A lot would have to go wrong for "Supergiant made a roguelike" to not be my Game of the Year and the reality is that Hades far exceeded my expectations. Each run feels meaningful and contributes to your progress and the world and characters are so dense that each time you open the game there's something new to see. I've played a ton of this game and have yet to scratch the surface really but still feel content with what I've seen.

Umurangi Generation is a masterclass in environmental storytelling. It uses photography to guide you through environments rich with details that describe the state of the world around you and it's politics. It can be a bit difficult to complete some of the objectives but once you let yourself just explore the world in front of you it is a truly unique experience.

Moon is a game that I now realize is likely in many ways the predecessor to the type of game I love the most. It follows the story of a young boy who is sucked into the world of the JRPG he is playing and must help the monsters slain by the hero move onto the afterlife while also completing tasks for people in the RPG world. The satire of JRPGs is strong right out of the gate and every corner of this game is filled with interesting stories and satisfying tasks to complete and it's so easy to get sucked into the internality of the characters that populate the world.

Bugsnax is a clear modern descendant of Moon that, while more sparse and direct in its worldbuilding, provides a level of freedom in completing the tasks at hand that makes it a joy to play. I had a blast sussing out the trial and error of how to catch the Bugsnax and MacGyvering the tools given to you to snag new creatures. Sometimes this freedom winds up resulting in some poor tutorialization and I could take or leave the boss fights but ultimately there's always a way to do what you need to do even if it's not the way the game intended for you to.

Paradise Killer was the game that made the biggest immediate impression on me this year. You take on the role of Lady Love Dies, a detective exiled from a world where celestial beings keep humans essentially as slaves tasked with solving the murder of its high council. The aesthetic and the depth of the mystery drew me in instantly and fueled me to explore every inch of the world to find out whodunnit. However, the game falls apart in the final act as the Phoenix Wright style trial doesn't really reward you with new information for sleuthing around and the conclusion feels like it betrays the social commentary of the world that it lays out in its text. The majority of the gameplay is so good that this is still one of my favorite games that I've ever played but that admiration makes the missteps at the end that much more disappointing.

Signs of the Sojourner is essentially a visual novel in which you take on the role of a young adult filling in the footsteps of their late mother as a traveling trader. The hook is that all of your dialogue is expressed through a Slay the Spire style deckbuilding game where you must match up the symbols of your cards with the person you're talking to. As you travel throughout the world you must replace a card in your deck with a new card from each conversation, sometimes granting you the ability to talk to new people at the expense of communicating with old friends. The mechanic is brilliant and does a great job of conveying what real-life conversation is sometimes like but bad hands can sometimes make it feel a little more frustrating than immersive.

After playing Sekiro last year I realized that the process of playing Souls-like games is actually very relaxing for me. While it can be daunting entering a new area, once you've gotten the lay of the land there is a soothing element to watching yourself gradually get better at clearing areas in real-time. Demon's Souls holds up remarkably well for the progenitor of the Souls format but I do think that some of the gimmicks that may have been charming when this game released may be a turnoff to new players who have come to understand Souls games as demanding tests of skill.

I played both the original Final Fantasy VII and the Remake this year and while putting it off so late in my life has kept me from forming the emotional bond most people have with FFVII, Remake still pulls at the heartstrings in the best way. The fact that the game is not entirely faithful to the original is both its greatest triumph and fault. A lot of the backstory that's added to the characters both makes side characters more real and memorable and allows you to get a better understanding of the main cast. However, the game is frontloaded with a lot of very pointless side missions and sometimes overly goofy interactions that may turn people off before they get to the good stuff.

Fuser delivered exactly on the promise that it offered when I saw people sharing monstrous mixes of Smash Mouths "All Star" and Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on Twitter. The system that they've developed really makes it so that any old Joe Schmoe can make a mix that slaps or will haunt your dreams. The campaign is basically a glorified tutorial but it does a good job of surprising you with what you CAN do in the game rather than making you lament what you CAN'T as you progress. Also the weekly challenges are a fun enough reason to keep popping back into the game occasionally.

Origami King is a brilliantly charming came with genuinely hilarious writing but a vastly underwhelming RPG. My biggest gripe with the game is the new sliding circle combat system has two modes: "So easy you can do it in your sleep" and "Dark Souls impossible." This is only made worse by the fact that you can use coins to essentially just skip the puzzles and the only real rewards for battle are said coins. That said a lot of the locations are a blast to explore and the environmental puzzles are well designed. Combat does find a place to shine in the boss fights where the puzzle system becomes a bit deeper while also easier to comprehend on the fly.