Games of 2022

I had a bunch of wonderful game experiences this year, it's so hard to pick out which ones to talk about. Eastward stuck with me the most. It's a bleak-yet-beautiful world with great characters and awesome music! Battles were fun too. Only negatives for me were some story scenes drag on a bit and I could have done without the item crafting.

Following on from playing Lufia I and II last year, I played the third game, Lufia: The Legend Returns. Dungeons were a boring, randomized slog, but the story and characters were actually a step up from Lufia I and it looked and sounded pretty damn good for a GameBoy Color game! It just makes me wish even harder for a proper sequel to this series...

The pixel remake of Final Fantasy IV is a great and fast way to play the game. It's refreshing playing something so jam packed with awsomeness while many modern games have so much filler. I'm a little disappointed at various music, sound, and visual effect changes (especially spells), but it's still an overall authentic experience.

Shovel Knight was a lot of frustration with a little joy sprinkled in. Yet, it's so well made I did keep going back to it and got up to the maddening re-beat-every-boss-in-a-row nonsense before I finally gave up. I felt trapped every time I played, forcing myself to get through a given level so I didn't lose my progress, hands hurting more and more over time. I should probably steer clear of games that are a love letter to the NES era because it was rarely fun times for me.

I streamed every game I played AND archived the full playthroughs, so feel free to check them out!