Red Pages Podcast
Red Pages Podcast Games of the Year 2023
2023 has been hailed as "The Best Year For Games" in several places. This probably isn't true. It's certainly not true for game workers, who have had one of the worst years on record for employment stability, security, or even basic recognition. Many good video games were released in spite of these conditions, of course. These are the ones deemed worthy.
Also, for those who are already raising pitchforks, I have not touched Baldur's Gate III so maybe next year that'll win the "Not from 2024" award, if it is so worthy.
A Highland Song
"Moira McKinnon is running away," the marketing copy for A Highland Song tells us. That she is, to the sea, at the behest of her lighthouse-dwelling Uncle and at least in part because she's never been there. Uncle Hamish has bade her to make it to him by Beltane, and so Moira must slide, climb, scramble, fall and spelunk her way across a persistantly rainy Scottish highland to reach him on time (or not). The game's world is open, a 2D Breath of the Wild only with everything except exploration shoved to the side. Much like Inkle's prior work 80 Days, the journey is the destination far more than the actual destination, and missing your arbitary day deadline is only a reason to begin again with the knowledge you've gained (all discoveries carry over across runs). Thematically the work is far more about the cusp between childhood and adulthood; learning the lay of the land where you live and the history that lies beneath the soil. Nowhere is really nowhere - people lived, loved and died on the land that you now stand on, and their stories are the story of the hills. Inkle has produced a winner her that succeeds not just on a narrative level, but on the level of its aesthetics and unity of design as well. It doesn't always nail every aspect perfectly - the musical rhythm segments with excellent backing tracks from folk bands TALISK and Fourth Moon, can feel somewhat disconnected from the rest of the play - but it doesn't much matter in the end as the final product is more than the sum of its parts. Magical in more ways than one.
Alan Wake 2
The orginal Alan Wake was what compelled me to purchase an XBOX 360 from a former high-school classmate of mine, in 2010. The console was five years old at that point and I paid $100 in cash to play this game's predecessor and Red Dead Redemption while I was at it. I got every achievement. It was great. I then did the same for 2012's Alan Wake's American Nightmare and sat down to wait for the full-fledged sequel. The moss has grown thick on my patient hide but I am finally roused, and pleased. Alan Wake II's combat is bad. That's largely the only thing I can hold against it, and it's part for the course with the games that Remedy makes. Everything else is firing on all cylinders. It's hard to talk specifics about a game where the narrative is the primary draw and it's also a mystery game, so suffice it to say that it executes with panche. The mind palaces, where the dual protagonists of Saga Anderson and Alan Wake can work to advance the mystery or manipulate their environments around them, respectively, are a delightful touch that allow the player to always feel clever without much possibility of actually getting off-track or becoming lost. I will now once more sit down to wait for another sequel, this time ideally more quickly than a decade from now.
Runners-Up & Miscellaneous Awards
Most Undeservedly Disparaged Award: Forspoken
- Forspoken is not a good game, but it's not a bad game either. It certainly didn't deserve the massive hate dogpile that it got. One might be shocked to learn that Forspoken has some really excellent stuff on offer. Running around the world, climbing the side of buildings or sprinting straight up a cliff, flipping into an enemy pack and making them all explode with magic - these things rule and feel great. The world is largely barren, the enemy variety is low, and there are some missteps with the narrative, but if this game had dropped on the PS3 (which it likely could have from a pure design perspective) it would've felt totally fine. Here's to you, Forspoken. It's a pity that we'll likely never see a sequel after all this.
Best Worst Best Worst Award: Fire Emblem Engage
- Forspoken and Fire Emblem Engage actually have a lot in common. Engage is a good game, but it is also a land of contrasts. It contains arguably the best gameplay the franchise has ever seen, with a depth of customization and variety of build options previously unmatched. It's also got a lack of compelling characters (though protagonist Alear is excellent), a nothing puff of a story, and at times feels more interested in oldhead fanservice than anything else. You'll likely have a love-it-or-hate-it relationship with Mika Pikazo's distinctive character designs, which I largely felt were fine. If you are fine turning off anything other than your tactical brain, there's a tremendous amount to love here. If you show up to this franchise for the story, you may struggle.
Most Exceeded Expectations Award: Diablo 4
- Activision-Blizzard has many problems. Many. Many. When it came to problems that purely involved their game software, I had simply given up on expecting the campaigns and stories of their various releases to be interesting or compelling, even if I enjoyed the gameplay. Diablo 4 exploded that expectation. I genuinely liked the characters and cared about what they wanted to do and whether they'd manage it. The villains were interesting, with more nuanced motivations than blowing it all up. It's all standard Blizzard-style tropes in the end, but it was GOOD! I was shocked.
Most Aesthetic Award: Little Goody Two-Shoes
- If you read last year's awards, you know I'm a sucker for the '90s anime visual style, and that's what this game is. VHS scanlines, spooky (or not) story, and all the rest - there's a distinct mood and style to this game for which I am right in the middle of the venn diagram of its various creative decisions. The protagonist's consistent exasperation with everybody she meets is a nice bonus.
Best Preservation Award: The Making of Karateka
- Is it a game? A documentary? A virtual museum? Something in between all of these? I can't say, but this ode to Jordan Mechner's martial arts punch-em-up from 1984 lets you get into the history and design of a game most folks probably haven't played or even heard of today. A very solid work of historical preservation. Really cool to include various builds and versions in addition to the final release.
Not From 2023 Award: Oriental Blue: Ao no Tengai (2003)
- What a ridiculously ambitious JRPG. I don't understand how this was made on the Game Boy Advance. This final release in the Tengai Makyo franchise cares about your choices. Really. Far more than many games that claim your choices matter. Heck, you can lose some boss battles and that's not a game over - the narrative will simply take that into account. Your gender matters. Your choice of which houses to visit in the beginning of the game matter. Your choice of which seemingly-filler sidquests to do, and in which order, matter. I have no idea how many variables this game actually tracks, but it's a lot. It's a shame that this franchise, which always pushed the technological envelope, has faded away, because the attention to detail on display in this swansong of a game easily makes it one of the best releases on the Game Boy Advance of any genre.
Audience Choice Award: Touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia
- It's apparently Shin Megami Touhou? I guess anything flies these days!