Image: Kotaku / Xbox / Thomas Mucha / Lukasz Pawel Szczepanski (Shutterstock)
Over the February 3 weekend, reports from different outlets and insiders claimed that a number of big, Xbox exclusives—like Starfield and Gears of War—could possibly end up on PlayStation 5 in the near future. Once the news spread around the internet, the most Xbox-pilled users and creators began theorizing, denying, mourning, and ranting to those within their Church Of Xbox circle and beyond. Then, Xbox boss Phil Spencer posted a vague statement, seemingly confirming something was happening but the faithful would have to wait until next week to hear what. Perhaps he thought this would calm the masses. It didn’t. Instead, for some devoted Xbox fans, it was confirmation that the brand they worshiped was leaving them behind. And they aren’t taking it well (though some remain pretty chill about the prospect of Starfield coming to PS5). – Zack Zwiezen Read More
This week we’re going back to school,collecting Pals, and being reborn—that’s a lot of stuff to do without some tips. Palworld, the breakout hit from developer PocketPair, got a handful of major bug fixes that will make your creature-collecting a lot easier. And Atlus’ recent Persona 3 Reloadrelease means you’ll want to make sure you’re a Grade A student and a damn good friend—luckily we’re here to help you with all of that. The week also saw the surprise-debut of a Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo, and with progress carrying over to the main game, you’ll want to make sure you do everything you can with Sephiroth and company.
That’s why we’ve gathered the biggest, best, and most helpful Kotaku tips of the week, all in one spot. You’re welcome.
Ever since the launch of Final Fantasy VII Remake back in 2020, fans of the original have been wondering how the next installment of Square Enix’s reimagining of the landmark 1997 game would handle the many iconic setpiece moments, reveals, and twists yet to come. The Nibelheim Incident, which centers around Cloud’s consequential return to his hometown five years earlier, has been an especially fertile ground for speculation. The original game and its many spinoffs revisit this mission numerous times to show off the varying perspectives of the key players. It’s an overused analogy, but The Nibelheim Incident is essentially FF7’s equivalent of the Rashomon murder scene.With each slightly different retelling, we inch a little bit closer to the truth.
FF7‘s save-the-world story wasn’t revolutionary in 1997, and it certainly isn’t today. But the palpable sense that something is “off” with Cloud and his mentor-turned-nemesis Sephiroth elevates it into something far more memorable and enduring. For much of the game, the fate of the planet kinda takes a backseat to finding out what the deal is with these guys. At the same time, with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the developers at Square Enix face the daunting task of attracting newcomers to the second chapter of a trilogy, those who may primarily know Cloud and Sephiroth as cool badasses with fun hair from the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster.
So when I booted up the game at a recent media preview event, I was delighted to see that Chapter 1 of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth immediately begins with Cloud telling his version of what happened at Nibelheim. Rebirth throws you in at the deep end and delivers high stakes right up front—and it’s exactly what longtime fans want and newcomers need.
Sephiroth and Cloud ascend Mt. Nibel as jagged peaks loom ahead.Image: Square Enix
Déjà vu all over again
I’d played a smaller segment of this section at a preview event a few months back, but that slice was more combat- and traversal-focused. True to the original game, the full version of Rebirth’s Nibelheim incident is a slow burn, a cozy evening with friends winding down after the frantic escape from Midgar. Present-day Cloud narrates over this extended interactive sequence where you play as his younger self, and his storytelling is punctuated by interruptions from Barrett, Tifa, and Aerith. Many of these exchanges are taken beat-by-beat from the original game, and it’s nice to see them return here to inject some levity and sense of camaraderie into Cloud’s suspenseful and gloomy story.
Rebirth’s take on Nibelheim largely sticks to that of the original FF7. (Mostly.) The reason for Cloud and Sephy’s mission remains the same—they’re sent to investigate a malfunctioning mako reactor at Mt. Nibel, and deal with any monsters along the way. We get a clearer sense of Sephiroth’s renown and celebrity—we’re mostly told, not shown this in the original—as townsfolk breathlessly gossip about him and jostle for photos. As before, you get the chance to control Sephiroth in combat during the climb, and he’s absurdly strong and fun to play.
Ascending Mt. Nibel functions as a light tutorial for Rebirth’s new traversal mechanics, including jumping and climbing. It’s nothing complicated, but it does convey that Mt. Nibel is dangerous enough to require a guide’s assistance better than the original game did. Speaking of guides, we get quite a bit more of young Tifa in this section of Rebirth (Nibelheim is her hometown too, after all), complete with her adorable cowgirl outfit. And there are some very intriguing consequences of that, which I am not going to get into here.
On that note, Chapter 1 of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a veritable bonanza of jaw-dropping spoilers for folks who haven’t played the original game. Despite knowing exactly what was coming at certain moments, the impeccable visuals and environmental design blew me away. And, as was the case with Remake, when Rebirth’s soundtrack is firing on all cylinders, it’s the stuff of real-deal goosebumps on your arms. As the flames reach higher and the music shudders like a terrified heart, suddenly I’m 11 years old again, sitting cross-legged on the floor next to my older brother in front of a CRT with a skateboarding sticker on the side, unable to say anything but whoa.
Kalm is a far more charming and intricate city in Rebirth than the original game.Image: Square Enix
A whole new world
After Cloud gives his friends the rundown of what happened with Sephiroth in Nibelheim, we resume the present-tense story in the city of Kalm. And golly, what a glow-up. In 1997’s FF7, the town was little more than an RPG gas station—a place to pick up some potions, cheap equipment, and a quick snooze at the inn. There was never much reason to go back once you’d progressed to other places. This time around, its cobbled streets, overgrown flower boxes, and rabbit-warren layout ooze a tranquil charm that’s worthy of the name.
Cloud and his pals have a new slate of double and triple attacks this time around.Image: Square Enix
You won’t spend too long here in Rebirth either, but it does provide a chance to get acquainted with several new gameplay additions. The most notable of these are party relationships and party level, which allow you to strengthen your bond with your teammates through dialogue choices and optional activities. The original FF7 had a less fleshed-out version of this that culminated in the infamous Gold Saucer date, and it’s nice to see that the devs are finding new ways to let players spend more time with their favorite characters.
The innkeeper at Kalm will introduce you to Queen’s Blood, Rebirth’s answer to card games like Witcher 3‘s Gwent and FF8‘s Triple Triad. I can already tell loads of people are going to be utterly obsessed with this minigame, though I sadly am not one of them. (Happy for you guys, though!) This section also offers a brief rundown of skill trees, weapon upgrades, and item crafting. I remain unconvinced that Final Fantasy 7 needed a crafting system, and I didn’t find much occasion to use it during my demo. I can see how it may be useful for some optional fights later on, but I hope it’s more of a “take it or leave it” mechanic.
But we can’t stay in Kalm for long, and it’s soon time for our merry band of weirdos to hit the road in search of adventures, pocket money, and eventually Sephiroth. Rebirth’s version of the original game’s vast open world is bigger and more beautiful than I’d hoped, with plenty of nooks and crannies to explore. You’ll gain access to both menu-based fast-travel and chocobos pretty much immediately after leaving Kalm, mercifully cutting down on the ponderous backtracking of the 1997 game. Instead of large swaths of empty space for random encounters, now there are small farms, hamlets, and ruins between cities and dungeons. This makes Rebirth’s open world feel like a natural expansion of scope rather than just a concession to the expectations of fans. After hitting up the Chocobo Farm, you’re free to explore for a while, but once you’re ready to return to the main story, a Ghost of Tsushima-esque green Mako trail will appear to nudge you toward your destination. It’s a thoughtful design choice that avoids the immersion-breaking “map game” vibes that have become a bit too commonplace in open-world design.
Holding down the basic attack button for Red XIII will allow him to do a continuous “Sonic spin” attack.Image: Square Enix
Naturally, once you get out into the big wide world, you’re gonna be doing some fighting. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth adds another layer to Remake’s real-time combat system, and I’m still not totally sure how I feel about it. You’ll have more than three party members to choose from at any given time, and each unique duo or trio can team up for a unique special attack. On paper, this sounds like Chrono Trigger, which is terrific. In practice, it kinda feels like one thing too many to keep track of. Remake’s combat had a satisfying cadence of managing cooldowns to pull off magic spells, heals, and special attacks. But in the early hours of Rebirth, even mundane fights have a noticeably stop-start feel to them. I’m hoping to settle into a flow eventually, but I’m also curious if this all might feel better in classic, turn-based mode instead. (Thankfully, it’s an on-the-fly toggle in the full game.) Quibbles aside, I’m still enjoying the heck out of the combat and the demo left me hungry for more. Pro tip: Red XIII’s strangely Sonic Spinball moveset is extremely fun to play.
The big question heading into Rebirth and its unnamed successor is: can it recapture—or even exceed—the magic of the original game? That remains to be seen. But, so far, the first three chapters are a helluva good sign for what’s to come.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launches February 29 on PlayStation 5.
Tekken 8 has been out since January 26 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. While you might be tempted to jump straight into its online matches, which you’re not prepared for—trust me—you should check out the game’s story mode first. Not only does it introduce you to many ofTekken 8‘s characters and themes, but it also sets up a bombastic, relentlessly over-the-top narrative about breaking the chains that hold us back. And it’s a great way to acclimate yourself to some of the game’s new mechanics. This is a story mode you shouldn’t miss. – Levi Winslow Read More
As an expansive survival game, Palworld has a variety of stats you can increase as you level up, leading to different strengths and weaknesses over the course of your character’s life. As is customary for many games like this, you can usually alter, or “respec,” these stats later on. Palworld lets you do this by way of “Memory Wiping Medicine,” which you can craft with the right items. – Claire Jackson Read More
Were you bummed Final Fantasy VII Rebirth didn’t make an appearance? Well you’re not alone. Good news, though! On February 6, 2024, we’ll be treated to yet another State of Play showing, this time with a closer look at the upcoming second chapter of the Final Fantasy VII remake project.
And that wraps everything we saw at tonight’s State of Play. Which games are you most excited about?
Pokémon Concierge, the stop-motion animated series that launched on Netflix in December, is a total vibe. After spending time watching a lovely series about a Pokémon resort, I almost don’t want to go back to battling and training. I just want to hang out with all these little guys and take a neverending vacation. Unfortunately, that’s not the core of most Pokémon games, but it is nice to picture what a Pokémon Concierge video game could look like. Thankfully, we don’t have to imagine it, as some artists have already created a mock-up of it for the original Game Boy, though it’s unfortunately not a playable game. – Kenneth Shepard Read More
Clockwise from bottom left: Tom Hiddleston in Loki (Photo: Marvel Studios), Aramis Knight and Iman Vellani in Ms. Marvel (Photo: Disney+), Tatiana Maslany in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law (Photo: Disney+), Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany in WandaVision (Photo: Disney+/Marvel Studios), Samuel L. Jackson in Secret Invasion (Photo: Gareth Gatrell/Marvel), Oscar Isaac in Moon Knight (Photo: Marvel Studios), Alaqua Cox in Echo (Photo: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios) Graphic: Jimmy Hasse
Updated 1/12: The MCU shows no signs of getting any smaller, does it? And now that Echois here, it’s time to see where it sits in our ranking, from worst to best, of the whopping 26 Marvel shows that have premiered since 2013. Prepare for some ambitious Netflix fare, sturdy star vehicles, head trips like Legion, and—hang on, Helstrom, we’re getting to you—those not-so-hot titles, too. Dig in and let the non-superpowered fighting commence. – Sam Barsanti Read More
It’s time for a second trip to Seattle in The Last of Us Part IIRemastered. Originally shipped in 2020, Part II amps up the scope of the series, as well as the violence. The result is a dynamic, stealthy survival horror romp that takes place decades after a world-ending pandemic. It can be a tough game to play, and Remastered also includes a new roguelike mode for those who want an even greater challenge. – Ari Notis Read More
Screenshot: Square Enix, James Lambert, Bethesda / Xbox, Naughty Dog / Kotaku, Image: Disney / Lucasfilm
After a couple sleepy weeks, the gaming hype train of 2024 is finally moving at full steam. We saw the first major showcase of the year with Xbox’s Developer Direct, dug into The Last of Us Part II Remastered, and oogled MachineGames flamin’ hot digital dupe of ‘80s Harrison Ford. These are the week’s most important previews, reviews, and takes.
The announcement that Nintendo Switch Online’s Game Boy Advance range is to receive RPGs Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age is incredibly welcome news. But there are still some absolutely colossal gaps, some all-time great GBA games that we’d love to play on our Switches. Nintendo! Hear our pleas!
In 2019, Capcom blew our minds with a brutal remake of 1998’s Resident Evil 2, this time with a new camera perspective, modern graphics, and the return of two classic horror protagonists: Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Starting on January 16, you’ll be able to download this incredible remake as a part of your PlayStation Plus Premium and Extra subscriptions. – Claire Jackson Read More
Play it on:Windows Current goal: Dive into the second chapter
Having written up a bunch of fantastic boomer shooters for the site, I was reminded that the team behind the as-yet-unfinished Project Warlock II had added an awful lot of content to its Early Access build since I’d last played. In fact, previously it had only been a single, fantastic level. It’s now two full chapters, each made up of a pile of enormous, sprawling, open levels to tear around.
I’m so glad I’ve gone back to it. This is a screamingly fast FPS game, where you move like an ice cube skidding across a kitchen floor, facing down dozens of enemies at a time. What makes it feel different from the many other retro-FPS games is the sheer scale of the levels, which are far more open than the genre normally offers. Think of those times you got to go outside in the original Unreal, but far more densely packed with enemies, secrets, and loot.
Those secrets are a blast to find, and worth pursuing too, since they offer tokens for upgrades in the betwixt level zone. There are three different areas you can upgrade, with each weapon possible to adjust in two different ways (one shutting down access to the other), and then this upgrade boosted. Then there are affinities to improve, such as whether you want to improve your melee talent, firepower, or indeed your power with fire—you gain spells that let you do things like blast torrents of fire from your palms. And finally you can then specialize even further with—er—VHS tapes you can buy when you’ve increased your ability in a specific attack style, that enhance them in specific ways.
This is all then taken back to the next level, where enemies that were previously boss-like can now appear in gangs and be quickly taken care of. In this, it reminds me of the excellent enemy handling in the original Serious Sam. My plan this weekend is to get stuck into the second chapter, that has a whole other player character, with their own set of skills, perks, spells and weapons. — John Walker
Try out Project Warlock 2’s free demo on Steam
Neo-retro vibes of the “boomer shooter” variety got your interest? Good news: You can download a free demo of Project Warlock 2 to get shootin’ like it’s the mid ‘90s all over again
Think the first week of January is a slow one for news? Think again. A 13-year-old Tetris phenom has boldly gone where no one has gone before, beating the NES version of the classic puzzler by reaching a “kill screen” on level 157. Steam announced the occasionally baffling results of its annual players’ choice awards, and The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall got a free-to-play, fan-made remaster.
Three Things We Learned From The Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Demo
Before Starfield, before Skyrim, before Fallout 3 and Oblivion, before your parents even knew how to make you, there was The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. It was, and remains, Bethesda’s biggest-ever game, and now a fan-made rebuilding of the entire vast world in Unity has reached its 1.0 release. Oh, and it’s entirely free, and won’t be destroyed by lawyers! This new Daggerfall is an almighty achievement, and exactly the excuse you needed to return to Tamriel. – John Walker Read More
The results of 2023’s Steam Awards are in. Each year, Steam turns to the community to vote on the year’s best games across a wide variety of categories. This year saw Larian Studios’ RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 grab game of the year, while Lethal Company, a first-person cooperative horror game,got the “Better With Friends Award” for its co-op gameplay. The Last of Us Part I snagged Best Soundtrack, which seems odd because it came out in 2013, but it technically wasn’t added to Steam until 2023. – Claire Jackson Read More
Just two months after the third-person action-horror game Stray Souls came out, developer Jukai Studio abruptly shuttered its doors, citing myriad issues including poor game sales and multiple cyberattacks from an unknown perpetrator.The developer took to X/Twitter on December 22 to announce the sudden closure. Part of the problem, Jukai Studio said, was Stray Souls’ abysmal reception and sales, which made the team “completely unable to sustain the company.” – Levi Winslow Read More
Classic puzzle game Tetris has been around for over three decades, and in that time, plenty of people have reached its various endings, usually by clearing four rows of bricks at once like a digital demolitioner. That’s a challenge in and of itself, but now, someone has taken the concept of “beating Tetris” to the extreme by playing the NES game so hard it straight-up crashed, a phenomenon also known as the “kill screen.” – Levi Winslow Read More
Forever-in-development space sim Star Citizenmight not be finished after over a decade of dev work and announcements, but it does already contain a lot of expensive ships you can buy and fly around in. And if you want all of those ships in one big DLC pack, Star Citizen has an option for you. Just be prepared to spend over $48,000. – Zack Zwiezen Read More
Here’s something unironically wonderful. Via a post by Larian Studios writer Rachel Quirke, we’ve just learned of a deeply moving tribute to a player’s father that appears in the studios’ award-winning RPG Baldur’s Gate 3. In October 2020, a member of the Larian forums posted to thank the developer for releasing the first act of the game in Early Access, because it allowed them to enjoy one last adventure with their father, who had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. – John Walker Read More
Screenshot: Ubisoft Massive Entertainment / Kotaku
Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft’s upcoming action-adventure game that follows scoundrel Kay Vess between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, previously had no release date beyond a very broad “2024” window. Today, however, a Disney Parks blog post quietly announced that it would launch in “late 2024.” This didn’t last long, as Ubisoft promptly swooped in to correct the record and re-assert the general 2024 timeframe. – Levi Winslow Read More
City of Heroes was a beloved MMORPG that launched in April 2004 and lasted just over eight years. In that time it won a dedicated community of players who, even after the game died, kept playing the MMO via private servers that existed in a weird legal gray area. But now, the developers behind City of Heroes have given one private server the official thumbs-up to keep on keeping on. – Zack Zwiezen Read More
We asked and you answered. Some games and franchises, no matter how popular they are, just don’t make the cut for some of us, and we wanted to know which ones just don’t click with you.
While some answers were expected (like me, lots of folks don’t get along with Dark Souls), others left me a bit surprised, including the shade some threw at acclaimed 2023 role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3.
A new month is nearly here, as well as a new year, and that means updates to the PlayStation Plus catalog. January kicks off 2024 with three new games available for Premium, Extra, and Essential members to download starting on January 2, as well as some goodies if you happen to be a space ninja. – Claire Jackson Read More
Pokémon’s profit margins probably don’t reflect it, but the franchise had a rough year in 2023. Without a new mainline role-playing game to dominate the series’ headlines, Pikachu and friends were, instead, shrouded in controversies throughout the past 12 months. Between Pokémon Go angering swaths of its community, scalpers making a public embarrassment of the franchise to people who don’t even pay attention to it, and Scarlet and Violet’s DLC underlining the problems ingrained within the Pokémon pipeline, the screws are coming loose on the hype train. – Kenneth Shepard Read More
I love the idea of annual top 10 lists until it comes time to actually make one. Then my perpetually indecisive brain freaks out about whether the game I spent 100 hours playing was actually any good, the tension between an interesting game and a fun one, and the cries of all the games I never finished or even got around to starting, still begging for my attention.
Tears Of The Kingdom’s Newspaper Questline And The State Of Hyrulean Journalism
I spent 2023 tracking some of the best new games that came out every month, attempting to at least try as many of them as I could while also measuring how my feelings changed about them as the year went on. And I ended up playing a bunch of them while still not getting around to what no doubt would have been strong personal GOTY contenders.
With a not-so-short short list assembled by early December, the task then becomes figuring out which games I actually thought were the best. I’ve worked hard to convince myself over the years that the process is more art than science. Inevitably I tally up the perceived merits and flaws of a game and then try to compare the vague calculations, an exercise that always ends in a mix of conflicted self-doubt and second-guessing.
Eventually I silence the internal dissent and retreat into a more abstract sense of what feels right. Recently this has meant giving in more to my personal tastes and subjectivity, championing the games I love rather than the ones I feel I ought to like, and praising them for the one or two things they do very well instead of letting all the smaller things they don’t do so well hold them back. This doesn’t impose any more order on the chaos of comparing a roguelite loot shooter to a visual novel adventure, but it does give me fewer pangs of guilt when I eventually settle on rating one above the other.
Here, in alphabetical order, are the top 10 games that moved me the most in 2023.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
Screenshot: FromSoftware / Kotaku
I’ve always understood and appreciated the Soulsborne formula and its many flavors on an intellectual level, but Armored Core VI was the game that finally made me feel and love the initial hopelessness and eventual satisfaction that comes from mastering a FromSoftware game. The mech shooter is razor sharp and ultra polished when it comes to zipping around environments and engaging in moment-to-moment combat. You actually feel yourself becoming more in-sync with the custom robot’s strengths and limitations the more you play, each successive boss fight pushing you to come to a deeper understanding of what’s important and what’s just noise. I spent several nights trying to beat Balteus. I don’t regret any of them. And I remain blown away by Armored Core VI’s vibes-based storytelling and branching new game plus mode. Its economical arcade design rewards you for every additional minute you put into it and doesn’t waste time on anything superfluous.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Screenshot: Larian Studios
Sometimes superfluous is good, though. In fact, sometimes it can be transcendent. The promise of a dozen roads not taken in a video game pays off in making the one you did walk feel unique, unlikely, and unmistakably yours. I love that Baldur’s Gate 3 contains entire games’ worth of conversations, interactions, and outcomes I will never experience. It makes the small journey I have been on feel that much more intimate and personal. None of this would matter, of course, if Baldur’s Gate 3 was not well written, painstakingly choreographed, and expertly voice acted. It’s a dense RPG full of gear and skills to manage alongside quests and boss fights to navigate, and all of it, no matter how it plays out, feels like it was meant to happen that way. It’s the new gold standard for role-playing video games.
Chants of Sennaar
Screenshot: Rundisc
I don’t normally like language-based games. (Ironic considering I’m a writer.) I despise crossword puzzles. The inherent fluidity and ambiguousness of language mashed up with the rigid constraints of a game almost always leave me feeling underwhelmed and frustrated. I was shocked, then, to find out just how much I enjoyed Chants of Sennaar, a puzzle adventure about deciphering unknown languages between various factions in a Tower of Babel that oozes highly saturated yellows, blues, and reds. What I appreciated most was how quickly context and intuition helped whittle down possible solutions to problems, making limited communication gratifyingly achievable even when there was no foundation to begin building on. Rather than punish you for the shifty and slippery nature of language, Chants of Sennaar allows those elements to color your overall experience and interpretation of the game without blocking your moment-to-moment progress.
Cocoon
Screenshot: Geometric Interactive
Cocoon feels like it was chiseled from a rock over thousands of years. Everything unessential has been methodically removed. All that’s left is a seamless sequence of puzzles gently nudging you toward new discoveries and brain-twisting realizations. Remnants of conventional game design like screen icons and boss fight deaths have been elegantly eradicated. Evocative musical queues punctuate each new milestone on your journey. And the rules governing its world are supremely simple but always manage to combine into solutions that feel just outside the realm of possibility. Cocoon is probably one of the best puzzle adventures ever made.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Image: CD Projekt Red
I finished Cyberpunk 2077 for the first time last year. Despite some fantastic missions and an overwhelmingly intricate open world, it left little impression on me. That seemed a symptom of the underlying structure of the game rather than anything that could be patched out with new abilities or a more impressive sci-fi open world simulation. Night City felt fundamentally alienating to me, and none of the individual characters, story arcs, or RPG progressions managed to pull me out of that feeling of malaise. That is, until Phantom Liberty and the game’s 2.0 update in 2023. The culmination of every new addition, from takedown animations and parrying bullets with katanas to jacked-up car chases and an entire subway system, is an open-world RPG that passes some imaginary threshold from feeling static and paper-thin to one that’s lively and responsive. It helps that Phantom Liberty is a streamlined campaign in a specific part of the map that, dispensing with the MacGuffins of the main plot, can instead weave an interesting and nuanced tale of political intrigue, betrayal, and necessary consequences. Taken together, it’s the game I was hoping Cyberpunk 2077 could be ever since I finished The Witcher 3’s amazing Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions.
Darkest Dungeon II
Image: Red Hook Studios
It only took one caravan ride in Red Hook Studios sequel to convince me it was something special. Darkest Dungeon II takes everything I loved about the first game and puts it in motion, propelling its brutal emergent storytelling and grim probability-based combat over all of the divots and ditches that occasionally ensnared its predecessor. Playing Darkest Dungeon II late at night with the lights turned off made me feel like I was racing through the gothic fall of humankind to save my soul. While it loses some of the managerial depth of the first game, it more than makes up for it with its more cinematic presentation and economical focus. I wish every game could create such an unmistakable sense of place, atmosphere, and engaging stakes with similar efficiency, and made failure feel so rewarding and profound.
Final Fantasy XVI
Screenshot: Square Enix / Kotaku
This is the problematic fave on this list. Final Fantasy XVI disappointed me in so many ways. From its shallow RPG systems to its dreary and cumbersome second half, the latest game in the Square Enix series felt like it left so much untapped potential on the table. It makes me dream of what the team might accomplish if given the time and resources to mount Cyberpunk 2077’s three-year turn around from Early Access to 2.0 victory lap. Instead of droning on about all the things I disliked about this game, I’ll simply say that it’s highs were higher than almost anything else I played this year and kept me coming back through a new game plus run which has reminded me why I love it, from the incredibly sleek and satisfying action to the magnificent cinematic boss fights. When the writing isn’t falling down flat on its face and the sky isn’t overcast with an impenetrable gloom, there is more than one flicker of the return to form Final Fantasy fans like me have been waiting more than a decade for.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Image: Nintendo
I almost left this one off the list. It feels like a cheating. Every stage in Super Mario Bros. Wonder is juiced to the max, carefully engineered to delight, entertain, and continually surprise you, all while maintaining the series’ tightly calibrated platforming feel and bespoke attention to detail. Super Mario Bros. Wonder doesn’t catapult the formula forward or feel as inventive as recent puzzle boxes like Super Mario 3D World and Bowser’s Fury. Its most remarkable moments don’t quite measure up to the peaks in Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World. But it’s exquisitely crafted, and every level is packed to the brim with new quirks and fun ideas. No game brought me more unburdened joy this year.
The Banished Vault
Screenshot: Lunar Division
Obtuse, slow, and occasionally clumsy, The Banished Vault nevertheless takes spreadsheet navigation and adds an irresistible sense of existential dread to the proceedings. You play religious outcasts scavenging solar systems for resources to survive until the next cryo-sleep-induced hyper-light jump. The greatest terrors I felt in any game this year came from the prospect of miscalculating fuel reserves and how long I have until the next supernova. The Banished Vault can feel straightforward once you unravel its economy, but that process of demystification is complex and enthralling, and richly infused with meaning thanks to the austere presentation and haunting soundtrack. It made contemplating certain doom not just thrilling but spiritually soothing.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was a slam dunk. It surpassed my wildest expectations, taking what impressed me about Breath of the Wild and finding even more ways to surprise, delight, and gently lead me through its whimsical, dangerous, beautiful world. Game critics love to reward novelty, ambition, and bold experimentation. The nature of playing so many things and being exposed to so much naturally places a premium on the new and unexpected. Tears of the Kingdom has plenty of that, but more than anything it shows masters of their craft assessing, refining, and iterating on a formula they’ve spent decades on, like Chevy working on a new Corvette or Porsche making the latest 911. I’m still stunned that there’s a Zelda game where you can make your own rocket ship and somehow it doesn’t feel like a gimmick but rather like the most obvious and natural thing you could do in an open world fantasy adventure.
Honorable mentions:Season: A Letter to the Future, Humanity, Jusant, Planet of Lana, Saltsea Chronicles, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew.
Needed more time with:Alan Wake 2, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Remnant II, Lies of P, Laika: Aged Through Blood, Dredge.
Didn’t get to:Terra Nil, Against the Storm, Fading Afternoon, A Space for the Unbound, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, The Talos Principle 2, Slay the Princess, Void Stranger, and many more.
Liked but didn’t love:Spider-Man 2, Starfield, Diablo IV, Sea of Stars, Hi-Fi Rush, Moonring, Thirsty Suitors.
Photo: Valve / Kotaku / Roman Samborskyi (Shutterstock)
A Steam user on Christmas Eve had a question: How do you earn just one measly little Steam Point? They were at 68,999 points and wanted to hit 69,000 because, you know, it’s a nice number and all that. However, because of how Steam Points are earned, there seemed no simple way to get that one measly point. But then a Christmas miracle happened. – Zack Zwiezen Read More
Pokémon’s profit margins probably don’t reflect it, but the franchise had a rough year in 2023. Without a new mainline role-playing game to dominate the series’ headlines, Pikachu and friends were, instead, shrouded in controversies throughout the past 12 months. Between Pokémon Go angering swaths of its community, scalpers making a public embarrassment of the franchise to people who don’t even pay attention to it, and Scarlet and Violet’s DLC underlining the problems ingrained within the Pokémon pipeline, the screws are coming loose on the hype train. And yet, it cannot be stopped as it barrels down the tracks. Pokémon’s 2023 had its moments, but overall, it was pretty grim for a series usually so full of hope.
Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Detective Pikachu Returns pulls off its story better than the movie
To start off with some good, Detective Pikachu Returnsfinally came to Switch and wrapped up the original 3DS game’s bewildering cliffhanger. Without a new RPG out this year, Detective Pikachu Returns was the only home console game Pokémon fans got in 2023. The adventure game is pretty simple, but maintains the original’s charm and compelling setting. The ending felt pretty definitive, but hopefully, it’s not the end of The Pokémon Company greenlighting adventure games in the Pokémon universe.
Image: The Pokémon Company
Pokémon Sleep finally wakes up
After years of teases, Pokémon Sleep, the sleeping app meant to encourage consistent sleeping habits, finally launched on mobile devices. In our review, I talked about how it feels geared toward kids who need a little motivation to get to sleep on time. Arceus knows it’s near impossible for an adult with sleep disorders and things to do in the morning to get their recommended eight hours of shuteye. But the app is the latest example of Pokémon getting into lifestyle and wellness, following Pokémon Go’s lead of gamifying daily activity while building people’s relationships with the Pokémon brand.
Photo: Kenneth Shepard
Pokémon remains a community hub
Whether you were one of the 194,000 trainers attending Pokémon Go Fest or were in attendance during the Pokémon World Championships in Yokohama this year, Pokémon remains a community-driven series that brings people together. I even attended my first Go Fest this year, and having felt walled off from that side of the community living in rural Georgia, it was an invigorating experience to be surrounded by so many people coming together for a common love.
Image: The Pokémon Company
The anime ushers in a new era
One of the biggest events of Pokémon history happened in 2023, with long-time protagonist Ash Ketchum walking into the sunset in a final episode. The episode itself didn’t end with a definitive story beat but essentially said he and his partner Pikachu would continue to go on adventures throughout the Pokémon world, but we wouldn’t get to follow them. Instead, Pokémon Horizons, which follows new heroes Liko and Roy, has usurped Ash and Pikachu’s adventures as the primary animated series. The series has been airing in Japan since April, and will finally come to English-speaking territories in February 2024. Though it remains to be seen if Liko and Roy will ascend to Ash’s status as a beloved, iconic hero in anime, Horizons has already garnered acclaim from fans for its lovingly crafted animation.
Image: The Pokémon Company / Netflix
Pokémon shows of all shapes and sizes
While Liko and Roy are headlining the anime, Pokémon has had two more TV projects in 2023 that expand beyond 2D animation. This includes PokéTsume, a live-action drama starring a young woman who sorts through her personal and professional drama by playing Pokémon (she’s just like me, FR), and Pokémon Concierge, a stop-motion animation series on Netflix that is available to stream today, December 28. The Pokémon machine primarily focuses on games, anime, and merchandise as its core pillars, so it’s been nice to see The Pokémon Company continue to expand its projects to tell new stories in this world that aren’t always tied to competitive sports.
Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Scarlet and Violet’s DLC highlights the best and worst of the base games
While there was no new RPG in 2023, Scarlet and Violet got a two-part expansion called The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. Between The Teal Maskand The Indigo Disk, fans got new maps to explore, Pokémon to catch, and tools to build competitive teams. While the new story beats didn’t capitalize enough on the base games’ incredible ending to my liking (with one major exception), I was still happy to run around new places with my friends in co-op and learn more about this world. Sadly, in the year since Scarlet and Violet launched, Game Freak hasn’t managed to get the games into a fully functional state, and The Teal Mask and Indigo Disk’s new open-world maps are just as (if not more) buggy and ugly than Paldea was in 2022.
Welcome to Exp. Share, Kotaku’s Pokémon column in which we dive deep to explore notable characters, urban legends, communities, and just plain weird quirks from throughout the Pokémon franchise.
Image: The Pokémon Company / Vincent Van Gogh
The Van Gogh Museum fiasco underlined deep-rooted issues in the community
Pokémon and the Van Gogh Museum had a collaboration this year that included Pokémon-themed recreations of legendary Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh’s works, as well as merchandise tied to the event and a rare Pikachu card available with purchase alongside these limited edition items. As anyone who has paid attention to Pokémon in the past seven years can tell you, scalpers have become an entrenched part of this community, as it’s nearly impossible attempting to buy any limited edition item without someone’s bot swooping in and buying it to resell it on sites like eBay. While Pokémon fans know to expect that, it’s not often that this issue becomes a public spectacle. The Van Gogh Museum’s new exhibit, however, was overrun by so many people that it looked like something out of a Black Friday sale, and rather than just being fans hoping to acquire some special merch for themselves, many of these were scalpers, looking to hoard the items and jack up the prices.
It’s not unusual for people to attempt to steal and sell Pokémon merchandise, especially cards, andt more often than not, these are just petty crimes. The Van Gogh Museum fiasco, however, was a public embarrassment for The Pokémon Company, and the museum had to cease its card distribution for the safety of its patrons and employees. But even if the card is no longer being given out at the museum, the lingering aftermath of scalpers can still be seen on overpriced eBay listings for it, as well as associated merchandise from the collaboration. The Pokémon Company issued an apology and has since offered the card through the Pokémon Center store, but has neglected to manufacture more of the merchandise.
Image: The Pokémon Company
Pokémon Go’s Remote Raid changes undermine the community it nurtured
At the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, Pokémon Go developer Niantic made it easier for players to take part in raids with Remote Raid Passes that let you play the game from anywhere. It was a huge move for the game, as it was now possible to take part in these events regardless of where you and your friends were. This was especially helpful for people who lived in rural areas where Pokémon Go was typically not well-supported, as well as disabled players who typically had trouble playing Pokémon Go due to its focus on walking to reach objectives.
In March, Niantic made Remote Raid Passes more expensive and limited how many you can use in a day, which fundamentally undermined the ways several subsets of the Pokémon Go community had been playing the game for three years. The subsequent backlash spawned a fan campaign using the hashtag #HearUsNiantic, in which players expressed how these changes affected their enjoyment of the game, with some going as far as to say the increase in price for Remote Raid Passes felt like a tax on the disabled community. Despite protests and boycotts, these restrictions remain in the game to this day.
Image: Niantic
Niantic’s struggles go beyond Pokémon Go
If the public controversy around its flagship game weren’t enough, Niantic has been the subject of a lot of bad news in 2023. In June, Kotaku reported that Niantic was shutting down its Los Angeles studio, laying off over 200 employees in the process. The company made the decision to move away from in-house development, shuttering its basketball game NBA All-World and canceling its planned Marvel game.
Two weeks later, Niantic was the subject of a lawsuit accusing it of “systemic sexual bias” against its female employees and creating a “boys club” work environment. In November, a California judge approved the lawsuit to proceed.
Image: The Pokémon Company
The death of the 3DS eShop shakes Pokémon trading
The 3DS and Wii U eShops were shut down in 2023. While this affects every game and service on those platforms, Pokémon is in a precarious position because the loss of the 3DS eShop has created a gap between Pokémon generations. Trading old Pokémon to new games has been a long-held tradition within the series. It’s taken different forms between games, but the practice has become much more streamlined with the introduction of platform-agnostic services like Pokémon Home that host Pokémon from any game that can connect to the internet. However, the 3DS has been the bridge between older generations and Home through an app called Pokémon Bank. This 3DS app is used to transfer Pokémon from 3DS games to Home, thus to Switch games like Scarlet and Violet.
Pokémon Home is still probably the best solution The Pokémon Company has launched for this problem, as it doesn’t have to rely on specific hardware to store and trade different monsters. But without Bank, some Pokémon have become difficult or even impossible to obtain and trade over to modern games. As of this writing, Bank still works for those who had it purchased and installed on their 3DS before the eShop shutdown, but the tool is no longer readily available for new players.
Image: The Pokémon Company
Competitive Pokémon has a big hacking controversy
While not every Pokémon player is embedded in the competitive scene, ranked Pokémon play is still a pillar of the RPGs millions of people play every year. However, at this year’s Pokémon World Championship tournament in Yokohama, several players were banned from competing after it was discovered they were using hacked teams that weren’t approved for competitive use at an official tournament. However, some competitors told Kotaku The Pokémon Company’s rulings on this matter have been inconsistent, which made their bans at the headlining event of the year all the more devastating. In the fallout, new data seems to reveal this kind of homebrewing of competitively viable teams is rampant within the community.
The debate about using tools like PKHeX, which allows you to create teams without finding, catching, and training the Pokémon in a game, is a complicated one. Going this route doesn’t necessarily give you a competitive edge but can be viewed as not within the spirit of the franchise. Competitive players argue that using a tool like this is just a matter of saving time, allowing users to craft a team without having to do so within the boundaries of games like Scarlet and Violet. Training Pokémon to their most powerful potential isn’t an easy feat and can take large swaths of your time, even if you have endgame resources. But the argument that you should have to train like a real Pokémon trainer to “earn” your spot in the competitive space harkens to arguments made in the games and anime themselves.
Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
The machine must be stopped. Or at least made better
We at Kotaku launched Exp. Share, our Pokémon column, in 2023 to talk about all the wild, wonderful, weird, and woeful parts of this franchise. One of the most telling things I’ve learned in my years of covering Pokémon, especially for this column, has been that even as the series frustrates and confounds its legions of fans, those people will still show up to throw their money at it, despite their annoyance.
Issues like the supply problems that let scalpers run rampant, Pokémon Go pushing out the same community that kept it afloat, and Scarlet and Violet selling 23 million copies despite being an absolute trainwreck on a technical level only happen when The Pokémon Company is given little incentive to fix these problems. When I interviewed collectors for the Van Gogh reseller story, Grace Klich, who owns one of the Pikachu-inspired Volkswagen Beetles known as Pikabugs, pointed out that The Pokémon Company has watched systemic issues sprout up in its community over the years, but hasn’t done much to address them. Sure, the company apologized this time, but it’s not making more of what people are asking for. They made their projected profits; what does it matter if people are upset by the same supply problems they’ve always been?
This extends to pretty much every pillar of Pokémon’s business. The merch can sell out before fans can buy it because a scalper’s money clears just as easily for The Pokémon Company as that of a dedicated fan who wanted a Pikachu plush for their shelf. Pokémon COO Takato Utsunomiya said this year that the company’s annual releases may not be sustainable, as it’s affecting the quality of games like Scarlet and Violet, which are largely defined by big ideas and squandered potential. But if they sell 23 million copies despite being raked through the coals for their poor technical performance, is anything actually going to change? If The Pokémon Company knows it can count on people to show up, no matter how poor or frustrating its offerings are, can the machine ever be stopped?
Last year, Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Scarlet and Violet showed that Pokémon is growing beyond simply banking on nostalgia. But 2023 showed that all of that growth can be squandered as it inevitably gets funneled back into the bottom line. The machine is pumping out Pokémon games, cards, merchandise, and collaborations at a rate only rivaled by the late ‘90s Pokémania era. And yet, with every botched launch and misguided decision, with the ongoing lack of real change, the facade of this most hopeful franchise gets increasingly exposed for the money-making machine it is underneath.
