2023 is starting! January is usually not a very big month for games, and I’d say this January isn’t changing the trend. But there’s still a few big things coming out anyways. And I’m still doing my thing, I have 2 reviews I’m currently writing, they should pop up soon, and there’s gonna be more to come.
So for January 2023, I’m highlighting: 12 multiplats, 1 Switch exclusive and 1 PC exclusive. As far as anything I’d buy, there’s 2 I’m getting for sure, 2 I’m pretty sure I’m getting, and a maybe or two more. So not a very big month, but there’s stuff coming out, mostly later in the month.
Disclaimer: I only list games that I think are worth mentioning. This includes games I’m personally interested in, games that will likely be popular, highly advertised games, some more niche stuff I may notice, and such. Not just games I care about myself, I highlight as much as I think makes sense. And of course, I can’t see the future, so I may be missing games and I may be listing games that may get delayed.
And no I’m not including such masterpieces as “Webcam Sex” and “Hentai EroElf”. Steam has really weird standards, I gotta say. Japanese RPGs and visual novels get censored or taken off the store weirdly frequently for no reason at all, but those shitty puzzle games with nudity remain somehow.
*EDIT 12/31: Added a game, oops*
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider 01/12 (Switch, PC, PS4, PS5)
So this was in my 2023 hype post in the big list of hype games, then I completely missed that it was coming out. Oops. Well, there it is. It looks like something out of the SNES, with gameplay and such that give heavy Contra vibes, but combined with… I dunno, Ninja Gaiden? Your character seemingly has a pretty varied moveset. This just looks really fun.
One Piece Odyssey 01/13 (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox X/S)
It’s a One Piece console-style RPG. It has its own story which is nice, it seems to have elements from many of the arcs from the anime/manga, but without actually being those arcs (might be memory-related, I dunno). I haven’t really looked into it too much, but I watched a couple minutes of actual gameplay and I’m actually pretty interested now. The combat looks really interesting because of how enemy targeting and such works. I might actually grab this.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot 01/13 (PS5, Xbox X/S)
Oh hey it’s this game again. I legit have no idea if this is good, but the PS5 and Xbox Series are finally getting it… though… aren’t those backward compatible? What a stupid fucking release, lol.
Graze Counter GM 01/18 (Switch, PC ,PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
I was looking for things to fill up this post a bit, and that looked cool. It’s a pretty standard vertical bullet-hell shmup, but it features a heavy use of the Touhou graze mechanic (IE stay very close to enemy bullets) to fill up a super bar which allows you to launch strong attacks. Sounds pretty cool to use the graze mechanic (which is basically purposely being close to death) as an offensive mechanic rather than point scoring.
Persona 3 Portable 01/19 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone, Xbox X/S)
I haven’t finished this game back when it came out on PS2. This is the Portable version, which I’ve seen a few people be mad about, but eh. I’m always happy when games get a proper multiplat version on PC.
Persona 4 Golden 01/19 (Switch, PS4, Xbone, Xbox X/S)
And this is on Switch and other stuff too now. I played through part of this on PS2 until I forgot to save and lost hours of progress, and again on Vita where I actually finished it. Pretty fun game overall.
Monster Hunter Rise 01/20 (PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
And now all the consoles have it. Yay! It’s good stuff, you should get it on Switch for portability or PC for performance.
Forspoken 01/24 (PC, PS5)
This had some cringy-ass trailers with just absolutely awful voice acting and dialogue, but the gameplay at least LOOKS cool. So I hope it is, because I pre-ordered it on a discount some time last year. I’m worried about the open world aspect of it because open worlds are awful most of the time (and this one looks empty as hell in one of the videos I watched of it). I will review this so let’s hope it’s not bad.
Hyperdimension Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters 01/24 (PC, PS4, PS5)
It’s another Nep RPG, this one having a battle system that seems to be a mix of action and pausing to select commands and some character switching… Actually it seems somewhat similar to the FF7 remake (as far as I’ve seen of that, I’ve mostly avoided looking at that game until it comes out). I dunno, I’ve been pretty sporadic about getting Neptunia games for a while, so I’m probably not getting this one.
Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection 01/26 (Switch, PS4, PS5)
Wonder Boy just got a collection, right? Well yeah, back in June. So… that was a scam, sort of, and I’m not too worried about calling it that because holy shit. Basically, the collection that came out digitally had only a few games, while they released a separate collection physical-only, as a limited release, that had basically all versions of Wonder Boy. The digital collection had 4 games, not including MW3 for some reason, while the physical collection (which I think isn’t actually even out yet, now that I look at the store selling it) had 21 games. The full collection, it’s pretty good, with all the Wonder Boy games, and every port of them.
So if you paid for the previous collection… well you got scammed because the complete collection with 17 more games is actually coming out now. And if you bought the physical version because it had more games… well, you’re probably still waiting for that to get shipped, and now it’s coming digitally for probably less money. So yeah.
Dead Space 01/27 (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S)
So this is just a remake of the first Dead Space, for whatever stupid reason. You can already play the original on PC, so what’s the point of this? Looking at a gameplay video of the beginning parts, it doesn’t seem all that different from what I remember of the original. I don’t get why they’re doing this instead of just doing a Dead Space 4, or a new game in the same universe.
Alice Escaped! 01/27 (Switch, PC)
Another game I put on the list because I wanted to fill it out a bit more. I’m not very familiar with this one but I thought it looked okay-ish. It’s a metroidvania with some cute visuals and combat that looks pretty decent.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake 01/31 (PC, Switch, PS4, Xbone)
This is a sequel to Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated. It seems to feature very similar gameplay, and also the graphics look really good. I might actually grab this, since I had fun with Rehydrated.
SWITCH RELEASES
Fire Emblem Engage 01/20
It’s a new Fire Emblem. I haven’t looked too much into what this one’s gonna be like, seems you have these rings that allow you to summon characters from previous games. I legitimately don’t know much beyond that since I avoid trailers for games I know I’m buying… so yeah, I’ll be buying this and reviewing it.
PC RELEASES
Pizza Tower 01/26
This is a Wario Land-inspired platformer. The art style is a bit wacky and has a Microsoft Paint feel to it, but a lot of the sprites are pretty wildly animated, and it looks like it might actually be quite fun. I’m probably gonna grab it and let you know if it’s good.
Leave a reply