I probably played fewer games in 2023 than in any other year in recent memory, but the ones I did play all left their mark in pretty impactful ways. It was a superb year for indies, full of stories💯 that tugged at my heartstrings for a variety of reasons. My only regret is not having played more.

There’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a feast of GOTY lists coming൩ your way over the next couple of weeks, with 30 of us ಌin total contributing to an overall list that will be revealed on December 18.

10. Diablo 4

Diablo 4 sneaks into my top ten on the strength of its exceptional single-player storyline, which kept me wholly invested right to the end. Lilith proves to be a twisted and formidable foe in a darkly beautiful Sanctuary, while 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ralph Ineson is perfectly cast as the gruff Horadrim Lorath. I couldn’t🗹 tell you what the endga♉me content is like, though, because I didn’t touch it.

9. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is perhaps the only video game in existence I’d say is well worth the £100 price for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:all the extra bells and whistles.

8. Chants of Sennaar

I used to teach English, I’ve lived in three other countries, and have four languages swimming around in the grey stuff upstairs. It goes without saying (or even without signing in indecipherable squiggles) that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Chants of Sennaar — a stunning puzzler about bridging cultures and languagesꦛ &mdash🤡; is right up my street.

7. A Space for the Unbound

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:A Space for the Unbound is an emotional rollercoaster, but I am so, so glad I took the time to see it through to the end. It feels like the kind of game Haruki Murakami might make, if he were so incliꦅned. It’s certainly no🦄t one I’m going to forget in a hurry.

6. Final Fantasy 16

I enjoyed 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 16’s hard shift into action RPG territory. More accessible gameplay than recent genre darlings was definitely welcome, while going for a darker fantasy plot and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:side stories felt like a 🌄risk that paid off — at least for me.

Sure, it has its faults, but 𝕴its sheer scale meant that it was one of the few big-budget games ღI was compelled to play this year. Those Eikon battles? Whew.

Honorable Mentions that didn’t make the top ten

5. Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly

Feeling like something of an alien in my home country these days, I spend a lot of time in coffee shops, just hanging out and listening to stories ot𝔉her ♔patrons share with one another.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butt𓄧er🐟fly bui🐓lds on an original I loved, offering more tales full of life and helping me feel just that🐻 little less isolated. Now I really want to open a café.

4. Mr. Saitou

Laura Shigihara’s follow-up to the excellent Rakuen, Mr. Saitou focuses on an unlikely friendship between an overworked salaryman ♍and an excitable young boy he meets while in hospital.

It’s a short, one-sitting game that features a delightful cast of supporting characters, a fantastic soundtrack (featuring 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Undertale’s Toby Fox), and a goofy story that’s all about pos෴itivity, love, and finding yourself. I’m not crying at the ending, you a🌜re.

Even if you don’t play Mr. Saitou, at least . If this doesn🍌’t make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, nothing will.

3. Videoverse

In 2003, the year Kinmoku’s latest takes place, I was a student. Having moved to a town where I didn’t really know anyone, I’d stay in the college library until its late-evening close, immersed in early online communities just like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Videoverse. I built friendships and relationships, and felt just as lost as Emmett when the platforms I used began to degrade and disappear as the decade wore on and more cynical socia𓄧l networks took prominence.

As such, Videoverse was a raw experience for me, dredging up feelings of love and loss, and one I just don’t want to leave behind. That’s t🧸estament to Lucy Blundell’s incredibly authentic and relatable worldbuilding and writing.

2. Baldur's Gate 3

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur's Gate 3 is a game that, for💝 a period after launch, squatted so dominantly in my mind that I might as well have changed my name to Rincewind. I burned out after more than 180 hours, and haven’t been back ye💖t, but I know I’ll be playing it for years to come.

The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:amazing team here at TheGamer puts 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the appeal of BG3 into words 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:far better than I ever could,🎐 so take the time to read their wor♊k.

If it wasn’t for the ‘big game’ fatigue I’ve started to feel, and the fact that BG3 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:isn’t easy to return to if you take a sizable break, it would have comfortably been number one. However, I’ve become a real slave to JRPG comf✨ort food as a ෴coping mechanism, so…

1. Star Ocean: The Second Story R

Square Enix puzzles me immensely. It constantly messes with the legacy of its most lucrative IP, Final Fantasy, with half-baked updates and spin-offs, but then comes out with stunningly innovative or refreshed titles such as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Octopath Traveler and Live A Live.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Star Ocean: The Second Story R has become one of the examples of how remakes of pixel-era RPGs should be done, and one worthy of the best game in an often-overlooked series. BG3 may be an industry-defining all-timer, but Second Story R has been the most fun I’ve had with a game since 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:last year’s winner, Citizen Sleeper. More please!