ironic, but Dread inspired such joy and excitement that even after beating it and sitting on it for months, a part of me can’t believe it was real. When Dread was revealed during Nintendo’s E3 it took me DAYS to get over the high that announcement brought me, and nothing else even came close to doing that for me this year. And this was a year of some pretty damn good games!

I do wish I got to some of the bigger games that came out this year, but for one reason or another it just wasn’t feasible. As it stands, I’m glad I played what I did. I try to choose my purchases carefully, so I wait on reviews and overall reception before I get into games that don’t seem like slam dunks out of the gate. I do wish I had waded into indies more this year; I can’t imagine how many hidden gems I’ve missed. I suppose having a surplus of quality choices isn’t the worst problem to have though. With all the highs and lows of 2021 as a year though, at least the games largely came out alright. Heading into 2022, it looks like some huge, hotly anticipated titles will be finally releasing, and I can’t wait to see what other surprises are in store.

Happy Gaming.

-B

No More Heroes III: A Sequel That Shouldn’t Exist

As the gaming industry trudges on, it’s not hard to notice a trend; games are taking longer and longer to make and the costs continue to climb. Not only does this mean more time waiting for the next installment in your favorite series, but it also has a side-effect of making companies less likely to take risks. A game underperforming nowadays could spell the end for a studio or franchise, and so only the “sure thing” games get made by the bigger publishers. In hindsight, the sixth console generation was a last hurrah for budget titles; there were SO many games of varying length, polish and quality in the era of the PS2 and GameCube. It was a time when Capcom could release absolute bangers like Resident Evil 4 but also finance something “cheap” and weird like God Hand. A time when Nintendo was ballsy enough to have a game starring Luigi as a GameCube launch title. As the HD era kicked off, it became clear that these types of games just weren’t financially viable anymore, though for a time the Wii was home to a fair few hidden gems that were still cheap to make, with one in particular standing out to me: Grasshopper Manufacture’s No More Heroes. Somehow against all odds, we’ve now arrived at a timeline where this niche series about an otaku assassin has reached a third mainline installment as a major Switch exclusive, and there’s plenty to talk about regarding it.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

Let’s set the stage here: way back in 2007 No More Heroes released to the masses on the Wii with a…terrible launch in Japan. The West took to the game very well, however, becoming one of Grasshopper’s best-selling titles. The nerdy, perpetually horny wannabe-assassin Travis Touchdown agrees to become the world’s best assassin because some hot chick he met at a bar said she’d sleep with him if he did. That’s it. That’s the plot! Using a beam katana he got online, Travis sets out on a surreal, bloody journey that can be funny, crude, and more than anything else…memorable.

The original game was not flawless by any means; the story ran the risk of being tasteless at points, the combat was definitely wonky and the open world was empty. Despite all of that, it was filled with a unique charm that only Suda 51 could deliver; Travis was an odd beast of a protagonist. Johnny Knoxville put through a Japanese lens, he could be badass and crude one minute, and utterly pathetic and hilarious the next. While the combat wasn’t nearly as refined as many other action titles, it managed to work in motion controls in a way that was incredibly satisfying, swinging the Wii Remote for the killing blow, making it the exclamation point at the end of the sentence that was that battle. Sure, the structure of the game was a bit of a grind; being forced to work crappy temp jobs to earn enough money to unlock the next assassination fight, then having to spend several minutes driving through a barren open world to get to some actual content. I would argue that all of this helped to reinforce how much of a loser Travis was outside of his assassinations and was a good juxtaposition for all of the slaughter. This all mixed together and resulted in a game unlike anything else. You would NEVER see a AAA game that would get this weird. They’d likely have an open world littered with things to do, or just cut to the next fight without showing all of the weird grinding and dead-end jobs, but that would just suck the charm right out of it. Ultimately, it’s the kind of game that only Suda could make, and likely only during this strange transitional period to HD gaming.

A sequel would follow a few years later and despite polishing up its combat, offering more playable characters and its story having a bit more gravitas to it, the lack of marketing coupled with the Wii’s declining popularity resulted in the game’s sales being quite a disappointment. It’s worth noting that around this time Grasshopper went through some changes; Suda would move to more of an executive role, with a rare directing credit on small games like Liberation Maiden on the 3DS. Over the years, Grasshopper would face issues with the changing gaming landscape and outside of a few successes (like Lollipop Chainsaw), their games continued to be niche at best. One of their more well-known fumbles was Shadows of the Damned which faced executive meddling from Electronic Arts and the game’s eventual finished state would hit Suda particularly hard. GungHo Online Entertainment would acquire the company in 2013, and later Suda would establish a smaller team he would lead over himself, separate from GungHo’s team. It would seem that the indie explosion of the 2010s had a profound effect on Suda and with a new Nintendo console on the horizon, this all culminated in the 2017 announcement of Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes.

TSA is an odd game, even for Grasshopper and Suda 51. It is one part tribute to indie games, one part No More Heroes continuation, one part celebration of Grasshopper’s entire catalogue of games, and it all ties together with a deeply personal examination of the trials and tribulations of game development. Travis spends the game going into the game worlds of launch titles for the fictional Death Drive Mk. 2 video game console, and he develops a deep respect for Dr. Juvenile, the acclaimed developer of these games, and comes to sympathize with the sabotage of her greatest work, which has heavy parallels to the development of Shadows of the Damned. TSA was not going to be for everyone, and was a far departure from the typical No More Heroes formula, but it was also extremely experimental. Large portions of the game’s story play out in old PC-styled visual novels, various other mediums are blended into the game’s sparse cutscenes and allusions to media that Suda loves are abundant throughout. I wouldn’t say the game itself was all that fun to play to be exact though; levels went on pretty long, enemies weren’t all that interesting to fight, and the game’s clearly low budget meant there was minimal voice acting, which severely held back the ability to really bring the characters to life. That said, getting to the end gave the clue that a proper mainline entry might not be that far away. Sure enough, at E3 2019, just a few months after TSA came out, No More Heroes III was confirmed for the Switch.

I’M NOT SAYING IT’S ALIENS, BUT…

When I completed No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, my visions for a sequel didn’t exactly line up with the No More Heroes III we eventually got, and I think that’s not entirely a bad thing. This game centers on Travis taking on a group of dangerous alien outlaws that set their sights on Earth. They’re well-mannered enough to agree to the whole Ranked Assassin battles that the series was built upon at least, so Travis is able to take them on one at a time as he slowly works his way up to Prince FU, the leader of the bunch. At this point, Travis has fought psychopathic assassins, cyborgs, supernatural forces and sentient computer bugs, so really a fight against aliens was clearly the next step. FU is a fun antagonist on his own; he gets WAY more screen time to flesh out his cocky, laid-back personality, compared to most series antagonists that only show up at the very end of the game. By going with aliens as the primary threat, this also allowed the character designs to get WEIRD, and gives a lot of potential for the boss fights of the game to be the craziest yet. I think the decision to fight off an alien invasion is an inspired one, but I wouldn’t exactly say that the end result was completely satisfying.

I want to dance around overt spoilers, but generally speaking I feel like No More Heroes III’s narrative is very weak overall. For as much potential as the alien plotline has, the vast majority of the aliens Travis has to fight aren’t all that memorable by series standards. In some cases this seems deliberate, but on the whole I feel like the premise was wasted. Adding to that, established characters in the franchise, such as Travis’ disciple Shinobu or the likes of Bad Girl and her father, Bad Man (who got a lot of focus in TSA) barely feature in the game at all, written out in a way that just feels uninspired. Meanwhile there are a few newer characters that get integrated into Travis’ entourage but they aren’t really given a lot of room to be developed and their presence here basically ate up the screen time that other characters could have gotten instead. Probably the most disappointing aspect of the story though is how little the relationship between the primary antagonists is explored. At the game’s start, we’re treated to a nice 2D animated sequence that shows a young boy named Damon meeting a young Prince FU, nursing him back to health and helping him to find a way back home. FU promises Damon he’d return in 20 years’ time…and that’s when this game kicks off. At first glance Damon is shocked at FU’s extremely aggressive demeanor and seems concerned with FU’s dreams of conquest, but then the rest of the game never really delves into it at all. We don’t find out why FU turned out the way he did (outside of some dialogue where he was allegedly “always” like this), and as for Damon…I have my own ideas about why he got so little focus, so put a pin in it for now. Ultimately, the story feels somewhat incomplete and rushed…and then I read an interview wherein Suda stated that around an hour of cutscenes for the game had to be gutted, and suddenly it all makes sense.

All that said though, I’d argue the overall presentation is still pretty good and hits a lot of high points. The game blends in a lot of different mediums and at every turn there are allusions to all kinds of media. Each chapter of the game is given its own psychedelic pseudo-live-action intro that homages old Ultraman opening themes, there’s a mecha anime-styled ending theme for each chapter, super-deformed eyecatches in-between chapters and…loading screens that mimic the Netflix interface as the next chapter begins. At every point you’re assaulted with different art styles and bright, garish colors and it can be a real feast for the eyes. That said, there are also parts of the game that are pretty crude, and I don’t think it’s wholly a deliberate choice. While the character models for Travis, other NPCs and enemies are all often pretty detailed and animated well enough, the environments are often very low-poly and lack detail. Driving through the open world sections in the game, you’re treated to some pretty bad pop-in and lighting that frequently breaks. Areas are just as barren as they were back in the Wii original, but it’s a lot less forgivable given the boost in power between the Wii and Switch. Parts of this game can look really nice, but other parts feel like they come from generations past. Audio-wise, I think III has a fairly solid soundtrack with a lot of variety, including lo-fi rap and techno, though I’m not sure how well it will hold up to the previous mainline entries for me. The voice acting, meanwhile, is fantastic and I’m glad most of the actors from previous entries could reprise their roles even all of these years later. Robin Atkins Downs IS Travis Touchdown and I don’t think anyone else could ever successfully play him, and across the board I think most everyone delivers a good performance, even if a lot of the cast had little material to work with. All that said, the combat is where I think this game surprised me the most.

I STUDIED THE BLADE

Across Grasshopper’s entire catalog, I’d say their action games are…functional, but often lacking in polish, though I’m clearly spoiled by the likes of Capcom and PlatinumGames action titles that prioritize the feel of the action above all else. The first two titles in this franchise are mostly fine and have good ideas; they just needed a bit more time to fine-tune things. TSA was more arcade-like in the action department and the focus there felt more designed around using your special Death Glove powers over your beam katana. I was a tad worried going into No More Heroes III but coming out of it, this is the best combat the series has ever had and quite possibly the best combat in any Grasshopper game. It feels way more polished and responsive, and you actually fight enemies that are varied in design, forcing you to change up your ways to approach them. Travis can still use a few Death Glove powers that run off of cool downs, but the game still allows for fun with the beam katana slicing and dicing opponents. Killing enemies triggers a roulette wheel that has the chance to give you a random power-up (up to and including Travis donning his new fancy power armor), and other aspects like his wrestling moves and his perfect dodge have way more use. In old games, you could only grapple enemies that were stunned with melee attacks, but in this game, if you can get behind opponents, you can just suplex them for free and it feels really satisfying to land a good grapple, and then performing a grab on a stunned enemy also replenishes your swords battery which allows you to keep fighting without stopping to uh…you know…shake some life into it. The Dark Step maneuver in the first two games was more than a little inconsistent, but in this game the Perfect Dodge feels more tuned. Dodge at the last moment and you can hack away at enemies while time is slowed down, or go right for a grab! I wouldn’t say the game’s perfect though.

While the combat is much improved and polished, there’s still some jank. For example, if Travis dodges and time slows down, enemies remain in their attack animations even as you hack away at them, and in a lot of occasions, the instant the slowdown stops I end up getting hit by the attack that I had already dodged…because the game still treats it as being active and the enemy never stopped attacking even though I was slicing them up in the slowed down time. Compare that with, say, Bayonetta, where attacking enemies while Witch Time is triggered put them into hitstun and prevented that exact issue. While I think the enemy variety is MUCH improved, with Travis fighting some really weird aliens that have more inspired designs than “thug with bat” or “thug with gun,” they tend to be a real pain to fight, and that definitely contributes to this game being a LOT harder than past entries on the whole. Travis lacks good crowd control, so he can get swarmed easily and enemies on average have a LOT of health, so you have to dedicate a lot of time to taking out a single target, all while the others are free to take shots at you from off-screen. Making use of all of your tools, from the Death Glove powers, to suplexes, to your roulette wheel can make a huge difference but on the whole some fights just feel like they go on for too long, and there’s little to do but fight.

Unlike past entries that had dedicated levels leading up to bosses, in No More Heroes III you have to instead traverse the open world to find “Designated Battles,” that Travis has to complete before the boss fight is unlocked, in addition to paying a fee, just like old times. These Designated Battles are usually just battling a few waves of enemies in an arena, though occasionally Travis will don his power armor and take to space to take on a huge boss in a shoot-em-up section. Bosses end up having little to no build-up since you just fight generic mobs of enemies that are disconnected from the fight on the whole, barring one real instance midway through the game. To a degree, the levels in the first game weren’t all that fun and cutting them out means little value is lost, but it did add some variety to the game and I really feel their absence. But maybe it would have been easier to accept if the open world sections had been fulfilling to explore on their own.

Unlike the first game, this time Travis has more than just Santa Destroy to explore. There’s also the suburban Perfect World, the desert wasteland in the Thunderdome, the dusty, war-torn Call of Battle ruins, the suspiciously plain Neo Brazil and Damon Tower, which is sadly the smallest area in the game, being little more than a corridor leading to the final boss. While it was nice to explore Santa Destroy again and see what changed, most areas in the game still feel very empty. In the case of places like the Thunderdome it makes sense, though Neo Brazil is little more than a parking lot…with a bustling city looming in the distance you can’t visit. With Suda it’s hard to tell if this is a joke on the player, or just issues with development. Looking at the map, many areas are labeled as a “forbidden zone,” and you never get the ability to travel there throughout the game. It’s anyone’s guess if this was done as a joke, a consequence of development scaling back, or perhaps planting seeds for future DLC. While I can somewhat commend Suda for bringing back the open world aspects that only the first game really had, I do question the execution and feel that the ambition might have been better spent elsewhere on the game. Why make SIX areas that feel lacking to explore, when you could have fleshed out a single area instead?

While I decry the game world for feeling a bit lacking, there are things to do. Travis can engage in various odd jobs to earn money for the ranking battles, and there are a few sidequests players can engage in. Compared to the first game, the grind isn’t nearly as much of a problem; you earn money for doing just about anything in the game and the jobs are often quick and mostly painless. Travis can pick up trash in rivers while fighting off alligators, unclog toilets, help the coast guard fend off giant alligator attacks, or race street punks on his bike to get them off the road and stop disturbing the peace. The only side activity I find to be absolutely bad is mining, where players are forced to navigate super tightly-packed mines where it’s both easy to get lost, and easy to fall into lava pits that immediately cause a game over. Said area is one of the only times in the game Travis needs to jump…and thank God for that because his jump is pretty stiff and laggy. There are also a lot of optional fights players can engage with that open up as the game goes on, but they mostly felt like padding. Not only are some of these later fights absolutely grueling (try fighting 25 waves of enemies for over a half hour!), they also seemed to glitch. The wrong mission would load in, which in turn prevented me from actually unlocking a good amount of later missions. Nothing game breaking of course, but if you’re going for 100% completion you might be in for quite the headache.

UNFLINCHING INDULGENCE

In the long gap between No More Heroes 2 and No More Heroes III, I did my best to expand my horizons when it came to games. I dipped my toe into a lot of franchises I’ve never played before, and played what some might call modern masterpieces. In that time, I think I grew quite spoiled by playing games developed by people that were masters of their craft, and when it comes to these smaller, more experimental titles, I often can’t help but compare them, which isn’t really fair. Like, OF COURSE Breath of the Wild wipes the floor with No More Heroes III when it comes to making a great open world. It’s no surprise at all that Bayonetta or Devil May Cry has more fleshed-out, satisfying combat. Major console exclusives look and run better than this game does a lot of the time, and to say that I’ve played games with better stories than this should probably go without saying. This goes beyond No More Heroes III and can apply to a lot of Grasshopper’s catalog; their games aren’t the biggest or shiniest, they aren’t the most polished and they often suffer from some pretty big flaws…but I still love them anyway because no one else makes games like them.

Like I said at the beginning, gaming has changed a lot in the last decade or so. The budget for games balloons and niche games grow ever smaller. We need these artsy, weird games now more than ever so we can actually have some variety. Not to get on a soapbox, but so much of modern gaming is made up of live-service games that are more concerned with being a constant form of revenue rather than being an entertaining experience, and if they aren’t that, they’re incredibly homogenized. But games with Suda 51 at the helm have an identity. For what they lack in raw visual fidelity or content, they make up for in earnestness and creativity. These are games where characters can just sit on the couch and shoot the shit about anime and movies they like; seriously, the ending of every chapter of the game just has Travis and Bishop talking about Takeshi Miike movies or the latest Kamen Rider show, and it’s clear Suda does this so that he can just talk about the stuff he loves. He uses these games to make commentary on what he likes or doesn’t like about the industry, and honestly I have to admire the courage it takes to be so indulgent. To just homage anything and everything at a given moment, to tie your games together into a loosely-connected universe filled to the brim with callbacks and continuity nods that only the most seasoned Grasshopper fan is going to get.

You have to be tuned to a very specific wavelength to really “gel” with Grasshopper Manufacture’s games, I think. I’m not trying to be elitist when I say that; it’s just that these games clearly aren’t for everyone. They’re dumb, they’re crude, and they are often really janky and barely hold together under close inspection. I can’t say I can recommend their games to everyone, but for a certain niche, if they “get” it? They’re gonna have a FANTASTIC time. Because they found a game that isn’t afraid to not always make sense, or work for everyone. They found a game that, despite any flaws it has, can still shine through and make a connection with the player.

I’d say at the end of the day I’m happy that No More Heroes III got to exist at all and it feels like a small miracle that it happened. In some ways this isn’t the ideal sequel I wanted, but in others it did things I never could have expected, which leaves me with a game that was still very memorable. Knowing that Grasshopper has had its ups and downs and the actual team on this particular game was quite a bit smaller than I had expected, I find that III is a fairly ambitious product. While to a degree it might be held back a bit by Switch hardware, I’m also sure that the pandemic impacted the game quite a bit as well. Seeing as this missed the initial 2020 release date, and hearing of aspects of the game that were left on the cutting room floor, this game was undeniably a result of compromise. That’s pretty much the case with most things though, and this series has even had some jokes about things that had to be cut from the games to ship on time, so it isn’t a huge surprise. Admittedly though, having over a decade to dream about what a true end to the No More Heroes trilogy could be definitely clouds my judgment on this game a bit; there’s a part of me that can’t help but wonder what could have been. At the same time, I’m just thankful this got to exist in any state, and if I’m being honest and looking at this game on its own merits, No More Heroes III is a fun, stylish, and occasionally uneven ride that leaves me hopeful that Suda remains in the director’s chair for more fun stuff down the line. For a game that I had begun to imagine would never exist, it made out OK, and the world is better for having more wacky appearances from Travis Touchdown. According to Suda 51, this is the last No More Heroes game, but I certainly hope there is more to come from his one-of-a-kind mind.

Start the game.

-B