Board 8 > My top 20 most anticipated games -- post summer games fest edition...?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Now that Nintendo finally had some sort of Direct -- not what you'd want for an e3-like presentation, but hey it's something -- it's time to unveil my yearly list of anticipated games. This time of the year has historically been a good barometer for what's coming for the next 18 or so months and 2022 is the first time where I'm pretty sure I'm missing a few games because companies just aren't doing the usual June preview circuit. I don't even know what Sony is doing with its big franchises!

This year we've got a ton of JRPGs or JRPG-adjacent games coming up, so if you're into those you'll find a lot to at least pay attention to here. We seem to be in a mini resurgence of the genre after a bunch of down years. There's always some good indie games out there too so I'll try to highlight a few of those as well.

is this only stuff coming out soon, or basically anything announced at this point?

yeah, no limits on when things are coming out. if it's been announced I'll consider it. I bet some things won't come out til late 2023 or later.

that said, I'm naturally more interested in things that aren't years away.

excited to see where star ocean 6 lands!!!

haha I forgot that was even announced

for good reason

ya go my Sonic Frontiers

TheManaSword posted...

excited to see where star ocean 6 lands!!!

the time has come

Xenoblade 3 hype!

heroicmario posted...

the time has come

It'll beat Pokemon next time for sure...!

In no particular order:

1. Sea of Stars
2. FF Pixel Remasters for consoles
3. God of War Ragnarok
4. Tunic for PS5
5. FF7 Crisis Core Remake
6. FF7 Rebirth
7. FF16
8. Spider-Man 2
9. Star Wars Jedi Survivor
10. FF7 Redemption (Part 3)
11. Threads of Time
12. TMNT The Cowabunga Collection
13. Mega Man Battle Network Collection
14. Temtem
15. Live A Live
16. Mega Man The Power Fighters PS5

20. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

2023
PC, Consoles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q08tFwYlNEc

Suikoden, baby. Even the battle system looks like it's taken from the old Suikoden games, and of course the game's biggest appeal, the huge gotta-catch-em-all cast. I don't know if this is exactly 108 like the original Suikoden or if it's just a hundred or what. To be honest, I haven't paid that close attention to it because it's always seemed so far off.

The trailer looks good, and they put out an ARPG spinoff called Rising that was apparently kinda disappointing. If it was good, the Suiko-nuts would be yelling about it from the trees, and that game came and went. I installed it since it's a day Game Pass game and still didn't bother just because the word of mouth was so poor.

But yeah, the trailers for this look good and the lineage is really what I'm here for. I love the first Suikoden. The ones that came after 2000 weren't really my cup of tea so hopefully this is more like the original than the sequels. I'm a little more cautiously optimistic on this one than some of the later RPGs on the list, mostly because I don't know a ton and because it's still seemingly so far in the future.

Ayyy I kickstarted that one. Super looking forward to it!

What were your thoughts on Suikoden 2? It came out before 2000 so I wasn't sure if it was included as being one of the sequels you didn't really like.

Suikoden 2 is such a traumatic subject for me. Heroic Mario can tell the tale. I'm going to give it another go in a few months.

19. A Frog's Tale

PC
Feb 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g649LX2z7NE

yo can you say Mario and Luigi? A Frog's Tale is dripping with inspiration from that game, and its little beat-based mechanics are really cute and look fun to play. This game is actually on Kickstarter right now, and has hit its funding goal, but it's also out in less than a year so clearly it was being made either way and just needed/wanted a bit of money to finish up. That's Kickstarter for ya.

The music also feels extremely Chrono Trigger, especially the first few seconds, which is a good way to get me to sit up straight. I won't claim that A Frog's Tale is doing anything unique here but man. Sometimes you just need a good execution, and this game's look and feel seems to hit it. I'm pretty sure this will find its way to consoles as well, but it's being targeted for PC in the first wave. It's the perfect Switch game and I'm sure it finds its way there, probably costing $10 more than it should.

list of announced Square games:

Live a Live Remake
Star Ocean 6
Diofield Chronicle
Valkyrie Elysium
Forspoken
Dragon Quest Treasures
Front Mission Remake
Harvestella

Front Mission 2 Remake
Crisis Core Remake
FFXVI
KH4
DQ12
DQ3 Remake
FFVII Rebirth
Mana/Seiken Densetsu 5

first 8 all announced for 2022

wonder how many of these make the list (Dragon Quest Treasures will be near the top I'm guessing!)

18. Into the Breach: Advanced Edition

7/19/22
PC/Consoles + Mobile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8DCsU8MJxE

Into the Breach isn't a new game. The FTL developers came out with this in like 2018, a nifty little run-based SRPG with very exacting mechanics and lots of different classes. Each fight is a puzzle, even moreso than your FFTs or whatever. Into the Breach is a cool game that I played and beat a couple of times, but never dived totally in on.

Years later, they're coming out with a big content update, adding new units and classes and weapons and etc, all the usual stuff you see with expansions. But this thing is coming out on mobile as part of this too. Here's the crazy part: it's coming out on Netflix. Like, you log into the Netflix app on your phone, go to the Games section and just start playing games as part of your subscription. Did you guys know this was a thing? I had no idea. It seems crazy!

So, I have a bit of a problem with run based deckbuilders on mobile devices. I crossed 1000 hours in Slay the Spire last month. More recently, I've been beta testing Dicey Dungeons on mobile and oh my god that has taken me over. I played a ton of Dicey Dungeons before it hit mobile, even diving deep into the alpha with placeholder art years before it came out on Steam. But put a game like that on mobile and I do several runs a day. My current record on hard mode is something like 120 wins to 100 losses across all classes.

Anyway, Into the Breach. The new classes and all that is nice, but give me a smart game like Into the Breach on mobile and it could be bad if I get hooked.

Leonhart4 posted...

It'll beat Pokemon next time for sure...!

This is the moment! I am prepared to lay out a dissertation explaining why this means that Star.

transience posted...

The trailer looks good, and they put out an ARPG spinoff called Rising that was apparently kinda disappointing. If it was good, the Suiko-nuts would be yelling about it from the trees, and that game came and went. I installed it since it's a day Game Pass game and still didn't bother just because the word of mouth was so poor.

So I played around with this for quite a while. It makes sense that a lot of people wouldnt really care much for it - theres not a lot of meat there - but as a little 10 hour one off building up this little village and doing side quests, it was fun in a relaxing kind of way. Its definitely not special, but I kinda liked it. Really excited for the main game, tho. Looks way better!

Netflix wants to be the Netflix of gaming. I had heard they were getting into gaming and bought a studio a while back. While double checking that I had my info straight, I found out they actually bought a third studio not too long ago and I didn't even know about the second one.

heroicmario posted...

So I played around with this for quite a while. It makes sense that a lot of people wouldnt really care much for it - theres not a lot of meat there - but as a little 10 hour one off building up this little village and doing side quests, it was fun in a relaxing kind of way. Its definitely not special, but I kinda liked it. Really excited for the main game, tho. Looks way better!

oh that's good to hear! I'm surprised we never talked about this

17. Final Fantasy XVI

PS5
Summer 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA1C9mghADo

Man, I struggle with my feelings on this one. For a long time, I was the biggest Final Fantasy fan around, during that 1990-2005ish time period. I've beaten all those games numerous times and I've done unhealthy things in most of those games, whether it's solo runs or level 1 challenges or playing 130 hours of Final Fantasy X-2.

But everything from 2010 and on, just doesn't feel like FF to me. FF13 is basically FF10 with a bad story, but I still enjoyed my time with it. FF13-2, though. I played 2 hours of that game, put it down in disgust and haven't played one since (well, besides Remake). Never touched 13-3 and never even considered playing 15. The bro road trip aspect of it never appealed and, I don't know, I just feel like a scorned fan.

But FF16 looks good! Well, it hits the notes you'd want at least. It's still this high budget, glossy thing with its Ifrits and Bahamuts all over the place. Its presentation looks nice, almost like FF: Game of Thrones edition or something but with huge summons as the core of its story.

But even as it looks nice, there's just something that doesn't feel like Final Fantasy to me. It's the heavy action style and the overly flashy visuals. FF was always flashy, right? It made its presence known with its flash -- but it didn't feel overwhelming and alienating in quite the same way. I think I just want the old style back.

Most likely it's because I haven't played a new one of these in almost a decade and I might just need to jump back in and get immersed. Big trailers with lots of fancy cuts can make these games feel like it's an Uncharted game or something like that. Who even knows what one of these are now? I really want it to be good because the FF team at this point just feels like it can't do anything more than FF7 and I'd like to see them move past it.

Yeah, I think you summed up my feelings about XVI pretty well (except I did play XV and enjoyed it for what it is). A lot of people seem really hyped for it, but something just feels off for me. I can't quite put my finger on it though. I'm sure I'll play it and enjoy it to some extent, but I don't know if it'll be the surefire hit for me that it might be for others.

16. Haunted Chocolatier

TBD
PC, Consoles eventually?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASlkM-mf1zk

ConcernedApe's next game has a ton of hype and deservedly so. Stardew Valley was a once in a generation hit, a game that kinda spawned its own genre. Yeah, there were a lot of other games it drew inspiration from, but the 'cozy management' line of games -- Spiritfarer, Cozy Grove, Portia, those kinds of games -- all of those descend from Stardew. It's not about the gameplay, it's about the feel. It might be one of the most influential games of the decade.

I haven't actually played Stardew, but I have watched a lot of it played in this house. Haunted Chocolatier looks like more my thing - a little more RPG-ish with a touch of the early indie classic Recettear. But it's also just unapologetically Stardew. It's just a touch darker than Stardew, at least from the reveal trailer.

I hope it doesn't take 3-4 more years to come out. My wife is dying for this thing. Stardew is probably her favourite video game.

I keep debating whether or not I should try to play Stardew Valley.

probably. its super likable. it has that charm.

stardew is excellent, easily the best "one of those" around. not sure I'm totally sold on chocolatier yet, but the pedigree is good enough that I'll keep an eye on it.

15. Hollow Knight: Silksong

2023 (supposedly)
PC, consoles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSfuFlhsxZY

I *love* Metroidvanias. Have since the original Metroid came out. I've been playing maze-y platformers for as long as they've existed and they take up a good chunk of my top however many games. I consider myself somewhat of an authority on them. And so, of all the games out there, I think people's glowing reactions to Hollow Knight is probably the one that puzzles me the most.

Don't get me wrong - I like Hollow Knight. It's well made. But it's more of a 6/10, 7/10 game to me, not the pinnacle of the new age metroidvanias and a game that a lot of people put up there with Super Metroid. That's hallowed ground, man. Maybe it's because the thing I like the most in a 'vania is the feeling of traversal and feeling more powerful as I get more and more stuff. Hollow Knight doesn't really go down that path. Your movement abilities aren't that good. It's much more of a mechanics based, combat heavy one of those instead of, I don't know, an Ori. I think Hollow Knight subscribes to that Dark Souls thinking of "let's make you feel weak and uncomfortable so that you feel a sense of satisfaction when you get through it." I didn't think Hollow Knight was exceptionally hard or anything and so that feeling leaves me feeling kinda empty.

The thing is, I'll take a good metroidvania any day of the week, and so despite the muted feelings I still am looking forward to Hollow Knight: Silksong. Hand crafted metroidvania games are actually fairly rare. There's a lot of these in the indie spaces but most are low budget, don't have enough scope or utilize procedural generation. More and more of them are run based. So when one comes out that has a level of craft and care like Hollow Knight so clearly does, I'll play it immediately. This being a day 1 Game Pass game makes the choice all the easier.

Silksong looks like more of the same thing and I don't expect it to deviate too much from the original, not any more than your standard Metroid game would. I'm sure it will have new movement abilities but I doubt it's going to change up the formula too too much. That's probably a good thing. I hope it isn't as long, but given how long they're taking to make it, it's probably going to be even huger.

when's UFO50

I agree about FFXVI. Its sort of a strange thing for me because it was more exciting when it had the first teasers, and feels less exciting with this most recent one. Something about the super action heavy combat and those summon fights just took me out of it. I know it has a good team working on it, but that wasnt the Final Fantasy I was hoping for, at least gameplay-wise. Looked more like a DMC game, not even like FF7r.

Silksonggggg - I was hoping that would have shadow dropped on Game Pass during the E3 showcase. Thats up there for me as one of my most anticipated. Haunted Chocolatier looks great, too. I never put a ton of time into Stardew, but it was super charming and fun

They're still the 1st party state of play and nintendo directs later this summer though

transience posted...

Maybe it's because the thing I like the most in a 'vania is the feeling of traversal and feeling more powerful as I get more and more stuff. Hollow Knight doesn't really go down that path. Your movement abilities aren't that good. It's much more of a mechanics based, combat heavy one of those instead of, I don't know, an Ori.

Haha, all this stuff is exactly why I like Hollow Knight -- I feel like it does traversal and feeling more powerful super well, and compared to lot of more modern Metroidvanias I don't think it's particularly combat heavy (or rather, it is, but has tons of platforming and stuff too, where lots of indie MVs are just combat). Definitely the indie Metroidvania that's best captured the magic of games like SotN and Metroid Prime for me.

transience posted...

So, I have a bit of a problem with run based deckbuilders on mobile devices. I crossed 1000 hours in Slay the Spire last month. More recently, I've been beta testing Dicey Dungeons

Just wanted you to know I saw this six hours ago, looked up Dicey Dungeons on steam, saw it was on sale, and have been playing Dicey Dungeons since then.

Damn you.

tagging along

WazzupGenius00 posted...

when's UFO50

hell yeah now we're talking. I'm sure that was on a list of mine like 5 years ago. shame that Spelunky 2 came out and then this never came to fruition. as far as vaporware e3 announcements go, I spend a lot of time thinking about Source, a "3d metroidvania with wings" that never showed up anywhere ever again -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CucHsoxJQEQ

Kenri posted...

Haha, all this stuff is exactly why I like Hollow Knight -- I feel like it does traversal and feeling more powerful super well, and compared to lot of more modern Metroidvanias I don't think it's particularly combat heavy (or rather, it is, but has tons of platforming and stuff too, where lots of indie MVs are just combat). Definitely the indie Metroidvania that's best captured the magic of games like SotN and Metroid Prime for me.

it's been some time since I last played Hollow Knight, but my memory is that warp points are few and far between so there's a lot of horizontal and vertical backtracking through large rooms and just having to nail the platforming over and over. the platforming is good but it gets a little tiring. I'm also one of those people with notoriously bad direction and having to find those map dudes drove me crazy. I spent so much time lost in that world and it wasn't something where you feel engrossed in it.

Oh hey, I just beat Hollow Knight yesterday, actually! It's a fun game, but yeah, by the end, I was kind of ready to be done because it always took me so long to get anywhere unless it was right by a Stag Station (and hardly anything important was), so I didn't have the motivation to go back for the stuff I didn't do.

14. Terra Nil

TBD (likely 2022)
PC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhKBeFlZ0bw

Terra Nil is a 'reverse builder' where you take a polluted area and breathe life back to it, adding water, trees and all other manner of greenery. It's like reading The Lorax in reverse.

I've played a demo and the game just feels super serene as you repopulate the world. The music and the feeling this game gives off hits me right. I love me some builder games, but not the ones where you have tons of options to create a sprawling metropolis like a Cities Skylines or whatever. Give me something simple and chill.

Terra Nil has puzzle elements where you have to build certain types of structures within a set number of 'moves', and those little game-y elements are fun. But it's also fun to just rebuild and be in the right space. Games like this, or the recently released Dorfromantik, just do it for me.

I'll add some comments on Eiyuden Rising.

It was fine, but if the actual game looks or plays anything like it, I'll be hugely disappointed. It's a unity game, so it basically feels like something you might play on newgrounds (albeit, a really good one by their standards).

It is meant to evoke feelings of castle/town management from the earlier Suikodens, and to a certain degree it succeeds. The writing and characters are decent and I wouldn't mind seeing them show up as side characters in the main game. Worth a playthrough, especially if you can get it for cheap.

13. Final Fantasy VII Stuff

FF7 Ever Crisis

Winter 2022 (By March 2023)
Mobile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCACixN2SyE

Crisis Core: FF7 Reunion

Winter 2022 (By March 2023)
PC/Consoles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCl1Lc2ktpk

FF7 Rebirth

Winter 2023 (March 2024 if we're lucky)
PS5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2aNzos4qi4

I'm just going to lump these all together. The FF7 compilation is out of control. It's practically its own company at this point. Every year there's new hints of FF7 stuff and it just never ends. That's not even a criticism - just an amazement of how this one beloved RPG has spawned off its own line of products that has been giving for 25 years now.

Let's start with Crisis Core since it's probably the easiest to unpack. That game is hilarious to look at. Crisis Core is very much a product of 2008 and this remake seems to just be carrying all of that weirdness forward. It has been quite a while, but my memory of Crisis Core was really enjoying the battle system and liking the last act with Cloud/Zack/Sephiroth, but all of the new characters added were a total mess and the dialogue was high cringe.

That stuff just seems to exist as is in Reunion and it'll be interesting to see what tweaks are made, if any. I remember having to do missions where you hugged the wall because encounters wouldn't trigger and that made for a really strange gameplay experience. But, I also remember really liking the mission system in this game. I can't believe this is just coming back as is without a lot of changes. I kinda want to get this just to look at it and relive a game that I have fond memories of but that would probably fall apart if I were to take a look at it in 2022.

I think the most interesting thing about Reunion is that putting this out alongside the FF7 Remake means that it's basically canonizing all of the Angeal/Genesis stuff and those characters will likely play a major part in FF7 Rebirth. That is dangerous ground to tread on so I'm really interested to see them make it a thing. The end of FF7 Remake made it clear that Zack isn't just going to be a throwaway side story. Hell, nothing that was in OG FF7 gets left to the side.

FF7 Rebirth.. okay, I probably need to talk about part 1 first. Remake is an absolutely fascinating thing and it's wild that it exists. I'm still trying to come to grips with what happens at the end of Remake and wondering what it looks like as it carries into this next act. For that alone, I'm super curious about what this game might hold. The best part of FF7 should be in Rebirth - the Kalm flashback, Nibelheim, the Midgar Zolom and the immense power of Sephiroth.

But.. what even is going to happen here given all the weird swerves with the ghosts and Sephiroth showing up all throughout Remake? I don't know, and I can't tell if I want to play this because it's good or just out of morbid curiosity. I also don't plan to have a PS5 so I'm not sure if I'm even going to play this thing at launch.. but also, if you're not there day 1 you might as well just watch it on youtube. So, I'm not really sure how to feel overall about this game.

It's all weird. And that brings me to Ever Crisis - maybe the one I am most excited about? In my mind, for all the years where FF7 Remake was just a rumor that people claimed would show up at e3, Ever Crisis was what I expected: a nice, high-res version with prerendered backgrounds and a better translation. In reality, this might be the thing I want the most out of the FF7 stuff, without the bloat. I feel much more comfortable with basic menu based combat than whatever the ATB system is in Remake. Sometimes with Remake, I just feel like I'm playing a corridor shooter but with a sword, and that ends up not feeling like an RPG to me.

But Ever Crisis has this other weird drawback in that it's just on mobile. Now, I don't mind mobile RPGs -- Fantasian is one of the highlights of the last couple of years -- but I'm worried about what a pricing model might look like. I somehow doubt you're just buying the full Remake for $60 or whatever. It's probably going to be drip fed by chapter with each costing some amount of money, and maybe even released over time as they get developed. Are there gacha type mechanics jammed in here? Without knowing that it's hard to get too amped up. If this was a straight remake on Switch or whatever, sign me the hell up.

Every piece of the FF7 compilation leaves me conflicted, which is weird because I don't even love FF7. But it's such a unique period piece that watching it be molded 5 different ways over decades is fascinating and I can't avert my eyes.

This was just announced yesterday, so I take it it may not be eligible for your list?

https://www.ign.com/articles/harvestella-square-enix-new-rpg-stardew-valley

Curious your thoughts on it though

I saw it but it didnt really move the needle for me. I guess some folks are talking about it as Square getting into the Rune Factory business? I havent played Rune Factory so I dont have much to draw from here.

We havent heard much more about UFO50 from Derek Yu but some of the other people involved stream their work on it every once in a while, so its not completely dead.

I'm pretty hyped for Rebirth. All the stuff with the ghosts was the worst part of Remake, and hopefully, they should be done with that now.

did you get the sense that it was over? I assumed it was going to be a main plot point going forward.

I thought that was the point of the ending, to break the chains of destiny enforced by the Whispers for good

My top 2 are Silksong (in the next year) and Stray (in a couple weeks). I'm also interested in an indie metroidvania called Gestalt. There are a few others I'm eyeing, but I'm writing this from memory rather than going up to my computer with Steam.

Jakyl25 posted...

I thought that was the point of the ending, to break the chains of destiny enforced by the Whispers for good

you're probably right. I was too busy being blown away by "this is FF7....?!" that I had a hard time committing any of it to memory.

12. Sports Story

TBD
Switch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzzcgCi20Z8

Golf Story is amazing, a great little lighthearted indie story about golf and life. It's honestly more simple RPG than sports game. Sports Story looks like the same thing.. just adding in new sports and expanding on the formula.

This game has gone dark for something like 3 years now with the devs admitting that they really went big with some of the sports mechanics and scope. I get the feeling this doesn't show up until it's ready to go, and maybe gets stealth dropped at a Direct or something like that. I'm excited to see its final form, whenever the hell that is.

transience posted...

it's been some time since I last played Hollow Knight, but my memory is that warp points are few and far between so there's a lot of horizontal and vertical backtracking through large rooms and just having to nail the platforming over and over. the platforming is good but it gets a little tiring.

this is exactly why I stopped playing just over 10 hours in

been considering going back to it using the mod that lets you warp between benches because there's no way I'm going back if I have to walk everywhere

11. Blanc

Feb 2023
PC/Switch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjI5XI363Ss

This game is so clearly inspired by Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Brothers is a fantastic little co-op action puzzler about the bond between two characters that don't ever speak (in English, anyway). Blanc looks to be the same thing, only instead of controlling two characters on one stick, this can support proper co-op. All the other emotional notes seem to be there.

The question I have with Blanc is if this is going to be inspirational or dark. Basically, are one of these dudes going to die at the end? Is this something you can play with kids or will it be devastating? If it follows the Brothers path, tragedy is going to strike. I'm happy either way and honestly I'd rather not know what to expect. And yo, that art.