2022 was a challenging year for me, but for once I felt like I could take the challenge head on. I attended anime conventions as press for the first time, took on projects that pushed me to my limits, and reaffirmed my affection for the things I have passion for. I feel this was reflected in the games that spoke to me in 2022, and without further ado, these are my top five games of the year.
5 – Guilty Gear -Strive-
You love to see a good rebound. Guilty Gear -Strive- was one of the most disappointing games of 2021 as anyone who listened to last year’s awards knows. Heck, in my personal list for 2021 I cited my disappointment in Guilty Gear -Strive- as part of the reason Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late [cl-r] resonated so deeply with me. And to be clear, Guilty Gear -Strive- still doesn’t have everything I would want in a Guilty Gear game. However with the changes ArcSys has made to that game, the tournament showings, new characters, and general shift of my own perceptions and expectations, Guilty Gear -Strive- won me over.
One of the biggest changes is the Combo Recipe mode that is one of the best features any fighting game has had since the introduction of rollback netcode. In combo heavy games like Guilty Gear, it’s intimidating to see a long string of inputs on Dustloop and think to yourself, “I gotta pull off THAT?” But with the Combo Recipe system, it turns community made combos into custom missions that show you every step. You can see the combo played out, then you can keep the inputs needed on screen in a free practice, then you can quiz yourself with the combo by pulling it off three out of five times. Every fighting game needs to adopt this mode, because it just makes the game that much more accessible. But all the combos in the world don’t mean anything if you don’t have a character you love to play. And in 2022, I found my character.
Testament is an odd duck; I am very set in my ways sometimes where I gravitate to characters that are based in close range fighting and corner mix-ups. I always thought a set-play character like them would be like charge characters; forever out of reach because I could never wrap my head around the concept. Testament shattered this expectation for me. Simplified from their Accent Core +R appearance, it meant that their tools could make more immediate sense to me and everything just clicked. Their tools are a delight, with subtle depth in the interactions of their long range play. On top of this, the changes made to the character narratively resonated deeply with me. The high-femme appearance matched with the brilliant baritone vocal performance in the English dub along with their story about finding peace and apotheosis through their undeniable transition spoke to me deeply. As someone who has a hang up about their voice, this reinvention of a grim Grim Reaper into someone who finds peace and beauty in the simple act of unapologetic existence is stunning.
Welcome back, Guilty Gear. I have missed you.
4 – Drainus
One of my favorite memories of living in Japan was when me and some friends went to an arcade machine I had never seen before. Supporting 4 players in a double wide cabinet, it was a simple side-scrolling space shooter akin to Gradius or R-Type. Remembering that game, I recalled my love of Gradius growing up, but in the years since I could never find other games that truely scratched the itch Gradius V on PS2 left me. For years I just accepted a side scrolling space shooter will always be something that fits in my memory, but a relic of another time. Then Team Ladybug dropped Drainus onto my lap and proved me wrong.
Drainus feels like a SEGA Saturn game unearthed from Treasure’s history of high-octane spectacle arcade games like Gunstar Heroes or Ikaruga. Stealing an evil space empire’s secret weapon to strike back at them, the Drainus itself flies through the skies taking on wave after wave of enemy ships. The key to this game is in its central mechanic- when you hold the Drain button, your ship opens a shield that draws in energy from enemy attacks. Any purple attack in that game can be absorbed and upon release of the button, all built up energy gets fired back at your enemies. It’s deceptively simple, as you can now weave into massive energy beams that take up most of the screen and fire it back. But you cannot fire your primary weapon while draining, and this leads to the game’s unique push and pull feel of weaving between offense and defense the same way you weave the ship through enemy fire.
The weapon upgrade system also makes the game so much more approachable than others in the genre. As you fight through the game you pick up weapon upgrade credits that can be spent at any time during a level, where you can pause the game to buy and assign new upgrades to various aspects of your ship. You’d think this would kill the pace of the game, but the pumping music keeps you wanting to get back into the fight and the mechanic allows you to play the way you’re comfortable with or adapt to the needs and challenges of the given level. Old shooters would ask you to choose your loadout before you even played the game; here, you can make the change whenever you please. The final piece of the puzzle is how taking a hit doesn’t end your run, all it does is take away one weapon upgrade that you can recover through smart play. The push and pull of draining, releasing, upgrading, and fighting back all synthesizes into a brilliant ballet of missiles and laser beams.
Drainus is proof positive that any genre can be given new life. It just takes a novel approach.
3 – Potionamics
Recettear: An Items Shop’s Tale was the first Japanese indie game released on Steam. I realize that for most people, Steam is the store that everything is released on, but Recettear’s release was monumental for such an unassuming game about running an item shop. Sporting a clever localization (Capitalism, ho!) and unique mechanics about running an RPG town’s item shop, it was a remarkable game. But it has problems. Any game from 2007 does, but one wrinkle is in its central barter mechanic. You were taking shots in the dark, hoping you could sell an item for a profit against a random number generator. There were patterns, sure, but it was largely guess work. Still, the concept was unique and fun at the time, and I am pretty sure Voracious Games felt the same way because Potionamics feels like the sequel Recettear never received.
Saddled with a debt from a long lost relative, Sylvia is a potion brewing witch who needs to turn a profit to save the shop and herself from financial ruin. This is accomplished with brewing a variety of potions and selling them to folks in town, and the art of the haggle is accomplished by way of a card game. By interacting with characters in town, you gain new cards that you can put in your deck and the recontextualization of card battle mechanics into haggling, the game really shines. Through carefully managing the customer’s patience through playing card combos, you raise their interest level which in turn raises what they are willing to pay for a potion. The best card battle systems have you making gambles on the next card you draw or a roll of the dice, and Potionamics uses the system excellently, where small gambles on the cards you draw or playing the odds makes each sale a delight. There are many other surrounding mechanics to keep the card battles from ever turning dull, from customer trends that day to the stress mechanic that might mean you get dealt a useless card, and it’s all just so well considered to the theme of haggling for sales.
The rest of the game is just as considered and polished. While the dialogue options for romancing some of the NPCs boils down to disinterest or aggressive flirting, the characters you get to interact with are all fun in their own ways. You meet an agender witch, a pair of pirate cats, an artisanal walrus man, and many others. You must juggle your time with these characters as they can give you the cards and supplies needed to take on the capstone challenges of the game; the contests. In Recettear, you had debt deadlines that you either passed or failed which led to the game being fairly punishing. In Potionamics, you must brew special potions for the contest at the end of a 10 day cycle, but it is a little more lenient than that implies. During the contest, if your opponent presents a better potion, you are given an opportunity to haggle in a higher stress environment to potentially salvage the potion and win the round. It’s difficult, but not impossible- that is the key that makes Potionamics stand out. It is a challenging game that requires smart time management and planning, but the mechanics are all lenient enough to allow for error and experimentation which makes the game a joy to play.
Potionamics is a fantastic game that is a brew more potent than the sum of its parts.
2 – Splatoon 3
Splatoon was the game I bought a Wii U for, and I have been charmed ever since. The style, the music, and the unique gameplay has resonated with me for years. I am not a fan of most shooters, but Splatoon’s style facilitated other techniques, so that just because I couldn’t land headshots didn’t mean I couldn’t contribute to the four-versus-four battles. Unfortunately I couldn’t be there to experience Splatoon 2 when it came out, due to my finances at the time. One of the few Splatfests I could participate in was the Final Fest. But when Splatoon 3 was announced, I knew I had to be on the ground floor. And Splatoon 3 didn’t disappoint.
On the surface, Splatoon 3 really is just a sequel to Splatoon 2. New weapons, maps, and music is par for the course for this series. But it’s in all the little details that Splatoon 3 really shines and makes it the best it’s ever been. The lobbies are improved, where changing your loadout of gear is simple. Finding matches with friends and randoms is made so much better, with many other quality of life touches that make jumping into a match with friends a joy. Salmon Run, the wave based PvE mode from Splatoon 2 makes a return, but with less restrictive time requirements and fun rewards attached. Content updates for costumes, weapons, and other things all being included in the game without the need to purchase battle passes is a blessing too.
But the thing that brings it all together is the hosts. The idol trio, Deep Cut, is a statement of intent. Splatfests are now battles between three teams, which while the wrinkles of that mode are still being ironed out, it shows the willingness to shake things up. The guiding philosophy of Splatoon as a series is to “Stay Fresh” and they achieve this by being willing to replace convention for the sake of that ethos. While deeply familiar, Splatoon 3 and its willingness to strip out the parts that don’t work, explore different musical styles, change up core facets of the game’s structure to allow new characters and aesthetics to steal the spotlight feels special. It’s a sign that no matter what the next step in the series is, they will find a way to embrace the rebellious spirit that has been present from day one.
Splatoon 3 is more than just a refresh of what’s come before; it speaks to me as a sign of new things to come.
1 – Pokèmon Legends: Arceus
Video games very rarely immerse me. I know it’s the stated intention of many game designers to make a world that feels like a living, breathing thing but that has rarely happened for me, and it’s not the game’s fault! My brain is just wired in such a way that I am acutely aware at all times that I am, in fact, playing a video game. Some games manage to trick me, however. Some games manage to nail their mechanics, atmosphere, and overall design that overrides the part of my brain that tells me I am playing a video game and for a single sparkling moment, I am deeply drawn in. This has happened with games like Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, some of the vistas and locations in Final Fantasy XIV, or when I was a kid playing games like Chrono Cross or Animal Crossing. But it’s rare.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus managed this trick within the first 30 minutes.
I have repeatedly recalled this moment, because for just a beautiful second, I was completely sucked into believing in that magic trick of making the player believe anything and everything is possible. I was in a field, and I spotted two Starly. I was about to throw a ball to catch the Pokémon, when I realized that fruits occupied the same spot in the inventory menu. Without prompting, I threw the berry and one of the Starly was drawn to its scent. I reselected the Pokéball, naturally adjusted the angle of my throw like I was actually trying to throw an object at a target, and the ball made its mark, catching the Starly. But the other Starly, seemingly observing this moment, flew away as the ball confirmed the catch. My logical brain tells me some overworked programmer in Japan coded this interaction into the game world to account for this possibility, but for a split second; I felt like I was a little kid who was playing a video game for the first time in her life.
I admit, there are parts of this game that straight up do not work. The framerate dips frequently, the new combat mechanics don’t have that much depth, and the graphics can remind you that the Switch is over half a decade old using chipsets from 2015. I get it, and yet, Legends manages to capture the high ambitions that the Pokémon Company aspires for. Legends changes the setting, story, and basic facets of how you think a Pokémon game can and should play to deliver on an experience that feels like the evolution the series has been trying to make for the better part of 30 years. It feels in spirit with that original game’s goal of recreating the joy of going out into the world and finding beetles in your backyard. Legends does this by taking core and established mechanics and reworking them in the modern day.
They even made the Pokédex matter for the first time in the series history! In every other game in the series, the Pokédex was something you rarely -if ever- consulted, where the entirety of understanding of a Pokémon was written after you captured a single monster. In Legends, it feels like you are doing some real research. You have to capture a variety of the same monster, engage it in battle with different moves, feed them new foods, or fight entire packs of them. It is engaging with that Pokédex that allows you to progress in the game’s leveling system, gaining promotions as you research more and more about the world. You don’t battle gym leaders, you prove your worth with going out there and catching monsters and learning about them.
The story of the game also matters in ways previous games never tried. It’s a simple story, to be fair. Characters are often one dimensional, like characters in previous entries. But Legends uses that simplicity to great effect, and then surprises you when characters reveal their hidden depths. The community you interact with grows livelier as you help others around town, be it finding some missing Pokémon or lending them one of your own to help with farming and construction efforts. As you progress, the music of Jubilife village grows more layered and complex, representing a warmer and welcoming community that feels like a place people live in, not just a grid of blocks with shops, gyms, and Pokécenters. When you are approaching the end of the game where the sky rips open and turns blood red, and the leader of the village casts you out in a deeply misguided but understandable emotional outburst and you must walk forward catching glimpses of the shocked expressions of people in town, people you have done so much to help but are powerless to do anything, I was drawn in.
I hope I can convey just how incredible this game is. There is so much to love about this game, and it feels effortless. Almost every aspect of this game comes together in ways games rarely do. It speaks to the incredible talent behind those who make games, not just this one. That behind every video game is a team of deeply passionate individuals who want to make something that brings you into its world. Legends is a triumph, and if Nintendo would stop crunching these teams into dust and just let these developers have the time and resources to make their games, spectacular experiences can be made.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is my 2022 game of the year.
As always, I am deeply thankful to our community of supporters that give us the platform to talk about the things that mean so much to us. Scanline Media is nothing without the support you give, and I am grateful every day I get to talk about the things that inspire me, and it is my hope my passion and perspective resonates with you. If nothing else, thank you for reading and I cannot wait to see what 2023 brings.
