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New Game Releases: 2023 Buyer’s Guide – Part 1

Andy Tuttle

With 2023 coming to a close, and Christmas just around the corner, most game companies have taken the next few weeks off.

“OH MY GOD?! IT’S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!! What do I do? My kid/wife/husband/secret santa wanted some game about…I don’t know, a crying king, or a street cleaner, or star farming, or maybe something that had all three. Do those exist? If they don’t exist what can I get?? HELP ME!”

Okay, okay, stop fretting, I got you covered. I will be giving you a buyer’s guide for each month with my top picks in BOLD. What were the best games to come out; which ones sucked, and which ones flew under the radar and deserve your attention? Get ready to find out!

Since this guide tends to be on the long side, and in the interest of keeping your attention, I will be splitting it into two parts; January to June and July to December. Get your pencils ready, folks, because the games are coming fast and I hope you’re taking notes.

January:

Nintendo, once again, staked claim to January, releasing their latest entry in the long running Fire Emblem franchise, with Fire Emblem: Engage. A kind of “greatest hits” entry, Engage has players taking on the role of Alear, a dragon in human form who is the son/daughter of a god named the Divine Dragon. When the Divine Dragon is slayed, Alear must take up the mantle and use their powers to stop an evil, undead force known as The Corrupted from taking over the world. To help Alear and his companions, players will wear rings that summon characters from past entries in the series, granting them a huge boost to their attacks. Engage was not as well received as the previous entry, Three Houses, but it did streamline much of the non-combat gameplay, getting players back into the fray quickly, without needing to spend hours establishing relationships with their party members. This probably won’t be the Fire Emblem game that people put at the top of their list of favorites, but it is another solid entry in the franchise and well worth your time.

While January is typically a slow month, 2023 had its fair share of solid hits. The latest game from Shinji Mikami’s Tango Gameworks was the fast paced, frantic, musical title Hi-Fi Rush. This was, perhaps, one of the best Xbox console exclusives of the year, and is an attractive reason to own Game Pass. The other big January title was the Dead Space remake, which came out about a month after the abysmal The Calisto Protocol, a game made by the original Dead Space devs. In the licensed world we had One Piece Odyssey, a massive RPG that takes place in the world of the popular manga/anime, as well as Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake, a 3D platformer featuring everyone’s favorite yellow sponge.

Rounding out the rest of January, fans of Japanese RPG’s were in for a treat with the release of two remasters, Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden, bringing these classic titles to modern consoles. There were also some smaller, but noteworthy, titles that released, including the narrative adventure A Space for the Unbound, the remake of Colossal Cave by industry veteran Roberta Williams, and the very wacky, very fun, Pizza Tower, which took the gaming word by storm.

It wasn’t all good for January, though. In case you need something to avoid, or at least only pick up at heavy discount, I’m going to suggest Forspoken. Almost universally maligned for its incredibly bad dialogue and unlikeable protagonist, Forspoken feels like a game that was made with a late 2000’s/early 2010’s vibe in mind. The kind of “er, awkward…did that just happen…er, yeah, that just happened” shtick that was found in every Marvel film and quirky television show that we saw plastered on our screens ten years earlier. Underneath of Forspoken’s cringe inducing dialogue is a solid game, so there’s fun to be had, just be aware of what you’re getting yourself into.

Flying under the radar we have a couple of titles suggested by our wonderful New Game Releases community. First off we have Backfirewall_, as suggested by Merve and who called it, “A puzzle adventure set inside a mobile phone, kinda like Tron for millennials. Appears at first glance to be a satire of clinging to the past, but eventually reveals itself to be a much deeper, more political story. Made by a majority-female dev team“. Commenter KingCrow suggested the game SEASONS: A Letter to the Future, which he describes as an atmospheric, scrapbooking, narrative game. The trailer always intrigued me, glad to hear that it’s worth checking out!

February:

February continued right where January left off, putting out another slew of top tier games. Chief among them was the latest entry in Sega’s long running Yakuza franchise, now going by its new name in North America, Like a Dragon. Not quite a mainline entry in the series, this new game, Ishin!, is more of a spin-off and is, in fact, a remake of a PS3 game of the same name. Set in 1860’s Japan, near the end of the Edo period, players take on the role of a samurai named Sakamoto Ryoma, who is on a quest to avenge the death of his father. Heading to the city of Kyo (modern day Kyoto), Ryoma infiltrates a the notorious security force known as the Shinsengumi, in which one of its members is the man who killed Rymoa’s father. Of course, this being a Yakuza/Like a Dragon game, things are not always what they seem, as enemies become friends, friends become enemies, and you can ignore all of it to just sing karaoke and play mahjong.

There were three other major games released in February, the first being the Square Enix RPG Octopath Traveler II, which saw Nintendo lose its launch exclusivity, with the game coming out on both Switch AND PlayStation. Next, Destiny 2 put out a new expansion, Lightfall, which polarized fans but still made a shit load of money, while another polarizing game came out, Hogwarts Legacy, an action RPG set in the wizarding world of Harry Potter. While the Potter franchise is beloved by millions, there was, of course, significant controversy surrounding the game’s release due to author J.K. Rowling’s views on trans individuals. While Hogwarts Legacy would go on to be a huge financial and critical success, there is a stigma attached to it that might turn some players off.

At the kind of “B” level, we had Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, the Final Fantasy rhythm game, which contains a huge library of songs from, not just Final Fantasy but, a slew of other Square Enix properties such as the SaGa, Chrono, and Mana franchises, Live a Live, Octopath Traveler, Nier, and Xenogears. For fans of Monster Hunter style games, Bandai Namco put out Wild Hearts, which was made by the same team at Omega Force that developed the Toukiden franchise. Over in the world of PC’s, we had two well received strategy games, Blood Bowl 3, which is basically American football as a table top game, set in a fantasy world, and Company of Heroes 3, the latest entry in Relic and Sega’s long running franchise, set during WW2 in Italy and Northern Africa.

Lastly, we have Kirby’s Return to Dreamland from Nintendo and HAL, which is a remake of the 2011 Wii title, as well as the release of the PlayStation VR2, launching with the well received Horizon Call of the Mountain.

There wasn’t much to avoid in March. I guess I could have made it Hogwarts Legacy, but that was still well received by critics and fans. If I have to choose something, I guess I’ll go with Atomic Heart, just because of how bland and generic it is. Anticipated for years, when the game finally released to the public it arrived with a whimper and was quickly forgotten. DLC has come out, but did you even know, or care? Just move on with your life, there’s plenty more to see than Atomic Heart.

Our hidden gem for the month is the first person, dungeon crawling RPG Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society. The sequel to 2016’s Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk, players are, once again, tasked with exploring an underground dungeon full of poison mist (or something). In order to move around the dungeon they must bring dolls to life, each with their own special powers and abilities. While it may have a cutesy look, the game is surprisingly adult in nature, featuring subtext and scenarios that’ll make you blush.

March:

March closed out the first quarter of 2023 with a huge bang, giving us the highly anticipated remake, Resident Evil 4. Using the same engine and gameplay style as the Resident Evil 2 & 3 remakes, part 4, like the original, has players in the shoes of Leon Kennedy as he attempts to rescue the daughter of the U.S. president, Ashley. Leon is dropped off in a remote area of Spain, where the president’s daughter is known to be held, and soon encounters hostile villagers who have been infected with a bio-weapon parasite called Las Plagas. Over the next few hours, players will run & gun their way through hostile villagers, massive beasts, and overzealous cultists, in order to save Ashley and get to the truth about Las Plagas.

The rest of March feels a little weak in comparison to RE4, but there are solid games here. On the RPG front we had Atelier Ryza 3, the final entry in the “Secret” subseries, as well as The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure, which was the second and final part of the “Crossbell Arc” subseries. Over in “B” land, we had WWE 2K23, featuring much of the same content and gameplay as the 2K22 entry, though this time it featured Cody Rhodes, so it was obviously better. Then we had the “soulslike” game Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty from Team Ninja, who had previously worked on the Nioh franchise. Finally, we had the previously Japan-only Wii horror game Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse get its North American release, which has the distinction of being developed by auteur Suda51.

In smaller titles, Nintendo and Platinum Games put out Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, which tells the story of a young Bayonetta. Another Japanese game, PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, a visual novel, was released to high praise for its intriguing story & beautiful graphics. Rounding out the smaller games are the survival, salvage title DREDGE, about a fisherman who encounters Lovecraftian horrors on the open sea, and the coming of age tale Tchia. In Tchia, players take on the role of the titular protagonist as she explores a mysterious island in search of her father. Tchia has super powers that allow her to move into the souls of different animals & objects, and must do so in order to solve puzzles. The game stirred up some (very light) controversy from right leaning news outlets and players due to Tchia’s sexuality, she’s homosexual, but this was mostly seen by normal people as a solid, positive representation of a gay character.

Oh god, where do start with the worst game of March, Crime Boss: Rockay City. This piss poor rip-off of Grand Theft Auto Online is, by far, one of the worst games of 2023, but it could have been great if it tried a bit more. Infused with a cavalcade of action/crime movie stars of the 1980’s & 90’s, including Michael Madsen, Danny Glover, Kim Basinger, Chuck Norris, and Vanilla Ice, Crime Boss looks like it was made for the kinds of guys who would be upset that the main character in Tchia is a lesbian (she’s not even the hot kind, bro!). Painfully boring, devoid of any charm, and slapped together haphazardly, Crime Boss: Rockay City is to be avoided at all costs.

Instead of that garbage, lets go back to you, the New Game Releases community, for a couple more hidden gems. Once again, our pal Merve is here with a solid recommendation, the visual novel Misericorde: Volume One; here’s what he had to say: “A genderflipped ‘Name of the Rose’ as a visual novel. Features a striking, dithered, monochrome art style and a banging anachronistic electro-jazz soundtrack that somehow fits the game perfectly“. Meanwhile, NEPH//QUINLEY//THORNE recommended Sun Haven, saying “It’s just ‘Stardew Valley’ but more fantasy, and just more in general. It’ll scratch that Stardew itch until the new patch/Haunted Chocolatier comes out“.

April:

April, typically a slow month, was actually almost as prolific as March, maybe even more so. While none of the titles probably had the prestige as RE4, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was a highly anticipated sequel and comes from one of the most well known media franchises of all time. Set five years after the events of the first game, Survivor finds players, once again, in the role of Cal Kestis, a young Jedi who is on the run from the galactic empire. He is joined by his friends, Jedi Master Cere Junda, pilot Greez Dritus, last surviving Nightsister clan member Merrin, and his faithful droid BD-1. The critical reception to the game was positive, overall, though it was knocked for its slightly generic story and its, at times, overwhelming/frustrating combat. Personally, I thought this game would be far more beloved and talked about over the year but I think it got lost in the shuffle, similarly to RE4, overshadowed by other titles, particularly one game that was about to come out in May.

The rest of April is pretty much dominated by two titles that came out the same week, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp and Dead Island 2. Both games were long delayed, but worth the wait. If war & zombie gore aren’t your thing, there’s always Minecraft Legends, a kinda/sorta tower defense game crossed with a survival game (in the vein of Rust). It was kind of derided by critics for being repetitive and lacking in depth, though it can be fun if played with multiple people. Speaking of being repetitive, the mobile game Honkai: Star Rail released to wide spread acclaim, mostly because it was about hot anime girls and NOT blocky dorks (probably). Oh, and The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story came out, if that does anything for you.

Rounding out April we have one expansion and two ports/collections. First is Sunbreak the first, and probably only, paid expansion for Monster Hunter Rise. This would contain a brand new story, as well as new monsters and locations. Next we have the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, released for the first time on Switch, allowing players to finally take those games on the go, I mean, only if they didn’t already own a Steam Deck…or any of the previously portable versions released on Game Boy, PSP, Vita, etc. Whatever, they’re on Switch now, okay! Lastly, the Mega Man Battle Network Collection also released, bringing all six mainline games to modern consoles, giving players who weren’t around in the early 2000’s a chance to finally play these, er, classics? I liked the first one.

I didn’t have a lot of choices for games to ignore in April, I’m sure there’s some game out there that critics didn’t like, but nothing is glaringly awful. I guess I gotta go with an old stand-by, the overtly horny anime game. This year’s is Moe Waifu H, a rhythm “game” in which you hit buttons in time to the music and, in the process, undress women and/or unlock sexier outfits for them. Fuck off with this shit, already. There’s plenty of pornography on the internet, I don’t need my video games to try and titillate me.

Instead of being unnecessarily titillated, let’s check out this month’s hidden gem from frequent commenter Jarathan, GrimGrimoire OnceMore. Originally released for the PS2 back in 2007, this RTS game from renowned developer Vanillaware got the remaster treatment and hit modern consoles this year. As you might have noticed, there were A LOT of remasters and re-releases this year, and that was not lost on Jarathan, who claimed that he played several in 2023. Why not join him and check out GrimGrimoire OnceMore.

May:

Folks, you knew this would be the top game of May. What do I need to say about Tears of the Kingdom that hasn’t already been said? This is one of the best games of the year and of all-time. For Nintendo to follow up Breath of the Wild with this is, well, wild. We could have easily received Tears of the Kingdom as a smaller piece of DLC and it would have been great. That we instead got this massive, MASSIVE, sequel, how lucky are we as players? Folks, seriously, Tears of the Kingdom is a masterpiece, destined to be regarded as one of the greatest video games ever made. If you skipped this then I don’t know what to say except to stop playing whatever it is you’re playing and pick this up instead.

As you can imagine, May wasn’t as busy as other months, with just about everyone staying away from Tears of the Kingdom. However, the brave few that did try to challenge Nintendo put out some decent stuff. The System Shock remake from Nightdive Studios was well received by critics & players, the PC crowd was treated to a new tactical strategy game, Age of Wonders 4, while fans of League of Legends got a second spin-off title to check out, Conv/rgence.

What else, what else…um, oh, LEGO 2K Drive came out, kind of a kid friendly version of Forza or Gran Turismo. A bunch of former Telltale devs got together to make Star Trek: Resurgence, which I heard was good, and all of us “boomers” (i.e., anyone over the age of 30) got Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, a fast paced FPS game that harkened back to the era of Doom and Duke Nukem 3D.

Normally I only pick one game to avoid per month, but May had the distinction of being the month where the, arguably, two worst games of the year released. First we have Microsoft’s Redfall. Developed by Arkane Austin, this open world FPS game that is clearly a looter shooter, despite the devs saying it wasn’t, was such a shit show that Microsoft had to publicly acknowledge how bad it was, pledging to “get it right” or whatever BS they usually say. Poor controls, horrible graphics, game breaking bugs, and an always online single player campaign that only progresses if you’re the host, not a joiner, Redfall was a huge step backwards for Arkane Austin and, I’m sure, has put the company under stricter observation from Microsoft.

Redfall wasn’t the only piece of shit to drop in May, we also had the ABYSMAL game The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. This third person action/adventure title was universally panned by critics and players, prompting the developer, Daedalic Entertainment, to state that they would never develop a new game, only publish them, as well as issue an apology to players, owning up to their mistakes. Well, at least that’s what we all though, except that former Daedalic employees claimed that the apology was generated by Chat GPT. They also claimed that the higher ups at Daedalic forced employees to work uncompensated overtime, that they were paid below the minimum wage for their positions, that executives and higher ups were abusive and rude to lower level workers, and that the game only had a budget of 15 million Euros, whereas most AAA games have a budget of over 200 million. The only good thing to come out of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is this Mega64 skit I posted above.

What about this month’s hidden gem? Well, why not check out Humanity, a puzzle platforming game exclusive to PlayStation consoles. Playing as a Shiba Inu, you must guide swarms of people to an exit goal, with the crux of the gameplay involving you trying to figure out the correct way to accomplish this. Bizarre and likely forgotten by many, Humanity is one of those quirky titles that used to populate the PlayStation in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

June:

With Tears of the Kingdom finally out of the way, the game companies decided to stack June, making it a crowded, competitive month. Standing above the rest was Capcom’s latest entry in their long running fighting game franchise, Street Fighter 6. Featuring the same, arcade style 1v1 style that we are all used to, the game also had a robust, single player story mode, a first for the series. In this single player mode, players create their own characters and have them run around Metro City, the fictional location found in the Final Fight series, getting into scraps with local thugs and learning moves from established Street Fighter characters. Couple this single player mode with a strong online community and you have one of the best Street Fighter games in a long time.

June really just kind of let the floodgates open, with multiple companies trying to set themselves up to be the top dawg of the Summer. My personal favorite of this month was Final Fantasy XVI, the latest entry in that long running franchise. In a break from traditional form, FFXVI did not feature turn based battles. Instead, it opted for real time combat, giving the game more of an action feel. While special attacks can be called upon through menu based commands, a simplified version of the controls can allow these to be done automatically. While the combat may have changed, the intense melodrama of the series was still there, with a tale of deception and revenge, thrusting players into a Game of Thrones style narrative that will pull at their heartstrings.

As if Street Fighter and Final Fantasy wasn’t enough, June also gave us the next game in Blizzard’s long running franchise, Diablo IV. Set 50 years after the events of Diablo III’s Reaper of Souls expansion, players find themselves in the realm of Sanctuary, a place between Heaven and Hell where its inhabitants wished to be safe from the conflicts between demons and angels. Due to this kind of truce between the factions, bonds were formed between the demons and angels, leading to the birth of a new race, the Nephalem. These beings were hated by the humans in Sanctuary, who feared their existence would bring war to their domain, and they tried to exterminate them, angering their mother, Lilith, who lashed out and, in turn, was banished. All of this backstory sets up the major conflicts of Diablo IV which, as you might imagine, plays almost identically to previous entries in the series. If you like the Diablo series then you know what you’re getting yourself into, warts and all.

Man, what the heck, June? Why do you have so many big games? Just to quickly recap the rest, Crash Team Rumble came out to help liven up your parties, as did Everybody 1-2 Switch!. AEW hoped to compete with WWE by releasing their first video game, Fight Forever, made by famed developer Yuke’s. There was also Aliens: Dark Descent which is kind of like XCOM with an Aliens skin slapped on it, and we can’t forget the indie hit Dave the Diver, a strategy simulator in which players catch fish to sell at a sushi restaurant, among a multitude of other things to do during the day & night cycles. There is a little controversy with the game’s classification as an “indie”, since the developer’s parent company is Nexon, the Korean/Japanese gaming giant responsible for MapleStory. Have games finally reached the point where, like movies, the term “indie” is mostly used to describe games that look a certain way instead of actually being made by an independent studio? I think so! Hooray! Games are like movies now, just like the industry always wanted!!!

A new Story of Seasons came out, called A Wonderful Life. Well, it’s kinda new, the game is a remake of an older PS2/GameCube title from 2003. Speaking of remake’s/re-releases, Pikmin 1 + 2 came out on Switch to get people excited for Pikmin 4, and We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie came out, which is a remake of the second game in the franchise, released on PS2 back in 2005.

June’s title to avoid is probably one you haven’t heard of and were probably already avoiding but, just in case, let’s talk quickly about Pretty Princess Magical Garden Island. At first glance, this game looks like it might be a cute little life sim game, but once you’ve spent 30 minutes with it you’ll start to see the cracks form. While it appears to be a mix of Animal Crossing and Story of Seasons, with a dash of The Sims thrown in, none of these gameplay styles are particularly fleshed out. Pretty Princess Magical Garden Island, like saying/writing out its name, is tedious and boring, made for only the youngest of children who can’t tell they’re being duped.

Instead of that nonesense, why not check out these hidden gems, once again picked by our wonderful community. Longtime commenter Cedric TheOwl recommends Homebody, a horror game from comedy troupe Game Grumps, saying, “The time loop mechanic is cool, the characters are interesting, and the puzzle design is excellent. I love adventure games enough to tolerate some dodgy puzzles, but every one of these felt fair and well telegraphed“. Another commenter, Press Rouch, wanted everyone to play the narrative adventure game The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales, calling it a “Unique concept where the player dives into different books to steal magical relics. It’s really well written and each book is a well realized world in itself“.

Hey, look at that, six months down and six more to go! I hope I was able to steer you towards a few games that you might have missed out on or given you some good ideas on something to get for that gamer in your life this holiday season. I’ll be back tomorrow morning with a look at the titles released from July to December. Take care out there folks, play some good games, and let them fill your…HEART & SOUL!

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