A-to-J Connections' Favorite Video Games of 2023!

1/9/2024

Last year we added to our traditional "End of Year" song article by doing one on our favorite video games of the year. Seeing as we've greatly expanded our video game output this year, it only makes sense that we'd do it again! Just about everyone at A-to-J is a gamer to some degree (Then again who isn't?), and we all have some pretty varied tastes when it comes to games. We are a little late with this one, since we are more than a week into 2024, but let's just get into this one already! I guess this means we have another yearly tradition from here on out! Just took the better part of a decade to add! Anyhow, check out our choices below and maybe you can let us know your favorite picks as well!

Ivan: Photographer / Correspondent

Genshin Impact is a game developed by miHoYo in 2020. Genshin is a free-to-play gatcha style game with an open world layout. This year marks its third year with 64 million players logging in every month. I first discovered Genshin Impact through the impressive cosplays at anime conventions which are still popular today.

The game enjoys its popularity with its expansive free-to-roam world, storytelling, combat system, and well-drawn characters. Local anime conventions still have large cosplay gatherings, and merchandise is still dominant in their artist alleys. Little Tokyo, Los Angeles has hosted pop up events and, as of December 2023, has a store with licenced miHoYo Merchandise

In 2023 miHoYo introduced Versions III and IV. The game story plays like an anime with each new version progressing the story. Version III introduced the region of Sumeru, and the element Dendro. Version IV introduced the region of Fontaine, the land of Hydro element. Each new region also introduces a new elemental Archon.

Besides the amazing world and character designs the game has one of the most amazing soundtracks in any game. A live concert tours the world every year.

J.D.: Moderator / Contributor

If you know me, this should come as no surprise. My favorite game of this year was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Zelda has been my favorite game series since I first watched my cousins playing the end of Ocarina of Time on the N64 and this game continues the series as one of the best of a series filled with GOATs.

Taking place a few years after Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom takes everything great about that game and expands on it. The biggest additions are Link’s new powers allowing him to fuse objects together including combining items with his weapons for additional durability and effects. It’s a lot of fun to combine random items together and see how well they work together. You can also combine just about anything in the game with Zonai technology to create whatever vehicle or contraption you can think of. Whenever I needed to get somewhere out of reach, the first thing I reached for was a Zonai rocket or wheel, and whatever could be used as a platform. 60% of the time, it works every time.

And those new contraptions came in handy for exploring the expanded Hyrule. In addition to the Hyrule from the last game with a few new locations and old ones that have undergone changes in the years since the last game, Tears of the Kingdom adds The Depths, a dark underground map that spans the entirety of Hyrule with monsters infected by Gloom which not only damages Link but also reduce his max hearts until he reaches a safe spot. But wait, there’s more. There are now also islands in the sky that have their own monsters to fight and treasures to find. I’m still surprised by how much they managed to cram into this game and still have it running on the Switch.

So, if you loved Breath of the Wild and wanted a bigger and better version of that, you’ve probably already checked out this game but if you’re someone who hasn’t done that already, go buy it now and play one of the greatest games of the decade.

JT: Staff Writer

Back to the Dawn, developed by Metal Head Games and published by Spiral Up Games, released for Early Access on Steam November 2nd, 2023. The game immediately hits, and it hits hard. It’s an open-ended Adventure, RPG, Simulation, and Strategy game. The scenario is that you’re a reporter framed for corruption and bribing a city official. No matter the choices in the beginning, the results land you in prison. There are hundreds of solutions to escaping, and dozens of inmates (and some guards) to befriend or fight along the way.

Back to the Dawn acts as a small film noire at times, and in the beginning some of the scenes are given in comic book format. However, everything works and pulls you into its fascinating characters. By the end of the game you’ll forget who half of them are, but you’ll still have a great time getting to know them while playing. No run will be the same either, and every time I attempted to get a better run that I felt was more my own personality, either something slapped me down or picked me up to a new level. This gave me a lot of Baldur’s Gate 3 vibes, because most actions include a dice roll, and the greater the luck stat, the better the chances to do said action. Something as simple as reading a book or moving furniture can lead to a dice roll for succession. Penitentiary has never been fun, but this game really makes it fun!

Back to the Dawn almost already feels complete, with few bugs and few mistakes. Every stat is automatically useful. Most characters feel complete, aside from tasks you receive from some. The world surrounding you feels new with every potential new discovery, including new areas to explore and new characters to meet. There are new jobs to uncover, along with new ways of escaping. Everything established is centered around you and the prison. Be careful not to get caught though! Or it’s solitary confinement for you! Multiple, completely different, endings give each new playthrough a lot of added weight as well. What was the first thing I did? Start a fight. Second thing I did? Start a fight with a guard. However, the next thing was planting contraband on people and snitching. Anyone who plays with me knows, and if you know then you know. You know?

Back to the Dawn is my overall Game of the Year. With continued effort, it could easily reach S-tier ranking. The one major drawback for me was always the main character’s expression, and it would be more engaging if his icon in the lower right corner could change in terms of hunger or mental fortitude. If that’s my major gripe though, then that speaks volumes to how I feel about this game.

Back to the Dawn was a huge W for last year that more people need to check out. There is no excuse not to. Another Baldur’s Gate 3, but set in prison? I’ll be keeping my eyes on this little gem and the progress being made.

Manuel: General Manager / Editor-In-Chief

I actually have a lot of games I wanted to choose for my favorite game of 2023, and choosing between them was really hard. Honorable mentions go out to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (which TWO other people here picked), Rhapsody II: Ballad of The Little Princess (Which I almost picked!), CRYMACHINA (Which was just really good!), and Cornucopia, an Early Access Steam game that I've fallen in love with recently. There were also some really great indie games that were smaller experiences, but no less amazing. Some of my favorites were Retro Mystery Club Vol. 1, Bem Feito, Godzilla Voxel Wars, Creepy Tale: Ingrid Penance, and most especially, This Way Madness Lies. I played a lot of games this year it seems, and that's in no small part thanks to an increased level of gaming output from A-to-J itself. What was the game I actually chose though? Well...

Okay, I talked about so many games already, but my favorite game of the year has to be Fire Emblem Engage. Was that really surprising though? I've been in love with the series for a while now, and I was really anticipating this one, but I don't think I realized just how far into the rabbit hole I'd go. I almost left it off this list though! Engage released so early in the year that I actually forgot that it was a 2023 release at all. I only really remembered that fact when I saw my Nintendo year in review thing. Anyhow, I played the hell out of this game, and put in well over 250 hours into it. I played all the DLC as it came out, and even made it nearly unplayable as I scaled the enemies to a point where winning battles can only be done by way of tricks and exploits. Basically I near mastered it, but only stopped playing as other games were coming out, and we all have to move on at some point right?

It's such a great game though! There was a lot of talk about how this is a great tactics game, but that the story is absolute trash. I will admit that it has a pretty thin story, but that's an accusation I would give to a lot of the Fire Emblem series as a whole as its infamous permadeath system means that the story can't rely on most of its cast being around the entire time. The more I thought about the story of Fire Emblem Engage, the more I grew to like everything about it, even its story. Engage has a story that takes time to grow and expand, and I know of a lot of players who gave up the game partway through since it wasn't quite as compelling as something like Fire Emblem Awakening or Three Houses. If you stuck with it though, then you'd get a pretty complex story complete with all the levels of intrigue, loss, and colorful array of characters that everyone expects from the series. And it is an amazing tactics game, definitely one of the better ones in the series, and one of the best examples of the genre overall. Speaking of story though, I especially was a fan of the ending and how it wrapped everything up in a bitter sweet sort of way. This extends to the epilogues for each of the characters too, and there are some that will live rent-free in my head forever. Oh, and there's a crazy world-flipping DLC that not only has an even better story, but also has a challenging take on the already excellent tactics system. The game is honestly near perfect and there are so many characters I fell in love with; Yunaka is my forever FE waifu now! Part of me wants to go back to it and finish the few things I haven't so I can say that I completely 100% the game. Maybe I'll do that when things slow down... I'll also never forgive myself for never properly reviewing it for A-to-J.

I can't recommend this game enough, and I hope that we get another Fire Emblem game soon, or better yet, another FE Warriors game. It's a mad long shot, but I'd definitely play Engage Warriors if it ever came out! I wonder if my favorite game for 2024 will also be a game I play early on in the year once again. I guess that'll make writing my entry in this article very easy next year!

Teepu: Project Leader / Staff Writer

2023 was quite possibly one of the most exciting and full years in gaming we have had in quite a while. A lot of good heavy hitters and a lot of good indies, all sides were full of good experiences. That being said (and I know this will seem like the easy route), The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom would be my favorite game of 2023.

Hear me out for a moment. Unlike the vast majority of people, I was not happy with Breath of the Wild. Sure, there were the pieces of a great Zelda game in there, but it felt so far removed from Zelda, with so many quality-of-life issues that made me upset, that game ended up going to the bottom of my list as one of my LEAST favorite games in the franchise. So, following that, the fact that it’s sequel in both style, themes, and gameplay ended up being one of my all-time favorite Zelda games shows how much even the smallest of improvements go a long way to perfecting the goals they set out with in BotW.

The abilities were far more enjoyable and varied. The world felt so much fuller. The narrative was far more engaging and enjoyable. The dungeons, while still missing that ‘oomph’ from previous games, did enough to feel more Zelda-like while retaining the design philosophy of BotW. Everything about it was improved in ways that gave me just enough of what I want, while still being quite a different type of Zelda game. So, while most will pick TotK due to being cliché, I choose it because it truly flipped my opinion on a formula I was initially not happy with.

Winfield: Staff Writer

My favorite game released in 2023 was Final Fantasy XVI, developed by Square Enix. In summary, I really enjoyed the story, the music, and Clive’s journey throughout the game. It definitely made me emotional at certain points of the story. As a Final Fantasy fan, I do know that the action RPG gameplay is not for everyone, as I would say my favorite Final Fantasy game would be number six in the series, which uses turn-based gameplay. I have to say that the boss battles really got me excited to experience and play it through. But I believe, at the least, if you enjoy the series so far, play the game for the story as I think it returns to its roots with a more fantasy background than recent entries with their sci-fi or modern elements mixed into the setting. Being someone who is also playing XIV, which is produced by the same person (Naoki Yoshida), I can definitely see the care that he has put into this main numbered entry into the series, and it does deserve its praise. I hope that you take the time to enjoy it as much as I did.

This was our second stab at a "Favorite Games of The Year" type article and while it did take a bit more work to get this one off the ground, and it still managed to be late, it was a lot of fun to talk about games that we surprisingly didn't get around to reviewing during the year. We hope that you enjoyed our picks, and maybe you can share your own via the comments below. We're already in 2024, and there's sure to be a lot of gaming awesomeness just over the horizon! We can't wait to dive into another year of gaming, and we'll definitely bring you our picks again in just a bit under another year's time! (To make up for that lateness after all!) Thanks again for letting us show you what we love, and here's hoping that we can continue bring you more great content throughout 2023 and beyond!

-Manuel and the rest of the A-to-J Team!

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