Oh man, you haven't played TTYD! I'd hate for my extreme praise of the original and ridiculous excitment for the remake to create unrealistically high expectations for you and then you end up disappointed! Ignoring the fact that it's personally one of my favorite pieces of media ever, the game isn't perfect and many people have expressed their share of criticism over the years for various factors. I personally know a guy who played it recently and absolutely despised it; Like, straight up has pure hatred for the game. So my advice is to try to not let its reputation as a masterpiece sway you before playing the game. Try and go in with no expectations!

As for the Super Mario RPG remake, it was a very basic remake. Basically the same game as the original, but with systems in place to make it significantly easier, and some script changes I wasn't a fan of. However, the remixed music was amazing and I was very pleased with a certain new post-game super boss!

Do I spy Lunar: Silver Star Story?! I honestly can't remember if we've discussed this, but I LOVE the Lunar games. Good choice on the Touch version; I've only ever heard good things about it. It's been on iOS for like a decade and its gotten consistent updates ever since, so you can tell the port's devs really care a lot about the game. I hope this recent Android port means a lot of people discover this great series!

Do I also spy Ace Attorney Trilogy?! You're over here adding all of my favorites!

Believe it or not, but I actually did make that video. A best of 2022 video in 2024. I said I'd do it and I did it, gosh dangit, even if it was over a year too late. [Link] You can skip to 9:40 for the Phoenotopia segment!

Even though I preferred AoS and CotM over it, I still enjoyed HoD quite a bit. Honestly, they're all really, really close in terms of quality and I'd be happy to replay any of them (if it wasn't for the fact that I still have the DS trilogy to play first)!

Man, I didn't realize Witch on the Holy Night would open up a whole expanded universe of content. I guess it's good to know if I really like the VN, there'll be no shortage of extra stuff to dig into. I really, really gotta play the demo. Every time I play my Switch, it's right there on the home screen taunting me! As for Steins;Gate, if you don't want to delve into a whole 50 hour visual novel, I think most fans would agree that the anime adaptation is a perfectly viable entry point into the series. In fact, I'm pretty sure more people have watched the anime than have even read the VN. Just be warned, it takes like 10-ish episodes for things to really kick off, so it's kind of a slow burn at first. You might even be off-put at first (I know I was!) but eventually, it all clicks and it only gets better from there! Just something to remember if you ever decide to check it out!

Well, you've got me pretty sold on Silent Hill. Just knowing it doesn't have the strict resource management or the ink ribbon system from Resident Evil makes it feel more approachable to me. I'm all for the harsh atmosphere and scares, as long as getting killed doesn't feel as punishing as it does in classic RE. I'll almost definitely check out Silent Hill later this year. And if I like it, and the SH2 remake ends up being really good, I may play it right after!

Long time, no talk! Life has been absurdly busy this year.

In the few months that've passed since the new DQM, I've basically only seen positive reception. It's just too bad I'll probably never play it. I still want to, but there's just way too many games in my backlog, wishlist, upcoming, etc. that I've really gotta pick my games carefully. I've spent the last couple months playing two 80+ hour games simultaneously. I think it'll be a long while before I'm ready to play another game of that length. (RIP the idea of me playing DQVII in the coming months. Or most JRPG's for that matter!) Of course, if that gosh dang DQIII remake ever comes out, I'll happily sink another 30-40 hours into that world!

Dunno if you've heard, but a longtime DQ producer (Yu Miyake) has officially left the series due to internal delays with III and XII. Not great news, but I hope they manage to get things back on track soon. DQXII, even with next to no information, is my most anticipated game! Also, now that you've beaten DQIX, what's the final verdict? Where do you rank it among the rest of the series so far?

It's a shame you never got around to playing more Persona 4, but that's understandable. I ended up dropping the Persona 3 Remake back in February because I can't handle another long, slow game on top of the ones I'm already playing AND on top of other real life stuff like schoolwork.

Hahaha, they finally released Golden Sun. Looks like we both ended up beating it! Nice! Not gonna lie though, I didn't love the game. I enjoyed the dungeons and puzzles a lot, plus collecting and using Djinn was fun. But without a particularly interesting plot and cast of characters to hold it all together, it fell a little flat for me. I had the same issue when I first played the game back in the day, but I figured I'd probably enjoy it more now. I guess nostalgia got the better of me. I can't see myself playing The Lost Age anytime soon.

Oh god, I just remembered about the existence of the live-action Zelda movie. I thought I dreamt that up. You'd think I'd be more comfortable with the idea after all this time, but nope. I can't even muster up cautious optimism. I legitimately think the very concept sounds terrible. I'd love to be proven wrong, but this probably should've just been animated.

The recent news has been an incredibly tough pill to swallow. It's difficult to come to terms with the fact that Akira Toriyama is no longer with us. His work left a huge impact on me, as well as countless others the world over...

A true legend. I hope you rest well, Mr. Toriyama.

Congrats on getting Bazett. I was tempted, but I decided I'd save. I've got other goals this year. Kind of hoping Merlin might answer me this time when the White Day event drops next month. It would be nice to have my own Merlin to fall back on when he's not on anyone's support rosters for Challenge Quests.

Otherwise I'll just save for Traum, and maybe even hope for Arcueid.

Honestly, Square Enix can take as long as they want now with releasing Dragon Quest III HD-2D. With the recent announcement of Fate/stay night REMASTERED getting an official English localization, I am positively over the freakin' moon! With F/SN at least we have a concrete release year window for that, unlike the former...

It's a surreal feeling, from previously having none of Type-Moon's visual novel releases being translated to almost all of them getting localized within the span of about two years. Coupled with Tsukihime: A piece of blue glass moon, I'm basically already set for having an unforgettable year with the ol' Switch!

I haven't tried playing the game in co-op mode, but I know there's no collision between players so that already makes it interesting to me, having played New Super Mario Bros. Wii in co-op mode not long ago. That camera thing has got to bet bothersome, though.

Yes, I'm thinking about buying the bundle that comes with RE 1 and RE 0. Unfortunately, I missed the holiday deals from Capcom, so I'll have to wait for the next sale. I've also been told that the DS port/remake, Deadly Silence, is quite good. Would you recommend it to a RE newbie? Thank you friend.

Thanks for the well wishes! I hope 2024 holds wonderful things for you as well

Yes, I got Tears of the Kingdom as a Christmas gift, so I started on some of that! I don’t feel like it has as much direction or coherence as Breath of the Wild had, but it’s a good time at least. I’m sure it’ll be my “in-between time waster” sort of game for a while!

Hello friend and Happy New Year. Yes, I'm very happy with my new Nintendo Switch. It's good to know you're having fun with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, it seems the developers really put a lot of care into the presentation and overall feel of the game. I just hope that they make the next 2D Super Mario game more challenging out of the box.

Yes, I plan on playing more Resident Evil games this year. At the very least, I'd like to play the first two. Thank you for recommending RE HD, I'll most certainly play that one next. Also, it's very cool that your first RE was Revelations, too. It's a great game, indeed. I honestly couldn't believe my eyes the moment I began controlling Jill in Episode 1. To me, it really looked like they had just blurred a game running on a PS3 or something like that. Very impressive, yes.

Anyways, have a cozy New Year's Day and take care. Thank you friend, and God bless you this new year, yes.

That time of the year has come 'round once again, folks. Yep, it's that time right at the end of the current year (2023) before the upcoming new one to reflect on the most fun / memorable gaming experiences we all had!

From what I've been hearing online in recent weeks, it looks like 2023 is going down as one of the best years in recent memory in regard to the sheer number of spectacular games to have dropped across all platforms. For myself, I mostly just stuck to playing a bunch of older games / enhanced ports of old games instead of hopping on the hottest releases. So much for that goal of mine I made last year where I said I'd do better with keeping up with the newer titles. Maybe next year will be the one, haha!

All that long talk aside, it's time for the actual rankings! Similar to last year's, my list will mostly be consisting of older releases that I played and finished for the very first time in 2023:

1. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past
2. Witch on the Holy Night
3. Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk DX
4. Kagetsu Tohya (歌月十夜)
5. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
6. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe
7. Yohane the Parhelion -BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE-
8. Pikmin 4
9. Anodyne
10. Silent Hill

As well as some honorable mentions, with any unfinished games denoted as (), that I still had a fantastic time with playing in 2023 nonetheless:

- Kubinashi Recollection
- Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
- Resident Evil HD
- Persona 4 Golden
- West of Loathing

If someone were to have told me years ago that I'd someday draft a 'Best of 20XX' list where a Nintendo published game didn't at least make it into the top 5, I would've said that was nuts! Sure came as a surprise to me after carefully taking everything I'd played into consideration, likely the first time that's ever happened.
Who knows, perhaps my tastes are changing ever so slightly away from the mainstay series I'd grown up with. It'll be interesting to see what'll make the grade around this time next year!

As it stands, the current year, for me, shaped up to be genuinely special with all the fantastic experiences I'd sunk my time into. I'd even go so far as to say that it's the most amount of fun that I've had with this stellar entertainment medium in a very long time. Here's to some more fun times in 2024!

P.S. Was late getting this out for the 25th, dangit. Happy belated Christmas and happy new year in advance, everyone!!!

Yeah, almost every Summer Servant in Summer 8 is the Faerie Knights, save for Chloe and Suzuka, the only odd ones out. I was glad to finally see Suzie get a swimsuit, now the Summer Quartet (Suzuka, Sei, Nobbu and Okita) all have swimsuit versions. And Summer Barghest looks great; her maid form is absolutely perfect. I'm glad they went with a Victorian maid outfit for her. It's a nice, conservative look that fits her well and she rocks it nicely. I'm definitely rolling for her and Suzie at the very least come 2 years from now.

It also saddens me that it's the first break in tradition in that there's no GUDAGUDA Summer Servant at that. Oh well... here's hoping Summer 9 will have one to make up for it. Been hoping that Maou Nobu might get a swimsuit version sometime, but that may be asking too much. For all we know it might end up being an older Chacha getting that proper Avenger form or something.

And I agree... that fight with Cernunnos was complete BS. I love FGO, but if I want to deal with SNK Boss Syndrome level fights, I'll play King of Fighters, not deal with that garbage in a gacha RPG. That's why I utterly hate those Exhibition Quests; they're completely masochistic and utterly unfair, and require a handful of very specific setups, CEs, Servants and strategies to win. The frustration is not worth the extra summon ticket from putting with them.

Other than that, I did like the 6 enemy waves, in a sense; I enjoy the feeling of power that comes from a AOE Servant wiping out more than 3 enemies at a time with their NP, or even all six at once!

Anyways, my rambling aside, here's hoping your holiday will be a nice, pleasant event for you as the year begins to draw to a close.

Hope you enjoyed Avalon le Fey. Sounds like you did quite a bit, there. I myself do agree it's one of the highlights of FGO's story, but it's definitely not perfect. At times, it dragged on too much (for one that scene with the faeries and Morgan in a council may well be its own novel with how long it is), and may have been successful to the point of being a sort of crutch, since Summer 8 is pretty much ServantFes but with an Avalon coat of paint. Definitely not looking forward to that event, even if Maid Barghest and Summer Suzuka are the only really good things about it. It personally strikes me as an easy way out, but that's just my opinion. Hopefully Summer 9 will be more interesting.

Plus it spawned a Summer Morgan as an anniversary Servant, which is probably the nadir of FGO's anniversary events, if I'm going to be honest, since a lot of players felt it was a complete cop out. Can't say I blame them.

I did really enjoy the roles of the goblin bros. that appeared during Mash's interludes in that chapter though, they were a delight. And it was good to see the best kouhai get some much deserved character development. Even Mike, the bar owner, had a nice moment there near the end, and I ended up liking Coral's design. So overall, I think there were plenty of good things, but a fair number of bad things about LB6 too.

The Thousand-Year Dooooooooooor!!!
Oh my god. When I was watching that Direct and that trailer started and it showed the book and started playing the music, it took me like 2 milliseconds to know exactly what this was. I distinctly remember my reaction. I just stared silently at the screen, awestruck, for the whole trailer... and for at least a minute afterwards as well. It was one of those things where my brain couldn't process what was happening. Like, it didn't feel real for a moment. Then after I regained my composure, I rewatched the trailer multiple times and analyzed every single frame. Dude, it looks amazing and I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on it. I know it's just a remake/remaster of a game I've played a bunch of times before and it looks like it's gonna be basically the same exact game with just some spruced-up graphics and remixed music. I know it's technically not something that should have me as excited as I am, but that just goes to show how much I love TTYD. No other remaster of a game could get me as excited as this.

And I guess it's also nice to see that, with Mario RPG and TTYD getting back-to-back remakes, Nintendo is aware that people miss the way things used to be before they just started making Sticker Star sequels that are so far removed from we liked about the older games. These remakes, to me, are like thin rays of hope that someday we'll finally get a brand spankin' new Paper Mario game that's evocative of the old ones, that actually lives up to the series' legacy.

Man, I still haven't had a chance to check out that WotHN demo. I've been doing more actual book reading lately, which means I suddenly have less time for visual novels. And I love me a good visual novel. Much like Persona 4, Steins;Gate is another property that absolutely consumed me. (I played the VN, the sidestory VN, the 8-bit adventure game, watched the anime, etc.) I was in the middle of finally reading through it's midquel, Steins;Gate 0, but it's just another one of those things I haven't touched in way too long without even realizing it. Eventually I'll get back into some good ol' fashion visual novel reading and I'll definitely give WotHN a chance. I went ahead and put the Steam version on my wishlist, since I can probably get it for a really good deal if the demo ends up piquing my interest!

You make Silent Hill sound like a good ol' time! I get what you mean with you only being able to play it one-hour sessions. When I played REmake, I remember my neck and shoulders hurting all night because I spent hours playing the game while being very tense and stiff. It's not even necessarily because it's scary, but it was just nerve-wracking, not knowing what's around the next corner, not knowing how exactly I'm going to avoid getting attacked so that I don't have to waste my precious herbs so I don't get killed and have to go back to my last save which was so very long ago because I didn't want to waste my limited ink ribbons...! Yeah, that was an intense game. It's nice to know that Silent Hill is scarier from a psychological standpoint and not because of its intentionally oppressive limitations. I've never played another horror game aside from the RE series. Well, unless you count Luigi's Mansion.

Speaking of NSO putting new games on the service at a ridiculously slow pace, I've been feeling nostalgic for Golden Sun and have been wanting to play it all year and literally the only reason I've been putting it off is because they said it was coming to NSO, so I figured I'd wait to play it on my Switch. That was like 10 entire months ago and it's still not on there. D-did they just forget??

And speaking of Nintendo movies... A live-action Zelda movie?! My brain is incapable of visualizing what that would even look like. An animated Mario movie is pretty easy to imagine, even the plot writes itself, but this is something else. The eventual cast announcement for this movie is going to be the stuff of legends. I don't envy the guy who has to direct this one. It's being directed by the guy who did the Maze Runner movies. I watched the first one when it came out; I don't really remember it, but I know I didn't dislike it, so that's something I guess! Zelda is easily my favorite game series, so I can't help but feel a little nervous about this movie.

It is now almost 2024 and, no, I still haven't given up on my Best of 2022 video. This video is like a cheese that has to be aged for a couple years before its ready to hit store shelves. I hope when 2029 gets here and I finally upload the video, that my subscribers can smell the sharp fragrant odor of my aged efforts.

I finally played Harmony of Dissonance and ended up replaying Aria of Sorrow right after. Sorry to say it, but Harmony of Dissonance was my least favorite out of these exploration-based Castlevania games. I enjoyed it overall, but wasn't a fan of how the second castle was handled. It felt like I was just exploring the same areas twice with little variation. Honestly, as much as I've enjoyed the whole GBA trilogy, none of them have come close to dethroning SotN for me. Well, Konami has until October to release a Castlevania DS Collection, otherwise I'm gonna start delving into my DS copy of Dawn of Sorrow!

Looks like you haven't had a chance to play any 2023 games (Mario Wonder, Mario RPG, Dragon Quest Monsters, etc.) I'm not sure if I want the new DQM or not. At the moment, I'm waiting to see the fan reception. I played the demo and it was decently fun and the trailers look very promising, but I'm still not completely sold. I don't want it to be yet another game on my shelf that looked cool so I bought it and then never played it more than once or twice (*cough* Dragon Quest Treasures *cough*). At the very least, I'm happy DQM is out, since that surely means DQIII HD-2D might be the next DQ release. I saw that Yuji Horii just said he spent all night playtesting the game, so that's exciting. I'm very much looking forward to replaying that game! As for DQXII, I still believe that's years away. XI had a 4 year dev cycle, so I imagine we won't even see XII screenshots until like 2025. (Hopefully I'm dead wrong and it comes sooner.)

I spent so long on that Torneko picture I drew that I've completely burnt myself out on drawing. I haven't drawn a single thing since then!

You sure do make Dragon Quest VII sound great! The whole structure of going from town to town and working though smaller storylines reminds me a lot of DQIX. I played that game when it first came out in 2010 and made it pretty far, but ultimately never beat it. At the time, I didn't really like all the story vignettes being a priority over the main plot. But I found my tastes have changed a lot since then. The Yakuza/Like a Dragon series has definitely helped make me enjoy games in a different way. One of the biggest draws to that series is that each game has a ton of optional substories that are super interesting and often more memorable than the main storyline. So, yeah, I can definitely see myself really enjoying DQVII these days, and also IX if I ever replay it. I also really love the party members' character designs in VII, so I'm definitely looking forward to eventually seeing what those guys are all about!

I'm glad to see you're enjoying Persona 4 and you've already put a bunch of hours into it! I've played through both the PS2 and Vita versions, and even watched the anime. It's not often a game consumes me the way this one did. I just really, really liked the characters in this game. (Yosuke is such a cool dude!) For me personally, the other Persona games didn't even come close.

I'm right there with you, friend! Uni work has kept me mostly too busy for games hopefully I can squeeze some more time in soon, but regardless I'm happy to take what I can get!

It sound like I'd enjoy DQIX especially with party customization! That's one of the things I've liked so much about FF3 is that you can assign each party member their own job(class) and truly design your party, changing it up whenever you want! I love a good RPG stat system like that

Square Enix RPGs really are the best, especially the classics! Final Fantasy is always a safe bet, I've heard very good things about Dragon Quest, and of course all the smaller stuff like Chrono Trigger, The World Ends With You, LIVE A LIVE, etc.
Final Fantasy 1+2, 4, 5, and 6 on the GBA are all very good remakes! (can't speak to the more recent pixel remasters) Final Fantasy 3 and 4 for the DS are also fun cute 3D takes on those respective games as well. Of course, these are just the older games I have more experience with! I've heard great things about pretty much the whole rest of the Final Fantasy catalogue, and haven't really had a chance to try the Tactics side series yet. (next on the list tho!) I'm also in the middle of a Chrono Trigger playthrough and it's just as incredible! A little more action-centric, and can be played more turn-based or an all out action RPG.

Enough of my rambles XD Square Enix is great

Good luck on Dragon Quest IX~! I've been in a very RPG mood lately, so I've been thinking of getting that one since it seems to be the most affordable of the DS DQ games Hope you enjoy! (don't think you can go wrong with a Square Enix RPG!)

The 84 unfinished games I have on Backloggery is nothing compared to the humongous collection on my game shelf and spread out over my various digital libraries. I know for absolute certain that I'll never finish all (or even half) of those games, so I don't add a game to Backloggery until I actually start playing the game. If I saw that I had 600-1000+ unfinished games whenever I sign into this site, I'd feel pretty overwhelmed. Best thing I can do is try to turn off the completionist part of my brain and accept my vast amount of gaming options as a good thing, rather than an insurmountable checklist.

You've piqued my interest in Witch on the Holy Night! I just saw that there's a demo on Switch and I promptly downloaded it, so I'll be checking it out soon enough.

Now that you've played both Resident Evil and Silent Hill, which one did you prefer? Personally, I've still never played Silent Hill. I played a teensy bit of both Silent Hill 2 and Shattered Memories, but that was so long ago that I hardly even remember a thing!

Yep, I saw the Mario movie in theaters on day one! It could have easily been a disaster (I may never again laugh as hard as I did during that cast announcement video), but it somehow ended up being pretty gosh dang good. If I had to complain, I'd say I didn't care for the licensed music. It was mostly songs I actually like, but it's pretty jarring hearing something like Take On Me while watching a Mario movie. Like, imagine you're playing Super Mario Galaxy, you return to the observatory, and then... Thunderstruck starts playing??? Small complain overall! I felt like the movie could've been a bit longer, surprisingly. It could've used a bit more time to breath, but I guess it's technically a "kid's movie," so it has to appeal to their short attention spans. My last complaint is how little Luigi there was in this movie considering the "Bros." in the title. Speaking of which, I'm shocked to say it, but Charlie Day as Luigi was my favorite casting choice after I saw the movie. I went in with high expectations for Jack Black's Bowser, but Charlie Day pulled off a great Luigi. On the other hand, I don't know what Fred Armisen was thinking with that Cranky voice. That was completely unexpected.
And those are my late-night disorganized thoughts on a movie I watched months ago.
Overall, nitpicks aside, it was fun movie and I left the theater feeling good about what I saw. If I was 12 years old, I would probably be calling it my favorite movie of all time and I'd watch it over and over again. Sucks to be a jaded, cantankerous adult.

Noooope, I still never made that "Best of 2022" video. Haven't even touched it since December. At this point, it's far past the point where I should have given up on that endeavor, but I think I'm gonna make it anyways out of spite, even if it's 2024 by the time its published! My non-existent follower-base must know how much I enjoyed Phoenotopia: Awakening!

I'll certainly try to be open-minded towards Harmony of Dissonance's OST when I finally play the game in October. I always end up playing a Castlevania game by chance during Halloween season, so I guess I can call it a tradition. Since I enjoyed CotM far more than I thought I would last year, I'm excited for HoD! Maybe by next October, when I'm ready for more Castlevania, a DS collection will poof itself into existence. That'd be pretty rad!