11 games I loved from 2023
It's 2025, so what better time to talk about the games of 2023?
I originally meant to write and finish this way back in 2023/early 2024, but it was a rough period for me regarding writing. Struggled a lot to write anything, let alone find the motivation to do so (and still often do). When game of the year came around, I had a hell of a time getting anything ready. I poured so much energy writing the blurbs I contributed to the site's main game of the year list under a tight deadline that doing more of this sort of writing was the last thing I wanted to do.
So I didn't.
But while working on my list for 2024, I had the sudden compulsion to go back and finish my 2023 list I abandoned. So here we are.
The list hasn't changed much from where I left it. Ended up borrowing bits from reviews or just outright reusing what I wrote elsewhere to save time because I'm not about to write another list's worth of words from scratch, especially not about a bunch of games I haven't played in a year.
11. Lil Gator Game
This game is so cute! Lil Gator Game is just delightful at every turn. The ways it plays with the artifice of games and the restrictions and friction they impose through the lens of playing make-believe is fun, making it one of the few games that can actually have some fun gags about game mechanics without being annoying.
10. Ignistone
What a pleasant little surprise this was. Ignistone is a roguelike built around parries. I love a good parry, but it is also something that is difficult to really nail because of how fine a line there is to walk. It has to be satisfying and rewarding, but it also can’t be so difficult that no one but the most dedicated players will ever try it. Ignistone walks that line well. It’s very simple and straightforward, but it still carries the tension inherent to deflecting attacks.
It’s also very cute. Look at those little guys! They’re adorable!
9. Season: A letter to the future
I expected to love Season: A letter to the future just on the basis of its story and its exploration of history and what it means to document the end of the world as you know it. It’s story of the end of the world and how that manifests in Season’s world is unique and very special. Seeing a world in its final moments, listening to people reflect on what was and mourn what will be lost as they head into the unknown. Apocalypse fiction often deals in the literal destruction of the very earth itself and the collapse of society, but Season instead is more... muted. It’s both a bit more metaphorical and sort of literal -- but not in the way you’d expect. It’s not a physical sort of destruction, but it is still a tangible and meaningful one.
What I didn’t expect was to get so into the scrapbooking aspect. Right from the start, I found myself very carefully considering how to decorate each page, how best to present what may very well be the one lasting impression of every area I walked through. I put work into every page, always going well beyond the bare minimum the game required of me to make. I’m not someone with an eye for design, but I feel like I did pretty all right with what I made.
8. A Space for the Unbound
Games that come out early in the year always have the biggest chance of being overlooked when it comes time for the end of the year wrap ups, I feel like. Easy to see why: that was a long time ago and recency bias is real and powerful. A Space for the Unbound is something that’s been always been hanging in the back of my head all year, though, a constant, quiet reminder of what was a very strong start to this year.
A Space for the Unbound is a coming of age story about a couple of high school students, Atma and Raya, during the end of their time at school. At its core, it is a story of someone dealing with very deep depression and anxiety. It doesn’t offer empty platitudes or end in such a way that makes everything all sunshine and rainbows by the end, nor does it wallow in sorrow and misery, but rather feels more grounded despite the extraordinary circumstances. It feels like a more thoughtful and understanding take on those topics in that it knows there’s no quick and easy solution and is willing to give its characters the room to overcome those hurdles at their own pace. In lesser hands, A Space for the Unbound could easily be too cloying and heavy-handed. Instead its writing clearly demonstrates a deftness that comes with understanding how to broach these sorts of subjects carefully.
The ease with which A Space for the Unbound can bounce between tonal shifts – the goofy and sincere, the difficult and moving, the supernatural and the grounded – without feeling at odds with itself speaks to the strength of both the story and the writing as a whole. It’s a carefully crafted game, one that succeeds at almost every turn, spinning a deeply moving and touching story all the while.
7. Lunacid
There’s a fine line to walk when games are made to be loving homages to older works. It’s very easy to veer too close to the original source material in such a way that it feels like a copy rather than an original work all its own that builds off its inspirations. Lunacid is a first-person role-playing game in the style of King’s Field, the series that is essentially the precursor to the Souls games in many ways. Lunacid is a game that proudly wears its inspirations on its sleeve. You can feel the love for King’s Field everywhere. It is extremely a game that is trying to capture design of those games. And it’s great! It’s a really cool game.
Most importantly, Lunacid feels like its own thing. The King’s Field influence is everywhere (you can even cap the frame rate to the same values some of those games ran at!), but never does it feel like it’s trying to be King’s Field. Lunacid feels more like an original work that just happens to share a lot in common with From Software’s foundational works than something close to an exact copy. The best homages are always those that use their inspiration as a jumping off point for creating something new and exciting rather than simply replicate the original article, and Lunacid accomplishes this splendidly.
(Quick aside: I really like how the game always displays the name of each track and the artist who made it when they start. Very, very cool touch. More games should do this!)
6. Cobalt Core
I’m not the biggest fan of roguelike deckbuilders because I’m just not good at deckbuilding, but Cobalt Core got its hooks in me because of how much less intimidating it is. It’s very easy to start a run, roll with whatever I get, and still manage to eke out victories regularly -- even if they are often by the skin of my teeth. The fact that there’s also a story unfolding over each run helps a lot. Easier to stick with a roguelike for longer when there’s something other than mechanical mastery to keep me going.
Also the characters are fun and cute. Winning combination.
5. Truss
Alone in a cabin in the woods on a snowy night. Mysterious sounds heard outside. Chasing unseen figures through the darkness. The line between dream and reality blurring. Truss gives the initial impression of a horror game the way it slowly escalates and instills the feeling that something is Wrong. But it quickly dissipates into something more reflective and beautiful.
4. El Paso, Elsewhere
It would be easy to praise El Paso, Elsewhere purely on the strength of its take on Max Payne-style third-person action — because it is very good at that! — but it’s also so much more. Strange Scaffold’s take on neo-noir is slick as hell, combining stylish action and a deeply affecting story of love and toxic relationships that is delivered spectacularly.
Every shot is impeccable. Cinematography isn’t something that gets talked about a lot in games (I suspect it’s partially because most games consistently hit a level of quality that‘s good enough to pass without notice), but El Paso, Elsewhere’s demands notice. Every single scene frames each shot with such precision that it’s hard not to be immediately taken by them. Every scene perfectly blends the surrealism of the void the game’s set in with the introspective monologues of the protagonist, both striking in execution.
The outstanding performances of Xalavier Nelson Jr. and Emme Montgomery as James Savage and Draculae, respectively, deserve special mention. Both inject every scene with the weight of words left unsaid, a sadness that this is how things had to end — in a fight to the death to decide the fate of the world — but also a clear understanding that it had to end this way — could only end this way.
It’s a game that feels like it’s constantly punching above its weight in terms of production values. Few games with far bigger budgets, teams, and resources can compare to the sheer style and craft of El Paso, Elsewhere. Strange Scaffold’s been making cool and unique games for a while now, but El Paso, Elsewhere is something else.
3. Pseudoregalia
One of my favorite things is games is really good feeling movement. To able to traverse a space and have fun doing that for its own sake is unmatched. Pseudoregalia is easily the best example of that I played this year. Every moment I spent playing Pseudoregalia was a joy because of how fun it was to move around in its world. Traipsing about the castle’s different zones was a constant delight, even as I was lost and confused while trying to get my bearings. It’s the sort of game I where I don’t mind backtracking because I want to be spending as much time as possible playing with the movement.
It’s just so expressive. Sybil’s abilities are already pretty varied in what you can do with them, but there’s also a ton of maneuvers you can do that the game doesn’t explicitly mention. It greatly rewards playing around to see what’s possible. It allows you to perform feats that feel like they aren’t the intended way to access areas, but the game isn’t particularly linear either, so it feels like they could be intended solutions.
Also, it’s short. I’m used to metroidvanias often being a bit of an investment, but Pseudoregalia is quick and focused. There’s plenty to see and the world feels large, but it also doesn’t demand a massive time investment. I always appreciate a game that’s short, but in a year where I somehow played a ton of long games, it’s especially nice.
2. Goodbye Volcano High
Goodbye Volcano High utterly destroyed me. It’s not difficult for a story to make me emotional or move me to tears, but this game still absolutely wrecked me. It’s quite possibly the game I’ve thought about the most this year. Few days have passed since finishing the game where I haven’t thought about it, almost always recalling how I felt throughout its runtime.
Goodbye Volcano High is a classic coming of age story that follows a bunch of teenage dinosaurs in their last year of high school, with all the messy relationships and questions around identity and the future that everyone goes through. (It’s also pretty darn queer, which, you know — always a plus.) Except the end of the world is also fast approaching via a meteor that’s hurtling toward the planet.
It’s a tragedy, then, but not one that wallows in despair or nihilism. It doesn’t look away from the horror of facing the literal end of the world and being powerless to do anything about it, either. It walks a fine line between fun slice-of-life beats and the existential dread of living through an impending apocalypse and everything in between. It avoids just going through the motions of a typical high school drama, ensuring that characters are complex and fully formed rather than filling a set of roles or archetypes. It uses the setting more as a potent backdrop for the tragedy to come.
Knowing how the story is going to end should make it less powerful, but it doesn’t rob the plot of its efficacy and poignancy. It doesn’t make the characters’ journeys any less resonant nor their ultimate fates any less devastating. It’s a beautiful and heart-wrenching game, but also hopeful and life-affirming in the face of total disaster.
1. Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon
Armored Core fucking rules. After a decade-long absence, From Software’s long-running mecha series is an outstanding return, clearly taking lessons they’ve learned in the time since and applying them to Armored Core. The result is one of the best action games around and easily FromSoft’s best work to date.
Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon is classic Armored Core through and through. It’s a collection of short self-contained missions. Every mission is only a few minutes at most on average, a series of quick bursts of action that are all killer, no filler. Every other mission is some of the coolest mech action you’ve ever seen. One moment you’re assaulting a heavily fortified base dodging all manner of artillery as you cut through the front line defenses, the next you’re single-handedly taking on a gargantuan walking mining platform that makes you look like an ant by comparison. There’s so many moments that could be the set-piece in any other game, but here, they’re just another mission.
The same applies to most of the fights as well. You know those boss fights where your opponent has the same abilities as you, so you’re both on even footing? Armored Core VI is full of these and they’re always exciting. Being pit against a fellow mech pilot is Armored Core at some of its best. Each and every one could easily be a proper boss fight with how intense and thrilling they are, almost always ending in a flash due to how quick and lethal these duels are. The titular mechs are frighteningly powerful, something Fires of Rubicon isn’t shy about showing every chance it gets, and engaging with another in combat is definitely a strong illustration of their power. It’s one thing to feel it through how easily you mow down your targets: it’s another to feel it because you’re on the receiving end for a change.
From Software has been honing their action game chops for years — over the past decade especially — and Armored Core VI feels like the pinnacle of that work. I played through most of the Armored Core series in the lead-up to Fires of Rubicon, and to see this series make such a strong comeback is so very exciting. I’ve no idea what’s next for From Software, but I can only hope more Armored Core is in the cards.
Games worth shouting out that I didn’t have time to properly write about here: Snake Farm, Octopath Traveler 2, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Interior Worlds, Backpack Hero, Worldless, Misericorde: Volume One, Prison of Husks, King of the Castle, and Cassette Beasts.