You have to almost appreciate how nakedly this is ripping off Bioshock.
Premise and style carries this through one of the most unlikable main characters in recent memory and a really misguided overworld.
Deserves a medal for its system of looting items compared to so many other modern games, basically just cribbing from Luigi's Mansion by letting you vacuum up a whole room instead of opening individual chests.

Afterparty didn't hit at all for me. I wasn't sure these devs had it in them after being so let down by that.
Thankfully Oxenfree II is a much better game, getting back to the roots of a lot of what made the first game so special. Likeable main characters, satisfying intrigue, and effective horror. I'm glad this finally made it out.

Blasphemous 2 reminds me a lot of my thoughts on Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

It's a game that's more mechanically fleshed out than its predecessor, more variety, more quality of life features, less missable content, features that took DLC to be added to the first game are here at the start, etc.

But all of those improvements don't come together into being a more appealing game. Blasphemous 2 is not more Blasphemous. What it is is a damn fine Metroidvania in its own right, but it's missing the intrigue and oppresive atmosphere of the first game. The edges that certainly would have annoyed some players have been sanded down, but in doing so it feels like it's lost its identity. From the moment the first cutscene starts and it's just a (very nice) anime-styled look, I knew something was off. The pixel art cutscenes of the first game were so gorgeous and perfectly uncanny and the sequel never recaptures that feeling.

All that said, I'd still have to recommend it to fans of the genre on its own merits. I liked it enough to 100% it so it was clearly doing something right. Hope the studio tackles something new next, because this felt like they didn't have anything more to say after Blasphemous 1.

Anyone who's had to listen to me talk about Mortal Kombat for more than a few minutes knows how much I adore MK9, and how much I feel NRS has just been blowing it since then.

11 especially felt like every wrong decision you could make, from the visuals to the narrative to the horrible monetization. X had steps in the wrong direction but overall made some interesting choices and tried to move things forward, but 11 just took any interesting thing from 9 and X and threw it in the garbage. Aftermath did come along to partially redeem 11, but it was rotten to the very core.
1 is, against all odds, a step in the right direction. The story is still not great, but now that we're in a post-11 world it at least does some interesting and totally crazy things with the mess it left. I love some of these new characterizations a lot.
Gameplay is much more satisfying than 11 as well, and I poured a lot of time into it the first month it was out. For the first time in almost a decade, I'm actually looking forward to the future of a MK game.

A solid visual novel that rises above with some dynamic camera movements and great character designs that are all very distinct while remaining totally grounded.

Takes a little while to get going as it saddles you with the least-engaging of its protagonists for several hours before getting you to the more interesting ones, and seems to be fighting against your decisions at the start, but eventually validates these choices later on.

Keeps you engaged by having a few bits where you're called upon to prove you've been paying attention and not just mashing A through to the end. Not quite on the level of say, 428, but one of the better VNs I've played.

Something so engrossing about this style of game.
You do have to see through a horribly slow start, but once everything opens up, I was surprised how engaged I was with its systems, really enjoyed it a lot more than Fallout 4.
If you're here for Skyrim/Fallout style exploration, it's not what's waiting for you. But what was waiting for me was something I enjoyed more: the most fun combat Bethesda's ever managed to put together, plenty of varied empty planets to take me back to what I liked about ME1, and some pretty solid character writing...for some of the characters.
The ending does kind of make it all feel pointless though and killed my will to keep playing, at least until we get DLC. There's a really, really bad decision partway through the game too that fucks you with certain companions for good, which is a problem when only two of them are interesting. Both of these in tandem soured me on what was otherwise something I found impossible to put down for several weeks.

After Yakuza 7 did a pretty masterful job of passing the baton to not only a new series protagonist, but also a new style of gameplay that would carry the future of the series, the next entry going back to the old protagonist and the old gameplay didn't inspire a lot of confidence in the new post-Nagoshi-depature RGG.
However, they've still got the sauce. I had a great time with Gaiden.
It's a plot that's complete nonsense even by Yakuza standards, but it comes together into a really emotional ending and has charming and engaging characters throughout.
The new Spider mechanics are a solid addition to the tried-and-true style and make item collecting in the overworld more engaging than it's ever been.

Lost me a bit by the ending, and your co-pilot for the journey is truly insufferable, but being freed from the structure of Danganronpa lends itself to some proper out-there mysteries that were a delight to solve.
I had lost faith in Kodaka after the disaster that was World's End Club, but now I'm more curious than ever to see what he can do away from Danganronpa.

Sabotage is simply too in love with their own writing. And they're not as interesting or funny as they think they are.

Genuinely great RPG that incorporates a bit of Chrono, a bit of Superstar Saga, and a bit of its own new ideas into something that remains satisfying most of the way through. Just becomes hard to care when it overstays its welcome and keeps pumping up its boring, trite story. The character writing helps bring you there, the main party are all likeable and charming enough to make up for the terminally unfunny NPCs.

Killer OST too.

This was safely my favorite puzzle game of the year until Cocoon and Chants of Sennar gave it a one-two punch right off the Top 10 list.

Another knockout presentation-wise from some of the folks behind Rez and Tetris Effect, true classics. Great core of Lemmings style puzzles that introduce a bit too many frustrations by the end for me, but definitely still remains one of the better reasons to justify my PS5.

Definitely spinning their wheels here a bit with a series-low-point villain and gameplay that's a bit undercooked, but it carries through with some great character writing and the always-enjoyable P5 style.

Between this and Strikers, I really do think P6 could easily just be a full cast of adults.

Scrub that I am, these Modern controls really made SF6 enjoyable for me in a way Street Fighter never had been before.
In a year with two new Like A Dragon releases, this is actually the best new Like A Dragon game this year. Hilariously funny game, the clear love and energy on display for this makes up for what Capcom chose to do to RE4 this year.

This is the only non-From Soulslike that's ever got it right for me.
It's a very earnest game, setting up its beautifully crafted world and never once betraying its tone. It's all-in on this puppet stuff and it gets the mileage out of it.
Does rely a little too heavily on forcing you into one playstyle and the parry timings seem too tight, but it is a satisfying take on the genre with some of its own great quality-of-life enhancements. Love the way you can split up weapons, encouraging using your upgrade materials while still allowing you to explore different movesets.

Someone I admire once said that the two ways you can improve a sequel are to make it "more good" or "less bad" and that's really resonated with me in this series in particular.

Spider-Man 2018 was a masterpiece game buried under some baffling decisions and minor annoyances, like the gadgets and slow sections and minigames. It was almost my GotY that year, if not for Celeste.

When Miles Morales came out, I thought it took all the right lessons from the first game. It was a little "less good" but it was also a lot "less bad". It did a great job of focusing in on Miles, cutting out the slogs, integrating combat and abilities better, and refining it into a streamlined package.
Unfortunately, Spider-Man 2 seems to be a lot "more good" and a lot "more bad". It takes all the wrong lessons from the first game by doubling down on awful minigames, doubling down on the walk-and-talk sections, doubling down on awful MJ stealth, doubling down on controller gimmicks. It's a frustrating experience because all the improvements are even better than in Miles Morales, and ramps up to some of the absolute peaks of any Spidey game, but there's so much more garbage heaped on top of it. Especially in the early hours, it's rough.

It is the best 2D Mario since World. That's all that really needs to be said.

Lack of interesting bosses is the big sticking point that keeps this from being a GOTY-level masterpiece. Some other minor annoyances, but for the most part a true joy to play, packed to the brim with creative ideas.

Exciting worlds-within-worlds puzzle game that walked the fine line of thoughtful puzzle design without ever getting too obtuse. Downloaded it on a whim as one of the new Game Pass drops and ended up playing through the entire thing in one sitting. Totally engrossing, only critique is the boss fights are mildly annoying.

Played the demo for this and was so hooked on the central puzzle mechanic that I immediately bought it and played through the entire thing in a day.
A little unfocused but the core act of puzzling out the other languages and how that culminates in the final challenges was incredibly satisfying. Lovely visuals too.

In my heart this is Game of the Year, but in my brain I must admit that the combat is truly shit-awful. Plot takes itself a little too seriously too.

Still, it's the "Jet Set Radio Future 2" that I've wanted for two-thirds of my life. It gets so much of it right, even improves on JSRF in many ways, that I can forgive the janky combat, and while I don't love the graffiti inputs, you can slam around the stick quickly to do them without thinking. Totally captures the fun of just skating around keeping your combo going, without the impenetrable-to-me skill floor of something like Tony Hawk's. It's some of the most pure fun I've had with a game in years, and I know I'll come back to it many times in the future.

I'm still frankly stunned this game exists. Like on a technical level it's wizardry, and playing around with it was just so satisfying even as someone who usually doesn't really go for player-creation-tools in games.

A direct sequel to BotW always gave me some pause, and Elden Ring had me worried that it wouldn't be able to feel fresh after that, but it pulls enough tricks out of the bag to wow me in many ways, to the point that I put more hours into it than I ever did BotW or ER. Very satisfying dungeons and puzzles, and more varied boss encounters definitely served to improve on BotW. Just great to spend time in that same world, have some laughs with the genuinely-hilarious Gerudo, check in on the Zora, they really crafted something special with this iteration of Hyrule.

However, the more I've sat with it, the more I think it fails in some ways BotW didn't. The opening hours of tutorial in BotW are masterful, and these are a lot sloppier. BotW had a clearer mission statement of total freedom once you're off the Plateau, but TotK railroads you a lot. Too much is locked behind main missions, I was very frustrated in the opening hours to be missing my glider because I wandered into a shrine that was impossible without it. The story is also a big wash compared to BotW, with the Ancestors being the worst offenders compared to how memorable the Champions were. There's some cool ideas in there, but narratively it feels so much less like a sequel interested in expanding the world it built and more like a Mario-Galaxy-2-style do-over.

It does all culminate in an ending sequence that I found so thrilling that I started crying though, so I'll still give it its flowers.

We need more games like this. It's immaculate from start to finish. Likeable characters, bursting with personality without becoming annoying. Even got me to genuinely laugh out loud more than a few times.

Doesn't outstay its welcome, left me wanting more and wanting to improve and chase skill through replays, while being brief enough to actually merit replays. Polished to a sheen without succumbing to bloat. A perfect throwback to the best kind of design we got in gaming's 6th Generation, an example that I hope gets followed a lot more in the future.