Well the GotY stuff is done, so not much is left to do this year other than… get hyped for next year! I also have 2 reviews that I’m writing, and the january release list. So I’m doing stuff!

2022 was a pretty fun year with a lot of pretty solid games. 2023… I’m not quite sure if it’s lining up to be quite as good, but it very easily could. There’s a good number of really interesting games coming up, but I’m actually not sure about big badass games yet, as a whole.

So I’ll do my yearly usual post, giving my top 6-ish hyped games, make a big list of big-to-small games I’m interested in, and make a list of big games I’m not interested in. Just trying to get excited about the future and stuff.

So let’s go!

Top 6-ish games I’m probably excited for

There’s a lot of games I’m excited for, but it was hard to actually pick 6 games I’m REALLY excited for. Games that I think will probably be masterpieces, or at least have the potential, you know. Games that, even without touching them, I think will be some of  my top games of the year by the time we get to this date next year.

So let’s go with my not-exactly-top-6 hype games of 2023!

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

From Software used to be cool. Then they made a good game called the Demon’s Souls. That was pretty decent. But they made that game another 6 times after that and kinda stopped making anything else, which is fine because most of them were pretty good, even GotY-level quality sometimes. Well after 11 years, From is back to one of those older series that they used to make. I’ve played a few of these, and even though I wasn’t that hardcore into them, I really had fun with them. They’re just fun mecha combat simulators with a large amount of customizations for minute aspects of your mechs. It’s good shit. I’m happy that From is finally moving away from the Souls stuff for a second and giving one of their other series a bit of time in the limelight.

And hey if we’re lucky maybe we’ll get a new Lost Kingdoms or King’s Field before the next Souls.

Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society

This is a sequel to Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk, a game I enjoyed a lot. It was one of those grid-based dungeon-crawling first-person RPG. It worked really well, and, in addition to that, was one of the rare occasions where a game actually had a good story. This seems like it will be more of the good gameplay I enjoyed, so yay! I hope the story holds up as well.

I’m just excited for this one.

Like a Dragon 8

While my knowledge of the Yakuza series is pretty minimal, I played Yakuza 7 and that game was a complete blast (and otherwise my Yakuza experience is, I think, a few hours of 4, and seeing a bunch of wacky clips). So I’m hyped for the rebranded Like a Dragon 8 (took them a while to properly translate the series’ title). I’m absolutely playing this one as soon as it comes out. I enjoyed the series’ transition to a console-style RPG (and I hope the bigger fans of the series also did because it’s a big departure), and it seems this one will continue with that concept so I should enjoy it some more!

Plus this ain’t the only Yakuza we’re getting this year, with Like a Dragon: Ishin! and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. I dunno about the Gaiden one (looking at a summary, it bridges the story of Kiryu between 6, 7 and 8), but Ishin looks super cool. It’s a remake of a Yakuza spin-off from the PS3 which was not originally localized, but is now being released worldwide, about similar characters in the Edo period (so the characters are samurai and ronin and stuff I guess).

It’s a good year to be a Yakuza fan.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D

I don’t generally put remakes and remasters and such in this kinda list… But this is an HD-2D remake of the best game ever according to Japan (almost always in the top 5 of games according to japanese gamers, frequently the top 1, sometimes going down a bit due to some recency bias (Persona 5 shot up to number 1 at first, then the next poll had it down to number 42) or switching places with DQ5), and might be the first time newer gamers experience it unless they went for the mobile port… and they should experience it because it’s great. It looks amazing, and it seems faithful to the original, so yeah, it’ll be good shit. I guess, to be clear, that it’s not 100% confirmed for 2023, but I’d find it kinda strange if it weren’t a 2023 game. Meanwhile DQ12 is still in development and I’m not mentioning it in this post because that’s much less sure to be a 2023 game than this.

More Dragon Quest is more good, even if it’s an older one.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

This is meant to come out, based on what was said at the Microsoft “E3” thing in 2022, some time before E3 this year. So that’s nice. I’ll believe it when I see it, but people are unbelievably hyped for this game, and for good reason, since the first Hollow Knight is so good. Every clip I’ve seen for this looks at least as good, so yeah… hype. Hope it does actually come out. Not really much to say, there’s a reason every game presentation stream for the last 2 years had people spamming “SILKSONG”, may it be Nintendo Directs or some of Lizardman’s things and such.

Nintendo? Nintendo I guess.

I didn’t want to put Zelda on the list again because I put it last year, so this is more of a general thing for Nintendo as a whole… I do that sometimes don’t worry about it. So this top 6 is more of a “top 5 + whatever the fuck Nintendo releases/announces this year that looks good” kinda deal. As far as currently-announced games, of course Zelda is gonna be a huge deal this year. Fire Emblem Engage should be pretty good based on the almost-nothing I’ve seen of it (I avoid trailers of games I’m sure to buy) and is coming out next month. Toothpaste-chan is cute (and designed by the same person who designed Kaguya Luna, Hakos Baelz and Pinky Pop Hepburn (for you OG vtuber fans). And I’m thinking we’ll have Pikmin 4 before the summer at some point which is really exciting too, I think we’ll see a lot of it at the next Direct.

Also there’s some smaller stuff announced, like the remaster for Kirby Returns to Dreamland, and Bayonetta Origins which… looks pretty meh (there is a demo for this in Bayonetta 3 by the way… it’s not very interesting, I don’t think I’ll buy this game). So Nintendo already has a lot of things announced

And of course Nintendo’s been trying really hard in recent years to not announce games TOO long before they’re out. Fire Emblem Engage, for example, was just announced in September and is coming out in January, that’s just a few months. So there’s basically no way there won’t be new announcements later in the year.

And yeah, let’s address Metroid Prime 4. People think it’s in development hell. It’s not. The Metroid Prime 4 that was originally announced at E3 2017, that was CANCELLED. Completely. In January 2019, the cancellation was announced, and development started for a new Metroid Prime 4, from scratch. That means EVERYTHING needs to be done from the start. Planning stages and all, with seemingly nothing being brought over from the cancelled Metroid Prime 4. Expecting this different Metroid Prime 4 this year is probably really optimistic. Not impossible at this point, as it enters its fifth year of development (which is a pretty normal development cycle), but it will be shown when it’s ready. I’d give it a 20% chance we see it this year (in 2021 I predicted a 2023 release, but I’m not convinced).

And no I’m not expecting Advance Wars 1+2 to come out, ever.

Other Games I’m Hyped For

I will note this is a list of games that MAY come out in 2023. Some of them have confirmed release dates, some of them do not but have been said to be 2023 releases, some of them I’m assuming a bit (or thinking they’ve been known about long enough for 2023 to make sense), and there’s always a chance of delays. There are some games I didn’t put on the list because I’m pretty sure they won’t release in 2023, while some I did because I’m thinking there’s a chance. That’s why I don’t have Metroid Prime 4 on here.

These are not all games I will get, some of them are there because I find them interesting even if I likely won’t play them. Basically this is games I think will be pretty good.

And, why not, I’ll BOLD the games I’m most interested in here. And I’m gonna put comments next to some of them too because why not.

• 30XX
• 9 Years of Shadows
• Alan Wake II
• Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix
• Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key
• Atlas Fallen
• Atomic Heart
• Avowed
• Banchou Tactics
• Berserk Boy
• Blasphemous 2
• Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
• Cassette Beasts
• Cross Blitz
• Darkest Dungeon II
• Demonschool (this give me pre-3 Persona vibes)
• Diablo IV (this should go further down the post, but I kinda have to buy this and see how bad they fucked up Diablo for the third time in a row… so it goes here because I’m buying it)
• Disgaea 7
• Dune: Spice Wars
• Dungeon Drafters
• Dungeons of Aether
• Dungeons 4
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
• Ereban: Shadow Legacy
• Eternights
• Everspace 2
• ExoMecha
• Ex-Zodiac
• Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (I’m waiting for the FF7 remake to fully come out before I buy it. Buying parts seems counterproductive)
• Final Fantasy XVI (Squeenix are being idiots and releasing this on PS5 first, for probably a year ahead of the multiplat release… I’m PROBABLY waiting for the PC version, unless Sony decides that maybe INCREASING the price of the PS5 was fucking stupid and brings it down a bit below launch price during the year… PC version was announced first so this stupid timed-exclusive garbage is a bit disappointing)
• Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star
• Flashback 2
• Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn
• Forspoken (I hope there’s an option to remove all dialogue and story from this because man it sounds awful on that end)
• Front Mission 2 Remake
• Front Mission 3 Remake
• Gestalt: Steam and Cinder
• Gimmick! Special Edition (this is the most technically impressive NES game ever (both graphically and in regards to programming), finally getting a proper worldwide release… buy this game if you haven’t played it before, it’s super fucking good)
• Gori: Cuddly Carnage
• Granblue Fantasy: Relink (I’m starting to believe this game was never real)
• Graven
• Grim Guardians: Demon Purge (a cool classicvania game with multiple characters and… it features some of the girls from GalGun)
• GrimGrimoire OnceMore
• Gunbrella
• Hades 2
• Homeworld 3
• Hyperdimension Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters
• Immortals of Aveum (It’s an EA game so I do expect it to be squandered potential, but the idea seems fun)
• Infinity Strash – Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai
• Kerbal Space Program 2
• Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe
• Kizuna AI: Touch the Beat!
• Labyrinth of Zangetsu
• Lies of P
• Little Nemo and the Guardians of Slumberland
• Lollipop Chainsaw remake (why a remake though? Is the concept of sequels just lost on game devs anymore?)
• Loop8: Summer of Gods
• Lords of Exile
• Master Detective Archives: Rain Code
• Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection (I hope the online is solid enough so people running tournaments of the GBA games actually have a good official way to run their tournaments)
• Metal Slug Tactics
• Mina the Hollower (This is by the Shovel Knight people, looks cool)
• Minecraft Legends
• Monster Menu: The Scavenger’s Cookbook
• Mon-Yu (better known as “Monster wo Taoshite Tsuyoi Ken ya Yoroi wo Te ni Shinasai. Shindemo Akiramezu ni Tsuyoku Narinasai. Yuusha Tai ga Maou wo Taosu Sono Hi wo Shinjiteimasu”, which translates to “Defeat Monsters to Get Strong Swords and Armor. Even If You Die, Fight and Become Stronger. We Believe in the Day the Heroes Will Defeat the Demon Lord.” … It looks pretty fun)
• Octopath Traveler II
• One Piece Odyssey
• Palworld (Pokemon except you can fight them with guns… I hope it’s fun, the trailers are kinda wild)
• Payday 3
• Pepper Grinder
• Persona 3 Portable
• Persona 4 Golden
• Phantom Fury (While Ion Fury was basically Duke Nukem 3D, Phantom Fury is Duke Nukem Forever but specifically the old cancelled 2001 version that was recently leaked (but obviously more complete)
• Pizza Tower (this is a Wario Land-like… hey if Nintendo’s not gonna make them… why not?)
• Process of Elimination
• Redfall (This is probably not something I’ll be interested in based on what seems to be a large multiplayer focus, but I dunno, I’m keeping an eye on it in case it ends up looking like something that might be fun solo)
• Remnant 2
• Resident Evil 4 Remake
• Rise of the Triad Remastered
• Risk of Rain Returns (seems to be a… remaster of the original? Feels kinda pointless, the original is playable on modern platforms already, the fuck? … Is this money laundering?)
• RoboCop: Rogue City
• R-Type Final 3 Evolved
• Rune Factory 3 Special
• SacriFire
• Sea of Stars
• Shashingo
• Skald: Against the Black Priory (I hope this is as good as it looks, it looks to be an RPG in the style of the classic Ultima games, which is something that’s been sorely missing in the industry)
• Slime Rancher 2
• SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake (a sequel to the remake of Battle for Bikini Bottom. Looks good!)
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (the previous one was pretty good, mostly (had a lot of modern game isms like shitty automatic platforming and stuff, but overall, not bad))
• Stellar Blade (this was announced as a PS5/PC multiplat, but since then they’ve been silent on the PC release… still looks fun)
• Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life
• Suikoden I & II HD Remaster
• Super Bomberman R 2
• System Shock Remastered
• Tales of Symphonia Remastered
• Theatrhythm Final Bar Line
• The Last Case of Benedict Fox
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails To Azure
• The Legend of Nayuta Boundless Trails
• The Lords of the Fallen (you know this is a sequel because they added “the” in front of the original game’s title… the fuck is wrong with game devs man?)
• The Plucky Squire (the one trailer I saw for this looked super fun, watch it)
• Trinity Trigger
• Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider
• void* tRrLM2(); //Void Terrarium 2
• Wanted: Dead
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
• Wild Hearts (this is a Monster Hunter-like, looks possibly interesting)
• Witchfire
• WRATH: Aeon of Ruin
• Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
• Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection (unlike the collection that came out last year, this one actually has all the games… what was the point of making the correct collection a stupid limited physical-only release again? And releasing a dumbed-down collection digitally?)
• Ys X: Nordics

Big-medium upcoming games that I don’t care about

There are many upcoming games that I don’t care about. Some will be very popular, some maybe not but might have something that makes them pretty noteworthy anyways. I’m just pretty sure I won’t touch any of these.

• Aliens: Dark Descent
• Another Crab’s Treasure (well, I thought this looked cool, but the devs are douchebags, so fuck you. If you think “Gamers are bad and deserve nothing”, you don’t deserve gamers’ money and should get the fuck out of the industry. Eat shit.)
• Ark 2
• Assassin’s Creed Mirage
• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
• Baldur’s Gate III (I was considering having this in both sections, for the lulz)
• Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon
• Beyond Good & Evil 2 (not convinced this actually exists… again, what’s the point of revealing a game years upon years before it comes out)
• Blue Protocol
• Crash Team Rumble (Wumpa League is real! and it looks kinda meh, oh)
• Dead Island 2
• Dead Space (again with the same comment as Lollipop Chainsaw… why not make a new Dead Space?)
• Death Stranding 2
• Dragon Age: Dreadwolf
• Exoprimal
• Hogwarts Legacy (I dunno, doesn’t look super interesting)
• Kerbal Space Program 2
• Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game
• The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Nightingale
• Pragmata (I wasn’t sure where to put this Capcom game because it’s meant to come out in 2023 yet we know exactly fuck all about it, despite getting a trailer for it in 2020 for a 2022 release date and then the game being pushed back… and we still have no idea what this game actually is… what was the point of releasing a trailer so early if you’re not gonna at least try to hype it up a bit? Might as well just wait until the game’s ready before announcing it… so for now I’m putting it in this category and maybe they’ll change my mind when they actually show something)
• Skull and Bones (how the shit is that still not out? In development since 2013, announced in 2017, delayed a billion times… and it’s not even gonna be good)
• Starfield (I don’t trust Bethesda to make good games anymore)
• Star Wars: Eclipse (not sure when that’s coming out but it’s Quantic Dream so roughly 100% chance to be shit)
• Street Fighter 6 (SF hasn’t been as good after 2, but 5 is where it really took a shit with the awful “we’re releasing the game in a shit state and putting out constant season passes to pad it out” garbage, and I’m not convinced 6 will be any better)
• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
• The Wolf Among Us 2

Overall thoughts

2023 has a lot of interesting games, kinda in the “I hope this is awesome” category. My “hyped” list has a lot of games which is nice, probably means I’ll consistently have stuff to play.

I’m not sure we’ll reach the “weirdly good” quality of 2022, but I’m at least excited for enough stuff.

I had some ranting to do after this last year, but this year… yeah… not really. So there you go, get hyped or something.